#and if we don't get a s3 bc of the strikes then that's basically a meta-realization of the idea anyway so i win either way

[queen-mabs-revenge]

lmao socialist brain on main as per ushe but i genuinely cannot see how s3 can be anything else but both aziraphale and crowley having some kind of revolutionary allegory arc?

like as of right now they've done the 'stop the height of destruction and roll things back to the status quo' bit in s1 and then all of s2 is an object lesson on why that's only a temporary thing and will always be a temporary thing as long as the ruling system as it is stays in place, bc complete and utter destruction is baked into the fucking thing.

it's almost like a metaphor for....no i shant say it.

i shall. it's capitalism lmao.

crowley rn having a 'ok fuck that. fuck them. let's just live off the grid babey!' mindset and aziraphale, as per my favorite gomens post of all time socdem through to the tips of his angelic wispy hair going off to reform the two party system...

basically i need them both to fail miserably at trying to effect their chosen tracks both bc they're trying alone but also bc neither actually could be successful, essentially be forced into becoming thee most unlikely and unhinged militant union leaders in the eternity of the universe by getting the rank-and-file populations of heaven, hell, and earth to unite together, go on some kind of metaphysical general strike, overturn the system of accumulating power and souls for the supernatural bosses, and build a system of everyone having real agency and operation of their own lives, destinies and wills.

and what if the trade unionists ✊✊✊ relearned through the struggle how to communicate, trust and rely on each other🤝🤗 and kissed at the dawn of a new system of existence they helped build 🌍✨ where they're finally truly safe to choose each other?💗💋💖

hahaha.......unless??? 😳🙈😳

[blush-and-books]

oh also! you’re a film major right?.. what did you think about the direction on the show?? and what do you think abotu the fact so much of donna and harvey is Hidden from the audience like we never see what the can opener thing is and when they spend the night in s3 we never actually see them kiss like he leans in and the door closes in front of the camera

HAHA!! yes i am a film major with an actual degree now lol. but let's all take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

i don't have any grand thoughts on how the show is directed, because it's always felt pretty basic to me lol!! the shots are very simple, the composition never goes too crazy (but sometimes i will say they do kinda eat some shots however overall it's incredibly one-toned), and tbh that's very typical of a show like Suits bc it's somewhere in between "network procedural" and "adventurous legal drama."

the fact that so much of donna and harvey is hidden from us is likely a combination of deliberate action, and whatever the fuck is going on in that writers room. The can opener thing reminds me a little of the character Maris Crane from Frasier - if you're unfamiliar, she's the wife of one of the main characters but she's never EVER shown on screen and we never hear her voice, she's just talked about in increasingly alarming descriptions (multiple facelifts, fragile and little body, etc). All of this is to say that the can opener thing suddenly becomes a bit where the writers are probably like "it would be funny if we reference it and build on it but we never have to decide what it actually is, so that we can escalate it as much as we want." first it's the can opener, then there's thumbtacks involved, and then there's supposedly a record amount (two dozen? three dozen?).

the choice to never show us their real first kiss in the other time is definitely absolutely deliberate. at this point in the series, i don't think it was locked in for donna and harvey to be endgame, so there was a lot of room to toy with the audience. they build us up with their flirting and talking about hooking up but they're going to deny us the satisfaction and leave us wondering - where does this really go? and do we really want to see them kiss for the first time in a flashback?? that's a big moment even if it's a past event, so they wouldn't want to just dump it on us in a way that's less meaningful than how it could happen in the present timeline.

id love to hear more things you think were hidden from the viewers!!!

small other bit of cinematic analysis: something that has started to irk me in my rewatchings of various episodes and getting stills for the edits i've been making is the series lack of solid two-shots between donna and harvey. so many of their interactions are just filmed in a shot-reverse-shot (back and forth between shots of each character over the shoulder of the other character as one of them speaks) and there is like SO MUCH INTIMACY that can be made just by putting them in a frame TOGETHER. and it's not that they never do this, there's some great examples, but I've found there's scenes between them that just could have benefitted from having both of them in the frame and not just cutting back and forth. if you'd like more explanation on this i will get stills from other series as well and demonstrate but it's a very little nitpicky thing honestly

thank you for this ask!!! send more when the mood strikes 🥰🥰🥰

[aroaceacacia]

hi! you dont have to answer this but i'm thinking of getting into lifesteal and i mean. considering my experience with the dsmp i don't know how well i would do having to watch 2 hour vods? so uh. i guess i'm just asking for a guide to be able to Steal the Life or whatever it is lifesteal fans do. stan planetlord I Think?

YIPPEE !!!!!

fun thing is you dont have 2 watch anything to just jump in! but if u want to heres a playlist of videos from season 3 and a much shorter playlist of videos from season 4 (the current, ongoing season). parrot also has some official playlists floating around somewhere for seasons 1 and 2. pick whatever strikes your fancy to watch!

if you want specific recommendations on my personal favorite s3 videos, heres my s3 highlights (which I havent updated in a while, & theres probably a few finales deserving of going on there).

if long VODs arent your thing but youd like to stay somewhat up to date with stream events, baconnwaffles0 is your go to guy! he takes a lot of inspiration from streamers like Ludwig & goes into each of his lifesteal streams with a Concept and a Plan for making into a video later. as a result hes gotten 12 second channel videos out of his season 4 escapades, very much a good short encapsulation of his season so far. (parrot also does this but parrot hasnt streamed super recently so his videos dont really reflect current events the way bacon's do.)

the streams are very much fun and will often give better insight into events as they happen - which is why makign sure they're preserved and saved is important - but streams are 100% not necessary to follow what happens, because lifesteal members explain everything important to you in narration. ls videos are very much designed to be accessible to any random person who might click on it and watch, so they will say nearly the same spiel about the hearts plugin every time, they'll describe their besties as just "my friend" instead of using proper nouns, give basic exposition of what side/team is which, etc. they want all of their videos to be able to do well independently of one another & that ideally any one of them could grab a new person! (they're algorithm bitches u know how it is)

... however if you DO want to watch livestreams, here are my recomendations:

princezam (twitch.tv/princezamlive)! zam is one of the most frequent streamers on the server & is I think the most accessible to newcomers. super funny & instantly endearing. we love printer!! i REALLY recommend his season 3 videos, especially "how I lost my empire"!

pangi is also up there (twitch.tv/pangilive) 👍 pangi is great, very funny guy, streams a ton - he'll be out until december tho bc hes currently recovering from a surgery! pangi is deceptively unassuming - man got the maximum number of hearts he could on the first day of season 4 and has refused to budge from that position since.

baconnwaffles0 (twitch.tv/baconnwaffles0) is teamed with planetlord and they're a frequent visitor in his streams, so if youd like to check out planet you're more likely to find him there than at their own twitch (twitch.tv/planetlord_) - but bacon and planet bounce off of each other super well. some of my favorite s4 streams have just been bacon, planet, and their teammate yeahjaron doing silly things, like making an exotic pets shop or reenacting the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs.

tl;dr in terms of "what homework do I need to do here to catch up", it's less like dream smp and more like hermitcraft. start wherever watch whatever nothing matters except that u have fun. fuck it we ball

[jeysbvck]

Update on the boyfriends please bc I keep seeing things and I need my Shanny to explain what it all means 👀

hiiii my ash, my babe!! i would be more than happy to update you, buckle up bc it's me talking about buddie so this will get long🤭

to recap; last week buck got hit by lightning (after working two lightning strike calls, one father, one woman in labour on her way to hospital 👀) AND DIED. BUCK WAS DEAD IN CANON FOR A WHOLE WEEK. before buck got hit by lightning, we had eddie call him cowboy (the last thing eddie said before buck died was "go get em, cowboy" so i mean...) cue eddie running up the ladder screaming buck's name, asking him if he can hear him, ATTEMPTING TO PULL HIS HANGING LIFELESS BODY TOWARDS HIM before lowering it down where bucks dad i mean captain could rest him on the gurney. cue eddie flying down the ladder (all while he'd just been yeeted off the controls by the same lightning strike), pushed captain out the way to get to buck, but captain wouldn't let him see buck and instead told him he's driving.

cut to last night; we had eddie take over cpr after getting to the hospital, he got bucks heart started again, then he shouted at the nurses to "DO MORE" when they said they'd "do their best" 👀 now, we didn't see eddie too much this episode, because it was all about buck realising he is enough thru his coma dream, but we got some GREAT buddie stuff regardless (and i will die on this hill!!!) SO...the first thing buck remembered when he woke up in his coma dream was Eddie having his back, most notably, calling him cowboy. then we have a lot of unnerving scenes to do with Bucks backstory (which i would happily get into but rn it's Buddie time!!) we spend the episode flipping between coma Buck world and the real world, and in the real world we see that Chris (buddies son) has forced Carla (a care aid & friend), to take him to the hospital because he HAS to talk to Buck, even tho they don't allow kids in the icu. So Eddie and Carla sneak Chris into Bucks room and cue the tears as Chris tells Buck "wherever you are, you have to come back now." and the camera flashes to Eddie, who has tears streaming out of his eyes, who can't even look at Buck and his son.

back in coma world, Buck is at his loft, this is not his world and he knows it. (like it's a wonderful life, although i haven't seen it). He notices there's a statue of the ferris wheel from the pier in his loft, and he hears Chris screaming his name as he flashes back to the tsunami that he and Chris were in at the start of s3 (one of the best story arcs ever and integral to Buddie/Buddifer). A few more things happen, blah blah blah, he goes to find Chim (brother in law in the real world, also works at the 118), and he doesn't know him etc, but he tells Chim "I know why everyone calls you Chimney" and that makes Chim basically believe him (we don't know why they call him Chimney, they've teased it so much tho!). we find out a couple of heartbreaking things, but ive rambled way too much so the main one for this point is - Eddie lost Chris to a major custody battle with his parents, and they took Chris back to Texas.

This is a major thing for the Buddie of it all, because in 4x14, Eddie confesses to Buck that he made him Chris' legal guardian a year ago, after he almost died (3x15), but he didn't tell Buck for a year. We know from 3x15 (Eddie Begins) that after his wife and Chris' mum left, his parents tried to take Chris from him, and he alluded to Buck that they would probably fight Buck for custody, but that "nobody would fight for my kid harder than you, and that's what I want for him." So the fact that in Buck's subconscious, Eddie's parents went for a custody battle, and won, because Buck hadn't joined the 118, Eddie hadn't met Buck (or Bobby the captain, for reasons I haven't gone into right now), and that Buck hadn't introduced Eddie to Carla, is a MAJOR thing.

Then, we have Buck trying to escape his coma dream, he wakes up and everyone's happy. He knows he's enough, and that he's the heart of the 118, and that even though he had his parents love and attention (the way he SHOULD have it) in the coma dream, it wasn't worth the sacrifices that came with it (his sister still being in an abusive relationship, Bobby being dead, and Eddie not having Chris), and that HE is the heart of the 118 (which we all knew anyway, he just needed to know it!) But during the trying to get out scene, they have Chris, who even isn't in LA in coma world, ask Buck if he can "help him look for his dad" (Buck replies, "I can't, you're not real. I'm always gonna feel guilty for this" although i am paraphrasing)

This got way off track, yay ADHD🙄 but basically the entire episode was centered around family (parents & siblings), and it's very telling in an episode where they confirm in canon that Bobby (captain) and Buck ARE father & son (Bobby's stepdaughter says; "Mom brought two kids into the relationship, you brought one." & Bobby laughed and replied, "Yeah, I guess I did"😭😭) that they basically confirmed that Hen and Chim are adopted siblings to Buck (add in that Chim is his brother-in-law, technically), that Chris was also in the dream, BUT THERE WAS NO EDDIE. Because, Buck IS Chris' dad. and EDDIE does not fit into the box of "siblings or parent" in Buck's life. And when we did see Eddie in the real world, he was barely holding it together, and he was dressed in all black. 👀

I could literally talk about this forever, and there are more theories and thoughts I have for what we could possibly see/foreshadow for the next episodes of Season 6, but instead I'll leave you with this adorable picture of Buck looking at his sister while he hugs his son.😭😭😭

[hukkelberg]

sorry that this is long. also i am the person that sent many long asks about pen in asoiaf - you don't have two anons incapable of saying things concisely, just the one. if that was a concern. anyway how do you picture pen's relationship w her dad? i thought it was kind of funny that after simon (daddy issues) and anthony (daddy issues 2 electric boogaloo) there was v little discussion about either of polin's dads outside of more info about violet/edmund and portia/archibald. between violet-francesca and pen-portia this was truly a season for mommy issues. i get not wanting to focus on edmund's death again but i've always found it odd that we basically don't know anything about pen's relationship w her dad despite his gambling and death still directly affecting her life. not to mention he died during the course of the show and they showed her crying about it. i don't even think colin has ever said anything about pen's dad dying lol. also what do you think about pen and portia's relationship post s3? i thought they did a decent job w it but there's this space where the fatphobia aspect is studiously not mentioned. like if they threw me a bone about portia and archibald's relationship really breaking down after she gave birth to a third daughter or something i would accept portia overlooking pen for nebulous reasons but they just kinda skated around that and did not explain why portia treats pen differently than her sisters. i mentioned this in my ask complaining about s3 but the decision to just handwave away fatphobia once pen is the lead is really something. i don't have a strong opinion on it but the fact that the setup for fatphobia impacting pen is still there except now it's just bc london society Hates Penelope Specifically is certainly something. they really just,,, threw some plus size extras in and called it a day. idk it's just distracting bc there are readily available ways to explain it (dad was a broke gambler, dad was possibly murdered, prudence engaged to cousin jack bc she was supposedly compromised, everything to do w cousin jack) but they just don't😭

don't worry about it! i like lengthy asks, though i'm not sure i manage to respond to every point you raise. if there was anything you asked and i missed you can bring it back up, it's okay. i also write a lot as you can tell by the read more i had to tack on here so i didn't clog anyone's dash lol (i did figure it was the same person hehe)

about daddy issues in general -- edmund to me is a bit of a gimmick tbh. i think the dead dad unless you really bring it into the fold of the character's psyche like in anthony's case (and simon too, just differently) can come off really stiffly? i guess if we saw a little more how his absence affects the family (or not! also interesting) in more personal ways to each character it'd be a little more impactful. i was really interested in seeing how colin reacted to that also, but that was... simply not expanded upon. none of colin's relationships were (sigh). it would help to ground the event and make it less of a gimmick if each member of the family felt like. their own specific feelings about edmund. they did that a little with gregory last season, and i'm hoping they do something with ben as well, but maybe that's because i'm very fond of avocadomoon's take on ben's place in the family after his death. i think daphne as well would've had a really good viewpoint for that event, considering violet's condition afterwards.

about pen's dad -- i think archibald was your run of the mill neglectful father. he doesn't strike me as the sort of man to have any interest in his children, much less daughters. if he'd had a son, i think he might've tried to bring him into the fold of his own interests, but if the son had any kind of brain and pushed back, he'd just been quickly put off and retracted back to his absent ways lol (btw if pen had a loving big brother Everything would be different. but i guess that's the point the show makes as well). i personally don't really buy into a tragic backstory where he was overtly abusive -- there's no real marks of it, and she did cry when he died, which she wouldn't have if there was any real hatred (pen's petty like that). colin only refers to him by his societal position (how his death left them defenseless) which makes me assume he never really amounted as anything more than that nebulous figure of patriarchal authority in the featherington house. not a real person to him. not a real loss.

for what it is, to me there were probably moments of sweetness in their relationship once penelope learned how to angle for some of his affection -- like in THIWFY, which i suppose is how you found me, where i mention her father is how she knows how to bet on a horse in chapter two. what i picture is penelope figuring out that archibald will talk to her if she asks about something he likes, so she asks him how to bet on a horse and he speaks to her on the matter for hours, far longer than they've ever conversed before, because she's listening so intently (because her father never speaks to her! but he is now!) and he never has anyone actually listen to him at home (because all he likes to speak about is gambling and his wife clearly disrespects him). then portia finds out and obviously cuts it short because one sure way to have your worse daughter become even more unmarriageable is to make her a spendthrift and penelope's hopes for understanding are dashed (she would've found out eventually, when she tried for another topic and he didn't respond) and archibald walks away feeling thinking "huh well that one is not so bad" and that the extent of their relationship.

have a little snippet from a future chapter of THIWFY that sort of addresses this (VERY rough. i am aware it is not entirely legible lol):

 "Lord Bridgerton," she whispered. Anthony's father. Colin's.    Penelope had never entertained fantasies of gaining a father when she married. Lord Bridgerton had died when she was barely young enough to recall a blurry face and a kind demeanour, and she had been in love with Colin long enough that she had incorporated his loss into the composition of her most perfect future. She'd liked her father well enough, only in that way you could love a man whom you were certain had never had your best interests at the forefront of his mind a day in his life. Not, she believed, out of any sense of disdain for her, but by the mark of deep and troubling incompetence only cured by the rush of luck coming his way. A detached, but present sort of fondness, resting entirely on the basis of proximity and the occasional good natured allowance, and swallowed almost entirely by pity. He was a simple man, her father. Colin, too, was simple in his own way, but only in that she was simply so attuned to his every thought and feeling it was only her own overbearing heart which blinded her to the meaning behind his actions so that when he stepped in front of her, transparent as ever, and forcefully faced her with the truth, she had only herself to blame for shrouding her eyes to it before. Anthony, in contrast, was nearly unknowable to her. The little intel she had gathered in the months leading to their disastrous marriage had been rendered useless the moment they'd dragged their feet to the altar. The fragile trust they'd nursed—that promise set at the dinner table—had not survived.

pen and portia: i think that's a done deal. i really can't figure out how they're going to use the featheringtons after this? they disabled penelope's position as whistledown, they gave portia everything she's ever wanted (daughters wed well) and they solved the featherington baronetcy matter. i don't expect any meaningful exploration of their relationship now that they've entered a place where they both understand and see a bit of themselves in one another. this really was the season to explore portia and archibald's relationship to me, though, particularly when penelope was about to make an okay marriage herself. i think that would've given the argument for true love (in colin) a lot more weight, if they'd shown how both portia and archibald had settled for each other and how badly it'd gone for them, a la mr. and mrs. bennet. i suppose that would've meant making debling a real option and that was not in the cards.

penelope + fatphobia + the ton -- oooh you just stumbled upon the thing that sets me off every single time. it's SO stupid. it's SO SO stupid. not only stupid: cowardly. vapid. insincere! god. shallow fucking feminism i HATE it. look, there's a difference between saying this woman's body is not something we ought to comment on because she's as good as any of our other leads so we're just. not gonna have it be a problem. because it isn't. (which is fine) and the absolute nonsensical cover up of building two seasons upon this character being invisible and constantly demeaned about her appearance (textually!) and then just acting as though, all this time it wasn't the dresses, it was the attitude! the new attitude she has which we totally didn't switch out last minute! it's so invalidating to the struggles of real fat women to be like guess what girly it was your shitty personality all this time! all those things they said? not real haha when you know people object to you purely on the basis of your weight. it's so stupid. i get that nicola is a goddess upon earth nobody wants to get to worship that more than me BELIEVE ME but making it an issue of confidence is so. disrespectful. and out of character. and you're right because even if we just... brushed off the fatphobia there are thousands of ways to make her a pariah that are significantly more socially weighty than like. is suddenly a fool when people speak to her.

but you know what puzzles me? the show's unwillingness to like, critique the ton. like, at all. the simpering pen had to do at the end of season three like SHE was in the wrong?????? i've always held a very cutthroat perspective on whistledown, but that just pushed me over the edge. what an utterly undignified thing to force the character to do. it just made me feel ashamed for her. why should she lower herself to the demands of these vapid people and their sore egos? to me it's part of making sure these sort of characters (like pen, like ben, like eloise) who would probably find more happiness in other environments stay trapped in this horrible patriarchal, classist, racist sliver of society. even the working class people are either relegated (genevieve) or pushed into becoming aristocrats and leaving everything behind, in an utterly black-and-white way (the mondrichs). i fear for sophie beckett, i do.