#and parts of s2 written out AND even a few after season 2

[moosethren]

Just re-read my ending to TBB season 1 and realizing I actually like it and my writing and am proud of it.

Such good feels.

Also trying to fit in my Horizon fanfic in the middle of it all ffs.. and writing my TBB avatar AU. SO MUCH fun stuff.

[blueraith]

Vi Analysis Pt 2 S2 Act 1

Alright, let's continue this Vi analysis. Here's the link to the first one if you're interested in reading it.

https://www.tumblr.com/blueraith/770117290888986624/its-wild-to-me-just-how-badly-vis-arc-is?source=share

I'm sure this will end up very long, so here's the obligatory cut:

One of the things I very rarely see anyone mention in any post or analysis about anyone in this show, not just Vi, is that Viktor's whole speech about there being two sides to the coin of humanity is that that entire theme encompasses the show from the very start.

S1 shows every character at their arguable best. Despite all the tragedy present even in S1, this is. You see this most starkly with Caitlyn, she starts out naive, sweet, and determined to uphold real justice, only for her to lose those aspects about herself once her grief, rage, and drive for vengeance replaces those traits until Act 3.

Well, Vi's very similar in that regard. We see her in S1 as someone who is strong, tenacious, and fierce. But in S2, she really starts to lose those parts of herself.

Act 1 is where it starts. Post rocket attack, Vi is a little lost. She's wandering about Piltover, only really staying in one place long enough to be there for Caitlyn. She doesn't know what to do with herself beyond that. I think this is where we really start to see the results of Vi's incarceration. She has nowhere to go besides the Kiramman mansion. No home. No family besides her sister. Only Caitlyn.

And we can debate until we're blue in the face as to whether or not that's a good thing, but I don't know what the alternative really is for her realistically. Every member of her family besides Jinx is dead, and Vi is grappling with the idea that maybe the sister she loved is dead as well and replaced by this monster.

I want to really dig into the notion that Vi was indeed just as traumatized as Caitlyn was by the kidnapping and tea party. Seemingly so few people want to even admit that Caitlyn suffered trauma from that event, but as if this hole in the fandom's grace or awareness or even empathy—I don't know—couldn't get any worse, virtually no one ever talks about Vi's trauma from that night.

Like, she's also kidnapped, she bears her soul out to Jinx about thinking about her every night in Stillwater as she suffered in there, and Jinx—who I am not condemning or at least not in a manner that reader should assume I dislike her character—I enjoy her character and see her trauma too—returns that moment of vulnerability with blame and accusations. That Vi created Jinx, that she put her own sister on this path of madness and violence.

When, of course, in reality their relationship and the tragedy within it is the result of the cycle of violence that Vision-Silco and Jinx finally voice aloud verbatim. Again, this is yet another theme in S2 that can be traced all the way back to S1. The seasons were written one after another, after all, and I just really wish more harsh critics would think about what that actually means for the entire show and every character's entire arc.

Then after that, Jinx further twists the knife by frightening Vi with the idea that she's about to serve the severed head of her not-yet-girlfriend demanding Vi murder Caitlyn herself so they can finally be alone with one another.

I mean, do I really have to spell out just how messed up that is? Evidently I do, because I occasionally see extremely unreasonable Jinx hyperstans insist that Vi is a bad sister, that she causes or caused all the toxicity in their relationship, and that Jinx deserves better.

No, Vi should not have hit Powder and called her a Jinx that night. But some of you are condemning a teenager who just survived something almost indescribably horrific for the rest of her fucking life. It's insane.

But again, I know why Jinx feels abandoned and betrayed, she did suffer—if not more admittedly seeing as she set off the bomb—from losing Vander, Mylo, and Claggor that night.

This is why violence is a cycle. She did not have to chose the way she responded with the tea party. Yes, she's high on Shimmer, but there's some rationality there when she cheekily states "I'm not that crazy" after tormenting Vi with the cupcake.

And I know I'm rehashing more of S1 when this is supposed to be a post about S2, but I'm finally getting there. Jinx perpetuated the cycle of violence herself that night by creating a monster in Caitlyn.

Vi doesn't quite realize this yet, but all that trauma she suffered at the tea party does make her temporarily give up on Jinx. What is she supposed to do with all that, after all? How does she look at her sister the same way after going through all the fear, terror, and pain that Jinx inflicted?

But that blame Jinx put on her sticks in at least some way. Vi feels responsible for creating Jinx, for not doing enough, for placing Jinx in Caitlyn's life, for Jinx killing Caitlyn's mother. These things are not directly stated literally, but I think we can safely assume these are thoughts going through her mind.

The aimless wandering, her expression after Tobias angrily asks what she's still doing at the manor, accepting that badge Caitlyn gives her at all.

And we start to see the beginning of Vi's spiral in Act 1 when she starts drinking and meets Loris for the first time. I don't know how many of you have struggled with alcohol, but the portrayal of Vi's drinking at this point in the season is almost comical. But for those of us with experience in either alcoholism or flirting with that point, there's a bit of a sinister undertone to it. Like, you don't start drinking like that unless you want to take the edge off something. Guilt, grief, trauma, Vi has plenty of that in spades.

She turns to alcohol primarily because Vi does not know how to ask for help. The oh so enduring and traditional fatal flaw of all parentified elder sisters. You take care of everyone. You make sure they're alright. You are supposed to be there for them.

Who is there for you, in the end?

Caitlyn, in Vi's case. I mean, at this point in Act 1, I do think Caitlyn had a lot of her empathy remaining to try and help Vi with her own issues. But Vi, of course, is going to take one look at Caitlyn's own grief, decide she deserves to be comforted more, and buries all of her own suffering.

And that results in Vi losing one of the most important tools she would have had to counter a lot of Caitlyn's own spiraling. One of the reasons their relationship worked so well in S1 is that Vi could challenge Caitlyn's biases and preconceived notions and force her to see issues and people from a perspective she did not previously consider. She's able to push, prod, tease, and taunt Caitlyn so easily out of her comfort zone. And in return, Caitlyn's empathetic nature allows herself to be open for changes to her opinions and an ability to see Vi's pain.

Both of those things disappear from each of them in S2 Act 1. It's basically the kick that snaps the back of their relationship at this time.

Vi feels she can no longer push Caitlyn to think about what she's doing and thus goes along with Caitlyn's plans to use the Gray, to become an Enforcer, to hunt down her sister who she will—in reality—never be able to kill.

And Caitlyn slowly loses her ability to empathize with what Vi's feeling. Their first kiss, I honestly do not watch very often because it has that tragic element to it. Caitlyn is trying very hard to give Vi what she thinks she needs in that moment. Reassurance that she's not changing, that she'll always be there. But she's already changed by Ep3. She's already unable to realize that Vi will never be able to truly harm Jinx. She cannot see that Vi is only in this strike team to soothe her own guilt.

Vi's "I'm done blaming myself for your mistakes" is a lie. Just like her telling Caitlyn to take the shot if she had an opening is a lie. She's not consciously lying, of course, just like Caitlyn wasn't when she promised she wouldn't change, but S2 is aaaaallll about these characters completely losing themselves.

(Although, Jinx is a parallel and exception in that she spends so much of S2 finding herself.)

Then the Jinx/Vi fight happens. They start out fairly brutal, but around the time when Jinx hits one of the pillars and Vi catches her before she can land, the emotion and violence of their fight changes. Like... they're full on sibling squabbling after that, not even realizing it. Vi starts to hesitate in landing a killing blow on Jinx even before Isha steps in.

Once Isha does jump on top of Jinx, it completely snaps Vi out of it all. She and Jinx share that loaded as fuck stare down as they each realize their sister is still there.

But Caitlyn does not see this. She's twisted in her rage and grief. She's an only child. She has Jayce in her life, but the show itself never makes an argument that her and Jayce's relationship hits a level of intimacy that would help her empathize with what Vi's going through right now. (I'm not saying that Caitlyn and Jayce don't care for one another, they very much do, and I'm not trying to argue that their relationship is not valid, but it is very different than what Vi and Jinx have.)

So the breakup happens. Vi realizes she cannot kill Jinx or allow her to be killed—perhaps not fully consciously at that point, but she latches onto the excuse Isha's presence gives her and she does not let go.

We can argue that Caitlyn would not have missed, I find that debatable, she's stumbling about, her breathing is rough when it was previously controlled in every shot she takes before this, and I mean... look at how wild her eyes are. One even gets magnified for us lol.

But I think the greater point and the one that Vi was more concerned about is that Caitlyn of S1 would have never taken the risk of hitting a child. This situation would not have gotten so bad if this was Cait of S1, Vi is looking at Caitlyn and realizing that the one person she trusted to stay the same has completely changed. Right in front of her, and seemingly without her realizing it or perhaps not wanting to admit it.

They get into their fight, Caitlyn snaps completely for a variety of reasons that do not excuse her actions—and I am honestly really annoyed that I have to say this here because I can speak on Jinx all day long and most of you will assume that myself and many others are automatically sympathetic towards the horrible things Jinx has done due to her trauma, and yet very little of that same grace is ever given to Caitlyn.

Whatever.

Anyway. Caitlyn hits Vi, it's a parallel to Vi hitting Powder, one that's so obviously framed visually that we all clocked it the moment it happened. I don't know if Vi realized the parallel herself in character, but we are meant to.

What's it mean?

Well, let's look at them both.

Vi had just watched Vander die right in front of her. She saw Mylo and Claggor's bodies. She's just lost over half of her family and was orphaned. Again. Powder running up and joyfully exclaiming that her bomb finally worked was simply too much. The anger, the fear, the desperation, and the failure hit all at once and she lashes out.

Caitlyn has been blown up twice, kidnapped naked out of her own shower, forcibly dressed in some way, likely tormented to get the Cupcake nickname out of her—

I mean, do y'all wonder how Jinx even learned about 'Cupcake?' Vi does not call Caitlyn Cupcake in any scene in which Jinx is in earshot for throughout all of S1. She got it from somewhere and it was probably Caitlyn. Caitlyn whose pride and tenacity likely loathed submitting to Jinx and suffered quite a bit of humiliation if that is indeed what happened.

Caitlyn also suffered through a mock execution, Jinx holds her gun up to Caitlyn's head for quite some time and looks eager to shoot her. Like, go back and look at the tears and terror in Caitlyn's eyes throughout this entire scene. She probably thought she was going to die. Cherry on top, she fails to take the shot she had at Jinx to prevent her own mother's death.

She also lashes out. Especially after Vi accuses her of acting like Jinx. In her mind this is inconceivable, this is the highest of insults, how dare Vi compare her to that monster, right?

I don't know how as audience we can claim that Caitlyn was acting from a place of police brutality, but whatever.

Domestic violence? Maybe. I don't know. I frankly don't think that was the intention the writers were going for, or if they were they're no more saying it was okay than they were when Vi hit Powder. Both hits had severe consequences for the characters involved all around, nothing about either scene is glorified. It's intentionally depicted as horrifying and uncomfortable. There is nothing in either scene with Vi and Powder and Vi and Caitlyn that suggests that these hits were justified or proper reactions to what happened.

What they are meant to be is shorthand for human suffering and the violence that so often happens when we are pushed to our limits.

Again, the Cycle of Violence and humanity and our emotions being capable of our greatest good and greatest evil as Two Sides of the Same Coin are themes that are littered throughout the entire show. Not just when they're brought up in the moment. We are meant to take these themes in and attempt to spot each way they are used throughout the work.

Okay. Yeah, this post is also turning into a Jinx and Cait analysis, but Vi is to intertwined with them that you really can't properly discuss one without all three. Especially in this season.

Alright. That's Act 1.

Actually, you know what, let's leave it here. It looks like I'm going to be writing a fucking book over Vi and the characters around her. I'll pick up next post with an Act 2 breakdown.

[lemonhemlock]

I think the thing that bothers me the most about Alicent’s betrayal of Aegon is that it’s essentially a mother giving up her disabled son to death so she can be ‘free’.

I have a few disabled family members, and have unfortunately heard people say to their parents to just put them in a care home so they (the parents) can ‘have their lives back’. I don’t think Condal/Hess meant for that meaning, and perhaps I’m being too sensitive, but it infuriated me because there is already so much ableism in this show (that they’ve made worse from the books in some cases), and this was I think my final straw to keep watching this show.

No, you're right, on a human level, if Alicent Hightower were a real person, we should be appalled if she acted the way she did in Season 2. This is a sensitive subject that this gaggle of writers isn't really interested in tackling properly, so I hope these blunders don't stick in your mind for too long. You decision to abandon it is completely understandable.

One indication that they are out of their depth is how they never stopped to think how it would look to eliminate the sympathy or understanding from the side who basically has all the disabled characters and then paint them all as doomed because they were not 'progressive' enough.* Another indication is how they practically pigeonholed the character of Helaena into a very stock autistic-coded box and did not bother to give her any interiority or motivations or present her in any way that doesn't infantilise this almost-20-year-old young woman. Aemond, of course, was sidelined this season after a very successful introduction in S1 that advanced him more than a cartoon mustache-twirling villain. Much has been written about Larys even before S2 aired, so I won't revisit that discourse right now, as this post is already too long.

*not meant as a dig against progressive politics, but as a comment on how HotD views progressive to mean 'stan of Rhaenyra', who is not a disruptor of the patriarchal status-quo by any quantifiable means.

A delicate topic such as this one is always going to split opinion and cause controversy and I think that sometimes a lot of feelings can be hurt by untactful takes and can cause many minority, underrepresented groups to feel even more unseen and disenfranchised. I personally hope I can convey my thoughts on the matter in a way that doesn't alienate the members of these groups, but sometimes even I lack the best words to properly express myself.

I would like to point out that, on the one hand, in the ASOIAF universe and especially in such a chapter like the Dance of the Dragons, the characters are often very flawed people that flirt with the boundaries of villainy more often than not and end up performing unforgivable acts, be they disabled or not, high born or not, men or women. At this point, such a statement reads more self-evident than not. In this regard, there have been times I've found fans who were exasperated with other segments of the fandom vying for more positive representation when it comes to these oft-ignored character typologies, citing the fact that, on the contrary, endowing them with negative or unpalatable traits emphasizes their humanity and promotes them beyond a stereotypical rendition that can easily be absorbed into some kind of artificial, formulaic 'woke' quota in media.

However, I think we should remember that for people who are part of these minority groups, whose lived experiences are marred by discrimination and harmful prejudices, these narrative arguments can (even unintentionally) feel callous or exclusionary. It not easy or encouraging to see how you are almost always represented on screen in a way that is reprehensible or ignoble or detrimental in some way - that is, in the few cases when the text in question is inclusive enough to even remember you exist.

In such a context, I have to recognise and acknowledge that, as a white / cis / able-bodied person myself, it is way easier for me to simply rely on narrative merit, because I am represented so much in media that I have the luxury of many stories catered personally for me, both heroic and villainous, and I can simply choose what to engage with if relatability becomes a problem. And it would feel inhospitable and condescending for me to simply expect the members of underrepresented groups to 'get over it' because it makes sense in the context of the story.

A while ago there was a viral post that I keep referencing back in these situations because I think it's the best explanation for this type of divide: the watsonian / doylist interaction of critiques. As such, disenfranchised characters can be portrayed in an unsympathetic manner within any story, but, at the same, the real-life individuals from that group have the right to feel estranged and frustrated by that portrayal, because they don't consume media in a void and, for them, it isn't a hypothetical situation that they can subordinate to the priorities of storytelling. They should also have the space to express that discontent within fandom without having to be involuntarily accused of wanting to moralize or sanitize the media landscape. I think that we should start accepting that both things can be true and integrate that sentiment within our analyses.

That being said, since Alicent is not a real person, in the second part of this post I would like to dismantle the potential argument regarding the right to tell stories about awful people and how a woman being a bad mother or a bad person fits that bill. As I said, in principle, I agree with the sentiment. But I don't believe that the writers were at all successful in pulling this off. Their storytelling skills have proved inadequate and they were unable to craft a believable arc for Alicent to justify her so drastically shifting her entire world view in a few short weeks. And, by 'believable' I absolutely don't mean something naturalistic in the framework of the 21st century on Earth where dragons and magic don't exist; I mean plausible and reasonable behaviour for a human person in the confines of the fictional universe in which they operate.

I'm all for villainstanning and difficult female characters, but this season should have taken Alicent from

point A: doing everything in her power to put Aegon on the throne and even shielding his body from the dragon Meleys

to

point B: offering him to Rhaenyra for execution

in the span of weeks.

This season should have given her a proper motivation to basically hand over her male children to the person married to the assassin of her grandson. If nothing else, Alicent should have demanded Daemon's head. Speaking of which, there is no way to delve into Alicent's psyche, into the mind of a person in her position, after years of paranoia about a loose-cannon like Daemon (a notoriously disliked figure in Westeros), and arrive at the conclusion that, yes, Daemon as King consort would somehow be a better solution for the realm than any of her sons. It's just not. Even with rhaenicent rose-tinted glasses, he should have been a dealbreaker. This type of shortcoming makes me think that they can't truly immerse themselves in the mind of a character to properly gauge how someone could react to the events around them.

As such, let's see what disservices were done to Alicent this season that might have made her regret her initial decision. Let's see what the writers think would be reason enough for Alicent to switch sides and undo 20 years of wanting to place Aegon on the throne:

?????

2. Aemond burns Aegon

3. Aemond boots her from the council

4. Smallfolk suffering & revolts

5. Assassination attempt of Rhaenyra

6. Otto booted from the Council

7. she takes a few baths

8. goes camping

9. ??????

10. Dragonseeds

11. Aemond burns Sharp Point (?)

12. Aemond may endanger Helaena

Now let's see the plotholes in Alicent's thinking:

Most of these concern Aemond. Aegon, Criston, Otto, Gwayne and Daeron haven't committed any grievous sin against her that should be punished, yet, by conspiring with Rhaenyra, she would doom them all to their deaths. Even if Alicent is shown to have a complicated relationship with the first four, she has no reason against her 'nice' son Daeron and her brother Gwayne who was deferential and sympathetic to her. Now there is no way to make Queen Alicent Hightower "kind of forget" about Daeron and Gwayne or her Hightower uncle or cousins and not consider they would have to be executed by Rhaenyra/Daemon. If you have to suddenly make a character stupid or amnesic in order to fit your plot point, then it's not a good plot point. And Alicent has never before shown to be either stupid or amnesic. On the contrary, she is an anxious person who worries about everything.

Of course, one can argue Otto has manipulated her throughout her life and she could have reasonably developed feelings of animosity towards him, but he doesn't really factor in show!Alicent's decision at all. She isn't depicted to be thinking about him or to bring him up in any capacity after he leaves for Oldtown. Thus, we can't reasonably be expected to 'fill in the blanks' that Alicent is upset because of something Otto did.

She does not verbalise any opinion about Aegon & Criston sending Ser Arryk to assassinate Rhaenyra. At the end of that same episode, she is shown to slap Criston. But is that because he tried to assassinate Rhaenyra? Is it because Otto was booted from the Council and Criston became the new Hand? Is it because she told him they're not going to have sex anymore and he still came to her chambers? We don't know. They proceed to have another consensual sex scene. Later on, Alicent seems pissed because Criston is not telling her the truth about Rook's Rest. They part on OK terms, even though she is seen to be a little cold, but she does give him her favour. Is she even pissed at Criston? We don't know. Could she possibly be pissed enough at him that she would doom him to his death? No, I don't think that's reasonable to assume based on what we've seen. Show, don't tell. Golden rule of storytelling. In this case, neither did they show, nor did they tell.

I hesitate to assign Alicent any particular concern for the well-being of the smallfolk beyond a general sentiment to reduce bloodshed and not cause suffering on a grand scale. But individually? She is portrayed in Season 1 wanting to help Dyana and being affected by her situation. She tries to stop the guards from cutting off a man's hand during the riots, that is true. But she also allowed Larys to basically torture / execute her household staff without nary a thought. So which is it?

Coming back to Aemond. He remains the main point of contention. I am going to ignore his cartoonification this season, but, let us accept, for the sake of the argument, that Alicent did not realise how unstable he is and that now she regrets facilitating a situation in which he has so much power. If she has the power to make the guards surrender, like she tells Rhaenyra, then she is not as powerless as she laments, is she not? Then she could possibly even stage a coup against Aemond and arrest him. The fact that Aegon did not do so the minute he became conscious is another plothole. Aemond is one man with no network or friends because of his anti-social and anti-politics behaviour. He has a dragon but his access to her is restricted if he needs to ride a horse for several miles outside of the city to get to her. When he is inside the castle, as skilled a warrior as he is, he is still only one man. Him still being Prince Regent after Aegon wakes up is preposterous.

Larys does bring up the fact that without Vhagar, the greens are terribly outmatched at the moment when it comes to dragon warfare. That is true. But, if Aemond is a loose cannon who is threatening the life of the King and Queen, he cannot stay un-arrested. There's no reason they couldn't have kept it hushed for a while to buy some more time either. If Alicent is so sorry for what Aegon went through, she could have sued for peace after Aemond's ass was in a jailcell. But she makes no attempt to protect him from his supposed assassin. Her being overwhelmed with Rhaenyra's dragon superiority after Vhagar is out of commission would make more sense as a motivation for the second rhaenicent scene, it would give her more agency and not need her to abandon Aegon and the rest of her family all of a sudden.

But Aemond can't suddenly be removed from the narrative like that, because he has a part to play later on. Of course, in the books, there's not a lot to cling to when it comes to regicide. The narrator makes no such claim, nor is anyone else recorded to do so. Alicent is not upset with Aemond. Aemond doesn't attempt to kill Aegon during his long convalescence. You can argue it's not clear cut because Vhagar fell upon both Sunfyre and Meleys from above, but all three of them are reported to crash into the ground. Vhagar is old and slow, there is no certainty that she could have been sprightly enough to stop just in time so as to not crash fatally. It is not impossible to read this excerpt and think that Aemond may have tried to rid himself of his brother under the guise of battle. It is also equally possible to read Aemond's actions as a rash, dangerous move that could have ended in his death as well. It is self-preservation to let Sunfyre and Meleys kill each other. It is not self-preservation to rely on Vhagar's agility to save your life at the last moment. However, whichever way a screenwriter would like to go, Alicent can't suspect that Aemond tried to kill his brother or that he would place her beloved daughter in danger, because she would then act differently! This is another example of changing elements for the sake of changing them and not allowing the natural consequences of those changes to materialize because they would modify the sequence of events too much.

Like Rhaenyra in the sept scene, Alicent seems to be the worst negotiator ever. She doesn't get one concession from Rhaenyra when she goes to Dragonstone. Is that fair and unbiased storytelling? Helaena and Jaehaera's lives were never truly at stake, since they are girls and could always be married back into the black branch of the family. Why execute them when they could become useful? Alicent should know this, yet they need her again to be stupid and forgetful because she went to a live laugh love retreat in the woods. There is no attempt to truly settle this diplomatically. The scene is just a new pretext to humiliate Alicent and have her grovel at Rhaenyra's feet.

Below I am going to dismantle the narrative decisions regarding the dragonseeds.

Bear in mind that if we are to have 4 seasons of this story, then the sides must remain balanced for quite some time. Someone should tell the writers that biases and preferences are irrelevant because if the force differences become too great, the war ends and there will be no story left to milk.

The unavoidable truth of the matter is that the writers overpowered the blacks too much at this stage and this decision ended up massively affecting the plot. As it stands, the dragon parity at the end of the season became 2:7 - Vhagar & Tessarion vs Syrax, Caraxes, Arrax, Moondancer, Seasmoke, Vermithor & Silverwing. Out of these, Syrax was never truly considered a potential threat in battle. She is notoriously useless, does not hunt and does not fly in bad weather. Baela also rode Moondancer a grand total of one time at the end of the conflict and was never counted as a force during the war. They made Rhaenyra and Baela active dragonriders, but they refuse to do the same for Helaena to balance the forces a little bit more (Dreamfyre is a very large dragon, probably on par with Silverwing and a little smaller than Vermithor).

The book parity at this point was still unbalanced, but at the very least GRRM realised that and tried to mitigate it by moving the Battle of the Gullet close to the Sowing and making Ulf and Hugh betray Rhaenyra's side. Book!Alicent doesn't have to sue for peace because the greens get a fighting chance. I still think the Dance in the books suffers greatly from non-sensical military strategies and division of resources, but it surpasses the show with flying colours.

Let us return, however, to show!Alicent's POV. For a fictional universe famous for its amount of politicking, there is little to none in this adaptation. The writers are trying to sell us the idea that Alicent has to give up her disabled son for the good of the Realm or, like anon said, to "be free". Authorial intent is unclear on this point, but there is at least the germination of the idea that Alicent is "sacrificing" something - her family, her own ambitions etc - because she is desperate and there are no other options open to her. But is that true?

If the writers refuse to make Helaena a combatant because of reasons only they understand, even if they have no problem performing ~girlboss changes like that for TB (yes, I'm bitter about it), they could have at least given the greens the upper hand in politicking. But they don't because I'm not really sure they understand the universe they write for or posses that level of imagination. Why don't they have, say, spies in the Vale that report Aegon the Younger and his brother Viserys are on their way to Pentos as we speak? Alicent could have been shown to plot for them to be intercepted with the help of the Triarchy secured by Tyland.

Why doesn't she try to find out who these dragonseeds are. Can they be bribed? Do they have weaknesses? Ulf has a wife, no? Is there some way to use their friends and family against them and make them turn sides? Does Vaemond Velaryon not have any disgruntled relatives that have a bone to pick with Rhaenyra & Corlys and would be appalled by the decision to make Addam the heir to Driftmark? (in the books he did and they actually fought for the green side). Can they not try to assassinate one of Addam, Corlys, Seasmoke or Rhaenyra?

Alicent being involved in any of these plots would have been a more satisfying progression to her story that would have allowed her to remain relevant and maintain her screen time. Even her having a little more dignity and attempting genuine peace talks would have been more believable if she at least stuck to her guns when it comes to her family's lives, especially the son she herself placed on the throne and the one who turned out gentle and kind and has not wronged her in any way. But, of course, the show in that moment pretends yet again that Daeron doesn't exist and any other points of contention (like Gwayne and Jaehaerys) are swept under the rug because it would dismantle Rhaenyra's righteous stance. So Aegon is presented as this sacrificial lamb that Alicent must relinquish as the only way forward.

Even though the show has not established any substantial reason for Alicent to object to any tangible decision Aegon has made as king, even though she is specifically shown to regret what happened to him, even though she made no efforts via political maneuvering to mitigate Rhaenyra's advantages and even though it would have been more merciful for her to give Aegon a painless death via milk of the poppy. Instead of being an ambitious and shrewd politician, she is given a nebulous motivation of "finding herself" and discovering feminism, which apparently means her disabled son must be subjected to even more humiliation and pain. It is a very unfortunate framing because the scene invites you to think that Alicent is finally seeing reason and is trying to atone for her mistake of not stanning for Rhaenyra. Yes, Aegon is also portrayed as downtrodden and not deserving of more violence, but Rhaenyra is also not portrayed as being "wrong" to demand for Aegon's head? She is shown in soft lighting, soft-spoken, with tears in her eyes, hurt, wronged and Alicent doesn't argue back. Their parting words are bittersweet and yearning.

How can you make Alicent a selfish character overnight when you have spent so much time painting her the exact opposite and you don't even give her plausible motivations or any breaking point? She doesn't even do anything to try and gain power back for herself, change the things she doesn't like or counteract Rhaenyra's moves before she goes to Dragonstone. Her one attempt is proposing herself for the regency and it's supposed to be this grand moment of her realizing misogyny is real, even though that has been the case her entire life and, as a stand-in for her husband and a Council member, she would have encountered it often as a daily routine when trying to get anything done.

Ergo, I do have to ask again: how does Alicent get from point A to point B exactly?

[galvanizedfriend]

do you recommend watching The Originals?

Nonnie, you're out with the tough questions 😂

I've been here thinking about this for a few minutes. The answer is... depends? lol I know some people who really like The Originals, so it's hard to say that you should or shouldn't watch it. It really depends on what kind of thing you're looking for and where do you draw a line.

Personally, I have a lot of issues with TO lol And back when it was still airing and I was watching it as the episodes came out, I abandoned it halfway through S3 because I got to a point where the very far and few good parts were no longer making it worth my while. A lot of people think S3 is the best season, I think it's by far the worst one lol So you see how it really depends.

But I do like it that I watched it in end, even though it took me a few years. It gives me authority that I know exactly what I'm talking about when I shit talk it lol also whenever people who can't stand the show have a canon-related question, they come to me because I watched it some 200 times so other people don't have to suffer through it, and I think that's beautiful 😂😂

Here's a simple pros vs cons list *in my opinion*: Pros: it's more Mikaelson screen time, so there's that. That are some plot lines that had potential, although almost none of them are well executed. Seasons 1 and 2 are actually kind of ok. S3 and 4 Klaus hair is 🤌🤌🤌 The WILD CURLS ERA! I'm a simple girl, you give me Klaus in tight Henley shirts with curly curls, I'm in. There are some great family moments scattered throughout the seasons, some really cool scenes that make you think 'wow, this could've been a great show' (right before you get pissed off that it wasn't). Daniel Sharman's Kol is, IMHO, the superior Kol (I don't like Nate Buzz's acting). Jomo really delivers as Klaus regardless the whole bullshittery around him and gets some great chances to just be a little shit, which I love. There are some great Klaroline moments (and not just in S5). And in spite of my overall feelings for TO, one of my favorite all-time TVDverse characters is from there: Vincent Griffith. I love him to bits. I also really like Marcel, even though he becomes a glorified extra after S1, and Jackson. Also, if you're really into werewolves, this is really the show where they get any screen time. I'm not saying it's good, but at least it's there (and no, Klaus never turns into a wolf, it makes no sense).

Cons: Really bad, inconsistent writing. Some seasons have storylines that just die out of nowhere for no reason (*cough*season 3*cough*). The whole premise of the show is insane (there was absolutely no need for Hope when Marcel is right there). The crossovers with TVD are very poorly done and very glaring opportunities go unexplored (like at the end of S1). Rebekah drops out pretty soon into the show. Elijah changes personality at least once every season to the point where, by the end of the show, they just retcon him completely. The finale is RIDICULOUS. Season 4 was written by someone on a wild acid trip, season 5 is really not worth your time AT ALL (except for the Klaroline moments). Female characters are very badly treated (pretty standard in the TVDverse, but anyway). Klamille is a thing, although, as with everything else, it's so badly done it's only marginally there. There are a lot of retcons and rewritings of the show's own mythology, which is annoying. And it's just... Bad. I don't know what to say, it just never lived up to the hype of what a show about the Original family could've been or what TVD had been at its peak. It's never, ever even remotely as good as TVD was around S2-3, not even at its best moments.

Those are my personal opinions, anyway. I'm sure others might feel different, but each to their own. It's really about you considering whether or not that's something you might enjoy or if it will at least be worth your time. Maybe start it and see how you feel? Worst case scenario, at least you get to see more of Klaus prancing around New Orleans.

Also, the first episode of TO is different from the backdoor pilot in TVD. That's more of a Klaus POV one, while the one in TO is more an Elijah POV.

hope my TED Talk helps you! 😂

[trutrustories]

STUDY IN LOKI ROMANCE

Part 4: Heart of the TVA

Since we're only a few days away from the last episode, I decided to COUNT DOWN everything we´ve got so far ( that can be interpreted very easily as romantic ) and discuss what the actual fuck is going on with second season. Because even though I shipped lokius practically from S1E2, I absolutely did NOT expect this kind of development. (Not that I´m complaining)

Warning: This is gonna be LONG post, lots of screenshots, lots of SPOILERS, lot of "oh-my-god-they-so-cute" language, and little bit of meta.

I originally thought that this post would be everything at once, but since I have just too many screenshots this time around, I´ll have to split it. so every post will be one episode. Color coding means:

IIIIIIIIII = anything, that coud potentialy be just acting choice.

IIIIIIIIII = everything else (tzn.: whatever was written, and/or carefully prepared by filmmakers. )

side note: I already wrote, about how amazing it is, that Mobius is unable to fight but fights anyway and how beautifuly, and ridiculously brave he is HERE. But this is about Loki/Mobius interactions, so I´ll try my best not to talk about THAT. (Even when I´m really happy, that s2 continues with this formula and Mobius is still his completely defenseless while aggressively brave self. I love him, btw.)

EPISODE 1 HERE

EPISODE 2 HERE

EPISODE 3 HERE

check-list, episode 4 (my beloved): 33) changing clothes together not to be that person, but like... they always went through the door from TVA on timeline in their "camouflage disguises". So Loki couldn't use his magic to change their clothes. I mean... they even make turning off system that prevents magic plot point in this episode So unless they have some special device in TVA (which was never established) It is implied, that these two just spend some time changing clothes together, before going out. And that brings me to this specific moment: At the end of the previous episode we see them going through the time door (fairly soon after Victor Timely, in 1893 clothing) And this episodes starts with Victor ariving at TVA and wondering around the empty hallways. Alone. So let me get this straight: After we see them both walk through the time door, they end in that war room (were they met in ep1), just the two of them. Victor is.... somewhere. who knows where, who even cares? And they though: it is actualy priority number one to change our clothes. Yes, right now. Never mind, we have He Who Remains variant wondering around the TVA and everything is going to explode soon. We have to take our clothes off. RIGHT THE FUCK NOW. I´m sorry, film makers, but what the acual f-

34) Bickering like married couple (part 4) (but this time with EVERYONE else watching them with question marks above their heads. And these two idiots husbands probably didn´t even noticed xDD )

Also.... "It´s got your shape" 😳 really? really Mobius? And how would you- oh sorry, my bad, never mind. I almost forget you were changing clothes togheter MULTIPLE TIMES, so of course you would know that. ... right? 35) The "misunderstanding trope"

This whole scene is just... jeeez! Sylvie screeming at Mobius for wanting cake (while Loki already knows, that Mobius wants it, because he is in a stress.) He tries to stop Sylvie, but she continues. Loki circles around her and ends up right between them (cough...smybolism...cough) And Sylvie starts attacking Mobius because he doesn´t want to know his life on a timeline. While Loki is RIGHT THERE, knowing perfectly well Mobiuses reason´s and how bad she is hurting him, because episode 2 happened. Loki knows. And then she leaves, and Loki follows her. But Mobius doesn´t know, what we know: and that he went to her to DEFEND HIM. Jeeeeeeez writers.... thanks, for this perfect example of romantic complication. Dramatic irony 100%. I´m living for this relationship drama while everything around them collapses and explodes. 10/10 television!

Also... poor man needed pick-me-up cocoa drink immediately after 😭

36) Pie scene number two I have to say, I LOVED this scene. EVERY FUCKING WORD. philosophical conflicts? yes please. moral dilemas? give me more! but let´s focus on Loki defending Mobius. Him bringing up Thor into the coversation, and comparing his change on Earth (that he didn´t understand before) to his own change that came from spending time at TVA. spending time with Mobius. And he is standing infront of pies this whole time! basicly him low key comparing Thor´s love for Jane to his love for Mobius

And let´s not forget how obvious the difference between two pie scenes is! Because the first one is full of relaxed gestures, kindness and understanding. Just Loki and Mobius being intimite and open with each other 🥹 In glaring contrast with that, THIS scene, with Sylvie is full of conflict, tention and disagreements. The are standind, far from each other, and whole room has completely different (horror like) vibe.

37) THIS SHOT. just the two of them, right before the end.

God I love this episode so much! 💛💛💛

[horizon-verizon]

Yes, it's a little sad the way George is being called out because he wants to say the things he didn't like about HotD, specifically season 2. He was more than satisfied with the first one, although the changes were more or less criticized, but he didn't say anything bad and now that he wants to give his opinion as a writer/creator of the Song of Ice and Fire universe, they call him unprofessional (because they name him as a producer) and that he owes us more books, I even saw someone saying how he should have written the dance.

"unprofessional"

below or contrary to the standards expected in a particular profession

not having or showing the experience, skill, etc., that is expected or appropriate in a person who is trained to do a job well

not exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, or generally businesslike manner in the workplace

I agree completely. I'm not sure what "professional" means in this context, I listened to a TikTok creator who argued that GRRM leaving a quick, strongly-worded, strongly-toned paragraph at the end of a long post abt problems with S2 was unprofessional bc it was vague enough to open up

The thing is, does it really matter when, if we're talking exclusively about any sort of material prospects that GRRM could have to have more of his work adapted into TV/streaming OR the show's viability/popularity in streaming:

HBO owns any and all ASoIaF adaption now and in the future

HBO will continue to make adaptations even after he's gone most likely no matter how "unprofessional" he acts, bc they are getting rich from it and that's all they care about anyway

and GRRM is an old man who's now richer than he needs to be

yes, he is focused on ASoIaF, and this is his more famous as well as the only (I think) adapted part of his oeuvre

if he really has signed away his own work to be HBO's material forever and ever (as I heard) and has not assured that he could be the final authority for stuff NOT having to do with costs and those practical things AND if people really feel as if nothing he could say abt the show could deprive them of loving the show...why the claims of "unprofessionalism" if you're just going to watch the next season and keep HBo's pay up?

a) some of the actors don't even watch the show OR they avoided knowing too much abt the orig story so they wouldn't compare and be disappointed or stay focused on Ryan's vision (out of the mouth of Steve-Corlys' actor); b) some don't watch bc it's just a thing among actors to not watch what they are a part of, therefore how are their feelings really hurt, esp when the running line among fans who criticize the show is that the only or one of the few things abt it that were nonnegotiably good were the actors? When people ride and die even when some say Emma is not that good looking or BR-ugly or they say Matt is ugly and the responses are ranging from "no" to "no one else can play Daemon, I just can't see it"? The critiques are never abt the actors; c) GRRM has ALWAYS praised the actors, esp Paddy and Phia; d) the critiques were ALWAYS abt the writing or choices in STORYTELLING, not the fucking actors and non-writing crew! I swear to god, things get fed into the "Machine of Fandom Disengnuity" every other week: most recently it was why people disliked how HotD did B&C and some said "oh you wanted it to be bloodier, you just want to se a kid die a gory death" (as if what was presented on screen, even just by audio, wasn't "gory" by itself since hearing a literal child's head get sawed off instead of quickly cut off still presents an "image", one with even more physical suffering--again, gore).

I really wanna know, WHAT is at real, deep stake here? HBO/HotD's reputation (S2 was mediocre, and I didn't like S1 but it certainly was just of shoddier quality than the last and people still loved it apparently) that they never really cared abt in the first place bc they know people will keep coming back for more? Or the justification for why they love ASoIaF?

Bc, again, if you really go by books =/= show, you'd be able to just enjoy the show for all of its flaws when they are presented to you as flaws OF when the AUTHOR OF THE ORG STORIES shares their opinion abt the work regardless! Why do you feel the need the label his actions as "unprofessional"

Why do you really care enough to try to argue the man--who said similar abt the separation of bk vs show atp--shouldn't give his two cents on the adaptation of his life's work? And esp if you argue that he doesn't have the obligation to give you more books/complete the series? So he's obligated to let us/you keep our blinders on abt the lore of his books, but not obligated to give us more books? Mayeb I'm missing something here.

Another thing, yes, he has been in the TV industry for long before ASoIaF; there have been some changes and he seems to stay back in ComicCons and writer's meetings. Still, if being "professional" means you need to shut up abt what you don't like abt an adaptation, point blank period, bc outstanding actors or non-responsible people will feel bad about it or the show will suffer or be your work is no longer yours to determine the meaning and themes of once you "sold" it...we're in serious trouble from self justifying capitalist interest.

Oh, and don't forget, when RYAN CONDAL decided to say that:

Daemon was the internet's "boyfriend" when he shouldn't be despite having to know he'd be a fan fav bc he already was one for years bc he's seemingly upset he hasn't been able to ubiquitously convince the female portion that he's a feminist...when such a statement is beyond condescending

the fans of the show/bks don't know the story as well as he does [pic below], when we all know GRRM is not often in the writer's room or has much authority on how they will write the series AND has gone on record to say he actually wanted to write the Dance when Aemon and Baelon were alive!

Basically saying/dismissing fans' critiques for "I know what I'm doing" and "trust me, bro". How is this not "unprofessional" and actually, "Ryan is right? to tell bk readers to shove it"?!

GRRM's July inflammatory post mentioned Maelor [below] and how he'd talk abt that...Ryan's post above hasn't aged well.

And you can see that he already hinted at his writing a blog post abt his issues with B&C; how would he not add other stuff he felt strongly about?! This was a long time coming and some were genuinely surprised not at the strength of his language and his being so direct (that is actually surprising, considering how he said nothing abt how HBO did Dany, Catelyn, Jaime even, Tyrion, the Three Eyed Crow, magic in general, etc. dirty that I've seen) but that he dislikes or could dislike the show or aspects of it when they are so used to using his praises or exec seat as way to say the show is valid for MONTHS and now can't always feel comfortable using it.

And no, I don' think that many TikTok creators are being paid to say they loved the show. I watched and listened to many, and they genuinely love the show or certain aspects of it when they say so. Let's take them at their word. All the power to them, sometimes--as many current HotD fans of S2 have said--people just want to either see their favs onscreen and realized or they are there for messy-boots drama and "comedic", "unserious" entertainment (which is funny, bc HotD has served genuinely interesting and non-superficial tidbits here and there but what's aggravating is how they almost immediately tend to not develop or some fans refuse to get into really acknowledging the problems HotD creates with is storytelling decisions both out and in the universe [race, gender like how they wrote Rhaenyra's sons and the Velaryons or the women's....passiveness and dragging an inevitable war post-Lucerys or trying to maintain Rhaenicent]).

[i-am-autistic]

This might be controversial but like when we talk about characters getting sidelined in ST. I think it's important to note that like....the show wasn't unsuccessful with those characters and those characters being as good as they are is what built the platform for the characters after it I think Mike,Nancy and Jonathan are some of the most criminally disrespected characters in TV history. Both by the fans and (for Mike and Jonathan I feel at least) writers. Because lets go back to prior to s1 and nobody had fucking heard of this Stranger Things show. To this day I don't think many fans have seen an S1 trailer and it has less than half the views of the next least viewed with s2(11m vs 25m). I don't think some of the younger people and post s1 fans realize that this show came from literally nowhere and spread out overnight through word of mouth. The show was an overnight success. The writers have talked a few times about how when they originally pitched and were doing the show they imagined it as an adult focused SCI FI show and not the big blockbuster teen thing it became. It's only because of s1 being as good as it is that the show got the audience it did.

S1 is just some of the most pulsating TV they ever put out. It's scene for scene beat for beat no wasted movement no wasted time not a single second. Everything ties in together. Every character on the show is fantastically written

And the main 6 leads of S1 were: Joyce,Hop,El,Jonathan,Nancy,Mike. Dustin and Lucas were supporting and Steve was a minor character. Coming out of S1 a lot of the focus was on Joyce,Hop,El,Dustin as a meme then a bit of distance until we get to Mike then Nancy then Jonathan and Steve was like basically non existent as a fandom thing until season 2. I think it's important to note that like.....whether fans generated a bunch of content about Jonathan,Nancy and Mike was kind of irrelevant. The show was widely viewed and they were a large part of it so clearly they did definitely play their roles and parts in the show and do them well. Like...not every character has to be a viral meme. These 3 characters were awesome on their own and did their stuff and carried whatever themes and drama they had to well. What I'm trying to say I guess is that the first season was a huge success and these characters did all play their parts hence why it's always confusing to me that the show decided they needed so many other characters and honestly many of which retread the same ground as those three. And it's just become strange to me that the show and fandom has become about characters who benefited from the hype rather than those who created it and were there on day one. Even like Lucas never getting a real chance to be a lead while all the other kids have got their shot(Mike-S1,Will-S2,Dustin-S3,Max-s4) is never gonna sit right with me and hopefully he has huge stuff to do in s5. Some of the more popular characters like Eddie,Steve s2 onwards,Robin,Max,Billy,even Murray are just not possible without the first season. It's also weird that the show has come full circle to the point where Jonathan who was kind of the furthest thing from a meme-y character had his own weird meme moments in s4 so he could go viral and IG it kinda worked because he's on youtube links and shit now and people love the stoner stuff outside of tumblr and reddit but it's also weird to me to see that. Please don't kill me fans of post s1 characters and Steve fans. I like those characters very much as well.

[pixlostinatos]

For Few Can Take a Broken World (and Still with Beauty Fill it)

so, back in august, @fogwitchoftheevermore and i had a concept for a fic centered around the clones of Mezalea and the concept of them being a bit of a (true) ghost story told in the mesas of tumble town

it was intended to be three sets of paired chapters, one focusing around a season 2 character followed one about their season 1 counterpart in each pair of chapters--jimmy, fwhip, and joel.

it never got finished, and it never will at this point, but i think itd be a shame if we never shared what we did have written, so thats what this post is! we had a lot, so head under the cut to actually read them <3

Jimmy s2

Jimmy has lived in dry areas his whole life, and you pick up on some interesting things, such as a rather unique dialect of sign language that only varies in specific finger motions between the desert and the mesa

Theres some interesting folklore in the mesas, as well

Where most places would blame half-built and incomprehensible structures on the elusive herobrine, mesa-dwellers tell a different story

terracotta people, once part of a beautiful empire, now lost and without purpose, wandering the mesa until either the end of time, or when the magic that sustains them finally fades

Don’t go out too late, elders warn, lest you encounter one of these ghosts. who knows what they might do. Those who've seen them say they’re harmless, just wandering, aimlessly and wordlessly, but no one knows where they came from or why they all share one man's face.

Jimmy runs across one of the clones one night

It calls him the codfather

Jimmy recognizes some weird variation of the sign for fish

Despite its hands having less joints than that of an actual human, the mesa’s sign language is perfectly accessible to the clone. weird

He is very confused

"i mean this is the middle of a fucking desert but sure i can try and get you some????"

it just keeps insisting "you are the codfather" and he gets Very Weirded Out at the fact that this weird doll keeps trying to call him a fish person.

this is almost worse than being called a toy.

Jimmy s1

Mezalea is one of the only places Jimmy is comfortable taking off his head

After all, the clones aren’t truly sentient, and even if they were, its still Joel, right?

The clones aren’t unsettling at all haha why would you suggest such a thing

Jimmy is fairly certain the man isnt entirely sane. But hes not unkind and Lizzie loves him and despite his slightly overinflated ego, Jimmy considers him a good friend.

fWhip s2

Jimmy tells him, as his number 2 deputy, there's some Weird Shit about the mesa he should probably know

Aka the clay people. They’re not aggressive, in fact, they somehow seem almost sad, but they’re still scary as shit

Fwhip runs into one despite the warning anyway

The fact that it looks strikingly like Joel isn’t the first thing he notices. The first thing he notices is that they’re building some sort of… something. It looks like a sort of tower with a rounded top, he doesn’t quite get it.

The second thing he notices is that it looks strikingly like Joel.

Or, sort of? Those are Joel’s eyes, and the general shape of his face and body, but this clay person doesn’t have a beard and it’s much smaller than Joel (still, comparatively to Fwhip, very tall, but we don’t have to talk about that)

The clay person is just as confused as Fwhip is when they first see each other

Fwhip gives it some sort of greeting (cause I mean, they are just people, right?) and it perks up in a strange way

It walks closer to him and starts making a sign with its hands. He doesn’t quite recognize it, Jimmy has started teaching him the mesa’s sign language but he’s not very good at it yet. He recognizes that the sign for gunpowder is in there somewhere, and one of the signs feels very familiar, but that’s about all he gets.

The clay man is trying to ask him “are you Fwhip?” but it’s not communicating correctly at all

Fwhip tries to ask if they need something, if they want to go see the sheriff, and it nods at the mention of Jimmy, so he takes them back to Tumble Town

Jimmy is very confused about why Fwhip brought it here, and when it starts trying to say “you are the codfather” he tells Fwhip that the ones he’s run into have been making those hand signs at him but he hasn’t figured out what it means

Neither of them quite know what to do with this person and kinda decide to just… let them go and hope they figure out what they need to do

fWhip s1

Unsettling mention of the fountain statues being approximately just as sentient as the other clones, despite having extremely limited joint movement. “Elaborate on that.” “no”

The clones’ sign for Fwhip’s name is a mix between the signs for redstone and gunpowder

Fwhip didn’t learn that many of the signs because he didn’t run into them very often. He learned most of the emperor’s name signs, but he adamantly refused to learn Jimmy’s because, and I quote: “why would I ever need to talk to them about him. I’m not sending messages to him. Fuck that guy.” He also learned stuff like terracotta and concrete, gunpowder, and different dyes

He practices the signs a lot because even though he doesn’t run into Joel very often and is like sorta enemies with him??? he wants to be able to easily do trade deals and such

Joel s2

He doesn't like this

It's not like looking into a mirror, looking down at this little clay face

He's tall and strong and sexy and handsome and a god and did he mention tall

But he remembers full well what he looked like before jumping into that fountain and ascending to godhood oh so many decades ago

And this is eerily similar to that

It's even got the same strip of green curls he’s always had, nestled into the shorter, darker hair

But it doesn't have a nose. Or a mouth

Not that photographs exist here, of course, but its like looking at a polaroid of yourself from a few years prior but changed just so. Its creepy as hell

There are. Many.

And they start bowing

As they should! He's a god and everyone should bow to him!

But it feels wrong

(that's his face)

And the one that first approached him asks him what they should build

He never learned the mesa’s unique sign language

How does he understand it?

Unimportant. it asked for his opinion.

(what will piss off jimmy the most?)

(he isn't sure why, but he thinks a salmon could be funny)

He tells them to build [toy story reference]

The moment they get to work he flies off

Maybe he should stop calling jimmy a toy actually

After seeing those dolls, he feels like thats giving him far too much credit

But no. the joke is too funny to give it up now

Joel s1

Gem and Pixl are both not exactly happy about his usage of blood sacrifice, but it's all his own blood, so they can't actually justify stopping him, only just voicing Disapproval

He crafts each clone with care

They shatter, sometimes. Terracotta is strong, but it’s brittle.

Yet somehow, the first he created is still with him now

There have been so many

Builders, messengers, trade managers, statues, cleaners, warriors

Each especially is formed slightly different

But they all take a life to make

No single person can lose that much blood and survive

But for the rulers, death cannot be caused by something as unimportant to fates grand design as a little self-inflicted bloodletting

(killing yourself that much, even knowing you’ll come right back, is not exactly great for your psyche)

(there's a reason Pixl asks him to stop making him add candles to the Vigil, a pained undercurrent to the voice he tries to keep light, every time he visits)

The first he made had defined middle and index fingers, despite the two being fused together

It was kinda weird and unsettling though, so he started making them into one slightly wider finger

He went back to the original design eventually, his grip on his sanity slipping just enough for him to find it funny instead of creepy

They already shared his face after all

The Mother Tree accepts his blood freely, and gives life to the clay dolls all the same

The explosion that destroys the Palace also kills the Mother Tree

However, the servants were always built in such a way that they could outlast their creators

Otherwise, older clones would die the moment Joel sacrificed himself to make a new one

When joel died, the clones lost their way

They weren't actually sentient, after all, only having a very rudimentary sort of magical artificial intelligence

So while they could talk, and recognize people, and take orders from their King

(their Creator)

(their God)

They had no true higher thought

And could only fulfill the purposes they were created for

(the Messenger servants were the first to fall, though the ones meant to send messages to wetter climates, to lizzie and scott and jimmy, were more durable and stood longer)

(the Statues never moved, as they were never built to. They remain buried under the dunes of what was once mezalea. Maybe one day they will once again be displayed as a sign of their Creators might)

(after thousands of years, only the Builders still wandered the earth)

(yet still they were always drawn to mesas)

(it is all they knew, after all)

(and the heat of the desert sun would keep moisture from cracking them from the inside out)

(after all, a broken clone is of no use to its King)

(without their Creator to guide them, their builds had no direction)

(simple structures that only the most dedicated archeologists may even have the hope of recognizing as fragments of the old Mezalean build style)

[kitkatt0430]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💗

Survivor's Guilt - (Fandom: The Flash) Harrison Wells survives night of the car accident Eobard Thawne caused, but Tess Morgan still dies. Of course, no one knows that last part yet. In which Eobard Thawne spends fifteen years as Tess, from Harrison's PoV. Eventually Harrison Wells/Tina McGee/Jerry McGee.

I found Jerry McGee in the various wikis about the comics while looking for more info on Tina and brought him in here where he became a chaotic, closeted bi who cannot sit in chairs properly to save his life. OG Harrison goes through a lot, but he winds up happy in the end. Has a prequel from Eobard's PoV and a sequel from Harrison's PoV for parts of S2 where E2 Tess Wells shows up in place of Harry.

Through The Looking Glass - (Fandom: Tales of Vesperia) Brave Vesperia is doing a job for the Empire, helping to clean up an old lab run by Alexei's allies and wind up accidentally rewriting history in the process.

First in a series about the timeline Yuri finds himself in where he never existed. Until now, that is. It's unfinished for now, but I want to work on it more as I've got a lot of plans for it. The world may be a dystopia run by Alexei now, but Yuri is bringing hope to the world - but arguably he's the person who needs hope the most...

The Comeback Queen - (Fandom: Supergirl) Part 2 of an ongoing series. In which Leslie gets her powers, but doesn't become a villain. Because, quite frankly, flirting with Supergirl is more fun than villainy anyway.

Livewire is a character I liked way back when I was a kid watching the Superman Animated Series. So I loved seeing her on Supergirl. And there was some definite sparkage between her and Kara. I may like Kara/Lena best, but Kara/Leslie is definitely a fun ship too.

Unexpected - (Fandom: Arrow) Tommy's jealousy over Laurel and Oliver's lingering feelings for each other swerves in an unexpected direction when he learns Oliver's in love with him too. Tommy/Laurel with pre-Tommy/Laurel/Oliver

Tommy is a disaster here realizing that he may be bi after all, Laurel is finally learning to move on from her grief over Sara thanks to her love for Tommy, and Oliver is being his usual, reckless self. Tales place during Season 1, starting with the poorly thought out double data involving Helena and continues through to the Christmas Party Snafu.

Scientific Method - (Fandoms: Arrow, The Flash) A rewrite of the two parter from Arrow S2, where Barry is introduced. Now with Tommy not being dead, Barry attending the party as Oliver's plus one instead of Felicity's, Oliver getting the infamous 'I'm sure he penetrates just fine' line, and Thea learning her brother is a vigilante from Oliver which goes a ways towards alleviating the trust issues that would have given Malcolm an in with her in canon.

Started off as an idea for a short fic rewriting just the party and expanded because I decided Tommy was alive and suddenly I was fleshing out a much bigger plot. I have plans for this series that'll take it into S1 of the Flash and tie in to at least one Batman movie, but I haven't even gotten to the fic about their New Years shenanigans or the traumatizing events of the Accelerator Incident (now pushed back to taking place in the first week of 2014 instead of the last few weeks of 2013 like in canon).

[zahrowl]

A Critique of Good Omens Season 2 by 4 Random Girls (+ for fun, a rewrite of S2's outline)

Did you feel after watching GOmens S2 with your friends that this season could have been… better?

I was excited for S2 and I had some high expectations due to spoilers (yes, I am the kind of person to seek out spoilers to raise my personal excitement for the show). But after a watch party with some friends that had me gaslighting myself into denying the letdowns of this season (I was going through the first stage of grief okay), I’ve come around a few days later to bring a list of problems, gripes, and some suggestions for improvement for Season 2.

(EDIT: I reposted this bc I originally tagged Mr Gaiman according to my friend's suggestion. That was insensitive of me, I'm sorry. Thanks to the person who commented and knocked some sense into me, even if I did get a severe increase in heart rate and my hands were literally trembling after seeing your comment)

Mr. Gaiman, if you're reading this somehow, please don’t take any of this criticism as a personal attack. Like, you’re a prolific writer, we’re just 4 girls with opinions, so I don't think you'd really need to take much of these words to heart. I know I wouldn't.

And to the fandom, well, if you enjoyed S2, good for you! I enjoyed it too! If you enjoyed it in a way you understood but I didn't, that's fine too! This is just the perspective of like 4 girls on some writing decisions we found kinda weird. We all have opinions, we can express those opinions as long as we're not attacking anyone.

Also, spoilers for S2 of course.

Anyway, let’s get to it shall we, starting with the most controversial of decisions in episode 6!

Controversial reveals in episode 6:

Halo Ex Machina

Like for god’s sake if you wanna pull that out last-minute, at least show it being used in an earlier episode in a flashback from the war

Ineffable Bureaucracy

Aziraphale agreeing to be the Head Archangel to change heaven with Crowley

Ineffable Divorce

More annoying things in S2:

The purpose of the body swap in S1 feels undermined in S2. Like, that was to scare Heaven and Hell into thinking that they’ve grown so powerful that they’ve made their own side. Shouldn’t Heaven and Hell be like, a little more cautious with these two after agreeing to leave them alone?

The Divorce really feels like it’s written solely for the purpose of milking a certain reaction from the audience rather than a natural development for Azicrow’s relationship. Also, with the amount of times these two ‘break up’, it gets boring, okay

Nina and Maggie were just kinda,, there. I’m not quite sure what themes they’re here for, I was lowkey bored anytime they got on screen. Maybe Nina’s abusive relationship mirrors Aziraphale’s relationship with Heaven, but like, idk it’s really not the best mirror. I don’t care about them, okay, they didn’t need to be here and if they did, at least cut down a bit of their time please? The part at the end where they stayed to help was kinda ehhh, the part where they had to tell Crowley about his feelings was even more eh. I’m not sure why they cared so much to tell Crowley about it. I don't hate them, I just wish they could have been written better.

Crowley just waltzing into heaven. In S1 they were undercover and it’s so nervewracking. This time a bunch of demons just see him go up into heaven and don’t even question it. And then a bunch of archangels just come down the lift with him. Like what???

The miracle that hid Gabriel was kinda handwaved away? What was up with that

What was Bee’s plan with storming the bookshop. Wouldn’t that attract a lot of unnecessary attention from the demons and angels? Is discretion not a thing?

They never really explained what was up with Az’s bookshop and the vampire entering rules like???

Angels and demons really do feel like much less of a threat this season somehow

Guess who had “I’ll Follow You Into The Dark” on their playlist? Guess who didn’t follow someone into the dark.

So, I challenged myself to rewrite S2 to make the reveals a little less jarring than them all coming at you one after the other in episode 6 like Voltaire tormenting Candide.

Things we’re building up to:

Aziraphale’s desire to change the way Heaven is run, thus accepting Metatron’s offer

I know the Job episode was a thing, but again, that was only one scenario and not a consistent running theme throughout the season. The Victorian doctors do not count — that’s Aziraphale learning to become more flexible with his morality like Crowley. It doesn’t have anything to do with changing Heaven except maybe showing how much better Crowley is than everyone/j. The magic show definitely doesn’t count.

Also to all those ppl who say that Aziraphale has religious guilt or is going through religious trauma or smth along those lines… idk it feels more like they’re projecting than that being an actual thing shown by the show. If that was the intention, it doesn’t come across like it well enough

It might be believable that Az’s indoctrination by Heaven might cause him to think that being in charge would improve things, but like,, that needs to be actually shown in the show. Show us his doubts after the end of the world. Give us better foreshadowing of his concerns over the past 6000 years, how he’s seen Crowley struggle with being a demon/how he imagines being a demon is like/how heaven has indoctrinated him. Otherwise it’s like he’s learnt nothing over these past 6000 years!

Gabe and Bee’s relationship

This really suffers by being revealed only at the end because the way they act seems suddenly out of character of how we expect them to. We’re all left kinda unsure if they’re actually in love or even know what love is.

An earlier reveal of their relationship and maybe some Bee/Jim interactions in earlier episodes would help with a more gradual acceptance of expectations vs reality

Also, would it kill to have one close-up of the fly? Or even like, Aziraphale swatting the fly away as it flies into his face when he opens the box? That thing is so tiny it’s no wonder it’s so easily missed. Please, I’m myopic

Divorce

I want Crowley to snap so bad at Aziraphale. And with better dialogue than “no nightingales”. I know it’s a reference, but surely we can do better than this!

Aziraphale really caught the idiot ball this season in the most narratively unsatisfying way, and if it weren’t for Michael Sheen playing him it would be even more annoying.

What can we cut from S2?

A lot of the coffeeshop/recordshop AU

The whole storming the bookshop thing. What was Bee’s plan really

The angel-demon miracle. The damn thing was what attracted heaven’s attention anyway and in the end it was just handwaved away? Let’s toss it out, and by extension, we’ll have to toss out… (checks notes) the Archangels’ visit to the bookshop, lying about getting Nina and Maggie together and the further matchmaking attempts for them, Constable Muriel, Shax’s storming of the bookshop, and god knows what else.

[maya-matlin]

Obviously Naley is one of the best TV ships of all time, maybe even THE best, so I'm challenging you to name a few things you don't love or would change about the way their ship was written! For me a big one is their S2 plot and her music storylines in general- I'm all for conflict but I thought Haley, who values personal relationships so much more than 'celebrity', was pretty out of character through S2. I also ---pet peeve alert - HATE how all the main OTH characters are not only athletes and cheerleaders but soooo gifted creatively! Lucas becomes a semi-famous novelist, Peyton becomes the producer of her own record company in addition to being a gifted artist, Brooke has her own fabulously successful fashion line which she started back in high school, and we then get Julian who's a successful film director and Alex Dupree who's a B-list movie star. Nathan isn't creatively gifted but is of course not just a great athlete but good enough to be in the .0001% who gets to the NBA. And they all still live in this small North Carolina town lol...I mean, I don't expect the show to be strictly realistic, but come on! More than even one of those things happening strains credulity. So I loved that Haley was presented as the ONE character who was so relatable and into academics and down to earth and all that, but the show then suddenly decides after S1 purely because the actress likes to sing that Haley is not just a decent singer but good enough to immediately go on TOUR?! What?!?! It's an aspect of the show that annoys the hell out of me. I loved Haley as a teacher for a variety of reasons and think it's the perfect career choice for her and will always resent that they had to also make her a star singer lol. 3. I'll still never quite get why Naley had to marry a few months into their relationship when they were just juniors in high school and there was no pregnancy. 4. So I like Nathan a lot overall, but there's no denying that he was a HORRIBLE, borderline emotionally abusive boyfriend to Peyton (as you've pointed out, he left her stranded on a dark and deserted road, was super cruel to her, and was all set to let her suffer legal consequences for a car accident HE caused lol) and I just don't love the "but the RIGHT girl can immediately tame and save the bad boy" trope. So I love that Naley brought out the best in each other, of course, but I just wish the change in Nathan hadn't been quite so abrupt! OK, thanks for listening to be vent!

Hmm. The thing about parts of Naley's season 2 arc is that personally, I think Nathan and Haley were mostly in character during everything leading up to Haley leaving for the tour. In my opinion, it's a pretty realistic depiction of what happens when you get married as teenagers following a short relationship before you've been able to become independent people. The circumstances were pretty unrealistic. In real life, a small town girl probably wouldn't end up going on tour a couple of months into performing live for the first time in her life. Haley's career wouldn't have taken off nearly as fast without Chris there to vouch for her talents and bringing The Wreckers to Tree Hill. But if we ignore all of that, the reality is that Haley spent her entire life afraid to take chances. Falling in love with and marrying Nathan allowed Haley to be more impulsive and to become a braver person. Nathan, in contrast, needed Haley's stability and good influence. While he was the same age at her and hadn't been allowed to live independently away from his toxic and abusive parents for long, he had more romantic and sexual relationship experience prior to Haley and was looking to slow down rather than jumping into new things. So for Nathan, giving up something like High Flyers was less of a big deal at the time than Haley choosing not to go with Chris to New York. Nathan had grown up with a life of privilege, receiving the best money could buy as far as getting ahead as an athlete. Plus by the end of season 1 and first half of season 2, you could assume that Nathan was beginning to associate basketball with Dan and kind of happy to stop defining himself as Nathan the basketball guy. In the long run had Haley never gone on tour but Nathan also not gone to High Flyers, I think it's possible Nathan himself would have began to feel stifled and grown resentful of putting his dreams on hold solely to be a husband. Anyways. I think Haley liked having something all her own independent of Nathan, and the Chris factor and her lack of experience with men prior to Nathan put her in a messy situation. There are multiple episodes where the subtext is that Haley on some level regrets rushing into marriage or has doubts about it (201, 205, 210, 217). I think it's completely understandable for Haley to feel that way. As much as I love them and consider them one of all my time favorite couples, they weren't ready to be married. Nathan and Haley had to learn to be better partners to each other and as the seasons went by, they became more successful. But during season 2, everything was new and more uncertain. So rather than being honest with Nathan about the kiss with Chris and her perspective re: putting her dreams on hold, Haley panicked and kind of internalized everything out of fear of what it all meant or the ramifications of what she'd done.

In regards to your thoughts about Haley craving fame, I don't know that it was really about the fame part as much as it was Haley wanting to pursue music and getting professional validation and fulfillment from performing and having people like her music. Haley says she loved every night of performing and she seemed to be excited about appearing on television, but I wouldn't say it meant much more than that. However, Haley's POV is very vague and confusing following 213. She's only ever shown either in brief phone conversations or when Nathan and Lucas visited her on tour. During 217 in particular, Haley is poorly written. Not because her thoughts and feelings aren't valid, but because the words coming out of her mouth are a piece of forced writing meant to ensure that Nathan and Haley remain separated and that Nathan essentially gives up on their marriage. Haley is not given the chance to explain herself. So as a result, Haley appears selfish and like she cares more about being a rockstar than Nathan's feelings. That's exactly what the writers wanted at the time. The story of Naley's separation and Haley's time on the tour was NEVER about Haley. It was all about Nathan's pain, depression, and his fight through the pain of losing the love of his life. Haley's role on the show was minimized to the point of her becoming a villain for having ambitions and for making mistakes the same as the other characters. It got a little better when Lucas visited Haley because Lucas was close enough to Haley that he truly wanted to understand and was willing to hear her out. So, we got the official explanation that Haley stopped wearing her wedding band because she no longer felt she deserved to wear it. The moment she presumably removes her wedding ring would have been prior to her televised interview. Yet, Haley keeps her ring finger covered up. She compromises herself by denying the marriage while also kind of upholding it? She still refers to herself as Haley James Scott and doesn't officially flaunt the fact she isn't wearing her ring, but she allows Chris to lie about their relationship. I feel like I've completely lost the plot here, but what I mean to say is that I don't take issue with most of Haley's writing in season 2. I simply think she was written by people completely uninterested in her perspective and her journey compared to Nathan's and REALLY lost out on the lack of consistent writing and POV during episodes 214-223.

What would I change about their writing? Well, obviously a lot of season 2 LOL. I think we should have seen Haley's time on the tour. We should have seen her becoming confident and thriving in the spotlight all the while missing Nathan and being heartbroken over what she's been forced to give up in the name of chasing her dreams. It's implied Haley and Chris were good friends during this time. It would have been nice to see the shift from Chris kind of aggressively coming on to Haley to Haley making it clear nothing was ever going to happen between them, and Chris accepting this enough to become Haley's confidant. Beyond that, I would have given Haley more of a backbone during season 3. I think she stood her ground when absolutely necessary, but Nathan also kind of held all the cards for a lot of season 3. His attitude about her Halloween costume for instance was bullshit. He also should have put his damn wedding band back on before they officially became engaged again because they'd been sleeping together for months and were literally living together by that point. What was I supposed to take from that other than Haley hadn't yet earned it? In season 4, I would have liked Nathan and Haley to have gotten an equal focus during her pregnancy. Season 5, I think more should have come out of their separation story line. I loved the episode where they reunited, but it also kind of seemed a little too easy for Nathan. I obviously don't blame him for the majority of what went down with Carrie or her predatory behavior, but the fact he was watching her swim naked was SO sketchy. There were multiple moments throughout the series where the possibility of Nathan cheating on Haley came up and it was always horribly executed. Whether he went through with it or not, it was annoying for Haley to constantly have these physical threats. Like, Haley was beautiful and sexy as hell, and Mark Schwahn was a demon. I also don't feel like Haley doubting Nathan re: Renee in season 7 was needed. That felt like a retread of season 5. Thankfully, it didn't last very long. Otherwise, I honestly don't have any complaints. More often than not, their relationship was well written.

I completely agree that it was unrealistic for all of the main five to basically become superstars. That took some realism away from the show and made the later, adult seasons harder to enjoy because like.. we're watching Nathan and Haley in their big house where a professional football player seriously shows up at their son's birthday party. While the show overall felt grounded for the entirety of the series, those moments detracted from the series as a whole. That being said, I LOVE rockstar Haley, so we'll have to disagree there. It's not that I don't enjoy her as a teacher or someone interested in helping others learn. It's just that teaching was never Haley's dream. It was something she was good at, but it never fulfilled her the same way being a musician did. On that note, it annoys me that the writers felt the need to make Haley smaller to make Nathan look/feel bigger. By season 7, Haley once again was a musician full time. But when Nathan retired from the NBA to become a sports agent, Haley took over Karen's Cafe rather than continuing to perform. Just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with any of these professions. They're not inherently "lesser". It's just that it was written that while being in the NBA was Nathan's dream, Haley's dream was being a singer. Ultimately, I don't think Haley was ever supposed to be super successful even at the height of her career. The potential was there during season 2 and obviously she toured again in season 7, but I never got the impression she ever achieved the same kind of fame that Nathan and Brooke did.

Yeah, I'm of two minds about that. Part of me is like, "Yessss! Naley forever!" When I was watching season 2 for the first time when I was around 12, their teen marriage was couple goals to me. Nathan and Haley are a rare case of two people that settled down young and still managed to live happily ever after. But on the other hand, we see how much of a mistake it was to rush into marriage. When Nathan proposed, he told Haley she was the only true thing he had. He put SO much stock into that marriage. I genuinely think part of the reason he proposed at all was the fear of losing her after that porn fight. Had Haley not wanted to explicitly wait until marriage for sex, I doubt the thought would have occurred to him. Haley let herself get swept away by the romance of young, first love and was a wife before she'd even experienced anything. From a story line standpoint, I love it. But speaking as someone twice their age at the time of the marriage, there were so many reasons why they should have waited.

I don't think I was the one to point that out, but I 100% agree with those points! I always forget how bad Nathan was during the first few episodes of season 1 because he'd grown tremendously by 122. But jesus christ, he was the boyfriend from hell. It really came across like half the time, Nathan used Peyton as a sex toy. He learned a lot of horrible, toxic messages from a young age and was on the path to becoming Dan Scott when Haley came into his life. You're correct that that particular trope is oftentimes really gross and overdone in fiction. Thankfully, I actually think OTH is one of the few shows to get it right. Peyton is never blamed for Nathan's bad behavior or viewed as "lesser" than Haley for being unable to fix Nathan. Their relationship was toxic and they couldn't have been more wrong for each other. Both Nathan and Peyton always stressed how awful their relationship was, and Nathan is thankfully quick to own up to his bad behavior during their relationship. But, you make a good point. Nathan's turnaround from emotionally abusive asshole boyfriend to sweet and patient boyfriend to Haley happened very quickly. Really, everything with Naley in season 1 was pretty rushed and could have used a few more episodes. The pacing is way off. They spent so much time building up to their first "I love you" only to have them married three episodes later. I think the key to Nathan's shift is that originally, I believe the Nathan/Peyton/Lucas triangle was supposed to go on longer. Since that ended up being replaced by the infamous Brooke/Lucas/Peyton triangle, that freed Nathan up to get together with Haley sooner.

You're welcome! I apologize for the length of my answer!

[skayafair]

S2 Ep 50: In a Handful of Dust

Oh my, really 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 🤦‍♀️ No, I can't, I'm dissolving into laughter 😆 Saving the world, nooo not these too 🤣

So, okay, first of all. Ned wants to be called Ned, so no deadnaming here. Nice to have this settled. Even though he seems to be the one or a part of those who were leading this whole experiment, according to his words. And Morrison was his puppet. I'm not sure how Ned was going to embody his character after consuming him though, their personalities are kind of too different. While Ned may be a shifter, his last and present personalities really don't differ. He's the same. Morrison is a completely different person though. He's rock solid while Ned is very flowy. I wish he managed to finish his sentence when he saw Dr. Park and was frozen for a few hours that let Dr. Park lead the rescue operation and save everyone. He sounded genuinely frightened, and I'm not sure if it was because of the prospect of being frozen. He and Sam were getting somewhere. That's what Ned said he is: he lies. I don't know how much he lied this time, but for some reason I still can't believe he was the real enemy. He did sound upset that Bill had to be brought into all that. And while he was clearly stalling there with Sam, not in a hurry - maybe he felt he's in no danger, I don't know, but still - he didn't seem too eager to stop them either. This seems to be more complicated that it looks like.

And now dr. Park. He comes with a solution ready at the last moment and saves the day. Hooray! Or not? He has a lot to tell, the events took a drastic turn, but… He still looks suspicious to me. An organization working on changing the future? A whole good organization? I'm honestly getting the Spines vibes here. I don't trust them. Anna was working with them, according to Ren Park. She left them a will. But she did not tell Kate to go find him. She said "Find Bailey and Maria". Considering she worked with dr. Park and he had the means to help them all along? Of course Park said Anna thought the team plays some big role in what they are trying to do… I don't know. I don't trust them so far anyway.

Season 2 left off on an informational cliffhanger - everyone's safe, Morrison was left down there with all the creatures he tortured let loose (although Park said he's not easy to kill so he's most likely alive, but I HOPE he suffered. Played by Ned or not, he chose this path himself. Ned said it - creatures like him can push a person a bit to where they need to, but they can't make them do what they don't want to in the first place.), Ned's frozen for some time, time for answers!

Except the answers are due for the next season 🎉🎊 Good it's already out.

Anywho, I hope Ned isn't really the enemy and he and Sam will have some bonding time because ffs! They are alike by nature and I like their dynamic! There's so much to explore! And Kate and Bill were the highlight of the episode. So much kindness. If this whole journey doesn't fuck them up, I think they are going to be really close friends. Oh, and Maria smacked Morrison with a hammer, hard. Twice. As a treat. There was a wet sound… a few. Thank you, girl 💝

Also TST is written by an ace person and it shows. I thought this was just dumb luck at first - how romance and meaningful relationships are present but not shoved into the listener's face, and, more importantly, how many OTHER meaningful relationships are there and they are prominent. I mean, in mostly any other story? Bill wnd Kate would have had a thing. Even I have to constantly remind myself they both already have partners they love dearly, because of this deep connection these two share. And I REVEL in it. I LOVE what they have. That's kind of friendship I wish to have. Maria and Sam? They feel a lot like brother and sister who are sort of at knives' ends with each other but also… there's an undeniable bond. I think they are going to become good friends if they have a chance, too. And this just keeps happening! There are different relationships between all the team members, and they do feel like a bunch of actual living people who interact with each other. Is this paradise?..

In short, I should be sleeping but I think I'll listen to S3 Ep 1 instead.

[matan4il]

Buddie vs Lone Star meta (2/3)

Notes: || LS = 911 Lone Star || OG = original 911 || These three meta posts were written before watching LS s3... || part 1 || part 3

LS 209

Okay, I love Grace, Judd and their ship (Grudd), they’re probably the best part of LS for me (and I also love Tarlos, so that says a lot). Obviously a “Grudd Begins” ep was bound to be a fave. But yes, we’re here to talk about its parallels to Buddie… Because there are A LOT, I tried to be brief in what I wrote. Here we go! ~~~

Let’s kick off with the fact that Grudd and Buddie are both partners who experience a shared major trauma! As I’ve pointed out before, it is A Choice who the show chooses to go through this together... ~~~

When they met, Judd instinctively trusted Grace and confided in her, despite thinking he’s not in a confessional mood and saying he’s not much of a talker. Over time, he gradually kept telling her more and more of his truth (I mean, that idiot was in love before the end of their first talk, telling her his real name already). Similarly, Eddie trusted Buck intuitively, despite their initial friction in OG 201, and after a few seconds of hesitation he showed Buck Christopher’s picture and told Buck all about Chris. Over time, he kept letting Buck more and more into their lives (TBH not even after that much time, either. It took him what, presumably one week to move from, “this guy is being a jerk to me, I should ruffle his feathers” to “hell yeah, I will trust you with intimate info on my son”? More meta on just HOW MUCH trust Eddie put in Buck early on in season 2 in regards to Chris, here). ~~~

Grace is shown as someone who makes Judd’s life better by advising him on how to approach Kyle’s mother, which is exactly what we saw of Grudd in LS 101, and as I’ve already mentioned in part 1 of this series, that parallels the way Buck is shown as helping Eddie and making his life better in early s2. Except, if in LS 101 Grudd are already married, here we see that this theme started even before they became an official couple, which is even more similar to Buddie... ~~~

Judd lets Grace know as early as their second talk that he sees how good she is at what she does. Eddie lets Buck know as early as their second shift together that he sees how good Buck is at what he does. Buck and Grace both get to feel seen and valued thanks to these new found relationships! ~~~

After their initial connection, Grudd proceed to flirt under the guise of a growing platonic bond over the phone. After their initial connection, Buddie proceed to flirt (most undeniably in eps like OG 309 and 408) under the guise of a growing platonic friendship. ~~~

After Grudd had become set in their routine, Judd is shaken up when he thinks Grace has left her job at the prayer hotline, which is how they met in the first place. In OG 510, after Buddie had become set in their routine, Buck is visibly shaken up when he thinks Eddie is leaving his job with the 118, which is how they met in the first place… ~~~

Grace’s father says he trusts Judd to do the ‘right thing’ (for her), which would mean letting her go so she could have a better life without him, but eventually it becomes clear that the best life for Grace is with Judd. In OG 315, Eddie’s mom says they trust him to do what’s right for Chris, which would mean letting him go so he could have a better life without Eddie, but eventually it becomes clear the best life for Chris is with Eddie, who chooses to share that life he’s building for Chris and Buck, a point that is made even clearer when we later learn that this is the very same episode in which Eddie decided to write Buck into his will as Christopher’s legal guardian (revealed later in OG 414). ~~~

When Judd was hurting without Grace in his life, he went off and punched a random asshole parking where he shouldn’t have, an incident for which Judd got himself arrested. In OG 305, when Eddie was hurting without Buck in his life due to the lawsuit, he went off and punched a random asshole parking where he shouldn’t have, an incident for which Eddie got himself arrested. Both of these morons couldn’t deal with this emotional loss of their other half.

~~~

In the present of LS 209, we see Grudd together in the sinking car, and Judd is unwilling to leave Grace because he would rather die than live without her, which immediately reminded me of OG 315 (yes, again!) when Eddie was buried underground. Buck wanted to go down there to get him and Hen’s response made it clear that if Buck was allowed to, they’d just end up with two cut ropes (an accusation which he doesn’t deny), meaning Buck too would rather have died than live without Eddie (something that he repeats explicitly to Eddie in OG 414, I SCREAM). ~~~

Grudd getting together in 209 despite some bumps along the road is finally resolved when Grace lets Judd know he’s actually been her man all this time, even when they weren’t officially a couple (he’s just an oblivious moron and didn’t realize it). Buck and Eddie might not have reached this conclusion explicitly yet (Grace has an advantage over them because she apparently has more than a single brain cell), but tell me that what she implies doesn’t basically sum up Buddie’s dynamic, where they’re married and are raising a kid together despite not officially being a couple… ~~~

…In conclusion, the 911 verse has spoken, loud and clear, and the only question left is, “Buddie Begins” when, Tim?

~ ~ ~ Thank you so much to the superstar @judsonryder​​​ for making the gifs for these posts. She’s been unbelievable with these! You can find more of my Buddie meta, gifs, humor posts here, and my Buddie fics here. Please feel free to poke me if you need help with anything, and thank you in advance for any show of support! xoxox

[literatikoo]

Lane Kim deserved better

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I would only write Lane Kim meta when I am very very angry because I need to be powered by spite and petty energy to unravel exactly how much of a disservice this show was to Lane and by extension any Asian kid with a similar life. And, well, it's happening now, so buckle up kids, this is going to be a loooong ride because I have a lot to say.

Before we start on the negative aspects, the show got a lot of things about Lane right, which is why I care so much about her character. Yes, ASP obviously didn't know how to write a POC experience and it's seen in the way some very harmful stereotypes were propagated (the tiger mom trope, Mrs Kim's religious beliefs, the depiction of the Kim extended family etc) but at the same time Lane was beautifully written as a character, unlike her plot which left much to be desired. Lane Kim was an Asian girl with rock n roll dreams who had an extremely fraught relationship with her mother and had to fight for even a semblance of independence. And I hate to say it but a lot of daughters of Asian households are forced to hide a part of themselves from their families, so Lane's story was authentic.

Not only was Lane amazing as an individual, she was also a great friend. She was the only one who was really in Rory's corner; she never judged her and supported all of Rory's relationships (my favourite example of this is when she barely tolerated Jess in S2/3 and then did a complete 180 like 5 episodes later, all because Rory decided to finally accept she liked him). Lane never pointed out what Rory was doing wrong not because she was afraid of doing so but because the two of them had been friends for years and Lane believed that Rory would figure it out one day. Lane shows this unconditional kindness not only to Rory but to everyone. She takes in her Korean cousin and teaches her to have fun even when she's afraid that Mrs Kim has replaced her, she lets Gil be in the band because she empathises with him, she takes care of the band and prevents it from breaking up multiple times. And these are only a few examples of Lane being the kindest character on GG.

One of the best things in Gilmore Girls is that the most unproblematic, amazing guy is given to Lane. Dave Rygalski is the best love interest on the show hands down (Sorry to my boy Jess but Dave was LEAGUES ahead of him at 17) and Lane definitely deserved someone like that. Their story was adorable and I would have loved for them to be endgame. However, what grates me is that when I see people talking about Lane "deserving better," it's usually about Dave vs Zach. When Lane actually deserved better as a WHOLE and not only in terms of love interests. I always thought it made more sense for her to end up alone at the end of the og series. Because Lane was a person who craved independence and she was not going to get that while tied to some guy (even if that guy is boyfriend extraordinaire, Dave Rygalski). It's even worse when we see that Lane is the only female character on the show to be treated this way. Rory rejects marriage for her career while Lane ends up with marriage as her storyline. Lorelai and Luke get back together but their relationship is still left open ended, though arguably it would've made more sense if they got married when Lane and Zach did. Paris gets into Harvard Medical school and gets a great relationship, similarly Sookie gets the family she wanted and continues to be amazing at her job. But Lane... god Lane is the only one without an open ending, without any space for speculation of where her life might lead her. Not only did they marry her off, they also gave her a terrible first time and twins, effectively locking her to Stars Hollow. The show even cut down all hope of her being a rock n roll mom as one of her S7 storylines is choosing the kids over going on tour with Zach. She doesn't get to be her own person for more than ONE season; she's stuck with being a daughter and then a wife and then a mother.

Something else that angers me about Lane's storyline is that we never really get to see how badly her relationship with her mom affects her. Don't get me wrong, I adore Mrs Kim's redemption arc and I think it was beautifully juxtaposed to Lorelai and Rory's crumbling relationship, but having a mother like that is hard. Not only did Lane have to hide 90% of her personality from Mrs Kim but she also lived with the fact that one day she might have to choose between her dreams and her mother. In the end, Mrs Kim makes that choice for her and deals with it by kicking Lane out in S4, and yet we never really see how that negatively affects Lane. Hell, Jess acts like a broody teen for two seasons, Rory wastes six months of her life away at the DAR and they both come out of it successfully. Lane gets kicked out, figures out her own living conditions, gets a job, works insanely hard for her band and... ends up having to give her dreams up completely.

Lane and Paris shared a lot of similarities too, even if they both had different friendships with Rory. They both came from terrible families and looked to Lorelai as a mother figure, they both cared deeply for Rory, and they were both incredibly passionate about their careers. Paris made calendars and flashcards and went crazy studying for both pre med and pre law. Lane was a walking, talking music encyclopaedia, she bought CDs obsessively and organised them by genre under her floorboards, she taught herself to play the drums and then found a band to play for. And yet... only Paris becomes successful in the end, whereas Lane takes over Kim's antiques. Lane was still a musician in AYITL and she can be rock n roll even with kids but this is all hypothetical and we never see it on the show.

There is a lot of terrible, lazy writing on the show and a lot of characters get ruined because of it but with Lane, her character stays the same, they just ruin everything else for her. I think she'll be an amazing mom and will probably make her best out of doing music casually. But the writers also took something so special and destroyed it just because Lane stopped being as important to the plot as she was in seasons 1-3. Lane and Rory drifting a little after Rory leaves for Yale makes perfect sense, that's just how relationships are, always changing. And yet as Lane's importance to Rory decreased so did her importance to the writers.

Lane wasn't the kind of character that needed character development or a redeeming character arc- she was never a bad person and nothing about her had to be fixed, unlike Jess or even Paris. All she really needed was for her dreams to come true because for the first 4 seasons her dreams were the biggest fixture of her personality. Like how Jess needed to overcome his trauma and Rory needed to figure out where she fit in and Paris needed to become a girlboss, Lane needed to realise her dreams because that's where her arc was leading her. But it just didn't happen. Instead, Lane becomes 2-dimensional; a large part of her screentime is taken up by Zach problems, her dreams fall flat and she becomes tied to Stars Hollow for the rest of her life. Not to mention we see less of Lane in favour of Logan and the dickhead posse.

This is not me hating on all the other characters I've mentioned in this meta, I'm just pointing out the lack of respect the writers have for Lane in comparison to all these other people who fulfilled the role they were made for. Why would you write Lane to have all these dreams and make her struggle so hard for 4 seasons just to smash them to pieces? And why is it that one of the only POC characters on this show is treated like this?

And you can't tell me the writers didn't know what they were doing, not when this is a direct quote from Lane in S7:

"It was such a small window -- a peephole, really. For years, I was this repressed kid, and then there was the briefest of windows. And then -- slam. All of a sudden, I'm this overburdened mother. I barely got to do it, Zach. I barely got the chance to be a person."

[wildflowers-of-trolberg]

The Hilda Novels, Revisited

I didn't plan on making this. Anyone who's read my previous post on this subject will know that I didn't have a good time with the first three of the Hilda tie-in novels, and they put me off reading the Season 2 tie-ins. But, eventually, I couldn't help myself; I have now read all 6 books, and I wanted to go back in light of that and put all of my thoughts in one place.

So, I'm going to re-cover my thoughts on the first three books, and go over my opinions on the second set and what changed between them. I still have plenty I want to say, and a lot of it is still very negative, so a warning in advance; I am still not a big fan of this series.

Just to recap, Hilda as a franchise has three separate canons. The series started with the Graphic Novels, written by Luke Pearson, which were then adapted into the Netflix show; Nobrow/Flying Eye Books (the publishing company behind Hilda) then released a series of chapter books written by Stephen Davies, which re-adapt the events of the show. Each one takes a few episodes and combines them into a single plotline, moving things around and changing them as necessary, and these books form their own canon.

If I had to give my thoughts in a single word, after the Season 1 tie-ins, it would have been "mean-spirited". Now, though, it's "inconsistent". I'm going to break my thoughts on them down by topic, just to make this more coherent. So, to start with:

The Art:

I'm starting with this because it's the easiest thing to talk about. In a word, the art in this series is inconsistent; the quality varies from book-to-book, and the illustrations often don't match up well with the text. It feels almost like the artists were given a brief description of the plot, rather than the final thing, to work from.

The Season 1 books are illustrated by Seaerra Miller (the artist behind Mason Mooney), and while I don't want to knock her in general, when I'd finished them I really hated her work for this series. In hindsight, though, I've softened on the art in Hilda and the Hidden People. It has a distinct style that reminds me a little of the cover art to The Wilderness Stories, and I actually think it works; my favourite piece of art in the entire tie-in series is in this book:

That being said, her art for The Great Parade and The Nowhere Space really suffers in comparison (part of me wonders if she was asked to stick closer to the show's style); this is where we got Trev and the Boys (my least favourite illustration in the whole series) and the infamous image of Twig:

The art in these two doesn't help the general weirdness of the tie-in series; it's just not great, unfortunately, and it further suffers in the paperbacks I think. Miller's art was definitely done with the yellow colours of the hardback books in mind, while the paperbacks, which are pure greyscale, tend to look even worse. Thankfully, this is something the second set actually fixed - the art for the S2 books is done by Sapo Lendário (who are apparently a duo and not one person), and is much closer to the show, although it still suffers from inconsistency with the text (Johanna falls off a cliff at one point in the narrative but doesn't in the art) it does look quite a bit better:

EDIT: @remked pointed out to me that actually, Sapo Lendário only did Books 5 and 6; Book 4 (including the illustration above) was illustrated by Victoria Evans, who is a character designer on the show. I honestly didn't notice; either way the art for the Season 2 set is consistently good if not always consistent with the text.

The Story

Technically the writing in the series is fine; it's a little clunky in places, and definitely meant for kids, but it's fine to read. But the tie-in series in general just feels a lot stranger than the series. There are a lot of moments that just come out of nowhere, and bits of weird writing that just jar with each other or with the show.

The biggest example for me is still the three trials Hilda has to go through to see the Elf Prime Minister in Hilda and the Hidden People; he lives in a magical 'headquarters', guarded by three magical trials of which the rabbit cavalry charge is one. This is despite the fact that he's a bureaucrat who runs a country and presumably has to get to work with his staff every morning (and needs his army for things other than just testing the courage of anyone who wants to see him).

There's moments like this throughout the series; the forest giant who keeps Hilda captive tries to rap at the Woodman, Victoria van Gale's assistant gets named Moss Head Fred, the Bellkeeper is just, weirdly verbose at all times, and Tildy and the woman who Mr Ostenfield danced with have been split into two separate characters (both still named Matilda):

(for reference, this is Matilda Pilqvist, while the Tildy we know is Mr Ostenfeld's partner).

The first season books are worse for this kind of stuff than the second, which do feel more Hilda; I know both are almost certainly based on early show scripts (this is normal for tie-ins like this, to make sure they're released on time, and there are a few hints like Kaisa having green hair in Hilda and the Great Parade, which is a thing in her original concept art), so it's possible the S2 scripts were more complete when Davies got them, or it's possible he was just kept on a tighter leash this time by the publishers, but there is an additional point on that that I want to come back to.

The thing is, the weird moments and inconsistencies weren't really what got to me about the first set of books; I could have stomached all of that and the janky artwork if it wasn't for just how mean-spirited the first three novels are towards Hilda. Some of this is character related, and I'll come back to that when we get to that section, but fundamentally it just felt like this series was written by someone who didn't like or understand Hilda as a character.

The whole world feels like it's against her in these novels, and it's at its worst in Hilda and the Nowhere Space and especially Hilda and the Great Parade. Trevor isn't just a kinda-mean kid, he's explicitly the class bully and tries to drown the Raven purely out of spite; David and Frida actively cut Hilda out of their lives after their first adventure (which in this timeline is The Lost Clan); and her entire class at school and every authority figure she comes across seems to just hate or want to make fun of her.

Raven Leader is a pretty big example of this, but by far the worst is Ms. Hallgrim and the entire adaptation of The Troll Rock in Great Parade. Ms. Hallgrim is introduced sending Hilda out of her class for not listening, and for making a noise while she's talking, while the entire rest of the class is openly laughing at Hilda and she is visibly hurt. Ms. Hallgrim makes no attempt to stop them from mocking her, and she doesn't get angry with them for being disruptive, but she outright shouts at Hilda.

But the moment it really crosses a line is the 'Wonderful Trolberg Exhibition', which is what the novels call the parents evening where David brings in a troll rock. Due to the reshuffled plotline, Hilda is in the middle of trying to rescue Raven (Trevor has him caged as his exhibit) when the projector gets knocked over, and like in the show Ms. Hallgrim blames her. But in this version, Hilda tries to explain that she got up free the Great Raven, and this causes the entire room including the parents, to start openly mocking her.

For her part, Ms. Hallgrim's response is to scream at Hilda about how wrong she is. She doesn't ask to speak with Hilda and her mother afterwards, or take them aside to discuss her behaviour while the mess is cleaned up; she has a legitimate reason to think Hilda knocked the projector over, but it in no way justifies her screaming at a ten-year-old child who is already visibly crying by this point because grown adults with kids of their own are jeering and laughing at her.

It's genuinely upsetting to read, and it's not the only moment like this, but the other big ones will be talked about in the characters section, because they concern Johanna.

Thankfully, the Season 2 books largely tone this down. Partially, I think it's just that Hilda has fewer conflicts with other humans and especially authority figures in Season 2, but it also comes back to how I think Stephen Davies might have been kept on a tighter leash this time; Erik Ahlberg, an authority figure who is meant to be awful and who Hilda is meant to butt up against, is pretty much his show self and thus somehow significantly more likeable than Hilda's teacher and scout leader.

This new, lighter tone is more in line with the show, but unfortunately the Season 2 books also have a new, major issue in my opinion, and that's that the pacing is just bad a lot of the time. This is kind-of present in Hilda and the Nowhere Space, which adapts the most episodes of any book in the series at six (The Sparrow Scouts, The Nightmare Spirit, The House in the Woods, The Nisse, and The Black Hound), but that mostly gets away with it just by cutting out a lot from the subplots and turning The Sparrow Scouts into a brief flashback. Hilda still has a very eventful couple of days, but it just about works for me.

The same can't be said for Hilda and the Time Worm and especially Hilda and the Ghost Ship. They have fewer episodes to adapt, at five (including a fairly clumsy flashback-explanation of The Storm) and four respectively, but The Ghost Ship especially just tries to cover far too much ground from those four episodes. The result is everything happens at a breakneck pace, and none of the plotlines have enough room to breathe.

The Witch is reduced to one scene where Hilda and Frida wander into the Witches Tower, and meet Kaisa at the door to Tildy's maze, where she hastily explains everything; they rush in and fight the Triffid (the plant), and Frida realising the sword is a key is enough for Kaisa to decide she's witch material and promise to get Tildy to train her. The entire rest of the episode, completely ignoring Kaisa's arc, is dumped later as a brief explanation to David.

And The Draugen, the episode the book is supposed to be about, gets two. Abigail just gives up after she loses the race back to shore, and the entire thing becomes a pointless detour that gets breezed through without amounting to anything. The actual load-bearing episode of the book is The Windmill, which is handled alright despite some weirdness surrounding Moss Head Fred and the nuance of Victoria's character being completely absent.

This is actually the additional factor I wanted to mention about why the Season 2 books might be less weird; according to an interview I read with Stephen Davies, the bizarre elf trials were added to Hilda and the Hidden People to fill a story that otherwise wasn't novel-length. I suspect as a result that these newer books have fewer strange moments because there was so much story already crammed-in that Davies didn't need to expand on things in his signature way.

The pacing is better in Hilda and the White Woff, which has less ground to cover and also blends things more organically (and guts The Deerfox to fit it in in a way that loses all of its emotional meaning but does actually make it fit the narrative - the flashbacks from it are now the story that scares David in The Eternal Warriors). The White Woff also does something else that I really like, more than the show even, but I'll explain that in the character section because again it relates to Johanna.

And it's not the only time this happens in the Season 2 novels; Hilda and the Time Worm suffers from the same awful pacing as The Ghost Ship, and nothing is really given the emotional weight it needs, but it also handles the plot of The Fifty Year Night in a way that doesn't stretch too far outside of the show's tone, which I think the episode does.

I've explained my issues with The Fifty Year Night before, but fundamentally it comes down to two things. I don't think Johanna's nearly as sympathetic as the show wants her to be (she's fundamentally the one at-fault in the whole Season 2 change to her and Hilda's relationship, and as much as they do show it hurts her too, in this very episode, it doesn't work as well as it should for me and it doesn't justify her mistakes), and I knew the novels were never going to fix that. But I also think the episode just goes to places that are too dark and distressing for Hilda, specifically with how the Time Worm is revealed and the deaths it causes.

And it's here that the novels are actually, genuinely better. The plotline doesn't carry the same emotional weight about the could-have-been of Ostenfeld and Tildy's relationship, and it doesn't really explain how the magazines work or that destroying them fixes things. But it does make two big changes that I like.

There are no child deaths in the book; by the time the Time Worm arrives, Hilda prime is the only Hilda still in the past (she waits and watches the dancing while the other Hildas from her previous trips - she makes one more than in the episode - go back to the present, and there is no "bad future Hilda" to sacrifice herself). And while the Worm does try and delete the various Mr Ostenfelds, they aren't alive when it does.

Changing the past causes all of the alternate versions of him, except the most recent, to just break as their timeline is erased. They just all freeze, stuck repeating the last thing they said like a skipping DVD, because they aren't real anymore; they're just shades left in time. And it's a moment that manages to be creepy and make it clear that changing the past was wrong, without forcing the reader to see Mr Ostenfeld screaming in blind terror as he's lifted up, still struggling while being devoured. It's just far less awful than the episode.

And finally, when Hilda makes it back to the present and meets the version of Mr Ostenfeld that married Tildy, Mr Ostenfeld prime is there too. He also escapes the Time Worm like Hilda does, and stays with her while his alternate self sacrifices his life.

Instead of just being cast aside for Hilda's development, he gets his own arc where he actually gets to move on from the past and accept that he missed his chance. It's a surprisingly heartfelt moment for a novel series where such things often ring hollow, and it ends with him genuinely comforting Hilda too. I would actually argue that he's closer to Hilda than the Bellkeeper is in this version.

But it doesn't make up for everything else; I wish some bits of that plot had been merged into the show's version, but I still can't call the book good, and I haven't even got into my real biggest problem with the tie-ins yet.

The Characters

Fundamentally, the characters are what ruined the first three books for me. That mean-spirited tone carried over directly to them, and I still really hate a significant chunk of the novels' recurring cast as a result. But the Season 2 books did make some big changes, and it would be remiss of me not to mention them.

I will briefly mention Alfur and Tontu, but only to say neither of them really get that much depth in the novels. Tontu invites himself into Johanna and Hilda's life at the end of Hilda and the Nowhere Space, but otherwise he's pretty much the same as in the show just, a little flatter. Alfur suffers more from flanderisation, and we don't get The Replacement or anything similar, or honestly that much of a sense of his bond with Hilda, even in the S2 books. So, with them out of the way:

I know some people think Novel Hilda acts out more and is less nice than her show counterpart, and I have mixed opinions on that. The only time I really think that rings true is during one moment when she gets upset with Alfur in Hilda and the Hidden People; her relationship with her mum is worse, and that affects a lot, but that's absolutely on Johanna in the novels. There is also the beginning of Hilda and the White Woff, where she is a little more like her comic self in that she lies to her mum to go camping in the wilderness alone, but it's actually handled pretty well and it's something I could see Show Hilda doing (more on that later).

The biggest difference for me is actually that Novel Hilda is more emotional; she's very avoidant of confrontation, and she's brought to tears by things that would make her counterparts angry. She has a lot stacked against her, and it gets to her in ways that it doesn't in the show or the Graphic Novels.

Which brings us on nicely to David and Frida. In the Season 1 novels, they are absolutely bad friends; the first adventure they share in this canon is The Hidden People, and, far from enjoying it, both Frida and David hate Hilda for dragging them into it and cut her out of their lives. The thing is, it's not wrong that Hilda convinced them to go near the wall when they didn't want to, but it doesn't really read as her being pushy or manipulative; they really don't take much convincing. And besides, she had no idea about the Bragga Clan (most of the reason Frida and David don't want to go is it's a long way away), so it all just reads as them being far too harsh on her.

There is ultimately a reconciliation, and David does apologise, but Frida never does. And this attitude continues into the next book, where David and especially Frida just get upset with Hilda for ruining their badge attempts, even when it's not her fault. David does eventually get one good moment, where he stands up to the marra giving him and Hilda nightmares, but it's offset by everything else, and by him being given Johanna's lines about how nisse can't be trusted. Since he never welcomes a nisse into his life, he never has any development about that.

Frida, meanwhile, is just consistently cold with Hilda; it feels like she wants Hilda to be her friend, but isn't really willing to be Hilda's friend in turn. Her last real moment of characterisation in the Season 1 tie-ins is her giving Hilda the cold shoulder for keeping her awake at night (to catch the marra), and that's it. Genuinely, Novel Hilda deserved better friends, which is why I'm glad to say the Season 2 novels actually fixed this.

It's not really done with any development (which is weird, because there's a way it could have been if the order of events was changed - David's standing up to the marra does give some continuity for him becoming a better friend), but Hilda and the Time Worm adapts Operation Deerfox Thunder Team straight and pretty drastically rerails the characters in the process, complete with Frida and David immediately jumping to help Hilda.

In fact, there's a moment in that book that doesn't happen in the show (and genuinely couldn't exist in the show), where Novel Johanna is talking about how Hilda is a bad daughter in her usual way, and David immediately jumps to her defence. It's a moment that I really love; it doesn't address things on any serious level, but I think it's the only time Johanna's awfulness doesn't go ignored and it's very much David at his full show self.

Frida is also better in this book; I was worried at the start of Hilda and the Ghost Ship that that hadn't stuck, because she is pretty mean to David behind his back at the beginning in a way that reminded me a lot of how she was with Hilda in the first season novels. But since this novel adapts The Windmill, it is sort-of addressed. Hilda is the one that apologises at the end, but she does earnestly apologise for both of them, so I'm iffy on it but it's not the worst thing.

It's also helped by The Eternal Warriors happening at the start of Hilda and the White Woff, immediately afterwards; the whole thing is again a bit brief, but the reassurance from both Hilda and Frida that they like David the way he is does get given, so all in all it's fine. By the end of the Season 2 books I like David a lot, even if I feel like his growth could've been handled better, and I think Frida's okay.

And that just leaves one more major character, the one I know a lot of people will have been waiting for me to discuss:

(I both love and hate this image because it just perfectly sums up their relationship in the majority of the novels)

Novel Johanna is still my least favourite character in the whole franchise; more than Show Erik, or the Committee of Three, or Trylla, or the Time Worm, I genuinely hate her. But there is a "but" there now, because the Season 2 books did something I never expected them to do.

I've said before that I don't think Stephen Davies went into this to write Johanna as an awful person; I think the intention is that she's the struggling mother of an often-difficult child. But that just isn't what's portrayed; in every book except Hilda and the White Woff, Novel Johanna is genuinely emotionally abusive.

The first time I read Hilda and the Hidden People, the one thing that stuck with me more than anything else was how Johanna handles the move. I went into the book aware that Johanna was a worse parent in the novels; I'd seen bits of Hilda and the Nowhere Space, and we will come back to that, but that first book got to me in a way I wasn't quite expecting.

Because the only word I have for the way Novel Johanna handles it is insidious. Hilda accuses her of wanting to move, of just using the elves as an excuse for existing plans, and the way it's handled makes me think that she's right. Novel Johanna is committed to it from the start, and instead of being honest with Hilda, she lies to her daughter's face about it.

When they first visit the city, Johanna tells Hilda it's just to look around, in a way that's blatantly a lie; she actually wants to choose their new home and get Hilda ready for school and everything. It's not like in the show, where she's transparent about what she's considering and doesn't commit to anything for Hilda's sake. And when Hilda calls her out on this, and is understandably upset as a young child having her life ripped out from under her, her mum doesn't try and comfort her or get her to see that the city isn't so bad. Show Johanna deeply understands that the move is going to hurt Hilda; Novel Johanna makes it about herself.

And that's the lynchpin that pushes Johanna into abusive in these novels for me. She has a daughter who she didn't talk to about this (the first time it comes up, she immediately shuts down any discussion), who is upset because she might be about to lose everything she's ever known, and all she says is "please don't be difficult". It genuinely reads as manipulative and it's awful, and what gets me is Hilda ultimately accepts it.

In the moment when she falls off Illus (Jorgen's partner), she's momentarily sure she's going to die, and all she can think about is how bad of a daughter, how mean she's been to her mum, when really Johanna is the one who hurt her. There's even a moment in Trolberg that I'd forgotten until I reread this for this, where Hilda's reaction to the bells of the city genuinely seems uncomfortably close to a sensory overload, and Johanna doesn't even notice (it's right before more of her being determined to move).

And Johanna not caring is the theme in Hilda and the Great Parade. She doesn't even try and help Hilda adjust (there's one fond moment where Hilda complains over-dramatically about the city and her mum just hugs her and goes "oh you poor thing" sarcastically - it's a genuinely fond moment, but as the only moment where this is addressed, it rankled me), but the real problems emerge once Hilda gets rejected by David and Frida.

Novel Johanna hugs her when she cries about that, and about how much she hates the city and everything, but all she says to comfort her is that Frida and David's exhibit for the Wonderful Trolberg Exhibition probably sucks; it's not abuse here, but it's just not enough to make up for everything so far.

And then it comes out that Johanna put the Raven out; in this version, she's tricked into giving him to Trevor, who then tries to use him as his exhibit. And obviously Johanna didn't know that the raven was the Great Raven, or that Trevor is a bully, but she just doesn't care even after she finds out those things. In the show, Johanna apologises for putting the Raven out and does everything to help Hilda get him back, even though it's not fully her fault, but in the books she just sits there; there's even a moment where Hilda actually is upset with her for this, and the implicit message of the narrative in that moment is that Hilda is the one being unfair.

This leads straight into that scene I mentioned already from The Troll Rock. Johanna could have prevented it in the first place, just by telling Ms. Hallgrim that Trevor stole the Raven from her, but she doesn't; and when Hilda tries to get him back herself, and the projector is destroyed and the entire room of adults starts mocking Hilda, Johanna just glares at her, and then asks if she's feeling sick because of how she's acting. She's completely okay with her child being screamed at to the point of tears (and in the 3rd book, we see why), she has no moment of talking to Hilda's teacher, and the most Hilda is able to get her to do is to pass a note to Frida, which she does reluctantly.

She does get a bonding moment with Hilda on the wall at the end, overlooking the parade, but it's not earned and with the bad taste everything else leaves in my mouth it is unfortunately easy to read in a negative light too. Because there's still no moment of Johanna being sorry that they had to move or accepting that Hilda misses the wilderness, but there is a moment where Johanna hugs her close, after Hilda finally admits the city is nice. On its own, it would be a fine little moment, and even in the worst interpretation I don't think Johanna could be seen as malicious here, but with what we've seen of her it just gets to me that they don't get the bonding moment until Hilda caves.

And then comes Hilda and the Nowhere Space, and it all gets so much worse again. Because in this version, the reason Hilda even joined the Sparrow Scouts is because Johanna "loved the idea of Hilda following in her footsteps." Not because she thought it was good for Hilda, but because she wanted Hilda to be like her, and it's clear in this novel that Hilda doesn't actually enjoy it; she struggles with organised activity and Raven Leader doesn't like her, but she doesn't have a choice.

And all Johanna asks her is about badges; never about how fun it was, or how she's feeling, just if she's gotten any badges yet. The pressure she puts on her daughter is far worse than in the show, and feels uncomfortably deliberate, all while Hilda ends up tying her own sense of self-worth to scouting badges.

And when it all comes out, when Hilda sits there at the badge ceremony and gets nothing, Johanna comes and sits next to her, and berates her to the point of tears. It's another genuinely, deeply upsetting moment, and again the whole thing from start to finish reads as emotional abuse. Johanna does love Hilda, I don't doubt that, but she wants a Hilda who's just like her, and isn't willing to accept her daughter is her own person.

She does apologise for this, but it's just not good enough; because it's not an apology. It's "please forgive me. I was horrible to you" - it puts the onus on Hilda to forgive, not on her mum, and it doesn't even mention the months of pressure that came before. Show Johanna apologised just because her excitement made Hilda feel bad, but Novel Johanna doesn't care.

So I wasn't looking forwards to seeing how the novels handled The Fifty Year Night, where I think Johanna is already unreasonably harsh and not listening when she should be. And, unfortunately, I was right to be worried; in this version of the plotline, Johanna actually has more legitimate reason to be upset (she grounds Hilda for the sabotage from The Old Bells, which is an actual crime, even if it was justified). But the phrasing she uses is just as awful and manipulative as it was in Hilda and the Hidden People. Specifically, she accuses Hilda of lying specifically, knowingly to hurt her mum.

The reconciliation for this really doesn't work, either, because there kind-of isn't one; The Fifty Year Night leads straight into The Yule Lads, and the next time Hilda and her mum interact is Sonstansil (the gift-giving happens in the flat because Hilda is still grounded), and the whole book ends with Hilda being grounded for two more weeks.

In Hilda and the Ghost Ship, Johanna barely appears, but her only real moment isn't a great one. The climaxes of The Beast of Cauldron Island and The Windmill happen on the same day, and Hilda and Frida stop by Hilda's flat on their way to the windmill to save David, so that they can grab Tontu; Hilda lies to her mum to get away, but before she does, Johanna says that if she behaved like Hilda (specifically, explicitly, running off on adventures), her parents would have done something else.

She gets cut off at "would have", which suggests to me that it's more than just grounding her or being harsh; I genuinely think the implication is that Johanna's parents were abusive towards her. And I think that's already loosely implied in all canons, that she's at least somehow estranged from them, but it is a sad detail to me that if it is what the creators want to imply, then the thing that separates Novel Johanna from her counterparts is that she fell into the same pattern of abuse that her parents taught her.

And that's the thing; this whole thing is a pattern, where Johanna so often wants a perfect little copy of her and is willing to resort to genuine abuse to try and keep Hilda in that box. She loves her daughter, I don't deny that, but that's the thing; abusers do care about their victims.

I know it's not what Stephen Davies or Nobrow/Flying Eye Books intended, and it does rely on reading some neutral moments (like the end of the Great Parade) in a very negative light, but when there's so many moments that are just legitimately awful without needing to be specifically interpreted negatively, and that go almost completely unaddressed, I can't escape the conclusion. Novel Johanna is an abusive parent, and it's genuinely upsetting.

But there is that one "but" I mentioned, and that's the final book so far, Hilda and the White Woff. I genuinely don't know what happened here, but somehow it went the exact opposite way to the rest of the series. I was fully expecting the argument at the start of The Stone Forest to be so much more awful in a canon where Johanna is consistently harsh and likes to guilt-trip her own child, but that's not what we get.

I'm not going to go into too much detail here, because I think I've mentioned it enough times already, but I don't like the way Season 2 of the show handles Hilda and Johanna's relationship. And fundamentally, that's because it's Johanna's fault that Hilda stops telling her things. Hilda doesn't like hiding things, but she feels like she has to, because her mum has started getting upset with her adventures. She's become overprotective, and lost her daughter's trust, but the show wants her to be the one in the right anway.

So I'm really not a fan of how The Stone Forest goes in the show; I don't think it adapted well from the comics (where Johanna is consistently not great but not abusive), I don't like the parallels it tries to draw, and I don't think the reconciliation at the end was good enough because Johanna makes no apologies (besides for losing the guide, which is a great moment on its own but doesn't resolve things) or promises to be different herself. It's all on Hilda.

So I was very pleasantly surprised when the novels somehow fixed a lot of my problems with this arc. Because Novel Johanna in Hilda and the White Woff isn't the same as the Novel Johanna we've seen so far; the argument that kicks things off is worse (it's about on the level with the argument from the end of Cauldron Island) but here Johanna feels more justified because Hilda went camping out in the wilderness overnight without telling her (this actually leads to The Eternal Warriors in this version).

Now, that feels a little far for Hilda normally (outside of the comics), but I could see her doing it to help a friend (in this case, Frida) so I don't begrudge it. It also makes it feel less like Hilda's hiding what she normally does because she now has to, and more like a moment where she genuinely goes too far. It also does help that this series didn't start off with the relationship between Hilda and Johanna amazing, and then awkwardly retcon it to be worse; in the grand scheme of things, Johanna's actions in this book absolutely do not make up for how awful she is in the rest of them, but the inconsistency makes it feel less like the unsatisfying ending to a season-long plotline and more like its own isolated thing where the conflict starts and ends within this book. And in that way, it's nice to have a book where Johanna is actually a good parent.

And then the ending comes, and we get the conversation in Hilda's bedroom. And it's genuinely what I wish this interaction had been in the show; there isn't too much added, but Johanna does more than just say she doesn't wish Hilda was different, she also explicitly tells her she doesn't need to be better, and that she's not bad; she's proud of her daughter for being the way she is. If this had been the way the Hilda and Johanna falling-out arc ended in canon, I still wouldn't have been a massive fan (because of how it starts) but I might not have been so desperate to fix it myself.

Above all else, that just leaves me reeling; my only guess is that the major mother/daugher interactions in this book are lifted directly from earlier scripts (because they do contain a lot of the final lines too), because somehow, in the last tie-in, Johanna feels more like herself than she felt in half of Season 2. And I'm sorry, because it does feel bad to knock him, but I really doubt that's Stephen Davies' doing.

Either way, that leaves me with a weird conclusion, which is if you're going to read any of the novels, read Hilda and the White Woff and then ignore all the others; it's better standing alone. It does miss some of the strongest emotional beats that the show puts in The Stone Forest and The Eternal Warriors, but it makes up for it in my eyes by making the emotional moments it does keep genuinely better. I don't think any of the others are worth reading, and overall I still hate Novel Johanna as she's normally written, but somehow, out of all of that awfulness, there was one good thing that came of it

And of course, this is all my opinion, so please don't feel bad if you feel differently.

[beepboop358]

Anti-Byler Argument Refuttals

Although I discussed all of this in my Byler Proof master slides post, I wanted to do a separate post specifically just refutting the most common anti-byler arguments.

1. "Mike and El's relationship is too developed" and "They have been through too much together to break up now!"

This is probably the thing I hear the most when people argue that Byler will never happen. The weirdest part of this argument is that people assume that they will never drift apart, and that they will never ever break up, as if we didn't just see them drift apart, break up, and not officially get back together in S3? Yes, they have both been through a significant amount of trauma, but their relationship is not as developed as people think it is, they barely even know each other really. They spent a week together in S1, then El was gone for a year. Mike and El don't reunite until the very end of S2, probably a few days after halloween. If we work out the timeline between Halloween of 1984 and July 4th of 1985 in S3, that's 246 days, so it's actually less than a full year they have spent together, getting to know each other.

The “development” people argue that Mike and El have just doesn't stand up. Mike and El do not have intimate conversations, their conversations are incredibly awkward, and they just kiss frequently in the beginning of S3 before they break up. That's not development. Hopper even refers to their constant kissing as "not normal and not healthy." Mike couldn't tell El he loves her to her face, which is a parallel to the failed relationship of Stancy where Nancy couldn't tell Steve she loved him, and we later find out it's because she doesn't, which all happens during the blank makes you crazy scene that is extremely similar to Robin's coming out scene. And yes, Mike and El have endured a lot of trauma together, but so has the rest of the group and people don't seem to use this argument the same way with the other couples, or between the friendships. History doesn't determine the future if there's no feelings involved, things can always change. This is idea of staying in a relationship where there is no real love but there is history/benefits is hinted at in S3 when Mike dresses almost identically to both of his parents.

2. "Look at how much Mike cares for El! They're in love!"

No, they're not, and how they treat each other proves that they're not. I firmly believe neither Mike nor El is seriously, romantically in love with each other.

If Mike was really deeply, romantically in love with El, why did he treat her like he did in S3? If he really cares about her that much, why did he wait for Lucas to guide him at all times in matters regarding his relationship with El, instead of just taking initiative, but he does take initiative with Will? Why can't her apologize to her? Why wasn't Mike more upset about El dumping him? Why couldn't he tell El he loves her to her face? Why did he consistently lie to her throughout the whole show? Why did he stop calling her in S2? Why did he give up and say she was dead, but never gave up on Will? Why did he scream in her face in S1? And no - it isn't because he's just shy or awkward. Mike doesn't act like he is truly in love with El because he isn't. He is projecting his feelings for Will onto El, and he is deeply in denial about his sexuality due to his internalized homophobia and hasn't fully processed how he feels about Will throughout the series (up until the ending of S3). And why does Mike have such an odd reaction to El saying she loves him if he does love her? If he loves her that should be exactly what he wants to hear, so why does he look so confused and scared? And why doesn't he just say it back right then?

El isn't seriously, romantically in love with Mike. They meet in S1, and he immediately takes her in, saving her life. He looks out for her, and actually cares if she is okay, and no one has ever done that for her before. El was abused her whole childhood until Mike lets her live in his basement. He was the first person to treat her like a human being, and show her compassion, which she has never experienced before. It makes total sense that she would cling to their relationship like a security blanket. Mike is an emotional attachment for El. He makes her feel safe, because of how he saved her life previously. El has very limited knowledge of love, life, friendship, relationships, and social behaviors since she was locked in a lab for over a decade of her life, she was never truly exposed to these concepts like the other kids in the party were. Everything El thinks she knows about love she learns from watching soap opera's alone in Hopper's cabin. Of course her perception of what romantic love is, is warped. If El was seriously romantically in love with Mike, why was their break-up no big deal to her? Why was she smiling, laughing and looking at pictures of boys with Max right after she supposedly dumped the love of her life? Why did she not seem even the slightest bit upset about it the entire season?

If they're both seriously in love, then why are their interactions so awkward to watch and why does it feel so unnatural and forced? Why don’t Mileven’s interactions feel romantic? The official released scripts on 8flix describe several Mileven scenes as "awkward". It's no coincidence that detail was included in the script.

3. "But they already have Robin"

I mean this comment basically means that sense the show already has one confirmed lgbtq+ character, there can't possibly be any others. What?! There isn't a "one gay character limit per TV show". This comment really bothers me because it reeks of homophobia. If you don't ship Byler that's fine, but refusing to even explore the possibility there could be more than one lgtbq+ character in a TV show just because one already exists? Yeah no. Queer people existed in the 80's, definitely more than just one, so capping out the amount of queer characters in the show is just icky.

Also, Robin was not originally written to be a gay character. It was decided during the filming process that Robin should be a lesbian, because Maya Hawke and Joe Keery were not getting romantic vibes between their characters. Just because the show introduced a new gay character in S3, it does not mean the queercoding of Will and Mike is erased to make room for Robin, and keep Mileven together. Making Robin a lesbian, does not cancel out Mike and Will being gay/liking each other, and the show's future plans for byler.

4. "Mike's not gay."

Does this seem straight to you?

Giving your girlfriend a drawing of your male best friend, that was drawn by him, but telling her it's your drawing so she'll hang it up on the wall you coincidentally face while you make out with her, to remind you of him.

Taking your girlfriends hands off of you while you're making out with her, and keeping your hands folded in your lap away from her.

Only being able to apologize to said male best friend and being more emotionally invested in that relationship than your relationship with your girlfriend.

Mike is the only other person besides Will pictured in close up shots with rainbow and fruit imagery.

Even the die-hard Mileven fans have to admit that's more than a little coincidental, and if we know anything about the Duffer brothers, it's that they love incorporating intricate details in their show to reveal things about the characters/plot.

If you want more examples, some images, or just a more in-depth analysis of byler throughout the series, I suggest you check out my Byler Proof master slides :)