#and their lack of chemistry

[aethersea]

I do think Blazing Saddles handled its one depiction of native americans very poorly, and the full extent of its representation of chinese workers on the railroad is they were literally just there. not even one single speaking line. unclear if this is worse or better than the redface.

it's fucking phenomenal at lampooning antiblack racism though. extremely blatant, extremely funny satire, which is constantly and loudly saying "racism is the philosophy of the terminally stupid at best and morally depraved at worst, and we should all be pointing and laughing at them 24/7"

plus the main character is a heroic black man who has to navigate a whole lot of bullshit but is constantly smirking at the extraordinarily stupid racists and inviting the audience into the joke. the one heroic white character is a guy who was suicidally depressed until he met the protagonist and they just instantly became buds, and he's firmly in a supporting role the whole time and happy to be there. the protagonist saves the day with the help of his black friends from the railroad, and uses the position of power he was given to uplift not only those friends, but all the railroad workers of other minorities too, in an explicit show of solidarity.

anyone saying "Blazing Saddles is racist" had better be talking about its treatment of non-black minorities. it had better not be such superficial takes as "oh but they say the n-word all the time" or "they have nazis and the kkk in there!" because goddamn if that's the full extent of your critique I very seriously suggest you read up on media analysis. there is too much going over your head, you need to learn to recognize satire.

[littlestarprincess]

Trying to finish the book before going into the tags but Marius is so dumb and the Cobra is so smart and I feel bad for them both but it's so funny.

[queerdiazs]

some of you forget that it was originally going to be eddie and tommy but that storyline fell through so for all you bitching about how we’re never going to have a canon queer eddie… baby he already is. we’re just waiting for his turn.

[kenneth-black]

And in this week’s episode of “Siblings or Dating” we have:

[maria-tries]

𝓦𝓗𝓐𝓣 𝓗𝓐𝓟𝓟𝓔𝓝𝓔𝓓 𝓣𝓞 𝓑𝓔𝓛𝓛𝓐 𝓖𝓞𝓣𝓗?

[drunkeddiediaz]

Just watched the episode.

Here are my thoughts: Eddie gay as hell, Buck and Eddie husbands, Tommy is a nothingburger. L*u still can’t act. Give Eddie a real dick to suck on.

and most importantly: #stoptorturingHENREN2024.

[mostlymobilegames]

The scene with Ava where they both reveal themselves to each other...

Yeah.........

[utilitycaster]

Do you think that Laura and Marisha are deliberately making their relationship somewhat toxic and unsustainable or do you think they see the relationship as healthy? It is just so different from all of the other relationships they have been a part of and not really in a good way. Would love to get your perspective on it if you have one

I am honestly unsure. I would like to say it's deliberate. Prior to it becoming canon, in fact, I, and a lot of other people who were less than enthused by Imogen and Laudna's romance and weren't entirely sold from the start, made the case that we expected they would be talking to each other and would put together a compelling story, not the dull fluff so common in fanon. While whether it's compelling is a subjective judgment, we know for a fact they didn't talk to each other. We know for a fact Marisha was surprised by the question of "Can I kiss you," and Laura was surprised by the answer. We know from a 4SD not long after (4SD #16, Kiss and Tell) that several episodes later they still hadn't talked. We know that Marisha perceives Laudna as holding Imogen back (and that Laudna perceives herself as doing so) from the Rose City Q&A. We know that from 4SD #20 (Episode Twenty) that Laura doesn't like conflict in narrative and Marisha does, and that Laura was thrown by Laudna's regression following Ashton's attempt to absorb the shard (4SD #19, Shard Candy).

I don't know if it's deliberate or not; I don't have any extra insight that isn't public knowledge any fan can easily access. But man, it doesn't feel like these are two actors on the same page about what's going on.

I've touched on this before but mostly in tags or whisper posts but I've always felt ill at ease with a number of for lack of a better term "fandom-approved opinions" and one of the ones that has baffled me the most is this idea that Marisha and Laura have exceptional chemistry. I watched Campaign 1 knowing the endgame ships but deliberately avoiding the fandom, and Vex and Keyleth did not even once occur to me as a thing. I watched the first year of Campaign 2 without a ton of fandom interaction because I was avoiding additional C1 spoilers and it seemed crystal clear that the obvious ship was Beau and Yasha; it felt like Beau and Jester only even had enough potential for me to multiship it as my general "whomever Jester picks" for like, 30 episodes. And yet people - people who didn't even ship either of the above ships and in some cases disliked them- would just say "oh man I can't wait until we get to a campaign where we can finally explore Marisha and Laura's incredible chemistry!" and it's like. I feel like I'm the kid in the Emperor's New Clothes on this! I understand that chemistry is to an extent a matter of taste and subjectivity, but it just increasingly feels like people looked at two campaigns of tables where Ashley was frequently absent and said "well, if I want an F/F ship that's between two of the women in the cast, I guess this is what I have to work with" and repeated to themselves that a flat pamplemousse La Croix was a Piña Colada until they started to believe it. I mean if someone wants to explain it to me in good faith I suppose be my guest and I will try to take it in, but it feels like people just treat this as incontrovertible fact and if you doubt it they're like "don't you have eyes" and it's like, well, pretend I don't. Explain like I'm eyeless and five because I have never understood this. They both have more chemistry with every single other cast member; it's not all romantic but man, I didn't even buy Laudna and Imogen as platonic best friends of two years. I have never had this problem with any other pre-existing character relationships Marisha and Laura have played, platonic or otherwise. It's literally just them. I just never feel like they're quite on the same page.

Back to the relationship between Imogen and Laudna onscreen, this was easily the best conversation since the start of the gnarlrock fight, and it is my hope it doesn't fizzle out the way that did. You can't keep kissing Laudna whenever she fears she's lost forever to Delilah, Imogen. Or you can, but that won't fix the problem. Again: are you disgusted? Do you feel betrayed? If you're not, why did you say that? If you are, how will you move past it? Do you want to be with someone who never feels like they're good enough for you? Laudna, do you want to be with someone who, no matter what they say, you feel you're holding back?

Early in the campaign, my feeling was that of our current situation, switched - Imogen felt her powers were a burden and a curse and Laudna kept referring to them and to her glowingly. It's just...ships passing in the night, no pun intended here. I hope it's on purpose and whatever comes from it is a good story - and either a tragedy or a happy story could be a good one. But I have a nagging sensation that Laudna wants out but is afraid to say no, and Imogen is afraid to let go, and I honestly don't know if the actors have realized this impasse and how the characters might resolve it, one way or another, besides the insufficient bandaid of a kiss whenever the conversation gets too uncomfortable.

[gideonisms]

Cursed with insane conversational skills with Dudes to the point they love me instantly. And it's because at heart I am a podcast guy but I look like a hot girl. which is a lethal combo for them

[doodlejoltik]

my favourite writing device is having an un-Rei-liable narrator

[stargirlfeyre]

Tamlin fans saying that they hope the show gets cancelled after season 1 so Rhys fans have to worry about everyone hating him…

Babes this is the same generation that grew up obsessed with Damon Salvatore and Klaus Mikaelson. Please get real with yourself.

[skateboard-theta]

if i can be so honest for a moment. the most compelling thing about Yorklina is that Carolina just fucking dropped him like nothing. i crack up. go girl he meant nothing to you. blandest hetero ship ever

[eddiegettingshot]

also i feel like buck was saying "i kind of can't stop thinking about him" but the episode actually showed us him acting insane over eddie's reaction the whole way through outside of those two (one and a half?) solo scenes with tommy

he spent the entire episode mostly thinking about eddie 😭 we didn’t actually get to see him telling maddie about tommy, only him agonizing over eddie

[dukeofthomas]

The peak Jason&Bruce dynamic is one where they both miss who the other used to be. Bruce wants his happy, beloved son back, and Jason wants his father back.

But Jason's death changed them both, and they can never be those people again. Forever haunted by the ghost of what once was and what could have been. There is so much love there but it doesn't change anything.

[wildlife4life]

No but like a friend just told me you know Buck is just Tommy’s getaway car cause he couldn’t get with Eddie so he goes for the best friend 😔 I’m like OMG no but like I feel like Tommy has my chemistry with Eddie because it was supposed to be Eddie x Tommy and they changed because they didn’t want another off screen break up and I feel like maybe they did the chemistry test and Lou didn’t do it with Oliver cause idk Tommy I want to like him but idk if is the script or the acting that is not helping also I’m not forgiving him for almost outing Buck to Eddie like you don’t do that at all

AH! Tommy's getaway car, I love it! Great analogy anon!

If I read correctly (I take all interviews with a grain of salt), the change was most like due to not being able to get Natalia's actress back actually, but yes also, they didn't want to do two off screen break ups.

But as previously answered, I agree that the chemistry read was done with Ryan and not Oliver cus the romantic chemistry is very off between the two. (And Oliver makes kissing anyone hot, boy knows how to work those lips and body).

I agree anon. Not happy with the closet joke, but its in the past now and the cracks have already started to reveal themselves with the very limited scenes buck and tommy have together. Not mention everything bucktommy so far is linked back to Eddie in some way....

[thepunkmuppet]

personally i see sam as straight on the whole but also…. why is samcrowley low-key extremely real 🤨🤨🤨 i am LIVING for their dynamic but ive never seen anyone talk about this as a ship before?? season 9 is giving me so much of them and i am NOT complaining