#anyways. i don't necessarily mean this in a shippy way i just think they went through all that because they didn't know how to be like

[quatregats]

I'm going to be honest, the end of Ayyappanum Koshiyum really felt like this:

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

In response to the Mile High Job post, I hate that Parker implies that poor flight attendant slept her way to a promotion/better shift. Her day is super weird but her cat is fine and her life is saved. That rumor, however, might stick and that didn't really feel like Leverage to me.

Agreed!

The thing with Leverage is that it's a show from the late 2000s; it feels contemporary, but actually it is a bit dated. And, like all shows, it had some problematic elements, which get a bit more Obviously Problematic as time goes by (I am just waiting for someone to write a lengthy call-out post in 5 years' time and for the Discourse to start.) For example, Tumblr loves to declare that Leverage has a "canon" throuple, but if anyone read that and then watched the show they would be profoundly disappointed - while it's a fantastic ship with a great many shippy instances, Elliot has a lot of onscreen No Homo moments, and frequently is shown sleeping with random women (I personally read him as aromantic). Similarly, there are two big relationships in that show: Nate/Sophie, and Parker/Hardison. And we all wax lyrical about the brilliance of Parker/Hardison and how healthy it is, and for good reason; but we gloss over how unbearably "I hate my wife/father I cannot click the book" Boomer humour Nate/Sophie is.

(He literally calls her a shrew in one episode. She throws a tantrum and sulks if he doesn't remember the exact details of how/where they met. She's stereotypically 'romantic' and he's stereotypically 'cynical' and she has to Save Him From Himself, and he self-deprecatingly says he should just know when to stop arguing because she's always right. Like... it is a grubby and uncomfortable dynamic; but, it's also aimed at a different segment of the audience that is older than me, and that's okay, actually. It just means I don't much care for the ship myself.)

Anyway, this is one other such instance. Clearly someone in the writers' room thought that was a funny joke, and not enough people disagreed, and so in it went. What's nice is that Sandi McCree, who plays the other flight attendant that stays on the plane, actually kind of saves that joke for me with her performance. When Parker first boards and declares that her co-worker is not coming in, McCree looks disgruntled at the sudden change to her staff list when she wasn't informed; she's annoyed at management. Then Parker makes the sleeping-with-pilots comment, and McCree looks disgusted and furious -

An expression she then pulls at Parker every time she sees her for the rest of the episode, even when Parker is technically not doing anything particularly weird. It's not necessarily intentional on McCree's part (Parker IS very weird in this episode, so it very much can be a response to that), but to me it means you can read it as "This woman is absolutely furious at the lateral sexism of this white girl because We Love And Support Each Other On This Plane." So, for me, between that and the aforementioned revelations of the day (the plane was brought down by the domestic terrorists of a Fortune 500 company, but saved by... a few unexplained Official People who snuck aboard??? And the other flight attendant was made to miss the plane after all under mysterious circumstances and was not promoted??? What???), I don't think Sandi McCree's character wouldn't put those pieces together.

[sebastard69]

Not Quite At The End Shadowbringers Thoughts:

Literally had to step away for a hot minute because of a reveal so here's some more thoughts!

- Ok so I was half right about Vauthry but mostly wrong. I don't know WHY my brain went to primal when OBVIOUSLY we're dealing with sin eaters and lightwardens and given his control over eaters, it's the obvious answer. But I was right about the meol in that he was using it to enthrall people, essentially tempering them. But uh, the fact it was not only made of sin eaters but it was made of sin eaters he'd turned people into was not on my radar and that fucked me up. Sweeney Todd type shit. Anyway, I really hate him lmao.

- Every scene that Emet-Selch is in, the more I like him. And I like the route this expansion is going in general with the whole "Things aren't black and white." and that it extends beyond the events of the First. He's making me sympathize with the Ascians, which has me feeling conflicted in some ways, but none of them necessarily bad. It's good writing. Finding out that Hydaelyn and Zodiark are primals confirmed a suspicion I'd had since the beginning - because what, ultimately, is the difference between a god and a primal? And hints were dropped in things like the Resistance members reportedly trying to summon Rhalgr. In the end, there is no difference. Learning about the Sundering, about what Ascians are exactly, has been endlessly fascinating, and in some ways Emet-Selch is right that Rejoining all the shards would result in the least casualties - in that leaving men to their devices will always inevitably result in disastrous conflict that in the long run would render more casualties than the calamities necessary for a Rejoining. The comment he made about not seeing the other characters as truly alive was kind of eye-opening, too. I mean, compared to the kind of humanity he knew prior to the Sundering, they're half-formed and incomplete. None of this makes him correct in causing the calamities, but the perspective has shifted and my understanding of motivations is drastically different. He's trying to save something that doesn't exist anymore. And how many people have we ourselves slain in the name of 'the greater good'? How many of the enemy were innocent people who had been sent to war against their will or outright lied to? How many "heretics" did we cut down when they were desperate for the iron fist of the Church to be lifted? This isn't some "Oh, we're no better than the enemy." thing, it's a "Things are complicated, and we have more in common with our enemy than previously thought."

- Speaking of Emet-Selch, there's.... something there between him and the WoL. And like I don't necessarily mean that in a shippy way, I just mean that he's.... unusually fond of them. His demeanor when talking with them or even just seeing them seems.... impossibly soft? Obviously not all the time, but I can't shake the feeling he knows the wol. This is supported by him talking about Amaurot and telling the wol, "Not that you would remember." And all of this just fuels my theory that the wol has an Ascian soul just... can't remember. If that's true, did they know Emet? Were they close? Is Emet sticking around because they were someone important to him? In the same scene he talks about how before the Sundering, they had families and friends and loved ones and how even Ascians' hearts can break, and given that that's in the same conversation it just makes me think there's something there. That his interest in the wol is beyond just being bored and wanting to see what happens. What are the high hopes he has for them? Why does he speak to them with such familiarity? Why does he look so soft when he sees them? He plucked Y'shtola from the Lifestream because the wol is sad and heartbroken that their friend is lost, and I just cannot fathom that he did it out of the goodness of his heart. Whatever feelings exist there, romantic or platonic or fucking whatever, there has to be SOMETHING. It doesn't make sense otherwise.

- Thancred and Urianger are married. They're married and Ryne is their daughter and they are a family and I am going to lose my mind at the end of this expansion when everyone goes back to the Source because she won't be able to go with them and that's not FAIR.

- Speaking of Ryne! I really, really like her and her arc. It was heartbreaking sitting through all the scenes where she talked about being positive that Thancred hated her because she wasn't Minfilia and Thancred refusing to speak to her about it because he didn't want to influence her decision, but her arc overall was very good and well done imo. I loved the scene where everyone talks about giving her a new name, and that Thancred chose the fae word for 'blessed', and just!! Everything about their little family makes me so emotional. That scene made me cry! I loved it!