#aside from the emison divorce i mean

[cabeswaterdrowned]

emison, nationalism, time loops

(For the send me a ☕️ + topic ask game)

Emison — I generally like them, not without caveats but the parts of it that are good (by good I mean the more messed up parts) are really good and compelling to me! Have said before that *peak* Emison era to me is 4b-5a. The era when Emily has just learned Ali is alive and is reckoning with all her different complicated feelings about her, trying to tell herself she’s over Ali but then repeatedly acting in ways that prove how much of a simp for her she still is (things like “You always saw the best version of me” “I don’t see that anymore” *proceeds to go to the kissing rock* *gives Paige lengthy speech about how she’s finally over Alison* *stashes money for Alison, meets her in abandoned warehouses and makes sure to dress hot before*) I eat that kind of dichotomy up in general for my ships! And there was great work for Emily as a character there to me, in having a space for her anger and also her messy feelings, and because Alison is now alive but not concretely *back* the writing was still fun and ambiguous regarding her morality, how much of her was real and how much was either performance or the liars in this case Emily specifically projecting onto her.  … And 5a there was really good longing and pining and again, just enough emotional nuance to keep things interesting. The flashbacks in s1-3 are overall good for them too / I enjoy the whole character is haunted by their first love with who they had miscommunications with and the ambiguity will haunt them forever and influence all their future relationships thing so yes I was mostly a fan, but that mid season arc was what really gave me *feels*. And then the show just never did anything interesting again… In general I’ve been vocal about the fact that I almost never like storylines about pregnancy and raising kids for chars and dynamics I like unless the writing does A Lot of work to convince me to like it… so you can imagine that I was Not A Fan of one that was incredibly lazy with a side of bodily autonomy violation (that is never addressed as such…*sigh*) coupled with other issues I have with misogyny and homophobia in pll (and racism too regarding Emily) and how the way *canon era* Emison was ultimately done played into a lot of said issues. Then the perfectionists wise on a watsonian level it’s not that I necessarily hate the divorce, especially since I’m on record as often advocating for divorce for ships I like <3 but the lack of Emily actually being present robs that of the character work potential it could have for both of them, and then on a Doylist level I do Hate the implication that They’re the toxic horrible relationship that can’t be sustained while Ezria and even then other het relationships that aren’t as insidious but still had major problems are totally fine to be together 4 evah *barf*.

So basically the sum of my Emison feelings is that I do like them, aside from maybe Emaya they’re my favorite canon pll ship, but it is one of those ships where I feel a lot of what I like and find interesting about them either wasn’t intentional or wasn’t a priority when it came to the writing. The Emison I would have written >>>. But I do appreciate when the show was aiming for more than a typical cookie cutter wlw ship with them, and I side eye some wholly negative takes on them that dismiss that and why it would appeal to sapphic fans over it not being purely wholesome and sweet.

Nationalism — I don’t think I have any groundbreaking takes on nationalism as a concept, I think the best use of it is advocating for a country’s freedom/independence so it’s not really a useful sentiment for countries like the U.S. or UK etc. that are already recognized / have political power and are more likely to pose harm to ones that don’t and are founded partially on colonialism. My pov on it is as someone who’s a U.S. citizen / born there but spends a fair amount of time in Pakistan because it’s where my family is from but also I obviously have privilege to be mobile in terms of traveling which many don’t … so I guess my stance is as a concept in general nationalism can be neutral or a good thing but for a U.S. context it’s more likely to be negative for the world in general.  

Time Loop — I generally like time loop stories I think they can be really fascinating, I don’t think I actively seek out time loop media but when it turns up in something I like I’ll be excited for it! Some favorites of mine are “Life Serial” the Buffy episode very on brand of me to insert Buffy into the conversation but I think it’s such an underrated episode… and I love “As I Have Always Been” the Agents of SHIELD episode it’s probably in my top 2 for the entire show. SYFY’s The Magicians is a show partially founded on time loops and I enjoy how it plays with / uses them a lot I even enjoy the Margo and Eliot time loop ep in s5 despite really disliking a lot of what’s going on in that last season. And Russian Doll s1 was great I really need to get around to watching s2…. for someone who blogs a lot about tv I am actually very bad at watching things sometimes :/. But there’s a lot of popular time loop media I haven’t seen and/or have no interest in. 

[hopefulobjectmiracle]

alison or mona? :)

i love them both, and flashback!alison is such an incredibly crafted villain, but i'm going to go with mona because she was better written in general and remained pretty consistent throughout the show, whereas the writers screwed up alison pretty badly after s5.

ali had so much potential, but for some reason (let's be real it was sasha's weight gain) they decided to completely soften her personality in a way that felt unrealistic and didn't work for the character at all. mona, on the other hand, always remained unpredictable and exciting, even when the overall writing of the show was less than stellar, so i have to pick her.

[soul-music-is-life]

Marlene hasn't even pitched s2 of TP to Freeform yet. We were dumbasses for ever thinking she actually had bigger plan for Emison or anything at all. She made it up as she went along. Literal clowns.

A while back I got some people pissed off for keeping it 100 (ie: beingrealistic), but I mean…I know my shit, guys. I’ve never not been real with you.

See point #3

All that aside, you’re not a clown for wantingto believe in hope. I think that’s an admirable trait. Optimism is seeing thesun when it’s out…and searching for the stars when it’s dark.

In contrast, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Emison ain’t it for this show. I’ve been saying it from the get-go, it’s marketing. It’s all about the views.

It’ll be another Calzona where they’re separated, divorced…whatever…and then suddenly in the very last episode one is rushing to the other off-screen. That’s how it’s going to play out.

Shay will be the last person to want to guest star. Everyone else has been vocal about it. Shay has been doing her own thing.