#because yes I do plan on watching all 100 episodes of teen wolf this time around!!!!!

[frankdelfino]

I’ve reached s3 of teen wolf and my main motivation for speeding through the first two seasons to get here has been stiles finally growing his hair out 🧘🏽‍♀️

[redxblueihateloveyou]

I'm surprised people see Tadashi as the victim in his relationship with Ainosuke, when it's Tadashi the one who time and time again takes away Ainosuke's agency, without being able to see that he is throwing him unto unhappiness. I can't help but think that if Tadashi was not working at Shindo's house, Ainosuke would have maybe left or broke with the family. But he can't do that if he wants the relationship with Tadashi going on, seing how Tadashi is set on enforcing the family rules...

Hmm.. I def agree with the fact that Tadashi is not what most fandom makes out of him, my man (I mean, Adam’s man) is a 100% Slytherin. But I disagree with blaming him for this, after all the revealed info. The environment they were both raised in made their situation complicated.

I like Tadashi a lot, he’s probably my fav thing about this anime, bc he’s a dark horse, and I’m once again surprised, that so little ppl see him for who he really is, portraying him as an innocent puppy, which he is definitely not.

Now to why I think both Tadashi and Adam are victims of the dad and aunties in this situation. 

We can of course say “if only they told each other how they really feel...”, but like we can say it about any love story really. Every author knows it’s no fun. The truth is that yes, they both hurt each other, and yes, if they were honest about their feelings things would’ve been different, but as I’ve already wrote under that “toxic” commentary on YT, lets look at the whole situation from both of their point of views:

We know that Adam when he was little always treated Tadashi as an equal, he never ever thought of him as someone lower than him and after their fall out, the only reason for this “harsh” treatment (well, besides their confirmed kink) was that Adam tried to get a reaction out of him, so Tadashi would stand up for himself, bc Ainosuke got mad about Tadashi caving to his dad’s wishes and abandoning him, when he needed him the most. 

But now, knowing the fact that Tadashi was his dad’s secretary and was under his control, let’s see it from his perspective: Tadashi wanted to stay by Adam’s side, Adam’s dad implied that if Tadashi did say smth, he’s gonna be.. well, dismissed and they won’t see each other ever again. That’s what caused Tadashi to stay silent in that moment. Ainosuke instead saw this as a “he’s not on my side” thing, well, because. Tadashi won’t tell him his problem, bc dad and aunties control everything, so even if he does tell him, what a teen would do really? He didn’t have any powers back then to make his dad do anything. 

And that’s when it all gone to shit, since they both were hurt for their own reasons. It’s easy to say leave the family, but 1stly nobody explained to Adam still that he’s physically and psychologically abused by his family, he sees it as them “loving him” and sadly also loves them, bc nobody told him, that love wasn’t supposed to be like that really. He definitely feels that smth is not right and feels emotionally exhausted there bc of this treatment, but did he ever consider leaving? I really don’t think so. He feels obligated to be worthy of a family, who “loves” him.

Do you think, for example, that Akashi Seijuro hates his dad for what he did to him? No. Does he understand that he wasn’t at fault for what happened to him and that his dad instead of comforting his child after his mother’s death, who was his only safe haven, made everything worse? I don’t think he does. Like his mom gave him basketball, an escape from all that family’s obligations and strictness. After her death, it was the only thing left that brought him joy, but his dad ruined even that, saying that if he’s gonna be bad at it/lose, he’d take it away from him too. Does Akashi see this as emotional abuse? No, he sees it like “well, I have to be the best bc I was born in such powerful family, so if my dad says that I must be best at everything, then I must.”

I personally hate such parents a lot. To me it doesn’t matter if Adam’s dad didn’t know about aunties hitting his child. Like if he was too busy to notice this and have no time for his kid and made his childhood miserable, it doesn’t make it any better really. 

Same as with Akashi’s dad. Some are like “he was probably also grieving about his wife”. Emm? He was like this from the beginning, bc he treated Akashi not as his son, but as his heir. And yes, that’s different things. Same with Endeavor and Todoroki. Your child is not your post production thing.

2ndly they were too young, even if they knew about each others feelings and he didn’t feel obligated and told everyone to fuck off, they’d be on the streets now, but also Adam’s dad doesn’t seem like a guy who’d leave them alone really. Also eloping seems very romantic, but I don’t think it is, esp when you’re teens. Did you want him to sell some expensive watch and go live on Hawaii or smth? Bc finding a decent job there would be difficult at this age, esp with everyone knowing who your dad is. Chen Ke from “Antidote” survived bc he was 27 and had connections and some great friends. Adam was in high school, where would he go exactly?

Now let’s go back to now. Obviously all this time it didn’t even cross Tadashi’s mind that for Ainosuke he comes first and that he would throw everyone under the bus to make Tadashi stay with him. As we see at the end, he legit believed that Adam was planning to send him to jail and didn’t get that he said it just to shaken he up and that he knew who he’d set up for this from the beginning. 

To Adam obviously it doesn’t matter whether they’re in a quarrel or not, he would never him go. Yes, he’s mad at him, he’s angry and hurt, but Tadashi’s still the person he needs the most, he’s still the person who brightens his days, even tho he deliberately behaves like he annoys him. He always looks at him and looks at him and looks at him, but then hisses smth to hurt him. Bc he knows that he needs him, but he also hates that he needs him, bc he thinks it’s unrequited.

And that’s how their classic romance goes in hellish circles. No one wants to talk as usual. Adam is mad Tadashi is like that bc his dad turned him into a slave with no opinion, while Tadashi is scared that Adam would be taken away from him bc of his ugly family. 

Now I still think that no one and I mean no one can take Tadashi from Adam now, he is his precious. So my plan is... if Tadashi made aunties do smth against him or to get rid of him, aunties will go for sure. The problem is Tadashi still doesn’t get that he comes first, so we’re stuck in this hell still.

So anyways, my point is Adam’s heart basically sings “you got a hold of me, don’t even know your power” to Tadashi, but he doesn’t hear it, bc of his insecurities, the way he was raised and his status. But yes, he holds all the power. He’s both Adam’s sanity and insanity. No matter how cheesy it sounds he was basically his only ray of sunshine in the darkness, if you take it away, that’s what it leads to, that’s why Ainosuke-sama needs more ppl who care for him. I don’t want anyone to die next time, just cause Tadashi and Adam fought about where to put their new couch lmao. I’m kidding, but you know what I mean. And kill the aunties, pls seriously, we need to be free.

Also ppl need to remember that like lots of animes/characters are parcially inspired by some other animes/characters, also the chosen seiyuus are also very important, there are lots of stuff like jokes and references, that creators use, from characters being fully inspired by smth like “Assassination classroom” characters based on KNB, to little stuff like Levi dressed in Akashi’s uniform in chibi AOT bc Hiroshi Kamiya. Utsumi already said before stuff like she sometimes think of a perfect voice for the character and then fully forms him, we also know her clear love for sports animes. So yes, I doubt Tadashi/Kuroko thing is a coincidence and even tho someone was like “zone? is this knb or smth?” I was like no, zone is actually a common thing in sports, even tho most associate it with KNB including me, it’s not like its their invention, but there were things inspired by this for sure, and from other sports animes too and no, I don’t mean the basic sports anime tropes, I mean, like way too specific things, some character designes, too. And yes, Langa appearence and personality wise is a rinharu child for real, I can literally split his scenes in “that’s Haru”, “that’s Rin”.

That’s why I’ve said that this situation in fandom reminds me of Kuroko/Akashi situation a lot, bc same as here in KNB ppl for some reason automatically thought that Kuroko is this innocent sheep and Akashi is the wolf (but also like it was Akashi who chose to dress as red riding hood, while Kuroko was a wolf lmao), not even seeing who is in reality more dangerous and who can easily control who. It just buffles me bc it’s not some deep analisys really. I mean once again there’s a reason for the saying that the sub holds all the power over the dom. 

And like just bc someone yells or threatens ppl constantly doesn’t necessarily mean he is a psycopatic killer, and just bc someone is quiet and doe-eyed, doesn’t mean he isn’t. I didn’t think we needed to explain this to someone, but aparently we do?

And it honestly kills me just how superficially ppl are watching things these days. It really gives me war flashbacks to stuff like the last mdzs s1 episode, where ppl started to comment things like “how LZ can be so heartless” lmao. Or that anonymous ask “do you think haru misses rin?”. Like you don’t see thing at all? Grey substance no needed, while watching things?

P.S. I also would die to see Adam vs Tadashi race just bc I for some reason can bet all my money, that it’s the same situation as with Akashi refusing to ankle break Kuroko, no matter how mad he is. I just can’t imagine Ainosuke hitting Tadashi in the face with a board. Like 100% sure he wouldn’t even try tbh.

[niallloverontheloose]

“What Scott did to Derek in Master Plan was poetic justice and a well deserved comeuppance. Derek abused the Bite and was abused by it”

Take a look at what kind of victim blaming/abuse apologism garbage Scott/Posey Stans put in the Derek Hale tag

https://princeescaluswords.tumblr.com/post/644378147526164481/hey-princeescaluswords-remember-when-you-said#notes

https://rhyslahey.tumblr.com/post/644379010533638144/hey-princeescaluswords-remember-when-you-said#notes

Anonymous: Hey @princeescaluswords remember when you said that Scott hit and abused Isaac because “the Nemeton and lycanthropy made him do it!” and that Scott violating Derek was “poetic justice” and “a well deserved comeuppance”?

@princeescaluswords:

I do remember saying those things (though not those precise words), and I will most definitely say them again!

Scott didn’t hit Isaac in just any episode of Teen Wolf. The scene you are talking about happened in Anchors (3x13), the season opener of 3B. In this episode, Scott, Stiles and Allison were dealing with the debilitating aftereffects of the Nemeton sacrifice. This is not arguable. It is the entire point of the episode.

Scott’s specific consequence took the form of hallucinations where his shadow transformed without his control and uncontrollable transformations into a werewolf, a creature that from the beginning of the series came with increased aggression. The term Stiles used was bloodlust. There was also a scene – in the same episode where Scott started transforming in the middle of school, Stiles and Scott went into a classroom and Scott warned Stiles away because he didn’t know what would happen. Scott was in an unstable mental state due to the influence sacrifice and it took the form of violence and aggression because that’s an established trait of lycanthropy.

See how context is important?

Trying to pretend that Scott wasn’t influenced by the Nemeton ritual in that episode is like trying to pretend that Allison really meant to shoot Lydia in the face with an arrow or that Stiles was actually not paying attention in Coach’s class. It’s absurd, and I think 99 people out of 100 who actually watched the episode would agree, that we were meant to understand that they were suffering from psychological horror that caused them to act differently than they normally would.

And yes, what happened to Derek Hale, one of the villains of Season Two, in Master Plan (2x12) was poetic justice and a well-deserved comeuppance.

Yes, Scott deceived Derek on joining his pack, didn’t tell him about his plan to replace Gerard’s cancer medication with mountain ash to stop Gerard’s plan to force Derek to give him the Bite, and rejected his position as alpha. This was well deserved. Derek had been lying to Scott and concealing information since the first time they met back in Season 1. Derek concealed the existence of the alpha from Scott for three episodes while trying to use a sixteen-year-old boy as bait to find his sister’s killer and in return Scott concealed Gerard’s cancer from Derek. Derek manipulated Scott by promising to help him try for the cure by killing the alpha who bit him and then again by promising to get the cure for Jackson, and in return Scott manipulated Derek by pretending to join his pack. Derek betrayed Scott to Peter in Co-Captain by accepting Peter as his alpha, and in return Scott rejected Derek as his alpha. This is a well-deserved comeuppance.

Derek’s humiliation by Gerard and Gerard forcing the Bite on him was directly caused by Derek’s abuse of the Bite. Derek Bit Jackson – a person he knew was a dangerously unstable narcissist and then abandoned him, and Jackson became the weapon by which Gerard brought Derek to his knees. Derek transformed “teenagers into killers,” tried to murder Allison’s friends, and Bit Victoria, and that helped drive Allison into being the instrument that gave Gerard the upper hand. Derek had been using the Bite to get what he wanted, and in the end he was forced to Bite Gerard by Gerard so the old hunter could get what he wanted. He abused the Bite and was abused by it. This is poetic justice.

See how that works?

//

Scott AND Gerard humiliating, dehumanizing and violating Derek was directly caused by Scott AND Gerard being abusive scumbags.

Scott lied to Allison, patronized Allison, yelled at Allison, manipulated Allison, concealed the truth about her mother’s death from Allison, controlled Allison, and threw Derek and his Pack under the bus just to look “heroic” in Allison’s eyes; Scott’s abusive tendencies/behavior drove Allison away and made her vulnerable to Gerard’s gaslighting and machinations.

Scott’s the one who told his buddy Gerard that Jackson was the Kanima and that Matt was his Master. Not only did Scott conspire with Gerard behind everyone’s back, but he also sold Derek and his Pack out to the hunters and told Gerard everything he wanted to know about them:

Teen Wolf 02x10, “Fury”

SCOTT: What are you doing here?! It wasn’t supposed to happen like this!

GERARD: Trust me, I’m aware of that.

SCOTT: I’ve done everything that you’ve asked of me! I’m part of Derek’s pack! I’ve given you all the information that you wanted! I told you Matt is controlling Jackson!

Scott didn’t hit Isaac because “Lycanthropy and the Nemeton made him do it!” Scott repeatedly hit Isaac because Scott is a jealous, obsessive, possessiveness piece of shit who sees women (and Stiles) as an exclusive property of his. Even Tyler Posey acknowledged it:

https://collider.com/teen-wolf-season-4-tyler-posey-interview/

https://ew.com/article/2016/07/05/teen-wolf-tyler-posey-season-6-scott/

POSEY: Kira is definitely a good distraction for Scott. He was probably a little bit bitter around Isaac because that was Scott’s girl. Allison was the love of Scott’s life, and it’s hard to let that go, especially when she’s with the kid that you’re living with. It’s definitely over-stepping some boundaries. But Kira is a great distraction for Scott. You will not see Isaac thrown into anymore walls *laughs*

What Scott “They Had A Reason” McCall did to Derek Hale in Master Plan was neither poetic justice nor a well deserved comeuppance. It’s dehumanization and a disgusting violation of someone’s boundaries, autonomy and consent

All I’ve to say is,

Tyler Posey....

[crowdvscritic]

round up // NOVEMBER 20

Hi, I’m tired. Actually, my friend Celeste created a piece of art that puts the emphasis needed on that sentiment:

I’m very tired. November felt like it was three years and also felt like it went by in a blink and also I’m not sure where October ended and November began—how does time work like that? (I’ve yet to see Tenet, but maybe that will explain it.) But like Michael Scott, somehow I manage, and lately it’s been like this:

Late-night Etsy scrolling. Browsing beautiful, non-big-box-store artwork is very calming just before I go to bed. I’d recommend Etsy stores like Celeste’s chr paperie shop, which I know from experience is full of great Christmas gift ideas. 

Taking a day off of work to do laundry. I’m not sure if it’s more #adulting that I did that or that I was excited to do that.

Eating Ghiradelli chocolate chips straight from the bag. I actually don’t recommend this as a healthy option, but this is also not a health blog.

Watching lots and lots of ‘80s movies. One day I’ll ask a therapist why this decade of films is so comforting for me despite its many flaws, but for now I’m just rolling with it.

Reading. Have you heard of this? It’s a form of entertainment but doesn’t require screens—wild!

Memes. All good Pippin “Fool of a” Took jokes are welcome here.

Leaning into the Christmas spirit by ordering that Starbucks peppermint mocha, making plans to watch everything in that TCM Christmas book I haven’t seen, and keeping the lights on my hot pink tinsel tree on all day as I work from home.

This month’s Round Up is full of stuff that made me smile and stuff that sucked me into its world—I think they’ll do the same for you, too.

November Crowd-Pleasers

Sister Act (1992)

If in four years you aren’t in an emotional state to watch election results roll in, I recommend watching Whoopi Goldberg pretend to be a nun for 100 minutes. (Though, incidentally, if you want to watch that clip edited to specifically depict how the results came in this year, you’ll need to watch Sister Act 2.) This musical-comedy is about as feel-good as it gets, meaning there’s no reason you should wait four more years to watch it. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

Nevada Memes

Speaking of election results, Nevada memes. That’s it—that’s the tweet. Vulture has a round up of some of the best.

SNL Round Up

Laugh and enjoy!

“Cinema Classics: The Birds” (4605 with John Mulaney)

“Uncle Ben” (4606 with Dave Chappelle)

RoboCop (1987)

I’m not surprised I liked RoboCop, but I am surprised at why I liked RoboCop. Not only is this a boss action blockbuster, it’s an investigation into consumerism and the commodification of the human body. It’s also a critique of institutions that treat crime like statistics instead of actions done by people that impact people. That said, it’s also movie about a guy who’s fused with a robot and melts another guy’s face off with toxic sludge, so there’s a reason I’m not listing this under the Critic section. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8/10

Double Feature – ‘80s Comedies: National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) + Major League (1989)

The ‘80s-palooza is in full swing! In Vacation (Crowd: 9.5/10 // Critic: 8/10), Chevy Chase just wants to spend time with his family on a vacation to Wally World, but wouldn’t you know it, Murphy’s Law kicks into gear as soon as the Griswold family shifts from out of Park. The brilliance of the movie is that every one of these terrible things is plausible, but the Griswolds create the biggest problems themselves. In Major League (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 6.5/10), Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, and Wesley Snipes are Cleveland’s last hope for a winning baseball team. Like the Griswolds, mishaps and hijinks ensue in their attempt to prevent their greedy owner from moving the Indians to Miami, but the real win is this movie totally gets baseball fans. Like most ‘80s movies, not everything in this pair has aged well, but they brought some laughs when I needed them most.

This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens (2020)

They’re born a minute apart in the same hospital, but they don’t meet until their 30th birthday on New Year’s Day. So, yes, it’s a little bit Serendipity, and it’s a little bit sappy, but those are both marks in this book’s favor. This Time Next Year is a time-hopping rom-com with lots of almost-meet-cutes that will have you laughing, believing in romantic twists of fate, and finding hope for the new year.

Double Feature – ‘80s Angsty Teens: Teen Wolf (1985) + Uncle Buck (1989)

In the ‘80s, Hollywood finally understood the angsty teen, and this pair of comedies isn’t interested in the melodrama earlier movies like Rebel Without a Cause were depicting. (I’d recommend Rebel, but not if you want to look back on your teen years with any sense of humor.) In Teen Wolf (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 5/10), Michael J. Fox discovers he’s a werewolf.one that looks more like the kid in Jumanji than any other portrayal of a werewolf you’ve seen. It’s a plot so ‘80s and so bizarre you won’t believe this movie was greenlit.

In Uncle Buck (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), John Candy is attempting to connect with the nieces and nephew he hasn’t seen in years, including one moody high schooler. (Plus, baby Gaby Hoffman and pre-Home Alone Macauley Culkin!) This is my second pick from one of my all-time fave filmmakers, John Hughes (along with National Lampoon’s Vacation, above), and it’s one more entry that balances heart and humor in a way only he could do. You can see where I rank this movie in Hughes’s pantheon on Letterboxd.

Lord of the Rings memes

This month on SO IT’S A SHOW?, Kyla and I revisited The Lord of the Rings, a trilogy we love almost as much as we love Gilmore Girls. You can listen to our episode about the series on your fave podcast app, and you can laugh through hundreds of memes like I did for “research” on Twitter.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (2019)

Most adults are afraid of children’s temper tantrums, but can you imagine how terrified you’d be if they caught on fire in their fits of rage? That’s the premise of this novel, which begins when an aimless twentysomething becomes the nanny of a Tennessee politician’s twins who burst into flames when they get emotional. The book is filled with laugh-out-loud moments but never leaves behind the human emotion you need to make a magical realistic story.

An Officer and a Gentlemen (1982)

Speaking of aimless twentysomethings and emotion, feel free to laugh, cry, and swoon through this melodrama in the ‘80s canon. Richard Gere meanders his way into the Navy when he has nowhere else to go, and he tries to survive basic training, work through his family issues, and figure out his future as he also falls in love with Debra Winger. So, yeah, it’s a schamltzier version of Top Gun, but it’s schmaltz at its finest. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

November Critic Picks

Double Feature – ‘40s Amensia Romances: Random Harvest (1942) + The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

Speaking of schmaltz at its finest, let me share a few more titles fitting that description. In Random Harvest (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10), Greer Garson falls in love with a veteran who can’t remember his life before he left for war. In The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10), Gene Tierney discovers a ghost played by a crotchety Rex Harrison in her new home. Mild spoiler: Both feature amnesiac plot developments, and while amnesia has become a cliché in the long history of romance films, Harvest is moving enough and Mr. Muir is charming enough that you won’t roll your eyes. You can see these and more romances complicated by forced forgetfulness in this Letterboxd round up.

The African Queen (1951)

It’s Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn directed by John Huston—I mean, I don’t feel like I need to explain why this is a winner. Bogart (in his Oscar-winning role) and Hepburn star in a two-hander script, dominating the screen time except for a select few scenes with supporting cast. The pair fight for survival while cruising on a small boat called The African Queen during World War I (in Africa, natch), and the two make this small story feel grand and epic. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

A young man’s (Dennis Price) mother is disowned from their wealthy family because she marries for love. After her death, he seeks vengeance by killing all of the family members ahead of him in line to be the Duke D'Ascoyne. The twist? All of his victims are played by Sir Alec Guinness! Almost every character in this black comedy is a terrible person, so you won’t be too sorry to see them go—you can just enjoy the creative “accidents” he stages and stay in suspense on whether our “hero” gets his comeuppance. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1937)

What would you do if you found out you were to be someone’s eighth wife? Well, it’s probably not what Claudette Colbert does in this screwball comedy that reminds me a bit of Love Crazy. This isn’t the first time I’ve recommended Colbert, Gary Cooper, or Ernst Lubitsch films, so it’s no surprise these stars and this director can make magic together in this hilarious battle of the wills. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

The Red Shoes (1948)

I love stories about the competition between your life and your art, and The Red Shoes makes that competition literal. Moira Shearer plays a ballerina who feels life is meaningless without dancing—then she falls in love. That’s an oversimplification of a rich character study and some of the most beautiful ballet on film, but I can’t do it justice in a short paragraph. Just watch (perhaps while you’re putting up your hot pink tinsel tree?) and soak in all the goodness. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 10/10

The Third Man (1949)

Everybody loves to talk about Citizen Kane, and with the release of Mank on Netflix, it’s newsworthy again. But don’t miss this other ‘40s team up of Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles. Cotten is a writer digging for the truth of his friend’s (Welles) death in a mysterious car accident. Eyewitness accounts differ on what happened, and who was the third man at the scene only one witness remembers? 71 years later, this movie is still tense, and this actor pairing is still electric. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

The Untouchables (1987)

At the end of October, we lost Sean Connery. I looked back on his career first by writing a remembrance for ZekeFilm and then by watching The Untouchables. (In a perfect world I would’ve reversed that order, but c’est la vie.) In my last selection from the ‘80s, Connery and Kevin Costner attempt to convict Robert De Niro’s Al Capone of anything that will stick and end his reign of crime in Chicago. Directed by Brian De Palma and set to an Ennio Morricone soundtrack, this film is both an exciting action flick and an artistic achievement that we literally discussed in one of my college film classes. Connery won his Oscar, and K. Cos is giving one of the best of his career, too. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9.5/10

Remember the Night (1940)

Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in my favorite team up yet! Double Indemnity may be the bona fide classic in the canon, but this Christmas story—with MacMurray as a district attorney prosecuting shoplifter Stanwyck— is a charmer. I’ve added it to my list of must-watch Christmas movies—watch for some holiday cheer and rom-com feels. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Photo credits: chr paperie. Books my own. All others IMDb.com.

[alicedoessurveys]

Doctor Who Tag

yes im a nerd...

CHILDHOOD

1. Did you like DW as a child?

I was 10 when it came back on telly with Eccleston and the first episode with the autons scared me so much my mom wouldn't let me watch it again until a couple years later, but yeah my teens I was obsessed with DW... still am at age 25

2. Your age at the time of the revival?

10

3. First DW episode you ever saw?

‘Rose’

4. Did you have any of the toys?

I still have the eleventh doctor’s screwdriver... I used to have some of the figures but there in storage now somewhere

5. Which DW character did you play on the playground?

didn't play it on the playground

6. Monster(s) that scared you most as a child?

all of them! the ones that still scare me now are the Cybermen and the Autons... genuinely cant walk past a shop mannequin without being suspicious 

7. Joke/story you didn’t get as a kid?

as a kid, any of the innuendo type jokes

8. DW opinion that has changed since you were a kid?

idk I think I still have the same opinions

9. Who introduced you to DW?

parents

10. Did you like Sarah Jane Adventures as a child?

I LOVED SJA!! I miss that show, and Elizabeth Slade :(

DOCTOR

11. Who is your Doctor?

Ten was the doctor that made me fall in love with Doctor Who 

12. Your favourite Doctor?

omg why not just ask me who my favourite child is... (I don't have kids but you know what I mean) if I had to chose my top three are ten, eleven and thirteen

13. Least favourite Doctor?

purely just because he doesn't have enough episodes... nine...

14. Best regeneration?

none of them I hate regenerations :( they make me sad, im too emotionally invested in every single one

15. Do you like “Doctor-Lite” episodes?

they're not my faves

16. Who is the most human Doctor?

I think nine maybe? or twelve?

17. Best multi-Doctor story?

the 50th anniversary special 

18. Best Doctor monologue?

“Hello Stonehenge! who takes the pandorica, takes the universe. but bad news everyone, cause guess who? HA! You lot you're all whizzing about- its really very distracting. Could you all just stay still a minute because I AM TALKING. Question of the hour is, who's got the pandorica? Answer, I do. Next question, who's coming to take it from me? Come on, look at me! No plan. No backup. No weapons worth a damn. oh and something else, I don't have anything to lose. So, if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceship with all your silly little guns and you've got any plans on taking the pandorica tonight... just remember who's standing in your way. remember ever black day I ever stopped you and then- AND THEN- do the smart thing... let somebody else try first.”

not copied and pasted, remember that from the top of my head... its always there waiting in my mind incase I ever need an epic monologue :’)

19, What do you think TenToo/MetaCrisis Doctor is doing now?

hopefully living his best life with Rose

20. Best Doctor/companion pairing?

ten and donna 

COMPANIONS

21. Favourite companion?

Donna, Clara, Amy

22. Favourite secondary companion?

is Mickey classed as secondary? idk

23. Least favourite companion?

Ryan

24. Best TARDIS Team?

Doctor, Amy and Rory

25. Most underrated companion?

Graham, but that may just be cause I love Bradders

26. Most overrated companion?

Rose... I like her but idk, I think she gets more hype than she deserves.. don't @ me

27. Favourite companion’s family?

Rose’s mom

28. Who should have been a companion but wasn’t?

idk I cant think of anyone

29. Favourite (canon or non-canon) DW universe relationship?

Amy and Rory

30. Who did you not used to like, but really like now?

wasn't keen on Bill at first but by the end I really liked her, same with Rory

EPISODES

31. Favourite episode ever?

girl in the fireplace

32. Least favourite episode?

most of Chibnall’s episodes tbh sorry not sorry 

33. Which episodes do you skip?

the regeneration episodes

34. Best two-parter?

Human Nature - Family of Blood

35. Historical, present day or futuristic episodes?

I like them all in there own way but I think present is fave, then historical, then future

36. Episode that will always make you smile?

all of them

37. Episode that will always make you cry?

Rory and Amy’s last episode :’(

38. Best run of episodes?

ugh I cant answer this theres too many 

39. Best cliffhanger?

the end of Spyfall part one when the Master reveals who he is... I was SHOOK

40. Favourite Christmas special?

Voyage of the Damned

SERIES

41. Classic Who or New Who?

new who

42. Favourite series?

four or five

43. Least favourite series?

eleven, I just cant with the writing

44. Which series do you skip?

none

45. Favourite series opening?

eleventh hour

46. Favourite series finale?

Doomsday

47. Best series arc?

Bad Wolf

48. Thoughts on series 11/12?

I adore Jodie Whittaker and her doctor, and although I think 3 companions is too many I do love Yaz and Graham (Ryan is hit & miss). I just think theyve been massively let down by the stories/writing... they’ve tried to hard to tick certain boxes and completely missed what Doctor Who is about for a lot of people.. an escape from the real world into these outrageous unbelievable but lovable fun alien adventures 

49. How much of Classic Who have you seen?

not a lot

50. Who should have had another series?

NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE 

MONSTERS

51. Favourite monster/villain?

the master 

52. Most creative monster?

Weeping Angels, whoever came up with monsters that look like statues and only move when you're not looking at them is genius 

53. Monster(s) that scares you most?

Autons, Cybermen, the creepy dolls from Night Terrors, the ones from Waters of Mars, Weeping Angels

54. Monster you think is too easy to defeat?

idk

55. Least favourite monster/villain?

absorbaloff

56. Monster you want to return?

The Master, I really hope that isn't the last we see of Dhawan

57. In your opinion, what makes a monster good?

being genuinely scary, 

58. Daleks, Cybermen or Weeping Angels?

Weeping Angels

59. Best Dalek story?

Daleks in Manhatten

60. Best one time villain/monster?

my brain has gone blank I cant think of an answer right now 

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

61. Torchwood or Sarah Jane Adventures?

SJA

62. Favourite Torchwood Team member?

I haven't watched it all so I couldn't say 

63. Which Torchwood death made you saddest?

again, not watched it all 

64. Do you rewatch COE or MD?

huh

65. Favourite SJA Team member?

Sarah Jane

66. Mr Smith or K-9?

K-9

67. Maria or Rani?

Rani

68. Do you read the comics/novels or listen to Big Finish?

Nope

69. If you do, your favourite additional stories?

n/a

70. Do you like DW analysis (video essays, fan theories, etc)?

yes

DESIGN/PRODUCTION

71. Favourite piece of alien tech?

the sonic, I love how it is so multipurpose except for when it comes to wood 

72. Favourite piece of Murray Gold music?

I am the Doctor - gets me pumped every time 

73. Favourite TARDIS design?

Ten’s Tardis 

74. Has the 2005 era CGI aged well?

actually yeah, I was rewatching the ‘are you my mummy’ episodes the other day and my God when the gas masks emerged from the faces... ooooooof I was like omg how 

75. Favourite Doctor outfit?

eleven or thirteen

76. Monster with the best design?

not really a design more of a costume.. I live Dhawan master’s costume. that shade of purple, oof he so stylish 

77. Best show runner?

idk

78. Best writer?

Gatiss

79. Best opening titles?

eleven’s titles where the Tardis is flying and being zapped is cool but thirteens music hits different 

80. Will DW age well/stay popular in the future?

I hope so, I feel like its lasted this long surely it can last forever.. if the writers don't fuck it up... 

IF YOU WERE IN THE SHOW

81. Time period you’d want to go with the Doctor?

whatever time means Id get to wear the most beautiful costumes

82. Planet/place you’d want to go with the Doctor?

Galifrey, pre-desctruction

83. Doctor you’d most like to travel with?

any of them, please and thank you

84. Companion you’d most like to travel with?

donna, sceso a good laugh but also I feel like she’d look after me 

85. Monster you’d like to defeat/fight?

The Master 

86. If you could go back on your own history (like Father’s Day), where would you go?

back to when I was a toddler, I wanna see what I was like 

87. If you could ask the Doctor anything, what would you ask?

theres too many to ask 

88. Historical figure you’d like to meet?

Shakespeare

89. How do you think you’d meet the Doctor?

id probably be rescued from doing something stupid and then the doc would be like you know what the bitch clearly needs supervision she's coming with me 

90. Would you travel forwards or backwards in time first?

backwards

IF YOU MADE THE SHOW

91. Historical event would you like to see in DW?

Hamilton

92. Issue you’d like to see addressed in DW?

idk 

93. Who would you completely erase from the DW universe?

Ruth

94. One unanswered DW question you’d love to know the answer to?

where is Clara now?

95. Actor/actress you’d like to see play the Doctor?

Phoebe Waller Bridge (or Lin Manuel Miranda)

96. Actor/actress you’d like to see play a companion?

Andrew Scott (yes I did just basically recast fleabag and hot priest)

97. Is DW “too political”?

series 11 got a bit like that 

98. Which characters fate would you changed?

Danny Pink

99. What about DW could be improved?

I think ive made my options about Chibnall pretty clear... 

100. If you could write an episode of DW, any ideas for what you’d do

bring back Jenny, the Doctor / Daughter adventures they would have. I’m actually writing a fic about it if you wanna read.... here

[jq37]

Ok last one. What's the tea on Prompocalypse?

So...that was something, huh?

This is gonna be quick and dirty (relatively speaking, it’s still too long already as I come back and make this edit) because I have work tomorrow and there are def stuff I want to talk about more and I will (esp if I get asks) but I have work in the morning so let’s just get some words onto the screen aight.

The episode titles have had a pretty consistent naming scheme up until this point so the one word, non alliterative title had me at a 7 on the foreboding scale before we even started.

Everyone was in prom wear! And lol, Siobhan is the only one in a dress. That's almost exactly what I pictured Adaine wearing to prom. That exact shade of blue-green. And Emily looks like a waiter. 

I wonder what Bren's plan was for if they'd thwarted the crowning entirely. Got baller initiative, some nat 20's on crown keepaway and smashing, and killed Penelope/Dayne before the bad guys could finish them. Would he just try to crown someone else or would the curb stompage have stood? Not that Goldenhoard would have been a pushover I imagine but jeez. He couldn't have been as strong as his true form.

Sidenote: One of my favorite little character things is Zac and Siobhan helping each other do math.

Fig dimension dooring Gorgug to the stage and then skateboarding away. Amazing.

"I'm going for her crown vs. his crown."/"In this climate?"

OK, shoutout to Zac fo asking for those bombs because they are OP as hell. 

I love how they just charged in and started trying to kill people, no questions asked, no explaining themselves to the other students, just bombs out immediately. 

My man Riz just couldn't catch a break. I understand the out of story reason the police haven't shown up is that Murph was rolling garbage, but what's taking them so long in story? Where? Is? Sklonda?

"I'm going to jump on the back of the Hangman."/”Presumptuous."

But also, by the end of the fight he's just like, "Do anything any party member tells you to!"

Lou losing it over Riz claiming best friend status. But damn, they kinda are the closest to each other in the party. Wild. 

"You know what baby girl? Why don't you ready an action until I get there," said Siobahn to Ally, hilariously for a number of reasons. 

They keep saying Teen Wolf and I have no idea what part of the movie they're referring to. This is the second ep in a row.

Lou trying to recruit a super sad Ragh.

They started off this fight really strong. Doing double digit damage and rolling over 20s. I was like, "Damn, they've leveled up. They're doing great!" Of course, we were still in the first third of the ep so I didn't know where we were going. But Lou was right. "Wild first turn."

"And then I shoot him."

I'm half convinced Riz jinxed everyone by saying, "Remember the corn fight?"

Kristen cast ONE spell and then said, "I don't have a lot of spells left." THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY AND SAVE ADAINE'S WORTHLESS FAMILY. YOU ARE THE HEALER. YOU NEED ALL YOUR SPELLS.

The students running to get food on the way out. Mood.

They messed Dayne *up*. This was the high point of the battle, objective-wise.

Sidenote, why would Dayne have needed to be at the Seacaster Manor raid? It feels dumb to ris him when he was such an important part of things. Was it literally just because he didn't like Fabian? And he disliked him enough to try and kill his parents? Yeesh.

Kirsten @ Ragh flipping out over Dayne: I see what's going on here.

Ragh really made this fight harder than it had to be. If Gorgug hadn't been grappled before Penelope got the crown they might have had a fighting chance.

So Penelope just straight up let what's her face (Sam I think) get palimpsested? Major yikes. Like I know it's a good thing they killed her but I kinda wish they hadn't so we could learn exactly what the insane thought process was there. She comes off as crazier than Biz because Biz was trapping girls he didn't respect, not his actual friends, you know? Like, did Goldenhoard say he was gonna make her an actual queen or something? Because all this isn't worth just being prom queen.

"Sometimes you make a villain and they die in the first two rounds," said Brennan, as if he didn't know what he was about to unleash on the party. Geez, I don't know how long they would have survived if Penelope and Dayne had been in play for a large chunk of the fight.

Murph's idea to blind him was a good one.

I almost was like, "Thank God Gorthalax got kidnapped," because that was the only good explanation for him seemingly ditching Fig.

Ally: Was that his best friend? (Emily: What./Siobahn: NO.)

"I'm like an advertisement for chicken."/"What chicken adverts are you watching?"/"It's like if you went to prom and there was a dangling chicken leg."/"What prom did you go to?"

Fabian full on clocking Penelope in the face like he's playing Punch Out.

"I killed my father today. Yes."

"This is against the rules but I don't care." In hindsight, this feels like foreshadowing.

"Well, that's the risk you take when you go to Aguefort Adventuring Academy."

"Get on the fucking right team!"

Lou (a la Gimli): And *my* D6.

Brennan pulling out that GIANT final form Goldenhoard figure.

For some reason, it didn't occur to me that he'd be just a legit dragon in his true form. I was picturing like the lich from Adventure Time or something.

Also, I was kinda expecting him to "Drop the act," and majorly change in personality but he was basically the same. Just a dick.

Gorgug rolls a 4. Brennan pauses for a second. The entire party: No.

Zac goes all in every time no matter how dumb it is. I love him.

"Father, stop this."/"What?"

"Not clever enough for the library and not brave enough for the world." Oww, I felt that one. Did Brennan have that waiting to use or did he come up with it on the spot because that was brutal.

Goldenhoard goes through the whole party, trying to hit their weakest point and he gets what might have been a great hit on Fig (You're so unloveable your father would rather go to hell than stay with you.) but she just says, "You have got to stop flirting with me," and completely diffuses the moment. As unflappable as Brennan is, he had to take a sec to jump back into the insult parade after that.

"I'm going to eat you."/"OH MY GOD."/"I'm not making it sexual!"

"*The* ball, bitch."

OK, I was wondering what the deal was with Riz's dad. Because giving him that gun implies a chance to kill his dad's killer but I didn't think it could be Goldenhoard directly because of the binding. That's another point towards Riz being the one to finish him off.

Wild that they weren't able to get any of the kids (save Ragh eventually) to help them with the fight. You go to adventuring school! Cowards! You would never make it at Sunnydale and that school was mostly normals!

The one dude still just getting food while Goldenhoard has turned into a full on dragon.

When an 18 wasn't a high enough roll for Fig to make her fear check, that's when I realized my earlier apprehension wasn't misplaced. I mean, maybe it should have been when he turned into a dragon but it is what it is.

But Fig skating away and then going, "Just kidding bitch," because she got it on the very next turn was hilarious.

Kristen still not being 100% on whether Ragh is gay or not.

Who was gonna kick Ragh off the team for being gay? Maybe Daybreak would have but Gorthalax def wouldn't have. Maybe he means he would have been bullied off?

Siobahn to Kristen/Ally: Stop outing students.

I can't believe Gorgug had to kiss Ragh in the middle of this fight to get his head in the game.

Also, I didn't get into it before because I knew this scene was coming but poor Ragh. Like, I could have told him things were gonna go this way and he's a big dummy for thinking otherwise, but poor dude. And then he finally gets it together and he gets wrecked.

"EMILY, I SOMETIMES CAN'T TELL WHEN YOU'RE REALLY FUCKING WITH ME OR NOT."

Siobhan doing the D&D equivalent of reminding the teacher they had homework.

The amount of dice that Brennan rolled for Goldenhoard was truly horrifying. That's permadeath damage.

AND HE GOT THE HEALER DOWN FIRST. This was the next moment I started sensing a TPK.

"HOMOPHOBE!"/"You hit both of the gay ones!"

Kristen taking damage from Goldenhoard's libertarian speech.

I find it such a Fig move to be like, "Can I use charm person to snap Adaine out of it," instead of the spell actually made for that purpose. 

Rolling low perception and getting no information is the worst because then it's like...OK I know something's out there but what dammit?

When Brennan said Fig would have to do opposed athletics against Adaine, that was the first time I was like, "Oh thank God she's so weak."

Murph forgetting to uncanny dodge until midway through the ep was uncharacteristic. Really shows how wild the fight was. 

"This kid likes to get his ass beat to a soundtrack."

Fabian refusing to just use the stairs like a normal person. 

Penelope going, "What's your deal?" like she's not helping an evil dragon who wants to rule the world. 

JAWBONE

JAWBONE JAWBONE JAWBONE

My man Jawbone shot way up on the list of cool adults today.

For real, the scene with Jawbone and Adaine was my second favorite moment of the episode and it would have been my favorite if not for a bit of divine intervention later. 

I already made a post about this but Jawbone notices Adaine flipping the hell out and he asks her if she has panic attacks and if her parents gave her any meds for it. She responds in, like, the smallest, most broken and defeated voice with a tiny head shake, "My parents just left and I don't know where they are." Gah, my heart. She was half crying. I was half awake and being kicked in the face with the full force of human emotion. It was a lot. I felt like I was a kid watching that one scene from Fresh Prince again but British-er. She gets that her parents suck and she hates them but she's 14. Everyone wants their parents to love them. It's like in our DNA.

And then Jawbone launches into the wildest motivational speech ever (including all of Kristen's, which is saying a lot) which starts with him sucking off a border patrol agent. (You understand me?/No!)

Ally, MVP of Terrible Speeches: *That* was the point?

Siobhan trying not to crack up and break character throughout that whole scene was great.

I love that Brennan was clearly trying to not encourage people to mess with their med dosage irl because he was very specific about that but also he was like, "A dragon is about to end the world so please shotgun this bottle of magic Xanax and hop on that bike."

I love that Adaine has all the magic stuff in her inventory and then also Xanax.

Aww, Jawbone offered to let her live with him because her house burned down. (I guess that info was on the news?)

And then Adaine rolls a 20 with the help from her meds (and buffs) right away! It's great when the dice cooperate.

"I came here to FUCK SHIT UP. And help children."

"Jawbone rules. I'm so glad we helped him get his life together."

Jawbone is such a sketch person but such a good counselor.

Siobhan calling Goldenhoard and absolute fucking unit sayed be at 5 in the morning when I watched this.

"I AM A CHILD. YOU ARE ATTACKING A BUNCH OF CHILDREN YOU COWARD."

"Then why is your dick out?" Adaine joining in Fig w/ the taunting Goldenhoard via accusations of flirting. 

"Why are you guys partially singed?"/"Because he's been attacking us Dad! Also Dad, he kind of used to come on to me all the time."

"Play the drums more and we'll have a full band on stage!"/"...Instead."

"You ruined prom!"/"I RUINED PROM?"

At this point I was thinking, "Geez, there's not a lot of episode left and Penelope isn't even dead yet. How could they possibly defeat Goldenhoard AND have time for tying up loose ends?" TPK vibes increase.

Adaine getting a nat 20 on Arcana, "Yeah it is what it is. You're screwed."

Hell yeah for Adaine giving Goldenhoard her low divination roll to ensure her lightning bolt hit. Not that it ended up mattering that much but still. Sick.

"Well you could have told me before this very moment!"/"I was dead!"

I just checked on the stats of an an adult red dragon in 5E and it's got 256 HP. 256! And look at the other stats! They're wild.

"This is the number of dice?"/"Yeah."/"God."

Fig goes down. Their secondary healer. So, not good. Very not good.

Brennan letting Emily burn Goldenhoard's tie as she passes out because Emily refuses to do nothing.

And Riz goes down too! The one with the med kit! At this point I was like, there is no way this can end well.

"How far away is the hospital?" I love it when they try just normal solutions in this magic game like calling their parents and going to the hospital.

It is an hour and 47 minutes into the episode before Adaine remembers she's wearing a magic coat that can make her anything (within reason). Which, to be fair, it took me a little bit too but, in my defense, I'm not staring at her character sheet.

Real talk, I didn't think she was gonna get anything from the jacket from that ask. Something to beat Kalvaxis is such a big ask.

When Brennan started going into the jacket stuff I was like, this is a really weird deus ex machina if that's what this is. But also, the kids have been hilariously chill with just having Adaine walk around in a jacket filled with people.

There was a lot to unpack there and I'll got to it in another post but I can't do another 4k epic this week y'all. I have work in the morning.

Adaine yelling for Basrar to get them their ice cream before they freaking die.

Aww Gorthalax tried to heal Fig instead of attacking.

"Daddy that was a waste of a turn."

Gorgug who has a million hit points went down and all the healers are down. There are less than ten minutes left in the episode. TPK for sure, I'm thinking.

Adaine flipping people off with a vengeance today.

Also the fact that she totally forgot that she could ask for a healing potion which is totally a thing that she almost def would have been able to get is hilarious. I mean it wouldn't have been as funny if the episode ended differently but, as it stands, hilarious.

"Does the Hangman know medicine?"

"What about this student? Is he studying to be a cleric?"

Adaine is down. That's everyone down but Fabian. Three and a half minutes left. And that's when I realize. There's not enough time for a good ending, but there's not enough time for a bad ending either. But there's no S2. This is an anthology series. What's going on here my sleepy 6am brain is saying.

Fig giving her dad bardic inspiration while passed out because Emily is Emily.

Everyone (exceptt Riz) was making their saves. I'm thinking, "Is next season different characters, same setting. Maybe a bunch of years in the future? Legacy characters?" I'm trying to put together the fact that this is the finale with 2 minutes left with the fact that they're playing different characters next season. The pieces aren't fitting. 

And that's because I couldn't have predicted what was about to happen.

Ally, clearly joking says, "Can I roll for a nat 20 and just be alive?"

Brennan, barely thinking, says, "Sure, go for it," as casually as if he was okaying a perception check.

Murph and Lou are cracking up at the absurdity of the ask. 

Ally says, "This is to the corn god," half solem, half smiling.

Siobhan holds her hand over the dice like she's blessing them.

"I know I left for a while," Ally starts as the dice are cast and...

"NAT 20 MOTHERFUCKER!"

Everyone goes WILD.

Ally punches air.

Brennan looks like someone slapped him.

Emily: You have to rip up your comparative world religions book.

BONUS EPISODE UNLOCKED

And what did we learn today? A 5 percent chance is small, but not insignificant. 

OK, there’s one thing I want to address before I tap out for the night (and it’s not spell checking. I’ll do that in the morning).

I saw some people discussing the possibility that they faked the ending. Like, they just edited it like that to give them another chance because they were all about to die. Beyond the fact that I just trust them to not have done that, the other big reason I don’t think that’s likely is because there was a much more seamless way of stacking the deck in their favor. Brennan could have had Adaine pull literally anything out of her jacket. And I truly mean anything because this is a finale. Even if he gave her something game breaking, it wouldn’t have set a precedent because it’s the last ep. And that’s beyond all the NPCs that could plausibly have come in because they know something is up and teleportation is a thing in this world. Nah, I think that was just good, old fashioned, luck of the roll and thank Helio because they needed it.

OK, that’s it for now! Join me at some point between now and next ep to unpack this because it’s a lot and apparently we have another episode to get through. Hoot growl baby!

[theostry]

Teen Wolf Scripts liveblog: Season 1 Episode 2

Second ep of the first season, appropriately titled:

Teen Wolf Scripts!

Back again, Wolfiends. Another lengthy post consisting of screenshots of the Teen Wolf script alongside my own rambling commentary. I’m not here to review the show; finer minds than myself have got that covered. Nor is it a photo-recap; that has been done by crazier bastards than myself. 

I am here, as no doubt we all are, holding up my empty bowl to Jeff Davis and saying in a pitiful voice, “please, sir, I want some more.” Now, eat your gruel and count yourself lucky because this batch has raisins in it. 

Excerpts have been selected based on the following criteria: 1) It did not make the final cut; 2) It was substantially altered; 3) It offers extra detail not apparent from the show, such as description and direction; and 4) I felt like including it.

Fun times (and, obviously, a hell of a lot of spoilers) below the cut.

Okay, let’s get started!

WhaaAAAAT? 

We open on a doozie here. Is this a sign that the elusive Greenberg may actually exist? Like, in corporeal form? Not just a figment of Coach’s fevered imagination? 

The lacrosse sequence we’re shown was more montage-y than the script suggests and we don’t see Coach pass the ball to anyone directly, but here’s the first player to try for goal:

Greenberg? 

Or actually, it might have been this guy (confusing montage is confusing): 

Greenberg (’s hairy leg)? 

Oh but now here is where coach is telling Greenberg to take a lap, and THIS GUY starts running. 

GREENBEEEEERRG!

Coach is doing more actual coaching than I had thought him capable of, that’s nice. 

I don’t know what these “slap checks” and “cross checks” are, but to me it just looked like two guys in plastic armour smashing into one another. But what do I know, I’m not a sportsball expert. 

Also, goats. 

Sorry, sorry. I meant 

*lurk*

Well there goes my headcanon that wolf-puppy Scott just wanted to pway wif his best fwiend!

I love this scene a lot, and I’m glad they made it more scary and dramatic than this, with the jumping up on lockers and crouching in rafters and such. Why go around something when you can go over it, amirite?

Hello, gorgeous!

A STRANGE SILHOUETTE. 

I don’t know who you think you’re kidding, Jeff Davis. By now I think we all know that, like “a figure” and “someone watching”, this is a synonym for   

Now 100% more grabby!

That part isn’t news, but— Pffffft Melissa. 

LMFAO

Come on though, Melissa’s not that old. She knows perfectly well what it means, she just does this because it amuses her to make Scott squirm and huff. 

Then Allison pops up to tell him that she too is excited to come and watch him play. 

He didn’t get the line, but his face said it for him.

Meanwhile, someone’s creeping on Allison! 

HOW VERY ALONE 

NOT A SOUL

Until——  

Just kidding. The script doesn’t say who it is. I guess we’ll never know. Or, canon confirmation that Derek Hale OR WHOEVER does not possess a soul

In math class— 

Yeah, buddy. Us too. 

Ah, Lydia 

Is LAX a hip new abbreviation for Lacrosse? Or have airports somehow become a high school sport? I hope not, I would lose so badly. 

Now I want a spin-off series of webisodes about Allison Argent versus the Totally Evil Popular Girls. 

Curious. Both the spinning business and the ever-tantalising ‘OMITTED’. Don’t omit things, Jeff Davis, it’s rude! 

Well that didn’t happen 

That didn’t happen either 

UM NO JEFF THAT IS DEFINITELY NOT WHAT HAPPENED. THAT IS LITERALLY THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT HAPPENED.

No theatrics here!

Pity this bit got cut. Not a huge difference to the scene — we still got Derek’s casual disregard for others’ property and heavy-handed metaphor  — but Derek’s control is a big deal to Scott, and that could have done with more emphasis. 

*Curiosity intensifies*

Good to know that half-second sight gag was planned from the start. 

Huh. I always thought he’d said “there were bite marks on the lady.” Also, he didn’t mention Allison here on screen. 

*Curiosity intensifies further*

Good instincts, Scotty! I wonder how much that was his burgeoning wolfy-sense, and how much was just genre-savvy. 

Ooh, that’s different - on the show Scott is not only surprised to see Stiles approaching the car, but desperately trying to signal him to stop. 

This is not an Ok, go face. This is a face that says Stiles, no. At least they rhyme?

The Sheriff is the Sheriff again. Order is restored to the universe. 

The only ‘squealing sound’ I remember in this scene was from Stiles’s long-suffering Jeep. 

And now— oh. Oh holy hell. Look at this. 

yes yes we saw that part but Scott’s gone he’s run off

What the figgins no he hasn’t!

Oooooh Scotty no this is stalking behaviour. Do not eat your Stiles, that is bad manners. 

Not the Jeep! Stalking your BFF is one thing but assaulting an innocent Roscoe is just bang out of order. No wonder Stiles abandons his calm entreaties to yell at him, you can’t hit a man in the Jeep and expect him to keep his temper. 

I’m biting my nails are you biting your nails

SDKJHADFKLASDFA EXTENDED KEYSMASH! 

I KNOW BUD IT IS VERY SCARY

THAT’S GOOD STILES DRIVE OUT FROM UNDER THE RAMPAGING WEREWOLF WHAT COULD GO WRONG

RAMPAGING WEREWOLVES ARE VERY PERSISTENT AREN’T THEY

well he wasn’t going to hit him what do you think he is an Argent

SDFLKJHGFLKLSDJFH

WHAT THE HELL

SOMEBODY CALL TYLER AND DYLAN AND FILM THIS SCENE, STAT!!

It’s like all those times when--

O_O

YEAH NO FashgfadsUCKING KIDDING, JEFF!

*deep breath*

Add that to the list of places the Argents have canonically lived. Unless it’s a reference to [Coach Finstock voice] cream cheese. 

*Curiosity levels approaching critical*

A ball-peen hammer? Oh, Coach. 

A crack? In his helmet? What and how? 

Sensible, random Lacrosse (LAX?) player. Your captain is a douche. 

Aw, we didn’t get Scott’s serial killer POV here. 

Bahaha he never even went for a ‘slap check’ (whatever that is), he just growled at him from five feet away. 

Interesting indeed, Coach! He doesn’t reply to Stiles in the show. This way it gives the impression that he’s going to be doing some investigating, maybe Scott will have to be more careful around him. 

Lol, the referee never called the goal. Coach argued with him, then blew the whistle himself, and the refs just went with it. 

That’s a different take - that in his heightened state the sight of Argent coming towards him triggered his flight response. We didn’t see Argent walking onto the field until after Scott was long gone, so there was no suggestion that Scott was reacting to him at that time. We do see an ominously thoughtful look on Chris’s face! 

Awwww sweet. You hold onto that brief second, wolf boy. 

I WONDER who it’s gonna be, say it with me now— 

Oh hey! We’re on first name terms with our stalker now.

wait-- 

what

Aaaahahaha no he doesn’t, as if Derek Actual Hale would smile and greet someone. Jeff you’ve been smoking again. 

 (Or, more likely, trying to seed the aborted Jackson Hale plotline.) 

Another ripper of a script! Some fun extra moments -- and nail-biting ones -- as well as a few where the production obviously decided to go in a different direction. We got Scott marvelling at Derek’s control, Melissa trolling her son like the A+ parent she is, Scott having extremely good spidey-senses for a canid, Derek as a luring lurker who lurks, even when the script tells him not to, this man cannot be stopped, not to mention everybody’s favourite Greenberg, with an actual face! Or leg. Whatever.

All outshone by the Jeep attack scene. Why, oh why, Jeff? Do you hate us? 

Nahhh. On reflection, I can see why they cut it. This episode showcased Scott’s lack of control over his wolfy side, but we already had a fair bit of Feral Scott -- on the lacrosse (sorry, LAX) field and peeping into Allison’s window -- so that point was made. And we’d already had him attacking Stiles specifically, in that excellent locker room scene. But the visual of Scott wolfed out and roaring to the sky from atop the Jeep would have been something to see. Not to mention that moment of terror as Stiles finally sees what his friend has become, in the clear light of day, no helmet or darkness to obscure him. 

It would have been the perfect punctuation to Scott’s complaint from just prior: “Stop enjoying this so much!” Stiles still thinks he’s in a superhero origin story. But Scott is stuck in a nightmare horror. 

At least he got his perfect moment. 

Exeunt

[kateofthecanals]

For The (Not)Watch: Episode 7.4

The Reason HBO Can’t Afford Direwolves Anymore

So this week wasn’t quite AS boring as last week, but that’s not saying much. I almost had an emotion or two. ALMOST...

We open on something other than Dragonstone for a change -- in the Reach(?) and on the Westerosi Wells Fargo Wagon, which Jaime is once-overing, while Bronn hangs out in the background demanding Jaime give him Highgarden, but Biggie Lannister is like “nah, mo’ money, mo’ problems!” Bronn’s not buying that line, though, and feels he should be on the list of debts the Lannisters pay off. He also makes some snarky remarks about Cersei which are actually 100% accurate but of course Jaime, like GoT watchers, is blissfully blind to the truth. Jaime then sends Bronn with the Tarlys to go shake-down local farmers for their sweet, sweet grains.

Then we head over to King’s Landing, where Tycho is hella impressed that Pinhead Cersei will be able to pay off her debts in one lump sum but is kinda bummed to be losing out on that tasty monthly APR. Cersei hints that Qyburn is in negotiations with the Golden Company to join her cause and Tycho vouches for them... but reminds Cersei that the Iron Bank ain’t doing shit until Jaime makes that big deposit.

Next we hit up Winterfell, AND WHO THE HELL LEFT THE KIDS ALONE WITH LITTLEFINGER?? Somehow that snake slithered his way into Bran’s chambers and is attempting some kinda cringeworthy heart-to-heart... Seriously I half-expected him to tell Bran “I’M YOUR DADDY NOW.” Instead he decides to give Bran a gift -- the Valyrian steel dagger that was used to try to murder him in Season 1. Bran’s like... “Thanks?” (But really, isn’t this kinda payback for last week when he threw Sandra’s wedding night back in her face?) LF starts monologuing about Catelyn, and Bran asks if LF knows who the dagger belonged to (I’m guessing just to test LF, because obviously Miss Cleo is gonna know exactly who it belonged to... right??), and of course LF is like “No idea!” Then he randomly mentions the word “chaos” and Bran’s creep-dar goes off, and he interrupts him by saying “CHAOS IS A LADDAH.” Yes, folks, Bran threw LF’s dumbest catchphrase back in his face and it was played off like a genuinely weighty moment and not something that required a laugh track in the background. LF has barely time to react before Meera comes in. LF leaves, and Meera makes the sad announcement that she has to leave to be with her family, and Bran’s just like “Cool, bye then.” And Meera’s like... “bitch that all you have to say to me????” And Bran’s just like “uhhhh thank you for your service?” Meera then be thinking hmmm maybe this is just like a teen comedy and he’ll come wheelin’ after me at the airport at the last minute to profess his love for me? But nah, Bran’s straight-up fixing to ghost her ass, smh. She’s like “my brother, your wolf, and Hodor all died for you, Bran!!” But he’s like

And because D&D would rather leave significant character development off-screen, they have Meera assure us that Bran “died in that cave.” Cool, thanks, good to know!

Meera leaves, and then Bran hears the familiar strings of the Stark Theme, and he knows that Arya is near! Yes, Arya has finally found her way back to Winterfell. She strolls up to the front gates and is immediately given a hard time by the guards in a blatant repeat of the same scene from Season 1 (not the first or last time we will be seeing rip-offs from the first couple of seasons just in this episode alone). One of the guards even tries to PUNCH her (???) before agreeing to left her in but telling her wait while they decide what to tell Sansa. And since WF is being guarded by 2 of the 3 Stooges, Arya is able to just wander off without them noticing.

The guards then enter what appears to be the Bat Cave where Sandra is hiding out and has pretty much no visible reaction to hearing that Arya is in the house. Which is funny because Arya implied to the guards that Sandra would have their asses if she found out they’d turned her sister away. Instead, she just kinda looks bored and is like, “whatever, I know where she is...”

We then go down to the crypts for one of the most-anticipated reunions in ASOIAF-dom!!! Buuuut this is GoT, so it’s all very awkward and forced. Like, seriously, Arya, you’re not fooling anyone...

Sandra runs up to hug her, but just like with Small Wonder Bran, Arya-Bot 1000 barely registers an emotion or even bothers to hug her back. WTF, people???

They briefly have a moment in front of Ned’s statue, which was kinda nice. I mean, they didn’t even call him stupid or anything!! The lowest of low-hanging fruit, but I’ll take it at this point... Then Arya says it doesn’t look enough like Ned and that it should have been carved by someone who knew his face, but Sandra says that everyone who knew his face is dead. Ummmm? Sandra, Arya, Bran, Jon, Cersei, Varys, Sandor, Jaime, Littlefinger, Beric, Thoros... that’s almost a dozen people right there who are still alive that knew what Ned looked like (though I can’t vouch for their stone-carving skills...). Then, as usual, the moment is completely trampled on when the two sisters bond over how they both wished they had killed Joffrey themselves HAHAHAHAHA so sweet. Then Arya tells Sandra about her List, and Sandra’s just like

They make vague allusions to all the things they’ve been through since their separation. They then venture the godswood to say howdy to Bran, who is a party-pooper as usual, calling out Arya on her plan to go to KL to kill Cersei. Sandra asks Arya who else is on her list... SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO BRING UP SANDOR BUT NOOOOOPE CAN’T HAVE ANY DISCUSSION ABOUT THE HOUND WITH OR IN FRONT OF SANDRA EVEN IF IT’S ARYA DOING THE DISCUSSIN’ so she’s just like “eh most of them are already dead.” Then out of nowhere Bran’s just like “check out this new toy Littlefinger gave me” and Sandra’s like “WHY IS LITTLEFINGER GIVING YOU WEAPONS” Bran’s like “doesn’t matter, don’t want it anyway” and gives it to Arya.

The three Starks then make their way back into the the yard, where Brienne and Pod see them, and Pod says, “Good job, m’lady!” and she responds pretty much the same way I did -- “I didn’t do shit.”

Then we hit up Dragonstone, where the Jonerys train is being happily conducted by Missandei and Davos. Both give their respective masters a forced series of “nudge-nudge-wink-wink” moments with regards to the other, so as to to remind the viewers that THIS IS TOTALLY A THING, YOU GUYS. Dany and Missy are taking a stroll, and when they see Jon, they exchange a look like two freshmen girls who have just been acknowledged by the varsity QB on the quad. It’s quite pitiful.

Anyway, Jon takes Dany into one of the dragonglass caves to show her something. Sadly, he keeps his pants on and instead ducks into a tunnel which opens up into another cave with a bunch of primitive drawings on the walls. Indiana Snow then schools Dany on how they were drawn by the Children of the Forest and depict their encounters with both the First Men and the white walkers.

P.S. the CoF totally phoned it in on the FM but got all HR Giger when it came to the WWs.

And even though Jon could have drawn those pictures himself and made up literally everything he said for all Dany knew, she considers this definitive proof of his claims and immediately agrees to help him... if he bends the knee. There’s a lot of whisper-talking and long-held gazes, which I think was supposed to be “sexual tension”.

They exit the cave with their chaperones, where they find Tyrion and Varys waiting for them, looking rather glum. Tyrion drops the bad news that although they took Casterly Rock, the Lannister forces took Highgarden and all the spoils. Tyrion tries to rally, but Dany reams him out for fucking up and suggests he did it on purpose cuz he’s really still loyal to the Lannisters (OH DUHHHHH). She then declares “enough with the clever plans” and decides instead to stick to more stupid ones I guess. To that end, she asks Jon what she should do.

Your QUEEN, ladies and gents. Has no idea what she’s doing and constantly has to ask the (much smarter) men around her to tell her what to do. But the mere fact that she is “in charge” is I guess enough for most people to declare this “feminist”. Sure, okay.

Anyway, Jon tells her that if she uses her dragons to annihilate everyone, she’s just “more of the same” and isn’t giving her followers anything better to hope for. Which is a fair enough assessment but we all know it’s being used to highlight Jon’s “dumb” honor and compassion because DRAGONS SO EPICCCCCC!!!

Back at Winterfell, Brienne is again cleaning Pod’s clock (remember when this kid killed a Kingsguard in the middle of the Battle of the Blackwater? D&D don’t either I guess), but then Arya rolls up on her with Needle and says she wants to throw down with the person who beat the Hound. Brienne’s like “haha cute” but then Arya pulls out all the water-dancing nonsense and completely flummoxes Brienne.

So, for those doing the math:

Brienne beat The Hound; Arya beat Brienne; ergo, ARYA CAN BEAT THE HOUND.

I really wanted to enjoy this scene, but I couldn’t forget that the last time we saw Arya actually spar with anyone was in Season 1 with Syrio. Now all of a sudden she’s the most formidable warrior in the Seven Kingdoms. 

Any-freaking-way, Sandra appears on her perch again (with LF not far behind, of course), and at first she seems pretty impressed with Arya’s skillz, but when it’s over, she just, like, storms off in a huff? Why??

She leaves LF to have a weird stare-down with Arya.

Back on Dragonstone, it’s now Davos’s turn to tease Jon about Dany, implying that Jon was staring at her rack apparently?? Jon’s like “ain’t nobody got time for that” but luckily they run into Missandei where Davos can continue on that train of thought. They then have a conversation about how bastard names work on Westeros (in Season 7?????) and Missandei declares that marriage isn’t a thing in Naath, and Dirty Ol’ Man Davos is like HAHAHAHA not where I come from either, wanna go grab a drink later?? Jon and Davos then start questioning why Missandei is so loyal to Dany, and Missandei begins to talk about Dany like Squeaky Fromme talking about Charles Manson.

^^ waiting for this dialogue to pop out of Dany’s mouth at some point this season...

Davos is basically like SORRY I ASKED. Just then, they’re interrupted by a dingy being pulled up on shore (somehow they didn’t notice this until the were RIGHT on the beach) containing Theon and the straggler Ironborn. Theon sees Jon and is like like “hey sup” and Jon’s all YOUSONOFABITCH!!! but stops just short of roughing him up because of what he did for Sandra. He then tells him that Euron has his sister and he needs Dany’s help to get her back, but Jon says she’s not home right now...

Where could she beeeeeee?? Welp, we hop back over the the Lannister wagon train, which, again, Jaime and Bronn are just sitting and watching. Apparently they are much closer the the Crownlands (or in the Crownlands?) than they had been at the beginning of the episode... They then decide to have some not-so-subtle small talk with Dickon Tarly, whom Jaime again calls Rickon, about how he fought pretty decently at Highharden but how he has yet to be really tested. THEN GUESS WHAT HAPPENS, GUYS??? The show is interrupted by a screening of Dances with Wolves--no, wait, that’s just the Dothraki streaming over the hill to fuck shit up... along with Dany riding Drogon.

COMMENCE BATTLE #371 TO DISTRACT THE VIEWERS FROM THE SHITTY WRITING!!!

Yes, it’s all very exciting and well-executed, if you ignore:

The Dothraki would have had to circumvent KL somehow to get there.

They couldn’t have gone by ship because Euron destroyed Dany’s fleet.

Horse-Surfing™

The scene was 90% about Bronn?? For some reason??

Dany, who not 10 minutes ago was complaining about not being able to feed her army, proceeds to destroy all the gold and grain the Lannisters were hauling.

Gratuitous horse violence because “edgy” I guess

WHY/HOW IS TYRION THERE?

So the big climax comes when Bronn gets promoted from Bronn of the Blackwater to Bronn of the Big-Ass Crossbow. Yes, in yet another ham-fisted callback to an early season, Bronn figures out how to use the giant ballista and fires an arrow straight into Drogon’s shoulder, forcing Dany to land. While she’s down, Tyrion is standing off to the side and spots Jaime on the battlefield and is mumbling for him to get the fuck out of there. But this is Jaime Fookin’ Lannister, he doesn’t run away from anything, especially his toxic co-dependent relationship with his twin sister!! So he grabs a spear and begins to charge toward Dany like he at the Hand’s Tourney (except we never actually saw him joust at the Hand’s Tourney, so once again, emotional impact of this moment is M.I.A.). Just as he’s about to strike, Drogon turns and is about to make him dragon kibble when he is rescued at the last second by, presumably, Bronn, and is swept away beneath an extremely deep puddle that just happened to be nearby. The End.

I know there are a lot of show-critics today who are super hyped about this battle (which is apparently a “reference” to the Field of Fire, ugh), but guys... sorry, no. I am way past the point where a showy battle scene is going to make up for all the nonsense that came before it. They’ve tried this trick already -- it was called “Hardhome”. It didn’t work on me then, and it won’t work on me now. I would have rather seen a more meaningful reunion between the Stark sisters than another expensive spectacle. If this is why the direwolves have disappeared, then sorry, I don’t consider it a fair trade-off.

[feathersandblue]

Re: your recent posts about fandom entitlement, do you think there's a corellation between that growing entitlement and the trend towards demanding ships etc. be canon? I 100% get wanting representation, but it feels like something else is also going on with all the demands for canon ships, canon validation, treating headcanons as absolute fact etc. It's like fandom HAS to be validated/legitimized, and just exploring possibility - which has always been the core of fanwork - isn't enough anymore.

Yes, I think that there’s a correlation, BUT I also think that the interaction within fandom often makes people believe that there is a secret conspiracy going on, and that sometimes fans tend to get lost in their meta. On tumblr, specifially, the narrative that is conveyed about a show often doesn’t reflect the actual narrative. 

Back in the days, when the first couple of seasons of Teen Wolf had Sterek become so vastly popular, many new fans pointed out that they had expected a completely different show, based on the gifsets and meta posts on tumblr and the hype accompanying Sterek. Of course, the showrunners didn’t help: if there has ever been a case of the showrunners, cast and press people intentionally queerbaiting, Teen Wolf was it. But apart from that, it sometimes seemed like Sterek fans, myself included, were watching a completely different kind of show. 

The same goes for Supernatural. For close to six seasons now, Destiel shippers have been expecting Destiel to become canon any second. I know because I was one of them. When I was waiting for season nine, I let myself be caught up in a growing excitement among fans, which basically said: “Even casual viewers have noticed that the writers are hinting at Destiel”, and I wrote a couple of meta posts that contributed to the madness that still get the occasional reblog, three seasons later.

I think TPTB have mostly stopped trying to convince people that they are not secretly planning to make Destiel canon. Simply because whatever they say, people just won’t believe them. Though I also think they’ve made it abundantly clear - through various tweets during season nine as well as in “Fanfiction” (the episode that was basicallly a love letter to their fans) that it’s not going to happen. Yet there’s a narrative in fandom that tells you otherwise. And I know that if I read enough of those “color theory hints at LGBT themes”, “there was a ship in the background last episode, and Castiel was on a boat on this one, it’s a hidden message”, “look at this gifset, they’re standing much too close together and Dean is clearly looking at Cas’ lips”, there’s a good chance I would start to believe it. And then, if I actually watched the respective episode, I’d think to myself, “well, that wasn’t quite as obvious as the meta posts made it seem”.

TJLC is another good example. The Powers That Be have stated, time and again, that they don’t intend to make Johnlock canon, and yet there was a bunch of shippers so deep down the rabbit hole that they just wouldn’t believe it, who were extremely disappointed by the last episode. And that’s when the nastiness sets in and they start looking for ways to accuse the showrunners of homophobia, misogyny, and so on. 

Yes, part of the problem is entitlement, but part of the problem is also that fandom, as a whole, tends to develop its own narratives based on exagerrated meta, slow-motion gifsets, and the human ability to cherry-pick (to take only certain details and ignore others entirely). 

I think the problem here is that both the sense of entitlement and the meta narratives tend to work to gether to raise expectations to an unrealistic level. People let themselves be convinced by meta that there’s a real chance of something happening, and the fandom-wide cry for representation and the SJ-flavored way to engage with texts then make them believe that they are entitled to seeing it happening, and when it doesn’t happen, they feel very, very upset, and channel their disappointment and frustration into vitriolic “criticism”. 

Yes, the whole thing is steeped in a sense of entitlement. When “The Cursed Child” came out, it was almost like people resented JKR simply for the fact that she dared to do something with the universe and the characters she hadn’t cleared with fandom first. Fandom tends to stake a claim, tends to get possessive. I’ve often seen posts that basically said: “Character X should be saved from this lousy bunch of writers”, “the showrunners are ruining Character Y”, “Z would never do that” as if the characters had a life of their own, even though they only ever exist in writing. Also, there’s a difference between saying, “well, I didn’t like what the writers did here, it doesn’t fit with the characterization we got so far” and “the showrunners deserve to die because they turned Cap into a Hydra agent”. 

Well, this post got away from me. TL;DR: I think that entitement is a part of it, but it’s often supported and reinforced by meta that develops a life on its own. 

Does that make any sense? 

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Shadowhunters Season 2 Episode 6 -- The Iron Sisters -- Review/Discussion

Shadowhunters Season 2 Episode 6, The Iron Sisters, was a pretty enjoyable episode despite the episode being made completely of B plots that didn’t really push the overall plot forward. This episode’s purpose was primarily to be an info dump episode. People don’t generally like info dump episodes because they typically have very little action and there’s usually a whole lot of talking involved. But they are necessary in tv shows, particularly if it’s a supernatural type show. We don’t actually live in these supernatural-based type worlds so sometimes we do need an info dump episode to explain things that a show couldn’t otherwise show us in an action episode.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding this episode. If you’re the kind of Shadowhunters fan where you only want to hear positive things about the show, this is not the place for you. If you decide to stick around and get offended by what is said, then that’s on you. I warned you. Just know that if you send me any rude comments or messages, I will 100% ignore you. I find that’s the best way to deal with bullies. I work 14 hour days. Do you really think I want to waste my incredibly valuable free time dealing with derogatory comments? Hell no. This review will consist of my honest opinions. Opinions are never right or wrong. I’m not telling you how to think and feel. I’m telling you what I think and feel. So please, let’s discuss with dignity and respect. If I’m critical about the show, it’s only because I want it to get better. There is, in fact, a difference between hating a show and being critical of it. I am not hating on Shadowhunters; I am being critical and analyzing the flaws as I would with any other show. There are positives but there are also negatives. It’s great if you want to promote positivity with this show but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t acknowledge the things that are legitimately wrong with it. There will be spoilers for the show and spoilers for the books and movie. 

Info dump episodes don’t always have to be bad. If they’re done right, they can actually be pretty entertaining. Shadowhunters Season 1 Episode 6, Of Men and Angels, is an info dump episode but it was a badly done one. It’s really bad when after the info dump episode, you’re even more confused about the characters’ backgrounds and the show’s plot then you were before. Of Men and Angels is an example of what not to do on an info dump episode. The A plot was a mess and the B plot was dumb and didn’t make sense. However, good info dump episodes do exist. Teen Wolf Season 3A has a really great info dump episode. It was really interesting. In that episode, you’re being told two different stories but you’re actually hearing these stories from the perception of the villains. It may not initially seem like it but both of these stories are actually fueling the main plot. Based on who is telling the story, you’re hearing these stories based on two unreliable narrarators and by hearing these two different stories with bias on both sides, you actually get a very clear understanding of what actually happened and how these stories affected the plot, how the characters came to be in the situation they’re in. The stories, when hearing them separately probably wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense but when you hear them together, it’s fantastic storytelling. I just thought it was a really interesting way to go about an info dump episode and it is one of my favorite Teen Wolf episodes to date. This week’s Shadowhunters episode didn’t really do that. As I said, this episode was just a grouping of B plots which ordinarily wouldn’t be so bad except these B plots didn’t really fuel the show’s overall plot in any direction. I would’ve preferred if there had been some way for the show to tie these B plots into the season’s overall plot. But there was still a lot of enjoyment to be had in this episode. The character moments, as they have been for the last few episodes, were great. It’s continually becoming a positive about this show now. These characters are becoming more complex which was something they severely lacked in Season One. There are so many great character moments on a consistent basis that I’m enjoying the show now just based on that. Whereas before, I was only watching this show out of an ill-conceived hope that the show might get better. The pacing has also drastically improved. We only have a few storylines driving this episode which is a good thing. When this show tries to do 5 or 6 different storylines an episode, that’s when the episode feels like an assortment of non-connecting scenes glumped together. There are still some weird plot issues going on but for an episode made entirely of B plots, this was still very enjoyable.

Clary and Izzy Meet the Iron Sisters

We finally get an explanation of what the Iron Sisters are in this episode. They’ve been casually mentioned in a couple of episodes with no real explanation of who they are. I know who they are because I’ve read the books but I can only imagine how confused non-book fans are regarding them. But we got an explanation in this episode so it’s all good. Clary is still mourning the loss of her mother but asks Izzy to let her go on the mission to meet the Iron Sisters. I can definitely understand Clary’s need to go on a mission. She needs to distract her mind. I did think that it was weird when Izzy asks Clary how she’s faring, Clary says she’s making it and Izzy tells her it’s going to be okay. I thought it was a bit odd for someone who still has both of her parents to tell someone who just lost a parent that it’s going to be okay. Don’t get me wrong, it’s exactly what you should tell someone who’s going through this but it matters who is doing the telling. I don’t think it carries a whole lot of meaning for Izzy to say it. Jace, on the other hand, who has lost a parent, it would make a whole lot more sense. Simon, who has lost a parent, it would make sense. Magnus, who has lost an incomparable amount of people, it would make sense. But Izzy? It just felt like a cheap use of the line. 

Izzy goes and asks Aldertree to let Clary on the mission and Aldertree asks Izzy to spy on Clary for him in exchange for more yin fen. I have seen an incomparable amount of posts from people saying they hate this yin fen plot line, that they find it disgusting and I’m just going to say this. GUESS WHAT? YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO ENJOY IT. Nobody likes seeing their favored characters in a drug addiction plot. It’s heartbreaking to watch. The benefits of a drug addiction plotline aren’t for the audience’s enjoyment, it’s to push the character in a direction that will (hopefully) make the character stronger. Do you think I enjoyed watching Spencer Reid, my favorite Criminal Minds character, go through his drug addiction? Definitely not. But the person he became when he came out of it, made it all worth it. He became so much stronger and better because of it. There’s this episode seasons later when he’s exposed to anthrax and he actually refuses pain medication because he doesn’t want to risk falling off the wagon again. Do you know how strong you have to be to turn pain medication away when you’re dying from anthrax? So no, I don’t like watching Izzy go through this addiction but she’s going to become so much stronger from it as a result which is what I do want to see. Characters need to face adversity. That’s what makes them compelling. No one likes a Mary Sue or a Gary Stu character (perfect characters). They’re boring as hell and unrelatable.

Clary and Izzy arrive at the Iron Sisters Citadel via portal and I’m questioning why this “taskforce” mentioned in the previous episode only includes one person. Izzy asks to lead a taskforce but she was originally the only one going? Who was she planning on leading? I don’t think you can legitimately call one person a “taskforce.” How does that make any sense? Why would you only send one person on a mission without any backup? I also feel the need to question Aldertree’s logic on getting Izzy to spy on Clary. Aldertree knows Izzy and Clary are friends. How can he be so certain that Izzy is actually going to tell him the truth? I would totally lie to that douchebag and not think twice about it. Wouldn’t he be much more suited to send another couple of shadowhunters onto this taskforce to spy on them both? Clary and Izzy are friends, yes. But Clary isn’t really friends with any of the other fifty shadowhunter extras this show feels the need to include without actually including them. And yes, I am going to bring up these shadowhunter extras every single review until they actually become relevant. I just really hope these new showrunners can finally find a way to incorporate these extras into the story that actually makes sense. Right now, they’re just a plot hole. Sending a couple of extra shadowhunters could help Aldertree with understanding if Izzy can actually be trusted to be his spy. None of these other shadowhunters seem to have any warm and fuzzy feelings about Clary. They certainly won’t feel compelled to lie to Aldertree about her. I’ve accepted at this point that Aldertree is probably a bad guy but now he’s just being an idiot. And I don’t like my villains to be idiots. 

The Iron Sisters tell Izzy and Clary that in order to get the answers they need, they will need to go into the citadel and to do that, they have to go through a purity ritual. The ritual, if it finds any demon properties, will eliminate those demon properties. Izzy is at first worried that Clary isn’t going to make it through because she’s worried Valentine may have experimented on her with demon blood just as Jace was but it turns out those fears were unfounded. I also don’t know how it’s become common knowledge that Jace has demon blood. Valentine told Jace and Jocelyn told Clary and Simon. Really, no one else should know. This isn’t something you want to go blabbing to everyone. It feels like everyone and their mom knows about the demon blood thing. Maybe there really is a twitter feed at the Institute. As it turns out, Izzy should’ve been more concerned for herself in regards to this purity ritual. I don’t think anyone was surprised when Izzy couldn’t get through the ritual. We all know that yin fen has demon properties. Clary thinks Izzy couldn’t get through it because of the demon wound but after Clary leaves to go to the citadel, one of the Iron Sisters tells Izzy that the reason she couldn’t pass the ritual is because the yin fen is polluting her entire body. Then this is the part where I got a little mad at the writers. The Iron Sister tells Izzy that yin fen is vampire venom. Yin Fen is NOT vampire venom. It comes from a very specific demon. Whereas in the previous episode, I thought it was super interesting that yin fen was being brought into the story, now I just feel cheated. It was super interesting because I know what yin fen does and how badly it could mess up Izzy but I just don’t think vampire venom is all that believable or threatening. If vampire venom is what the show wants to make yin fen to be, than I sincerely hope The Infernal Devices is never made into a tv series. Because it doesn’t make sense. Spoilers for The Infernal Devices ahead. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read anything in italics. 

If this is the same yin fen that Jem got addicted to, at one point in the series they ran into a problem because the villain was buying out all the yin fen so Tessa would have no choice but to go to him. If yin fen really is vampire venom, they could simply have gone to a vampire to get this drug.

So yeah, it doesn’t make sense and considering how much I adore The Infernal Devices, I think I have every right to be angry about this, to feel cheated about this. The writers had a chance to take this plot point in a really interesting direction and they chickened out. And also, if vampire venom is flowing through Izzy’s veins right now, does this mean that if she were to die, she could come back as a vampire? She would have to have vampire blood in her system but she already has the venom someone would get from being bitten. Is that the turn they’re planning to make with Izzy? Is Izzy going to become a vampire? I hope not. That doesn’t sound like anything Izzy would ever want for herself. I’m pretty sure she’d prefer to die outright. But in this scene with the Iron Sisters, I did enjoy this total look of despair on Izzy’s face. Her entire life, all she’s ever wanted was to meet the Iron Sisters and when she has, she’s completely, unwittingly disparaged her name in front of them. They will forever see her as the shadowhunter who has demon properties in her blood. They’ll never even consider taking her in as one of their own now. It was a really moving moment for me to watch.

Clary goes into the citadel and the Iron Sister she’s talking to is revealed to be Luke’s sister, Cleophas. Cleophas tells Clary that Luke is in more danger than he could possibly imagine. That the soul sword has the ability to make people tell the truth but it also has a different purpose. That it can be used to kill everything in the world with demon blood which includes all downworlders. So Magnus, Luke, Simon, all of them would die. This is a use that does not exist in the books and I kind of hope this is just a story and not the sword’s actual purpose because that doesn’t really make sense either. If this sword has this ability, why wouldn’t they just “clean house” every few hundred years or something? I get that it requires a “special” being to use it and that is also another plot hole. If this secondary purpose really is for real, how would they know if there’s even someone alive at the time they need to activate the sword? I get the feeling no ordinary shadowhunter will be able to activate it. I’m also hoping that it’s not Clary who is destined to activate it because that seems a little too obvious at this point. Since this is a use only the Iron Sisters seem to know, how does Valentine know about it? And if the angels had the power to do this themselves, why don’t they? Why did the angel, Raziel, waste its precious blood giving it to shadowhunters when the demons could be smote so easily? There are just a lot of plot issues that could come up with this sword’s new ability that I really don’t think the show is going to take the time to explain. And if it can’t be explained, it probably shouldn’t be in the story. And to be perfectly honest, this feels incredibly “chosen one” cheesy. And it’s the kind of cheese I don’t like. Clary leaves the citadel and tells Cleophas that she drew a rune that isn’t in the shadowhunter records. Cleophas also looks genuinely surprised by this as is Izzy who is eavesdropping. You would think that someone who couldn’t pass the purity ritual would be watched more carefully while they were on sacred grounds but whatever. Izzy knows now and it’ll be really interesting to see what she does with this information. Clary initially thinks that her mother sent the rune to her and Cleophas tells her that when we die we don’t become angels. Clary asks what does happen and Cleophas responds that the answer to that question escapes both shadowhunters and mundanes. I thought that was a really great exchange between the two. Clary is still desperate for her mother to be out there in some way and Cleophas is essentially telling her to accept that her mother has moved on and is really gone. Izzy and Clary leave as well as Cleophas but not before Cleophas stabs another Iron Sister and reveals a Circle mark with her stele. Now, I get that showing the Circle mark was meant for dramatics and all but I have to ask. What was the actual purpose of revealing the mark? She’s kept it a secret for this long. On a practical level, why did she suddenly allow it to become visible? There really was no point to it. I’m sure everyone and their mother is going to think that Cleophas is going to go off and tell Valentine about Clary but I’m going to hope the show is going to go another angle with her character. I kind of want her character to be a little more complicated than that. I would totally expect the Season One writers to write her as Valentine’s lackey but I have higher expectations for these Season 2 writers. Just because she used to be a Circle member doesn’t mean she’s still in cahoots with Valentine. Yes, Hodge was but the Lightwoods also were and they’re not anymore (at least not yet, with this show, you never know what they’re gonna change). So let’s not discredit her yet. I am interested to see what’s happening with her in the next episode.

Finding Luke

We finally get to find out what’s been going on with Luke. Luke has seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet for the past few episodes so it was nice to finally see him come back. He has apparently been off transforming in the woods while dealing with his grief over Jocelyn. Simon is trying to find him but most of the pack has given up on trying to find him. All except Maia. You might remember her from Parabatai Lost. She was one of the wolves trying to kill Jace. She meets Simon and these two go off to find Luke. Their chemistry felt really great in this episode which is a good thing. Their relationship is relatively important in the books so the actors should have a decent amount of chemistry. I did feel like their first meeting felt a little forced. I found it a bit odd that Maia would be so willing to trust a vampire (her kind’s sworn enemy) right off the bat but okay. Whatever. Maybe they bonded over the fact she tried to kill Jace. Their interactions were a lot of fun in this episode and we actually had a flashback scene that didn’t totally suck. I know, who would’ve thought this show could actually execute a decent flashback sequence. The flashback scene didn’t feel forced and thankfully they kept the same actress for it. It felt very organic and fluid in the story. It was about Maia and what happened after her first Turn. She met Luke and she doesn’t really understand what’s happening to her and I thought it was a really moving scene. She felt both vulnerable yet strong at the same time and I enjoyed it. And it also really helped sell the kind of bond she has with Luke. Luke has been getting so little screen time lately that it’s helping to hear about his relationships with other people to reinforce his character and what his character stands for. They eventually find Luke in a forest as he’s about to chow down on some campers. Simon is able to stop him in time with a story about how he (Luke) made Clary feel better about herself after her hair had to be cut short because she got marshmallows stuck in it. I don’t know how I feel about the marshmallow bit. I’ve never heard of anyone cutting their hair so short they were afraid they looked like a boy because they got marshmallows stuck in it. I think a long shower would’ve been able to take care of it. If they wanted this kind of character empathy, they would’ve been better off with the “chewing gum in hair” story. I also have to question if Luke chowing down on these campers would’ve been any great loss to the world. They hear Luke growl (loudly) outside the tent and they think it’s a deer? As far as I know, deer don’t growl. And if they do, I certainly don’t think they would sound like that. I guess it’s true. Sex really does make you stupid.

Luke transforms back and I loved the character interactions he has with Maia and Simon. Those were great as well. Like I said, great character moments.

Jace Drama

You know it’s not a real Shadowhunters episode if we don’t have some sort of underlying Jace drama going on. Jace is having to deal with Aldertree not trusting him. And really, can he blame Aldertree? In the City of Bones, Jace did say he could never blindly swear allegiance to the Clave. How did he not think that that was going to bite him in the ass later? But Aldertree is also being his usual douchey self, as well. It’s now what I expect of him whenever he’s on screen. It’s so disappointing. I wanted there to be a little something extra to his character but no dice. Aldertree is essentially trying to chase Jace out of the Institute for some reason. I assume there is some sort of plan in mind for this particular plot point. At first, he tries to get Jace to go by making things unbearable for Jace like putting him on ichor duty. But then he tells Jace that if he doesn’t leave, he’s going to show everyone a clip of Jace at the City of Bones where he admits that he can’t swear complete allegiance to the Clave. This was a good little manipulation sequence. The people at the Institute already don’t trust Jace and I can understand Aldertree’s surface stance on this. It is his job to protect the Institute and the people who work there. He can’t really protect them if he has someone within their ranks who can’t completely swear allegiance to the Clave. Although, I don’t particularly understand why these people began to mistrust Jace in the first place. He’s supposedly been living with them for the past 10 years. When you know someone for that long, live in close quarters with them, you develop a bond. But maybe they didn’t like him to begin with? Considering what a cocky doucehbag Jace was in Season One, this could very well be the case. And I also don’t understand how this “clip” exists. The City of Bones is a cave. How were they filming this? There were no wires in that cave. Where would they get the electricity? That was really good film resolution for a camera phone. When the show throws stupid stuff like that at me, I can’t help but to laugh at it.

But Jace ultimately decides to leave and asks Magnus for a place to stay. I am beyond excited for this plot point. This isn’t how Jace comes to live with Magnus in City of Ashes but I’m fine with it. I do like how the show is finding ways to incorporate elements from the books, it’s just being done a different way. The Jace and Magnus roommate angle has some of my favorite scenes from City of Ashes so I’m really excited to see it. I really hope this is the point Jace is actually going to get some of the book Jace snark his character has been missing. Dom does a really good job at portraying emotional and angsty Jace. I’m just waiting for him to make me laugh. 

Malec First Date

Yup, it’s finally here, guys. The Malec first date happened and it didn’t disappoint. I really liked it. Magnus kind of misleads Alec into thinking something’s wrong in order to get Alec over to his place. Magnus tells Alec that he needs to take some time for himself and I really liked the exchanges in this scene. Really, any Malec scene in this episode was gold. It was so great, so relatable. It was, by far, the best part about this episode. Alec agrees to go out and they end up at the Hunter’s Moon. That’s the bar in Parabatai Lost where Jace met Maia. I’m thinking this is probably a downworlder hangout spot. I also loved the fact that Magnus reveals to Alec that he’s been hustling him in pool this entire time and Alec is all, “okay, game on.” This is what makes the Malec relationship fun. It’s not really about all the romance bits. At least it’s not for me. It’s about these two people just hanging out and having fun. That when they’re with each other, they’re free to be themselves. That’s what I’ve always liked about them. I don’t care how many kisses or how many make out scenes we get, I just want lots of scenes like this. 

The two eventually make their way back to the bar and they have the conversation that no one looks forward to on a first date or whenever this conversation pops up when you’re interested in someone. And that is, “the ex” talk. 

And I’m going to say this right off the bat because I feel compelled to defend book Alec. Book Alec was not bi-phobic. He was not slut shaming Magnus. At least, I didn’t interpret it that way. He was just caught off guard. Alec, for the most part, is relatively innocent. He’s been living at the Institute more or less sheltered from the world and how it actually works in regards to relationships. Magnus is the first person Alec’s ever dated. Alec has been closed off from the dating world. He hasn’t been exposed to a whole lot of different things so as a result, when something different presents itself, he reacts badly. He’s a man of routine. So when he found out that Magnus had once dated Camille and subsequently learned about his prior relationships, it was not due to biphobia nor was he slut-shaming. It was just shock at being with Magnus for as long as he has and just now finding out about all of these other relationships. Did he react badly? Certainly. We’re all entitled to react badly when we’re surprised but that doesn’t make him bi-phobic. He let himself believe that Magnus was one way and then learned suddenly that Magnus is actually a different way. It was a wake-up call for him and made him really think about Magnus’ past. He was also not slut-shaming Magnus. He was questioning his own worth to Magnus. Magnus has had all of these great relationships over centuries. How can I possibly measure up and matter in the greater scheme of things compared to these past loves he’s had? When we get involved with someone, we all want to be that one important person to them. To realize you might not be is really hard to reconcile. Especially when you’re involved with someone who has as colorful of a past as Magnus. It also didn’t help that Magnus was completely against talking about his past. I always felt this was a very real interpretation of what can happen with a mortal being in a relationship with an immortal. And it’s very rarely explored when these relationships do pop up. This is a really difficult thing to realize and overcome and I enjoyed reading about it. It was hard to read but I still enjoyed it and I’m also happy that it’s still something they haven’t completely overcome when City of Heavenly Fire ended. They’re still having to deal with the fact that Alec will eventually die and what that’s going to mean for Magnus. I’m glad there wasn’t some sort of easy fix to the problem. Now, keep in mind these are my own opinions regarding Book Alec and how Cassandra Clare chose to represent them. I will not argue with anyone about this. I will not respond to anyone who disparages the books or the author. If you think this show is the most fantastic thing on this planet and is far better than the books, than that’s your opinion. I will respect that. I expect you to afford me the same respect. Anyone who cannot do that is not worth my time and will be ignored. Let’s act like adults and not 10-year-olds, okay? Unless, of course, you are a 10-year-old…then go ahead and disparage…I still won’t respond to you but whatever.

But anyways, show Malec is being done a little differently which I do enjoy. I love reading alternate universe Malec fanfictions because those stories get to explore different versions of Malec. So I have no problems with Malec being different from the books. I just want them done well as they are one of my favorite OTPS. It also helps that this conversation is happening much earlier in the relationship than it did in the books. So their relationship drama is probably going to be geared in a different direction. I really liked how these two handled this conversation. Magnus asks Alec if Lydia has been his only relationship and Alec confirms his suspicions. Magnus is understandably flabbergasted but is still very accepting of Alec. I really liked his line, “You’re just so…innocent.” Because if I had to describe Alec in just one word, that is the one word I would absolutely use. He is very innocent. Alec then asks Magnus what his number was and I thought that was also handled very nicely. 17,000 seems a little absurd though. How can he possibly remember and count that high? I thought it would’ve worked better like this: 

MAGNUS: 17

ALEC: 17? That’s not so bad. Oh wait. 17 this century?

I’m not slut-shaming Magnus so don’t take it that way. I just think it’s a little absurd that he can remember 17,000 lovers. 

The two eventually walk home where apparently neither said a single word while they try to understand the implications of the others’ respective love lives. When they get back to Magnus’ apartment, they both agree that maybe this relationship isn’t such a good idea. This was a really great scene. Alec goes to leave but ultimately turns back with, “It doesn’t matter to me how many people you’ve been with.” And Magnus responds with, “It doesn’t matter how many you haven’t been with.” It was a fantastic exchange and then they kissed only to have the moment interrupted by Jace which was also a really great moment, too. And we all know how I feel about Jace showing up there. Beyond excited for what’s to come. 

All in all, I’d give this episode a B. There were so many great character moments but I only wished that all of these great character moments could’ve connected to the overall plot. I’m still waiting for the show to wow me in that respect. Once the overall plot starts getting more consistent, this show might make it into an A rating for me. The characters are going great, the pacing is better, the dialogue is feeling more organic. It’s just the plot that needs to catch up. I am really excited to see Jace and Magnus as roommates. I will forever be optimistic that Izzy’s drug addiction plotline is going to go interesting places. I just hope the show won’t “chicken out” with it. If they’re going to do this plotline, they need to go all in. As always, I hope the new showrunners keep up the good work with Malec. I really hope we get some snarky Jace scenes. They released a deleted scene where Jace actually felt like the cocky, charming Jace we know from the books so I know these writers can write him. In a main character, yes, I want them to have emotional scenes but I also want them to make me laugh and that has just not been happening with Jace which kind of disappoints me. But I have a lot of faith in these writers. Just with these last few episodes, the show is so much better than Season One could ever hope to be. 

Well, that’s all I have. I would love to hear your thoughts. Did you like this episode? Did you hate it? Do you agree or disagree? Just be respectful is all I ask.

[melalious]

My thoughts on “Riverdale”

I’m not normally someone who will go online and rant about a tv show that makes me upset. “Riverdale” is my exception.

I am someone who grew up reading all of the different variations of the Archie Comics. You can even ask my mom. Here’s an actual quote from her, “Yes, you read them all the time. I don’t know why you need a quote from me saying so.” So, due to this, I feel myself to be qualified to make these judgements on a beloved comic turned into an awful show.

I learned that Riverdale was getting created when I heard that Cole Spouse had died his hair black for the role of Jughead. My initial reaction was excitement. It felt like when an old friend plans to visit you after being gone for so long. I was excited to see how they would use the comics to create a tv show. Would it be in modern times or would it be like a blast to the past? Who is going to play the other parts of these famous characters? I didn’t know much and that was how I wanted to keep it. I wanted to be surprised when I first watched it so I purposefully avoided watching the trailers and looking up the show on IMDB.

When it came out, I had my DVR set to record it because I knew I would be busy that week. I didn’t get to actually watch the episode until the following week. I had seen a Tumblr post of Betty and Veronica kissing the week before and could not believe that that would come from this show. That was the only clue I had that this show might not be what I thought it would be, but still I was excited to see it for myself. 

I selected Riverdale on my DVR list and hunkered down to watch the show I had eagerly awaited. As soon as it started, I knew they had changed a lot. It starts out with a recurring character going missing and believed to be dead. I was shocked! Why had they chosen such a dark theme to start out the show? Were they trying to make the fun-loving Archie Comics into a drama? That just didn’t seem to fit with the world the comics have established.

(Now, before I go on, this is not going to be a play by play of exactly what happens in the show as it happens. I’m going to review what they did to the characters and my thoughts behind it.)

Let’s start with Archie. Archie in the comics is fun, goofy, and kind. He’s your average “All-American” boy. Archie in Riverdale is a brooding teen who seems very indecisive. He apparently has discovered a love for music over the summer before his Sophomore year of high school. I thought this would be a nice nod to one of the classic songs by The Archies, but sadly it was not. My MAIN issue with Archie’s character has to do with another character that was changed DRASTICALLY in the show. Miss Grundy is not the elderly teacher who the teens repeatedly interact with in the comics. No, Riverdale has decided to make Miss Grundy a young, beautiful teacher who SLEEPS WITH ARCHIE! SHE SLEEPS WITH A STUDENT! We see that she knows who he is and pulls over on the side of the road where he is working to pick Archie up. The two have a love affair over the summer. I don’t understand why they feel the need to have a teacher/student love affair. It’s not sweet. It’s not romantic. It’s illegal. I hate that shows marketed to teens nowadays are somehow normalizing the idea that a teacher and a student can have a relationship if the teacher is young and good looking. This is NOT a normal thing that should ever occur. By showing this, in what seems like a lot of shows, it creates this idea that this is something that is ok to happen as long as they care a lot about each other. This is something that should never happen though. It’s illegal and is just terrible for everyone involved. A teacher should NEVER take advantage of a student like this. I don’t care that Archie is “in love” with her or whatever. It is illegal and SHE should have known better as the adult in this situation. I could go on forever about this but I feel like I’ve made my point.

Betty Cooper is supposed to be a sweet and driven teenage girl. She loves Archie but isn’t going to let anything stop her from doing her best, achieving her dreams, and getting a good education. Betty in Riverdale is a shy, meek girl without much of a backbone. Betty had moments of shyness in the comics, but for the most part she knew who she was and was confident in her abilities. River dale Betty is only driven because of her neurotic mother. Also, for some reason Betty takes Adderall? I don’t understand why they can’t have Betty driven by her own merit and not because her mother is making her that way.

Veronica Lodge is the longtime rich best friend of Archie, Betty, and the whole gang. She’s confident in who she is and what she wants. For the most part, Riverdale stays true to her character. The only difference is that they decided to make her new in town. I think they are doing this so we can see the development of their friendships over time. I’m ok with that but why is Mr. Lodge not in the picture? He was a very important influence in Veronica’s life. She is a major “Daddy’s girl”. I don’t understand how they are going to go with her storyline with that.

In the show, they decided to race-swap some of the characters. I’m fine with that. It would be pretty white-washed if they hadn’t due to when the comics first came out, there was not a lot of diversity in the comics. That’s cool, whatever, I don’t care about that part. What I do care about is changing the characters’ personalities. Jughead is some dark and lonely writer who doesn’t seem to really be friends with any of the characters. He is writing a novel, which is completely out of Jughead’s lazy and hungry personality type. Reggie is now some bro-dude. Josie and the Pussycats are rude and unhelpful when Archie seeks their advice about music. (I get that they are trying to make them strong, independent women but they can still be nice AND strong) I don’t remember Kevin from the comics but apparently he is the 100% stereotypical gay best friend to Betty and Veronica. The one that pissed me off the most was how they chose to depict Moose. In the comics, Moose is in a long term relationship with Midge. They are one of the only couples in the comics who are always consistently dating. In Riverdale, Moose is sleeping with Kevin. Why would showing a normal, healthy relationship be bad? Why couldn’t they include Midge in Moose’s storyline? Their relationship would have served as a reminder of “this is what a healthy relationship should look like” in a show full of love triangles.

I struggled with watching this show and seeing what they had done to these characters that I had grown up with. Why had they chosen to go with such a dark theme to an essentially happy story? Why had they changed so much? My thoughts on their reasoning behind it is that they looked at other shows that were popular and decided to make another show following the same style. They looked at shows like Teen Wolf and Pretty Little Liars and saw that young people love dark and mysterious shows and decided to make their show follow that same code. I just wonder why they couldn’t try something different. Why couldn’t you have a happy show that still shows teens overcoming real teen struggles? Why not have it portray a more honest sense of what being a teenager is like while teaching important lessons? Why couldn’t it be a feel good, funny show like Boy Meets World. I understand that they have Girl Meets World but that seems to be marketed towards preteens. Boy Meets World showed the characters from junior high all the way through them going to college and getting married. It was a fun, light-hearted show that taught the viewers lessons as they watched. It had moments where not everything was shiny and good but it never compromised the character’s crucial integrity. Why couldn’t Riverdale try that?

Overall, it was a very crushing experience for me. I was optimistic going into it and that optimism was quickly destroyed when I watched the show. I had to force myself through the entire show. After watching, I quickly deleted it and removed the upcoming recordings. Needless to say, I will not be watching Riverdale anymore. I am truly heartbroken by what they did to these characters that were so important to me growing up. 

[booksclevernessblog]

Last month, when I said I couldn’t believe it was already July, I meant it. But I just whizzed through July into August at supersonic speed! Seriously, I blinked and missed it! That being said, there were so many great memories from this July that I’m excited to share with you. Here’s hoping that I can slow down a bit for August because before I know it I’ll be back at college!

Life & Everything Else:

I teased this in last month’s wrap up, but now you get to hear all about it: I went to see Ed Sheeran, and I fell more in love. 100% the HIGHLIGHT of my July, and most likely my summer. It was so incredible!! HE is so INCREDIBLE!!! I’m still suffering major concert withdrawals (seriously, I have to watch at least one concert video a day — I just can’t help myself!). He sang 17 songs (19 if you include the two that he mashed-up) and was on for around 2 hours — just him, his guitar, and a loop pedal — and encouraged us to sing but not to worry if we didn’t know the lyrics (“Don’t worry, sing anything!”). He also was happy to let us know that he had a day off the following day, so he was well-prepared to lose his voice, and wanted to help us lose ours too! He didn’t stop smiling and neither did I! Also, I was thrilled when he started playing “Barcelona,” which I’d been doubting he’d play since it’s not normally on his set list. He told us that our tour stop was the first time he’d played in on US soil!

Here are some pictures and a video from the show (I’m getting all fangirl-y again just talking about it):

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​Still on a concert high, I was off to my vacation in the mountains! It was shorter than usual, but I still had a great time. I accomplished NOTHING, no reading, no blogging, but that’s what vacation is for, right?!

I’ve also been shopping for apartment things, because, YES, I’m in an apartment this year! Just me, myself, and I! I have a double bed now, instead of the Twin XL, so I had to buy all new bedding (while annoyingly costly, I always love an excuse to redecorate!).

I almost forgot to mention two more wonderful highlights: I saw Spider-Man: Homecoming and TEEN WOLF IS BACK FOR THE FINAL 10 EPISODES PEOPLE! Spider-Man was everything I’d hoped it would, and I’m even deeper in love with Tom Holland now. It was just so funny and sweet! As for Teen Wolf, I’m super emotional. I’ve been watching this show for years and years, and I dearly love these characters. I’m nervous after the first episode that it’s not going to be as good as the other seasons, or just not filled with the sameness that is Teen Wolf? Like, where was Dylan in the opening credits?!?! He’s been downgraded to a guest star? Um, not OK, no matter how much they were able to get him for filming. Stiles IS and ALWAYS will be a member of the ensemble!!

Another show I’m watching and loving is The Bold Type on Freeform! It’s very The Devil Wears Prada meets Younger! Super empowering for women, and cute guys, so, DUH I’m still watching!

Read & Reviewed:

Eight books this month!

What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum

Hello, Sunshine by Laura Dave

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith

Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood

Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick

The Telling by Alexandra Sirowy

I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

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Favorites: Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood & The Telling by Alexandra Sirowy Least Favorite: I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin

This month I can also say that I really didn’t not enjoy any of the books I chose to read! While Wild Swans and The Telling really stood out to me as new favorites, every other title offered me something special that I really liked. I Hate Everyone But You was still incredibly enjoyable, but just wasn’t at that high level of beautiful writing AND story that the others were. I actually read this one quite early, as it releases on September 5th, BUT you can catch me on the blog tour with a review and giveaway on August 30th! Genuine Fraud was another early read, so you can catch my review for that later in the month of August as well!

Other Postings:

This was another month of just basic reading and reviewing for me! But I did particpate in Scholastics I Read YA Week! I kicked off the week by talking about what #YAStandsFor to me, and then recapped all of my daily social challenges!

Site Announcements:

July marked my 3-1/2 year blogaversary! I started blogging here in February of 2014, and I’ve been awful about celebrating it on that date, so I wanted to make a little note about its half birthday! I’m extremely proud to have stuck with blogging for so long, and I hope to continue for many more years in the future. I really don’t know if I’d be where I am today without it. Because of blogging I’ve been opened up to the world of book publishing, and discovered that what I really want to do for the rest of my life is work in the design department of a publishing company! I’m now on my way to doing so! Also, time to get mushy — thanks so much to all of you that have stuck with me from the very beginning! I still can’t believe that people read my reviews and trust me and my opinions. ❤

New On My Radar:

Now after having read books by Kara Thomas and Alexandra Sirowy, I’m really excited for their two new releases, Little Monsters and First We Were IV, respectively. I just learned about Lucy Keating’s Literally, which looks adorable and just as unique as her first book, Dreamology.

To see what else I add to my TBR, and to see what I’m currently reading, friend me on Goodreads!

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GOODREADS

GOODREADS

GOODREADS

GOODREADS

GOODREADS

GOODREADS

GOODREADS

GOODREADS

GOODREADS

GOODREADS

GOODREADS

Currently Reading & Up Next:

I’m just starting With Malice by Eileen Cook. I’m only about 20 pages in so I can’t quite tell you how I’m feeling about it yet.

As of right now, I don’t have too many plans for what I’m going to be picking up next. We shall see what I’m in the mood for once I’m done with this one!

That’s it for me! How was your month of July? What have you been reading? I’d love to chat with you!

July 2017 in Review Last month, when I said I couldn't believe it was already July, I meant it. But I just whizzed through July into August at supersonic speed!

[officialthiamlibrary]

Welcome to another profile on Behind the Screens, giving you personal insight on who your favorite creators are and what they do when they aren’t wowing you with their creative ability.

On this profile, we’ll learn more about Tagan, also known in our pack as ThiamFresh or CaptainMintyFresh. The author of Airplanes, Sweet Talking, and a plethora of other Thiam prompts and stories, Tagan shares bits about her life, her writing process, her ideal road trip buddy, and her tips for creating tension-filled relationships.

Hi, Tagan! Let’s start off simple. Using a sentence, where the word count is either equal to or less than the number of letters in your two favorite Teen Wolf characters’ name, tell us about yourself. 

Theo Raeken + Derek Hale = 19: I’m Tagan. Love to write and act. I have a terrible sense of humour. Generally an accident prone mess. 

Talking about Teen Wolf characters, which five characters would be on your Ultimate Paintball/Laser Tag team and why? 

Theo, Malia, Allison, Liam, Stiles. Right, so I want Theo because like boy’s a master tactician/manipulator and he’s ruthless. Boy would 100% shoot 10 year olds to win and that’s the kind of person I want on my paintball team. Malia, again, she would have no qualms about just decimating the other team. Allison because she is an amazing shot; her role would be stealthing her way through the field to take people out/sniping everyone else while the ‘ground team’ does the closer stuff. Liam because he’s athletic and competitive. Stiles because he’s good at coming up with plans, plus...you know..he’d be really good bait for the other team.

Omg he would be! Now, before those characters blessed us with their existence, we found love and OTPs in other ones. What would you say were your first ships, way back in the day?

I’m not sure if this counts but Ant and Dec? I thought they were married but if not, then Monica and Chandler or Spike and Buffy. The first fanfiction I read was for Dramione.

And, how did you land in the Thiam Family? What about Theo x Liam drew you in?

I really liked their scenes in 6A (And some of the scenes in 5 but honestly, I hated five as a whole and watched it out of duty more than anything so I just didn’t have the enthusiasm to get into a ship.) Theo was the first bit of 6A that i actually really liked and a lot of that was just down to his sass and a lot of it was directed at Liam. And then the car key scene had me cackling with laughter. There scenes were just..fun in a way the rest of the season lacked, at least to me. So I was pretty invested in their whole dynamic and then there was ‘Being the bait’ and ‘do you know how to ride a horse’ and I was pretty sold. I went to search for Thiam content then but didn’t find any so just went back to writing the fics for other fandoms I was doing then and didn’t really mind.

But then 6B came out and the second I saw Theo on screen I was thinking “wow i can’t wait for him to see Liam and realised I was a bit more sold on them than I had planned to be and so I searched the tag again and went onto AO3 and read the few fics there but there really weren’t many. 

I’d gotten stuck on all the fics I was doing for other fandoms and so put up a request for prompts and Thiamkey gave me a bunch of headcanons and prompts and then people seemed to like them and started sending them in and then I just...talked to people and they were all lovely and we had all this amazing content coming out every week from the show and more people climbed aboard the ship. More fics being written, more prompts being sent.

Honestly, i just wanted to dip my toe in the water, write a fic or two while I waited for other people to write their own but then i suddenly found myself up to my neck in Thiam and not regretting a second of it.

Let’s jump into writing. Before we dive into the Thiam pool, if your writing process was a person, describe him or her. What does he or she do? Wear? Listen to?

My writing process as a person would probably be a toddler in a room full of toys but instead of playing with them, she just hiding under furniture and has five different conversations with five different imaginary friends at one time. She’s messy, with chocolate ice cream smeared over her face and her hair tangled into nots. She has no real idea about what’s happening but is excited none-the-less. Will have constant tantrums and cry then be excitedly squealing in the next second. ACDC would be playing in the background.

And your writing Kryptonite? How do you fight it?

Procrastination. I’m really bad at focusing on any one thing. Like, if i’m watching a new episode of a show, I’ll play solitaire in the corner of the screen because otherwise, I’m too unfocused to be focused. If that makes any sense. So when I’m writing I have to have a conversation open with someone or have just done a puzzle or something that’s fried my brain a bit so I can focus on writing, but I often end up getting too focused on the other thing and not getting any writing done.

As for how to fight it, I honestly have no idea? I just kinda flit around and hope for the best.

Well, clearly it works for you, so cheers! Do you write novels or short stories about original characters, as well? If so, can you share one you’re particularly passionate about?

Yes i dooo :) I write books. So I’ve written three so far and have like 12 in the works. (There’s a YA series in there which is why there’s so many) um..I’m not sure what i’m particularly proud of so i’m just pasting the first scene I found in my emails which is a scene from a zombie book I wrote called Autumn

Autumn Excerpt:

Sometimes I could forget, for a moment. When the sun was high in the sky and we were strolling through an open field. Weapons held loose in hand, rucksacks tossed over single shoulders. When we were throwing a bottle of water between us, talking about now pointless things, sharing stories and silly jokes. Laughs etched onto our faces as we'd forget all about it. About the past months and the horror we've seen, the people we've lost.

But then a stray would stumble into the field or we’d hear a distant scream and it would come rushing back. Hands quickly going back to locked tightly arrowed our weapons, smiles slipping from our faces.There were also times I couldn't forget, not even for a second. When we lay on rough roof tops, looking up at the dark sky willing to sleep, to get lost in a dream but I could hear it, the scratching of nails against brick, the snap of teeth hitting together and the low, guttural moans. At these times I’d think, this will be the last sound I ever hear. The huffing of the dead, the wet slapping and slurping as they tore and chewed on flesh.

On these nights I’d try to comfort myself, Say that that nightmare sound wouldn't be what I heard, I prayed for a gunshot, dreamed of that rather than the sounds bellow me. Because, these days, you go out one of two ways and a gunshot was everyone's silver lining.

When you mentioned YA series, my back straightened haha. What’s the title of your series? A synopsis for what it’d be about?

Oh god, so the longest one I have to find a new title to because it’s called Gifted and is about people with superpowers and now there’s that The Gifted show out about people with powers so that’s a bit awkward.

Me and my friend wrote a webseries when we were like 14/15 and although we only filmed a tiny bit of it, we actually had the whole thing planned out. Three seasons, 40 episodes and when we stopped working on it I was like “dude can i turn this into a book series?” and he was like “Yeah go ahead.” So I started writing a bit of it.

Gifted follows the story of three childhood friends as they get powers and deal with all the usual coming of age stuff while getting caught up with other people with powers. The first book will be done in alternating POV between the three friends, but that will slowly expand to incorporate the more important characters met along the way.

There’s lots of whump, teenagers dealing with depression and PTSD.  Basically i tried to write a new fairly light hearted story about kids coming of age and dealing with typical super power problems, but then accidentally put them through the ringer and turned it into a mass of character study and angst.

Final question before the barrage of Thiam questions lol. Characters often find themselves in situations they aren’t sure they can get themselves out of. When was the last time you were in a place like that and what did you do? 

The last time I found myself in a situation I couldn’t get out of was this summer and I cried a lot and then made scathing jokes to the reasons I couldn’t get out of the situation with a sunny smile that left the situations unaware that I was trying to figure out how to word a letter that told the situations they need never situate themselves anywhere near me ever again. (I have yet to send those letters.)

Wow, yeah, I’ve been there before. I hope you find the strength/courage to send those letters one day. Since we’re talking about personal experiences, would you say that any of your life has poured over into your Thiam writing?

The only one I can currently think of is the scene in Sweet Talking where Theo’s tired and listening to Liam, Mason and Corey hang out and thinking about how he’ll never really fit in.

My brother had a bunch of friends round before I wrote that chapter, or at least that part of that chapter. I moved away from my home town/all my friends (there’s literally 1 friend but whatever) 3 years ago and haven’t made any friends since. My brother keeps telling me his friends can be my friends but I‘m always the odd man out and it’s just really lonely so I was definitely channeling some inner loneliness into that.

Let’s say you could escape it all and venture on a major Airplanes-esque road trip. Who would you take (real or fictional)? Where would you go? And what is one shenanigan the two of you would run into?

The Queen. I just think it’d be really funny, not to mention you could get in like everywhere for free.

Honestly I think if the queen wasn’t available, I’d want to go with @thiamfanartlove. We’ve only been talking a little while, but we get on really well and I feel like we’d be equally ready to do a bunch of dumb stuff on our journey. I’d want to go around Europe. Hit up @thiamkey on the way and a few other people. 

We would 100% get into a fight at some point because neither of us have any chill. Like, someone would insult one of us and the other would just be down to fight and then it would turn into an all out brawl with us against the world. (We would lose, but it’d be a good story, at least.)

Truth. And one story we’d demand all the details on. You’ve talked a lot about some trivia, inspirations and spoilers for Airplanes in your livestream, which are linked here. So, my questions to you are more about the technique side of your writing, since it’s always amazing to learn from you all.  

You incorporate great character studies into your stories. What would you say are some tricks you use to portray what your characters are thinking?

I think, just finding a way to resonate with the character you’re writing. Even if it’s a character you think you have nothing in common with, I promise you somewhere there’s a memory you have that fits something they’ve felt. 

Liam’s POV was really weird to me at the start of airplanes so I chose to focus on something I could personally understand. Which was the need for freedom but anxiety at what it might cost the other people if you take it and that..kind of self hatred for the anger issues and wishing everything could change. You find a common thread and write that and soon enough you find yourself understanding the character, even in situations or with feelings you’ve never personally been affected by.

I don’t know if that makes any sense? But basically yeah, find common ground and that one scene you can write and then work from there.

And, the tension between your characters. How do you build that tension when it comes to relationships to avoid the instalove phenomenon?

ANGST! I dunno, the easiest way for me to slow down the instalove is the characters being more preoccupied with other stuff than their love lives. I think just..keeping it as real as possible. In my personal experience, love at first sight is rare. You can’t fall in love with someone until you know them so a lot of it is just..giving the characters these little moments that bring them closer together, making them have those conversations that you’d have with your best friend and just slowly drawing closer and closer together as you get more comfortable. Especially in Airplanes when it first starts Liam’s in a pretty bad place mentally. He’s really drained and feeling the weight of everything he’s been through so his mind was just so far away from romance that it seemed wrong to have him noticing any feelings for Theo until he was a bit happier and had healed a bit. Not to mention all the baggage the two have.

Having a character go through that process of questioning their sexuality is fun as well. I mean, Liam so far in canon has been written as straight and that’s a lot of fun to play with because you have that whole realisation process where he has to figure out that what he feels for Theo isn’t entirely platonic and that it’s different from how he feels about Mason or any of the other guys in the show and that can be a really challenging thing to do. Not even in the ‘Oh coming out is scary’ way just in the heteronormative straight until proven otherwise sort of way.

I mean i’m Bi and that took me like...21 years to realise? And it wasn’t that I didn’t have little crushes on girls before it was just I’d never noticed them for what they were. For me the only reason it clicked was because I realised I was Asexual and that my ‘well I don’t want to bone a girl so I’m not gay’ was kinda pointless thing when I realised that I didn’t even want to bone guys. It was just what was expected. Once I took that away and sat down and thought about it, it was suddenly very clear to me. But most characters won’t have that specific nudge so it can be a fairly long road.

Just, to stop instalove think about what they’re going through, think about how you fall in love because the realisation may be instant but the build up is usually gradual. You notice it in one dumb moment but to actually get there, you have a long list of bits where you get to know the other person and you deal with your own personal issues and stuff.

For building tension, it’s again just building up that relationship. You start off small with touches that make the heart speed up before they’re more comfortable and grow closer. Honestly, the best way is just to focus on the friendship first and the romantic relationship second because then you get the familiarity and that’s when you can start having your characters realise there’s something else there and that suddenly makes all these little touches a lot more terrifying and confusing as they try to figure out what it means. 

That’s perfect though. And the gritty realization that most people have about those they’ve fallen in love with since they’ve usually gotten close to that person by that point is terrifying and emotional, so I can now see where that tension comes from! Anything else you’d like to say, in general. The floor is all yours.

Umm okay. I am always accepting prompts but it willlllll take me a while to get to them because i have quite a few and don’t really go chronologically but more where the inspiration hits and sometimes, like with airplanes, that’s my own story rather than a prompt but my ask box is always always open for more prompts.

Upcoming works, I have no idea. Right now, I just want to finish airplanes and then see where I go after that. I do want to play around in the airplanes universe a little bit more after the fic is done with, delving into Theo’s POV for some of the missing scenes and I also might do a short pack scene where you have everyone realise Theo and Liam are gone in the morning in Idaho.

The reason I like sharing my work is because I like the idea that maybe I can help someone and maybe that sounds dumb--but to me--reading is a major escapism technique. I used it a lot when I was younger and this fic and the comments I’ve gotten have just made me so insanely happy because it seems like, maybe for a few people, I’ve reached my goal in helping someone through a bad day or to relax and just forget their worries for a while. And that’s the whole reason I like writing and that’s the first time I’ve ever really felt that and I literally cried when someone told me my updates helped their shitty week before because...that’s the whole reason I want to get into writing or acting as a career and to see I’d achieved that goal was just awesome.

If you’ve sent me a nice message on tumblr and I haven’t replied, it’s not because I didn’t read it or I don’t like it or whatever you might think. It’s because i’m a hoarder and now have a folder wth screen shots of all the nice messages in it, so that I can look at them when I’m having a nice day.

Really, I just want to say that I see everything you guys send or make or comment and I appreciate every single one and just thank you. Life’s been tough for me lately but getting to write for a fandom as accepting and kind as this one is really really amazing and your messages have picked me up when I’ve felt worthless so many times. Just keep being awesome Thiam fandom! And thank you for being so welcoming and supportive of everyone that joins.

Aww thank you! We’re so happy to have you in our fandom and to have Airplanes, your prompts, and other stories. I, and others have shared the same sentiment, agree with you that this fandom is amazing and so supportive of one another that it almost seems surreal! So, go us, lovely pack! 

To finish us off, what’s next for you? Both in life and in the writing world?

For life, I’m hoping to get some acting roles for student films and stuff. Get myself a laptop so I can write more and a camera (eventually) so I can film the scripts I’ve wrote. I also want to send some of my books to publishers and generally try to make a life for myself out of the two things I love doing.

I have a bunch of books I’m working on and I really want to finish writing my YA series because it seems like it could be quite fun once I get a bit more into it.

With that, BTS presents ThiamFresh to you! As always, you can keep the conversation going; respond to any of her thoughts, ask more questions, send a prompt, or simply swing by for a chat with Tagan anytime. To dive into her works, check out both her AO3 and Tumblr. 

Tumblr: thiamfresh

AO3: captainmintyfresh

Ask Box: thiamfresh ask

A huge thank you to Tagan for being so open to answering our questions and sharing her tips on character stories and building tension. 

Some great news, for everyone who enjoys this series, we’ve decided to run Behind the Screens every Thursday. And, we’d love your help in doing it! 

Have a Thiam Creator you fan over, from any platform (AO3, Tumblr, Wattpad, Instagram, FFN, etc). Please send us their names. Bonus points if you include any questions you’re dying to ask them. Likewise, if you as the creator, would like to be a part of the Behind the Screens series, give us a shout too! We’d love to get to know you, as well.

Hasta Luego!