#but also i really did like the union stuff this episode

[whartonists]

I really like what they did with the union plotline this episode--I thought that the stakes of it were taken seriously and that they leaned into the drama in a way that was really compelling. George's visit to the Hendersons' home was a wonderful bit of role reversal, and visually I thought they did that scene excellently--I could write a whole post on the Henderson house set, but I thought it was really well-done, stark (especially compared to the interiors we're used to on this show) but dignified.

But I think my fundamental problem with the handling of this plotline gets back to my complaint about the George-Henderson scene in 2.03, that the writing never allowed Henderson to rebut George's arguments even when they were obviously not only in bad faith but built upon entirely false premises. Here, George's change of heart is just that--a charge of heart, without changing his mind, which casts Henderson and the other (nameless) mill workers as figures of pathos rather than intellect.

They exist within their circumstances to stir George's conscience rather than to pose an alternate philosophy--in part because, of course, if George truly changed his mind a large part of the show's practical foundation would crumble. But by positioning them this way, the show cedes no ground to their perspective, but instead particularizes them within their pathetic (literally and in the 19th century sense, a source of pathos) circumstances, which serves to both a) prevent any intellectual or symbolic reach beyond those circumstances and b) sentimentalize George's decision in a way that keeps him and the show from having to incorporate any of Henderson's arguments--which he was never allowed to make--into his/its worldview.

[burningcheese-merchant]

Psst, hear me out: The Beast being fucking yanderes with the ancients.

You Get It™️ I mean... Did you guys see episode 6? Burning Simp Cookie is already a yandere lol. He's been there and he refuses to leave. And Shadow Milk is honestly not that far behind, he feels some type of way towards Pure Vanilla and it would be cute if it wasn't so sad and creepy lol

Really though, I just love hero/villain ships in general (always have, since long before Cookie Run ever existed) and I get a kick out of villains acting stupid over crushes (read: obsessions), and acting stupid in general. There's just something about a villain being in love with the hero to a psychotic, comical degree, and the hero rebuffing them at every turn that's just really amusing to me lol. Like what Joker sort of has with Batman, you know?

Here are my Yandere Beasts in bare-bones terms:

Burning Spice: come on, if you've read my stuff, you know EXACTLY what Yandere Spice is like lol. If not, I'll refer you to this and this, as well as my fics on AO3. If those don't tell you what Yandere Spice is like then idk how else to help you lol

Shadow Milk: if the final boss of theater/drama kids had a crush but was also a malignant narcissist of some sort lol. Absolutely DESPERATE for Vanilla's attention at all times. If he's not actively trying to worm into Vanilla's brain and harass him in his thoughts and dreams, he's in the real world brainstorming better ways to do that lol. He does not grasp why the creepy puppet shows and gaslighting attempts aren't convincing Vanilla to fall in love with him. Will attack and torment and insult Vani in one breath and then praise and love and worship him in another, because he's a histrionic clown freak with whirlwind emotions. But above all else, he literally thinks he owns Vani and is meticulously plotting the horrible and hilarious demise of any and all he perceives as a threat to their union

Eternal Sugar: World's Laziest Stalker™️. Almost exclusively haunts Holly in her dreams (I have to assume that that's what her power will entail, as the Beast of Sloth); however, she's more "effective" in her wooing attempts due to her past experience as the Herald of Happiness. She actually goes out of her way to construct dreams and the like that have things in them that make Holly happy (or what she thinks makes Holly happy; she, as well as the others, has big tunnel vision and is very selfish and self-absorbed, and thus pays more lip service to her own wants than those of who she loves/obsesses over). Thankfully doesn't run into Holly in person often because that's work... but sometimes she DOES work up the nerve to go after her for real, and... well

Mystic Flour: Denial, denial, denial. Not just a river in Egypt the Golden Cheese Kingdom, but she'll say and act like otherwise. No, she does not like Dark Cacao. He robbed her of her volition and the chance to enact her will. He prevented her from freeing the world from pain and suffering. He is a stubborn fool who refuses to understand the truth. He... is very handsome. She does not like how handsome he is. It is distracting. She doesn't like dwelling on her memories of him and their encounters. She doesn't like how she came to harbor a single kernel of respect in her heart after he stood his ground against her; a kernel that she inadvertently nurtured and cultivated slowly but surely, until... no. No, she doesn't like Dark Cacao. She doesn't think about him all day. She doesn't want to try to lure him back to her land so she can trap him in the flour fog with her again. She doesn't miss feeling his dark eyes on her. She doesn't deeply resent his attachment to his people, and seek to transfer that attachment to her instead. No, she... damn it, he's ruined her. He's made her feel things again. He's made her succumb to selfishness and greed, to earthly desire and attachment - desire for HIM, attachment to HIM. All of her hard work and enlightenment gone to waste... She doesn't want to like Dark Cacao, she recognizes the folly in such a thing, but she's stuck - and so stuck is she that not only does she not really see a way out, she doesn't WANT one. She's become too content with her attachment to him too quickly. Now she has to agonize over her own foolishness, and try to keep denying that she doesn't care while also longing for his attention and wanting to do away with all that steals his attention away from her

Silent Salt: probably the least awful of the five, but he's still creepy and that's not a high bar to clear anyway lol. Has a better grasp on "normal" behavior than the others (like... he pays attention to what White Lily likes/wants and tries to adjust accordingly), but he's following her around everywhere and acting extremely violent and territorial over her towards anyone who he catches approaching her. He's legitimately, surprisingly sweet and gentle towards her; he brings her flowers, he listens to her when she asks/tells him something, he's more or less respectful of her personal space (he will try to be as physically close to her as possible, but actually backs off a little if she asks him to, only to try again, and so on and so forth)... but he's still a villain, he's still violent and creepy, he still gets angry when she pays attention to other people for too long and he has brought actual harm to others out of jealousy. He's the best of the worst but that really doesn't mean much of anything, he's still a psycho creep like the others

In short, they form a tight-knit coalition of absolutely fucking deranged freakazoids and they should all probably die :)

[remidyal]

Game Changer Episodes (through 7.3) ranked favorite to least favorite

We're going to try to be BRIEF with this, because there's a ton of these.

5.9 Escape the Greenroom

The perfect episode, up to and including that there's a real chance at points that the players might physically assault Sam.

6.6 Deja Vu

I love time loop premises and analog horror and this combines them to great effect.

6.7 Beat the Buzzer

The best of the Seven reunion episodes to me, wildly creative work by the art team.

6.3 Sam Says 3

I'm penalizing game samers some in these rankings and this still is the top of this set. Presumably the last Sam Says ever since escalation here enters criminal territory.

4.1 Sam Says

It's just such a great premise because it's so simple and people know the tricks to watch for and they still fall for it.

7.1 One Year Later

Utterly deranged and also a sign that we're getting insanely longer as the seasons go along. This list is rough on the early seasons in part because early season episodes might go 15-20 minutes and now we're regularly getting 40+ but this one is above and beyond.

5.1 Sam Says 2

Being the weakest installment of Sam Says for me is still being an absolutely incredible episode.

5.4 Name a Number

This one may actually be hurt a little bit for me by the physical pain of the 'I'm Hungy' call, but it's still incredible top to bottom.

1.1 Lie Detector

The first episode of the series and also still genuinely incredible; the cast absolutely being willing to go full out here helps set the tone for the entire series to come.

6.1 Second Place

My personal favorite of the fuck with Brennan episodes, in part because Sam genuinely seems to not have realized how much it would.

1.4 Whodunnit

A rare 'fuck with a specific person' episode not targeted at Brennan or Grant, and just deeply funny. One of the episodes I used to use to hook people on the show, because it's on youtube free.

3.7 Jeopardy!

A WEIRD episode from the Zoom Season that I profoundly love.

6.5 Bingo

Another entry in the pantheon of fucking with Brennan, made extra hilarious because he wasn't even supposed to be in it.

2.2 Do I Hear $1?

To some degree kind of a follow up to Total Forgiveness, it remains incredible how far Ally and Grant are willing to go.

2.6 Yes or No

A lot of people would probably have this higher, but the rant aside I do like the episodes where fucking with Brennan is a side effect of the game more than just it being the point.

4.8 Race to the Bottom

Katie coming in to scab was basically perfect for making the game re-work after the unionization.

1.2 Make Some Noise

Honestly a legacy ranking; it's fun and obviously spawned a whole lot of great stuff but the prompts are incredibly basic next to what was to come.

2.4 A Sponsored Episode

Sam has openly stated that the where you from? joke out of this is the thing that has haunted him the most on dropout stuff, but it's a really fun episode even apart from that.

7.2 You-lympics

Hard to tell recency bias on ones from this season, could slide on a rewatch but I did pretty thoroughly enjoy it.

5.6 As A Cucumber

I enjoy the premise overall but heart rate monitor stuff is always a little wonky for me.

3.1 Tell Us About Yourself

One of my favorite 'try to figure out the rules here' episodes, helped by my enjoyment of the idea that Tony Hawk just hangs out in robes in a dank basement somewhere.

4.2 Noise Boys

Again, penalizing Game Samers to some degree, but this is probably the best of the Make Some Noise episodes on Game Changer before it got spun off if you're watching it without that in mind. That said, there's likely ten episodes in the most recent season of Make Some Noise better than this still.

3.2 Sell Outs

The first of two follow-ups to the marketing episode in the zoom season, this is one of the concepts that works pretty well over zoom but doesn't take unique advantage of it a la Jeopardy or Tell Us About Yourself. Still good fun.

2.1 Round 4

More make some noise, does establish the gag about the points continuing between episodes.

3.8 Secret Samta

This is the best of the premises that are basically just 'Sam gives shit away' to me.

4.4 Secret Samta 3

It's better in person then over zoom, but game samer penalty.

3.15 Secret Samta 2: The Samta Clause

They do add some fun twists and all on each episode as they go, though, so they all kind of ended up clumped.

7.3 Earnest-est

I don't get the batman obsession in this episode (is batman especially earnest in Sam's mind?) and also the Joker wasn't even in the movie with Kiss From A Rose on the soundtrack but that aside it's a lot of fun.

3.11 Three for the Price of One

The last of the marketing episodes, still good fun, even if Grant's the worst salesman on earth.

5.2 Like My Coffee 2

Inuendo is always fun, but this makes it above the original for one simple reason: Bringing Grant's mother onto this episode as a surprise guest is a crazy move in the ongoing war of humiliation between Grant and Sam.

4.9/4.10 Survivor

These multi-parters are getting grouped together and an average grade. My favorite of the 'reality show knockoff' bunch, in part because it was the first time they did it and people who were into it were REALLY into it.

3.6 Never Have I Ever

The precursor to Dirty Laundry and I love that show.

5.10-5.13 Battle Royale

A lot going on here, but kind of weak compared to the average episode, just.. there's a lot of it.

4.6 Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience

I think one of the weaker premises they've done, carried strongly by the cast.

1.3 Game of Prizes

The first "Sam gives shit away" episode, this one is a little fun but not among the more balanced rulesets they've used.

4.2 Like My Coffee

Basically just an improv game, but it's a fun one.

5.5 A Game Most Changed

I'm more into standard theater than I am anything musical, but I found the episode more impressive on a talent level than actually funny and I don't think it's especially rewatchable.

1.5 Nom Nom Nom

Kind of a gross episode, reminds me a bit of Double Dare as a kid.

6.2 The Newlyweb Game

Fun, and I'd never give up my phone to Sam Reich, but especially by the standards of recent seasons nothing that wild - this one's a double, not a home run.

3.5 Ham It Up

A great guest here, and this is a premise I think might go better in an in person situation than over Zoom. I'd love to see this one iterated on.

2.5 The Everything Factory

One of the first complete chaos episodes, but a little repetitive.

6.4 Pencils Down

Art episodes don't tend to be my favorites; there's some really good bits in this, but the nature of it means there aren't that many prompts in the episode.

3.14 Tome of Terror

I like improv storytelling a bit more than art on average but all of these are just alright to me.

4.5 The Official Cast Recording

This is one I think most people would have higher; I'm just not a musical theater person and pretty much any kind of musical comedy's getting dinged points for me.

3.3 Changer Con

I get what they were going for, and it kind of works, but the dressup bits on Make Some Noise aren't really my thing either.

3.12 Next Slide Please

Recreational powerpoints (see also: Smartypants) seem to really appeal to people who haven't held office jobs. I've held an office job.

5.2 Karaoke Night

More musical humor, more things most people would rate higher.

6.8/6.9 Ratfish

Some great bits in here, but really dragged down by everything to do with the Ratfish himself and also I just kind of hate the rules of this game.

3.13 Make it Fashion

More zoom dressup. It's fine.

4.7 Don't Cry

Honestly a very sweet episode and the recurring bit of Jess losing points at the end is hilarious but this is a much kinder gesture than like, full episode.

2.3 Sleeper Agents

This premise just doesn't work at all for me, and just.. interacting with the public always makes me cringe a little bit. Also notably by FAR the shortest episode of the series; even the shortest zoom episodes are like 20% longer than this.

5.6/5.7 The Bachelor

Almost painful to watch for me, but I also hate the actual Bachelor so good job mimicking it I guess?

3.4 Is This Thing On?

I get what they were going for, but definitely the worst of the Sam Gives Shit Away premises.

3.10 The Substitute

Noise Boys over zoom without Zac did… not work super well for me.

3.9 2020 Vision

A quiz episode about 'did this happen in 2020' that does not work at all now that it's not 2020 anymore.

[kncrowder88]

Watching "The Vault" again has me stuck so much on the Hetty-Elias stuff. Like I paused the episode because of how it plays out (before all the wedding chaos and even then).

Just, up to this episode Hetty has a variety of lines that hints to her past. But there is like .... very little that actually speaks to Elias. No name, no big hints beyond the remove her husband's portrait line and the Halloween eps line of "wasn't your husband also your cousin?". We get the child labor stuff, the "like slept on gold rich." "We did that once", past vs present culture refs, etc but Elias is very little commentary. But even those two moments "my horrible husbands portrait" and "was your cousin" basically tells her a bit.

Then, this episode comes along, and its a "my husband must have been trying to squander away MY riches". Not his. Not theirs. But hers, she specifically specifies that he likely built the vault to steal HER riches (which again tells us a lot about the dynamic) without her seeming to mean to. Then the combination, its the anniversary she gives and she has the smallest of smiles, a shifting movement to her - its this sort of "of course it be our anniversary we were man and wife" but she's shifty and despite the facade, the need to believe her own lie .... its disproven so fast and she has to "fine try"

And like.... every single person is just there around her "like yeah this makes sense. Course her robber baron husband would try to hide away money and then use their anniversary as the .... oh wait guess he didnt" not one of them is giving skeptical looks or glances of "girl please we know". And when Elias steps out, everyone jumping back, this whole facade of behavior continues between them. Its so clear she doesn't want him there (but also like how does Elias even know its been 130 years?) but she is holding to this semi-sorta obedient behavior of "i will insult you but not completely imply that I desire your presence to no longer exist"

Then he hits on Albeta mere seconds later and its like a tonal shift happens. Every present (well besides Jay) is just watching this couple reunite without a flicker of "nah this seems wrong" until Elias moves at Alberta all sweet talk. You get Hetty's blank face, glance away from the two "really right in front of me" reaction and Alberta's "oh hell no" response (her mind likely having rhe various puzzle pieces having the missing ones slip into place right then too).

The next scene we have is Sas, Thor, Pete, and Trevor as a witness to a marital spat between the two. And that IS what it is. Hetty this episode is very much in "wife" mode. At the vault she held up a small shield but she slipped back into her dutifully wife mode (not fully but had Elias not flirted and immediately reminded her she likely would have fully). Now, im not against Hetty having support but its the way they are watched (like the ghosts observe livings as if they are a TV show to be enjoyed - even whispering in the background all "bet he asks about the maid").

Elias expresses an annoyance about being a ghost, about how he paid the church and signed a whole contract (really wonder what that contract was honestly). Hetty at this point has just been rather "listen to the rant, then move along" visage only to hear that and slip out a "was i a part of this contract or was this a one person trip?" And he gives the whole union, mob riot excuse (commentate on by their observers) and then a "i dont think I like your tone". Its this argument that gives us the "obedient wife" line and.....

At the end of it we get a "not to excuse it but like how hot was the maid?" From Trevor to which Thor and Sas give gestures of their opinions (behind Hetty's back - reminding us they witnessed this marriage as ghosts).

Like, not one ghost actually really has her back up to this point. She really has to stand their as they pull a "how hot is the maid" line AFTER also hearing that her husband had been willing to sign a contract to get into heaven but not include her. After they just learned he got locked in a vault for these behaviors and used one of his affairs as the combo.

And yeah I get it "comedy show" but Hetty is struggling and finally stood up for herself (just as small bit - there is a reason Isaac had a bit of a smile as she told Jay off in the possession episode and enjoyed herself for once) .... and the MEN around her immediately went to "how hot was the maid?" Not "Hetty you did good" she is once more hearing the words of men JUSTIFYING her husbands actions. (No amount of not to excuse/justify removes the fact its what is happening. It's a "I mean if she's hot" response to cheating)

Her facade is being chipped away at, she's being humiliated and tormented before those she had been coming to trust and rely on, and .... Elias is yet again winning. Honestly glad its the argument they have and his whole "not gonna change" thing when talking with her that got him sent to hell. She got to witness him tell her he would ALWAYS be this way - with the intent of always believe he owned her - only for the universe to go "nah we got Hetty"

[ladyluscinia]

What Exactly Did David Jenkins Say?

Look, I'm still staunchly of the opinion that Word of God statements and creator interviews are overvalued in fandom, especially when they get pulled out mostly as gotchas without then continuing to analyze whether or not the show canon is successful at getting across that same message. Death of the Author is good, actually, and we should remember that. But they are worth looking at in the context of evaluating intent vs execution, and for future speculation - just, like, please with less of the whole mile high pedestal idolizing and backlash cycles.

But if overvalued "Word of God" is annoying, then overvalued "supposed creator statements that have gone through three rounds of telephone and any given blogger has only heard about a quarter of them, which they'll use confidently anyway" is worse. So, since I'd already looked up interviews for various reasons...

Here is a fairly comprehensive list of interviews David Jenkins has given and statements he's made during them, presented without commentary (save curating which statements get highlighted). All provided with links. I definitely missed some, so if you have any that you want to add, please do - though if you could trim off any commentary and save it for tags / your own post with a link that would be cool.

Also, again, just because he said it doesn't make it incontrovertible canon that only a blind person wouldn't understand. Some of these even arguably contradict each other. The creator's intent doesn't always translate to what the show is doing, nor do you even have to think it was a good idea.

(Listed in chronological order from oldest to newest - post contains spoilers below the cut)

Pre-S1

Gizmodo - Feb 22, 2022 - with Cheryl Eddy (io9) - Link

Why this story - Really, it was the enigma of Stede that drew him in. "I think actual pirate stuff is fine, but it's not necessarily my cup of tea. And I think Taika [Waititi] felt similarly. But hearing about this guy and reading about him and seeing that, you know, he left his family, then he met Blackbeard, they hit it off, and we don't know any of the details in between. So filling those blanks in, and having a very human story, and then being able to do it with the pirate genre, that was like, 'Oh, this would be cool.'"

Post 1x01 - 1x03

Polygon - March 5, 2022 - with Tasha Robinson - Link

David Jenkins, Taika Waititi, and Rhys Darby interview

About Stede running off to sea - "Stede thought he could outrun his baggage, and you can't outrun your baggage."

About S1 - "I don't think there was enough improv on set! We had an insane schedule, with a huge amount of plot. We were budgeted and designed as a one-hour show, but with a half-hour production schedule, which means we really had to chase these episodes to get them shot. And then there are certain emotional beats that we really needed. So trying to find places to find the fun was hard."

Mashable - Mar 5, 2022 - with Belen Edwards - Link

About the show concept - "It was Jenkins' wife who first told him about Stede's adventures; she thought it would make a good TV show."

On casting Rhys Darby - "Stede did a terrible thing to his family. If you cast it wrong, he's a very hard character to get behind," Jenkins said. "Very quickly, the only person I thought of for this was Rhys [Darby]. He has this childlike quality that's endearing."

About the story - "Seeing them discover a need for each other that neither anticipated and charting how that relationship goes is the meat of the story." + "If you're on this ship, you're running from something, and you're running to something that you can't be on land"

Mentions of matelotage - "In fact, one of Jenkins's favorite pirate facts that he learned while working on Our Flag Means Death was the term matelotage, which was a civil union between same-sex pirates. "The more you look at it," he explained, "the more you write to the fact that this is a queer-positive world.""

Discussing piracy careers - "Something else that astounded Jenkins about pirates was "just how fast it all moved — their lives were quite short," he said. "Your career [in piracy] wasn't very long.""

Post 1x09 - 1x10

Decider - Mar 24, 2022 - with Kayla Cobb - Link

David Jenkins, Taika Waititi, and Rhys Darby interview

Pitch for the show - "That was in the pitch," series creator David Jenkins told Decider. "That was the reason, to make them fall in love with each other."

About the romance - "The main thing to me was to side-step coming out," Jenkins continued. "I just want a romance. I want a Titanic romance between these two people. We don't have to do the coming out story and then the non-binary story for Jim [Vico Ortiz]."

About S2 and the show - "The show is the relationship," Jenkins said. "So, we end in a place where there is this breakup. What happens after a breakup between these two people who, one’s realized he's in love and the other one is hurt in a way that he's never been hurt before? What does that do to each of them in an action, pirate world with them trying to find each other again? So again, I really love those rom-com beats."

Collider - Mar 24, 2022 - with Carly Lane - Link

On making it a romcom - "It's the only reason to make the show. If you didn't do that, it would just be weird. I mean, you're using the rom-com beats. You're using these like they're together. And it's funny because so we're so habituated to be like bromance, bromance, bromance, and it's such a simple move to put them together."

Discusses focusing on romance - "I guess I really... I get kind of bored. How much pirate can you do? They're going to rob stuff. They're going to steal ships. There's only so many pirate stories you can do. So if you're going to do a workplace story, I mean, you're essentially having this... You'd have this same amount of relationships in Grey's Anatomy in the ER. So it's standard. It's the most standard. We're making a soap opera on a pirate ship, and to use those soap opera beats... I like it, and I like the flavor in a comedy when you have something that's played genuinely up against very ridiculous things."

Discusses history and kissing scene

Discusses importance of going home to Mary - "Yeah, that was the problem for me in the story. I knew that I wanted to have the end where he goes home, because you need to give Mary her day in court. I just wanted to know from Mary's perspective what happened and then to see that, yeah, they're friends."

Is Lucius dead? - "You got to wait."

EW.com - Mar 25, 2022 - with Devan Coggan - Link

David Jenkins, Taika Waititi, and Rhys Darby interview

Pitch for the show - "To me, [Stede and Blackbeard's relationship] is the reason to make the show," Jenkins explains. "When Taika and I were first talking about it, he was like, 'Oh yeah, that's the show.' I first started reading about Stede and how he befriended Blackbeard and we don't know why. Very quickly, it was like, 'Oh, it's a romance.'"

Polygon - Mar 25, 2022 - with Tasha Robinson - Link

Discusses 3-season intent - "I think three seasons is good. I think we could do it in three."

Discusses acts within S1 - "To me, when you see him get stabbed, and the blood runs through his fingers, it’s like 'Oh, no, the clown got stabbed! And not comedy-stabbed, he got stabbed stabbed!' That to me is cool. And then having Blackbeard find him as the end of what would be the first act of our story felt good to me."

Discusses kiss scene filming and the national moment around gay rights

What to focus on a rewatch - "I think Con O'Neill does such a great job. He's such a complex character, and it's such a tortured relationship. And that's a love story too, between him and Blackbeard. It's a very dysfunctional story, but it's fun to watch. Watch that maybe, on a rewatch, looking where their relationship ultimately goes."

TV Insider - Mar 25, 2022 - with Meaghan Darwish - Link

Discusses show pitch - "When I was pitching [the show] to people, I'd be like, 'Okay, so it's about Stede and Blackbeard, and then they hit it off and then they fall in love.' And then people are like, 'Okay, cool,' Jenkins shares. "And then they really fall in love, and become intimately involved."

Discusses historical inspiration

Discusses S2 direction - "But when [Stede] goes to find [Blackbeard], he's gone and his crew's been abandoned. And so watching them try to negotiate that, that's a good rom-com beat," he adds.

The Verge - Apr 15, 2022 - with Charles Pulliam-Moore - Link

Discusses being surprised by queerbaiting legacy - "...part of me knew that, yes, Stede and Ed's romance was going to be real. But one part of me felt like, 'We're going to do this story, and they're going to kiss, and maybe that's not even going to be that big a deal. Maybe it'll just be a blip.'"

Discusses writing romance - "I'd never written a romance before this one, but I think with Ed and Stede, the question's always 'what's the need for each other?'"

Discusses falling in love and Stede's accidental seduction - "It made sense to have that love be almost like a teenage version of falling in love ��� one with all these intense and conflicting feelings. They're middle-aged, but Stede's young. Ed's young. Emotionally, they're like 16, and they've both got a lot to learn."

Discusses Con O'Neill as Izzy - "He plays an exhausted quality that's really lovely because this character could just be generically evil, and the way Con plays, it is like, he's credible. I believe that he can do some damage if he wanted to. My favorite thing I've seen about the show is somebody saying that Con's playing the only human with a bunch of Muppets. It does feel like that a bit where he's like Charles Grodin in The Great Muppet Caper."

On Izzy being in love with Blackbeard - "I think Izzy's deeply in love with Blackbeard, and it's a very dysfunctional kind of love, and he's like the jilted spouse who's losing his man to fucking Stede Bonnet, and he can't believe this is happening."

Discusses masculinity and piracy as an escape from that

Discusses diversity and trauma based stories - "And the consensus in that very diverse room was that we wanted to show that isn't just wallowing in trauma. We don't have to do a coming out scene or focusing on the trauma of it — not to say that those stories aren’t valid."

Gizmodo - Jun 20, 2022 - with Linda Codega (io9) - Link

Musing on fandom response to the show - "I'm wondering if the fact that because the queerness of this show isn't gaslighting the audience, and isn't a function of wanting to do something, but not being able to produce the results because of network standards. I think we just happened to be in this lucky spot where the show is actually queer… and I do think that people are responding to that."

Comparing fanfiction to writing - "And Con O'Neill's audition was one of those things I would go back to. I would watch that and be like… Oh, right, that's the show. And in a way, you're writing fanfiction for a certain actor and character because you want them to do something, and you're like–" at this point, it must be said, Jenkins let out a maniacal little giggle. He’s just as thrilled to show off Con O'Neill's ability to seem both deeply exhausted and menacing as the rest of the fandom. "And you [as the writer] you're like… And then Izzy does this now."

EW.com - Dec 13, 2022 - with Devan Coggan - Link

Discusses The Chain sequence - "I had initially wanted that end sequence to be like the FBI raid in a mob movie, where the feds come in, and they've got boxes of stuff, and everyone's running, and someone makes a dash for it," Jenkins explains. "So, it's like a mob movie or FBI raid story, and then it's also a story of Stede's lover coming back."

Pre-S2

Collider - Oct 2, 2023 - with Carly Lane - Link

Discusses fan reaction to S1 - "I thought that they'd kiss, and people would be like, 'Oh, cool, cool!' I kind of thought people would know a little bit more [about] where we were going, but then in hindsight, no, people have been hurt and burned on so many other shows and then made to feel silly."

Discusses starting S2 dark - "One of these characters is very, very damaged and has never made himself vulnerable in this way before, and I don't think [he] would react very well to having his heart broken in this way. I don't think it would be cute, and I don't think it would be funny. I think it would be scary as hell to watch a very damaged guy that we've established in Ed, who killed his dad and thinks he's not capable of being loved, deal with rejection and see that Stede really hurt him."

Discusses adding more female characters

Discusses S2 needle drops including "This Woman's Work"

Discusses 3-season arc

Post 2x01 - 2x03

Mashable - Oct 5, 2023 - with Belen Edwards - Link

Discusses fandom response to S1

About the canon gay relationship - "To watch the explosion of enthusiasm around [the kiss] was disorienting, almost," Jenkins said. "I thought people would react to it, but I didn't think the reaction would be that big. And then it was moving, because I didn't realize that this audience felt so unserved in general, as far as storylines go."

Insider - Oct 5, 2023 - with Ayomikun Adekaiyero - Link

Tease on leaning into the Stede / Ed / Izzy love triangle - "I think Izzy, in a certain way, got the worst deal in the first season," the showrunner tells Insider. "He gets jilted and then he still is in spurned spouse territory at the beginning of the second season."

Discusses Izzy's arc - "What is that relationship about? And I think by the end of the season it kind of becomes a little unexpected of who they are to each other and what they mean to each other," he teases

Discusses addition of Zheng - "He likens Zheng's way of pirating to a successful tech startup, compared with the garage sale vibe Stede had going on the Revenge."

Discusses introducing Hornigold - "I thought Hornigold was the most obvious because he was the person who made Blackbeard what he is. And Blackbeard has a father complex, so it's natural that he's going to bring his former captain back," the show creator said. "It's a struggle with him because he and dad figures don't historically do well."

Discusses importance of the mermaid scene

Inverse - Oct 5, 2023 - with Hoai-Tran Bui - Link

Reveals he didn't commit to the romance until shooting 1x06 - "Jenkins always intended his pirate comedy to end with a romance, but he'd envisioned it as an unrequited love. "It was going to be about Stede learning what love is, and Ed making himself vulnerable and getting burned," Jenkins says of his original pitch. But Darby and Waititi's choices in the scene, which they played without diffusing the tenderness with a joke, made him wonder if they could take the show in a new direction."

Discusses mermaid Stede idea from S1 - "We talked about Stede as a mermaid very early on in the writers' room," Jenkins says. "At some point, yeah, I want to see Rhys Darby as a merman." + "They wanted us to come up with a Season 2 pitch during Season 1. And that was one of the ideas we hit on, and I can't quite remember how we got there, but it was us asking, what is a pirate world? Are there mermaids? Is there magic in this show? With pirate stuff, I don’t know that I want there to be magic, but there was a way where it was something really beautiful about a mer-person, and I like the idea that their coming together would have a mythic size to it."

Discusses historical divergence

Discusses matelotage and pirates as weird outsiders

TV Guide - Oct 5, 2023 - with Allison Piccuro - Link

About the shipping culture - "It's the meat of the show, so it's great to have people bought into the central romance. If it were a bromance that we were trying to make look like a romance, that would suck."

Discusses playlists he makes

Discusses opening dream sequence - "I just like that it started with something badass. Stede, Blackbeard, and Izzy are on an arc together. Whether they're in stories together or not, their ultimate arc is together. I think, by the end of this season, the last episode, that first scene will be gratifying. I won't say why, but their fates are tied together."

Discusses Kraken arc - "But I think the thing that's good about this show is that it can go to really sweet comedy land, but I want there to be, like, if someone loses a body part, for instance, they lose a body part. To do justice to the fact that this guy is a killer and a monster, and dealing with heartache that he doesn't know how to deal with, I think you really need to go there."

Discusses Izzy in S2 - "I mean, he's jilted. He had a partnership with Blackbeard, and he knows he can't live up to this person that Blackbeard fell in love with... Who is that guy? What are his hobbies? What does it look like when he's not totally subsumed with his boss's love affair with somebody, and heartbroken?"

On S2 reunion - "The second season is them being a little bit more mature... It's the thing where you're in your 20s or 30s and you're like, "Well, should we move in together?" They have to make up some time because neither of them have been in a functional relationship before."

About genre of pirate stories - "...is a show about multiple relationships. That's what I want to see when I see this show. I don't want to see a bunch of pirate things that I've seen in other things, I'll just go watch another thing if I want to see that. That's not really my thing. I like the genre, but it's a very hard genre to budge. I want to see relationships in a pirate world."

Discusses the A Star is Born aspect of seeking fame / retiring

Mashable - Oct 7, 2023 - with Belen Edwards - Link

About the mermaid scene - "You need something expressive for when they come back together," Jenkins said. "Their reunion moment has to feel big and mythical. This is not a world where mermaids actually exist, but their love for each other has that size that you can get [a mermaid] in there somewhere."

About Kate Bush - "I love Kate Bush, and I love that song, and I know Taika loves that song," Jenkins explained of the choice. "So I wanted to find a place for that song somewhere in the second season."

Polygon - Oct 9, 2023 - with Tasha Robinson & more - Link

Compares S2 and "Golden Age of Piracy" stuff to Westerns, lists 5 he was thinking of - "Every Western that’s good is that story," Jenkins says. "'This way of life we made is coming to an end. It can't last. It's a blip in time. We created this thing because we need it to exist. We're outlaws, and we need a culture that suits us, but it's running out of time.'"

Gizmodo - Oct 9, 2023 - with Linda Codega (io9) - Link

Short tease on leaning into the love triangle

About Stede, Edward, and Izzy - "I think the three of them are on an arc together that's pretty inseparable," Jenkins said in an interview with io9. "And to watch Izzy try to process what's happened [in season one]… to watch him kind of grow and figure out what's his own story, if he can separate himself from this kind of toxic relationship, is interesting to me and I think gives him a lot of room for growth."

Post 2x04 - 2x05

IndieWire - Oct 12, 2023 - with Sarah Shachat - Link

Discusses directing and show creation

"The limitations of the show also naturally push it back towards moments with the ensemble and plot problems that it would frankly be irresponsible to tackle if you had a giant budget and a fully working ship-of-the-line to sail and then blow to bits. "That's the fun of the show to us, I think. If you open this up and you're like, unlimited budget, that would be terrible because I think you can get seduced," Jenkins said. "[It could be like,] 'Oh man, it's all leading up to a climatic battle on the sea.' And those things are great. But that’s not this show.""

"The nice thing about that, though, is you get to be the lo-fi show that’s like, 'Hey, we’re making The Muppets.'"

PopSugar - Oct 12, 2023 - with Victoria Edel - Link

About S2 Stede - "I like the idea that he learns and grows and he doesn't just stay a bumbling captain. He might be ridiculous, but he is getting better at it."

Discusses genre challenges - "How do you have a show that's a romance show but it's also a workplace show and they're criminals?"

Discusses Edward's redemption - "But Blackbeard still has to come back and apologize and be part of the community again, and give his little press conference. It was fun for us to look at that in the context of piracy, where they all do terrible things to each other. But even by their standards, what Blackbeard did was a bit much."

Discusses Izzy in S2 - "When Izzy shoots Blackbeard and they all mutiny on him, that's Izzy breaking up with Blackbeard. And they're both having their own journey in the wake of it, and Izzy's having his own redemption arc. He's trying to figure out, "Who am I if I'm not Blackbeard's first mate? Who am I outside of this relationship?"" + "If Stede's Spongebob, he's Squidward. I don't know what that makes Blackbeard. But there's a real pathos to Squidward."

Discusses trauma-based narratives - "As a diverse room in terms of sexuality, socio-economic background, and race, we thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a non-trauma-based story for these characters who don't get that historically?""

Variety - Oct 13, 2023 - with Hunter Ingram - Link

Discusses three act structure and making Stede work for a relationship - "The way I like to look at a season is in threes. The end of the first act is when they find each other, and this is the beginning of the second act. They've found each other, but they are pissed. Stede thought it was going to be [Kate Bush's] “This Woman's Work,” but, in reality, it is this headbutt –– literally."

Discusses the central romance - "It was always part of the pitch... that is the reason to make the show. The pirate genre is fun, but I wasn’t dying to make a pirate show. Taika wasn’t dying to make a pirate show. But the thing that was interesting to me was that Stede finds love, and he finds it with Blackbeard."

Discusses 2x04 plot - "This episode is based on a very, very thumbnail sketch of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?." Anne and Mary are Martha and George, and they are Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton."

Discusses adding historical pirates

Discusses Buttons exit - "I just love the idea of him turning into a bird: I love the idea of Buttons somehow being the one character that is able to figure that out."

Discusses Izzy and the crew's trauma plot - "We liked the idea that there is something about trauma and getting past that trauma, even on a pirate ship. They have been through two very different ways of living and they have to get used to each other again. But it's also a family that was separated, and becoming one family again is painful."

Discusses bringing characters back - "We could bring Calico Jack back, who, if you remember, was hit by a cannonball last season. Anyone who is that fun to play with and wants to keep playing, you always find a way to bring them back."

Polygon - Oct 14, 2023 - with Tasha Robinson - Link

Discusses 3-season arc and how keeping them apart with some plot device was never in the cards - "at the end of the first season, they're 14-year-olds, emotionally. In this season, it's more like they’re in their late 20s."

Discussing New Zealand production and ensemble cast writing - "It's pretty organic, because as we're going through and tracking everybody's journey for the season, we're watching the thing that holds us together — what stage of Stede and Blackbeard's relationship are we in? Because the overarching arc is, are these guys going to learn how to settle into a relationship?"

"The second season is more overtly about romance, and more a relationship story."

Energizing aspect of fan reaction

S3 is about "love is work"

Gizmodo - Oct 16, 2023 - with Linda Codega (io9) - Link

About the story - "I want to see them become a functional couple or fail to become a functional couple," Jenkins said. "Those are the most interesting parts of the show."

Discusses fandom engagement - "...ultimately the writers are also "the fans in the room." He goes on to say that, "We're fans of the world. We're writing fanfic about our own characters, our own worlds… It's paid fanfic, but it's fanfic." He gives another example: "If you're writing a season of Succession, you're writing fanfic Succession. You're just getting paid to do it. We, as writers–" it's clear that he's not just talking about the writers in the writers room, "become fans of the world and we all have things we want to see these characters do. What we do is not that different."

Discusses the A Star is Born aspect of seeking fame / retiring

Discusses Zheng Yi Sao

Villains of the series - There are a lot of new villains this season, but, Jenkins says, ultimately, "the antagonist on this show is normalcy… These pirates have a way of life that they're not finding in normal life. They've found a way to live and support each other and be there for each other. And that's always threatened by these larger, tyrannical forces that want to shut them down."

Post 2x06 - 2x07

Mashable - Oct 19, 2023 - with Belen Edwards - Link

Discussing drag performance in 2x06

"It is nice to see with Izzy's arc, where he finally breaks through whatever he's been doing to himself. He lets himself have that moment, which I just love. It resonates for Izzy, and I think it resonates for Con. Just personally, it made me feel good to see how it turned out."

Consequence - Oct 19, 2023 - with Liz Shannon Miller - Link

Discusses intent for romance - "...telling a love story in a serialized medium like television has its perils, largely because it's tough to know how much you can draw out any unresolved tension. "I think we take it episode by episode and we try to not piss people off in taking too long and doing double beats and triple beats," Jenkins says. "You can only do Will They or Won’t They for so long. Then you have to deepen it.""

Discusses pirate setting - "The emphasis on relationships also fits into the show's high-seas setting, which Jenkins finds similar to post-apocalyptic narratives. "It is a little bit like you're doing Mad Max, except there's relationships," he says. "Stuff's shitty, so you gotta try to find some joy. Of course, people are going to have a need for each other in these extreme circumstances, and I like the idea of these characters finding some level of a healthy relationship in these extreme circumstances.""

Discusses Jim x Archie

Discusses 3-season arc

Polygon - Oct 21, 2023 - with Tasha Robinson - Link

Discussing gender and power dynamics in Jackie x Swede / Zheng x Oluwande / Blackbeard x Stede + A Star is Born aspect

Jim not being jealous of Oluwande - "I think that relationship was always seen in the room as a friend relationship that got romantic."

About adding a villain - "I think a lot of the internal forces in Our Flag are the villains." + "I think this is a story about the age of piracy coming to an end. This way of life is coming to an end. And every Western that's good is that story: This way of life we made is coming to an end, and it can't last. […] I think every story about outlaws is about trying to preserve a way of life against normative forces that are kind of fascistic."

Historical accuracy - "The balance of the show is 90% ignoring history, and then 10%, bring it in, whenever we're like, Ah, gotta move the story forward! Remember, the English are out there, and they're really bad!"

Post 2x08

AV Club - Oct 26, 2023 - with Saloni Gajjar - Link

Killing Izzy was always the plan - "We wanted to show the depth of that character. Izzy is one of my favorites. He's like middle management who is in a sort of love triangle [in season one]."

Discusses how they really wanted the happy ending for S2 - "I think with season one's end, it was a gamble to leave it the way it was. Everybody stomached through it. Now if it turned out they didn't want us to make more, I just didn't want to have another story where the same-sex love story ends in tragedy, unrequited love, or if one or both of them are being punished."

Discusses S2 progressing the 3-season romance - "They’re a couple who is like in their late twenties right now as opposed to being teens at the end of season one." + "It was an interesting tension of, which one gives up their dream? A lot of times in relationships questions can come up, like who is going to give up on their dream to take care of the kids? Obviously, no one wants to, but someone ends up giving up more than they want to at some point. What's wonderful about a mature romance, and what I'd want to see more of in season three, is Ed and Stede making these tough decisions." + progressing past the getting together point

Discusses parallels, Republic of Pirates, and Zheng Yi Sao

Short bit about fan response

Collider - Oct 26, 2023 - with Carly Lane - Link

Discusses Ed leaving fishing - "I like that he had a little prima donna moment where he thought he could go and be a simple man, and then it's revealed that he really isn't a simple man; he's a complicated, fussy, moody guy. No, he's not gonna be able to catch fish for a living. For him to be told that, "At your heart, you're a pirate. You have to go back and do it," he doesn't want that to be true, but it was true."

Discusses Izzy's speech to Ricky - "I wanted to give Izzy a proper eulogy for himself. He gives a eulogy for himself, but it felt true writing it."

Discusses Izzy's death scene - "In a way, it's very much for Ed, that speech. The "we were Blackbeard" is claiming that he is also Blackbeard, that Blackbeard is not just Ed’s creation, and I like that for him, too, because he's worked so hard for that — and then just to say, "You can give it up." There can never be a Blackbeard again as far as Izzy's concerned because he's dying, and they did that together."

Discusses Republic of Pirates / music parallels from premier to finale

Discusses finale wedding - "We knew we wanted a matelotage in the season, which is the real term they had for marrying crew members. And yeah, they've always been in relief to Stede and Ed, and they're a little bit ahead of Stede and Ed in how much they can talk about things. So to have a bunch of family things in the season, like a funeral and a wedding, and have the parents kind of watch the kids sail away, felt right, and all of those things seem to work well together and build on each other."

Discusses retirement ending - "That will-they-or-won't-they is interesting to a point, but the real meat of it is always like, "Can they make the relationship, and can they do better than Anne and Mary?""

"Frenchie's in charge of the Revenge" + teases Stede struggling to give it up

EW.com - Oct 26, 2023 - with Devan Coggan - Link

Discusses Izzy's death and telling Con - "It feels like the logical end of Izzy's arc. It's heartbreaking to me because he's my favorite." + "I told him in the middle of shooting because I didn't want him to find out at the table read, obviously. I also didn't want it to leak. He was lovely about it."

Discusses Izzy's final arc - "You know, I didn't expect him to become kind of a father figure to Ed. I think we hit on that while we were breaking the [final] episode. He's in such a weird position: He's like a jilted lover, and then he's a middle manager who has to work for a terrible boss. He gets thrown away, and then he comes back. He really develops, and he becomes a part of this family. I think the biggest surprise was the extent that he was a mentor to Ed. They were both Blackbeard. They both made Blackbeard happen."

Discusses the happy ending intent - "With this season starting so dark, I kind of wanted to reward them for the work that they've done and the character growth that they've had. I wanted to leave them in a place where they're really going to try and make this work. I don't think it's going to be easy for them, necessarily. They're both still immature."

Discusses the wedding - "We knew we wanted a matelotage in the second season, and pretty quickly we landed on Lucius and Black Pete. It seems like they were ready for that. We made up a ceremony and everything, where they call each other mateys, and it was just fun to make our own version of a pirate wedding ceremony."

Discusses potential S3 and Frenchie's Revenge - "But it felt like a good place to end the second season. It felt like a contrast to the first season. If it turns out we don't make any more, I'm comfortable with that being a resting place."

Variety - Oct 26, 2023 - with Hunter Ingram - Link

S3 endpoint - "I love things in threes," he says. "That first act, second act, third act structure is so satisfying when it is done well, and you don't overstay your welcome. I think this world of the show is a big world, and if the third season is successful, we could go on in a different way. But I think for the story of Stede and Ed, that is a three-season story."

Discusses the draw of a "Golden Age" and it's ending

Talks about father figure Izzy and wanting a real sense of loss - "There is a nice parallel to have Ed treat him so badly at the beginning of the season and then come all the way around to where Izzy is this sort of father figure he doesn’t want to lose — because Ed usually kills his father figures."

Gizmodo - Oct 26, 2023 - with Linda Codega (io9) - Link

Teasing future Izzy - "Jenkins looked slightly sad himself, saying that "Ghosts exist in this world." I told him not to make promises he couldn't keep."

"Jenkins said that he doesn't see Izzy as a pure antagonist in season one because on some level… Izzy was right in his hesitations about Stede."

Discussing Con O'Neill & Rhys Darby acting

Jenkins confirms the season was always 8 episodes due to budget cuts

About S2 finale vs S3 - "The first season ends on such a downer, so it made sense to end the second season in a kinder spot." + "I think there's plenty of story left for season three, but I think that it was important to end this as if it was the end of the show, and on upbeat note and avoid the kind of "kill your gays" trope. I don't want to see Stede and Ed punished for giving it a go. I want to see them really say, 'yeah, we’re going to we're going to try to have a relationship'."

Teases S3 revenge against Ricky and going to the Americas

Vanity Fair - Oct 26, 2023 - with Sarah Catherall - Link

About the ending - "It's bittersweet. There's death and there's the rebirth of Stede and Blackbeard's relationship; there's a funeral, there's a wedding, and the idea that this family is going to keep fighting even as they lose members. And then it's about belonging to something." + "A lot of times, with this narrative of characters, same-sex relationships end on a dour, downbeat note, where one of them dies and it's unrequited or it's unrealized; something horrible happens and they're punished in a way. So it was important to leave it open and a lot more show to go, but also leave it in a place where it's happy."

Discusses Izzy as a mentor / father figure - "We felt like Izzy's story had reached its conclusion, where we put him through enough. And then there was the realization that he is kind of a mentor to Blackbeard and that he is kind of a father figure to Blackbeard." + "And it's also a pirate show, so he's got to die."

Discusses filming challenges - "It's a big show; it's basically a one-hour show that we're doing on a half-hour budget."

Discusses adding Zheng Yi Sao

Is the show a queer romance? - "For this show, it's important to me just to write a really bold-bodied romantic show that happens to be between two characters of the same sex. I think that the story beats don't matter, because if you've been in love and you've been hurt and you met someone you love—hopefully we all know what those feelings are."

Blackbeard's arc in S2 - "...the second season is about Blackbeard's midlife crisis. And then when they both have their midlife crises, they can open a B&B together." + "I don't think Stede and Blackbeard are ready to be married. They're emotionally saying: 'Let's give this a go.'"

Discusses historical piracy as "counterculture" that's been straightwashed and whitewashed

Did he feel responsibility to the fan community? - "As opposed to responsibility, it feels more like relief—that people feel seen and they feel good about it and they liked what we did. And so it feels like, Okay, somebody's out there and wants the show. The makeup of the writers room looks a lot like the makeup of the fan base. So as long as we're true to our stories in the writers room, I think we just feel excited that there's somebody waiting on the other end to enjoy it."

Paste Magazine - Oct 26, 2023 - with Tara Bennett - Link

Discusses whether fandom expectations felt weighty - "I think particularly for this season, that "bury your gays" thing… I didn't want to end on a downbeat for Ed and Stede. We did that in the first season. I like that there's a lot of different flavors. It's even a little melancholy because the Republic of Pirates got blown up. But there's still more good things."

Discusses production and plotting - "I wanted to start at the Republic of Pirates this season and end at the Republic of Pirates. And I knew I wanted the Republic of Pirates to be destroyed, ultimately. Within that, we are making a one-hour show on a half hour budget, on a half hour schedule."

Discusses planning the ending - "In terms of ending this season, it all felt right just in talking through it when we were in the room. It felt pretty intuitive. When you get to the third act of the story, things kind of settle in. There's gonna be a funeral. We always knew we wanted a wedding at the end of the second season. And I knew that I wanted Stede and Ed to start an inn together. So once you have those beats, it's kind of locked in."

Discusses Izzy's arc - "It's kind of a strange arc in that I knew we were going to put him through all these things, and I knew he would ultimately die. But I think him becoming a father figure to Ed in the last episode didn't really dawn on us until we were breaking the last episode. Asking what would this man say to Ed at the end because they've been together through everything? He went from a troubled and downtrodden employee to a jilted lover to a discarded employee, to someone that is just trying to find his footing again—no pun intended—to actually becoming this guy's parental figure on some level. And he's one person who kind of raised Ed right, because Blackbeard usually kills his parental figures. So, it felt right and it felt like that's how the mentor dies. The mentor in a story usually dies in the second act and then our hero has to go on and try to do it without them. It felt like the right journey for Izzy and a gratifying one for Con."

On leaving open for S3 - "I don't think it was a very hard thing to do. I think it was more that I felt a responsibility to leave Ed and Stede in a good place, at least for now. It's not gonna go well. They're not going to run a business well. Ed's too much of a talker. Stede can't focus. It's gonna be challenging."

Vulture - Oct 28, 2023 - with Sophie Brookover - Link

Discussing Izzy as a "father figure" and his S2 send-off being a priority

Meaning of piracy - "...what our pirates stand for is a life of belonging to something larger than they are in the face of a crushing, slightly fascist normalcy."

Re: Con O'Neill & Izzy's death - "I had to tell him about halfway through the season"

Third season about the work of a relationship between still damaged main characters

Discusses middles as about change and transitions, and wanting characters to change instead of reset, have them experience permanent consequences

About the final scene - "...Ed and Stede as the parents kind of watching the kids take the ship. Frenchie's the captain now..."

Objective of the crew - "...have had terrible things happen to them at the hands of colonial forces, so they want some payback. Party, plunder, and payback — the three P's."

Metro Weekly - Nov 1, 2023 - with Randy Shulman - Link

Discusses historical premise of S1 and easing into the romance

Discusses S2 genre - "In the second season, it was great because we know it's a romance and we can lead with that. It's a workplace show essentially. I wanted it to be more in the vein of early episodes of Grey's Anatomy or something where there are all these relationships on those shows. That's what you’re following — relationships and friendships that are taking place in a hospital, procedural. That's Grey's Anatomy. This is less procedural for the pirate stuff — and you need the pirate stuff."

Discusses not being into pirates - "But I'm like you. I'm not a big pirate person. In general, it's a big creaky genre that's hard to budge" + "Pirates of the Caribbean, those movies are great. That's not necessarily what I hunger to see, but in that genre, it's great. You're not going to beat that, especially on something that's lower budget. We've seen a lot of this stuff, so it's fun to take it then and don't do any of that stuff."

Discusses adapting historical piracy - "You don't want to see them punch down. You don't want to see them do terrible things to people who don't deserve it, which is not what they really did. So, in the show's world, I think piracy is like a stand-in for something. I think it's a stand-in for being an iconoclast and an outsider and queer in some ways and just different." + "Yeah, I mean, the British are there to be Stormtroopers, or Nazis in an Indiana Jones movie. I mean, they're in there to die essentially."

Discusses diversity staffing

Discusses performative masculinity

Discusses Izzy's death, happy endings, and openness to S3

[rysia-kun]

Polands Personality.

No one cares but like in the episode where poland meets lithuania and says "show me your cock and balls", it could've been a conversation starter as he is canonically shy when it comes to strangers shown in the manga (and anime)

However, in history there was a "union" treaty between Lithuania and Poland (it was called the Krewo Union, I think, and if anyone cares – it was before the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and existed since the 1300s) so Poland mightve known about lithuania and him coming over but in the episode, I think he was whining or crying about it but I need to recheck that, but by that I meant that Poland may have already known Lithuania slightly from the union which is why he may have started a conversation in that way but accidentally made it awkward.

When I was talking to someone about this they said;

"And it makes sense that he'd say something like that as I suppose it was a manly thing to say in Poland's mind, probably very casual too, so bro was really just trying to break the ice in a way he knew 😭

And in the episode Poland was mainly just nervous over meeting Tolys, but since their bosses probably talked to each other previously I'm pretty sure Poland did have an idea of who Tolys was, but just hasn't interacted directly that way"

~

in the scene he was complaining about (I think who the female character in the scene was meant to represent) Jadwiga getting married to Jogaila (the Lithuanias king guy), so he probably didn't know who Lithuania was and stuff because prior to the scene, what probably happened, was Poland just got informed of it and he couldn't imagine Jadwiga getting married to someone he didn't even know, so probably it was he didn't know who he was. He also doesn't seem to have too much human conversation because he does, from my knowledge (and most people portray him as saying), say "like" a lot which can be from him being shy or that he doesn't know how to say something which can signify he doesn't talk to people that much from not having much base on how to speak to people, it can also be the reason for why he's shy. Him starting a conversation with "Show me your cock and balls" instead of something normal like "Hello, what's your name?" can be him trying to seem manly and fit in with "outsiders", not communicating with many people can also make you shy over time.

He also seems to warm up near people he trusts and is close to, he seems to sexualize himself or his friends without knowing it sometimes? I dont know about that but, I have art (I'm not sure if it's official or not) where its him and hungary in quite a 'sexual' position, though it probably wasn't intended?

I don't know how to explain it but me and the person figured he might have autism (me and them are both autistic to clarify were not making it out of our asses)

[o-i-w-u]

Now, the Movies/Shows

(I could talk about these for AGES but I'll do that after I finish the main stuff ahahaha)

Die Muminfamilie -- 1959-1960 -- West German T.V. series, black and white. They were puppets!!

Mūmin -- 1969-1970 -- this. This was. Interesting. It was a 65-episode long anime, but never got popular due to the fact of... how it was made. THEY HAD GUNS. THEY HAD TANKS. SNUFKIN SNIPED A BIRD OUT OF THE AIR. (Also the characters differed WILDLY from the originals. Both in personality and designs.)

Shin Mūmin (not pictured) -- 1972 -- basically a remake of the OG Mūmin in order to make it more kid-friendly. Though it still differed greatly, it followed the book storylines closer.

Mumintrollet (I think I accidentally did two pictures whoops) -- 1969-1970 -- a live-action series written by Tove and her brother, featuring costumes!!

Opowiadania Muminków -- 1978-1980 in Poland, Germany and Austria, 1983-1985 in the UK -- THIS. THIS WAS MY ENTIRE CHILDHOOD. I AM ILL FOR THESE SILLIES SPECIFICALLY. It was many stop-motion animated episodes based on the books, and they're known as the "fuzzy felt moomins" due to the fact they were mainly made of materials. The intro music hit HARD.

Mumi-troll i Kometa -- 1978 -- an 18-minute animation based on Comet in Moominland by a Soviet Union production company.

Shlyapa Volshebnika -- 1980-1983 -- ...We do not speak of these Moomins. They were made by a Soviet Union company, based off of Finn Family Moomintroll. (Duck Snufkin. *shudders*)

Moomin -- 1990-1992 -- Probably the most popular! This was an anime, and it has been where most of the Moomins memes come from. Things like "let's go fill Moominvalley with crime," Moomin with a knife, etc. I don't know what else to say, man. It's just. Really cool.

Moominvalley -- 2019-present -- Still currently going on, with a new season planned to come out later this year. It's a 3D animation, and honestly? One of my favorites. They REALLY highlight things well, such as Snork being heavily implied to be on the autism spectrum and HOLY SHIT WHEN I TELL YOU THEY MADE SNUFKIN AND MOOMIN SO PAINFULLY GAY- ahem.

Hooooo that's all I got for the Shows. I. Still have more though ahahahahaha-

I SAW DUCK SNUFKIN AND I WAS SO INTRIGUEDDD

theres a moomin series ACTIVELY GOING??? WOUGJGH AUTISTIC SNORK????????? MORE SNUFKIN X MOOMIN ?????? YEAHHRHBHHHHGG THIS IS AWESOME LETS GOOOO

all of these sound so nifty :0 i love how they're almost all created in different ways (live-action, stop motion, 3D animation, puppets,,, THATS SO COOL AGH)

moomin is so friend shaped throughout helll yeah <<33

[bourbon-ontherocks]

Hey honey, happy new "year" (whatever that means), how are you? I've now seen all of superstore so was wondering if you have any hottakes theories headcanons or just random thoughts/rants/dreams about it you wanna share? Xxx

Heyyyya!!! Happy new year!!! And happy birthmonth or whatever 🥳😘 I'm fine, just a bit not around these days lol, but I'm fine! How are you?

OMG you finally watched Superstore??? What did you think? Did you like it? Do you have hottakes theories heacanons?

I don't really have that many theories or headcanons or stuff on the show because I'm simply an enjoyer of what it puts on my screen without further daydreaming, but here are some random thoughts and my main opinions on Superstore:

Dina is one of my favourite characters of like, ever. She's with Sister Michael from Derry Girls in that same club of absolute icons that holds a special place in my heart. I just love love love her absolutely batshit morality, her freakness, the way everything about her is logical but yet in the most insane way, and I'm a huge fan of Lauren Ash's acting when it comes to Dina. She's my fave character in the show.

Garrett is also my favourite character, for somehow completely opposed reasons: while Dina is objectively terrifying, I find Garrett the perfect embodiment of an IDGAF energy that I would love to spend an evening chilling with. I find it hilariously ironic that Dina and him kind of have a relationship together.

I just love how every character, despite being obviously quite stereotyped, has some complexity in the sense that you can't completely love or hate them. They all have adorable and despicable sides, even Glenn, or Carol, or Justine, and it gives a realistic touch to the show despite its general insanity.

Still on the realistic side, I love how diverse the cast is, and especially when it comes to body types.

I adore the way Garrett's disability is basically a non-existent plot point. It's here, he's in a wheelchair, yes you'll hear him saying that he drives to go to work and no you won't know how, yes he owns a gazillion pairs of shows, but no, you won't know why he can't walk, and to be fair, the mere fact that he's disabled will practically never be addressed in the whole show except for like one episode and a half where we'll make meta jokes about avoiding to give him a tragic backstory. I love this because you'll see so many times disabled characters (or LGBT/neurodivergent/racial token, pick your fave) reduced only to their disability as their unique definition. They're the Disabled Character™ and of course this will be used as a major plot point, otherwise what would be the point? I love how Garrett is Garrett before being disabled, and how it's not used as a tool for doom or redemption or what have you.

I completely hated the Amy's pregnancy storyline even though I know it was there to cover for America Ferrara's actual pregnancy

There's an inherent pro-union, anticapitalist philosophy to the show that I can only but command

The attention to detail!!! I love the joke about Amy's nametag having a different name with each episode, or the random shots of the store with no dialogue and customers going bananas in the middle of each episode

The lines!! Honestly this show has some of the most hilarious lines I've ever heard 🤣 "Justine, how are you on cutting cakes?" "Honestly? Weird." "He looks like a panda and a Disney princess had a baby" "I'm torn. On one hand, that doesn't look good on you. On the other hand, what would?"

Watching season 6 in 2021 felt familiar and normal. Rewatching it in 2025 feels like witnessing a terrifying dystopia. I forgot to which point 2020 was wild!

I think we should have benefitted more from Superstore's shared universe with Good Girls because Annie Marks would have thrived in the workplace environment of Cloud 9, it's a pity we didn't get to see that, especially when Asmita and Cheyenne's mom were played by the same actress!

Ship-wise, I'm quite indifferent to Jonah/Amy, I mean they're cute but that's pretty much it, I'm suprised Jerry/Sandra made it to the end, I'm very invested in Dina/Garrett obviously, also I loved Jeff/Mateo, I think they should have gotten back together in the end.

I find it awesome that despite having left the show, America Ferrara agreed to come back in the last episodes of season 6, it really added to a great ending

Speaking of, as someone who's more often than not disappointed by TV shows' endings, I must say that Superstore's is one of the most beautiful and satisfying one that I know? The ending is just perfect, emotional, makes perfect sense, gives closure to everything and everyone, I love that they gave the last words to Garrett since he's sort of the show's narrator through his announcements, I love how it's a happy-ish ending but also kind of bittersweet and also a quite open one, and it's just the show in a nutshell which is what I look for the most in shows. I feel sad for Jeff though, poor meow meow's still single and he's gonna have a tough time selling thoses Subarus...

Anyway, Superstore is one of my favourite confort shows, it's perfect in its kind and there's really very few things I dislike about it 🥰🥲💕

[tired-night-owl]

The freaking theory that the shadow clone is somehow a clone of crosshair bothers me so much you have no idea.

I understand that people try to find the answer that is not the most obvious but like isn’t it impossible to clone a clone ? Wasn’t there an arc in the clone wars that implied that they would run out of jango’s DNA eventually and the clone production would stop bc of that…

I guess it would be cool to have crosshair face an evil version of himself but it doesn’t really make sense to me because of what I mentioned above but also bc like the whole point of these series is to prove that every clone is a unique individual… idk it would feel wrong to me if they went into crosshair copycat mode :/

The theories I do like tho is :

if it was Cody that went under the reconditioning program and ensues a tragic death with Rex or something. It will break me but I do believe there’s something big like that that needs to happen for Rex to go into hiding and let go of the rebellion with his old geezers gang like we see in rebels.

Dogma because that would be a cool use of his character after all these years and because I do believe in the fact that the Star Wars team likes to reuse old characters that haven’t really had that big of a spotlight on them. We got to know a bit about him with the Umbara arc and it ended with a good character development but we never heard of him again like not even a mention… suspicious if you ask me or more like an opportunity for a « plot twist » that I could totally see.

Tech because I cannot accept that he would just die like that without having any kind of presence in the batch/the marauder like crosshair’s bretrayal did. We legit only had a small name drop and a glimpse at his googles which leads me to : why would hemlock look for him and only recover a personal item that means nothing to him ? If the techno union held on to echo’s body for years the empire and most importantly, a mad scientist hellbent on research and testing on clones, would definitely keep an individual with such a exceptional mind as tech’s for who knows how long.

Anyway I’m probably wrong because I usually am not that good at predicting stuff that happens in shows but I really don’t think it’s a coincidence that the shadow clones have voice modulators even after we got to see that these « assassins » are always clones. Also, some merch dropped with wrecker’s CT number implying that tech is ct-9902 and apparently it’s been confirmed that the shadow clone is the last episode is identified as cx-2… Coincidence, I think not !!! Merch has never lead me astray from guessing who dies and who’s important before so I will cling to this little bit of info until I am proven wrong XD

[catluniscia]

Clea Strange

Doctor Strange has a wife in the comics or had I don't know relationships are at the moment, all I know is the outfit she is currently in inspiring and I wanna have fun drawing swishy clothing with rips and stuff...also I really hate that window, which I had to make by hand like 10 times because the things wouldn't line up right, I hope to make it noticeable with all my hard work. (context this was written in late September when only 2 episodes of Agatha All Along had posted)  I really hope she is in Agatha All Along, like I would like there to be more cool bad ass magic users in the universe, which is why I am excited for Agatha, but like I am also one of those who wishes the Marvel Project workers actually talked to each other and or had notes to pass along so things can line up better, Again Multiverse of Madness folks didn't know anything happening in Wandavision, and I really wish they did. I just wish Disney/marvel would stop doing quantity and did quality but you know too much to ask I guess -sips drink- I know Clea is in Multiverse of Madness, and um. I saw her outfit...it's very Marvel Movie. And yes that is a semi insult. Like her concept art for the movie is fine, I like it, but something about it going from Concept to movie something happened and it went from fine, to eh, like it's better than the whole CGI made costumes cause CGI folks aren't unionized yet and there for over worked, but like I don't know maybe the photos I saw aren't that good quality, Mind you online its only like one photo and it isn't even a full body one. Or its badly photoshopped, or AI, which god don't get me started on that rant. Also when looking up I found out there is this fan trailer for Doctor Strange 3 and Google it keeps acting like its legit and like its so obviously fan made it looks...y'all remember when you would photoshop yourself to your fave character, or do ship art? And the quality was clearly photoshopped? That's what the trailer thumbnail looks like to me, like No shit onto the person making this fan trailer, like find your joy would love some more bad ass ladies in the MCU but GOOGLE its clear and bloody obvious its a fan trailer please stop acting like it's legit.  Sorry I think I just zoned out and started ranting about google trying to show fake things as legit as well as complaining about costuming directions in modern movies. UUUUHHHHHH Anyway this is the full art, and I am rambling like crazy and should take a nap, please enjoy this artwork I did and all the texture and detailing. I want a nap and a cookie.

[bonjas]

season 2 predictions:

I feel like I saw way more behind the scenes stuff that I never saw in the actual show, leading me to believe that either A. they already knew they would get a season 2 and filmed it at the same time or B. what was originally filmed was split up, hence why it feels so choppy. BUT probably neither of these things are true I'm just projecting 😩 cuz I still can't wrap my head around this season

I predict season 2 will bring us back to the original plot of Armando and Betty dating on the down-low and sneaking around behind everyone's back and that's how they reignite their relationship, and it's gonna end in another wedding for them.

there's sooooo much to talk about from the last two episodes but I'm too tired to really dive in, I can only think in bullet points lmao:

did I miss something? why did all of a sudden Hugo end the union/strike? that made no sense 😩

how did Mila and them even know about the papero and how to get there.....again did I miss something lol (edit: I forgot they're the original Ecomoda bodegas, but still they were acting like they knew exactly who he was, how lol)

the timeline was so fucked up. so you're telling me they ended the strike, Mila finds out that night about her mom and dads past, the next day Betty goes on the trip to cartagena and they're doing the fashion show at the same time? how did it get done so fast?! no one bothered to ask their president if they could do it, had the funds for it, bothered to ask her to come? HUH????? 💀 showing random shots of sewing and fabric doesn't do shit to show the passage of time 😭😭

the ADR by the beach sucked so bad it looked AI generated lmao. I'd rather have shitty ocean wave audio like in the original lol

Armando's lawyer continues to make no fucking sense as to why she even wants to be with him, it's a useless storyline with no context other than "of course she'd want to be with Armando Mendoza" and just serves as a "see, he's changed he's not hitting on other women" plot device

Betty's lawyer at least got to be cute and have actual interactions with her that help us make sense as to why she'd wanna make out with him 🤪 do yo thang girl

mila and nacho practically living together - huh?????? this novela is HORRIBLE at timelines, sense of time moving, days passing, literally without them saying that we would assume that was their second time sleeping together. bad bad bad.

mila going through the same betrayal as her mom - sorry I rolled my eyes at that one 😭 trying to wrap everything up in a bow having Mila discover the truth by somehow magically guessing his password, finding everything, spilling the beans during the meeting, all in one episode trying to have us connect to her heartbreak, girl we never fucking liked him lmao!!!!!!!! he was always ick as fuck u have horrible judgement 😭

glad her and Betty have essentially mended things but lmfao still have no idea why she was sent off for 5 years like that's not an insignificant time frame, 15 to 20ish is a HUGE stage of life and to have missed that??? like what?? but they depicted Mila so terribly I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop every time there was a "sweet" moment between them because they didn't give me any reason to think she was being genuine, I think that's a huge failing on their part cuz they never showed the love between them only Mila hating her, right to shopping and hanging out, there was a huge disconnect for me.

Mario you were fired, armando "rejected" your firing but what are you even doing here bro

Jeff and his relationship and their drama with Mila is so blah why is it even in this. Mila you suck for kissing him knowing he has a gf wtf? Also her hairstyle at the fashion show was giving Troll doll what did they do to you girl!!!

not letting Betty have a moment with her dad to actually talk about the diary is such a cop out, it could have been a beautiful moment in him confessing that he still failed her after trying so hard to protect her and she married the man that caused her the most pain and she couldve been like yeah it's pretty fucked up it's why I'm getting a divorce, after all that I feel like he still didn't accept us as his family~ or SOMETHING. crumbs, it's all I'm asking.

Ignacio being a sibling instead of a nephew is sooooooooo duuuuuuuumb lmfao literally serves no other purpose than to make people go GASP!!!! no purpose.

I FORGOT TO BRING IT UP BEFORE, WHY DID THEY MAKE BETTY FALL DOWN THE FUCKING STAIRS AT ECOMODA LIKE THAT A WHILE AGO LMFAOOAAO WE ALREADY KNOW SHE'S CLUMSY YOU MAKE HER DROP OR CRASH INTO SHIT EVERY EPISODE

[ponett]

could i bother you for your general opinion on venture bros, having watched it recently? i've been interested in it and know it has devoted fans, but most of the fans i see have been so for a long time- and i haven't been sure if the less-than-stellar aspects of it would be worth tolerating as someone with no pre-existing nostalgia for it. you're very good at offering nuanced thoughts, so i thought i'd ask. thanks!

i ended up loving the show, but it definitely has a lot of jokes in earlier seasons that haven't aged well, as is the case for basically any adult comedy series from the '00s. racial stereotypes that are probably intending to mock the racial stereotypes in the jungle adventure shows they're parodying but don't always hit the mark, jokes where characters speculate about whether or not dr. girlfriend is trans because of her voice, a minor recurring character who's a parody of the thing who's an extremely crude ableist stereotype (and also for a stretch of multiple seasons it feels like they had a quota to say the R slur at least once an episode), the pedophilia jokes with sergeant hatred, etc.

the thing is, like i said, it's kind of just what i expect for a comedy series from the '00s? obviously there was shit like south park, and the early seasons of always sunny loved to try and push the envelope, but even TV-14 network sitcoms like scrubs or the office had these sorts of issues. it's there, and you should be braced for it if you're gonna watch the show, but it feels like it revels in "politically incorrect" shock humor WAY less than a lot of concurrent comedy central and adult swim shit did. it's worlds apart from something like drawn together, which is just unwatchable. and most importantly it isn't trying to drive home some sort of insufferable libertarian moral, unlike south park. it just has some jokes i roll my eyes at

thankfully, as the show went on a lot of this was toned down and/or phased out entirely. but even in the front half of the show there were consistently tons of jokes that hit the mark for me, and i found the gradual shift towards more dramatic storytelling (without sacrificing the humor) really, really engaging. henchman 21 gets singled out as a character with an incredible arc, but i also loved seeing hank and dean go from being bumbling hardy boys parodies whose irrelevance was always the butt of the joke to being characters i actually cared about. and if you like superhero stuff at all, their take on organized supervillainy where it's effectively a union job where you're assigned an arch nemesis to torment is a lot of fun. the show just really gets how fun it is to follow the daily lives of over-the-top supervillains

there are a lot of comedy shows from that era i just can't go back to, but watching the venture bros. for the first time in 2023 i had a really good time

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S02E14 - Tunnel Vision

We reached Tunnel Vision! Yes!

Filming an indie in an abandoned and dangerous mine. What could possibly go wrong?

Why? It's dark, muddy, cold... I really don't see why.

Oh, I forgot Sarah was annoyed to be working that case.

"And I took that personally."

Rex too, actually. He was like, "Sarah doesn't want to be with us?"

"You're not supposed to be friends with the talent when you're a PA". In this indie non-union production? Give me a break.

"I'm devastated about the murder. How soon can we continue filming?" Producers.

Oh, Jesse.

Rex: Oh, I'm sorry, were you supposed to be scary?

Last episode we uncovered how many crooked cops? And you refuse to believe that the SJPD is capable of leaking information to the press?

Jesse the drama queen.

"According to the legend's curse, we have 24 hours to live". First of all, what is this Walmart The Ring? Second, why would the curse extend to you?

Charlie: Don't tell me it was Caleb. Sarah: Ghosts don't typically leave prints. It's one of the perks of the afterlife.

"Antiques on wheels". Oh no lol. To be fair, and I don't know if anyone does this in other countries, but in Greece you will often come up on on-the-road junk dealers willing to help you part with your old stuff and load them in their truck to maybe find something useful later or just to sell them for scraps. They drive through neighborhoods announcing themselves on their bullhorn. I definitely can't call them antique dealers, though, because more often than not they'll leave with some old washing machine that someone couldn't bother to handle themselves rather than antiques. It's mostly junk.

"A lot of tunnels in this place. You go down the wrong one, I might never see you again". I'd worry about myself, Charlie. Rex has a giant nose to get himself out of that place.

Foreshadowing. Sorry, Charlie, but you'll have to get used to tight spaces.

"I hate mushrooms. They ruin pizza. And smurfs live in them". First of all, how dare you? Mushrooms make pizza awesome.

Jesse, come on.

Like any dog, Rex's ears are fine-tuned to recognize the word "walk" immediately.

Aw, Sarah chuckling as she sees Charlie putting the luminescent shoulder collar (I'm just spouting words at this point, I have not idea what it's called) on Rex. You cannot tell me that Charlie's care of Rex had not been one of the reasons she fell in love with him.

He truly is so caring with Rex, though.

Where are they getting this? I haven't found anything to support this.

We have established that we shouldn't yell in the mine and yet Rex is barking and Charlie is yelling at the suspect. And then Ian is yelling and Nell is yelling... I mean, do all y'all wish to die inside this mine?

The collapse scene and the scene with the cave-in afterwards are adequate. Especially since they don't have a major production's budget. Also, the ensuing whump is good.

Of course no one knows they're there. Why? Because they didn't learn from getting stuck in the freezer.

Why does Rex look like he wants to say hell no lol

The text was a smart idea.

I don't envy those who had to make gifs with that near darkness.

Rex while trying to make it through all the mud and debris: I hate it here.

Ian passed out. Good for us.

Translation: Who the fuck cares about him. I want you to live.

Hands. Also, his hand is huge???

Meanwhile, Jesse is reading about fictional people dying while ignoring his phone that could tell him that his ACTUAL FRIENDS ARE DYING!

Stop deflecting with humor. She's opening her heart. Also, I'm pretty sure it's "I'm happy here".

He called her Truong. I don't know why I liked that. It's one of the things that bother me in cop shows, when they barely say each other's first names.

"I just want you to know... I love working with you". Okay, and what else? "And Rex". And what else? Agh, why did you stop?

"I'm glad. Because you're going to be stuck with us for a long time". Normally, I'd be annoyed that an important conversation finally happened and it was in the dark in a collapsed mine but the drama!

Jesse: *finally reads Charlie's text* Oh my god, they're trapped AGAIN!

Can we do this again now??? Pretty please???

Rex: Oh no, I have to go back in there?

Charlie woke up immediately when he heard Rex lol

I know they probably ran out of budget and couldn't show how they dug out Charlie and Sarah.

And we have a murderer to unmask still.

Nice trick, pitting the couple against each other.

This is one of the many times that Charlie has been through a traumatic event and he just brushes it off. Just saying, in case any writers are listening and want to explore this on screen. (They're not. It's fine.)

Well, that was good. Also, if you didn't ship them after Over Ice, you'll surely ship them after this one.

[ecargmura]

Blue Lock Episode 25 Review - Tryouts

Because the episode title lists this episode as Episode 25, that’s what I’m using for the episode formatting for subsequent reviews! Blue Lock is finally back! However, I am a little worried because the trailer made the animation a little stiff. There wasn’t much ball play in this episode besides the Rin and Sae stuff in the beginning, so I can’t be too harsh on the animation just yet.

Right now, this first episode of the new season is introducing to the players about what the Top 35 players will do. However, can someone fill me in if this is a part of third selection or has it stopped? Anyways, the main goal is to find a core team that can face off against the U-20 team. If you’re unaware, the U-20 team is where Rin’s brother Sae is a member of. I believe he’s the star player? Anyways, because of Episode 2, Sae is heavily interested in Blue Lock, hence why the Japan Football Union and the U-20 staff have banded together to have a Blue Lock vs U-20 to see who is better. It’s basically Ego wanting to prove to the JFU about the Blue Lock program and him wanting to give the JFU the middle finger.

In order to create a core team, the Top 6 players will be grouped into three different teams and the rest of the 29 players will have to pick who they’ll team up with. The rest of the episode is basically the players deciding who they should go with and what not. The top 6 are, in order: Rin, Shidou, Karasu, Otoya, Yukimiya and Nagi. According to Ego, the Top 6 is determined by whoever could go up against the World 5, which was seen in the final two episodes, and his own instincts. So, according to Ego, Rin did the best which makes sense because he obviously did the most work in the last two episodes of the first season. I honestly want to see what Nagi did for him to be 6th. If you’re unaware, Nagi’s perspective is a manga called Episode Nagi. Right now, the current story hasn’t gotten him to where the World 5 is yet, so I’m really curious on what he did that got him to 6th. Oh and since there’s an uneven number, one player has to be in two matches against the other two teams, and that player is #7, Bachira. Man, poor Isagi. He’s always being underestimated by Ego. Also, I have no idea who these new characters (Karasu, Otoya, Yukimiya) are like, so I hope the season can help me get to know them better. I am curious to see how much better they are at soccer than Isagi for them to be in the Top 6.

More than the soccer matches, I really like the interactions between the characters, so I really liked this episode! It was nice seeing the remaining Team Z members having a meal together. Seeing Gagamaru being silly with Igaguri was cute. Though, it is a little bittersweet because not everyone made it, especially Kunigami. Chigiri made a comment about how elimination is just a part of what Blue Lock is, but I can tell that he’s really torn up about Kunigami’s elimination on the inside (also, their interactions were so cute together, so it’s a bummer to not see them interact again). I also liked seeing Isagi interacting with other players like Barou, Niko and Reo. There were also interactions that aren’t based around Isagi like Rin and Shidou’s animosity and Yukimiya trying to befriend Nagi.

The trailer showed off really stiff animation for the soccer playing, but it wasn’t all that bad with the Rin vs Sae match in the beginning of this episode. However, I did notice some stiffness in the characters expression-wise. I felt like Shidou and his crazy faces got most of the budget followed by Rin and then everyone else. Though, this is a lay-low episode so I know I shouldn’t worry too much about the animation…okay, I admit my worries are mainly from the opening. The song’s amazing, but the opening visuals are not. It feels a little lazy and if that’s the quality of the episodes going forth, I’ll get worried.

Also, I find the voice actor choices for the new characters interesting. Lots of big names I see. Shidou is voiced by Yuichi Nakamura. Karasu is voiced by Makoto Furukawa. Otoya is voiced by Kengo Kawanishi. Yukimiya is voiced by Takuya Eguchi. If you’re an avid anime watcher, you’ve probably watched several animes with those names in the cast. It’s crazy how they got the money to hire all these S-class voice actors.

The best part of Blue Lock is always the additional time! I totally missed these cute post-credit skits! The fact that they’re all squabbling for sleeping arrangements is both cute and hilarious because no one wants to be in the same room as Rin, yet they still have to. Props to Yukimiya for stepping up. Let’s just hope no one kills each other.

Anyways, if you’re wondering why I’m starting from Episode 25, I wrote a review of the entire first season, which you can find here. I honestly can’t wait to see what this season has to offer in terms of content. What will this tryout bring to the field? Who will be a part of the starting 11? Will Ego ever give the JFU the middle finger? What are your thoughts on the premiere of the long awaited season 2?

[badventist-petite]

so my poor poor mutuals and followers have been dealing with my bruce greenwood obsession for a better part of a year now and i'm so sorry but it's not stopping anytime soon i think

it all started when i binged the entirety of the resident in a week and a half this time last year and said to myself "ughhh i loooooove bruce greenwood, why have i been neglecting him for so long?" 😭😭😭

and in so doing, i found myself back here on tumblr, which led to aos boyce/pike fanfic (shoutout @ofsmokenandgold's "weight of a man" series and @gracieminabox's "the way our horizons meet" series. completely altered my brain chemistry they're both sooooo good)

which led to me going down the rabbit hole of watching everything he's in, stuff i've seen and stuff i haven't seen. i'm not even close to watching everything but i may or may not have created a spreadsheet breaking down how much he's on-screen in the stuff that he's in. because i'm a freak. (but at least @lizzy0305 supports me in this endeavor)

EXAMPLE: he's in the film "Flight" with Denzel Washington, he's plays an old friend of his but he's also the rep for the pilots' union. the film is 138 minutes long, and Bruce is on-screen for roughly 27 of those minutes. which comes out to about 19.5 percent.

the shows are going to be a pain in the ass to calculate. like The Resident. even though he's credited in all 100-something episodes, he's not actually in every single episode

St. Elsewhere is also going to suck because i don't really care for that show AT ALL. 😬 (that show has both bruce and mark, not at the same time sadly, but it still can't hold my attention, i really tried)

and that led to "hey i'm gonna watch some NCIS, i need a reference point for my guy phil boyce in these fics" because iykyk 😏 and then i somehow ended up watching THIRTEEN SEASONS ( @bowserbabe don't laugh at me.) i didn't really watch it too much back in the day but i somehow still shipped kate/gibbs because of course i did 👀 and also watching some of mark harmon's other stuff because he is also very very pretty (like prince of bel-air, he is SO EFFING GORGEOUS in that dumb movie, i love it. i'm probably gonna rewatch it soon. and i just watched the presidio again yesterday, a classic!)

and then i found some stuff of theirs on youtube; sleepwalkers with bruce and a young naomi watts and also surprise! jeffrey d. sams. it was very unfortunately cancelled after six episodes, i liked it so much! and reasonable doubts with mark and marlee matlin but the pilot is the only full ep that i've found on youtube... i really gotta find the rest of those eps. that show got 2 seasons so that's better.

speaking of youtube, i follow some comics youtubers and they also like polls over there. one was "outside of kevin conroy, who is your favorite batman voice actor?" options were: troy baker, jensen ackles (i think), roger craig smith, and of course bruce greenwood. so that's who i vote for, not just because i want him to win the poll (he didn't but he was in 2nd place) but because i do actually feel that he's the 2nd best after kevin.

then i came across another youtube poll asking "what's your favorite justice league animated film?" choices were: "justice league: new frontier", "justice league: doom", "justice league dark: apokolips war", and "justice league: crisis on two earths". and so i voted for crisis on two earths (and it was the clear favorite of the poll). y'know.. the one with james woods as the evil batman couterpart, owlman. he was so good in that role. he's so good as villains in general. probably because he is an actual villain irl so it's not really acting for him.... oh and also mark harmon as superman, no biggie. kinda wish he did it a few more times, he was pretty good.

so after pondering for a little bit and putting two and two together, now my brain is like, wait... huh... i want that 👀👀👀 i want bruce as batman and mark as superman.

and i do kinda ship batman/superman sometimes. 'cause why not? they're cute. and all of the fanart here on tumblr doesn't help! it's so good

i want art of this. i'd do it myself but i can't draw for shit, i'm just not talented in that way

so someone draw that for me, please? i'll give you money and find all of the reference photos you'd ever need. probably more than you'd ever want.

i don't know about a particular art style, it just has to obviously be those two guys? i guess it couldn't be an action scene because i want to actually see that it's bruce's face under the cowl so maybe they're hanging out in the batcave or fortress of solitude after some crime-fighting. or maybe they're out and about as bruce and clark in metropolis or something? nah, i want them in uniform but no cowl on bats! and it doesn't have to be shippy either (but i wouldn't say no 😁😁😁)

[thelegend2t]

The Jregswap Explanation Post

Hello, it has come to my attention that a lot of people are finding out about this old Jreg AU called Jregswap. And, if you found out about it recently, you don't really have much to go off of for information of it's short lived existence, except for this post which I'm making because of said lack of information)

Before I say the rest I would like to give credit to the main artist of Jregswap, @snalz-artt . Not only did he create the art, without him some of the most important stuff wouldn't have been recovered.

The Jregswap Extremes:

Here we have the first Reddit post about the concept, posted by the creator. It shows who the four main extremes would be switched with: Extremes who share many characteristics with them but also characteristics of the opposite quadrant. We have:

The Communo-Capitalist: A communist who believes in the creation of Anarcho-Capitalist Free Cities, where the top 1% would be culled regularly. (Based on this video)

The Homo-Fascist: A fascist who believes very strongly in LGBTQ+ rights. (A Centricide character)

The Anarcho-Fascist: An anarchist with extremely rightist views on cultural homogeny, race and identities in general. (A Centricide character but was also conceived in this video)

The Moneytaker: A radical capitalist who corrupts the state to bend to his will. (Based on this video)

Here's the art of the Swapped Extremes. Again, all art drawn by the person I mentioned at the start.

Here's some art featuring the leader of these extremes, Guevara Jreg. Snalz sent this to me when I asked him to help with this post.

Here's a comic the Jregswap team made. A dub of it was also the first Jregswap video ever made so that's cool.

The Jregswap Centrists:

The centrists in the order of this image are:

The Social Democrat, The Populist, The Centrist, The Neoliberal and The Moderate Conservative.

We never really got to many details on these guys, they seem self-explanatory enough I guess. They also seem to be the ideologies in the most moderate positions of each compass quadrant. Socdem libleft, Populist authleft, Neolib libright and Modcon authright.

None of these characters are based on Jreg characters, except for The Centrist who appeared in The Political Compass Rap at the end.

Here's an image of Socdem buying a non-binary flag from Geuvara.

The Jregswap Wackies:

Here's the image the creator posted on Reddit explaining the wackies of this universe and the accompanying art.

Guntakers origin

Techprims origin

Ecofascist origin

Anarcho-Nazbol origin

Accelerationist origin (As a note, this idea was conceived before Accelerationism made an appearance in Centricide 8)

Here's an image of this AU's Nazbol equivalent, The Bleeding Heart Libertarian. Bleeding Heart Libertarians are economically right but culturally left, this idea was conceived of before Jreg had a Pink Capitalist character.

The Jregswap Overtons:

Here are the moderates, or as they were called in Jregswap, The Overtons!

The (Russian) Reactionary, The Classical Liberal, The Wobblie (Industrial Workers of the World) and the Democratic Confederalist.

Similar to the centrists we never got to much information on these guys, but they are all real movements so whatever.

And here's Wobblie telling you to join a union.

The Jregswap Videos:

JREGSWAP - ''Homophobic Problems'' [Pilot Episode] https://web.archive.org/web/20200628100030/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRi4sjPDRKU&gl=US&hl=en

JREGSWAP: Know Your Ideologies

Sadly, these are all the videos ever made for Jregswap, though creating an entire alternate history scenario is pretty cool I'd say.

I would again like to thank Snalz, without him I wouldn't have a link to the second Jregswap video.