#but also like the parallels of her leaving the hospital room in s1 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kaypeace21 · 3 years ago

Text

Stranger things & Door symbolism (narrative analysis)

We see doors have a lot of symbolism and different meanings but to a certain extent it’s about respecting/not respecting boundaries &privacy, and being open or closed to others emotionally.

In s2 Max picks the door of the av club (trying to easedrop on the boys)-and it goes wrong (and causes dart to escape). Similarly, in s1 Karen picks Nancy’s bedroom door lock (and Nancy does not open up to her emotionally despite Karen saying “you can talk to me”). BUT in s3, we see Karen contemplating picking Nancy’s door again-and right after she decides not to try and pick the lock and respect Nancy’s boundaries (Nancy finally opens up the door and herself emotionally to Karen).We even see Jonathan in s1 pick Lonnie’s car door (which we know is not a healthy dynamic).

Nancy also tries telling Jonathan not to break into Lonnie’s car-similar to Jonathan trying to convince Nancy (in s3e3) not to break into mrs. Drsicol’s via opening the front door.

We also see because jonathan doesn’t respect Lonnie (can’t blame him). So,Jonathan walks in uninvited through Lonnie’s front door -to investigate-similar to what Nancy did to mrs. Driscoll in s3 . These prior examples are also similar to El breaking into Heather’s house by using her telekenesis to unlock the front door (for her and Max’s investigation) . Or doing the same thing to Becky in s2 (for her solo investigation ). Why we have a shot of just El, Nancy, and Jonathan peaking through the doorway.

El unlocking latches also mirrors how the demogorgan ALSO used telekenesis to unlock the front door latch of Will’s house .

In fact flayed Bruce attacking j*ncy in s3, mirrors Will first being attacked by the demogorgan in s1. Jonathan & Will both lock the doors- than Nancy & Will try calling for help- but the supernatural creature unlocks their latches and both Nancy & Will drop the phones because of this.

we also see through every season-given El’s upbringing- El doesn’t respect boundaries with doors -since she never received it with Brenner (who would come into room whenever he pleased/closed the door and threw her in solitary) .in s2-3 she uses her powers to pick/UNLOCK doors -to open them . And in s1 she used her powers to LOCK a door- and forcibly CLOSE the door to trap the boys in the room (akin to the closed door in solitary).

This scene directly contrasts an earlier scene of Mike respecting El wanting the door open -by having El later NOT respect the boys’ desire for the door to be open . Mike asks if she wants the door closed and she says “no” so he lets it be open. When Lucas tries to open the closed door- she closes it and says “no”. (she had other in universe reasons for doing this- but this scene is later also paralleled to Hopper in s3 locking Mike in the car against his will, when he tried leaving. Similar to el closing the door on Lucas in s1 when he tried leaving.

In s1 (with El’s ptsd and) with El not understand privacy- she wants her door open . But in s2 when wanting privacy she closes her bedroom door (as Hopper demands she open it, and she cries). in s3 she also closes her door (now wanting privacy) when kissing Mike/ being on the phone with Mike/ hanging with Max ( and Hopper again yells at her to open the closed door). Max even criticizes Hopper by saying “do you knock? JEEZE”And in s3 flayed Billy yells at El and co to “OPEN the g*ddamn door”. In s2/3 we also see Hopper yell for el/Murray to ‘OPEN the damn door’ (despite murray having a “keep door CLOSED”sign).

*flayed-Billy also smashes the glass on the door to try and unlock the door-similar to flayed Bruce at the hospital.

And In s2 we see Neil tell Billy to “open the door” . In fact the first word uttered after the door is opened, is by Billy -who says “what’s wrong?”. The same thing occurs when Hopper in s3 says to “open the door” -the door opens and Mike says “what’s wrong?” (as another parallel) .

The Byers also in opposition to this, respect doors/boundaries of Will’s:

Will (similar to Muray’s sign) has a “no trespassing” sign on his front door in s1 (also akin to the one at Hawkins’s lab). And when Will rides by the Hawkins sign- what happens, he’s chased by the demogorgan. But Jonathan and joyce respect Will’s sign/boundaries- Jonathan knocking on Will’s DOOR in s2 before entering & Joyce ringing castle byer’s DOORbell (and getting verbal permission) before entering in s1.

However, Jonathan doesn’t respect Lonnie :

so walks in uninvited through the door ,break into Lonnie’s car, and opens Lonnie’s trunk (door) without permission. later jonathan gets angry the cops/ Hopper searched his trunk (without permission) . Sort of matching his later hypocrisy of being ok to break into Lonnie’s car but not mrs. driscoll’s house.

of course - this is because Lonnie doesn’t respect jonathan’s boundaries. again- the demogorgan is called “the deep father” in d&d. And a light-bulb is shown in Lonnie’s shed when it attacks Will. So we see Lonnie behind an open door (of Jonathan’s room) and a single lightbulb. A single red light bulb is shown -when Jonathan doesn’t respect others boundaries and develops photos. Later when the demogorgan is in Jonathan’s house- Jonathan hides in Will’s room and the ‘keep trespassing’ sign FALLS OFF the door - when the demogorgan comes near. And again we had a shot of Lonnie next to the ‘no trespassing sign’ too.

So how does this relate to romance? Or the supernatural?

For romance

Well what does Nancy do in s3 (unlike Karen in s3)? Well she not once, not twice but 3 times- opens jonathan’s door (despite the sign saying “please,do not enter” (when red light is on). which is similar to Will’s “no trespassing “ /murray’s “keep door closed” sign).This is despite jonathan telling her not to-over and over. We see the first time she enters and he tells her this- she says “sorry”, but after she rolls her eyes (and than later she does it 2 more times-showing she’s not actually sorry). It shows a lack of respect for her partner and his photography (light destroys his photos). This is similar to Jonathan busting into Lonnie’s. Or El -not respecting doors in every season (and spying on her bf who in s3 was not happy about this).

Which is one of the reasons j*ncy & m*leven were (verbally) paralleled specifically in s3 .Both pairings have no trust in boundaries/privacy- Jonathan taking those pics in s1 vi*lated Nancy’s boundaries/privacy, Nancy in s3 ruins jonathan’s photos while disrespecting his boundaries,El spies on Mike in s2-3 and says she makes her own rules-and doesn’t care if it made Mike uncomfortable.

We even have in s3e3-nancy & El break into people’s houses via the front door (to show how similar they are).

This also correlates to my other post- where I talked about the theme of spying on love interests being done by many characters too (Jonathan to Nancy in s1,s2 lucas spying on Max, max on lucas in s3, steve and rando-girl who rejected him in s3. El in s2-3 to Mike.And on the nonromantic end -the mf /the us gov spying on our heroes, El in s1 being trained to be a spy, karen spying on Mike in s3 via phones, similar to how the government agents in s1 monitored phone calls,etc. The snowball even had l*max/ m*leven (who that season spied on eachother ) dance to a song about a st*lking ex- while the spying mf watched them as well).

Also as another romantic contrast to doors in s3:

Mike throws El in his closet (gay ref) and closes the door (to his real emotions ). As Karen says to Mike “talk to me’ about Will (similar to Karen saying to Nancy “talk to me” in s1 ) .And she says to Mike “I never want you to HIDE anything from me.” (which he literally is doing).

Similar to Nancy ins1 who’s door was closed (to symbolize being emotionally closed off from her mom -it signifies he wouldn’t open up to Karen in s1 about Will (cause he’s too occupied CLOSING his CLOSET door for EL- and pretending to be straight).

Than in s3e1 during m*leven kiss it pans to a the rainbow drawing (which says Mike) & a drawing of Will the wise as the lyrics “just a little more time will open closing doors”plays. After this, at Will’s house in s3e1 ( while Will claims he won’t fall in love) you hear the lyrics in the back ironically play “Love that was new to you-you open up the door.” Like - go back to episode 1 -it’s true. After Joyce says ‘ok;- the song gets much louder just for the lyric “you open up the door”.XD I’m not making this sh*t up (they purposely didn’t subtitle the segment panned to Will but it’s clear as day) ! The other song Mike kisses El to in ep 1 is ‘can’t fight this feeling’ (which is about a guy afraid to tell his friend of many years that he loves them-but who is afraid to do so and ruin their platonic relationship- which doesn’t fit m*leven who kissed in less than a week . the song lyric also has the phrase “if i have to ...come crashing through your door, baby I can’t fight this feeling anymore.” XD Than after “time” (3 months/last ep of s3) El kisses Mike- infront of WILL’S OPEN CLOSET door, in Will’s room, while El holds Will’s bear that comes between them. El (similar to Karen’s closet scene) even tries to get Mike to talk about his “feelings” which he avoids doing with El (/ Karen). As mike doesn’t open up to El emotionally he also doesn’t reciprocate the kiss- or say i love you back-and the same song (’the first i love you’) which played when, in s3 ,Robin rejected steve cause she’s gay- plays. And both stobin/mileven s3 confessions also heavily parallel . I mean coming out as gay used to be called “coming out of the closet”...

The supernatural: Doors & upsidedown- “ A doorway between worlds”

Murray ,in s3, (translating for Alexi) calls the gate a “doorway between worlds”. While Mr clarke also calls it a “doorway” and discusses Hugh everete’s “many worlds” theory. So later when NOT respecting Mr.clarke’s boundaries and interrupting his date - Dustin says about the supernatural/deprivation tank “why are you keeping this curiosity door LOCKED?” We also see on the st soundtrack -the song playing while alexi is explaining the upsidedown - is called “the door is opening”. And @ghostgirlinsatin mentioned this detail after I orginally posted this-when alexi runs away ‘neutron dance ‘ plays and the lyric is “I’ll just stay behind this LOCKED door.”

We see mr clarke stab a pencil into a plate and Alexi stab a straw into a box to illustrate this doorway. Along with Lonnie hammering a nail into a wall in an attempt to close a open door (and saying someone should be held accountable for what happened to Will). it transitions from Lonnie repeatedly hitting the nail with a hammer to Mike stabbing a plate with a pencil -like mr clarke -and explaining how Will got to the upsidedown. Because ironically- Lonnie is the cause of what happened to Will (and should be held accountable). gif visuals-here.

If you’ve read my ‘crashcourse of evidence for Will creating the upsidedown/mf” or the longer version called the “did theory” you generally know where this is going.

Like Dustin said- the upsidedown is a “alternate dimension” a “dark echo of our world.”

Which I believe Will created based on suppressed memories. A few things appear to be triggers-bathtubs, clowns, and slamming doors. When Will first sees the upsidedown in s2- the arcade door slams open (making Will jump). And later when first seeing the mf (his front door opens by itself-similar to the demogorgan opening the door in s1). In s3 when Billy yells to open the door- Will senses the mf (and touches the back of the neck-which a season prior was associated with memories).

I think the door imagery (to some extent) represents Lonnie coming home and slamming/unlocking the front door. in s1 when Hopper knocks at Joyce’s door aggressively (she says ‘go away lonnie’). Demogorgan in d&d also means ‘deep father’ & Nancy says the demogorgan is like a “lion” (lonnie’s name means lion). And just all the other connections to the demogorgan and Lonnie I talked about in my ‘crashcourse post’ (baseball, hunting,lights,etc). And the fact Billy and el (who are heavily paralleled to Will) also have Dads yelling to “open the door” is suspicious too. I mean Neil calls his son William a “f*g”, and makes him play baseball -just like Lonnie did to Will. And Neil also yells for William (Billy) to open his door, before hurting him. So I could see Lonnie doing that to Will in the past ...

We even have El see a red door- while in the void

Heck- in s2 , Dr owens said Will’s anniversary affect would make him remember tra*matic memories and OPEN his neurological flood GATES( and these openings to the upsidedown are also called GATES and DOORS)!

#el hopper #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #byler #will byers #mike wheeler #joyce byers #lucas sinclair #max mayfield #billly hargrove #jim hopper #dustin henderson #stranger things theory #stranger things #karen wheeler #neil hargrove #lonnie byers

227 notes · View notes

shiny-procrastinates · 3 years ago

Text

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 3

part 2 here

Hello everyone and welcome back to our watch-through of the first season of Magia Record! Last time, we met a trio of Kamihama magical girls, Momoko, Rena and Kaede, and, after Rena and Kaede fighting, Kaede is kidnapped by the “chain monster”, a part of the rumor of the Staircase of Severance. Now, it’s up to Iroha, Momoko and Rena to find and take her back. Will they succeed, or will someone lose their heads? The only way to know is by watching, so let’s get right to it.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record Episode 3

Rather than going back to the plot right away, we are given a flashback of Iroha’s younger sister and two other girls. The brown haired girl has apparently created an eternal motion machine in the form of a toy train, saying something about how adults must be stupid if they never thought of that before, and that toy train proceeds to crash into a pile of books and set fire on them. Good job.

I don’t want to hear this from a gacha game character. Your original work is even more fragile than this!

The megane girl, Nemu, compares the brown haired girl, Touka’s actions to the burning of the Library of Alexandria (dramatic much?) and the two start fighting, with Ui trying to stop them. They’re just like Momoko’s trio on the previous episode, breaking their friendship up and everything.

Once again, it was Iroha’s dream. You know the erasure really went in on it when even the rug is cut in half.

Iroha’s sister had friends at the hospital, so she could get some new clues if only she could find them.

Floof Momoko.

Before going looking for Kaede, Momoko and co. drop by Kamihama Mirena-za, aka. the Coordinator’s. I tried searching if Milena constellation was actually a thing, but the only thing I could find was that there’s a Galileo satellite named Milena. Huh.

The Coordinator had a client, but she’s done right away. We learn that the Coordinator’s name is Mitama Yakumo, but still have no idea what she actually does.

Besides not having a sense of personal space.

Momoko explains that Iroha’s not there to get adjusted, whatever that means, and asks if Yachiyo is there yet. Who’s this Yachiyo though?

Aaawkward.

To no one’s surprise, I guess, since I already said it, but this girl is Yachiyo. And she absolutely ignores Iroha. Rude.

Yachiyo and Momoko start talking between themselves about Kaede’s case. (and MItama’s fixing Momoko’s hair. Cute). It seems Yachiyo is well aware of the rumor of the Staircase of Severance. She pulls out a notebook, and Momoko notes that she’s knowledgeable about these things.

Momoko asks Yachiyo to lend them her help, and Yachiyo agrees to do it, since Kaede is in danger, but adds that she won’t work with people who will only be a burden, looking at Iroha.

...not that she’s wrong, but still rude.

Well, I mean, that might make sense when you’re so op, but you don’t have to say it outright!

Still, Yachiyo has a point: it’d be too dangerous to bring along a weak magical girl to a fight with an unknown enemy. So Mitama offers a solution: why don’t they just adjust Iroha’s Soul Gem?

Mitama does a very short explanation of what “adjusting a Soul Gem” actually entails, and this one short screen tells us the rest. It’s basically what let Momoko and Rena do that joint attack earlier. I wonder if this was even long enough on the screen for the people who watched this on tv to read it.

Momoko says that Yachiyo should have no complaints as long as they do that and Yachiyo is like “yeah, whatever”.

...now that I think about it, what is Mitama doing here?

Continue? Iroha hasn’t sacrificed anyone tho.

...oh, I forgot we don’t get to see Iroha getting adjusted.

So, our girls are now at the rumored stairs at Kamihama University Affiliated School. Leaving aside Momoko and Rena, since they are students there, one has to wonder how exactly did Iroha and Yachiyo manage to get up there without being found. This school’s security is lacking!

While the girls run up to the rumored Staircase of Severance (this is so annoying to write) we see some messages on screen of what I assume are Rena’s classmates, and get pushed some ideas of what friends should be like, all while Momoko tries to cheer Rena up.

Okay, that’s a really narrow staircase. Who decided to put this creepy thing here?

Momoko writes her and Yachiyo’s name on the staircase (and we sneakily learn Yachiyo’s surname is Nanami). The two are reenacting the rumor, so now they’ll make up to draw the Chain Witch out. That is, after they give us their transformation scenes!

While Yachiyo’s themes are water and stars(?), and she has gracious movements, Momoko’s literally burning up and kicking things. Their transformations parallel one another, and yet they are completely opposites. I love it! (but Momoko kicking the sword still takes the cake for me).

Now that I think about it, for all that fire theme she has going, Momoko's not that hot-blooded. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, I guess.

Rena’s transformation focuses on her shapeshifting powers, throwing her through mirrors and with lots of expression changes. It’s not because she’s tsundere, the transformation seems to tell us Rena has lots of faces.

...I also like her DDR routine right at the start, it’s cute.

The theme of Iroha’s transformation is birbs. Rather than telling us something about who she is like the others, I see hers as basically about what she’s doing right now: much like she did by coming to Kamihama, Iroha takes the courage and jumps into the unknown, chasing after a mirage.

I’m always a little bothered with how she falls straight down despite taking impulse when she jumps, but hey, what can you do lol

One of the (many) cool things about this whole sequence is how the bgm is continuous throughout the transformations, only changing a bit to match each of the girls.

That’s not very convincing acting, Momoko. Yachiyo’s is not much better, either. They theorize it only works if they’re really fighting, and Rena says she’ll do it.

Rena starts apologizing, but nothing happens. Iroha says it might be because she’s not saying it from her heart and Rena’s gets upset.

Rena can’t just feel like making up right away, but it’s not like she doesn’t want Kaede to come back. These two seem to have a complicated relationship, but in the end, it’s clear that Rena does like her. Rena starts crying and apologizes for making Kaede be friends with someone like her all this time. Then, the Chain Witch appears.

We get a flashback to Rena flashbacking (confusing, I know) about all the times Kaede apologized to her, while watching an idol show.

Don’t we all?

So, yeah… Rena is a complicated character. (and a Sayuki stan)

Iroha wakes up in Rena’s room for some reason. Clearly-not-Momoko starts a monologue of how no one could ever like Rena.

Rena hates herself, so she wanted to change. She wanted to become someone else, so her wish gave her shapeshifting powers, but didn’t change her, so she still hates herself (considering the implications when this type of wish does work, see Oriko’s Kirika, she might have gotten the better end of the deal.

Kaede calls out to Rena and Iroha and Rena break out of the strange television-exposition-vision-thingy. So the first thing they start doing, naturally, is start bickering again. Great friends!

Oh look, the weird Kyuubei is back! Like the nice mascot character he is, he’s showing Iroha the way to the main Witch.

Rena and Kaede start to have a heart-to-heart while fighting (the familiars now, not each other).

Familiar: hahaha, that tickles

Rena says their friendship is over once they get out of there, since they were never real friends to begin with, but Kaede doesn’t want that. Kaede says that if Rena’s problem is that she never apologizes, she just did earlier and Rena says that didn’t count, so Kaede replies that then they breaking up doesn’t count either. Nice, Kaede!

Kaede basically says that, yeah, Rena can be terrible, but she likes her that way anyway, so they can continue being friends.

Rena says that Kaede needs to listen to her, she needs to let her apologize too and tells her she’ll do it once they get out.

While they’re doing that, Yachiyo and Momoko climb to the top and knock down the witches’ main body. Momoko then calls for Kaede and Rena to finish it off. Nice VFX there btw.

Rena and Kaede join hands and using both their magic they pinball the witch into the air with Rena's mirrors. Rena launches plant-enchanted copy spears at it and the witch bursts into leaves and dries... Kaede's magic is kind of scary like this.

Oh, how adorable. Aaaand he's gone.

The witch is defeated and Rena now has to make good on her promise to apologize. But, seems like honestly apologizing is still too much of a hurdle for her so after some struggle she swerves to another thing. Thankfully, Kaede knows Rena well enough and she's fine with this.

Look at them, so precious.

While Momoko and Iroha catch their breath, Yachiyo approaches them and informs them the Witch didn't drop a Grief Seed. In fact, she says that might've not even been a Witch at all. Yachiyo points out it's weird to have a Witch that comes out anywhere whenever the conditions of a rumor are met, in particular since they didn't even feel it's magic beforehand. She warns them that something weird is going on in Kamihama, then leaves in the most dramatic way possible.

Sometime later, our group is back at Satomi Medical Center. Seems Rena has given in and decided to help after all.

Going by the original plan, Rena transformed into a nurse and investigated the hospital. It's pretty cool how her voice is slightly distorted in this little sequence with her undoing her transformation.

No one in the hospital remembered Iroha's sister, but they did remember Touka and Nemu. That means Iroha's memories aren't entirely wrong.

With that, Iroha goes back to Takarazaki for the day, with some new friends and a very small but important step closer to finding her beloved younger sister.

"Sorry for making you my friend."

That's it folks, this was the third episode of Magia Record('s first season)! No one lost their heads... well except that not-witch if we count the bell as it's head, but I think that's just fine for this series, because--

OH WAIT THERE'S MORE

Talking about lost heads, look who's here! I totally forgot this episode had a stinger. My bad.

Kyuubei can't enter Kamihama now for some reason, so he needed someone to investigate the cause for him and contacted Mami as a strong veteran Magical Girl. There are rumors about that someone in Kamihama is gathering all the Witches around to monopolize Grief Seeds, which would explain why the city is infested with them and they being stronger than normal. Mami says she doesn't want trouble with the Magical Girls of another territory, but will investigate whether the current events are due to a Witch or Magical Girl. I like the short cut that shows her from beneath the grating, it's neat. Just have no idea what it's supposed to mean.

!--rant incoming--! (I say, as if this whole post isn't one)

Anyways, like I was saying... writing? Before the stinger disrupted my thoughts, I think it's just fine that Magia Record's ep3 doesn't have any big twists like Madoka. The original had that maybe for the shock factor, yes, but also because it needed it to make clear what kind of story they were actually going for, and that worked great for that show and the time when it came out. But Magia Record is more of a mystery. We don't need it to push the point of magical girl suffering because the original already did that, we need it to give us things to puzzle about, and that it already did with the weird witch of this episode. Could it have made that better? Maybe, but Magia Record also has the problem that it's cast is significantly bigger, so they have to fit those introductions somewhere. So while it introduces Momoko's trio and a bit Yachiyo, it also tries it's best to situate us (and Iroha by extension) as to how Kamihama's magical girl's world is like and what's going on there. It's a lot to juggle and the anime doesn't get the benefit like the game of being able to just put the character's backstory on a separate chapter. I really like character focused things, so I don't mind the anime trying to fit as much as it can in, but I can see how that might turn other people off. That's one of the things that's really a matter of taste I guess.

!--ok, you can come back now--!

One of the visual things I really like in this episode is the effect with the floating kana and kanji on the Labyrinth. I wonder how that was done. It's animated, so I don't think it's part of the background, but then I'm also not sure at which stage of production that'd be put in. It's really neat.

Well, with this, we are done with episode 3 of Magia Record! What will we do next? Who knows! It doesn't seem like Iroha noticed it, but just knowing that Touka and Nemu existed, not even getting their surnames, does not give her any new clues to go with. She barely started and already is at a dead-end, poor girl.

Before jumping off the building, Yachiyo also added another question to our already filled question bucket: what was up with that weird witch? What is this strange thing that is going on in Kamihama? Why are you looking like that at Momoko's team?

As viewers, however, there is only one way of answering all this: by watching. So I'll be looking forward to having you guys join me tomorrow for episode 4! Have a good morning/afternoon/evening!

PS.: The last two episodes had about 30 screenshots, this one has about 40, at this rate by the time I get to episode 13 I'll be taking screenshots of the whole episode...

#Magia Record #Puella Magi Madoka Magica #pmmm magia record

7 notes · View notes

wunderlass · 4 years ago

Text

I’m feeling so deflated to be writing this post. S1 had its flaws but those could be placed at the feet of a freshman showrunner who could learn from her mistakes going into S2 and up her game. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and S2 was a mess.

S1 had a clear central plotline: the mystery of Rosa’s death, leading to justice in the form of Noah’s death and Rosa’s resurrection. S2’s central plotline was…um. The kidnappings? Leading into the plot to blow up Crashcon? I think? But there was so much other stuff gong on it’s hard to tell.

Carina – if you happen to come stumbling into the tags for reactions – you’ve already acknowledged that you struggle to edit your scripts down for length. And it does show in the finished product. But you also struggle to edit your ideas down to fit into the episode count you have. There were too many extraneous plot threads this season, too many guest characters, and the ideas you had were shoddily and sloppily executed.

There were shining moments scattered here and there and the occasional good episode, but for the most part this season lurched from badly paced episode to badly paced episode. Stuff was crammed into each episode and yet somehow the plot also treaded water until 2x11 when it all kicked off – and this was because so much of what happened in the earlier episodes didn’t feed into the main plot. Even Max’s death, the overarching motivation for many characters at the beginning, was shoved to the side for other ideas.

And the payoffs for each of these storylines was too often underwhelming. Max can’t come back because he’ll be full of dark energy and a destructive force! Resolved in 30 seconds by him blowing up a pile of stuff. Max can’t remember Liz! Fixed in the same episode. That pattern continued with the finale feeling like it was trying to wrap up all these storylines without really having a story of its own. The various cliffhangers from Crashcon were tied up before the title card and then let’s spend the next 40 minutes treading water again.

There were good moments in the finale. Max and Isobel’s discussion, the Maneforrest kiss, Rosa and Helena’s reunion. But as for the rest? Hear me whine:

- Jesse’s death was anticlimactic. His line about “no more Manes men” makes no sense given as far as he knew Flint (and maybe Clay?) is still alive. His death should have been poetic because one of his son’s killed him but it didn’t hold the weight it should have, possibly because it came so early in the episode.

- It would have been far better if Jesse had discovered that Harlan killed Tripp and buried him beneath the shed. How awful would it have been for his entire worldview to be shaken by that revelation? How perfect would it have been if he discovered that Tripp loved Nora? If he died after learning all of that, becoming desperate and sloppy in whatever scheme he was trying to pull off (self-immolation via the bomb?), it would have been a fitting ending.

- So many characters this season were badly served. Alex, Michael, and to a lesser extent Max, had real arcs and progression. Alex especially you can see them setting up his growth for a payoff in the finale.

- Kyle was shafted, shoved to the side for the Steph storyline that didn’t feel like it was going anywhere, and I suspect we got a lot of that cut away to make room for other stories.

- Rosa’s story started off strong and then mostly got tied into rehab or helping Isobel. Them having her out and about in public in Roswell is complete nonsense.

- Max had a line for Isobel about her becoming her “entire self” this season, and that rang false to me. We’ve only seen Isobel develop her powers. Her personality has shifted each episode, fractured and inconsistent, dependant on what the writers needed her to do. She didn’t get much of a storyline of her own – the abortion was redundant, serving as a political soapbox for Carina rather than anything that served the character – and while she’s found out more about her heritage, that’s never been as important as Michael or Max finding out about theirs. She said she wanted to become more like her mother and that never went anywhere.

- I was so hopeful that Carina had listened and understood the criticisms with Maria’s handling in S1 and worked to improve it. She certainly gave her increased screentime. Except, so much of that screentime was tied into Michael, and latterly Isobel. She lacked interactions with Liz or Rosa. She was in two whole scenes in the finale and after she broke up with Michael, she disappeared from the story, and if that doesn’t say it all…

- And that break-up was contrived bullshit. I’m not saying this as a shipper. It felt like they’d planned to have them break-up in the finale and wrote it even though the motivations hadn’t been properly established. Seeds were sown but they were communicating well as a couple and resolving their issues as they went along. Suddenly those issues got un-resolved and were enough to break them up.

- The most galling part is that so much of what follows comes from Tripp’s diary, and Maria is excluded. This is her story too! Louise was her great-grandmother! Rather than sitting around her in the hospital room reading this stuff, they do it in the Crashdown.

- Which fits the pattern of what’s happened all season. Maria found out she was part alien and it was about her powers, rather than her legacy, rather than what happened to her great-grandparents.

- And it became clear that it was done so they could do the Nora/Tripp and Malex parallel.

- Which completely solidifies for me where Carina’s priorities lie. She’s been clear that Malex is her favourite ship on the show and Michael is her favourite character. But this season has shown that she’s incapable of ensuring her favouritism doesn’t screw over other characters.

- The sad thing is this really does show up in marketing. Carina always pushes and praises Vlamis and barely ever mentions Jeanine on her SM. Media outlets write about Malex as the centre of the show and they aren’t supposed to be. We have a sci-fi show with a Latina leading lady and nobody cares – not the showrunner, not the media (outside of Latinx-centric publications), not the fandom. I’m not Latina and it frustrates me so I can’t imagine how actual Latinx people feel about that.

- Maria was dragged into a love triangle that Carina never had any intention of doing justice to. Maria and Michael were always only ever meant to be a pit-stop on the way to a big Malex reunion. Sadly it’s clear the same goes for Maneforrest. Why write something if you’re only going to do it half-arsed? And it clearly was. That’s why the Maria and Michael break-up was so perfunctory and illogical.

- While I’m on the subject of Maria – last season Mimi was clearly deteriorating and didn’t recognise adult Maria anyway. Now that seems to have shifted to Mimi’s mind moving through time. It’s still unclear if this is the alien DNA or what was done to Patricia Deluca in Caulfield. I don’t understand why they introduced both elements – apart from being able to give Maria a line about unethical science which OH BOY what a contrast with Liz.

- Speaking of Liz.

- Wow.

- If the central storyline was the kidnappings and Crashcon shenanigans, she really had no involvement with that all season apart from the very end. All the investigation went to other characters. Her mother was involved, but not Liz.

- Let me repeat that.

- Our lead character was not involved the central storyline of the season.

- Alternatively, if you think Max learning about his history, and all of the reveals about 1948, and Maria’s heritage etc etc were supposed to be the main storyline…

- Doesn’t matter because Liz wasn’t involved in any of that either!

- Liz was a subplot in her own show after they brought Max back. Hell, she was a subplot even when she was working on that.

- The narrative focus really has centred on Michael, Alex, and later Max.

- I wonder what they have in common with each other.

- If you don’t believe me, check out the screentime figures for this season. Liz had the fourth largest amount of screentime in the finale, and she’s only had majority screentime in a handful of episodes all season (2x01, 2x07, 2x11).

- And then realise that the plot kept moving after Liz left Roswell. She’s just not part of it anymore.

- I watched the finale and kept asking myself where Liz was because she kept disappearing for whole chunks of time.

- She was in her own subplot about science for the back half of this season, and honestly, I’m going to have to write an entirely separate post about Liz and ethics in science because NOPE.

- Max was right. Liz deserved to follow her calling but she had options that didn’t involve risking the aliens.

- As such the Echo break-up was stupid but whatever, based on this season I guess it needed to happen.

- Did Max even care that Liz left? He loved her for twenty years and then when he had her, it didn’t matter anymore? What the fuck? Are we ever going to get answers as to why he fell so hard and loved her for so long, or is the “Malex is cosmic” story more important?

- Also the whole thing about the Genericorp lady not being interested in Liz based on meeting her at the Crashdown was stupid. You hire scientists based on the previous work they’ve done and their credentials. Diego’s word should have been enough to convince her, and then maybe an actual proper job interview to make sure she was a good fit. Not “let’s sneak into her secret lab to look at what she’s working on”.

- When Liz does leave, she only says goodbye to Rosa and Kyle. Arturo is mentioned but not seen. Which means the whole ICE sequence this season, which should have been a solid motivation for Liz to take the Genericorp job on its own, has been resolved without a proper payoff. All that stress – scenes that I know felt genuinely stressful to some viewers because of how close to home it hit – and we don’t even get to see Arturo seeing his “genius daughter” leave with his future secured.

- It’s plausible that Liz said goodbye to other characters – Maria, Isobel, Michael – off screen BUT SHE’S YOUR LEAD CHARACTER AND HER LEAVING TOWN SHOULD CARRY SOME EMOTIONAL WEIGHT FFS

- Compare Liz leaving and arriving at the ocean to Buffy Summers leaving Sunnydale in Becoming Part 2. There is no contest.

- It’s clear to me that the audience Carina writes this show for is herself. And that’s fine. Plenty of writers do that. But that means she’s writing a show for the women in fandom who like epic mlm romances with lots of angst. And the problem with that is that this show has a Latina lead who is not being done justice.

- This is not me railing against Malex. There is space in the show for both things. This is me expressing my frustration at a showrunner and creative team who are not taking care with all characters equally.

- Carina uses her platform to throw in politics and use characters as mouthpieces without considering their impact. She thinks she’s educating the straight white people in the audience without thinking about how scenes of ICE intimidation, homophobic violence, and racism will affect the people who are impacted by those things in real life.

- Am I done with the show? Probably not. I’ve got fics I want to write and while I’m not hubristic enough to think I can write better than a team of professional writers, I’m going to at least try and do some of these neglected elements of the show justice.

- Hubris. Remember when I thought that was going to be a theme of this season? Apparently not. There was no theme, unless “no editing, we die like men” counts..

#roswell new mexico #rnm spoilers

81 notes · View notes

immortalled · 4 years ago

Text

Live reactions to S3E5 of Misfits below because... I dunno, slapping it all under a cut is probably less annoying lol. :’>

- Is it bad that the opening scene made me think of Jamie? Jamie and Seth look like that could’ve been buds. Like a biker gang or something.

- I find it really interesting that Kelly, even with a guy like Seth, is still putting up walls and giving him the aloof act. I appreciate the consistency (rare in Misfits lol) but aw man, it is kinda sad, isn’t it? I get it, though. Poor thing. I think Seth/Kelly is a little left field but I do hope she has a happy ending with this one. Kelly deserves happiness and so does Seth.

- I keep telling myself not to compare Rudy and Nathan but omg... the little awkward lean against the support beam... Nathan does that when Simon catches him and Alisha spying on him. And then the two condom thing... I know I’m being ridiculous here and they aren’t the same character at all, but I’m gonna have to make a parallels gif set. I just know it. I can feel it. It has to happen. It was awkward at first because I missed Nathan, but the more I see of Rudy, the more I like him. He’s grown on me.

- I feel like production value went way up during this season.

- EXCUSE ME??? WHO??? TELLS THEIR GIRLFRIEND, WHO IS IN A COMA, THAT YOU’RE LEAVING THEM? YO, DUDE, I KNOW IT’S HARD TO SEE HER LIKE THAT BUT C’MON. You!! Don’t know!!!!!!! That she can’t hear you!!!!!! Maybe she can!! YOU CAN’T! oml

- I like how Kelly’s first response to seeing a patient in trouble is to calmly and slowly walk into the room to ask them if they’re okay (when they clearly can’t speak because even if they weren’t in a coma, they do have a tube down their throat) instead of immediately finding a nurse or pressing the alert button.

- Wait this hurts.

- LOL I... really love how Simon just deals with Rudy’s weird stories. That’s cute.

- O h? Is that grafitti some Bad Wolf-esque foreshadowing? 👀

- Wow. Lauren Socha is such a good actress??? What the heck. I’m gonna have to watch her in something else. I need to know if she has range.

- ...This isn’t mean, I love Kelly’s shape, but there’s no way Kelly can fit in Jen’s clothes.

- Not a fan of this weird tension that happens occasionally between Curtis and Simon. I think it’s IC for Simon to be a little jealous, I like that he still has his insecurities, but it’s a little annoying when it’s directed toward Curtis. I dunno. I guess it’s fair given that he’s the ex, but I don’t like it.

- Kelly looks great in a leather jacket.

- OOOH gosh. Sometimes, man... sometimes Simon gives this look and does this thing with his body language that’s just SO scary.

- ...As much as I dislike Curtis’ power, I think Alisha’s has to be my least favorite of the new powers. I wish Simon would use his foresight more, too.

- Something about Simon watching Freaky Friday is really funny to me.

- How many times are these idiots gonna have to sneak out bodies. They’re professionals at this point.

- Bahahaha Shaun is so nonchalant. Random coma patient in the communtiy centre? Just another day. I love him.

- WAIT NO SHAUN NO WAIT NO!!!

- NO?????????????????????????????????? NO?? NO!

- I’m not gonna think about the legal issues with what’s-his-face pulling the plug instead of a nurse. Or like... how they’re gonna explain that Jen’s body is there at the community centre. Or how the gang is gonna get away with security footage of them stealing a body from the hospital (which there would have to be, there’s no way they didn’t get caught on camera). I can’t go full clown. This is Misfits. 🤡

- Also I totally thought they were going to grab an animal or something off the street and then give it to the boyfriend or parents or something to take care of so Jen could live on at least for a while longer as something else than die. I don’t know why I thought that. It just felt like it’d be on brand. Don’t @ me LOL. (I’m glad I was wrong; I think it’s a much nobler end for Jen to own up to what she did and have her goodbye.)

- That is totally some Bad Wolf-esque forshadowing. And clearly slapped on in post!

Final thoughts:

Not a bad episode. I liked it well enough. It was entertaining and this one got a few laughs (for some reason Seth saying “Hi” and Rudy going feral at him got me). I don’t have too much to say about it, really, it’s a pretty standard episode. So far I think Peter’s episode is still my favorite just for the more superhero-y hijinks, but this ep had some really nice protective Simon moments and I really enjoyed Seth. The music was pretty good, but the Misfits soundtrack is always killer.

I hate that my only big note is a complaint, but... I’m finding it really hard to connect with the characters this season, even the OGs. I get bursts of it, primarily with Simon and Rudy, but overall something just feels wrong. No one except maybe Curtis feels OOC and yet? Something about the characters is off. It feels like I’m looking at an alternate universe where everything is the same except for some itty bitty detail and I can’t place what it is. And before anyone says it, no it’s not because Nathan isn’t there lol. He was the heart of the series for me, but I don’t think his absence is what feels wrong. It’s definitely something about the writing or within the remaining characters themselves.

I? Almost want to say that it’s an issue of the gang not feeling like a family anymore? They don’t feel as close. I know Misfits has always primarily been about hijinks and outrageous plots, but I almost wanna say that S1 and S2 had more focus on character relationships than S3 so far? We get a little more into the nitty gritty of Alisha’s relationships with Simon, Rudy, and Curtis (even though her “problem” with Curtis in E2 made no sense) but besides that... it just doesn’t feel like we’re getting the meat that we did in S1 and 2. Granted, that is two seasons versus one.

Oh yeah. And RIP Shaun. I knew he was gonna die but I didn’t expect it so soon. That sucks. I think that his death would have been sadder if the show hadn’t exposed his grosser aspects, like how he creeps on girls and... he’s just kind of a skeevy perv. Which, I know most of the male characters in this show are perverts to some degree, but it works better for everyone else because they have some redeeming qualities that make them more endearing and their faults more palatable. Shaun doesn’t quite have the endearment factor to pad out how uncomfortable he was in E2 and E4 (making him into a villain for E4 was a bad move too). I think if he had shown just a hint of really caring about the gang, even privately, then maybe I’d be sadder. Oh well. He’s still the best probation worker. I’ll miss him.

Anyway, anyway. Enough complaining. One last good thing: Rudy continues to grow on me. I am so intrigued by how he handles his split (how his splits handle each other?). I feel like I need to come up with a better term. But that’ll do for now. I really, really hope that Overman doesn’t just sweep all those issues under the rug. It seems like he did that with Rudy and Alisha’s relationship (which is a bummer!) and I think it’d be so cool for Rudy to either find peace with that inner conflict or at least be able to better cope with Rudy One and Rudy Too so they’re not always squabbling. Love Rudy, though. Him and Nathan would’ve butted heads to be the funny one, I think, but good friends after a while. Oh, the terror those two could have caused...

#out of immortality [ooc];#spark watches misfits [liveblogging];

4 notes · View notes

sanoiro · 6 years ago

Text

Lucifer 3x24 - S3 Finale - Meta: An Ending in Three Acts

*This was written after 3x24 and it prepares the path I’ll walk on for the S4 meta this week.”

Each post will have a *Keep Reading* feature to protect you from S4 spoilers.

As a short intro, I would like to say that I’m exhausted so I really hope the following meta makes sense. 3x24 was a very packed episode and no doubt I’ll probably come back one day once more to add something to my impression over certain scenes. But for today that’s what I have and it’s quite a lot.

Mistakes have been made but this time I’ll not apologise for them. As you all know we are in a constant state of shock since the Cancellation. Many of us feel drained but refuse to give up and we will not give up. Still, that does not alter the fact that some of us, myself included, pushed themselves further than they are comfortable or willing in order to get out out the battlefield and fight. We will be back there on Monday to support the standalones and the #SaveLucifer campaign!

Now do know this. The campaign caused some deep wounds that will leave some magnificent scars behind. We still bleed occasionally but we do not give up and so we begin...

Act 1: Dan And The Full Circle

This is not the last meta as we have two more episodes coming but it is a meta where the plot progress is concerned.

So was this a good season overall? I believe so yes, although we had many plot holes which although I’ll not list I suppose they could have been handled a bit more masterfully for my taste.

There are many different places to begin this post but I would like to start with Dan.

Dan had an interesting character growth since S1. The problem though is that as I have said before, in S3 everyone came to terms with their identity and Dan was one of them. When Marcus’ hitman was caught and the team tries to extract his boss’ whereabouts, we see that Dan has come to a conclusion similar to the one Lucifer has.

Marcus in 3x02 said that Lucifer was impulsive and an idiot. To a point he was correct. When Marcus met Dan, as the man himself laments. Marcus called him a corrupt cop. It takes one to see one I guess. In that scene, we realise that Dan will probably never go to Hell. Dan carries no guilt over the Palmetto case and certainly none over letting the Russian Mob find and kill Chloe’s father murderer…

At that moment we see Dan accepting his faults but also we get a glimpse of his future and that he will probably see Charlotte one day. That’s good news I guess but the final flip of the coin as we saw at the end of the episode and S3 finale is as to where the coin will land not where it is currently positioned on the air. Why? Because even at the last moment there is a possibility of ending up either in Heaven or Hell is still not set in stone.

DB said that 3x24 brings us into a full cycle and he was correct.

First, see the parallel between the end of S2 and S3 where Linda and Maze are concerned or the fact that Charlotte is free like Mum is free… Lucifer becomes the believer while Ella doubts her faith in him while she does make a leap of faith… Everyone's world is changing and they do realise that their identities are very fluid and they do need to come to terms with that.

Finally, we can also see is that Lucifer is wearing a similar clothing arrangement with the second episode of S1 not to mention the “I don’t want to die” being uttered from Chloe at the end of the episode (See the Pilot).

Act 2: Chloe and The Truth

In this episode, we don’t have the time to process fully whatever it was said in 3x23 but Eglisson makes an amazing job with the close-ups in 3x24. It’s almost the same way they were used in the Pilot. At the alley, we have one of the most important scenes of the episode.

As you remember in 2x18, Chloe said to Lucifer that although he tells the truth he doesn’t say the whole truth which for S2 standards is correct mainly because Lucifer was avoiding to reveal her everything concerning Mum, her miracle status and why he was avoiding her romantically. Now in S3 Chloe makes a different statement. No more metaphors.

Metaphors are not just something that is not literal. Metaphors in Greek means “to be moved”. Meaning they are transferable in a way. At that alley, Chloe tells Lucifer that she does realise that the metaphors are real for him and the blame falls also to her as she encouraged him to carry on with them for so long. Again Chloe has unknowingly noticed what Lucifer has gone through in the entire S3. Lucifer’s conviction about his wings, the bad and evil in the world, his Devil face and finally his very identity.

His Devil face during his discussion with Marcus is revealed to be a metaphor - A transference- of his emotional state to his body. Perhaps the writers decided here to play with the psychosomatic effect of an emotional state.

In my fanfiction story Alis Grave Nil that’s how it is played out. -Shameless of me I know...-

“Why do you like hide and seek so much?” She castigated puckering her lips in displeasure.

Putting her whole weight on his belt, Lucifer had no choice but to scout at her level if he wanted to retain whatever was left of his dignity.

Mourning the loss of Chloe’s touch, he was startled when two hands touched his mottled and streaked scalp. The child’s was demanding in her attempt to scrub away his millennia-old appearance.

The Devil Face in that story is a self-inflicted punishment that Lucifer forced unknowingly on himself as he felt guilty after his Fall due the loss of his best friend. It is later discussed how Lucifer is playing games with his Devil face and that putting a facade to hide the fear, agony and pain is not a solution and so it washes away under Trixie’s touch. But back to the episode!

The close-ups in the Alley scene are also important. We rarely had any of those in S3 and Egilsson is not usually playing with them. Egilsson has directed the episodes:

1x08 - At Tu Doctor? 2x06 - Monster 3x04 - What Would Lucifer Do? 3x16 - Infernal Guinea Pig 3x24 - A Devil of My Word

I believe you now have a better idea of his work.

No the close-ups in 3x23, they highlight the identity under the words and what we try to be. They give out Chloe’s honesty and Lucifer’s acceptance before the ending robs him of the peace he had found through Chloe’s trust and acceptance.

Now cue back at 2x01. Do you remember the “I need the Eggs” joke at the end of the S2 first episode? I had written a beautiful - yes, I’m really proud about that meta piece- meta which you can find in my blog and at the Alley we also see a hint of that joke coming back but with a twist.

Chloe is no longer concerned about the eggs but is now more worried about the fact that the man is acting like a chicken. The eggs in that interpretation is the love and she is willing to jeopardise that in order to save the man she loves. Perhaps she feels guilty as she says that she encouraged him with his Devil talk in order to get his partnership and be around him. At that point, she is willing to sacrifice a lot but she tries to find the answers by helping him.

She does love him as he is but for Chloe Lucifer being honest with her is important so she tries to penetrate what she believes to be a false identity because she can no longer entertain the absurd thought of everything being actually real.

It’s that 1% she wants to get rid from the back of her head and so she wants the man… Problem is that when all is revealed she has to deal with the 1% occupying more of Lucifer than she ever thought possible.

The next scene is, of course, the one occurring in the circular room. We all have recognized the phrase “I don’t want to die” from the Pilot. It was delivered in the same way but this time Chloe is protecting Lucifer. Her next lines are cutting deeper than we think possible but most have brushed them away for the favour of the big finale.

“I can’t. Not without stopping you.”

This line was delivered not because Marcus was Sinnerman or because he had murdered Charlotte but because he had made clear that killing Lucifer was what he intended to do. So Chloe shields Lucifer.

In 1x12 Chloe believed that Lucifer was a killer and still she hesitated. She fidgets and cries out when the newbie cop fires. Lucifer was correct. Chloe never loved Marcus, never cared enough in order to hesitate shooting him.

In 3x23 Chloe was prepared to die for Lucifer. In my speculation, I had said that Chloe dying at the finale even for a little while, was vital in order for us to see how far she could go for Lucifer. Now we have seen it. Also in a way, we all believed she had been hit and was dying or was dead. That is the nature of supernatural series though that we know our leads will never die… At least not for a long-long time!

I’ll dedicate more time into what happened next at that scene in the 3rd Act of this meta so let’s skip everything and go to the roof.

The way Lucifer and Chloe are shown gets us back to the Pilot. The way that the camera is focusing on Chloe and then she wakes up and her vision unblurs on Lucifer looking at her in the hospital while he welcomes her back, gets us back to the very first episode of the series. Once again he has saved her and once again she was faced with the truth but does not remember it or in the case of 3x24 has not actually witnessed it.

The most encouraging thing though is that Chloe does not run. Even with the possibility of the truth being well… The Truth! She goes back to a place rimmed with bullets in order to find Lucifer. Perhaps it shows how deep her emotions run about him to the point that she will risk everything to go back and protect Lucifer once again.

The Devil or not Chloe did go back to save him because his life worths more than the realization who she was partnered with or that she loves the Devil. That instinct to see if the person she loved is well, personally fills me with hope. Sooner or later Chloe would have come into terms and fought beside Lucifer for L.A., The World and their rather unique relationship…

Yet… Does she step backwards? Yes, she does.

Remember her reaction in 2x01 when Amenadiel shot himself and Chloe was almost faced with the possibility of Lucifer being the actual Devil?

youtube

Yeah… She had stepped backwards then as well. But what we do know is that no matter what, Chloe even if she runs away physically or emotionally from Lucifer after 3x24, according to Henderson and Ildy she continued to work with him and tried at the same time to deal with two things. Working once again with Lucifer while knowing the truth and second that she was in love with a man who didn’t claim but was the actual Devil.

Fingers Crossed we will see that in S4 that I have faith will be coming our way in 2019.

Act 3: Lucifer - The Scars Run Deep & Still Hurt.

In this episode, we see a different Lucifer and Ellis plays the character on so many different levels.

First comes the murder’s crime scene to which Lucifer says that he will never see Charlotte again. It is a parallel with how Amenadiel will never see Mum again but it also gets us on two places where we weren’t expecting Lucifer to be in 3x24. They are not out of place but they are very important to the character development.

First of all, for the first time, Lucifer mourns the fact that he will never be at the Silver City again. This is a foreshadowing of the very finale. Lucifer still does not believe he is worthy although during the episode he does shift towards his more angelic qualities for once in the whole series. The problem here is not that he misses home but he fully acknowledges that immortality does make him lose people forever as for some weird reason he befriends the ones who end up in Heaven. Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are and the Devil is apparently a good guy...

The second level here is Chloe. Lucifer is fully aware that Chloe will leave him one day but he does not run away from the possible pain her mortality will eventually cause him. But Lucifer has come somewhat to terms with that. Remember his comment in 3x06, “Detective you just focus on getting older” before the elevator’s doors close and he goes with Ella to Vegas?

The above is one of the contrast we see with Marcus. Marcus believes he will go to Heaven and even then he chickens out. He claims to love Chloe but avoids her eventually in order to get his immortality back along with trying to kill Amenadiel. Lucifer is fully aware that Hell is waiting for him and that now he can be trapped behind a Door for all eternity and still endangers himself.

What I loved most at the Griffith Park scene was Chloe’s reassurance that she is there for him only for Lucifer to make almost a vow that he will also have her back as well. It is no accident that Lucifer asks how Dan is right afterwards. He has experienced the possibility of losing Chloe and has a very good idea what his favourite Douche is going through. Therefore yes, I truly enjoyed the 2x13 and 2x14 Easter Egg undertones of how the roles have been reversed.

Now what made me laugh was how the Easter Bunny became oh so real for Chloe to the point she hissed at Lucifer “I almost married him! Why didn’t you say anything!?”

Next comes Lucifer’s admission that Marcus wanting or actually attempting to kill Amenadiel infuriates him. We do know that Lucifer loves his brother very much but also that if Amenadiel had been shot and died as a mortal he would most probably have been back home although Amendiel always had some guilt issues so then again it was a gamble. A toss of a coin...

During his discussion with Marcus, Lucifer opens up more about the rebellion and the aftermath than he has ever done before. It’s actually of the four key moments for Lucifer in this episode. This is the second.

Lucifer says that everyone hated him, himself included. He felt like a monster but as we know that was not because of the rebellion. In 3x11 he does admit that he tried to be redeemed in a way by peacefully staying in Hell for very long periods of time when he didn’t get to Earth and shagged women and men alike that is.

Lucifer felt like a monster because he could not see any worth in himself. He was not a victor and had also Fallen out of grace. He had no one to tell him he worth something and through time he externalized his self-hate as himself admitted.

Going a step further we can assume that the Devil-face was Lucifer’s own personal Hell-loop. One he came to live with and eventually accept and love in a very morbid way. His guilt and pain manifested in his reflection and as we saw at the end it never ended for him because he always returned to square one. Hence the loop. In S3 he had opened the door and then closed it again. In S3 we saw Lucifer have his eyes gleaming red 2 times. When he threatened Ella’s brother and then in 3x20. The answer is rather simple now I guess.

You cannot escape what you have done and no action will ever justify your past or future actions. So it’s up to you to open your door and Lucifer in 3x24 just trapped himself once again behind one. His Devil face.

What interests me more though is how does Lucifer believe he became a monster… Was it only his lack of self-worth? Perhaps it was because he was different and he could feel that so he also became something different as well.

Lucifer was always an emotionally raw being and so his image mimicked him. His pain was externalized and so was his solitude and ostracism from his family…

At the end of the day Lucifer was like the odd one out so he psychosomatically self-harmed himself like he literally did in 3x11.

If I had to talk more about his reoccurring lapses I would say that Lucifer is but an immortal with suicidal or self-harming tendencies who knows that the cannot die. He feels too much and cannot buffer that otherwise. Perhaps that is one of the reasons he stays with Chloe as well.

Marcus story hits a bit too close to home. An immortal who cannot die but cannot enjoy internal life either but then he falls in love so he values life and wants to keep living. Yet for Lucifer, he knows that in the far future only Hell awaits him especially after Chloe is gone.

Right now Lucifer has a purpose and a home in L.A. and it is not structured around who he will sleep with or what drugs and alcohol he will consume. It’s experiencing mortality - if you remember 1x05 his talk with the then Lieutenant?- and is willing to risk his life outside Hell because for once he values something more than himself.

Still, this does not mean that Lucifer is emotionally stable or does not go over the top when he is with Chloe which makes him a bit like a mental health sufferer who wants or is forced emotionally and physically -chemically- to experience an adrenaline rush so he goes often into a state of mania.

When Lucifer talks about selflessness we can also see how this has worked for him in the past two seasons but do remember that he was also selfless with Delilah but that was not how he got vulnerable. So is Chloe’s miracle status still an important factor in this game? I would say yes. I still believe it was Chloe’s feelings that make him vulnerable but I’ll not take any more space to talk about that in this post.

Back on Marcus and when Lucifer taunts him that Chloe never loved his sorry behind… Obviously, Marcus does not like that explanation so he brushes it off. In the end, though we see that Chloe is ready to kill Marcus if that means that Lucifer will be safe. She actually aims and shoots him. So Marcus has his answer. She never loved him. She believed him but Lucifer came first, Marcus had failed to get rid of the cat.

What is also important to mention at this point is that Lucifer realises finally the gravity of our actions but also our beliefs. His talk with Ella is meaningful but for the first time perhaps he also feels free from his Dad. He has free will but is that really true? Never forget that some things are not as they appear and Lucifer still had/has a 4th season to explore.

Another groundbreaking realization is that at the alley Lucifer confesses that he no longer sees himself as the Devil that much as of late. He does know it’s because of Chloe. That gives way to an emotional growth sprout.

Long gone are the episodes 3x04 and 3x08. He knows he is responsible for his actions and the gravity his own thoughts have on himself but also has a new point of reference. For the common public, God is supposed to be something pure and salvaging. For Lucifer that's Chloe. Perhaps that is also why the camera also plays with closed captions in that episode.

And so we get to the scene where Lucifer and Chloe confront Marcus. The shit does hit the fan and we do have a scene very much alike with 1x01 with one big difference. Lucifer is fully aware he is not invulnerable close to her. He has no idea if his wings will protect her but driven by instinct he takes them out and covers them both.

You may ask why did he stay for so long? Shock, panic the fact that bullets were still flying so he couldn’t take the chance to unfold his wings and fly away with Chloe. I’ll always believe that while he is in distress he calls out something between Dad and God but you can make your own assumption there.

On the roof, Lucifer finally understands what the false Sinnerman was saying to him. It has to be you.

Marcus was ready to kill Chloe just in order to kill off Lucifer as well but for Lucifer, the resolution came when Chloe told him they had to find Pierce. Lucifer knows that the only way to keep her safe is to go back and get Marcus. Problem is that he has fallen once again in his Mania state, like he was in the episodes 3x09 and 3x10 with Sinnerman. The 101 Angel rule is forgotten when Maze’s dagger appears and Lucifer gives Marcus a sly smile.

You see no matter Marcus’ experience in combat Lucifer still possesses supernatural strength which makes Marcus’ fisted fingers crack and drives Maze’s dagger into Marcus’ heart. And right there starts our stroll of finding the meaning between the spoken lines.

Marcus’ first words when he knows he is fatally wounded is to ask if Chloe is okay. That makes Lucifer flatter and look a bit dazed as if he has a waking moment before he falls asleep once more. Marcus was always a manipulator so yeah he cares about Chloe in a very odd way but he also aims to drag Lucifer down with him.

Although Marcus insists that he will go to Heaven, Lucifer contradicts him and for the first time, Lucifer does something he has never done before. He tilts the scale of a soul’s judgement. Lucifer makes sure that Marcus is dying with a seed of doubt that before he takes his last breath will have bloomed into guilt. And guilt, as you all know, gets you to Hell.

As Marcus is laughing about going to Heaven, Lucifer knowing fully well what Hell does to you, he encourages the final moments of a human to look at the mirror and add some heavy stones of guilt.

By doing that Lucifer makes sure for the first time in his existence to lure a soul into eternal damnation in Hell. In 3x07 he had tried to console Reese that perhaps he was not dying, that perhaps Hell was not the waiting for him but Reese was already too far gone. Marcus was not. Unfortunately, just for that, the change started.

The following words are actually spoken from Lucifer’s awareness of what he is doing but directs them to Marcus. A bit like what happened with Amenadiel in 3x04. Marcus, of course, sees Lucifer’s face burning and gleefully dies before telling Lucifer that neither of them can escape what they are.

You chose to kill her.

Oh Deep down, you know you're a monster.

And that you belong in Hell, where you will torture yourself with that truth for eternity.

'Cause no matter what you tell yourself, you can't outrun what you've done. What you truly are.

Therefore, Lucifer and Marcus did the exact same thing. In the end, Lucifer made sure that Marcus had enough guilt to go to Hell but Marcus made sure to ask about Chloe and also ruin Lucifer’s newfound breakthrough by dragging Lucifer back to a mental Hell which made his face resurface. Indeed a Sinnerman to the very end...

Both characters made sure that the other would go to their personal Hell.

Lucifer does try to get the knife perhaps in a moment of realisation of how his words apply to both of them but Marcus stops him and delivers his last grand manipulation.

The bad news is that Lucifer is back into his own Hell loop meaning his Devil face but at the same time we do know that you can break the loop like it happened with Charlotte and that second chances do matter.

In a possible S4 we would explore the knowledge of who you are with the consequences of that as well as what kind of a future you can have when you deal with something as heavy as having committed the Angel 101 no-no. Additionally never forget that Lucifer will always feel guilty about Uriel.

And finally, the moment when Chloe sees his face and Ellis delivers one of the most magnificent “Detective?” I have ever heard him say.

That scene was like as if you have a child delivering that line.

Imagine a boy of around five years old who has no idea what he has done. You get into the room and you see the little boy cradling a knife whilst covered in blood and he calls you mommy and it's innocent, there is no evilness but true innocence and bewilderment. That’s Lucifer at the end of S3 which shows that despite his growth, in many ways he is still a very misguided child.

So where does that leave us? Probably with a lot of fanfiction and if we are lucky enough a S4.

Until next time loves! And if you were wondering, this was a 4.498-word meta. I’m impressed you made it to the very end.

And remember

We Are Here! We Are A Legion! We Are LUCIFANS! 🔥😈🔥 #SaveLucifer

#lucifer meta #lucifer 3x24 #A Devil of My Word #Sanoiro just being crazy as usual

74 notes · View notes

thedegenerateasexual · 7 years ago

Text

so now we're w/ scott and allison in the woods and scott is like highkey having an anxiety issue he keeps using his wolf eyes and wondering if derek can get to allison from here bc he doesn't want derek near her and where is jackson and can they leave yet

scott dimly remembers hearing about the fire, says he would have been ten years old when it happened - that aligns with the timeline they were trying to give us in s1 & s2, that the fire was six years ago

they decide to check in with lydia before going further bc they'll have to tresspass on private hale property to do so and scott texts stiles while allison's on the phone and he uses phrases like "u" and "kk" it's so cute

"Allison hung up. She had the world's longest eyelashes." scott please

like that is. ON THE MONEY. what s1 scott acts like. it's so fucking funny

remember when it was trendy to hate this quality in scott?? bad bad bad

lmao allison trying to comfort lydia about jackson not checking in with her: "you know how guys are!" scott: silently offended, he would N E V E R make allison worry like that

not to keep discoursing but 4 for u, scott, for not normalizing toxic behavior on the basis of "it's what men are supposed to do"

anyway they set off into the forest and we switch to stiles pov

"Either Danny had been taking advanced goalie lessons or he had had a side dish of irritation along with his Gatorade because Jackson hadn't told him where he was. Either way, he exceeded his four seconds. Then they ran out of hot water in the showers and by then, Stiles had been very happy to be in his room, at home, checking up on the ever-growing mob of zombie sheep in his MMORPG. He kept one ear open for good stuff on his dad's police scanner." listen i love that stiles is a gamer but no actual person who played an MMO would call it an MMORPG they would call it a fucking MMO like not to nitpick. but.

"Scott e-mailed him a map featuring a very narrow, one-lane road leading into Beacon Hills Preserve. It looked like you could use it as a back way to get to the preserve from the Hale house. Chalk one up for technology. And one for the Hales." THE HALES ALWAYS HAVE AN ESCAPE ROUTE ):

HAHAHAHAHA FUCK I JUST SHRIEK-LAUGHED OUT LOUD

He read Scott's text about the heart attack. "'Saw,'" he murmured. He listened to the scanner and got the motel guy's name. He texted back, muttering, "So, Scott, saw what? Saw Derek?"

"Yes?" Derek said from behind him.

"Yeaooww!" Stiles shouted. He turned around to find Derek leaning against the wall. He did that on a irritatingly frequent basis, both at Scott's house and Casa Stilinksi. He was wearing his black leather jacket and he looked especially pouty and moody. "Could you not do that anymore? It is so not cool."

HTIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY DEREK WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS

always sneaking into people's bedrooms

i like that chris sneaks into houses in 6A nice parallel ha ha anyway

of course, stiles IMMEDIATELY gets called down to the kitchen by his dad

and he asks about motel guys, but all his dad does is throw him suspicious glares and not say much

he does ask "where's your partner in crime" i love scott'n'stiles so much

"did you take your adderall today" "a gallon of it! er i mean yes"

also "im gonna get together w/ scott soon his grades are even worse than mine" "ur quite the humanitarian" and then the narrative goes "oh yeah right there was the proof that stiles definitely inherited his dry wit from his old man"

so he goes back up and derek is still sitting at his desk "hey, paws off" and explains about the motel guy to him. derek says it wasn't him so stiles is gonna go to the hospital to ask him questions

oh my god "Derek looked uncomfortable. There was something about him and the hospital. Maybe the fact that half of his sister had wound up in the morgue had put him off the place." IMMMMM SAAAAAAAAD

this reads exactly like fanfic i'm starting to suspect nancy holder ships sterek

"im going with u" "uh no ur not ive had my five-minute quota of derek for the day" and then "fine you can follow in ur car" "i didn't come here in a car" to which stiles thinks: "Maybe if Derek did drive his car more often, instead of jogging all over the place like the Flash, he could cut down on the risk that someone might start to wonder about That Guy with the Eyebrows."

and so off they go to the hospital

#personal #teen wolf #on fire #derek hale #scott mccall #allison argent

2 notes · View notes

kaypeace21 · 4 years ago

Text

The fathers of Stranger Things: (narrative analysis)

This analysis will discuss all the dads in st. But will mostly focus on the parallels between Brenner, Lonnie, Neil,and Hopper. And the ramifications on their kids.And no i’m not saying Hopper is necessarily as bad as these other fathers/doesn’t have his reasons. But i think the parallels are worth mentioning.

Cycles of Ab*se & internalizing your father’s teachings

Baseball-We see in s2 the cycle of abuse is there- Billy mimics Neil, and then Max mimics Billy. And uses violence to stand up for herself- which earlier she said she was trying to combat … explaining she can be angry like Billy sometimes but she never wants to be like him (her nickname symbolizing this: aka ‘mad max’).

We see in s3 Neil taught Billy baseball and bullied him and called him a “p*ssy” so Billy as a child bullied others and calls them a “p*ssy” (internalizing his father’s teachings and probably venting his anger towards his father on to others). We also see Billy in s2 antagonizes max and demands “say it. say it!”And later Max yells at Billy “say it! say it” and attacks him with a bat. Showing that even Neil has influenced her to a certain extent (via Billy’s ab*se of Max).

We also see in s3 when Will is frustrated he destroys cb (a symbol of his artistic ambition/the day his father left) and destroys it with a baseball bat (and then we see the mf officially return) . We also see in s2, Will has a baseball next to the mf drawing (in his room). This is noteworthy due to the fact Jonathan in s1 asks if Will even likes baseball or is just doing it to appease his father. in s1, Will admits he isn’t a fan of baseball -showing how this ‘interest’ in baseball in later seasons just reflects his desire to win his father’s approval (through more sterotypically masculine hobbies). And we see how both Neil & Lonnie taught both their sons baseball- who are both named William -and who they would call “f*gs”. We also see in s1 Jonathan lugs around a baseball bat & his father’s gun -however neither tool is used by him in the end successfully. However, in s3 we see Jonathan using an axe (like Joyce) showing by this point he’s mostly taken on Joyce’s influence.

El’s spying , fighting the Russians, and lack of care for her safety shows she internalized Brenner’s teachings- We know in s1 El was trained to be a spy/weapon against the soviets (by Brenner). And in later seasons when it comes to her interpersonal relationships- she continues to spy on everyone around her. she spies on Mike despite his vocal discomfort in s3. Brenner specifically tells her to spy and repeat the words the guys are saying back to him- which is exactly what she does to Lucas and Mike (spying on them and repeating their words back to Max). And when Mike is concerned for her safety we also have El mimic Brenner’s words (from s1) . in s1 she is also said to be taken by Brenner to be a “weapon to fight the commies” and in s3 that’s exactly what she did! She does literally everything Brenner ever wanted from her!!!!!!!

Jonathan & Billy’s fights with Steve (reflect their father issues... which Steve accidentally triggered)- We see Billy and Jonathan both shoved into walls by their father’s . For Billy this is in a direct consequence of Max running away and for Jonathan- Will’s disappeareance. Billy first shoves Lucas into the wall similarly to Neil. And both Jonathan and Billy are told to “STOP”.

Billy also breaks a plate over Steve’s head. What’s interesting to note is in s3 we see Billy’s mother threw a plate at Billy’s father (so he was mimicking the dysfunction he saw as a child). kind of like how in s3 he backhands max (mirroring how neil backhanded his mother in the s3 flashback).

When it comes to jonathan we see jonathan tell nancy to leave and it’s “not worth it” to argue with Steve. However he stops in his tracks when Steve says he’s “like his father”. Then Steve proceeds to insult his family. And eventually Jonathan who throughout every season is generally portrayed as non confrontational attacks steve. similarly when Billy and Jonathan are beating Steve (who is laying on the ground)-multiple people are yelling for them to stop.But both are in too much of a triggered daze to stop themselves. Even when the cops come- Jonathan elbows the cop in the face and kicks steve with handcuffs on and even says handcuffed for the cop to “get off’ (like he told Lonnie earlier).

Both would rather do this to their own fathers-but Steve (and the cops) were used as their proxy instead. The fights might reflect what the boys have been taught by their fathers-aka vi*lence. Also on some subconscious level jonathan may have been like-oh you think i’m like my dad? I’ll show you what my dad is like (beats steve with no mercy).

***also, tw se*ual ab*se (you can skip)-during the jonathan fight they also bring up the “pervy photo sesh”- which jonathan took right after seeing his father. in the movies said to inspire s4 they often had a se*ually ab*sive dad/relative who would take innaproriate pics of his kids.uuuuugh. So jonathan may have just been mimicking that past behavior of his father. ugh.***

father’s ab*se reflects the supernatural

*if you know about my did theory-part 1 and 2 you’ve heard this stuff in detail but i’ll just give a brief synopsis

- The demogorgan that attacks Will in s1 is a demon called the “deep FATHER” in d&d.

-El first comes across the demogorgon (“deep father” ) eating it’s own eggs- symbolically this shows the ‘father’ is hurting it’s own kids ( a motif in the show)!

hunting/baseball/trunks connecting to Lonnie and the monsters: Will is attacked by the demogorgan in Lonnie’s old shed (and Will tries to defend himself with Lonnie’s old hunting gun). The demogorgan jumps on Jonathan and knocks the bat out of his hands, when he tries defending himself from the demogorgan( both activities: hunting/baseball Lonnie taught the boys). We also see the demogorgan also attack hunters and a deer- a ref to the lonnie & Jonathan hunting story about Bambi. In s1 we see Jonathan check Lonnie’s trunk to see if Will is there . But also we see the mf throw heather and later her parents in the trunk as well. Also when Jonathan starts talking car repair lingo in s3 -Will senses the mf (since Lonnie repaired cars as a hobby in s1). When lonnie returns in s1 jonathan asks Joyce “did that thing (demogorgan ) come back?” And when Lonnie says he explored around the quarry-jonathan mentions how the demogorgan only traveled a few miles around his house. When Lonnie says “someone should be held accountable” for what happened to Will- it transitions from lonnie hammering a nail into the wall to Mike piercing a pencil into paper explaining the hole in the upsidedown and how Will got trapped there- hinting at how Lonnie causing trauma to Will is the explanation for everything supernatural. Also need to point out how we zoom in on the lightbulb in Lonnie’s shed (after Will is taken) and they later zoom in on a red lighbulb (when Jonathan tears the innappropriate photos down from the red room) and then it transitions to the christmas lights. And then we see Lonnie berate Jonathan and there’s a glowing lightbulb beside Lonnie (to mirror him to the demogorgan).

-flowers & monstrous fathers: when Brenner (”papa”) first hurts Terry on a hospital bed she wakes up with sunflowers next to her bed. Lonnie in s1 is shown to have a sunflower blanket, and in s2 we see a sunflower book next to Will’s bed after he has a nightmare. We also see that the demogorgan ( ”deep father’-also called the “the man without a face” in s1 ) have a face that resembles a flower. Brenner also gave El a flower when on her bed (although not a sunflower) before forcing her to face the demogorgan for the 1st time.

I believe credit goes to the tumblr user lazy-storm-cloud for noticing Lonnie’s sunflower blanket. I noticed most of the flower imagery but never noticed that blanket until they mentioned it.

-supernatural “wounds” connecting to Will, El, Kali and fathers.The lab workers say the upsidedown’s influence over crops/hawkins is “spreading” while joyce says the tunnels Will drew are also “spreading”. Will says his now-MEMORIES” (connected to the mf-who parallels lonnie) are “growing, spreading, and killing.” Later, Kali in reference to Brenner says her wounds “spread” because she didn’t address her pain caused by Brenner (her papa). And when kali creates a brenner-double he says El has a terrible wound that’s “growing, spreading, and eventually it’ll kill you.” (if not addressed) and they don’t stand up against their father.

-doors connecting to problematic fathers: We see Will in s1 have a sign on his bedroom door that says “do not enter”. And he also requires a password for cb for people to enter. When joyce in s1 hears aggressive knocking on the door she assumes it’s lonnie and says to “go away, Lonnie”. In s1 we the demogorgan unlock the door telepathically and chase Will. later we see Will stare at the shed door terrified as the demogorgan sneaks up behind him. in s2 we see the mf slam open the arcade door by itself, and also open his house door in the same manner . when the house door opens it zooms in on the back of his neck- which indicates it’s based off an old memory-a now memory. We have El also telepathically unlock people’s doors in a similar fashion-not respecting such boundaries. And El asks in s1e1 for the door to stay open. And Neil, Hopper, and Billy angrily yell to “OPEN THE DOOR!!!!!” And Hopper slams doors open demanding they stay 3 inches open. We also see El enter a door in the void to see Heather being attacked in a tub and entering the darkness.

tubs:brenner forces El into a sensory deprivation tank. Later El refers to it as a “tub” after seeing the byers tub. we later see the mf is afraid of the byers’ tub. And tub iconography shows up for billy & heather. the s4 movies hint at Will having a tra*matic memory occurring in the tub.

The fathers of St (recap):

Brenner (“papa” to El and Kali). He forces El into a dark room for hours when she doesn’t obey him. At one point tries to force her to k*ll an animal. Given the way she ate at Benny’s- he may have starved her as another form of punishment.He allows El no ability to express herself (and dresses her in a masculine/androgounous way) and bans her from the outside world. He tries using a calm-kind demeanor to try and manipulate mothers (Joyce & Karen) into thinking he cares about their kids. And uses El as a weapon/spy . He would read to El and give her flowers and a lion plushie . in the st novel (suspicious minds) he compared the children/numbers to “rabbits” he could “hurt”.

Lonnie-(dead beat dad of Jonathan and Will). divorced.Forced Jonathan to k*ll a rabbit. It’s implied he has thrown his kids in his dark car trunk (since Jonathan checks if Will is lonnie’s trunk in s1). He tries manipulating Joyce into thinking he cares about Will. But he just wanted to use Will’s death to make money. He canonically-joked about his son dissappearing. And insulted his ex wife. Then when he realizes he can profit off his son’s death-who he hasn’t seen in years. He leaves his 20-something live in gf, flirts with Joyce calling her “babe”. And pretends to care for Will and the rest of his family. Then gaslights them when they call out his bs. He also has called Will a “f*g” and it’s implied he forced Will to hunt/play baseball. He also shoves Jonathan into a wall. He can have a relatively calm demeanor like Brenner-but then blows up. He smokes, and it’s implied he may be an alcholic since beer cans are littered all over his house. Will has lion plushie in cb (and since lonnie means ‘lion’ it may have been given to him by Lonnie?). He (like Hopper) implies Joyce is mentally ill and that she’s hallucinating due to grief-and says she’s going to go “over the edge” mirroring Hopper’s words about Joyce in s1.

Neil- divorced.Calls Billy a “f*got”, and forced him to play baseball. He later shoves his son into a wall and slaps him. He has a calm demeanor and then yells to make his points with Billy. He also yells at first wife cause romantically jealous. Him & Lonnie both have fights with their ex wives where the phrase “I’m not lying to you” is used.

Hopper- divorced.in s1-3 we see he smokes, pops pills, and is an alocholic. The pilot pitch explicitely states he is . He is shown to have anger issues, sells out El’s location to Brenner in s1. In s2 threatens to send her back to her ab*sers if she doesn’t listen to him/ stay isolated from the outside world. dresses her androgonously and tries controlling her romantic relationships. He yells at Joyce cause romantically jealous . joyce annoyed at Hopper: “yes everyman i speak to is my boyfriend”. El says “you are like papa.” And in the pilot Brenner and Hopper were said to dress similarly. And Murray says to Joyce that Hopper is a “brute” who “reminds (her) of a (past) bad relationship”. Aka Lonnie.

Steve’s dad- is called an “asshole” by Steve and it’s implied he cheats on his wife.

heather’s dad - is sexist to Nancy and cold to his wife. We see Heather (who is the same age as Nancy) has some hidden resentment towards him.

Sam (Max’s dad)- divorced/out of the picture like Lonnie. in the novel ‘runaway max’ is said to be a criminal who often took Max to shady places/bars. And also taught her how to pick door locks-similar to how Jonathan picked a car lock open in s1 like max with a door in s2.

Dustin’s dad- also out of the picture ? dead... maybe?

Recap: Parallels of fathers

forced their kids to k*ll animals/violence toward rabbits/throws kids in dark places/gave their kids lion plushies/tries unsuccessfully to manipulate mother’s into thinking he cares for their kids: Lonnie & Brenner

taught kids shady stuff like how to pick locks: Lonnie & Sam

are described as poor/called their sons “f*gs”/forced sons to play baseball/slam sons into walls/have their sons attack Steve/have sons who are into hard rock music: lonnie & Neil

“i’m not lying to you”-:Neil/ex wife and Lonnie/joyce

dr*gs/smokes/alochol ab*se/womanizers/hunters: lonnie & Hopper

imply Joyce is wrong about the supernatural and is just mentally ill: Lonnie and Hopper. Both use a similar expression of her being on “the edge”.

lie to Joyce: Lonnie and Hopper (specifically lies claiming he took her advice and uses that lie to try and get a date with her)

Gave them cat plushies: Lonnie,Brenner, possibly hopper with sara’s tiger

being connected to flowers: Brenner & Lonnie

yell at love interest when romantically jealous:Neil and Hopper in s3

Hopper: compared to Lonnie (by Murray in s3) and Papa/brenner (by el in s2). in the original pilot Brenner & Hopper were supposed to look similar. Brenner was supposed to have a beard, and wear jeans and plaid shirts similar to hopper in s1. it’s also interesting to note how Hopper started to look more like Neil -they’re both blondes-and in s3 they have matching moustaches (and billy started growing out a moustache in s3-mirroring him becoming a mini neil too).

dress El in masculine clothes/isolate her from outside world/spy on El/read to El:Hopper & Brenner

calm demeanor but quick to anger/ also divorced: Hopper, lonnie, Neil

yells to “open the door”: Neil, Hopper, (and possessed Billy) .it’s also implied Lonnie can pick door locks open.

outliers

jonathan - In the pilot pitch he’s described as taking on the father role for Will (after Lonnie left). However, he is often paralleled to the mothers of st. Most likely because he never had a healthy father figure- and distrusts even good men like Bob- so models his parenting behavior more so on maternal figures. We see Jonathan being paralleled to the mothers taking photos of their kids on Halloween, and Jonathan being paralleled to Karen twice. We even see him bored/annoyed in s2 watching the film “mr mom” since the comedic premise was haha - dad has to stay at home- cook for their kids , drive them to school, do laundry, whaaa how can a man do that ... look it’s so hard ? isn’t that what moms do instead? All things Jonathan does without literally tripping over himself and failing like the older male film character, initially does . He also in canon helps pay for the mortgage. We also see Jonathan is unlike the other problematic fathers (who demand entry into their kid’s room) since we see him knock on Will’s door and get verbal permission before entering Will’s room in s2 (respecting Will’s sign). Similar to joyce ringing cb’s doorbell and getting verbal permission from Will to enter.We also see on Halloween Jonathan mocks Bob but when Will defends him Jonathan later mimics Bob telling Will “hope it doesn’t suck” (in a vampire voice) showing at least subconsciously he was mirroring the parenting-like behavior from Bob (since Will liked Bob). So Bob became the first male he used as an inspiration for his ‘parenting style’.

Ted- is shown in direct opposition to Lonnie.In s1 we see Ted help Mike put on a tie mentioning to Mike it has to be a “little tight” and that it “looks good”. And after this scene: we see Jonathan struggle to put on a tie (and then ripping it off in frustration-signifying his lack of a father figure that could have taught him how to do this when younger). So in s3 we see Jonathan’s ties are always poorly done and slightly loose around his neck. The same season Jonathan comments about how Nancy’s dad makes 6 figures and his dad “isn’t even around”. He finacially supports his family. cuddles Holly on his fav laze-boy and takes her to fairs. Wants to comfort Mike after Will dies (but listens to Karen to give him time). Has Karen tell Mike that if he wants to talk to him about Will’s death- he can call him at work and he’ll come home for Mike. His calm demeanor seems genuine -unlike the other father figures who quickly lose their cool facade (Ted has never yelled at his kids). Even when kids yell or insult him he doesn’t lose his cool. Worst things he’s done: told kids to stop cursing, naps alot, gives an outdated football analogy about How Mike needs to stop acting out . Why st fans claim he’s a bad dad : boring af aka the human embodiment of wonder bread, in loveless marriage, and not rambo-esque like Hopper so people act like he’s a horrible dad in comparison to Hopper. Despite being a more stable parent in the normal everyday situations.

Lucas’ dad- unfortunately we saw very little of him. But he seems somewhat similar to Ted. He’s nice and gives somewhat dated advice at the table to his son-like Ted did. He seems like a mellow, chill dude, who finacially supports his family. But,Unlike karen/ted it seems like he loves his wife and vice versa.

Bob-the wannabe stepdad- as the first romantic interest after Lonnie-He contrasts him. He doesn’t do drugs or smoke. Is emotionally vulnerable with Joyce and vice versa. He never makes fun of Will or Joyce’s mental health issues. he relates to Will -who was bullied as a kid, and is into computers, comics, and was in av club (just like Will). He is supportive of Will’s non-manly interests and encourages those interests (bringing brain puzzles, and board games over when told Will is sick). Unlike Lonnie who tried to force ‘manly’ interests on to Will. He isn’t mad when Will busts his brand new camera but is simply concerned that Will is being bullied. He’s also shown being concerned about Will’s mental health. He helps joyce with little things like finding her keys and taking Will to school. His happy calm demeanor is genuine-and he is never shown yelling in anger. He kindly disagrees with joyce on the ‘ drawings on the walls game’ cause he was concerned it wasn’t good for Will’s mental health (and tells her she can talk more about Will’s issues). He sacrifices himself to save Will, joyce and everyone around him. And unlike Hopper- Bob was never jealous or mean to joyce about the men in Joyce’s life. Bob was serious about Joyce and the boys-he wanted them to be his family and move them near his own blood relatives. We see he had an impact on the boys at the end of s2- Will drawing the “bob newby superhero” drawing and Jonathan using Bob’s camera.

#jonathan byers #el hopper #will byers #max mayfield #billy hargrove #joyce byers #bob newby #lonnie byers #neil hargrove #kali prasad #lucas sinclair #dustin henderson #mike wheeler #nancy wheeler

230 notes · View notes