#but doing the s4 revival is making me remember how much i love these two and how much i miss them <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[yaraaimsakul]

druck alter, love: romantic love » amira & mohammed

[theabominableblogger]

My Reaction to “Gotham” S3E21/E22

OH SNAP THIS IS AN 85 MINUTE FINALE?!?!?

Also, from this point on (from the S3 finale on), ALL of my Gotham reaction posts will be marked with the spoiler tags because while S4 has been over for about a month and a half now, I know some people on Tumblr have not been able to watch it yet.

As for the other reactions from S3, they are still works in progress at the moment because I am super busy at this moment.

On with da show!

S3E21

OH SNAP!  Everyone’s goin’ nuts!

How the heck are they gonna disinfect the whole town?!?

What?

“I’m [Jim] fine, Harvey.”  NO YOU’RE NOT

*Jim hands Harvey his gun*  There we go.

“Where’s Bruce?”  In some shit.  In some mighty shit.

Wait, there is an antidote [to the virus]?!?

Of freaking course Strange tries to make a run for it.

Oh that shot of Ed watching Gotham burn through the window is awesome

God, Barbara’s wearing that hideous striped dress again.

Ed is just completely stone-faced when Barbara starts running her hand down his face

“So where is this virus?  I [Fish] know there’s more.”  Oh God, please don’t.

*jams to the heavy guitar music that plays when Fish and her men leave with Strange*

“Killer... killer... you’re a killer.”  Oh I hate this

God, you could just see Jim just struggle to control himself with the virus...

How the heck is Alfred gonna snap Bruce out of this brainwash?

God, this whole interrogation scene between Bruce and Alfred is breaking my heart because you can just see Alfred look so heartbroken.

*Oswald reveals that he took the machine that Strange used to give him “therapy” in S2*  OH SNAP!

*Jim punches his way through the wall of ice with the virus*  Whoaa...

*is silent when Alfred tries telling Bruce some of his childhood memories in order to help Bruce snap out of it*

God, Sean Pertwee and David Mazouz are amazing in this scene... oh my God...

“I [Alfred] love you, Master Bruce.  I would do anything for you.  I would die for you.”  *yells in pain*

*Lucius knocks out Virus!Alvarez with a typewriter*  OH!  GO, LUCIUS!

FOUR FOR YOU!

*gasps when Lee pops up in Barbara’s club*

Oh snap, are we gonna have a Lee vs. Tabitha fight scene?

AN:  Nope.  Just Virus!Lee being Virus!Lee  :/

Bruce, where are you going?

So... what’s the antidote comprised of?

God, Fish, do not freaking drop it [the row of antidote vials]!

What the...

What.... who are these guys?

*Mr. Freeze blasts an assassin out of the air with his freeze gun*  OOOHHHHH!!!

Did Jim just freaking take down like five ninjas by himself?!?

*gasps when Jim stabs Fish*

AND SHE [Fish] DROPPED THEM [the vials of antidote]!  JIM, NOO!!

Oh my freaking God, they killed off Fish Mooney. 

Jiiiiimmmm....

“... I [Hugo] just need one thing.”  Oh God.

FREAKING JERVIS!

I actually really like this Barbara and Ed team-up, even if it is temporary.

*Bruce finds the Yuyan building*  Wait, so Ra’s has been hanging out in Gotham this entire time?  Seriously?

“I’m [Alfred] gonna follow Bruce.”  God, this is such a bad idea...

*gasps*  The League of Assassins! 

Wait, they were the ones that took out Fish’s goons!

OH MY GOOODDD IT’S THE LAZARUS PIT!  In all its glowy green glory!

HI ALEXANDER SIDDIG!

“I am Ra’s al Ghul.”  YEAH YOU ARE!

“But for all my [Ra’s] years, all my travels, there is one thing that I never found:  a true heir.”  Yep, it’s definitely him.  Here we go.

*gasps when the League drags Alfred into the room*

*Ra’s slaps Alfred across the face*  NO!

GOD AND HE’S [Ra’s] WEARING A CAPE TOO!

“Kill him.”  YOU BETTER NOT!

YOU BETTER NOT!

*clutches pillow in worry*

“And you’re [Bruce] gonna remember how much I [Alfred] love you.”  Oh my God, this is killing me!

Like I know Alfred isn’t gonna die because he’s in S4 but oh my Gooddd....

“And I scooped you [baby!Bruce] up in my arms, and I held you, and you opened your eyes and you looked at me.  And at that moment, I decided that I would do anything for you.”  Oh my God.... Alfred...

Bruce...

*utterly screams in horror into my pillow when Bruce stabs Alfred through the chest*

S3E22

OH MY GOD!!

*screams*

GOD I’M ACTUALLY GONNA CRY

This show better not make me cry during the middle of the night, I swear to God...

“[Bruce] Your strength only confirms what the prophecy has foretold:  an heir to serve as my [Ra’s] knight in the darkness.”  Oh my God..

I’m sorry, but what the hell?!?

Oh my God, use the Lazarus Pit to revive Alfred!

*Alfred comes back*  OH MY GOD YES!

[Incoming:  Lee]  Screw this noise

Wait, so do Jim and Lee still have the virus or has it worn off?

“And I want you [Jim] with me [Lee].  But I want the real you.”  Nope, they still have it.  Son of a...

“I [Jim] need to save Lee!”  Oh no.

So are Barbara and Tabitha is supremely on-again, off-again girlfriends at this point or what?

“Yeah, Penguin, Nygma, Tetch all in the same place for a high-stakes hostage swap.  What could possibly go wrong?!?”  Same sentiments here, Harvey!

“NYYYGGGMAAAAAAA!!!”  Oh snap.

*Oswald knocks out Ed*  OHHHH!

*Oswald steals Jim and Harvey’s cop car*  FREAKING OSWALD!

God, Bruuuuccee!

God, [Jim] do not listen to to Jervis...

*gasps when we see Jervis scream offscreen*

WHAT THE HECK DID JIM DO?!?

��[Gloating] was always one of your least attractive qualities, Oswald.”  Oh snap.

*Oswald puts on his bowler hat*  Oh there we go.

Oh my God, they’re [Tabitha and Butch] gonna freaking kill Barbara!

*Tabitha kisses Butch on the cheek*  Oh my gosh.

Bruuuuucceee.....

“Because you [Selina] don’t believe in in anyone or anything but yourself!”  Oh.

“What are you even doing here, Selina?  You don’t give a damn about Alfred, and you sure as hell don’t care about me [Bruce]!”  Yes she does!  You two are over the moon for each other!  Reconcile right now!

“I want you.”  Oh you better not.

*Jim and Lee kiss*  Oh my God...

“You want to know why I [Ed] could never love someone like you, Oswald?  Because you are a spoiled child who throws a tantrum any time he doesn’t get what he wants!  Especially when what he wants doesn’t want him back.”  Oooooohhh!!!

“[Ed] Your entire persona was based on a lie!”  Oh.  Snap.

Sunglasses.  Real non-conspicuous, you guys [Lee and Jim]...

C’mon, Harvey!

“[Jim] You’re the best cop I ever worked with.  The best friend I’ve ever had.”  Oh my gosh... Harvey...

*Jim finds two vials of the antidote on the back of his badge*  YESSSS!!!

*Jim gives Lee the antidote*  There we go!  Finally! 

*Jim gives himself the antidote*  There... we go...

OH I AM SO GLAD THAT”S DONE WITH

*gasps when Barbara shoots Butch in the head*

“I [Bruce] don’t know what I [Alfred] would do without you...”  God, Bruce, you’re actually gonna make me cry...

Oh my God, we’re back at the dock.  Great.

Oswald, I’m actually really liking your outfit in this episode.

“Any last words [Oswald]?”  Sike?

*jaw drops when Ed’s gun is revealed to be empty*

*gasps*  Ivy!  And Mr. Freeze!

Oh my gosh this music here!

“You knew that I’d bring you here [to the dock].”  Because you’re too predictable!

“I [Oswald] may be driven by my emotions, but you [Ed] are driven by something much more predictable: a desperate, compulsive need to complete what you've started in exacting fashion.”  Oh.  Snap.

*gasps when Mr. Freeze freezes Ed*

“Barbara?”  Oh God, here we go...

“Yes.  I [Barbara] killed him [Butch].”  Crap.

*Barbara kisses Tabitha mid-fight*  What the....

*gasps when Tabitha electrocutes Barbara*

I’m sorry, what?!?!?

“I [Bruce] don’t know who I am, Alfred.  Who am I supposed to be?”  Batman.

God, Bruce is probably gonna go through some hardcore PTSD in the beginning of S4

*Selina eyes Tabitha’s whip*  Here we go!

“What are we gonna call it [Oswald’s new club]?”  “The Iceberg Lounge.”  THERE WE GO!

Where the heck did Lee go?  Out of town, hopefully.

*jaw drops when we see the Ed-sicle in the middle of the Iceberg Lounge*

*gasps*  Butch!

“That’s Butch Gilzean.”  “Really?  His chart lists his birth name as Cyrus Gold.”  WHAAAATTT?!?

SOLOMON GRUNDY!

Oh my gosh, and she’s [Lee] wearing the same outfit that she wore when she came back in the beginning of the season!

“I [Harvey] didn’t ask you [Jim] what time it was.  I asked if you wanted to get a drink.”  Sounds marvelous!

“Yoi know, I’d [Jim] actually like to get back to being a detective.  Do some some good old-fashioned police work.  The kind that doesn’t involve secret cults or blood viruses.”  Oh, wait til you get to Jeremiah, buddy... just you wait.

Whoa, wait, what is this?

*gasps when we hear a whooshing sound above the crime scene*

WE GOT FREAKING BATMAN IN THE MAKING!

Take it off, take it off, take it off, take it-

*Bruce takes off his ski mask*  YOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

OH MY GOD, LET’S GO!

[alexwolffe]

Top 10 favorite Wakfu episodes (with your thoughts and facts)

@thetristevaguard

My top ten favorite Wakfu episodes? Lol this is kinda hard,I kinda wanna say them all, but I’ll do my best (I’m gonna do it from season 1- season 3)

1) s1ep The Child from the Mist - just because of the waythey introduced the characters and world captured my much younger mind (lolI’ve been a fan since it first came out on Netflix) in a way that kept meinterested and invested in the characters and plot that have continued to thisday.  I love how grougaloragran wasintroduced and asked what was in the baby carriage (a baby, what else?) andRuel and Alibert’s dynamic, how adorable Yugo is, that there was a guybasically reading a pin up magazine in the restroom (sigh Anakama, this is akid’s show) and how Percedal is introduced.

2) s1e4 The Ugly Pageant - Okay this episode never fails tocrack me up. Ever. I’ve watched it so many times, because it’s so funny!  Plus it’s the second episode where the BotT(before the naming) is actually actively on the quest.  It starts to show the established dynamicsand roles within the group without giving away too much.  Percedal shows how he is a knight byattempting the “typical knight trope” with rescuing a princess from atower.  Which doesn’t go as planned.  At all. I also love how Eva looks reallypretty but feels uncomfortable in such nice clothes, Amalia doesn’t even try tobe “ugly” (until Yugo “helps” lol Siamese twin princesses), and Ruel’s A+costume. Seriously Ruel’s costume was FANTASTIC.

3) s1e21 – I enjoy this episode because we get to see Adamaitraining Yugo in how to use wakfu and use his unusual powers.  Not only this, but we get to see how Nox andIgol’s relationship. (It’s passive aggressive just saying). We also get to seeIgol’s one track mind and relentlessness when giving chase. Also that sun burnyikes!

4) s1e25 –I remember so clearly watching this when it wasout on Netflix and knowing this was the only season (at the time). I was heartbrokenwas Percedal died. Yeah Yugo was my favorite but stupid, loyal, and kindPercedal the Knight dying? With no continuation? That was just shocking. Plushe stayed dead. There wasn’t even abody to “revive.” And to see the strong Evangelene sobbing? And the sweet Yugoso enraged with grief? Nope, I was heartbroken; the gang had gotten togetherbut Percedal was dead. It had a huge impact on me.

5) s2e3 – DALLY WAS ALIVE. My pure joy and Percedal being like alive and attainable, heh heh fairlycertain my fam thought I was crazy (but hey my bro was excited too lol). AlsoRemington, lol he and his cat brother, I really like them honestly. I alsoreally love how he and Eva flirt with each other but it’s not even friendly,they literally insult each other with every snide flirtatious remark. I justfind his random appearance in this arc (and later other arcs) to be anenjoyable breath of fresh air.

6) s3e8 – This was actually the first time that I realizedthat Yugo was trying to hide something under his hat. That’s right, it took meup to the 8th episode of the second season to realize that Yugo washiding something under his hat. I just thought it was a part of his otherwisesomewhat plain costume. I never thought there was a secret, I never had anysuspicions or anything. I mean Sadida males have plant heads *shrugs* I neverquestioned it. Also the boys stripping and Yugo asking what “inhibit” means butneither Ruel nor Percedal knowing. Basically it’

Bonus: “Justice demands…….justice!” And the size of your armordecides how much of a “good guy” you are lol

Bonus bonus: Yugo’s tofu underwear

7) s2e26 – Yugo’s wings and the Percedal family starts. Thatshould pretty much sum it up, yep. Seriously, sex between Eva and Dallyhappened sometime off screen during the second season…..that’s just boldAnakama, dang. But in all seriousness that fight between Yugo and Qilby said somuch about the two characters, and really showing the sad reason for why Qilbywas sooooo warped and twisted. Honestly his entire existence would be sofrustrating exhausting….but he still needed to be locked in the void. He waspsychopath. *shrug*

8) The entirety of The Quest for the Six Dofus Eliatropes –cuz they could have just been a movie, just saying. No episode stood outbecause they were all AMAZING. Not even kidding. These three episodes? Well Iwatched them sooooooooo many times, trying to figure out what was going tohappen for the past few YEARS. Years, Anakama, years. Not cool bro. Anyway, theamount of detail and character development in these 3 episodes? Wow, there wasso much character development and I realized things I never had before. LikeYugo had a crush on Amalia? Yeah that’s when I discovered this ship….I reallyam oblivious. And Percedal and Eva had 2 kids? Time had clearly gone by at thispoint.  But my favorite parts? The fightagainst Count Hareburg (RIP s3), Yugo’s fight with Adamai (heartbreaking but Istill feel like Adamai was putting too much trust in what I called “the creepysnake lady”) (and he was getting on Yugo’s case about caring/trusting someoneelse over their brother?) (sorry still salty) (there better be repercussions ins4) and the epic battle that raged above the world of 12

Bonus: baby Ogrest calling Otomai “Daddy” *death by too muchcute*

9) s3e2 – The emotions that are present in this episode arebeautiful and heartbreaking. And Princess Amalia with her gravely sick father,a usually strong and occasionally goofy character, that, that was reallyrelatable. Even if that’s never happened to you, you at least have probablyknown someone or known someone who knows someone who that’s happened to. AndArmand was really getting on my nerves, but that might have been how he copes,I guess. Still rubbed me the wrong way though. I don’t he’s a bad characterthough, just not super likeable but I can’t figure out quite way yet. Then poorYugo was also crying, he was probably feeling so many emotions, I’m notsurprised he was crying. More than likely I’d say it was most likely a mixture ofguilt, anger, fear, remorse, and maybe some mourning. It was stated in s1 thatYugo can feel the Wakfu presence of other beings, and that was when he was juststarting to learn how to use his powers, so he’s much stronger, now? Could hehave felt the king’s wakfu presence slowly disappearing? I dunno. Also Dally isjust so sad and Rubi is such an old softie, he’s just lucky that Dally isoblivious….and dumb.  Okay Elely, isprecious and perhaps slightly OP, but not in a bad way……never pick a fight withher. EVER.

10)s3e7 – Battling to keep their underwear. *breathes in,breathes out* boi. Anakama I applaud thee, only you could make a serious battleabout fighting for underwear. But it was a fierce and well fought battle which youvaliantly won in the end. And then the kiss. Now that was a passionatekiss.  It was well done, but the emotionsthat followed after it…..were FANTASTIC. Typically the kiss fixes everythingbut this kiss both makes Yugo and Amalia closer and farther, leading todifficulties later.  But what somewhatannoys me is that dragon blood makes Yugo age slower but Adamai looks like hehad steroids with a growth spurt. Kay guys that doesn’t compute, just saying.  But back to Yugo and Amalia, I find theirrelationship so interesting honestly, and personally I can’t tell if it’d workout or not. Cuz clearly they both want each other but neither (mostly Yugo) canmake up their mind.  Like Yugo is precious,but he either needs to accept Amalia accepting his younger self or let her moveon…..as harsh as that sounds

But yep my top ten episodes plus reasons and facts, phew,you have no idea how tempted I was to copy and paste the Wakfu episode listWikipedia page…..this whole series is fantastic….

Now your turn ; )

[lvtvr]

s4 thoughts under the cut

i have criticism and i have praise, but most importantly i have common fucking sense and i dont lose my mind if a kids cartoon doesnt go my way so dont worry about that palios

please read this post in a neutrally speculative tone because that’s my voice in my head as i’m typing it. also of course my opinion is just a star in the sky and your mileage, as always, may vary. warning its the Great Wall of Text

sweet stuff

most importantly its a great time to be a lotor stan. i love my boy my problematic trash fav i love him so much hes officially my favorite character now 1000000000% (it used to be lance, but he’s been dethroned for real now)

not only is he a fucking babe but whenever he appeared the plot was guaranteed to move forward so every time he came onscreen i got my two favorite things in one

listen im just not going to go overboard w this but lets just say i think about him and grin a lot what a fucking GREAT character he’s so MORALLY GREY so FUCKED UP so INTERESTING so sexy

matt holt is in fact a meme! good job fandom, well predicted. the allura heart eyes stuff was lame stock cartoon humor which imo added Nothing of value, but that aside he’s an angel boy and brilliant addition to the recurring cast and i love him

i thought the rain and the big no during the cemetery scene were kinda over the top cheesy but that episode was, overall, really great

okay but real talk that one dog looking captain has to be somebody’s fursona???????????? somewhere a furry is fucking thriving right now

fighting animations and space backgrounds were gorgeous, as always

i adore where they’re taking keith’s development!!! i had some pretty serious concerns post s2, but they’re taking him in exactly the direction i had hoped for

i feel like he’s honestly really happy with the blade, their style really suits him and i mean that both figuratively and literally *wink wonk*

he’s a loner, but he’s not alone. he’s in a position where he’s expected to function as an independent unit within a team, instead of being literally connected to the others in his squad; at this point in time that autonomy is what’s important for his development. he has both the insight to realize that and the empathy to be concerned that it might be selfish or wrong in the eyes of others

but his friends support him!!!!!!!! the group hug oh my god

his self sacrifice... i almost died that was just so. beautiful

im just really emo about keith

why does zarkon hate lotor SO much? i have a feeling it must be connected to the circumstances of his birth. SOMETHING is up and i can’t wait to find out WHAT

and what the fuck is going on with haggar

shes still the most aesthetic character in the show sjlgdjsdgjsg PURPLE WITCH PURPLE WITCH

LANCE AND ALLURA!!!! OMG IM CRYING honestly i am still rooting for no canonical romance but at this point i wouldnt even mind canon allurance, because the way they’re having lance mature and act around her is just... im still crying dont look at me

that said i think its beautiful how canon lance, in stark contrast to the awful character that is fanon lance, is a selfless and insightful boy who -- once he steps out of his theater-kid attention-seeking leo persona -- has a better grasp than perhaps anyone of the true dynamics of the team

he gave allura the speech that shitty lance stans want the rest of the team to give him. i can’t believe he single handedly screwed over all bad characterization. im so proud of him.

salty stuff

lance’s sweet moment at the end of ep6 aside, i’m still pretty bitter about the fact that we know virtually NOTHING about either lance or hunk. to some degree shiro is also still a mystery.

the reason it’s so frustrating is because to varying degrees, keith, pidge, and allura all have some sort of backstory and ongoing arcs

in comparison, hunk and lance have been kind of stuck in support roles for four seasons now. they are occasionally shown maturing, but im just lacking a foundation for what’s driving them?? besides lance’s insecurities, what do we really HAVE?

episode 4 was a waste of time that i hope the under-12 demographic enjoyed more than i did. the meta wasn’t on point like, for instance, the avatar theater episode. also, it treated hunk terribly. like, lampshading how horribly he’s treated as a fat comic-relief character isn’t funny when your writers are the ones giving him that treatment in the first place lol???

it was, how u say, a shitty filler that could have been dropped entirely without affecting a thing

the sailor scout poses were pretty okay tho

why would you create a setup for whatever is going on with shiro and then not so much as allude to it during an entire season? 

like, a forty-second scene implying some weird juju would have been enough, but completely dropping one of the plot threads for six consecutive eps makes for a pretty porous story-tapestry. im assuming they’ll pick it up again but this season is just... a gaping hole, dramaturgically speaking.

if i had written it i would be kicking my own ass for lack of continuity

seriously this makes me feel less bad about my first-draft mess of a fanfic because holy shit lol its a lot tighter than this was

lotor killing narti came literally out of nowhere, and im not saying this to defend him (she was my favorite general and im incredibly sad she’s gone?? im lowkey hoping haggar’s mojo will revive her tbh) -- but, again, we have some really weird writing decisions going on here

lotor was set up in season three as someone who values mercy and explicitly orders his people not to kill. like, im not trying to excuse what he did -- im just saying it seems like a contradiction, based on what we’ve been shown

why wouldnt he just incapacitate her or kill kova instead?? the nature of the psychic bond was never addressed enough to make killing her seem motivated, and his character was never built up as someone who would succumb to a random murderous impulse, so tl;dr I Don’t Get It

also we havent been given enough background on the team to be able to say for sure, but what i assumed was a tight-knit elite group with history seems to have actually been a ragtag group of neutral-aligned mercenaries, temporarily banded together for personal gain.

while i’m okay with a plot-driven show that doesn’t spell things out and leaves most things as implied subtext, i still feel like there is such a thing as being too subtle

like you can’t set up plot threads only to put them completely on pause to have some ships blow up, it will only frustrate the audience and make the action seem like a cover-up for the writers having no idea what the fuck is going on

its not hard!!! to just throw in allusions to things!!!! like we’re talking literally just tossing out HINTS so people remember that “oh yeah that thing existed at all” @ dreamworks please uh... do that?

the pattern seems to be that we get a mindblowing season followed by a mediocre season so time to hype s5!

so anyway those are my two cents ("its more like ten dollars char" yeah yeah i know!!!) and i’m very happy to discuss the events of this season, and for people to disagree with me (as long as its polite and... at least relatively motivated lol)

[leepacefansnetwork]

New interview with Lee Pace for eCartelera: "Only Time Can Change Relationships"

As Halt and Catch Fire S4 starts tomorrow on AMC Spain, Lee Pace gave an interview to eCartelera, published Aug 30th. aided by Google and one of our admins with Spanish skills, we tried our hand at translating it. It’s another generous and insightful interview like we’ve come to expect from Lee, hope you enjoy! 

Lee Pace ('Halt and Catch Fire'): " Only Time Can Change Relationships "

Pedro J. García Miércoles

'Halt and Catch Fire' returns to give its final goodbye, and as always, does so whilst looking into the future. The final season of the series created by Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers opens Thursday, August 31 at AMC Spain. So far, 'Halt and Catch Fire' has shown us the ins and outs of the computer industry throughout the 80s, and for this latest batch of episodes (ten in total), the series jumps forward by placing us straight in the 90s, to show us their characters living in the first days of the Internet, and how technological evolution forces them to "reset" their lives and relationships.

On the occasion of the premiere, we had the privilege of interviewing Lee Pace, an actor known among other things for his participation in blockbusters such as 'The Hobbit' or 'Guardians of the Galaxy', and for his role in one of the most beloved of cult series, 'Pushing Daisies'. Pace, who gives life to Joe MacMillan in the AMC drama, was so kind as to answer our questions and tell us how it has been to interpret this complex character over four seasons, as well as what awaits us in the last chapters of the series. And don’t worry, of course we asked if he would also like to see a revival of 'Pushing Daisies'. Without further delay, we leave you with the interview.

eCartelera: In the last season of 'Halt and Catch Fire', the story skips several years into the future. As an actor, is it difficult to adapt to a new context from time to time?

Lee Pace: No, in fact it seems to me a very interesting circumstance. Time is the only thing that can change relationships. You can see this clearly in the relationship between Joe and Cameron (Mackenzie Davis). There is nothing that could happen or that could be said to repair the damage between them, only time can do it. The passage of time is what they needed to mature a bit and connect the way they do at this point in their lives. 

eCartelera: Your character has always been dark and mysterious, a code difficult to decipher. Will we meet the real Joe MacMillan in this final season?

Lee Pace: Joe is a hard code to decipher, and I think he's still trying to figure it out. He is still trying to understand who he is and what he wants. Although he now understands it better than when we first met him. The most surprising thing about Joe this season is his relationship with technology. He wants to have Gordon (Scoot McNairy) and Cameron in his life, he prefers this personal connection with them to everything else, and that's totally opposite the Joe we saw in season one, who was determined to build that computer without any care for the people in his life. He is now a person who values ​​the connection, who values ​​others, and it’s incredible, because he has spent a lot of time alone, especially after Ryan's death (Manish Dayal), which plunged him into a deep depression. That's the most surprising thing about Joe this season, and the reason I find it so interesting to interpret him. After all that has happened to him I thought he succeeded in learning his lesson and discovering that nothing matters more than the people you share your life with.

eCartelera: You've come a little ahead of my next question. Joe is visibly happier this season. What is more interesting for you, playing the dark Joe or the more optimistic and proactive Joe?

Lee Pace: Each has its place. Joe is still mysterious. Even when he is content, he cannot help being a danger to others. Joe MacMillan’s story has become the story of failure, and not what he expected, nor what I expected when I began to play the character. Joe was someone who wanted to win at all costs, who triumphed in what he did, regardless of the price. It's been ten years since we saw him for the first time in the pilot, and I find it very interesting to see what he has done right, and what went wrong. Regardless of how much he tried, and sacrificed, everything has gone wrong. That is something odd and unusual.

eCartelera: At the beginning of the final season, Joe and Cameron spend a whole episode talking on the phone. Was it difficult to connect on such a deep level with her without physically sharing the scene? How was it captured on camera?

Lee Pace: In fact, we shot those scenes in two adjacent sets connected with a telephone line, so there was a camera recording each one at all times. It was a great way to work. Mackenzie and I were talking on the phone for real, while each stayed in their own space, not knowing what the other was doing. I did not see her movements. That was the idea behind the conversation, connecting to such an intimate level, being in separate places. There is a privacy component, and that allows them to be honest like they have never been able to while in the same room. The call starts because Joe is playing the video game she has created. Cameron is the definitive video game player and Joe goes out of his way to keep her on the other end of the line playing the game that she created, which I found very interesting.

eCartelera: Joe and Gordon work in a basement while Donna (Kerry Bishé) and Cameron succeed in "the outside world." What do you think about the emphasis on women’s empowerment throughout the four seasons of Halt and Catch Fire?

Lee Pace: I think it's great. That is precisely the story that reflects the time we are covering. But I am so involved in the intricate details that make up these characters, that I don’t see it that way. Donna and Cameron are beautiful women, very intelligent and interesting, but I don’t think of them as women, but as people who I work with. I've never seen that as a major component that defines what those characters are. But I understand that other people see it that way.

eCartelera: Now that 'Halt and Catch Fire' is approaching its end, how would you like the audience to remember the series?

Lee Pace: The show has become a very intimate and personal experience for me. I know these characters so well, I have lived their failures, their triumphs, their amorous disappointments...The audience reactions to the characters at the end of the season will be different, because the show has always been contradictory. There are no right answers, just the right idea at the wrong time. I would like the audience to have their own impression of the series, to draw their own conclusions from what we did with it.

eCartelera:  Have you learned a lot about computer science working on this show?

Lee Pace: When we started, I knew a little, but the show has given me the opportunity to learn a lot about computers. It is one of the advantages of working on something like this, studying a new subject. In the five years that I have worked on this show I have learned a lot, and I am very grateful for it.

ECartelera: What would you tell viewers who haven’t watched 'Halt and Catch Fire', to encourage them?

Lee Pace: I don’t know, I think the show is not for everyone. But of course I would love as many people as possible to watch it. I like to watch it, the people I know like it. To the others I would say that it’s a good show, an intimate and honest experience. We recreate a world in which everything moves very fast, technology advances fast and this creates a very strong stimulus. It’s a privilege to be able to observe this moment of the past, before everything became as complicated as it is now.

eCartelera: You have participated in cinematic sagas like 'The Hobbit', 'Twilight' and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Is there any other major franchise you would like to work in?

Lee Pace: I’m very grateful for the roles I have achieved so far. I have met great friends and I have forged great relationships for life. I keep working (laughs), and I'll be happy to continue to do so in the future.

eCartelera: We live in the age of revivals and 'Pushing Daisies' is one of the shows that most viewers want to see return. Would you be willing?

Lee Pace: Absolutely. I would love to return to work on 'Pushing Daisies' if we were lucky enough to return. Interpreting that character was one of the most fun experiences of my life. Working with Anna Friel, Kristin Chenoweth, Chi McBride and Bryan Fuller was an incredible experience and I would go back without a second thought.

[baddyxangel]

Hey sorry for reviving this so late buuuuut let me just put in a few points.Ok, so when I watched 5a, I was having a hell of a time, considering i adore stiles and his personality, and seeing stiles do bad things makes me so happy. After the Donovan situation and then when he was in a car with Theo, saying he felt good about killing him, I really believed they could have developed so much from that story, but after 5b, it's almost like they forgot about it. He had one heartfelt conversation with his father about losing something and never being able to get it back, but that's it. I was wondering, did this annoy you as much as me? Considering they never developed the fact that Stiles LIKED killing Donovan?

It's really complex, I did a lot of talking about this on tumblr, so I learned my way around it like a pro Stiles was glad in that instant because the threat was gone, he was safe, but it was quickly replaced by guilt. People overlook it, but he tried to help Donovan when he was on the spear. And it wore down on him because he couldn't tell anyone but in 5b something very interesting happens, he gets very good at pretending to be s1 stiles, he's suddenly clumsy, his brain to mouth filter is gone again, he goes from sleeping in a foetal position (in s4 with malia) to sprawled out on the couch in the sheriff's office which presents a few options

he bangs his head A LOT in s5a and a lot of the things that are obvious do fit concussion symptoms, clumsiness, sleeping at irregular times etc

he has gotten over it (hahahahaha)

he's faking it

being knee deep in the meta on tumblr (same username) I've been through a lot of the eps 2 or 3 times looking for hints, clues etc, and it's come down to brain damage which is cured medically with trepanning (opening him up to magic and revealing his otherness) OR he's faking because he wants to fit in again my own gut says b, he's faking it because he wants everything to run smoothly. There are hints that he and Scott are still broken up, but Stiles is pretending because BH needs it, and he's biding his time until he leaves. I'm going with this until further knowledge but with the suggestions in 6 that he's missing it will be interesting that with Kira gone if Scott cares.

tumblr user sublimeglass (or was it cupidsbower, definitely one of the two) pointed out there is often a huge difference between what characters on teen wolf SAY and what they DO look at Stiles, he spends five seasons advocating violence and death, to the point he suggested "chloroforming the little bastard and throwing him in the lake" [about Liam] but he's actually the least violent member of the pack. He is known as the liar but he's a terrible liar and very rarely breaks the truth. Peter is seen as being hideously lying and he uses the truth cleverly but it is the truth. It uses a specific narrative viewpoint and that viewpoint is often wrong, characters (and us) assume and when we assume we're usually, 99 times out of a hundred, wrong. Go through season 5b and ask yourself when does Stiles turn to Scott, he confides in Lydia and his dad, he goes to Scott in regards the attack because he needs power in his corner. Scott didn't talk to him about Duke (that wasn't new for Scott) but Stiles wasn't wounded like he's been before. We have Stiles who broke up with Malia, Lydia is in Eichen, Scott broke up with him - and he wants to help, he wants to be useful which Scott implied (accidentally or not) that if Stiles had killed (remember it was an accident and Scott still doesn't know the details, he still thinks Stiles smashed Theo's head in) he was cast out of the pack - which means he can't help. So why not suppress who he is and act like they expect him to be so they don't drive him away. It certainly fits his character. It's that it was SO obvious that makes me question it. Combined with his line at the end of season 5, about everyone falling where they need to be (I can't remember the quote off hand) instead of his plan to keep everyone together at the start - that's a huge shift and it certainly fits 5a stiles better than 5b but the foetal thing - he couldn't sleep until he was the little spoon, which is the foetal thing, but people like being the little spoon because it makes them feel safe. The same reason they sleep in the foetal position, which makes them small. "This stance, favoured by worriers, is said to show the sleeper is seeking to return to their comfort zone after a stressful day. Foetal sleepers are conscientious, ordered and like things in their place, according to the study, but are also in danger of over-thinking problems and worrying unnecessarily." from a study done by Premier Inn he can't "sleep without his pillow" which suggests (from the same study) ften clutching their pillow, they can appearing to be “holding on for dear life” in what is thought to be the most uncomfortable sleeping position for adults. Those who adopt it can feel as if life “happens around them” and they are just “hanging on for the ride”, believing they lack control over what will happen the next day. now before he seemed to be either a starfish or a frog, the frog is lying on their stomach with their ass in the air (often because placed on their front as a baby, the frog was recommended for a while) but the starfish Starfish The Starfish Position was the least popular amongst those with a preference, with only five per cent of those surveyed choosing it as their favourite. Starfish sleepers lie on their backs with legs sprawled and arms stretched up near the head, and were reported to make friendship a priority. They dislike being the centre of attention, instead offering to listen to the problems of others and go out of their way to offer assistance to those in need. which sounds very like s1 stiles the details in teen wolf are amazing! sometimes the big story details are a huge mess, but the tiny details - spot on every time. so him swapping from sleeping on his side curled up (if not full foetal) to sprawled on the sofa with one leg over the back is odd. His body language seems a lot tighter as well, which is why I think he's faking it. Even you questioned how far he'd gone.

I'm kinda "eh" about it. The situation was really dubious from the beginning. A fool would know the difference between murder and accidental killing, of all things. I felt Stiles acted out of character when initially dealing with it, by not telling anyone...yet at the same time, it's totally understandable why he feels the way he does about it. Maybe it was in the right vein, but much too extreme. It would've been so much better if he had actually struck the killing blow on purpose, establishing to Scott that sometimes killing is necessary, due to the simple fact that Stiles is human and isn't given a choice. If that had happened, so much of what happened later would have felt more natural and believable. There would've been some good moments between the two. As for how it was dealt with, I agree it was interesting. It was like when he was talking to Malia on the full moon, about how he liked the power and control from the Nogitsune. That was a surprise, yet it makes complete sense why he'd feel that way, and it's understandable why he'd never bring it up that much. Same goes for feeling good about Donovan's death. Stiles is pragmatic. He serves as a small foil to Scott, who is stuck being an idealist. I believe Scott will eventually have to kill someone. But, he would never admit to liking it. Stiles ultimately follows Scott's ideals, but as we've seen, if it came down to it, he would be glad they were dead. He felt pretty shitty about it, too, but still. The talk with his father felt like tying up loose ends. The sheriff gave him a little perspective, and it was nice. Scott missed the point entirely. As a character Scott is selfish and a bit self centred, but he's not narcissistic. He has a tendency to assume he knows what he's doing and that everyone agrees with him. In his apology he never once said sorry. He said I thought it was going to be either me or Malia, but as the sheriff pointed out Stiles didn't kill him. He talked to the Sheriff honestly. but he felt he couldn't go to them, his dad because he was the sheriff and he thought he'd covered up a crime and his dad would drive him away - because in our heads the voices of our loved ones are much meaner than they are in real life. And he believed he couldn't tell Scott because Scott would reject him, and at that point it was likely he would have, but Theo stirred the pot and made it much worse, much more likely. The show tells us Scott's a great guy, but if you get past that to actually look at him he's really not. He's fantastically written, but he's not a good guy, he's judgemental, and actually displays a lot of really dangerous behaviours. In a meta on tumblr actually I found he fit 15 of 17 key behaviours recognised in cult leaders. And that phrase "the cult of Scott McCall" coined by Superhappygenki (on tumblr) is spot on, the characters, Deaton leading them to a large extent, sell Scott as the wunderkid, and because Scott is good at saying the right things and appearing at the right time (often not to do much) we believe him, right up until he does something that makes you go - ummm no and then like an onion the layers fall away. In his paranoia over what happened Stiles believed the worst of Scott so he shut down what happened, stuffed it down and tried to make amends, and when Scott faced him down he did exactly what Stiles feared, he not only drove him away but in such a way that he seemed to throw him out of the pack. Had Stiles not been shut down when he tried to tell Scott outside Eichen House - he could have tried to be objective, by the time he was able to talk about it - on the drive to Mexico, it had it's claws in him.

Hey sorry for reviving this so late buuuuut let me just put in a few points. Stiles loves to be in control. He likes to feel powerful, and he's always had an inkling of that. He really, I mean really, cements that fact after his possession. He tells Malia he likes feeling powerful - and he gets it. And, putting aside the fact that he never implied he liked killing Donovan. He just likes that Donovan has died - which is totally different in the whole "murder scale" I qualified for this post. But putting all that aside, I mean, who wouldn't feel good that a threat to them and the people they care about is gone? Even if it was accidental. I love dark!Stiles too. I mean, he's got so much potential to be an anti-hero. He reminds me of deadpool a lot. Not the point though. I guess, what I'm trying to say... Stiles might finally be coming back round to himself? You know? He (and the writers) just pushed aside the whole Nogitsune possession thing. So, it would make a lot of sense that the first death he actually caused while he was in full capacity mentally would hit him extremely hard. And there's the whole extreme emotional distance between him and literally every other person on the show - the fact that instead of talking about his problems, he talks around them and just lets his friends infer what he might mean. He's kind of really fucked up & secretive about it! I'd love to see him (them/thewriters/whatever) explore this shit more explicitly in canon.

[thisisevenharderthannamingablog]

6.21/22 The Final Battle

Well, here we are. I can’t title this “the final write-up” because I still have to go back and finish six episodes in S2, but we’re certainly getting close.

My feelings about this show are large and complicated. My feelings about this finale are of overwhelming disappointment. Read on for large quantities of salt, like we’re talking “Visitors Guide to Hallstatt” here, maybe put on a helmet.

In the Enchanted Forest: Some but not all of the Storybrooke residents are returned to the Enchanted Forest castle, while others remain in the LWM. (???) They can watch events in Storybrooke through a mirror. Zelena arrives from Oz via magic hat (???) to let them know that there is another problem: the realms are disappearing. Additional refugees arrive, including Aladdin and Jasmine.

Regina is determined to find a magical solution, and poofs everyone to her own castle. Hook is just as determined not to wait on her efforts, and sneaks off on his own. Charming follows him to the beanstalk, which he plans to climb in order to look for a magic bean to get back to Emma. They essay the quest together, find a bean, and exit pursued by a random dragon (???).

Meanwhile, the other Regina shows up back at the castle, having abandoned the Wish World with Robin due to her being wanted for regicide there, and joins the effort.

In the other world, Emma burns the book. As the Enchanted Forest comes apart, the beanstalk sways. Hook falls off, and Charming rides the falling stalk down to the ground. Snow realizes that her husband is missing. She and Jasmine go to find him. They find Hook (unhurt somehow), and Snow stays to look for Charming while the other two take the bean back to the castle. She finds him, thinks he’s dead, and kisses him, which wakes him up somehow IDK.

The bean has already begun to wither, and Regina’s magic is insufficiently speedy to revive it in time to use it (??). Her evil half buys them time (??), sacrificing herself to hold back the oncoming destruction. Everyone else takes cover in the castle.

The erosion of the realms stops when there is only a small patch of Enchanted Forest remaining.

In the LWM:: Henry wakes up on the rooftop alone, and quickly finds that Storybrooke has been re-cursed. Fiona is his mother (???) , and Emma has been in an asylum for the past two years, ever since Henry ate that apple tart and poisoned himself in an effort to prove that magic was real. Neither the storybook nor the symbols that he wrote while in an Author trance are convincing. Fiona shows up to reinforce the fake reality in which they dwell and attempt to convince Emma to destroy the storybook as a final act of healing. 

Fiona pays a visit to the pawnshop to visit Gold and Gideon and make sure their new story is in place -- that Belle ran off and abandoned them, and Fiona looks after them as best she can.

Meanwhile, Henry breaks Emma out, hoping to jog her memories with a trip to the site of her recent wedding. She does have flashes, but considers this part of her ongoing problem with reality. Henry determines to steal Emma’s car keys so they can leave town, but Fiona catches him and pushes down some stairs, breaking his arm. She uses this incident to convince Emma that the storybook needs to go, for Henry’s sake.

The worlds’ disintegration accelerates as the book burns.

Rumple asks Fiona to “reopen the investigation into Belle’s disappearance.” She offers him some hilariously bad Photoshops of Belle off seeing the world, blissfully alone.

Emma leaves for Boston (where, in the single least likely occurrence of the entire episode, her apartment is still there -- it’s not even dusty). She finds a version of the storybook that Henry made for her (when did he do that?).

Henry goes to Gold, who admits that he still has his memories because he did not entirely trust his mother, but also that he has no interest in being helpful; he just wants to find Belle. Henry borrows a mirror and a sword and goes down to the beach. He announces to anyone who might be watching via mirror that he’s going to fight the Black Fairy himself. 

He’s all ready to do so when Emma shows up -- she came back! Even though she doesn’t remember anything, she read his story and she believes him.

Rumple concocts a potion and locates Belle, only to find that she’s agoraphobic in her new, cursed life. Fiona comes to the shop looking for her wand and reminds us that she has Gideon’s heart and can command him, because that will be important later. She uses the wand to translate the symbols Henry wrote in his trance, which are about the Final Battle. Rumple returns and confronts his mother, who promises to lift the curse from Belle and Gideon just a soon as she’s done with this fight.

Oh, and she’ll also have ultimate power by then, could even bring people back to life, if that was a thing he was interested in. He could have everything! But, no deal. He takes the wand. Fiona has one last trick, however; it’s still Gideon who’s going to kill Emma, carrying out Fiona’s final command to his heart, because “Darkness can’t snuff out the Light… only light can snuff out light.”

(What the everloving fuck? This plus that final line in the storybook is why it took my poor li’l English major ass a solid month to get around to rewatching this thematic dumpster fire.)

Anyway, Rumple goes ahead and kills her, with 20 minutes left to go in the episode.

(Wait, I thought killing people -- even bad people! -- was supposed to be BAD. Wasn’t that like half of S4.)

But this time it’s okay, I guess, because the curse breaks, and everyone gets their memories back. (So Snow and Charming could have just killed Regina’s no-magic ass in their flashback a few episodes ago and broken the curse themselves instead of letting Emma go through hell to save them. Good to know.) Everyone comes back from the Enchanted Forest as the sun sets. Gideon finds his sword, and Emma.

Belle finds Rumple, and on Henry’s direction, the two of them head to the mines in search of Gideon’s heart while Emma locks Gideon in the mayor’s office. Belle - and I can’t believe I am going to fucking type these words, give me a second - TWISTS HER ANKLE AND CAN’T GO ON because it’s not like her husband is the FUCKING DARK ONE AND COULD HEAL HER IN LESS TIME THAN IT TOOK TO TELL HIM TO GO ON WITHOUT HER.

But oh no, they had to give Rumple a tete a tete with his Enchanted Forest self telling him to just give it up, let the Final Battle go on, take all the power for himself teehee! This could have been a neat moment if it had been, oh, I dunno, built up in any way at all in the entire preceding season instead of just flung at us out of nowhere. Rumple decides to do the Right Thing, but his attempt to command Gideon to stop has no effect, because of… something the Black Fairy did, apparently.

Meanwhile up above, Gideon finds them again (natch). Regina gives a Hope Speech™. Emma fights Gideon but refuses to kill him, so he stabs her. There’s a lot of light. Emma appears to be dead until Henry kisses her.

For reasons I don’t understand at all, Gideon becomes an infant again. The storybook is finished. The Enchanted Forest is back where it was - Evil Queen included, and it looks like she and Robin are expecting. Snow and Charming get a farmhouse and a dog. Emma and Hook drive off in the bug to fight crime together. Regina gets to be queen of Storybrooke. Everyone gathers at Granny’s for a weird-ass homage to Da Vinci’s Last Supper.

(I have blocked every gifset that includes that scene that crosses my dash, because what the actual fuck.)

In sum, happy beginnings all around.

Also: In some wrapper scenes after an unspecified time jump, we meet a plucky young girl named Lucy and her fairy godmother, Tiger Lily. Lucy has a storybook and a sword and says she’s Henry’s daughter. Henry (now an adult and living in Seattle in our fade-out) has no memory of her. A grave new threat has overcome the Enchanted Forest and their family.

I didn’t pay much attention to these, as I am not planning to watch the season.

Parallels: This episode consisted of (depressingly) little else but direct callbacks to other episodes -- which is not nearly as effective as parallelism, unfortunately.

Fiona = Regina, obviously

The now-magicless Zelena travels by magic hat (1.17); apparently in his years off-screen, Jefferson made a new one

Emma’s pullup scene is a reference to Terminator 2 (another sequel, see earlier this season)

Operation Cuckoo’s Nest is a twofer, as the entire “operation” business is now several layers deep in self-reference. Unfortunately.

Killian and Charming climb the beanstalk from 2.06

Her Handsome Hero makes an appearance in 6.21 and then again in 6.22, when Rumple uses it to find Belle.

Fiona giving Belle an agoraphobic personality is reasonably close to Regina having locked her up

Snow kissing Charming awake was a callback to, well, rather a lot of their scenes since the S6 curse.

Fiona’s final plan as she explained it to Rumple - no more laws of magic, bringing people back to life, making them love - was lifted wholly from the OUaTiW spinoff, where it made a hell of a lot more sense.

We got one last reference to the price of magic, although it’s hard to see any rhyme or reason to how that’s applied these days.

Henry kissing Emma reverses the S1 finale.

Six seasons’ worth of material, magic items, and emotion to draw from, and this random grab-bag is what they came up with.

On a cheerier note, Lucy means “light” which I feel is appropriate for Snow White’s great-granddaughter and the granddaughter of a Savior.

Wardrobe Department:

There was nothing new or interesting here.

In Hindsight: The villains on this show have gone steadily downhill in capability for the past few years. Regina enjoyed most of a decade as the tyrant of the Enchanted Forest, and 28 more years with Storybrooke in her iron grip before Emma broke the curse for which Regina had murdered her own father.

Rumple was the Dark One, holder of unmatched power, for centuries, came thisclose to living forever in a world specially designed for his happiness (S4).

Pan had absolute power in Neverland for centuries. Cora held sway in Wonderland for years, and got the better of Rumplestiltskin once (very nearly twice). Zelena ruled Oz for something like forty years, if my timeline is anywhere near correct.

Fiona lost her wand ten seconds after turning evil, and was defeated by a fairy who regularly gets herself nearly-dead and doesn’t even show up in the town’s magical ranking these days. She was imprisoned for centuries, sulking and plotting in the Dark Realm, before she made it to Storybrooke, where she spent a week romping around, finally cast her curse, her great work of villainy -- and it got broken and she got killed THE NEXT DAY.

What a loser.

I did a rare thing for me and asked Adam on Twitter what was up with this episode, given that most of it was clearly written for Regina, not the Black Fairy. I did not get an answer, and I suppose we’ll never know what caused this change in direction -- maybe it was as simple as the fact that JMo was leaving and Lana was staying next season, and they didn’t want to end the show. It seems inarguable to me, however, that this change was made, because absolutely nothing about Fiona’s actions makes sense in light of her character.

Fiona’s Dark Curse was (retconned to have been) intended to protect her son (Rumple) by taking all of the Enchanted Forest children to the Land Without Magic. Her later actions were fixated on Gideon as substitute for Rumple. The Dark Curse as enacted in the finale didn’t appear to have anything in particular to do with Rumple or with Gideon. They were both supposed to be cursed and oblivious, so how would that have been a happy ending for Fiona? Was she going to spend eternity watching their family from outside? Storybrooke under her curse had plenty of magic, too, ignoring what was supposed to have been the entire original point.

The new Dark Curse did end up having a lot to do with Emma, with whom Fiona had no relationship at all beyond the inescapably lame “you’re a Savior so I have to kill you” thing. It separated her from her family and drove a new wedge between her and Henry. Fiona had no reason at all to be interested in Henry -- but in this new world she adopted him? -- or in any of Emma’s family for their own sake -- but she made sure to send specifically them away, and no one else? She has literally never interacted with any of these characters, and it makes no sense that she would care about their whereabouts.

(And why for the love of Pete was Henry immune to the curse? I don’t think they ever addressed that. He wasn’t under the first one because he was brought to town later on, but there’s no obvious reason why he should have kept his real memories this time around.)

(While I’m at it, how in hell did she still have Gideon’s heart? She and Rumple were supposed to have been allies as of a couple episodes ago; there’s no way he would have made any deal without securing that.)

None of what Fiona did makes sense for the Black Fairy, but it would have been very much in keeping with Regina’s past actions. (Yes, even down to harming Henry. This is a woman who killed the thing she loved the most.) Even Fiona’s costuming was identical to Regina’s look in S1.

I’m too irritated by it to even really discuss Regina and Rumple’s ending for this season. Suffice to say that they got everything they ever wanted -- twice over in Regina’s case -- and I will never stop being bitter about it. What was even going on with Rumple here? Is being the Dark One irrelevant now? Because if he’s been 100% able to make good decisions this entire time, curse or no curse, and just couldn’t be arsed until this very moment, that blows up another enormous piece of show mythology.

Moving on before my blood pressure kills me.

In my opinion, most of this finale’s mess comes from chickening out with Regina. The rest of it falls out as a consequence of that decision. Having slotted the Black Fairy in for her at the last moment, having decided to make this a metaphorical battle and not a literal one, they had the problem of what do with all of the other characters. I suspect the decision went like “leaving them in Storybrooke would mean re-establishing their cursed identities for viewers who haven’t seen them in five seasons, and it would mean creating all new curse identities for some of them, so let’s just send them off to the EF and, um, they can do absolutely nothing useful there.” The Captain Charming scene was cute as far as it went, but it was also useless, and that dialog was flat-out terrible.

That entire half of the finale was pointless. Literally nothing was accomplished there that had any effect. In order to make all that nothing look like a very urgent something, the writers came up with this “Emma’s lack of belief will destroy all the lands” hack at what was obviously the last possible moment, and I say that because it is in DIRECT CONTRADICTION of the ENTIRE PREMISE OF THE SHOW.

We literally spent all of S1 and onward having it explained that what we think of as stories have objective existence in other worlds, that these people and these realms are real, with their own long and complicated history independent of our own; we only know of them because of the storybooks. Now all of the sudden they only exist if one particular person believes in them? What about the first 28 years of Emma’s life, when she didn’t believe in anything? What about the worlds she’s never been to, never interacted with? Stuff that happened before she was born? The history of the Authors, Mr Disney included? All of those other storybooks from the last hack job of a season finale?

The idea that the final battle is an internal one is fine in itself, but then what makes it final? Why was the Black Fairy involved at all? Why has it been six years and we’re still talking about whether Emma Swan believes in magic? Shouldn’t the “final” battle revolve around everything that has happened to her SINCE that moment, not take us back to just before it happened? What narrative purpose does isolating her from everyone except Henry - again! - serve?

It wasn’t even really a battle; the curse didn’t capitalize on any weakness in Emma’s character.  We just rewound the tape to the S1 finale so she could make the exact same decision she made then -- to leave -- and then convince herself to come back sans apple tart-induced trauma? Was that supposed to be the big pivotal thing, that she came back on her own? Because that was pretty fucking drastically underplayed, and also pretty far from definitive. Emma could get her memories wiped tomorrow (and given this show, probably will), and we’d do the same thing all over again. The fact that they didn’t even feel a need to show her moment of deciding to act on screen says everything, I think.

And then we have the concluding fight, which defies explanation. One thing this show has generally done a good job with is parallelism, but here of all places it fell flat. Everything about the “climax” felt perfunctory at best. They introduced the vision of the fight with Gideon in 6.01, therefore they had to revisit it in the finale, even if it made no particular sense to do so (nothing about Gideon has made sense). This fight happened because a dead character who had no established reason for doing anything she did gave a pointless character an order that didn’t make any sense in the first place; Emma had to “die” purely because the writers said she would six months ago. As an action and as a scene, it accomplished nothing.

Having previously established that the sword was a real sword that would cut people, they hand-waved that and gave it a magical effect instead, allowing Emma to be struck down and then wakened by TLK. The TLK with Henry at the end of S1 was one of the most hard-fought-for scenes I have personally ever seen in any medium, with an entire season of loving development leading up to it; this one felt like a distant echo through a mile of aluminum ducting. Henry has barely even been in this season, hasn’t had a good episode for his character since 6.08. His relationship with Emma in particular has been on the back burner since “The Other Shoe.” The two of them didn’t even get a good spotlight in this episode what with all of the side action in the Enchanted Forest and with Rumple and so on. That kiss didn’t bring anything new to the story.

And so here we are, if not at the end of the story, at least at the end of a significant chapter.

Adam and Eddy wrote some of my all-time favorite episodes of this show, back in the day. At this point, I have to say that while they might make solid staff writers, they have no business running a show. They don’t care about consistency from one season or sometimes even one episode to the next, their creative toolbox appears limited in scope, their writing is self-indulgent, and they’re apparently not willing to follow through -- of their own accord -- on events that should have significant in-character consequences. The result is a finale that very nearly systematically trashes every piece of moral and magical world-building that was still standing after six seasons -- and which I feel comfortably certain will be ignored when the show goes into S7. 

All of that said, I do want to end this on a positive note. I have over the past few years very much enjoyed the story of Emma Swan, the ugly duckling who thought she would never have a family, the lost princess who gave up on love, the hardass with her box of sentimental treasures -- the mother, daughter, sheriff, swordswoman, sorceress, leader, lover, and all of the other jackets she’s worn across the years, leather and otherwise, in the end a fully realized woman with a whole heart and a happy future ahead of her. That’s a story I will never get tired of, and for that I offer my gratitude.

To all of you reading this, I would like to say thank you as well, for the many hours of diverting conversation, for the moving and hilarious commentary, and for the friendships that have grown up from this unexpected ground. May your supplies of fic never run dry.

[myupostsheadcanons]

Dissecting Predictions I made in S4 (Dec/January 2018).... Or: How I guessed most of what was going to happen

Vrepit Sa: Waking up the Past.

The salute likely started off as a “cry for help” from what ever fragment left of Zarkon’s old self that is rattling around the back of his brain screaming at the brick wall at what had been going on. The Salute is a language nod by the writers of the show, it means “Wake Up” in Romanian. (Was he trying to tell Honerva to wake up?)

This turned out not the case. Even if the meaning of the salute in our language means one thing. The Salute in the Galra Empire meant “killing thrust” and a homage to a great battle that was won in the distant past.

Their abrupt personality change after waking from death and their total focus on gaining power and more quintessence brought forth the popular theory that the original personalities of Zarkon and Honerva are not in control. There are aspects of their original personalizes that are active, but with several of their negative traits amplified in intensity.

This is confirmed. As it is shown the dark creatures did in fact infect their bodies and change their wants/desires. We see this when Pre-Rift Ghost Zarkon is revived in the Spirit Realm, and grief over learning what had transpired between his death and being revived. His memories were frozen since his death resurrection as he was aware of what he had done up until that point.

What would cause them to and/or how would they wake up? That is up in the air.

The Zarkon that was possessed died and was basically reset with a backup from the spirit realm. Haggar went to Oriande....

“Why should they wake up?” is another question entirely. We’ve seen the “bigger bad” the creature that is part of or is the thing controlling their actions. With the introduction of their past, their previous personalities, and the creature from the rift: Zarkon and Haggar went from being straight-up the villains of the show to “antagonists only because we have no choice but to be.” This sticks them on a path that means they could be redeemed. Zarkon as the “fallen hero” and Haggar is the “atoner.”

While we have seen the rift creature return, it was in its smaller pieces. it was being used by Honerva to control the other Alteans rather than be the end-game villain.

And to go back on parallels in the story, because it was Honerva’s actions that caused Zarkon to risk their lives and the lives of billions to save her. It is likely going to mean that Haggar is going to be the one to “wake up” as Honerva first and save Zarkon from the path that he was set upon.

Kind of true. Zarkon died, so was stopped that way. Honerva did manage to “save him” in a sense that she had his uncorrupted spirit on back up in the mind-scape that did come back and help put an end to HER path of destruction.

Another thing is ‘What is going to happen after they wake up?”  Which can be broken down onto several paths and some paths can overlap:

1) They die closing the rift, destroying the rift-creatures, and saving not just their universe but the multiverse. Correcting their mistakes of the past.

The most straightforward ending, tbh. With the fewest loose ends.*** (more below)

This.... is basically what happened. yay me.

2) Allura and Keith, they are going to need help.

Allura has nobody that can help her with her powers. Alfor already stated that Honerva was the better alchemist than he was. Allura has the raw power, but not as fine control; Honerva has control, but not as much power. Honerva is also the only adult female Altean left from her era that has any knowledge about Quintessence. Allura  has to go to another universe to find any more Alteans.

And Keith is still having problems accepting command and if Shiro finally does “leave”… who else would there be to help Keith with the Black Lion?  Keith, in the end, is meant to be the better Black pilot than Shiro, and Shiro is flatly overwhelmed sometimes by how many powers Black still can unlock. Just think about how far advanced Shiro would have gotten if Zarkon wasn’t sabotaging him the entire time. Then of Keith being helped rather than hindered by that same force.

This was basically addressed in seasons 5-7. As we are introduced to Oriande and Keith spends over two-years with his mother Krolia. I basically forgot Krolia was going to be a thing when i wrote this post.

In the end all the old paladins returned to help the team. And, Shiro’s experience in the spirit realm helped them greatly when it came to connecting with Voltron and later with Haggar’s Mind.

3) Lotor kills them.

This can happen in a few ways:

-Lotor becomes corrupted by the Rift Monster around the same time Zarkon and Haggar become un-corrupted. They all go down together.

ALMOST. But rather than stop the rift creatures, it was to restore the multiverse that Honerva destroyed just because she couldn’t get her way. 

-Lotor has plans to destroy Voltron, the Rift Monster, and His Parents: taking out everybody in his way to sitting on the top of the shit pile.  If Zarkon and Honerva wake up and switch sides to help Voltron in their fight against the Rift Monster: that is only causing more of a problem for him… He pretends to be playing along only to stab them in the back, literally.

Didn’t happen. But Lotor’s goal of destroying the Galra and reviving Altea was later taken up by Haggar. So his motivations were rather clear. And he did become corrupted and died in the rift.

-Lotor can’t handle the abrupt change. He only remembered them being good and loving, but because he had spent so much time in the darkness becoming a snake-in-the-grass to just survive, their personality change creates a different conflict of interests. They don’t agree with how he does things underhandedly, which is brings him back to square one (they didn’t agree with him when they were evil, now they don’t agree with him now that they are better).

This can be exacerbated by if Zarkon and Honerva have to help out Keith and Allura. It would be plain jealousy on his part. That his redeemed parents are acting more parent-like to total strangers and inadvertently pushing him aside in the process.

Most of this is garbage. I meant to say “he never remembered them being good and loving”... but this was a very long post and i don’t have a proof reader.

Allura turned out to be quite the Knight Templar. And while her “holier than thou” attitude burned bridges with Lotor: she was able to convince Honerva to sacrifice themselves to hit the cosmic reset button.

I was making wild guesses as to what could happen at this point ... which explains the next segment:

4)  They stick around to fix the Galra Empire from the top down.

AKA: The Rainbows and Sunshine ending, or The Galra Christmas Carol. A complete subversion of what happened in GoLion and DOTU to the characters (they all died like the assholes they where). I mean, if you go by Voltron 3D Zarkon was pretending to be good for a while to save his skin. If he actually did become good, stay good, and survived that would be a slight nod to that plot line. I mean, they did borrow the Quintessence thing from the “haggarium” plot line that Voltron Force’s Lotor had.

It would’ve been nice... but wishful thinking.

“Classic Story Conventions” dictate that the First option must happen to end their story. And at the same time, it is kind of boring, over used, and everybody sees it coming from a mile away.

Yep. 

And the problem with taking out Zarkon, Honerva, and Lotor out of the story all at the same time would leave the Galra leaderless. They have spent the past 10K years at war, everybody with any claim to a piece of the Empire is Militaristic and thus would create a great Civil War with the massive power vacuum. It is why Haggar stuck Lotor on the throne in the first place, he had the most legitimate claim as Zarkon never disowned him even if they didn’t like each other and Lotor got kicked out.

This is exactly what happened. Before we even knew what a Kral Zera was. This was what was going to happen.

***Now at the same time, Lotor’s kind of a dick. He’s going to have a lot of problems if he has to fix the empire by himself, or with too much non-Galra outside help. The closest he could get is if the Blade of Mamora step up and get inserted into key command positions. Between the Blade and if he can win back his General Squad, he could have a solid power base and a buffer between him and all the zealots that exist in the current Galra chain of command. His reputation would need to be carefully maintained. As in he can’t pull off something he did with Throk… he can’t just send every Commander, General, and Captain that he disagrees with out to the asshole of the universe, and he definitely can’t just kill them: That would be worse when you are trying to keep an Empire from falling apart. He needs to be seen as merciful and fair, and not just pretend to be. He will chafe and squirm if he has to play the goodly but stern ruler for the rest of his days.

Lotor was pretending to care. And look at what that got him. But if he did everything the way he should have, we wouldn’t have had conflict in the first place.

Do you know who wouldn’t chafe and squirm under the reins and actually want to act as the goodly but stern ruler? An un-corrupted Zarkon desperate to fix what he created within the Galra Empire. Zarkon also has a lot of clout he doesn’t have to work for to get. “Just because I say so,” works much easier with him than if Lotor was in charge. He’s already got the reputation of being a hard-ass, if he wanted to replace his entire command staff on a whim few people will argue about it, nor challenge him on the issue. 

If only.

Also think about what kind of chaos would happen when all the quintessence-powered machinery suddenly stopped working? It would be a massive scaling back of military might in seconds and riots will erupt everywhere. Without some kind of centralized command center rogue factions will quickly overrun the Galra bases and what is going to stop these people from just murdering their captors? The Galra command will have to work in tandem with Voltron and Alliance in order to prevent/stop these insurgent forces from causing mass panic and spilling Galra blood in the streets.

This is what was going on. The Voltron Coalition’s plan before Honerva derailed it was to stop the Galra from fighting and conquering among themselves. But because Voltron and Lotor vanished for 3 years, they were not around to prevent it from happening.

Part of the current arc of the series is to get others (and the audience) to see the Galra as people and to show that there are Galra willing to fight against the corruption in their government. But, prejudices and the idea of “privilege” still persist and most Galra in command are still asshats that need a someone to grab them by the bootstraps and make them fall in line. Lotor isn’t going to be able to do that.

It also helps that the Galra Command basically killed themselves. Not withstanding that Haggar gathered them all together at a Kral Zera and murdered them.

The ultimate goal is to dissolve the Empire into a Republic or Democracy and scale back their territory so the local residents will be in control of their own systems. The process will have to involve finding the Galra a new home planet and a territory to call their own. They are currently spread out all over the universe, living on other people’s planets, in other people’s territories, or on base-ships in massive flotillas out in the middle of space. A lot of what spurred the Galra to rise up and fight the war was because they lost their home, they could have stopped after Altea was destroyed if they were just out after revenge, but they didn’t. Revenge didn’t fix the fact that they were now migratory and most of their society was now living on warships or on other planets as refugees. It even took the Blade of Mamora a while to go “Oh, hey, this is stupid and pointless.” before they broke off to do their own thing.

A Few THINGS:

The Empire was dissolved into a Republic/Democracy. After the command offered to give it to Keith first and he refused it.

With the cosmic reset button Daibazaal and Altea were restored. So the Galra have a home again.

Kolivan and Krolia, leaders of the Blade, are basically their President and VP now.

Food for thought.

< / meta >

GO ME. I could’ve practically wrote this show.

[ofnailbatsandaxefives]

The Phoenix and The 100 S4

“From the ashes we will rise” The tagline for season 4 of The 100 brings to mind imagery of the great mythological bird the Phoenix. A creature that sets itself on fire at the end of it’s life, so that a new Phoenix can be reborn and rise from the ashes of the old. This is already a pretty good analogy for what is going to happen to the world and the characters we love within the show, but it goes even further than that. 

The Phoenix is a creature that appears in many different cultures, with some similarities between them, as well as some differences. I’m not going to cover all of them, but I’ll do my best to cover a majority. 

First I’ll start with some of the basics of the mythology surrounding the Phoenix. These are things that are pretty much constant in all versions of the mythology.

Things The Phoenix Symbolizes

Renewal 

definition A “an instance of resuming an activity or state after an interruption”

- The City of Light can be viewed as the interruption that the people faced in season 3. It halted life in Arkadia, Polis, among the clans living outside of Polis. It halted the attempts at reconciliation between the Sky People and the Grounders. (Not saying that Ontari would have not still tried to wipe them out for bringing in Pike, but Kane was still heading to Polis to try and speak with the new Commander.) In season 4 how are our heroes and those around them going to try and resume the lives that they had before the City of Light? 

definition B “the replacing or repair of something that is worn out, run-down, or broken.“

- If we go by this definition, it could be about the grounders (and possibly sky people together) coming up with a new government for the grounders. Replacing the idea of the Commander with something else, or maybe even where it isn’t centered around the flame. Maybe it isn’t about completely replacing this system, but rather repairing it and finding a way for more of it to make sense. Like, y’know maybe not having a battle royale to find the next commander, cause just because someone can kill people does not make them a good leader. This can also be applied to Arkadia, and I think could be sign that Bellamy and Clarke are going to be working more with Kane (and possibly Abby) to be leaders among their people. 

some synonyms for the word renewal are: revival. restoration. reformation. reparation (atonement), redemption, resurrection. 

- Are we going to have people trying to atone for the things they did while in the City of Light (Ilian? Kane? Jaha? Jackson? Jasper?)

- Are we going to have a redemption arc for Octavia?

Empire

“ an extensive group of states of countries under a single ruler”

We know from the trailer that Roan is going to try and rule the 12 (well I guess 13) clans. The flame is still going to be in play somehow too, but is the person who takes it still going to be the next Commander? It’s possible, but I think this is more about Roan’s arc and goals than it is about the flame.

The Sun

The Phoenix can symbolize the sun, but there are also things that the sun can symbolize. Some things about this symbolism are “the sun can be about being able to command and lead,”the sun is bright and gives the people the energy and strength that they need,” “the sun gives the people the determination to succeed.” 

Who does this sound like? Well, it kind of sounds a bit like the way in which Bellamy leads. He’s the one that’s known for the inspirational speeches, but wait, who do we see in the trailer giving one? Clarke. From interviews and such we know that these two are going to be working together again, so this could apply now to the Bellarke leadership as a whole, rather than to just one of them. However, I do think this part of the symbolism applies more to Bellamy.

Metempsychosis

“ the supposed transmigration at death of the soul of a human being or animal into a new body of the same or a different species”

This part of the Phoenix’s symbolism in relation to the show is most definitely about the flame/chip itself. We don’t know how yet, only that it’s still going to play a role in next season. Is the new grounder woman in the trailer going to take the flame? Is there going to be a new Commander? Are there going to be more grounders who stop seeing it as a religious thing to be revered? Is there going to be conflict between those who view it as sacred and those that do not? 

Now comes the part where I start on the Phoenix when it comes to the stories in individual cultures. Now, first let me note that this is all from research so if I get anything wrong let me know.

Egyptian

In Egypt the Phoenix is known by another name, Bennu.

Bennu is associated with Osiris (Ausir) who is the god of the afterlife, the dead, transition, and resurrection. 

Death is something that is pretty common on the show, but ‘god of the dead and resurrection?’ Who does that sound like, oh, I don’t know maybe ‘the Commander of Death.’ Clarke not only has been shown to take life, but she has been shown to restore it as well. 

Osiris has a sacred willow tree that he sat under. The willow tree can represent both grief and healing. There’s going to still be grieving in season 4, not just from Clarke, but there’s also going to be healing in this season. Who or what is going to be healed we don’t know yet. The willow tree also represents renewal and immortality, much like the Phoenix. While no character on the show is immortal, are we going to see even more the immortalization surrounding the idea of Wanheda?

Bennu is also associated with Ra, the Egyptian Sun God, and as I noted above sun is one of the things the Phoenix symbolizes, and that this can apply to Bellamy. According to Egyptian mythology when Ra was in the underworld he merged with Osiris to become the god of the dead as well. 

Osiris = Clarke

Ra = Bellamy

Merging in the underworld = “Together” and pulling the lever in Mt. Weather

Both Clarke and Bellamy should be considered Wanheda, but only Clarke does, same as Osiris is usually considered the god of the dead and not Ra.

The Bennu is the sacred bird of Heliopolis, which from what I could find is near modern day Cairo. Some of the most famous pyramids are found on the outskirts of the city, and if I remember correctly we see pyramids in the trailer. There’s also the fact that it has the name Polis right in the name, 

Chinese

in China the Phoenix is called Fèng Huáng

it is a symbol of high virtue, grace, power, prosperity, and the union of yin and yang.

the Empress is often symbolized by the phoenix Fèng Huáng, especially when paired with the Emperor, who is symbolized by the dragon. (I’ll touch more on this a little later)

The colors of the Fèng Huáng’s feathers are black, white, red, green, and yellow. 

These colors are said to represent the five virtues of Confucius

Ren: benevolence, humanity, charity

Yi: honesty (broken down into zhong: doing one’s best, loyalty, and shu: altruism “benefiting another at one’s own expense”, reciprocity “exchanging with another for mutual benefits”)

Zhi: knowledge

Xin: faithfulness, integrity

Li: propriety, politeness, ceremony, worship

The Phoenix was power sent from above to the Empress, and would only stay when the ruler was without darkness or corruption. She started a bit on this path in season 3, but I think in season 4 we are really going to see Clarke coming out of the darkness of everything she has had to do and has been through. I also think she’s going to come out from some of the corrupted ways of being a leader that she learned from L. 

The phoenix also represents the celestial bodies, let’s remember that Clarke, and the other sky people came from the space (where the heavenly bodies are) as well as the direction south, possible migration south to Brazil? ( @loft-meeting )

Okay, so like with talking about the gods in Egypt, I’m taking a short detour from Phoenix talk here to come back to the Emperor being symbolized by a dragon. 

Please note I am only talking about dragons in terms of how they are viewed in China for this.

Things that the dragon represents in China: Perseverance, Heroism, Boldness, Intelligence, Vigor

Who is someone that has persevered despite the odds? Who has shown his heroism time and time again? Who have we seen making bold choices for his people? Who do we know shows his intelligence in how he plans things or leads? Bellamy fucking Blake, that’s who.

The Empress = The Phoenix = Clarke

The Emperor = The Dragon = Bellamy

The Empress + The Emperor (The Phoenix + the Dragon) = the union of yin and yang 

Japanese

in Japan the Phoenix is known as Hō-ō.

Just as in China it is a symbol for the Empress. 

Here it represents fire, the sun, justice, and fidelity. 

In some traditions it is said that the  Hō-ō only appears to mark the beginning of a new era. Is this what is going to come in season 4? Are we going to see the start of a new era for the sky people and the grounders? Are we going to see them setting their differences aside and uniting to survive? 

In other traditions the Hō-ō only arrives during times of peace and prosperity. The whole ‘first we survive and then we thrive’ mentality Clarke is putting forth to inspire the people from the trailer? In this tradition the bird nests in the Paulownia tree, which is nicknamed the Empress/Princess tree...so while I know we don’t care much for the Princess nickname and don’t want to see it come back, we can’t deny that it’s always going to be something associated with Clarke.

Greek/Arabian

when someone makes a reference to the phoenix, it’s most likely this version of the bird you think of. An eagle like bird streaking across the sky, or sitting by a well and singing its melodious song. 

Its feathers are often crimson, purple, scarlet, gold, or a combination of the three. 

Crimson: fire, importance, power, determination to succeed

- having/gaining power (Roan)

 - the determination of Clarke and those on team survive to find a way to survive the coming apocalypse. 

Purple: inspiration, the future

- Clarke trying to inspire the people in Arkadia, and Bellamy in turn being that inspiration for Clarke. 

- Not to mention the inspiration the other characters will find in each other. Kane and Abby, Murphy and Emori, etc...

- while they will obviously be dealing with things in the present, much of this season I feel is going to be focused on the future. The future of mankind. 

Scarlet: enthusiasm, love of life

- Enthusiasm and love of life here makes me think of Jasper. So far in the show, at least at the beginning it seems, that Jasper is on what I refer to as ‘Team Fuck It.’ He doesn’t want to survive, he wants to live, and there is a difference between the two. If the world is ending, Jasper is going to go out on top. He’s going to go out not with a whimper or a bang, but with music blasting from the rover and a cup of Monty’s moonshine in hand. 

Now whether or not this attitude is a good thing is open for debate.

Gold: success, abundance, wisdom

- a successful alliance possibly between Azgeda and the Sky People? 

- characters continuing to grow and learn, Clarke and Bellamy gaining more wisdom from people like Abby, Kane, and even Jaha on their little trip to upendi. Is Octavia going to gain some wisdom from Niylah this year? What about when Luna comes back? Is she gonna drop some wisdom on people? Maybe Monty with his questioning the excuse of ‘my people.’

The phoenix has tears that can heal wounds and resurrect the dead *cough* Clarke Griffin *cough*

In this version the phoenix builds a pyre and gathers things such as cinnamon and myrrh in the preparation of its death.

Cinnamon and Myrrh both represent pretty similar things two of which are Protection and Healing. 

Season 4 is going to see characters trying to protect one another and heal, not just healing physically, but also healing mentally and emotionally. Think of the way a phoenix uses the items that represent these in it’s pyre before it dies and a new phoenix rises from the ashes. Now think of the way these need to be something that the characters need to realize and go through, so that when they rise from the ashes they arise stronger than before. That in order for mankind to continue and for a new world to come about, one where the Arkers and Grounders truly work/live together, the old ways must first die, so that the new ways can live. 

Slavic

in Slavic folkore it is referred by a few different names, most of which seem to translate to something along the lines of Firebird.

Once again the Firebird can represent a number of different things.

For some it is a creature of blessing, and others it brings doom to anyone who captures it. In some tales it’s a symbol of wealth and power, and in others it’s the object that’s been ordered to be capture. (I know this post is mainly about the phoenix in relation to season 4, but holy fuck if this doesn’t scream season 3 C/L if you think of Clarke as the Phoenix) 

The Phoenix is also believed to bring hope and relief to suffering. 

- hope has always been a pretty major theme of this show. almost everything has relied on hope. The hope that the ground is survivable. The hope that grounders and sky people can work together. The hope that they can survive the coming apocalypse. 

- relief to suffering - call back to Atom, anyone? Is there going to be more of things like this in season 4? Perhaps a relief that doesn’t end in death or something false like the City of Light?

Conclusion

My conclusion is this, if you look at the overall/wider aspects of the Phoenix then it can encompass the overall theme of season 4. It can symbolize many different characters, story lines, arcs, etc. When you examine each version individually you find that, while here and there something might apply to a different character or arc, it seems that it is mostly represented by Bellarke, and more so by Clarke than Bellamy. But isn’t that what this show is? At its core the show is Clarke’s journey, followed by Bellarke (platonic, romantic, or otherwise), and then everyone else. 

@ginalou16 @bellamypotter @ravensluna @abazethe100 @the-ships-to-rule-them-all @insufficient-earth-skills @rosymamacita @falafel14 @adamantinesky @forgivenessishardforus @thunderlovesbird @jane-doe07