#but hes really representative of the greater problem with that season

[axolotlclown]

So I finished Moominvalley season 4 and here is my review:

Of course, spoilers ahead! It's long. It's detailed. It's a bit much, and I spent hours writing it.

I greatly disliked this season, not just from one particular angle. When Moominvalley first came out, it was advertised as the first narrative-style adaptation. This would imply one concrete story that ran throughout the show. They said the story would take time and required patience, but there was a larger narrative story. What was that story exactly? In the beginning, each character was established with certain flaws that they needed to grow from.

For Moomintroll, throughout season 1, we see him struggle with his father's expectations. He never quite makes his own decisions—either doing what he's told or what other people in his life would do. In the last episode of the season, Midwinter Ancestor, Moomintroll is told by Too-Tikky to not open the closet door. Going against her wishes, he does so anyway. This is the first instance of Moomintroll making a decision for himself. In the end, it was a bad decision, and he regretted it, but it still was a big moment. We understand the importance of this journey when he changes out the picture by his bedside table. It was a baby photo with his parents; now, it's a photo of Moomintroll fully grown. This was meant to denote a journey of independence.

We see him continue with this struggle in season 2. The Hobgoblin's hat adds to the internalized identity crisis. During the lighthouse arc, Moomintroll is mostly doing his own thing, somewhat. Although, I think that cutting out his glade from the book sort of hurt this theme of independence. I hoped that they would revisit that somehow, but they never did. In season 3, Lonely Mountain, we see a sort of regression with Moomintroll. (Ignore how this affected Snufkin, I'll come back to this later.) When Moomintroll unpacks his things, we see a collection of items that represent Moomintroll's past. One of these items was the old baby picture. Aside from this episode, we don't see any notable growth from Moomintroll this season.

In season 4, we watch Moomintroll fall right back into his father's shadow. He continues to struggle to carve his own path. The set up for Comet in Moominland was promising, but ultimately did not deliver. When Moomintroll goes against his friends to make a decision for himself, it turns out to be a bad decision that he regrets later, and someone else has to guide him out of the situation.

Moomintroll ends from the same place he started as a character. All growth is erased and ignored. While this is the most egregious example—with him being the protagonist—he is not the only character that this happens with.

Snufkin probably upsets me the most, as he had so much potential to be the most interesting character in the series. In season 1, The Spring Tune, we see where Snufkin is starting as far as his strengths and flaws go. What particularly intrigued me was his relationship to attachment. We see that Snufkin ultimately fears abandonment, and he copes with this in conflicting ways. He wants to be with Moomintroll out of fear of being left behind, but he is afraid that he feels this way. He tries to create distance between him and Moomintroll in an attempt to ease what he experiences as pain. This is demonstrated further in the next episode, The Last Dragon in the World, when he frees the dragon. We see his struggle with responsibility and commitment in Snufkin and the Park Keeper.

In season 2, The Hobgoblin's Hat, Snufkin is explaining to Moomintroll what the King's Ruby is. The ruby functions as a metaphor for love throughout the season. Moomintroll imagines that the Hobgoblin must love this ruby, while Snufkin argues that he only wants to possess it. While both may be correct in their own ways, they fail to understand each other. As a result, Snufkin decides to leave Moomintroll out of fear of being possessed himself under the false pretense that he is helping with the hat (he did not). We never visit this plot point again.

Snufkin has some large developments in season 3. In the Lonely Mountain, we see Snufkin break down his walls and let Moomintroll in. He acknowledges his responsibility to him and his longing to see him. Unfortunately, this aspect of his character is completely abandoned in season 4.

Back to season 1, Snufkin and the Park Keeper, we get a flashback in which Snufkin is enjoying a party with Moomintroll until he is overwhelmed by the presence of others. He winds up abandoning Moomintroll and the valley. He does this again in season 2, The Hobgoblin's Hat, as discussed above. In season 3, Snufkin and the Fairground, Snufkin chooses not to abandon his responsibility to Moomintroll or the valley. When faced with an uncomfortable challenge, he chooses to stay and support Moomintroll.

In season 4, The Great Cold, when faced with a crowded challenge, Snufkin abandons Moomintroll again. While he appears later in the episode, it felt disingenuous to me. The original problem had already been solved. In Comet in Moominvalley, Snufkin does not abandon Moomintroll. In fact, he makes an active effort to stay by his side. But it feels strange, almost undeserved? We saw so little of Snufkin this season, and when we did, he spent his screen time backtracking his progress.

In season 3, Lonely Mountain, Snufkin has a small monologue about listening to the campfire as the sparks dance and fly. Well, the whole episode was about listening. Anyway, that was a call back to the season 1 episode, The Invisible Child, in which Too-Tikky tells Moomintroll that there are many lost souls in Moominvalley that needed to be heard. The screen then cut to Snufkin leaving the valley. It would have been really cool to find out what that meant!

His abandonment issues never really get addressed. Refusing to let Snufkin meet his father was just baiting the audience. It was also just bad writing! What's his deal—where's his lore?? Who made him like this? Why is he so afraid of intimacy? Why are basic fundamental questions about this main character being left unanswered?

It really is disappointing. Every adaptation (and the books, if we're being honest) treat Snufkin like a stoic hero. He doesn't want to be looked up to, yet he's always painted as a character that you should. This is the first adaptation that gave him flaws. He felt like a character that needed growth and time. He was never given either.

I won't spend so much time on Snorkmaiden, even though she was robbed, too. She never grew to be more independent apart from Moomintroll. In the same vein as Moomintroll and Snufkin, her character ends exactly the way she started. All of her character growth vanished in seasons 3 and 4. I love this version of Snorkmaiden. I certainly prefer it to her other portrayals. But the writers screwed her over so bad, it's heartbreaking.

None of the characters actually learn or change. Everyone sort of becomes a static character, which makes any semblance of a plot impossible to write. For the fun of it, I will try to decode a plot, anyway.

So, you're not crazy. Moomintroll and Snufkin were set up to be endgame. There was a way to make Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden endgame in a satisfying way, but the writers chose against it. It's a very suspicious backtracking that reeks of queerbaiting, but let me explain the narrative romance angles first.

I feel unsatisfied with the ending Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden got. Throughout seasons 1 and 2, they would frequently lie for each other's approval, and jealousy was a common player. They would ignore each other when someone more interesting came along. Ultimately, what led to the break up in season 2, Farwell Snorkmaiden, was the understanding that Snorkmaiden was just more mature than Moomintroll. In her own way, she was ready for a serious committed relationship, and Moomintroll was not.

However, there was never a formal conversation of them getting back together. They just sort of were? And all of the problems in their relationship were never resolved. They still lied to each other and ignored one another for something shinier all the time. It was irritating. These two became no better than Sniff in the end. I'm standing on business with that.

I'm also not convinced that Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden can have a healthy relationship after the finale. They will definitely break up again. They haven't resolved any of the issues that led to their original break.

Okay, so Moomintroll and Snufkin. Let's chat about that for a while. The first three episodes establish Moomintroll, Snufkin, and their relationship together (in that order). We, as viewers, are led to believe that their relationship (either romantic or platonic) is the key to understanding the story. Throughout seasons 1 and 2, every single motif for love (lanterns, fires, the ruby, etc.) that is introduced is done with Moomintroll and Snufkin. Regardless, different expressions of love and intimacy were the focal point of the show. That was almost completely abandoned in seasons 3 and 4. While turning the focus on the greater community could have added depth, it ultimately detracted from the close personal relationships that were driving the narrative.

So, the Groke. She does not just represent fear, she is a reflection of each character's own fears. I loved this! I thought it was a really cool concept, and the ways that she was portrayed in seasons 1 and 2 were excellent. Here's the thing. In her introduction in season 1, Night of the Groke, we are also introduced to lanterns/fires as a motif about love. The Groke is chasing love and craves acceptance. It's not quite something you can catch, and trying to is a failed endeavor. Brilliant episode. We saw what Snufkin's greatest fear was earlier in the season (loving Moomintroll), but we needed to pay more attention to see Moomintroll's fear. I think it was complex. On one hand, with the lanterns, Moomintroll could also be afraid to love Snufkin. However, as we saw at the end of Moomintroll and the Seahorses, he needs to learn independence before he can love someone. This was also reinforced through Snorkmaiden in Farwell Snorkmaiden. The fires and lanterns were constant reoccurring motifs (not just for Moomintroll and Snufkin, though that's where the focus is right now). Rewatch the season 3 episode, Lonely Mountain, and that one monologue that Snufkin gives will start to make sense.

By abandoning these important motifs, the Groke's conclusion feels unfinished. It just felt wrong. In the end, she did just represent fear. This completely erased the layer of depth that she had to start.

For Moomintroll to learn to be more independent and self-reliant, he needed to learn from Snufkin. For Snufkin to learn to accept love and responsibility, he needed to learn from Moomintroll. They were the keys to each other's growth. When they were together, the plot moved. When they weren't, the episodes felt like filler for the most part.

Also, small detail, despite the change in one photo (the baby photo to grown Moomintroll) the photo with Moomintroll and Snufkin never changed. Which narratively makes no sense.

The writers originally set this up for them to be romantically involved. Which, given the context of their dynamic in the books and comics, makes sense. It's not as much of a stretch as people are trying to gaslight themselves into believing. These characters were originally heavily queer coded. However, the original text is sort of a tragedy. No matter what happened, Moomintroll and Snufkin could never truly be together—no matter how much they tried. This mirrored Tove Jansson's relationship to her first fiance Atos Wirtanen as well as her relationship to her own queerness. However, it looked like Moominvalley wanted something different. Queer people had enough tragic stories told already. This one would tell queer kids that it was going to be okay, and that they were going to find love. Tove Jansson's original message about love and freedom was finally going to be understood.

Instead, not only was this potentially beautiful story abandoned, it was mocked. In the season 4 episode, Midsummer Meddling, there was a scene I found quite shocking. Sniff had convinced himself that he was to fall in love with somebody. One of his "love interests" was a male scarecrow. This is the only openly queer semblance of romance that we got and it was played off as a joke. In the final season. They didn't even backtrack Moomintroll and Snufkin, they just completely ignored everything that was set up.

In the final episode, Comet in Moominland, there was an incredibly brief exchange between Moomintroll and Snufkin about who looked up to who. This would have been a fantastic place to give these characters some sort of conclusion, but we don't get that. In all of the 45 minute special, the characters are never prioritized. In the whole season, even. Really, not a single character got a satisfying conclusion, but Moomintroll and Snufkin were the most important.

This is a powerful and historic piece of queer media. Tove Jansson's queer legacy was so iconic that she was directly cited as an influence in the legalization of same sex marriage in Finland. Her work proved to further the queer community. Despite sodomy laws and fear of incarceration, Jansson continued to do what she could to tell her own queer story. That is what Moomin is. That is its legacy.

I was prepared to defend Gutsy if Snufmin didn't go canon. At the end of the day, it's usually TV execs threatening to pull the whole show off the air. The show was too costly to risk any interesting writing. However, the writers didn't recover, and some of the writing just felt downright melicious at times.

Anyway, if you love slice-of-life content, you probably loved this season and the show's conclusion. It is such a shame that the creators promised something completely different from what the show turned out to be. It's no surprise that viewers are disappointed.

I do have one more thing to say ☝️😀. This is going to hurt Moomin's mission to expand to the US. It's been very obvious that they have been trying to expand to North America. Brave and bold writing would have caught the attention of new viewers. Instead, few Americans are going to recommend this show to others. Aside from that, the next logical move is to make an American adaptation. Good luck trying to find a competent YA cartoon creator that won't threaten to walk off the project if they can't have Snufmin. That being said, they'll have better luck making that canon here anyway. (Everybody say, "thank you Rebecca Sugar and Pendleton Ward.")

Well, in the end, I don't think the fight to make Snufmin a real, transparent queer story ends with Moominvalley. I can say, though, that the prioritization of profit over respect and love for others is not at all what Tove Jansson would have wanted.

Seasons 1 and 2 were peak, and season 3, episode 8, was batshit insane. That is all.

[acaptainbyanyothername]

It is so important the Weepe and Saskia episode came directly after the Jonas and Phineas episode, because it really drove home how similar these dynamics are and where they fundamentally diverge.

First of all, Saskia and Jonas got their origins in very similar ways. According to Third Person’s Midst Messages series, beta Phineas (then called “Puck”) was originally a much more self-assured knight-in-shining-armor type, and Weepe was a showbiz guy that actually performed on stage and could command a crowd. Later, when fleshing out the story and characters further, Third Person essentially shaved those parts off of them to make the characters of Jonas Spahr and Saskia del Norma.

On a meta level then— of COURSE Phineas and Weepe are so obsessed with Jonas and Saskia! They are literally looking at their better half, the part of them that was stripped away to increase their flaws. Out of meta and in the context of the story, Phineas and Weepe both put Jonas and Saskia on pedestals. They then deal with these pedestals in interesting and horrific ways.

The pedestals exist because Jonas and Saskia saved them in some regard—Jonas by pulling Phineas out of the Delta, and Saskia through her kindness to Weepe when he came to Midst. This results in Phineas and Weepe primarily seeing Jonas and Saskia as the symbols they represent: heroic Prime Consector and the kind, too pure for this world pillar of the community respectively. These pedestals superimpose a fundamental power imbalance in the dynamics: Phineas feeling inadequate compared to Jonas�� Valor and charm, and Weepe thinking his awfulness will eventually twist Saskia away from him, Then, all of the problems with these relationships come to a tumultuous head when the moon fell on Midst, and it’s interesting to note that both Weepe and Phineas both partially did the terrible things they did to save face for themselves to their counterpart: Weepe specifically wanted to not be there or mentioned during the Cabaret bust, and Phineas went so violent over Sherman in an act of desperation partially to prove to Spahr he was worth something. Both of these attempts end up failing and fracturing their relationships, and Weepe abandons and Phineas is abandoned. These relationships then do not see each other until close to the end of season 3.

One of the major themes of Midst is change and metamorphosis, both on a physical and a mental level. All of the four characters go through a high level of change during their time apart, but Saskia and Weepe’s change is purely physical, while Phineas and Jonas’ is purely mental (save some beard shenanigans). Weepe’s entire body transforms into the clear skeleton man we know and love, and Saskia literally gains another body from the tearror. However, even after these drastic physical alterations, they remain fundamentally the same person. Saskia is still kind and community-focused, and Weepe is still the same diabolical bastard. Conversely, Jonas and Phineas had their worldviews so rocked (Jonas a little slower than Phineas, but Phineas got to smoke a moth about it) they individually decided to renounce the cult and value system that provided structure to their lives. They both interact with others and the world around them differently because of the mental changes they have undergone (seen in Phineas attempting to take greater responsibility for his actions and make choices for himself instead of just following orders, and Jonas learning to take agency and grow a backbone).

This is why Jonas and Phineas manage to reconcile and Saskia and Weepe don’t. For as different as their reunion scenes are, there’s a striking commonality: Saskia and Phineas both express the sentiment “I’m angry at you and I don’t know if I can forgive you” and Weepe and Jonas both respond with “Good, you should be.” It’s why they say those things that matters though. Jonas and Phineas have internally changed since their last meeting. Saskia and Weepe have not. Jonas has reached a point where he’s no longer asking anything of Phineas or placing undue pressure on him, and so he accepts Phineas’ negative emotions and imperfections for the first time in their relationship. Weepe just accepts no forgiveness because he thinks he deserves it, because he’s the same terrible person he’s always been and internal change is impossible. Or so he thinks, at least. Phineas changed and Jonas changed to match him. Saskia and Weepe were incompatible with their polar opposite values, and stayed that way permanently. To tie it back to the idea of pedestals, Jonas happily stepped off the pedestal he was on and Phineas let him—they’re both at zero. Weepe couldn’t take Saskia off her pedestal or view himself as anything less than lower than her, to the detrimental point of denying himself the chance to grow from his mistakes.

These relationships could have easily ended up very differently. In an alternate version of Midst, Jonas and Phineas could have decided to kill each other and Saskia and Weepe could have survived and attempted to try again with each other. It end up happening the way it did because Phineas and Weepe had very different facilitators of their respective metamorphosis. Phineas was guided by the Mothers Merciful to come to a new self-understanding. Weepe had Imelda fucking Goldfinch. Change doesn’t happen in an isolated chamber, it’s influenced by the people around us. Phineas was guided into change. Weepe was tortured into it. If Phineas was not treated with the kindness he was, or Weepe was treated with a little more, there’s a chance the story could have unraveled very differently.

In conclusion (this post ran away from me a bit haha) the codependent relationships of Phineas and Jonas, and Weepe and Saskia heavily parallel each other but reach different conclusions in the key places they diverge, i.e. the internal versus external change the characters went through and the type of support they received. These relationships are mirrors of each other—I think Saskia and Weepe represent the worst possible road it could have went down and Jonas and Phineas represent the best, and the key was a successful metamorphosis and accepting the other as a person as they are, off a pedestal.

They all love each other to a frankly obsessive degree. Sometimes love isn’t enough though. Sometimes it’s just circumstance and a willingness to change that ends up being the determining factor.

[nice-witch-reyes]

I was thinking about the Bad Batch (big surprise) and I realized why Hemlock is such a compelling character

First, let's look at Admiral Edmund Rampart (derogatory).

He was shaping up to be the main antagonist after Rescue on Ryloth... but then he wasn't, midway through Season 2, he was taken off the chess board by our heroes without even KNOWING it.

His victories didn't even feel like victories over our protagonists, I mean, he destroyed their home, he belittled Crosshair, but... he was rarely on the Batch's radar for the most part.

So when he's gone, we're left with our protagonists: Clone Force 99 who only have the galaxy against them.

But the galaxy is an abstract thing, their problems were nothing quite insurmountable. The story was moving on, and they didn't necessarily need to be a part of it.

Until Metamorphosis.

Metamorphosis didn't beat around the bush. It started with Hemlock hitting the ground running: threatening Nala Se, trying to continue the cloning process for the Emperor. And when he leaves, and we know he's going to come back, we just don't know how or why... until the end.

The most glorious and underrated transition is when Tech theorizes that the Empire wants to control cloning, which we, the audience ALREADY KNOW THAT, we've known that since Return to Kamino, so what's the point in saying this?

The point, my friends, is this:

The shot of Omega is what we see IMMEDIATELY after Tech says that, and is immediately followed up with the transition back to Tantiss, and just like that, it answers the questions the episode set up before the questions are actually directly answered:

a) How will Dr. Hemlock achieve his goal? b) How is his story going to affect our protagonists?

The key to controlling Nala Se isn't just "a young girl" it's our girl. Our Omega. The Batch's Omega, their little sister.

And that alone sets Hemlock up to be a greater villain than Rampart EVER was in a few short minutes.

We knew, with dread, that this man with the deceptively alluring voice and feigned compassion, who strolled onto an Imperial base and commanded control without saying anything, who's power and cruelness we wouldn't even begin to comprehend yet... was going after Omega. Our Omega. The Batch's Omega. The little girl who we fell in love with the moment she started the food fight for the brothers she didn't know yet. The little girl who represents hope and joy and kindness, and selfless actions persevering in the face of all other adversity.

And the worst part about it all? What really solidifies Hemlock as a villain?

He succeeded.

[bespangeled]

Every Argument About “Buffy” On The Internet, From 1998 Until Now

Joss Whedon: Inventer Of Feminism Or Literal Hitler?

Joss  Whedon invented feminism. Before Joss Whedon, every female character on  television was crushed to death under the weight of her male co-stars’  heavier paychecks in the second-season finale.

Every female  character Joss Whedon ever wrote was forcibly impregnated by a demon and  brutally murdered, because Joss Whedon hates lesbians.

But Warren And The Trio Were –

EVERYONE  GETS THAT WARREN AND THE TRIO REPRESENTED THE THREAT OF  NON-SUPERNATURAL MISOGYNY, YOU DON’T GET CREDIT FOR PICKING UP ON THAT

Joss Whedon Doesn’t Understand What Bisexuality Is

Willow Identifies As Gay And You Are Robbing Her Of Self-Determination Because She Doesn’t Have A “Gold Star”

I’d  Feel More Comfortable With Willow’s Lesbianism If It Weren’t Sometimes  Equated With Drug Addiction, Literal Vampirism, And Megalomania

But She Was Clearly In Love With Oz

Who Are You To Say What Love Is

Dark Willow Was Pretty Hot, Though

Yeah, Dark Willow Was Super Hot

I’d Watch Dark Willow And Doppelgangland-Era Willow Hook Up If It Weren’t A Patriarchal Fantasy

Spuffy Is Problematic

Bangel Is A Child’s Delusion Of What Love Is

Spuffy Is Literally Assault

Okay But He Felt Really Bad About It And Didn’t Have A Soul

Waif-Fu And Thermodynamics: You Can’t Violate The Law Of Conservation Of Momentum

Season Six Felt Like Watching My Friends Get Murdered In Slow Motion Right In Front Of Me

It Was Worth It For Once More, With Feeling, Though

No, It Wasn’t

Doublemeat Palace Cancels Out Once More, With Feeling

Doublemeat Palace Cancels Out My Childhood

Xander Is The Only Character Who Retains Their Humanity On The Entire Show

Xander Is A Greater Monster Than Angelus And Invented “Nice Guy” Syndrome

Buffy Started To Falter After Angel Premiered

No, Buffy Started To Falter After Firefly Premiered

No, Buffy Has Never Faltered And Is Still On The Air

Buffy Started To Falter When Angel/Faith/Buffy Came Back

Buffy Was Better When It Was A Movie With Kristy Swanson

What If Evil?

Dark Willow Straight-Up Flayed a Dude!

Extremism In the Pursuit of Love Is No Vice

If a Dude Had Flayed Willow, Would We Be Cheering?

Everyone Was Too Hard On Dawn For Being A Regular Human Being

Don’t You Dare Try To Retroactively Justify Dawn

Oz vs. Tara

Oz Was Boring; Tara Was Too Good For This Sinful Earth

Tara Was Boring; Oz Was The Greatest Love Interest In Television History; Remember That Animal Crackers Monologue

What About Kenned–

SHUT UP ABOUT KENNEDY

Jenny Calendar And Race-Bending

Is It Important That Buffy Is Decidedly Not Book Smart?

Not Everyone Is Book Smart, That Is Elitist

Buffy is the Lady Channing Tatum of being Body Smart and That Is Sufficient

It Is a Tremendous Problem and Girls Should Not Watch This Show Or They Will Not Take College Seriously

I Shouldn’t Have To Watch Angel In Order To Appreciate Cordelia’s Growth As A Character

Shaming: Everyone Is Shamed

“Beer Bad” Is Slut-Shaming

“Beer Bad” Is Substance-Shaming and Preachy

“Beer Bad” Is Just a Terrible Episode

Angel Losing His Soul After He Has Sex With Buffy is Slut-Shaming

THE EPISODE WHERE WILLOW ATTENDS THE WICCAN MEETING IS WICCAN-SHAMING WICCANS ARE REAL WE ARE NOT YOUR PUNCHLINE

KENDRA’S ACCENT THOUGH

Was It Irish Sometimes, Or Was That Just Me?

Her Accent is Perfect, and Not To Be Questioned

Activating All Potential Slayers Was An Act Of Patriarchal Violence

Slaying Is Empowering

No, Slayers Were Literally Created When A Woman Of Color Was Forcibly Invaded By A Demonic Essence

Oh, Right

But Then They Get To Beat Up Everybody

Dark Willow Straight-Up Flayed a Dude

[girl4music]

I’ll agree that if Wednesday should have any romantic interest in anyone at all, it should be with Enid. But I definitely think aroace Wednesday makes sense.

I don’t want a heterosexual Wednesday.

I don’t want a homosexual Wednesday.

I don’t even want a bisexual Wednesday.

Asexual and Aromantic representation please. I thought that’s exactly where they were going with the character until she kissed Tyler. Now I want her arc in Season 2 to rescind that decision since it was a huge mistake and vow to never kiss anyone ever again. I want Wednesday and Enid to establish a deep but purely platonic emotional bond because we never seem to get those anymore in TV art/entertainment. Of course I still want there to be romantic/sexual relationships in the show. Just not with Wednesday. I would love for Enid and Ajax to really thrive in Season 2 because they represent the two different species motif that is beloved in classic supernatural shows. I want Bianca to have a proper redemption arc and become Wednesday’s most loyal friend along with Enid. Perhaps she could be the lesbian or bisexual character in Season 2 so we can have black LGBTQ representation because that’s few and far between too. And as for Tyler… I would like him to make amends for succumbing to the dark side because honestly his arc in Season 1 just didn’t make sense. I want him to develop a better relationship with his dad and I want him to enroll at Nevermore Academy. The character Xavier I couldn’t care less about but I do want him to get over his obsession with Wednesday because it’s creepy and she’s not interested in him. Honestly I would prefer it if he didn’t come back at all. Lastly, I would like them to stop killing all the female adult authority because did you notice all the female adults died in Season 1 or were vilified? Disgusting. New female principle at Nevermore Academy. Perhaps transgender female. That would be cool!

So yeah, I want a Season 2 because it is a good show and it could do very well but Season 1 had a few narrative problems that just didn’t sit well with me. Mostly the hypocrisy over murdering when the lead character herself is an attempted murderer. For me to take that seriously, they need to better address it and not make her out to be the greater good hero of the story when she’s evidently the anti-hero type. Part of the problem I have with WEDNESDAY is that Wednesday isn’t allowed to be morally grey when she already is by default. By being a sadistic killer herself. I mean… her introduction was her releasing two bags of piranha on her previous school’s swim team, clearly intending to kill or cause harm to at least one of them. And she’s unapologetic about it. She doesn’t regret it. And that’s fine - but drop the hypocrisy in that case! You really can’t expect me to take the concern over her father possibly being a murderer seriously if she has killer tendencies herself that she expresses with full abandon. I’m fine with it. I can take a protagonist character with a violent/abusive streak. But what I can’t take is that same character being hypocritical. It doesn’t work with me. So in Season 2 please drop it! At least Sheila Hammond admitted and accepted she was a killer and embraced her ability to kill and not feel guilty for the literal skeletons in her closet. Wednesday is an attempted murderer and I know they play this side of her for the comedy,… but if they’re going to continue to do that, they do need to get rid of the holier than thou act because it’s not hitting. You cannot have double standards for every other protagonist character if the lead character is a killer. I don’t care if that’s the black humour of Wednesday. She is an attempted murderer and is unapologetic about it so she needs to quit the “don’t kill” crap.

#I think I have seen this film before… (insp)

[not-the-tie-youre-looking-for]

Something that's been bugging me for years since the Legends finale. If Zhan had been the writer for Rebels, do you think he would have had Thrawn bomb Lothal to bring Ezra out? On the one hand, from Legends Thrawn's portrayal I imagine he would without a second of hesitation. On the other, Canon Thrawn has been much more... restrained? And on a third point, there's the fact that Legends and Canon Thrawn seem like they really could be the same person just at different points of time. cnt in next

...I'm just curious if anyone else was curious if Zhan agreed with that direction taken. Which, on that note, did Zhan ever say anything about his thoughts on how Rebels handled Thrawn? Both from a writing standpoint as well as an acting and musical one (Thrawn's various leitmotifs)?

Oh man. Ohhhhhhhh maaaaan. My friend, you have asked exactly the right person this question, because not only have I wanted to talk about this multiple times before, but I also have ~receipts~. 👀

⚠️Spoiler warnings for Star Wars: Rebels, The Mandalorian, the canon Star Wars novels Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances, Thrawn: Treason, Thrawn Ascendency: Chaos Rising, and Thrawn Ascendency: Greater Good, and the legends Star Wars novels Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, and Outbound Flight.⚠️

Oh man. Where to begin.

Lets start with who Thrawn is, because depending on who you ask, you're gonna get different answers—whether you're strictly a Legends fan, Dave Filoni, a guy who's only seen Thrawn in Star Wars: Rebels, Timothy Zahn, or just a writer/artist fan like me.

To Timothy Zahn, the man behind our favorite chiss, Thrawn is a character that is constant in both attitude and personality throughout all of his content. In multiple interviews, ranging from Thrawn's debut in Rebels to the latest about the writing of the Ascendancy Trilogy, Zahn states that Thrawn in canon and Thrawn in Legends are indistinguishable.

And so I present the receipts:

In a 2017 interview with The Verge on writing the first canon Thrawn book Thrawn, Zahn is asked the following question and responds as such:

How do you navigate bringing back a character who already has an extensive backstory and audience expectations, with telling a new story that fits in the new continuity?

Actually, I didn’t find that to be a problem. I’d never written Thrawn in this part of the Star Wars timeline, so it was simply a matter of bringing him into the Empire and chronicling his rise through the ranks. It’s still the same character as in the 1990s books, just a decade or two younger and in a very different military and political environment.

In another interview with The Verge in 2018 (a few months after the finale of Rebels aired) about writing Thrawn: Alliances, he repeats this sentiment twice:

Thrawn feels like if it had been written before the canonization purge a couple of years ago, or if you squinted a bit, it would serve as a perfect setup for Heir to the Empire.

Oh, I don’t think you need to squint at all. I wrote him in these two books to fit in with everything else I’d done. So if someone at Lucasfilm snapped their fingers, and suddenly all of my other books were canon, and there would be no real retrofitting that would have to go in. It would all fit together.

Thrawn: Alliances feels more at home in the new canon, especially because Thrawn has been fleshed out a bit more in Rebels. Was there any adjustments for that?

Not really. I’m getting to play with more canon characters like Vader and Padmé and Anakin, but the character himself, I still see him as the same person. He’s got goals, and he won’t necessarily share them with you, but he as long as you’re going the same direction, he’s happy to cooperate and assist along the way.

...and this is referenced again in a 2020 interview with Polygon about writing Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising:

Along with Thrawn’s appearance in Rebels, Zahn would pen a new novel, Thrawn, that chronicled the character’s early days as an Imperial officer. Zahn didn’t have to change anything with the character, telling me in 2017 that “he’s like an old friend who I understand completely.” While Heir to the Empire was no longer canon, a reader could easily read Thrawn as a precursor to that classic novel. Thrawn went on to become a major presence in Rebels, and Zahn continued to explore his origins in Thrawn: Alliances and Thrawn: Treason.

The next day, an interview with IGN was published on the same subject:

Thrawn is an especially unique case because Zahn has been able to effectively continue the work he started way back in 1991 with Heir to the Empire. That novel may not be a part of official Star Wars lore any longer, but as Zahn explained, Thrawn himself is basically the same character regardless of continuity.

[....] The closest comparison between Chaos Rising and Zahn's earlier EU work is probably 2006's Outbound Flight, which is set during the Clone Wars and details the first encounter between Thrawn and the Galactic Republic (while also retroactively laying the groundwork for elements of Heir to the Empire). That novel is no longer canon, but Zahn told us he prefers to operate as if it were. He's making a concerted effort not to retread the same ground as Outbound Flight and to avoid contradicting the events of that novel as much as possible.

So yeah. In Zahn's opinion, Legends Thrawn is Canon Thrawn is Book Thrawn, and there is no difference whatsoever between Thrawns in, say, Outbound Flight, Heir to The Empire, Alliances, and Chaos Rising. I wholeheartedly disagree, but lets move on.

Now that the books are out of the way, its time for Rebels.

In July of 2016, after the trailer announcing Thrawn's canon debut aired, Dave Filoni had the following to say about Thrawn's character in regards to Timothy Zahn:

“I was pretty adamant with a couple of people saying, ‘Listen, we need to have Tim sign off on this. This is kind of a waste of time [otherwise],'” says Filoni. “We, of course, can do what we want with a character that Lucasfilm owns, but without Tim’s okay, what does it mean? That’s not going to be good. Once we had some stuff, we wanted to do what we thought was right and make the character. Then we brought him in. We had the production fully prepared. I said, ‘Look, if there’s something that Tim says that I think is really valuable, even if it changes something dynamically, we need to be ready for that and see what we can do.’ I wanted to make sure we did this right by everybody. We brought him in and we didn’t really tell him why. We just flew him up to Lucasfilm and sat him down in a theater and said, ‘Hey, we’re bringing Thrawn into the show.’ He was like, ‘Wow.’ and I said, ‘Yeah, wow. And I’m going to show him to you right now and you let me know what you think.'”

(Before we continue, keep that first highlighted sentence in mind for future reference. I'm going to come back to that later.)

Fortunately, Timothy Zahn was delighted at the show’s approach to the Empire’s imposing blue-skinned Chiss.

“We showed him some of the scenes with him,” Dave Filoni recalls. “He looked like a kid in a candy store. I think it meant a lot to him not just because it was his character, but because you have to imagine what he went through when it was announced that everything is Legends now, not Expanded Universe. I get that and I’ve always appreciated the work that goes into the Expanded Universe… For Tim, I think it was us saying, ‘No, no, no. We really like your character. We want him to be part of the real thing. The canon universe.'”

So in 2016, before we even saw Thrawn in action beyond a trailer, we were told that Zahn gave the OK, and he was chill with the way Thrawn was created in the show. In 2017, he gave a little more of the background of this process in an interview with FANgirl Blog:

The events of Thrawn dovetail closely with Rebels and shed light on some of Thrawn’s more seemingly surprising actions on the show, like when he appears to lose his temper and yell at Lieutenant Lyste. What was it like to see Thrawn come alive onscreen? Is he how you’ve pictured him in your head?

I don’t see my characters in terms of voice or appearance, but rather as personality or attitude. That said, I very much enjoyed the way the Rebels team brought him to life, in his appearance, voice, and actions.

I also appreciated the freedom I had to tweak certain incidents, such as the one you mentioned, and give additional or alternate explanations for the viewers who may have thought those were somewhat out of character for him.

He doesn't really elaborate on this, but we can assume he had SOME creative input on Thrawn's character, and he was overall pretty happy with the choices made in the show.

But then, we have this from that earlier 2017 the Verge article:

When did you learn that Dave Filoni was intending to bring Thrawn to Rebels, and did you have any input into how the character would be handled?

[...] I didn’t have any real input into how Thrawn was going to be handled, mainly because the lead time of an animated series is so long that much of season 3 had already been finished. But I trusted Dave and the team to do the character right. After all, why bring him into Rebels if you were going to drastically change him? Having seen the entire season now, I think we can agree that my trust was completely justified.

So... he didn't have "any real input," but was satisfied with it in the end? I guess? I don't know. We're getting into some contradictions now.

The last thing I've got in regards to Rebels is an interview Zahn did with the YouTube channel Star Wars Explained after the finale aired, where he responds to the following:

“So, maybe let's jump over to Rebels for a little bit. Now that it has wrapped up, how do you feel Thrawn was represented in Star Wars: Rebels?”

“They did a really good job—they not only understood the character and how to write for him, but they also understood the meta around how you defeat him. The only way to defeat Thrawn is to throw something at him he can't control, or can't anticipate. Given perfect knowledge and control, Thrawn will always find a way to win. But they understood, this is how you defeat him, these are the things we can use against him... so his portrayal in general, is very good; he's smart, he's anticipating, he's a step ahead of everybody, he's looking at clues and picking up on them, so I was very pleased with how the Rebels team handled the character."

I think these quotes answer many of your questions, so to answer your initial question: If Zhan had been the writer for Rebels, do I think he would have had Thrawn bomb Lothal to bring Ezra out?

Yes—but ONLY because at that point, the only established™️ Thrawn content was found in Legends, where Thrawn was a ruthless and calculating warlord.

However!

I do believe that if given the chance to re-write the Star Wars: Rebels finale using his now-canon novels as a solid background TODAY, Zahn would choose to not let Thrawn bombard Lothal's Capital City.

I believe this because he made one single very interesting creative choice when writing Thrawn that completely overwrote Thrawn's pre-established Rebels character: Thrawn was not responsible for the civilian deaths on Batonn—Pryce was.

And that's that on that.

A few months ago I would have ended it there, but today, Thrawn's story is no longer just contained in the novels and Rebels, but also in that of The Mandalorian.

This is where I will proudly say I have no idea what the fuck is going on. Before The Jedi aired, I was 100% sure that the next time we saw Thrawn, it would be nowhere NEAR the Empire, because Zahn was pretty adamant in the novels that Thrawn was only in the Empire to help. His. People.

So now he's apparently doing fuck-knows-what in fuck-knows-where and is STILL associated with the Seventh Fleet and Imperial Warlords???

Huh??? Despite the fact that he held no true loyalty to the Empire or to the Emperor??? It's been months and I'm still confused as fuck. Add to the fact that Zahn also doesn't know what the fuck is going on to the equation and we get a big fat question mark with one pretty clear answer that Filoni said himself that we have to keep in mind:

"We, of course, can do what we want with a character that Lucasfilm owns."

So I don't think Zahn has much control over Thrawn as we would all like to think. We can hope he gives us the crazy Thrawn and Ezra Space Adventure™️ novel all we want, but ultimately, Thrawn's fate does not rest in his hands.

If you guys have more to add please let me know!!! This is, obviously, a topic I am very passionate about, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[twin-books]

About that Adrien takes, I think you have some interesting perspectives. He definitely has a greater lack of focus than in season 1. But I personally interpreted that as part of his self finding arc and also saw it as quite realistic, since real life people can change vastly between situations and moods (and hunger lol). Unlike Alya, whose personality changes with the role she has to provide for Mari, I've felt with Adrien those changes were more autonomous. When did Adrien verbally bully Felix?

I'm going to admit that I tend to exaggerate a few things for humor's sake and don't really think about how that may not come across very well in type. So I really should have used better wording than "goes out of his way to verbally bully Felix". I think I should have said, "He verbally bullied Felix" which is not untrue and would still get my point across without accidentally misrepresenting Adrien's character. I'm very sorry for that. I probably should have thought that one through. But it would be the episode "Felix" where he kind of picks on Felix saying something about how he doesn't have friends and is a bit passive aggressive the entire time. Which I had no issue with because Felix was an absolute asshole. It's just the contradiction of the fact he would be mean to Felix almost immediately as Chat when Lila has also gone out of her way to ruin his life and it took him a few episodes to finally stand up to her and that was only purely for Marinette's sake. You're definitely right. Alya's personality almost always changes to suit the narrative though her goals tend to stay the same at the very least so I have a better handle on her character as compared to Adrien. It's easier to identify the faults in her character than it is for Adrien simply because there is something to hold on to. Alya always has the goals to help Marinette get with Adrien. To be a hero. To care for her boyfriend. These are pretty clear throughout her character even if they aren't represented all that great. I think that idea is a good take where people can change drastically in real life. I think that's pretty fair. I suppose my issue with Adrien is just how much he changes and how it feels less like a gradual shift down or up and more like this squiggly line that goes here and there. Of course, I don't expect Adrien to immediately solve an issue. Like all of a sudden one day he realizes self-sacrificing so much is unhealthy and goes "I won't do that" and then just stops. Obviously that would be completely unrealistic and would also send the wrong message to children. That once you recognize a mistake you will never make that mistake again. That's not a healthy way of thinking because you absolutely will. Healing and growing is not immediate and takes time and we need to allow for that time. The issue I tend to take with how he does things is just the general fact a recognition will occur "I like Kagami" and then things get worse where he continues to fawn over Ladybug despite liking Kagami and trying to reciprocate her feelings. And things do get worse before they get better. Failure is to be expected and I would not expect him to just immediately drop his feelings for Ladybug and focus on Kagami. But I would expect he would at least try to do better when recognizing a fault or try and act on something he recognizes in general. I would expect him to feel guilt for harboring feelings for Ladybug while either leading on Kagami or being in a relationship with Kagami. Or I would at least expect him to feel some guilt for up and abandoning her even when he is direly needed somewhere else. I would also expect him to be trying to devote more of his attention to Kagami and less to Ladybug which actively seeks out and spends a good half of Lies trying to get her to show up when he has a devoted girlfriend waiting for him. Problem is that I don't see him feeling guilty at any point for how he's clearly hurting Kagami even though Adrien's character has previously been shown to be rather empathetic/sympathetic. He doesn't express any remorse for how his actions effected Kagami besides maybe a little bit when she ended the relationship. My issue with how he is written is that I am given this expectation of how he would act based on previous narratives only to have the rug pulled out from under me once I find my footing. He suddenly changes and morphs and now I have nothing to stand on once more. It's rather confusing in that sense.

However, this isn't to demonize Adrien. I just don't have the energy to demonize fictional children. I don't have anything to gain from it and I would much rather see the kids get some love. But the writing doesn't make me feel like they're very loved. It feels very careless and like they thought of the ship and jokes first and then the characters were an afterthought. It makes it hard to relate to any of them. This is also coming from somebody who used to have a huge bias for Adrien. I used to relate to him quite a bit as someone who couldn't find their own voice and opinions and was rather dependent on others. But I tried to change and I felt bad when I hurt others. I'm still trying to change and I still feel bad when I hurt others. I lost my ability to relate to Adrien when it came to those episodes where he just felt like he stopped caring about others. I'm fine with the boy being selfish every once a while, especially considering his circumstances but most of the time his selfish moments feel very... heartless, I guess, for lack of a better term. However, you're very right, they did feel very autonomous... But perhaps that's partially the issue. Sometimes it feels like he deliberately decides to not care for others which is most likely not true but that's what it feels like to me, anyway.

Also yes, hunger changes people man. Just look at Fu and Tikki. Those guys are the epitome of those Snickers' commercials. XD

Thank you for your lovely ask. <3 Sorry for the misunderstanding with Felix. I hope your having a nice day, afternoon, evening, or whatever time it is where you are. <3

[justalittlelemony]

card symbolism and dream smp members

ok so with both c!wilbur and c!quackity having a card motif for their respective games (solitaire and poker), my little gremlin brain immediately tried to attach people to specific cards and their symbolism. i have filled the roles of kings, queens, jacks, aces, and jokers for all four suits and can defend every single one of my choices (although some are less defensible than others). also i am not familiar with every single card game under the sun, so my idea of which cards are more “powerful” than the others is based solely on the game of War, which i feel is pretty fitting for the dream smp (also i don’t know shit about poker).

Kings:

Eret, the King of Hearts

Philza, the King of Spades

Bad, the King of Diamonds

Ranboo, the King of Cloves

Kings appear to be the most powerful cards, but are not actually, being able to be taken by aces. In this way, kings can represent the illusion of power, but with a single weakness. Eret is the King of the Greater Dream SMP, but, as it was pointed out on November 16th, that power can easily be stripped away. Philza is the Angel of Death and along with Technoblade and Dream, completely demolished L’manberg on Doomsday. But Philza only has one canon life. Bad is the leader of the Eggpire, but he isn’t really the one in control, the Egg is. Ranboo seemingly has strong morals with his defining belief of “choosing people not sides,” however he is not fully in control of his actions and could be unknowingly assisting Dream.

Queens:

Niki, the Queen of Hearts

Puffy, the Queen of Spades

Hannah, the Queen of Diamonds

Tubbo, the Queen of Cloves

Look, I don’t really have that much of explanations for these other than 3/4s of them are female and therefore are queens. Tubbo is the only one that I have a real explanation for. Tubbo has been called a pawn by Dream, and yes I’m mixing my chess and card metaphors, but in chess, a pawn can be promoted if it makes its way to the other side of the board, usually becoming a queen, the most powerful piece in the game. Between his nukes and his relationships with Tommy and Ranboo, Tubbo has the potential or is already a power player on the server. While I don’t have great reasons for the choice of queen for the other three (other than being women), I can explain the choice in suits. Niki’s journey has been one filled with heartbreak: the loss of og L’manberg, Wilbur’s fall and eventual death, and the destruction of L’manberg, twice. Puffy, as of late, has been fighting for causes that she has seen as right and good: being one of the leaders of the pro-omelette resistance and being one of the few adults to try and help Tommy. I’ve kind of associated the diamond suit with the Blood Vines for the King and Jack, so Hannah is a good choice for the queen.

tldr: these explanations are weaker than most but these characters are important and i wanted to put them on here and this post has been sitting in my drafts for like a week

Jacks:

Fundy, the Jack of Hearts

Jack Manifold, the Jack of Spades

Antfrost, the Jack of Diamonds

Tommy, the Jack of Cloves

Jacks were the servants of the king in medieval times. The characters I have chosen as Jacks are people whose worth or purpose is often determined by how they are helping or affecting the people around them. I’m not super caught up on Fundy’s lore, but I know part of it in Season 1 was how Wilbur did not see him as his own person, but rather seeing him as more of a symbol or something to protect. Jack Manifold constantly feels used and belittled by Tommy, which is currently the driving force behind his arc. Antfrost’s main purpose in the story right now is to be the second-in-command to the Eggpire, to the point that we don’t even know why he joined. Within the context of the SMP, people only seem to have a positive opinion of Tommy when he is doing something for them. Any other time, he is seen as the cause of all problems on the server. 

Aces:

Sam, the Ace of Hearts

Wilbur, the Ace of Spades

Quackity, the Ace of Diamonds

Karl, the Ace of Cloves

Aces, despite having the number value of one, can take Kings, making them arguably the most powerful cards. Thus aces can symbolically mean characters who are overlooked or underestimated. Sam, until very recently, had not been considered a powerful person on the server. However, despite new breaks in his will, he holds a lot of power as the warden of the prison. Wilbur refused to wear armor and was not great at pvp, but he was able to found L’manberg and eventually destroyed it. Quackity is usually only seen as comic relief, but as proved with yesterday’s stream, he now has Dream scared of him. Karl had not had any major impact on the lore until fairly recently with his time traveling, but now that has the potential to be extremely important to the overall story.

Jokers:

Technoblade, the Red Joker

Dream, the Black Joker

Jokers don’t have suits and are used wild cards. Technoblade and Dream are the two pvp gods on the server and are not held back by a single narrative role. They can be an ally, victim, or villain and the opinions of other people on them vary greatly.

[teruthecreator]

okay. thoughts on the grad finale

gonna slap it under a readmore bc i’m Sure i’m gonna ramble. 

uh spoiler warning for the finale of taz graduation, as well as spoilers for the season in general.

also, these are my own thoughts of how the season went, what the themes were, etc! if you don’t agree with me, that’s fine! but i don’t wanna have a convo w you in the replies about it i’ll be honest. if you want to share your opinion so badly, make your own post, alright? that good? we cool?

aight. so. finale thoughts.

to make it short: i think the finale was a satisfying end of a very good arc. 

to expand upon that, let me share what i think the themes of graduation were and why the finale satisfies those themes. 

i made a post about this a while back (here it is if you want) but my honest belief was that the theme of graduation was self-reliance: the concept that you don’t allow yourself to be governed by forces that go against your own beliefs. this concept was coined by essayist ralph waldo emerson to talk about how the american people shouldn’t allow the government to create laws that go against the will of the people. now, understandably, this feels very anti-capitalist which is what i think a lot of fans believed was reflected through the season. 

but, in reality, self-reliance has more to do with being active in your government and making sure you’re being represented the way you want to be by your representatives. that’s sort of the vibe emerson was going for in his essay, and i think. in a sense? that translates to graduation. but i took self-reliance in the more metaphorical about breaking away from those things that are controlling you. which, in graduation, was A Lot Of Things. 

the way i saw it, there were two major groups that inflicted order upon the world and the thundermen--conveniently separated as order and chaos (not the deities though, just the concepts). 

the order half of control existed mostly through the school and the HOG. the HOG created the economic reliance on the heroes and villains system, which removed all literal meaning from those terms and turned them into bureaucratic titles. society existed under these very strict checks and balances; heroes and villains supplied money to the kingdom in terms of entertainment, which then boosted that kingdom’s creditability and allowed them to contribute more to nua’s economy, which then led heroes and villains to have a higher demand, thus perpetuating the cycle. it’s important to note that this term does not represent the sort of morality we expect for heroes and villains--hell, even the term “evil” turned into an arbitrary term used to show those heroes and villains who failed the system. this is the more prominent representation of control that the thundermen break away from in achieving their own self-reliance. they don’t see the value in a system that holds no real moral code (fitzroy Especially, but i’ll get into that in a bit), and can’t help the public when there’s actually a serious situation. as we saw with althea in the beginning, the HOG had no way to help the thundermen when they were dealing with the whole Demon Prince situation (as he had already placed some of his own people in there, proving these kind of systems are easily corruptible). so this wasn’t a system meant to Actually create heroes and villains--it was just a way of boosting the economy. 

the chaos half of control existed primarily through grey and Chaos. grey represented how chaos could be controlled, through various means. he planted that tree for the centaurs to fight over because he knew it would constantly create conflict, which he enjoyed. he kept the school under a watchful eye to prevent anyone from stepping out of line with his grand ideas, and used several manipulation tactics to try and get his way (most notably, his own admittance of grooming fitzroy into joining his side, which didn’t work). grey was the perfect example of how chaos does not automatically mean a lack of control. he was very controlling in how he did things because he had an endgoal: find hieronymous and have a war. but he didn’t even realize he was contributing to a greater idea, that being Chaos’s insistence on causing general disarray. as we realize now, Chaos’s plan was both for them and Order, but i’m leaving Order out for a second because they only really rear their head in towards the end. for the most part, audiences were led to assume that Chaos was the Big Bad(TM); they were the one pulling the strings, allowing things to happen to cause general chaos and disarray. them supplying random mortals with their endless power was a way to plant chaos into the world of nua; but it was a chaos they controlled. fitzroy resisting them was not simply a refusal to bend to Chaos, but it was resisting the control put on him through his magic. 

these systems were constricting the thundermen on both sides. when they thought they’d find help in one side, they were disappointed to find that there was nothing anyone could do. the only people who could fix their problems were...them. so they forged a new path, set new ideas, and became self-reliant. that’s what i think is the most important aspect of graduation; not the anti-capitalist implications of turning over the economic and political systems in place, but the idea that if nothing that is supposed to help you is actually helping that you can just...do your own thing! 

and i think that’s what the finale really shows, at the end of the day. that these forms of control were not doing anything helpful, and were in fact ruining the fabric of space-time! that’s where i think Order comes in because Order is really...the ultimate culmination of control. they are aware that Everything being done will benefit their cause. the HOG? well, they make sure everybody’s so incompetent that they can do their work. grey? well, he’ll contribute to the plan without even realizing it. they even manipulated Chaos and enacted their own form of control over Chaos to make sure that they had no reason to believe that this plan couldn’t go wrong. but Order knew. Order always knew there was a chance for error, and that chance was very great. but they didn’t care! so long as they had control of things, they could try a hundred times to get it right. they had no care for mortals, unlike Chaos. 

the thundermen showing Chaos the truth is the final jenga piece that collapses this tower of control. which is why the finale is so great. 

travis does a phenomenal job of incorporating chaos (general chaos) into the battle mechanics. it may be stupid and slightly arbitrary, but having them change forms randomly and having to adapt to those new circumstances really does exemplify the season!!! the thundermen were constantly forced into new situations (being sidekicks/henches, fitzroy becoming a villain, being let in on the heiro dog situation, the unbroken chain trial, joining forces w grey, etc.), and in all of them they simply found a way to adapt and keep working their way. which made the finale generally interesting and also thematically interesting! 

i think my favorite part of the entire fight scene is right at the end, when argo chucks the shark’s tooth necklace at Order. and time stops. and they’re given a choice. 

the fact that they leave it to a coin toss?? oh my god...how fucking FITTING!! like, that’s disorderly. that’s going your own way. it’s new, it’s terrifying, it has DIRE UNKNOWNS ON EITHER SIDE, but it’s what they do! and...it ends up working out! i think it would’ve worked out either way, but the fact that they left it up to chance really shows how they aren’t allowing anything to control their actions. 

AND THEN WE GET TO THE EPILOGUE. MY GOD I LOVE THE EPILOGUE I’M GONNA GO OFF SO MUCH. 

first off, i loved hearing how Nua adapts to losing this very significant form of government/economic contributor and turns to more people-based work. citizens uniting together, fixing things, making amends, THAT’S SELF-RELIANCE BABEY!!! THAT’S THE WHOLE EMERSON SHIT! HAVING A SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT THAT ACTUALLY HAS THE INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE AT LARGE!!! YEAHHHHHHHHH THAT’S THE WHOLE SELF-RELIANCE THING!

now, i’ll break it down by characters: 

fitzroy

GOD. LOVE IT. FIRST OFF, absolutely ADORED how his character arc involved him stripping himself of these self-assigned titles because he actually has an identity that is all his own and he doesn’t NEED arbitrary titles to prove his worth because HE HAS IT IN HIMSELF. not to self-plug or anything, but that’s ssoss!fitzroy’s WHOLE SHIT. I’VE ALREADY BEEN ON THIS TRAIN, BITCH, AND TO KNOW I GOT IT SO RIGHT...GOD. FEELS GOOD. 

but also, i just really enjoy how his ending went in general. the fact that he doesn’t really know what he wants to do, so he just...does stuff he likes to do? that’s so good! because, if you remember, fitzroy had a Very set schedule of life events when the campaign started. he was going to get his wiggenstaffs degree, go back knight school, get his knight school degree, and then go to goodcastle. but all of that was based on a very limited understanding of himself. 

fitzroy’s character arc has primarily focused finding himself, specifically in terms of identity. for someone who was bullied for his past, the present formation of himself was Extremely important to fitzroy. he thought that shutting out his past and taking on this grandiose title of knighthood would make him something more than himself. he would no longer be fitzroy; the poor, country kid trying to make it in a big world. he’d be Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt; respected, honored, revered, with a title to prove it. 

he explains to fauxronymous (pre-reveal grey) that the reason he wanted to be a knight was because he wanted to assist in doing good. morally good. fitzroy has Always had a very clear sense of his morality; this comes through when he refuses Chaos on the basis of many people having to die if he agreed. but being a knight also had the added of bonus of a very respectable title that no one would want to look beyond, which fitzroy felt he needed because...i don’t think he Saw anything beyond that. in himself. he wasn’t himself for a very long time, and i don’t know if he ever thought he would be again. he’d wear this new identity, start a new life, and be happier....he hoped. 

then, things changed! and he started to realize that arbitrary titles don’t do shit because plenty of people with Big Important Titles ended up being Awful People! so he started to value himself For Himself; his wit, his humor, his strength, his magical prowess. and, i think, he started to wonder what knighthood was Really about. was it about upholding a moral good? or was it just another bureaucracy filled with people who won’t do shit when things get bad. 

i think this is why him becoming a lawyer is fitting. especially because of the reasoning he gives sylvia nite. now for A LOT OF PEOPLE, i’m sure they hear lawyer and assume some corporate hotshot who doesn’t give a shit about people. but fitzroy is Not applying to be a corporate laywer. he SPECIFICALLY telsl sylvia that he wants to help people who cannot help themselves, and he wants to do good in that way. THAT kind of lawyer is more of the pro-bono, district lawyer. the ones that don’t make crazy amounts of cash, but help those who cannot afford lawyers and represent them when the government is fucking them over. those lawyers don’t rely on title, they rely on principle. 

that’s the perfect representation of fitzroy’s growth. holding his identity within himself, while still trying to do good by those who need it. 

firbolg (aka gary) 

i think the firbolg’s ending is so unique but so...right for him. his character arc has really been focused around finding his family. he had one, in the beginning, in his clan. but that didn’t end up, y’know...working out that much. so he had to go out into the world alone--something that firbolg’s are rarely--and try and navigate these foreign spaces all by himself. 

we see very early on how he latches onto the idea of groups. he likes being considered a part of the thundermen; he very much hoists himself upon the CFO title and wears it proudly. i think, where fitzroy needed to find identity within himself, the firbolg needed to find it within other people. which is completely okay! he’s still an individual, but you can tell he finds comfort in numbers because that’s what he is used to. 

him going back to his clan was, i believe, his finally severance with his identity as “firbolg”. he would never be welcomed back to his clan, and one of the few people in his life who supported him was now dead. but his father was proud of him; his father was happy he seemed to find his own clan, even if it wasn’t with other firbolgs. from that moment on, i think the firbolg begins to try finding himself within the thundermen. within his friends.

so his epilogue is neat! it definitely captures the loneliness he feels on his own, and how he feels lost with himself without others. i think it might seem silly to some that he would become a gary, but i think it’s fitting. the garys were always present in his time at school, and they were always helpful. they didn’t mind how long it took him to talk because the gary’s are stone gargoyles--what the fuck do they care about time? it was a group that the firbolg saw as familiar to him--always willing to help, slow, stony, and attuned to a larger group. 

and i think the way gary takes this idea of unity and family and puts it into financial assistance just...it just ties everything together! we saw how attached he got to the concept of finances, thanks to his very confusing accounting class. so he had all of this new knowledge--this knowledge that represented a separation from firbolgs--and this new clan. and he used it to help other clans and families!! i think the fact that the Garys financial advice works specifically with groups is what makes this so fitting. because gary wants families to feel stable within themselves; he understands how finances can create struggle and divides, and he wants to provide relief. 

giving financial advice to communities so they rely on themselves and not the government (aka inviting them to be controlled once more) is a VERY self-reliant concept. not that i think gary’s goal is to have no social networks to exist, but he wants to give communities the ability to rely on one another and foster that feeling of togetherness. so groups aren’t fighting over things, but are trusting and loving and relying. 

just like gary’s always wanted. and just like what he has with the thundermen.

argo 

argo’s ending is probably the funniest, but also the sweetest. i think that argo’s character arc revolved around finding his place. we see how argo’s early personality and motivations revolved around his past. he very much had a revenge story since the start; he wanted to enact revenge on the commodore for murdering his mother, no matter what it took. which made him very limited!! in terms of the self. he saw himself less for what he was now, and what he was then. and what he couldn’t do then. 

we see how much he finds comfort in being a part of the thundermen, but also how he feels...out of place. i think this is because a part of him is still attached to his past and doesn’t think he can do anything beyond his set plan. the unbroken chain certainly contributes to this, by not only separating him from the trio but also reinforcing his connection to his past through his mother’s involvement in the unbroken chain. 

the commodore also being a part of the unbroken chain is, i think, what causes the shift from past to present within argo. his life’s goal is standing right in front of him--attached to the group his mother once was a part of--with his friends at his side. letting the thundermen in on his history is the start of bridging these two halves of argo. and the fact that the thundermen are so willing to helps makes argo feel more a part of the team and more a part of this reality. 

when he kills the commodore, it isn’t intense. it isn’t overly dramatic (minus the fight prior, which was BADASS), it isn’t crazily staged. it is argo, staring down the commodore who lies prone on the ground. 

he kills himself unceremoniously and completes his life-long mission. 

what becomes of him in the epilogue is the culimination of both past and present. he takes what he knows and loves (the sea, the mariah, sailing) and blends it with what he’s come to love now (his friends, this adventure, and making people happy). there are SO many instances where argo uses performance to his advantage. this man is piloted by clint mcelroy, of COURSE he’s going to have a flair for the dramatic. 

so for him to open up a themed cruiseline, based on the stories of him and his friends? SO FITTING. and it isn’t forcing himself to leave his past behind or to completely ignore his present circumstances. because he’s found a place in the now, in the merging of these two sides. and by merging them, he paints a bright future for himself. a future that is partially known, partially not. partially old, partially new.

but it’s all his. 

after that, i think their final scene is just...sweet. a nice, jovial, joking send-off to a nice season. it proves these people have grown and will continue to grow, even when we no longer see their story. it does exactly what graduation does--shows you a struggle, a triumph, and a glimpse into the future. 

i’ll miss it so much, but there’s nothing more i could’ve asked of this ending. it was exactly what it needed to be; nothing more, nothing less. 

[f1]

F1 and FIA should step in to help W Series Hamilton | 2022 United States Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has called on Formula 1 and the FIA to help the struggling W Series after it cancelled the remaining races of its 2022 season. The junior championship for female racing drivers was due to support F1 at this weekend’s United States Grand Prix. However last week the championship announced it had cancelled the event and the planned double-header in Mexico due to financial problems. Hamilton, a passionate advocate for greater diversity in motorsport, was asked in yesterday’s FIA press conference at the Circuit of the Americas whether the sport’s governing body and F1 should help the championship continue. “100 per cent I do,” he said. “There has not been enough focus on women in sport the whole of Formula 1’s life, and there’s not enough emphasis on it now,” he said. “They’re not magnifying enough the great work that is being done there. There is not enough representation across the board, within the industry. And there’s not really a pathway for those young, amazing drivers to even get to Formula 1. W Series began in 2019 but was forced into hiatus the following year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It returned last season, supporting F1 for the first time, but cut short its third season this year. Jamie Chadwick won all three championships. Singapore appears to have been the last race for W Series Hamilton said the series is needed to help promote women racers. Over 30 years have passed since the last time a woman attempted to qualify for an F1 race. “You have some people who say we’re never going to see a female F1 driver ever,” said Hamilton. “So that’s not a good narrative to be putting out. “I think we need to be doing more, and with the organisation, with Formula 1 and Liberty doing so well it’s not a lot for them to be able to help out in that space.” The seven-times world champion founded the Hamilton Commission to examine why some groups are under-represented in motorsport and subsequently launched the Ignite charity in conjunction with his Mercedes team to promote diversity and inclusion in motorsport. “In the work I’m trying to do with Mercedes for example, we’re trying to get like 8,000 young girls into the sport,” he said. “But every team should be doing that.” Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free 2022 United States Grand Prix Browse all 2022 United States Grand Prix articles via RaceFans - Independent Motorsport Coverage https://www.racefans.net/

[undead-moth]

@sadsock Alright. So it has been a long time now since you sent this ask and I don't even know if you're still interested. I am not exaggerating when I say this is pretty much the soonest I could possibly elaborate on this ask though.

I'm also gonna say in advance that I really doubt I'm adding anything you haven't seen elsewhere before. There are a lot of other people analyzing and writing about what makes it clear Syd and Carmy are intended to be romantic. But in any case, here goes:

Season 1:

Ep 1:

Carmy and Sydney meet, and the camera lingers unnecessarily, creating emphasis on the moment, as they both look at each other for the first time. It is clear that their meeting has a greater significance than Sydney meeting other characters, and we didn't even get to see Carmy meet other characters. The show begins on the day Syd arrives at The Beef - not when Carmy arrives.

Ep 5:

There's a scene with only Sydney and Carmy as "Impossible Germany," a love song, plays. The lyrics that play over the scene between them are: "This is what love is for / to be out of place / gorgeous and alone / face to face / with no larger problems"

Ep 8:

Sydney says that the best meal she ever had was one of Carmy's.

Carmy looks at Tina in her blue apron and says, "You look like Syd." This stands out firstly because a blue apron alone doesn't make Tina look anything like Syd, but also because everyone at The Beef wears a blue apron. This demonstrates that Sydney is on Carmy's mind.

Whereas Marcus returns to The Beef on his own, Carmy reaches out to Syd. He reaches out to her directly before reading the letter left behind by Michael. That letter has enormous narrative significance this season, and to purposefully pair it with Carmy apologizing to Sydney indicates that Carmy reaching out to Sydney has the same significance. The letter is not just enormously significant on a narrative level - it is enormously significant to Carmy. It includes his dead brother's final words to him. In real life, it wouldn't be strange if reading that letter was one of the most emotional and impactful moment's of a person's life - and it is purposefully paired with what Carmy believes may be his own last words to Sydney, since he doesn't know if Sydney will return. The fact that Sydney was even on his mind at all after finding out about that letter, when Carmy previously believed Michael left nothing behind, says a lot about how much Sydney means to Carmy. I'd also like to point out that this scene takes place directly after the fire Carmy didn't put out, which was alluded to all season, and is a representation of Carmy's inner turmoil, and his desire to get rid of it. The others have to put the fire out for him, metaphorically forcing him to accept his current situation, and his next action is to open the letter from Michael, and apologize to Syd - the two things currently causing him the most inner turmoil, and that he needs the most relief from. Sydney is narratively as important as Carmy grappling with his brother's death, and with his new life at The Beef. Finding the money to save their restaurant coincides with Sydney's return - again, putting Carmy's future as a chef at his brother's restaurant on par narratively with Sydney. These are Carmy's two character motivations. They represent the destination Carmy is driving toward. In this same scene, Carmy and Sydney already know exactly what they are going to do with the money without having to ask or explain. Carmy says, "Family style," and the two go back in forth, in mental synchronicity. They aren’t just offering ideas, or spit-balling and happening to agree – they already have the same exact vision for the restaurant. Everyone there is going to work at this restaurant and be part of it. Arguably, it would make more sense for Carmy to be planning this restaurant with Richie, or at least someone who has been there since the beginning – but he is planning it with Syd, without even needing to ask her, and without asking any of the others for their opinion either. They work in tandem in a way no two other characters on the show do, and this continues throughout the show.

Season 2:

Ep 1:

Opens with different shots of different characters. With the exception of the dishwashers, who aren’t even present enough to be side characters, everyone’s first appearance this season is alone – except for Carmy and Syd. First the camera zooms out from Carmy, then reveals Syd is standing next to him.

At the end of the episode, everyone at the restaurant decides to go home early one evening when they think there's nothing more to do. Carmy and Syd are the last to leave, and there's a scene of them at the lockers, grabbing their stuff. They turn around and face each other, and then there's what I'm calling the "Uhh...you're free...and I'm free...should we...?" trope in which two characters who have a thing going on but haven't actually established anything both realize they have the opportunity to spend more time together for no other reason to enjoy one another's company, and both of them hesitate to offer because they don't know if the other person wants to, or if they even want to, for that matter. There's a loaded silence between them as they look at each other, and they both ask, "What are you gonna...?" trailing off at the end and they both say they don't know

Ep 2:

In this episode Sydney goes to Carmy's place. Her tells her that if she wants a star, she's going to have to “Care about everything – more than anything.” (The importance of him saying this doesn't come full-circle until season 3.)

This same scene begins the association between Sydney and light, and warmth. Sydney is often placed in natural, warm lighting and is often in scenes with warm colors, usually yellow.

They introduce the sign language in this episode. The main significance this has is that it's a gesture only Carmy and Syd participate in.

At the end of this episode, Claire is introduced. We are shown her reflection in the glass of the freezer door before we are shown her. In film, reflections (as well as first appearances with characters on the other side of a veil or glass) are used to convey falseness, unreality, insincerity - basically they are used to metaphorically say, "Something here isn't right." Additionally, this scene begins the association between Claire and coldness and darkness. Claire is often placed in cold, sterile environments with dim lighting or outright darkness. Virtually always, if she is cast in light, it is artificial lighting. Her first appearance on the show takes place in the freezer aisle of the grocery, at night, under artificial lighting. She's associated with cool colors, like blue. This creates contrast with Sydney, who is warmth and light, and indicates to us that Claire is her narrative foil. Given that Claire is Carmy's first love interest on the show, that indicates a romantic intent between Carmy and Sydney as well. Carmy initially gives her a fake number, also indicating to us that something about Claire is off.

Ep 3:

As Sydney mentions sending Marcus somewhere, Carmy is already right there with her. He says the exact place that Sydney has in mind to send Marcus without her needing to ask or prompt. It's the same synchronicity.

Sydney and Carmy are back at Carmy's place. Sunlight is streaming through the window behind them. They're cooking with a yellow sauce. Carmy has a yellow pencil behind his ear, and Sydney has a hand towel thrown over her shoulder which has a yellow stripe. In the background there's a yellow bowl, a yellow bottle of some kind, and a yellow sponge.

There's a phone call between Carmy and Claire. In the scene, Claire is in a dimly lit room that's painted blue, with metal lockers and what looks like a metal water dispenser, or maybe a metal expresso machine. The environment is sterile and cold in appearance. Her scrubs are also a cold teal.

There's the, "I promised I'd show up, but something came up," trope, which in movies is usually used to highlight when a character is losing sight of what's most important. Carmy and Sydney initially intended to meet at Kasama (which means "Together" in Tagalog. It's also a restaurant that in real life is run by a husband and wife). This meeting was Carmy's idea, and this restaurant was Carmy's choice. Narratively this represents "what's most important" in Carmy's life, and what he's losing sight of, and who he's supposed to be "together" with.

Ep 5:

The episode begins with a scene between Syd and Tina. Sydney is wearing yellow. They're also cooking with a yellow sauce.

Carmy and Claire go on a drive to drop off a letter. It's a rare scene in which Claire is in natural lighting, however it is very gray out, and it is wintertime, so they are wearing cold-weather clothing and it looks cold. There are raindrops/snowflakes on Claire's driver-side window but there aren't on Carmy's passenger side window. Obviously, the post office is full of cold metal lockers, and the lockers are also blue.

Sydney and Sugar sit down at a dining table. Behind Sydney are windows through which natural sunlight filters through. The light is warm and the colors are sepia-toned. This is when Sugar tells Sydney that Carmy is with Claire, who is yet again making him lose sight of what's most important, and Sydney asks, "Who's Claire?" The screen immediately cuts to black for a full three seconds. This places a lot of emphasis on Sydney's reaction to learning Carmy has been seeing someone, which indicates its significance to us.

Carmy and Claire go to a party. This is one of the only times the lighting Claire is in is warm, however it is also very dim.

When they return to the restaurant, Carmy introduces Claire to everyone. Sydney (and a couple others) are standing in front of a tarp that is warmly lit from the other side. When the camera returns to Claire, she's in artificial lighting exclusively, and when the Camera zooms in on her, the backdrop is gray and dark.

Carmy and Claire have their first kiss. Again, artificially lighting. The artificial light in this case is visually part of the background, in the form of incandescent lightbulbs. Claire is standing in front of the freezer.

Ep 8:

We see Claire at Carmy's. Carmy is sitting on his counter near his kitchen window. Sunlight is shining through the kitchen window, but is only illuminating Carmy. Claire is still in dim lighting, and with an unlit background. There's a blue bottle of tums in the background, blue dish soap, and Carmy is wearing a blue shirt. This is when Carmy tells Claire that he's waiting for the other shoe to drop - something we're waiting for too, and something that has been hinted at since we were introduced to Claire's character via her reflection. The other shoe was always going to drop.

In the kitchen, everything is dim, cold and sterile, but Sydney and Carmy have a conversation standing under the only warm source of lighting from a hanging lamp which, in my opinion, looks entirely out of place in comparison to the kitchen. The lighting is not white and artificial or incandescent in appearance. At the same time, Carmy and Sydney get in a minor spat over Carmy sharing the menu with Claire and taking input from Claire on the menu. This menu is something they've created together, it's both of their creation, it is a representation of their partnership and their shared dream of this restaurant. In-universe, Sydney's frustration could be solely with Carmy making what, for lack of a better term, is a business dealing with someone else, and doesn't necessarily indicate anything more - however, narratively, given what this menu represents, I think it's fair to say that Sydney's frustration and feelings of betrayal here metaphorically represent something more than feeling slighted by a business partner making business decisions with someone else. It's a metaphor for jealousy, even if that arguably isn't what Sydney is actually feeling in the universe at this moment.

At the end, scenes flash between Carmy making dinner for Claire, Claire, and Sydney. "Throw Your Arms Around Me," is playing, which is a love song. The lyrics we get are, "I have dreamed of you in the daytime / And I have watched you in your sleep / I met you in high places / Touched your head and touched your feet / And though I disappear from out of view / You know I'll never say goodbye / And now I try to forget it /You will make me call your name / As I shout to the blue, summer sky / And we may never meet again" I've bolded the lyrics I think are the most relevant. The last few episodes of the season have drawn our attention to the fact that Carmy is "disappearing from out of view" for Sydney. That's not true with Claire. Also, despite this being possibly the most romantic scene between Carmy and Claire, where Carmy has made Claire dinner, directly after calling her his girlfriend for the first time, and there's a love song playing, we are getting flashes of Sydney. She isn't doing anything of importance - nothing we need to know for plot purposes is happening. The only real reason to include her is to indicate that she is tied to Carmy's relationship with Claire. The effect of this ends up being that Claire feels wedged between Carmy and Sydney, which is exactly what she is. We're not allowed to forget about Sydney and get lost in the moment with Carmy. We're forced to keep our eyes on what's most important and remember what Carmy is losing sight of.

Ep 9:

The episode opens with an intimate scene between Carmy and Claire. It takes place in darkness, with only atmospheric blue lighting to allow us to see what is happening.

Carmy is having a panic attack. "Strange Currencies," a love song, is playing, but it's skipping as Carmy thinks about the same intimate moment he shared with Claire in the opening scene. There are static sounds and the singing sounds slurred or warped. Then Sydney appears on screen, specifically Carmy's first time meeting her, and the first time he spoke to her. Immediately the music stops skipping, the singing becomes clear and is no longer warped. Carmy is thinking of when Sydney told him what an excellent chef he is. Thoughts of her calm him down, and his panic attack ends.

When Carmy finally goes to call the fridge guy, it's a call from Claire that distracts him. His relationship with Claire is literally intervening with one of Carmy's two character motivations - running a successful restaurant. Claire is meant to be a wedge between Carmy and what Carmy wants most, and she is narratively inseparable from failure.

The table scene. Sydney is cast in golden, warm natural light. The colors on screen are warm and sepia-toned too. The scene begins with Sydney sitting upright, and Carmy lying down, with Sydney looking down on Carmy as Carmy apologizes about sharing the menu with Claire. Sydney feels the needs to reassure Carmy she wasn't being jealous - something a person usually doesn't need to do if they're not jealous, and more importantly, if there's nothing to be jealous about. Carmy and Sydney switch positions. Now Sydney is lying on her back, and Carmy is sitting upright, looking down on her. The natural light in the background is blinding, and Sydney and Carmy are all but glowing. Carmy tells her that he couldn't do this without her, and that he "wouldn't even want to do it without her." Then he says, "You know - you make me better at this." Sydney says the same. "Come Back" by Pearl Jam is playing, a love song. I won't even quote any of it because literally all of it is applicable to Syd and Carmy, and all of it suggests romance. The camera zooms in on them as Sydney talks, and Carmy is looking at her with a deeply evocative expression. When Sydney looks up, and there's the "We just realized this is a heavy and intimate moment that maybe revealed a little too much about how feel for each other - quick find an excuse to do something else" trope. Carmy looks away, and immediately finds an excuse to get out from under the table with Sydney, and Sydney is a little too eager to do it. This scene is one of the most emotionally intense, warm, and meaningful moments between them. They express their fears, their commitment to one another, and their most meaningful perceptions of one another, all while a love song plays and they're glowing, and the Camera is focused solely on them, and zooming closer. I don't know how anyone can watch this scene and not interpret it as romantic.

Then Carmy gifts her with her very first's chef jacket with her initials embroidered on it. Obviously friends can buy one another gifts, and this gift is also deeply relevant to their business. But given earlier this season it was brought to our attention that Carmy doesn't really think much of his jacket, and he's kind of amused by Syd's fascination with it, I think the thoughtfulness behind buy her this gift carries more weight. It's a gift she'll treasure, and it's her first chef jacket like it, and it's also not as though she needed it for the job.

Ep 10:

The freezer in this season is the fire from the first season. It represents Carmy's inner turmoil, what he wants to avoid, what he wants to get rid of. Not only is Claire tied to coldness and cool colors and darkness and quite literally freezers, their relationship ends in this episode, while Carmy is trapped in the freezer. Claire hears what Carmy is saying inside the freezer, and it's over. It represents that she was never right for him, that she could never handle the real him, and the trauma he comes with. Her proximity to coldness and freezers is also indicates that she is part of the problem. She is a contributing factor to Carmy's inner turmoil. Carmy thinks he wants the perfectionism and materialism and excellence he associates with the kitchen where he was abused, and he thinks he wants Claire. Neither are his true character motivations, and neither will offer him the peace he seeks. His true character motivations are running a restaurant more like Chef Tery's, where there's room for magic, nourishment, and imperfection, as well as Sydney, of course, who has seen who Carmy really is and can handle it.

Season 3:

Ep 1:

The first real scene, present-day scene we get in this episode is between Syd and Carmy, in which Carmy is apologizing to Sydney. One of the themes of this season is apologies, and it's brought to our attention over and over that Carmy can't bring himself to apologize to Claire, and the season ends without him ever apologizing to her. But the season literally begins, first thing, with Carmy apologizing to Sydney. Claire continues to be Sydney's narrative foil, and she is who we are meant to compare Sydney to. The fact that Carmy can apologize to Sydney but not Claire is significant. It could be argued that Carmy's inability to apologize to Claire is as suggestive of romance as his ability to apologize to Sydney - after all people generally have an easier time apologizing when the stakes are lower, and to people they have not harmed as deeply. However, I would argue that given apologies are a theme this season, and specifically this story is about one character's struggle with his mental health, and learning to be mentally healthy, and being able to apologize is healthy for Carmy, that it's more significant in this specific circumstance that he is able to apologize to Sydney. It indicates she means more, that he is able to make himself do the healthy thing for her, and not for Claire.

We learn the significance of Sydney's favorite dish. The fact that Sydney's favorite dish was one of Carmy's already meant a lot, but now we know that this dish firstly included a heart-shaped food, and secondly included a sauce made from the only fruit associate with blood. It is Carmy's original dish. The NYC head chef initially makes Carmy change the dish to include fennel instead of the blood orange sauce, and he tells Carmy that it's going to be his and not Carmy's dish. But Sydney gets the version of the dish with blood orange sauce, and she knows it as Carmy's dish. In order for this to happen, Carmy first had to lie about a fennel allergy to justifying substituting it with his sauce, and he had to do something to ensure that when that dish got to the person who ordered it (Syd) that they knew it was his dish, and not the NYC head chef's. As far as we know, this is the only time Carmy ever sent out his version of the dish with his name attached to it, and it's his bleeding heart, and it goes to Sydney. She is the only person who has ever eaten that dish, and it's his bleeding heart, and it was her favorite. It is likely what inspired her to apply at The Beef. She knew Carmy was working there, and she sought him out, undoubtedly because she wanted to learn from and work under the person who had made her favorite dish. The fact that this is also the dish Carmy took back from his abuser, the person who has instilled him with the most trauma, and reclaimed the dish as it was meant to be, as it was intended to be, as truly his, and it goes to Sydney is an incredible clever, extremely clear symbol of romance between Carmy and Sydney, and more than that the meaning of it just becomes deeper and deeper the more you think about how much was put into this specific plot point. It wasn't enough that Carmy made her favorite dish. It wasn't enough that it was heart-shaped. It wasn't enough that it was bleeding. It wasn't enough that it was how he intended for the dish to be and was told not to make it. It wasn't enough that Sydney was the only person that ever got this dish. It also had to be something that Carmy very purposefully made happen, by manufacturing a fennel allergy, and by attaching his name to it, as an act of defiance against the symbol of his trauma, and it's the dish that inspires Sydney to go to Carmy - she loved his bleeding hear that much. Just, incredible that anyone thought of all of that. I could go on about it forever.

Ep 3:

As Marcus is eulogizing his mom, the camera goes to Carmy and pans slowly to Sydney as the words, "Like, we really had to pay attention to each other. And look really closely at each other." During this scene, as the camera takes turns flicking between Marcus and the others, it only ever lands on one person at a time, or showing someone closer and someone else in the pews behind, except for this moment where it lands on Carmy and Sydney. They're the only two that are shown together as the Camera very slowly shifts from one to the other.

Sydney makes the margins wider on Carmy's non-negotiables even though she doesn't like the non-negotiables. Right now, the non-negotiables are how Carmy is trying to cope with his trauma, how he's trying to tame it, and this is a representation of Sydney not only accepting that, but even making that same coping mechanism even more comforting to Carmy. (Actually I'm not sure it was the non-negotiables, or just the slips they use to keep track of orders. Either way, I think it has the same meaning, more or less.)

Ep 4:

Sydney runs into chef Adam. While Claire is Sydney's narrative foil, Adam is Carmy's. We are meant to compare Claire to Sydney, and we are meant to compare Carmy to Adam. In this season, Adam gives Sydney everything she wants (the same way Claire gave Carmy everything he wants) but it comes with (the same) shallowness and sense of foreboding as Adam cheekily mentions that he stopped by The Bear and Sydney is confused because she feels like she should have known that. In the same interaction Adam pokes at Carmy even as he's very complimentary toward Sydney.

Ep 7:

In the beginning of this episode we have a montage of flashbacks between Carmy and Sydney specifically, while, "No Machine," a love song, plays over. The montage begins with the a scene of Carmy looking at the restaurant, followed by Sydney looking in the mirror, and the lyrics that are close-captioned and also the most audible are, "I don't know what I'd do / Don't know what I'd do without you / Don't know where I'd go / Don't know where I'd go without you." Given that Sydney is contemplating how she feels about working at The Bear, these lyrics are particularly relevant to them.

Sydney meets with Adam. He offers her a job, the same job she currently has at The Bear. An equal partnership, just like she has with Carmy. When Sydney asks him, "What's like, the vibe that - that you're thinking of?" Adam responds, "Whatever you want it to be." This is important because right now Sydney feels like she's not being heard at The Bear, and like what she wants is not as important to Carmy. He's changing the menu and making decisions without her, despite her being his partner. But this is a pretty absurd no-strings-attached one-of-a-kind offer, one that Sydney questions right away - there's a very clear sense of, "This is too good to be true," and it mirrors Carmy's, "waiting for the other shoe to drop," feeling from season 2. It's, on paper, what Sydney wants most and yet something is off just like something was off with Claire. We're meant to be thinking that Sydney thinks Adam will offer her and be the way she wishes Carmy was, and if we look at this season alone, we have no reason to doubt that Adam is what Carmy is supposed to be - but we saw Adam in season 2. We only saw him a few seconds, and we saw him angry, and yelling, and insulting the server training Richie during the episode "Forks." Audiences probably aren't remembering that this season, especially if they didn't rewatch season 2 before season 3, and a year has passed. I know I didn't remember it until I rewatched it - but technically, we have already been shown that Adam is not better than Carmy. That he comes with the same toxicity that Carmy does. And if we realize this, we might begin to question, why is Adam starting so completely over? Why does he want to do this so quickly? Why doesn't any of his old staff appear to still be working for him? We can possibly connect dots that Syd has no means to connect herself - Adam is bad news. Even if Carmy has his own toxicity, we know with Carmy firstly that his reason for being so toxic is because of trauma, and is something he wants to work on, and we also know he isn't like that by default, and that he doesn't want to continue to be like that. Even if he's also toxic - is he not still clearly better than Adam? Especially since neither the audience nor Syd have the same attachment or history with Adam? Again, this is meant to cause a foreboding feeling, and we're meant to compare Carmy to Adam, and this is meant to make us hope Sydney will stay, and root against Adam. And it's also meant to make us realize that Carmy is right for Syd, no matter the baggage he comes with.

Ep 9:

This season's table scene. Carmy and Sydney are on opposite sides of the table. Sydney is wearing her black and white-polka-dot bandana, which she's already worn prior this season. Carmy is plating a dish with a black and white-polka-dot sauce. Chef Tery was also wearing a black and white-polka-dot bandana this season. I've already made a post about this before, and my own personal interpretation, which is that the sauce Carmy is looking at is broken and is meant to represent his trauma getting to him and making him lose sight of his two greatest character motivations which are a career like Chef Tery's at his own restaurant, and a romantic relationship with Sydney. There are a number of other interpretations of the sauce and how it relates to Sydney, but one thing I think is clear is that it does relate to Sydney, and it also stands to reason that since Chef Tery wore the same bandana, it also relates to Chef Tery. The way I see this is, even if my own interpretation is not the "right" interpretation, this is another instance of Carmy's relationship with Sydney being on equal footing with Carmy's only other character motivation. Sydney is as much his story's destination as his career as a chef. Over and over the show comes back to these two motivations for Carmy.

We have another series of scenes going back and forth between Carmy and Sydney as "Blowing kisses," a love song, plays. It's another song that so thoroughly speaks to everything about them that there's no point writing out all the lyrics.

At the end of this episode we see Carmy getting ready for the funeral dinner at ever. It has a very "nervous before a first date" vibe, and like Sydney's reaction to finding out Carmy made menu decisions with Claire, in-universe, this doesn't necessarily "mean" anything. I don't think Carmy sees this as a date, I don't think he has first date nerves, or anything like that. I don't even think he's thinking about Sydney, and is mostly preoccupied with who will be at the funeral dinner and what it means that this restaurant specifically is closing. But in terms of analyzing this as a writing choice, the allusion to looking yourself over one last time before a first date is definitely there. When Carmy walks away, the camera turns and zooms in on a close-up of a scrunchie, and a card we associate with Michael's funeral. It's been confirmed that the scrunchie is worn by Syd in prior episodes, and so once again, we have Carmy's relationship with Sydney side-by-side, and holding equal importance, to Carmy's only other character motivation - turning the restaurant he inherited from his brother who killed himself into a restaurant and having a successful career as a fulfilled chef.

Ep 10:

We begin with a flashback to a time one of Carmy's mentor's teaches Carmy how to remove the wishbone from a chicken, and asks Carmy "Why do cooks cook?" which is the overarching theme of the show, and also one of the things Carmy lost sight of this season. Sydney has a tattoo of a wishbone on her back. Obviously the symbol of the wishbone - literally just wishing, but in this case perhaps more specifically wishing on a "dream" - is playing a role here, and its directly connected to both Carmy's future as a chef who understands the importance of nourishing others (in this very scene) and connected to Sydney by way of her tattoo. Two character motivations of equal importance, always going hand-in-hand. From what I can tell - though I may be wrong about this - Carmy doesn't remove the wishbone the way he was just taught. He removes it without using a knife, and much more quickly than the chef who just showed him how. Then he places the wishbone with a lot of care. I think this is symbolic too, of how he needs to approach his two motivations, and how fragile they are, and how much gentleness they need.

A couple of more notes:

I mentioned that in season 2, Carmy told Sydney that if she wanted a star, she would have to, “Care about everything – more than anything.” There are several reasons Carmy is behaving the way he is in season 3, the biggest being that he's a traumatized person acting traumatized. He's just been put in the same environment that initially traumatized him so much, and at a point in his life when he's already mentally unstable - his brother just killed himself, he just lost Claire, he's hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, he's even quit smoking. That's the reason he's behaving the way he is first and foremost - but he's also behaving this way because he knows that all the others are counting on him more than anyone else to ensure this restaurant succeeds, and everyone has their own stakes in it. This includes Sydney who's dream is to get a star. Carmy knows what it will take to get a star, and he also knows that he is the only one truly equipped to make that happen. Part of why Carmy is behaving the way he is this season is because he is caring about everything more than anything in order to get Syd her star.

I didn't include all of the parallels between Syd and Carmy. There are a lot, and they're spread out all over the place. But we have individual scenes with Carmy and Syd washing the floor, with them bandaging a cut on their fingers, with them driving to a lake and looking out on it wearing a hate, with them standing in the same alley in the same position - and more. I can't even name them all - but these parallels are another indicator of what these two mean to each other narratively, and parallels like this don't exist between Carmy and any other characters, or Sydney and any other characters.

That, I will say too, is part of the reason I read a lot of what I've listed here that could as easily be considered platonic as romantic instead - it only exists between Carmy and Syd. We don't see the same kind of writing choices being made to connect Carmy to anyone else, to connect Syd to anyone else, or frankly to connect any two other characters at all. These specific kinds of writing choices are exclusively made to convey Syd and Carmy's relationship.

Anyway. I'm sure I've missed stuff. There is honestly so much - and plenty I probably didn't even notice. I know there are many posts out there like this that cover stuff I haven't. But regardless, I think it's pretty indisputable that the way Carmy and Sydney's dynamic is written is meant to be interpreted as romantic.

Thank you again for asking.

I would love to read more about the themes and tropes and storytelling tools you notice the writers making use of when writing sydcarmy. I just love thinking about this show and reading other people’s takes especially when it’s people who appreciate good writing and aren’t just disappointed their ship didn’t jump on each other the first chance they got.

Hi. Thank you for your ask. I think there are stories in which it narratively makes sense for two characters to get together right away, or to get together with little development - it all just depends on what the structure of the narrative is, and what the writer's intentions are, and ultimately what the relationship is being used to say - but it wouldn't have made sense narratively to canonize SydCarmy this season based on the narrative structure The Bear is using. This is true whether you're looking at it from an in-universe point of view, or from an out-of-universe point of view.

In-universe: Carmy has just gone through a devastating breakup at the exact same time he has opened a restaurant. The trauma he endured with the NYC head chef has been refreshed in full. He's also quit smoking. He not only has all the usual pressures of starting a new restaurant on his back, but he also already owes Cicero so much money. He is Syd's boss, and her idol, making their relationship somewhat unbalanced. I don't think someone in this situation in real life would be jumping into a new relationship with someone they work with every day.

Out-of-universe: The writers spent all of season 2 developing a romance between Carmy and Claire. This wasn't for no reason. If Carmy had shrugged off their breakup, not only would that have weakened the integrity of season 2, but if he had also gotten in a relationship with Syd right away, Carmy's relationship with Syd wouldn't have rung true. We would have a hard time believing that there's any real depth in his feelings for her, or any real meaning to their relationship, if he was able to get over Claire so quickly. Who's to say Syd isn't a rebound? Who's to say she'll be different?

His heartbreak also has a narrative purpose. Claire is a narrative foil to Syd. Claire represents Carmy's "dream girl," but she is not treated either by the narrative nor him as a person. She's more of an idea, and as a result, his love for her is based on a fantasy of her.

Carmy's heartbreak now is going to be useful for us to reference later when he is pursuing Syd. Based on the story structure, I believe he will face heartbreak with Syd before he enters a relationship with her, but regardless, we'll be able to compare how he looks at Syd to how he looked at Claire, and the difference will be stark when his heartbreak is for someone he sees and loves as a real person, and not as a fantasy. Without the ability to compare how Carmy is with Syd to how he was with Claire, it is more difficult to understand the significance of Carmy's love for Syd. That isn't to say there aren't ways - there are many - but I believe the way they chose was with Claire, and it's an extremely common way for writers to convey how a character feels for their intended love interest. First pair them with someone they think they want, and when that ends, pair them with the character they're actually intended for. Allow audiences to compare notes.

Anyway, I want to be able to offer you more, but I don't want to without rewatching the show. Only season 3 is fresh in my mind. I was already going to rewatch them anyway, and when I'm done, I'll add to this post and tag you.

Thanks again for asking.

[cheri-translates]

[CN] S2 Gavin and MC in Chapter 11 (Part One)

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers from Season 2 🍒

I’m focusing on the interactions between Gavin and MC, not the plot (because the latter requires extensive time and effort that I can’t spare). So the less essential parts are in bullet-point form :>

Phone calls: First l Second

To investigate an issue related to pathological changes in Evolvers, MC heads to a hospital to talk to the director (who is a genuinely kind man)

While they’re discussing the issue, the alarm suddenly goes off, and two Evolvers barge into the office and bring them to the main lobby

Cutting the drama short: Five Evolvers have taken everyone in the hospital hostage. They don’t have weapons, and are subduing everyone with their Evol. The person leading them is a 43-year-old man called Yang Ping, who has a compression Evol. This means he can exert pressure on surrounding objects at will, and can even destroy a person’s organs

Yang Ping releases the Evolvers, but MC decides to stay because she wants to figure out his plan

MC notices a little girl crying, so she controls her own trembling and comforts the girl:

Girl: T-they suddenly barged in! And they said all of us would become hostages... and that they wanted to negotiate with the STF!

A man without a left hand offers the girl a tissue (this fact sounds really random but it’d make sense later!)

MC tells the girl not to worry because her boyfriend the STF will never lose to someone who isn’t on the side of justice:

MC: As long as that person is around, STF will never cower, and will definitely protect everyone’s safety.

The STF arrives at the scene, and Yang Ping uses a row of doctors as a meat shield while he negotiates with the STF

Gavin is in complete Commander Mode™:

Gavin: Your actions have amounted to “endangering public safety”. Release the hostages right now, and the STF will take this into consideration for leniency in punishment.

The moment I hear Gavin’s voice, I finally heave a sigh of relief.

He seems to be standing among a small formation towards the front. Even though I can’t see his face clearly, I know he’s there.

At this moment, it’s as though all the fear is gently pried open by a gust of formless wind, and the leaves outside sway slightly.

As though it’s saying - Don’t be afraid. 

Yang Ping states that the recent series of Evolver assassinations and Evolvers going missing shows how they aren’t being protected sufficiently. He demands for the STF to promise to change the way Evolvers are managed, and to give them better privileges and protection. If the STF refuses, they’d start dealing with the hostages one by one

MC spots Gavin with his team, and thinks he can’t see her from where he is

The little girl starts crying again, and it annoys one of the kidnappers. MC is worried he’d harm the girl, so MC speaks up, admitting that she’s an Evolver and that she fully agrees with what Yang Ping said. She tries to reason that hurting a civilian would be ruining the entire plan because they’re the bargaining chips to negotiating with the STF. If any of the civilians were to be harmed, STF would never listen to their requests

The kidnapper recognises MC as a suspect of the assassination incidents, which makes MC think that there’s more to this kidnapping situation than merely waiting privileges and protection

After all, aside from a few people in STF, no one should know that she’s a suspect i.e. there might be a spy in STF PLEASE DON’T BE TANG CHAO LOL

-

Now, we switch to Gavin’s perspective of the same events

He has received surveillance footage of what's going on in the hospital, and is discussing the issue with Tang Chao and Eli while figuring out how best to get the hostages out...

All of a sudden, Gavin’s pupils widen slightly, eyes focused on one spot, and he freezes.

In the footage, after a stream of Evolvers have left, a girl remains at the same spot. She glances around her surroundings, then smiles as she says something to a little girl, and appears to be consoling the other party quietly.

At this moment, he feels as though his heart has stopped.

What’s she doing here?!

Gavin realises that his right hand is trembling. He clenches it into a tight fist, fingertips buried in his palm, silently turning white.

His mind is a complete blank. All he wants to do is rush in and bring the girl out safely.

Gavin closes his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. When he opens his eyes again, they are filled with an even colder aura.

The sound of his beating heart in his chest gets louder with each beat, as though questioning his forced facade of calmness.

He watches as MC talks to the kidnapper, and realises that MC is using this method to show that she has faith in him

At this point, a call from the “other side” tells him to give up on negotiations and rescue the hostages using force

But Gavin refuses because there’s still time to negotiate, the hostages would be put at great risk, and STF will only use force when truly necessary

The “other side” says it’s an order. So Gavin says that the STF will handle problems using its own ways and hangs up LOL

Tang Chao: Captain Gavin, no matter what you say, the Special Operations Team will only listen to your orders.

Eli: Same for the STF.

A chilly wind brushes the faces of everyone on the scene, but the trust and determination in their eyes remain resolute.

Eli: Also, we aren’t the only ones in this battle.

Gavin smiles, returning his gaze to the small figures in the footage. The girl is standing before the man firmly, reminiscent of a flower that can never be destroyed. 

Gavin: She’s always been very brave.

The smile on his lips is abruptly tucked away. Gavin leans in closer to the screen, and sees that the girl is being brought closer to the entrance by one of the kidnappers.

--Every nerve in his body tenses up once again.

-

And we return to MC’s perspective

As the negotiations progress, Yang Ping tells the kidnappers to bring all the doctors back inside, except one

MC figures out that all this time, the real objective of the kidnappers is to test the STF

Gavin steps forward:

Ever since Gavin and I parted ways at the STF the last time, I haven’t seen him again.

Even though I’ve been asked to report my activities to STF at regular timings, Gavin has been very busy during this period of time, and I haven’t seen him much.

Looking at Gavin in front of me, it seems as though everything else in the world are kept outside a screen, and I can only see his eyes.

His hair is a little fuzzy, but he still looks unstoppable. It’s just that while his eyes have always been determined, they now carry an almost imperceptible worry.

I smile, wanting to tell him that I'm fine. Gavin’s gaze lingers on my face of a few seconds. When he sees my smile, he blinks, then shifts his eyes to the man.

The man and Gavin exchange glances for a few seconds. The corners of his lips simply tug upwards, pushing me around five metres away from Gavin.

Even though it looks like I’m a supporter whom he has incited, I know that I’m just another hostage.

Yang Ping gives Gavin a choice - If Gavin pushes that one doctor out of the window, the kidnappers will release everyone in the hospital and will turn themselves in. But if he chooses to save the doctor, he’d blow up the entire hospital

Basically, the kidnappers are trying to stir hate towards STF because no matter which option he picks, it’s going to cause public uproar

Gavin is quick to point out that the kidnappers haven’t directly hurt any of the civilians. Because they are representing Evolvers, they can’t hurt anyone or it’d give all Evolvers a bad name

Gavin, who represents the STF, has to find a perfect way to resolve this matter - no one can die, even the kidnappers

What he says are actually hints on what MC should do

MC gets it  - she pretends to fall to the ground, and cuts her own arm with a dagger she’s hidden

The reason for this is because Yang Ping’s plan rests entirely on his status as “helping Evolvers”. If MC manages to show that Yang Ping would hurt Evolvers too, his plan would fail

While Yang Ping is shocked, Gavin rushes forward and flips Yang Ping onto the ground. The Special Operations Team rush out and arrest them using Evol-neutralising handcuffs

Gavin arrests Yang Ping:

Gavin: Evolvers and humans - neither will be sacrificed, including you. If you think there’s only a superficial peace and balance now, and that you can’t see normal civilians and Evolvers walking down a common path, just open your eyes and look. I’ll walk down that path.

It dawns on MC that she barely made it out of this situation alive, and she shivers. Then, she’s drawn into someone’s arms:

Lifting my head, I see that Gavin’s handsome eyebrows are scrunched up. His hand is holding bandages he took from the medics.

Gavin: You were supposed to pretend. Why did you actually cut yourself?

MC: Doesn't this have a greater impact? It’s more realistic.

He sighs slightly, holding my wounded arm gently and bandaging it meticulously.

Watching as Gavin leans over as he helps me with the bandage, the fear I had suppressed earlier suddenly pour out from my heart like a tidal wave.

MC: I won’t be this rash next time.

Gavin: There won’t be a next time.

When our eyes meet, I see the worry and earnestness in Gavin’s eyes. 

MC: Okay, there won’t be a next time.

Thinking that the matter has been settled, MC waves at the hospital’s director from afar, and he smiles at her

A red dot suddenly appears on his forehead, and Gavin tries to rush to the director... but he’s too late, and the director is shot by a sniper... T^T

MC is dumbfounded as she takes in everything that’s happening - shrill cries from the crowd, the STF members who are once again on guard, and the director on the ground

Gavin kneels behind the director. Perhaps if he made it a second earlier, he could have prevented this tragedy.

The STF uniform, which has always been white, is now dyed completely red. There are specks of blood on his face, and droplets of blood roll down the sides of his face slowly.

He kneels in place, and doesn’t turn back for a very long time. The hands at his side tremble slightly, and he quickly balls them into fists. 

After a long while, Gavin turns his head expressionlessly, looking at a shocked Yang Ping.

Yang Ping shakes his head repeatedly, muttering softly as he backs away.

Yang Ping: No... this isn’t right...

He stops backing away, as though something dawned on him. Then, he suddenly bursts out laughing.

Yang Ping: ...looks like the people from GRAY RHINO are even better.

In the next second, the sound of a gunshot once again fills the air.

Yang Ping is standing in position, and I watch as blood spatters from his temple.

His eyes are wide open, is in a daze for a moment before toppling to the ground.

Another patch of crimson spreads on the ground. Yang Ping’s twitches slightly, as though saying something, yet no sound comes out.

His eyes remain open till the end, staring at Gavin.

I’m in a state of shock as I take everything in, and feel unsteady on my feet.

An incredibly icy aura exudes from Gavin’s body. He stands up slowly, like a silent volcano.

Gavin: Who was it... who fired the gun?!!

I seem to hear something which had been crumbling finally caving in.

-

MC gets home somehow and falls asleep LOL same

At the STF office, the Special Operations Team are gathered and there’s a really heavy atmosphere in the air

Tang Chao verifies that the bullet that shot Yang Ping wasn’t from the STF’s sniping team. Another member pipes up and adds that even so, it belongs to STF

Gavin asks for further details, but another officer reports that there are no leads. There’s a possibility that an Evolver did it

Gavin orders them to investigate properly

And sounds really fierce (つω`｡)

Afterwards, Gavin walks along the street and some random man without a left hand steps out of an alley and greets him with: “Captain Gavin, this is the first time we’re meeting.”

-

By the time I’m roused awake from the heavy downpour, it’s already late at night.

With a sigh, I get up from the sofa and decide to draw the curtains. 

Large droplets of rain continuously pelt onto the ground. I stare outside the window in a daze. When my eyes focus, I see a familiar figure downstairs.

MC: ...Gavin?

Taking an umbrella, I rush downstairs. Gavin’s profile enters my vision -- and my heart is tugged.

I have no idea how long he’s been standing in the rain, and his entire self seems to be soaked in it.

The rain has soaked his entire body. Drenched hair sticks to the sides of his face, water droplets continuously sliding off his chin.

The STF uniform is in a mess, sticking to his body. The organisation’s emblem on his chest has been washed till it has lost its metal shine. 

I step out of the apartment building slowly, rain pouring down.

I suddenly recall the night he spent accompanying me in the rain a very long time ago.

--it’s as though he’s lost his drive, removed all his defences, and it gives one heartache and sadness.

I have no idea why Gavin is standing here right now, but across the curtain of rain, I seem to once again see that careful heart.

Gavin seems a little surprised by my appearance. His unfocused pupils constrict slightly, and his shoulders tremble imperceptibly.

Gavin: ...why aren’t you asleep?

MC: ...if I were asleep, were you planning to stand in the rain for an entire night?

I walk over slowly, lifting the transparent umbrella over our heads. Rainwater patters against the surface of the umbrella, becoming the only sound in this silence. 

Gavin doesn’t speak. His eyes, which have always been shining with light, seem to be layered with the colour of the gray clouds overhead, and an unspeakable dullness. 

There’s neither grief nor anger in them. All that’s left is helplessness.

Very slowly, his lips finally twitch slightly, breaking the silence.

Gavin: Aren’t you going to ask?

MC: Nope. If you want to talk, I’ll listen and resolve the problem with you. If you don’t want to talk, I’ll keep you company as we stand here, then...

Gavin: Then?

MC: Trust you.

I smile as I reach out, brushing the drenched fringe in front of his forehead, revealing his beautiful amber eyes.

MC: No matter what happens, I’ll always trust you.

Gavin’s eyes widen slightly. The hands beside him are clenched into fists, trembling slightly.

Gavin: ...you once said that every single one of my bullets are for justice. If you were to find out that perhaps I can’t really do that... 

Gavin: ...what would you think?

I’m stunned.

Gavin’s voice is faint, a solid darkness hidden in his words.

His entire self seems to be encumbered by a layer of thick sheet of iron. His back is straight, as though waiting for a final judgment.

MC: I’d look for the truth behind it.

Gavin purses his lips and doesn’t say a word. But I know that he’s waiting for my answer solemnly.

MC: Even if there was really such a bullet, I’d want to further verify why that bullet strayed from its course. And whether, at that point of time when the situation happened, there was really a violation of justice?

Gavin watches me quietly, and I smile as I look at him.

MC: No matter what reason you had for standing there, and for shooting that bullet, you would have done so based on what you saw, heard, and the result of thinking. And I believe in it, and I believe in your judgment at that point of time. That bullet definitely has its meaning.

I say these things instinctively, hoping to give him even the slightest bit of support and courage.

The dim streetlights meld into the water droplets, reflecting into Gavin’s eyes.

The rain gradually lightens. The air Gavin breathes out turns into a white patch of mist in the air. 

Gavin: I’ll find the truth behind this matter. I can’t use “I don’t know the true state of affairs” as an excuse. If it’s something I’ve done, I should take responsibility.

Gavin takes the umbrella in my hand, his eyes carrying with them resoluteness and certainty.

Gavin: I don’t want to fail to live up to your trust, but I... have to face up to the truth. To give you, and to give those who no longer have a voice, a genuine explanation.

-

Two days pass after that rainy evening

Even though MC doesn’t know what Gavin is up to, she can tell that it’s something important and dangerous

She’s at STF to give her regular report, and Gavin walks into the room. His eyes are bloodshot, and he looks thinner and more pallid, and she knows that he’s been working very hard to live up to that promise

I think of comforting him, wanting to tell him not to overdo it, and to take care of his health.

However, the moment I open my mouth, all my emotions morph into a dry greeting.

MC: Gavin, have you been really busy lately?

Gavin doesn’t respond. He simply places his palms on the table between us, his expression solemn as he comes closer to me.

Gavin: Are you investigating the Evol assassinations?

MC: Of course. I’m still a suspect, so I need to think of ways to clear myself of suspicion.

Gavin: This matter could be even more serious than you imagine.

Looking at Gavin’s somewhat resigned expression, I smile.

MC: Things have already reached this stage. What could be even more serious than this? Don’t worry, I know what I'm doing. But are you going to do something dangerous again? You’ve got to take care of yourself. If you need my help, just say it. After all, I’m Nox from Black Swan!

I deliberately use a light-hearted tone, and the corners of Gavin’s lips tug upwards as well.

Gavin: Proudly saying that you’re from Black Swan in the STF - you don’t want to leave, do you?

MC: ...

I freeze. Only when I see the teasing glint in Gavin’s eyes do I realise that he’s toying with me. 

At the same time, I release a sigh of relief. At least Gavin is still in the mood for jokes.

Gavin: To be honest, what I need to do is indeed very dangerous, and I need more people whom I can trust completely. With your help, my investigation will definitely progress much more smoothly.

He lifts his head to look into my eyes directly. The light in his amber eyes reveal trust and sincerity.

I’m left astounded. Receiving such an invitation from Gavin for the first time makes my mind lag a little.

MC: Gavin, what you're saying is... that you’re letting me help you?

Gavin: You didn’t mishear.

The faint scent on his body fills my surroundings. In my trance, I even think that a gentle breeze brushed my cheek. 

Gavin: ...of course, from my personal perspective, I wouldn’t want you to be involved in such matters. So, you’re free to reject.

MC: Why would I reject! I’m really happy to be of help.

Gavin stares deeply at my smiling face. After a long time, he reveals a somewhat relieved and resigned smile. 

Gavin: Thank you, MC.

Part two: here

[ilovejevsjeans]

Why there’s far more to Russell than qualifying specialism

The old adage in Formula 1 that the first person you must beat is your teammate may be cliched, yet it rings true. Drivers constantly compare themselves with the man across the garage, knowing the importance of becoming the in-house alpha.

It makes qualifying head-to-head records a valued statistic for many drivers. As pally-pally as Lando Norris was with Carlos Sainz at McLaren, he took some pleasure in pipping the Spaniard on Saturdays across their two seasons together (11-10 in 2019, 8-8 in 2020). Fernando Alonso’s 21-0 whitewash of Stoffel Vandoorne in 2018 meant so much to the two-time F1 world champion that he was still trotting out the statistic 18 months later.

But even Alonso’s qualifying prowess looks workmanlike compared with that of George Russell. In his 46 appearances with Williams , not once has he been outqualified by a teammate. He equalled Alonso’s 21-0 sweep in 2019, when paired with Robert Kubica – a grand prix winner – and leads Nicholas Latifi 25-0 in their season-and-a-bit together. The only F1 teammate to ever outqualify Russell is Valtteri Bottas, who pipped him to pole in their single race together at Mercedes – and we all know who really walked away as the moral winner that weekend…

It has led to the moniker of ‘Mr Saturday’ being attached to Russell by TV types, who then rattle out those statistics like tickets from a slot machine every time he makes it through to Q2. As impressive as his qualifying record is, to reduce his significance to that of a quali-day footnote belies the true power of Britain’s burgeoning F1 star. Last year in Sakhir he offered a glimpse of what he could one day do for Mercedes, jumping in at the last minute and making full use of the tools at his disposal. But to be true world champion material requires a greater contribution: it’s being a leader, rallying those around you, and being a figurehead in the team’s progression in every area.

They are valuable skills which those around Russell at Williams have seen him hone since making his debut in 2019. “He’s just got better and better, and developed almost with every race,” says Dave Robson, Williams’ head of vehicle performance. “Not so much in terms of the driving, that’s always been very strong. But in terms of his understanding of the whole game that we play and everything that we need to get right and we need his help with, it’s just improved endlessly.

“His role within the team is particular, he takes it in his stride in leading that. He’s an excellent asset in all regards.”

The evolution into a leadership role was something Russell was required to embrace quickly. As the depth of the team’s plight became clear in early 2019, there was a contrast in the response of the two drivers: while Kubica – the more experienced, seemingly senior head – subsided into negativity, the junior Russell accepted the state of affairs and got stuck in trying to make a difference.

“2019 was an incredibly difficult baptism of fire,” recalls Robson. “Once he’d got his head around the situation we were in, he was extremely good at being clear about the order of the problems that needed tackling.”

Dealing with a car as devilish as the FW42 helped Russell hone his development skills and feedback, helping the team make big strides in each of the past two seasons and move off the foot of the pecking order in 2021. He even gleaned some helpful slivers of information during his one-race sojourn with Mercedes, feeding back to Williams that it should change its clutch paddle designs after sampling a different steering wheel.

The technical understanding he has forged is “right up there” with the best drivers Robson – once a race engineer to Jenson Button and Felipe Massa – has worked with: “His technical understanding of what the car has to do, how the tyres have to work, and some of the compromises you have to make, is now as good as anyone, I think, in the pitlane.”

It has made Russell not only an important asset to his team, but also to his teammate. Nicholas Latifi joined Williams as a rookie in 2020, and while paired with a younger driver who had just 21 grands prix to his name, he was quickly able to lean on Russell to help his own performances as he got up to speed in F1.

“It’s been hugely beneficial to have a teammate like George,” Latifi says. “Definitely in those opening races at the beginning of the year and throughout the year, [I was] learning from him what I can in the data, seeing what he is asking for from the car, what he thinks the car needs to go quicker, when I was just trying to find my feet and get up to the limit – for sure relying a bit on that information was very helpful.”

Latifi’s confidence may have grown into his second season, but he still finds it a “great help” to have such a strong reference in Russell – even when on the wrong side of the qualifying scoreline. “Part of it just stems from having George as your teammate,” Robson says of their head-to-head record. “He does have an incredible ability to pull something out when it really matters.”

But it is not just Russell’s on-track capabilities that have made him such a powerful and important figure within Williams. The soft skills he has developed off-track, knowing how to best work with the team around him and keep heads up – even through the trickiest of times – has been hugely important to Williams.

“It’s not just his technical input, but also the way he interacts with everyone and his positivity,” says Robson. “Although he can, quite understandably, get frustrated in the heat of the moment, his positivity and general way he is so constructive is very good and exactly what we needed over the last couple of years. He’s played a big role.”

At just 23 years old, Russell has a growing voice and authority that few of his peers boast. It has earned him the respect of the entire F1 grid, evidenced by his appointment as the GPDA’s newest director at the start of this year following Romain Grosjean’s exit from the series, wishing to represent “the younger half of the grid”. Internally at Williams, he has also used his eagerness to speak up to good effect, wishing to make himself heard from day one.

There’s something about him: when he talks, people listen,” says Robson. “It’s important, provided he’s talking about the right thing. Perhaps right at the beginning, he didn’t always get [that] right, but it didn’t take him long to suss that out and understand.”

Robson’s comment is another sign of Russell’s willingness and ability to learn from his mistakes, a trait that fits perfectly with the culture built by Mercedes in its evolution to a title-winning F1 juggernaut.

It was something that he has already had to put into action this year, having brazenly pointed the finger at Bottas for their crash at Imola and then proposed a theory that had tinfoil hats quivering across the F1 Twittersphere. On the flight home after the race with Mercedes head honchos Toto Wolff and James Allison, Russell said he was given some “tough love”, but he acted quickly: he apologised, retracted his comments, and vowed to learn from the saga.

It’s exactly the kind of growth Mercedes wants to see, and will undoubtedly be part of its considerations when it decides on Russell’s future for 2022. He is a free agent, as is Valtteri Bottas, the man he would surely replace should Wolff decide the time is right to cash in on his investment.

But where would that leave Williams? Robson does not mince his words, admitting it would be a “huge loss” for the team both on- and off-track.

“It’s been fantastic working with him, right from when we first put him through the evaluation,” Robson says. “It was obvious George had something about him, some genuinely outstanding talent to drive the car. And it’s been probably frustrating at times, but a great journey to be on with him.

“Of course he’d be a massive loss. I think we’ve all put in a lot of time and effort to help him where he needed a bit of help, to guide him, and it would be a real shame to lose that without really seeing the benefits of it in our car.”

CEO Jost Capito says he would “of course” hand Russell the multi-year deal he craves from 2022, should it be viable. “I think he would fit very well to Williams for our future as well,” Capito says. “If he believes in our future, there might be a chance to keep him.”

It is a future that Russell has helped forge for Williams. Steps such as the sale of the team and investment from Dorilton Capital has secured the team’s immediate future, but Russell’s role must be recognised.

Robson agrees, saying he “can take a good amount of credit” for the team’s progress since hitting rock bottom at the start of 2019.

Williams may have a strong history for backing and cultivating young talent, giving the likes of Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Nico Hulkenberg, and Valtteri Bottas their starts. But to be the force that helps lift the team out of its hardest moments, acting as the catalyst in its revival, arguably makes Russell the most important of the bunch – even if he doesn’t stick around to enjoy the fruits of his labour. (X)

[animatedanalysis]

That's a good point! I had to fight tooth and nail defending the Collector in discussions with friends after season 2, but there's a really good reason their race is presented the way it is in canon and it comes down perspective!

Everything we learn about the Collectors/Archivists (which I will just be calling "Celestials" for ease) is told via Collector himself, the Titan Trappers, or the Owl Beast via Eda's dream. The Collector was essentially shunned from their older siblings, the Titan Trappers are antagonists, and the Owl Beast also had a run-in with another Celestial that traumatized it (it's also implied that Celestial turned that Owl Beast into the scroll that makes it a curse)

I completely agree that Celestials are likely morally neutral/gray and their book explains it best:

"Should they meddle in our affairs, we'll clean the planet and scorch the air"

It's important to note the dictionary difference between a Collector and an Archivist

A collector is a hobbyist and an archivist is someone who's *job* it is to maintain archives

The Collector is still a child and is very much-so treated that way by his siblings as he's told to go down and play and essentially "get out of their hair" while they work

We don't know how the war between the Titans and Celestials started. It's implied Titans were a huge threat simply because they have magic on par with the Celestials and probably weren't happy with being "preserved". I don't think the Celestials see what they're doing as wrong. After all their role in their society and the greater cosmos as a whole is to "collect" and "archive".

But because they aren't being archived or preserved themselves, they don't empathize with why that would be a problem for other races. When Titans give them a taste of their own medicine and put them in the discs, it's seen as being meddlesome and they become inclined to neutralize the nuisance before it impedes on the work they do.

Nonetheless most sympathetic antagonists have a point where we see their side of the story. None of the Archvisits have a chance to speak except in the dream or the Collector says what they said, but again it's all negative

If we want to take this a step further, at the end of the show, the Collector represents *us*, the audience, the fans of the show. As the Collector passes by, the final send off is to them, but the camera shows the cast of characters from their perspective. We're the hobbyist that interact with the media. The archivists on the other hand could represent a number of things and I won't say one interpretation is more right than another, but it could be any sort of industry professional or critic whose prominance in the industry might make them disconnected from fans or a critic/commentator whose job it is to critique the work. It could even be a metaphor for Disney (and the greater animation industry as a whole) and how projects that get canceled are just their property, locked away and unable to have a new life because it's constrained by copyright. It sits in the vault and collects dust. This interpretation could also be a reason why the Archivists are meant to be more evil-coded

I also want to bear in mind that the Archivists actions *are* evil. They did commit genocide and almost completely wiped out an entire species. They are adults who made that choice while separated from the Titans. Meanwhile Collector spent all their time getting to know all the other Titans. However the mindset behind it isn't malice. They're doing as they were taught or think is best, which while makes them more morally gray at least intention-wise, but still liable

TLDR: The Archivists are portrayed as evil due to framing, perspective and meta-thematic reasons. Them committing genocide is an atrocity, but they do so out of obligation more than genuine malice. Essentially, soldiers going to war to serve their society. They're adults with jobs who send their kid sibling to the planet and thus the kid is the only one who makes an actually connection with their society's sworn enemy. The Archivist vs Collector dichotomy could be a representation of the state of the animation industry as a whole

I don't know why but I don't like the fact that toh the entire collectors race evil expect for our collector, It just felt like that the collector race (what is the name of the actual race? And am I spelling race wrong?) alignment is true neutral or even chaotic neutral it didn't seem like it was full and completely evil y'know?

[novantinuum]

Is the “villain card” really a VILLAIN card- or something else?

So, I’ve been thinking a lot today about @faelapis​‘s recent post (link in reblogs so this can go in tags) discussing the corrupted Steven theory, and specifically how he pointed out how in the intro... that the camera “zooms inside Steven’s heart” when transitioning to the shot that features Big Looming Pink Fella.

And I know the fandom generally refers to threatening spreads such as these as “villain cards,” since- at the time of the intro’s release in October, all of these characters were heavily implied to be antagonistic to our main characters in some way. But after seeing the first ten episodes of SUF in full, I feel we should pause and ask ourselves-

Are any of these characters really villains?

And if not, then what IS their role in the greater story of this epilogue, and more importantly- their role featured prominently in the show’s intro?

Let’s take a quick look at the characters we’ve seen already.

_

Jasper

Thus far, Jasper has played the least antagonistic part she ever has in the entire history of Steven Universe. I’d even go so far as to consider her a shaky acquaintance of Steven’s, at this point. 

But as far as her purpose in the show goes so far, Jasper is important because she is the very first person to mash it up with Pink Mode Steven. The very first person who catches a glimpse of this new ability of his to begin with. When Steven first shifted into this state, it was because she pushed him into a situation that was both emotionally and physically compromising. Jasper is every bit as stubborn as Steven. She knows exactly how to push his buttons. It’s for this reason that I don’t think he would’ve discovered his pink state without her, without her egging him on to fight.

Steven tries his best to be very patient with everyone, and yet his frustrations with Jasper’s inability to move forward (hypocrite, much?) elicited a rather jarring rush of directed anger that- before- he generally seemed to keep bottled inward. 

I get the strong sense that he didn’t allow himself to freely and openly express these sorts of “negative” emotions at all before this encounter. 

Furthermore, Jasper slapped him in the face with the biggest call-out of his mental state ever.

Jasper: “I don’t need your help. You’re the one that needs help. You think you’ve beaten me, but you’ve never beaten me on your own. You’ve always been a fusion. You’ve always had your friends because you’re nothing without them. You think everyone needs help.”

Steven: “I – I just…”

Jasper: “But it’s only you. No one is as pitiful as you.”

Every other episode of the show so far has only gone to further showcase that this is what Steven believes about himself right now. (See: Little Graduation, especially.)

And what happened with Jasper that day... was just the beginning of his slow decline.

Bluebird Azurite

This character... also isn’t big villain material. She’s barely even a threat.

Rather, Bluebird serves as a stark reminder for Steven that there are people out there that hate him for being him. Not only that, but those who would fuse for just that reason.

To hate him together.

(I must admit, I still find the notion of Steven potentially falling apart because of a lack of self-love interesting, as much as it is heartbreaking. But I already wrote that post, so moving on-)

But she also is a reflection of how Steven is resistant to change right now.

Greg: “I mean, everyone can change, but not everyone wants to.”

Steven: “Yeah...”

He used to believe in the idea of positive change wholeheartedly, and yet... I think the passing years have led him to a place where he himself is scared of it, of the unknown, of moving on from what’s comfortable, of all the nebulous what-ifs. Which is why when Bluebird shows up, he projects his own resistance on this scenario. He doubts Bluebird’s ability to change for the better because he now doubts that for himself.

Instead, I think he fears he may be changing for the worse.

I strongly believe we’re going to see Bluebird again. I just get the sense that there’s more she can bring to the table. 

“Mean” Lapis and “Nice” Lapis

Also not villains. Just obstacles.  

Similarly to Bluebird, they seem to push that “resistance to change” theme further for Steven. Some people just... are stuck in their ways. (Thankfully though, not all of them. Thanks, Freckles. Love ya lots!) 

Since Why So Blue is focused squarely on capping Lapis’ character arc, there’s not as much Steven-related meta threads I can glean from their first appearance, truth be told. 

I think we’re likely to see more from these two, as well. If they do serve a greater role in the overarching story of SUF, it isn’t complete yet. Fingers crossed!

Cactus Steven

Dear goodness, this creature is completely innocent. Poor baby. XD

This poor fella plays the role of being a physical embodiment of- at the time of Prickly Pair- Steven’s mental state, and pushing the lad to repress his turbulent emotions even further.

Throughout SUF so far, Steven has become consumed by negative self-talk, (”I used to be helpful, but the Gems don't need me anymore”), a stark reluctance to let anyone see the evidence of his mental instability, and explosive anger he cannot gain a handle on. 

And as his mirror, Cactus Steven: 

Repeats things Steven says, spilling all of that negative self-talk and the reasons why he doesn’t want to approach the Gems about his issues.

Is shoved away under a box, representing Steven’s emotional repression.

Warps into a monstrous form, explosive anger brimming at the surface.

Notably, Cactus Steven only fights in direct response to what others lay on him. He is not overtly antagonistic until Steven himself makes the first strike. Later, while the Gems are attempting to fight him back, he desperately tries pushing them away... much like Steven has been all season.

Cactus Steven: “Just... get... OUT!”

Furthermore, Steven creates him. He creates this monster. He’s the reason he becomes so messed up in the first place. That has to feel pretty awful, especially when he’s doubting his ability to be helpful nowadays. He tried to nurture this creature, and look where that got him? This furthers the narrative idea mentioned earlier, of Steven perhaps fearing that he’s now changing for the worse.

Finally, by by the end of this episode, it seems worryingly as if Steven’s reluctance to open up about his problems has solidified.

Pearl: “Is there anything you need to talk about...?���

Steven: “...I think I’ve said enough.”

_

To wrap...

We don’t yet know what role White Diamond will play, but it’s probable that it’ll be something that strongly impacts Steven in a personal way. And at this point in the show, I’m doubtful she’ll suddenly heel-turn back into villainy.  

With all this in mind, my current theory is that... 

These characters are not on this title sequence card as ‘villains’ at all, but rather, each serve as important ‘road markers’ on the path towards the eventual climax of SUF.

Meaning, Steven’s encounters with each of them will influence his way of thinking in a way that leads him further down the road towards eventual corruption. Or whatever else is waiting for him at the end.

And the camera specifically “zooms into Steven’s heart” because these characters, standing in front of that monster, represent the moments that lead him into that state. 

What we’re seeing here is a visual record of the burden he carries inside him.

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Handmaid's Tale: The Wilderness (4x10)

Oh boy. I don't even know what else to say. Just. Lots of stuff happening here.

Cons:

So, obviously I'm going to talk about the Fred situation, but I actually want to start by saying there was a logistical weirdness with the end of the episode that kind of troubled me. For one thing, and this is just a script decision I don't understand, why does the mailman open the mail and see the severed finger and wedding ring? Why not have Serena opening it so we get the full impact of the horror? That just felt odd to me.

And then... the ending. June comes back to say goodbye to Nichole, and says she's leaving in five minutes. My initial read on this was that she was going to go and face the consequences/get locked up for what she did to Fred. But then I realized that made no sense, and maybe she's instead going back to Gilead to get Hannah? See, the problem here is that a) I'm bored of Gilead and want to keep the story in Canada. And b) June's connections with Lawrence and Nick seem to be able to get her a lot of things... it feels like it would be a relatively simple matter to snatch Hannah and run at this point, wouldn't it? The narrative stakes feel uneven, after what we saw June was capable of orchestrating in this installment.

Also just going to go ahead and say that as this was a finale, I was a little bummed not to have more time with certain characters. No Janine update, and only sparse screen time for Moira, with no mention of her love life at all.

Pros:

Okay, let's start with a smaller detail: Mark Tuello has been more of a narrative device than a character for most of the show, so much so that I kept forgetting his name. I don't think this is necessarily a mark against the writing or acting. He's meant to be representative of the slow-moving arc of justice, of a neutered American government trying to do its best. But here he came to life for me, in two moments. One when he asked Serena to explain her decision to stay with Fred. And another when June shows up outside his house and he has an outburst about how she's crossed a line, and then apologizes for it.

He's a person. He's dealing with a lot of fucked up people, and traumatized people, and he's trying to prioritize the greater good while seeing the very real personal consequences of Gilead's atrocities up close. I just really liked how he was utilized in this episode; it almost felt like a culmination, happening quietly in the background.

And then there's Fred Waterford. It's hard to really put my finger on why Fred is such an unsettling villain, but I think it has something to do with the fact that he buys his own bullshit so easily. He's really incredibly gullible. When he and June have that chilling scene where they both say they "miss" Offred, Fred is 100% buying what June is selling. June is... not even that good of an actor except when she has to be, but Fred genuinely, actually, believes that they had something approaching a relationship of mutual understanding back when June was his literal sex slave in Gilead. And June plays him like a fiddle. He's utterly shocked by June showing up at the end and kissing Nick. It never occurred to him that June, a person he repeatedly reminds everyone is duplicitous and sneaky, might be involved in some greater scheme.

And why? Because he really is that full of himself. He has every reason to believe that the world will keep catering to his needs, that he will, again and again, be able to dodge the consequences of his actions. It's always been true in the past, hasn't it?

That's the genius of Fred as a villain. He's not playing three-dimensional chess, he's not someone you can just "outsmart" and be done with. It's his worldview, this absolutely unshakable belief that he is a good person. He even apologizes to June in this episode, but it's not in a way that holds himself accountable for his behavior. It's more in a "I'm sorry you suffered, I do regret that aspect of it" kind of way.

There's something so twisted about a zealot whose zealotry is tied up so intensely with his misogyny that he looks like a caricature of a sexist man when you see him talk, and yet he's not playing it up. That's really how he thinks! Just imagine it.

But also... holy shit, that scene at the end was brutal. Can't really blame June for it, I guess, but it was tough to watch. Not because I felt sympathy for Fred, but because I felt sorrow in my heart for what he'd driven these women to. I hope they get some measure of peace from his death.

I think (and kind of hope) that Season Five of The Handmaid's Tale is the end. Not because there's not a lot here to enjoy, but because it seems like we're reaching a culminating moment for June. Getting back to Hannah has been the driving force of the show, and now June is right on the edge of achieving that.

There's a lot more I could say, but I'm keeping this one nice and zippy for the moment. See you next season!

9/10