#can you tell it was easier to find shots of him in arc one lol

[sorinethemastermind]

[thespoonisvictory]

Please explain why Schlatt is the best character on the SMP.

(Alternatively, I would be really interested in hearing more about your dislike for Quackity's produced lore. Personally, I love it, so I'm really intrigued whenever someone says that they're not fond of it).

as much as I love schlatt, I think I'll answer the quackity question, because I've been meaning to.

first of all, I think I should clarify that I'm definitely biased, because my favorite streamers, outside of the dsmp universe, tend towards semi lore, or, at least, not whatever quackity's doing. I'm used to it, and people tend to not like change lol.

second of all, I really do like quackity's produced lore, but I don't like certain aspects of it, and find myself preferring semi lore in general. I don't think he should stop doing it so much as I think he should use it as an occasional technique rather than conveying near 100% of his story with it. big q is very talented and I commend him for taking such a bold approach, which I think pays off in some ways.

third, to me, semi lore is any lore that breaks the fourth wall in that it isn't trying to be something other than a minecraft stream, it's all in first person, and none of it is prerecorded. for example: most of wilbur's pogtopia streams are semi (or casual) lore to me, because he'll thank subs and joke with schlatt about getting techno a girlfriend, but it's still largely in canon.

anyway, in true jenny nicholson fashion, let's kick off with a numbered list.

1. this post, by patches, explains a bit of why the lore streams can get a bit disconcerting to me. the dsmp have always had a bit of charming awkwardness in their improv, because these are for the most part just Some Guys acting, and under the guise of a stream where it's just a Streamer Playing Minecraft, it fits. but the highly produced nature just- creates such a disparity between the quality of the cinematography and the acting that it's a little weird, y'know?

2. in some cases, semi lore allows for dread to be built in a unique way. during the exile arc, tommy would have lighthearted streamer jokes and bits, shout out subs, pretend like things were normal. he never acknowledges that his situation is messed up, that his condition is getting worse, that things are falling apart. it's a quiet, sinking, horror that creeps along over the course of weeks. it's important to the viewer that we are there every day to see the slow progress, to understand why tommy gets pushed so far down. besides the impracticality of 14 highly produced lore streams, you would lose a lot of the subtlety there.

the smp is such a unique medium in that the stream style itself is so telling. when tommy actively doesn't acknowledge what's happening, it makes the abuse that's occurring seem so much worse. when wilbur drops little hits about his depression or his plans in between lighthearted, ooc jokes, it lulls the audience into a false sense of security.

imagine a version of the 'forming las nevadas' story where quackity does it over the course of four nights. the slow realization of his manipulation tactics disguised by an unassuming stream format, because it's still quackity, joking around and laughing until he approaches the next person and he shifts into his 'persona'. when he finishes the conversation, we watch his face fall, his smile fade, as he walks back to an empty las nevadas. it would build hype, not to mention taking less work, and letting the audience see a bit more of quackity's humanity.

3. I mentioned it before, but it just straight up takes less time. I'm willing to wait, of course, but there's something to be said about the merits of pacing and being able to throw together a lore stream last minute. take, for example, tommy's death. it wouldn't have been nearly as impactful without the rushed, oddly somber flurry of livestreams that came after. jack didn't need a highly produced montage of him standing by tommy's grave as the seasons passed, of his planting flowers everyday. what turned out to be effective was just- him, walking around, coming to terms with his grief, completely silent for periods of time.

it was mourning. plain and simple, with no embellishment or evil villain music, shockingly earnest.

I don't think you could replicate that raw, undone feeling with a prerecorded, pre-produced, semi-movie. it feels like all of a sudden jack's pov was important enough that he had to stream, and there it was.

you could argue that this could be planned beforehand, but I think more often than not, that's a. not really feasible, and b. going to take away from the organic nature.

we all like candid shots, 'authentic' vlogs and influencers. to me, this is just one more extension of that rule.

4. under the same idea, you can make more. we spend more time with the streamers, and therefore the characters, and get to know their more human side. wilbur, for example, is deeply humanized by little things that you just couldn't really fit into a lore stream: his dynamic with niki, all his little moments of hesitation, his banter with tommy and his true love for l'manburg. who c!wilbur is is built up over hours and hours of comments and suggestions and one-off statements, and we just don't have time for that in quackity's lore. the transitions are snappy, filled with beautiful shots, but they don't allow for as much depth of character as that awkward little walk from place to place, that quiet monologue they do to themselves.

it's not impossible for you to do that, as with c!quackity and c!charlie serving as a 'morality pet', but at this risk of repeating myself endlessly, it's more earnest and organic in a sense.

5. last, I just really like multiple povs. one of my favorite bits from s1 is the fundy spy arc, because of how effectively multiple povs are used. streams where wilbur is deeply, deeply distraught over fundy's betrayal but thinks fundy doesn't care, while fundy is deeply, deeply distraught over wilbur's prior treatment of him but thinks he doesn't care. and you could watch both at the same time! quackity's pov isn't as personal when it uses third person, which is a bit sad because I think it's a unique aspect of livestreaming every perspective.

(I'm so sorry if this isn't coherent or makes any sense I'm very brain dead and tired from speedrunning three essays yesterday)

basically, I think quackity's lore style is good for big, grand events, occasionally. it's very cool to watch, definitely builds hype, and can make certain things easier, such as coordinating a bunch of people or doing special effects.

but for building a plot and establishing character dynamics, I really prefer semi/casual lore.

[nightwingmyboi]

Is it okay to ask for a short summary of the Ric Grayson arc? I want to read the comics but I don't really want to risk my temper and mental health. I just want to see which parts I can read without exploding.

Yeah, I feel that. It’s a bit of a frustrating read. Basically: 

Dick is shot in the head, wakes up with amnesia due to drugs given to him by Dr. Haas. 

Dr. Haas’ conditioning and manipulation, along with his family’s pushy behavior, make Dick hesitant about his family. Bruce showing Dick a video of him being shot in the head is the final nail in the coffin. Dick freaks out, and no longer wants anything to do with Nightwing or the family. 

Dr. Haas suggests moving to Bludhaven. Dick does so, burning his old Nightwing hideout upon arrival. 

Dick is homeless on the streets, and takes a job as a cab driver to get some cash. He often goes to Bea Bennett’s bar, and the two begin to form a relationship. Meanwhile, a cop finds Dick’s suits, and decides to form a squad of Nightwings. 

Dick has violent, reoccurring nightmares, and goes to therapy sessions with the Scarecrow. 

Dick helps the Nightwings beat Scarecrow, and reluctantly is let into the group. 

Dick helps the Nightwings beat other crooks, including Duela Dent. As his relationship with Bea continues to develop, Dick tells her everything--about Robin, Nightwing, the amnesia, and his work with the Nightwings. 

Eventually Cobb attacks, and Dick gets put into memory-altering googles that give him a new set of memories--life growing up as a Talon. 

He is briefly a Talon, and is freed by a lucky hit to the googles. 

Dick has debilitating migraines because of the two sets of memories, and goes to Dr. Haas for help, only to discover her connection to the Court. Dick tracks her down and retrieves a memory crystal--an important tool in controlling him. 

The Joker gets the crystal, and implants Dick with a third set of memories, this one including his parents beating him and him becoming the Joker’s son. 

Dick attacks Jason and then Barbara with Punchline’s help. Eventually, people are able to get the crystal away from the Joker, and Bea gives it to Dick so that he can free himself. He does so. 

The family gives Dick a pat on the back, and the Nightwing suit. 

Dick’s really been through the wringer. I wonder when the last time he’s eaten or slept is...on top of all the brainwashing that’s messing with his head, how is he even functioning. Give this boy a granola bar, aspirin, and a nap please DC. 

If you want a more thorough breakdown, or to pick and choose comics to read, I figured it might be easier if I summarized by issue? Under the readmore. 

Batman #55: Dick is shot in the head. The bullet makes a pfffft sound effect for whatever reason. The suffering begins. 

Warning!! Get ready to be told over and over again in Dick’s internal narration that: a) Dick has amnesia b) he does NOT go by DICK c) he definitely doesn’t want to be Nightwing or be part of his family and d) he is a sad hobo man now. Onward. 

Nightwing Annual #1: Dick talks to his doctor about how his recovery is going. In flashbacks, we are shown the aftermath of the shooting and Dick’s recovery in the hospital. There is a particularly stirring scene with Damian in Dick’s hospital room...but from there the family’s handling of the situation is poor. This is the issue where the family shows Dick the video of him getting his brains blown out to jog his memory. Dick freaks out, and leaves the manor in a panic, determined to have nothing more to do with his family or Nightwing. 

Nightwing #50: Flashbacks to Dick’s time as Robin, fighting the Scarecrow. In the present, Dick tries to acclimate to his new life. We are given details of Dick’s condition, including his blackouts and his homeless status. Barbara tries to talk Ric into returning to the manor, and he refuses. The family concludes that there is nothing they can do. Dick burns down his Nightwing hideout. 

Nightwing #51: A touching scene with Alfred, checking on Dick. A cop stumbles upon the burned Nightwing suits, and decides to become Nightwing himself. Dick continues to try and sort himself out. He is almost mugged, and accidentally breaks out some Nightwing moves, seriously injuring the mugger. 

Nightwing #52-55: A group of cops decides to become Nightwing. Scarecrow continues to cause havoc in Bludhaven. Once again, Dick’s doctor is a supervillain--he goes to a therapy sessions with the Scarecrow. Bea and Dick’s relationship begins to take off; they are actually fairly sweet and have a fun dynamic, definitely a bright spot in these comics (that you’ll want to hold onto). 

Nightwing #56: A bit of a turning point. Dick sees one of the Nightwing squad get hurt, and feels the need to step in--he doesn’t want anyone dying in his place. He helps the group beat Scarecrow. 

Nightwing #57: Duela Dent comes to town. Barbara talks with Bea. The Nightwing’s give Dick permission to work with them, ironically :/ Dick helps them take down Duela Dent. Barbara meets up with Dick and apologizes to him for some of her behavior, then leaves. 

Nightwing #58-61: The Nightwings “train” Dick (lol). They continue to question whether he is capable and can be trusted, oscillating between “wow he’s impressive!” to “I don’t know if the newbie’s ready for this” to “you’re no Nightwing.” Backstory time for the Nightwings, Dick’s relationship with Bea continues to grow (she gets him a phone, which he didn’t have before RIP) and the gang fights a living fire. 

Nightwing #62-63: Dick continues to help the Nightwings. He lets Bea in on everything--the fact that he was Robin and Nightwing, that he was shot in the head and lost his memory, and that he is going out into the city to help the Nightwings when needed. She doesn’t like how he puts himself at risk, but supports him, saying that he can’t help but be a good person. The Court of Owls begins to close in, attacking one of the Nightwings. 

Nightwing #64-67: Cobb attacks Bea, leading to a fight between Dick and Talon. Talon overpowers Dick, and forces him to wear memory-altering googles that implant a second life in his head--a life as a Talon. He briefly becomes a Talon, attacks the Nightwings, and is freed due to a lucky hit to the googles. 

Nightwing #68: Cool Travis Moore art at the beginning of this one, detailing some of Dick’s true memories. Satisfying to see Dick beat Cobb up a little, and tell him that no one can define him but him. And despite all the crazy crap that just went down, Bea reaffirms that she’s willing to stick it out. 

Nightwing #69-71: Memories of his two lives war in Dick’s head, causing debilitating headaches. Bea and Dick discover Dr. Haas is responsible for Dick’s memory loss, and Dick tracks her down. He manages to take a memory crystal from Haas--a key tool in controlling him--but it falls into the Joker’s hands shortly after. Joker uses it to implant new memories--memories of Dick by the Joker’s side as his son. 

Red Hood and the Outlaws #48: A masked Dick Grayson attacks Jason. With Punchline’s help, Jason is knocked out. 

Nightwing #72-73: Bea calls Barbara for help. Barbara tracks Dick down, only to be defeated by him and Punchline. Barbara wonders how Dick could do this to her (because he’s been brainwashed Barb) and is forced to fight Dick in a cage match. Dick’s internal narration has devolved into nonsensical sentence fragments :( He remembers his parents beating him, which is a heartbreaking thought. In the end, Barbara runs away to save a hospital. Dick runs into Jason and Tim.  

Nightwing #74: Dick fights Jason and Tim. Barbara arrives and attacks the Joker, causing him to drop the crystal. Bea (ran from Bludhaven to try to help Dick) gives the crystal to Dick so that he can free himself. He does so. Batman arrives to say that “he’s ours again” and acts like Dick hadn’t just spent the last several comics being treated as an object to be passed around. The family barely reacts to Dick’s return. Bea runs back to Bludhaven, thinking that Ric no longer needs her. Overall, underwhelming and frustrating stuff here. 

Batman #99: Batman hands Dick a Nightwing costume. Back to work. 

[archivessuggest]

I’m planning an overall series where the Fears still exist but instead of them being fears they’re just the overall 13-14 magics that make up the world they live in but also it’s a Harry Potter crossover which is ONLY important in so much as one of the previous Magnus employees was a warlock that liked to play around with the old archival staff and made them what basically amounts to a secret door that they open and it’s a full ass living area sorta like one of the Hogwarts common rooms (cozy and lots of stone walls and such cause my personal HP theory which is way more important than canon cause a lot of canon was racist and ignorant, is that it’s not that magic can’t be around tech it’s just that magic sorta makes tech evolve because magic lives in the air like tech waves which means magic and wifi too close tend to get weird n shit like that) and when Jon gets the archivist position there him and Martin (who becomes a worker there too) get debriefed by Elias (who is still Jonas but Elias actuallyWILLINGLY gave his body over after one too many failed suicide attempts ooof and Jonas is ACTUALLY a good person bent on the preservation of magic knowledge n shit but also rich af lol) and Jon was informed that if he took the job the Archivist position would change him but for the better in a lot of ways and so he said okay and they moved down there but after they get attacked by Prentis (gotta keep some villains but it’s just easier if they work for a non-evil place lol) they hire additional security for the archives which are Barisa and Daisy (cause ACAB even in UK so let them have redemption arc where they leave the force) and Georgie and Melanie eventually get jobs there too and move in with them and bring The Admiral and it’s found family in the basement. Sasha is alive and happy but she works out in the actual basement beyond the secret door because she works with computers, Daisy basically follows Jon around like an oversized puppy to bodyguard him if he leaves which makes Martin hella jealous when he realizes Jon likes her but Barisa is basically the only person Daisy likes like that and she finds it hilarious and it’s amazing.

Anyways. One day Jon and Daisy are heading home from a grocery run (they have a secret entrance from the outside of the archives so they’re not tramping through the whole ass institute with groceries and getting weird looks) and they find two kittens in a cardboard box in an alley. So obviously they bring the babies home too. The Admiral immediately claims them as his children, which is good cause Georgie and Jon have fostered kittens before and after their checkups and shots they are ready to take in the new babies.

But the hilarious part. The fuckin hilarious part. Is one day. One of the kittens. Follows Jon out of the archives (he tends to let the cats choose if they want to go to his office with him or not since he still uses it as his office outside the communal living quarters, and one of them chose to cling today) and he gets pointed out by one of the Less Magically Inclined staff upstairs. So. Jon. Is like. ‘Oh shit.’

But Daisy suddenly pops up behind him and picks up the baby (who loves his giant momma) and asks why Jon brought him to work today. And Jon catches on. Cause the guy who pointed him out legit just accused him of hiding a kitten in the basement and ‘that is SO not allowed, is it???’ And Jon wanted to stop the guy before he got reported to HR, so he’s all ‘oh. Okay. Bag? Baby made nest in bag??? Didn’t see!!! Took baby to work!!!!’ And it’s the dumbest excuse ever but they buy it with the simple fact that Jon is the biggest workaholic ever and probably wouldn’t run a kitten home just cause he accidentally brought him in lmaooooo.

Anyways. I just need a FIC where they have a secret cobblestone cottage in the basement that can be infinite and is v cosy and they all love it. Tim and Martin basically control the kitchen and even tho a lot of them like making their own food, sometimes Martin and Tim take it over for a day to stuff the fridge full of leftovers and meal prep. Sasha and Barisa like sitting in the main room’s armchairs and reading books for hours. Jon and the cats love the giant fireplace (which def works for floo too but it’s a closed system so you need permission to get in first) because warm, Georgie does her podcast still and Melanie goes to therapy because she’s still got a lotta issues, even when she doesn’t hate Jon and the Institute (and acting as tho those are her only issues when she’s openly stated that she’s had anger issues for as long as she could remember and have lead to a lot of self endangerment both past and current... ya my girl needs help) and can be in the same room as Jon with them only minimally hissing at each other, Daisy is happy and safe knowing that her charge (Jon) and her mate (Barisa) are safe and well cared for, (maybe she’s a werewolf... tho not the same way HP does it cause that’s a mega homophobic and evil way I like writing them like Teen Wolf wolves cause let them be growly and in control at times but yes they v much still belong to the Hunt) and it’s just nice all over.

Everyone is happy. Deal with it. The only reason why I really came up with HP crossover to begin with cause my OTP Draco/Harry/Luna came to smack my brain and I decided that Harry woulda been grabbed by The Distortion right after Hogwarts cause he walkin around with the elder wand, the invisibility cloak, the philosophers stone, the sword of griffendor, AND the resurrection stone.

Trust me. That bitch was like ‘wtfffff’ and stalked the kid till he was disappeared. Then Luna (who’s existence was only known cause of Harry) found the yellow door like four years later and walked in without hesitation. She later on takes over Michael instead of Helen and she’s strong enough to keep things sane. Then she ejects Harry (who’s still somewhat human but becoming an avatar) and drops him on Draco’s doorstep and tells him to take Harry to the Magnus institute so they can make sure he’s as harmless as he seems. Which she already knew and it was mainly just a slightly long term plan (lmao long term it only took three months) to get Draco to willingly leave with them too lmaoooo Luna was all ‘hmmm... why have ONE ex bf when I can have both of them???’ And now. Ships. Harry is their... pet? Ya.

Anyways byyyye.

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 5x09-- And the end was violent...

It’s been a busy week, but I didn’t want to wait until after 5x10 aired to write this. This recap may be a bit rushed (read: I am going to make an effort to just skip over scenes I don’t care about; we’ll see how many of those there actually are). I didn’t love this episode overall, but I thought it was a huge improvement over 5x08’s parking ticket fiasco and wish it had immediately followed 5x07.

Bless these episodes for not being overly long

Oooh, the opening sequence is long and I have nothing to say about it! Thanks for making my life easier, writers!  

The point of this opening is to show that there are lots of problems with the official court system—inefficiencies, inconveniences like broken elevators, overcrowding in prisons (though, uh, I don’t think the actual problem there is that there’s not room to incarcerate more people)-- that might make cops open to an alternative like Wackner’s court.

I know the cop thread kind of started with last week’s parking nonsense, but surely there was a way other than the parking nonsense to bridge the gap between 5x07’s prison system and 5x09’s focus on Wackner’s court suddenly being a replacement for criminal court, too.

(Y’all, I have SO MANY questions about how Wackner can POSSIBLY judge criminal cases, but they’re all just variations on... UH, GUYS, ISN’T THIS ILLEGAL? LIKE SUPER DUPER ILLEGAL?)  

I see that there is a filming notice when the cops bring a dude into Wackner’s court, and that the notice says that by entering on the premises you consent to being on film. I do not think that this sign being displayed would hold up as evidence of anyone consenting to be sentenced to a private prison on criminal charges.

New question: How did Wackner Rules get on the air so fast? And are they just filming endless episodes in real time? They just film anyone who walks in?  

I think there is supposed to be a subplot about Marissa liking fame and attention; it is almost a little too subtle to be meaningful. I see a through line from her sleeping with that editor dude last week to her smiling at the flowers in this scene to her scenes with Carmen later this episode. Unfortunately, I need a lot more for this to work.

I don’t need Marissa to be a hero who constantly does the right thing and calls out Wackner on crossing the line, but I’m really sad that this is what they’re using Marissa for when we were due for Marissa calling Wackner out (in a meaningful, lasting way) like two episodes ago. It’s felt odd to me that she just sticks around and assists Wackner and Del when they’re doing things like putting people in private prisons and comparing the show they’re making to The Apprentice. Any subtle shift in Wackner’s decisions that has signaled to me that he’s gone too far is something that I can say with certainty would signal the same to Marissa. Marissa’s outspoken and passionate, and we have seen enough reaction shots to know she knows things are going bad, fast. Am I really meant to believe that because she likes Wackner and she likes fame, she’s not going to do anything more substantial than look upset from time to time? Not only does that feel out of character, it’s also just boring.  

And, it speaks to another problem I’m starting to have with the arc: they needed to get to the point faster. Once Wackner said “David Cord’s private prison,” this stopped being fun. It would’ve stopped being fun for Marissa and it stopped being fun for viewers (seriously though, the change in tone on Reddit between 5x07 and 5x08/5x09 is VERY noticeable). So why did we follow that up with some repetitive filler bullshit about parking spaces and then start getting back to the point in this episode? I’m sure they’re going somewhere big in 5x10, but you can’t follow an explosive reveal with more status quo.

(Also, lol, I think the parking space thing was meant to be a fun silly absurd little way of entering into themes about authority and Wackner trying to legitimize his court, but it was about an issue so relatable and illogical that I think it feels even harder to believe than the, like, whole concept of a secret court in a Copy Coop.)  

Time for Marissa to look concerned again! She’s confused about if the case is real or not, and when Wackner says it’s real, she says it’s not for their court and it’s crossing a line. She is absolutely correct. Wackner’s like, let me know if you think I’m crossing a line after I rule, and then he makes a silly flailing gesture that Marissa can use as a signal.

I actually don’t hate that scene; it is a good scene. I am only snarking on it because it feels like familiar territory and it belonged in an earlier episode.

Am I correctly understanding that these cops wanted to be filmed bringing a man against his will to a fake court with a private prison? And that they wanted this to air on television? Okay.

I will say that I believe the motivations of everyone involved except Marissa. Wackner thinks he’s doing good for the world. Del is getting good TV (I mean, I still think that Wackner Rules title sequence is shit and the show Del seems to be making is terrible, but that’s besides the point). Cord has so much money he’s untouchable and this is fun for him. The cops just don’t want to deal with bureaucracy when it comes to someone who they basically caught in the act.  

Court! Stuff! Happens!

Wackner sentences the guy to one year in “David Cord’s private prison.” Again, I know they have to say this for exposition/storytelling reasons, but I continue to find it hilarious that David Cord would want his name to be used in this way (because he like, absolutely would not want his name to be used this way).

The cops like Wackner’s verdict so they tell all their friends to also take their cases to Wackner. What could possibly go wrong!  

Like, yeah, there are problems with the criminal justice system—and some of them are even the ones these cops are mad about—but this is ABSOLUTELY not the answer!!! You cannot just take people off the streets and place them in private prisons because they were forced to enter a filming zone for a TV show what the actual fuck

Love David Lee still having candy on his desk. Some things never change.

Allegra, who was welcomed by the partners of RL last week, is interviewing for a job with David Lee. I don’t understand. Doesn’t David Lee have to approve new partners at RL?  

Please don’t mention real estate on Mars, Allegra. You’ve made me think of Jason and how bad season seven was.

Allegra is feeling a bit different from Elsbeth this episode, though she very much still has some Elsbeth energy. She is very strategic and blunt in a way Elsbeth isn’t, and she seems a little more focused and intense.  

“I notice, in a partisan world, the person in the middle controls the agenda,” Allegra says of her alliances with both Liz and Diane. This is interesting. What are Allegra’s goals here? Just to have power? Does she have a vision for RL? Is it just a good paycheck?

(My guess is it’s about power and money for her. I don’t think she is going to be the ally Madeline wants. I don’t think anyone who voluntarily signs up to be a name partner at a firm owned by corporate overlords is a natural ally for Madeline though, tbh.)

(I really hoped this arc would explore that just a tiny bit more. The longer this conflict drags on the more convinced I become that the whole question of if it’s appropriate for Diane to lead a black firm is moot. It’s an interesting and complicated question, but with some distance from the plot, it becomes pretty clear that in this particular situation, RL isn’t a black firm. It’s a subsidiary of a large multinational corporation.)

(The show seems very aware of this and keeps having plot points like Diane using David Lee to keep her job and having Madeline call out all the awful clients they have... but it needs to go somewhere.)

(This also may be why I’m more down on the end of the season—in the middle of the season, nods at the things I’ve been thinking are appreciated references. At the end, they’re more like plotholes or reminders of the questions we should actually be spending time on.)

“Are you shitting me?” David Lee storms into the room as Liz and Diane are working. “David, we are shitting you about so many things, you’re gonna have to be more specific,” Liz responds. God, funny!Liz is maybe my favorite part of season 5?  

Liz calls David out on his power, noting that he also reports to STR Laurie. So it seems like Liz and Diane can make decisions on their own, and STR Laurie can overrule them, but not stop them in advance?  

This little ad about an ice cream chain is like, 15 seconds too long.  

Carmen is back!!!! She’s helping Rivi sign a deal with an ice cream chain so that they’ll turn into a distributor of weed.  

Why do we have to watch a SECOND commercial?  

The farm wants Rivi to stop dealing other drugs if they’re going to enter into this deal.  

Allegra, another character who seemingly has no qualms about representing drug kingpins, quickly impresses Rivi.  

I understand why there is an interpreter for Rivi’s wife. I do not understand why the interpreter interprets conversations BETWEEN Rivi and his wife. And then he’s translating the sign language into Spanish? But also Rivi speaks fluent English in half of these scenes? WHAT is happening?  

Allegra is also different from Elsbeth in that with clients, you’re NEVER going to underestimate her. You might not follow her at first, but she’ll get to the point clearly and concisely and without telling you how much she likes your lipstick.

But like at 13:44 Rivi signs something to his wife, and when she signs back the interpreter tells him what she’s saying. This is so so so clearly for the audience but I wish it had just been captions because it makes NO SENSE that the interpreter is in on this private conversation between two people who both know sign language!?  

Rivi and Isabel now LOVE Allegra. Diane and Liz are like, okay!  

Cop stuff happens.  

Credits!!! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out indiewire’s piece on the making of the credits—it's fascinating.  

Brooke directed 😀  

Marissa the celebrity is signing autographs in Wackner’s court when the cops bring in some young men affiliated with Rivi.  

NO, GOD NO, NOT THIS DEVIL’S ADVOCATE FUCKERY. The problem I have with the Devil’s Advocate, in addition to it being fucking annoying, is that it is also the exact opposite of what Wackner’s court is all about. Wackner is about facts and really hearing people out, and from what we’ve seen, Devil’s Advocate is about... stereotypes and pop sociology so bad it’s essentially just racism?  

“These young men are the victims of a system that arbitrarily declares some drugs illegal, and others, like alcohol, not. They should be released. To hold them is to perpetuate an unfair system,” Devil’s Advocate says. Good lord, a 7th grader could write a more persuasive speech than this bullshit.  

WHY IS DAVID CORD PROSECUTING THIS, WHY IS THE TRIAL ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT DRUGS HARM COMMUNITIES, WHY IS THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE SOUNDING LIKE A WHITE BOY IN AN INTRO TO SOCIOLOGY CLASS WITH HIS REFERENCES TO THE WIRE, WHY IS ANY OF THIS HAPPENING OMG MAKE IT STOP HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS BAD

Why is Marissa the court clerk being called upon to be defense, WHY IS THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE JUST SCREAMING “DEFUND THE POLICE” WHAT THE FUCK

I’m sorry, I am going to rant about this more, I truly cannot get over how fucking stupid the Devil’s Advocate is. He just starts screaming “defund the police”??? To what end?! Why does Wackner want this in his court?!  

I revise what I said earlier. Devil’s Advocate isn’t just sounding a white boy in an intro to sociology class. He is sounding like a white boy who showed up to an intro to sociology class absolutely hammered.

Marissa, correctly, argues that the arrestees should be taken to Cook County. Then she hears that they work for Rivi and she knows this is bad.  

Cord calling Marissa out for her firm representing Rivi: Another thing that would NEVER air on Wackner Rules.

David Lee seems surprised Liz and Diane did not get rid of Allegra. I don’t know why he is surprised, I think they made it very clear they don’t see him as an authority figure.

STR Laurie is now demanding (another) 10% in cuts to pay for Allegra. Liz says they’ll pay for her with the money that used to be for Adrian and Diane notes that Allegra has more stature than Adrian. Interesting.  

David Lee then decides to be both sexist and racist for really no reason at all. Pleasant!  

Showing Carmen as competent but not yet as strategic as Allegra is a really nice way to underline that Carmen is still a first year even if she is very very good.

Liz, Diane, and Allegra talk about cost cutting. Allegra is like, no, we need to spend more, which makes sense, both for the reasons she outlines and because when you bring on a powerful name partner, your need for lower level support does not DECREASE, it INCREASES.  

I know this scene is meant to show Allegra thinking outside the box, but I am a bit surprised that (1) Neither Liz nor Diane push back on the 10% cut and (2) When Allegra suggests hiring back all the associates and then some, Diane seems to think Allegra doesn’t understand they’re talking about cuts? Like, obviously she knows the topic of conversation, Diane.  

“We don’t run our own business. We work for a global conglomerate,” Liz notes. Yup. Right point, wrong context lol.

Diane and Liz are just too smart and strategic to have to be told ALL of this by Allegra... especially Diane, who is not only smart but also used to dealing with management.  

And worse... Liz and Diane think they made a mistake with Allegra because of this? I mean, I guess if your goal is to permanently work for a big corporation that will slowly chip away at your budget because they can and to never make any waves because that might disrupt the status quo, sure, Allegra isn’t who you want! But do Diane and Liz REALLY want the status quo?  

I hope they find a way out from under STR Laurie next year, as much as I hate the firm switching, because it’s just such a boring dead-end when Diane and Liz don’t actually have power or control.

OOOH I like Del asking Liz what SHE wants wrt the whole Diane situation. She says she wants to “stop fighting” and for Diane to “stop using her racist clients to keep her job” and for “the firm to be led in the right way by the right people.” So sounds like she wants to work with Diane, then? That last one is as vague as can be, but I think we can infer at this point that Liz is more concerned with stability and a work environment she likes than idealism.

God, Liz and Alicia would’ve gotten along so well as adults lmao.

Del tells Liz that “women at work always want to be thought of as nice. Women always want consensus. But you know what, baby, sometimes you just gotta say, ‘Fuck you, and you and you and you. Alright? This is my business and it’s my decision.’” I see where he’s coming from (even though this sounds like something my nemesis the Devil’s Advocate would say) but I am not sure I agree that’s Liz’s problem here.  

Actually, maybe I do agree with Del. I think Del’s saying to say FU to Diane, but what Liz clearly actually wants to do is say FU to Madeline lol

Liz asks him to change the topic. Where ARE they? Is this a restaurant or an incredibly nice backyard?  

Del changes the topic to how his boss wants him to come back to LA, but he wants to get Liz’s thoughts on their future. Liz asks him to start since men are better at saying what they mean (ha, love her giving him shit for that).  

He basically tells her he wants to stay and she says he should stay. Aww.  

Rivi’s house is... certainly something.  

Isabel is concerned because three of their boys have disappeared. She, naturally, suspects they’re at police blacksites.  

I’m sorry, did Marissa not elevate the Rivi case in Wackner’s court to the partners’ attention!? Rivi blames the dairy company, even though this does not... make that much sense?

This escalates into the murder of cows?? What... the fuck.

Now Marissa finds Carmen and loops her in! But only now that she knows Rivi’s looking for them and Rivi’s about to, like, kill Christian Borle’s character whose name I’ve forgotten.  

Marissa’s position on this is that Wackner will just let the boys go so Rivi shouldn’t know about any of this. Rivi would just kill Wackner. And Carmen is like, Rivi will just kill Christian Borle if we don’t tell. Fair point.  

Carmen, being an actual adult (sorry Marissa, I usually love you), is willing to admit when she’s in over her head, so she walks off to go get Liz for help. Yay!  

Rivi is not impressed with Wackner’s court or Marissa. He and Isabel want either Carmen or Allegra. Liz says Carmen will do it, I think meaning Marissa will do it but Carmen will be client facing.  

I love it when we get to see Liz just be super competent. It’s not a rare occurrence, but it’s just very, very clear in this scene how much better Liz is at handling this situation than Carmen or Marissa would’ve been and I like it when the show makes time to emphasize that even on a show full of hypercompetent people, some people are more skilled than others at handling some situations.

Liz, Diane, and David meet with STRL over Zoom. Allegra somehow pops up on the meeting but also joins as a cat because you know what the cat lawyer on Zoom needed? To be parodied on TGF. Ugh

OH MY GOD I DIDN’T PUT THIS TOGETHER SOONER BUT IT’S A CAT LAWYER YOU GUYS. This will mean NOTHING to any of you because it’s about an inside joke I have with the friend who got me into TGW, but indulge me in a little nostalgia here, ‘kay? So in like 2012, there was a trend on Tumblr where everyone would photoshop cat ears onto their favorite TV characters and my friend and I were like, why would I want to put cat ears on my favorite character, idgi. So then we started photoshopping cat ears on to the most unlikely characters and we landed on David Lee. We referred to David Lee as a cat for a really long time. Like, if we were to talk about David Lee today we would probably still call him Cat! David Lee.  

Allegra starts trying to work her magic on STRL.  Diane literally runs down the stairs to try to stop Allegra. I am not sure why Diane and Liz are so anti-Allegra during this conversation which is only happening so they can have the funds to keep her on board!  

Allegra tries to share a burrito with Diane and Liz and says she stands by her strategy. Liz finally says she’s not sure this will work. Allegra is understanding.

I respect that. Allegra may as well go all out and see if she can make this workable.  

(That said, this is pretty much the opposite of her whole staying neutral thing from earlier!)

No one is in the audience at Wackner’s court when Carmen shows up, yet the musician who I like only very slightly more than Devil’s Advocate is still on call. Just STOP.  

Overall I’ve liked the Wackner arc and I’m excited to see it wrap up tomorrow, but lemme tell you: it had better wrap up tomorrow. I am NOT open to dealing with this for another season.

The musician takes orders from Cord? The cameras are rolling? Rivi is there? WHAT?  

I know that NONE of this makes sense, but some things make exceptionally little sense and I just can’t.

Guys, remember the parking tickets?!  

Oh, excuse me, the ice cream company is actually a yogurt company.

Rivi notes that there are three boys missing. Wackner only has two.  

I am a little surprised Rivi has managed to be successful with that temper. Idk what skill set you need to be a top drug dealer, but he attacks people like three times an episode and that seems like a really good way to not build trust and to also get yourself killed?  

Liz and Del talk about what happened in Wackner’s court. Liz asks how they deal with liability. I guess she isn’t Del’s lawyer, then. Del says they have releases and people want to be on TV. Liz says what I’ve been saying, which is that Rivi doesn’t want to be on TV. Del says there are ways around that and references the show Cops as though that’s enough to make this question go completely away.  

Liz references The Apprentice, for those of us who didn’t catch the reference last week and/or for those of us (me!) who wanted to pretend that Wackner wasn’t somehow a commentary on Trump and star power. Ugh.  

(I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad point, I just am not sure that I think it is the most interesting point about the Wackner plot.)  

“Remember how we all watched and laughed and thought it was funny when they fired people?” Liz says. “We? No, no. Hmm, you... you never watched The Apprentice,” Del responds. She did not. Hahahahahaha I love this exchange. It feels very real.

Liz seems less concerned with Wackner and more concerned with Del’s eagerness to turn Wackner into a larger than life personality with a devoted following, which, yes, thank you, Liz, this is actually a much better and more interesting point!  

“That came out of nowhere,” Del says. “No, it didn’t,” Liz responds, correctly.  

Del talks about how Liz represents Wackner, along with murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and yet she wants to draw the line at reality show producer who makes people famous? He’s got a point, even if I’d argue that choosing a romantic partner is not the same as running a business.  

“Would your firm turn down [the producer of The Apprentice] if he wanted to join the roster?” Del asks. “Good point,” Liz sighs, resigned. She’s not happy he’s right, but she knows he is.  

Sigh. I already said some variation of this, but this season seems to have all the right ideas floating around, it’s just choosing the wrong ones to explore deeply and the wrong moments to mention other ones. Things like Liz worrying that someone she’s considering starting a serious relationship with might have some personality traits she doesn’t love can be done through throwaway lines that quickly come back to being about work/plot (that’s what happens in this scene, basically) and I love that. But the existence of STRL and the influence it has over whether or not RL is a black firm at some point can’t be dealt with through references. Wackner becoming increasingly off the rails can’t be turned down to a simmer after reaching boiling point. RL’s unsavory client’s can’t just come up in moments like this; they have to play into a central conflict.  

Like, what good is it to constantly remind the audience that RL represents a ton of “bad guys” if you’re not going to go anywhere with that other than making Liz and Diane occasionally be like, “hmm, good point.” when called out on their client list? This could be a really, really good piece of a larger puzzle about the culture at RL, and instead it feels like it’s a card they play whenever they need some moral complexity. Just... go somewhere with it, please. Either stop pretending that RL are the good guys or have them seriously deal with their client list.

Anyway, then Liz and Del talk about his possible LA move. It’s kinda inconclusive; they talk about work just being work.

Outside of court, Carmen doesn’t believe that Wackner only has two of Rivi’s boys.  

“I don’t know why you’ve been wasting so much time with this joke court, because it’s not gonna magically turn you into a real lawyer, Marissa,” Carmen lashes out. Oooo. Now this is interesting, can I have an extended version of this scene and also all the other Carmen/Marissa scenes that we should’ve gotten in the episodes Carmen was barely in?  

I understand Carmen’s frustration, especially since I imagine she worked pretty damn hard to get into/get through law school. And, as fun and smart as Marissa can be, she does get bored easily, try to skip over the dull moments, and moves on and still always lands on her feet. I can see how that would rub Carmen the wrong way, especially during a stressful moment.

Carmen isn’t exactly a rule follower, but I’d say she is someone who is very conscious of the rules, and, I think someone who values structure more than she lets on (I especially see this in her decision to stay at RL instead of work independently/with Lester).  

Marissa calls Jay for help!

Allegra talks to David Lee, with Liz and Diane in the background. Allegra makes her argument to  David Lee again and it goes over well. I think the writers think there’s more suspense in this plot than there is; it’s pretty obvious from the start that Allegra is correct and Diane and Liz are only correct if the goal is to avoid all conflict.

What is David Lee’s role at STRL? Is there anything else in that office besides awful HR and RL? He talks like he is more RL than STRL and that doesn’t track with what we saw of STRL last year.

Marissa spots a flyer that leads her and Jay to where the missing boy is: another fake court. This was inevitable—I think one of the very first things I said was that Wackner himself seemed fine and decent, but what happens when someone else decides they, too, want to be a judge because they said so—and I’m glad to see the writers go this direction. I actually think this would’ve been an effective build after 5x07 and would’ve kept turning up the tension, so again, most of my issues with this arc lie in 5x08’s momentum killing bullshit. It’s hard to get back into this plot when they lost me last week.

Shocker: Wackner having a reality show inspired more copy cats who take cues from the show and think Marissa is a celebrity.  

Vinetta, the judge of the second court, puts people in “time-out” (read: imprisons them in her basement) and... yeah, I don’t care how kind she is to them, this is not okay! The solution to the prison system is not for people to turn their basements into prisons!  

I don’t know that the writers are TRYING to comment on this here, but there is definitely something to be said about communities that the legal system repeatedly fails finding alternative measures of justice.  

Vinetta is nice and seems reasonable as a judge, but she also has a basement prison her judgments are influenced by her religious believes so, uh, yeah, not good!!!  

Wackner, however, thinks Vinetta’s court is GREAT! He wants to go see it, because “it’s finally happening.” What’s happening? “Justice,” he says. Uhhhhhhh, no. This is just so dangerous, even if everyone involved so far seems to mean well.  

I’m very curious to see how this little thought experiment wraps up (again: I say wraps up because I cannot deal with the thought of this being more than a one season arc).

One thing I love about the Wackner arc—my 5x08 issues aside—is its slow burn. The writers did a phenomenal job of getting me to take Wackner seriously at first, then slowly started to take all the things that seemed great and reasonable about Wackner’s court to their extremes (while still making his judgment on any individual topic* sound). It’s a very fun and entertaining thought experiment, and I think that’s why this arc has largely succeeded for me, even though it’s so far removed from reality.  

* Exceptions to this include policing, prisons, cancel culture, and, of course, parking spaces.  

[lizacstuff]

Bölüm 45 asks

Plus a few asks from 44, and one about the fragman for 46

Read more under the cut

Anonymous asked: I cannot believe that Ayse revived the "Kemal is Serkan's real father" theory but I think I'm down for it? At least now Kiraz has one decent grandparent and he seems like genuinely nice man. I've been wishing for him to have some scenes with Serkan because the way they set up this S2 plot, they could relate to one another and I was sad to see that he spent 5 years hiding instead

I'm down for this plot! See, now that I know they're doing the long-lost-father plot, it makes all the sense in the world why Serkan doesn't like Kemal and they didn't forge a relationship in the last five years. If they had, then finding out he's his dad would have been a lot less jarring and dramatic. Finding out now and then forging the relationship I think will be a bit more meaty story so it works for me.

To me this story works on a lot of levels, and makes sense with who Serkan is and his very strained relationship with Alptekin. It's like Alptekin sensed it, and resented Serkan his whole life. For those worried that Serkan will no longer have the last name Bolat, I'm not sure where that's coming from. Maybe I'm just not familiar with other cultures, but that is his name, Alptekin raised him, adults don't just up and change their name because of genetics. If you're adopted and you meet your bio dad as an adult, you don't change your name to your bio dad's.

Serkan's name is very much a part of his identity. Which is why this story has so much potential, because it could shake Serkan to his very core to find out who he thought he was, was wrong. He thought he was unlovable, most importantly maybe he'll finally realize there was more at play there and it wasn't at fault.

Anonymous asked: There were a couple things in the last episode that didn't sit well with me. 1. I can't believe Eda made Serkan sleep outside at night and didn't feel bad in the morning when she realized he got sick! 2. The way Seyfi announced Aydan and Kemal's secret relationship. It wasn't his secret to tell, though Aydan did deserve the way everyone reacted. So I got over that pretty quick. 3. Burak!!! He's not the one for Melo. She deserves better and if they end up together in the end, I'm gonna protest.

1. Unless you're going to put the same energy into not believing that Serkan had the gal to remove his bed on the floor as a way to maneuver himself into Eda's bed before she was ready, I really can't relate. It was done for comedy, my advice is to unclench and just giggle along.

2. Or you could look at it as being unfair of Aydan to burden Seyfi with that secret and require he lie to his other employer for five years. I mean I don't disagree that it wasn't his secret to tell, but Aydan had plenty of chances, and it was time for it to come out.

3. This one we are in 100% agreement about. MELO DESERVES BETTER. I will die on this hill.

Anonymous asked: Hi! Do you think Serkan actually believes in Kerem's abilities (he trusts Eda's faith in Kerem) or is this part of his plan to win Eda back? Either way I'm okay, just wondering what you think.

No, I do not think he gained a sudden belief in Kerem's abilities, but I do think he believes in Eda. And if Eda believes in Kerem then when push comes to shove that is enough for Serkan. Of course, he did it as part of his plan to win Eda back. Serkan is taking every opportunity to let Eda know that he respects her and believes in her and I think this was another example of that. There was also an aspect of him trying to win over another person in Eda's circle who was suspicious of him. The fewer people he has working against him, the better! He knows he has no shot with Burak or Ayfer, so this episode he worked on Melo and Kerem. But mostly it was him trying to make Eda's life easier, by smoothing over a personnel problem she was having, thus making working out of Art Life a more attractive option for her. All of those things in one!

Anonymous asked: What do you think about Eda and Piril's friendship? This episode really highlighted how close they've gotten.

Yes, they have gotten close, and I'm happy Eda has a friend, but at the same time I don't trust Piril. This is a woman who discarded Eda and embraced Selin when she was manipulating and abusing a brain-damaged Serkan.

Eda might be able to forget, but I can't. Also as a character she's just boring, rigid and humorless. One of my least favorites on screen.

That being said I do like the triad dynamic of Kiraz/Can, Serkan/Engin, and Eda/Piril, it was fun when they were calling each other at the same time.

Anonymous asked: Idk if they reached out to Maya just because she looked like Hande considering she had no acting experience, but this little girl is like the best casting I've seen. The chemistry with Hande and Kerem is amazing. She's so expressive. I am a Kiraz stan.

She's doing a fantastic job, precious thing! I have no idea how they found her, I know she was an instagram model, but the SCK casting director strikes again. This season doesn't work if we don't fall in love with Kiraz. Thankfully, we did!

Anonymous asked: Hi! Since it seems that we will have 13 episodes, do you think that Edser reconciliation/wedding will be left for the finale, 12-13 ep? Cause Ayse loves to drag and keep them apart.

I think the wedding might be closer to the end, but I think reconciliation will be a bit sooner than that.

However, I have to say that it's really not like they're apart.. is it? I mean this episode we had them living together, sort of casually planning their future together. Next episode we have them pretending to be married and ramping up the sexual tension to white-hot-sun levels, these are all good things. With episodes like this, I don't personally consider the show dragging it out.

In fandom I see a lot of peeps upset because Eda isn't getting immediately back with Serkan and I am feeling inpatient as well, do you think the writers are making a mistake keeping them apart?

Again, I guess my response to you is, by what definition was this episode "keeping them apart?"

Yes, they aren't having sex, but they are living together, working together, raising their daughter together, and I'm a-okay with having a couple of delicious episodes of that while they are still not fully back together romantically. Let's be real, they're still waking up in bed together, flirting, and having a romantic dinner together, so it's not like things aren't moving forward, they are. I'd advise putting aside your impatience, and just sit back, relax, and let the story take its course. There is no need to be anxious with this one. They are going to end up with their happily ever after together, but what we're seeing right now is delightful. It's them in family and domestic situations, them with their child. Most shippers only dream of getting to see this.

This sort of goes back to my stance on episodes 16-24, I know that was a frustrating time for a lot of fans because they were "broken up" but I've always said they may have been officially broken up, but they were in a committed relationship that entire time. And I enjoyed those episodes from that perspective, that tension of them being "apart" but still functioning as a unit and still being emotionally tied together underneath it all. There's kind of a similar situation here, they aren't officially back together, Eda is resisting him, but they are in a committed relationship and I don't understand what the need is to rush through this part? Enjoy the sexual tension of them living together, but not sleeping together. Enjoy the rom com romp of Serkan trying to get in her bed, and Eda taking steps to keep him out. Enjoy their daughter putting them in situations that force them into close proximity, and enjoy them falling into easy compatibility without even trying. Enjoy Serkan planning romantic dinners, and Eda enjoying it despite her every effort to protect her heart.

To me this is very good stuff, and spending this time being impatient and wanting what didn't happen yet, instead of enjoying what did happen is pretty much the recipe for unhappiness not just with this show, but life.

Anonymous asked: i feel like i've seen the exact same frustrations ppl have had with eda right now back around the 20s too after serkan told her about her parents' secret. it was like, now that he's told her the truth, she should automatically forgive him and get back together. same thing happening here, with him accepting his role as kiraz's father. it feels like the same impatience that's put on eda to just forgive him already bc everyone wants happy edser and she's in the way lol.. like girl needs time!

Agreed, and it makes me wonder if these folks have ever watched television before, lmao. Patience! There's a story unfolding and from the first 6 episodes it's clear they have a season long arc planned. All in due time.

Eda spent five years thinking that Serkan stopped loving her, and discarded her for work. The second time he used that excuse to break her heart. My goodness, it's more than okay if she needs a little time to adjust and learn how to trust him again. PLUS that means we get to watch him work on her, try to make inroads, romance her, forge a relationship with his daughter and earn Eda's trust back. What's bad in that?

What did you think of the fragman? It's kind of dumb and unrealistic that they have to dance for a school admission interview.

LMAO. Yes, yes it is, but my question to you is, sana ne?

I mean why do you care if the set up is dumb or not? Or if it's realistic? It's a device to get Serkan and Eda to pretend to be married before they're fully back together and an excuse for us to see Edser smash themselves together in a sensual tangle of limbs while they pretend to be unaffected, while both are being engulfed in USTy flames.

I'm not complaining, why are you?

Come on, this show is silly, it has been from day one, enjoy the fact that we are getting silly plots that force our couple into hilarious and hot situations, because Hande and Kerem are going to give us gold, I guarantee it and I'm going to smile through every second watching it.

xxxxxxxxxx

These asks are from episode 44, they came in and I didn't have time to answer before 45 aired:

Anonymous asked: Do you think there is a point when there are too many “parallels” and it becomes more like scenes are being recycled? Because I kinda felt that way in the last episode. Like she’s just tossing in as many things as she can from those first 11 episodes but I’ve already watched those and Id rather we focus more character progression. I feel like they regressed from those honest conversations last week and were back to being petty this week.

I guess my answer is... no, I don't think there have been too many parallels. Episode 44 was partly about truth bubbling to the surface, with the biggest truth being that Serkan has been in love with Eda every minute of every day since they parted. That is a very important thing for Eda to understand and know and they really can't move forward until she does, because she felt unloved and forgotten all those years. Most of the parallels were illustrating that by showing that he held on to their history, he remembered their history and he honored it. Okay by me.

Anonymous asked: There were some amazing dialogues in the episode. I have two that tie for top. One was when Kiraz said that Serkan was her wish (when blowing her birthday candles), and the other was when Serkan said Apollo was never going to give up on the woman he loves nor on the cherries! Oh my heart had feels both times. What were your favourite dialogues in the episode?

Oh man my head is in 45 now, but both of those examples of yours were great. I loved both of them.

The other than springs to mind is while fishing, Eda telling Serkan that he didn't need to be perfect for Kiraz to love him, he just had to be himself.

Swoon.

That's so important for Serkan to hear, because he doesn't think he's worthy of love as himself, so hearing that from Eda is impactful.

Anonymous asked: reading your ep review, i think a big reason some people are hanging on to hate the s2 plot no matter what are just bc they hate the writer. of course not everyone, but a lot of people will just hate on anything she writes out of spite, even if objectively the episode is very good. idk why that is or when ppl decided they hated her but it's not warranted at all imo. i can understand not liking the premise of this season, but after watching it so far there has been SUCH an improvement edser-wise.

People can like, dislike, love, hate anything they want. Consuming entertainment doesn't have to be a team sport. That being said, from what I've seen I'd agree with your assessment. Teams have formed (Anti-Ayse, Pro-Ayse, etc) and the former are too invested in hating everything she does, the former possibly too forgiving at times. That's their choice, but I have to say I feel bad for the anti brigade, this is a show they loved, and most of them are still watching, but they've completely sabotaged themselves from finding any joy in any of it and I think they're going to regret it once it's over.

Also season 2 is so much better than I thought it could be. I honestly thought there was no way to get back to the early quality, but it's here. The show is really watchable and fun this season, and it's a shame for those who've let their attitudes get so negative that they can't enjoy it.

Anonymous asked: Ok so I'm aware this would be highly uncharacteristic of a dizi - but if they know there's only 6 eps left, my dream would be no more big bad events and just spend it rebuilding EdSer as a couple and a family. Would that be too much to ask lol. They've jumped from one disaster to another. Since we're at the end & they have the luxury of knowing it, I just want to see them working through things as a real unit. They've dated for like 7 eps out of 45? Can we get that above 10 at least????

Congratulations! Because that's exactly what we've gotten so far in season 2. Once we got past the trauma of the 5 year time jump, all the drama has been internal to Eda and Serkan and their relationship. The whole season so far has been about rebuilding Edser as a couple and a family. And if you're watching without the tauntruming twitter teens in your ear, you'd realize we ARE watching them work through things as a real unit.

I'll say this until I'm blue in the face (apparently) just because they are not currently sexing each other up, does not mean they aren't emotionally doing all the things necessary to reach their full potential as a couple.

They are. It's happening. Enjoy it.

[pen-emue]

Hey I haven't watched dream smp before but it looks cool - can you recommend a way to watch it?

Oh hi! I will try my best. Thanks for this opportunity to talk about it! It might not be as much concentrated story as you expect from the fanart and animatics and stuff, but it is very cool. If you already watch a lot of Youtube and Twitch it will be easier to get into than if you don’t. It’s a lot funnier than you might expect from the angsty fan art lol

It’s a lot of cool content creators who are friends playing Minecraft together and interacting, and the way I got into it was I started liking a few of the people and watched their videos (both Dream SMP and not) and then met the others through them. If that makes sense. Because there are a lot of people on the server and trying to introduce you to all of them would be overwhelming. Also, there are VERY different vibes between different people’s content. I knew nothing about Minecraft when I started watching this stuff, but I have very much enjoyed learning the mechanics vicariously. Also, I generally enjoy Esports and people who are very good at things being good at things.

Don’t worry about spoilers since it’s the kind of thing that’s easy to watch out of order. You can start at the surface level then dig in deeper to things that happened in the past.

I’m guessing what has intrigued you is the plot stuff, so I’m going to start you off with WilburSoot. Here’s his Dream SMP playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTs1uMdoVww&list=PL6WHJUJ5a3Fl_A9HRkcIhhPzZ6FOLTiwf&ab_channel=WilburSoot

He streams on Twitch but he doesn’t stream Dream SMP anymore. He is still on the server though so you’ll see him on other people’s streams. (Why this is will become clear.) That’s a good place to start. You can definitely tell if it’s for you from those videos, I think. It’s a gentler introduction than what I had. I really like TommyInnit now, but I didn’t at first, and he almost turned me off it. I came back to it in a roundabout way.

If you do like Wilbur’s videos and want more let me recommend you some stuff.

Technoblade streams on Youtube. He’s a good place to go for post-Wilbur content. Also, he’s my favourite and watching his other videos (would recommend the potato war) is what got me to give Dream SMP another shot. https://www.youtube.com/c/Technoblade/videos

TommyInnit is unfortunately the closest thing Dream SMP has to a main character. (jkjk I love him like one might love an annoying little brother.) Also, his recent exile arc was pretty angsty and interesting. He streams on Twitch.

Main: https://www.youtube.com/c/TommyInnit/videos

Vods: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9gVCa6ap-KDayMRPg5wjIg/videos

Now that I’m super addicted, what I do is when I feel like watching Dream SMP I go to Twitch and look in the Minecraft category. There is very often someone live, and it’s a good way to find the smaller creators on the server. Give everyone a try and find out whose vibe is right for you. There are some of the creators (even some big ones) who I don’t like as much so I tend to avoid those streams unless I really need my fix lol.

You may have different tastes from me so don’t let me constrain you. Also, you never know whose stream Dream will randomly show up in! (we’ll get to him) Man’s chaotic as hell! Also, plot can happen unprompted at any time, even if you think you’re watching a chill building stream. You’re never safe from the RP.

Good Twitch Channels to follow. Yes, I am bias. Plot relevance varies.

Tommy: https://www.twitch.tv/tommyinnit

Tubbo: https://www.twitch.tv/tubbo

Fundy: https://www.twitch.tv/fundy

Ranboo: https://www.twitch.tv/ranboolive

Phil: https://www.twitch.tv/philza

Niki: https://www.twitch.tv/nihachu

Sam: https://www.twitch.tv/awesamdude

Eret: https://www.twitch.tv/eret

Other assorted things:

Playlist of my favourite animatics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhd0KLlxkow-xoR6LjJJiGKkjj7XsfXsE

Dream: The man himself, server owner and God, doesn’t stream on the SMP because he’s too busy giving his friends content, very good at video games, irl rival of Technoblade, 100000IQ, character self is a terrible scary villain.

Watch Manhunt if you’re one of the few people on the planet who hasn’t seen it already: https://www.youtube.com/c/dream/videos

[meruz]

some asks - sorry some of these are kind of old. I only get around to answering stuff once in a blue moon.

I do not! Nothing against it but I just don’t personally enjoy the process so I don’t use it in my personal work. Too much transforming and filtering.. too little actual drawing. I have however used it for professional work and sometimes I will sketch things individually and collage them together to make it easier for me to work depending on the scale. But yeah, no photobashing normally.

Thank you! (post in reference) I didn’t use any perspective grids for that drawing but occasionally for bigger pieces that require a stronger adherence to perspective I’ll use the Perspective Tools extension by Sergey Kritsky which is ABSOULTELY worth the price here on gumroad if you’re a photoshop-user - makes grids very easy to set up. You can actually see some of the grids in my process work if you’re looking for it lol

I used to be such a square abt it like “bluh perspective is just a bunch of lines i dont need a tool to do it for me like a DUMB BABY. I can just draw the grids myself and itll be good enough!!! :\” dont be like that LOL, I started using perspective tools for work last year and ported it over to my personal work so damn fast its like one of the best artistic decisions ive made. If you can make less work for yourself, PLEASE make less work for yourself.

I don’t remember what post this is but I’m like 90% its these brushes because these are like all the brushes I use LOL

hi yes thank you i LOVE grookey.

Thank you! They’re the best family!! KAROL IS MY FAVE........

you’re SO welcome. I recently watched Last Evolution Kizuna and [spoiler] WILLIS WAS IN ONE (1) SHOT...  [/spoiler] so whoever was in my comments section telling me toei would never bring willis back, I think you owe me like $20

Yep! My Instagram, Twitter... I don’t have a patreon because I’m too lazy to set up tiers but I have a ko-fi if you want to drop a lil tip in my metaphorical buskers hat

You’re probably done by the game by now given how old this ask is but I’m flattered my art got you to play!! And I’m glad you love Akechi though I’m curious to know if your feelings on him have changed since sending this LOL. His latter act character stuff is one of those things that can really turn an opinion one way or another.

Thank you! Though I want to preface this by saying I don’t take requests but you can always contact me for commissions at isellhotdogs@gmail.com.

I will probably draw naruto again because like every 4 years of my life I go through a naruto phase. I have drawn dangan ronpa before many many years ago and I gotta say the only time I will ever draw it again will be if I’m commissioned to lol...Nothing against it personally, it’s just not really my thing. Kiritetsu+Colossus.... I would but honestly I don’t even know what I’d draw, I feel like I covered it with that one drawing. But if you’ve got an idea... you can always commission me!!! And I’d be happy to.

Uhhhh they’re good! I like them! Yusuke’s character arc is maybe like my favorite or second favorite in the game and I love Ryuji first and foremost for max mittlemans voice acting and secondly because he is just so...so much better than P4 Yosuke who I truly could not stand.

I’m not big on Mishima but I think he’s an incredibly well written depiction of like. that dude in class who you didn’t really mean to talk to but ended up talking to and now its a little weird. I really like that event where you run into shinya while hanging out with mishima and shinyas like “whos this your friend” and ren is like “no, king, hes no one” LOL this is mostly because I just really like shinya. 

ships.... I like yusuke/ryuji a lot, just aesthetically and personality wise its an interesting dynamic. I like ryuji/ann bc theyre good friends. I like ann/yusuke if I close my eyes to all the early plot stuff and just pretend theyre like.....fujiko and goemon from lupin III LMAO. ryuji/makoto? kinda woke?? I mean I feel lesbian makoto deep in my bones but also their showtime opened my eyes a lil. I think they could bond over action movies. mishima/protag is kind of fun in like a sad pathetic way.. I’m a little interested in mishima/JOKER actually bc i like identity porn plotlines lol.

YEP GO AHEAD I’ve been getting a lot of messages like this lately so I want to lay it out here and I’ll probably copy paste it into a FAQ later lol.

8Tracks and Spotify Playlists: Go ahead! please credit me either meruz.tumblr.com twitter@automeru or ig@automeruz -  AND SEND ME THE PLAYLIST this is not a requirement really but I would love to listen to it.

Twitter/Tumblr Layouts/Headers: Good by me! but again PLEASE credit me somewhere VISIBLE on the layout. If it’s a twitter header/icon credit my twitter @automeru and if its tumblr credit my tumblr @meruz​

Phone BGs, Desktop Wallpapers: definitely ok!! Any personal and non-commercial use of this nature, I’m cool with. If you ask me, I may even send you a hi-res version of the file but you have to promise to not scam me and sell it lol...

Instagram Reposts: A lot of artists would say no but I’m gonna say go ahead as long as you credit and tag me in the post, again my ig is @automeruz - if you don’t, and I find it, I will bug you about it in the comments and possibly even report you. Nothing personal, its just standard procedure.

Twitter/Tumblr Re-posts: Don’t?? Just RT or RB it from me?? whats wrong with you? I will report this.

Other site re-posts: I’ll probably say yes but again please credit and for this one PLEASE ask me first. It’s nothing personal really, I just want to know where my work shows up.

Video edits/fancams/comic dubs: Yes! Absolutely go ahead! And please send me a link I especially love to see this stuff!!

I also reserve all rights have you take it down if I do not agree with the usage or context, especially association with politics on the webpage/app/etc. 

Thank you!!!!!!!! ;-; These are all so nice.. tucks them into a little pocket near my heart. I love drawing and I will keep trying my best to make art...! Hope you guys can look forward to it...!

[captain-of-the-historicfuture]

~hello~ !! For the meta asks!: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 25 :))

Hello!! Thank you for sending these; I was really excited to see that ask game and I was hoping somebody would send some in. It still took me a while to actually answer them though, and for that I apologise. But without further ado! Some meta answers (under the cut because they ended up being fairly long, whoops):

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (Consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway.)

I thought of a few examples, but they could basically be grouped together under a common theme: whumpy/angsty scenes that were self-indulgent as all heck. The whole self-indulgent aspect often required the characters to be just the teeniest, tiniest bit OOC and/or necessitated rather unrealistic plot circumstances. So it was simply easier to keep such scenes as maladaptive daydreams, rather than trying to think of explanations for the character/plot issues…or exposing myself to judgement for them LOL.

Receiving permission to write/share one such scene anyway is an opportunity I can’t let slip by though. It might be because I’m writing this while running on zero (0) hours of sleep—let’s hear it for insomnia, y’all!—but I suddenly couldn’t remember any of my newer ideas under this category. However, I did recall a one-shot I had started writing a couple of months ago that sort of counts? “Sort of” because I could actually be arsed to write it since I was, ya know, writing it. Only got about six hundred words down though.

…should I share those six hundred words…?

………nahhh. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet.

But here’s the gist of it: Coulson and May (because of course it’s Philinda) were married for quite some time before the Attack on New York. But then Coulson DiedTM and then got ResurrectedTM. But gasp of horror, he had to lose his memories of his romantic relationship with May because reasons. (I actually did have some ideas for those reasons but sshhhh this is about me yeeting context and setup.)

The first half of S1 still happens as normal (except MayWard doesn’t happen because??? Vows) and it’s now post-E20 “Nothing Personal”. The morning after (or a morning soon after, whatever) the T.A.H.I.T.I. reveal! May’s mom—who doesn’t know about GH.325 and whom May fed a cover story about Coulson divorcing her or something equally as oof, IDK—shows up at the hotel and starts ripping into Coulson for breaking her daughter’s heart, then dragging her back into the field with her ex-husband (him), then accusing her of terrible things and forcing her away again.

Poor guy’s confused as heck, and so is the team, and soon enough so is Lian. The only one who understands what’s going on is May, and she’s freaking dying off to the side like why is this happening to me and eventually everybody’s like! Explain??? (Was thinking about including something from Coulson like, “Are you still keeping things from me?” Just for that extra smidge of angst, yay!)

So yeah then May gives a, like, two-sentence debriefing that elicits more questions than answers. Coulson decides to take May aside and they have a heart-to-heart. Lots of feelings and angst and hurt/comfort and at some point plenty of kissing too. Just! May hiding her feelings for Coulson’s sake but really magnified, plus some actual apologies and consideration of the grief May’s been through on Coulson’s part.

And uhh yeah that’s basically it I dunno hdsjncjshd. I warned y’all it’s OOC, plot-bendy, and very self-indulgent!

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

I don’t think I could name a single character for this. I get different things out of taking on different voices, you know? I guess recently I’ve found myself gravitating towards more taciturn and introspective points of view, like JQ from my original novel Rosewood or M. Yisbon from my…other original novel Temple.

Generally, however, I like tackling stories from an outsider’s perspective. That’s why I so rarely write my more “substantial” (serious? demanding? for lack of better words?) projects from the PoV of my “preferred” character. This usually means writing from their love interest’s perspective, but not always. With shorter fanfic, using a more removed/unconventional/niche PoV can be really fun. Like, I once wrote a canon compliant ficlet purely(-ish) about Philinda from Tony Stark’s perspective. That isn’t always sustainable with stories that demand more character development or closer character studies, however, which is why it’s a good thing I like writing drabbles!

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

My word counts tend to run long, but I usually only write one-shots for fanfic. If I’m even inspired with a novella- or novel-length story idea for a fandom, you already know I’m in deep with them. And if I actually find the motivation to plan and execute that idea? Dangg. That’s only ever happened…twice, maybe thrice, and I’m in a lot of fandoms.

At times, I wish I could go for more of a middle ground ’cause, like, you know what I love to see? An AO3 dashboard with several completed novellas for my ship/character of choice. I mean yes, I hecking love >90k fics, but sometimes I’m in the mood for quick reads…and what am I supposed to do when I burn through all the drabbles and 2k one-shots? (Besides despair and/or reread my faves desperately.) Novellas are basically always safe for me LOL, and I’d hope to be able to give as much as I take.

Ultimately though, I think I’m okay with where I am with regards to that. I wish I could write more in general, but I’d be okay with “writing more” just meaning “writing more one-shots”, ya know? More than okay, really. I have mad respect for fic writers who have, like, a hundred or more one-shots under their belt for this one ship. The fandom ecosystem would be incomplete without them (as well as every other type of writer, but sshhh that’s the type of writer I’m closest to being right now).

I’m definitely a plotter, and I definitely prefer it that way. It’s cool having such a detailed record of my process. I like feeling like a frazzled genius on the brink of a major discovery with all of my different outlines and colour coding and many drafts and various websites.

12. Do you want your writing to be famous?

Not exactly. It might be cool if my original works were recognisable in the world, but I don’t think I’d want to be recognisable. As for fanfic, I’d low-key enjoy gaining a place in that fandom’s community as a fic writer. Like someone who gave and got fic gifts from fic writer friends, who participated in challenges and GCs, who received writing prompts on Tumblr, whose name was known for doing a certain trope/genre a bunch of times… Ya know what I mean?

Unlikely to happen when I’m so hecking hesitant to publicly (i.e., outside of AO3) claim credit for my writing, but fjnskfsjhfjs. A writer can dream, right?

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Of those three, tags are the easiest for me, for I have a reliable system for figuring out those.

Next easiest would probably be titles. For fanfiction, I like to use titles that are a quote from the source material. You should have seen all of my old Hamilton fanfic… I was really proud of some of those titles. And I don’t mean, like, whole lines—usually only two to five words. It’s a unique type of wordplay that I just love dabbling in.

And lastly, summaries. Sometimes inspiration strikes me and a snappy and intriguing synopsis just jumps out—one that I’m quietly pleased with—but most of the time I’ll spend way too long trying to think of such a synopsis and eventually just go with whatever I’d come up with so far. And live with my quiet dissatisfaction for the rest of time.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (Plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations...?) Tell us about them!

Typically, no. If I have deleted scenes, I save and publish them separately, but that’s about it. I sometimes think of AUs for my own work and might talk about them in my author’s notes—might even talk about writing them—but I never really do anything with them.

Although…

It’s not uncommon for me to decide a plotline isn’t working for a certain story or to think of an interesting but undoable arc for a certain character, but what I’ll do is make a whole new story for those ideas. Once I’m done developing the original idea and the branched-off one, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell they grew from the same roots. Does that count?

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as (film, webcomic, animated series, etc.)?

That depends on the story. I’ve actually written stories in other mediums—movie screenplay, musical stageplay, poetry, TV show scripts, play scripts, roleplay—but the novel does tend to be my comfort zone. Sometimes, if I have an idea that I think could work, or would even work better, as another medium, I’ll label it as such in my folder of ideas and decide not to write it as a novel.

Most of the time, my non-book projects are collaborations. I’m working with five different people on six different story ideas: two webcomics, one stage musical, one anime, and two animated TV shows. Little concrete progress has been made in any of those, mind you, but they’re still fun to discuss!

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?

Absolutely. But I’ve been writing stories since I was five years old, so we would hope so, huh?

I wouldn’t say my writing’s changed completely, though maybe that’s just my insider’s perspective.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

Oh gosh, I can’t believe you’d make me choose. Writing is just such a wonderful experience for me; I love just about everything to do with it. Admittedly, not all the time, but. Since that barely qualifies as an answer, however, I’ll give you this—

The endings. Not only that intense feeling of rightness when you wrap up that last sentence, but also the moments before. The adrenaline of knowing you’re almost there but you gotta push just a bit more to actually get there. And also the part right after—the real wrap-up, honestly: the revision and the editing. Heavens, I love revising and editing my work.

Which is not to say I don’t like writing it out for the first time, too—there’s nothing quite like seeing your cursor scroll to the next page, like going from a blank expanse to a Oh man, how many more lines are even going to fit on this page?, like watching that page counter tick up another number. However, there’s something cathartic about finally ironing out those problems I had to force myself to stop worrying about earlier because “just finish the first draft dangit”.

I guess that’s not really the end of the writing process, but whatever. Close enough (as fic writers are wont to say).

Another thank-you for these asks, and feel free to come back with more at any time! ;P

Send in fun meta asks for your friendly neighbourhood writer!

[randomuniverses]

RWBY Volume 6 Crew Commentary Notes!

I just got the Volume 6 Blu Ray and I'm going to be watching the crew's commentary! Kerry was talking with a few others as well as Miles after chapter 1. I wrote what I found interesting or important:

Chapter 1:

They took out the blood at the White Fang Headquarters but had to add it back in later

The train station was the first new set of the season

They used Houdini for crowd shots this season

Showing what's in the bag RWBY got for Yang is planned for next season

On each boba cup lid (from the food in the background of the train station scene) has the RWBY chibi characters

Originally they planned Ilia to wear a kimono. Also a hint to seeing her again!

Kerry's mom wants him (Neptune) to be in the show more

The whole train set is a circle track

The Grimm manticore design was from an artist from the RWBY subreddit! Kerry saw it and he loved it and he contacted her to hire her.

There was an inside joke for the audio team where Dee dies it sounds like the track says "Oh Dee..."

Dee and Dudley barely graduated from their academy

There was originally going to be a closer shot of Salem in the OP but they wanted to keep the mystery about who she was

Chapter 2:

They put in some lines from the house (what Nora says) that were a response to the criticism from Volume 5 about them staying there too long

Nora was originally going to tell Blake everything she needed to know with some whiteboards on the train, but they decided to just show the house where things are explained

The footsteps in the snow were made using nulls in After Effects. They explain the process which is pretty interesting.

Oscar struggling was done in mocap

Lil Miss Malachite is an allusion for Little Miss Muffett (duh) and turns out she is the mother of the Malachite Twins

The Malachite Twins went to live in Vale and be bad guys

Jinn's hair is separated/split more than a normal character's. Same with Summer Rose

Chapter 3:

Salem's story one of the first things ever written for RWBY

They really wanted a character's story to revolve around 'happily ever after' then a few steps after that, so Salem was the perfect character for that

Originally the Lost Fable was chapter 3 and 4, but they combined them into one

The whole episode was mocapped in a single weekend

The crew has a Ruby body pillow prototype that's used during mocap

The Gods are inspired from the Gods of Greek Mythology

They want to show more natural wildlife in RWBY, but due to budget constraints it's hard

The video game Brutal Legend inspired the scene where Salem throws herself into the pool of Grimm

Originally the Gods were closer to human size but were scaled up

The story structure for the episode took inspiration from Harry Potter and Game of Thrones

Originally there was going to be more dialogue from the main cast, but they decided against it

They were originally had Salem look like her current form (well coloring wise), but decided to remove the red veins she has so she looked less spooky

The toy dog one of the children has is a Wizard of Oz reference

Jinn was meant to be an objective outside observer but also a storyteller

The children for one of Oz's reincarnations have silver eyes (confirmed)

Chapter 4:

They were excited to explore Qrow's alcoholism past it just being a joke

Hazel is the most compassionate of the villains

Salem knows how to manipulate people and has different methods for motivations for each of her lieutenants

For example she doesn't have to say that many mean things for Tyrian to take it to heart because he is so loyal

She also knows just how fearful Emerald is of her

Chapter 5:

Neo has begun to evolve her semblance, as shown in the fight

Neo wasn't originally planned to be in this Volume, but was decided when they thought of what they could do better to make Cinder's storyline better and for when Cinder gets to Atlas they thought her having a partner was cool

Brunswick Farm was another idea they had since the very beginning

The Apathy fit so well in this volume because the characters are at a low point

Blake doesn't always get the nuances of relationships and makes a misstep (when Yang and Blake talked and she told Yang she would protect her)

Chapter 6:

The Apathy came from an image of a horrifying scarecrow and they came up with the idea of a grimm that wasn't physically formidable. As well as a planet from the movie Serenity where everyone fell to sleep and died, and a short story about depression and not wanting to do anything

The Apathy work through proximity but if they see you their effect gets even worse. But you can get it jolted out of the apathy for a little while if you are startled

The artist that made the Apathy was the same one that made the Manticore

Maria is colorblind, which was evident in the episode when we learn she couldn't tell Ruby's eye color immediately

Seeing the burning Apathy, Qrow realizes that he almost let everyone get killed and now starts to hate himself (his depression changes)

Chapter 7:

Them having a restriction for how long fights could be (because fights are expensive) led to Miles thinking of a fight that had to last 60 seconds (and Tock)

Maria's weapon and use of dust was inspired from the God of War reboot as well as Marvel's Thor

Maria was originally from Volume 5 but they had to take her out because it was hard to balance out all the storylines

Originally Maria was going to have a cat, and Qrow was supposed to find her in his search for Hunstman

The Arc siblings are all a color of the rainbow, with one set of twins. Saphron is orange.

The toy Adrien is playing with is foreshadowing to the plane and the Leviathan

Chapter 8:

Only Cordovin's guards are so goofy (compared to the rest of Atlas guards), and Cordo is considered a nuisance. This was a job they thought she could do well without bothering anyone

Kerry wanted an old lady fight in the show, so he got one

The Old Lady in the Show was something Monty thought of. The boot is the foot of a giant mech. And the giant mech was originally going to be at the end of V2

Butterflies are normally not out in the winter but this is Remnant ;)

Chapter 9:

Miles likes to think of Tyrian as one of the most insightful villains. He is really good at observing people and knows how to take them apart mentally and physically

This is where they said this is the first time we see Mercury and Emerald being vulnerable to each other (I didn’t include this earlier, sorry!)

They say they’ll never confirm who the Red Haired Woman is, but they said use your brains lol

Looking up at Pyrrha and seeing the airship fly by made Jaune think of the idea to steal one

Chapter 10:

Adrian's crying is not a semblance, that's just comedy

They pitched Jaune's voice down when he says "Roger" so he can sound more serious

Originally there was going to be another episode (episode 14t) where we would see Atlas and Mantle. But they didn't want to end on that because it would require a ton of new assets because of the buildings and the people wearing different clothes

The next season will start with a bang

The Iron Giant was a reference for the mech

Chapter 11:

The mech fight was the most effects-heavy of the fights this season

Blake has always had the scar on her body since the new outfit, but it has been hard to see until her jacket comes off

Yang hitting Adam with her bike was thought of early on in the scripting process

Chapter 12:

A lot of talk about how the animations were made and such

This season had a core fight team that animated all the fights

The way Adam dies is apparently similar to how something in Nier: Automata plays out. Kerry has only played an hour of the game so he did not know that was a thing

But Nier: Automata was actually referenced for the mech fight (the mechanics of how the fight would work) since a robot was involved in the first boss fight.

Shots from the Adam and Yang fight were similar to those from Naurto, but that was also a coincidence

They called the Leviathan Levi in the script because it was easier to type

Chapter 13:

They considered Adrian being a very young baby, but later changed him to be a toddler

Gurren Laggan was another reference used for this part (haven't seen that anime but it was referenced when the mech drills the Leviathan)

They really wanted to make sure we could hear liquid in Qrow's flask

Salem is no longer willing to confine herself to a room, and is going to start being more active by creating her army of minions

[readyplayerhobi]

Player of the Week - Gimmesumsuga

; Player: @gimmesumsuga​

; Player Profile:

Now, I think you all know that I obviously love Steph’s writing. Besides from being one of my favourite authors, over the last two years she’s also become a very close friend! There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t talk to her and I treasure that so much! You may not understand my mind sometimes Steph, but I think you sometimes remain the calm in the chaos that is Jo and I!

In terms of writing though, I truly adore Steph’s writing so much. I’ve remained a fan since the beginning and I’m still mind boggled as to how long Sweeter Than Sweet is! It’s a testament to your stubborn Taurus personality that you’ve kept going for so long, and you FINALLY FINISHED. I’m so proud of you and getting to work on new things.

I know you worry about your writing but everything you write is so smooth and effortless. The world’s you build are simple but are so much richer because of it. It lets you delve so deeply into the characters until you almost feel like you know them, feel so fond of them and so happy to have read them and been involved in their lives even if only momentarily. I love to read your work and know that you’ve enjoyed writing it, because the dialogue you write is so beautiful and emotive.

Whether it’s writing a one shot, working on a series or on some reactions, every story Steph does feels so unique and yet it has that same gimmesumsuga flare in every one. They’re easy stories to read and even easier to love.

Now that the masterpiece of Sweeter Than Sweet is (nearly) done, I can’t wait to see what’s in store afterwards!

; High Scores:

Sweeter Than Sweet - OT7 x Reader

This remains the OG OT7 story in my opinion. If you want high quality vampire fics, enjoy poly fics or just want to read some good smut then this is definitely the fic for you. It’s incredibly long and so well written, with the character popping to life due to the length. They all get a good amount of screentime as it were and we get to see smut scenes with every one of them.

Steph does an exceptional job at making each smut scene different, not only with the MC’s main lovers but with each member. Taehyung is nothing like Jungkook and nothing like Hoseok. But Jimin and Yoongi remain perfect with her and you can truly feel the love between the three of them. She may sleep with the other guys occasionally, but those are her two men that she loves.

And then you have the menace of Namjoon in the fic (he’s still not okay Steph, soz :P) and the whole underlying story arc with him. So you come for the vampires and the sex but then you end up staying for the storyline and the characters. You really root for the MC in this fic, hoping that she does okay and that she ends up well along with the other members.

See You - Taehyung x Reader

This fic sprung to life after the Wembley BTS concert, which I also went to. It was the first time I met Steph and here’s an amusing story for you all...my mum met Steph first because I’m socially awkward and anxious lol. But this story is such a wonderful look at Taehyung as an idol and what it might be like for him to have a one night stand with a fan. Unrealistic? Obviously, but it’s exceptionally sweet and I really loved it

It’s sweet and Taehyung doesn’t magically speak English, nor does the MC understand perfect Korean. They struggle a little, get interrupted by Jimin but it’s overall just...sweet and delightful. A lovely little two part series!

Beneath The Boughs - Namjoon x Reader

This was part of our Halloween collaboration last year and it’s such a wonderfully sweet and adorable fic. Dryad Namjoon is so...unassuming and gentle, it’s a delight to read him. You really get a sense of the real Namjoon in how gentle and attentive he is, how thoughtful and kind he comes across in real life along with his innocent thirst for knowledge.

His journey to becoming human is so sweet to read, all in the knowledge that he’s fully aware of what’s happening and what he’s doing. Because he loves her, the woman who defended him when she was younger and he was just a tree. I just loved how welcoming and...protective he feels, a true source of stability in troubled times I guess. It was a great addition to the collab and the ideal read for anyone wanting some soft and fluffy Namjoon!

Orectic - Hoseok x Reader

Okay but this fic REMAINS one of my favourites because it’s so rare to see Hoseok in a hybrid fic, but it’s even rarer to find one with a hybrid MC. I love how Hoseok took on the MC in this as a favour to his sister but she was still given plenty of agency. I don’t like hybrid fics that feel too much like ‘ownership’, it makes me feel a little weird. So I enjoyed that I felt like the MC was more his sister’s best friend and Hoseok was just looking after instead of anything weird.

But then you can tell that he evidently has some feelings for her and she obviously has some for him. The little dance they did around each other was cute, but then when she went into heat...hoo boy. I loved that all she wanted was Hoseok, even though he could have found another hybrid for her to have sex with. And that he tried to keep up with her. Obviousyl he’s gonna be pretty sore once it’s all done with given he’s...you know...human, but he’s obviously going to give it the good ol’ college try. And I loved as well that his sister was obviously openly happy that her brother and best friend had found love with each other, even if she was a little bemused at first!

By Its Cover - Jungkook x Reader

Look at that, I’ve done five rec’s and not one had the same main couple ha. I could’ve chosen any of Steph’s Jungkook fics but By Its Cover stands out the most to me. Anyone who knows Steph knows that she adores Jungkook and will fight to the death for him I reckon. And you can feel it in this fic. What’s better than tattooed, biker Jungkook falling for the MC at the place he works?

The misunderstanding between them both obviously works as the primary angst and you can see the MCs annoyance towards him, but the way she softens is so lovely to see. How she realises he’s not what she initially thought and comes round to him slowly, seeing that he’s a good guy. And finding out what he does! The rain is our friend in this story as it leads to that wonderful smut scene where we finally get the joining of the coouple we’ve wanted to see throughout the fic haha!

-

Gimmesumsuga is my Player of the Week!

Make sure to follow her and read her stories! Not only the ones I’ve recommended here but everything else on her masterlist. Please reblog, like and send her comments and feedback if you enjoy her work!

[dikiyvter]

Boss Battle for both Gio ( :(( ) and Riga

[ x ] BOSS BATTLE! | @melodicbreeze you can tell it was a lil easier to think of the concept of riga being a boss bc his attacks have actual names lol​...

VS GIACOMO, THE TRAVELING JESTER [ song ]

       A boss battle need not be sad-- After all, what’s better than some fun between friends? The arena is not much of an arena at all, but the incline of one of Mondstadt’s many cliffs. Rocks dot the surface of the arena- cover to hide behind. The harsh wind that surrounds the clown makes this a battle best fought a distance; Arrows are your friend, here- After all... This is a challenge. 

       “You don’t really think you can outshoot me, do you?” he laughs, summoning his bow with a flourish. “You shouldn’t underestimate me, you know! This is what I’m made for, after all!”

       Of course, Giacomo knows your his equal- And so he’ll hold back little, fully intending to make this a fight worth celebrating with plenty of wine and tasty treats afterwards. He is quite unlike himself in battle, the flourishes and fancy performances long gone as he focuses solely on utility, making the most of every action. The clown primarily has three different attacks.        1. HIS ARROWS. These are his main attacks, arrows shot in short barrages. Making use of the stones around the arena to hide from the onslaught will be your best bet to not getting injured. His arrows do Physical DMG.         2. HIS VISION. Giacomo is no stranger to using his wind as both offense and defense. His vision provides two different uses; Pushing you away once you land a certain number of blows. This deals Anemo DMG.         3. HIS KNIFE. Should you get close enough, the clown will pull out the knife he often keeps at his side and dart for you, dealing Physical DMG with the blade. 

       Dodging, making use of cover, and memorizing how many hits you can get in before he blasts you back with Anemo are the safest bets for surviving the fight. It’s not a hard fight, by any means. Memorizing his patterns will help you immensely, but remember... he’s fighting you as a friend, not an adversary. 

       When you finally manage to defeat him, the cutscene begins. You tackle him to the floor, wrestling his knife away from him- though it really doesn’t pose much of a risk to you, anyways. The two of you lay there panting for a long moment... before the clown breaks into laughter, congratulating you on defeating him and conceding that you can shoot better than him. You let him up, grabbing his hand to assist him to his feet. “To angels share, then? My treat.” 

       I’m considering all of these to be weekly bosses, so... he drops Shivada Jades, Vayuda Turqouise, and Prithiva Topaz. His unique drops would be Bell of The Clown [ a bell from his coat ] , Tuft of the Clowns Coat [ a tuft of fur from his collar ], and Pompom of the Jester [ one of the little pompoms from his shirt/shoes ]

VS GIACOMO PART 2, SNEZHNAYA’S BITTER WIND [ song ]

       Of course, all friendships must end in due time, whether through death or through the cold sting of betrayal. “You really should have stayed away from me, you know,” the clown says, anger dripping from his voice. He won’t even turn to look at you- not now. Not through these eyes. A careful hand unclips the mask from his belt, and it is only as he slips the Despairing Mask on over his face that he finally meets the eyes of the man he once called a friend. The wind around you two kicks up, a harsh barrier blocking you from even hoping to escape across the open plain of snow and ice. The freezing cold that settles in your bones hits almost as deep as the cold rage that lurks beneath Giacomo’s mask. 

       The clown does not play with his prey. It is not the nature of the storm’s winds to toy- It is their nature to cut. To topple. There is remnants of the previous fight in this one. His arrows hit faster, harder. Without cover on these snow-swept plains your only hope is to dodge the attacks as they rip through the air- your plight made all the more miserable by the snow kicked up by his winds. The field is covered in a haze that serves to obscure your vision just enough to make things a bit difficult, and through it all you hear the quiet jingle of the clown as he moves around you. His blade makes a far more common appearance, here; Watch your back. When he isn’t firing arrows at you he’ll be positioning himself at your back to jump forward, slashing at you two or three times before pushing you away with wind, dealing Anemo DMG- The same occurs after you get a few hits on him. Jumping a fair distance away is usually a good means to avoid taking any DMG from this attack. 

       Giacomo does not speak the entire time. 

       STAGE TWO - MY DEEPEST GRIEF. [ song ]

       Cutscene. You manage to successfully knock the clown back. The winds rip around the two of you as you try to explain this wasn’t what you meant to happen. That you never meant to hurt him this bad; That you are his friend, not his enemy. Your attempts are met with nothing but a bitter scream of shut up as he rises back to his feet, stumbling. One of your attacks has left his arm injured, and he tosses his bow to the ground in frustration- And yet, still, he fights you, tooth and nail.

       Without the ability to use his bow, he is frantic. His attacks come more frequently; More desperate. He doesn’t come at you just from the back now, but from all sides- slashing at you more and pushing you back further. Harder. His goal is dodging; He’s playing cat and mouse with you, leading you through a battle field that becomes rife with sharp winds, dealing a sum of Anemo DMG if you’re not careful to avoid them. He is quicker to blow you back when you get too close, this time. The snow rips harder, limiting your view of the battlefield even further. 

       There are tells to his attacks, of course; The jingle of his bells is louder as he darts for you out of the snow. The sound of the wind grows louder before it cuts across the field. 

       When you finally defeat him, a cutscene triggers. The way you throw him to the ground is far less gentle than it was in your previous fight, and the clown scrambles backwards, his knife pointed threateningly to you. “Get on with it, Barbatos,” he snarls, his anger tinged in despair as he stares up at you through the slits in his mask. “I won’t let you toy with me! You and the Tsaritsa have had your fun, destroy me already!” 

       He drops Shivada Jades, Vayuda Turqouise, and Prithiva Topaz. His unique drops would be Sinister Bell [ a bell from his coat ] , Shard of Despair [ a shard off of his Despairing Mask ], and Arrow of The Jester [ an arrowhead from one of his arrows ] 

VS RIGATELLO, THE STORMS LIGHTNING [ song ]

       Rigatello’s boss battle is thunderous. Literally. You find him amongst the burnt wreckage of a village that he tore to shreds in the pursuit of his supposed darling little brother; The smell of burnt wood and corpse that mingles in with the stench of ozone that follows him, lightning and atmosphere. These are crimes even you cannot permit to go unpunished; And he knows this. He grins, well aware of what he’s doing as he attacks you, leads your own attacks; You follow him up the mountain, suspended above all beneath the vast and empty night sky. He need not be a god, for this to be his domain. 

              “Let’s go, little Barbatos! Patron of song, I’m sure you can hear it now, the melodies they’ll sing when I rip your pretty head clean from your neck and toss it to Her Majesty’s feet!” 

       His claymore is summoned, tossed with a twirl and he catches it with one-handed ease, his outline massive against the dull light of the moon- and soon glowy with the thrum of electricity that dances across the metal of his blade, across his finger tips, glows in his eyes as he lets out a cackle. 

       This is not an easy battle. He is quicker than the average claymore user, swinging down upon you in successive strikes with twirls and heavy swings, his pace relentless. True fear comes, though, from the electricity that arcs in the air with every strike. He has a few different moves.         1. CLAYMORE. Physical DMG with an small aftershock of Electro DMG.               I. His main attack, he swings at you three times before backing off a bit and being open to attacks. II. Swings at you, then gears up for a larger swing that deals a small AOE of Electro DMG. III. Swings twice, then uses a larger swing to knock you back.        2. SHOCKING REVELATION. Rigatello tosses his claymore into the air; catching it and driving its blade firmly in the ground, channeling Electro into a AOE around him. Back up, or you’ll get knocked down.        3.WAVE OF LIGHTNING. His tell is relatively similar to the one above; He tosses the claymore a bit, catches it, and then swings it hard against the ground, sending a wave of lightning bouncing across the ground at you.         4. ULTIMA: SHORT-CIRCUIT. Powers up for a while. Rigatello allows his electro to flow through him; Electro will arc off of him as he performs more rapid attacks, dealing Electro DMG. This lasts a short period of time and then leaves him stunned for a few seconds. 

      STAGE TWO - DOTTORE’S BROKEN DOLL . [ song ]

       The Electro is hurting him. You become aware of this fact quickly. As you back him up against the top of the cliff his form begins to twist, jerking as electro-fried circuits screaming at him to stop his relentless assault. But he won’t give up; He can’t give up. He will never give up. “You’re doing f-f-f-f-fascinatingly well!” stutters, screams, distortion, “L-l-l-l-lets turn it up a n-n-n-no-notch!”

        This aspect of the battle focuses far more on the electro that is coursing within him. SHORT-CIRCUIT is activated throughout this entire portion of the battle; His attacks faster, heavier, leaving Electro aftershocks on their wake as he darts after you across the battlefield. All the previous moves are present here, as well, with some interesting new additions.

       1.  WRITHE. Riga stops dead in his tracks, body spasming as an AOE of Electro courses through the ground around him.        2. WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE... After performing three swings, Rigatello gathers Electro on his free hand and swipes at you, knocking you back and dealing Electro DMG.         3. ULTIMA: NO PAIN NO GAIN. Takes a while to charge up. Riga grabs at his hair and screams; As he does, areas of the ground light up in sparks; Avoid these if you don’t want to get struck down by the lightning that spikes out from the ground in haphazard arcs. 

      He drops Shivada Jades, Vajrada Amethyst, and Prithiva Topaz. His unique drops would be Cog of the Construct [ a cog from one of Riga’s inner workings ], Bell of the Construct [ a bell that fell off his uniform ], and Shard of Mania’s Mask [ a shard off of Riga’s fatui mask ]

[michelles-garden-of-evil]

Episode 31 Review: Danger to the Cryonics Capsule

{ Not available on YouTube }

{ Full Synopses/Recaps: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

{ Screencaps }

And now we reach Episode 31, the first episode that isn’t currently available on YouTube. In fact, none of Week 7 is available on YouTube, which means no Bad Subtitle Special until the end of Week 8. (Is anyone else disappointed, or is it just me?) It’s a pity, because this is both a good episode and probably relatively unchanged from Ian Martin’s original script, although the absence of cheesy one-liners about the Devil does suggest some rewriting.

Here's the synopsis for this one, by the way, from the October 24, 1969 issue of The Plain Dealer:

It’s interesting to note that, while this summary comes from the period of the Lost Episode summaries, it still accurately describes the plot of the aired version of the episode. It doesn’t describe all of it, but then, none of the newspaper summaries do, before or after the Lost Episodes period. So, without further ado, let’s hurry back to the crypt on Maljardin and check on Erica Desmond’s cryonics capsule.

Dan trying to stop the cryonics tank from malfunctioning, despite knowing nothing about how it works. Not generally a smart idea.

While Jean Paul and Elizabeth are still with Vangie at the French Leave Café, the cryonics capsule's cooling mechanism malfunctions and its tank starts spraying water upwards. Dan tries to get it to stop spraying, but his efforts are in vain and he calls for Alison. She freaks out and they both run down there, but it doesn’t stop until just after Quito arrives around the corner.

There’s a scene where they’re trying to fix the machine and both of them are talking to each other, but the only audio we hear is the background music. Not sure if that was deliberate on the part of the writer or the director, or if it’s a blooper.

Alison asks Dan what he was doing down there, and he confesses that he was searching for the missing cyanide. There’s an interesting part where he says “I’m not sure I trust [Raxl] or that zombie,” and Quito--who is still hiding--clenches his fists as though angered by the reminder of his undead state.

Quito clenching his fists just before the intro.

After they return to the Great Hall, Alison blames Dan--"perhaps you inadvertently crossed the wires," she says--but he denies it. I'm surprised that Alison would accuse cautious, practical Dan of something so careless, but I don’t know him as well as she does. I’m also not sure how inadvertently crossing the wires would cause a tank to start spraying water, and I’m not sure the characters have any idea, either.

On the main island with Jean Paul and Vangie, Jean Paul recaps his cryonics scheme in a way that makes it clear that Ian Martin and/or the meddling executives really didn’t want him to repeat his catchphrase from the earlier episodes again:

Jean Paul on Erica’s resurrection: "It WILL happen. I made that vow the day my darling wife was stricken IN SPITE OF GOD!"

Raxl, of course, blames THE DEVIL JACQUES ELOI DES MONDES for the leak in the capsule’s tank. Raxl may be right--she usually is about matters of the occult--but after learning of the note from the Episode 30 script about who pushed Holly down the stairs, I’m thinking that the true culprit is someone else, someone less obvious. This scene also provides some blatant foreshadowing for the aborted plotline involving Tarasca:

Raxl: “The master must be protected from all demons, from the past and in the present, especially the witch who seeks to own him!”

The next shot.

A clear shot from shortly after of Elizabeth’s dramatic eye makeup.

The witch’s own version of Bissits Face™?

Meanwhile on the main island, Jean Paul convinces Vangie to hold a séance to contact Erica's spirit, which she is willing to do if slightly reluctant because she knows that she will eventually die on Maljardin.  This suggestion excites Elizabeth, whom he has to remind that "it is not a game."  She also asks if he would ever let her go, and he says that he would only let her return to Maljardin: proof that Jean Paul is still on board with the whole detained guests thing.

In the lab, Alison is searching the drawers of Dr. Menkin’s cabinet for his notes on Erica and finds a small notepad hidden among the papers in one. She reads it, her mouth agape, as Raxl enters.

What could it say about Erica?

Raxl lets Alison know that she knows about Dan searching for the missing cyanide in the crypt and is not pleased. She asks Alison if Dan doesn’t trust her, and she defends him, saying that none of them can trust each other anymore. Then they debate whether or not one of the other characters made the machine break down. Alison says that she now thinks it most likely broke down on its own, but Raxl still insists that someone (by which she means Jacques) tampered with it. Raxl has a point, because brand-new water tanks don’t generally start spraying out huge amounts of water on their own like the capsule’s cooling tank was doing.

SCENE INTERRUPTING DAN: “Hello, Raxl. I didn’t know you were interested in lab experiments, too.” (LOL)

Even though the leak was clearly the work of supernatural forces, Alison still tells Dan, "Don't make any more waves around here." Good luck with that. You may want to talk Jean Paul into having Quito buy you duct tape the next time you see him, then tape Dan’s mouth shut and tie his hands behind his back to keep him from tearing it off. That’s the only way to stop him from accusing Jean Paul of being a murderer and imprisoning all of you here. (It will also make it easier to get with your far more attractive brother-in-law, especially if you leave Dan in his bedroom while the two of you wrestle with your unresolved sexual tension in the Great Hall.)

In the crypt, Raxl tells Quito that it’s time to begin searching the caskets for the conjure doll and the silver pin--which I thought she said they already did in previous episodes, but I could be wrong. Maybe they just want to double-check to make sure they checked everywhere in the basement. Quito begins pulling open Jacques’ casket and we cut to a couple filler scenes with the other characters. When we return to Raxl and Quito, we find her back upstairs searching the fireplace in the Great Hall for the doll and pin. When Quito arrives, she asks him if he found them in the casket and he shakes his head. They head upstairs to continue their search--which, again, I thought she said that they already searched upstairs in Episode 29, but I suppose they just want to double-check.

Alison tells Dan when he next visits the lab that Dr. Menkin was trying to learn how to recreate an entire human body. Reminds me of Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Menkin both tried to play God by creating a living human body, but their experiments differed in that Frankenstein used cadaver parts to build his man, while Menkin’s experiments involved cellular regeneration and possibly (based on the sources referenced in Episode 26) robotics/artificial intelligence as well. I don’t know if Martin had planned to draw a direct parallel between the Drs. Menkin and Frankenstein at some point, but I suspect he was.

But Alison still doesn’t know enough about his experiments to satisfy her (or us), because all of Dr. Menkin’s notes from the six weeks before his death are missing. This is suspicious for obvious reasons, given his death shortly after her arrival, which she still doesn’t know was Jacques’ fault for no other reason than that she was upstairs at the time when he told Raxl his highly suspicious story about Menkin’s “accident” in the water.

Really, Dan? A bottle of cyanide goes missing and yet you willingly drink alcohol that’s been sitting out where anyone could pour poison into it? SMH Yet another reason why Alison should duct tape your mouth shut.

Dan is suspicious of Raxl--who is just about the last character they should suspect of hiding the cyanide or murdering either Erica or Dr. Menkin--but even more suspicious of Jean Paul. He and Alison also discuss how Jean Paul may not have filed Erica's death certificate with the authorities and how suspicious this makes him look--which is recap, yes, but which I bring up again because it is still relevant. I am really thinking (and was really thinking as far back as last fall) that Martin was originally planning to reveal that Jean Paul killed Erica and was trying to resurrect her out of some combination of guilt, regret, and fear that Erica's death would make him look suspicious. This would not only make these clues worth more than red herrings (or, should I say, kippers?), but it would also connect to all the things that Jacques says about he and Jean Paul not being so different. I have a whole theory about this, which I plan to discuss in a future post sometime later in this arc.

Alison also mentions some sea caves five hundred yards from an unseen cove on Maljardin, which she says Raxl told her about (unfortunately, I don’t remember in which episode). This seems to be foreshadowing something--I’m guessing the discovery of Jacques’ pirate ship that’s mentioned in another episode--but they never visit the caves, unless that’s where the Temple of the Serpent is located.

Back on the main island, Jean Paul has returned, but Vangie has left to go somewhere. Jean Paul says that she is probably packing a few days’ clothing for her stay on his island. Elizabeth is relieved to hear that she will only be there a few days. She also reveals that she sees Vangie as "competition" for Jean Paul's affections. (LOL) I would say that she is deluding herself, but then, she is unaware that Jean Paul was possessed all the times that he flirted with her; in her mind, Jacques is the real Jean Paul and the Jean Paul who mourns Erica is “not himself.” It does explain, however, why she was clinging to him in that one scene from last episode. Even so, Vangie never has any love interests on the show. I’ve suspected for a while that she and Raxl secretly have a thing for each other. Obviously they wouldn’t have shown that on TV in 1969, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t still ship them together.[1]

Elizabeth’s profession of interest in him motivates Jacques to possess him again, and we get

HEADACHE FACES! Yay!

After possessing him, Jacques reassures Elizabeth that he is very much still interested in her (Elizabeth, I mean, not Vangie). He also sends the audience more false hopes for Holly's death: "I'd stake Jean Paul Desmond's life, virtually every day…What’s one life, more or less? It doesn't even matter whose life. Take your daughter for example, before she's twenty-one and inherits all those millions."

Elizabeth looks appalled by this suggestion, but it’s hard to say if she truly is or if it’s all an act. I’m sure, though, that this is, roughly, the thought process going through Jacques’ mind:

Coming up next: Jean Paul and Vangie make more arrangements for the séance to contact Erica and Raxl reveals more of Maljardin’s history.

{ <- Previous: Episode 30   ||   Next: Episode 32 -> }

Notes

[1] In the books, Quito is Raxl’s husband, but that obviously isn’t the case on the show, or else she would most likely be jealous of his affections for Holly. The fact that she isn’t suggests that the two aren’t married (or, at the very least, aren’t married anymore) in the show canon. This means that Raxl doesn’t have a canonical love interest.

[borisbubbles]

25. PORTUGAL

Elisa - “Medo de sentir”

We’ve finally crossed over into the “I like this” territory :-) Let’s celebrate by booting another ballad ^_^

Song Analysis

This will be short and sweet though, since there isn’t much to say. “Medo de sentir” basically the Marie Myriam of its national final: It is a cromulent ballad that did nothing wrong and is solidly good, but not great in all the relevant areas (vocals, composition, staging). 

I mean,

Even so, Elisa gave me a few small nuggets that warmed me to her, serving DRAMAFACE in the FdC Semi

and LOOKS in the Finale: 

Peach puffy sleeves that rival Leonor Andrade’s legendary shoulder pads as a fashion statement <3 (honestly, this is pretty subdued for FdC fashion even? Hold on until I get talk about Felipe in the NF Corner) 

Honestly, you may wonder why I like this more than “Répondez-moi”, but I don’t really have a reason  - unless you’re willing to accept “Medo de sentir is underrated, is performed by a Weird Indie Girl and is from a criminally overlooked Eurovision country” as valid argumentations. Oh and while I only *very* mildly like Elisa, it is a decision I made myself, completely free of the social pressure I feel whenever Gjon, or heaven forbid, Roxen or Diodato, pop up. 

Furthermore, the fact that I still like Elisa even after she won her NF also speaks greatly in her favour. I’m not sure if you were aware of how good FdC was this year? Well, sit down because you are about to witness it!

NF Corner

Remember how old Eesti Laul’s neck was snapped and its corpse was urinated on by the shit Estonians? Remember how the quirky indie weirdo entries had to find a safe haven elsewhere in Europe? The Portugese hallmark traits of “Not Giving A Fuck”, “Doing Our Own Thing No Matter What” and “What Do You Mean This Isn’t A Vimeo Showreel?” allowed for Festival da Canção to absorb Eesti Laul’s broken spirit and channel it from every (Ley-La-)Ley-Line.

and since this is the first *GREAT* 2020 NF I am covering, I will do HONORABLE MENTIONS before I actually review my four choices :o

Dubio - “Ceguiera”: Hamburglar-looking goddess <3333

MEERA - “Copo de gin”: Pure EL-style EDM *and* it’s about drinking gin, needless to say this song is basically *my anthem*.  Jimmy P - “Abensonhado”: Rap rarely is my thing, let alone three minutes of it non-stop. Having said that, this is genuine and dramatic and Jimmy is flanked by a GOSPEL CHOIR (dressed in chasubles!!!) who support him in ENGLISH... I am not made of stone.  JJaZZ - “Agora”: Totally slept on this weird indie anthem, but then they showed up looking like this:

and yes, it was even funnier in motion (sadly gif’ing rights are reserved to the Elite 4 soz) Elisa Rodrigues - “Não voltes mais”: a jolly tropical ballad in a genre I recognize but cannot name (some sort of pimba fado jazz? Does this work?) and was incomprehensibly hated by the Portuguese? Will I ever understand how this country operates? Probably never. Kady - “Diz so”: another pimba fado jazz sort of thing? My friend André (who is from Brazil) tells me it’s actively parodying Brazillian counterculture and leftist stereotypes which is such a random quirk to put in a Portuguese music comp <3

And before we move on, I’ll chuck in a very speclal DISHONORABLE mention for our good friends Blasted Mechanism.😈 I actually forgot to do my jury duties for ESCUnited here, so I’ll just let James (the person with the best taste on our team, including yours truly) do it for me: 

Fucking *TRUTH*. “Rebellion’”s problem  has always been a lack of motherfucking balls. Sure, these middle-aged steampunkers attempt to implement a genre shift between indie rock and fucking ORCHESTRAL METAL/HIP HOP and make it so underwhelming and pathetic? People blame the live, and yes it was *bad* (forever cackling at “REBELGIUM” tho), but it was the studio that failed to deliver on the promises it made.  It always surprises me when people (Sean and Roy I AM coming for you) slam "Verona” for being a “fanwank” and then fall for a Rebellion which is basically a fanwank for heterosexual snobs. #ShotsFired. 

Now, as for the actual Boris faves, LET US START WITH A LIBERAL DOSE OF ASKEW CUBISM

Judas - “Cubismo Enviesado” 

VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?   

VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  

VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?   

VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  VÊS OU NÃO?  

 WHAT A FUCKING SPANDEX CATASTROPHE. “Cubismo enviesado” is a horrible song, the choreography looks like it had been conjured up during a particularly drunk night of bedroom karaoke and Judas can’t hold a tune for the life of him. The lyrics don’t even make sense in Portuguese <33333 It is an art school project gone disastrously wrong. NEEDLESS TO SAY, I AM OBSESSED.😍

Filipe Sambado - “Gerbera Amarelo do Sul”

That look

The regal panache

Those... leather shorts?

IT IS SO QUEER I LOVES IT. As with Cubismo, I am fucking OBSESSED. However, unlike Cubismo, “Gerbera amarela do sul” is *legitimately* great, lol. In addition to having a KICK-ASS fado rhythm and the off-the-charts visual components (the jewellery! the hats! the throne! the hand choreography!), the lyrics are highly intelligent poetry geared at dismantling upper class snobism.😍 Rare to find an entry that kicks ass on SO MANY levels. Even harder to see it lose to Elisa Myriam - but I’m not sad it lost because, you know, it would have befallen the same fate as a “Telemóveis”. At least his existence makes the memory-holing of Achille Lauro’s ICONIC Virgin Queen Cosplay so much easier to stomach. 

Throes & The Shine - “Movimiento”

I mean, entries that open like THIS: 

are instantly iconic, ngl. The best FdC entries offer a great triple of great looks, unplugged stubborn artistry and fun quirky rhythmes. Throes + The Shine pass this with flying colours and I mean, THOSE sunglasses alone yank up the laugh-out-laugh factor to astronomical levels. add in a hilarious choreography, sound effects that seemingly imitate duck mating noises and three very attractive men (in 2020! the concept!) and it’s an instant fave right there. 

AND THEN MADE THEIR ENTRY EVEN BETTER BY ADDING MIDNIGHT GOLD/JOWST EFFECTS TO THEIR STAGING. 😍😍😍😍

MANCHAS DE LAMA NA SUA PELE  

HEROES. 😍😍😍

and of course, this wouldn’t be a 2020 NF without an obvious runaway fave losing at the last minute: 

Bárbara Tinoco - “Passe-partout”

SHE IS TINY <3333:

She’s like a human bonsai... or a personal attack chincilla.

Okay, so Portugal were *THIS close* to out-France’ing the French with this sassy Zazballad, served with a generous dollop of parisian accordion and stank reaction shots.

Yet another entry that shamelessly uses an attractive man as a boytoy prop <333 For a brief moment, Bàrbara and Tiago establish themselves as a pair of lovestruck La La Land idiots, gearing themselves towards the EPIC moment where she will dump him... and then this happens before the first chorus:

Barbara opens up a can of dancer carbs and it completely fucks up her no-bullshit keto diet. 

Those dancers man. They aren’t a *bad* addition in itself, but if your thing is “romance ballad but *plot twist* it’s actually an end of romance ballad get lost loser” do not burn the clou within the first minute of the performance to a group of dancers who don’t even dance *along with the beat of your song*. UGH.

(and also, more devastatingly, the reduce tiaGOD’s airtime how dare they grrr)

Fortunately though, I have learned to appreciate the wrecktitude of it all because it caused one of the funniest downfall narratives in recent ESC history. The Portuguese were, of course, foaming at the mouth with all the decisions Bárbara had made (not even for the points I raised, necessarily?) and Bárbara was having none of it. It went kinda like this

Juries: EWWW DANCERS AND CHOREOGRAPHY YOU ARE RAPING YOUR OWN SONG YOU PHILISTINE WHORE. Bárbara: 

Juries: WOW WHAT *ARROGANCE*!! YOU THINK YOU CAN WIN BUT BOY DO WE HAVE NEWS FOR YOU :-) 

and lo hand behold, the finale rolls on and Tinoco’s dancers are still there, and are even *MORE* present than they were in the semi (but also in sync with the beat) and Bárbara gets promptly jurydunked into third place. 😍 Even though she has the *ONLY* song in FdC that could have qualified in its semifinal. 😍  A woman who stands three apples tall trolling an entire nation and juries because she knew she had gold in her hands and then getting rigged out of the easiest nf victory out of pure SPITE 😍  WHAT AN ARC. 😍

Portugal 2020 vs Portugal 2021

Elisa probably would not have qualified. I’m not sure how popular of an opinion this is, but I prefer the semifinal performance of “Medo de sentir” and that wasn’t the staging they were going for. Not many people seemed to care either way, and that’s usually the death sentence for Portugal. 

Elisa won’t be back for 2021 or whenever Eurovision is rebooted. :sigh: Fuck you, Coronavirus. 

Freaky! Friday! Factor!

See: NF Corner:

Score: 4 Senhits out of 5. 

[traindelays]

The Family Man Arc is a good character analysis arc for John Constantine because it is one of the few arcs that so strongly show who John is outside of who he presents himself to be ( I’d even go as so far to say as the narrative presents him to be, as well ). I believe it to be one of the more memorable arcs that explores John’s blatant terror and struggles of his own humanity.

The Family Man Arc takes place between the original Hellblazer issues #23, #24, #28, #29 & #30.

John reflects on the Family Man after three entire months of going on with his life. It’s not guilt of the family who was murdered from the address card he unwillingly handed over to the man that stirs his mind ( though he encounters a nightmare of them at some point ), it’s the fact that he saw himself in a man that turned out to be a murderer. He saw himself and was scared enough to determine that the only way to solve this was to confront him and find what makes a murderer of a man, and how to quell that nature.

John finally coming to terms that the reality of the situation is more serious than any of his other typical ordeals. He admits to his fear that this is entirely a physical altercation ( in this moment ); he’s got to rely on brute strength and the desperation to survive. But he knows that’s a lost fight before it even starts.

That same night, John has a dream he’s talking himself up so he can do the job and kill the Family Man, but then it ends up turning into his father that he hasn’t seen in 20+ years. I don’t really want to fall down a rabbit hole of symbolic interpretations but a few of them could be that John sees a father-figure in the few pleasant interacts he’d had with him prior to finding out the truth, and killing him would in some way be like killing his own father ( which is later explained in further issues that John did almost kill his own father with a hex he made in his teens as a response to the abuse he was faced with by him ) ... or more closely to the previous panel: John sees himself as the Family Man because of how he “killed” his own family ( e.g. his father with the hex, and his overall defiance to maintaining a relationship, and the guilt he feels for being blamed for his mother’s death ), and the subconscious fear that he’s not so different from him. 

He wakes up from this dream screaming “DAD!” then hears the noise of Chas coming up the stairs, grabs the bread knife he kept at his side and - thinking it’s the Family Man - tries to go in for the kill. Which fails IMMEDIATELY because John is not a fighter. Chas kicks his ass, the reality of the situation kicks in---and John pukes outside on the sidewalk.

After straightening up with a smoke and some tea, Chas accuses John of messing around with the demon stuff again, to which John admits would be easier. John has an easier time dealing with things that don’t force him to face how shitty humanity is. 

Magic lets him go after forces that he can pin as being “worse” than humans, while also giving him the escapism he’s always chasing in terms of facing humanity as a whole and how he personally fits into the role of humanity ( a common theme that creeps up all throughout Hellblazer when John reaches another prolonged breaking point ).

His next move, and his last resort to winning against “man” is to get a gun. One of the things that John vocally detests across several Constantine series, both as a moral standpoint ( and more lesser and assumed classic jab from a Brit. )

There are a few important things to point out.

1. John is quite literally out of his element. He’s never owned, held, or had an experience with a gun prior to the moment he buys it off of a shady arms dealer from Chas’ help. This is something that John can’t fake expertise on because using a gun requires an accurate enough precision, is extremely tangible - unlike magic - and is a direct means of killing. John isn’t trying to weasle his way out of a tricky situation, his back is to the wall. His hands been forced, he is down to his last resort. If he doesn’t kill the Family Man, the Family Man WILL kill him. Magic cannot save him. He is forced to remember that despite all his engagements with the occult, he’s a mortal man. To the audience, it’s also a grim but important reminder that he’s just a man.

Tying into Point #1, self-defense is not John’s strong point. He is very vocal through the entire Hellblazer series that he is not a fighter. He has a chance of getting one really good punch if he gets to swing first, but if it’s not enough to finish the job then he’s shit out of luck. John’s biggest skill is being underhanded and cunning. John not being able to fight is about the only thing he openly, quickly, and unashamedly admits that he CANNOT do.  

John’s so out of his element, he makes the guy who sold the gun to him to load the bullets for him. Then he’s alone with the gun and his thoughts and we get this panel with the “When you begin to think like a gun--the days of your life are already gone.” (John Cale, Fear--1974.) 

It’s a song; not uncommon for John to compare his emotions with lyrics considering his life was music before it got ruined by magic. The song is Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend and can be heard here, and these are the lyrics:

Standing waiting for a man to show Wide eyed one eye fixed on the door This waiting's killing me, it's wearing me down Day in day out, my feet are burning holes in the ground

Darkness warmer than a bedroom floor Want someone to hold me close forever more I'm a sleeping dog, but you can't tell When I'm on the prowl you'd better run like hell You know it makes sense, don't even think about it Life and death are just things you do when you're bored Say fear's a man's best friend You add it up it brings you down

Home is living like a man on the run Trails leading nowhere, where to my son? We're already dead, just not yet in the ground Take my helping hand I'll show you around You know it makes sense, don't even think about it Life and death are just things you do when you're bored Say fear's a man's best friend You add it up it brings you down

After getting the gun, John goes back to Chas’ who is bandaged up from an attack by the Family Man, and shortly after, John confirms with his sister that his father’s been murdered. At the news, John cries out “Dad!” again and cries. Now he’s got fear that his sister and his niece are next to be killed and his sense of urgency amplifies. Chas tells John that the old man is not only extremely fast, but he’s as strong as a horse, which couldn’t possibly make John feel any better about his own fate. 

There are a few scenes prior to this where John seemingly slips back into his natural element of sleuthing. He tracks down the T.V. Agent that was the middleman for his old friend and the Family Man, and purposefully helped him tail his lead to this neighborhood. He falls back into this after his father’s death, and puts on an act of having Chas kick him out where he knows the Family Man can see and hear, and then leads him to Chas’ cousin’s house, Norma, where he stays for the night. He makes sure the Family Man is near the window when he deliberately and incorrectly announces that he’s catching a 7 a.m. train. This is the John we are used to seeing; the John that relies on misdirection and deception to slip through the cracks. He’s trying to take control back to put the odds in his favor. 

Still, they’re getting ready to have sex, and she comments that John is trembling. He knows he’s set down the trap for the Family Man but his nerves are still shot. So much so that he changes his mind on the sex offer and lets her keep the money anyway. Probably not too important, but John is often one to escape his problems with booze, sex, or chasing adrenaline rushes, so it stands out to me as something worth mentioning. 

( But he does eventually request for sex after Chas’ phone call scares him awake and he nearly falls out of bed, gun in hand. Still, he’s so stressed, he just kinda lays there sweating up a storm while Norma does all the work lol, then he hurriedly gets dressed to make a move on. )

John can’t sleep, and sits up holding the gun in his hand. No real reason to post these panels, it’s just one of my favorites. : )

The argument between John and humanity resurfaces again now that he’s on the move. 

“But it shouldn’t be this easy. Life’s supposed to be sacred. You can’t just end it like a sentence. You’re human--you should feel something.” 

He asks himself what’s wrong with him because he’s about to commit murder and his hands aren’t shaking. He immediately references himself as a murder as well to his father and all his friends of his past. He loses his resolve, just like that. He is struggling with his own sense of humanity. He goes from separating himself from the Family Man as someone that values life, and how it’s not up to him to decide who gets to live, to lumping himself in with him again, and then to justifying that he HAS to kill him because he needs to see for himself that he is more than a man that John can / is---that he’s something other and separate of his own.

Then we get the perspective from the Family Man himself, who catches on to John purposefully leading him on. They are referenced as being similar here; they are both playing a game they are familiar with. John poses as a challenge, he’s brought himself up to level on the playing field and the dynamic turns from the hunter and prey into a competition.

John takes the tube to the bus and contemplates how long he’ll have to deal with looking over his shoulder in fear of his life. One of his thoughts is: 

“In the imagination, the intent is as potent as the act. I was a killer as soon as I bought the gun.” 

It’s not long before John gets ambushed by the Family Man at a road stop and gets chased into the countryside. ( Sidenote: As a character always being aligned with being a fox, it’s interesting having him referred to as a rabbit. )

They finally meet up after a decent chase and the first thing John asks is “Why?” because at the front of all of this, that’s the burning question that ties him in with the Family Man, himself, and his own father. He doesn’t know what consists of being a murderer in the way the Family Man has made a home of it for himself. The Family Man mocks him, tells him he can’t shoot him because he’s a “virgin” as in someone that hasn’t killed anyone before ( something John, in some degree, would disagree - but he’s right in that John has never committed first degree murder ). 

The moment the family man starts to say that he reminds John of his father, he finds it in him to pull the trigger. This ties into my earlier mentions of John and his subconscious dragging up his relationship and guilt about his father---the next page is a flashback into the Family Man’s life about his father:

The flashback shows the Family Man’s father shooting down their dog and explaining that it was his responsibility to put the dog out of its misery because it was hurting. Because that’s “love.” In the following page, the Family Man ( barely even maimed by the first bullet ) says that John won’t be able to murder him because he doesn’t love him enough. 

It’s obvious that the Family Man equates murder with love in some twisted, traumatic delusion tied to his childhood. 

There are further pages of flashbacks that show him responding irrationally to events in his childhood, but as that’s progressing, John’s just holding the gun at the man and saying “I don’t want this!”

“I don’t want this!” 

“Don’t be... pathetic. You have... to do it. Don’t... you want to share the... secret?”

“Yes.” John doesn’t hesitate to admit that’s what he needs.

“Well you can’t until you’re free!” Family Man reaches out to try and stab John, and he fires the gun again. 

Kindness in the face of death is mentioned again. Family Man is now the dog, in his misery, waiting to be put down. Except John is not the Family Man’s father and is not so willing to murder, still. 

“Goddamn you, tell me why? Why did you kill them all? Why, why? I must know why!”

“I told you... you have to... kill me to... find out.”

The core of John’s agony is still presented to us that he tries and fails to understand what it all means. What it means to a murder to be a murderer, how do they get to that part, what separates them from the rest, what makes them not him. 

He never gets an answer. 

The Family Man shoots himself for John / helps John give him the final blow. The silence of the loss is an answer, the weight of his actions are all he has to examine in seeking truth for the question he desperately wants answered. 

To further show how incredibly human John is, he throws up again after the deed is done. A man that stomachs demons, and ghouls, and the ghosts of his dead, tormented friends can’t look at a man he just killed without succumbing to the trauma. 

He laments about how the world continues to spin despite losing / taking the life of another. He immediately feels the need to share this pain with someone else do he’s not dealing with it alone, and to rationalize why he had to kill this man. He remains struggling with the idea that there could be an excuse for murder. 

He tells himself he’s saved countless of other families, but it’s not as tangible as the reality of the man he’s LITERALLY killed. Unlike the hypothetical families, the death is as real as everything around him. 

Not only that, but he refers to this as the Mark of Cain, a prominent story in the Bible that involves Cain killing his brother Abel and lying to God about it. God sets a mark upon him that lets everyone else know that he’s a murderer. Like this murder, even if it’s not obvious to others, he knows that he will forever be set apart from everyone else around him for this action. He in inevitably changed. 

Something something, Bible excerpts because I’m not an expert:  "Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth"  (Genesis 4:11-12)

“Executioners are always volunteers. They do it because they want to.” 

John doesn’t include himself in the ‘they’ of this statement and its, I think, intentionally left vague as to whether a part of him wanted that kill ( the kill being more-so the answer or truth to the whole ordeal, not the murder itself ), but at the end of the panel when he’s thinking back to something an old lady told him, it’s goes back to the idea of just HAVING to know what you don’t know. 

At the core of John’s character he is not a murderer, or an executioner. He’s a man like anyone else, struggling to keep his humanity in check, even when he’s forced into a position that threatens his morals. He makes the hard decisions that other people might not be able to make, and does what other people might not dare to do, and questions if that makes him more like his fellow man or further apart from them. 

But in addition to that, he’s a man that doesn’t like unanswered questions, and if there’s something he can’t figure out, and even if it might get him killed---he just has to know.

[maddieandyou]

Analysis on The Good Doctor episode 8 ‘Stories’

Metaphors and themes of love, forgiveness and betrayal 

Melendaire but could be read as unromantic or romantic also. 

This episode dealt with 3 different couples (both romantic and ‘professional’) dealing with some form of betrayal and throughout the episode the characters receive and resolve their feelings and relationships in different ways, either one doesn't want to talk to the other and they want to split or one comes to forgive the other. Two out of the three stories however are more similar than the third. 

The episode showed 3 couples dealing with betrayal and forgiveness, 2 of which were patients or family of a patient and the other Claire and Neil. The main question that the last few episodes has been building up to is how they are going to resolve their issue and the episode that focuses on that is also surrounded by 2 other couples and how they deal with a form of betrayal.

The car crash couple and Claire and Neil share a very, almost mirrored journey in this episode. And luckily both end positively. However the other side to the resolve between Claire and Neil could have ended up like the anti vax couple as they too shared a few similarities which I will explain below.

So my idea is that the episode purposefully contrasts two different couples dealing with a betrayal and how it is resolved. These resolves get influenced by medical revelations and the other characters putting their help and opinion in. 

However these 2 couples are only here for one episode, they don’t really matter in the grand scheme of the show, but they do add to the narrative themes and putting across to the audience an idea or feeling. Those feelings to name a few are basically betrayal, love and forgiveness.

The one story line that is staying, that is important and is therefore the central progression of the episode is the story line between Claire and Neil that gets tackled within the episode. The story line between Claire and Neil is also about betrayal, love (if u ship it anyway) and forgiveness. 

This is all done on purpose to highlight the and even become a foil for the relationship of Neil and Claire when comparing to the other 2 couples.

In the episode you can see Claire is dealing with something herself whilst also trying to help the husband forgive his wife for her (not really purposeful) betrayal. This is paralleled by Melendez not forgiving Claire for her breach of protocol and in both situations it is putting the relationship at risk of splitting up. 

There is also a lot of symbolic comparisons made between them too, but I’m just taking this from their choice of having certain things be said and then cutting to Claire’s reaction while she herself is going through a similar situation. 

“everything was good” the shot is on Claire, her residency was going really good, she was improving and had progressed her (’professional’) relationship with Melendez, especially in this second season 

“the last few months with todd, it was like our honeymoon” the shot is on Claire, honeymoon works as a metaphor here of course, the honeymoon could mean the good place Claire was in with her career and the same from the above.

(I know those cutaways were also Claire doing her thing and noticing the problem with the patient but its too much a coincidence as well, they could have cut to Shaun more than they did) 

The purpose of these similarities is that Claire relates to it and therefore when she was able to come to her own conclusion with her issues it in turn helped her to say the right things to the husband that convinced him to forgive his wife. The way in which she was also able to say the right things to convince Melendez to let her back on his team, but this time due to her having the control of the situation which I will dive into later.

But overall Claire seemed on edge all episode, even saying things like “sometimes people, even the people you love and trust betray you”, although I think is most likely to do with her experience with her mother than Melendez

(just also wanna throw in the line the wife says “I couldn't imagine living without him”, like lol nice Claire reference)

Now to compare this to the other couple, the anti vaxx, once the husband finds out that their son has been vaccinated at his wife's request he feels betrayed he refuses to talk to her and from what the son says wants to divorce, they refuse to communicate and talk it out through their stubbornness. And for the last few episodes Claire and Neil have not been speaking to each other and communicating about what happened because of both of their stubbornness. And the ‘divorce’ between the two in this episode is represented by Claire looking and being sorted out by different hospitals, they are therefore at risk of splitting up. 

Their is a theme of marriage in this episode using key words such as ‘honeymoon’ and ‘divorce’

This is what I mean by the resolve between Claire and Neil could essentially go either way in parallel to the couples. Luckily however they go for the resolve closest, to the car crash couple. Even some of the scenes and features of their arc are mirrored. As I’ll describe in this simplified format:

(I’m writing this in a more romantic sense but it can also be more as a professional opportunity as well tbh, get ur bread claire)

Claire to the car crash husband right after her scene with Melendez: “She acted on every impulse and temptation she had and was NEVER tempted to leave you...she NEVER stopped loving you”

Also Claire in this episode: Had various options to leave the hospital for a different residency but was willing to put her pride aside to give a cover for Melendez because she never really wanted to leave (him) she was never tempted to, (she never stopped ‘loving’ him)

Another example 

The car crash husband: Isn’t sure he can forgive his wife for the betrayal, but realises it was out of her control and goes to approach her to talk about it and probably apologise, but waits until others leave the room first.

Melendez: Isn’t sure if he’s willing to let the breach of protocol go even though Claire saved the woman’s life. So he goes to approach her to talk and probably apologise (not confirmed  what he was gonna do tho) but waits until the other people leave the room first.

Mirroring like this that is shown in this episode is not done accidentally

It could have ended differently, Claire could have stuck to her resolve and left, and Melendez could have refused her on his team again, or continued to be stubborn. 

Instead though, Claire was able to learn from the car crash couple and she helped them too, helped them deal with the situation.

Yes, there is the question of who was right and wrong but at this point Claire realised it wasn't as important as both of their careers and their relationship to each other, once she realised it was not worth throwing away she found a resolve for her and Melendez and in turn was able to help the car crash couple. 

She needed to think outside of the box and show initiative

Claire when she finds out whats wrong with the car crash wife: “There’s definitely something, I think we were just looking in the wrong place”

Now I know there were a lot of opinions on Claire having to be the one to apologise and people had a lot of issues with Andrews too, but I think he was needed. Someone had to step in and let them know what a ridiculous situation they were in.

What I thought was needed for Claire's development that lead her to her impressive resolve, which I don’t think would have happened if Andrews didn’t say this to her, was to remind her of who she is, a resident. That is why she is being treated this way in this situation. In the past there have been issues with sexism that Claire has had to face in both seasons, but in this case Claire needed a different approach 

In her push for respect and to be taken seriously or she walks, she lost her way a bit. Claire sees her issue with Melendez as if they are equals which is fine when talking about gender, disability or race which have come up before in the show. But in this case it was rank and this needs to be taken seriously when peoples lives are at stake. 

Where I think Claire realises her approach was wrong was when she confronts Andrews for coming to her first, challenging that it’s because he thinks she is easier to push. But then Andrews tells her it’s because she is a resident and not an attending . There is like a look on her face which makes me think she now knows that in order to still stand her ground she has to approach this a different way.

So what does she do? she plays along and lets something as small as the word ‘sorry’ not dictate whether or not she gets to stay in the hospital with the team and get education she wants. But if shes going to have to say sorry to Melendez she gonna sure as hell let him know that shes doing it to save his ass and she doesn't mean the apology because she has the upper hand in this situation, she plays the hierarchy game and wins, I guess we’ll see where this takes us. But she also is happy to have their relationship back to normal too, their cute little smiles made me happy : )

Claire is working from the bottom up by giving in and saying sorry instead of standing her ground but the sacrifice is worth it because in the end she gets her way, lets Melendez know that shes still sticking to her guns but still gets to be back on his team, while also giving a good impression to Andrews, letting him think he got his way. When Melendez walks away she looks so happy, she did it and Melendez understood that and didn't argue it, he in a way ‘forgave her’ because she was able to find a way for it to work for her that stayed in protocol, as opposed to breaking it which he didn’t like, he expects better from her and she delivered.

Claire is just head of surgery material like she just played two of her superiors lol

“the man may be the head but the woman is the neck and can turn the head any way she wants”

But overall when discussing this episode with my friends I feel that this episode proves that we can expect further development between Claire and Neil, but it’s not going to happen quickly or even in this season, but it’s planting the idea. The show will go back to normal now and will have a different relationship to focus on, but they’ve let us know that this isn't the end.

sorry this is so long hope you enjoyed!