#clark as someone who does deeply care and connect with humanity but is ultimately an alien who could kill everyone on earth in 5 minutes

[to-the-batcomputer]

i love the conflicts between batman and superman in jl and jlu. i love batman so much. that guy is always fighting so hard for humanity, taking every precaution necessary, standing up to his friends and asserting his point of view as a regular human. as forcefully as necessary. stubborn but willing to admit when he was wrong. i love batman.

[crossinggalaxies]

Why That Episode was AWFUL

Okay here we go. There’s going to be a lot of things you don’t agree with probably in this post. So let me preface this by saying I don’t intend to argue. I’m also very well aware that this is my opinion and not fact. I also would like to warn you, as you can probably tell by the title that this is going to be INCREDIBLY NEGATIVE. So if you are easily affected by negative talk, enjoyed the episode, or want to debate; don’t read the post.

So let me start off by saying that when I say that the episode was AWFUL I mean the writing. It’s sooo hard to critique AOS and say anything that they create is bad because the ACTORS are so good that they make everything seem GOOD even when it’s not.

Even now my brain, on some level, is trying to convince me that it wasn’t that bad of an episode because the ACTORS (especially Iain tonight -HOLY SHIT) were soooo fucking good that it almost doesn’t compute with the shitty storytelling it was attached to.

I want to also mention that the first 40 minutes of the show seemed good, but ultimately forgettable due to how BADDD the last 20 were and that is when you know you DONE FUCKED UP.

But at the end of it all when I look at the script, ignoring the excellent, performances, I see that the writing was absolutely horrible. And below I will explain why.

I also want to preface this by also saying as a writer myself there is a few things that make a story/writing (whether it’s for a book, show, movie, or what have you) good in my eyes. 1. I absolutely believe you need to tell a story for yourself. You should write something you needed growing up (you probably still need it now). You should write something you find important. And in return you should hardly ever write for your audience. (Side note this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t say for instance include gay characters. You should always try to write inclusively but not because it’s what your audience needs or wants but because it’s what ACTUAL life and humanity looks like. AKA representation matters). What I do mean when I say that you shouldn’t write for your audience is that you should write an authentic story that resonates with you and stems from a place that means something.

Btw writing for your audience doesn’t just mean writing happy/good things (IE FAN SERVICE) I also mean writing things for your audience like that purely for shock value because you know it’s what is going to get at your viewers (which is what they did, ie emotional manipulation) and cause a reaction. Ultimately you should never write just to cause a reaction. It should mean more.

2. A good writer in my book is someone who can write something that generates a response in their audience BUT NOT because it was their single goal to do so but because they authentically wrote something that meant something to them in a way that worked and their audience could feel it because of this authenticity. And tonight that wasn’t there.

To me this episode 100 percent was about writing to create shock value and showcased so little care for the actual story that they for the longest time seemed to be excellently and authentically writing. (They botched this last small half of the season and here’s why)

Deke’s Speech on Fixing the Team:

I was super conflicted about Deke’s speech to Daisy on needing to mend the team. On one hand I loved it because FUCKING FINALLY and also I 100 percent agree. But on the other hand looking at it now that the episode is done I think it was all about generating a reaction and not about story telling. For the longest time now I've been wondering why they haven't started this process of healing an episode or two earlier. And now I understand that they put it off until the last moment to increase the overall tension and reaction from the audience. It has felt incredibly out of character for the team not to be concerned about fixing things a little earlier (ie getting their shit together) than just the last episode. So while I am glad that they started the mending process it annoys me that they held it off until the last moment just to raise the stakes and make the audience feel more. Ultimately I think waiting until the last moment to raise such stakes made the pacing of the story a little off in the last section, which happens when you (in my opinion don’t write from an authentic place.)

Deke

I don’t even know where to start so lets just start with our old pal Deke. Deke became an amazing character because at first most of us really didn’t like him. However he became so important and integral to the story. And in my eyes he became a large voice of reason. The thing I loved most about him this season was watching him and his relationship with Jemma grow. It was so emotional and well done and I connected so deeply with it.

So you can imagine how LIVID I am with how he disappeared and literally no one says anything. It was completely OOC for the group but mostly for Jemma to not even acknowledge his absence and here to me is one of the largest sightings of shock value writing in this episode.

YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY NO ONE MENTIONED HIM?

Because the writers wanted you to feel the shock of his absence and in having someone speak of him it would have taken away from that.

Had someone mentioned him, or the potential for search for him... that could have possibly stripped away from the emotion/shock you were feeling for his absence. So despite the fact that it didn’t serve the story, it created what felt like a strange and OOC reaction from the group and namely Jemma, they went with it anyways because they were more concerned with the shock value. This to me served as one of the larger indicators that they were writing for shock over story telling and it damaged the episode in the process.

Phil

Oh okay. So he’s dying. But they’re just gonna chill on a beach, all smiles all is good. Man Idk I just felt like Phalinda as a couple and individuals deserved more. Also as much as I love this couple. Can I just say I’m a bit bitter. That they’ve been together for .3 seconds and would have still had a better happier ending to the entirety of the show, than a couple who’s literally suffered for 5 years. Like how the hell does that make any storytelling sense? Anyway.

Fitz

There's a lot of reasons for why I hated everything regarding his story in this last episode. Here is the most important though.

His death was bullshit: literally dude just got crushed by rocks. (Shock value much??) You know I've mentioned numerous times before that on a large level I thought that they might kill him. But even in that pit of despair centered thought I believed they would at least give him a hero's death. Believe me I know he is a hero. But that death was nowhere near what he deserved story wise. I thought that if he died he would at least have a speech/line that resonated with his death and life/purpose. Where his death would somehow have something good involved, like a sacrifice for something greater. You know a through and through heroes death? But no they didn't do anything for him. Like we have to authentically acknowledge as an audience and fan base that he's dead.

100 PERCENT DEAD.

I don't care if there is a frozen version of him floating around in space. The Fitz that we know, the Fitz that we saw grow this season is gone and dead. All those milestones - erased. (Which side note it pisses me off how much they hyped up how much the wedding meant and how excited Clarke was to get to produce it to literally just scrub it away for shock value).

Trauma: Let’s not also forget how not only did they not heal the framework Trauma but they exacerbated it and he died with those traumas unresolved and in my opinion worsened. His death ensures that that version of him that we knew and loved will never find resolution for such traumas. We have been waiting and begging for them to touch on and began to heal the trauma. But they LITERALLY brought it back and made it worse and then killed him with it unresolved.

SOOO ultimately, I was really SHOCKED that they didn’t give him the death that he deserved. Instead they had him die in some shocking random twist with unresolved trauma, the erasure of some of the HUGEST milestones of his life, no scene with the person he loved or moments of purpose just to get a rise from the audience. He didn’t get to say anything of value when he died. He didn’t get to see Jemma when he died. We have to acknowledge that all this is gone.

Let me just reiterate that again. HE HAD TO DIE WITH UNRESOLVED TRAUMA. (Also I bet your ass that CryoFitz for some reason doesn’t have any issues with the Doctor/Split and they will just use this earlier version of him to sweep away their lack of trauma mending under the rug.) Concerned about loopholes much?

Loop holes: Speaking of loopholes they totally used his death so they don’t have to go into detail on fixing his relationships with the other characters because the version of him they may find in space will have done nothing ‘wrong’ yet. (baddddd writing)

Also just another example of the shock value writing is the entirety of his death scene. Let me explain just how much they wrote these scenes just to fuck with us. So when stuff starts going haywire and the rocks fall the audience is in shock because clearly Fitz might be hurt or even worse dead. So you're brought into this feeling of intense shock as a viewer but then soon after that scene you see his hand come up through the rubble and you experience relief. You calm. Things seem okay. Until the soundtrack creeps in and he says he thinks he broke his leg, and the music deepens and you realize something is wrong. And you see the wound. And you are brought back to SHOCK. And its rising and rising. And he dies. But you look at your clock and you see there's 15 minutes left. There is time to fix it. So you relax a little. But then the show comes back on and you realize he's dead when you see Jemma’s reaction. And you feel SHOCK again. And you're crying and crying. And you see somebody wiping a plaque that says in memory (remembrance?) of but they're not showing the whole thing and then Jemma makes a comment about Fitz being interested in hearing the story that time can indeed be changed (or something along those lines) and for a second again you think he's alive and the shock dissipates. Maybe he faked his death. Maybe this is the plan. Why? Who knows. But then you realize she’s talking about CRYOFitz and the shock comes back.

THEY WERE EMOTIONALLY FUCKING WITH US for so long. I am honestly infuriated at this fact and it deepens every time I realize they thought this would be okay as a show ender. But mostly I’m infuriated over the fact that just they seemed to care so little about leaving us with a story that mattered and instead how much they valued leaving us with a story that left us shocked. Here’s a note to all writers. You may think shock value is more memorable. It’s not. It’s tiring and overused. And just leaves people bitter.

So if they were writing for shock value, they hit the nail on the head and knocked it out of the park. But shock value doesn’t resonate with me. At the end of the day. They killed a character off in a half assed way, erased his milestones, left him with unresolved trauma, allowed him no scenes with his wife, all to get a reaction out of an audience that could have had this as the last thing they ever saw of the show and ultimately they hella butchered the story in the process. (They should honestly thank they're lucky stars they got another season and can fix this.)

ALSO FRIENDLY REMINDER AGAIN THIS WAS ALL A POSSIBLE SHOW FINALE! THE FUCK??

Bruised Friendship: Also can we have knowledge that this Fitz that we know and loved who 100% died in this episode also did so being still at odds ends with his family/friends. Like the last things said between him and Mack in their one on one, or him and Daisy, never got resolved. Fitz died not knowing if Jemma was okay. He died not getting one more minute with her. He died not knowing if the rest of the team who wasn’t there in his last moments was alive. He died not knowing if Earth and humanity was going to be okay. But he also died not being on the best terms with his family/friends (at least not in the ways he has been throughout the show). He literally got SOOOO FUCKING JIPPED. Like YOU GAVE HIM NOTHING. YOU KILLED HIM BUT YOU EVEN HALF ASSED THAT.

Separation: I want to say that while I was shocked I was not surprised that they FS separated. But there is one main difference I want to point out. While I never liked any of the separations they went through you could always count on and believe that we would then see (VISUALLY SEE) Fitzsimmons overcome it and come out of it better, closer, and stronger. So a large part of my brain and I think mostly everybody else’s brains knew on some level they would be separated again. But they separated them again, this time, in the most final way possible. With death. Like honestly they have done this so much it shouldn’t have shocked us that they did it again only in a way more permanent fashion. And in a way that had no visual payment.

Reaction: What the fuck was that reaction from everyone. They seemed to basically be like. Yeah it’s sad but there’s frozen Fitz somewhere, so oh well.

BUT THIS EPISODE. WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN A SHOW FINALE ended with him dying and a 2 minute speech at the end promising to try to find him. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN OUR ENDING. A SPEECH?????? And just a bunch of shock. Like what a horrible ending that would have been. I’m tired of speeches. The poetic promise of trying to do something pales in comparison to seeing people outlive their trauma and survive. Stop telling me things might be okay. Show me for once, and mean it. Honestly such heartless and lazy writing.

Ultimately i’m just astounded that they knew this could’ve been the end and they thought it was still satisfying. And not because it was a story that mattered but because you would remember it, because you were shocked. All in all (might as well use an essay transition sense this is long AF) I don’t like shows that write for shock value. I have an issue with it because it makes everything lose meaning and authenticity. And that’s what this was. I mean I cant tell if I’m happy about the year wait or not. On one hand I can distance myself from it, and learn to care less so next time they fuck it up, it hurts less. But also a year with the imagery of him senselessly dying and the knowledge that everything good this season has disappeared with it just to close some fucking loopholes has me feeling some kind of anger I haven’t felt in a long ass time.