#context it just started in the middle of the episode. for like no reason it was so jarring

[wolvierinez]

have you guys seen this. you should watch it.

[wendichester]

Hello!! How are you? Since I found your profile, I’ve been loving everything you write, the aesthetic, and basically everything 🤍 and because you’ve been blessing us with your content, I want to tell you I freaking love you and deeply admire you, even more those days I’m bored out of my mind or I need to “disconnect” from my life, so, thank you very much 🤍

Also, I want to share with you (and I suppose your audience as well 😅), I’ve watched Supernatural when it was on the TV, but they were always random episodes and in different times of the day, so sometimes I could never fully understand the episode, or the episode’s context in general, and when I had the opportunity to have streaming services, I enjoyed Supernatural a lot more 😂 and Dean Winchester has been on my mind ever since. Another thing to share it’s that I’m from Memphis, I love it here, and I grew up with Elvis Presley’s music and watching the films he was in, because my grandma and mom love him a lot. And they love him so much that not only it’s my mom’s middle name, but it’s also MY middle name 🫢 I don’t hate it, I was pretty much forced to get used to loving my middle name, now I genuinely do, but every time someone new find out what the “E” stands for, it’s like reliving over and over again when I was in school and a teacher would say my full name, and many people (mainly the adults when I was a kid), would look at me funny when they said my middle name. Back then it did kind of embarrassed me, because they weren’t subtle about it and I was a shy kid, but now I find it entertaining and funny when people find out that the E stands for Elvis. And now not only I’m annoying you, and your audience, with part of my life, but I’d like to ask for a request as well 👉🏻👈🏻, how do you think Dean and Sam would react if a friend or girlfriend/boyfriend/partner (whatever relationship you prefer 😉), having the name Elvis as their middle name? I personally think Dean would be my worst nightmare 😂

✮⋆˙ the 'e' stands for elvis,

summary. sam and dean finally find out what your middle is and well... they have a blast.

pairing. dean winchester x reader x sam winchester genre. fluff

wordcount. 513

notes / warnings. but this is adorable!! thank you for requesting hon 🤭🩷 also, my verdict:

dean :  would absolutely be your worst nightmare at first—relentless teasing, terrible impressions, zero chill. but it’s 100% how he shows affection. also, low-key thinks it’s cool and will absolutely drag you to graceland "for research" (read: to make more jokes). sam :  would find it endearing, gently tease you sometimes, but mostly just enjoy watching dean spiral. also, would defend you if dean took it too far (while secretly laughing).

The first time Dean finds out, it’s because Sam reads it off a motel receipt.

"Wait," Sam says, squinting at the faded print. "[Your First Name] Elvis [Your Last Name]?"

Dean, mid-sip of his beer, chokes so hard he nearly drops the bottle. "Elvis?"

You freeze, the familiar heat of embarrassment creeping up your neck—but then you see Dean’s face. His eyes are wide, his mouth twitching like he’s trying so hard not to grin.

Sam, ever the diplomat, clears his throat. "That’s, uh—"

"Elvis," Dean repeats, louder this time, like he’s testing the word. Then, with the absolute delight of a man who’s just been handed comedic gold: "Like the Elvis? Jailhouse Rock, blue suede shoes, thankyouverymuch Elvis?"

You groan, burying your face in your hands. "Yes, that Elvis."

Dean slams his beer down, pointing at you like he’s just cracked the case of the century. "I knew I liked you for a reason."

It gets worse.

Dean, being Dean, immediately weaponizes this information.

He starts singing "Hound Dog" every time you walk into a room. He leaves a single blue sock on your pillow ("for your next pair of blue suede shoes, sweetheart"). He even—god help you—starts calling you "Your Royal Highness" in a truly atrocious Southern accent.

Sam, at least, tries to rein him in.

"Dude," Sam sighs, watching Dean dramatically serenade you with "Can’t Help Falling in Love" over breakfast. "Give it a rest."

"Never," Dean declares, flipping a pancake with one hand and clutching his imaginary microphone with the other.

You groan, but—here’s the thing—you’re laughing. Because Dean’s being ridiculous, yeah, but he’s not mocking you. Not really. There’s something fond in the way he teases you, something that makes your chest feel warm despite the embarrassment.

The turning point comes one night in the Impala.

Dean’s driving, you’re in the passenger seat, and Sam’s snoring in the back. The radio’s playing some old rock station, and when "Suspicious Minds" comes on, Dean doesn’t say a word.

But then—quiet, almost hesitant—he starts humming along.

You glance at him, surprised.

Dean keeps his eyes on the road, but his fingers tap the steering wheel in time with the music. "My mom loved this song," he says after a minute, voice uncharacteristically soft.

Something in your chest tightens.

"Yeah?" you say.

Dean nods. "Played it all the time." He side-eyes you, his smirk returning. "Guess she had good taste. Unlike some people’s parents, naming their kid after the King like that."

You shove his shoulder, but you’re smiling.

Later, when Sam’s awake and Dean’s off getting snacks, Sam leans over.

"You know he does it ‘cause he likes you, right?"

You blink. "The Elvis thing?"

Sam nods. "Dean doesn’t tease people he doesn’t care about." He pauses, then adds, grinning, "Also, he’s had ‘Burning Love’ stuck in his head for three days. So, karma."

You laugh, and when Dean comes back, arms full of junk food, he narrows his eyes.

"What’d I miss?"

"Nothing," you say sweetly. Then, just to watch his face light up: "Thankyouverymuch."

Dean’s grin is brilliant.

ꔛ. navigation 𓂃˖ ࣪ all drabbles ; compatibility readings ; support my work .ᐟ

[kinardsevan]

What is your opinion on Tommy coming back or not? And in they case we see him again, do you think it’ll be just for closure (ex: Abby in season 3) or maybe for a BuckTommy second chance?

fun fact: i was considering doing an entire breakdown with a bunch of Oliver's interviews from the start of this arc until now to point to my opinion:

Tommy is coming back. The romcom theme is still in effect, and we're only about midway through the 3rd act.

Long story short (and without sources right now), I think that the interviews were actuallly pointing in this direction with the wording for a hot second. We have OS telling us that he thinks the best relationships have a "will they, won't they" bit where the audience and the characters are pining. We've seen this play out on the show. And we also have to remember that Oli knew during this interview that the breakup was coming. We also have the interview (I believe it was the Decider one I linked last week) where he mentions choosing to fight for the relationship or not. I feel like a lot of people have taken the context of that and twisted it into "they didn't do it right away, so they're not going to". Except, there's ANOTHER quote of relevance, which is Oliver talking about how Buck's queerness isn't tied to Tommy or Eddie, and only to himself.

Obviously, there have been things said since 806 that would point towards me being delulu, except, here's the issue: TM, OS and LFJr are NOT going to tell us that Tommy is coming back if that's the intention. It would spoil the surprise of it all, and the win of it all. What fun is there in that? What TM has said is that Tommy is Buck's romantic past but that doesn't mean he won't turn up again in the future (all relevant and true facts which do not shut down a reconciliation). Lou never out-and-out said he was done with the show. He's said time and time again that he wants to come back. TM has mentioned Tommy coming around again. OS literally said in an interview "they may run into each other on scene and have it be awkward".

Now obviously we don't actually have the full story with how things went down and the show decided to go with splitting the boys up. I think the fact that Lou has called out the bullying but says he wants to come back suggests that it wasn't him saying it was too much. I have two theories that could honestly run concurrent with one another:

Evan and Tommy break up in 806 at the end of the episode. With 911 having 18 episode seasons, this quite literally only makes up the first third of the season. It set up the beginning of the year for us. We're now two episodes into the second part of the season with a pretty clear idea of where the next three will go and suggestions (by fans, nothing official) that the "soonest" we could see LFJr again is 812. This is reasonable, as it would be the end of the middle of the season. Knowing that TM has suggested he might do a multi-episode season finale, pushing LFJr back into the show in 812 (or even the end of 811 if we go with my theory that Eddie could possibly leave around this time and Tommy helps them pack up/his and Buck's first time spending time around each other again), there would still likely be something around this time period that would be around when they would open the doors to this. As it is, we know that 809 and 810 go together, and then we'd have 811 to really flesh out the end of Buck's fling. I think there's even more possibility of LFJr being in this episode as well because if the plan is to bring them back together (which everything has been suggested so far ON screen in terms of keeping Tommy "in" the story), three-episode arc gives us several things: a. it allows the show to make the point that Buck's queerness is not intrinsically attached to Tommy; that his interest in men is as equal as he know his interest in women is. b. it gives them the ability to also show that his feelings for Tommy are not based in Tommy being his "first", or Evan needing to "discover" more about himself. They're in love with each other, and the show has given us the pieces for that. LFJr has acknowledged it in an interview, Tommy loves Buck. We also know that Tommy's line to Evan is "you'd end up breaking my heart, and I don't think I could deal with that". When I hear that sentence, what I'm actually hearing is "I'm already in love with you, and if I let myself fall more in love with you by being with you every day all the time and this ends, I won't survive it". By relation, we have Josh ask Buck if he loves Tommy and Buck waffles, but I think this has more to do with his lack of understanding of what a healthy love is in a relationship, given his past relationships. He never got to tell Abby. Ali left. and saying I love you to Taylor wasn't about the core of actually being in love with her, which I think is another important piece for BuckTommy: they don't just love each other, they're in love with each other. Still, sometimes it's hard to quantify that feeling, and I think (as I've referenced before), for Evan it was easier to ask Tommy to share a living space with him than to share how he feels about him because historically, things haven't worked out well for him when he's been in love outwardly. Further, the questions Josh asks Evan are directly correlated with loving someone, and Evan answers yes to all of them. (I don't think I need to add this, but he also sees a future with Tommy, talks about being engaged or married. He's serious about Tommy in a way he never has been before.)

There's also the theory that the breakup happened because of scheduling conflicts. Now obviously the show could've found other ways to work around LFJr's scheduling issues by having Tommy go on a trip or what-have-you, but let's remember OTHER things that have been said by OS in prior interviews: a. back in June, he did an interview where he stated that he wanted and hoped that BuckTommy would go through issues that couples normally go through in their first year together. He wanted normal issues. This storyline IS normal. b. he didn't want to repeat Tarlos. By the very definition of what the show is doing right now, we're not. Tarlos and BuckTommy are their own things with their own reasonings.

One of the other things I also keep being pulled back to is these issues: first of all, we know how LFJr plays with the 911 demo, given that they got to see it last season. It's why he was written into more episodes after his initial four episode arc and brought back. ABC has also used BuckTommy in their own adverts, which suggests that they are very supportive of the relationship continuing because it draws in viewers. Truly giving that up for good feels like dousing yourself in gasoline and then considering striking a match. Second, people also keep calling out that TM only plans a few weeks in advance. I believe this is true with story beats. We know that the writers room has a general idea on character arcs, thanks to some of the discussion on the cheese page post-806. I really struggle to believe that TM didn't know going into going forward with the breakup whether or not he wanted to bring LFJr back. We know he waffled back and forth on the idea of the breakup, meaning he probably had other solutions on his mind for whatever LFJr's schedule needed adjusting for, and this is what he decided on. Also, even if 8b hasn't been broken down yet (we know it hasn't), they would still know at this point what they do or don't want, what their ideas might be. Solidification for why Tommy should be brought back is directly shown in the reaction by the GA and the fandom to the breakup. They may not know exactly how that reunion happens yet, but what they have suggested is that Buck's new relationship will be short-lived. That he's using it to cope. We also know he's still processing the break-up and still misses Tommy. These are all things that point to the story not being over. Plus, I feel (once again), if the story really was over and they didn't have plans to continue this in 8b, LFJr wouldn't be talking about wanting to go back. It be far more "yeah that sucked, but it's over now and what can you do? I'm off to this new show and I'll never be back." (I've commented also on the fact that the fangirlish interview comment about his "i'm going here, doing this, have some opportunities" statement is very run-of-the-mill. Obvs I could mean something. Or it could literally just be a canned answer.) (This might feel a little off-center, but I think his commentary on trusting TM and knowing what he's doing in one of his post-806 interviews directly suggests that he believes the story is going to be handled properly.)

I realize at the end of the day, all of what I'm piecing together could mean zilch and Tommy could possibly never come back. They could truly just drop the story and never circle back around, set fire to a beautiful arc and lose thousands (possibly millions) of viewers. I've certainly suggested myself being one of them. But I don't see BuckTommy only getting an Abby fix for two reasons. LFJr wants to come back and continue the story, and Connie Britton only ever intended to do one season. Also, the fling has been called out as being planned to be short-lived. Why bother mentioning that if you don't have other plans for the story.

The last thing I'll leave you with is my commentary from the interview Oli and Aisha did with the guy from Chicago. That reporter obviously liked the BuckTommy storyline and said he's choosing to believe that the relationship is paused, not over. By relation, we had Oliver say three things: (1 and 2) Buck is still looking for love, both in himself and with another person. (3)The season is only half over. Circle that back to 806-808. Buck is finding love in himself by dealing with it in a healthy way (so far) with the baking. We've also seen the "cracks" Oli mentioned with his continued urge to want to text Tommy, as well as him fighting it off by baking (referencing the "pendulum swinging"). Looking for love in others will likely be this arc where he tries to deal/move on. I feel like we collectively watched the end of 806, and then 807 and 808 yelling at the TV "you're in love with him, piece it together already!" (or maybe that was just me???). But truly, whether it's a fling, his therapist, or Bobby/Maddie/Eddie who finally spells it out of or him, I think there will be a point at which we see that come to fruition. The seeds were sewn in for it in the scene with Josh. Now it's just about watching those seeds sprout.

Final note: we've had a good run up to this point with these two. Did we truly thing that the honeymoon phase would last forever? (I didn't. Conflict and the pink bubble popping have to happen eventually.) If we really want to suggest that what BuckTommy has is real, they have to go through this and come out the other side. I think everyone is justifiably frustrated due to the 4 month wait on new episodes (I personally would not have left people hanging quite like this, but that's just me), but the narrative does lead us toward what the show is doing with the suggestion that it does have a natural (and good) conclusion. (Possibly with a helicopter/truck/jeep crash?!)

And just as my singularly LAST note, here's my other thing: Evan and Tommy both have abandonment issues. (Tommy's are clear based on the break up and we know Buck's.) By that correlation, when these two finally get back together, they're never going to fucking let the other go.

(This was so much longer than I intended it to be, but that's my answer 😂😂😂😂😂😂)

[genericpuff]

hi! this is my first time reading lore rekindled, and I am amazed with the remake you have done for it

in a way that's lore accurate and still going with the flow of the storyline from Lore Olympus (that I stopped reading, tbh midway. the plot lost me. looking back, the characterization [and example is apollo on what he had done to kore, felt off and not him that that's how he's written in perse's life. glad you changed it up)

---

Anyway, I wanted to start it off with I'm glad to have seen that yt recommended video of LR. Secondly, now that I have catched up to the latest episode, I was wondering why Hades is in the wrong here rather than Dio?

I've read it and felt that Dio was being an ass to Hades along the way.

Again, as the notes have written themselves, lovely episode, artisty, and visuals! looking forward to the future episodes 🤗

Ahh thank you so much!

I have gotten a few comments and questions about Dionysus and his behavior in Episode 68. It's sort of a perfect storm of conflicts that Dionysus took into his own hands to solve.

Biggest reason he was there at all was to personally confront Hades not for that specific instance of talking about Kore, but for past incidents, and with his newfound knowledge of Kore interning in the Underworld-

Dionysus may often speak in riddles and broken speech, but underneath he's essentially asked Demeter for permission to take matters into his own hands, permission which Demeter gives in a very hands-off way - she doesn't ask him to specifically confront and beat up Hades in the middle of The Olive Branch, but she's willing to let nature take its course in whatever direction it must take, and that was the direction Dionysus chose.

And really, he was just planning to beat Hades up. It was when Hades talked back that Dionysus decided to play even dirtier. It wasn't just out of spite, Hades was also technically overstepping the ruling that Zeus had given. Though he had a point that Dionysus was already playing dirty by ambushing him without warning, in this context where Zeus had given a ruling to Dionysus (even though it was played up for comedy) Hades was basically being a sore loser LMAO

(was Dionysus allowed to do this? Probably not, but considering we spent the majority of the episode trapped within Hades' mind, we've yet to see the consequences of Dionysus' own choices here.)

Aside from that, we also have to bear in mind that unlike Kore, Dionysus is an Olympian who already has his own constructed opinion of Hades from past lived experiences. He's not a complete stranger swooping in to protect Kore with zero context, he's been a part of Kore's life since she was born and has basically taken on the role of her honorary uncle; meanwhile, if blood-related DNA were at play, Dionysus is essentially Hades' nephew, and he's had more than his own fair share of run-ins with Hades over the years even before Kore was in the picture.

Of course, that's a lot of stuff we've yet to fully get into, but I mention it anyways as a reminder that, while Hades is clueless to Dionysus' affiliations with Kore, Dionysus isn't clueless when it comes to Hades' own patterns of behavior from the past, and so it automatically became a priority for him when he sensed those patterns repeating themselves.

All that said, none of that's to say that you have to even see Hades in the wrong! It's definitely a complicated matter that's also not being helped by Zeus, who's instigating a lot of the drunk gossip talk around the table, but like Dionysus, Zeus also knows Hades well enough to recognize his own behavior and faults, and he's doing what he's always done, albeit poorly - prodding people for the truth.

And then, of course, the fact that both Zeus and Hades were treating the wait staff poorly was just the icing on top of the shit cake. While Chloe is a denizen of Olympus - Zeus' domain - she was also acting the role of cupbearer, serving alcoholic beverages, which enters the grey area of Dionysus' domain as the god of wine. I get to have a lot of fun with those sorts of grey areas when writing out these scenarios LOL

TL ; DR: I think two things can be true. I think Hades absolutely deserves an ass-whooping for all the things he's done (so far) but I also think Dionysus is overstepping his own jurisdiction with Kore, especially when both she and Demeter will undoubtedly catch wind of his actions. As for how those consequences play out, well, we'll get to it eventually ;3 In the meantime, it makes for fun drama and I hope you continue to enjoy it! <3

[jamiepaige]

Constant Companions Closeup #3: ROT FOR CLOUT

(also on bandcamp and spotify!)

WHAT'S going on guys, welcome back to another Constant Companions Closeup, the show where we take a DEEP DIVE into what makes these tunes tick! Last episode, we went aaaaaall the way there on Not Quite There, and today, we're making that liggity-line go up up up up up with ROT FOR CLOUT featuring VISUALEYES!! Before we get started, remember to SMASH that like button, SLAM subscribe, and FUCK the bell icon. This week's community challenge: leave your credit card info in the comments! Bet you won't!

(*cough*)

---

I check my notifications way too fucking much. It's a habit I'm trying to curb, and to my credit, I am doing better lately, but being chemically predisposed to dopamine deficiencies has done a number on my ability to go five minutes without checking the funny glowing numbers on my phone. Naturally, I also very much seek more validation than I should from the opinions of strangers yadayadayada yeah that's what the song is about but none of that actually has to do with why I started writing this song in the first place.

Have you ever taken a flight with American Airlines?

This was after waking up at 4 in the morning to fly out of Houston thinking I'd be napping on a couch in Ohio by 2 pm at the latest.

I want to make one thing clear here, and that's that I made this bed for myself. Tucked the sheets in and all. You see, on the rare occasions I fly, I normally take Southwest. Southwest does not overbook flights like a lot of other airlines do, so it's a practice I am mostly unfamiliar with. So, when I received a notification on my phone promising genuinely ridiculous amounts of flight credit money in exchange for taking a slightly later flight, I thought - well, shit! That sounds nice!

This is how they trick you. I didn't really realize I'd been tricked until I was on my second flight of the day, sitting in a middle seat at the very back of the plane, heading from Dallas, a city I don't live in, to Washington, DC, a city I was not trying to get to, staring down the barrel of another flight I was destined to get on that had been delayed like two fucking hours.

I became the Joker. All I could do to remain sane was write a song about it. This is how ROT FOR CLOUT came to be.

I guess the moral of the story is this: Don't go to Ohio. And to answer your question,

Yes I am

Not really

No

---

This is a complete sidenote but I want to mention it here: I'm genuinely overjoyed at the amount of people excitedly talking about my songwriting or the intention behind my lyrics. For a long time, it really felt like lyricism was the last thing people cared about from me, while it was always the thing I wanted to take pride in the most... So genuinely, thank you everyone for caring!! Every single fire emoji people have put next to a line I've written has extended my lifespan by multiple years

There's a brief little moment where the song's chords leave the key, doing a really stereotypically jazzy 2-5 movement, and it's one of my favorite parts of the entire song. I'm not really a music theory buff or anything, and I'm certainly not formally trained, but I've always been very passionate about more complicated harmony in otherwise poppy and accessible contexts - bo en's album pale machine really rewrote my brain when I first heard it.

On that note, there are microtones in the vocal melody - During the chorus, some of the rapidly repeated words move up in quarter tones! Possibly the simplest way I could've included microtonality, but I'm genuinely afraid if I learn more than what I already know about it I'll be lost to the darkness.

Obviously, the work of Sasuke Haraguchi was a massive influence on this song, particularly the song Igaku. I think basically everyone on the entire planet has picked up on that at this point, but I do also wanna point out some other songs that were on my mind at the time! (two for three on these posts mentioning louis cole now)

I'd also like to take a moment to spotlight the vocal samples on this! They previously appeared on エビチャーハン!, and they've honestly become some of my favorite samples to throw in things. They're also just a fucking goldmine sincerely

Finally, HUGE thanks to Visualeyes for the delightful synth solo on this!! I had put out a call on Twitter looking for instrumentalists, genuinely originally envisioning a super jazzy piano solo, but their synth playing genuinely brought the whole song together perfectly!

That's about it for this song - though again, if there are any more questions people have, I'd be happy to answer them in the replies to this post or elsewhere!! (*ahem*) THAT'S gonna do it for today's video, folks! Feel free to leave a like, comment, hit the subscribe button for more and click the bell so you don't miss any new videos. Tomorrow? I Wish That I Could Fall. it hurts.

[bwat5-blog]

Quick Response To Some Nonsense

**Spoilers For All Of Arcane**

Hello all, no fancy lead in today just a response to some recent stances taken on Cait/Vi, in particular their breakup. Of course this is simply my interpretation, but I felt strongly enough seeing it that it was worthy of a refutation. As I am keeping this centered on the stances themselves and my responses I won't be doing my usual laying the groundwork, so if you have any questions feel free to ask or check out my other stuff! Let's dive in!

The primary reason Caitlyn shuts down and does what she does is because Vi took the choice away from her after they had agreed on it. And that Caitlyn had lived a life always struggling to be able to make her own choices because of her parents: Okay, on the surface, totally fair. Yes, they had agreed on a plan as to how this had to go down and Vi stopped Caitlyn from carrying it out. However, there is SO MUCH MORE going on here.

First and foremost, Vi's reasons for stopping Caitlyn at this point are irrelevant. Because of Isha. Listen folks, If you have watched these characters all the way to this point, and you honestly feel that either of them would intentionally do something that risks the life of a child, I just cannot agree with you. Caitlyn has only shown herself to be a kind and caring person ever since we meet her. These folks wanted to use two factors to show that Vi would not have cared about Isha being hurt to prove that it was all about Jinx.

A- Vi doesn't have a particular adverse reaction to Renni's son dying

B- Vi doesn't seem to care about hitting Isha and doesn't stop when she does

A: Renni's Son-

This is the boy killed who is working in the Shimmer lab that Jayce and Vi attack. Jayce accidentally kills him with a blast from his hammer. So regarding the allegation that Vi doesn't seem to particularly care. Context, as always, is our friend folks. Jayce is backing out because of the death when they were quite literally starting their attack on Siloc's entire operation. So what does Vi actually say-

"You've always been a part of this, you just never had to look it in the eye. One dead kid? There's hundreds more where he came from, thanks to Silco. And thanks yo people like you, who stuck their heads in the dirt. "

Jayce leaves, Vi very clearly stands over the body and sighs, her eyes wet with tears. And yes she gets back to business. Because as she said. This is about so much more than one dead kid.

B: Hitting Isha-

Okay, I love Isha to. But this is not the first time she jumps in the middle of an adult situation and gets hurt. But anyway, the allegation here is that Vi really had no issue hitting her and didn't stop because of it. Isha quite literally bites Vi on her wraps. You know, the part of her that is probably in constant pain from months of pit fighting and no self care. Also, Jinx and Vi literally stop at the same time when they realize what happened.

Also, lets not forget this handy-dandy little moment where Vi quite literally throws herself in front of Isha to save her from Vander:

Additionally, to allege that the reason Caitlyn reacts to such an extreme agree is simply that Vi robbed her of her choice is to deny the absolutely crushing trauma Caitlyn has been/is dealing with. She is literally face to face with the monster of her nightmares, and is being denied her revenge. Every fight-or-flight, primal, lizard brain part of her is screaming that Jinx is the most dangerous thing in the world, and the woman Caitlyn loves is standing in front of her. I go more into the signs of Caitlyn's traumatic episode in another document but to suffice it to say, it doesn't seem like Caitlyn was really aware of exactly what all was going on in that chamber. Vi called her repeatedly and all Caitlyn could say was "move! she's not getting away again!" never responding to anything else Vi was saying. Caitlyn fired her rifle twice striking Vi's gauntlet once even and was not deterred. She is NOT doing okay

***FYI- I had a lovely conversation with the person who made this first point. I misunderstood them. Their point was through Caitlyn’s perception of the event while factoring her mental state. So I stand by analysis of the scene but calling out this first point was my error***

2. "I thought you were different.. but your not. It's her blood in your veins"- whoo boy. Okay, The users are more or less defending Caitlyn's anger and her saying this as her realizing that ultimately Vi's loyalty is with Jinx because they believe Vi stopped her because of Jinx, and by extension someone who has done A-Z of fucked up things to Caitlyn. Again I am just about the furthest thing from a Jinx apologist but I don't have time for the list at the moment.

I will repeat, did Vi stop it because she saw Powder in Jinx's face, and because her sister told her she was glad it was her killing her? Entirely possible. But ultimately what it comes down it Caitlyn is enraged because Jinx got away, and Caitlyn's solution to that was to take the shot with a hex tech rifle that had been glitching, and could have killed a child.

No as to what Caitlyn actually said, because one of their points was about Vi's comeback. A few points:

A- Caitlyn knows all of Vi and Jinx history by now including Vi's crushing guilt over what happened

B- Caitlyn knows Vi carries the guilt for her mother's death because Vi asked Caitlyn not to shoot

C- Caitlyn knows what it meant for Vi to put on the uniform and come here with her, and still doubts her

D- Caitlyn literally alleges that Vi is no different than Jinx, who has caused all of this pain and suffering, because her blood is the same, tainted in the same way

3. "Than why are you the one acting like her?"- Essentially here they are just saying that Vi was looking to wound, looking for the low blow, and that not enough attention was given to how fucked up this was to say, especially because Caitlyn had tried to do all of this the right way.

Can I do the right thing for the wrong reason? Is it bad that I'm making friends with my demons, and Living by a couple deadly sins Just to make sure I finish what you began And I ain't afraid to lose a life or ten If it means that I get to win in the end (woo) So I'ma do this on my own, step into the danger zone Pull the pin and watch it blow! (Arcane Hellfire)

I am not saying it wasn't a fucked up thing to say. I am saying Yall are missing the point. Vi was afraid of Caitlyn changing because she saw the violence and darkness in her. Because while yes they are doing everything the right way in the lanes technically, for Caitlyn its all for the wrong reasons. She isn't there to help the undercity, she is on a quest for revenge. And as such is surrendering her morals and values alittle at a time.

4. Caitlyn hit Vi impulsively after Vi realized she overstepped/Cait never learned her strength or how to hold back-

As Caitlyn is walking away and Vi says "why are you the one acting like her?!" she grabs Cait's arm firmly at first then relaxes her grip to a more gentle one. Caitlyn sits and breathes for a solid ten seconds before hitting Vi. That's not exactly a reflexive action. Also, Caitlyn has demonstrated a tremendous proficiency with her rifle and with increasing hand-to-hand combat over the course of the show. She knew what she was doing, and she knew where she hit her. Now was Caitlyn also drowning in the middle of a total emotional overload. Yes indeed. But this was not a shock response strike. She chose to.

Now for a few points outside of the breakup that were mentioned:

Vi was wrong to suggest that Caitlyn did not understand during their conversation about Vi putting on the badge-

Well we can do this simply. Lets compare the two.

A- Vi was standing there in sight of her parents bodies as the people responsible were still there stalking around the smoke. The people responsible all dress the same way and their look is a symbol of their institution. Now she is being asked to dress like them.

B- Caitlyn was however far away and only saw the rocket launched and smash into the building. This of course would still be very traumatic. But for better or worse there is only one Jinx and her look is her look. Unless Vi was asking Cait to put on a half-eaten circus tent, I don't think we are in the same area here.

2. Vi has a tendency to dismiss Caitlyn's trauma when something more viscerally related to her own loss is going on-

The example they provided was the conversation I listed above. Vi has literally stayed there to be there and support Caitlyn even after being yelled at by Tobias. She is supportive of catching jinx and wants to help right up until Cait offers the badge. And even after that blow up, in the wake of the memorial attack Vi shelves her own issues and agrees to be an enforcer anyways.

3. Fandom keeps giving Vi a pass like anyone from Piltover can do no wrong-

The idea of this fandom giving Vi a pass is completely and totally laughable. I'm sorry but it is. There is still a whole legion of us who blame a fifteen year old girl kneeling over her father's body, who just saw her brothers die, who just held off a legion of armed Silco goons and barely survived, for ruining Powder during one bad moment and turning her into jinx. Aside from Caitlyn's commander Arc Vi is probably the least understood character in the entire fandom.

PSSSSSST.. If it helps, they don't do redemption arcs for characters who were never in the wrong in the first place. Have a great day!

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

Andor and character writing

First off: This is a plot-driven show, and that's a good thing. Especially with how Gilroy and Co. reimagined the character, this is not a subject that was made for a several-episode-long character study (and frankly, probably nothing in Star Wars really is). Gilroy and his team's writing really shines in parts of the show - the parallels between characters in different arcs, the political and logistical nitty-gritty are all really interesting.

But I do think the character-writing on the show takes a backseat in a way it didn't have to, and occasionally gets handwavy in ways that are in confusing contrast to the precision of the writing elsewhere - mostly, but not exclusively where Cassian is concerned.

1. Coherence

The Rogue One script has its flaws (user ruby-red-inky-blue admits through gritted teeth), but one thing it did incredibly well was give you characters that just immediately made sense. From the first, even with the sparse information you were given, you could immediately picture how their lives up to this point had gone, and their characterisation made sense for the life they had led. For Jyn, we were given a lot of quickly rattled-off exposition (which, yes, some might have found clunky), but it immediately made sense for the way she interacted with people and the actions she took: why she was so eager to get out of dodge, thinking she was about to be conscripted into the next pointless rebellion clusterfluck after Saw's rebels; why she was so irreverent and hostile to everyone - because she'd been around people like that, been one of them, and they had all let her down and hadn't even reached their goals doing it... I could go on. For others, like Bodhi or Baze, we got much less context, but it immediately made sense for them to be where they were: Bodhi, a young man from Jedha who'd gone into Imperial duty probably for the money or for an opportunity to become a pilot and see the universe, slowly but surely driven to a breaking point and immediately getting in way over his head when he went to Saw, because he had no idea what he was getting himself into. (This was also a clever characterisation beat for Galen, btw: He'd been an Imp or posing as one most of his life, and miscalculated, hard, on how reasonable his old buddy Saw would be, because he had no way of knowing how batshit insane the fight had driven him since they last met). Long story short: Everyone's mindset, behaviour, age and position in society was perfectly reasonable in relation to each other. Baze and Chirrut would have seemed weird if they had been really young; if someone like Bodhi had been played by an actor in his fifties, his behaviour would have seemed less intuitive. Same thing for Krennic: He was old enough to make his position in the Empire seem reasonable (he was ambitious, and worked his way up the ranks, but probably not smart enough to work his way up the ranks noticeably quickly, so he had to be middle-aged), but also just old enough to start getting that torschlusspanik going - if the big break in his career doesn't come soon, he'll be too old for it. He just makes sense.

Andor has characters like that, too, and I don't think it's a surprise that they're among the most popular standouts of the first season. Mon Mothma is very coherent like that, but she might be a special case since we knew so much about her position going in. But Luthen, Syril, Dedra, Maarva and Brasso also have this going for them. For example, Luthen is older than most of the characters, so he, like Maarva, actually remembers what the world was like before the Empire. He's also old enough to suggest that maybe he has lost someone or something and that loss has been allowed to fester into that rage and resolve he clearly has when we meet him. He's old enough to have made mistakes and learned from them, and also old enough to have built up his shop front to the point where we catch up with him, without that needing any extra explanation. And Brasso is a great example of a character who just makes sense even though we know next to nothing about him. He's from Ferrix, he works there, he seems community-minded and knows Cassian and Maarva well. That's all we get. And yet, it makes so much sense. He's that solid friend with a stable job, quiet and generous. He's old enough to have earned his position in the community. He never behaves in a way that would make it strange how universally beloved he seems to be on Ferrix. We also see how savvy he is with social complications when he makes up the alibi for Cassian - this is a man who gets people, and who will be able to defuse any beef someone else has with him. Everything about him makes sense.

Cassian, though... I don't know. So he was abducted from his home planet aged nine or so - old enough to remember it - and had to learn a whole new language and culture. This... doesn't seem to inform his actions much, short of maybe earning him a reputation for being a quick study. He took action against the Empire when Clem died - possibly also influenced by the loss of his home planet and first family - went to jail, left at sixteen to fight on Mimban for six months, then got out of dodge, disillusioned. Okay. So why do we meet him ten years later, apparently completely inexperienced with how to go about looking for his sister? What has he been doing those ten years? Why would he not start looking for her sooner? Did Maarva forbid it? The Cassian we meet in Andor doesn't seem like a guy who would listen to that. The womanising trait is also a little weird to me - I guess it could be a thing of wanting to belong, or commitment issues, which would make sense, but the show doesn't tell us why he's doing it, only that he's doing it (see below on that issue). I guess we're just saying if you look like that, you'd make the most of it. He is a beautiful man, I guess that checks out. But it's not very meaty, characterisation-wise, and it gives us nothing re: his background. The only thing that seems coherent to me in Cassian's early characterisation is that he seems on the outskirts of the community by his own doing - it makes sense that he would self-sabotage a little, maybe harbouring a lingering doubt that he belongs or fits in. But the chronic unreliability they saddle him with, while making a lot of sense for his backstory, is really confusing to square with where he's going - that's not a trait you can just choose to let go off whenever, but he seemingly does (see below for more on that). I also feel like his piloting skills are really a lot better than they should be considering his background, but one could argue maybe most ships really are pretty easy to fly or at least all very similar (and they did hilariously refute that point in Season 2 so I will shut up about that a little more). And maybe most prominently, I feel like they gave him no reason to be as much of a smooth-talker as he is. What about living with this very quiet man and this very terse, upfront woman in this sleepy scrapping town made him so incredibly good at manipulation - and yet, why has this not resulted in him getting himself in a little better position somewhere, or at least keeping him out of trouble more? I get him being a good liar, to some extent, since Maarva had him hide his origin his entire life, and because that feels like something that can just be natural aptitude. But keeping him so perfectly separate from any spy experience for this much of his life makes his skill at charming people somewhat confusing. Because being able to talk someone into giving you a two-day extension on the debt you owe them is one thing, but suddenly giving speeches and talking guys into a prison break is a very different beast.

2. Consistency

This all kind of dovetails into my second gripe: The character progressions on the show can feel inorganic. People will suddenly change a thing about themselves in a very short time or for a seemingly small reason, and the show doesn't address it. I've gone on at length about how strange I find Cassian going from a fuck-you-don't-tell-me-what-to-do attitude to the incredibly patient, obedient soldier we meet at the end of his life in only a few short years. And right off the bat, the skip from 1.12 to 2.01 felt bigger than it should have been, one year on.

First of all – we get no context on Dedra suddenly not only deigning to regard Syril as a person worth two minutes of her attention, but to actually be in a relationship with him? Sharing her home with him? Meeting his mother? I really hope there is some big dramatic endgame she’s running here, because if not, that feels like a massive leap to me.

Similarly, looking at how he talks to the woman at the test facility and later the guys on Yavin, Cassian has gone lightyears closer to the man we meet on Kafrene in one year. And, again, knowing exactly what to say to any given person to get them to do what you want takes a lot of experience, and I don’t really think one year would do the trick. So yeah, he seems like a wildly advanced spy – and yet, at the same time, everything he does in 2.03 is so stupid. It’s human! But it wildly undermines that incredibly well-written scene at the end of last season. “Kill me, or take me in” is not the statement of a man who’s still planning to go home to his family at the end of the week! It implies that he will live or die for this rebellion from this point forward. And yet, three episodes later, Cassian, devoted spy and public enemy n° 4, not only seems to be making regular visits to Bix, Brasso and Co., but they’re using his real name in front of outsiders. And when he hears that the Imps are bearing down on the planet for an inspection, he takes the invaluable ship he just stole for the rebels that they risked multiple lives trying to obtain, and rushes in with that flashy flashy ship to rescue his buddies?? If they hadn’t already been in trouble, they would have immediately been the target of a fully-fledged manhunt the moment anyone saw that ship in the sky. Like, my guy, not only are you making shit worse for your friends, you are risking the ship your rebellion needs and your own capture in the process – which would not only risk handing them a year’s worth of spy information, but also a huge propaganda win and a massive blow to Luthen’s operation. Why would you do that. Why would you not at least land somewhere and steal a slightly less conspicuous ship.

And the annoying thing is, this could be fascinating characterisation – but because of the structure of the season, we are not going to sit with this! We won’t be able to explore this as the espionage clusterfuck that it is, and the ramification for Cassian’s journey to become the Rebellion’s model spy boy. I don’t think we’re even meant to see it as a mistake on his part! The narrative excuses him – he was already almost too late, any extra second might have killed Bix and Wilmon – but it runs so counter to where we last left him, and now we’ll swan off from this again, and he’ll probably be back to hypercompetent spy mode. His competence was a great trait for Rogue One-Cassian, and watching him fuck up on the way there would be interesting. But as beautifully consistent as the overall plot is, Gilroy is clearly not as bothered making his main character equally internally consistent. Cassian oscillates between competence and incompetence whenever the plot needs it – and yes, people fuck up, but this is a story. It would be nice to feel like we’re watching a character being formed, instead of individual traits of a character randomly blinking in and out of existence like this.

3. Motivation

The Andor writers in Season 1 were great at showing you what drives people to stand up to injustice, in all its nuances on the spectrum of selflessness to selfishness and greater good to individual freedom.

But at very few points does Andor seem invested in giving that same justification to most of the interpersonal relationships, though. A few examples: We learn that Cassian and Bix were an item once, and that she broke up with him but they’re still fond of each other. Great, we love a non-toxic exes relationship! But… why did they like each other? Did Bix like that Cassian was a bit of a scoundrel? Could make sense, her rebound with the very down-to-earth Timm might imply as much. But the show doesn’t really show us any concrete reasons. We get allusions to their shared past, their comfortable bickering, the joke about Cassian climbing her dad’s fence. But we don’t really learn why he liked her. His relationship to Brasso is also a little underexplored: Brasso is very warm and very lenient with Cassian, like a caring older brother in many ways, and Cassian seems to lean on him in a way that seems like he’s done that many times. But that’s really all we get. Why is Brasso cutting Cassian so much slack? How come he feels so responsible for Maarva, seemingly even more than Bix?

Maarva and Cassian is much more intuitive, because Cassian was a child in need (at least in Maarva’s eyes, and then in fact when she took him away from home) – it’s understandable how they’d sort of imprint on each other, and yet also understandable that Cassian might harbour some resentment, which we see in the way he seems to idolise Clem over her sometimes. Theirs is maybe the most fleshed-out relationship Cassian has, and it stands on its own in ways that his other relationships really don’t – and yet, there’s still a lot of telling instead of showing, because the plot overtakes them. That’s fine, it’s even making a point of how the struggle is taking things away even before people die! But when this keeps happening, it makes the characters lack depth in a way that is a bit of a shame.

Vel and Cinta live in an in-between point, because we do get some very salient points about what Vel might see in Cinta when Cinta snipes at her about sort of play-acting as a rebel: Vel admires Cinta; she’s who she would like to be, clearly ashamed of her privilege and alienated by her culture. But we never really learn what Cinta sees in her, although I have some hope this might come up this season.

With Mothma and Luthen, it’s less noticeable – Mothma’s family is a central plot point, and Luthen is so compulsively secretive that it would feel weird for him to have any obvious, deeply explored relationships. He and Kleya are also underexplored, but here it feels deliberate. You can see how they meant to juxtapose Cassian, initially from a tightly-knit community with a lot of strings still attached (friends, mother, ex-girlfriend), and Mr. “I burn my future for a sunrise I will never see” – rebels at different stages, and Luthen’s isolation foreshadowing Cassian’s own. But that would have worked so much better if we were given a little more depth in the relationships! Rogue One took a hard show, don’t tell approach to relationships, and it went over a lot people’s heads, but I think they did a much better job in that script making the relationships feel real. Cassian saw himself in Jyn – his own doubts in the cause, the toll it took on them both, the resentment, the fight. He looked clearly struck by her refusal of the call in the first half, and you could tell how seeing her devote herself to the cause fully reinvigorated him, too. It was also very briefly but deftly implied how he related to Bodhi: he admired the bravery of this very overwhelmed young man who took all the guilt about his past actions and did something with it (Bodhi’s comment about how Galen said he could make it right if he was brave now is later mirrored in Cassian’s hangar speech). Even Draven and Cassian had implied depth although we were never told anything about what or who they were to each other short of commanding officer and soldier – their face journeys when Draven relayed the order about Galen (implying a very deep mutual understanding and some guilt on both their parts), later Draven doing the strategically idiotic move of trying to delay their one chance of taking out Galen from the air just to try and get Cassian to safety first. The movie took more care to show why people felt connected to each other than to define what that connection really was. This wouldn’t work for a show, because of the longer runtime, but it would have been nice to get a little more why.

(This can work for spy shows, too, even characters you want to keep more ambiguous. This post is already way too long so I won’t go into detail, but The Americans was great at making very believable relationships between very shady people.)

Also, I don't know where this goes, but I also think it's a real shame that the connections between the remaining Ferrix guys weren't fleshed out at all. And while I think it's good that they went for absolute unflinching realness with the farm planet storyline, I would love to learn more about Bix that isn't "fixes stuff" and "massive trauma", please?

.

Tl;dr: I’m really hyped for more intricate spy on spy shenanigans, big themes and political intrigue, but I’m seeing all my gripes on how Gilroy writes characters overall and Cassian in particular staying pretty consistent. This season will feel very rushed to me. That’s probably a me problem; it always annoys me when narratives are so plot-driven that the characterisation actively suffers for it, and I really think there were ways around it in a script like this. But hey, we’ll see. Maybe they’ll surprise me.

I will say, though, that I will send this incredibly overlong essay to anyone who brings up the “Tony Gilroy saved Rogue One” thing to me, because the characterisations in Rogue One were one of my favourite things about the movie and he is clearly not invested in that as a writer, and I really don’t believe he had much of a hand in that. And, even more honestly, even if all these things improve 100 percent in the next arc... that still ain't my boy! But at least do well with the versions you've created, Tony.

[waitmyturtles]

Final Thoughts on Spare Me Your Mercy, Thailand's Biggest Queer Show of 2024*

(*domestically!)

Due to the holidays, I was behind on watching last week's finale of Spare Me Your Mercy, but I got it in, and I'm glad I did.

I am mucho on the record that I thought, throughout this series, that the romance portion of this series was done weakly. I throughly enjoyed and appreciated @clairedaring's objective and appreciative commentary throughout the airing of this drama to provide all of us with context about novel!SMYM versus series!SMYM, helping us to understand what of the many bits were missing between the two versions of this story.

There has been a nice lot of debate online about the ultimate success of the telling of the SMYM story in drama format, both pro and not so pro regarding the script. There was also quite the revealing interview with the screenwriter Lux Sirilux, who revealed that the show's design purposely excluded NC scenes to favor more time being spent on the euthanasia ethics debate (thank you so much to @clairedaring for reblogging so much, I wouldn't have these references without you!).

I want to note that even despite the recent holidays, that the heightened online burble of debate around SMYM indicates to me -- like the ensuing debates after the airing of the 4 Minutes finale -- that the story of the SMYM drama format didn't land for everyone. If it was universally successful in its storytelling from all the classic narrative markers, then much of this debate would not be happening.

I first entered the SMYM world understanding that it was a part of a storytelling trilogy of sorts, connecting Sammon's previously adapted stories in 2020's Manner of Death and 2022's Triage (I haven't reviewed Triage yet, but I watched it in 2024 and it is absolutely one of the five best Thai BLs I have ever watched.)

To go back to the Lux interview quickly, and to note fan commentary in defense of Lux's position: what Lux Sirilux posits is that the show essentially decentralized NC scenes and intimacy in favor of giving the script more time to dwell on a debate about euthanasia -- the ethics and morality of being a part of a person's death, and the ethics of a person deciding to die in the first place. The defense of this position essentially stated: well, because the show wasn't intended to be about romance, then why criticize it on its romantic context?

When I think back to the show's original positioning as a part of the MoD/Triage trilogy, I think to myself: the couples of TanBun and TinTol were absolutely central, as romantic pairs, to the success of those two stories, and both shows absolutely balanced their mystery elements so as to leave us fully satisfied on two (!!) genre fronts. At least, before SMYM premiered, to be excited about the TorJJ/KanTew coupling was therefore a reasonable expectation.

As well: there was a lot of implied attraction and romance in SMYM. A lot!

All these scenes! And we had more.

As soon as this show started airing, I was pulling for it to work as well as Manner of Death and Triage had. And I was side-eyeing to my drama homies about what I was smelling, when I started to feel like SMYM was NOT working. While a defense that the show was never meant to be a romance is... an interesting postscript to ponder: I don't buy it, because many elements that were clearly designed to otherwise communicate romance actually failed. I squinted heavily at the middle episodes of this series, really wondering, ".....so......are these guys.... DATING? Just feeling things out?!"

If these elements weren't actually intended to be in the show, the attraction between Kan and Tew, then -- why did we get them?

What was missing, narratively, for me? It was emotional context based in the reality of how I understand intimacy to function between two humans -- an understanding that, in the very best of art, I don't need to suspend in order to make a narratively unsuccessful show otherwise work.

The progression of emotional (let alone physical) intimacy was choppy in this series, to say the least. @clairedaring gave us the very important context early on that the novel version of SMYM had two volumes -- the first of which focused on KanTew's dating, before the ethical clashes of euthanasia entered the picture. If we had had that narrative context in the drama, the drama would have worked wonders, and I believe the crew was working throughout this debate in the writing process, from how the script turned out.

The script here did not work, because even if romance was intentionally deprioritized to focus on the euthanasia debate -- many episodes still spent too much time on KanTew, without giving us viewers an emotional journey for us to understand where they were in their emotional intimacy. And I posit, because the script seemed to be so indecisive, that the euthanasia debate got lost for much of the show as well. Up until the end, in the final episode, with that utterly fabulous attic scene.

If only the show had the strength of dialogue and conflict as that attic scene! I wrote yesterday that Tor and JJ will win awards for the whole series, based on that scene alone. That scene finally held the full and holistic scope of the tension between Kan and Tew totally bursting out in all its glory.

Let me just note, though, that we had to get through the first half of the episode to get to that scene -- a first half that really, REALLY made Kan look like an AWFUL LYING SCUMBAG to Tew (HOW COULD YOU LIE TO TEW LIKE THAT IN YOUR HOSPITAL BED, KAN, AND TELL HIM THAT HIS PAIN HE WAS FEELING WAS GUILT, YOU MF'ING ASSHOLE, okay I got it out of my system). Really, with all the lying Kan was doing to Tew about Tew's mom, I was praying that Tew would do the full COPS treatment on Kan, "Bad Boys" and all.

Kan was, in my absolutely personal opinion, ultimately rendered unforgivable during that first half of the finale (regardless of my personal thoughts on the ethics of euthanasia) simply because of his disingenuousness to Tew. The penultimate conversation in attic between Kan and Tew was a phenomenal encapsulation to the ethical conflict that Kan and Tew had danced around for the entire series -- and it highlighted, to me, again, where the script had failed the show, because it actually put a spotlight on moments when the EXCELLENT and FASCINATING nuances of the euthanasia debate in Thailand were sidelined for weak attempts at romantic development. (The socioeconomic nuances, the inequity in health care nuances, the impact that terminal illness has on caretakers, all of them! GAH!)

My takeaway from all of this is that the crew of this show did not hit the exact and delicate formula of deciding what the crux of this show should have been about, despite the commentary we received posthaste from the screenwriter. While the intention of that commentary indicated that the euthanasia debate was supposed to be the only center of the show -- too much time was spent showing us KanTew moments, and those moments lacked context and clarity to give us viewers an understanding of where they stood in their engagement or relationship at any one time. Thus, I do think the postscript commentary from the crew was also a touch disingenuous, regarding the success of the narrative itself as art.

And — I believe it was also disingenuous to the two previously adapted Sammon stories of Manner of Death and Triage as well, as both of those dramas were able to hold both mystery and romantic storylines to excellent ends, with wonderful touches of intimacy along the way (MaxTul couch scene, my beloved). There's more to say, as other people have noted, about writers deprioritizing intimacy to tell "another" story, as it were, but that's a debate for another time, that I think speaks to where Thai BL is going in general.

But otherwise, while I think SMYM was ultimately narratively unsuccessful (that last "I love you" and the rushed close were just brutal), I'm not surprised about how well it did in Thailand. No one can argue with the star power that Tor and JJ hold in Asia — the show was always going to do well, no matter the artistic success of its narrative. I just wish the show had lived up to the caliber of acting and writing that Tor and JJ got to display in that attic at the end.

[queerly-autistic]

I've seen some concern about the fact that the BBC has double-billed the last four episodes of Our Flag Means Death and bumped it up later in the schedule - concerns that this means it's not doing well for the BBC - and so I'd just like to allay some of those fears, if possible? To start with, it's important to recognise that the BBC does this all the time. I was in EastEnders fandom for many years, and nonsense schedule changes were a regular annoyance. When I shared OFMD's schedule change with my little group of friends from that fandom, everyone rolled their eyes and went 'oh yeah, typical BBC shenanigans'. As an example: the BBC was really pushing EastEnders last year, they'd been hard-marketing towards the big iconic Christmas episode since February, and then, around comes Christmas, and the BBC inexplicably sticks it on at 10pm (when it's usually broadcast at 7.30pm).

So this isn't unusual. This is extremely common. There's often very little rhyme or reason to the BBC live broadcast scheduling. To try and accurately read between the lines of this is like trying to analyse the written output of a cat walking across a keyboard.

But another big thing to remember is that Our Flag Means Death is a streaming show. The BBC dropped all of the episodes in one go because they know that it's the streaming audience where the show is successful. It's the same with What We Do In The Shadows - we know that the show does well for them, because they keep renewing their contract to show it, but because it does well specifically with a streaming audience the live episode broadcasts are perpetually bumped to a weird time (sometimes one in the morning!!).

The BBC is under contract to do a live broadcast of these shows, but that's not where the audience is. And that's why the episodes get shuffled around or bumped to a late timeslot or double-billed together. Them not necessarily getting spectacular overnight live broadcast ratings is not a big barrier to potential pick-up - streaming numbers is the important metric. And, just yesterday, the BBC dropped a card for the show over the credits of House of Games, a very popular (and mainstream!) afternoon gameshow, asking people to go stream it on iPlayer. if you haven't seen it, I managed to screen-record and post it on Twitter here (subtitles included): https://x.com/QueerlyAutistic/status/1762913455051325888?s=20. This is a really, really good ad to get - a very mainstream slot that potentially brings attention to the show from new audience demographics. The fact that they put an ad-read for the show in this particular slot is more indicative to me of the fact that the show is doing well for the BBC than any predictable shenanigans around live broadcast times. They advertised the 'niche' queer pirate comedy to a very mainstream middle-of-the-day audience! That's not nothing! And the fact that they were specifically advertising it as being on iPlayer - not the live broadcast - indicates to me that that's where it's doing well: that's where they know their audience is, and they don't care about the live broadcast, because the streams are where it's at. The live broadcast is probably just a contractual obligation at this point.

Our Flag Means Death is still regularly listed under 'trending' on the iPlayer website, and the Parrot Analytics for the show in the UK are excellent. And that's what we want. That's what we need to convince streamers. Remember: the YouGov survey about the show specifically asked questions about it in the context of streaming services. Overnight figures are lovely to have, too (so keep tuning in!) but this is a show made to stream. It was all dropped on iPlayer first for a reason; they're specifically pushing it on iPlayer for a reason. And, at the end of the day, it's streamers we're currently trying to convince to pick up the show, not broadcast television networks.

So, don't read too much into it. We're still doing good, UK crew!

[pseudophan]

why is it so normal for people to start tv shows (any type, american sitcom to anime idc whatever) from a specific season in the middle of the series because for some reason the fandom has decided the first few seasons aren't worth it? what's even the point of watching it then. sure it might get better from season 3 onwards, but you're not gonna have any of the context. you won't know the characters. whatever great things happen in season 3 won't hit as well if you don't suffer through the mediocrity of the first two seasons.

sorry i just think if you can't handle sitting through shitty or kinda just average episodes of something in order to get to the really good bits you don't deserve to watch it at all. like literally what is the point of watching a series if you're gonna jump into it halfway through

[lurkingshan]

Theory of Love Episode 7: Flipped

Welp, I knew the streak couldn't last. We are once again being subjected to a terrible romcom in Flipped--this one Third's actual favorite film, and don't think I am not judging him hard for that--but at least this one has some really strong thematic ties to the episode. It's clear why we needed to watch it (and why Third is such a mess).

Bryce moves into a new neighborhood and immediately meets Juli, the neighbor girl that he dislikes on sight because she *checks notes* is friendly and interested in him while being poor. Bryce hails from an upper middle class family of snobs with a bigoted father, while Juli's family is working class and looked down on by their neighbors. The film flips back and forth between their perspectives as they grow up in proximity to each other. Juli has a hopeless crush on Bryce and Bryce is dismissive of her attention until she finally stops giving it to him, at which point he realizes he actually does like her and tries to win her back. The film tracks Bryce through this evolution as well as the realization that his father is a POS, while Juli gains confidence and learns to thrive despite her family's struggles, though not enough to ditch this horrible boy.

This movie was not good. It is based in an idyllic fake nostalgic fantasy version of 1950s/60s America in which everyone is white and says things like "gee whiz," and misogyny and ableism run rampant through every moment of the film. I dislike this genre of American films as a rule, and this was a particularly noxious version of it. The structure of the film is frustrating, with constant intrusive voiceovers that flip between the lead characters to explain every obvious detail of their very easy to interpret emotions, and circular returns back in time to go over every moment of the plot twice from both POVs. To top it off, the romance was gross, with a kind, smart, and interesting girl fixated on a mean little turd of a boy for no discernible reason.

That said, watching this was very illuminating for understanding Third's mindset, his silly romantic fantasies, and how exactly he got so off course in the way he approached his relationship with Khai. On the fundamentals of their personalities and the foundational relationship they developed, Khai and his treatment of Third is really not similar to Bryce and Juli. Khai was Third's friend, and he always cared about him. But it's easy to see how Third projected the idea of Bryce onto him and thus projected his wish for Khai to follow Bryce's trajectory in the film and suddenly realize he does love him after all.

And in some ways, that actually is starting to happen. We ended last week with Khai's realization that he may have feelings for Third just as Third is finally moving on from him, which closely echoes the plot of Flipped. This week, we are with Khai as he begins to sort out these feelings, trying out placing Third in a different context in his head and surprising himself by how much it doesn't trouble him. I like the way the show takes us through Khai's bisexual awakening and the messy way he tries to fit Third into a dating context. He starts out trying to just sub Third in for the girls he's dating, imagining him taking the place of girls in his memories, but he can feel that this is not quite right even as he doesn't know how to envision another way of being for him and Third in a romantic context. He knows he wants to be close to him again, and he knows his feelings are no longer platonic, but he doesn't know much else about how to go about this.

Watching Khai struggle with this is cathartic, and it was honestly a relief to be out of Third's perspective and see him from the outside as someone Khai is trying to understand. Khai attempts to flirt with him using the same tricks he uses on girls, which of course do not actually work on Third (though he's not completely immune; I was laughing at Third starting to swoon from Khai getting flirty up in his face and then snapping out of it and getting mad). Third is not a girl, and he's also Khai's best friend who is thoroughly sick of his shit, so Khai is not going to be able to win him over with some surface level nonsense. Khai is struggling to figure out what it means to try to be romantic with another man as well as trying to work through the mindset shift of moving Third out of the "friend" box and into the "faen" box that we know he keeps in his head. This is also the first time Khai has actually cared about the object of his affection; he can't just brush it off if Third doesn't respond to him. He is being forced to grow because if he doesn't, he will lose Third even more than he already has. (As a side note, I do think the way the show hovers over the bubble/not bubble line weakens this emotional arc. I will plan to unpack that more when we get to the end of the story.)

This episode has many references to Flipped, not just in the obvious reference to changing perspectives and Khai doing a heel turn on his feelings for Third, but also throughout the plot. We see Khai's initial confession that he likes Third denied and discouraged by his brother, similar to what Bryce experienced with his best friend in the film. The episode also includes Khai's brother offering him up to girls and a charity auction in which Third's copy of Flipped is auctioned off in a pointed rebuff of Khai, because Khai is the one who bought it for him. @bengiyo reminded me that in episode 4, we actually saw Khai pretend to like this movie as a way of getting in Third's good graces, though we know he does not actually like it (he is right and Third is very wrong). Flipped shares a flaw with a few of the other romcoms on this list, in that the male lead doesn't suffer any real consequences for treating the female lead like shit and is easily accepted once he has a change of heart. I continue to to think this show is in dialogue with that romance construct, and determined to dismantle it.

[dasketcherz]

the tomb raider post kinda got me thinking!! what if, as a sort of prologue to vat7k, varian and raps went on an exploration of corona's depths together, yknow just for old times sake!! 🤭 (i kinda imagine this to be a multi-episode ordeal mhm yep 🙂‍↕️)

and thats where they would end up discovering the light trial and/or the deactivated portal to the enternal library?? :0 (if it is the light trial, i like the idea of varian and raps potentially competing it together) they would likely ask xavier if he has any knowledge of this (spolier alert: he does lol)

its this lil adventure with raps that would kickstart varian's journey across the seven kingdoms :)

ohhh!! this is actually a really cool idea!! :0 like how the curiosity started from corona and ends in corona, i fw that a lot!! gotta love a full-circle moment in storytelling <3 like OKAY OKAY YOU GOT MY GEARS TURNING SO!!! HERE WE GO, HERES MY THOUGHTS!

altho, as much as i love the notion of freckled siblings figurine out the light trial together (it's a cute thought for sure), i think varian already solving one of the trials at the very beginning before his journey even starts (or even finding out that his mom was a scientist) kinda kills the momentum of building and hyping up the mystery surrounding what they just found in the depths of corona was (the portal) imo?

(Like I imagine Demanitus must have designed some of the trials in a way that you cant proceed to the next one without the previous totem(s) in hand, like the totems itself becomes an inclusive puzzle piece to solve the other trials and that according to ulla's research the first trial is the fire trial, not the light trial—i think this would elevate how crucial it is to follow the trials step by step to even get to the library)

So instead, I'd personally go for a scene akin to Raps and Varian perhaps needing to clear the underground tunnels of corona for business related reason. Like they initially went down there to re-purpose the tunnels for smth useful again (like this could be the perfect fill-in-the-gaps on how they extended the hot running water system that was located under old corona all the way to the capital to put more context to new dream's voice over in the finale of the show mentioning how corona altogether became the first to have hot running water in the 7 kingdoms) and they just decided to have fun and treat it like an adventure while on the job as queen and royal engineer cuz they are sillies like that.

And amidst of just having fun, thats how they accidentally stumble across an area that, to their surprise, was not familiar to both of them. And Varian can say "Huh...I've retraced our steps around this tunnels before (when he came back down there to fetch the automaton and replicate it during his villain arc behind the scenes, cuz I love subtle callbacks thats naturally brought up in a scene) but I've never come across this area. I didn't even know there was another passage down here."

And it could have totally shared heavy similarities to the structure of the passage beneath the vault from s1

Except it looked far more aged with time than the one from the show and thats how the two figured this is different from the one below the vault.

And has a similar center piece that resembles the one from the show

except it's much wider and bigger with an unassuming decrepit arch (that looked withered out or unfinished/destroyed to freckled sibling's opinion) at the middle surrounded by pillars (thats meant for the gang to place the totems that will power the portal back on after they retrieve all seven of it) Something like this:

And there are letters (similar alphabet from the demanitus scroll) carved in the arch. Knowing this dead ancient language by memory, Varian tries to read what it says and its a cryptic passage that def reads like smth you'd find in a mythology to freckled siblings. Hence them going to Xavier askin about it later on if it rings any bells to him, to which indeed he recognize the passage and tells them it's talking about the legend of the eternal library—but Xavier claims that the legend itself is very vague about how to even get there, the only clear instruction was retrieving the totems.

Plus I like to think Varian needs the blueprint for this portal just like he did in s3 to figure what specific parts he needs to assemble it back into functioning condition because this is Demanitus we're talking about, that man is paranoid af (pretty valid considering the kind of shit he's tampered with during his lifetime) and leave everything he knows in form of riddles and cryptic messages.

And the only other copy in existence of said blueprint—is in Ulla's journal and she had it laid out in the very last spread pages of her book. And that's the moment it finally clicks to Varian what the answer to "where's the entrance and how to find it" question is, "Hold on... I've seen this arch. Wait...oh, OH—OF COURSE! OH IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW—guys guys!! I know where the portal to the library is!!"

and boom, thats how it comes full circle in my head. thank you for coming to my ted talk (bows)

[moonlitlex]

ok i think i'm gonna actually talk about all the reasons i hated that rani reveal now

first, the fact that mrs flood is the rani. frankly just a bad choice at this point imo. literally just stop and think about everything we've seen her do and say by this point. how does that make sense? it doesn't, really. weird and cryptic fourth wall breaks is not the rani's mo. it's just not. how does this explain that? it doesn't. do we get any characterization for her? i mean, a crumb. a crumb that has nothing to do with her classic who characterization. do we get any sense of what her plan is? no, we don't.

even her schtick of appearing in every single episode is bland. rtd already did that last season with a DIFFERENT white lady. her appearances don't serve to give us more information about her as a character or her plans. she's just kind of there, constantly reminding you that there's a mystery you should be paying attention to. the most she does is free conrad, which doesn't give us any information, really.

the rani is a cold blooded scientist who is doing weird cryptic shit rn because that's the only kind of villain rtd can even fathom writing right now.

also like. it was the most bland and boring answer possible. when flood showed up for the FIRST time my first thought was "it's probably not the master again, so it could be the rani". and then my IMMEDIATE next thought was "god, i hope it's not the rani. i hope we get an original character. rani would be too stupid obvious".

and like. it is too stupid obvious, to existing fans of the show who are familiar with classic who. it's also the exact shit he pulled last season. who's the big bag of this season? it's the villain of one classic who serial, but again.

to new fans it's not obvious but it also just doesn't have any meaning, apart from it being another timelord. i thought this was supposed to be a new era of the show, but we're relying on a classic villain for the finale AGAIN.

and i know some of you are probably thinking, "but alexis, rtd1 had all classic villains for the finale. and you like those ones. aren't you being a hypocrite?" no, and the reason why is in the how of the reveal.

this is, genuinely, one of the worst villain reveals i've ever had the misfortune of watching in my entire fucking life.

first of all. IT'S A MID CREDITS SCENE??? HELLO???? there is straight up NOT a more content brained decision than that. i was literally about to click off. i was about to close my freaking tab. and then i remembered that we were supposed to get the flood reveal in episode 6. and i was like hold up. that didn't happen. and then they interrupted the credits to do the reveal.

i cannot even put into words how fucking INFURIATING this decision was. i was so mad i looped right back around to not caring and started cackling like a madwoman. whoever made this decision should be banned from ever working in television again.

there absolutely no reason to put a vital part of your story IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING CREDITS. no reason. i know the mcu has people convinced otherwise but the mcu is garbage and those people are wrong.

the bigeneration? bigeneration is fucking stupid and i'm not arguing about this. there's no in universe reason for it and the only doylist reason is rtd just thought it would be cool like that which is a shit reason. the fact that flood immediately acts subservient to the rani is also bizarre. even if it's explained later it's just weird and bad in the moment. it doesn't make any sense.

next, the reveal is done in front of two side characters. this is also an mcu-brained decision because no one ever thinks it's a good idea to do your big villain reveal to a random fucking bystander no one cares about. tech guy and nurse guy have no context for any of those things. they don't know what a timelord is. they don't know who the rani is. they don't understand any of what is going on here. so why do the reveal with these two?

and why does she just start infodumping about herself? it's not natural dialogue. it's not prompted by anything. she does it because the script told her to. and the script told her to because otherwise the audience would be super confused about who this character is.

in every way, this is different to, what is in my opinion, rtd's best villain reveal — the master in season 3. think about everything that built that up. for 3 seasons, the doctor thinks he's the only timelord out there. the face of boe shows up in all 3 of these seasons. the first one just sets him up. the second appearance sets up that he has some secret to share with the doctor. and the third appearance reveals this secret - "you are not alone". vague, cryptic, could really mean anything and can be interpreted in a number of ways. then we have human nature/family of blood. this is a great 2 parter because it explores the doctor's character and impact on people further. but it also sets up the fob watch. it's a detail in a perfectly good self-contained story that turns out to be even more important later.

then we have the reveal itself. martha sees the fob watch and runs to tell the doctor about it. while yana/the master is sitting there processing, the doctor is hit "oh my god, there's another timelord out there!" and then this is immediately followed up with the double whammy of "oh no! which one is it!" you watch him process these emotions in real time as he goes through several different conflicting emotions all at once. when the master opens the watch you can clearly see that the doctor recognizes him, and that this is not good. i didn't have any context the first time i watched utopia, but i completely understood what was going on, because it was both set up well and communicated well to the audience. i didn't know who the master was, but the sheer fact that we got to see the doctor react to the fact that this timelord in hiding is the master communicated all the most important information to me. that he's glad he's not the only one. and that it's really fucked that it's the master who survived, of everyone. they have some kind of tense history. the first conversation they have with the master in the tardis and the doctor locked out of it — it shows you their dynamic. you learn 90% of what you need to know about the master for the purposes of this finale from this episode (and the rest of it is revealed over the course of the finale).

this is without even touching on the reveal that the master is harold saxon. saxon is a name that keeps popping up in the background, even before season 3. innocuous enough at first. then it's all "vote saxon" and saxon for prime minister. then we have harold saxon's representatives approaching martha's family and tracking their calls with martha. and then we get the reveal that that's the master, and it makes perfect sense. all the pieces come together. everything makes sense. of course it's the master who was saxon, and of course the face of boe was talking about the master. great example of setup and payoff.

compare this to the mrs flood reveal. did the writing of the reveal itself portray how significant it is? no. does anything in doctor who make more sense now that we have this reveal? no. did any of the previously shown pieces reasonably lay the groundwork for eagle-eyed viewers to guess that this was going to be the solution to the mystery? no. did flood's previous appearances drip-feed us information about her? no. if anything, the flood reveal does the opposite of this. the most popular speculation i saw surrounding mrs flood was that she's the god of stories or something like that, because that explains her constant cameos and fourth wall breaks.

another reveal i think is kind of similar is missy in season 8 (it's always the master fr). but i think that's better for three main reasons. first — no fourth wall breaks. she's grounded within her own universe. second — there's a central mystery about what missy is doing, not just about who she is. characters keep dying and popping up where she is. it's not enough to put together the entire plan, but it is an actual mystery that is about something far more interesting than character identity (this time, since i think most people's first thought was "it's either the rani or the master"). third — the reveal itself is executed better. we get the reveal the same time as the doctor. that's the interesting part. seeing how he feels about it. seeing how he reacts. the doctor-master dynamic was left up in the air with the end of time.

like, a good story could (theoretically) still follow this reveal (it won't because i already know what to expect from russell by this point). but the reveal itself is shit. there's nothing good or satisfying about it. as fanservice goes, it's not even good fanservice. archie panjabi does have some of that kate o'mara energy about her but that's not saving her from the fact that she was in the most last minute shoehorned-in villain reveal i've ever watched in my whole life. i'm a fan, and i don't feel serviced. i feel like russell dangled two classic who characters i like in front of my face expecting me to start barking like a dog. it's a poor storytelling decision and it's also a poor "pandering to the fans" decision.

privately i do wonder if he had a different plan, or maybe no plan for mrs flood when he introduced her. and he got so tired of pretending to write that he just opened up the doctor who subreddits and decided it should be the rani because some fans are clamouring for a rani return. and then he was so embarrassed about that decision that he decided to make it a mid-credits scene so less people would see it.

[xmochaccinox]

Kendratello: An Analysis

What’s up?

I wanted to do an analysis on this ship, and now I'm doing it!

If you are in the Rise Fandom and somehow you have never heard of it, Kendratello is basically a ship between Donnie and Kendra that’s slowly gaining popularity

For as long as I have been in the Rise fandom, I’ve been seeing this ship popping up more and more. By now, it’s almost impossible to meet someone who hasn't heard of the ship, and even though there’s not much content of it, there’s definitely more people who ship it than you think

However, despite the growing popularity, there are still a good chunk of people that hate it for various reasons

But how did it come to be? Where did the ship come from? Why is it so loved by some and hated by others? Well, I’m gonna answer all those questions and even share my own opinions on the ship!

But first a disclaimer!

This analysis is ONLY meant to describe why people like Kendratello or why they don’t like it! Any canon info I bring up will be provided in full context alongside descriptions of how Kendratello shippers may interprete said canon info in order to gain a better understanding of their perspective

Everything I say about the ship is mainly from what I know from the Kendratello content on Tumblr as I don't really use any other social media

I'll also mostly be focused on Kendra because most of the arguments against Kendratello has to do with her

This is NOT meant to be something to persuade or dissuade you from shipping Kendratello!

So let’s get started!

In order to begin, let’s introduce the lovely characters involved in this ship with a brief description

Donatello, also known as Donnie, is a softshell turtle and one of the middle children alongside his twin, Leo

Much like his other versions, Donnie works with tech, but what makes him more unique is that he displays a more mad-scientist-like attitude and has a huge theater kid persona

Kendra is one of the antagonists introduced during the first season. She’s the leader of a computer tech group called The Purple Dragons and specializes in working with computer software, hacking, and modifying

She and her group are basically trouble makers causing various kinds of chaos, to describe them incredibly briefly

So how do they meet?

Donnie and Kendra meet in the episode The Purple Jacket when Donnie sneaks into April’s school to help her with a project. It was there he first noticed the tech club. Well, not really the club, but more the jacket. He then immediately tries to join the club just to get his hands on said jacket by showing off his tech.

Kendra, seemingly impressed, allows Donnie to join and gives him Jason’s jacket. However, it’s revealed that the only reason why she let Donnie join was so she and her group could steal his tech in order to use them to rob various tech stores in order to then steal a code from some very important computer company. Of course Donnie and April stop them and get them arrested. The end

So that’s basically the beginning, now let's go over why someone wouldn't ship it

First thing to get it out of the way, you were ask why someone didn't ship Kendratello, then most of the time, they would say that it’s because of Kendra, so let’s talk about that!

Kendra is a bully. She uses others for her own benefit and causes mischief for her own entertainment, which can range from annoying yet harmless pranks to her getting people hurt

After she stole Donnie’s stuff and he got her arrested, Kendra retaliated by making Donnie think he’s just playing a normal video game when in reality, he’s controlling a giant robot that almost smashed his brothers, and then tries to do so herself when that fails for the sake of seeing Donnie’s reaction

She also convinced Shelldon (Donnie’s robotic companion who was feeling low when they encountered due to an argument he and Donnie had) into participating a deadly race known for causing many drones to get dismantled just to win her the Shadow Transmitter and then yelled at him and ditched him when he failed

And these are only things she did to Donnie. She also yells at and gets physically violent with Jason, and while she does see Jeremy more as an equal, she still snaps at him and shoves him around

She's sadistic, she's cruel. There’s a 50-50 chance that either she’s aware of how bad she is and doesn't care or sees nothing wrong with anything that she does. And judging by how done April seems towards her, and the way Jeremy barely reacts to anything she does, I’m gonna assume that Kendra’s been like this for a while

And yeah, she’s an antagonist, so no shit she’s awful

However, if we wanna play the Canon game, then canonically, Donnie altered his brothers’ minds to make them smarter, he gave Leo a shock collar as a present to “correct” his behavior, he chained up Sheldon as punishment for giving him attitude, and he almost destroyed a town just to prove he’s right

The only difference between the two is that

Donnie did feel remorse for all of them and tried to fix it to the best of his ability. Kendra on the other hand doesn't really show all that much remorse for what she does and has full intentions of doing it again if she ever gets the opportunity (and she has, multiple times)

I am purposefully leaving what Donnie did out somewhat of context just to make him look as bad as Kendra (specifically their intentions behind their actions)

(And just to get it out of the way, Jeremy and Jason are both just as bad as Kendra. Even though Kendra, for the most part, treats them like trash as well, they still willingly go along with what she wants)

However, there are others who don’t ship it because Kendra reminds them of someone in real life and it makes them uncomfortable

Now, I just wanna say that if you feel uncomfortable with Kendratello due to this, I completely understand

I also want to say that even if you don’t know anyone that Kendra makes you think of, it’s still okay to be uncomfortable with the ship. You do not need a reason why to not like a ship, and if anyone has a problem with that, that’s on them

So with that in mind, it’s completely understandable why anyone would dislike the ship. Based on the evidence, they would be an extremely toxic relationship. You’d have to be absolutely INSANE to even think this is a good ship, right?

Well… Here’s the thing

Like most ships in existence, you gotta have the art of interpretation and shutting off the canon brain, especially when it comes to Kendra

Sure, there are still some things that makes Kendra, Kendra, like her working with tech, her being super smart, her going by a purple theme, and sometimes she’s still a menace (depending on the story)

And the other thing you need to know is that Kendra, just like all the other non-important villains in Rise, is pretty much a one-dimensional character. Her character is literally just a bully who’s the leader of a tech club that's constantly after devices that can hack any computer. Other than a few things, we barely know that much about Kendra, so there’s room for people to add their own personal headcanons and stuff

And it's not like Kendra is going to be evil 24/7, which gives people a change to give Kendra more traits to be more than just that as well exploring the potential reasons she is the way she is

Basically what happens 90% of the time is that most of Kendra’s negative traits are turned into positive ones. For example, take the fact that she's manipulative, arrogant, insensitive, bossy, and aloof, and turn them into charismatic, confident, honest, assertive, and reserved. These are all words that have different associations, but they basically mean the same thing

And Kendra is usually either

Given some kind of tragic backstory (usually revolving around her parents getting a divorce)

Given a redemption arc

Given more likable traits

Most of or all of the above

There’s also a good chance that the Kendratello story someone is sharing either takes place after the series or it takes place in an AU, so of course the characters are going to be a little/very different. Although sometimes you'll find stories that take place before or during the series. Many people have their own ideas on how Kendratello would go. Though usually what I talked about above is often the formula used. You just gotta find the right story, or make your own story of how you think Donnie and Kendra would fall in love and eventually get together!

And keeping with the themes Rise has of being lighthearted, it’s pretty fun and hilarious to imagine those two bickering one minute and then making out the next. It’s pretty easy to see a bit of a slow-burn enemies to lovers where Kendra and Donnie both slowly realize that oh no, they’re totally into each other, but won’t say anything because of their pride and all that. So there’s the drama, the tension, the idea of will they, won’t they?

Plus, come on, lots of us love a good Enemies To Lovers story with some Slow Burn on the side

And imagine those two going on a date by committing various crimes and half the city is destroyed because of them and then they watch the news talking about what they did while cuddling and holding their new pet cat that they randomly got at some point

Overall, most of the time the story is about two messed up individuals who end up finding peace with each other. They feel like they're the only ones that can understand each other, and they hate it, but at the same time, they don't mind

However, that’s just one side of the ship

I said it in another post I made, but if we look at the ship through another viewpoint, the side that leans more towards the toxic side of the ship, then Kendra is the embodiment of Donnie’s deepest fears and insecurities

The biggest thing people tend to overlook about Donnie is that he cares very much about being useful to the people he loves. It’s why he behaved the way he did in Witch Town, because he’s terrified that if magic can do what he does but better, then no one will need him anymore

Meanwhile Kendra is someone who will very much jump at a chance to take advantage of anything that will benefit her, especially if it has anything to do with Donnie

Donnie is the provider, and Kendra is the exploiter

Those two are perfect for each other in the worst way possible and horrible for each other in the best way possible

And I will mention too that are things that happen in canon that people interpret to be Kendratello moments, or they say could be used as evidence for Kendratello

Kendra blowing a kiss to Donnie (The Purple Jacket: She does this before attempting to leave Donnie to deal with his tech turning against him (which she hacked) to go rob the world bank)

Donnie saying that “Cute but mean” is his type (War and Pizza: He says this while getting stomped on by a tomato animatronic, saying, “Oh you’re so cute, but so mean! Why do I always go for your type?!” before proceeding to electrocute it)

Donnie and Kendra flirt whenever they interact (purely interpretation)

Donnie wanting to join the Purple Dragons because he has a crush on Kendra (also purely interpretation)

Now my thoughts on the actual ship? Eh, it’s complex

I see them as a Doomed to Fail type. They would most likely end up in some kind of a codependent relationship because of their biggest flaws, and I can see the official break up being extremely messy on both sides (since I 100% see them taking several “breaks”). Then after a couple years, things are back to normal, with Donnie and Kendra being rivals, only this time they have a respect for each other and they even help each other out if the other person needs it. And even though they still have some feelings for each other, they choose to remain as exes because they don’t want to risk falling back into old habits

On the other hand, I’m frankly tired of the whole, “Bad Person’s Not Actually Bad, They’re Just Misunderstood And Need Someone Who Understands Them” thing

And before anyone tries telling me about Kendra dealing with her parents having a divorce

We don’t know what exactly happened during the divorce between her parents. There’s no cookie cutter reaction to how a teenager would react to their parents having a divorce no matter how well or badly it's handled

The only time Kendra ever brought up the implications that her parents are divorced was when Jason failed to get the Shadow Transmitter. She told him that she wished her father never married his mother, which implies the only reason why Jason is part of the Purple Dragons is because he’s her step-brother. So basically she’s telling him that if she could kick him out then she would

Now, I’m not saying Kendra’s dad and stepmom are the perfect parents, because clearly they’re not with what I’ve mentioned so far, but still

And don't get me wrong, I'm on team Purple Dragons Get A Redemption Arc, I just see it happening more in a way where they become anti-heroes because they got bored of going after the same goal over and over again

Alright, those are all of my opinions

So, overall, do you have to ship Kendratello? No

Is it one of the more complex ships? Oh yeah

Did me rewatching every single scene Kendra is in over and over again in order to describe how she is in canon make it really hard to make this whole thing without being biased? Most definitely

But really, the reason why people ship Kendratello? It’s just for fun!

I know some people in every fandom tend to take shipping and their head canons way too seriously for some reason, but here? It’s genuinely just for fun

That’s all I have to say, but hopefully you now know more about it! Again, if you don’t ship it cause it makes you uncomfortable, that’s okay! But it doesn't give you an excuse to harass those that do. If it bothers you so bad, then the block button is right there. People have their own ideas of how the ship would go and their own reasons why they like it

If you got any questions or something to say, don’t hesitate to send them my way. I can’t guarantee that I’ll get to all of them, but I’ll do my best!

[spacetimeaccordionfolder]

I went back to listening to malevolent, thought I'd start from where I stopped, then thought "hum, maybe I should start one part back, ok, maybe just another" in part because my memory is finicky but also because no matter when I started I felt like I was dropped in the middle of it all with not a lot of context, and it went like this until I got pretty much back to part one

That being said, first, when I briefly got back to intermezzo I was immediately jumpscared just by how LOUD Kayne's voice is, I forgot that detail apparently, dear god my volume was at the minimum and it was still loud

second, I also forgot how much the part with the island around parts 7 and 8 scared me, weirdly I don't get all that scared by malevolent usually (even tho I'm very easily scared) but that one does for some reason

Anyways, I'm having fun with the relistening :D

I'm glad you're having a good time with the relisten!

I've been thinking about relistening to seasons 1 and 2, as I realized there's a lot there (like the island and most of the things from episodes 13-16) that I can't really remember or want to relook at to theorize about. Or see in a new light with newer information. There's a lot of things in Malevolent I feel like my brain's sort of "yes, and" with, like just accepting that I won't really understand and moving on without retaining a whole lot, and I'd like to break apart some of those.

Also. how many episodes did you listen to in like 12 hours?

[traegorn]

"Get therapy lol" you're a real empathetic motherfucker.

Laughing at people in pain really doesn't fit with the picture of a kindly uncle looking dude, that's really sad and I'm sorry I ever followed you. Fuck you, fuck men who want to yell about slamming doors.

For real man, I'm sorry I ever followed you I'm crying now what the fuck? What the fuck?

What the fuck is wrong with you? "Get therapy" is what you say? Fuck you.

Maybe on our call this week I'll tell my therapist about the fake asshole who tries to act like an understanding elder but just drops edgelord epic bacon putdowns when somebody shares how something made them unhappy. For real, fuck you.

Okay, you sent me this string of anons because of my flippant response to this ask.

But like, my dude... I'm a stranger on the internet. I am not an "understanding elder" -- I'm a middle aged nonbinary office worker who makes some podcasts and writes comics and novels. I don't know what you think our relationship is, but I think you need to step back for like a minute.

Like I don't think you've remotely considered my perspective in this entire interaction.

I'm sitting here cooling off after a workout, watching this week's Dimension 20 episode, and I'm scrolling Tumblr. I had reblogged a poll about car door slamming, with a little thought appended about the subject... and then there's a contextless anonymous ask in my box which:

Complains about Europeans who are not even remotely referenced in the post I reblogged. Which is, y'know, weird.

Vents about their father. To me. A stranger in Wisconsin. Who again, neither knows who you are or who your father is.

Like, dude, let me remind you what you sent me. This is your exact ask:

My father used the stupid fucking car door as a reason to yell at me all the time, Europeans sound like whiny bitch ass motherfuckers who could use a few doors slammed at them. Fuck that persnickety shit. Fuck them.

Like what the actual fuck did you expect me to make of this, anon? You brought this energy to me. You didn't ask me for advice. You randomly vented to me, a stranger, without any context.

And randomly insulted Europeans, who hadn't even joined the chat.

Like the whole "who tries to act like an understanding elder" and "kindly uncle" is something you've projected on to me. I am not trying to be some wise elder or any other bullshit -- and I'm not going into how you've decided to use exclusively masculine terms for me.

Because your use of those words shows you don't know shit about me.

I'm just old and trying my best. I know some stuff, so I try to tell people that stuff. If you're coming to this from the witchcraft side, I have always maintained that all witches are equals and I am not above anyone. If you've put me in that position, I definitely didn't ask for it.

So yeah, this is where I'm at my limit. You've crafted a pretty weird parasocial relationship here and I have to get up and work in the morning. I'm glad you're getting some help, because this entire interaction has been wild from start to finish.

I am not your guru, and I am not your mom. I'm just a tired queer person who should probably go to bed.

(Also, I mostly added the song "Therapy" to the end there because it's a fucking bop and all nonbinary band Kat and the Hurricane's new album comes out tomorrow/today and more people need to listen to it)