#ep3 putting down roots

[eye-coded-rat]

(ep3) CAT2C8175-03042009-22012024

Infection (full body) -/- arboreal [journal entry]

“parasitic-garden-that-whispers-with-the-voice-of-the-woman-he-clearly-murderd-and-sort-of-turns-you-into-a-tree” yes, that is murdered spelled incorrectly, yes that is directly from the script

From what I understand, it appears Dr. Samuel Webber murdered his ex-wife because she'd moved on! still has the same surname but she has moved out. So yeah, this guys NOT okay, then he decides to get scratched up in a garden!

Said garden is "growing wild around the ruins of some bombed-out church." that smells of "an almost overwhelming sickly-sweet rot", and he keeps smelling jasmine.

One of my notes for this episode is "gradual acceptance, embraced end"

my favourite part of this statement, a part that really cements the Strangeness and Acceptance (man really said If i'm gonna become Tree i'm gonna Do It Right);

"my skin is pulling away nicely like blanched tomatoes. My legs will be nonresponsive soon. I need to finalise my position before then ... The roots have freed themselves from the weight of my meat as it sags from my bones and drops to the dirt."

directly followed by

"No greenfly or other parasites. I remain quite healthy."

because yes, that's exactly what I'd describe as Quite Healthy....

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 5 part 2

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][+1] ep5 [1][2][3][4][5] ep6 [1][2][3])

I was so looking forward to brighten this particular scene, it's the darkest yet and it's such a beautiful one it's a pity to miss even one detail

oh no lilia stop being so cute????

have you ever seen jen with a bigger smile? and she's quiet as usual, it's almost like more than the ride she's enjoying how much fun her friends are having. especially lilia, those two have been forming a bond that is equal parts bickering and a growing respect

I'm just glad alice had this moment of pure unadulterated joy before it came all crashing down

agatha is very, very quiet. despite never letting herself feel anything freely, she takes a moment to close her eyes and enjoy the beauty of it all

she looks back at rio, so sensual and confident

how can kathryn hahn convey so much with so little time? her breath catches at her sight. and then worry and fear take hold and she gives the tiniest shake of her head, as if she's forbidding herself to entertain any kind of thought about rio. she looks away. the blood moon behind her spells disaster

meanwhile billy is that kid who has the time of his life hanging out with the teachers during a field trip

I want to personally thank aubrey plaza for every acting choice she made as rio, but ESPECIALLY for this witchy laugh

(I just brightened the salem seven witch vomiting bees and it's actually pretty impressive! but I don't want to trigger any insect haters around here) (I love insects though so please talk to me about spiders if you want)

they couldn't get a good look at the cabin before rushing in and I couldn't either until now, do we know if it's something from Agatha's past? did she use to live there?

I'm salty that alice had to die in these stupid clothes

So. I think this trial is the most fucked up and humiliating yet. Billy knew nothing about jen except superficial facts, so he put her in a scenario that matched her work aesthetic, more of a personal insult than a wake up call (compare it with the broom lilia just made for her: roots and flowers, something that speaks about jen's work, beliefs and traditions.)

Alice's trial was entirely based on lorna, we know billy is a big fan so he ran with that concept creating something that really shook alice, and not in a good way. she was forced to sit in her dead mom's house and wear her clothes for god's sake. she took it as the Road wanting to teach her a lesson, when it was just a teenager with the grace and subtlety of a newborn puppy.

Now, agatha. billy doesn't know a thing about her because she's private to the point of paranoia. he has gathered that there's something in her past about a dead child and that's probably what makes her grumpy, so he... tried to make her talk to nicky. with a fuking oujia board. Despite having had his share of shock and trauma billy inevitably has a kid's point of view re: death, and even more so because he's functionally immortal. death is something that happens to other people, or far far away in the future. he thinks he's giving agatha much needed therapy, when he actually put a grown woman in child's clothes and made her relive her traumas for everyone to see.

btw I'm not in any way saying that the trials are bad writing. they are brilliant writing. they're just tragic and fucked up behind the funny exterior, just like agatha herself. sorry for the rant.

I mean I wouldn't be opposed to that. we could put billy back in a closet for a little while and get down and dirty with it. and ooh there's a little leaf on rio's shirt, I hadn't noticed it!

jen's retainer always SENDS me

agatha's face when she realizes it's her trial

agatha is irrevocably, eternally linked with death in all its forms

looks like rio is playing along and setting the scene, but she's also doing something more subtle that only agatha understands: she's provoking her, and it's becoming more personal and hurtful. she's testing and punishing more than she used to. she is growing angrier.

agatha wants to tell rio to fuck off but knows she deserves it. agatha is NOT happy to be in this trial for reasons that go beyond what everyone present (except rio) assumes, but she'll bite the inside of her cheeks until they bleed before she shows any of it

the way he says it with a straight face too (again, NO PUN INTENDED. forgive me joe, I would never)

oh great alice has only thirty minutes to live

everyone looks worried and on their guard, rio has her whole knife out, playing along. agatha is STILL trying to look cool and casual, it's painful to watch. girl is panicking, hard

meanwhile billy is always bringing a whole different energy, he's playing and having fun! think back to the second episode when they met lilia and then jen and alice for the first time. billy had no clue about the tension, the fear and hate between them and agatha. right now he's still more excited than scared. he's about to have a rude awakening.

do not taunt the spirits, AGATHA.

lmaooo. this motherfucker.

another moment when billy sounds chillingly cruel. being jigsaw without realizing it

I'm not pointing it out every time but whenever agatha does this with her arms she's really, really really nervous

what does agatha do when she's scared or overwhelmed? she puts on a show. like clockwork. and rio has already guessed what's about to happen

I really want to continue this so there will be more later today, stay tuned!

go to episode 5 part 3

[strawberryfaced]

What are your fave scenes in s3? ☺️

im so glad u asked anon .. ive been waiting to find an excuse to talk abt this. ….

ep2: ok so in ep2 i’m sooooo obsessed with the tiny scene where simon puts his head on wille’s shoulder like a little dog or something. there’s just something sooo innocent and wholesome about it. but then there’s also wille and august’s fight and oh my god. the way wille almost killed him just because he said a few words to his bf… like calm down but also i support u. then again I actually have found myself kinda rooting for august this season so… kinda yikes too. and oh my god wait wait i have to talk about simon’s new song. FIRST OF FUCKING ALL THE REFERENCE TO REVOLUTION BY ELIAS (which im coincidentally listening to right now)??? AND THEN ALSO HIS LITTLE CHUCKLE WHEN HE GETS THR POSITIVE COMMENTS (which are absolutely deserved. it needs to be on Spotify right now) THAT SCENE. I LOVE SIMON. BUT THEN AGAIN NOT EVEN THR BEST PART BECAUSE I INOW IT WS SAD BUT WHEN WILLE CALLED SIMON TELLING HIM HE NEEDED TO DELETE THR VIDEO HIS LITTLE OKAY… !!//&&

ep3: for ep3 firstly the pre-camp scene when wille picks up simon. the “big boy”. IM CRYING. and the hammock scene …….. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. but oh my god do not even get me fuckinf started on the rave scene. that one frame of wilmon. roshella and frederika’s jealousy (ok personally i am not a stella nor frederika fan. the way they treat Felice is an absolute no but still that scene killed me). BUT ALSO WILMON’s TENT FIGHT??? I MEAN LIKE. THE SHUSHING. WILLE REFERENCINF SIMON SELLIG TO AUGUST. ABSOLUTELY. FOUL. ok but the one that really did it for me was simon and linda comfort scene. i cried during that scene. i love love love linda and simon so much no one will get it.

ep4: wilmon flirting during the inspection. no further notes . anyways sara and her dad bonding driving singing scene. I didn’t include most of sara’s scenes in my favourite scenes but oh my god can I just say sara, august, and micke this season I loved their stories sos so much. and the singing while driving scene. it hurt me. because as much as I hate to admit it micke reminds me of my own dad (and wille. wille this season. when I watched some of his scenes I got fully afraid). so yeah that’s really important to me!! ok anyway there is also the baking scene. no further notes on this one too. OK BUT THE HALLWAY MAKEOUT I SCREAMED. WHAT. I really really really need edvin and omar’s commentary on this one.

ep4: not many fave scenes in this one but my favourite scene in this ep was probably the one after simon’s home was broke into and wille runs to him and embraces him in a hug. no kissing, no sneaky flirting (as much as I love those things) just pure warmth and love and care. I loved it.

ep5: actually ep5 Broke me but since young royals is just so amazing I still managed to have favourite scenes in this one. first is the music room fight. yes yes I know it was terrible but it was terrible and I loved it. I just really loved the intensity here and it was such a huge contrast from the previous seasons too because tbh s1 and s2 to me were mostly like wille being obsessed with simon and simon being an amazing confident assertive boyfriend. but this season…. this scene… it changed. wille’s angry so much and it’s like simon is just trying his best. he’s sacrificed some of his own feelings to care for wille’s (not saying he didn’t do that previous seasons) it was biggggg. ALSO THE MORNING HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I LOVE YOU WILMON. oh OH OH AND THEN AUGUST GIVING SAFA THE LETTER. like I said previously i actually am kind of rooting for august this season and sara I love her screen time so much she’s such an interesting character. so the combo of this … it was crazy. and I honestly really enjoyed the way sara just hugged august it made me smile very hard but ngl the kiss was abit too much for me. i think that was like…not good of them to do. last but not least wilmon birthday fight. can i just say. the whole cast in that scene were amazing. you know the famous fallen angel painting. that was how amazing edvin’s acting was. it was so so intense. and simon/omar .. i respect them so much in that scene. anyways we’re not gonna talk abt the bed scene because that doesn’t exist in my little head anymore :)

okay that was it i believe. both waiting for and watching the last episode will probably include a lot of crying. but u know it is what it is!! we rock this shit right!! i love young royals with my whole heart and to the anon that sent me this ask im so so sorry for dumping all this on u but thank u for letting me talk :3 n to anyone else who saw this if u read even one paragraph of this i love you

[ellavaday]

Hello this is late but real life has been kicking my ass, luckily it's a long weekend and after basically sleeping for 2 whole days I'm mostly back to life so that means finishing the dres2 ep2 ref post before ep3 comes out lol. There's quite a few puns this episode which means I'm back on translator duty

When they're getting back to the workroom and Chanel in confessionals says that Chuchi was too high and mighty she makes a pun with being 'too high in her platform (shoes)' which are synonym of Canarian drag.

Speaking of Chuchi I feel like the Canarian girlies have it incredibly hard in this show tbh. They are used to perform in what basically amounts to stadiums 3 times the size of any tv filming set and they have to travel by plane which means the huge things they use have to be scaled down not only for tv but for transportation constraints and their style adapted to a different format altogether which is hard to translate well (yes i resent the Javis for how they've judged Chuchi by comparing her to Sethlas and I am not at all sorry people have ripped them a new one on Spanish gay Twitter bc of that)

When Pakita is in the confessionals (while they're dedragging) the subs say 'let's go for it there's nothing to lose' she actually says leña al mono que es de goma (a bit more like 'lets put more wood on this fire')

When they're back in the workroom and Chuchi says she wants to say thank you to Maria Edilia, she says it in a (not particularly good) LatAm accent

Pinkchadora makes a few puns about Maria Edilia being amazing/a heavy hitter and her weight

It's a crime nobody has mentioned Pakita amongst the sexiest but I digress ofc Chanel and Kelly think the other one is cute lmao. In the confessionals Chanel says 'a mi me gusta dejarme llevar' (i like to go with the flow) 'pero Kelly no mete ficha' (meter ficha is to flirt/shoot ones shot/ but literally it'd mean to put a coin in a machine) 'es que es una tragaperras' (she's a slot machine, so she's basically calling Kelly a bit of a slut... And probably also calling her too much of a bottom for her)

I love how everyone sucks at geography lmao when Chanel gets her flag she says 'oh two strips!' and Supremme answers 'you could also call it two lines: it kinda plays a joke on how you'd say two strips [of cocaine].

When Supremme is explaining the maxi challenge (a dance battle to Spain's Eurovision song of last year) she says they're calling it instead of SloMo (the name of the song) Me Eslomo (I'm breaking my back) not 'in slow-motion' like the subtitles say, it's also a joke used in the Gran Hotel de Las Reinas when Paca La Piraña does her number and it's literally all. over. this. episode. Literally everyone says this pun so much. Why not translate it? (even if you can't rhythm it like in Spanish)

The Muertas Haris group name is a pun on Mata Hari (the Spy) but also bc Matar means to kill in Spanish ((irregular verb, being dead is estar muerto/a)) and like Vania says a reference to the Eurovision song of the same name

After Carmelo (the choreographer) tell Clover and Pakita they have to perform a dance solo Pakita says it's a big weight/pressure but that she's used to it. It's a joke about sex lol but not like a very "in your face" joke. Spanish humor is very slut shamey (specially towards women) and Pakita likes to do it too but gender swapped, she talks a lot about how she'd sleep with your dad but clearly she's not the slut in the joke, it's your dad. Yes. Yours. Specifically.

Pitita says her and her team are more magazine vedettes than lola indigo. Lola Indigo is a pop singer and I'm not entirely sure magazine vedette is used in English like it would in Spanish. A vedette is a female burlesque performer (in which a lot of Spanish drag has it's roots on and from which it borrows a lot of lingo to this day), a magazine vedette is more of a chorus girl.

When they're getting ready for the maxi challenge they talk about tener pluma. Pluma (lit. Feather) is how we call someone that is very visibly gay. I hate hate that they left it as a literal translation bc it doesn't make an ounce of sense of in English bc the closest equivalent would be being limp-wristed or effeminate, but in English those are things you are not things you have (Unless ofc you want to go with having an affectation)

When Supremme is introducing the judges. Supremme makes a reference to Algo Pequeñito, Un Bloody Mary por favor y Quédate Conmigo (spanish entries to Eurovision from different years). Ana makes a reference to Gwendolyn by Julio Iglesias (bc of her look). Calvo says Supremme looks like an After Eight.

The guest judge is Soraya, who represented Spain for Eurovision in 2009 (and spoilers the song used in the lipsync is the same song she sang for Eurovision)

When Pink Chadora is in confessionals talking about the sandwich she had on stage it's ofc not a literal translation but this girl talks at the speed of light so I can't even be mad. It's just the pun number 35 of lomo (ham) / eslomo (breaking my back) / SloMo of this episode

And that's it.

This has been said before online but this challenge seemed to be... Designed for failure in my opinion. Making two of them lead and have the rest as back up dancers and not giving them each a chance to shine means everyone is either complacent expecting the two leads to do most of the work (and cave under the pressure which is exactly what happened to Pakita, listen there aren't enough words to say how much I worried the second Pitita said Pakita was going to do a flamenco version of Eurovision Chanel jfc) or to try to overstage the others in a way that doesn't make much sense. Also why the hell were both teams on the stage at the same time?? Anyway. If you've read this thank you 😊 hopefully I won't take this long again for the episode that comes out tomorrow lol

[procrastiel]

Good Omens Is (Queer) Therapy

Crowley uses the love he feels for Aziraphale to let it empower himself. He turns it into a strength. He uses it to think outside the box, to figure out their path, together. This makes Aziraphale feel safe and protected.

His fall gave him the freedom to explore and to learn how to love unconditionally, outside of expectations and structures. (he even still loves God, and is in awe of Job being able to speak to her directly)

Aziraphale still has to learn that. His love is very conditional. He wants to break free, but can’t (yet - we’re rooting for you, bud). He uses the love he feels for Crowley to break himself down. He turns it into a weakness, a danger, a threat. Something impossible to be proud of, something that by its nature needs to be hidden and kept secret. Something forbidden, something wrong.

This makes Aziraphale act defensively in moments where it’s about their relationship and where it really counts. For me, the key moments here are The Bandstand (s1 ep3) and The Kiss™ (s2 ep6).

He says what he thinks he should say, what’s appropriate to say, not what he really wants to say. And this, inevitably, makes Crowley feel as if he’s a bad influence, as if there’s something wrong with Crowley. Not good enough, needs to be better. This feeling of lack makes Crowley anxious and worried (he is, by his nature, a very optimistic being).

Moving on, we also have:

When fucking Armageddon was upon them, when it really counted, Aziraphale chose to tell heaven first when he found the real Antichrist, and not Crowley.

That moment was my main reason why (in the book) I understood them more as friends than lovers. Because you don’t need to have a strong obligation to a friend, there is no expectation, but you do to your partner. If you have top secret knowledge than can make or break the entire universe, you’d expect the first person you talk to about that would be your spouse/confidant, regardless whether he’s a demon or an aardvark. But Aziraphale told heaven first (well, Metatron, but you get my point).

Turns out this was in fact a good thing to happen in the story, because they might have fucked it up big time if they had gotten to Adam before the horsemen arrived. Could you imagine an angel and a demon arguing like they did at the bandstand, only now with the Antichrist between them? He would’ve probably blown up the world just to shut them up.

Anyway, this is a major trust break for me, and as a viewer I’m immediately siding with Crowley. But, and that’s the good bit, we’re all capable of change! And I think we might learn a thing or two about love by watching Aziraphale learn, and Crowley leading the way.

All Crowley ever asked of Aziraphale was that he puts him first. Before heaven and hell and all the other BS. And Aziraphale has literally done every single other thing except that. Except the thing that Crowley needs the most.

Be on my side, Crowley asks. But that is too much for Aziraphale. His love is still not free.

And I love this show so much because I think we, as a society, are more like Aziraphale than we’d like to think. We can’t or simply won’t jump over our own shadows for the people we truly love. As soon a things get tough we get triggered, fall into old patterns and get defensive.

For me, this whole series is a therapy session and I am learning about love, communication, trust, connection and what it means to be human.

Here’s to season 3!

[mightilymousey]

SPOILERS FOR LMK SEASON 3 EPISODES 3 AND 4

I haven’t posted about Lego Monkie Kid at all before, but S3 Ep4 came out and I have thoughts, mostly about Macaque and how he interacts with MK. Outside of the main theory in this post I do think Macaque has somewhat of a soft spot for MK. He warned MK about LBD in S2 when he didn’t have to, and he sounded almost soft when he greeted MK in S3 Ep1. Macaque’s just too much of a ruthless bastard to let it slow him down much. That said, on to my theory/analysis.

It seems to me that Macaque is really leaning into the dark mentor trope. 

It was diegetically acknowledged in ep3 that Mk’s powers develop in reaction to the situations he’s in. He’s stuck on a solution and exactly the right power pops up out of nowhere. This is a very common plot device, even the original JTTW leaned heavily on it with Wukong pulling abilities out of his ass that were never previously mentioned and never show up again. MK has become aware of this trend and deliberately invokes it by putting his friends in danger (the little shit).

Macaque also seems to have become aware that this is how MK’s powers work because he spent the entirety of his interactions with MK in ep4 egging the kid on. 

“Come on, fight back! Maybe I’m not giving you the right motivation.”

 Threatening MK’s friends and is delighted when MK does show more of his original power. 

“Now that’s more like it!”

Then later he pushes MK again while holding Sandy and Meis lives literally in his hands.

“Oh, what a hero! Two friends about to be crushed and you do nothing?” “Or what? You’re not the Monkie Kid anymore. Your powers are gone. Your staff’s gone. You’re NOTHING.”

And it works. MK reacquires his transformation power, beats Macaque, and rescues his friends. And Macaques reaction is fascinating.

“He still has power. Good. Everything just got a lot more interesting.”

This was not to reaction of a sore loser. This was not the reaction of someone who is worried that he keeps failing. This is the reaction of someone who is secretly rooting for the heroes.

And why shouldn’t he be? Macaque is smart in his own way, and very powerful. He knows that Wukong and MK are easy pickings at the moment, and if he cut out the theatrics he could capture them and turn them over to LBD easily. But he can’t trust that LBD will keep her word and set him free. That she won’t either kill him anyway or keep him as a slave. And even if she did what kind of world would he have to live in? Certainly not one worth living in.

So, Macaque leans into his villain roll harder than ever. He taunts MK to his breaking point and in his own twisted way helps our fledgling hero shine once more.

[evilwickedme]

ok so to sum up my feelings for leverage: redemption, season 1(a): (long post warning, there’s a tl;dr at the end)

I knew that Hardison wouldn’t be in most of the season due to Aldis Hodge being a busy bee nowadays, but I didn’t realize that meant he’d only be around for the first two episodes. He was sorely missed, not only because of my attachment to him, but also because he’s usually the grounding factor in the group dynamic, and his role as info guy and tech guy was split evenly between two characters who had their own issues.

That said, Hardison is absolutely a highlight of the two episodes he’s in. his speech about redemption was everything I could’ve hoped for (plus, more evidence for the Jewish!Hardison pile...). I wish we’d gotten to see more of his dynamic with Breanna because what we saw was funny and sweet and we don’t generally get to see Hardison taking care of somebody who so desperately needs taking care of. I hope that Aldis Hodge is around for more episodes in 1(b), because what we’re left with feels a little hollow.

Sticking to original leverage characters for now, for the most part the leverage crew still felt true to the original series as characters, even if the show itself was a little bit confused at times. The actors understand their characters and embody them so well that I think one could give them the trashiest script ever and they’d still sell it. Sophie is a particular focus in 1(a) because of Nate’s death, and she’s particularly well written as a result.

That said, I’m super bitter that we saw little to no mastermind!Parker. Parker’s character being given the mastermind role was a big deal and it feels like they’re walking it back because they feel uncomfortable with it. It is eventually given an in-text excuse, but literally in the last episode, and it was not a particularly convincing reason, and in fact contradicted moments from previous episodes (Sophie leaving for a client meeting and ignoring Parker in ep3 comes to mind). It’s frustrating, it makes the end of the original leverage feel pointless, and letting Parker make a decision once in a while is not the same thing at all. The original series repeatedly showed us that while everyone in the team had their strengths, Parker works problems and solves them in unique, interesting ways, and other characters’ days in the limelight tended to be comedic or even failures. It’s a broken promise, and a pretty major broken promise at that.

On a more positive note, Parker’s dynamic with literally everyone was fantastic. She’s possibly the best written character this season. They’ve taken the autism out of the subtext and into the text (although obviously still undiagnosed), and given her coping mechanisms that were taken seriously in the text even when they were played for laughs, which I appreciated. Her attempts to mentor Breanna were sweet, her friendship with Sophie was electric and at times (CRIMES) hilarious, and as usual, she has a fantastic dynamic with Eliot that makes my heart burst. If you don’t think they’re romantically involved, at least acknowledge there’s a life partnership here. They’ve spent the last decade together.

(We’ll get to Harry.)

Eliot isn’t given much arc-wise, which is frustrating since he’s my favorite. He’s being presented as the goal at the end of a redemption arc, ie to keep working at it every day until your soul heals or whatever, and it doesn’t reflect the message they’re trying to convey via Hardison’s speech and our two new characters. He’s got his moments, but I think they under utilized his potential.

Breanna!!! Breanna’s my new favorite, except for Eliot. She’s hilarious, she’s insecure, she’s nerdy and excited in a way that’s similar to Hardison but still distinct in its inherent teenage-girl-ness and I LOVE IT. Unlike the previous series, where Hardison’s “age of the geek” was often a joke played on Hardison, we’re at the point where Eliot and Parker are both right there with him, and so they accept and even appreciate Breanna’s nerdiness. Also, canon gay character? In YOUR Leverage? It’s more likely than you think.

(No, I never thought they’d make ot3 canon on screen. I hoped, but I didn’t think it would actually happen.)

I think Breanna’s the character that will be the most interesting to see grow. She’s got a lot of potential and a list of crimes a mile long (or more). I adore her with all my heart. I want to see her tiktok account.

Harry. Oh, Harry.

It took me a while, but I do like Harry. It took a while, because the narrative positioned him at the same level as Nate back in episode 1 of original Leverage. But in episode 1 we didn’t know the other characters. We had Nate as the POV character, and so we cared about him because we were seeing the world through his eyes. (This is TV Studies 101. I know this, because I took TV Studies 101 in 2019.) In Leverage: Redemption, we no longer have a POV character, for several reasons:

Nate, previously the POV character, is dead.

As it is, by mid-season 3 of leverage Nate was no longer a POV character. This is, coincidentally, the point where the leverage writers realized they had four other characters in the main cast they could do something with, and in-universe, Nate accepted that he was a thief, not a special Good Man.

Sophie is sort of a POV character for the first episode of the revival, but only for the first few minutes. Afterwards, the series settles into the groove of seasons 3-5, i.e., the entire crew is our POV. We know our crew, and we love them as is.

Narratively, however, Redemption insists on positing Harry as the POV character, because it is his redemption we are pursuing most vehemently. And I think they really relied on us already knowing the actor - I’ve never seen him in anything before, so to me he was a completely fresh face and they put almost no effort into selling him to me. Beyond being competent and consistently mildly baffled by the antics of the leverage crew, I honestly don’t know who this man is by the end of EIGHT episodes with him. I have a much better handle on Breanna by the end of 1(a), and I can tell you I knew all five of the original leverage crew better by the end of the first episode of the original series than I do Harry. What’s the name of his daughter, John Rogers. Is he still married. How old is the daughter. Why is none of this worth mentioning. Give him a sense of humor that isn’t reacting to other people’s shenanigans. I’m so frustrated. It’s bad writing.

I did manage to grow to like Harry by the end, but I’m pretty sure this is down to Noah Wyle’s charismatic portrayal of an under-developed character, at least partially. And I never stopped being frustrated at not knowing who this man is at all.

The two highlights of the season are undoubtedly episodes five and six. Episode five was the first time I felt like the episode was more than a collection of good moments between the main cast and mediocre moments between the main cast and also the main plot. The issues with pacing and tone that I suffered through for most of the season were mostly non-existent in ep5 and 6, and at least in episode 5 I attribute that to the pared down cast. They had time to focus not only on our actual characters - Sophie, Parker, Breanna - but also on the case. This is the only client from 1(a) I am going to remember next week without googling it first, mark my words.

Episode six worked for the exact opposite reason - it completely disregarded the client and plot and immersed itself in the characters. Breanna gets a moment to shine, but everybody else gets their bits and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the script that was most fun to write. The characters felt natural, real, and captured the found-family dynamic that’s been missing all season for the first time.

While episode 2 is the weakest episode, I don’t actually have much to say about it. I am disappointed in episode 8. For a mid-season finale, I really expected them to do something. Instead, it was an episode about Nate Ford that copped out of being about Nate Ford (both with fake-Nate and with the new version of him being relayed to us). I would have told the writers to give that energy back to episode 1 and write an episode that’s about anybody who isn’t Harry, oh my God. I know I said I grew to like him but so many episodes were about Harry. He’s the newbie! Why didn’t Hardison get an episode that was actually about him, considering he was only around for two episodes? Why does Eliot have to be the butt of the joke when the theme of the series should directly tie back to him in a much more meaningful way? The last episode parodies their own tagline by saying Eliot isn’t just a hitter, but it deftly avoids noticing that they’ve turned him into nothing more than very muscly comic relief, including in that very episode!

Also, I hated the Marshal. Eliot actively looked uncomfortable around her.

tl;dr

The season took a while, that’s definitely true. But it did find its footing eventually, and by the halfway mark of 1(a) it finally felt cohesive again. The characters were played fantastically even when they weren’t well-written, and if nothing else, the humor landed every time. It still has its kinks and problems to work out, but if you look at it as a brand new show rather than a continuation of one that went off the air over eight years ago, it’s actually doing rather well. I’m choosing to judge it in both lights - according to its own standards, it establishes its identity in episode five; according to Leverage standards, it establishes its connection to its roots in episode six. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed 1(a), and continue to have high hopes for 1(b).

fic writing will commence in three, two, one...

[ginjointsintheworld]

I re-watched season 3 episode 10, 11 and 13 and 14 and then all of season 4 this weekend again and ahh the way Lauren looks at Leyla like she hung the moon gets me every time. She does that in almost every episode so it’s hard to pick them out lmao. But those and the entirety of s4,ep3 stood out to me. That episode is just Lauren spilling love everywhere tbh lol. But I always go back to s3,ep11 because even though the break up scene is funny, it’s also really, really sad-

-Lauren felt good for like, a second, but was fully prepared to end it and take that away from herself because she felt like she wasn’t being efficient. The outside comments didn’t help but feeling like she’s only useful when helping is a thing she’s always grappled with. I know a huge reason Lauren and Leyla work is because Leyla loves her in all her parts and doesn’t let her get away with anything and Leyla herself is more gentle and open with Lauren over everyone else, but I really can’t help but wish we’d gotten to see them exchanging the quieter more vulnerable stories and thoughts that lead to both of them eventually letting their walls down. The rest of season 4 has a lot to live up to because I’m expecting at least one major conversation like that. My kingdom for a episode where their plot is just them meeting up and talking about them, now and in the past. And I feel you and the other askers, this is such a transformative relationship for Lauren I really hope it and Leyla don’t end up as just periods of growth for her.

s2 and lauren's recovery really highlighted how much being a doctor and helping people means to her but it's also where she roots her entire value and purpose. it's why i always disliked that helen never actually apologized or tried to when she unfairly called lauren soft in 3x11 and said it put her patients in danger when it wasn't even her fault. if anything it was max's for not listening to what his staff needed and ran around trying to fix global warming instead. helen's opinion means a lot to lauren and combined with her strong sense of responsibility to her patients, of course lauren was (albeit painfully) willing to sacrifice the happiest she's ever been personally for the good of the people she's trained her whole life to help.

but leyla, like you said, doesn't let lauren get away with anything. the good and the bad and the foolish. she's there to intercept lauren when she's being hard on herself or self depreciating, when she's been biased and clouded, when she's being endearingly dumb. lauren returns the effort with the dedication of every cell in her body. i'm always going to want more of the soft and vulnerable moments because i think they build the foundation and speak to the dynamic of a ship far greater than any other kind of interaction. for these two especially because how they present themselves to the outside world leans in contrast of that.

part of what i thought really worked for iggy and martin's reconciliation in s2 was that they had an entire episode where their screentime was dedicated to just sitting down and TALKING about all the hard, insecure, root of the problem things. it revealed a lot about the characters to the audience and at the same time allowed each other to understand the other's perspective and motivations behind their actions and feelings. i'd kill for something like that in s4 for lauren and leyla. i know people wringing their hands wondering how they can get over their conflict but i do think it's doable in a respectable way and a lot of it relies on communication. however the first step before anything else is lauren being able to come to terms with the root of why she made the donation and understanding that. and i think that's an entirely reasonable task for lauren to achieve.

[hopevalley]

I've actually enjoyed watching new episodes of the show for the first time in a LONG time! I thought Lucas being frustrated w/ Elizabeth was contrived and misplaced. Was his mom like "me & your father are separated btw i told elizabeth before you?" The bit felt off. But hey, these past three episodes have been fun & much-better written than anything last season. How much of this season's improvement over recent prior ones do you think is due to the season having a new showrunner?

As to Lucas and Elizabeth, I feel this is an issue with shows in general of this runtime and episode length. I like to compare WCtH with Road to Avonlea because both shows had short seasons and 40ish minute long episodes, were family shows, and featured ensemble casts. Avonlea had a similar issue with pacing in the occasional episode. I know I like to nitpick WCtH a lot about its writing, and I never shy from honest critique, but I really do think the hiccup with Lucas and Elizabeth in Ep3 was just a product of needing a few more minutes of screentime—preferably the start of Helen telling Lucas about the situation with his father, since it did feel like him knowing everything came out of almost nowhere. We knew Helen would have to talk to him, but we never really saw her resolve to do so, and I think we earned the emotional payoff of the truth coming out. (As an aside, Helen should have apologized for telling Lucas that Elizabeth knew as well as putting her in a position where she had to keep a secret from someone she cared about. Elizabeth being put in a bad position was awful enough, but then she went and told Lucas that Elizabeth was aware the whole time? Yiiiikesssss...)

I’m pretty confident that Helen told Lucas something like: “I have to tell you something important... Your father...left me...a few weeks ago. I need to apologize for keeping it from you but I didn’t know how to bring it up...” and then probably responded to something Lucas said with a comment about how she’d talked to Elizabeth about it, or Elizabeth suggested she be honest about the situation because Lucas would find out eventually and it would be better if it came directly from her. I could definitely see Helen accidentally being too honest in a situation where she’s nervous about admitting the truth to her own son. She’s probably extremely embarrassed and ashamed, and the episode doesn’t really go into how Helen feels about it. They just jump into talk about love and how it needs to be nurtured and nobody ever asks Helen if she actually loved/loves her husband, let alone if he was a good man/husband to her. 

Not getting a scene where Helen confesses the truth weakens the entire plotline. I’m hoping they’ll just keep improving on this specific aspect of the show, and consider getting rid of unnecessary scenes or entire unnecessary storylines in favor of stronger, more complete stories.

I know their hesitation is based on the idea that not everyone cares about (for example) Lucas, so focusing really hard on Lucas’s relationship with his mother might feel Bad, but the entire “chair” plotline with Rosemary and Lee was unnecessary, as were the longer Florence and Ned scenes. Don’t get me wrong—I enjoyed them! But if they cut those out, or mostly cut them, then there would have been enough screentime for a full scene showing Helen telling Lucas about the truth.

And Chris McNally is clearly an actor who can handle an emotional scene like that, so it would have turned out well, and been well-received by the fans...even the ones who aren’t rooting for Lucas. Because what people who watch this show want to see is...depth, I think. So many relationships feel tacked on or fake. I’ve seen improvement this season, but they could definitely do more to bolster the “community” feel of the show.

--

As to the quality of the season so far...

@trash-god​ and I were chatting earlier this week about how wild it is that we’re both, like, actively looking forward to the next episode regularly. Sure, it’s still pretty early in the season, but we’re 25% of the way through. If the writing stays this consistently decent I think we’ll have the best season in a long time on our hands!

It’s funny because if you lurk on the WCTH subreddit, you’ll see most of the fans there are bored of this season, but I disagree with them in a bit way; this season is DEFINITELY better-written and smoother. As to where to place the credit, I think it’s worth considering the last few seasons and what the writers/writing teams have struggled with.

Season 4: They knew something was going to happen with their lead man so they tried introducing other things and in many ways had success. There were some REALLY GOOD scenes in S4, but there were also scenes or arcs that had a lot of potential that just fell flat. For example, they had that plot where Frank and Abigail got annoyed with each other over the fact that he’s kind of still living (mentally) as a carefree bachelor, and even though it wasn’t as thorough as it should have been, it was a pretty good and realistic storyline. But then later in the season, they introduced Carson, and Frank is suspicious of him for almost no reason (or at least, no solid reason), and then actively is...like a BAD PERSON for NO REASON. Two completely different plots, one was good and felt natural, and the other was awful and cringey. We also have the AJ plotline in S4. It started out super good because it was one of those plots that was genuinely built up to over the course of several episodes. We find out the accountant that was going to testify has withdrawn their statement, then we find out they’ve disappeared and we have a name. Bill discusses it with Abigail and Frank both, multiple times. He thinks it’s a payoff and he’s determined to prove it so he starts poking around. Eventually he gets a lead and follows it, and it’s revealed that AJ is a woman. Bill is annoying. AJ is a liar. I think conceptually this is one of the more interesting plots they’ve cobbled together, but in execution it was lacking toward the end of the story. Bill spent two episodes fighting AJ’s attitude and in the end he just lets her go with a smile? That isn’t like Bill at all. There’s a scene or two missing to make that reaction make sense. They don’t interact enough to give us the idea that Bill *understands* her, let alone would be okay with her literally breaking out of his jail ON HIS WATCH.

Season 5: They had to write Jack out of the story and had to rush a wedding in to “appease” the fans. They also had to write Shane, Philip, Frank, and Dottie off the show in this season (Dottie because the actress deals with a chronic illness and can no longer do acting work—I want to say she has Lyme’s). So they cobble this like, awkward storyline to write Frank out that doesn’t really make a lot of sense. They put this dramatic story together for Philip (when him just moving away would have been better/more interesting), and they try to bring AJ back for another 2-part episode, which sounded fun until we actually had to watch the episodes. It was at this point that I thought, “The people writing this show...think they’re writing a movie script.” It’s not that I think AJ isn’t pushy or emotionally blunt, but it definitely came across in those episodes that they wrote her that way specifically because the plot wouldn’t work out if she wasn’t. She does unreasonable things. For some reason Bill still has feelings even though she’s done nothing to earn them. (And vice-versa; he’s just so mean to her...why would she be interested?) Everyone was like :O when the AJ episodes weren’t very well-received. But like, I didn’t want AJ to come back for a huge dramatic rattlesnake bite scene. I wanted her back to see her emotional struggle with facing prison. I wanted to really see where they’d go with her seeing Henry Gowen. She says she wants to start over in Hope Valley after prison, but like...WHY? The only people who are nice to her are Dottie and Abigail! And then after this super dramatic poorly written set of scenes that pretty much ensured AJ would never be seen on the show again (because her presence was actively mocked by a lot of fans) they actually kill off Jack and try to have a deeply emotional and thoughtful episode.

The worst part is that...the post-death episode was good. The actors were great. Then you look back at the dramatic rattlesnake stuff and you’re just like, “What went wrong here?”

Season 6: They decided they were going to introduce a love triangle, so they start doing that, but then Abigail’s character AS WELL AS CODY’S CHARACTER has to be cut from the show, so they edit those out. I still think doing this was the right thing—Abigail as a character was literally UNBEARABLE throughout most of S5—but I also can’t deny that it probably brought the cohesiveness and overall quality of the season down by a bit, particularly with Abigail acting as a buffer between Nathan/Lucas and Elizabeth. I have no way of knowing if they edited other characters into those roles (it’s possible Bill became a buffer between Nathan and Elizabeth, for example), but the editing still gave us some scenes that just didn’t...quite work, like the one where Elizabeth comforts Henry, or when Lee becomes Bill’s confidant regarding the position of judge being offered to him.

Season 7: In their attempt to make Lucas seem “mysterious” they accidentally made him come off almost creepy. More than once. They had some good ideas in this season, but the writing felt a bit choppy and isolated from episode to episode. Of course Nathan’s father was innocent. Of course it was resolved in five minutes. You could see they were trying REALLY hard for cohesiveness at certain points (Elizabeth tried talking to Henry about his attitude; Jesse mentioned Frank; Dottie was mentioned), but each episode felt very isolated from the others, almost as if most of them were written completely separately from the rest.

And you’ll notice in S4, 5, and 6, we kind of have a similar problem, where some plots feel like they were written or inserted into the story independent of the other plotlines. Frank breaking into Carson’s room at the saloon to snoop through his stuff was one of the worst things in the season (literally cringey—and not in that “character is doing something in character that is hard to watch” way, but rather, “this character would literally never do that” way). The AJ storyline in S5 felt like the person who wrote it watched AJ & Bill’s interactions in S4 and absorbed ONLY the fact that they bickered a bit (and then didn’t know how to write that dynamic in a pleasing way). Writing Abigail out of the show was for the best, but it forced cracks in the plotlines that weren’t necessarily filled, as well as gave us interactions that didn’t feel quite right.

And I think S7 was trying to get on the right track, but wrote episodes in a very disjointed, haphazard kind of manner. There were good things about it, yes, but there were also some very...bad things. 

And overall the problem almost universally was that it felt like some of the episodes/interactions were written as if they were part of a movie, as part of a one time deal, instead of something that would need to be carried forward. If you go back and look over some plotlines you can start to see where the writers...didn’t know how to write fanfiction. S5 AJ is not the same character as S4 AJ. She doesn’t feel the same. She’s not written with S4 AJ in mind. She’s not a natural version of the character that exists a year later in the storyline...and then she was given a storyline that they had to force the character to fit, instead of tailoring a storyline to match the character. And they continued this trend...over...and over...and over...and over.

And now, finally, it feels that they may actually have a head writer who knows how to write television, who knows that in order to write a successful television series, you have to go back and watch the early episodes. You have to see how the characters have evolved. You have to consider how they’ve gotten to where they are, and where they will LOGICALLY go from here based on things that happen to or around them.

I don’t want to state this as Fact too early, but I definitely think it’s a factor. We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out, but I hope the quality continues to be as good as it is.

[fairymascot]

Personally, BTS just cemented how much of S1 I had problems with. Chloe as a deep voiced baby butch in men's hand-me-downs came off as way more genuine than Chloe dressed like a punk model from a European fashion mag. Which I mean I'd argue is more a result of how intrinsically male S1 was, but thats neither here nor there. Plus, even with the clear time crunch in the back half of Ep3 and the tacky af 10 seconds after the credits, BTS had a shockingly solid story structure all things considered.

hi, anon! thanks for the message. i didn’t mean to write this much in response, but i guess i’m in a chatty mood today, so oh well! here ya go.

yeah, on the whole bts gave chloe a lot of new traits that instantly became ingrained into my perception of her, even the few that override her lis1 traits. the fantastic thing about it, though, is that most of them don’t. i love that she’s into poetry, d&d and science – they all tie believably into her geeky childhood spent with max and william, and are unexpectedly harmonious with her destructive and brash personality. chloe price loves science… for blowing up shit, and sabotaging her enemies! chloe plays d&d…. by strong-arming and threatening her way through the campaign!

it makes sense in the context of her lis1 characterization – because we know she was dopy enough to play pirates and superheroes with max, and because we know in the reality where william survived she got straight a’s in class, but at the same time they’re things i doubt the original writers would’ve come up with on their own. it turns her into a very rarely seen kind of character – ‘rebel punk’ and ‘geek’ are usually on the opposite ends of the character archetype spectrum, and i think it’s awesome how deck9 blended them together. that’s what i mean when i say i’m glad bts is fanfiction: it gives us the kind of unique spin on the characters that’s obviously born from the hearts of fans who spend a long freakin’ time thinking about them, and coming up with little details to fill in the parts we don’t see in canon. it’s like scrolling through tumblr and seeing a ten-paragraph headcanon post. you don’t come up with shit like that unless you’re passionate about the source material, and it’s often stuff the original creators would’ve never even thought of.

and yes– i absolutely love that chloe’s a dirty gritty baby butch who wears hoodies with holes in them and cut-up jumpers from when she was in middle school (if you look at this concept art). i love that even though she’d like to be cool and smooth she’s an absolute disaster who can’t handle small talk with a pretty girl – which, again, definitely has its roots in her tryhard attempts at flirting with max, but elevated to a much higher degree. and it makes sense, given that she’s young and awestruck by rachel in a way she wouldn’t be with her childhood friend, not to mention still figuring out her sexuality, and generally stupid as hell.

i definitely have a harder time buying chloe’s ‘hipster girl monthly’ presentation in light of bts (that femme as-fuck lingerie? the nail polish? please), but i don’t fault dontnod for that. first of all, she was obviously designed to contrast max, who’s mousy, plain, and doesn’t stand out. playing from max’s point of view, you’re supposed to be kinda awestruck by chloe – like, wow! she’s so cool! she’s got so much style and flair! and when playing bts from chloe’s point of view, you’re supposed to be awestruck by rachel, which is why her first appearance is in that totally badass, if not slightly over-the-top punk getup. so that contrast between ‘plain player character’ and ‘dazzling love interest’ is ultimately retained between games. deck9 also created the pretty blatant implication that rachel was a big style influence for chloe even early on, what with her lending her clothes, and the tragically-scrapped scene where she was the one dyeing chloe’s hair for her. so that evolution makes sense, too.

secondly, independent of male influence, the fact of the matter is that fictional characters will always have a coat of glamor encasing them. as consumers of media, we don’t want to see real-life humans like us: we want a more idealized version, even for characters that are supposedly realistic and down-to-earth like the cast of lis. did you ever see that one robert pattinson quote, where he talks about how in twilight they put this wire in the collar of his jacket, so they could bend it to be just the right kind of frumpled? people made fun of it (and it does sound ridiculous!), but in truth, the overwhelming majority of fiction is like that.

chloe in bts is glamorized, too– it’s why the cut audio with taylor tells you she looks raggedy and poor, but her clothes fit just perfect with no visible holes or stains in them. it’s why she can wear a beanie from the glove compartment of a truck in a junkyard and not get comments about her body odor, or quickly discover an infestation of lice in her hair. it’s why when she’s ‘forced’ to wear her dad’s old clothes, she looks like a lesbian style icon instead of, you know, an awkward teen in old oversized shirts. i mean, look at that denim jacket. what dad wears all these badass pins and patches on his clothes? please.

in short: i’m definitely with you in that that bts has added a lot of wonderful things to chloe’s character, and a lot that makes her feel far more organic and relatable to me as a lesbian. but i see it as bts adding onto the canon, rather than lis1 retroactively detracting from it. let’s be fair, yeah?

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 4 part 4

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][+1] ep5 [1][2][3][4][5] ep6 [1][2][3])

agatha once again protecting billy with her whole body.

"I didn't think it was real! I thought it was me, that it's my fault that I can't keep a job, that everything I touch turns to shit! That I couldn't save her!"

The poison drips through (yes I love Succession). Generational curse, generational trauma. The pain of who knows how many centuries of parents and grandparents and great-grandparents times a thousand. It's like a boulder that you're carrying around on your shoulders, and you can't see it and you can't put a name to it, how could you? How can you possibly know why your mother drank herself stupid, why your grandmother abused her children? You were born yesterday and drank all that poison without knowing what it was, you let it take it over and you walk around spreading it to the world.

And amidst all the pain, alice only ever chose to blame and hurt herself and she was always gentle to others. her biggest regret is not having been able to save her mom! you know why alice never turned into a villain like agatha? because her mom loved her. as simple and as that. lorna was so ill-equipped to save alice, she didn't know what she was up against, she was in a world of pain herself. and she went above and beyond to show her child how infinitely precious and loved she was.

oh wow, I usually say I'm crying as a figure of speech, but I am crying for real thinking about this.

lilia who has lived so long and experienced her big share of suffering, knowing all too well what alice is going through. there's so much compassion in her voice

jen stubbornly refusing to care about anything but her own pain, which is actually a very human way to respond to trauma? it's like she's at a crossroads and it's up to her to choose whether she goes back to being the force of good she used to be, or whether she goes down agatha's same path. I say it's up to her because it ultimately is, but she was so lucky finding this coven and community at such a crucial moment. agatha didn't have any of it.

no! don't apologize, you beautiful, generous soul! the sense of guilt and inferiority complex is real

agatha's face when billy is attacked

she starts running toward him even before alice

but when she gets there she freezes and lets alice go check on him

when she sees he's fine, she sighs and collapses against the door, clutching her chest.

lilia is really starting to get attached to everyone, and throughout her life love and loss have always been inherently linked. she already knows she's going to lose them.

okay jen refusing to leave the circle is still funny, I'll give her that

through all this rio has been watching and studying agatha, she always does. she knows that her diabolically smart wife loves to be in charge and come up with plans. she's being encouraging!

look at how small alice is! she's been helping and consoling billy just a moment ago, despite being miserable herself.

first of all, that's hilarious, so jot that down. second of all, you know agatha is so relieved she has to put on a show instead of doing something icky like, idk, sitting in a circle and talking about their feelings. and look at rio at the drums, she's already put all the clues together as well

oooh, she's doing the thing! she's detectiving! agatha harkness ladies and gentlemen, her hobbies are women, murder and puzzles.

and who gives her the solution? who has had millennia to study and commiserate human love and grief? she says it and she looks at agatha so pointedly.

The song that's so irrevocably linked to Nicky's memory, the song that she's been desecrating and using as a means to kill. A mother took it and poured all her love into it and made it pure again. Agatha has to live with that now, and you know that's going to take root inside her and affect her no matter what

this whole performance is patti going I might be singing backup again but watch me be a total diva about it

I LOVE YOU PATTI LUPONE

you'd think that alice should sing lead vocals here, seeing as it's her trial and her mom's song and all. WELL THINK AGAIN

the massive ego agatha has, honestly. you gotta respect that.

the feeling when you are the only normal person in a group of total hooligans. did I already say how gorgeous sasheer looks in that outfit? no I didn't. you are an apparition, sasheer.

but I want the song to have its own separate entry so hold on tight, brb

go to episode 4 part 5

[ladyvialana]

a few more initial thoughts on vld s3:

First, I must reiterate: sniper!Lance!!!

Second: NEEDS MORE CORAN!!! (I mean, all the seasons need more Coran, but still)

Third: Sven! I am still cackling. ohmigod, that accent was the best, and pairing him with Slav?! I am convinced that every version of Shiro and Slav together must be amazing.

Fourth: I was not expecting Zarkon feels! Like, that was not at all on my radar! Goddamn.

Fifth: Blue paladins are always awesome (and queer)

Okay, so, slightly more initial in depth character thoughts and reactions next under a cut because this accidentally got really long:

Allura:

- best character story arc in the season, imho

- her scenes with blue in ep3 were amazing

- kind of wish we got more on her connection to magic/quintessence, especially now we have a backstory regarding the evolution of Haggar and (potentially) druids/magic in general

Pidge:

- loved her and Hunk bonding

- really hoping that season 4 has more to do with her search for Matt/the rebels since it was introduced and then kind of dropped

- her character arc really is kind of a waiting game, unfortunately, until the plot catches up, so while there were nice team moments with her, nothing major happened, so I’m expecting lots of awesome stuff later on

Hunk:

- we had a return of smart!Hunk moments! yes! I am so here for that! As well as the (somewhat) reduced food jokes (they’re actually kind of funny when used sparingly as opposed to every time he opens his mouth!)

- like Pidge, some great team moments, but no major character development, though, considering that Hunk and Pidge were the only two to keep to their original lions, it does make sense even if I’m not totally happy about it

- though, I do want to see more of his awesome piloting skills (that Shiro taught him!!!) since he’s so close to Yellow (I love that, I do, the scene where he basically refused to fly Black because he loves Yellow so much warms my heart)

Lance:

- he’s grown so much since the start of the series, I’m still crying (god, that scene in Black, and breaking up with Blue and then pragmatically taking himself out of the equation because he doesn’t think he’s the best soldier they have ... I’m gonna need more tissues guys)

- he’s just such a perfect XO - especially for Keith - like I genuinely love this dynamic (I fucking wrote about this dynamic because I wanted to to see it so much and here it is, playing out on screen, I am in heaven!!!)

- Lance and Allura’s developing friendship is everything I didn’t realise I needed until it happened. I need more of these two bonding, stat!

Keith:

- Keith’s struggles with leadership and living up to Shiro’s expectations was everything I needed from his storyline. Like, I love that he’s conflicted, that he realises he’s screwing up but also that he’ll do what he can to make things better (and he does! I genuinely like leader!Keith). He’s trying and he’s improving and, just as he starts to get the hang of this leader thing and maybe get his feet under him: wham! Shiro’s back (which he’s so happy about) and the team dynamic - their personal dynamic - has shifted so much that the friction is driving a wedge between them. 

- Seriously, I am living for this emotional drama, all the contradictory things he must be feeling (thrilled at Shiro’s return, upset that everyone is ignoring his decisions again after being unwillingly thrust into the leadership role, guilty that he’s resentful about Shiro’s return, so fucking insecure because the minute that Shiro does return it’s like everything feels like it’s running smoother and he had to struggle so much for every win, relieved that maybe he doesn’t have to carry this burden any more, but also maybe a little angry because he earned this, okay and maybe he’s a little proud of himself, but it just feels so wrong when Shiro says it because Keith feels like he’s nowhere near as good enough for this as Shiro, but Shiro’s not okay and the guilt is just drowning him!) ... damn, I need to write fic about this, I have too many thoughts and feelings

- I mean, I love everyone in this season, but Keith is due for a breakdown and it’s going to be messy and ugly and so many people are gonna be caught in the crossfire (and I can’t wait! ... I need this angst guys, it’s been building for so long)

Shiro:

- I am so fucking worried about Shiro, like you have no idea

- So there are two options here:

1. This is the real Shiro and he just went through another terrible ordeal with the Galra experimenting on him and potentially has put his team (his family) in danger just by existing and this is going to end horribly for everyone

2. This is not the real Shiro but he is clearly unaware of this and has all of Shiro’s memories and so he believes he has just been through another terrible ordeal with the Galra experimenting on him and potentially has put his assumed team (his assumed family) in danger just by existing and this is going to end horribly for everyone either when shit goes down or they stumble across the real Shiro

- both of these options are heartbreaking and (working with scenario 2 here) even if it’s not the real Shiro, I am already inclined towards sympathy because this is gonna end in tragedy and there’s probably going to be even more loss of autonomy and major trauma involved and it just makes my heart break for him (and episode 5 just broke my heart and, whichever Shiro it was fighting to survive, I’m rooting for him)

- regardless of what is going on with Shiro (real or not) he didn’t deserve this and is clearly so done with life and needs to rest and I firmly believe that Black recognised that Shiro was on the edge of breaking down and could not bring himself to pilot Black again and intentionally didn’t respond and Shiro feels so guilty about being relieved about not having to fight again (honestly, that final fight with Zarkon had to be traumatic, whether he is the real Shiro or not, those memories not being there is a very worrying sign about his mental state)

- did I say Keith’s breakdown was going to be messy? ha! Shiro’s is gonna be bad enough to destroy the castle and maybe a few nearby planets. That look on his face when he was in bed and Keith just assumed he was fine to go again? I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. That was not the face of a man who is in any way okay!!! (#giveShiroallthehugsandwarmblanketsintheuniverse2k17)

Other things of note:

- everyone’s going gaga over Lotor and the Generals and while I do think they make interesting characters, I haven’t seen enough of them to make much more of a judgement - though, I am definitely more of a fan of the Generals than Lotor (Zethrid’s my fave, she likes blowing stuff up and has smart ideas like killing your enemies while they’re helpless - she’s clearly read the Evil Overlord list unlike her fucking boss who does things seemingly for #aesthetic)

- seriously though, Lotor’s kind of bland and generic and the plot kind of twists itself up to be a little convoluted to make him seem mysterious and cunning, maybe he has a really awesome Xanatos gambit up his sleeve for the later seasons that will make up for it (maybe we will have actual depth to his on-screen persona later as opposed to just using his Generals to prop him up as interesting, who knows) (seriously though, what’s his genuine motivation? what was his relationship with his father actually like? can we actually see him interacting with the rest of the Galra empire/fleet? Haggar kind of has a point about his priorities)

- despite my complaints, I was genuinely excited by the plot of this season. Yay for exciting sci-fi!

- loved seeing the original Paladin backstory

- again, I was not expecting Zarkon feels - I was definitely not expecting Zarkon/Haggar feels (or that their pre-evil relationship would actually be quite sweet?!)

- Alfor’s a darling and such a nerd, I love it

- baby Allura is the cutest ever, I imagine that Coran was completely smitten the first time he laid eyes on her (the entire universe was, tbh)

And finally, one of my favourite aspects of the season - the development of Keith and Lance’s relationship:

- aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- they’re just so supportive of each other, and they look to each other for guidance, and they pay attention to what the other is saying, and their teasing is kind of fond now, and they had actual scenes about emotions together

- I’m just ... I’m fine, completely fine, I’m always so happy I float near the ceiling when the two of them interact on screen, this is totally normal

- (*whispers* season 3 reaction fics! *squee!*)

In conclusion: Whoo! Bring on season 4!

(I am now going back to rewatch the whole season again before bed)