#from what i remember in s1 and 2 the initiation is pretty 50/50

[brzatto]

I just wanted to say I love your Carmy/Richie fic.

The way Carmy just feel so safe and grounded when Richie has him wrecks me.

I just love the idea of Carmy having a hard day or knowing he's going to have a breakdown, finding Richie, and just clinging to him. Head buried in Richie's neck, fingers desperately grabbing at handfuls of shirt, and maybe even siting in his lap. Because I really need that or them finally sleeping all tangled up together.

I haven't started the second season so maybe it gets addressed more but also, I like the idea of Richie hovering protectively or even nervously over Carmy a lot. We know that boy is not handling life well and I just think part of Richie wants to hide him away from the world and make sure he's safe and happy.

I hope you continue with the fic and also tight more because the fandom needs stories like yours.

Sorry for the rambling. I just wanted to send some love and let you know I can't wait for the next chapter!

aww don’t apologize this is so sweet!!! thank you so much 🤍🤍 if you didn’t notice already i’m a big sucker for tenderness and emotional vulnerability + intimacy in writing whether it be subtle or not and i think carmy and richie are both desperately in need of Tenderness in their lives so i try to include as much as possible in my own.

for me i actually think of richie being the clingier (or probably handsier is the better word) of the two..? richie’s more open and personable and better with people so in my head he’s never had a complicated relationship with physical contact, it comes easy to him and he doesn’t overthink it and probably doesn’t even realize how big of an impact it can have on someone who isn’t as used to receiving it. in contrast since carmy’s always been reserved and socially awkward he isn’t as well versed in it and won’t initiate it but he does genuinely enjoy it and will let himself reciprocate if he feels comfortable enough. s2 gave us a glimpse of just how dysfunctional his family life was growing up but i don’t think he was touch starved as a child at all—i think he grew up absolutely showered in physical contact from all his relatives during family gatherings and especially from nat and mikey at home, i can see the berzatto siblings being really open and physically affectionate with one another growing up but as carmy grew older + started distancing himself from his family once he started pursuing a professional culinary career he never really developed close enough relationships (platonic or otherwise) to receive that sort of physical contact anymore so for years he just didn’t have it. he definitely craves it but it isn’t something he realizes he misses (or at least not just how much) until he gets it again from someone who he actually trusts and wants it from, and i think richie’s good for him in the sense that he’s pretty unreserved (read: annoying) about that stuff. in my head richie’s the one who greets carmy with back hugs and drapes casual arms over his waist when they lay in bed together and shoves his cold hands underneath carmy’s shirt. in the self indulgent alternate universe where carmy’s less emotionally unavailable i love the idea of him being clingy but don’t worry knowing me there’s a lot more physical intimacy in store between them in the future for this fic so you’ll still get your wish <3

i’m actually obsessed with richie’s protectiveness of carmy it’s the type of protectiveness that comes alongside a lot of insults and a slap upside the head rather than the conventional mother henning (although i def think richie’s that way with eva) it’s there nonetheless. i have lots of fun of writing richie taking care of carmy in bcm and trying to keep it as close to canon as possible as well but carmy also has that stubbornness to him about getting taken care of/accepting other people’s help that manages to make him come off as bratty lol

[itsthenovelteafactor]

Umbrella Patrol: Part 1

Still in a TUA headspace, and really enjoying Doom Patrol! I feel like there is a lot of potential for fun crossovers between these shows, and some neat parallels between them. Here are some very disorganized ideas because I’m too busy to write out an actual fic: 

note: these are primarily based on s1 of Doom Patrol and s1&2 of tua because I am still in the middle of watching Doom Patrol s2. I would love (love! love! love!) to chat with other people who like both of these shows, but know i am still in the “avoiding s2 spoilers” stage. I might do more of these after I finish s2, hence “part 1″

- they would not get along well in the beginning because, let’s face it, neither group has a very good track record for getting along well with anyone ever. (love them all to death) would a fight break out? probably. would all of the team members and powers and general chaos get so confusing for everyone involved that they would have to stop fighting to try and figure out what was going on? most likely. 

- Five definitely knows about the Doom Patrol from when he worked at the commission and was probably very relieved to not have been the person assigned to deal with the whole De-Creator/Re-Creator debacle. 

- Vic is probably at least aware of the Umbrella Academy because they were pretty famous as kids, but has no idea what really happened to them after except there was this huge scandal a few years ago when one of them wrote a book about how they were all secretly assholes? Something like that.

- Allison is a fan of Rita’s work (I’m thinking she played one of her characters in a remake), but remembers hearing that she was kind of a terrible person? She isn’t sure. I feel like it’d be awkward initially but they’d end up vibing and talking about acting and Hollywood and having the team braincell. 

- Diego: So... you’re a robot. Cliff: Yeah. Klaus: Not that there’s anything wrong with that!! Diego: Our Mom’s a robot. 

- Cliff is like “well, I nearly died and then the guy who I thought was my mentor did an experimental procedure on me that left me in a body that I’m uncomfortable with and feeling like a monster and a freak and I’m unable to interact with people and be seen as normal because of it and am also incredibly strong and worry about accidentally hurting the people I care about and oh, turns out the guy who I trusted and thought was my mentor turned out to be the worst person ever who was only using me as a means to an end” and Luther’s just “same hat!”

- There is definitely confusion around the whole “we travelled back in time to the 60s were not actually from then - can you imagine we’d be so old now?” and “we are actually from the 50s/60s we’re just long lived due to a series of horrifying experiments that were done to us wtf you’re all literally children”

- Dorothy sees Five and is like friend! My own age! And Vanya tries to gently explain that Five is mentally 58, he only looks 13 and that’s how they figure out that Dorothy’s actually over 100 years old. Somewhere in the confusion Five ends up agreeing to attend a tea party. 

- Klaus meets Danny. Enough said.

- But also,,, let’s say more because it makes me very happy to think about. Klaus meets Danny and just feels so at home and gets to talk about fashion with Maura and drag his siblings into singing karaoke and the Hargreeves get to show off their A+ dancing skills 

- TBH, they all try to explain what’s been happening with them and the Hargreeves all thought “well out lives couldn’t be any weirder” and then they hear about the puppet show and are just like “...okay, nevermind. we were mistaken. please continue” while for the most part the Doom Patrol are like “okay, butler’s a chimp, that guy’s in love with a mannequin, all checks out” 

- Larry and Klaus talking about their time in the military and dealing with homophobia. Larry and Luther talking about isolation and taking care of plants. 

- Vanya playing the violin while the Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter paints.

- They at one point get drunk and have a “who’s father figure was worse” competition but somehow halfway through it devolves into Jane and Diego each being that one John Mulaney bit (do you want me to kill that guy for you?? because it sounds like he sucks, and I’d totally kill that guy for you)

- Cliff definitely has some Robot-envy around Grace like, wow she looks and moves like an entire regular human wtf Niles? she shows him how to make smiley-face pancakes. 

- I have no idea how this would work logistically but Ben and Larry would vibe you can’t change my mind. 

- There was definitely some crossover between members of the Cult of the Re-Creator and Destiny’s Children (I’m not sure which one was first chronologically, but I was thinking about the one guy who was like “this is way better than last cult I was in” and how funny it would be if he was talking about Klaus’ cult) . I feel like Klaus and Dr. Harrison have a very weird kind of bond over it.

- Vic “I am literally asking for the bare minimum here in terms of heroics please could you all just follow simple instructions for twenty minutes so the world doesn’t literally explode” and Five just *acknowledging nod of mutual frustration*

- Mr. Nobody keeps talking about crossovers and some guy from My Chemical Romance. no one quite gets it.  

[kaypeace21]

I have a question but I just want to say first that I love your theories. They’re very well thought-out and interesting. Anyway, I wanted to ask if you could explain how Mike is queer-coded? I’ve seen you mention it and I’ve seen others talk about his attraction to androgynous El, but is there more? Thanks!

ALOT MORE! I talked about it here in the past- but without getting too much into s3 (since I’ve already talked about s3 byler extensively).I’ll just have links for everything I noticed in s3 at the bottom of this post. In regards to s1 and 2, Mike was heavily coded as queer. But most significantly this was done in s1- arguably he was more queer coded than Will ever was. I won’t get into all the details (we’d be here all day) but the highlights, at the top of my head are-

s1

- Mike in his his basement has a red heart being propelled by a rainbow.

- 4 separate characters said El looked like a boy, but Mike doesn’t care! Even one of the men thought El might be the missing ‘Byers boy’. When El loses her wig , Troy said “she doesn’t even look like a girl” to the cops. But Mike just calls her “really pretty”

-Nancy says “I thought you were acting weird, but I thought it was because of Will” And Mike responds “I thought you were acting weird too I thought it was because of Steve … Do you like Jonathan now”?” Nancy: “No, do you like Eleven?”. They literally compared the explicit love triangle between Steve/Nancy/Jonathan to the Will-Mike-El dynamic!

- Mike literally uses gender inclusive pronouns when talking about crushes using the word “someone” (3 times), and embarrassing himself because he can’t articulate the difference between friendship and romance. When he could of simply given the 80s heteronormative  answer of ‘when a boy likes a girl’.

Mike: “ you go to school dances with someone. 

You know someone that you like” 

El: “a friend?”

Mike: ‘not a friend uh … uh someone like a” (gives up and kisses her)

-Mike’s mom said “ What’s been going on with Will, I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you. I just … want you to feel like you can talk to me. I never want you to feel like you have to HIDE anything from me” (she even emphasizes the word ��hide”  (which is heavily queer coded)

- when Will ‘dies’, “we can be heroes” by David bowie (a bisexual singer) plays,   “And we kiss as though nothing could fall and the shame” is the lyric that plays when Mike returns to his house and cries in his mother’s arms over the ‘death’ of Will. Do I have to explain how ‘kissing and shame’ are queer-coded . And how such a lyric is oddly romantic- if we’re supposed to see their bond as nothing but platonic XD

-his dad jokes “Absolutely not” *turns to wife* “our son with a girl?”.

- when Lucas makes fun of his crush on EL, Lucas gets down on one knee  and says “ I love you so much, will you marry me?” and literally 1s later, we’re introduced to the bullies and the idea (for the first time) that Will is ‘gay’, and Mike is in the forefront of the scene and unlike his friends he is THE ONLY ONE physically assaulted (like a gay-bashing) .  They leave Lucas and Dustin unharmed. Even though Lucas just proposed to another guy- which should have gotten him a beating by the homophobic bullies.

It’s supposed to subconsciously hint Mike is queer like Will, and likes Will. The first interaction with the bullies, they mention Will being ‘gay’ right after they mention Mike’s crush on androgynous El and have a guy propose to Mike. Mike says to “ignore them” ( the homophobic remarks) but is assaulted anyways. And when asked what happed he doesn’t want to tell El the details cause he’s ashamed . 

2nd time the bullies talk about Will, Mike is once again in the forefront, unlike his straight friends who are in the background . But this time Mike initiates the confrontation), as the bullies say Will is “flying in fairyland with all the other little fairies. All happy and gay”. Mike was literally on the verge or tears at this comment (despite being happy a few moments earlier , telling the others to ‘act sad’ because they’d look suspicious other wise). But this is the comment where Mike snaps and pushes Troy back (because he took it personally/wanted to defend Will). 

The framing of Mike once again being in the front and snapping at the homophobic remarks (these gifs don’t do it justice, just rewatch the scene -Mike eyes water at the remarks). Then the last time the bullies appear , Mike jumps off the cliff and “flies like a fairy” (like Troy said) thanks to El . Troy at the police station even uses the word “fly” not levitate.

- Mike proclaiming “I’m the only one who cares about Will!” Seems like something a kid with a crush might say ( because obviously his other friends care about Will). But he thinks he cares the most.

-Mike sneaking out to find Will, as Steve sneaks in to Nancy’s. They both even make eye contact (and pretend not to have seen each other).

- they share dinosaur toys , in s1 and 2 they appear to be the only ones with dinosaur toys.

- The s1 mom hug scene where Mike feels he lost Will is paralleled in s3 - signifying how he lost him a 2nd time.

- Mike in the 1st ep being the one to insist on looking for Will in the rain (callback to s3). But he never went looking for El when he saw her through his window? Even when Mike saw Will’s dead body, the second he heard his voice he convinced his friends to help rescue him!

- You remember the binder (from s1) that Mike keeps, filled with 100s of Will’s drawings, and how he caresses the drawing after thinking Will was dead. That’s totes platonic.

s2

- Will in all 3 seasons identifies as a wizard. But in s2 Mike (the paladin) says Will is a cleric. Meaning this reflects how Mike actually feels about Will. In d&d, they have similar moral values, powers, and generally need and depend on each other in the lore of d&d. Paladins have similar healing powers to clerics, but clerics have stronger healing abilities - which is interesting since Mike has always been viewed as the protector. But to Mike Will has helped him (maybe deal with the loss of El and other trauma) , just by being there. And if Mike says Will is a cleric,despite Will still identifying as a wizard in s3, it shows how deeply Mike actually feels about Will. It shows he views Will as one of the only people who understands him and views him as a healing presence and his moral compass.

“ strength of conviction gave many paladins a sense of common fellowship but did not always endear them to others. In many cases, paladins did not get along quite as well with other non-paladin adventurers, with the exception of clerics with similar beliefs.”

“A Paladin tries to hold to the highest standards of conduct, but even the most virtuous Paladin is fallible. Sometimes the heat of emotion causes a Paladin to transgress his or her oath (of honesty, courage, compassion, honor ,and duty). A paladin who has broken a vow typically seeks absolution from a cleric who shares his or her faith or from another paladin of the same order. After a rite of confession and forgiveness, the paladin starts fresh.

-Mike stands next to Will under the rainbow poster

- Mike forces Will to dance with a girl, but you literally see Mike’s shocked expression like  ‘what,why’d I do that ?’ And after this, they show Dustin looking sad about Max/Lucas dancing and then they have Mike get into the frame (next to Dustin) and look sad when Will/girl are dancing in the same exact frame as Max/Lucas. As they switch between these 2 shots.

- All the mileven byler parallels or byler scenes were almost ALL initiated by Mike. If the parallels were meant to show a one sided love triangle (on Mike’s end). They would of made Will the instigator not Mike! Parallels can be watched here , start at 6:50)

-Mike initiated the “crazy together’ line- and in s3 he said ‘blank makes you crazy’. So subconsciously he knew the line had romantic connotations.

-Mike initiating the hand hold (with a zoom in shot) and in the show this is only done for romantic pairings. Also Mike being the one to initiate the ‘arm thing’ which is generally romantic. But in s3 , Lucas also does this, saying “I am spending quality time with my girlfriend’

-Mike saying, asking him to be his friend was the “best thing I’ve ever done”

-Mike constantly following Will around, asking if he’s okay or biking to his house to check on him. In s3 running out to chase Will to the garage and apologizing, and running into a storm to apologize a 2nd time.

YOU SEE A PATTERN! Mike is whipped! And is the one constantly chasing and pursuing Will, not the other way around! Before s3, people always portrayed Will as the (stereotypical- problematic trope of ) a sad-pinning-gay in a one sided love with Mike. It’s like people didn’t even watch the show (and just assigned tropes/stereotypes they wanted, that weren’t actually there). Will (probably too shy or scared to- because of homophobic taunts) never initiated a single byler moment- it was ALWAYS Mike!!! If people were actually objective, they would of thought it was Mike who was the one pinning! I talked about it here. 

We literally only saw Will pine or be jealous in s3 when Mike was in a relationship with El/when they fought.  

The cannon Spotify playlists

called ‘Mike’s basement beats’- These are character playlists that Spotify and St worked on together after s2.

-his first song is “small town boy” an 80s LGBT anthem about living in a small town and being queer and bullied. Every band member was openly gay.

-his 11th song is ‘don’t you want me’ from a “celebrate your gay pride” album

S3

I’m not repeating my literal essays so here are the links to pretty much all my s3 byler meta.  (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

- brief s3 mentions) it’s implied Will and Mike go on movie double dates all the time (right after he makes out with El). He celebrates the holidays (generally associated with introducing s.os) with Will/El. The breakup with El is treated comedically - and all Mike does is complain and burp on the couch. The byler breakup is serious (with the backdrop of rain)while Mike was visibly upset he hurt Will and apologized twice almost immediately . Running to the garage and then into the rain and banging on his door (s2 callback). The “it was the best thing I’ve ever done “ shed scene was shot purposely more romantic than the pool shed scene of “you’re the most important thing in the world to me”. The fact he think “blank makes you crazy”,and he used a similar line on Will in s2. The fact that Mike equates falling in love with girls as a part of growing up and his love for El as something “old people” say. While his affections for Will , he believes are childish (like d&d) and something he has to grow out of. The “I love her” scene was treated comedically. The last Mike/Will exchange vs Mike having his eyes open and not kissing El back . Not remembering he said “I love her”, and dismissing it as something he said in the heat of the moment. Mike looking back at the Byers house , then flashing to Will crying, than flashing back to Mike hugging his mom. Then those scenes having a monologue about not wanting feelings to change but how it’s inevitable.

Also we see in s3 (in El’s room) the return of the heart being propelled by a rainbow.

No hate, but I’m honestly flabbergasted when people think Mike is straight when he’s literally MORE queer coded than Will. Is it just my autistic brain seeing things as obvious, that others easily miss- or just people refuse to see it … or heteronormativity getting in the way?

gif credit : (not sure about the first 2, tell me if they’re yours so I can give credit), last 3 by  eggogorgon , the last gif by cath-avery

[birdlord]

Everything I Watched in 2018

I neglected to write this list up this time last year, so I’m catching up! 2019 is soon to come.  Every Movie I Watched in 2018

The number in parentheses is year of release, asterisks denote a re-watch, and titles in bold are my favourite first watches of the year. 

01 So I Married an Axe Murderer (93)* possibly the most early/mid-90s film ever made. Centre parted hair, slam poetry, pre-tech boom San Francisco, Steven Wright cameo?!

02 The Florida Project (17) first theatre movie of the year came early!

03 The Long Goodbye (75)

04 Call Me by Your Name (17) I and some friends made an effort to see movies we thought might be oscar-nominated this year, so there’s a few of those coming up. 

05 LA Story (91)* a forever rewatch

06 Personal Shopper (17) Feels like there’s a thin veil between K Stew and the characters she chooses.

07 I, Tonya (17)

08 Comfort and Joy (84) 80s Glasgow!

09 Faces, Places (17) made me want to pick up a camera again

10 A Futile and Stupid Gesture (18)

11 Creed (15) not for me. 

12 Black Panther (18)* I found this lost a lot of its lustre the second time around. 

13 Ghost (90)

14 Youngblood (86) Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze hockey movie filmed in 80s Toronto? Sign me up!

15 The Living Daylights (87)* basically sometimes I want to see a Bond film, and really any of them will do. 

16 Brigsby Bear (17)

17 The Ice Storm (97) 

18 Disclosure (94) strong competition for Most 90s Movie, this time set in a Seattle CD-ROM company. One of those movies I remember staring at the cover of, in the movie rental place. 

19 Saturday Night Fever (77)*

20 Barry Lyndon (75) God, the look, the costumes, the performances! This killed me dead.

21 Fried Green Tomatoes (91)* Another forever rewatch!

22 Howard’s End (92)* rewatch prompted by watching the new series version. 

23 Sense & Sensibility (95)* keep those costume dramas coming...

24 The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (01)*

25 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (02)* 

26 Breakfast at Tiffany’s (61)*

27 Paterson (16)

28 Three Kings (99)*

29 The Talented Mr Ripley (99)* 99 was a good film year...I’ll go to this version of Italy anytime. 

30 The Equalizer (14)

31 Paddington (14)

32 Paul (11) the initial charm doesn’t carry the movie through til the end.

33 The Virgin Suicides (99)*

34 Friday the 13th (80)

35 Sea of Love (89)

36 Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (18) a great opportunity to shed some tears in a movie theatre.

37 Star Wars: The Last Jedi (17)*

38 Wild (14)

39 Housekeeping (87) love me a Bill Forsyth, as you can see. 

40 Predator (87)* if it bleeds, etc

41 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (77)*

42 Fever Pitch (05) the US remake...

43 Fever Pitch (97) ...the UK original 

44 Bridget Jones’ Baby (16)

45 Stand by Me (86)*

46 Three Identical Strangers (18) 

47 Mission Impossible: Fallout (18)

48 Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (11)*

49 Election (99)*

50 The Killing Ground (17) utter brutality in the Aussie bushland

51 Eyes Wide Shut (99) never saw this at the time, and thought Nicole Kidman’s perspective was more important within the film but GUESS WHAT, IT ISN’T

52 Repulsion (65)

53 Crazy Rich Asians (18)

54 Halloween (78)* the start of Spooker Season

55 A Star is Born (18)

56 The Hunger (83)

57 Annihilation (17)

58 Scream (99)*

59 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (98) this was...terrible

60 Halloween (18)

61 Deep Red (75) one of the better Argentos, imo, but no Tenebrae

62 Dead Ringers (88)

63 Rocky Horror Picture Show (75)*

64 Silence of the Lambs (91)*

65 Nosferatu (22)

66 The Italian Job (69)

67 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (01)*

68 Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (02)*69 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (04)*

70 Gangs of New York (02)* Wow, I hated this! If I never see sweaty Leonardo DiCaprio again, it’ll be too soon. 

71 Shirkers (18)

72 Terminator 2 (91)*

73 Little Women (94)*

74 The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (18)

75 Life Itself (18) this movie has left my mind ENTIRELY, wow did it even happen?

76 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (89)*

77 Home Alone (90)*

78 Gremlins (84)* turns out I’d forgotten more of this than I remembered??

79 The Shop Around the Corner (40)

80 You’ve Got Mail (98)*

81 Mr Smith Goes to Washington (39)

82 Widows (18)

83 Roma (18) I did see this in theatre, so the surround-sound experience was in full effect. 

84 Ghost Stories (17)

85 200 Cigarettes (99)

DOCUMENTARY:FICTION - 3:82

THEATRE:HOME - 11:74

I had no idea I’d watched so many movies from 1999 this year! It was certainly not done on purpose, but that year had some great movies. Spooker Season was a particularly strong one this year, too, with ten horror/spooky movies over the course of October. It’s always interesting to me to see how many comfort viewings vs more challenging fare that I manage to watch in a given year (probably correlated to how many times I was sick and/or had a rough work day). 

Every TV Series I Watched in 2019

01 The Crown S2 - the difficulties of royal marriage are a strong theme in this season, but there’s also some great sister-sister material between Elizabeth and Margaret. 

02 Lady Dynamite S2 - too weird to live, I guess?

03 High Maintenance S2 - this is the second HBO season, and the first one that really tries to grapple with high-level world events, in this case Trump’s election, spoken about as if it was a natural disaster.

04 Queer Eye S1, S2 - I’d never seen the original series, so this was my first exposure to the concept. It aims for pathos, but you have to accept a pretty rosy world to get into it. Easier to enjoy before any of the boys had book deals/got Milkshake Duck’d.

05 Love S3 - still watching for Bertie, I love her.

06 Collateral - thorny British political police procedural, ultimately pretty forgettable, barring Carey Mulligan’s performance. 

07 Alias Grace - the Atwood adaptation that people *weren’t* talking about. It’s great, though!

08 Atlanta S2: Robbin Season - Atlanta got weirder, more idiosyncratic, and even better in its second season. 09 Barry S1 - Barry got a lot of plaudits this year, and while I really liked the cast, and the plot was engrossing, something didn’t stick for me, and ultimately I didn’t watch the second season. 

10 Howard’s End - it is a truth universally acknowledged that most books are better adapted as a miniseries than a single movie. Not that I hate the ‘92 movie, but this gets deeper into the class relations than it ever could. Plus: TIBBY!!

11 Killing Eve S1 - the series that hackneyed “smart, stylish and sexy” critic descriptions were made for.

12 Detroiters S2 - pouring one out for my fave pals, who never got a chance to make another season of this little darling (though there were a couple of episodes in this season that didn’t do it for me). 

13 Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat - perhaps the only adaptation of a cookbook that I’ve ever seen, and certainly one of the best food shows ever. 

14 Big Mouth S2 - More of the same, so if you could hack it in the first season, then keep it up!

15 Bodyguard - another in the sexy/dark/procedural vein, with bonus Scotsman from Game of Thrones.

16 Utopia/Dreamland S1-S3 - an Australian comedy series about a government infrastructure department, which has apparently spawned real such departments in the country, even though it doesn’t come off all that well. The first title is the Aussie one, it’s known as Dreamland everywhere else. 

17 Baroness Von Sketch S3 - Canadian series that I actually watch are rare as hen’s teeth, so I was delighted to find a woman-centric sketch show that has kept me laughing. Plus, sometimes I see my neighbourhood? That’s fun!

[missjackil]

Never Underestimate Sam Winchester!

One of the million things I love about Sam is his strength... inward and outward. I think that every one of us, that love this man, will agree he has more than earned the “F” as his middle initial right? So why do I see him underestimated by so many of you? And Im not talking about the anti-sam people, Im talking about the full on Sam girls. Many of you talk about him as though he’s a fragile little egg, ready to shatter at the slightest touch, yet you’re more than willing to talk about how much of a badass he is,  I know that Sam is human and he has weaknesses. He suffers quietly, he’s been brutalized, disappointed, had his heart, body, and mind broken, and at time’s he has even been terrified, but he ALWAYS bounces back, and is even stronger when he does. So I must say it upsets me when I see him reduced to scared, abused wife from the 50s, or claims that he has an eating disorder, or practices self harm, or even scared of sleeping in a dark room. Im pretty sure some of you are projecting you’re issues on to him. And thats alright, really, if it helps you cope, but it wont help you if you dont know you’re doing it, or wont allow him to overcome.

Sam does not have an eating disorder. In fact his relationship with food, is probably his most healthy relationship. Ive seen many of you say he only eats when Dean eats, or only eats salad, or some have even said he’s a vegetarian, and none of these are canon. Sam likes salad, egg white omelets, smoothies and probably other healthy food we don’t see him eat, but he also (canonically) likes steak, chicken, pizza, cheeseburgers, burritos, mashed potatoes, ribs, and corn flakes. He doesn’t only eat when Dean eats, but he doesn’t eat as much as Dean does. Also, have you seen the size of him? You don’t get to be that size by eating like a bird.  Sam doesn’t practice self harm. In Season 7, he did press on the scar on his hand to help him focus on what’s real, but he didn’t re open the scar, didnt cut a new one, and as soon as it stopped working, he stopped using it. Some of you like to believe that he still did this in S8 and S11, but even Jared said that the hand scar was never used again after S7, if you saw him rub his hand after then, it’s just a thing he (Jared) does when his hands get fidgety.  Sam is not afraid of Dean. Dean is more aggressive than Sam, and used to hit him unnecessarily in the early seasons, but Sam never ran,  cowered away, or begged him to stop. He wouldn't normally fight back, but that’s not because he was too scared to, but because he’d just rather not. Now, I dont personally care what activist, whose parents could afford to buy them a PhD after their name,’claims is abuse, and Im sure neither do 2 big strong brothers, who would rather die themselves, or have others die, than  have any harm come to the other. As far as verbal abuse goes, Sam is usually unaffected by it, or most we’ll see is him give Dean a dirty look, but when Sam has had enough, he has no problem speaking up for himself. However so many of you hang on an abuse tag and turn Dean into monster, and Sam into a little boy huddled shaking in the corner. Which is not close to the case for either.  Remember in S1 when Sam would tell Dean not to call him ‘Sammy’ but Dean did anyway? Eventually it became “Only he (Dean) gets to call me that” and eventually it didnt matter who called him Sammy, or any other nickname they could make up. I’ve seen some of you go on about how Sam let other’s strip him of his identity and step all over his boundaries and so on, when really he probably realized there’s so many more important things in life to fight about than who calls you what.  Now, what kind of Sam do you want? The badass that saved the world, survived Hell, can sleep through torture, fight off a bunch of werewolves, while gut shot and bleeding to save his brother (but is also scared of clowns hehe) or one that thinks he’s abused, unloved, can’t sleep with the lights off,  and spends most of his time wanting to die or run away? Because you can’t have both.  Sure, Sam has issues he’s still working through, and there might come a time when all his trauma comes to a head and he pops a cork, but maybe there wont be either, Remember he’s a fictional character, and doesn’t have to suffer the same way we do. In the same way that he can be bloody and broken in one episode, and be back to normal in the next, so are the traumas. The aftermath exists for only as long as the writers want them too.

[theworstbob]

the thing journal: 6.4.17 - 6.10.17

capsule reviews of the seven+ pop culture things i took in last week. in this post: solid state, the untouchables, in-ter a-lia, noenemies, the beautiful game, more issues than vogue, let’s not be friends, looper, the last man on earth, and selma

1) Solid State, Jonathan Coulton: This was a very good album of nerd-leaning alternative-rock songs made by a very smart individual who has been making those songs for decades. I feel like, in this capsule, I'm doing the thing where I'm saying "it fulfilled my expectations" as a piece of criticism, when this album was not made with my expectations in mind? I'm gonna do it with the Flobots review, and I'm doing it here, and I'm not sure how much that statement has to offer y'all, because a) you don't know my expectations, and b) this album was not made with my expectations in mind. It's why I think overrated/underrated are bullshit nothingwords, y'know? I can tell you this album did everything I wanted it to do, but it doesn't tell you what I actually thought of the album. What happened is, I thought this album was Very Good, and then I didn't have much to say beyond that, so I threw in the thing about what I wanted, and that sounds like I'm saying something when I'm actually saying nothing. So: this album was Very Good, and then other words until the paragraph looks as full as I want it to be.

2) The Untouchables, dir. Brian de Palma: There's nothing like the sense of relief which comes from finally seeing one of those movies with a dozen all-time quotes you've been hearing for years and years. Like, I can't remember any specific instance of my father using a line from this movie in place of advice? But I'm sure it happened, and I am thrilled to understand him better. This is just a solid film, this would be one of those films I'd watch if I had basic cable and it came on while I was flipping channels. Brian de Palma knows how to direct a B+ movie, and Sean Connery is fucking amazing as the wizzened Chicago veteran, like half the reason this film has so many iconic lines is his delivery. I am about to say something blasphemous, given I am trying to tell y'all I'm a film nerd, and say I didn't like the score? It's Morricone, I know, I know, he's great, but I think the film loses something by scoring this film about Prohibition-era Chicago with a standard orchestral score. I feel like jazz should have figured more prominently into the equation.

3) in-ter a-lia, by At the Drive-In: I have no idea why I listened to this album, to be perfectly frank. I like "One-Armed Scissor," but with all the music that has ever existed being immediately available to me at my leisure, I could have picked up the At the Drive-In album with "One-Armed Scissor," I believe it is called This Station Is Non-Operational, though that might just be a line from "One-Armed Scissor" I thought was cool. I am not a hardcore fan of this band and didn't need to listen to their reunion album. I didn't need to hear lines like the poetry book of the balding dude with dreadlocks, "How many bites do you think it takes to get to the cyanide tooth" like ugh, being howled wildly over abrasive guitar tracks, just loud and fast and never stopping. I didn't have a pleasant time with this one.

4) Noenemies, by Flobots: The most surprising thing about this album is that it isn't just Flobots saying "I told you so" for 50 minutes.That would've been my move, given that, after 2016, I started to listen to the Flobots songs I thought were way too left for me and saying, "You know what, fuck. I should've listened. I'm sorry. I get it now. Please help." It's an album that doesn't yet know how to get unstuck from the mire, but is absolutely certain that the mire is the only obstacle in their way, that justice will prevail and the good people will win. It's not my favorite album of all time, but it's exactly what I wanted and needed from a Flobots album in 2017.

5) The Beautiful Game, by Vulfpeck: As far as albums I listened to because someone played one of the songs in a donation message on a Twitch stream, this was decent! I think reading the summary of this band's history colored my opinion on it, because it does sound like a couple of white kids who met in college, discovered they both loved Kanye West, talked about the old-school samples on his tracks, actually took the time to listen to those songs, realized they loved those songs as well, and decided to make those songs. It's a pretty OK album, maybe I wouldn't have paid $3.50 to convince 200 strangers they should listen to it, but OK enough backing for a bus ride.

6) More Issues Than Vogue, by K. Michelle: I think I might have the least to say about this album than anything else this week. It's an eminently enjoyable pop/R&B album that doesn't give you a lot to chew on, but does give you a lot to love. And while I know that the challenge of the Thing Journal is to get me to think about the pop culture which I experience, you gotta sometimes recognize when an album has such an infectious charm and tight production and solid vocal work that thinking about it might distract from the experience it wants you to have, that you should just listen to the thing because it wants you to hear it. It's an album of great joy, and I'm glad I got on its wavelength in time to let go and enjoy the hell out of it.

7) Let's Not Be Friends, by The Girls!: On the bus the other day, I was looking up Lydia Loveless, because I knew Lydia Loveless was right up my alley but hadn't actually listened to any of her stuff beyond her AUdiotree session, and in looking up and adding all her albums to my library, I discovered she had a sister in a punk band with an exclamation point in their name, and "female-fronted punk band with an exclamation point in their name" checks off three things I need from a band to love them, so I knew I was gonna love this, which is why I listened to this before any of that Lydia Loveless nonsense. I fucking loved this album. I love anything that's 12 tracks of pure, joyous punk/rock with a tinge of '50s-pop influence and no shortage of eternal teen angst. It bums me out that this is the only full album listed on their Wikipedia, and that they haven't been active on any sort of social media I could find for nearly a year. I need more of this in my life. (Also: I have now listened to 20 2014 releases! I actually hit a point where I felt I was caught up on my queue and, needing new things to listened to, am gonna go back and fill in the gaps in my musical experience, starting with 2014. Like, I've listened to all the punk things, I know I covered that ground, but that year and all years in music have so much more to offer beyond what I was looking for, and I'm stoked to finally listen to offerings such as Beyonce's self-titled, Anderson .Paak's Venice, and 2NE1's Crush.

8) Looper, dir. Rian Johnson: As someone who spends most of his time either yelling at his past self for the poor choices that put him in his present situation or making choices with little to no regard for how they impact my future, I loved that scene in the dinner, where JGL and Bruce Willis are basically doing that, Bruce Willis sternly warning JGL of the mistakes he'll make and the need to find the woman in China, and JGL being flippant and focused solely on the present danger being brought by Bruce Willis.I also have made respect for, in that same scene, Bruce Willis saying, "Look, we could sit here for fucking days trying to figure out the science, but fuck that, 100% fuck that." I assume the time travel makes sense and am mostly unconcerned with how it works, so thank you, movie, for being a movie! I do kinda wish the film had done more with the concept of chasing your past or future self, the film goes somewhere and then stays there for an hour, and like it's still a pretty decent movie, Rian Johnson has no shortage of imagination or skill, but it didn't need to be a movie about time-travel if you were just gonna put one of the characters in a barn the whole time? But, whatever, solid B+. Dope film. Not a lot of complaints. (Perhaps because I watched it between the hours of 2 and 4 AM Saturday morning because MY LIFE IS TOGETHERRRRRRRRRRRR and might need to rewatch this at a more reasonable hour?)

9) The Last Man on Earth s1, cr. Phil Lord & Christopher Miller: I love how unafraid this show is to let its characters be horrible fucking people. At no point after the first episode does the show let you feel anything like sympathy for Tandy; he just does awful thing after awful thing, all in self-interest, and always making things worse for the small community. (And he drags everyone down with him! He corrupts Todd, he tricks Carol into abandoning Tucson for him, he goads Phil into leaving him in the fucking desert. No one on this show is good, but that’s in no small part due to Tandy’s influence. (Also, as you can tell, I loved when the show just switched to calling him Tandy. Like, minor initial resistance, and then he was just Tandy.)) It's such a fascinating concept, the idea that one of the last people on earth is an anti-social monster, and I can't believe that a broadcast television network aired this experiment. I'm bummed I've been missing this for so long but stoked to finally be beginning this journey.

10) Selma, dir. Ava DuVernay: For the longest time, I was watching this film, trying to figured out why everything looked so muted. Every shot was filled with earth tones, reds and browns and greens always, and it looked like they left it just a couple notches above sepia, and while I was never removed from the film, it was in the back of my mind the whole time, what is the reason for this choice. And then near the end, when they added in the archival footage that was sepia-toned, it hit me: it was trying to be two notches above sepia-toned. It wanted to have that feel of the archival footage, a matter of historical record, but it also wanted to root itself in something modern, because this is very much a modern story. We still see horrible acts of police brutality, we still see black people being denied the right to vote, we still see out government leaders doing nothing but wishing these people would stop bothering them. Or, perhaps it goes for half-sepia because sepia is typically associated with nostalgia, we color over our memories of the past to make it better, but they leave some color in there because there's no making the past better in this instance. It's a remarkable film, and one I bet won a thousand Oscars! I don't see how it couldn't!

[team-adults-blog]

4.06 We Will Rise

Broken up by characters. This was such an awesome Marcus Kane episode we don’t even need to talk about the Jasper quoting Dr. Seuss. It’s the longest one yet. buckle up. 

Jaha

[ Arkadia aftermath] Jaha playing with the cult coin piece. He’s probably going to go looking for another site or read into this cult leader dude. It’s clearly important if we keep having short call-backs to it. He’s also the dude that will literally join any cult, so...

(Overhearing speech against Ilian) You ok with all of this?-Monty. ­They’re just blowing off steam. Blowing off steam? Is that what we were doing when we strung up Murphy for killing Wells? HEAD SNAP. YOU NOW HAVE MY FULL ATTENTION. So Clarke tells Jaha that Wells didn’t make it when he asks about him S1. This is her way of protecting Jaha, her parents’ friend whom she also knows pretty well from her child hood, from the knowledge that Wells died as a result of being his son. The son of the chancellor who locked them all up. The one who was trying to get them to work together. The kids all know that he was murdered by Charlotte, but hate for Murphy was so great they wanted it to be him. This is news to Jaha because “killing Wells?” He didn’t know his son was murdered. The kids have kept much of their early days hush hush from the adults and rest of the Ark aside than fighting with the grounders. Not only was he murdered, but it was Murphy? My John? My sarcastic John that I traveled through the desert with and sacrificed people to a sea monster for before finding ALIE’s mansion and almost destroying everything? That John Murphy? Monty’s tone here implies that it was a mistake, that he didn’t actually do it, but that mob mentality can be dangerous. It’s interesting that Jaha never talks about Wells. Is that guilt for following the law and sending him down on the dropship? Is it grief for the loss of his son he’s still not been able to deal with because of all the other brouhaha going on (I’m home so you can thank my mom for that phrase)? I’m so amazed that after the shock of someone bringing up Wells to him, followed by the murrrrderrrr (which he may or may not have known, I’m saying he did not) results in Jaha turning and saying pour. to the bartender. He’d rather drink to forget his son? Alcohol is not a good coping mechanism for grief (just look at Jasper), you have to work through it and it fucking sucks. Alcohol hides it and temporarily can help you forget it, but it doesn’t make it disappear. Monty is only even bringing up Wells to get a reaction out of you so you’ll DO something to stop these people because they listen to you! And you repress your feelings instead. Say something. (Jaha turns away from Monty and drinks) With all due respect, Your son would be ashamed of you. Jaha stops. Ouch. Monty is 100% right. I really want to know more about Well’s mother because his moral compass is true North and he was a way better man than his father. Then Monty tells Niylah, I’ll go get Kane.

I’d like to take a minute and congratulate myself on predicting Wells would have another moment back after 4.02 -Lexa had her moment in 4.01 and Jake in 4.02, I thought Wells would be next in 4.03. It came later than I thought, which is a better pace. He’s brought up and will probably be a character we call back to every now and then (but less frequently than Lexa and Lincoln because they were around longer and knew/ interacted with more of the current characters) to remind us of our most moral character. Just now thinking of the fact that the most moral and good person didn’t survive and what the show is trying to say there- everyone has a breaking point and has to make compromises and sacrifices. I don’t think they’re saying you have to sacrifice your morals as much as they’re exploring the theme of at what point do you sacrifice them. food for thought. Back to the point: Wells can’t be laid to rest as long as Thelonious is refusing to acknowledge and work through his grief instead of trying to forget he ever had a son.

From the ashes we will rise. Cool. We’re going to join another cult under coo-coo-Jaha.

Kane

YA GIRL CALLED THE ILIAN SCENE WITH KANE PROTECTING HIM OK? It looks like Kane is all alone from the shot and I was like mmmmmm okay, there’s no way he just fought off a mob by himself, but then we see the rest of the guard so I’m cool. BAMF right here. I love him.

Clarke and Kane talk. Oh.My.Frail.Heart. Let’s break down this scene by the important lines that are jam packed with meaning. Go pick up some omega-3’s (because ya eyes are gon be burnin’ after you’re done cryin’ from all the heartwarming stuff here, and you need to replenish your tears for next week. If you don’t like fish oil I hear flaxseed also works).

I’m going with you. You can’t. I’m the chancellor, I do what I want. That’s why you can’t. have to stay here.

I know you’re worried about my mother- I like that Clarke 1) acknowledges this relationship past the 4.01 cheek caress. 2) tries to reassure him that Mom/Abby will be ok. This is important to me because Clarke hasn’t been around for the majority of Kabby’s development. She know’s their backstory of possible friendship turned enemies to mutual respect, but lil’ Clarkiepoo BOOKED IT after Mount Weather (hurting Abby and Bellamy the most). We get Kabby hand holding in the end of S2, but that didn’t necessarily mean relationship! for Clarke watching them on the journey back to Arkadia. So basically she’s been off doing her own thing/ avoiding her mother, hanging around the woods and then Polis while Kabby is growing and developing. feelings. This acknowledgement that yes, you and my mom are a thing, and I’m aware and not objecting to it is super important. Kane knows Clarke is #1 for Abbs, hence why he’s like “to Clarke” in 4.02 when Abby has to leave Polis.

She’s going into space. In a 100 (hundred) year old rocket. Do you have any idea how many things could go wrong? Marcus Kane is 110% right here. He has reason to worry about this plan, and even more to with it being his boo blasting off into space.

Clarke responds with faith™ in Raven followed by faith™ in her momma. She’s had to rely on Raven’s brilliance every season and she’s always pulled through. There’s a lil pause when Kane knows her arguments are right, but he still wants to find a way to convince her to let him go because how on earth do you protect someone if you’re not near them? THEN.

I’ll send her your love.

This 1) Firmly tells Kane there’s no point arguing anymore; he’s staying behind. Mom skills. 2) MEGA CONFIRMS CLARKE KNOWS THEY GENUINELY CARE FOR EACH OTHER TO THE POINT THAT SHE SAYS ***love*** Holy cow my heart broke. Kabby is so lost for each other I have so many feels for this scene especially when Marcus looks down and blinks a few times and says Yes. Please do that. And I’ll make sure there’s something left to save…When you get home. Clarke is the queen of no-chill and calls it like she sees it. She sees the love we all see and calls it by its name, even though Kabby hasn’t said it. Lil’

Marco thinks for a minute, like wow. She just said love. I haven’t said that to Abby yet. But yeah. This is love. I’m so frickin’ LOST (wink) for her. Love is an accurate word for my emotions. Am I willing to admit that aloud to another living soul, much less Clarke? Can I tell her daughter that? Will it be weird? We’ve got 6 months to live. Fuck it. I love Abby Griffin. Tell her that. Tell her you’re cool with it too. Your mom just validated you being bi and that you loved Lexa, validate adults ~50+ still having sexual feelings. The “when you get home part” is so nice because he’s saying he knows she’ll somehow make things work. And he’s hopeful that maybe they can be a fam? When you and my wife come home, that would make me really happy, essentially. And she gives him a little smile like, I’m worried but that would be nice. I’m glad you want me to come “home” to Arkadia because I don’t really feel like I have a home. Clarke’s been off in Polis for far too long before coming back to Arkadia. She needed someone other than Bellamy to tell her this is her home and she should come back and stay because everyone hates her because of the list stunt, even if it’s not an issue anymore. If Clarke skipped me on that list I’d remember.

HUG. AND HE INITIATED IT. CLARKE I CARE ABOUT YOU TOO PLEASE BE SAFE. At first Clake’s feeling... uh this strange to me..but…strangely…nice. She relaxes into it and hugs him back more than the reactionarly ”someone is embracing me I should lightly put my hands on their back and pat to show my discomfort after 3 seconds.” No. she closes her eyes and does a little shift down into his shoulder.

If later Clarke runs to him (upon return) and initiates it. UGHTRHFGHHUGHHHHH. Fetch the smelling salts, amiright. The last time I remember them having a GOOD/ long dialogue with just them was shortly after Clarke and Anya make it to Arkadia S2 and they’re sitting on the steps/ a bench? I recall them talking about leadership and/ or Abby (again! Cool) and Kane had the early scruff look. 10/10. Now I’m having all these flashbacks to earlier scenes where Clarke tells him what to do and he respects her and listens or debates. Throwback to that scene where she’s like hey, Kane I want to do this and my mom doesn’t want me to, help a girl out. He’s got that smug look and is all (step)dad!kane right before Abby comes in and has a fit. (also S2, but EARLY facial hair phase. Minimal scruff, but great hair and I love all phases of this beard who am I kidding. Current S4 hair could use a slight trim because I don’t see the show letting hic go shoulder length hair)

[Monty goes to get Kane after annihilating Jaha]

Kane gets some guards and puts medical on lock down.

MILLER SENIOR sir, maybe we should reconsider….On the Ark we floated people for this. Dude. I’ve loved you since you popped up on screen. What are you doing? Mob rule will not dictate us in this camp. Miller senior with the most annoyed eye roll and head turn. But still subdued, much like your son, not Murphy. Kane is waaaayyyyyyy past “if this happened on the Ark” arguments because. Hello? He’s already made those mistake S2 when he gets to the ground and maintains laws under the Exodus Charter. Abby taught him that the ground can be different. He still got strong-armed into shock lashing Abby, but he sure as hell regretted it. Where were you? Why didn’t you ALSO learn this lesson?

Kane puts the clip in his gun, David Miller starts to freak out and plead with him. These are his people and Miller sees why they’re upset, possibly sympathizes with them.  

Octavia lets the people in. MILLER SENIOR SHOCK BATTONS KANE. I actually screamed. Miller, I get it, but this is the chancellor and I THOUGHT. your friend. There are some serious consequences for this. He’s writhing on the frickin’ floor, everyone is staring at you and all you can do is say a super emotionless I’m sorry. With a shrug??? He lets them take Kane’s gun. The only redeeming thing he does is stay with Kane until he’s able to move.

It is wrong to talk about these awesome ladies on the show in the context of the men, but Octavia’s plotlines cross with Kane and Bellamy significantly, so she’s sorta mixed in both. Clarke is everywhere because she’s the main lady. I’m aware of my sin.

Monty can’t stop Octavia. Ilian: Get it over with.  OMG my friends and I were yelling about the Lincoln parallels. OH NOW JAHA DECIDEDS TO COME OUT. I wonder whose idea it was to yell black rain. It was a good one, but these two are secretly scheming together like nobody’s business. If Jaha suddenly has this idea, kudos. If they’re planning this the way they said “It worked” when they hugged in 4.01, I’m SUPER interested in their coconspirator relationship. Especially when Kane just wants Jaha to be on his side in the pilot. The fact that Kane says “I don’t know” makes me think Jaha did assess the situation and come up with this on the fly, but he’s got an ear piece in?

He put Lincoln on his knees too. FLASHBACKS. Ugh. The parallels are now blatantly in our faces. Pike stood right there.  Nice overlapping screen, good stuff. Right where you’re standing when they put a gun up against his head. I was there.You do this, you do this and you’re no better than he was. mmmmm. Showing Lincoln getting shot again was not fun and turned this interesting way to see into Octavia’s mind and have her reliving his death slightly tacky. Its alright its ok. Octavia, it’s alright. Come inside. My heart hurts. For Octavia reliving that and having to deal with that. For Kane trying to comfort her in the best dad!Kane way he knows how. She pushes him away. ANOTHER punch to my heart. Octavia, wait! Octavia. Hi, I am crying more and more and I don’t know if it’s because it’s 2:30am (whoopsies, I did half the ep and then went and had a real life (crazy I know), and wanted to finish it when I got home) or because I feel so bad that the Blakes can’t both be happy at the same moment. Kane’s barely able to keep one stable at a time. Bellamy was good, so he got to go off, but Octavia is still (understandably) a wreck. He’s chasing after herrrrrr.He stops because she’s runnin’ Wait! Where will you go…? HE SAYS BLINKING BACK TEARS. This man. This man guys. I am hurt. What a great actor such emotion and beauty. He just has to watch her leave, powerless to protect her. She doesn’t even have her sword.  I’m all alone with no one to hold me.

PREDICTION: Octavia goes to Indra. Gaia becomes part of the story again.

PREVIOUS PREDICTION: As I said in the 4.02 piece, I thought Wells would be next (and we’re working on that, hopefully), but it was too soon for Octavia to lay Lincoln to rest. I think Octavia will probably be working through her grief (for real, instead of murdering people)

FURTHER THOUGHT: Monty’s mom? He did have to “kill” her twice. If he already dealt with this let me know, but I remember her disappearing from the CoL in the S3 finale but no working through of the emotions. I trust Monty to be doing that off screen with Harper because he’s a good guy. Aaannnddddd he told Jasper that he was dealing with stuff too.

 Bellamy

Azgeda is burning trikru as they move through on their way back to Polis trying to keep peace. ½ deserted, Roan doesn’t blame them, it’s a sucky situation.

Bellamy: “do you blame them for burining trikru villages as they go?”

Roan: “that’s funny coming from you”

Kane: “Enough” once bickering’s number one fan. Now saving the day from pettiness and jabs. 

What a burn. What a hurtful call back to the mistakes in writing S3 where Bellamy has to spiral to drive a plot point. Due to editing/cutting/rushed storylines, we never got a satisfactory explanation for exactly why. The massacre is part of his character now, but I’m surprised they’re bringing it up again- the Riley scene was his acknowledgement of the massacre. He’s clearly going to be working on forgiving himself and this redemption ark all season.

Let me just go check on my sister before I roll out. She almost died the other day and we had a hug but things are still rocky…

Octavia is dead. She died when you killed Lincoln. Damn. He played a part in this, but definitely didn’t want him dead.

Clarke tells Bell Octavia’s forgiveness will take time. AKA: They talk about his feelings.

What is she doing? Being Clarke. No one else gets out. *proceeds to get out too* classic.

ICE MELT THERE’S A NEW RIVER CREATING A COMPLICATION. What a real thing that could happen with climate change.  

They’ve taken the truck. fuel. Clarke. Yep. Clarke. mention the truck and fuel first so Roan thinks you have your priorities sorted, but casually slip in #3. 

Bell races ahead to cut Clarke off in the untimate game of chicken with this grounder. He’s such a good shot that he can hit the grounder (and not Clarke) from at least 20 yards away? I guess that’s the magic of tv. “I’ve got this gun, and girl, it don’t miss. It makes baaaabiiieeessss”- J Roddy Walston & The Business. Look it up.

Good job Clarke for braking that quickly. I didn’t.

I’m going to take the Rover back to camp. Clarke: Octavia? Nod. Bellarke with knowing each other so well.

Clarke: She’s your sister, she’s blood. She’ll come around and see how special you are. Incredible look from Bell. ALSO. I’m not sure if this was an intentional word choice (probs because look at the Kane and Clarke Scene. Actually go rewatch it, it was really good.) and if I’m supposed to pick up on “Special” parallels with Clexa where Lexa describes Clarke as “different” and “special.” I’m seeing more and more parallels for Clarke and Bellamy with cannon relationships, namely Kabby and Clexa, so it’s looking like they could go down a romantic path, but not anytime soon. They’ve both got so much crap going on plus trying to save the planet that I don’t think the writers would want to explore that yet. To caution/ dissuade excited bellarke shippers, Niylah is probs more present in the plot right now than she would be (and here in this ep, still nakey for this important conversation about Lexa Lexa would be proud of you) + Niylah stays because Clarke wants her to stay alive. So, naturally, I have to predict her dying. Not because she’s gay, but because Clarke is Wanheda. I don’t actually think she’ll die. I’d rather see her take over the Nyko grounder-medicine knowledge void (RIP. I had so much hope for your character. May Niylah carry on your legacy).

Clarke. If I don’t see you again… // No. You Will. See what I mean? Kabby parallels from the 3.09 Kiss. (also Lincoln died in that ep). She’s doing exactly what her mother did. Stubborn Griffin love is great. 

Roan

High School Musical has ruined the phrase “we’re all in this together” for my generation. I can’t not start singing it. And doing the overhead clap.

License plate man doesn’t want Roan to drive behind Clarke because he follows no one. I’m laughing at his license plate armour, but honestly it’s probably really effective.

What could possibly go wrong? Understatement of the year.

License plate man stays behind with Clarke. Trikru killed ‘em.

The whole jumping from one truck to another is crazy hard, but of course Roan would have no problem.

Once we’re all nightbloods do we go back to killing each other?

Thanks for killing the bellarke mood with a problem. Just what they need.

Becca’s Lab: Raven x Murphy x Luna

Raven head bothering her. Murphy annoying her.

Rips him apart. At least I’m not a mental patient like you. Not cool. Raven and the meditation. How does Luna hear but Jackson and Abby stay asleep?

She doesn’t apologize. Harsh. He provokes, but it comes from a place of being insecure and not

Luna is great. She’s saving everyone’s mental health. Murphy is trying to meditate, but he’s got the words wrong. Humorously wrong.

Swim away. Murphy and Luna come up with this idea and tell raven to screw the computer. Murphy! Thanks. Good, Raven. That’s what he needed. It works. Well duh. Did the Ark not have Apollo 13 on their space drive? This is how we land on Earth now (to my knowledge), we only need the fuel for soft other planet landings. 0% cargo destruction! But wait. We are short a barrel. SIEZING GO GET MOM.

It would be awesome if we could get more emotionally invested in some of these plot lines? You know, so they actually hit us and we feel the pain of the characters when things don’t work out? First, Octavia not actually being dead and Bellamy immediately figuring it out. We saw one scene of grief. We know she’s alive, but 12 min later do does he. Now we get a rocket! In the next episode, the rocket solution may not work because of the punctured barrel. High stakes, but low stakes presentation, so what’s the point?

Overall, I liked this episode. Obviously for Kane, but Jaha, Monty, and Luna had interesting things working for them as well. The next episode is called “gimme shelter” so I’m feeling a black rain coming on as well as Clarke and Roan reaching Doctor-Tech Squad.

 I also went from writing ~1 pg to this, which is ~6 pgs, single spaced. Half of it was Kane. Shocker. I didn’t need to do a line-by-line breakdown, but they were just so packed and I had so many feelings. Sorry. No editing whatsoever was done past MS Word’s spellcheck as I wrote it.