#her and archie question mark??

[woolpines]

i lied, i think im gonna play with her

this is maple 🍂🍁

[pleasantspark]

Zoophobia is okay but...

I did it, I finally caved in and started reading ZooPhobia, you know? The Comic that Viv put on hiatus (in the comic industry when a comic is on hiatus it means its cancelled, see: Mega Man Archie Issue 55 for more.)

The series was mediocre at best because it was written by a young Viv, but coming from someone who was from the Hazbin/Helluva Fandom its... Not all that different.

Pros

Color Palettes are varied, you don't have red and black all the damn time. The cast actually has pastel, some of which aren't borderline eyestrainy.

The beginning of the story sets us up to a good premise.

Gustav.

Cons

While the beginning was off to a fantastic start, the middle and \towards the end shifted from Cameron (Our supposed main character) to the High School Drama. There was a subplot with Zill and his girlfriend fighting but just like Chaggie it was resolved and even mocked about for being cliched.

Since it was on Hiatus there was not much left answered and some things are confusing.

What the hell is Zill?

Similarities between Zoophobia and Helluvaverse

It's not any secret that the main characters from Hazbin Originated from ZooPhobia but I feel most of the storylines that existed in ZooPhobia was also repurposed into Hazbin or Helluva or even straight up transferred, most plots that were possibly planned or so would be in this exactly.

ZooPhobia has the same issues Hazbin has, the lack of pacing and rushing through pivotal arcs while introducing characters (and infodumping/abandoning them in the same arc) just to give one backstory and dip.

Just like with Cameron while the story initially started with her it pivoted to random people (literal whos?) and had no ryheme or reasoning, Charlie later became Cameron in her own show.

They force conflict too early in the story especially when we barely got to know any characters (Zill and his girlfriends cliche argument.)

Then there was lost aspects that could have been explored, why does Cameron have Zoophobia? Why was Cameron sent to Safe Haven? Why is Damien so interested in Zill's girlfriend? So many questions and yet no answers, the story had potential but was sidelined for Hazbin and Helluva and both aren't any different from Zoophobia in terms of their own issues.

The fact I decided to cave in and read this only made me even more mad that we ended up losing something that could have marked Viv's actual career, I guess she wanted to be a screenwriter, but webcomics in general are better because at least you can get more out of it.

Zoophobia is okay, but could have potential and it was shelved and forgotten about thus making it free game for those who wants to rewrite it, I'm only taking Gustav and that's it.

[thieves-never-say-die]

if a leverage x white collar collab happened, how do you think each character would react to each other? would peter become another one of their fbi buddies? would sophie and neal compete against each other? how, in your opinion, would that look?

I think my ideal of what would happen is pretty much what I wrote in The Neal Caffrey Job, but I do have a LOT more ideas about possible interactions between teams:

Parker and Mozzie know each other from when Parker was younger (pre-Archie) and Mozzie took her under his wing to teach her how to be a thief (I wanted to include more of them together in TNCJ but it didn't fit)

Parker and Neal both tried to steal the same item at the same time once before, and fucked up the other's plan enough that neither was able to get the item in question (or one of them came out on top, leading to a lifelong grudge which rears its head when the two teams have to work together)

I do think Jones and Hardison would geek out over tech together. That's another thing I couldn't quite make fit in TNCJ, but Jones is the tech guy of the White Collar team, and I think they'd get along

Peter is too smart to get duped by the Leverage crew for long and (unfortunately) his morals are not flexible enough to willingly work with them, though I think El would be much more sympathetic and could convince him not to pursue too aggressively. Like, the Leverage crew would kick marks in NYC Peter's way once they're done with them and have had the big reveal, allowing Peter to arrest them, but Peter would never condone what the Leverage crew does, if that makes sense

I think Neal would want to work with the Leverage crew if he heard what they were doing, but wouldn't be able to help too directly so he does his best to help by putting Peter in the right place at the right time to catch the bad guys (Neal definitely joins Leverage International post s6)

I looooove the idea of Diana recognizing Sophie from her life as the child of a diplomat (yet another thing I couldn't make fit in TNCJ). I think it would be hilarious if Diana saw Sophie and got curious and went looking up a bunch of her aliases, suddenly realizing like two dozen famous people are actually all just the same woman

I also think it would be fun if Neal saw the Leverage ot3 being together and then looked at El and Peter with a little lightbulb moment

Ok last thing to consider: Sarah moves to London at the end of s4. We know that Astrid Pickford (Sophie's step daughter) is an Interpol agent, presumably based in London. I think they would have a lot in common, and they should definitely meet up for drinks and talk about the thieves in their lives and about how they both had to put aside their morals a bit to make sure the right thing got done and then make out about it

[khyys]

“As dense as a Rock”

wrd count: 2457

contents: MAJOR TW MAJOR TW farleigh x fem!reader,, everyone depicted in this fic is over the age of 18, heavy swearing, saltburn spoilers, bullying, slutshaming question mark, 1st & 2nd divider creds : @/elryisia. 3rd line divider creds: @/targaryen-dynasty

a/n: this account has been through so many changes, but it feels good to finally get something out. I loved saltburn and farleigh’s character (archie madekwe). if this gets some love, I’ll write some more!

You’d walked around the estate so many times, you were starting to memorize the layout. You even began to whisper ‘Hi, Mrs. Catton’ every time you walked by her supposed spirit. You really made yourself at home in Saltburn, ever since Felix invited you. You couldn’t really recall what he said when you asked why, but you didn’t care. This summer was supposed to be unlike any other for you. You were far from home, and you needed the getaway. This was just that.

You roamed the halls, examining each historic object. You often had to look around and ensure Duncan wouldn’t sneak up on you. He was known for that, but you couldn’t stand it. It made you feel uneasy, despite the family having been so kind to you upon your arrival. Felix’s mother had taken a liking, you oftentimes helped out his father, and you and Venetia had become attached at the hip it seemed. It was incomparable to your American household. Your life wasn’t horrible, but it was nothing compared to Saltburn. Wearing a dress and heels to play tennis and drink booze was not something you did back home, but you loved the thrill.

You walked about for a few more moments, before noticing the time on the clock. It was near time for dinner and you really wanted to look your best. You recalled receiving a dress from Elspeth. She’d said you looked ravishing in it, but you were most likely zoned out. All you recall is Elspeth having the maids press and tailor it perfectly so that it accentuates your figure.

You traversed the corridors, whistling softly. That was until you felt a rough grab on your arm. You wanted to scream, but only a gasp escaped. An angered hiss accompanied with a hand rushing to cradle your elbow that was impacted by the door frame. At first, you imagined it would’ve been Felix, but it couldn’t have been. Not with eyes like those ones.

He didn’t pay that much attention to you, or so you thought. He towered over you, with a large grin. His hair was slightly covering his eyes, and only for a moment did all the anger leave your body. But only for a moment.

“Look what I caught~”, Farleigh taunted, hooking a finger beneath your chin. You immediately turned your head, maintaining your look of displeasure for his actions. It was difficult, but you managed something of a pissed off expression.

You glanced down at your elbow, and sighed before meeting his gaze again.

“Fucking hell, Farleigh.. What’s your deal?!”, you scowled. Your brows furrowed, but he seemed amused by it. He always did like the little wrinkle between your eyebrows every time he’d piss you off. It was something he seemed to look forward to. Something he enjoyed all too much.

You couldn’t be mad for long, not with that smile. His smile was too cute for you to hate.

“Aww, I’m sorry. Did I scare you?”, and then he looked down at your elbow. He gave an exaggerated pout, and tilted his head. Not to mention that stupid, poked-out lip. Seriously, how stupid and cute could he look at the same time? “Do you want me to kiss your boo boo and make it all better?

The way he spoke reminded you of how your family would talk down to you, or the boys back home would constantly drink a hot cup of condescending bullshit every morning, just to piss you off. Luckily, your tolerance for any of it was little to none.

“How’s about you kiss my ass?”, you snapped quickly. You hadn’t realized just how close he had been until you took a deep breath and inhaled the fresh scent of Egyptian Musk. You didn’t want to be bothered with his shenanigans. Especially not this close to dinner time. “Hell do you want, Farleigh..? I need to get ready for dinner.”

“Don’t be so harsh, Y/N, I just wanted to talk to you. Come. Sit.”, he strides from you to his bed, and gestured for you to sit beside him.

You knew better than to sit anywhere with Farleigh. It seemed like every girl that was simply within 5 steps of Farleigh had either slept with him, made out with him, lined up with him, or all three. You wish you had done two out of the three.

“I’ll stand.”, you spoke while rubbing your elbow. The tingling began to start and you only took a step or two away from the door, leaning on a nearby dresser.

Farleigh stared at you from the bed and glanced out the nearby window, dragging out a sigh. He was silent for a moment, and for that moment, he looked like a guy. A handsome one with even skin, gorgeous hair, a wonderful smile. His voice made your heart skip one too many beats at a time, but it’s his words that always seemed to ruin everything.

“Why are you here, Y/N?”, he asked in a low tone. He turned his attention back to you, with a sort of expectant look, like he was waiting for you to say something specific.

What the fuck was that supposed to mean? What did he mean, why were you here? Because Felix invited you, that’s why! But that’s not his business. Even if he was the reason, what’s it to him? Nevertheless, you glared at him from where you stood.

“That’s not your business.”

“Isn’t it? You befriend my distant cousin and his family, who already see you as a second daughter. You and Ven, painting your nails and walking around the front lawn with your matching see-through nightgowns. And don’t get me started on you helping with Uncle’s work? You are such a suck up, Y/N… I could read you like a bad magazine.”

What a creep.. How hard was he watching you? He must’ve been watching long because you only helped Mr. Catton every other Sunday, and you and Venetia simply related on a deeper level. You were never a smoker, but you started a social habit. Was Farleigh bothered by the fact that you were warming up to his distant family? Was he feeling left out or something?

“So you’re a stalker? What’s next? You wanna drink my fucking bath water, you freak?”

Farleigh was always entertained by getting a reaction out of people, especially you. Your temper was short and easy to tick sometimes, which only made the show better for him. He laughed and crossed his legs, leaning back slightly. His head tilted back and his curled bounced beneath the rays of the lowering sun.

He was seriously laughing about this? Laughing about watching you so attentively that he could notice the material of your nightgowns or realize where you disappeared for like five hours of every other Sunday. You couldn’t deny that you did enjoy the attention. Venetia was right, those dresses did exactly as intended. Venetia saw how you would glance at Farleigh or look for him like a lost puppy in your free time, she was the only person who knew. You made her promise not to tell a soul, but she promised to make sure he noticed you more by the end of the summer. And by the ghost of Felix’s grandmother, he was practically a certified professional. He knew everything.

You hid your smile, and masked it with a look of displeasure. You planned to squeal about it to Venetia that night whilst you and her walked about the front lawn on your matching nightgowns… right below Farleigh’s window.

“Oh, fuck, Y/N… Be real for once! You know exactly what I mean! You’re a fucking suck up and the only reason you’re doing it, is to get to Felix! You’re like every other bitch at Oxford! You want to fuck him, be his new favorite toy, and then try your best to stay with him… Really, you’re pathetic!”

You closed your eyes, trying to process the words he said to you. Suck up. Every other bitch. Fuck Felix… Pathetic?! Either he was high off of his ass or truly needed a rise out of you.

“Did you just call me a slut, you prick?”

“If the shoe fits, honey..”

“Fuck you.”, were the last words you muttered to him before you turned away and left Farleigh’s bedroom, slamming the door behind yourself and quickly going further down the hall, to your bedroom.

You closed the door behind yourself, and sighed. You pressed your forehead against the wooden engravings of the door, and locked it. That was.. tense. Unnecessarily tense, at that. He could always be crass, but out right calling you a slut didn’t seem like his forte. At least, it didn’t seem to be, but what did you know? You just wanted to fuck Felix, right? Farleigh was many things but he wasn’t stupid, there was no way he could’ve been that oblivious to what you’ve been doing…

“Ahem.”, a familiar voice said from your bed. You wondered why it smelled like roses, perfume, and smoke.

“Ah.. Ven, hey. I- uh.. Wha-… Fuck. What are you doing here?”, you asked and pulled your cardigan off, being only left in a bra.

You walked over and sat beside her, whilst she turned and rested her legs atop your lap. You rested your arms over them, and glanced over to which she handed you the lit cigarette in between her sloppily painted nails.

“Well… I was going to ask if you knew what you were gonna wear tonight ‘cuz I wanted to match, but you weren’t here so I thought I’d just wait. What took you?”

You gulped slightly, and sighed whilst allowing the smoke to seep out of your nostrils. You maneuvered the white stick in your hands, while trying to figure out how to word it. He called you a slut? He called you pathetic?

“I.. was in Farleigh’s…”

You blew the smoke from your lips and nose, before handing the cigarette back to her. To which, she laughed and wrapped an arm around you.

“What?! Oh em fuck, tell me everything! Did you guys kiss, make out, make plans for later~?”

You laughed at Venetia’s response, but it had you thinking. You wish that was the case, but it wasn’t. He had everything totally out of line. He believed that you wanted Felix, and you still didn’t have the right mind to just come out and tell him that it was him you wanted… You made a slight face of disappointment and shook your head to which Venetia cooked and held your face comfortingly.

A few seconds later, you hear a small knock at the door.

“Excuse me! Y/N, are you in there? I’ve got your dress pressed out for you!”, a meek voice called out.

It was one of the handmaids. You weren’t really supposed to see her, but you were able to catch her once. When you did, you asked her to be more.. friendly with you. To appear more, and whilst she was hesitant, she did it nonetheless.

“Come in!”, you called back.

She opened the door, to reveal a dark red dress concealed by a plastic dress bag. The small woman opened your closet door and hung it upon a hook that was screwed into the door.

“It’s perfect! Thank yo-“, you started, but before you could finish your sentence, she had scrambled off, and out the door, making you and Venetia giggle.

“What happened then?”

You sighed, before taking and handing back the cigarette.

”He caught me off guard, and pulled me into his room. He said he wanted to talk, but then he asked why I was here! Fuck, Venetia! He said I wanted to fuck Felix! Are you fucking kidding me?! All this just for him to think it was fucking Felix, of all people!”

Venetia snickered and wrapped her arm around you, whilst she hummed, blowing out more of the smoke. The small white paper was stained with her red lip stain.

“Farleigh’s not that aware of… uhhh… cues? He’s dumb, like super socially stupid! I literally do not get what you see in someone who’s that fucking moronic.” Venetia chuckled to which you let out a soft sigh, filled with disappointment.

Venetia got up and planted a small peck on your nose and got up from her place, patting your thigh. “I’ll see you later, Y/N!! Gotta get ready!” She smiled and winked, before leaving your bedroom and closing the door behind her.

You waved and sighed as you sat on the bed, pondering about your conversation with him. You weren’t even really processing anything. You kept going back to his hair, his eyes, his scent, and that stupid playful personality that made you want to kick him, but then pull him right back in for a kiss. You’d have to fangirl later though, dinner was in an hour and a half.

It never took you long to get dressed. You wore light makeup, did your hair, and chose a few golden accessories. Something that would really please Elspeth. Damn, were you actually sucking up to her? You loved gold. You admired the way the shining bracelets adorned your wrist, and smiled. You felt so pretty. But you were starting to prove Farleigh’s point. It was a stupid point, but valid, nonetheless.

You stood in the mirror, adjusting your dress to perfection and ensuring you look just as Elspeth said you would. Ravishing. You touched up your make-up and teased your hair, until it was just as you liked.

“Y/N? Have you dressed? Mr. And Mrs. Catton are awaiting you and young Farleigh.”, a monotone voice of seriousness shot through your doors.

“Yes, Duncan. I’m ready. I’ll be out in just a minute!”

“Very well…”, was said before you hear the sound of sharp steps being made away from your door.

You truly didn’t have much to do before you finally considered yourself ready for dinner. The rule was dress up, which included a small bag for you. So you stuffed lipstick, a powder pallet, a highlighter, and lip gloss into the bag.

A final check was made before you finally went your bedroom door, and you were met with a fine surprise.

“Oh? Was someone happy to see me?”

Your eyes went wide while Farleigh stood there with his fist up, assuming he didn’t even get a chance to knock.

“Shut up, Farleigh. Why aren’t you at dinner? You’ll be late, waiting on me.”, you scowled once more, that little wrinkle he enjoyed seeing becoming prominent.

“Actually, I wanted to walk with you again. After dinner.”

THE END.

[audible-smiles]

wait, I have more late night vampire show questions: why did Armand keep that name? he's not in France anymore, he's not even speaking English in a French accent. he broke with the coven who gave it to him and has been doing different stuff for like...a while now. I feel like a lot of people with three names marking radically different periods in their lives would be tempted to go for name #4. maybe he's like me and feels like names are something that is given to you and so he feels incapable of changing it. (I didn't even change my cat's name when I adopted her.) maybe he still feels like he's fundamentally the same person as the depressed cult leader guy, which would be so so sad. no way he's got all of his millions of dollars invested under a mononym so does Armand have legal ID and if so what did he put for his surname. maybe he's neutral about his name and it's just too inconvenient to change now because of bureaucracy. When Daniel figures out where Armand's post-Dubai Sulking Cave is and shows up to bother him and starts referring to Armand using whatever random A name occurs to him in the moment to be incredibly annoying on purpose because at least it provokes a reaction, which one do you think is the most effective, e.g. Archie. Adrian. Alberto. Amir. Arnold. Alvin (and the Chipmunks).

[warningsine]

Season 5 of “The Good Wife” was a fantastic, thrilling season of television. Yes, “The Good Wife” is primarily about a clutch of well-heeled attorneys in a few Chicago law firms, which doesn’t quite sound like edge-of-your-seat suspense, and yes, it required four years of back story to fully understand, which is a lot of commitment for new viewers. But “The Good Wife” is a prestige drama built on the network model, meaning that its 22-episode seasons offered plenty of entry points to drop into the world of the characters, whether that was through ongoing fourth-year-associate drama or a tech-oriented case of the week. One of the reasons the season was so appealing was because it contained its own arc, too—the long-awaited denouement of Will and Alicia’s smoldering romance, precipitated in large part by actor Josh Charles’ decision to leave the show. The fifth season told the story of Alicia attempting to establish independence, and some of that meant hurting the people closest to her. When Will died suddenly partway through the season, Alicia was forced to deal with how much she’d hurt him—and ultimately found a path to making a mark without either him or her husband, Peter, when she decided to run for Illinois state’s attorney.

This season has not felt nearly as rewarding. Now, the question I get from fellow fans of “The Good Wife,” over and over again, is simply: What happened? The tightest network drama on television fell apart, seemingly overnight. On the eve of the finale, it’s hard to tell what this season has been about: We watched an election, a stint in prison, an investigation of a drug dealer, and the aftereffects of voter fraud, but it has been difficult to assemble the events into a cohesive narrative, and harder still to surmise why any of that narrative matters to us, the viewers. The upcoming seventh season is widely believed to be the show’s last, which somehow makes the missteps more poignant. Is this how it’s going to be from now on? Was it all downhill after Charles left the show? What went wrong? Here are at least some of the things that made Season 6 a strange, unfulfilling disappointment.

1. Kalinda, part one: The character

It’s kind of impossible to discuss “The Good Wife’s" trajectory so far without acknowledging the increasingly different role of Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi), the impossibly badass legal investigator who was very important in the first few seasons and then the center of a rather unsatisfying plot with her estranged husband, Nick, in Season 4. (Indeed, the plot was so unpopular with fans that the drama’s showrunners, Robert and Michelle King, wrote Nick out of the story a whole half-season early.) As revolting as Nick and Kalinda’s adventures with soft serve were, Nick was only a symptom of the bigger problem: The Kings had no idea what to do with Kalinda. The character was a creative darling they couldn’t bring themselves to kill—made harder, I imagine, by Panjabi herself, who is admittedly fantastic in the limited role.

Kalinda’s raison d’être in Seasons 1 and 2 was her friendship with the main character and titular good wife of the show, Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies). She wasn’t just Alicia’s closest friend in those first few years at the law firm, she was her only friend. Then at the end of Season 2, Alicia discovers that well before they were friends, Kalinda slept with her husband, Peter (Chris Noth). Both are devastated, and their relationship never heals. The show turned its attention to different things, partly because that’s the type of avoidance people pursue on a regular basis in order to get around awkward, intimate conversations.

It was a beautiful, sad breakup, all the more so for being a friend-breakup instead of a romantic one. Alicia threw herself into an affair with Will (Charles), driven, clearly, by a need to one-up both her husband and her best friend. Kalinda carried a torch, of sorts: She saw Alicia as an innocent she’d managed to hurt with her carelessness, so she became fiercely protective of her. It became melodramatic—Alicia’s daughter disappeared, and Kalinda found her; Alicia talked to the wrong criminal, and Kalinda went to the mattresses, with a baseball bat at the ready.

And without Alicia’s friendship to humanize her, Kalinda became a caricature. Her authenticity with Alicia couldn’t really be replicated with anyone else without betraying the essential nature of the character’s closed-off reluctance to connect with other people, so she became a tight-lipped, leather-clad robot, more an embodiment of tortured “cool” than a relatable character. What the character needed was to mend fences with Alicia and resume her role as mysterious but loyal sidekick.

By sometime in Season 4, it seemed like it was on the horizon. They’d both made some efforts toward reconciliation (the chair-turning was a big step), and every other character relationship involving Alicia was explored in great detail: She reckoned managers, co-workers, extended family and political rivals. Kalinda brought Alicia some stuff when Alicia was working on a case in Minnesota, and they hung out in a hotel room, kind of just like old times.

And then it just… never… happened.

That moment in the hotel was the last time they spoke. In 2014, BuzzFeed reported that Margulies and Panjabi had not been in the same scene for 30 episodes���when they had to speak, it was merely on the phone. Then Panjabi announced she was leaving at the end of the sixth season. But that deadline did not change her on-screen dynamic with Margulies. At this point, the two have not been in the same scene for more than 50 episodes—an insane factoid, considering both actresses won Emmys for playing their roles opposite each other in the first few seasons of the show. As of right now—one episode away from the end of Panjabi’s tenure on the show—the most closure we’ve gotten on this friendship is a flashback and a handwritten note conveyed through a third party.

As a viewer who is invested in the relationship between these two characters, it has not been satisfying in the least—and worse, seems manufactured to manage some off-screen drama. The general consensus is that the two actresses had a falling out, but how that could affect their shared scene-time in a business where ex-romantic partners routinely act opposite each other is anyone’s guess. But the shift left Kalinda at loose ends, arrested partway between a reconciliation with Alicia and increasing narrative irrelevancy. Josh Charles’ off-screen decision ended up being a limitation that worked in the Kings’ favor; for some reason, Panjabi’s situation wasn’t as manageable.

The result is that the sixth season is a slog of missed opportunities and unfulfilled desire—platonic desire, sure, but desire nonetheless. Will’s absence has left a void in the show’s character-driven storytelling that Kalinda simply could not fill. There is no analogue to Season 5's scintillating “A Few Words,” but for Alicia’s friendship with Kalinda; there is not even “Yet Another Ham Sandwich,” to round out the first two stories of grand jury indictments that both centered on Kalinda and Alicia.

Which leads me to my next point:

3. Anticlimax

Almost every major story line in this season of “The Good Wife” has fizzled out. (The only one that didn’t was the one about Kalinda, and as I just attempted to explain, nothing with Kalinda felt like it was working.) Every story line—every exhaustively plotted story line—took its characters to a place that looked and felt an awful lot like the beginning, but seemingly without the intention of commenting on that strange déjà vu. Like:

a) Firm musical chairs. So it’s Florrick & Agos, but then Florrick, Agos, & Lockhart, and then Lockhart, Agos, & Lee. Got all that? There’s some reasoning for why all these lawyers keep switching places, but the main reason is that “The Good Wife” didn’t want to write out either Diane (Christine Baranski) or David Lee (Zach Grenier) as regular cast members. But in order to justify that, the story has to undergo a Byzantine rearrangement of names and partnerships—and goes one step further, into the almost unthinkably convenient: It moves the new firms back into the old offices of Lockhart/Gardner, just a few months after Alicia and Cary so dramatically took their leave.

b) Election drama. Alicia runs for SA, wins, but then gets embroiled in an internal Democratic Party scandal and is forced to withdraw. It’s devastating, but it renders most of the season’s storytelling meaningless—what was the point, Alicia seems to be saying to herself, as she furiously sands down a salvaged wooden door in last week’s “Don’t Fail.” At least she has the door. The rest of us have no such comforts. Almost 20 episodes of storytelling, including famous guest stars, charged conversations with Peter, and Alicia having to campaign for something with her complete lack of poker face—and yet the show never truly explained why the hell Alicia wanted to run for office, or what she thinks is “good,” or “right,” or “necessary.” So much of the show leading up to this season has indicated that Alicia is a character driven by ambition and self-interest. It’s only occasionally that the characters have had a moment to pause and ask themselves—am I doing the right thing? Do I care about what I’m accomplishing? Alicia’s campaigning did not bring her closer to at-need populations in a significant way, or reveal to her the rich rewards of power. Instead it just seemed to be a thing she did because she was tired of lawyering, which struck me as phony in the extreme: Anyone who watched Alicia defend a case would know that she lived for her moments in the courtroom.

After all of that—all of that—to have her lose the seat in what is both hurriedly explained and a little too pat (Wouldn’t there be a recount? Red tape? Technicalities?)… well, it’s enough to make even the most loyal of fans a little batty.

c) That whole plot that was lifted from “The Wire,” or something. When it started, the subplot that dealt with the firm’s dealings with drug kingpin Lemond Bishop (Mike Colter) seemed like one of the rare moments where “The Good Wife” would take note of the almost shocking amorality of its protagonists, these assembled lawyers who use the terminology of truth and justice almost exclusively to get paid a great deal of cash. Bishop has hovered in the series’ periphery from the start; in Season 6, he becomes markedly more dangerous, to the point that he gets Cary in jail and facing six years of prison, forces Kalinda to run errands for him, and uses his lawyers as a fence to avoid prosecution.

All season, this plot seemed like it was poised to blow; all season, it doesn’t. Things happen, yes. But the impact of the story never sinks in. Alicia has to fend off some questions about Bishop during her election, but otherwise, it’s a nearly isolated suspense plot—one that culminates in Kalinda sacrificing her life in Chicago in order to protect the people she cares about and put Bishop behind bars. She’s disappeared before, as we’ve been told. But the audience already knew she was leaving the show, meaning that as soon as Kalinda started tangling with Bishop, it was not hard to guess that he would be responsible for how she was going to get written off the show.

In short, we got a lot of stories that ended approximately nowhere—while taking the most predictable routes to get to the aforesaid nowhere. Not even Sarah Steele as Marissa Gold, mining comedy out of every moment she’s on-screen, can make that better.

4. Where's Eli? 

Alan Cumming’s Eli Gold—joined this year by his daughter Marissa (Steele)—is one of the show’s real treasures, a Rahm Emanuel type with an irrepressible personality and more heart than he’d like to admit. An election plot seemed to guarantee time with him—I mean, that is what happened in Season 2, when he was brought on full-time—but instead the election plot was dominated by performances by David Hyde Pierce, David Krumholtz, Steven Pasquale and Oliver Platt. That’s a lot of new faces in a show that was already struggling to tell character stories without Will Gardner; Eli would have been, at least, a familiar presence. Instead, part of the reason the election story line felt interminable was that it was really hard to care for all these new characters, though they’re all capable actors. Margulies always makes the most of things, and it was fine, but it just didn’t feel compelling or fantastic, which I’ve come to expect from this show. Plus, there was that whole thing with Alicia hooking up with Pasquale’s Johnny, which was just weird, because:

5. Just kiss already!

The best thing about Season 6 was the introduction of Matthew Goode’s Finn Polmar, the extraordinarily handsome not-so-subtle Will replacement who eventually moved into the old Lockhart/Gardner offices. Any time Alicia needs a lawyer, she doesn’t call Diane or Cary, she calls Finn; midseason, they approach a perilous near-kiss, before Alicia demurely backs off. I get it: The Kings probably want to build up that relationship in the seventh season, both so that they can impose a reasonable amount of time between Will’s death and Alicia’s next relationship and so that they have something to do in the seventh season. But it has been so boring watching them delicately maneuver around each other. I know it’s common practice to do the big romantic twists in the season finale, but this season could have used an injection of good ol’-fashioned banging to keep things interesting. (Lest you call me uncouth: “The Good Wife” has lust baked into its premise, and in Season 3 featured some of the hottest sex ever seen on network. This is a show whose energy feeds on libido.)

--

Let me be clear: “The Good Wife” has surprised me in the past, and it might manage to again. Last week’s “Don’t Fail” was one of the first great episodes after a stretch of middling ones, and the show has surprised me both in season finales (like the one coming up next week) and in its ability to make a whole season pivot on a dime, from mediocre to brilliant. Everything could change Sunday night, and I would be so happy to see it. But if you want to know what went wrong up till now, unfortunately, the reasons are all too clear.

[samobservessonic]

Another tale from Mark Millar, this time opening with Tails coming across “Sonic trapped in a TV” and being tricked into letting him loose. Now, I’ve not read this story myself, but I immediately recognised that first image of whoever this fake Sonic is from around tumblr, so I assume it must be a somewhat decently-known story and therefore I’m looking forward to getting into it

One thing I like here is that they show the small animals working together to create a hideout free from Robotnik. It’s already been established that Sonic has a base somewhere, but seeing the others making one has me once again going “Ooh are we getting closer to the Freedom Fighters being established??” Anyway, as you can probably guess, fake Sonic turns up and smashes their work to the ground

My obligatory “Look, it’s Sally!” part. They even directly call her Sally here. She’s helping to put out the forest fire started by the fake Sonic

As you can probably imagine, the (somewhat wall-eyed) real Sonic shows up to put a stop to his name being tarnished. I mean, the easy joke to make here would be that StC Sonic is kind of an asshole anyway, but at least his actions are always good, even if his words aren’t. However, he’s not fast enough to stop the animal folk believing that he was the one who did the damage

Hey look, StC also did the “Sally banishing Sonic due to a misunderstanding” thing years before Archie did as well lol

…But that’s also dealt with on the same page, when the fake Sonic shows up. I can’t help but wonder how people would’ve reacted if that one plot in Archie had resolved with Sally going “Apology’s in the post, Sonic”. Actually, maybe they should’ve resolved The Slap by having Sally say that, too. Although having brought up The Slap, I'm honour-bound to add that everyone needs to get off Jon Gray’s case about The Slap, but I’m far from the first person to say that

Tails has figured out a way to get rid of this guy, by trapping him back in the TV. At which point, we get an explanation as to what this fake is - an Extra Life! Once again, StC taking something from the early games and putting a unique spin on it. In this universe, back when he was good, Dr. Kintobor made the power-ups to help Sonic. Kintobor probably didn’t intend for the extra lives to be sentient or to become resentful, though Perhaps there’s a peaceful way they can come to an understanding abou-

-Nope! Punt him into space!

And that’s the end of that! I looked it up because I was curious, but this is the only appearance of Extra Life in the series and I think that’s kind of a missed opportunity. Evil Sonic clones are hardly a rare concept in this franchise, though I think this might’ve been one of the first, at least outside of the games. But I’ve never seen it handled in this way before. It brings up questions about if there are lots of other Extra Lives, who all also have sentience, or if Extra Life was the only on in the StC world and he’s now been effectively dealt with His situation was incredibly fucked up and that had room to be explored, but because he was generically evil and destructive, the story rooted for getting rid of him in the fastest way possible. Given all the dimension and space-exploring that happens in StC later, there would’ve been loads of chances to revisit this early concept if they’d wanted to, but alas, it wasn’t to be

Needless to say, I really enjoyed this one and understand why it’s so popular! Admittedly, the last few issues have been kind of coasting for me - not bad per say, but also not grabbing my attention - but this one really was a lot of fun. And Sally got to be in it a lot, which I always like

My only gripe was that it seemed like they were setting Tails up to have a bigger role and I hoped he might finally be getting a chance to shine, but that wasn’t how it panned out this time. I suppose Tails has a long career of chasing Sonic’s shadow ahead of him in StC, but I can't help but want the kid to catch a break soon

[idw-sonic-fan-blog]

It’s mildly insulting to both Sally and Lanolin that people who don’t remember Archie are saying Lanolin is the new Sally. And I say this as someone who hates Sally Acorn.

Honestly, it’s tiring that anytime there is a leadership role given to a woman in this series, people immediately assume said character is ripping off Sally. Sally was bossy, and obnoxiously commanding. Sally was girl boss princess. Sally will let you know she is in charge and it’s not a question who is in charge.

Amy’s leadership of the Resistance was way more diplomatic as she gave Sonic a lot of more leeway than Sally ever did in Archie pre-Wave. Amy Rose accepted Sonic’s decision to operate independently of the Resistance and Restoration almost immediately. Her tenure was marked with community rebuilding projects that she self-admittedly states were beyond her. Sally would have relied on Nicole for rebuilding projects while she operated the military and field missions with impunity. Sally was the person who connected with Freedom Fighters around the world. She was the point person and absolutely would not have let Sonic just willy-nilly do whatever the fuck he wanted. Even in peacetime, Sally, infamously and not unjustly given Archie’s setting, wanted to tie Sonic down.

Jewel is more of a supervisor than leader as she is far more likely to delegate positions towards others to prevent centralized authority. Sally is literally royalty and frequently butted heads with the council and her own father, the King, anytime her decisions were challenged. Sally in Jewel’s position absolutely would not have let Tangle go do her own thing. She wouldn’t be satisfied with desk work. She would have had a conniption.

I can’t speak to Lanolin’s character yet as we only have so little but people are pointing to her butting heads with Sonic being similar to Sally’s interactions with him. First off, Sally’s Freedom Fighters were not volunteer based. She vetted every single one of the members save for Tails whom she thought was too young. Lanolin’s volunteer squad seems to be a revolving door situation in terms of participants so as the organizer and leader of the team, she has to lead off of the approval of the team. Throughout the issue, Lanolin is seeking coordination and cooperation. Sally would not have bothered because the only uncooperative element on the Freedom Fighters was, you guessed it, Sonic. He was the one that she and Antoine had to reign in. Sally would have relayed to the team immediately that this was a stealth mission. Lanolin assumed that they knew that it was a recon mission and Sonic and company would act accordingly. The Freedom Fighters are Sally’s Knights/Royal Guard/City Watch. Lanolin’s volunteer team is the Restoration’s proactive offensive force.

If Sally led the Diamond Cutters and IDW/Games Sonic, it wouldn’t have been Tangle yelling at Whisper for thinking of going solo. It would have been Sally as she does this with Sonic frequently in Archie. Sally wouldn’t be discussing with Sonic in terms of tactics. She would be arguing with him. And Sally would have been a lot more fed up with Tangle’s shit. And more importantly, the narrative would have agreed with her versus Lanolin whose discussion with Sonic is more, “Well, they both made great points and neither aren’t entirely wrong.”

If I could some up the girls’ leadership styles.

Amy Rose - community leader/influencer

Jewel - Community Organizer.

Lanolin - Neighborhood team leader

Sally Acorn - Commander-in-Chief/General.

If anything, Sally has more in common with Sonic Rush 1 Blaze which makes sense since they are both Princesses. The difference between those two is that Blaze is fully capable of leading her own charge and had to be convinced to ask for help sometimes versus Sally who would never even need to be reminded of such.

Sally should not be the ubiquitous girl leader in Sonic the Hedgehog.

[kitkatt0430]

Leverage for the fandom ask? :)

Character I first fell in love with:

Alec Hardison. He rolled across the screen on his computer chair going 'oooooooh' over Sophie flirting with Nate and proclaiming it was "Age of the geek, baby" and how could I not adore this guy?

Character I never expected to love as much as I do now:

The Italian. I don't know that love is quite the right word, but I find her really fascinating. I'm willing to bet she showed up at Nate's funeral, or at least right after, in order to pay her respects. And maybe reaches out to Leverage International on occasion (and turns a blind eye to them on occasion too).

She's a little cheeky from the start but I didn't know what to make of her manipulating Nate and the team. But ultimately she was trying to stop a terrible person doing terrible things and, arguably, she was a client. I like that she got to do the gloat against Morreau with Nate and I do feel like the two of them ended things with mutual respect for one another's talents for manipulation.

Character everyone loves but I don’t:

Maybe Archie? Not really sure how popular he is.

I do like that he does, finally, acknowledge Parker as his daughter, but his treatment of her when she was a kid was... not great. Hiding her away instead of adopting her and giving her a stable home, treating her kind of like a dirty secret... even acknowledging her as an adult on in the second episode he was on was kind of a way to dig at his biological daughter. I dunno - he's a likable guy and no doubt he treated Parker a lot better than most when she needed it, but if Nate had broken his nose at any point in the first episode he showed up in, I would not have been particularly surprised or upset by it. But I also love him threatening Chaos for being a misogynistic dick to Parker and I'd be happy to see him pop up again down the line. So... I don't hate him, but I definitely can't say I love him either.

Character I love but everyone else hates:

I feel a lot of sympathy for Charlie Dodgson - especially since the team kind of really turned the gaslighting up to eleven with him (and drugging him????) when he was just... struggling with depression and guilt and trying to sell off a company he wasn't in the sort of mentally healthy place necessary to run it anymore? But I wouldn't say I love the character either. He just happens to be the mark in an episode where it's particularly easy to remember the team really aren't the good guys (as Sophie herself reminds Breanna in the sequel).

He's about as close as I probably come to an answer for this question.

Character I used to love but don’t any longer:

Definitely don't have an answer to this one. The characters are all just so well written that even when they do things I don't like, it fits the character and I can't really dislike them for it either.

Character I would kiss:

Hmmm... I don't think I like kissing enough personally to answer this. Too aroace for this one, I'm afraid.

Character I want to slap:

Nate. And goodness knows he's earned more than a few.

A pairing I love:

Parker/Hardison ~ Elliot

While I like Parker/Hardison/Eliot where they're all romantically involved... I tend to read Eliot as being alloaro and so his side of the relationship between the three of them fits more as a queerplatonic partnership with them to me.

A pairing I hate:

I don't think I have a hated pairing for this fandom. Or even one I mildly dislike.

[ghostchanuwu]

Four questions because I am intrigued:

-Any new travel companions?

-How is Maxie different from canon?

-Does Ash basically go through the same adventures Ash does in the canon anime, along with Aniredux original ones? Or just all the adventures he does in canon? Or (a horrible thought) is there no filler?

-Does Team RR show up? Because the anime made a horrible mistake by not having Team Rainbow Rocket appear in the anime.

Gonna add a cut since i dont trust tumblr to not shorten this post jffbhdjxj

There are actually a few new traveling companions!

Gary is a constant companion while Misty stays up until Hoenn and Brock dips out for the majority of Johto and Sinnoh but makes a full reapearance in Unova and leaves once again in Kalos having been officially appointed as Bruno's replacement

Lisia joins up in Hoenn after Slateport and stays until Fallarbor having taken interest in May (May had just registered for the contest circus wheras Lisia is the previous year's grand champion)

Wally is a permenant traveling companion in Hoenn being May's step brother (sadly no Max because i couldnt get him to work storywise since the plot relevence he had in canon is already taken up by other characters)

Barry is very temporary in Sinnoh only sticking around from Twinleaf to Floraroma before going off on his own again until Sunnyshore

Riley joins up with the group after Brock leaves having decided that they need a strong adult looking out for them after their first initial scuffles with Galactic (he also just wants to make sure Dawn is doing alright since she is his niece) and sadly goes missing right after the galactic bombs are detonated across all the lakes (he does not appear again, Marley and Cheryl take over for him)

Iris and Cilan are off and on traveling companions (Iris being current champion and Cilan not only managing the Straiation gym with his brothers but also a couple projects Elesa and Lenora had planned)

Nate and Rosa become constant companions once the group reaches Aspertia with them having completed their trainer's school courses (Benga pops in from time to time since he and Nate have a little rivalry going on)

Kalos is unchanged for the most part except for Calem dropping in since he is one of Sycamore's assistants along with being an avid photographer helping Serena with her contest work designing costumes and coreography

(Alola and Galar are unchanged)

----------------------

So about Maxie, he had come into contact with the Red Orb shortly after Groudon and Kyogre's rampage back when Aster was champion (he was still working under the Weather Institute at the time) the orb was persumed to have been lost while the blue orb was found and sealed away again

Upon making contact with it he was possessed for a couple minutes before breaking loose, he had returned the orb but had managed to keep a large enough shard of it to study for himself (exposure to it over many years had lead to the prominent markings on him but he is still very much in control of himself)

Archie had caught wind of Maxie's research and had offered to help fund his endeavors since he not only came from a very rich family but also had an interest in Kyogre (Maxie having a connection to the Red Orb by his logic would end in locating both the Blue Orb and Kyogre) leading to both of their teams joining forces under the same banner (Maxie already having constructed basically a nuclear level base near Mt Chimney and Archie having sea suppourt made them highly formidable)

---------------------

Ash's adventures are pretty close to canon except for some major plot derailments (Kanto with Rocket basically going to war with the league, Hoenn and Sinnoh with the world nearly ending, him staying in Unova longer than expected wanting to chill for a bit after everything there is done) most of the filler in in tact wheras some bits were axed for story reasons

------------------

Rainbow Rocket does make an appearance in late Alola right before Ash and Gary were supposed to go back home leading to them having to fend off the full force of RR (they did manage to convince Leaf to travel over to Alola since they're the current leader of AniRedux's Team Rocket along with the Ultra Recon Squad and Hilda after she had been located after being MIA for 5 years) along with the trial captains and kahunas

[thistleandthorn-rpg]

Name: Archie Andrews Designation: sub Age: 23 Birthdate: June 17, 2001 Faceclaim: K.J. Apa Orientation: Pansexual Kinks: Pretty open to anything his partner wants to try as long as it’s not in the anti kinks list Anti-Kinks: scat, gore,

Key Points: 

Archie is fiercely protective of his two brothers, and when bad things happen to them it effects Archie much worse than he’s willing to admit.

Skilled athlete and musician

Feels guilty over not being able to help his little brother sooner than he did.

He is loyal to a fault.

BIO 

To say Archie Andrews was complex was almost too simple of a way to describe the young man. He had always tried his best to follow the rules and take care of everyone. He was the ‘All-American jock’ because it was what his father wanted for him. It was supposed to be a way out from having to live day to day, a good day being just barely making ends meet. Not having to struggle and take any random job or having to help out with his father’s business just because his dad wasn’t making enough money to pay an employee to do it. On the other hand he wanted to pursue music, and always tried to find ways to sneak off and play for his friends, or at open mic nights or talent shows. All that changed when his father died, even though he and Danny were the same age, Archie felt like it was his responsibility to step up and take care of Danny and Noah. He put behind his dreams of doing something in music, and gave up on his father’s dreams of him being a football star as a way to get out of town and took over running the business for his father. While most of his time was spent at work he was still able to help Noah when he needed him the most.

Archie knew he had done all that he could to help his younger brother, but he still felt an immense amount of guilt for it getting as bad as it did. He tried to make up for it in every way he could, including hiding his own thoughts on the D/S system so that he and his brothers wouldn’t get into a fight over it. That didn’t stop Archie from feeling a sense of comfort when he had gotten his mark. Most people would have expected him to be upset that he was marked as a sub and not a dom but he wasn’t. He always enjoyed helping everyone out and doing things for them no matter how big or small, but now he felt as if being marked as a sub offered him a level of relief. He didn’t have to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders anymore, in fact if someone claimed him there would always be someone there to catch him if failed.

BIO QUESTIONS

What are your feelings about the mark you have received? 

I know there are some people who are surprised by it, but I’m okay with it. I’ve always had to step up for others so I could see this as being a good thing. How do your feelings on the system compare to your parents’ feelings on it? Well I’m not sure about mom, she hasn’t been around much since her and dad broke it off. I think my views on it are closer to my dad’s, but I might be a bit more accepting of it.

Where do you see yourself after you graduate? 

Hopefully in a claim, maybe getting back into my music.

How do you feel about authority?

I’m for it, but only as long as it’s not purposefully used to hurt people or keep them down.

[harryandmeghansussex]

I’m actually disappointed that Harry is attending. I know is his family and that relationships are complicated but that’s the way I feel it after everything they have done to meg

Hey, you are entitled to feel that way, you won't be the only one.

I guess I just always presumed he would attend, the question mark was over whether Meghan would go, and how much of it he'd attend. It sounds like it's purely the Ceremony itself? So I'd presume fly in, attend, fly back, ready to celebrate Archie's birthday.

Family ties are hard to break - let alone when there is loss and trauma involved - even when it's toxic and a disaster, it's a complicated process to not wish for things to be different, to hold out hope.

I genuinely don't think he would be going without Meghan's backing and support truly, her not wanting to be in that environment again doesn't mean she doesn't understand why he feels the pull to attend, that his duty and loyalty and honour, while battered and strained, make him who he is.

I just can't fault him either way honestly, like I would have fully understood him not attending, just like I can understand him attending

[missingmissfisher]

One Final Turn ARC Review

By @missingmissfisher

Knowing this would be the final adventure for Electra McDonnell, I have been slightly grieving, yet still overjoyed to embark on it with the trust that brilliant author Ashley Weaver would do justice to these wonderful characters we’ve been falling in love with over the past several years. And she has superseded my diehard fan heart and expectations with this book to the point where I stayed up and read it one sitting, and then proceeded to do the same the following night to savour my favourite parts!

As foretold by the end of ‘Locked in Pursuit,’ the series finale One Final Turn, sweeps our heroine off to Lisbon with the lovable Captain Archie Blandings with a big question mark and cloud as to Major Gabriel Ramsey’s whereabouts. The book seems to have a slow start as Ellie mechanically recounts her current days after being sacked by Ramsey and preparing for her journey. But looking back, it’s actually an excellent reflection of her practical side trying to cope with the emotional hits she’s still recovering from as a result of their traumatic Sunderland mission. After all, things certainly speed up once they reach Lisbon and the usual murder and mayhem ensues just as Ramsey arrives.

Without giving away too much, the continual dialogue and actions of the main ‘cast’ were all true to character and shone throughout the story, especially for Ellie and Ramsey as they balanced the deadly espionage with the final battle with the enemy as well as within their hearts. I was positively screaming and laughing out loud at various parts, utterly delightful!

To me, it was satisfying to be privy to the resolution within Ellie’s heart that she was desperately holding together as she determinedly proceeded with this mission. It was telling to see her emotional maturity as she reigned in her emotions to focus on their mission to aid the POW escapees, one of whom could possibly be her missing cousin, Toby. I will also allude to the fact that everyone who has been on ‘Team Ramsey’ will be grinning as widely as me, especially to see what we have all been waiting for: Ramsey “unleashed.” Throw in the conclusion to the lingering mystery of Ellie’s parents, and we have an extremely delicious race to see how everything coalesces to the wild finale.

Also, having not yet had the opportunity, I am definitely bumping Lisbon up my bucket after the lovely descriptions for this lesser known locale. The food descriptions alone had my mouth watering (and made it very believable for the return of Ellie’s finicky appetite).

I truly felt like this book was a beautiful love letter from Ms Weaver to those of readers who have been so deeply invested in Ellie from the start and waiting to continue her adventures year after year. Thank you for gifting her to the literary world and our hearts.

P.S. Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for sending me this advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

[beevean]

I'm absolutely betting money with you, sadly enough. And you are right that this also seems like a revamped and reused Archie plot, wherein Silver indeed accused members of the Freedom Fighters left and right with the crappiest evidence to go on. That panel of Sonic dragging him along the ground by his quills to a comatose Antoine in the hospital because Silver made such a fool of himself still puts a bad taste in my mouth :/ And he didn't even get to the correct person all by himself!

But I had at least a *little* bit of hope that Silver would be let down easily by the other Diamond Cutters (you know, in a "we appreciate you are worried but nothing is pointing towards it, but we'll look into it to ease your mind" supportive kind of way), but you are right in that everything is shaping up to be a cringefest of the highest order. Tangle's been heavily put through the mangle already in the past few issues, so a few crude and assholish foot-in-mouth comments from her are basically a given. Maybe Whisper is going to lose her temper and yell at him to show just how badly he screwed up, because the audience knows really bad things are happening when Whisper is yelling! And Lanolin seems bossy and authoritative enough to demand he leaves because the Diamond Cutters know better and whatever. And the worst part is fans *will* run with this interpretation of Silver's character to further shape him as Innocent Cinnamon Roll, Look At Him He's Got No Social Skills!! And it's not even something I disagree with (since Silver jumping to conclusions and being bossy did use to be part of his character), but not in a way where you know it'll just be used to make fun of him as opposed to creating good character interactions or growth. It just such an undignified, mocking way to present a character who to me is not at all cinnamon roll-like, but honorable and just.

Just... ugh. I'm glad I can air my grievances here, even if my hopes for an actual fun two issues about Silver are burying themselves right into the bedrock right now. (Sorry for the long essay!)

I feel your pain :\ if I were to make a list of the canon characters that got mangled in IDW, Silver would probably be fourth, behind Sonic, Shadow and Eggman. Not only he got turned into a round-eyed excitable babyboy ripe for mocking (hello Sonic calling him Flatware with a sarcastic bow), but now he's really going to be treated like an idiot both by the characters and the narrative :\

After how much of a killjoy Lanolin was towards Tangle in #61, she's absolutely going to snap at Silver and be a total ass to him, mark my words. And sure, why not, even more Whisper losing her cool, it's not like she literally screams and cry everytime she stubs her toe now.

You're right that Silver jumping to conclusions was part of his character. You can see the transformative process going from '06 (where it was the whole reason he briefly opposed Sonic but he was also capable of questioning himself), to Archie (where he's apparently such an annoying prick that even Sonic has enough of him, charming) to IDW (where he's just a dumb cinnamon roll). In Archie, I can assume that this portrayal was due to how unpopular Silver was at the time... but I can believe that in IDW they really think they're appealing to his fans because hey, they want Blorbo Silver!

Glad you feel comfortable to rant here ^^ eh, at least the Espilver annual was nice.

[richardsphere]

Leverage Redemption Log: The Jackal Job

Name unlikely to refer to an actual jackal, an animal that is one of the most common aliases for fictional phantom-thief types (probably slightly after "cat" and before "fox" but i dont have any hard data) --- Episode starts, nice old lady is wondering why a man, presumably her son, or one of those court-apointed guardians is stealing her stuff. Fuck its going to be about Elderly Abuse.

As of right now, its not entirely clear as to wether he is an asshole who is exploiting a dementing relative, legitimately trying to take care of her but struggling financially because fuck the economy is just never gonna recover from the multiple financial collapses we've suffered or outright gasslighting her into believing she is suffering dementia. 2/3 options would make him evil and this is leverage so im not holding out hope for him being misunderstood. so like, probably evil with maybe a 2.5% chance of a "he's trying his best and just really shit at showing it". But yeah, this is leverage. He's a baddie, question is just if he's exploiting his mom, or feigning a relation so he can go to the judge and say "she's so far gone, she doesnt recognise her son (who i definitlly am)" --- Episode starts: Breanna is forced to do community service cause she was caught stealing something. (this is our "juror number 6" plot for Breanna.) Take your time, slow down, pay attention to details. Well nice to see Sophie give the crux of this episode away in her first 3 lines of the episode. and she just picked Breanna's pocket. She's an old thief. (wonder if she and Archie ever hung out...) Sophie spots the ring, then the Astonomers by Vermeer and realises instantly that she knows this woman. (also, does the son know that is the genuine Vermeer he's gonna sell, or does he think its one of those gift-store Mona Lisa's? Cause if he doesn't, he's in for the worst deal of a century) --- Alzheimer's... Well guess im going to be feeling a lot less witty writing this log then most. Thats not something i'd like to joke about too much. Ok, Hinkley is not his son, he's a professional guardian. --- just a side-note that we'd better end this episode with at least an alusion to Breanna having hacked whatever servers are tracking her community service, cause she's kind of about to build up a truancy on that stuff. Like i know that "caring for an elderly or disabled person" is the type of stuff that could be court appointed community service, but this was not the task she was court appointed

Sophie is pulling the "im your replacement" card. Jackal picks up quickly. --- Ok the team is all here now, You're being stupid. She's here because she fell in love with the mark, (who is probably but not guaranteed to be her power of attorney). Her last con was a failure or at least not a known success. Looking for the one thing that she stole that was never returned isnt gonna solve anything because she isnt known to have stolen it. --- Ok the little Edie con is working? Basically a violin-sale but Parker is the Violin. Breanna has experience with elderly Alzheimers patients (grandma) We're doing Leverage Crew-ified Flashbacks again... (this is gonna hurt on an emotional level)

Oh i can see where the twist is gonna happen: Josephine was the mark (bars real owner=safe's real owner=safe combination knower)... And Jo, former bar-owner, fled the country alongside her to escape her gangster ex and started a coffee shop in this town. Oops, Breanna just all-but confirmed the first half of my suspicions (which this early in the episode, means im wrong) --- Harry has a little conductors hat amongst his stuff... Oh look at that, he just said the judge gets first pick of his stolen goods... the judge has the gun (and a heck of a scandal it'd be if a judge was found in posession of stolen goods... and a stolen gun belonging to a founding father at that...) Lovely work on the tiny mirror-box (that she definitly hadnt arranged to be there in advance), Elbow bruises. (chances she didnt "donate" the gun cause it was used in the murder of a london gangster named Earl increasing rapidly) --- The painting, find the painting. "prefect never lasts forever"

they had a daughter.

and all was fine until the papertrail caught up to them. (the daughter... She might be our way out) --- get the judge (noted antiques lover) to overhear that the Turlington Pistol was amongst her posessions, divide and conquer. the money was in the car. (i was a bit suspicious when Jo said "its got a couple hundred worth of tips" when they were running away. But i justified it as her being too good a citisen to steal from Earl) --- Tip for showrunners: If you want to start a comercial block on a cliffhanger, dont have it be an attempted murder of our still-alive narrator. It sort of undermines the tense suspension.

so she shot earl (unsuprising.) Back in the modern day we're headed for a warehouse and Jackal is lifts the gun so we can frame Sophie for stealing the gun so they can steal a fake back from Sophie.

Ok not so much a fake (they didnt have time to prep one) as just placing a made in china sticker on the real and genuine article. (amazingly simple act of brilliance)

Parker's reputation is worth its weight in gold. (a personal favour from someone who started this season by stealing 8 Rembrandts in a single night in multiple museums across the entire United States, is worth a lot compared to a contract with a small-time purveyor of stolen goods. Whodathunk?)

Oh they did pull an entire switch with the gun. (honestly, after the little Made In China sticker reveal, the fact they pulled a genuine switch with a store-bought replica instead of a simple sticker-sleight-of-hand is suddenly quite disapointing, especially as we know the fence was on their side anyways.)

Im going to be honest and say that the Jo acress doesnt have the most convincing elderly wig. (also they kept the plushie) ---

[heyyoushouldexperiencethese]

GIANT REC LIST

LAST UPDATED 1/25/2025

Columbo

All of milestone media

Bomberman Jetters

Id: Invaded

Useless Ponko

Yu-Gi-Oh (manga)

"My son is he man or beast" from action comics 400

adventure comics 205: "The Journey of the Second Superboy!""

Kagurabachi

Spy x Family

Chainsaw Man

Yotsuba

Frieren

N52 Superboy #26-34

Digimon (Especially Adventure, 02, Tamers, Savers, Appmon, & Ghost Game; for the movies, all of them aside from Tri)

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth

Marx Brothers

Get Smart (1965)

Superman vs Meshi

Detective Comics #500 "To Kill a Legend"

Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2 "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot"

Captain Atom (1987)

Bronze Age Firestorm

Legion of Superheroes

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld

Ookami Shounen wa Kyou mo Uso o Kasaneru/The boy who cried wolf tells another lie today

Hundreds of Beavers

3:10 to Yuma (1957)

The Maltese Falcon

Cast a deadly spell

Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice Musical

Beetlejuice 2

Paper Mario

Paper Mario the thousand year door

famicom detective club (both games)

Ace Attorney 1-4 & Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

Ghost Trick

Marvelous: Another Treasure Island

Pikmin 1-4

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Kirby Planet Robobot

Kirby Triple Deluxe

Kirby Return to Dreamland Deluxe

Kirby's Adventure

Kirby Superstar

Dark Matter trilogy

Celeste

Batman: The Audio Adventures

Powerless (2016)

The Good Place

Arrested Development

Be Cool Scooby Doo

Sakamoto Days

El Chavo del Ocho

Chapulin Colorado

Arnold Drake's Doom Patrol

Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol

Rachel Pollack's Doom Patrol

Neil Gaiman's The Sandman

batman ego

Scooby Doo Team Up

The Batman & Scooby Doo Mysteries

Happy Halloween Scooby Doo

Tsukumojuku (2005)

Dragon Quest

Rocket Slime

Mario & Luigi (all titles)

JoJo's bizarre adventure

Witch Hat Atelier

Pluto

Monster

John Wick 1-4

UHF

Weird Al Biopic

Little Shop of Horrors (original film & musical)

Super Friends (1976)

A series of unfortunate events (books)

All the Wrong Questions

Power Bomberman

Custom Battler Bomberman/Bomberman 2

Tatami time machine blues

The Amazing World of Gumball

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

Codename Kids Next Door

Assassination Classroom

Villainous

Regular Show

The looney tunes show

Nedroid

Sonic Boom (2014)

Hector con Carne

The Book of Life

films starring cantinflas (preferably in spanish, but if you don't know spanish well)

Hourman

tear along the dotted line

this world can't tear me down

Casa de papel

Airplane

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Wayside School

Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)

Meanwhile (Comic)

Way of the Househusband

Welcome to demon school iruma kun

Infinity Train

Hilda

"The Twilight Zone" Her Pilgrim Soul/I of Newton

The Twilight Zone (Original Series)

All of Alan Brennert's comics

Villainous

Class of 3000

Rankin Bass Christmas specials (shout-out to Santa Claus is coming to town)

Moral Orel

Dungeon Meshi

Dorohedoro

Don't Blush, Sekime-san!

No gyarus in this class

the Philadelphia story

Yuri is Taboo to a Yuri Otaku

True Detective S1

Superman & the Authority

All-star Superman

Morrison's Action Comics

Morrison's Animal Man

Moore's Swamp Thing

Multiversity

Filmore!

Muppets Most Wanted

Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat (specifically season 1)

Baba is You

Henry Stickmin

The Giver quartet

Bomberman Generation

Bomberman Journey

A Bomberman Journey 2023 Followup

Bomberman Battle Pack: A way too in-depth analysis

The Weird

Sam & Max series (comics games AND show)

Goodbye Eri

Only Murders in the building

Criminal

Archie's Weird Mysteries

Please Go Home, Akutsu-San!

Mousou Telepathy

Tomo Chan is a girl

Lovely Complex

Lovely Complex TWO

Shinobi Undercover

Barda

The Green Lantern

Green Lanterns

Green Lantern Legacy

Green Lantern Alliance

Immortal Hulk

The Flash by Mark Waid

The Flash by Jeremy Adams

Oracle Code

Shadow of the batgirl

batgirl 2000

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The usual suspects

Ip Man

kiss him not me

Carole & Tuesday

Catch 22 (book)

Space Dandy

Vigilante

Dandandan

Rush Hour

What's up Doc

The cheap detective

The awful truth

charade

his girl friday

bringing up baby

your name

the afterparty

mad monster party?

Pippin

little shop of horrors (original)

sound of music

music man

singing in the rain

The great race

Artemis Fowl (main series)

Don't hug me I'm scared

ultimate exorcist kiyoshi

squid games

Dokapon kingdom

lego city undercover

Summer Wars

Culdcept Revolt

Casablanca

hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

batman no man's land novelization

Ultraman Rising

“When I woke up I had become a girl” Disease

My New Wife Is Forcing Herself to Smile

She gets girls everyday

Detentionaire

Hero-san and Former General-san

the dangers in my heart

Heathers (film)

Scarface (1932)

Rear Window

you and i are polar opposites

the guy she was interested in wasn't a guy at all

Kaguya Sama love is war

We want to talk about kaguya

Arakure Ojousama wa Monmon Shiteiru

A succubus and thereafter

A Story About a Man and a Woman and When They Sleep Together, Money Appears Out of Nowhere

Nanaco Robin

Egg of my Youth

The girl I like forgot her glasses

Tokimeki Academy ❤ Class of Princes

Please love the useless me

please love the useless me R

Secret Base

Study!

berry dynamite

Otona Najimi

Hanada

Smother Me

Magokoro scramble

Watashitachi wa Koi wo Shiranai/We Don't Know a Thing About Love

Takane no Hana nara Ochitekoi?/lofty flower fall for me

Koudaike no Hitobito

undead unluck

the night is short walk on girl

Shuumatsu no Koe

fire punch

akane bashi

kaiju no. 08

Koudaike no Hitobito

The Story Between a Dumb Prefect and a High School Girl with an Inappropriate Skirt Length

disastrous life of saiki k

jitsu wa watashi wa/my monster secret

The New-Hire who Could "Read" Emotions and the Unsociable Senpai

Boarding School Juliet

Happy Kanako's Killer Life

Romantic Cider/Romantic Drop

Phineas and Ferb

bigtop burger

pseudo harem

gravity falls

Tatami Galaxy

Kindergarten Wars

My friend Irma

A story about smoking behind the back of a supermarket

Kijima-san & Yamada-san

Casino

shikimori is not just cute

no miyahira not you

A Story About Treating a Female Knight, Who Has Never Been Treated as a Woman, as a Woman

Asahina Wakaba to Marumaru na kareshi

Super Secret

mob psycho 100

reigen

sublo & tangy mustard

they might be giants

weird al yankovic

saint motel

cab Calloway

St. Arnaud