#her only desire is to know his rationale for doing it. which is love!

[2n2n]

Heyyy ! I just wonder, I’m quite disappointed/worried because possessiveness seems depicted as romantic in the manga, and it makes me uncomfortable. What do you think about it ?

Personally, I think you should stop reading this manga, for your own good. Its like the fundamental bones of this manga are against you.

It's not only Jibaku Shounen; AidaIro's catalogue is loaded with possessive or 'yandere' scenes, and they are explicitly romantic. Narisokonai Snow White even does it on both sides of its master/servant relationship! My Dear Living Dead is bittersweet, and possessive to the extreme. Amane made Tsukasa his shrine object. Amane makes Nene his kannagi. That's the sort of person Amane is... across AUs, it's common to have more overt master/servant relationships or degrading of another's personhood... or a covetousness that takes all it pleases, whenever it pleases. AidaIro like yandere stories... !! They like the romance of possessiveness!

As for me, this sort of thing is exactly what I love and what I live for; diving into AidaIro's catalogue has made me SO excited for the directions this manga could go... and the themes trickle down into every relationship, weaving together a vision of unbreakable attachment (whether you want it or not!) and needy, desperate hearts. The extremes of love pushing otherwise selfless, self-sacrificing people finally into selfishness... it's glorious, RUINOUSLY DECADENT I would say!! AidaIro have honed such an art form in mindbreaking a dutiful boy who keeps his head down, until he's finally forced to act possessively (Akane, Hakubo, Cult, Estelio, Rasphard...) ....

People who ask for nothing, not even their own happiness, and then take everything!!!!! I could watch such an arc happen 1 million times and never get sick of it!!!!!!!!

But I do think it's almost... egregious, that people recommending the manga don't really note this theme-- even though I see people sometimes outright mention hating the directions of all the recent romances, there's not a lot of warning about......

you know. the way it is.

The climaxes of many ships have and aaaalmost certainly will continue to be possessive language and actions ... if anything, Amane's problem is not being honest about his feelings. His feelings, oh his feelings!!!!!! HIS AMAZING FEELINGS!!!!!

I love Amane! I want to see him express everything he's trying to hold back... I want to see him submit to his deepest urges, I want to see him break and show us what he really wants, and what he's willing to do to get it, to keep it!! I want Amane to be honest, even if it's ugly, even if it's scary. Even Nene-chan likes his possessiveness! She only wishes he'd admit to it. Amane is worried, or scared, or something, of his own feelings, he tries to escape ever having to talk about any of it!!

I'M EXCITED FOR THE FUTURE, I'M EXCITED FOR IT ALL!!!! I'm sorry it's uncomfortable for you, but you're reading the wrong manga .... it is going to reward characters doing and saying crazy things. And, it's going,, to believe they are being sexy and alluring the entire time they are doing them

like its always been!

[teecupangel]

This is gonna be long, honey soooo… buckle up.

We have Desmond linked to the God of Wine, Dionysus / Bacchus with this fic (show some love and kudos this please, I adore this concept).

However, what if Desmond by chance ( Isu bullshit)  that he absorbed when he touched the Eye as he time travels back In the Renaissance before the Auditore family execution event, it manifested in him having demi-god traits but with two Gods I have in mind.

1. Aphrodite or Venus, goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. Accidentally becoming a matchmaker for people like Des incidentally shoved a man by mistake who the man then bumped into a woman, BOOM! the two madly fell in love at first sight and married with children or his charm increases, making people fall in love with Desmond. This adds angst if Desmond discovered this power,  He has low self-esteem and is severely traumatized (fuck you William for that). He would believe they really don’t love him especially the assassins and it’s just a illusion they do. Actually they do, the power only boosted his charisma but Desmond doesn’t know this shhhhh.

2. Eros or Cupid, god of carnal love. 16 year old Desmond with his newfound freedom after running away from the Farm. It’s no surprise he could be a sexually liberated man especially he’s a hot bartender to hook up in the back alley of Bad Weather. He might dabbled in BDSM, he’s a switch, but preferably doms. He also got a vasectomy to avoid impregnating a woman no Elijah in thishe believes that he shouldn’t have children, after having narcissistic father and possibly an emotionally neglectful mother can do that. An ability to sense lust or desires of a person in eagle vision could be possible.

With that being explained, regardless of which God, these abilities have pros & cons. Desmond when he is in the Renaissance, he’ll be low-key but he can’t stand out and without the currency to have a peaceful life, we needs a job. By some gift of the universe or it hates him. He ended up as a bodyguard of Rosa in Fiore by saving some courtesans from aggressive drunken men while in his clothes devolved in rags by the heat of the Eye when arrived, making him look like a beggar, good thing it was night time so his face wasn’t seen by the girls.

Its been weeks doing this job, Desmond have saved plenty coins but not enough to buy land far away and live his life maybe as a farmer or open a tavern. Lately, he been feeling unwell, no matter he drank to quench his thirst, his throat is dry as if he been in dessert with no water survive and started having hot flashes. It could just because of the clothes he donned, not a single silver lining of his skin is shown except the upper part of his face and hair but he was assumed it was if it were the fact he started having wet dreams, from memory of his many hook ups in New York or some constructed with people with no faces. He gets aroused, yes, but he has self-restraint but he also frustrated and losing his rationale.

“Dezmund~” Bianca, a courtesan who been attempting to lure him to bed. The other courtesans entertaining the patrons who had too much wine, too busy to notice the two, giving them a sense of privacy. “Bianca” he nodded with one brow raised at her. Bianca practically started to entice him with her usual flirting to him. You know what, fuck it, he thought, he proceeded to ———————

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Yeeeaaaahhhh…i won’t be too detailed so it won’t be overbearing. So giving you the mental picture is that Desmond used his knowledge of BDSM, blindfoled and tied Bianca and used her mouth to empty his frustration while he is still completely clothed. He gave her sweet aftercare and realizing his symptoms are gone and his mind is clear and —- oh fuccccckkkkkk he unintentionally created a chain reaction after this event involving himself more to the Brotherhood, the Auditore family and Leonardo

Anyway, thanks for reading this till the end, mwah <3

======================================

Additions by teecup:

… that sounds like Desmond has the curse of an Incubus, needing to ‘unload’ his pent up energy to another person.

And you know who would be fascinated by it?

Leonardo Da Vinci.

Perhaps it was during one of the times that Leonardo went to a brothel to find ‘inspiration’. Maybe it was because he had been nursing a crush on Desmond who was unattainable to his eyes, a simple bodyguard meant to keep everyone safe.

He would see the complicated expression on his face. The frustration in his eyes.

And the flushed cheeks.

Oh, Leonardo would be smitten but he’d try to act like a friend, as any attraction he might have pales in comparison to his worries concerning Desmond’s wellbeing.

Desmond sees him and finds himself being unable to lie to Leonardo.

He needed to tell someone about his problems and he trusted Leonardo.

So Leonardo listens and…

Things start to snowball from there.

At first, it was simply Leonardo trying to help Desmond while studying his ‘affliction’.

Then it became more for the thrill and pleasure they would receive from one another.

Desmond becomes Leonardo’s muse and sometimes his model…

Maria Auditore saw Leonardo’s potential and started commissioning him…

Federico comes in to get one of the finished commissions and… finds Leonardo and Desmond in a very compromising situation.

Instead of leaving… Federico decided to join in.

And Desmond knew that Federico was hiding something but it would be a while before he realized that during this time, two years before the fated day that the Auditores would be executed, Federico was already on his way to becoming a member of the Brotherhood…

…

Also… maybe Leonardo and Desmond have an open relationship which will give us more option for Desmond to ‘partner’ up with (like maybe… La Volpe??? XD)

[maya-matlin]

What are your thoughts on Anya and Jane? I'm bringing them up because they were in a whole bunch of episodes yet somehow I literally always forget they exist, which probably doesn't say much about how compelling I found their characters?! I remember loving Jane initially and then thinking the show had no idea what to do with her. And Anya just seemed like such a sheep with no personality or strong opinions of her own, but that seems somewhat intentional?!

That's interesting. I feel like Anya is very memorable, but I can see why she'd be less noticeable compared to other characters.

Anya is complicated. She was one of my top favorites for years. I loved watching her character develop. You're right that Anya was always a follower and allowed herself to be easily misled and sometimes went along with things she didn't actually want just because she didn't care enough to fight it. She was very aimless and seemed to desire romance over stability, even in cases where none of her romances stood a chance of being successful. Anyways, I'm feeling less positively about Anya because I'm struggling to get past the fact she lied about being on birth control when she slept with Sav, therefore raping him by deception? And the thing is, I don't think she ever fully understands that this behavior was wrong, and that she violated the person she claimed to love. All Anya knows is that she shared something special with Sav, and then he quickly broke off their relationship. Her passivity leads to a lot of lying and deceiving to get the outcome she wants. There was the fake pregnancy that she later used to renew her relationship with Sav before going on to lie about a miscarriage. Only to be upset with Sav for yet again lying to his parents about not dating in high school. All those two did was lie to each other. She later lies to an adult man about being a legal adult in order to pursue a romantic relationship. He doesn't get a ton of sympathy for me considering he later made plans to see her again the minute she turned eighteen, but had he been someone with morals that would have been a deal breaker and had some sort of effect on his future dating life. Then there was the Owen relationship. Even though Anya was in a vulnerable place and felt very down on herself, she willingly dated a guy who committed hate crimes against two of her good friends and who is extremely predatory towards any girl that gets too close - Anya included. She pointedly ignores gigantic red flags to get validation. But then, I also like her demeanor? As manipulative and immature as Anya can be, she has good moments and is clearly lost for most of her time on the show. She's not an entirely bad friend, but she also isn't above throwing away that loyalty when it suits her. I don't know. She has a lot of issues.

As for Jane, I agree. Jane bugs me at times because she comes across as very judgmental and is another "not like other girls" character. It almost felt like Jane had a different personality based on the season. I liked season 8 Jane the best. Season 9 Jane was pretty confusing. Suddenly, she was singing in Peter's band and sleeping with Declan. I didn't mind the rationale behind Jane's affair, but it wasn't given a lot of explanation or even much thought. Anyways, sorry. I wish I could give you a better answer about Jane.

[cto10121]

R&J Clown Takes Round ♾ + Part 10

In which I got a truly deranged Instagram reel from the depths of the algorithm, ranting about how R&J are totes not a love story. Thus rampant clownage ensued. And so: Once more unto the breach, my good friends.

BFFs With Shakespeare

Clown OP knows this because they have drinks every Sunday with Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, and all of dem cats down at the Dolphin. It’s a great hub. Clown OP is the one who has to hold Jonson back when Shakespeare starts roasting him.

And true, Will is always bemoaning about teen girls chasing after boys constantly—that’s why he wrote so many happy romantic comedies about teen girls doing just that and getting their heart’s desire. He just hated it that much.

Clown OP 2 is also good friends with Will, and heard this straight from his lips. It was a typical evening at the Dolphin in 1594 and Shakespeare was in a rant about Arthur Brooke’s narrative poem about R&J and how his canon sucks and that actually, R&J are truly in love and their end was truly tragic and he WILL PROVE IT. Only Clown OP 2 misheard “tragic” for “basic” and thought Shakespeare was casting shade about his own adaptation. Clown OP 1 also didn’t hear it, as they were too busy trying to prevent Ben Jonson from dueling Fletcher.

Romeo the Death Eater

Romeo forced Tybalt to seek him out and try to duel him, he forced Mercutio duel Tybalt, and of course he forced Juliet to take her life from beyond the grave. Everything is Romeo’s fault because it certainly isn’t Tybalt’s. They’ve stopped teaching cause and effect relationships in school, haven’t they?

Creepy Italian Groomer is back! I was starting to miss thee. It’s been awhile. How’s it been? Still intellectually bankrupt, I see. No, I will not lend thee money.

Let me help you out, OP. “Shall I hear more or shall I speak of this?” “Shall I move forward when my heart is here?” “I am too bold; ‘tis not to me she speaks.” Textual evidence for his ADHD, clearly.

Juliet tells some equivocating half-truths and suddenly she is a criminal mastermind. As for the lost puppy, I dare you to tell Juliet that to her face. Homegirl compares Romeo to a very different and sexy animal altogether.

Cool fanfic, bruh. Really liked your prostitute OC. That scene where she breaks up with Romeo in the afternoon was heartbreaking.

Both Sides!1!!1!1

A lot of word vomit here. But okay, OP. I’ll bite and take you seriously.

Is Shakespeare trying to make a point about the stupidity of both sides, the youths and the older generations? Is the satire truly equal on both sides?

Well, no. While there is no character that is truly without flaws (because this is Shakespeare, after all) the youths definitely get a way more sympathetic edge from the narrative in a way that their parents don’t. R&J are the beating and living heart of this play, dynamic and intricately developed, Mercutio is downright luminous with the right actor, Benvolio is just straight up too good for this world, and even Tybalt gets some baller lines and fiery speeches—he’s so much fun to play, and plus, his death actually has weight in the narrative.

The parents…not so much. While the Friar and even the Nurse have moments of adult wisdom, the Capulets are pure dysfunction. The Montague parents are much nicer but just simply…there. When the Capulets mourn Juliet, it’s written as a cacophony, almost garishly insincere in its repetition. I don’t think that’s an adequate parallel with R&J’s moments of despair. Even there the lovers are eloquent, even rhetorical: Of course I’m upset because of X and Y!!! There is rationale even if their emotions are too much. I think it’s clear which side got the most satire.

And that’s why Shakespeare wrote R&J falling in love with each other when they don’t even know each other’s names and already be at 110% in their love (Juliet: “If he be marrièd / My grave is like to be my wedding bed”). To illustrate this exact point.

The Quiet Part

Shh, OP! You’re not supposed to say the quiet part aloud. Number one rule of clownery and you broke it.

[horizon-verizon]

Have you seen / played The Last of us II. If yes, what do you think? Personally, I don't like Abby, and especially her relationship with Yev, which is so forced that it's borderline absurd. I hope they will develop this part more in the adaptation. Because, it's fucking stupid that Abby suddenly decides that Yev becomes everything to her, in just two / three fucking days. Clearly, it was just a reminder of the Joel & Ellie relationship, but it just sucked.

I did see Part II, but I barely remember how she actually bonded with Yev. I'm planning on rewatching. Can't answer for that.

However, I remember liking the overall story while still missing Joel. I like how how it continues from Ellie's struggle to forgive Joel for essentially putting himself above the world and denying her wish while still loving him. Also how we lean more into the dark side or risk of love and it's loss: revenge.

In a dystopia (defined as "an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic" OR "a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding"), people will form strong bonds and find some sort of hope in each other, biologically connected or not. It is what makes them the same and safe. Revenge is maybe inevitable in a context like this, even for Ellie.

Ellie is an example of a person who also has bigger hopes of ending human suffering though partially because she lost so many people to the fungus and the former society's dissolution, while Joel's interests conflict with hers as he simply wishes to survive with those he loves around him. They see each other as parent-child, but she would have (and does) have so much resentment and rage because her hopes were dashed, her desire to fulfill what she thought was her purpose has now gone to the way side and she felt she would never have another opportunity like that again. And she feels that Joel betrayed her trust when she has trusted in him, him knowing that she would have wanted to risk herself for this cure that she knows could come to nothing whether due to human stupidity, miscalculation, or ineffectuveness.

To have her lose Joel before she could really come to terms with that and reconcile, Joel is taken from her. And perhaps she feels she has to make up for "abandoning" him, reconnect in a twisted way, as well as give herself a new purpose through revenge for his person who raised and protected her. But even in my words, it shows that it's both about Joel and not about Joel -- purpose.

And one scenario where that love for someone conflicting with the "love" for humanity ends up destroying the regard for oneself, blinding them into abandoning themselves and others in a perpetual cycle that can only be stopped by an active choice.

IDK, I liked the twists. I and thought that it was actually very natural for the story to go the way it did. Again, did I miss Joel? Of course! I believe that that is kinda the point of his early death in the game. He hangs over us and Ellie like a lead shadow, her memory and grief urging and pressing her to travel outside of the place where Joel took her to keep her safe and have her develop something like a "normal" life. She made the choice to leave that life, that safe haven to right a wrong, when she hadn't ever confronted the first wrong, which can never truly be confronted because Joel is dead! Crazy writing, loved it.

We at first root for her because we liked Joel and how he died was brutal...and then we come up against the fact that his death was also a revenge killing?! A woman avenging her father, using the rationale of how her father was more "important" than Ellie because he was getting a cure? Abby, with her own hypocrisies that mirror Ellie's and Joel's, when we all know the tri reason she killed Joel was for her father, as the show's Kathleen pursued Henry and Sam? What?!

[damoobiefeater]

The Little Mermaid (2023)

Awesome remake!!

Halle Bailey was SO PERFECT, she definitely looks like a mermaid, and she has such a naive and curious disposition and appearance to herself and her acting!!

The costumes were so creative and beautiful, I loved the different mermaid designs, especially the colors and details on Ariel’s costume, like the frills on her top, and I appreciate that they didn’t limit themselves to a direct translation of the animated version. I also loved triton’s armor that had the pattern and pearlescent or whatever effect to it

Speaking of king triton, I loved that he directly addressed his wrong but still needed some time to come to terms with the fact that Ariel coming home safe wasn’t the solution he thought it was, and that her desire to go above land wasn’t a silly, passing phase, definitely not purely a matter of infatuation with Eric. She had a passion for learning about land and the culture of humans just as marine biologists have for the sea and it’s creatures, hence her extensive collection of artifacts. Eric was only a vehicle for her to explore that interest, maybe a catalyst when her father learned of him and destroyed her grotto

The first time through I thought he came off as more lowkey abusive than the animated version, but I think that’s because they cut the scene where he’s looking on in pride and admiration at his other daughters’ concert before he realizes ariel isn’t there, and we didn’t get to see him being excited about her finding love and having the little flower etc- which all show more explicitly that he wants to be a good, supportive dad

It was an interesting choice to say that her mother was killed by humans and that was when the decision to stop going to the surface began. Even though I see the rationale behind it, it’s such a trope that I kind of prefer a separated ignorance of the human specifies (from what I remember of the original, but maybe I’m forgetting and this detail was cannon)

Some of the scenes looked STUNNING and magical and whimsical, just everything disney stands for to me, making me experience wonder again, especially the “under the sea” scene. But a few of the shots looked awkward or cheap which puzzles me a bit, as if they didn’t do well at evenly dispersing their budget- like the scene where Ursula gets giant is kinda bad to me. Also when it’s the iconic scene where Ariel comes out of the water onto the rocks, I don’t know what or why but her fingers moving over the rocks as she moves to the side to center on the rock looks really bad to me almost like she’s getting moved on a platform or something out of sight.

Halle Bailey has such a beautiful voice but I think it was definitely the best in Under the Sea, and I can only think of why because she gets to do her own little vocal riffs or whatever they’re called instead of directly matching the source material like “part of your world”

I loved the decision to make scuttle female, I think the personality grated on me less somehow, and I thought the scuttlebutt song was a cute addition, although when Sebastian started rapping it lost my appeal a bit- I genuinely love a lot of rap and think it has its place but this one in particular didn’t appeal to me as much as (for example) the one in encanto. It just reeked of a generic Lin Manuel Miranda haha- as much as I love him!

I did like the world building and the scene with the shopkeepers was pretty and warm! Very lively and showing ariel exactly what she felt she’d been missing such as her desire to dance! Eric’s room of collections was also a HUGE plus to this movie for me- because it showed how much they are kindred spirits. They are both explorers and dreamers who long to travel and learn whereas the original seemed like they just kinda happened to fall in love

I could be wrong about this but I appreciate that the deception by Ursula’s human form plus the wedding seemed more concise in this one- I hate lengthy sequences of misunderstandings

This is silly but I do wish that triton had made the rainbow across the sky, as it was one of my favorite memories/scenes of the original movie! But I think it’s nice that instead of getting married right away (but also not degrading it or denying the eventual possibility) they set off on an adventure together! Shows that a happily ever after can be chasing your passion and dreams and the love can come along with it!! In the original I get the vibes that the marriage is what finally settles ariel and Eric’s desires for something outside of their bubbles, but I think that’s boring and unrealistic!

Finally, it does bother me as always that it seems like media refuses to just let black characters have a black family/cast- it seems like they always have to be offset by either other marginalized races or white people- they’re often biracial with one white parent or it’s all blind casted or whatever, I just wish they’d let Ariel’s family be black! They do have a little explanation for it- the races coinciding with the oceans they belong to, and representation is good, so I’ll let it go, but it was something of note to me! Especially if we are to believe that ariel was supposed to inherit her father’s place in whatever ocean they’re in (I clearly haven’t done research and don’t even know if that’s a real assumption to be made- but in the original, their tails are the only ones that match, I think, and I get the vibe that although the older sisters have their responsibilities elsewhere, that ariel is expected to stay here which also gives explanation to her desire to explore and her sisters’ indifference to it, plus more motive for her dad to want her to learn to be happy where she is- but I’m glad they didn’t put that in explicitly because that’s very Moana haha

One random other thing is that I think it would have been cool if the merpeople had helped retrieve some of the things from Eric’s sunken ship at the end of the movie, but I guess it all would’ve probably been ruined by then anyways and the humans don’t have much to offer the merpeople if we’re trying for a symbiotic relationship. And really, now that I’m thinking of it, I think I’m okay with them not coming to that cliche conclusion- just because they might now have the right to go on land/to the surface if they please doesn’t mean that they have to all agree to merge cultures and forge connections with one another. And realistically, how much coexisting is really happening when one of the communities is at the bottom of the ocean haha

Over all 10/10!!

[kingofthewilderwest]

DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms liveblog A Hole New World

The Hidden World comment is pandering but that’s actually sorta a funny / natural one to say.

Alex continues to be the best thing about this show. Also she’s cute. I want to squish her cheeks.

“Are you stalking me? That’s so sneaky.” “I’m sneaky? I think you have me mixed up with yourself.” WRITE BETTER DIALOGUE DUDES.

“He has this lightning thing...” [dragon gets scratched under chin and collapses to the ground] haha.

They honestly don’t have good rationale written into the story for why not to tell adults about the dragons. Like, it’s there, but it’s not. A few stray lines about “the corporation” and “too dangerous” does not a strong reason make. You gotta lean into it, especially because we’re talking about kids, whose reasonings are not going to be the same as adult reasonings. Alex is the only one who believably would make these arguments.

“June! June, it’s safe!” says the boy who’s almost fallen off a dragon or nearly plunged to his death every time he’s been in the air. Tommmm.

For all I know that TNR blatantly, repeatedly references and parallels HTTYD (have had multiple friends vent about that hahaha), I’m happy that June’s flight wasn’t spun like an Astrid romantic flight. The music stayed with the triumphant main theme, and while both June and Astrid were scared to be on a dragon, it’s for different reasons, and it’s different reactions. June loves dragons; she’s just not as bold as Tom. That’s rather different from courageous, dragon-fighting Astrid being yoinked into the sky against her desire. Tom has already convinced June to keep the dragon a secret. And Tom doesn’t need to get on better terms with June, who’s content to be with a childhood friend.

“I can’t believe how friendly they are,” June says as she hugs a Terrible Terror. In my hypothetical rewrite, the Terrible Terror lunges at her and tries to eat her nose.

I mean come on these are Terrible Terrors. They are the epitome of obnoxious. I wanna see obnoxiousness.

Of course, a calm dragon is easier to animate, and this show has more conservative and less swift movements a la budget constraints.

Okay but that’s a lovable and creative dragon design. THAT is the spirit of HTTYD dragon species creativity, borrowing from unique species in the real world, etc.

“I dunno, your destiny looks really angry.” pfffffft XD

One head eating the necklace and the other burping is a hysterical touch.

Seriously how can you not love these things?

Haven’t talked about it before but another area of clear limited budget is the environments. A few objects repeated, otherwise bare. But it’s not the most important thing to talk about. It doesn’t make or break a show.

Thunder’s tail having a triangle-esque webbing instead of Toothless’s duo webbing is a nice, small difference.

Being chased by the spiky dudes would be more realistic if you established they had poor vision or poor smell or some sense.

The amount of the dragons understanding language is going to bother me. Albeit I know the fandom does this lots too. I like seeing the animals from a more naturalistic, realistic sense, which means non-human animals don’t understand human gestures, don’t do human gestures, and don’t understand human speech in all but a few heavily repeated words.

ROTFLHHHHHH did you notice she abruptly switched heads on which dragon she was riding when they cut away? ANIMATION ERROR.

How fast they bond with the dragons is unrealistic, but it doesn’t annoy me because 1). the ROB/DOB/RTTE series sometimes fast-tracked that, too, and 2). TNR doesn’t have many episodes, so instead of making montages or something, they’re speeding up the trust process. Suspension of disbelief is what I’m gonna do, knowing it’s harder to pull off narratively given their time limit.

[yoonpobs]

bodyguard | kth | m

pairing: kim taehyung x oc

genre: enemies to lovers, Bodyguard!AU but oc is the bodyguard, fluff?

warnings: eventual smut, sexual tension, light choking, suggestive content bc oc is a minx and so is tae, i'll add as the story progresses, kim taehyung as a rich kid

words: 2, 138

summary: you protect taehyung from people but forget about the biggest threat. yourself.

“You’re who Namjoon hired?”

You’re used to having bewildered expressions when they find out that you out of all other possible candidates was what your agency decided to provide clients with rather than an objectively more stereotypical option—the big man.

But you were here for a specific reason and you knew that your duty lied in your responsibility to the man in front of you, even if his expression of doubt irritates you.

“Yes, Mr Kim. My name is ____.” You bow your head slightly, hands held together by your pelvis as you stand with your back straight.

The man in front of you glances over at his assistant, who only shoots him a firm nod as if to tell him that he was in fact stuck with you, despite all the uncertainties he may have.

Frankly, when Seokjin first recruited you into the agency, you were merely meant to be in charge of off-field duties and act as intel for field agents, but few of your previous mentors recognised your potential and physical agility when it came to mandatory training and pushed for you to be trained as an official agent rather than a tech lady.

You were lucky that a few of your colleagues had long ditched the misogynistic mindset that women were biologically weaker than men and would serve as a liability to the agency, but there were still a few higher-ups that were traditional in every sense that stuck their noses in your business when Seokjin would assign you to high profile clients.

Kim Taehyung was no different, but you were sure he fell into the latter of the traditional man. He did come from a lineage of old money.

“But you’re a … woman.” He says slowly, eyeing you up and down.

Even the outfit you were in was far off the usual appearance that most bodyguards would take on the first day of work. A long dress with a maxi slit by your leg, which left little to imagine what lies beneath. You bite your tongue to keep the snarky remark down and nod your head tightly to your new boss.

“I best fit the requirements you listed out to my agency.” Is your simple response.

His assistant steps between the two of you before your boss can say anything else, and based on your observations you note that he probably is the rationale behind Kim Taehyung’s mind; the reasonable and objective one.

“I’ll show ____ around headquarters just so she’s aware of the layout.” His assistant says hastily.

You don’t miss the last look your boss gives you, and all you do is bow your head before you turn on your heels, pulling out the gun in your garter and hold it behind your back—ready for duty.

“Jesus fucking Christ, _____.”

You’re used to hearing Taehyung sneer at you. It was something that you needed to get used to when you first were hired for the job because while he was known as an icon, a genius behind his father’s legacy—he was still wholly immature in every sense of a man child.

“Yes, Mr Kim?” You say blandly, flipping through the brochure that was laying idly on his coffee table; clearly ignoring the glare he was shooting you as he wraps the robe tighter around his frame.

Before he can open his mouth to yell at you again, you see the silhouette of the woman that was previously occupying his bed scurry past by the two of you, offering a meek bow of her head towards Taehyung before she’s out the door.

Your eyes follow her uninterestedly until you hear the click of the door, signalling that she was out and gone.

“What is your problem? Is my sex life something you need to protect too?” Taehyung spits.

You skim your eyes over his frame and spot a few marks littered along the expanse of his neck before your eyes rest on his tightened expression; your own one remaining impassive.

“My duty is to ensure you’re safe.” You remind him.

He scoffs, running a hand through his tangled hair—a clear testament to what he was engaging in before you had shamelessly kicked the woman out, mid-progression.

“Hyunbi is harmless.” He sneers at you.

You note that his erratic behaviour was likely a symptom of being cock-blocked, so you hold your tongue and just level him with an unimpressed stare.

“Hyunbi is the heir to the Im group. Need I remind you that her father’s company is the one that threatens your stockholders?”

Frankly, you try to engage with Taehyung on business matters as little as you could because all you were here for was to protect him and ensure that his head wouldn’t be served on the plate of an assassin that was out to get him.

You scoff to yourself because men were truly blinded by their desires and he would’ve risked his family’s fortune because he wanted to get laid.

“Okay, and? She was about to suck my dick not steal intel to the company.” He scoffs.

You don’t say anything but drop the files you found in her purse as you were doing your much-needed background checks on the woman that was visiting on such short notice, especially given the fact that she managed to bypass the system on being on the list before she was sent up.

The moment the beautiful women stepped foot into the apartment, you knew something was off about her. It was intuition from years of training under your belt, but also a womanly instinct. An intuitive sense that told you that she was going to wreak havoc if she could, and it was your duty to prevent that from happening.

“What’s this?” He picks up the documents to skim over the contents.

You don’t say anything but keep your eyes focused on his expression when you see it morph from confusion to realisation and pure mortification.

“She was going to blackmail me?” He asks in a disbelieving tone.

You nod your head.

“And if I hadn’t intervened then she would have probably falsely claimed that she was carrying your child.”

Taehyung shoves the documents aside and rubs his hands across his face, releasing a grunt as he lays back into the expensive leather of his couch.

“I can’t even get laid.” He huffs.

You roll your eyes.

“Taehyung,” You call out to him sternly, and when he opens one eye to look at you, only then do you continue, “You need to be more careful with who you fraternise with. You’re the CEO of the biggest manufacturing company in Korea and that is bound to make you a target to competitors. I can’t be cross-checking every single person you come across because my job is to protect you from physical harm—not be your mother.”

He narrows his eyes at you, and you see the petulance skim the surface of his iris as he leans forward, ensuring that his gaze is kept on your blank expression.

“So, that’s it? I can’t fuck around with anyone? Just because of my position? That’s a load of bullshit ____.” He snaps.

You purse your lips and give him a pointed glare.

“Stop twisting my words. Fuck who you like but be smart about who you stick your dick into.” You tell him lowly.

“Then I might as well fuck you, right? You’re the only person I can trust.” He sneers, leaning closer to you.

Your eyes widen, and your stoic demeanour is interrupted with his blunt words.

While you couldn’t deny that your boss was undeniably attractive, and alluded major sex appeal—he was still your boss and you would never cross professional boundaries no matter how much your body betrayed you. Even the Taehyung’s banter got much more … explicit and flirty, you brushed it off as him being himself. But he’s never explicitly stated anything like that before.

When you realise you’re gaping at him, you quickly try to compose yourself but unfortunately for you, he immediately catches on your surprised expression and bathes in it.

He smirks at you, standing up to walk across to where you were sat and plops next to you, a bit too close for a boss to be to his bodyguard.

“I’m right, aren’t I? You said to be smart and fuck someone who won’t have anything against me.” He whispers into your ear and you try to stop the shivers that travel down your body.

Taehyung notices how tense you are and reaches an arm to trail down your neck, slowly and teasingly until it rests on your hipbone.

You curse yourself for wearing only a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, since it was meant to be your day off until you were made aware of Hyunbi’s visit.

“Watch your mouth, Kim Taehyung.” You grit.

He snorts but nuzzles his nose into the column of your neck, and you feel the hot breath fan across your skin.

“You’re not denying it. Does that mean you want me to fuck you? Nice and deep?” He whispers the words against your skin and you can’t help the involuntary clamp of your thighs.

Taehyung, even as dense as he is, picks up on your movement immediately and reaches his other hand to keep your thighs apart, large hand sprawled across your thigh and you marvel for a moment at how big his hands are.

“Bet I could fuck the uptightness out of you, sweets.”

“Did you forget that I know everything about you?” You hiss, attempting to sound threatening but that only causes Taehyung to grin wider.

“Ooo. I love it when you get bitchy with me.” He teases, rubbing a circle with his thumb on your inner thigh as you feel desire pool in your belly.

“You’re insufferable.” You huff and you hate the way you sound breathless.

“Did I ever tell you how much your bitchiness turns me on? Always dreamed of shutting you up with my cock.” He confesses against your cheek this time and your eyes widen comically, your own hand clamping over his one over your thigh.

As Taehyung momentarily gets distracted with mouthing at your ear, you come to your senses and realise that you’re becoming the pawn in his game.

You quickly flip him over, until he’s settled under you with your knees sprawled next to his thighs, pelvis’ nearly touching as he smirks at you.

“Listen, Kim,” You whisper, leaning down until your noses are touching and you can spot every freckle on his face. He leans up to chase your breath but you don’t allow him the satisfaction of caving in.

“You’d never be able to handle my pussy.” You grin at him.

His eyes darken, and you feel his hands rest tightly on your hip.

You straddle his thighs and lean in until you’re sure his cock feels your pussy against him through the barrier of his robe and your shorts.

“Try me.” He challenges, mirth dancing in his eyes.

“You know why?” You lean into his ear to whisper, and your hands trail down his chest slowly and seductively until they reach the opening of the robe where his pelvis is, touch teasing and suggestive, especially when his breath hitches.

“Why?” He attempts to grind up to you, blinded by his carnal desire.

“Because …” You bite his earlobe and hear the grunt he lets out, cock unmistakably hardening until your core.

“Once you fuck me, you’ll never be able to fuck any other pussy without wishing it was mine.” You say as you pepper kisses down his jaw, right up to his chin until your lips are hovering above his.

But as soon as he attempts to close the distance, you push yourself off of him and return to your stoic and professional stance.

“You have a meeting with your investors in twenty.”

Taehyung gapes at you, the outline of his cock clear against the thin material of his robe as he releases heavy breaths of want as he looks at you in disbelief.

“You can’t be serious.” He snaps.

You shrug your shoulders and cock your head to the clock behind him.

“Good luck getting ready, Kim.” You say with a final smirk, enjoying the fact that you had him frustrated and high.

“This isn’t the end, _____.” He says lowly.

“You better hurry up and hope you finish in less than twenty minutes.” You tease, and you see the tip of his ears burn.

“Maybe I’ll give it five.” You say, flipping your hair over your shoulder and making sure to add a little sway to your hips when you walk away.

You briefly hear a fuck being uttered when you open the door to leave, and you feel triumphant with what you left him with.

[izloveshorses]

here’s a thought: anastasia was the embodiment of what it means for a story to be told from the female gaze and a lot of its criticisms were about those exact characteristics 

actually, u know what, i had a lot of cherry moscato and i talked about this for hours with leah the other night as i typed the above paragraph, and the more i think about it the more there is to say. so i’m gonna write this essay now instead of later when i think i’m more coherent. here’s a quick summary of my rationale and the expansion of my thoughts will be under the cut because i got a little wordy, as usual :)

listed below are characteristics that fall under the female gaze theory:

the main lead is one of the most complicated characters out there and yet her desire is so simple and therefore so universal: she wants love. she wants to belong. she wants to figure out who she is.

the main lead is looking for a matron, whether she’s aware of it or not, and the matron is looking for her.

the other women in the show are also complex and are allowed to have relationships with one another.

it’s implied that anya endured a lot of trauma, not just from the massacre but from her years on the streets, and yet we don’t need to see any of that stuff to understand and feel empathy for her.

the hottest man in the world wears a tank top and his sleeves rolled up and other slutty but not slutty looks. a win for all boytoys out there.

the love interest is also a three-dimensional character that exists for his own journey but he learns and tries to better himself because he knows it’s the right thing to do, not just to ‘impress’ the lead with a temporary fix.

the romance story, arguably the most important relationship of the show, isn’t about physical attraction or being good enough for the other, it’s about mutual respect and learning how to communicate.

her other traveling companion is a lovable father figure who supports her through their whole journey together.

the other man of the show exists to show why this breed of a man, the authoritative figure who uses political ideals and expectations of his patriarchal figure to justify violence and specifically violence against women, is... well, scary.

in the musical at least, anya’s appearance is never mentioned at all, and she’s never expected to change how she looks to “appear” like anastasia. the only time her appearance is sexualized is by the resident villain.

all of that being said, a lot of the critical reviews of the show stem from the above aspects, which says something about the demographic of theater audiences and who controls what gets higher remarks (which,,, does this affect ticket sales?). do with that what you will.

many think the female gaze is just the reverse of the male gaze, which means it’s just objectifying men (à la magic mike). which, honestly, could be true. but according to my whopping 3 minutes of wikipedia research, the female gaze is “the perspective a female filmmaker (screenwriter/director/producer) brings to a film that would be different from a male view of the subject... The films are meant to represent the desires of female protagonists and, therefore, are to represent the desires of the female movie-viewer.” Jill Soloway has a really neat talk about this subject and she says stories told with the female gaze are formatted with the heroine’s journey as a template, which is more about feelings and internal emotions and stuff inside bodies and what it feels like to be seen, than their outward actions. it’s about people’s impact on the world and on each other. this theory applies to three different viewpoints: the writer/creator, the character portrayed, and the spectator.

that was a really long-winded definition of something y’all probably know and it still doesn’t quite capture everything about the subject lol but now that we’re on the same page... how does this apply to anastasia?

other than like, idk the obvious stuff like the main character is a woman and she doesn’t exist as a visual or physical prop for the male costars, there’s so much more to it. anya was written for girls. but not just for girls, she was written for anyone trying to find themselves or seeking love of any kind. she is complicated and three-dimensional and messy and real. but, still, her desire and goal for the show is relatively simple. she’s looking for someone to belong with, and in turn thinks that will help her discover who she is. which, honestly, is pretty universal. it’s about the internal feelings! lead characters under the female gaze theory are about being relatable to the audience, not being an idealized, flawless caricature. 

not to mention, whether anya is aware of it or not, the home she is looking for is the matron of her family. so the core relationship of the show is about two women wanting to find each other again! how rad is that!

it’s also implied that anya endured a lot of trauma before the show starts. i mean of course there’s the trauma of surviving the massacre that killed her family, the emotional toll of being alone for so long, etc, but there’s still the implication that she had a lot of unpleasant encounters on the streets in the ten years between the murder and her entrance. even so, these implications are just that. implications. because we as an audience don’t need to witness her being assaulted or attacked in any way to feel empathy for her!

the three most influential male figures of the whole show represent simplified versions of the type of men women experience: vlad, the found father figure. dmitry, the love interest who grows on his own accord. and gleb, the man we are afraid of. 

yes, dmitry has sex appeal™ and linda cho put him in all these thirst outfits for us, which... thanks queen <3 (and even so, this is a period piece so his costumes are still period appropriate, and not unjustifiably revealing, which says something about the female gaze’s taste in what women want to see men wear vs the opposite, but i digress), but in this perspective, he as the love interest has a responsibility. he takes care of her, but maintains boundaries. he senses danger when they encounter the ruffians and doesn’t get offended when she says she doesn’t like them, he just tries his best to remove her from the situation entirely before it escalates. yeah, she proved she didn’t really need protection, but when we’re walking alone at night or something don’t we all wish we had someone there to use their privilege to protect us? and sure he was rude to her at first but he always sees her as an equal and as a partner in this dangerous task of escaping russia together. it’s mutual. they look out for each other and learn how the other communicates along the way. the more he learns to respect her the more vulnerable he becomes (aka the more he feels!). when he realizes he has feelings for anya he doesn’t put her on this unreachable pedestal and mope about it (we could argue he does brood, but in a handsome angsty way, not in a self-pitying way), he tries to better himself by making choices he’s learned are right and still prioritizes her happiness. and finally, he leaves it up to anya to pursue a relationship, because he doesn’t want to distract her from her individual goals, even if his own priorities and desires have changed. mmm. top tier man.

in all of gleb’s scenes with anya, he always has the higher ground, the higher authority, the upper hand. he infantilizes her in his solo songs (“she’s nothing but a child, a waif who needs protection”) and his infatuation is clearly one-sided. his whole motivation is about filling his father’s shoes, and more broadly, the shoes of patriarchal expectations. he makes his Politics™ and War™ his personality, blinding him to the nuances of individuals and how his Outward Actions affect the underprivileged lives. the confrontation moment is so alarming not because we’re afraid he’s actually gonna shoot her, it’s scary because it’s something out of a woman’s worst nightmare. like you’re left alone for One second and you turn to leave and a man who is obsessed/infatuated with you is waving a gun around and using his political ideals to justify his violence against you. and the show portrays this as bad. rightfully so! i mean it’s obviously not great, and they still take the time to make sure the audience understands his motivations with careful writing, but he’s ultimately portrayed as the villain. gleb’s violence against women, no matter how “unhappy” he is about it and no matter how dramatic his monologue is and no matter if he doesn’t follow through, is still a villainous action. that being said, he is still a complex character with many layers and motivations. not a top tier man at all but a well-written one for the most part. 

anya’s physical appearance is never mentioned in the musical. i think dmitry compliments her at some point, but other than that, it’s never a plot point that she’s “just as beautiful” as anastasia or has to alter how she looks to appear like anastasia, other than buy finer clothes and take a shower lol. when they get to paris she’s glammed up, but it’s not presented as a ~transformation~ where the girl takes off her glasses and suddenly she’s beautiful and worthy of the journey she’s on. her blue and red dresses are gorgeous and a little more revealing but they’re period appropriate and more about her getting to go on this exciting and emotional journey, not about what dmitry will think when he sees her or whatever. (while we’re here, i think it’s worth noting that none of the other characters are sexualized beyond what’s period appropriate. even the hussies aren’t sexualized!) but you know the only time her appearance is sexualized? it’s when she’s in front of gleb. he grabs her arm and then he grabs her chin and says “your eyes, a man can look right into them,” and he sings “she trembles like a flower” (ew aslhjkdf). his infatuation is clearly presented as one-sided and the narrative tells us this is more than uncomfortable. 

the romance between anya and dmitry isn’t about physical attraction. they’re both very attractive people but the root of their relationship is about learning to communicate. it’s about being vulnerable and letting someone else heal with you. it’s about seeing past the presuppositions of a person and choosing to find the other again. it’s about swallowing pride, a character flaw for both of them, for the sake of expressing feelings. it’s about mutual respect and seeing one another as an equal. all of this is internal growth, not external action. the ideal romance.

all that being said... how does this apply to my claim that the root of most of the show’s criticisms lies in criticizing the female gaze?

someone who knows more about the inner workings of broadway and how reviewing shows affects ticket sales and stuff can probably articulate this better than i can (and should, please consider this an invitation to drop stuff in the comments!), but i mean... when you read the negative reviews of a show whose whole heart beats with female influence, they follow a pattern. the majority of the audience is made up of women in their teens to around their thirties, but i imagine, like hollywood, the majority of producers and reviewers are older (white) rich men. the few reviews i read said stuff like, “it’s only good if you like fairytales,” “this show has no identity and turns from cinderella into the princess diaries to every other princess story,” “it’s too sentimental,” and other things that criticize what’s geared towards female audiences. songs like crossing a bridge, which expand on the heroine’s emotions, are slashed away because “it’s too boring and doesn’t push the plot forward.” all of these characteristics are what make the show fall under the female gaze theory, and all of which are what were criticized the most.

i’m not here to preach to y’all about feminist theory or whatever. but these are just some characteristics i noticed recently and the connections were too good to not discuss. thank you for reading this far <3

[buffysummerslay]

I have watched Lucifer series finale yesterday and I am still reeling from feelings, feelings I need to work through to be able to move on.

Unfortunately, I am late to the party and I have started watching Lucifer (despite the show being on my radar for a few years already) when season 6 came out, and this turned avoiding spoilers about the ending as well as the show itself into an extremely hard task. I have, of course, seen some reactions to the ending and it was obvious that the viewers were divided between "the ending was amazing, they really did the story and the characters justice" and "what the fuck was that". I always take these reactions, especially when they come instantly after the episode has ended, with a grain of salt because, realistically, I haven't been fully satisfied with the way a tv show has ended - any tv show - since, like, 2010. However, I also know that there is a difference between "okay, the ending was anticlimactic/disappointing/etc, however, it is the journey that matters and I am still pretty happy with the show" and HIMYM type of ending where you are like "I want this show wiped from my memory because the final hour has ruined the entire experience for me". So, I took some time to reflect on the events that took place, gather my thoughts, and make my peace with the ending. After doing that, I can comfortably say that I am not fully satisfied with the ending because of one very simple reason - I can make sense of the choices taken by the character at the very end of the show only if I use "Lucifer gave Rory his word" rationale, and not because I believe in the theory they provided or the choices they make. So here are some of my thoughts about the ending of this beloved show, including both the things I liked and disliked. Be warned, there are spoilers ahead so if you haven't seen the show, the final season or the series finale, please stop reading because you don't want to manifest spoilery energy into your life!

The main thing I have a problem with is the time loop. I will begin by saying that I really dislike time travel in general - I think that it is an overly used plot divice that more than often creates holes in the story instead of driving the narrative where it needs to go, unless the concept of time travel is integral to the show, like for example in Timeless and Fringe. However, in this case, I dislike that the major characters have made a major decision (a serious, impactful, life-altering decision) based on a flimsy theory. And since they have told us exactly what will happen in the end, we simply didn't know why and how, I have expected a more bulletproof reasoning instead of a rushed conversation wrapped up in five minutes and sealed by a promise. Lucifer leaves Chloe and Rory and goes back to hell, Rory grows up resenting him and she becomes so angry she travels through time to confront him only to end up being the reason for his departure, therefore creating an unbreakable time loop. She makes her parents give her their word that they won't change a thing in order to make sure that Lucifer discovers his true calling, which is helping souls in Hell break their hell loops and ascend to Heaven. And the reason I am so hesitant to accept this is because of two reasons:

1. Lucifer has made amazing progress through the show when it comes to his character development, finding his worth and making peace with his identity, and yet you are trying to tell me that this is the only way he would discover his true calling, especially now when he has a higher level of understanding himself than ever before? And especially since these thoughts and doubts have already been in his mind aka him postponing to become God long before Rory's arrival into their timeline!

2. The consequences of our actions are the results of the choices we make, not the other way around. And sometimes, different choices can lead to different outcomes and sometimes the array of choices we make lead to the same outcome. It is absolutely possible that if they broke the time loop and made different choices, that their actions would lead them to the same outcome aka Lucifer finding his calling while remaining in their lives. I think that it is fully possible for them to make a timeline B (the timeline that would have been created if they broke the time loop) based on the discoveries from the timeline A (their current timeline). There's no reason for me to believe otherwise.

Apart from the discovery of Lucifer's calling, the only thing that came out of the time loop was pain, suffering and probably a lot of loneliness. Even the good things that came out of the time loop (like Lucifer and Rory bonding) are a consequence of the pain that it caused. Of course, if they broke a time loop and created a completely new timeline, choices they would make there could theoretically end up having worse consequences on their lives. They could also be better, or they could be completely the same. The thing is, we don't know, we can only speculate and that is exactly what bothers me. The main characters made a major decision based on a speculation. I don't necessarily have a problem with the things that have happened, but rather with how they happened and how they were explained. Or better to say, how they weren't. I think that they should have completely dedicated the season to exploring this and reassuring us that this is the right choice to make and the right way to go.

Also, the concept of free will and making one's own choices has been pretty integral to the show. We have watched Lucifer struggle with the concept since the beginning of the show because he was convinced he is only a puppet in his father's grand plans. There were many events in the show reinforcing that belief, like Chloe being the gift from God. It took him seasons to accept that he chose to stay in her life, to be close to her, to be her partner in work as well as in life and in that acceptance he finally found the strength to tell her that he loves her. He chose her and she chose him. And while one can argue that leaving them and going back to hell was Lucifer's choice (since, technically, he could have chosen to break his word to his daughter and change things), it is one he didn't want to make. In the final episode he says that he desires to watch his daughter grow up and before he leaves for Hell he tells Chloe he doesn't want to leave her (she even responds that she doesn't want him to leave either, but that this is the choice that they are making for Rory's sake), making me feel like he is making this choice out of duty, out of fear and not because he wants to. He finally accepted that the choices he makes are his and his only, and the final choice in the show was made for him instead by him - I really don't think that the character deserved this. Lucifer gave Rory his word and we know he always goes by his word - they have turned one of the most essential qualities of his character into a plot device and an instrument that caused pain. Additionally, since Rory asked him not to change anything, it was implied that Lucifer can't come back to Earth in order not to risk changing anything even though it is completely possible for him to balance his work hours in Hell and his family time on Earth, like Amenadiel did. I also found this completely unfair and it felt like Lucifer was "banished" to Hell, not only missing out on being with Chloe and watching Rory grow up, but also staying away from his friends and the life he had built for himself. However, on the brighter side, Lucifer doing this - something he doesn't completely understand, something he doesn't want to do - is incredibly selfless of him and only shows how much he has grown. A character who has been described as selfish and self-serving from the very beginning does something so ultimately selfless, something that doesn't serve him in any way - quite the opposite, it pains him. As I said, I don't necessarily mind how things played out, I mind the lack of guarantee that they had to be this way. The only thing we don't know is if Lucifer and Chloe were in contact over the years since Chloe could have kept in touch with him behind Rory's back - maybe she sent him pictures of Rory, and maybe they exchanged letters. I am very doubtful because this would probably make the whole situation harder on them nor do I think that they would risk it because they wouldn't be able to know if their actions are breaking the time loop or if they are a part of the original timeline but hey, this is the stuff that fan fictions are made of!

And finally, I very much disliked the parallel between Lucifer and God - Lucifer abandoning his child for the sake of doing his job and that child growing up resenting him - if it was their intention to draw such a parallel. I think that God somewhat "redeemed" himself in Lucifer's eyes and that through accepting himself Lucifer also learned how to stop resenting his father for the things that transpired between them, and I don't necessarily believe that Lucifer had to walk in his father's shoes to understand him. So, in my opinion, this was completely unnecessary. Something I did like was Lucifer's calling - I think that it shows nicely the full circle he has made and that the souls he thought he is supposed to torture he is now helping heal. In a way, Hell is also the reflection of who Lucifer is - when he saw himself as broken, as evil, as unworthy and undeserving, Hell was also a place of torture - it was a reflection of him. And now that he accepted himself and that others have accepted him for who he is as well, it is a place of healing. In the end, Hell is his kingdom and he can choose to rule it the way he wants to. He broke his own hell loop and he truly became a lightbringer.

And, of course, Lucifer and Chloe (they are so soft and I am so soft for them). Taking into consideration my very bad OTP track reckord, I kinda expected a much, much worse ending for them - I mean, the Devil falling in love with a human, what could possibly go wrong, right? I knew from the very beginning that they aren't getting a pure, wholeseome, family-like ending. In order for that to happen, she would either have to become immortal (leaving Trixie, losing her detective identity), or he would have to become mortal - both of these scenarios feel cheap and I never would have wanted this for them or the show. Another option was to give them their happy life on Earth but then they would either have to leave a somewhat open ending or deal with the fact that ultimately, as a mortal, Chloe will die. And if they were given their happy ending on Earth, who knows if they would end up together in afterlife. Even if they did, it definitely wouldn't feel as emotional and as gratifying as it does now. The thing is, it is easy to give in to the pain of their separation when we measure it by the pivotal moments of happiness and loss that drive the lives of humans - him not being there when Rory was born or when she grew wings or when she started school - and it is even harder when you know how much she needed him and how much he wanted to be there for her. It is even more painful when you think about Chloe spending her entire lifetime without him, carrying all that pain inside of her, and him spending what had to be centuries alone in Hell. However, this is a fantasy show and many of our characters are immortal, celestial beings who have a different understanding of time, so maybe the idea of what a happy ending is and the rules for measuring happiness aren't the same as they would have been under other circumstances. Chloe became lieutenant and tried to make a difference, and she got to raise her daughters and see them grow up, and Lucifer helped so many souls heal, doing so much good. And now they get to spend the eternity together, solving crimes and kicking ass in the afterlife! Many of their friends and family are immortal, celestial beings too and (I am pretty sure) they can pay a visit to their human friends in Heaven... or see them in Hell, but let's hope not! In the end, what is one lifetime compared to eternity? Of course, none of this makes for the time they have lost, the momories they didn't get to make and the moments he wasn't there for, but now there are so many new memories they will get to make and so many moments to catch up on. It is bittersweet, but I think that's how it was supposed to be - in the end, pain is part of life.

I also have a few (dis)honourable mentions:

1. I am really sad and disappointed Lucifer didn't get to say goodbye to Trixie. She was gone for the majority of the season, but she was also a very important person in his life and he loved her. And we know how much she loved him.

2. I can't get over Rory travelling through time to kill her father because she is angry at him... sis, you kill him before he makes you, you wipe yourself out of existence.

3. I can't believe that they were surprised that Chloe got pregnant after having loads of superhuman sex (without any protection, apparently) after another human already got pregnant with an angel not that long ago.

4. Lucifer saying goodbye to Maze will forever remain one of the most beautiful scenes in the show.

5. The final major scene between Chloe and Lucifer, where they say goodbye before he leaves for hell, lives in my head rent free. I was choking on tears watching that scene, I literally had to pause and rewind three times. Such a beautiful(ly painful) scene. Also, when you have a ship and a person A says to the person B "close your eyes", pain is coming. I swear I travelled back to 1999 when Buffy said the same thing to Angel before sending him to a hell dimension.

6. When Chloe dies and goes to Heaven and Amenadiel greets her and asks her if she's ready to go home and then takes her to Lucifer was so pure. Her Heaven is being in Hell with Lucifer and there's something deeply poetic about that.

7. Hearing hello detective for the last time cleared my skin.

I have really and truly enjoyed the show, and the minor inconsistencies I see in its ending can't change that. I loved the show because it told stories about people and it allowed them to drive the narrative, and I can't say many shows these days do that.

[mollrat101]

I've re-watched season 2 and so now I would like to see how what we've learned in season 2 adds to the discussion about Deborah's sexuality.

3 major things happened giving us information about Deborah’s sexuality and her love life: the lesbian cruise, her sleeping with Casper (fandom name to the FedEx guy) and finding out that Deborah rejected Marty’s past marriage proposal. 

The Lesbian Cruise

*sighs* Where to begin? 

Okay, if I had to try to give a rationale for Deborah’s behavior, I guess I would say she’s desperately wanting validation for her attractiveness. She can’t seem to shut up about it in the set.

I sorta get where this is coming from. Marty has rejected her again during the FaceTime call. Although, now knowing she rejected his proposal, it looks more pathetic that Deborah even seeks his validation. Why do you want a man you rejected to want you? Or is it the fact that you know he wants you is the reason you tolerate his awful lovemaking? We know her love life has been pretty empty the past few years. She’s like all humans and wants to be considered sexually desirable.

It seems that Deborah takes what Ava said about confusing attention with attraction and instead of applying that to men, she applies it to women. Backed up by the fact that she jokingly asks Ava why she’s attracted to those women. She doesn’t want any particular women, she just wants to be wanted by these women. We see no genuine desire from Deborah.

Which kinda signals to me that Deborah didn’t understand.

Compulsory heterosexuality is about the intersection between misogyny and homophobia. Women are the most conditioned, by the patriarchy, to want to be attractive to men.

But wanting to be wanted by men is not the same thing as being attracted to men sexually and romantically.

It’s almost like Deborah went through a brief stint of “compulsory homosexuality” except that’s not a thing because it’s not based on structures of oppression.

They took this really interesting and beautiful conversation, but they had Deborah basically skewer any potential ramifications of it.

And they turned the very idea that Deborah might even be a little queer into a joke. The plot didn’t take the idea seriously at all.

Or at least that’s the way it appears to me.

If they bring up the idea that Deborah is queer and then, after some processing, decide she's not, that's okay. That's not what bothers me. It bothers me that the very idea of Deborah being queer is seen as laughable. Deborah, by most causal viewers, is considered the main character of Hacks. It's the Jean Smart show. It's Deborah Vance's show. By suggesting that the main character, arguably the most important, can't be be queer and the idea is laughable strikes me as homophobic. The other, lesser, characters are allowed to be but the sanctity of Deborah Vance must be preserved of such notions.

Not only does this episode feel like it's laughing at lesbians, but it also feels like it's laughing at people who like the idea that Deborah might be queer. Of which I freely admit, I was one of them. 

The episode doesn't offer any examination as to why Deborah feels such contempt for lesbians. It wants you to find it funny that she's horrified by being on the ship with these women and then just as easily taken in by the idea of being wanted by these women, but not bothering examining any of that.

Part of why I have mostly given up on the idea of them exploring Deborah as queer or Deborah and Ava as a romantic pairing is because of this episode. The writers seemed to look down on the very idea that Deborah might seriously be queer. She's not queer, you guys, she just likes attention. Well, gee, why didn't I think of that?

Part of why I liked the idea of her falling in love with Ava is that it’s a gentle way to challenge her notions of gender and sexuality, to gently deal with any repression she’s dealing with. Love can be a way to force us to confront our biases. Many queer people have had that experience of all but ignoring any thought that they’re queer, until they fell in love. This, to me, is the most acceptable way Deborah would be willing to walk down that road. Otherwise, her mind is too filled with misogyny and homophobia to do it. 

The lesbian cruise was the exact opposite of gentle. It seemed to want to torture Deborah which is not what I wanted (or she, at least, acted like it was torture). Yes, I wanted her biases challenged, but I didn’t want her to humiliate herself in the process. And again, Deborah still doesn’t learn anything after all that. 

If they introduced the idea of compulsory heterosexuality to create a longer thread about Deborah’s narrative, that’s wonderful. But already we’re starting off on a bad note because, even if Deborah explores the idea of women later, she’s clearly going to be put off by the writers giving her such a bad first experience. They don’t gently introduce the idea which could’ve happened anytime on the road. They introduced it and then threw her into a situation that was probably too overwhelming for Deborah.

If she has internalized misogyny and homophobia, you could explore that on a lesbian cruise but this didn’t offer a chance for meaningful change. It was just a way to watch Deborah being mean to lesbians.

So while there’s a chance they’re going to pick this thread back up, I don’t trust them to take it with any kind of seriousness or gentleness. So basically, I’ve pretty much have given up on them exploring the idea that Deborah is queer.

Casper

On a more positive note, we have her sexual experience with Casper. 

Season 1 gives us no positive mentions about sex with men from Deborah. Not one. Even Marty, the only partner we see her have, doesn’t please her. 

So it led me to a question: what does Deborah need to do differently in order to get the love life she wants? 

There doesn’t seem to be any physical problems that’s keeping Deb from enjoying sex. She’s perfectly healthy. We know she has trust and intimacy issues, so it could be related to that but it’s not clear. 

Casper seems to represent a couple of possible solutions for Deborah’s love life. 

1) He forces her to reconsider what would be considered an acceptable partner for her. To broaden her view. 

In 2.04, we were shown that Deborah’s ideas on sexuality are narrow but we get proof they’re even narrow than that. At first, she completely brushes off the idea of sleeping with him because he’s so much younger than her. 

So it seems that maybe Deborah has a specific idea of the type of man she “should be with”. 

Based on what we know, Deborah has been with Frank, Marty, she slept with Robert Mitchum and she’s dated some gay guys. 

This is, um, an interesting array of men. Well, Frank and Marty represent an ideal type of man, a high-value man. Successful, wealthy, handsome, self-centered, ambitious, and untrustworthy. Both of these relationships with Deborah were toxic. And, apparently, neither of these men pleased her in bed. 

The fact that she dated gay guys, to me, is about how gay men represent comfort and safety to her. But, of course, she runs into the same problem which is that they aren’t sexually interested in her. 

Casper is someone she didn’t expect would be a good partner, but when she did open up her mind to the possibility she was pleasantly surprised. 

He represents how, in order to have a good love life, Deborah is going to have to broaden her mind as to what’s possible for her. To not dismiss prospective partners because they don’t fit her preconceieved notions. 

2) He’s kind and cares about her pleasure and this is the type of partner she should look for. 

Her experience with Casper is possibly giving an answer as to what Deborah needs to do to make her love life better: she needs to start choosing better partners. 

Again, as stated, Deborah historically has not chosen partners who are good and kind towards her. Instead the shadow of Frank has seemingly infected who Deborah sees as an acceptable partner. She was in her early 20′s when she got together with Frank, so it’s hardly surprising that he provided a template for choosing partners in the future but, of course, this would be a damaged template. Giving her wrong ideas about what kind of partner she deserves. 

Casper shows her kindness, empathizing with her pain when she shares a bit of her past. He also cares about her pleasure and she seems slightly overwhelmed by this experience. As if receiving so much positive attention, especially from a partner she didn’t expect, is revelatory for her. 

In the 30 years they’ve been having an on-again/off-again affair, Marty hasn’t been able to please Deborah in the time in took Casper a few hours. This disconnect, especially considering Casper is nothing like Marty, has to be intentionally saying that Deborah’s path towards romantic and sexual fulfillment is rejecting partners like Marty in the future. 

Of course, further examination of this would need for Deborah to recognize why she’s chosen bad partners in the past. She would need to be incredibly self-honest about how her love life has ended up this way. 

And while sleeping with Casper is a good first step, it of course doesn’t solve her long-term problem of being single when she doesn’t want to be. 

Opening up to Casper for one night was already a lot for her, so it’s going to be a bigger challenge to find someone she can open up to permanently. But at least this step showed her there are people out there who find her attractive, are kind, and care about her pleasure. She just needs to open up her mind. 

Marty and Her Rejecting His Proposal

Learning that Deborah did have a chance to marry Marty and rejected it, really re-frames the view of her relationship with Marty. 

In season 1, we were given the impression that Marty wrongly rejects Deborah because she’s too old and this hurts her feelings. But in season 2, not only is this not a hard and fast rule for Marty but he already asked her to marry him and she said no. 

So, in a way, the narrative frames Deb as a less of a victim in this relationship. The ball was in her court if she wanted to reconsider, but she never did. 

She says she needed to focus on her business, but we know that actually Deborah was just scared. Scared to let someone in again after what happened with Frank. This is incredibly understandable, but Deborah’s excuses and her continued judgment of Marty’s partners shows that she doesn’t understand this about herself. She’s ignoring the truth about herself and how her life has ended up the way it has. 

Now, to be clear, I don’t think Deborah should’ve married Marty. I think she dodged a bullet. That marriage would’ve likely ended in another ugly divorce and Deborah would’ve given up on romance altogether. 

The point is that Deborah doesn’t say she rejected him because he wasn’t right for her and he’s not trustworthy (which he isn’t), but because she’s using her business and her work as a shield from emotional vulnerability and self-reflection. And so far, Deborah hasn’t been that willing to investigate her love life with any intense self-reflection and the longer she puts that off, the less she’ll able to get the love life she really wants. 

My hope is that the last conversation between Marty and Deborah means this is the end of their romantic/sexual association with each other. Marty seems done and is over Deborah. I would’ve liked to have seen more agency in that Deborah ended their relationship, but I’ll take what I can get at this point. 

Next season (if it’s renewed) would have to contend that Deborah can no longer use Marty as a crutch to avoid fixing her love life. She’d have to really stare down her choices and figure out what she wants.  

Conclusion

What we learned is a bit all over the place. Like much of the season and the other characters, Deborah spends a lot of time reacting to stuff instead of being proactive in her own arc and her love life isn’t any different. 

Maybe they intend for Deborah to be more proactive in the future in her investigation of her sexuality, but the self-reflection, at this point, has been minimal. 

Season 1 seemed to paint Deborah’s ideas of gender and sexuality as being a potential barrier to a satisfying love life but season 2 doesn’t really challenge her on this in any substantial way. Season 1 says that Deborah is accepting poor treatment from men like Marty, but season 2 doesn’t actively see her reject this. 

At this point, I’m becoming less and less convinced that the writers have some kind of master plan about what they’re intending to say about Deborah’s sexuality. They’re just writing what they think is funny and interesting at the time. And that’s absolutely within their right to do so. 

But we did learn some new things and I hope that Deborah carries over some of those lessons into a season 3. 

[bakasaiga]

Sesshomaru & Rin: InuYasha's Healthiest Dynamic

The Case for SessRin, Platonically & Romantically

Read the full article here: Sesshomaru & Rin: InuYasha's Healthiest Dynamic by bakasaiga

Art Credits: @bamb.bieun via Instagram

Why Sesshomaru and Rin have the healthiest dynamic in the InuYasha franchise. Covering content from the InuYasha manga, anime, films, drama CD "Asatte," and aspects of the sequel series, "Yashahime: Half-demon Princesses" (also known as "Hanyo no Yashahime").

Introduction

This article aims to explore the rationale for “Why Sesshomaru and Rin have the healthiest dynamic in the InuYasha Franchise” as I want to focus on their dynamic, and use this word over a "relationship." Because a relationship oftentimes has the connotations of romance, overlooking notions of the platonic nature of relationships. This analysis will focus on Sesshomaru and Rin throughout the InuYasha franchise (anime, manga, films, drama CD, and sequel), mainly analyzing the events depicted in the original series, where they are at the time, platonic.

The Significance of the First Encounter

Sesshomaru meets Rin in episode 35 of the anime/chapter 129 of the manga, following his unsuccessful battle with InuYasha’s wind scar. Tenseiga, knowing its owner’s life is threatened, sends Sesshomaru to a place that it knows is safe, peaceful, and conducive to his well-being. That place being the nearby forest of Rin’s (at-the-time) home. When Rin first meets Sesshomaru, she recognizes the pending danger of his presence — he’s not human, but he’s hurt. And to some degree, she likely resonates with that. Sesshomaru was all alone, hurt, mentally non-intact, and the most vulnerable we had seen him in the series (even compared to him losing his left arm as we hadn't seen the aftermath of that yet until episode 133-134). She’s a poor peasant girl who’s suffered immense trauma, suffering, and loneliness. Her initiative to help Sesshomaru came from her generosity; her empathy in seeing someone who reminded her of herself. She offers him food and water, to his dismay of course. But does not take no for an answer — this establishes a part of her personality that may be overlooked: her unwavering and kind-hearted stubbornness. She does not take no for an answer. Rin probably thinks to herself that her fish she gave him was not good enough because she’s been conditioned lately to believe that she’s not good enough. She returns to the village reserve and steals some fish, not for herself, for him. After receiving a beating, she does not flinch or show any signs of remorse but progresses on with her merry way. At this point, it’s observable that despite knowing her story, her scars, and her difficulties, humans do not even empathize, let alone sympathize with Rin. It is the feudal era, after all. She’s a young, disabled orphan and the villagers only see her for what she lacks: a voice, a family, and a place of belonging.

When she returns to Sesshomaru, without the fish, Rin is visibly shyer, feeling like she had failed her mission but she nonetheless returns out of her stubborn, kind-hearted and generous nature. Sesshomaru would never accept her attempts of rescue, but her dishevelled and pained appearance intrigues him. When he asks about her bruises, this is the first time anyone had ever afforded her a second glance.

The audience can see Sesshomaru calculate her body language, recognizing that she is mute. Instead of pressing her further or ignoring her outright, he attempts to comfort her (in his own way), making her feel that it is okay if she chooses not to answer him; that her desire to reply to him should only be a desire, not an obligation. I think, on one hand, that was the first moment of something that would resemble compassion that Sesshomaru had ever administered, trying to put himself in her shoes — if someone had asked him to do something that required, for example, his left arm, he probably would have appreciated them saying “you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to” so to provide him agency for something that he actually cannot do. And the same goes for Rin. He recognizes her disability, maybe even resonates with it and decides to empower her with a choice. Choice is important when it comes to the Sesshomaru/Rin dynamic and it’s a word that will come up often. This is the first of many choices that Sesshomaru allots Rin in dictating their soon-to-be long-lasting relationship, laying the foundation for their connection as the series progresses.

"The first time she was revived, the moment she opened her eyes, they exchanged a soul gaze, which harmonizes the energy between two people. They maintained deep eye contact for nearly half a minute. There were no words, Rin had no opportunity to say thank you, and Sesshomaru asked her no questions. They said all that was needed to be said through their silence."

-Lawless Lane, Sesshomaru and Rin: The Silent Soul Love

The next time Sesshomaru sees Rin, it is suggested that he actively sought her, whether it be by curiosity or concern for well-being. It's evident that Sesshomaru had never experienced an interaction like this before and if we just collect the facts we know about him, his reaction is quite logical. He had been born into aristocracy to political parents and was a lord the moment he left the womb. Everyone around him feared him or needed something from him. His chance of a genuine relationship (friendship, family dynamic, or even romance) would have been limited and/or superficial from the get-go. They see him in armour, finely dressed, and never vulnerable. But when Rin first meets him, she doesn’t treat him like her lord, king, or anybody special, she is immediately exposed to his vulnerability. She sees him at his worth. She treats him just as she would likely treat anyone else if they were in need. Rin’s authentic and warm smile plant the seed of compassion in his icy heart because he hadn’t come across this type of raw intention for well-being and to his deduction, he could have felt one of two things (maybe even both): (1) compelled to reward her with another shot at life selflessly, and/or (2) an inquisitive desire to seek that perplexing feeling that her smile gave him. When Rin wakes up, the first face she sees is his. When she died, the last face she saw was his, albeit imagined. Upon her revival, she pursues him without a single word from either party...

Read the rest here:  Sesshomaru & Rin: InuYasha's Healthiest Dynamic by bakasaiga

[cool-island-songs]

The List for the episode ask game from amporella​!

★ Do I like this episode? Why or why not?

Uh, I love it??? The Pleases and Sparkles committee??? GIRLS????? More Wendy, Bebe, and the girls actually doin’ stuff, please.

I like SP eps that tackle self-image issues because even though the show is about boys and told from their perspective (which is particularly evident in the way the girls have some sort of political thriller going on in the background here), the way they discuss looks feels fairly universal imo. Bebe’s concerns in “Bebe’s Boobs Destroy Society” (S06E10) are pretty similar to the message Abraham Lincoln is trying to impart; she’s worried about being treated differently because of something beyond her control.

★ Favorite moment?

Abraham Lincoln’s right tbh. Plenty of people are ugly, Kyle! Get over yourself! I really do love how melodramatic Kyle is about the whole thing, calling himself a “deformed monstrosity”. It’s hard to have perspective about these things when you’re a kid and don’t have a good sense of how your peers view you.

★ Least favorite moment?

Honestly, it kinda sucks that we never see those ugly kids again, do we? I love how the message is basically ‘Looks don’t matter, but it turns out Kyle was reasonably attractive all along, and we’re putting these ugly kids in the dumpster when this episode is over.’ That’s chill.

★ Do I have an unpopular opinion about this episode? What is it?

I love the episode itself, but ever since fans worked out that Craig was number one on the “real” list, it’s been responsible for some of the worst excesses of hot Craig within the fandom. Just for ease of reference, the real list has been determined as follows: Craig, Token, Stan, Bradley, Kyle, Jason, Leroy, Kenny, Jimmy, Tweek, Kevin, Butters, Clyde, Timmy, Francis, Cartman. My interpretation of the list’s order is that the boys who topped it are seen as most attractive in a conventionally masculine way, but also behave in a way that’s considered traditionally masculine. Craig and Stan certainly fit that bill, even if they only behave thusly due to autism and an emotionally repressed conservative father, and bottled-up feelings in response to a parent with zero boundaries, respectively.

My reasoning is that we know Kenny is a lil cutie from the sketch of them in “Free Willzyx” (S09E13):

But he’s always wearing that hood over his face and he’s a weird little pervert who likes setting things on fire (according to Cartman in “Best Friends Forever”, S09E04), and I imagine there was similar rationale for putting kids like Tweek and Kevin and Jimmy so low (there better have been!). Anyway, they’re fourth grade girls, and they’re entitled to their wrong opinions. Remember “Something You Can Do With Your Finger” (S04E08) when they all have crushes on Matt Lauer?

It also seems significant to me, in light of the way Craig is often written as quite desirable to girls in fics, that the girls in charge of manipulating the list chose Craig to swap with Clyde. This suggests that they don’t care to date him, which checks out, because he’s an asshole who hates girls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wneIRrvoDlg). Obviously, they’re all in 4th grade and girl/boy animosity is pretty standard and these things may well change, but I really do think Craig is just Like That.

★ Something I would change?

I tell ya hwhat, if it were up to me, Leroy wouldn’t be gatdamn number 6. This is Leroy Jenkins btw (aka Peter Mullen, the kid with the damn frog):

Poor man’s Scott Malkinson over here. Cuter than Kenny? The girls thought THIS was cuter than Kenny?

★ Rating out of 5?

5/5! Someone send me some trash ass eps plz, these are all pretty good lol

★ Anything else I want to say about this episode?

Poor Clyde, tbh. He’s actually considered uggy, but will still grow up to be a total douche because he thinks he’s hot. I’m gonna go fart on him in TFBW.

Anyway, in closing, please enjoy this IMDB review:

[everything-laito]

About the theory that maybe Laito doesn't like to be touched as much as he says he does.

This was submitted by @grs-wonder320! I did not edit anything in their response (or the title), I just added paragraph breaks so it's easier to read. I'll put my response below as well!

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

I am not the one who asked this question, but I would like to take this opportunity to express my personal opinion on this question. As it turns out, I have a completely different opinion than Corn. That is to say, I believe that there is a good chance that Laito does not like to be touched.

Rationale: I believe that there is a psychology of "excessive pandering to those things that are disgusting or painful to you," and I think that this psychology makes us appear to be happy on the surface, even though we actually dislike them. There are many exceptions to this rule. You may be thinking, "No, no, there are many exceptions to this rule. It is true that this rule does not apply in all situations. It mainly works when he is playing a pervert. So, why does he dare to act perverted in the first place? Most of the time, it's because he wants to be smoked out by the people around him. Why do you want to be smoked? ↓ I don't want to attract them to myself. ↓ Even though he doesn't want to be around other people, he is very sociable (compared to the people around him, that is). So it's hard to imagine why he is annoyed by human relationships like Subaru. ↓ Then there is a good chance that they want to hide something or smoke you out because there is something they don't want you to know. ↓ There is often a pattern of people who want to hide the fact that they are actually perverts, so they pretend to be sane on the surface.

In other words, the Laito that is ostensibly acting as a pervert is _____? Yes, that's what I mean. (What do you mean?) It's almost impossible to play a pervert to hide a pervert, isn't it? Most of the time, people play a false image to hide the opposite nature. In Laito's case, considering what happened in the past, it can be seen as "I'm acting perverted because I want to hide the fact that I'm hurt, and I don't want to be aware that I'm hurt, so I'm acting perverted as a self-suggestion.

There are not many people who can be sincerely friendly to the events that hurt them. In the first place, being "hurt" proves that there was something disgusting about you, so we can conclude that Laito is likely to have an aversion to sexual things. I think this explains the psychology that exists in Laito. Back to the topic at hand, I think it's hard to believe that Laito likes to be touched.

In Corn's answer, he used the example of "Laito trying to get me to touch him", which I think can also be explained by the aforementioned psychology. I, too, have a desire to challenge things I dislike (although this is due to overcoming my weaknesses and seeing things that scare me, and is not the same as Laito's), so I think it is entirely possible for someone to "dare to do something they dislike. Also, there is a high possibility that Laito is not aware of his own aversion to sexual matters, and if that is the case, everything is "true" in his mind, so naturally he would not be aware that he is doing something he dislikes. It could be called an unconscious act of self-harm. In the real world, you can only be aware of it when someone points it out to you, or you break your body by going over the limit. I think Laito has that kind of thing too. (Especially Laito in MB). This concludes the explanation. Thank you very much for reading this far!

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

First of all, I'm unsure what you mean by "smoking out," If you could provide clarification on that, that would be great! I think I know what you mean by it, I'm just a lil confused and hope I didn't misinterpret it!

I do agree with you on your psychology on the excessive pandering part! That's exactly what Laito does most of the time, it's what fuels his facade! As for touching, I do think that speculating it could go either way. I do think Laito is touch starved though. Sure people who are touch starved might not want to be touched. I have thought about it since I made that post and honestly, he might want to be touched just like he wants to have genuine love, but he's insecure about it almost.

However, if he was excessively pandering about being touched, he might have done that more often. The only time where he asks Yui to touch him throughout the entire HDB game is only in that supposed mutual masturbation scene, and his heaven scenario. He is known to have a masochistic streak regardless. The other times its Yui either pushing him or slapping him etc. (I'm planning on going over his masochism on a later date)

Laito excessively panders when he says absolutely wild shit that makes others uncomfortable, or gets Yui to be unnerved.

In my previous post, I did say that he could be playing it up! But the fact that he doesn't have Yui touch him until late game does say something. It shows that he's opening up and being more vulnerable. Sure this is HDB Laito and we don't really get much of his facade cracking in that game compared to MB+. Late game HDB Laito is able to let down his guard slightly, since he knows he has Yui wrapped around his finger. The thing is, his excessive pandering to him being a pervert is typically used for manipulation. Your psychology checks out in everything else about him, I do agree with that. But as for touching, that doesn't really "prove" to Yui that Laito's a pervert.

If Laito wanted to utilize touch as a facade of control, he would have done it earlier. Instead, he used other methods to give Yui a false sense of security at times, which he used to break her down further. Could he be doing it in order to show Yui he doesn't have a weakness? He could, but once again when it comes to topics or situations where he doesn't want to be involved with, he acts aloof and avoids it at all costs while changing the conversation. That's my rationale on that. The fact that he has such a different reaction being touched vs his other activities that could be considered as "excessive pandering" is a lil ~sus~ as they say. Or inversely, maybe Laito doen't address the fact that he likes being touched because he might consider genuine thrill as a weakness but maybe he gets desperate. He's desperate for legitimate compassion, the mans needs it.

As for challenging things you dislike, that also checks out in general. However, when it comes to Laito, he likes a sense of control and security. Instructing Yui to touch him gives that sense of control, but also lets him be slightly vulnerable. It's not even that vulnerable because if she does anything that could potentially harm Laito, he would be able to stop it in an instant.

He doesn't like challenging himself, and we all know this. His facade was created so he doesn't have to challenge himself to get over his past trauma. It's to avoid it and not challenge it instead.

I do think that Laito is incredibly self aware and self unaware at the same time. It's a little paradoxical but I feel like he knows he has a facade, but again, he tries to avoid the fact that he does have one and that his facade is true. We do know he's self aware through drama cds and what he says about himself in the games. They're vague, but once you know his character, you know what he's talking about. The fact that he projects onto Yui also says a lot about that.

Also, a little side note as well, in MB he does have consensual sex with Yui. Before that scene happened, he was being extremely vulnerable and a good chunk of his facade broke down. There's a certain tone when you know Laito's being serious and taking down his mask, and that's exactly what he did in that MB scene. Here's a quote from it:

Laito: For some reason, I feel strangely refreshed. Don’t you think that’s weird? I couldn’t get your blood out of my head for the longest time, but it finally calmed down. Right now, it isn’t your blood, but instead I want to hold your warm body close like this… And kiss you…I want to indulge in your body until I’m sick and tired of it. Nfu~

In this scene, Laito was happy crying, which was something he was not familiar with but also hasn't experienced before. It's an involuntary bodily function, yet he was confused by it. This just shows he is genuinely happy, and the fact that he says that he genuinely is admitting to what he wants for once, I don't think it's excessive pandering in this scene, it's him developing. You could argue that he got over his aversion to being touched in this scene. There's a couple asks in my ask box that's related to him and sex, which I will also get to sometimes this week. But that's a different post.

Again I think it could be argued either way, but that's my thought process behind this aside from what I previously said! There's just a lot to think about when it comes to this, and we won't know unless if something is said in canon! But Laito's incredibly complex and there's several factors that explains his behavior.

Hope that makes sense! And once again, thanks so much for submitting! I love hearing people's opinions and their own thoughts that either confirm or challenge my own, so thank you for that! This one definitely got me thinking more. That's the beauty in analysis! Each person takes something different from the text!

And who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind in the future!

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 5x01- Previously on...

Welcome back!! I’m so excited to be writing one of these again. I think this hiatus has been the longest I’ve gone without new Diane Lockhart content in ten years, and it sure feels like it. A lot of important stuff has happened in the time since TGF season four ended (not concluded—ended). Most notably, CBS All Access became Paramount+ and suddenly started offering a lot of content I care about! I kid. 2020 was quite an eventful year, so I was curious how television’s most topical show was going to take it on. TGF is always forward-looking, but too much happened in 2020 to be ignored. And while I didn’t think TGF would have much to say about the pandemic, it seemed impossible to imagine a season five that pretended it never happened. Going into this premiere, I was expecting that they’d either skip COVID entirely or include very few references, but after seeing this episode, I feel like the writers took the only approach that made sense. And that is why they are the writers, and I'm just some girl on the internet who writes recaps.  

Anyway, before I dive into the episode, I should also note that my pandemic boredom spurred me to actually pay $30 to watch this episode early as part of the virtual ATX Festival. Yes, I paid $30 on top of the money I spend every month on Paramount+ for this show. But I write tens of thousands of words about each TGF episode—are my priorities really that surprising? I note this not to brag or even to poke fun at myself, but because watching the episode before I knew a single thing about it (not even the title!) completely changed my viewing experience. I’ve never had an experience like this with TGW or TGF. I’m one to search for critics tweeting cryptically about screeners and refresh sites looking for background extras (haven’t done this in the TGF era, though) and read every single piece of press I can find. For any big episode, I usually know the outline of what to expect going in (I even knew about Will before the episode aired in the US!). Not this one! So, I got to be surprised, and I had to—gasp—formulate my own opinions before I knew what anyone else thought! It was really pleasant, actually. I think the structure of the episode worked extremely well for me because it caught me by surprise... and also because I’m the kind of person who somehow managed to write a college paper about Previously On sequences.

I see Tumblr has made it so that “keep reading” expands the post in your dash instead of opening a new tab. I absolutely hate this. Here is a link to the post you can click instead of the keep reading button! 

The ATX stream started mid-sentence, meaning I missed the “Previously On... 2020...” title card and skipped right to Adrian saying “I’m retiring.” It was pretty easy to pick up on the device (the directness of the scenes at the start, their cadence, and their placement in the episode made it clear this was meant to mimic a Previously) but the second title card hit way harder because... well, I had no idea if this was meant to be 2020 or some moment outside of real time until a bit later in the episode.  

Man, before I get any farther into this, two things that I don’t know where else to put. First, this episode had to cover so much ground. They had to write out both Adrian and Lucca—more on that later--, figure out how to deal with all of 2020, figure out how to either wrap up or continue all the truncated season 4 plotlines, and set the stage for a new season... in 50 minutes.  

Second, just wanna shout out the Kings’ other Paramout+ show, Evil, which you should absolutely be watching even if you hate horror. Evil is a Kings show, so it is unsurprisingly topical (sometimes evil takes the form of racism or misogyny or Scott Rudin) and at times very, very funny. I would be recapping it if Paramount+ weren’t attacking me personally by airing it at the same time as TGF. Ever hear of too much of a good thing, people?! (On that note, I am VERY upset with myself for not having made a Good vs Evil joke about the Good shows and Evil. I didn’t even think about it until Robert King made the joke on Twitter, and it was right fucking there. How did I fail so miserably?!)  

So STR Laurie, who wants a 20% downsizing, is still a thing. Noted.

This scene with Landau is the only one in this previously that is actually old footage, right?  

Unexpected Margo Martindale! Yay! (Ruth Eastman is a character who is so much more effective on Fight than she was on Wife and I’m quite glad they’ve had her appear on Fight several times. It kind of redeems season seven. Kind of.)

I don’t think the writers intentionally chose for Adrian’s book deal to be with Simon & Schuster because it is the most politically fraught publisher (the number of stories about controversial memoirs they’ve picked up in 2021 alone...) but I kind of like that Adrian’s Road Not Taken involves S&S. My guess is they chose S&S because it is owned by ViacomCBS.  

“Years ago, I wanted to create a law firm run entirely by women, but it never worked out. So, why not now?” Diane says to Liz. One of the advantages of having twelve (!!!) seasons of Diane Lockhart is that we’ve seen what she’s talking about. And we’ve seen her put this idea forward multiple times, too. I have my reservations about Diane’s brand of feminism, and I’ll say more about how fraught a Diane/Liz firm would be as the show explores the potential issues there, but on the surface I’m kind of excited about the prospect of a Diane/Liz led firm. Diane has wanted this for ages, Liz is a good partner, and this actually makes sense (unlike the nonsensical Diane/Alicia alliance of late season seven, where the only rationale was “well, Alicia needs to betray Diane in the finale, but they’re not on good terms. So maybe we make them business partners so then the betrayal stings more?”). Plus I fully love that Diane would end up running a firm with Alicia’s law school rival.

(Has TGF mentioned that Liz and Alicia were law school rivals? No. Am I still clinging on to that as a large part of Liz’s character? ABSOLUTELY.)

Julius is on trial for Memo 618 reasons; Diane is defending him. So this is still happening. (There’s more old footage here.)  

Do they put these references to one/two party consent in these episodes as a wink at the fans? It has to be intentional. (Please do not ask me what the actual law is on this, this show has thoroughly confused me.)  

I knew Cush was filming stuff for TGF, but I didn’t know it was for the premiere. She was just posting about it a few weeks ago, so either they shot a lot of it right before air or she posted a while after filming. Anyway, yay Lucca!  

Bianca’s still around. And, TGF gets to shoot New York for New York, since Bianca is there. I do wish TGF could do more location shoots; there’s something about seeing an actual skyline that feels more real.  

Bianca wants Lucca, who has never been outside of the country (except to St. Lucia, as Bianca reminds her) to go to London and buy her a resort. It’s supposed to be a three week stay and Bianca’s already arranged childcare. Speaking of children, because of COVID and filming constraints, that’s Cush’s real kid in this scene! You can’t really see him, but I recognized his curly hair from Cush’s Instagram, and the Kings confirmed in an interview.  

Adrian wants to write a book about police brutality cases he’s worked on. Ruth very much does not want him to write that book. She wants him to write a book without substance about how white people and black people can work together. He, understandably, has no interest in writing this book. (Also, you can see in the background that Ruth doesn’t think Biden’s odds of winning the Democratic primary are good—there is a big down arrow next to his picture, which definitely dates this scene.)

Oh, David Lee is in this episode. He acts like an asshole towards Marissa when she’s trying to help him.  

Marissa, not happy with the lack of respect, calls Lucca for advice “for a friend.” Lucca mentions she’s in London and Marissa does not believe her and keeps going on and on about her frustrations and her new desire to become a lawyer—quickly.  

Marissa wanting to become a lawyer because she “hates being talked down to” is not a plot I would’ve expected but it’s also one that makes a lot of sense. I think Marissa’s used to being respected and praised even when she’s doing things that aren’t glamorous, so I see how she’d get very restless when she’s no longer outperforming expectations and is instead taken for granted.  

Bells toll in the background on Lucca’s side and Marissa asks where she is. Lucca again notes she’s in London and Marissa still doesn’t believe her.

I’m going to miss Lucca so much, especially since we’ll also be losing a lot of the Millennial Friendship scenes with her. Cush is fantastic (even if she never really got enough to do here) and she plays so well off of the rest of the cast. I even sometimes liked the writing for Maia (who?) when she had scenes with Lucca, Lucca is that good.  

Jay wakes up sweating and unable to breathe, so he deliriously calls his father-figure Adrian. This whole scene is shot like something out of Evil and (I’m getting ahead of myself here) this plot is the only thing about this episode I felt was a misstep.  

“I think you’re my father,” Jay says to Adrian. Heh, I didn’t catch this line the first time around (maybe subliminally I did, since I just called Adrian his father figure lol) but I love that it is included here. Adrian and Jay’s relationship definitely deserves a goodbye.

Adrian calls an ambulance and also gets to Jay before the ambulance somehow. Adrian notes that Jay might have “this thing from China” and... we’re doing the pandemic, y’all. (Minor nitpick: on March 13th, 2020, when this scene is dated, COVID was not “this thing from China”-- we were all aware of it. March 11th was the day Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced they’d tested positive and the NBA shut down and travel was restricted and every single brand that had my email sent me a message about their plans and measures. March 12th was the last time I was in my office, and we’d been getting emails telling us to wash our hands and prepare to work remotely for weeks. I went to San Francisco in mid-late February and distinctly remember deciding to leave a burrito unattended on a table while I washed my hands because I was paranoid about COVID... and then I remember making a specific trip to Walgreens to buy hand sanitizer so that didn’t happen again. My point is, Adrian lives in the same world I do. On March 13th 2020, he would not be treating COVID like it was some new thing he’d vaguely heard of.)  

(I am going to nitpick this timeline, but please know that I’m only doing it because I can, not because I think it’s necessarily a bad choice. Lines like this do feel a little forced, but I see the reason for introducing COVID as something new rather than going for the line that’s exactly historically accurate. I also am pretty sure there are references to dates in March/April in s4 of TGF that are now going to be contradicted by this episode, but I truly do not care. The writers get a pass on this one.)  

We skip slightly back in time to the beginning of March after the MARCH 13TH title card, or maybe this is supposed to be after March 13th and my own memories are preventing me from believing these face-to-face interactions were happening. Who knows.

Michael Bloomberg is... here, again, I guess? He asks Diane to assist with a Supreme Court case about gun control. I guess it does add some weight to the plot and make the stakes feel higher.  

Oh hey, this case is the 7x17 case!!!! Love that continuity.  

Diane and Adrian are both at the office late, working, and there is an unnecessary split screen that feels even more unnecessary when you consider that the editing alone was enough to create the parallel.  

Diane and Adrian have a nice convo (which I’ll really miss, their dynamic is great and this really feels like a successful partnership) as they wait for the elevator. When the elevator dings, they nearly tumble down into nothingness because... the elevator never came. Apparently this is a reference to an law old show I’ve never seen that killed off a character this way, and it’s meant to be a wink at how they are not going to kill off Adrian.

I do not know why I remember this, but I do: after they killed off Will, a critic (Noel Murray; I just googled to confirm my memory) who didn’t want to spoil things tweeted, “Exactly 23 years and 2 days ago, Rosalind Shays fell down an elevator shaft.” Please tell me why I remember this reference that I didn’t even understand well enough to have tracked down the original tweet in under a minute. (https://twitter.com/NoelMu/status/447942456827326464)  

Back on this show, Diane and Adrian share a drink and talk about their wishes. Diane wants to argue in front of the Supreme Court, and Adrian encourages her to speak up. His own near-death experience motivates him to trash the book Ruth has him writing, and Diane trashes the (bad) legal strategy someone else prepared for the Supreme Court.

DIANE IS WEARING JEANS!!!!!! Tbh, I think my favorite part of this episode is how many slice-of-life scenes and settings we get. These are always my favorite moments. I love the satirical and political stuff too, but the character moments are what get me invested enough to write these. (Yes, Diane in jeans constitutes a character moment.)  

Diane tells Bloomberg she wants to be involved and advocates for herself. Kurt gets a call on their landline (hahaha) from Adrian.

God, I love Diane and Kurt. Not only is their banter fun, you can just see a different, more relaxed side of Diane in these scenes. Diane tells Kurt she has good news for herself, but bad news for him since she’s arguing for gun control. She asks him to help her prep for court, too.  

So this is before Jay is rushed to the hospital, because now we are back at the hospital with Julius, Diane, and Marissa. I do not believe any of these people would be setting foot in a hospital like it’s any other day on March 13th, 2020. But I'm trying not to nitpick.

I get why they chose to give Jay a rather severe case of COVID. I just don’t get literally anything else that follows from the initial shock of Jay having COVID.  

I see why the writers chose March 20th (the actual Illinois stay at home order) as the next date for this timeline. I still do not believe that people were in this particular office on that date.  

You know what else I don’t believe? That RBL just shut down for two weeks and was like, no work is being done. Did law firms really do this? I can believe it if it’s an excuse to cost-cut, and I know there were massive layoffs, but this seems... really weird???  

Why are they setting up a teleconferencing infrastructure (didn’t they have one at LG? In season five?) if they are not planning to do work?  

Lol Diane explains what Zoom is, very slowly. She asks everyone to “download a program called Zoom.com” which is one of the first Zoom jokes I’ve chuckled at in a while.  

Marissa is not happy to hear that there’s no work for her in a work-remote world (this I believe 100%), so she calls Lucca again with more questions about law school.

Love these NYC and London location shots. Wish they could do that for Chicago.

Lucca asks Bianca to help get Marissa into a law school, fast, and Bianca tells Lucca to use her name... then offers her a job.

Marissa is at the office, alone, boxing up her things, when one of the office phones rings with some dude offering her a spot in a law school class. I guess we are really all-in on this! (Why would Lucca have given a firm phone number not specific to Marissa, though?)

Adrian and his corrupt girlfriend decide to shelter in place together. I still do not understand why he is okay with her being corrupt. I also don’t really understand why they’re going from talking about sheltering-in-place to George Floyd. How did we just skip from late March to late May? Are Adrian and corrupt gf having a conversation about sheltering-in-place two months into sheltering in place?  

Okay, I am not doing so good at this no-nitpicking thing. Again, I understand why they need to merge several scenes into one to keep things moving. And I guess they could just be getting around to this conversation.

I’m going to nitpick again, I can’t help myself. How did we just go from a scene of Adrian specifically talking about sheltering in place to a scene of Adrian bursting into a bustling and maskless DNC headquarters room? How!? The only masks in this scene are on TV!! There are like ten people in this scene!  

Anyway, more importantly, Adrian tells Ruth off and screams at her that she needs to listen to him instead of acting like she knows the way forward. He is completely right.  

Why is travel from London closing down in May 2020? Is it because this scene is supposed to be at a different place in the episode? Liz is asking Lucca to come back home from her three week stay in London (which has now lasted three months but travel is just now closing down), and Lucca’s hesitant to come home.

This is all happening via Zoom, btw. Lucca’s in her hotel, Diane and Adrian are at their respective homes, and Liz is in the office. All of this feels right. There is a chat off to the side of the screen where you can see Adrian and the others discussing how to unmute on Zoom. Very real. Though probably not very real in late May 2020. Feels more like April. I am convinced this scene got spliced in later to help the episode flow because everything in this scene (except the TV footage that definitely was added later) feels like it should be happening in the March section.  

Lucca mentions that Bianca offered her a job, and at this point we as viewers know how things are going to go—Lucca's going to end up taking it. Liz types in the Zoom chat that they don’t want to lose Lucca. When Lucca tells them how much Bianca’s offering ($500k/year, go Lucca!), Diane types “Shit.” into the chat. “Shit’s right,” Liz replies. “Yes... What should our counter be?” Diane replies. Lucca is kind enough to point out the messages are not private (again, this feels like March not May) but I think knowing that their reaction to topping $500k is “shit” tells her all she needs to know.  

Diane’s background still says that RBL is a division of STR Laurie. Weird how little we are hearing about the overlords except the 20% staff cut.  

Liz and Adrian chat and decide the only way to keep Lucca is to make her a partner. Which, yeah, if you’d just made her a partner years ago when you told her she was in the running for partner and then offered it to fucking MAIA, maybe she wouldn’t be considering Bianca’s offer. Lucca is definitely one of RBL’s stars, and I don’t think she’s wrong to feel like they don’t value her enough. They treat her well enough to be upset about losing her, but not well enough to have already made her partner and not well enough to actually give her authority (even though she runs a whole department). I’d be pretty unhappy too. It kind of feels sometimes like they take her for granted, and I don’t know that Lucca is one to feel like she owes a company anything. She’s more of an “I’m out for myself” type.  

Madeline and the other partner we’ve seen a few times who isn’t Liz/Diane/Adrian, walk into the office (wearing masks! Which they take off as soon as they enter a room with Liz! Without asking her if she is okay with this! TV logic!) and ask who is replacing Adrian. They think this is a good time to reevaluate having a white name partner of an African American firm, and they are spot on. Liz tries to deflect, noting that Diane is already a name partner and was before Liz even joined, but Madeline and other partner (whose name I really wish they would say so I can stop calling him “other partner”) won’t let up. Their position is that Diane shouldn’t have been made a name partner then—all she did was bring in ChumHum, an account that quickly left the firm. Good point.  

“What is this firm if it’s not African American? It’s just another midsized all-service Midwestern law firm, one of 50,” Madeline argues. The other partner says Liz needs to remove Diane and promote two African Americans to name partner. Liz laughs and asks if they mean themselves. Madeline does not—she's concerned about the number of black associates they’re letting go. Liz heads out, but this conversation is very much ongoing.

And I think it’s a very interesting dilemma! There’s a lot of mileage the writers can get out of this, because I don’t think there’s a right answer or a wrong one. It’s all about what Liz decides she wants the future of the firm to be. If Liz chooses Diane, she might be choosing something that works for her personally or that she thinks is a safer financial bet—but she’ll be choosing to work at a firm that can no longer be thought of as a black firm, and she’ll be choosing to move away from her father’s vision for the firm. And since the plot hinges on what Liz will decide rather than what’s objectively the right path forward, there’s a lot of interesting tension there I can’t wait to see.  

(My favorite thing about Adrian leaving is that Liz will likely get more to do, especially when it comes to managing the firm. Adrian tends to speak up first, but Liz is more than capable of managing without him and I’m so excited to see what she does when her ex-husband isn’t constantly talking over her.)  

Marissa and Lucca video chat with Jay. He’s still in the hospital. One thing that bugs me about how this episode handles COVID is that I never really get the sense that any of the characters are particularly afraid of the virus. Maybe none of them were. But you’d think you’d see a little of that fear, the weird dance of trying to assess others’ comfort levels with masking, etc., in an ep specifically about living through this time. ESPECIALLY since someone they all know and are close to has been hospitalized for MONTHS with this thing! It’s just so weird to go from a scene where people wear masks until they come in contact with other people (when masks matter the most) to a scene of someone in the hospital with COVID.  

And now Jay’s weird hallucinations start as his battery dies on the video chat. I really, truly, hated these hallucinations. I was ready to be done with these from the second they started. They’re weirdly shot, they go on for too long, and they feel like the clunkiest parts of Mind’s Eye when Alicia starts having a debate in her mind about atheism mixed with the (far superior) hospital episode of Evil.  

I don’t have much to say about these hallucinations except that I hated them a lot. When there’s the reveal that Jay is hallucinating a commerical, I almost came around on the hallucinations because that’s kind of funny and inspired. And then several more hallucinations popped up and they had a round table and Jesus got added to the mix and I was like, nope, this is bad in a very uninteresting way. I reject this.  

I feel like the Kings didn’t have much to say about COVID, the actual virus. This episode is definitely more about what the characters’ lives were like during COVID and not the pandemic itself. I think they likely got a lot of their COVID commentary out of their system with their zombie COVID show The Bite (I have not seen The Bite due to it airing on Spectrum On Demand, which I have no way of accessing. Like, I would have to move and then decide to pay for cable in order to watch it.) I also suspect a lot of their commentary on COVID isn’t going to be specific to the virus and is instead going to be about things like mask-wearing and vaccinations becoming political. And, really, that’s just a new variation on talking about polarization... and they’ve been talking about polarization for years.

In fact, they even wrote a whole series about an outbreak of a (space-bug-spread) virus that caused political polarization before Trump was even elected. BrainDead is basically commentary on the pandemic before the pandemic even happened. Soooooo I get why they are more interested in recapping 2020 than in doing a Very Special Episode about themes they’ve been talking about for years. (I still think they would’ve benefitted from at least one character being afraid of getting sick or getting their family sick.)  

There is likely some interesting content in these Jay hallucinations. I hate them so much I cannot find it. You know when you’re just on a completely different wavelength than the writers? This is an example of that.  

Also I’m not a fan of the shadowy directing. I think this is meant to look cooler than it does.  

Have I mentioned yet that I absolutely love the “Previously On” device for this episode? It’s such a fun, propulsive way to get through the slog of 2020. Scenes can be short and to the point, and each scene has to do a lot of lifting to fill in the gaps. I think that leads to scenes that are better constructed and telling on lots of levels—where are people when they’re quarantined? Who’s wearing casual clothes and when? What about this scene defines this character’s life at that moment in time?  

Bizarrely, even though this episode is pretty much all plot (this happens! Then that!), I actually found this to be one of the most character-driven episodes TGF has ever done. There’s a lot of story, but most of that story is about how the characters reacted to 2020 rather than overarching plots that will weigh on the rest of the season. This episode covers a lot of ground, but it does it with character moments that resonate.  

Now it’s July and Diane’s prepping to argue in front of the Supreme Court. Kurt’s helping her witness prep and it gets a little personal... and that ends up turning Diane on. Good to see McHart hasn’t lost its spark. (Remember how Kurt cheated on Diane in season 7 of Wife? No, me neither, because that never happened.)  

Corrupt judge is back. Adrian playfully tries to distract her from work. Then he takes a video call from Liz, who updates him on the conversation she had with John (so that’s his name) and Madeline. I guess that part of May was close to July? Anyway, Adrian isn’t surprised to hear that people are upset at the prospect of Diane being one of two name partners.  

Liz is at the office in workout clothes and I love it!

They’re losing 15 black associates (and Adrian and Lucca) and 4 white ones, Liz says. This sounds like a very big problem. (I’d be curious to know what that is as a percentage of the firm and how the racial composition shifts.)

Liz knows it’s not exactly up to her if Diane stays on as name partner (the other partners get a vote, but I think Liz knows she has a lot of sway here). She’s also wondering if Biden could win, and if so, would it be to the firm’s advantage to be black-owned? Interesting.  

“Well. If you’re thinking it, then Diane’s thinking it, too,” Adrian says. He’s right. “White guilt. It runs verrrrry deep on that one, huh?” Ha. He is right about that, too. I actually can’t decide which of these interpretations is correct, because it could be either even though they seem contradictory. (1) Is Adrian saying it with a hint of mockery because he knows Diane will fight for her partnership even as she would say she’s a huge supporter of black businesses? (2) Is he saying it because he knows Diane would have enough white guilt to realize what her presence as a partner means and think through the implications? I think it is, somehow, a combination. I’m interested in this line because this whole dilemma (from Diane’s POV) is something that’s very familiar. Diane’s always been an idealist who will betray her ideals for personal gain. That sounds like an attack, but I mean that as neutrally as I possibly can. There are so many examples of this that this is kind of just a character trait of hers at this point. Usually those ideals are about feminism, but this situation seems closely related.  

Adrian overhears Corrupt GF talking about Julius, Diane, and Memo 618. You would think she would wait to have this conversation until there is no chance of Adrian overhearing, because if Adrian overhears, he might...

... do exactly what he proceeds to do and hop into a car with Diane to give her a heads up. (I think I’m just going to have to accept that the mask usage rule on this episode is “we use masks to show that the characters would wear them, but we don’t want to have scenes where characters are fully masked because that’s annoying.” If that’s not the rule, then why else would Adrian be masked outside... and then take off his mask as soon as he gets into a confined indoor space with Diane?  

Baranski looks ESPECIALLY like Taylor Swift in this scene.  

Adrian tells Diane what he knows. He dug deeper after overhearing Charlotte, so he has even more info. “If you tell me, I will use it,” Diane warns. Adrian knows that, so he takes a moment to decide. And he decides that he cares more about Diane and Julius than about his relationship with a corrupt judge.  

Diane and Julius are masked in court. Visitor and the judge are not. They use masking in a clever way in this scene: Diane uses being masked to her advantage because it means no one can possibly read her lips, so she can use the info Adrian fed her against Charlotte without any fear of spies. Charlotte, who is unmasked, guards her lips with a folder, as the Visitor watches interestedly.  

Diane convinces Charlotte to recuse herself. Charlotte says she’s making a mistake; Diane does not care.  

The new judge is, unfortunately, the idiot who doesn’t know anything about the law. Uh oh.

Charlotte decides she’s done sheltering in place with Adrian. He tries to talk through the conflict, but Charlotte says “You made your choice, Adrian. Julius Cain over me.”

“The choice was about right and wrong, Charlotte,” Adrian tries to explain. I mean, yeah, but if you’re dating a judge who has admitted she’s totally corrupt, didn’t right and wrong go out the window a while ago?

Adrian seems to think the other people involved in the events are bad and Charlotte is good. I am not convinced. I don’t think she’s the big bad, but I don’t think she’s good.  

Charlotte points out that he invaded her privacy. She is right about that. “You said the choice was between right and wrong. Turning over my emails was the choice,” she said. I get her POV. But also, she is corrupt.  

I do not like the way the part of the scene where Adrian physically restrains Charlotte to keep her from leaving is shot. I don’t think this is an abusive scene but I think it should’ve been shot from a little farther back so we could see it’s more like Adrian reaching out in desperation than trying to choke Charlotte. Because it very much looks like he is trying to choke Charlotte.  

He tells Charlotte he loves her. She says it’s too late and leaves. “Maybe you won’t be with me. But you keep down this path... you’ll be done, I’m telling you, you’ll be done.”

I think something that I’ve been missing in these interactions is that I didn’t quite realize until this scene that the Adrian/Charlotte dynamic is more interesting than Adrian liking a corrupt judge. I think he truly believes Charlotte is a good person who got caught up in some bad stuff, and that she can bounce back from it. I’ve always seen Charlotte as someone who is corrupt for herself and then ended up going along with the corruption of others, too, so I’ve dismissed her and the relationship. This is the first scene that has felt real to me, and the first scene where she’s felt like more than a caricature. Kind of sad it’s the last she’ll get with Adrian—now I’m actually starting to find her interesting. Notice how in these last few sentences I’ve used her name instead of “Corrupt GF”!  

Charlotte says she loved Adrian too, but that’s not enough. Awww.

He can’t really be surprised though, can he?  

Now it is August and we get to see Diane and Liz react to the announcement of Kamala Harris as Biden’s VP pick, and I would like to thank the writers for giving me the opportunity to see Diane and Liz react to this. It’s kind of fan-service, but it’s also a nice tie-in to the girl-power theme of the Diane/Liz alliance.

Diane and Liz realize that Adrian’s probably not a good candidate for 2024 if the DNC only wants one black candidate and Harris is the clear front-runner. Liz suggests keeping him on as partner instead, in a way that very much implies this would be her ideal solution. Diane, being Diane, says she was liking the idea of an all-female firm. Liz hesitantly says she was too, and Diane senses the hesitation.

“Let’s look again at which associates to fire. I’m worried we’re losing too many African Americans,” Diane switches the subject. How have they still not made this decision? If any employees know downsizing is coming, and they’ve had months to act on it, assuming there are jobs elsewhere, people would’ve been jumping ship by now.  

But that’s not the point of this scene. The point of this scene is that Liz corrects Diane: “Black. You can just say Black people.” Very nice moment underlining the tension. Diane means well, but she’s still acting like a white lady who doesn’t know how to act around black people... and she wants to (and, I guess, already does) run a black firm. Major yikes.  

Marissa and Lucca are talking again. Marissa does not want to be in law school—she just wants to be a lawyer. Lucca won’t accept Marissa’s refusal to memorize meaningless rules: “Marissa. I know that you know how to play the game, but you have to pass the bar to get into a position to play the game.” Why does this line make me love Lucca? This line isn’t even anything amazing. It’s just a line that cuts through the bullshit and makes a good point.  

Marissa keeps going, insulting all of her peers and teachers, and Lucca figures out how to cut through that, too: she tells Marissa that she’d hire her as a lawyer if she killed someone, but only if Marissa passes the bar. Marissa is instantly intrigued.  

“Why are you leaving here? I’ll miss you,” Marissa says.  

“Because they won’t pay me what I deserve,” Lucca says in a matter-of-fact tone. “Anyway, I thought they fired you.”  

“But they didn’t mean it. It’s like the smoothie place—they kept trying to fire me and I just kept showing up,” Marissa replies. That checks out. (Love the callback!)  

Lucca tries to get Marissa to come over to England. Marissa shuts that down as Lucca gets a news alert—and it’s not good news.  

Our next date is September 18th, 2020 and I will get my nitpicks out of the way up front! I don’t really know why it is daytime for Lucca when she reads the news, considering it was already the evening in the States when the RBG news broke. And, also, it was Rosh Hashanah, so Marissa probably would not have been sitting in her bedroom studying... she most likely would’ve been with family or friends. OK I’M DONE. FOR NOW.  

Diane is getting ready for her arguments in front of the Supreme Court. It’s almost time! She’s in casual clothes but has on a wonderful mask. She’s standing in front of Kurt’s guns to make a point (love that she’s using her video call background to her advantage) and there are several people in her bedroom getting the tech all set up. I have noted before that they only built one set for Diane’s apartment, and it’s just a massive bedroom. Diane choosing to be in front of the guns does a nice job of cutting off my question about why she’d be arguing in front of the Supreme Court from her bedroom rather than the home office she absolutely would have.  

Kurt walks in and tries to shake hands... he’s clearly not very COVID paranoid, and Diane seems to be, and... that’s something I might have wanted to see? How was Diane okay with Kurt taking risks that also affected her?

Diane confirms she intentionally chose to stand in front of the guns. That’s when Kurt gets the push notification. He pulls Diane into the bathroom to show her the news. He hands her his phone and Diane’s face falls. She starts tearing up. “2020 just won’t let go,” she says, speaking for us all.

Normally I hate things that are like, we’re going to contrive this so the news hits at the worst possible moment! This works for me, because the Supreme Court plot for Diane feels more like something that exists to be a through line for the episode. It would also be a little hard to work in RBG’s death as a main plot point—and it is definitely important enough to be a main plotpoint—if it didn’t also affect something in the world of the show.  

Also, another reason I like this contrivance is that it makes it all the more powerful when Diane says, “It’s over. He gets to nominate someone. Another Kavanaugh! We’ll have a conservative court for the next 20 years. My whole fucking life!” She’s not thinking about how this affects her case (and that case is basically a life-long dream for her). She is thinking about way bigger things, and knowing that her mind goes to the bigger things before the personal with news like this really underlines how big of a deal RBG’s death was.  

Diane tells Kurt, “I don’t deserve you. You don’t agree with me.” “I can still feel bad for you,” he responds. He holds her while she cries.

Jay’s hallucination thing is back. Now Karl Marx is here. So is Jesus. I’m so done with this. It’s nice to get a break from writing.

Malcolm X is also on the roundtable and now they’re talking over each other in that way that everyone on this show always does. (RK gave an interview about Evil where he said he likes having the children on that show talk over each other because he grew up in a household like that. I did not need to read that interview to understand that RK likes scenes where people talk over each other.)  

If anything happened in those hallucinations, I missed it, because I didn’t pause the episode. Because I do not care about the hallucinations. Because I hate them.

Now it’s November 2020... Diane’s watching election results and rocking back and forth. She tells Kurt he can go watch Fox News in the other room (so they do have more than one room!). He says he’s fine—he thinks Diane needs it more.  

“Yes, but Kurt, if you stay, I know this isn’t sensible, but... Trump seems to get more votes whenever you’re sitting on this couch,” Diane tells him. Ha, I relate to this kind of superstition so hard. “Are you serious?” Kurt says. “I am so deathly serious,” Diane responds. “Whenever you’re sitting here, Arizona goes for Trump. Humor me, please. Just go in the other room.”  

When Kurt tries to kiss her, she pulls away: “No, no, no. No kiss. If you kiss me, we’ll lose Georgia.” This scene feels so, so real and perfectly captures what it was like (at least for me, though I don’t have a Republican husband or anything) watching election results come in.  

“Uh, if you lose, we’ll be fine, right?” Kurt asks. “Kurt, let me just say this. I’m only saying that we won’t be fine so that the universe will grant me a win,” Diane responds. This scene is so fun and so good! It simultaneously captures a relatable mood, adds some levity, gives us a window into Diane’s life, and shows some of the tensions in her marriage?! I want this all the time!  

Kurt leaves the room. Diane pours more wine.

Later, with Diane still rocking back and forth with anxiety (just you wait for the several more days this will drag on!), Kurt brings in the champagne. “That was for when Hillary won. I can only drink it if Biden wins,” Diane protests. Did I also refuse to drink any celebratory alcohol until things were absolutely certain? No comment.  

“It’s odd you progressives resisted religion. You seem to have a hundred religions to take its place,” Kurt says, speaking on behalf of the writers’ room. (This joke doesn’t get written if the writers don’t believe this and probably even see it in themselves.)  

“Go away, Trump. I mean Kurt,” she shoos him away. Have I mentioned yet I love this scene?  

“Love me even if you lose?” he jokes (though I do wonder if this isn’t that joking? I think it is, but he keeps saying it!) as Diane gestures at him to get out.  

I could do without the joke about Diane’s heart on the TV for a couple reasons. One, it goes on too long. Two, I was very worried something would actually happen to Diane. You’d think that would make the scene feel more tense, but it does not, because it takes me out of the moment.

“Ok, God. You know I don’t believe in you. But I will believe in you if Joe Biden wins. I’m sorry. I know that that’s not what Jesus taught. There’s nothing in the New Testament that says, ‘Believe in me, and I’ll make sure your candidate wins,’ but I need Joe Biden to win. I’m sorry, God, but I just do. I need some faith.” This is a little much but... yeah. Also, is this the first time Diane’s flat out said she’s an atheist? I think it is, though I’ve assumed as much for quite a while.  

The next day in court, masks are no longer required if you’re a series regular and votes are still being counted. I remember those days. Marissa thought Diane was checking in on Jay... Diane was not. She was checking on vote counts.  

Apparently Jay’s finally being released from the hospital!

Bad news for Julius—the idiot judge finds him guilty of some nonsense charge and sentences him to seven years in prison.  

Diane says not to worry, and Julius asks “Why not?” Good point.

Then we have election results! We skip, specifically, to December 14th and the electoral college vote. I’m a little sad we skipped over the huge party that was November 7th, but I get why they’d rather keep things moving along. I think showing November 7th in an uncomplicated way would’ve just been too close to fanservice. But, man, what a day.  

Diane, in a red hoodie with leopard print that she somehow manages to still look classy in, is ready to pop champagne. Then she hears that on January 6th, a joint session of Congress will count the electoral votes and there might be a debate. “Nope. If I open it now, something bad will happen,” she reasons. “I’ve waited four years. I can wait another few weeks.”

It’s been almost a year and they’re still somehow negotiating with Lucca, but I understand why they’d space this out across the episode. Otherwise we’d have to say goodbye to Lucca in the first like, 15 mins of the episode and all those scenes would be in a row. I can forgive (and still nitpick) choices like this when the reasoning behind them seems sound.  

Adrian says they don’t want to lose Lucca. He, Liz, and Diane are all in the conference room, and they ask Lucca for a yes or no on their latest offer by the end of the call. Diane offers Lucca partner—she'll be the youngest partner in the firm’s history—and she’ll get a $500,000/year salary. Adrian tries to sell her on being part of American history by being part of the firm.

“We are a black firm, Lucca, and we need you,” Liz says with a lot of passion for someone who knows she might very well partner with Diane. Diane looks at Liz with a bit of suspicion at this, wondering if Liz is showing her cards.  

Lucca manages to make the wifi malfunction (or she gets very lucky) and uses the disconnection to call Bianca for a counteroffer, even though they said they needed a yes or no on the spot.  

“They used George Floyd because they want you for less. They have never appreciated you as much as I do. All those scars, all that time being taken for granted and undervalued has made you a fighter. It’s made you someone I now want,” Bianca tells Lucca. She gives Lucca a counter offer of $1.3 million and the title of CFO. Lucca takes it. Is there really another choice? (If she were concerned about loyalty to the firm and the partnership was what she wanted, she probably would've just taken it.)  

(Also, the partners can’t really act like Lucca is making history by being the youngest partner ever when they passed her over for partner two years earlier and offered it to Maia! To MAIA! Who had like three years of work experience! And yes I was fine with Alicia and Cary getting partnership offers with four years but, one, that was a scam, and two, Alicia and Cary actually worked. Oh, I see I still hate Maia with a passion. Back to THIS season...)

Lucca apologetically informs Marissa she’s leaving and the offer was just too good to turn down. I believe it. I also believe Lucca wants that job more. What has loyalty to RBL gotten her? She's someone so talented and good at her job that she just gets job offers from acquaintances all the time (starting with Alicia!). RBL appreciates her, but just enough to appease her while still undervaluing her. I don’t know that I would’ve believed a plot where Lucca actively job hunts, but I definitely believe this.

“Marissa, we don’t have to work together to be friends,” Lucca tells Marissa. I’m going to miss this so much. Why is this the best material Lucca’s gotten in ages?! I think one of the things that makes Lucca such a great character is that you can see why everyone instantly wants her on their team. She’s a fantastic friend (without giving too much of herself), she’s not a pushover, and she is incredibly sharp and able to get to the heart of any situation. I love her and I’m sad we won’t get to see more of her.  

(On that bit about friendship—I can’t write about Lucca’s departure without writing about the moment I realized just how great of a character Lucca was. It was in 7x13, when Alicia has her breakdown that’s seven seasons in the making... and Lucca supports her. But the writing, and Cush’s performance, never make it feel like Lucca exists to be a part of Alicia’s story. Lucca seems like her own fully formed person who happens to be supporting Alicia at this moment. I don’t think I can overstate how tough of a task it is to get me to care about the other person in a pivotal Alicia scene, especially when that other person was added to the cast in the final season and many suspected she’d just be a replacement for a different beloved character! Anyway, Lucca’s been great for years, and I’ll miss her.)  

Just when I thought I couldn’t hate the hallucinations more, we get a hint that they are going to continue: Jay sees one right after he learns that Marissa’s used her quarantine to start law school and he’s done nothing.  

Jay says he carries a gun now and it’s “performative.” I have no idea what that means and Marissa and Lucca don’t seem to, either.  

Another thing I like about Lucca’s final scene is that it isn’t rushed. We have time for all that, and also for Lucca to tell Marissa about the time she stole her breakfast sandwich, and for Marissa to react to it, and for Marissa to find Lucca’s Birkin bag, and for Lucca to tell Marissa to keep it, and for Marissa to react to that, and for Lucca to sappily say “think of me when you use it,” and for Marissa to nonsensically reply, “you think of me when I use it,” and there’s still a little bit more of the scene after that!  

Marissa’s silly line makes Lucca tear up. “God, I’m gonna miss you guys,” she says. “I’m gonna miss this. You make me smile. I didn’t smile much before you guys.” Awwwwwww. This is also so true to character! Her friendship with Alicia aside, Lucca’s definitely said before she’s not one to have friends (which is hilarious because she is, as I've said like 100 times, a fantastic friend and also just like, the coolest person??? Who wouldn’t want to be HER friend?!).  

She says she has to go because she’s getting too emotional and says goodbye. She’s also super sappy and when Marissa says, “you were the best,” she responds that they were the best TOGETHER! Awwwwwww.  

What a nice, fitting goodbye for Lucca. There’s no bad blood or fireworks—she just makes a change like a lot of people do. I’d like to think she’ll still be friends with Marissa and Jay after this. I don’t want too many Lucca references in future episodes, but I would really like it if we see Marissa and Jay update each other on the latest from Lucca, or if a scene begins with Marissa closing out an Instagram post from Lucca of her kid, or something. I wouldn’t want clues about what Lucca’s up to, but I’d love to see that she’s still a part of Marissa and Jay’s lives.

Now it is January 6th. Liz, Adrian, and Diane sit on the floor of the mostly empty office, watching TV coverage and drinking. It’s so relaxed it’s almost surreal, and it, like many other moments in this episode, feels like a slice of life. Everyone’s dressed casually and no one is worried about appearances or looking like the boss.  

“God, have you ever seen anything like it. It’s so fucked,” Diane says. Adrian’s more optimistic—the courts rejected most of the challenges to election results! “System worked,” he says. “Yay.” Liz says in response. She’s not as optimistic as he is.  

“Liz. Liz. Sometimes when things work out, there is no parade. There’s no congratulations, but I’ll tell you this: We live to fight another day,” he explains to her even though she makes a good point that a system just barely hanging on doesn’t bode well for the future. (She doesn’t say all this, but that’s a very loaded, “Yay.”)  

“Yeah? Then why are you leaving the law?” Liz asks. Diane seconds to the question.

Adrian announces he’s still retiring—and he’s moving to Atlanta. He wants to go to the south to help “create and consolidate political power.” He’s excited to start over and inspired by Georgia going blue. This is a very nice exit for Adrian. I fully believe that he’s interested in political organizing, that he’d be good at it, and that he’s ready for a change. I don’t think he’s always the most progressive person (of the three in this scene, Liz is absolutely the most progressive one, though Diane probably thinks she is!), but I absolutely think he thinks of himself as an activist and I believe that if he’s going to step away from the law, he’d do so to make a move like this.  

Adrian—and Lucca, but especially Adrian—probably both got better exits thanks to the events of 2020. If Adrian had just left to be groomed by the DNC, that would’ve been a predictable and boring ending for him. His candidacy would, obviously, go nowhere, and the whole thing felt weird from the minute it was introduced. But this? Adrian being energized—like so many others were—by the ways the world changed in 2020 and using his already announced departure from the firm and recent breakup as a chance to start over and make change? This is great!  

Adrian asks Liz and Diane what’s next for them. Liz says that she thinks the Biden admin will be better for black businesses. Adrian asks if they’re replacing him, and Diane says, “I think the big question is, are you replacing me?” She’s smart. I like how this scene goes from friendly to tense very fast, with everyone kind of testing the waters. Adrian tries to force the conversation, Liz opens with something vague yet pointed, and Diane speaks what’s previously been unspoken.

Liz says it’s not her intention to push Diane out. “I can’t change the color of my skin,” Diane replies. “I know,” Liz laughs. Audra’s delivery is fantastic on that line.  

“Hey, I’m gonna fight for my partnership,” Diane says. “I know,” Liz says. The tone of this scene is so different from previous partnership drama on these shows and I’m excited about it. This is just a bunch of adults talking about business decisions with each other and treating each other as equals?? It's not backstabbing?? Or drama?? No one is hiding things?? It’s refreshing and I hope this plot stays like this. We’ve done so much partnership drama that I think drama that stems from a real, pressing question that has no easy answers and isn’t anyone’s fault is going to be much more fruitful for the show.  

Adrian heads out—ah, I see now this scene is set in his empty office and this is why they are on the floor—and gets a nice last moment with Diane. And then they give him a last moment with Liz, which I knew they would but was still glad to see.  

Liz asks if he knows what he’s doing—he says he’s not sure.

Adrian asks if Liz knows where she stands regarding Diane. “It’s going to be interesting,” Liz says. I don’t think she’s decided what she’s going to do yet.

It wouldn’t be an Adrian and Liz scene if Adrian didn’t have some unsolicited advice. “Diane’s a terrific lawyer, but this firm belongs to you.  Your dad built it. He did, Liz. Despite all his faults. You got to run this place the way you want. This is a black firm. And after today, the world needs black firms. You got me?” He tells Liz. He makes it seem like Liz gets the choice and then tells her what to do. She says, “I got it,” signaling she understood him but not that she necessarily agrees.  

I cannot wait to see what Liz does next!!!!!!! About this but just in general!!!!! Without Adrian there giving her constant advice I feel like she can grow so much and the show will have to give her more to do!!! I think Adrian, for all his many wonderful qualities and all he brought to the show, can suck all the air out of a room with his charisma, and Liz usually ends up suffering as a result. She’s such a capable lawyer in her own right, but Adrian has a way of making it always seem like he’s right—even in arguments she wins. I’m excited to see Liz lead (or stumble at leadership; she is fairly new to management) without Adrian’s direct influence.  

Liz walks Adrian out and it’s cute. They run into Marissa and Jay. “Everybody fun is leaving,” Marissa notes. Liz is minorly offended, but playfully. Heh.

Adrian asks Jay how he’s doing; Jay says he’s a long-hauler but he’s doing okay. I like that they included that moment in Adrian’s goodbye sequence. It’s a very little thing, but it underlines that Adrian cares about Jay.  

Then Liz interrupts to note that Trump pardoned a lot of convicted and corrupt Republican officials....... including Julius.  

Everyone celebrates, but especially Diane and Marissa. Diane lets out her wonderful laugh and then we, finally, get to the credits. Because now that the previouslies are over, it’s time for the real show.

The credits are absolutely delightful, btw. I was a little worried some of the kittens would blow up, though! Once I relaxed and realized what they were up to—literal puppies and kittens because Biden won—I couldn’t get enough of these credits. They work so well because they accurately capture the way I (and all of these characters, except maybe Julius and Kurt) feel about the election results, but it’s so exaggerated that you know the kittens and puppies aren’t a realistic representation of our new reality. They’re just too good to be true, but you may as well enjoy them for a minute. I’m sure we’ll be back to exploding vases next week.

What a great episode! My timeline nitpicks and whatever they’re trying to do with Jay aside, I was blown away by how well the writers managed to move on from season 4, tie up loose ends, and write out two main characters. And they did it all while making me revisit the events of 2020, a year I don’t think many of us want to spend much time thinking about! This episode was enjoyable, fun, emotional, and clever. I don’t know what to expect from the rest of the season, but I’m definitely excited about the show in a way I haven’t really been in quite some time.  

This season’s naming convention seems to be titles that end with ... and only have the first word capitalized. I want to see more. 

Season FIVE? There have already been as many TGF seasons as there were TGW seasons prior to Hitting the Fan?! Time flies. 

Please writers: No topical episodes this year-- no pee tape, no Melania divorce, no Epstein. None of that business. 

Sorry if I repeated myself here. I never proofread these things, and I wrote half of this on Saturday and half of it today (Wednesday) and the days in between were an absolute blur so I cannot remember if I said the same things about this episode twice. 

[burnedbyshoto]

i’d like to preface this with this is my opinion and only my opinion. you are free to agree and disagree with what I say and point out my idiot takes too. I also do very much love uraraka though, she’s a cutie.

uraraka ochako is an interesting character. she’s definitely not one of a kind, never seen or done before, but if hori is taking her character in the direction where im assuming it’s going, I think it’ll be fucking sick as hell. after all, I don’t want female characters who are physically strong — that’s easy to write and easier to write off — I want emotionally and internally complex female characters and this added element is definitely a way to get her there.

her biggest character complexes are revealed and can stem off of a single relationship of hers. that with himiko toga.

there are a lot of parallels between uraraka and toga. from the get go, the most obvious one being their feelings towards izuku. their crush, their obsession with him. 

I do apologize now about the frantic scatteredness of this because I am no meta writer, but im trying to piece this together in a logical way.

himiko toga’s background was revealed to us in the war between the LOV and the MLA. she was someone who, most likely due to the influence of her quirk, lusted over the blood of people she liked. now, through the horrors and need to be normal, togas family forced her to be “normal,” to hide her true self and feelings from the rest of the world because it wasn’t accepted. she does not hesitate to speak about how she hated having to keep her true feelings in, how she was deceived by the world into being someone she’s not. so now, she gives into her crushes, her obsessions, her wants, and her needs. himiko toga’s most memorable traits is her admittance to wanting to become the person she loves the most.

how does this parallel to uraraka???

easy.

who does uraraka want to become :)

upon uraraka’s initial introduction she was brought as a character who held nothing back, someone who was to become a hero because of the paycheck, not because she wanted to save people. she didn’t care so much as other people, she cared more about her family. 

now, there’s nothing wrong with this of course! shes 16 -- 15 then -- years old, and possesses the ability to do as she pleases. no one in bnha is quite as ambitious and self-sacrificing and heroic as izuku is (which is a whole other problem but thats for another time), and that’s okay. you’re not supposed to have the integrity to throw your life away for strangers at 15, it’s okay to be selfish.

however, where things start taking the twist with uraraka is the simple question brought forward by aoyama. a simple question if she likes him.

its interesting already that he asks her this, especially given what uraraka is thinking when asked. at this moment, she’s trapped and is thinking of what izuku would do in this situation. this occurs right after the sports festival arc where uraraka denied izuku’s help in facing off bakugou, where she watched izuku break his entire body to save shouto, and where she began to develop some sort of feelings and emotions for izuku during the calvary battle.

now, why does this matter? well, the turn down of izuku’s help and her ability to perform soundly against bakugou tells me that she probably didn’t ever need to wonder just what izuku would do against her battle with thirteen. the beginning of her feelings (whether they are true feelings or just straight up obsession) towards izuku gives her that tie with toga, and just for lols, toga enjoys seeing a beat up, busted izuku and well, uraraka got to see him busted up post shouto fight.

so when aoyama asks his simple question, suddenly uraraka is vividly aware of her feelings towards izuku and loses her concentration and flies straight towards thirteen and etc. while I don’t mean to be like,,,, there’s only one way to do things, but I find it hard to believe a 15/16 yo girl couldn’t tell that her feelings for izuku were romantic at that point... so yeah lol.

I did say true feelings or obsession in a previous paragraph, and I will now dive into them.

as uraraka continues to progress as a character she also changes the reason why she’s a hero. it becomes identical to that of izuku who becomes a hero to save everyone, and similarly, uraraka says the same. but, in order to do so, she must suppress her emotions/feelings/obsession for izuku in the time being because shes not an idiot and knows she doesn’t have time for that relationship and midoriya ‘I-have-a-death-wish’ izuku doesn’t either.

we see from togas experience that suppressing and hiding your true self/form only does you wrong in the end too.

interestingly, uraraka also changes a bit of her hero costume to imitate that of izuku. again, there’s nothing wrong with imitation because izuku’s entire career is based on imitation and making others original moves his own, but uraraka’s is always focal to that of izuku. 

izuku this. izuku that. what about izuku.

he’s a common name to her thoughts, which can be normal to that of a highschool girl with a crush, her suppression of her feelings and desire and clouded judgment for izuku is her undoing, and her crazy parallel to toga.

toga used to suppress her blood lust for the sake of appearing and being normal.

uraraka suppresses her crush on izuku for the sake of appearing and being normal.

toga loves to imitate, replicate, and become her crush.

uraraka imitates, replicates, and wants to be like her crush.

togas use of imitation is seen as a bad thing.

urarakas use of imitation is seen as a good thing.

toga is no longer trying to be someone she’s not (minus her use of her quirk).

uraraka is trying to be someone she’s not (her want to be like izuku).

in chapter 289 we see their interactions, how toga dances and weaves around uraraka as we try to get an answer about why uraraka believes in the things that she does, and while she’s honestly not wrong in her explanations (again she’s 16 and by no means should be perfect. toga’s overall convoluted approach on her entire question wouldve confused me too) she’s emulating and mimicking midoriya izuku. 

urakaka has grown complacent, she has become someone she isn’t and in her daze to be something she’s not, she’s suppressed and frantic. she’s become a character that people are questioning because where on earth did the girl we once knew go?

I can’t say much about her true feelings and whether or not how she feels for izuku are real, but I firmly believe that if hori is doing what im thinking, there’s going to be a lot of self-reflection and possible realizations that uraraka might not truly have a one-sided crush on izuku and for the meantime become someone she wants to be, much like toga is finally someone she wants to be too.

but thats just me lol.

~

twitter thread I read. I don’t agree with all of it, but most of it!!!!

i do apologize if none of this made sense, i’m not quite good at explaining my rationale ;-;