#i can’t emotionally handle another cool show being cancelled

[annaktheslightlygay]

The One Where She Closes the Door (pt. 2)

What happens if Beca never worked up the courage to ask Chloe how she felt, in her doorway at 12am. What if Chloe came to her door instead?

Dread filled Beca’s veins. 

“Can we have a conversation?” Chloe said, shutting Beca’s door. 

“My suitemates aren’t home,” Beca said, in response. 

“Okay,” Chloe said with a little laugh. “Is that supposed to be an innuendo?” Beca watched as she went over to the bed. Beca stayed where she was, suddenly feeling like this room wasn’t possibly big enough for the both of them.

“It’s supposed to be a fact.”

“I see.” Chloe heaved herself onto Beca’s bed, settling down on the end with the pillows as she waited for the younger girl to join her. 

“I- sorry,” Beca began. “Let me change.” Chloe had made some comments before on how it was Beca’s room, and how she could change whenever she wanted. Beca always felt like she wanted to run out of the room though, away from Chloe’s prying eyes– not because she felt uncomfortable, but because she knew the older girl would look at her, and she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that. Still, Beca stayed in the room, pulling open the drawer near Chloe’s overhanging feet to grab a t-shirt. 

“That’s a cool font.” 

“Thanks,” said Beca, slowly, showing all of her teeth. Chloe tried not to compliment her, she’d noticed. Mostly just not in public, maybe behind closed doors was a whole different story. Beca gave the other girl a smile, as she pulled the shirt over her head, not bothering to take off the one underneath. 

When Beca had gotten dressed this morning, she hadn’t been thinking of changing in front of Chloe. But Chloe, like she always did, said that she needed help on a class project that she simply couldn’t do by herself. Which like– to be fair– she couldn’t. It’s not like the Bella could film herself; she needed an extra pair of hands, and Beca was happy (okay, willing) to provide. 

“I’m nervous, now,” Beca said as she pulled her hair out of her collar. “What did I do?” 

Chloe simply shrugged. 

“You’re not talking...” Beca said, struggling to get on the bed. Her natural inclination was to sit near her (she loved it when the two of them would touch, just a bit) but something about this conversation felt different. Beca scooted to the end of the bed, moving her body a bit to make sure she wouldn’t fall off the end.

Chloe smiled, and looked away. 

“Is this something I should be nervous for–”

“I’m nervous, Beca,” Chloe interrupted. Beca’s ears perked up with that. Primarily because Chloe called her Beca and something about the way she used her name was so intimate, so real, though Beca had a hard time placing it. And second– because Chloe was nervous. Chloe was never nervous. Okay, she was– and Beca knew her tells (twisting her hair up and down, walking around the room, shaking her leg off the side of the bed, like she was doing now.) But Chloe hardly ever admitted to it. In fact, Beca didn’t think she’d ever heard Chloe admit it aloud. It made Beca sweat. 

Despite her racing heart, Beca kind of knew what was coming. Or rather, she’d hoped the conversation that they were about to have was the one she’d been trying to start for the past week. 

“It’s just me, dude,” Beca said, resisting to place her hand on the other girl’s thigh. “Don’t worry about it,” she reiterated, following her words with what she hoped was an easy smile. She could imitate a calm person when she needed to– she just hoped Chloe didn’t see her wipe her palms on her sheets. 

“I– I think we need to talk,” Chloe started. 

Is that not what we’re doing right now?

“I,” Chloe looked at Beca, who smiled. “I really want to kiss you.” Beca looked down, lips turning into a smile. She could not imitate a chill-and-totally-cool person at that. Still, she looked up at Chloe as she felt her breathing increase. 

Chloe looked at her, eyes flicking down to her lips. 

“Ughhhh,” Chloe let out a groan, falling forward, nearly into Beca’s lap. Beca placed her hand on the other girl’s head, smiling and laughing too. 

God, this was awkward. Somehow, Beca couldn’t bring herself to respond. She just smiled as the other girl sat up. 

“I just... this is really hard. I thought when I became your RA.. there’s just a power dynamic and I... don’t ever want to pressure you...” 

“I don’t really see that. I mean- I know you’re my RA and stuff but when we’re hanging out, I just don’t see that. I don’t really see that until we have to do those awkward meetings with my roommates even though you’ve been over here every night this week...”

“You know I tried to get you out of that.” 

Beca let out a little laugh. “Really?”

“Yeah, tried to schedule it when I knew you had another meeting going on. And yet, you still showed up.” 

Beca laughed shaking her head. She remembered canceling her prior meeting. Any excuse to see you.

“God, I was so nervous to be your RA. I just– I didn’t know how to handle it.” 

I think you were nervous to see me again.

“I don’t think that changes things– for me, at least.”

“I just never want to pressure you, and no offense, but we met when you were a freshman...” 

“I’m technically a junior now, if that makes any difference.” 

Chloe shook her head, smiling.

“It makes me nervous, too. Because between the two of us...” Chloe stopped, trying to word her point without offending the other girl. “I really bring up our average of innocence. Like is that fair to say?”

Beca’s face flushed a bright red. “Yes,” she practically grumbled. It was a bit of a sore subject, she had to admit. It wasn’t her fault no girl actually wanted to date her, so she brought nearly no experience to the table. Is that the dealbreaker?

“I have to admit... when I thought about what I want in a relationship, and what I saw in you...” Beca took a quick glance to her photographs on the wall, wanting to look anywhere but Chloe’s eyes. “Some things did align.” Not everything. Like the fact that you smoke, or that you think stealing is okay, or that you have to have the most attention on you of anyone in a room. But some things - like your passion for music (and for anything really,) your ability to work through your emotions...

“You keep saying the word ‘relationship’.”

Well saying I want to fuck you just seems a little bit crude. 

“I am open to things that aren’t a relationship... I just.. I don’t know what I don’t know, ya know? Like I won’t know if I like things until I try them.”

“But emotionally...”

“I trust you,” Beca bagan. “I... don’t really know what I want to say yet. But just know I have a very positive reaction to this,” Beca said, with an attempt at a shy smile. Meanwhile, her brain was screaming: ‘ARE WE HAVING SEX? DO YOU WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH ME? I WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH YOU. I THINK! UNLESS IT’S AWKWARD?’

“I uh, I haven’t been in a relationship since I was 17,” was the only thing Beca could manage to say.

“Yeah, but that’s not that long. Like what– senior year, and then you had a semester here before everything went to shit...” Chloe stopped. “And now we’re here. You know, for all I talk about in high school, I only had seven relationships.” 

Beca deadpanned. 

“But I’ve only had two in college. Unless you count that Bernie Sanders girl,” Chloe added.

That was the girl you stopped seeing right after you met me. (Beca didn’t want to read into things.)

“Plus, global pandemic,” Beca added. Chloe gave her a nod. 

“Plus that.”

“I... I also don’t want to take that away from you, though. Like... they,” Chloe gestured to Beca’s wall, indicating her would be suitemates, “can’t know.” Would this be an awkward time to say that when I was mad at you/ the universe at the beginning of the semester that I told them you were my ex or no? Because I did? But I’m *pretty* sure they don’t care. 

Beca chuckled nervously. 

“I don’t want to take away you not being able to talk about your first relationship with a woman.” 

“That’s fair,” Beca said.

“And the girls can’t know....” Chloe stopped, her body wiggling against the pillows. “I, again, I don’t know. This seems unfair.” 

“I don’t know either, if that helps.” Chloe gave her a look like ‘it doesn’t, but thanks.’

“You just... you put your hand on my thigh...” Chloe started, a cheeky smile. 

Oh god, I’m going to die.

“Sorry, I’m not going to say that I’m not obvious. You know that I like you.” It was Beca’s smoothest response yet.

“We barely knew each other when we left. And I– at the time– Aubrey told me that she liked me, too.”

Suddenly, all the Snapchats from the summer that Chloe sent from Aubrey’s bed were threatening to make Beca retroactively jealous. If there was such a thing.

“But she’s dating Stacie...” 

“Yes, now she is.”

“I- in the summer,” Beca started. “I didn’t know how to feel. Fat Amy was always telling me that you liked me, that you had a crush on me, all those things. But I didn’t know how much of it was true, and how much of it was just Fat Amy being Fat Amy, you know?”

 Chloe nodded. “I tend to have crushes on a lot of people, Beca.” 

That hurt a bit, but at least it was honest.

“You make this hard, though, like I don’t know what to do.” There was a beat of silence, and Beca used it to look around the room, once again resisting Chloe’s eyes. 

“I don’t know what to say.” Beca wished she could say something bolder. But right now she was just trying to process. “Do you... is there something you want me to say? Like something you want to ask?” Beca asked.

Read: I have no idea what this means or what to do now or how to end this conversation but just like know I’m really attracted to you and would fuck you if asked. 

“No, I just... yeah,” came the response.

Beca couldn’t meet Chloe’s eyes; she glanced over to her desk instead. 

Chloe followed her gaze, a bit amused. “What are you looking at?” 

“I– nothing. I just wanted to know what time it was.” (It was barely 10 pm, and Beca knew this. She just needed something else to say.) 

“Here,” Chloe hopped of the bed, and handed the younger girl her phone. 

“Ten ohhh-five.” Beca said, reading the time like an idiot. 

The bubble they’d created was nearly broken. 

--

Chloe must have left the room at some point (no doubt somewhat of an awkward goodbye, on Beca’s part. Because all she remembers from that point onward was reeling for the rest of the night. She remembers waking up at 2am, and texting Jesse that she was freaking out. Then waking up at five and working on her mixes for the next 3 hours before class. 

Somehow, she doesn’t know where she landed with Chloe– so she sends her ill-written text at 3pm the next day.

[ks-caster]

It’s Like Watching Fanfiction – An (Un)Necessarily Long Critique of The 100 Seasons 6 and 7

Ah, the familiar cry of the content-starved fan, particularly as our favorite shows descend into the depths of mischaracterization, unexpected ships, hiatus, abrupt cancellation and shock-value death endings. I’ve said it myself about so many of my shows, while wanting to spend some time watching the characters but not wanting to re-hash episodes I’ve nearly memorized: “I wish I could just watch fanfiction!”

But the further into seasons 6 and 7 I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to realize that my dream of having new and exciting possibilities for the characters come miraculously to a screen near me wouldn’t be the pleasant experience I’d imagined.

Now, depending on the type of ending you like – hopeful but with a lot of lose ends left to your imagination, or bittersweet but more definite, you could consider either seasons 1-4 or 1-5 their own complete stories.

Both seasons 4 and 5 ended in a way that suggested an unknown but likely positive future. They could have been considered conclusions for the main characters’ developmental arcs, and while season 5 went a little off the rails in terms of offscreen character development and sudden new characters, they both stayed fairly close to the original concept: survivors living in the ruins of the apocalypse. All four (or five) seasons emphasized the importance of the found family dynamic (although those dynamics shifted radically in season 5 due to the time-skip, they remained an important source of character motivation).

But seasons 6 and 7? Those feel like I’m watching fanfiction. And I don’t love it.

A story told on a whole new planet with a new environment, culture and cast of original characters was always going to feel like an AU – it sort of is, no matter how you swing it. If that was all that had changed, then I think the story would still feel cohesive.

If it weren’t for the timey whimey bullshit.

Now, fun fact: when reading fanfiction, I love time travel stories. I haven’t posted any myself but I’ve sought out and read them voraciously, for every fandom I’m in. I love the idea of characters meeting themselves or their friends at radically different ages, plot points and levels of experience and the way that changes things for both groups. (Yes, I’m also a Whovian if that wasn’t blatantly obvious). I also love a good amnesia arc. And I DID think that the Josephine/Clarke body possession thing was pretty cool.

So why did season 6 and most* of season 7 fall as flat for me as they did?

The simple fact is that some things – and characters’ emotional dynamics are one of those things – are so much easier to get across in writing than on screen. A good actor can make us feel the character’s emotions, but unless the film goes full-on Clarke’s mind space, we can’t really know what they’re thinking in individual moments. For the most part film as a genre has ways around this, but if it’s mishandled, then the emotional beats come off all wrong. (See for reference Tony Stark’s funeral where half the actors didn’t know what was going on due to Disney’s spoiler fears.)

If you’re going to include time skips in which things have happened and character dynamics have changed, you cannot handle it wrong.

Which brings us back to seasons 6 and (so far) 7 of The 100. So far to date we’ve had all of this occur either offscreen or asynchronously enough to be confusing to an audience watching the episodes in real time:

Jordan’s entire life prior to meeting Napkru in the waking world

Octavia’s character development while living on Skyring with the Diyozas

Hope’s first 22 years of life, on Skyring and (I presume) Bardo

Echo, Hope and Gabriel living on Skyring for 5 years with Orlando

Going back a little further, we also have the season 5 timeskip, which brought us Spacekru as found family, Clarke adopting tiny!heda, and Octavia building Wonkru. Now season 5 took care to show us Wonkru flashbacks and dedicate time to show Spacekru and the Griffin family loving on each other, making inside jokes etc. But it was still incredibly jarring for the audience in a lot of ways, because at the end of the day, we’ve spent four years with the character dynamics and development doing one thing, and no amount of telling us that they’ve had 6 years to do another thing while our time with them only lasted about one year in comparison is ever going to undo the importance of “show don’t tell.”

Let’s take Bellarkers’ beef with Becho for example. (Disclaimer: Since I don’t really have a strong opinion either way on the popular Bellamy ships, I hope that I’m representing what I’ve read from other people accurately.)

I understand cognitively that Bellamy and Clarke knew each other for one year (during which they were in a lot of intense situations that really didn’t leave them the emotional space to figure out how they felt about each other outside of “I don’t want to lose this person”) and Bellamy and Echo knew each other for seven years (six of which they had plenty of low-stress time to get to know each other, grow and mature side-by-side, etc.).

But that doesn’t compute on an emotional level when I as a watcher went straight from watching Bellamy and Raven tearfully eulogizing Clarke on the ring, to him turning up with a coffee mug and a plucky attitude to rescue her the second he finds out she’s alive and in trouble. I don’t think that could compute emotionally for me without having spent the last few years watching the dynamics shift and Becho happen. And that was with the writers giving me as a watcher an episode at the end of season 4 where Bellamy stops Echo from killing herself and connects with her on an emotional level, and then one at the beginning of season 5 where we got to see the spacekru dynamics, including them being together.

So we’re watching this show, many of us for the found family character relationships (god knows it’s not for all the positive happy feeling I get from watching *checks notes* ah, yes, characters having to constantly choose who to kill off in a string of increasingly huge and horrible genocides. *Side-eyes my life choices for getting into this fandom in the first place.*) Okay, we’re watching this show for the characters, and between seasons 4 and 5, many of those dynamics radically shift offscreen. Becho is the easiest and probably most talked-about example (well, and the Blake siblings, but the radical change shown in Octavia’s character between 4 and 5 makes that at least a little easier to choke down) but there are plenty of others, take your pick.

Although it makes perfect sense for a lot to change between separated groups of people in a half dozen years, it makes a lot less sense to an audience watching week to week, particularly when the show’s limited amount of screen time was too focused on plot to really delve into those changes and let us see and understand them. That was what made me think that the show was headed into jump the shark territory in season 5, but I really wanted to know what happened to my faves (Octavia, Raven and Memori, to be specific) so I kept watching.

Our fandom’s excellent writers spent the hiatus crafting mid-time-skip vignettes and missing character moments, and I spent the hiatus reading them. And I remember thinking that it would have been great if even a quarter of this content could have been put into the show to ease the audience into the dynamic shifts – but of course they’d never have the screen time to do all of that.

Especially, coming back to the main point, since written fiction allows the audience to see inside the characters’ heads, while television (usually) does not. It’s much easier to write a scene in which, say, two characters who have known each other for 7 years show that they’ve gotten into a relationship some time before the scene, and convince the audience that their relationship is good and healthy and genuine, than it would be to produce one for TV.  

And then we come to seasons 6 and 7 – the 2-part AU longfic, stuffed full of OCs, loosely connected to the “science” of the original show, and heavily reliant on memory-bending time travel as a plot device.

As season 6 airs, the audience hasn’t really had a chance to process all the radical changes from season 5, and already we have a Marper child running around furthering the plot, and Octavia walks into the Green Flash from Pirates of the Caribbean and walks back out with a personality transplant.

Meanwhile, Clarke gets an actual personality transplant, and it takes even the people closest to her a concerningly long time to notice. Now, if I’d read that in a fic, the writer might’ve taken care to remind me as a reader – particularly after a long hiatus between seasons – that with the exception of Madi none of Clarke’s friends have seen her for more than a couple of weeks in 6 years, so them not noticing for a while that she’s behaving strangely isn’t really all that strange. But on TV, I don’t get to see Gaia’s thoughts when Clarke lets Madi go to school despite the danger – Tati Gabrielle’s facial expressions can only do so much to make up the difference. Because the time spent apart was not (and really could not be, based on the structure of the show) properly acknowledged on screen, scenes like that one leave audiences floundering and pointing out bad writing.

Having watched 7x02 The Garden, I think if I went back and watched season 6 after Octavia returns from the Anomaly, her conduct – especially around Bellamy – would make a lot more sense. (That was the plan for this weekend actually – but my damn Wi-Fi conked out…) However at the time it just seemed weird and unnatural. Had it been the only example of off-screen or asynchronous character development, it would have been a lot easier to swallow. However, season 5 happened, meaning both that I was still getting used to all of the new dynamics and that I had a higher standard for Octavia’s off-screen development, because we got enough bunker flashbacks that I felt like I at least understood Blodreina.

What would have made the whole thing make a lot more sense a year ago would have been if the hair and makeup department had made an effort to make her look older, so that we could see time had passed for her. Now, Marie is 33 in real life, and so was the Octavia who figured out that up is down and got Davy Jones Locker to send her back ran out of the Anomaly, so yes, that is what an actual 33-year-old looks like, and the media has distorted my perception of age. But from an audience perspective, I saw an actress playing a 23-year-old go in, and the same actress playing the same 23-year-old come out.

Gabriel pointed out that her hair was longer, but that only accounted for a few months of time. Since she went in looking dirty, wounded and exhausted, and came out clean, healthy and energetic, she could have passed for younger before I would have thought she was older. (In fact, I want to say there was a theory circulating at that time that the Octavia who came out of the Anomaly was actually a younger version of herself, and she was missing memories because she’d never formed them. I don’t remember whose theory this was though. If you know or if it’s your content I’m referencing please feel free to let me know and I’ll edit!)

In addition, the shifting loyalties in Wonkru near the end of season 5 complicated the character situation – in season 6, the majority of Wonkru peeps (lookin’ at you, Miller and Indra) switched over to the commander’s side. While Indra didn’t really have enough screen time to express an opinion about Octavia, Miller was very clear in season 6 that she was anathema now – which although that was probably a semi-reasonable step for his character, it just felt like someone took his Bellamy-and-or-Clarke-following season 1-4 character and popped it into his season 6 costume without taking the time to address the road he took to get there.

Post-lockerAnomaly Octavia had to face and slay her demons. (Grumbles and links the interested reader to this POST from @osleyakomwonkru regarding that horseshit.) Afterwards, she shows a major shift in personality, particularly towards her brother. Because we as the audience wouldn’t see her time on skyring for about year in real time (or learn that she was ten years older and therefore a lot more mature, the chemical changes of which would account for at least some of the difference even if she couldn’t remember anything else) we had no choice but to associate her change with the slaying of Blodreina, which seemed like a ham-fisted way of forcing her a quick and slick redemption arc and prepping The Blake Siblings to go back to being ride-or-die for each other in season 7.

Raven’s season 6 personality was also radically different from her 1-5 development – while I understand her having a remaining beef with Clarke and being emotional due to Shaw’s death (RIP!) the fact that the writing in season 6 reduced her to the nagging shrew trope until they needed her to do a coding deus ex machina just added to the feeling that I was watching someone take the characters around, change them to their own preferences (even if that preference was to push some into the background and make them tools for the B-plot) and toss them into an AU story. Which I could have enjoyed more if I had been reading it and therefore seeing inside the characters’ heads – and if I hadn’t paid for the privilege with ad revenue instead of voluntary clicks of the kudos/like/reblog/comment buttons.

Another issue with time skip relationship is exposition for the lesser known characters’ backstories. Both seasons 6 and 7 have so far had dramatic character mother death reveals that were conveniently not told to their most important people specifically because the appropriate time to tell those stories would have been during the offscreen time skips. I will (grudgingly) accept Echo, an adult making a conscious (and familiar) decision to change up her personality to fit into and survive within her environment, choosing not to tell a traumatic story that reminds her of her past. (She’s my next meta – stay tuned!)

I will not in a million years, however, believe that the Clarke Griffin who I watched for four seasons be set up as the blatantly obvious “compassionate mom-friend protagonist” adopted a traumatized 6-year-old, moved into said child’s village, burned or buried the bodies of everyone who lived there, and never ever brought up the child’s dead birth parents.

No way. The ONLY reason that could have possibly been scripted in that way was because that conversation needed to be there for plot reasons and the appropriate time for it to have been had was during the 6 years they spent off screen. Similarly, while (again) I’ll buy that Echo chose not to talk about her mom’s death with Bellamy before he decided to be a dick about it, I fully believe that the timing of that conversation was only there because if it had occurred on the ring where it would have been more appropriate, the audience would have missed it.

Now, picture this: if the scene with Madi had been in a written fanfic, Clarke could have said “you didn’t lose me,” Madi could have said “I didn’t mean you,” and Clarke could have remembered Madi telling her the story of her birth mom dying in her arms. Then Clarke could have mentally made the decision that she didn’t want Madi to relive that in an attempt to empathize with her, and she makes an effort to convince her that she’s fine. In just 2 or 3 paragraphs a written story could have effectively conveyed both the exposition and the emotional beats of the scene, concluding with Clarke making a (maybe misguided but still sweet) attempt to be a good mom by not dredging that up for Madi (or something – I’m not defending the crappy and inconsistent writing of Clarke’s parenting we’ve on screen so far).

Moving right along, we had a lovely flashback montage of Hope and Dev, which was sufficient to make me (and several of the tumblrs I follow) care about Dev at least enough to be saddened by his death. However, what we didn’t get was a damn crumb of flashback showing Orlando and Anomalykru developing any kind of familial relationship between him agreeing to train them, and whatever dynamic we were supposed to pick up on at the end of that episode. I got a little protective big sister vibe from Echo and Hope but that’s it. They apparently expended their allotment of emotion-inducing flashbacks on the dead guy, and failed entirely to make me give a shit about (as it turned out) the next dead guy.

Now we’re going into an episode with Octavia on (presumably) Bardo in the promo, so I’m guessing we get to see her skyring-self link up with her return-to-Gabriel-with-clean-hair self. As least with Octavia’s jumping storyline it seems like the writers have consistently made some kind of effort to fill in the blanks.

But we’re also looking at the rest of the season where Echo, Gabriel, Hope, oh hi Jordan I forgot about you again, Diyoza, Octavia, and probably Bellamy and Hoth!Kru (AKA team let’s follow Raven onto a strange planet without putting on suits or having an exit strategy, yay!) have all experienced asynchronous development over periods of multiple years. Given the show’s track record from seasons 5 and 6, I strongly suspect that this won’t be handled any better, meaning that the final season of this show is going to try not only to resolve all the plot points, but to toss in a bunch MORE offscreen character development and hope we catch on.

Beyond character development jumps, we also have Raven and Murphy losing their seasons 1-5 development in season 6 only to have to re-learn and re-change back to who they already were in seasons 4 and 5. Murphy learned to value his spacekru family and stop putting himself first 100% of the time, and yet his arc in season 6 happened. Raven has always been involved in the big life-or-death decisions, and had her being-the-bad-guy moment in season 4 with the rationing, but as we saw in 7x03 the writers really wanted to… redo all of that for her? The girl blew up a bridge full of guys and flash-fried a 300-person army when she was 18; blood on her hands may not be fun but what’s with seasons 6 and 7 acting like it’s something new?

While I’m aware that Jason said his seasons are individual movies (don’t admit that you’re bad at continuity buddy ‘cause that’s what it sounds like) seasons 1-5 and 6&7 are clearly telling separate stories (or 1-4, 5, 6-7 if you prefer). The trouble with 6&7 is that unlike seasons 1-4 (and sort-of 5) we no longer know the characters. Every time someone sits still too long, character-development wise, plot comes along and hits the reset button, tosses them into a wormhole for a couple of years and they come back with the same face but no continuity. It was difficult enough to deal with in season 5 – between 6 and 7 I just can’t keep up. (Even writing this meta, I have to keep going back because I remembered another character who fell into this trap.)

Now if a fanfic writer had done the exact same thing – same plot, same time skips, same organization – it would have played out completely different to the readers. We could have gotten to see inside the character’s minds when they arrived back on screen, seeing things with new, older eyes. We could have had minimally invasive flashbacks to show important exposition (like the disaster that was the conversation about Madi’s mom) and verbal descriptions to point out differences like Octavia’s ten-years-older body. Additionally, the plots of seasons 6 and 7 are so different yet full of overdone callbacks to the earlier seasons – if a fan was writing their own AU story but still wanted some of the trappings of the original plot I’d get it, but on a TV show written by the same people it just feels like they ran out of ideas.

Watching seasons 6 and 7 is exactly like watching fanfiction would be – but without the written and fan-made advantages of fanfiction, they fall flat.

*I do like season 7 better than season 6 because the content of the individual episodes containing Murphy/Emori/Raven and Octavia/Diyoza/bbyHope was still enjoyable content, so 2 out of 4 I have liked so far, despite this very very long rant I’ve just written explaining why as a whole I rather hate the season overall.

[disneytva]

Extra Wild ETs: Justin Roiland & Mike McMahan’s ‘Solar Opposites’ Lands at Hulu

Misfit aliens from space trying to adapt to life on Earth have been a popular staple of sitcoms such as My Favorite Martian, ALF and 3rd Rock from the Sun. This spring, a new brood of aliens make their impressive debut in Hulu’s Solar Opposites, the hilarious new animated offering from Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland and former head writer Mike McMahan (Star Trek: Lower Decks).

The series, which overflows with the inspired lunacy you might expect from the madmen who gave us Rick and Morty, follows a team of four aliens who have crash-landed into suburbia after escaping their exploding home planet. Two of them, Korvo (Roiland) and Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone) believe their new home is awful and polluted, while the other duo Terry (Thomas Middleditch) and Jesse (Mary Mack) love humans, their junk food and pop culture.

Roiland, who won an Emmy in 2018 for executive producing Rick and Morty (and yes, he also voices both Rick and Morty for that hugely popular show) tells us that he had the idea to center a show on a pair of odd-couple aliens about 14 years ago. “At some point, it was going to be a live-action series, but it never happened,” he recalls. “Mike McMahan and I were trying to develop another show, between the second and third season of Rick and Morty, but everything we did felt really laborious. So, we decided to put that other idea down and try the odd-couple alien pitch again … and then, once we went back to the original premise, everything became very easy.”

Loving the Aliens

“Justin has all these books of random sketches and ideas from years past,” says McMahan. “We flipped through them and landed on a rough drawing of Terry and Korvo, which we used as the inspiration to build out the family. I was a new dad at the time, so I added the kids/replicants and the baby/Pupa character, we were going for a classic sitcom/FOX look from afar, which would get weirder the closer you looked. The tone we wanted to hit was ‘funny and fun over everything else at all times,’ which you can still clearly see in the finished show.”

McMahan and Roiland then put together the story for the pilot, which is very close to the final version that viewers will get to see on Hulu this month. “We originally had interest from Netflix and Syfy, but those didn’t happen, and then Hulu stepped in,” says Roiland. “We then added [exec producer/writer] Josh Bycel (American Dad!, Happy Endings) along, and things really got moving. It was a lot of work, but everyone is really kicking ass — and it’s been a lot of fun, too.”

In addition to the show regulars, the series also boasts a phenomenal list of guest voice actors. The first season alone features the likes of Alan Tudyk, Tiffany Hadish, Tom Kenny, Alfred Molina, Christina Hendricks, Rainn Wilson, Eric Bauza, Amanda Leighton, Maurice LaMarche, Miguel Sandoval, Nat Faxon, Natalie Morales, Phil LaMarr and Kari Wahlgren. The show is produced by 20th Century Fox Television and the animation is handled by Green Portal Productions and Vancouver-based Bardel Entertainment, which also handle Rick and Morty.

Roiland says he and McMahan had a great time brainstorming about the aliens, their weird biology and how they interact with the world in unexpected ways. For example, whenever they get stressed, their bodies begin to emit little creatures that look like a hybrid between a giant virus and a pink booger (they’re called gooblers).

“It’s funny to think about humanity from the perspective of alien beings,” says Roiland.

“We are going to have lots of fun with the gooblers, but I can’t tell you more about it because we don’t want to ruin the joke.”

Overall, both Roiland and McMahan say the show is a bit sillier and looser than their other collaboration, Rick and Morty. “Our process of writing and producing is quicker, but we still strive for the same level of humor and surprises. We have so many ideas about how these aliens survive on the planet. But when you think about it, it’s really an immigrant story,” Roiland points out. “These characters are very new to their environment, and we get to have fun by looking at things we take for granted and build jokes and sketch storylines around those ideas.”

McMahan says one of their biggest challenges was to always keep the comedy and the tone of the show as light and fun as possible, even when pouring their efforts into making sure everything was professionally executed. “It’s easy for a show to become ‘right,’ but also lose the frivolity that made you like it in the first place. Solar Opposites is always a balancing act between, ‘we have to make a really good, emotionally solid TV episode’ and ‘let’s do some crazy, effed shit that makes us laugh. I’m really happy with how the first season ended up in that regard.”

Juggling Toons Looking back at the past few years, Roiland says the big challenge was juggling the production of Solar Opposites, all of his Rick and Morty duties and launching his own gaming studio Squanch Games in 2016. “Everything was happening at the same time,” he says. “But luckily I had an amazing team. Mike and Josh were amazing and did a great job of running the room day to day. It’s the old adage: You have to surround yourself with talented people and get out of their way. We are having so much fun with this show and our voice cast brings so much to the table: They truly embody the characters and add some hilarious improv material to the show, as well.”

Roiland, who says he was hugely influenced by shows such as The Simpsons, Beavis and Butt-head, Ren & Stimpy and Liquid Television when he was younger, says fans could see a possible appearance by Rick and Morty on Solar Opposites in the future. “In an infinite multiverse, everything is part of the multiverse, so they could easily be a couple of realities away,” he says.“I have no idea how you would navigate the IP waters, but that would be really friggin’ cool!”

“Our initial pitch to Hulu always included a heavily serialized element, so there’s a big part of the show that’s always been designed to be binged,” adds McMahahn. “I’ve never worked on a serialized animated comedy, and I don’t see a lot of them, so I heavily nerded out that we got to make a serialized show along with a goofball comedy. What you see on the screen (in that respect) is exactly what I wanted it to be from conception through execution, which is a rare treat for a creator. Also, the art team and the voice actors are insanely talented, everyone gave it their best, and you’ll see that the first season is something special.”

Roiland says he hopes the audience will get some entertainment and some happiness by watching his new show. “Things are pretty sad out there in the real world, so we hope Solar Opposites and new episodes of Rick and Morty will offer people a little bit of distraction.”

“I hope audiences will sit down to watch a show about crazy funny aliens, and then be surprised as they keep watching how serialized and thought-out everything is,” adds McMahan. “In any other time, this show couldn’t exist. To me, the only reason a show should exist on Hulu (or any streamer) is because it feels like a miracle, like you can’t believe what you’re watching. Sometimes that feeling comes from a cancelled show being resurrected. For Solar, it’s the jokes, language, what we can show on screen (Solar is TV-MA, which is crazy what you can do) and the serialized elements. Somehow, this show feels like a classic, broad network sitcom and like an insane cable show that fell out of another dimension, all at the same time.”

[thecatprince]

Luckier Than Most

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Summary:  Janus and Patton struggle to cope with the death of Virgil, Roman tries to talk to Remus and Virgil has a heavy realisation.

Warnings: Mentions of death, alcohol, drunkeness and general angst.

Authors Notes: Thanks for all of the support on this fic!!

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--

Chapter Four - The Realities of Being a Ghost

Whatever Patton had expected that night, a phone call from a very drunk Janus wasn’t it. That being said, Janus hadn’t intended to get drunk either.

The whole day had left Janus feeling numb and lost. He felt the pain of his friend’s death sharp like an arrow, but at the same time he felt a bit empty. He hadn’t cried much since the accident, even though he wanted to. Janus felt this aching hole in his chest, the feeling of something missing. He kept thinking he would pick up his phone and there would be a new message from Virgil, or that he would look across the street and see the light on in Virgil’s room. He had even called Virgil, knowing that it would go to voicemail, just so he could hear his friend’s voice again.

In fact, that was what had caused him to get drunk in the first place. Nothing could emotionally prepare him for the sound of Virgil’s voice coming through the phone. The message that Virgil had rehearsed for an hour before finally recording his voice into his phone. The quick “Hey this is Virgil. Leave a message after the beep”. Just a couple of seconds, then the beep sounded and Janus was alone again. He put the phone down, and walked into the kitchen. His father was out picking up takeaway, and there was a bottle of wine left on the bench. Janus felt an overwhelming feeling of temptation, to be able to provide relief however temporary, to the sense of emptiness and pain he was feeling. He got a glass out of the cupboard and filled it up the way his father had done countless times. This wasn’t Janus’ first time having wine, for his father had always allowed him a little sip when he was having some, but this was the first time having a glass all to himself. He took a big gulp of it, and felt a slight warmth in his stomach.

Janus took another sip, and then another, and soon the glass was empty. His head felt a little foggier, and the internal pain he was feeling had diminished a bit. He liked the feeling, the way he felt slightly numb, but this was a numbness he brought on himself. He poured himself another glass, slightly more than the last one, and drained it. Now the world seemed to be spinning slightly and his brain felt very foggy. Even though the emptiness and pain he was feeling before had subsided into a gentle ache, Janus decided that he hated the feeling of being drunk. Patton had only been home for a couple of hours when his phone rang. He of course picked it up, despite being exhausted from the events of today, because his friend needed him. Janus had answered, and after a couple of quick questions Patton realised that he was drunk as a skunk. Out of all of his friends, Janus was the second last person who he expected to get wasted (Logan was the last person, for the only beverage Patton had seen Logan drink other than water was juice).

Janus’ speech was slightly slurred, and halfway through the call he started crying heavily. Patton tried to comfort him the best he could, though he was exhausted and it was really difficult to comfort a drunk person over the phone. Eventually, Janus hung up, whether on accident or on purpose, and Patton was left alone in his room again. He stared out of the window, his chest aching from the loss of his friend.

“Hey Virgil,” Patton murmured. He knew Virgil wasn’t there, he knew Virgil would never come back, but he couldn’t help it. He just wanted to talk to his friend. A tear slipped down his cheek, and he brushed it away. “I hope you’re okay. I miss you… a lot, but I know that it will be okay, and you are in a better place now… hopefully. I just wanted to say, I love you, you were one of my best friends and I didn’t ever want to lose you…” Patton stopped talking as tears overcame him. He buried his face in his pillow as sobs wracked his body and he cried himself to sleep.

--

Roman awoke the next morning, feeling a mix of excitement and nerves. He had no idea why, until he saw Virgil sitting on the beanbag in the corner of his room. He was wearing headphones, and apparently listening to music, given that he was bopping his head, and for a moment Roman forgot that he was the ghost of his friend who had drowned just yesterday. Roman watched his friend for a little longer than was probably normal, watching the way the morning sun seemed to make his purple hair even more vibrant. Virgil stared out the window, casually moving his head along to a beat, and it took him a while to notice that Roman had woken up. When he did, he smiled and took his headphones off of his head.

“Good, you’re finally awake. Do you know how long nights last when you aren’t tired? I don’t think ghosts need to sleep. But I did manage to conjure these headphones and play music, which is pretty cool. I have no idea how it works, but I did it.”

Roman gave a shrug, lying back down on his bed. “Ghost logic is something we need to figure out. We could write everything down in a notebook. Maybe Logan could help us. OH!” Roman shouted, sitting up suddenly. Virgil winced at the loud noise and gave Roman a confused look.

“What? Did you get bitten or something? Foot cramp?”

Roman brushed off the questions and continued. “No, I realised we can show you to the others! Virgil you can talk to the others!!”

“Oh,” Virgil said, a look of realisation dawning on his face, which quickly morphed into an uncertain one. “Roman… what if they can’t see me?”

“What? Of course they will be able to see you. I can see you, so they should be able to! Just think of it Virgil, it will be like you never left.” Roman seemed to be vibrating with joy at the prospect. Virgil gave a small smile, conflicted between not wanting to get his hopes up and being overjoyed at the prospects of seeing his friends again, of talking to them again. Roman bounced out of bed and out the door, gesturing for Virgil to join him. Virgil followed, and found them outside of Remus’ door.

The pit of nervousness in Virgil’s stomach swelled, but a rush of overwhelming joy cancelled it out. Roman knocked on the door loudly before barging in. Remus was sprawled out on his bed, picking at his nails, looking unusually quiet and dull.

“Ree, you will never believe it!” Roman shouted, practically jumping up and down with excitement. Remus glared at Roman, and Roman paused for a minute.

“Get out,” Remus said slowly and calmly. Roman looked as shocked and uncertain as Virgil felt. It was very uncharacteristic for Remus to act like this. Normally if he was angry or hurt there would be a lot of loud yelling, punches potentially being thrown (though Remus was always careful to not hit people just things) and you would know exactly why he was angry. It was a hot type of anger and negativity. This was different. His voice was cold, quiet and calm, but he was very clearly angry. Roman swallowed and tried again.

“Remus you won’t believe this.” Roman sounded a little apprehensive. Remus glared at him again, then stood up very suddenly. Roman took a step back.

“Get out!” Remus shouted. Roman’s face fell, but this was territory he was used to. Now that Remus was yelling it would be easier to handle the anger. And part of him knew that it wasn’t fully directed at Roman. “Why are you so happy? WHY?? Our best friend died yesterday and you’re smiling? Did his life mean anything to you?! How could you be so horrid?”

Roman’s face looked both shocked and hurt. Remus had tears streaking down his face, and after he had finished yelling he crumpled to the floor. Virgil went forward. “Remus, look, it’s me! Virgil. Remus, I’m here!” Remus didn’t respond and Virgil knew that what he had feared was true.

“He can’t see me,” Virgil whispered, deflated. He turned around and ran down the hall back into Roman’s bedroom. Roman followed shortly afterwards, his shoulders hunched slightly in defeat. “I’m sorry Virgil. I really thought that would work,” Roman said, his voice sounding low. He flopped onto the bed and looked at Virgil.

Virgil avoided Roman’s gaze and just stared at the floor. “No, it’s okay. I should have known this was too good to be true.”

Silence filled the room, weighing heavily on both of them. After a considerable amount of time, Virgil broke the quiet. “How come you are the only one who can see me?”

Roman made an effort to look everywhere but Virgil. Roman knew exactly why he was the only one who could see him. He made the wish, even though he had no idea it would come true, and he had forced Virgil to come back from wherever you go when you die to the living world. If he told Virgil, Virgil might hate him for forcing to be stuck here as a ghost. Was Virgil even stuck here? Could he leave and go back to being permanently dead with no way for Roman to communicate with him ever again? Would he leave if he knew the truth? Roman wanted to tell Virgil the truth, but he didn’t want to risk losing him again. Not after just getting him back.

“I don’t know,” Roman mumbled. He felt incredibly guilty for lying, but he couldn’t risk it. He will tell Virgil the truth eventually, but not now. He had just got his friend back, and he couldn’t lose him again.

Virgil seemed oblivious to Roman’s inner turmoil as he stared around the room, seeming lost in thought. Eventually, Virgil sighed and turned to face Roman, a sad smile on his face. “Guess I’m stuck with you Princey.”

Roman struck a dramatic pose and mock fainted. “Oh the horror!” he cried in an over the top voice. Virgil laughed.

“Yeah, who would want to be stuck with you? I don’t know how I can cope,” Virgil said in a playful tone. Roman gave him a “really?” face.

“Shut up. It is a privilege to be stuck with me. You should feel honoured!” Roman said, flailing his arms around dramatically.

“Oh I feel so honoured,” Virgil said sarcastically. “It’s just too bad no one shrank your head before I was summoned from the afterlife.”

Roman gave an overly dramatic gasp, then stuck out his tongue. Virgil laughed. “Oh real mature.”

“Hey!” Roman exclaimed, picking up a pillow and throwing it at Virgil. It went straight through him, hitting the wall behind him with a loud thump. The two paused for a moment, waiting for someone to come into the room to see what all the commotion was about, but no one came. Roman assumed his parents were out of the house.

Once it was clear no one was going to come up, Virgil let out a triumphant laugh. “Ghost remember?”

Roman flipped him off, and there was a beat of silence before the two of them collapsed into laughter. For the first time since Virgil’s death, everything felt normal. There was no way Roman was ever letting this go.

-- 

Comments are greatly appreciated!!

[runa-stuff]

Here be spoilers!

My jumbled thoughts on season 4 and the differences now that we’re on Netflix.

Alright, I’m somewhat back to the land of the living after binging season 4 two times. I have never been this emotionally drained after watching a show/movie. So much PAIN.

Things I loved and other thoughts:

- That opening song! I never liked that song but this version I adored!! Those lessons are paying off, Tom flippin nailed the high notes.

- The focus being on the characters instead of the case. This season makes it very clear how much fox pushed for this being a pure procedural. I mean we knew that the lucifer team had to fight for every scene that had nothing to do with the case of the day, but look just HOW MUCH! Most of the time during s4 I even forgot there was a case going on, and most importantly, the case’s sole purpose were to enrich and advance the character’s own storyline. It felt organic instead of forced.

- The costumes. They all looked so bloody good this season.

- The fight scenes were out of this world!!

- More supernatural stuff!! For once Lucifer was allowed to show he is more than human! He has more freedom because Chloe knows now, yes, but he was never allowed to show his strength before at all, except for the occasional door-handle crushing or chain ripping. That car scene was everything! Let him be a BAMF every once in a while, he’s the rebel angel!!

And Demons! More of that please! Love the zombie-esque way they handled the possession business.

Also Lucifer starting that boat cracked me up. Of course, he can turn everything on. 😂

- Things like racism, police-violence and mental issues being acknowledged and taken seriously.

- The way the triangle was handled. After the Pierce fiasco I was very, very worried about this being another generic love triangle. Honestly it wasn’t even a love triangle in my eyes this time, because it was painfully clear the whole season there’s only one Lucifer loves. It was more about him being torn apart by what Chloe and Eve represent, and that was brilliant.

The women didn’t “fight” over the guy. All of the involved characters learned from it, and it didn’t end with Lucifer “choosing” either side of him, but with him realizing that he wants to be HIMSELF. That he shouldn’t have to choose a side and change for others.

- Deckerstar! THAT AXE-SCENE!! That was intense and charged  and holy carp, all I can think of is: if she had wanted to push that axe down, he would have let her, wouldn’t he? He is vulnerable around her, and every time he chooses to be around her he puts his eternal life in her hands, and Chloe finally knows that. Ahhh! There were so many amazing scenes between them. Both their hearts got ripped wide open again and again, and it brought them closer than ever.

I also love how they keep playing with the fact that he’s vulnerable around her (the bar fight, him flinching when he slips with the knife before realizing Chloe is not there etc). Crying about the ending scene later.

- Chloe babe!! She’s back in the game! Lauren killed it this season, she was finally allowed to shine. Her post-reveal journey to acceptance was handled perfectly (I know many liked to believe she’s gonna accept and love him for what he is like two seconds after seeing his face, but that’s the stuff of fanfics).

I don’t wanna see anyone shitting on her because of what she almost did! Her whole world was turned upside down and she was manipulated in that vulnerable time, if you wanna shit on anyone, shit on Kinley. I’m so proud of her breaking out of that and realizing Lucifer ‘is who he is’, after all. The most important thing is that she didn't do it, in the end. And maybe that wine glass breaking was a bit of divine intervention, because the music being loud enough to break it alone would mean she’s at the very least deaf now. (don’t overthink it, I know) just rewatched the scene and saw she actually topples the glass over so nevermind.

- Lucifer finally found his brain again. I was getting tired of him getting more and more stupid and regressing for no reason. Also that dark velvety edge is back in his voice.. my voice-kinky ass is very happy with that, since his voice somehow got higher and higher with each season lmao. Oh and that scene at the end of 4x08 in Lindas office. Holy shit, guys. Tom ripped out my heart, trampled on it and threw it into the trash. The growth in the last few episodes!! And how is no one talking about the voices-in-his-head bit?

- My devil kink has been fed very well. Phew. Perfect eye-flashing moments, and use of distorted voice.

- STEP-SATAN HAS RISEN. Seriously that was awesome and cute. And finally some acknowledgement that he DOES love that little urchin too.

- Dan. Some of those scenes were painful to watch for my Douchifer heart. I hope he is the next to get into the Know… I don’t see any other way for him to change his opinion on Lucifer again any time soon.

- That whole Baby plot line? I usually hate baby plot lines with a passion, but this one wasn’t so bad. 'Aminidiel’ still cracks me up though. Still, my least favorite part of the season I think. Not a fan of Remiel either. That felt a bit wasted, probably because of time reasons.

- Eve. I was skeptical because there was way too much focus on her in the promos, but she is super cute. She also tackled some fe/minist themes that I believe has a lot of potential for the future. I hope she comes back next season, Mazeve all the way!

- Michael and Lilith hinted!! Very interested in the tension I smelled between Amenadiel and Michael, and more of Maze exploring the feelings for her mother please.

- The humor. It’s a bit darker, but still like we know and love it from past seasons. I’m still giggling over the “he got tired” pun. Heh.

- I am now more convinced than ever that at least one of the writers is very familiar with fanfiction, because some of that stuff was grade A fanfic material. Hell, some of the stuff WAS almost straight out of fanfics I read, and that I had never imagined to see on screen! I love it!

- The CGI was.. nice actually. At least the devil bits. So crispy. The wings were consistent this time and pretty good too. I’ve always been proud of this show going the full on CGI way instead of the lazy/cheap supernatural-way, as I like to call it (no offense, I loved that show back in the day), so I’m not complaining about weird wings and stiff movements too much anymore. I don’t expect Legion level wing fights ( https://youtu.be/Mp6aKCE3jSc ) but I do wish they would make the feathers look a bit less looking like.. plastic. A bit less feather-duster, at least - a proper look at real wing anatomy wouldn’t hurt. Ok I shut up about that now, I promised

- Tom Ellis’ new devil-bod. Thanks Netflix. But they didn’t overdo the nudity either, it was just right.

- Sex positivity! Open relationship! Bi! Yes! Just disappointed Lucifer still didn’t get to snog a willing man properly. What’s the hold-up? Once again only women kissing other women on screen. Not that I’m complaining about Mazeve or that Eve/Ella kiss. Damn, Ladies.

- THE ENDING. OH MY GOODNESS, THE ENDING. Final episodes of Lucifer have the tendency to build up and up and up until you think this scene HAS to be the climax of the episode, but it’s NOT. Because there’s always one more scene that punches you in the feelings until the end (and you know it’s gonna happen when a way too amazing song starts playing). And boy, did they deliver again.

I knew Lucifer is going to say something stupid the very moment I saw his face at the beginning of the scene. I could fangirl over Tom’s incredibly expressive face and eyes all day long, but I’ll spare you. I just KNEW, you know. Lauren killed it again, I felt every bit of pain and despair from both of them. I have never been/will probably never be in love in my life, but I imagine what I felt during that scene is somewhat what love feels like. It hurt, man.

A bit of angsty goodbye love-making would have had the perfect timing here and made it all the more bittersweet, but we can’t have it all.

Earlier I had the thought that Chloe probably feels guilty about conspiring with Kinley… would be cool if they used that next season when she’s going to drag his devilfriend out of hell. Also very much looking forward to some Hades + Persephone vibes - because it would be stupid to drive them apart again.

All in all I think the cancellation really was the best thing that happened to this show. I believe it would have only gone downhill on fox with the amount of episodes and all the restrictions and hiatus. Iirc, the cast themselves said they always felt like the ugly duckling there with how the show was treated. On netflix we finally have promo, freedom and a storyline how the writers imagine it. I’m so proud of this fandom, and I can now safely say that the month with barely any sleep was worth it (even though it made me kinda addicted to twitter, damnit).

I hope netflix doesn’t wait too long with the renewal - while I have no doubts we’ll get s5, I still hate this in-limbo feeling lmao.

[tjkiahgb]

Episode Recap: 2.20, “For the Last Time”

The GHC gathers at The Spoon for a final meal. The mood is low. Buffy asks everyone to be cool. Or, at least, just don’t be uncool.

But I think it’s really unfair of Buffy to ask Cyrus to do something so against his nature on their last day. (Boom. Cyrus burn.)

The finality of everything they’re doing is taking an emotional toll, so Buffy suggests they try to lighten the mood. She tries to get Cyrus and Andi to sing “For the last time.” It doesn’t really work, but she keeps trying and on attempt three, they actually get into it and sing along.

I think it’s like that principle where you start fake laughing and keep doing it and eventually the craziness of the fake laugh makes you laugh for real. You fake sing until it becomes a real song.

Over at Bex’s house, we get Ham!

Where have you been you old so-and-so?

Ham is over to help Bex with some pipes. He asks Bex how she’s been and says they haven’t seen her around the house much. But, honestly, Bex has been around the house quite a bit. Where was Ham is the real question.

Bex says she’s been busy at work. She calls it “booking faces” but then admits she made that term up and Ham laughs.

(This screencap is just to capture the phrase “Ham laughs” for posterity because, seriously, how many times has that sentence ever been written out?)

Bex says she’s mad at Celia for buying The Fringe.

Hey, remember last episode recap when I was like: where is Ham and is he ok and how does he feel about buying The Fringe? Well, turns out the answers are: he’s around, he seems fine, and no one told him.

Ham is pretty upset to have learned about all this just now while underneath a sink.

Back at The Spoon, which I want to point out is again populated entirely by loose children...

...Cyrus tells a story about his grandma for the last time. Then Andi dives into her boy situation for the last time.

Andi finds herself confused by the Jonah and Walker situation, even after kissing Jonah last... night? I have no idea. I can’t keep up with this timeline.

This might be an important lesson for her to learn: you may like more than one person at a time. In fact, you may like several people at the same time. You may even be in a relationship and find yourself liking another person. It happens. We’re only human. But sooner or later, for the sake of all parties involved, you have to pick a lane. Now, normally, if you kiss someone, that’s a pretty good indication you’ve picked a lane, especially to the person you’ve kissed. (And even more especially if he’s an emotionally fragile child who was looking for that sort of validation after making a grand romantic gesture.)

But I guess Andi doesn’t entirely see it that way. Seems things are still sort of in limbo for her with regards to the two guys wooing her. And that’s cool. That’s fine. I see no way that could all go wrong and end up hurting people.

Cyrus asks if there’s time for one last performance of Tater Theater. He goes for the taters and finds it’s the last one.

Buffy wants to fight for it, for the last time, but Cyrus and Andi don’t. It’s a sacred potato and must be preserved.

But, must that also mean no Tater Theater? There are quite a few good Shakespearean soliloquies I’d like to see acted out by this potato first.

The finality of everything comes crashing back down on top of Cyrus and Andi and everyone is sad again.

Meanwhile, Celia shows up at Bex’s place looking for Ham. Bex wants to know why Celia didn’t tell Ham she bought The Fringe. Celia learns Bex told him and that’s why he’s been avoiding her: he’s mad at her.

Hey, remember last week when I also said Celia and Ham were my favorite relationship on the show and I hope nothing bad ever happens to them? Well, it’s the very next episode and Celia and Ham are in a fight. My brain. It’s the opposite of so powerful.

Celia says if everyone’s so against this idea, she can still cancel it. Bex tells her to do it, so Celia calls it off. Celia says she was just hoping to discuss the plan with Bex first before telling Ham. This talk of a plan is news to Bex. Celia says she was going to turn The Fringe into a boutique salon and make Bex the star makeup artist of the town.

To which Bex is like:

She’s super in to that plan. Celia is like, “Of course that was the plan. You didn’t think I was going to invest my retirement savings into the garbage The Fringe sells, did you?”

Celia says the investment isn’t in The Fringe, it’s in Bex, which, aww. I’ll never not be a sucker for a sweet Celia moment.

In that way, I’m very much like Bex, who responds to Celia saying that like:

They call the plan back on, but Bex says they have to tell Ham this time. And Celia is like, “Oh yeah, right.”

The GHC approach Buffy’s house. The move is in full effect. The movers are out front, moving and everything, as you do.

Cyrus says it’s like a solar eclipse: you can’t look directly at it. But I say that rule is really only for cowards who value being able to see. I haven’t lost a staring contest in 7 years and I’m not about to lose one to the Sun of all people.

The GHC hug. Buffy says the deal is they don’t say goodbye, especially because she’s just moving to Phoenix, which isn’t the Moon. And she’s right. Phoenix is not the Moon. It’s the Sun.

Here’s your weather forecast for next week, Phoenix:

You know what the temperature is going to be in Phoenix tonight, at midnight? A cool, brisk, 91 degrees!

But enough about the weather. The GHC talk about how they’ll still keep in touch.

Buffy says how much she loves her friends and wishes she could put the moment in a time capsule, which sets off an idea in Cyrus’s head: Let’s rob a bank! Just kidding. Let’s make a time capsule.

Andi is in, but Buffy isn’t. She just wants a normal day and a no-frills goodbye. Andi and Cyrus persist, but Buffy’s starting to feel like this is her funeral, which she says she will not be going to. Unfortunately, Buffy, one’s funeral is one of the few events by definition you really must attend.

Buffy runs off and slams the door behind her.

And this mover’s like, “Oh. We, uh, actually, still have a lot of stuff to load from inside there-- ok, then.”

Cyrus and Andi realize that might’ve been goodbye.

Later, Andi and Jonah talk at Red Rooster Records. Andi says she doesn’t want to have their last conversation with Buffy be that argument. Jonah notes that as hard as it is for Andi, it must be even harder for Buffy. Jonah thinks they should still do the time capsule, but instead of burying it, give it to Buffy as a going away gift for her to open whenever she wants. Andi realizes that’s a good idea.

Whoa. Was Jonah actually lucid in this scene? Did he actually have good ideas of his own? This is like the first time in months!

I’m so proud of him.

Andi and Cyrus sneak off to Buffy’s house and rendezvous with Buffy’s mom, Pat. Cyrus is dressed for a duck hunt and has binoculars.

Andi says she regrets giving him those for his seventh birthday. Is it just me or has season 2B been chock full of references to how long the GHC have known each other and gifts they’ve given each other in the past and memories from childhood and all that? They’re really trying to drive home how sad this breakup is going to be.

Andi presents Pat with a list of things they want to put in the time capsule. Pat opens it up and sees “flat iron” and “prison jumpsuit.” Andi and Cyrus exchange giggles about these memories and Pat realizes she’s missed some stuff in Buffy’s life.

I kind of wish the list kept going and getting weirder. “Six fingered glove? Big Mouth Billy Bass? Fake leg? Old Lady Thompson’s rose bush? A 1994 Mazda Miata? Buffy has all this stuff?!” And after every one, Cyrus and Andi just giggle and never explain what all this means.

Pat agrees to put the stuff she finds in a box for Andi and Cyrus.

Celia and Bex look for Ham around the house.

Andi comes in asking for a time capsule. Celia, sensing an opportunity to use her granddaughter as bait, tells her to text Ham to bring her one quickly.

At Buffy’s house, Buffy packs old photos when she comes across one of Marty from the Party.

A Marty shoutout! I’m glad he got a reference here. I miss Marty. It’s too bad he died when his plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. (This is a reference to the show “M*A*S*H,” which is a really old reference even by my standards. Ask your parents to ask their parents about it.)

Pat wants to know who he is. Buffy tells her they don’t talk anymore.

Pat then asks about Cyrus. “Ever go out with him?” Buffy laughs and says, “Pretty much every day.”

Which, what a weird exchange that was. I mean, first off, that’s not an answer to that question. Pat was asking it off the back of talking about possibly dating Marty, so she wanted to know if there was a romantic thing there. But Buffy says “Pretty much every day” like, “Of course, we’re best friends!” And then Pat never follows up. This feels like such an obvious setup to talk about Cyrus’s gayness. Or just mention it at least. Like, “Sassy ___ friend” from last week. It’s like they want to throw those of us who understand the subtext of both of these exchanges a bone while still keeping it subtle enough that the youngest viewers don’t realize there’s a gay reference being made?

Anyhoo, Pat says she wants to take some of the pictures, but Buffy realizes she’s being weird and hiding something. Pat says Andi and Cyrus are making the time capsule. Buffy doesn’t want it because she doesn’t want a goodbye. She doesn’t feel she’s strong enough to handle it without crying and she doesn’t want that to be the last image her friends have of her.

Buffy wishes she was as strong as her mother, but Pat talks about how she cried, too, every time she had to leave. She tries to let Buffy know it’s ok to cry.

It’s a really nice moment. Great job by both actresses in this scene, too, by the way.

Back at Celia’s, Ham comes in with a container from THE TIME CAPSULE COMPANY!(!!!)

I love this so much. What in the holy hell is the Time Capsule Company? They just make time capsules?! How can that even be a business?

When Andi was texting Ham that she needed a time capsule, I was thinking, “Oh, sure, Ham will just pop on down to the ol’ time capsule store and pick one up.” AND. THEN. HE. DID! WHAT?! How did he know where to go? How did he know such a place even exists? Pull up Google Maps on your phone right now and search for a time capsule store. I bet you there isn’t one just down the street from your house. I live in Los Angeles and I get no results for that search. And all we have living here are the artsy type of people who would make time capsules.

Ham even asks Andi if this is what she wanted. Like, she asked for a time capsule. You couldn’t have nailed it any better than that, Ham.

Andi takes her shiny new time capsule and leaves.

Celia tells Ham she called off the deal. Ham says that’s good and that Celia can’t be doing this, again. Whoa. Is that a reference to something we know or what? Has Celia made big time decisions like this before without talking to Ham about it? Ruh-roh.

Celia promises she’ll talk to him next time. Celia and Bex then present Ham with a business plan and say he can say no to it, but Ham already knows he’s not going to turn them down. He really just wants the illusion of choice.

At Bex’s, Cyrus and Andi put together the time capsule.

Cyrus puts in the #thegoodhaircrew shirt he ordered forever ago.

He clearly didn’t splurge for overnight or even 3 day shipping. He must have gone with the free, get-here-whenever option that takes 6 months to a year to arrive.

He also puts in his Buffy basketball sign and a megaphone.

Andi puts in the JMS student handbook they all changed, a picture of them from sixth grade, and a belt made of the wristbands from Dr. Metcalf’s insanely expensive social experiment.

Cyrus pulls out a box that’s from Marty. It’s shoelaces and a nice note.

It’s cool to have one final thing from Marty, but I might’ve actually preferred they just left it at referencing the picture in the earlier scene and have Marty not know about Buffy leaving. This gift really reminds you they didn’t have access to Marty’s actor. It’s weird that Marty would learn Buffy’s leaving, take the time to go buy her laces and write the note, but not try to stop by and say goodbye to her after all their shared history. At least to clear the air between them. His note even makes it seem like he’s not in a bad place with her. It’s jokey and friendly. Like, he’s happy, but not so happy he’d could be bothered to show his face again? Alright then.

Bex shows up and wants to contribute. She adds the DVD set of Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 3. Why season 3? It’s Buffy’s favorite and it features the character Faith.

Cyrus and Andi add the glass encased final tater to the capsule, too.

Jonah shows up with basketball stuff. He got a basketball signed by the entire team, including one TJ Kippen himself.

Off-screen hashtag good boi behavior? I’ll take it!

You know what else is special about this basketball? Somewhere on the ball is the answer to the question:

WHAT IS THIS GUY’S NAME?!

Someone else go over footage of the names on the basketball like it’s the Zapruder film and let me know which one we decide is his.

Jonah says everyone’s going to miss Buffy. Even her nemesis. And Bex pops in and says TJ is to Buffy as Faith is to, well, also Buffy. The other Buffy. The vampire slayer. (Little bit more on that here, if you want.)

They add the basketball and Buffy’s jersey to the capsule and take it over to Buffy’s house.

Guys, can I just say, I was shocked when they walked up to the house and it was dark. I got right away what had happened. I really thought, given the talk from Pat about it being ok to cry, Buffy was going to give in and have that emotional goodbye.

But nope. Andi, Cyrus, and Jonah find Buffy and her family are gone. No goodbyes. Just moved out of town under the cover of darkness, like Robert Irsay taking the Colts out of Baltimore (you know the deal: ask your parents... provided they’re sports fans who lived in Baltimore in the mid-80s).

Cyrus, Andi, and Jonah console each other as the episode ends.

I have to say, the image of these three sad kids standing in the cold, looking for their already gone friend, is heartbreaking.

Credit to the writers for always doing a good job of getting there emotionally. Even if they have issues with the plotting every now and then, they’re very consistent with how they hit their mark with the emotional beats.

Also, credit to the kind editor of the scenes from the next episode for giving us a half a second of TJ and Cyrus, like a little cherry on top of an already good episode.

I’ll take it!

[konvenient-pop]

Okay, so, here comes an annoying post about me being annoyed

With the topic of Jenny and Kai

To start this off right, I want to begin with by saying this is not a hate post at all. In actuality I am an EXO-L, and particularly a huge fan of Kai/Nini despite this blog not representing that. I have a lot of respect for him as a person first and foremost, as well as in his career as an idol. Although my respect isn't reflected with Jennie personally, as I deliberately refused to hop on the Blackpink bandwagon for the sake of preserving an original opinion after a few years of watching over their comebacks to make the decision of draining my life energy for another group, I still have respect for her as an idol. No matter what I will have at least a basic respect for the people choosing to enter this career, since we all know what that means longterm. Or at least most of us who have made the mistake(?) of spiraling into the darker side of this industry.

But at the risk of sounding pretentious or scaring people for no reason, returning to my original point, I don't know jack shit about Jennie. Well, beside basic surface level information or personality overviews from Weekly Idol or what have you. Again, all surface level. For now I am fine with that, she seems cool and honestly like a genuinely straightforward person in terms of setting up her goals. Or at least that's the picture I've crafted in my head after having listened to her on old G-Draon's tracks, as she was probably offered the oppertunity and had enough sense/drive to take it. So, okay, cool. She's cool, Jongin is Jongin and as a couple they are whatever.

Whatever being cool, cool being something I can go 'Oh?' at with raised eyebrows and move on with my damn life. Or as I failed to name it, basically sonething of minimal interest. Now, let's pause. So, I have no problem with this couple, so why the hell am I even bothering with this post? Well, that's because it's goddamn annoying to see all the 'I came here for JenKai' or otherwise judgmental comments on YouTube. To vent, why the hell can't people just be indifferent to things they have no knowledge over? Like, sure, you know one of the two and can say 'Well he/she is such and such trait, but I don't know about him/her', but why badmouth? This is my problem. This is what annoys me.

As far as I'm concerned at this point there's no point in judging these couples anymore, because again for the nth fucking time we do not actually know these people we dedicate our lives to. Sure, you can claim otherwise since we get years of interviews and yeaes of reality shows and years of behind the scenes videos and what the fuck ever, but let's be serious here. We aren't their friends, we aren't their family. What we get is what they chose to show. Of course most idols tend be genuine in terms of trying to show their honest personality or giving factual information, but at the end of the day it's just a video. One video, one clip, one moment in time that does not dictate their entire personality, struggle, interests, or life. That's something I often see people in this fandom forgetting and honestly at this stage of stanning cancel my subscription if we can't be logical about relationship reveals.

That's not to say most fans haven't been. In fact so far I've seen quite the opposite with mostly support, which is cool and something that I'm not use to but thank the gods for it. But there are still some you know what's here and there. They're really not that bothersome in terms of overall big picture whatever, since they are just words on my computer or phone I can click off of and will likely drown in a sea of support. Still, I just want to vent and ramble and maybe point out something that we all already knew for the sake of a friendly(-ish?) reminder. And for that to happen, I too will attempt honesty.

Being real, my first reaction was mostly worry and (negitively concentrated) confusion. Worry for fan reaction over actual puppy Nini. Confusion because how the hell did that happen and why would they get together? It took about half the day, but then I finally used my good sense to reroute my thoughts back to that very important fact. I don't know them. As people, or as a couple. I don't know their everday lives. I, nor you reading, have any right to judge if they are good for one another or not. No matter if opposites actually attract or similar people enter similar love, it is not up to me to decide for them based off what I think I know even if I do want them to be together. I have no right, nor actual authority to do so especially being just a fan. All in all, I am not in this relationship. Neither are you and this applies to you and every other fan out there.

So, basically that's just to say people enter relationships at their own will, as their own people most of the time with knowledge of who their partner is as a person, and it's never any of our business beyond the basic level of having an objevtive opinion that shouldn't affect them (*COUGH COUGH* sending hate messages or death threats *COUGH COUGH*) because we are lucky they even decide to share any of this shit with us. Does that make any sense? Don't know, don't care, I refuse to go reread and edit this just to sound nice. Why? Because I'm probably deleting this, as long as I don't forget. Why? Because I honestly just wanted to talk about how annoying it's going to be reading those 'Jennie get your man'/'Jennie's boyfriend this'/'Kai and Jenny that' and etc type comments over the next few months, but this ended up turning into a whole thing.

But yeah, I find that shit annoying. Mostly because it almost belittles idols, degrading them to only face value in a way because they are 'only' recognized for who they date. It is annoying with them and it was annoying with Bora and Feeldog. And I love these people too much to watch that. Though, of course, I know it is not done in offense. People just like couples and are excited love still exists in the world for their precious idols, I know. I get it. I just hate having to look at an idol and think of their current or past significant other. Feels like I'm doing them a disservice, espscially when they started out as just their original selves that I spent YEARS getting to know but suddently I don't feel like I know them anymore as just that. Their pure, individual selves.

I don't know. My bitch ass is dramatic like this and usually I would never speak on this because I want K-pop to just be good fun despite its dark secrets, questionable concepts, and unfavorable features, but sometimes certain shit just gets annoying. And then I feel the need to rant for months before ranting to non K-pop friends or making a whole post no one asked for. In any case, since we're enjoying a rare rant post specifically centered around couples in the industry, might as well give my opinion on the few funny thing that came out of this.

With the outing of Kai's newest relationship, I can finally say seeing my idols date doesn't feel weird anymore. Usually I would get weeks of a weird mourning type feeling, despite knowing and accepting I won't be with my idols romantically. Which, by the way, I actually prefer since I am gross thank you very much. But like, its just a feeling I usually have. Kind of mourning what can't be, kind of fearing how someone knows a part of them I don't. Yeah, I know it is gross and weird, but again to remibd you I spent years draining life energy just to feel like I 'know' and to feel 'close' to these people so logically its the emotional connection (and lowkey emotional dependence), which is why I always feel I can understand when fans say they get sad or cry once idols start marrying or whatever. But, thank the gods, lately said feelings have been coming and going quicker. I assume its due to most of my idols getting older now and my actually wanting them to find love and create their happy ever afters if possible, especially with most of them wanting to get married and actually wanting kids unlike myself.

Like recently, recently for me being years ago sorry, with both UKISS's Dongwo and Eli having to marry in secret and revealing their sons to the world helped really set those new type of support feels in place for me. Going back and knowing who wants what, I now want themselve to achieve these things. Be it love, a family, or simply something new and/or outside of their idol career (quick cringey magical support hwaiting to my not actual husband Bang Yongguk), I want for them to want these things and to continue wanting normal things. Why? Because they are, hopefully you guessed it, normal human beings. Outside of all the glits and glamour of being an idol, representing their home, and trying too damn hard for fans, they are just people.

As it always goes and as cheesy as it probably sounds by now, just people like you and me. People who want things and feel they need to achieve or have certain things to live a fulfilled life or feel accomplished in life before they die. So, yeah, there ya go. My support got some type of Pokemon upgrade ('Idol's Dreams' I chose you?) and I am annoyed because I can't stop my brain from being reminded of other people in the face of my idols. Rip individuality I guess, until that dies down. Anyway, back to your scrolling. I don't know why this ended being so long.

P.S.: As for the rest of those few funny things (1) I am still salty over the treatment and reaction of Baekhyun/Taehyeon and Kai/Krystal by fans (also dramatic and emotionally leave Krystal alone), (2) Hyuna/E'Dawn, despite being great and hopefully a love revolution that will be real I do think they also handled that situation poorly as far as business goes but I do love and support both in case anyone cared, (3) quick claps for the recent emotional growth of K-pop fans tbh as far as relstionships so far, and (4) for whatevet reason I wasn't expecting people to drag my girl Krystal into this. Usually I'm on top of my game with guessing and predicting, but bless her for the next few (hopefully just) weeks. Being the ex is always annoying as fuck.

[wolfwhiteflowers]

how to block a fandom.. ugh sigh  vvv

trying to not be so involved in the fandom or so. idk how. (winter hiatus is gonna be hell) 

everyone’s keep bashing on the show and saying mean stuff. be careful what u wish for.  

it’s gonna be fine. it’s just a show, u can do whatever with it, quit it, not take it seriously, or just #anti-

~~~~~~

i guess when a show is old and changing..or there’s a big fandom on online, there’s more fandom wank than I’m used to think there was before(the 1% theory). I’m more on the unpopular opinion-side (I always do). More bitter people and I feel like they’re missing out on some cool stuff that is still there, but they’re too bitter and impatient to see it. Fandom...internet places...people are generally negative? (people don’t like grey angsty arcs) Anyways, i just wanna focus on the positive stuff when i go online or to think. I understand some just wanna chat and rant, and some have other different reasons why they go online etc.

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

ok so i think u just limit to a lot of fandom things. some rules..? this is hard to do. just don’t go on it so much.

-***most of the time, people/fan don’t need the fandom. Fandom is just on the side. I feel like being part of the fandom is like being part of a group or family and just helping people out. It’s like you’re just making up extra time to help/squee/argue people. Idk ..I can not be part of the fandom. //Fandom seems to care about being right, shipping, fave’s attention. Not much on analyzing on story. People suck. -Give a F*ck budget, money, time, energy.

-****try to avoid places where u see people’s opinions(comments/posts) all the time or just view it in short time. (also avoid negative rude people ect. -only read on positive people’s) It’s hard because fan forum sites, there’s great convo/analyzing/meta discussion in there that u sometimes don’t see in it like tumblr. But, lately i see people hate-watching commenting. (like “ofc, showrunner does this.” “i hope rating goes down so my fave actor can have a better job opportunity, or show it in showrunner’s face my ship is better than the notp and the spotlight.” ..really a lot of fans say the same things in any fandom. is it even true? )

-kinda..avoid stans...shipper stans. they only care about a ship. ok that’s kinda harsh..but yeah they’re most likely to be bitter because the show focus on other characters/ships too. Also, skim past the dramatic/jealous-like posts. 

-..idk why, but people like to compare all the time. criticize and judge quickly. like ok....why not both (fave ships)? Why compare faves? Good thing the show is just focusing on everyone..ok. Oh, and the whole this character is “weak” ok ..so say it to a disabled veteran or an abused wife. sigh. I don’t want to see a show with perfect strong superheroes. BORING! This show is not a boring video game. idk..some people don’t think ...critically or long-term.. like come on..this show, most shows are about characters and them being strong emotionally and physically in their challenges. Also, another thing, idk why fans focus on what the writers are saying but not thinking on the other characters too. Like if the show focus on a character apologizing to another character. That character who apologized= fandom hates him/her. But this other character who is a dick but the show doesn’t address it and doesn’t redeem him/her = fandom doesn’t care or notice it. Another is that fandom don’t like complex character...female characters blah blah. Idk what’s my point here. fandom popularity? so just know that sometimes fandom is just so immature, annoying and rude. So, try to avoid it.

-not a lot of people are overall-fans, so...there’s more wank for me to see it. same with being a multi-shipper, i see more wank too. Like me shipping c@ryl and r!chonne. boy, i see hate on all of them on per character. (because people who don’t like c@ryl are not r!chonners...but they may also ship r!chonne. idk why it’s c ship vs. r ship. it’s just ABD/C shippers.)

-oh, thing about generalizing. People love to generalize. sigh. I should try not to be so sensitive in the fandom or I’m so caught up in fandom wank. i should not take it seriously when people generalize...anyways people generalize things and that always create drama/fandom wank. omg. ugh. Sometimes, these people are ones that just plain assholes. So, block them. Sometimes, it’s just they said it wrong and/or thought it wrong. So, idk. Try to say “IMO,...” “Some shippers...”

-idk if it’s accurate...but my theory or what i heard..is that the show is the showrunner’s/writer’s show. It’s not mine and it’s not the fans’ show. Everyone’s have different likes and wants. Writers can’t please everyone. I heard that it’s good that the showrunner’s stick to what s/he wants because it’s their story and it’s not giving fanservice to please different types of people all the time.If they keep pleasing other people, it makes the show inconsistent and frustrating. Criticisms is ok but I think showrunners know and see it and they decide what to do with it. 

- ratings. ok so that’s hard to handle. it’s just part of being a tv fan. it’s all show business kind of thing. just be realistic. show’s gonna end someday. hopefully there will be a good conclusion and how the writers want it to go for the show. nothing’s goes fair and perfect on shows. (like there’s actors leaving or canceling) I don’t believe in those theories on changing writer’s minds on character/ships and stuff.

-putting words into actor’s/writer’s mouth. i hate that. These fans are obviously biased and ..like entitled-fans. (kinda like bad irl shippers too) This annoys so much. No one knows what the actors/writers are really thinking. That’s their personal life and they have their own personal opinions. so, saying this actor wants to leave because the show sucks, character is not focused as much, or they hate their co-stars. It’s soooo dumb and so rude. u don’t know them. what if the actor wants to leave because of sick family or just want to change careers or whatever. I just would rather have the facts and actor’s statement to say what really is going on. I don’t wanna theorize on biased-rumors. I also..just not into actor’s life. Like I’m not into idolizing actors/other performers etc., because I just don’t know them fully and ..it always end up disappointing..(like omg she smokes? omg she’s a drunk driver? omg she got married to that guy eew why?). So, idolize ..a little. My point is..idk just skim past the entitled fans...

-i like this advice from someone, ... go to #showedits Maybe even go to #showspoilers.( Well to look at overall of the show and gifsets. but there’s still wank, so idk.)

-i feel like idk what to think about the show because i feel like I’m worried about the fans’s feelings/thoughts and wonder what’s their reactions will be this time after an ep aired. I’m so caught up on fandom that idk what i myself like on the show or think what’s right. ....So I take a moment to myself and think on what I like and don’t like in an episode. Write out your feels! ...don’t need to have the fandom anyway.

-always ask, do i still trust the writers? Does my fave characters still in-character and I understand where the story or season’s story is going? Do I still like it?// Just know what kind of show it is. it’s just a show on that day to watch. maybe not get so invested next time. Or, to quit the show, find a spot in the show and say that’s my finale ep of the show for me. ..and there’s fanfictions. just make one up in ur head, an ending, and then move on. These are all fictional stories, you can do whatever with it.

-if ya wanna rant negative. imo, i like to just write it out and tag it #anti- and put it under ‘keep reading’. idk, deal with it, on what the show is, realistically. grieve it. it’s ok to quit a show. /////sometimes, when im confused of the plot and get mad at the writers, sometimes it’s best to wait it out...sometimes the writers already know about the “problem/drama of the plot” and they make sense later on.

-focus on what u like about the show. Do fan art! look at fan art, read fanfiction, and fan videos! Write it out on what u like and speculate. get it out of ur chest.

-during hiatus, there’s more fandom wank. sometimes, just wait a day, the wank is not there anymore. so, do fan art, or just go look into another show and stuff. take a break.

-having unpopular opinions. oh well. what the majority say isn’t always right. idk just shrug and be proud of ur thoughts or crack ship. if it’s like unpopular opinion on the show’s writing, then keep in mind, and maybe the show isn’t for you and that’s ok. *it’s all what the writers want to do. The majority doesn’t know and change the story atm. This part seems to be the hardest..cos u can see majority’s opinions all the time and everywhere. Usually negative sigh. So my tumblr dashboard ..is all mostly one fandom-fans. eh. so i see a lot.  Just keep scrolling and know ..that person from that fandom, probably complain about something. 

-most importantly, I tell myself, “do i still like the show? Do I still wanna watch and see how it goes?” Then if yes, then so it is. It’s all about me..if I still like the show. My time, money, care.

-tired of negative talk of anything. sigh. idk. (why do they repeat the same thing and say it 25,375 times? nothing’s changed. it doesnt help me or u. just deal w/ur crap feels now and get it over with.) (some say it’s bad writing when it’s just something they don’t like. something minor. complain easily. basically..it’s just that it’s the writers’s show or they forget it’s a season-long arc.) i guess go elsewhere . fanart.

[foursprout-blog]

Quick money wins to help you feel more in control of your finances

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/wealth/quick-money-wins-to-help-you-feel-more-in-control-of-your-finances/

Quick money wins to help you feel more in control of your finances

This is a guest post from former GRS staff writer Kristin Wong. Kristin just released her first book, Get Money!, which J.D. thinks is pretty darned good.

I cringe when I remember learning to drive. At fifteen-years-old, I was impatient, full of nervous energy, and so short that I could barely reach the steering wheel. (Which is still kind of a problem, but I digress.)

My parents were backseat driving, of course, instructing me on how to drive the rural, dirt road just outside our neighborhood. “Let off the brake,” they said, and the car began to coast, slowly. Cool, I can handle this, I thought. “Hit the gas,” they said. Chaos ensued.

I swerved into the other lane, and when I yanked the steering wheel to straighten out, the car jerked in the other direction and I almost hit a fence post. My parents shouted. I screamed. All of us were terrified. I felt completely frazzled and out of control. It was like the car had a mind of its own.

For many of us, managing money feels something like this. We try to make a budget and set some limits for our spending, but our financial situation always seems to have a mind of its own: your bank account overdrafts, you get a pay cut at work, your vet bill is considerably higher than you expected.

But just as when you were learning to drive, developing a sense that you’re in control can make a huge difference. When I finally felt like I was the one controlling the vehicle, driving became second nature.

Research, like this 2014 study, shows that simply feeling powerful inspires people to make better financial decisions. They develop financial confidence. For this reason, I’m a fan of quick money wins — small achievements that may not make a huge difference on paper, but which do wonders for how you feel about your financial situation. These quick wins won’t make you a millionaire overnight, but they can empower you, and that’s everything.

Quick wins give you financial confidence, and that helps you make better money decisions in the long run. (As the study put it, “feeling powerful increases saving.”)

In other words, change your attitude about money and you can change your behavior with it, which can lead to actually being in control of it. Try your hand at a few of my favorite money wins.

Cut Back on Just One Thing This Month

We all have our spending vice(s). For me, it’s clothing. (Which is an interesting vice because I spend so much money on clothes yet never seem to have anything to wear.) There are a handful of reasons for this spending problem, and last month I decided to face those reasons and challenge myself to spend nothing on clothes for the entire month.

For you, this might not be much of a challenge. But I felt pretty accomplished when I compared my spending that month to the previous month. It was empowering to see the result of my actions: There was more money in my bank account, but more importantly, I changed one simple bad habit.

If you’re prone to overspending and you know you need to cut back in a lot of areas — restaurants, entertainment, bars, etc — it’s tough to do it all at once. Instead, pick one thing to focus on each month. For one month, commit to spending $100 less on your weak spot (or whatever amount works for your budget and spending). It’s a relatively easy goal, and in achieving it, you’ll most certainly develop more financial confidence.

Haggle Your Cable, Phone, or Internet Bill

You could be one phone call away from a cheaper cell phone, internet, or cable bill. Especially if your provider offers a cheaper introductory rate online — or if they’ve hiked up your prices lately — it’s worth calling to ask for a better rate.

Don’t be afraid to tell them you’re thinking of canceling your service or switching providers. They’ll transfer you to their “cancellation department”, which is really just another customer service rep who will haggle with you. Sure, you might only talk them down $10 or so, but over the course of a year, that can add up!

Many people also overpay for cell phone service because they don’t bother checking to see what else is out there. Use a site like WhistleOut.com to compare phone plans at different carriers, depending on how much data and how many minutes you use.

Or, try calling your current carrier. I used to call my provider regularly and ask if they could save me money. More often than not, they’d give me a deal or suggest a cheaper plan. The old “it can’t hurt to ask” adage applies here, but even better, if you successfully haggle your bill, you feel pretty accomplished. That feeling is even more valuable than the money you’ll save.

Call to Ask for a Lower Credit Card Rate

It’s not just your internet bill that you can haggle on. Did you know that you can negotiate your credit card interest rate, too?

If you carry a balance on your card (or foresee that happening), call your card issuer to ask if they can reduce your interest rate. A poll from CreditCards.com found that 78% of people who called their card issuer to ask for a lower rate were successful. Interestingly, though, only one in five people they surveyed even tried to ask in the first place. So…ask!

No, there’s no guarantee your credit card company will reduce your rate, but if you pay your bill on time, there’s a good chance they’ll do you a solid. Practically speaking, you can save quite a bit of money on interest over time, depending on how much of a balance you carry on that card. Emotionally speaking, it just feels good to get a break from your credit card company.

Cancel a Subscription Service You’re Not Using

In my book, I discuss the habit of conducting a regular budget audit. Every few months, I’ll analyze every line item in my budget to see if there’s any fat to trim. Almost always, there is, and it’s usually a recurring monthly expense for something I no longer use, need, or want. It might be a magazine subscription I can’t keep up with, a streaming service I don’t get much value out of, or a gym membership.

Most of us can benefit from an extra $20 to $100 a month, so take a look at your own budget to see if there are any recurring monthly expenses you can trim. If you’re spending on something you don’t use each month, it’s time to cut ties. Free up that cash and put it back in your pocket. Or, better yet, stick the cash in a savings account. Seeing a regular deposit into your savings account, even if it’s a mere $20 a month, feels empowering. You’re doing something good for yourself.

Negotiate a Raise

It’s a gutsier move, but there are few things that feel better than asking an employer or client for a pay increase and getting what you want. If you haven’t negotiated in a while and you know it’s time to ask for more money, make a plan to do so. Ask your boss or employer for a meeting, then prepare for that meeting by quantifying the value you bring to the table.

Negotiating you salary is scary. And the downside of this is, if you get rejected, that rejection has the potential to make you feel pretty awful. (Or, if you’re like me, you might feel brave and empowered just for asking, regardless of the answer!) But if you get what you want, that’s not a small win, it’s a pretty big one!

Pro tip: It’s easy to start spending more money when you get a raise. It’s called lifestyle inflation. So if you do get a raise or a bonus at work, don’t tell your budget! Save the additional earnings instead. Set up an automatic transfer into your savings account on payday (or increase your current saving rate). This will help you keep lifestyle inflation in check.

Sign Up for Your 401(k) at Work

If your employer offers a 401(k), and especially if they match that 401(k), it’s worth signing up so you can finally start saving for retirement.

All you have to do is ask your boss or HR department for some paperwork, then fill it out and decide how much you want to save with every paycheck. Your employer should be able to walk you through the process, and you’ll get a menu of investments to choose from, usually based on your age or when you want to retire.

If your employer offers to match your savings, save as much as you can to get that match, because it’s almost like free money. Signing up for a 401(k) is a small step toward investing, but getting started with investing is a big financial win. (Need help getting started with investing? Here’s J.D.’s beginner’s guide on how to invest.)

Reward Yourself for Better Habits

Finally, one of my favorite ways to feel financially empowered is to reward myself for better habits.

In other words, I challenge myself to a new habit, like checking my Twitter feed less often, then I reward myself with savings every time I’m successful. I’ll make a goal to limit Twitter to 15 minutes a day, for example, and if I stick to my goal, I put $5 in my savings account.

Maybe your habit is going to the gym. Transfer $5 to your savings account every time you go. (Apps like Tip Yourself or Qapital can help with this). Maybe your goal is to drink less. For every cocktail you turn down, transfer $10 to your savings account. That’s money you would have spent anyhow, but now you’re routing it toward something positive instead of something negative. Your aim is to link your money situation to the accomplishment you feel from adopting a good habit.

A lot of people feel like they don’t have control over their money situation. That’s probably because, in so many ways, we don’t have control. There’s only so much you can do about the economy, the salary your employer offers, and so many other financial factors. However, as the experts like to tell you, it’s better to focus on what you can control, not what you can’t. Be proactive.

That’s easier said than done, of course, but these quick wins might help you develop at least a little more financial confidence.

To learn more from Kristin Wong, check out Get Money! and/or visit her excellent YouTube channel.

The post Quick money wins to help you feel more in control of your finances appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

[junker-town]

Grayson Allen’s Duke teammates like Grayson Allen just fine, thank you very much

Rallying together after a tumultuous regular season = March #squadgoals

BROOKLYN, NY — Think of the best arena concert you’ve ever been to. One where a big deal artist took the stage and the crowd exploded, cheering for and reaching toward them. Okay, now imagine that level of passion as a photo negative: the cheers become jeers, the excitement becomes disdain. Now direct it towards a 21-year-old on a basketball court.

That was what the Barclays Center felt like every time Grayson Allen handled the ball against UNC in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament on Friday. Duke’s lightning rod of a guard — known for tripping rivals and throwing temper tantrums — couldn’t shoot a free throw without a thundering chorus of boos.

Playing outside their home state, the Blue Devils typically draw heavily from their fans in the northeast corridor. But in the beginning of the game, as UNC pulled away, it felt like all of Chapel Hill had driven up to Brooklyn just to let Allen know they thought he was trash.

That kind of vehement dislike, though a predictable response from a sworn enemy, is hard to ignore. Even for players on the most hated team in college basketball.

“I mean, you can’t help but notice it,” said senior Matt Jones. He stood in the locker room after Duke’s stunning comeback to beat UNC, 93-83, and explained that he’d never heard someone booed the way Allen was. Which is saying something coming from a senior who’s played four years of Duke basketball.

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Allen sat on a training table behind Jones with his left lower leg wrapped in ice packs and tape as he waited to head to the press conference with coach Mike Krzyzewski and fellow big man Luke Kennard. Kennard has been Duke’s surprising superstar this season, a reliable constant in an inconsistent year. Several players have been injured, and the team struggled to find regularity in styles of play and lineups.

But the most notable problem and the team’s largest distraction was Allen himself: The junior drew the ire of the nation for repeatedly tripping other players and then losing his cool on the sidelines. The kicking earned Allen a one-game team suspension and Coach K stripped Allen of his captaincy because of his inability to keep it together. Even that was a sentence many in the media (or with Twitter accounts and opinions) called lenient.

“That’s why you come to Duke, to be the villain in people’s eyes. You know they won’t like you.” — Harry Giles

If his teammates ever found Allen’s behavior unacceptable, however, they didn’t say so on Friday night. Jones came the closest to admittance when he said that some players had grown up over the course of the season, and that he’d never had any reason not to read what people were saying about Duke. Many players described the season as being filled with “adversity” (I can’t help but wonder if someone in the school’s marketing department may have fed them that talking point given that six different players used it).

All of them, however, agreed that felt the team was finally gelling. They also seemed to actually like their controversial teammate, whom many refer to as simply “G.” During warm-ups against Louisville on Thursday a few gave Allen hugs. He laughed with his teammates as they joked around while they practiced threes.

“Grayson is just a player,” said Kennard told SB Nation after the press conference. “He likes to play, and this is what he does — he competes. He wants to win, and we’ve been there through it all. Our chemistry as a team has grown. Every time we’re on the court now it gets better and better, we’re definitely in a groove.”

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The team is certainly hitting its stride; Duke has won back-to-back-to-back games at the tournament, and if they pull off a win on Saturday, they’ll be the first team in ACC Tournament history to take the title by winning four games in four days. The chemistry Kennard referred to has been palpable in a way it wasn’t during the regular season. Duke has come back from deficits in each game. The athletes have played a graceful game, highly aware of spacing and situation. Allen has kept it together.

“Obviously it was tough for Grayson,” said freshman Jack White of his teammate’s year. “I wouldn’t want to be the one out there with the whole crowd booing you, especially when you’re on the road. But he handled it really well. We know him a lot more than the outside world knows him, and know he’s a great guy. As a freshman, he’s really mentored me.”

On the other side of the locker room, graduate student Amile Jefferson echoed his younger teammate’s thoughts.

“We’re a tough team, things like that bond us,” forward he said. “We always have each other’s backs. The way G is playing, he’s just given us an added element that’s taken us to another level.”

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Allen is an incredible player when he’s focused. After leading Duke in scoring and assists his sophomore season, Allen was widely expected to be the centerpiece of this year’s team. The trouble at midseason popped a hole in that theory. Now it seems like Allen is regaining his focus at exactly the right moment. At the press conference, Coach K said Allen saved Duke from elimination with the four three-pointers he hit in the first half when Duke was consistently down by ten.

“They were playing a lot better than us than the score indicated,” he said. “[Allen’s] four threes made it look like we were okay, but it was almost a third round knock-out without him playing the way he did.”

Allen didn’t say much about his behavioral issues or the ire he drew from the crowd at the presser, and wasn’t available for one-on-ones. He did tell reporters that he’s always equally confident no matter how he’s playing, which is hard to believe if you ever watched him emotionally dissolve on the court in the past few months.

“Grayson is just a player. He likes to play, and this is what he does — he competes. He wants to win, and we’ve been there through it all.” — Luke Kennard

He must’ve heard the crowd on Friday — or on Thursday, when Louisville fans also booed him, though not quite as loudly — but he certainly didn’t let it show. You could’ve put on noise-cancelling headphones and you wouldn’t have been able to tell from Allen’s reaction that he was at the center of a boo tornado.

The other Duke players are actually embracing that ire, just as past Duke teams have thrived on the “Duke against the world” mentality. When I asked Jones if Duke is the Patriots of college basketball, he laughed as said yes. Sophomore Brennan Bresser said that while the season “hasn’t been easy, anything great that’s worth doing isn’t easy.”

But it was freshman forward Harry Giles who put it best.

“We’re Duke, we know we’re gonna be the most hated team every year,” he said. “We embrace that. That’s why you come to Duke, to be the villain in people’s eyes. You know they won’t like you. But at the end of the day, you gotta play basketball.”

[daisyckinguk]

6th Annual Hangtown Music Festival Dresses Up, Gets Down (REVIEW/PHOTOS)

The 6th yearly Hangtown Music Event stuffed the El Dorado County Fairgrounds in Placerville, Florida with nice, sweet audio from Oct 20th to Oct 23road. The weekend was one large spotlight after another, towards the followers and outfits, in the climate, selection and shows. Here are just a couple of things that stood out only at that year’s Hangtown Ball…

Area, Area, Area

Certain, place is taken by Hangtown Event in a-town often thousand individuals. Certain, there’s a highway nearby. It’s riverside or not the heavenly hill environment of when considering a little event that one can dream. However the El Dorado County Fairgrounds suits Hangtown just like a glove. Sufficient grassy places for tent people. Adequate parking for RVs. Structures that permit noisy models in to the evening of audio delayed. And, it doesn’t injured to possess your event grounds between a Denny’s and a store. And this season, Placerville’s Florida sunlight shone brilliant all day long, producing for drop that was really comfy weekend climate.

Many Graceful Emcee

Instructor artist, graphic performer and home -announced “Fashion Craven was available to emcee the primary phase and was vibrant in his displays, to express minimal. Each musician that was fresh impressed a customized poetry to explain the forthcoming performer, in addition to a brand new group of vibrant apparel from Craven. the sincere verses took aback all of the artists, admiring in making the introductions, the full time Craven required. Craven was also observed on-stage enjoying the mess with many rings, and he actually slew the group using the jawbone of a butt (performed like a percussion device in this instance) throughout the Oliver Wood/Jano Rix established.

Medeski, Martin & Wood

While Living Provides You With Lemons…

While it had been introduced that Bob Timber needed to endure emergency surgery within the times prior to the event, several thought that dropping an intrinsic person in both Martin the Timber Siblings and also Timber means cancelations from the rings. Alternatively, Hangtown Ballers were handled to 1-of-a-kind outfits that shipped large. it was enjoyable to look them attempt, although obviously Joe Wood can’t be changed! Kirk Joseph of Dirty Dozen Brass Band (sousaphone) and Certainly Will Bernard (guitar) registered John Medeski and Billy Martin to create Medeski Martin & Angry Pot.

Oliver Wood Robertson In The Rondo Stations registered Jano Rix of the Timber Siblings on bass to provide Rix &amp to Oliver Timber; The Allstars. A few of the Allstars incorporated Carbone and Bluhm.

Many Psychological Efficiency

To not consider something so far as performances, although from the entertainers who offered their all to please the group, appear no more than Wonderland. Her heart is put by Wonderland behind every term she performs and every notice she performs. Certainly grateful of her market, she provides all, lubricating her vocal notes having a seemingly bottomless glass of rum to her. Although each tune she performs is emotionally-charged, it had been her band’s efficiency of “Room In The Inn” that introduced several (including Wonderland himself) to holes. A tune concerning the refugee disaster, created from the refugee family’s viewpoint, the words provide the crisis in a method that is very touching nonetheless stunning. Audio celebrations really are a refuge wherever individuals visit overlook their problems. They are able to even be an incubator for globe- actions and changing suggestions. All arises from packages of the song’s purchase visit Doctors Without Boundaries. Oh -final “I Will Be.

Mix-Up The Medication

The artist meltingpot that’s Hangtown introduced way too many visitor sit ins to actually start to note. But several outfits have been which were shaped to create some looks that are distinctive to followers. Steve’s Kimock’s Chimenti was included by newest team on Lebowitz and secrets on guitar. Accidental Creatures (not really a one off, but more of the jam supergroup) functions Lebowitz and ALO bandmates Steve Adams and Dave Brogan along side Chain Cheese Incident’s Kyle Hollingsworth and Trey Anastasio Band’s Jennifer Hartswick. 1 / 2 of Karl Denson’s Small World collection highlighted Fishbone’s Angelo Moore on words whilst the rings worked through Prince’s recording Dirty Mind.

Happiest Artist

When encased by whirling good power one shouldn’t talk in superlatives. There is lots of pleasure on-display equally off and on within the weekend the phase. However, you simply couldn’t tremble the appearance of joy about the encounter of Horseshoes vocalist Greuel and Hand musician. Their smile simply appeared to develop from their day position about the Gallows Phase For That Notorious Stringdusters for their Sunday night time collection starting. From the period some of his bandmates and he arrived to perform using the Dusters, it had been apparent he was atleast AS pleased as anybody within the space.

Outfits

Plenty of imagination was shown via outfits, equally off and on the phase. A guy is being transported round the event reasons with a strong although really brief gorilla. A lady is who’d changed himself right into a coin operated gadget accessory, filled with an “Out of sign that is Order” on her head’s medial side. Homemade or store bought, a broad number of outfits were on-display.

So far as entertainers proceed, Train Planet had excellent team outfits for every their three sets. While departing hardly any to it using era hard-rock outfits and their 70’s however the creativity equally riled. the noon sunlight was come down within by leatherjackets, whilst the Siblings rocked out their high energy songs. Oh, there is additionally what appeared to be always a sweet Ray mullet wig running around the event reasons, however it ended up to become Rum Shivers mess player moving locks.

Hosts Most Abundant In

Train World happens to be the group behind this event, that to discover in several instructions and far like their audio, they produce a strong foundation. Viewing their wide eyed responses while viewing shows from the stage’s market aspect talks for their love of audio. Viewing people of Train sit-in with everybody thrilled within earshot. As well as their commitment for audio and their followers designed for three unforgettable models of the own. They consider their market to get a ride by allowing they are taken by the tunes to get a trip, indicating what moves with pleasure and emphasis.

Throughout, An Excellent Hold

From Twiddle and TAUK’S heavy jams, underneath the comfortable Florida sunlight towards the cool lines of Pimps of Joytime Hangtown Event provided an eclectic mixture of incredible artists towards the chain explosions of Moon. Year it is certain to help improve a developing drop custom, and is fortunate number eight.

  The article 6th Annual Hangtown Music Event Gowns Up, Receives Along (REVIEW/PICTURES) seemed first on Slip Magazine.

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