#i have s2 in such poor quality this is the best we get

[danielslaw]

KYLE SCHMID AND LAURA MENNELL HENRY FITZROY AND HIS SIRE, CHRISTINA.

BLOOD TIES SEASON 2 EPISODE 5

[markantonys]

I truly think WoT is a well written, well acted show but you never see praise for it like that from most of the fandom (unless I'm following the wrong people). You see people praising GoT and HoTD like it's the best thing ever when I'm bored most of the time. Never anything similar said for WoT. I hope it does make it big in following seasons and gets more appreciation cause I truly think the show is underrated

i haven't seen GOT or HOTD so i can't speak to any comparisons there, but i agree that WOT is underrated! it feels like most of the viewership is either casuals who aren't Online About It and hardcore book fans who spend all their energy discussing book vs. show topics - not always in a negative way, i'm also including in here the show-positive discussions about improvements on the books or speculation for future seasons, but even these discussions are so rooted in book vs. show land that not a lot of people stop to discuss the show in a vacuum. it's often about "how is it similar to and different from the books?" and rarely about appreciating the show as its own standalone work.

which i think could be a difference with GOT and HOTD, they probably have a larger number of hardcore show-only fans who are Online About It discussing show-only things in detail such as writing and acting, whereas in my personal experience, WOT online fandom spaces are VERY dominated by book fans and they aren't talking as much about show-only things, or when they do, it's just to mistake "i personally don't like this change from the books" for "this is objectively bad writing and everybody who has ever watched the show agrees that the writing of the entire show is bad" lmao WOT reader fandom spaces have a reeeeaaaally skewed sense of the quality of the show's writing because they can't let go of their "similar to the books=good writing, different from the books=bad writing" baggage and also because they struggle to understand that good writing For TV is often very different from good writing For Books.

there's definitely also at play the societal tendency to praise miseryporn and characters who are terrible people as the creme de la creme of writing and acting. WOT has trauma and misery, but doesn't revel in it in a gratuitous way, and it has very flawed and complex characters, but the protagonists are all ultimately good people. it's a hopeful and uplifting story at its core and a story that wholeheartedly embraces its fantastical elements and wants to bring a sense of fun and escapism to viewers alongside the deep emotional stuff, and those are rarely taken as seriously as gritty cynical stories. hence, WOT is not viewed as a ~serious~ show worthy of having its acting & writing praised in the same way that GOT and HOTD are.

but WOT does do pretty good viewership numbers despite being kinda under the radar in the cultural consciousness, i think. i could see it gaining more attention in upcoming seasons as we enter the territory of the books that most people agree is the best portion of the series, and if they are finally able to do a proper promo cycle for s3 and beyond. from what i've seen, prime shows are never anywhere close to the level of promo netflix shows do (which is TOO much in some cases, rip to the poor bridgerton cast having to do about five thousand hours of interviews for s3), but WOT s1 came out during the covid zoom interview era and s2 came out during the strikes, so it's not hard to imagine that those 2 promo cycles might've been unusually low even for prime's standards and s3 might have a bit more. we shall see!

but at the end of the day, it's also kinda nice keeping wotshow as a hidden gem because greater online fandom attention would also mean an increase in insufferable takes haha i often find that smaller fandoms are a much more pleasant atmosphere than bigger ones!

[averyaddamsromance]

Ok, Hunter in the pool was supposed to get your attention X_D sorry!

The last few days may have been somehow tough for our wyler community. Shippers and their ships could be the core of fandoms, and I am really sorry that in 2023 someone still doesn't get the lesson…anyway…

I decided to make a post sharing some of the fan-fictions which made the last 2 days brighter after knowing that Jenna Ortega is killing the romance in Wednesday- which I repeat, is not bad for Wyler since we couldn't get any romance in s2 anyway as you can read in my previous post. I just hope this is not going to affect the unresolved sexual tension between Tyler and Wednesday. I am curious to see if views won't drop without that. Because audience is fickle and untamable: dear Jenna, today they are clapping when you say "no romance" then in 2 years (when we will be even farther from the effects of covid 19 on people's emotional life) will start complaining about the lack of intensity in the series. For me, this is a challenge and I am curious to see who's right here.

We are forced to accept the decision to castrate Wednesday Addams, dark and sarcastic woman, yes, but still daughter of one of the most passionate couples (Morticia and Gomez Addams). How is possible that to prove women's independence and strength in 2023 we still have to castrate them? Did men do anything like this since the beginning of civilization? Wouldn't be great to affirm our sexuality together with indipendence and strenght? Is it so dangerous for a woman to get an orgasm thanks to a man, really?

Anyway, now back to fanfic:

ALL IT TOOK WAS YOUR SPARK by @wincestation

For me this is royal blood among the fan-fictions I read, latest chapter was out just a few hours before or after (don't remember) the interview Jenna did at The Tonight Show.

It's impossible to describe how much I love this fanfic- and how much I laugh when I read it. Wincestation has established herself as one of the best wylers writers already. She is building an AU and her Tyler and Wednesday can actually challenge in terms of quality the original characters of the series.

Wincestation, I am one of your cheerleaders.

YOU ARE STILL A TRAITOR by @suchaladyy

Another gem I read immediately after Jenna's interview and I loved the warm feeling left in my heart -I really needed it.

Suchalady is producing fanfictions at an impressive speed and her +18 explicit collections is for true connoisseurs. And I won't even bother to hide that after Jenna's attempt to castrate Wednesday I feel even more sadistic pleasure to read explicit +18 fanfictions where she is completely unleashed by Tyler -sorry Hunter, you find yourself in the middle of a war.

I AM TYLER, BY THE WAY by Kiranightshade @therulerofallpotatos

Gosh how I loved this piece! And I am seconding all the comments asking for the sequel! But I know that Kira is working on another more complex fanfic, so I patiently wait here.

+18 EXPLICIT that as I already said I am enjoying even more after Jenna's interview, as useless absolutely pointless personal vendetta.

BUT IT'S NOT REAL (AND YOU DON'T EXIST) by @the-strangest-person

WOW. I am new to Stranger Person'fanfic but this one hit me really hard.

There's some drama but I am pretty sure that if those poor screenwriters (Wednesday's ones) were allowed to write their own thing we would have gotten something similar.

ROUGH DAY by @realmermaid333

Realmermaid333 won't disappoint you, ever. I loved this explicit fanfic! It was fresh air, really hot but somehow sweet (Tyler can't disappoint you either) as only realmermaid can be.

THE WOES OF SELF DISCOVERY by SwedishlittleOwl @fandom-geek17

So damn hot, I started to read it and then I was like "noooooo it's not completeeee" I need others chapters! I am so curious to know what's gonna happen!

[rappaccini]

🔪 tua please?

send me send me 🔪 + a fandom and i’ll tell you which character i hate and would sell to satan for one corn chip

sloane. as of s3 it's gotta be her.

lila pitts was very much created to take vanya's place in the plot after the writers decided to reduce elliot page to the token queer, but at least ritu arya gave a great performance as the white violin we should've had, and lila had some interesting qualities and could've fit into the story as her own character after retooling. plus her s3 diego's-baby-incubator storyline was so astonishingly sexist that i actually feel sorry for her at this point. like, imagine being ritu arya, spending s2 being technically the female lead, getting the best and craziest action/romantic/dramatic scenes, and you open up the s3 scripts to learn you are now… the Pregnant Girlfriend who spends ten episodes wandering after the guy you’ve been with for one week trying to convince him that a little white boy is your biological child. oof.

sloane? was made exclusively to break up allison and luther's relationship, by being the foil to allison in the most sexist way possible.

by this i mean (expanding a lot from this)

allison's bitter and traumatized and has a nasty temper, so sloane is sweet, innocent and can't get mad no matter what!

allison's power can be frightening and get her into dodgy moral situations, but sloane's just makes her float prettily. sloane doesn't have the ability to control luther, or anyone else. he'll always be in control of her! see, there's no potentially ambiguous morality here! just a nice thing to look at!

allison stands up to luther when he makes poor judgment calls, and is in charge of how their relationship progresses, so sloane is totally submissive, never questions him, and lets him make all the moves, even when he's being an idiot

allison is black (you know damn well that one of the big reasons alluther never caught on, and why s1-era fandom kept insisting that luther was secretly abusing and dominating allison/that she was secretly manipulating him, is that it's an interracial ship between a black woman and a white man. you know that's a factor in why people instantly went gaga over raymond. you know that if allison had been played by a white woman the reception to alluther would've been different) and sloane is just ambiguous enough to make sure the fandom doesn't hate sluther for being interracial--- and also so the writers have plausible deniability for how racist they're being by turning allison into a hysterical, sexually aggressive, irrational angry black woman stereotype in s3 right as they make her one of the season villains and then immediately replacing her with a blonde white-passing woman with no indicators that she's latina beyond being played by a white-passing latina actress. and this character is apparently Luther's True Love and a True Member Of The Umbrella Academy even though sloane has known them for three days and allison has been with them for thirty years.

allison is a twice-married divorcee with a child by another man who engages in intimacy with luther extremely slowly and only ever when she gives him the go-ahead and then suddenly in s3 decides to try to rape him, and sloane is an innocent virgin who's never been in a relationship or been kissed... and then does nothing but give luther sex for the three-day duration of their relationship. she's literally a sexy virgin.

right as allison gets a hackjob haircut and starts running around in the same depression wardrobe all season, sloane appears with a full blowout, short schoolgirl skirts, midriff-baring tops, revealing workout gear and tight leather outfits. yes, this is the closest thing to a nitpick, but given everything else, it feels significant. 'why would you want to be interested in frumpy allison, when sloane's so put-together and appealing?'

allison is active in the plot and goes investigating when she can't get an answer/is 'nosy,' and sloane never questions anything! she never tries to participate in the plot, even when the world is ending or members of her family who she supposedly loves are dying. she doesn't even try to get to the bottom of why her future husband's longtime love who he only 'broke up' with three days ago is sitting front row at their wedding with a funny look on her face and something has obviously happened between them. sloane would never try to be anything other than luther's love interest. she knows her place. sloane stays at home, so when luther wants sex she'll be right there to give it to him!

allison goes to luther for advice on how to deal with her worries and problems and seeks comfort in him, and sloane would never worry luther with her issues! what issues could she possibly have? existential terror about the apocalypse? trauma from a lifetime in a doomsday cult vigilante team? insecurity about wanting to leave the only life she's ever known? worries about her teammates going missing or dying? of course not! she's just here for him and his problems!

not only is sloane just a hollow shell of a male fantasy, but she was made specifically to be cast in a good light right as allison is demonized, in order to make allison look even worse in comparison. in the same way that lila is vanya's straighter, sexier replacement, sloane exists to be allison's purer, sweeter, more submissive replacement. but the lila-vanya dichotomy can only be derived from knowing the comic canon and the way the fandom influenced the writers. the sloane-allison dichotomy is literally in the season as canon. the writers decided to make allison's character assassination into a team sport by pitting alluther against sluther in the most unnecessary canon love triangle yet, but wanted the audience to choose team sloane so badly that they set allison up to fail at every opportunity.

(not to mention the character assassination of luther. in seasons 1 and 2, luther was unquestionably deeply in love with allison, quietly waiting for her for decades, didn't judge her for her sexual relationships and children with other men OR her shitty behavior unrelated to romance/sex, valued her opinions and insights, comforted her in her moments of vulnerability, wanted to be a part of claire's life but only on allison's terms, helped her accomplish her goals and let her set the tone of how far the relationship would go. the one time he oversteps is when he locks vanya up, but given that from his perspective, vanya and her serial killer boyfriend just slit the love of his life's throat and left her to die alone, it's very understandable.

then suddenly in s3 he's retconned into this shallow ~himbo~ idiot who only ever saw allison as an object to project a fantasy of playing house with a beautiful sexually available hargreeves woman with [... if he had that ring since the moon, then he was saving it for allison], and the second allison gets frumpy and is in a state of severe distress, he suddenly throws her aside for a stranger who he insists is his Perfect Match on the basis of... what? being sheltered and nice, having powers, and being sexy?)

(...and the narrative backs him up. it frames all his scenes with sloane as True Love instead of shallow infatuation, their marriage as Genuine and Sweet instead of cartoonishly stupid, and it has the whole family welcome sloane with open arms-- and the discarding of allison after years of them being accepted as a couple-- instead of looking at the relationship like 'what the fuck are you doing'.)

yes, i can pretty much immediately see a better role sloane could've had in the story, but the way her existence is looped in with the assassination of allison's character (and luther's) and her relationship with luther is too much for me. and unlike lila, her character and the actress's performance present no immediate interesting ideas or missed potential. making sloane work doesn't just mean retooling her character-- it means completely changing season 3's plot and all the character dynamics. the reason for the character's existence, the lack of depth, the endemic sexism in every aspect of her characterization and the mountain of work required to fix this mess makes her the worst to me.

as a dear friend once said, i would pay satan to take her.

[miss-oranje-disco-dancer]

LIZ I FINISHED NARCOS S1... binge watched that shit so fast and had my eyes GLUED to the screen every time javi was on... can't get over his pornstache and shirts tucked into tight jeans oh my god. i'm being so deadass, can't stop thinking about this man kissing me everywhere it's so DIRE. my poor friend i've been spending the week with keeps having to hear about me yapping on and on about him like a frazzled chihuahua... like she already knows to hand me her ipad like im an ipad kid so i can watch it on her netflix 😭😭😭

sorry for the low quality photo but you have to see the tight jeans in this pic jesus christ i think about this every day my vibrator is named javi i cannot even handle him and the best part is we know he's good at fucking omg omg omg i can't decide if i want s1 ep2 or s2 ep3 omg another thing which i noticed especially in s2 ep 3 is how big his hands are??? like ig pedro just has big hands but like holy shit idc if i'm gay af mens hands like genuinely i one of the few things that makes me ughghghhghghghgh need im awful about watching tv if another person isn't watching with me (funny enough im v good at watching tv in that case like ik ppl do netflix and chill but if netflix is on "chill" is not happening esp if it's narcos on tv) sorry i yap

[cabbxges-and-kings]

honorhearted asked : 💖 for a reason TO date my muse (cuz I feel like we all know why NOT to lmao.)

To date or not to date. / @honorhearted -- accepting

        The bad thing with this is that I might not offer much of a detailed answer on why you should date Abe, as I provided for Astrid & Lydia, so this might get boring quickly. In general, almost all of Abe’s ships have an ounce, a pinch, or a gallon of toxicity involved in them. (Even if you ship Townhull, Abe basically forced Townsend to become a spy and they seemed better by the end, but I feel like these two would have huge communication and jealousy issues on Abe’s side). Aly and I spoke once that Abe is implied to be a different person before his brother’s death (I think Ben and Anna both mention Abe isn’t the Abe they know). I think, too, after his time in the Sugar House prison, Abe is entirely a different person from how he was in s1 just by his morals alone. He’s a hardened man, more confident in himself, but ultimately more reckless once his confidence got in the way. (Some of this might’ve been influenced by his first murder, but that’s an introspection for another time). With Abe and how he is, I believe no relationship with Abe is going to be entirely healthy. 

        Onto some reasons why you should date Abe, even if they are small in comparison.

        Abe is a relatively good father. I say relatively because, with his spying in s2, he wasn’t at home a lot. And honestly, the whole Rogers thing was out of his control, so I forgive him for having Thomas around Rogers in s3. He’s not going to be the type of guy that bounces after you admit you're pregnant. (If this is an affair, this would make things complicated, but I don’t think Abe would step away from a father role. I honestly think he would come clean about the affair if he had a child with someone else). But he seems to really love Thomas and when he’s around him, he seems to be attentive. I mean Thomas was the main reason why he got involved in the spy ring. Yay for not being the most scummy person on Earth? Points for Abester?

        Richard’s money and Whitehall

        Abe is reckless and he deals with his anger often, but I think someone might find his protective nature endearing? Idk. Abe is basically willing to defend you and his home, even if he’s reckless about it.

        Generally, Abe wouldn’t want his spying to affect you. This might not always work out though. So good intention point for Abe? Minus one point for the poor execution?

        I usually point out that Abe/Anna didn’t really have much chemistry and I think if we saw more of them interacting nicely, without their marriages and the affair being a thing, people might be more on board with them. But Abe can be charming, and witty, and I think he can be a good communicator in general (not in a feelings way). If you two have chemistry, there might be some memorable conversations and jokes. But this ultimately depends on the dynamic and circumstances. I kind of think of Mary and Abe practicing to shoot the musket scene when I say this.

        Abe might not be the best husband, or show his feelings that well, but at least he was concerned about how to provide for Thomas for the long term? So no deadbeat dad moments?

        I honestly think that if we knew more about how Abe used to be and not how he was changed by the war, we might get a better idea of how Abe is in a relationship. (Or how postwar Abe might be since his relationship with Mary is more “normal” and “healthy” at the end of s4). I can be sympathetic to Abe, more than some are, but this area doesn’t show his good qualities.

[discotreque]

LwD 2.05: An Embarrassment of Dooplers

So I was a little nervous about this one! I hadn’t heard any spoiler-spoilers, but screeners have been out for weeks now, and I’d heard a bunch of individual, vague, non-spoilery hints about (1) big character moments, on the scale of a mid-season finale even though the show’s not taking a mid-season break; and (2) an ending that would make me cry.

I guess I imagined something relatively serious and dramatic, like “No Small Parts”? This show makes me cackle with laughter and giggle with nerdy glee and “d’awww!” at heartwarming friendships every week, but it’s only ever made me cry once—and then I was impressed that they were going to get there from the wacky hijinks we saw in the brief teaser.

The lack of a cold open made me apprehensive too—in my experience, that’s typically a sign that there’s so much plot in the rest of the episode that they need that extra scene—but after ~21.5 minutes of aforementioned hijinks, I was having so much fun that I’d completely forgotten about the alleged tear-jerker at the end…

…and they were not the tears I was expecting.

I didn’t think I’d be smiling and crying!!!! That was wholesome as SHIT!!!!!

I almost can’t believe they earned that—but they totally did.

After a Mariner–Tendi episode and a Boimler–Rutherford episode, we’re back to the “usual” Season 1 pairings… except the relationships between these characters have changed since Season 1. Mariner still feels thwacked in the abandonment issues by Boimler bailing for the Titan, and Rutherford’s having a tiny little existential crisis about losing an entire year of his life.

Both of which are extremely understandable and very heavy situations—and both of those situations get resolved because everyone in them is vulnerable with each other and honest about their feelings—AND that honesty and vulnerability brings both pairs of friends closer together. Are you kidding me?? I would watch SEVENTY seasons of that shit. Put it in my veins.

Onto the notes:

So basically Dooplers are Tribbles, but for cringe comedy instead of slapstick? Ohhhhh boy.

Look at Ransom the diplomat, tossing his own fork on the floor! I like that he’s actually a pretty competent Starfleet officer, despite also being a completely ridiculous person.

Wait a second, is that—OH HOLY SHIT, THE DOOPLERS ARE VOICED BY RICHARD KIND.

It makes sense that B. Boimler would find William annoying—who likes seeing their own flaws reflected back at them? And who could be a better reflection of one’s flaws than one’s literal duplicate?—but most interesting to me is that it implies on some level, Bradward knows the stick up his butt is a flaw. (Does William?)

Why does the Cerritos model have working phasers?!?!

I’m loving hot pink as the currently en-vogue colour for “dangerous sci-fi energy” in animation (cf. almost every previous episode of this show; Into the Spider-Verse; other stuff I can’t remember right now). As a former child of the 80’s, I’m living for it… but as a former teenager of the 90’s, I can’t help but wonder if it’s going to age as poorly as the harsh neon green of The Matrix, every Borg appearance on Voyager, and like 80% of the websites I made in high school…

SKANTS! SKANTS! SKANTS!

That fake-out joke with the fly-by over the Cerritos model was in the season trailer weeks ago, and I was so enthralled by that handsome lady that the sticker coming into frame still got me good 😂😂😂

BECKY Mariner????? omg yes

Some top-quality Boimler screams in this one. Poor Jack Quaid must drink gallons of throat-coat tea when he records.

One of the great things about Star Trek to me is that you never know what you’re going to get from any random episode. A murder mystery? A road trip? A spooky thriller? A cheesy romance? Broad comedy? Body horror? Didactic political screeds shrouded in tissue-thin science-fiction metaphors? Brain and brain, what is brain??? And after this many years of watching, you’d think I’d be hard to surprise. But if I ever told you I thought I’d see a Blues Brothers–style car chase through a frickin’ shopping mall on an episode of Star Trek, I would have been straight-up lying to you. I loved it, it worked for me, my jaw was on the floor and I was clapping with joy—but I’m definitely comfortable calling this one “unexpected.”

It’s CAPTAIN SHELBY!!! And an ancient babydyke crush rose from the depths of my childhood subconscious… (Also I think her Number One is based on the original makeup—eventually deemed too complicated—for Saru? Now that’s a deep cut.)

In 20th-century Trek, you almost never got to see what was going on inside a starship from the outside. Even after they switched from physical models (where it was next to impossible on a single episode’s budget) to CGI (which was still in its infancy, still not exactly cheap, and still broadcast in SD anyway), it was a rare thrill to see any meaningful interior details in an exterior shot. Disco’s modern VFX have given us some tasty, tasty treats in that department, but nothing quite as sublime as all the pink Doopler light glittering through the Cerritos’s windows.

Mariner says she’ll take her contact Malvus down with her, and threatens that they’ll end up “in the same cell.” Malvus is a Mizarian, a species introduced in TNG’s “Allegiance,” in which Captain Picard is held in a mysterious prison with one. I think I see what you did there, McMahan?

Bartender… so hot… lesbian circuits… overloading…

The Tendi and Rutherford C-story was, well, a C-story within a 22-minute episode, so there wasn’t much to it, but the one scene that mattered actually mattered a lot. I’m ambivalent on whether they should end up romantically involved—I’d prefer they don’t, but they’ll be one of the cutest couples in Trek history if they do—and as long as they keep that pure, sweet friendship between them at the heart of whatever else happens, I’m on board.

Carol Freeman was already one of my favourite captains before this season, and she’s been steadily moving up the list. The quiet throughline about her ambition to be on a better ship has been fascinating so far, and it’s starting to actually make me feel a little conflicted: I’m of course rooting for Captain Freeman to recognize her worth, make Starfleet recognize her worth, and become the ass-kicking captain of a hero ship that she’s clearly ready to be—but that almost surely means she’d be kicking ass off-screen, because LwD isn’t about those kind of adventures, and I’d be devastated not to have Dawnn Lewis on the show every week. So I’m kind of on the edge of my seat about this one!

I had so many favourite jokes this week I put them in a separate list:

“Even the replicated water on the Titan tasted better” is a low-key brilliant dunk on people who can’t shut the fuck up about the cooler places they used to live.

“Ooooh, they have a Quark’s now! That used to just be an empty lot where teens would make mistakes!” ← That’s literally me every time I go back to where I grew up. I felt so Seen™ I almost hid under a blanket.

“I would never go down the stairs!” (evil grin) (goes up the stairs)

The “well, shit” expressions from Mariner and Boimler as their crashed car sank right into the water… which started to bubble innocuously… and then the bottles of Data bubble-bath popped up, paying off a joke I thought had already been paid off—that was the one that woke up my poor cat this week. Just exquisite timing.

“YOUR PAGH IS WEAK, AND IT DISGUSTS ME!” “I don’t even know what that is, but I don’t like your tone!”

“Okona’s in there? He’s not even Starfleet! This is outrageous!” made me shout “NO!” at the screen like I was scolding my cat for scratching furniture. (She did not wake up that time.)

Best background joke: the neon sign at the dive bar advertising FREE SHOTS & BEERS. (Get it? Because they’re on a Federation starbase? Where nobody uses money?)

And of course Quark merchandised DS9.

This wasn’t just a standout episode of Lower Decks, this was a brilliant episode of Star Trek, period. The Dooplers, though extremely silly, are nevertheless also a clever sci-fi metaphor for real and relatable personal/interpersonal issues, and an effective plot catalyst for meaningful character growth from all four of our ensigns and the captain.

The jokes were hilarious, the action was kinetic, the A-, B-, and C-plots linked up thematically, the visuals were consistently and thoroughly gorgeous, the character beats—between Mariner and Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford, Mariner and Capt. Freeman—were all genuine, heartfelt and wholesome, and the references to other Trek canon were both deep and deeply affectionate.

Only 15 episodes in, and this series knows exactly what it is, exactly what it wants to do, and knows that it can knock our socks off doing it. Mike McMahan has said in recent interviews that the back half of S2 (and the apparently almost-fully-written S3) is a straight line uphill in quality from here—which surprised me at first, because McMahan seems like a pretty chill dude who doesn’t normally brag about his own work like that.

But then the Prophets sent me a vision of my space dad Ben Sisko, who reminded me of the words of 1930’s baseball player Dizzy Dean:

“If you can do it, it ain’t bragging.”

[Thanks to cygnus-x1.net for the screenshots this week—I was too lazy to do my own.]

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

it wasn’t power i coveted; it was acceptance.

Titans 3.06

y’know, i was just thinking the other day that 1.06/1.07 and 2.06/2.07 were the best episodes of their respective seasons, so i have great hopes going in to this one. fingers crossed!

as always, typing this up as i see the episode.

SPOILERS AHEAD

1. oh! um... that was a Cold Open, all right. *nudges* get it? cold? because it’s snowing? and two people got murdered in cold blood? eh?

... oh, i’ve just started.

1.5. i wonder if “i want to be sipping pina coladas on a beach with you” is the new “i’m just one day away from retiring.” i was so on edge after that--i kept expecting that car to explode. even so, the way they died wasn’t an anticlimax: brutal, and quick. 

1.75. so i’m assuming that’s the titular lady vic! this show better bring up why this doll was important or why these two cops needed to be killed, and not leave it to the ether like jericho’s little mindscape jaunt in 2.08 (i’m still dying to know what that was about???)

2.

i love how deliberately unappealing wayne manor is. 

(sorry for the pic quality. i don’t have hbo max! ssshhh.)

2.3. i love the many references to “home” and “our house” when they’ve been here for less than a week and saw one of their friends get blown into pieces. i mean, i unironically love it: home is where family is, after all!

2.5. i’d like to say that kom is playing some sort of long game here, especially given the build-up we had last season and some of the more niggling details this season: why did kom choose now to use her bond to lure kory when she’s been on earth for months? why did justin call kory now, just around the time that she started getting kom’s visions? and what about kom’s ability to exactly imitate other people? hmmm.

2.75. the reason i wrote i’d like to say is that i’ve made the mistake of assuming plot complexity where there is none; i was so invested in the jason todd orchestrated his own death theory for instance, when it turns out that oops! ra’s al ghul just happened to leave a little lazarus puddle in gotham, and oh yeah! scarecrow just happens to have a network of henchmen working for him on the outside and a fully functional laboratory and a weapons cache fit for a new supervillain in the basement of the high security psychiatric unit/prison that he’s in! 

(no i’m not bitter, why do you ask)

2.8. iiiii don’t know what to say about the implications of sex slavery being a thing on tamaran, so i’m not going to say anything at all. for now.

3. gotham, six years ago... wasn’t it five years before s2 that jericho died and the titans disbanded? and when was the flashback from 1.06 where dick let zucco die? i think it was after the events of 2.08: jericho? i can’t seem to find any transcripts or reliable information online, so i’m going to have to rewatch 1.06 at some point. 

(i love the old-fashioned batman music in this heist scene)

3.5. “security is a joke... it’s my way of keeping my dad on his toes”. what you’re an ethical thief now, like an ethical hacker? i don’t think that excuse is going to sell, barbara, on the day you do encounter a decent security system and your father is forced to arrest you.

(then again, gotham’s security is piss-poor. did you know that you could just walk into arkham asylum without any official clearance, ply one of its most dangerous inhabitants with contraband, and said inmate could get away with having an entire laboratory and weapons cache--NO I’M NOT GOING TO LET THIS GO)

3.8 so that flashback between dick and barbara was really cute! and also illuminating:

a) dick sounds so light, so... um. look. i have some apologies to tender to mr thwaites, because while i’ve always thought he does a fine job as dick grayson, i’ve never been terribly fond of his cadence as he delivers dialogue. it’s often monotonous, i thought, but then again, he’s usually delivering exposition or dealing with one soul-crushing crisis or the other. so i was pleasantly surprised to hear dick sound so carefree and alive in his conversation with barbara, laughing frequently, his emotions so bare and bubbling to the surface. it’s really a fantastic contrast to the traumatised and world-weary dick grayson that we see now, even more so than the costume department just bunging a backwards-baseball cap on mr thwaites’ head and hoping that will convince us of his relative youth. 

b) and god, when he wakes up from that memory, all alone in his bed, bleeding from bullet holes in his shoulder (bullet holes that are--in a somewhat convoluted way--barbara’s fault)? yikes. it’s great. you have my apologies, mr thwaites!

c) can you imagine dick just... crawling back to wayne manor, trying not to be seen by anybody, shedding his suit and just... collapsing onto his bed without even tending to his wound? the sheer emotional and physical exhaustion of it? 

d) it’s so interesting to see how barbara and dick approach the idea of legacy--a big theme on the show!--in this flashback. barbara is the one bucking the idea that she should follow in her father’s footsteps, while dick seems pretty content with the batman-and-robin setup, and even tries to get barbara to join their team (robin-girl. pfffft). obviously after this several traumatic things happen wherein dick ends up questioning and then resenting his role as robin, his relationship with batman or even returning as a vigilante at all. and barbara... ends up replacing her father as commissioner. it’s tragic, really. 

e) the dynamic between dick and barbara in the flashback reminds me of how it was between dick and donna in 1.08 and even between kory and dick in early s1. it’s like having an older, strong-willed woman by his side means he gives over the steering wheel for a while and lets himself... unspool, a little bit. it’s kinda endearing.

also:

*pinches his cheeks*

3. you know, we talk about dick and Eldest Daughter Syndrome, and that’s definitely valid, but here gar seems to me the embodiment of it, with all the emotional gardening and firefighting that he’s expected to do. he’s kind of the guy expected to keep his shit together and take care of everyone else while they are falling completely to pieces, unable to carve out time to process his own trauma. he’s also picked up dick’s and kory’s tendencies to bottle up their struggles and shun appearing vulnerable, and he’s struggling in the shadow of both dick and kory undergoing acute crises, his best friend (and frequent confidante) on the other side of the world, and seeing hank die, utterly helpless to stop it. 

i’m glad that he got a chance to tell dick even a smidgeon of what he really feels, and i hope this is at least a semblance of a wake up call for dick to actually sit down and work with the people he repeatedly calls family.

3.5. it’s heartening to see that dick immediately makes it his priority to go talk to gar. but don’t blow off kory in the process, man!

4. i’m really loving this dynamic between kom and conner--i get the idea that both of them consider each other as Unknowns, alien two times over. but conner’s only ever known the titans, who embrace being different, and kom’s only ever known... well. 

anyway, kory is Really Stressed, and honestly? #relatable. 

when you’re forced to bring an estranged family member to hang out with your friends...

4.5. i love that the titans are spending so much time in the kitchen. a real family!

5. jonathan crane is a creep and i absolutely cannot stand him.

5.25. how did he get a whole lab setup (in the basement of a hospital...?) with a bunch of whitecoats to work for him? how did he just waltz into the viewing room of an operation theatre when he’s one of the most wanted men in gotham right now? why is jason wandering around maskless when--presumably--as the adopted son of the most famous person in gotham he’d be a tad more recognisable than your average joe?

why do i expect this show to answer anything anymore?

5.5. that’s not necessarily a criticism, mind; i’ve said since season 1 that titans is very comics-like in this aspect, all about the Aesthetic and the splash-page splendour rather than the niggling unimportant details of how or when the characters got to said location. like. the camera gliding over the operation being set-up, lady vic bursting in and doing her murder dance (imagine the luck of the poor intern who chose this day and this surgery to assist) and jason, shocked and slack-jawed, framed by blood.

5.75. it’s a sobering reminder for jason that, though he chose this path in order to gain control over a world that seemed like it was rapidly spinning out of his grip, he’s only succeeded in handing over even more control to a man with an agenda that is very clearly not aligned with his own. he’s in too far to stop now, though.

5.9. i have a lot more thoughts about jason! saving it up for the end of this recap, though.

6. more kitchen time! i better see dick do some cooking soon...

(”our kitchen”! it still delights me! kitchens are So Important)

6.25. so much of dick’s issues have revolved around his relationship with bruce, so it’s completely understandable that in the wake of a huge crisis where bruce literally asks dick to replace him and be a “better” him, dick would default to all the worst things he learned from the man. and i’m glad kory’s having none of it, but come on, guys. the woman’s literally fetched her fratricidal sister out of a hole in the ground with no idea what said sister is going to do next and experiencing a burgeoning sense of guilt far, far beyond her history with the titans, and dick’s too far into his autocolonoscopy that he can’t see that she needs help.

6.5. “he services your urges”--well, as far as we know, kory is the last person he had sex with...

7. “i hope [gar] isn’t angry with me...” SIR! i thought you’d already spoken to him! smh, as the kids say. kory wouldn’t be needing to reassure you if you just took the effort to build two way emotional relationships with the rest of the team. @superohclair​ was taking about dick’s relatively low emotional intelligence? i agree.

7.5. “i got my own problems [...] you and barbara? fix it.” YOU TELL HIM, KORY

8. man i really like this weird, sad tension between dick and barbara--this sense that both of them are approaching the other based on how they remember them and are ultimately disappointed by the truth. barbara thought she could trust dick to... well, be a better batman, but dick has not only failed at that in her eyes, but repeatedly undermined her while exploiting the authority that she gave him. in dick’s eyes, this is nothing like the barbara that he knew, rebellious and ready to do whatever it takes to find something. 

like. this show sometimes really hits me in the chest about the ways it shows kids grow into adults and into caretakers, and the way it’s stop-start, the ways nothing can happen at all for a long time and then it’s Crisis Central all at once and there’s no space to breathe. the weird sort of sadness that comes with nostalgia. 

8.5. oracle name drop! i agree with barbara, any system that can just randomly tap into gotham phonelines is a monster.

8.7. (i don’t know if it’s my imagination, but is dick holding himself... differently in this episode? like that wound is definitely bothering him, and he’s running on fumes)

9. man, that was a really sweet scene between kom and conner. “feeling alien in your own world”... “not quite here nor there”

honestly this team runs on conner and gar’s faith in their value as a family, and it’s a sign of conner’s generous heart that he extends that opportunity to blackfire. this arc of maturation for him, where he’s now able to consciously choose which parts of himself he can use to do the thing he wants to so--save people--has been so fulfilling to recognise. this baby’s grown with the titans! and what he’s learnt is that people can get fucked up, but the titans is a place where they can be fucked up, and grow.

MY MAN CONNER

10. oh man i’m drinking in the gar-dick interaction in this episode like i’m three days into the desert and it’s the only source of water for miles around!

a) gar is absolutely not dealing with dick’s bullshit this episode and I LOVE IT. it’s such a far cry from the man who was idolising dick/robin back in s1 and expecting him to solve all their problems. dick is fallible, dick is fucked up, but he Tries His Best and that’s ok.

b) dick, huffing and puffing through that vent, unable to put any pressure on his left shoulder, trying to have a heart to heart with gar... fuck i love this asshole. 

c) bruce took in a kid who was suffering... “and made him into a weapon”. well. i absolutely agree with dick that it was bruce who put these kids into these horrible situations with him and they came away with a bucketload of trauma to add to the one that they already had. but we know that bruce was really trying with jason, and at the end of s2, dick was coming to acknowledge that bruce had offered him something that wasn’t just darkness. jason’s death and bruce’s reaction to that shattered that fragile progress.

d) “gotham got to me too.” i feel more sympathetic towards dick running off on his own than most, and it’s not just because i’m an unapologetic stan.  we’ve seen before that dick... devolves when overwhelmed, and he lashes out and makes ill thought out decisions and just Does Not Deal. it happened after hearing the news that deathstroke had returned in s2, and it didn’t help that everyone around him was reeling at the news, either. this time, however, he has his salvation in his family, and despite some stupid decisions like running off and kidnapping supervillains without telling his team, he’s been really on the ball this season. thinking clearly and logically, holding it together and working on a plan, thinking two steps ahead of the villains... yes.

e) gar needing to believe that jason isn’t beyond redemption... there’s a lot of blood on his hands, too, from when he was manipulated by cadmus last season. it makes sense why he’d relate to jason’s predicament, and i hope dick picked up on that.

f) my head just added a plaintive ow after dick jumped feet first into the storage room

i need, crave gifs of this scene!

11. *sits on hands* i’m going to talk more about red hood, i promise!

12. more gar and dick! is it my birthday??!!

(actually, according to the tamil calendar, it is my birthday! my “star” birthday)

12.5. excellent. dick using some implausible training that bruce taught him to solve a mystery? passing some of that knowledge onto gar? that proud smile when he sees gar perfectly execute moves that he taught him? MY HEART IS EXPLODING

13. aw, i love flashback!dick and barbara, they’re so cute <3

13.25. why does it not surprise me that the way he proposes a relationship to barbara is by saying “we make sense”? this guy can deduce exactly who was present where and what weapon they were holding from a garbled audio recording but other times he’s utterly clueless, and that’s a consistent character beat right from s1

13.5. so.... that’s why lady vic has it out for... barbara....? i don’t get it. it’s flimsy. but hey! the fun thing about titans is that i don’t have to get it. the payoff has nothing to do with the plot.

14. i can’t believe that barbara fell for that, but at least that wheelchair fight looked awesome, so.

15. oh yeah, i forgot that red hood bullied the mob into helping him and scarecrow... at least that explains the whitecoats and the elaborate set-up.

15.5. honestly i love how this dynamic between kory and kom is developing, though i wish more of the team would pay attention to it. time to call justin, i think!

16. i wonder what happened after that second flashback where barbara got hurt during that heist. did she give up on doing any more (maybe jim caught her)? was it because dick was called away by bruce and then the titans and got caught up in his own issues? maybe barbara froze him out because she wasn’t looking for the relationship that he was looking for? maybe the idea of doing that with someone turning into batman-lite was just... unappealing? scary?

whatever it is, it doesn’t look like dick ever processed the end of that relationship. it’s very intriguing to see where their dynamic goes next.

17. so.... what, did vic deliver some fear toxin to barbara? i... what?

17.5. and i TOLD YOU that they would never explain that doll or why vic attacked those two cops at the beginning! oh, titans. never change. 

18. did jason just randomly have tim’s restaurant burgled? god, i’m feeling a bit nauseous... are they going to kill tim’s father?

18.25. i feel like the rest of the season is going to wrestle with jason’s culpability in the horrible stuff he’s doing and i’m already seeing that prospect divide fans. on one hand, his story is taking a lot of oxygen away from other equally interesting story arcs, and he’s done some truly awful things, like indiscriminate murder, threatening to kill children, blowing up hank, and potentially killing tim’s parents. 

there’s something to be said for the kind of hold that crane has over him, and the so-called ‘anti-fear’ drug that he keeps plying jason with--he’s alone, drugged almost constantly (to the level of dependence), fresh from the trauma of being bludgeoned to death. he hasn’t conquered fear; he’s ruled by it. on the other hand, given that he’s the one character on the show given an obvious and identifiable ‘mental illness’ arc (maaaaybe dick too), one can argue that it’s irresponsible to show this progress into such violence: jason was vulnerable because he was struggling, and that left him vulnerable, but it took only a push before he became a fucking serial killer.

but that could mean we underestimate the degree of that vulnerability, and the mechanics of this universe where he fell into the clutches of the one supervillain perfectly designed to exploit that vulnerability. that helpless spiral into further and further self-destruction is all too real. it’s valuable to know that someone who has sunk that low can still seek help--actual help--and get it. 

18.5. i don’t know. it’s not a question i’m going to resolve at the end of an overlong recap at 1 in the morning. i don’t believe it’s even a question that titans can resolve. but i am interested in where they’re going next with jason.

19. this episode was genuinely great! i’m pumped for the rest of the season!

[kisilinramblings]

What is it with people and the animation of teh show? I saw people saying that guiltrip was so poorly animated and all sorts of stuff. Honestly, I don't really care about quality the animation. Why don't people understand that animation is very difficult, especially 3D CGI? They are so upset that SAMG isn't animating all the episodes anymore and complain too much about how other studios make bad animation instead of appreciating that they actually tried their best. Sorry if I sound too angry:)

We were too spoiled with SAMG animating the entire S1 tbh. They are a small studio but the quality of their renders as well as their lighting skills really make them stand out. They also animate details not in the storyboard that helps give life to the characters. (Though I still have questions regarding the animation of Gabriel's "Mario Jump" as he is about to enter the cave in the Shanghai Special).

But while I am glad they do continue to help animate the episodes from time to time and are in charge of the Specials, I don't think the other studios are as bad as people make it sound. Funnily enough, one of LS fans favorite scene from Season 3 was animated by that one studio that did so poor of a job that they were fired by Zagtoon after animating that episode (and communications must have been tedious as well).

Like, obviously, DQ has been worst. But they are learning and getting better. Compare their first S2 episodes to what we see now in S4. They still struggle in some areas, but now they harmonize well with Assemblage and Artage, the other two studios helping this season.

Guiltrip had some unexpected character deformation and the way the scene where they are climbing back is animated doesn't help give the impression they are fighting against the current. The hardest thing in animation is always to give weight to the characters' movement. Even 3D models are weightless. So having a character floating and trying to fight something invisible such as the winds is always difficult to animate credibly.

Anyway, to me, what matters is : do I understand what is going inside the shot? What are the key poses I need to take into account? What is the information the shot is giving me? The shot can be the prettiest and most well animated in the entire industry, but if there is no meaning behind it, it's kinda pointless.

Of course, I will always prefer good animation supporting what was storyboarded, but view it more as an icing to the cake. If your cake is well baked and tasty, I will alway eat it even if its icing coat isn't evenly distributed everywhere.

[twilight-deviant]

DD #301-303

Think I’ll live-blog reading Daredevil comics here so I don’t annoy my friends with it. lol.

Where did I leave off? *licks thumb like I’m about to flip through a story book* Ah yes, I had just finished #300 because who could see THIS SUBLIME, GRATIFYING PERFECTION and have the strength to go on reading???

This? 👆 This is one of my favorite pages in all of Daredevil. So you’re saying... Fisk can do every evil against Matt, try to ruin his life, other people’s lives, get him disbarred, destroy his childhood home, leave him penniless, try to kill him and Matt will still forgive him?! Good to know, thanks.

Good

to

know.

Okay, on to #301. And wait for Fisk’s return.

_

Love how they always remind us that Fisk is a necessary evil, that the moment he’s gone, it begets a power vacuum.

Is he bad man? Yes. Is crime worse when he’s not around? I mean KINDA, yeah. It’s lowkey the basis of Daredevil S2. With Fisk in prison, the gangs become more violent. The Irish literally say they’re going to take his former territory.

🌈Wilson Fisk is a necessary evil~

_

Always like when narration or thoughts describe how Matt “sees” a scene.

Radar sees a “marred and jagged” body, he hears the dripping blood, tastes/smells the decay of death. Love it. So powerful.

_

Foggy made a layout for how their new office should go, and he did it as a 3D model instead of on paper so Matt could feel it. 😭

This man continues to be the #1 best friend someone could ask for. I love Matt, but he does not deserve Foggy lbr.

_

HNNGH! Series parallel!!!

Also look what 3D print I just got from Etsy. 🤩 

Link here if anyone is actually reading this and wants one. lol. Good quality and price, got here quick. I love it. ♥

_

I aspire to offer people cheese snacks out of a skull.

_

Forever disappointed that Ben Urich did not have much presence in the show and barely interacted with Matt. 😔

Don’t worry, Ben. We see the hypocrisy even if Matt “I can and will break every bone in my body” Murdock doesn’t.

_

Matthew, are you interested in rephrasing that?

_

If you thought Matt wouldn’t try to fistfight fire, you’re wrong.

The ol’ fire jangles.

Matt, honey, that’s not just a boo-boo pain. You are literally burning yourself. If you can feel it in your skin, down to your nerves, you are probably melting that costume into your flesh. You will not feel better in a few days.

_

Oh no, poor baby is still homeless. 💔

_

I can’t take this face seriously.

PLEASE rephrase that last part!

_

What’s with “Fisk = vice”?

Vice is a weird word. I feel like it hits wrong to describe him. Maybe it’s me, but vice always seems to be treated as a weakness, an indulgence. They don’t know my man’s strength of will, k.

_

If the Owl has made his bones hollow so he’s lighter and can fly, I mean... break his bones. Easily. They hollow.

_

Mmmmmmmm, Matt’s chest dripping blood. 👀

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Matt nauseated by the smells and sounds of his own pain?! Where my whumpers at?!?!?!

Bandages will fix everything~

Oh, NOW you think to ask.

Disaster man saves the day again. And I think that’s the end of that 3-volume arc.

[ivarthebadbitch]

How old is Aethelwold in the series? Why does he think he can still be king after all these years? He’s not that stupid.

all right anon...you're getting a couple answers on this one. the first answer is the narrow, straightforward, in-text interpretation of aethelwold's motives from the end of s2 into s3. the second (and more interesting) answer is taking a look at what role aethelwold plays in the narrative and why.

Answer #1: imo the most important scene for understanding aethelwold's motives in s3 takes place at the end of s2, where he discusses the ransom for aethelflaed with alfred. I think the takeaway message from aethelwold's point of view is clear: he understands that to alfred, he is disposable, and he will never be allowed to have anything more than what alfred allows him. so his only chance to have anything beyond that is to try to take the throne for himself at the best possible opportunity--when alfred is dying, and before edward can consolidate support. the thing is, I don't think he even wants the job of being king as much as he wants the respect and authority that comes with the title.

Answer #2: let's zoom out from our narrow, in-text interpretation to look at what role I think aethelwold plays within the story. aethelwold was a real historical figure, but the show diverges in some key ways from what we know about him. for one thing, this includes his age, as it seems he very young when alfred took power after his father died. now in the show, he has been aged up considerably. to answer your first question, I would say that aethelwold and uhtred are about the same age, so probably in his late teens in s1. this is a significant change, and I think it is done this way because the show needs aethelwold to serve the story as a (pathetic, unmanly) foil and ultimately an antagonist. it needs him to look bad so alfred and uhtred and company can look good by comparison, and it needs to flatten out some of the ambiguities of the real life alfred/aethelwold relationship. I think the reason the writers want to give us clear good guys and bad guys is in order to present the audience with a patriotic, feel-good story about the unification of England under alfred (and make it look even cooler by telling us about this forgotten badass who made it all happen, of course). the good guys need not be perfect, but their actions must ultimately be justified by the narrative, with a heavy emphasis on characters' personal qualities. alas, poor aethelwold gets the short end of the stick.

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

do you think dan loved/ saw the real Blair. or did he only like Blairs good qualities or the character he created? In 5x24, he says "I thought she had changed" what do you think that line meant?

hi!! i dwelled a LOT on question 1, as you’d probably expect, and there’s a bit on your second question at the end of the ask. i didn’t want to put this under a read more, but... i probably have to, hahaha. oh well... 

a lot of people think that dan liked the version of blair he created (i’m not sure why - maybe because of the way derena played out, or maybe because of “inside” & the fact that he definitely was dreaming of her?) but i personally do not agree with that or buy that at all. i’d argue, even, that dan has never had any illusions about the kind of person blair is.

the first time we really get to hear dan’s thoughts on blair (that i can remember, at least), is in 1x04, when he’s complaining to rufus, and he is downright scathing. he hates her! he has a long list of adjectives about how much he hates her!! 

in the end of s1, he and blair even team up to get revenge on georgina because of the shit she put serena through - that gave me so many feels, the first time i watched it, and i’ve actually been thinking abt that a lot - the parallels between 1x18 & 4x10/4x11 and these two being knights in shining armour for serena. maybe i’ll write a fic about that, later (im getting distracted!!) 

in s2, dan says the very iconic “google revenge and you’ll get blair waldorf dot com” thing to vanessa, who wants to help nate. and this makes perfect sense to dan, because he’s definitely schemed with blair to help someone he loves before, and he knows that when it comes to her best friends, she’ll do anything. stuff like this, to me, is the heart of the dair dynamic (along with a 101 other things, blah) because like... dan can see the good parts of it - the fierce loyalty, the “if you want to help nate, blair’s your best shot, because of how she protects and fights for the people she loves,” while also being cynical about it, like, “oh yeah, blair? she’s schemey, she’s mean, she could probably kill someone and show no remorse.” like... .this is one of the most balanced perspectives on blair, ever. i feel like he really understood both sides of her - the part of her that loves so much and so deeply, and the part of her that can be cruel and causes destruction (i would even say that dan himself sort of operates like this - he can be really kind but he can also be really mean, and. yeah idk i just find it fascinating, how much they have in common.)

he even acts on the wrong instinct at times, like, when he’s expecting her to sabotage him at W so he sabotages her first? like, i don’t think there’s really ever an instance where dan is looking at blair and seeing someone who isn’t there? he might read her wrong sometimes, but i feel like he understands her.  they both understand each other! this jibe is one of my favourites because... i think nads @mysteriesofloves said it perfectly here, specifically, the part where she says:

“serena isn’t there to see him, and she won’t be, and he’ll miss his interview waiting for her to throw one glance at him over her shoulder, the way he always has. he says that whatever scheme blair is plotting is going to backfire. and here’s the thing! they’re both completely right - but it has nothing to do with prediction and everything to do with the fact that they know each other better than they know themselves.”

their entire relationship is a gradual building up, and it definitely has its roots in that, you know? like, dan and blair aren’t the people they were in high school, sure, they’re growing past it, but they knew each other back then, they understood each other back then. dan has seen blair at her best, at her romantic and enthusiastic and intellectual opinionated self (whom he vibes with immensely, remember that pretentious sleepover), and he’s seen blair at her worst, and he loves the part of her that schemes and causes problems (she ruined his award nomination thing in despicable b and he was ready to work through it with her!  i know i talk about this episode a LOT but it just really makes me feel things. why would he forgive her for this, if he didn’t understand/accept that side of her???) 

now, for your second question. i honestly do not really remember (or vibe much) with that episode, but i think the whole “i thought she had changed” had to do with like... blair seeing him as an equal, and not just as some poor boy from brooklyn or whatever. blair is pretty canonically classist early on in the series, and she very openly scoffs and looks down on the humphreys due to like, status & wealth & all that jazz (jenny gets it soooo much worse than dan, but. that’s dan’s sister, he’s allowed to be pissed off.) so i would read this as like.. “i thought she and i really connected as two people who had a lot in common, who had common interests and common life goals and who were able to be honest and open and sincere with each other... but i guess that she still looks at me as that nobody from brooklyn, and she’d much rather date a billionaire who’s been terrible to her, than me, who’s tried my best to support her even when she hurt me.” 

i do think there’s ample canon evidence to support this, too, but i can’t think of what to link and show you here that isn’t...... the whole dair arc, lmao. i just think it was very... dan knew that dating him was out of blair’s comfort zone or dream future / ideal future. so i think that’s the context of “i thought she had changed.” like, a paraphrased “i thought i had a chance.” 

oh damn, now i’m sad. :’)) time to listen to new york city by among savages on repeat again!

[deuchess]

What do you think are the love languages for the different LIs from S2? (Sorry if you’ve already done this, it’s difficult to find stuff on mobile)

sorry this took so long and thank you for asking!

Marisol: Acts of Service

this one i feel like makes sense considering how much she struggles with being open and vulnerable with her feelings. AND with taking that big step of finally getting with mc. she finds it very meaningful when mc does something for her - she’s expressed several times how much law school has been stressing her out, and it’s not difficult to imagine her struggling to get things outside of work done. if mc decided to help her out, that would just mean the world to her. we also see her attempting to make breakfast for Gary back on day 3, which shows that she finds doing favours for others special.

Noah: Quality Time

Noah just screams quality time to me, because of course it does. getting to spend time with the people he cares about means everything to him, especially when he gets those one to one moments. that’s perhaps why it’s so goddamn to get a moment alone with him on his route and why, when him and mc finally manage to get in some alone time, Noah always seems really happy. i also believe that he’d got a distaste for distractions like texts, phone calls and etc when he’s hanging out with mc. he’d like for them to focus on eachother rather than something else. everything he wants is for those damn stars he talked about to align and give him and mc a few precious moments together. thats truly all he wants, them to spend time with eachother.

Gary: Physical Touch

he’s always asking for a kiss or a cuddle on his route because that’s his way of getting reassurance that you’re still into him. he’s not the best with words so turning to expressing his love physically is a lot easier to him. he might feel a little unloved without physical contact, so make sure to give this big log a hug.

Rocco: Words of affirmation

i’m not as sure of this one as i am with the others, but i think it fits him. he’s secretly a very insecure person, seeking attention from all the girls when he felt as though he was forgotten about. i dont think people tell him often enough that they appreciate him, something he honestly needs someone to tell him.

in uni he was very secluded and ended up dropping out, he was worried about other people’s opinion of him and of that life changing decision he made. there were no one who told him that it was fine, and he yearned for someone to affirm him that it was going to be okay - that he wasn’t a failure.

hope this makes sense, i just see it meaning a lot for him to have someone express their liking of him, seeing as he’s a bit scared to ask for that type of reassurance.

Ibrahim: Words of Affirmation

poor sweet lad has a bit of a hard time with his words at times. there’s a few times i can remember mc having to reassure him that, he is good at this, he is capable of that and that he is good enough. there were a lot of times where he was feeling insecure, but was immediately becoming less so at the cause of mc’s words.

he was always seeking her opinion and was worried of what she might think of him. her expressing interest and affection for him with words mean the world to him because he himself has a problem doing just that. with him feeling insecure, it helps a lot to get reassurance in this way <3

Bobby: Physical Touch

words can be difficult at times so he often relies on actions instead. we see a lot of moments in the game where Bobby expresses emotions via body languages and such, rather than with words. example: booping mc’s nose when he was feeling overwhelmed with feelings.

i just think it fits Bobby to be physically affectionate rather than to express his love with words.

Henrik: Words of Affirmation

this one just makes a lot of sense given how openly Henrik likes to express his thoughts and feelings regarding just about everything. think about the amount of times he’s randomly given mc a compliment, telling her how she’s attractive or smart or amazing. Henrik is obviously a very blunt person who tells it like it is, so if he tells someone they’re amazing it’s because he truly believes it - and he wants them to know it too. i think with Henrik it’s important that he has someone who can also express their feelings, someone who is willing to toss him a praise or two once in a while, so he’ll be reassured that they feel as strongly for him as he does for them.

Lucas: Quality Time

i was thinking about receiving gifts for him at first, but i think getting to spend one on one time with mc is more meaningful to him. in his opinion, there’s nothing more important than him and mc, so them being together is what’s the most important to him. he absolutely loves taking mc out on dates

Elisa: Recieving Gifts

this one is pretty obvious i’d say. it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s materialistic, even though she might be a little bit hehe. it just means that a meaningful or thoughtful gift from someone makes her feel loved and appreciated. it’s also a way she feels comfortable with expressing affection too. taking her girl out for shopping or bringing her on a trip are both good examples of something Elisa would do for her girl. and if mc were to spoil Elisa by taking her out on a fancy and maybe a little expensive date, she might just melt on the spot. love costs doesn’t it? ;)

Carl: Acts of Service

like with Marisol he’s rather busy with work. having his girl do simple gestures or favors for him make him feel special and loved. i think Carl would fit better with someone who’s got, maybe not the same, but a similar love language to him. it might be difficult for him to show love the way mc wants if she has physical touch as her love language - seeing as that’s not something he initiates a lot. he does like his space at times after all so that might not be the best match for him. i can see him instead becoming really proud of himself if he takes the time to do something for mc while she’s away. her doing cleaning up his kitchen, making his bed, cooking dinner or any other gesture like that means more for him than she‘ll ever know.

[akira-emberheart]

songs I'd like to assign to the glee kids (part I)

Note: I'm pretty well known for making playlists and more playlists, and ever since seeing this post by @cracktastic about assigning, for the 100th episode, the least expected song to the least expected character, I've found myself craving to hear specific characters sing specific songs.

(I've also started another separate list to add on to that post I mentioned, but that will be a post for another day)

So after going through my music library, I came up with a small list of songs for each character that I would love to hear them sing, for various reasons, which i'll do my best to explain.

This got really long really fast, because I like to get into meta and over analyze - I'm also just very passionate about music. For that reason, I'll do 5 songs at a time for a specific character, and I'll be putting a read more.

Also, please be gentle with me - I've watched Glee a year ago, and it's entirely possible I may be missing or confusing scenes and storylines in my head. If I do, let me know!

If you read this and find yourself thinking of songs and scenarios as well, do share them with me! I'm working on actual Spotify Playlists as well.

So let's get into it -

for Kurt Hummel

> Re: Stacks by Bon Iver

"This is not the sound of a new man

or crispy realization

It's the sound of the unlocking and the lift away

Your love will be

Safe with me"

This is probably one of my favorite songs ever, and I first thought about it for Kurt after realising how beautiful his voice would sound in it, because of its crystal clear and poised quality. (I liked it so much I included it in a scene on my fanfic too).

If you don't know Bon Iver, or the history of this song, it's the last track in an album full of more..."depressing" songs. It's also the one that has a throughout tone of hope, of recovery after a hard ordeal, of taking some first steps to a better place.

I imagine it would be a good song for him around the time he meets Blaine - when the Karovsky situation is nearly over, and he starts looking back on his school year - Burt's heart attack, the bullying - and, now with Blaine in his life, and a renewed self confidence, he's finally able to confidently step into a better phase of his life and heal from all he went through.

I see this one being sung in a quiet moment of reflection, when he's alone. Maybe in the choir room, or even outdoors in a nice garden. In my fanfic I wrote it in a different context, in Blaine's room at night, so I guess that works in my head too.

***

> Enchanted by Taylor Swift

"I'm wonderstruck

Blushing all the way home

I'll spend forever wondering if you knew

I was enchanted to meet you"

I'm very fascinated with Kurt's whole storyline in S2 - things start off so rough for him, but when Blaine comes along, and when Kurt is able to grow and shift more and assuming the person he really is, things start looking up. I chose this song for what it promises, and also because I can imagine it in Kurts lower singing register and it seems like a good one for him. Also, yes, I was a kid who owned Speak Now. Sue me.

This song is about first meeting someone very special, and that happens to be the beginning of Klaine. With the almost whispered lyrics, the slowly crescent ambiance and rhythm, it really encapsulates the feeling of everything stopping when you lay eyes in that one special person, and the flooding rush of emotions that happens right after.

Kurt had no idea how much an unsuspecting visit to a rival show coir school would change his life, even less in the midst of the situation he was in. It also seems fitting for Kurt and his early relationship with Blaine because of some specific lyrics ("This is me praying now / This was the very first page / Not where the storyline ends"). Enchanted tells the story of a special first meeting, and hints at something special to come, from the perspective of someone who is awestruck for someone.

Like the one above, this one would fit in early S2, possibly in EP6, after Kurt and Blaine's meeting at Dalton Academy. When he's back home, alone in his room, daydreaming, or when he's back at McKinley in that same afternoon.

***

> Gonna Get Over You by Sara Bareilles

"Oooh, how am I gonna get over you? I'll be alright, just not tonight But someday. Hey, I wish you'd want me to stay I'll be alright, just not tonight"

My main reason for choosing this one is because I think it fits very very well with Kurt's voice, and musical taste - its a very vibrant and poppy song, despite the more depressing theme - a post breakup promise of getting over it.

I first thought of it for S4, soon after the Breakup™, but paying close attention to the lyrics (I do tend to get stuck on just the melody sometimes), it makes more sense to place this on during the S6 Breakup - when Kurt finds out about Blaine dating Karovsky, after deciding he wants Blaine back.

So it's a hard situation for him, as we see from his breakdown in the bathroom (poor Kurt!), and he really has to come to terms with the mistakes he made (and the mistakes they both made as a couple), pick himself up, and move on.

I imagine this one being sung during an outing with Rachel, when she's trying to cheer him up and lift him up a little from his depression. My brain readily produces an image of a sunny street or a shopping mall that the two of them walk through, Kurt with some nice vivid colored clothes, finally being able to smile and ready to perhaps start moving on, or at least ready to start considering he will be okay.

***

> Killer Queen by Queen

"She keeps her Moet et Chandon

In her pretty cabinet

"Let them eat cake", she says

Just like Marie Antoinette"

This song just reminds me of Kurt. It's one of my all time favorites from Queen, and ever since watching Glee, these two are just connected in my mind. Voice wise, Kurt could definitely handle it.

It's apparently about a "high class prostitute"(? Freddie's word's, not mine), but still paints a pretty and dainty picture, and you can almost picture a porcelain faced lady in her best clothes, delicately smoking a cigarette. It also contains words that probably only Kurt can pronounce out of everyone in the glee club.

Many Queen songs were sung on Glee, but I don't think there was ever a Queen episode. For this one, I suggest a headcanon scenario, maybe during S3, when Mr. Shuester decides to have a Queen week - and Kurt isn't known for going with the obvious choices. He wants to be classy, edgy and impressive, and he sings in front of everyone, half in the choir room, half in the auditorium, perhaps with some fancy decoration and dancers behind him.

***

> The Answer by Kodaline

"You might think you found the one

Until your heart gets ripped and torn

Yeah, I used to feel bad, I used to feel like that

I still feel a bit like that"

This is another one that I picked immediately solely based on Kurt's voice - I really do like his voice with just a quiet, discrete instrumental. Looking into it further, I decided it could really work for Kurt's character.

I didn't go very deep into the intended meaning of the song, because it definitely has space for different interpretations. I choose to go with the breakup one. These lyrics here reminded me a little of the S4 breakup storyline - "We all fall down from the highest clouds / to the lowest ground" - makes me think how well Kurt's life was going once he arrived in New York, with the internship, his apartment situation with Rachel, a new and exciting place where he could freely be himself... and then he's completely blindsided by Blaine's cheating. He goes from being ecstatic and excited at Blaine's appearance, looking forward to share with him all the great things he just discovered, when Blaine's confession sends him to a well of despair, doubt and loneliness. The lyrics "You might think you found the one / until your heart gets ripped and torn" - reinforce the whole situation.

I can see him singing this not long after the breakup, on one more sleepless night, maybe walking alone through the streets of New York, or maybe in a montage of his busy daily routine, while he just gets through the day with a whole lot of emptiness weighing on his chest.

[baldrambo]

Honestly, the ST fandom is unbelievably exhausting sometimes. I have been in over a dozen online fandoms in the last 15 years and can say with complete confidence that ST (so far) has been one of the most well-written, well-executed shows I've ever seen. The Duffers have a story to tell and they're telling it.

But the way this fandom runs their discourse (Tumblr/Twitter/Reddit) you would think the show was badly written Hot Garbage™ and everyone's just tuning in at this point out of boredom and obligation to a select few characters, and it honestly blows my mind sometimes.

Is this just the new thing to do? Call everything bad writing that we personally don't like or agree with? There's a marked difference between critiquing a piece of art and complaining about it not being what we want. None of this is to say that we can't or shouldn't have discussions about what is/isn't bad writing. But hiding behind "bad writing!!" because a story isn't going the way we want/expect creates an impossible standard for the creator to live up to. There comes a point in time when it's just whining.

Take for example, Season 3. Having a discussion about the tonal differences of Season 3 from 1&2, talking about what maybe did or didn't work and why, and a preference for the tone of 1&2 is discourse. Calling S3 a "bad season of television" because it was comedic and you wanted it to be serious is not discourse it's just a backdoor way of trying to assert an opinion as a fact. Conflating the two presupposes the accuracy of your opinion when it's not anymore or less valid than Fan #8,127 living in Canada who loved S3 and thought it was the best.

How about Jonathan Byers' storylines (which I see a lot of discussion about)? There is a difference between critiquing his lack of screentime, particularly with his family, because of a personal preference to him being with Will/Joyce vs. teamed up with Nancy, and saying it's bad writing that he doesn't spend more time with his family. Writers make intentional choices to push their story forwards. If there is an alternative explanation to "They're prioritizing X character and Y character over Z character because the writers must not care enough about Z character and don't know how to write Z character" then the alternative explanation should probably be considered.

Maybe Jonathan spends the vast majority of his time in S4 with his family, which is why he spent so much more time with Nancy in 3. Maybe his screentime is about to substantially increase as a result of the Byers being separated from the Party in Hawkins. The Duffers already discussed doing this with Will. They made his role in S3 smaller because he was so center stage in S2. Disagreeing about whether pushing him to the background was a good choice is different than accusing the Duffers of "bad writing" because Will didn't have more screentime. This attitude impugns a negative or careless motive solely because of personal dissatisfaction. The Duffers didn't forget about him, or give up on his story. Is there any evidence that they've set out to push Will aside because they "don't know what to do with him?" Not really. They made an intentional choice based on the story they want to tell.

In the end, it is the Duffers' story to tell. The way they want and how they want to do it. We choose to tune in, and they are under no obligation to tell their story the way we want it told, or to cater to certain storylines or characters or ships that some people want over others.

And to piggy back off of that thought: the story isn't even over yet. It's looking like we are likely to get a Season 5 which means we have at least 16 more episodes to work with before the story is finished. In ST world, that is a LOT of time. If something in the storyline is currently unfinished, or an arc hasn't played out yet then it's likely by design. Season 3 wasn't the end of the show. It's so strange to me how so much of the discourse analyzes Season 3 in a vacuum, given how obvious it is that we are missing a lot of key information about S4 and beyond.

Hopper is probably one of the the biggest casualties of this. David Harbour has discussed, ad nauseum, why he portrayed Hopper in S3 the way he did, and the discussions he's had with the Duffers about it. He has also alluded to a redemption arc and critical info about Hopper's character that we still don't know yet. Criticizing or disliking what we've seen so far with the understanding that more explanation may be coming is not the same as claiming that the dislike must stem from "bad writing" or poor characterization. They are two different conversations. Again, if there is an alternative explanation to "I disliked it so the Duffers must have decided to ignore prior characterization, fuck around, and suddenly don't know what we're they're doing with one of the show's most critical characters" then perhaps the alternative deserves some consideration.

(These examples aren't intended to single any particular character or part of the fanbase out, it's just that I am very invested in the Hopper/Byers so these examples were easier for me to draw from.)

Once the show is over, if the Duffers pull a Game of Thrones, and admit to screwing around to subvert expectations, or leave plot holes, or don't provide explanations for characterizations and storylines that require it, then the conversation changes. We will have access to all the information we ever will be given access to, and arcs and storylines will be as completed as they ever will be.

Tldr because I know this got sort of long, so I don't want the nuance of it to be lost: conflating a personal dislike of a piece of art to it being poor quality or bad writing creates an impossible standard for the content creator to live up to and isn't a fair way to criticize, especially when the story isn't over and we don't have all the information yet.

We as the fans aren't owed anything by the Duffers and whining about things not playing out the way we want doesn't magically become a valid critique by accusing the content creators (or the content itself) of having a design flaw. Discussions about what is and isn't bad writing is so much more nuanced than whether we like it or not (see i.e. reality tv) and shouldn't be used as a crutch to bolster a subjective opinion.

[calliecat93]

ST: The Next Generation Watchthrough Season 3 Episodes 1-3

Evolution: We’re at Season 3 folks, yippee~! We also have Dr. Crusher back! I’m kind of annoyed that they don’t os much as mention what happened with Pulaski, but considering everything,t hat may have been best. I’m just gonna assume that she took Crusher’s job at Starfeet Medical and Crusher decided to go back to the Enterprise to be with her son. Which I’m glad that the episode touches on the fact that Crusher doesn’t really connect with Wesley anymore and how she’s concerned that he’s more wrapped up in his studies and Ensign duties than… you know, being an actual kid. Whatever one feels about them axing Crusher last season, they at least acknowledged and worked with it now that she’s back. The issues with Wesley in the first two seasons is how he was an intelligent kid who felt like he got things handed to him and bolstered up despite having done nothing to earn it. S2 was a bit better, but the issue still lingered, just less in our face. But here? Wesley accidentally causes the problem with a nanite project he was working on getting loose and he tries to fix it without anyone finding out while also dealing with his mom being back and hovering over him after being without her for a year. I would like to point out that he made the choice to be without his mom so him going ‘how wold you know? You haven’t even been here.” is kind of his own fault, but I DO understand that he’s frustrated and it’s an understandable reaction from a tired, guilt-ridden teenager. That’s probably what I liked best, Wesley feels more like an actual kid who screws up and makes bad decisions but is good-intentioned and trying to both be responsible and make it right, which I think the other two seasons didn’t fully have. He doesn’t get punished or even scolded for almost causing the destruction of the ship and everyone on it, but he doesn’t get praised for admitting the mistake that he caused or directly save the day either like in The Naked Now and he did ultimately admit responsibility after talking to his mom so fair enough. The episode is overall a good one. There’s good tension and pacing with the nanite threat, Crusher comes back and gets right back to where she left off, Wesley has probably his best focus episode thus far, there’s the gap between mother and son showing them not ignoring the ramifications, the crew maintain their competence and managed to resolve the issue peacefully, and overall it’s a decent way to start off the season. A standard episode, but still promising for what’s to come. 3.5/5

The Ensigns of Command: We have Data on a planet to evacuate an upcoming invasion who do have the right to the planet due to a treaty… but the citizens won’t budge. We have a tense situation here. We have a bunch of stubbornness on both sides. The Sheliak’s DO have right tot he planet, but that doesn’t make it right to slaughter a bunch of innocent lives for no reason. But the colony leader won’t listen and refuses to go without a fight despite the land not being their’s and having the Federation ready to get them to safety. We have Data having t try and convince the colony… but he’s not really trained as a negotiator so… yeah. It’s nice to have Data in a role that he isn’t used to and him having to figure out how to navigate the issue especially with how he still struggles to understand human nature in a case where he very much needs it. The method he uses to finally convince them was not one I expected from Data, but damn it was an effective one and I loved how he got to get creative! I love it! Even his reverse psychology gambit was a good one even if it didn’t fully work cause the idiot leader is too good of a speaker, but the final attempt sure as Hell did the job. Picard’s attempts to negotiate with the Sheliak to buy time for evacuation were also freakin’ great especially at the end and I’m already liking him so much more than the first two seasons. The girl though who’’s really into androids? Yeah, while I give her kudos for trying to help Data and re-activating him after the leader took him out, I didn’t like her. She may like androids but it really seems that’s all she sees him as. And that just rubs me the wrong way. Also Dat saying he has no feelings of any kind… I really don’t get why the show is insisting on that cause that’s not true jut because it’s not the ‘normal’ way, thought he ending has Picard more or less point out that Data’s statement isn’t really accurate who who knows? Ultimately it’s an episode about how, as Data puts it, things can be replaced but lives cannot. Some fights aren’t worth the loss of life, and this was one of those cases. Also diplomatic negotiations and treaties aren’t a fun process haha. 3.5/5.

The Survivors: Well… that went nothing like I expected. Things start out kind of same old, same old. We have a couple being too stubborn to leave their home despite hostilities and the crew can’t convince them otherwise… then Troi gets some strange repeating melody stuck in her head. You know how addictive Earworms can be? Well imagine it never being able to stop and going over and over and over… and Dear Lord poor Troi didn’t deserve any of this. Marina Sirtis conveyed Troi’s growing desperation and pain because it just won’t stop extremely well. This and a hostile vessel raise a lot of questions. Why is all of this happening? It’s all connected to the elderly couple… and the reveal is utterly shocking and horrifying. I’m reluctant to even go into detail because I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone who may have not seen it. But lets just say that it’s not simple pride keeping that couple from leaving even when the danger returns. Oh not even close. This episode was freakin’ great. It’s pretty good but when we get the big plot twist? It flips everything on it’s head and the actor delivering the big revelation… the performance is utterly gut-wrenching. Their actions are sympathetic and the guilt and grief is so evident and heartbreaking, a being driven to despair that caused them to commit probably one of, if not the, most unforgivable act that one can commit. It’s an utter tragedy, plain and simple. IDT an episode of TNG has hit me this hard, I legit teared up. Just… damn. 5/5.

While I didn’t really watch the show as a kid, I did see scattered episodes her and there because my mom watched it 24/7. Seasons 1 and 2 of TNG just… din’t feel right. They weren’t bad, they just didn’t have that feel that I remembered from what I had seen. Now though? I’m starting to get that feeling again. The episodes, while not ground-breaking or anything, maintain quality and it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to replicate TNG or struggling to escape it’s shadow anymore. If this is indeed the season where the show truly found it’s groove, then I am excited for the other 23 episodes~!