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thetypedwriter · 3 years ago

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Cold Iron Heart Book Review

Cold Iron Heart by Melissa Marr Book Review

I don’t think many people are aware or have read the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr, but that’s alright. I originally started this book blog as I had so many thoughts and feelings about the books I was reading and yet no one to share them with.

So I might be talking to me, myself and I in this book review, but at the end of the day, it’s still a way for me to express how I feel about the literature I’m consuming even if no one else is reading this.

Wicked Lovely is one of my favorite series from when I was young. I still remember very clearly how my love story with these books started as it was odd and coincidental. I was at the grocery store with my mom and a promised “quick” trip quickly turned into an hour-long shopping spree as my mother was prone to do.

Back then I was in middle school, had no cell phone, and was bored out of my mind. So what is any pre-teen to do? I went over to the small, sad book selection in the grocery story and picked up the novel with the most interesting cover.

This book was Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.

I read it the rest of the day and finished it that night, consuming page after page. I was completely transfixed. It was dark, gritty, violent, sexy-all things that my twelve-year old self found entirely fascinating.

It was a fantasy book about fairies, but these fairies were deadly, life-sized, cruel, violent, beautiful and loving.

I’ve been enamored with fairies and fairy lore ever since. All because of this book and the series that followed. It hooked me in ways that I still don’t fully comprehend, but I understood then that I hadn’t read anything like it before and I was drawn into Melissa Marr’s world and never quite left it, even all these years later. I’ve gone back and re-read Wicked Lovely multiple times and each time I still found it enjoyable and alluring.

Cold Iron Heart is a different beast.

A few days ago, my best friend (who is a journalist) sent me an email saying that local Arizona author, Melissa Marr, was releasing a new book and that she might have the opportunity to interview her.

I was ecstatic, of course, and not so subtly tried to persuade my friend to let me silently snoop in on the interview (I didn’t, by the way).

It was then that I realized I hadn’t checked in on Melissa Marr for some time-what had she been writing? Imagine my surprise that one of my favorite series of all time not only had a new book-a prequel no less, but also several new short stories.

I was flabbergasted. And beyond excited.

So I ordered the book immediately and read it the moment it arrived on my doorstep to eventually find myself with...mixed feelings with a negative tinge. Okay, more than a tinge, more like a cascading waterfall of negative feelings.

First off, the book is a prequel.

Now. Melissa Marr could have done so many cool things with this. There are so many interesting characters that I would have loved to see more in depth or delve into their histories.

Like Miach and Beira, for example. I’ve heard about the late Summer King since book 1, but never got to read about him as he was dead before the series began. However, his legendary love with Beira, the Winter Queen, would have been so incredibly bewitching to read about it, especially if it involved the birth of Keenan.

This would have been an awesome choice.

Irial and Niall would have been another incredible one, probably the best one. We’ve been told over and over again throughout the series that these two hot-heads with a past used to run the Dark Court together, wreaking havoc, taking lovers, seeking new heights, etc.

But do we get to see this transfixing time? Nope.

I would even have settled for a story about the Hunt, Sorcha and Bannanach, literally any character done in the right way.

But...no. Melissa Marr decides to write a prequel that is literally a carbon copy of the first book Wicked Lovely, but innumerably worse.

Everything in the prequel is exactly the same as the original novels. Miach is dead, Keenan is looking for his Summer Queen, the Winter Girl is pissed off for not being the chosen love of Keenan’s, Irial is temptation in the flesh, Niall and Irial are at odds, Bananach is causing discord, Sorcha is isolated and frigid, the list goes on and on.

Nothing of consequence, novelty, or importance happens in this book.

Frankly, it just felt like a terrible redo of the first novel, just set 100 years back.

I didn’t give a single flying crap about Thelma or Tam or whatever her name was. She was a worse version of Leslie, of Aislinn, of every other cool female character we eventually get to read about in the main series.

Thelma was contradictory in the worst of ways. She said one thing, like she would rely on no man and never have children and then turned around and did every single one of them like some sort of hypocrite galore.

She was so irritating and boring to read about that I tended to skim her parts because it was just paragraph after paragraph of bitching and moaning about the same goddamn things over and over again: stay away from fairies, oh god this fairy likes me, no sex, no children, no love and then bam! She just throws it all away.

Urgh.

The worst part too is that this isn’t a well written book. It’s repetitive, quite boring at times, and caters way too much to the reader.

Something I loved about the first Wicked Lovely is that Melissa Marr kinda just tosses you into her world and calls it a day. She doesn’t hold your hand or over explain. She just describes and lets you glean for yourself.

I loved this aspect of the original series. I liked learning about her world and the characters this way.

Cold Iron Heart spits on the idea of this concept. Marr repeats herself so much about the same things, who Irial is, what fairies are, why this is happening, that I grew increasingly irritated as the book went on.

Who on earth is she explaining this for? New readers? Why in the world would any new reader start with this book? The newest one that comes after six others???? It makes no goddamn sense.

So not only did I feel patronized and aggravated, but the love story between Thelma and Irial grated on me as there was no basis for their love.

It was ridiculous with no shred of authenticity and I hated it, especially knowing that he already loves Niall and Leslie only to come back and say, “wait a moment! I had another true love that I’ve never mentioned before. Yeah. Her name was Thelma. Or Tam. Or whatever, I don’t know. I knew her for three days, most of which was just sex, and then I lost her after she had my baby but I conveniently forgot about it because of nonsensical plot! Hahahah, good right?”

No. Not good. Horrible.

Overall, this book is a waste of time and trees.

I don’t know why Melissa Marr even wrote and published this. I can see her writing this for herself because why not, but as a fan and a reader this was beyond disappointing.

It’s like how all Harry Potter fans felt when J.K. Rowling wrote The Cursed Child and we got movies about Newt Scamander when we literally wanted anything else-Marauder series anyone??

It’s a particular kind of egregious offense when a favorite series or author of yours ends up ruining the canon you’re in love with. For that reason alone, I am stripping Cold Iron Heart from my heart and mind, like it never existed.

Just like I did with Cursed Child, or the fact that you-know-who dies in Death Note (if you know, you know). I just...don’t believe it. It ruined all the lovely things Marr had previously written and the stories that defined so much of my love for YA, for fantasy, and for my own writing as a whole.

I know for a lot of you this was a bumbling mess of a review with little to no clarity of the plot or who these characters are. Frankly, I’d be surprised if you are still reading if you didn’t know the book or the series in the first place, but that’s alright.

Like I said at the beginning, this is a way to get my intense feelings and thoughts down onto paper and now that I have I feel marginally better, although still pissed off that this book exists and that I currently own it.

Sigh.

Well if you stuck around for the ride, I appreciate it. If you skipped this particular book review, I understand that too.

Recommendation: Burn this book. However, if you want a gritty, tantalizing fantasy story, pick up the original Wicked Lovely and be whisked away into a world that has stuck with me since the first moment I read it on the fateful day at the grocery store.

Score: 3/10

#cold iron heart #melissa marr #wicked lovely #book blog #books #book review #Book Recommendations #YA Book Review #ya book rec #booklover #3/10

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walker-lister · 3 years ago

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Fic writer review

Tagged by @picnokinesis thank you Taka!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

Twelve! (I’ll have to write another to make it 13 lol!)

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

665,232

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

Just the one that I’ve posted online- Doctor Who, and specifically Thirteen!

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Rising Tides (270)- I’m incredibly touched this has the most kudos as this was the first that I put a lot of effort into, I had with my previous works but this one was longer and covered complex themes, so it’s very touching!

2. Timeless (214)- This is the first fic I wrote! I remember doing it right after the series 12 finale as I was so compelled by the ending! I’m very pleased it’s been appreciated, a very kind way to be welcomed into the writing community!

3. On Hallowed Ground (127)- This one I also find so touching and I’m so pleased this many people enjoyed it as I became consumed by this and wrote it over 6 days so to know so many others also enjoyed something that quite literally consumed me and basically wrote itself is just fantastic!

4. Ipseity (123)- I have a soft spot for this one, too, my first longer (ish) fic that I planned out and I’m really pleased people enjoyed it! I think it all started because I wanted to see 13 in a leather jacket and was very intrigued by the prospect of her having past lives she didn’t know about!

5. Heaven Sent (110)- Ahh, I’m so happy this has made it to this list! I’m writing the final two chapters now and it’s been a passion project, my whole heart’s gone into it so to know this many have enjoyed thus far and we’ve still got a while to go (just coming up to halfway!) is really... ahh, I’m chuffed!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

Absolutely, they’re so precious to writers and I really appreciate people taking the time to leave one! Also, it’s nice to chat with your readers and it’s how I’ve made many friends!

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm I had to think about this for a while, I don’t really think I’ve got any with an angsty ending, I think bittersweet might be the closest, in which case I’ll say ‘On Hallowed Ground’ as it’s angsty with the circumstances but also hopeful at the end.

7. Do you write crossovers?

No, although sometimes my mind wanders over doing a Doctor Who/Merlin crossover fic, all for the bants of seeing those characters interact (Graham and Gauis immediate besties), but I don’t think I’ll ever write it!

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

I have not, which is nice!

9. Do you write smut?

hahaha nope! I do include sexual themes in my work, but do that annoying thing where it cuts away before they get to the actual smut bit! I just can’t do it, it’d be terrible, although I know someone who wants me to ( @ivyinspace 😉)

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Wait that happens?

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Nope but if anyone wants to please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

I have not, although had talks about it!

13. All time fav ship?

All time?! Gotta be the Titanic. Lmao no I’d say Thasmin, although I am partial to some Thoscei

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever finish Cosmic Fireworks. I wish I’d left it as a one shot tbh but I don’t want to delete the second chapter off ao3. But I can’t see myself finishing it, I wasn’t into it as much as I am normally with my fics, but we’ll see, who knows, perhaps one day I’ll wake up with the inclination!

15. Writing strengths?

*mind goes blank*

ermm... I think I’m quite good at taking complex themes and exploring them well- I find that the pieces come together easily in my mind and (provided I write it all out and plan first) it’s like I can lay out a problem and carefully craft the solution. I suppose that might make me good at characterisation? I also think that I’m good at setting the scene and describing places maybe.

16. Writing weaknesses?

I write way too much, I need to be more concise. Also I think I have a habit of needing my characters to show they’re good people, and that means sometimes my own voice carries over into theirs, and perhaps I could be better at exploring the complexities of characters, if that makes sense (something that goes beyond characterisation is what I mean, like maybe I’m making the point too hard sometimes). I also think that sometimes I need to chill- there doesn’t have to be a big point to scenes sometimes, no great narrative or thing to take away, sometimes it’s just the pleasure of reading something that’s important, even if it’s silly.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I wish I could speak another language, but alas I cannot, otherwise I would, but I would then put translation.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

It was actually Merlin, I never published it online but it was when I was about 13/14 and first discovered fanfic and was a huge fan of Merlin I thought, ‘that sounds fun let’s do it’! I was already writing little silly stories anyway so it was like a whole new concept which also felt familiar, although they were awful so I’m glad they never went online!

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

Agh idk! In terms of a story I think is good quality and engaging, I’d say ‘On Hallowed Ground’ as it’s concise, the plot and emotions mix well, I think, and overall I’m really proud of it. But in terms of my favourite one to write, I’m not sure if I can pick one. I enjoy writing them all, although tbh with some there are chapters I just have to grit my teeth through to write (by my own fault because I make things way too complicated!), but enjoyment is what it’s about! But maybe I’d single out my aus because they’re more my own invention that the others, in particular Heaven Sent- so that and Rising Tides, final answer! (see, this is what I mean, I write too much jfc...)

This is open to anyone who wants to do it!! 😊

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wickedobsessed101 · 4 years ago

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Fanfic Writer Asks

[SOURCE: criminal-minds-fanfiction: Most of the writer ask posts I come across are only like ten or so questions long so I thought I’d try to make a longer one because we like talking about our writing! Feel free to reblog!]

I’m answering all of these b/c I love Q & A’s about my writing, both for my fics and other things.

1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction? It was 2013, so I was 14 years old. I’m now almost 23.

2) What fandoms do you write for and do you have a particular favourite if you write for more than one? I’m mostly in the Wicked Musical fandom, but I like to read for other fandoms, like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Chronicles of Narnia, ect.

3) Do you prefer writing OC’s or reader inserts? Explain your answer. OCs, but I’m more than willing to create an OC for someone based on characteristics they give me.

4) What is your favourite genre to write for? I love me some fluffy romance and hurt/comfort, but I also love some angsty drama.

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi-chaptered stories, which would it be and why? OMG, don’t make me choose! They’re all my babies! I love all my children equally! They all hold special places in my heart.

6) If you had to delete one of your stories and never speak of it again, which would it be and why? Goodness, most of my stories prior to 2017, because I was in high school and had no idea what I was doing because I was just getting my feet wet with writing.

7) When is your preferred time to write? Anytime really. The latest I’ve stayed up writing a fic was 4AM. *Glares at ‘Threads of Truth’*

8) Where do you take your inspiration from? Where ever it happens to come up. I’m not picky. Movies, music, people I’ve seen on the street, random thoughts that enter my head, anything.

9) In your xxx fic, what’s your favourite scene that you wrote? In ‘Threads of Truth’, it’s a tie between Villy’s first date, and an argument that happens in an upcoming chapter. And that’s all I’m saying about that.

10) In your xxx fic, why did you decide to end it like that? Did you have an alternative ending in mind? In ‘Play The Game’, I liked the epilogue ending that I gave Elphaba with her family, even without Fiyero. I like writing her with kids. Another ending would be with the Fiyeraba still together, but I’m satisfied with the ending it has.

11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it? I’ll go back and fix typos that are pointed out, but I don’t change plot stuff. Like, I wrote what I wrote and I will amend my technique in future stories.

12) Who is your favourite character to write for? Why? Other than my OCs, because I get to fully create them and my lowkey babies, I’d have to say G(a)linda. She has so much potential and she’s so much fun.

13) Who is your least favourite character to write for? Why? Boq. Not because I hate him (I don’t!), but because I don’t normally know what to do with him. If he’s not with Nessa, he’s literally just standing there like a brick wall. No offence, Boq!

14) How did you come up with the title for the xxx? - You can ask about multiple stories. [Ask me about a specific story(ies)]

15) If you write OC’s, how do you decide on their names? I usually change consonants and vowels to already existing names, or add unnecessary letters because... reasons.

16) How did you come up with the idea for xxx? [Ask me about a specific story]

17) Post a line from a WIP that you’re working on. “Hopefully, this will soak up any more leaks.” (Upcoming Wicked fanfic)

18) Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them? Yes, 2. Both of them are a few years old and I’ve grown as a writer since then. Maybe one day, I’ll edit them and repost, but not anytime soon.

19) Are there any stories that you’ve written that you’d really love to do a sequel to? Not everything can have a sequel, y’all! XD

20) Are there any stories that you wished you’d ended differently? Yes! Around 60% of them.

21) Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire? @vinkunwildflowerqueen @raven-curls @mylittleelphie @weaselspeedfanfic Ultimate Queen of Cliffies

22) Do you have a story that you look back on and cringe when you reread it? This goes back to Question #6; most of what I posted prior to 2017.

23) Do you prefer listening to music when you’re writing or do you need silence? Silence. I need to focus.

24) How do you feel about writing smutty scenes? I can’t write it. They’ll make out, and then be pregnant in the next chapter. Y’all can do the math for yourselves.

25) Have you ever cried whilst writing a story? YES! Yes, I have! Both sad tears and tears of joy. I’ve also cringed from second-hand embarrassment at the things the characters do and say. I’m not in control of their actions all the time. Sometimes they tell me what they’re gonna do, and I’m like, “Well, alright, then.”

26) Which part of your xxx fic was the hardest to write? [Ask me about a specific story]

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow? I write bullet points of things I want to happen in a chapter on the Word Doc, or in the story as a whole, and I try to keep those bullet points in order. And the Notes App on my phone holds a lot of my ideas, and sometimes full scenes.

28) What is something you wished you’d known before you started posting fanfiction? That I’d become obsessed with writing and continue doing it for almost ten years, as well as expanding to writing plays and musicals.

29) Do you have a story that you feel doesn’t get as much love as you’d like? Yeah. I’m not gonna say which one, but just know there’s one... or a few.

30) In contrast to 29 is there a story which gets lots of love which you kinda eye roll at? Yes, and I’m still not gonna say which one(s). I want all the love!

31) Send me a fic recommendation and I’ll post it for my followers to see! (The asker is to send the rec, not the answerer) Yeah, sure!

32) Are any of your characters based on real people? Yes. Villy Doiir from ‘Threads of Truth’ is based on 4 people I know in real life, all mixed together into one wholesome, mother figure/ mentor. Perhaps that’s why I like writing her so much.

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten? All reviews keep me going, no matter the length. But I love it when people review saying that they picked up on little references that were really just for me. It makes me feel like we’ve shared a moment.

34) What’s the harshest criticism you’ve gotten? A guest reviewer once said, “You tend to write Fiyero as an abusive person”. It wasn’t harsh, just... NOT TRUE. Especially for the story they were reviewing.

35) Do you share your story ideas with anyone else or do you keep them close to your chest? Close to my chest. I’ll share it with the world when I’m ready.

36) Can you give us a spoiler for one of your WIP’s? NOPE! You’ll just have to wait and see! LOL!

37) What’s the funniest story you’ve written? I... really don’t know. My stories all have their funny moments.

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it. I’m very busy, and collabs aren’t really my thing, but I’m always willing to lend an extra pair of eyes pre-posting.

39) Do you prefer first, second or third person? I’ve written one story in the first person and it was fun to get into the character’s head, but I love third person, cause I like knowing what everyone is thinking. Second person makes me feel a certain way and that don’t really like.

40) Do people know you write fanfiction? IRL, no. It’s not something I bring up over dinner. I’ll talk about my plays and musicals, but not fanfiction. I like keeping my fics for the online peeps and my more personal writings for the RL peeps.

41) What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written? My OC, Princess Hannalyn, from ‘A Royal Romance’. She was so much fun!

42) Song fic - What made you decide to use the song xxx for xxx. I haven’t done a song fic.

43) Has anyone ever guessed the plot twist of one of your fics before you posted it? Not fully, but they’ve had little inklings, but certain details were still a surprise. And I’m not mad about it.

44) What is the last line you wrote? “I don’t want this to be the last time we see each other.”

45) What spurs you on during the writing process? When I’ll have one idea, and it spirals into many others, and when the characters write themselves. It makes it so much easier for me. Sometimes they tell me that they’re about to make a bad decision, and I just go along with it. They need to learn and grow somehow.

46) I really loved your xxx fic. If you were ever to do a sequel, what do you think might happen in it? [Ask me for a specific story]

47) Here’s a fic title - insert a made up title. What would this story be about? [Ask me]

48) What’s your favourite trope to write? I love a good Royalty AU (not fully AU ‘cause of our princey-prince, but still) and Holiday AUs. And I’ve never written a Coffeeshop AU, but I LOVE reading them. I’ll read anything. I’m not picky, and I love to see what ideas others have.

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about? Yes, and both of them were Gelphies: 1 - “Easier Said Than Done” by mecelphie - It’s part of a long, wonderful series of Elphaba and Glinda together at Shiz and how their lives evolve together and has many lovable OCs. 2 - “The Thropp Diaries” by denpa wave chick saki - It’s first-person Elphaba POV of the book. It expands on lots of mentioned moments and we get to journey through Elphaba’s thoughts.

50) If you could write only angst, fluff or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why? I’d have to say fluff, so I can get my escape from reality. But it’s hard to write pure fluff without a little bit of conflict.

If you wanna read my stories, they’re all right here: Fae’sFlower

#wicked the musical #wicked #wicked fanfiction #fiyeraba fanfic #faesflower #Q & A #Fiyeraba #gelphie #Elphaba #Fiyero #Glinda #Galinda #fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction.net #let me tell you about my writing and my stories #writer #Q & A with Nia

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thecatsaesthetics · 3 years ago

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Anne Boleyn 2021 Review

Okay, so I want to start this off by saying I am a day late and a dollar short. I know that. Who wants my, over thousand-word, essay on this... but I've gonna give it to you. So please keep reading and leave me comments with your thoughts about this show.

So I will start this off with the positives:

I think Jodie Turner-Smith was excellently cast as Anne Boleyn. Jodie has a remarkable range as an actress. Especially since this version of Anne Boleyn, she is both victim and villain Jodie was able to pull it off flawlessly. She jumped from being a heartbroken wife to manipulating Henry VIII very well. Two scenes that really highlight this are:

The one after her miscarriage and Henry riding off; showed Anne’s desperation and sorrow very well. “Won’t you say goodbye to your wife?” was a heartbreaking line and I very nearly lost it when she collapsed.

The second was in the next episode where she manipulated herself back into his “good graces” by proposing Cromwell had been double-crossing him. This didn’t come across as villainous to me, it came across as a woman in a struggle for survival. Playing the game to keep her station after miscarriage.

I will say this about the show Jodie carried it on her back. She made Anne very sympathetic but highlight that she had this temper that harmed her. However, unlike Claire Foy’s Anne Boleyn I never felt this Anne was unlikable. She came across as someone struggling to survive. The scene with Mary after she learns of potentially Mary being reinstated in the line of succession also highlighted this. The whole "The King never likes to be without me for long" was a lie given he had left her but it was to puff up her station. Reminding Norfolk that she helped his daughter marry the King's son. Forcing Chapuys to kiss her hand. These weren't just power moves, they were survival moves.

This Anne was similar to Natalie Dormer’s Anne in season 2 of the Tudor and Geneviève Bujold in Anne of a Thousand Days. I enjoyed how Jodie both made the performance utterly her own but also obviously drew inspiration from the others.

Moving on,

Another positive was George and Anne’s relationship. I did like how touching their scenes were. The final meeting between George and Anne was heartbreaking.

The horse symbolism, while oddly ripped off from The Tudor’s swan symbolism what I liked. Also, the clock from King Francis implying the “Her time is up” I truly enjoyed. I am just a sucker for symbolism

The Norris Comment

I LOVED THIS. I loved how not only it was said, Anne being flirtatious and joking but the immediate drop. This was the moment Anne truly screwed up. I loved how Norris reacted and the reactions of everyone in the room. This comment is oddly overlooked by most productions of Anne Boleyn or Henry VIII. From what I have read it was an incredibly important comment that was made by Anne. This in combination with her final miscarriage left her in a dangerous position.

Now to a more mixed feeling:

Henry and Anne’s relationship:

On the one hand, I liked it, it showed they were still into each other a lot. This is unlike The Tudors where Henry VIII weirdly loses all sexual interest in Anne (but somehow still expects her to have a baby). Most productions show Anne and Henry’s marriage crumbling the second she has Elizabeth which just isn’t true. I also liked how the miscarriage alone didn’t cause Anne’s downfall, which is usually how it’s done.

That being said the physical violence… Henry VIII was a lot of things but he really wasn’t a physically violent guy himself. He’d execute you but he was a coward about it. I think the one notable time Henry got physically violent with a wife is when he ordered a sword after discovering Katherine Howard’s prior “relationships” and people thought he was angry enough to execute her himself. Even with Jane Seymour, he seems more degrading of her at times than physically violent. Emotional violence was more Henry’s style.

I do understand that they were trying to show the relationship as chaotic, volatile, and unhealthy. However, I just didn’t think it was necessary to add physical violence to do this.

Now with the petty:

The costumes… were so god damn ugly. Just as a side note before we pass from the positives to the true negatives. I just don’t understand what goes through the minds of costume designers. Jodie is a beautiful actress and they put her in the ugliest of clothing.

I mean I have seen worse costumes. They weren't as bad as The White Princess or Wolf Hall. But I would put them alongside The White Queen honestly.

I don't think costumes must be accurate, but I want them to be pretty at least. If you aren't going to make them accurate can we at least have something interesting to look at?

The Negatives:

Jane Boleyn: Ummm I don’t know what to say other than this is fucking dumb. I mean I guess we should be glad there was no physical violence between George and Jane this time around. Other than that I don’t get it. We literally are three mins into episode one and they have Anne call Jane a “spiteful little bitch” why? Because she’s upset her husband is cheating on her? Like Anne is upset her husband is cheating on her? Why wouldn’t Anne sympathize with Jane if that were the case? Even if they wanted to make Jane Boleyn evil they did a bad job. Am I not supposed to have sympathy with the wife getting cheated on?

Also, Dan Jones should have his degree ripped from him. Dan Jones is an actual historian who is an executive producer on this show and he allowed them to have Jane be brought as a witness to Anne’s trial.

On that note let’s move to the Jousting Head Injury thing. Again Dan Jones should have his degree ripped from him. This event did not happen, at least not like this. You can watch Claire Ridgeway’s video on this but the historical records do not support Henry VIII being unconscious at all after this fall. And it was funny they had Chapuys heavily involved in these scenes since he never even wrote about this event. You’d think if it was that important he would have.

That gross miscarriage scene… for all that is holy I do not understand why we are getting these intense miscarriage scenes. The camera was literally between Jodie’s legs at one point. It was so nasty. The sounds… I just can’t. I won’t go into it further but I’d rather have Natalie’s Dormer’s implied miscarriages with just some bleeding then this shit any day.

Now before I tactical the racism I want to say the final episode was probably the weakest one. Anne’s trial… I hated it. I hated Anne speech it was way too much Feminism™. I would have rather had her execution speech or her confession with Crammer. I do get why they only chose to have one of these in the episode, it would totally over crowd the episode. That being said… not only was the directing weird in this scene the speech they wrote just was subpar at best.

The Racism:

Okay, I am going to try my best to tactical the racism in the show. Now I am white and I don’t want to say I should be speaking over ANYONE. Plenty of black Tudor fans have written this better than me.

However, two plot points on this show really struck me as racist.

Jane Seymour: the odd predator behavior Anne has around Jane Seymour. It must be noted that the age gap looks apparent on the screen. Jane’s actress is 25 and Jodie is 34. Jane looked like an innocent schoolgirl and the aggressive scenes with Anne made these seem incredibly predatory. In ALL other productions, I’ve seen this is never how Anne and Jane come across.

The weird kiss between them was both racist and homophobic. I think they said it was about Anne wanting to see the “appeal”. Again it just made her look predator. The worst scene was when she was circling Jane as she spoke a hymn. Honestly, they made Jodie look like a fucking shark in that scene. It was so nasty.

The second and less talked about was Anne and Kingston. I don’t get why nobody is talking about that disturbing scene where Kingston physically pushes Anne onto the bed and holds her there. It was utterly disturbing, and quite frankly I am shocked anyone found that appropriate. You cannot separate Anne being portrayed by Jodie, a black woman, and having a white man grip her head down on a bed saying “She’s only a woman” as an insult. It was incredibly disturbing.

Also in general having Kingston treats Anne so awful… when all other productions of Anne Boleyn have Kingston treat her remarkably well. Racism is implied here. Why in every other production Anne's ladies are kind and gentle to her, and Kingston is moved by her, but when it's Jodie he's physically brutalizing her?

I think there were obviously other incidents, including all the shit with George and Jane but I don’t feel that equipped to handle them. I just wanted to bring these two to light.

Overall:

Jodie was amazing, carried the show on her back. That’s kind of it. It was very subpar. For a show that claims in the beginning inspired by “The Truth… and lies,” it seems more inspired by lies than by any sort of truth.

I mean did we need another Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn TV show. Probably not. Which makes me feel sad. Jodie was so good. She truly pulls off regal. I want to see her in more period dramas. But other than that… 5.5 stars maybe?

#anne boleyn 2021 #anne boleyn #henry viii #jane seymour #tudors #jane boleyn #george boleyn

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blesspastacraig · 4 years ago

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A Year in Review

I wanted to creat a list of sorts of everything I wrote in 2020, since I managed to do a lot.

Here’s my one shots:

Not Alone - Published 08 Jan 2020

"I keep telling you, I don't want to go" Craig complains as he burps one of his two newborn twin daughters. His mom, thankfully is burping the other. Craig knows he should be nicer to her but two newborns has him at the end of his tether.

"I know but I'm going to keep pushing you until you do" she says, swaying and patting Daisy's back.

or Craig and Tweek bond at a young parents group because they're the only two people with twins.

New Beginnings - Published 19 Feb 2020

Tweek doesn’t want to push her, so they’re both a little cautious of one another. Tweek doesn’t want to barge in and fill a role she hasn’t given him yet. She’s never had a second parental figure before, and Tweek doesn’t want to force himself into that slot. He barely feels worthy of being the father to his biological child, let alone a stepdad figure to this poor little girl who’s life he’s just invaded.

Or Tweek takes Craig's daughter to a daddy daughter dance because Craig is unable.

Love Chooses You - Published 29 March 2020

He's heard the phrase that you can't choose who you love before, and really, right now he knows it's true. Damien never would have chosen to love Pip of all people.

Rebuild - Published 11 May 2020

“I’m flying Craig!” Tweek cries from the top of the concrete slab. Craig doesn’t answer, only sighs. He sinks down knowing he’s gonna let it happen. He doesn’t want to let it happen but the alcohol has made him slow. Kinda in the same way the drugs have made Tweek fast. They’re out of sync with no way of catching up until sobriety. So Craig just watches, letting it happen. Like he’s watching his own body do nothing. The inner voice tells him to move, to stop it but the body can’t unstick itself from the ground.

Coming Out - Published 20 May 2020

If Tweek is being honest his friends were Craig’s friends, originally. Now they’re his friends too but before Tweek had been a bit of a loner. Not by choice, but for whatever reason kids at school either didn’t like him or just didn’t know he existed. He spent most of his time alone, reading books, studying, playing music or anything one can do alone to ease boredom. For the longest time he’d been the freak and now he actually had friends, like, for real.

Red Racer and Ice Cream - Published 12 June 2020

He could leave, but he knows Tweek will start worrying about him. Tweek is having a good night, he seems pleasantly drunk and is having a great time with Jimmy and Token. Craig doesn't want to wreck what is shaping up to ve a good night for Tweek. It's taken a while to get Tweek to really feel comfortable in social situations like these. He wants Tweek to have the best night he can.

Much Ado About Theatre - Published 15 June 2020

"It's in english stupid, just old english" Tweek reminds Craig.

"Whatever I don't get it. It's like reading gibberish" Craig says dismissively, clearly frustrated.

"Why are you -nghh- taking this class then?" Tweek asks, purely curious. It's not just Shakespeare Craig seems disinterested in. He seems uncomfortable onstage as a whole.

"Because you're taking it" Craig admits sheepishly, a blush appearing on his cheeks.

Sure - Published 19 June 2020

Craig gets his first piercing and Tweek accompanies for moral support. They talk about facing fears and the future.

or Tweek is covered with piercings and tattoos and Craig is a body mod virgin.

Firsts - Published 02 July 2020

Craig likes having a Birthday in the winter. It's kind of a good excuse for only inviting like, four people to his gatherings on the excuse they can't go outside. Craig was never big on the schoolyard politics, even when he was small. The idea that he had to have the biggest party, or the most extravagant and have to decide who or whom not to invite stressed him out. He likes having the excuse that he only had a small house, and that his Birthday was in winter in Colorado, so that he can only invite his best friends and be done with it.

or Craig and Tweek's first birthdays together as boyfriends.

Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Serotonin, Oxytocin and Vasopressin - Published July 11 2020

Tweek sighs boredly as he stirs the potion in his cauldron. It's not that he doesn't like earning a living making potions for people and casting spells but it's so much of the same thing. It's always love potions, that's all he makes these days.

Distracted - Published 26 July 2020

Tweek and Craig needed this break so badly. He feels kind of bad for Craig's mom, who is probably going to have a sleepless night babysitting their son. But holy shit, they needed this.

Stir Crazy - Published 14 August 2020

Craig Tucker: Tucker baby coming 2020! We could not be more excited to announce that Tweek and I are having a baby! There's no one else I'd rather go on this crazy journey with. - with Tweek Tucker.

or Craig is pregnant in quarantine.

Source Decay - Published 16 August 2020

Craig still hasn't taken off his wedding ring. He knows he should, but he just hasn't found it in him yet. He knows Tweek hasn't either, he's seen it in pictures even though now they've been separated longer than they were together.

Baby’s First Skateboard - Published 10 September 2020

Craig and Tweek never really grew out of skateboarding. They do it less often than they did before becoming parents, but they still do their best to make time.

You’re the Boss at Home - Published 18 September 2020

So he has mixed feelings about his last day. He knows he'll miss working, he's always been a working person and he knows he won't like sitting at home waiting to go into labor. But also, he doesn't have to deal with everyone fussing over him being pregnant anymore.

Little Star - Published 03 October 2020

This can't be happening to him, he can't have a baby! What would he do with a baby? He doesn't know. He doesn't even know what he's going to do when he goes into labour. He knows, inevitably he will. That he will go into labour, the baby has to come out some way and it's gonna hurt. He knows all this, but he can't bring himself to ask for help. He knows he's in trouble but he doesn't know how to ask for help.

Baby Love - Published 02 November 2020

Craig tries to swallow down the pain. He can't yell or cry out. Everyone will know then. He has to stay quiet or else everyone will know. He bites down on his lip hard and crouches on the floor near his bed. He has to just breathe, if he breathes through it he can make it. He knows he can.

This Time Around - Published 12 November 2020

Tweek knew he was pregnant with his second child straight away. It was a 180 from his first pregnancy, where he took months to figure it out. When he was pregnant with his first child, his son Teddy, he didn't really have much in the way of symptoms besides being hungry all the time. That was pretty easy to dismiss and write off. They weren't trying for a baby, so Tweek had no reason to assume he was pregnant. He only worked it out because he began showing.

Whatever We Are - Published 22 December 2020

It's hard because Stan isn't quite sure what he is to Kyle. Is it just sex? Is it more? Does Kyle maybe wanna make it more official soon? Stan doesn't know. He knows he loves Kyle and he'd pretty much do whatever Kyle wants. But for now, he's just enjoying the intimacy.

Temptation - Published 24 December 2020

Being summoned is kinda annoying. It's kind of like being asleep, super deeply and then pulled into the bright bustling world with no warning. It's no wonder most demons are angry and violent.

Tweek is an imp, so he's more on the mischievous, poltergeist side of the spectrum. He still scares the shit out of most people who summon him. Usually kids with ouija boards who don't know what they're doing. It's whatever, Tweek usually chases them for a bit, makes them scream and that's enough mischief for one day. Tweek can choose to appear by choice, and leave when he wants to but he rarely does. Humans are mostly annoying, so he stays in his own little world until some idiot summons him.

Traditions - Published 25 December 2020

"I hate Christmas" Craig sighs, looking around at all the lights and decorations. He glares at all the people bustling around. Don't they have homes to go to? He rests a hand on his swollen stomach, he certainly wishes he was home.

Here’s My Multichapters, completed and ongoing:

The Sound of Silence - Completed 25 January 2020

15 Chapters

Craig manages to find himself alone, jobless and a new parent. He struggles to put the pieces of his life back together and build something new for both himself and his daughter.

Don’t Break Me - Completed 26 March 2020

2 Chapters

"What are you -ngrhh- accusing me of?" Tweek growls.

"Literally nothing Tweek, I'm accusing you of your health improving? Isn't that good?" Craig huffs in annoyance. He's sick of his intentions being misinterpreted.

Insight - Completed 10 April 2020

2 Chapters

Craig listens to the incessant ticking of the clock on his wall. He can’t actually see it, it’s night and all the lights are off. But he can hear it, a constant reminder of the passing of time. He knows he should sleep, he really wishes he could but it’s just too hard. Knowing Tweek isn’t here but not knowing where Tweek is. He can’t help but worry even though he has so much more to worry about. His mom would tell him off, tell him he needs to rest but this thing with Tweek has him so messed up.

When We’re Older - Completed 04 July 2020

10 Chapters

When they're older they'll start again. They'll get married, find a house, do it all right. Have children when the time is right and build the loving, nurturing home they both have always wanted.

Stowaway - Completed 14 July 2020

3 Chapters

He's slowly beginning to accept it himself, yes, he's pregnant. He knows it but he's not quite ready to face the consequences yet. He didn't intend to get pregnant, he just got too drunk at a party and had sex with a childhood friend. Consensual but unprotected. He feels stupid now.

So he hides them, the baby, like a little stowaway.

Algorithm - Completed 12 August 2020

5 Chapters

Craig shakes his head. He looks at the homemade bracelet which spells Craig on Tweeks wrist. His heart breaks thinking about how Tweek will cut it off once he knows the truth.

Two for the Price of One - Completed 26 August 2020

4 Chapters

Craig has never been one to succumb to baby fever. He knows a lot of people in his profession do. Both he and his husband, Tweek, professional lives revolve around babies. Newborns too, and while Craig acknowledges that babies may be cute, other people's kids have never really triggered some urge to have his own.

Hungry - Completed 11 September 2020

2 Chapters

Tweek has heard about cryptic pregnancies before. He's seen I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant before, people saying they didn't have any nausea, felt normal, didn't put on weight. This isn't quite that, Tweek gained a small amount of weight. He felt fatigued, but he just put that down to stress. He didn't feel nauseous unless he had a headache, so it was really easy to blame that on the headache. The real only symptom he's had is the hunger. He doesn't think it's far fetched that he didn't realise, surely?

or Tweek doesn't realise he's pregnant because his only real symptom is being hungry all the time :)

Creek Week 2020 - Completed 02 November 2020

7 Chapters

My contribution for this years Creek Week 2020

All seven of these are short snippets of either fics I intend to write, or AU's I have left unfinished. But I thought it might be fun to share small excerpts.

Complicated - Ongoing, Last updated 08 January 2021

18 Chapters Published, 20 Chapters all together.

Craig kind of has an image. It's not that he's pretending to be someone else, but he likes to be perceived as aloof, cold and quiet. He's nice to people who truly know him, but he doesn't like to be perceived as soft from the outside. People already think he's kind of weird, and putting up those walls really helps him to keep unwanted people out. His boyfriend sees his sensitive side, his friends do and his family do. The rest of the world gets a cold shoulder, at least until he gets to know someone and decides to let them in.

Craig and Tweek figure out an unplanned pregnancy, Craig learns families come in all shapes and sizes. Especially LGBTQ ones.

AO3 Statistics:

Word Count: 261512

Works Published: 31

Top Five Fics by Hits:

1. Complicated

2. When We’re Older

3. The Sound of Silence

4. Stowaway

5. Hungry

All in all, not a bad output. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read, leave kudos and comment. ❤️

#2020 masterpost #2020 roundup #2020 year in review #my writing master post #my fic #my writing #craig tucker #tweek tweak #craig tucker/tweek tweak #sp creek #creek sp #creek #south park #south park fanfiction

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monysmediareview · 4 years ago

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Shadowhunters (Freeform show) Review

Review #2!!

In case you missed it, I wrote a review on the Mortal Instruments book series books 1-3 (they’re the only ones I read because a chapter into book 4 and I was over it). I had mixed feelings on it, as I do with most things - including the Shadowhunters TV show, which is what this review is about!

Casting

Let’s talk about the casting in this show. First of all, I think the cast matched the physical descriptions of each character in the books and I very much enjoyed that. I do like when shows take liberties with casting, especially for the sake of things like diversity but there’s something very satisfying about seeing the characters exactly as they were written.

I don’t think all of the acting was fantastic, but it’s FreeForm so I really didn’t expect much. It did get a lot better as the series went on and I think the actors really found their footing with these characters. It’s one of the reasons that I love series so much more than movies for things like this because there’s growth and the chance to really explore characters as they exist. These characters really took on a life of their own in a way, but we’ll get into that as I go through the rest of my points here.

One thing I will say is, while this show did much better than others in terms of diversity it is not lost on me that the BIPOC characters in this show (and in the book series as well) were all “other” characters. As is often the case, people of color in fantasy media are usually portrayed as animals such as werewolves, or other “undesirable” characters. This is an incredibly complex part of casting, creating, and writing, and I will not get into it here, but I didn’t want to not mention it.

Gay Pride & True Love

If you read my review of the Mortal Instruments series then you already know that I love love love Alec and Magnus, but that love grew exponentially when I watched the show. Magnus was an interesting character in the books but Harry Shum Jr. really brought the character to life and that show especially in the scenes with Alec. The show also gives Alec a ton more depth than in the books and I love that they didn’t keep him hung up on Jace (a straight man) for most of the story. He fell for Magnus and he fell for him hard. Magnus is the one that broke through Alec’s shell and encouraged him to be himself. By cutting away all the petty teenager shit that was in the books we were able to see this real, complex, but honest and deep love story that rivaled the main love interests immensely. I would watch this show over and over just to watch these two again.

Representation and diversity are two huge factors when I think about whether or not I liked a piece of media. These kinds of things are what makes media so relatable, real, and ultimately enjoyable in a lot of ways. This show didn’t make the characters gay-ness a main factor of their relationship; they just showed a relationship as they would with a straight couple. They didn’t ignore their gay-ness either, though, and acknowledged the difficulties within that. By making this normal, they took huge strides in showing these kinds of relationships on TV and I adore that. And I just cannot get enough of this pairing in general - there are so many contrasts and compliments in their relationship and it’s what I honestly consider to be a perfect OTP relationship in any kind of romantic plot.

10/10 would watch the show just for Alec and Magnus.

I like Clary better in the show than in the books

Clary is by far, not one of my favorite characters in the fantasy genre. I find her to be selfish, martyr-like, and just kind of annoying but I really felt like the show was able to redeem the decent characteristics that she has and shed off most of the aggravating ones.

As a whole, I am not a fan of how stupid the books make Clary out to be. Clary falls into the category of characters I don’t like because there is ultimately nothing very special about them yet they end up with a guy who is completely out of their league in every way who is head over heels in love with them. It infuriates me so much and Clary is not an exception to this rule. Her character is still this way in the show but it is much less evident because she seems to be more of an active participant in her own life and I don’t have to sit through her endless internal monologues about how attractive or strong or whatever Jace is. Thoughts that she still has while she thinks they’re siblings. At least in the show, these characters seem to draw a strong boundary here when they think they’re related rather than making out in a field like they did in the books.

Clary also has a much stronger sense of self in the show and often reflects on what her life was and what it has become, how she’s grown. And I think that’s a huge part of it - that she has grown when in the books she was just constantly such a dumbstruck teenager who only thought of herself. I absolutely love the difference in her character here so I’ll give the show a star for that.

Her relationships with other characters is also so much stronger. I believe this is in part because we don’t know her every inner thought about them and we also aren’t distracted by her distraction that is Jace. Her relationship with Izzy is so much better and stronger. I’ll always give good reviews to strong female relationships! Even her friendship and relationship with Simon is more in depth in the show. Their book friendship is very baseline; they constantly say they’re best friends but that’s not really reflected in the way they act around each other. In the show they have anecdotes about the past we never see in the books, they talk in a comfortable way and even show their relationship with each other’s families a lot more. This plays into her being an active participant in her own life as well.

The Lightwood Family Drama

This might be something that happens later on in the books (however I don’t think so because of some spoilers I’ve received on my main account) but I really liked the Lightwood family subplot. I would imagine they have some marital problems after Max’s death in the books but considering they don’t kill him in the show, divorcing them earlier and giving Maryse a second chance was a fantastic choice. I kind of wish they had kept Max’s death because to me, it was the driving force between Izzy and Simon, but overall I don’t mind the way they did it. It just felt like a missed opportunity for drama and angst.

Back to the point at hand - families are complicated and the only “normal” or rather, nuclear family we see in this series is the Lightwoods. Clary was raised by a single parent, as was Simon, and no one else really has parents that we’re introduced to to be able to judge their family life. By making their family story a complicated one, rather than the “ideal”, it becomes not only more dramatic, which is fun and interesting, but real. And it may seem counterintuitive to make things seem real in a fantasy genre show/book series but that, in my opinion, is what makes it easier to believe the fake stuff. I can focus more on the magic and the demons and the end of the world as we know it if it’s grounded in something that’s familiar to me. The Lightwoods feel like a very real family with complicated relationships between kids and parents, adopted children/siblings, and marital issues that affect everyone differently, which invites us as an audience to relate to them and doesn’t make the Shadow world so different from ours.

A scene I loved specifically is when Izzy brings the doctor she’s seeing to the Hunter’s Moon and they’re all messing with each other, eating, drinking, laughing, talking. They really felt like a family there, like adult siblings which can be a really difficult feeling to capture but I think it was done very well. I didn’t want to go through this review without mentioning that part since it was something very special for me.

Design Choices

Changing topic just a little bit, I wanted to talk about the design of the show. First thing I noticed was that the runes were not at all how I pictured them. Now, that may be a fault of the writer because they weren’t very well described so it all landed on imagination which is different for everyone. The show design gave me kind of Henna tattoo vibes, whereas the books gave me full black ink vibes.

The clothing was also something very strange to me. Izzy was always described as wearing long silvery skirts. I very much imagined her as wearing borderline rave outfits in most of these scenes but she mostly just wore crop tops and low cut shirts. I also noticed that as the series went on she dressed in a bit more of a conservative way compared to the first half of season 1 when I recall her wearing literally just a sports bra as a shirt in a few scenes. It was apparent to me in the books that the way Shadowhunters dressed was something that separated them from humans, made them stand out, and the show lacked that. I think this also took away the idea that Shadowhunters are a whole race of people with a history and culture separate from being human (they are, in essence mixed raced, but this comes with a lot of implications and is not a complete statement or comparison in any way). My point with this is mostly that I wish there had been more of a separation visually between Shadowhunters and humans beyond their runes.

I also pictured the Institute to have a very non-human, Catholic type of design and instead just got pseudo-futuristic feel. I didn’t hate it, it just feels overdone in these kinds of shows and movies. For example, the Divergent series or Maze Runner or even Tomorrowland all have this type of vibe and I was hoping for more of a DmC: Devil May Cry approach.

Jace Wayland is a beautiful character

I had mixed feelings about Jace in the books; he felt stale and like every other straight, white, male, romantic lead. In the show, however, I think Dominic Sherwood did him a great deal of justice and gave him the depth that actually made him a desirable person that I could understand someone being in love with. He’s charming, and a little cocky but we also get to see a deeper side of him than we do in the books. We see his emotions, especially his unconditional love for Clary (whether I agree with that or not).

The Owl plotline was a waste of time in my opinion, but the scene when Izzy and Alec go to save him from inside his mind and we see him break down is absolutely beautiful. Jace is introduced to us from the start as hard, strong, calloused and here we see him vulnerable and scared with two of the people he trusts most in the world. I will accept the Owl plotline if only to keep this scene because I think it is absolutely essential to his character arc.

I also found that scene to be indicative of his relationship with Izzy. In the books it’s often alluded to that he and Izzy had been together in one way or another but that’s not the case for the show (thank the angel) and here you can really see them as siblings more than in any ther scene, I think. But this takes me to his relationship with Alec as well.

Parabatai

I don’t remember Parabatai being mentioned much in the books but it is a huge deal and talked about quite a bit. I this this is super cool, personally and it’s not something I can really think of too much in fantasy outside of sires or singers or the like in many vampire novels but that has a whole “owner” vibe that doesn’t exist with Parabatai. I am super intrigued by this idea and I loved how much they played with it being a strength and an essential part of their existence.

The relationship between Alec and Jace is obviously stronger than just brothers, but it also isn’t quite love in the romantic sense. It’s something else and it makes them vulnerable to each other. They feel everything the other person feels, sometimes literally, and while that can weaken them they use it as a strength. It’s really beautiful how honest and open these men are with each other. I feel like the Parabatai bond breaks down a lot of the toxic masculinity traits these characters might have otherwise and I will always be in favor of tearing down those walls. A+ characterization if you ask me.

I thought Izzy deserved better in the books - the show gave it to her

In the show Izzy is way more badass than in the books, which I wasn’t sure was possible. They made her so much smarter, gave her important roles at the institute like head of weapons and she even did autopsies? In the last episodes we even see her as Head of the Institute. Beauty, brains, and brawn simply can’t be beat.

Her love life was even more interesting! She wasn’t boiled down to just a slut who slept with everyone regardless of species: she was a lover who fell quickly and saw the best in people despite what people might tell her about “their kind”. She’s strong and very sure of herself; she doesn’t need a man in her life but she wants love and I think that’s a really amazing trait they gave her that deepens the character.

They made her an activist, too in a way. She’s found really standing up for her beliefs in the show and challenging the way things are. In the books Izzy is pretty stuck in the way Shadowhunters do things but in the show she speaks up when something isn’t right. Her connections to downworlders does a lot of really great things for the Shadow world as a whole. They certainly could have beefed this up a little bit, but it wasn’t a huge part of the show in general so I’ll allow the pass on it.

Her Yin-Fen addiction was so interesting! Again, I don’t know if this is something that happened in later books in the series but this is just another layer to Isabelle that I really loved. No one is perfect, even her, and it built her relationship with Rafael (another plot I was a huge fan of) which was incredibly complex.

All in all, I would die for Izzy. Please give me shows and books about her and more characters like her.

This series was steamy as hell

I can’t write a review on this series without mentioning all of the steamy scenes with so many of the characters. I mean, of course, I expected as much with Jace and he got a lot but so did everyone else. We got saucy scenes with Alec, Magnus, Simon, Izzy, Maia, everyone. (Not all at the same time, thankfully). But they were all very well directed and acted and I enjoyed them quite a bit. What can I say? Sex sells.

In conclusion, I liked this series a lot. I really was not expecting to. I was warned that it was bad, and to start off it was but I found myself unexpectedly enjoying a lot of it. There’s still work to be done and it is by no means perfect but it was entertaining and had some really good moments. I also give so much credit to the actors and creative team for doing so much with material that didn’t give them much depth in the first place.

Would recommend for something to enjoy but maybe not think too hard about.

xoxo

Mony

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villanelleskiss · 3 years ago

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KILLING EVE SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 REVIEW

so first off, i want to say that despite the obvious issues with season 2, this is my favorite season. mainly because we see eve and villanelle working together for the first time and they make a great pair. they’re very sweet together, and it works very well. eve struggles with her darkness more, which we see come to a head in the finale.

in the beginning of the ep, it takes off 30 seconds after season 1 finale, which is a very nice touch. i originally thought that the people in the beginning were the police, but then it was stated later that they were actually part of the 12.

so if my assumptions are correct, they were literally trying to assassinate villanelle when she got back from paris?? right? this girl just can not catch a break.

also rip cute little old lady, she was the best.

this scene here with the candy and the bar scene, it makes me so uneasy and frankly cringe a little. cringing mostly at the bar scene.

i know eve was barely keeping it together in these moments, but emerald fennell’s writing here could’ve been so much better. using out of date language to refer to drug abuse, making fun of it rather, just really quite bothered me. it seemed very out of character for eve, too. i don’t think she would use this type of language, if i’m being frank.

one nice thing in this scene however, is when eve uses the bathroom to rid of the knife she used to stab villanelle, there were no side openings or anything in the door! so nobody can like look in or peep on you while you’re using the restroom.

“do you know how to dispose of a body?”

love will find it’s way. idk how else to really interpret this scene except as that. these two are destined to be together and nothing less.

i remember reading some articles back from when season 2 was out and everyone said that we would be surprised about how villanelle reacts to eve stabbing her and like this is so on brand for her. killing and stabbing people to show their affection.

i felt for eve so much in this scene. she just wants to get back to normal after she thinks she killed someone, let alone the assassin she has been chasing throughout parts of the world. she thinks that she can finally let it all go, but is ignoring the actual issue and is trying to cope with what she did.

ok, so i have a love/hate relationship with this part here. in one way i understand that what villanelle did, was a mercy killing. the kid was doomed to be miserable, but also i never thought villanelle would kill a kid. it’s a very grey area and i have mixed feelings about the whole thing.

this is a very nice touch that they added. LOL

the end scene here creeps me out so much. idk yall

but some other talking points here that i want to take a moment to talk about, is the note that nadia put under her door, that was addressed to eve polastri. it said “alister peel”.

now....... i don’t know who the fuck thought that this guy was like of any importance to the 12?? like we spend the whole ass season trying to figure out how aaron peel connects to the 12, or what he has that they want. i know that the name was meant to be “konstantin” or something like that. so why this whole ass subplot with aaron peel?

we all know who wrote this season, but i still don’t know how they thought this was all a good idea back in editing. like... *insert that one oprah gif again*

rating 7/10

#killing eve #villanelle #eve polastri #villaneve #killing eve review #eve x Villanelle

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years ago

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Is It Really THAT Bad?

The DC films have been a mixed bag, to put it lightly. As of 2020, for every fun and enjoyable superhero film like Wonder Woman, Shazam, Aquaman, and Birds of Prey, there has been a film that was reviled or polarizing. Dawn of Justice and Justice League are both common punching bags, but there is one movie that stands out as the single most despised film in the DC cinematic universe so far:

Suicide Squad.

A lot of this comes from just how unashamedly blatant the film is at being a rushed cash in on the type of quirky superhero movie that Guardians of the Galaxy helped popularize: a bunch of wild and wacky antiheroes team up, fight a big problem, make one liners, and become a family, all while an awesome soundtrack blares in the background. It seems like the easiest thing in the world to rip off, but there’s a lot of heart and charm in Guardians that it’s not easy to replicate. And if you ask most critics… this movie did not.

Opinions on the film tend to range from lukewarm to outright hating, with IHE and the [REDACTED] Critic all throwing in their two cents. Perhaps the most damning review of all came from Mick LaSalle, who wrote:

“If you know someone you really can’t stand — not someone you dislike, not someone who rubs you the wrong way, but someone you really loathe and detest — send that person a ticket for “Suicide Squad.” It’s the kind of torment you can wish on your worst enemy without feeling too guilty: not something to inflict permanent damage, just two hours of soul-sickening confusion and sensory torment.”

There’s not much love for this, is what should be abundantly clear. And it’s really a shame, because there is stuff this film has going for it, but it wasn’t really enough to stop DC from basically hitting the soft reboot button and snagging the actual James Gunn to make a sequel while also doing their best to downplay that the events of this film actually happened. But now with a few years of hindsight, I have to go back and wonder like the heathen I am…

Is Suicide Squad REALLY that bad?

THE GOOD

Yes, amazingly, there is some good stuff here, mostly to do with the casting. At least half the cast is just pitch perfect for their roles. Famous rapper and YouTube Rewind star Will Smith as Deadshot is, of course, one of the standout examples; he brings a lot of charm and charisma to his role of an assassin who really loves his daughter, but then again, this is Will Smith. It’s hard not to love the guy in anything he does. Viola Davis as Amanda Waller is another inspired bit of casting, and she truly owns the role, and Jai Courtney is perhaps the most consistently enjoyable member of the Squad, Captain Boomerang, the exact sort of stupid D-list villain who SHOULD be getting screentime in a movie like this.

Of course, the very best bit of casting is Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, in Harley’s big screen debut. Robbie has such an enthusiasm for the role that shines through even with the clunky script, and while she would definitely improve her craft for her outing in Birds of Prey, her performance here still has that spark of zany fun that Harley needs, cementing Robbie as the perfect star for the role. Frankly, that’s the feeling that can be gathered from a lot of these really good performances; they’re good, but they lack proper refinement, and so are stuck spouting the stupidest, corniest, clunkiest lines imaginable. But yes, really the worst thing you can say about Harley in this film is that her outfit is absolutely atrocious and demeaning.

While we’re on the subject of Harley Quinn, tough… while the whole situation with the Joker is something I’ll get to shortly, I think their relationship in this film is actually done well in many aspects. I’ve always preferred the original idea of “Mad Love” over the glorified domestic abuse that Joker x Harley has often devolved into, and while there is a bit of the latter, the fact that Joker literally goes out of his way to save Harley at every opportunity to the point he’s a definition satellite love interest is really good. Of course, this was thrown out for Birds of Prey, but I do think it worked in the context of this film.

Of course, we all know that the greatest aspect of this film is REALLY Slipknot, the single most powerful member of the Squad. I’ve already written an entire Psycho Analysis on why he’s the greatest villain in the history of cinema, so just read that for the rundown on how our man Slipknot climbs his way into your heart and mind.

THE BAD

So there is just a lot to go over here.

First, there’s the soundtrack’s implementation. As a blatant Guardians ripoff, everything the characters do needs to be punctuated by some sort of awesome music to tie the scene together. The difference is that where in the Guardian movies the soundtrack is used as a storytelling tool to help subtly emphasize points that the narrative doesn’t want to spell out for you, Suicide Squad just has these songs because they’re cool and because Guardians did it. Why is “Black Skinhead” playing while Deadshot tests his weapon skills? Why is “House of the Rising Sun” playing during Waller talking about the Squad? What exactly do these songs add besides background music? The opening montage of everyone in the Squad is particularly bad because the songs are just switching up really quickly as the montage goes along, which echoes a complaint I had about Little Nicky, of all films: “One of the more noticeable problems is the usage of music; in the course of one single scene, they play four different songs, and all of this is in a span of about one or two minutes. Just pick a song and stick to it for fuck’s sake!” About the only song that is really properly utilized is “Heathens,” which plays over the (admittedly cool) credit sequence.

Now let’s get into the characters, because for every awesome character in this film, there’s two that just absolutely suck or are so underutilized it’s laughable. Probably the worst case of this is Killer Croc, who despite being a stunning practical effect and probably the reason this film scored an Oscar, does pretty much nothing for the entire film, save for a short bit in the ending where he swims. You’d be entirely forgiven for forgetting he’s in the film, which is not something you should be saying about a Batman villain of this caliber.

Katana and Diablo are both characters who should be awesome, but the story givers them nothing to do and rushes their character arcs, respectively. Katana is yet another character you’d probably forget is there, even though she has a lot of fascinating elements to her character (some of which are detailed in her infamous introduction, which don’t worry, I’m working towards it), but nothing is really done with her. Diablo is actually one of the best and most fleshed-out characters in the film, but the narrative just completely fails to justify him or his ultimate heroic sacrifice; by the end, he claims the Squad is like family, but they’ve never really done anything to earn this. Like, think to the ending of Guardians of the Galaxy, where we have moments like Drax standing up for Gamora and Groot sacrificing himself. These moments only work because the characters had their relationships built up over the course of the movie so that there is a punch when these things happen. Suicide Squad really just throws it in just to have it.

Then we come to our villain. Enchantress is yet another villain I once detailed on Psycho Analysis, and my opinion on her remains unchanged. While she most certainly has a cool design, she is absolutely not the sort of world-ending supernatural threat a team of snarky jackasses should be fighting on their first mission together. The Squad should have had a mission more grounded in reality, and that can’t happen when you have an ancient interdimensional witch causing a Luddite zombie apocalypse through the power of interpretive dance. There’s also the fact that there’s never really any reason given to care about the character of June Moon, the host of the Enchantress, so the desperation of Rick Flag (a character so boring and pointless I didn’t even waste time mentioning him before) to save her comes off as hollow as most of the movie’s other emotional moments. Overall, Enchantress is just a boring generic doomsday villain who feels wildly out of place in the story and just doesn’t do anything to make herself stand out.

Then we have Joker.

I’m not really going to get into Jared Leto’s obnoxious behind-the-scenes antics, because that has little bearing on his performance, kind of like how his performance has little bearing on the film. As I mentioned before, this Joker is nothing more than a satellite for Harley. This is probably a good thing, because despite being called Joker he’s pretty divorced from most other interpretations; while he plays up the thuggish, brutish elements the Joker does typically have, everything else about him is just so jarringly non-Joker as to be laughable, from his ridiculous grill to the absolutely cringeworthy “Damaged” tattoo on his forehead. I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say he’s the worst villain in a superhero movie ever as some have, mostly because he’s not even in the film long enough to leave much of an impact. I will, however, say that so far he is the absolute worst onscreen depiction of Joker in film. Once again, if you’d like to hear more of my in-depth thoughts on Leto’s portrayal, I did make a Psycho Analysis on him a while back.

But all that aside, the worst aspect of this film is the writing. The writing is just utterly abysmal throughout, and while there are a few good lines sprinkled here and there, a lot of the dialogue is cringeworthy and the story itself is a convoluted mess. The story takes so many nonsensical turns from the get-go, starting with how Amanda Waller thinks a bunch of non-superpowered criminals could take down a metahuman threat; what the hell is Killer Croc, whose only power is “being an ugly cannibal,” going to do against Superman? That’s like if you put Leatherface up against a Predator, who would be stupid en-

...Oh. Right. Well, if nothing else, Amanda Waller has a very bright future as a designer for Mortal Kombat games. Beyond that, as mentioned above, a lot of the characters simply exist and serve little purpose in the narrative, and the ones that do serve a purpose are underplayed unless they’re Deadshot or Harley. You’d think Diablo’s tragic backstory and desire to have a family or Flag’s desire to save June from her curse would be more major elements, but nah. We don’t get much, if any, development on these fronts. And for the dialogue… well, I think this one speaks for itself:

youtube

Is It Really THAT Bad?

So I’ve been pretty hard on this film overall, I think, but here’s the shocking twist: I don’t think this is the worst DC movie. Frankly, I find the claims that this is the bottom of the barrel in terms of superhero films a gross overexaggeration. F4ntastic and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 are far and away worse films with little to no redeeming qualities whatsoever in them. At the very least, Suicide Squad is a fun kind of stupid, whereas those movies are bleak, miserable slogs that fail to even try and engage the viewer on any level.

And then, even within the DC movie lineup, I would not say this is worse than Dawn of Justice. Dawn of Justice has a more coherent story, and it in a general sense has better writing, dialogue, and so on… but it isn’t fun, it’s overly long, it’s incredibly pretentious, and it absolutely squanders the coolest concept for a crossover fight that there ever could be, all while giving us a Lex Luthor who is an obnoxious, whiny, sniveling brat who is utterly unbelievable as a threat. Suicide Squad almost seems within the ballpark of being self aware that it’s stupid schlock, and I find that infinitely more respectable than a film that, regardless of its artistic merit, thinks it’s deep and meaningful when it is anything but.

Suicide Squad is firmly on the side of “So bad it’s good,” and even within that category it’s somewhat underrated. I don’t necessarily think this film needs more respect per se, but I feel like it falls into the same category as movies like The Emoji Movie, where it isn’t good by any means but people will rant and rave about how it’s destroying cinema by being apocaliptically bad instead of just saying it’s crappy and moving on with their lives. Like this isn’t a great movie, but at least there’s a couple of enjoyable things, and superhero movies have been through far worse. Its current score of 6 on IMDB is honestly pretty fair. Is it spectacular? No. Could you be watching something way better. Definitely. But is it a trashy, idiotic romp with some good actors and some fun performances in a story so mind-bogglingly dumb that it needs to be seen to be believed? Hell yes.

#Is it really that bad?#IIRTB #movie #movie review #Suicide Squad #DC #DCEU #DC movie #superhero movie #so bad it's good

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shadyb00ts · 4 years ago

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A Chromatica Review

So I never really use Tumblr, but when I do go on here, it’s pretty much to review something long-form. As you can tell from my profile picture here, and from my glowing review of ARTPOP from 7 years ago, I am and have always been a Gaga stan. Just read the melodramatic first paragraph of my ARTPOP review and you’ll get the gist of how much I idolize this woman. Well, idolized. Past tense.

That’s not to say I suddenly hate Gaga–I’m still going to follow her career and listen to whatever she puts out. There have just been several factors this past year that have changed my perspective on how I view her, this album being one of those factors. But I’ll get to those later. First I just need to lay out all my issues with this album.

Yes, this is going to be that type of review, so if you’re a fellow Gaga stan that isn’t able to criticize her work, this probably isn’t for you. Otherwise please read to the end if you can, because this is honestly about more than just the album.

Issue #1: The Mismatch Between Music & Aesthetic

When the cover of the album came out, I was so gagged. Like, just look at it! It’s striking, and Gaga has rarely ever disappointed me when it came to visuals. Actually, I can’t even think of any visual choices she made in previous eras that disappointed me. Even in the Joanne era, the pink cowboy hat became iconic and all of her aesthetic choices fit with the overall vibe of that album cycle.

So naturally, when she revealed to us the new visual direction she was taking for Chromatica, I assumed it would give us some insight into how the music would sound. The aesthetic of this era always gave me grungy cyberpunk and heavy machinery tease. When I look at the album cover for example, I can hear a song produced by SOPHIE in my head, the clink-clank queen herself. (There were rumors that Gaga was going to or did work with SOPHIE but that was never confirmed, unfortunately for us.)

For those unfamiliar with SOPHIE, here’s Ponyboy, which was most recently used in the ad campaign for Beyoncé’s Ivy Park clothing line.

youtube

That was the kind of production I was more or less expecting when taking the visuals into account; dark, metallic, basically similar to ARTPOP’s production (to be honest ARTPOP sonically fits better with the Chromatica aesthetic; think about it).

But what did we get? Light, garden variety dance pop, a stark contrast to what the album cover and the promo images teased us with.

In the album, we get these orchestral interludes that are beautiful but don't really mesh that well with the actual tracks. The songs don't have any orchestral elements by themselves, so the interludes felt a bit misplaced to me. I wish they'd incorporated more of that into the individual songs, so that there could be an orchestral through-line to give more cohesion, like what Ariana did in her album positions by using strings. However I will say, the transition from Chromatica II into 911 remains unmatched.

I get that the album is supposed to sound happy, that it was her returning to her “dance pop roots” and singing about serious topics like mental health over happy-sounding beats, because it’s supposed to reflect her current mental state. I get all that. But if that was the case, I think she should’ve gone with a different visual direction to match. Personally I wish she went a different direction musically instead, but even if it was just the other way around and she changed the aesthetic of this era, my opinion of the album would probably improve slightly, cause at least there would be cohesion between the visuals and the sonics.

I look at that album cover, and promo images like the one below, and then I listen to songs like Fun Tonight or Plastic Doll for example, and there’s a noticeable dissonance there.

You might be thinking “why are you so hard on her for this?” and I guess it’s because I’ve always held Gaga to a high standard when it comes to how she links those two elements. Think of every era she’s had in the past, and you remember how the visuals always just worked with their respective albums.

And that’s before I’ve even talked about the videos. Oh lord, the videos.

Issue #2: The Videos Are Lackluster (Except For 911)

It started with Stupid Love, the lead single. I had mixed feelings about that song in the beginning, but because I was so thirsty for new music from Gaga at the time, I played that song like hell when it leaked and it was on rotation for a good while. But when Gaga premiered the Stupid Love video, I’m not going to lie; I really didn’t like it.

The whole “shot entirely on iPhone” schtick really did the video a disservice. I’m sorry but it had to be said. If I imagined the video with a higher budget and more of a plotline as opposed to just being a dance video, I think it could’ve worked a lot better and been a decent introduction to not only Chromatica the album, but this fictional world/planet that she’s created. Which by the way, she didn’t really deliver in that regard either.

The concept of Chromatica being a fictional world could have been expanded on further; she could’ve showcased all of the different factions (I know they were called “tribes” at first but that’s appropriative so I’ll call them factions) and perhaps had an overarching storyline about how these factions are at war, and it’s Gaga’s job as one of the “Kindness Punks”, as she calls it, to bring everyone together for a rave.

This is why I will always say it: Chromatica needed to be a visual album. Just imagine the storyline I mentioned just now being turned into a full-length feature, and now imagine the album’s orchestral intro playing as they’re essentially opening the gates to Chromatica and Gaga discovers this world for the first time, and then it goes into the first song Alice where she’s meeting all the factions and getting acclimated to her surroundings.

Honestly I could go on and on cause I have thought about this for SO LONG now and I’ll never shut up about it. It’s just such a missed opportunity cause the concept was just begging for a visual album. Anyway sorry for my tangent: back to the Stupid Love video.

The whole “shot on iPhone” gimmick really was unfortunate. Like she really ruined the quality of a music video because she wanted that Apple check??? Come on, Gaga, there could’ve been some other way to secure that check.

And then there was the Rain On Me video, which definitely have visuals that are a massive improvement from Stupid Love because it was professionally shot and cinematic. But even that was another purely dance video with not much in the way of storyline. Not that storyline is always required for music videos, but I think specifically when it comes to Chromatica, not having storylines in the M/Vs does a disservice to the overall concept.

I guess my issue with these two music videos, but mostly Stupid Love, is that Gaga isn't fully utilizing her COIN. Like she's successful enough to the point where she has budgets for these videos and can go all out, but doesn't. She has the capacity for extremely high production value, but up until 911, the last video she did that had that level of extraness was G.U.Y. I miss the days when her music videos were an event. I still remember where I was and what I was doing the exact moment the Telephone video came out. That's impact.

Taylor Swift I think is somebody who really knows how to blow her budget on a video. Look What You Made Me Do may have been a terrible song, but I always thought the video was sickening.

Anyway, I have no notes on 911. She's a masterpiece. If there was a music video category at the Oscars, I'd be campaigning for it right now.

Issue #3: Any Other Girly Can Do This

The thing I always loved the most about Gaga's music was that nobody was doing it like her. Everything she put out always felt like it was distinctly hers and hers alone, it's unmistakable. Even in Joanne, despite that album being a major departure from what she normally did.

I know Joanne is a very polarizing album, even for Little Monsters, but personally I've always loved it. Joanne was an album that I always knew she would make and I thought was essential to her career and body of work. Despite her straying away from pop for a more earthy, grass roots sound, it still sounded very much like her music. Even from the first track, Diamond Heart, her DNA is all over that.

It's difficult to explain what exactly I mean when I say there's a certain signature "Gaga-ness" or that she has a very specific DNA injected into her songs. If you've been a fan of hers for a long time or followed her career, you probably understand what I'm referring to. It's the way she laughs maniacally in the beginning of ARTPOP on Aura, how she says "I don't speak German but I can if you like, OW!" and proceeds to recite broken German on Scheiße, how she invented the phrase "disco stick", literally the ENTIRETY of The Fame Monster.

These examples probably give you the gist of what I'm trying to convey. Gaga is fucking weird. She has always been fucking weird and I love that so much about her. And her brand of weirdness was so specific that if any of the other pop girls tried to do what she did, it would have been cringey as hell. To me, the most disappointing thing of all with this album was that this weirdness that was so uniquely hers was missing.

It's there in brief moments, in tracks like Sour Candy, 911 and Babylon, but most of the album doesn't really sound like her music. It sounds like songs that she wrote for other people, like her old unreleased stuff. OG Little Monsters probably remember songs like Second Time Around and No Way. These were leaked unreleased songs that Gaga had written for other artists, and even though they were absolute bops, they didn't sound like her. They weren't supposed to.

A similar feeling I had was when her song The Cure came out a few years ago. I genuinely thought that was something she wrote for someone else, cause even though it was a solid pop song, it absolutely had zero Gaga-ness and any current pop girl could sing it. This pretty much encapsulates how I feel about the majority of Chromatica.

I was gonna say it sounded like songs that were written for Ally, her Star is Born character, but I think even those pop songs from the soundtrack sounded more Gaga than Chromatica does. 💀 I can easily imagine Hair Body Face being on The Fame.

Final Thoughts

It's funny that the last review I had posted on here before this was my review of Kingdom Hearts III. The Kingdom Hearts game series is something that's very near and dear to my heart, and I waited a wholeass decade for the third game to come out. And then it did, and I was so disappointed.

So you know what happened after that? What helped me deal with my disappointment of that game was my anticipation for Chromatica, or at the time it was still called LG6. I had no idea I would feel the same exact way about this album the way I do about KH3. Now when I think of both of these things, I'm mostly frustrated by all of the potential and the missed opportunities, but I also look at them with a certain fondness. I had fun playing KH3, and I also had fun listening to Chromatica, despite both of them disappointing me overall.

In the beginning of this review I said that there were certain factors that have stopped me from idealizing Gaga too much. Firstly it's because I'm much older now, and secondly it's due to the sheer state of the world this past year. The pandemic really precipitated the fall of celebrity culture, and all of that made me really examine how putting someone on such a high pedestal can be damaging in the long run.

Gaga is a human being and I haven't agreed with everything she's done, particularly how she handled the whole R. Kelly situation back in 2013. And also the simple fact that she's a white woman, we know how a lot of the time they can't help but show their asses and are bound to disappoint us in some way. I'm forever grateful for her artistry and how she saved my life when I was a suicidal little eighth grader, but I'm also going to hold her accountable for any of her mistakes, and I'd be ready to stop supporting her entirely if anything she does ever goes too far.

Now I stan artists for fun. It's not healthy to idolize them to the point of revering them. I mean, I like to make jokes like that about Beyoncé, like "no way on Beyoncé's green earth", etc. But even she is just a person that we shouldn't deify for real.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Chromatica being a lackluster album and era ended up being a good thing, because it helped me grow out of idolizing celebrities too intensely. Chromatica was pretty much the best disappointment I've ever listened to.

If you've read all the way to the end, thank you! Writing this was very therapeutic but also stressful; this is a second draft cause Tumblr fucked up my first post. 😭

Anyway, SAWAYAMA & Ungodly Hour are albums of the year. Argue with the wall.

#album review #gaga #lady gaga #chromatica #pop music #review #music

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bearpillowmonster · 5 years ago

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Star Wars SPOILERS Review

Ever since TLJ, the question lingers in my mind with every Star Wars related thing to come out “will they take it seriously?” It’s probably my biggest fear for Star Wars to date. Do they overwrite everything and try to reverse TLJ? And do they purposely try to subvert expectations so much that it seems like nothing matters?

I want to decrypt some of the things I said in my nonspoiler review but for the most part I will mention new things that I didn’t say. Forgive me if I state the obvious but some people haven’t realized the literal meaning behind some things.

My favorite thing about this movie is Ben and Rey. If you’re a Reylo shipper, you’ll like it but also be hurt. I wasn’t one way or the other with that. But instead of the constant fighting between Palpatines and Skywalkers, we’re given the end, the “marriage” if you will, though they didn’t get married, just kissed, between the grandson and granddaughter. It's a game of opposites, Kylo is in a way the opposite of Vader with Vader “wanting the girl until he met the dark side” vs Kylo's “wanting the dark side until he met the girl” and Rey is in a way the opposite of Palps. You see how Rey looks at him and heals him when she realizes his mom just died, she felt sorry, they were both sad and shared in that moment. Episode 3, Skywalker saves Palpatine(though they say that was just to get Anakin on his side, he could’ve beat Windu) but in Episode 9 Skywalker saves Palpatine again. Before he dies, we are given the best version of Ben. Though I did hear that Ben didn’t have any lines after he turned good...I mean...you’re not wrong? They really didn’t make him say anything though? Also I thought maybe Ben gave back the life force that Rey gave him on the Death Star, returning the gift, so to speak. Now...with that said, did we need to see Ben die? This is something a lot of people seem to be sad about, mainly the shippers. I mean I feel like people would say there weren’t any consequences if he didn’t but I also want to call back (I know it’s been shown over and over but the new trilogy doesn’t listen) to when George Lucas said during the original trilogy that nobody needed to die because we go to see a movie to be uplifted.

So really it’s kind of a mixed bag, you could say he finished his arc but then again so did Rey, so did everybody, maybe it’s punishment for what he’s done, but I feel like he could have more chances to atone for himself, is he redeemed by having that moment? Did he even need to be there? Could Rey have handled it on her own? I really don’t know what to say here.

I will say though that I felt like Ben went down the road of never coming back in TLJ, but it didn’t make it surprising that he came back, in fact it almost seemed obvious because Palpatine came back, Ben wasn’t going to follow orders again, he just took out Snoke, why would he do that? He would try and do things his own way, he would try and follow what Darth Vader always had in mind about overthrowing and we know there weren’t going to be 2 villains. Also during that end scene it looks like he’s just wearing an Under Armor shirt, you could’ve complained saying “he took all that time to get changed or else he could’ve saved Rey sooner” but still, he should’ve had a light side outfit. But I don’t like the idea that he’s the reason the original 3 died. He killed Han in the first one, had a fight that pushed Luke past his limit in the second, and had Leia try to bring him back one last time in the third. Also we get the message that you can choose your family, Rey chose everybody as her “family” then took on the Skywalker name, blood isn’t everything. The title is about her but also Ben, Ben rises as a Skywalker once again and Rey rises as a jedi.

I thought the ending would be a force ghost fight but it didn’t end up happening which I’m kind of glad but we still got the “I’m all the sith” “I’m all the Jedi” and she says it like the “And I...am Iron Man” well this all started with Korra “I’m all the Avatars” I know this would’ve been fan service and you can see some cameo ships in that one scene but you don’t see any recognizable characters, it would be more effective if we actually saw these characters. Speaking of, they have cameo voices in Rey’s head, you can barely make them out and it’s cool to hear them but still, force ghosts would’ve been cool too, not to fight but to see like maybe on Tatooine.

People complain about how Rey and Palp are too OP in the end. I heard a rant from a former Lucas prodigy that the force balances itself out so the light will take its hosts and the dark will take its. In the prequels we see tons of Jedi and sith that they have to share the force in a way but with the new sequel trilogy...those were the only ones of each side so of course the force would infuse everything it had into them, that’s why they had “all the Jedi and sith”

Also Palp died by his own hand because Rey was just reflecting his attack and he knew they could both heal/bring back the dead so which he says something like “I haven’t saw that in a long time” a callback to his master Darth Plagueis. Speaking of, what I’ve seen a lot of people complain about is that “Jedi can use healing so it breaks the universe” but that’s not the impression I got. Palp says that quote so I got the impression that only certain people can use it, it’s not a force power everybody can use and I imagine either he couldn’t use it or you can’t use it on yourself (which would make sense since you use your own life force) which then made him change his mind about Rey killing him and drain both their power. So no, I don’t think anybody could have used it before, for some reason it just so happens that these two can. So if you’re going to complain, complain about convenience. He might have been talking about the force facetime relationship the two have but still, I think he saw that they both had the power, Ben can do what Rey can and Rey can do what Ben can.

We see a tank of Snokes which leads me to believe Palp was trying to create a new body? I mean he says he “made him” either through training or literally, not much beyond that.

I knew as soon as they found D-O that he would have some sort of connection or map to Exogal and yep, he did in a way but what was the point if Rey was just going to lead them anyway? I know it connected to that Jedi Hunter but still. Turns out the writer also helped with Justice League and Batman V Superman which makes sense because Bats V Supes has similar fundamental problems as this one.

Also, how is Rey Palp’s granddaughter? Like did one of the opera members get with him? And he’s still...capable? I liked the clone theory better and even that seemed off. Then it’s “No, I am your grandfather” now. Let me put it this way, I doubt there was a meeting back when TFA or even TLJ came out where they were like “Rey’s a Palpatine” it feels like an afterthought but maybe it isn’t because I see more evidence such as how she used a lightsaber for the first time and why that vision was in the Death Star, maybe RJ just ignored it and was like “Yeah no”. It was like they were teasing it throughout TFA just to be shut down and then focused around as the main plot of the final movie, I don’t like that setup, maybe they didn’t want to make it too much like Empire by revealing heritage but still...I mean the idea that “nobodies can be made somebody (force sensitive)” is a cool idea, they did that with Blade Runner 2049, but he wasn’t any “chosen one” but he did great things but this set it up to be hype in TFA and just kept cancelling out after that. Also Luke knew and Leia knew but for how long? Couldn't they have protected Palp's son and wife and Rey? And if they knew from some kind of force power then how did Han seem to know in TFA? I'm guessing that the whole thing with Ben turning bad didn't happen until after because Rey was pretty young when she was left. I like that they had Luke on the trail of going to find him but it feels like Force Awakens "we only have a piece of the map and there's no way to tell from just that." I would think it would be obviosu one of the wayfinders would be on Endor, but I might be thinking too much into it.

I’ve since watched some interviews and some rumors since watching it, I’ll focus on the more relative and close to confirmed stuff but Episode 9 is a big thing, you had George’s version, Trevorrow’s version, JJ's version, Rian's version, Disney (Iger and Kathleen)’s version (end version) and it’s just a lot that I’d like to see explored and explained, I hate how big corporations are like “nope, to the vault.” Like let the respective people be open about it if they want to, it’s after the fact so it’s not like it’s gonna change anything. Apparently there was a version JJ wrote up with the dagger of Mordis and Son of Mordis with Matt Smith but Disney didn’t like it and this that and the other thing, which explains why there was a dagger but in a way, the characters “were” the dagger of Mordis. I think where all these versions diverged is having Luke die, he was going to die, it’s just a matter of when, Disney and Rian pushed for 8 (for whatever reason). And everybody else was for 9. George said he wanted another 10 years to develop the sequels if he were on board and Disney wanted it out as soon as they could as well as avoiding having a repeat of the Prequels but with this sequel trilogy, people love the prequels now and the sequels have become the very thing they sought to destroy, ironic. I think the 10 years (which would be soon by now) would have done these sequels good, that way we have a clear vision and there might not have been so much crap behind the scenes. George also said that they wouldn’t let him have creative freedom but had no problem giving it to Rian Johnson. So yeah, apparently people agree with me on this because there's a movement called "Release the JJ cut" just like the Snyder cut of Justice League, I don't see why they can't just put it in the deleted scenes of the dvd or take a note from LOTR and make an extended edition, it's not like they're going to recycle it or anything, even if they do refilm the same basic scene then that's just something fans can make contrast to, it's not everyone's cake but it is definitely a good amount so there is demand, release the George Lucas Scripts, release the JJ cut.

I wanted Finn to lead a sort of revolution of Stormtroopers, have them rebel like he did. We saw that one deleted scene where they questioned Phasma in TLJ, that could have led to it but they just brushed past it with this one and gave “Jannah” the same backstory! I joked with my dad and said “the helmet had blood on it and everything.” “Really?! The same thing happened to me!” "No way!" Then at the end they make it out as Jannah is Lando’s daughter, apparently he says “my daughter was taken from me” at one point and I missed it and then they say they are from the same sector. It went right over my head, people say it’s a fun payoff, others say it has no impact. The way I took it was that Lando asked her what sector she was from and she said “I don’t know” and he said “Why don’t we find out?” I could’ve sworn that’s how I heard it, so I assumed to build off of that scene where everybody is hugging somebody but Finn meant that him, Lando and Jannah were going to find the homes of the defective stormtroopers, which once again would’ve just brushed right past the idea.

Even more so, Finn’s force sensitive? Pretty much like how he used a lightsaber in TFA so it lines up but they don’t go anywhere with it other than “Rey will be ok” “Kylo is on that ship” “The Nav is on that ship” it’s just used for convenience, there was no moment where Finn came in and really saved the day, I didn’t really care for that part where he drops the bombs with Jannah. Sure you could say that Leia was like that in the original trilogy but first of all, they were siblings so it made sense, and second, she had other development so she had stuff to still do, she was a princess after all, they wanted Luke to be the last Jedi to train new Jedi and she would’ve been among those as we can tell from this movie. Also we never figured out what happened to Luke’s green lightsaber, I thought that’s what he was going to give Rey but it ended up being Leia’s lightsaber, one we didn’t even knew existed until then.

Why does Finn have to have so many love interests? Honestly such a ladies man? There’s one every movie now yet he didn’t end up with any of them 😂 poor boy, almost confessed to Rey then Ben beats him to it, like some kind of Hunger Games drama. Unless he was going to say “I have a feeling which means I’m force sensitive right?”

I played with the idea of Ben seeing Han again and I’m content with it because it played out the same scene from his death but the way it should have gone...but we hear that remark from Luke that he’ll “haunt” him but he never does. They use the force touch ability pretty well in the movie, I kind of liked it, with the battle on the Death Star, I thought he was a hologram, I was surprised to see he was actually there. However Holdo is already forgettable because Poe does the same basic light speed jump over and over at the beginning of the movie, they call it a “Holdo” at the end but it just doesn’t seem special anymore.

My dad brought this up and I don’t really know what to think about it. So when Ben saves Rey at the end, he disappears, then Leia’s body does too, does that mean Leia was acting through Ben to save her? Or did they just poof together? Oh yeah! The Knights of Ren! So I thought maybe they would act like the Black Order then take them out one by one before Kylo was the supposed final boss and then Palp would end up being the big baddie instead but they don’t do that, they are called “Knights of Ren” not too sure about that considering they attack him in the end, more like Knights of Palpatine. The trope I was talking about is that they make a big deal of getting through it together but Rey just goes off and does her own thing, she stares into the distance a lot and gets sidetracked easily.

They made it seem like Anakin would return with Hayden in press events, he doesn’t other than a voice, a bit disappointed, then "that boy is our last hope." "no, there is another." well that "another" is...well...a “Palpatine”, Anakin wasn’t the foil anymore or “the other hope” it was Rey, she gave the final blow, she can take the name Skywalker, sure but I don't think Lucas would have let it play out that way, I mean Anakin saved Luke then Luke trained Rey but still. Luke was one of my main gripes for TLJ, not the acting, Mark Hamill is always great, but just the way they wrote and handled him. I remember after seeing it, someone at work told me “I loved Luke, he did an excellent job and had a great fight” and I thought “Yeah, coming from the guy who likes Alien Covenant” Idk what movie he was watching but I wasn’t a fan of that Luke and neither was Luke himself, Mark Hamill so that tells you something. This version seems to go back on that and does a 180, we don’t see too much of him but I started thinking how we didn’t see much of Ben Kenobi in 5 and 6 so I guess it’s alright, they at least treated him better with what we saw and that’s what matters.

I said this before but I imagined Luke taking down a Star Destroyer with the force in my ideal version of post ROTJ, just like Starkiller, we have a moment sorta like that with Rey and this cruiser, I got really happy seeing that, then Kylo fighting for it and drawing out Rey to use the dark side that she didn’t even know she could use. Speaking of, the reflection scene in this movie is what the one in the last one should have been, same scene but placed on Acht-To as training, you can have the whole snap thing and this and that but give it meaning, I feel like they were just avoiding being like Empire but then you did it anyway so it defeated that purpose.

The ending should have ended on Tatooine, I’m glad it did, right where it started. It’s funny how I had a very similar wallpaper before seeing the movie.

Then her YELLOW lightsaber made out of her staff is *😙👌🏻* great. I do think they partially did that out of fan service though, why Rey would want to go to a sand planet again is beyond me. However George has once said that "having a boy and a girl walking into the sunset adds 10 mill to the box office." and uh...I mean Disney again kind of just went against his wishes there.

Gotta admit, the whole star destroyer fleet were just Death Stars for the most part, Palp doesn’t know how to make anything else I guess. “Maybe we could make it bigger” “maybe we make it 3x more powerful” “maybe we could make tons of them!”

I also wanted to mention this because my dad liked TLJ and didn’t see why it was so divisive but seeing this movie he immediately understood so maybe it just makes things more clear and others hazy, idk.

So I thought of a way they could introduce Mara Jade and atone for Luke’s behavior in TLJ which was having Ben kill her and that’s why Luke went and banished himself and why the Jedi "forbade" any relationships like that, but then it would turn out she actually lived, that’s who I thought Zori Bliss was until she started flirting with Poe. Then I got the idea that they were going to do that with Rey, Luke knew that Palpatine was back and wanted to protect her so he left her on Jakku and banished himself on Ach-To, again wasn’t the case but I could see some big plot holes and opportunities in that theory too so maybe it’s better it didn’t go that way.

Another thing I thought was a theory I found online about C-3PO and how he would be hooked up to the Death Star and reactivate the droids as well as have some golden sentenials as an army (with him leading) to fight the First and Final Order, a callback to how the Ewoks made such a big deal out of him like he was their leader and how it was Anakin who made him so it would make sense to have some big surprise planned, that didn’t end up happening, the red eyes were just for reading sith language which makes sense, it’s cool.

Oh and that message that the emperor sent out, I couldn't find in the movie, but you know where it is? Fortnite. Yep and it’s kind of vague and dumb so rather than going to go find it, I will write it here for you “At last the work of generations is complete. The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The day of the sith.” So...what is this “great error”? Vader?

One thing I know, but expected, is that these trailers are super misleading and I get that it’s supposed to be mysterious and get you to go but really? It made it look like they were destroying Vader’s shrine together, just an accident while facetiming. They made Rey look like she goes to the dark side, TWICE! Once in TLJ and once in TROS, at least with TLJ, I must say, Rian Johnson warned us about it like “hey, some stuff may not be what it seems in this trailer” so Disney is doing this on purpose, take what they have in trailers with a grain of salt. Turns out it was just a force vision like everyone was saying, called it, almost feels like they did that specifically for that reason, to put it in a trailer. But I there is at least an argument that Rey was struggling with the dark side and now we know why, I still think about the “Empress Palpatine” “Empress Rey” it’s got a ring to it, ngl. So them at least exploring that even just a bit was fun for me.

I’ve seen people say the complete opposite as me, that they liked the parts I didn’t and didn’t like the parts I did so it really is to each their own. It did some cool things with what it was given because it had to keep up with the other two, not disappoint people who hate and end the Skywalker saga, all in one bite while he wasn’t even set to direct it until late into it so he thought he was done which means there wasn’t a final script or any plan ready. I think it might have been more cohesive had it not had to deal with everything at once. There was a lot going on at one time to try and stuff in there. I think that if you had a path and then stuck with it then it would be more respectable, whether it was TFA or even TLJ, honestly I do believe that, pick one or the other but we shouldn't have to, just be committed to what you're trying to say, if Rey is related to someone, let her, if not, that's fine too but choose gosh dang it, don't throw the audience for a loop like we're some of the Mii's in Wii Sports, I'm not blaming anybody or any movie but this one.

Those are my thoughts on it at the moment, I'm reading the Thrawn trilogy so I should have a review for the first book eventually and I'll make reference back to this through that, you'll see why. As much as it's been said on the internet, I feel like it's true, like we're in a love-hate abusive relationship with Star Wars, so I think I need a break from it other than that. Disney has seemed to have based their movies around "avoiding" "avoid the Prequels" "avoid the Ladt Jedi" well, in the process I think they're avoiding Star Wars.

#star wars #spoilers #tros #the rise of skywalker #review #spoilers review #tros spoilers #star wars spoilers #sw

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bigskydreaming · 5 years ago

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#38 for the fic ask meme?

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

Oh man. SO many. You have no idea. Like, I have been lucky enough to get a number of extremely uplifting and moving reviews from people on various fics over the years, and its really hard to pick out just one. I mean, literally any review is great, no matter how ‘generic’ or whatever - like I’m not saying that a single one line “I really liked this” review is going to impact me in the same way as a personalized, three paragraph long review, but each and every review IS an impact, and they all add up.

Like, a lot of times writing fic (especially when you tend to focus on side characters, controversial fandom takes and rare pairs as much as I do, lmfao) - I mean, a lot of times it can feel a bit like just shouting into the void where the only way you even know if anyone’s reading is by the hit count, but when combined with a total lack of comments, that can like….be counter-productive and make you go oh shit, does that mean everyone read it and just went meh?

(Personally, I’d rather have someone hate something I wrote than be apathetic about it. The former means I at least reached them on some kind of level, even if it wasn’t the way I ideally would like, lol).

So I mean, I have so much love for any and all reviews I get, there are fics that I’ve left just sitting unfinished for years and years and only went back to and ended up finishing because someone commented saying they really hoped I would come back to it someday, even when it’d been like four years since I updated last, when they left me that comment.

And then there’s one fic I wrote in one of my extremely random fandoms, where like, its literally the only thing I ever wrote in that fandom and yet I still get comments every once in awhile and it just….reminds me of that fic and what I was thinking about/feeling when I wrote it, just kinda takes me back to that headspace, and that can be really welcome at times.

Which brings me to something that rarely gets mentioned when talking about reviews, actually…..for me at least, timing also has a lot to do with what reviews stick with me longest. Like, its not just about the contents of the review or anything the reviewer is likely to know anything about, but my mood when getting a particular review or my headspace or what I’m just going through in my life at the moment, like…all of those can mix with the actual review itself and make it especially memorable for me, even if that same review, if I’d gotten it at a different time, like, might not have made the same impact.

I bring that up because personally, I don’t think any reader should ever feel obligated or guilted into leaving reviews….no reader owes me anything anymore than I owe readers anything other than whatever I choose to give them ie publish or post. BUT, I know people often feel self-conscious about leaving reviews, or getting too…specific or personal in a review, stuff like that (I mean, I do the same thing as a reader myself)….like, I just mean where sometimes people aren’t sure if a particular review would be welcome, or if there’s any point when its been years since a fic was posted. And I say, if you’re ever on the fence about leaving a review, my vote is always gonna be for going ahead and leaving it. You never know when you might be the person to say just the right thing at just the right time to really reach the fic’s writer as much if not more than their fic reached you.

*Shrugs* Tbh, because my memory is weird as fuck, I’ve literally forgotten about writing fics in certain fandoms and stopped getting notifications for them years ago cuz I changed emails or something…..and a couple of times, I’ve come across my own fics that I’ve completely forgotten writing, lmao, but then I check the comments and find a whole bunch more that were left long after I moved on from that fandom, and its just like, a cool little…..feel goods stockpile, just sitting there in case I ever came back to it or stumbled across it, like I ended up doing.

Anyway, back to the question, if I had to pick just one, there’s one that I’ve actually mentioned a couple of times before, enough that I probably make the reviewer feel weird about it at this point, lmfao. But it was a review on one of my Teen Wolf one-shots, Howling Like Real People Do, and it was a fun, really sweet review, but more than that, I think its like I was just saying, about how timing can play such a large role……the reviewer left that comment like a year or two after I’d written that fic actually, but it was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. I got it at a time when I was seriously contemplating just moving on from Teen Wolf fandom in general, because I was getting a ton of constant harassment from S/terek anons, and my two ‘big’ multi-chapter fics that I’d poured a ton of time and effort into were getting anon hate comments on every new chapter I posted, that had nothing to do with the fic itself and were all just aimed at me, lol, but y’know…..it kinda made it all feel like a waste of time and energy, and I was all….ugh, what am I even doing here at this point, this isn’t fun for me and it doesn’t seem like its worth it.

But then I got that review just when I was actually looking for reasons to stick around, and it did exactly that, it was proof that there were still at least some people out there looking for the kinds of things I was writing (and it really helped that it was on Howling too, because Boyd is a criminally under-utilized/prioritized character in fandom, and so I was always kinda like…..’is anyone even gonna care about this Boyd POV character piece’…and then hey, they did)….but I mean like…..I’m actually a pretty simple/bare bones kind of guy. I love validation as much as the next guy, but it takes surprisingly little validation to motivate me, lol, and so I mean, that one single review then and there probably did just as much to motivate me to stick around and stay posting and present in fandom, as like….a dozen equally thoughtful reviews on one of my more frequently read fics. *Shrugs* Right time, right place, right words.

So yeah, there’s your answer. The one review that’s probably stuck with me the most and made my day the most is that one Howling review years after I wrote the fic, because for as much as I bitch about TW fandom, it was a big part of my life for awhile and where I met a ton of really great friends and so its not actually something I regret and I’m glad I ended up sticking around instead of moving on from the fandom back then. *Shrugs*

Like I said, you never know when the review you feel self-conscious about leaving might have a far bigger ripple effect than you ever thought it would, so if you feel enough of a reaction to a fic to write or even just think of a review you might want to leave….just go ahead and hit post too. It could be the review that writer really needs, just in the way their fic maybe was the read you really needed too. Fanfic and reader comments are a kind of conversation, IMO. Go ahead and take the opportunity afforded by it and talk back to a writer, if their fic gave you something to say.

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hippychick006 · 6 years ago

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14.19 - Jack in the Box Recap

I mean I absolutely loved this episode, one of my favourites, if not the best episode ever written.

But enough about The Benders… this recap/review is on 14.19, Jack in the Box. Predictions have been coming in ever since the episode title was released that Jack was going to end up in the box that Dean built for himself way back in the season. I was hoping we weren’t going to go that literal, but no, the episode ultimately does exactly what it says on the title.

Some excellent scenes, but as is usual with me, a lot of things that irk so scroll on by to the next post if you want to avoid negativity, particularly note the tags.

This one was a mixed bag, I’m not too sure how I feel yet about the episode as a whole. It’s not a love love love, but it’s not a clunker either. That aside, there’s no denying there were several stand out scenes that, regardless of who did what to whom, made for some pretty awesome television between the actors, all of whom brought their A game. 2 scenes in particular between Sam and Dean and 1 between Dean, Sam and Jack. A lot of the other scenes were actually okay, and they packed a surprising amount into this episode that didn’t leave me with whiplash for once - which Buck-Leming episodes have a tendency to do.

Most of my negativity on this one is on the opening couple of scenes, but my mood does get better as the post goes on... I think.

I don’t know if anyone else notice the opening montages, but Sam and Dean are barely in this one. This is the penultimate episode and your number 1 and 2 on the call sheet got a scant few seconds of recap. It was all Castiel, Jack, Nick and the angels. We don’t even get a shot of Sam’s face at Mary’s replicant burning, just Dean. For me, it’s just a reflection of the issues I’ve been having with this season in particular; if the recap for the penultimate episode doesn’t have much of your leads in it, then that to me is a problem for your writing. JMHO. Others can and do disagree, no biggie.

We open on what appears to be a wake for Mary. Complete and total strangers they’ve pulled off the streets of Vancouver to stand around looking sadly at personal objects of Mary’s on the map table. I think once again I’m supposed to be sad, and I am, seriously, I’m in mourning for my show. I’m in mourning because this scene if they’d written the character and story correctly and hadn’t cheapened death, should have been sad and it just… isn’t. kicks my stuck record player and moves on.

Mary’s three sons – Sam, Dean and Castiel – and I can’t with this god damn fan fiction pandering shit – come out from the library and Dean speaks to the strangers. “We know that her family were beyond just us.” (Family mention right out the gate, fantastic, I’m always worried they won’t fit in enough family references throughout the episode). Thankfully, for the safety of my television 28 floors up, Dean points to just Sam when he says, “just us.” But I need someone else’s input, but was this line a dig? I feel that it’s a dig, and given the writers and showrunners, I wouldn’t put it past them to get snarky because a lot of us haven’t liked the “found family” bullshit they’ve tried to force and haven’t been quiet about it.

I know I’m not meant to, but I can’t help laughing my way through this scene, particularly when Dean describes Mary as someone who was “tough, strong… stubborn as hell” (which she is, that’s not the problem), but it’s the fact that raises a chuckle from the complete strangers who all nod and go “yes, that was her!” Sam’s just nodding his way through this (like the Churchill bulldog in a British TV ad for insurance), but we do get the camera moving to him at one point so they’ve remembered he’s one of her sons, even though they didn’t show him the same way as Dean in the montage earlier… (sometimes I’m just a bitter Sam fan, ignore me and move on)

They raise a toast to mom and say goodbye.

Just as they are finishing, one of the strangers gets hit with an axe to the head. All the hunters immediately rush into action, running for weapons and preparing to deal with whatever just did it because they are hunters, that’s how hunters react when under attack.

I wish, but no, they all just stand around not really doing much of anything, other than looking clueless, until fake!Bobby walks in and smiles at them.

Turns out to be a wraith from a nest that Bobby and Mary took out on their last hunt. Okay, I’m going to go ahead and allow that Sam and Dean are far too grief stricken to apply tests to people, so they just allow everyone to walk straight into the bunker (test for a wraith by the way would be a mirror). I’m also going to presume they all knew the “hunter” wasn’t from the AU, but everyone just though he was Random!hunters plus 1 so didn’t think to ask who the hell he was.

Fake!Bobby asks how Sam is. He answers that it’s tough. Fake!Bobby asks “And the other one" nodding his head at Dean. Sam responds, “Dean… he seems to doing okay, hard to say.” Fake!Bobby: “Yeah, maybe he’s like me, being teary in public is not my style.” I think this line is to remind us that Fake!Bobby isn’t our Bobby and he really doesn’t know them at all. Worth noting that Castiel doesn’t get asked how he feels so make of that what you will.

Dean’s packing up the personal effects into a box, Sam tells him most everyone else is heading out, he suggests they open the bottle of scotch Ketch left, hang around and talk about mom. Dean: “Talk about mom? Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?” He leaves the room, leaving Fake!Bobby, Castiel and Sam just standing there.

Sastiel are in the kitchen looking at a picture of Mary, when Fake!Bobby joins them, bringing a beer for Sam. Fake!Bobby asks Sam what happened to Mary because he’s hearing “the kid…” He doesn’t finish because Dean walks in. Castiel’s still trying to get back in Dean’s good books and asks if he needs anything. Dean says that yeah, he needs a drink. Fake!Bobby tells him the bar's open and points to the fridge. Dean says no, he’s going to go out for a while.

Sam says they need to talk about Jack (which is 100% Sam because he never allows himself to grieve, he locks it up and focuses on the problem at hand, he did the same with Jessica, their dad and now again with their mom). He’s as dysfunctional as Dean is when it comes to facing his grief. But I think Sam is also more accepting of her death than Dean, because he knows she’s in a happy place (which he believed for Jessica and their dad due to his faith, but at the time of their deaths, he didn’t know for sure), so I think he’s sad, yes, but I don’t know that he thinks it’s altogether bad that she’s with their dad and no longer having to hunt, whereas I think Dean’s coming from his perspective, he’s lost his mother all over again.

Dean says, “we will” (talk about Jack later) and then walks out. Sam’s not overly happy about it, but he knows his brother and he’s learned that this is the way Dean deals with grief and he doesn’t go running after him.

As soon as Dean leaves, Fake!Bobby turns to Sam and says, “About that, I liked the kid, we fought together, but there’s only one way this ends.”

Castiel: Bobby’s right, we have to find Jack and help him.

Oh Castiel, I really don’t think that’s what Fake!Bobby meant.

Sure enough, Fake!Bobby’s face when he looks at Castiel could turn him to stone, “What? That kid, he killed Mary.”

Castiel: I know that…

Fake!Bobby: Don’t say but…

Castiel: But…he, Jack may not even realise that what he did was wrong

Fake!Bobby: If his human side is gone, you know what’s left… Lucifer. Now if you boys want to sit around and talk, fine, but me, I’m going to get on the horn to some of my people and go find that boy.

Castiel: And what then?

Fake!Bobby: An unstoppable monster, who don’t know right from wrong, gets put down, or the closest we can get to it, and anybody who don’t know that, needs to go back to school

I’ve put this whole dialogue in to point out that Sam says nothing during that entire scene. He was window dressing. They wrote an entire scene for side character fake!Bobby and side character Castiel with Sam in it, so anyone, anyone at all that says we don’t get better writing for J2 because “J2 want time off…” I’ll be slapping this scene down every single time because Jared was there, he just wasn’t being used.

Jack looks to be in an abandoned warehouse. He’s flashing back to killing Mary. He says, “I wish you were here… mom” and I think some people (those watching the fan fiction version of the episode) are interpreting that as Mary, but it’s Kelly he’s calling for. He knows who his mother is. He asks her to tell him what to do.

Hallucifer appears saying the usual stuff; that the Winchesters don’t care about him. He’s nothing to them, just a little pet monster. Jack responds that no, they’ll understand, “I’ll explain to them, it was an accident, and I tried to bring her back, and… they’ve made mistakes too…” Hallucifer tells Jack they hate him and Jack’s all he’s got, and him.

We switch to night and see the impala is parked and the music in this scene would be best utilised in a b movie horror flick. Oh wait…

It’s really dark, but I eventually see Dean and he’s crying out in the middle of nowhere and yes this is sad, and yes Jensen is great, but I’d love the scene a lot more if it hadn’t become forced over the last couple of seasons. It’s just “oh, it’s that time of the season where Dean cries.” Okay then. And as I’ve said, this isn’t on Jensen at all, but these scenes are just no longer organic for me personally - great if you still enjoy them.

We’re in heaven, I hate heaven. I hate how corporate it is. The same with Hell. Actually the same with wherever Death lives too. They’ve turned all these places into corporations. Duma hands a file to a minion and Cass appears. He wants to see Naomi and Duma tells him once again that she is unavailable. Cass presses why, Duma tells him Naomi’s been demoted and is in a tiny cell, Duma’s currently in charge. Castiel tells her he needed Naomi’s help in finding an archangel. Zzzzzzzz

Duma says that there’s none left. Castiel tells her about the problem with Jack and that he has grown “massively powerful… dangerously so”.

Why would you tell the angels that? Weren’t they after Jack’s powers at one point to sort out heaven? Even without that, when have the angels ever done anything that can be trusted, Castiel?

Castiel tells her that Jack’s burned through his soul and is on the run from the Winchesters, fearing their fury, but he thinks Jack can be salvaged and “rehabilitated with patient moulding and guidance.”

Duma says she’ll see what she can do. Me: Yeah, I bet you will.

Sam’s on his laptop when Dean returns. He asks Dean how he’s feeling, which Dean ignores to ask Sam what he’s working on. Sam says he’s trying to find Jack and that they need to find him, “before Bobby and his crew because if they find him first…” Dean: “He’s going to kill them all.” Sam says he doesn’t know. Then with no lead in, to what they were just talking about, Sam randomly says that he can’t stop thinking about mom.

Sam: I can’t stop thinking that… most people, it’s, it’s, it’s… hope and faith, right? That’s all they have, but we know the truth, we know God is real, we know Angels are real, too…”

Dean: God writes paperback books in his underwear, okay… and angels are dicks.”

Sam: But, they’re real, right… we know that mom’s not sitting on a cloud, playing a harp, she’s in a good place, she’s in a great place, she’s with dad…”

Dean nods, and responds, “You know what else, there wasn’t even enough of her left to even try to bring her back.”

I think some people had a problem with this promo clip, and I did too when I saw it. The conversation doesn’t seem to connect. It could possibly have been written better, but I don’t think it’s supposed to connect. Sam brings up mom, because he wants Dean to understand that even though she’s dead, they know she’s happy, that her being dead and with their dad isn’t the worst thing. I believe it’s the start of Sam’s campaign on trying to get Dean to rethink about Jack. Sam - though he’s not coming right out and saying it (because he knows his brother) - is still Team Save Jack (with Castiel). Dean on the other hand is reminding Sam, that what Jack did was so terrible, that there was nothing that could be brought back and there’s no coming back from that. So he knows what Sam is doing and he’s making it clear he’s no longer Team Save Jack. That’s just my thoughts on this scene, because otherwise, yeah, I’ve got nothing.

Back with Jack, and Duma has found him. Jack asks how she found him, but the writers don’t want to bother to explain the unexplainable, so Duma ignores it, and tells Jack exactly what he wants to hear, “It wasn’t your fault… it was a mistake. That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve redemption. I know, heaven knows, your mother knows that you have a glorious destiny.”

Puppy!Jack: I do?

Duma: You couldn’t save Mary Winchester, but you can save so many others, even heaven itself. You could make the world so much better. And think how happy that would make Sam and Dean.

Oh you complete bit...

Jack visits the office of a Dr Tate, who seems to write books on “the hidden agenda of religion.” and “imagine there is no heaven.” I quietly sing “above us only sky…” as Dr Tate asks (without looking up), “You’ve come about the leak in my bathroom?” We switch back to Jack, and Duma has appeared suddenly beside him, and can I just say, Duma has to the be the quietest angel ever, not a single flap of wings to announce her presence, very similar to my other favourite angel Zachariah.

She says “hardly.” (to the question about the leak). She has a conversation with Dr Tate about his beliefs, which don’t seem to match with Heavens - in that he doesn’t believe in Heaven. Duma tells him, “in more civilised times that was called heresy, and those ideas were an affront to heaven.”

Dr Tate: If there were a heaven.

Puppy!Jack (enthusiastically): Oh… there is, I’ve been there.

Dr Tate: I see! And I suppose you saw god?

Puppy!Jack (sadly): No… but he is my grandfather

Dr Tate: Huh… so that would make your father…

Puppy!Jack: Lucifer.

Duma: “Dr Tate, heaven is not unreasonable, you can avoid divine retribution by announcing to your considerable audience, that you’ve had a revelation, that everything you’ve written to date is false, that God is good...”

Dr Tate: Security!!

Or he tries to call security, but Jack TK’s the phone away and turns him to salt. Jack smiles when he’s done and the puppy thinks he’s done something good, but he’s done way worse than pee on the rug. Bad Jack, very, very bad!

Once again, Dean is off to the side and Team Sastiel (also known as Team Save Jack) are sitting together at a table. Castiel has updated Sam and Dean about his trip to heaven. Sam’s on board, “So the angels, they’re going to help us?”

Castiel: I was promised every effort would be made to locate Jack.

Dean (to Cass): Oh, heaven promised? Great. (to Sam). Well, we should take that to the bank.

Castiel: Jack’s powers could also be a threat, it serves them to help find him.

No shit Sherlock. But it also serves them to find him and use him. What were you even thinking? But it’s that time of the season you try to help by doing something dumb that’s going to backfire spectaculacularly, so what can we all do, but accept it?

Sam says he’s been looking for anything weird and reads from his laptop telling them a university professor was turned into salt. Dean asks why that sounds familiar and Castiel answers that it’s biblical. The thing is, Dean’s been shown to know the bible, as has Sam so I would think they would know this common story - maybe not others, but this one for sure.

Sam goes on to explain that the professor was an atheist, that wrote a bunch of books trying to disprove god and heaven.

Dean: Okay, so you think an angel iced him.

Castiel: No ordinary angel could do something like that.

Switch to Dean’s thinky face.

Sam tells them there’s another, a few hours later a woman (a fake faith healer according to the headline) fell into a crevice that had opened up and she was killed. Dean asks, “Like a sinkhole?” Sam said, “That’s what I thought too, but a witness said it was more like a fissure opened under her feet then closed back up with her inside).

Castiel quotes from the bible and says its 26:10

Sam says she a tv evangelist under investigation for stealing thousands of dollars through fake charities.

Dean: So… either Chuck came back, which that ain’t gonna happen (sledgehammer anvil warning or spoiler alert) or…��

Castiel: Jack

Jack’s back in heaven with Duma who tells him he’s done excellent work. That working together they can bring the glory days back (or words to that effect). Jack is only interested in one thing, “Sam and Dean will like that?” Me: *pets. Duma responds, “Words can’t begin to express how Sam and Dean will feel.” Me: Oh, you betcha. (wait, was I just channeling Donna?). Duma brings him to a room. She wants Jack to take a human soul and forge it into an angel. Wait, what?

Duma: What do you say?”

Me: “I SAY YOU ARE MAKING THIS UP AS YOU GO ALONG.”

Well, I don’t so much say it as shout it. Sorry about that outburst. Angels came well before humans so I’m really looking forward to the explanation for how on earth a human soul can be made into an angel.

Duma tells Jack that the room she’s brought him to is where his grandfather received prayers. She leaves him to make himself available to hear prayers.

Jack sits on the throne and the more I see the throne, I can’t help but wonder if Dean is going to end up on that throne running heaven and Sam’s going to end up on the dark throne running hell. I’m usually wrong, but I’ve just always got that feeling, from the speech Chuck gave once to Dean, “You, Sam, others that are the chosen, will have to find a way. It’s why I saved you years ago. You’re the firewall between light and darkness.” Anyone that knows IT, knows there’s always 2 firewalls at either side of a connection. Sam would be the firewall for Darkness (Hell), Dean would be the firewall for Light (Heaven) and the earth in between would be safe from both (because angel or demon, they are all dicks). Hippychick does meta... badly so we quickly move on!

Jack sits on the throne and hears many thoughts at once, until one voice comes through louder than others. We switch to that voice, which is a woman delivering a prayer to a congregation. She tells them that “Pastor Aimes is coming by to discuss The Book of Samuel.” Everyone seems very happy with that, so it’s obviously a group of Sam fans. Jack flaps in and is invited to join them. Jack introduces himself and he’s ditched the name “Winchester.” He’s just “Jack”. He asks them if they meant it when they said they wanted to go to heaven. They nod enthusiastically. He asks if they wouldn’t mind becoming angels. Again, everyone is all on board the angel train. The leader saying, “that would be a dream.” Jack says it doesn’t have to be a dream, and shows his powers, and he’s his father’s son, because we get a lightning display outside the church and then Jack glows golden, his wings appearing as a shadow on the wall behind, before returning to normal. He asks them to come with him to heaven.

Pastor Aimes arrives. Jack says he’s taking his friends to become angels, and would Pastor like to join them. Pastor Aimes – who unfortunately for him missed Jack’s display of powers - is dismissive (while at the same time wondering why the audience and leader are in a trance). Jack kills Pastor Aimes by having him be eaten by worms which is a bible reference to King Herod. Anyway, it’s a gruesome death. Jack smiles because he’s doing such a good job and Sam and Dean will be so pleased with him. He leaves with the congregation.

Oh wait, the pastor’s not actually dead, he’s in hospital, all bandaged up, so Sam and Dean - and of course Castiel because Chuck forbid they do what they used to do on their own any more without him being forced into every scene to avoid the meltdowns from his fanbase – pose as FBI and ask him what happened. He tells them the congregation were taken to heaven to become angels. They both look at Castiel who looks a little uncomfortable. Sam shows a photo of Jack and Pastor Aimes confirms that was who he saw. He explains that Jack waived his hand and cuts opened up and worms crawled out. He tells them that “he (Jack) said he was carrying out heaven’s orders and that I wasn’t a believer.”

Dean: Well… feel better.

Oh Dean. Empathy!

They go outside the room to talk and Castiel quotes again from the bible.

Sam (surprised): So…this is another bible thing?

Seriously? Seriously Dabb? In your penultimate episode, you have Sam fucking Winchester look dumber than a bunch of rocks that he’s not already made that connection himself?

Dean wonders what the hell is going on (probably with the writing for both he and his brother in this episode so far) and walks away.

What the hell do you mean what the hell is going on? This case is probably the easiest you’ve ever worked on. Jack has been misguided by heaven into carrying out their work. Duh!

Sam is the last to leave and we see that the worms are still coming out of Pastor Aimes, and that’s a horrible death. REMEMBER THIS DEATH FOR LATER!

Dean and Sam are arguing back at the bunker and whatever other issues I have with this episode, it certainly isn’t the scenes Jared and Jensen are in. They once again show why I even continue to watch this show which is why this scene is in it’s entirety.

Dean: I didn’t want it to come to this either, but I know that that kid’s head is not right, and now that heaven has its hooks in him, we don’t have a choice.

Sam: Come to what? What are you talking about?

Dean: Stopping Jack once and for all

Sam: Okay, fine, say I agree (said very much in a way that I don’t agree), Dean he can’t be killed.”

Dean: No, but he can be contained.

He opens the door to a room in the bunker and Sam walks in behind him asking, “How are we supposed to do that?”

Oh Sam, as I said, dumber than a bunch of rocks this episode, I really, really feel for you. You are capable of making these connections, but have just been slapped with the dumb stick.

Sam looks at the room for the first time and sees a tarpaulin over something that can only be…

Sam and Dean are standing across from each other. Dean pulls off the tarpaulin to reveal the ma’lak box. “With this.”

Sam: Are we seriously talking about locking Jack in this?

Dean: No, we’re seriously talking about not having a choice, we can’t kill him, okay, and this is warded to lock down an archangel.

Sam: Yeah… so… so what… we…we just… force him inside (Sam’s very uncomfortable right now).

Dean: No, no, he goes in here, it’s gotta be his choice.

Sam (stating the obvious): He’s never going to go along with that!

Dean: Maybe…

Me: Dean don’t do this, please do not do this, asking him to lie to Jack will destroy Sam. You know how he feels about this.

Dean: But he might, he might if he only has to stay in here long enough to finish the spell to fix his soul.

Dean’s turned away from Sam for this next bit so Sam can’t see his face, but we can.

Sam: The spell?... What spell? There is no spell!

Dean: We know that.

Sam (sighs): So, you want to lie to him.

Dean: No, but I want zeppelin to get back together (I think that’s what he said?), but what I need, what we need, is to stop Jack. Big difference, but here’s the deal, we’ve both got to sign off on it. This might be our only shot and if he even catches a whiff that this is a scam, he’s off in the wind.”

Sam: Exactly, but how do you think he’s not going to know something’s up?

Dean: Because you’re going to be so damn sincere.

Sam: Me? Why me?

Dean: Because you’ve always been in his corner, you’re his go to guy. Sam, if you reach out, he’ll come. If I do it, after what happened to mom, I could lose him. (Sam looks away). I will lose him.

Sam closes his eyes, he’s really not happy. But as I mentioned right at the start, regardless of what they are planning or what Dean is asking Sam to do, this is a fantastic scene between Jared and Jensen and the best thing about the episode so far. Are we surprised?

We see someone that looks to be homeless, warming themselves by a fire in a garbage can. Turns out that he’s an angel near the sandpit portal and looks to be guarding it – presumably guarding it again since they now have Jack and don’t want Castiel to get anywhere near him. Castiel demands the portal to be opened. And this is what I don’t understand – who let Castiel in to heaven earlier in the episode? He can’t get in without the portal being opened and Duma would have told people not to open it for him, so how did he get in? They just change it as and when they either need him to enter or not, it’s frustrating. Anyway, the random angel tells him that heaven is closed. Castiel says no, he was just there.

Random angel: I’m sorry, I said that wrong, Heaven is closed to you.

Angel fight!

Or not, as we switch to Jack in heaven with the people he abducted earlier. He’s bringing them out of their trance one by one. Me: Isn’t there a faster way that could maybe have freed up 5 minutes for something else? No? Okay then.

The random angel appears in the throne room, he’s tossed aside to reveal... Castiel behind him.

Duma: Castiel! Good news… I found Jack

Puppy!Jack: Cass, look, I’m making angels!!

Castiel: Yes, you, umm… Duma, a word!... Now!

Badass!Castiel alert. Love him.

Back at the bunker, Sam tells Dean he doesn’t think the plan is going to work. (translation for non Sam fans or people in denial: he really doesn’t want to do this plan)

Dean: One way to find out

Not getting out of it, Sam prays to Jack, who we switch view to, and Jack is hearing Sam’s prayer. “Jack… I hope you can hear this… bad things happened but we’re family, we’re your family, and bad things happen in families… we want to talk with you, that’s how we can all get through this, that’s how we can all move forward.” (I think that’s a record, 3 family references in a single sentence - go Dabb!)

Back in heaven, Castiel accuses Duma of using Jack to solidify her hold on heaven. That she’s “establishing a reign of terror… stripping heaven of its mercy”. Duma: “Well, Heaven never really had any mercy Castiel, you know that.” She tells him that she’s saving Heaven, she’s saving our kind (angels) and she is saving the world. God complex, (Season 6 and 8 or 10?) Zzzzzzzzzz

Sam’s still praying: “Jack, we want, we need, to see you, our mother would want it, your mother would want it…”

My mom voice: Sam “whatever your middle name is” Winchester! You did not just bring Jack’s mother into this mess!

Duma and Castiel are still talking, thankfully not for long, back with Sam: “Jack, we just want things to be the way they were, are you hearing this?”

Jack says he is.

Castiel says to Duma that he’s getting Jack out of here. Duma stops him saying she’ll end Ma and Pa Winchester’s special heaven if he does anything.

She doesn’t get a chance to do the Thanos snap because Castiel ends her with an angel blade. Yes! Where have you been hiding? Hmm? I’m so done with Castiel trying to live and work and act like a human crap, he’s a fucking powerful angel and I hate what the show and fandom have reduced him to, this poor, little wooby that’s been reduced to human problems. He isn’t anything of the sort, which is why his story ended long ago. Anyway, kicking my stuck record player once again, Badass!Castiel (which is the only Castiel this blog accepts) goes to find Jack.

Back at the bunker, Jack has not appeared, Sam says, “I guess he didn’t hear it.” (is there a little relief in that statement Sam, hmmm).

A flap of wings though announces Jack’s appearance and he says, “I heard, and I was so glad. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.” He turns to Dean who looks like he wants to rip Jack’s head off, “I’ve been working with the angels to purify the world, oh and making angels…”

Okay, I’m going to kudos this one because I’m actually feeling for Jack here, he’s like a literal child, and he feels he’s done good (because Duma told him he was, and it would make Sam and Dean happy). And all he wants is to make Sam and Dean proud of him for doing good and we’re meant to feel bad about what Sam and Dean are contemplating doing. It’s horrible, this is a child they are going to put into a tiny, dark box and lock the door on. We’re supposed to stop and think about that. But from Sam and Dean’s perspective, Jack isn’t just a child, he’s the most powerful being on the planet and he’s killing innocent people because he’s completely malleable to influence, he’s killing people because he doesn’t know any better. He’s killing people because he has a temper and can’t control it. And they’ve got no idea how else to stop him, other than the box.

Dean imo isn’t thinking straight, and not just from grief from Jack killing his mother. Even before Mary died. Dean’s been affected by the things Michael did while wearing Dean’s body and using Dean’s hands for murder and we haven’t seen that come out yet, but from Dean’s perspective, it’s always been about eliminate the monster, which in his opinion, Jack has turned into and needs to be dealt with like any other monster.

And Sam, as I’ve mentioned in a separate post, he’s going along with Dean because he doesn’t want to let his brother down again. He doesn’t want to make the wrong choice like he did with Ruby. He’s never going to let his brother down again by choosing someone over Dean (Sam’s view of things, not mine), so his only choice is to trust Dean. He’s also struggling with decisions he’s made this season that he feels has led to the deaths of several people (unfairly imo), but it’s heavily on his mind and he doesn’t trust his judgement anymore so he’s looking to someone else to call the shots, unfortunately, that someone else is equally broken and equally not capable of calling the shots. And screw anyone that is hating these boys right now because you haven’t been watching the season which has led up to this!

Kudos to Jensen, Jared and Alex as this is a great scene between the three of them. Alex is so child-like, Jensen is barely containing his rage and Jared is alternating between being scared of Jack and really not being happy about what they are doing. Fan fiction or not, the show has portrayed that Sam feels a father/son relationship with Jack (moreso than Dean I would strongly argue). I’m both an Aunt and a mother and I can say that although I love my nieces and nephew, it absolutely does not compare to a parent/child bond. Putting this scene in it’s entirety as it’s that good.

Jack: Yeah, I make angels… (Dean fake smiles), but, I really missed you guys.

Dean: Yeah, us too, right Sammy…

What I love about this scene is that during it, Sam got up silently and had been walking around the back of Dean. Dean had his eyes on Jack the whole time, but he still knew that Sam had moved from the table and where he is now.

Dean: …Tell Jack how we want to clear things up, you know, between us

Sam looks like he’s walking up to the gallows as he’s moving closer to Jack. This is horrible to watch, but hey, for the first time in a few episodes, it’s actually great television no matter how painful!

Jack: I know, I know things have been bad, and… and if it helps, I regret it.

Now, since this was said in a similar tone to “I regret having that fifth cookie”, it’s not going down all that well with Sam and Dean so Sam and Dean just look at him and he continues, “The… accident.”

Sam (looks briefly back at Dean): The… accident?

Jack: What happened to Mary… she kept talking about my soul, that I didn’t have a soul, and she kept pushing…

Dean: Oh… so, she made you do it

Jack: No, it was me but, I didn’t want this “no soul thing” to become an issue between us. (Sam looks back at Dean who is trying very, very hard, not to react). I guess I… snapped. Before I knew it, it was all over.

Dean: It… being the accident

Jack (steps forward): I wish it didn’t happen

Dean: yeah, Jack, so do we, but… we understand, and we forgive you, you know for the uh… accident.

Sam (moving closer to Jack and he’s close to losing it): That’s what you want, right Jack, I mean you’d, you’d like that?

Jack: I’d like for things to go back to the way they were. (He sighs and smiles), I knew you’d understand.

Dean: So, if we told you that we were close to being able to fix your soul, we just need to keep you safe, until everything is ready… you, you’d be okay with that?

Jack: Safe? What do you mean?

Dean: Well, you could hurt other people, have another… accident.

Jack: Oh

Sam: We want to keep you safe Jack, that also means we have to… keep you safe from yourself (Sam reaches out and tentatively puts a hand on Jack’s shoulder), you know just so that nobody gets hurt, just until we get you better.

Jack looks at the hand on his shoulder and then at Sam and Dean and we (and likely they) are not sure if he’s going to have another “accident”, but he doesn’t, and they lead the lamb to the room with the box in it. Dean tells Jack that the best feature of the box is that it’s warded so keeps Jack’s powers below “the meltdown level.” Sam does that enthusiastic parent thing where they try to make a bad thing sound good, “Yeah, so you can’t hurt anyone, and nobody can hurt you!” (doesn’t that sound wonderful Jack?!)

Jack says he understands, but I’m not sure he really does. He goes into the box anyway. He asks Sam how long before he can come out. Sam answers, “not too long, (he looks nervously at Dean then back at Jack), Jack, we got this.” (Narrators voice: Sam does not have this, he’s close to breaking point).

Everybody is smiling (or grimacing) and Jack says, “Okay” and lies down in the box which Dean quickly closes and locks. Sam closes his eyes and walks out. He can’t handle it.

Jack’s in the box and he’s calling for Sam and Dean and I can’t. Sam and Dean are outside the room and they can hear him and it’s just awful. And it’s the panic room all over again, with a lot less space. Fuck Dabb for this, seriously.

Sam and Dean are finally drinking from the bottle of scotch mentioned earlier. I get an empty glass and join them because really, did we really just do this? Sam asks Dean what they do now. “Just go on with Jack locked up in there forever?”

Dean: We have to

Sam: I don’t know if I can do that.

For those of you that think Sam’s went along with this plan without having the intention of finding some way to help Jack get out then I feel sorry for you, you are missing out on a great character. Sam will absolutely be spending hours upon hours not sleeping to do research to get Jack out of the box, while working on Dean to accept getting Jack out of the box (so he’s not seen to “betray” his brother again which Sam as I mentioned earlier will not do). And similarly with Dean, he’s broken and not functioning and shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions right now, but Sam doesn’t trust himself, so what can you do?

Dean doesn’t answer that, just appreciates the whisky Ketch left.

Sam: you know I never thought it would end like this, with Jack.

Dean: Sammy, we knew from the beginning it was a long shot with him.

Sam: Yeah, but long shots are kind of our thing

Back to the coffin and Jack’s still calling for them, “Guys, I don’t think I like this.”

You know what Jack, neither do I.

Hallucifer is with him, telling him he got played. Jack tells him they said he should trust them. Hallucifer tells him that trust is a two-way street, that if they had trusted him, they wouldn’t have locked him up.

Castiel is back, he updates that Jack had been manipulated into doing what he was doing by Heaven (well duh again!), That Duma had told Jack that by doing those things, it would please Sam and Dean.

Dean: Oh, so now it’s our fault

Castiel: I’m just saying it’s urgent that we find him and tell him

Sam: Cass, he’s here.

Castiel (eyes narrow): What?

Dean: He’s locked up, safe, he’s in the ma’lak box

Castiel: No!

Dean: And that’s where he’s going to stay

Sam and Castiel look at each other.

Hallucifer is still working away at Jack and it seems to be working. He tells Jack there is no coming back from killing their mother, so the box is it for the rest of time. Jack gets pissed, his eyes glow and we see the box shaking… but it doesn’t break.

Castiel: Even after hearing what I said, you want to keep Jack sealed in a living death.

Dean: He agreed to it, because deep down, I think he knows it’s best

Castiel: No, you’re doing what Duma… you are manipulating him!

Back to the coffin, Jack turns to Hallucifer who says, “Bring it.” Eyes glow, warding seals glow and Hallucifer laughs.

Sam: Cass…

Cass: What? You just want to forget about him.

Dean: I wish I could forget about him, after what he did, and you know what he can do, this is our only play…

Loud banging noise is heard by all three, the bunker is shaking, emergency lighting switches to red, alarms blare, they run to the room with the box, with Castiel in the lead (but how does he even know which room Dean had the box in? – even Sam didn’t know).

Anyway, as we look into the smoke, yellow eyes appear first then Jack moves forward.

Sam: Jack…

Wow, let the meltdown ensue in the tags!

Last cliffhanger of the series next week, loads of meta already, I’m on Team: Dean will try to kill Jack, Sam will try to stop him, Chuck will appear to sort it all out and Castiel will be sacrificed. My prediction for Season 15 is that Dean will be told to sort out Heaven and Sam to get a grip on hell. And I will be way wrong, but it’s fun guessing where all of this is going to end.

#spn spoilers #14.19 #jack in the box #spn critical #anti castiel #anti dabb #just in case

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spiftynifty · 6 years ago

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TeeVee Podcast’s Voltron s8 review

I’ve been waiting eagerly for TeeVee’s review of s8. If you recall, their s7 review was what gave us the man getting choked up about Shiro’s relationship.

The link to the podcast is here but if you’d prefer a sort of transcript, here are some of the highlights for me. I didn’t always catch who was speaking but I wrote down initials where I could. S=Shanon, A=Antony, M=Moises, C=Chip D=Dan. The panel is divided on their feelings on the season. 2 of them seem to have hated it, one liked it, one thought it was fine, and one feels mixed about it. Anyway here we go, some great quotes ahead.

Under the readmore cuz it’s long.

S: "After 7 seasons of a show that was going to be one of the animated series of the decade, they not only did not stick the landing, they fell on their butts, rolled off the mat, off the lines, into the judge's table and their leotard popped open"

"A lot of the plot was callbacks to things from seasons ago that we really probably didn't need to see again." "I wasn't entirely sure that they weren't gaslighting me."

Man Shannon is calling out some great points. She's calling out the dropped druid plot thread, and wondering what the point was of showing Lotor's past when he's dead, and nothing can change in his present and his redemption can't really happen.

A: "endings are hard. I was disappointed with this season [...] it was let down by poor plotting and that final battle made me throw my hands up in despair most of the time. But I have enormous sympathy for the EPs. Maintaining a longform episodic story is hard. And to pull off an ending that satisfies even MOST of the audience is harder yet. and let's not forget they were always upfront that vt always had 'editorial interference' from up top. Toys, the fact that it's aimed at children, corp resistance to some of the more modern social issues that they've tried to tackle. THAT SAID, we don't know what happened on this production, who had the final say, what they argued over. and I say this cuz a lot of the fandom drama over it assumes a LOT over how media and entertainment like this is made that simple ARE. NOT. TRUE. Some of the stuff I've read has been ABSURDLY offbase, like that there were different writers rather than just 1 the whole way through which ignores how TV is made. And if you think these writers just go off and write a script without talking to anyone first and then they come back with something that must be filmed without any changes, THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS. [..]we don't know who made these decisions. The studio isn't always the bad guy. Sometimes they rescue things that would otherwise have been a horrible mess. And unless you were IN THE ROOM, you don't know, and neither do any of us. So let's all bear that in mind. [...]You can't lay the blame OR credit on any one person. For any of this."

They're laughing & making so much fun of the final 3 episodes and how baffling they were.

"Don't even get me started on Voltron merging with Atlas [and the crew disappearing] that was a bad, bad idea."

"But that was the ONE time Shiro was back with the team!"

a couple dudes are relatively ok with the Allura death because we've never seen a WOC heroically sacrifice herself for the universe and usually it's the Shiro hero character D: They also point out that technically she wasn't fridged so.. yay?

Antony and Shannon vehemently disagree.

A: "My problem with that ending was more just that it was... not. good." he makes a comparison to RotJ where Vader still dies and it's his SON, who lives, who 'redeems' him. "This was none of those things. It felt like a terrible lesson. You can be so evil that you kill literally billions of people for 10k yrs but if you say sorry just before you're about to be executed it's alright, dw about it, we'll put the universe back to rights. NO, that's a terrible lesson!!"

S:"They had the LIONS. That's my problem. Throughout this series we've had stakes going up but there has always been a trading of ideas, what can we do, what can we figure out, up to the point where they wind up sacrificing the castle, but they go through steps before that 'is there anything else we can do’. And here, there's not even... she didn't even get to say goodbye to Coran! This is the one character, WOC, and she has sacrificed throughout this entire series. She lost her planet. She lost the last connection she had to her father in the AI. She kept LOSING things over and over to the point where she sacrifices her crown to help Shiro. and the thanks she gets is that she has to turn around and say nope I've got to away and fix all of this and apparently never see you all again. It really, REALLY REALLY bothered me. All of my friends who have CHILDREN who watch this show, universally the kids were upset and angry and tearful and HATED that outcome. This did not feel like a triumph. Having to lose Allura like that robbed any kind of triumph in the success of saving all the universes. And I think that's one of the reasons that this last part of the season sits so poorly with me. I feel like it should have ended in a triumphant way. even if it meant losing a couple of the team members or the lions. Of course that takes away the toy aspect which is why that's not an option. We already had several tragedy arcs in this series. Zarkon, Honerva, and Lotor had tragedy arcs. Why does Allura have to have one too? We've had enough."

Antony & Shanon KILLIN IT on this podcast y'all.

C: "This series relies so much on 'oh wait, there's a new upgrade', 'oh wait, there's this new thing'" A: "Well that was the entire final battle." C: "So there's this handwavy Allura has to sacrifice herself. The heavy lifting wasn't done to make this an earned moment."

S: "I do think, whether it was at the direction of DW or WEP (Vld IP), without those little epilogue cards, there is the potential opening that Allura might be able to return.[..]It was open to interpretation."

One guy likes the Shiro ending for the surprising progress aspect, even though he's not thrilled about how it was put together. also he isn't convinced the epilogue wasn't planned. He likes a lot of s8 but all the stuff he likes is tied to stuff that he really didn't like.

S:"The shiro card is the other reason that I think those things were shoved in. For me, that turns Shiro's entire character into a token when he wasn't before. When they introduced his sexuality, it was done BEAUTIFULLY. There was this conversation with his significant other a mature relationship that ran into its problems and therefore couldn't happen anymore. Adam could've been Adele, and nothing would have changed about that conversation. It was not the defining characteristic of Shiro. It was just something else about him."

S: "And then s8 happens and Shiro is divided from everybody on the team. There are so few interactions of any kind that aren't just barking orders. or making plans. Keith is the prime example. Their friendship had been a backbone of this series and suddenly they can't even stand more than feet 5ft from each other.

A: “It’s barely evident, yeah.”

M:”And the same with the rest of the main cast. And if they had set that up at the end of s7, that he’s going to go into the background a bit, it wouldn’t have felt as weird.

S: “And they didn’t! S7 was miraculous in the fact that even though he’s no longer in a lion, he’s still got a vital part to play in the series. And s8 erased that. It pretty much neutered him! And the kind of message is once you've revealed this character to be gay, we've gotta keep him out of the way. And if they had not put those end cards in, again the fact that he's a gay man is just the fact that he's a gay man and it's not any bigger or smaller aspect of his character, but they did not EARN him marrying random bridge crew member #3."

A: "and RETIRING! A man who LEFT adam because he felt he had to go and fight."

A: "He left the guy he loved before because of his devotion to"

S:"To fighting to making things right"

A:”To being a soldier and doing the right thing.”

C:”Isn’t the whole point then that he achieves that?”

M:”The fighting’s over and he can leave that behind and he can actually be happy.”

S: “He wouldn’t’ve. I don’t see it.”

M: “I violently disagree.”

C: “I think it was a nice endcap for his character."

Moises also likes this because it’s not a BYG scenario and he gets retired. Shannon is extremely exasperated by these takes.

S:”For me, it’s like Tangled. You go through Rapunzel and Flynn, going through their adventures, getting closer, getting to know each other, they save each other, things like that. And then she’s reunited with her parents and then we get and endcap that says ‘for political reasons her parents decided they needed to marry her off to the prince in the next county, sorry’. That would’ve had people RIOTING. Thats not how you do a story with characters that people care about. And to shove shiro off onto this random character that we--his name is never spoken!”

A:”No he had like 3 lines in the entire season.”

S:”He had 3 line sin the season, you don’t know his name unless you watched the subtitles, and in the audio narration for the visually impaired, they called him Adam in the endcap. They called him Adam! They fixed that now. It feels like a hugely clumsy attempt to grab the woke points for a character that didn’t need them.”

Moises then talks a little about Shiro and Keith and how he and Shannon both thought there was something there, and still do, but they can’t know what happened behind the scenes and to theorize on the intent of that relationship is “conspiracy theory land” and trying to decide what the writers were prevented from doing is like “reading tea leaves and chicken bones”. He references people extracting things from his own writing.

M: “As much as I wanted to see that relationship flower and flourish, the fact that it didn’t, look, it’s one of a million times that’s happened for me, with fiction, where things didnt turn out the way I wanted to see them.”

S:”I’m talking about 2 different things, as far as Shiro’s character, vs shipping issues. I feel Shiro’s character was done a disservice that if they were going to end him in a relationship with another man, they didn’t earn it by throwing that little endcap on.”

M:”Yeah, they could have brought back one less robeast or something.”

S:”The other thing is, I think there is enough out there as far as interviews with JDS and LM to show that at the very least I think they meant to leave it openended. Again if you take out that endcap, the last shot includes a shot of just Shiro and Keith, together, same screen, looking up as the lions go away, without saying anything further. I know I pie in the sky hoped that they were gonna kiss this season when we did our s7 recap and yes that was the shipper in me talking. I truly did not expect that they would be able to go that far. What I did not expect was for them to tear it down. And I feel like that’s what they did. Between the complete absence of interactions in s8, and then throwing that epilogue in there.”

Dan doesn’t understand how that could be because he sees no reason for them to do that. Shannon patiently explains about DW’s history with LGBT characters but Dan insists that the creators told the story the way they wanted to and he’s fine with Shiro getting a marriage even if it’s a character they don’t know.

Overall the panelists love the show still, and in most cases prefer to consider it in the realm of s1-6 with a weak final double season (7&8) or that the show ends after s7. They would all love to know how long the NDAs last, a making of perhaps, to know what the heck happened and what changed along the way. Big mood my dudes. Big mood.

#voltron #vld #teevee #transcript

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