#i think they were just happy to be in s1

[lordandladywhistledown]

Who's gonna tell the 2019 version of Nicola and Luke what 2024 is gonna bring...

[ruporas]

studies from the finale

[wilhelmsbee]

and there are some people, love, who are better unknown.

[meandmy100blanketsagainstheworld]

WHO do we all think the standalone episode this season is gonna be about. my bets (hopes) are on david or jo

[sameteeth]

something that i think is really interesting about billy's view of flint in s3 is that he thinks flint's death (if it's in a self-sacrificial way) will not absolve him of his sins in life but that it will make up for the hurt he's caused. or at least that billy wants it to. he pushes flint to take the maroon queen hostage so that flint will die, but flint will die for the crew. billy says in s3e6 "with all the shit that he's done, the things he's gotten away with, [flint dying to free them from the maroons] would have been fair. that would have been right" and that he wants to see "the moment the world finally catches up to [flint]" if/when he dies dueling teach. billy has a very simple idea of justice - he wants flint to die for the death and destruction he has caused, no matter how. that will make the world right, that the narrative will be balanced again.

but what billy doesn't know, and what makes me INSANE about this show is that the full quote from billy is is "I think part of the reason I've been able to stand by his [flint's] side is that I wanted to make sure I've got a good view of the moment the world finally catches up to him... and this story starts to make sense again." but to flint, what he has done is in service of his own justice. justice for the deaths of thomas and miranda and james mcgraw, for the theft of his home in london and again his home in nassau. but to billy, HIS narrative identifies flint as the villain. as the monster. for billy to get justice, flint must die. but it's SUCH a good line, because it also prompts the viewer to think - in OUR narrative, which follows flint and silver mostly, flint must succeed. we want him to beat teach and take the fleet back and overthrow the british empire. flint is shown to be a murderer but he is also shown to be deeply deeply human and we are set up to sympathize him. but it makes you consider what other voices we aren't hearing. who else has been hurt by flint's actions? what narratives have flint as the villain ? none of the characters in black sails are the heroes in every story - but to who are they the villains?

[tea-with--honey]

Schmigadoon enthusiasts, please reblog this post with whether you preferred s1 or s2 and why 🙏 I've seen really mixed reactions and would love to know why the opinions seem to differ so greatly

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

hang on are cougars like panthers

[animecreator3000]

Every time I rewatch some episode of Boueibu HK I wonder again how the staff even planned this season. Like. Almost nothing meaningful happens with the characters

TLDR the characters with the most developement in HK are the monsters

Kyoutarou is there as a complete contrast to Yumoto while keeping the battle speeches so his characterization doesn't make much sense. Nanao is mere fujoshi bait. Taiju and Taishi have random bits of dialogue that hint at possible arcs for s2 but not enough to tell us what it really is. Maasa has an unfinished arc in his episode, where supposedly he's putting fatty butter in his cookies to make everyone else overweight because he resents Ichiro not defending him when they were little, but then his friends tell him it's fine and then he can move on??? This would work with Ichiro's theme of not wanting to be immature or dense anymore, except they only ever used this theme as a gag (misunderstanding the meaning of whatever the others have said) or to straight up humilliate him (ep4) and continue treating him like a stupid baby. At the end of the season Maasa and him have made peace somehow and that's it. Ata gets in my opinion the closest thing to a complete arc, even if it's just staring angrily at Kyoutarou for ten episodes, then explaining his problem while fighting him and finally getting his apology and reconcilliation. At least it's something. And poor Ryouma is just there to be the butt of a few jokes about how he lets Nanao and Kyoutarou use him, be in a couple of cute shippy scenes, and also for Ata to completely dismiss him from the flashbacks to the point where if they had first met in high school nothing would've changed.

The relationships barely have developement either. Love had anime episodes and manga chapters dedicated to the different close friendships solving their conflicts and becoming closer. There were also many instances of seeing how close the Hakone brothers-defense club and Beppu brothers' relationships were, and even though they didn't have any conflict between themselves, they made them strong sides for the final fight. Yumoto didn't get a character arc but through the entire anime he was revealed to be strong, considerate, forgiving and mature, willing to kindly befriend the Beppu twins for his brother but not let them walk all over him; contrary to how he was presented in the first episodes, like a stereotypical magical girl protagonist. Anyway in HK there's no meaningful conflict between any of them besides Kyoutarou and Ata. Taishi and Ichiro argue constantly but don't show to genuinely like each other after all like IoRyuu or EnAtsu did. Ichiro and Maasa never make any progress to be together again, Maasa hints once at liking Taishi and nothing comes from it, and Nanao and Taiju have the most artificial friendship in the cast that I just do not understand. They just ran an ice cream shop once with again unexplained success and make sassy remarks at each other ever since. And I guess Karurusu and Furanui had a bit of developement thanks to Kyou and Ata in ep12. Idk about the aliens, this time it's like they didn't do it completely well but also not as bad as with the rest of the cast. Maybe bc they didn't appear as much as the humans in most of the episodes

I'm realizing now that a few of these complaints are related to Nanao acting weird

Idk where to put this but I'd like to point out Kinshiro's principles of halting the fight with the Battle Lovers as soon as he finds out that the s1 conflict was set up for a reality show and actively defending them from an attack because they're Binan students, despite still not having received his apology from Atsushi. Ata might've done the same if the HK finale's events had gone in the same order (travelling to Honyalaland to fight Wao, then Kyoutarou apologizing to Ata), but he doesn't feel as a character as deep as Kinshiro in that sense bc they didn't really show him to be in other ways.

Love feels more like an actual group of people while HK feels like they were filling in friendship group roles or something

[cloneslugs]

rewatching vbros with me and emil's obsessive & insane titled "autism doc" that we fill out & write out at length after each episode . i am calmed by the fact that i like the early seasons (so far. we are only finishing up s2 rn) so so so much, and ik i like so many eps in s3, i am curious to see if i still hate the narrative tank in s4 & to see how much i dont like the narrative direction of the NY seasons . but i will always have the first few seasons to remember so fondly

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

@allvalley100

Prompt: Superstition

Pairing: YasMoon

This is a 3-parter--300 words total! @karatecaulfield writing Best Lesbians again <3

Anyways I wrote a YasMoon thing based on Love Like Woe by The Ready Set, because that's the first thing that popped into my head when I heard the word "Superstition" for some reason XD Damn, I haven't listened to this song in years, but it's still catchy as hell. It does sum up the S1 Moon-Yasmine fling that exists only in my overly complicated headcanons aksajdhsuoefgdu from Moon's POV surprisingly well. I imagine Yas was incredibly wild behind closed doors but super cold and controlled at school, and it drove Moon absolutely nuts because she was never sure which version she'd get. Anyways!

***

The Range Rover’s parked in her driveway again.

“Moon!”

She’s hopeless. Yasmine calls her name and she can’t fucking think.

Windswept blonde hair glows like citrine, catching sunset light. “Get in.”

Her beam’s a supernova. Worlds away from the tight frown at school, deepening as she swatted Moon’s hand away under the table.

Perhaps it’s a sixth sense, knowing she’s too ensnared in Yasmine’s aura. Perhaps it’s her superstitions overtaking her, assigning meaning to a fling with some vapid blonde who can’t make up her mind.

Moon still claims the passenger’s seat. She’s never known how to tell Yasmine no.

*

They’re going 90 in a 65.

Yasmine’s revving her engine, aggressively swerving around anyone too slow for her. Moon has to laugh as she shouts obscenities.

Yasmine whips through life like a torrential storm, hard to keep up with at the best of times. Moon’s learned the only way to handle it is to hold on tight and enjoy the ride.

It’s far from sensible, speeding down the highway at 6:00 on a school night. Moon wouldn’t have it any other way.

Even as city lights flick on in the dusk, the sun’s always shining when she’s with Yas.

*

Cool midnight air, a star-dotted sky, waves crashing, cicadas humming…

It’s all straight out of a romance movie, Moon thinks.

She and Yas sit inches from the edge of a seaside bluff, watching the water below. Moon feels soft hair and a warm chin rest on her shoulder.

She inhales sharply. Her arm circles Yasmine’s waist, but she wants to scream.

Why is this a secret? Why can’t we flaunt each other like those happy couples at school?

Moon exhales, letting the frustration wash away.

Perhaps if she’s patient, there’ll come a day when Yasmine tells everyone she’s Moon’s.

***

'Cause I've got some intuition, or maybe I'm superstitious But I think you're a pretty sweet pill that I'm swallowing down To counter this addiction You've got me on a mission Tell me, darling, can I get a break somehow? Could I say no?

She's got a love like woe Girl's got a love like woe I kinda feel like it don't make sense 'Cause you're bringing me in and now you're kicking me out again Love so strong Then you moved on Now I'm hung up in suspense Because you're bringing me in and then you're kicking me out again

[m4rs-ex3]

do not be mistaken i am not a hardcore mileven shipper i am a HYPOTHETICAL hardcore mileven shipper in the HYPOTHETICAL that they were not mishandled at every turn🤗

[sebin]

singles inferno had me sobbing last night.

[palukoo]

okay I am interrupting my gonch posting to say. wtf dead to me that was the worst possible ending like. I quite literally could not have come up with an ending that bad what the hell

[three--rings]

One thing I haven't seen a lot of talk about in the fandom so far is about the financials of this season.

It took us two whole months to get a confirmation of renewal from Max, and I talked at the time that I think there was probably a lot of heated negotiations going on at the time with contracts and that's why it took as long as it did.

I think we see a huge number of indications of the compromises that were made in order for S2 to be made. One obvious one that has been talked about is being making in in NZ instead of LA, to save $.

But there's also the eight episodes instead of ten. And then the cast aspect. One downside of moving overseas was having to fly out and house the cast, not just pay day wages.

We knew immediately about Guz Khan not coming back, losing Ivan as a character. At the time I was sad but I thought it had the air of a pretty harshly practical call. If you went through the main recurring cast and said okay which character will affect the fewest things, has the least character interactions of anyone? It would be Ivan. (With the only competition being The Swede IMO, but he's Stede's crew and therefore a little more central.)

And then this season started and we got first The Swede sidelined and taken out of major scenes. And then I noticed that different members of the crew were simply absent for long stretches, like Wee John isn't around for ep 5 at all. And then Buttons takes flight.

Lucius and Pete aren't at the party for most of it. Fang isn't in the torture scene. Roach and Fang aren't in the bar. Etc. SCHEDULING IS HAPPENING.

The new characters are almost entirely played by NZ local actors, which is great, but also...cheaper.

In other words there are big signs that they did everything possible to give us a giant cast of almost everyone we love from S1, and cool new characters, in the most economical way possible.

And I'm grateful for it. I'm grateful we got S2, and it looks great, and it's well written, I'm having a blast, and we get to spend more time with this awesome cast.

But I also kinda think it needs to be said that the cost-cutting shows. That it shouldn't have been only 8 episodes, the pacing is off. That we miss every time someone from the ensemble isn't on screen.

That despite what they've put on screen looking very good, there's far less costuming budget, there's less elaborate sets, and it's a little disappointing. And it's clear it's not a lack of will or talent or vision but blatantly lack of money.

Look, streaming networks want brilliant shows that people love (that will get them to subscribe) but they very don't want to pay anyone to make them. That's like, the whole moment we're having right now.

Max puts out promos about how great it is to not have unions messing shit up in NZ. Well I have friends who are union costumers in LA and guess what union costumers did amazing last season. This season, well, I guess Stede got three whole shirts, so that's cool.

So I dunno. It's just stuff I think about. I'm not trying to be negative about the show in any way. I'm extremely happy with this season; I love it more than well, possibly any show I've ever been in fandom for.

But I see you, Max. You're cheap. You weren't that cheap when you were called HBO.

[havoc-7]

I wanna know how Hunter became the leader of the Bad Batch. Like, not saying any of the others would have been better, I just mean, there were only four options: a sassy little iPad kid, a trigger-happy man bear, the problematic guy with the toothpicks, and Space Rambo. We can’t assume it was because he was the least chaotic, because nothing could be farther from the truth. In TCW season 7, Anakin asks him who they report to and he’s just like “idk man, if I knew how to fill out a report maybe I’d try and find out” and when Anakin gets snatched up by that lizard dragon thingy, the first thing his brothers do is get set up so that Hunter can windsurf behind it like a maniac because apparently that’s something he tends to do. In TBB S1 when Omega starts that food fight, Hunter tries to de-escalate the situation for approximately 3 seconds before throwing hands. All of his interactions with any sort of leadership involve a minimum of 70% sarcasm. The man has a blaster to shoot droids and chooses to stab them with a knife instead. He left cadet training and the first thing he did was get a massive face tattoo of a skull.

Like, I’m trying to imagine how that conversation went and all I can think of is, “Sir, it’s time to promote one of the members of Clone Force 99 to sergeant.” “…*long sigh*”

[princessbrunette]

coked up, angry s1!rafe has a lack of patience and an even bigger lack of playfulness.

when you’re giggling, pressing yourself up to him — tits basically falling out your shirt as you bat your eyelashes and he drawls out a sneered “cut it out.” he means it, because he really doesn’t have the patience. he won’t ask, he’ll grab your throat without any pre-negotiation and hiss “i said cut it out.” between grit teeth when you don’t. doesn’t care if you cry about it either, should’ve listened.

you can’t hang out with him in your bedroom either and try to act all cute, the boy happening to walk in on you whilst you’re reorganising your closet — music blasting, dim lighting, wearing flimsy little pyjama shorts that he’s already got his eyes on when he steps in. you’re dancing around, giddy and silly — just happy in your own presence let alone his and he never quite knows what to do with himself as it is, standing in the centre of your room with his hands tucked in his pockets trying to converse.

the stance makes you giggle more, never having known a man to be so confidently awkward in his ways and you approach, touching all up on him, still bopping away to your girly music, dropping down to your knees and sliding your hands up his thighs as he glares down at you.

“seriously? s’like fuckin’… tease shit.” he jeers, but he puts his hands behind his back, clasped there and widens his stance when you stand back up and bend over to jokingly twerk on him, rubbing your ass all along his crotch. he’s staring intensely at your ass, not laughing with you — and the second you pull away he’s grasping you by the back of the shorts and dragging you, pushing you on your front on the bed.

you whine, scrambling and he simply stills you with a heavy hand on your back, the other fumbling at his belt buckle.

“rafey! you’re no fun.” you mewl, still wriggling so that he tightens his grip, leaning into your ear for a moment to get the message across, demeanour all mean.

“you think i’m here for fun? be serious, kid.”

you let out a devastated groan but you don’t really mean it, kicking up a fuss for the sake of you losing your momentum in organising your closet — when really you could feel the glossy wet print soaking through your shorts as you speak. he holds you down harder on the bed, overpowering you effortlessly.

“quit fighting it. jesus. knew what you were fuckin’ doin’ alright so don’t play with me. not today.”