#idk man it would just be nice if we saw some more representation of her being considered the soldier she is | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

1d1195 · 4 months ago

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WHY IS HE LIKE THAT OMG THAT IS TORTURE😭 A girl can only have so much patience! Yes! That line about the Faks was everything! So subtle yet so perfect! Truly did not expect them to go to the hospital like that but it’s so them lol

Men are whiny! But yeah essentially i know what you mean lol

I'm SO glad meeting up with your high school friend went well! And I hope the one you met up with Monday night went just as well!! Of course I will be sending the best vibes for you bestie when you're with your family because we all know family stuff is so 😭 BUT YES GET THOSE DEALS!! And I think Target has a 20% thing for teachers and students for this week! Is there any book(s) you're excited to read?

We saw the movie “I USed To Be Funny” and “Sam” was the main character so she wasn’t 100% perfect BUT it really makes sense for the plot! It’s not an easy watch since it deals with sensitive topics but it’s not horrible lol Overall she wasn’t a horrible character lol I can only imagine having such shit representation of Sam/Samantha’s! It must be so tiring lol I cannot lie I have disliked Sam/Samanth’s in shows before and irl lol Like I love trash reality tv so Jersey Shore is one of my faves and there's a girl named Sam on there and ngl Im a hater lol

Anyways!! MOST PART TWO OMG SAM 😭 I was so hoping( me being delusional) that they would make up before they started college but alas I was wrong lol But once again I LOVE it for the plot! Idk where to start bestie because it was so good! I loved how long it was and it truly did NOT feel like it was too much! Loved getting to know some backstory for both of their characters! Knowing how both of them were so SAD and hollow without each other was just so hard to read only because it’s just so heartbreaking to see two soul mates being apart 😭 Especially that part with the two little kids like you were breaking ME! But them both saying that they are TAKEN?!😭 hello?!? Now that is so heartbreaking but kinda heartwarming at the same since they truly own each other's hearts😭 also loved that the MC has Addie! She truly needed her! And Carter is so sweet omg! But now…. dare I say I was so annoyed that yet again Lauren was even remotely near harry! And my man is seriously going out his way to see her?! Like i know he’s reaching because he wants to somewhat be close with the MC BUT IF HE ONLY KNEW THAT LAUREN PLANTED THAT EVIL SEED😭I truly wonder if he ever will find out lol BUT OMG I'M EXCITED TO SEE WHY IS HE BACK IN TOWN??? HOW DOES SHE FEEL SEEING HARRY AGAIN??! Many questions lol but you did so amazing Sam! It was so perfect!

Sending all the love Sam! Hope the week is going so smoothly! Love you lots!-💜

Okay side note i forgot to mention that piece jump… bestie your mind is just amazing! Truly like that alone could is already so GOOD literal chills!!

----

I saw a post that said having a bf is like having a dumb son 💀 I'm just going to leave that there to resonate with everyone 😭 WE FINISHED THE SEASON THOUGH 🎉 I'm def not a S3 fan but I get what they were trying to do. It was a cool season but I feel like overall the pieces didn't perfectly fit together like in a overarching storyline. My bf and I discussed how many seasons we think it's going to be. I'm very much a proponent of don't ruin a show by doing more just because so I'm hoping that tbh it should only be 4. I think that would wrap up things nicely. But he thinks it'll be 5 (which I COULD let slide) or even 6 (which honestly I'll riot). I can't watch Carmy be a dumbass for three more seasons. So intriguing either way though. Very curious to see where it leads!

I had a great time with my friend on Monday as well! Still lowkey dreading the family stuff but trying to be positive. Gotta pack for a long weekend to stay with them. i feel like i bring my whole wardrobe when I visit in the summer because the weather is so unpredictable and I sweat through 20 outfits a day.

YES Target Circle is there for teachers between now and Aug 24. So I have to fill up my cart strategically and figure out what I need. Which means I need to go to my classroom and set stuff up so I can see what I need.

BOOKS. Lord, like all 20 I keep buying. I just got Kate Quinn's new novel. I'm fairly certain I've mentioned her 1000 times on here so I'm VERY excited to dive in on that. I also have The Lioness of Boston and tbh no idea what it's about but I'm a big fan of Boston. I was actually just thinking I have to update the book rec list I have because I thought of like three more books that I LOVED so much but I've let others borrowed them and I haven't gotten them back to look at on my shelf so I FORGOT completely. But I'm also looking to read this never ending pile I've accumulated. Even though I'm doing much better than I was at the beginning of the month I can't really get my brain to read still. But I'm supplementing by binging TV and writing hehehe

Hmm! I will probs give it a watch when it comes out on a streaming service hehehe. In def piqued my interest! Sammi on the Jersey Shore was throughout the first couple years of when I was in high school so it wasn't enjoyable 😭

Sad and hollow is a great way to describe them! I might steal that! Very glad it didn't feel too long! Like it wasn't dragging. I feel like sometimes i just add stuff that pops into my head and I never know if it's really going to enhance what I'm getting at (my bf reminded me of that for chapters in the personal writing workshop he's been giving me that there is no such thing as filler chapters 🙄) But anyway! You know I love to write about little kids and thought it would be a fun little analogy hehehe She did need Addie! And Carter! I almost didn't give her anybody and was just going to make her alone AF. But I changed my mind, I wanted her to have somebody. Harry's got a whole team with their friend group so she needed someone! Everyone who's been reading HATES Lauren so you're not alone. I just like to be dramatic. I hope he figures out she's a bitch 😅👀 Very glad you liked the Jump part too! I was a bit nervous about it being extra or whatever so I'm glad it was nice 😅😅

I think part 3 will answer all your questions! 💕😉 thank you so much for reading as always 💕 Hope you have a great rest of your week and a fun weekend planned!

xoxo

#💜#most

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hawkcoyote · 2 years ago

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NEVER HAVE I EVER S3 SPOILERS AHEAD

So I just finished watching season 3 of NHIE. And I can confidently say this is the worst season of the show. For many reasons.

For starters the season felt all over the place with no real direction. The pacing was awful. Felt like the show cut out on some of its best elements starting with Devi’s family and her family’s dynamics. Something that was central to the first 2 season fell to the background in season 3. It is completely bizarre decision because Poorna is the best actress and is was playing on of the most compelling characters on the show. Yet, she was cut out of the season like this. Also hated what they did to Kamala’s storyline. She literally couldn’t get married because she didn’t feel ready and wanted to focus on other areas of her life and yet the entire storyline centered around her boyfriend. We also barely saw any real backlash from her family.

Next up we have the whole Aneesa and Fabiola storyline. What was even the point of that subplot. Maybe I just didn’t get it but it really served zero purpose to either characters or the plot. And the worst part is is how the dropped Aneesa like a hot potato once they decided they didn’t want to do it anymore.

I should also just take the time to highlight the weird fatphobia that keeps happening in the show. It was just Eric at first and now Mrs. Paloma? Idk her name, she was a teacher.

Even the sessions with Dr. Ryan weren’t even good or as productive as they used to be in season 1 or 2. Mr. Shapiro was MIA. Also I am a bit pissed that we never found out how anyone did on the AP exam. It was a running joke for 3 seasons that Facing History was not from the AP curriculum with the characters complaining about how it didn’t prepare them for the AP exam. It felt hollow and empty that a class that we spent so much time in, just faded into the background like it didn’t matter.

It’s finally time to talk about the husband(s). Points if you get that reference.

Let’s start with our newbie, Des. Des was fine. I honestly didn’t find him that special or compelling. I just liked that at least Devi felt good about herself while she was with him. I was glad she was happy. I was glad for the representation of it all. That Mindy finally broke down and allowed her self-insert to date an Indian man. I know that is a big deal for her. But he was kinda lame as a character, but it is not his fault. He was essential a plot device. They actively refused to deepen his character even when there were several perfect places to drop any nugget. It was the same with his mother. There were scenes where I was watching and I was screaming “Say something!! Say anything about yourselves!!!” And then they don’t. It was so annoying. There were opportunities to give these characters more life. But instead they did this. Hated it.

Next we are gonna talk about Paxton. So despite Daxton and Season 3 flopping this was actually a great season for Paxton. Like his character really seems to have grown and matured the most out of everybody on this show and it isn’t even a competition. What I don’t understand is how can we have that, but we don’t have Daxton? Also weird that their shared emotional growth they got from the relationship didn’t mean shit to Devi at the end. Someone needs to help me understand why despite Paxton constantly affirming her, the show treats it like it means nothing. It’s all trash, because he isn’t as smart as Devi? That they have different interests? I feel crazy. Like she got the hot boyfriend and the hot boyfriend was great! And Devi could just never see that. Is this part of the the show’s overall arc or something (and I will expand on this point in the Ben section). I mean a simple acknowledgement would be nice. But nope. Never not once. Finally let’s talk about Ben. Ben is the worst character on the show. He is the worst character on the show. He is the worst character on the show. My goodness, Ben is shitty (pun very much intended). Listen, I will admit that season 2 Ben wasn’t that bad, but WOW season 3 Ben is just awful. They doubled down on his worst character traits. We seriously dedicated ANOTHER episode to that clown and it wasn’t even about addressing his smug condescending attitudes towards people. Several people bring this up to him multiple times and he hasn’t changed one bit. We wasted yet another episode pointlessly following Ben around (when the season had serious pacing issues we could have used that episode instead of giving it to that waste man), and what he got out of that was he needs to study less. WHO THE FUCK CARES!!!!! That was such a deeply unserious episode. Again I have to wonder is this part of some overarching plot? Because what the hell is this?

Let me expand on why I wonder if this is a part of some overarching for Devi and the love triangle. Throughout the season Ben would highkey neg Devi. PLEASE tell me I wasn’t the only one that caught that shit. PLEASE tell me y’all saw that shit. Like that boy made a note about Devi wanting to kiss some guy, showed up, and started ragging on her. And you could tell he did it because if he made her feel bad enough she will want him. When she would still get/chase after guys after his failed at negging he would look all sad and hurt. And he would do this throughout the season. I mean the basis of the final scene, was him saying he would have sex with her if she is on her deathbed a still a virgin. They have the audacity to sprinkle in some moments of semi-human decent behavior, and sometimes Devi would actually buy into that crap. Which had me thinking, stay with me, what if Devi’s attraction to Ben is related to her low self worth? Because why else would you like a person that spends most of their time cutting you down? Please explain it to the class. It’s either that or Mindy and Lang are truly pathetic people if they think Ben is a viable love interest. I do question Mindy because her taste is very questionable. She definitely likes guys like this. Anyway back to my theory, since season 1 ended I believed that Devi’s interest in Ben has always come from a place of insecurity. She didn’t think she “deserved” a guy like Paxton. That he was too “out of her league” or whatever. And that is ultimately what killed their relationship. But Ben gets second life after negging her for half the season? Why? All of this and I didn’t even talk about Ben and Aneesa. Ben and Paxton. Ben and Fabiola? Jesus. Again Ben has an ugly personality. I mean Ben antis stand up because we won today. We might have lost the battle but we have won the war.

Anyway rant over. I would also like to give a big shoutout to Trent and Eleanor. I personally wasn’t as excited about it as some of the fandom was going into season 3. But they got me. They were actually kinda cute, and not because they helped give me Daxton scenes after the breakup. Same with the 5 seconds of Fabiola and Daxton interaction. It was a funny scene.

#daxton #nhie spoilers #nhie s3 #devi x paxton

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cosmicallyavg · 3 years ago

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OKAY OKAY some thoughts about ncuti gatwa's casting as the fourteenth doctor:

first of all... im super sad to see thirteen go 😭

but overall im hyped for the new era!!!!

however (NOT NEGATIVITY TOWARDS NCUTI JUST MY OWN ISSUES OKAY BEAR WITH ME IT GETS HAPPIER IN A SEC) im not going to lie there is a little teeny tiny piece of me that is sad/disappointed/etc about ncuti being cast as fourteen? because as an afab person it was really nice to see myself as the doctor, and would have loved to continue that trend ? plus with the way thirteen is written, i can really see myself in her and project a lot of stuff onto her about my own gender and stuff that i maybe wouldn't with other doctors??

and i have said many times that i didnt want another man so soon because the nmd crowd would feel like their opinions were actually heard and taken into account with the casting

(plus i just Love women and Not men and have a big crush on jodie whittaker so i would have loved to have a crush on the next doctor as well... like having a female doctor has honestly been a wild ride for the wlw fans. which tbh maybe this will awaken something in me and i Will develop some sort of crush but who knows)

BUT

i fully understand that everyone deserves to feel represented, meaning it isn't always going to be my turn, and that there are still so many opportunities for representation outside of the main character. and heck, maybe i will see a piece of myself in this new doctor, who knows!!! the writers always do such a good job making everyone feel seen even in the smallest side characters so im looking forward to seeing what this new era has in store

PLUS!!!!!!!!!!! having a person of color play the role is super monumental!! i did make a post a while back about how i think the next doctor should be a black woman - after so many influential black women have been in this era, and past ones (grace, rosa parks, ruth, mary seacole, martha, the original timeless child was a black girl, etc) that it would be a cool little callback to all of them if the next doctor was a black woman, since allegedly time lords can influence what they look lile when they regenerate. so i honestly think casting a black person makes sense if you wanted an in-universe reason for it, even if it isn't a woman. maybe we could still have a ruth reference the first time fourteen sees himself or something kinda like in deep breath when twelve saw caecilius in the mirror, or in once, upon time when thirteen looked at her reflection and saw ruth.. idk i think it would be cool

im rambling BUT

im still very excited to see what ncuti has to bring to the show!!! i keep seeing videos of his acting in sex education and i really think his doctor has the potential to be the fun doctor that thirteen strived to be (but failed. rip) so i hope they give him a cool outfit that's really colorful and give him some fun companions to make all of that work out

i also have heard some speculation/theories that they might do something Gender with him... which would be super cool too!!! if fourteen presents masculine but chooses to identify as something else?? maybe dress a lot more androgynous or maybe even choose to dress more feminine?? again, who knows!!! im officially rooting for a canoncially they/them doctor tbh. or if this doctor chooses to continue using she/her wouldn't that just be so gender of them

regardless of pronouns tho im excited either way AAAAAAAAAAAA it's always so fun when they announce a new doctor or anything big like this because the fandom just goes crazy

im so happy to be a part of this community and to share these experiences with all of you wonderful people

and a big huge welcome to ncuti into our community as well 💙💙

#this post started out sounding negative but its not i promise #aaaaa #doctor who #fourteenth doctor #fourteen #ncuti gatwa

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imonthinice · 3 years ago

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The Criminal Psychology Majors, Jason Todd x Fem!Reader Part 7/?

Word Count: 3.5k

Author’s Note: Y/N - Your Name, A/N Any Name (your best friend’s name), (Name) - your ex’s name !genderneutral (Don’t use a DC character! Y/N hasn’t dated any other DC character!) :)

3.5k words, my god. And they’ve still only known each other for 4 days and we’re on part 7. I do not know how to finish this.

Lol, Enjoy!

Warnings: Swearing, Heated moments, There is French in this one, No beta bitch we die like Jason Todd

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (Part 9) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 20)

Falling asleep in Jason’s arms after that escapade the two of them pulled the night before was something magical to say the least. Of course, they only got like 5 hours of sleep before they had to wake up and get out, at risk of Y/N being caught in the building, although the thrill of it excited the both of them deeply, but that’s obvious. They liked breaking the rules already.

Riding back home seemed a lot less like a journey to her this time, she just wanted to spend more time with Jason, but he had work and she didn’t want to hang out at Wayne Enterprises. She’d probably go to the library today, she didn’t know exactly what she’d do today, but she always thought that was the most exciting thing ever. “I don’t know what I’m even going to do tomorrow,” one of her friends asked when she moved to Gotham, ‘How exciting!’ she answered.

That friend said the next day she ran through the streets of Metropolis with her arms outstretched like a kid, and she did it in Y/N’s honor. “I told you!” she said, “How exciting that sometimes you never know what you’re going to do tomorrow!”.

These thoughts swirled in her head as Jason drove her back home when, like clockwork, like it was out of a movie, he said,

“I have no idea what I’m even going to do today.”

She laughed, “I always say ‘How exciting!’ when someone says that to me.”

“Really?”

“One of my friends back home, when I gave her that advice, she then spent the next day running around the city with her arms outstretched in my honor, it was apparently one of the more fun things she’s ever done, so” she paused, “I really mean it. how exciting! The possibilities are endless, are they not?”

“Well, not really, I have work to do,” he frowned.

“So own it. Make the office your bitch. Take charge, take lead.”

“Why not?” he said in agreement.

“Why the fuck not.”

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

Jason walked her to her door, “Won’t you be late?” she asked,

“Dad knows where I am, I don’t think I’ll have my ass handed to me.”

“You never know,” she laughed.

He laughed too and slightly pecked her lips. He wanted more, he was hungry for more out of that kiss, but work and life gets in the way of their relationship, and he really whined when he had to break away, but she laughed at it.

“Slow your roll Tiger, one day,” she mused.

“You say that like you don’t want more.”

“This isn’t about me,” she retorted, “So, shut up, respectfully.”

He laughed and kissed the back of her hand, “You have a thing for doing that, huh?” she joked.

“I literally don’t know how to answer that, I think I’m losing my touch with flirting,” he joked back.

“Okay, okay, you need to get going now.”

“Fine! You want to get rid of me so badly, I get it,” he joked and walked back to the car and she waved him off. She hated that time he left, a lot. She knew it was healthy to take a day’s break if they’ve been on 3 back-to-back dates, but that didn’t mean she liked it.

She opened her door and walked in, thinking A/N was asleep so she wouldn’t be barraged for her hair being a mess, but, boy oh boy, was this girl waiting for her to get home.

“What happened? Why’s your hair a mess? Oh my god, did you have sex?” she asked.

“No, but we kissed, will you take that as information while I shower or do you want all the details now?”

“You can shower, you can shower. I’m not that needy.”

“Yes you are,” Y/N joked and went to go shower.

And like she always did, she opened her phone and looked at the news before answering her friends,

Millionaire’s Son, Jason Todd's Girlfriend’s Name Revealed!

She laughed, cause it wasn’t her name. She didn’t think he was seeing anyone else, and they used her picture, so she knew they just fucked it. She forwarded the article to Jason with the caption ‘ Fuckin’ idiots’ .

She then answered Artemis, who asked Did you two kiss? Dick’s up my ass about it ‘cause he knows we’re friends.

I want to take that out of context so badly. She joked with Artemis.

I knew this man had a terrible name that would come to haunt me, but did ‘ya kiss?

Yeah we did. Get Dick out of your ass, though, that’s weird, you have a boyfriend and he has a girlfriend.

Shut up, you’re not funny.

I’m pretty funny.

You are but I’m not going to admit that, girl.

And one of her old friends had texted her, it was someone who Y/N had seen off and on the past few years, they were polite, but she didn’t exactly want to speak to her ex.

Hey.

(Name)? What do you want?

Saw you in the news with the rich boy, guess we’re over?

We have been over for like 5 months, my guy.

Bitch.

Okay!

People from her hometown were noticing her in the articles and recognizing her. Some would think this is the coolest thing that someone they loved met a nice boy, the money a bonus, some would give her the reaction her ex did, but she knew she was days, hours, maybe minutes away from her parents finding out about her love affair with Jason.

She shuddered at the thought, she loved her parents, a lot, but something told her that maybe they wouldn’t did Jason to be like she found him. She also knew she could be overthinking it entirely and they’d like the Criminal Psych Major that she knew all-too-well.

But overthinking was fun, apparently. And she couldn’t stop thinking the worst of so much.

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

When she got changed and just threw on whatever the fuck she saw, she went out to go talk to A/N.

“Hey, nerd. I’m done,” Y/N said.

“Nerd? You’re the one dating the bookworm and you’re in criminal psychology,” she joked.

“Ha, ha. So, how are things with your lover? Have you secured him yet or are you just doing your own thing still?”

“Still just doing our own thing, don’t really have the time to date while getting my degree and working.”

“I mean, if it works for you I can’t throw judgment.”

“What about Jason? How’re things with you two?”

“You ever seen the Wayne Enterprises Ballroom before?”

“In pictures, why- Don’t tell me he took you there you lucky bitch?!”

“Then I just wont tell you,” she laughed.

“The Ballroom? Oh my god, that’s crazy, he's really pulling out all the stops to make you smile, huh?”

“I would do the same if I had more to offer, but I have barely anything since I bought that place in the dance competition across the country,” she said.

Y/N had bought a place in this competition before she met Jason, and she was heading to it on Saturday, in two days, and she actually had practiced the routine during downtime between her and Jason. She hadn’t exactly told Jason about this, and Jason had asked why she looked strained and like her muscles hurt, but that just never seemed like something you share with your casual partner, to her. She never seemed like her casual competitions were worth anything. A/N had begged to differ since Y/N had met her.

A/N said that Y/N had talent, that she could go somewhere, Y/N saw it as an extra circular that didn’t affect her much. She wasn’t the type of brag, and all her trophies were back home with her parents, anyway.

“Have you told him about your,” insert A/N’s heavy sarcasm, “’Casual’ competitions, yet?”

Idk what the hell happened with that line ya love to see it

“I’ll send him a quick text about it, I guess,” she sighed and sent just a quick, Hey, can’t have a date on Saturday-Sunday, forgot to tell you but I’m going to Cali for a quick dance competition, lol. My bad, shoulda said something.

“Why are you like this, be proud of your accomplishments, dammnit!”

“It’s a casual competition!”

“And you’re talented! I’m this close to just showing him videos of you going at it,” she said, exasperated.

“He already knows, we danced in the Ballroom.”

“Oh my lord,” she laughed, “You’re an enigma, if I had your amount of trophies I wouldn’t be hiding it.”

“Im’ not hiding it! It just kind of never came up.”

And he texted back, Oh damn, are you at least going to kill it? You better, I want to show the live broadcast to my family and brag.

She laughed, “See!”, she exclaimed, showing A/N the texts, “He doesn’t care like you do, nerd.”

A/N laughed, “Sure he doesn’t. Do you want to go to lunch, by the way? I’m bored off of my ass.”

“Sure, why the fuck not.”

“Go get dressed then, and I’ll do the same.”

“Okay okay, meet up in 10?”

“Yes ma’am.”

And off they went.

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

Y/N texted back Jason for a quick minute before getting dressed, Of course I’m going to kill it, my notes aren’t a representation of my dancing skills.

Well, I hope you win something. And text me. But mainly win something.

Of course I’ll text you, Jay. It gets boring at competitions.

You should go to a Wayne Gala then, god damn, those fuckin bastards are the most boring events this side of America.

Well maybe you’ll invite me one day.

I’ll probably have to if you show up on National TV. The press will finally know your name.

I hope I’m not on National TV then. Fuck the press.

Fuck the press indeed.

Since Y/N didn’t feel the need or want to dress up, she didn’t. Quick shirt and jeans and she was out the door. Sometimes she would dress up for lunch dates with her friends, just because she was bored as fuck and dressing up was fun, but she just didn’t want to do it today. Combat boots, jeans and a shirt were enough most days. You don’t have to be a model just because the press knows your face, she thought, you don’t.

“Who’s driving?” A/N asked.

“I can if you want. I don’t mind,” Y/N said as they walked to the beat up car they loved so much. It was nothing compared to the Porsche she had been in the night before, but it was still running, and you don’t fix something that ain’t broke.

“Maybe your boyfriend will buy you a new car,” A/N joked.

“If anything, he’d buy me a new computer, since mine is getting mailed to me and you’re going to love hearing the sounds that bitch makes,” she retorted.

“Is it bad?”

“Terrible. My sister called it a screaming electronic goat once,” she laughed, “I hate that fucking thing. But if it ain’t broke-”

“Don’t fix it, I know.”

“Exactly.”

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

For some reason, they decided in the car to go to McDonald's, because hey, it’s not like Y/N is on a dance diet or anything. She wasn’t, because she didn’t want to starve herself for the sake of winning a competition. That was even her thought process as she was younger and more vulnerable to her teachers, she always told them she’d never do that. Years later, she still stuck to that mindset.

They got out of the car and like fucking clockwork, the press was in her face.

“You! The girl with no name, Jason Todd’s girlfriend!”

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” she whispered under her breath, “How do they always find me!”

“Tell us about yourself! Are you serious with Jason? How do you feel about his family? How-”

But then she had an idea,

“Quoi? Je parle pas l’Anglais? Qu’est-ce-que vous voulez?” she said, using her bilingual skills to her advantage.

“What? No I mean-”

“Pas de l’Anglais! Désolé mes amis!” and she ran off into the McDonald's with A/N.

“Did you just speak French to get them off your ass, you genius?”

“Spoke very broken French because I wasn’t thinking, but yeah, I did that.”

“I forget you’re multi-talented sometimes, you have a lot hidden under your belt and I try to treat you like a normal person but you’re far from it.”

“I appreciate you for trying, but I think with my new love affair, you aren’t going to get far with those attempts anymore, sorry,” she joked.

Jason texted her, Did you just speak French to avoid the press?

How do you know about that?

We were watching the news during a meeting and they said that you spoke French.

You got to do what you got to do to get by.

That is literally the most genius thing I’ve heard of anyone doing in so long. I think you’ve truly bamboozled them for a while and they might hop off of your back for a while.

You think so? ‘Cause I really hope that’s the case.

My siblings think it’s hilarious, and no one’s leaked that you are just joking with the press, so yeah, they might actually leave you alone.

Let’s fucking go. That is the news of the 21st century.

4 days of knowing each other and you’ve flipped off the press twice, outran them with me once, hid in the Wayne Enterprises Building with me and you’ve spoken French to bamboozle the press. That is impressive.

I feel like the press is going to hate me one day.

Probably. But they also hate most of us most days.

You should probably get back to work.

Yeah, talk to you soon.

She put her phone away and went to stand with A/N, who was waiting for their food.

“Talking to your lover?” she joked.

“When am I not doing that?”

“That’s valid.”

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

Going on a lunch date with A/N made a little bit of the harassment just better. They both bonded over how they hated the press before her love affair with Jason, and how their opinions wouldn’t change much unless, knock on wood, one of them went missing. Y/N told her about all the cases where the press and the internet did so much to solve cases around the world, love or hate the press, they did do a lot for solving crime.

She also told A/N that Jason was related to Dr. Barry Allen and Clark Kent, two people the two of them knew well because of the news and the fact that A/N knew Y/N when she wanted to go into forensics and was reading Dr. Barry Allen’s work.

When her mother texted her.

Y/N? Is that you in the press running around with Jason Todd?

Yeah mum, why?

Are you two in a serious relationship?

No mum.

Then why are the vultures so obsessed with you, says your dad.

‘ Cause you two made a pretty girl and he’s high up in the world, I guess, I don’t know. I don’t really like the press.

I can tell. We’re not mad at you honey, but be careful. And your dad says when you two get serious he needs to take Jason fishing.

He doesn’t speak French, mum.

Dad says he’ll work on his English for you.

Well tell everyone I love them, mum.

She panicked a little bit, her parents were nice when they wanted to be, but they were strict, why wouldn’t they be. So this, while being a welcomed surprise. was still a little panicky.

“Your parents find out?”

“Yeah, they seem chill with it though.”

“Bing in the press sucks when you’re trying to keep your love life out of your parents' eyes, huh?”

“You could say that again,” she joked.

“Being in the press sucks when you’re-”

“I didn’t mean literally!” they laughed.

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

Back at Wayne Enterprises, Jason was betting bombarded by his colleges, friends and family about Y/N and how she was able to get around the press’ constant harassment without flaw. And also because Bruce had seen the two enter the building at around 12am the night before. So Jason was called into Bruce’s office that day.

“1, I know everyone is bombarding you, so you can hide out here, son, 2, you and Y/N didn’t have sex in your office right?”

“God no, dad. We just hid here because security is tight as fuck and unable to get past.”

“I saw you two kissing on the cams and heading into your office, Jay.”

“Okay, okay, but we didn't have sex and the intentions were there, dad!”

“Uh huh, pretty girl in your, my, car.”

“Dad, stop it,” he joked.

“Well, her little shenanigans with the press are very amusing, have you told her that?”

“I have.”

“She’s basically not afraid to tell them what we all think.”

“That’s what I said, dad.”

“Well, hold onto that one and don’t let her go.”

“Do you regret doing that with Talia?” Jason asked.

“God no, she’s insane. The son I got out of her antics is literally her spitting image, so if I need to be reminded of her I can just go talk to Damien for a couple minutes.”

“Dami’s a lot like you too, don’t act like his personality is just Talia, he acts like his dad in every aspect and you know that.”

“Lord help any woman or man that kid goes on to date, my god,” the two of them laughed. It was the small things with Bruce that made Jason happy to be a Wayne, even if he didn’t share the last name. Jason grew up on the streets and even before that, his mum and dad didn’t have a lot of money, so the amounts of money that Bruce could shower on him was a lot, but he was okay with just working for his money. And Bruce knew that.

He spent a lot of his workday in Bruce’s office, hiding from the rest of the office, and texting Will.

She knows about your kid.

Well, she’s a good kid. I’m glad you’re bragging about her, means I raised her right.

Shut up. I love that little girl and I’ve helped raise her, Will.

You’re used to my new name?

I changed your contact to Will when you changed your name, so I could remember that that’s your name now and not Roy. I’m hoping I remember it in person though. It would be awkward if I forgot my best friend’s name.

It would be funny to look back on, though.

Like how your relationship with Jade is funny now?

Never stick your dick in crazy.

I wish you would have listened to that sometimes, but then I remember Lian is amazing.

I’m a cliché of dumb choices, what can I say Jaybird.

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

In Y/N’s house, she would always play loud and sad music when she had the chance, some people thought her mental state was fucked, which sometimes it was, but most of the time the sad music went harder than the happy tunes you would catch from the other side of the house.

But even if music was blasting the loudest it could ever be, somehow she would still find herself lost in her thoughts, whether it was new dance routines or a story she would scribble down in her dream journal. there was something about those little fits of artistic passion she would experience from time-to-time.

It’s hard to put into words how those moments reminded her of the simplier times before sh was thrust into stardom, but also how they reminded her of Jason, and untouched mind she longed to know further. She knew there was so much more to the boy she had gone on dates with.

She would end up ignoring her phone for most of the rest of that day, just because she wanted peace and quiet, when A/N’s lover came over and she had to turn the music up louder so she wouldn’t be disrupted by the obvious.

I just got off of work, how are you? How’s your day been? Jason had texted Y/N while she ws turning up the music.

Well, I just had to turn up my music because my roommate’s lover is over, but other than that I’ve been enjoying peace and quiet in my room, waiting for something to do.

Is texting me something to do?

Yes.

That’s sweet of you. Work was boring though so I hope you don’t expect a story.

I don’t, don’t worry. You don’t always need a story for something to do.

Well, I’m going home with my brothers and dad, and we’re probably going to play office chair racing because I’m a bad boy.

You’re a bad boy?

Was that not funny?

It was pretty funny, isn’t that dangerous though?

Yeah actually, my brother broke his leg playing it and another time my little sister broke her leg playing it.

It seems fun but like, damn, two people have gotten injured playing that game, y’know.

Well if I die it’ll be a fun story!

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bitchineering · 3 years ago

Text

My favorite study channels on youtube:

I think it is good to show people who really did help me when making efficient notes, good study methods, and other things I find helpful

(I’m actually listening to this video right now! I think others should watch it is is so helpful in making me thinking better about studying https://youtu.be/7L6kTIs0feY)

Top favorite ones with amazing study methods:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0a0jgB33-HHcAm84UFfPgw

Vee was like my first study youtuber I ever watched and I promise you she is amazing and watching her really motivates you.

https://www.youtube.com/c/studyquill

I’m pretty sure mostly everyone knows Jasmine from studyquill and I love her new content. I feel like there is so much of her in it, like, she just talks and is so sweet. I usually cannot watch some studyblrs because seeing how much they buy can affect my mood (it has nothing to do with them, let me clarify this if you make your own money I’m not going to tell you how to spend it) because I just hate how the study community is driven by capitalism and other aspects. Still love her videos, she’s like tied for first place with Vee.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc1tG1M1qP4IE6AQLXXWyww

I’m putting Seo in here again just because I freaking love her. She’s so smart and posts amazing study with me’s. I also really love that she didn’t go to like a really big college or like- some studyblrs say “Harvard-” or “my yale routine”. IDK maybe I’m the only one who finds it annoying when I see that and also I loved that she kept her stats away from her channel because I feel like so many people compare each other to another person when we can’t. (I also agree with her about the academia community and how the studyblr community is driven by capitalism. She made two good videos I think about educating others about it. Please watch them if you have time).

https://www.youtube.com/c/faechae

Ngl this is a youtuber I watch for the aesthetics. Her notes are really pretty but she also uses cheaper supplies than others meaning I can find them more easily than many of the Japanese or Korean brands (FYI she doesn’t post anymore).

https://www.youtube.com/c/NityaA

Don’t even get me started about my girl Nitya! I love her and her videos have helped me so much with time managment and ugh so many things about studying and scheduling. She is so smart, I’m so happy and proud of her. She is really and underappriciated youtuber who just needs like so much more for what she is giving us.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Imaginfinity

Holly is one of the most calming studyblrs I’ve watched. When first entering into the studyblr community I watched a ton of her videos and saw how she studied. I loved her note taking video, I wouldn’t say ours are exactly the same but it was so helpful for me to see how she worked her notes. I haven’t watched some of her videos as much, but she speaks French beautifully so if you want to learn French she even makes videos in French. She goes to university in Switzerland (I believe).

Overall, these people either introduced me into the studyblr community or I just really liked their videos and watch them on a daily basis.

Now I also want to include some other youtube channels, ones I believe are very good I just do not watch as much:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLFInhk1CdnuNXFv1U153Ow

Amazing notes, I watched her AP Bio note flip throughs and prepping for the AP Bio exam videos religiously man (Also girl got into Harvard!!!!)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCheCLPdZVTEXY3CMiFKuGmw

SO many videos on SAT and how to do well. Her methods didn’t really work for me however it worked for some of my friends when I shared them (and she will probably be on my standardize testing sheet when/if I make it).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwt1z4MjzidssIafOW-OWow

I really don’t want to say I don’t like Emily, I believe she is a very dedicated student who works hard and literally is good at what she does, she does support the buying aspect or continous buying aspect of the community that I personally don’t like to see. However, others do love to watch her and she is so considerate of others, especially in her ipad notes videos where she started showing cheaper alternatives (and even free apps) for ipad note taking, the apple pencil, and more. I would say watch her if you want like a “true” studyblr youtuber.

https://www.youtube.com/c/studycollab

This is Alicia’s channel, I have mentioned her before on another post but I feel like she does give similar content to Emily. She is a very dedicated student and I LOVE her organization system. I wish I had the ability to organize like she does however I do not.

https://www.youtube.com/c/yueminie

I think this will be the last youtuber I talk about. She makes motivational videos along with simple routine videos I find myself watching every now and then. Very nice and I enjoy listening to some background noises while taking breaks.

I think this is the end of my first list. This list will always start growing and changing. I hope to share more yotubers especially small youtubers within the studyblr community and minorities within our community because I feel like (this is something Seo mentions in her videos as well) it can be very white focused or there is little representation of black students. I want to help fix this by spreading information of students who I believe give good advice and aren’t as popular as others (and by no means and I’m saying any of my ‘big’ youtubers don’t deserve it. They do. Mostly all youtubers in the studyblr community do deserve everything they recieve and most likely more because they try really hard to appeal to their community. I don’t hate on any studyblr, I simply want to spread more out there).

I hope you guys enjoyed reading and watching these youtubers. I wish you to have a great day! Go take a break, eat some fruit or a cookie, and just breath. You are working hard to be a better student and I know you will reach your ability to get there so let’s work on this one day at a time. Have a nice day chicks!

#studyblr #studyblr youtubers #study community #note #SAT prep #Annie does SAT prep I forgot to mention that #whoopsie #good studyblrs #my favorites #favs #I love all of these people #please give them all love #don't be rude and put negative comments in their videos #tbhstudying #studyquill

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iridescentides · 3 years ago

Text

i watched the ep twice bc i didnt take notes the first time BUT. hsmtmts 2.04 thoughts under the cut

gina first. my favorite part of the episode was when she admitted that she feels out of place living in someone else’s house and that she wanted a bigger part in the play. i was SO worried they were gonna just let her happily sideline herself in a “yay she learned her lesson about not being the center of attention” kind of way bc i would not be able to handle that two seasons in a row. let her be angry!!! she has a lot to be upset about

the gina/carlos conflict was awful bc theyre making carlos unreasonably annoying this season. last season he was nice, he was enthusiastic, not competitive and just rooting for other people. idk why they needed to flip him so drastically to being spoiled, rich, selfish, pushy, and bitchy. and on top of that i have not been vibing with the pieces of dialogue theyve been giving him this season just to score woke points. its so unbearably obvious that even though hes a brown gay character, he was written by a white gay person who thought, on some level, that he was giving the gen z kids the #hashtag representation they wanted. his delivery of every line that screams “remember, im mexican” is so awkward, it doesnt land well, and im begging them to stop. they want so badly to commodify his character and parade him around as a “look how diverse our show is!” thing and im so so sick of it bc you can tell, with all the surface-level pieces of dialogue, that they dont actually care at all

(”look around, theres not a lot of me at this school” we GET it, this show wants to be glee so bad)

im honestly starting to slowly ship rina less and less. in season one i loved seeing someone make gina happy, especially since she had no friends before opening up to ricky. but now its just a whole mess and i wish she would love herself a lil more to realize that its not worth all this stress. he made a choice and no amount of conflicted moments of eye contact is going to fully take that back. im not necessarily against love triangle plots, but i HATE the whole “women wait around hopefully while male character, whose decisions have already hurt multiple people, makes up his mind” bullshit

that being said, gina handled the situation like a CHAMP, im dying over how quickly she was able to mask her pain and make the joke about the twix bar. im love her

we were absolutely ROBBED of an ej/big red performance this episode!!! i am at my LIMIT we better get gaston next week or i will riot

on the ej train, him not getting into duke was extremely predictable. we all kinda saw that coming and knew that would be his main point of growth this season. im glad they didnt wait super long to do it. now please @ writers i am BEGGING you to give my man more screen time than one scene per episode

its very odd that they keep making mr mazzara have emotionally tough conversations with the students. i will do a parallel gifset of those once the season ends. i liked his convo with ej for the most part, but he really didnt have to beat him over the head with the “youre an emotionless robot” thing again. its clear ej is gonna throw himself into av club or whatever (even though at the end of last season that was supposed to be big red?) and discover that he has a lot going for him. because he does, he literally has everything going for him, thats why they had to make his “problem” not knowing himself. bisexual ej caswell ftw

i love the parallels between ej and nini this episode? i think since the beginning ive felt that there was a lot about them under the surface that was similar. it was interesting seeing ej tell nini about duke first, instead of the obvious choice of ashlyn. i wouldve loved to see how that scene wouldve gone with ricky, gina, carlos, or big red though bc each reaction and attempt at comforting him wouldve been so different. i didnt love that nini had to be pulled away from the conversation, but im glad they can still talk to each other after everything that went down. and i love the juxtaposition of ej’s convo with mazzara directly following nini’s convo with miss jenn bc theyre essentially the same.

speaking of, i loved miss jenn in this episode. her stories are always so funny, but i loved seeing her care so much for nini and guide her, like a teacher. i loved how she pointed out that everyone who loves nini just wants her to be happy

im glad nini is leaving yac bc there was no good way to keep that up honestly. but im pretty annoyed that they were so obvious about it? like, they immediately made it the worst place in the world without exploring it very much. the place is super unrealistic, ive never been to drama school but im sure it wouldnt be like that. no creative arts place for KIDS would be so impossibly limiting. plus the weird bluish coloring in comparison to the nice warm tones of the rest of the show was, again, a dead giveaway. why send her to the school at all if it wasnt even gonna matter?

even though im glad nini left yac, im NOT looking forward to the way miss jenn is about to bend over backwards to put her in the play somehow. she plays obvious favorites and im so annoyed

(sidenote: nini just? decided to leave yac without consulting her parents??? ummm)

granted is a very good song, one of my faves so far

ricky deciding to tell nini he wants her to stay was stupid. what did he think that would accomplish? who in their right mind would drop out of a good school for you?

i loved when nini said yac was missing something, and miss jenn said “ricky” and nini said “you.” that was so so sweet and cute

i think the kourtney/howie thing is gonna grow on me. i hate amatonormativity so im not a big fan of them introducing a whole ass character exclusively so kourtney can have a love interest, but i loved the gesture he made of bringing her the pizzas and her flashcards. i feel like kourtneys love language is acts of service, and she was literally this meme when he did that for her:

i liked seeing ashlyn try to be there emotionally for gina! i want more of them together

overall this episode was okay. not enough songs, and i wish they were spreading out the emotional conversations through the season instead of packing them all into literally one episode, but what we did get was pretty good.

after watching the preview i see that next weeks episode is gonna be about carlos’s party, and i love party episodes. BUT i hope that after that ep we finally get an advancement on the north high stuff! i dont give too many fucks about lily, but i wanna see my son asher angel

#me @ myself every time i write one of these: we GET it youre a gina and ej stan #hsmtmts lb #hsmtmts spoilers #txt #waffle words of wisdom

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isthatbloodonhisshirt · 5 years ago

Note

If you could change ten things about Teen Wolf what would you change??

OMG BUCKLE DOWN BECAUSE IT’S GONNA BE A LONG ONE! Do asks have a word limit? Guess we gonna find out! (Sometimes I wish I could speak these replies, they sound much funnier when I am speaking out loud to myself and then they are just weird and flat typed up but I DIGRESS! I do that a lot, have you noticed? Doesn’t matter.)

(Also, I did put a “Keep Reading” but for some reason it’s not working. Or it’s not showing as working on my end. But it’s right under this paragraph I swear so if it’s not working, that isn’t on me....)

1) SO! Trauma. People be dealing with their traumas. That’d be a thing I’d like, thank you. Like, I’m sorry, but there is a fuckton of trauma in this show and everyone like, goes to bed at night and wakes up cured. Like MAGIC! I mean, yes, I get that magic is a thing in the show (is it? I mean kind of? Idk, I never saw past season 4, they alluded to magic and then SNATCHED THAT AWAY so, side-note, that’s coming up later!) But yes, I would’ve very much liked for people to, you know, deal with their traumas in a realistic fashion. Let’s get some therapy going, or like, idk, some actual negative reactions to thing! They kind of had that with Stiles every now and then, but he seemed to be up and down episode to episode so like, it’d be like they wrote an episode where he reacts to what happened to him and then four episodes have gone by where he’s fine and the writers were like “OH YEAH SHIT HE JUST MURDERED LIKE A WHOLE HOSPITAL, make him have a panic attack randomly over dropping milk, that balances out, excellent, we’re so smart.” So yes. DEAL. WITH. THE. TRAUMA! Thanks.

2) LESS CHARACTERS, MORE DEVELOPMENT! I mentioned this in another recent ask about relationships but like, they just kept shoving characters in there. Like one of those clown cars. So we got like, 30% character development on the core group and then the rest was like “wait, who are you again?” Like, legit, I have a bad memory, you put too many people in front of me, I ain’t gonna remember them unless they have a good personality or a reason to be there. And like, develop their relationships! Not even romantically, but like, Scott’s mom loves Scott, that is sweet and lovely, but like, we never really… see… that… developed? Idk man, like again, I have a bad memory, but when you really develop relationships WELL (ex: Brooklyn-nine-nine), that shit sticks with you and you CARE about people. The friendships are important, and the familial relationships are important and just developing all the dynamics is important! They spent more time showcasing how much everyone hated each other and lied to each other and stuff and that just got really tiring. Yes, you’re allowed to get mad at your friends, but if you’re a Werewolf, and your human friend is calling you when there is a fucking monster running around killing people, can you maybe stop making out with your girlfriend and answer your phone so your friend isn’t treading water with a 200+ pound Werewolf for 2 hours? Like, JUST SAYING! (Spoiler alert: Me and Scott would not be close friends. Like, I think we’d be friends, but not so much that I’d trust him with my life. If I wanted to grab pizza and a movie, maybe play some video games, he sounds like a treat, but if my life was in danger, thanks I be callin’ someone who answers their phone).

3) Actual consequences for their actions! Okay like, I am also guilty of this in fanfic, but at the same time, my writing is free, I don’t get paid for it, and I write what I want because that’s how it works, so I can do whatever I please (If I wanna make the Hales royalty for the millionth time, ain’t nobody gonna stop me!). But like, when you are a legit paid screenwriter who is writing a show? Consequences! Just because it’s a show about Werewolves doesn’t mean there can’t be any consequences! Like, the best scene, and I feel like we can agree, because fuck it like, hurt my soul and my heart and I was just so like ;~; was when the sheriff got fired (fired? suspended? TEMPORARILY UNEMPLOYED!) because Stiles stole a police van when they locked Jackson up in it. Like, that shit was REAL LIFE CONSEQUENCES for actions, and that shit was intense and it HURT and omg I loved it! Give me more of that! Like, I’m sorry, but you gonna tell me Nogistune!Stiles walked through the hospital murdering a bazillion people and not one camera was working the whole time? Not one? Nobody saw that? Nobody went “hey, isn’t that the sheriff’s kid?” Like, CAN. YOU. IMAGINE?! That would’ve been so amazing, a bunch of episodes of the pack scrambling to keep the Supernatural a secret while also trying to stop Stiles from GETTING ARRESTED because saying “Sorry ma’am, I was possessed by a demon fox who likes chaos and thought murdering a bunch of people would be fun” ain’t gonna fly in court and the FBI sure isn’t gonna believe that but like, UGH! Again, bad memory, but was the fact that Dark!Stiles wandered through the hospital killing people EVER brought up again???? CONSEQUENCES. Woulda really liked that.

4) STOP with unnecessary romances. Like, yeah, I get it, the allos like their romances, but shockingly, you can still have a good show without focussing on the romance. Like, it can be there, I’m not saying don’t put it in, I’m saying DON’T MAKE IT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING! Like, the entirety of season one was Scott chasing Allison and Stiles chasing Lydia. This… this does not make an interesting show? Like, is that just me? And then as the season progressed, EVERYONE had to be in a relationship? WHY? Again, haven’t seen past season four, but I mean, I know Scott and Kira were a thing, and then Stiles and Malia, and Liam and some… person? Idk. And Ethan and Danny (congrats Jeff, you get to tick your “I had representation in my show!” box, well done, gold star, or whatever). And Isaac and Allison, and Melissa and Chris (apparently?). And then Stydia was alluded as being canon, and Scott ended up with Malia somehow?? And Derek slept with half the town and all of Mexico, idek. Like, stop it. Stop. Shows work without everything being about everyone banging each other. (See again: Brooklyn-nine-nine, or Avatar the Last Airbender, or The Good Place, or even fucking Supernatural!) You can have a good, interesting story without everyone banging each other. It ain’t necessary.

5) More actual storytelling (again, this woulda worked better without the unnecessary romances taking up 49 of the 50 minutes of air-time). Like, yes, I get it, pilot’s gotta have some pizzaz! Gotta be spicy and sparkly to make people interested (and like, fucking hell, all I can remember of the pilot is sobbing Allison soaking wet–LIKE, WAS THAT NECESSARY???–about the dog she hit and oh noes is it dead well thank God the lead character works for a vet! And somehow has keys and access to the whole clinic like nbd at all hours? Whatever. I wasn’t even allowed inside my blockbuster as a shift lead if it was off-hours but apparently a high school student doing paperwork at a vet clinic is different, I’m not a vet so what do I know? I HAD A BAD DAY OKAY, I GOT FEELINGS ABOUT THIS RN!) I went off-topic, what was I saying? Oh yes, storytelling. You know what woulda been nice? Werewolves! It happens, we find out about Laura, we find out about Werewolves, Scott gets bitten, all that jazz. And then like… ease in the Hunters? Like, why was there Laura/Derek, Peter, AND the Hunters all crammed into the pilot? Yes, I get it, you need the SUSPENSE and the DRAMA, but you can do that without the Hunters right off the bat. Just, how CONVENIENT~ that the same day Derek and Laura come back, Hunters move to town? That’s just lazy, and again, I can be guilty of laziness, I admit to it, but I literally get paid in—like, do hearts count? I get paid in hearts and pats on the back for my fics, I can write whatever I want. If you’re getting paid to write something, try a bit harder, yes? Yes???

What number am I on? Oh good Lord, I got things to say, okay.

6) MAGIC! Can you like—I feel like this one is self-explanatory. Stiles did the whole mountain ash thing in season one, and it was SO PROMISING, and then that just died. It died like Maes Hughes getting shot in a phonebooth (spoiler, but really, you haven’t seen that yet, that’s a you problem). Why even bother introducing magic if you weren’t gonna use it? Like, was it because people like Stiles more than Scott and the showrunner was like “nonono. If we make him magic, he’s TOO cool, and then Scott is unimportant.” I mean, you coulda worked that in your favour, but no. You just murdered the fuck out of it, like straight up took it out back and shot it. Like, yeah, Derek went kiddo again and Jennifer was apparently all magic beauty spell or whatever, but like?? That’s it??? You had a show about Werewolves and you didn’t even try to make it more interesting by making some of the characters magic? Lydia’s basically the closest and they didn’t even explain her powers that well. Magic would’ve been dope and they totally shoved that to the side. That was dumb. Shoulda done something with that.

7) Explain things more? Don’t mention them once and then do nothing? Like, we got some brief stuff about anchors, and emissaries (which are super duper secret according to Deaton but then like, EVERYONE KNOWS HE IS EMISSARY SO WHICH IS IT DEATON? YOU TELL ME!) Like, they had so much opportunity to talk about so many things and again, maybe that comes out more in the later seasons, idk, but they likely coulda done with more explanations and they didn’t and this angers me GREATLY. They mention something once and then it never comes up again. That’s some Lost bullshit right there. Don’t start something if you’re not gonna commit. You tell me the beginning of the story, I wanna fucking know the end, don’t forget halfway through and wander away, that ain’t right, I NEED ANSWERS JEFF! And like, as above, never really got Lydia’s powers. I know what a Banshee is, but her powers did NOT make sense to me. Idk, could just be that I’m dumb, but similarly, don’t write something so convoluted that it confuses people, that is also dumb. As dumb as I am so like, well done there. And also do we get more on Parrish? I know he’s a Hellhound, but how does one get born a Hellhound and not know until you are conveniently lit on fire by someone trying to kill you for money? (Also, you bean, you absolute treasure, “I’m worth five dollars?” You’re so cute. Silly child.) I feel like being a Hellhound is something that woulda come up before getting barbecued in his cruiser. Like, he works a stressful job, you gonna tell me not ONCE while getting shot at he didn’t have a massive heart attack over a close call and like, burst into flames? No? Is that just a me thing? I feel like the slightest annoyance and I’d be fully on fire, not gonna lie. (I’d be on fire a LOT… CLEARLY I AM AN ANGRY PERSON! No, that’s not true. No yes it is, I am angry, but more angry lately because I’m sleep-deprived and work is dumb ANYWAY back to this)

8) EMBRACE THE SIDE CHARACTERS! Okay, so MAYBE Scott is meant to be the golden child. The Dick Grayson of the show, if you will. The original Robin, the creme de la creme. That’s all fine and dandy if he is, no judgement (little judgement), but you know what you don’t do when your side characters are getting a lot of attention and love? What you DO NOT do is give them less screen time. Because then you’re being petty and, shockingly, you get more positive results when you give the fans what they want. I’m not talking about pairings, because everyone is different, and you can’t cater to everyone, but like, the more people moved away from liking Scott, the harder the showrunners pushed him into our faces. And like, that isn’t how this works. If I like side character 87 a lot, and the lead’s getting annoying, you know what’s gonna make me NOT watch the show? Cutting out side character 87 (hey, for shits and gigs, let’s call him DANNY, just, not coincidentally at all) and then just shoving the lead into my face. That is what makes someone go “Well, four seasons is enough, I can happily live knowing I didn’t waste my life watching two more of them.” Like??? I’m not saying cut out Scott, because the show is ABOUT Scott, but the more everyone tried to showcase how amazing and wonderful and pure and perfect he was, the more annoying it got? Like, Scott has flaws. THEY ALL HAVE FLAWS! If you don’t admit that they all have flaws, it gets boring, and you hate the characters. I know that Scott turned into a douche later (apparently, again, haven’t seen it), but even in the early seasons by trying to make him this pure True Alpha golden angel child who spreads love and hope and trusts everyone, it just got boring. He was vanilla, and also a bad friend, because he was too “perfect” to be around someone “imperfect” like Stiles, and even like, the rest of the pack overall. He was always put on a pedestal and it made the show really… irksome? Idk, I just feel like yes, SCOTT is the Teen Wolf, but you added all these damn side characters, maybe use them a bit more? At least Stiles was interesting, and Lydia was fucking badass, and fucking hell, if you’d done right by Boyd and Erica, the actors wouldn’t have left for better shows so like, come on man, you coulda done better. We coulda had such a dope show, why you gotta crush my dreams like that Jeff? What did I ever do to you?

I know this is only eight, but this is long enough, if I go two more, this is gonna be IN.SANE. And also it’s late and I haven’t finished my fic for the day (I mean, I’m almost done, but I’m not done yet!) So like, I’ma stop here. But yes, hopefully this answered your question. Sorry I got REALLY PASSIONATE about it but it’s been a day.

Also, I feel this needs to be said, but obviously these are my own personal opinions, and as opinions, you are not obligated to agree with them. But you are also not allowed to tell me my opinion is wrong. You can disagree with it, but this is an opinion, not a law, so there is no right and wrong. Don’t @ me, my day’s been bad enough kthx!

HAVE A GOOD NIGHT, BE BACK IN LIKE TWENTY(?) MINUTES!

#not tw #but also kind of #Blood's yakkity yaks #I had a lot to say #it's been a day okay!#Anonymous

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booasaur · 4 years ago

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I stopped watching t100 once it became obvious the plot was 'and they all suffered forever'. But this year I read my first ever Clexa fic and kinda got into it the whole thing. I never quite cared for them when they were big(I guess they're still big) but it was so nice to see Lexa come back. Even in the weird ass circumstances. Idk it was like sometimes we lose, but we still win.

Wait, when was it that it became obvious to you, so you stopped watching, I mean? As in, in the middle of s3 or even after, meaning you watched at least some of Clexa live and didn’t get into it or before that? Because for me it was after like the first few eps, and then I spent the next couple of years resolutely not watching even when Clexa started to take over my dash.

It’s neat to be able to take what I’ve learned about my ship tastes and preferences in the last couple of years, very much in part due to analyzing what’s worked in ships for me with anons, and see why I didn’t originally warm up to it and also why I then fell so hard for it. For me, it’s exactly as you said, I originally viewed the show as grimdark edgelord, where characters were meant to suffer. And I now know explicitly what would have just been a vague feeling then that I don’t like that, I want at least the possibility of endgame, a chance to hope. And after the s2 finale, my choice felt vindicated.

And then the news of ADC returning for s3 spread and I did have some FOMO, lol, but still thought it just wouldn’t be that kind of show, relationships would always be secondary. But the bow, man! The framing of that was so romantic, so soulmate-y. Objectively so! I love that kind of thing, all mutually transformational and pining and devoted. You’re saying you weren’t into them then?? I read a few fics at the time, I remember, mostly AU because I wanted to see where the show would go in canon instead of seeing how ficcers dealt with it (lol).

And of course that framing was why what came after was so painful, a bait and switch of the worst type, exacerbated by the underrepresented marginalized group they were leading on. I dove pretty deeply into fics then, canon and AU, and only slowly moved into other fandoms. Which fic did you read that made you get into them? And yeah, I guess they’re still big, or at least, the once and always fans who’ve returned now show how it’ll always be remembered. But man, it was something then, a singular force. I’ve never seen anything like that for f/f. But I guess if you missed out on that, you also missed out on how it all ended, which, not the worst thing!

You got kind of the best of both worlds, being able to get into it without the shock and then getting her back! I know it wasn’t her her, everyone does, the feelings are so mixed, but I think it still ended up providing a bit of closure and healing something that’d been scabbed over for four years. Part of what hurt so much then was that we knew that on every level, Lexa was something amazing, even as just a business decision, never mind as an artistic and representational character. We’re always told that part of the reason we don’t get more mainstream f/f content is that the audience support isn’t there, but it was here, critical and commercial success in every way! And yet, none of that was enough to save her, they would rather hurt the show than keep her. It was shocking and such a clear reminder of our place in the world, or so it felt. So to see her come back at the end and be treated even a little as how we always saw her, this hugely significant person to Clarke and the show and even closing off the whole series, it finally settled something in us that’d been feeling so wrong all these years. As you said, even as a loss, it felt like a win.

#having less than no expectations it was something #and it's been so great to see the fandom celebrate :>#sorry for the late replies #femslash related stuff #sent on 20201001 #Anonymous #the 100 7x16 #the 100 #clexa

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miniwolfsbane · 4 years ago

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JWCC Sammy Gutierrez and body positivity

THIS IS VERY LONG! (I just have a lot of feelings!) Also, this is personal and doesn’t talk a lot about Sammy and is just one big rant.

Comment I wrote on the S2 preview “Also, shout out to the creators for making Sammy heavy, but it not effecting or having anything to do with her character. OR have her be obsessed with food. I'm sure other 90s kids remember the fat kid trope. Not doing fat logic, but we've come so far from the old days! As a woman who had that kind of body type growing up (had skinny friends, developed early, etc. it all was uncomfortable for many reasons. Long story.), it's amazing to see this kind of...semi-body positivity that's quiet and unspoken in a show aimed at everyone, including girls. If I had seen this character at 13, my mind would've been blown. Kudos!!”

I’m reeeally tired and getting to that point where I get emotional about stupid stuff. However, this isn’t that stupid...maybe?

We’ve reached a milestone, a kind of apex in American society, where being fat is no longer a running gag and it’s celebrated to be thick and/or a healthy weight. (Not to say skinny isn’t cool and it’s sure as heck better than carry 90+ pounds if it can be helped, but, as I said on Youtube, lots of 90s fat tropes were had, were they not? Every body type has their problems, blessings, and issues.) But, health is also a big issue and losing weight is too. I’m all for losing weight, but I also know what it was like growing up a fat kid, then a fat teenager in the 90s and 2000s when we didn’t have representation and people like Tocorra Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Ashley Graham and Rebel Wilson around to promote different body shapes and/or being a little heavy or curvy while still being healthy. (Melissa and Rebel have lost weight and I applaud them full circle!)

Anyway, It is downright uplifting to see Sammy in JWCC like this! Being “thicker” than her two female friends doesn’t slow her down or hinder her in anyway. She is not obsessed with food. She is not constantly eating. Likewise, she has an actual personality and an interesting secret and backstory. The fans seem to love her. She is not dressed immodestly and she doesn’t seem to have ANY negative opinions of her body type, for now. Likewise, in a fast paced show like this, no one is talking behind her back about her weight or eating habits (again, for now. This could change in upcoming seasons, we don’t know.) Come to that, she’s fairly intelligent and isn’t dumb. Like, how many times have we seen a fat, dumb person in a show. (I’m looking at you Chris Griffin and Cleveland Jr!) This could’ve gone SO SIDEWAYS in her character creation any number of ways and I’m just amazed it didn’t. However, this maybe is attributed to the show being an action show and not a comedy? In any case, I’m so glad girls of this generation can see it. I wish I’d had it at their age. (It’s probably because her VA is heavy, but heavier than how Sammy is portrayed, to my knowledge. I’ve only seen her years ago on Disney channel. Who cares why? It happened and I’m glad.) Please be assured, I’m NOT trying promote fat acceptance, just inclusivity, relatability, and representation.

Like I say all the time, I’m not super heavy. I never was. As I said in the comment, I developed early and had mostly skinny friends growing up. I remember being about 11 and hosting my first sleepover and someone pointing to my arms at my stretch marks, asking what they were. I wasn’t traumatized and they didn’t tease me, but I was a little (a lot?) self-conscious. Like, can we please get the idea out of our head that ONLY pregnant women get stretch marks?? (Cocoa butter companies, hello?!) They can happen to girls that grow tall fast or, like me, you can have them all freaking over because the puberty button in your brain got stuck. (LOL?) And calling them cute things like skin lightning doesn’t really help. My limbs and body still look weird.

I don’t remember seeing many characters shaped like me in shows as a kid or teenager. Unless maybe Simpsons characters with their pudgy bellies who may be some of the most average, realistic bodies in all of fiction, really. We can’t all be supermodels and body builders. Sailor Moon girls were all thin and leggy. None of the Magic School Bus kids were pudgy, all average and healthy (which is probably a good thing in a way. IDK. Representation is great, but so is promoting healthy eating and healthy shapes. Everything has their place.) Disney characters were mostly animals at the time, and I didn’t see Recess until Highschool or something at 3 am, and even then, there was only Mikey. Mikey was progressive, but he wasn’t female. Closest I got was Ariel’s (Little Mermaid) sister, Adella ( https://littlemermaid.fandom.com/wiki/Adella) and even then, she had no belly and never animated the same outside of the series with not much character development or anything.

Cassie from Animorphs might’ve been a close second, but, though she was my favorite female character as a kid (not anymore), it was hard to say “OMG, she’s shaped like me!” as it was a book series with few visual aides outside of covers, posters and some toys.

I remember seeing the singing group Cherish for a few seconds on TV once. A bunch of thick, busty, heavy black girls and I was SO EXCITED because for those few seconds on TV, there were girls that looked like me! Then some years later I found out a few of them lost weight and I was like bleh. (I didn’t follow their music or anything, not even sure how I saw them again.) Not that disapprove, health is essential, and I encourage people to lose weight for themselves, but it was nice having some representation. Except health needs to come first. It’s a two-edged sword if I ever saw one.

Don’t get me started on the sheer amount of girls with small/flat chests on TV. (No offense! See above about body types. Again, it’s about representation and seeing someone that looks like you that was not common in the 90s and early 2000s) I’m picky though. I wanted to see more representation, but the minute I saw it, I was not impressed or annoyed. To my better judgement, I saw a few episodes of something I won’t name with a curvy lead. I found her times dressing up as a man unconvincing and confusing because of her body shape. Other times I was, for lack of a better word, slightly appalled at her own size, even though she somewhat looked like me. I know, it makes no sense. Other times, I was mad at Lizzy Mcguire or another show for having skinny characters with A-cups while I was, er, way past training bras and smaller bras by 14/15 when the show was new.

Swearz, I developed (pun not intended!) this weird conspiracy theory that Disney execs have to look at the Star’s mom and other women in their family before casting a girl to make sure she stays thin/average chested for the shows entire run. Outside of one show, all shows in that era had the same thin girl body type. (And not much representation for different races for Disney back then, but that’s another debate for someone to better handle, not me.)

All that said, my shape was attributed to four things: Diet, genetics, lack of exercise and my mom’s cooking. Not sure how much I subscribe to the “genetics effect body fat theory”, but the “genetics effect body shape” is definitely a thing! And hormones in chicken. My family said all I ever wanted when I was little was McDonald’s chicken nuggets all the time, so I think that had some play in how I turned out. It’s probably too much to get into here, and no one cares about my sob story, so let’s move on.

Sammy is awesome and I hope to see more characters like her from other studios in the future. Every body type needs representation, but every body also deserves to be healthy and nourished.

EDIT: WARNING: THE VIDEO AND THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS TALK ABOUT ED AND CALORIE RESTRICTION!!

OMAHGAWWWD! I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING ROTTEN IN THE INDUSTRY, Y’ALL!! (Okay, that’s obvious, but you don’t really give it thought in your day to day life.)

The video gives a summary of Jenette McCurdy’s time on iCarly and the horrors she’d been going through in her younger years, which included an eating disorder and restricting calories to an (alleged) 900. Dear lord, that is sickening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCE1x_chT34

Granted, I would take this with a small grain of salt as it’s from the internet, and undoubtedly, many actresses, probably more than we realize, have ED’s. If they would start encouraging them to be at healthy weights, things like this wouldn’t happen. Frick Nickelodeon and frick the acting industry!!

So, this was what I was trying to convey. Casting and producers need to find that middle ground. Don’t promote fact acceptance, but do not force your actors/actresses to be stick thin either. I could go on a huge tangent, but I don’t have the brain power right now. If you have an ED or know someone that does, I strongly encourage you to get help. I’ve been in tight spots like that (I knew of people or knew people), but getting REAL help from a doctor, professional, or someone with a good head on their shoulders is better than hiding it or keeping it secret. Ten years down the line, you’ll be thankful you did and not have regret. No one is perfect, but sometimes you have to fight harder to find a solution and someone that will actually listen to you and take your concerns to heart.

If I get negative comments, I’ll be deleting this and no one will be able to enjoy it. Think before you type and don’t be a jerk.

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cassandra1447 · 4 years ago

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Lucifer 5A Thoughts

Lucifer season 4 was great. It had a nice solid plotline, it had great character development for pretty much everyone, I actually thought the Eve-Lucifer-Chloe triangle was done both purposefully and realistically with reasons why all three of them acted as they did, and just generally felt like a breath of fresh air after the mishmash that was season 3.

I had few complaints - a few but not many.

I was super hopeful about season 5. Guess what I binge-watched this past weekend?

Me:

Cue rant (under cut b/c there are spoilers aplenty and if you liked this season - please keep scrolling)

To be fair: I have only watched season 5 once.

Unfortunately, I have no desire to watch it again.

First of all, the lack of creativity.

Maze betrays Lucifer (again for like the 10000th time)

Michael being a jerkass - I’ll grant them his fear mojo, but could you have reached for any other concept than Lucifer vs. Michael? Or give him something more interesting than an ego-problem to fuel his evilness?

Ella’s boyfriend - look, there’s foreshadowing and there’s eye-rolling, damn it really, this guy is clearly only here to serve a plot point and he’s either going to be the victim or the murderer

Ella deserves a genuine good person and good relationship - WTF did you have to do that to her? There’s no point besides hurting her

It would have been better - and more surprising - if he had been a truly decent person even if the relationship ended up not enduring

And then there’s Chloe...and oh dear...

“Being a gift” consternation

Okay, yes Chloe is allowed to be upset and to be struggling with the divine side of things - in fact, I actually liked how they depicted that in Season 4

But in Season 4, when Chloe’s reactions hurt Lucifer, there’s a clear consequence. It’s part of why he turned to Eve, and there are a couple of excellent moments - the part where he confronts Chloe about neither being an angel like she wants or the devil like Eve wants for instance - that showed Lucifer was coming to understand himself and to stand up for his own sense of self to a degree

This time round, we get a lot from Chloe but little from Lucifer aside from him desperately wanting to be with her and willing to do just about whatever she wants to have that

And unfortunately, whereas by the end of season 4, we definitely get Chloe seeing past the divine bombshells and remembering that she cares about Lucifer for himself - that progress is completely nullified by the “you’re a miracle” bombshell and I didn’t need to see that again

Also - WTF does Amenadiel’s spiel to Chloe about seeing Lucifer truly work on her anxiety over being made for Lucifer? Did I miss something? Chloe’s upset over this seemed to me to be because of a lack of free will - not that she didn’t know who Lucifer was. Why - when free will is such a major deal for Lucifer - was that not discussed? Why did no one - Lucifer for example - come out and say “Humans have free will. Period. You can choose to walk away from me or tell me to go, and I will. I don’t give a damn what my Father did or wants or intends. It’s your choice.”

The “I love you”

I do not get why Chloe doesn’t know if Lucifer loves her. He may have not used the three words but he literally told her the prophecy (his first love) was about her not Eve. Or what about “I would do it again”? Or any of the many actions through which he’s demonstrated that he cares about her, that he values her, that he loves her.

And okay, maybe she needs those three words to be 100%, absolutely sure, okay. Then just ask him. How do you feel about me? What do you want from this relationship? Where is this going? You know, normal adult questions.

I’m not expecting Chloe to do emotional labor for Lucifer but if she needs something from him, she needs to ask him. I think that’s fair.

It also highlights a problem with Chloe’s empathy for Lucifer IMO - it feels like she’s once again so caught up in her emotional turmoil, she’s incapable of even seeing his. This is someone who literally just returned from thousands of years in hell, who has a family had cast him out and treated him like the worst, has been vilified by humanity for millennia, and because of all of this has a low sense of self-worth and has come to believe that he’s a monster - love is something Lucifer literally hasn’t been shown in millions (billions?) and until very recently hasn’t been in a position to express love in return - and you expect him to drop an “I love you” nonchalantly?

Again, it’s okay to have Chloe focus on her emotions rather than Lucifer’s. But if I say something hurtful to someone - even if I’m under duress - it’s still hurtful. I still owe them an apology.

The “not in relationship” evasion

Despite the fact that Michael lying was such a key factor in Chloe knowing he wasn’t Lucifer and Chloe clinging to the fact Lucifer doesn’t, Chloe doesn’t seem to make the connection that telling the truth to Lucifer is essential

One unaddressed factor from last season - Chloe lied to Lucifer and allowed him to think that everything was fine and that she wanted a relationship with him...and then on what he happily thought was a date almost roofied him (at minimum, who knows what was really in that vial). Lucifer subsequently found out about the plan - so there’s a historical basis for her to lie to him about how she feels (in order to betray him) - Chloe, he already thinks he’s unworthy of you, he’s already used to people he loves hurting him - you need to be straightforward with him

This includes not evading (or lying) about being in a relationship with him.

At least she does eventually tell Lucifer she needs time & space I suppose

Mojo switching

Why? Just why? It happened and then it stopped. What?

Various other characters:

Linda:

Why did we only have like 2 therapy sessions? Why did Linda not get to do her job this season? Her sessions with Lucifer did help him grow - why the hell didn’t she help Lucifer & Chloe work through some of their issues

I don’t like having her plot this season revolve around children. It’s a personal thing I know - but it’s such a default plot device to use with female characters.

Amenadiel

IDK about the timing of filming for this season but it felt really off-key to have a black man depicted as thinking the best way to make the world safer for his son to be aggressively trying to work with the police. Season 4 had an episode that dealt with the endemic racism in our justice system - why in the hell was that not carried into this season? Why don’t we see Amenadiel protesting or volunteering with a local group trying to address the systematic racism?

Where the hell did the “reflection” thing come from? I never saw Lucifer’s mojo as reflecting, more bringing to the surface what someone already felt/wanted/knew. And even if I buy that - Amenadiel never had people behaving as if he was reflecting love before. Oh and for Lucifer’s mojo, for it to have a visible impact, he generally has to be intending it to (except for when he’s in his devil form). There’s a few examples in earlier seasons where there’s an indication there’s a low level field continuously but nothing like what Amenadiel had happen in the convent. And doesn’t that give Amenadiel two powers (time + love mojo) while Lucifer and Michael only get mojo?

Maze

Oh look, Maze betrayals Lucifer again. Never seen that before.

1 freaking episode with Trixie!!! And it’s also the only episode with Lucifer & Trixie and Lucifer being adorable with Trixie and then - oh, it’s not that Trixie likes Lucifer, it’s that she’s being paid by Maze to get information (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

WTF does Maze believe Michael? He’s a lying liar who lies. I can’t believe Maze would be that stupid.

God

Just no.

Previous seasons seemed to be having the message that God isn’t responsible for your life, you are. Lucifer has a similar realization at the end of season 4. So why are you going to muck that up by making God an active participant???

Other things that bug me:

Lack of LGBTQ+ representation

The old-timey bit doesn’t count IMO - Lucifer gender-flipped characters at Trixie’s request so any LGBTQ+ moments aren’t genuine

Lucifer & Maze are attracted to men and women (no defined label - maybe bisexual or pansexual) but there are no moments where either of them actively show it (or someone of the same gender was obviously attracted to them); I think we get a single line about Lucifer having been with both men & women but that’s all I can recall

Is there a single non-hetero couple depicted on screen (that didn’t have to be gender-flipped)? Seriously. I’m asking.

Ella’s treatment

Already talked about this - but it was blatantly obvious the boyfriend plot served no purpose for Ella herself, just was a way to get this character looped in for other plot purposes

Chloe’s horrible advice to ignore Ella’s internal alarm bells. I don’t - how - what - yeah, feeds into what I said earlier about Chloe being too wrapped up in her own turmoil to be able to see from even a impartial (let alone another’s perspective)

Azrael! Why do you not use this sweetheart of an angel who has an established relationship with Ella? If you had to do this terrible Ella + bad guy plot, then for heaven’s sake, at least give us Azrael to warn Ella? Or something?

Lilith was good...but where is Eve? There’s not even a throwaway line of “Eve’s in Madagascar” or show some postcards she sent to Maze or have Lucifer check-in on her and say “Eve says hi” - does Eve still exist? It’s not like Eve understand about “being made for someone” and maybe help Chloe, right?

The Mock-Lucifer show episode -

if you have an episode in your show that’s parodying your show...it had better be because you work for a secret government agency and it’s being allowed b/c the government can claim anyone trying to blow the whistle got it from the TV show (Stargate fans out there?) - otherwise, no.

I know Lucifer likes to use the case-of-the-week to mirror what’s going on with Lucifer and the rest outside of the case - but this is too blatant, to the point it feels condescending

I didn’t actually want to know the story of Lucifer’s ring. Officially at least. Leave me some mysteries please, something to speculate about with other fans, something to develop headcanons for, something to write fanfic about - the story itself was fine, but doesn’t seem necessary

Hell Repercussions

Despite Michael using it as an excuse why “Lucifer” was behaving weirdly, once Lucifer is back, there’s little to no indication of the impact Hell had on Lucifer - thousands of years, and he’s pretty much the same as the moment he left Earth

Could have had Lucifer regress somewhat because he no longer had any support structure, was among literal demons who aren’t good for socialization, and perhaps had to revert to a more violent and vicious version of himself

Could have had Lucifer return to being more hedonistic - which would have been a good point of tension with Chloe - because he was starved of anything good in hell and is now trying to soak in as much life as possible (music, drink, drugs, parties, maybe flirting/dancing)?

One thing I did like was Lucifer talking to a human in hell - could have done something with Lucifer trying to help humans who felt guilty for things which shouldn’t qualify for eternal torment - connecting with semi-decent humans in hell b/c he couldn’t go back to Earth and b/c he has more empathy for them now (although I would argue Lucifer has always been kinder towards humans than other angels - look at the very first episode and how he treated Deliah)

Did no one try to contact Lucifer in hell? Amenadiel could have visited, he could have brought letters or messages from the humans in the know...did no one think of that? To help ease Lucifer’s isolation even in the smallest way? It felt like - as soon as Lucifer left - everyone was just like ‘well, he’s in Hell now, that’s too bad.’

What I did like:

Dan

He’s struggling and he knows it, and he’s trying to be a better version of himself while knowing he’s deeply flawed

The scenes with Dan & Lucifer working a case together are some of my favorites

While I do wish he had recognized Michael’s ploy - in light of his history of doing something morally questionable “for the greater good” and his current self-examination - his reaction makes sense to me. He’s terrified and he reacts very honestly and directly; I think Lucifer would far prefer Dan’s reaction of just shooting him to Chloe’s reaction that involved her lying to him and allowing him hope only to learn she planned on using his feelings for her to allow her to get close enough to use the poison (and send him back to hell).

Lucifer & Trixie - loved it (up until the elevator scene at the end)

Lucifer’s very practical solution of marking Michael so they couldn’t be confused - brutal yes, but practical

This turned out way longer than I thought it would. I could be wrong - I did only see it once so it’s entirely possible I’ve missed something or don’t remember something - and I know we’ve got more episodes to come that may improve the season.

But compared to season 4 which had a tight plot that worked in concert with the character arcs, my initial impression of season 5 is overwhelming disappointment. I expected better than I got.

#lucifer #season 5 spoilers #this is rant-y y'all #I didn't like season 5 #it had some good moments #but IDK WTH happened between season 4 & 5 #netflix you have betrayed me #I thought you were my savior

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spikeymarshmallows · 4 years ago

Text

so, TUA s2 thoughts

I haven’t actually finished it but I’ve got the gist of it lol

I finished it this afternoon! Whoo!

Spoilers under the cut.

So I had a few Big Fears going in. And none of them eventuated. WHOO. Or didn’t eventuate in the ways I was most concerned about.

1. I was scared they’d give Reginald a Redemption Arc TM. They did not. Thank god.

2. I was scared that the sibling interactions would suck. They did not! They were amazing. Glorious. I had to rewind so many to just truly savour them.

3. I was worried about Lila. I mean, she “gets in the way of my ship” but I’m good at ignoring that. Honestly, I kinda dug her.

4. I was worried about the “ewwwww incest” stuff. But they... actually didn’t do it terribly. Luther and Allison still clearly adore each other. It was referenced a number of times and never as an “ewwww”. I really loved that. There were some gorgeous moments and like, as one of my friends said... It seemed like they were trying to sit neutral on the issue. Which I can understand and respect.

5. I was worried about the Kliego interactions. And yeah, we didn’t really get them. BUT as a writer, I definitely felt I got more sand to play with. I’m already working on at least three new ideas and I haven’t even finished the season yet. Also, I definitely am gonna need more Luego, more Biego, and if I ever stop feeling shy, I’ll probs join Electra-XT and achilleees on their Fiego ship. I’m just realising what the common denominator is here but that’s also not a surprise. Diego is my baby and I ship him with everyone.

Things I wasn’t scared about per se, but was pleasantly surprised about:

Allison and Raymond - I went in a bit cautious because it looked like the Alluther was going to be all EWWWW INCEST. But... god, the love that man had for her... He was just wonderful. It was just beautiful. I really genuinely enjoyed them.

The sit-in etc - I was scared about this one, but not in the same way as I was that Reginald would get a redemption arc. I’m a white person, and I’m not from the US so I cannot comment fully on it, but... it seemed like they tried to do a good job with it. I definitely need to read more about race relations in that time period in particular before I can comment effectively. The police brutality was.... brutal. Heart wrenching. And timely given what we’re seeing in the world right now, and have been seeing for far too long. Defund the goddamn police.

Klaus’ hair and outfits - seems inane compared to the last point.... But like. I thought Robbie looked so incredibly hot all season. I miss his goth aesthetic but... damn. He looked so gooooood.

Diego’s hair and outfits - I expected to hate them more than I did. Apparently my rare sexual attraction to him knows no limits because I was so thirsty watching him.

Luther - I was so happy that he was so fucking likeable! I have been on the “we do not insult luther hargreeves in this house” team for quite a while, but I felt that Luther really shone this season. My big, soft, idiot, earnest boy...

Elliot - I rather enjoyed him! RIP.

Some things I was less than thrilled about....

The siblings being mean to Diego : ( - The “Klaus Hargreeves Needs a Hug” tag got a beating last season. I swear, if we don’t get 500 “Diego Hargreeves Gets A Hug” fics, I’m gonna write them all my damn self. I’m also not going “uwu my baby had people be mean to him : (((((” but like. No. No, that.... A lot of it kinda really got me down.

The Ben possessing Klaus stuff - Like. I get it. But I just... Klaus might be annoying but he was pretty : ( at being possessed and like... It felt pretty icky to me. Klaus literally said he felt violated. Ben was all “mwahahaha once you sleep I’m gonna take over your body”. I get why Ben was annoyed and why he wanted to. Doesn’t mean I feel nice about that whole... thing.

The Vanya/Sissy thing - I see a lot of sides of the coin here. I have some friends who were thrilled because they love Vanya being a lesbian, and having representation. But I also saw: stereotyping of what A Lesbian Is, pigeonholing Ellen to only play lesbians. Also, like, I went in cautious, but I was just... .....kinda bored with that storyline? And yeah, I would have preferred to just... you know, not have the amnesia. I liked seeing Vanya be happier, sure, but.. IDK it just didn’t make sense to me from a storytelling perspective.

Lila and Diego - Initially, I quite liked her. As a character, I enjoyed her. My ship aside.... Honestly, it makes me a bit *grimacing emoji* to see some of the stuff we saw. Like, I’m far from someone who thinks ships need to be Good and Pure. But at least some of the stuff I saw between them (such as, IDK, drugging... kidnapping... etc) makes it a bit of a nOTP. Not a FULL nOTP, but like... It definitely went from “awww” and “lolll” to “hmmm, not... not sure this particular pairing is for me personally”.

Things I wasn’t scared about but loved:

FIVE - Good god, Aidan has always been an impressive little fucker but he really stepped it up a notch this season. I loved the way he went psycho. I loved the love he always has for his family. I adored his lines. I adored his vulnerability, the little cracks we really got to see. He loves his family so fucking much T.T

DIEGO - They gave David some really, really good stuff to work with this season and he aced it. He was absolutely sensational. I adore this man. AND HIS POWERS.

KLAUS - Weird thing to be OMG about but... ......I was super there for Robbie’s legs this season... They’re so.. skinny. IDK, it’s weird. But I loved it. I loved his hair. I loved his outfits.

ALLLLLISSONNNNNNN - This woman is perfect. The End.

Misc Thoughts

Damn, given the above, it sounds like I’m all “uwu, all things must be good and pure” and that’s so not my standpoint. But I am team “there needs to be some basic respect both ways”, even for enemies to lovers. So I felt a bit :/ at some of the Horrance stuff and Diego/Lila stuff. Not that I hate them! Just... ....Some of it wasn’t to my taste. But that’s okay, I can ignore a lot of stuff!

I definitely don’t hate the pairings! Rather there were a few things in those pairings that personally didn’t blink as “WHEEEE” for me... But I’ll just ignore those elements and focus on the bits I did like and... YAY!

Overall, honestly, I really loved this season. We needed more Kliego, but I loved the Five and Diego interactions, Diego and Luther... Klaus and Allison... Five and Luther... Just. Just. I was really delighted at so many things we saw.

I thought so many of the interactions just shone. I loved them.

I’ve seen some people be really upset and mad and confused etc, about how the siblings were at the dinner with Reginald. I’ve written my thoughts on it here. TLDR: for someone who has experienced abuse from a parental figure, their responses aligned extremely well with my own experiences.

NGL, Klaus being all “T.T” about being touched all the time was.... good?? IDK, it gave me Ideas TM.

I have fic ideas!!!

It’s weird... I thought this was a really Light and Bright season but I also... Know I felt a lot of T.T and hearthurt. In good ways.

#spikey's tua s2 spoilers

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sometimesrosy · 5 years ago

Note

Do you think Lxa was just listening to Clarke in s3 to the point of alienating her own people just because she wanted to screw her or because she really wanted peace? Because it got to the point where Lxa’s actions where very obviously favoring the sky people over her own. This is not the Lxa we saw in s2. How did you interpret it?

I disagree with your essential theory here. I think it was the Lxa we saw in season 2. Most of my disdain for Lxa actually stems from my belief that she was a terrible leader who cared more about her reputation and power than she did about doing what was best for her people. Understand that my whole interpretation of Lxa stems from her poor leadership, so the widely accepted interpretation that Lxa was some sort of brilliant, peacemaking leader... a visionary... doesn’t wash with me.

Oh hey, this is a long one so I’m going to write it all after the jump, which keeps some of the controversy at bay because at heart, we’re all too lazy to click keep reading. And the last time I said the behavior of a beloved character was not out of character but was their character the entire time, and gave evidence for it, I got some stans MAD. Like I was making up the canon or something IDK. I think it was more like they were erasing canon or brushing it under the rug because it wasn’t nice. Whatever didn’t fit their interpretation they decided was unimportant.

So this is going to happen in regards to Lxa. Do not read if you’re not willing to read that. And if you do read it, don’t get mad at me for not thinking Lxa is the bees knees. You’ve been warned, now be a responsible consumer of media and either accept that people are allowed different opinions or don’t read it because you’re not interested in interpretations that read Lxa as an antagonist. (this is directed at stans, not you anon.)

ok moving on the meta

Yes. Indra called her a visionary, and we know that she united the clans against a common enemy, the mountain men, which kept them from infighting, but I don’t actually consider that peace. Unity, yes. Peace, no. They united in order to fight someone else. There’s no definition of peace that centers on waging war. And when we SAW her leading, once the story starts? Lxa lost every battle that she entered into. Not the one on one fights, she was a good warrior, I’ll give her that. However, the only people she managed to kill or dominate were her own people. And whenever she or her people were up against the skypeople, she actually lost. Even when things were so weighted in her favor that there was no question that the grounders would win. She still lost.

I can’t speak for her motivation before the show starts. It does seem as if her “peacemaking,” which makes it better for the tribes, but also ended up giving her more power over everyone, including her most bitter enemies, the Azgeda, serves the double duty of allying the tribes AND glorifying Lxa herself.

TBH, I don’t see ANY action she takes in the entire series that doesn’t glorify Lxa. Well, until she meets Clarke and falls in love, and then she starts trying to make decisions that AREN’T about her reputation or power base or political machinations... although i think in public, she keep maneuvering it all back to being for her glorification.

She wants Clarke and loves her and desires her, so she takes her. BUT she manipulates it to be a political move where she has power over the sky people and over death itself. Clarke LITERALLY becomes a trophy, who needs to kneel at her feet. And yes, she does kneel back, but only in private, so it doesn’t damage her reputation or show weakness. Clarke becomes a vulnerability to her because of this, I think.

I do think Lxa’s weakness is love... but we have to expand the definition to mean love, desire, yearning... and not just for Clarke or Costia or any people. Lxa LOVES power, and her desire is to keep, maintain and grow her power... and if letting TonDC blow will give her more power, she’ll let her coalition leaders die. If betraying Clarke and skycrew will give her more power, she’s leave them to die. If kidnapping Clarke and using her to prove she’s powerful (and also giving her what she’s wanted since s2 which is Clarke near enough to date,) then she’ll do it. Oh look, her unstated desires are starting to bleed into political and leadership decisions. Weakness. It’s not the love, I don’t think. it’s the lack of integrity. But her emotions make her unstable and unpredictable. She wants what she wants and will break her own rules to get it, whether it is a reputation as a badass or clarke in polis or control over her coalition or a legacy that makes her a legend.

And there was only one point when she favored the sky people and that’s when she let them slide on the hakeldama massacre. And to be honest, that wasn’t about preferring the skypeople. It wasn’t even about loving Clarke. Clarke manipulated her into that decision by accurately understanding what motivated Lxa... power, reputation, and her LEGACY. Clarke fed her ego by convincing her that showing the skypeople mercy would make her famous as a visionary. This is not my interpretation. This is canon. It wasn’t “if you love me you’ll let my people live.” It wasn’t “don’t kill innocent people, please have mercy.” It was, “if you spare them, people will remember you as merciful, as the visionary who brought peace to the people.” Not “this is the right thing to do.” But “this is how people will see you forever.” But remember also, that mercy came with a double edged sword. An army sitting outside Arkadia, that could either protect or destroy if they stepped out of line. They weren’t diplomats. They were warriors, and they were armed and dangerous. When Pike’s army killed them, they weren’t innocents. Pike killed their watch FIRST. Which is TACTICS. He removed their first defense. And then killed their archers, so they couldn’t get close enough to the sky people to overwhelm them with their superior numbers. This was not more powerful warriors killing defenseless people (like it was at the drop ship. what was SPECIFICALLY these warriors, trikru,) it was 10 people with better weapons, assessing the weaknesses of an army 30 times their strength, and beating them with strategy. They didn’t cheat. They beat them fair and square. Their decision was WRONG, and a bad idea, but not cheating. Until they went through and killed the wounded. I think that’s a war crime. And Pike did deserve punishment for that (not Bellamy he tried to stop it.)

Even though she spared them and seemed to favor them over her army, in that one instance, the rest of the time she had the skypeople twisting on a string, pent up behind a fence, not allowed to use the mountain although they conquered it, not allowed to trade or farm or hunt. She was keeping them powerless. And when she punished Nia for blowing up MW, she didn’t do it for the skypeople, she did it for herself, because Nia challenged her. Nia attacked the skypeople as a move against Lxa.

I don’t think Lxa cared much about peace. She showed little mercy. To anyone unless it served her needs. And we saw that in season 2. And she wasn’t being kind to skaikru in season 3. Never. Sparing them from slaughter is not kindness, it is an abuse of power that continually reminds them she could slaughter them all, man woman and child, whenever she wanted to. And Clarke had to stay to make sure she didn’t. Regardless of her other reasons for wanting to stay (hiding from her people, trauma, wanting to be with Lxa.)

I’m always nervous to answer asks about Lxa because I do NOT think Lxa is a hero. Just because a character serves as representation for an under represented minority does not mean that that character is heroic, good, or perfect. Depicting a minority as a complex, three dimensional character (which I think Lxa IS) is actually good representation. It is not good representation to assume that all minorities are flawless, heroic, perfect characters. White guys get Superman, that perfect hero, but they also get Batman (dark and tortured,) and Rorsharch (maybe good maybe not so good,) and The Joker (really not good but compelling.) Lesbians don’t get any of that, so looking at Lxa, FINALLY representation of their own, they see Superman, that perfect example. But Lxa in the story is really more like Magneto. A leader with good intentions whose motives and methods are SEVERELY questionable and from many perspectives, down right evil.

At best, if you look at the story from her perspective (which is not the perspective of the narrative) she is a TRAGIC hero, like Hamlet or Macbeth, a character who starts out high, with power and respect, and through their own fatal flaws, falls and loses everything. That is EXACTLY what happened to Lxa. This was not an attack on her character, this was how her character was built from the beginning and is a VERY classic tragic story. No one did it to her. She did it to herself. She was warned along the way. And she did what she wanted anyway, and she lost EVERYTHING, her life, her people, her power, her traditions, her religion, even, eventually, her immortality. Everything that happened to the grounders was essentially set into place by Lxa, when she attacked 100 pretty helpless adolescents, and strung Jasper up, unprovoked.

She didn’t cause the Ark to fail, or the rebellion on the ark. She didn’t cause the second apocalypse. She didn’t cause the Eligius or Sanctum. But the story of the grounders and how their society collapsed was TOTALLY on Lxa’s head. But she WAS more interested in her own self interest, desires, and power than she was the benefit of her people.

I think her behavior in s3 is consistent with her behavior in s2, with some added character development of how BAD she is at dealing with love. No, dear, you cannot kidnap someone and make them love you. You literally did EVERYTHING wrong in wooing Clarke. You’re just lucky she’s so forgiving and was so vulnerable when you had her in your clutches. Anyway. It was good for neither of them.

I simply do not agree with the interpretation that Lxa is a good leader, kind, or visionary. Not in s2 or s3. I think she’s a good character as an antagonist, but the fandom interpretations erase her antagonist qualities and flatten her out into a cupcake that doesn’t belong in this story. She’s not the hero. Clarke, Bellamy and the 100 are. Lxa is the person who caused a good portion of the trauma for our heroes, even in the romance. That makes her the antagonist. Lxa stood in the way of our heroes getting what they wanted in season 1, season 2 and season 3. That’s an antagonist, even when the complexity of love, and a golden cage, is added to the story. I do not ever say that their love isn’t real, I’m saying that just because there’s love doesn’t mean it is good, healthy, or helpful for our hero. Love does not equal perfect, or we wouldn’t have heartbreak, domestic abuse, failed marriages, love triangles, bad girfriends/boyfriends, or Donna Summer’s classic disco hit, “I Will Survive” (hey hey)

#the 100 #not out of character #buyer beware don't read this if you can't handle lxa as an antagonist #however i feel like the last line of this is the funniest shit i've written in years

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calliecat93 · 5 years ago

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(Part Two)

Another volume, done. God, I feel like I just survived a whirlwind. To say that this has been a very eventful volume of RWBY would be a /huge/ understatement. We had so, so much happen. New characters, uncovered truths, political battles, murder and chaos at every turn, just… a lot. But we once again made it to this point folks. We made it to the end and we can take it easy as we await Volume 8. But with the volume now over, how did it fare? Was it a success? A failure? Or somewhere in between? And how does it measure compared to the previous six?

We have a lot to go over folks. So much that I had no choice but to make this a two-parter. Yeah, that long folks. The last two-parter I did was twelve pages long, so… yeah. In this section, we will cover Animation/Visuals, Audio, and the first half of the Character section (mainly the Atlas characters and villains). Part Two will cover the rest of the Characters (RWBYJNRQO), Story, Volume Stats, and my Final Thoughts. Everyone got all that? Good! With that said, let’s conclude this year’s RWBY Reviews with the biggest one of all: the full Volume Seven Review.

Animation/Visuals

Perfect as always. The design work once again proves perfect. CRWBY described Mantle and Atlas as based on different industrial ages, and it shows. Mantle is a big, but worn down city. It has some major New York vibes. Heck, maybe even some Gotham City with how bleak it is. The people are down-trodden and the place just looks dirty. It is a relic of the past, while Atlas represents the future. Clean, shades of blue and white to show how pristine it is, fancy locations like Atlas Academy or the Schnee Manor. Atlas is the future. A representation of the greatness that humanity can achieve… at least it looks that way. The two cities contrast so much, and it’s just so well done. When you compare to how we sadly saw so little of Mistral in comparison seeing this much with Atlas was a real treat.

Character stuff continues to be great. All of the new outfits of the heroes look fantastic. Even Jaune’s dumb hair ended up better in actual animation than it did in the still they showed at NYCC. Every character looks fantastic. Expressions are once more on point. One of the best cases is Ironwood. You can see how worn down the man is at every single turn, but also the steely determination. You can just look at him and you get the sense of strong authority, yet plain exhaustion all at the same time. In Chapter 11 when he goes from exhausted relief to full-blown horror, you feel it. Oh God do you feel it. You feel what all of these characters are feeling. Ruby’s despair in Chapter 11, Blake and Yang’s confliction in Chapter 7, Nora’s growing rage about Mantle all throughout the volume. How broken Ren feels in Chapter 13. The pure coldness from James form the same chapter when he shoots Oscar. The character animation was just on point.

The effects are also well done. I mean the Salem apparition in Chapter 11? Horrifying. Fria’s Maiden-charged blizzard was the best though. Powerful, yet somehow haunting beautiful. There have been some updates as well, like Neon’s rainbow trail and Neo’s Semblance look a lot better. Some new Grimm designs like the Saybers and the pterodactyl thing. There’s kind of a dinosaur/Ice Age theme with the Grimm, which fits with the Antarctica-esque environment of Solitas. The fight scenes were very well done, especially in the final chapters. The Ironwood vs Watts fight was freakin’ excellent and we finally got to see the Anti-Gravity biome! RWBY vs Ace-Ops was amazing on all fronts, both with the choreography and on a symbolic level. The best fight imo though is Cinder vs Penny and Winter, especially when it gets taken out into the open air. Pure epicness. Seriously, every fight was freakin’ fantastic, even minor ones like JNRO vs FNKI or the Bees vs Robyn. Even some that I wasn’t into, like Tyrian vs Qrow, CLover, and Robyn were fun to watch~

Overall, the animation and visuals were excellent~ Five starts!

Audio

If I went over every voice acting performance, we’d be here all day. Every actor was excellent. The regulars were excellent. The newbies were excellent. Everyone was excellent. We get people that we haven’t heard in a long while, like Taylor McNee (Penny), Elizabeth Maxwell (Winter), and Jason Rose (Ironwood). None of them have lost their touch. Taylor still captures Penny’s innocent charm beautifully, and her performance when Penny is just broken after being framed was heartbreaking. Jason was /especially/ good. He still carries the General’s strong authority while adding more weight, but when he becomes utterly unhinged? He did a masterful job with the performance. We also let Chris Sabat and Josh Grelle do more with their characters and it’s wonderful. Josh as Tyrian has always been great, but getting to hear Chris do more Watts? Excellent. I’m so used to him being the brute guy, like Vegeta in DBZ or Zoro in One Piece. But he does the calculated egomaniac very well and you can tell that he’s enjoying every single scene. Excellent job sir~ Jessica Nigri ended up stealing the show though, giving by far her most insane performance as Cinder yet and she 100% killed it.

We got some new people as well, and they were all great. I was so happy to see Cristina Vee getting cast and she does such a good job as Robyn. Playful but also determined. The Ace-Ops cast was good with Chris Wehkamp (Clover), Anaris Quinones (Harriet), and Mick Lauer (Marrow) being the stand-outs. Caitlin Glass got one episode as Willow, but she did an excellent job portraying how broken she is but also has just a spark of fight in her. She only got like… three minutes, and she did it perfectly. David Fennoy was a surprise to hear considering he was already in Grimm Eclipse, but it was a wonderful surprise. He perfectly portrays Pietro as this Gepetto-esque father figure who I fell in love with immediately. Then, of course, we have Jason Liebrecht as Qrow. To say that the guy was put into the not so flattering task of taking over due to the circumstances with Vic’s firing is putting it mildly. But he pulled it off. By the second chapter alone, I was already sold. He did an excellent job portraying Qrow and imo, already surpassed Vic. Like everything in Chapter 12? Jason /nailed/ every single emotion right on the head. I’m greatly looking forward to hearing more of him in the future~

The main cast as I said, were excellent. Some got it a bit easier this year, like Miles, Arryn, and Barbara. They still did great, but they took a bit more of a back seat and we’ll go more into that in Character. Neath and Aaron, while their characters stuff is more subdued, did an excellent job with their respective character’s viewpoints. Sam Ireland /finally/ got to do more with Nora outside ‘bubble and energetic’ with Nora’s anger about Mantle and her conflictions about Ren. She did it beautifully. Kara got much more with Weiss compared to last year, and she portrays all of Weiss’ worries and conflict perfectly. Especially in Chapter 4 when she tells her father off. I cheered so much. Lindsay with Ruby was perfect. She got a lot more serious moments with hr compared to the past, but she handled them all excellently. She goes through so many emotions in Chapter 11 alone and she hits every single one right in the head. She and Sam are tied for the standout among the mains, but all of them did an excellent job as always.

Then what’s RWBY without its soundtrack? Once more, perfect work. The scores were all excellent. Penny’s letimotif, instrumentals of songs like The Path to Isolation and Trust Love, the haunting violins at the end of Chapter 9, even the three-second bit of Indomitable in Chapter 10. Alex Abraham once more does an amazing job. I still remember the kickass guitar during the first fight in Chapter 1 and I was immediately pumped. Every score added to every scene and added so much more to them. But they also knew when to just let scenes be quiet, and it added so much weight. Once more, quality sound work.

But then we have Jeff Williams. What do you want me to say that I haven’t been saying since Volume 1? The man is a genius. He did amazing. Casey did amazing. I got nothing new to add. The songs this volume were freakin’ excellent. The opening, while kind of a tone contrast to the volume, was an excellent song and perfectly expresses the themes of the volume. Then we have things like the uplifting rock ballad Brand New Day, the badassness of Hero featuring Caleb Hyles, and the credits song as per usual. Speaking of Caleb though, it was nice to hear some new vocalists with him, Santi C, and the quartet in War, though of course, Casey remains flawless as ever. I loved all of the songs. IDK if it tops V6’s soundtrack yet, but it’s up there. Now, of course, my favorites will likely change when the full tracks are out, but here is the current ranking:

War (Chapter 12)

Hero (Chapter 11)

Fear (Chapter 13 Credits)

Trust Love (Opening Theme)

Brand New Day (Chapter 5)

Until the End (Chapter 13)

Touch the Sky (Chapter 3)

Let’s Get Real (Chapter 6)

Celebrate (Chapter 6)

Audio-wise, the volume was great. Great voice acting. Great sound effects. Great music. Just great all around~

Characters, Part One (Villains and Atlas)

There are… so many characters this volume. So, so many. Hence why I had to divide it up. We’ll cover the villains and Atlas characters here, and we’ll focus on the mains in Part 2 of the review. Since the villains won’t take too long we’ll start with them and go from there.

Not too much to say about Tyrian. He’s as terrifying and crazy as ever, and even moreso after Chapter 12, but it was nice to get some more details on his history before Salem. Him being a serial killer makes sense, as is his undying worship of Salem since she both saved him and she’s the manifestation of every twisted thing that he believes in. I think Chapter 12 also helped re-ignite his threat level with his brutal murder of Qrow, which reminded me even more than Chapter 6 of how terrifying the man is. Still, he was just there to be cray and murderous, and he did so. Watts thought was more interesting. We got some more background, like how he was a former Atlesian scientist who created Mantle’s security network and he joined Salem essentially because he felt like Ironwood put him down and he got jealous that Pietro’s project was chosen over his. It’s petty, but all the villains are petty. It helps him stand out though and he’s certainly one of the more interesting of Salem’s cult due to it. We also see that he does have some combat still, which is nice. No idea what happens with him now, but he served his role in this volume very well.

But then we have Cinder and Neo. Neither of which I was expecting anything major from this volume. Well, guess I was wrong. Cinder as of late has attracted a lot of hate… I mean yeah we /are/ supposed to hate her, but people just hate her as a character. The main thing seems to be how we don’t know Cinder’s motivations, and I get that. But really? I think that she was excellent here. Unlike in Mistral, she is once more in control and thus her smug personality is back in full. She’s only in four episodes, and she uses that time masterfully to turn everything on its head. The way she broke Ironwood alone with just a glass chess piece. She clearly learned from Salem well. I mean the way that Salem broke Ruby by just mentioning Summer’s fate? That is some master class psychological warfare. Something that Cinder has clearly mastered and when she isn’t running off rage she can pull it off excellently. But of course, at the end, she again failed to get the Maiden powers. With how she became more and more insane throughout the fight, I fear that she’s going to become even more callous than ever before.

I’m also really starting to grow fond of Neo. She started off as an overhyped character (imo) that was brought back for mere fanservice, but they are clearly trying to use her as best as possible. And I think that they’re doing a great job. Neo has an agenda against Ruby and knows that Cinder can easily obliterate her, which is the only reason why Neo is dealing with this. You can tell that unlike Emerald and Mercury, she is not happy following Cinder’s orders. She’s only following her to both get at her target and to live, not out of gratitude or feeling like it’s all that she has due to her upbringing. It’s nice to see someone who Cinder has no control over, yet Cinder can still over-power her so she has to go with it for now. But it helps give Neo a character and compared to before where I just didn’t get why she existed, I’m legit excited to see what happens with her next.

Now we can cover the Atlesian Military. They are… a complex bunch. Fitting, considering who their general is. James Ironwood has always been a very complicated character. On the one hand, we’ve seen through volumes 2-4 that he is genuinely a good person who wants to protect the people and do what’s right. But the problem with him has always been that he makes all the wrong choices. He didn’t heed Ozpin warnings in Beacon about showing off his military might, and it leads to the Fall and Atlas being made out as the villains. He hasn’t gotten any better. If anything, he’s gotten worse. He’s still well-intentioned, but as the old saying goes “The pathway to Hell is paved with good intentions.”, and Jame is the living embodiment of it.

We see that James did genuinely want to trust the heroes. He gives them the Lamp back, he gives them their license, he has them train with his best. He was sincere and he just wants to protect people. But his own paranoia and flaws as a person have overwhelmed him. His TSD has deteriorated his mind and since he isn’t getting proper help, it’s making him lose it. He’s terrified of Salem, so much that once he saw that Black Queen chess piece and doubt was placed into his mind, he snapped. He went from taking RWBY’s secret-keeping well and keeping focused on what was important, to turning on them and leaving a city that he is just as responsible for as Atlas to die. It’s a truly tragic tale. You /want/ James to do the right thing. He’s not a bad person, and you can see the logic with all of his decisions. But they are the wrong decisions not just on a logical level when you really think about it, but especially on a moral level. You can see that he knows what he’s doing is wrong and that he isn’t happy about it, but he still does it and now hundreds will die because of it. He has gone from a flawed but heroic man, to no better than Salem herself which he seals by shooting Oscar with no hesitation. It is a sad tale, but it is a well-done arc and just shows how excellent of a character James is. I am very pleased with his character here.

The Ace-Ops are decent additions. We don’t know a lot about them, but they have personality. Clover is the nice guy leader, Harriet is the confident and competitive second-in-command, Marrow is the out-going rookie, Elm is the out-going bruiser, and VIne is the calm, logical one. On the surface, they are heroic people… but like with James, it’s more complex. None of them are bad people, Marrow especially considering his Faunus status and he is fully aware of Atlas’ bigotry/messed up class system. But they were trained to not care about emotions or relationships. Priority Number One is obeying the general’s orders without question, and if they do, to go against those urges. It’s harsh because you can see that the five are good and friendly people, but once Ironwood lost it, that conditioning came into full effect.

You can tell that RWBY’s ‘betrayal’ hurt them. Harriet, despite saying that none of them are friends, clearly felt hurt and enraged. Same with Elm, though unlike Harriet who was practically going for the kill, Elm seemed to be trying to force herself to do so. Vine tried to solve it peacefully, clearly not wanting to fight, but no one else was willing to follow. Marrow was the biggest example. His heart was not in the fight, and I think he honestly did agree with RWBY. He tried to push himself otherwise, but it failed. Then Clover, who has stood by James’ side throughout even if he seemed unhappy with it, tried to arrest Qrow on the spot even when Tyrian re-entered the fray. That blind devotion sadly cost him his life… and I wonder how this is going to affect Ace-Ops. Despite what Harriet said, they were still all allies and I can see this messing them up. It either makes them want payback or see the light. Regardless, they were a good bunch of side-characters and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

A bigger, and much sadder, example of this Atlas conditioning is Winter. She is loyal to James because due to him and the military, she got out of her abusive home and a shot at a better life. But the sad reality is that she's really in no better position than she would have been otherwise. She’s been groomed to become the Winter Maiden and despite her choosing it to make it her own, it's still pretty much someone deciding her life for her. She internalizes her feelings and continues to obey James, despite knowing and feeling that it is wrong. Just like she was trained to do. The only person that she makes an exception for is Weiss, which seeing how much she cares and is proud of her sister and even taking her to the Winter Maiden facility was super sweet. But even then not only does she still keep a composed demeanor around Weiss, but she still stood by James even after Weiss became wanted. But hopefully, with the Maiden destiny not off the table and Weiss a fugitive, this will give Winter the chance to accept her own emotions and begin to carve her own destiny. One not chosen by anyone but herself.

But of course, the one we can blame for Winter’s state, along with James, is Jaques Schnee. I didn’t think I could hate him anymore than I already did, but I got proven wrong. The man is ambitious, willing to do anything to keep his business (well… the business he stole) running and himself in power. He runs for Council pretty much just to get rid of the embargo and takedown James. He’s despicable and I hate him and I hope he rots behind jail. Whitley doesn't really have anything new, just a bit more hammering down that he is the way he is due to the abuse and his sister’s leaving him behind. Willow though? She gets one episode, and I feel horrible for this woman. While her shutting down pretty much ruined her kids' lives, you can see why and feel sympathy for her. His is a woman worn down, and while the smallest spark of fight is in her as she gives Weiss the key to burying her father, it’s so clear that she’s broken. It’s going to take a very long time for her to recover if she does. As for Whitley, his father may be gone. But the control he had over his son is likely still firm. Which can only mean bad things for Weiss.

Opposing Atlas is Robyn Hill, Mantle’s Hometown Hero. She is very much the anti-Ironwood. She’s devoted to Mantle and wants to do what’s best for them, even if it means breaking the law. But she’s not unreasonable either. She was very friendly to Clover and Marrow, only becoming antagonistic after Penny got framed for murdering her supporters. And even then, she listened to Blake and Yang and was willing to give Ironwood a chance. One that he blew sky high. But Robyn comes off as a good person who sees the injustices with Mantle and once making a change the legal way became impossible, she resorted to the illegal route. And even then, she and her Happy Huntresses never hurt anyone and were trying to help the people that James was making suffer. Just as her inspiration of Robin Hood. She’s a very likable, inspiring character though I do wish we got some more backstory for her. But hey, she’s a good person who didn’t fall into Atlas’ conditioning trying to help those who need it, and you don’t need a motivation to do the right thing.

This brings us to Penny Polendina and her father Pietro. I’m so, soooo happy to have Penny back. I have some issues with her return, mainly in that she and Ruby never talk about what happened, But that’s more for when I get to Ruby. But aside from that, Penny was excellent. She’s still the same quirky, sweet girl that we met back early on, but we get much more of her this time. She’s been made Mante’s protector, and it is a duty that he is full-heartedly devoted to. She wants to understand feelings more, like how to balance the things she wants to do with her duties and is confused about how Winter can shove her emotions aside to do what is clearly wrong. Penny may be a robot, but she is by far the most human of the Atlesian cast. It made how broken she was when framed by Tyrian and Watts hurt so much, as well as Ironwood’s comments about how she’s under his control. He talks as though she’s just another robot soldier, and you can see how much that hurts her. But at the very end, she proved how goodhearted she is when she calms/comforts Fria in her final moments, and due to it, Fria chooses her to be the next Winter Maiden. A title that she absolutely deserves.

We can probably thank Pietro for Penny being a good person. He’s just as lively as she is and clearly loves her with all of his heart. I mean he’s given up chunks of his Aura in order to bring her back. That is love, people. While I wish he had more of him (and Maria for that matter), Pietro was so much fun and a welcome addition to the supporting cast. He’s a genius responsible for much of Atlas’ technological achievements, but he also takes time to help those in Mantle. He wanted to create a savior with a soul, which I think says a lot about him as a person. While I wish he and Penny had more interaction, that loving father/daughter bond is there and it helps them both stand out among a cast slowly losing their humanity. I worry for them, especially with Salem having Grimm Monstro on her side, but doesn’t change how happy I was with them here.

Then we, of course, have our main cast… but that is something that we shall cover in Part Two. Stay tuned~

#rwby #rwby7 #rwby reviews #callie reviews

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