#is it as good as s1? probably not. but i think s2 is the foundation we need for an absolutely breathtaking s3.

[pokemonruby]

OH SO THE THEORIES WERE RIGHT THEN, ALL RIGHT COOL

[three--rings]

I'm really disturbed by the fact that I'm seeing people post S2ep8 of IWTV still talking about Lestat as an abuser and Louis as a victim, period end of conversation.

Because I feel like we are explicitly told in ep7 and 8 that that is not the case but some people haven't adjusted their thoughts yet.

Now this is a show explicitly about the unreliability of personal accounts and what we see on screen is often proven not to be how things happen. So, obviously things are always up for debate. But.

We are shown the extended scene of what happened before Lestat flew Louis up into the sky to drop him. In S1 we saw that scene from Claudia's perspective, and she just heard crashing and shouting, and then saw Louis thrown through a wall by Lestat before the whole flight thing.

Ep 7 we are shown Lestat's version of events which are Louis physically and verbally attacking him over and over, slamming Lestat into things, while Lestat begs him to stop, warning him that he will fight back and he's afraid of hurting Louis, and Louis merely eggs him on. Then we get Lestat turning the tables and throwing Louis through a wall.

Now, obviously this is Lestat's version and probably a bit biased to be sympathetic to him. But Louis admits Lestat's version of Claudia's turning is the more correct one than his account and he admits to portraying Lestat intentionally as a villain in the interview, so...well I think the show is telling us that our impression from S1 is at least not the whole story.

Ep 8 underlines this with the scene with Louis and Lestat when Louis apologizes for the way he acted to Lestat in the past, saying "I tried to make nights awful with you. I wanted you to suffer."

We also see him throw Armand into the wall in this episode, which I get people feel Armand deserved, but I feel like the conversation around that has been weird as well. Like, people talk about that being a sign that Louis is stronger than Armand, as if physical violence is impossible from someone who is weaker than their victim. But this is also another instance of Louis using physical violence against his partner when (justifiably) angry.

Look, abusive relationships are complicated. Mutually toxic ones even more so. Reactive abuse is a thing, when an initial victim becomes violent or abusive in response to abuse they've received. It's complicated, and I speak from personal experience.

But I very much feel like the show is SCREAMING at the audience that things are not simple and that no one in this scenario is blameless, ESPECIALLY not Louis. He's not blameless in the case of Claudia. He's not blameless in the destruction of his relationship with Lestat. He's not blameless in his relationship with Armand, for all it's built on a lie, because he entered it to fucking make Lestat mad for god's sake and that's a terrible foundation for a relationship.

Raglan James says Louis is the one to really be afraid of. Louis at the end of the season with his "I own the night" speech. Much of the second half of S2 is ABOUT this.

The entire heartbreaking scene with Lestat at the end is Louis owning his part of the responsibility, and that's huge. Lestat accepted his responsibility and apologized on stage in Paris, and now Louis is as well.

So yeah, I think some people need to rethink their attitudes when they call Lestat Louis's abuser and Louis a battered wife. I read that and I go wait, we're not gonna interrogate that at all?

I of course feel at this point I have to put in a bunch of disclaimers about how this is not an anti-Louis post or trying to excuse the violence done by Lestat, blah blah but honestly some people who can only see things in terms of Good and Evil and Guilty and Innocent are never going to appreciate that kind of thing anyway. I just don't know why those people are watching this show, which is entirely about nuance and complicated interpersonal relations that are messy and resist easy analysis, BY DESIGN.

[ofmdsalt]

i do think it’s funny that the gentlebeardies who proclaim their love for the revenge crew don’t actually talk that much about or create content for the revenge crew. they don’t give a shit about the “boatful of queer poc that Izzy sold out” (LMFAO) unless they can use the crew’s diversity as some kind of moral gotcha. they care about GB because that’s the only thing that matters about the show in their eyes. and it’s so fucking unoriginal!!! just endless regurgitated post about “omg they’re soooo in love~~ and isn’t it great that love conquered all their problems~~!” it’s unoriginal derivative dreck unless they have to invent new ways to lie about how izzy deserves the death penalty.

oh anon you get me

you have no idea how much i hate the diversity of the crew being used as a literal weapon in this fandom when it comes to demonizing izzy and washing Ed and Stede of any of their wrong doings.

im frustrated by the use of the crew in season 2 only because it was so painfully obvious to me that the budget cuts really affected the ensemble. the way the Swede and Buttons were written out of the show felt rushed and like it came out of nowhere, especially as those two characters, felt the 'least' developed out of the rest of them. so giving them both this long winded set up to be written out was too clunky for me.

i miss when Frenchie was singing and strumming along on his lute. i miss when Jim was Jim, because lbr that was Vico in s2. it just felt like Jim wasn't there anymore. i can't say what happened in the writer's room at that time or what sort of material Vico was given or if it skewed more to improve, but a lot of what was established for the characters in s1 was missing for me.

the rhetoric of this being the Ed&Stede show i think did more harm than good. the assertion that the other characters are only here in service of Ed and Stede's development reduces the sense of scale and scope and also agency these characters have.

a lot of the foundational aspects of GB as a ship i think falls a bit too much into fan service. people talk about how revolutionary and groundbreaking the ship is as a cis gay couple on screen. as if it hasn't been seen before. like i didn't get the wow moment of Stede in the mermaid costume as other fans did. Stede's dream at the beginning of season 2 with him killing Izzy and then colliding with Ed in this romantic gesture of love and passion on the beach is straight up fantasy for Stede, but i think fans took the idea of Stede literally killing Izzy a bit too seriously because that is Stede's fantasy. he wanted his reunion with Ed to be simple and understandable. that it was all Izzy's fault when the reality of the situation was so much messier and complicated. like David and the writers were literally telling us that Izzy is not the enemy here because this moment on the beach was pure fantasy. and fantasies can be dangerous

and then the fans said that Izzy deserved it, should have had his second leg shot and amputated, that he deserved to die, that he's still a nuisance even in death despite the fact that he's dead. that is both a master manipulator but also a cringe fail loser incapable of doing anything right. and it's like. okay. you don't seem to understand this character either.

like a lot of the problems in this fandom have existed before and will continue to exist in other iterations. every fandom has its ship wars. every fandom has long ass call out posts about characters they don't like. but let's not pretend this is anything revolutionary

what i've noticed is that this fandom will reach a burnout period and it's probably already upon us. the constant need to be like 'we're trending!!' when all algorithms are dog shit and glitchy as hell doesn't mean anything. plus the fact that there are only two seasons, less BTS content to go around, it's all coming from the same overdrawn well and eventually it will come up empty.

it's okay to step back. it's okay to leave a fandom for a bit and come back to it years down the road. it's okay. but all of this is exhausting

[lenaellsi]

What are your gomens s3 predictions for crowley?

WELL

I have three categories of predictions. I know where I would take the character, but the show surprises me so often that I don't expect to get it right. Just for fun, though, and under the cut because it got so fucking long:

1. He sleeps/binge drinks/otherwise disengages from the world straight through to the start of S3.

The Crowley of S2 is, in a lot of ways, more stable than the Crowley of the Crowley of S1, but I think he's also more depressed. His only purpose was survival from the moment he Fell to the moment he and Aziraphale quit their jobs, and now that he has to live, he's completely directionless. He doesn't understand (and has never understood) how he fits into the universe, how angels and demons generally fit into the universe, and what the point is if God can just wipe them all out for any reason. He doesn't believe in any part of the Good/Evil system. Aziraphale leaving--and confirming some of his greatest fears about the foundations of their relationship along the way--could be enough to send Crowley into an apathetic coma for a bit.

So I can see it happening, but my instinct says that's not where they'll go with it. Crowley tends to fall back on his escape methods only when he truly sees no other way out. In S1, he tried to drink himself to death only when Aziraphale was gone and, to his knowledge, there was no way to locate the Antichrist and even try to stop Armageddon. A few episodes before that, he proposed leaving only because Aziraphale hadn't shared Adam's location, and because Hell was actively hunting him. Once he learned where Adam was--once there was a sliver of a chance to save the world--he drove through Hellfire to do it. Crowley's not afraid to work through tough situations, he's just always aware of how fragile things are, and is prone to feeling angry and hopeless when he sees no path forward. And of course he is--it's his oldest wound, and his deepest, that he and everything he loves will always be at the whims of ineffability, and that there's nothing he can do about it.

But in S3, since he's not at the point where the destruction of the Earth seems inevitable yet:

2. Crowley will form his own plan to stop the Second Coming.

This is what I think will happen. Crowley loves Earth. He loves humanity. He was the one to talk Aziraphale into stopping Armageddon, the one to toast "to the world" at the end of S1. The planned destruction of the universe is the exact thing that caused him to Fall. Crowley is his own person outside of his relationship with Aziraphale, and that person has a long history of fighting and scheming and suffering for the sake of humanity.

He's also a very active character. He is consistently the one making plans, moving the plot forward, trying to enact change. He saw the schematics in Heaven, and I really do think he'll do his best to come up with a plan to stop them, even though he's understandably very upset.

I don't think it'll be a good plan. If I had to guess (without knowing any specifics of the plot) I think he'll either try to disrupt the delivery of Christ to Earth or try to cut Heaven and Hell off from Earth entirely. He has no allies, no support, and very little reason to be cautious in his approach, which leads me to why you probably sent this ask:

Option 3: As above, only this time the plan is either not something he plans to survive, or his own survival is not something he is particularly concerned about.

So the thing about Crowley is that I really don't think he has any substantial issues with self-loathing, or any active desire to do himself harm. He is a survivor; he values safety and contingency and isolation above most things. But he values three things more: 1) freedom of choice, 2) Earth, and 3) Aziraphale.

He's a very angry, very impulsive person, and he is dealing with a lot unresolved feelings on the issue of demons and angels existing in the universe at all, and he loves Aziraphale and the Earth so dearly that sometimes he doesn't think straight. He's reckless, he's pissed off, he's feeling hopeless, and, after their fight, he's also convinced that Aziraphale would probably be able to move on from losing him. (In his mind, 'Crowley' is not the person Aziraphale would mourn; he would mourn the dead angel he's been chasing since the Fall.) If a plan presents itself that would be dangerous to him, I think he would see no reason not to try it. If you've gotta go, go with style.

So, yeah. I don't think it's likely, for all sorts of reasons--this is a comedy show, a Bible parody, and the tone is always going to be a little lighter than the angstiest possible conclusion, final fifteen aside. But the self-sacrificial route is one I can see Crowley taking, and his inevitable survival and reunion with Aziraphale would have an aftermath that would be messy and painful and fascinating to watch. It would also have some obvious thematic resonance with Christ, a figure I assume they'll be exploring quite a bit in S3, so that would be kinda cool.

(Thoughts on the Duke of Hell theory, with a general warning it's not my favorite, so don't read if that'll upset you:)

Very much not for me, sorry. Crowley, for all he is a master of on-the-fly (ha) bullshitting, is not suited for playing politics. (Neither is Aziraphale, for what it's worth.) Crowley is too outspoken, too honorable, and too prone to fits of temper to have any patience for that kind of role. Besides that, he absolutely does not want it. He hates Hell just as much as he hates Heaven. I don't think he would ever go back to either of them, consequences be damned.

I also think that there's no practical way it could even happen? Beelzebub only offered him the role out of desperation to find Gabriel, and even then, it was almost certainly a lie. With Beelzebub gone, every single person in a position of power in Hell hates Crowley. And if they tried to dupe him into it the way the Metatron did, he'd run and not look back.

[ladyluscinia]

I am of course hugely fond of the crew bonding into a stronger community and embracing Izzy as one of them. Love that they are demonstrating their conflict resolution skills and mutual support, and love even more that they do the main foundational work in the absence of the captains - first during the breakup boat era with the trauma bonding and saving Izzy's life in direct defiance of Edward, and then resolving their divides and trust issues after chasing off Edward (and by extension Stede) in 2x04.

It is SO good to see them becoming a unified front who can push back against the bosses (especially since per comedy rules Stede & Edward are probably not going to stop being self-centered no matter how democratic the ship gets 😆).

But I will say it's still very funny when people give them credit for overcoming their strong negative feelings for Izzy, because like...

I don't think those were really a factor, guys 🤣🤣🤣

The show has thrown a bit of a complication into my theory of socially acceptable mutiny in S2 (which I will probably look at more once the season wraps up), but that's mostly because the rules of "how piracy functions" are not a priority for canon to establish. I'm threading together jokes into a watsonian social system because that's fun for me. 🤷‍♀️ So even though my particular explanation is going to have to adapt, the underlying joke still rings true - the mutiny against Izzy is a disproportionately violent response to what he's doing.

Or to put it another way... Yeah, they try to murder him because they don't want to work for him (or, as several of them say, for Black Pete 😆), but it's not really anything personal. Just business.

Meaning that once he's removed from captaincy, he's back to just being a coworker who's kind of a dick. They're not friends leaving S1, but they probably don't hate him?

(Also like the Navy Plot is a lot of things but it was not a reckless endangering of the crew.)

Plus in Izzy's mind, the vast majority of his side of the conflict in S1 is rooted in either 1) Edward leaving him in an ambiguous position of non-authority by refraining from acting as Captain of the ship despite the fact everyone thinks Edward has captured them until 1x07 at least, or 2) Izzy's fairly reasonable belief that all of these guys are going to die when Stede does and are particularly stupid prisoners, not fellow crew.

Both of those problems resolve completely by 1x10. Which in retrospect probably explains a lot of the apparent Izzy-crew relationship shift between S1 and S2 for anyone still not quite clicking on that front.

(Seriously, if you like Izzy in S2 but don't get what changed from S1, try watching S1 again with the things they've made canon about his personality in mind - being in love with Edward, etc. There was a coherent subtext and it's very fun to watch.)

It's really not surprising at all that lingering animosity with Izzy isn't a problem after his short lived time in charge 🤷‍♀️ or that he gets folded into the union. After everything they've been through with Edward they feel he's not on Management's side, and he does advocate for the crew once they are, you know, actually crew.

[rey-jake-therapist]

I don’t believe any leaks at this point, but it’s fun to speculate with the clues we got from the show and the trailers. My two cents on what might happen:

(1) Galadriel decides to go face Sauron by herself in the finale (her being willing to sacrifice herself and make right her wrongs seems to be a theme in S2, and she already expressed the desire to face Sauron alone to Gil-galad at the start of the season). From the trailers, it seems she might bait him using the Iron crown (that she steals from Adar) or even Nenya (he wants the Elven Rings);

(2) Sauron and Galadriel fight like we saw on the trailer and on the Behind-the-Scenes footage;

(3) Don’t have a clue on whom might get the upper hand on this fight (logically it should be Sauron, because he’s a Maia, and Gal’s only an Elf, and she’s not in the prime of her powers yet). Anyway, after the fight, Sauron pitches the “Will you be my queen?” to Gal;

(4) To persuade Galadriel into becoming his queen, Sauron shows her vision(s): the “Last Temptation”. Now, he’ll bring out the big guns this time around. In S1 finale, he tempted her with promises of endless power (a queen fair as the sea and the sun, and stronger than the foundations of the earth), and it didn’t work. Will he try this route again or a different one? Based on the Polish review, and some of Gal’s Nenya visions these season, I think Sauron might actually go with the “you’ve felt it too” route, tempting her with love and family (probably showing her a vision similar to the one Arwen had in “Return of the King”). He might even use Nenya in some way.

(5) I think Galadriel will succumb to Sauron’s temptation, until Elrond intervenes.

Allow me to explain: it’s been teased Galadriel is afraid she won’t be able to resist Sauron, and other characters have shown similar fear (both Elrond and Gil-galad). This temptation has to be strong enough to wow her and haunt her for years to come (in the future, Galadriel will remain in Lothlorien, fighting Sauron and his servants from afar and not directly). Probably it’s also the reason why she’ll try so hard to “close the door” on Sauron’s access to her mind, and succeed, only “passing the test” (finally resisting Sauron) when Frodo offers her the One Ring in the Third Age. But Sauron never stops trying to get to her, until the bitter end (meaning, he needs to have some degree of hope, she’ll come around and join him - this only makes sense if he was almost successful once). It would also make her brother’s words come full circle: “How am I to know which lights to follow?”/“Sometimes we cannot know until we have touched the darkness.”

How does Elrond fit in here? In Ep.4, Galadriel makes Elrond promise that, come a day, where he needs to choose between saving her life or stop Sauron, he must chose the second. This might be a red herring, but it does sound a lot like foreshadowing, along with the theme of Galadriel being willing to sacrifice herself. Well, Elrond will be in the Battle of Eregion, and he might be forced to make this choice (we know none of these characters will actually die, but still).

Any thoughts?

That's pretty much how I envision it too !

You know, I've often read that there were two paths that the show could take : a corruption arc for Galadriel where she temporarily succumbs to temptation and leaves with Sauron, or a lazy copy of the ending of season 1, where she tells him 'no' again and chooses the light for good.

Personally, I think that the first option is unlikely, and that it's way too early for the 2nd option to happen. I believe in a third path : Sauron manages to get under Galadriel's skin and almost convinces her that she belongs with him. She finds the strength to resist the call, but Sauron may be able to escape because she can't kill him while she had the chance... Wishful thinking, I know 😅

During season 3 she will be nonetheless haunted by the "what if" and will realize that she's not the one who can defeat Sauron. They may be even more connected than they were so far, Sauron being able to speak directly to her without standing next to her, until she finds a way to block him.

I like very much the way you think regarding Galadriel's reluctance to face Sauron in the future ! We know she never stopped fighting him from afar, but The Hobbit is the only instance where we see her actually stand to him - a scene that's not in the book, btw - and I always wondered why. If she didn't trust herself, it could explain this.

I'm sure that Galadriel telling Elrond to not choose her over defeating Sauron is a foreshadowing. Earlier in the post I suggested that Galadriel may spare Sauron, but another scenario could be played out : Elrond being unable to hold on his promise.

It's all so exciting... I can't wait to see how wrong we were about all this 🤣

[kitkatpancakestack]

Aw man now I'm on something. nobody asked and nobody cares but here it is anyway.

My personal ratings of each 9-1-1 season!! Because why not!!

Season 1: 7.5/10. Tonally different than the rest of the show (also visually different, yikes re that god awful saturation) but some memorable episodes, I really liked the edginess they played around with even if a couple of the plotlines weren't my favorite. Connie Britton was in it so obviously that's a plus. just a really solid foundation for the character journeys to come. Gets a 7.5 for episode 1x04 alone tbh.

Season 2: 10/10 flawless no skips legend you already know how I feel about this queen

Season 3: 6/10. ppl rate this season higher for nostalgia I think bc 1) many fans started watching this season and 2) the buddie of it all goes crazy. But tbh aside from the tsunami arc and the train derailment it's kind of mid. madney pregnancy reveal at the end bumps it to a 6 from a 5 bc I love them sm.

Season 4: 7/10. lackluster start but they gained mad momentum when Future Tense aired. some bumps probably due to shorter COVID season but this shit is a banger. Also the introduction of Ravi?? Best character add-on since Maddie and Eddie. And the Shooting Arc® speaks for itself.

Season 5: 8.5/10. I know I love to bitch and moan about 5a but personal feelings aside this is an objectively solid season. they toyed with darker themes similar to s1 vibes and it worked for the most part. Flawless execution? No, but we got Boston, we got Eddie breakdown, we got Mayday, we got another wave of fandom racism and Buck stan uwu-ism so u know it was doing something right the seamless and beautiful way the season circled around and brought everyone back together at the end. They almost hit that s2 magic but nobody can be s2 as we know.

Season 6: 4/10. wtf happened this season tbh. Buck got struck by lightning. Tomorrow was an amazing episode. I think I hallucinated Buck's sperm donor storyline. literally I'm asking genuinely what happened this season lol. end of FOX era good riddance goodbye.

Season 7: 7.5/10. Really it deserves an 8 but that finale was such a letdown I didn't see coming lmfao. Bathena cruise ship disaster amazing all the way around. Buck is a boy kisser speaks for itself. Other storylines I'm not so pumped about. It was a shorter season tho and other things are in flux, but I think it did a halfway decent job setting the groundwork for what could be a really good s8.

[flythesail]

If the show had Drewson endgame, I think I would still want to see them break up in season 1. Season 1 Nancy seems very not ready for a relationship to me, so I think it would have been neat if we got to see Nancy grow a little as a person, then realize how great Nick is and how close they’ve gotten, and then have them get back together in a later season—but not too late! Late season 2 or sometime in season 3 maybe. I think it’s such a waste that the show was started with Drewson and then they pretty much never acknowledge it again after s1! Anyway sorry for sharing my ramblings here

Yeah, me too! Though I personally wouldn't have them get back together until late s3 or s4 because I love drawing out a relationship haha. I think if you're going to start a show with a couple established, break them up, and have them reunite to be endgame, *the* key thing is developing their relationship along the way. I hate nothing more than throwing a couple back together at the end just because "they were always meant to be" when nothing was done to further develop their relationship past the reasons they broke up.

Nancy and Nick, however, had some good growth over the four seasons even no longer being romantic. If they had been endgame, they easily could have played that up more for a satisfying reunion. It's fun to do it that way too because when you have a couple together at the start, you miss out on the slowburn. Yet this way you kinda get the best of both in a reverse sort of way.

Now, drewson to me seems like a case of right person, wrong time. I think s4 made that clear to me because they work well on screen together and after some individual character development, they'd have been a lot more equipped to work through their issues. Earlier I'd probably have been like oh no they wouldn't have worked just because I was more invested in fanson and nace. But rewatching after the show is over I've really been loving looking at all the what-ifs. And I love Nick and Nancy too so... !

On the topic of closure, I just rewatched 1x13 and the one thing that stood out to me is that The Whisper Box is far from closure for Nancy re: Nick. Later when they're all back at the Claw, you can tell she's almost ready, even wanting, to open up to him. But by that point fanson is developing so she's missed her window.

I suppose there is some focus on it from s2 up until 3x01. In 2x01 everyone's reminiscing about the day they met. 2x04 has Nancy acknowledge she never knew he took stuff apart as a kid (leading to his mechanic job). Nick says she never asked. The idea being now they're building the foundation for a relationship they didn't before. So I'd agree Nancy wasn't ready for a relationship in early s1. The issues she had with Nick weren't even necessarily unique to a romantic relationship. Nancy was having the same issue letting the entire crew into her life.

Back to Nick, though. I think 2x18 could be considered closure. In the dreamscape:

"But you can't give in to it, cause you did feel okay again. Right?"

"You were a part of that. That's why it hurt so much when you chose George." "But I'm still here with you." "Thanks for still being my friend."

But! The problem is this is dreamscape!Nick. So he never gets to hear it.

Then, by 3x01 it's clear Nancy is at peace with it all. She tells Nick she likes the green when he's picking a paint color (George's color, specifically).

So I wouldn't say they don't acknowledge drewson after s1, but they mostly do in a roundabout way where it's either in Nancy's head or just symbolism to show she's happy for him and George now. I suppose if the dreamscape is *the* closure, it's on par with the rest of the show. It's not the only time something happens in a "supernatural" way. The downside is that it just doesn't include Nick and is more for Nancy.

My one thought is maybe they'd have given them a more direct conversation if we didn't drop down to 13 episodes. Or, if they knew s4 was the final season prior to the very end of making it. But then again, I can also see why they wouldn't have prioritized it since by s2 fanson was well established and nace was starting to be intentionally written.

Regardless of closure, I think they have a really beautiful relationship. Sure, they break up early on. But by s4 they've become to each other as friends what they needed to be back then for a lasting relationship.

(Please don't apologize for rambling because I just did the sameeee exact thing haha.)

[lizziethat]

given the ambiguity of Jiara at the end of the season, and Madison Bailey even saying that they purposefully left it ambiguous for things to “blow over” … what do u think is in store for Jiara season 4? Do u think they’ll break them up ?

I want to tackle this in parts. The first I've already discussed a fair bit, which is the "ambiguity." I don't actually think the original intention was for it to be as ambiguous as it read to us. For them, if the show ended after S3, JJ and Kiara were together, 100%. No doubt about it. That's the story they chose to tell in S3, and that was the natural conclusion -- even if that would have meant skipping a bunch of steps and healing.

Enter Season 4 and now ...there's a chance to explore some things that, storytelling-wise, are pretty fun to dive into. Especially because love isn't a cure-all, and my boy JJ has some traumas. And hey -- Kiara does too, and some serious parental issues too! So a S4 (and flashbacks) allow the show to do just that, explore. If they're smart, they'll take this as a chance to deal with internal issues instead of throwing outside drama at them. I think this is probably what they're going to do, because there's just so much to explore -- but I'm not trusting blindly here, because I mean, Jarah did get Topper 3.0 and whoever thought that was a good idea?

Ofc, exploring internal issues means angst, yes, but the good kind, particularly with the foundation S3 gave us. Because, let's just do a quick list -- we still need to see the Pogues reacting to Jiara, not to mention Kiara's parents. We need to see their relationship tested by just being back home, and the judging eyes of people that know them. And that's without even going into JJ's self-esteem issues and how the fight to feel worthy isn't something easily conquered. Then there's Kiara, who fought for JJ a lot this season ...and at some point, she's going to need him to show her that he will fight for her just as hard, not just physically, but emotionally. That he won't run when things get hard, and he won't try to self-destruct, because if he does now that they're together...it'll mean destroying both of them. All of that takes adjustment ...and its perfect character-based angst S4 can take advantage of.

Even with angst, I don't see the show "moving on" from Jiara in Season 4 -- otherwise, what's the point of S3, the buildup of S2, and the moment of realization of what was there after S1. Sure, they can deal with things in a good way, or throw some drama for the sake of drama at them (please, no), but there's no reason to course-correct something that works and that they're just getting to explore.

Finally, as for Madison, the interview I saw that seems to have everyone worried was filmed before S3 came out, and before the renewal news -- which means she literally has no clue. She's guessing, and she's teasing, because that's her job. But she has about as much idea of what's coming in S4 as we do. Scripts are likely not even close to finalized, and at this point even the writers aren't 100% sure what's coming, much less the actors. I think if there's something to worry in the future it might be in the "how" they handle it, not in a possible "if." Jiara is a thing now. It happened. No take backsies.

[missyourflight]

some stuff i read and watched in september:

my brilliant friend (s1-3): had a bit of ferrante fever and rinsed through this, i think it's v well done as an adaptation -- it's been so long since i read the first couple of books that the casting of the lads made them feel much more vivid than i remembered, also i Need to go to florence

foundation (s2): honestly entertainment peaked with deranged space emperor clone lee pace spitting blood in ben daniels' face and snarling i fucking love it, hope to see it back in 2-3 years probably!

the gold: finally got around to this bc they were talking about it on the watch lol, very cool the way it sort of sprawls out from the original heist and just keeps going, classic dcoop sketchiness, still mulling over casting jack lowden as lymond bc what other blonde scottish actors even are there

starstruck (s3): ROSE MATAFEO FOREVER etc. this season pretty much an anti-romcom which i'm on board with, the friendship stuff fucked me up, not to get into but phew re: being single in your thirties while all your friends are having kids etc

passages: really liked this but somehow didn't love it quite as much as i expected to, franz ben adele perfect, whishaw really come full circle since basically playing the franz role in cock at the royal court lol, beautiful knitwear outfits homewares

the best years of our lives: like 3 hours long but doesn't feel it, quietly devastatingly empathetic story of returning ww2 veterans, i need to watch the five come back series on netflix bc william wyler is so so good

a haunting in venice: i would also like to go to venice, kenbran's having fun at least my dutch angle king, i hope they keep letting him make these forever although i also rewatched tenet and nothing here tops the part where he jogs slowly backwards through time

the broken hearts gallery: the best of a bunch of recent-ish romances i watched, geraldine viswanathan is a Star

michael clayton: somehow hadn't seen this before but very satisfying like corporate thriller, tom wilkinson and tilda are great, i want to rewatch andor now

elena ferrante, the story of the lost child: finally finished the neapolitan novels, fuck me up elena. can't think of a comparable series of like adult novels that go this hard for me, maybe st aubyn? yowl

colin walsh, kala: this ripped actually, loved like the irish specificity of the voices

james frankie thomas, idlewild: literally took critical damage every time i had to read the word HoYay but this was great and painful about like being a horrible little queer teenager and codependent friendships and livejournal and annotated fanfiction etc

marilynne robinson, gilead: ow i loved this, i think it's a real skill to make like goodness compelling, looking forward to being devastated by the rest of the series etc

sylvia townsend warner, lolly willowes: 🧙‍♀️🍂🌝

katie kitamura, intimacies: more things should be set at the courts in the hague tbh! made me think about translation a lot and also black earth rising

cat sebastian, we could be so good: sometimes you just want to read a gay romance about being in love with your best friend innit

operation mincemeat: omg i actually went to the theatre, this was silly and very much The British Hamilton but i loved it and i cried and i ordered drinks to my seat, 5 stars etc

the effect: i didn't see the original billie piper staging but i love lucy prebble and i loved this cast, literally paapa essiedu can do anything, kobna holdbrook smith reminded me that i should carry on with the rivers of london audibooks, one in a long list of signs that i should probably talk to someone about my mental health lol

[thesearchforbluejello]

We've been seeing your reblogs of SNW on our feed, and we gotta ask... Thoughts and opinions? Is it good? Would you recommend watching it to a trekkie who hasn't watched any of the new trek properties since the first few episodes of Discovery?

Oh man oh man oh man. I have a lot to say. If you don't want to read all of it, there's a TLDR at the end.

✅ episodic format: It's SUPER different from Discovery, so if you prefer the older episodic shows over the newer serialized format, it'll definitely check that box.

❌ season arcs: even though the older episodic shows have two partners and/or small (or large) season arcs, SNW doesn't really... There's one that connects the end of s1 to the beginning of s2, and it's a big deal, but it's not drawn out. I'm not even married to season arcs, but I do think that if they're doing silly filler episodes, ten episodes is too short for a season and thirteen would have been better for them. I LOVE silly filler episodes, so let's get that straight, but they're better when it's not taking up literally a fifth of the season.

✅ space hijinks and the risks of exploration: It oscillates wildly between silly and dark, sometimes between episodes and sometimes within the same episodes, but I see that as one of its strengths. It gets really goofy in a fun way, but it's also bloodier than older Trek... mostly just because they actually show blood. The crew commits so many hijinks and they're all friends and fun to watch together.

❌ character development: the actors are really carrying the characters alone for this one. The characters are all lovable and for the most part the actors are doing a great job, but frankly this is my biggest complaint about the show. We get very, very little development for any of the characters even over the first and almost complete second season. They're just still not well established. The writers seem to think "trauma" is the same as characterization... which like obviously it's not, so. I get very irritated (which you've probably seen in my tags) about the fact that there's often "development" for the characters that builds on a foundation that's basically just toothpicks. It still takes them a step forward, but it's always a stumble imo. I know some folks who are casual watchers who don't mind this though (I'm just neurologically incapable of casual watching). This is also apparently an unpopular opinion, but (spoiler alert) I also think Kirk is in it too much. He'll have been in at least 4/10 of the season 2 episodes, but he's not even posted to the Enterprise. I LOVE Paul Wesley's Kirk like he's my favorite Kirk nobody @ me but the show is about the SNW crew, not Kirk. They're struggling to even develop the seven major SNW characters, so constantly throwing Kirk in constantly is kind of annoying me. They also don't do full ensemble episodes, so often some of the major characters will only show up for one or two scenes and someone else will be the focus. This isn't my preferred format, but I don't hate it-- that being said, some characters are being seriously neglected because of it, but I won't fully rant about that.

✅/❌ Discovery tie in: you don't need to have seen Discovery to watch it. I watched s1 without having watched Discovery. HOWEVER, it will spoil the ending of Discovery s2 in SNW 1x01, just be aware (as in it will totally obliterate one of the big reveals in Disco).

✅Anson Mount: I say this as someone who's literally never seen him in anything else, but he brought his A game every episode and he's the absolute MVP of the series. Really great performances and he makes Pike an incredibly lovable character but also a really great captain.

❌ Discussion of disability: I have a lot of thoughts regarding the treatment of disability as a horrifying thing and equating it with death. Like, fear of physical injury is a very human thing because it's literally a survival response that's wired into us, but there's both some sloppy writing that equates physical disability with death and just a failure to actually explore what a disabled future means for a person. It's kind of hard to explain what I mean without obliterating an entire episode of Discovery and the whole first season of SNW if anyone else reads this, so I won't go into it but I will say this-- I didn't find this weak point to be bad enough to stop watching, and it involves TOS canon that they can't escape, so they're not doing something that's deliberately offensive and disrespectful, but they're not doing it particularly respectfully either.

✅ special effects: there aren't as many REALLY alien characters as Discovery, so there has been less major prosthetic design on display, but what there has been has been good and the CGI is great.

✅ Old school nods: there's so much campy scifi in this show. They do the bridge impact lean and shake thing and they have cool props and the uniforms are a little silly but also so well designed. The ship design is really 2020s and not classic Trek but there are still elements of that design and it's still cool as hell. Also, like, it's the fucking Enterprise, so I'm going to be feral over it regardless.

❌ CO and XO: Listen, this is such a personal taste-based opinion BUT I'm mad about it so I'm going to COMPLAIIIIIIIIIN about it. One of my favorite things about any Trek is the CO/XO relationship, whether it's on a ship or a station or whatever. I just find that a really fascinating dynamic, and it's so different every time. This show has a FASCINATING CO/XO dynamic and the actors have really cool ideas... but developing this at all would require the XO to ACTUALLY BE IN THE FUCKING SHOW. She's in every episode but often not for long. I have some major opinions on this, in case that wasn't obvious. They've done 17 episodes and this relationship hasn't been developed very much. We've had some good scenes and a good plotline, but my complaint still stands for reasons I won't spoil unless requested.

❌ Strange New Worlds: there are barely any new worlds, nevermind strange new worlds. Half the time it's just Star Trek: Doing Stuff in Space and the other half it's Star Trek: Hey We Found Something Weird in Space and Are Investigating It. Not a big complaint, just... not quite what it says on the tin.

TL;DR I love SNW a LOT. It's fun and it's silly but it also confronts the big philosophical questions of existence and morality that are central to Trek. I do have a lot of complaints, but honestly one of the reasons I have so many complaints is because I love it so much.

It's definitely Trek in flavor and it doesn't demand high commitment to watch it. Someone will inevitably yell at me for this, but it actually reminds me most of Voyager-- it's silly and the relationships of the crew are prioritized, but they do some really messed up episodes along the way too. It's a very different vibe to Voyager though, to be clear.

If you decide to watch it, let me know! I'd love to hear what you think :)

[weerd1]

HOW TO STAR WARS

With three convenient options!

(Please note, I wrote this last year just as Andor S1 ended and Bad Batch S2 started for a friend at work. If someone finds it useful, huzzah. May the Force Be With You.)

OK, I have obviously put WAY too much thought into this, but it’s what I do. Before you dive into 1800 words on Star Wars I whipped up while drinking coffee on a Saturday morning, let me tell you my recommendation is Option 2.  But, if you’re ready for a deep dive into other ideas…proceed!

There are two things you have to ALWAYS remember about Star Wars: it has never been chronological, and it has never been complete. Even if you were there in 1977 (and I was) and we got Episode 4 (not chronological) which ended with the Rebels on the run from a still standing Empire (not complete) you don’t have a moment where anything is revealed in order, and the broader story can always be expanded.  The result of this is that if you don’t like a particular show or movie or plot point, something is probably going to come along and fix it.  There are, believe it or not, movies and shows in The Canon that I don’t think are that great, but like ones I wasn’t super fond of previously, I would expect something is going to come along and expound on those things I didn’t like and make them more palatable.  

Option 1

That said, if you want to keep it simple, I would say go ahead and watch everything in release order.  The benefit of that is you getting the story the way the world did.  We came out of the Original Trilogy in 1983 knowing Vader was really Anakin Skywalker, and his son and daughter were Luke and Leia.  We didn’t find out HOW until the Prequel Trilogy (PT) started up in 1999. Some of the way various plot points in later films play out, they hit harder emotionally when you realize what they mean for things you’ve already seen. The weird lady named Mon Mothma who leads the Rebels for 5 minutes in “Return of the Jedi” is now a major character on “Andor” and suddenly this throwaway scene from 1983 grabs your guts because you begin to understand what she went through to get there.  If that sounds appealing, here’s that order:

Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)

Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Animated Movie, 2008)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2020)

Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018)

Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)

Star Wars: Resistance (2018-2020)

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

The Mandalorian (2019-present)

The Book of Boba Fett (2021-2022)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Andor (2022-present)

Ahsoka (upcoming, 2023)

Skeleton Crew (upcoming, 2023

The downside to this is NOTHING happens in order, and you should consult a good reference to get an idea WHEN a particular story takes place in relation to the rest of it all. This one is pretty good, but also includes video games which have great stories, but may or may not be your thing:

(This is from Reddit; you can Google others that fit more what you’re looking for.)

Option 2

Now, based on the graphic above, there’s another way you could watch it all.  I would call it “Saga Based.” When George Lucas made the OT it was often referred to as “The Adventures of Luke Skywalker.”  Once he made the PT, he started saying the entire saga was about the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. When Disney took over and made the Sequel Trilogy (ST), they began to refer to it as “The Skywalker Saga.”  This means the “Episode” movies, or the left side of the chart above, Episodes I-IX.  And it is very easy to consider that the foundation of all other Star Wars.  Even if those characters don’t appear directly, in some way the supporting characters are all caught up in Skywalker family drama (and I love that; NO literary character in history is as big a drama queen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader).  

Once you have those nine films as a foundation, hit the right side of the chart and work your way through those shows and “Story films.”  Again, up to you if you really care about playing video games; they have great stories but nothing that I think you will miss if you just stick to shows and movies. 

The advantage to this option is how well-framed the rest of the stories are then, though you have to make sure you’re putting them in chronological context as you watch.

Now, before I go on with a third possible way to watch these, I want to talk about cartoons.  Some of the very best Star Wars is animated Star Wars.  That being said, they are often produced with children in mind (though the episode of “Star Wars: Rebels” where the Imperial Inquisitor uses a double bladed lightsaber to decapitate the “thin guy/fat guy” comic relief duo is just one example of how the shows push the boundaries; it’s not gory, and the violence is implied, but it’s dark!).  The animated shows are not an insignificant time investment.  There are seven seasons of “The Clone Wars,” four seasons of “Rebels,” currently we just started the second season of “The Bad Batch,” and “Resistance” has two seasons. I will include at the end some ways to abbreviate “The Clone Wars” if you want. Also, missing from many of these discussions is “Star Wars: Visions,” which are actually alternate interpretations of the Star Wars universe in anime style by Japanese directors. They’re pretty good, but not the Star Wars you know. 

Option 3

Now, you want to go hardcore?  Then watch full chronological order.  You get the story as it happened.  I used to be very much against that, but then in my last job I worked with a couple of guys who didn’t grow up in the US, and things that I had taken for granted when I watched the PT were honest surprises to them. (“ANAKIN is Darth Vader????”)  The problem with this approach is there are still new things coming out at various points of the timeline, so in your viewing, you may be in the shows like “The Mandalorian” taking place five or six years AFTER the OT, and then another season of “Andor” drops and it’s five years BEFORE the OT, and you have to backtrack. 

If you are going for this, here’s the order:

Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Animated Movie, 2008)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2020)

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021-present)

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018)

Andor (2022-present)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)

The Mandalorian (2019-present)

The Book of Boba Fett (2021-2022)

Star Wars: Resistance (2018-2020)

Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)

Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

The other issue with trying them this way is some overlap.  The last two episodes of “The Clone Wars” happen DURING “Revenge of the Sith.”  The events of “Andor” episode 6 has direct impact on “Rebels” episode one, and those stories intertwine a bit. “Book of Boba Fett” takes place between seasons 2 and 3 of “The Mandalorian.”  That problem will continue to compound as new shows come out.  We’re actually expecting a show in the next year called “The Acolyte” that takes place a hundred years BEFORE “The Phantom Menace”!

Another positive to this option is it allows you to break the various shows and movies up into “eras.”  This image, also stolen from Reddit is one way to do that:

The era I find the most interesting (unlike most SW fans) isn’t really about the Jedi but what Obi-Wan called in the original movie “The Dark Times.” In this graphic they would include the “Reign of the Empire” and first half of the “Age of Rebellion” stuff.  So many of those stories deal not with Good Space Wizards fighting EVIL Space Wizards, but normal people trying to survive oppression and realizing there is no safety in tyranny.  Now, that’s just me.  It’s not that I don’t love Obi-Wan and Anakin coming undone and desperately fighting one another in a lava flow, but common people deciding to stand up with no mystical “Force” to protect them? Well that rings my bells.  

Star Wars is a huge, still evolving mythology, as complex as any classic we have from Sophocles or Shakespeare or Tolkien. As spiritual as any holy book. At times as deep as any tragedy, and as uplifting as any faith. Sometimes it’s just silly, and sometimes it’s heartrending.

Yes, it is just some solid popcorn-pew-pew-entertainment as well, but thematically there is SO much going on, and it compels me like few other things do.  

Anyway, without further ado, here’s an old write up I did about how to take on “The Clone Wars” cartoon. You COULD just watch these episodes:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Clone Cadets" (S 3 Ep 1)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Rookies"  (S 1 Ep 5)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "ARC Troopers" (S 3 Ep 2)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "The Citadel"  (S 3 Ep 18)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Counterattack" (S 3 Ep 19)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Citadel Rescue" (S 3 Ep 20)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Darkness on Umbara" (S 4 Ep 7)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "The General" (S 4 Ep 8)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Plan of Dissent"  (S 4 Ep 9)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Carnage of Krell" (S 4 Ep 10)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "The Unknown"  (S 6 Ep 1)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Conspiracy"  (S6 Ep 2)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Fugitive" (S 6 Ep 3)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Orders" (S 6 Ep 4)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "The Bad Batch" (S7)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "A Distant Echo"(S7)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "On the Wings of Keeradaks" (S7)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Unfinished Business" (S7)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Old Friends Not Forgotten" (S7)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "The Phantom Apprentice" (S7)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Shattered" (S7)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Victory and Death" (S7) 

These 22 episodes follow the character of Fives, one of the Clones, throughout the war between the movies “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith.” The Season 7 episodes do not feature Fives, but the consequences of his previous actions.

Either way, start with S3 Ep 1.  Not sure why the earliest one is in the third season, but it is worth it. (Indeed, here is the CHRONOLOGICAL order of episodes, still not sure why outside of “never been chronological or complete” https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-the-clone-wars-chronological-episodeorder.)  

If you want to strike a middle ground here, watch the Fives storyline, and add these three important Ahsoka storylines, that is also possible! Just interspace them with the above list:

Season 2, 5-8: Second Battle of Geonosis.

Season 3, 15-17: The Mortis Gods

Season 3, 21-22: Padawan Lost

Season 5, 17-20: The Wrong Jedi.

OR after S4 Ep10, just continue to watch season 4 through 7.  There’s almost no dud in there. 

The last four episodes of season 7 take place in and around “Revenge of the Sith,” and may themselves be one of the three or four best Star Wars movies.  

[zutaralesbian]

Since you’re the most prominent Karen fan I know of, here are some questions about Karen! 😊 1. Why do you like Karen?, 2. Favorite Karen ships?, 3. What would you have liked to have seen happen with Karen if she wasn’t written off? Or what do you think would have happened?

Awww thank you! Very okay with being known as a Karen fan 😊

To answer your questions:

1. Why do you like Karen?

I always have a habit of loving female characters that most of the fandom hates 😭 (Though there has no been a small surge of Karen appreciation in the fandom as of late, which I’m happy about). But other than that, I like her because just like most Shameless characters, she’s complex. She’s rough around the edges but I also also find her to be very kind in certain ways. This is especially prominent in her relationship with Sheila. She probably does have resentment towards Sheila for failing as a mother. But she very rarely actually voices that out loud and is very sweet to her most of the time and defends her from people that make fun of her agoraphobia.

I also feel for her. I think she’s sort of like Mickey and Mandy in the sense that she thinks she’s “tainted” as a person and in result, can’t be good. I think her father contributed a lot to that, considering her breakdown after the purity ball disaster. It’s probably a big reason why she rejects Lip so much in S2. (Until they throw the characterization/writing of that relationship completely out the window in S3).

I can go on but I don’t want this to be a million words long.

2. Favorite Karen ships?

Well, Karen/Mandy as a ship for fics. I know it never would have been feasible within the canon of the show, but I think they had potential if the writers weren’t misogynistic. You can see more of my thoughts on that ship HERE

I also have a soft spot for Karen/Lip even though I think they were ruined in the end. I think Karen is the closest thing Lip ever had to an equivalent of what Mickey was to Ian when they were young-a love that’s dysfunctional and in ways toxic but you just can’t quit them. They even had that same foundation of being friends when you look at their S1 dynamic. I also don’t believe Lip has really truly been in love with anyone else within in the timeline on the show. Not even Tami.

3. What would you have liked to see happen with Karen if she hadn’t been written off? What do you think would have happened?

She and Mandy both ditch Lip and become a toxic yuri dynamic

In all honesty, I just would have liked to have seen her develop further as a person. To come to that realization that she CAN be good and that the way she was over-sexualized as a child doesn’t mean she’s tainted.

I think realistically, there would have been a lot of focus on her relationship with Sheila. And while I do think Sheila was a pretty awful mother to her, they did love each other. I think I would have been okay with that as long as the end result was them both healing and forming a healthier mother/daughter dynamic.

In a better show that actually takes sexual trauma seriously, I think it would have been nice to see both her and Ian realize they were groomed as children and maybe bond a bit over that.

Thanks for the questions!

[caribouv]

2023 BEST

+ ALBUM

Bottoms - Charli XCX. I don't know if a movie's score counts as an album, but this is the easy winner.

Fantasy - M83. I still can't get over Oceans Niagara and the music video. Beyond adventure, indeed.

The Whaler - Home is Where.

Javelin - Sufjan Stevens.

+ SONG

Jeff Rosenstock - LIKED U BETTER.

Afroman - Will You Help Me Repair My Door. The song is generally mid, but the background story behind it makes it amazing.

+ RECORD / COVER

I listened to too many mixes and sets without paying attention to records this year. I've got nothing.

+ SET/MIX/SHOW

Black Country, New Road - Live at Bush Hall. CLASS OF 81', LISTEN TO YOUR PROM KING!!! FUCK THE DEAN!!!

Chlär | Boiler Room x Glitch Festival 2023. This dude is changing techno in a big way. Loops loops loops lopps lopsodfpsopsofpsoo spooop loops.

LDS - HATE Podcast 340.

Pretty Pink - Deep Woods Radio. Girl was on point all year. There's probably better deep trance/house than this, but I'm too lazy to find it and this easily made me happy.

+ MOVIE

Talk to Me. Nothing comes close. This movie is perfection. Foreshadowing, details, subtely, so many layers, so much to think about. It's like Starship Troopers in that it's only a a dumb action / scary movie on first glance, but then you realize all the hidden meaning to it there in every scene.

Bottoms.

Nimona.

Killers of the Flower Moon.

Godzilla Minus One.

Stuff I loved, but only got to in 2023: Okja, The Wailing, Shiva Baby.

Long list piling up I haven't got to yet: Holdovers, Ninja Turtles, Smoking Causes Coughing, She Came to Be, 65, Infinity Pool, Past Lives, Suzume, Mad God, Saltburn, The Boy and the Heron, Argentina 1985, Close, Stars End, Hundreds of Beavers, Joyland, Fabelmans, Challengers.

+ TV SHOW

Vox Machina s2. Easy winner. Nothing else comes close. This is so good. They could and should just push s1 and s2 together seamlessly and release it all as a movie.

Foundation s1. This whole thing is gorgeously shot. Whoever did the storyboard / director of photography is brilliant.

Station Eleven

The Mole

Traitors AUS

SWARM. Before watching I wish someone would have told me the soft spoiler that she's a confused lesbian and the orphaned sister of her friend. It would have helped me understand/get past what were mistakenly viewed as gross and cringe scenes.

Last of US

Snake in the Grass

Y The Last Man. I liked it better than the books simply because the sister's story arc is more believeable and enjoyable. Really sad s2 isn't going to be a thing.

+ VIDEO GAME

Baldur's Gate 3. It's more Div Sin 5e than BG3, but still a phenomenal game. Organizing things by: action, bonus action, and free action has been a wild ephiphany and game changer for me at D&D night.

Dead by Daylight. Another year, another me. No change there. Nicolas Cage, Xenomorph, Ripley, Jonsie, Chucky, the return of Stranger Things… This game just keeps winning. I got burned out in late 2023 and haven't really touched it much since Summer, but this is easily one of the greatest games ever made for me.

WOW Season of Discovery. Injecting WOTLK gameplay systems into Classic? It's so simple and yet so fun.

Going Medieval. As they continue to develop this it's just going to get better and better and better.

+ BOOK

Y The Last Man. Poured through these. Politically… meh. I still liked them.

Book 12 WOT. I also started reading Red Rising becuase I wanted something easy, but that was a mistake because it's too teenage for even me. I also think for 2024 I'm going to switch to standalones and not big 3+ epics because it seriously took me like 2 years to get through WOT and I'm not sure it was worth it.

+ PERSON

Anyone, anywhere who stood out and spoke out against the IOF's genocide in Gaza.

+ FOOD

Butter chicken. Please help me stop eating so much butter chicken I have spent a small fortune at my local indian restaurant buying and eating butter chicken.

+ TRIP

The camping trips this year were fun af, stoked for this upcoming Spring and Summer. Started to get antsy late Summer and started regularly taking daytrips to mid/downtown almost every weekend as well.

+ MOMENT

What a year for US labor. UPS, SAG/WGA, UAW, etc. Syndicalists keep winning.

+ BIGGEST LET DOWN

Fetterman. What an absolute fucking loser. Not "loser" as an insult, but loser as in he lost. His leftist base got him into power, and yet he immediately betrayed them because he's afraid of the DNC+AIPAC and wants to keep his job 5.5 years from now. BITCH YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS. YOUR BASE NOW HATES YOU. AIPAC WILL ALWAYS HATE YOU. THE DNC WILL ALWAYS HATE YOU. YOU SOLD YOUR SOUL FOR GENOCIDE AND GOT CORN CHIPS FOR IT. I absolutely mean it when I say I hope he kills himself.

WOT s2. What the fuck did I even watch what the fuck was that? I know and truly understand adaptation means it can't follow the story, but what was this???? Why did badass women become a bunch of weak fragile pathetic pissy dumbshits who can't do shit????? Fuck this show.

Theme of the year: I don't have a theme. Personally, I had a pretty good year. US Labor had a very, very good year. CPI inflation, Ukraine, and Gaza were fucking horrible. 2023 was strange and mostly terrible.

Goals for 2024: Don't get stuck in a rut. Learn/perfect how to make various indian and thai dishes. Fix my pinball machine. Get 100k+ in DigDug.

[edwardteachswombtattoo]

i don't disagree with my original s2 thoughts entirely. although i've expanded on/slightly changed a few of them, on the season and the show as a whole and certain characters in the show as my blog and my fics stand record. well, you know, it's very human to be capable of growth and change so i think i'm doing okay. but i'd like to add, in hindsight and after a literal whole year to think on the finale.

This goes without saying, but I will never forgive HBO Max for trying so hard to destroy this show. Yeah, they got their way in the end (for now anyway), but they clearly had it out for OFMD. The massive budget cut, the filming constraints, shorter episodes, smaller season, so much executive meddling. They were so obviously hoping the second season would be terrible, the fanbase would drop off, and the numbers would plunge. But when that didn't happen, they just cancelled it anyway. It's fucking awful.

the finale is full of moments i love and i definitely would have loved it even more if it had been forty minutes and able to just breathe. we'll probably never see the original forty minute cut of the finale, but the bones were there. the Big Moments we were supposed to take into season three. of course it feels incomplete from a character perspective, because it's the second act of a three act story. dislike the finale if the must, but this wasn't meant to be the end of ed and stede's story.

they haven't finished growing yet, so of course certain aspects of their character arcs feel incomplete. season 2 is meant to be the bones, the foundation ed and stede will build the rest of their relationship on. from my perspective anyway. they learned how to communicate with each other like adults, they had some good conversations about what they want out of their relationship, they've learned they can't just run away from the friction in their relationship (they actually need to work it out), it was reinforced tenfold how respectful stede is of ed's autonomy and boundaries, they both experienced some major growth that should help them moving forward.

some additional things about season 2 i loved, forgot to mention in the original post and then never updated it:

The soundtrack!! Fucking hell, the soundtrack!! I don't pay a lot of attention to music in most shows when I first watch the episode/episodes, but I was bawling my eyes out when Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" came on in Episode 3 while Ed's in the Gravy Basket. the gorgeous visuals plus the music???? i was sobbing.

Our Flag Means Death Season 2 they could never make me hate you

I've made about forty posts about why i love episode 6 so much so i'll spare all of you (this time anyway), but learning this episode had the most (?? pretty sure i read that somewhere, feel free to correct me) executive meddling out of any other episode in the show makes it even funnier and so much fucking better that it's one of my favorite episodes not just of season 2 but of the whole show.

Am i upset we never got fully one hundred percent canon archie/jim/oluwande/zheng polycule, as was planned? yeah. am i happy we still got some good scenes with jim/archie/oluwande?? fuck yeah!!

Loved Izzy's death, it was such an important and meaningful bullet point for Ed's character arc. Ed choosing life, Ed choosing to put piracy behind him, Izzy serving a similar place in the narrative as The Badmintons did for Stede in S1 (not identical, but in the same general vein)

I think that's about it for stuff I forgot to mention in my original end of s2 post?? idk. i loved season 2, even the finale. it had a different vibe than season 1, but not to the extent it felt like a whole different show. it's a delightful watch.

Okay, my head's no longer in pieces (entirely), so here's my full thoughts on Season 2.

What I Liked:

Episode 6. Just...Episode 6. Favorite episode this season, Episode 4 coming in at close second.

Kisses!! So many kisses!! Five Gentlebeard kisses, how fucking lucky are we???

The first three episodes were an absolute banger start to the season, a perfect ensemble of comedy and drama. Completely banished my fears of Season 2 being lackluster.

Ed's looks!! So many good ones this season. The slutty ponytail!!!

Zheng!! Loved Zheng so much, I hope she's in Season 3.

We got some really good soft Gentlebeard moments this season, I'm pleased.

Archie!! Her dynamic and interactions with Jim were great.

Really, I loved all the characters introduced in Season 2. Maybe a little overcrowding, but all the new guys were a delight.

The costuming in Season 2 was fucking amazing, they did so great despite the smaller budget.

I know it's probably going to crash and burn if we get Season 3 and it wasn't handled super well, but...I fucking love Innkeepers Stede and Ed. I love the idea of Ed being at peace, away from the brutal violence of piracy he's been trying to escape.

Izzy's speech. Just...yeah.

Jim in drag!! Izzy in drag!! Wee John in drag!!

Chaotic sapphics

Okay, so what didn't I like?

We needed longer episodes and more episodes. 10 episodes, maybe forty minutes each. That would have fixed so many of the pacing issues. Blame HBO Max for this.

I've already mentioned Stede's wardrobe in another post. Did he have some banger looks? Fuck yeah. But Season 1 Stede with his intricate little fop fits was...an experience. Again, blame HBO Max. Capitalism. Budget cuts.

I feel like we never truly dealt with Stede and Ed's trauma?? Not really?? I guess that leaves us a lot of room in Season 3 for a genuine wrap-up.

I love OFMD to pieces, HBO Max fucked us all over and let's never forget it. But we got something deliciously queer despite all of that. Us queers are used to thriving in inhospitable environments, right? We make do.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2004): Deus Vult

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Others! I would like to welcome you to the Silver League of Cacowards WADs.

This League will be dedicated to WADs that didn’t exactly earn Cacoward but were good enough to end up either as Runner-ups (in most cases), and/or Honorable Mentions.

In 2004 there were three Runner-ups and an Honorable Mention.

And today we will be taking a look at the WAD that combines Doom with another (and unfortunately very polarizing) franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog.

...

...

Or rather we WOULD be talking about the WAD (titled Super Sonic Doom) if I managed to properly run it. Which I couldn’t do it (Check out my previous post for more details).

That doesn’t mean I’ll leave you all with nothing. There are still three WADs to look at. So we will properly start the Silver League with-

S1: Super Sonic Doom S2: Deus Vult                  

Main author(s): Huy Pham (Doom Marine)

Release date: May 25th (original release)/28th, 2004 (database upload)

Version played: Official

Required port compatibility: Limit-removing

Levels: 1 (in the original form (MAP05 replacement) and in four parts (MAP01-MAP04))

Ah yes. Deus Vult. The map so big that at the time of its release, it had to be split into four parts in case it was too much for your PC. The map that ended up in 2nd place in the Doomworld’s Top 100 Most Memorable Maps. The map that has over 2,5 thousand enemies.

So as you can see, we are going to have a hellishly special treat today.

From what I’ve gathered, it was in development for almost 7 months and used a 1995 map SQUARES (regarded as possibly the first-ever slaughter map) as a foundation, influenced by hard-ass MegaWADs like Hell Revealed and Alien Vendetta. Deus Vult is also the first Doom map Huy ever created. So yeah, he started up high.

Now let’s take a look at this map, and see if I won’t lose my marbles while beating it.

The plot is your typical last man/men standing (this time on Deimos) going to Hell to Rip and Tear and that other shit.

Now look, folks, this map looks magnificent! Almost all of Deus Vult feels like another milestone in terms of presentation. The sheer size of some of the locations might give you goosebumps, filling you with awe, fear, and disgust to some degree. I also really like Lord of the Rings’ aesthetics showing up in some places, particularly by the last fourth of the map.

I don’t know what else to say. I think it’s better to play the map without monsters to see it for yourself.

The music choice is also good. I like how it somewhat pumps you up despite the Hell that surrounds you. My favorite track was the MIDIfied version of Krook's March from Donkey Kong Country 2. The only problem I have with the soundtrack is that Big Boss Blues from Donkey Kong Country 3 feels too short as a track for a level with such a magnitude. I’ll get more on this stuff later.

If you probably didn’t realize by now, Deus Vult is fucking gigantic. According to the text file included in the ZIP file, the PAR time is around two and a half an hour. So you better take some breaks to not go insane.

And yet, surprisingly enough, this map doesn’t really feel that complicated. Sure, there are moments that might make you think for a while when going blind but Deus Vult is far from being cryptic.

As I mentioned earlier, when this map was released, most of the computers were incapable of running it without framerate dropping like a fly (including my first PC if I had the internet to download this map). Seriously, the text file says that you would need a computer with a processor with over 1.8 GHz of power to smoothly run the full map. And so in that case, Huy Pham split the map into four parts:

Insurgents,

Torture Chamber,

Cathedral (of which I really like how it has the Heretic logo while the music from that game plays),

and End of Days.

Basically, you can play this map in two configurations: either in the original form (MAP05) or in parts (MAP01-MAP04).

I played this map in parts because:

One, the music changes when you reach the next part of the map (and I don’t think there are people who wouldn’t be bored by Demons on the Prey looping for the 40th time when playing this map).

Two, it allows me to take a break without the need of doing that in the middle of the map.

And three, as the text file says, it’s a very good choice for people who aren’t really that fond of gigantic maps like Deus Vult. Each part can be completed Pistol-starting as the author says.

Not only the map is gigantic, but some of the lifts/lowering platforms are long as shit. In some cases, you have to wait a few minutes for a lift to completely lower. Thankfully, in the worst cases, you will also be fighting armadas of demons, so chances are you won’t even notice that the lift lowered down completely or is very close to the end.

By the way, I don’t usually talk about secrets, but I recommend searching for them. Many of these have some funny moments worth a chuckle. Take a look at hidden teleporters that have an evil eye inside.

Look, there is no doubt that Deus Vult is hard as nails. I mean, come on, it has 2640 enemies just on Hurt Me Plenty, and it was inspired by HR and AV as I said. Do you need more proof? I guess it is technically harder than these MegaWADs since the text file says that HMP is recommended for people who finished these two on Ultra-Violence. But I didn’t really feel that way.

For starters, there are many Health and Armor pick-ups spread across the map. So even if you make a mistake, there is still a rather huge chance that you can restore your health.

Secondly, there are at least three moments where you can circle around the area for some infighting. It will definitely help conserve ammo.

The hardest part of the map is definitely Torture Chamber. Mainly due to the main section of it with a sprawling area that has a miniature Eye of Sauron, where you get bombarded by every mid to high-tier monster. Especially Arch-viles.

Especially Arch-viles...

...

Wait, where was I? Oh, right.

The latter half of the map wasn’t as hard as the second part of it, mostly because battles are much more manageable.

Is Deus Vult fair? Well, yes, for the most part. Ignoring the main section of Torture Chamber (which feels like it went too far with Arch-viles), I feel like some of the fights were a bit too tight, like when you reach the marble area in Insurgents (I can’t even remember how I managed to beat it the first time I played this map).

Thankfully this map doesn’t end on an Icon of Sin boss. It’s really satisfying to shoot the top of the real Eye of Sauron at the very end. It’s like a relief and catharsis after finally finishing the map.

In terms of bugs, the one that I remember encountering is where 105 Imps in the Torture Chamber part don’t appear since they don’t have set flags on any difficulty level.

Aside from that, the text file mentions messed up new sound effects on Legacy and PrBoom, music from MAP02 and MAP04 not working on the versions of Legacy later than 1.41b, shadow casting effect working off with ceiling and floor lightning if the map is played in OpenGL, and some of the other source ports (including PrBoom) displaying more slime trails than they should have.

Deus Vult is a map that doesn’t fuck around. It will test your skills and unlock the sixth sense if you didn’t unlock it already while playing other slaughter maps/WADs. It might be going too far in some places, but most of the time, it feels satisfying to finally kill the last demon of the armada that spawned. It rewards tactical thinking and using Invuns at the right time. Plus, it’s gorgeous for the 2004 map to look at. It’s still a good map to play, and I recommend you to play it. Just don’t go straight into the full map on Ultra-Violence blind.

Will I ever play it as a whole thing instead of parts? Probably. I know that the revamped version of this map appears in Deus Vult II, so I’ll definitely play it when I’ll reach that WAD.

If you want to hear more opinions about Deus Vult, check the section dedicated to it in Dean of Doom’s second Sawed-Off WADs pack (even though it kind of felt like a sore loser moment for me). It starts around 11:12:

As for the second Runner-up from Cacowards 2004... let me tell you this folks. The timing for the review of that WAD couldn’t be more perfect!

See you next time.

Bye!