#it would be a 7/10 if it weren't for the certain jokes in episode 2. if you know you know

[platinumgigi]

hiiii so I finished watching TDP season 4 and uhhh...it's...not what I was expecting?

I didn't hate it, there was a lot that I liked about it, some stuff that I loved about it. But there were also some things that I... really did not love about it.

I guess my main problem is just...Rayla. only because I do not know where the series is taking her.

Ever since the trailer where we finally got to see her again, I was all aboard the train of suspecting that she wasn't the real Rayla. Everything about her felt off, from her clothing comprised of dark pinks, purples and silvers (while I know that this is a color palette pretty similar to the ones a lot of other moonshadow elves have, I can't help but immediately think 'starry evening sky' when looking at her outfit) to the fact that she just randomly has a fucking star monkey with her?? Like...um??

And upon going into the new season with the theory that this might not be the real Rayla in mind, things made a lot of sense for a while; the way she acts, the way she treats other people (especially Callum), her priorities, etcetera. Especially with the scene when she first arrives back in Katolis and reunites with Callum—she just so happens to conveniently appear through the window (also, the window in the High Mage's study and not somewhere she'd know he would more likely be?) while Callum is repeating the translated runes of the mirror, with her totally not star-inspired color palette and totally unsuspicious star monkey and overall just pretends like coming back after more than two years since she left him that everything is fine? That they can just be normal again? She honestly doesn't seem really all that guilty and apologetic for it at all either???? None of it felt like Rayla at all—especially not from all the things we know she's been through and the lessons she's learned.

And I think the Fake!Rayla theory could probably still be possible, I guess my issue with the season lies in that...I think they're actually intending for this to be the real Rayla?

I don't know. It's 5AM as I'm writing this, I need to sleep, maybe I'll do some rewatching come tomorrow, but I think the best way I can sum up my thoughts is just that...like, it was a good season. I enjoyed it. But because I really don't know whether or not the Rayla we see in this season with her VERY SUSPICIOUS PET STAR MONKEY WITH PORTAL POWERS is the real Rayla, and honestly I'm trying to cling to all the hope that I can that this, at least in some way, isn't the true Rayla, because if it is, then god damn did the writers assassinate her character. (No pun intended.)

[thenightling]

The Supernatural and The Addams Family

One complaint I see a lot of about the Wednesday series on Netflix is "The Addams Family was grounded in reality. There was nothing supernatural about them! The Munsters were supernatural." Almost always someone will say "What about thing?" And comes the typical meme / joke response of "Well, they're just that Goth." Okay, outside of the disembodied hand that serves as a friend / pet / sex toy / lover (throw-away line in Addams Family Values about his relationship with Uncle Fester) here are some elements of The Addams Family that are definitely supernatural. 1. Uncle Fester is immune to electric shock, mercury poisoning (he ate an old thermometer) and other things that would kill most people. Not only that but he has his own high electrical charge where he can power a lightbulb with his mouth. This is all from the 1960s Addams Family TV series.

I won't bother to mention the kids surviving improbable scenarios since even in the movies there's usually a cut-away. 2. Grandmama is a practicing witch. In fact the lyrics of the 1960s Addams Family theme song include "So get a witch's shawl on, a broomstick you can crawl on." We're told that at least some members of the family are witches, if not all of them. Morticia's mother was played by Margret Hamilton (The Wicked Witch of the West in The wizard of Oz). Note: Morticia's mother and Grandmama are not the same character. When Grandmama curses Debbie in Addams Family: Values, her curse comes to pass later in the movie.

In The Addams Family Broadway musical there's even a joke line of "My mother? I thought she was your mother!" and Gomez and Morticia just shrug it off. She's theirs and that's all that matters. They just adopted the strange old woman who wants to be called Grandmama. 3. Morticia canonically has psychic powers in the 1960s Addams Family TV show. She has permeations, experiencing omens, and at one point felt it when someone stuck a pin in a map directly over their house. This is from the 1960s Addams Family TV series. This was not something invented for the Wednesday TV series. 4. In The Addams Family 1960s TV series Santa Claus is Canonically proven to be real. He shows up in the Christmas episdoe after each adult Addams dresses as Santa to try to make the kids happy.

5. Another witch in the family is mentioned in the Christmas episode. When the children were told that Santa isn't real, Gomez and Morticia reassure them by reminding them that they were also told that witches weren't real and they proved that wrong when they met a certain aunt. 6. Morticia's sister, Ophelia, in the 1960s Addams Family TV series has flowers growing out of her scalp. Flowers that Gomez is allergic to. This is actually partly the origin for Morticia cutting the flowers off her roses, Gomez is allergic to flowers.

7. Lurch may or may not be a zombie or Frankenstein style creature. Yes, the animated movie made him an escaped mental patient but the 90s Addams Family animated series gave him blue skin and a flat topped head, making him heavily resemble a Frankenstein monster. (Note: The Creature does not actually have a flat head in Mary Shelley's novel. This and the groaning is a movie trope.)

8. Cousin It.

9. In Addams Family the Broadway musical the Addams do a conga line with the ghosts of their ancestors.

10. Ophelia (Morticia's sister) is inhumanly strong (besides having flowers growing out of the top of her head.) She can flip Gomez onto his back with one hand. 11. Their library contains books that literally bring to life what's inside them. 12. Their house is definitely haunted. In the 2019 Addams Family animated series the House repeatedly told them to get out, and consumes coffee. Also Morticia refers to the entity as "The spirit." 13. Morticia talks to the ghosts of her parents In The Addams Family 2019 Addams Family animated movie. 14. There are singing severed heads in The Addams Family 2019 animated movie. 15. There is a sentient tree on the house grounds, named Ichabod. 16. Uncle Flambe has flame-hair. 17. Wednesday is able to control Pugsley via voodoo doll in The Addams Family 2 animated movie from 2021. 18. Wednesday was able to freak out another little girl by showing off that she can read minds when she wants to in Addams Family 2 the animated movie from 2021. 19. Lurch is indicated to have "cold dead" hands suggesting that at least in the Addams Family 2 animated movie from 2021 he is a zombie or Frankenstein-style monster. I know he has a mother in the 60s show but other incarnations don't seem to follow this. In the 2019 animated Addams Family movie Lurch seems to have escaped the insane asylum but the haunted insane asylum (which becomes The Addams Family house) had been abandoned for years, possibly decades. Bonus as this one is not confirmed. 20. The Addams' may or may not be immortal. In the 1990 Addams Family movie Gomez is trying to find Uncle Fester who has been missing twenty-five years. The 1990 Addams Family movie was deliberately released twenty-five years after the 1960s Addams Family series of the 1960s ended. There is continuity changes such as making Uncle Fester Gomez's brother instead of Morticia's uncle (pre-marriage) but otherwise the 90s Addams Family movies were meant to directly continue from the 1960s TV series. This means that in twenty-five-years no one aged. Not even the children. "Their Goth game is just that strong."