#jossed and robbed

[raisedbythetv89]

I just started watching White Collar for the first time and a realization about most male written and directed media smacked me DIRECTLY in the face which is that SO MUCH media written by a for men is genuinely just male nerd self insert, non-canon compliant, AU fan fiction??????

Like them writing and creating stories is just “ok so these guys are soooo smooth and well dressed and women just flock to them at every turn and they can get away with anything and everyone believes and supports them when they do mess up and everyone thinks they’re sooooo brilliant”

This media isn’t just portraying women “for the male gaze” it’s EVERYTHING. Everything in these stories is supporting and uplifting mens’ delusions about who they are, how they’re perceived, and how they should expect to be treated. Which is incredibly ironic because anytime media portrays women or the world in the female gaze in a more “in my ideal world things would be like this” instead of portraying us as nothing but weak, broken, unloved, traumatized, victims OR one dimensional sex symbols with no needs or emotions they’re screaming, crying, throwing up about how stupid and unrealistic the story is….

This explains SO MUCH about how male characters are handled in shows like Veronica Mars and Buffy. Even though they’re shows staring women all the “good guys” get the delusional self insert, y/n, AU fan fic treatment (Buffy still wants Angel in season 3 and Riley in season 6 even after everything they did and Xander is CONSTANTLY forgiven for all the atrocious shit he says and does and is wanted by all women besides Buffy. Veronica forgiving Duncan and getting back together with him and even CONSIDERING Piz could truly only be born from men being delusional AS FUCK. Writing how they want men to be treated by women rather than being based in reality and the woman having even an ounce of self respect.)

Which is why the “bad boys”, Logan and Spike are such better characters. They’re so much more realistic, they get held accountable by the women in their lives, have better growth and are just way more appealing and attractive because they’re not the walking embodiment of what MEN want men to be treated and act like.

Oh god this feels like such cursed knowledge to have like it’s important to see this media for what it really is but now watching it feels that much yuckier like finding the porn of someone you DO NOT LIKE but like their emotional porn “this is what life would be like in my fantasies” and they’re the fantasies of the grossest men alive 😭😭😭😭😭

Also it shows their emotional maturity like all of these things are what 13 year old boys fantasize about not actual mature, grown men….

Also just realized this is why the Star Wars sequels were so hated. It wasn’t just Rey being powerful and loved by her found family and Kylo. It was that the movies showed the reality of men like Kylo. They destroyed the male fantasy Darth Vader created. They aren’t super cool, powerful badasses. They’re extremely sad, broken, temper tantrum throwing lost little boys who just want love and acceptance but have lost the ability to accept it because of the dark side (aka the patriarchy) which is the reality and that made me SOOOOO ANGRY lololololololol and this is why Joss Whedon THOUGHT making Spike into a sad pathetic mama’s boy of a poet would make the audience not like him because that DOES work on misogynistic men who enjoy the male gaze but does NOT work and only humanizes and makes Spike even more complex and lovable to the female gaze 💀💀💀💀 oh good lord

[imruination]

Sometimes I think about the

Spike

to-

Logan Echolls

to-

Bellamy Blake

pipeline and the fact they they were all hated by (later outted to be extremely problematic) showrunners for having stereotypically feminine character traits, and for daring to give their “tough badass” FMC counterparts the option of a happy ending …. But that’s none of my business

[filmjunky-99]

c o n t a c t, 1997 🎬 dir. robert zemeckis

[sapphiccarolineabbott]

For a hot minute there American Girl had me worried... they were making interesting characters with more diversity and unique elements... I was very concerned because someone obviously kidnapped whoever was previously in charge at mattel. No worries though, the last year they've made nothing but bland disappointing choices and characters so it was clearly a fluke 🙄

[mycenaae]

like not to speculate too much about what the renegotiation drama is, because it's probably just as much on the fox executives / ryan / tim / brad / hr that the actors aren't getting paid what they're due. but when you have to deal with an actor like rob lowe and the ego and paychequest that go along with employing him it's like. yeah. well. of course fox would be like "who can we underpay / cut out". good on sierra for standing her ground but as a survivor of the west wing season 4-5 transition, i remember the dark days of "show that tried to keep rob's ego in check so they could pay their other actors and let them have a storyline for once".

[sebbypowell]

Still cannot believe that we were robbed of Bucky and Natasha being a couple in the MCU, but I'm still thanking the Russo brothers for basically almost confirming it in the MCU with the references.

I know that Sebastian wanted to explore that, but I think Scarlett wanted it too as well. Joss Whedon basically ruined everything about it by putting Natasha with Bruce instead of Bucky. I still think Bucky and Natasha did end up together in the past of the MCU, but it'll never ever be confirmed. Still, Thunderbolts* could confirm that with Bucky telling Yelena that he knew Nat and confirm more of the backstory between the two characters that we've been waiting for ever since Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

All we know is that Bucky put Natasha out of action in 2009 or 2010 and that paved her to be the assistant for Tony while she was out of action and the other we know is that she said in Civil War, "Don't you recognize me" which I don't think that is for the scenes with them fighting in The Winter Soldier at all.

I still think he trained her AND Yelena in the Red Room and Natasha and him fell for each other, but like I said that might never be confirmed.

[drusill]

rating btvs ships: part 1

spuffy: 8/10. would be 10/10 if they had a better writer who saw the potential between them relationship-wise.

bangel: 6/10. idk who the fuck was working on angel’s character, but that man was ROBBED. imagine having buffy and spike in the same room together and making angel choose the side piece?? not only that, but she ends up dying! (no offense cordelia)

tillow: 9/10. -1 for classic queerbait. giving us a rare femslash relationship just to throw it all away? joss whedon when i catch you!!!

spangel: 10/10. the sexual tension. the anger. the love. the hate. buffy’s just mad cause she didn’t have what they had. angel was so fucking real when he took one look at spike and said ‘‘i have to breed him!’’ and let’s not forget that iconic ass fight in the rain for ‘‘destiny’’ or zestiny.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

tumblr.com/coconutsaiyan/762919117205487616/the-zutara-shippers-having-fun

Kataang antis please stop using ships that nothing to do with Avatar challenge. (I don’t disagree that there are bad apples on the Kataang shipping side, but to acting like there are zero bad apples on the anti side/ZK side is false advertising).

For real, that's one of the things that pisses me off the most about zutara fans: forcing connections with ships that have LITTLE TO NO SIMMILARITIES.

I got to the tags of How I Met Your Mother? I see people go "Zuko and Katara, two characters that barely interacted and never had feelings for each other, not ending up together was as much of a betrayal to the show and fans as Barney and Robin's romance being build up for 7+years only for them to get divorced in the finale, when they had just gotten married!"

I go into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer tag? I see people comparing Bryan and Mike, who a good relationship with all the actors in the show, to Joss Whedon, a notorious misogynist that sexually harrassed the actresses, over-worked the entire crew, and slammed Spike's actor against the wall and told him "You're DEAD!" for the crime of playing a character too well and becoming one of the fan-favorite choices for who the main character should end up with.

Hell, I go into the Hunger Games tag and see people comparing Zuko and Katara to Gale and Katniss because "Zuko was done dirty just like Gale!" Nevermind that Zuko's whole arc was about realizing violence is not the answer and thus wins over Katara's friendship and trust eventually, while Gale lost Katniss's trust and friendship permanently because his refusal to see "the enemy" as humans made him create the very bombs that killed her sister, aka even if Zuko WAS the Gale to Katara's Katniss that would not be the win they think it'd be because this ship was not endgame for a damn good reason!

Zutara has so little going for it that the fans have to take other ships' stories and pretend it's theirs to make it look like they were "robbed."

[kickbutts-singsongs]

Welcome back to another episode of “what accidental fandom reference made me cry today??”

___

Random radio station: Andddddddd we’re back! It’s MIX FM Live, bringing you today’s hits! I’m Rob, and this is Joss, which is short for Jocelyn by the way—

Me, a Person of Interest fan: *sobs*

[girl4music]

"So if the Willow/Tara relationship is so fondly recalled a generation after Buffy ended, why is the same not true for Xena and Gabrielle's relationship? There are several points of difference between the two series that make plain precisely why Xena was never able to be as explicit with its queer content as Buffy. Most obviously Xena began a year and a half earlier and only briefly were the two shows thriving conterminously. Xena was already half way through its penultimate 5th season when Tara was first introduced on Buffy and by the time the Willow/Tara relationship was in full bloom, Xena was heading towards its final episode. Even more importantly, Xena was a syndicated series with its producer Rob Tapert of Renaissance Pictures hawking the product to local and national networks whilst remaining reliant upon advertisers and a handful of key sponsers.

When considering the queerness of the Xena/Gabrielle relationship then, what ought to be emphasised is intentionality. As a syndicated series in the mid-to-late 1990's Xena was in no position to include openly queer characters on its show. What made the series groundbreaking and positive for the LGBTQIA+ community was that when Xena's showrunners, staff writers and stars discovered early in Season 1 that they had a legion of queer fans, rather than being repulsed they actively embraced their unexpected fanbase. Skirting the expectations of networks and advertisers in much the same manner that Buffy a few years later would use magic as an allegory for lesbianism. It's also worth emphasising, as one further point of departure between the two shows, that the Willow/Tara relationship was carefully planned out in advance by Joss Whedon whereas when Xena first aired in September 1995 nothing of the sort was even remotely contemplated. A taste of the conservatism showrunner Rob Tapert and his writers were forced to deal with maybe gleaned from the fact firstly that Tapert was strongly advised when pitching the series simply to make Xena male, and secondly that when the first episode was released censors and local advertisers voiced concerns over the opening credits sequence since it featured Xena getting intimate with the shirtless warlord Draco and it was feared that his long braided hair might lead audiences to conclude that Xena was in bed with a woman. Yet despite the fact that Xena's early episodes were never intended to be anything but straight, they inadvertently came off as incredibly queer. Right from the outset Gabrielle is heavily coded as a baby gay. Feeling utterly trapped by her dull peasant existence, Gabrielle yearns for excitement and adventure and longs to see the world. Yet the way she expresses this to Xena entirely gives off the vibe of 'only gay in the village' staring down the barrel of a heteronormative life she doesn't want. In scene after scene across the show's first few episodes the Xena/Gabrielle dynamic enjoys a decidedly romantic undertone even as their writers felt compelled to push boyfriends of the week upon both characters.

All of this came to a head in episode eight in an inadvertently deeply romantic scene as Gabrielle tearfully farewells Xena right before she departs on what appears to be a suicide mission. Actors Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor have always claimed that it was around this point in the show's run that they first became aware of their lesbian fanbase as they rapidly found themselves inundated with fan mail from queer women of all ages at the same time as an abundance of Xena/Gabrielle femslash began appearing online in the early days of the internet. To their lasting credit both stars, alongside producer Rob Tapert, enthusiastically jumped at the chance to please their new and unexpected demographic. As we shall see in the final section, they sometimes miss the mark, but on the whole they proved remarkably successful in respecting their queer fanbase whilst maintaining plausible deniability with the censors, networks and advertisers whom they needed to appease in order to sell the series. What resulted was a noticeable shift in the tone of the Xena/Gabrielle relationship across the back half of Season 1. Despite intermittently continuing to thrust boyfriends of the week upon both characters the show's inner-core of staff writers took note of the warmth, affection and intimacy that had originally won over their queer viewership and began integrating these types of scenes into their stories with increasing frequency. Just as importantly the intimacy Xena and Gabrielle began displaying towards one another did not exist in a vacuum as little droplets for the benefit of queer viewers but was instead used as a genuine form of character building to reinforce the show's central message that neither protagonist could contemplate life without the other. When, for example, Xena is struck by a poisoned dart and Gabrielle thinks she's dead, she kisses her a fond farewell, has a furious grief-stricken breakdown over her death and then risks her own life to prevent Xena's body from being torn limb from limb, and, in even more iconic fashion, when the tables are turned in the season finale and a wounded Gabrielle seemingly dies in Xena's arms we get an incredibly powerful acting moment from Lucy Lawless as Xena's stoic warrior facade entirely crumbles upon the realisation that she might have lost Gabrielle.

Thereafter, Xena's writers became evermore emboldened in making the Xena/Gabrielle relationship the centrepiece of the story. Growing the implied love and affection between their heroines to the point that by mid-season 2 in the episode 'The Quest', Xena and Gabrielle at last share their first on screen kiss. This episode, it should be noted, aired in February 1997, almost exactly four years to the day before Willow and Tara's first kiss on Buffy, and yes, the kiss took place with Xena inhabiting the body of Autolycus the thief, played by Bruce Campbell, but we nonetheless get to see Xena and Gabrielle in the spirit world leaning in to lock lips immediately preceding a hard cut to Gabrielle and Autolycus, leaving the viewer in absolutely no doubt as to what was actually going on. In essence the Xena/Gabrielle relationship was no longer subtext. Xena had unequivocally kissed Gabrielle romantically, albeit to appease networks and financial backers in the body of a man, and as the series progressed other similar excuses were concocted to enable the pair to express their physical intimacy whilst maintaining the necessary plausible deniability. 'The Quest' proved a line in the sand moment for Xena and Gabrielle's relationship. Only two episodes later in the light-hearted 'A Day In The Life' their behaviour makes plain that they're now unquestionably dating and are very much in the honeymoon phase. They can't keep their hands off each other, they bicker like an old married couple, they enjoy decidedly un-platonic baths together and they even repeatedly bemoan the fact that men keep crushing on Xena. From here-on-in the series makes no bones about the fact, but one giant rift and a few ill-conceived boyfriends of the week aside, Xena and Gabrielle are in a canonical romantic relationship throughout the rest of the show's run. Indeed within the limits of the conservative censorship guidelines they were forced to work with, Xena's writers went out of their way to highlight the physical and emotional intimacy of their leads' relationships with each other, and with other women, in a manner that really cannot be read as wholly platonic unless you're the kind of person who has a 'see-no-homo' mentality. This was done, it should be emphasised, not to queer-bait, nor to keep the heterosexual male viewer engaged, but rather to queer-code for the benefit of the show's substantial lesbian audience who were the driving force behind the packed Xena cons that became enormously popular during and in the years immediately following the show's run. It's abundantly clear moreover that cast and crew alike were entirely onboard with what was going on between its leads."

This is a very well-worded, clear and concise analysis on the intentional queer-coding in the TV shows ‘Xena: Warrior Princess' and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. If you get chance to watch the entire video, it's well worth it.

It's very true that Willow and Tara's relationship is much more acknowledged and praised for being 'explicitly canon' WLW/queer representation than Xena and Gabrielle's relationship is but - as the YouTuber said - that's because most people don't take in the historical context behind how and why Xena and Gabrielle couldn't be explicitly canon and if not for what the Xena creator's did with the Xena/Gabrielle relationship, it's likely Willow and Tara never could have been either since Xena preceded it and faced a lot more challenges of which gave it the victory necessary for Buffy to follow and continue to break down the barriers of censorship.

Xena and Gabrielle never ever get on those "the most groundbreaking LGBTQIA+ ships or couples in TV art/entertainment of all-time" lists simply because it wasn’t confirmed as a canon one in the show itself - which is incredibly sad and frustrating for me - but regardless - it is true that they still broke the most ground in getting WLW representation (or any queer representation) to even be allowed to be seen in a major TV show format.

I say it all the time: Xena and Gabrielle were really the greenlight and blueprint to every bit of positive queer representation we have today and I just want people to be aware that their queer ships probably would not exist if not for them and the insanely brave and fearless creators/cast/crew that did many things first before any others did and they should at least be honoured for that if not for anything else because we had virtually fucking nothing at all until they came along and changed the TV landscape forevermore until explicitly canon queer content could be permissible in TV media.

I don't like it when queer people ignore Xena and Gabrielle's legacy in the LGBTQIA+ community because if it wasn't for them and the amazing people behind creating them,... where would we even be now? We would not be as far as we are. I can guarantee you that. We wouldn’t be in a position where showrunners and networks can queer-bait the hell out of their straight (but still intentionally queer-coded for the purpose of exploitation) characters. We most certainly would not be in the position to see genuine and sincere positive WLW/queer representation. There would be no Willow and Tara. There would be no Waverly and Nicole. There would be no EXPLICITLY CANON WLW/queer couples.

You guys do not know how good you've got it. I never had any of this when I was a queer child. All I had was Xena and Gabrielle. That's it! It’s all that I held on to. And to this day I still hold on to Xena and Gabrielle with an iron grip because I am still convinced that they are the best WLW/queer representation in all of TV history simply because they didn’t have to be but were anyway because the creators/cast/crew felt it was much more valuable as a WLW love story than completely platonic and when you watch the show for yourself, you do see that this is the truth. It is a lot more valuable that way.

Everything works much better. The storytelling, the arcs, the characterization, the tonal quality. All of it. The dialogue is snappier, funnier, more campy, more vibrant with the queer narratives involved. It feels right. But as soon as you switch it over to a straight narrative or a more heteronormative outlook, that quickly vanishes. Some of the worst episodes of the show are the ones where they try to force-feed you straight relationships - knowing that there’s already an extremely strong and substantial one established between the two leads and you ask yourself - other than blatant homophobia - why they can’t be that central romance of the entire show.

But don’t worry because as far as the creators/cast/crew are concerned - they are. They don’t want those straight relationships or boyfriends of the week either. They don’t so much mind the various other WLW/queer relationships or girlfriends of the week, but even then, they’re still pretty adamant that it’s X&G that they ship.

When you’ve got that - that sincere intention - it really doesn’t matter what’s explicitly canon and what’s not. If the creators/cast/crew are completely onboard, it really makes absolutely no difference whatsoever if they are or aren’t because as far as anyone that matters sees it - they already are and that already drives the heart of it. Then you look at ‘Supergirl’ or ‘ONCE’ or ‘Rizzoli and Isles’ and you think - if only they were that damn brave. If only they took risks. If only they met the challenges. But no, they went the other way on all of that even when they didn’t need to because censorship was a lot less severe. That’s why I have no love or respect for them. And I’m not asking for too much because Xena and Buffy did it and they’re regarded so highly in fandom. Not with everything but definitely for real and true WLW/queer representation and I think that maybe we need to acknowledge it more because what we have today is good representation but not good storytelling and the only way someone like me will pay attention is if there’s both and they’re cleverly intertwined together.

[coraniaid]

Who do you think tended to be consistently the strongest and weakest writers on the Buffy staff? [With the obvious caveat that TV writing is collaborative of course.]

Looking only at writers who are credited with at least five episodes so that we've got a decent sized sample of their writing (and, as you say, pretending for the sake of the argument that each episode was written entirely by the writer named in its credits), our long list is:

Dean Batali and Rob Des Hotel co-wrote five episodes together, starting with Season 1's Never Kill A Boy On The First Date and ending with Season 2's Killed By Death

Jane Espenson wrote twenty-three episodes, starting with Season 3's Band Candy and ending with Season 7's End Of Days (co-written with Doug Petrie)

David Fury wrote seventeen episodes, starting with Season 2's Go Fish (co-written with Elin Hampton) and ending with Season 7's Lies My Parents Told Me (co-written with Drew Goddard)

Drew Goddard wrote or co-wrote five episodes, all in Season 7, starting with Selfless and ending with Dirty Girls.

Drew Z. Greenberg wrote six episodes, starting with Season 6's Smashed and ending with Season 7's Empty Places

David Greenwalt wrote eight episodes, starting with Season 1's Teacher's Pet and ending with Season 3's Homecoming

Rebecca Rand Kirshner wrote eight episodes, starting with Season 5's Out Of My Mind and ending with Season 7's Touched

Steven S. Knight wrote five episodes, starting with Season 5's Blood Ties and ending with Season 6's Seeing Red

Marti Noxon wrote twenty-three episodes, starting with Season 2's What's My Line? (Part 1) (co-written with Howard Gordon) and ending with Season 7's Bring On The Night (co-written with Doug Petrie)

Doug Petrie wrote seventeen episodes, starting with Season 3's Revelations and ending with Season 7's End Of Days (co-written with Jane Espenson)

Joss Whedon wrote twenty-seven episodes, starting with Season 1's Welcome to the Hellmouth and ending with Season 7's Chosen

Unfortunately for people who like to claim that being a good person and being a good artist are correlated, I think it's pretty much indisputable that Joss Whedon was consistently the best Buffy writer. As well as every season opener and season finale except for Season 5's Buffy vs Dracula and both Season 6's Bargaining and Grave, Whedon-written episodes include Lie To Me, Innocence, Doppelgangland, Hush, Who Are You?, Family, The Body and Once More With Feeling. You could easily make a plausible top ten of Buffy episodes without picking episodes written by anybody else.

It's true that Whedon has a very particular style, that his characters all tend to default to speaking in a certain way and that he is a lot better at mood and metaphor than tight, multi-layed plotting. I'm not sure this is an approach that necessarily works well outside of the show (as well as easy targets like Avengers 2 or Whedon's bizarre Wonder Woman script or whatever was going on in the post-Chosen comics, I should admit I don't think fan-favorite Firefly is very good either), and by all accounts he's a pretty terrible human being as well, but as a writer on Buffy I think his work is consistently very good. The worst Whedon-written episodes are probably the opening two parter, Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest, Season 1's Nightmares and Season 3's Amends, and I think it's a stretch to call any of them bad episodes.

Of the other good Buffy writers ... well, I wouldn't be much of a Faith fan if I didn't mention Doug Petrie (whose best episodes include Revelations, This Year's Girl, No Place Like Home and Fool For Love), but I think his Season 6 and Season 7 episodes are quite a bit weaker. I'm not a huge fan of Season 4's The Initiative either.

Marti Noxon had as big an influence as anyone on the show other than Whedon, but 'consistent' is not the word I'd use to describe her. Her best epsiodes (I Only Have Eyes For You, Consequences, The Prom, Forever, Bargaining) are fantastic, her worst ... well, she wrote the worst two episodes of Season 3 (Dead Man's Party and Beauty and the Beasts), she wrote Buffy vs Dracula (which I know some people love but I can't stand at all) and she wrote (or cowrote) Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered and Doomed and Into the Woods (all three of which, I think, would be in the running for a list of the show's worst ten episodes).

I think Petrie and Noxon are probably the show's best two writers after Whedon. I know a lot of people really rate Jane Espenson's work, and I do like a lot of her episodes (Earshot and Band Candy are both very good), but she also wrote some real stinkers (Pangs, A New Man and ... again, Doomed). She doesn't quite have any real knockout episodes, for my money.

Worst writer is a more hotly contested category.

David Fury wrote (or co-wrote) Lies My Parents Told Me and Go Fish (and, not to keep banging on about it, Doomed) which is a pretty good claim to the title of "worst writer", but he also wrote Helpless, Choices, Fear Itself and Real Me and at least co-wrote Bargaining. So I don't think, hand on heart, that he can possibly be the worst Buffy writer. Certainly not consistently so.

David Greenwalt wrote (or co-wrote, with Whedon) School Hard and Ted and Faith, Hope & Trick and Homecoming, all very good episodes. But he also wrote Teacher's Pet, which .... uh.

Probably the consistently weakest writers are the ones who didn't really write anything dreadful but also never wrote anything particular amazing.

Dean Batali and Rob des Hotel's worst episode is the forgetable Killed By Death, and I'm not sure I could tell you what their best episode is. Never Kill A Boy On The First Date, maybe? I think I like that one more than most people do.

From the other end of the show's run, there's Drew Z Greenberg, whose worst episode is probably a tie between Him and Empty Places and whose best episode is ... uh. Entropy, maybe? And David Goddard, who only wrote for the show's worst season and who managed to cowrite Lies My Parents Told Me, easily the show's worst ever episode (and I am not as much of a fan of Selfless as many people, although I'd agree it's certainly his best work).

It's no secret that Season 7 is my least favorite season, and while I don't think Season 1 is objectively great, it -- and the early parts of Season 2 -- have a certain nostalgic charm I don't really get from the rest of the show. So I guess I'd pick one of the Drews, either Greenberg or Goddard, if I had to pick a single worst writer. Or fail to pick one, as it happens, because I can't pick between them.

Though I think the absolute best sign that an episode is likely to be a stinker is if it's credited to more than one writer, especially writers who don't normally write as a team. There are a handful of exceptions -- Conversations With Dead People comes to mind -- but on the hand you've got 'classics' like The Pack and Go Fish and Flooded and Life Serial and Sleeper and Bring On The Night and Lies My Parents Told Me and End Of Days. That's a pretty consistent list of dubious to terrible episodes right there.

Oh, and don't forget Doomed, the only episode of the show officially credited to three different writers. Have I mentioned that I don't like Doomed? Because I really don't like Doomed.

[raisedbythetv89]

I feel like Logan’s death really commandeers the conversation about how terrible season 4 of Veronica Mars is (understandably so it is horrific) but there’s literally SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT 😭

Veronica isn’t Veronica and Logan isn’t Logan (really NO ONE is truly in character anymore). Rob Thomas clearly has NO IDEA what healing actually looks like so Logan becomes this pop psychology stereotype with no depth or emotion and like Veronica literally says A POD PERSON. And he describes his therapy as controlling his anger so it doesn’t consume him. That might have been the move as a temporary band-aide immediately to stabilize his life after season 3 but what like 12 years later???? When season 4 starts? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Fire that therapist immediately 😭 He should be WELL into the source of his anger. Healing isn’t about control it’s about surrender and acceptance of your feelings and developing healthy coping strategies to process your newly uncovered feelings so you can live WITH them not in spite of them. There’s a reason so many “good guy” characters are so one dimensional and boring it’s because the male writers writing them literally have NO CLUE what a healthy well adjusted men act like 😭 - (Ted Lasso was so rare because we had good men writing good men)

And yes we know Logan punching people does it for Veronica but that’s because it is ALWAYS in defense of her but his safety and well being is always her number 1 priority (he pulls a gun to save her in the Fitzpatricks bar and she screams at him because she doesn’t want him to get hurt or killed in his attempt to defend her and she’s terrified). Him just punching a kitchen cabinet in rage and frustration is NOT the same thing at all and she would show concern in that situation not immediately instigate sex ROBERT.

The idea that Veronica did ZERO growing/healing/processing in those 12 years is so insulting and just not realistic - once she got space and distance she would have come out of fight or flight and been assaulted with all the repressed emotions from seasons 1-3 before law school yet somehow she’s WORSE than she was when she was younger with less stability and support and capacity to handle everything she was dealing with.

Especially after everything established in the movie!

“Are you gonna ask me if I did it?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I thought you did”

THE AMOUNT OF GROWTH THAT SHOWS IN VERONICA IS ACTUALLY INSANE. Miss never trusts anybody, suspect EVERYONE until your can verify the truth - believes Logan and Weevil AT THEIR WORD. Trusts THEIR CHANGE implicitly and picks helping Logan and Weevil BECAUSE SHE CARES not because it’s a fucking addiction as Rob tried to frame it in the movie 💀💀💀 Veronica always helped because she’s SOFT because she has a good heart and can’t help but help when she knows she can which is classic of parentified children - you believe everything is your responsibility to fix if it’s in your capability to fix. Does she get neurotic trying to solve cases? Absolutely! But that is trying to control and fix external problems as a distraction from her own. It was a coping mechanism and taking that coping mechanism away in the 9 years between season 3 and the movie would have caused serious problems for her that would have forced her to confront her issues.

Season 4 could have been Veronica having a complete break down from her always too full plate coming crumbling down trying to help and fix too much combined with logan being gone and always at risk when he is gone, Wallace bringing new life into an increasingly corrupt neptune she can’t seem to save, Mac working for Jake Kane?!!?! I would have loved If instead she was helping Mac deal with the swapped at birth thing they NEVER touched again. Combined with her dad’s health problems and Weevil falling back into his old habits. She is someone who feels responsible for everything and everyone around her because everyone blamed her for EVERYTHING when she was younger and eventually that catches up with you and THAT is what I wanted to see her strength crumble forcing her to be truly vulnerable and instead of asking for favors asking for HELP allowing her to stop acting like a woman written by a man and act like an actual adult woman BY women who actually understand that experience. Rob was SO out of his depth - his portrayal of Leanne in earlier seasons already proved that.

But that’s just one of literally 1 million possibilities that would have been better than the direction Rob chose. He managed to strip away everything we loved about ALL of his characters until they were ghosts of themselves and it makes me SO UPSET 😭 because he literally revived a show just to finish the destruction path he started in season 3, that had started to be corrected in the movie because it was so controlled by the fans.

Rob and Joss - two men who’s success was built upon a largely female audience and then their misogyny caused them to try and destroy everything their audiences loved 🙃🙃🙃🙃

[nfumbewalk]

Graveyards: All About Them

First, here are things to do in a graveyard. This includes what to bring and what you can do plus some etiquette.

First, have decency and respect.

If you plan on gathering anything, bear the correct offerings. Such as: A small (1/2 oz) of hard liquor, payment (9 to 27 pennies), Jasmine incense joss stick, bouquet of flowers, Florida water (preferably homemade) OR Kananga water, also homemade - both of these are sacred to the muertos, but to draw them to you, Kananga water works best; good sized piece of Quartz, double terminated to use for housing a muerto temporarily (yes, you can put a muerto in a crystal but they must be transferred to a vessel and pacted within 2 days - no more than this.)

For protection in a graveyard, especially if you are very sensitive/psychic: Wear a white bandana on your head before even going in. And don't wear black when you go there. Why? As a daily wearer of black clothing, I noticed a big change when I wore all white to the graveyard. It's actually more powerful. White radiates healing power and seems to quiet the muertos, but it also gives them a sense of relaxation and peace when you are around them. They are easier to communicate with. I noticed that black seems to tangle up communication. I don't know why. I guess that white flows better. But I hate it because I instantly get white filthy. LOL!

Some ppl say that there are no dead souls at the graveyard, that they don't hang out there. That's wrong. Some of the muertos do hang out by their grave, watching over it. Many of them can be like sentinels. Rodolfo says he used to protect his grave but as soon as I found him and started visiting, he wanted to just be with me. I got that distinct feeling, so I picked him up one day. I didn't realize how successful I was!

Graveyard Work: That includes gathering dirt, Siphoning the Earth with a Baston de Muerto, curses and hexes, and other full blown rituals -these can be done - but homage must be paid to the Earth in the graveyard. The best way of doing this is a buried offering of your own blood on a piece of small parchment which is placed in a very small glass corked bottle. This buried offering gives you a real relationship with the land that holds these muertos. It is very deep respect. And no, there is NO gatekeeper in graveyards, That's a widely professed misconception. I have never once been approached or sensed any "gatekeeper" of any kind. All that there is - in a graveyard - is known as the "heart" of the graveyard. This is the central zone. It is sensed by feeling where you notice an electrical charge the strongest and a smell of the freshest air that you have ever experienced. I like to do my work there unless I'm at Rodolfo's grave.

What exactly to expect with graveyard work? Is it dangerous? Don't get your expectations up too high. Graveyard work is great and very powerful, but you are not exactly going to see flashing lights and muertos dancing. It is often very low key. But the results of graveyard work can be fantastic! It is only dangerous if you go into the graveyard with no knowledge of what this work entails. This is NOT for beginners! If you know nothing, you may get a spirit attachment and that can be hard to remove. Try the precautions I mentioned above.

Don't leave empty handed. Gather an item from the Earth of the graveyard besides dirt. I'm not talking about robbing graves. I'm talking about something like a white Quartz that is often on top of graves, or any other rock that has been sitting on a grave. This is another powerful totem that you can use in your practice to represent and draw Death Energy to you, It does NOT need cleansing. Cleansing would ruin it.

Kindness for the Earth and muertos - Please pick up any garbage that you see in the graveyard. People are litter bugs and I hate seeing trash hanging around a beautiful place that I venerate.

What NOT To Do In The Graveyard

Don't take this resting place lightly.

Don't yell or scream.

Do not run around in a graveyard unless there are trails. (We have them here in Oregon). Running is very loud to the muertos. Would you like your grave stomped on?

Don't litter.

Do NOT desecrate a grave, tip over, break, or steal a tombstone. It is not funny.

Do not have intercourse in a graveyard, It is very disrespectful. Not kinky.

Do not invoke/evoke Demons in a graveyard unless you know what you are doing. This can open you up widely for a demon/spirit attachment. I said lowercase "demon." That is my difference between known Demons and demons that are low level "lesser demons" and are not in a hierarchy. They can be extremely dangerous. These demons are NOT worshipped. Never give them blood. Once you have a lesser demon's name, it loses power and it's a lot easier to banish. I've done this four times successfully. It's very heavy and quite difficult but my method works.

Do NOT "ghost hunt" in a graveyard (or anywhere else!). It is extremely disrespectful and the muertos will leave. If there is any EMF involved, the muertos will not come back for a very long time or it will anger them so much that they will retaliate. They do NOT like EMF. That's why they love Shungite and Orgonite so much - gets rid of EMF. This is MY theory that I've studied and put to work. Rodolfo LOVES the Orgonite pyramid I put on his altar. To a muerto, EMF is like a huge bass speaker vibrating in their ears very loudly. Annoying? Yeah, I think so.

Do not talk shit about the muertos in a graveyard. This is obvious, right?

Refrain from drug and alcohol use in a graveyard. Picnics are acceptable though.

Well, I think I hit a lot of angles here. I hope this helps or is interesting. I'm not trying to be harsh with "rules." It is mostly common sense or just rules of thumb to keep in mind for a nice, safe, and meaningful visit to the graveyard for work or general visitation,

M.M.

[moistvonlipwig]

Cordelia Chase + 2, 8, 10

yay :D

2. How would I have chosen to change their story from canon?

I think the most important thing for me is that we needed to be let in on the truth that she was being possessed in Angel S4 far, far earlier -- by the end of "Apocalypse, Nowish" at the latest -- and we needed to actually hear from her while she was being possessed. Robbing Cordelia, a character whose entire thing is speaking her mind, of her voice for an entire season is so profoundly unjust and misogynistic, and I really do think that giving us a glimpse into her mind and her reactions to what Jasmine is doing with her body would have vastly improved S4 no matter what else went down in that season. However, if I have free reign to change even more of her story, then I think it would've been really interesting for Cordelia to be the one controlling the Beast in an effort to stop Jasmine's plans from coming to fruition. I have a whole rambling write-up here of how that would work on a basic level.

To tell the truth, though -- and I'm aware this puts me in the minority when it comes to Cordelia fans -- I wouldn't actually axe the possession storyline or Cordelia's eventual death & ascension entirely. I'm actually a big defender of the idea that Cordelia's arc should end with her death. I just think the execution of the possession/mystical pregnancy storyline was really poor (and was made even worse by both Joss's treatment of Charisma behind-the-scenes, and by Fred suffering a speedrun of the same fate in one of Angel's most hideously misogynistic episodes ever a season later).

I would also give her way more scenes with Gunn. Although, that's more of an issue with Gunn's character arc and the way it stopped existing in Seasons 3 & 4. And I would have liked to see her appear on Buffy in Season 6 -- I actually don't dislike Riley (even if I think his arc ended up going to several terrible places), but I think "As You Were" (or an episode like it) would be infinitely more interesting if it were Cordelia coming back to town instead. Cordelia started as Buffy's shadow self, the popular mean girl part of herself she had to leave behind in Los Angeles, and it would've been interesting to have Cordelia show up at Buffy's lowest point, now serving as a reflection of the kind of person Buffy wishes she could be. I think Cordelia got good closure with Xander in "The Prom," but she never quite got closure with Buffy, and I think an episode like this could've been a great sequel to "Homecoming."

8. What is a headcanon I have about this character?

Hm! Well, I am an ace Cordy truther, so there's that. I also have a headcanon that in her will she left instructions for her will's executor (probably Lilah) to sue Angel on her behalf for his mishandling of her company Angel Investigations. He gave up the money without a fight, and shortly thereafter, Stanford student Connor Reilly discovered he'd been selected for a scholarship he'd never heard of.

10. Did I like them immediately or did it take a while before I warmed up to their character? Alternatively, did I dislike them immediately or did they lose my trust as their story progressed?

Well, after watching the first episode of Buffy, my two favorite characters were Cordelia and Willow, in that order, sooo, yeah, I liked her pretty immediately! I've always been drawn to mean girl/popular girl/hyperfeminine 'bitch' type characters. So it's no surprise that she clicked with me right off the bat. But I would say I definitely fell deeper in love with her character through watching Angel. In the early seasons of Buffy I was just kind of like, oh she's fun. :) But by the end of Angel she was unequivocally my favorite character in the Buffyverse and one of my favorite characters ever. (I had kind of the opposite trajectory with Willow, funnily enough, where I'm not at all a fan anymore, largely due to the way her arc falls flat on its face partway through S6 and never recovers.) Also, I was spoiled for Angel S4 (thank our lord and savior Cordelia herself), so I knew Cordelia was possessed by Jasmine the whole time, so there was never a part of her arc where I disliked her.

[sleepyhead-poll]

ROUND 1D, MATCH 14 OUT OF 16!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Cordelia:

she’s fucking incredible and joss whedon did her dirty and robbed us of a great character with some of the best development i’ve ever seen just bc he got mad at the actress for getting pregnant.

Elena:

Literal main character but they put her in a deep sleep for like the last 2 seasons (?) because the actress was sick of being there or something.

What do you do when the actress for your show's main character wants to leave the show but you don't want to end the show just yet? Put her in a magic coma for two seasons! I love her in general and it's funny how it took me so long to remember that she was in a long term magic sleep too. She gets a weird amount of hate in the fandom sometimes but I think she's great. She's a vampire lover and certified red flag enjoyer but she also manages to get the vampires in her life to be less murderous. I should've started writing propaganda for her earlier because I'm really sleepy now and all I can really think is "yeah I love her" tbh.

[batmannotes]

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom 4K Ultra HD Review

Jason Momoa reprises his role as the King of the Seven Seas in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which comes 5 years after the original film was released. Once again Aquaman’s most notable rogue, Black Manta, is back seeking revenge for his deceased father. This time, Manta wields the power of the mythic Black Trident to unleash an ancient and sinister force. Hoping to end his reign of terror, Aquaman makes an unlikely alliance with his brother, Orm, the former king of Atlantis. Setting aside their differences, they join forces to protect their kingdom and save the world from irreversible destruction. 

I must admit, even though I consider myself a superhero aficionado, it has been 5 years since the first solo Aquaman flick hit the theaters and remembering certain details regarding the movie were hazy for me at best. Fortunately, there are flashbacks to some of the pertinent moments from the first outing. As in the original movie, there is a healthy dose of action and adventure sprinkled with some hit and miss humor. I enjoyed the unlikely bond between the brothers, and it is hard to argue that Black Manta is one of the most iconic super villains to hit the silver screen in a comic book flick in recent memory. Unfortunately, Manta is paired with a far less interesting character named Dr. Shin (Randall Park) and a collection of henchmen and women with little to no depth in this underwater adventure.  

The visuals of this film are the real treat, and with the 4K format they really shine. The underwater computer-generated sequences are particularly aesthetically pleasing, but I really wish this movie stuck to scenes beneath the sea. There are tons of incredibly interesting creatures in the ocean that an Aquaman movie has yet to tap into. A number of times the movie gets caught trying to copy other films, particularly Star Wars, however, this movie lacks the interesting intertwining plot points and character development of the sci-fi classic. Even with the beautiful 4K eye candy most of its visuals project, there are the occasional, (Joss Whedon) Justice League-esque CGI that leaves you wondering, “where did that come from?”. I also did not care for Aquaman being out of his classic orange and green costume for most of the movie, as I felt that it robbed me of that superhero feel.

VIDEO QUALITY 📽️ :  A 

The 2160p transfer looks glorious, even with the aforementioned lackluster CGI in a few limited sequences. This liquid beauty really carry the visual end of this film. 

AUDIO QUALITY 🔈 : A 

The Dolby Atmos English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) really is a treat for the listener at home. The dialogue is clear, and the action sequences are bombastic as you are immersed deep into the sea of this film. 

EXTRAS 📀 :  B 

Included with this single disc release is a Digital Copy and several video extras listed below: 

Finding the Lost Kingdom (21:22) - Jason Momoa, director James Wan, DC honcho Jim Lee, production design Bill Brzeski, and other key members of the cast and crew are your guides at this usually scenic behind-the-scenes featurette, which includes bits and pieces of on-set footage and others supportive clips. 

Aquaman: Worlds Above and Below (9:39) - A like-minded look at various locales on both sides of the surface that covers special effects, location shoots, and Aquaman lore by way of a few vintage comics. 

Atlantean Blood is Thicker than Water (4:17) - A short but sweet look at the history of Arthur and his half-brother Orm, again with some comics history and short interviews with Momoa and Patrick Wilson. 

It's a Manta World (10:08) - Another character-focused featurette, this short piece sits down with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and others to speak about David Kane, Black Manta, the power suit, and more. 

Necrus, the Lost Black City (5:51) - James Wan, producer Peter Safran, Bill Brzeski, and others chat briefly about the titular lost kingdom, its visual creation, and its history in the franchise. 

Escape from the Deserter World (8:05) - Another like-minded featurette about the location -- or in this case, sequence -- featured in the film, a handful of familiar faces share about its creation and execution while being supported by behind-the-scenes footage, concept art, rehearsals, costume and set design, and more. 

Brawling at Kingfish's Lair (4:07) - A quick look at one of the film's many visually overloaded action scenes and some of the goofier details and supporting characters featured in it. 

Oh, Topo! (2:12) - And speaking of goofy supporting characters, this short and light-hearted tribute acts as an appreciation and highlight reel for everyone's favorite comedy relief cephalopod. 

FINAL GRADE: C- 

The only real emotions drawn from this bloated outing are the reconciliation between two brothers and the love for their mother. Aquaman should have submerged deeper into the sea, instead of trying to mimic the tales of old from the land above. 

Order now from Amazon.