#like i know the finale wasn’t great but that doesn’t mean that s2 was a bad season?

[sparklyseblos]

i miss hsmtmts season 2 :(((

season 3 was good but like the vibes season 2 gave were just it!!

it was wholesome and even tho there was drama it was mostly external and wasn’t within the group. my silly little wildcats were happy (for the most part) and as seb said the one thing they had that north high didn’t was friendship!! which i felt like was lacked in s3 especially with the portwell-rina love triangle and the fact that seb, nini & big red weren’t there.

i’m not gonna deny the fact that there was some not-so-bright moments but i think for most of those moments there was always someone to help with that.

there’s also the fact that seblos, redlyn & portwell are my favourite ships and they were winning in s2 which is plus for me but i think one of the things i appreciated most about s2 was the friendship that came from it and the togetherness and support everyone had for one another (i’d say a good example of that was when everyone came together to give carlos the quinceañero he always wanted and deserved!)

also i feel like this was the one season where gini & rj were actually friends?? (minus the mini thing in 2x10 between gina and nini but was resolved by that absolutely iconic finale scene)

beauty and the beast was also SO GOOD (but tbh all of the productions that they’ve done in this show were incredible) and i love the friendships that came out of it like ash & ricky (which is adorable as well bc ash is big red’s gf and ricky is big red’s best friend) KOURT & SEB!! i loved their mother & son bond, carlos & gina were iconic, best choreographer duo everrr and ash & gina’s lovely sisterly bond was so sweet.

sorry ik i went on bit of a ramble here and i think you can tell from this post and my account that i just really love friendship but idk it was just really cute and i miss it. it also was the season when i started watching the show to so s2 has a very special place in my heart 🫶🏽

[rosakuma]

Feelings on FOPANW S1 Finale

Okay so the finale dropped…….that sure was a finale….Alright, let’s discuss this in full detail. Spoilers for Fairly Oddparents A New Wish finale, DO NOT READ BELOW IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT OR CAUGHT UP YET!

Okay so this finale is a big mixture for me for a few reasons, to which I’ll explain in detail of listing out the good and bad, before then listing out personal thoughts and what I think they’ll do for S2(if we get one, to which Y’ALL WE GOTTA LOCK IN AND REWATCH THIS SERIES IN NOVEMBER ON NETFLIX OKAY??)

The good~✨:

▪️I absolutely love that they brought back most of the new characters Hazel’s befriend and seen throughout the season come back to help Hazel in taking back fairy world. ▪️ANTI-COSMO AND ANTI-WANDA ARE BACK! It was definitely a short time, but I’m just glad they reappeared and them with Cosmo and Wanda was so funny. I love them exposing their weaknesses like Cosmo being afraid of big words or Wanda not standing seeing someone read a book upside down. ▪️THANK GOD DEV WASN’T TURN EVIL! The boy definitely mess up, but I am happy he listened to Wanda and help out in the end despite the consequences of it. It shows that despite Dev doing all of this to impress his dad, he realizes that his dad not going to change and that he’ll just overlook Dev for other people or things. Plus it nice to see that he didn’t want any the fairies lock up or to blow up, he just wanted to get back at Cosmo, Wanda, and Peri(speaking of him). This definitely marks a great start to his redemption arc that I feel next season will go into more.

▪️You don’t know how much it means to me seeing Peri fricken dying and yet, he’s still worrying about Dev. The fact he still cares about him and just only was strict on the rules because he wanted to do right by Dev..MY HEART AGHHH! THAT’S HIS DAD RIGHT THERE, HIS REAL DAD! I swear they better reunite. Le bad~⚡️:

▪️Dev losing both Peri and his memory of fairies….WHY!? I get punishing him to teach him what he did was wrong, but he recognizes it and also, HE’S NOT GOING TO IF HE DOESN’T REMEMBER WHAT HE DID WRONG! Not to mention that Dev still needs Peri, he still needs a fairygod parent because he’s stuck with a neglectful dad who thinks boots are better than his own kid and doesn’t know how to make friends with him having trust issues! Plus Peri still cares for Dev and I doubt he wanted to give him up! THATS HIS FIRST GODKID, GIVE HIM BACK HIS SON 😭 ▪️The point above gets worse when Hazel could’ve prevented that from happening by including Dev in her wish for her friends to keep their memories of her fairies and magic OR that Dev keeps Peri(which is a two for one sale as he gets both his fairy and memory). I understand Hazel is probably still upset at Dev and does think that he needs to learn a lesson, but she clearly still cares about him. Enough for her to look sad at the end when he gets poofs away and to thank him for doing the right thing. Not to mention now Dev’s growth at the end for realizing he did wrong will disappear and he can’t reflect on himself now to grow from it. ▪️Speaking of memories. So Hazel decided to let Winn, Jasmine, and her brother Anthony keep their memories of all of this. I won’t lie, I am conflicted on this as while I don’t mind too much of Winn and Jasmine to know about her secret as that allows them to join more adventures and develop from there with Hazel now that they know! But…why Anthony? I can understand Hazel wanting to share her cool fairies with him, but girl you got those fairies in the first place BECAUSE he’s away at college. Even if Anthony currently visiting right now and she can have fun with him, he’s still going back to college sweetie. Heck Anthony might not worry too much of needing to visit a lot because now he knows his sister being taken care of by Cosmo and Wanda(which is good thing, but to Hazel, she might be upset to think Anthony will spend less time with her now that she has fairies to fill his role).

Alright, I definitely got that out of my system. Ultimately despite these problems I have with this finale, I still enjoyed it and this season entirely. And I feel like the writers with what they did with Dev wasn’t to be mean spirited of taking away Peri and his memory. I believe they wanted to show Dev starting to reflect on what he has done and grow with realizing his mess up, which is why he even admits that he does deserve this and Hazel agrees. And despite Hazel not including him in the wish or wishing for him to keep Peri, she does still care about him. She’s glad he did the right thing in the end and she does look sad when Dev gets poofed away after being memory wiped. And honestly….this might be good for both of them in terms of being able to rekindle their friendship. Now that Dev won’t remember the the arguments that happen when he had a fairy, it means that his jealousy toward Hazel having Wanda and Cosmo and knowing that Hazel wished to be friends with him(to which he took personally because it seemed like their friendship was based off of just wanting to get something out of him he feels and it’s fake). The only problem is thanks to the memory wipe, we don’t know exactly how much Dev remembers. Does he only remember his fight with Hazel at Founders Day or their fight during his birthday? If the former, then did he forget Hazel being at his birthday? And if not and it’s the latter, then does Dev still remember project H but without the knowledge of Hazel’s fairies? Is he still upset at her for his father paying attention to her? Does he think they’re still friends??? Really the problem is since we’re in the dark of whether we’re getting a season two and we don’t know these details, we’re stuck unsatisfied since there’s clearly more to explore and explain here. But all we can do for now is just wait and watch the show again on Netflix when it drops while spreading word of the series. We can do this and get that season two for everyone! Seriously Netflix you better listen to Peri and greenlit season two.

[tangledbea]

As heartwarming as the epilogue is, It does encapsulate a problem I have with the show: it’s that it has these big payoffs that are usually satisfactory in the moment, but had very little build up

Rapunzel becoming a good queen?: On paper that is extremely fitting. But here’s the thing: other than other characters mentioning that she was gonna become queen, we never actually got to see Rapunzel realizing just how big of a responsibility that is, and the process of her learning what it means to be a good ruler. There’s bits and pieces of it (Great Tree, the painting episode, etc) but it never really sticks

Eugene becoming captain of the guards?: Where did that even come from?! Honestly, it felt like the writers didn’t really know what to do with him. The closest we got to an arc for him was the Dark Kingdom, but that gets kinda forgotten about, and doesn’t affect his character all that much.

Cassandra going off to find a path that’ll make her truly happy?: Again, conceptually fitting, but it wasn’t properly fleshed out or set up because for 99% of the season Cass whined about Gothel and like 5 other things that barely related

Varian reconciling with and feeling validated his dad?: Well Qurin wrote this letter back in “Queen for a Day”, shortly before getting trapped in the amber, and it was stated to have been something very important. But come season 3 it turns out the letter just says “I proud of U :)” , and all the baggage is instantly resolved, Varian is a okay now, yipeeeeee-. Like nice sentiment but we were promised more.

To be fair, I'm not at all positive that Rapunzel is supposed to be the queen at the end of the series. Her accepting the crown means she's officially ready to officially have the responsibility she's been carrying out for the entire season.

But when you look at the finale scene, Frederic and Arianna are still wearing their crowns.

But when you see them being casual (not "on the clock" as it were) they don't wear them. So, I don't think Rapunzel is meant to be queen in the epilogue, just officially ready to take on all responsibilities of Crown Princess.

I was never too fond of Eugene becoming Captain. It's sort of... the "natural" conclusion of "Fitzherbert P.I.," where he's shown not being a fit for the guard. Over the course of the series, he becomes more responsible, more reliable, and moreover, he's Rapunzel's #1 defender. I still don't like him as Captain, though, and I personally headcanon that he only keeps it up for a couple years, tops, before turning the guard over to Maximus. After all, the movie's epilogue implies that Max is the one who keeps the kingdom crime-free, and that Eugene has nothing to do with it.

Cassandra actually spent most of the series dissatisfied with her lot in life, and "Beginnings" even shows that she's not happy in Corona and would rather be somewhere else. Besides, I headcanon that she was soft-banished for taking Corona over. That's why she wasn't expected to help clean up the mess she made; because Rapunzel very lovingly told her she had to go and wasn't welcome there anymore.

As for Varian, his plot resolved at the beginning of S2. I know a lot of people really would have liked to see more with him and Quirin, but that wasn't a loose end for me. What little we saw of them showed that they were getting along better and making an effort to be a part of each other's lives. But while Varian achieved main character status, in actually, he's physically in 15 of 60 episodes (including the pilot), and two of those episodes ("Not In the Mood" and "King and Queen of Hearts") he's barely in them, so it's more like 13 episodes, which is less than 22% (21.66666666 etc%) of the series. Then he has his imaginary cameo in "Happiness Is..." So as much as people love him, he's not actually a major part of the overall series plot, in general, and his presence in S3 is more about how he now gets along with the gang than his dad. That's not really a flaw of the series, IMO.

[edwinisms]

You have some pretty great takes on Edwin so I was wondering if you had any thoughts on what a season 2 arc could realistically look like for him. Edwin's s1 character arc is fleshed out and concludes nicely with Edwin having a growing understanding of himself, so I'm guessing we will get to see him navigate these newly realized parts of himself in season 2, but I have no idea how that could actually play out. I'm also wondering about the Charles of it all, since one of Edwins newest revelations is his feelings for Charles. I'm wondering how he'll deal with that. Edwins a very "on mission" type person who always needs a problem to solve, but since his feelings for Charles are already figured out (and Charles supposedly lack of romantic feelings isn't a problem with a solution) I can imagine Edwin pushing those feelings to the back of his mind so he can focus on problems he deems fixable.

good question– I feel like it’s pretty easy to think of what kinds of conflicts and feelings charles might deal with in a s2 but edwin’s situation is certainly a lot more open-ended as it stands– but, that being said, him and his feelings are very very intertwined with charles and whatever charles is dealing with (especially in regards to edwin himself), so whether or not something external or overarching s2 plot-related ends up influencing edwin’s arc(s), I think we can pretty solidly say that part of his s2 situation is gonna have to do with charles’, not passively, but directly.

soooooo what i mean is that whatever might ALSO be going on at the same time with him, edwin’s probably gonna be heavily impacted by charles’ impending sexuality/romantic crisis and however that manifests. I think the most prominent idea in my head of how this might go (though of course i have others) based on charles’ response to the confession and his flirtatiousness in the finale is– if charles maintains, or god forbid ramps up, his flirting and teasing, all while edwin believes he was rejected, charles is straight (and based on crystal kissing him in the butcher shop, also possibly believing charles is still set on dating her), and all-in-all he doesn’t actually have a chance– it’s going to drive him fucking insane.

like, obviously he’d love the affection and attention, and he’d continue to be relieved that his confession definitely didn’t repel charles in any way, but with the belief that it can’t and won’t amount to what edwin pines for, that the implications of attraction aren’t genuine, etc– at a certain point that relief and flattery is going to give way to an ever-growing, pained frustration that’s bound to reach a breaking point eventually. and with edwin simultaneously becoming more and more confident in his sexuality and his romantic feelings and such, the pre-existing insecurity won’t be strong enough to prevent his willful, not-afraid-to-speak-his-mind personality from breaking through and making him snap once something pushes him over the edge. and yeah, he’d be a bit worried about damaging their friendship by bringing it up initially and all that, but I think he’d be equally, if not more worried over the feeling that he won’t be able to take being strung along like this forever, especially if/when charles ends up with someone else. it’d just be unnecessarily painful.

of course, all the while, charles isn’t registering his behavior as cruel or anything, because in his mind, his response to the confession wasn’t a rejection at all. it was open-ended, with the implication that they’d figure it out over time once they could. nor is he really that focused on edwin’s perception of his flirtatiousness, because he knows how edwin feels about him, and he’s dealing with his own internal conflicts trying to figure out

A) if his feelings truly amount to being “in love”,

B) what that implies for his identity, and

C) how to know what being “in love” even means and how to identify it in himself (this one being especially heavy, because it involves dealing with the fact that he really wasn’t deeply loved by anyone during his time alive, and he didn’t get to see any good examples of what being in love should be either).

shifting the focus back towards edwin– let’s say, as charles is dealing with all that, he ends up in a situation where crystal kisses him, perhaps misreading him confiding in her and asking about what it means to be in love (which, I have to note, would be a satisfying little parallel to edwin’s conversation with monty). and though he’d shy away and she’d be able to tell something was wrong and/or that he wasn’t talking about her before he even says it, the damage is done, either directly (by being witnessed) or with a delay (someone mentioning that they kissed later on). that, and/or the two appearing to be off in private together and in intimate conversations a lot as of late (when in reality charles is mostly working out his feelings for edwin and his identity issues with her, definitely deeply bonding with her but not like that)– the cues would build up and make edwin’s snapping all the more inevitable.

and i mean, there’s several ways that confrontation could play out, but the natural, drama-esque scenario to me would be edwin having an outburst of all that pent up anger and pain and jealousy and confusion, during which charles realizes that this whole time edwin’s thought that he’d been rejected. edwin, being stubborn and intense as he can be, clearly needs to be fully, completely convinced, and charles, always the type to act on impulse and heart, kisses him into clarification. and also to shut him up. cliché? maybe. but tell me you can’t see it.

anywayyyyyy obviously there’s a plethora of other ways all this can go, plenty of other conflicts that can pop up in between, and as for storylines/themes/etc outside of this particular relationship it’s nearly impossible to tell what might come up because obviously edwin (and everyone else) will be intertwined with whatever the plot turns out to be and whoever it may introduce– but this is probably what I’ve thought about the most. second most dwelled upon plot point in all this being charles having to address his Own jealousy over the guys who hit on edwin– like. considering that’s not exactly a super platonic feeling, at least at the level he feels it. but yeah, i could go on forever so I should probably stop.

[windywhistler]

I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I’d like to post a little farewell to G5. I know it wasn’t a lot of people’s favorite, and it definitely had its fair share of flaws (I remember giggling with my partner when the first episode of MYM came out over how stiff the animation was!), but I loved it very much, and I hope maybe we can somehow see these characters again. I loved this cast very much, so I’m going to ramble a bit below this. For a quick TL;DR: I love these sillies a whole lot, and they will always hold a very special place in my heart :)

Misty in particular means SO much to me. I love her and the way she overcomes living with Opaline, especially because the other Mane 5 are just. So willing to give her space to come into her own and discover who she is in a way she’s comfortable with every time she’s uncomfortable. Found family Misty is everything to me as someone who grew up with a not-so-great family and sees her friends as her family. On that note, I also really like the way Sunny is portrayed to have PTSD symptoms after struggling with 2 villains (shoutout to Allura though, I wish we got a proper end to your story girl). I like it when shows acknowledge that going through crazy stuff often results in trauma. She has very obvious flashbacks in s1 ep68 and s2 ep7 of TYT, and she starts experiencing paranoia, having nightmares, and being hyper-vigilant, and it means so much to me that they bothered to show how living through those situations impacted her mental health.

Next, I think I wanna talk about Izzy! I know a lot of people see her as “the Pinkie Pie clone” (and, to be fair, she IS pretty similar), but I feel like she’s so much more than that. I love her having Violette as her own protégé, and how she’s always so excited to use her creativity to help others! It’s nice to see G5’s Mane 6 teach others their own “elements” much in the way that FiM’s Mane 6 acted as mentors to others. I’m also VERY glad they brought back rainbowified ponies, even if Izzy was the only one. She looks GREAT, and getting to see that they brought it back one last time for the final episode made me SO happy (I actually SQUEALED when I saw the thumbnail for episode 23!). I know that part isn’t really personality related, but it still makes me happy!

I’d also like to sing some praises about Hitch, too. Adding a male to the main cast was a rather bold move in my opinion, since the closest we’ve ever gotten to that is maybe Spike in any gen, Danny in G1, and maaaybe Teddy in MLP Tales? We’ve never really had a boy be part of the established main group, and oh boy was Hitch the perfect beginning for that! He’s such a goofball, and I love the sort of “awkward, cringey dad who loves his son very much” thing they did. Yes, he’s different from movie Hitch, but I always saw that as a side effect of now having a child to parent in the form of Sparky. A LOT of people’s personalities can change post-having kids, and I think it’s interesting that they made him like one of those parents who just wants to bubble wrap their kid and keep them safe. It’s pretty funny, since Sparky doesn’t exactly seem to mind or care. He reminds me a tiny bit of my own dad, and that’s something that means a lot to me.

The last two I want to talk about are, of course, Pipp and Zipp! As for Pipp, I honestly… wasn’t the biggest fan of her at first. I think I was just cranky because they added technology and social media to my Horse Show, LOL! Once I kind of got used to that, she grew on me. She grew on me BAD. I absolutely ADORE Pipp; she’s just the cutest! I love how they have her take accountability when she screws up, and I think it’s really important how she teaches kids that it’s okay to put the phone down for a while around seasons 4-5 of MYM, especially given how much tech plays a part in everyone’s lives these days. I think her having confidence and wanting to SHARE that confidence rather than bring others down is really admirable, and I love the approach they had when designing her character in intentionally making her shorter and rounder than the rest of the cast (most notable in TYT), but very specifically not having her be insecure about it. Touching on bodily insecurity is always great, but I also love seeing characters who look different where it’s just… okay. It’s accepted. I think that's pretty awesome!

Last but ABSOLUTELY not least is Zipp! She was my first favorite of G5 (they’re ALL my favorites now, I fear), and I’ve always thought it was so awesome how they had this royal character who was actively against corruption in power AND didn’t want to be treated as royalty! Having a character who’s heir to the throne and very blatantly… DOESN’T want to be/isn’t looking forward to it is something I feel like I haven’t seen a whole lot, and it’s a really interesting perspective to explore. I’m glad they did! I also love how her scenes in episode one of MYM can very much read almost as a trans allegory. I myself am not trans, but my partner and quite literally ALL of my friends are, so it’s still quite meaningful! Plus, I’m someone who chooses to not go by her birth name due to CPTSD, so, from all angles, seeing her wish to be referred to in ways that make HER comfortable and having that be respected gives me the fuzzies. I love her relationship with Pipp too, and I find their bond to be so heartwarming! Portrait of a Princess is one of my FAVORITE episodes of MYM, and it’s just so sweet to see how much they care for each other! Also, slightly less relevant, but them getting their cutie marks one right after the other on the same day was very cute. Very CMC of them. Very Mane 6 of them. Very cute, very demure, very mindful. I hope people still say that, LMAO

All in all, I know G5 had plot holes, ever-improving animation, and a lot of things fans were displeased over. Still, these characters mean something to me, and, even if their story got cut short, they’ll always still be my little ponies. Thanks for listening to me ramble on if you read all this, I know I kind of turned it into an essay haha :”)

[mdhwrites]

The Owl House Fans Don’t Know What Colonies Are

So this isn’t actually me firing shots at the show. This is about the meta commentary people like to use to elevate the show and it’s one of the most laughable to me. That it’s some grand, anti-colonial story because Belos is a colonizer and Luz stands up for indigenous people as one of them! I’ll get into the colony side of it but on a basic level, it needs to be pointed out that Belos is an American, not British. The closest he could be is one of those sent out to colonize for Britain but he was literally too young to have been a part of that decision when it happened if that were the case and those who colonized America... were treated as part of a colony to Britain. So literally he was a part of the oppressed or he’s post The War for Independence and America was never a colonial power, ESPECIALLY NOT BACK THEN.

Secondly... Just because Luz isn’t white doesn’t mean she can’t technically fall into the white savior trope. The point of that trope is just to talk about how much it sucks when an outsider comes in, makes everything better and fixes all the problems. Luz still ostensibly does that while not being a part of the culture or using the culture and its people in order to save them. Her glyphs are unknown to everyone except LITERALLY THE GROUND THEIR STANDING ON. So... Yeah, she’s not some inspirational story against colonizers. I think you’d have to write a VERY different sort of story for an isekai to be anti-colonial like that frankly. Oh, and we can’t forget that she’s literally blessed by a god because she has a viewpoint to their son that’s different from the rest of the Isles, the indigenous people, and is then empowered to go kill the ruler, who ostensibly the people approve of and chose to be there, regardless of the lies to why, because she does not believe in his methods or beliefs.

Which, you know, for either anti-colonial messaging or anti-Christian Fundamentalism is kind of yikes.

But neither of these matter because The Boiling Isles is NOT a colony. Not even close. The definition that the fans use to say it’s a colony, ruled by an outsider effectively, would have made RUSSIA a colony to Germany while Catherine the Great was ruling it purely because Catherine was a German. If that does not immediately make you cringe, you need to listen.

So as far as how they are ruled, what are the Isles? Well, I bring up Catherine not just because of the pointed joke. See, her husband also wasn’t Russian. He was a German as well but adopted by Elizabeth of Russia. When he became Tsar, everyone hated him and his policies, especially military policies, so much that they overthrew him and chose Catherine.

That’s effectively what the Isles is. They chose Belos as their ruler. Yes, they were deceived as to why he should rule them but they did choose it eventually. As far as we understand, he wasn’t a conqueror and he wasn’t even a part of a coup like Catherine was. Instead, after terrible deeds and the like, he united the Isles under his coven system, brought an end to an age and moved on with his life. His policies, besides magic, are even progressive in some ways because apparently children had no protection before Belos and then he added child endangerment laws. He ostensibly made the Isles a safer place with his guards who could respond to monster faster. The EC in fact, from the fact that they don’t do anything actually evil, especially compared to the populace, until almost S2′s finale with Labyrinth Runners (And I guess you could include Escaping Palisman but there’s extenuating circumstances there, much like how Eda is petrified for breaking the law. There’s more gray in theory to it.) That’s not how you run a colony... That’s just how you run your nation.

But of course that’s the case because the Boiling Isles literally CAN’T be a colony. See, colonies were made as a part of the concept of the Policy of Austerity. Each nation saw themselves as needing to be self sufficient, able to produce EVERYTHING required for civilization, without foreign aid. As such, colonies weren’t oppressed because of religious doctrine, that was propaganda, but out of necessity to that policy. After all, if your colonies have a real economy, they have less to give back to the mother land. You can’t tax them as much, you can’t regulate their trade as much, you can’t make sure their natural resources are going to you.

This is actually part of why the Puritans are the founders of America. They were annoying to the British so rather than dealing with them, they sent them to this weird, new world so as to bring back resources and get out of their hair. That’s also why Americans were treated maybe not quite as poorly as other colonies but we were still DEFINITELY a colony. We did not govern ourselves. Instead, Britain appointed our leaders and chose our policies. Otherwise, you know, we would have just gotten rid of the ludicrous tax on tea instead of throwing it into the harbor.

And if we want to talk more metaphorically about colonies... What culture did Belos push upon the Isles? Colonies would be made to adopt home cultures because that’s how the home country saw as the best way to rule and the best way to make the colony bend to the will of the homeland. If they act like British people, they will accept British rule more.

Except our one glimpse at the Isles is that they already look like they have the same fashion and architecture and commerce even as a Victorian era man. The architecture of the Isles literally doesn’t change between the past and the modern era, something the show actually does point out itself. Bonesborough as has a lot of the same buildings HUNDREDS of years later, there’s just more of them now.

Worse yet, the Titan is not Belos’ own religion. Ostensibly, it should be the Isles religion but they, reasonably, don’t know the Titan is alive. Belos theoretically doesn’t seem to either? Maybe? It’s inconsistent. But he establishes prisons instead of simply hanging those who do not conform in the present day. If they wanted to lean in on him bringing Puritan culture, there would have been a genuine purge of most of the Isles because of its rampant greed, self interest, art, stories, etc. that the Puritans were just very against because if it wasn’t about God, it died.

Again: The Puritans were so extreme, with such a stick up their ass, the BRITISH kicked them out of their country.

All of that would have hurt the fantasy though, wouldn’t it? It wouldn’t be some effectively idealic fantasy setting. Even the dangers Luz faces aren’t the worst and a real fantasy fan would be sad to see them be gone because then you don’t get that bit of menace that comes from a good fantasy world. More oppression, more change, more shifting to an anti-magic world like Belos theoretically should have been for (remember: He only asks that you join the Coven system. He barely cares what you do with the magic after that) then you lose that part of the isekai fantasy.

It’s actually part of why Belos being a human, his statement of “You think I want conquest” being that he just wants murder, actually makes the show less interesting. Evil emperors are a dime a dozen. Any isekai protagonist would expect to be pointed in their direction and shot off like a rocket. A genuinely complex ruler though who is having to deal with balancing humanity with his religion and his duties as emperor? That would have been a GREAT wake up call to Luz to stop assuming things based on tropes.

Belos would have had to be more of a part of the show and a character in his own right for that. Or for any of this really. We would have to see how Belos contrasts against a member of the Isles more and he really doesn’t. Serving in his own interest? Got plenty of villains like that in the Isles. Not caring about murder or enslavement for his methods? Yep, that’s pretty normal, including Odalia frankly. Lies to get what he wants? I mean, fucking LUZ does that!

But he is the bad guy because he’s the evil emperor and no amount of backstory or supposed meta narrative is going to fix that fundamental, thematic failing.

==========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[loveislandthegame]

my overall thoughts on season 7, writing edition: what in the world ? 😭 i cannot believe i thought this season was gonna be good. i’ll be joining rohan & S2 MC in the circus, since FB made me look like a damn clown. i don't even know where to begin

being a casa girl had so much potential, and it was something that a lot of players actually wanted, even before FB started doing these themed seasons. they really fumbled the bag here

i enjoyed casa amor. the guys were all unique, had their own dialogue, and it was cool to see their pre-established relationships (alex being the villa dad, bryson and rafa being partners in chaos, the beef between bryson & joyo) then we arrived in the villa, and it all went downhill from there:

everybody became an empty husk, so they could be forced into interchangeable roles: uma’s partner, bonnie’s partner, OG LI’s ex, loved up couple (summer/joyo or #rafne) to name a few. FB’s lazy asses ruined their own characters . why is alex, the supposed level-headed & mature one, being petty & childish af in my playthrough? 😭

MC literally had no thoughts, head empty. we barely participated in any of the challenges and games. it felt like we didn't do anything besides "get pulled for a chat" by your LI or the girls

the LI personality merge in this season was the worst it has ever been. all they do is agree with whatever you say, or tell you how great you are (gone are the days of LIs having their own interests, & getting extra dialogue because of that, like levi with artist MCs)

same problem as the most recent seasons, where MC doesn’t have friendships. she has a forced bestie, then potential LIs that sit around waiting for you to pick them, choose them, love them (they immediately disappear if you don’t pick them)

the plot made no sense at all. being a casa girl means we miss out on the first half of the season, but there were many different ways they could've shown what happened before we arrived (it couldve been something as simple as MC watching the show at home or during the jeep ride to the villa. lol) the timeline was inconsistent, so much important information was paywalled, and i’m pretty sure FB was just making shit up as they went along, since the drama with stephen and OG LI's ex genuinely came out of nowhere . he wasn’t previously mentioned in the beach hut, casa amor, nothing . his only purpose was to make the OG girl look bad.

speaking of the OG girls, what a disappointment . before we got to the villa, i honestly thought they were hinting at estelle and/or willow being LIs . even if they were forced to be our rival, they still could’ve had an interesting character arc . it would've been a lot more fun if she was like allegra, rather than OG LI's equivalent of suresh

i was gonna write, "why tf did she even make it to the finale?" but the answer is obvious : for the gem scenes. every damn volume, it's pay diamonds to upstage her, pay diamonds to clapback, pay diamonds so “your man” doesn't turn his head 🙄 it's already stupid enough, but it makes even less sense if you're not pursuing your OG LI

which leads me to the biggest problem of this season, the lack of branching. you're given the illusion of choice, everything leads to the same outcome . i didn't think it could get any worse, until i saw what happens when you choose the money . does your LI storm off? nope. they make you do the treasure hunt anyways...to win you back ??😭 MC should've called security on their ass

s7 had a promising start but ended up being a flop. it was better than s5, but that's really not saying much . i wish FB would just take their time—s1 and 2 had a whole year long gap between them. but it's clear that rushed seasons are gonna be the norm, season 8 is dropping in february . capitalism ruins everything luv x

[all-pacas]

DIAGNOSTIC OLYMPICS, SEASON 3, EPISODES 1-12

S1: part one, part two, part three

S2: part one, part two, part three

Hi! I was curious about who on House (besides House) gets the most diagnoses right. Other folks have already run a tally (it's Chase), but I was curious how other factors would influence the tally — whose ideas get run with, who manages treatment, who screws up… So I thought I'd keep score.

1 point for getting the answer. This is almost always going to be House.

.5 points for Valuable Contribution — stuff that isn't the final answer, but either is thought to be the final answer or is valuable to the solving of the case. Stuff like "noticing something on the MRI" doesn't count; things like "figuring out how to treat" does.

-.5 to -1 for Mistakes — stuff that delays or prevents diagnoses, injuring or killing patients, etc.

MEANING DIAGNOSES: Scurvy for patient one, Addison’s for patient two

+2 HOUSE: One for curing scurvy girl, and one for Addison’s guy. That said, not a lot to say about this episode; the fellows didn’t do much besides follow orders and most of the episode was just about House. Which is fine, just boring for the purposes of this project!

CANE AND ABLE DIAGNOSES: Chimerism

+1 HOUSE: Still manages to pull it out in the end, despite being off his game. +.5 CAMERON: Is the one to figure out why the patient keeps having different results on his bleeding time tests (that isn’t “Chase fucked up”). Also has the idea to tag the foreign DNA in order to target it for removal. +0 CHASE: Yet another episode where he really bonds with a child patient, and he even tells off the parents for not being supportive. He doesn’t do much in terms of diagnosing, although he does a lot to take care of the kid. CHASE DID IT: Chase is blamed for screwing up a bleeding test: this is the second time him making a mistake has been the operative assumption. This time, Foreman really jumps on the bandwagon.

INFORMED CONSENT DIAGNOSES: Amyloidosis

+0 HOUSE: Sure, he solved it. But putting the patient in a coma against his will and insisting on treatment against his will is… shady. I mean, I get that sometimes patients don’t know what is in their own best interest and it’s a gray area, but we can all agree that this dude knew what he wanted and House utterly ignored it. -.5 CAMERON: She loses points for refusing to work on the case at all, which does count as “bad medical practice;” not to mention hypocrisy. She doesn’t want him to die, but refuses to treat him when House doesn’t kill him? She doesn’t lose points for the actual euthanasia: the patient was terminal and begging for it even before it was clear he was terminal, and that means she doesn’t get demerits for killing someone. +5 NURSE BRENDA: Watching her give everyone the stink eye this episode made me remember how great she is.

LINES IN THE SAND DIAGNOSES: Eye worms

+1 HOUSE: As per usual, figures it out. +.5 FOREMAN: His bedside manner is not winning him any points this episode. I don’t think it harmed anything, but his impatience and general rudeness wasn’t helpful, either. That said, his tricking Wilson into doing a biopsy for him was pretty great, and he gets his points for deciding a brain tumor is most likely, deciding he’ll biopsy and proceed under the assumption, and challenging House to come up with a better idea. House doesn’t have one, and so Foreman gets a merit for Leadership. +0 CAMERON: Did she do anything related to the case this episode? +5 NURSE BRENDA: Did they write her off the show because she went to jail for trying to murder House? I love her

FOOLS FOR LOVE DIAGNOSES: Genetic disease. And incest!

+1 HOUSE: Comes up with the genetic explanation after an episode of foundering. +.5 CHASE: Comes up with a diagnoses of salmonella based on pot use, which is a stretch but House likes it and they run with it; it’s wrong but it’s the only idea they have for a while. +.5 FOREMAN: Because they’re not thinking genetic, they really struggle to come up with a diagnosis. Foreman insists it must be two different diseases, and gets his way on a biopsy when House doesn't have a better idea. +50 UHHH: Foreman comes out really strongly pro-incest in this episode, and like, I understand his basic point (they didn’t know they were siblings and even though they are genetically family they don’t have a familial relationship), but what a wild take from our guy.

QUE SERA SERA DIAGNOSES: Lung Cancer

+1 HOUSE: Finally realizes the dude has cancer after noticing clubbing on his hands. +.0 CAMERON: Manages to break the MRI and get away with it, which should honestly be worth more points. But loses those points for drugging the patient because she didn’t think he could make his own decisions about his care, causing him to crash through a window. -.5 CHASE: Exiting the entire episode when House tells him to “keep sitting on his ass” is honestly super funny of him. However, it’s also putting his whiny fatphobia ahead of helping the patient, sooo…

SON OF COMA GUY DIAGNOSES: Genetic disease, but mostly heart failure.

+0 TEAM: IDK man. This is a good episode, but it’s also one with fake medicine and no real diagnosing because it relies on fake coma fixing medicine. The fellows work hard while the grownups have their road trip.

WHAC-A-MOLE DIAGNOSES: Genetic disease

+.5 HOUSE: House figures it out, but loses some points for keeping his team from helping Wilson, which in turn endangers Wilson’s patients. He also loses like five friendship points, but we’re not judging on that. +.0 CHASE: When House challenges the fellows to run a single test, Chase’s first guess is a virus, and he points out that the vomiting could have caused the heart attack. House’s theory is Hepatitis A, and he agrees with the heart attack/vomit idea. Chase ends up testing for bacteria and not a virus, but he was by far the closest of the three -- Foreman thought neurological, and Cameron thought a weakness in the heart. Chase doesn’t get points, because he didn’t actually figure it out, but I thought it was interesting to mention that he was by far the closest.

FINDING JUDAS DIAGNOSES: Light allergy

+1 CHASE: Honestly, part of me wants to give him more than one point for this. We’ve had a few episodes now where someone else has figured out the diagnosis moments before House, or after House, but this is the first time someone figures it out instead of House. Chase is about to go on a bit of a hot streak, though, so he’ll make up the bonus points later. CHASE DID IT: Both literally solving the case, and, when House starts to question the treatment, Chase preemptively (and angrily) suggests that maybe he screwed up, since that’s always where House ends up.

MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS DIAGNOSES: Autoimmune cancer

+.5 HOUSE: Figures it out, but steals oxy. From a dead patient, so I guess technically he didn’t do any medical harm, but… IDK, I’m counting it. +0 TEAM: Foreman comes the closest to being useful this episode: Cameron is too busy being mad at Wilson, and Chase is largely silent, I guess still smarting over being punched. But most of the episode is about House.

WORDS AND DEEDS DIAGNOSES: Meningioma

+1 HOUSE: Figures out just about every twist of the case, even while pretending to be in rehab. +.5 CHASE: Realizes the patient is hiding symptoms, which makes them realize he’s been having a whole series of heart attacks. Even Cameron and Foreman give him credit for the ‘breakthrough.’ +0 CAMERON: She correctly diagnoses broken heart syndrome, but misses the fact that the patient is delusional; that his partner and brother aren’t involved. This leads him to electroshock treatment and permanent literal brain damage. I don’t think she deserves to lose a point, since the electroshock was House’s idea and at the time it was the only solution they could think of. But it’s still a big thing to miss.

ONE DAY, ONE ROOM DIAGNOSES: N/A

RUNNING TALLY:

HOUSE: 44 (+8) TEAM: 5.5 (+0) FOREMAN: 3 (+1) CHASE: 6.5 (+1.5) CAMERON: 4 (+0)

Foreman has started to get himself into his niche of "able to successfully get his way over House," giving him such much needed points. Chase is about to go on one hell of a streak, starting of course with Finding Judas; even with a couple of demerits, he keeps having and getting credited for Good Ideas this season… which gets him fired, oh well.

[lou-iz-stat]

We are now 6 weeks away from the iwtv s2 premiere! And I am back for a rewatch of episode 2 of s1 in preparation for s2. I’m not going to lie this is probably my least favorite episode of s1 but that still doesn’t mean I don’t like this episode. It’s still an important episode for the greater story, it just doesn’t quite excite me as much as the rest of the episodes. And I’ll mention again that this post will have spoilers for the rest of season 1 as well as the books.

Anyways let’s watch it again!

IWTV S1 E2: After the Phantoms of Your Former Self

We start this episode with Daniel looking at the painting that Marius painted! Woah first Marius mention. This should have been obvious to us that Rashid was actually Armand when he started talking about the painting. But I guess hindsight is 20 20. Also when he talks about ‘serving a god’ I still have no idea what he means here. I mean it’s supposed to imply that he is talking about Louis but now that we know he’s Armand he must be talking about something else so hopefully we’ll find out what he meant next season. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this but when Daniel is about to sit down for dinner, in the background there seem to be lots of scratches on the wall in the very back of the room. So weird…

Ok so when Louis finally enters the room he apologizes for his outburst from before and I actually have a whole other post about why I think that's interesting so check it out here

Also first ‘Memory is a monster’ mention in this episode!

‘The Farm’? As in Blackwood Farm?

Now we are back in flashback territory and we get our first rule about not drinking ‘dead blood’ which actually doesn’t kill vamps in the books it’s just uncomfortable to do so.

And in Louis turning Lestat comments ‘there’s the spark’ which to my knowledge is when someone is turned depending on how bright their spark is, is how compatible the person is with vampirism. I could be wrong but I think that’s the reason Nicki went mad was because his spark was pretty dull so he wasn’t very compatible with vampirism.

I have to say after being exposed to the vampire chronicles vampire lore all other vampire lore is just not it for me. I am currently watching these guys react to the first season of the vampire diaries on YouTube right now and that vampire lore is nowhere near giving as much as Anne Rice vampires are. All other vamps are officially nothing burgers as of now. I can’t stand any of them to be honest. Even the look of the vampires in this show is just so much better than any other vampire ever.

When they go to Mama Du Lac’s house for that party, Jacob looks so good in those sun glasses. 😍

I really love how in his vampirism Louis now has the power to take out these racist men like the lawyer. When he was human he just had to take all of these aggressions towards him but now with this power he doesn’t necessarily have to take the racism all of the time. But as we find out later his race can still hold him back even with this vampiric power he has. The writers are really able to weave in Louis’s race so seamlessly into his character and story.

For the record I still do not think Louis ate his nephew.

‘The great convergence’ plot line is something that I do not know if I like yet. I guess we’ll see.

Say what you want about Louis and Lestat’s relationship but in the beginning, for the most part, they were really sweet together. 😭

And in the scene where they go to opera it makes me free such complex emotions. I feel for Louis because he still has to deal with being black in America. And when they are in their box and Lestat looks over at Louis and can tell he is upset, his eyes just soften because he feels bad. It’s just too much! I know Louis sees this as an opportunity to manipulate him more but I really feel that Lestat really just genuinely wants him to feel better. And the way Louis looks at Lestat when he’s excited about the opera is just so cute. And then the tenor had to go and ruin all of that. *sigh*

Finally we get to Daniel talking about his first wife Alice. Louis makes a comment that he is familiar with the place that Daniel proposed to her in Paris. Could this mean something? I originally believed the Alice is Armand theory but now I don’t. I do think Alice was a real person but Daniel and Armand were probably seeing each other at the same time he was seeing Alice. I’m so excited to see s2 so we can hopefully get the truth of Daniel’s past that he is unable to remember it at the moment.

If you are still reading this thank you for sticking with me. And hopefully you will see me next week as I rewatch s1 e3.

6 MORE WEEKS Plus a new trailer on 03/31/24

[katlandry]

In honour of Noah getting the first 3 scripts for Season 5, this is my Season 5 bucket list (I may be very early so this is my early one) I’ll try to make it as realistic as possible 😭

- Nancy survives.

This is the number one thing I need to happen, I will not be able to handle it if she dies

- I’m also very much on the side of I want everyone to survive.

Stranger Things is very much about the relationships between all of the characters, and it might not be the main part of the show but it is an important one and it’s what makes Stranger Things so great. I think it would massively suck if they were to kill any of the Hopper-Byers family after everything they’ve been through and Hopper losing anyone would just confirm his theory that he’s a “curse”.

- Ronance hug.

I need this like I need air. Nancy Wheeler needs a hug and I need Robin to be the one to give it to her.

- More Ronance scenes.

I mean obviously I ship Ronance so of course I want more scenes of them together, BUT I also really love their friendship. After Nancy lost Barb, Robin is the first girl she’s befriended that didn’t have romantic intentions and I think their friendship is really something special.

- Nancy to finally get closure with Barb and realise it wasn’t her fault

I realise she kind of got closure in S2, but I don’t think she really did. She clearly still blames herself, and what happened shaped her into who she is today. And we know she never really spoke to anyone about what happened because when she tried to talk to Steve he brushed her off. So I think she needs someone to tell her it wasn’t her fault.

- Nancy/Robin/Jonathan/Steve/Argyle team up.

This would be the team up of the CENTURY.

- Nancy/El scenes

I’ve needed this since S1. I think they’re quite similar in some ways and it’d be so nice to see them have some scenes together

- Jargyle scenes

I mean… they’re literally hilarious together. Imagine Nancy, Robin and Steve having to put up with high Jargyle 😭

- Not St*ncy endgame

Okay. Don’t hate me, and I’m sure this is pretty well known by now but I’m very much anti St*ncy and I’m not even sorry about it. Those two getting back together would feel like ten steps backwards and a dishonour to both of their characters. Steve’s character for the past two seasons has revolved around finding a girlfriend and I think he needs to realise that he doesn’t need a girlfriend and it’s okay to be on your own. It would also be a very misogynistic ending for Nancy. I could talk about this forever but I’ll just leave it at that. 😭

- JOPPER DATE!

Pretty sure David Harbour already confirmed this but I’m so excited to see Jopper in a relationship!!

- Mike being a complete menace to society and Robin getting to experience it

I mean, Robin hasn’t spent much time with Mike yet and I just think him being the little shit he is would be so funny for Robin to witness. I can just imagine her turning to Nancy and saying “You’re related to him?”

- Will/Robin scenes

This is an obvious one, but I think talking to Robin would help Will a LOT. I don’t know how likely it is to happen but I think it’d be really nice for Will to know he’s not on his own.

- LUMAX DATE!

I NEED IT. They arranged it last season and Max DIED so it’s only right they get their date in Season 5!!

- More Erica

Not much to say about this, we all need more Erica.

- More Hopper-Byers family

El finally has a family and somewhere she belongs, Hopper just came back from the dead. I need this family to be happy more than anything.

- If not Byler endgame, I need to see Will accept himself (at least somewhat) and finally be happy.

I like both Mileven and Byler, and honestly my opinion on who should be endgame changes on a daily basis based on the fans lmao. It would be awesome to see Byler endgame, but I would like to see Will accept himself and maybe come out to his mom??

- Nancy & Mike hug.

This has to happen. It has to. And not right before one of them dies either. Give me more Wheeler siblings. Perhaps a parallel to S1 when Nancy rushes out of the Byers to hug Mike but this time Mike rushes to hug Nancy??

[xion92]

I remember when this series was announced and I was pretty sceptical about it. Then I thought “all right, let’s give it a possibility, however it can’t be worse than the old series”. Then I watched the trailer and, in the end, I saw this small scene. I was like “😳this... this is Deep Blue speaking through him...”. From these few seconds in the trailer I understood it was going to be a great anime and my boy Masaya this time was going to be treated so well this time. I had to give this anime a possibility. In the end I was 100% right, but, until the last episode, I thought this “sinful man” scene was only to hint Deep Blue’s influence on him, and this particular line wasn’t going to be touched again. But then, in episode 22 Deep Blue said, in his speech, “sinful man” again, and I was happy and thought “you see, the hints!”. But again, then, in the last episode...

They didn’t simply want to hint at it, they actually shoved his influence on Masaya right in your face! They characterised him in a gorgeous way, and I’m happy I was right from the beginning about this scene!

Same for this scene:

his monoluge. I admit I was a little disappointed of this scene, because it was simply a copy and paste from the manga. I mean, it was clear from most of the episodes that Masaya has got much deeper reasons to love her so much. And I thought “why didn’t you authors make him explain better? You added a lot of scenes and depth about him, why this time you didn’t?” But again, I know that, when it comes to Masaya, you have just to sit down, wait and trust New’s authors. Sooner or later, everything arrives. Like when they cut the aquarium scene, to add it in the last episode in a much more impactful way. And in fact...

...they added the deeper reasons later, during his speech with Deep Blue!

And it isn’t finished yet. In the manga, his monologue began and ended there, it all happened inside his head, and nothing makes me think he revealed his past and his problems to Ichigo after the final battle. He was keeping his secret, he didn’t completely open with her. But in New...

...it wasn’t only a monologue inside his head. He repeated everything directly to Ichigo, so she comes to learn about his past and problems he had before he met her. So, I have every right to think after the series ending they talked calmly about his past, problems and feelings and now he really doesn’t keep any secrets to her. And knowing his angst past, the real reasons about it and how he overcomed it, now Ichigo can understand him better and their relationship is even stronger than before.

What did I say in the beginning of S2? They’ll feed us with Masaya and Ichisaya a lot, and they’ll feed us well. And I wasn’t wrong.

[invisiblegarters]

My Beautiful Man S2 E4 (Final)

“Maybe I’d be better off giving up,” Hira says to himself, as if he’s not constantly on the verge of it every damn day. Hira, I love you, but sometimes I want to reach through the screen and throttle you. 

Then again, he just thinks so very lowly of himself and that doesn’t go away just because someone loves you. The only way that goes away is if you work hard every day to make it. And even then, it’s less a straight path and far more a zig zaggy round about. 

I knew Kiyoi would be back. One fight isn’t going to send him flying off forever, even though Hira tells himself that’s how it will go. 

Kiyoi: Why didn’t you chase after me?

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. Here we go again. This is every time Kiyoi tried to get Hira to chase him in S1 all over again. 

The whole darn show and not one kiss. Robbed! Robbed, I say! But also ha, I’m going to go ahead and feel free to assume that Kiyoi withdrawing his kisses as punishment means that they are usually all over each other, even if we don’t get to see it. 

Wow, what poor girl did Shirota convince to date him? I do wonder how much these people have changed. My guess is not much at all, sigh. 

Still love these opening credits so much. 

Kurata? NO. Come on Kurata you were the only one that I liked. Although okay I will give them this - none of them were that bad. I guess I expected them all to still be the same petty, awful people they used to be. Rude of me. 

You know, they’re not in a great place, but Kiyoi and Hira’s thoughts still tend to mirror each other. They still think along the same lines, it’s just that their ways of processing are completely and utterly different. 

It’s so nice to see Kiyoi pushing through his reluctance to open his mouth and say what he wants or means to try to make this thing with Hira work. I’ve always said I get Kiyoi’s personality better than Hira’s, that’s true, and I do tend to sympathize with hm more overall, but this is what I mean when I say that he’s trying. Kiyoi is doing his level best to make himself understood by Hira in spite of his inclination to hint and then expect Hira to get it. He knows Hira won’t, so he tries to meet him, tries to give Hira something to work with. 

Hira...often does not. Don’t get me wrong, he definitely sees the need for change and he’s utterly aware that he has to move forward to keep their relationship going, but where he loses the plot is exactly how he needs to move forward. He focuses on the fact that he has no job, or that he isn’t established, and while yes that would be good, what Kiyoi is mostly looking for from him in the moment is someone to meet him halfway emotionally. He needs to feel like Hira is hanging on to him as tightly as Kiyoi is hanging on to Hira. Unfortunately Hira isn’t quite there yet. 

I remember those steps. I wonder if Kiyoi will get all up in Hira’s face again. That’s always nice. 

AW. Okay, Kiyoi sliding over to rub Hira’s back when he starts stuttering is sweet. 

And yes, he did get all up in Hira’s face. Thank you Kiyoi, I can always count on you to just get right in there even if you are still not planning on kissing him. I also really like how he clocks Hira’s disappointment at being told that he doesn’t have to find a job immediately after graduation and adjusts. 

YAS they kept him being out at work! I wasn’t sure if they would and I honestly loved that so I’m glad it’s there. I think Kiyoi is just dying to tell people, haha. But who does he really have in his life that he can? It’s a little sad that Anna might be the first person he’s really gotten to tell. And I say again, I really like her. And I am once again just baffled by the idea of people being unable to date who they want because it is better for their image to be seen as single and thus possibly available to fans. I know it happens all over the place and it’s like, dudes. It’s really no one else’s business, no matter who they are. 

Oh Hira. He doesn’t even realize that he’s being offered a job. Well, to be fair, Noguchi was hinting and Hira doesn’t do hints. And damn, his tear down of Hira’s photos was brutal. Possibly painfully accurate, hut brutal just the same. I do think that Noguchi sees real talent from Hira, though. Now it’s up to Hira to learn. 

I think that Hira telling Kiyoi that he wanted to take his picture on the same stage was probably the most romantic thing he’s ever said to him, lol. Kiyoi looks so touched. And aw, he took Anna’s words to heart and got Hira chocolates. I adore him. 

Okay, did NOT expect that kiss. 

AW THE CHOCOLATE DUCK IT’S TOO CUTE IT’S BROKEN ME. 

People calling Hira “Suspicious kun” is never not going to crack me up. 

My goodness I loved this. I can see very clearly how it’s setting us up for the movie, showing us how they care for each other while also showing us the cracks that could easily widen if they aren’t careful. They papered over that fight exactly as I expected they would, but the underlying issues aren’t going to go away.

My goodness, now I have to wait possibly up to eight months to see the movie? Worst. End of February. Present. Ever. 

(also, of course it’s a 10/10. Was that ever a question?)

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here friend and AO3 may be back up but that doesn't mean I'm done bitching. On my mind is Buck, and specifically has Buck had a arc/storyline that was actuallt complete since S3?? Like we got Abby leaving, Buck dealing with it and Maddie returning in S2, and his recovery/lawsuit arc in S3 with final closure in the whole Abby thing in the finale. But what has happened since then?? Sure we learned about his shitty parents at the start but thst didn't really get a resolution, just some

some vague promises about therapy and then nothing (compare to Eddie's parents where we got that convo with his Dad in S5 and see them in a better place in S6). Then there's the whole sort of dating thing which leads to his relationship with the reporter and continues to drag through S5 and just kind of ends because it has to, not because of any personal development. I guess we can throw the conflict with Chim in S5 which *checks notes* we never see resolved on screen and the cheating business which *checks notes* was never really addressed and mostly cut from 5b since it was so deservedly hated. And now we have S6 and the sperm donor nonsense which, as discussed, has no satisfying ending in sight (someone tell KR that learning a lesson for the 45th time Isn't growth, applying a lesson is). So has Buck has anything completed for 2.5 seasons?? As badly told as it was for parts, even Madney had a conclusion to their conflict. Why is this hard?

Hello friend! I was hoping to get to this yesterday but I wasn’t at home and ended up being out until late. But I am HERE for this salt and had a little chuckle reading this when it came in because you’re SO RIGHT! Season 3 kinda closed things out for Buck and he’s just been spinning his wheels ever since, especially because completely aside from his own stuff, he’s not allowed to be as involved in other character’s storylines either. Someone mentioned awhile ago (probably @outrunningthedark, hey *waves*) that because Buck is the only one without a family of his own outside of Maddie (which JLH seems to be on limited filming duty and that time is being used (ish) for Buckley-Han family stuff), all his “personal” stories are ending up being with random and mostly unimportant side characters. We know (and love) the main, immediate  Grant, Wilson, and Diaz families and as recurring characters, it’s exciting when we get to see them! Maddie’s storyline with Doug heavily involved both Chim and Buck, and everything since has been mostly about her and Chim and every once in awhile we get a little bit of the Lee family. Buck’s season 1 storyline was tied with Abby so that made sense and season 2 was tied in with Maddie and Eddie’s, and season 3 gave us a lot of Buck/Bobby stuff on top of his time being mostly wrapped up in the Diaz family, and then closing out with Abby. 

I would say that Buck Begins wasn’t so much the start of a new arc as it was informing everything that came before as the audience and Buck reconcile everything we knew before against this new information together. Which was great! But then it didn’t go anywhere. Buck starts the season with talking about how he hides his true feelings from others and doesn’t want to do that anymore and then proceeds to spend the next every episode after that still hiding his feelings from others, only now the audience is included in that. Since the show decided our characters almost never need to have deep and important conversations with each other, we have had basically zero insight into what Buck is *actually* feeling and thinking most of the time. And when he does talk with others it sometimes feels so incongruous with what we know about Buck that we’re left wondering if those conversations are truly what he’s feeling or if he’s masking. Or if it’s yet another instance of KR not understanding the character and writing shit just to write shit. *side eyes every interaction with or about tay kay and L*

“Then there's the whole sort of dating thing which leads to his relationship with the reporter and continues to drag through S5 and just kind of ends because it has to, not because of any personal development.” Catch me getting irritated all over again that we suffered for SO LONG through that whole tay kay mess, and Buck looking miserable and the cast specifically saying that it was on purpose that we were seeing his face looking Like That, only for it to amount to nothing in the end but tay kay being the same awful person she has always been but the show tried to pretend for a hot minute that she wasn’t so KR could wedge her into everything, and Buck being miserable and only stepping away when someone else he loved got hurt, again, by her actions. We didn’t get to see ANYONE in the firefam talk to him about how unhappy he was with her (but thank goodness we had time to lecture him on how he sucks at being a bf at Christmastime instead of anyone saying “dude, are you okay? this all sounds like red flags.” 🙄🙄🙄) or her Buck get to tell her or anyone else that he was unhappy and wasn’t getting the support he needed from the relationship. Which is entirely possible to do without outright calling her a bitch (which actually Eddie and Bobby both deserved to do, though Athena would say it for Bobby because he wouldn’t do it himself, and honestly Chim (and Maddie) and Hen too after the Jonah thing), because we saw it happen with the Eddie/Ana breakup! Eddie got to tell Buck that he was unhappy but didn’t know how to get out, and then he was allowed to go home and make the choice that he was not happy and it wasn’t fair to either of them for him to keep acting like he was. It didn’t outright villainize Ana (though again, tay kay deserved to be villainized at least a little because she was awful and also far more interesting as an awful person the firefam banded together to hate), but the show was just as clear in SHOWING us that no matter what Eddie said at any point in time, she wasn’t good for him OR Chris or what either of them needed. We SAW the same for BT on multiple counts, even when she was “trying” it wasn’t anything that was actually helpful for Buck which she would know if she knew even the slightest thing about him, and even HEARD it in how Buck (bless Oliver) never said “I love you/her” without looking like he smelled something awful and having to stop partway through before forcing the words out. But when it came down to it, we got an amicable breakup after Chim and Hen nearly died, Buck faced an inquiry at work, and the investigation and department were likely deeply compromised because of her lack of ethics. 

A Buck/Maddie/Chim conflict arc could have been REALLY good specifically because we KNOW they all love each other, and more than that, they all UNDERSTAND why the others took the actions they did. But it doesn’t mean those actions didn’t hurt! And we got resolution (ish) for Maddie and Chim during Boston (which just kinda got tossed out the next ep with them breaking up and getting back together off screen with very little discussion between them directly or between them and any other characters), and Buck and Maddie did have a good conversation when she got back. But. I haaaaaate that we got nothing about Buck and Chim not really being okay, but making sure they didn’t drag Maddie into it and trying to not let it affect work, but everyone can kinda tell. We could have had some good Buck/Bobby and Chim/Bobby content out of that, and an on-screen resolution of them talking to each other finally and getting back to being brothers who tease each other out of love. Or that after the initial “thank god you’re safe and home and I missed you” wore off, we didn’t get Buck and Maddie talking to others about the little strain still there and how to deal with it because Buck DOES understand and he LOVES his sister but she still left, and his relationship with Chim was fractured when they were both just blindly groping trying to help in the best ways they knew how and not being able to. He missed out on as much time watching Jee grow as Maddie did, and UNDERSTANDING, and knowing it’s not personal or anything to do with you doesn’t make it not hurt. Especially for someone like Buck who feels so deeply and was/is constantly punished for having emotions by people like his parents and his gf so he tries SO HARD to not tell anyone when he’s hurting because he doesn’t think he deserves to, and god forbid someone think he’s making something about himself. Like, this could have been some good drama because like the lawsuit, no one is the villain, no one is fully in the right or fully in the wrong, and no one is to blame it’s just a shitty situation that wasn’t handled perfectly by anyone because they’re all just human and make mistakes. Add Eddie having a breakdown in the background of all of this that Buck feels coming but isn’t prepared for because he’s trying to handle everything and manage his gf, and of COURSE Eddie would talk to him, wouldn’t he? Only to get slapped with Eddie quitting and then Maddie and Chim coming back, and everything at work being out of sync like....the POTENTIAL for a firefam focused season that was deliciously dramatic while being grounded and real and emotionally cathartic was RIGHT THERE and I can’t believe the show was like, “instead of dealing with all this stuff we ourselves put in motion, how about we focus on some random side characters, tell you in interviews that stuff got resolved because I don’t want to think about it anymore, and sprinkle in an OC and some cheating while sidelining the characters this show is supposed to be about and that we keep promoting in the synopsis to trick people into watching but it’s only going to be 2 minutes crammed into the end of an episode because I’d rather spend 10 minutes showing you the set up for an emergency”. ANYWAY.

“someone tell KR that learning a lesson for the 45th time Isn't growth, applying a lesson is” 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 He’s been going in circles since s4 started but he’s not GETTING anywhere, even when he actually gets to talk to someone about something, it either never gets mentioned again after the episode (the couch stuff with Eddie/Bobby, the happiness talk with Hen), or like the talk with Hen about being a donor, it happens and then gets treated as a joke and he doesn’t think about a single thing she said until, apparently, if the interviews still ring true and they don’t go a different direction (please GOD go a different direction and wrap this TF up!), it’s too late and there is already a baby he helped make on the way. I’m actually not going to talk about that arc because this is already so long, and also I can’t think too hard about it without being filled with incandescent fury. NGL I laughed at the Instagram post about Buck needing to not be in danger, and all the comments about how it’s actually better for the plot when he is, and how the show needs new writers so he can have good scenes again. Fingers crossed after all the criticism across the board OG received (not about arcs like s5 which can be brushed off as fans just being difficult or not liking an arc but it’s over now so why change anything/blamed on fandom for being hateful because they hate women (🙄🙄🙄), but “boring” isn’t something this show shouldn’t ever be and THAT might draw some attention), Timmy can find it in his schedule to let LS’s co-showrunner do their job for a minute and check in on his OG show. Knowing that Brad is back even though he’s never done a mid-season premier episode (and the flack the show got for not having him do the s6 opening and how awful and boring it was) does give me a little sliver of hope but we’ll see.

Thanks for giving me some delicious salt to work with, I was clearly able to make a whole meal out of it! Next week gives us LS though so hopefully we’ll have some fun to talk about soon! Cheers friend and I hope you enjoy the winding rabbit trail of a salt mine I made here. 🤣

[alyssacat013]

I have now watched episodes 12-16 of Twin Peaks S2 and a lot happened.

Okay first things first, we wrapped up the story line with Jean Renault and killed him and proved that Cooper was innocent of the drug trafficking. I’m glad this storylines done now, it wasn’t bad but just not my favorite. But, sadly with this storyline ending we lose Denise :(. Hopefully she’ll pop back up again before the season ends. Also, Cooper is now a deputy of twin peaks which is fun.

Then, we also had the story with James and Evelyn where she and that other guy who pretended to be her brother killed her abusive husband and framed James for the murder. Again this storyline wasn’t my favorite and I’m glad it also had now ended. Also, poor Donna she does so much for James stupid ass and I feel like he doesn’t appreciate her efforts at all. If it wasn’t for her James would be dead or in jail. I get he’s going through a hard time but still. And it seems like James is going to be going away for a bit, not sure if that means he’ll still be in the show or not. Honestly I kinda hope that because I do not care about his story that much. I would rather we spend time on other things. And I hope that Donna doesn’t waste her time waiting around for him to come back, I know she loves him but she can do better.

Then, we had Ben Horne and his mental breakdown that he was processing by recreating the civil war but this time with the south winning…which okay. Despite how stupid it was I kinda enjoyed it in some parts like it was funny. And also Audrey sweet girl trying to do everything to help her Dad. Also, we now have this other business guy that Ben helped in the past show up and I can’t tell if I trust him yet or not.

We also have now finally wrapped up the whole Norma-ed-Nadine-Hank love square thingy with Hank going back to jail as he deserves, Eddie and Nadine breaking up and Ed getting back together with Norma. I don’t care for Ed much but Norma’s very sweet and she deserves a nice kind simple man like Ed to treat her well. Also, Nadine still thinks she’s in high school and is now dating Mike and she also beat up Hank which was great to watch. Anyways Nadine rules.

Now we have the main storyline going on which is between Cooper and his old partner Windom Earle. We find out now why Windom is after Cooper and it’s because the woman Cooper fell in love with was Windom’s wife! And that it seems like Windom was the one to actually kill her and now he’s after Cooper. Not sure if he wants to kill Cooper or just psychologically torture him or both, but it’s interesting to see what his endgame is. Also, Windom and Cooper are playing a chess game and anytime Cooper loses a chess piece, Windom kills someone! A great way for the show to really ramp up the stakes. Also, Windom is also in search for a ‘queen’ for some reason and the three girls he’s considering are Shelly, Donna, and Audrey. Which like stay away from my girls!!! I fear it will most likely be Audrey since she and Cooper have a connection and if Windom finds out about it he may use that to hurt Cooper further, but I guess we’ll see who he picks and why. Also, Windom has Leo currently trapped at his house and is like torturing him. I hate Leo but no one deserves that.

Then lastly, we’ve also rounded up the storyline with Josie, Catherine, Andrew, and Eckhardt. There were a lot of shocking revelations tied to this such as Josie being the one to shoot Cooper. I had thought it was Leland but I guess not. Also, Josie goes to confront Eckhardt and kills him and when Cooper and Harry go in to catch her she suddenly dies. And the Cooper has a vision of Bob and the dancing man. Then the episode ends on a shot of Josie’s face screaming in a wooden doorknob, what does this mean? Is her soul trapped by Bob and is he the one who killed her. If so why? I know that this episode revealed a lot of bad things Josie had done and yet I still just feel sad for her. She was used and abused by these shitty men her whole life and she probably felt she had no other way out. This is the only life she’s known. Also, poor Harry he’s going to be heartbroken over this. I mean imagine finding out the person you loved is not who you thought they were and then before you can get any real answers she just suddenly died in your arms. It’s horrible.

Well, I guess we’ll just have to continue watching to get all my questions answered. I can’t believe this season is almost over! Only 6 more episodes left. I’ve been having a great time and I don’t want it to end. Anyways, onward! I will update again in a few episodes.

[meandmyechoes]

Weekly Star Wars (Mando S3 Week 5, TBB S2 finale)

\ok, so, about the new episodes. I'm... decently surprised by them? I mean they're not GREAT, but they are not BAD either. An improvement to last week I guess? I'm not excited about them, but they do pulled at a few strings? I'm finding this whole experience strange, as if 'watching Star Wars weekly' has been habitualized and I'm just combating FOMO.

but back on the episodes. I watched Mando first this week because I want TBB to be really good. I was glad it was at ‘proper’ length ~40 minutes, but grew impatient as the episode went because you just know Mando & co. will come and save the day. It’s also funny all that fiasco just to shove R5 Din’s way was because of this plot point.

I still don’t see the point writing New Republic’s bureaucracy - but with R5′s case, maybe the show would eventually pay off. I don’t share the delusion of grandeur that Mando would ‘erase’ the sequels - I’d rather they stay away from it - but so far they represented a weak and restricted government that could easily overlook the birth of the First Order. That’s the tonal dissonace. It’s odd for a Saturday morning cartoon to interject with this backbone of the sequel trilogy - that should’ve been in the sequel films itself and long novels.

But I can still see they are trying to build up towards the Ahsoka show/Thrawn reveal/crossover event even if I dislike it. I really don’t like it because it doesn’t feel like The Mandalorian anymore. It feels just like The Weekly Star Wars Show and it took what’s little charm left of the Mandoverse away from me.

It wasn’t like I expected anything grand or catering in S3. Either they converge on Din and Grogu as characters, or they diverge to cover the Mandalorian identity and civil wars. Instead they cast such a wide net, it seems I only got very little of what was shown in the trailer.

Let’s go in on the episode. I think the Pirates are dumb and ugly. Nevarro set and costume is fine. New Republic captain scenes can all be cut if only to deliver the last scene and message that Giddeon escaped. Karga could’ve sent a direct message to Mando. I like Elia Kane better seeing how good she is at sabotaging. i still think it’s out of self-interest the Armourer acts. I really wanted them to retake Mandalore but now it seems if Bo-Katan and find the rest of her crew, a civil war would break out between the two factions again, if only temporarily to serve the finale. But then the whole Mandalore plot could then be condensed to just 4 episodes then! See? That’s why you don’t steal episodes from affliated shows!

I didn’t recgonize Zeb at all. I saw a CG-saturated creature and heard a very cartoon voice. The whole thing doesn’t look real at all. I thought it was odd that there’s a random Lasat coz I thought they were nearly extinct but I just rule it to Favloni ignoring established canon anyway. Either way it was that unrecgonizable Zeb never crossed my mind. tbh it’s not that bad. Though in hindsight, prospecting it as a preview to the Ahsoka show, I really don’t like it for the meaning CG > practical, even if it’s true here... a billionsssss company chose the least cost method...

---------TBB S2 finale-----------

Coming out of Mandalorian, I was equally impatient (or maybe it’s that dose of caffiene at tea). An episode named ‘The Summit’ that I expected to be about a conference and they actually show imperial old men talking and--

I guess I wanted too bad for the Batch to reunite and become a happy family again. All in all it’s not a bad episode - maybe not even a bad finale. I have to applaud their guts to outright state Rex (by extension other legacy characters) won’t show up in the beginning.

I didn’t see most of it coming, but I also didn’t trust what most of it says...? First of all I don’t believe that Tech is dead. Not that he isn’t dead, just that the writers are waiting out on fans’ reaction to finalize his fate. *sigh* This is definitely residual sequel. Tech was getting focus eps, a love interest, complete with a farewell so totally flags. I’d be kind of sad if he doesn’t come back... but one could also easily see now that Tech, Omega and Crosshair are all confined to the same place, they could easily get out themselves....?

Another quasi-disappointment is Omega’s importance is still not quite explained. If not, it’s even less clear now if her sex is not what made her unique. I also don’t see how she is the key to Palpatine’s eternal life quest unless normal growth rate is a feature and not the norm? Or was it about consciousness transfer?? Or it just circles back to pre-preimere that she is force-sensitive?? which seem to never be reinforced this season? IDK

Even thought TBB S2 made better use of their Quest epsiodes to sharpen characters and experimented with some upheaval within the teams, as well as limiting legacy characters to appropriateness, its pace still move under the conviction of a Season 3. It’s almost like they are dragging out the story so there’s a show to put on every week without an end point in sight - or even too much liberty to worldbuild early empire with it - because it’s animated.

When it comes around I guess I will still watch S3? but not with much more enthusiaism this time than to just watch what Lucasfilm Animation is up to. It’s kind of tiring to pick it apart every week if i just don’t like it that much. I would hate it if this mediocrity is the new face of Star Wars animation, but what business is that of mine. Season 3 would probably start with an episode at most of grieving and they’re all gonna reunite, whatever.

[fuck-off-im-ace]

Alright that’s it, got tired of people bitching about Lilith. So, lets get into the deep dive, shall we?

It is well known (in the WN fandom, at least) that Lilith is the first wife of Adam, expulsed from Eden after she refused to submit to him. She then partnered up with the Archangel Samael, head of the Satans, which is probably the Adriel equivalent of the Bible.

(Yes, we could have guessed that they would fuck. It was literally written for thousands of years.)

There are many versions of Lilith, of course, as with everything, but she is very often referred to as a demon of the night, often very hot, with long hair and wings (no I am not making this up).

I think the scene where she goes to see her family is very important. You don’t give your character a butterfly shirt if some shit is not about to happen. I think it’s also well thought, because this puts her even more as the opposite of Ava. Something got shoved into her (the halo vs tarask claw), she came back to life, now she has powers that she didn’t ask for and don’t know how to control, or just generally why. Why her. Both went to Jillian for answers but couldn’t be helped. Both went back to where it all started, Lilith’s family and Ava’s orphanage. I didn’t really go well for either of them. After wandering for a bit, Ava went back to the OCS, even after what Superion and Lilith did to her. She found someone there who believed in her and supported her, so she stayed, and became what they needed her to be.

It was probably added after the fact, but it has been showned that Lilith got Ava, Beatrice and Camila away from Adriel in the last scene of s1. That means Lilith also left Mary there to die. Imagine how much that must have fucked her up. I too would be hesitant to show up at the OCS. She can’t go back there, and that “other side”, the one that would reflect Ava’s journey, is Adriel. So she went to him, and he believed in her and supported her. She became what he needed her to be.

This new Lilith is becoming more and more like the Lilith from the myths. Thing is, that character is… evil? And there are hints in season 2 to her becoming more like that. First, Lilith is supposed to have some sort of control on wind and storms. Adriel says in their first meeting that the storm around them was made by Lilith, but he also makes wind in his final fight with Ava? It’s hard to know if he was making that first storm to manipulate her, or if Lilith really was making a storm without meaning to.

When Lilith is chasing Vincent early in the season, we are presented with this beautiful mural. I had to ask some friends, some say its just some art that was on the wall, some say it’s a mural that was made for the show. I decided to go with that last idea, simply because of the drawing on the right (and it’s more fun this way).

Lilith, according to pretty much everything she appears in, is a baby killer. Which, huh, isn’t great! She kills newborn babies, or sometimes pregnant people, or sometimes just people in general. And that graffiti, seen while Vincent is being chased by Lilith, feels kind of on purpose.

(If you’re asking about the other character drawn, I can only hope that this is Adriel’s hairy ass, a demon with a nicer mask, but I have big doubts about that. I think it’s Asmodeus, and we’re about to meet him in s3, cause Lilith is also seen as his queen in some writings, and wouldnt that be cool?!)

I have been obsessively reading on Lilith since I watched the season, and I remember reading somewhere that Lilith has a realm, somewhere, according to Something. But I cannot find it again, so this is all pulled out of my ass, don’t take this for gold. But I’m pretty sure I read somewhere about Lilith having a realm, and leading hordes of demons. If I did really saw that and it wasn’t a fever dream, then I really hope that’s the way Warrior Nun goes.

At the end of s2, Lilith doesn’t have any desire to kill Ava, and some people were confused by that. For me, it’s just a big parallel to the end of s1. Lilith is constantly there to try (and fail) to stop Ava from Doing Something. Back then it was from freeing Adriel, now it was to stop him from using Reya’s power. Adriel hinted about a divine war, a devourer of world coming, and it make sense to think that he would have told all of that to Lilith. She’s smart, if she knows what’s coming and know that Adriel is gone, then she also knows that she might need Ava in the future. Who knows what’s coming! Not me! Even Lilith didn’t know if they would be on the same side. It would be stupid to kill someone that you might need later.

It’s is particularly funny to see people complain that she “turned evil”, considering Lilith has always been Bad. First scene we see her, and she’s waiting for Shanon to die so that she can take the Halo. She then tries to kill Ava to take the Halo. In the first few episodes of s2, she has no problem with hurting and killing people. Remember how much she enjoyed torturing Ava in the first episodes of s1. She was always morally grey at best, if not straight up bad. 

Lilith is one of the most interesting characters of the show, and I say that only because so much thought has been put into Ava and I am obsessed with my Baetrice, so Lilith comes close third. The depth of her story is so good. The idea of making her the opposite of Ava, since the first episode of season 1, they are playing the long game. Ava started the show with nothing, and through trust and resilience, found a family and a purpose. Lilith started the show with everything, and through selfishness and refusing support, she lost her purpose and her family.

They didn’t “fuck up her arc” in season 2. This has always been her story.