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bitch-for-a-rainbow · 3 years ago

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Supergirl 6x08: Thoughts, Defense, and Criticism

I will say the episode mildly exceeded my expectations. I was very please to see them actually exploring trauma in a semi-realistic way.

I’ll start with my most positive— and most widely agreed with opinion: that Danvers sisters scene kicked ass. It is the kind of content that the show has been sorely missing. From Alex’s failure to open the wine bottle to Kara’s breakdown, there wasn’t a single beat that didn’t work in that scene. I LOVED Melissa Benoist’s performance— the halting, hesitating speech and lack of eye contact— you could feel just how painful it was to talk about the phantom zone, let alone admit she was still afraid. Chyler Leigh played her part wonderfully— the care with which she spoke every word just oozed love and worry. The casting of those two together was just a miracle.

(More under the cut. A lot more.)

There was some awkward dialogue (did they think the audience wouldn’t know who a reporter named Iris was? They had to include the full, hyphenated last name?) but honestly it was pretty good for a supergirl episode, so I can’t really complain.

Melissa Benoist is just a powerhouse of an actor and it showed this week. I could go on and on about her perfomance but there’s a lot more to say about the episode so I’ll just say she’s the bomb and move on.

Brainy and Nia were delightful as always, providing much of the humor of the episode and still shouldering some of the more dramatic beats. Brainy’s welcome home hug for Kara was something I felt in my soul don’t @ me.

The Nia/Lena friendship. I didn’t expect it, but I am certainly enjoying it. Hoping to see them hang out more (though maybe with a different topic than dead moms)

Lena continues to be a seedless addition to the Superfriends. Her leaving is, however, one of the few major issues I have with the episode. It’s weird. And random. From a purely character standpoint I don’t understand why she wouldn’t even wait a week for Kara to get settled back in before leaving. From an overall plot standpoint, I just don’t care about the Lena mom arc. I never have, and honestly I think there are better uses for her screen time— then again, removing her opens up that time for other characters and let’s the writers move along her character development offscreen— it worked for Mon El!

But seriously, i don’t know if Lena is going to just disappear or if we’re going to have a separated sub plot of her doing things and I don’t really care. I just want her to do something that I have any vague interest in, like have her finally pay back that debt to Andrea from 5x01 (did that even still happen? They called Kara a Pulitzer winner this episode.) Or have her work with Nia to track down information about interpreting her magic dreams, or go on a team bonding subplot with Alex where they get over the mind control and attempted murder via satellite thing (maybe talk about Alex’s experience with Myriad, or maybe, you know, have her resolve anything with Kara. Try and bridge icy awkward gap that happens when you realize your best friend was a lying asshole and you slightly overreact by trying to make it physically impossible for anyone to be mean to you ever again.

And speaking of Andrea— I’m actually really enjoying her character for the first time since crisis. She was fun in a way that made me laugh and worked well to both further herself as a character and push the plot. I’m genuinely excited for her scenes next episode. And they wrote all this without changing her at all as a character. Something just clicked this time, I’m not sure if it was how unstable Kara was so her aggression was actually effective or that her subplot actually had consequence this time, but it was nice.

And Zor-El was there, I guess.

I have, personally, been against any Kryptonian resurrections since season 1. Supergirl had their go of it, and it worked very well, and they used up their slot. Reign earned an exception for being a bamf and giving us what the best fight scene supergirl has ever had. The other worldkillers did not. And Argo made me unreasonably angry, especially when it was so painfully wasted.

Zor-El is just the new, shiny version of Argo and equally useless. (Also, Argo is alive again? Did we know that?) This is not to say I didn’t enjoy him at all, this episode is the first that I’ve liked him. But still. That one throw away comment about the phone calls and superhearing being hard to deal with could have led to a really interesting conversation with Kara: tackling the really unpleasant parts of her childhood, the difficulties she has pretending to be human, and ultimately the pain and suffering her caused by sending her off, alone, to care for an infant on a foreign planet. They knew it would give her powers; did they know what those powers would mean? Did they care?

I wanted that conversation, and I wanted the others, Nia in particular, to hear it. (Nia grew up a half-alien in Parthas, Kara grew up with the DEO hanging over her head like an ax— that difference has always intrigued me.)

Zor-El and Sesame Street was sweet, though I don’t know where he found the time to binge that and learn to control his powers all while Kara was still asleep.

Kara saying Clark used to beg to bring her to the fortress is a blatant retcon of seasons 1 and 2, but I think the writers make copies of the show bible just to set them on fire each episode.

And again— very interesting possible conversations. What does Zor think of his so very not Kryptonian-Kryptonian nephew? What does he think of Kara’s distant relationship with him? What does he think of Clark dumping Kara on the Danvers (for very arguable reasons) and then barely acknowledging her existence (for considerably less arguable, I’d totally in-character reasons)? What does he think of Clark’s data crystal that built a whole fortress, while his contained the recipe for his bio-weapon and a hologram of his wife? (What kind of person sends their teenage daughter off with a baby and a bio-weapon? The fuck did he think she’d need that for?) Was it so important to him to preserve his work?

Would it KILL THEM to have one conversation acknowledging Astra and Non’s existence. Just to explain how Kara knew her father was responsible for Krypton’s destruction. Could I have that instead of Oscar the trash monster? (Trash robot? Trash robot monster?)

Overall, I enjoyed the episode— it was better than I expected. I’m cautiously optimistic for next week.

And one more thing:

Where the fuck is Lex?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been praying for his character to go away for over a year, but like???

His abuse victim just left him.

The abuse victim who he torments for the fun and attention of it.

That victim.

Just told him he doesn’t get any more attention.

5. Episodes. Ago.

And he didn’t blow up half the city?

No “Look at me! Look at me!” destructive rampage?

Are they building up for something? They haven’t even mentioned his name. Even if he doesn’t lash out, he’s still a supervillain. Who’s got all this power and money, and is in controlling of a bunch of government stuff.

Idk.

Just.

Feels like someone should get on that.

#this was fun #might do it again next week #and yes I am working on that ask I just need to rewatch the episode and stuff #supergirl #supergirl 6x08 #supergirl recap

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bigbrothernetflix-st · 4 years ago

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EPISODE THREE

“this was literally one of the worst decisions i've ever had to make so now i'm just kinda pissed off!” - nash

HOH: Nash UPSIDE DOWN: Joey & Saira NOMINEES: Brianna & Gina POV: Jacob FINAL NOMINEES: Emma & Gina EVICTED: Gina (11-1), Jake (WALK)

ARIA

https://youtu.be/SyHPQkbxxw8

JOEY

WATCH THIS AGE LIKE MILK:

I feel great!!!!! Nash winning means my ass aint going up, I gave her 2 tokens, and she gave me 1, and I feel fantastic heading into this week

SAIRA

i feel okay about nash being hoh, she wasn't my first choice but i don't think im in any danger of being nominated (hopefully haha) im not sure who i WOULD want to be nominated, i just know who i wouldn't want, so as long as they're okay i'm good!

JEV

I'm once again feeling pretty good this week. I've grown pretty close to Nash since nominating her in week 1 and she told me and Nathan we aren't going up so, there's that! She's told me Gina is going up and will be her target which I'm not thrilled about but hopefully Gina can pull some miracle and win POV. I'm a little worried about Emma and Jake too, as they've both said they haven't spoken to her much which is dumb, bc like hello??? its week 3, i feel esp with Jake, I can understand Emma bc Nash keeps leaving her on read but I don't think Jake has even tried much (crying emoji) So hopefully they can ALSO pull something out

JAKE

FUCK MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i hate everyone in this game t b h. why can't people just follow with a plan and go through with it like it aint that hard to put your chips on one person from your alliance so youre all safe like........ i dont think these ppl understand strategy and it's TIRING. i frankly am over people relying on their friendships to get themselves through another week bc fucking nash won an alliance-based hoh comp. now we have to deal w this fucking friend group running the house another week. i don't know if i'm safe i'm honestly probably going to be put up??? even tho nash is the one that CONSTANTLY ignores my PMs even tho ive given her paragraphs to respond to... she's gonna do whatever her little friends want her to do. i mean that's what she literally said to me. i was like pls don't nom me <3 and she was like "im not making any promises im just doing whatever the house wants me to do" like girl............ lkjghklsdfjhg what kind of dumbass bullshit response was that. just tell me you're putting me up or you're not. youre a big girl you can make your own fucking decisions.

i give nash what i would give any hoh if they won and that is "i'd never ever nominate you it's never even crossed my mind" and hoping that's enough to make her wanna keep me. she might think im not going after her but, if she's smart, she'll send me out the door this week before i can retaliate.

im super super worried that jacob will be like oh jev n jake aligned in BBHOS9 u should put them up together since jev nominated you week 1. like i feel like she'd do ANYTHING jacob tells her at this point cuz shes just another one of his sheep so like hoping im good w jacob but he's such a wildcard idfk

at this point im just hoping me or emma don't get put up and if we do there will be a veto to be won and a nash/jacob to come after next so...... period

ARIA

yall i feel so fucking cracked and tired of everything but itS FINE!!! I got this easy peasy!! Im not going to always feel motivated but im doing my best and thats valid baby!!! So lets jump in, first off lets start with a random information dump of things i've collected

-jacob has talked about me w/ nicholas during pasio

-monty and jacob have a connection ( i dont even remember how)

-nathan nash (maybe jacob) obviously tight lmao

-joey monty close

-Jake made a counter alliance to Jacob's (actually joshes) alliance made of me gina saira emma and josh

-josh emma me alliance

-JOEY RECORDS CALLS

-Jake is wary of nathan (but also thinks hes cute ugh)

-told jake im wary of pasio peeps so he might nom them

-Jacob alliance STILL isnt created

-called with josh and told him that jacob is wary that the alliance isnt made yet

-jacob josh have a pregame

-told josh, saira and nick have a pregame

-josh kiki close

-josh thinks saira is a social threat

-josh prefers jev over nathan

-told monty to talk to jake more

-told joshua jacob is the most connected person

-got back to nash gina doesnt like her

-jacob kiki nash confirmed trio alliance

-nash told jev gina is the target (jev then told jake)

-josh thought jacob was the original maker of the alliance

-jake thinks jacob/josh are snakes

-jake also thinks jacob-josh-nash-kiki-bri-nick-nathan are an alliance

-josh wants to play the middle w/ me :uwu:

So from here I want to get into how my ideal week will go and how it will realistically go. IDEALLY Nash noms jev and josh with them not winning veto and the house gets rid of a utr social threat but realistically its gonne be gina and jake with gina going bc she doesnt talk to anyone of have any motivation for this game (I LITERALLY WROTE HER A PARAGRAPH TO SEND TO NASH TO NOT BE NOMINATED AND SHE GOES "hmm idk maybe ill send it" LIKE????)

Okay the other thing im freaking out about is bc i feel like theres tension between me Jacob Josh and Jake and im not sure what it is about. I mean i kinda do but im missing key components. The whole situation just doesn't sit right with me at all and I feel very at odds with them in a weird kinda way. I've explained this so many times but i have such a bad feeling that josh leaked the janelle alliance to jacob and is more with him than me and now josh is setting these two sides against each other and i just heard from him that nash isnt nomming him so now im really uncomfy ughhhh i have such a bad feeling and i really need to work on people like jev saira monty to make sure i have people behind me i can fall back on, but also im getting the vibe jake really really trusts me which is great because i want to go far with him as well, unless hes just misting me SUPER hard ughhh

god i just have such a bad feeling about this week buts its fINE totally fine ill work it out eventually,,,but now its trust ranking time yay

1.Gina (youre so inactive i adore you!)

2.Joshua (kid GANG!!! thank you for trusting me sometimes <3)

3.Jake (hes a crackhead but hes my crackhead)

VERY BIG GAP

4.Emma (shes chilling what a lovely gal)

5.Monty (better inactive than be active and a threat)

6.Nathan (youre kinda sketchy but hes like a funky older brother)

7.Josh (youre at the center of a balancing act i wonder if u can keep it up)

8.Nick (they always give such an honest vibe,,,,,i dont trust it)

9.Brianna (shes so sweet but the sweetest angels make the fiercest demons)

10.Jev(,,,,your on slightly thicker ice than joey but combined with a little more charisma)

ANOTHER GAP WOOT WOOT

11.Joey (youre on THIN fucking ice buddy,,,,please be more open w/ me)

12.Saira (im begging for u to talk game to me,,, but also since we havent talked u cant snake me yet)

13. Jacob (idk ily sm but youre so fcking connected and idk if i reached ur inner circle yet)

14. Kiki (my favorite furry)

15.Nash (please talk to me im begging ill do anything please plsease plaease plae-)

So update ive been talking around and wow this game loves looking at my allies and kicking them in the kneecaps while spitting in their eyes ugh. So nash is probably leaning towards nomming jake and Gina with gina as the target (really weird that jake is nommed makes me think jacob had some influence there) but in that scenario best case is that veto is used and anyone but josh goes up and that person leaves easy fucking peasy!! Anyway i just talked with josh and apparently jacob was the one who came up with the alliance idea which is interesting bc he tried to pin it on josh. Anyways not to totally contradict my initial rant but me and josh had a really good chat where we're kinda in the same position between two groups (the og alliance and janelle) and we dont know if we should make the og alliance and with who bc of janelle so we're struggling to see whats the correct move from here....or maybe josh is completely misting me but i fucking hope not ugh- either way im surviving this week and thats that!!

JEV

I'm realising that I'm getting myself into a pretty tight position since I have firm alliances with Emma & Jake and Nash & Nathan, as well as being extremely close to Josh C, which could prove difficult for me down the line, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

KIKI

https://youtu.be/6cn8xUFWqhA

BRIANNA

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XvZzg3dTEZ89VeFbG3bxk4JFNtr7Ixm0/view?usp=sharing

i had to use google drive bc it wouldn't take my file on youtube :((((

JEV

So right now I've somehow accidentally wriggled my way into conspiring with Nash on how best to take Gina out, which is so dumb of me because I don't really want to see Gina leave this week, but at the same time I'm having to fight Nash's decision because she wants to put Emma up beside her and... I can't let that happen because I'm worried Emma would leave over Gina

JEV

So I'm speaking to Nash, taking the heat off of Emma by telling her I feel she could be a number for me/her/Nathan down the line, and now I'm pushing for Brianna to go up since Nash wants someone who 100% wouldn't leave over Gina and I'm thinking like... WHO would vote to evict Brianna, but at the same time I'm feeling super terrible about it because Brianna is a literal angel

JEV

Wow a lot going on so I'm trying to update as best I can, Nash is saying she's going to randomise for who goes to the upside down so I'm having to encourage her not to include me or Nathan in the randomisation just incase she needs us for strategising but REALLY its so I can stay and hang around and try my best to keep Emma from touching the block at all this week.

NASH

sorry for nominating women i didnt mean it.

EMMA

If i am being honest the more this game goes by i get so unmotivated and its only week 3 i suck because well in bbgames like galar and almia i mostly played from the bottom now im like alright i kinda want to fuck up my game for fun but kinda pisses me off a bit that i almost could of been nominated if it wasnt for jev but that pisses me off so much i tried talking to nash but i get left on read i dont take things 100x personal unless if somebody is being mean like laughing etc but knowing that i would be on the block over brianna when i did try talking to nash its still hurts a little but if somebody like gina wins veto if i get on the block it issss what it isss i guess but i played on the bottom way to many times maybe i can do this??

JEV

So my efforts worked and Brianna went up instead of Emma, now I've just gotta hope neither of the noms win POV/that the POV isn't used so I don't have to throw someone elses name out there to Nash :flushed:

JOSH

hello ladies and gays. straights aren't welcome here.

today, we are feeling GOOD because the person we nominated just a few days ago won power and STILL didn't nominate me. is that iconnery or what? i was honestly ready for my ass to be TOAST but i did approach nash before they won HOH and had a conversation about where we stood and they said i would be OKAY this week bc we did start talking. we love to see it, yes we do!

the nominees this week are gina and brianna and.. even though i'm in two different alliances with both of them, i'm not mad at either of them going up. i don't REALLY talk with either and i'd be happy to see either one of them go. the tricky part will be figuring out WHO to vote when the time comes, but we have a POV to happen before we get there. we'll SEE.

if i had to choose, i'd probably send brianna home simply because i find her a bit CHAOTIC where i feel like gina isn't really going to cause a lot of waves with me. she's much more quiet whereas brianna is more likely to be able to pick herself back up.

some other fun events going on:

jake was NOT happy about nash winning and thought he was going to get nominated because of it. he was about to RIP nash a new one and is really brewing with how much he hates them. MAKES ME LAUGH A LIL BECAUSE IT WAS SO UNWARRANTED BUT NEVERTHELESS, it's something to note that jake does NOT like nash.

i think aria is my number one right now bc we get along really well and have very similar opinions. i'm really open with how i talk to her so i'm HOPING she's not spilling everything i say to someone else but i don't think she WOULD? i dunno. i love her energy and i'm hoping we can SLICE AND DICE together in the middle.

my strategy is to take my HOH under my belt and take a step back for a minute while my two alliances (one: jake, aria, gina, emma, saira, me & two: jacob, aria, brianna, kiki, me) get picked off back and forth. i'm going to see if i can craft a narrative for them to go after each other but we'll SEE. there are a lot of people in the middle i enjoy a lot more than some of the people in my alliances so IDK. i feel like some people got thrown into these alliances that i did NOT want but they were kind of forced in so i don't trust it. and i think people KNOW because i'm not very chatty abt it in the chats (and i haven't even made one of the chats. am i supposed to? idk)

anyways that's all for now x

ARIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp71zzR-wgE

someone help

JAKE

https://voca.ro/g2ZQWs9x8du

JEV

Not miss Nash coming to me asking how I'd feel about being renom :flushed:

JEV

So I literally just woke up from a sleep and in the space of 30 minutes have had to talk Nash out of renomming me, Emma or Jake since we've just made an alliance together so I warned her that probably wouldn't work out for us in the long run. We narrowed it down and she shortlisted Aria, Josh C, Monty & Nick, and I have spun her to try and get her to nominate Aria, because 1. I don't wanna see Josh C go up and 2. like with Brianna I feel nobody here would vote to evict Aria, and Nash wants Gina GONE (crying emoji) so I feel this was the only logical renom to suggest.

JEV

The conversation has turned back to Emma and I just really don't wanna let that happen because I do feel like she'd leave over Gina. Part of me is saying not to stick my neck out too much to save Emma but at the same time she's my number 1 in this game and I hope she'd return the favour if she was in my position.

NASH

this was literally one of the worst decisions i've ever had to make so now i'm just kinda pissed off!

ARIA

Well,,,, FBSFJDF I feel like im making so many of these but honestly this game changes everyday so please dont be too annoyed by me uwu, the mood swing i had just this DAY was insane so lets begin w/ the general info-

IN TIME LINE ORDER

-Jev told jake that something about noms but acted dumb when I asked

-Gina/Joshua/Aria alliance created!!

-Saira and Josh are close

- VIDEO DR GOES HERE

-Jake spills Emma-Jev-Nathan-Nash-Jake alliance with Emma/Jev/Jake being a trio as well= Jev created the alliance

-Jev prefers gina out

-jake doesnt believe in screenshots or recording calls

-Jev and Jake are close

-Jev/Jacob/Jake all played together before

-I leaked Bri's backups to Jake as well as Jacob's trio with Nash and Kiki

-nash almost backdoored jev bc he wasnt responding to her

-jev was the reason i was almost otb

-I WAS ALMOST OTB

-Josh AND Jacob both want Jake out

-Bri thinks nash's comp ability is scary

-Nash and Nick are close

-Jacob nervous about Bri's backup leaking

-Jacob barely talks w/ saira and monty

-made a final three w/ jacob josh called malibu

So now im debating whether its morally okay for me to analyze what happened in the living room in a game sense. FBSdffan So lets run down things in chronological order and I might mention my thoughts if they arent too controversial, Nathan leaks the alliance with jev/nash/jake/emma. Eventually emma says 'i wanna know who put these thoughts in the hohs head" and nick starts to shut the discussion down which is an interesting contrast to their earlier attitude where they were very for the drama continuing, which leads me to begin they had some sort of hand in it. Nathan goes on to say he likes nash on a personal lvl which jake analyzes as a nod to a friendgroup and a mini confrontation between nathan and jake occur. I believe that part was just a misunderstanding on both parties account. Then happy discussion until Jake calls nash out for being in the diary session for too long which leads to a discussion of house guests over analyzing production and using that as a strategy which is ultimately unfair and also at this time I believe nash was going through itTM leading to their friends to be slightly defensive on their behalf (which is valid) and i after rereading things i really hope that they're okay, ultimately this leads up to frustration on Jake's part and his ultimate quit.

I mean where do i go from here? I have the Bri's angels but that did get leaked to Emma on Jake's way out so i need to figure some way to micromanage that where i think im gonna make a emma jev alliance and work with them as a trio in the future (if gina goes) but rn i feel like this force of energy that is Bri's backups is gonna body for a bit but i think theyre gonna throw hoh leading me jev or emma to step up and body a bit. Like i think i might actually win hoh and nom nash and monty with a nick potential renom bc im BORED and nash continuing to skate by without even talking to me is not valid, and monty is so not here its like??? HEWWO??? but idk thats making big moves i may just chill a bit for now but i dont want jev and emma being targeted in the future bc theyre gonna be numbers for me and thats on PEWIOD!

HOST WEEKLY CAST ASSESSMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L25lY813N1k&list=PLFEwPPy8j010XXwntq80VSU0qLNTNpSIN&index=4&t=0s

#bbnetflix st

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itsclydebitches · 7 years ago

Note

Hey! I saw on one of your fics for preacher to send you prompts so here's one! Tulip learns genesis is fiore and Deblancs baby and all five get in a big fight cause tulips like "GIVE IT BACK???" and Jesse is like "HOW?" There's some "we miss our baby" angst and ends with our gayngels getting to hold there son for a bit??? Idk I think about this alot????

Hello again, @hetaliaprussia! I hope you like this. For the record, I think about our gay angels and their child a lot too :D

AO3: x

***

Jesse knew this sensation well: the weight of a body pinning his to the floor, a hand clenched, ironclad, into the front of his shirt. Everything from the knee in his stomach to the stench of another's sweat—it was familiar. He knew that as soon as he looked he'd see the barrel of a gun pointed just an inch or so from the bridge of his nose. Jesse understood that any words he heard would be a threat. Rinse and repeat.

Except that this attacker...

Tulip's hands were shaking as she pressed the muzzle flat against Jesse's forehead. No one else would have spotted it, but he did. He could feel the wound tightness in her limbs.

"You took their fucking child?" she hissed.

"Tulip. Tulip. C'mon now, luv, you are missing some real fuckin' important context here…"

Cass dithered behind her, arms reaching to try and pull her away before panicking and snapping back. Off to the side Fiore and DeBlanc looked on in shock. They were such smug, pretentious assholes. If Jesse hadn't known for sure that the gun Tulip held was loaded, he would have found their fish-like expressions amusing.

Instead he held perfectly still. "You're not gonna shoot me," he said, bland as white rice.

The gun pressed harder into his skin. "Really? That's your response here? You're digging yourself in real deep, Jesse Custer."

"You care?"

"Of course I care."

"Well then you're not gonna shoot me. Get off, Tulip."

Jesse wormed his leg up between hers, grabbed hold of Tulip's wrist, and flipped them so that she was the one now nestled against the church's floor. It was a move that only worked because a part of Tulip wanted it to. She scowled, jamming the gun back into her jeans and shoving him off her chest. They scrambled and backed away, Cass looking like they'd just averted a bomb going off.

"Okay," he said slowly. "I appreciate your wild sides, I honestly do, but the two of you have gotta get the whole fuckin' picture before you go threatenin' to shoot one another!"

"Who did I threaten to shoot?" Jesse snapped at the same time that Tulip spread her arms wide and yelled, "What picture, Cassidy? Jesse took their child!"

She pointed fiercely at DeBlanc and Fiore who now appeared sheepish in the extreme. Alright. That was amusing. Fiore muttered something too low for them to hear and turned away, eyes drawn to the ceiling in a comical display of aversion. It was DeBlanc who took the hesitant step forward, removing his hat and placing it protectively over his chest.

"Ms. O'hare..."

"Tulip. Do I look like a blasted 'Ms.' to you?"

DeBlanc swallowed. "Tulip. We contacted you because we know you're... close with this preacher. Jesse. It is true that he has our child... though it would perhaps be more accurate to say that our child chose him."

"Huh?" Tulip peered at the four of them, most of that anger giving way to confusion. "Hold up now. You made it sound like this kid of yours is an infant. How the hell does a baby choose someone? And who the fuck would choose Jesse?"

"I'm right here," Jesse said, but no one listened.

Cass raised his hand. "Yeah. Fascinating. But I'm more interested in how two blokes make a kid together in the first place. Can clones make babies?"

"Clone—?" Fiore gapped for a moment. "I'm an angel, you twit, and we don't adhere to your idiotic gender binaries."

"A what," Tulip said.

DeBlanc laid a hand on his arm. "His question is still valid though. Certainly no one in heaven knows how our union resulted in... procreation." He turned to the group. "It's just one more reason why you must return them. There are many who would do anything to seize the child of an angel and a demon."

"A what."

"Oh wow. Okay. That explains a whole lot of stuff. Did you know about this?" Cass asked. Jesse had his fingers pressed hard into the bridge of his nose, nodding sadly.

"Yeah. Had a whole damn conversation about it last night in the diner. I was going to tell you but then someone," Jesse glared at DeBlanc, "had to go and tell my girlfriend, who recently lost a child, that I went and stole someone else's."

DeBlanc blanched. "We didn't realize. We only wanted you to give them back."

"Well I can't! I've tried!"

"How come there's no word for that?" Cass murmured. "A woman who loses a child? We've got 'orphan' and 'widow,' but nothin' else that I know of. Huh. Just doesn't seem right."

"Enough," Tulip spit, interrupting them all. With the jerky movements of someone that was at the end of their rope, she reclaimed the gun and pointed it somewhere in the middle of their circle, essentially threatening them all. "You are treating this like a joke, but you know—you know, Jesse—that it's not." He bowed his head at that. Acknowledging for once that no, it wasn't a joking matter. "Now who is going to explain what the hell is going on here?"

Cass made short work of that, slotting together all the pieces they'd gathered thus far: angels and demons (not clones), God going missing, Genesis' creation, unfathomable power now rooted in their very own Jesse—who watched the proceedings with a vaguely bored expression. He didn't even flinch when Tulip raised the gun this time. Really, she was just using it for emphasis at this point.

"So this 'baby'..." she said slowly.

"Is probably the most powerful thing in existence," Jesse confirmed. "And it's currently nestled somewhere between my soul and my ribs."

"That doesn't mean we don't love them any less," Fiore snapped and there was a moment of silence as the group tried to decided if that was in reference to Genesis' power or the fact that it had chosen Jesse. Probably the latter.

He took a firm step forward. DeBlanc and Fiore held their ground. Jesse smiled.

"So what do you want, huh?" he demanded. "Getting Cass all riled up. Trying to turn Tulip against me. She pistol whipped me earlier." Tulip shrugged to show she really didn't regret that part. "You've tried luring this thing—"

"This child," DeBlanc said.

Jesse inclined his head. "—child out of me with songs and magic and who knows what else. It didn't work. So what exactly do you want me to do about it?"

"Haven't tried the chainsaw yet," Fiore muttered and DeBlanc had to shoot out a protective arm to keep him and Cass apart.

"Easy, love," he said. "To be frank, Jesse, I'm not sure how we should go about this, but we have to do something. At the very least I’d appreciate it if you—"

"Why don't you order it?"

All of them turned to Tulip, staring. She shrugged again and pretended to shoot Jesse straight in the middle of his chest. "It's all-powerful, right? So just use that power and, I don't know, tell it to come out for a second."

Fiore spluttered. "That is the most idiotic thing I've ever—"

"Genesis, c'mere."

And they did.

The flash of light blinded them all momentarily, filling the church and worrying poor Mrs. Hinderson miles down the road, wondering what in the name of loving Jesus that was supposed to be. As she went back to walking Pepper and resigned not to stick her nose where it might get snapped off, DeBlanc was pushing groggily back to his feet, one hand supporting Fiore while his other had latched onto Tulip's arm. Cass was on Fiore's other side, his stunned expression no doubt a reflection of everyone else's.

"Oh my," DeBlanc whispered.

They'd never seen Genesis before. Not really. Not since the brief, confusing moment of their creation. And they weren't quite seeing them now either. How did you see something that wasn't a thing, but the absence of things—everything by virtue of being nothing at all? There was light, yes, but at the same time they were a void. DeBlanc knew at once that he couldn't look on his child for long, not without a vessel to act as a buffer. Still, he reached for them.

He felt Fiore doing the same. For a moment it was only the two of them in that church, fingers curving around the edges of their child. DeBlanc felt heat, ice, the thrum of electricity, and—

—and then they snapped back into Jesse.

He bent like a bow, stumbled, and only kept his feet by grabbing hold of the nearest pew. Jesse heaved like he'd just run a marathon, but he looked as rapturous as the rest of them.

"Don't see how it's any different," he finally whispered when no one else would speak. "You two taking human form. Genesis possessing me. It's all necessary. Like child, like parents right?"

DeBlanc nodded. The pain against his wrist was Fiore's hand. The sting on his cheek was a tear.

"Well," Fiore huffed, wiping inconspicuously at his own eyes. "That may be the case, but don't think for a second that I'm letting you run off with my child alone."

Jesse froze. "...No."

"Yes."

And it began over again, Fiore, Jesse, and DeBlanc launched into full-blown bickering about who got to tag along on what adventures, their tone completely at odds with the miracle they'd just witnessed. Cass shook himself like a dog, giving Jesse a lopsided grin and suggesting that he should make Genesis pay rent. Tulip sighed, tossed Jesse the gun, and made it very clear that this was not the kind of child they'd agreed to raise. Jesse waved the gun under Fiore's nose who just batted it away.

And somewhere inside Jesse, Genesis hummed with what might be termed happiness.

When they left the church, for all their arguing, they were heading down the same path.

#Preacher #AMC Preacher #drabbles #hetaliaprussia

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sole-cuore-amore-e-droga · 6 years ago

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Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Albania to Eurovision with ethno beats

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Sorry to be late to start all this, but you know, Albanians love doing their show around the Christmas period - whether before or after. xD So after this show, I was rather engulfed in Christmas and stuff, packing the gifs for every family member, putting them under the tree and waking up to see their (belated) reactions to their own gifts. Oh, and a festive dinner on the Eve. (And now it's been less than 1 and a half months since the end of this!)

But enough about that, you guys are here for my honest review, right?

Right.

I, for one, am a true fan of the ridiculous runtime of Festivali i Këngës në Radiotelevizion Shqiptar (and how the full lenght title is pronounced with the broadcaster’s name included every other single time), and that's because it allows me to discuss every single detail that I see, that goes wrong, that's just plain hilarious, and printscreen those said things. Among all these weird sights that can be seen during the interval acts and advertisements there's at least one instance of somebody in the show being such a "mood". Just like the broadcaster's current higher up for all things Eurovision at home (i.e.: commentator, spokesperson and occasional conversator), Andri Xhahu:

“mmhmm sure, keep on telling how much you love all the acts while I pretend I care, but in fact I’d rather just go home and eat something real quick”

Trust me, everyone in this show is a master of not giving a single damn. Artists, backings, instrumentalists, interval acts even maybe? All kinds of people in Albania are just mediocred out by things happening in FiK, thus nothing is remotely surprising!

Well, except for the results this year. Sure, everyone had their little outrage on social media the very time it was revealed that the international public’s darling Mirud did not impress the FiK jurors enough to qualify, but others were simply rejoicing that at least another big fave qualified - and to the fans’ dy shokë, a favourite won once again! And this one is an artsy, mid-tempo call to all of the abroad Albanians to “return to the land”, provided by the one and only, Jonida Maliqi.

And so you thought a big FiK favourite wouldn’t manage to win 2 years in a row... let alone reach Eurovision. It was nearly a given FiK juries could rather have had their traditional FiK-ness when picking the winner and that it would have become Lidia Lufi or even one of those old people, one of them being THE CONDUCTOR OF THE WHOLE SHOW (and if he was not qualifying, he’d probably have been ultra upset and leave his position from FiK’s orchestra that he has now observed every year since idk), so it’s refreshing to see Albania take on some new winds - last year with Eugent Bushpepa, this year with Jonida. Not that she was a big favourite of mine though, but you know, “Mall” was so incredibly difficult to top standart-wise that I actually didn’t really mind letting go of the songs by Dilan Reka, Klinti Çollaku and Alar Band (and 3 more nonqualifiers) emotionally. I mean, with the competition this incredibly improving in competence and easy good winners, it was a given that none of these would have even come close to reach a stellar placing in the final leaderboard of FiK. And yes, I consider my taste incredibly out of fashion with what everyone wants. Thank you for noticing.

When I first heard this, I didn’t really have a great impression on this track - the 1st verse/chorus and the 2nd verse/chorus have an extreeeeemely long gap between each other, which bothered me. Shouldn’t the song have some short enough gateway to pass the point across easier? The second thing is that it’s a little too slow. Not long after she won I became acquainted with the song’s Nightcore versions (yep! 2 of them exist apparently), and going back to he studio version of this, the slowness of it put me off. But on later listens I managed to appreciate its better qualities - the song is intense, tackles a decent topic (which will probably be underlooked if the staging does not account for it clearly enough - looking at you France 2018), the folksy interlude is too precious to be gotten rid off for the upcoming revamp (I just think it needed to be placed elsewhere... until I realized it is in an alright position songwise), the backing vocals at the last few seconds add some charm to the song, and at least there are some vocalisations! Juries obviously love it when an act tests their high vocal abilities, and often great notes don’t go too unnoticed by them. Remember why was Eugent’s performance so loved by the juries - if he haven’t done THAT, nothing would have given him a final ticket in the first place.

So that means that the first time viewers at home have a hefty fine chance to also not get what’s happening, right? Unless the music gets drastically devamped (like in 2016) and the performance is too heavy to connect with this song, it is probably going to do alright. The 2nd night performances this FiK were all devoted to the idea of preparing the acts for Eurovision in an unavoidable case of one of them winning. And Jonida’s performance uses rather cartoonish (but decent cartoonish) city-at-night shots in the background (with street lamps, traffic lights, maybe a bridge and the rest) and several random dancers too, which you can see for yourselves below:

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(I’d like to inform her though that constantly interchanging street motives on the background aren’t a very good addition - Latvia 2009 went with all-round street and city signs and that didn’t work, and the 2009 stage was HUGE! Also maybe the dress is a little too extravagant for the topic of the song but that’s a nitpick. Sorry about it)

And even though it’s just 1 song (and the reason the top 1s keep poping up right after FiK is over - a common practice even among very small Eurovision fan Youtube channels) (edit: now we have 4 songs at the point of me finishing this but still), I do believe that already writing it off is harsh. Obviously the Albanian revamp curse is going to take place, but sometimes it comes to a complete advantage if the artist knows what he or she is doing and how to turn everything to their strenght rather than weakness. Eugent just happened to do more impressive vocal heights than Lindita. And Eugent didn’t even need to wear something too extra unlike Lindita, which for some reason was having to deal with a bridal attire..? not a really suitable wear for a song about world problems, yanno what I mean?? So it’s for the better if Jonida’s team doesn’t have to harm the song all too much, choose a connecting staging, do something piercing about it, don’t make Jonida look like a clown on stage, and generally don’t let her come across as too weird and cold-hearted. She should be seen pouring her heart out and let the world know that she’s talking to the Albanians (and hopefully even Kosovars) ‘round the world - to all the Ritas, to all the Duas, to all the Bebes.

Approval factor: I didn’t say I hate it so I approve it wholeheartedly! Yes I like.

Follow-up factor: in my sole opinion I would still find “Mall” way better but this current entry is good enough also, so it’s obviously a fair enough follow-up after the previous and the rest past entries for Albania.

Qualification factor: somewhere in the middle of things right now, if only Jonida’s capable of making everythhing against her work in her favour and shock the naysayers like Eugent did post-revamp that looked like it killed his chances

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

If you don’t want to read any more of my review from this point on, just simply leave this post, thanks!

But if, however, you do want to read these post-ramblings, pls b mah frien.

So did we have Fest 57 through and it always delivered a fiesta of too many ads and too many intervals. Like you could have sworn that this show should have ended 5 years earlier than initially planned. Yet you wake up and find it still going, but more in the post-show form, with the jury still continuing to blabber about what exactly do they like in a contestant’s song for some reason. And then, when you least expect anything to happen - they mention “lista finale”! Ahh what a miracle.

Anyway, in this segment I’m here to highlight some special things that have happened:

• The puppetmaster from Night 2. No one knew what was that for, no one knew why was it needed, no one knew if it was even a little bit funny. But this Francesca Michielin’s auntie delivered a bunch of stuffed ‘humans’ to show around in front of the camera and stage something out of them. And the world was s h o o k

• Sound problems. One contestants had quiet mics at the beginning of the song (and this is FiK, which means that the poor acts WILL get a definite repeat of their entry, even if they had said their word against it. Sorry Miss Põldvere...), and another act got away with the entirety of it being completely not tuned in correctly soundwise, thus sounding completely all reverb-y and at one point even the mic feed for the backings was louder than the vocals of the artist. Hilariously enough, the both reprised acts won an award!

• Speaking of which, everyone thought that the first award of the night was actually the winner announcement. Even me. Oh how much we were falsely alarmed on this particular thing... xD

• Obviously the results. I honestly don’t think that Mirud’s nonqualification is such a mystery, despite the fact that as of lately the FiK juries are down for uplifting the audience faves. But I saw something that could have turned his song into something unbearably weak and nondescript, despite his pain and heart streamed out in bold colors through the song, considering this is the country that revamps their entries a lot. It could have been, and I’m dreading to say this but I am gonna say it anyway, a meaningless R’n’B ballad trying to show something, but projecting it too weakly. Of course I liked it, but I wouldn’t have pointed at it saying; “that right there, it’s definitely a contender”. But I definitely felt sorry for him and his song. Look what I messaged him:

• Dilan Reka’s quality stepdown. Look, I didn’t even listen to “Mos harro” as of yet, but I can definitely feel that “Karma” is some sort of a sub-par standart entry everyone gave hard time for because it wasn’t as likeable as “Mos harro”, which could have been the beginner of the good Albanian streak I suppose had it won the NF over Lindita? Or at least that’s what the fans think. Anyways, I liked “Karma” and I don’t ever want to stop defending its fun factor. The only thing not worth defending in this is Dilan’s styling:

No but WHO TOLD HIM YELLOW SUNGLASSES AND THIS SUIT WERE A GOOD IDEA???? leave.

• The girl who sang "Hallelujah" during a results break (there were several of these, can you believe that?). That was presumably Ana Kondra (you know, the one that advised to not touch her tree two years back? In JESC?) presumably singing in a personally warped take on English language, if not the actual English.

• Somewhere in the world there was hype-a-comin’ for these two: the cheap beats queen Soni Malaj and the retro hipster queen Orgesa Zaimi. While I can’t say I disliked their songs legit, it beats me as to what is attracting people to support the latter a lot, considering Orgesa submitted a bit of a huge stepdown from the cheerful “Ngrije zërin“. She at least retained her hipster attire though, even if without those French sunglasses. Oh and as for Soni, I gotta commend the Eurofan audience for still giving in some cheap Balkan pop trash! Though for country like Albania, it was never gonna win anyways. And I wasn’t hyped either. Seriously, who thought that adding some extra confused guys spout “bum bum bum” at the beginning was remotely GOOD??

Think I noted all momentswise. May I add that I’m glad to hear Jonida was allowed to sing in Albanian by RTSH (who apparently DECIDE what kind of language is more fitting for their own entry once it’s decided it’s ready for Eurovision???? I feel you, Elhaida’s composer from FiK 2014, if I had to face these rules, I’d have quit too)? It definitely takes this song up for advantage, and who cares if no one can understand it - we still have had an Albanian song about personal matters qualify, plus it was performed live on such an unfortunate occasion back at home so the power had to be extremely maxed out for that to work, and it did.

And one last thing: I did only watch the final of this, and the first time I heard this performed live, I was lowkey convinced this would indeed win because the orchestra made it sound like a stereotypical FiK winner - dramatic female ballad/midtempo/whatever having this dramatic power in chorus with all of the instruments blown right onto it. Not even the rest of the top 3 and other ballads this year were this much instrumentally packed. So there goes.

#eurovision 2019 #tel aviv 2019 reviews #albania 2019 #jonida maliqi #ktheju tokës #albania

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