#like. shit like rebecca getting more and more angry and cruel and ending up self destructing bc of it

[trentcrimminallybeautiful]

currently spinning an "it's a wonderful life" style 'ted, at his lowest and least confident, sees what would have happened if he never came to richmond' au in my brain that i'll never write

[jaggedwolf]

my biggest problem with ted lasso s3 is that it flinches too early, too often.

to me, that's a cardinal sin. I can forgive a lot when I'm fond of characters - imperfect pacing, lackluster plot, unanswered questions - as long as I believe there's something real there, that there's a willingness to bite into the meat of the story before setting the plates for dessert.

you can't flinch from your own story.

what do I mean by flinching?

let's take nate. s2 takes him on a believable arc. he went from a (bullied) kitman to a coaching position, a job beyond his wildest imagination, but on the inside, he stays insecure. actually, he gets even more insecure. because the thing about nate in s2, right, is that he's oversensitive to the slightest hints of disapproval - like his father's apathy - in a way that makes him desperate for constant approval. and yet even when he gets that approval, it doesn't satisfy him, not completely.

he needs more, wants more, there's an gulf inside that cannot be filled by success. it makes him swing wildly back and forth between "i'm garbage, i'm a piece of shit" and "i'm the best, why the hell does no one appreciate what a genius i am?", makes him externalize his dissatisfaction with himself into cruelty towards will and colin and ted, makes him kiss keeley and then be offended that roy wasn't angry with him.

s3 seems to posit that what nate needed was success and validation. that he could fix that bottomless gulf by being a good coach, and getting a girlfriend, and having his dad tell him that he's smart. and all of that would make him realize he doesn't want to be like cheating rupert and then he's no longer dickhead s2 nate.

except. except none of that makes any sense.

the end of s2 sets us up with nate as west ham's head coach. we've watched multiple seasons of a show that's told us how much power the head coach has in setting the tone for a team, and were given an indication of the type of culture george cartrick encouraged before he was fired.

that season's finale makes you want to ask, geez, how cruel is nate this high on his own supply going to be? and then....s3 basically does not care. s3e1 gives us a token depiction of nate being a dick to his players and his coworkers, and then we never see that behavior from him again.

and I think I could have ultimately been okay with that, even if nate falling into worse behavior before climbing out of the pit would've been more satisfying to me. they could have had me buy that nate as head coach is so high up enough and so distracted by rupert and guilt that he has less outbursts than s2 nate.

but only if s3 didn't have such a warped idea of what it meant to show an improvement in nate. remember: a fundamental part of nate's shit is that for him, his timidity and self-centeredness are two sides of the same dang coin, a hyperobsession of how he's perceived.

you know that whole quote about how if you want to see how a person's like, look at how they treat their inferiors, not their superiors? let me give you a nate shelley version: if you want to tell me he's a much better guy than the one we saw in s2, you have to show me he reacts reasonably to rejection, not just acceptance and praise.

nate in s3 gets what he wants so consistently - he chooses to leave west ham instead of getting sacked, he gets the frickin players asking after him at the restaurant, he gets his dad calling him a genius (??) - that I have no idea if he has improved in that regard. I really don't know. (I also have no idea if he's any less weird about women, between that keeley kiss and defaulting to calling rebecca a shrew)

for contrasting examples in the same show, look at rebecca and jamie, who each made some pretty asshole moves without the show flinching away from it. rebecca's forced to directly confront how she hurt keeley with the paparazzi move, jamie has to prove himself to sam and the rest of the team - they had sympathetic reasons for their assholishness, but that didn't give them a pass.

and I understand the doylist context here. the writers did not anticipate the degree of rage many viewers had towards nate's end-of-s2 actions. maybe that's what led to the flinching away from how messy nate as head coach could really have gotten.

but regardless of the why, they still flinched, and it made nate's story so much the worse for it.

ok I have another complaint about flinching as it pertains to colin's arc this season, but I'll put that under the cut

unlike with nate, I actually enjoyed most of colin's story this season. how he navigates being closeted, tying it in to his visit with dr sharon last season, the night he has with trent in amsterdam, all of that was fairly well done, I thought.

but man, the episode where he comes out to the team? tore my suspension of disbelief to shreds. not the team's overall reaction, bought that, genuinely loved ted's bonkers football fan analogy and that colin feels free enough after to play excellently. the issue is what prompted his coming out.

you see, I watch ted lasso like I watch sports anime. I am not expecting a realistic depiction of male professional athletes and definitely not male professional athletes within a locker room. I don't question all of them crying at you've got mail, or all but one engaging in a pillow fight instead of hooking up in clubs, some of them cheating on wives. that's not the type of show this is, any more than haikyuu being that type of show, for instance. that's chill.

and colin's story arc coming out could very easily co-exist with that.

yet when it's prompted by a fan shouting homophobic slurs, as happens many a time in the actual EPL, and they show the team's reaction to that, they utterly break the illusion. because, to be frank, if this is a world where that's said by fans, just as it is ours, it feels ridiculous to watch an EPL team be horrified by the word. (and to be good about not saying it themselves!)

and also that occurrence implies that isaac and sam and other players (and probably nate, come to think of it) are also getting called all kinds of slurs from the stands, something the episode avoids ever addressing.

like look, I'm not asking to hear "faggot" or "paki" or any other number of slurs on a sitcom, of all things, but it's the show who decided to make this the plot point for that episode. it stands out that when isaac overreacts to the slur because of what he knows about colin, and then he and colin talk, there is an absence of any mention of the (targeted) shit isaac likely hears, especially after taking over as captain. it would've only made the episode stronger, given their friendship, and that colin was clearly frustrated with isaac's reaction during the match after he'd spent so long being ignored and yelled by him.

or, y'know, if they were gonna flinch this hard they could have had colin come out literally any other way lol.

ok i have some other qualms about the season (now that we know rebecca's endgame re: the club i mourn for what a consistent arc towards that could've looked like, and also jamie's dad can fuck off), but those were my two big wtfs this season. where i went, "bro, you're the one who brought this up, why are you running away from it?"

[nonbinarysasquatch]

Josh’s Ex-Girlfriend is Crazy.

“So, what I am hearing is, it’s not really about Josh per se. Josh is more a symbol of effortless normalcy from which you’ve always felt excluded.”

Rebecca can’t you seeeeeee, Josh Chan is a metaaaphooorr.

Since the beginning the title of this show has never really been the focus of the actual content of the show. Mostly, it’s been a feminist deconstruction of romantic comedy tropes. The relationship with the word crazy has largely been through the lens of Rebecca’s discomfort with others saying it but a willingness to describe herself as crazy with self-loathing.

Something I’ve been disturbed by since becoming involved with the CXGF fandom on Tumblr is that… in the #Crazy Ex Girlfriend tag, you’ll see literal men linking to videos of their (allegedly) crazy ex-girlfriends, or people variously ranting about their crazy ex-girlfriends.

And those people? They are why this show exists. Perhaps, more than anything else this show is about the exploitation, degradation and dismissal of women, particularly women with mental illnesses. Of course, that’s not all this show is about, because it’s a complex, layered show that you can’t just take a cursory glance at and decide that you understand it.

And for the record: I think there’s totally room for critiques of this show. Have I ever seen any good ones from that didn’t come from people who weren’t fans? Nope. It’s always the same old thing where you can tell they aren’t willing to intellectually engage with the show.

All of the good critiques of the seen of the show and it’s plot have all come from fans and people willing to intellectually engage with the show.

Even while watching and enjoying seasons 1 and 2 the first time I had some issues and concerns. But I trusted that all the feminists who loved the show knew what they were talking about. And season 3 almost unilaterally eliminated all of my concerns.

Let’s go back and look at the season 1 title theme: Rebecca is called “the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” by her own opening theme. She rejects it as a being a sexist term then explains that there’s a lot more nuance than that. And you know? She wasn’t wrong. There always has been a lot more nuance than that.

She did move across the country for Josh… but she wasn’t really aware that was the case. And to just dismiss her as a stalker is to dehumanize her and disregard her mental health.

Throughout the show we have explored why she is the way she is. I’m someone who generally believes the world needs more empathy and to do a lot less demonizing of people. So to that end, I choose to understand Rebecca and I have a lot of sympathy for her.

And still, she does terrible things. She manipulates people and her actions have consequences. There is a question of how much we should see Rebecca as a person who really exists or if we should see her as a symbol for what childhood abuse and the patriarchy can do to a woman.

If we view the show as feminist satire it looks a lot different than if we choose to simply take everything at face value (though how you can ignore the innate feminism behind literally everything on this show is beyond me.)

This certainly isn’t a show for people who are only interested in a black and white view of the world. And it’s not a show for anyone who doesn’t want to ever see people with mental illnesses being portrayed in a negative light, even if to never show people with mental illnesses in a negative light is a complete and utter lie (which I can say as someone with mental illnesses who has definitely done shit I’m not proud of that was influenced by mental health problems.)

For me, as someone with mental illnesses, I’ve never felt like anything spoke to me the way this show does. I’ve never felt represented in this way before. I’ll have a lot more to say about that as this season goes on…

This show is from Rebecca’s POV and even when she’s doing terrible things, we are given her perspective. It’s a narrative that is traditionally been used to make men into sympathetic heroes, even when those stories all have men who are actual garbage with no consideration for the feelings of the women in the stories.

So, in this episode, we tackle the most egregious of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend tropes: the sort of films where the woman is spurned into murderous revenge.

Of course, Rebecca isn’t really a murderer. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone. She just wants to feel like her feelings matter. Her actions in this episode are terrible but the emotions behind them aren’t wrong. Josh hasn’t even approached making amends with what he did. He doesn’t seem to even think he did anything wrong. Last episode he was more interested in literally telling everyone that Rebecca was crazy and that was BEFORE he realised that Rebecca was spreading lies about him.

The opening scene of this episode is perfectly constructed and so realistic it hurts. I’ve been in that room. Not as Rebecca but as all of her friends. Rachel Bloom’s acting here is exquisite as perfectly uses her anger and fear as a mask for her pain. Her pain after she takes Darryl’s down is just so real and just… so accurate.

The grief that all of her friends feel is also very real, particularly Paula and Valencia who in many ways are the characters that Rebecca has hurt the most. Even Nathaniel looks aggrieved, despite having taken it less hard from her and having the least at stake. A solid sign that he isn’t the cold-hearted person he initially seemed.

Of course, then, he brags TO HER FRIENDS about having sex with her and says he knows her better. Which, no, Nathaniel, shut your mouth, man. To say this isn’t appropriate is putting it mildly. In some ways, this is the most mad I’ve been at Nathaniel thus far. He’s developing feelings for Rebecca but “she’s zany but in a cute way.” Nope, Nathaniel. Much like Josh Chan, I’m going to judge you for not being respectful of Rebecca’s mental health, though it is fair to say that he doesn’t know her as well as Josh (should.)

Rebecca’s friends all love her, even after the cruel things she has said. The world at large would just say she’s crazy. And no one could fault any of her friends for choosing to cut ties and take their own health and safety into account. But this isn’t real life. And Rebecca is a symbol, to a certain degree.

To readdress the point I was making above about the problem of people (particularly) men complaining about crazy ex-girlfriends, I think this show is making one point that I don’t necessarily see acknowledged all that often: that even when someone is acting in these sorts of ways, that it still isn’t OK to call them crazy. Which, it should be noted, is not the same thing as talking about abuse and mistreatment. But all this bullshit of dudes posting videos of their ex-girlfriends acting out and mocking them for crazy is gross bullshit.

If this show does have a failing, it’s that weaving the threads of being a deconstruction of romantic comedies, a deconstruction of the crazy ex-girlfriend trope and being a serious show about mental health means that engaging with it is complicated. And it’s a musical comedy to boot.

I’ve said before that I don’t think this show is for everyone. But it is for more people than currently watch it. And goddamn, I wish some of the people who dismiss their girlfriends, or any women as being crazy would watch it and absorb the message.

So, Rebecca goes to stay in a hostel. Fun fact: there are no hostels in West Covina. As far as I can tell, most hostels in Los Angeles County are in Los Angeles. But hey, there’s also nothing on East Cameron in reality too…

At the hostel she meets Danish tourist, Jarl, who might be my favourite one off character the show has ever done. Jarl happens to know a thing or two about movies like Swimfan, Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction. The only one of those I’ve ever seen is Swimfan (which I don’t recall enjoying.)

Rebecca decides she needs to reenact those films in order to force Josh to feel what she feels, telling Jarl that she’s 7 feet tall angry.

Meanwhile, her friends are looking for her. It’s easy to miss that Valencia has never understood the full scope of the scheming against her that Rebecca and Paula were doing back in season one.

Easy to miss that Valencia doesn’t realise the full depth of the scheming against her that was going on, and that was largely driven by Paula. We also acknowledge for the first time that Paula and Valencia are friends, a far cry from season one when Paula just saw Valencia as an obstacle for Josh and Rebecca’s love story.

Darryl and White Josh are being forced to address the issue of whether WhiJo wants to have a baby together, forcing Hector to bounce out before the awkward gets too bad.

We also get a follow up here on a tiny thread seeded last season of Heather perhaps having an interest in Hector. I always love how the show does a good job of putting characters together who haven’t interacted much and doing something interesting with them.

Rebecca goes to Josh’s house, trying to spook him and get under his skin. It clearly works… for whatever that is worth.

After going back to the hostel, Jarl points out that if Rebecca continues on this path, she’ll end up murdered at the end of the movie. Rebecca, of course, doesn’t buy it. Because to her this isn’t about revenge. She simply wants Josh to feel her pain. Though she’s phrasing it unhealthily, really, what she wants is empathy. Something that Josh has… pretty much never given her.

Jarl points out that if Rebecca was unhappy before she met Josh that perhaps this isn’t all his fault. And he says the line that I quoted at the top about effortless normalcy.

Back at Rebecca and Heather’s house, it turns out that Nathaniel is sleeping there along with George and the girl he’s dating, Penny. And, for the record, it’s not true that a person needs to be missing X number of hours before you can report it. I did research for a fanfic!

You can immediately report a person as missing. This doesn’t mean that law enforcement will take it seriously of course, but legally there’s nothing stopping you. And they should (and that’s a big should, obviously) take into account like whether there’s reason to worry about that person’s safety or the safety of other people and act accordingly.

Now, whether Nathaniel would be taken seriously is another issue but in theory at a minimum, Heather or Paula (as her best friend and her roommate) should’ve been able to file a report.

Josh goes back to his job at Aloha Tech and is promptly suspended because Rebecca stuffed his work locker full of remotes. And as has been pointed out, yes, this means that Alex opened the locker, found all the remotes then stuffed them back inside so he could make the dramatic reveal to Josh. What a nerd. He must be bored.

Rebecca has left Josh a note, leading to him going to the carnival where Rebecca is with his mother. When Josh can’t find Lourdes, he confronts Rebecca, unwittingly allowing Rebecca to back herself up to a dangerous pit while he tells her she’s crazy.

Did Rebecca want Josh to push her into the pit? Maybe not consciously but I think perhaps part of her felt she deserved it. Maybe she thought Jarl was right. Maybe she just wanted to see if Josh really hated her. Whatever the case, Josh doesn’t allow her to fall, saving her at the last moment.

Josh leaves, warning Rebecca that if she comes near him or his family again he’ll call the cops. Rebecca tries to smooth him over, admitting that she just wanted to get his attention and she wants to talk to him. But it’s too late for that.

Paula’s dream is painful. We, as the audience, want that moment to happen but it’s not honest. Instead, Paula calls Naomi, deciding that maybe Rebecca needs her actual mother.

Rebecca, meanwhile, stumbles into a bar that Greg frequented in season 1, even talking about him with the bartender. And then, as if fate, Rebecca gets butt-dialed by Greg. But Greg doesn’t know and he can’t hear her. And even if they did talk… what would he say? Nothing he could say could fix what she’s feeling.

And then there’s Greg’s dad, Marco. Rebecca rightly observes that Marco has never had a favourable view of her. But Marco instead tries to compliment her, perhaps recognising that she’s vulnerable. And Marco is the sort of guy who inappropriately hits on his female doctors, so I don’t really see this above him.

And so Rebecca goes home with Marco, sleeping with him. Does Marco fully understand the lowness of the place Rebecca is in? Probably not. But I also think he doesn’t care. He knows she’s pretty and vulnerable. That’s why he flirts with her in the first place.

I’ve seen some fans critique this from the perspective of Marco being such a good dad that he would never do that but… I think that erases a lot of Marco’s previously displayed shitty traits in favour of focusing on his good ones. He’s a good dad to a certain degree but… also kind of a gross asshole. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.

And honestly, I’ve simply known too many dudes who seemed like stand up moral dudes who it turned out had done appalling things and used women. It’s honestly never shocking to portray a man like this. And let’s be real, if last year didn’t show everyone that men culturally have issues with consent then I’m not sure what will.

Rebecca has hit rock bottom as her movie comes to an end, realizing that life doesn’t make narrative sense. When her mom calls her, demanding that she come home she doesn’t even fight it. What else can she do?

The Songs:

Scary Scary Sexy Lady: One of the few “not my favourites” this season. A version of this was apparently considered to be the season 3 main title sequence but given what happens in the next few episodes, they realised that it wouldn’t make sense for the full season.

The End of the Movie: One of the best songs the show has ever done, sung by Josh Groban. This song is why there still isn’t a full season 3 soundtrack. Hopefully they’ll get that worked out at some point. This is damn good song.

Episode Rating: 10.0 out of 10.0.

And this still isn’t even my favourite episode this season.

[prismed-tears]

bro this show fucked me up okay it fucked me up BAD

like no one got away with murder— the actual murderers got killed off: bonnie, frank, who killed multiple people in cold blood (though i loved them to pieces too, honestly. even though they fucked up big, they were still very likable and i was rooting for them until the end.) asher, who arguably didnt have control over his actions, (again, i was ROOTING for him. he might have turned at the last second, but most of the time he was the purest character in the cast. and honestly, due to the circumstances, ergo him still being mad at annalise for kicking him out of the clinic when the k5 friend group was the only thing he had left, and him being left alone with his family who guilt tripped him into it. and hell, what asher did was the sanest decision so far, he wasn't actively trying to incriminate people, unlike michaela who made up stories on the stand, he was just trying to make them come clean. and the beauty of htagwm is that they make you hate him for it.) and wes, who did it one time out of self-defense. and he probably never meant to kill sam, he was probably just aiming to knock him out. (thats why the first murder would always be my favorite, it escalated quickly but at the perfect pace, it was an unfortunate set of circumstances that aggravated the whole situation rather quickly— but nobody wanted any of that to happen. but once it did, it pushed them to do even more horrible things. it was accidental, yes, but the fear and the things that they did after, ergo, chopping up sam's body into the disposal, really sealed the deal. htagwm never quite recaptured the magic of laurel, wes, and connor coming together to form a study group, meeting michaela who just wanted to turn in the trophy at the keating house, and suddenly they were wrestling an inebriated and angry sam who would have killed rebecca himself if the k5(-1) didn't stop him. but sam ended up dead at wes' hands instead, which forced the k5 to cover up the murder scene. and michaela nearly pissing her pants at the bonfire, connor finally losing it at oliver's doorstep— it was honestly the best murder. it was the sudden switch from normal college kids to co-conspirators to a murder, and the pace was just perfect too. i can NOT stress the pace perfectly enough.)

murderers aside, you can't really say it was a happy ending for the rest of the cast too. no one was truly innocent, they all tried to get away with murder— and it bit right back in their asses. the ending of annalise's trial? it was cruel, how they pit the remains of the k5 vs annalise&the adults. the whole web of murders really started with them, it was various murders committed by different members of the main gang that they covered up together. lila? frank. sam? k5(- asher), annalise helped cover it up. rebecca? bonnie. annalise and frank covered it up. sinclair&hapstalls? asher for sinclair, hapstall suicide, annalise & gang (reluctant k5, they only stayed quiet so the sam murder wouldnt get out) helped cover it up, it finally included asher into the murder gang. d.a. miller? nate or bonnie (it wasnt really clarified), but the gang (the k5 was much more willing this time) + annalise helped cover it up. in a strange way, the trauma and guilt bonded the main cast together. they showed moments of wholesomeness and sometimes, youd think that they were a stable "support system", but the finale proved that it was anything but. manipulation and fear from/for each other kept them together. and the way they turned on each other on the end to save themselves proved that.

michaela lied on the stand, she fabricated a story about wes and annalise sleeping together (that made me genuinely irritated at her for a hot second, but then again they've perjured worse), annalise's inner dialogue about michaela being ungrateful then serving her shit right back. annalise was able to dig up dirt about michaela in her cross, dirt from the time they spent together. its the same reason why michaela was such a valuable witness against annalise— because of the time they spent with each other, a relationship that could have been considered intimate was torn apart on that courtroom.

connor lied too, but annalise got into his head easier and he felt remorse soon after. laurel tried to lie, only to fess up at the last second and actually defend annalise.

i kept waiting for the k5 and annalise to reconcile at the very end. there was a chance when michaela and connor admitted to testifying against annalise, because they were afraid of annalise getting a life sentence. i was waiting for the moment where annalise had a plan all along, she would get michaela and connor out of those deals— but the extent of her genius got her out of a death sentence. which was karma, in a way. she sold out connor and michaela to save herself the way they did to her.

the ending of htagwm was tragic. annalise walked free, sure. but the heart of htagwm was broken. gabriel, who tried to be righteous and all that, ended up taking frank's obviously dirty money. and it was still unclear if he really saw his father for who he really was (yes, dumbass, he did kill off lila for fucks sake) because like hell he was going to believe frank, and the testimonies on the annalise hearing was distorted too. frank died doing what he always did— committing hideous crimes in annalise's name (although he did it on his own accord, not because annalise told him to.) only that this time, karma was swift as it shot frank right back. and bonnie died doing what she always did— trying to be there for her so-called family. though the only comfort that can be gained was that the bonnie-frank-annalise trio stayed together even in death. though there is also a quiet tragedy in the way that bonnie never got to relay the message frank wanted to give (annalise: why did frank do this?? why?? / frank, moments earlier: i did it for annalise, alright? tell her that i did it for her.)

the friendship of the k5 was torn apart even before the show ended— wes died, asher turned on them, laurel hid away to save herself, connor went to jail, michaela tried to hold on to the remains: she tried to chase connor and oliver, but oliver pushed her away (he never really forgave her for the simon incident). she tried to call laurel, but laurel already switched numbers. the way that michaela burst into tears even after yelling at both connor and laurel only hours earlier— as her tough girl facade, her fear overtaking her— but no one really stayed around to support her in the end. in the end, she was really the one who relied on the k5 friendship despite acting otherwise.

and the trauma stayed with them, even long after. michaela didn't even bother to attend annalise's funeral— implying that she had fallen out with everyone, despite being the one who tried to reach out at the final courtroom scene. laurel had to look at the spitting image of her ex-boyfriend, who she publicly defaced time and time again, and who had his name permanently stained, who died in a fire orchestrated by her family— she had to see that every time she looked at her son. and connor and oliver, who was with christopher even before he was born, christopher spent his first christmas with them, they were both signed as guardians in case something happened to laurel, christopher didn't even recognize them because there was distance between laurel and coliver. and it was for the better too, since their relationship didn't have anything solid other than the murders— they all needed to stay apart to heal.

and christopher said that annalise was his mentor, after a beat by beat copy of the pilot episode. (please, don't let christopher be the new annalise, wes would actually have a stroke in the afterlife. laurel as the new ophelia is interesting imagery though.) it also meant that only laurel kept in touch with annalise after her trial— laurel, the only one who went against her immunity deal and testified for annalise. in the end, the final court scene put a wedge in annalise's relationship with everyone else in the k5.

the ending only showed the cracks that was there from the beginning— none of them had a solid relationship that wasn't built out of desperation and guilt. and for the ones who did, they were the only ones who stayed together (connor and oliver were initially brought together by connor looking for stability post-sam, and oliver looking for stability post-wes, but it's implied that the love that they had in htagwm had grown into something more different and real, real enough to stay even in their old age, long after the trauma has passed), (tegan and annalise were implied endgame, and without all the murder web and conspiracy, annalise could have learned to open herself up just like how she did with robert? ronald? so irrelevant i cant remember. though it was implied that tegan had passed away first.), (annalise was christopher's mentor, meaning that laurel allowed her back in their lives. and the beach and salsa scenes with tegan/annalise, as well as christophers thick spanish accent, implied that they live in mexico. and christopher didn't really have a motive to teach in middleton, except, in the honor of his mentor and mother, perhaps.)

note: i firmly believe that healthy relationships can come out of the htagwm cast despite unhealthy beginnings. even if connor only initially fucked oliver to get intel, oliver did teach connor how to love, much like he said (im sorry but the "you taught me how to love" by connor fucking broke me ok). connor was a fuckboy until he slowly fell in love with oliver, but refused to admit it to himself. even before the sam incident, he was already going back to oliver even after oliver broke up with him. oliver eventually did gain a footing in their relationship, even if it was all in connor's hold at first. and even though trauma did influence their relationship, they did genuinely love each other. especially at the wedding. it might have been born out of desperation, but their sentiments were real. however, they did need some time away from the trauma to properly build a healthy relationship— which was why connor asked for a divorce at the end. though it was left unclear if oliver signed it or not, what was clear is that their love survived the 5 years of connor in prison, as well as the decades that came after.

i was going to say how annalise might have reached out to laurel bc christopher was the only remains of wes that she had left— but the way that she burned down wes' confession, his words in a way, to save herself, could prove that she finally moved on from wes' death.

anyway. my point still stands about building healthy relationships from unhealthy beginnings. annalise could have been so desperate to save christopher because it reminded her of her baby or wes, either/or, which could be traced back to her guilt/attachment issues to them— but she did build a genuine relationship with christopher, long before the s6 finale. she was the only one who could make him laugh, after all. and she chose to continue that relationship until he grew up, until he chose to be a lawyer like her, until he came to middleton in her honor, and even titled his class exactly like hers. i'd say that's a pretty solid relationship.

okay. im done. i think i got it out of my system. the finale just fucked me up so bad. i binged the entire show for a month or two and its hitting me bad.

though what saddens me is that connor is the one who truly helped annalise with her class action case, which gave her a boost to her purpose and name, only for them to never truly reconnect. i guess connor did take that help back when he smeared her name on the stand.

i say this every time a show ends. just because you don’t like a show’s ending doesn’t mean the writing is bad. pete nowalk literally said that his whole goal of the finale was to suggest that you can’t get away with murder. and at the end of the day, no one did. and the full circle ending was so good. i thought it was really well done but what do i know. lol

[bartsugsy]

It’s kinda sad though Aaron has to suck it up and not move on at all and accept a baby his husband conceived while he was probably off his head in prison it’s kinda cruel, Aaron would never ever in a million years to this to Rob makes me wonder how people think they’re love is ever equal at all

i mean, he probably couldn’t do this to rob bc any cheating he would do would likely not result in an unxpected pregnancy so

it’s not really fair to argue that, is it?

also, like… this is absolutely a product of robert’s bad decision

but it didn’t happen in a vaccuum - this wasn’t rob sitting around like OH BOY IM BORED AND MY EX IS LOOKING FOINEEEE LETS GO GET SOME OF THAT NO I WOULD NEVER USE PROTECTION HEY BEX LETS BANG

that’s not… what happened… like jfc you’re genuinely skimming over the entirety of what happened in canon

aaron put a guy in hospital, which landed him in prison, which led to him being abused in prison, which led to him doing spice - that’s aaron’s side of things

rob’s side, on the build up, was… he couldn’t sleep in a bed without aaron and was generally a complete wreck, one day the prison didn’t let him see aaron and then liv told him that aaron was doing drugs, he finally went to see aaron who was acting like a shell of himself, was so heartbroken that he got drunk, got really fucking angry at aaron, called rebecca over to rant at her because she was his only friend and someone he’d been able to talk to about how he felt about missing aaron, decided to hurt aaron and came onto rebecca, knew exactly what to say to get her to say yes, she said yes, they banged

like…. the situation was deliberatly not as straightforward as ‘oh hey, it’s rob being a cheat again, knew he couldn’t stay faithful!’ 

it was 100% robert doing the wrong thing, but jfc so was aaron beating up kasim

look how fucking much robert and liv suffered while aaron was in jail - but that never gets held over aaron’s head - and yes, aaron was absolutely suffering while he was in prison and his suffering was moreso than rob’s suffering has been since the break up but that doesn’t change the fact that aaron is still responsible for being put in prison and aaron is still therefore the cause behind rob and liv’s suffering during that tiime.

and i’m not necessarily saying that this should be held over aaron’s head - but i don’t think it should be given less weight than the baby. rob fucked up and slept with rebecca, she got pregnant and decided to keep it, thereby destroying rob and aaron’s relationship. the root of the problem is rob’s horrible decision making, and rob’s tendency to lash out at people in insane ways, but the baby wasn’t a fuckin concious dig at aaron and liv. it has obviously caused them an incredible amount of pain and heartbreak, but the baby itself was more of a perfect storm of awful consequences - much like prison and the horrors was for aaron in a village where people genuinely get away with murder.

so no, it’s not fair to aaron. and yes, it’s a much more long-lasting consequence than prison ended up being - although aaron was supposed to be there for a year, so robert and liv would have had to survive for a year without him - imagine that after how much they struggled after a god damn week. just as they were innocent victims to aaron’s prison sentence, aaron and liv are innocent victim’s to rob’s new baby. 

it’s not fair to aaron, but also it will clearly be something he manages to get over. it’s not about rob winning and aaron losing. robert literally said today that he’s never been more miserable. aaron has been on this amazing journey of growth and come to a place with his mh where he’s much more able to handle this shit and it’s sad and i’m sad for him but… 

this baby isn’t a sign that robert and aaron don’t love one another.

aaron beating up kasim happened because rob called off the wedding, because he’d spent so long thinking he was going to lose rob (and this was again because of rob - i’m not saying he’s an innocent bean or that he doesn’t desperately need to be redeemed, because he makes horrible fuckin decisions at all time)

rob cheating on aaron happened because he was angry at aaron for going to prison and for doing spice and had spent a whole day terrified that aaron had fuckin died - he slept with rebecca because he loves aaron. and because where aaron lashes out with violence, robert lashes out by doing this sort of stupid impulsive thing.

no, that doesn’t make it better and no that doesn’t mean he wasn’t 100% spot on when he spoke about how he destroys people’s lives because he does, he fuckin does - he said ‘i do what i want and it’s always the wrong thing’ (that’s not the exact quote but yk) and he’s so god damn right. it is always the wrong thing. 

but the situation they’re in, much as it is a product of rob’s horrible horrible decisions, is not a product of robert intentionally wanting to destroy aaron’s life. yes, in that moment and fuelled by whiskey he wanted to make aaron as hurt as he felt, but that’s a perfectly human feeling to have. following that fucking impulse was the stupid part. that was where the damage was caused.

they both fucked up this year, anon. rob moreso, to be fair. i’ve said all of this before, but there’s a reason why he’s the one who needs the redemption storyline and why aaron needed the storyline about finding ways to start to heal and better coping mechanisms. but they still both fucked up. aaron having a shitty time with his mh doesn’t excuse him from putting a guy in a hospital or throwing a wrench at robert’s head. and they really really did need their break up. they really did. and rob needs a period of growth, just as aaron needed that time alone, to grow, without robert.

but people always say that aaron will force himself to love the baby and he’ll just have to ~suck it up~ and i just… why is it so out of the question that they could write it in a way where he genuinely realises that the baby isn’t as painful to be around as he thought? that he can be in rob’s life with the baby around and that it doesn’t actually hurt, that he doesn’t mind it, that maybe the baby is growing on him, that he still misses robert, that…. actually, that time apart was more valuable than he realised… especially when we have robert finally facing up to the part he’s played in destorying all these people’s lives, including aaron’s

their biggest issue blocking their happiness isn’t the baby anon

it’s rob’s potential to cause chaos and hurt aaron again, just by making the same horrible decisions and never considering the consequences, by taking ridiculous risks with other people’s lives and well-being and happiness because he has no semblance of self-control

that’s the shit that’s stopping them from being a couple that stays together and is happy, really, not the fuckin baby

that’s what needs to be dealt with. the baby is ultimately secondary to that, in terms of letting them work and getting them to a place where they can get married in the summer

i mean, fine, we don’t know how it’s going to work, we don’t know if aaron is going to warm to the baby or if it will all be an act or whatever, but it’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll be there at the end of the year, feeling forced to suck up the existence of this child. just the poor little pineapple, constantly shit on by the narrative and by everyone around him. THAT’S NOT THE FOREGONE CONCLUSION FOR AARON’S FUTURE AND I HIGHLY FUCKIN DOUBT DANNY WOULD BE WALKING AROUND SINGING THE PRAISES OF WHAT’S COMING UP IF IT WAS 

BECAUSE WE FUCKIN SAW HIM WHEN HE WAS UPSET WITH THE SHOW ON AARON’S BEHALF AND IT DIDN’T LOOK LIKE HE’S BEEN LOOKING RECENTLY

just… god. canon exists for a reason. robron have so many god damn problems to fix and i’m sure they’ll only fix a small portion of them, but we know that part of the christmas episode is dealing with that and that’s what kicks off the route to the actual reunion so it’s hardly the most out there thing to suggest that they’re gonna deal with some shit that’s not entirely related to the baby

i’m sorry you struggle to see how their love is equal, or how aaron is anything other than a victim of robert but… just because that’s how you view it does not mean that that’s the only way to view it or even that it’s the story the show is telling. i’m js.  

[kendrixtermina]

Crying Jewelry Friends! - Reviewing the latest Steven Bomb.

First, sorry for the delay; I didn’t review them as soon as they leaked because I wanted to watch the bomb with my sisters. This probably improves the quality of the observations as they are perceptive in some areas that I’m not and vice versa. By and large, we loved it and thought it was very clever. 

- So yeah, all those people who theorized that Pink Diamond was like the quirky little sister got it right. *tips hat*

- I love how Connie immediately figures out the ‘Palaquin’ part. No reason the characters have to be dumber than the audience. Thanks for taking us seriously!

- This also clarified some things about Rose’s and Greg’s relationship; on the one hand she slipped him that ‘home planet’ white lie and she seems to have had a big bag o’ secrets but on the other hands there were moments like when she trusted greg with the laser light cannon which suggested she was a lot more open with him than the CGs ever suspected. 

Now we know the dynamic behind it: She actually did have an above-average full trust going there, but he told her that it didn’t matter to him. At the time it really didn’t, homeworld wasn’t an issue; It’s different for Steven tho.

So that was Greg trying to make her feel accepted & help her over her feelings of guilt! I like how it was actually Greg’s decision & flows naturally from his prsonality. 

- The enslaved humans sequence gave me serious TOS vibes - they all need Jesus  Captain Kirk. 

- Steven has really hit puberty here/ done some teenage rebellion/reorientation in seeking out the information for himself; The whole confrontation wth the gems and the moment in the ship really drive down the self-doubt that was explored over the course of this season. He takes an action for his own inner peace but then immediately feels bad like it’s a selfish thing; It’s good that he’s got this out of this system, and that they made it an actual plot point how he basically has to squeeze the information out of them

- The “How to Warp Drive” Sequence had some really nice animations, and it’s amusing how they didn’t listen to Peridot and had almost everything happening that she warned them of XD It’s cute how they trusted her to hold down the fort. 

- i wonder if we’ll see those very tiny gems from the calibration menu

- I am also glad that they remembered the Rubies, and that they seem to have found each other so at least poor Leggy isn’t all alone. Looking forward for when they pick them up. 

- So agates are enforcers/overseers, though the one we meet (Hollyblue Agathe) is kind of like your archetypical misplaced kindergarten teacher, sort of with vague umbridge/thatcher vibes, though she’s more like a mix of stern nanny and haughty aristocrat. I don’t think she’s pure evil (though she’d definitely be the type to retain some token prejudice after reforms happen), but it was very very satisfying to see Pearl sass her in the end. 

- and we finally know what Lapis Lazulis do! I guess I was right with ‘terraformers’, and that they’re high-ranking (like Saphires and Agates); It makes sense how she has such huge power but no combat experience, and what her probable mission was. I wonder if this will be expanded upon but in any case it might quiet down some of the haters still asscribing sinister motives to her

- We might have to reconsider the place of Quartzes in the hierarchy; I don’t think they’re fully seen as thrash given how the Rubies and Peridot talk of them, but even Peridot used to look down at Pearls so you kinda how everyone looks down at those beneath them.

- But it certainly shows the pressures Jasper had to overcome and why she felt such a strong need to distance herself from earth and the other beta products - I didn’t expect so many of them to be still alive tho. 

- All the Rose Quartzes being sorted out was also something people called. So homeworld ~does~ use bubbles, though one wonders who made them, did PD do this before she was killed?  I loved that bit where steven noticed that they’re just like his own gem it took my sisters a bit to catch onto this? It’s kind of cruel how they’re all sealed like, many of them were probably loyal to homeworld and basically thrown in jail, or even the death row, for something ‘our’ Rose did. 

- Indeed, YD markedly dismisses Agate with the exact same line that she dismisses Pearl and the Quartzes with, calling to wind how Peridot clapped to “make Pearl go away”. No matter how high or low you are in this, you look down at the ones below and are terrified of the ones above. 

- Another wish of mine that finally come true is an episode that explored Garnet’s feelings, though “Three Gems and a Baby” already hinted at that, these eps had her more exposed; I loved how there was a sense of continuity wether they were fused or not, but it also showcased the developement of them as individuals and how they are stronger together. Sapphire in particular really shines as a character in here. 

We already knew that both are still affected for how they were treated, Ruby being treated as disposable, their way of life and eve their love seen as abomination, both expected to conform to narrow roles  - for Garnet individually there’s also the added layer than they don’t even want to let her exist except perhaps as a war machine. Ruby is audibly salty but perhaps more tellingly, both (and by extension, Garnet) are still bloody terrified of Blue. Even as Garnet, she was reluctant to confront her. Garnet still sometimes falls into the ‘predetermination paradox trap’ and not being a socially smooth leader. 

- Ironically, she has something in common with the Diamonds there and how they’re not always up to the pressure of being the boss. I wouldn’t be surprised if Pink were a dark mirror of Rose’s leading style - She seems to share her idiosyncratic quirkyness in a sense, or what passes as such for a Diamond. 

- We also got a further backstory hint for Pearl - She used to serve under PD and got disgusted with how they treated the humans perhaps seeing a parallel to her own situation. We know she spent substantial time serving on the other side. But though Pearl was always the least human friendly and most anchored in homeworld culture, in contrast with the homeworld folks themselves we see how she’s actually rather far from them and couldn’t really play her old role if she wanted to, which she doesn’t. 

While she encounters doubts and engrained insecurities on her own path, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t advanced at all - nice, uplifting and very true message, and relatable, like,prsonally,  even though I cut contact with my abusive father I still don’t have my shit 100% together and often that makes me feel like he was right all along, but when I look back it’s clear that it’s much better to not be constantly angry, have zero control, not be yelled at and mocked all the time and I wouldn’t stand for being near him even if someone made me. I still struggle but its not nothing. 

- In general a lot of the CG’s character developements is showcased by having them attempt to pass for homeworld gems - They can play out/ ‘master’ these roles without being trapped in them and therefore they no longer have power over them. 

- Amethyst already had that moment when she had to impersonate Jasper but this event offered something else for her character curve that still makes it an important moment. She has always been comparing herself to ‘proper’ Quartzes, but so far, those have been an abstract threatening presence pieced together from Peridot’s comments and the attitude of Jasper, who is just as different from the average as Amethyst herself. 

Granted, the Amethysts are probably what one would think of as ‘rejects’ given that they’re said to have mostly sentimental value, but, they’re what some of homeworld’s forces look like. 

But now that she’s actually met other Amethysts, they’re no longer some scary shadowy quality - they’re rowdy & silly just like herself, and they even liked her and accepted her as one of her own. So she gets to sort of connect with the roots the othes sielded her from but in a positive way where they’re not some elusive ‘badaness’

 - To the others discarding their cut numbers was probably empowering but for Amethyst learning what hers might have been probably gave her a sense of closure and belonging. I suppose it underlines the important point that different people can experience the same things diferently and attach different meanings to them

- Which confirms that the first part of the number/ cut numbers are used as a quasi informal adress where distinguishment is necessary but the full number would be too formal. Which I vaguely suspected because Peridot uses “Peridot5xG” as an username. 

- Headcannon: We just met the sideways carnelian and “Skinny over there”. I mean, we’ve all been waiting forever to see a ‘properly cooked Amethyst’ and the other Beta gems. Like, thank rebecca! I count this as fanservice. 

- Also we got to see what a typical gem barracks look like/ what they have for personal accomodations. As I suspected not that much personal space or induvidual decorations  (Then again, they don’t really need beds or tables; though they do seem to get exhausted.) Interesting that it lowkey looks like exit holes. Maybe they find that comorting? It’s mitigated in that they seem to have a sense of community geoing on. 

I imagine Jasper owned a fancier place by herself, while Peridot used to live in place much like that but Peridot-sized and with space to keep tools. 

- We knew singing YD was comming but everyone expected a classical villain song. In general it was a VERY clever musical sequence that I will make a separate post on. It is a very well-crafted, very intelligent musical sequence, as it should be given that the intro turned up to be leading up to this and how it co-opts the Diamond theme itself. 

The clever thing about it is that it gives people all the things they could want from a villain song while still subverting the expectations: We hear the actress’ voice exposed, it provides a look into the antagonist’s motivations, it gives us a dark swingy tune with some juicy contralto action, setting up both the physical and idiological conflict -  

But it’s not “muahaha evil monologue”, but Yellow Diamond in a private conversation, in the role an older sister. They basically did a villain song without actually doing a villain song. 

- The punny title, as the introduction to our central antagonists, can also said to underline one of the central anti-theses of the show. “What’s the point of feeling” in general. This show has always fundamentally been about emotional expression, and the way it treats emotion is one of the things that fundamentally set it apart from other shows - at least American ones. So the logical antagonist for a hero like Steven to confront would be people like that who hide away their ostensible grief behind cold, hardened facades (but nonetheless still suffer it and never really work through it.)

BD may have had these moments in private but she’s just as icy as Yellow with her subordinates; They all personally fired the corruption ray. 

But most important: They - especially Yellow - feel like they have to be this way to be strong leaders. 

Much more poignant than just unfeeling pragmatists with nothing else, because few people are actually like that. 

- Even though they have more power & privilege than anyone, even the Diamonds sometimes feel limited or pressured by their intended role as leaders

- Neither of the two is over it, or cares more than the other, they just have different coping mechanisms. The way BD ends up putting her hand on Yellow’s back in the end makes that patently clear. 

- They’re God-Emperor Dictators, but among themselves they act like an aristocratic family. It’s clear in word choice (’we still love her’) and how they behave toward each other, the physical comfort etc. I must admit at the beginning/ before the PD reveal, I never expected their relations with each other to be anything other than ‘deadly decadent court’/rivalry and that THEY killed PD for dissenting. Then again, intelligent trope use and subverted is something this show always did very well

- Makes one wonder what White Diamond’s role in this is - Is she the big sister, or more like the Queen Mother? We know she’s probably the eldest, rules homeworld (the sphere in her hands) and a forehead gem; Her role might be intertwined with how the first gems came to be and how/why the system was created, what problem it was intended to solve, something that needs to understand in order to repell it. One also wonders what other, dispararate reaction she had to PD’s death - perhaps, saying she deserved it for being weak in order not to face that she really blames herself or something?

- It makes me think of that WWI documentary I recently watched (take a shot for each ) It’s often jokingly referred to as the most expensive family feud ever but it was more of a constant clusterfuck; Before things broke out there had been letters of the Tzar and the German emperor writing each other a letter where they referred to each other as “Willie” and “Nickie”, hoping to avert the war. Everyone cheers when the king is beheaded because he represents more than one man, they are the system personified, the ones who could change it and didn’t; The person in charge exists to take responsibility. - that’s what the Sword of Damocles is. But even kings are people and thugh they might have done more to stop things they’re still humans who might not have deserved what happened to them.. This is even more true with aristocrats who were ~born~ into their roles instead of chosing them. 

- For perspective: Mari, a big theater nerd and actual amateur performer who’s been in musicals herself & is friends with ppl who do ths on a regular basis, couldn’t stop gushing about its professional brilliance. Apparently YD’s VA is a really big deal whom even Lin Manuel Miranda feels honored to work with. 

- I for my part have a new earworm just when I was getting ‘it’s over isn’t it’ out of my system  

- I was also correct on the creepy ending sounds being the Diamond Theme, all of it leading up to this. 

- There was also more on another of my favorite Threads, the role of culture and music in Gem society and how they used to have all the spires and pictograms. It seems that the aristocrats still have music, or maybe it was all for the aristocrats to begin with, and low-ranking folks like Peridot just never had contact with it. Clearly, you don’t have to be an elite to be artistic and musical. 

- This also underlines the contrast between Peridot and Pearl tho, Peridot being a technician with an artsy side whereas Pearl was a pretty musical servant who turned out to be rather good at tech. Both music & technology seem to be taken for granted as YD readily makes use of it but doesn’t really value the people who make it for her. (”I don’t want to hear about potential and ressources.”)

- Another great obversation Mari made is how much the Pearls’ personalities come through even though they make exactly the same movements and dances. I loved that bit where Yellow Pearl impersonates an Agate. In general, the Pearls were just adorable little show stealers. 

- Here’s some interesting observations from Sabbel (the other sister):

a) The way Agate speaks about YD suggests that she is quite popular in 

To me personally the scene where Agate gushes about her underlined the contrast between Yellow Diamond and her propaganda, but in a different way than before - 

We had this thing where Peridot expected her to be super rational, then she’s capricious an shatters all expectations just by existing. 

With the PD reveal, we could already theorize that there was a generational divide there, with Earth being a sore topic that Peridot is as unaware of as Amethyst (it’s no coincidence that the two younger gems become fast friends)

 Now we have a more complete picture/puzzle that both these pieces fit into - Like, last time she appeared it was “She is not a god”, but this time we’ve seen Yellow Diamond the person.

But what you also see is why someone like Jasper would rally around YD and her ‘commanding presence’, she too wanting to keep up the strenght while supressing her grief. It paints a picture of what Jasper, who respects strenght and strenght only, might have thought of her. And of course YD herself would take over  PD’s ‘useful’ underlings rather than the ones with mostly sentimental value. 

b) Sabbel also finds it’s worth noting that, as their personal attendants, the Pearls get to actually witness the Diamonds in such moments/ their everyday lives. They still react sorta afraid like they expect tantrums

c) She loved how the Amethysts have varying hair lenghts. I do too. Heck, can we just adopt all of the Quartzes? 

- Though I know that people are going to leather pants them anyway, In my eyes one of the greatest strenghts of the episodes is that it manages to humanize the Diamons without allowing you to forget that they’re villains. 

This is enforced in how the episodes are full of dismissive treatment down the homeworld hierarchy, and how everyone involved consistently refers to humans as “it”, or how those poor Rose Quartzes are casually used a props. 

She determies that Greg “doesn’t deserve to die”, but doesn’t even consider any of the other humans. 

Somewhere between “every racist has exceptions/ token “friend”” and seeing them as animals - You don’t eat your pet & sort of treat them as family but at the same time you don’t mind eating animals you don’t know. (unless you’re vegan or something)

This is a very selective ‘mercy’ that Ruby is quite right to enraged about; Objectively, Blue Diamond is very hypocritical, cold and disgusting dispite her pretty aristocratic looks and demeanor. But she’s not a 2-dimensional monster and obviosly acts different around her sister than she does around her subjects - and the same goes for Yellow Diamond of course. 

- The Zoo itself underlines this perspectives, with how the CGs see it as a cruelty, the other diamonds see it as a silly eccentric, even endearing quirk of PD’s. There’s a sense that she sorta liked Earth life as a curiosity, but not enough to spare them or see them as people.  So perhaps she and Rose started out on the same page here untiil Rose spent more time with Earth natives. Even she sorta saw them more as a protectorate than she really understood them until greg came.

- Of course, all of this sets up further developements. They are comming for Earth and are going to notice the cluster’s not emerging any time soon, and it will be a tragedy, because they didn’t even come for revenge. It might go the way things went with Eyeball and Jasper. 

In any case it’s obvious that at this point this won’t end with just fighting the Diamonds off, but rather, with homeworld being reformed (which pleases me immensely), clearly, the diamonds can be reasoned with - 

Greg already began to sort of build a bridge by showing blue Diamond that they both have feelings and can be able to share that. 

But we now have the interesting situation that the ostensible weakest link happens to be the exact same person  that Garnet, our leader, has a personal beef with. That makes for interesting dynamics. 

I always praised how she was actually allowed to get angry and be short tempered with Peridot even when she genunely couldn’t have known, instead of having to be a perfect example of virtue all the time, particularly of how victims of real life oppresion or abuse (and what is opression but sanctioned nation wide abuse?) often get told that they have to be perfect before they have a right to complain. We’ve seen her backstory & know that she has every right to be pissed.

But here, it could make things complex. 

That said, the lesson here is not to revile Rose, but see this from a perspective of generations and progress - Because whatever Rose did, it did buy the Earth time and allowed for Greg,  Steven and Amethyst to exist.  

Because Rose and others of her Generation (Pearl, Garnet, Bismuth etc.) were immediately victimzed by the Diamond’s regime, you can hardly ask them to be emphatic towards their opressors - (to an extent, the same can be said for Jasper and Lapis as a clear-cut victims of the rebellion)

I still don’t doubt that Pink Diamond totally had it comming; The Zoo and Pearl’s reactions as she mentions it imply that she was cruel. 

But was killing her the most conductive thing to do for peace? ...Debatable. In many ways the war did harm. But Rose did the best she knew to do. 

For the younger generation, however, things are different - Peridot, Amethyst, and especially the half-human Steven, they can see the whole war with more distance and objectivity. Steven was partially raised in a completely different world and has empathy for both sides, which might lead him to lead a solution that Rose with her baggage couldn’t have enacted.  That’s the whole point of Rose envying human adaptability & having Steven in hopes that he could bridge the gap between gems and organics, as well as heal the wounds of the war. 

Another factor is that technology has advanced and Peridot has made a plan for peaceful ressource sharing that didn’t exist back then - Maybe the combined voices of Steven, Greg and Blue Diamond could finally make YD listen to it. She’s not completely irrational. 

It’s not for nothing that the ones to witness the Diamonds’ vulnerable side are not their former subjects Garnet and Peridot, but the near-complete outsiders Greg and Steven for whom this comes with far less baggage.

- In the end Steven started all this trek because he felt he needed answers - He asked about what happened and what Rose did and why, but ultimately it all comes down to what he should do after the diamonds after learning that the other side is people too, that even they are beloved; In that sense he ‘got what he needed’. 

He’s heard Bismuth and Rose’s followers, he seen how the system hurt his beloved family, but he’s also seen how the rebellion hurt gems like Lapis, Eyeball and Jasper. 

In that sense this ties into the teenage rebellion theme from the beginning, in that he went to look at the evidence with his own eyes & form his own opinion, his own answer. 

[shirlleycoyle]

What Bernie Supporters Think of the Term ‘Bernie Bro’

Over the last few weeks, it's become clear that Bernie Sanders could actually become president. The Vermont senator is polling very close to Joe Biden in Iowa, has a large lead over everyone in the latest California poll, and seems likely to do very well in New Hampshire. The prospect of Sanders winning the nomination has the finance world freaking out—there are already reports of stocks falling as he climbs the polls—and has inspired a backlash from his many detractors. Centrist pundits have declared him to be unelectable, and his former competitor Hillary Clinton has denounced not just Sanders but the entire "culture around him," which she recently described to the Hollywood Reporter:

It's his leadership team. It's his prominent supporters. It's his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women. And I really hope people are paying attention to that because it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture — not only permitted, [he] seems to really be very much supporting it.

The "Bernie Bro" stereotype isn't new, of course, but the notion that Sanders supporters are different from other Democratic voters, and even dangerous in some way, seems poised to dominate the never-ending debate over the 2020 primary. It scored a major piece of ink on Monday, when the New York Times ran a front-page story headlined, "Bernie Sanders and His Internet Army." It describes a passionate fan base who donates their money and time to their candidate, but also sometimes attacks opponents with insults and even threats.

"When Mr. Sanders’s supporters swarm someone online, they often find multiple access points to that person’s life, compiling what can amount to investigative dossiers," the Times wrote. "They will attack all public social media accounts, posting personal insults that might flow in by the hundreds."

If you’ve ever posted anything slightly critical of Sanders, this sort of dogpiling may sound familiar. (Full disclosure: I'm a Sanders supporter who yes, spends a fair amount of time online.) Interviews with dozens of Sanders backers find them admitting that the "internet army" can at times be vicious—a reality that many leftists themselves bemoan. But they also see the Bernie Bro narrative as an invention of the media and the Democratic establishment.

Standard-issue online sparring is often conflated with threats, and Sanders supporters feel frustrated they are so often associated with the worst behavior of their fellow travelers. "Most Bernie supporters online tend to be young, somewhat irony-poisoned, and angry. I'm including myself in this group," Joe Conley, a 33-year-old Sanders supporter, told me over email. He pointed out that there’s an "irony gap" between Bernie supporters and people on the receiving end of their ire. While tweeting a photograph of a pig with shit on its balls might be a standard-issue troll for a member of left Twitter, it’s perceived as online harassment from people who aren’t acquainted with this language of certain subcultures. At the end of the day, every political tribe has its toxic streak, so why do "Bernie Bros" get singled out?

Even as a self-identified Bernie Bro, I’ve gotten a fair amount of grief from leftist dudes on the internet. But I’ve received an equal heaping of hate from women who supported Clinton, anti-semitic Trump trolls, and beyond. Though fewer in number than Sanders supporters, Andrew Yang backers can be just as fiery online—notably, there are a significant number of irony-drenched #YangGang members from 4chan and other Trump-adjacent corners of the internet. Tulsi Gabbard, another Democrat with fringe appeal, has an intense fan base that contains members of the far right. In general, the culture around political celebrities has become more like regular celebrity stan culture, meaning fans feel intense emotions and share them online, and campaigns have little control over those feelings. (Sanders’s popularity is forever intertwined with his online army, but his campaign does not promote cyberbullying or misogyny—as the Times story noted, the Sanders campaign has publicly condemned bullying. That hasn't stopped it.)

One Bernie supporter sent me a dossier of all the abuse Bernie supporters receive from "loyalist Democrats" and "Donut Twitter." (Anti-Bernie liberals sometimes use a donut emoji in their Twitter names. It's a long story.) This collection of screenshots is really ugly, with people tweeting things like "I’m rooting for Bernie supporters' death," and "anyone that fucking supports Bernie Ratfucker Sanders is a piece of shit." There is also a glut of disgusting, unquotable, racist and misogynistic insults that have been hurled at Nina Turner, a Black woman who has worked with Sanders for years and co-chairs his 2020 campaign. (VICE was unable to confirm the authenticity of all of the screenshots and is not linking to the file, but did verify that many of the abusive tweets were real.) The fact is, the internet is a cruel place for everyone, regardless of who you’re voting for in 2020.

"I really think we are no more mean or aggressive than any other group of people," said Peter Graham, a 28-year-old who works for Disney and is voting for Bernie. "[It’s that] Bernie has younger supporters that are very online, [they] are probably better versed in sardonic Twitter dialogue, and there's more of them."

The stereotype of a nasty online leftist bro—unmistakably masculine, usually sneering—predates that election season. In 2008, the feminist writer Rebecca Traister (then a Clinton supporter) published an op-ed on Salon, bemoaning the rise of the "Obama boys." Young women who backed Clinton, she wrote, told her "about the sexism they felt coming from their brothers and husbands and friends and boyfriends [and] described the suspicion that their politically progressive partners were actually uncomfortable with powerful women."

Leftists have accused the mainstream media of using this stereotype as a club to beat Sanders with. "The ‘Bernie Bro' narrative by pro-Clinton journalists has been a potent political tactic," Glenn Greenwald wrote on The Intercept in 2016, calling it "a journalistic disgrace." And the idea that the democratic socialist's base is largely male is arguably just straight-up false: Polls have shown that Sanders supporters are diverse across racial and gender lines, with young women making up a larger proportion of his support than young men.

Yet the narrative has remained pervasive, likely because there are plenty of genuinely nasty Bernie supporters lurking online, and more recently, because Sanders has achieved frontrunner status. Since his rise in the polls, Bernie has received a deluge of negative press from mainstream publications. "This isn’t about Sanders supporters being uniquely toxic. It’s about Sanders leading in Iowa and New Hampshire and leading a genuinely diverse working class movement," one Bernie supporter tweeted in response to the New York Times article. "Elite liberals fear and despise the working class. That’s the reality."

"This is ruling class propaganda," another remarked. "And rather than keeping Bernie above the fray, the campaign's scolding of supporters was used to validate their false narrative of abusive Berners, as I feared it would be. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. So don't."

Peter Daou, a former Hillary aide turned Bernie diehard, expressed dismay about the Bernie Bro stereotype over the phone. He said that he and his wife, Leela, now "receive the same type of personal attacks" as he did in 2016, when he was loudly supporting Clinton online. "People are using the term ‘Bernie Bro’ in a targeted way,” he said. "It’s a toxic narrative, leftover from 2016. The idea of these raging white males online that all support Bernie is the establishment’s way of trying to torpedo Bernie’s campaign."

Jovan Prunty, a 31-year-old who works in construction, also takes offense at the Bernie Bro narrative. "As a Black man I think this term erases me and all his other women and POC supporters," he said.

Sanders supporters generally agree that there are toxic leftist men whose behavior is out of bounds. But they insist that those people are a minority. Jaya Sundaresh, a writer for the socialist publication Current Affairs, voiced that sentiment on her Twitter in a post that garnered 15,000 likes: "I'm just going to say it: the Bernie Bro stereotype might be bullshit, but there's a variety of irony-poisoned shithead leftist dudes who have caused nothing but pain for myself and my female comrades." Over the phone Sundaresh was careful to emphasize that even though shitty men do exist on the left, the phenomenon is not specific to one edge of the ideological spectrum. "I’ve been swarmed by Pete Buttigieg supporters," she said. "I’ve also had good conversations with them."

Small, persistent jabs from Bernie supporters are unsurprisingly hurtful to people who support other candidates. Zandy Hartig, a Los Angeles-based actress, who backs Elizabeth Warren, tweeted on Wednesday, "It sucks that I feel I can’t tweet about my favorite candidate. my friends are respectful when they argue with me, but random people will jump all over me. It’s not their candidate’s fault, but it scares me nonetheless. And maybe that’s the point." Unkindness ensued, with Bernie supporters informing her that Warren does, in fact, suck, and imploring her to "calm down."

"I don’t think it’s Bernie fault," Hartig emphasized to me over the phone. "But I don't want to comment [anything pro-Warren] because when I have, people come down really hard on me and I almost feel like going private." (Her Twitter is currently private).

"During the 2016 election, I really didn’t think there was such a thing as a 'Bernie Bro,'" Hartig continued. "But this time, we’ve got a woman running who is much more progressive [than Hillary]… I’m starting to think it has a lot to do with misogyny."

The nastiness of online political culture has resulted in a gap between those like Hartig, who feel attacked by swarms of online Bernie heads, and Sanders supporters who complain that they are being unfairly stereotyped. Misogyny exists in every corner of the internet, they say. So why are we mostly talking about Bernie Sanders? "You’re gonna tarnish an entire movement as 'bros'?" Daou said. "[It] erases all the women, the women of color. There’s an ageist, a sexist, and a racist component when you generalize a diverse movement under the term 'Bro.'"

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