#otherwise if would be the two characters from season 7

[eriochromatic]

I love your Silco takes so I was wondering if you could share yours on Vander and the drowning incident because no matter what angle I look at, it doesn't make sense.

As far as I can tell from what we're shown, the riot was well under way before Silco threw that molotov, and it's confirmed that enforcers killed Felicia. Thing is, it's implicit that Felicia chose to participate in the riot because a.) Why else would she be there, and b.) She was down with Zaun being independent for HER KIDS. Also, anyone who participates in a riot, or even a peaceful protest, knows they're putting their life on the line. So while I understand reacting to loss with intense grief, it's not exactly a surprise? It's something you have to mentally prepare for when you take a stand against an oppressor?

But then, if you go the ideology route with Silco taking it too far and the riot was Silco's idea, that stunt on the bridge was most likely pre-planned, organized resistance. This means a sizable number in their community, including Felicia and Connol, supported it. Even if Vander had doubts, he went along with it. Otherwise, why does the show open with him beating an enforcer on the bridge? Vander had other options: he could have split the resistance group down the middle by sitting it out and/or trying to stop Silco, neither of which he did!

The letter highlights the loss of Felicia as Vander's triggering event, and Vander admits that there's blood on both their hands. To be honest, I kind of like this because it hints that Silco's violence was acceptable to Vander within the context of revolution, and he thought he could handle the sacrifices required. Ironically, when he couldn't handle it, HIS violence pushed Silco towards any-violence-necessary because you can't trust anyone ever anyway!

Anyway, I know this is the fault of flimsy writing in S2 and what feels like internal censorship with challenging political status quo during production, but two drowning attempts (which for Silco came out of nowhere), followed by expulsion from the Lanes (which he helped build), the guilt of Felicia's death, and the total loss of the friends and community he was fighting for ... I mean, at least Silco's villain era makes complete and total sense???

Ugh honestly I try not to think about the drowning incident or even make sense of it anymore because every time I do, it's just so obvious to me that the writers themselves had no idea what they're doing. Timelines are completely off, character motivations make no sense, so why is it up to me to untangle the mess they made?

I have a huge love hate relationship with season 2 because on one hand, I didn't expect as much Silco crumbs we got in the first place and I'm SO HAPPY we got to see him normally in episode 5 and thriving in episode 7. But the retcon… I was so pissed when Act 2 dropped because the whole bridge incident just stopped making sense like you said.

Then when Act 3 happened, it all clicked together, but not in the "ohhh the story makes sense now" way but in the "oh the writers needed to set up smth previously so this would work." and it completely took me out of it. Like. The writers wanted Vander and Silco to make up with each other. But they don't know how to do that. Let's add some underlying sentimentality between Vander and Silco and Vi's mom, then kill Vi off. That'll make them go back together (along with that STUPID LETTER Vander wrote). Sure that's a bandaid solution and on surface level it works, but I don't think the writers really thought we would think about Silco this much so the moment you peel back the layers nothing makes sense anymore. I think they could've crafted a way more interesting story if they ACTUALLY SAT DOWN AND TRIED to have Silco and Vander reconcile without using Felicia as a crutch, but season 2 has an overarching problem of "lets have all the important things happen offscreen and only imply that they happened" which is just… so lazy…. so I'm not surprised that this happened.

It just weakens so, so many parts of the story and raises way more questions than answer them. Why does Silco pull away and distance himself from Felicia's family? Surely Vi should know him from before? Does Silco only take in Powder because he knew she was Felicia's daughter? Why, WHY does Vander go like "there are worse things than enforcers out there" (implying Silco) in s1 while talking to Benzo????????? when he's apparently felt guilty this whole time ??????? what happened to "I've looked everywhere????" etc etc idk man. from s1 I always thought the bridge incident happened way, way earlier from Felicia dying bc Vi looked like she was about 7 years old during the bridge and around 14 during act one, but then if you see Silco during the s2 warwick flashback he looks like he's 25. maybe 30 at the maximum. aint no way he aged that much in 7 years, in act one he and Vander both feel like they're in their mid 40s idk.

This is lowkey why I kind of only want to draw young Silco.. I love old man yaoi but like. If everything I draw is just flashback version of him, I don't need to worry about logistics of the bridge thing bc it hasn't happened yet lmfao. Or the AU version where everything is solved and no one rlly thinks about that time anymore.

Honestly I've tried to write this response several times trying to spell out my version of the timeline but just. nothing makes any fucking sense. I don't like thinking about how badly the writers fucked up on this part. Silco magically gets an eye injury caused by Vander and they had yaoi divorce but it's fine now. That's just how it is for me and if I think about it even a little more in depth my head will explode and I have better things to do with my time like draw zaundads yaoi

[sinning-23]

please please please do different arcane/opla character's kinks???? (preferably some Jayce but yk-)

OMG I was just returning to arcane roots. Mind you I haven't seen the recent season (Im waiting for my mom and sister since we all watched dit together) UHH take these smutty lil kinky lil headcanona!

P.s For as much smut as i write I have the hardest time remembering the differences between kinks and fetishes BUT I think I got it down lol. Bare with me yall.

P.P.S. I'll make a part two with some more of these guys lol I started to draw a blank on a few and get burnt out but I want to provide QUALITY writing to y'all

Enjoy-

Silco

Yknow every time I come on this god forsaken app I find myself thirsting over dead midleages if not older men....

Ahem

Smoking and Begging I feel like would be two kinks of his. And like he already is a smoker so just translating that over to the bedroom....oof.

I feel like he's the type to smoke after or before, but like in a way that relaxes him even further? YK what I'm saying? Perhaps he'll even offer you some with a firm grip on your face while he blows smoke into your mouth, just before he kisses you.

I also think the begging gets him hot under the collar. Just the idea of his partner asking so desperately for release knowing he's in control of whether they're allowed to or not really does it for him. He's ruthless but sweet in the most deliciously contradicting way. Saying things like, " Begging is so unbecoming of you my dear," or "You can beg better than that, I thought you wanted to cum?"

Sevika

Sevika my belovedddddd <3 come home baby the kids miss you lmao. Sevika seems like the type to be down for a lot but also has her limits? One thing that really gets her going though is overstim/multiple orgasms. Please let her pull as many as she can from you its literally her favorite thing watching her partner come undone. She likes to see how messy you get and how your thighs tremble and shake, damn near tensing up from the strain.

She starts slow. Maybe two...then three more.....how bout we shoot for 4 to 5? SIx you say?! Alright, let's just say fuck it and go for 7.

"C'mon, you can give me one more. Thatssss it, let go."

Vander

This is a harworking, loving, family man okay. He doesn't have time for a lot...However, he definitely has time to just have you squeeze down on him with those hot, wet walls, simply existing. Ahhh yes the art of cockwarming in cwich he is an expert in. Hes a sneaky fucker too, taking time to just position you in front of him so he can slip his cock into you, just enjoying your warmth. No movement, just there, your back to his chest, pretending like nothing is happening behind the counter.

He especially enjoys the late nights, your bodies melted into one as you just sinkkkkk down on him, just adjusting to his length, fighting the urge to move as does he. Just that's part of the fun. Expect lots of soft gentled caresses as yout walls memorize him

Vi

Babygirls got a thing for hot chicks in uniform. Be in business attire, military, or otherwise, she loves it.

I mean, honestly, I was not hot about clean white button-downs tucked into fancy dress pants adorned by emblems of silver or gold. A nice neat hairstyle, no flyaways, very much office siren.

And please god don't let you have a snappy domineering attitude, telling her what to do, sexily taunting. Babygirl will be weak in the knees.

Jinx

I don’t think she’d have any kinks if I’m being honest. I see Jinx as a very experimental and fun but soft and vanilla lover. She enjoys being treated softly and gentle, especially in a moment of vulnerability like being intimate with a partner.

Viktor

I hate to be the one to say it but stalkings/knee highs and glasses… Yall HEAR ME OUTTT HEAR ME OUT! I know that sounds really bad but if you see the vision. I feel like Viktor is a lover of pretty things, patterns and decoration. The feeling of lace or tights under his fingertips, the thrill of being the one who gets to remove your glasses before you go down on him.

All is truly a treat in his pretty yellow eyes. Especially when it's his beloved and devoted partner. He takes his time with you treating you delicately as he pulls the fabric off your kneesocks away to reveal pretty legs he gets to you all the way up to the main prize. He likes taking his time unwrapping his gifts. His favorite part is discarding it all from your body. Or at the very least, making you do it.

"Strip." He hums, leaning forward as you shed layers of clothes with a smile.

Ekko

At first I was thinking that mmm Ekko doesn't have any really kinks. Maybe he’s more vanilla but then I got thinking…

Nah nah this guy..

He likes being bitten.

Oddly enough he wasn’t sure why when you had first done it on impulse, the two of you in one of your more intimate moments. You hand grazed his shoulder, only applying slight pressure before stopping yourself from going too hard but the sound it pulled form him. Gorgeous.

“D-Do it again. Please?” He asks, lifting a bit above your too see your glossed fucked our eyes.

“Bite you?” You reiterate, trying to read him and it’s nothing but pure lust and adoration.

“Baby, please.” He huffs, lulling his neck to the side, giving you access.

Please mark him up he really likes it.

[voyagerweek]

VOYAGER WEEK PROMPTS

DAY 1 - JAN. 10: Favorite Episode | Away Missions

DAY 2 - JAN. 11: Favorite Character | Meet You in the Runabout

DAY 3 - JAN. 12: Favorite Relationship | Allies & Enemies

DAY 4 - JAN. 13: Favorite Season or Arc | Time Travel

DAY 5 - JAN. 14: Favorite Quote | Home Away From Home

DAY 6 - JAN. 15: Favorite Holodeck Program | Lost in the Holodeck

DAY 7 - JAN. 16: Caretaker (S1E01) 30th Anniversary | FREE SPACE

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[coffeegnomee]

Will we get a 3rd tell-all from spoke or vi about what really happened in the wormhole? Does it even matter?

Because Spoke's video haunts me in the deep, deep regret that he has towards his actions in s4, particularly during the dupe war. The purpose of the video being the tell-all of his actions against Mapicc and against Parrot.

How he ignored his friendship with Mapicc in favor of bullying his way to getting the ending he wanted, even saying in the present day voiceover: 56:55 SPOKE: "eventually after the amount of threats and pressure I put on my friend, he gave up"

Friend. singular. Even though Zam and (presumably) vortex were also in that call.

And how he abused his friendship with Parrot, creating a team that at every single moment was a lie.

Spoke did a lot of fucked up shit in the wormhole, told a lot of lies, abused friendships. And now, ooc, Spoke had realized just how fucked that was. He knew, from knowing his own mind, that the nppp was nothing. At every step it was a desperate and delicate dance to get parrot in the right position to click a sign and not try and stop them after.

But you actually just straight up cannot watch the nppp story and not be convinced that Spoke loved that team just as much. The hours spent streaming together, the three seasons of friendship, the declarations that it was all for the team, all for Parrot, even in the end in the last moments of the server.

In Character, if not also as a cc, Spoke did care about that team. He cared about Parrot. And if anything it made the guilt of what he had done to him hurt all the more.

And when Parrot says, I didn't use exploits because I would rather let the team down than the server down, Spoke had no response, still has no response other than putting on pants, yelling fuck it, op-ing vi, and jumping into the void.

His only response now was that he did it all because it felt like he was doing the impossible, ending the video seconds later, but not before giving a reminder that uu s1 is ending. Implying he has nothing else to do but that he did s4 because it was the impossible. Ominous stuff for the fate of s6 if I may be so bold.

But i digress. The whole first half of the video is an apology note to Parrot and Mapicc and a cautionary tale to the viewers.

And then we get to Vitalasy. Because what this is Not, is any of that for him.

What is interesting to me, and I can't stop thinking about it, is just how many On Screen Vi and Spoke interactions late s4 were just written out of Spoke's video completely. Scenes that were streamed by others, things that I have wondered about why the two of them would be interacting that way:

(wait. tiny aside. Spoke said thanks to his brother for recording the Planet wormhole stream, implying he wouldn't have it otherwise. does he not know about the archive?)

The day (4/16/23) Spoke and co tried to chunk ban vitalasy while mapicc was live. Spoke teleported up to the prison after Vi respawned (giving him an echest?) and then tried to cover it up when mapicc said he could see him up there.

The next day (4/17/23) Spoke standing on the impromptu risers looking down at a weak vitalasy who had just burned all his exploits form his enderchest saying there is only one player who knows how to do the wormhole glitch and he's done doing that.

The times (5/7/23) where Spoke (and Mapicc) were annoying Vi while Vi and Zam were trying to have their conversations on Subz's islands. (5/3/23) Vi looking down at Spoke and saying how much he hates him while Zam tries reconciling with Vi to complete his flower circle.

This being, ironically, the impetus for Zam thinking they were still working together because they were being too obvious in how much they hated each other.

Zam was right about them working together, in Vi's first wormhole finale video (Using Exploits to Fight Admin Abuse) right in the last seconds Vi flashes up DMs he sent about how the wormhole would open with the cc's joining and ending with:

Sent three days after his dramatic burning of exploits and self-ban.

But Spoke didn't get op until May 1, 10 days after that Vi DM.

Which was just a few days before those two last streams (5/3 and 5/7) where they seemed to be more antagonistic than before.

Of course, Spoke's video now says Vi did ask for op, but he denied him. And says "there's more that happened but that would take to long to explain".

What we got was, ominously, the happy ending where nothing confusing happened at all. In the same video where he says the last happy ending where nothing confusing happened at all was a coverup for what actually happened.

So what the hell happened.

We will never know. And probably for good reason bc it's giving private stuff with how much it's not talked about. And they hardly need to clear the air on any of that.

But Spoke's paranoia was running deep by the end of the wormhole, so it's understandable that he wouldn't give anyone op. Anyone with op could op anyone else.

And he was keeping tight control over everything, and here I go with havoc duo dramatics, but after betraying their three years of friendship, Spoke promised to make a good ending, not let any of the exploits get out, to keep everything safe.

He says in his video he said all of that to make Parrot think that they were unstoppable, and as blackmail that if Parrot leaked anything Spoke could go back on that promise and release all the exploits to all the players.

But something that has always made me love Spoke's wormhole is how balanced he made it. It was scuffed, sure, but Spoke had infinite power and no matter how much he says restraint was hard, he had a hell of a lot of restraint. You only need to watch one Skeppy video destroying my friend's server to know how stupid getting creative mode can make you.

Even though he had abused his friendship with Parrot, he cared so deeply about him that he didn't want to actually destroy their friendship. Well aware that Parrot could just ban him off lifesteal entirely, like the discord and everything, he made sure the ending was balanced enough to make a good story.

Which is all Parrot ever wants. There's a haunting moment at the end of season 3 where Zam tries to get Parrot to give him the hearts Tubbo had collected and Parrot refuses because he wants "the biggest bang for my buck"; he wants the chaos, he wants the interesting plot, he craves the adrenaline.

Call it fear of repercussions, call it love of his friend, call it both. But Spoke prioritized Parrot and prioritized making an interesting story for Parrot over everyone. everyone. else.

Over Vitalasy, screwing his plot over and refusing op until the last seconds. Doing, truly who knows what, to keep control of the wormhole only in his own hands and not with Vi (or Subz).

Over Mapicc (and Zam), screwing his plot over and planning to end the server in peace with Parrot if Parrot won the wormhole. I went back and watched zam's "Night of the End" vod and Mapicc confronts Spoke about betraying them to Parrot and potentially leaking the control room to him if they won the wormhole, which Mapicc is not happy about. And Spoke weaves a web of lies and deflection to make them think he won't do that. Even as he is literally doing that. Once again manipulating Mapicc just like he did in the dupe war, but not mentioning it in the video just as he didn't mention Vi in the second half.

And he even screwed over Ro too, refusing to let him on the team (though mapicc was also involved in that decision iirc) taking it as too great a risk to getting this balanced ending he wanted.

This balanced ending that, despite all the exploits, heavily favored Parrot winning. The balancing gave them a slow decent into loosing, Spoke could have brought out the OP items earlier, his red chestplate, or banned hearts earlier, or so many things. But instead he made it as close as possible. They won by 18 seconds. The balancing made it a damn good story. But in the end, he showed them the control room anyway. He wanted to loose. Call it guilt over abusing the server all season, call it fairness that evil should loose, call it love for the server. At the end of the day,

Nobody mattered more than Parrot.

[interneteclipse]

“modern! mizu hcs”

Okay finally becoming a BES writer after I convinced myself Mizu would sooooooo be a bassist. This is a combo of modern Mizu relationship hcs and band+uni hcs :3 warning, I hardly edited this because I'm tired. Also I WILL be taking Mizu requests

pairing: mizu x fem! reader

tags: domestic bliss…?, modern! au, bassist mizu, band! au, other characters mentioned 🗣️

Mizu is oddly good at home decorating? It’s not a hobby or interest of hers, in fact, she thinks her room is quite plain, but the cohesive colors and pretty decent-looking fake plants say otherwise. (She would love to buy real plants, but she frequently gets swept up with time to care for them properly.)

A lot of your apartment is decorated by her, but in the sense that you asked her if an item would work with house and she either liked or disliked it. She wouldn’t have really cared about shopping for home decor if not for you.

Mizu gets so upset when it’s hot out since she can’t go a day without wearing layers. The apartment (or her room at least) is cold 24/7 whether you like it or not

She tries to go grocery shopping with you as often as possible despite her lack of cooking abilities. Her memory is perfect, so you rarely ever need to make a grocery list! Plus, she likes doing simple things with you. Her childhood was chaotic, so the normalcy of shopping with someone she loves puts her at peace.

She survives off of snacks; it’s a terrible habit of hers, and she knows. It gets worse when either you’re not at home to cook, or she’s out somewhere else. Normally, she walks into the kitchen when she smells food or when you call for her, but she’ll completely forget to eat a real meal otherwise.

Though Mizu rarely (if not ever) has guests over, she makes sure your space and things are respected. If you’re out and your room door is open, she’ll close it. Any special glassware that you bought for personal use, like mugs? Nobody is allowed to touch them.

She’s gotten mad at Taigen for messing with your stuff before.

She isn’t much of a clean freak, but she’d prefer to have things kept orderly as often as possible. She enjoys splitting the chores with you, especially seasonal cleaning.

She’s extremely mindful of personal space. Even if she thinks you look adorable napping on the couch, the most she’ll do is kiss your face and fix your blanket. She’d love to join, really, but she’s afraid of waking you or making you uncomfortable. The last thing she wants to do is disrespect you.

She’s extremely touch-starved but doesn’t know how to make physical contact with you at first. She opened up when you first got together and started asking her for hugs, etc. Now, she loves the smallest of purposeful, or accidental touches, whether it’s brushing up against her, or her hand resting at your hip or waist while you’re out together.

Though you have separate rooms, you’ll sleep together on most nights (usually in your room– she finds your bed more comfortable, plus your room smells like you!)

The only time she heavily insists on staying in your rooms is if one of you gets sick, no exceptions. She hardly ever falls ill, but she’d rather not risk it. That doesn’t stop her from taking care of you, even if the only hot meal she can prepare is upgraded instant noodles or an easy, fool proof soup.

She has a horrible habit of making confining rules for herself, even if she’s on track with certain goals. You have to put hard work into easing her up to let her realize she has a lot more freedom than she thinks she has.

She doesn’t mind dates that you go out for, but she loves cute little dates at home. She doesn’t dislike showing you off, she just appreciates the private intimacy between you two. Even if she isn’t a great cook, she’s happy to help you measure or chop things while you talk.

Speaking of, acts of service is a huge love language of hers. If she can’t do something well, she’ll compensate for with something else that she’s better at to make your life easier.

"Band + Uni Hcs"

Mizu has a habit of not making herself visible on stage. It’s not completely intentional, but her usual spot on stage has harsher lights and this carries over to every single venue. The constant squinting was giving her headaches.

Following up with that, she’s so light-sensitive. It takes a good minute or two for her to adjust from a dark room to bright lights. At some point, she considered getting darker-tinted glasses but keeps putting it on the back burner.

She doesn’t dislike showing you off on stage, but she’d rather not be all the talk at school when it comes to your relationship. This doesn’t mean she lets your relationship go unnoticed though– she makes it very clear she’s taken and doesn’t participate in flirty behavior with any of the audience

Taigen however

The only reason she’s the band's bassist is because nobody else knows how to play. Taigen could play in theory, but he didn’t want to, plus, he thought bass was too easy.

He says that and can’t write a bassline like Mizu. He does write insane guitar solos though, and he can definitely make up something on the spot under pressure. That's actually how a couple of his solos were made.

Ringo is so good at budgeting that it’s genuinely impressive, but he’s not thrilled at how much of that budget cuts out good quality food to keep up with his uni payments. Luckily, Akemi made sure to let him know he was free to experiment with cooking at hers anytime! He's the only one with a spare key to her house. (more on that later)

Akemi knows how to play so many instruments, but none of which are typical band instruments. Her house has a pretty extensive collection of instruments, just no drums or electric string instruments aside from an electric harp. Her father didn’t really monitor her hobbies in her own house, so she played around with whatever piqued her interest first. She had been playing piano and koto since she was young, so she’s automatically the keyboardist (and vocalist,) but she pulls out an odd instrument here and there during a show for fun.

Taigen does have a podcast. The equipment was bought by Akemi with the hopes that he’d have a new hobby, but… sigh.

Ringo is an insanely good drummer, but he couldn't care less about having a music career. He agreed to join because all his friends were in a band– plus, they needed a drummer. Turns out, he’s a natural!

Mizu knows how to play drums too, and she’s great at it, but Ringo unintentionally disses her sometimes on her technique. He’s definitely said something like “Oh, wouldn’t it be easier to…?” She doesn't care much since she knows he means well. That does NOT stop her from continuing to catch accidental strays from him

Taigen and Akemi sort of live together? Akemi’s dad is a little sour about him not returning her home on time. That got his house key privileges revoked for three months. He’s welcome to stay by Akemi’s word, but she doesn’t keep a spare key for him, so he’ll have to be let in by her. Occasionally, he'll ask Ringo to let him in if he happens to be over to cook or practice at a different location, but if Akemis dad catches them, they're both getting an earful. That hasn't happened yet, luckily

Akemi has a couple of songs with a crazy keyboard solo that she has never in her life messed up. She worked through blood sweat and tears to perfect every solo she's written and has her muscle memory down.

Taigen is actually a really good guitarist, but he does make a fair amount of mistakes that he gets dogged on for– most mistakes being dropping his pick. He doesn’t really mess up chords, but a lot of their fans are waiting for that day to come (it'll never happen honestly)

Mizu could and does definitely show off on stage sometimes, but she won’t be pushed into doing a solo for the life of her.

Nobody can touch Mizus instruments except for you and Ringo (he’s a great bass and guitar tech somehow– he just has a lot of specific things he can pick up.)

Mizu, Taigen, and Akemi do separate gigs. Mizu does a little bit of everything– a lot of the bands she plays for are usually gothic rock or metal.

Ringo makes sure Mizu’s basslines can be heard with the drums while Taigen has a running joke of playing too loudly over her basslines during practice. Mizu isn't thrilled, to say the least.

Akemi gets extremely frustrated whenever she has mic problems. Honestly, she wouldn't mind a keyboard problem, but a mic problem is too much

Mizu’s bass wasn’t decorated until you came around– She wants something that reminds her of you on her instrument, so she had you make stickers of your lipstick print to slap on the body of her bass.

By no means are they a large band– they definitely are a local uni band that probably would get popular eventually, but nobody really cared enough about their popularity enough outside of their other hobbies

Speaking of, both Taigen and Mizu do Kendo

Akemi is a top-tier lyricist– she puts her interest in poetry to work ^_^

Taigen has an insanely expensive pedalboard along with a collection of pedals (From Akemis money)

Every day, Akemi considers using a keytar, but the music shops nearby don’t carry good quality keytars and she gets so upset when they aren’t comfortable enough to play.

Taigen has a set practicing schedule on his own, but he often gets held up with classwork. He also has a set sleep schedule but sometimes takes time out of rest to catch up with practice.

Eji tries to come to their shows, but he isn’t much of a fan of the noise level when it comes to live music. He doesn’t understand Mizu’s more alternative gigs, but he’s happy she’s able to get around. He used to lecture Mizu for not wearing earplugs to her shows when she first started performing.

Taigen and Akemi have their own shoegaze duet act together outside of the band– they're getting quite popular from that!

Mizu has written a few songs herself for fun after Akemi texted the group chat about a delay on lyrics due to writers block. She actually finished up recording those songs herself after you found her notes, and urged her to actually make and post those as songs.

[the-heartstring-chronicles]

As someone who has shipped P/C since 1994 and JC since 2006. I just want to say:

Continuing justice for Jean Luc and Kathryn!

( No, no! Not as a ship, you can stop screaming in horror now, I have not abandoned my soulmate pairs)

But as characters:

They both get a very bad wrap for being addicted or married to duty. And in some ways they are, it’s true!

But as confirmed by Picard season 3, Jean Luc says he would have wanted a shot at being a husband to Beverly, from his own lips! And he says that he would have wanted to be a father. She may not have known either of those things, but it doesn’t make them any less fact.

He was also openly affectionate to her, sometimes in public during TNG. Riker knew about them, he says as much to Jack. No one on the crew bats an eye about Jack in fact.

JL and Bev were about as subtle as an air horn set on low volume. Trying to be circumspect, but actually being a billboard for lifetime love. Heck even Shaw knew and we had never met him before. People don’t know that much about a relationship if one person in it is solely married to duty.

And Kathryn! Miss Ma’am let Chakotay build her a bathtub while still trying to get off the planet. She cried at his speech, even though it was so mushy, it could have been day old oatmeal. Why? Because she knew he meant it. ( and I as a mushy viewer, appreciated him being that honest about his feelings too)

She let him give her a rose in Coda and she struggled mightily with his disappointment in her several times in later seasons. Her counterpart in Shattered was also very openly interested in how far they went in seven seasons. (Shoot your future shot lady! Go you!) and no one thinks S7 Kathryn was totally cool with C/7 right? Her face said otherwise. Admiral Janeway, was also heartbroken in about six ways, only two of which were Seven dying and Tuvok getting sick.

She also seemingly, from what I’ve read, made it part of her goal to find him in Prodigy too. Like Jean-Luc with Beverly, when Chalotay is lost, she will seek.

So while yes, duty sometimes sidetracks each of them. they are loving people who adore their other halves as well. They are complex.

And that’s part of why I love each pair, for the devotion that both of the partners in each relationship feel and how they navigate it together.

True love must flow from each heart to make a sustainable ship

And so I hope that as much as we discuss the duty bound Admirals and those who love them, that we also keep discussing and writing about their softer sides and the ways they show that love in return.

[poppyplate]

minor season 5 spoilers for lmk!!!

(some sketches + my thoughts on the new season :0)

this season was so good!! i'm gonna put my long rant about my thoughts below, just cause i have a lot of things i wanna talk about :3

animation: ik the animation change was jarring for some people and i did almost cry about flying bark leaving the show when the news first dropped, but i honestly think wildbrain did a great job and the animation is still super cute and fun. it's definitely different and you can tell, but they still do all the silly animation things that flying bark did and this season honestly had some of my favourite humor (visual and otherwise).

i'll definitely miss the old animation, fully hand drawn 2D animation is becoming harder to come by in cartoons now so it's sad to see this show lose one of the most exciting aspects of it, but i'm looking forward to seeing how wildbrain does in the following season(s?). i'm honestly just glad we're getting more monkie kid content.

plot: i did enjoy the plot they set up. this season did feel different pacing wise? if that makes sense. not that it's necessarily bad i just noticed it felt a bit different. i'm really excited to see more about this whole chaos thing.

ik li jing wasn't necessarily a villain, but he was an antagonist for a bit so i'm adding my two cents about him and nezha. i didn't love what they did with their story arc, but ik there's only so much that can be done in a 10 episode season where each episode is only 10 minutes long. i think their arc would've just benefited from more time :(

villain(s): i think the nine headed demon is such an interesting character (even though he did confuse me a bit) so i hope we get to see more of him. probably my favourite big bad so far personality-wise.

main characters: i'm glad sun wukong had more screentime this season!! he always either isn't around or gets trapped, so it's nice that he was present again.

i definitely felt this season focused a lot more on the monkie trio, which was bound to happen, but i like them so i was fine with it. idk how much of a redemption arc macaque is trying to have, but i kind of hope it's not a standard redemption arc. not that i didn't enjoy macaque's character this or any other season, i do like him most of the time. i just personally hope they keep him as more of a neutral figure even if he does stick around with the group.

i don't have much to say on mk that hasn't already been said. i love the guy and i hope he gets to be happy again soon T^T

side characters? ig: i thought mei and red son's episode was cute. i love dragonfruit interactions a lot, but i do hope red son gets some more screentime next season cause i miss him </3

i am happy sandy got some more screentime though, his episode with mk was cute. also tang was so real this season, he's just like me fr (i hate manual labor).

other notes and whatnot: this season felt shorter somehow, even though it wasn't and i'm not sure if we'll be getting a special like we always do or if they're just going to move on to the next season. either way, i'm excited to see where it goes from here.

although i wasn't in love with the ending of this season, it just felt a tad rushed and i definitely think we would've benefited from a few special episodes again.

i'd give this season a solid 8/10. i would love to go through all the episodes and share my thoughts on them, but i'm just gonna share my ranking of the episodes.

(i feel pretty even with 1-2 and 3-5)

1. collar the king

2. temple of the goddess

3. the cage

4. sacrifice

5. strings that bind

6. into the pagoda

7. claim to flame

8. harbinger

9. the storm within

10. festival fugitives

[coraniaid]

Actually, on reflection, I think I'm persuaded that the "poor Willow is a magical junkie now and it's not her fault :(" subplot in Season 6 is, contrary to what I've said before, actually the worst multi-episode subplot on Buffy.

Say what you like about the other two contenders for that honor: the non-mystery of "is Giles really the First Evil and why hasn't anyone thought to check yet?" or the banality of "shall we engage seriously with the fact Spike has a soul now and how that might change him as a person, or shall we just say that a mean ghost hypnotized him?". But neither of those plots involve a woman telling her significant other (and I am really not paraphrasing much at all here) "I don't like that you used magic to violate my mind and rob me of my ability to consent to our relationship, because it's not good for you".

Moreover:

While the two Season 7 subplots are both pretty bad and boring to watch and are certainly part of why I don't enjoy that season, I don't think removing or somehow rewriting either of them would automatically make the season much better. By contrast, the Willow subplot of Season 6 is the worst thing about that season -- one which I think otherwise had a lot of potential and is arguably the most ambitious season the show ever did -- and fixing it would improve the season as a whole a lot.

The Willow subplot also takes up a lot more of the show overall than the two Season 7 subplots do. Giles as the First is a complete waste of everyone's time, but it's also fully resolved in less than half a dozen episodes (we first get the fake out that Giles might be dead in Never Leave Me, the ninth episode of the season, and we see that he isn't in The Killer In Me, the thirteenth episode). The Spike hypnotic trigger lasts a lot longer, but it still over within about half a season. But the Willow subplot dominates most of Season 6 and also continues to have ramifications for WIllow's character development (or lack thereof) for the rest of the show.

It's easy, I think, to understand why the writers resorted to the two Season 7 plots. They needed some excuse for Buffy's friends to not trust Spike, but for various reasons are committed to the idea that having a soul means Spike himself is now inherently Good and Blameless and so the reasons not to trust him can't be related to anything he's ever chosen to do himself, it has to be something done to him against his will. And the writers obviously stopped caring about Giles as a character with any sort of inner life the very minute ASH asked to be partially written out of the show so he could move back to England. I honestly don't believe the writers were capable of writing good subplots for either Giles or Spike by this point, even if they'd tried. But the Willow subplot comes out of nowhere and completely derails what was going to be a really interesting story line about Willow that the show had been patiently building towards since at least Season 3 and arguably even longer.

More broadly, both the Season 7 plots are bad in part because they are attempts to make the First -- previously a forgettable monster of the week whose primary powers included 'making people who have done bad things feel suitably bad' and 'not being able to touch anything'; a plot device which Buffy herself already rightly dismissed as all talk all the way back in Season 3 ("I get it. You're evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?"). Of course they're not successful attempts: there's no way to make the First as menacing and important as the writers wish it was. Being annoyed at the way they fail almost seems like missing the point.

Most importantly, I can more cheerfully ignore the two Season 7 subplots because I don't really care about either Spike or Giles at this point of the show's run. But I like Willow, so it bothers me more that she's subjected to all this dreadfully bad writing and that her character never really quite recovers from it.

[kunikiiida-kuuun]

BSD Locations- Yokohama Visit 2024 - Part 2

Part 2 of my adventure in Yokohama~!

Part 1 | Part 3

5. Motomachi Plaza (S3EP30)

The place where Higuchi was spying on Gin and then runs into Atsushi and Kunikida lol. Its a small mall (?) overlooking Motomachi street, the exact street where Atsushi and Dazai were walking in season 1 episode 2. She was spying from the first floor and honestly, it was a fairly noticeable place, hardly ideal for spying on anyone lmao. No wonder Atsushi and Kunikida noticed her immediately 😂

6. Yokohama Chinatown (S1EP9, S3EP30)

Only about 5 minutes walk from Motomachi street is Chinatown. Honestly I was kinda amazed at how near identical even the path leading to Chinatown was. I had to wait for a while for the signal to turn green. Having an ability like Katai would have been convenient hahaha XD. Gin's escape route in the anime is quite realistic from the point of view of the actual locations, which is just incredible!

The gate is so identical in the second screenshot and I noticed later that even the 7-eleven on the right makes an appearance in the anime. The gate in the first screenshot is probably a different one though :')

7. Yokohama Kantei Temple (S3EP36)

This temple only makes a brief appearance in the anime, when Tanizaki is talking to Dazai on the phone after his surgery. It's a really beautiful temple located inside Chinatown. There was another temple that looked similar, but that turned out to be a different one lol. You have to pay if you want to enter into the main shrine, otherwise it's free to enter :)

While I was taking some pictures, I unexpectedly ran into a couple of BSD fans here who saw my Kunikida ita bag lol XD. They were from Kyoto and were visiting Yokohama on the same mission as me HAHAHA. It was really wholesome and I was so happy to know there were other fans curious about the real life locations like me!!

8. Nippon Yusen Hikawa Maru, Yamashita Park (S3EP31)

Such a lovely place to spend the day, maybe even at night, walking around!! There were many benches and sitting areas to relax and catch up. I could have taken a similar picture to the anime, but I obviously got it wrong lol. This place was about 8-10 minutes walk from the temple in Chinatown. I think you can enter the cruise museum for a small fee. I only went to the souvenir shop outside in the port area to buy some souvenirs, and the cashier there was also a BSD fan!! They said their favorite character was Akutagawa! 🥹

9. World Square (S3EP30)

This is close to Yamashita Park, but honestly it was so much farther than I expected, and there's so many stairs to climb too. (My legs were already killing me at this point and it was just noon with still many places to cover 😭). Katai confessed his feelings to Gin here, and honestly I would hardly consider the actual location to be an ideal spot for a confession ajdlslfsjk. The fountain wasn't really working, there were many leaves scattered about and also it's so far away from Chinatown. How did they even get to this place? It was a nice and quiet neighborhood without too many people around though, so it's good for a private discussion I suppose.

10. Yokohama Marine Tower (S4EP41)

You can see the tower from this square too. This is the place where Ranpo and Poe meet Mushitarou in S4. I was planning to go to the actual tower after lunch, but as expected I couldn't manage my time very well considering I still had many other places I wanted to visit remaining in my list ajdlslfsjk.

That's the end of part 2! There will probably be two more parts...depending on how many images I can add in one post lol...

[jadecantcreate]

curse of strahdanya has officially taken over my brain! alongside arcane…season two is SO GOOD SO FARR please go watch it if you haven’t. holy shit yall it does not disappoint

spoilers for up to and the entirety of episode 7 of cos — ill mainly be talking about character dynamics (mostly shepnax) but major events and plot developments will be explicitly discussed as well, so, if you’re not there yet, please don’t keep reading (getting spoilered for this stuff is not worth it i promise)

im sorry in advance. im not even done writing everything yet and its already very long

the way i see it, episode 7 is a major turning point for not only the whole story but inter-party relationships as well. i’ll be organizing this a little bit so it’s less text-wall-y (hopefully)

shepherd

there’s the raven mother they find nailed to the wall — the culprit being strahdanya. this definitely fueled the hate that all of the party had for her, but especially shepherd. he literally screams out in anguish and, later, calls strahdanya a coward and bitch — something we’ve never seen shepherd do before.* i think the events in the beginning of ep 7 is what really cemented his and the party’s objective: destroy strahdanya. before, i sensed some kind of ‘wiggle room’: the party would be willing to work with her a bit, though only for a very short amount of time and would probably backstab her. but after witnessing all that? strahdanya is irredeemably evil, not worthy of consideration / sympathy / courtesy, and i think it finally fully dawned on them all

*i also love how much raw emotion shepherd expresses throughout the campaign. the rest of the party has their moments too (i can immediately think of kana and victoria, but im not remembering any significant ones for clayton or sarnax though i know they exist), but shepherd consistently reacts to the hellhole that is barovia in such a genuine way that it grounds the whole narrative and, to me, makes barovia that much more horrifying. in other stories or discussions of stories ive seen like this (and even in the cos party itself), the characters are largely untouched by the horrors that occur in such a setting. which, fit the characters/purpose as it might, distances the audience at least a tiny bit from the happenings of the narrative. but when you have an otherwise grounded, calm, capable individual like shepherd crack? that’s when it really hits you i think. like, the whole thing with sarnax reviving the mother? shepherd being so relieved and overcome with a multitude of feelings that his voice cracks as he holds back tears, begging the mother to rest and not do any work? it made me feel the same way, and it really drove home how wonderful this act is and how dire their situation is. shepherd (and andy by extension!) have drawn the most emotion out of me in my watch, and its possibly the main reason i enjoy his character so much

him being seemingly chosen by the silver dragon (which, again, another turning point) is very compelling in a narrative sense too because shepherd doesnt want power, he doesn’t seem to even like the idea of leading (or at least being pushed into a position of leadership). i’ll touch on it later in the shepherd and sarnax segment (if i dont forget lol, my mind is running wild while i write this)

victoria

i think strahd’s infatuation with her and the physical effects it has (kana’s cleansing ritual failing because the water becomes blood as it touches victoria) is so interesting, especially her inner conflict with her heritage and wickedness (and the distrust it sows between her and the party, at least initially)

i really enjoyed how victoria was vulnerable with kana, and how kana handled it with such care and compassion. this is also a turning point, i think, when it comes their relationship: kana promises to protect victoria, and victoria promises to fight the darkness within her; they definitely got closer after that, and their bond was deepened. i dont imagine strahd would be very happy about victoria not being enamored by her and being helped by her party, though it’s very possible that she enjoys ‘the chase’ (for the lack of a better term)

when they came across the dusk elf in the order of the silver dragon estate-thing, it’s a pretty clear parallel to victoria given her appearance, heritage, and reason for being in barovia. i could be very very wrong about this but its heavily implied victoria’s elf half is a dusk elf, which makes sense considering, again, that she’s in barovia to learn about her lineage and that dusk elves are the only elves mentioned so far. i think this is the first time she’s genuinely made progress in her goal

sarnax

sarnax’s identity revolves around gherix: his whole life is devoted to the fire lord; he’s used to communing with and praying to his god. it’s likely what kept him going in such a terrible place with such terrible odds of survival, let alone returning (which he’s convinced he will not). so when strahdanya intercepted the augury spell he was so clearly shaken. it was one of the few moments, if not the only one, where sarnax was in genuine, utter panic — the whole time shepherd repeatedly asked him if he was alright and he didn’t seem to hear those words at all. suddenly he learned that strahdanya could damage or possibly sever his connection to his god, the being his life is centered around. (kana’s comment certainly didn’t help)

but what happens after — the augury spell reading ‘weal’ and sarnax being able to revive the mother — strengthens his faith. it was tested, but he prevailed. i think he was also filled with a newfound sense of purpose, knowing that, no matter what strahd does, his god considers him worthy enough

about him and kana: episode 7 is the culmination of their slow development towards not only tolerating each other’s beliefs but to understand and embrace them, specifically with kana saying that she trusts in sarnax and his god

sarnax and shepherd

the conversation between them was my favorite moment in this episode by far. there are so many layers,

shepherd so clearly doesnt want to embody his namesake and be a leader, but the silver dragon and someone he trusts so much — sarnax — and fate itself push him in that direction, so he just does. shepherd says:

“sarnax don’t”

“no why would you-“

“why- why- why would you put this on me, why?”

“how can you say that?”

“this was just a job. i mean this was just to make sure we all got here and back safely…how did this happen?”

then, later…

“alright, alright i…okay. i…dont know what to say”

“alright…alright…okay, understood”

“sure, sure. lead the way” and, after sarnax says “no, shepherd. you lead the way, i will light the path,” “…fine.”

essentially, he sucks it up. and that’s interesting to me since shepherd shows so much emotion, so it’s clearly not a ‘men dont cry’-type ideology thing. i think it’s probably related to his desire to do good, and as well as the good doc. after all, the doc gave him his virtue name: shepherd. it only makes sense that he would be written by fate as one: a person who guides the lost through the darkness. so that’s my guess as to why he so readily accepts this burden

i think sarnax being the one to say this also played a role in it^. shepherd witnessed firsthand the power of gherix and sarnax’s wisdom, so much so that he prayed to gherix. shepherd, who was originally averse to anything religious, prayed. and i also think sarnax is shepherd’s only true friend in the party. his relationship with clayton, victoria, and kana feels like professional acquaintances — they’re comfortable with each other and certainly growing closer, but he seeks out sarnax (and sarnax does too) and both have called the other a friend or good friend, on more than one occasion for shepherd and at least one for sarnax. it’s obvious that shepherd values what sarnax has to say and cares for him.

because of that, sarnax saying that he will die in barovia (specifically that he doesn’t “believe [he has] a place back in avantris” and that “whatever it is that [they] achieve here will be [his] end” because he has “seen it in the flames”) and shepherd’s reaction hits even harder for me.

shepherd says “i’m not gonna leave you. i’m not gonna leave anyone.”

and sarnax replies “then it will be i that leaves you.”

it’s the shortest exchange, but it holds so much weight. sarnax has accepted his fate, possibly long before this. but when before sarnax took charge and led the group, shining his light, he steps back, realizing shepherd is the one who (he thinks) fits that role. he still guides, but he doesn’t lead, and he believes shepherd should. but shepherd doesn’t. shepherd’s used to following orders, as we see so many times with him and clayton (but also him and sarnax), and struggles to make decisions for the group — when they ask him where they should go, shepherd seemingly blanks and he just picks whatever as fast as he can (to get the pressure off him, i assume). and despite this, shepherd’s line reinforces what sarnax thinks: a good shepherd doesn’t leave his sheep behind, he goes after and, well, shepherds them.

and honestly the whole relationship between shepherd and sarnax. them being regarded as monsters by others, being dehumanized by, for example, vascha [?] thinking shepherd is a devil and esmeralda calling sarnax shepherd’s pet ->

shepherd answers, understably upset, “he’s not my pet, he’s a person!” i figured sarnax felt the same way, but when he was praying to gherix, he referred to shepherd as “a vessel for [gherix’s] wrath.” so that raised a question to me: does sarnax truly care for shepherd (in the way shepherd does), or does he view him as a tool? it’s interesting to think about. it could be him truly caring about shepherd and seeing him as a capable person who will have a great role in his god’s plans which, i imagine, is among the highest of honors — the first possibility in the question, but filtered through the lens of sarnax’s religious perspective (which i think is the most likely and most compelling)

and there’s the parallel with them being connected to gold and silver dragons: different, but the same. (unrelated tangent but there’s also a very interesting parallel between shepherd being chosen by the silver dragon [‘good’] and victoria being chosen by strahdanya [‘bad’])

sarnax saying “silver will unite with gold” is, on the surface, about the two dragon-gods involved in the story. but i think, on a deeper and probably unintended level, it also applies to shepherd and sarnax growing closer (as they have been since the prologue, following in the footsteps of their respective dragons, and shepherd connecting the two dragons by his faith in gherix and affinity to the silver dragon.

i think that’s everything! hopefully i wont post this and immediately remember something i didn’t mention

thank you for reading all of this <33

[willow-of-themyscira]

Willow Reviews: Creature Commandos - Season 1

While many were initially surprised and confused at the announcement that the rebooted cinematic DCU would begin with an animated series about the Creature Commandos prior to the more expected Superman film, I was nothing short of thrilled. I knew nothing of the team outside of its base concept, having only experienced the original incarnation of the Commandos via the DC Showcase: Sgt. Rock animated short. But the Universal Monsters were a staple of my childhood and James Gunn's whacky and raunchy but emotionally sincere style makes him my most trusted comic book filmmaker. So I was more than ready for a 7-episode animated series that promised to be “Suicide Squad but with monsters”. What I wasn't ready for was the ultimate culmination of all of Gunn's previous work with comic book characters and my personal favorite piece of DC animation since Batman: The Animated Series, only kept from being its equal in my eyes by one significant flaw that I hope future seasons address.

The Characters

Without a shadow of a doubt, what makes Creature Commandos work so brilliantly is the characters. The character work on display here is James Gunn's finest outside his take on Rocket Raccoon for the MCU's Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, with some already rivaling Rocket with just this first season and having the potential to surpass him if future seasons and concluded character arcs prove effective and strongly-written enough. Were it not for one particularly disappointing misfire, this would be the James Gunn superhero cast I consider perfect.

The strongest characters are thankfully the five titular Creature Commandos. Everything that works about Gunn's takes on the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Suicide Squad is on full display here with no weak links. The Bride especially stands out as a haunted and cold-hearted badass who borrows much more from Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones and Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name than the four-armed alien-abducted incarnation of her seen in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers run. Her brilliant backstory melds the best Frankenstein elements from Mary Shelley's novel and James Whale's films together, and coupled with Indira Varma's vocal performance made this my definitive take on the “Bride of Frankenstein” character concept across all of fiction. G.I. Robot fares just as well, with Sean Gunn's adorably whimsical performance turning what could have been an annoying one-note character into a lovable presence that lightens up an otherwise grim and cynical story whenever he is on screen.

Sean's additional character Weasel, returning from the previous DCEU canon, is held back from being quite as strong a character as the others by his inability to verbalize and thus became the pick for least favorite of the Commandos. However, he remains an endearing and weirdly cute comic relief layered by a heart-wrenching backstory that completely recontextualizes how he was presented in The Suicide Squad. Though I'll admit, I was able to predict it six months in advance when watching the teaser trailer. Ultimately however, Weasel being my least favorite is like being forced to rank my favorite ice cream flavors; they're all great, but someone HAS to be at the bottom. Zoë Chao's Nina Mazursky has similar setbacks initially, but only from how long it takes to learn anything about her beyond being the token nice character in this ensemble of monstrous killers and supervillains. In this sense she can at times feel like a copy-and-paste of Pom Klementieff's Mantis from Gunn's latter two Guardians of the Galaxy films and the holiday special. But her interactions with G.I. and especially the Bride keep her from ever becoming boring, and the similarities to Mantis just mean that she is effortlessly adorable and endearing while you wait for the narrative to give the answers to your questions about her. And said answers being given when they do works to make finally learning what brought her to Belle Reve and Task Force M all the more tragic.

On the other side of the coin, a character who is immediately a blast to experience before you dig under the layers is Alan Tudyk’s Doctor Phosphorus (Tudyk also provides his voice to Dr. Will Magnus in G.I.’s flashbacks and does Clayface's wicked chuckles in the main plot). His sarcastic delivery of every breath he takes, near-total nihilism with a hidden soft side, and his being the center of the show's best action scenes make for such an instantly hilarious, badass, and fascinating character that if it weren't for the Bride, he would be at the center of my fandom brainrot toward this show.

The supporting cast does its job well enough, with Viola Davis and Steve Agee doing what they did best in their returning DCEU roles of Amanda Waller and John “Dye-Beard” Economos, respectively. But the real standout is Frank Grillo, a welcome addition as Rick Flag Sr., the father of Joel Kinnaman’s Flag Jr. who was last seen in previous canon's The Suicide Squad. He has a surprisingly friendlier tone with the Commandos than his son had with the Squad, and this makes for an interesting change of pace when he’s alongside them. It's unfortunate the plot decides to brush him aside in the latter half, seemingly just to prepare him for whatever roles he will play in Superman and the second season of Peacemaker. At the same time, it allows for the Bride's elevation to team leader that sparks what will clearly be her series-long arc of eventually letting her walls down and opening herself up to literally any form of relationship or attachment. So I suppose I can let it slide, even if I did enjoy Flag Sr.'s presence as the token human and want him to stick around.

But despite a magnum opus’s worth of protagonists and a solid supporting cast, this season’s ensemble does noticeably suffer in one place, and that is in its trio of antagonists. Initial big bad Circe is a fun and flashy menace for the first three episodes, but disappears from the narrative altogether after episode 4. And with so little of how she's written having anything to do with how DC depicts Circe anywhere else, it makes you wonder (ha ha) why one of Wonder Woman's greatest villains was used at all. It might as well have been a one-off original character for how disposable and non-Circe she is. The ultimate antagonist, who will not be spoiled here, is afflicted with what I call “Prince Hans Syndrome”. There are almost no clues to their true nature until it is revealed toward the end of the season and thus we have little time to know and appreciate them as a villain. But at the same time, their impact is harrowing and undeniable once their villainy goes mask-off. Their actions are bound to forever haunt the show.

But most frustrating of all is David Harbour's Eric Frankenstein, a well-acted but often annoying case of missed opportunity and wasted potential. I admittedly feel this way partially due to my personal life experiences and how strongly I identified with the Bride and her story. Being a transgender woman who was raised by an emotionally immature father with temper problems, and who has also been a victim of stalking and harassment, I was all too familiar with the experience of Bride being told she is meant to be a certain something when that is not the life she wants for herself and having to constantly be on the run after Eric asserts his sense of entitlement to her and her “purpose”. 

What Eric did to the Bride in those flashbacks and the subsequent threat he poses to her struck me personally as an ultimate irredeemable evil that perfectly embodied the horror of modern misogyny and incel behavior. Keeping with my comparisons of the Bride to Jessica Jones, I felt he was effectively set up to be a more childish and brutal answer to David Tennant’s Kilgrave. So I could not help feeling frustrated and a little insulted when he reappears in the modern day plotline with his sinister vibes from episode 2 mostly gone in favor of dopey delusions of undying romance that reminds one of Pepé Le Pew. These more comedic moments are much too frequent and at times seem like they're actively trying to undermine the inherent horror of the character.

I think perhaps this attempt to have it both ways with Eric being hilarious and horrifying could have been more effective if he was a more present threat to the Commandos and fought them to get to the Bride on a regular basis over the course of the story. Instead he is given his own mostly-solo side quest and only interacts with the Commandos for, and I don't think this is inaccurate, less than one second before he is instantly removed from the narrative altogether. I hope future seasons and storylines place him more actively in conflict with the Bride and the Commandos, because what season 1 goes for does not work and made me hope he is never seen or even mentioned again.

But even with all those frustrations in the villains and especially Eric, Creature Commandos bears a strong enough main cast that they just barely deter the overall quality of the season. Were it not for the extremely adult nature of this series, I could see the Commandos becoming a staple of goth childhoods worldwide. I hope DC editorial takes note of the reaction to these characters and brings the Commandos back into the current post-Rebirth comics continuity with more or less the same roster as this show, because they're just that pitch perfect a group. So long as the writers make sure to give them better villains, that is.

The Story

Reminiscent of shows like Lost, Once Upon a Time, and Arrow, Creature Commandos splits its episode lengths evenly between the actual plot and episode-specific flashback stories that for the most part reveal a certain monster's origin and what brought them to Waller's custody in Belle Reve Penitentiary. After the first episode that's entirely main plot setup, it's made easy to identify the remaining six by who their flashbacks are dedicated to; “the Bride one”, “the Weasel one”, etc. It would take too long to review each episode one by one so I will specifically talk about my picks for the best and worst of the bunch. But for the sake of satisfying curiosity I would rank my preference from best to worst as: 3, 2, 6, 7 and 4 tied, then 1, and finally 5. Ironically, almost identical to how I rank their central monsters as well.

Episode 3, the one centered on G.I. Robot, is a brilliant metaphor for veterans who lose their sense of purpose after being relieved of duty. It is not difficult to count it among my favorite episodes of animated television and just needs to be experienced. 2, as I mentioned when talking about the Bride's character, contains an exceptional alternative take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein novel, exploring a What If…?- like scenario where Victor Frankenstein fully gave in to the creature's blackmail and actually completed the construction of a female counterpart. It becomes a heartbreaking story of a woman born from male entitlement, and her life on the run in an endless search for identity beyond her “purpose”. Episode 5 on the other hand, while far from bad contains a flashback story for Eric Frankenstein that doesn't tell us anything we don't already know or could infer about the character from what we had seen before, ultimately feeling redundant and like a waste of time. Combined with the least amount of main plot progression in the series, this episode was the one and only time I asked myself “That's it?” once the credits rolled.

The big picture plot ultimately amounts to an amalgamation of both DCEU Suicide Squad films with a coat of monster-colored paint. It feels appropriate however because unlike the comics' Project M army squad from WWII or modern day S.H.A.D.E. agents, Gunn's Commandos are quite literally an in-canon Suicide Squad replacement. After events nearly identical to what we saw in The Suicide Squad and season 1 of Peacemaker (but not close enough for those to count as official canon), Congress has voted Task Force X/the Suicide Squad out of existence, prompting Amanda Waller to exploit a loophole in forbidding the use of human operatives by assembling a team of monsters instead, “Task Force M”. This task force, given the nickname of Creature Commandos by Waller herself, must carry out a glorified escort mission to save the ruler of a potential US trade partner from a murderous witch, only for it to transform into an assassination mission with the breakout of World War 3 on the line. It is solid enough, but can feel unevenly paced at times, like Gunn's scripts enjoyed the flashbacks and character moments so much that he looked at the actual plot and went “Oh yeah I gotta put something here”. This is especially true in episodes 5 and 6, and stems from how much of the plot is reliant on conflicting sources of information and how long it takes to clear it up and set the mission straight.

In terms of the lore, it is undeniable as a DC fan that the environmental storytelling and use of cameos and name drops in this season to paint a picture of how this new continuity works makes the future beyond exciting. Even better is how these moments never feel like they are awkwardly nudged in to announce an upcoming movie to you, as often happens with Marvel’s projects. There is an effort to establish a rich lore and history so that Gunn and DC Studios can explore the past in equal measure to the present. It is like if the patrons of the Mos Eisley Cantina from A New Hope were obscure but recognizable names you could tell stories about if you wanted, but serve equally well as the background decoration or pieces of the Commandos’ past they are presented as.

But this story is not really about a task force mission or a peek into the lore of a rebooted franchise. The story of this first season instead truly lies in the Commandos’ internal journeys processing their own trauma and searching for connection that they lost, never had, or denied themselves. In this way, the flashbacks are the bread and butter of the show and what makes this first season's storytelling truly exceptional. They are designed not to tie back to the events of the mission or to be dramatic reveals that each monster narrates to their comrades in arms. They are to show us in the audience what drives each characters’ choices and interactions while thematically exploring all the different definitions of a monster. Those definitions are then pitted against the monsters of the real world: in this particular case war, misinformation, and misogyny. Without the flashbacks, the story would lose its substance and this would be nothing more than what one would probably describe the show as to convince non-comic readers to watch it: “Suicide Squad but with monsters”.

The Style

As with all of James Gunn's comic book projects so far, this season has a bit of a jukebox soundtrack where action sequences and montages are amplified by a song handpicked by Gunn during the writing process. Due to my unfamiliarity with most of the tracks, it largely became just a vibe I came to identify simply as “Creature Commandos music”. A lot of solid rock tracks with Eastern European polka flair sprinkled in, carried most of the time by the works of Gogol Bordello. The band's “Start Wearing Purple” especially stood out as the track for a kickass Bride vs Circe fight in episode 2 that carried a “let’s fucking go” hype energy I would compare to the “Come a Little Bit Closer” scene from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. It quickly became my favorite song of the bunch and is destined to be on my Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year. But the best use of pop music comes in the next episode, when G.I. Robot mows through Circe’s forces like grass in a euphoric massacre set to The Dresden Dolls’ “Coin-Operated Boy”. This scene was so perfectly done that every single song used after it felt inferior and most failed to capture my attention as the season went on. But I never outright disliked a musical moment on the show, so they clearly did their job setting the mood at the very least. I suspect a rewatch focused on the music will bring more of the songs to my attention and change my mind, but at the moment I am convinced Gunn’s signature use of music peaked early when it came to season 1 of Creature Commandos.

The Verdict

As the first official entry in the DCU, season 1 of Creature Commandos is a promising introduction to this updated timeline that's elevated to greatness by James Gunn’s best band of superpowered misfits yet. It’s only held from perfection by its trio of mediocre villains and a wee pacing problem as the finish line approached. But what works about Creature Commandos works so exceptionally well that those problems mostly feel negligible and can be forgotten as you enjoy the monsters rampaging through Pokolistan and weep over (most of) their backstories.

I’m almost sad the next project is Superman and not a second season of this series. I can only hope the Commandos are set to be the third most prominent team behind the Justice League and the Teen Titans in this new universe. Because otherwise I may have to march to DC Studios and ask to play in their sandbox myself just so I can get more of the Bride and G.I. Robot.

9/10, strongly recommend as long as you are okay with intense gore and potentially distressing subject matter such as depictions of stalking, a threat of sexual violence, and child death.

[localfanbaselurker]

I’m watching Voltron: Legendary Defender for the first time and here is what I have had to say per each season (this is 1-2) (3-4) (5-6) (7) (8)

Pre-Watch Knowledge

->big transformers type robot

->pretty alien girl that looks like princess yue from A:tLA

->they are the epitome of color-coded characters

->space??

->there was crazy people in the fanbase that sent cupcakes laced with something to the creators

->queer baiting (this one in particular got me)

->klance.

->^honestly I only knew that because people were comparing it to zukka and I wanted to check it out

->my friend really likes it

Post S1 thoughts-

->that cliffhanger was crazy imagine they weren’t renewed for a s2

-> i went on tumblr after and youre telling me they made that show IN TWO YEARS?? EIGHT SEASONS. IN TWO MF YEARS?? that is insane. props to the writers bro they fr must of known what they were doing.

->all of these characters already scream “doomed by the narrative”

->my fav characters are pidge and lance

->I definitely did NOT expect yue Allura to be British

->bonding moment.

->^like yeah okay i get it now

-> the healing pods are a very interesting concept. Like, what if you get some ailment that it doesn’t recognize?? Do you just die??

-> genuinely felt so bad for Not Yue. Allura. Allura when they had to remove her father’s memory thing. Like yeah I know the castle was corrupted or wtv but bro imagine. Your entire race is dead. your mom, who you previously knew alive is now most likely dead. You already had to go through losing your father once, and now you have to lose him again. Any sliver of hope you had of staying connected with him is gone, because the entirety of his essence is now gone. She’s stronger than me, I would have never given him up so easily. I admire that about her.

->I also made the horrible mistake of going on ao3 after

yk for gits and shiggles… and when I go to a new fandom I always search by hits to see the classics first yk

…

WHY are you guys so 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂… I genuinely shed a tear what. I was flabbergasted to say the least.

On that note the top 23 were about redguy/blueguy getting smoochy-smoochy with each other so I guess that should be a hint as to what you guys like

->the description of the show says the robot (voltron) is operated by “five teenagers” but that shiro guy has to be AT LEAST 25. He is pushing 30 you can’t convince me otherwise.

->for now it’s kinda giving atla except the war is intergalactic and lasted 10,000 years instead of 100.

->all the other characters seem to have a pretty clear background, but we haven’t yet heard about Keith’s backstory, so I want to know (I know now, this was my initial thought)

->shiros backstory/ptsd is very interesting, lots of angst possibilities i see

-> I had an inkling that pidge was…genderly different. (At first I thought she was transmasc)

Post S2

-> WHERE is my man. Where did he go.

-> Pookie please come back. Now. It’s not a suggestion.

->KEITH BACKSTORY I PREDICTED THEY WERE GONNA SHOW US YAY I LOVE BEING RIGHT

-> he’s galra! Soooo much whump opportunity

-> the whole “Allura doesn’t hate you she’s just a little upset to find out ur part of the race that killed off her entire peoples and family and okay maybe she does hate you” scene with keith and hunk is really giving that scene in atla: the southern raiders where zuko thinks katara hates him and sokka reassures him (badly) while he was just trying to get laid w suki.

->^ that’s gay

-> the aliens they met are going to be very important, aren’t they?

->^ oohhh so this is where the “langst” stuff comes from? he’s just kinda insecure i think, but it can’t possibly just be this episode that has that tag so high, unless flanderization is just really popular with you guys, but already suspect that unfortunately

->^Allura high key ate with this

->the “Blade of Marmora” people are definitely gonna be important later

-> the mall episode was soooo fun! fav s2 episode for sure!

->^gay. It’s literally giving “two bros chillin in a hot tub. five feet apart cus they’re not gay”

-> I know of 2 ships now. klance and allurance. I only see the former though, the latter seems more like a running gag/unrequited crush thing (for now i suppose)

-> Coran is an icon. I love that whimsical man. he’s beekeeping age per say.

-> I need pidge to find her brother and father man I feel so bad for her PLEASE DOBT TELL ME THEYRE DEAD ILL LITERALLY DIE.

-> pidge is sooooo cool i love her so much she’s literally the pookiest of the pookies

-> Who tf is gonna be the black paladin now. Keith sure as hell isn’t ready for that. maybe Allura?? Cus yk she kinda already leads them a little bit

These are thoughts I had compiled over a while now. I am on S5E3 as of now (07/03/24) but I wanted to document my thoughts either way. I will post on the tag “laura’s first vld”

[favvn]

Perhaps the Amok Time scene of all time (minus the fight). A 5 minute and 32 second clip. And 3.8k word analysis below the cut!

I can hear the bells (when Spock gazes upon the photo of T'Pring)! It is so fun how the new musical themes composed for this episode lurk around and act as another character to the events. The same bells that will announce the Vulcan procession that begins the ceremony are sounding now as Spock looks upon his betrothed. Again, the music acts as the sound of fate that waits for Spock.

My reference to Hairspray aside, Spock is looking at an image of a young T'Pring, aged seven when they were initially bonded and betrothed. T'Pring is his fiancé and this is presumably the only picture of her he has. YIKES! Either I'm applying human standards to an alien species (it's technically true) or, what's the alternative? Vulcans enter into love-less marriages? Just for the sake of creating offspring? Groundbreaking! Like we haven't seen that before. 🙄

I realize this episode was written before D.C. Fontana's Journey to Babel, that in fact this episode was intended to be a part of the first season but Sturgeon took his sweet time with the script on top of all the rewrites and input from others involved in the show--notably Gene Roddenberry, Robert Justman, D.C. Fontana, and Gene Coon. I need to be clear on this: The finished episode itself is a product of all of them. A lot of what exists in the finished episode is missing from the script that is available online to read. Dialogue and scenes were cut but still present in the script. What was intended by one person is not what remained in the finished episode because the finished episode is the culmination of other people's ideas.

I bring these details up and look forward to the events of Journey to Babel because the existence of Sarek and Amanda as a couple speaks to a Vulcan notion of romantic and sexual love, regardless of what further details may exist in the beta canon of the books and so forth (I am writing these notes around the episode Amok Time itself; I might dig into the script versus what is filmed and recall later information given by other episodes of The Original Series, but I'm limiting myself solely to TOS in this). Fontana herself was of the opinion that Vulcans do not have sex once every 7 years and that such an interpretation was a misunderstanding of the pon farr. Frankly, I'm inclined to agree, especially when the completed episode does not include any sort of timeline for the pon farr, merely that Spock assumed his time would never come owing to his human half.

Hell, the couple of Stonn and T'Pring as revealed later in Amok Time suggests something beyond pre-arranged bondings and betrothals, logic, and innate mating drives spurring Vulcans on to choose their mates. T'Pring states that she wanted Stonn and he wanted her in return. Don't tell me that conversation was strictly the logical choice to pursue a marriage of convenience just because Stonn was physically there on Vulcan, otherwise what's to separate Stonn from all the other eligible Vulcans on the planet? T'Pring's attraction to him and all that such a thing can entail. Stonn was ready to fight an adrenaline-fueled Spock and potentially die for T'Pring. Where's the logic of that unless Vulcans do in fact abide by various forms of love? Doesn't the existence of these two couples show that there are degrees of love and emotions that even Vulcans--yes full, 100% biological Vulcans--act and live on? What notably separates Vulcans from the computers they are so harshly compared to is that Vulcans are living, organic beings capable of growth beyond what a computer can do. They operate primarily by logic, but that is not all they are. They are still physical beings inhabiting a physical world. They may seek the ideals of the mind, but as this episode shows, no amount of discipline or logic can overcome the physical realities of biology, of hunger itself.

My point is: if all Spock has of T'Pring is an old photo of her aged seven, how close can they be? He's in his thirties and he has no recent photos of his fiancé. They haven't been shown to have any sort of contact with one another until this episode, but they're supposed to get married. Is it any wonder that T'Pring doesn't want to marry Spock? Did he try at all to nurture their bond?

And why is Spock treated as the perfect example for how Vulcan marriages, divorces, and the pon farr goes given all the things that set him apart from other Vulcans? He is half Vulcan, half human. His father is an ambassador. Spock joined Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy. He has had a strained relationship to his father for 18 years. He hasn't returned home in 4 years. Despite these things which set him apart, Spock is the only Vulcan character we have known for an entire season, so he must be the representative of all of Vulcan rather than seen for the outlier he is. Is it not possible that his family's status or his hybrid nature has changed the way his pon farr is handled? (I realize the reality of some of these pesky details is because Star Trek decided to model itself off of the standalone story structure of anthology series like Wagon Train. Doesn't mean I can't gripe about it or realize that, because of that standalone structure, Spock's lack of a relationship with T'Pring is an issue that was baked in to the very episode plot before it was ever brought up. Technically, had this been made into an issue to correct, someone could have found a way to imply something between T'Pring and Spock off-camera, but alas that did not happen.)

SPOCK CANNOT CONFIRM OR DENY THAT HE WILL DIE. HE CANNOT SPEAK. WHAT THE HELL. He cannot admit to the reality of his situation, not to himself, and certainly not aloud to Kirk.

"Is it something only your planet can do for you?" = "Is there nothing we can do for you here? Is there nothing I can do beyond getting you to Vulcan?" (I could say more about the pain of knowing something is terribly wrong with someone but being unable to help them in any manner and what that would mean to someone like Kirk who continues to persist in situations where most would rather give up. How this question is both an attempt to still respect Spock's privacy but also try to get much-needed information for him. How it is very much a declaration of love and care which Spock cannot indulge in at this time lest he loses himself.)

"SPOCK!" THE WRIST GRAB! THE SHAKING! (Ignore the continuity error of Spock putting the pen down before the wrist grab but having it back again in his hand. Yes, you notice these things in rewatches and editing. Sorry to point it out.) THE CONTACT, THE CONNECTION. If Vulcans are touch telepaths, how much care and concern do you think Spock received in that moment? No wonder Spock cannot look Kirk in the eye afterward.

KIRK: "You've been called the best first officer in the Fleet."

McCoy said it in Operation: Annihilate! Twice! Hello, continuity! I love you. And Spock closes his eyes as if this praise hurts him, as if he cannot bear to look at Kirk for saying this.

This line and Kirk's following line, "That's an enormous asset to me" have been understood as Kirk appealing to Spock's sense of logic and retaining the necessary distance of professionalism. Why disrupt the smooth operation of the ship? Why jeopardize the Enterprise's five year mission? Why throw away such a distinguished career? And it works. Spock begins talking, but only after getting up to place a physical distance between himself and Kirk.

Spock can't even bring himself to face Kirk, he stands in profile if not with his back to Kirk (and his back to the audience, if you want to break that fourth wall). He moves to the opposite wall in the room before saying, "It is a thing no Outworlder may know, except those very few who have been involved." So there's a precedent to Outworlders--non-Vulcans--knowing of, if not participating in the koon-ut-kal-if-fee, the marriage or challenge ceremony, and knowing of the pon farr as a result! Fascinating!

SPOCK: "A Vulcan understands, but even we do not speak of it among ourselves."

I know I'm getting ahead of the series by doing this, but once more, Journey to Babel establishes that Spock and Sarek have not spoken to each other "as father and son for 18 years" and Spock has not returned home in 4 years. Let's assume that Spock is 36 given that was Nimoy's age at the time. 36-18=18. This is Spock's first pon farr and he was betrothed/bonded to T'Pring at the age of seven. This is my roundabout way of saying, who exactly is going to be telling a child about the pon farr if it is considered a time of madness and mating, or am I to assume that Vulcan children are given every bit of detail same as an adult would because they are innately logical? (I'm being sarcastic; I understand Vulcan logic to be the result of great discipline and hard work to suppress the emotions if not the commitment and further work to undergo the complete purging of emotion.)

Moreover who would Spock be discussing the pon farr with? His human mother? How would that help him? Certainly not his father if their relationship became strained when he rejected the VSA for Starfleet! Perhaps a teacher at some point in his first 18 years on Vulcan before joining Starfleet? But again, the age of when this would happen would surely alter the details of the discussion, right?

Again, I realize I am applying details that did not exist when this episode was written, but if we are to accept what Journey to Babel tells of Spock and shows us of his parents, then their estrangement shows why his parents were not there for the ceremony and it explains how Spock can say such a thing as, "We do not speak of it among ourselves." He would not have told them to begin with, and I think Sarek and Amanda are smart enough to keep a discreet distance had they been notified.

I'm making a note of this for a reason: if Spock's only understanding of the pon farr came from him being aged seven at the earliest (again, this is not divulged in the episode), is it not possible he built it up in his own head, especially understanding how different he is as a half-human? This isn't to say that I believe the pon farr isn't serious, but Spock is not your typical Vulcan, so his fears and the weight he's placed upon the pon farr exceeds the norm because of who he is. Of course he'd feel more shame about this, especially if he thought, however briefly, that he would be spared it entirely. Imagine that: Spock, the Vulcan-human hybrid untouched by the madness of pon farr. I think he would be so elated his lips would twitch in the closest he'd give to a smile. Instead, here he is, torn by a drive he does not wish to understand because it undoes everything he has lived by. He is only half-Vulcan yet this time still comes for him. How unfair it is to have a body that is half human yet still beholden to the drives of its Vulcan half. How unfair it is for Spock to work so hard at living according to Vulcan teachings and philosophies, suppressing his emotions and retaining such clarity even as he works among humans, and the pon farr undoes it all and creates questions he cannot have the answers to unless he survives.

Think about it: what if his body cannot physically take the pressures as a full Vulcan's would? What if he dies, regardless of T'Pring, regardless of the blood fever triggered by her rejection? How would anyone know how the first half-Vulcan, half-human hybrid's first pon farr goes? The fact that Spock was betrothed speaks to the assumption that he would undergo the pon farr and would survive its effects. In other words, think of the betrothal not as arranged marriage (especially given how the betrothal can be challenged and rejected) but hope for a life after the pon farr. The ceremony exists for a reason: to ensure Vulcans live.

I want to also point out the absurdity of such a statement: "we do not speak of it amongst ourselves." AND YET. There are rituals they follow, down to wearing specific garments, ringing bells and gongs, creating betrothals during childhood specifically for this time, allowing for either a marriage (the koon-ut) or a challenge/divorce (the kal-if-fee) because these betrothals are not understood to be permanent. Awful lot to do if there's no speaking about it! (I suppose one could say that there are plenty of traditions that people have continued enacting throughout the centuries without really scrutinizing or knowing why they do such a thing, but that falls apart when you consider the thought and care that would go into preparing a match for bonding/betrothal. Perhaps the details as to why the bells must ring, why the sash is purple, and so forth can be forgotten with time, but I'd say the rest is pretty damn obvious and too important to be forgotten, especially by a race as logical as Vulcans). I point this out because I feel like so much of the understanding of pon farr has come from accepting these statements as wholly true and absolute fact rather than considering them in light of the information the episode reveals afterwards on the planet Vulcan itself. In other words, Spock is not his usual self at this time and he is an unreliable narrator for these details at best (to say nothing of his status as the first Vulcan-human hybrid! That informs his perspective too). A previous scene had him not realizing he ordered the ship to Vulcan. Is it not possible that this scene is the result of his fears, heightened by the adrenaline of the pon farr?

SPOCK: "It is a deeply personal thing. Can you see that, Captain, and understand?"

FINALLY. He asks to be seen. He asks for understanding! And he looks directly at Kirk! Except! He's asking for more privacy! He's asking for Kirk to fill in the gaps and accept his non-answers as explanation because Spock himself does not wish to say it. He's running away to hide again, putting up walls mid-conversation, and pushing Kirk away. Spock, what the hell??

Kirk orders Spock to explain it to him and Spock responds, "Captain, there are some things which transcend even the discipline of the service."

Again, Kirk understands he cannot get Spock to talk any other way but Spock is now willing to risk disciplinary action for disobeying Kirk's orders! A failure to communicate due to the shame Spock feels for needing instead of being able to deny, and he is willing to jeopardize his career with Starfleet for this shame.

Kirk walks towards him and bridges their distance, and tells Spock he will treat their conversation as "totally confidential."

Gotta love the "we are going to commit to tripping the censors" that Star Trek TOS pulls. Note the discordant return of the Mr. Spock/Contrary Orders theme! How fun that the audience can giggle at Nimoy and Shatner as they repeat "Vulcan biology" and other variations of it, knowing that they cannot say sex yet still hear such a serious tune as they do so. Adds an extra layer of disorder to this scene, mirroring the chaos that Spock is struggling against. There's also a meta-layer to this in that, due to the network censors and issues surrounding discussions of sex within general audience television, the censors create the same inability to communicate that propels the episode's plot. And I would be remiss to overlook the acting here. Nimoy delivers a physically pained if not annoyed Spock, as if he cannot believe he must spell out the obvious to the captain. Shatner gives Kirk a lost expression as he listens before it all clicks and we have the suave, ready-to-solve-the-issue captain.

I love that they took the "birds and the bees" idiom and played it straight for Spock! It is not just a euphemism for sex, it is earnestly true: Vulcans are not like any other creature. What other creature would try to control itself as Vulcans do, suppressing the emotions if not purging them entirely, forming a civilization ruled by logic and the mind (a civilization that might as well seek Plato's highest idea of the absolute and unchanging Forms in their attitudes towards logic; honestly this is a stretch but it could be that this is how Surak's teachings evolved with the passage of about 2,000 years)?

SPOCK: If any creature as proudly logical as us were to have their logic ripped from them as this time does to us…

Yes, pride isn't a very Vulcan thing to have, but it has been made clear that Spock takes pride in being a Vulcan and in being different from humans. Most of Spock and McCoy's banter with each other stems from McCoy putting on a big show about how alien and strange Spock is only for Spock to happily (as much as he allows himself to show it) double-down on whatever difference sets him apart from humans. And again, for Spock especially pon farr is an undoing of all of his hard work, all of his discipline, all of his control and denial and he is powerless to stop it despite his attempts. This is world-ending for him hence how he phrases it in such a visceral way. (To say nothing of the inherent dichotomy between logic and madness!)

SPOCK: How do Vulcans choose their mates? Haven't you ever wondered? KIRK: I guess the rest of us assume that it's done… quite logically. Spock: No. It is not.

Once more, BULLSHIT. The very fact that Vulcans match children together to share a bond specifically for their future pon farr, and the fact that they are betrothed to one another at such a young age again for the future pon farr, and the fact that the pon farr itself is contained by the marriage or challenge ceremony means that there is a very logical process to it all! The only time logic would go out the window would be if a Vulcan were to reject their betrothed to marry the one that they love. (This is assuming a dichotomy between logic and love, Logos and Pathos, objectivity and subjectivity, absolute reality and personal perception, etc. Science can quantify love into numbers and biochemical processes and so forth, but it is not enough to yield understanding, otherwise a lot of literature, poetry, songs, art, and so forth are all saying absolutely nothing of import.)

But the caveat here is, they could have hardly said, "How do Vulcans mate?" on 1960s television even though that is the question which would--logically--earn such a response. Lmao.

That aside, Spock returns to his seat, not to put physical distance between him and Kirk, however. Perhaps now Spock is becoming more agitated as this conversation continues, and so he cannot stay in one place for too long.

SPOCK: We shield it with ritual and customs shrouded in antiquity. You humans have no conception. It strips our minds from us. Brings a madness which rips away the veneer of our civilization. It is the pon farr. The time of mating. There are precedents in nature, Captain. The giant eelbirds of Regulus Five, once each eleven years they must return to the caverns where they hatched. On your Earth, the salmon. They must return to that one stream where they were born, to spawn or die in trying.

The music! Suddenly there's horns, drums, and the bells. It sounds like a march in its tempo and crafts a sinister atmosphere.

Spock keeps his hands clasped together in his lap while Kirk starts rubbing at his face and mouth with his hand and fingers, taking Spock's words in and lost in thought. So much of this episode is centered around the communication of need versus the shame of one’s need leading to secrecy, so to suddenly make the lips/mouth the object of worry, when one uses the mouth to communicate verbally or to kiss another…. This was not the first episode produced for season two but it is the first aired episode of that season, so it is interesting that this would be the first time audiences see that Kirk's nervous hands move to his face and mouth. (In other words, Shatner started doing this in season two, which is also the time that he gave up smoking, so this change was probably the result of that. Still, what serendipity.)

Well, they certainly shield and shroud the madness of pon farr with the rituals, if not attempt to contain and redirect it so that it is not destructive to others or the self. Think about it: if the pon farr taps into the fight-or-flight response and increases the feelings of fear and aggression, then a fight is technically the way to get those feelings out. Of course, the urge for violence is not all of it. It is a mating drive that urges for sex.

Spock gives two other examples of creatures that follow a mating drive, both animal species. What is notably missing is the detail that within the salmon run, the bulk of adult salmon die after they mate. It is not a matter of "try or die," it is inherent to the cycle: they return home, they mate, they die. Sex and death are linked together in the salmon run. The Vulcan pon farr follows this albeit with a twist: either they mate or they die. Sex or death. One can create life, the other is the end of life. (I could bring more Bataille into this owing to how he writes about the desire to posses the beloved even to the point of killing them (mate or die), but if I do so, the ensuing excursion would get this way off track. Just understand, the linking of sex and death is a conscientious choice beyond what I am arguing here for Spock specifically.)

These are two extremes for the cycle of life and polar opposites, and it follows how the pon farr negates the principles Vulcans live by in general, but it especially negates the way that Spock adheres to Vulcan principles--control versus impulse (if not rest, the relinquishing of control), denial versus need, moderation versus excess if not nothing versus all--and it speaks to Spock's fears of losing his identity as a Vulcan and the strict control it takes to maintain that identity. It takes the mental ideals of logic and breaks them for the biology and impulse of the physical.

KIRK: But you're not a fish, Mister Spock. You're-- SPOCK: No. Nor am I a man. I'm a Vulcan. I'd hoped I would be spared this, but the ancient drives are too strong. Eventually, they catch up with us, and we are driven by forces we cannot control to return home and take a wife. Or die.

It is not known, of course, if Kirk was going to call Spock a human or a Vulcan, but Spock assumes the word to be said was human. If so, Kirk was calling Spock human out of the concern that no human could possibly survive the thing that Spock is speaking about. And of course, this is perhaps the tragedy of the pon farr: Spock fears it for undoing his control and the identity created by it, but by undergoing the pon farr, Spock is confirmed in his Vulcan heritage. Who else but a Vulcan would experience the pon farr?

KIRK: I haven't heard a word you've said, and I'll get you to Vulcan somehow.

Mum's the word. Kirk gets up and goes over to Spock before saying it. If he were to reach out, they would touch, but Kirk maintains that physical distance and Spock does not look up, not until Kirk leaves. The angle of his face mirrors the look he has later when he is in the blood fever. Perhaps this conversation has unsettled him in more ways than the obvious Vulcan control slipping away for fear and anger.

Edit: I did forget something. Of course, I forgot something! Because initially I was responding to the dialogue itself and the discrepancies to it and how such were necessitated by 1960s social mores (Within the show itself, one could argue the discrepancies are a sign of Spock's unraveling. He isn't making sense.)

SPOCK: How do Vulcans choose their mates? Haven't you ever wondered?

Spock initially uses the term "mates" when leading up to telling Kirk about the pon farr. The context is referring to Vulcans in general. Mate is a gender neutral term, so this implies that any Vulcan, regardless of gender, will undergo the pon farr. In using such a gender neutral term, the gender of the Vulcans involved in the ceremony are open to being anything. In other words, a same-sex couple could very well exist (off-screen, if not in the margins).

SPOCK: No. Nor am I a man. I'm a Vulcan. I'd hoped I would be spared this, but the ancient drives are too strong. Eventually, they catch up with us, and we are driven by forces we cannot control to return home and take a wife. Or die.

As Spock continues telling Kirk of the pon farr, however, he eventually uses the term "wife" instead. Wife obviously implies only one gender, yet Spock uses this term after he specifically mentions himself. He does return to the plural pronoun of "we," so it could be argued that this too is to refer to all Vulcans, but I'd argue against it given his initial phrasing. Spock got really personal in this conversation, going from all Vulcans, to himself, only to suddenly return to all Vulcans again. Is this not a way of putting up barriers and trying to distance himself from the conversation, of trying to forget what separates him from all other Vulcans (his hybrid status and the questions it creates)? And is this not a way to finally bring T'Pring into the conversation, at the very end, after the scene opened with her image? It creates a bookend for impact. To take a wife is Spock's assumed fate because his betrothal was set years ago. He hoped the pon farr would not impact him, but it has, so now he must adhere to the plans created for his survival because he has denied this would happen to him and has denied the reality of his condition. Spock is in the 11th hour. At this point, T'Pring looks like his only hope because his denial refuses to see any other alternatives.

[the-derpy-duck]

Earthspark season 3 spoilers! Get your Earthspark season 3 spoilers and my unsolicited opinions under the cut!!

Ok so I actually really like season 3/2B of Earthspark. It’s not as a good as season one. Season two shot itself in the foot with the time skip. Season 3 has been a lot better and Prowl was pretty fun. He sort of has a 180 with Megatron and it’s weird to see him immediately change his mind from ‘Megatron is literally satin’ to ‘we need to go help Megatron’. But him reasoning that he has something to hold over Megatron makes enough sense. Also it feeds into the idea for the final episode that you need to let go of your past or smt.

The quintison judge was pretty awesome. The sharkticons were fun to see. The judge also just shoots and kills a guy on screen and like—ok damn. I know you already did body horror and just everything about mandroid but still. Also just I general I think earthspark does a good job at horror. Like the faremaster episode was actually pretty disturbing.

I’m interested to see what the decepticons will do. I want to know what remains of cybertron. I’m really interested and invested in the terrains and the Maltos. I like all of the new characters they introduced but if they want to tell a story that involves Cybertron (preferably how the terrains would interact with it because they are in a weird area) then I’m down for a story that involves Cybertron.

Starscream was stuck in a prison for most of the season so they didn’t get a lot of time to continue assassinating his character so when he did show up they did their best to make up for lost time. Yayyyyy. It’s disappointing but I hope they actually try in the next batch of episodes. One writer got dropped between season 1 and 2 which probably has something to do with the quality drop. It’s disappointing that they threw away a really interesting plot line and character but they still have more time to tell a story so I want them to try and I want to see the sorry they will tell. Starscream lost his fucking mind? Fine. He lost his mind, now do something with it. I’m upset that they took a very nuanced character and just flattened him when they didn’t have to. I like evil for the sake of evil villains. One of my favorite characters is Freddy Krueger. But when you already established a character as being not pure evil then, to me at least, you need to have a very good reason for them to become more pure evil. I would have been fine with starscream betraying the Maltos and autobots later down the line if we saw that story. If we got to see them rebuild it would have been fun and interesting. I want to see them interact. But just having a time skip means you also skip over a lot of character development and interaction. A lot of the cast suffers because of this. The show isn’t ruined forever ofc but like. I just want them to do something. ‘Starscream is just evil ignore everything we’ve done to imply otherwise’ has been done a million fucking times and it’s boring. I’m also really sad about how his relationship with hashtag ended up. Like why? Why did you do this? And again, I’d be willing to walk with them to the ‘starscream betrays people and they have a reasonable grudge’ peer IF THEY SHOWED THE ACTUAL BETRAYAL. They don’t so I only have Robby’s clearly biased recap to go off of. It’s just lazy. But that’s mostly season two. For season three we mostly just see his silhouette in the titian’s eye. Which is actually pretty cool. Like not ideal but just him being sort of powerless but ever present is sort of fun. I’m glad that they just sort of ignored his character for most of season three because that meant they couldn’t fuck it up, but admittedly it would have been fun to have like half an episode or an episode dedicated to him just existing. Maybe show his decay. Have half the episode be ‘starscream in the present’ and ‘starscream in the moments before he betrays everyone’. But also they had 7 (technically 8) episodes and there isn’t really time to do that.

Season 3 doesn’t do anything groundbreaking but it also doesn’t do anything offensive. It’s like a middle ground between the two other seasons. And season 2 wasn’t the worst thing to come out of transformers, not by a long shot. But it was so disappointing. And I think a large part of season 2 being so negatively received was because of how good season 1 was. And as a result of season 2 being a let down season 3 seems better by comparison. Or at least that how it is for me. Season one is the best season and I think it had the highest quality episodes and they were the most consistently good. Season two had good episodes but they were less good and less compelling (for me personally) than the Season one and three episodes. I feel sort of similar about the Star Trek movies. The search for Spock is FINE but it’s sandwiched between two much better films.

But that’s not really the point. Season two happened, it’s not going to unhappen. But I’m a professional complainer.

I have issues with Megatron’s character. And it’s not exclusive to this season or season two. Megatron’s morality is. Strange. He wants to work with the autobots and is seen as reformed. He takes issue with the way that the other decepticons get treated, but is fine continuing to attack Starscream when he didn’t have to. He’s hypocritical and the way the show addresses his abuse of Starscream makes his character significantly more complicated and messy. He was written and set up that way and I feel like the current writers are trying to back track but it’s not working and also they throw in some things that don’t do any favors for Megatron. Thrash tells him directly that he is scared of him and it’s played off as a joke. And like after the events of season one I don’t know why Megatron would react with anything other than horror or discomfort. But he just fucking smiles and then threatens/intimidates Thrash in the same scene. Why are you doing this? It doesn’t make sense for you to do this.

Also the cyber sleeves are really creepy. Mainly with Robby. Why did you write that??? :(

On a different note, Jon shows up and I almost screamed. I was so fucking happy to see him. I didn’t expect to love his character as much as I do but he’s so idk. I like him. He might be my favorite character from earthspark. He’s silly. I’m unreasonably invested. He’s my goofy little supporting character. He makes metal playlists. He’s fun and he’s silly and he’s just doing his best and I love his dumb little green car.

I actually really liked Izzy before the reveal. And I also like the twist but before it was revealed I found myself getting surprisingly invested in their little romance. Like yeah it’s cringe, but every teenage relationship is cringe to an extent. They (or I guys just Robby) are awkward. But I thought that they were cute. I actually was really hyped when Robby confessed in the movie episode. Like it’s silly and cliche but they were just kind of cute. Izzy being a Quintison makes the entire thing a lot more creepy and just weird. Robby is reasonably upset that his girlfriend is an alien who’s been trying to hurt his family. I felt bad for him, but he still needs to go to jail for the sardine whippedcream funnel cake abomination. Why are you like this Robby? Why? And how much of Izzy was fake is a bit up in the air. Like a lot of what she does is just to get close to the Maltos and she’s trying to manipulate Robby, but she also seems to have some individual thoughts and an identity that she didn’t just entirely make up (for the purpose of manipulating Robby). Like she’s still creepy and weird, but I want to know more about who she is. What was she lying about? She faked being a human and at least some parts of her identity, but did she feel any amount of fondness towards Robby? How much of their relationship was fake and how much of it would she have been able to fake?

I was endeared to Thrash a bit more this season. I have a few gripes with his character and I wish some episodes focused a little more on him and took him a little more seriously, but I found myself liking him a bit more than I did in past seasons. Spitfire and Aftermath are mostly absent from the season but they come back for the last episode. I wasn’t overtly interested in either of them, I don’t dislike them and they definitely have funny lines and moments (mainly in season 2) but I just wasn’t as invested. I really liked the first episode with Bumblebee and Breakdown. I was disappointed that Breakdown stayed with the decepticons but I also can understand his reasonings. Bumblebee also wouldn’t be willing to see that he’s being manipulated. My general read of his character is that he is very loyal to people who he considers friends and he cannot deal with the possibility of his ““friendship”” with Breakdown ending. He’s willing to risk his life for Breakdown and is willing to lie to his family to try and get him back. Ultimately there is nothing that either of them can offer each other to get them to stay. Bumblebee will never betray Optimus or his family. In cyberverse there’s this moment where shockwave says that he failed to account for Bumblebee’s illogical loyalty (or admiration, I don’t remember the exact line) towards Optimus. He could be shown direct evidence that Optimus is bad and evil and he won’t believe it. He will instead reason that something is either wrong with Optimus or that he is being lied to. And I know these are different continuities but the same general principle is there. Bumblebee is not willing to betray Optimus. Breakdown isn’t willing to join the autobots or leave the decepticons. Even when Bumblebee offers him freedom he refuses. And when the Decepticons offer Bumblebee the chance to return to Cybertron, he denies. Nothing either of them do will ever be good enough. They clearly care deeply for each other, but they care about other things more. They are not enough and they will never be enough. They might not have been doomed from the start but the actions each of them took guarantied that they would forever be trapped in this stalemate. They built this prison together and willingly damned themselves to hell.

But uh, Paramount. Hasbro. Besties. Make BreakBee canon and my life is yours.

The animation isn’t as good as season one but I still think it’s good. I love the way the smoke effects and explosions are done. The show still has a lot of charm to it visually and I believe the animators did their absolute best. I love Prowl’s big dumb horns. I love him just not scanning an earth mode. I love him flying around. I love him being picked up and hugged by two women. I love him loosing an arm wrestling match to Arcee. I like Megatron’s face. He looks so perpetually pissed off. I really liked some of the visuals in the hate plague episode. Although bumblebee trying his best to be angry was really funny to me. And people trying to sound angry when yelling “bumblebee” is also funny. Because it’s fucking bumblebee. I love those little guys. Cutie patooties with a silly little name. They are my favorite type of bee and my favorite insect. On my favorite things. They are so silly. So silly and cute and silly. Bumblebee is silly and cute and silly. I cannot take angry Bumblebee all that seriously.

I think it was good. It doesn’t undo everything that went wrong in season 2 but it was good! I have a lot of things I want to talk about. Prowl being himself and also in love with Optimus was funny as fuck. Optimus and Megatron getting into a fight and then having a whole conversation about “how our partnership must be built on trust” only to call each other brother like that was the gayest thing they could have done. They also did that BB and Breakdown. Like stop you aren’t convincing anyone. Elita one trying to commit a hate crime against Twitch. Like that’s fucking traumatic. The hate plague episode in general is just really interesting and when the hate plague comes up it causes the characters to just yell their very personal issues at each other. I fucking love that.

TL;DR: I think season three was good! Yayyyyy :D (these robots are so fucking gay)

[thephoenixandthecrocodile]

Things I love about Season 2 of Rings of Power So Far – in no particular order

1. The entire beginning of episode 1

a. Love Sauron in his fair form off his game and a little shaken

b. Love Adar growing increasingly fed up with Sauron’s bullshit

c. Love the Ides of March moment

d. Love goo Sauron – love his little sigh. That’s me every morning when I wake up

2. Love that Sauron was always a shit and stole the badge instead of saving that guy

3. Love the Elrond-Galadriel brother-sister dynamic and poor Gil-galad caught in the middle

4. Love the Ahhh! Gil-Galad lets out when hearing that Sauron is back

5. Love Elrond jumping off the cliff. Worked for Mom (kinda) should work for me

6. I really want whatever the hell Cirdan is on

a. Also Ben Daniels is AMAZING!

7. Love that Gil-Galad gets to shine more as the grumpy, sassy, weary elf-king this season. Also love that no one is letting Galadriel get away with her bullshit from last season (and I loved Galadriel last season). Actions has consequences, even for elves.

8. YOU HAD ONE JOB, CIRDAN!

9. Why does no one ever listen to Elrond?

10. Sam Hazeldine is doing an amazing job with a tough job. I will always love Joseph Mawle’s take on Adar and he’ll always be MY Adar, but Sam is going an amazing job taking all the groundwork laid by Mawle and then adding his own spin

11. I know the internet is losing its mind over Orc families, but I LOVE the complication these writers are adding to the Orc lore (as well as Sauron’s arc). Even in Return of the King, the Orcs were shown to have their own personalities and weren’t exactly excited about attacking Gondor again. Even in Two Towers, we see the different personalities of Uruk-hai and the Morder Orcs, so it only makes sense to flesh that out further. It adds such an amazing dimension to Adar’s character and the Orcs he cares for and makes us realize that nothing in Tolkien’s world is black and white.

a. Also, also, I love that these writers embrace the fact that Elves are not impartial and they’re hypocritical bastards haha. Of course, they say dwarves and men are covetous and can’t be trusted. Of course, Orcs are irredeemable. To suggest otherwise would jeopardize their own world view. And the Elves have never been covetous or committed genocide for stupid gems. Nope, not ever.

b. Also, also, also love the idea that the Orcs are doomed because they’re convinced Eru will never forgive them, even if they were to ask for it. Such an interesting dilemma to add to the lore. I mean even Sauron considered asking for forgiveness but didn’t because of his pride. If the Valar forgave Morgoth once, and potentially considered pardoning Sauron, who says they wouldn’t forgive the creatures he and Morgoth twisted/corrupted/made?

12. Love Sauron “befriending” the warg. See even the Dark Lord likes dog.

13. Goodbye Waldreg, no one will miss you.

14. Who knew Benjamin Walker had such a nice voice?

15. I’m so surprised Elrond didn’t just completely lose it and go all rabid animal when Cirdan brought back the rings.

16. It’s so funny that this version of Galadriel gets a ring of power. Out of all the Elves to get one, she’s on the bottom of my list. At least make sure she’s Sauron free first.

17. DISA YOU ARE MY QUEEN AND GODDESS!!!

18. LOVE the dwarves.

19. “You don’t have to make this harder than it already is” YES I DO BITCH BECAUSE YOU’RE BEING A STUBBORN GOAT

20. Love that Disa can call out both her father-in-liaw (and king) and her husband for being jackasses

21. Also Durin III stop being a jackass and go apologize to your son, right now

22. Resonating is still so fucking awesome

23. Love the agricultural in Khazad dum

24. I know I was the odd man out because I didn’t mind the Harfoots last season, but I really adore the Stranger’s relationship with Nori.

25. I REALLY hope the Stranger is a blue wizard, but either way I love how Daniel Weyman plays a wizard. And it’s nice he can talk this season and we get a sense of his humor and sass.

26. “Further, Nori” *sigh of exasperation*

27. I have no idea who the hell this evil wizard is nor who the hell his moth minions are, but I love them. They’re so weird.

28. This guy better NOT be Saruman. -_-

29. Poppy! My lesbian Harfoots are reunited!

30. Celebrimbor *sigh* oh, Celebrimbor

31. Elrond “sand the anger away, Sand the anger away.”

32. LOVE the look Galadriel gives Elrond when he calls her out about NOT being manipulated. “He gave you everything you wanted”. True, but also damn, haha.

33. Seriously, I NEED whatever drug Cirdan is smoking.

34. Also love how in this show “yeah, let’s give the rings a try. What’s the worst that can happen” and in LOTR it’s “NO! DO NOT TRUTST THE RING! DESTROY IT ASAP”

35. I can’t believe Halbrand made it rain just so he can look more like a pathetic cat

36. Ok, that umbrella is ridiculous and super impractical.

37. Celebrimbor, honey, the whole “I won’t stay where I’m not wanted” is the oldest trick in the manipulator’s handbook.

38. I love the rollercoaster Celebrimbor goes on as Halbrand “confesses” that he’s not really a man. The utter confusion but also concern, like “my god is this man having a mental breakdown in my forge? And right when I was about to open a bottle of first age wine. Where’s Galadriel when I need her? She should be taking care of her pet human, not me.”

39. NOT THE FIRST AGE WINE!!!

40. I LOVE the reveal of Annatar. It was so over the time and beautiful and so religious. No notes. Absolutely perfect.

41. I was never on team silvergifting, but this show has converted me.

42. Also Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards are giving their ALL in these scenes

43. Love that Celebrimbor is like “ew, no, we can’t give men rings” but when Annatar tells him that Gil-Galad “doesn’t trust the dwarves” Celebrimbor takes it so personally. Like I think it’s because he’s annoyed with Gil-Galad and he wants to control his own forge, but it also sounds like he’s offended that Gil-Galad would insult his new dwarf buddies (who helped him build the new forge to begin with).

44. Durin proving himself the wisest of all peoples (not just dwarves) when he calls Annatar out on his bullshit

45. “Elrond would never say such nice things about me.”

46. Also love all the clever insults and phrases the dwarves have.

47. I’m still very angry with Durin III but I felt that line, “Miner’s punches hurt” “Just wait until your children grow up.”

48. ALSO, Durin III you bastard, your son tells you he DOESN’T trust the rings and you decide, “yeah, let me try out these rings” -_-

a. Also, yes, Celebrimbor and Annatar fucked before, during, and after making the dwarven rings.

49. Oh, Isildur, you disaster child.

a. Again, I might be in the minority here, but I LOVE what they’re doing with Isildur’s character – the perpetual screw-up, the one who tries so hard but can’t do anything right, the character who’s constantly trying to prove himself in a family that is already overly impressive. Makes his final fate just that more tragic.

50. Spider babies. Spider babies. Spider babies.

a. Reminded me of the facehugger birthing scenes from the Aliens franchise for some reason.

51. Super Berek! Here to save the day

52. So, I guess all the men in Aragorn’s bloodline were saved by their horses at least once. Good to know.

53. LOVE the entire ridiculous exchange between Isildur and Estrid.

54. God damn it, Isildur, don’t go to the funeral, save Berek!

55. ☹ Poor Arondir. RIP Bronwyn.

56. Fucking Theo

57. God damn it Arondir, maybe look around next time before telling one kid his family will be reunited in front of the one kid who’s lost his entire family XD

58. “Men can’t build things like that” ☹

59. So, Theo is going to be Isildur’s right hand man and/or will be a ringwraith, right?

60. Operation rescue Berek!

61. Ents? Are those Ents?

62. MIRIEL MY OTHER GODDESS AND QUEEN!!!

63. My brother and I when that woman slapped Miriel: “OFF TO JAIL WITH YOU!”

64. Fucking Earien. Kemen is soooo not worth it

65. Fucking Pharazon.

a. ALSO, love how the writers captured men’s creepy behavior around women in power, especially if they’re “not perfect”. Like when Miriel’s father was alive Pharazon was somewhat respectful around her, but my god that scene in her bedroom? So disgusting and creepy. AND fucking Kemen, “she was blinded while fighting Orcs and surviving a massive eruption. She can’t be queen now” Bitch you couldn’t even sabotage a handful of boats by yourself.

66. Also, also, I know everyone loves Haladriel, but can we talk about the other idiotic couple pining over each other: Elendil and Miriel? Love their dynamic sooooo much.

67. Ok Miriel’s coronation dress is GORGEOUS!

68. That poor eagle was so fucking confused. Like I came here for Miriel, not sure what you all are doing. Ok, this is awkward, I’m flying away now.

[ceruleanskies48]

Dead Mothers of BES pt. 1 (Akemi)

Mizu, Taigen, Akemi, and Ringo are very different characters, but the two things they all have in common are shitty fathers and dead mothers (at least from our Season 1 knowledge). The shitty fathers part is pretty self-explanatory, but let’s dig into what we know about their dead mothers and what we might speculate.

This is a four-part series, starting with Akemi's mom.

How do we know she’s dead?

In Ep. 4, Lord Daichi states that Akemi’s mother is no longer around. Seki confirms this in Ep. 7 when he says he tried to prepare Akemi for the world after her mother died. 

When did she die?

The evidence we have points in two different directions. One possibility is that she died not that long ago, when Akemi was already in her teens. Akemi’s half-brother Tomoe is not that old (pre-verbal), and Lord Daichi likely remarried and had his second child shortly after his first wife died due to the need for a male heir. Indeed, when he talks about Lord Saito being on the market for a new bride, he mentions blithely that Lord Saito’s wife just died in childbirth, suggesting that new brides are sought quickly afterward. In addition, Lord Daichi in Ep. 8 says that Akemi used to look at his with admiration. This is definitely not the nature of their relationship when we first meet them, so it could be that Akemi’s regard for her father changed when he remarried. Young children typically are more accepting of step parents, and Akemi might have been especially upset at her father if his new bride wasn’t that much older than her. 

That said, it seems like Seki has been taking care of her since she was little. He, not her mom, brushed her teeth, taught her to read and paint, and was the one who let her sneak into her father’s library to read books. That said, the fact that he replaced her mom (instead of a nursemaid) implies that Akemi was not young enough to need breastfeeding. Either he started taking care of Akemi when she was around 3 and her mom died around then, or he was taking care of her even when her mom was still alive. 

How did she die?

She could have died from illness, but my guess is that she died from pregnancy-related complications. Akemi was her only child, so there must have been significant pressure for her to bear a male heir. The fact that Akemi doesn’t have a younger full sibling suggests that her mother might have struggled with subsequent pregnancies, perhaps having miscarriages/stillbirths, which were much more dangerous at the time. 

What was she like? 

Lord Daichi said that Akemi’s mom was like her in that she talked back. That said, she knew how to please him as a wife. My guess is that she was a strong woman who knew how to influence her often pig-headed husband. The fact that Seki took over from her as Akemi’s “mother” suggests that he was close to Akemi’s mother. Otherwise it’s a strange position for her father’s counselor to be put into. In addition, Seki raised Akemi to be a future leader, which is very progressive for the time, so my guess is that he had high regard for Akemi’s mother and was perhaps her advisor as well (especially if she was the one actually pulling her husband’s strings). This would also inform the direction Seki pushed Akemi into—marrying up and working within her constraints as a wife to become a leader through her husband.