#rebecca’s rants

[cherubicpjm]

im back

[acoraf]

😂📚🐛🫖

[resizura]

“but EVERY character has brown eyes its boring😫” NOPE, YOU’RE BORING MORE BROWN EYES FOR EVERYONE

[rosenotactuallyquartz]

an overlooked part of the “why won’t you just let me do this for you, rose,” scene.

notice the lines before she accidentally calls steven rose:

pearl: you shouldn’t be anywhere near the fight! you’re too important!

steven: i am not!

pearl: yes, you are.

steven: no!

pearl: why won’t you just let me do this for you, rose?!

rebecca sugar said this about rose in the book end of an era:

“Rose is her own worst enemy — literally, she fought herself. The way she felt about herself caused so much pain for everybody around her, especially the people who loved her and the people she wanted to love. One thing I find really interesting is that the way she idolized everyone around her was very sincere. She thought everyone around her was so much better than she was.”

this says so much about pearl, and about pearl’s relationship with rose.

she says the name rose after steven tells her that he is “not important.”

often, coming off as being very attached was pearl worrying about her and wanting to take care of her; there’s so much more depth than simply seeing her as this brilliant strong leader.

people remember that pearl knew rose as a diamond, but it’s easy to overlook the fact that she witnessed a lot of the things pink went through. she saw how blue and yellow treated her… and she also knew how white treated her. we all heard the things white diamond said about pink in change your mind. we all know how terrified pearl was when steven was left in a room alone with white for five minutes.

people remember that pearl kept a lot of rose’s secrets, but it’s easy to overlook the fact that keeping so many of her dark secrets and having such a close connection in general likely involved rose dropping facade and telling pearl about her dark thoughts when she was sad.

rose was the first gem that pearl fused with, and vice-versa, which was very special as a diamond and pearl. fusion is about trusting an individual completely. this was before they lived together for over 5,000 years.

when we watch pearl, even in the early seasons of steven universe, she is protective of steven, extremely intelligent, nurturing, and strong. a major part of her character is that she takes care of everyone around her. and this is while she’s grieving.

pearl’s love for rose was never just about devotion to a leader. she also loved rose as… a person, really.

she knew the most about rose and she loved all of her, even the parts that rose could not stand. she loved versions of rose that no one else knew about; she loved every single aspect of her.

people like to call her obsessive, heck, even white did, but their love is so often misunderstood because of their former roles in a traumatizing environment that they were both trying to escape from.

pearl’s love for rose went far beyond loyalty and admiration for a leader.

she wanted to protect rose from the war. but she wanted to protect rose from her own mind, too.

[somewhere-in-the-rain]

Sick and tired of people saying Fourth Wing “isn’t actually enemies to lovers”.

(Spoilers for Fourth Wing and Iron Flame)

You people are confusing enemies to lovers with hate to love.

Xaden and Violet’s parents were on opposite sides of a revolution. His father was responsible for the “death” of her brother. Her mother killed his father, not to mention was responsible for 107 scars on his back.

They have every reason to fucking despise each other, and they do for a period of time. They are enemies.

Even with the deal he made with Violet’s mother, Xaden has confessed both to Violet’s face in Iron Flame and in the bonus chapters in Fourth Wing that there were times when he did want to kill her and had strongly considered it, despite the deal.

Violet hated (and even sometimes feared) Xaden for his father’s crimes and the role she thought he played in the death of her brother.

They were enemies.

They are now lovers.

That makes them enemies to lovers.

[hidingoutbackstage]

Colored them

[kyliesiobhan]

for the time being this is turning into a Fourth Wing account because reading those books has given me the best sense of comfort in my life since I was a teenager.

[edeadinside]

public service announcement

Hello, gamers. It is I, the number one fan of random JRWI npcs that show up for ten minutes and then fuck off into the void forever! And today’s underappreciated jrwi character is: Rebecca! No. No, not the blood in the bayou character. That would be far too correct of me. I’m talkin’ Riptide, babes! Episode 66! A Grimm Murder Mystery. Comb through your brain, dear reader. Past all the hot topic fashion (yeah) and sapphic vampire romance (HELL YEAH) and absolutely bangin’ ambience to that one girl. Remember her? She was a lil’ merchant gal with big round glasses and a general swagless aura. Did she have some rock bottom standards to dance with Chip of all people? Of course. Did she get murdered brutally about 5 minutes into her existence? Absolutely. BUT! guys she was so damn nice i really really liked a whole bunch i don’t know where this is going

Anyways! When she wakes back up after Chip makes his wish? Holy shit. That right there, is some tasty slop. Her ass got resurrected. And good on Grizzly for not making her be all like “Oh fuck cool thanks man” and making her rightfully mortally terrified. She went to the first fancy party of her goddamn life and danced with the 19-time-winner of the ‘Least likely to take a goddamn shower’ award and got fucking murdered. And then basically got told that the one guy she danced with at this party was just a bitch ass liar. And then she was like all “Hey! Can I talk to you after this?” And Chip, who is so goddamn allergic to women, fucking forgot to talk to her. No closure, no peace for my main girl. Is this a dumb post? Yes. Is this an ultimately unimportant NPC? Yes. But please, go out into the world and give my girl some love. Watch the episodes. Write a fanfiction or something. Hell, even just occasionally think about her and tell me about it. Noctius was a damn good arc. And I think it shows that even one of its less popular characters was able to stick in my mind that much. So yeah! rewatch the Noctius arc and shout out to rebecca for being the greatest. peace and love

[jamethinks]

My headcanon is that Anya is going to do Culutral Studies/Linguistics when she grows up.

Picture this, twilight was from a small border town in south Westalis. During world war 2 the area was bombed and occupied by the Nazis. After that the region was left neglected and deemed a white supremacy hotspot. By the end of the war barely any authentic from their culture remained.

One thing leads to another and Twilight (who is now worried his culture was about to disappear and was also going through an identity crisis for another issue) decides to help Anya learn his culture. The dialect. The foods. The songs and dance.

Anya grows up and even though she herself is not Westalian she recognized how scared her father was about losing his culture and so she decides to work at a museum with the explicit goal of trying to preserve his culture and make sure everyone learns the truth.

It’s especially relevant to the conversations about war bc while a lot of people focus on the parts about death and property destruction no one talks about the cultural loss. A major part of my fanfics I intend to focus on culture and politics in a post war society.

[acoraf]

Iron Flame,

Page 30:

"Sgaeyl doesn't like anyone but Xaden, and she only tolerates me, though I'm growing on her."

"Like a tumor," she replies...

I laughed so hard omg! Sgaeyl is a savage!

🫶📚🐛🫖

[moisok20]

“Surface Pressure” but it’s just Jasper aggressively singing to Steven

[ygsunflower]

I like how the show added Cam and Rebecca as characters to the show plots, not just for the tension/“romantic spice” between them, but also because the duo’s own history also reflects on the terrifying aspects of teenage bullying/ignorance and racial prejudice/assimilation to white culture which tie to the overarching theme of the show. And more importantly, I like how their stories serves as mirror parallel to the main Reena Virk storyline: In a way, how they turned out could be how these kids turn out in 10 years. At least it could be one possibility. You clearly see the passing of her brother messed Rebecca and Cam up until present day. They both have yet fully processed their thoughts and experiences. And the unresolved issues/feelings certainly affected their personalities and life choices.

After finishing the book (actually finished listening to the audible), I also listened to the additional hour-long segment interview with the author. And now I'm curious about how the last two episodes of the series will present the story author Rebecca Godfrey chose to tell in the latter part of her book... Certain part of those stories (especially knowing they truly happened) really gave me some strong emotions… Her writing succeeded in immersing readers in the situation at the time, evoking empathy from readers for both the teenagers and adults involved in the case.

Looking back on Rebecca in the series after listening to the author’s interview, I feel that the character is pretty true to the actual Rebecca. Obviously it’s not a 1:1 replica, but the show captured the essence of the author- I think the portrayal of this character Rebecca did a good job explaining some of the reasons behind the author Rebecca's choice to tell this story (not quite as dramatic for sure), especially the thoughts going into why she decided to approach the case in this particular angle: tell the stories of the kids involved in this cruel and complex case from their perspective and then following onward in this way. Along with the added dramatic artistic decisions, it makes me appreciate even more turning the original author into one of the story's characters and combines it with the author's own experiences to tell the story. Like I said before, if the case of Reena Virk itself is the show’s main focus, then Rebecca and Cam are like the messy adults these kids might turn into in ten years if their issues are left unaddressed properly... The author wanted to convey the complexity of this true case- to tell the stories of teenagers involved in the event whose emotions are often times overlooked and ignored, while also trying to expose the injustice in the justice system. I think adding Cam and Rebecca into the show definitely hone down on these points and made the storytelling more compelling.

I saw that Rebecca Godfrey is also listed as one of the executive producers of the series. Reading that Emmy magazine interview, knowing that she also looked forward to and participated in the preparation of the series, but unfortunately, passed away before the official shooting began, what a commemoration then to see Rebecca Godfrey, in her own image, incorporated and preserved her real life connections to the case and the people involved in the case on the show. She chose to tell this story, and now she is forever linked to it.

[mindibindi]

The Failure of Ted Lasso's Unconventional Politics

SOCIAL CONDITIONING:

According to Brendan Hunt, shippers interested in a second chance, mature-age romance between Ted and Rebecca were being blindly, un-self-reflexively led about by their “social conditioning”. Presumably, however, the writers who wrote Ted returning to his heteronormative family unit – as well as all the viewers who enjoyed this ending and have defended it since – are completely free of social conditioning? No social conditioning is involved in reifying the white heterosexual family unit? No social conditioning is involved in deifying parenthood, fatherhood and patriarchy at the cost of all else? There is no social conditioning involved in a conclusion that values good ole working class Americana while rejecting the big, queer, complicated, multicultural world?

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid):

If the creators wanted to gesture to “Cheers” as a classic American sitcom, then at least learn from its example. This show worked best when it worked with familiar, beloved characters in a familiar, beloved, but confined setting. "Ted Lasso" had a near-perfect first act, doing a simple thing well. But from s2 onward, the show started straying out of bounds. The cast of characters kept expanding and contracting: people were in, people were out, characters were coming and going and changing (what was the point of that whole Zava plotline?). We had multiple workplaces and workplace dramas (grew to like Barbara tho). Episodes got long and unwieldy. Themes got convoluted as the show took a long trip, imo, up its own arse. The folksy wisdom of s1 became grating self-indulgence and cliched “moment” manufacturing.  

SUPERFICIAL UNCONVENTIONALITY:

TL employed a familiar 3-part structure but ultimately its supposedly radical, unconventional politics was not reflected in the show’s structure. Since the first act started with Ted's arrival, you could see his departure coming from a mile off. Some folks are acting like returning Ted home constitutes some super brave move by the writers that we've never seen before. But if you want to talk social conditioning expressed through narrative expectation then you really couldn't get anything more conventional than this ending.

We've seen it all before:

Act I: Fish-out-of-Water character arrives and begins winning over a dubious, dysfunctional community Act II: Bonding, hijinks, missteps, complications and development Act III: Revelations of growth. Community sadly waves goodbye to teacher they love but no longer need. Cue credits with moving song choice.

It's as cliche, conventional and predictable as it gets. And I could condescendingly accuse every viewer who enjoyed this ending as being blindly and un-self-reflexively led around by their social conditioning. But even if I'm not one of the showrunners who also played a beloved character and who is speaking on a public forum, that would be a pretty fucking shitty move. What I am saying is that the disagreement over this ending speaks to some core ideological differences currently playing out across the globe around patriarchy, feminism, queerness and privilege. There is an opportunity here to examine what we socioculturally view as “good’ and “right” and “happy”. These ideas of good, right and happy are not necessarily benign and will be inevitably reflected in and reproduced by our art.

PATRIARCHY:

In the end, “Ted Lasso” literally chose patriarchy (but what kind is the question). Just because this show was working with a familiar 3-part structure, that doesn't mean it didn't need to justify Ted's inevitable departure. For many people, his son is enough. That's it. End of conversation. Henry trumps all. And yes, this was always going to be the justification used by the series. But I think this disagreement highlights changing attitudes to modern parenting. Everyone agrees that parenting requires sacrifice: large and small, everyday and lifelong. But how much sacrifice is too much?

For some people, this was too much sacrifice. Others seem to think it was Ted's duty to sacrifice for his son his own sense of family and community, his continued health and growth, his professional fulfilment. Imo, he could have shared all of this with him but chose old-school parental sacrifice instead. I consider this kind of sacrifice to be something that culturally we’re coming to recognise as unhealthy, for both parent and child. In reality, parents are more than one thing. Parents have jobs, interests, relationships, needs, limitations and struggles. Parents are people.

In the series, Ted was established as a person: a person with a sad past, a tortured inner world, a strong desire to connect with others and, potentially, a brighter future than his past. From the beginning, his relationship with Michelle was established (and often reinforced) as over, dead, absolutely no route back in. But his relationship with his son was loving and important to him. Of course it was. He’d be a bad man and unlikeable character if it wasn’t. Even so, Henry isn’t a major or fully realised character in this show. We care about him, relate to him through Ted. He matters to us because he matters to Ted. But frankly, we are far more attached to Ted’s other adopted “children”, the relationships we have watched him develop over 3 years, than the relationship we only saw glimpses of. That’s just narrative reality. In reality, yes, Henry would and should be Ted’s first priority. This is only right. In fiction, the team at Richmond should have been the first priority of Jason and the rest of the writing team. They are the ones we want to see and want to see happy and settled.

As many frustrated viewers have stated, it's not Ted's departure that is so disheartening but how it was done. If the TL team wanted to make this choice seem like a healthy one for Ted then they needed to establish other things waiting for him in Kansas: friends, community, employment, fulfillment. As it was, literally nothing tipped the scales in favour of Kansas. There were no romantic, community or larger familial relationships to get back to. Far too much was just left to inference or imagination. Yes, we can assume that Ted has community in Kansas, that he will probably get a great job after his success in Richmond. But all the people and opportunities we would like to infer/imagine will never tip the balance towards Kansas when we consider all we KNOW is already established for him in Richmond. The homeworld and beloved characters of a show will always hold more emotional weight than anything undefined and hypothetical. If viewers were to be happy with Ted’s exit then the writers needed to take the time to lovingly define his future away from the club.

Instead, it seems like a deliberate choice to shut Ted down and perform (and I do mean “perform”) this marvelous sacrifice for his son that so many think is admirable. It’s this shutdown that is so inconsistent and confusing. Because at any time in the hour, Ted could have said to Rebecca, the Diamond Dogs and/or his team:

“Look y'all this ain't the end. We’re family now. I'll be back. I'll show y'all round Kansas anytime you wanna visit. My mom will cook a dinner that will clog your arteries. And every so often, what say we do a long-distance movie night, huh? I'll miss you all but I’ll be watching every game and I can't wait to come back and see you win the whole fucking thing!!”

Ted could have been a model of honest, expressive, emotionally forthcoming, relationship-maintaining masculinity. But nope. Not a word. Just brave male sacrifice. It's straight up patriarchal propaganda. And truth is, fathers sacrifice way less than mothers do in heterosexual parenting relationships. Mothers are generally the ones making those small, everyday sacrifices that our society rarely acknowledges or admires. But I bet this ending makes all those lazy husbands and boyfriends feel real good about themselves. I bet it makes many female partners feel all warm and fuzzy to know that even though their kids’ father won't share half the labour that goes into raising a child, when it comes time for him to perform a massive manly sacrifice for his family, he toootttaaally will. I'm sorry, what were you saying about social conditioning Mr. Hunt?

FATHER GOD or WHITE SAVIOUR?:

Patriarchy needs its Father Gods and its Mother Gods to play certain roles (tho, to paraphrase Angela Carter, both are as silly as each other.) These magical figures materialise at pivotal times then dematerialise when the narrative is over, the pivotal lessons learned. They never themselves learn or alter. Think Mary Poppins or Nanny McPhee. These figures are not entirely human, they possess an element of the supernatural. They serve others, serve a higher purpose. Nanny McPhee's appearance changes only as a reflection of her charges’ growth. Mary Poppins – the figure to whom Ted is most likened – learns to care about her kids but she doesn't engage in any self-introspection. Her duty and trajectory remains unchanged. When she arrives at her next job, she will do so exactly the same as she was.

These otherworldly mother deities are not unproblematic feminist figures themselves. But creating a male, fatherhood deity becomes even more problematic when he is white, cis-het and pretty able. Ted arrives to teach all the black and brown lost boys, to unite the disconnected women, liberate the closeted gays and to update the bumbling English gentlemen (there is, I feel, a special relish in these American bros educating their former colonisers on modern manhood). Here, we start to stray into white saviour territory. Frighteningly, this kind of patriarchal demi-god implies that white men are the most progressive figures in a society, they are in the political vanguard, championing the needs of the disconnected and downtrodden. White men are the ultimate source of wisdom, kindness and progress. It represents them as a group as progressive, when in reality the attitudes and politics of this group represent conservative politics and regressive values that impede the progress of every other marginalised group. If we buy this myth about white men, then we are more likely to accept what they say to us from their positions of power and privilege as right, wise, kind and progressive, even when it is the opposite.

So, if you are going to put forward a white man as a model of progressive politics, then you need to embrace unconventionality, not just superficially but down to your bones. “Ted Lasso” tried to structure s2 and s3 differently but just ended up making a mess of allusions and ideologies that did not connect, cohere, develop or conclude. In fact, sometimes they straight-up contradicted.  Employing a magical 3-part structure and making a bunch of meaningless allusions to well-known classics does not another classic make. They did not engage with any of these classics (“Cheers”, “Mary Poppins”, “The Wizard of Oz”) in any deep or critical way. Classics may be loved but they are not faultless. If you simply repeat what has already been done, even in celebrated classics, you may just end up repeating mistakes someone already made for you to learn from. TL repeats the central feminist problem of parental deities in “Mary Poppins”, just as it repeats the irreconcilable ending of “The Wizard of Oz”.

LIMINALITY:

Both “The Wizard of Oz” and “Mary Poppins” take us into strange liminal worlds. “Ted Lasso” could be read similarly, except that Ted doesn't take any magic home with him. In fact, he seems to actively forget it, reverting to the Ted he was before leaving. No queerness or feminism follows him home, no traces of the various cultures he's come into contact with. The liminal remain liminal with no indication that these two worlds will communicate or can integrate. The non-white, female, queer and otherwise bizarre are left outside of Ted’s squeaky clean hometown heteronormativity. And I really don’t think I have to explain why that is so deeply irresponsible. Because again, this is a writing choice.

That epilogue at the end was brief but imagine if it included more detail: Ted texting with Rebecca, or facetiming with Roy, Jamie giving Henry advice. They didn't take the time to honour and continue these relationships or integrate these two worlds. They didn't suggest that responsible fatherhood could entail many things, could look different. “Sacrifice,” they said profoundly. “Fatherhood,” they murmured mistily. “Patriarchy” was their final word to which this feminist says, “Bullshit.”

PRIVILEGE:  

I only did one film unit at uni but it really doesn't take much to deconstruct the absurdly inconsistent ending of “The Wizard of Oz”. It was 1939, the end of the Great Depression and the start of another devastating world war. People needed to be convinced that their small ramshackle b/w lives surrounded by loved ones were stable, noble even. They already had everything they needed. They didn't need Oz. They didn't need bright futures, big adventures or exciting opportunities. Monochrome Kansas was all a good American should ever hope for. There was danger in difference, safety at home.

Well, here we are in late-stage capitalistic hell, having come through (???) a pandemic and it takes a special sort of privilege to say to an audience: you don't need money or opportunity or community, they won't make your life any better than before. Be happy with the muddy and mundane. Be happy with what you've got. Turn away from larger community, greater knowledge, continued stability, and isolate yourself in a bubble of you and yours. Look, it's not a sweet or familiar narrative conclusion but the truth is, Ted’s, Henry’s and Michelle’s lives would have all been better if they'd relocated to London. Do these dolts have any idea what teachers (in the USA esp) are currently going through? How overworked and underpaid and undervalued these people are? The burnout rates?? Ted didn't have to take the highest salary Rebecca offered but, had the writers been willing to put in the effort, a more unconventional, more modern ending to this series could have been crafted.

Not that I'm surprised they took the easy road to glory. All indications from the beginning of s3 suggested that this would be the rather predictable conclusion. Indications do not, however, constitute development. This team had the opportunity to write a new ending to an old story, one that incorporated queer, feminist and anti-capitalist values. One that defined a different, new version of patriarchy. They didn't even think to. In their white boi hubris, they just assumed that they and tradition knew best. Considering how many viewers would be struggling right now for food, housing, employment and opportunity, an ending in which Ted turns down an opportunity like this hits a false, rather virtue-signally note. Literally, nobody would have come out worse. Everybody would have benefitted from Ted staying in Richmond. Which means this decision was made purely to manufacture a “moment” that celebrates patriarchy.

ANTICAPITALISM: There’s a reason they had Rebecca offer Ted the biggest salary in his industry. They wanted to make it NotAboutTheMoney! Ted doesn’t say so (doesn’t say anything) but, because this narrative idea is so fucking familiar, we can assume the thoughts behind his oh-so-sage expression are: “Well, shucks now, boss, I rightly do appreciate the kindly offer but that there kid o’ mine is more important to me than any cash you could put in my silly lil handy-hands.” Good Lord. The cringe is real. I really, really can’t with this mighty, manly silence and sacrifice. My problem isn’t that Ted values his son over money (not that it has to be a choice because that money could benefit Henry and his mother, who is owed a heck of a lot of child support esp since she’s been raising their son solo for 3 years). Again, that is how it should be. My problem is that the show actively established Richmond as an anticapitalist landscape, then suddenly at the eleventh hour, tried to walk that back and imply it was actually a capitalistic landscape (in contrast to homey ole Kansas).  

Capitalism teaches us to sniff at money. We've been told by the monied and privileged that it won't buy happiness. (This is of course, utter bullshit because money can buy you a hell of a lot of wellbeing, security and opportunity). At the beginning of the series, Rebecca Welton stands for this principle. And by the end, she has found a way to use her extreme wealth and privilege in an ethical way. She gives it away. She supports others. She lets Sam out of a promotional contract, she funds Keeley’s business, she sells half the club to fans. The most obvious example of Rebecca’s anticapitalist politics is her confrontation with all the richy riches who want to take soccer away from the people. Here, she becomes an anticapitalist leader, one who has been positively influenced by the anticapitalistic politics of The Lasso Way.

The Lasso Way is anticapitalistic in that it stresses that winning isn’t everything. You try but you try together. You play hard, not in order to beat the other guy, but to be the best (player, teammate, man) you can be. There are no individual stars, only collaborative team players. You give due credit to others, the team, the support staff. The club functions well when it functions as a unit. Over the course of the series, it becomes a commune that protects and nurtures its citizens. A socialist haven that values people over profits, prizes and meaningless acquisition. The Greyhounds don’t want to win the league for the money or the top spot. Winning the whole fucking thing is an expression of their regard for each other, the game and the new, kinder ethos they all now live by.

Because they spent 3 years establishing all of this (during a time when we really needed to hear it), there is something v disingenuous about them then having Rebecca offer to go to extremes to pay Ted more money than any man should have. It is not consistent with the show’s themes, the ethos of the club, Rebecca’s attitude or what she knows of Ted. She knows it’s not about the money for Ted. It never was. It’s an act of desperation on her part, but why did they need to make her ridiculous, desperate, so inept in this moment? Hannah plays it beautifully but I can’t help but feel this is part of them diminishing Richmond, (re)casting it as excessively capitalistic in relation to Kansas so that they can turn Ted’s decision into a simple Money < Son choice. Because if it is a Money < Son choice then he has no dilemma. There is no other choice. He goes home to his son. The problem is, they’ve just spent 3 years proving that it is not a simple Money < Son dilemma. Money was never actually part of this equation. Ted left to give Michelle space, to find himself, to find a new life and community, to extend himself beyond what he knew as normal. As such, there is now far more than just money for Ted in Richmond (which tbf, Rebecca also points out, but I still think this point stands).  

The other major problem is that, here in the real world, middle-class America (which btw does not exist) is far from being a haven of peace and prosperity comparable to nowhere in the world. This is a lazy cliché than any amount of travel should quickly disabuse you of. And yet in Kansas, we are supposed to believe, despite everything happening in America (referenced by Henry in ep 3.01), Ted will find community, opportunity and stability. To pull off this ending, they needed to establish a Kansas unlike the one currently in existence. This is what they did with Richmond. The UK is no better than the US currently, but they nevertheless established an ideal society, one with values very contrary to the world we now live in. Is it any wonder that people saw the desertion of this world as a rejection of feminist, queer and anticapitalist values? Right now, more than ever, people want to believe in a society that isn't all about triumph, success, competition, acquisition, individualism and aggression. They want to believe in a society that emphasises community, values people, shares wealth, offers opportunity, encourages difference, improves lives and moves onward, forward, in circumspect but ethical steps. These themes were all there in the series. They just weren't utilised when it came time to shape its conclusion.

[hidingoutbackstage]

Icons (including my own) of the Biohazard Team Survivor Halloween cards

Feel free to use with credit!

[modgod200]

Rebecca Appreciation Post

So we all love this tiny murder goblin, right? She’s crude, sassy, and loves to increase the lead/meat ratio of anyone who pisses her off. But I want to talk about something that makes me adore her, her principles and her emotional maturity.

She is pretty much the only character sans his mother that has never screwed David over or tried to get him killed. Doc scammed him, Lucy betrayed him, and the rest of the gang was going to murder him for his implant. Rebecca has been on this kid’s side since the moment she met him, offering him a drink and a warm welcome and giving him a massive tip shortly after. You can see this kindness with how she reacted to her brother’s death as well. Despite how much she tried to hide it by being angry at the cyberpsycho “stealing her kill” and how much she bickered with him, the death of her brother very clearly shook her to her core and caused her to charge the man in blind fury with no regards for personal safety or tactics.

Her feelings for David are also remarkably mature. She rivaled with Lucy with how much concern and worry she has shown for David’s mental and physical well-being. She was frantic when David entered the exoskeleton, worrying far more about what that thing would do to his already fraying mind than the literal *heavy infantry battalion* pinning them down. And when it was clear he wasn’t going to last all the way to the end, she resolved to be with him until the very end. Instead of holding any actual malice or bitterness, she knew that Lucy, not her, was the only chance they had of holding David’s fracturing psyche together.

In short, despite being made fun of for looking like a child, Rebecca is the most loyal, empathetic, kind, and emotionally mature person in the show.

Rest in glory, you kickass gun gremlin.

[looking-for-a-sword]

Tell me please: WHY does the 3rd season feel like it's building up to a 4th one?

If you don't consider the finale and that weird unnecessary DREAM sequence it absolutely does not feel like they were going for a series finale AT ALL. No storyline was really resolved, not Keeley's, Roy's, Jaime's, Beard's, Rebecca's or Ted's (he looks fucking miserable in that last shot, you can't convince me otherwise!) hell not even Nate got enough screen time with the team.

If they were planning with only 3 seasons in total.. well they fully wrecked that half way through (i mean of course they did we all know that but still)!

They were aiming to tell a longer story somewhere in between but also didn't want to let go of their stupid ass 3 season arc plans from 10 years ago, so in the last moments they thought "oh wait what if we write S3 like there will be a 4th one but also wrap it up like it's a series finale just in case.." AND TA-DAAA this is what we got served.

Wow thanks