#s3 is always the best season of a show

[leslieseveride]

TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!

[pumpkinrootbeer]

Eugene was truly the best boyfriend. saw his girlfriend get broken up with, and immediately had a revenge glow up. Imagine being Cassandra seeing your ex girlfriend's boyfriend and he's wearing a golden choker with the just deepest v neck known to man, the world's sluttiest gloves, and a thigh garter. I'd have to give up then and there.

[ladyjune]

Maybe it is because I am Kathony fan and Polin fan, maybe I have been around this fandom too long who knows 😂 But the argument/ complaints about this season are the exact arguments people had about Kathony in S2. Like the “ To many side stories” the “not enough scenes of just them” was literally the same exact complaints people had.

S2 and S3 follow the same outline/ format, and will probably be the same format they follow for the rest of the series. ( Queen Charlotte is formatted as a limited series and S1 came out before they were renewed so they had to put a bow on the stories in case they weren’t renewed ) Do I wish we would have got more Colin and Penelope scenes? Absolutely. Are there things outside of these complaints that I wish were done differently? Sure, I am a firm believer you can enjoy something and wish things were done differently. I have had complaints about parts of every season. But this is something that is probably going to change anytime soon.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

Headcanon "deleted scene" from the Bad Batch finale because this is how I'm coping... Not my best writing but I'm still trying to get back into my best headspace so this is what I've got at the moment

Hunter: "Now we get to choose who we want to be."

Omega: "Like what?"

Hunter: "Whatever we want, kid. Whatever we want."

Omega [now leaning on Hunter's shoulder]: "I wish... I wish Tech could be here with us too."

Wrecker [glancing back at Omega as he tears up]: "Me too."

Hunter [with a small sigh]: "We all do."

Crosshair looks down, saying nothing - but if they could have seen his eyes, the regret would have said it all for him.

Omega [voice full of tears but still strong]: "But... it's like you said before, Hunter: Tech sacrificed himself, he gave us a chance, and we didn't waste it. And... he's happy for us. He knows we're all safe, and he's happy for us."

Hunter [hugging Omega]: "You've got that right."

Wrecker pats Batcher as the tears slide down his cheeks, but Omega's statement has brought a small smile to his face. Crosshair doesn't look up for a long time; Hunter notices, but knows it's not the right time to say anything - Crosshair will decide what he needs to do on his own.

Later, Crosshair goes to the archium. He can't cry - the aching emptiness is still far too deep for tears - and he momentarily thinks that facing Tantiss again was easier than this.

But Omega's words have finally started breaking down the near-impenetrable wall of guilt and regret.

Tech had given him a chance.

He will never, ever waste it.

He will not only stay with what remains of his family, but he will find a new purpose.

He reaches out to touch Tech's goggles - really acknowledging them and what they represent for the first time - and even though he finds he can't even speak, his mind and heart are full of just one feeling: "Thank you."

[shadowedvales]

so, i took a mini hiatus there because i couldn’t watch the new season of the umbrella academy for about a week and didn’t want spoilers. unfortunately i have now seen it, and i am absolutely devastated with how bad it was. alas, now i can return to miss ives, so do expect more activity over the next few weeks! and i am going to do my best to get back onto @long-song, so if y’all like doctor who feel free to follow!

[ohporcupine]

saskia del norma. woman that you are. character of all time

[teiasviago]

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[enbyjane]

I know that most people have probably more than 1, but I'm curious which would be a fan favourite in any case! I would love if you could reblog and add in tags why that season is your favourite (or in replies!) I really want to hear. My favourite seasons are season 1 and season 3, but if I really had to pick I'd go with S3.

[userlaylivia]

i absolutely love every season of the originals it's one of the rare shows where it stayed good the entire run idc who says otherwise I just loved it and it deserved more than 5 seasons by far!! the family element and just everything! but season 3 imho is the best season of the show, it had a great villain and the emotions in that season were just so good and klamille and haylijah and kolvina and not to mention klayley they were all so good! and the family dynamic was just so good as it was the whole show! my only wish is that cami didn't die she deserved so much better ugh I'm going to start my rewatch over again I was in s5 but then rl got in the way but I'm starting over because I love the show so much!!

[ei-mugi]

i enjoyed getting heated over something silly for fun but im just now seeing some past distress ppl had over the poll on the blog & i feel a little bad haha i dont actually have any problem with ii or its fans like ive said i was one myself in the past

[fightingdragonswithwho]

hate to be a hater on the main … but this season of ted lasso excels (once again) at team dynamic and the found family elements and i think the finale absolutely nailed that, i cried, i laughed, it was perfect on that. now as for the individual stories and relationships… yeah, let’s leave it at that

[idk-i-just-really-like-tsc]

oh. happy (?) lone star day. this shows potential haunts me. idk why im even watching live at this point but i have nothing else to do.

[liinos]

I need them to announce bungo stray dogs season 6.

[kendallroygf]

rewatching always sunny for like the 14th time in my life and my god i need dee reynolds so bad

[stars-n-spice]

OP YOU ARE RIGHT YOU PUT IT INTO WORDS!!

After watching S3 I was very disappointed and I didn't know why exactly (outside of it just being me wanting Tech back since he was my favorite) but I always felt like something was just,, missing.

But this is so funny because I literally JUST had a lecture about set-up and payoffs for my short film writing class and have an assignment I really should start on lmao-

Also fucking LOVE the LOTR examples <3

I do think there was some set up to Tech's death though, but I think you're right in saying that there needed to be a pay off for his death. Because there was essentially none other than "ooh shock! look we're raising the stakes!" or some shit like that.

There were those rumors that someone was going to die and throughout the season I jokingly was like "Oh, I bet it's Tech because he's getting the most screentime," and what do you know? Also there was that conversation about change and whatnot in the cave Tech had with Omega, which I've seen some point out as being like "foreshadowing" for his death too. It's a bit of a stretch kinda, but it's like,, crumbs of set-up for what became Plan 99.

But then with S3 there were ALL of those hints about Tech being alive and being CX-2 that essentially did feel like foreshadowing/setting up for something but then the pay-off was,, Hunter impaling him and that was it??? Another nameless clone??

Like, okay, FINE. You don't want to pay off the set up of CX-2 being Tech? FINE.

But what about the set-up of CX-2 supposedly having beef with Crosshair?? Sure he's a "reflection" or whatever and supposed to be some kind of foil, but then all we just get is him cutting off Crosshair's hand in a way that seems so personal but we never get that pay-off of why the fuck were these CX clones (because there was the other one with Rex) acting like they and Crosshair had a history? Like what was up with that?

I mean, season 3 had it's good moments (mainly just with Crosshair and Omega) and I know writers like to go "AHA! GOT YOU! MORE PAIN!" to their audiences, but you're right about that set-up/pay-off and Star Wars, and I think just a LOT of media in general, being afraid of the audience being right.

Like there is a REASON foreshadowing and techniques like set-up and pay-off exist. It's not "obvious" if the audience can get the ending from the crumbs of foreshadowing and it shouldn't be something that media is afraid to do!! If the audience figures something out because of your hints then that's a good thing!! That means your hints worked!!

But also, I'm sure they had this whole season written out and planned before the theories came in. Right? Idk...because honestly from how the crew interacts with fans on Twitter it really just seemed like they wanted to mess with us :/

I just,,, ugh,, Season 3 makes me so,,,

idk

Why The Bad Batch Season 3 Was Bad

Now hear me out! I enjoyed it, for the most part. And I know many fans did enjoy love it. But objectively speaking, the show had a rough Seasons 1-2 while it tried to find it's footing, and then a horrible Season 3 due to bad writing. I could never really find the words to explain how I felt but recently I discovered an actual writing technique that was not implemented, which is the core of my problem. So let's talk about that!

The technique in question is setup/payoff. Ideally, everything in your story should have some sort of payoff. Think Boromir being tempted by the ring, and then later betraying the Fellowship. Or the dwarves and elves hating each other but later on Legolas and Gimli referring to each other as friends. The setup can be truly anything, and the payoff also can be. They don't need to be these massive moments that feel epic. But ideally, every notable moment and every lore drop should be building towards something.

While nothing has to build towards something, Tech's death should have. His death was a consequence to the Bad Batch's actions, however it wasn't properly built up or hinted at. The mission was treated the same as any other mission. There was no setup for Tech's death. You could replace his death with literally anyone else in the crew and the impact would have been exactly the same. So if Tech's death wasn't paying anything off, then it should be setup for something later down the line. It's a major event, it needed to be.

Fast forward to Season 3 and we have this assassin pursuing the Bad Batch. This assassin demonstrates Tech's abilities, as well as Crosshair's. Theories buzzed around the internet that this assassin was, in fact, Tech. This would have been awesome payoff. But instead the assassin was a faceless individual. I understand where the show was coming from: "This is what the Empire wanted to turn Task Force 99 into." But that's not satisfying. There was no buildup towards the Empire removing the identity of the clones, not truly. We could have seen that through Crosshair, but all we saw was the Empire trying to control Crosshair, not erase who he was. If we in contrast did have Tech return as the assassin, that would have been different. There would have been setup for that, and then slow buildup, and then finally, the reveal.

And this leads to a major thing that I'm going to talk about that Star Wars...has a history of ignoring. It's okay for the audience to be right. They knew we were saying "Tech could still be alive!" They knew we were going to theorize about the assassin the moment we saw him. I suspect that the whole Faceless Assassins twist was implemented to try to surprise us. It sucked. It had no setup. It wasn't paying anything off. It landed as flat as Tech's death. Yes if the main assassin was actually Tech, we would have guessed it and not been surprised, and granted that would have been a slightly cheesy part of the story, but we would have been excited. It would have been proper payoff to Tech's supposed death.

So TL;DR, The Bad Batch Season 3 sucked because it abandoned a writing principle in order to attempt to shock us, and instead left a major Season 2 event and the entirety of Season 3 dangling with emptiness.

To all you writers or aspiring writers out there, don't follow that path. Even if it means the readers are right, stick to your story and don't abandon writing techniques. There is so much power in writing a story that is purely yours, and no one else's.

Until next time

[neil-gaiman]

Hi, Neil

Just quick reminder, in case you've forgotten: TV shows are supposed to save us from hurtful reality, and S2 had a genre hurt/no comfort.

I really hope S3, if it ever happens (or a book maybe?), will take away all no-s, and transform them into yes-s. I refuse to embrace cruel reality of the end of Ep6. I even wrote a fix-it on Ao3.

Your heartbroken, saddened, crying 😭 fan,

Lots of love and respect though, always,

Helen

I'm sorry. I thought that anyone who had seen Crowley and Aziraphale split up in the Bandstand and again on the Soho street, and the bookshop burn down and Aziraphale discorporate, in Season 1, had already experienced bad things happening to characters they love, especially at the end of act 2.

And no, I didn't ever think that I was only making comfort viewing. I was making thinking and feeling viewing too.

I love that it's making people write fix-it-fictions. That's always the best response to art: making your own.