#s7 is one of the worst seasons. but it had potential.

[gh0stguts]

season 7 of supernatural could've been good if they had made the leviathans coolor and more monster-y and used their budget for practical effects instead. like imagine if they took on a human appearance, but then similar to early seasons shape-shifting stuff we see, their bones start to crack and shift under the skin and their bodies contort until they're some other kind of actual beast, like they're hyped up to be by Death right before we actually see them

[nipuni]

Doctor Who status report! Writing these I'm realizing I only ever feel compelled to share my opinions on media when they are positive lmao makes for rather boring commentary probably!! but I only care to share the things I love, I would be a lousy critic 😆

We are half way through S7 and I can say now that S6 was a big improvement from S5 for us! It was really fun! we have been rating every episode and keeping season average scores and S5 was the lowest we ranked so far out of all but it was still enjoyable honestly! Someone in the comments in one of my reports mentioned that each doctor's first season is usually their worst one and I'm also noticing this! I think Ten's first season was his lowest ranked out of his three for us too even though all his run was super high. Matt seems more comfortable in his doctor's portrayal by now and he is also more goofy which I personally always love 🥰

S6's arc had us terrified and puzzled the whole time it was very engaging!! and some of the episodes were devastating like "The girl who waited" and just everything about River Song always, The Silence creatures are so unnerving and cool and it had a ton of really classic episodes with great concepts. We were kind of disappointed with "the doctor's wife" episode though I'm a bit mad about it because I feel it had some great ideas but the way some elements were handled ruined it for us (mainly the Tardis's whole characterization and the Doctor's reactions to the situation felt so flat and out of character it was weird) so much wasted potential! but overall it was a great season!

Then S7 so far we watched up to "The bells of saint john" and our favourite has been "The angels take Manhattan" we love the concept of the Weeping angels and this one was terrifying and back to their original lore! and the ending was so unexpected! We also met Clara and I love her too honestly I'm terrible at rating companions because I love them all I think they all bring something new and special to the story I end up loving everyone 😭 We have seven episodes left with Eleven ahhhh time to suffer another regeneration soon!!

About the writing I think as we watched we grew more used to the differences and they became less jarring, though when I think back to the RTD era I feel I loved it because of the writing while now I sometimes I feel that I love it despite the writing, if that makes any sense? I still do love it but it feels like wrestling with Moffat a bit! lmao. He gets a bit repetitive and too on the nose and ..weird about women and overly grandiose at times still but now we know to expect it 🤣

Also another unrelated observation but we feel that Eleven seems younger than Ten in many ways. I know their personalities are supposed to change and they are not necessarily linear but it's something curious we both noticed! And Eleven is such a clingy soft little man!! baby!! very cute!! I love him I'm excited to see how the change to Twelve is going to feel!! I have no idea what to expect from Twelve I'm so curious!!

We are consuming this series so fast and we don't want it to end!! 😭 I have such a gigantic backlog of art I want to make about it by now, I keep thinking of ideas as I go and I don't have the time to draw them yet because of work!! AAAAA the moment I meet the last of my current deadlines it's over for you all!!

Anyway that was very long I'll go make dinner and watch some more 🥰 I hope you all have a good night and a great start of the week!

[loveislandthegame]

my overall thoughts on season 7, writing edition: what in the world ? 😭 i cannot believe i thought this season was gonna be good. i’ll be joining rohan & S2 MC in the circus, since FB made me look like a damn clown. i don't even know where to begin

being a casa girl had so much potential, and it was something that a lot of players actually wanted, even before FB started doing these themed seasons. they really fumbled the bag here

i enjoyed casa amor. the guys were all unique, had their own dialogue, and it was cool to see their pre-established relationships (alex being the villa dad, bryson and rafa being partners in chaos, the beef between bryson & joyo) then we arrived in the villa, and it all went downhill from there:

everybody became an empty husk, so they could be forced into interchangeable roles: uma’s partner, bonnie’s partner, OG LI’s ex, loved up couple (summer/joyo or #rafne) to name a few. FB’s lazy asses ruined their own characters . why is alex, the supposed level-headed & mature one, being petty & childish af in my playthrough? 😭

MC literally had no thoughts, head empty. we barely participated in any of the challenges and games. it felt like we didn't do anything besides "get pulled for a chat" by your LI or the girls

the LI personality merge in this season was the worst it has ever been. all they do is agree with whatever you say, or tell you how great you are (gone are the days of LIs having their own interests, & getting extra dialogue because of that, like levi with artist MCs)

same problem as the most recent seasons, where MC doesn’t have friendships. she has a forced bestie, then potential LIs that sit around waiting for you to pick them, choose them, love them (they immediately disappear if you don’t pick them)

the plot made no sense at all. being a casa girl means we miss out on the first half of the season, but there were many different ways they could've shown what happened before we arrived (it couldve been something as simple as MC watching the show at home or during the jeep ride to the villa. lol) the timeline was inconsistent, so much important information was paywalled, and i’m pretty sure FB was just making shit up as they went along, since the drama with stephen and OG LI's ex genuinely came out of nowhere . he wasn’t previously mentioned in the beach hut, casa amor, nothing . his only purpose was to make the OG girl look bad.

speaking of the OG girls, what a disappointment . before we got to the villa, i honestly thought they were hinting at estelle and/or willow being LIs . even if they were forced to be our rival, they still could’ve had an interesting character arc . it would've been a lot more fun if she was like allegra, rather than OG LI's equivalent of suresh

i was gonna write, "why tf did she even make it to the finale?" but the answer is obvious : for the gem scenes. every damn volume, it's pay diamonds to upstage her, pay diamonds to clapback, pay diamonds so “your man” doesn't turn his head 🙄 it's already stupid enough, but it makes even less sense if you're not pursuing your OG LI

which leads me to the biggest problem of this season, the lack of branching. you're given the illusion of choice, everything leads to the same outcome . i didn't think it could get any worse, until i saw what happens when you choose the money . does your LI storm off? nope. they make you do the treasure hunt anyways...to win you back ??😭 MC should've called security on their ass

s7 had a promising start but ended up being a flop. it was better than s5, but that's really not saying much . i wish FB would just take their time—s1 and 2 had a whole year long gap between them. but it's clear that rushed seasons are gonna be the norm, season 8 is dropping in february . capitalism ruins everything luv x

[avidbeader]

So, I've been doing the Great Sheith Reblog for a while now, gradually reblogging almost everything I shared before that was tagged as Sheith. Lots of art, gifsets, fics and recs, old merch posts, and meta to go around with the occasional dash of salt because lord, dumbness about shipping brings out the salt sometimes. But most of the time it's a lovely nostalgia hit and a reminder of why I still love this ship with all my fandom heart. It's bittersweet sometimes, seeing the usernames that left with Tumblr's worst decision ever, the fellow fans who have moved on to other things, and yes, the hopes and dreams we had before Season 8.

Long blathering under the cut: musings about the persistence of anti-shippers and what queerbaiting actually means.

But occasionally what both amuses and frustrates me is how things line up because it's 2024 and we still have klantis/antis over on the former Twitter spreading the same lies about Shiro and Keith - about their ages, about how they met, about what their relationship is. Right now over there, arguing is happening again because someone put up a clout-chasing poll about which mlm ship was the most influential and included KL but not Sheith (KL beat Johnlock and then lost to Hualian, so I'm happy twice over). Side note - I think if we take "influence" as a completely neutral term, then yeah, KL has been a huge negative influence on fandoms as it was one of the places that allowed puriteen attitudes and anti behavior to grow unchecked for so long. That helped turn some ship fandoms into cults, in which you had to believe with utter certainty that your ship would be canon or you weren't a "true" fan of the ship. That put more emphasis on opposing a rival ship through wank and harassment instead of focusing on the joy and fun of creating for the ship you supposedly love.

And that poll prodded someone to create a Google Form for soliciting answers as to what the biggest examples of queerbaiting are in media. And of course people are saying KL and Adam/Shiro, among other things that are not at all queerbait. These are examples of people guessing wrong and getting mad about it. Queerbait requires that the producers/writers/etc. say outright that a ship is going to happen and then it doesn't, without any influences from the powers above them making changes. Not received fan "wisdom". Not marketing doing things without consulting the producers.

And I just reblogged someone's ask in which they said they felt queerbaited by Sheith solely because of the "brother" line in "The Black Paladins". The answer is excellent and worth a ready if you haven't seen it on my blog already.

Breaking it down:

KL is not queerbait. KL was never planned as a potential ship and LM/JDS said so multiple times. They said it never occurred to them as a possibility and by the time KL's popularity took off they were too far along in the writing to try and go back and make changes, because animators need time to draw. LM flat-out said she was surprised that it became a thing. If the producers are telling you over and over in no uncertain terms that a ship had never been on the table and couldn't be added to the table now, that's not a case of queerbait. And they spoke of Lance's love interests as female every single time. JDS/LM never said anything that would lead fans into thinking KL was a possibility without the deliberate and willful misinterpreting of their words.

Adam/Shiro is not queerbait. Adam is a minor character in a series with a large cast. He has two functions: to be evidence of Shiro's status as a queer man and to be a "face" for all the pilots that died in the first wave of Sendak's invasion. Some people try to claim that LM and JDS queerbaited with their answers at SDCC 2018, but they're wrong. The only thing LM said was that we would see more of Adam in S7. And we did. She did not promise we'd see more of him with Shiro. That was people inserting what they wanted to hear, just like them trying to elevate Adam's status to a fiancé when again, LM clearly stated that they were serious and considering getting engaged. Not engaged. Not married. Just a couple that was serious about each other but broke up.

I don't consider Sheith to be true queerbait. It might fall under the cryptoqueer situation explained at the end of the post linked above, but JDS and LM were mostly very careful to talk of Sheith in terms of deep friendship and devotion to one another, after the initial wave of support for fan content during S1, prior to the klanti movement taking off. The only thing that skirts the line for me is a quote, I think from JDS, saying that if Shiro had a new love interest it would be someone he has known a long time. Or maybe that was about the romances in general being developed over seasons and not Shiro-specific - I would need to research. (Yet more proof that the endcard "wedding" was not planned since we didn't see the unnamed groom until S7 and they never interacted.) And that was said before studio execs started meddling and caused the trainwreck of S8.

I do think we were supposed to have an open ending for Sheith. Klantis like to point out a storyboard artist claiming that "no one wins" this ship war as evidence that KL was supposed to happen and got changed, but that statement applies if Sheith is left open-ended and Allurance happens, even without the endcards.

When I have a chance, I'll try and dig up the links for the various quotes I mention above. Thank you for reading if you made it this far!

[ambersock]

tagged by @adihildilid <3 to make a supernatural seasons tier list

The primary driver for my rankings is largely Sam arcs and memorable Sam moments. Sorry this is really long-winded, I'll put the tags first and my rant below the cut.

(trying to not repeat those who have already been tagged): @ruinedsam @small-scale-majestic @sounknownvoid @supernaturalconvert @acesammy @adaav @supamerchant @glowingsamulet

S2 is my all-time favorite with Sam's powers, the Special Children, episode after episode with writing and acting that just knocked it out of the park, and one of the very few seasons where Dean is actually likeable. S4 would be up there for When the Levee Breaks alone, plus we get multiple BAMF!Powers!Sam episodes. S6 gives us more awesome Jared acting with Soulless!Sam plus gems like 6x09, 6x15, 6x20, and finally Sam's wall breaking in 6x22. And it's got my favorite Dean-worried-about-Sam moment at the end of 6x13.

The next tier down, most of them have a mix of hits and misses. S1 got me hooked but was still finding its footing, S3 had some clunkers but also a few of my favorites, S7 had Sam's hell trauma and (unpopular opinion) the Leviathan which I actually enjoyed (especially long-suffering George the Leviathan from 7x16), plus 7x17 which was my second all-time favorite episode. S11 I loved for the Sam and Lucifer arc, Baby, the fact that the Big Bad wasn't actually evil, the briliant performance by Curtis Armstrong in 11x20, and finally the end of the insufferable MoC arc. Oh yeah, and there's Red Meat, which is the ultimate combination of my two favorite things: BAMF!Sam and Hurt!Sam. The only thing that drags S11 down is the cringeworthy, forced, and completely purposeless thing between Dean and Amara.

Not much to say about seasons 9, 12, 13, and 15. There are a few decent arcs (Sam + Gadreel and Crowley in s9, Mary coming back, Sam and Lucifer again) but also some snoozers (MoC, BMoL which had potential until they were turned into mustachio twirling villains, Dean once again being a complete asshole and his cringe man-pain in s13). With the exception of the series finale, S15 was just meh. And they somehow managed to screw up Sam's magnificent hair.

Oh, and regarding S13 having the worst wire work ever put to film: I view it as pure karma for them not letting Sam be the one to kill Lucifer.

Most of S10 was almost unwatchable to me for the laughable attempt at forcing Dean into "dark" role but then chickening out and turning him into a slobbering drunk frat boy instead (MoC), the bratty and arrogant Claire, and the one-dimensional writing for Rowena (that goodness they added depth to the character later). The only things that save this season are the two attempted fratricides and the episodes that focused on Sam's attempts to save Dean. S14 only has a few memorable scenes, let alone episodes: Sam declaring that there will be no new King of Hell in 14x1, Sam talking Dean off the ledge in 14x12, and Sam shooting Chuck. The rest of the season is nothing but poorly redone recycled Sam arcs handed out to other characters. And no offense to Jack, I think the character was extremely well-acted, but he just didn't add anything to the story once they took Sam's role of being his Dad away.

Finally for S8: I have a love-hate relationship with that one. The front half of S8 has Dean being a complete asshole and the narrative focuses only his POV, leaving us with several missing months from Sam's POV. They just skip right over showing us Sam's utter devastation at losing everyone he loves in an obvious attempt to force the sympathy all towards Dean, but the more thoughtful viewers didn't buy into it. Fortunately, the Trials!Sam arc counters the hideous PoOr dEan bias from earlier on. Plus I'm an angst junkie, and we get angst galore and an attempted fratricide to boot. The back half of the season does finally show Dean being appropriately appreciative of Sam's capabilities, even if he can't express that to Sam's face, and we get yet another outstanding Jared performance in the finale. Unfortunately, what we don't get is any growth whatsoever from Dean who, even as he's watching his brother die, is still in complete denial of his shitty treatment of Sam being the cause of his breakdown. I desperately needed Dean to understand just how much of an impact his constant criticism and mistrust of Sam had, and for him to go through that epiphany and change for the better. Instead, what we get is yet another flippant denial ("Hell, I know I've said some junk that set you back on your heels. But, Sammy…come on.") as if it's Sam's fault for "misinterpreting" the deliberate emotional abuse Dean heaped on him earlier in the season (and really, for much of Sam's life before that).

[macbethz]

1, 10, and 15 for the choose violence ask game :)

THIS IS A LONG ONE SORRY. I guess I had violence in my heart.

1. The character everyone gets wrong

Ok im aware this is like the most predictable answer for me but its true. CLARA!!! People don't get her at all and it absolutely infuriates me, because she's pretty much the only companion in nuwho who is hated to this extent (ie, people saying mean shit about her on my posts ABOUT HER) Oh does she annoy you by having the exact same traits as the doctor? Do you not like her egotistical and controlling behavior? I wonder why. Perhaps there is a point there.

Sidenote - it annoys me when people will call her a mary sue and simultaneously get mad at her being an asshole and yk, having character flaws, as if those terms aren't mutually exclusive & her hyper-competence that gets read as "mary sue" isn't an intentional choice by the narrative and a result of her being DEEPLY unwell in other aspects of her life.

I feel like a lot of people judge her based on the second half of s7 which, to be fair, is awful and I don't think they knew what they were doing with her yet. But in the context of her whole run she is genuinely one of the most evocative characters to come out of doctor who for me, especially in the way she serves as a kind of commentary and subversion of companions as a whole. I genuinely could talk about clara forever but yeah I do feel like a lot of the hate comes from the fact that people Don't Get Her.

And then among fans who do there's always a risk that they see her as this blank slate twee girl to self-project onto which again, to be fair, is how she was written in season 7. But so many things from supposed fans of her as well that I'll read and be like she would not fucking say that. she does not have the emotional awareness to say that. and/or she is not like a uwu quirky shy girl she would fucking speak her mind about that. She is deranged and I love her. I have to shut up abt clara or this will be the whole post.

10. Worst part of fanon

I honestly cant get TOO annoyed with doctor who fanon because i am a comics fan AND a danny phantom fan and its surprisingly common practice for people in both those fandoms to be a "fan" of something they have not consumed the media for in any form, resulting in this horrible mess of fanon with no connection to what makes the original compelling. + doctor who is such a mess of canon anyway basically everything has been canon at some point even if its shit.

But I think in the end the worst part of DW fanon is, like all fanon, the flattening of really compelling characters to fit trope archetypes. I see this especially with tenrose, where they're just turned into this kind of generic ship that you can plug n play into any situation with little connection to the interesting ways they actually behave in canon.

As a kind of interesting reversal, though, fanon will often expand out dw's most generic characters (ie most chibnal companions. sorry), but only for the purposes of shipping and not in ways I myself find particularly interesting. Like imo Yaz is probably the least developed chibnal companion but pretty much the only one I see expanded on in this way because of the shipping potential.

15. that one thing you see in fanart all the time

im probably gonna get slaughtered for this but i think maybe weve had enough crowley in doctor who outfits or 10 meeting crowley fanart. maybe im bitter because i dont really care about the GO show and I feel like it fills up the dw tag to the brim these days

[hypermania]

I stopped watching the walking dead at the end of season 8 and only know what happens after that from seeing other people post about it when it was airing and there was so much negativity so it’s really interesting to see you watching it now and seeming to have mostly positive thoughts. Do you think watching it after the fact helped or am I totally misreading your feelings? 

this is a very funny ask to receive because i feel like all i've done is complain about how bad the show became starting around 7x01 but apparently all of my complaining has been confined to other spaces haha. i do, however, think that not having to wait and watch week-to-week helped me get through it and enjoy it more than i would've if i'd still been watching it live, but even the ability to binge it can't fix what i think are the show's three fatal flaws:

1. negan—i know this is an unpopular opinion but negan is one of the worst things to happen to the show. he takes up so much space and energy and yet the show never fully commits to actually doing anything with him. in s7 they literally bashed us over the head with his villainy and it was boring. his monologues were supposed to be menacing; they were supposed to make us scared to find out what he was capable of, but all they really turned out to be were long and corny and so fucking frequent that you couldn't help but tune out. i didn't need to hear him monologue about being an asshole to know he was cruel. i got that perfectly fine from his actions and the actions of the people who worked for him.

and he was cruel, in a way no other villain on the show was, but the show so desperately wanted to keep jdm around that they shot themselves in the foot by trying to pull back on the cruelty. yeah sure negan will bash several people's brains out with a baseball bat just for fun in front of a child but he would never lay a finger on that child. no, no, he didn't threaten the kid. he was just bonding with him.

yeah sure negan will force women's hands so that they feel there's no other option than to marry him and therefore sleep with him but he'll kill a blatant rapist. don't you get it? he's evil and you should fear him (but forget all that because he's totally redeemable).

yeah sure he'll help burn hilltop to the ground but don't you see he's actually on your side. like?? it's not nuance or moral complexity or shades of gray. it's just bad writing so that jdm can stick around, despite there being zero reason for negan to still be around. negan is responsible for so much damage and loss of life (and loss of potential in the form of community building) that it is unconscionable to me that he can ever show his face among any of the survivors. he wasn't a compelling villain and he's somehow an even less compelling reluctant ally. let maggie kill him already. at least there'd be a little catharsis in that.

2. rapid world expansion—this is difficult because long-running shows need world expansion to keep from becoming stale and repetitive but you have to strike a balance between expanding the sandbox and straight up changing the sandbox. i think the show did a really good job of opening up the world in the first six seasons. everything up to and including alexandria felt real and grounded in the world that they had established. in atlanta (and the outskirts of) they were such a small group and operating within such a limited amount of space that it made sense whenever they came across new places and/or new people (the farm, the prison, woodbury, grady memorial, terminus, etc). and then making the pilgrimage up to dc and finding alexandria all made sense as well. they spent time establishing what alexandria was and how it came to be.

but that explanation relied heavily on the idea that alexandria was isolated (i mean, aaron had to go out and travel just to recruit people ffs). so when you then add in the kingdom, hilltop, the saviors, the scavengers, oceanside, etc. you're saying, "actually there is a giant interwoven network of communities all around that somehow just magically never crossed paths with alexandria, not even when they were dealing with the gigantic horde that should've threatened all of them." and it makes no sense. and then add to that the commonwealth, the whisperers, and whatever the fuck the crm is. it's just too much. and none of those places they added in are ever really established in any meaningful way, with any real connection to our protagonists.

the commonwealth is the worst example of this. it's a a community of fifty-thousand people, most of whom seem to be completely out of touch with the reality of the apocalypse, and it's never really explained how. how do they keep walkers out? how do they have plumbing? how do they have electricity? how is noise not an issue? where is the food coming from? the weapons and ammunition? what were they doing with the train cars at the beginning because it seems like actually they accept everyone? why were they so suspicious? none of it's ever explained past a few comments and vague allusions here and there. they just plucked us out of the zombie apocalypse and plopped us into a dystopian society and said, "have fun at your new playground!" and i'm sorry but i'm not having fun. this is not the playground i signed up for.

3. rapid cast expansion—this one goes hand in hand with the world expansion. the show needs to add in new characters to replace departing characters and to introduce new and fresh dynamics but it's important that those characters matter in relation to their connection to the found family the show's been establishing for 5+ seasons. in my opinion, the last time the show successfully added new characters to the group was when they introduced abraham, rosita, and eugene (*there's a notable exception of 1.5 characters to this but i'll get to that in a second).

it's not that i don't like any of the characters they add after that, it's that none of them feel like family. none of them ever feel fully integrated into the group or fully realized as character in their own right. they're just... there. i like ezekiel and enid and jerry and princess and connie etc but they just don't matter. they're just people who also exist. the thread that ties them to the group i care about is a shared living space and desire to survive, not anything they've actually been through together. and that's kind of stupid because they've been through a lot together (fighting the saviors, building their communities, the whisperers, the stuff at the commonwealth, etc). it just doesn't feel like it because they're all so spread out geographically (due to the rapid world expansion) and because their connections aren't really to the family, but to the communities at large. and that doesn't work on a character-driven show.

*the exceptions to this are, in my opinion, dwight and maybe jesus. dwight is the only later seasons character that the show puts any effort into actually making me root for. some of that's because he starts out as an antagonist and therefore has to redeem himself but a lot of it is because he does actually redeem himself. i understand why he did everything horrible he did in the first place and i sympathize with it, but then i also watched him put his own life on the line over and over and over again simply because it was the right thing to do. dwight was held more accountable for his actions than any other single character in the history of the entire freaking show and despite proving himself, they still send him away just so they don't have to look at his face. and i know it was because he was going over to FTWD but damn does that suck because he's one of the only later seasons characters that actually feels fully developed.

i have some thoughts about jesus as a character and why he feels more fully integrated and realized than, say, gabriel or aaron but they're still very jumbled so i'm not going to get into it right now.

anyway, the point is that there are all these characters that the show is telling me matter and are important to my characters but they don't ever give me a reason to believe that beyond the fact that they just all happen to be on the same side.

so. yeah. i don't like the show anywhere near as much as it probably seems like i do and those three issues are the main reasons why. i have smaller gripes too (eugene never being held accountable for anything ever, rosita dying, michonne leaving her children, etc) but they're not structural issues, you know?

and despite having said all of this, i immediately started rewatching as soon as i got to the end because i do really love the found family of it all.

[intothewickedwood]

Character ask game!

Emma Swan - 6, 11, 15, 19, 25 ?

Hi! Thank you so much :D!

6. My least favorite ship of them

Oh gosh, I'mma get murdered for this, so I'll just say, canon end game. I used to be a hard core fan but just fell out of love with the ship in s5. Power to those who ship it though! Nut I guess my real least favourite ship would be something wild like, Emma x King George. That would certainly be something!

11. What’s the first thing you think about when thinking about the character?

I'm not 100 percent sure what it usually is, but right now it's an aesthetic board with swans, hot cocoa with cinnamon and white wooly jumpers.

15. Worst storyline they had

I did not enjoy the Dark Swan storyline at all. I couldn't wait for it to finish. I could never have abandoned the show (I love it way too much!) but I remember feeling sad about the possibility of it never bringing me as much joy as it did pre-s5. Luckily, although my second least favourite season, I like season 6 well enough and loved s7!

I was really looking forward to all that Emma could becoming the dark one could entail since the s4 finale. All the potential! I think I'm a rare viewer who did not like the Camelot aesthetic at all. The Camelot characters weren't too memorable to me.

l thought the first episode of the first arc was quite promising. I liked the psychological stuff going on with Emma, but she was so stoic in full Dark One mode that we didn't get to witness or understand her turmoil in present-day SB.

But the thing I found most disappointing was honestly her costume. I just couldn't take her seriously or accept her as a genuine threat with that hair and outfit. I saw so many post s4-finale Dark Swan fanart designs that looked so cool! She could have gone full on dark swan fairytale princess, or if she didn't wanna wear a dress, maybe a darker version of her heroes & villains au costume. I've just finished rewatching 5a and I honestly feel that I would have liked the arc so much more if her Dark One design was cooler, which is pretty wild to think about.

19. The most random ship you've seen people have with them

I feel like I saw an Emma x Grumpy once

25. When do you think they acted the most ooc

I know not everyone feels this way but to me it was post s4. I guess it's hard to say she was ooc as the dark one, as she was possessed by another entity and I think I'd act different then too. And then after she was free of the Dark One, I guess I could chalk it up to trauma. But I did miss how she used to be. To me she felt like a very different character. But I do feel like she felt more like herself when she returned for s7. More full of life. So yeah, very much could have been trauma, when I think about it.

I also have a theory that in the same way Lily said that her whole life is darkness and she's wired for bad decision making unless Emma's around, I feel the opposite is true for Emma. So I think maybe Lily's presence in SB inadvertently filled Emma's life with darkness and led to some bad luck. Still love Lily though! They should have asked her if she wanted the serum to separate her from Emma's darkness. Maybe then things would be better for both Emma and Lily. Maybe the reason Emma arguably didn't do anything super heinous as the Dark One was because her full potential for darkness was put into Lily. Maybe she just couldn't even if she tried.

[ohnopeh]

i love this post cause yes, absolutely 1000%. i’ve been watching shameless since the end of season 2 which means i had to go through 3x06 and the ending of s3 as it aired, waiting for s4, reading about cameron having other projects and wondering what that meant for ian’s character. s4 was a blast and when mickey came out i couldn’t believe it! then s5 happened and i think it was the worst time of my life as i spent my sunday night awake till 6am (bc fuck timezone) so i could watch the episode live, aware that i’d have to wake up two hours later to go to school— but there was literally not even a episode in that season that made you think ‘it’s gonna be okay’ which made it impossible to chill out after the episode ended! so would could even go to bed or function properly when all i wanted to do was being on tumblr and read people’s thoughts? there were some accounts that had access to episodes earlier and would make posts with emojis or answer questions very cryptically which only increased my anxiety cause it was never good news lol. when mickey said i love you on the phone i couldn’t believe it and kept hoping they would talk about it eventually ( which never happened ).

then interviews and tweets about noel not coming back and having other projects started to float around. i spent my days, weeks and months trying to analyse everything hoping that they were simply pulling our legs to make their make up worth it. then cam tweeted about noel’s journey on shameless ending and i wanted to cry my eyes out!!! when 6x01 happened i felt like shit and stopped watching shameless all together. i love(d) the show and watched it for every character but i was so damn pissed at the whole thing, the frustration and emotions i felt really didn’t do well for me and i started hating anything related to the show and its characters— i randomly found out noel was coming back for s7 and again i had my hopes up and got punched in the face with that ending. i zoned out of the fandom/show once again only to randomly find out about their reunion in prison + them coming back for the last two seasons and i couldn’t believe it!!!

my experience with shameless was like going to war, i feel traumatised by all the emotions it made me feel, the anxiety they would mess the characters/couple, not knowing if they would be a thing, mickey’s character being treated like shit etc. i used to love reading their fics back in the day and i had to force everything away from me cause it really pissed me off and the fact that it made me feel that way pissed me off even more cause ian and mickey were and are comfort characters to me and have it ruined by a greedy fucker who wouldn’t pay actors properly made me go nuts. now that everything is over, they’re happy, can’t be touched and potentially ruined anymore, i feel content and i could go back to the show that had been a comfort to me all those years ago— to a new, older, more mature and depressed me that can appreciate the show more than ever! although i still struggle to watch s6-9 without feeling rage in my little hateful heart, i know they made it to the end and it’s all worth it. i don’t care if the show became less serious than what it was, i welcomed it even as i really needed the boys to be okay and happy and in love with their shared i love yous.

so yes, back then everything about them, their scenes post break up etc. could only make me rage and feel empty, now that it’s over and i know they’re happy, some of those scenes have found a new meaning to fit with later seasons and i can find comfort in them knowing it’s not the end!

bless those who didn’t give up and made them come back, i smooch you all

(fun act, mickey’s full name was thanks to fanfic writers that just made it up one day and kept using it over and over, seeing it as canon. so when 7x09 happened, one writer that interacted lots with fans decided to use it and make it canon in the show too! she tweeted about it back then, i tried to find the tweet but found out she deleted her account cause,, well. she got lots of hate)

I love this revisit of season 7 Gallavich, because I love those episodes. They are absolutely the comfort episodes I'm most likely to put on if I just want to watch some Gallavich (and then bonus Monica chaos, with Lip falling apart in the corner.) But when I see this sort of literal celebration of the season and those precious two episodes, I always think of the people who watched that shit LIVE. And they were not celebrating.

Context is everything. When you know how the story ends, and you know that isn't the ending, and you know you can just fully skip season 8 on your rewatch, 7x10 and 7x11 are really lovely, bittersweet, emotionally cathartic episodes.

I try to keep this in mind in fandom -- though to make it silly, maybe I can also keep this in mind in life -- that sometimes all you need is a little time and a different perspective, and it's not that bad. It might even be pretty good.

[yeo-rims]

the fact that they have to use the fat character as a plot device for some growth or whatever is so lame it’s like the 10th time druck misses the point so fcking badly it even makes me wonder if they actually care about what they’re trying to say. if it was any other series, not one that people go around saying it is informative and educational, maybe I wouldn’t be so upset. but just like their treatment of characters that aren’t skinny/white is so very telling. sam, who had no plot outside men, amira who simply had no plot in her own season, ava and the way she is treated by the narrative, how now lou is now a mean to an end and not a character, how finn has no lines whatsoever and how they managed to fck it up a season from a character that had so much potential and not because of a lame love triangle, but bc they were too weak to improve and instead they’re trying to do something that is palatable to their audience... like, i have a lot of complains about druck (see above), but the og seasons at least they were daring to do something new, have mia being an awful person and being called out for it, having the sa* scene not be about a man, the whole third season (outing scene aside), the scene when amira punches a girl, the other scene when amira throws a ball at a n*zi, fkng s5, man, the amount of care and consideration that went into nora’s diagnosis (being someone who’s studies that, i knew it since the beginning what she had bc they actually did a good job), fatou and kieu my being an interacial couple and none of them are white, just fatou learning she has a learning disability (which i still think she should’ve known prior and it would make the season more compelling), ava and fatou's bond.... like, i’m far from being a druck hater, i even went to another continent bc of them which is wild, but also the best experience of my life. but like s7 actually highlights everything that is wrong with the team behind it (either the writers, the company) and the fandom. it’s fine to disagree, but people in here are so disingenuous and mean and don’t realize how much they hurt others with their racism/fatphobia. i know those things are deeply rooted but how can y’all claim to be so woke and just act like this... it’s like a reflection, you know? this season is as bad as the fandom, bc the moment we showed them we actually care more about some random white boy named william than josh, the moment fatou’s season isn’t trending and people are more concerned about mailin... that’s when they just go the opposite direction. do i think this is tumbledotcomsfandom fault? not entirely, of course. it’s all over the yt, ig, tt... for once, i think we’re not even the worst part of it. but still, it’s very upsetting and so very sad to see something i love and care for so deeply to be reduced to people yelling about the white best friend, completely missing the point many marginalized people are making just bc yall don’t think the sht druck is doing can actually hurt the viewers. not to mention the complete disregard of one's gender. but this is long enough already.

[nolabballgirl]

Skamfr is now finished this week. The story of Maya and Lola. What was promising has now turned into disappointing end. It would have been better if the original creator David made this story, no? To pick up from Season 6. The new team does not feel the esence of Mayla.

hi, Anon! thanks for your ask! so looking at skam france as a whole, i actually don’t think this season was THAT bad (or as bad as people make it out to be.) and certainly, david hourrègue made extremely terrible decisions as a showrunner. let’s review:

imane’s season (s4) was one of the worst sana seasons period. arguably the only worse sana season was wtfock s5, and the bar is below the basement floor for that remake.

and they made daphne into one of the most ignorant and racist versions of a vilde (to be surpassed only by the horridness that was amber in wtfock).

manon/charles (s2) was the worst version of noorhelm in any remake. of an already problematic couple, the skam france version was even more terrible and they took that suckage into imane’s season to ruin their version of yousana.

emma’s season (s1) was a paint by number copy of the OG with no original thought. arthur’s season (s5) had potential and then devolved (the car! justice for alexia!)

the treatment of characters of color has been a travesty from both david’s time and going into shirley’s.

as for shirley, let’s talk about her seasons:

s7 had tiff as main. now if you thought isi’s apology to ava in druck was bad, well rewatch tiff’s non-apology apology to lola in s7. really the only way to like tiff is really to imagine her with a complete personality transplant as she appears in s9. but think about all the white privilege and gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss moments in s7. the way tiff treated judith and aurélien -the two main black characters that season - was dirty. what was the ultimate takeaway of that season?

s8 (bilal) another season with promise but bilal’s story played second fiddle to that of jo in the back half of that season and once again a character of color is done dirty in favor of a white woman.

so coming back to maya s9, i’m not saying that this season is good. but the first half of this season was pretty solid. like previous seasons, shirley tends to lose the plot in the second half of the season, which is what happened here. and i wish different decisions were made/written in this back half of episodes. and i wish maya’s backstory was explored a heck of a lot more.

anyway, i have no idea how this season will end up, but i do think that in the overall skam france canon, s9 is by no means at the bottom.

[whatthehelliswrongwithme]

Voltron Part 29

Okay, guys, gals and nonbinary pals. It's time for the season 6 finale! As always I'll also put my thoughts bout this season as a whole into this part. Hope you enjoy!:

Lotor, hows the weather like in there? You know? Up your arse. Because you're so fucking full of yourself

Is Keith's scar-thingy permanent?

Lotor: "Omae wa mou shindeiru"

Voltron: "NANI?!"

This asshole is worse than Abra with all these teleports

Remember when I said that this show couldn't get more anime, when Sailor Moon appeared? Well now they've got a sword...... that's on fire

Pidge you just send you lion head/Voltron's fist flying towards Lotor. Weren't you sitting in that?

Allura, why won't you leave Lotor in the quintessence-realm? Do you still have feeeeliiiings?

Is it done? Is the ass dead?

Let the joyous news be spread, that wicked old ass at last is dead!

Good. Won't miss him

Noooo! Not the castle!

Sailor Moon hasn't said a word the last few episodes. But simply by standing next to Allura, I know that this ship exists

I love the idea of them saving the universe, while having all of their shit packed into the lions

They're just glorified U-haul trucks now

Hunk, what kind of eagle-eyes do you have to have seen this castle-diamond-thingy?

I don't really care about Shance. But I appreciate the scene of Lance angsting over Shiro

Heeeeey!!! "Shiro" is Shiro again!

But why the fuck is all of his hair white (gray?) now?

Also, wouldn't it feel fucking weird to just like not have your body anymore. And instead someone else's. Even if it's an exact replica of you....

But, also: SHEITH!

They're finally going to earth!!!! I've predicted it since season 2 and now it's finally happening!

Thoughts on the season as a whole:

I really, really liked this season

Seriously, better than season5 and much better than season4

Many good episodes, fave was probably "Cheaper by the dozen, but it's just Shiro" because of !Sheith!

But the DnD episode was also really good

I disliked that Keith aged 2 years on the space whale, to bond with his mom

Because it wasn't acknowledged AT ALL. Even though 2 years is such a long time!

I'm still conflicted about this whole "Shiro was actually a clone" thing

Might actually make another "Rant"-post about this

(Also, in terms of foreshadowing: Apparently "Kuron" literally means clone. So I can see how that theory existed.)

(I just knew, that "Kuro" means black. And I thought that this was supposed to mirror the Shiro-white thing)

{Huge thanks to @living-for-fiction and especially @non-plutonian-druid for explaining!}

It's nice to have Keith back in the MAIN-main cast. Feels good to have him back. Missed him

Shiro is his own whole situation. I'm glad to have him back. I just hope that the writers won't fuck his character up

Lance had some serious self-reflection since season1. And I actually kinda enjoy him now. Being so smitten by Allura is kinda cute

Allura is weird. She's got that whole angst/confidence issue going on, because she was fooled by Lotor. But honestly, she's kind of right. She really should have been more suspicious of him

(Also: Why didn't you "die" this finale?)

Pidge is my sassy, unhinged nerd daughter. And no one can take that away from me

Hunk is my nerdy, sunshine boy who's a little bit too much into cooking. But I still love him, and he had some good scenes

Lotor's dead. Good. Finally. Hated him from the start. He was irredeemable ever since he killed Furry

Moustache man is great. I'm still mad that the fandom gave Shiro the title of "Space dad", when he's clearly so much more deserving of it

Krolia, Sailor Moon and space wolf..... seem interesting? They haven't had any real time to shine

Though I still absolutely love Sailor Moon's design

Sheith! There was so much Sheith! And that's great! So much content! And honestly, these two just have the best dynamic between all the characters

Allurance is cute. And I'm kinda rooting for it now. I just hope, that it won't be as one-sided anymore

Lotura had a kiss! But also, one of the people involved in this ship died. So.... I'm sorry for any Lotura shippers

Klance, Plance and Punk had a few crumbs here and there

Shallura starved the past few seasons, and is now a skeleton in the corner. It's cute, but there's like no canon content/potential anymore

Predictions/Hopes for season 7:

Are they gonna do a space road trip to get to earth? Will they make truckstops, sit in a diner and drink milkshakes?

When Voltron combines, do you think that everyone inside can just walk from one lion to another? I want them to just, float through space, combined as Voltron, living out their lives.

Seriously, just imagine them, basically using their giant-murder-robot as a house

Sorry, Allura. But I want Keith to replace you again. You can do your own thing with this castle-diamond-thingy and the team-constellation of S1 and S2 returns

ACTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT KEITH AGED 2 FUCKING YEARS!

Season 1+2 felt like one big arc, and it ended in a mech battle against Zarkon. Season 3-6 felt like one big arc and ended in a mech battle against Lotor. I'm gonna guess that S7+8 are the next big arc, which will also end in a mech battle, probably against space witch

I'm honestly expecting the worst, because everyone seems to dislike S7. So.... maybe I'll be positively suprised

I've noticed that the parts, where I just review 1 episode are getting more notes? Are these smaller, bit-sized parts better to read?

Anyways! Once again, thanks for all the support I've been getting! It's really fun to read your guy's comments! Appreciate all kinds of notes! Love Y'all!!!❤

[hanna-water]

(Quick summary: i think drucks writers are just as culpable as the network for the crap that the show became.)

I know the writers of druck would like us all to believe that creative differences between them and the network/bosses were to blame for the demise of druck's quality during the 2nd gen - but i just don't buy it. S5 was arguably druck's best season and it introduced us to a gang of new and exciting characters. They successfully overcame the biggest hurdle in spectacular fashion- replacing a much beloved cast of characters with completely new faces - and laid the foundation for a riverting 2nd generation. Subsequent seasons should have been easy wins.

So when S6 went live it was instantly apparent (to me that some of the magic in their storytelling had been lost and) that they'd reduced fatou, a popular and lovable character, to a spectator in her own season. They had erased a lot of her quirks and instead flatened her character into the usual muted and depressed prototype. The highest priotity was clearly given to quickly developing Kieu My's arc, while simultaneously fumbling Ava's character by poorly shoehorning sideplot about race - a serious topic that clearly deserved to unfold naturally with a gradual resolve. In truth they were better off giving the season to Ava and the next one to Kieu My. Fatou had so little development in her own season that all the important parts of her journey could have adequately and organically been covered as side plots across Ava and Kieu My's seasons - it would not have disrupted the flow of their seasons like their involvement did in fatou's season.

I make all of these remarks knowing that the writers of season 6 did a far superior job than the writers of s7 and s8 and they at least wanted to tell a good story, despite the execution sometimes betraying their intentions. The true sabbatage of drucks legacy happened with s7 and s8.

Theres really not much to be said about s7 and s8 that hasn't already been said. They are heavily criticised and mocked for good reason. They're absolute disaster projects and stains on druck's previously good reputation . s8, imo, claims the title of being the worst of the two.

As mentioned before. I know druck's writers stress that they wanted to cover different themes but they were not given the green light for those ideas. It can't be understated how much of a failed it was that they were incapable of goinf back to the drawing board and revising their og ideas so they could still deliver strong characters with good stories. It is non-sensical that the writers were handed a dynamic, diverse and interesting group of characters, yet they only managed to chip away at all the potential at increasing speeds with the turn of each new season following s5. How? The network was definitely at fault for blocking the writers from telling the new and meaningful stories that they had planned, but the writers also demonstrated that they had little skill in being adaptable and writing engaging and interesting characters/stories when met with a challenge.

interesting analysis. I don´t really know what to add to that because I already wrote so many rants 😅 about s7 and s8. But still wanna share your message, because why not?

[cabeswaterdrowned]

btvs + tvd for the ship meme!

Btvs

otp: Spuffy & Fuffy. & Coffy. in that order tbh but I do adore them all favourite canon pairing: Spuffy. other than them I’m only really into Sprusilla and primarily s5 Willara worst pairing ever: I mean it’s Buffy/Giles obviously people who ship that are freaks. but otherwise anything involving Xander (usually I can like ships even if I dislike a character in them if there’s merit to a dynamic imo but here I can not somehow I just … hate him so much lol). Any canon ship that isn’t the three I just mentioned mostly isn’t for me guilty pleasure pairing: I don’t really have one, also I never quite know what this is supposed to mean and most of my ships for this verse aren’t like, healthy. but Willow x Amy would be like another level of toxic even by Buffyverse standards and I do find the idea kind of fun, although I never sought  content for it. and the rare time I’ve seen a Buffy x Drusilla post I’ve been like ! a pairing you want to see more: Buffy x Tara & Buffy x Kendra & Faith x Willow & Willow x Anya all those ships are great, especially Faith x Willow which I’m a vocal advocate for. Oh and Cordelia x Anya would’ve been rad that pairing everyone likes but you’re like “lol no”: Bangel but I used to notp it and now I do respect it a lot more for it’s place in Buffy’s narrative and see some merit in it, but it’s still really not my cup of tea romantically. I don’t hate hate it anymore but still. favorite non-romantic pair: Buffy & Dawn + Tara & Dawn the absolute best! Buffy & Giles. also Buffy and Willow but them I do occasionally like romantically (mostly I like the thought of them having crushes on each other in s3 and then growing out of them, but post Alyson Hannigan talking about them dating in S7 I do sometimes find the idea a little fun too). But like primarily I love their friendship. I also just sort of love Tara’s dynamics with all the Scoobies. Spike and Dawn even if reading some things about James and Michelle has made me feel worse about this but I did love their written dynamic. they don’t get too many scenes one on one but I love Spike and Willow when they’re together, also as foils.

TVD otp: Bamon & Beklena. favourite canon pairing: Steroline & Stebekah. worst pairing ever: Caroline x Alaric seems really obvious as the worst one. DE & SE I think I’ve had a stronger negative reaction to DE in the past because it’s a) a ship that I expected to like when I first watched but didn’t which is never fun and b) because it took up so much narrative space in the later seasons, whereas SE mostly just bored me. now I have a more eyeroll-y reaction to both with distance that isn’t full on hatred per se. I could not stand Matt x Caroline. I know in the grand scheme of TVDu ships it’s not like that insidious but it grated on me a lot guilty pleasure pairing: I guess Katholine would be this I really loved them tbh, also Klaroline and Steferine. and Datherine I don’t think about them as much but I enjoy them together. a pairing you want to see more: Beklena & Bonora & Katholine. also Kennett had a lot of potential that pairing everyone likes but you’re like “lol no”: Delena & Stelena favorite non-romantic pair: Elena and Katherine !!! my favorite dynamic on the show. I tried to think of a more traditionally positive friend/family dynamic that would qualify but honestly idk. I like Barolena dynamics sometimes but how I feel about each one sort of … varies depending on the day as does if I ship any of them romantically. the closest I can think of otherwise is Elena and Jenna rip

I obviously did not include Ats/TO ships like Cangel and Klayley in this

thank you so much! <3

(send me a fandom and I’ll answer questions for ships)

[blodreina-noumou]

The 100: One Final Rewatch - Part 2

Introduction

This is it. My send-off to The 100. One full, complete rewatch. Season one to season seven. Episode 1 to episode 100. Every cringeworthy, beautiful, brutal, heartwarming moment. Every chopped plot thread, every inspiring character arc, every sailing and sunken ship. Every gut-wrenching death and every narrow escape. The best, the worst, the utterly mediocre.

All of it, in order, one last time.

(Part One.)

Episode 1x01: “Earth Skills”

Highlights

Best quotes:

“When the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn’t the last Grounder.” - I love this in part because later in the season we get a glimpse of the list of Ark-Grounders. It’s a fun little world-building detail.

“What’s up here,” gestures to Monty’s brain, “is going to save us all.” - And it did. If we pretend s7 never happened.

“You’re the youngest zero G mechanic on the ark in 50 years.” ... “52, but...so what?” - Raven’s love of accuracy coming through, as well as a cute little humblebrag. God I love s1 Raven so much.

Best moments:

1. A pretty small thing, but I love all the background shots of The Hundred going absolutely buckwild as Wells returns from burying the ones who died on the dropship. The two teenagers just openly making out on the forest ground. The boys chasing and tackling each other. The fucking drum circle. Those little background moments are so dumb and fun. Some magic was lost along with the Delinquents. The Hundred deserved more attention and time.

2. Raven! Spacewalking! Smiling! Sneaking around places and learning things she shouldn’t! Raven figuring out the kids were taking the wristbands off in like two seconds! My heart soared when I saw her. Raven!

3. When Bellamy seriously considers killing Clarke in that spike pit. If only the other boys hadn’t shown up to help him save her. Can you imagine how different this show would be if Bellamy killed Clarke in episode 2?? One can dream.

Lowlights

Worst quotes:

“What’s wrong with a little chaos?”

“You’re too hot to be my brother’s bitch.”

“No, Atom. I won’t be disobeyed.”

(These are all gonna have to do with Bellamy until he calms tf down, sorry.)

Worst moments:

1. Less than two minutes into the episode, the crew stumbles on a humanoid skeleton, with one creepy twist - the skull is misshapen and strange. This is never explained. The Grounders are just normal humans. The Reapers? Normal humans on drugs that make them scary cannibals. There is nothing in this universe that ends up with a skull shaped like that and it will always make me mad.

2. I really wanted to skip through all the scenes with Team Adult. The only thing that saves the scenes on the Ark in these early episodes is Raven. I was rolling my eyes so much in all the scenes with Kane and Abby and Jaha. I just don’t care. 

3. I have to bring it up again because god - Bellamy stringing up Atom in the woods for kissing Octavia is not only cruel but also insanely childish and possessive of his little sister. It’s so weird and I think a lot of Bellamy fans gloss over this, and a lot of the other shitty things he does, in these first few episodes. He is literally an antagonist for the first five episodes! He does fucked up shit and no one talks about it!!

Small Things

What I Never Noticed Until Now

1. Kane says Bellamy is from Factory Station. That means Octavia and Aurora were also from Factory Station, right? I guess it makes sense, since Aurora was a seamstress. I’ve always had a hard time paying attention to the Ark scenes in the beginning. (This is also yet another example of world-building that had a lot of potential and no follow-through. A full prequel about the Ark would interest me. I want to know more about the different stations and their roles.)

2 - I don’t know how I missed it, I guess it’s testament to how little these episodes interest me, but the squad rescuing Jasper gets attacked by a (poorly CGI’d) big cat and Wells shoots the shit out of it and Bellamy says, “Now she sees you,” right in front of Clarke?? It’s a weird moment and I’m so glad the show drops a lot of this dumb teen love drama after s1. Apparently I didn’t think at all about where they got the meat at the end. I swear I paid more attention as the series went on.

MVP of the Episode

Raven Reyes!! She brings so much life to this series. A sassy but capable young mechanic whose just old enough to have missed getting sent to the ground, pairing up with the clueless adults around her so she can save her boyfriend’s life. She brings a lot of wit and heart to the series before it fully figures out what those things are. 

Overall Impression

This episode improves on the pilot...barely. Everyone has settled into their post-pilot looks, which is comforting. A lot of the writing is still really clunky, but it seems like the actors are starting to settle into their characters and figuring out the tone of the show. It could be better, but it could’ve been a lot worse.

Episode Rating: 4/10

The first four episodes are going to get low rankings, y’all. But there are brighter moments ahead! Because, as we know, shit gets real in the next episode.

[sometimesrosy]

hi rosie! I know it's been months since the 100 ended and I've seen lots of people talk about how they failed bellamy and clarke but I was wondering what you thought of raven and her storyline in s7. do you think it was good for her character and her story arc?

Ahh. Raven’s arc.

Yeah, so the problem with Raven’s arc is JR hasn’t known what to do with her since season 5. Season 4 was the last season with a good character arc for her, and even that one had a major character glitch as he tried to take her from the pragmatist who would blow up a bridge or dam or tell Clarke to kill Lxa while surrounded by her armies, to a person who said “it’s not your blood that matters, it’s your heart.”  Which was one of the worst lines in this whole show. It’s not even funny like “we’re back bitches!” It’s just corny and soppy and dumb. Her character shift on science island always felt false to me. It should have been Bellamy who held Clarke in check with morality, since that had been HIS character arc. I thought it was a misstep then, and now knowing the entire narrative arc, I think it was where they started to go wrong with Raven. Until then she was my third favorite character after Clarke and Bellamy.

I ALWAYS had a problem with this, but I was giving them the benefit of the doubt that they could pull it out. Season 5 was the least bad for her, with her sacrifice for spacekru on the ship, but honestly I didn’t think they went far enough with that. I feel like they should have explored her feelings of guilt more at not being able to get her friends home, or leaving Clarke behind alone.  And there was great potential in the scene where she and Clarke took McCreary down using her own body as the weapon (especially for a character whose body was always in pain and whose body had failed her... idk that’s quite some symbolism there,) but instead they chose to retreat and turn her back into the judgmental shrew that told Bellamy he shouldn’t have saved the slaves, and told Clarke she was the one who said whether everyone lived or died.

So like. She never addressed with Clarke what happened with Finn at his death. The blame she put on Clarke, when SHE wanted to instigate a war that would have had them all exterminated, including Finn. For some reason, the genius couldn’t connect those dots that her plan would have caused all of her people to massacred? I mean, it’s normal for her to have that failure in such a time of high emotion, but six years later, she still thinks Clarke was wrong to do what she did? No. Plot hole. Forgetting all the times that she enabled Clarke’s plans, or eagerly set about torturing and killing (remember SHE’S the one who electrified Lincoln without a BIT of the remorse that Clarke and Bellamy had,) is a failure of character.

Also, she never addressed the FACT that she wanted to trade Murphy to the grounders for Finn’s life and have him tortured to death in place of her boyfriend who was a literal mass murderer, AND she blamed Murphy for Finn’s actions when Murphy was the one trying to stop him the whole time. And THIS is a plot hole for a character arc and narrative line that was about Raven having learning about forgiveness and morality and leadership and sacrifice and hard decisions, and making judgments on Murphy, who frankly has been one of the most moral characters of the show since season 2. His morality might not be the SAME as everyone else’s, but it was the most firm.  So, this narrative arc again did not go FAR enough. 

In season 5, I figured that they would make up for the s5 scanty Raven storyline with a stronger s6 one.. That didn’t happen. I thought maybe it was because her love interest left, so she took on his judgmental role, but it didn’t work well. I also thought that part of the problem was that it would make her into too big of a character and they needed to keep the focus on the main characters, Clarke and Bellamy. But from s5-7 MURPHY got a large role, too, that brought a thorough narrative arc and finished out his character journey. So he got the focus that they never managed for Raven. I hear tell that Richard helped Murphy’s story in season 7, so that might be why. But idk. It shows that they were capable of finishing a character story with attention and detail, but they just failed with Raven. 

So season 7 had Raven confronting her own leadership and putting her in Clarke’s place to face the judgment she put on Clarke. And...oh she was sad and felt guilt and had to face the repercussions of that. But... it didn’t go far enough. She was reunited with Clarke and was no longer angry at her, and they were a team again. But this wasn’t HER story arc. Her story arc just kind of went *sad trombone.*

I know she was the one who went into the anomaly and met with the sparkle aliens, but that just seemed so forced and fake. Yes, they built up the morality narrative, but... like. It should have been Clarke. Instead they turned her into the crazy vengeance lady, like Daenerys, even though her entire narrative was about her dealing with her pain and she kind of never killed anyone in vengeance? I mean she spent 6 years ALONE and she only wanted to kill herself? IDK. It doesn’t make sense that THIS was the end. She sent madi into battle too save Bellamy and that did make her crazy lady. She had her after death reckoning and we saw no crazy lady. 

Sorry, that went off into failure of Clarke’s story.

How did that affect Raven? I think that from about season 3, Raven was used as a substitute to fill in gaps where they lost characters, or moved characters around. Where they changed their narrative ideas, and they needed a narrative tool to do something, they would stick Raven in... because she was a strong character who was involved with all the other main characters (except maybe Octavia.) She became like a swiss army knife who would take the place of characters that were needed but didn’t fit. And that meant that HER character was not really consistent in the later half of the series.  And it feels WRONG. Someone’s judgy? Make it Raven. Someone’s empathetic? Make it Raven. Someone’s mean? Make it Raven. Someone’s righteous? Make it Raven. Someone’s a sister? Make it Raven. Someone’s a daughter? Make it Raven. Some main character needs a supporting character to prop them up? Make it Raven. They just moved her around to fit the other character’s stories. Even her big morality arc was to support Abby, Clarke, or Murphy. :/ THAT’S why it didn’t work when they made her the Clarke proxy in the transcendence narrative. Because she hadn’t actually worked through HER story, but through Abby’s Clarke’s and Murphy’s. Bleh.

And she also basically disappeared in a lot of season 7, too. Same as Octavia. Who had her story with Sky Ring and skyringkru, but then disappeared until she gave the inspiring peace speech with the goddamn petty, dumbass stupid grounders, whose main flaw FROM SEASON 1, is that they are too stupid to have survived this long. All they want to do is fight. And blame everyone else for what they did. And the eligius prisoners, and the brainless cult sheep. Honestly. 

And what do we have? The most unnuanced, flat character in the show. Sheidheda. Like there isn’t even any symbolism or archetypal energy in there. He’s just there to make them fight for NO FUCKING REASON. 

These are the characters who had decent story arcs that were resolved.

Murphy and Emori Diyoza Gabriel And Indra a bit. Better than most. 

Fucking DEV had a better character ending than Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, and Octavia. 

Actually, Mackson was satisfying, although skimpy. But then the characters didn’t have a really deep narrative line, so their ending was in keeping with their story. But it fit with their long term stated goals, what they wanted out of life. Just to be together in peace with maybe some chickens, by the shore, right? That was THEIR goal. The ending was theirs.

That was never what any of the other characters wanted. Or not ONLY. Do the right thing. Live a good life. Create a better society. Save humanity. Be good people. Live morally. 

nope. But it worked for Murphy’s ending too. He didn’t want to die alone. He died, with Emori. Then he came back and got to life his half life with his friends. 

I just can’t get over how they tossed the main story of being the good guys and saving humanity. I suppose there was always the question of whether they’d get a happy ending emotionally, but I never thought they’d destroy humanity, erase Bellamy and say Clarke was never the hero. 

I guess I needed to address the endings of the other characters to see how they all fit in with Raven’s. Because none of the characters stood on their own, so we have to see how they were woven together and compare and contrast.

Raven was my biggest disappointment as a character in this show from season 5 on. I kept waiting for her character arc to come together or get the attention Murphy got. She had the weight to be major character, but her story just wasn’t told. She became a supporting character and really lacked meaningful development.