#season 5 being the last season makes sense but also free him sooner

[ghostofwriting]

Someone free Drew Starkey from the outerbanks omg

[tamorapierce]

Tammy's Spring 2020 Reading Recommendations For the Bored

Sooner or later the bookhounds among us are going to start joining my relentless song, from age five on up, of “I don’t have anything to read!!!!”

 I am here to help.  In this space, as I get to it (knowing, as my readers do, that I have no sense of deadline), I will be posting a constant set of collections of book titles by authors my team and I have read and will recommend in a wild variety of genres and for a wild variety of ages.  (And I’ll give a short hint as to the subject of the first book/series—if I did them all I’d never finish this.)  This last is for the many of you who are reading teen and adult books in grade and middle school, and those adult readers who are reading teen and kidlit. These people are for those who love books and don’t care who is supposed to be reading them.  

 Also, you may have to look far and wee, since we will be drawing upon not only recently published books but older ones that we have either read recently or that we read long ago and have re-read or have never forgotten.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you when the writing is archaic.  If you’re a true nutsy reader like the rest of us, you won’t care.

 -Tammy Pierce

                                                        *     *     *

Assume the book came out within the last 2 years unless I put LO next to the title, which means you have to check libraries and bookstores online and paper for copies.

 *     *     *

 Diana Wynne Jones  LO

A generation or two of fantasy writers, particularly those who love humor, bow to this woman as our goddess.  Not only was she out of her mind in a very British and manic way, but with her TOUGH GUIDE TO FANTASYLAND she taught a number of us to ditch some ill-considered tropes of our genre.  If you write historic fantasy in particular, move heaven and earth to track this book down.  There’s a bonus: some of the entries will make you laugh till you cry.

           She is best known for her books for middle grade and teens, but they are enjoyable for all readers.  I cannot list them all here because my fingers will break (curse you, arthritis!), but these titles will give you a jumping-off point.  And remember, authors change with each book, so you won’t encounter the same author with each title as the author you read in the previous one!

           The Chrestomanci books, all in the same universe, in order of story,

                       not publication

Charmed Life  (1977) An innocent lad follows his plotting egotistical sister to live with England’s chief wizard

The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988)

Conrad’s Fate (2005)

Witch Week (1982)

The Magicians of Caprona (1980)

Short stories

 The Dalemark Quartet begins with

The Spellcoats (1979)

3 sequels

 The Derkholm books are

Dark Lord of  (1998)

Year of the Griffin (2000)

  The Tough Guide to Fantasyland is standalone, but is a kind of offshoot of the Derkholm books.  You don’t have to have read the Derkholm books to get Tough Guide!

 There are other books and stories by Jones—I’ll let you find them on your own.

  Philip Pullman

To this day I am unable to call him anything but Mr. Pullman—that’s how much in awe of the man I am.  We’ve had dinner together, talked on the phone, talked at an event or two, done a conversation on audio with Christopher Paolini—it’s still Mr. Pullman to me.  (I was an assistant in a literary agency when I discovered his work, and I never recovered.) He is, in a word, brilliant, and his interests range through all kinds of areas, particularly history and religion.  I could have talked with him forever that night we had dinner, but the poor man had jet lag and I let him go to collapse.  It was one of the best exchanges of ideals, values, and books I’ve ever had.  

Read his work carefully, because what he discusses is never just the story on top.  No matter what he writes, he is making strong points about social justice, human nature, religion, and history without preaching.  He is one of the few male writers out there who can write female characters as people, not Something Different.  And you never know, with his work, where he will go next.

 The Ruby in the Smoke,

book 1,  the Sally Lockheart mysteries

Victorian mysteries with a female hero and male assistants,

           The Book of Dust and sequel,

first 2 books of The Secret Commonwealth

           His Dark Materials trilogy

                       The Golden Compass

                       2 other titles                

           THE COLLECTORS

           LYRA’S OXFORD

           THE WHITE MERCEDES

           FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM

           I WAS A RAT!

           TWO CRAFTY CRIMINALS

           COUNT KARLSTEIN

           (I will stop here and let you find the rest. Most are available as Nook books.)

  Sharon Shinn

I discovered Sharon Shinn with JOVAH’S ANGEL, but a shortage of funds left me unable to pursue my interest (I am an economic disaster with libraries, so I buy rather than borrow) until, with a job and money to spend, I spotted THE SAFE-KEEPER’S SECRET.  It is the story of a medieval-ish world and a small village where a baby was left with a childless couple.  She is raised as their daughter and discovers, as she grows, that her mother is an important, a Safekeeper, the person to whom a secret can be told, relieving the person who told it of the weight of guilt from it, to be carried by the Safekeeper until the owner either decides to tell or dies.  (And if they die without giving permission, the Safekeeper never reveal the secret.)  The baby who is adopted by this town’s safekeeper becomes the safekeeper in her turn.

           The next book is THE TRUTHTELLER’S TALE, about a girl who acquires the gift (??) of telling the truth, whether the person she tells it to wants to hear it or not. The third book is The Dream-maker’s Magic.  The three main characters now learn why they have been brought together over the course of the two earlier books, in what I thought was a satisfying, if unusual, conclusion.

           And there’s more!  I just did the two I love best!

             THE SAFEKEEPER’S SECRET (book 1, two sequels)

           ARCHANGEL (4 books)

           TWELVE HOUSES (5 books)

           ELEMENTAL BLESSINGS (4 books)        

SHIFTING CIRCLE (2 books)

           UNCOMMON ECHOES

           GENERAL WINSTON’S DAUGHTER

           GATEWAY

 Daniel Jose Older

 I was a Daniel Jose Older fan before I was sent DACTYL HILL SQUAD for a blurb (preodactyls in flight!  Of all sizes!  Confederate spies!  Thuggish bigot northerners!  The backlash of Gettysburg and the forced recruitment of blacks for the war effort! And strong, smart, fierce kids of various ages, sizes, colors, national heritage, and skills doing their best to help the war against the slaves, keep escaped slaves safe, duck the cruel managers of the homes and jails where they are being kept, find a half-decent meal, free other kids in trouble, learn who’s killing their friends, and help the dactyls!  That’s part of it, anyway!

Yeah, I loved it.  And there’s at least one new book, and once I’ve mowed though that, there are his older teen books, and his grownup mysteries, with their half-dead taxi driver who doubles as a part-time troubleshooter for the undead powers in his Bone Street Rhumba series.  {happy sigh}

  Edgar Allen Poe

Yes, some of these are reminders of why we ended up to be the readers we are and to nudge us to corrupt—I mean, “introduce”—­new readers to the glories that are our legacies.

­

THE COMPLETE TALES AND POEMS OF EDGAR ALLEN POE

           Here are the greats:

poems like “The Raven,” and “Annabelle Lee”

stories like “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Telltale Heart,” and  ::shudder:: “The Pit and the Pendulum” (yes, a deep pit and a swinging pendulum topped with a razor-edged blade will be featured in this story).  

My dad would read these to us on dark and stormy nights when we lived near the Pacific ocean, when the fog came rolling in, softening every sound, when there were no cars driving by and no other sounds in our house but his deep voice and the crackle of the fire in the fireplace.  We would listen, soundless, as he wove the stories and poems around us and the foghorn sounded offshore.

           That’s the power of Poe.

  N. K. Jemisin

I think I began with Jemisin’s THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, soon followed by its sequel THE BROKEN KINGDOMS.  The series ended with a third book, THE KINGDOM OF THE GODS.  She presented a rich and varied world from the aspects of people of different classes, showing the growth of societies and their formation.  I have a secret passion for society-building and social interaction, and whether or not a book is difficult to read (as Jemisin’s books are in spots because she refuses to insult a reader by talking down to them) is immaterial.  I want the world and I want the characters, and with her far-reaching mind and her respect for her characters she delivers each and every time.  I have read almost everything she’s written since that first trilogy: if I’ve missed something, it’s because I was in the middle of a deadline and on the road and somehow didn’t see it.  I’ll catch up!  This is just a sample:

           For readers of all sexes and adult reading skills

 The City They Became (pub’d April 2020)

 The Inheritance Trilogy:

           The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, 2010

           2 book sequels

Novella: The Awakened Kingdom, 2014

                       Triptych: Shades in Shadow, 2015 (3 short stories) 

             The Dreamblood Duology:

           For readers of all sexes and adult reading skills

           The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, 2010

                       Two sequels

 The Broken Earth series:

         The Fifth Season (August 2015)

                       Two book sequels

And there are plenty of short stories out there.  I may even have missed a book or twelve!

For those who prefer to hear my ramble in person, a video!

[kassadeen]

Am I the only one that think Cody WAS offered to be in the movie?I'll explain. When I read his interviews where he first said he wasn't going to be in the movie I also thought that he was saying he wasn't asked to be a part of it, even if it was weird how he worded it: if they didn't contact you just say that, why would you mention your schedule at all? They either didn't ask you to join the movie or it's that you were busy and you couldn't, it can't be both at the same time. And then the teen wolf wiki guy, a friend of Jeff that always leaks a lot of behind the scenes and stuff beforehand (he told us about Dylan not being in the movie, Tyler and Ian Bohen actually being in it even if not announced yet and a lot of other things) months before the actual confirmation of these things. Well when Cody released that interview and the fans read it as him saying he wasn't asked to, the wiki guy pointed out how he said that he “hadn't been contacted” referring to a specific time where he was still free, mentioning then “obligations” of his schedule that came later and that are the reason he had to say no later when he was contacted. And if you read Cody's words again with this meaning in mind they make perfect sense and they don't sound weird anymore: there was a time when he was free and other actors were getting contacted for the movie, but he hadn't been contacted yet. So when he was asked to sign some projects (I'm guessing his new movie Jump Out and All American season 5) he signed thinking at that point he wasn't getting contacted for Teen Wolf at all. And THEN when he was actually contacted it was too late cause he already signed for other stuff and had those obligations. Which explains why he talks about “schedule” not alligning in his post on IG.

This being said, I still blame Jeff for contacing Cody late. We know always from the wiki guy that Khylin was contacted literally a couple of weeks before they started filming for the movie, so it's possible they did something similar with Cody, calling him last minute (maybe after seeing just how loud the fandom was about his absence), and obviously at that point it was too late.

They should have known because Cody is one of the few actors from TW that always worked a lot after the show, so if they really wanted him they should have asked him sooner and he would have been able to make it work.

At the same time the wiki guy always said that if the first movie does well the plan has always been a trilogy, and he hinted that if we actually get a second and third movie this time Cody will 100% be asked on time especially after they all saw the strong reaction of the fans to his absence from the first movie, and this also explains why Cody is still happy and supporting about the movie, knowing that he will probably be in the other two if the first one does well.

this is a very interesting way of seeing things. you just made me go back and read stuff over again and yk, it actually makes sense. his word choices, as you have pointed out, could really be interpreted that way. to he honest, i felt a little weird when hia official statement was about schedules not lining up but then i figured he said so to kinda soften the blow? but your explanation frankly makes more sense. and if it is true that they did contact him (even though it was too late) then maybe jd doesn't suck all that much, which is good.

i've also heard things about the possibility of a trilogy and although i don't quite trust jd to actually be able to make three successful movies, it could still be a good news for the slight chance of having theo in the next two.

[kaetiesmindpalace]

I’ll Be There -- A Destination Fear One Shot (Tanner Wiseman/Reader)

~CW: mentions of blood~

          The new season of Destination Fear was starting off with a new face amidst the cast. Seeing as this televised experiment revolves around how fear affects the mind, why not see how it affects someone who has not experienced any of this before? It also helped that you had been intrigued by the premise for a while and that you are dating Tanner, one of the cast members.

           The first location? Bobby Mackey’s Music World in Wilder, Kentucky.

           Pulling up to the location with you, Tanner who had an arm around you, and Chelsea in the front of the RV, it all seemed surreal. The stories involving the place including people being physically attacked made you very terrified for everyone’s safety.

           “I have an idea,” Dakota says after all the equipment is set up.

           Everyone by now knows that what follows those words usually is not a good idea. Well, they were good ideas in the sense that most of the time it was to increase the fear being tested, not so much a good idea for everyone’s liking and wanting to do.

           “We should start off with solos. Tanner, you have the honor of writing everyone’s name down to figure out who’s going first,” Dakota proclaims.

           Just as Tanner is about to start writing everyone’s name down, you spoke up with your own idea, “Why don’t I just do it and go first?”

           Everyone just stops and stares at you for your question, confusion and concern on their faces. Can you blame them? No one had offered to go do the crazy thing before.

           “Don’t give me that look. Does it really seem fair to pick names out of a hat when the only one who hasn’t done a solo is myself? I say let’s level the playing field a bit before having to pick names from a hat,” you say with as much confidence as you can muster.

           Dakota, Chelsea, and Alex nod their head a bit, understanding what you were saying. Tanner, on the other hand, still had concern written across his face as he approached you.

           “Are you sure about this?” he asks.

           “As sure as I can be,” you respond while looking at his handsome face, “I’ll have to do a solo eventually anyways so no point in trying to hide from it.”

           He nods a bit, understanding the implications of it all. You two and the rest of the crew were on this trip to explore fear and knew there is no way to protect one another from the scary things that lurk in these places 100% of the time. Sometimes, you must face these things head on. Was Tanner still nervous about you doing the first solo at your first ever location on the trip? Of course, but you made up your mind and are not often easily swayed to change it, and he knew that.

           As you gathered the equipment to head into Bobby Mackey’s alone, Tanner started to ramble, “Be safe out there. Walkie us if you need help,” before giving you a kiss on the cheek.

           “I may come up with some dumb ideas, but I’m not stupid enough to not call for help when I need it,” you say with a little bit of snark to diffuse the tension just a little bit.

           Luckily, the response did just as you hope it would. Everyone chuckled slightly and you started to head towards the entrance of Bobby Mackey’s with your camera in hand.

           “Alright, so my initial thought is to go big and go into the basement. Dumb idea, I know, but fear is what we are searching for, so fear is what I’m trying to get. The basement is where numerous people have gotten scratched, including Zak Bagans of Ghost Adventures fame, whom we all know Dakota has worked with. What’s scarier than the possibility of this happening?” you ramble on camera.

           As you enter the basement, you immediately get an eerie feeling. Something is not right, but you must keep chugging through with this; it’s your job now. Finding a place to sit on the floor, you decide to start the normal investigative procedures.

           “I’m right by the well in the basement and I’m going to do an EVP session with this digital recorder to see if I get any response,” you say as you hit the record button. “What is your name? How did you die? Why do you stay here?” you ask while giving some space in between questions to let the spirits answer.

           You continued to question for about ten minutes before stopping and playing back the recording. It seemed like nothing wanted to interact with you; you weren’t getting responses to your questions. That is, until you listened to your final question of “Is it true that there is something demonic here?”

        A loud, deep growl came through that you did not hear in real time. Your mouth formed an O just hearing it. With whatever in the basement besides yourself hearing this out loud, the growl seemed to shift the energy in the room. While the initial feeling when you entered was eerie, now it feels unsafe and that someone or something is right behind you.

       And maybe something was because suddenly you felt a burning sensation take over your back. You had seen enough paranormal shows in your life and heard many stories involving encounters to know that a burning sensation tends to mean that you got scratched.

       “So, I’m pretty certain that I got scratched across my back. I felt that burning sensation often described when scratches like these occur, but I can’t see my back. I’m going to have to call for some help to see how bad it is. I know I don’t look as scared as I probably should be; I think I am mostly internalizing it to try and process what is happening before I have a huge freak out,” you say into the camera as you take out your walkie.

        “Hey guys,” you say into your walkie.

       Tanner, Chelsea, Dakota, and Alex were all just chatting like normal friends do waiting for you to come back or walkie them. Even with the thought that you could walkie them, you unknowingly walkie scared them causing everyone to jump at the sound of your voice.

       “Guys,” you say as your voice cracks at the end, betraying your true feelings you were trying to internalize into nonexistence.

        Tanner was already up and booking it with his camera towards Bobby Mackey’s before you even explained the entire situation. Chelsea decides to grab the walkie and respond while everyone was grabbing equipment to try and catch up to Tanner.

        “Go from Chelsea” she states in as clear of a tone as one can while trying to respond and grab their camera at the same time.

        “So, I’m certain something scratched my back here in the basement, but I can’t see it for myself. Can someone come and check it for me? I want to know how bad it is” you say trying to reign in your fear.

         “Tanner took off before you said where you were, so he should be there sooner than us if one of the guys decide to yell to him where you are in the building,” Chelsea states just as Dakota yells towards the general direction of the entrance “Go to the basement Tanner!” before they all take off to get to you.

         Tanner was indeed the first of the group to find you, having had the head start, long legs, and hearing the location you were in being screamed to him from far behind. Since you were still sitting on the floor, probably too scared to move from the incident but it had only felt like a second had passed since it happened, he knelt down next to you and put his camera down on the ground. With both hands free, he grabs your face and kisses your forehead before staring deeply into your eyes.

      “Are you alright?” he asks with concern in his voice.

      “I’m a bit shaken up currently. Something scratched my back; it was just this burning sensation all over. Can you check it for me and take a picture of it? I want to see how bad it is,” you mention to him.

       He grabs his flashlight and phone as you start to push up the back of your shirt for him to look at the damage done. Once the flashlight is on, he helps lift the back of your shirt more to get a better look.

      “Oh babe,” he says while taking a picture, “this definitely isn’t good.”

       He hands his phone over to you to see the picture of your back. What you saw were three large scratches marring your back that at some points were bleeding just a bit. You gasp at the sight, having not had thought it would be this bad. You had seen the Ghost Adventures episode where Zak got scratched, but his weren’t bleeding. Why were yours?

       At that precise moment was when the rest of the crew arrived. With one quick glance at your back, they knew they were in for a tough night. Luckily, someone had packed a small first aid kit in the backpack, so your scratches were cleaned up with antibiotic ointment and some bandages were put on the areas that were bleeding. With you now standing with everyone, Dakota nixes the idea of more solos and the group continues to investigate the rest of Bobby Mackey’s.

      After a few more EVPs, some words on the Ovilus, and Alex seeing a shadow figure, it was time to figure out sleeping arrangements. Tanner took the lead of writing out the locations on a slip of paper, but you noticed something odd.

      “Shouldn’t there be 5 slips of paper with different sleeping arrangements instead of 4?” you ask.

      Tanner looks up from writing to say, “After what happened to you alone in the basement, just for this night, I’m not letting you be by yourself again. So, I’m making the decision that you’ll stay with me for the night. I know, it’s such a burden that you’re stuck with me,” adding a dramatic flair to the last sentence before continuing to write.  

      You chuckled at his dramatics. It was something you loved that he did seeing as you pull the same antics at times. You couldn’t really complain; you understand where he was coming from and you also did not want to be alone again in this location. Dakota didn’t try to argue the reasoning either.

      The four locations were the well, the room of faces, the attic, and the men’s restroom. Chelsea picked first and ironically got the men’s restroom. Following Chelsea was Dakota; he ended up getting the well which was where you had gotten scratched earlier in the night and he was not happy about it. At least you didn’t have to go back to that area again, but there was still one location in the basement left. Tanner went next and he picked the attic for the two of you. You gave a huge sigh of relief at this since you didn’t have to return to the basement at all now. This left the room of faces to Alex, who also was not looking forward to being in the basement.

      Setting everything up for sleeping arrangements from equipment to where the crew would actually sleep seemed to breeze by. Instead of cots, the two of you had sleeping bags which so happened to fully unzip to create a pad for the two of you to sleep on and for the other to act like a blanket. Knowing that Tanner was right by your side ready to comfort you really helped with still being at this location. As you laid together, he slipped his arms around you and pulled you into him.

      “I’m so proud of you for sticking through this. You’re so strong. Had this happened to me on my first investigation, I would have skedaddled out of here,” he whispers in your ear before kissing your cheek.

      “Well, I knew I had amazing back up ready to help whenever I needed it,” you whisper back while having the biggest smile on your face.

      “And I’ll be there whenever and wherever you need help,” he states so sincerely.

      No matter the situation, Tanner could find a way to make you smile. It may take longer than he would like, but he was always able to do it, and that was one of the many reasons why you loved him.

      The two of you managed to get some sleep, whether it was due to no activity, the comfort of being with one another, or both. Dakota, Chelsea, and Alex all came up to wake you guys up once 6 am hit and soon enough everyone was packing up equipment to put back into the RV. Once the investigative equipment was all put away, all 5 of you split up to give your final thoughts on the location.

      Finding a nice place near a tree, you sat down and started recording your piece.

      “What a crazy first investigation. I don’t think anyone expected the extent of what happened to occur, never mind to the person just entering the crew. Am I still a bit shaken up? Of course, but I’m not letting this stop me. I can only grow stronger and persevere through this. I want to prove that I can handle it. And now, off to another crazy location,” you say, growing more determined with each word.

      Once you finished recording, you stood up and returned to the RV. After a couple of minutes, everyone was back. With Tanner next to you with his arm around your shoulder, Dakota and Chelsea across from you, and Alex on the couch across the walkway from the table the four of you sat at, the RV took off to the next location.

[princeescaluswords]

I want your opinion on some reasons I hate (strong word and I don’t really hate it but…) canon (sorry writing is kinda a mess):

1) Stydia - i hated how stiles would stalk Lydia in the first couple of seasons (let’s not mention his speech about death not happening to you but to people around you bc that makes me want to scream, it’s like when someone’s suicidal and ppl say don’t kill yourselves because of the effect it will have on others) and I was really excited about their friendship but I really don’t they got together and all the moments before that that were framed as romantic (ex. the kiss when stiles was having an anxiety attack). 2) The rep - yes I’m happy that we got Tyler Posey as a lead but the other poc didn’t get much screen time, like I get that Deaton couldn’t intervene much bc he’s an emissary but still I’d love to see him as a main character and Braedon was so badass she deserves more (I personally love kira and malia together but I have this little head canon of malia and Braedon bonding over the whole desert wolf fiasco) or were “killed” off relatively quickly. Danny was basically the token gay (how many times do you think Danny being gay was mentioned or used as a joke in the first 2 seasons?) and just when he was finally getting to be an actual character he just disappeared. There was basically no LGBTQA+ rep that wasn’t gay. Mason and Corey were great and I loved them but Corey didn’t even get a last name and it would’ve been nice for it to happen sooner and for them to get more screen time. Kira leaving made me so angry. Someone from the LGBTQA+ community as a main character. 3) What they did with the skin walkers. 4) How the females only existed for the guys - I could go really into this but you know what I mean,right? 5) What was portrayed as romantic - anxiety attack kiss, Derek and Jennifer having sex right after Derek went to Jennifer for help because he was injured/dying, Stiles and Malia having sex for the first time. 6) Peter - I get keeping him as a character and I like how he’s written in lots of fanfic but canon not acknowledging what he did to Lydia (and Scott but you gotta admit he fucked with Lydia’s head more) and then what happened in season 4 (like it makes zero sense for him to team up with Kate). 5) The timeline, plot holes. 8) What happened to Sterek outside of the show - ik ik sterek but like what happened was pretty annoying. The money sterek fans raised for the wolf shelter than the award being given away to some random guy without acknowledging sterek, the constant teasing that was done to sterek (there’s a shit ton of annoying things that were done that I’m sure you know of but having the cast read sterek fanfics enraged me like I don’t care what pairing or show/movie it is having the cast read fanfic doesn’t seem ok to me and also the cast suddenly not being able to sign sterek merch but being able to sign Lydia/Peter merch) and how after season 2 they did their best to erase sterek completely. I don’t even really ship sterek but it still bugs me especially imagining something like that happening to one of my ships.

I didn’t add everything I wanted to say because I could go on and on about so much but I didn’t want to annoy you and I was getting kinda tired. I’m really sorry for how long this is and if it seems like a hate post, I really don’t want to be a asshole anon and if I am don’t be afraid to call me out I’d actually appreciate it, I just want your opinions on my opinions.

There was too much here to answer in one post, but I did tackle at least one of the topic in this post. Feel free to ask questions again, but if you could narrow the field into separate questions, I'll feel better about answering them.

[popculturebuffet]

Final Space Reviewcaps: The Hidden Light or Beelzbub’s Dad and Death Himself

Welcome back all you happy people! My regular coverage of final space continues as our Team Squad continues to be split up. Team Gary heads to the ruins of France and while HUE lives the dream, Gary finds the architect of his misery might also be the archtetcht of hope when he meets KVN’s creator.  Meanwhile Team Avacato find some friends of some friends... and an old enemy horrifically reborn and just as pants crappingly terrifying as before. Find out whose back, whose just been introduced, and whose resting under the cut!

So once again i’ts time for roll call, as our Team Squad has been split into three groups so Team Gary: Gary, Quinn, KVN, HUE Team Avacato: Avacato, Little Cato, Ash, Fox, Sheryl.  Team Bollo: Bollo, Mooncake

Same as last time and if your wondering why some names are missing from Avacato’s team, we will get to that. And since our three plots are entirely seperated from the start this time...

Team Gary: The Father of Beelzbub is A Moderaltey Tolerable Guy Picking up where we left off, Gary and Quinn gaze at earth though we do find out, naturally, the other half of the team is okay when Avacato buzzes in, confirming he’s alive at least. So with half the team stranded in the depths of final space, Gary’s next idea is naturally to plummet to earth and pick up a ship to pick them up. HUE has some flaws in the plan, i.e. the earth’s gravity field but KVN proves useful for once and helps carry them down to earth, our heroes ending up in Paris. 

We get a fun subplot of HUE thoroughly enjoying his dream of visiting Paris in a body.. even though Paris itself is pretty fucking horrific, littered with floating corpses and with a smokey, unnerving atmosphere. But the contrast works.. what dosen’t is the ships our heroes fine, which are junked, likely due to months of having no mainteince coupled with the destruction brought on by the titans. 

Gary does find something.. his worst nightmare.. a bunker FULL of KVN’s “I always thought i’d die like this”. They thankfully don’t want to kill him, and he finds a dwarf ventrixian whose a fan of his as are the KVN’s. As it turns out they somehow watched all his video logs to Quinn, and the little guy saying Quinn is even more beautful than he imagined lets him live when Quinn shows up. Gary is naturally puzzled why someone would create his worst nightmare, an army of kvns who know his personal details... until we find out who created the bunker: Kevin, the genius scientest who created the KVN’s. 

Naturally Gary has as mature, sensible and calm reaction as you’d expect and he goes to see Kevin’s dad without innocent....

Had you there for zero seconds. No he has a fairly fluid and incredibly well voiced freakout ending in him wanting to burn the place to the ground in cleansing fire. It’s.. actually a very good thing Quinn’s the one who went with him as everyone on the other team except MAYBE Avacato would’ve gone with operation BURN THEM, BURN ALLL OF THEM. 

So while Gary can’t burn them he does go to shoot Kevin’s creator in the head after finding out he’s alive and still in the bunker. And.. he actually is alive. It’s a nice change of pace as in most sci fi stories where we find the robot first the creator is long dead. But no Kevin.. is alive. It takes a bit for him to accept this is really happening due to a combination of Gary’s transmissions..and Nightfall having contacted him to make a ship. I’ts only when he tries throwing something at Quinn does he realize that nope these are real peoples and gladly welcome them for some rest so theyc an go find the ship he made for Nightfall. Relately the one major flaw I have with this episode.. is that it takes Gary and Quinn an embarassingly long time to put two and two together. Gary I get, he’s kind of distracted being caught in a waking nightmare and finding out he needs to rely on the man who ruined 5 years of his life. He’s also Gary. It’s okay. Quinn though, even with months of trauma stuck in a hell dimension.. is still the resonable one and still should’ve figured “Hey maybe the alternate future verison of me who was around back then did this”. The reveal is well done towards the end when it happens.. it’s just very weird it didn’t happen sooner. 

So the couple are FINALLY alone.. for about 5 seconds because Kevin gets into bed with them. And while part of his loopiness is probably the horrifying isolation for the last few months, after all Gary wasn’t exactly the most coherent after his stint in prison, I do feel that at least part of it is just him. It just makes the most sense: the infinity guard massed produced the guys and Kevin was one of their top scientests. He likely didn’t half ass a project of this size or importance.. so it’d make sense that instead the KVN’s suck at their job because the person who made them really dosen’t get humans, or personal space and the KVN’s are simply degraded copies of him. 

We do get a sweet moment with Quinn and Gary before Kevin decides they’ve rested enough time to go. They use the KVN’s to head to belgium, where the ship is, but have to fight Landfish, horrifying monsters that feast on the remains of dead worlds. So we get a fun and tense action sequence as our heroes sorta zipline through the monsters and KVN suprisingly turns out ot be useful twice in one episode. Our heroes make it to the ship, though HUE is down two arms and his self esteem, with Kevin asking why an AI would WANT to put themselves in a garbage bot. HUE admits he just wanted to experince life but it comes at a cost.. which granted the loss of arms seems rushed.. but it’s not like pre-AVA most of his life as a robot was that happy or fufilling so it dosen’t come out of nowhere and the person who MADE it better... is now dead and gone. He has no real reason to stay in the body anymore: He’s tasted life, he’s loved, and he’s lost. 

So naturally he goes back to being the AI on their new ship, which Quinn Dubs the Galaxy 2 because naturally Gary’s name tries too hard and Kevin’s is nonsensical.. though really Galaxy 2 itself just.. isn’t a great name. Seriously call it the purple rain or something. Still it’s a cool looking ship and while i’ll BADLY miss the crimson light as Olan designed a really fucking cool ship there, the Galaxy 2 is none too shabby. So our heroes have there ship, HUE has his old Job back, and we get a sobering scene as Quinn and Gary finallyg et the nightfall thing, and Kevin leaves to go get the portal up and running and he’ll call them.. they don’t have his number but he’ll be in england where the project is so it’s not like they can’t find the crazy man when the time comes. So we end with Team Gary heading off to a huge energy signture to hopefully find someone. Who it is, if it’s even one of our groups, is unknown.. but given the stinger it’s probably Bollo and Mooncake.. but we’llg et to that. First

Team Avacato: FUCK

So on their astroid Sheryl wonders if the plan is to just stand around and wait for Gary. Tribore however.. wants to leave again. Despite being in an edltrich space nightmare, he decides to take some paternety leave and cuts off part of the asteroid to go bond with his son leaving us with five heroes who all quickly get abducted by teleportation. 

Their abductors.. are Arachnitects, the last ones left in final space who intially confuse them as part of of Invictus unholy horde before Little Cato brings up Jeremy, and thus they free them and explain what’s up: as said their the last ones left in final space, the only ones who weren’t slaughtered or escape and try to offer our heroes hope and shelter.. before brutally being slaughtered by telekensisis... and it’s with that... HE has returned. While the trailers made no attempt to hide it and it was blatant from the start of last season he woudl return.. it dosent’ make his return any less chilling or impactful or David Tennant’s performance any less terrifying after being gone for a bit: Lord Commander HAS RETURNED

And make no mistake, hopefully, this is OUR Lord Commander, as he comments on the new additions.. and is GLEEFUL to have new toys to play with. Avacato is naturally horrifed he’s back and tries to just shoot him but that’s as effective as it’s always been, and he simply force lifts all of them, and naturally, being a sadsitic bastard, brings LIttle Cato forward as he wants to know where Mooncake is, though Little Cato makes a valid point: he dosen’t know where Mooncake is and even if he DID he wouldn’t tell him. And.. that’s where this part of the plot ends till next week. I”m fucking terrified. Nice to have David back though. Especially with Ducktales over. And as a side note... it’s notable Ash doesn’t try triggering her powers. Either she can’t and Lord Commander’s even stronger than her, or she just hasn’t yet. Or third horrifying option i’m going with thier powers come from the same source. 

Team Bollo:The Forge

So with Gary hopefully coming to the rescue and the rest of our heroes trapped by a sadistic bastard who will likely gleefully kill at least one of them.. we find out where Bolo went after getting his ass kicked. He surivived.. but clearly needs a leg up.. so naturally for a charcter voiced by Keith David he goes about it in the most badass way imaginable: he has mooncake do the thing on a dwarf star so he can FORGE IT INTO A FUCKING BADASS SPACE SWORD TO SLAY THE TITANS WITH. My.. my body is ready for next week. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode was excellent. The premire while not BAD had some issues with pacing and tone, where as this one found the perfect places to inject the series humor.. while keeping the stakes incredibly high and having the chilling return of it’s most terrifying antagonist. and yes tha’t swith the people posseing murder face out there. This episode returned Season 3 to the right track. It also continues to be seralized like season 1.. but I feel at least so far they’ve learned their lesson from Seasons 1 and 2 and combined the two better, having basically one big story, but having the pacing be more on par with Season 2 where things move along at a nice clip and we get more character stuff peppered in. It’s a nice combo. if it’ll hold out I do not know, especaillly with a longer runtime but we’ll see as we go won’t we. For now.. this episode was fucking awesome. 

If you liked this review join my patreon, my current stretch goal is for a darkwing duck episode a month and i’ll be putting up a patreon exclusive review soon for 5 dollar or more patreons so check that out, follow me for more and if there’s any episodes of the show from seasons 1 or 2 you’d like me to cover we can discuss that in my ask box and dm,s only 5 bucks an episode. See you at the next rainbow. 

[ilkkawhat]

first line, last 20

Guidelines: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20,  just list them all.) Choose your favorite opening line, tag some friends!

tagged by @nade2308​ (much appreciated 💜)

as with the last tag game, I’m not gonna tag anybody but if you want to do this feel free to say I tagged you. 

If it’s a multichap, I’ll post the first line from the most recent chapter. I’m also bending the rules and posting basically the first paragraph cause idk. I’m an asshole like that.

(and wow. haven’t written more than 20 all year)

1. Bleeding Love (Macgyver)

They find out in the sandbox.

Jack’s the first to realize it, though he doesn’t quite fully define it the first time Mac runs off going against direct orders. The Wunderkind is a magnet for danger even though in years to come he’ll be blamed as the danger prone one always slowing them down, but it’s when Mac finds himself cornered by four armed and dangerous criminals that he’s almost sent him home in a box sooner than the thirty-two days Jack had left at the time.

2. Every Breath You Take (CSI)

He has no time to recall the chainset of circumstances that led him to this moment. No time to think, really no time to even feel the assault on his body, and yet...he can.

Creaking plastic stretching across his face, trapping his screaming mouth in a suffocating muzzle that reeked of his hot breath. Condensing fogs and droplets daring to blind him more than his wildly burning eyes as his fingers claw at the invisible force pulling him back.

3. A Night That We Can’t Replace (CSI)

There are a lot of things that changed for Nick in the summer of 2005.

A burial that he’s still digging his way out of, his hands blindly reaching out for anything, anybody for him to grab onto with desperate fingers and a pounding heart that hasn’t stopped beating no matter how much damage was done to it.

Lucky for him, plenty of people were reaching for him, too.

4. Death by a Thousand Cuts - Ch. 2 (CSI)

There's no warning, not that there ever really is when disaster strikes.

No dark clouds swirling in the distance, no sense of finality in a season’s worth of cases told over twenty-two weeks.

It’s just an ordinary day.

5. Stranger in a Bar (CSI)

Nick’s sprawled out on his half of the booth, waiting with casually spread wings as he hawkishly observes Greg ordering their next round of drinks from the bar, leaning over the counter and even pointing out Nick’s favorite whiskey. He often doesn’t go for the top shelf but tonight he needs something with a bit of a bite.

6. You Take the Breath Right Out of Me (CSI)

“I don’t know man, it’s like Warrick was carrying the entire case. Felt like I was just a lowly CSI collecting evidence, and I couldn’t even do that right! Missed that...damn spot on the panties.”

7. Specimen Stokes - Ch. 10 (CSI) 

“Warrick, look, there’s just not enough evidence—”

“Not enough evidence? Jim, how is this not enough?”

Warrick points to the screenshots from the footage of what he feels is the most incriminating piece of evidence he has. Greg Sanders waltzing into the police department.

8. Body in Motion (CSI)

He’s missed this, the high coming off of solving a case.

The high coming off of being alive.

The high soaring far above ground.

9. Reversed (CSI)

“Nick.”

He could not move any faster as the anchors of his feet drag across the tile of an empty hallway. He’s leaving one home for another, no adventures in between. He’s tired.

Of so many things.

“Nick!”

He stops. He turns. He listens.

He owes Warrick at least that much for jumping off a cliff with him.

10. To Call for Hands of Above (CSI)

It doesn’t happen until they actually become “friends.”

Well, “friends” by Nick’s standards—and he had long been assuming that’s what they were all along, ever since the first day they worked a case together and discovered they had similar interests, similar tastes in humor, a similar spark in their eyes for justice and wanting to do their job and do it right.

But Warrick seemed to close off a bit of himself at first, which wasn’t apparent until something had endangered his heart.

Nick saw it coming.

11. Separate Ways (Macgyver)

There’s one reason and one reason only Jack and Mac would allow themselves to be apart for long times at long distances, and that reason was something that even all of the infinite science in Mac’s brain, all of the infinite wisdom in Jack’s heart couldn’t even explain.

12. Astray (CSI)

“Boy’s not even safe in his own bed.”

Nick breathes through his nose, his teeth grinding in a clenched jaw. His eyes haven’t left the boy’s body since they walked into the room, and his eyes don’t even meet Catherine as her voice grows more distant and disoriented.

13. Public Enemies, Private Lovers (CSI)

Having separate shifts may have been the best and worst thing to happen to Nick and Greg’s relationship.

Best in the way that it was easier to hide, after the lab had been remodeled and the walls to DNA were becoming more transparent, it was harder for Nick to hang around without attracting suspicion.

He still remembers the time Grissom caught him leisurely leaning against the counter, reeling a similarly laid back Greg towards him with a re-telling of a tale that he can’t quite remember.

All he remembers is the way he had caught Greg in his web and Greg didn’t seem eager to get out.

14. First Flight - Ch 2  (CSI)

Even though he thinks he’s ahead of the curve, his innocence shattered at an early enough age for him to get a glimpse outside the shelter of his youth, Parker Stokes will be the first to admit there is still a lot to life he doesn’t understand.

One of those things is his father’s love for flying.

15. What’s going to happen to me now? (CSI) 

“Let me out.”

He couldn’t say the words at the time. Could only choke out a literal cry for help, though there were plenty of words that his brain was firing—and missing—but those three words in particular were just some of the few pleading thoughts he had while he was still enclosed in a glass coffin—one that was ready to collapse at any given second—why didn’t they see that? Why did they all stand on top of it? Why didn’t they open it immediately just to give him some air, just brush the damn ants off, no extinguisher needed.

He didn’t understand why it took so long to get him out.

16. Goosebumps (CSI)

Working graveyard shift, it’s rare for them to get a chance to actually celebrate the nightlife that Las Vegas has to offer, let alone on a holiday such as New Year’s Eve that is the most celebrated night out of the three hundred and sixty five that occur within a year.

17. Fire Away (CSI) 

A splash of cold water gives him a quick refresh on his clammy, pale face but it’s not enough to pull him out of his state of shock that he’s denied being to everybody who’s placed their hand on his shoulder, asking if he’s okay.

The same shoulder with a pinched nerve that his head keeps...twitching towards.

18. Found - Ch. 2 (CSI)

He rubs his fingers against the temples of his forehead, brain on autopilot circling the same repeating numbers that appear in the ten-page long phone record. His eyes are straining and the edges of his periphery are stretching away so that he has to squint to keep focus. He wishes he had brought his glasses as a yawn escapes his lips. He’s also realizing just how hungry he is as his stomach grumbles, when a familiar voice completely breaks his waning concentration.

“Here, figured you might need a little snack while you do your homework.”

19. It’s Not Like Christmas At All (CSI)

It’s like there’s something infectious in the air, some cosmic force driving against him that was making this year far more difficult than ever before.

Around this time last year, the team was pulling names out of a hat. Making plans for a party in the break room to celebrate not just as a team, but as a family.

This year, there’s been no such talk and he was semi-reluctantly making plans to visit his real family in the Lonestar state.

The first year he’s gone since Warrick passed.

20. There is Just One Thing I Need (CSI)

The scents and tastes and general ambience of the holiday season seemed duller that year, for both of them. Last year they had ridden high on their first Christmas together, as a family, giving Parker the best first Christmas they could give their bundle of joy and feeling a true warmth in each other’s company for the first time since their first night of passion together.

But even Christmas in California could get so cold.

[chuchuprecureart]

Hello I’m back with my top ten favorite pretty cure side character! Now this my top ten favorite and these are my opinions, so please keep that in mind and without forewords let’s get started

10. Yui Nanase

Now! Now! Put down your pitchforks and torches that Yui is number 10! The reason why is that she didn’t become a Precure, but she was significant in that she kept the secret until near the end of the series and is was vital into beating despair been that she slowly learned how to avoid the villains spell later on in the series and because of that she was in later half of season to break out of the spell. Because of that when despair try lock all of them she was able to break out and gave the girls a key victory that would help the cures on defeating the big bad of this season!

9. International Precure ( the Hawaii pretty Cure and Cure Tender)

Now sadly they didn’t what I wanted and I wished that we could explore more about international Precure because it really interesting to other Precure besides the Japanese pretty Cure and hope in the future we get explore more of it because it is really interesting. Now they might do it sooner, because of the last season having the first international precure on a main team that Star Twinkle and the adding that more people from other nations are starting to more into Japan with the new empire and new minister they might do international pretty cure later on in the season! But this was the first steps on introducing people especially Japanese viewers to other Precure besides good old Japan, but hope they do a season explore more maybe in a different country such as Britain or France. I mean they have two movies where two teams were in France, so maybe having a season with a French pretty Cure team would interesting. Plus it won’t that hard to do that since they almost had one, besides it a familiar region to them so it wouldn’t that hard to that.

8. Cure mofurun ( Mahou Precure)

I wish this was in the official season, because I loved her as Pretty Cure and plus she one of the best mascots. My personal favorites one out of all theme besides Candy and Tart from Fresh Precure! Besides in the movie, she showed that she is a decent fighter having experiences from her allies and seeing transformation was beautiful! I loved her theme song transformation sequence being the best one out of all them, while also showing that she can hold up on her own! I wish they had more characters like her and not like Milky Rose or Cure Pekorin because then I would be more invested in watching those series if they had something similar like Cure mofurun.

7. Cure Flower (Heartcatch Precure)

First of all, I love that there was relationship between the main character being Tsubomi and the grandmother, being that once that grandmother was a pretty cure in the good older days. It was interesting to see this relationship and how the grandmother was a mentor figure to Tsubomi and the other Cures before Cure moonlight joined the team, she gave advice on how to approach things and also help them out on several occasions,even freeing them from the villains. She was extremely important to the series as she help out the cures and even gave the vital information when needed; while also having a role to Tsubomi growth as a character and helping her out when she needed the most. That’s why is number 7 on this list!

6. Cure Echo (all stars pretty cure)

Yep busting that bubble out of the blue! Number 6 is Cure Echo from the all-stars series and part of the Smile Precure! I wish that she was part of the smile team and I believe that she was on meant to joining them particularly being that this was the only season, where there wasn’t a sixth member. I know that there are some of you who are saying that Candy is kinda a sixth member but, I don’t count her because it was near the end of the season that she became helpful to them. Plus, technically it would Echo besides it was Smile Precure that we’re the newbies and it would make logical sense that she would joined them after defeating Fusion. Also it also makes sense, since technically she is sixth member on their team and besides they represent a rainbow in a way and technically she would the part of it. Mostly represent that she is the light of it that it the light from the sun and the water that makes the rainbow, that’s I believe that she was meant to be the sixth member and I wish she was because she is my favorite out of all the smile team!

5. Kiryuu Michiru (Cure bright) & Kiryuu Kaoru (Cure Windy) Splash Star Precure

Number five is Michiru and Kaoru from Splash Star! It was interesting to see these two slowly become allies and eventually become pretty cure at the end of the season, plus they were prequels to villains becoming good guys and before it was cool to become pretty cures before Sestuna, Ellen, Towa and RuRu came on the series. I wished to see more of a due of sisters pretty cure team, but alas it never happened and I wish it would. It would interesting to see one in the future term, I would invest in watching that series and see how Toei would approach something like that.

4. Kuroki Rio ( Cure Waffle)

Yes, number four is Cure Waffle or Rio; I am counting on him as being a pretty cure; it been confirmed in the early days of the show. The reason why was that he was the first male character to become a Precure (𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐭𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞) Cure waffle was technically first, not the other way around! Plus I love his ship which is Ichika x Rio, which is one of my favorite ships in the series besides Daruizen x Nodoka! I wish that they would expand on that!

3. Himenojou Sakurako ( Star Twinkle Precure)

Surprised! Should be, because number 3 is Himenojou Sakurako from Star Twinkle Precure! I really wished that she was the seventh member, I am not counting Fuwa because that’s only in the musicals and not the series! Besides that, I believe that she was supposed be on the teams why dedicate entire episode on her when she wasn’t on the team! It doesn’t make sense unless she was original meant to be on the team with the other cures and there some theories suggesting that original there was supposed to be a plot line to be discovered to be an alien from a different planet that just like earth but in dire need of help. However, they had scrapped it due to many rewrites of this season from the higher ups and my beliefs that she meant for that but because of poor rates of Fuwa, it was scrapped among the other ideas. I feel really bad for her and situation that writer was put in, I would love to see where plot line went and I heard that supposed significance!

2. Higashiyama Seika and Nishijima Waon (suite Precure)

Number 2 is Seika and Waon tied for number 2 place of the best side character! Yes, another surprise and original they were meant to be pretty cure, on the suite Precure team but alas they were scrapped as well because of rewrites of the script after the 2011 Tsunami that was from the earthquake in Japan because of it the entire script was changed! We lost Cure Symphony and Cure Pitch from being official, which really upsetting because I would like to seen how Toei would done the face reveals! My best guess is that it would been similar to what happened in episode that noise was having steals the modules from their friends while finding out that their friends were pretty cure and having to coming Precure at the end of episode would really been interesting to see and would a really interesting idea!

And for number 1 is

1. Chinen Miyuko (fresh Precure)

Number one is Chinen Miyuko from fresh Precure! The reason why is for many, the first that orginally there was supposed to a fifth member on team instead of a four member team, however it was ultimately scrapped from production, however the one tiny problem was that the cure was in the final stages of development so they had to scrapped it but they couldn’t scrap everything so they decided to keep the character and have her as one of mentor figures for the Precure. That’s why she looked different from all the characters including the main cast, she was meant to be with main cast from the beginning instead she became a mentor figure but a very important one! She keep the girls in check while helping them while having a career on top of that! That’s lot of work for person let alone keeping a secret from her job which can really hard given that her team won the dance tournament before the season started! Though I wish I could seen the plot line, it was unique for them to do that! I hope one day they do that!

Well those are my top ten side character my next list is my top ten favorite villains from Precure series! Until next time!



[hopevalley]

Season 8, Episode 10: Old Love, New Love, Is This True Love

All right, so...like I said, work has picked up and my eyes feel like old marbles from staring at numbers (the woes of working in accounting I guess) so I want to get this written up and tossed into the nether before I lose steam and motivation to do it. The interesting thing about these little write-ups is that as the week goes on they just get harder and harder to write...

I do apologize in advance to those who like the long-winded write-ups. I’m just not up to it at the moment. Still feeling kind of bleh from the episode.

Let’s go back to an old format, shall we?

The Good

We might as well start out with the things about this episode that I enjoyed! 

Gossip Hour with the Men was one of the best openers they’ve had on the show in a while. It was genuinely funny without being meanspirited. Nobody looked like the bad guy. Everyone just calmly talked about it alike it was a normal thing to maybe call off the wedding. Bill calling out Carson for giving marriage advice was pretty funny, Mike was a delight. I don’t know what to say. I’d watch a whole episode of The Boys just hanging around spending time together.

--

Florence’s worry that she’s ugly was...not a terrible idea for a storyline, but the actress is too good-looking to pretend to be ugly (I saw her in this pretty yellow dress on Instagram a couple years ago and she was smashing)? Also, it’s not like Ned is a handsomely aged gentleman (like Henry lol) so it makes even less sense for the characters. I think they should have gone with Florence feeling she’s “plain” and that dressing up Super Nice makes her feel uncomfortable because she just doesn’t feel like Herself and worries maybe it’s projecting a false sense of Who She Is or something? I guess overall I still liked that an attempt was made to add some depth to Florence and her difficulties in choosing a dress/hairstyle, so...it goes here.

--

Ned asking Henry to be his best man was nice, too. I can forgive the shoddy pacing and weird placement of this request (like I do with almost everything in the show) but only because the scene was just...so incredibly wholesome. 

I like how Henry just casually is like, “Well maybe today’s just not the day.” I think it eased Ned’s mind just a little that he CAN back out if he really wants to.

I think it’s worth thinking about the fact that Ned and Henry would have always worked very closely, since the mercantile would have been a company store before the mine closed down... I like Henry and Ned as pals.

--

I’m glad the “investment” thing with Jesse and Clara’s savings was brought up in a way that...makes sense. And also, glad it wasn’t forgotten.

--

I really liked Molly and Florence in this episode. I’m a little sad Florence married Ned because I AM SORRY BUT I WANTED TO KEEP SHIPPING MOLLY AND FLORENCE TOGETHER UGHGHGHH

But their relationship is so good and maYBE Elizabeth will learn something from them.

Hey Elizabeth...you see that?

YOU SEE THAT?

Just saying.

And then later...

“You are the sister I never had, the mother I forever wanted, the friend I have always needed. From the depths of those dark and terrifying coal mines you’ve walked beside me, picking me up whenever I’ve stumbled along the way.”

AAAAAAAAA IT GOT ME.

--

I’m...really liking Fiona and Mike’s relationship, whatever it is. I kind of think they’re not headed toward anything romantic. Everyone thinks Mike is really into Fiona but at the end of the episode we realize he likes talking to her about business; it’s almost like they have this shared passion for numbers/ideas and he likes infodumping to her (and vice-versa).

I think they’re going to end up being “just friends” and Fiona will end up paired off with the man Elizabeth doesn’t choose. They hinted at Nathan briefly in this episode (with Allie’s hair), but who knows? I’m over trying to speculate on where the triangle is going at this point, but I actually like Fiona’s relationship with Mike so much that I’ll be disappointed if she fades into the background with Nathan or Lucas. Mike deserves more screentime. 

--

Ned and Florence sharing their fIRST KISS. My husband got emotional over this. And I admit, it was starting to get to me, too. I can’t NOT root for them. 

--

I said it before and I’ll say it again: I WOULD DIE FOR THE CANFIELDS.

--

The wedding was nice. I liked that Bill and Joseph officiated it together; it gives Joseph a li’l trial run of pastoring and finally Bill gets to use some of that power of his to officiate a wedding.

“Please, if you’d like” is such a Bill way to say that they may kiss LOL.

--

Also, I have to admit that I did enjoy Lucas calling Nathan out about Allie. She wouldn’t be caught in the middle if he’d leave Elizabeth alone AND HE IS RIGHT LMAO.

The last good thing: Elizabeth telling Nathan she doesn’t blame him for Jack’s death. Nice. Good. Thank you. He probably needed to hear that.

--

...THE BAD

Carson and Faith. UGH. UGHHHHHHHHHH. BREAK UP ALREADY I HATE YOU BOTH.

I appreciated that Carson had the ring ages ago, and I did like his conversation with Minnie—or more accurately, her advice to him. I felt like she was nudging him toward, “Remember why you became a surgeon in the first place.” If he became a surgeon to help people, then there’s no reason he can’t help people where he is. Sure, he might not be doing state of the art procedures but with Faith working alongside him, he can afford time to learn new things and go to doctor conventions or even take a specialized class now and then. No other doctor could get away for very long but he has that chance!

And he’ll arguably be doing more good in the middle of nowhere than in the city. All the doctors want to live in the city. Nobody wants to barely get paid for their time in the countryside.

We had a whole episode that made it clear that Faith and Carson don’t make a lot of money and do a lot of charity work. They also work for trade goods (mostly food). So it’s like...a pretty big difference in lifestyle? 

Half the reason I can’t get invested in these characters is because I really can’t stand Paul Greene. He just...annoys me on every single level imaginable. But he’s a decent actor and I can’t help but feel that his character was a massive waste of space for the past few seasons through no fault of the man himself. Imagine introducing a character like Carson and then leaving him to rot before you try to make him interesting with a romance plot that nobody asked for.

Yes, some people really like Faith and Carson, but as a whole I think the fandom didn’t buy into them as a ship due to the lack of chemistry.

It really is a shame. This episode didn’t do a thing to endear me to either character. Please, Carson. I am begging you to leave town.

--

This one particular line of dialogue almost enraged me.

WE KNOW WE KNOW WE KNOW WE KNOW WE CAN SEE THAT FOR OURSELVES. WHY DID THEY HAVE ROSEMARY SAY THIS LIKE IT’S AN EPISODE OF A CHILD’S TV SHOW?

--

Elizabeth.........

How could Katie have...looked up to her? She was never in her class? That was? Never part of anything? It was just something they threw in here to force Elizabeth to make 1% more sense in the role she’s in but IT STILL DOESN’T WORK.

I felt like I was back in Season 5 again with Lori and Elizabeth putting their nose in everyone’s business except it’s just Elizabeth!! The whole plot, which was boring and contrived anyway, should have gone to Molly, since she’s Florence’s best friend and another woman from town that Katie would have known as a child.

AND ALSO, MOLLY WOULD HAVE KNOWN KATIE’S MOTHER AND WOULD REMEMBER THE GRIEF THAT NED STRUGGLED WITH.

I know they wanted to make Elizabeth give advice so that she’d Realize that she needs to, I don’t know, make better choices or something, but it was too on the nose for me and I hated it.

GinithePooh on Reddit made a good comparison to Elizabeth in this episode by saying she reminded them of Clippy from Microsoft Word, always popping up and offering to help when nobody really needs or wants advice.

To honor their incredible idea, I opened Photoshop and created this gem, which I will also be posting separately so that people can reblog it if they wish to.

I also don’t think I need to say also filed under The Bad is the fact that Elizabeth didn’t even apologize for being awful to Rosemary and then gave her unsolicited advice to other people for two days straight. I can’t believe they wrote that? 

All I can say is that her apology to Rosemary, when it comes, better be good.

--

And I didn’t like this either:

I wish it had been followed up by literally anything: Nathan saying he’s sorry he didn’t tell her sooner or something to make the hand-holding actually be a little more innocent.

As it is, it just seems so deliberate? 

Maybe the next episode starts off right in this scene and we’ll get that? If so, this might actually end up being fine. I just don’t think it is if it doesn’t get a little more direct attention.

--

& THE UGLY

I debated on putting anything in here, because I’m not ready to talk about my feelings on this matter, at least not fully. But I’ve been pretty quiet all season so far, and...eh, why not just mention things in advance? What will it hurt?

Let me preface this section by saying I’m biased and I doubt hardly anyone on this site will agree with me, so feel free to just ignore this part if that’s the case.

There are two things that I really didn’t like in this episode.

I hate the slanting toward Bill/Molly.

I like Molly just fine but I don’t like her with Bill. I’m biased as all getout and also worried about the future/potential Season 9 with regards to this. I don’t want to see it. Like at all. Why, you ask? You should know why if you follow me. I’m super transparent.

It’s because I like AJ AND I WANT HER BACK LOL.

John Tinker rewatched the series so we know he wouldn’t have missed that hanging plot thread—especially since he didn’t forget any of the other things that were brought up this season! So why didn’t she appear this season? The love triangle absolutely needed to be a focus or it would have never ended, so that’s part of it, but I’m also pretty sure Josie Bissett wasn’t interested in doing any filming last year during Covid. My only “proof” is that Wedding March 6 wasn’t filmed last year even though it was scheduled to be filmed, but it makes sense. Last year was chaos.

THAT SAID, Jack Wagner posted on his Instagram the other day that they are actually filming Wedding March 6 now, so... I guess AJ’s re-appearance in Season 9 wouldn’t come as too much of a surprise if they wanted to write it.

You’d think I’d be hyped about that, and I kind of am? But it doesn’t come without its share of worries, too. We just had the worst love triangle in the history of love triangles and I really don’t want another one, especially if it makes any of the characters in question look stupid or mean.

I fully admit a well-written love triangle could be a LOT of fun for them* (low stakes because they’re not front and center characters), but I saw how Nathan was written so far this season and I really, REALLY do not want to see that happen to Molly, Bill, or AJ.

Anyway, not a fan of the Molly/Bill stuff. No chemistry. I don’t want it.

*I would totally write a fanfic like this lmao.

--

And finally...the part that everyone will hate me for:

I DO NOT WANT TO SEE ABIGAIL COME BACK. And I specifically do not want her to come back ‘cause I do not wanna see Henry/Abigail happen.

I fully recognize that a lot of you like it and ship the heck out of it, and that’s...good. I’m glad you enjoy it. I loathe it, though, and I worry that all these hints (more like...mentions) are leaning toward...something. Like, either they’re:

1) Sending Abigail off/tying up that loose end with Henry (since nothing was ever clarified either way), or

2) Warming up the audience to receive Abigail back on the show.

I’m pretty into the idea of one-sided Henry/Abigail. Hindsight is 20/20, regrets, that’s all some juicy stuff to give a character like Henry. Some things can’t ever be made right again. He had too direct of a connection to the death of her husband and son for me to ever want to see them together. Forgiveness? Yes. A careful but meaningful friendship? Yes. Romantic relationship? Uh...no thanks.

I liked the Abigail mentions at first because I felt like...the character still mattered (as she should) but I’m at a point where I feel like they’re trying really hard to steer the fandom’s view a certain way and not knowing where it’s going is extremely unsettling to me.

--

I’ll probably talk more about the things that bother me when the season ends, because I’m hoping to have a better idea of where things are going to be headed, but for now just...know that I feel very apprehensive.

And keep in mind that I primarily watch this show for Bill these days, since all my previous faves (AJ, Frank, the old Abigail, Dottie) have exited, stage left. I also always really liked seeing Henry. So as you can imagine, seeing plotlines I hate for the only two characters I’m invested in? Is making me consider dropping the series next year.

My husband told me I should hate-watch it, but I don’t know if my heart can take it. I’ve been following this series for so long...it just...kind of hurts to feel let down like this? 

But sometimes an ongoing series ends up going where you...didn’t want it to, and it becomes something that’s no longer right for you. I hope that doesn’t happen, but last night’s episode makes me feel like...it might be happening for real this time.

I guess if that holds true it’ll be back to fanfiction for me. Will that novelization I planned ages ago end up getting written? Will I write the best love triangle fanfic known to man? WHO KNOWS.

For now, we’ll all have to wait and see! Two more episodes left. I’m really curious to see how they resolve some of the open plots right now. :>

[kirbyspits]

Question! When does Mako start liking Korra back? 

I’m very curious about this because of Mako’s reaction in episode 5, which I break down here and here. I’m curious how we got to that point since it’s not as apparent as when Mako’s crush turns into that happily-ever-after love (were the series to end). Here’s the iconic reminder of the episode where Mako realizes he’s in love with Korra 🥰:

But when does he develop a crush on her? I assumed it was between episodes 4 & 5, with all the time they spend together training for the tournament, only now I'm wondering if Mako caught feels much sooner. 

I initially dismissed the idea that Mako started liking Korra during episode 3. He doesn't know her, and we don't see how Mako felt about rescuing Bolin with her until Remembrances—3 seasons later. It's implied that Korra earned Mako's admiration and respect, but not his infatuation.

However, my perspective and read of Mako’s action changes if I think of him as already liking her, meaning he developed feeling in episode 2 and we have a love at first sight story in our hands. 

Mako’s distance and resistance to touch, which we see how he has no problem with Asami, can be read as nervousness and not only respecting Korra's personal space. Korra practically feels Mako up multiple times, but Mako never reciprocates this form of flirtation. This stark contrast is most evident with how far Mako is when riding Naga with Korra. Korra's consistently reaches out and touches Mako, while the gap between Mako and Korra gets smaller throughout the episode. Some of this is from Mako’s action, and other instances, it’s mutual.

Then we have two significant indicators showing that Mako might have already started crushing on Korra. 

1. Mako goes all the way to Air Temple island to see if his “lovebird” of a brother was “making a house call.” 

Stans, please make it make sense. Mako immediately gets up to head over to where he thinks Bolin and Korra are. Why? He has no reason to be worried about Bolin’s safety at this point, and he’s crashing the party. However, if Mako already likes her at this point, Bolin becomes his excuse to see her.  I swear Mako is fascinating, if not a bit of a scary character. His decisions are too calculated. Am I just late to the party lol?

Of course, Mako eventually realizes what he’s doing as he approaches Korra, and how his trip to Air Temple Island is silly if not a complete waste of time. That’s why I think Mako was pretty harsh with his greeting with Korra. He was probably frustrated with himself for putting his feelings over logic and his brother’s well-being (something we see him do again in episode 5). 

Needless to say, the second indicator that highlights Mako already likes Korra is letting her rock his scarf:

We know how much this scarf means to Mako. I'm desperate to know if Korra asked (which she would) or if Mako noticed that her water tribe tunic wasn't covered. So instead of buying her another article of clothing, offered her his scarf. We were robbed. 

All of Mako's actions make much more sense to me now with this new viewpoint. I'm actually a little mad I missed after watching this season way too many times.

Also, feel free to shame me and say y'all knew Mako was in love since episode 2! I thought we were in for a slow-burn romance because of Asami 😭.

I'm officially changing my stance from Mako developing a crush on Korra after episode 4 to after Korra joins the Fire Ferrets. The last scene with the two of them looking out the window wasn't just foreshadowing 😏

[gothiccwhore]

13 reasons why season 4 review

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS!! if you haven’t finished the season yet i suggest you skip this!! :)

also this will be super long because i tend to ramble and i’ll give reviews for each character/most of the storylines! ((half way through reading this i read @jessica-acholas and @analuciacortez reviews and i agreed with a lot of it so you guys should all read their reviews as well!!))

over all ranking:

as a whole, i would give this season a 7/10. i originally was gonna give it a 6 but they get an extra point for all the zalex scenes we got, and i also was thinking of the mess that was s3 so i had to give them that extra point too

storylines/the season as a whole:

my biggest concern/annoyance with this season was how rushed or repetitive it was

every storyline this season was either super rushed or super dragged out- no in between. the fact that we only had 10 episodes as opposed to the normal 13 probably had a part in this, which idk why they cut the episodes short. let’s start off with the dragged out storylines, one of them being clay’s nightmare sequences. i honestly did like his therapy scenes because it was good to see him get help and he was a much better narrator than ani, but his nightmare scenes were so long i literally had to skip all of them i got so bored. another dragged out storyline was jesstin, which i probably will get complains about. i think they have their cute scenes and i do love both characters, especially jess being tied with alex for #1 and justin being in my top 5. but my god their storyline/relationship is beyond repetitive, its been the exact same thing for 4 whole seasons. they break up, have a long speech about how they’re not right for each other, spend the whole season pining after each other, make up in the end and then have another speech about how in love they are. like writers please make up your mind- do you want them together or not?? we also had another repetitive love triangle this season just like every other with justin jess and diego as opposed to the justin jess and alex one for like 2 seasons.

now for the rushed storylines, one of them being alex’s relationship with charlie. i love charlie ever since we saw him in s3, he’s so pure and a lovable guy and i love how he loves alex. however they happened like out of nowhere?? alex went from being in love with jess for 3 seasons to being in love with 2 people in 4 episodes. if you blinked you would’ve missed the “build up” to their relationship, and honestly it felt like they just randomly threw in some relationship for alex because they didn’t wanna have zalex happen. i’m not saying this to be bitter (maybe i am lol) but zalex had 3 seasons worth of build up and could’ve been an amazing slow burn relationship for the whole season, instead they rushed another relationship. zach is also another character who had a rushed storyline with his drinking problem, which literally happened out of nowhere too?? he just showed up this season drunk in the first scene and drunk in literally every single scene we saw him in. this storyline also never got resolved, it just stuck there like the writers didn’t even care to end or resolve it. just like how zalex could’ve worked better for alex, it could’ve worked better for zach too since his drinking problem could’ve been helped by alex. i swear the writers just hate us at this point

characters review:

clay: one of my favorites honestly, he’s in my top 5. sure clay has had his moments where he’s been annoying and extra but so has literally every single character in this show- besides tony lol. like i stated above my main concern was how dragged out his sequences were this season, like i couldn’t watch all of them. also another huge problem i had with him this season was how big of a jerk he was to justin??? for like half of the season he was rude to him and would give snarky remarks/hints like when he was surprised colleges would even want justin, which i don’t blame justin for thinking that clay expected him to just relapse again and throw his life away. the same can be said for when clay said all those awful things to him at the party- his parents not being his and not trusting him like wtf? i felt SO BAD for justin there i was expecting clay to apologize to him. on the topic of the party episode, he literally crashed zach’s car and sent them flying 30 ft in the air just to leave zach all alone to literally die?? then there’s also the part where he and ani outed alex before he was ready to fully come out which sucks, that’s something you should never do but i know he was just worried about alex and didn’t want him to get heartbroken over winston - but why didn’t you tell him sooner??

ani: like i said with clay, i hated how she outed alex before he was ready to come out. i don’t understand how her and clay both didn’t think to tell everyone - especially ALEX who literally killed bryce and would’ve gotten hurt the most about winston?? they both knew that winston and alex both knew each other and met at the hillcrest party, so why not tell him winston is gonna be looking for information to clear monty’s name?? alex is literally the only person you guys SHOULDVE told first?? however i did enjoy her this season as opposed to s3, she had a great redemption and i liked that she finally apologized to jess for sleeping with bryce. she also wasn’t up everyone’s business this season and i loved all her scenes with jess, especially the prom ones

alex: HAAAAAA BI KING WHO GOT HIS HAPPY ENDING AND DIDNT GO TO JAIL FOR FLOORING THAT RAPIST!!! HOW DO YOU BRYCE AND MONTY STANS FEEL THAT BOTH OF THEM ARE 6FT UNDER WHILE ALEX IS FREE 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 i’m so happy he got his happy ending and became secure in his sexuality, that’s all i ever wanted for him since s1. i’m not saying this because i’m biased and he’s my favorite character, but he truly was one of the only characters who didn’t annoy me this season. he had a great arc even if it was super rushed, we finally got a zalex mutual love confession (i’m still bitter that we didn’t get our endgame but in my head we did), and i love how even if he and justin had their differences in the past seasons he was there for him in the end. i don’t really have any complaints about him besides the whole charlie thing being super rushed and so random?? why did the show put 2 bottoms together like we wouldn’t notice 🤨🤨

jessica: jess is my favorite character tied with alex, both of them have been since s1. i loved how she continued to be her badass self this season but a lot of the things she did/said kinda rubbed me the wrong way?? like i applauded her for calling out ani for judging who she was sleeping with after ani slept with bryce, but when you think about it diego literally is a rape apologist too?? jess tyler is literally your friend why would you date the guy who’s defending his rapist?? also don’t get me started how diego treated clay horribly this season, he was suffering with his mental illness and he played pranks on him and called him a psycho??? clay has always been there for you jess and he’s also one of your friends why would you still hang out with diego?? also in the first episode where justin breaks up with her and she got mad at him i got upset with her, justin made valid points he’s a recovering drug addict who needs to focus on himself not a relationship. i don’t understand why she got so mad at that, it was lowkey ooc for her? overall i still loved her i just hate how the writers reduce her to only a guy each season, but she still was amazing over all and looked beautiful!! her scenes with ani were great and i cried so much at her scenes with justin at the end.

zach: another one of my favorite characters who the writers did so dirty this season. i’ve loved zach since s1 as well, he’s in my top 5 and i’ve always loved how even if he was a jock he was still good hearted and there for everyone. i hated how in this season the writers forgot all of his traits and basically wrote him as a new person?? his drinking storyline was beyond random and had no build up/not even a resolution in the end. where even was his mother or sister this entire season. the show always paid him dirt and never focused on his home life when it was clear he didn’t have the best relationship with his mom. i’m so annoyed at how they wrote him as a “drunk” all season and didn’t even acknowledge his struggles. his scenes with alex were great, and i loved every single one of them. i’m still dying on the zalex hill and saying that they missed the perfect opportunity to make them a couple, it would’ve helped his storyline just like alex’s.

justin: oh my god, when i say my heart broke in the last episode it really did. i remember hating justin in s1, and then loving him in s2 with him being in my top 5 favorite characters. he had the best redemption arc, and i loved his portrayal of a recovering drug addict. i’m thinking now and he also didn’t annoy me this season just like alex, he was great and i’m so sad how they basically stomped all over his arc by killing him. it’s clear the show only killed him off because clay started the show by losing someone he loved, and ended it the same way. him dying by aids was so random and made 0 sense, i honestly thought he was gonna die from an overdose when discussing theories because i had a feeling it was either him or alex who were gonna die. they didn’t have a buildup for his hiv/aids- only added scars/bruises throughout the season which no one noticed if they weren’t closely examining him. i’m so saddened by his death and i will be planning a funeral for him along with zalex’s 💔.

tony: honestly a great character throughout the whole show, never was annoying and always was there for literally everyone. tony has always been a fighter and has been through so much without showing it, and i’m glad he got to go to college at the end and see his sister. i’m also so happy we got more scenes between tony and caleb this season because they are one of my favorite couples and are so underrated in the show and with fans ❤️ i was upset when he didn’t believe tyler, but i understood where he was coming from because he just wanted to be safe.

tyler: he’s so pure and i also loved his arc throughout the show, i’m so happy he has friends who love him and him and estela were so cute! i wish they explored more about him and the sheriffs working together because i honestly was confused about that before rewatching scenes. i also hate how they made him feel bad about monty dying when it literally was not his fault a rapist got killed in prison- monty’s rotting 6 ft under hello let’s celebrate to that!! i also loved how he was so supportive when he found out about winston and alex on the camping trip, he seemed worried about alex when winston said they broke up. i also love how alex was the only one who truly believed in him the entire show.

bryce: good riddance!! when i say i yelled when jess saw him when she was burning the tape why did he smile like pennywise?2@/@20so glad we saw no flashbacks of him this season and that he was just an annoying ghost, but even that annoyed me

monty: just like bryce good riddance!!! thank god we didn’t get that much of a redemption arc because i would’ve lost it- even though i literally rolled my eyes every time his ghost tried to say something that was supposed to make us feel bad for him. he’s rotting with bryce 🧚🏻‍♀️🤩

charlie: i loved him, he was so nice to everyone and so pure. i just wish they let him and alex be just friends because that came out of nowhere. i hope he’s baking more cookies and being happy

caleb: such a supportive bf i love him and tony, wish we saw more of him but i hope he’s living his best life <3

winston: he gave me joe from you vibes the entire season why was he creepy lowkey s:@:&;&!392&-03@3&4 nobody @ me but for a second i thought him and alex were cute during the bowling scene then i remembered who he was. he was a rape apologist which i hated, like dude he’s dead get over it i promise that dick probably wasn’t that good that you have to do a whole fbi investigation for him. the fact that he fell in love with monty and alex after like a week is sending me oddjdkckdkdj but i too am in love with alex standall so i see where he’s coming from, he gets points for not turning alex in at the end but i expected him to be a bigger villain this season but thank god he wasn’t because i would’ve floored him

chloe: my best girl who i wish we saw more of we only saw her for like 3 scenes?? the show did her dirty even in s3 she should’ve had more scenes her storyline was amazing :/ i did enjoy her and zach’s friendship it was so refreshing to see a m/f friendship and i’m glad they didn’t make them romantic. i didn’t expect her and scott to date but go girl!!

diego: literally came out of nowhere where were you for the other 3 seasons? i literally laughed every time he would talk about missing monty like who cares if he got you into football he was a rapist no one cares. i hated how he made clay go literally insane by pulling those pranks on him and calling him psycho?? “why’d you bring a knife” MF YOU GAVE IT TO HIM???? he was nice at the end so i guess i’ll give him some points and he also wasn’t a HUGE jerk i liked how him and justin helped each other when the cop was being racist/a dick and that he seemed upset at justin’s funeral

estela: her and tyler were super cute together and i loved how she acknowledged what monty did and didn’t try to make excuses to defend him. also loved how she wanted to join HO and was completely different from monty

so overall that was my review of the season, i will miss the characters so much and zalex will continue to haunt me every night i cannot escape 💔 jess and alex are my emotional support characters who would’ve thought. selena gomez and the 13rw writers you will pay for your crimes this season!

[notveryglittery]

kiss me

summary: a series of kisses.  words: 1,820 / ship: romantic royality notes: @hawthornshadow​ said “kiss me” by sixpence none the richer and royality and this happened? i wrote it on discord so it’s kinda plotless and messy but it’s cute, imo!! shout out to @sleepless-in-starbucks​ for encouraging me along the way <3 

please listen to “kiss me” while you read!!  read on ao3 | @fandersfic-royality 

— — — — — — — — —

If this godforsaken town has one thing going for it, it’s Patton Hart. He is sweet, and handsome, and mesmerizing. From the light floppy sun hats to the pastel spaghetti strap dresses; from his strawberry blond curls to the sharp emerald green of his eyes; from the sure swift grace he moves with and the mischievous smile he hides behind his hand. There is confidence in Patton that makes Roman wonder if he really isn’t from the city, if he truly has been born and raised out here in wheat fields and sunflower plains. 

They meet when Roman is sixteen. He and his mother have only just moved to Iowa and don't get him wrong, he'd go to the ends of the Earth for his mom, but did her job really have to transfer her to the middle of nowhere? Roman isn’t sure this tiny little town even knows what Starbucks was. There’s one grocery store, one gas station, a library that also doubles as the cinema which makes absolutely no sense, and an ice cream parlor. They have an ice cream parlor but they don’t have stable WiFi and what was the gosh darn ding dang point of a cute, aesthetic ice cream parlor if he can’t post on Instagram about it? 

Roman had been hoping it'd take some time to explore his new home, to get to know the lay of the land, but it really only takes him a day and a half, and that is only because they arrived late in the evening. It isn’t until after Roman has the streets memorized (which isn’t difficult given that there are about nine of them) that he stops in at Scoops 'n Smiles. He thinks it a stupid name but then again, most of this town is still stupid to him, because he’s still bitter about living in it. 

It all gets a whole less stupid when a greeting rings out to him as he steps inside.

*

Roman might not know anything about the cute employee behind the counter but the cute employee behind the counter certainly knows plenty about Roman. It is such a small town, after all, and word spreads fast. He’s a city boy, out here with his mama, and so far he’s been nothing but polite, if not a little grumpy. Neither of them would admit it until they’d been engaged for five months, eight days, and thirteen hours - but the love at first sight is entirely mutual. 

Roman approaches the counter with a spring in his step and stars in his eyes. Patton had smiled coyly at him. 

“Hiya, welcome to Scoops ’n Smiles,” Patton would say sweetly. 

Roman would choke (“your accent,” he’d explain later, “god, you were so cute.”) and Patton would find his stammering endearing. They’re only sixteen but Patton has never been so sure of something in his life. He’d marry this boy, if the fates would allow it. 

Maybe Patton hands Roman a napkin with his ice cream, despite there being a dispenser at the counter beside the spoons. Maybe it has Patton’s phone number written on it. Maybe Patton winks at Roman as he leaves, gripping his cone so tightly it is close to crumbling. Maybe Patton screams into a dish towel the moment the parlor is empty again.

*

Their first date is, not to put it loosely, magical. Roman learns quickly that anything is magical where Patton was involved. They go out to the lake. It’s a beautiful day, sunny and bright and warm. Patton is wearing a sundress in a shade of blue that matches the sky. Roman wears the wrong pair of shoes and they are caked in mud by the end of the day, but that’s alright. 

The stars are sparkling brighter than Roman has ever seen, laying in the bed of Patton’s truck beside the barley fields and green pastures. Lightning bugs flit in and out of view, the air is cool on his skin, and Patton is telling him all about the constellations.

“How d’you know so much?” Roman asks. 

“My cousin taught me when he visited last year,” Patton answers, turning to look at Roman, and smiling, smiling so sparkling and pretty that the stars no longer compare. “I’m pretty sure he used it to do the same thing I’m doing.” 

“And what’s that?” 

“Trying to impress a boy he liked.” 

Patton tastes like strawberry ice cream and vanilla chapstick. Roman doesn’t see it, given he’s so very focused on kissing Patton (kissing Patton!), but a shooting star streaks across the sky, and it really all might as well be made for movies.

*

Let it be known that Patton is never one to be outdone. He throws himself into his projects and his friendships and his work. His pa tells him to be careful about giving and giving and giving, that he has to slow down sometimes. Patton thinks that silly; how could he ever do that when he has so much love and energy bottled up inside, so much that he feels like he might burst with it? Roman matches him here and it is exhilarating. City boy is outgoing and adventurous and go go go. It feels so good to finally have someone that can keep up. 

What could possibly go wrong when Patton has someone as wonderful and sincere and bright as Roman at his side? 

Winter is approaching and so the town is celebrating its autumn harvest. They do this at the end of every season and it’s Roman's first time attending one. There are games and prizes, treats and cider, and when the cleared space for a dance floor is glowing with moonlight, and the band is at full swing, Roman takes Patton by the hands, swinging and spinning him around. 

By the end of the night, the fireflies dancing and the silver moon sparkling, Roman will press a kiss to Patton's lips and murmur breathlessly "I love you." 

Never one to be outdone, Patton will return it, and he'll continue with hushed compliments, and light pecks anywhere he can reach, and by the end, Roman will be as red as the changing leaves.

*

If Roman had known he'd only have two years, he'd have done more with his time. He'd have confessed his love sooner, he'd have made sure to take more photos, he'd have done better.  

It’s at the broken treehouse and working tire swing that they've taken to spending their free mornings at. Patton is wearing his favorite sun hat, the one with the flowers. Roman’s pushing him on the swing, soaking in the sound of his laughter and the warm unfiltered sunlight. He doesn’t want to go. 

They sit down for a picnic, looking at an old map Patton's dad had given them, one marked with trails and clearings and lakes. The idea of spending his summer with Patton exploring and hiking sounds so much better than going back to concrete skyscrapers and smog. He doesn’t want to go.  

"I have to go." 

Patton looks at him curiously. 

"Home, I mean."

"You are home," Patton assures him. 

"I -" and it's all Roman can say before tears are stinging at the corners of his eyes. 

Patton's expression crumbles and he hurries to pull Roman into his arms, shushing him, and pressing kisses to the top of his head, and running a hand up and down his back. Somehow, it doesn’t help.

*

The following three years are dreadful. They are boring and slow and lonely and Patton finally understands what his pa meant by taking it easy. He can’t work at Smiles ’n Scoops without remembering this is where he met the love of his life, he can’t attend harvest festivals without recalling the way Roman had blushed so prettily after their first I love you, he can’t look at the broken treehouse in the park without remembering the way it had felt to hold a crying, trembling Roman in his arms. 

Sure, there are letters and texts and video calls. They don’t compare to the way Roman’s hand fits perfectly in his. The freckles Roman had earned from all his time in the sun fade the longer he is back in the city. His hair is darker and there are bags under his eyes and Patton wonders if it is because it’s so noisy there; he can hear it through the phone sometimes. 

Roman does get better, over time. He gets used to the noise and the monotone colors and it is almost like he was never in Iowa to begin with. That doesn’t mean anything, though, because three years and eight months and two weeks later, he’s packed everything he owns, and he moves back home. 

Home is where the heart is after all. More accurately, home is where the Hart is. 

Maybe he keeps it a secret. Maybe he meets up with Patton's father and asks for his blessing. Maybe the entire town is on the same page for once and doesn’t spread the word. Maybe Patton doesn’t see Roman sneaking up on him at the autumn harvest festival. 

Maybe when Patton turns around, Roman is behind him on one knee. Maybe when they kiss this time, it is with shaking hands and tears of joy and a ring that sparkles like the silver moon.

*

Five months, eight days, and thirteen hours into being engaged and Roman is still as hopelessly smitten as he has been since day one. He’s helping Patton to figure out his new phone. Somehow, Patton’s had the same iPhone 5 for over seven years, and it was still in perfect working condition. There wasn’t a scratch or dent on it, not once had it needed to be factory reset. When Roman asks how Patton does it (because Roman has gone through at least four phones), Patton says sweetly, like the way he does the day they met: 

“I take care of the things I love.” 

And it should just be something Patton says but nothing Patton ever says is just something and someone might as well be crowing “one hit KO” because Roman is down for the count. 

“I loved you at first sight,” Patton sighs, as if Roman isn’t already dead. “I said to the fates, I’m going to marry that boy.” 

Roman falls over, swooning onto Patton’s lap. The harvest festivals see them on the moonlit dance floor less often, too busy staying curled up beside each other. “Dearheart, please have mercy.” 

Patton grins mischievously and leans over to press a kiss to Roman's lips. There are fireflies dancing around him and his strawberry blond curls look like they're glowing. "Now why ever would I do that?" 

And if Roman confesses beneath the milky twilight to Patton, too, that he'd fallen in love at first sight, hoping to fluster his fiancé (his fiancé!) in return, well... Patton is never one to be outdone.

[elenathehun]

Watching the Clone Wars, Part 5

Hey, I’m actually being prompt this time, and not letting this sit on my desk for the rest of the week.  Good for me!  In this viewing session, we watch one “good” arc, and one terrible one.  Guess which is which ;)

“Storm Over Ryloth” (1x19)

Aw, the fourteen year old is going to engage in very dangerous dogfighting?  For those of you old enough to remember X-Wing: Rogue Squadron, remember how leery Starfighter Command was of letting sixteen year old Gavin Darklighter join Rogue Squadron?  More innocent times, for sure.

Anyway, Ahsoka just got eleven men summarily killed, all to set up a tedious episode on the nature of command.  It’s so wild how Rex and the bridge officer clone actually defer to her.  Maybe, just maybe, GAR would win if they gave a bit more power to the highly-trained war machines the Jedi purchased, eh?  Instead of the barely-trained teenagers with no business in a war zone.

I’m not even going to talk about the actual tactics because they’re superfluous.  It’s a shame the jedi don’t understand the purpose of consolidating their force and utilizing a joint attack.  Maybe Anakin could have saved a ship or two if he, Mace, and Obi-Wan had attacked as a group.

No, you’re right.  That’s too smart.

“Innocents of Ryloth” (1x20)

Obi-Wan’s low-impact strategy is a bit stupid.  Like, the CIS is explicitly engaging in terrorist tactics on Ryloth, the Twi’leks most likely have no homes to return to.  But, whatever, that’s not the point of the episode.  The point of this episode is Waxer and Boil.  I love them, but I also love the casual specie-ism/racism on Boil’s part.  Dude grew up on Kamino, which is basically an isolated military boarding school, where would have learned a word like “tailhead”?

Oh, that’s right, the scum of the earth working as trainers.  Never mind!  I like to think that the clones, while generally very nice and polite young men, also have a very strange idea of appropriate language and conduct outside of their very isolated, insular upbringing.  I do love ye olde culture clash plotline!

The CIS continues to devolve with internment camps, animal cruelty, and yes, weaponizing animals to kill clones in a suitably horrific way.  Good job, guys, way to lower the bar!  With that said, Numa is adorable, and it’s amazing that she managed to survive on her own in this ghost-town while her family and community have been rounded up into camps.  

Obi-Wan may be a subpar general, but he is definitely a very capable psychic super-soldier.  The fight scenes were incredibly enjoyable to watch, and although it’s a bit silly, I did really like the Twi’leks pulling the tactical droid who was their warden out of his tank with their bare hands - they definitely deserved that.

“Liberty on Ryloth” (1x21)

This is a Mace Windu episode, and I am here for it.  What an icon, what a legend.  I do think that he is portrayed as having exceptional control of the Force, and it’s always really interesting to see him use it in a fight.  The episode is a fairly basic one: He’s trying to link up with Cham Syndulla to get rid of the rest of the CIS army; the senator for Ryloth, Orn Free Taa, is more concerned about the disposition of political power on Ryloth after the invasion is complete.  I have...so many questions about how political power on Ryloth is distributed: is Orn Free Taa the ruler of the planet and the Senator, or is there a different kind of power-sharing agreement?  Is Cham Syndulla just the sort or ordinary person thrust into extraordinary times, especially by the abandonment of their people by their leadership and the Republic?  It strikes me as a setting rich with potential plots.

Of course, that’s only a small part of the episode, which is mostly Mace being a badass and basically being a one-man army.  Again, the direction is remarkably good in this episode.  As usual, air supremacy is not a factor in this war.   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.  Even though AT-RTs really make no sense, I want one very badly.  Lastly, based on the clone trying to pet the blurrg and Boil and Waxer’s treatment of Numa last episode, I believe the clones are going through that stage where they just want a pet of their very own.  It is actually a little adorable.  

Shout-out to the tactical droid obtaining full sentience and ditching his boss and lying to Dooku.  Still wish that a subplot of Dooku’s droids turning against him had been a thing.

Season 1 Restrospective:  It only took five weeks, but we are finally finished with this season, save for 1x22, which is actually set sometime in the third season.  There were some high points, but man, this was an absolute slog mostly.  There were way too many Jar Jar episodes, and the clones were not given nearly enough screen time.  “Rookies” and “Lair of Grievous” were the outstanding stand-alone episodes imho, and the “Ryloth” and “Malevolence” arcs were generally ok, with two of their three episodes being rewatchable.  

But in a series about the clone wars, there is very little character development of the actual clones - like, poor Rex is barely a presence in this season.  And the CIS is just so cartoonishly awful that I can’t take it seriously at all.  It actually does strain my belief that Palpatine could keep these plates spinning for more than a week.  Anakin is just...blah.  And although I know I’m supposed to like Ahsoka, I just can’t help but find her annoying, mostly because she’s a kid.

Well, we’re about one-sixth of the way through.  She’s got another six seasons to grow on me - and hopefully she will, because otherwise this will be very tedious.

“Holocron Heist” (2x01)

No sooner do I say that than Ahsoka reverts to being a dumb fucking kid.  However, is a full Council meeting to investigate the fact that she’s a dumb fucking kid actually a good use of the High Council’s time?  Just curious.  This arc is honestly really stupid, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, only to say that Cad Bane’s aesthetic is very choice for an outlaw, and the Jedi have laughable security.

“Cargo of Doom” (2x02)

Another Anakin & Ahsoka episode where they and Yularen share one braincell, and Rex is the one who holds it most of the time.  Also really love how the Jedi with the list of all the potential Jedi recruits apparently took his sole record with him to a warzone.  That makes perfect sense.  I’m not really going to get into this episode, except to point out that we saw a Jedi tortured to death on-screen, which leads me to my most pressing question: how much money, per episode, did Lucasfilm have to use to bribe the MPA?  

As for the choice Cade Bane gave Anakin at the end?  As @spiraling pointed out, people don’t die of decompression and vacuum exposure immediately.  Anakin could easily take Bane out and rescue Asohka in that time.  She’d need a dip in bacta, but she’d live.  

“Children of the Force” (2x03)

This episode is actually the worst of all, because the Jedi (who, by the by, are an actual government entity with access to priority comms and lots and lots of computer space) don’t have backup lists of their recruits, nor do they, say, call ahead with the address and have the local government set a trap before they arrive.  Poorly done, Obi-Wan, poorly done.  

Anyway, the kids are rescued from the unspeakable horrors that later children will be exposed to, children like Mara Jade and Lumiya.  Good for Anakin and Ahsoka!  However, I’d like to present a more awful possibility:  If it weren’t for the need for a holocron, Cad Bane (and by extension, Palpatine) would have gotten away with it.  Like, Palpatine is a Sith Lord, trained by a Sith Lord, and his putative apprentice is a former Jedi who had access to the temple and the various Jedi stores until about a year ago.  Do you really think he doesn’t already have a holocron ready to go?

So instead of stealing a holocron to start off with, Cad Bane just... targets and captures Bolla Ropal under the guise of a CIS attack.  He steals the kyber crystal.  The Jedi are very, very worried, of course, but it takes time for them to realize it’s gone missing.  in the meantime, however, Cad Bane just takes it to Dooku, they pull and copy the list, and the harvesting of Force-sensitive children can continue.

This is, I think, one of the great disappointments of TCW.  For a show that likes to use the model the Justice League cartoon of the early 2000s pioneered, they haven’t quite figured it out yet.  This is the sort of plot that could fuel an entire season of investigation, but instead they have these little three-episode arcs that never connect to the rest.  It’s a real shame.

Next week: We continue Season 2 with “Bounty Hunters”, “The Zillo Beast”, “The Zillo Beast Strikes Back”, “Senate Spy”, “Landing at Point Rain”, “Weapons Factory”, and (time permitting) “Legacy of Terror”.

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Comparing RWBY and YGO DM: The Handling and Evolution of Themes

Hey! Its been a hot minute since I last posted anything RWBY-related but Im laying in my bed right now and Im sick and bored so I guess we're doing this. Today I will do my best to analyze what I percieve to be the main themes and messages of both of these shows, or more specifically, how theyre handled narratively. Im mostly focusing on that part because, while these series do have similar themes and messaging, they are still a few things in which they are wildly different. And with that, lets start with this essay-post-thing!

1. Theres something we need to adress first

Okay so, before we can really talk about this, theres something I feel the need to clarify here: Neither of these stories was "planned from the beginning".

Now, I dont think a story being planned from the beginning or not nesscessarily makes the story any better or worse by default, however, it is still important to acknowledge because the way the story is planned is going to affect every facet of it. Things are not going to be foreshadowed properly, things are gonna be set up only for nothing to come of it, the story might drastically change directions, characters might act differently, etc, etc.

And, this is bit off-topic but, it's much better to just admit that the story was not planned than trying to pretend that it was. Like, there are a lot of reasons why I tend to be so forgiving towards YGO even though its not very good, but one of them is definitely the fact that, as far as Im aware atleast, the guy who wrote it isnt pretending to have had this big master plan all along and neither is the fandom. With RWBY on the other hand... yeaaaah, its kinda the opposite. From what Ive seen of RWBYs fandom, there seems to be this pretty popular narrative that everything was planned even though it clearly wasnt. Thats pretty bad and honestly lowers my opinion of the writers so much more than if they would just admit to not having a proper plan.

Like, I initially consumed YGO like this: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh (aka Season 0), like, a quarter of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga (I still havent finished it)

In all three of these we have the character of Yami Yuugi, or just Yami. Broadly speaking, he is an ancient egyptian gamer spirit who lives in a magical puzzle that has not been solved for 3000 years until this highschooler named Yuugi Mutou comes along and solves it, thus setting him free and allowing him to possess Yuugi and have access to the vague magical powers of the puzzle.

In Duel Monsters he's perfectly fine most of time, morally speaking. There is an instance of him almost murdering a guy and its a bit unclear what exactly happens to those he mindcrushes but overall he's very much a pretty good guy. In Season 0 most of what he does is set up these games for bad people, where they will go insane no matter what they do. From how I understand this whole Shadow Game, Penalty Game stuff, if you lose a Shadow Game, you get violent and intense hallucinations and you will always cuz yknow, gamer spirit. But if you try to cheat, which most of the bad people do in this show, you get violent and intense hallucinations as a punishment.

Since the two anime are generally considered two different continuities, its perfectly fine that Yamis characterization is wildly different in both of them. But in the manga both of these characterizations appear, basically one after the other with no real arc or consequences, for that matter. Why is that? Simply put, someone thought it was a good idea to try to turn an episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror manga into a more traditional, more plot-driven battle shounen. From what Ive heard, it was apparently largely because of network interference or something, but the point is, it changed directions incredibly drastically with little planning and everyone knows this and I can understand that for the most part.

In RWBY we have the character of Blake Belladonna, who, in the first 3 volumes/seasons atleast, was this aloof, more toned down loner-type character with a pretty strong sense of justice. She's an in-universe marginilized racial minority and she clearly cares about racial injustice. The way its initially framed makes it seem like she had a very hard life and no stable support system, which is what eventually pushed her to join a Civil Rights group/Terrorist organization (good god, the Faunus subplot is so awful, I could write a whole essay about it but Im already de-railing rn so I'll just save that for later).

Then, in volumes 4-5 it turns out her father is actually like, the mayor or chief of this island-place called Menagerie and she grew up in this big mansion with multiple guards/servants. Oh and also, apparently "space is a commodity" on there, so theres that. She still retains large parts of her personality but she's kinda like, worse somehow I think. I cant really describe it in a meaningful way but I hope you get what Im saying anyway. Then in Volume 6 she confronted her emotional abuser Adam (sorry for not mentioning him sooner but yeah, he was like, her abusive boyfriend, which is something that a lot of people disagree with but I wont really say anything about it either way because I dont really feel any specific way) with her friend, Yang, and ended up killing him.

After all that, she pretty much lost the rest of her personality, as well as her arc about all the Faunus stuff. She just kinda became the meek, generically nice, recovering abuse victim. Why? Well, the actual reason is that they didnt plan out shit and are just kinda flying by the seat of their oversized clown-pants and if they and the fandom just admitted it, I would have less of an issue. I still wouldnt be as forgiving towards RWBY as I am towards YGO because the crux of the issue, for me, is just that I dont particulary like RWBY but also like. Do you really expect me to take MKEK seriously as writers after admitting to not have a timeline because iT wOuLd CaUsE pLoThOlEs?

However, since they want us to believe that everything was planned out from the beginning, the explaination would be.... Idk, they deliberately butchered one of their main characters?? Because.. they hate her?? Maybe????

So yeah, that was quite a detour however, I would like you to keep this mind going forward.

2. Themes of the Early Series'

First, what do mean by 'Early Series' for both of these shows respectively? Well, for YGO that would have to be Season 0 or if youre reading the manga, everything pre-Duelist Kingdom. Basically, the part of the series thats a episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror series.

For RWBY that would be the first three Volumes, also known as the Poser-Era. Back then it was just kinda an action series that took place at Anime Warrior Academy (also known as Beacon) with some pretty bare minimum worldbuilding, character-driven plots and developments but now its more of an epic high-fantasy story with more of an emphasis on plot as opposed to just action.

The themes and messages in Early YGO are kinda vague, very confusing to me and if you were to follow any of it literally that would be pretty bad. For now Im just gonna say the main themes are Friendship and Identity and mostly focus on the Identity aspect.

Now, it took me a little while to figure out RWBYs deal but I think the main themes for Volumes 1-3 are also Friendship and Heroism. Once again, I'll mostly focus on Heroism and touch on Friendship more briefly later.

I dont have much more to add to YGOs themes right now, so I'll briefly go over Heroism in RWBY.

In RWBYs setting there are these man-eating monsters called Grimm that have basically infected the planet. In order to deal with that, they have people called huntsmen and huntresses that kill them and protect people. Theyre trained at special academies like Beacon and go on missions there and stuff like that. Our four main characters, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, are training to become huntresses and one day they go on this mission to clean up a grimm infested city block with one of their teachers. Obviously, that takes a long time so they have to camp out in one of the empty houses. Weiss, Blake and Yang cant sleep because theyve been thinking about this question that their teacher asked them when they were fighting grimm: "Why do you want to become a huntress?"

They have a heart to heart and we find out about their motivations; Weiss wants to bring honour back to her family, Blake want to distance herself from the White Fang (that terrorist organization I mentioned earlier) and as an extension from Adam, Yang wants to have a life of adventure. They also talk about why Ruby wants to be a huntress and it turns out that she judt wants to help people. Unlike the others, she has no motivation besides that. We're meant to listen to that and look at her as a sort-of personification of Heroism: kind, but not naive, strong and most of all, selfless. The others on her team are not portayed as bad for not being like Ruby by any means but we are clearly meant to admire her the most out of all of them.

Okay, now comes the part Ive been looking forward to the most:

3. How did these themes evolve in the Modern Series'?

Alright, before we can really delve into the way they evolved in YGO I'll have to give you a brief summary of the character progression. At the start of DM, during the Duelist Kingdom arc, Yami Yuugi is just that; A darker Yuugi. Hes more confident, bolder, his voice is deeper, hes somehow taller, more ruthless, all that good stuff. Notably, he doesnt actually seem more skilled than Yuugi even at the start of this story, but he's still dependent on Yami. Yami on the other hand, has no identity of his own or even hints at one at this point. He's just The Other Yuugi.

Then during the Battle City arc, they find out that Yami was actually a pharao prior to being sealed in the puzzle, he just didnt know because of amnesia, I guess. So now they need to find out his real name and then send him to the afterlife because hes meant to be dead, but not before saving the world from being swallowed by darkness, which is also a thing they have to do now.

Then we finally get to the Memory World arc, where Yami, Yuugi and the rest of the gang astralproject to ancient egypt via puzzle magic. Yami is trying to figure out what the hell is going on and who all these familiar people are, while Yuugi & Co are trying their best to help him. Then some weird shit happens and it turns out that all of that is not just Yamis sealed away memories, but also a giant D&D Shadow Game that will destroy the world if Yami loses. So now theres Pharao!Yami who is still clueless on the metaphorical and literal playing field and Player!Yami, who is kinda controlling himself now? I guess?? Yamis opponent, The Spirit of The Ring, has something similar to that going on where hes both controlling and properly participating in the game. So Player!Yami is now fighting against Player!TSoTR, Pharao!Yami is now fighting against Thief King Bakura (who is like, the human, ancient egyptian version of the Ring Spirit) and Yuugi is now fighting against Yami Bakura (who is like, the human, modern japanese version of the Ring Spirit). Yuugi gets Yamis real name, he and the gang go over to Pharao!Yami and tell him his name, meanwhile Player!Yami is also somehow helping as well and they defeat the Ring Spirit, thus saving the world. Then they travel to modern Egypt, the Ceremonial Duel happens and Yuugi wins, sending Yami to the Afterlife where he can finally rest and that was the series!

I originally wanted to recount the stuff that was going on with the Ring Spirit and his host as well because they parallel eachother, but this summary is already far too long and I think youll get the point without me needing to explain any more.

My point here is, that the story went from being vaguely about Identity, maybe? to being very clearly about Self-Discovery and Learning to Be Independent. I think this is a very good way to evolve the messaging of your story. How does RWBY track on that?

Well, uh... its not great. I will acknowledge that they have tried to introduce new themes and ideas since, even though I wont really be talking about them in this post. But yeah, the whole Heroism thing really regressed.

Like, I didnt explicitly say it when I was explaining grimm earlier, but theyre not going away. The grimm have always been there and people who sign up to become huntsmen and huntresses are effectively signing up for a job that will never truly be done, no matter what they do. Characters like Ruby and even more minor ones like Phyrrah have shown us that that doesnt matter when youre a hero. No life isnt worth saving, no grimm isnt worth killing, no criminal isnt worth arresting. Then, in volume 6 they find out about Salem. Salem is the Big Bad of the show, shes immortal, controls the grimm and is supposed to be very powerful.

What do our heroes do? They give up. Sike! They were just mindcontrolled by monsters or some shit, of course they didnt give up their mission (which is to bring an Important Macguffin to a city called Atlas, sorry I didnt mention it)!

But then they arrive in Atlas (which is llike, a city thats floating over another city called Mantle) and yknow, they do some plot stuff thats not really important right now until the city gets invaded by Salem and this big grimm army she has.

What do our heroes do? Well, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and some side characters are chilling, drinking tea in a mansion and Yang and the B Team were actually trying to do something, but even those efforts seem incredibly minimal.

Oh wait, I also forgot to mention that Ironwood (a fairly minor, vaguely antagonistic character up until now) wanted to lift Atlas even higher to save Atleasian civilians from danger while leaving Mantle vulnerable to Salems invasion.

What would be the most heroic thing to do?

A) Let Ironwood lift Atlas, get as much support as they can down to Mantle and save as many Mantle civilians as they can from the invasion

B) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas but then split up in order to protect both Atlas and Mantle civilians

C) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas and then dont do anything else

Congrats! If you choose C, you think exactly like the writers!

And I just

This is so mindboggling to me, I feel like I shouldnt even have explain how this is bad. And like, it wouldve been so easy to actually make them seem herokc through their actions, to make it seem like they did try but no.

I have never seen a central theme be this botched, how in the world did they do that? Why did they think it was a good idea for Ruby "The Embodiment of Heroism" Rose to sit in a mansion doing nothing, no planning, no organizing just ..... God, how are they this bad? Like, this doesnt even have anything to do with it being planned in any way, this is just straight up incompetence

4. Very briefly touching on friendship

The friendship is awful and its not solely because they all have the same opinions. They barely interact with eachother outside their designated pairs which leads to it all feeling incredibly hollow. Theyre also practically indistingushable from one another now, which is a shame because it wasnt always like that. Like, I dont think the characters were that well-developed in earlier volumes but they were very well-characterized. But now we've gotten to a point where you can literally copy and paste one characters dialogue onto another and literally nothing changes, it really sucks.

5. Some closing words

Damn, this took way longer than I thought it would and now Im pretty exhausted. I have no idea how yall always write these but props to you! I feel like this ended up a bit rambly but overall, Im pretty proud.

Please let me know what you think of the points I brought up! Id also really appreciate some tips on how to get better at these longer posts because I am planning on writing more in the future (not the near future, probably but yknow).

Thats all I have to say for now, thanks for reading!

[otp-armada]

I am not looking forward to these flashbacks. 

To date, we’ve had four onscreen kisses shared between Bellamy and Echo with additional, smaller moments of other forms of intimacy. I’d rather the show refrain from adding more tally marks to the count. 

If humans were gifted with the capacity for purging unwanted memories, then all this discomfort would be a moot point. I suppose there’s always alcohol as a fallback option, but not even the prospect of temporary amnesia is worth destroying my liver. Turning to alcohol to drown my B/E-related sorrows would probably qualify more as self-harm than self-help.

I’d much prefer to cut directly to an imminent breakup scene without the pomp and circumstance of an agonized Echo’s trip down memory lane. 

If anything, supplying us with visual evidence on how happy they were together is an even sadder remark on the state of B/E’s fragility, knowing it took 0.001 seconds for the mere mention of Clarke’s name to bring it all to ruin. No collection of past happy moments shared on the Ring erases the fractures in their relationship that occur between them afterward, originating with the revelation of a still-living Clarke. I'd be an absolute fool to believe otherwise. 

But if Jason deems a tour of their greatest hits as necessary to the story, I trust his judgment. Showing us B/E's origins as their romantic relationship begins to fall apart in real-time brings it full circle, and it lends gravitas to the story he's telling with Echo. With this particular arc, the bigger picture is still Echo's evolution. It's not about B/E.  

Once season 7 started, there was a visible shift in how Jason utilized B/E.  Whereas seasons 5 and 6 primarily used B/E as the third leg in a love triangle designed to keep a pining Bellarke apart, season 7 uses their master-spy dynamic to bolster Echo's development almost exclusively. Post-season 6, Bellarke is so primed to get together, one honest admission of mutual feelings without Echo as an obstacle and BOOM. Canon couple. 

Echo has a more extensive role than girl-to-be-dumped, and I'm not upset over it. She gets to stand up as a character after the majority of her life has been marked by slavery for her crown, and I'm not upset over it. As indemnification for the loss of her relationship, this orphan-turned-soldier is finding her place in a supportive, loving family while developing a sense of identity and independence, and I'm not upset over it.

I would’ve preferred Jason found a way to take her on this path without B/E remaining intact this far into the final season and theoretically for the foreseeable episodes. I would always choose to end them sooner rather than later, given a choice. But I understand why Jason didn't. 

Echo can’t very well outgrow a master-spy complex if there is no master to her spy. And as much as I hate it, the romantic aspect of B/E is a believable, convenient tool to keep this complex in place until her story comes to fruition. Would Echo act so extremely in service to a recent ex-boyfriend who left her for another woman? Probably not. As far as I can tell, the pinnacle of her arc is the moment she realizes she has to break free from Bellamy. So narrative structure demands B/E stay together, however technically, long enough for her to break those chains. 

I was initially excited about the flashbacks, if only because I took them as a sign of an impending breakup. But the timing doesn't pan out. Aside from the logistics of Echo and Bellamy presumably on separate worlds, and with her thinking him dead, we've only just reached the point where Echo might start to ask herself those hard questions she's been avoiding. She must have noticed a change in her relationship. Between Psychosis!Emori, B/E's 6x04 fight, and Anomaly!Roan, she's had enough cause for doubt. But I think she's suppressed any urge to reflect upon it for a number of reasons. Love. Continued hope they'll last. War. A mission to save him. It took a lot of meticulous maneuvering to corner Echo to this point. Now that we're here, I don't think Jason would pull a reverse Uno card in a 40-minute episode. It seems more likely that he will let her continue to stew in her emotions. Either she'll keep sinking until she hits rock bottom, or she'll start learning how to swim. 

Jason could always prove me wrong. And if I am, I'd never be happier for him to do so. If I'm not? It's at times like this when I am reminded of the resolution I made at the end of season 6- rest easy in the comfort of knowing B/E will meet its inevitable end but do not try to speculate when that might be. Attempting to discern the specifics of "when" brings one only misery. 

Jason’s signature sometimes-too-fast, other-times-too-slow pacing, is often liable to tempt one into ripping their own hair out. That being said, I’ve seen enough of this show to trust in his ability to tell a damn good story. Faith in his competency for the craft just requires on our part, the patience of a saint. 

If nothing else, it isn’t my story to tell, so I’ll just have to suck it up and find a way to deal with any disappointments I may feel. Or I can try to find the value within the story told. It's a better alternative than to be left bitter. No promises, though.

Maybe Echo’s actions against the Disciples aren’t reprehensible, considering the people she’s killing are those complicit in kidnapping and torturing her people. But Orlando was a good, honorable man whose naïveté convinced him to play for the wrong team, yet helped our heroes when he didn’t have to. Not unlike Shaw, whom Echo sold to Diyoza to fulfill her mission. But I assume “We are not his people” is residual mistrust leftover from Ryker’s betrayal of her. She miscalculated the feelings of one possible defector before, she won’t make the same mistake twice. 

If she was able to save Bellamy in the end, I’m sure she’d be able to justify the spilled blood it took to get there. But Orlando suffered at her hands for nothing, and she may not be overly concerned with morality, but she cares for the people she grows close to. Unless the episode proves otherwise, I’d like to think Orlando’s fate will weigh heavily on her. 

They may not have been close. But five years in close quarters with only a few people akin to friends for comfort, it'd be hard not to feel the slightest bit attached.

Those of us who believe in Bellarke know Echo is the third-party obstacle in a love triangle. But what is far more interesting is the role she played in the seasons-long Blake siblings struggle. 

Echo was persona non grata to both siblings following her and Octavia's mountaintop fight. Six years later, she highlights the difference in the siblings' maturities. Whereas Bellamy has learned to embrace empathy and forgiveness with open arms, Octavia is cold and unyielding. On a more personal note, B/E represents Octavia's persistent unwillingness to respect Bellamy as his own person, with needs and wants independent of her. 

After her soul searching on Skyring, I thought she had buried the hatchet, as per her lack of vitriol in her 6x12 conversation with Bellamy, and enthusiastically joining forces with Echo in 6x13. Maybe she did. But Octavia has also proven herself an unreliable narrator, and Hope feels indignation on her aunt's behalf. Whatever the case, there's a reason why the dialogue keeps referencing Echo and Octavia's hostile history. And I think it's building to a head in 7x07. 

I think mutual love for Bellamy is healing the divide between them when Echo is at her most fractured. She's isolated from Bellamy and the rest of Spacekru. Left in pain and seeking retribution as Octavia did, which, as we know, is where it all went wrong for the latter. Octavia, more than most, is in the best position to empathize with what Echo is currently feeling and how pain can destroy her if she lets it consume her. 

If Octavia can remind Echo she's not alone, if a former enemy can convince her she belongs and welcome her with open arms- as her brother did before her- it might do well in healing some broken piece inside of her. And it would be a roundabout display of Octavia's newfound maturity. This is good for both of them. This spiral she is in will require her to look inward. Since her fixation with Bellamy is partly what landed her in this mess, absolution cannot come from him. She can only find it in herself if she wants it. But I'd be glad if Octavia can help see her through it. This is what I mean about seeking value in the story told. We're so concerned about Octavia calling Echo family, about the possibility of it legitimizing B/E, it doesn't occur to us that it's about the characters themselves. And B/E is only a vehicle used to bring us there. It's easier to see when not consumed by automatic seething rage, as typical of our fellow Bellarke compatriots, for anything remotely associated with Echo.

If my heart and mind weren’t chanting “BELLARKEBELLARKEBELLARKE,” there’s a good chance I’d be able to better appreciate the complexities B/E gives to the development of the four characters it directly impacts. 

Our side of fandom has made lots of accusations about B/E since 5x01. It’s a forgettable, physical relationship worth little to Bellamy. B/E is unhealthy for reasons x, y, and z. We generate a different example in every episode. Click slideshow for more details. But the fact of the matter is, much of this isn't true. Until Echo went postal, B/E wasn’t unhealthy. Bellamy just had a greater love for Clarke. Up until their ending scene in 6x04, there was nothing they couldn’t come back from together, if both committed themselves fully, no more walls. It's not a particularly popular train of thought among us, but Jason absolutely could've written B/E as an endgame pairing. And all it would take to deliver a final killing blow is the inclusion of a single damning scene.

We can gripe over the length of time they've stayed together. But, in spite of what most people think about every new B/E development and Bellarke separation, Jason has never actually dropped an ax on Bellarke. Hope persists.

Jason is responsible for the development of dozens of characters, major plots, and dozens of smaller subplots. But our fandom reduced the story chiefly to Bellarke's romance. Our villains are those who stand in their way. Namely Echo, the only outside love interest to be an official obstacle. We fashioned Echo as our enemy. In lieu of removing her from the narrative (which is not in our power to do), we've done everything within our purview to diminish her. If Jason won't treat B/E and Echo as the jokes we know they are, we'll do it ourselves. Minimizing her role in the story makes it a hell of a lot easier to erase a character we'd rather didn't exist for our preferred ship to advance.

Lord knows how many times we've claimed she has no story. That absent relevance or substantial bearing, she's there simply because Jason is partial to her for some elusive reason. But the reality is, we never looked for her story because we wanted to be able to claim its inexistence. We wanted to be able to say she's frivolous to the story, and by extension, to Bellamy. We want to be able to dismantle B/E when it appears Jason doesn't. Except he is and has been doing so since day one. 

Months ago, on a whim, when I was feeling benevolent towards Echo, I wrote a long post HERE giving her the benefit of the doubt, and I said:

In the grand scheme of the story, I think this is the purpose Echo serves, to represent the part that says, “We’re all human. No matter what tribe we belong to, we fight for the same reasons. We love the same way. When you leave allegiances aside, when you see someone for who they are at their core, an enemy today can become a friend tomorrow.”

True peace, a series-long running theme for our heroes, begins with embracing former outsiders like Echo and Emori. Easy to lose sight of this when focused on ship wars. 

It is perfectly acceptable not to love all the components of a story. It is understandable to focus your attention on those select segments you find appealing. But a tunnel-visioned mindset lands you in trouble when you become resentful at the reminders that a story is a composite of more moving pieces than just the parts you like. And when you forget that screentime allotted to developing those pieces ahead of what you favor is permissible. Everything on a show has its time, all in due course. 

On the other hand, B/E shippers overinflate their ship's significance. They take canon and twist it to say, "Look at how strong B/E is, Bellarke could never. B/E is endgame, and Blorkes are delusional." Their conclusion of an epic love is another bias-based fandom interpretation that doesn’t hold water, either. 

I think the reality of B/E lies somewhere in a muddled middle of these two extremes. 

One last point, and I'll get off my soapbox. Despite what the melodramatic diatribe in my opening paragraph suggests, B/E is never as atrocious as fandom makes them out to be. Greater fandom treats anything remotely associated with B/E as the next great catastrophe. And as it turns out, it never really is.  

 Tagging @sometimesrosy, because I think, after years of combating opinions you don’t agree with, it might be a refreshing change of pace to know some of us do have more balanced views regarding B/E. If I do say so myself.

[irisouy]

"their interactions are not as frequent" the problem is they are forgotten, episode 12? had no sense we spend the whole season with bellamy worried and lost without clarke and now he is worried about his GF and let clarke go?apart again? that b/e hug?sorry but the fandom has every fucking right of being tired, because what always happen with them is a huge scene and then next episode is like nothing, keep saying is happening and b/e is breaking up but anyway at this point is not worth it.

Hey Anon, I can see that you are angry, so my answer is not going to please you, because I disagree with your take, but since you sent me an ask, I have the right to state my opinion. And that’s what it is: just an opinion.

I disagree with the fact that Bellarke’s interactions are forgotten and I also disagree when you say that episode 12 made no sense. You have every right to be tired, that’s your prerogative and I cannot tell you to feel differently but saying that things don’t make sense because it’s not happening the way you want is a stretch.

I am not answering your ask to try to convince you because you have made up your mind, and that is OK. However, in the case someone is interested in my point of view here it is:

First, I’m going to tackle the “episode 12 made no sense”: how did it made no sense? Because Clarke and Bellamy did not smooch each other while their loved ones were in immediate danger? Or is it because Bellamy hugged his Girlfriend?

I think your expectations are unrealistic with the nature of the show: it is not a romance show, nor a drama. In those type of shows there is time for characters to explore their feelings and to discuss them. But this is a post-apocalyptic show. The main story is the survival of the group and the characters feelings and relationships are merely sprinkled amidst the action. Do you honestly think it makes sense for Clarke and Bellamy to stop to analyze their feelings for each other while they need to save their people? To me it makes perfect sense that in episode 12 they had to focus on their mission if they want to make it alive and save all the people they care about, because there was no time for anything else.

You might not care about the other characters, but Bellamy and Clarke do care. At the end of the day they are both pragmatic and know they have to put their feelings aside if they want shit to be done. Just look at Clarke this episode: she literally had to hide her feelings when they were torturing her daughter and when she learned that her own mother had been murdered. I don’t see when she would have had time to talk to Bellamy about feelings. Same goes for Bellamy.

What about the B/echo hug you might say? I don’t see any problem with it. If you ask me, I would have preferred seeing another Bellarke hug, rather than a B/echo hug, but it makes complete sense that Bellamy would be relieved to see that his girlfriend was still alive. Yes, like it or not, E/cho is still his girlfriend and even if she wasn’t he cares about her: it is normal for him to be happy to see her alive. And let me tell you this: that hug he gave her did not feel very romantic to be honest. It was a “I’m so happy you’re alive” hug, not a “you’re the love of my life” hug like the one Bellamy had with Clarke in episode 10. AND… he looked at Clarke while hugging E/cho. This is very significant.

Let me digress a bit: a few years back I was in the TVD fandom and I was a Delena shipper. I remember a scene were Elena hugs Stefan (her boyfriend at the time) but while doing that she looks at Damon and thanks him. Guess with which brother Elena ended up with? Damon (although I would argue that Elena’s feelings for Stefan were way deeper than Bellamy’s feelings for Echo). But it was a teen drama, so the whole point of the show was the love triangle.

All this to say that Bellamy looking at Clarke while hugging his girlfriend is very significant because:

It’s the first time he does it. The other two occasions he was hugging/kissing E.cho in front of Clarke he did not even notice she was looking.

He clearly is not feeling completely comfortable hugging E.cho in front of Clarke, precisely because of what happened in episode 10.

And this brings me to the last point: when you’re saying that Bellarke’s scenes are always forgotten.

I am not saying that the fandom has no right to feel exhausted with Bellarke’s pacing, but what I am saying is that it is incorrect to say there is no follow up with Bellarke’s scenes. It’s just that the payoff comes much, much later and slower than the fandom’s expectations.

It’s like in season 5 everybody was screaming at the writers that the 2199 calls were not being addressed: people said it was bad writing. But those people were wrong, because those calls have been addressed and their significance still has repercussions in season 6.

Everything has repercussions in the show, especially Bellarke’s interactions, but the buildup and payoff is delivered little by little in small doses.

So if you are tired of the way Bellarke is handled in The 100 and you are unhappy my advice is to stop torturing yourself and stop watching the show. Find a nice romantic show were the payoff happens sooner and where the plot IS the romance between characters. You are free to take his advice or not.

However, if you’re like me and know that everything that happens in the show will be addressed EVENTUALLY, then things get easier. I don’t have expectations and just ride with it, I appreciate Bellarke scenes when there are and I focus on the whole story. I rarely get mad at the show and let me tell you that my experience with the show has improved since I’ve been doing that. It’s just a state of mind… I just believe in Bellarke no matter what.

I am not trying to be condescending, so if you hate my opinion then it’s fine, keep yours because you believe in it.

But you do you, and I do me.