#subtle s2 thing that they were like. What if this was so so relevant in s3 and s4

[imminent-danger-came]

2x02 // 3x06 // 4x12

Planning circles

[synchodai]

I will say that the while it's clear issues were present during the making of hotd s2, it's still a shame that the cregan/jace adventures in the north weren't given any attention. I thought they would capitalize on a stark/targaryen pairing considering how popular each respective side is

Also looking at s2... jace just did so little lol because other than his conversation with his mother towards the end, his presence this season was just so lackluster. I can't even lie, but that house Frey scene felt like a bit of a consolation prize for his lack of initiative everywhere else. In my opinion, I think it's easy to like jace after you read f&b and his death definitely adds to his appeal, but I really enjoyed how his actions (that were said to be done by him ig) have extreme consequences even when you could tell the incentive to do them were either for his family's safety or to prove himself. There's just so much more you could have done with that than just his feelings about being a bastard. These were admirable attempts during war, but they were shortsighted as well, and it's interesting to think about how if he had lived, he could have had the opportunity to grow and change

I think he could have returned after rhaenys dies maybe they use his short temper that we saw in s1 that after hearing about luke's death, he tries to do something stupid, but cregan, feeling sorry for him stops him and he stays there until he has his head on midly straight. They could've had some bond during his stay and jace's character could have been plain about any anger or guilt over luke, being a bastard, etc. We could have done more with cregan (like it's funny as a show only you know nothing about his story), but that can be changed when he comes back in season 4 probably

Idk but the prophecy having so much relevance as you finish s1 and s2 just makes me wish for a story where these highly privileged people with dragons acted for reasons for a cause that THEY believed were valid as they dragged everyone else into it including the smallfolk because tbqh even though they waged war all over, you can still feel this immense sadness over the fate of many of these characters

either way, I understand that much goes into making a TV show so I try to take it in good faith about choices they make, but idk I'm still so disappointed about this season

sorry for the word vomit :)

Yeah, there's a whole camp of the fandom that's disappointed Jace didn't get his flirty side quest. That being said, I do like the scenes that we do get of Jace in the show — even waaaaaaaaay back in season one, I loved how they characterized him.

You're right, anon; he IS shortsighted. Way back in the dinner scene in season one, we see Jace can play a political game of nuance and subtle jabs when he invites Helaena to dance as an insult to Aegon, but we also see him be the one to escalate things to violence by throwing the first punch. He's not above throwing petty insults, but he also throws a tantrum when those insults are returned in kind. He's not the innocent, even-keeled political savant some people think he is.

Even when I read the book, I always imagined Jace as a bit of an asshole in the same way a lot of insecure teenage boys are. Every political player in this overly privileged family is some level of asshole. (Which is also why I disagree with a lot of fans who say he would have made for a perfect king but that's another rant for another time.) And that's what makes them compelling characters.

That's why we needed to see that northern sojourn where Jace learns to somewhat chill. There's an obvious change in demeanor between season one Jace and season two Jace, and you can totally attribute that to him being given the space not to be on the defense all the time. The writers could have gone with the Sara Snow story, the Brokeback Winterfell angle, or something else entirely, and any of it would have worked.

Alas, the show's priorities are really obvious at this point. If it's not about Rhaenyra/Dany being the prophesized chosen one, they're not interested.

[decimae]

This next part doesn't have any CW except for liberalism I guess, but obviously still spoilers for s2 of Arcane.

Let's also talk the subtext of the ending, and particularly about Viktor and Jace, the two engineers key to the story who both represent an idea. Viktor is Russian-coded, quiet and background, Jace is very American-coded, present and takes initiative. (this is going to be relevant, I promise)

For those who haven't watched arcane and still want to know what's going on, or for those who need a quick recap, let me recap the relevant details here (quickly).

At the end of season 1 Viktor takes the hextech cube (a magical gizmo) into him and in season 2 he becomes some magical being, and he starts a pacifist commune/cult focused on healing and helping people. The commune grows successful with his magical powers and it turns into a seemingly idyllic town. But Jace (who is later to be revealed from to be from another timeline) attacks Viktor and the commune. The original Jace meanwhile is teleported to that timeline, and he sees the damage that Viktor has done there - humanity is gone, there's only creatures left that look like humans. Viktor gets rescued by basically the fascists in the story, and takes stronger control over his commune, literally puppetting them to his will. Viktor tries to recruit Jace by saying things like "The glorious evolution is destined" but fails. Jace recruits everyone he can for a final stand against Jace. Sacrificing his internal sort of girlfriend, the commune gets revived. We see later they stop looking human and instead start to look like literal white puppets too, seemingly only following his will. He also recruits some of the fasicsts. In the last episode, we see the good guys donning cop uniforms (including some of the oppressed class who were oppressed by those same cops) and fighting the Viktor robot army, joined by the fascists. Some fighting happens, and eventually Jace manages to tear through Viktor's mask. We see Viktor's dream world, where everyone is just a pinch of light, and Jace talks him down from this idea and peace is achieved as both seemingly disappear. The show ends with us seeing the city rebuild itself and mourn, seeing the oppressed class get a literal seat at the table but the structures of power intact as they were.

I can't help but interpret this that Viktor is supposed to represent communism/socialism and Jace liberalism/capitalism. He first starts as a pacifist anarchist commune, when that fails he takes more power, tries to equalize everyone, becoming more of a dictator. They're not being very subtle about it, using Viktor's Russian coding and Jace's American coding to be really clear on what side of history they're on.

So what does this mean Arcane has to say about capitalism vs systemic change? There is some change in there, and the show is arguing against oppression to some degree.

But I think it has a clear thesis - trying to upset the system isn't right, the system might be unjust but that is required for our freedom. Whilst it's just to fight for your seat at the table, the system itself must be conserved at all costs, because otherwise we will lose what makes us human. That the police, whilst really flawed in the end fight for what's good and right and we should strive to improve them.

All the police coding and such makes sense because of that.

I obviously think all of that is bullshit. We don't lose our humanity if we change our system fundamentally - capitalism is not inherent to humanity or individuality.

But that is definitely how I read what Arcane is saying, and I'm not too happy with it. But it's not nearly as bad Jinx's arc, so hey.

We gotta talk about that Arcane ending

First off, before we start, CW: suicidal ideation, suicide, ableism (the show could use this too) - I will be talking about other subtext too in the second post. And, obviously spoilers for the entirety of season 2.

Okay, so I'm going to give a recap (feel free to skip) for those who haven't seen Arcane or need one. Here's Jinx's arc, which is whose are we're going to be talking about in this post:

Jinx is one of the main characters of the show, and she has lots of mental health issues. She builds explosives and weapons. In season 1, in the first arc (where she's named Powder) she loses her surrogate father figure Vander when she's still a little kid (this father figure adopted her after she became an orphan). In particular, she messes up the mission to save him, and her sister Vi gets angry at her (calling her a Jinx) and they get separated, with her getting adopted by another surrogate father figure Silco, who is the villain of season 1, believing her sister to have abandoned her/died.

After a timeskip, she is shown to be impulsive and aggressive, having changed her name to Jinx. She is shown to hallucinate, hear voices, and not be stable at all. She attacks the richer society and takes a magical gemstone. Vi has been in prison all this time, so she was out of her life until the story continues where she gets busted out by a vigilante cop, Caitlyn to look for the gemstone. She is first unsure about how to feel about Vi returning - is happy that Vi alive, but frustrated that Vi is working together with a cop and scared she will leave her again. Silco makes those doubts only stronger. But she still chooses to use a flare that Vi gave her when she was young - Vi promised to come save her when she used the flare. Vi and Caitlyn do go towards her, trying to calm her down. But the flare also attracts Ekko (one of their friends as a kid) and his followers, who have built a secret society and who have bad experiences with Jinx. They attack her and take the gemstone, and abduct Vi and Caitlyn. They makes some kind of deal to return the gemstone in return for rights. On the bridge where the deal is supposed to take part, Vi says bye to Caitlyn and starts to return to Jinx, but they are backstabbed by corrupt police and Jinx takes Vi trying to save Caitlyn as her putting someone else first again. With this betrayal of trust, Jinx uses her explosives to attack everyone on the bridge, and Ekko and Jinx fight whilst Caitlyn and Vi, injured from the blast, flee. Jinx gets pushed down by Ekko, and releases an explosive in front of her trying to take out Ekko with herself. Jinx is saved by Silco, having shown to have taken the gemstone back and who uses desperate measures to save her.

Now possibly more unstable (possibly by the way she was saved), she abducts Vi, Caitlyn and Silco, and puts them all bound at a table. Her hallucinations are shown to significantly increase. She argues with Vi, Silco and her hallucinations. Caitlyn frees herself, and threatens Jinx with a gun. Jinx, enpowered by the drugs, hits Caitlyn but gets very confused after. In her confusion, she shoots Silco. She mourns him, and angrily indicates to her sister that she's Jinx now, for good, and attacks the city council with a weapon made with the gemstone to end season 1. At the start of season 2, we see Jinx mourning Silco, wanted by the upper city, who sent a team with Cait and Vi (who has now teamed up with the cops), and quite a bit of the undercity too who want the cops out. Jinx ends up saving a little kid (Isha) from some undercity goons, who starts to follow her around. Sevika, one of Silco's followers who was previously not very keen on her (but loyal to Silco), bonds with her over her connection to Silco. In particular, they describe finishing her off as "doing her a favor". At the end of the first arc, Jinx orchestrates a confrontation between her and Vi (and Sevika comes to her aid). She does not seem very keen on life anymore, saying things like "No matter what I do, I just can't seem to die." and "I'm glad it's you" as Vi has her pinned. However, Isha comes in to save her and the arc ends. After a timeskip, Jinx becomes a symbol of resistance of the undercity. Isha manages to ground her, she seems way more emotionally stable, and she doesn't really do anything aggressive anymore - the inciting incident is Isha fighting back and getting arrested. In the jailbreak she encounters a monstrous form of Vander (her and Vi's father figure) who has been magically kept alive.

The two of them team up (Vi has felt betrayed by Caitlyn for reasons irrelevant to this summary) and find Vander, and bring him to a healing cult/commune, who successfully start a healing process. But the commune gets attacked and the healing gets corrupted, and Isha sacrifices herself to save everyone from the corrupted Vander. Jinx just lets herself get arrested after this. Ekko meanwhile is stuck in a different dimension where the inciting incident never happened because Vi died in the opening scene, and everything is cool. He is dating Powder(Jinx) there, who is mentally stable, and he seemingly falls in love, but still finds his way back to the original dimension. Vi goes to save Jinx from jail, where Jinx seemingly is rotting. She clearly feels horrible "There is no good version of me" and she (temporarily) locks Vi in and escapes whilst saying she will "Break the cycle". The final episode starts with Jinx committing suicide, with Ekko trying to talk her out of it but failing, but then him using his time machine over and over until she does not. A few scenes later, Jinx comes to the aid of Vi with Ekko, promising to always support her. The two of them fight the now corrupted Vander, a bunch of irrelevant plot happens and gets resolved, and Vander ends up knocked out on an unstable steel beam together with Vi. Jinx urges her to flee, but instead Vi starts to cry about her father figure. Vander wakes up and attacks Vi, and Jinx comes in to save her one last time, but gets knocked off the edge, but Vi holds on to her. However, Vander is holding on to Jinx, so she lets go. We see Jinx and Vander fall off, and Jinx embracing the raging Vander whilst grabbing an explosive. We see a shot of an suggestion, and Vi mourning her sister. The show ends with everyone mourning the people lost, but we do see a shot of the air ducts of the building we were looking at.

Okay, so my issues with this are twofold, clearly split by season. Season 1 Jinx is unrealistic, stereotypical, unkind. She felt not very real to me, she felt like bad representation. Not the worst I've seen, but not like great.

But season 2 Jinx, boy, season 2 Jinx. I started off by really liking her arc. It makes sense that she was feeling suicidal after all that, and her suicidality felt grounded, it felt real. It was a very emotional arc to see her just try to get her sister to end her, which is really fucked up but also it makes sense for her character.

And it was also very nice to see her grow out of it, to see her happy, to see her grounded again. To show that no, that it isn't necessary to be permanently fucked up, that the people around you can make life worth living, that you can build up a life.

The whole separate dimension where Vi wasn't alive and Jinx was perfectly fine seems pretty fucked up in retrospect. Mostly because of the "one person caused all this tragedy" implication, rather than these things being a systemic problem. It was nice to see how the world could be better, but I wish they would have done that in the real world, but I understand why they didn't. Anyways the relationship between Ekko and Powder was also kind of fucked up, because he wasn't the Ekko she knew.

I didn't love them killing of Isha, but I understand that they wanted to go back to a tragedy. It made sense as an escalation of the arc, I guess (but not really in-universe). The fall of Jinx to suicidality makes sense, that's not something you lose so quickly, it felt grounded too.

I felt like him trying to stop her from committing suicide was pretty fucked up to show like this, to show her committing suicide and him undoing it. It was also fucked up because of his possible motivations, he was saving her because he was in love with her, but yet they weren't in a relationship. And she suddenly appears to be doing better. The show didn't really explore this well.

Anyways, this was all still reasonable enough for me to continue watching. But then the end of the finale happens, and she kills herself in a heroic sacrifice, and I got so angry. Like, that's dangerous, you do not show a suicidal person killing themselves in a productive way, that's how you amplify the suicidality of people. This is literally going to kill people, this writing, I think.

If they wanted a heroic sacrifice there they could have had Vander come to his senses one last time. That would have made an emotional impact too, would have been more thematic (with him dying protecting Vi in the first arc, and him dying protecting Vi/Jinx in the last arc).

You just don't let a suicidal character commit a heroic sacrifice. If a suicidal character must die, you should let them die in a way that shows that no, it wasn't good that they died, or that it wasn't their choice that they did. Neither of which is the case here.

Of course, there's a small nod at the end at Jinx possibly having survived. But that's a very small nod and it doesn't take away the subtext. They really fucked the subtext of Jinx's arc up, imo.

Anyways I have more criticisms about dumb subtext but they're not nearly as bad/dangerous and are about another big arc, I'll post that in a reply coming soon.

[smolalienbee]

inspired by this prompt // post s2, geraskier; in which Jaskier decides to push his luck with some compliments

Later on, he’ll blame it on the alcohol. On the pleasant warmth currently spreading through his body, relaxing, making him feel as though no matter what he says, things will turn out just fine.

It’s not like Jaskier doesn’t ever run his mouth when he’s sober (in fact, he does so far too often), but there are still certain topics that he avoids, things that he doesn’t want to let slip. Especially these days, when that bitter taste of heartbreak is still relatively fresh on his tongue. 

Right now, though, he’s content. Here, in Kaer Morhen - there’s a fire burning, laughter and chatter all around him. Good ale in his cup. And Geralt is sitting right across from him and gods, it’s impossible to look away when there’s this soft look on his witcher’s face, when strands of white hair frame his face just so, when his eyes glow from the light of the flames. He seems just as comfortable as Jaskier feels.

And he’s beautiful, Jaskier thinks to himself and then he’s opening his mouth with not a clue as to what he’s about to say.

“You know, Geralt, I’d compliment you, but I feel like you’re going to take it the wrong way,” is what comes out of it. Could’ve been worse.

Geralt doesn’t move an inch. He only acknowledges Jaskier’s words with a subtle glance and a questioning grunt.

“The wrong way?”

“Yes,” Jaskier nods quickly, shifting his entire body until he has an elbow on the table, chin rested in his hand. He never takes his eyes off Geralt and there’s an amused smile playing across his lips as he elaborates. “Platonically.”

If Jaskier were a different man, a man who hadn’t known Geralt for quite as many decades, he probably wouldn’t have been able to make out much from his reaction. As it is, though, even tipsy, he immediately picks up on all of Geralt’s movements. Because while Geralt’s expression remains as neutral as ever, he does turn his body until he’s properly facing Jaskier. His eyes roam, all over Jaskier’s face, as though searching for something.

He’s thinking, that much Jaskier is sure of. What is he thinking is a little more difficult to pinpoint, especially when it comes to a witcher who has so far stubbornly ignored all of Jaskier’s advances. Even the most obvious ones. Perhaps it’s not just alcohol, but also that knowledge that gives Jaskier the confidence to keep going.

(Because he knows no matter what he says, Geralt can ignore it. They can both act as though nothing has happened.)

“I’ve changed my mind,” he declares, a tad too loud, but they’re far enough from everyone else that no one pays them any mind. There’s another shift in Geralt’s expression - surprise. He remains quiet, though, so Jaskier takes that as his cue to continue. “I think you’re - breathtakingly beautiful. In general, of course, even when you’re covered in monster guts, but - especially right now. In fact, I’m beginning to regret not taking a more keen interest in visual arts, because I’m not certain there’s enough words fitting to describe what you look like to me. A painting could capture it better.”

It’s over the top, Jaskier knows, and he’s rambling, but there’s a point to it. The longer he keeps going, the more ridiculous he sounds, the more Geralt softens - goes from tense surprise to soft, amused eyes yet again. As though the compliment isn’t much of a compliment anymore, as though he thinks Jaskier is joking.

He isn’t, though.

(He’s not sure if he should tell Geralt that.)

“Enjoying the ale, then?”

“I am, in fact, thank you very much for asking, darling, but it is hardly relevant to what I’ve just said.” Teetering on an edge. Trying to work out just how direct he can be. How far he can push before Geralt’s discomfort becomes too much for either of them to handle. “I mean it, Geralt,” he adds, voice softer. More genuine. Geralt looks away from him as soon as he does and Jaskier hates it.

(He hates how much he wants to soothe that discomfort. How he’s willing to lie, hide his own emotions, if only it means Geralt will look at him again.)

“Jaskier -” Geralt says and it sounds like a warning. Jaskier has never been good at listening to warnings.

(What’s the worst that could happen, anyway? He’s forced to slide down yet another mountain?)

“I know you don’t like to hear it,” he pushes on, somehow, even quieter now. He keeps looking at Geralt, trying to catch his eye, to force him to meet his gaze. “But it’s true. It’s always been true, dear heart, as much as you may try to deny it. And...” Jaskier trails off for a moment and this time it’s his turn to look away. He swallows, glances into his nearly empty cup. “...there are times when it’s difficult to ignore what I feel for you. When I see you like this, when I see that... joy in your eyes. How gentle you look, when you’re happy.” He sighs. “I just wanted you to know. That you’re beautiful. That’s all.”

When he finally finishes his monologue, he dares a glance up at Geralt. To his surprise, the witcher is looking straight at him and their eyes do meet, this time. Jaskier’s grip on his cup tightens.

“Most people wouldn’t describe a witcher as gentle,” Geralt grunts and it’s a pleasant surprise. Jaskier hasn’t expected a response of any sort and especially not such a direct one. Despite the lingering tension, he smiles.

“Well, I’m not most people, am I?”

“Hm. You aren’t, no.”

Jaskier lets out a breathless chuckle at those words. At how Geralt didn’t even hesitate before agreeing with him. There’s something about it, something about how he said it, so fondly, that makes Jaskier’s heart skip a beat, a different kind of warmth spreading through his chest.

“You don’t have to say anything, you know,” he decides to speak again, leaning back as he does. He feels more confident in his words, now that it feels as though Geralt can take it - that he can take his compliments, his emotions. That maybe for once it won’t be too much. “I don’t expect you to. I simply... happen to think that you deserve to be reminded, every once in a while, that you’re not as horrific as some like to paint you as. That, in reality, you’re gentle and beautiful and bright.”

And that I love you. That I still love you, but he doesn’t say that. That, he knows, would be too much.

One day, perhaps. One day Geralt will be ready to hear it.

“...thank you, Jaskier.”

As it is, Jaskier is simply glad that Geralt’s taken the compliments at last. And so he grins at him and relaxes and decides that maybe he doesn’t have to blame anything for what he’s said tonight. That, maybe, he can allow himself these moments of honesty and appreciation, ones that aren’t only woven into words of a song.

And maybe, Geralt appreciates it, too.

[storm-and-starlight]

The Mountain Scene

(aka, can we give Geralt a break please?)

Okay, I’m going to preface this by saying that  while I do love and adore Jaskier, I identify fairly heavily with Netflix!Geralt in a lot of ways, and tbh he’s probably my favorite character in any version of the media. If you hate him, this probably isn’t the blog for you, but I say this so that if I seem biased in his favor over Jaskier’s, or if this post seems excessively Jaskier-critical, you know where I’m coming from.

(I have also not yet seen much of s2, so this will have absolutely no references to anything shown in s2.)

So, without further ado, let’s talk about the Mountain Scene, and why my main reaction to it is “oh my god please give every single person here a hug, a blanket, and like three years of therapy”.

One: Jaskier and Boundaries

Over the course of the show, Jaskier, extremely consistently, ignores Geralt’s boundaries.

That sounds harsh, but... he really kind of does. There are multiple scenes where Geralt will request that Jaskier leave him alone (the scene in the Posada tavern in ep. 2, getting punched in ep. 2, the scene in the Cintran tavern in ep.4, “I just want some damn peace” in ep. 5) and then Jaskier does not. 

I would ABSOLUTELY NOT say that this is to toxic levels (and considering Geralt’s self-isolating tendencies is probably good for him), but taken at face value, there’s a very consistent pattern of Jaskier not leaving Geralt alone when he requests to be left alone, or indicates that he doesn’t want to be talked to. And Geralt’s not subtle about it, either, “fuck off” is about as blunt as it gets.

So you get to the mountain scene, and Geralt is, once again, attempting to indicate that he wishes to be left alone, and Jaskier, again, ignores that.

This isn’t to say he’s unsympathetic, or self-centered, but it’s a kind of sympathy that goes counter to what Geralt needs in that moment.

One and a Half: Geralt and Boundaries

Another relevant thing here is that Geralt has a history that has essentially worn away at his ability to enforce those boundaries. He’s clearly willing and able to state them, and state them loudly, but if you look at the scene after Renfri’s death in ep.1 where he just lets them stone him, or the “then I’ll die” phrase from ep.3, it reads to me as someone who’s been told his entire life that his wants and needs and even life don’t matter. Which is, you know, not great. And the thing about this is that it’s pretty common if that someone pushes at your boundaries one time too many, you end up pushing back.

Two: Sympathy and Flippancy

Okay, now here’s where we get into what that means. 

Jaskier is shown, over the course of the show, to care about Geralt a great deal, a care that Geralt is only shown as reciprocating in certain moments. That being said, Jaskier’s approach to Geralt’s problems is very... shall we say, careless. What comes to mind the most is their first scene in ep.5, where Geralt is clearly upset about being unable to sleep and Jaskier, while he has an initial moment of clear and obvious concern, as soon as it’s revealed that it’s insomnia he starts laughing. Many of his interactions with Geralt have a self-centered undertone to them -- his lamenting about the Countess de Stael, his pushing about Ciri despite Geralt’s lack of interest in talking about it, even the “we could go to the coast” speech can read as him expressing his own wants, rather than trying to figure out Geralt’s.

And, specifically, when you get to the mountain scene, that’s there too.

After all of the bullshit that Geralt’s been through in the past twenty-four hours (see below), Jaskier approaches him in what is clearly an attempt to cheer him up or reassure him, but in a way that doesn’t make his care or his intentions particularly obvious. Specifically, it’s a lighthearted “whoof, what a day--”, which..

If I were in Geralt’s position, again, and someone approached me during an emotional breakdown with that, I would absolutely read it as flippant and uncaring. (Which is NOT to say that it is, or that that’s what Jaskier intended, just that that’s what it sounded like.)

Three: Dragon Hunting’s Stressful as Fuck

The thing I see the most ignored about the dragon hunt is that Geralt has been through just ridiculous amounts of shit in under 24 hours. Let’s sum up, shall we?

1.) First, there are a bunch of background stressors, like the fact that the Reavers could just decide to kill them all in their sleep, and Geralt clearly doesn’t quite trust Yennefer’s presence in the group (see his conversation with Borch).

2.) Borch, Tea, and Vea die in front of him because he couldn’t pull them back up. Like, I know we’re all accustomed to stuff like that because of movies and TV but that is going to fuck you up pretty bad.

3.) Geralt, an extremely guarded person, gets very vulnerable with Yennefer in her tent, which is definitely going to leave him with some Stuff to Process

4.) Borch, Tea, and Vea are alive and Borch is a dragon oh and also now they have to fight and kill a bunch of Reavers too, which would be a shock to anyone’s system

5.) Borch reveals one of Geralt’s secrets without any prior warning and without his consent.

6.) Yennefer breaks up with him, explosively, and he retreats from everyone else.

For Geralt, who presumably has a lot of trouble dealing with emotions and interpersonal stuff, that’s just. that’s so much emotional turmoil all in one go. He’s probably absolutely reeling from everything and attempting to process on his own.

Four: Geralt Snaps.

So let’s sum all this up.

Jaskier has a history of ignoring Geralt’s requests for space, no matter how blunt of forward, and a history of not appearing to care about Geralt’s problems or issues, in favor of his own ideas or his own problems. Whether or not the latter is true, from Geralt’s perspective it’s definitely there.

Geralt’s been through just so much shit and is most likely in a really fragile emotional state when Jaskier approaches him, and approaches him in a way where it’s easy to miss the fact that he’s trying to help.

So he snaps. Which is a perfectly understandable reaction to the situation.

Like. It is absolutely the wrong reaction to the situation. Jaskier doesn’t deserve what Geralt said for what he’s done. 

But given everything that’s gone down, how consistently Jaskier ignores Geralt’s requests for space, how much stress Geralt’s been under, I can totally see what’s going through Geralt’s head, and it’s, essentially, “oh my god I just want to be left alone to deal GO AWAY” and then you get the mountain scene.

It’s not a good scene, and no one is perfectly flawless, but it’s a very very human scene. And from my place behind the fourth wall where no living human was actually hurt and I can see all sides equally, I just want to give everyone there a hug and some therapy.

(Disclaimer: I do actually love Jaskier and I love him very much, but I did want to address all of the shit he does in canon that’s never mentioned in the fandom)

[joneswuzhere]

hello join me in thinking about some books and authors that are, or might be, part of s5′s intertextuality

5.10 in particular offered specific shout outs, and also u know i’m always wondering what might be ahead so i have some ideas on that:

- first, as mentioned in a previous ask post, i know i wasn’t alone in keeping an eye out for 5.10 parallels to the lost weekend (1945) the film that gave episode 1.10 its name and several themes - or to the 1944 book by charles r jackson which the film is based on

- s5 has not been shy about revisiting earlier seasons, especially s1. altho i feel that 1.10′s parallels to the lost weekend centered characters other than jughead (mostly betty), a 1.10-5.10 connection involving jughead and themes from jackson’s story (addiction, writers block, self reflection) seemed v possible if not inevitable

- but like,, , for a hot minute after the ep, i was really stumped on understanding how anything from the book or film could apply, even tho the pieces were almost all there

- jackson’s protagonist don birnam goes thru and comes out the other side of a harrowing days-long drinking binge that could be compared to jughead’s one-night hallucinogenic writing retreat

- but jughead is struggling primarily with traumatic memories, not addiction and self control like birnam. and tho drinking activates birnam’s creativity, it paralyzes his writing as he gets lost in fantasies; he’s never published anything. jughead’s drug trip recreates circumstances that already helped him write one successful book. even the rat that startles him mid-high doesn’t line up with birnam’s withdrawal vision of a dying mouse, symbolic of his horror at his own self-destruction thru alcohol

- and maybe the most visible discordance: in the film there’s a romantic motif around a typewriter. first it’s an object of shame; birnam’s failure to write, tied up with his drinking, makes him flee his relationship. he tries to pawn the typewriter for booze money and finally a gun when shooting himself feels easier than getting sober. but with the help of relentless encouragement from girlfriend helen, he quits drinking, commits to her, and focuses on typing out the story he’s dreamt of writing. rd goes so far to avoid setting any comparable scenario that jughead has brought a wholeass printer into the bunker so there can still be a physical manuscript to cover in blood by the end, even without his own typewriter. the subtle detail of his laptop bg image is a little less noticeable than his avoidance of betty’s gift

- tabitha might be closer to a parallel than jughead is, but she’s still no helen. both refuse to take advantage of the inebriated men in their care, but birnam takes advantage of helen, financially and emotionally. jughead refused a loan from the tate family and now has resolved to deal with his shit before he considers a relationship with tabitha. instead of helen’s relentless and unwelcomed attempts to get birnam sober, tabitha reluctantly agrees to help jughead trip safely bondage escape notwithstanding. she even helps him get the drugs.

- whatever potentials exist for parallels to jackson’s story, they were not explored for this episode. ok so why tf am i even talking about this? what was there instead?

-  i have arrived at the point

- s5 has been revisiting s1, not directly but with a twist. and jughead’s agent samm pansky is back. u may recall, pansky is named for sam lansky

- jughead’s trip-thru-trauma is a story device tapped straight from lansky’s book ‘broken people’

- lansky is like if a millenial john rechy wrote extremely LA-flavored meta but just about himself no jk very like a modern successor to charles r jackson. both play with the boundary between memoir and fiction. lansky is gay; jackson wrote his lost weekend counterpart as closeted and remained closeted himself until only a few years before his death. both write with emotional clarity and self-scrutiny on the experiences of addiction, sobriety, and the surrounding issues of shame and self worth

- i feel like a fool bc after this ep i had been thinking about de quincey and his early writings on addiction (c.1800s), but i failed to carry the thought in the other direction, to contemporary writers in the genre, to make this connection sooner

- lansky’s second book, broken people, follows narrator ‘sam’, mid-20s, super depressed, hastled by his agent to write a decent follow-up to his first book, but too busy struggling with his self-worth and baggage from several past relationships. desperate, he takes up an offer to visit a new age shaman who promises to fix everything wrong with him in a matter of days. not to over simplify it but he literally spends a weekend doing psychedelics and hallucinating about his exes. jughead took note

- unless u want me to hurl myself into yet another dissertation about queer jughead, i think his parallel to sam - who, unlike jughead, has considerable financial privilege and whose anxieties center on body dysmorphia, hiv scares, and his own self-centeredness - pretty much ends there

- But,, the gist of the book could not be more harmonius with a major theme shared by the 2 films that inform the actual hallucination part of jughead’s bunker scene: mentally reframing past relationships to get closure + confronting trauma head-on in order to move forward

- so that’s neat. what other book and author stuff was in 5.10?

- stephen king and raymond carver get name dropped. i’m passingly familiar with them both but u bet i just skimmed their wiki bios in case anything relevant jumped out

- like jughead, carver was a student (later a lecturer) at the iowa writers workshop. also the son of an alcoholic and one himself

- i recall carver’s ‘what we talk about when we talk about love’ is what jughead was reading in 2.14 ‘the hills have eyes’ after he finds out about the first time betty kissed archie (at that time he does not respond as would any of carver’s characters)

- this collection of carver stories deals especially with infidelity, failings of communication, and the complexities and destructiveness of love. to unashamedly quote the resource that is course hero, ‘carver renders love as an experience that is inherently violent bc it produces psychic and emotional wounds.’ very fun to wonder about the significance of this collection within the s2 episode and in jughead’s thoughts. and maybe now in the context of the s5 state of relationships. or, at least, the state of jughead’s writing as seen by his agent

- anyway pansky doesn’t want carver, he wants stephen king

- i have too much to say about gerald’s game in 5.10, that’s getting its own post someday soon

- lol wait king’s wife is named tabitha uhhh king’s wiki reminded me of his childhood experience that possibly inspired his short story ‘the body’ (+1986 movie ‘stand by me’) when he ‘apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train tho he has no memory of the event’

- no mention of that in this rd episode but memories of a train could be interesting to consider with the imagery that intrudes on jughead’s hallucination. i still feel like it was a truck but the lights and sounds he experiences may be a train

- ok now we’re in the speculation part of today’s segment

- if jughead’s traumatic memory involves trains, then it’s possible this plot will take influence from la bête humaine <- this 1938 movie is based on the 1890 novel by french writer émile zola. this story deals with alcoholism and possessive jealousy in relationships, sometimes leading to murder. huh, kind of like carver. zola def comes down on the nature side of the nature-vs-nuture bad seed question (tho i should say he approaches this with great or maybe just v french compassion). also i can’t tell if this is me reaching but, something about la bête humaine reminds me of king’s ‘secret window’ which we’ve observed to be at least a style influence on jughead post time jump

- but wow a late-19th century french writer would be a random thing to drop into this season, right? then again zola also wrote about miners, which we’ve learned are an important part of this town’s history + whatever hiram is up to this time.  and most notably, zola wrote ‘j’accuse...!’ an open letter in defense of a soldier falsely accused and unlawfully jailed for treason: alfred dreyfus. archie’s recent army trouble comes to mind.

- since the introduction of old man dreyfuss (plausibly Just a nod to close encounters actor richard dreyfuss, but also when is anything in this show Just one thing) i’ve been wondering if these little things could add up to a season-long reference to zola’s writings. but i had doubts and didn’t want to speak on it too soon bc, u know, it’s weird but is it weird enough for riverdale??

- however,,,

- (come on, u knew where i was going with this)

- a24′s film zola just came out. absolutely no relation to the french writer, it’s not based on a book but an insane and explicit twitter thread by aziah ‘zola’ wells about stripping and? human trafficking?? this feels ripe for rd even outside the potentials here for the lonely highway/missing girls plot.

- that would add up to a combination of homage that feels natural to this show

- anyway pls understand i’m just having fun speculating, most of this is based on nothing more concrete than the torturous mental tendril ras has hooked into my skull pls let go ras pls let go

[tangledbea]

what was the point of making cassandra and rapunzel’s relationship parallel Movie Rapunzel and Eugene’s relationship? (with the Rapunzel Day 1 thing, and the thing with cassandra dying but then coming back to life, etc.) it was cute, but seemed pretty pointless and very “just because”.

It was because they thought what the audience really wanted was movie parallels. Because back at the beginning, when the parallels were more subtle and nuanced, back when it helped tie this brand new story in with the one we already loved, we lost our minds.

Pascal getting a face full of powder during “Life After Happily Ever After”? That was great! It paralleled in “When Will My Life Begin” when he got a face full of dust from Rapunzel sweeping! Eugene sitting with Rapunzel on the boat and her asking if this was everything he dreamed it would be? *chef’s kiss* That paralleled them sitting on the boat on her birthday and her expressing fear of what if it’s not everything she dreamed it would be! The fans picking out expressions, poses and mannerisms that were used in the movie or in movie concept art? That was great! It really felt like they did their homework and like this series was integrated into the world of Tangled. The characters were the same as they’d always been. They didn’t get lazy with the animation.

This got long, and I’m gonna stick the rest under a read-more. Please note that the following is not antiCassandra. It’s criticism of the writing.

So then, here comes S2, when we didn’t really need parallels anymore, because the story was established, and it was not the movie, and that was okay! It was its own thing that took place in the same world as the movie! But they thought, “Know what we need? More parallels. We must endear Cassandra to the audience by making her Rapunzel’s second, the way that Eugene was her second in the movie.” But instead of giving her her own unique things to have, they gave her Eugene’s things. Or Gothel’s things. She can’t be Rapunzel’s second if she’s not Eugene. She can’t be the villain if she’s not Gothel.

Know what late-stage parallel I adored? In “Day of the Animals” when Pascal was talking Ruddiger through being catapulted the same way Hook Hand talked Eugene through being catapulted in the movie. That was unexpected, short, and wasn’t necessary to the plot.

And having just typed that, I just realized that part of what made Cassandra’s Eugene/Gothel parallels leave a bad taste in my mouth was that they were so plot-relevant. The whole point of Rapunzel: Day One was for Rapunzel and Cassandra to try to get past the hurdle of Cassandra’s hurt hand. So they mirrored, like, the entire first half of the movie so that Rapunzel could grow on Cassandra again. But one episode is not the movie, and that growth didn’t feel earned. Rapunzel confessing that she wasn’t sure she wanted to go back to the tower didn’t feel earned. It was all too rushed, and relied entirely upon the audience’s nostalgia for the movie to gloss over how rushed the situation was.

Cassandra saying, “You want me to be the bad guy? Fine. Now I’m the bad guy,” is a pivotal moment where Cassandra finally, finally, after episodes and episodes of teeter-tottering back and forth between feeling iffy about this whole plan and going whole hog, decides that she’s the willing villain of the story. They used that line as a means to make the audience go, “OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! SHE REALLY IS GOTHEL’S DAUGHTER, AIN’T SHE?!!?!?!?!” But instead, I, and many of us, just rolled our eyes and said, “Yeah, yeah, we get it. She’s Gothel’s daughter. Her entire stupid motivation is that she’s Gothel’s daughter.”

And her dying? That was supposed to be her redemption. “Look! She helped Rapunzel’s cause to the point of death!” (After delivering the, “Frying pans! Who knew, right?” WHEN EVERYONE IN THE KINGDOM HAS KNOWN ABOUT FRYING PANS BEING WEAPONS FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS! AND SHE SAYS IT TO THE PERSON WHO BROUGHT THE FRYING PAN WEAPON TO THE KINGDOM IN THE FRIST PLACE! AND ZT BEING ONE-HIT KO’D WITH A FRYING PAN WAS STUPID!) Except we didn’t see her die. We don’t know what killed her. And unlike Eugene, she didn’t sacrifice herself, she just happened to be fallout of the battle. It’s not like she knew going into it that this was going to kill her, but she did it anyway, “For Rapunzel, for Corona.” She wasn’t a martyr, she was a casualty of war. But again, they relied on nostalgia for the movie to make us care more than we otherwise might have.

If you ask me, when you engage in media, when you read a book or watch a movie or show, you are willingly signing an invisible contract to have your emotions moved. You want these characters and situations to matter to you, or else why would you engage with it? That’s why even the best comedies tend to have at least a little bit of sorrow or bittersweetness. But Cassandra dying and paralleling it with Eugene’s death? That felt like boldfaced manipulation to me. It felt like they were saying, “If you already cared, we’re going to twist the knife now. But if you didn’t already care, you’re about to.” (And no. No, I did not care. I was, frankly, livid.)

It’s not like all the parallels that were used in the series were bad, but when they had to make Cassandra lean heavily on Eugene and Gothel for her parallels, it felt like they were just trying too hard to shoehorn her into Rapunzel’s life as a surrogate for people she already knew and cared about.

[iiinejghafa]

Thoughts on secret forest s2! this is quite long lol fair warning

Overall, I enjoyed this season and don’t come away disappointed by it at all because it’s clear it serves as a “part one”/lead-in to season 3 in many ways. I think it suffered from being pulled in too many directions with respect to both plot and the chronology of the show; it felt like the writer was trying to balance keeping season 1 events relevant, setting up for season 3 (which at this point is undoubtedly about Hanjo and/or the resolution of investigative rights), and creating a self-contained story, whereas season 1, while admittedly not saddled with the burden of a prior story/season or certainty of a follow-up, was conclusive and wrapped up all the major ends. I think if more of the Hanjo stuff had been saved for season 3, or their role in the Woo-Choi case was wrapped up conclusively, it would have led to a tighter, more satisfying season along with more time for character development.

THE GOOD

I LOVED Si-mok this season. It was clear how much he grew from season 1 and he continued to grow into his emotions (acknowledging Eun-soo and Chang-jun, his stress over Dong-jae’s disappearance, how he erupted at Hu-jeong, his choice to seek out Choi to save Yeo-jin, etc.) and while he didn’t undergo as much development and changes this season, his capacity to emote and care about other people as well as his unwavering aim for justice and truth was reaffirmed. His relationship with Yeo-jin was also really well done; he’s never sad or angry with her for being cold towards him, but instead understands that she’s unhappy and frustrated with her job and gives her space to navigate that while expressing that he’s noticed and cares about her. Confronting Choi the way he did and the dinner scene (which I could go on about for days) really highlighted that he consciously knows how much Yeo-jin means to him, how well he understands her, and that he’s not going to let their relationship waver. He doesn’t believe for a second that Yeo-jin is okay, and I think going into season 3 in addition to their continued friendship he’s going to make an effort to keep an eye on her and support her.

While I was frustrated at times with Yeo-jin’s development, I’m happy with how it concluded. Like Si-mok, she unwaveringly follows her morals and ethics, but this season was the first time she felt pressured to bend on the rules due to politics and connections (ex. the assemblyman’s son) and everything that happened with Choi only confirmed that she can’t - and won’t - drift on things like this again. She also takes the high road in dealing with her career; even though she’s miserable working with colleagues who hate and distrust her, and as much as she misses her old team, she knows that staying in the Intelligence Branch is the only place she can make positive changes. It was crushing to see how unhappy she was, but given that her happiness/career conflicts were a theme this season (and was noted often by Si-mok) and somewhat unresolved, I’m sure we’ll see it carry through to season 3.

Despite their development not being as consistent and satisfying as season 1, I really loved how close Si-mok and Yeo-jin were this season. As frustrating as their relationship was during episodes 4-10(ish?), barely speaking and Yeo-jin being somewhat cold towards him, I understand why it had to happen. It reinforced Yeo-jin’s inner struggle and made her choice to forgo appearances with him later on all the more meaningful, and highlighted that at the end of the day, she will always trust him and considers him her closest friend.

I appreciated that Yeo-jin having feelings for Si-mok - a recurring but subtle theme in season 1 - wasn’t dropped. It wasn’t a core element of this season, but in my opinion, the fact that it was readdressed multiple times suggests that this is something that will continue to be developed in future seasons. Choi calls her out on it twice - and Yeo-jin never denies it, just deflects - and even Woo and Kim are suspicious that something is going on. While Si-mok doesn’t have/is unaware of any feelings towards Yeo-jin - or that other people think something is up with them - I think this season showed he knows she is incredibly important to him. Not just through his scene with Choi, which came about out of certainty that Woo would ruin Yeo-jin’s life and trusting Yeo-jin’s judgment that she and Choi had a bond, but through the way he observed her and the comments he made. “You don’t draw these days?” “Didn’t you want to work in police administration?” “You weren’t the kind of person to postpone things” “Is there a chance you won’t be okay?”; all this demonstrates he is well aware that she is unhappy and struggling, and this was his way of communicating his concern to her which is something he wouldn’t have been able to do in season 1. Another reason I’m excited for season 3 is because the natural progression from this is that he learns how to actively support and comfort her (e.g., he looks distressed and as if he wants to comfort Yeo-jin when they learn about Choi Bit but doesn’t know how).

In season 1, he notices when she’s upset or negatively impacted by something but doesn’t know how to address it and in season 2, he doesn’t know how to truly comfort or speak to her about her unhappiness but is able to convey, through his comments and remarks to her, that he sees her and understands that she’s struggling.

I’m really glad Kang didn’t succumb to Hanjo’s bullshit and resigned and even went to Yeon-jae to ask that she leave Si-mok and Dong-jae alone. I’ve seen other people theorize that Kim will step in as his new mentor, which would be cool to see, but I hope he returns in some capacity.

I loved that Choi wasn’t corrupt after all, just blindsided and dragged into bullshit, and her character served as a reminder to Yeo-jin to not compromise her values even when she’s in a rough spot or under pressure. I was suspicious of her and while I guessed right that she orchestrated the cover-up, not Woo, I genuinely thought she had more malicious intent and far-spanning connections that she would use to save herself. It was really touching that she gave Woo and herself up to save Yeo-jin, all because Si-mok approached her as someone else who cares about Yeo-jin and trusted her judgment. I don’t think Choi is a “good person” necessarily, just morally gray as many of this show’s characters are, but I did have more sympathy than I expected in the end.

Dong-jae’s disappearance and case were some of the most interesting parts of the season, and I liked how the show managed to turn a character I - at best - found occasionally amusing into someone I felt a hint of pity and empathy for. I’m sure he’s still the same weasel even after nearly escaping death - I have no doubt that he covered for Yeon-jae - but I’m curious as to how his relationship with his wife and family changes after this season. I know he’s popular but I genuinely don’t find him to be a good person at all, especially for nearly killing Eun-soo in season 1, but I’d like to believe he makes genuine changes going forward even under the guise of working for Hanjo (which seems inevitable as Yeon-jae will want to keep him in check and it will allow him to stay securely in one place, allowing him to both be near and protect his family).

I’m glad the Yongsan crew returned this season and played a part throughout. I was suspicious of Jang for a while and I’m glad he had nothing to do with any of the cases (though I’m confused as hell by that random gash and his behavior in episode 14) and his friendship with Yeo-jin was really sweet to see again this season.

THE BAD

Yeo-jin’s development was frustrating to watch at times, especially her coldness towards Si-mok and how her sunny bright personality was tamped down this season, even though I understand why. With her haircut in episode 16 (as noted by Si-mok, just like when they first met in season 1) I’m guessing that she will return more to her s1-self in the next season, now that she’s more self-assured and clear on how to proceed in her career. I think the theme of her becoming more and more close-off and shouldering her burdens silently will continue, in contrast to Si-mok becoming more warm and open, but hopefully this will get worked through in the next season.

Now that we know Yeon-jae’s subplot was basically season 3 fodder, I’m frustrated by how big of a part Hanjo group played in the story without any real definitive conclusions. There are too many loose ends - what exactly does she have to do with the meeting at the vacation house? Why does she have a relationship with Woo? What is up with Mr. Park? What relationship did she have with Park Gwang-su that led to her selecting him for the Hanjo work? What is going to happen with Hanjo Group and her relationship with her father and brother? Will she act against Dong-jae if he crosses her, or Si-mok, whom she mostly neglected and ignored this season?

I really, really disliked that the council meetings ended up being pointless. I understand that this was intentional - it forced conflict between Si-mok and Yeo-jin that would have had to happen at some point, brought Choi and Woo together, and showed that there’s no clear answer to the question of investigation rights - but it was built up to be this big thing and we only got two meetings over the span of 10 episodes.

I’m glad that the Segok case was passed on to Dong-jae’s junior, but I’m also a bit annoyed by the lack of conclusion to this case. My take was that Si-mok was thanking her for her insight and trusting that she would be able to take care of it, so I doubt we’ll hear more about it.

Si-mok’s loneliness and isolation felt like a bigger theme in the earlier episodes (lying about staying in a hotel because he can’t go to his mother’s, staying in a hotel and then the dorms, etc.) but wasn’t resolved before he was reassigned. We got those messages from his mother later in the season, but it was something that was never followed through with and didn’t ultimately contribute to anything aside from perhaps emphasizing Si-mok’s dislike for uncomfortable/unnecessary social interactions. Given the way season 2 ended with him and Yeo-jin parting ways again, and his inevitable season 3 return, I’d like to believe this will get more attention in the future. 

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

I saw it pointed out somewhere that Si-mok and Yeo-jin are going in opposite directions in their personal arcs; Si-mok is becoming more open and emotional, whereas Yeo-jin is starting to hide her emotions and silently shoulder burdens. This is a point I’m really excited to see explored in season 3 and what it means for their relationship. Does Si-mok, always evolving and becoming more emotionally mature, directly confront Yeo-jin at any point and express his observations and concern for her? Does he ever tell her that he spoke to Choi, or does Yeo-jin find out through her and how does she react? Does Si-mok’s elevated emotional intelligence come with the eventual realization that he may have feelings for her, in contrast to Yeo-jin hiding and deflecting her feelings for Si-mok this season perhaps out of resignation that he won’t ever feel that way about her? What conclusions do they draw from continuing to find each other again through the years, and how does that play into what they want for their own futures?

Yeo-jin comments that she and Si-mok are “always doing this”; working together, getting separated, and inadvertently coming back to each other again. Season 3 means that they will have to cross paths again in Seoul (I wonder what brings Si-mok back if not Hanjo?) and it’ll be interesting to see what they make of this pattern and if they ever consider what they want for their lives and future. We don’t know what Si-mok wants - if anything he’s perfectly content with remaining a prosecutor and being shuffled around to different assignments - but I can almost guarantee that he will start to feel pulled to stay in Seoul because of Yeo-jin. As for Yeo-jin, we know she misses her old team and being a detective - she wants to work with a team and do field work - but she’s also torn by her relationship with Si-mok and her desire to make structural changes from within even at the cost of her own happiness. Does this change at all with Si-mok’s eventual return and whatever developments occur in her career?

This is more general, but given how much was left unresolved and unaddressed I really feel like the writer knew she was getting at least season three. That and Netflix’s involvement (who generally move quickly production-wise) lead me to hope that we will get season three as early as fall 2021 or early 2022 barring any scheduling conflicts with the leads. I highly doubt Netflix will allow the production to stall another three years after the big numbers they pulled with TVN and undoubtedly on their own service as well.

UNADDRESSED THREADS:

Dong-jae, specifically how he handles Hanjo and what he chooses to do moving forward in his career and family

Hanjo’s full involvement with Park Gwang-su. Why was Woo brought along in the first place? What was the meeting about at the vacation house? What is so nefarious about Hanjo’s involvement, other than it was to discuss the lawsuits (I think)?

Yeon-jae’s battle with her father and brother

Yeo-jin’s backstory. We still know almost nothing about her life prior to this series other than the existence of a grandmother and her comment back in season 1 at the high school (watching the happy teen girls at the high school and saying “You should have been like that, too”). I would like to believe season 3 will finally deliver this lol but who knows

Si-mok’s messages with his mother.

How the investigative rights will be handled

This isn’t quite as open-ended, but Yeo-jin and her career. She got promoted but is universally disliked by her colleagues - though accepted by her new boss via her connection with Choi - and she’s at a desk job again after being shown repeatedly, since the first episode, that she misses her old job and coworkers and wants to go back into fieldwork/being a detective. Si-mok and the Yongsan crew are also attuned to her unhappiness and desire for her old life back, but again this wasn’t given a specific conclusion.

Yeo-jin’s feelings for Si-mok. This was addressed quite a few times this season without a resolution - season 3 fodder/carry over from season 1? - other than reaffirming the deep trust they have in each other and that she is a weak point for Si-mok (which Woo tries to exploit; given his connection to Yeon-jae, perhaps this will come back again).

Mr. Yoon’s appearances. This felt like the most obvious set-up in hindsight; there was no real plot or character-motivated reason for Yeo-jin to see or talk with him, but I’m not sure I understand the sudden sympathy towards his character or what this means for the future unless it somehow ties to Hanjo.

Si-mok’s headaches. He had two intense ones over the course of Dong-jae’s disappearance, but unlike season 1, there wasn’t an overarching conclusion or character development associated with that other than that he’s dealing with them better. This makes me feel that it will be addressed again in season 3, along with:

The theme of Si-mok being worried/stressed. This is brought up a lot in this season, and Si-mok repeatedly denies that he’s stressed about the Dong-jae case only to have two headaches over it. He clearly doesn’t understand what being worried/stressed means to him, and I think the only real resolution we got for this was that he was worried enough about Yeo-jin’s life being destroyed by Woo to confront Choi.

Woo is going to be indicted for what happened at the vacation house along with Choi, but one of the last things we hear from him is “This isn’t over. Not while I’m alive.” If he plays a role in season 3, I’m curious if he uses his connection to Yeon-jae to get out of things, or if Choi’s active role in covering up his death will spare him. Will he and Yeon-jae take revenge on Dong-jae and/or Si-mok & Yeo-jin?

I am VERY upset that there were no Yeo-jin drawings to Si-mok this season!!! Even after it was addressed back in episode 6!!! Season 3 better deliver!!!!

ANYWAY apologies for this word vomit and I’m sure some of my opinions will change over time but for now season 3 2021/2022???

[k-s-morgan]

I love your blog. I have one odd request, if possible I want to know what are your favourite topics to explore in Hannibal. Not in a broad sense (like Hannigram ) but a little specific. You may talk about dialogues/ scenes / some granular aspect of characters/ some specific aspect of Hannigram. I am about to start the Netflix rewatch this week and I want to discover finer details new things.

Thank you - and oh, that’s interesting! The problem with me is that I usually start to actually explore a topic only when I think someone is wrong about it :D For example, if there were no Hannigram deniers, I probably would have never felt compelled to write any meta on this topic. I’m lazy like that.

But from the things that I try to look out for in my re-watches... it’s probably Will’s darkness/coldness/selfishness. He’s the most complex character to me and I think it’s possible to keep discovering new things about him all the time. S1 is especially relevant in this regard - I’m interested in catching small moments showing his coldness. For example, last time I watched S2, I suddenly noticed the scene of Will preparing meat for his dogs in E12. There is no specific evidence of this, but I suddenly thought that what he’s cooking might come from his supplies of Randall’s meat. They mirrored this moment with Hannibal’s cooking, so I think the implication is there, even if subtle.

Hope you have fun re-watching!  

[iwillgetridofyourangerforyou]

While I'm losing hope on next OPM season being animated (still disappointed at S2 quality), I'm definitely super hyped for Murata's manga version of Garou vs Saitama! We've already seen how epicly drawn Psykorochi vs Tatsumaki+Genos fights in recent chapters, especially on the super detailed drawing and god-tier artstyle for it. Can't wait how Murata will makes us jawdropping at his art again for Saitama&Garou's confrontation, since ONE's webcomic version was already amazing! How about you?

Hello anon~ 

thanks for the ask, your timing is quite good. I’ve been wanting to talk to someone about OPM again. 

I agree. I’m not sure what to make of where the anime will go from here but I haven’t been particularly sad about that since I absolutely fell in love with Murata’s art. D: 

I’m still a bit ravenous for any new content the creators can send our way except the live action but who knows maybe I’ll even give that a chance, but at this point every new chapter update for either the Manga or the webcomic has been well worth the wait.  

The part where I start getting more specific about Spoilers

I am also super excited to see how Murata draws the Saitama confronting Garou. I imagine we still have at least a few chapters to go before we get to that moment though, and I am still looking forward to every single one. Murata has really been going all out drawing Garou and so I’m especially excited to see his take on Garou’s full monster form and in what subtle ways his character design will have changed from the original once he returns. 

The amount of symbolism in the Manga is also pretty interesting and I’m curious to see what more conceptual connections are being made in the story as Murata draws it. 

If the Manga follows the webcomic as closely as I assume it will we also won’t see much of Garou for a while, which unless they handle it delicately, will seem a bit jarring after everything we’ve been through with him as readers.

This is the part where I list spoilers to describe my excitement. 

There are so so many little webcomic moments I’m looking forward to seeing in Murata’s style. From Tank Top Master’s training, Bofoi’s construction techniques and hoards of robots, King’s search for a Master and Atomic Samurai’s sword cutting test, I’m looking forward to seeing not-so-overgrown-rover, and the moment when Fubuki’s followers decide to follow her even though she’s focusing on building her own strength. Tatsumaki vs Saitama will be a jaw dropping fight for sure, especially after the precedent Murata set in the recent chapters. 

 This is the part were I talk about Genos again. Because that’s kind of the whole point of my blog sometimes.

Unfortunately, my excitement is mixed with a bit of apprehension. ONE and Murata don’t hold back when it comes to Cyborg Gore and our friend Genos is in for the worst he’s seen yet. And that will be nothing compared to the jeers cheers of the haters on reddit and other platforms. That’ll be exhausting, it is already exhausting. I’m interested to see how Genos looks when he comes back, I doubt he’ll keep the dragon inspired armor look, but maybe he’ll keep some features of it? It would almost hurt more if he discarded everything about the look entirely as if he saw what happened as nothing but a loss. 

The way ONE drew Genos post MA is already so heartbreaking, seeing Murata’s style will be like experiencing all that pain again in high definition. For so long I’ve just wanted him to be OK but he’s getting less and less ‘OK’ and the resolution is still on the horizon. And I imagine during that whole time Genos hate will not subside, it might even get worse. Although, it might get a little better because ONE makes a point to show us that Genos has gotten a lot stronger multiple times, not that that’s ever stopped the haters before. (side note: I think one part of the reason the haters annoy me so much is because I think there is a really important story Genos’ character is telling us that may even be especially relevant to some of the people who like to hate on him the most but I worry that they’re unreceptive to the story.)

I don’t handle unanswered questions very well. Especially when I get personally invested in the questions. That part of the reason I struggle so much with existential dread. I may have some ideas about some of the themes ONE might choose to go with for Genos’ story partially from reading other works but I won’t really be satisfied until I get it ‘from the horses mouth’. For that reason I am almost more excited about webcomic updates than Manga updates. When the last Manga chapter dropped I quickly got caught up in the excitement but for a moment I was just like ‘oh. OH YEAH! The Manga! that’s a thing that’s still happening Yay~’. 

Basically the Summary

I have to admit I definitely got an unexpectedly high dopamine rush from the last Manga chapter. I’m not 100% my tolerance is low enough anymore for Murata to top that experience for me but that doesn’t mean I’m not excited. 

Thanks again for the ask!

[mocarena]

post of Chu2 rambles and predictions

i realized i actually needed to make this now that S3 is knocking me down with anticipation

blabla this thread is long as heck and incomprehensible so aha good luck if youre actually trying to read thru it. i just wanted a place to write my predictions down to see how right or how utterly wrong i am! whole thing’s under a read more cuz its a lot

spoilers for S2, the RAiSe! manga, and small spoiler for Film Live

Exhibit: Songs

I’m starting off with talking RAS’ songs because they give me a good basis to talk on several things regarding the band & Chu2.

There might be mentions of other songs, but I will focus on 2 in particular.

Takin’ My Heart

Imo, the most important piece in regards to Chu2 and her character.

That is due to Radio Riot #7 having revealed that the song is literally about Chu2’s beliefs/feelings.

It is also written by her in the Bandori canon (as all RAS songs are since she is the producer, but we know for sure with the Radio confirmation & also how the song came out past Season 2 that this is a song written with Chu2’s perspective in mind).

Raychell even said that she once cried singing the song during her own practice time.

Information source: Iviachupichu on Twitter, a faithful translator who often talks about the contents of Radio Riot episodes. Link https://twitter.com/iviachupichu/status/1106469855757164544!

TL of the song taken from http://www.rizuchan.com/bang-dream-cardfight-vanguard-takin-my-heart/ !!

Long falling down again I’m immature, building up lies and distancing myself from others I feel all torn up; I hold my heart Try to fake a smile… hey, my cheeks hurt

Cry… I hide my rusted eyes Cry… I want you to notice Oh, Come here, Please…

Takin’ my heart Does my voice Takin’ my heart Reach you now…? Takin’ my heart I don’t want to vanish pathetically Takin’ my heart Into a sea of loneliness I’ll just keep crying out to you Today, tomorrow, and for a long time after (Without giving up) I hope my feelings reach you…!

^ not the full TL, just a taste of the beginning

Clearly I don’t have to point out how heartfelt that song is, the lyrics speak for themself and aren’t very subtle (which is very much the point since she’s asking for her feelings to be reached after all).

I’m stupidly annoying when it comes to talking about Takin’ My Heart, I absolutely need to emphasize on the fact that these lyrics are Chu2’s honest feelings.

Expect parts of this song to be brought up throughout this a whole lot.

2. UNSTOPPABLE

Now this song has no confirmation on being composed with Chu2 in mind, considering it’s a very early RAS song and has been sung before we even got the reveal of the RAS characters.

However, I believe it DOES hold significance:

-I have no doubts that the introduction of RAS characters together with the band were in mind early on already, due to how early Bushiroad plans things months in advance.

-RIOT, the first RAS original, has very clear tones of it having been written by Chu2 in Bandori canon (a very arrogant sounding song, sure of its music and it almost seems like it’s directed at Yukina). Thus I wouldn’t put it past the production team having formed Chu2’s character around RIOT and UNSTOPPABLE, or they already had her type of character in mind when first composing these songs.

-It’s not far-fetched to say this song might have some ties to Chu2’s feelings since we’ve got the even more blatant song Takin’ My Heart.

I won’t copy paste all of the lyric translations, it’s simply too long, but here are several parts that stick out to me:

———————

The emptiness springs forth like I'm helplessly thirsty

My back droops... I put too much hope in each day

(Hurry up)

「Don't let me down」, I'm always told

(Hurry up)

Cornered, mouth covered, difficulty breathing

I'm caught in a trap

Please indulge in my annoying ramblings

I just won't stop seeking approval every day

Me, I'm my own accomplice,

with a fake me, dance! Dance! (Lullaby)

Doubt and worry stick their tongues out,

pointing at and ridiculing me

Are you enjoying? Are you excited?

Yes? Do you really get it?

Then that's fine

———————

Please ignore my annoying ramblings

I'll just abandon seeking approval every day

———————

My belief of UNSTOPPABLE still having an intended Chu2 connection also lies within the lyrics:

“Please indulge in my annoying ramblings, I just won't stop seeking approval every day”

From what we’ve seen in the anime, Chu2 definitely seems very attention and approval-seeking, specifically when it comes to Yukina.

I will talk about more specific parts of these songs (+ other one-liners from RAS lyrics) within the rest of this big time ramble.

————————————————

Exhibit: Chu2’s Past….?

A big emphasis on the question mark at the end, as we barely know anything about her past. One thing we know is that due to her excellent grades, she is in her first year of high school despite being only 14 & she studies/studied(?) in an international school, explaining her use of English.

However, based on RAS songs + some bits of the anime I can try to theorize on her past. It might be completely wrong, or I might just get it right, who knows, this is just for fun & speculation.

Family Situation

The anime made a point of how luxurious of a building the studio Chu2 works and has band rehearsals in, there’s even a ~50 seconds scene of Tae just staring at the building and the insides of it in awe.

Now whether or not that building entirely belongs to Chu2’s family, or only the studio, or it’s only being rented out, it still is clearly very expensive either way. The studio is often being used after all, too.

What that very glaringly hints at is that Chu2 is wealthy. Well, not Chu2, but moreso her family, who we know virtually nothing of.

Now that could mean that her family situation isn’t of significance at all like how it is with a lot of characters in Bandori. But that could also not be the case, considering that Bushiroad does dip into family stuff with a few characters (Saaya, Ran and Yukina come to mind).

Chu2 is 14 years old, so having her lyrics be based off of feelings regards her family/overall social situation isn’t that far fetched.

I’ll go ahead and say that personally I theorize that this might fall into the tropey category of “Kid of rich parents gets practically anything but barely gets attention from their parents”.

I can easily believe that Bushiroad would want to take a route different from this, but there’s a lot of freedom for theorization and I think going with the common route is a pretty safe bet for a theory.

Unlike Betadori they don’t dip into territory that is too angsty, it seems, but it’s not like they’d need to be blatant about something like that either.

「Don't let me down」, I'm always told

———

Please indulge in my annoying ramblings

I just won't stop seeking approval every day

———

Please ignore my annoying ramblings

I'll just abandon seeking approval every day

^UNSTOPPABLE lyrics

I think it’s important to point out the difference between the last two bits. The lyrics first start out as a plead for listening to her and approving of her achievings, later in the song that part changes to ‘just ignore me please’.

Those lyrics also explain Chu2’s personality pretty well, in my opinion.

Even after being rejected by Yukina she kept trying to get her to watch her band, basically asking for approval from someone whose talent she looks up to.

I also believe that Chu2 might be an unhealthy perfectionist, which seems like a thing that might rise the tension within the band, but more to that later.

————————————————

Exhibit: Chu2 in the Present

The childish child who won’t let herself be a child

Now if that ain’t a mouthful of a title, but hopefully I can explain my thoughts well enough so it’s somewhat understandable.

Chu2 clearly has a bratty personality and throws tantrums when she doesn’t get what she wants, but to me it doesn’t seem as shallow as that.

The official website describes her as a professional who is arrogant at times, but not rude.

Need I remind you that this girl’s just 14?

Here’s what I think:

Chu2 is a child at heart. But she doesn’t want to let that part of hers show too much due to how she wants to be treated: like a professional.

But she’s clearly an excitable child, as it was shown with how excited she got over the studio when she came to talk to Popipa in Arisa’s basement. For that moment she lost herself and probably could’ve gone on for a while Maya-style if Pareo hadn’t reminded her of her “official greeting”.

What I think is that Chu2, due to wanting to be treated with high respect   as a producer, doesn’t want to appear childish, so she holds herself back unless the heat of the moment gets her or she feels like she can express her excitement without it damaging her ‘professional’ manners. Like when she got pumped after a RAS live, for example.

A quote that could be overlooked but might actually have a little bit of relevance if the words were carefully chosen was the following:

“She thinks playing “band” like a bunch of kids is better than being in my group?!”

Tbh this literal child using the phrase ‘like a bunch of kids’ for something like…well, a band of friends being a band, just makes her seem like she wants to take herself incredibly seriously compared to other bands. To show that they’re not “kids” like the others.

In addition to that, she skipped a grade. In an international school. She seems to be really set on providing the best grades and world-changing music to appear worthy without letting herself indulge all that much in living a childhood. I could totally be exaggerating things, but I think it’s not too far-fetched of a thought.

Tantrums

Not a subject I’ll talk long about, but I think there’s things worth pointing out.

She’ll wait until whoever she’s angry at is out of her sight.

With Yukina she started yelling once Roselia was completely gone.

With Otae it’s a bit of a different case. This time she verbally even told her to get out of her sight before letting off steam, though Popipa weren’t completely out of hearing reach either.

2. She looks genuinely distressed.

The purpose of pointing out #2 is that she seems to have deeper reasonings as to why exactly she’s this desperate to have the perfect band/band members. Especially paired with the line of “I finally found what I’ve been looking for…”, she clearly isn’t doing this stuff just for fun and has got some sort of inner turmoil dealing with the fact that things aren’t going her way to which she responds, well, like that.

She’s not entitled to any bands or like anyone else obviously, and she needs to deal with that fact more maturely in the future.

But still, something HAS to be the root of exactly why she feels like this, to finally have found something.

It’s of importance to her, but why…?

I’d throw out the theory of seeking for approval again. She wants the perfect band that could make impact on the world. Maybe she wants the approval of someone (not Yukina, as she’s been searching for a while and clearly already felt this way before even seeing Roselia), probably someone older and personal to her. So I’d bet it on parents again, it IS the easiest answer after all, but who knows. There just seems to be someone (or more) she wants to impress.

Probably related to her bc it seems personal, if not maybe someone else she looks up to.

---------

Exhibit: I wrote all the above way before I’m writing this part

I genuinely haven’t revised the above at this point of time, the 7th of January. So some stuff might be outdated, but I kinda wanna leave it like that, to see what past me has come up with. I vaguely know and have skimmed, but I wanna write more beyond this point now without knowing the details.

Aka I might repeat a lot of things here now!

CHU2 is actually very much in tune with people’s feelings & desires...when they express them through music.

Now I’m pretty sure this is something I haven’t talked about (or at least not much). Chu2 doesn’t strike one as a very empathetic character, as one has seen with how she was still willing to get Otae back into her band, despite Popipa’s deep bond.

But hear me out. This girl actually can understand other’s feelings well, under specific circumstances. And the RAS manga “RAiSe!” proved that.

With each RAS member, it seems like she just knew their desires upon hearing them play. It’s not yet confirmed with Pareo due to Pareo’s 2nd chapter not having been published yet at this point of time, but chapter 1 already leads up to what I think is Chu2 confronting Pareo (online invitation first), and understanding that Pareo holds her true self back.

With Layer she knew she was unhappy- she knew she didn’t want to keep playing support. She knew she didn’t look very happy, especially for someone who played at Budokan. And through that knowledge she was able to persuade her to listen to her music and to imagine what it’d be like in a band together with other members who’d give it their all.

Very much the same with Masking. Masking’s drumming is intense, and she feels like she cannot express herself well outside of drumming. Her desire was to have fun in a band with others on her level, where every member gave it their all on their instruments. Once again, Chu2 was able to convince her to join her band, she let her listen to her track, and Masking did improv drumming on it, in turn also impressing the producer.

Pareo’s desire is to be accepted for who she is. Since she was small she hid her true self that loves cute things, and kept her distance from classmates, pretending to be the perfect student in the eyes of them, her teachers, her parents...and when she first saw Pasupare on TV, she cried due to seeing how much support they got, something she didn’t feel like she received. She found joy in uploading videos of her doing keyboard pasupare covers online without showing her face. The simple prediction here is that Chu2 finds her covers, meets with Pareo in one way or another, and is able to tell that she hides her true self. Somehow she convinces her to change that and embrace her true self, and that she’ll be supported by the band.

RAS songs often are about going against the norm- RIOT for example symbolizes a rebellion. Masking heard the demo song Chu2 gave her, and got the impression that it made one feel like you want to declare war against the world. That it seemed like “that girl” was trying to raise hell itself with her intense music. Even short bits like in DRIVE US CRAZY, one lyric line goes “Never Say Never Crazy”. RAS is a band about expressing your true self. And Chu2 very much could be putting those kinda desires and feelings into these songs.

A little thought here about Chu2 watching Popipa performances on two occasions with very different reactions. When Popipa played a supporting band at Roselia’s self-sponsored live, Chu2 was shown to be very disinterested in them. Whilst Popipa was great, Chu2 might’ve felt the anxiety that Popipa had in them at that point of time and thus had that disinterest. At the Popipa self-sponsored live at the end of S2 however she showed a completely different reaction, dancing happily along to Dreamers Go! and being embarrassed upon Pareo noticing. Maybe at this point she truly felt Popipa’s real confidence, and the bond that they share.

Not to mention she admitted to having felt moved by Popipa later on.

Chu2′s got something big coming. Hopefully in S3. Maybe later on. (Cough RAS in game COUGH)

There’s just a whole lot of signs pointing to that. Especially since Lock, the future RAS guitarist, really is an opposite to Chu2′s own ideals. All Lock wants to do is have fun in a band with anyone at any level of playing instruments, as long as she feels the dokidokis. Chu2 is very profession-oriented. It also has a great potential to be a little bit of a Roselia parallel, since that was the band Chu2 originally wanted to be the producer of. And Roselia had their struggles with the just-pro approach, learning that forming strong friendships within the band very much are beneficial.

A little step towards that I feel is already hinted with the Film Live, in which she appeared backstage with the rest of RAS, bringing flowers together with Pareo.

Even if she is huffy about it and it’s hard to admit for her that she does want to be nice and that she had been in the wrong regards past issues, it’s a step in the right direction.

Chu2 will have great development, and a lot of depth behind her character will be revealed.

[kinetic-elaboration]

April 25: Thoughts on The 100 2x10

Twenty years later, I return with Ep. 2x10: Survival of the Fittest.

This commentary is NOT pro-Grounder or pro-Lxa.

I last watched in January and I have literally no idea what’s happening lol. I mean, I do because I’ve seen the whole thing enough times but still. Like specifically.

One of Netflix’s warnings for this show is “fear.” I CANNOT.

The idea of Arkers and Grounders perhaps meeting in certain ways pre-canon is interesting (the suicide by earth idea) but then the story just becomes one of yet more Mindless Grounder Brutality and I get bored. Like I’m sorry this is truly the most boring civilization ever imagined and I cannot believe we’ve been asked to care more and more about them with each passing season.

The lost possibilities of Bellamy & Lincoln. Also of Lincoln, in general? Someone who tried so hard to be something other than what he was taught to be.

Also, his story is basically confirmation that he became obsessed with Octavia because he was illegally spying on the cool Sky People and then ran into a Pretty Girl and that was just that on that.

The underworld. They’re not subtle.

Mmm-mmm my favorite set. Indra looking badass as per usual, giving her warriors a pep talk. And Kane with friendship heart eyes like “I’ve found my new BFF!!” (This is truly how I read the expression on his face.)

“Only our Guards are armed here.” Lol okay but does anyone really believe Indra travels with ONLY two knives on her person?

I’m generally a Jaha apologist but I cannot stand him in S2, primarily because his whole thing is based around him caring about “the Grounders’ land” in this realllllly awkward native peoples parallel, as if this was supposed to make him sympathetic when (1) there is literally no evidence at all that the Sky People occupied Grounder land in s1 or are occupying it in s2 and (2) he is advocating abandoning the main characters to death, the main characters are a bunch of teens, and literally no one calls him out on how disgusting that is. The only thing he’s right about is that the Grounders are terrible and Kane’s boner for them is ridiculous, but still.

Is there a Grounder named Michael? Lol.

“My shock baton’s got your back” probably isn’t intended as wildly inappropriate adult man hits on teen girl flirting but........ I dunno how else to read it.

Murphy > Grounder I said what I said.

That woman in the background of the fight with her eyes wide like ‘oh heavens! oh my!’

Kane’s here trying to be like stern dad keeps his kids in line for the sake of peace and Indra and the rest of the Grounders are like... fucking crickets. So ridiculous. So immature. Keep your own bitches in line Indra.

I completely forgot that Mountain had multiple airlocks and thus just, you know, opening the doors wouldn’t do anything. Makes sense, I’m just dumb.

Clarke > All Grounders and seeing her show respect to Lxa or anyone, even if it makes sense in context, just irritates me.

Clarke: *gives several very good reasons why sending large numbers of Grounder warriors into the Mountain will do literally nothing but lead to more casualties.* Grounders: *raaaaa I hate being told no, let’s just attack!!! ATTACK!*

“He shouldn’t have attacked my ship.” Honestly I think part of why S2 Clarke is my favorite is because I really identify with her, surrounded by idiots, just doing her best to get fucking anything done and done right.

“You’re very brave under the Commander’s protection, aren’t you?” DUDE. DUDE. You literally just reminded everyone that this five foot tall blonde teenage girl roasted your brother and several hundred others alive and you think the commander’s protection is why she’s brave? She’s brave because she’s smarter and tougher than you, duh.

And after all this Lxa’s like “Quint’s right.” Um he’s truly not though??? Ugh, the stupidity irritates me.

“Hook up” for “alliance” I am DYING.

Kane is absolutely the worst faux-father figure. Encouraging Octavia to get her ass kicked by idiots who are training for no reason...

And then this bitch (Quint) tries to kill Clarke as if that were even remotely a good idea... what if you were successful? What then? Lxa would torture you for like 100 days and then kill you start thinking things through.

I miss Byrne in that she was annoying but at least had, like, a perspective and purpose, BUT that was a cool death scene. A good sort of shock.

“Work detail” is such an odd phrase, like... one would think....everyone works?? It seems to be code for “mop some floors.”

I’m gonna be honest, the search for the CoL was the clear weak point of S2 for me but Murphy & Jaha are an interesting pair to share screen time.

Murphy: hesitates to accompany Jaha to Wells’s grave until he sees the possibility of getting a firearm of his own, then falls in love. You had me at ‘can hold a gun!’

They really are wasting bullets. Those are...kinda a finite resource? Also you’d think that these literal members of the Guard (based on their jackets) already know how guns work.

Kane really is devoted to this I’m Your Daddy thing, huh? “Look at me, shooting this gun, I’m so cool--don’t you want to be cool like me? I can teach you.” (And O in the back sharpening her sword like she knows what she’s doing.)

I don’t get how Mount Weather could influence Grounder legend given that they’ve known about Grounders for less than a generation, and they tend to destroy anyone they capture, not, like, release them back into their villages? Cool idea though!

Octavia, the secret weapon, exploitable by both sides because she knows both sides, is an interesting path SOMEone at SOME point should have gone down, or should go down, like in fic. Just putting that out there.

See, literally, what did I say? Quint does not even succeed in killing Clarke and he’s sentenced to death in 0.5 seconds. You gotta think ahead man!!

Lol I’ve seen this how many times and only now am I hearing that the word “Pauna” (which I’ve also been mispronouncing) is in fact in the episode. I always thought that was extra-canonical.

Pretty hilarious that Clarke, attempting to run away from the Irradiated Gorilla, leads everyone right to...the home of the Irradiated Gorilla. AKA the National Zoo.

Look the only thing I really have to say about this entire story line is that it’s pretty clearly only here to make sure Clarke, the main character, has something to do in an episode that isn’t really about her, like it’s straight up Filler just like the Bellamy Scales a Cliff episode, and it’s dorky and laughable and awful CGI and I get that--but I still maintain that the concept of “animals from the zoo survived and are still out there in mutated form” is cool and we should do more with that, as a fandom.

Also....moose? How’d that get there??

“Leave me” Lexa says, as if it weren’t incredibly easy for Clarke to save her. Like...why do you give up so easy all the time??? Grounders are weak. The slightest thing happens and it’s either “Time to kill you” or “Time to die.”

Murphy, unimpressed by the beauty of Earth.

Completely forgot that elder Murphy’s name was Alex. Put that one in my back pocket.

This Jaha and Murphy scene at Wells’s grave is the best of a fairly lackluster episode. “Clarke sugar-coated it for you, didn’t she?” “Good can come out of even the darkest acts, John.” “Camp You is that way.”

(Also...when did Clarke get a chance to talk to him? Was this over video in S1? I guess it must have been since she’s been busy in S2.)

When Kane lets Octavia fight the Grounder he is 100% doing it for himself and the alliance. He’s using her.

And somehow this is the ONLY time Octavia lost a fight. I wish the show had acknowledged more, as it does here, that tenacity is a great virtue but it’s not the only virtue. Also the Grounders truly are canonically terrible at what they do.

My favorite O characterization is when she’s just a blank slate for people to write on because she never was able to create a personality for herself. Because I think it’s the most true to her backstory, which seems only intermittently relevant imho. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” “I would like to be stronger,” hence “I shall get beaten up.”

*Sings* Lxa is a terrible leaaaaaader!!! Getting all up in Clarke’s head trying to tell her that caring about not constantly killing people is..............somehow.....................bad??? Lol.

This scene here where Lxa provides the groundwork for the Ai-in-Commanders thing, is probably where the show began its downhill slide. Don’t get me wrong, I love S2 as a whole--most of this nonsense didn’t really come up until S3--and S3 itself has good ideas, including the AI thing, but they were just realized so badly...... Makes me sad. We could have had so much more!

“Don’t be afraid, death is not the end,” is like......the least helpful thing to say. Yet again, Clarke uses her brain and figures out an actual plan, as opposed to “die heroically” which is really all the supposedly genius Lxa ever has. “Die heroically” or “Save own ass at others’ expense I said what I said.

I’m so salty.... I can’t even believe myself.

I enjoy the Indra and Octavia relationship.

So I’m going to say that I always assumed, and still basically assume, that the reason Indra chose Octavia for a second is that she really did think there was something special in her when she saw her fight. Like that’s all. Just like she would with a Grounder kid who wanted to be a warrior. But I think it would be interesting if she’s thinking just as Kane is: that Octavia is a useful bridge between the two peoples, that perhaps, she could get something from her. (Counter spy?)

“No one gives anything without expecting something in return.” Early John Murphy philosophy synthesized.

What the fuck is Jaha eating? Little...food pellets.

It’s true that he’s being cynical but it’s ALSO true that Jaha is withholding important truth from him and ultimately, arguably, using him.

“You didn’t give a damn about us. You still don’t, that’s why you’re not fighting for this kids in Mount Weather.” SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT. THANK YOU MURPHY. MVP of this ep.

“I was pardoned, slate wiped clean, I’m still treated like dirt.” The treatise of the Ark AU thanks.

More patented Murphy nose rubbing.

Murphy and Raven, both pulled in, to some degree, by cultists.

Murphy and Octavia, both manipulated by more powerful adults for their own ends.

Jaha is so... he has all these peace and love, everyone is accepted, nice ideas and beliefs and faith, but he also does not care at all about sacrificing a few here and there. He may remember Alex Murphy but he doesn’t really care, he’s not really haunted. Remembering is like a courtesy. He may miss his son but he still ultimately believes, even hearing how utterly stupid Wells’s death was, that it was worth it for some unknown greater good. And he’s willing to give up on people who aren’t even dead yet, just write them off as an acceptable loss, even though they’re his people and a subset of his people to whom he owes a particular debt, and still consider this sacrifice, not even yet made, to be worth it for this bigger plan. There are a lot of things I respect about Jaha as a leader, and surely in a universe of terrible leaders he is not the worst, but this is his fatal flaw, what keeps him from being good. Real leaders do accept that losses will happen, as Lxa says, but they don’t seek out losses and they don’t merely catalogue them and then move on. They feel them, and accept responsibility for them, and carry them forward.

No I am not talking about Clarke, although within this universe, she comes closer to the ideal.

The story line with Lincoln, Bellamy, and the Reapers is like nightmare fuel if I think about it too much.

Indra, with the tiniest slice of meat possible on a huge plate: “Eat! Get strong!”

Kane, trying to be sexy and seduce a new friend: “Thank you.”

Kane and Octavia are talking and Indra is just in the background, sitting on a tree stump, brooding in the most photogenic way possible, very ‘google earth, always taking pictures’ of her.

I’m sorry but I can’t stop seeing Kane’s whole demeanor in literally every scene of this episode as like “Attempted Daddy.” Not in the paternal sense.

“You’re asking me to be a spy?” / “I’m asking you.......... yes, to be a spy, that’s exactly it.”

Objectively ridiculous for Octavia to think the Grounders are her people but, I get it, she’s desperate for people of some sort.

“There’s a million ways to die out there” should have been the title of the series. More accurate than “The 100.”

“If it’s not your time than nothing can kill you” IS everything infuriating about Jaha in one line. Saying ‘it’s just what was meant to be’ is a pretty easy way to avoid responsibility for anything, ever, and it’s extra sketchy from someone who, as a leader, knows or should know that his actions have consequences for other people, sometimes life or death ones. I mean...everyone but he and Murphy did die searching for the CoL.

We REALLY need more fic that utilizes Jaha as a weird guru type.

“You wanna stop being treated like a criminal then you have to stop thinking that that’s all you are.”

Here, Clarke comes up with yet another smart idea. How many is that in one episode? She’s too smart, guys, just too smart.

That said, the first time I watched this ep with my mom (the second time in general for me, the first time for her), when Clarke explained her ‘release the Grounder prisoners’ plan, she was like “...Duh? I thought that was already the plan? Isn’t that what Bellamy was going in there to do?” Basically most people on the show < Clarke < my mom.

The tragedy of Lincoln’s addiction story line really does get to me.

I’m a little insulted on Bellamy’s behalf that he was marked Harvest lol.

I just watched the episode and I heard them explain their plan... but I still don’t really see how it was going to work. Like just... cause chaos and let Bellamy run inside? Kind of feel like someone would have caught him at some point, and also--doesn’t that run a significant chance of getting Lincoln killed? Oh well. It all works out eventually. Mostly.

Anyway, not the greatest episode, but it had its moments. The Jaha and Murphy story line was good, and I actually enjoyed the Octavia, Kane, and Indra stuff more than I thought or remembered. But it’s always kind of a bummer when one or both mains get lackluster filler plots--and in this case it really was both--I mean, Bellamy’s was important, but it wasn’t very long. And none of my faves: no Mount Weather, no Jasper and Monty, no Raven.

It still fucks me up that Liz Phair wrote music for this show.

[flying-elliska]

S3 Rewatch - Episode 4 - “Le garçon qui avait peur du noir” 

I’m going to start doing the smaller clips in bundles because i wanna get more done, and some of those are kinda repetitive, even though they do build the tension and themes. 

Samedi 11h02 - “Prends sa chambre” 

So we’re coming off the high of the end of ep 3, we have nice uplifting music and a view of the appartment from above, maybe to illustrating that Lucas must feel like he has wings right now. Manon talks about how London is great. But the clip quickly takes a nosedive. You have Manon, Mika, Lisa sitting together on the couch, thinking about how things are going to ‘go back the way they were’. Lucas is clearly sitting apart. But he’s the only one able to see through Manon’s bullshit and asks where Charles is. Mika yells at Lucas for letting Manon sleep on the couch, that if he treats girls like that it’s no wonder he can’t get laid (lmao). This ends with Lucas being voted out of his room. Mika is really an asshole in this clip, saying Lucas isn’t really part of the family. There is also a strong sense he wants to hold on to the past for some reason (haven’t seen s2 so I don’t really understand Manon and Mika as a friendship.) It hurts but it does, plotwise, illustrate how precarious Lucas’ living situation is. He doesn’t really fit anywhere, he doesn’t have this warm loving home. He’s always late with his rent so he can’t really speak for himself. It sucks but I think in a way a lot of Isak’s isolation in OG was his own doing and also maybe Norwegian culture being more introverted. I feel a french Eskild who would not have been an asshole would have also be much more demonstrative and supportive towards Lucas, and that...would not have worked for the plot. I don’t really like rewatching this clip, though. 

Samedi 13h25 - “Le mec de la nuit dernière” 

We start with a view of the sun peeking behind the buildings and again, uplifting music. I notice a lot of the clips in this episode start with the sun, even though they turn sadder afterwards. Which is relevant for our light/dark symbolism, since Lucas’ life is going to take an amazing step for the better this week. The beginning of this clip is just super sweet. Lucas sending a text, waiting with baited breath for the answer, is so real. And that little smile ! Lucas’ little smiles as he searches for Eliott and slowly falls in love are one of this season’s greatest underrated things. It’s such a private, sweet thing. He looks forward and you can practically hear himself tell himself “Well done, Lucas !” And there aren’t many moments this season where you feel like he’s happy with himself, so this is precious. Of course, because Skam is That Dramatic Bitch, we get a bit of a damper with a text saying ‘only Monday though’. And then Manon getting nosy. Lmaoooooooo. I think she wants to help him and let him know it’s okay to reach out but...she’s doing it in such a clumsy way. And Manon’s capacity to notice others are not doing well is...variable. I think the reason why Manon is able to empathize so much with Lucas is that, in a way, they’re in a similar place of emotional turmoil and having to redefine their own life and kids with neglectful famillies. So their dynamic really works. 

Lundi 8h55 - “On s’est fait cramer”. 

Again, the sun, uplifting music. Compared to the clip last week taking place at the same time, the hallway is completely illuminated, which changes the vibe. And this clip is pretty fun. Emma’s general spacey-ness and the fact that she completely missed the end of party panic because she was off banging....lmao. Messy girl icon. She’s hilarious in this season, she takes everything in stride, she’s like a French teenage the Dude. Also Daphné thinking that Lucas wants to steal her place as leader of the Foyer is....a good example of how everyone tends to be so immersed in their own stories they completely misread what is going on with others. And also, really funny. The Foyer is popular now and they’re kind of rockstars. And they ‘hang with Eliott now, the super pretty senior guy’. They’re feeling it, in short. Lucas’s ‘i can help with the mural’ is...not subtle. And hilarious. I really like this clip, except for the ending and Basile’s cousin jokes. Yikes. I appreciate what they tried to do with Basile’s arc in general but I really think they went too far with some of the jokes. Although maybe it’s what mainstream French teenage comedy is like, I don’t know, but yeeesh. 

Previous clip 

[isaackuo]

Rambling Amphibia S1/S2 thoughts

I’m posting this in a separate root post, because ... well, no one will see it when it’s just an obscure reblog:

Given the stuff that occurred in the finale, it seems like Season 2 could be very different from Season 1. I mean, it was already clear that things would change when they set out of town on Anne’s quest. That’s a pretty big change already (like Rapunzel leaving on her quest, or Star moving back to Mewni).

But on top of that, apparently the whole world is going though revolutionary changes, and Hop Pop is unexpectedly notorious, and there are enemies to deal with. While it’s possible they might linger a few episodes in their quiet little town, I’m guessing they’ll pretty much get right to it.

Anyway, I’m not sure how I feel about Amphibia overall. I find it cute and enjoyable, and the characters are lovable. But I’m really missing Star vs the Forces of Evil and its political commentary on right wing racism. To me, it gave that show something extra meaty. Of course, these themes were mostly only hinted at in S1/S2, but done so in a way which promised Star would try to do something about them when she returned to Mewni.

I haven’t gotten that sort of impression or feeling with Amphibia. There are momentous in-story events going on, but I feel it’s all very fantastical and very disconnected from relevant current political issues. Not that there’s anything wrong with that - there’s nothing wrong with fantastical stories which you can lose yourself in without being reminded of (perhaps painful) real world issues. It’s just ... not really what I’m looking for nowadays.

Still, I really like the “complicated” relationship between Anne and Sasha, and how the toads are not so simple either. And there are hints that this does indeed have to do with racism and fascism ... if this is headed in that direction then I like it.

Perhaps it’s sort of like Zootopia where the filmmakers originally had these collar things on all the predators, but they decided that was too on point (like racist slavery chains). They wanted the viewers to love the city of Zootopia, so they had to soften things until later in the movie. Here in Amphibia, the creator wants the viewers to love this fantastical world, just as Anne falls for it. So, the more troubling aspects of the world are conveniently kept out view in this little happy town. And even if the intent was always for the troubling reality to come crashing in at some point, the story purpose is to give Anne an emotional connection to this world. She has a reason she wants to help save it.

If so, then I appreciate all that. I just wish the hints were perhaps a little less subtle.

OTOH, maybe the hints were just the right amount of subtle. If we were only watching two half-episodes a week, maybe we’d be picking apart each episode and we’d be anticipating all of this based on the hints.

Like ... look at Gravity Falls. The fans picked up on all sorts of things! But we were given time to pick up on them. The airing schedule of Amphibia was just too rapid-fire for this.

[sol1056]

more ask roundups: about the VLD writers

several anons, and pulling out three to represent: 

I saw that Tim Hedrick was Voltron's lead writer and story editor. Not to single him out or anything but does this mean that he is likely the reason for VLD's plot being as disjointed as it is?

What do you think of Tim Hedrick and Joshua Hamilton?

Hamilton said in the podcast that Hendrik had worked out pretty much the whole storyline.... [If] he wrote S1-2 and laid down consistent facts (five teens, Shiro is hero not mentor, strong lion bonds, Keith's issues etc) that were later changed [did that cause] the delays?

From what Hedrick has said about his writing, I think we would’ve had a very different story had he mapped it out. I wouldn’t say better or worse, simply a different tone/feel to it. 

Hedrick has expressed a preference for digging deep into characters, finding out what makes them tick, and letting the story unwrap around them. He probably felt right at home in the staff of AtLA. That series was fairly strong on giving new characters some kind of an introductory or background episode, and the story wasn’t afraid of quiet episodes, when needed.

In a very early interview, Hedrick mentioned his original idea had been an episode focusing on each of the paladins, possibly including how they found/bonded with their lions. Six, maybe seven episodes in, we finally would’ve had Voltron --- which, obviously, was not going to fly with the execs (and Hedrick says as much).

Truth is, Hedrick’s idea matches my instinct, were I doing VLD as a novel. Flesh out each character, make sure they have want/need or goal, some reason to be in the story --- and then bring them together, and then we get to Voltron. Most of the Gundam stories follow this pattern, too, with an episode focused on each pilot and/or important side character, usually with the previous ones introduced showing up in the next episode. It becomes a series of links, tying the cast together.

However, as long as VLD isn’t focused on each lion, but on Voltron itself, the big machine has to make an appearance as soon as possible. That means moving faster, using some trope-based shortcuts to get the story going, and coming back around to each character later. With 78 episodes, they had the room to do all that and then some.

My guess? I think May Chan was what made the difference in S1/S2, and she left right at the midpoint of S3 (with only one writing credit in S3). Unless there was an exec hovering in the background willing to give a great deal more mentorship than anyone’s credited, May Chan was the one in the writers’ room, with direct access to the team’s notes on each season’s structure.

With Hedrick’s comments about his own preference --- and the EPs’ apparent interest in trying to drive the story despite having no experience helming such a complicated vision --- I think what we ended up with was a conflict between two styles. Left to his own devices, Hedrick would’ve slowed things down, dug in more to go deep and layered. He’s probably the one who added a lot of the subtle notes like Keith protesting that the Galra took Shiro’s arm, and other echoes of certain lines.

But the EPs make it pretty clear in interviews (especially after S3) that their idea of plotting a story is to pull out the specific plot-points --- ie, Keith being revealed as Galra --- and then move to the next. When you do that, you’re skipping reaction beats. It’s not just emotional beats, it’s the moment where a character gets what we call a ‘sequel,’ a scene to react, consider, and decide their next step.

Those kinds of scenes don’t have to be extensive, but they are utterly crucial, because that’s where character development usually becomes apparent. It’s also how we regulate pacing and modulate tension. If you just go from plot-point to plot-point, skipping the character reactions, the audience will end up feeling like they haven’t been able to catch a breath all episode.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Hedrick overwrote, wanting to go deep, and the EPs summarily cut two-thirds, insisting they needed a filler episode or two, while seeing no value in those sequel-scenes. It’s a common newbie writer mistake, and then the newbie writer is left baffled as to why their beta readers find the entire thing boring, a slog, or erratically paced.

Ultimately, Hedrick bears some responsibility for the story going so haywire, but realistically? He may’ve gotten overridden an awful lot; JDS (and LM, to some extent) strike me as two people who aren’t quite secure enough yet to handle underlings who are smarter or more knowledgeable. Lotsa managers find that threatening.

On the other hand, if Hedrick’s preference is for that slow, careful, reveal, that’s not exactly a good fit, either. With him driving the vision, we’d be on S7 and only just met Lotor and the generals. Truthfully, if the EPs’ instinct was to have the story move at a quicker clip, they weren’t wrong. They just didn’t know how to go about making the story tight, so they may’ve cut the pieces that didn’t seem plot-relevant, not realizing they'd successfully cut the very struts holding the story together.

Which means the story suffered double: Hedrick slowed things down too far, and the EPs sped everything up too much. With no one able to provide a seasoned storytelling balance, the audience is stuck with the thankless job of finding the few bright spots in the wreckage.

[aparticularbandit]

ok - i mentioned in a previous post that the terror basically gaslights miss lint when he first appears again (when they have the conversation in her lair in s1ep6) - and while i think that’s a harsh term and not the best term for it, i do want to point out that the terror consistently 1) doesn’t take lint’s feelings about him seriously and 2) redirects her anger at him towards herself (and arguably ramses, but primarily back towards herself) - and it’s these two things that seemed abusive or at least toxic to me. while i have transcribed their entire interactions (not all of derek’s bits, necessarily) in that episode, i’m not going to be posting all of those in this specific post, just the bits that are relevant.

commentary under the cut.

the terror: i needed superian to believe….  i was dead. miss lint: you needed to make me believe it, too? the terror: you were my right hand, janet.  everyone knew it.  you out there mourning my death…really sold the message, you know?  made it real. miss lint: it was real.  to me, it was real. the terror: and those suckers just ate it right up!  ha!

here we have - and this is more apparent in yara’s delivery, but it shows in the lines themselves, too - but this is the first of multiple times throughout the episode where miss lint brings up just how much the terror’s death affected her.  and this is perhaps the only time that the terror acknowledges it and acknowledges that he used her grief to his benefit.  and has no remorse, but you know, villain.

miss lint: all this time, you’ve been alive and hiding and, what, laughing at me? the terror: hmm.  this is repulsive.  you drink this? miss lint: no. the terror: look.  you think you’re mad at me.  but you’re just mad at yourself.  you should’ve known i was too smart to die.  you should’ve read the signs, had a little faith.  so, now you’re kicking your butt ‘cause all this time i’ve been waiting for you to come find me. miss lint: right. the terror: of course i was.  i’ve been watching you.  i have. miss lint: really?

here we see the terror 1) try to redirect the conversation (unsuccessfully), 2) pin the blame on miss lint (you aren’t mad at me because i didn’t do anything wrong.  you’re mad at you because you fucked up.  this mess is your fault), and 3) reaffirms that he does care about her in a way that suggests see, i didn’t do anything wrong, but you did. from this point, we see primarily a focus on the second of these along with more subtle attacks on who miss lint has become.  and really, we see that subtle attack starting here, too - with the almond milk.  in his attempt to redirect, the terror has stolen almond milk from the fridge, tried it, and declares it repulsive.  hold that thought (because, honestly, not the biggest fan of almond milk myself, although i can’t remember if i’ve had any or not, so it could just be a flavor thing - but his commentary throughout the episode makes this feel like another tactic).

the terror: is that derek? miss lint: he’s my ex-husband. the terror: i.t. derek?  the derek that set up the wi-fi in my old lair derek?

the terror: you married derek? miss lint: i was not in a good place.  it was, it was after you and…hmm.  i thought you were following my every move. the terror: i tried…at first.  ah, you got so boring so fast, i don’t know.

1) clarifying who derek is through potentially negative assertions (that might be a stretch) but definitely suggesting that marriage to derek was a negative in and of itself, which leads to miss lint defending herself, where again she brings up the effect that his death had on her and points out his lie, which 2) the terror redirects by more negative assertions towards lint.

miss lint: and you think that you can just waltz back in here and i’ll play whatever little part you want me to play? the terror: oh, i don’t know, lint.  you think you’re ready?  you don’t look ready.  frankly, you look like shit. miss lint: *gasps* the terror: look at you.  you used to be bigger than life.  a legend.  what happened? miss lint: you died, okay? the terror: did your brain?  hmm?  ‘cause that’s the only explanation for how you got stuck in this rut.  i wanted you to believe i was dead for a while.  and i needed ramses to be the front for crime in this town.  but i always figured you’d fry his ass in that stupid throne of his and then we’d talk.

miss lint: are you saying all i had to do to get to you was kill ramses? the terror: i’m saying the lint i knew would have shoved his humpty dumpty butt right off that wall in the first year. miss lint: do you think i like running a crew for that cat-worshipping fuck? the terror: holy hell, woman, you’re evil incarnate.  start acting like it!

and then this one - this is three scenes, but i think it’s important to look at them as one whole that takes the previous and escalates.  when lint calls the terror out, he 1) redirects it back to her with a negative, 2) puts her on the defense, and when she brings up again the effect that his death had on her, he 3) reverses the blame back to her, pointing out that all of this was her fault because she wasn’t acting like herself, because she did something wrong, because she was evil incarnate, she should have known better, and she should have found him - because he certainly didn’t do anything wrong - and if she had known better, she would have realized he couldn’t be dead, but because she was such a horrible person at being herself. and tbh, the terror is only partly successful at this.  he does redirect lint’s frustration with him towards ramses (which is why ramses dies) and gets her to try and gain his affection again and prove herself (which is why she’s dressed completely differently in the lair while arthur is kidnapped - she’s wearing make-up and bright red lipstick and goodness gravy the slit in that dress shows so much leg), but it doesn’t stick long enough or well enough to keep her from turning on him.  (and it’s likely why he built that safety into her grounding devices - lint’s temper gets away from her and he has to have her in a negative state of mind to keep her under his control - which we see in s2 as well - lint doesn’t kill people she cares about (joan of arc doesn’t kill her own gang; lint doesn’t kill derek, despite how they obviously don’t have the most functional relationship - albeit even in the few scenes they have together, derek’s a much more positive relational character than the terror is, but that’s beside the point). --and stopping here for now because i can feel myself getting into rambling territory, which would probably be better for other meta.