#tbh i didn't enjoy this season as much as i did s1 which i absolutely LOVED from start to finish. last ep of s1 is my favourite so far

[folklouire]

watched the sopranos with my mom a few weeks ago, from 2 versions of burned dvds. every single episode of s2 refused to work, regardless of which disc it was. s3 eps on the same disc would work, but not s2. so we just read the wikipedia summaries and skipped it. enjoying your reblogs rn. (yes we could've streamed it somewhere but after skipping it we still barely finished s6 before I had to leave, so)

HIIIIIIIIII 👋😁

omg whaaaaaaaaat? 😆 so you've never watched any of s2? omg i'll make sure to reblog as much content as i can then hehe and i'm glad you're enjoying the stuff i reblog! i just finished s2 tonight and i'll probably start s3 tomorrow.

(btw if you ever want to watch s2, you can dm me and i'll send you where you can watch it 💻 if you want!)

[phoebebuggers]

the more i think about it, this season was honestly disappointing for me. i enjoyed watching it, and there definitely was some stuff that i did like, but overall as a fan of the books i feel kind of betrayed. i'm okay with canon non-compliance when you stay true to the characters and the feeling of the original story, but some of the things this adaptation did really rubbed me the wrong way. it felt like they were doing the absolute most for the crows to have as much screen time as possible because they know they're the fan favorites, but in turn messed with their individual arcs and just the way they were characterized a lot. i'd almost rather have had them be in the show less and kept an air of mystery (especially within the context of a possible six of crows spinoff adaptation.) there was absolutely no need to use important quotes and scenes from soc/ck this early, and as a book fan it felt glaringly out of place.

inej's character was just botched overall, not in characterization (amita did a great job) but in the acknowledgment of her trauma and her past. having nina remove her menagerie tattoo pissed me off so much, because having it be scarred and unclean is so symbolic of her trauma in the books. i also felt like they just ignored the fact that she has trauma overall, and it was never hinted at, in the scenes with kaz or ever. this is part of why her leaving ketterdam to hunt slavers holds so much weight in the books (especially with the epiphany scene she has climbing the incinerator shaft in soc) but in this scenario it felt very weakened. and don't give me any of that "saving it for later" bullshit, her trauma is not a plot point to bring up in a future season. also tante heleen dying so early and so unceremoniously didn't sit right with me, considering she's sort of meant to mirror pekka rollins for inej in a way, and the strive for revenge is so important to both of them. like FUCKKKK HER but it felt a little soon

kaz on the other hand i actually thought was fairly well done. freddy carter gave the performance of a fucking lifetime go king go (tbh all of the acting in this show was phenomenal, sucks that the writing was so shitty!! anyways.) the acknowledgment of his trauma and his haehephobia was continuous and shown really well in a lot of scenes. i saw someone say it felt like it was focused more on his survivors guilt (which is the lesser part in the books) than his haehephobia, which i wouldn't disagree with but it wasn't a glaring issue for me. the scene with the poison hallucinations, the one in the streets of shu han where inej had to comfort him, and even at the end with the "i will have you without armor" scene were all very well done. the dregs fight was way too soon and not as climactic as it needed to be but i don’t want to talk about that (im fragile)

wylan's characterization was...it was there?? it felt a little off but i can't fully articulate why?? they did a good job with showing his talent and just like value as a demolition man, with the scene where he rescued everyone in shu han and in the end with the bomb saving nikolai and the others. i'm going to use this as an opportunity to talk about wesper because they speedran them so fucking much, and i was lowkey here for it?? they weren't *my* wesper but they were entertaining?? it makes sense to have them get together in the context of the whole show, as a side plot romance to keep it engaging. they also have the least incentive to not be together i guess? like everybody else is going the fuck through it and they have their issues but i guess they have like, less stopping them? i don't love the idea that they hooked up beforehand but i can accept it tbh.

outside of wesper, jesper's characterization was pretty good, i love kit young as him sooo much omg. it might have just been me but i felt like his sarcasm and like little quips with the crows and stuff wasn't as good as it was in s1?? the hallucination scene with his mother made me cry a little even though i feel like his development with being grisha was definitely too early and rushed (as is the theme with this season apparently!) also the way his relationship with wylan happened and their interactions were fairly in character for jesper imo.

nina, no offense, where was her personality?? nina in the books is so out of pocket and iconic and i felt like we got almost none of that. they made her entire character center around matthias which was so inaccurate to who she is. like yes matthias is important to her in the books but it never felt like the sole part of her personality. we deserved more nina and inej interactions bc i love them a lot.

i honestly liked what they did with matthias even though the perks rollins crossover was kind of ???ok anyways. bro was going the fuck through it but every scene with him felt a little redundant like, we got the point. i honestly thought they were going to get him out of hellgate and i was prepared to be salty about it but i was pleasantly surprised that they kept at least one thing book accurate and in line with the set up for six of crows.

as for the plot, honestly the crows being so involved in the ending was a fanfiction crossover fever dream. i don’t even want to talk about it. i don’t have too much to say on the shadow and bone plot because i honestly don’t know those books as well and haven’t read them in over two years. overall i feel like part of the reason i’m so critical is because i know six of crows by heart and those characters are so untouchable to me, it hurts a little to see them. i’m ok with changes to s&b plot because we all know those books are not that good, but six of crows?? if it’s not broken don’t fix it guys. i loved tamar and tolya, genya was great, lowkey i loved malina even thought i like their book ending better (that might be an unpopular opinions idk.) nikolai was kind of meh, he could have been a lottttt more interesting and his personality was lacking. every scene with the darkling in it was boring. maybe that’s why they included the crows so much. did i mention i love genya??? i’ve heard people say zoya was out of character but i don’t even know what in character would be for her so i can’t comment on that. i loved the keftas and the costuming overall, i still don’t like how alina’s summoning looks (i feel like it should be more warm??), we were robbed of i am become a blade

honestly, if they do adapt six of crows i want them to start over from the beginning, ignore the show but use the show cast. but that is not going to happen and they already used so much of the dialogue and scenes from ck . so .

[boku-no-anime-phase]

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale first season review

(with apologies to the friend who recommended this to me, for thinking way too hard about this piece of media like I do everything. Sorry friend. I'm incapable of being a casual enjoyer.)

Spoilers for Sugar Apple Fairy Tale S1 upcoming, as well as discussion of topics like sexism, discrimination and slavery.

SAFT follows Ann Halford, an aspiring sugar artist, as she enters sugar sculpture competitions, takes freelance work with unreasonable clients who don't know what they want, trains under sugar sculpture masters, and deals with politics and sexism in the workplace. Oh yeah, and falls in love with her man-sized gothboy fairy friend.

I honestly don't even know where to start with this show 😂

Let's talk plot. When I watch anime, I expect to have to swallow some wild stuff in the first episode to establish the premise. My Hero Academia said "suddenly everyone got powers, idk how." Fruits Basket said, "these boys turn into animals (literally) when a girl touches them." Once you get past the wild initial premise, you can pretty much sit back and enjoy the show. And those shows are kinda classic! So having a ridiculous premise doesn't mean you can't have a great show (especially in the case of FB, which has an absolutely absurd premise, but is a phenomenal and moving show once you accept that and immerse yourself).

With SAFT, I felt like every episode I had to accept some new aspect of the world that was difficult to swallow. I don't think it ever explained why sugar and sugar sculptures are so culturally important to this kingdom. That wouldn't have been an issue as long as they established how important sugar sculptures actually were - I was surprised over and over again by minor characters' investment in the over-arching plot. 🤷 The storytelling also didn't feel internally consistent. Certain plot beats or themes were introduced like halfway through the season, where they definitely should have come up before. And certain plot points definitely felt contrived - characters coming up with solutions to problems that felt like they could have been solved another way.

It's not like I didn't have a good time watching this show - I did - but also I'm cursed to never just enjoy something, I have to Actually Think About It.

On that topic, let's talk about themes.

This show seemed like it had a few thoughts about sexism, slavery, and minorities... But I don't feel like it really committed and delivered its message, at least in the first season.

Fairies in this are often enslaved to humans and at the beginning we see some distrust from fairies directed towards Ann because of this dynamic, which I thought was interesting; but she quickly "proved herself" as an ally and won their trust.

The other messaging about fairy slavery is super mixed. Ann is against it and frees the only fairy she buys as soon as she is able (actually before it's even feasible but whatever). Another character we meet is a benevolent master to a fairy who is only "technically" enslaved - he could claim his freedom at any time, but doesn't because he enjoys his situation (😬). In another situation, an enslaved fairy is in love with her master. But then we meet another character who treats fairies, including free fairies, as subhuman, and the show highlights how she treats fairies differently than humans because she looks down on them, and that's bad. But it doesn't seem to make a consistent moral stand on the slavery of fairies, and often casts humans who "own" fairies in a sympathetic light, or paints the relationship between the human master and enslaved fairy as a mutually-agreed-upon, mutually beneficial thing. That made me pretty uncomfortable. It seems like the show wanted to really grapple with slavery as a topic, but couldn't stick the landing.

Also, towards the end of the season we find out that female sugar artists are extremely rare (feels like this should have come up earlier tbh!), and the show introduces ¿¿Christianity?? Or like a religion that seems to borrow really heavily from Christian creation myths and their sexist undertones? Anyway. Ann experiences a lot of gendered discrimination at this point. It seems like a weird time to introduce such an important theme, but 🤷 it also feels like it wants to grapple with sexism as a topic, but imo it fumbles there too - sexism is a factor in the harassment Ann experiences, but it's not really the thing that ultimately puts her in trouble. Also around this time, the show's second significant female character is introduced, and she actually fits a bunch of sexist stereotypes so it feels like the show shot itself in the foot.

The way the season ended, it seems like slavery is going to be an ongoing Big Topic, but I'm concerned that it's going to be a plot point rather than something to be truly grappled with and dealt with on a moral plane. If I were gonna make a prediction, I'd say S2 will be mostly concerned with slavery in the sense that Ann will be upset that Challe is serving someone else, and the orders his new master gives him will hurt Ann's feelings bc she thinks he's doing it because he wants to. That feels like an icky way to talk about slavery, to me. I could be wrong though (let's hope so).

I don't want to be one of those moral purists that's like, "shows shouldn't depict XYZ", but I do think it's kind of irresponsible to depict stuff like chattel slavery without giving it adequate moral consideration, and this show just... Doesn't seem like it's the type of show to spend a lot of time challenging the morals of something. Maybe S2 will be surprising but 🤷 I also recognize that this is Japanese media and idk what their history is with slavery but maybe it's not such a sensitive topic there. I'm not sure.

Last thing, which is more of a generalized anime gripe - the main character is 15 (which she takes care to inform us is the age of legal majority in her country). She's in love with a 100+yo. WHY 💀 they could have at least made her an adult - 3-4 years is not that different! Why is it always teenage girls in love with powerful immortals?

All in all, it's a fun brainless show with a cute developing interspecies romance if that's your thing. I can't turn off my brain and I also do intersectional feminist analysis here so here ya go 😅

Did you watch it? What did you think? How is S2 so far? I don't know how to end this post help

[lunar-years]

I mean, I’ve gotta send you Ted Lasso for the fandom asks 😉💖

also @roykentjamietartt and anons who also gave me ted lasso :)

the character i least understand: Beard. That man is an enigma and I frankly just don't care enough to dive into his brain and try to unpack all that LOL.

interactions i enjoyed the most: Favorite ever moments are the Jamie/Roy s2 hug and Keeley & Roy surprising Jamie in the treatment room with champagne. Also: The s1 "Be a Goldfish" speech, Keeley talking to Roy on the treadmill which is my favorite all-time roykeeley scene ("that was for world hunger" "and I believe it was the cure" <33), Jamie teaching Roy how to ride a bike!!, Keeley's "You're a battler" talk with Jamie, TWO COFFEES ONE CUP, Higgins telling Keeley it's okay to leave for new opportunities, the team fixing Sam's restaurant, the s1 bonfire!! Gosh there are so many amazing scenes.

the character who scares me the most: jamie's dad in the wembley scene and again in the scene where he nearly kills Beard.

the character who is mostly like me: Nate, tbh. But I like to think I'm Nate at his very best and not anything like him at his worst :) I just relate to his specific brand of anxiety and burnout and being good at a lot of things but never feeling like there's that one thing you're good enough at that you're meant to do it forever. Also the crippling insecurity woop. The scene where he paces outside taste of athens too scared to go in even though Jade can clearly see him through the window was very me-coded, lol.

hottest looks character: Two-way tie between Keeley & Jamie, clearly.

one thing i dislike about my fave character: S1 Jamie and his terrible defense mechanisms and poor coping skills. Hiding the best parts of himself behind the worst parts to protect the core of him he doesn't want anyone to see. The s1 scenes with Nate & Sam in particular are very much Jamie at his worst!

one thing i like about my hated character: Rupert you suck ass but I guess I appreciate his passion and commitment to being the absolute fucking worst <3

a quote or scene that haunts me: Jamie's dad at Wembley, Ted/Rebecca funeral scene where it jumps between the two of them telling their parallel stories of the same night. God that was True Cinema (TV version, lol). From this season, "It's like I've got that, it's like I've got in my soul" :(

a death that left me indifferent: n/a this ain't that kind of show lol

a character i wish died but didn’t: I wanted Edwin Akufo to die in a mysterious offscreen private plane crash so that he could no longer hyper-fixate on making Sam's life the absolute worst at all times but hey, I guess Sam found a way to get on the National Team even with Edwin shelling out millions to keep him off of it so like, that's even better.

my ship that never sailed: uhhh RJK if you think they didn't sail. Personally I think they did sail so like. I won on ships tbh.

thank you!!

[irishseeeker]

Any advice for the people who are disappointed by S2 plotlines? I literally think the only redeeming factor of season 2 are jonathan and simone (amazing chemistry which I genuinely think will maybe be enough to make me ignore everything else) and the other cast members.😭😭😭 i also enjoyed a few moments. Im tryin the push it down your mouth until it becomes good method. I guess i loved the book too much. But I still cry every time i rewatch the ending thinking ���HOW COULD THEY (The writers) DO THIS TO ME”. I got this advice from tumblr saying to think of it as an AU fanfic. Do u have any advice to give?

Hi! First of all, I'm really sorry. It's genuinely heart crushing when you love something so much and it's not the adaption you imagined. Especially when it goes as off course as S2 did.

I completely get what you mean-when I first finished it, and I binged straight it in a day, it wasn't happiness I was feeling. It was a weird mixture of shock and devastation, which began from the minute Anthony proposed to Edwina and I knew whatever I had hoped for was absolutely not going to happen and what was actually about to happen, but also happiness from K&A and internally (and externally) screaming as they did have a lot of incredible moments and Simone and Johnny could not have been more perfect. I loved them as K&A but I felt very let down by how they were treated as characters - particularly the dismissal of Kate's trauma and how they were both treated horrendously by their families.

Too much Fetheringtons and too little Bridgertons, and the Bridgertons were just so mean to each other at times? Compared to S1, it was a big shift.

There were things I loved though and I am really trying to focus on those elements of S2!

For advice, I've found a lot of comfort in fanfics. I would read pre-S2 fanfics to avoid any show content. Nothing really from S2 will be in them and there's so many wonderful fics on AO3-whether it's Canon, Canon Divergent or Modern AUs-with nothing to do with S2. I would recommend everything by these incredible writers- ironsidee, @yetanotheremptypage, @grantairesbottle, @wagamiller, @wall-e-nelson, @deadmunds-ghostbee, prncesslene, @jake-amy, red_rocks - I could read them forever.

If there's one comfort fic and S2 fixer to read, read a thousand cuts by @wall-e-nelson . It's the greatest fic you will ever read. It's phenomenal. It just explores every single inch of Anthony as a character and every nook and cranny of his relationship with Kate, his parents, his friends, his siblings-it's just beautiful, wonderful and absolutely heartbreaking in the best way possible. It's honestly a love story to TVWLM, to Anthony, to Kate and every single Bridgerton. A Hall of Fame fic until the very end.

Maybe a re-read of TVWLM? I haven't yet but I definitely plan to!

I think focusing on the wonderful content that has come from S2 and ignoring the parts you don’t like-the K&A edits, the Bridgerton edits, the gifs and the wonderful fics too! 

S2 was an AU fanfic tbh. I'm very intrigued to how they're going to adapt the rest of the books as the Duke and I did keep the plot but TVWLM just didn't whatsoever. I hope they do but anything seems to be on the cards. The main couple for next season seems unclear atm from what they're saying but I hope they stick with Benophie. I hope they keep the essence and plot of AOFAG but I can see them integrating Sophie a lot more into the Bridgertons when she begins to work there which I wouldn't mind and also changing Benedict's behaviour as he was quite problematic in his book. I just hope they don't change everything again. Ben's storyline and ending and the Cowper screentime seems to be a Sophie nod, anyway.

I hope you find some joy in season 2 <3 and I hope this was somewhat helpful. Take care! <3

[fizzingwizard]

I really wanna write about moominvalley s3 but I have so much other writing to do ;_;

in sum, after rewatching, I really enjoy it. My opinion is that season 2 and 3 should probably have been switched in the order. Obvs certain things would have to be changed (Moomintroll can't come back from a trip he hasn't left on yet, lol). This is just my personal opinion because the tone and build up at the end of season 2 is not answered at all in season 3. Of course, that implies the tension would get a release in season 4... which is no guarantee at all at this point.

(meant this to be so very short but as usual I rambled on and on... sooo under a cut it goes x'D - spoilers obvs)

If I had to guess where the story's going as we head towards the finale, every strong story point has involved themes of leaving/separation/fears of, etc. So as a storyteller, my theory would be that we're building up to a more major separation of some kind in season 4. But storyteller instincts, clearly, have no importance in this situation. I've been wrong many, many, many times in the past with other shows for that same reason: to me it seems you absolutely need X for the story to come together, but the creators are perfectly happy without it.

(Incidentally, I only rarely run into the same problem with books - even YA.)

But I made this post not to complain x'D Because it's not a complaint, it's more a wish/a longing, because I prefer stories that go somewhere than ones that are episodic and development that happens in one episode has no effect in the next. If you're going to do that, I think you have to be careful how strong you make you the emotional impact, because steam without a vent has nowhere to go...

(holy shit I'm still complaining) I REALLY LIKED THE SEASON THOUGH. From episode 5 on, I loved every episode except 12. Also love the first episode. I want to love 2-4, but while I like the themes in them, I find them pretty lackluster, more the sort of run-of-the-mill storyline you find in any cartoon and not a lot of Moomin-y moments. But things definitely pick up again. I VERY MUCH miss the songs they picked for each episode in s1 & 2 (currently listening to s1 soundtrack because I missed it so much :P) but, despite that, the background music was used very effectively.

(Also, the song in ep 9 that Moominpappa and Mrs Fillyjonk sing is awesome. Little My commenting "How do we all know this?" when the dance starts had me in stitches x'D if any character's gonna break the fourth wall, it should be her)

The episode that tears me in two ways the most is the finale, Midsummer Magic. I want to love it!! I love the Hobgoblin's return, I loved his "gifts" to Moomintroll, Snufkin, and Sniff. And I loved the scene at the well... I might ship Snorkmyden after all bahaha. (But tbh Little My looking into the well and seeing the Hobgoblin for an instant was my absolute favorite bit... Also, it was Toffle's Tall Tales that made me a Snorkmyden fan ^^)

But I did find that there was just too little story development for me to really enjoy the finale. Like, aside from getting brainwashed by the gifts, why were Sniff and Snufkin even there? They don't do anything. And as cool as it was to see the Hobgoblin again, he just didn't have the cool factor this time. Just my opinion though.

Well, of course, I loved Lonely Mountain xP holy cheez wiz. it's good and funny. And the sidestory with Little My! By the way, do you know Nutkin...

This should have been the squirrel's name... then Moomintroll would have Snufkin and Little My would have Nutkin... hahaha (i think im hilarious yes)

And I loooooved Moominmamma in every episode except 12 x'D because I still think 12 was very meh. But Moominmamma and Stinky's partnership was unexpected and EXCELLENT. I really like it. Wasn't sure how I'd feel about MV19 Stinky, but I like him specifically because of how he acts with Moominmamma.

Things I still don't get: why is Snorkmaiden and Sniff going off to find Snork at the end of s2 just completely retconned? (I don't know what other way to explain it!) Why did they bring the lighthouse keeper back with them if there was literally nothing for him to do xD That whole "bring the hattifattener home" thing just feels so shoehorned in... the episode is more about Moominpappa anyway. And Toffle was lovely, I adore them, I'm glad they stuck around. But I hope this isn't the last we see of them, just living happily in the fairground... I was hoping we would get a Toffle & Miffle story remix :P

I'm on the fence how I feel about the Little My centric development too. On the one hand, I like it, because without it she would be the only character who's just always fine. So I agree with the decision to create conflict for her. The trouble is there's so little of it in canon. Little My's job is being okay no matter what xD So her wanting a biological father... her feelings of insecurity about whether she belongs in the Moomin family... they just feel OOC. But they do make sense as natural things a human being would feel. Well, tbh I wish they had gone a different direction with Little My, but I do accept what I go.

I also really liked seeing Snorkmaiden showing more of her personality. Reminded me of some good fanfics. The only issue I have is: will it matter in the final season? Once again, I really want there to be a pay-off to all this development, but who knows...

And with ep 10, I wrote a post about it but got rid of it because it was too nitpicky. I really do like the ep a lot! And will probably write about it again some time. It fits the season's theme of community/tolerance well. But I can't help but feel confused by some of it. I think I really needed some explanation of wtf Snufkin doing this job was supposed to mean. For him, I mean. It's meant to be explained with the "it's important that we make our own choices" thing. The trouble is that Snufkin keeps trying to make his own choices but is blocked over and over ;_; and there just seems to be such social consequences for making the choice he's most comfortable with, even at the very start before he actually agrees to anything, that I'm just not sure that's what the take-away is. Idk. I suppose my preconceptions about Snufkin are coloring my thinking here... I guess I find it hard to believe that any Snufkin could exist who hasn't already learned the importance of making his own choices :/

Still love the episode though. It was really fun seeing Snufkin in a stressful situation and seeing him have an argument with Moomintroll. (I did feel bad when he snapped at Little My... she kinda deserved it but hey, at least apologize since you were wrong, Snuf...) And I get the other moral of the episode, that as alone as we might like to be, we still need someone's help at times... even self-sufficient, independent types like Snufkin depend on others sometimes, and this ep was a reminder of that.

Oh, and the episode with Cedric. I like how MV19 remixes stories and doles out lines randomly x'D But this one was such a jumble! Not in a bad way - I'm just observing. In the story from Tales, Cedric is Sniff's doll who he gives away because Moomintroll told him about the "getting your good deed bad tenfold thing." And then Snufkin tells him a story which is basically similar to Mrs Fillyjonk's role in the episode. But in the ep, Cedric belongs to Mrs Fillyjonk, Snufkin is the one who said the "tenfold" thing, and in the end, Mrs Fillyjonk gives Cedric to Sniff but keeps the topaz eyes? That is what happens in Tales - Snfif finds Cedric lying on the ground with its eyes removed because they're valuable - but tbh I was surprised Mrs Fillyjonk would do that. In the beginning, we do see the gleam of Cedric's eyes reflected in hers... but does that mean she kept them because they're valuable..? I thought it was clear she'd grown past that. So it's more like she kept them as a keepsake. But... that's so weird, removing a stuffed toy's eyes... xD

Ok going back to writing now. Still have more to say but I'm just prattling incessantly now lol so I'll take a break. I wish I could write concisely but I'm very prone to word vomit...

ETA: one last thing. About episodes 11 & 12. I like 11 better than 12 but they both highlight the one thing about this season I didn't like... which was that it did a lot more moralizing than earlier seasons. S1 and 2 did it too, but this was to almost cloying levels at time. Yes, I think Moominpappa needs to appreciate the adventures he has at home. That doesn't mean I don't want the side of him which longs for something beyond and which keeps one foot in his youth to go away. Or that I think it's bad. These characters have actual complexity... why water that down to morals and lessons? I've talked about t before, but I'm generally against moralize in kids TV. Just write the story and the kids will learn something from it. You don't need to beat them over the head with it.

THAT BEING SAID... I know this episode is based on that story from Tales, in which Moominpappa pretty much comes to the same conclusion: that his adventure is at home with his family. So I shouldn't be bothered! ... It's just, that story "predates" Moominpappa at Sea. (We don't technically have a timeline, it's just the order of publication.) So I guess in my head, that meant Moominpappa was only temporarily content at home, and the whole lighthouse story was that side of him coming out again and bringing things to a head. Doing it the other way around feels weird because the lighthouse was so fraught and this is so... not! It's just out of balance. To me. I admit, this is coming from imagining what I want from a Moomin show... but it's not my show xP And in the interest of fairness - would the 90s show have done the same thing? totally. It just would have been a little more charming haha

[mermaidsirennikita]

Thoughts on the Tom and Shiv marriage/relationship?

I enjoy watching it so much but also it is so dark to watch?

I've said this a lot but I do want to point out that it's a bit weird to me that people sometimes act like Tom... deserves it? Or that it's like, a great feminist subversion? Because I have seen those takes, and while there is some level of feminist critique that I think you can use when discussing TomShiv, on a very practical level she's totally abusive to him and I think Jesse sees it that way as well--the last episode kind of sealed that for me. Like, genderflip Tom and Shiv and everyone would have a hugely different reaction to them. Which is probably the point, right?

The thing is that I do think Tom sincerely loves Shiv. Sure, there is an element of social climbing and power and money there, but above all else I do think he has a genuine love for her. It's in the way that Matthew delivers lines like "well I fell in love with your sister" to Kendall, almost off the cuff. Zero pretense, almost a disdain for the fact that his love is being... doubted? Which to be fair, is a legitimate complaint, because Tom has been through enough for the family that like... I think it's clear that there have to be emotional stakes in it for him. It can't purely be motivated by what he can get outta the relationship, because he is getting N O T H I N G. Like, was Tom even gonna get a good jail funding package? If Tom had gone or goes to jail, 10/10 Shiv is gonna forget to restock his commissary account or whatever. First week in.

And I will add that while I absolutely agree that there is a homoerotic subtext... text... between Tom and Greg, I think that what we are actually seeing, tbh, is a fuckton of projection on Tom's end. I don't think Greg reeeeeeeally cares that much about Tom anymore. At one point he did--in s1, when he told Tom about Shiv cheating, that was genuine. I think Greg is being super corrupted, which of course he would be, and in turn he is resentful of Tom's admittedly outrageous behavior towards him.

But Tom's behavior is coming from a place of basically taking out his pain from his relationship with Shiv on Greg. Which, like, the show has BASICALLY told us this. In season 2, when Greg told Tom he wanted a "business open relationship"--not super long after Shiv asked Tom for an open relationship... Tom lost his shit. In the same sense, Tom took Greg asking him to take more prison time for him in stride because fuck, has Shiv not essentially been implicitly asking Tom to be okay with taking prison time for her family all season?

Tom does this because he is basically powerless, in his mind, against Shiv for several reasons. Chiefly because he does love her, as many victims of abuse do love their abusers; secondarily, because he is wrapped up in her life financially on every level (which, tbh, is like.. also a pretty classic hallmark of abuse); and thirdly, because I think he holds Shiv up as this ideal of where he needs to be in life. Tom has always been a social climber--from the pilot, he's been intensely aware of where he is in life compared to the Roys. They are aspirational to him. Letting go of Shiv would be letting go of a dream, in a sense. So it makes sense that he wants to have a baby with her, because not only is this something permanent that they can't deny, tying them together forever; it's also a way of legitimizing himself, by tying his blood to the Roys.

Shiv's feelings are so fucking murky--or they were, but that scene with her mom pretty much spelled it out, didn't it? Shiv is really just perpetuating a cycle of abuse. Her father kicked her and her brothers and waited for them to come back, which they always did; and she's essentially testing Tom's love by kicking him constantly and seeing if he'll come back. This past episode was perhaps one of the DARKEST episodes of television I've ever seen, and I was genuinely disturbed by Tom and Shiv's "foreplay".

But also.... and lol I do speak from experience... every one of those kids have daddy issues. However, there is some truth to the specific kinds of daddy issues you develop when you are the daughter of an emotionally abusive or absent father, which I think Shiv displays brilliantly. She is guarded, putting up emotional walls that Tom cannot break down and truly, I don't think she wants broken down--and at the same time, she is desperately trying to create this relationship with a male figure who will give her all of the love she needs, while receiving none in return, and who will never leave her.

I struggled for a while last season with why Shiv ultimately couldn't throw Tom to the wolves, and I think it's for the same reason that she's finally (seemingly) giving in to his desires for a baby.... to an extent. (I mean, I think going from let's have a baby to let's freeze embryos is definitely a ploy, but I also think that Shiv is dumb and quite possibly got pregnant during the whole "I don't love you" sex.). She doesn't love Tom, really; she almost seems to resent his existence. But she needs someone to fill that gap that Logan left. Which is different, I think, than the totally emotionally frozen relationship he has with his sons; we see him have these little phony cutesy moments with Shiv. "Pinky", and all that bullshit. It's a different kind of pain that I imagine is quite intense, because that illusion of an emotionally close bond, the "special" daddy's girl/father bond was dangled as a carrot for her.

I mean, then you go into all of the psychological theories about how women who are into men and were raised or at least partially raised by men are essentially taught how to flirt and develop romantic relationships with men based off of their early relationships with their fathers. Look at Shiv and consider that.

It's just a sad, strange little relationship and I feel bad for both of them in different ways but I..... probably feel worse for Tom. Tbh.

[wikiangela]

just finished season 4 of Buffy

I complained about this season a lot on here but still here's some overall thoughts 😂

let's start with the good stuff:

there were a few episodes I really enjoyed so fucking much - like Hush or New Moon Rising (mostly because Oz came back ngl), or This Year's Girl and Who Are You - those were so good

speaking of the last two (plus Angel's Five By Five and Sanctuary) Faith's storyline was amazing and I loved it so much, it was my favorite thing this season tbh haha

I loved Willow and Tara's relationship, they're adorable, and I do enjoy Tara, hope we'll see more of her because I wanna get to know her haha (tho I still miss Oz so much)

in the first half of the season Spike was annoying me quite a lot, he was just way too silly - but by the end I fell in love with him all over again haha

the second half of the season was pretty strong, tho it did start rough hah - but still my least favorite season so far

now to the complaints:

first, the initiative and Adam - I absolutely hated it all. it was ridiculous and annoying and just so weak villain-wise lol

it didn't feel like there were any real stakes this season tbh

I hate Riley. I have no idea why, I just can't stand him - which caused Buffy to annoy me a little bit too (I still love her a lot though, but she was so obsessed with him I was so over it)

I also dislike Anya and her relationship with Xander

the worst episode of the whole series so far was Beer Bad - I watched is so long ago I don't remember specific but I did hate it (the season started a bit slow like I mentioned and it took me a while to get into it - I was watching the first 9 episodes for like months, and the rest in like a week - hush pulled me back in haha)

and the finale didn't grip me either, we already did that whole dream thing before, and this one didn't really interest me that much sns

I also think that once I started watching Angel simultaneously with Buffy (according to a list I found on the internet lol) so that the crossover episodes would align, it got better

I'm still not done with Angel s1 (gonna finish it tomorrow I guess) but it's so fucking good and I love it (still missing Doyle though 💔) and I feel like it made s4 of Buffy a bit better sns - without Angel, Buffy s4 might have been a bit less enjoyable for me personally

so that's my thoughts on Buffy s4, strong second half, had some solid episodes, but overall not that great haha

(also: I miss Oz and I already checked Seth Green's appearances on Buffy wiki and I'm so sad, I love him so much, he was one of my faves 😭💔)