#the blacklist pilot episode

[katarinas-redemption]

The Blacklist - Brainstorming Raymond Reddington's Fingerprints and DNA.

Also posted on Reddit.

A little theorizing.

Red's fingerprints.

In the pilot episode, Red is identified as "Raymond Red Reddington" by FINGERPRINTS and by a visual identification from the Assistant Director of The FBI Harold Cooper. Red's fingerprints were a match to the prints of Raymond Red Reddington stored in the FBI's database [AFIS]. RR was on The FBI's Most Wanted list for Treason among many other charges.

We later found out in Season 4, Episode 22 that Assistant Director Harold Cooper did consider taking DNA from Red in the pilot but only in so far as he suspected that Red and Liz might be related. Liz: Procured a sample of Reddington’s blood? From evidence? That’s tampering. Cooper: Yes. And I should’ve done it the day he surrendered.

Red's DNA

Red is an imposter and not the real Raymond Reddington as is later revealed in So how did his fingerprints match?

The writers may have given a possible explanation.

Samar: What’s with the long face?Ressler: We pulled a print off the Fowler crime scene.Samar: Reddington’s?Ressler: Possibly. If it is, it ties him to our murder. Haven’t run it yet.Samar: And you don’t know if you should.Ressler: Oh, I know I should, but if I do, this could all end and we might end up in jail.

Gale: And? Ressler: It didn’t match. Gale: [ Chuckles ] What? Ressler: The print it’s not Reddington’s. Gale: That’s impossible. Did they even run it through AFIS? Ressler: Yeah, the unsub wasn’t in the system. Gale: Well, there you have it. The system’s rigged. Ressler: What are you talking about? Gale: [ Chuckles ] The system’s rigged by Reddington, for Reddington. It’s the only explanation. I mean, he’s he’s got somebody on the inside. You said so yourself. Ressler: I was kidding.

Liz: How’d you do it? How’d you change the fingerprint? Red: The fingerprint? Liz: Don’t play dumb. The one Gale and Ressler found that connects you to the death of Diane Fowler. Red: I assure you I know nothing of it.

Additional:

Gale: He’s listening to “Sundown.” The strum of the guitar, the voice of a man who’s seen too much sorrow. You know, there is a chance this music was on before Reddington got here.

Doubtful that music was on. Red put that record on. This was an alternative explanation to "the prints didn't match Reddington"

more wild speculations:

Conclusion (Imho): The show is trying to say that the system is rigged by Red. It's the only explanation. Not surprising given the episodes Room 417 and The Morgana Logistics Co in Season 10.

Fingerprints and DNA cannot be changed even in the universe of The Blacklist. Not even Red's. Rigging/falsifying/manipulating on the surface is just trickery. The show told us how the magicians do their tricks but they also told us how the truth is easy to unravel. [proper testing, etc]

Katarina faked the DNA report to fool Kirk into believing he was Liz's father. Liz took a new test between her and Kirk and it was revealed that he was not the father. Retesting properly would reveal the actual truth.

Same thing with The Alchemist episode. Yes. medical science is portrayed as being competent. Just like they don't show the FBI being incompetent all the time. The DNA from 4.22 ACCURATE. The DNA from 5.22 ACCURATE. The Dna report between Red and Liz that Liz ran in Episode 1.02 would have been accurate. There is a reason the show couldn't and didn't address running a DNA report between the two in the beginning of the series or even throughout the whole show. It's the biggest mystery so understandable the show needed to preserve this secret to stay on the air. The DNA from 5.22 between the real RR and Liz matched as parent/child. Red's and Liz's would also match as Parent and child because Red is the Mother.

The Philomena Episode

Agent Gale was trying to solve the murder of Diane Fowler. What was shown was that when Red was at Fowler's house, he handled the record and the record player.

Those things were scrubbed and cleaned of any DNA or prints. The chair Red was sitting in had no trace of anything. For some reason, the record brush was the only item that had many fingerprints on it.

*There is a reason the writers wrote this and it was a big part of the episode.

More speculation and questions:

Is it possible that Red's imposter prints aren't in the system and those were his actual prints on the brush?

Are the prints in AFIS Reds or the real Reds?

Why did his prints match the real RRs in the pilot but not the brush?

*****Does Mr. Kaplan and Dembe clean up after Red [wiping down fingerprints and DNA] so Red aka RR isn't tied to new crimes? doubtful. Red leaves his prints and DNA everywhere and I don't think Red cares if he is tied to new crimes. But if Red is tied to crime and they have DNA and prints left behind from say Red... then this evidence can be loaded into the system and if Red is ever captured and tested, his prints and DNA will match the unsubs and his identity would be questioned. I think.

I've always maintained that Red switched out his prints with the RRRs in the system and those prints on file are Red's. But I'm reconsidering.

Bonus Gif:

Relevant screencaps and/or gifs

Finally, Dembe has cleaned after Red as well.

[allmyandroids]

Raymond Reddington

Season 5 Episode 3 - Miss Rebecca Thrall

[disneytva]

New Rejected Disney Television Animation Pilots Unveiled "Odd Jobs" and "Portal Hoppers"

Recently we unveiled a a look to the rejected Disney TVA series Uncookedland, apparently Matt Danner ("Legend Of The Three Caballeros") worked as Director for the pilot.

As Danner was thanking the people for seeing the pilots where here worked on ("Shred Force", "MEGA, MEGA Whoosh" and Uncookeland"). Cartoon Network Studios creator Andrew Dickman ("Harmony In Despair") mentioned a pilot under the name "Odd Jobs" where he worked on.

Not many information for Odd Jobs or it's creator is available however based on it's title we can assume is a wacky episodic comedy about the mcs having multiple jobs.

Recently JJ Villard attended the Creative Block podcast where he commented about his career as cartoonist/animator that lead to create the Adult Swim series "King Star King" and "JJ's Villard Fairy Tales" and the Cartoon Cartoons short "Scaredy Cat" that according to him almost lead him to be blacklisted after trying to sell it to Nickelodeon since Warner Bros/Cartoon Network dosn't want to release it and apparently broke the NDA contract.

During the podcast Villard revealed that he had a small overall development deal with Disney Television Animation with a show under the name "Portal Hoppers" according to Villard the series was aiming to be for Disney XD, as it's name says the show would have been about multiverse dimension hopping alongside the likes of Star Vs The Forces of Evil by Daron Nefcy, Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero by Jared Bush and Sam Levine and Very Important House by Jenny Goldberg and Jhonen Vasquez this is the only information so far.

Likely "Portal Hoppers" was passed when Disney decided to bring back all DTVA series in development for the Disney Channel which made Portal Hoppers to feel out of place with the demographic Disney Channel is know for.

[fixaidea]

What is this? Silly standalone? Pilot episode to a much longer (and potentially much darker) longfic I may never get around to writing? Who knows. Anyway, ex-agents Reid and Morgan go on a nice overseas vacation. All they want to do is relax but Crime is running rampant at the resort.

‘We should say something.’

Even without looking Morgan could tell Reid was fidgeting. They were both leaning against the balustrade of the resort’s terrace, trying their best to keep an eye on a young lady who was sunning herself by the pool without looking like they were ogling her.

‘We’ve been over this. None of our business, kid.’

‘But if she keeps doing it…’

‘It’s two forks.’

‘Three forks, two spoons, four butter knives and a salt shaker.’

Morgan shot his friend and ex-colleague a sideways glance.

‘Cheers. I didn’t see anything.’

‘Sure, YOU didn’t see anything and I didn’t see anything but the waiters will, eventually, and then she’ll get in trouble.’

Morgan quietly debated the merits of stressing his argument about how none of this was any of their business when a new voice spoke up right by his left side, nearly making him jump out of his skin.

‘I was thinking of slipping her a note.’

The speaker was a short, middle-aged man. He was also leaning on the railing, eyeing the lady with a mix of exasperation and concern. He shook his head with a soft ‘tsk’ and went on.

‘Almost went through with it, but it would just creep her out, wouldn’t it? She’d think someone’s gonna blackmail her over lifting some cutlery. Aigoo but she’s so bad at it!’

‘Is this about the kleptomaniac?’

This was yet another man who just stepped out onto the terrace to join them, taller and much younger than the first stranger. Reid pulled himself up to his full height and gestured triumphantly at him.

‘See? HE also thinks it’s kleptomania!’

The newcomer raised one elegant eyebrow at Morgan.

‘Why else would she do it?’

Morgan shrugged.

‘She seems to be some sort of an influencer. Could be doing it on some weird new trend or it could be that she’s nowhere near as well-off as she portrays herself as.’

The young man shrugged.

‘They rarely are. But if it’s not kleptomania, then a stupid Tiktok trend might just be it. These influencer types will supplement their income in any which way from running scams to indiscriminately shilling any and all product to offering companionship, but lifting cutlery? That seems counter-productive. If your income depends on portraying a lavish lifestyle, why would you risk being blacklisted over something so petty?’

‘Right, that’s it’ the older man said, pushing himself off the balustrade ‘I’ll go talk to her!’

…What his young friend said next Morgan couldn’t understand, but based on the delivery and the way he dove to grab the other’s collar it must have been some version of ‘LIKE HELL YOU WILL!’

Morgan nodded to himself and nudged Reid.

‘Alright, prettyboy, get on with it!’

‘…What?’

‘Go on and talk to her.’

Reid, who obviously didn’t think far enough in his calls for an intervention to come up with an actual action plan remined frozen to the spot, spluttering. To Morgan’s left, the older stranger made a subtle attempt to wriggle out of his companion’s grasp.

‘Aish, don’t make the poor boy do it if he doesn’t want to, I can just go and…’

‘Dongsik-ssi!’

Morgan held up a hand.

‘Nah, it was he who insisted we go say something, so he should do it. Besides, he’s the prettiest and least likely to get slapped.’

The older stranger (Dongsik? Was that his name or just another phrase for ‘You stop that right now’?) gave Reid a through, critical one-over, pointedly turned to look at his young friend and then back to Reid.

‘Debatable but I see your point.’ He said with a grin.

Eventually Reid made up his mind and left. Morgan and the man apparently called Dongsik practically hung over the balustrade as they watched him discreetly approach the lady (or at least as discreetly as someone with approximately 80% giraffe genetics was capable of doing anything). Throughout the whole interaction the young woman kept up an extremely theatrical air of wrongfully accused innocence, but Reid remained mercifully un-slapped and at least once his back was turned she had the decency to look somewhat sheepish.

The next day at breakfast Morgan noted that her cutlery remained intact. Those on the empty table right beside hers though? Not so much.

He sighed, lifted his head, shared a brief, half-amused, half-annoyed look with Lee Dongsik across the room and turned back to his breakfast.

Oh well. They tried.

[lol-jackles]

So they also canceled The Acolyte. For poor performance, it seems. But it makes you think that nothing that doesn't immediately make big numbers will be given a chance. The future of TV shows seems like it will be all failed attempts and very little else. What do you think?

Main reason for The Acolyte's demise is its budget was too high. During the 1990s the tech bros started to take over Hollywood, but those nerds didn't understand how show business works and that's why tv and film budgets exploded into ridiculous levels.

Back in 1987, Star Trek Next Gen was the most expensive TV show at $1.2 million per episode, which is $3.3 million in today's value. Nowadays you're lucky if you get an hour-long drama with no special effects at that budget, Walker being one of them.

Now the tech bubble is bursting and the streaming war is ending, resulting in this contraction era where budgets are targeting for 60% reduction.

My favorite tweet for the month:

That said, most of us have survivor bias known as "Sturgeon's Law" in that 90% of those older shows from 20 years ago were crap and what people are watching today on streaming (i.e. Friends, Gilmore Girls, House, The Office) are that 10% of good shows produced over 50 years. Does anybody remember After Mash?

20 years ago, over 70% of the tv shows were cancelled after 1st season, a few of them died just 8 episodes in even back then. Then most of those 30% survivors don't make it to season 4 or 5 for syndication. I explained here why Kripke and WB lost their fucking mind and threatened Jared with blacklisting if he left SPN too soon. Because Supernatural was the only show from the 2005 $50 million pilot season to survive past three seasons toward syndication in the 4th season but delayed to the 5th season thanks to writers strike.

With that said, Disney+ and other streaming services also made the mistake of chasing after "modern audience" that wants woke-sermons instead of entertainment, except those people don't really exist outside of wealthy neighborhoods in southern California and humanities departments at major universities.  At best they might like the idea of sermonized tv shows promoting socialisms, but they don't actually care about watching them.

[radioluminescentoblivion]

Hazbin Hotel: The Corruption of Creativity. Part 1

1. Introduction

Hello everyone, I normally don’t make huge posts like these, but I thought it would be important to make this review and discussion about the latest animated show on Amazon Prime, Hazbin Hotel, and the people behind the scenes who worked on the show, mostly the show creator Vivziepop. Back in 2019 when I first watched the animated pilot of Hazbin Hotel, I was interested to see how this show, if picked up, would go about with its story. Like many people who were still fans of Vivziepop’s work, I wanted to see this show become a good adult animated series. In fact, as the production was going on behind closed doors, I supported viv and her work via Patreon for a time and bought some merch from Sharkrobot.com to help fund her endeavors—I even still have my Angel Dust t-shirt and Hazbin Hotel poster in a black picture frame. 

2. Personal Fan Origins

Though I wasn’t an og follower of viv back in her older days on DeviantArt, I was introduced to her work around 2014-2015, that’s when I originally saw her fan-animated Kesha Die Young music video and since then I became a fan of her work and was obsessed with her means of creating very expressive and stylistic characters. Vivziepop was the artist who not only introduced me to the furry community, she was also a big inspiration for my artwork and still is to some extent now, had it not been for her, I don’t think I would’ve been in the position I’m in now to make art or it would’ve taken me much longer than where I started. 

But as much as I was a casual fan of her work, I was also a skeptic of her as a person over time. Primarily due to how she would be overly defensive towards criticism, radiate a toxic personality on others and friends of hers, and how she would intentionally and unintentionally weaponize her audience against those that landed on her blacklist. These traits would only become more apparent over time, but I like many others had the mindset of “separating the art from the artist” And while there is some validity to be made on that notion, it makes it all the harder when the person intentionally makes the art inseparable from who they are or they’re still active or alive and will constantly change their position or view on things. I know there’s a much deeper discussion to be had about this notion and how relevant it actually is, but for the sake of this post, I won’t dive into it that much. 

Watching Helluva Boss in 2019 onward would prove to be a conflicting experience since the first time watching the first season wasn’t as bad, some episodes had some strong character development, decent action scenes, and enjoyable songs. 2, 5, and 6 were some of my favorites in the series, but around season 2 episode 4, I was losing interest and I began to see the cracks in the show and noticed that the charm had dwindled going into the second season. Episode 6 was where I stopped which is funny because the last episode (at least currently) was episode 7 which I didn’t even bother to give any attention to because I didn’t like the show much anymore: The characters were losing whatever charm they had originally, making the characters I did like lose that vibe I enjoyed and those I didn’t like before I just didn’t care or it made it all the worse, the pacing didn’t get any better as the show was always going so quickly but rarely having time to sit down and digest even when there were scenes that had those moments, and for a show that would have differing times from 10-30 minutes, it made it all the more rushed, the stories were all over the place in a way I had no fun engaging with or could get behind, sometimes plot points like D.H.O.R.K.S’s evidence of demons would be revealed but never brought up again or have the same impact on the show, and some of the songs were forgettable (though I did enjoy Cotton Candy).

After I stopped giving HB a watch I decided to be patient and wait for when Hazbin Hotel would drop, and on January 18th, 2024, the first episode would drop to present the new show to the world.

3. Hazbin Hotel Review (Spoilers, Obviously)

Summary - 

Hazbin Hotel is an adult animated series about the daughter of Lucifer named Charlie Morning Star, a demon princess seeking to rehabilitate sinners in a less violent way to combat overpopulation in hell. Along the way, she manages to get support from the enigmatic radio demon named Alastor who helps Charlie and Vaggie bring in sinners in an attempt to redeem their souls for a price while trying to be as cooperative as she can with the odds stacked against her. 

When I first watched the premiere of the show, I wasn’t really blown away or impressed by it, which isn’t a bad thing since not a lot of shows have a strong start with their early episodes in the season. Where it did get interesting however was around 4-6 when it started to focus more on character development and give some time for the main cast to shine and maintain some consistency with the story, though this has its limits. There were also some decent songs, some funny dialogue, and even some sprinkling of action around the end. Unfortunately, in the later episodes, it started to fall back to where the show lost its touch. So let me get around to the pros and cons of Hazbin Hotel:

The Good -

As someone who felt burnt out from Helluva Boss, this is an improvement as far as comparing viv’s older work goes, which is a slight benefit. 

Performances are great as far as voices go, especially when you have people like Keith Davids in your line up, though I would be a little more positive on the casting choices if it didn’t also come at the cost of the old cast, I genuinely believe they should’ve been given additional voice roles if not main ones for the show, so that sucks. 

Songs can be hit or miss in this show, with More Than Anything (both the first and reprise) and Loser Baby being the better examples and the rest not sticking out to me as much, either because I don’t think they had as much impact or they felt out of left field. I think it would’ve been better to not have every episode with a song number unless it was a grand introduction to something (i.e. Poison, Loser Baby, More Than Anything). Though I don’t expect this to be a popular opinion so whatever

The visuals are fairly competent with few to no issues that caught my eye, my only critique would be that due to how fast everything feels it can be hard to follow what's all happening, not to mention having the background and background characters look as eye-catching as the main cast can throw people off of where they should put their focus on. It's not as terrible enough where I loathe it, but it could make some contrast of who/what you should pay more attention to. 

The Bad -

The story loses track of the main premise of Charlie trying to redeem sinners and her relationship with Vaggie. The side plots don’t interest me as much aside from Angel Dust and Husk having some empathy for each other slowly through the series, and the other main cast aren’t nearly explored as much. Idk the best way to describe it, but it seems that most of the focus of the side characters isn’t where it should be (the hotel’s residents) and more so on those outside the hotel, which I think would’ve worked better in the second season rather than just the first. If season one was just focusing on the residents, Charlie and Vaggie more than the other characters, I wouldn’t mind that. I think the only exceptions to this would be the hell overlords discovery of how to fight back and Lucifer helping Charlie with the hotel. But back to the main cast, Charlie and Vaggie’s moments of romance and bonding seem few and far between, which sucks since this is supposed to be about them right? RIGHT?! The potential is just wasted.

Not every song is needed or has a place in every episode, though that could be because I wasn’t feeling them as strongly compared to the ones mentioned. Not much else to say there that hasn’t already been said.

Characters don’t appeal to me as much aside from Niffty and Sir Pentious (they’re the best) and unfortunately, the characters I should care about don’t get enough time to shine due to how this show is hastily paced—which leads me to my next negative.

Pacing is absolutely atrocious, for episodes that last 30 minutes, it feels like everything has happened yet also little has happened in such a short period of time (which is insane to me) Viv has had pacing issues in the past with her work which is concerning to me, mostly because she wasn’t always this speedy with her series, there were times she had more breathing room for her older works for instances like the Son of 666 and Timber, even the short Bad Luck Jack (which I liked) suffered from this in ways. Idk what exactly happened, but it seems like viv’s workflow has just gotten worse over time, and her artistic magic, patience, etc has just vanished.

Jokes? For what attempt of humor was there, it was very little. Once in a while, there was a joke that stuck the landing or made me chuckle, such as Charlie and Alastor swearing unexpectedly, only because it’s so out of left-field you wouldn’t expect it, so the joke works. Or when Niffty and Sir Pentious act their usual awkward selves in front of others. But everything else is just not funny to me because the majority of the humor is either sex or profanity jokes that don’t have that great of build-up or go for something more than just “haha adult words” which ironically makes it more juvenile than adult. I don’t mind stupid humor, but make it funny and not because you want to say “fuck” for the sake of it. Even if it’s just for casual talk, it's overly excessive. It doesn’t hurt to find humor in other ways even if those don’t land either, it's better than just resorting to profanity and sex.

Additional Comments -

When it comes to Vivziepop’s older works, it’s better than Helluva Boss but weaker than her shorts or animated music videos (fan-made or original), the strongest elements within the series lie within the hump of the season and fall short from the beginning and end. Though as annoying as that is, it pales in comparison to the other elements in the show. 

Heaven’s methods of carrying out exterminations every year to dissuade the populace of hell from rebelling is just a very dumb thing to do when there are so many other ways to shatter the morale of a persecuted people or nation without lifting a single sword that would’ve been better implemented and create a larger divide between heaven and hell and less costly as well. Perhaps this is just to further showcase how arrogant and incompetent Heaven is, but I have my doubts on that. 

Alastor as a manipulative radio host works well between Charlie and Vaggie, though I wish they wouldn’t have explained his ties to the disappearances of hell’s overlords so soon, it just takes away from his mysterious nature as this eldritch being. That part to me would’ve worked later on. (Yeah, I’m also aware they did something similar in the pilot too, which brings up another issue I have) 

Continuity between the pilot and the first episode is pretty murky, it doesn’t help matters when the plot of the pilot and the series episodes get collaged in so haphazardly. If I never heard of Hazbin Hotel or Vivziepop’s work before, I’d kinda be thrown off a bit and try my best to catch up on what’s going on. I don’t expect an expose of how everything works, but an organic flow of how things come together would’ve been nice. For instance: the pilot itself feels more like an episode one than the actual episode 1 of the first season. I know the point of the pilot isn’t as strict in its rules, since it's supposed to sell an idea to a network or distributor. Hell, The Amazing Digital Circus does something similar to how Hazbin Hotel does with presenting a first-episode introduction into the world and characters, only it does it far better and it hasn’t even gotten its first episode out yet, but I don’t want to compare apples to oranges on two different shows. The point is, the first episode should’ve had a better flow to it or at least maintained something more consistent like the pilot did. 

But by far the most glaring problem in the show isn’t part of the show itself believe it or not. But to keep this short, I’ll leave that for part 2. 

4. End of Part 1 

Originally when I watched the series I gave this a 7/10 on IMDB because I came at this from a perspective of how I would judge the work based on viv’s prior craft, this gave it a point above Helluva Boss, primarily with pacing, and direction of what it should be about and where to focus the story and characters. That being said, I was being very generous and didn’t also factor in on how it stood on its own two feet, and to be honest? It's not that good. For the first season of a new adult animated show, it’s too rushed, and not fleshed out enough in areas where it needs to be, The majority of the characters I have little interest or investment in, and despite having its moments, it's not enough to keep me hooked to know what happens within the next season. 

This would bring it down to 1 point for that to a 6/10, I know some fans would put the blame on Amazon, A24, or Bento, but here’s the thing, other shows have had episodes with similar limited space and time to tell their stories yet do a far more superior job in doing so than this, from what I understand, Amazon seems pretty open for a studio big or small to do as they please with what resources they have to get out what they can regardless of the restraint of episodes to be made, thereby making studios try their best to work harder on making a show work with such little episodes, so I see this mostly as a personal thing with viv and her team than just amazon. 

Now I would just leave it at that and move on, but I’m afraid this is where things get more muddy and grim.

[kiss-my-freckle]

This is kinda random at this point but I think Keenler Baby is still plausible. They left it open imo. What say you? And yeah, I miss hearing your theories on them 🥹

Yes. They left a lot of storylines open on The Blacklist. They never explained the tragedy that made Rederina want to burn down the Takoma Park house. They never circled back to Tom and his role with Gina and Fokin and the death of Meera Malik even though they quite literally brought her daughter into the show. Liz's second memory wipe was the biggest storyline they left open. They could pull a Keenler baby spinoff if they wanted to. A Ressler-centered spinoff like Tom's, only with Ressler continuing to be the agent he is and using everything he learned from Rederina. I still believe in Keenler baby 100%. Cooper took on the role of Sam, so everything is there should they want to parallel Agnes with Liz and Ressler with the real Raymond. The spinoff would look like father and daughter Ryker from the pilot episode.... only Agnes at the same age as Beth's current age.

[fun-with-funkos]

"We're going to make a great team."

Presenting custom Funko Pop of Raymond "Red" Reddington, from the pilot episode of The Blacklist.

What a dapper guy. I have loved his distinctive sense of style. Never boring!

This custom Funko was made from the original Raymond Reddington Funko, which I hilariously bought years before I started watching The Blacklist. I had taken him apart to make another character, but never finished.

When I wanted Blacklist funkos I was underwhelmed by the originals, to me Liz was not dressed right and Reddington's hat and coloring was all wrong. He didn't have any charisma.

But here I am, repainting him and giving him a different head. Now he looks like Raymond Reddington, at least as far as the pilot episode.

I now have 35 Blacklist funkos, and at least one Reddington for every season. 2 more to finish/post, then I'll do some group photo shoots!

[world-of-ryan]

Looper article on the character of Tom Keen.

Unassuming school teacher, cold-blooded killer, devoted family man — Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) has played many parts on NBC's "The Blacklist." Tom has flipped the script on just about everyone he has come into contact with. Even though he was first contracted to infiltrate Liz's (Megan Boone) life as her husband, things do not turn out as planned. Through no fault of his own, Tom falls for Liz and soon realizes that the only loyalty he has is to his wife. Not always on the side of righteousness, Tom's complexities make him one of the most fascinating characters of the series, and it was a shame to see him go. 

But being Liz's ride-or-die had not always been in the cards for the character. Executive Producer John Eisendrath has been quite open about plans to kill off Tom early in the series (via The Observer). Yet, after Eggold was brought on board that reality became quite impossible. The actor's nuanced interpretation of the character meant that the series would have to take Tom in a different direction. But before the spy became completely devoted to Liz and the child they had together, creatives had a different idea of where to take him. 

You thought Tom was dark already

Characters full of innocence are a rare commodity in "The Blacklist." To catch all of the criminals on Red's (James Spader) list, ethical compromises must be made — something that Liz learns in part due to her marriage. At the end of the pilot, Liz finds a secret compartment in her house full of money and fake passports with Tom's picture. This was the beginning of the reveal of who Tom is. And although he eventually proves his loyalty to Liz, love was not always in the cards for the duplicitous character.

"[T]he original incarnation of the character was actually much darker than what we did. It was much more violent and evil, like horrendous," Ryan Eggold shared with PopSugar. "But that character has been scrapped, and there's something else happening." The final version of Tom that makes it into "The Blacklist" is not one to be trifled with. He murders without remorse and lies indiscriminately, but that is not all there is to him. He may have a particular set of skills and a chilly disposition to get done what needs doing, but he does it all for love. After Liz finds out that he was employed to be in her life, their relationship is rocky at best. But through reconciliation and having Agnes (Katherine Kell), the most sympathetic character in the series, they make amends. At the end of it all, Tom finds redemption — which is a far cry from being pure evil.

Tom is redeemed

Ryan Eggold's command of Tom's character became so undeniable, one show could no longer contain him. Instead of being killed off like the original plan, creatives realized there was something even bigger for the actor down the line.

"Played by the wrong person, Tom could have been entirely unsympathetic and somebody we would have needed to kill off after 17 episodes," creator Jon Bokenkamp told Entertainment Tonight. When Liz finds out Tom has been deceiving her, she wastes no time in shooting him. But that isn't the end of Tom, and soon the redemption that he finds on "The Blacklist" became a prime opportunity for a spin-off series. Teaming up with his biological mother Scottie Hargrave (Famke Janssen), Tom embarks on a path to make up for his past misdeeds in "The Blacklist: Redemption."

"This is a guy who's a spy and assassin and orphan, but also someone who's discovering his ability to love for the first time and developing his first genuine relationship," Ryan Eggold elaborated. Just as Liz grapples with her own identity, her husband has a similar path. He learns that his life as an operative started when he was kidnapped from Scottie when he was three years old. And although "The Blacklist: Redemption" was short-lived, it didn't stop Tom from carrying out his final wish before leaving "The Blacklist." He redeems himself by fighting with Liz until the brutal end, even though it takes his life.

[alyblacklist]

The author has previewed the Season 10 premiere. Minor spoilers inside.

[chengfagshi]

also Vivzie is super controversial as well, I'm not talking about stuff that involves her drawings but stuff like

doing black face

visiting multiple destinations that knowingly mistreat animals (such as an owl cafe, the fox village in Miyagi Zao and a "micropig" cafe)

not paying her animators fairly

going on a very expensive shopping spree instead

blacklisting and harassing people (such as Erin Frost)

making incredibly transphobic and acephobic statements

voicing violent threats to other animators not affiliated with her own company

often not crediting staff for their work

slandering the pilot cast behind their back and lying to them about keeping them, but instead she had already planned to replace them with broadway actors

The pilot cast was not invited to the series premiere and Ed Bosco (Radio Demon VA) did not appear in "Thank You and Goodnight," the pilot cast's goodbye to the fanbase, as it would have "threatened his job."

liking tweets that refereed to her critics as "subhumans"

encouraging fandom hostility, sometimes subtlety, sometimes not so

this has caused a fan to take their own life. Viv never made a statement about it

Mocking another fan and former friend of hers who tried to commit and landed in hospital (she tweeted: "Karma is so awesome, aw man <3")

lying about the SA survivor status of a storyboarder who worked for a sensitive episode, they infamously made inappropriate comments towards a 15 year old

claiming, falsely, that she "Would never allow abuse to be seen as positive in my stories." This was just before episode 4 of Hazbin aired, during a three day tirade against critics of the leaked abuse scene. Two episodes later, a sexual assault scene is played entirely for laughs

threatening to sue Kedikatzen, a webcomic artist she incorrectly believed to be behind exposing her transphobia in a document

vagueing about a 15 year old publicly on twitter because the teenager criticized her

slandering a person who made a roast meme about her show (thank you for x and they excluded Hazbin). The meme creator said they didn't want any harassment be sent to anyone and had Viv blocked

Getting mad to a fan who was responding to one of her tweets and was upset about what she wrote

Yeah, I heard about most of that. And to the surprise of nobody, I heard it from other proshippers since antis only wanna focus on the fictional shit she drew like 10 years ago. All of that is the reason I haven't watched the series. I'm pretty much done with it. Or if I ever do watch it, it will be through pirating (which, let's be real, won't happen because with this, it's impossible for me to separate the art from artist).

[katarinas-redemption]

Liz: And how should I look at this? Red: Like a criminal. May come easier than you think. Shall I show you? The Blacklist.

PART ONE

🕵️‍♂️

This line makes a parental connection between Liz and Red.

Episode 4.22

The second crucial line in the pilot that showrunners confirm was an Imposter clue is the “Everything about me is a lie” line.

Parental connection via the criminal parallel +

Red is not her father but an imposter of her father. =

Red is The Mother.

Wild ass speculation:

The mother died of WEAKNESS AND SHAME as per what Red told Liz in the pilot. Interestingly, that line about weakness and shame was different on the draft pilot script dated 2012 that somehow made it online and fans have decided to dissect it carefully. LOL.

In the original draft, her mother worked two jobs to keep Liz in school and out of juvenile court. Some anti-Redarina fans say this is evidence that Red was originally not supposed to be the mom as the mom would have raised Liz until she was 14. That same draft has Liz's age as 36 later changed to 29/30. Liz: There was a fire. I was fourteen. Mr. Kaplan: You tell people you got it when you were 14. Why is that? Liz: To hide the truth?

I disagree that any of this disproves Redarina. It is possible that her mother still could have disappeared and re-emerged as the imposter.

Liz's age was changed to 4 because maybe they realized that if Liz was 14, she could've remembered Red or saw something in him like his eyes. Changing her age to four years old IMHO, would've made it less likely for Liz to remember details, like Red's eyes. In the Luther Braxton Conclusion episode, it seemed Liz recognized that Red was at the fire by his EYES. She saw her mother in Red's eyes in the season 8 finale so. Add in the fact that Red had her memories erased.

And anyway, if they had kept it that the mom worked two jobs, etc, etc.. She still went somewhere and was out of the picture> Liz told Cooper she raised herself so both parents were out of the picture. Liz: Like most kids who raised themselves, I can display narcissistic behavior. I can be withdrawn, disconnected.

THINK LIKE A CRIMINAL. The showrunners talk about Liz’s darkness and how she's becoming more like Red.

SEASON 3 - THE AU REVIEW

(When Liz and Red went on the run)

John Eisendrath: In terms of where Liz is heading, I think she’s struggling with this notion that there’s a piece within her that is criminal. Red told her in the very first episode of the show ‘think like a criminal, it may come easier to you than you may expect’ and I think that sort of haunts her, and now, even though she has whispers of a criminal past that we’ve alluded to, now that she’s being confronted with actually being a criminal, she’s had to rely on these instincts that she wants to ignore and pretend like they’re not there – and now she needs them.” So, not only is Liz forced to embrace a darker side that might be within her, we’re also getting to go out and travel with Red and to see him take the reigns and see how he operates and where he goes and stays in ways that we haven’t really seen before. Liz is going to take the audience by the hand and go into Red’s world a little bit more and learn about how he moves and operates which is going to be a lot of fun.

SEASON 5 TV GUIDE - SEASON 5

Daddy issues. If you thought the discovery that Red is her father would put an end to Liz's identity crisis once and for all, think again. "Her father is essentially the devil," Bokenkamp says. "She's confronting some frightening questions about who she is and what's in her DNA and that fight between good and evil. ... Liz is going to be combating that instinct to perhaps break the rules and fighting a darker side of herself that she knows is probably right under the surface." But in some twisted way, embracing her true nature may make Liz even better at her job. "Is she like Reddington?" Bokenkamp wonders. "He told her early, 'Think like a criminal. It may come easier than you think.'"

SEASON 5 ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

How is Liz dealing with the truth that Red is her father?

Jon Bokenkamp: It’s going to be interesting to watch it play out, because I think she’s secretly terrified, or maybe not so secretly terrified, that the devil is her father and that she may have some of those instincts. He told her in the pilot, “Think like a criminal. It may come easier to you than you think,” and we’ve seen aspects of that. She murdered the Attorney General and has been on the run in the past. And so, I think she’s going to plant her flag early on that she’s a cop first and that is probably going to be a season-long struggle for her.

Elizabeth Keen No. 1 on The Blacklist.

SEASON 8 ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Megan Boone: I was definitely hoping it would be Liz at No. 1, but I didn't want to presume," Boone says. "I have to say… it's an honor.

SEASON 8 ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

John Eisendrath: From the second Reddington walked into her life, a dark path was always a possibility for Liz. "One of the dramatic questions from the beginning is how this master criminal's desire to connect with this innocent FBI agent would change her life," Eisendrath explains. To find Blacklisters, Reddington has encouraged Liz to understand the mindset and think like a criminal. "She's learned at the feet of a master," he adds. The FBI agent's key moments, including learning she has the Warrior gene in her DNA and covering up a murder she committed, coupled with what Reddington has been teaching her, have been leading her to this place. Now, she's been pulled far enough into the dark side to be at the top of Red's list.

Red told Cooper that what Liz did by betraying them in this episode and kidnapping Dom was her “destiny.” What does that mean?

SEASON 8 THE WRAP

Bokenkamp:

I think what Red was talking about goes to the core of who Liz is. Is she fundamentally good? Is she fundamentally bad? Has she reached a tipping point that she can’t return from, or was this meant to be because it’s in her DNA? We’ve seen Liz dip her toes in the dark waters over the years — she’s certainly not that innocent, young FBI agent that we met in the pilot — and this season is going to explore her darker side. I think the real question lies in seeing how she navigates these dark waters and, if she does survive this, how she looks when she comes out the other side.

Eisendrath:

This has been a question since the pilot. First when she thought Red was her father; later when she realized Katarina Rostova was her mother — how much of a parent’s behavior is a child destined to repeat? In Liz’s case, how much bad behavior?

The murder of Attorney General Tom Connolly (Reed Birney) was more about Liz than it was about her executing him. "It reflected to the audience about how far Liz is willing to go," Bokenkamp says. "That murder is very telling of who she was, and perhaps even who she was in the process of becoming." It got at the core of a debate the writers had for years, which was whether she's destined to embrace her darkness or it was free will that she chose to do these things. Liz's desperate action was not just a considerable character turn, but it sent her on the road with Reddington. Spending time with him meant seeing that she was more like him than she wanted to admit. - Entertainment Weekly

The Warrior Gene - Dr.Linus Creel Episode 2.04

The episode did not confirm that Liz had the warrior gene though it was implied. In later interviews, the showrunners confirm that Liz DID possess it.

Samar: I received everything Creel had on file at the hospital patient records, test results Including yours. We logged everything else into evidence, but I thought perhaps you would want that. It’s probably meaningless, right? Do you think Reddington could have known, when he gave you this case, that you’d find out?

Part two

[always-together]

Whelp. It’s no shocker after how throughly I enjoyed the pilot all those years ago, but an IRL friend finally got me to watch Hazbin Hotel and I liked it! Some aspects could’ve been done better and I don’t think 8 episodes was enough for its arc but I enjoyed it. Still iffy about Helluva Boss, but maybe I’ll put in the time to watch that too.

To make a long story short, this means I’m probably going to start RPing with those who have characters from those shows as muses; this will probably only apply to my multimuse blog but whose to say what the future will hold for Garnet? I’m making a post out of this cause I know I have a few mutuals who don’t interact with HH muses or have the show as a trigger warning due to shitty past experiences with the fandom. Although I’m sure everyone knows I’m definitely not as bad as that, trigger and content warnings are important and I will absolutely respect people’s wishes.

I will be tagging relevant content with “tw hazbin hotel” and “tw helluva boss”, in case anyone who wants to blacklist those tags on my blogs wants to do so. If you’d like me to tag them with something else as well, like a “don’t look” message of some sort, please be respectful and message me about it. Let’s stay safe and continue having fun with this hobby we all love!

[chaifootsteps]

So it's 99%given that viv Lost hazbin right, right?

With the Copyright and Permissions only mentioning Bento Box and A24. The 4chan person saying the episodes where cut to 8.

Just How awful a creator has to be to lose their freaking animation?

One that already had millions of views on YouTube with the pilot.

I see that the 4chan post listed her lacking of professionalism.

But I DO Hope her tweeter and drama added some fuel.

I Hope she gets burned and blacklisted from animation (Just like she tries to blacklist people for the "crime" of trying to work in other shows).

It would be a little satisfactory.

Satisfaction would be If the people she HURTS where able to sue, but unlikely.

Yet, even if she can't be a professional animator. She''ll like get her kicks and enjoy the praising of her cult If she sticks to webcomic.

After of course purchasing a billion dolar dodo taxidermy to "cheer her up" after being so awfully betrayed.

Anon, I just need you to know that that last line made me ugly laugh a little.

[kenobihater]

so, uh... netflix avatar certainly is a show, huh? i just finished episode 1 and i'm gonna ramble on about it below. blacklist "#len watches natla" or "natla spoilers" if you either don't wanna see this shit or you don't want spoilers.

fair warning that i was relatively neutral going into the show, but episode 1 was... hmm. i'm still struggling to formulate words on it. i didn't love it, but it wasn't shyamalan levels of bad by any means. i'm gonna hop right into episode 2 after this post bc i've heard the pilot and the finale are the weakest episodes and i genuinely wanna give it a fair chance before i cast judgment.

so, they open with the air nomad genocide. i knew this going in, but it certainly sets a Tone, a Tone that does NOT feel like avatar. like, i understand they wanted to elevate the level of maturity a bit and make things more serious, but was it rlly necessary to see a shit ton of air nomads get fireballed to death, culminating in gyatso getting burned alive trying to protect a room of children, who also presumably get incinerated?? they didn't show that part, instead doing a hard cut to katara waterbending a century later (resulting in EXTREME whiplash for me), but them violently dying is the only way that ends.

also, minor quibble: the firebending looked normal to me, but the general who killed gyatso said smthn like "you might have beaten me any other day, but today we have the power of the comet!" but their bending doesn't look very different from zuko's bending later? it's a little more flamey ig, but in s3 when ozai gets juiced up the motherfucker is out here destroying whole forests from his airship.

onto the acting. gordon cormier's portrayal felt a little too rehearsed and theatrical rather than natural, but he's a kid and acting is hard so i'm def gonna cut him some slack, and he does seem pretty happy and earnest, even if his delivery is a bit forced. kiawentiio tarbell is pretty good, but her dialogue left a bit to be desired, which isn't on her and i'll complain about later. ian ousley gave the best performance imo, tho ymmv bc ik there's some controversy around his heritage that i don't feel i have the right to get into due to tribal registration being a complex topic, blood quantum being awful, and me being white. gran gran was barely there and just exposited everywhere in a weird callback to the og intro, so i don't really feel like she's that important even tho i liked her casting. uncle iroh... i'm not sure. he wasn't too prevalent, which is understandable this early on. i liked paul sun-hyung lee's warmth, but don't have much to say otherwise yet. and then there's dallas james liu. i think his acting was pretty solid, at least on the level of dev patel's performance (which i swear is a compliment bc he was the only good part of shyamalan's dumpster fire of a film imo). i think the issue i have with the performance is down to the writing, which i guess i'll get into now bc it's my biggest issue with episode 1.

the dialogue flow was mid, and there was a bit of info dumping from gyatso in his scene with aang which i found distracting. speaking of info dumping, gran gran was just kinda there to explain the last hundred yrs to aang and then have zero interactions with her grandchildren before they flew off, which was dumb.

still on the topic of writing: i mentioned the tone set by the opener, and i think that's bad, but it also fucked up the pacing by not starting at the same point the og did. by the end of the episode they shoehorned in the trip to the southern air temple with like 11 mins left (i checked) and so that made aang's grief triggering the avatar state feel rushed. i also thought the flashback to gyatso's earlier dialogue when aang saw his corpse was unnecessary. like bitch, i watched that 30 mins ago, i remember it fine! by the end, aang seemed waaaay more driven than he did in s1 of the original, almost as self-confident as he was in s3. like, he accepted being the avatar real quick. i'm pretty sure he'll display a bit more uncertainty later in the season (at least, i hope he does), but that still felt off to me.

my biggest complaint about the writing is zuko. i KNOW he's a brat, i am well aware of that as a lifelong zuko girlie, but was him trying to kill sokka necessary??? he was literally about to throw a fireball at him when he was lying defeated in the snow before aang stepped in. he also commanded his soldiers to burn the village to the ground at one point. i understand he's a villain and that they're attempting to corner the Prestige TV market here, so they've decided to make him grittier. i don't like it, though. in the cartoon, zuko is driven in his awful quest, but he's also honorable - in the village he nods his head in agreement when aang asks if he'll leave the village alone if aang goes with him. that little moment showed his honor, his true honor, peeking through. also in the cartoon, he's really bad at finding the avatar despite being very skilled in combat. i don't know how they're gonna have him show up very much in this season if he's gonna be more of a ruthless asshole tbh.

overall, i'm left just kinda confused with the tone and character writing of the show. i'm going to watch the whole season because it's only 8 episodes and i genuinely hope it improves somewhat, but i'd give it either a 6 or a 6.5/10, i can't quite decide.

[woomycritiques543]

Hey, Hazbin fan here. That was totally not cool for that one person to say you should be bullied off the site. No one deserves that.

(TW: Mentions of ableism, p^dophillia, and cyberbullying.)

Definitely.

The fandom is genuinely insufferable.

I said on Twitter "Hey, maybe we should care more about Erin Frost's mental health and Vivziepop's mental health by no longer encouraging them to do two shows at the same time." and they reacted heartlessly saying that "none" of the staff cares about Erin (Spoiler: Ashley does, and she knows how Erin was mistreated too! This is now officially (with her permission most likely) public too. So theres no use hiding it in this case.) with "no one cares about her", accused me of shit without actually watching any of my videos, and tried to argue with me for two whole hours until I had to block all of my Twitter notifications altogether while saying that harassment in the fandom is "ok" and that im the "only" harasser there just because I say anything negative about Vivziepop or some of her crew. This was also in the middle of when the fandom went after my Twitter after I stated that it was a "good" thing that someone that was harassing the fandom was (temporarily) no longer on Twitter.

Want proof?

Here it is.

(A fan claiming that just because Erin made a mistake, that her emotions "should" be invalidated and that she's "not" a victim. It was the same fan who said thar DaniDraws666 "should" be allowed to bully and harass people without consequences. Not hold someone accountable- but to bully them. Two entirely different things.)

The same fan then said this to me.

Then contridicted their statement immediatly after. ("Hard Work" my ass! Overworking is abuse, and should never be normalized!)

I also posted this about Vivziepop's mental health and how her overworking herself causes her to have so many vents and meltdowns, and the fandom outright ignored me. Because that's the thing, they dont actually fucking care and just want to use Vivziepop for more content and or clout. It's disgusting.

There's actual ableism going on (not being able to visualize is an actual disorder. It's called Aphantasia.) in the fandom.

-and with the official staff (this is public information.)

Hell, there's even a new case of ableism from the youtuber:

Cartoon Universe. "DeepCut."

The fact that the show contains a script from irl people who are ok with using the characters as a means to write ableist slurs without being held accountable for it (many more fans started to use that slur after Helluva Boss's pilot, so dont tell me "lol media with fiction doesnt do anything to anyone!" people.), have a autistic coded character that they use to show hate towards autistic traits, have a creator who said that someone was "mentally unstable" (something used for disabilities) as an insult and treid to blacklist Erin Frost from having a career (When Vivziepop publically harassed a child, publically said things about Dollcreep that were obviously private, etc. So by that logic Vivziepop "should" be blacklisted too. Except- she isnt! So people demonizing Erin Frost and basically saying that they deserve "nothing" and to be blacklisted, and "deserve" to be bullied and legally imprisoned is disgusting.), plus have a fandom who constantly says ableist slurs from the show and harass people with disabilities this often... really shows how much of an impact the ableism within Helluva Boss truly had. Not just with the script from that show, but the behavior from the creators in general.

To the point where people with disabilities have been getting harassed in this fandom (while using quotes from the first episode to harass other fans.) for years now. It's becoming an social epidemic at this point. Not just the ableisim- but the heavy amounts of harassment within the fandom in general. (Also- this Tumblr post from a fan contains discord screenshots! Things that they label as "illegal." The same thing that people said that Erin Frost "should" have their career ruined over. How hypocritical is that?! That showing discord screenshoots is "bad faith" unless it's towards someone that they hate. Hell, even if the NDA wasnt there people would have still harassed Erin. But that's another issue altogether.) There's so much bullying and overall meaness going on in the fandom, Vivziepop keeps overworking herself and her staff, and people keep saying nothing about it or excuse the whole thing because "lmao more stolitz lol!" matters to them more than the mental health of those working on it. So no matter what people say- This "just" about Erin Frost, my videos are not created, with hours upon hours of research and dedication to "harass" Vivziepop or her staff: This is about freelance rights, minority representation, and the refusal against bullying within the Hazbin community.