#the writing goes so downhill in s9

[spookyrobbins]

thinking abt s9 again and it still pisses me off how much of az's experiences and disability is viewed from callie's pov (like literally at some points). like disclaimer here bc i understand that the people around an amputee are affected by it too and i understand that (esp at the time) showing callie's pov and struggles was extremely novel. but callie's pov should have been a supplement to az's, not replacing it?? bc literally every single one of az's ig accomplishments?? 1/8 – darkness anon

are seen from callie's pov. it even goes into the way they film certain scenes. (note that i am not like a professional filmmaker but i did take courses on art interp) comparing two scenes - the scene where az walks across the apartment to the door w her prosthesis and like trips and breaks shit along the way vs the "i got back up" scene which are very different scenes that occur in the same location - i noticed smth rlly interesting abt the way the audience is positioned 2/8

in the first one. there is only one portion of the scene (lasting maybe one second) where we do not see arizona in frame. in fact, most of this scene, we see arizona from her side, and at the end, we see her facing forward, toward the camera. and that's significant bc when they do that, we don't see things like the character sees it. we see it like an audience. we literally don't see az's perspective even when she is the Only character on screen. the closest we get to that in this 3/8

is the split-second frame of the vase breaking and one of the outside of the apartment, pointing to where the files bailey promised should have been. what the scene conveys isnt necessarily az's experiences, as a result, and instead is showing us the results of bailey's plan to get az walking again, which is linked back to callie's feelings abt az's response to the amputation and,, yeah. admittedly though, this scene is probably one of the most arizona centric scenes in the season. 4/8

comparing a scene with similar setting - the i got back up scene - is super interesting though, because we can see that the directors are filming az's scenes the way they are on purpose. bc that scene starts from callie's perspective and stays there for the rest of the scene. we start with the camera behind callie as she stands outside the door of the apt, and then cuts to a side/frontal angle so we can see her expression at the sound of az giggling behind the door 5/8

then she opens the door and we cut to a frontal angle so we instantly see callie's reaction to smth behind the camera and then turn around and show us what she's reacting to. compared to how they framed az opening the door in the 9x06 scene (they focus on the empty floor first and then pan up to az, emphasising the importance of the empty floor over az's reaction). and even when the camera is focused on az and sofia, it's callie's voice that we hear first and she asks if az 6/8

had a good day and then az reveals oh well i fell down and then we cut back to callie for her reaction. and then az responds w "i got back up". but the "i got back up" part? literally lasts less than a second before we cut back to callie again. and after that the cam cuts between focusing on callie and watching az and sofia from callie's pov (u can argue that the focus on callie is sofia's pov but i dont think that makes much sense? idk) but yeah. its like really weird too bc 7/8

in the same ep, they have the scene where az actually falls and its filmed so similarly to this scene in some ways and even though some of these techniques are used on az, it emphasizes alex's pov more than it does az and ugh idk. s9 irritates me in both the storyline and filming ig is the conclusion here. and uhh just realised how super long this got so like. feel free to not,, respond? like i get that this is like ridiculous and im sorry my dude 8/8

no no but you're so right. i've said it before (i think) and i'll say it again: the show disproportionately favours callie's pov over arizona's (it does this with other characters, like meredith's over derek's, but to a slightly less extreme i think) - part of this i think is bc callie was there first and arizona is written as a love interest exclusively. but the whole amputation storyline really showed this to an extreme

i also think that the amount of time spent in callie's pov is part of the reason that the cheating felt so extremely ooc/cheap emotional payoff. i've seen various places where people have said that cheating can be part of depression/ptsd/trauma (and i fully agree/believe that) and that could fit in arizona's storyline - except the audience never really saw her dealing with that. there was the stuff at the beginning of the season and then arizona seemed fine? and the challenge of arizona i think is that she's very internal and taking away teddy and mark (to an extent) sort of limited her external processes, which left the viewer thinking that arizona was doing okay. but the effect of not showing us arizona's pov is that it comes out of left field (which is you were writing not filming from callie's pov could work bc limited 3rd person) is that it just seems out of character and tawdry and you have to create miscarriages to explain her behaviour

the way they filmed/wrote 95% of calzona's scenes in s9 were focused on callie and her feelings. even scenes that on the surface seem to be about arizona are really centered on callie. like for instance the shoes before bailey's wedding. arizona is struggling with self-worth and beauty and this would be a perfect moment for arizona to have ownership in her journey - instead we get callie yelling at her about how "everything is about the leg", which i think does a disservice to arizona and also to callie's character, which has often been based around empathy (don't get me started on callie's empathy and how it relates to arizona lol) like you said, every one of arizona's moments/accomplishments is not really about her. and that was a problem with arizona's character from the start - it's never really about her - it's about other. for example: her telling callie about tim was about reassuring callie's feelings versus it being a moment to add depth to arizona's character

one more thing: i think the writers majorly screwed themselves with the amputation sl/how they approached it. in the same way that the plane crash dominated like 4 seasons on a wider scale, arizona's leg and amputation did on a smaller scale, but they set it up so poorly that it was almost unsalvageable. they wanted the pat on the back for having a disabled character, but they mismanaged the storyline so atrociously that by the time s10 rolled around they were sort of screwed and didn't know what to do with callie and arizona. it's also notable that by like what? s11 they just stop talking about arizona's leg entirely

lol my part got long too so i'll leave it here

[wolfwhiteflowers]

S10 sdcc trailer rant 

(similar to my other rants) Before the trailer was shown, idk what to expect on s10. Ok more like I still don’t trust the writers. I still get like invested on this show.

 It’s hard to quit and to stick only with headcanons, when the show is still going on and it sometimes not be so bad in a overall story-way.  (quitting ouat show was easier to do.) I value story and in character stories and following the protagonists and their main story arcs. But ukno TWD isn’t the same anymore. Since Carl died, but it was still ok because Rick is still alive and that TWD imo is about Rick&/or Carl’s story. But, Rick isn’t in the show but in movies.  Anyway, the writers sometimes still be true or still be IMO what I think is right for the story in the TWD show, but also lack a lot of potential moments. So it’s why it’s hard to quit. There are some things going well. It’s frustrating. I want this show to end good and end it like yesterday/ s7. The other frustrating thing is how AMC tease fans with movie news, Lincoln leaving, etc with hundred articles of the same thing. There’s so much stringing fans along from TWD franchise. Fandom is tired!

Ok I have this expectation or wish on how the show/movie TWD will end and I think writers/gimple are thinking similar the same way I am. But idk it’s a 16 ep season story idk what to expect and I don’t really trust them since Kang throws out random ships and time jumps and other dumb stuff. Like she brought C/E but Carol got this new arc and is back with TF or main storyline.

Idk why I care ahh show gonna die downhill anyway. That’s depressing and frustrating. I kinda hope the show ends now and we focus on the TWD movies with the mains. I just want a ending of Rick and gang’s story!

S10 trailer thoughts - I only care about the mains. Some others too but u know the show is weak with characters’s development and having a huge cast.

Idk Caryl being bffs, we already know that. It’s also was very much like the comics between Rick and Michonne which they only stayed as friends. So it’s weird. I wish Caryl said it differently but it looked more like flirting. And with Carol I guess she’s been away for awhile in idk Oceanside? I guess it’s ok if it makes her story interesting and make sense. I still want her with team family but seems like she still is or part of the main storyline, in s10. If she’s seeing ghost Henry and stuff maybe she’s taking comic-Michonne’s storyline from the Telltale game?

I want the TWD story to end well and including for characters stories. I’m really nervous about Michonne. Sigh it’s just like with Rick wtf. Is she gonna die on the show? Are writers gonna destroy her and make her OOC by kissing/being with Zeke? Is she gonna be in the movies and if there’s those dumb ships happening, does it mean the movies be wack too ( with dumb love triangles or Rick/Jadis shit).* Seeing bad writing while some areas like Caryl doing fine, I still worry that bad writing happening elsewhere like what they did with carzekiel, Carl dying, minor characters not developing well. Seeing that kiss was so gross. Richonne is the power couple and part of this main/Grimes storyline in the show. Last scene of Richonne was so beautiful and seeing M/E kiss is like tainting it. tainting the story’s ending. It doesn’t make sense for Michonne to do that in s10 and not in the rest of s9. Like she was still in love and grieving on Rick for 6 years even though she thinks he died. And wtf lol Zeke? Ya so now the haters know what Carylers felt I guess. Tho it’s worse cos  M/E talked like once in s9 and yeah. However maybe the kiss was a one time thing or so. Maybe they’re both grieving and kinda using each other’s company? I’ll be fine with it if it’s some crazy angsty storyline. Obviously they’re not endgame. If they are, fandom only remembers Richonne. Oh I just realized this dumb plot kinda reminds me of comic Michonne. She is like stuck in this misery way with boyfriends like that in most of comics till she found her peace by finally finding her daughter. ‘finding her daughter’ is something I think  tv-Michonne would do later on, trying to find Rick. Maybe Kang wants to write like that? Boat ? Maybe she goes on a boat to find Rick? I want Richonne/Grimes reunion! Sigh.

Sigh! I don’t want this stress and worry on it. It’s not exciting and fun anymore. It like putting salt on my wounds. Gosh can this show end!

===========

After thinking about the trailer and fandom things, I feel a bit better. Cast hates M/E and I think is highly possible Danai will be in the movies or one of them therefore Michonne doesn’t die in s10.

And that Kang loves to add random ships (but it might not be so bad afterwards??) and I still don’t trust writers. gahhhh

[julystorms]

🔥 the X-files (I realize I forgot to include a topic last time so sorry about that)

{send me a 🔥 for some salt!} include a topic if you can!

The attitude within The X-Files fandom that codependency is romantic as fuck and super duper healthy is honestly revolting in its persistence and its omnipresence. It is literally everywhere.

It’s incredibly interesting to think and write about, absolutely, but it is one of the reasons I ended up gravitating toward focusing my shipping goggles on Doggett and Reyes, instead. There are some issues in their relationship, too, don’t get me wrong...but at least I don’t have to deal with tens of thousands of fanfics glorifying and romanticizing “they only have one another to depend on.” I’m sure I would have if the series had continued for another few seasons, but luckily it ended ha ha S10? it never happened and so the pairing was able to avoid the bulk of that.

I mean, this is just my personal beef with the series, but I really wanted Doggett and Reyes’s presence to dispel the whole “Mulder and Scully can only trust each other” shebang. Season 8 was starting to move toward that, with Scully telling Mulder that Doggett was a good person who was worth his time, but everything kind of went downhill from there. It could have been a great defining moment for the series to have Mulder and Scully struggling to trust and believe in Doggett, and through him, Reyes as well. 

But nah. The series catapulted itself off a cliff at the end of S9, and S10 which definitely never happened made it worse. (I am so bitter about Reyes being turned into an idiot villain character. So. Bitter.)

It really just set us right back to the middle of the series again, where Mulder and Scully can’t trust anyone in the world but themselves. And like, everyone romanticizes the shit out of it, but can you imagine being either one of these characters? Their only romantic option is the other because they’ll never be able to tell the truth or communicate fully with a human being who exists outside of the tiny world they both inhabit.

Don’t get me wrong; I certainly wasn’t shipping Doggett with Scully or Reyes with Mulder. What I wanted from Reyes and Doggett’s presence on the show was honesty and trust between Mulder & Scully and other people, proof that they were not alone/the only people in the world willing to do The Right Thing, and proof that they would still choose one another if there were others who inhabited the same headspace they did.

What we got from later seasons of TXF was a sad desperate attempt for a connection between Mulder and Scully, but what we should have had was MORE than that. I wanted to see Mulder and Scully being afraid to drag other people into their bullshit world. Scully doesn’t trust Doggett at all, but we never really get to see an internal struggle where she’s like: “I need to get rid of him because he deserves better than the kind of life I’ve resigned myself to.” This kind of attitude is never really leveled at Reyes, either, but for the love of God, it should have been!! She gets dragged into some serious bullshit at the whims of others and neither she nor Doggett are ever informed of the price they’ll have to pay until it’s too late.

Look, the way the series revolves around Mulder has always pissed me off, but the end of S9 was the biggest pile of horseshit I’ve ever seen in my entire life. We’re supposed to believe that Doggett and Reyes are going to put their lives and careers on the line for Mulder...? Bitch, please. If TXF wasn’t so busy sucking Mulder’s dick all of the time, maybe we could have seen some process there--how these characters who barely know Mulder come to the decision that breaking him out of prison when he’s on death row is a great fuckin’ idea. I MEAN A LOT IS AT STAKE WHEN YOU BREAK INTO A MILITARY PRISON LMAO. This isn’t something you do on a whim--and Doggett, especially, isn’t impulsive.

It’d be one thing if Scully was in there breaking Mulder out with them, but no, she wasn’t. Doggett goes into the prison with Skinner to break him out, risks his life and his career and his freedom to do this shit for someone who...we’ve barely seen him interact with?

Granted, I’m a writer so I can extrapolate a helluva lot and determine for myself why Doggett would risk everything for Mulder of all people, but hell, I shouldn’t have to do that.

(Bonus unpopular opinion: I bought into Kersh helping out in the “This is the Right Thing To Be Doing” sense.)

Anyway, the fans love that mid-series “the characters can’t trust or rely on anyone but each other” vibe, because they think it’s romantic.

The reality, though, is that it’s depressing and terrifying.

It’s awful to only be able to trust one person with everything; to have no other friends and no other serious relationships aside from this person you work with is scary??? I can’t even begin to describe how terrible Scully must feel sometimes, having lost a lot of good relationships over her inability to communicate honestly with her own family--all of whom love and care about her (yes, even Bill)!! But fandom in general is too busy being wrapped up in how “romantic” the whole “it’s you and me vs. the world” thing is to care. They conveniently only explore the romantic concepts instead of, you know, the shitty horrible aspects of it.

But you can’t have one without the other.

I mean, Mulder and Scully have been through hell together in the years they’ve known each other, but it’d be cool if their trauma wasn’t consistently used as romantic shipping fodder we’re supposed to ‘ooh’ and ‘aww’ over. Especially when the series showed us that Mulder and Scully aren’t the only people in the entire world who are willing to risk themselves to do the right thing.