#there's a lot of stand-out sequences from this turn of the season but i think about this one often still

[heartvisor]

[somedayillbepeterpan]

I have gone down this rabbit hole now and I'm afraid I'm never getting out. I hope I give justice to this. And sorry if this is long.

I've seen a lot of the Colin and Marina vs. Colin and Penelope analyses in here and I want to raise this parallel as to how the Butterfly ball was such a powerful move for both Penelope and Colin. We all have our issues with how they handled Pen and Colin finding their way back to each other but let me add this perspective and hope it helps us understand how real they handled the issue of LW and pushed the character development for them both.

The scene on the left is from S01e06 (Swish) and the right is S03e08 (Into the Light)

S1 scene - Violet is still in her dressing gown, obviously distraught having just read something from LW. She hears someone come down and finds Colin.

S3 scene - Violet is dressed for the morning and her face looks a combination of surprise and confusion after reading a letter. She turns around when she hears someone coming down the stairs.

In both scenes, we see Colin coming down the stairs.

S1 - we only see Colin's back. We're in suspense on what emotional state he is in but we do know that he's on his way to elope with Marina.

In S3 - we see Colin's face immediately looking determined and ready. We see Violet calling his name quite urgently.

S1 - Colin sees his mother's face looking like a combination of disappointment and anger. He asks what's happening. She doesn't say anything but just looks at Colin with a sadness that only a mother can give.

S3 - Violet pointedly says that she received a letter from Colin's wife (I love this line so much) that sounds awfully like "I need you to explain what's happening right now."

S1 - Violet hands Colin LW without saying anything and just looks so so so sad. Colin is shocked to his core because we learn that LW (Pen) exposes Marina's pregnancy and that she has been pregnant from the beginning of the season.

S3 - Colin determinedly faces his mother telling her that they had better sit. And I'm guessing that Colin tells her everything.

Where am I going with this? (Gosh, doing an analysis is hard 😂)

The first time Colin fell in love (thought he fell in love), he was blindsided. But I believe the pain he felt at that time was made deeper because his family had to save him from the situation (Anthony explaining that his actions in the scandal will affect his sisters' prospects as well). To think that it was his mother who first learned of the situation added salt to the wound because we all know that he is a mama's boy and that the one person he dislikes letting down is his mother.

The second (and last time) Colin falls in love, he once again feels betrayed. But he's fallen in love so deeply that he can't imagine his life without Pen. The struggle he goes through in understanding his emotions was very hard to watch and it's because the issue goes beyond his and Pen's relationship. It extends to his family.

Colin's hero complex goes beyond feeling worthy of Pen's love but also worthy of the Bridgerton name. We see it several times in S3 when he mentions it in his confrontation with Portia (" I advise you not to sully our Bridgerton name...") and when Pen tells him that Cressida discovered her secret ("It will besmirch our Bridgerton name. The entire family").

The whole sequence in the study is now more significant because of what Pen addresses in their conversation-- Colin's family ("Your family... the one you so kindly shared with me, they are too good").

Pen's "sacrifice" ("But I can no longer conceal the biggest piece of information I have. My identity."), I believe, was to save the Bridgerton family (once again) and she asks Colin to stand by her as she formulates and executes this plan.

It was very important that Pen wrote a letter to Violet directly and that Colin was there right after she's read it to explain everything. From this point on, they were a team. From this point on, Colin moves in parallel with Pen instead of against it. Colin finally sees that version of Pen that she's always been even while she was LW-- the person who was always determined to save his family just as much as he does.

From this point on, their goals were aligned.

10 rewatches after, I finally see how Colin found his way back to Pen. It wasn't very obvious to me how he got over the feelings of betrayal after he discovered Pen was LW. Of course, him reading the letters help but the events leading up to the Butterfly ball, helped him see her as both Pen and Lady Whistledown and the overflowing pride we see on his face was heart-melting to watch.

From this point on, they finally see each other eye to eye. From this point on, they finally accept this version of each other.

If you got to the end, thanks for reading my humble musings.

*Editing to add this: The Butterfly Ball deep dive series

[chirpsythismorning]

Mike's character regression can be explained in large part by one emotion in particular: guilt

Just want to preface this by saying that, this is not Mike slander. I love this dude. In fact, I think what makes Mike such an interesting character is that a lot of his behavior throughout the series can be explained in part by previous moments, and after really looking at all these moments together, what you end up with is a pretty fucked up story.

So while some might want to take this as Mike slander, these points I'm making are a part of Mike and things he has done and said and whether they were intentionally harmful or not, it's Mike. It's all shaped him and his role in the story. The fact that we're seeing a visible shift in his behavior at all, with plenty of moments from the show to back up what brought us here, makes it compelling enough to talk about.

So, without further ado, back to our roots:

Ah yes, the infamous canon proof disputing Mike's I think my life started that day we found you in the woods, claim during his monologue. Not only that, but in this original scene from 1x02, it turns out Mike actually intended to send her away the next day (all of which El could hear Mike saying from the open bathroom door).

Mike outright calling El a weapon, again telling the others they need her because they stand no chance at getting Will back otherwise.

I wont elaborate on this now, because there is way too much to unpack that'll honestly be more worthwhile discussing further on.

For now, this is a secret tool that will help us later.

These next couple scenes right here though, are pretty painful if I'm being completely honest. The way its shot, specifically El's very visible exhaustion, accompanied by the varying priorities of others around her, leaves me feeling pretty unsettled upon rewatches.

I obviously can't remember how I felt when I watched these scenes for the first time, but I imagine I viewed them as this huge romantic moment for Mike and El (I was tricked by heteronormativity, okay?). But, again, upon rewatching them since then, I've realized I get this sort of sad feeling by the end. You'll see what I mean.

El obviously just went through something extremely traumatic. She tried to go find Will and Barb in the void, only to find Barb dead and Will presumably alive, but then slipping through her fingers at the last second (no, literally).

We then got a moment where Joyce held El while the others sat by quietly because she clearly needed a moment of comfort given what she just endured.

Then in this scene shortly after, everyone is leaving to get ready for their final attempt at saving Will.

Now, notice how not only Lucas, but also Dustin make the effort to reach out to El to comfort her affectionately after that traumatic event, with those twos' actions specifically being showcased in sequence?

Lucas, who spent the better part of the season being critical of El, is now ending the season rubbing El's shoulder to warm her up, literally soothing her to make her feel better.

Then there's Dustin, who right after Lucas' gesture makes a gesture of his own, putting his hand on her knee reassuringly, to show her he's there and he's happy she's okay.

And lastly there's Mike, who is so kindly allowing El to rest her head on his shoulder. This placement of Mike and El here is definitely a testament to the fact that Mike has vouched for El this whole time in contrast to the others and so, understandably, she put her head on his shoulder for reassurance, because out of the three of them, he's the one whose been looking out for her the most. (Right?)

Now you might be thinking that this sequence's only purpose was to show Lucas and Dustin's development with El, and that it wasn't intentional that they focused on Lucas and Dustins' priorities in this moment in contrast to Mikes'. And I raise you, this next scene.

Here we have a focus on Mike looking on to where everyone left, while the others beside him are presumably just processing what went down and taking a rest (and boy oh boy do they (El) need one).

Mike on the other-hand decides to take this moment of rest to display the most cliche and universal forms of distracted unrest known to man: he checks his watch.

Mike then stands up abruptly, causing El to fall without his shoulder there for her to rest on anymore, all while her and Dustin are looking on after him, sort of like... Okay?

It's small. It might seem insignificant. But if you actually pay attention to what this scene is trying to make you feel, after really looking at it for what it is, it's kind of sad.

In a moment that chooses to highlight the other boys' acknowledgment of El after what just happened, and not only that, but at the tale end of their final battle of the season, Mike is... distracted?

Mike, who has been presumably looking out for El more than the others in the party this whole time, is conveniently out of commission? And right now when El is looking for his reassurance the most? Mike doesn't even have a moment to say, 'Hey I'll be right back, I just want to check something. Can one of you?--', asking Lucas or Dustin to sit next to her in his place. No. Dude just stands up without even acknowledging her.

If it was any other moment in the show, under less post-traumatic circumstances for El, then I wouldn't even think much of it. But it's at this point in the story when El is essentially at her most exhausted and quite literally seeking out support from others, specifically Mike, that makes his distractedness so eery.

Again, you might still be thinking that this isn't that deep. However, I think based on the events leading up to this, and what follows right here, could quite literally hold the answer to the guilt Mike is still keeping to himself to this day.

So... How are we feeling?

Are we feeling like Mike None of you are thinking about El's wellbeing right now! She could get brain damage from using her powers too much! She's not a weapon!* Wheeler is a little bit of a hypocrite? (I told you that tool would come in handy!)

It's actually quite terrifying how similar this scene is framed to the scene in Hopper's cabin in s3, where Mike pretty much says the exact opposite. In s1 Mike goes from being one of the first people to refer to El as a weapon within the context of them using her powers to find Will, with him being completely un-attuned to the fact that she is exhausted in this moment while the others are saying El's rest and safety is the most important, to then in s3 completely flipping script and saying El was using her powers for nothing, blaming the others for treating her like a weapon and not taking her wellbeing into consideration.

It would be one thing if Mike had a little arc where he acknowledged this script flip. Because that's what it is. It is them having Mike use a word in s1 to describe El, that being weapon, only to say the others are treating her like that with that same word being used. It is them having Mike not agknowledge El's well being after overusing her powers, only to say the others aren't taking her wellbeing into consideration for overusing her powers.

And it would be one thing if Mike had spoke to El or literally anyone about how he felt like he wronged El for planning on sending her away the next day after they found her so that they could go back to looking for Will, or how he said she was a weapon that they needed in order to find Will, essentially being no better than the people she just escaped from, who also used her for her powers. But we don't get that (actually we do.. but it's not acknowledged for what it is aka survivor's guilt. It's instead seen as romantic... another tool for later...)

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think any of Mike's behavior takes away from what Mike did do for El, because yes he was kind and accepting when the others weren't. But even despite all of that, at the end of the day, he was often at the forefront of expecting El to risk her life for them, even if he wasn't outright asking that of her.

Before you freak out, No. I don't think Mike, a literal child, was capable of fathoming that El was going into these situations risking her life. She's a superhero. El's alternative was literally going back to the lab, running, or staying with Mike. This was her safest option.

After a bunch of rewatches and putting together a lot of these moments as a whole, I've come to a point where I believe that Mike's behavior throughout s1 was him thinking that because of who El was, she's already in danger at all times. That is a constant reality for her. And so why not have her help them find Will, because she is able to, all while he can also help her. And El clearly wanted to help them, because she wanted to help good people and finally do something meaningful with her powers for a change. Unfortunately, she also had to endure PTSD flashbacks almost every single time Mike and the boys had her use her powers to help find Will.

Speaking of Will, he is currently missing and possibly dead. Will also, in contrast to El (for now...), does not have any sort of superpowers.

Mike's concern over the threat of Will's livelihood is much greater than Mike's acknowledgement to the true risks El is exposing herself to each time she uses her powers to help them. That is s1 canon.

Is there times when Mike is focused on El and her well being. Absolutely! But is there also times when Mike is not showing any display of concern to El's well being in the moment, in complete contrast to the other characters around him... Also yes.

And so the events happening the way they did, with Mike himself not fully comprehending the severity of what's been going on during these high stake situations going on around him, makes sense.

And that's what makes it all the more sad that when Mike finally does realize what he's truly been asking of El this whole time, which is to risk her life for them, it's too late.

This whole scene is obviously very emotional. All of the boys are crying, but the focus on Mike calling out for El painfully is heartbreaking.

But what's even more sad to me, is that El has been sort of used to mistreatment her whole life. She's used to having to find any comfort she could get from people in her life, all the while they were using her for her powers. I mean even despite Brenner being who he was and doing what he did, she still showed these signs of wanting to love him despite it. Which is very very fucked up. But knowing what she's gone through, makes sense.

Mike on the other-hand does greatly contrast Brenner because he was one of the first people to actually treat her with genuine kindness right from the start (before he even knew she had powers), making it a lot easier for her to care for him even despite that pesky trait of using her for her powers being almost synonymous with Brenner's very similar trait.

So when she looks back at Mike, and points him out specifically before sacrificing herself, it feels like a few things at once.

It feels like her acknowledging the fact that she appreciated him specifically for taking her in and supporting her more genuinely than anyone has in her entire life.

And yet it also feels like her, either intentionally or unintentionally, acknowledging the unfortunate side affect caused by days of Mike leading the efforts to find Will, with the expectation of her to do things to achieve that, which could have all lead to her demise technically. And so now when it all comes down to it and the stakes are at their highest yet, same as the risk, she's got to a point where she believes there is no other choice but to do just that, risk her life, especially if it means saving them.

While this is happening, Mike is backtracking in real time. He is trying to get El to stop and it's because he doesn't want her to die. Obviously.

But that's the fucked up part isn't it? When he finally realized what he's been asking of her this whole time, it's too late.

Which takes us to S2 Mike Wheeler, known by many for being a boy whose been calling his true love everyday for almost a year now because he's just so in love, but is actually in fact a boy suffering the most intense form of survivors guilt, one that involves a person who genuinely feels responsible for the persons death...

But that will probably take at least another 2,000 words so I'm thinking maybe I better split this into multiple parts.

I will tease that the next part involves one specific detail in particular that I never see anyone talk about, a detail that I think, in combination with what's discussed in this post, is so important to understanding Mike's breakdown for what it truly was at the end of season 2. I will also probably do more posts beyond that for s3-4, to delve into the impacts these moments from the first two seasons have basically put in place a perfect recipe for what is currently going down.

So feel free to stay tuned for those nonsense updates.

Continued

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

"Him guilting Ladybug into staying quiet is why Lila is able to maintain her power for 4 more seasons."

I mean, I would blame more the writers for taking way too long to have Adrien realize his advice was bad.

(Post the quote is from)

Reminder that I am never actually blaming the characters, they are not real people. That's why this is explicitly a writing blog. In the context of the writing, yes, the pacing of everything Lila was terrible and is the real source of the issues. That doesn't change the fact that Adrien is the main narrative tool used to keep Marinette in line, thus me "blaming" him.

As you said, Adrien looks bad here not because he didn't understand how to handle the situation and gave bad advice, but because it takes him so long to realize that his advice was bad and apologize.

During Lila's first appearance, we see Adrien chastises Ladybug for being too mean to Lila, never once acknowledging that it was valid for Ladybug to be upset (S1E26). She is painted as fully in the wrong even though Lila was actively manipulating him and Ladybug arguably protected him here:

Adrien: Wait! Lila! (Lila runs away) Hey, what was that all about? Uh, I mean, weren't you kinda harsh with her? Ladybug: I...I don't put up with lies, especially when they're about me. (yo-yos away)

During Lila's second appearance (or, at least her second appearance where she actually interacts with the cast) he further drives that message home by telling Marinette to let Lila lie to people because he's more worried about hurting Lila's feelings than he is about removing Lila's power (S3E01):

Adrien: Are you going to tell everyone? Marinette: 'Course I am. Lila is— Adrien: (interrupting) A liar. Yes, I know. But do you really think exposing her will make things better? If you humiliate her, she'll just be hurt more. Making a bad guy suffer has never turned them into a good guy. Lila: Ladybug and I are like two peas in a pod. Marinette: So we just stand by and let her lie? Adrien: As long as you and I both know the truth, does it really matter? Marinette: You're right, maybe it's not such a big deal.

We'll circle back to how terrible this advice was in a second. First lets finish off going through the sequence of events.

And finally, at the tail end of season five, Adrien openly acknowledges that he's been giving terrible advice (S5E20):

Adrien: I'm sorry, Marinette. I was wrong. I shouldn't have told you to not act against Lila. If you give the slightest opportunity to people like her, they'll grasp at it and cause disasters in no time. And now, you're the one who looks like a bad person. Marinette: (reaches out to hold his hand beside her) You thought you were doing the right thing. Just like with Chloe. That's another reason why I love you, Adrien. You always want to see the good in other people. But sometimes, the good we think we see in some people is just a reflection of our own, and we end up being fooled by our own kindness. (They squeeze each other's hands.) But we'll find a way to expose Lila eventually.

If we look at these three moments in a vacuum, this is honestly a good character arc for a character like Adrien. He's a peace keeper, which is a wonderful match to Marinette's blind justice approach. It's good that Adrien is there to balance her out! It's also good for him to learn that his approach doesn't always work and that you can't always keep the peace.

The problem is that Adrien didn't actually get a functional character arc where he learned those lessons. The episodes are so drawn out that it doesn't feel like we watch him grow and learn. His apology is almost three full seasons after his second bit of bad advice, leaving us to wonder when he changed his mind because Lila does a lot of awful things during those three seasons. What moment made him realize that he was in the wrong here? We don't know, so this feels less like growth and more like the writers throwing in a scene to shut up fans who were still complaining about Adrien's terrible advice even though it had been four real world years since he actually gave it.

There's also the issue that Adrien tells Marinette, "making a bad guy suffer has never turned them into a good guy." This line implies that Adrien's goal is to help Lila change. The problem is that we never see him do that. He doesn't try to help Lila. The most we get is him making a deal with Lila to protect Marinette, but that's not him helping Lila change. He doesn't approach that conversation as if he's trying to help Lila see that what she did was wrong. He approaches it as if he knows that she won't change. It's less trying to make Lila a better person and more a deal with the devil:

Adrien: (sits next to Lila) I warned you once already, Lila, but you didn't listen. You hurt my friend Marinette, and that's not okay. Lila: Me? Hurting Marinette? But she's the one who- Adrien: I don't know how to prove you lied, Lila, because you're good at it. So you'll just have to come up with another lie, just as convincing. Only this time it's gonna prove Marinette's innocent. Lila: Why would I do that, Adrien? Adrien: Because we're friends, aren't we?

Minor Chloe rant incoming:

This is yet another situation where it would be so much better for the show if Adrien had actually done something to help Chloe change and succeeded. If he did that, thought it was a good path for everyone, and then tried to do the same thing for Lila, then this could have been a really great way to set him up for dealing with his dad. To teach him that you can only help people who want to be better without having everyone he tries to help stay "evil" as that's pretty depressing. As-is, we've literally seen him say that Chloe will never change so why does he believe that Lila can change? They're not portraying him as an optimist, they're portraying him as delusional. Terrible writing. Zero stars.

Rant over.

By the way, the above quote was the 24th episode of season three, roughly two seasons before Adrien's apology to Marinette. If he's viewing Lila as the devil here, then this should be where we get that apology. Or Adrien should approach this as him trying to make Lila better and Lila should play along, making Adrien think that he's right and that he's helping her change. Either approach would be better than the nonsense canon gave us.

In a well written show, this would all go down over the course of a single season or even just a few episodes. As-is, the season five apology feels like too little too late. What little kid is going to be able to follow this "character arc" and learn the lesson that Adrien maybe sort of learned? Casual viewers will likely not even remember that Adrien gave Marinette bad advice back at the start of season three because why would they? This is not how you do a good subplot. It's almost as drawn out as the Gabriel plot and that's insane! A subplot is supposed to be a short story within the story so that things feel like they're moving forward.

[rise-my-angel]

I blame the idea of the spectacle for the downfall in the franchise. Don't get me wrong, big moments can be great, but the constant striving for it to keep the audience addicted to adrenaline is what has caused the really shallow writing in my opinion. It takes a really self aware person to realise they are getting nothing but CGI keys jangled in their face as if they were a baby.

I think that's what the earlier seasons achieved, the perfect mix of much quieter moments with effective use of dialogue, writing and set to get their money's worth, and the big dramatic moments for the later parts, where they save their best for last and bring EVERYTHING to the table. It's all about having money to fund the big moments, vs having barely enough money to cover everything.

You have no idea how thrilled I am that you said everything I was thinking. The thing I hate about reviews of HOTD so far is how good things look. The dragon fight in episode four, oh but it looked so spectacular. But that's the thing, their effort was put all into making that fight look as wonderful as possible so that it avoided the simple fact that the story, characters, and action were all poor.

My best example, is actually probably unpopular beacuse I know people really liked the Battle of the Bastards. And I did too, the action cinematography, the chaos, one of my favorite shots of the show where the camera does a long take just following Jon through the chaos as he experiences it. It also looks good, they clearly made a great effort to make the battle as cinematic as possible.

But here's the thing. Hardhome is better. Hardhome does NOT look as good as the Battle of the Bastards. It is very chaotic, it is disorienting, fast paced, a lot of cuts and its very loud and there are so many bodies in the scene that it feels hard to keep track of how many people are even dying around them. But that's the point.

Hardhome takes you on a journey of chaos.

It's like a 20 minute sequence with an amazing build up. The meeting with the elders, it's a dark room of people standing around a fire. It doesn't look good, now it doesn't look bad it just isn't a cinematically pleasing shot. But it's over six minutes long of mostly Jon giving everything he has into convincing these people that he's being genuine. It's his passion and his raw honesty that Jon looks his enemy in the eye and tells them that they deserve to survive and that he wants to protect them. How when they ask how Mance Rayder died, Jon does not give himself an out. He is honest and says he shot an arrow in his heart, and how he stands there firm and not afraid when they start to threaten him, only to have Tormund put a stop to it and give context. Looking these parents and grandparents in the eye and telling them that if they don't let him protect them, their children won't even survive long enough to have children of their own. And pleading that even with all of them it may not be enough but "At least we'll give the fuckers a fight."

It is a fantastic scene filled with hope, that sets the stage for whats about to happen.

There's no dwelling on shots. The moment Longclaw clashes with the weapon of the Walker, Jon realizing whats happened and actually killing it occurs really fast in a manner of seconds. What it dwells on, is the aftermath of Jon so overwhelmed by what happened he falls to his knees, the snow misting around him that blurs anyone else from view. Even the moment where the Walker raises his arms and the dead rise, is not a dwelled on, cinematic shot. It is very raw, and rough and what it focuses on, is that close up of Jons face. And the realization in him of shock turning to a desperate despair that he could've gotten all of the Free Folk out of there and it still wouldn't be enough. It focuses on his face, beacuse the intensity and emotions are about him. Not the shots.

You remember the visuals of it, but really, the visuals aren't what gives you the emotions. Hardhome was not shot to be visually appealing, it was by design, extremely chaotic and overwhelming because not a single person in that fight had a chance to get the upper hand.

Battle of the Bastards on the other hand, is a cinematically amazing battle with a terrible story. The stakes mean nothing, because the story to get there was inconsistent, nonsensical, some people acting completely out of character and is won because of a deus ex machina. The story and characters surrounding it are completely not worth the quality of the battle itself. It's shallow. It's remembered as good because it looked good, not beacuse it was good.

That to me, is the House of the Dragon problem. Such a focus on making it look good, sweeping shots and amazing cinematic focus especially on the dragons, but it runs hollow. Because what do you have beyond the good looking shots? It's rare I ever feel the emotions of whats happening more then I do what the spectacle is showing me is happening.

The worth of a lot of these scenes, are rooted in a desperation to make a visually appealing story. When Game of Thrones was at it's best when it was people standing or sitting around a room and talking. It was the dialogue, the mystery, the intrigue. We never needed beautiful visuals for our eyes to feast upon because the spectacle was always in service of what the actual emotions of the scene was portraying. Not the stand out part in and of itself.

There's nothing wrong with spectacle alone, but House of the Dragon is relying on it to push through it's worst parts and hoping that the nice images and pretty colors is distracting enough that you forgive the poor story. Yeah the story and characters and writing is bad, but boy those dragons, look at them.

General audiences will fall for spectacle beacuse we appreciate good visuals, but general audiences didn't need spectacle to get them through season one of Game of Thrones. They were confident enough in what they already had, that they did not need to pad out the visual fluff to feast the eyes rather then the writing feasting the brain.

Audiences are smarter then to value visuals over writing, but House of the Dragon fans are relying on the visuals to get them through the bad writing because they have nothing left, and really, they deserve better.

I do not need spectacle to be impressed by the immense scale of a scene. Hardhome is a fast paced, confusing and chaotic sequence that has never left me since the day I watched it air live. Not a single one of these grand moments in either season of House of the Dragon, despite having more chances to use it's visuals to enhance it's storytelling, has come anywhere near as smart as Hardhome was.

Visuals do not impress me. Using the visuals to enhance the story you already are telling, is what impresses me.

Not using your visuals as a crutch to power through bad storytelling.

[stillness-in-green]

On Directionality of Movement in BNHA (and the Neat Reversals)

(Take 2 on this post, which gave me fits trying to post it. Fingers crossed it works this time, and sorry for any vanishing posts, people who reblogged the original.)

This post was initially conceived back in December, when I first saw the home release covers for HeroAca’s Season 6.  They look like pretty standard stuff at first glance, but there was something about them that was very, very interesting: the direction the characters were moving.

(Hit the jump for an explanation spiced up with lots and lots of images from first American and then Japanese media.)

So, this is something that’s absolutely ubiquitous in visual media that a reader/viewer is probably never going to consciously register (at least without being told about it, as in, for example, film class or art school) because the emotional cues in play are intrinsically tied to a culture’s written language.[1]  To wit, because written English progresses from the left to the right, the subconscious association with rightward movement is forward progress.  Thus, in American media, be it stage, screen, or graphic panel when a character is moving from the left to the right, that directionality expresses forward movement, progress, agency, empowerment, righteousness, clear-mindedness, healthy ambition, heroism, and so forth.  Progress is towards the unturned page.

[1] The broader term to use to research this further is “linguistic relativity.”

The chase Furiosa initiates in Mad Max Fury Road spends most of the movie heading to the right, before Max convinces Furiosa to return to the Citadel, at which point, naturally enough, the chase reverses directions, spending the rest of the film heading left.   

Heroically smashing up cars in a rightward-facing direction, while people with less agency flee leftward.   

Elsa spends most of this number moving to the left, the same direction she fled out of Arendelle, but as her resolve grows, the choreography stars reversing, moving her on the z-axis more, and when she declares her resolve to never go back, donning her ice queen dress, her directionality immediately shifts to right-facing.  Even her turn at the end of the sequence, as she spins to walk back inside, is to the audience’s right.

Conversely, when a character is moving from the right to the left—against the flow of written English—that expresses return, backsliding, a lack of agency, powerlessness, wickedness, unhealthy ambition, difficulty, turmoil, and a generally dark or conflicted mentality.  Regression and turmoil lie in the direction of the page that’s already been turned.

Nina’s grasp on reality is beginning to fracture due to the multifaceted stresses she’s facing.   

Jean Grey is classically a heroic character, but you don’t get hero layouts when you’re giving in to dark urges and consuming suns.   

Scar will start trending rightward when Be Prepared really gets underway, that song being all about his future plans and proactive evil, but for the introductory bits, he’s firmly left-facing—as is also the case when he hurls Mufasa to his death.   

Of course, this doesn’t have to be a huge production!  Even something as simple as Charlie Brown walking rightward out to the doghouse to feed Snoopy then leftward to go back inside fits this idea of forward vs. backward motion.  (Compare this to, say, Dagwood, who runs leftward out his door to crash into the mailman every time he’s late for work.)

Naturally, you see this idea of directionality in confrontations as well.

In Hamilton, the title character is reflecting back on his past, the loved ones lost, his actions and the sort of legacy he will leave behind; he "throws away his shot" and dies.  Burr, conversely, is thinking of his living daughter, of his determination to survive; he fires, bullet moving from left to right, and will go on to survive the duel.   

Steven Q. Universe, facing the future despite the embodied wall of stasis and indifference standing in his way.   

The Wicked Witch, facing leftward, attempts to scare the Tin Woodsman and Scarecrow from progressing any further with Dorothy towards her destination, which they would do by following the yellow brick road extending rightward off the screen.   

You can see the reverse positioning—hero facing left, villain facing right—in cases like this, where the hero is making a dramatic defense against a villain in an attempt to stop their progression.   

This isn’t a hard and fast rule, obviously—visual dynamism alone will mean characters move around and change position!  It also doesn’t address movement on the y- and z-axes, nor does it necessarily account for e.g. mixed group compositions or romance scenes.  Also, more intangible things like power dynamics, command of the scene, and shifting character motivations can change who’s moving/facing what direction.  It’s not as basic as good-right, bad-left.  Nonetheless, it’s an interesting thing to watch for.

However, all of the above is reversed in Japanese media.  Written Japanese moves from the right to the left,[2] and therefore the mental association with forward progress/positivity versus regression/negativity is likewise with leftward versus rightward movement.  Following are some obvious examples from works other than BNHA (no live action films because I don’t have the familiarity to be comfortable picking individual shots from them):

[2] In its normal vertical orientation, which is what you’ll find in books and manga.  When arranged horizontally, as in scrolling marquees or banners or the like, usually it reads left-to-right, though this was not the case historically.

Anthy leaves her allegorical coffin, Ohtori Academy, in the final episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena.   

A twist on Sena’s signature move, the Devil Bat Ghost, in Eyeshield 21.  Check any sports manga you read and I would bet you good money that the protagonist team’s goal is on the left in most instances.   

Mima, pictured here Really Going Through It.  Note that Perfect Blue is the inspiration (to say the least) for Black Swan, above, but the psychological break is facing the other direction.   

Cure Dream shows us the mixed feelings of being the leader of the last PreCure team that regularly killed their enemies.   

So, that all laid out, let’s talk about how that looks in BNHA!

Like my other examples, the series is chock-full of examples, both of the usual forward-leftward, regression-rightward directionality, as well as a number of interesting plays against type.  Below, have a pile of examples!

BNHA, manga and anime both, gets piles of face-off shots like this, and in every one of them that I’ve seen, it’s the same general layout: heroes moving leftward, villains rightward.   

Deku attacks towards the turning page, while Muscular attacks against it.  Tokoyami, mired in turmoil and a dangerous loss of control over his power, also faces rightward.   

The specter of the past and the emblem of the future facing in the expected directions.   

Here’s a telling group composition: the Stoplight trio working hard for their futures, ditto the man who moves too fast, while Endeavor and Fuyumi face forward, still somewhat unsure of their current situation, while Natsuo is actively going against the flow.

Of course, it holds in the single character images as well, like so:

   Likewise, you can see the contrast even between images, like these two, announcing the anime adaptation of the Joint Training Arc and My Villain Academia, respectively:

Notice Shinsou, who's a major character in the arc but not quite a Hero Course classmate just yet, has his face turned away, back in the rightward direction.

You can see it more generally in the action itself, as well, not just the promo art.  Think of moments like Shigaraki emerging from the warp at USJ, the race during the Sports Festival, the direction of All Might’s final punch—as well as Shouto’s later victory over Dabi—at Kamino, the direction Gentle Criminal (and thus Deku following him) is heading when trying to reach UA, and so forth.

And then there are the interesting subversions.

Usually, in the days of their most pitched rivalry, the forward-moving Deku is moving left, while the tumultuous, stuck in the past Bakugou is moving right, but he drifts more leftward-facing as he gradually begins to get his head on straight, as in their fight post-Kamino.   

Shigaraki would be on the left if he were facing down Deku, but against All Might?  Not so much.  That makes this less a good versus evil stare-down and more a past versus future one.   

This incredibly fucking telling composition, which I’ll let speak for itself:

   Shigaraki, having the protagonist slot on loan for the duration of My Villain Academia, spends most of the Deika fight facing in the direction of the future, though Re-Destro interrupts this to take the left-facing when he’s challenging Shigaraki about having no vision.  Shigaraki’s pseudo-apotheosis has his facing right as he destroys everything around him (Re-Destro facing left as he sees his future rewritten and his burden removed), but by the time we come to the aftermath in the crater, Shigaraki is moving forward again.

   Interestingly, that does not necessarily follow for the rest of the League!  Dabi and Geten trade off facings through the whole arc, while Toga is mostly rightward facing against Curious, only getting the leftward advancement at the very tail end, once she transforms into Uraraka.  Twice’s doubles are often fairly leftward-aimed, as they’re driving the action forward, but Jin himself spends his big confrontation mostly facing outward, towards the reader, only getting much leftward-facing when he’s helping the unconscious Toga afterward.  Mr. Compress, not having a dedicated match-up, is all over the place.

Spinner, though?  Spinner is following Shigaraki both literally and in the sense that he spends the arc coming into his own.  Thus, even when Shigaraki’s gotten ahead of him, Spinner maintains the leftward aim.

   This can get more complicated than simple inversion, too!

For example,  Gigantomachia is leftward moving in, really, virtually every scene he’s in.  It really adds to how much he feels like a complete force of nature that, all throughout his earliest introduction, Kirishima’s flashback, MVA, and both war arcs, there are literally two (2) sequences in which he’s anything other than leftward-oriented for the bulk of his appearances, and both of them occur when he’s significantly struggling to make forward progress.

The first comes  when he’s trying to leave the Gunga Villa and facing steep resistance; this conveniently lets the kids  facing him (+Mount Lady, when she can get out ahead of him) heroically face left, like they usually do.  Once Machia clears the Villa battleground, however, the rest of his route to Jakku is smooth, even sailing, and shows him returned to his usual leftward orientation.

The second is once he’s actually reached Jakku and the sedative has started kicking in.  While he still gets a good number of leftward orientations, he’s tied down in a lot of them, and they’re mixed with more rightward and a considerable number of outward facings.

And that’s it, really.  Even escaping from the holding facility built around him and confronting AFO, he gets leftward facing, with that only reversing in the moment AFO strikes him down.

Unlike Machia, Deku facing stiff opposition gets to keep a leftward progression when he comes up against heroic opposition in his fight against his classmates.

Shigaraki and Overhaul, appropriately for their vying for control of the villainous future,  are constantly vying for the leftward facing position in their scenes/art spreads.

And then there’s the example that prompted this whole post—the home release covers of Season 6:

In other circumstances, I might chalk this up to the heroes being in the defending position—like Gandalf against the Balrog—but BNHA has not tended to do much with that visual; the heroes usually get to keep their heroic leftward facing even when they’re on the defense, as indeed is the case for all of Jakku that comes to mind!  Yet just this once, for the anime art, we can see the futility the heroes are up against, trying to stop, as Dabi so aptly put it, the future coming down the pipeline, where all the heroes’ lip service will be blown away by chaos.

Thanks for reading through this, all, and my apologies if I mixed up my right and my left anywhere! I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and that you have fun spotting the patterns in your future media intake!

[jaymari-lyn]

Okay, so since nobody is talking about it, I will

This apparently is supposed do be the opening of the first scene in season 5 and it brings up a lot of questions.

The first one being, who is the child? Cold wind and groaning trees makes sense since Hawkins is now sort of combined with the Upside-Down, but some child singing is a little odd.

By now, all the 'kids' in the show are well in their teens, so considering them 'children' wouldn't make a lot of sense. So, first my head goes to a flashback sequence.

It could possibly be a flashback of Eleven and the other kids from the rainbow room, but since last season was really focused on it, I don't it's going to be as central this season.

What I think it could be is a flashback to either Will in the Upside-Down back in season 1, OR a flashback with him and Mike as little kids.

If it's Will in the Upside-Down, it would make a lot of sense since we know Will used to sing when he was down there. So we could possibly be getting a flashback to Wills week in the Upside-Down, because this whole season is supposed to be about him, as well as a full circle moment back to season 1 for a lot of characters.

But another theory I like is that it's a flashback to Mike and Will when they first met. The cold wind and groaning trees could just interpreted as less creepy, and just more like fall Indiana weather, and the child's voice could be Will singing to himself on the swingset. I could be wrong, but it seems like Will used to use music as a way to cope or keep himself busy as a kid (with Jonathan while Joyce and Lonnie would fight, plus the Upside-Down, like I said earlier). If Will was all alone on the swingset with no friends as a kindergartener who probably missed his mom and brother, he might sing as a way to make himself feel better. We've seen bts photos of a playground with a swingset, so it is plausible. Another thing is maybe Will singing is what originally got Mike's attention, because let's be honest, he is super oblivious, and this is even before he gained his Will-is-upset instinct, so he most likely wouldn't notice Will unless he was doing something that would make him stand out. One more thing that I want to add is that Wills singing as a kid might have been what made him start getting bullied. Besides his appearance, what other things would have made the bullies or even Lonnie, for that matter, think he's gay? He may be on the smaller side, but lots of boys are, so why Will specifically. Back in the 80s singing (and take this with a grain of salt because I wasn't alive back then) probably would have been considered "girly", so that could have been one of the factors that got these assholes to start bullying him. And, you can notice that after season 2, Wills connections to music sort of dissappears. His love for it isn't really brought up that much, and we never see or hear about him singing in season 3 or 4, so it could have been him getting sick of bullying and trying to change himself to appear 'normal' to a heteronomative society that doesn't accept gay people. This flashback would also be, in turn, a great way to start introducing back Mike and Wills friendship, as well as their obvious live for one another.

Another thing , though, that can debunk that theory, is that it has to be a familiar song. The only one that really comes to mind for me is "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?", which didn't come out until '82, so it wouldn't line up time-wise for Will to be singing that when him and Mike were todlers in the 70s. If that's the case, I don't know what familiar song he could be singing.

If you guys can think of any other songs that would work time-wise, please let me know.

Personally, I think music is going to play a huge part in this final season, between Will's connection to it, and the fact that it's the only way to get away from Vecna once he is in your head (since music can reach aprts of the brain words can't)

But let me know your thoughts! I'd love to hear them!

[cactusspatz]

November recs

Yuletide is coming - but this should tide you over until then!

IRIS Log #1548 by deadchannelradio (Batman, gen)

(01:25) Red Hood: (Mild static) (Out of breath, slurred) You motherfuckers. Put some fuckin- (01:25) Batman: (Shaking) Red Hood- (01:25) Red Hood: Shut up. Put some fucking respect. On my name. Start fucking copying me. I just got thrown fucking. Um. 40 feet. Into a fucking uh. What's it. Ditch. I'm still fucking conscious. (01:25) Batman: Red Hood, do not move, we're en route- (01:25) Red Hood: What'll I win if I stand up. (01:25) Batman: (Loud) Do not stand up.

Absolutely hilarious slice-of-patrol-life story, featuring a VERY concussed Jason.

Easy as Pie by Ptelea (Batman, gen)

Five times Jason baked something for or with his siblings, and one time they baked for him. A drabble sequence of triple drabbles written for the Seasons of Drabbles Summer 2023 challenge exchange.

Soft Batsiblings story, with a lot of feels packed into a small space.

Cinema Verite by BoldlyNo (Murderbot, gen)

"Someday, Ratthi hopes, he’s going to run out of things to learn about Secunit that break his heart." Making a documentary in five hours flat is an experience in and of itself, but making a documentary with some of your friend's worst memories as footage is something else altogether.

Will I ever be over them making a documentary FOR GREAT JUSTICE? Definitely not. This is a great Ratthi POV on it.

Reformation by LocalCryptid7 (BNHA, Midoriya/Todoroki/Shinsou)

After a failed suicide attempt, years of bullying, and his mother's death, Izuku Midoriya doesn't think he has any option besides joining the League of Villains. After all, foster care is no place for a quirkless kid like him. Plus, working as a hacker and analyst for the League doesn't sound like it would be too bad. But, after meeting a hurt little girl in Overhaul's headquarters, Toga and Izuku can't just sit back and take orders from Shigaraki anymore. With some careful consideration, Izuku figures a villain reformation program at UA doesn't sound horrible, even if it means having to put up with Bakugou.

Villain!Izuku is usually a hard sell for me, but this works! Mostly because it shows both how Izuku ended up isolated and needing, AND he immediately turns tail once a kid is in danger. And then good followup on the consequences.

The Warlock's Cat by Marchling (Shadowhunters, Magnus/Alec)

Pain raced up his arm. It was a sharp throb that radiated out. More than a broken bone. When Alec went to flex his hand to see how bad it was he couldn’t. His eyes snapped to his own hand and there was no hand. A mission gone wrong leads to Alec being turned into a cat. Alone. Hurt. No one aware of what's happened to him. If only there was a cat-loving warlock nearby to save him.

Hello, I am a sucker for turned-into-a-cat-&-taken-in-by-my-enemy-who-turns-out-to-be-loveable stories - which is a very specific trope, but thankfully people keep writing it! This is a fun exemplar and an interesting AU.

Burgeoning by Owlship (Mad Max, Max/Furiosa)

He smiles a little, an uptick of his mouth, plush lips exposed where he's shaved the mangy beard off in the process of cleaning off the wasteland. "Here," Max says, and nudges into her space, arranges the plant carefully so the roots are properly covered, the leaves brushed free of dirt. Furiosa doesn't realize she's going to move until she does, leaning across the slight distance between them and pressing her lips to his.

Max-returns-to-the-Citadel PWP, featuring poor gardening etiquette and a lovely vulnerable Furiosa.

[marley-manson]

WHAT IS IT about due south that makes my brain whirr like a loud laptop fan as soon as I think about any second of it

Those tags led me to thinking about Ray in the first non-pilot episode, Free Willie, being held at gunpoint while Fraser walks away because he refuses to give up the bonds a bank robber wants, telling her that he can’t forsake his duty to uphold the law so she and Ray are shit out of luck. “[A bond is] an instrument of trust between two people indicating a promise that must be honored. Much like a promise I made to uphold the law. So you see, the problem is now that I have the bonds in my hands I'm honor bound not to give them to you.” So Ray thinks he’s going to die but happily robber gets so pissed off at Fraser she tries to shoot him instead, giving Ray the chance to grab the gun. So ofc once the problem is solved Fraser proceeds to explain that it was a purposeful ruse, he wanted to enrage her, and he’d never actually let Ray die just to protect money.

Which is a perfect contrast to Vault, the early season 2 episode in which that same bank robber returns to rob another bank, inviting the overt comparison between these two episodes. In this sequel episode Fraser drags Ray into the bank vault and seals it from the inside to protect it, virtually ensuring their inevitable deaths when they either run out of air, or the thieves bust it open and shoot them. He genuinely argues that it’s their duty to protect the money with their lives. “Ray, would please just listen to me? This isn't about the loss of millions of dollars from some bank! This is about the average ordinary citizen who has placed their trust in an institution. We're here to guard that trust.” Ray, conversely, tells him the money is insured, they were off-duty anyway, it’s not worth dying for, and he’s fucked up.

The difference of course being that in between these episodes Fraser lost his shit and tried to run away with a (different) bank robber so now he’s doubling down hard on his devotion to duty and is maybe arguably passively suicidal and willing to drag Ray down with him.

But like it’s so good as a compare contrast - Ray doesn’t intrinsically trust Fraser to save him in episode one despite having already ended up in the hospital for him once, and it turns out he’s actually kind of right not to! Fraser may have been playing up his devotion to duty over his loyalty to his friends in the first episode, but as a way of establishing a very central theme that gets explored a lot more in some darker ways, it’s excellent.

Like, the pilot and ep 1 really hit this one two punch of Ray devoting himself to Fraser at the expense of everything else important to him including himself, while letting the audience question Fraser’s priorities in return. In Free Willie there’s also a sequence where Fraser gambles Ray’s job on the case without Ray’s input, leading to a scene where Ray fully believes he’s about to be fired. It works out ofc, but it really underscores the ambiguous question of Fraser’s priorities.

And in Vault Ray brings up the number of times Fraser has risked their lives without consulting him as a point of contention, and the overarching theme of the episode is feeling undervalued (Ray’s sister has a whole monologue about it too lol). But Ray is resigned to Fraser risking his life without asking: when Fraser comes up with a risky plan Ray wearily tells him to just do it without explaining first. Their conflict is resolved when Ray tells Fraser to value himself more and stand up for himself, rather than when Fraser, say, prioritizes Ray over duty. 

Basically Free Willie and Vault together are a perfect examination of Ray and Fraser’s unbalanced relationship.

[idealisticrealism]

TCL 3x10 thoughts

The main things: 

The ep starts immediately after last ep, then goes to the next morning and takes place over just one day. Nadia also says it’s been ‘an eventful few weeks’ since she made the deal to buy the house (which was in 3x01, so the entire season has taken place over around 3 weeks)

One of my favourite things about this series, and about Thony specifically, is that she’s not only an unintentional angel of death for the people around her, but also for criminal empires?? Literally this show is full of seasoned criminals who thrived for years in the darkest parts of the Vegas underworld, and then they encounter Thony, and boom! Down they go. Hayak. Cortes. Kamdar. (Even Arman, in a slightly different way). And now it looks like Sin Cara is next… honestly the Feds should be falling at her feet in gratitude haha 

Lol at Thony and Fi’s little bit of theatre for Jeremy as they set up their own little ‘sting’ for him. Thony actually nearly breaking and laughing at Fi’s ranting for a second was so cute, because while this is a serious situation, it is a bit bizarre to think that this is what their life has become. And this scene was so worth it just to get to watch two skilled actors having to pretend to be bad at acting… moments like this are always fun, like a kind of act-ception haha. Ngl it’s a good thing that Thony confronts Jeremy by the end of the episode though, bc I doubt it would have taken much longer for him to notice something was up, with all the dramatic conversations happening right in front of his bugs while and other conversations were hushed under the cover of super loud TV/music. Not to mention the suspiciously intentional-looking plumbing emergencies lol (seriously Thony?? A hammer??? lol).  To be fair though, Fi’s acting did improve a lot by the end, with their clever little ploy to make Jeremy think Thony was on her way to kill Nadia. That entire sequence was done well– even though anyone who has been watching the show for more than like a week would know that Thony would never kill Nadia (at least while literally any other option existed), it was still enjoyable to experience the ‘suspense’ that the creative team set up regarding Nadia’s fate. I just hope that she can make it through the finale… 

Honestly I love the deliberate continued theme in this show of Thony being caught between worlds, and the constant push and pull of ‘good vs evil’ and ‘power vs vulnerability’. It’s why, despite all her efforts, she can never quite escape the criminal world, and she can never quite escape the hold of the FBI either. And they’re often tied up together, too– to protect herself or someone she cares about from one, she reaches out to the other. In late s1, Arman helped protect her from the FBI by agreeing to be an informant, and in turn she was part of the plan to protect him from both the FBI and Hayak. In S2, she agrees to inform for the FBI again in order to protect Arman and keep him out of prison. And now, she’s making that same deal– and risking her own safety– but for Nadia this time. To me, though, I think that she’s reached a kind of ‘fool me once’ situation with the FBI, and though she says she’s going to help then take down Sin Cara, I think she is actually going to be following her own agenda, and using the ties she has to both the cartel and the FBI to manipulate them into taking each other out, and leaving her being the only one left standing. And god I hope that’s where things are headed bc I would be so here for it.

I really wish we’d been able to see a lot more of Thony and Nadia’s relationship this season, because it’s so compelling and complex and I’ve loved every moment they’ve shared so far. Nadia’s “oh no” at seeing Thony walking into the club was hilarious; they haven’t seen each other in the week or so since the wake, but Thony showing up at the club looking deathly serious is never a good sign. I loved that they were immediately like ‘ok bye Jorge the grownups need to talk’ tho lol– he may have formed connections with both of them, but he hasn’t gotten to this level of club membership yet. Thony’s first question to Nadia (“Did you cut a deal with the feds?”) felt like an interesting tie-in to the events of earlier eps, given that it was exactly what Nadia asked her at the wake– tbh these two must feel like they’re on a merry-go-round or something, and it’s all because they just haven’t been completely open with one another!!! But finally, here, they’re starting to be, even if it’s too goddamn late now (*adele voice* we could have had it aaaaaalll). But anyway ughhhh “All I wanted was to find Arman, like you. I wanted to protect him.” Honestly Nadia acknowledging/accepting Thony’s genuine love of Arman has been one of the parts of this season that I have appreciated the most. These two women are bonded by that love, which is why Thony telling Nadia she should have come to her is such a punch in the gut, because you can see her pain and regret, her utter dismay at the fact that her preoccupation with her own family (getting Fi and Chris back, preventing Luca from being taken away) led her to overlook what was going on with Nadia– aka with Arman’s family– and now she has let down the only other person Arman truly loved. And I think she went to La Habana fully intending to warn her, but then it became clear that Nadia wouldn’t listen to her even if she did try to pose the fake-death plan (“You always think you know everything. But you don’t”), and would’ve almost certainly tried to run instead, endangering both of them. So instead Thony tries once more to talk Ramona out of it (unsuccessfully, of course), and ugh when she says she wants to take care of Nadia herself “For Arman” and she squeezes her eyes shut as she says his name… the grief of losing him is still so goddamn fresh and now she’s terrified she’s going to fail him by not being able to save Nadia in time. But that’s the thing about Thony– she never gives up on the people she loves. And because of Arman, that group includes Nadia. 

Nadia’s reaction to Thony striding straight into her house (literally how does Thony even know where that is?) is so funny bc she doesn’t even get angry, it’s just like mild exasperation as she tries to convince Thony to leave. That is, until her brain catches up and suddenly she just stops and says “What’s happening?” because she knows Thony, knows that she wouldn’t actually barge in like this without a damn serious reason. When Thony tells her the danger she’s in, she believes her immediately (ugh her panic was hard to watch) and immediately begs for Thony to help– because while they may have a complex relationship, she knows that Thony is the only person she has left who actually cares what happens to her, and she also knows that Thony is clever and capable and holds a surprising amount of power, and often does manage to fix things even when a situation seems impossible. Which is exactly what Thony does next– and while I wish that Thony had explained to Nadia about what she was going to do, so Nadia didn’t have to have those brief moments of terror and betrayal before she lost consciousness, I get that it had to be written this way or it would have spoiled the twist. But oh man, even though I knew  Thony wouldn’t kill her and that she was going to be fine, the relief at seeing her wake up on that couch was still so damn real, phew. Eva did an amazing job with Nadia’s emotions on waking up, from utter confusion to a mix of relief, gratitude and anger. The scene between her and Thony in Jeremy’s lair felt like it was cut off midway through, which I guess means that they’re going to pick up exactly where they left off in the finale next week, like this was actually a 3-part finale rather than a 2 parter, and I can’t wait to see more of the Nadia/Thony dynamic next week.

And given my love for both Nadia and Thony, gotta say I do love how much Ramona herself has shown genuine admiration for both women, for their competence, intelligence, determination, fortitude, their coolness under pressure, and their desire for power. (Like in her conversation with Ramona, Thony would always deny that desire, but tbh people who want a simple family life do not become cardiac surgeons. Much like being a cartel leader, it’s a profession that provides money, prestige, authority, and a near-godlike ability over life and death– ergo, power). Anyway, Ramona’s entire art collection, her life, is centred around women with those traits, and tbh in another life I think these three incredible women could have become an unbeatable team that ruled Vegas together. Ramona saw that possibility and tried to make it happen, only for both of them to reject her, and now… well, I think we are heading for a ‘this town ain’t big enough for the both of us’ situation, and lbr it’s going to be Thony that’s the one left standing

Honestly I love that I have written a bunch of words already for this ep, and it’s all been about women– that’s one of the true gifts of this show, how much it focuses on women and their stories and their relationships. In the earlier seasons it was mostly just focused around Thony and Fi’s characters, but after the loss of Adan, and having a female villain for a change (two if you count Russo), the focus on women has definitely expanded and been even more apparent this season. I’m sad that it’s looking unlikely that Ramona or my baby Nadia will return next season, because they deserved to have more of their story told. Still, I’m clinging to the hope that Nadia may somehow return, and I’ll get more of the amazing Thony & Nadia dynamic that we all deserve

Anyway I guess I could talk about a boy now– though given that he is literally surrounded by women in his life, Jorge is an honorary girl to me lol. It was cute to see him so excited about all the hotel stuff, from his big spiel to Nadia to all the proposal materials in his office– looks like he’s finally found his own path, not just the one Ramona chose for him. (Though holy shit it’s so messed up that the corporate world is literally the best place to hide illegal activity, wow). I found it hilarious that when Jorge was trying to sell Nadia on the hotel idea and saying all this stuff about how she’ll be the face of it etc, the picture very clearly shows he’s planning to call it ‘JS hotel’ lol. So she’s the face but it’s named after you?? Hmmm. Also geez he laid it on a little thick with the flattery there, but I guess it worked, because you could see how smitten she was with the hotel idea. And I can understand how some people might interpret that as her being smitten with him, but I genuinely don’t think so. First of all, she lost the man she loved literally like a week and a half ago; there’s no way that she has even the slightest inclination to look at anyone romantically right now. Plus, the show has already established that she’s incredibly good at reading people. She knows he’s trying to manipulate her in order to access her money, but in her life, that’s just a demonstration of good business skills. She sees what working with him can give her, and she wants it. In S1 she says to Arman “What do we own? Nothing”-- I think it’s hugely important to her character to actually be in possession of something big, to be the owner, not just the manager, to remove herself as far from the powerless girl from the Argentinian slums as she can. Anyway I love that one of his arguments is that she’ll be ‘set for life’ if they do this… because apparently already having 50 million dollars isn’t being set for life??? Man, what a world they live in haha. Anyway with it seeming unlikely that Nadia will be around next season, I wonder if the hotel will still somehow happen in S4? Maybe somehow Thony gets involved with it, though I don’t really see her wanting any part in something like that… tbh my main concern is that we might not get to see the La Habana set next season :(

Seeing Jeremy’s reaction to being burned was so satisfying. Not so clever now, are you, buddy?? Got outsmarted by a civilian just like Garrett did, and now you’ll be working with her, just like Garrett… but unlike Garrrett, she has zero regard or sense of obligation toward you, and so you may think she’s gonna work with you and follow your orders, but think again. She’s just going to bide her time until she has you right where she wants you, and then she will completely fuck you over, because you betrayed her family and took the man she loves, and that’s what you deserve. Be grateful if you walk out of all of this alive. 

Other stuff:

Omg Fi going for the baseball bat to take out the smoke alarm. Someone has issues with impulsivity haha. Tbh her and Thony’s entire relationship is just the two of them taking turns holding each other back from doing something stupid and I love it

Ugh seeing Nadia standing all alone in that huge empty house, talking about how it’s time to put the past behind her and have a fresh start… and then later saying to Jorge that she just wants to be free… and then Thony telling her at the end that she’s free and she tells Thony that she took her whole life form her… ugh stop giving me stressful foreshadowing here writers. If Nadia has to go, write her out by having her run away into the sunset with her millions. Don’t make me watch her die twice!!!!!!!!!

I didn't initially remember seeing Ramona and Russo cross paths at La habana, but @gsue74 reminded me that they glimpse each other across the club the first time Ramona goes there, and Ramona noticed the way Nadia reacted to her arrival. Well done of the writers to plant that in 3x04 to come back up now. Anyway I do enjoy Russo’s sassiness though. It was never super obvious before bc she was always having to play the serious one keeping Garrett in line, but I think I see why they got along lol

Oh boy the agent that scared Violeta really fucked up lol, like maybe don’t piss off a super powerful cartel leader??? Dude’s gonna be feeding the fishes in the Hoover Dam in no time lol

 I love that the proposed hotel site is completely in the middle of nowhere, like too bad if the guests want to visit any other part of Vegas haha. Though I guess that might be entire point, to make it like a one-stop shop so guests will spend all their time and money in the one place lol

JD is such a cutie. Loved him taking advantage of a free weekday to bring thoughtful gifts for his bae. Lol at Fi shutting him up with a kiss– she really needs to go somewhere private and tell him everything though, bc he needs to know so he doesn’t inadvertently screw things up for them again. 

I really felt for Fi when she found the immigrant worker house empty– this show is always full of painful near-misses in terms of timing, but at least in this case there’s still the hope that Thony will be able to use her sway over Jorge to find Camila and Gisele

Anyway ugh the promo for the finale looks so good… Nadia at Thony’s house, wearing borrowed clothes while Thony makes a plan to get her her money back… Jorge apparently being there too and helping them… Thony in a fancy dress, shooting a gun… it might be Ramona’s assassin guy that she shoots (one of the clips looks like he could be fighting with Jeremy) but man it would be cool if it was actually Ramona or Jeremy that she shoots, and honestly I’m so down for either of those options. Maybe she even does it to protect one of them from the other– like maybe she shoots Ramona to save Jeremy, which would mean she’d probably get pardoned by the FBI for everything. Or she shoots Jeremy to save Ramona, making Ramona extremely grateful, and as a result Ramona makes sure the shooting never ties back to her, and brings her into Sin Cara in a position of power…. Either way it’s going to make for an interesting S4!  

[honouredsnakeprincess]

Righto! I have torn myself from my oh-so-dilligent art-historical studies to watch another episode of Mr Robot! That's right, it's time for my thoughts on Season 2, Episode 3! This time, I took notes, so hopefully I'll have more to say, assuming that what's under the cut is even remotely coherent~

These thoughts aren't necessarily in chronological order. I thought they flowed better like this.

Romero's dead. The first and most obvious culprit, the one suggested by both characters and framing in showing a clip of Mr Robot threatening him with a gun, is that Mr Robot is what did him in. I think it's fair to mark this as barely even a fake-out, but between him and Gideon (and Mobley referencing a plan to hide out in Arizona), it seems like the writers are trying to cut out a lot of the supporting cast from season one in order to make room for new ones this season.

This FBI lady seems like she's sticking around, for starters, since I don't think the writers would go so out of their way to show how restless and unsatisfied she is with her life and her coworkers if she wasn't going to be a recurring character. I was surprised to learn that Alexa was a thing in 2016, which is strange because I was very much alive in 2016 and probably ought to know basic things like that. Anyways, I like her, but I can't tell if her helping Romero's mother roll weed is meant to indicate she's a good person or that she's an adept manipulator. Either way, I'm intrigued~!

On the topic of manipulation, I think it's pretty obvious that Mr Price is trying to pull something, if it wasn't already. You don't just randomly take a new hire out for a fancy dinner with high-ranking executives, and indeed he did have an angle; these honourable men he invited to dine with Angela have dishonourable pasts, and he's given her the choice to strike against them. Personally, I'd wager he'll win either way; either she becomes more complicit in the structures and passive villainy of E-Corp, or he gets to use her as a weapon against men who in some way stand in the way of his own aims. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but there's no way he doesn't have something up his sleeve here.

Price seemed to profess a belief in the importance of great men when describing the WW1 paraphernalia he keeps in his office. Part of me wonders if he fancies himself such a man, or if he is grooming Angela for such a role.

Ray's been an interesting character. He's definitely got his own angle, and needs an adept computer fellow like Elliot to transfer some bitcoins or what-have-thee, in a venture that does not seem to me properly lawful. Still, towards the end of the episode he seems like he has some genuine empathy for Elliot and his situation. I don't know how similar their situations actually are, and part of me suspects Ray is overemphasizing their similarity, but at the same time I think his philosophy, though somewhat fatalistic, is probably what Elliot needs to hear to break him out of this cycle of self-destructive and ineffectual repression he's been in for the past three episodes. It's just not working out, and Mr Robot is still around.

God, the business with the Adderall, huh? I cottoned on to the cement scene being a hallucination or dream sequence pretty quick, and my notes have a tangent about the logistics of killing someone with ingested cement vs regular sand that I won't reproduce here. I've not historically been great with vomiting scenes in film and television, but this one was pretty tame, all things considered. Until Elliot started picking the Adderall out of the vomit. On the one hand, it really does sell his desperation to be rid of Mr Robot, but on the other hand it did rather turn my stomach.

The close-up of Elliot's eyes, pupils mixed with iris, was especially disturbing in a way I can't quite elaborate. I hated the way it kept cutting back to him taking more pills.

The Adderall didn't help much, and the sequence it set off was unsettling, to say the least. I don't think it's usually prescribed for DID, but I am no medicus and will happily be corrected if I am wrong on this front. I suppose that overdosing on any kind of drug isn't generally recommended for anything, though. Again, it sells Elliot's desperation and self-denial, but it also fucking sucks to watch. Poor guy.

When he ran out of pills, I breathed a sigh of relief, though it did occur to me that I know not the withdrawal effects of Adderall, and they may be quite terrible.

Elliot's critique of organized religion rather reminded me of my father. I'm not unsympathetic, but I think his argumentation was flawed. Not the point of that sequence. Marx's critique was both more empathetic and more incisive. Still not the point of that sequence.

Seinfeld is still fucking with Leon. If Elliot was not my favourite character for the quality of his monologues, that place would be occupied by Leon.

Finally, the fact that F Society's former hideout has been found was an interesting way to end the episode. Of course, the group destroyed what evidence they could, and held a party to obscure fingerprints and other biological evidence, but the logic of storytelling inexorably drives me to presume that they missed something big enough that our new FBI friend will get a lead from it.

That or someone will return to the scene who ought not to. We'll see soon, I'm sure!

[rickgrimesdoingrickthings]

🕯️(from Daryl)

What Rick thinks about Daryl.

Surprisingly enough, i think it didn't change much along the seasons. Rick knows Daryl is a good person. Full of problems and isolated, he is aware, but still a good person, and most of the times, he managed to have Daryl contribute to the team and stay on their side. Because Daryl is a lot driven by emotions, Rick did a great job at manipulating him in so many situations. Overall, I would say Rick was an asshole to Daryl so many times, mostly indirectly, by locking his brother on the roof and have Daryl go with him but use the trip to mostly recover the bag with the weapons instead of searching for Merle, let Daryl go search for Sophia on his own so many times despite being so dangerous ( he didn't offer to help all the times but also didn't stand against it). And when he decided to kick Carol from the group, it was pure injustice against Daryl, as well in Woodbury, when Rick tried to have Daryl abandon his brother (again) to escape with them instead. Later on, behind Daryl's back, Rick tried to use Merle to take Michonne to the Governor for a peace deal, but ultimately regrets it. That choice though leads to Merle's death.

Rick knows Daryl has a strong sense of justice, therefore, uses many moral arguments to convince the hunter to help him out. He also knows Daryl is alone and does what he can so he feels part of the group, giving him space when he needs but always being around to include him in tasks and such. Daryl probably is aware of all that, but he doesn't care, because he agrees with Rick's approach on decisions most of the time. It was inevitable though, how Rick became emotionally bound to Daryl, because well, he knows Daryl is aware how Rick himself can be selfish, manipulative and coldly use people; Daryl even so was always there for him, despite Rick's flaws. The huge trust and leadership support Rick gets from Daryl in the worst moments, probably the sheriff would never be able to explain it with words.

Rick and Daryl's bond gets deeper and they become each other's moderator of morals. Sometimes Rick is breaking the boundaries and starting to act too cruel, like on season 4-5, Daryl will try to hold him back. Daryl starts acting too cruel, Rick holds him back, and so on.

And it's in that dynamic that Beth ends up dead, and Daryl in a way blames himself for it- Rick had decided for a direct assault, where they would kill the main officers and rescue Carol and Beth, while Daryl and others from the group voted against it and chose to negotiate, which lead to Beth losing her life. Rick knows he feels guilty, but says nothing, he also feels guilty as the leader.

After that event, Daryl begun having a colder approach to decisions. Next time it happens the other way around. Daryll wants to explode the Sanctuary and Rick doesn't want to, they end up fighting and despite overcoming Rick, the sheriff manages to get rid of the explosives. It's interesting how Rick uses his manipulative sequence to try and convince Daryl. First he appeals to the moral sentimental idea, that workers who are innocent could get hurt. Daryl ignores that part. So Rick appeals to the battle strategy, that the workers could be potential allies. Daryl ignores it. So Rick resorts to fear, saying the workers could turn against them if Daryl did that. But Daryl ignores, so Rick tries with force, and despite being beaten down by Daryl quite quickly, he manages to ruin the explosives.

Then Daryl got taken by Negan, humiliated and tortured, and Rick, as failed leader, felt extreme guilt. Without Daryl (and Carol, Glenn and Abraham) he felt weak, lost, insecure and completely vulnerable. Negan took from Rick precisely the people who would rebel the most and give Rick enough impulse to fight back, and it worked for quite some time. Next time Rick managed to fight Negan and have a chance was exactly when he got Daryl and Carol back to fight with him. And it wasn't just a firepower situation, it was mainly an emotional situation. When Carl died and Rick lost his ground, Daryl was the one who lead the others to safety, including his daughter Judith. Daryl did everything and more for Rick.

The next time their conflict happened was with Negan's defeat. Rick chose to let Negan live, and again put many manipulative layers so people agreed with him. First the moral one, to not take a life (very hypocrite of Rick but that's just an excuse anyway), then for the fact he wanted to give the community an example and make sure Negan got behind bars (another excuse in a way because keeping Negan alive was always a risk so the Saviors could try and break in to rescue him), then the excuse he's trying to bring law and order back to a community where people can live together in peace (that's a good excuse, but Rick again, didn't need to keep Negan alive for it)- and the potential true reasons he spared Negan, because Carl asked him and maybe because he wanted to see Negan suffer in prison for a long time, and indeed kill the old, strong Negan as he rots behind bars and gets depression. Daryl doesn't swallow that though, as well as Maggie. That leads to Daryl betraying Rick, by taking him away from the destination he was supposed to, so Maggie got the chance to kill Negan, however, that leads to Rick's "death" on the bridge incident, what makes Daryl feel guilty and spend more than 7 years looking for his friend, while he also made sure his daughter was safe.

I believe Daryl's betrayal was really a huge surprise for Rick, who knows he also has been lying to himself and making excuses because he still just couldn't deal with Carl's death. But even knowing he was right, Daryl knows it was a bad decision and ironically, Negan ends up saving him and Judith in later seasons- all making Daryl rethink so much and isolate himself again.

I think Rick is aware of how much he pushed Daryl along their journey, and Daryl is aware of how much he let Rick push and use him, but both somehow are okay with that, Daryl is a much better person than Rick showed to be, on the moral and loyal spectrum, and maybe that's why at the bridge, Rick isn't revolted at Daryl- quite the opposite- he just looks proud and thankful towards his brother right before he vanishes in the explosion.

There were many issues that needed solving in the communities, such as living with the Saviors and the conflicts and grudges that still were present. Rick wasn't fully focused on that anymore though, he needed a break. He needed a break but also couldn't give the leadership up. Rick's awful when talking about his personal and emotional issues, and I guess Daryl couldn't see Rick needed a break, that he still hadn't headed from Carl's death. While Rick was trying to heal and build hopes for the future, Maggie and Daryl still were stuck in the hate of the past, and to not blame them, they would deal with the consequences every day, Daryl with the community problems and Maggie with raising her son alone, missing Glenn every day.

Maybe if Rick had a bit more of an emotional intelligence to open up and expose his wounds a bit more and show his emotional limitations, Daryl and Maggie would have understood him earlier, but Rick always kept showing he was alright and justifying his actions with morals or goals, while he was mostly focused on the development of the communities rather than the conflicts. He wanted peace and he wanted a future and indeed, if Rick hadn't vanished, the communities probably wouldn't have had so much problem with the wild winter, Eugene's projects would have received more attention and the Whispirers wouldn't have been such a big problem, since Rick could have negotiated with Alpha, formulated war strategies to deal with them (the Whispirers were very low on firepower) and even guided Alpha's horde away, since the sheriff already had experience with that beforehand.

This was a long one, tell me if you liked it. Feel free to comment / reblog 💗

@wexarethewalkingxdead

[theminecraftbee]

Yeah, I knew it was unlikely for anyone to partner with a spirit from the start like Grian does, in fact my first idea for this was "episode where xB gets possessed by the spirit of Hiding or something and plot twist the episode doesn't end with him defeated, the monster is invisible by definition and after its conflict is done it can't be caught, plot twist xB stays like that for the rest of the season peacefully somehow, I guess that could mean somehow being a full magical girl who's just undetectable instead of having a transformation sequence, this could also power up his ability so Scar eventually forgets he even has that guy to look out for..." and then I couldn't think of any situation where a character whose whole plot point is staying hidden would do anything to cause the heroes to notice it enough for an episode to happen anyway, and then I imagined that first burst of all of them escaping, off to do various chaotic things, and then the one that's based on some concept that's naturally peaceful and quiet all along just calmly floats along until it finds someone who's used to being quiet and would be happy to be rid of what little attention he does get, so I thought it would be funny if the two just met and instantly agreed fully or however partnership works, like before the monster attacks have happened enough that xB even knows about them, you know?

That plus the "mysterious helper who may or may not know all the secrets but either way ends up not being a threat" trope and the "unremarkable background character with an inexplicably dedicated fandom" trope, it would work just as well to have him start appearing at any time but it feels funnier/more fulfilling to be able to look at this imaginary anime and have at least one frame of every single episode where he's visible!

oh hmmm that's actually a fun one. and to be fair, i think xb would be... rather happy to slip into the background, honestly. sure, this is all... a lot more than he'd prefer to deal with. but watching scar's crew deal with it has given him SOME idea of how to handle the fact he still has a spirit around, and being able to be invisible sometimes... it's useful. it's useful!

i think maybe he shows up in the background of some support group episodes afterwards and if you aren't paying attention it's hard to realize what's happening.

however i'm honestly still not sure how early in the plot we can have a spirit partnership here? i think maybe. xb is an early possession victim (maybe one of the first ones blackbird interferes with?) but the spirit escapes. xb sort of just slips away without letting anyone help him quietly because he manages to get unpossessed but he just KNOWS people are gonna be weird about the fact the spirit escaped. plus, he has unlocked a little more of his magical potential now. he can just... make himself disappear. he doesn't know why. it's not a partnership, so much as a potential he already had that, like a few other members of the plot (bdubs being out big example), due to a combination "wishing star getting closer" and "spirit possession", he can do even more.

and it's... nice. sometimes it isn't nice - he basically can't go out to eat unless he's with someone else, the waitstaff will forget he's there, and actually for anything he needs to be remembered for it's kind of a pain, but in a lot of life he just... slides in the background now. and if he really, really wants to be noticed he can mostly turn it off? but eh, he's an introvert anyway, as long as his small circle of friends still talks to him, he's fine. keralis and hypno and beef haven't forgotten he exists yet.

(hypno nearly forgets once. it makes xb's hair stand on end. he puts more effort into his side of the friendship with him for months afterwards. hypno's bemused. "you never texted back so quick before. what's gotten into you - monsters making you remember your mortality?" and it's... easier than the actual answer to go with that. hypno says xb should go to the support group again. xb doesn't say: they won't remember i'm there too if i don't make an effort to talk the whole time.)

its later in the plot, after... i had a timeline somewhere, but i think at LEAST after bdubs joins the squad and DEFINITELY after the "the magical girl crew fights the military" incident. it's then that the spirit of hiding reappears, and, drawn once again to xb's magic, despite the fact he's arguably more resistant to possession now, turns up where xb is.

and like... look. xb really, really doesn't want to get possessed again. because as nice as fading into the background is, he just... he doesn't want...

and they find themselves at an impasse.

xb gets this guy, is the thing. compared to other spirits, this guy doesn't do that much. it just... makes it easy to forget itself. to forget other people. and there's a horror in that, too, but there's also... xb can relate. before all of this started, he would have thought he'd be content to be entirely forgotten as well. it's just, the brief moment when someone he was close to had no recognition in his eyes -

"hey," xb says to the spirit that does not want to leave but that he doesn't want to let possess him. "hey. change of plans. how about we make a deal? i think there's something we can both offer to each other."

two days later, he slips into keralis's door and, once he finds the man, quietly sobs. he never says why. afterwards, he goes back to almost-normal. almost. if you aren't one of his friends, at least. his friends are... concerned. he's up to something.

xb assures them: he won't interfere that much. not his style. also, if he WERE to get noticed, he's pretty sure he might get dissected or something? so. much better to just... adjust from the background when he can.

he's sure it'll turn out fine.

[roseofcards90]

Ah, before I forget. What were your overall thoughts on Link Click? Like, s1 vs s2, favourite characters or arcs, that kind of thing? ^^

Omg!!! I'm so sorry about the wait 😭 I was trying to get all my thoughts together so I can type something coherent here so it's not just me rambling about how amazing the show is LMAO

Link Click spoilers below btw!!!

First off, I just wanted to say the overall mystery??? Executed very well! I was definitely not expecting both Tianchen and Tianxi to have powers (I thought something else was going on like they both swapped places/identities or something 😭), but it makes sense since they're siblings and they're meant to parallel the Shiguang duo! Even in the first season, I assumed it was only going to be one person that was the culprit behind the murders, but the show pleasantly surprised me with that! The siblings themselves were also just pretty tragic omg 😭 that whole flashback sequence with them being the foxes in the story, and Tianxi slowly sees Tianchen go down his dark path was so good. You already saw that post I made about them, but yeah I love tragic and doomed siblings as a trope it's great <3

One of my absolute favorite parts from the whole show tbh is the entirety of Season 1 Episode 11. That was a perfect final episode to end things off on and tease a season 2. Like the nonstop twists they kept pulling??? Like how they first initially present Emma's death as a suicide as a red herring but it turned out to actually be the case is so much more impactful and tragic than just having her be another person who was possessed by Tianchen. That whole scene with her and CXS on the bridge OUGHHH IT BROKE ME 😭 THAT WAS SO WELL DONE!!! The song, combined with the montage of all the people he and Lu Guang helped, him talking her down from ending it all and reaching out his hand to her with the sunshine rising above him...EMOTIONAL DAMAGE FR. Like I knew it wasn't going to end all happily, but the emotional impact was definitely there. And that ending omg — having Qiao Ling, one of the main characters we've gotten attached to and love dearly, be shown to have stabbed Lu Guang was brutal, especially for Cheng Xiaoshi 😭 the angst that came out of that and Qiao Ling feeling guilt for hurting Lu Guang even if it wasn't really her was all really heartbreaking. That whole thing, as well as Qiao Ling knowing what Lu Guang did to save Cheng Xiaoshi's life, really makes their relationship pretty rocky but also interesting!!! I want to see more of their duo together since the show has had plenty focus on Qiao Ling with CXS and CXS with LG, and also angst I want to see them both go through the horrors while CXS is standing there like :D LMAO

I would definitely say that Cheng Xiaoshi is my fave character out of the whole cast. I absolutely adore everyone else don't get me wrong, but I think what makes CXS so special and unique to me is how they made empathy one of his core defining traits. Because he’s lived through so many different lives and experiences, he just has a lot of compassion and understanding for all kinds of different people, and that's pretty admirable! Idk, I don't see that often much, especially in a time travel story of all places, but the premise works here very well along with how CXS is initially characterized as a very easygoing person who wants to help people at his core.

As for other stuff exclusive to season 2, I'm very curious to see what direction they'll go in for season 3 just with the way season 2 ended with that bombshell lol. When a season 3 does roll around, I hope we get more character exploration on the guy who's seemingly the main antagonist, Liu Xiao. I know we got some characterization with him because of his past with Tianchen, but I would love to see more of him and what his plans really are with trying to "bring more parallel lines together". Also Lu Guang betraying his own rules to save Cheng Xiaoshi I don't have anything else to say other than GOOD SHIT!!! I love it when characters are hypocrites I love it when characters in time travel stories break time itself to save the person they love <333 it's like crack to me I swear lol.

Other extra things!!! Soundtrack absolutely amazing, I've been listening to all the ops and eds on spotify lol. Character designs, voice acting (I watched the original Chinese version), and overall animation was amazing. High marks all around for me fr!!! I think personally I enjoy season 1 just a bit more? Only because that final episode was beautiful for me and I loved seeing all the different clients the duo had, but in terms of overall plot, I would put season 2 above season 1.

[loki-who-remains]

The soundtrack for season 2 is unbelievable. I thought nothing could beat season 1 music, but Natalie Holt did it again. I’m in awe. I can't wait for Vol.2.

I’m not a musician, I don’t really distinguish different instruments apart from general terms, but for myself I summarised that strings mainly belong to Loki and Sylvie, the theremin to TVA and Mobius, chorus/voices to HWR and Victor Timely. And again, it comes in three.

Burden of Wisdom

This is the first track for season 2 and it actually starts with the same whispery voices that can be heard in He Who Remains, which is the last track for season 1! I recommend listening to both in chronological order. The contrast between them, the character and gravity they convey. Ugh!

Theremin, chorus and strings are intertwined in a heartbeat-like sound. In this track you can actually hear a bit of the TVA theme but performed on Loki’s strings, as if he's accepted his fate paved for him and Sylvie by HWR. It does sound like a burden.

One Shot

It’s complex music with a lot of drama, hope and despair but also a happy ending. And it is a complicated sequence when Loki time slips to the future, is pruned and gets back to the present. The harp and chorus sound almost asgardian. It’s very stringy, and there are Sylvie’s strings this time too, and an epic, heroic build-up and Loki’s iconic fanfares when he is pulled from the time and soft lands on Mobius. To me personally this is very Sylkius somehow

Temporal Loom

It is the hard of the TVA, so the music sounds like a heartbeat, slightly irregular, quickening by the end. The whispers, and then the epic chorus. You can clearly see a small fragile man on the gangway against this monstrous merciless machine.

Zaniac

This is a banger. 70s disco beat, something from a James Bond movie. But if you listen closely, you can hear strings from Loki Green Theme in the background. They sound ominous but not loud enough for Brad to take it seriously just like he underestimates his opponents just a moment later. Loki’s strings and TVA’s theremin make pretty damn good combo, I love it I love it I love it so much.

Delivery

Such hopeful, pensive music. You know the history was altered that very moment and can’t be undone, this boy will change everything for better or for worse. In the end, the ultimate power in the universe are books in right (or wrong) hands. Chorus is there and is very prominent, not a whisper but almost angelic choir.

Time to Go

I looooove how this one starts so non-HWRy! Very playful, funny and slightly chaotic which suits Victor’s luminary persona that he puts on to hide his vulnerable soft self. It also has Loki’s iconic fanfares, performed by a woodwind this time. It doesn’t match with Loki’s appearance like in One Shot, but still is a really nice touch. And then it’s calm, pensive and somehow lonely. And that’s how Victor is, really.

O. B.

OB’s theme sounds like something from the future. His main notes are simple, optimistic tones arranged with electronic background. It stands out from all other TVA personnel related music. Just like him: a genius unstoppable engineer, alone in his department who won’t hold a grudge for this, always busy, always happy to see his colleagues and work in a team

Your Girl

Hauntingly beautiful and tragically romantic, but with undertones of static, Jaws and a villain theme from a horror movie.

I don’t wanna stop but I will because I feel like I’m starting to repeat myself and don’t have enough words to describe music. No, no, okay, one more

Tricks

The thrill of the chase. Brad's personality aside, it's terrifying to be chased by someone you can neither outrun nor outtrick. Makes you think what would happen if Loki suddenly changed his mind and turned into a full mode villain. Q&A has a similar vibe but with far more dark undertone.

okay I really need to stop here

All I wanna say is, Natalie Holt knows how to convey the essence of a character through music

[positivelybeastly]

If you could make movies about Hank, how many would you do and what could we see in them? Like an origin story, specific storyline etc. Would it be live action or a cartoon/animation, if live action who would you cast as Beast?

Now this is a fun thought experiment!

So, I actually think that if I was going to focus specifically on Hank, I would want multiple series, each separated according to decade or periods of his life, as it were, and we're going to mix media a little bit. Bear with me. This is probably going to be a multi-part series, so, here's the first part.

60s/First Class

So, we start off with a live action series that begins in medias res - alarms are blaring, people are rushing through corridors, klaxons are bathing corridors in red light. Through it all, a young man with a frightened but determined look on his face fights through the tide until he reaches a room full of radiation suits. He pulls one on, takes a few deep breaths, and then pushes through into a reactor room that's clearly going critical.

No music. No dialogue. No sound, except for the thumping of a heart beat and the sounds of this intricate mechanism being cajoled, being calmed, being put right again, until eventually the alarm lifts. Now it's just the sound of heavy, panicked breathing, and the man keels over at the railing nearest to him as a group of men in identical radiation suits rush to him. He blacks out.

When he comes to, he smiles at the woman sitting beside his bed, and moves as if to kiss her, but she smacks his arm, before embracing him and kissing him. A doctor moves in to talk, but there's still no dialogue, just soft music. A small montage of people in suits, offering the man in the bed a lot of paperwork that he signs. Before long, he's well enough to leave the hospital, and he and his wife drive to a farm. They stand on the outskirts, arms wrapped around one another. Camera pulls back, revealing the name on the mailbox.

McCoy.

Cut to the intro, which is nuclear flames, genomes shattering, a mysterious, animalistic figure gazing out of shadow with yellow eyes that turn into spotlights, revealing the title of the show.

'X-MEN: BEAST - FIRST CLASS'

17 YEARS LATER

A young man who's the spitting image of the man we saw in this prologue sequence is being harassed by a young woman with blonde hair. They're talking about the last quiz they just had to take in Biology, and the young woman tells the young man that he needs to stop hiding who he is. How brilliant he is. He tells her that he's on the high end of normal, and she scoffs. They walk by a football tryout, where the coach is harassing his team, telling them that any old nerd could do better than them.

"You, McKay - over here, show 'em what I mean."

"It's McCoy, sir, and I don't know quite what you mean?"

The coach becomes ever more insistent. McCoy shrugs, shaking his head. He kicks the ball. It sails clean, hits the goal - at the other end of the pitch. The coach is flabbergasted. He wants McCoy for the team, but McCoy is uncertain - until the team kicks off, saying they don't want this gorilla on their team. One of them, identified as Janssen by his jersey, is particularly venomous, and McCoy gives him a coldly furious look.

"Coach, what position does Janssen play?"

Smash cut to the same number on the team, but with MCCOY on the back. Sports montage, naturally, with MCCOY as star player, intercut with the occasional side-eyed look from a parent or onlooker whenever he does something a little too amazing.

Jen is the love interest of the movie. She's great.

Final game of the season. Crowds are roaring, full football Americana experience. MCCOY is in full swing, but we aren't seeing things from his perspective, we're seeing things from somewhere up in the bleachers - from some kind of scope. It zooms in hard on MCCOY, a finger tenses, squeezes - misses. Screaming, hysteria. The scope view panics as MCCOY comes charging towards it, and we zoom out to see Janssen as McCoy clambers up the side of the bleachers with unnatural ease.

They fight. McCoy knocks the rifle away, but he's a little too strong, and Janssen nearly falls over the edge, and it's quite the drop. McCoy grabs him and stops him from going over, but he can't use his other hand to hold on to the bleachers and Janssen at the same time. He knocks off his shoe, and we get our first look at an oversized foot that looks to be as dextrous as a hand. McCoy moves to use this odd limb to help Janssen up.

Janssen hisses. Says he'd rather die than get help from a filthy stinking mutant that crawls all over human girls like he's a real man. He smacks McCoy's hand away, drops. We don't see the impact, but McCoy does. His eyes widen. He yanks off the football helmet and throws up, staggering as he climbs back up, just in time for the officials to come storming in. He looks red-faced, shaking. He looks guilty.

We cut to the farm. The McCoy family are quiet, withdrawn - worried. The parents keep looking outside, where their son has taken to disassembling and reassembling every piece of farm equipment available to him, as if that's going to make him feel any better. Edna and Norton talk, and they feel guilty, Norton especially, about the legacy they've given poor Hank, as we pan up over the kitchen counter and see a newspaper headline exclaiming about the mutant panic taking over the nation.

A knock at the door. Norton looks pale, so Edna answers - to a man dressed like some kind of Conquistador, which he identifies himself as. He brings out a sword and seems to cast some form of electricity with it, striking down Edna and Norton, drawing their son back to the house with a speed that defies thought, and it's only this lightning sword that stops him from bowling the man over right there and then.

The Conquistador wants this young man, Hank, to do him a favour - use his father's ID card to steal some specific components from the nuclear power plant he works at. He looks basically identical to him, he shouldn't even be questioned. His sword twitches in the direction of Hank's parents, and his jaw sets. He agrees.

A short, tense sequence at the power plant. Hank does the deed, but it's dangerous and it goes wrong, the alarms are sounded - but he gets away. He escapes to a warehouse where his parents are being held by the Conquistador's men, and the man is raving, rambling.

Hank trounces them, effortlessly. It's superhuman to watch, and Edna and Norton are wide eyed as Hank frees them, all of them silent. Norton opens his mouth, apologises. Hank doesn't understand, apologising for what? Norton gestures at Hank's obviously overgrown hands and feet. For that. That's his fault. Hank's expression darkens, and Norton realises what he's said without thinking, and he looks to Edna, but she doesn't know what to say. Behind them, the Conquistador is getting back up, pulling up his sword, aiming it at Hank's back.

A ruby red beam comes out of nowhere, blasting it away, and Hank turns around, to see . . .

The Professor explains who he is. What the people with him are, what Hank is - a mutant. Hank already knows, and the Professor smiles a little, because of course Hank does. The conversation continues, and Hank is interested, intrigued, even - he keeps glancing back at his parents, but they look very uncertain, even as they do their best to give him smiles and make sure he knows they're okay.

"There will be sacrifices, Hank. This won't be an easy life. But it will be a worthy one."

Hank agrees, but before he walks off with Xavier and the other X-Men, he embraces his parents one more time. He's holding them tighter than they are him when he lets go.

The series then adapts some 60s X-Men, some First Class stories - I'd definitely want to pull in the story where Hank and Bobby first becomes friends during a vacation road trip across the US; the Unus the Untouchable arc, where Hank becomes a wrestler; a momentary flirtation with Jean Grey, before he realises who she's pretty much destined to end up with; the beatnik foot cult; Magneto.

Costumes change, villains go by, and Hank is enjoying himself, growing, but as he grows older, he seems less satisfied.

Especially since we find out that Xavier wiped Jen's mind, and she no longer remembers Hank. For their safety. Hank is. Not pleased. It's the first wedge between him and the Professor, and they paper over it, but. It sticks.

Towards the end of the series, he receives a letter in the mail, and when it comes time to do Danger Room exercises, he's conspicuously absent. Xavier is oddly reticent to talk to him, and instead suggests that Scott, Bobby, Warren and Jean talk to him instead. Hank is in his room, the letter in his hands, and seeming torn. They all talk.

Hank wants to leave the X-Men. The very concept shakes them a little - the last time this happened, Unus attacked and they were nearly defeated - but the newfound confidence of having done this for a few years now means that they understand why Hank wants to move on. Everyone's been thinking about it, actually, Hank's just the first one to have a place he wants to go to rather than just 'not the school.'

They embrace. Bobby in particular takes a little longer than everyone else to let go, and it's clear it's killing him a little that Hank is going, but he does let go.

The final scene of the series is Hank in civilian clothes saying his final goodbyes. There's not a dry eye in the house. Jean kisses him on the cheek, Bobby hugs him way too hard, Scott clasps his shoulder, Warren gives him a fistbump. The Professor shakes his hand. They're all sad to see him go, but this is for the best.

Hank gets into his car, and starts it up. He looks back at the Mansion, the X-Men, wistfully, thinking, for a moment, that he should stop and go back. But in the end, he puts the car in gear and drives. As he leaves the Mansion, he adjusts the rear view mirror.

For the audience, Hank is replaced by something wearing his clothes. Dark furred. Monstrous. Unfamiliar. Familiar. Yellow eyed.

End credits. End of the series.

To be continued.

I actually have no idea who I'd want to play a young Hank, I'm not as up to date on young actors as I'd like, but I've been recommended someone called Noah Centino for a 17-20 year old Hank, so, sure? Whoever they are, they need to be able to pull off Hank's distinctive Superman curl.

I'd definitely want an almost sort of 'The Incredibles' tone to the X-Men sections of this series, where it's all deathly dangerous but the X-Men almost don't seem to realise until they do. Michael Giacchino does the score, because the man can do no wrong.