#they completely ruined a character i was Trying to root for. the writers HATE her

[timeskip]

Okay so I finished Remember11 (I think) !!! Lots of thoughts under the cut.

tl;dr I liked the game and had fun with it, but I don't think I can say I loved it. I have a lot of problems with aspects of it but I think the mysteries WERE overall very solid and I had fun figuring things out!!

Earlier, while looking stuff up online (trying to avoid spoilers, naturally) I read that there was supposed to be a third route or something but it didn't pan out and the game is thus left in its incomplete state? It seems to be assumed to be common knowledge based on how people talked about it, but I didn't know a single thing about it when I started the game. In a way, I'm glad I heard that, because... yeah, it IS incomplete. "Truth is not revealed. It continues in an infinity loop!"... which is what the game straight up tells us, even though there's nothing afterward.

I don't dislike the incompleteness, honestly. I have a lot of questions, but most of it I can fill in. Thanks for that, Apoptosis chapter. I guess that's the reason it's so easy to fail and have to restart with no option but to do the Apoptosis bad ending... (No I don't know the official ending name, it doesn't matter to me that much honestly)

I do WISH we knew more about Enomoto and the transfers and the "Satoru" (Enomoto?) from Apoptosis who uses "watashi" instead of "ore", and why they put Satoru's memories into the body that would become Satoru's, but I mean... if it didn't work out, it didn't work out.

In the case of Mayuzumi, I had been predicting already that Satoru wasn't in his original body, and they didn't show his face ever in flashbacks with her, so the reveal that she STILL didn't know him was FUN for me!!! Yippee!!! I was right!!!!!!!

The other incomplete thing is Inubushi, which,, ugh. Eugh. Not a fan of that. I will say it scared me For Real when they suddenly had a moving CG of Inubushi being Evil holding the baby (I thought she was about to kill the baby onscreen...) but I have a distaste for her for a lot of reasons, and I wish the writers actually cared about her. As much as Hotori (the real one) was an interesting concept, Inubushi is a flat stereotype, manipulative for no reason, given no grace by the writing, and also I was uncomfortable when she spit in Satoru's mouth. (<- The hard candy scene, if you've played the game)

The baby twist is... fine. It was amusing, and I could figure it out by myself, which I liked, but it feels like an almost lazy solution? It's clever, but the baby killing someone and the other one rolling in blood to create the situation for Kokoro and Satoru to see the murder scene is just...! A lot to think about...!! And not in a good way!!!

I think that's my problem with the game in general. I LIKED the game, and its solutions to the mysteries, and often even the way it was structured. But at the same time, the game did things in a way that seemed like it intentionally wanted to confuse the player and overcomplicate things. Part of this IS just because of the swaps themselves throwing the characters into different situations, but then you have characters acting in kinda random ways just to make things complicated.

I DID like the "there's a third person transferring" thing though, and the slow realization that there's gaps in both Satoru and Kokoro's swaps where they don't experience things. The "Kokoro only ever looks at Satoru's alarm clock so she gets the time wrong" thing was cute, I liked that. Very convenient, but it's so... startlingly realistic, it's sweet.

I also loved Yuni's part in the game. As an Akane fan you should know I'm a sucker for "this character has to repeat the past, to create a miracle where things can go correctly" :') Yuni is great. I wish his characterization wasn't one of the bigger ones hit by the "this character does something random and confusing!!!" when he KNOWS what's going on, but he did give some really good mystery to it all, I loved finding out more about him, and his relationship with Kokoro was great. I wish the game had been more Yuni focused!! <- 5 years after R11 came out, Akane Kurashiki would be created from Uchikoshi's mind. It's weird to realize it, but... I think Yuni IS in a lot of ways the proto-Akane. Or maybe Kokoro is the proto-Akane, in some ways? Akane is the Yuni+Kokoro fusion we all needed.

And that's the real reason I played the game. I wanted to experience something Uchikoshi made pre-999. It wasn't as good as 999, I don't think I've super attached to any R11 characters except the protags+Yuni, and I don't even know how far that attachment goes past "I enjoyed the game a lot, and they're kind of funny too" lol. I don't think Uchikoshi sticks the landing with his characters EVERY time, but it's definitely an upward trend in his later games given how much I adore some of his later characters, which is good!

As for the mystery, I think I prefer the way Uchikoshi's future mysteries are laid out a bit more, but I completely understand why people love Remember11's mystery. It's intense, and very fun, and I loved going on Uchikoshi/Nakazawa's wild ride!! Since Nakazawa was the director here, I'm sure a lot of it was HIS in a way I can't see since I'm not familiar with his stuff. But he really did create something neat with this mystery.

One last note on Uchikoshi: I wonder if he was thinking about R11 while writing AINI? With the dual protags, things being hidden from the player, the obscured timeframes, etc, it reminded me a lot of AINI.

I guess that's about all I have to say!! I'll probably remember that I forgot stuff later, but man. This is already long as fuck and rambly.

I enjoyed the infinity loop of it all, the way they had to stop the future from happening!!! It was interesting to try to piece things together when the info we got was so split up between the chapters, and Satoru's chapter letting me put together the pieces as I went was great!!! I think while it's an imperfect, often inconsistent, incomplete game, I think there's a lot of good about it!!!

[andreal831]

Hi! What do you think of Bonnie and Jeremy as a pairing?

This ship definitely had me rooting for them in the beginning. We know, I'm a sucker for any kind of friends-to-lovers. They also had one of the few relationships that felt very age appropriate. Maybe because they were one of the few that were basically the same age. But mainly because a lot of their joys and issues felt human.

We got a lot of great tropes with them. We got them falling for each other as they worked together for the people they loved. We got a fun little jealousy storyline with Luka. The best-friend's brother trope. The will they/won't they trope. They are both incredibly protective of each other and put each other first. This ship was so good for both of them, but unfortunately the writers really liked to put Bonnie and Jeremy through the ringer when it comes to romantic ships, so they really didn't stand a chance. Literally all of their love interests died, including each other.

One thing I really loved about them was, even before and after they were together, they still cared for each other. For so long, Jeremy seemed to be the only person who really saw what Bonnie gave for her friends, constantly trying to stop her from sacrificing herself. There are multiple times he even tried to stop Bonnie when Bonnie was sacrificing herself for his sister. Bonnie also sacrificed so much for Jeremy, even though he never wanted her to. It's one of the few ships where we actually see an exchange of sacrifice.

While I hate that Jeremy cheated on Bonnie with Anna and it did kind of ruin the ship, I can understand it more than a lot of the issues in other ships that completely made me hate the ship. Jeremy was a 16 year old kid who had lost so much, including Anna. When a loved one comes back from the dead, it complicates things. No, he didn't handle it well, but he also didn't do anything worse than what a lot of these 100+ year old men would do. I think it's also important to remember that Anna is 500+ years old and was essentially grooming and using Jeremy. I'm not justifying his behavior by any means, and Bonnie had every right to be mad and breakup with him, but I just feel like people are harder on Jeremy than all of the other adult characters who cheated or abused their partners/potential ships.

But again, even after this, Bonnie is still defending Jeremy's right to make his own decisions to Elena. Jeremy spends the summer being there for Bonnie when everyone else thinks she's dead. Jeremy is also the only person who really seems to miss Bonnie when she is in the prison world with Damon. He is the one that saves Bonnie and gives her hope. While I hate that Jeremy hurt Bonnie, he actually grew and evolved as a character, making sure to put Bonnie first, even just as a friend, for the rest of the show. I hated how they ended though. It felt very unresolved, especially given what everyone was going through. The show just didn't put any effort into it.

Basically, I thought Beremy was cute for what it was, a high school romance. Should it have been endgame? Not in my opinion because they both became very different people as they grew. I do prefer them to some of the canon endgames though. They would have been better off if they had begun dating later in life, when Jeremy wasn't so traumatized from losing nearly every person he cared for and was more emotionally mature. But I love to think that they stayed close after they both left town. They care about each other and check in on each other, but are ultimately happy for the other for moving on and finding their own joy in life.

Thanks for the ask! I haven't thought about this ship in a minute.

[louisaguy]

my thoughts on the river/louisa thing

this is not a post saying that anyone should agree with these thoughts, or that any other take is wrong. just getting my feelings out because everyone keeps talking about it lol.

some spoilers for later books (i'm not sure which one bc i haven't read them lol i'm just going off things i've heard)

oh BOY, am i conflicted about the idea of river/louisa going romantic. the thing is, i love their relationship so so so much as it is now. i don't think turning a platonic relationship romantic always HAS to ruin it, but... it's also true that there's no quicker way to get me to hate two characters i previously loved than with an unnecessary romantic subplot. i think their relationship-- especially the way louisa treats river-- is really unique and interesting right now, and i worry that that uniqueness would be dampened or overwritten if they went romantic. i love how louisa really, deeply cares about him, but also doesn't hesitate to be honest to the point of bluntness with him; see "i think he used you. a lot. and i think if it were the other way around, he wouldn't really care." (that scene still obsesses me. she's so caring with him, so defensive of him, and yet at the same time she doesn't sugarcoat anything to make him feel better. she's blunt in saying what he doesn't want to hear but she's doing it in order to defend him, because she cares so deeply about him).

i worry that if they were paired together, that dynamic would change, and they would fall into a more stock relationship, one that would damage louisa's character in particular, either taking the teeth out of her and making her overly sweet, or pushing her into the typical "nagging wife" stereotype... y'know, always fussing at him, criticizing him for doing dumb shit. that's my fear about what might happen. but, to be perfectly honest, i don't think it will. the show writers have been really good about treating their characters with a lot of respect (more so than the books sometimes do [i read the first book and have seen snippets of the others].... lol), so i honestly am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. if they wanna go in a river/louisa direction, i'm not gonna be NOOOO about it, i'm gonna see where they're going with this. i trust them to be able to make it work in a way that doesn't step on louisa's character. i mean, my best case scenario for romantic river/louisa is that their relationship is like identical to how it is now but they just kiss sometimes LMAO. i'd be cool with that! that sounds good to me!

i will say that i am almost rooting for river/louisa a little bit? solely because i don't want river/sid LMAO. i haven't read the later books, but i heard through the grapevine that in the books she comes back and her and river get together. i really hope that's something the show diverges from, bc i really DON'T WANT that. i know it's not really fair to judge sid against all the other characters who we've had whole seasons to get to know, since she was really only in the first 3 eps, but i found sid to be very boring. idk, maybe she'd be better if she came back and they had more time to flesh her out, but what we've seen of her so far? she feels very cookie cutter to me. like she's just there to be river's manic pixie dream girl. which like... boring. seen it before. i'd MUCH rather stick with what river and louisa have going on.

the only way i could see myself enjoying sid is if she gets to have a character and an arc and an internal world completely divorced from being river's gf... like if she came back and had several seasons on her OWN telling her own stories before she was paired with river. that's the only way i could see myself being ok with it.

but hey, y'know who's already had several seasons on her own not paired with river when she's allowed to develop her own arcs and internal world? louisa. which is why i think the idea of them getting together is something i'm willing to try out, at the very least-- i'm willing to trust that the writers are good enough to their characters that she will be allowed to KEEP having an internal world outside of river even if they got together. the writers have been very good to their characters so far. i'm willing to keep trusting them, for now.

i mean, look. the long and short of it is, if i was in total and complete control, i would want no romantic relationships for river. no romantic relationships for anyone in the cast, really. because i find them quite often to be overly reliant on stock relationship types that make the stories being told feel often a bit cookie cutter or repetitive... that's just my opinion. there are so so SO many good and interesting and fascinating stories being told here between the platonic relationships-- any combo of the slow horses makes me literally insane to think about. river and louisa, shirley and marcus, catherine and lamb, lamb and RIVER, even coe and shirley now... i think there's so many varied and unique types of relationships at play in this one little fucked up family unit, i'd love to explore those more rather than wasting time on a romantic subplot that, more likely than not, is going to feel identical to 10 other couples on TV right now (TO ME).

so, if i get total dictator control, i say no romance. but if we MUST have a romantic subplot for river-- which, ok, he's the conventionally attractive lead, i suppose it was inevitable even if i don't have to like it sigh-- i would much rather have him paired with the person he's had two and a half seasons to build his relationship with (though they didn't interact this season nearly as much as i wanted them to rip) and who he thus has an already established deep bond and really interesting dynamic with.... rather than his MPDG from season 1. sorry i'm not looking forward to sid coming back lmao. part of me hopes they change it and just don't bring her back at all. (i mean the actress is on house of the dragon now and that's blowing up, so who knows if they even have a contract with her to GET her back...)

(i'd be equally worried about them slotting louisa into a role that used to be occupied by sid in the books-- louisa and sid are NOT the same character and i'd worry about louisa feeling un-louisa-like when making decisions that originally belonged to sid... but again, i have a lot of faith in the writers to make it work. i think i can trust them to justify why louisa would make these decisions too and make it still feel true to her character.)

anyway. tldr; top choice river isn't paired with anyone and i keep getting to enjoy my little gen sandbox of slough house. but if he must be paired with someone, i'd like it to be louisa (just make it their current relationship but they kiss sometimes! that's allowed!).

(to be honest, putting the romance of it all aside, i do think river and louisa could make very good life partners... i could see them moving in together, helping each other keep their lives together lol. and i think it would be very sweet to see them continue to build those lives into the future with each other-- planning around each other, y'know, putting each other first. but i digress. to me, all of that is a completely separate thing from their relationship being romantic or not. it could happen either way.)

(also this doesn't really have to do with the thing in the trailer bc i've been thinking these thoughts for A While and louisa didn't even look into the kiss in the trailer anyway lmao, i just. i've seen everyone talking about this lately and it's made me want to get my thoughts out)

(if you've made it to the end of this long ass ramble, thank you for reading, ily, have a cookie 🍪)

[miraculosus]

Fandom Response to Miraculous Ladybug 514 “Derision”

Reception of the episode “Derision” upon airing appears mostly positive. That means it won’t create a dramatic rift as some of those who saw the leaks had feared, and the status quo of the fandom seems more or less undisturbed on the surface. Perhaps it pumps a bit more gas into the righteousness tanks of some and sours opinions of Kim (but those who really cared about him were few to begin with). Most are integrating the new information into their understanding of the characters, which may be a bad thing if you don’t like this new information and prefer to stick to “earlier versions” of them.

My own personal feelings on the matter are neither here nor there because the discourse is the main course. I’ve written three mock-reviews based on all the posts I’ve seen: positive, negative, and mixed. Let’s go!

Positive

What an enlightening look into Marinette’s past. My poor baby girl! I love her so much, and it hurt my heart to see how much she suffered in the past. This was a deeply moving and impactful depiction of the horrors and effects of school bullying, and even the systemic inadequacy of the adults response was realistic. Some parts hit a little too close to home, haha! It recontextualizes so many of Marinette’s past behaviors big and small all the way back to Origins in an amazing way. Her view of Chat Noir in season 1! Her reaction to Adrien in Puppeteer 2?! So many dots are connecting I’m going crazy! How can people say these writers aren’t good at long complex plots and foreshadowing? I’m eating this up!

Adrien’s responses really blew me away. I’ve always wanted to see him stand up and fight like that, and for it to be out of protectiveness for Marinette? So romantic! I love when a character is so devoted that they’ll go murder-mode instantly on anyone who tries to hurt their beloved. This dark side of Adrien is awesome! Seeing him finally cut off Chloe once and for all was super satisfying too. And in the end, he was just so patient and understanding of Marinette. That’s true love! Who could ask for a better boyfriend?

Socqueline was super cool, and it’s adorable how Marinette got her pigtails from her. That makes Socqueline dressing up as Ladybug such a sweet full circle moment!

This episode added a lot of depth to both Marinette and Adrien, and showed great development for Adrinette. They are so cute, and things are only getting better for them!

Negative

It’s glaringly obvious that this episode was a late-stage retcon created predominantly out of spite, and boy is it ugly. Somehow, they managed to ruin every character.

With Marinette, they try to prove her haters wrong and make us feel bad for her by showing her past actions were due to trauma, but all this does is tell us those things we laughed about as comedic cartoon exaggeration like her Adrien calendar, obsessive celebrity research, keeping his hair as a souvenir, sneaking into his house and sniffing his pillow, stuff like that… was actually genuinely problematic, creepy, and bad. Then they say don’t blame her for it, blame Chloe!

Could they leave Chloe out of it for once? I’m so sick and tired of the weird vendetta the writers seem to have against Chloe and her fans. They made her sympathetic by giving her that backstory and those genuine moments, now they punish us for not buying wholesale that this 14-year-old abused child who was never equipped to learn to be a decent person, is the root of all evil? We get it! Shes fucking sociopathic and malicious from womb to tomb! She’s worse than Gabriel ShadowHawkMothNarc Righteously-Enslaves-His-Son Agreste! I can accept the show will never give her a redemption arc, but this is exhausting. Love or hate Chloe, wouldn’t we all be better off if they just left her alone and wrote her out already? Every Chloe focus episode gets worse and worse.

Moving on, now they’ll make everyone hate Kim which was completely unwarranted. He already had his background arc from being a bumbling insensitive twat to a lovable goofy himbo. He may have been worse last year, but he denounced Chloe already after Dark Cupid. Plus, Kim and Marinette always got along just fine! Don’t try and tell me her trauma with him was just repressed until now? Kim was a great and fun side character that subverted the bully jock trope, and they had to go and ruin that for cheap points.

Adrien already had realistic and compelling character flaws they now refuse to address, instead going with the edgy murderous rage angle that completely goes against his whole established character and should have been left behind in bad OOC gender-roley fanfiction. Of course the Adrien Salters will never let this go, and then there are the Stans who think this glaring red flag is romantic. I get that some like the violently overprotective boyfriend trope, the guy who abandons principles of human decency out of passion and love, and takes care of all the girl’s emotional needs so she never needs to worry about anything, but it came out of nowhere. That’s not the kind of character or romance that made me like this show.

Finally, we have to mention how horrifically incompetent literally every adult looks here. Tom and Sabine didn’t do anything about Marinette’s suffering at school for years. Neither did any of the teachers or the Principal. They’re all rotten!

An utterly unnecessary and trash episode that proves the writers completely lost the plot and devolved into petty vengeance against insatiable fans they never should have paid any mind.

Mixed

School bullying can absolutely be traumatic and its effects should be taken seriously, and this backstory for Marinette does flesh out her character in some interesting ways. However, this episode or any involving Marinette’s past would work better earlier in the series. When placed this late, it can seem more like a response to a certain sect of Marinette critics in the fandom, which diminishes its value as part of the story. With all the other high-stakes plot left hanging, another one about the mean girl doesn’t feel like the most effective use of airtime. Moreover, a different one-off character (Gorgeous Nathan from the Gym Club, anyone? Or maybe one of the others shown in last year’s picture from Reflekta) would have worked fine in Kim’s role in the episode, and wouldn’t create the continuity issues that using Kim here does. But the contrast between his apology and promise to change and Chloe’s refusal and doubling down worked for the lesson.

There wasn’t buildup to Socqueline having such a major role in Marinette’s past, so that makes it feel shoehorned in as well.

Many apparent inconsistencies can be explained though. Marinette’s hang up is not about falling in love but about confessing and saying “I love you”. Luka never asked that of her. At first, Chat Noir was not a viable option because she could never know him the way she told herself she had to, but later, she realized she truly knew him through all the trials they endured together. But Adrien is a uniquely difficult target because he was friends with Chloe. The circumstances of their meeting was enough to sow seeds of doubt that were difficult to shake deep down. Marinette gave her all, but things kept going wrong. Now that she finally knows why, she and Adrien can work through it together. He already knows she loves him and will patiently accept whatever affection she’s able to express, so it’s not the end of the world.

As for Adrien’s violent outburst, as far as he knows, Monarch is still in ok condition. So he may believe on some level that cataclysm is not an instant kill but something rather less severe than that. He did lose control of his emotions for a moment, but it’s good for a character to have such flaws, especially one like Adrien who has repressed his negative emotions to be a “perfect son” in the past. His anger management issue and impulsivity could be building to something truly dramatic. It could be something that gets addressed in his character arc.

So there are things that bothered me about this episode, and it does seem to have been inserted fairly late, but overall it was alright and not nearly as awful as the reactions to the leaks made it seem.

[fictionalpeter]

I should probably clairify this, since I deleted my old site where the explanation was.

When I use the term 'shippers', I'm not referring to people who root for a specific romantic pairing.

I'm referring to so-called 'fans' who obsess over one pairing to the detriment of all else. They don't care about the plot, the action, the mythology, or 90% of the cast. All they care about are those two specific characters. If someone is the canon love interest of one of those character, they're the enemy. If someone gets in the way of their screen time, they are the enemy. If someone is 'mean' to one of them, they are the enemy. In fact, if one half of the pairing doesn't bend over backwards to support their favorite, or disagrees with them in any way, they are the enemy as well(even though they still want them together for some reason).

It goes beyond just message boards, too. I've seen 'shippers' send hate to showrunners, writers, and even actors due to their preferences. One of the reasons I commend cast members who avoid social media is because, quite honestly, they don't deserve that kind of treatment for something they have absolutely no control over.

And the worst part--the worst part is their bullying sometimes works. I've seen entire story directions completely change direction for no other reason than these toxic 'shippers' harass the writers again, and again, and again until they drown out every rational part of the fanbase, and convince them to give in to their demands. Too many things I've enjoyed have been completely ruined by complete changes in direction that made no sense and contradicted the previously established story--all to appease these toxic so-called 'fans. And if they don't--well, they condemn the writers for 'teasing' them, and 'not understanding what the fans want'.

This isn't even limited to non-canon pairings, either. I've seen 'shippers' for the main couple of a story who could care less about the actual plot outside of the romance, and who turn against one half the second they upset the other. I actually left a fanbase over this, where they started to vilify the girl for hurting the protagonist's feelings while she was being MIND CONTROLLED, and started to bully me or daring to try and defend her, and criticizing the protagonist's(who was my favorite character, btw) OOC reaction. It proved to me that 'shippers' weren't limited just to the non-canon pairings, but the main ones as well.

I tend to root for the main pairings about 80% of the time, and usually don't bother watching/reading if I don't like them. But I always refer to myself as a 'fan' of them. To me, the term 'shipper' is representative of that toxic behavior.

[ml-salt-central]

"Gabriel Agreste" Salt (I forgot this episode came out today):

Gabriel, please die...

Okay, Canon! Felix might be an asshole but he makes Gabriel miserable and that alone honestly makes him one of the best characters in this godforsaken show (Although a line in this episode makes me worry about him a lot...)

Nathalie, please die...

Oh yay! The class is enabling Marinette's stalking... AGAIN! ISN'T THAT JUST LOVELY?!

Okay but why the fuck do the 2D drawings Nathaniel made for his and Marc's dumbass plan look so GOOD?! They have no right to be this amazing

Ew, Zoé

Okay, I hate how Chloé keeps being portrayed as a complete asshole but her coming down a vent on a harness like a goddamn super spy was iconic ngl, that's some queen shit

I know Chloé is supposed to be in the wrong here but like... Gabriel taking Adrien out of the school over seeing the video Chloé filmed of Marinette and co scheeming would actually be a reasonable reaction? Like as a parent how would you react if you found out that not only was one of your son's classmates stalking him but that the rest of the class was enabling and encouraging said stalker? Like I'm not rooting for Marinette and her friends here! What they're doing is GROSS!!!!

Okay, I'm getting tired of people being blind in this show, Marinette putting on a moustache is apparently enough to convice everyone that she's a male server, what the fuck?!

God, I love Felix being a sneaky little shit! Yes, Gabriel, keep throwing those tantrums! Seeing you suffer brings me so much joy!!!!!

Okay but it's so wild to me that Felix has only been in TWO episodes so far and has done more investigating on Hawkmoth than our two main heroes have done in FOUR SEASONS!!!!

Again, I am not rooting for Marinette to stop Chloé from showing Gabriel evidence of her and her enablers being creepy

Okay so, the scene where Gabriel threatens Felix can mean two things with the way it was worded, acording to the subtitles I got Gabriel said that he could make Felix disappear with just a snap of his finger which means that either 1. Felix is a sentimonster or 2. Gabriel is threatening an actual literal child, I really hope it's the second option... because if it's the first one then Felix, the only character who has put any effort into finding out who Hawkmoth is, can now just be erased from existence whenever the writers feel like it, isn't that great?! Like this show's writing is so bad that I wouldn't put it pass them...

Felix resisted both an Akuma and an Amok, we stan

Okay, the Collector using a tablet instead of a book this time around is a neat twists to his power but... he still has the same power as many other akumatized villains and I'm not a fan of repeat akumas so... yeah

Why the fuck did Kagami even try to fight the Collector? Like, girl, you don't even have a miraculous, what the fuck are you even hoping to accomplish?

The akuma battle is nothing special so it's not worth talking about

Chloé's plans are ruined because of course they are

Gabriel's plan to make the magical charms useless in the same season they were introduced in begins

Felix still knows that Gabriel is Hawkmoth, good thing that stuck at least (I am still incredibly worried about him...)

The stalker and her enablers came out victorious, yay...

Tfw Felix feels more like Gabriel's archenemy than Ladybug and Chat Noir

In conclusion:

Felix being a sentimonster is just as stupid of a concept as Adrien being one like... WHY?! WHAT'S EVEN THE POINT OF THIS?! WHY COULDN'T AMELIE AND EMELIE HAVE HUMAN CHILDREN?! WHAT WOULD THIS EVEN ADD TO THE PLOT?! WHAT EVEN IS THIS WRITING?! But, these concepts are stupid and nonsensical enough to actually be canon... considering the writing of this show so... I am afraid.

[sour-n-salty-citrus]

Do you like the backstory for rick? Idk I kinda preferred it when Rick's past was a complete mystery and i dont really care about diane at all. I didn't expect the writers to actually write a canon for him either but I guess they realised how much the audience wanted one for him

Ajdjdjeidjs ack, I'll be honest I'm not... keen on it.

(Bolly-quinn actually puts it into words well how I feel about Rick's backstory here)

I liked the mystery element of his backstory! I know it's always exciting to have things in canon, but like... it being open to interpretation was something I always appreciated.

And... ugh, hoo boy. I'm torn. I mean, I love that Rick is completely different from what dudebros and like- "high iq" redditors present him as. He's a man who loved his wife and daughter, loved them so much he would rather give up travelling the multiverse, becoming a genius scientist, just to stay with them. He was vulnerable, soft, and caring. He wasn't nihilistic and reckless and selfish and some "alpha male who wouldn't let anything tie him down". He was ridiculously romantic, optimistic, sweet and loving, and maybe even kind.

And I don't give a shit.

I don't! I don't care. This might sound incredibly cruel and unfair, but I don't care that Rick lost his family.

Ok- let me explain.

I'm... disappointed. I'm disappointed that losing Beth and Diane is all it was that made Rick into the complete and utter monster he is today (or the start of the series anyway). I don't mean to undermine his loss and grief- at all! It's just... for him to go on a (seemingly decades long) killing spree, slaughtering any version of himself he seemed to come across... christ. Maybe in his eyes, they were all as bad as that One. Which is understandable. I'm very lucky to have not experienced that kind of loss. I haven't had to Grieve the way Rick did. Maybe I just don't get it, because I've never felt it. That's fair.

It just felt... god, I don't want to say excessive. I know, people process grief in different ways, and for some it manifests in unhealthy ways, some lash out at the world, fixate on trying to find an explanation, to find justice, etc. And I like how Rick was an absolute inconsolable wreck at first. Something like that, it needs time to process and overcome before you can start moving again.

I just- I don't know. Something rubbed me the wrong way about it all.

It's like- it's not that I wanted Rick to have spent all that time partying or something. It's just- argh, i don't know! Maybe someone else can put it into better words lol.

I hate that he immediately jumped into not giving a single shit about other people (save birdperson and squanchy!). Like- when he blew up those aliens who gave him whatever it was he needed. Ah- ok, they probably weren't exactly innocent or anything, but still. I think it was just I felt if we ever saw Rick's backstory, I'd want it to be a slow decline into who he is, show him gradually losing so much of his morality and becoming so jaded. Idk i guess i just wanted it to be like, a series of significant (and lesser but still important) events that lead to him going down that path rather than- this ONE thing that just apparently completely ruined him? And yeah ik ik it was a BIG thing, but like- i guess i was expecting.... more? Maybe something like idk Rick trying to save all the other Beths and Dianes and failing, idk, just... something more.

I actually would have preferred it if Diane lived. I dont know, I just- man I really hate the dead wife/daughter turns ordinary man into callous asshole trope. I agree, it's hard to really care all that much for Diane, and for a while I couldn't understand why. I thought, idk, is it internalised misogyny? Do I just not like Diane because I want to ship Rick with someone else?

I think I get it now. Diane, for all her significance in Rick's backstory, just... isn't a character. She's just- the motivation Rick needed to kick off the story. You could replace her with literally anybody else Rick could have loved and it wouldn't feel any different. She just doesn't feel special. She's no more unique than any other Dead Wife. We get nothing, literally nothing of her. I kept thinking, why? Why does this just not hit that hard? Rick's had emotional moments with Beth, with Birdperson, even with Summer and Jerry. And then I got it- it doesn't feel earned. It felt like how you feel when you see side characters or extras in the background of an action movie die. Maybe some faint sadness, but mainly nothing. We as an audience get nothing from Diane, we don't know her, don't get to see how she matters to Rick, don't get to see her relationship with Rick, we don't get any chance to connect with her character. So when she dies and Rick gets his montage of seeking revenge, it doesn't feel earned. It feels more like I'm being told about how this guy suffered than really seeing it (which i believe, may have been the writers intention actually...). It's kind of like a feeling of "damn that sucks bro... and?". There's no real heavy emotional response that I could really get from it...

I actually would have preferred if Rick and Diane broke up, divorced. I feel like that would offer so much more for them BOTH as chatacters. Instead of their relationship being happy and sunshine and rainbows until a Big Bad came in and took that away, I'd prefer it if Rick's downfall was just... his fault. (Actually His fault.) If his marriage fell apart because he couldn't make it work. If he estranged his daughter because he couldn't properly handle fatherhood, despite loving her. If he was flawed, terribly flawed, because of his own misjudgement and shortcomings. I guess my biggest problem, is that this is presented as someone having the perfect life, which is then taken away as a result of someone Else. It's too easy to then say, oh, it's not his fault he's like that! He had his heart broken, his life ruined! He lost himself in a revenge spree, poor thing... I'd have rathered if it was just a little bit more... realistic? If Rick had been the root cause of his own problems. If he'd experienced tragedy, but also been the cause of much more. I just wish there'd been more of a balance? It just felt so rushed. And not because of the montage- it just like Rick became completely apathetic way too fast. I just hate hate HATE the "he was a good guy with the perfect little life until tragedy struck and he was never the same". Rick never made the effort to improve his life, to do better, to be better. He's actively a cruel, callous, unkind person (complex, yes, but these are traits no one can deny he harbours). He's done far worse than was done to him, and that will never be justifiable to me... it just all feels so very cliche and out of place, and out of everything, this was the one thing I had hoped they wouldn't do.

I think the writers are aware of this, strangely enough. I mean, Rick even calls it his "crybaby backstory". I think they didn't want to leave it open any longer, and just got it out of the way. I don't think they really want to elaborate on it anymore. From what I predict, they want to focus on the here and now of Rick (and Morty, haha), and the development of who Rick is NOW, instead of who he WAS. I think they kind of just went, here's your gut-punch, your tragic backstory, now leave it alone. Diane is dead, Rick had a hard past, the series is about moving on and change. Now can we PLEASE get back to the sci-fi shenanigans?

(There was something I LOVED about the backstory though, and that was the soundtrack! Like the music for the Battle of Bloodridge, it fucking SLAPPPEDDDD. I can't imagine making synthwave emotional, but it actually kind of worked! The swell of the music actually did a lot more for getting a reaction out of me than the content lmaooo. It kind of reminded me of Kurzegast's "optimistic nihilism" for some reason... I actually liked the Bloodridge track so much, it got me a little into synthwave, which i never listened to before! The music producers this season have just KILLED IT!)

[charminglatina]

I’m done with Riverdale.

I gave Riverdale and the writers of this show so many chances to fix their shit. I gave them so many chances to write better storylines, to stop with the repetitive shit, to stop writing the same boring couples every single season, to stop with the character assassination, to stop with the fan service, to try different relationships and refreshing dynamics, to stop destroying characters/couples for the sake of other characters/couples, etc. And the show just continues to let me down over and over and over again. Last night’s episode was the worst episode in Riverdale history. Relationships were destroyed left and right, characters were assassinated and written out of character. Archie was completely OOC in last night’s episode. He was a complete fucking asshole and prick. Archie in no way looked like the hero and protagonist of Riverdale. He didn’t live up to the values, ideals and standards that he claims to have. Instead, he came off as an unsympathetic, emotionless, disgusting, cheating, fickle piece of garbage douchebag. Archie Andrews is no fucking hero and the writers completely destroyed his character within 45 minutes and a single episode. He is irredeemable from my point of view and his character is beyond repair at this point. There is nothing that can fix that mess of a character. His treatment of women in general is disgusting and misogynistic. The way he treated Betty in 5x08 was absolutely abhorrent, degrading and despicable. He acted like he had zero emotions or feelings for her and that he just used her for sex. He then dumps her and runs back to the same toxic relationship with Veronica. Even after seven years, Archie hasn’t changed or grown at all.He’s still the same stupid and immature punk that he was in high school. FUCK ARCHIE ANDREWS. He’s THE WORST main character, lead, and protagonist I’ve ever seen on any show. Not even Elena Gilbert from TVD or Lucas Scott from OTH is as horrible or badly written as he is. Archie is much more of a villain than a hero. There’s nothing that the writers can do to make Archie a good character again. His character is beyond reproach and they should be ashamed to have a piece of shit like Archie leading their show. Veronica is acting like a thirsty, desperate, trampy whore throwing herself at another man while she’s still married and the ink hasn’t even dried on her divorce papers. She has revealed herself to be an extremely controlling, domineering, conniving, money hungry and manipulative bitch. She is so fucking detestable and unlikeable. I can’t root for her character. I actually HATE Veronica now and I never thought I would say that. The writers completely butchered her character just as badly as Archie’s. It’s evident that after five seasons, the writers don’t know what the fuck to do with her character but have her be Hiram’s chew toy or having her constantly chasing after Archie like some pathetic desperate hussy. She’s become the worst character on the show and she has had zero character development. All of her storylines are the same: they either revolve around her father or around men in general. Veronica is a shallow character that lacks complexity and depth. She is nothing more than Hiram Lodge with lipstick and a skirt/dress. As someone who is Latina, Veronica is a horrible representation of Latina and hispanic women in media. Veronica Lodge is an absolute embarrassment to the Hispanic and Latinx community and I’m ashamed of her character at this point. She doesn’t represent me and I don’t want her kind of character to represent my community. RAS and the writers clearly hate Camila Mendes. I can’t say that Camila’s acting is helping matters either. Betty is an emotionally unstable, whiny, pathetic doormat for Archie and a complete fucking emotional mess. She was nothing but a sex toy/booty call for Archie so that he could get his rocks off. As soon as the sex wore off, Archie and no problem with dumping her and throwing her away ;ike a dirty tissue. And Betty didn’t fight for herself. She didn’t fight for her feelings. She didn’t stand up to Archie for disrespecting her like that and using her. Archie used her for pleasure and than acted as if she were nothing to him. And Betty just fucking took it?? Why doesn't Betty just stand up for herself for once? Why doesn’t she stop being such a doormat for him and letting Archie stomp on her feelings all the time? Does she have no self respect? The one thing that makes Betty’s character somewhat salvageble is the fact that Lili Reinhart is an amazing fucking actress and for that, you can’t help but feel sympathy for her even if she’s being written as a pathetic doormat and Archie’s sex toy. Chad is a narcissistic, abusive POS who is Hiram 2.0. What was the purpose of his character on the show? Just to cause some tension between Varchie? What a waste of an actor and character. Jughead is a pathetic drunk and a lazy bum with no purpose. His sole reason for existing is to get drunk every episode, get abducted by aliens and be saved by girls. The writers are ruining my fave character on the show. Kevin is a cheating piece of shit. He has no clue what monogamy is or what a real relationship stands for and means. He’s nothing more than a walking and talking negative gay stereotype. Reggie was completely destroyed this season. They had him turn on his friends and side with Hiram, the town bully. Reggie is a complete douche and any character development he had in the earlier seasons has vanished. The writers butchered his character horribly and it’s a shame because Charles Melton is a decent dude and actor who deserves a better storyline and material. Cheryl is a sociopath with no remorse for her horrible behaviour and she treats Toni like garbage. I don’t know how Toni can stand being with her or around her. She doesn’t give a shit who she hurts in the process as long as she is creating chaos for her own amusement. Cheryl is a horrible person and the fact that she has had no development for hasn’t changed makes things worse. Also, it’s evident that Madeleine Petsch (along with the rest of the cast, LBR), is completely phoning it in all season. Her acting is terrible and cringeworthy. At this point, Cheryl is so awful and toxic that I don't think I want her to be with Toni or for Choni to reunite in the future. Toni deserves better than this red haired creature. Toni is, once again and as usual, being sidelined. I expected this to happen sooner than later. I figured that Toni would be relegated to a support character once more or to go back to being Cheryl’s punching bag. Though Toni being sidelined isn’t really her fault or the writers fault because Vanessa is on maternity leave. As if the characters haven't been destroyed, the relationships have been slaughtered and decimated left and right. Choni is toxic as fuck. Barchie was made out to be nothing of substance but sex (plus the way they got together is sickening including the cheating and the FWB plot line which amounted to nothing in the end). Bughead is an awkward repetitive and annoying bore with no chemistry. Varchie is the worst couple on the show, toxic as hell with no chemistry and takes up too much screen time. Kangs was destroyed for absolutely no reason. The only couple that has potential to be something great and substantial is Jabitha but considering the writers track record, I expect them to ruin them for Bughead. It’s only a matter of time. Tick tock. ⏰ To top it all off, the storylines are absolutely fucking ridiculous this season. Archie with his stupid overblown hero complex trying to save Riverdale? BORING. Hiram being the same boring villain AGAIN and trying to take down the same group of teenagers he was harassing seven years ago? REPETITIVE. The Mothman/Aliens storyline? We’re dealing with fucking ALIENS??? Aliens of all things? What the actual fuck are the writers smoking?! Then there’s the whole Polly storyline which is boring and repetitive.. Try something different for fucks sake. I’m not gonna get into the whole TBK nonsense which also reeks of repetitive storytelling. There's way too many plot lines and storylines being told and it’s a jumbled, incoherent mess. There’s only so much nonsense that you can take before you finally snap and say enough is enough. I’m at that point. For me to cut something or someone out of my life for good, it’s got to be something or someone really horrible. Riverdale is one of those things. Riverdale has made my viewing and fandom experience absolutely fucking miserable. It’s caused me significant upset and emotional distress because of how attached I was to these characters and relationships. Now it seems like it was all a waste. What was the point? Why did I stick around to watch the characters and the relationships on this show get butchered? The writers don’t know what the fuck they are doing. They continue to be stuck in the same rut and a time jump hasn’t fixed that. I’M DONE. There’s no more chances. The show is dead to me as are the Riverdale cast and the writers. The show should just end this season. Season 6 should either be cancelled or shortened to 10 episodes. Stop wasting the audience’s time with this garbage.

[imagining-in-the-margins]

Hi! You often give alot of insight into anons like this and your my fave CM blog so that's why I'm here! So I'm finishing up the last seasons (and lord it is hard to get through) and they just introduced Max and I cannot stand her. She was just so rude and it felt like she had 2 different personalities the entire time she was on screen. And I worried that this meant I was like hating women because I don't like other female characters like Maeve, JJ, Hailey, and Seaver. But then I started thinking and I honestly think it's cause these Characters are women poorly written by men. But then I wondered how they created likeable Characters like Emily, Kristy, Blake, Tara, and Penelope (leaving out others like Savannah because they're under developed in my opinion) I don't know what's the difference in the writing for these Characters or of there isn't any at all and I'm just being hateful in a way. What are your thoughts?

Ah, I think about this a lot. Thank you for thinking I’m interesting enough to answer this, also!

I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head with the writers doing a poor job at most of their female characters. However, I think it’s possible (and very common in this fandom) for people to dislike any character Spencer showed an interest in, which is also problematic and rooted in internalized misogyny. To me, it all comes down to why you dislike the characters.

(A LOT More Below - Bit of a Rant)

The first step I took when reflecting to see if this was my problem was rewatching and seeing which female characters I loved. Along with the ones you listed, I also found a number of side characters I greatly enjoyed, including Lila, Austin, Dr. Linda Kamura (from Amplification, the anthrax episode), Einstein, Megan Kane, and a few other random case characters. So, right off the bat I found multiple characters who Spencer showed an affinity for. I also greatly enjoyed Cat’s character, although I found her to be underdeveloped in canon (Fanon has done a good job, IMO) and often contradictory in her character design.

If you didn’t like any of these women, and your reason is related purely to Spencer’s reactions to them, chances are you might be suffering from a bit of jealousy rather than improper character design - not that you need to like them all (or the ones that I like), but because they are all very different. You should, theoretically, find something to enjoy about at least one of them.

But the CM Writers have a TERRIBLE habit of writing women that are easy to hate.

There’s a bunch of controversy I see over Haley Hotchner, but the truth is that they wrote her to be hated. That was her sole purpose. Her character’s decisions were poorly thought out and she was shown to be malicious 80% of the time. This was intentional. She was written to personify the trope of the nagging housewife. If you dislike her, you have done nothing but follow the narrative.

That being said, you should also criticize why they wrote her this way. Because it didn’t make any sense. She married a prosecutor - a dangerous, time consuming job. She had Jack when she knew he was with the BAU. Why did she randomly change her tune? Why did she suddenly demand he gives up on his dreams that she was fully aware of for years? I’d argue they wrote it like this to further the narrative of “the wife who traps you with a child to force you to do what she wants” which is garbage writing. I wish people could look at the potential she had if they hadn’t written her like... that.

Maeve, I find, is problematic on multiple aspects and I’ve talked about it before. Her narrative was poorly thought out because as soon as they pitched the idea of a long-term love interest for Spencer, everyone (most notably Gubler) rejected it. They didn’t think it was necessary for his character, who already had a lot going on with the ignored plot lines of his drug addiction and mother.

There were multiple problems associated with her character that were never addressed. The fact she essentially just took advantage of a patient because she was bored, she seemed to “correct” his interests and show annoyance when he disagreed with her, she lied about having a fiance, she was shown to be considering breaking up with him... there’s a lot.

Her character is poorly written. It had a lot of potential, but they just kind of stopped caring once they decided to kill her off. She had more faults shown on screen than redeeming qualities. For many, they liked her because they see there was a potential that we’ll never see (fair). But for people like me, we interpret it as a idealized fantasy of what could have (but probably wouldn’t have) been, which is not healthy for Spencer.

JJ is an interesting character because you can feel the constant struggle between AJ Cook and the writers. They really sabotaged JJ at every step of the way. I’ll be honest and say that I think there are some reasons to hate JJ, but they aren’t the reasons I see most often. Almost all of the JJ hate I see is surrounding the idea that JJ is an evil, manipulative, jealous bitch. But.. she’s not. Even in Truth or Dare, when she pulls that asshole move that was wildly OOC for JJ (in my opinion), she isn’t shown to be jealous or cruel about it.

I think she’s the most likely target for people who’s hatred is driven from jealousy or disliking conventionally attractive women and assuming them to be bitchy by nature of looking “beautiful.” I think Lila Archer* also falls into this category.

But as I said, JJ was also written with a lot of flaws. I think it’s fair if you don’t like her character or the way she treats Spencer, but I also hope that you similarly criticize the whole team in the same way, and don’t just pity Spencer because he is smol uwu babie who needs protection.

(* Yet another reminder that I ask everyone to not message me about J Depp or Amber Heard. Reactive Abuse is an extreme trigger for me and I will block you if you try to get me to talk about it)

Seaver got a lot of hate based off one line of dialogue. I think it was a bad line. If they had left it out, there would be essentially no reason in my mind to dislike Seaver. I used to dislike her a lot, but the more I rewatch the show, the less she bothers me. She was just a young student who wanted to learn about her father/herself. She was MASSIVELY underdeveloped because they kicked her off just as quickly as they invited her in.

NO character was developed that quickly. Her scenes were a bit cringey and the plotlines were bad, and her character was mediocre. I don’t think she deserves the hate she gets. She is a lukewarm character.

I hate everything Max’s character represents. She was introduced to show that Spencer could be trained to be “normal” and it’s anti-autistic bullshit. She had no personality besides “I hate my low-brow job as a teacher and couldn’t be fucked to change it until a man told me I was smart.” She was cracking high-school-clique jokes while her family was about to be murdered. She immediately abandoned said family to make out with her boyfriend who just admitted to enjoying kissing the woman who tried to murder her family.

Her character makes absolutely zero sense. I do not understand how she is so liked. I really don’t (other than the fact that RLC is absolutely wonderful).

If they had left her character out, I think we would have been better off for it. We could have seen Spencer wrestle with defining himself by the women in his life and learning to love himself (without just replacing those women with... another... woman...)

That being said, those who cling to Max for hope of a happy ending for Spencer... I felt that. Fanon and fanfic can solve all character deficiencies. I believe in you.

So, yeah. I’d say if you’re worried about why you dislike women characters, you’re probably on the right path. I’d just reflect on why you dislike the characters you do and whether they are written as misogynistic stereotypes. It makes complete sense to reject characters written for the purpose of making you hate them, but we should all pour one out for the brilliant actresses that had characters with so much potential if not for men ruining it.

[mc-critical]

Something I can never bring myself to understand is the MY fandom’s seeming obsession with *proving* Mahidevran or Hürrem as the more morally correct, more noble, more respect-worthy etc sultana. Or measuring whose actions and beliefs were the most justifiable or who suffered the most unfortunate circumstances. It seems to completely ignore the fact that most characters in the franchise, sans a small handful of characters, fall into the category of morally questionable or ambiguous. I feel like both Mahidevran and Hürrem are both victims to the same terrible circumstances and the enviornment in which they both lived and were forced to adapt to was a catalyst to a lot of their deplorable actions and beliefs. They both came to the palace as concubines with no family nor money to their names (I can’t recall if this was held consistent in the TV series for Mahidevran’s case or not but I know this is the case for her historically as well), both of them had their worth and their livelihood tied to their ability to produce princes and please the Sultan (who will take any opportunity to remind these women that they are a mere piece of property to him anytime they attempt to assert themselves in any way.) Then there’s the looming threat of the principle of fratricide that basically haunted them throughout the entirety of their motherhood. I’m in no way saying the immoral decisions they made was justifiable or somehow okay (Mahidevran killing Mehmet, Hürrem killing Mustafa, etc.) I just feel that there’s a lot of black-and-white thinking at play whenever the Mahi/Hürrem discourse comes up. What do you think?

Thank you for bringing this up, because it's probably the thing that bugs me the most about this fandom (outside of Tumblr currently). You voiced my overall thoughts into words so well!

I think these double standarts come from many places that can be both the only reasons for a person or just one of the many. In my experience, this "black or white", "all or nothing" attitude stems from the absolutist belief that people should pick sides and root for only one character (usually the protagonist) in a narrative. They're using the standard, superficial narrative roles of the protagonist and the antagonist in terms of Hürrem, thinking that for some reason the protagonist is always morally right in all she does, simply because she's the protagonist and we're supposed to unconditionally root for her. And if they don't like the protagonist, they choose root for "the other side" instead. They're better than that anyway, so of course, we should root for them!!

To be honest, the earlier seasons of the show make an attempt in justifying this assessment, with them having the narrative voice be rooted in Hürrem's favor, despite of all possible problematic actions that tell a different story altogether. MC Hürrem was given very understandable and sympathetic motivations, thorough character exploration, gradual character development and the privilege of far too obvious Plot Armor (make no mistake, every historical figure in the show has Plot Armor, but with the many attempts at her life, Hürrem's in particular, was way too glaring at points, sometimes to a ridiculous degree.) and the writers making her enemies doom themselves by their own failings, with her seemingly only enduring the "charade". (Valide's flanderization post-E38 is the most egregious example of this.) People I've encountered that are excusing Hürrem's behavior, are citing precisely the first episodes to present their arguments, often refusing to go beyond that. Mahidevran's motivations, while as nuanced as Hürrem's, don't seem as delved into in comparison at first (the origins and backstory of MC Mahidevran are shrouded in ambiguity, and while this is thematically appropriate for her character arc, as I explained here, it definetly doesn't help her case in bringing in more vocal sympathy.) and it could seem that her character is simply antagonistic to Hürrem, doesn't go anywhere and later revels in the depths of her ambition and wounded pride earlier than Hürrem began that similar development of hers. Some Mahi stans could see that probable difference of treatment in narrative and support her simply because of that, as well.

Assessing moral ambiguity isn't all that easy in the grand scheme of things, but it especially falls short when the narrative voice seemingly doesn't support it at first. But many miss that there's a very thin line between the actions and the narrative voice, that only turns into a very deep incongruity as the series progresses. I don't know, perhaps determing the moral ambiguity is indeed so complex, confusing and conflicting, since the whole story could get too complex and many might wonder who they'll root for now when everyone is so problematic. And that's a show that began as a simple soap opera, no less! Why would they even put in the effort in this case?

Not many people are used to ambiguous and questionable character development and are still trying to prove that there is one main positive characters in the show, which is why they try to make Mahidevran or Hürrem more morally right and justifiable than they actually are. They are so passionate about the debates they engage in, because this time period and MC is truly so ripe in analysis and it could be very fun to figure out where these characters come from and go through their 4-seasons long evolution in one chosen context, but by doing this, they so often miss the depth and nuance of the subject at hand and it all turns into a one-sided discourse that drives me nuts.

There is a historical context of the issue is also important to note, in my opinion. Both Mahidevran and Hürrem are historical figures and quite a bit of facts and deeds of theirs are now widely known. Most people in the fandom have opinions of them in advance or could've gained opinions of them a while after they began to watch the show. (There are also numerous fictional interpretations of the events during Süleiman's reign and the players in it, which may also play a part in the overall judgement.) Either way, the known historical facts about them (and other fictional interpretations one could've read, of course) could influence their points of view by a certain amount and use these general impressions to present them while analyzing the characters in the show. I've heard numerous arguments that this Hürrem isn't like the Hürrem the history knows about, that she isn't "their" Hürrem and what they read about her isn't depicted all that much in the show, which takes a lot away, according to them. I especially hate when they call MC Hürrem a one-dimensional "evil" caricature that only has vileness and smug about her, no conscience, no complexity whatsoever. (no, MC Hürrem isn't as simplistic and is much deeper and more nuanced. As far as fictional interpretations go, what they're describing is Hürrem in "The Sultan's Harem" from Colin Falconer, not MC Hürrem! In the MC/K franchise's terms, all they're doing is reducing her to the level of MCK Turhan Sultan, which is disrespectful to this character, to say the least. Turhan is the exact thematic contrast to Hürrem smh while Falconer's Hürrem is the most absurdly evil caricature imaginable, at least IMO, please and thank you!) Or even more unbelievably and outright hilariously, considering Hürrem's actions and the Sultanate of Women overall the downfall of the Ottoman Empire o.o and that's why Hürrem is so ruthless, so cruel, always intentionally, of course. This is plain ridiculous. Mahidevran, on the other hand, is presented by this clique as her "victim", as a completely innocent victim that had everything taken away from her. That Hürrem had stood between her and Süleiman and "ruined" their family. This take ignores every other factor of this falling out (Süleiman, that is) and a part of the nuance of Mahidevran's character. Reducing her to a simple "victim" doesn't cut it at all. Conversely, we have fans that simplify MC Mahidevran's character beyond every belief, loving the historical figure, but claiming they made her an "evil" and "stupid" bitch that cries and whines all the time. It's limiting and one-sided and even if it appears so, there are way far more layers to her character, that develop consistently throughout the narrative. The historical context of the time period itself is usually brought up in the debates, too, justifying whoever they want to justify by "It's a war, only the strongest ones survive!" or "You eat or get eaten! We should understand their time period, not judge by our contemporary times !", which is understandable and valid, but the only thing they end up doing is applying this logic only to their preferred characters when it should be applied to everyone. They try their best efforts to make one more morally right than the other, but they continually fail in the process, because the metric they judge them from is plagued by double standarts.

I wholeheartedly agree with you that excusing one of them, but not the other for most situations is wrong, because Mahidevran and Hürrem.... aren't all that different. What most people seem to miss, is that their character arcs are so contrastingly paralleling, because both of their endings were far from victorious and they got it for the exact same character reason, gained in a different way and in a different time. The persistent insistence of the fandom wanting a main character necessarily having a triumphant grand finale fails flat immediately, because there is no true victory in the franchise. They also miss the negative character development of both of them, them having to do the exact same stuff in many instances, both of them letting go of their pasts and/or former attachments, becoming vicious and ruthless in order to adapt to the circumstances, both of them had to make moves out of desperation because they felt threatened and they both protected their lives and the ones of their children at the end of the day. Heck, they're way more alike than they're different in my book. There is no morally right, no more noble here. Both of them had no qualms to do whatever it took to secure their own future and as you said, the narrative presented very neat motivations for them to do so as a whole. There is always a shade of grey and yes, who has the lighter shade of gray could be up for debate due to differing sympathies and perceptions, but that mustn't stop people to at least try looking at the "bigger picture" and try to view their characters with a bit more criticality, depth and respect.

Rooting for both conflicting sides is still seen as questionable and contradictory by some, but there really is nothing wrong with exploring their motivations without justifying them, no matter where your sympathies extend. I think it creates a more unbiased outlook on the both these characters and the themes around them and it's always awesome to see people doing that in any fandom, really.

And both Sultanas are worthy of respect, I said what I said.

[littlefoxwithbighat]

Hi! This is talking about the plot of the dream smp in a meta sense and its a bit negative. The person behind this blog wants to remind you that you can skip if it's not for you and they still love the SMP. :)

ALL DISCUSSION IS ABOUT CHARACTERS. DON'T ATTACK CCS OR I WILL STEAL YOUR KNEECAPS.

I can't lie; I'm really annoyed and worried at the way the writers are handling Tommys character at the moment, and am increasingly concerned about it messing up the plot.

I wasn't very happy with the finale. I don't think that means all is lost, I think they can pull it back but it's going to take some work. I was worried about the way that things were handled before but the green festival was actually very well handled, so my worries were mostly assuaged. But yesterday? I don't know.

The fact nobody lost a cannon death is kind of disappointing. The weight of blowing up an entire city/ (country?) brutally is somewhat lost if there is no human loss. Nobody was hurt physically and the only people this had a big mental impact on was Tommy and Tubbo, everyone else wasn't very attached to L'manburg or had gone rogue, or were detatched from the while situation. And maybe it's the fact it's happened to them before or that they still have each other or that it seems odd/ frustrating that they still care so much about this place or that it was always a losing battle and they knew it, but I dont find myself really pitying them like I probably should. And I think that comes down to character growth or lack thereof, which I'll discuss later.

Niki and Fundy have started a villain arc, or at least a violent nihilism arc, and I actually don't mind it, in fact I'm a fan but it wasnt really foreshadowed, or really just showing them cracking as much as it should have been. I would guess this has mostly been started for both of them to tie Niki into the plot and I can't blame her for wanting that. Fundys acting is very good, and I REALLY hope the writers handle this well. For Fundy, regarding the fact that his father is going to be resurrected and that Fundy is following in his footsteps... If the writers don't realise that connection and make this a big step in Fundys narrative I will scream. Also Funboo bros are very interesting character foils and I hope their relationship is maintained so that they can play of off each other and also man I just really want them to keep being friends, it's a generally positive healthy relationship that makes both characters sympathetic and we need that right now. As for Niki, her character motivations seem to be mostly centered around Tommy and on the one hand I'm like ehhhh, because Tommy's character already gets a disproportionate amount of attention in terms of narrative, and I get it, but recently he's been a bit TOO much of the protagonist for a multi-person POV improve server... and I'm apprehensive. However on the other hand this has potential for a nice confrontation between Tommy and Niki. If that happens I want Tommy to be aware that this is going to happen and not talk over Niki, and I don't want it to be brushed over. I think it would be best if it was just the two of them. This also gives a nice chance for Tommy to examine his trauma with Dream and explain his motivations and Niki to get her anger out. I also want it to end positively, because it absolutely can and lack of communication when the viewer knows how to fix it is OK as a plot device sometimes but incredibly frustrating if it keeps happening (cough, Tommy and Techno).

Ranboo is reacting to the plot amazingly and I have as usual only praise for him, go, you funky enderman boy, go.

Wilbur is getting resurrected which is a thousand percent because Will wants the plot back and honestly I don't really mind, I think he'll do a good job. However I really hope he speaks to everybody about their characters, particularly Fundy, Ranboo and Niki because I don't want their characterisation and arcs to be thrown away.

Tubbo is doing very well, and I don't have many complaints to be honest. I hope he continues to get in with the acting with no shame, because he's an amazing VA when he wants to be, but sometimes he undercuts serious moments a little too much by laughing. Same criticism for Phil actually. But both are doing good.

On the theme of that, while I don't mind tension relievers or humour in serious moments there are sometimes too many. It was a lot worse about a month back and it was improving, but it seems to be creeping back in and ehhh. It's kind of Marvel-esque and not in a good way? I think it has a lot to do with bloopers and for some reason there are loads at the moment? Like Wilburs arc had almost none and this arc there's at least 2 every moment. Which isn't always their fault but maybe they need to take more steps to prevent them.

Techno is doing OK, he's quite a meta character so I'm not too mad about him undercutting serious moments but sometimes he does do it too much or in the wrong place. Like making jokes about Connor completely over the top of Tommy and Tubbos reunion, you know an event which has been foreshadowed for yoinks, prevented them from getting a proper flow going and kind of ruined it. And that made the reunion really dissapointing, which is a shame because it could have been so cool. However his characterisation is consistent and dedicated, his goals and relationships are clear and he's getting humanised more which is nice, and his monologues are great. I'm curious to see what he does now NL'M is gone but I have total faith in him.

Now Tommy. Oh Tommy. His character is such a mess at the moment, which is a shame because there were moments I saw people doubting his character choices and I was behind him.

Firstly the relationship with Techno fell apart. That was inevitable. Tommy didn't care about anarchy and Techno didn't care about the discs and both of their goals would impede the others. But the way Tommy talks about Techno is so... No? And now I understand that Tommy is going to have a biased perspective on the whole situation, and that's fine and good, but his character is so wrong about Techno it feels weird and painful? Like even from his perspective it went down differently to how he talks about it. They don't listen to each other and it's like watching two people scream at a wall.

The issue is the relationship was fairly well developed. I struggle to see Tommy saying he saw Techno as a friend but Techno never saw him as a friend because hold on, what? Techno, here's a respiration helmet because of that one of thing you told me about your trauma, a disc because those make you happy, plus top tier armour and weaponry, plus I'm going to spend time with you, calm you down from panic attacks, hide you and protect you from Dream, let you wander around L'manburg and achieve your own goals and help you plan things out Techno and Tommy didn't get ANYTHING from that? Plus after Techno opens up about his goals and his trauma, do the one thing that would hurt him the most, (use and then betray him) and then directly oppose his goals after he helped me? Ugh. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I know he would never let Tubbo get hurt and thats fine, but there were ways around that. If you're framing this character as the protagonist, then he needs to be sympathetic or at least grow and Tommy using Techno again without remorse and then refusing to listen to his perspective or show any gratitude for anything makes it difficult for viewers to empathise with him in my opinion. Have him betray Techno and then listen to Techno when he explains why Tommys betrayal hurt him and apologise, fine. Have him listen to Techno and try and find a way to keep Tubbo safe regardless, fine. Have him betray Techno but apologetically and still trying to avoid Techo getting crushed or killed, fine. But THIS? Im sympathetic towards Tommys character but this throws away so much potential character development for Tommy, where at least he saw Techno as a person, and not only that but a nice person who despite everything has set aside everything to help him? And then for him to be exactly where he was at the end of season 1, both literally, and emotionally ? I understand this is a child soldier with trauma but this is supposed to be our protagonist and if he doesn't grow, and isn't sympathetic and destroys someone we care about, how can we root for him?

Now all of this could be forgivable, not great, but forgivable, if Tommy had moved on from the discs. The Goddamn Discs™. And the worse part is all the dominoes were lined up to suggest he had! We had his moment of "he watched me" where he realised Dream was the villain and controlling him, "I've become worse than everyone I hated" good, amazing, I see where this is going, "The discs were worth more than you ever were!" and then he retracts and apologises and you think horray! Tommy has realised the discs were being used to control him and if he doesn't care about them, they hold no value! Now he's going to realise that his friends are more important and he's going to stop going after the discs. His new character motivation can be killing Dream and protecting his friends, especially Tubbo. It's clearly angled this way, and this way the plot progresses and Tommy with it. What marvellous character development. Look at him go.

And THEN, after everything that's happened he says the most important thing is the disc and I want them back!?!? EH !!? Why... Who... Who gave the OK on that writing decision? That's so static and boring and unsympathetic! And then he's back to asking people do fight for L'manburg? What?

I'll be honest I was kind go hoping either Tommy or Tubbo would die with L'manburg. I didn't mind it they didn't, there are a thousand ways to make the plot work without them dying, but this was not a great one.

PLEASE let Tommy have some growth. Yes he's had some from not caring about L'manburg to fighting for it in season one, but that was ages ago and he doesnt seem to have changed since then in any way that really counts. And I know this is harsh and he's traumatised but you have to understand I am talking about this in a sense of characters and narrative and NOT in terms of real life. Tommy needs to be better and dynamic because he is a charcacter and I want him to be a good one.

Having said all that, here are my thoughts on the future of the SMP.

Firstly, I am worried that becuse it is such a good source of content, especially for Tommy that they will never ever kill his character and leave him fighting with Dream for eternity. And I love the Dream SMP but I've seen stories that get dragged out for plot or content, and however much you think you want it to never end, let me tell you, yes you do. It will get stale and repetitive and I want the dream smp, or at least Tommys arc to go out with a beautiful and brilliant and fabulous plot ending instead of being dragged into the dirt. And then maybe new characters take the spotlight. Just please god give it a goode ending.

I also really hope they don't throw other things away to make Tommy the centre of attention, especially if it's destructive to the plot, or kind of weird and obnoxious.

Secondly, I am intrigued about the prison and Schlatts book to Dream and Technos favour and the egg and what that entails and I hope they really think through those plot points carefully and make them work, and don't forget them or throw them away.

Thirdly, I am intrigued for Wilburs return and hope that he manages to fix it cohesively without too crazy a change of pace and style and keeping characters (especially Ranboo and Fundy and Niki) consistent.

I hope they prep for the future and think things thought and communicate with each other.

It might be interesting to see other countries finally discussed but I don't know how much that would intefere with other plot points so we'll see.

That's all! Reminder that this is about characters and plot and this is just a few criticisms. I love the dream smp, but there are somethings I wanted to get of my chest. Please be respectful and feel free to discuss in the notes. Also, again, no hate to any CCs!

[flying-elliska]

Shadow and Bone Season 1 Review

Ok so I got distracted by a need to watch all of Ben Barnes' filmography (lmao) but here is my review : It was really fun to watch and it was clearly made with love which is already the main thing with YA fantasy, which is often turned into a soulless moneygrab when put on screen. The actors were GREAT. I did think that the Crows suffered from being mashed up with the Shadow and Bone story, but they were still a highlight. I also think it was a bit rushed, esp. when it came to Alina's training. The costumes were beautiful, I want a kefta now. Plus the crossover fanfic interactions btw the SaB characters and the Crows were just pure joy. Also Milo, obviously <3 I'm in hyperfixation mode so here, have an essay :

The "Shadow and Bone" Characters :

- Jessie Mei Li !!!!!! She really made me like Alina so much more than in the books, she absolutely is the 'human embodiment of literal sunshine' and she was a joy to watch. Her character's arc is cliché but her acting is so expressive and endearing, I really felt for her all the way through. (maybe I'm biased bc Jessie talking about her ADHD and seeing her thrive at the same time is like!!! i love them they deserve all the best.) I like that they made Alina more proactive - even though she does make some stupid decisions... but I just don't understand people who put that down as bad writing, like ??? have you ever met a real person who only makes wise, good decisions ?? a character like that would either be at the end of their story or just in the background because that makes them static. The things with the maps in the beginning does a good job of illustrating how she is just this one girl making rash, erratic decisions out of fear and loyalty and doesn't have a sense of the bigger picture, caught in the tide of bigger events. It works for her character. When it comes to the choice of making her half-Shu, I do think it really makes sense re: her character feeling like an outsider but I do understand the criticisms that the microaggressions felt too relentless and one-note. I am really looking forward to them introducing Tamar and Tolya and hopefully connecting to them over her heritage in a more positive way.

- Mal in the books was one of the most annoying YA characters I've ever come across, so I really liked that they made him much more of a loyal, devoted friend. I found his relationship with Alina cute, it really gives us the sense that these are two orphans who found a home in each other, childhood best friends (and potential sweethearts) separated by war, two army grunts and ordinary people caught up in the wheels of power and war that usually crushes people like them, it's a great way to introduce the dynamics of their world and it's a trope that always makes me emo. It felt a bit too one note to me, though, and too heavily on the nose, like Mal's only personality was his attachment to Alina (and his resentment towards the Grisha) and too much of her emotional arc also relied on him. Them hitting us over the head with the meadow scenes felt like pure telling instead of showing and it ended up being super repetitive and kind of annoying. I am willing to like this pairing, but I wanted more scenes of them just having conversations about things and really understanding why they like each other beyond the whole childhood friends bond that we're asked to accept exists at the beginning. So I hope there's more depth there in next seasons.

- Ben Barnes!!!! Just jksdfhgkdjghdf. I'm not a big villain stan usually and I hated the Darkling in the books but DAMN his performance is just amazing. They managed to make him more sympathetic and human while at the same time making clear the stuff he does is deeply horrible. There's the Magneto-aspect of 'well clearly his methods are fucked up but he's addressing a terrible injustice nobody is doing anything about' that makes it very tempting to root for him ; and again, well, like, Ben Barnes is so hot and charismatic it feels uncomfortable (which I guess is part of the point lol). His loss of humanity is, up to a point, understandable, brought about by despair, loneliness, grief and a sense of powerlessness - living so long he starts to see other people as disposable, losing so many people he stops caring, seeing over and over how hate never seems to stop, etc. It's a logical explanation for going insane.

But the hunger for power is also very much present as a motivation and this ambiguity is there constantly. Does he maybe come to genuinely care for Alina or is it totally bullshit ? I think he does, he's just so fucked up that it comes out as possessiveness and a need to control her. He wants Alina to be his equal but he's incapable of treating her that way. It's tragic, in a sense, but the show doesn't excuse his actions either. Like his monstrosity is a product of this world full of injustice, yes, and that warrants some compassion, monsters are always a symptom of their environment in some ways and dehumanizing them completely is an excuse ; but at the same time, he sabotaged his own cause anyway the moment he started to treat other people like things, as he does with Alina, because that just perpetuates the cycle of violence and hate. At some point he started feeling like he was the only solution and he was owed power for his sacrifices, and he's using his cause as an excuse. When Alina came to him, there was a possibility for redemption, taking down the Fold, and it's a test because there is finally someone on his level of power. But instead of seeking to remedy the power imbalance between them, he made it worse, by lying to her, manipulating her, etc, and the antler collar is the ultimate sign of this.

I love those scenes towards the end (the antler-based body horror has big Hannibal vibes, so messed up). I like Alina telling him they could have had this, that she had compassion for him and his cause, that they could have worked together, and he's the one responsible for screwing it up and this time his claim that he's the misunderstood victim ("Make me your villain") appears delusional and self-serving instead of somewhat justified. The almost-lovers to enemies vibes, the sense of lost potential, and the angst of the whole 'oh you could finally have been loved by people, too bad you fucked it up !', very juicy. There is this fundamental idea that power/respect/love is not something you are owed no matter how good your intentions are or because you're strong or you have suffered or you're willing to commit horrible drastic actions, you have to keep proving you deserve it, and trying to claim power without responsibility of care turns you into a monster. The thing with the stag was an excellent metaphor of the fact that there's things you can't take, they have to be given to you, and the wonderful power there is in understanding that is what allows Alina to harness the stag amplifier's power. This is really when she escapes his grim utilitarian outlook and a different way forward and owns her own power fully on her own terms.

Anyway I hope Alina gets to beat the shit out of him at some point that would be very sexy but I'm also looking forward to see how their arcs parallel and diverge from each other as Alina starts to grapple more with the implications of her power and the harsh dilemmas of war and her own dark side. I want to see him become scared of her, and I feel it will be more visible than in the books where he just has this cold aggressive facade all the time. This one feels a lot more openly emotional which is just a lot more interesting.

- As for the other characters ; Zoya mostly made me sad. The actress has the perfect vibes but I'm not sure I love their take on her character so far, it does make sense in terms of the later books - that she has internalized prejudice regarding her mixed-race heritage, that she is jealous of Alina because of how hard she's fought to get where she is and Alina kind of takes it away from her, etc. But I would have liked to see a bit more of her being badass and sharp-tongued in a clever (even if mean) way instead of spending most of her time being rejected by men and being racist towards Alina. I did like the ending though, of her actually seeing the monstrosity of the Darkling in action and the mention of her aunt. And her brief bonding with Inej was great, just because it was badass but also maybe because it could be a part of Zoya learning to accept her Suli heritage in turn, maybe not right away but in time, when thinking of that part of herself, she won't only think of her parents' ruined marriage and all the pain it caused, but also of that badass and brave acrobat girl who went toe to toe with these really scary monsters without even having any powers and !!!!!

- Also Leigh's cameo was so cute and as an aspiring writer this is just such wish fulfillment

- I honestly think that having the Crows there actually made the S&B story better ? Not only in terms of the much needed levity breaks but also in terms of themes. For instance, Matthias and Nina's story gave us a really raw and visceral view of how the Grisha are hunted. And Inej's relationship to Alina really gave us a sense of what Alina actually means to people who believe in the Saints in a way that doesn't feel just like 'ugh those superstitious people' because we know that Inej's faith is part of what makes her who she is and a person with morals, and something that saw her through the worst moments of her life. It feels so special that she got to meet Alina and given a sign that maybe the world is not completely shitty. And Alina's kindness towards Inej really gives you a sense that she might be, or become worthy of that belief in time, or at least that she wants to, that she's figuring out her power to really touch people's lives might be a good thing, and that she's starting to accept this responsibility more fully. And her arming Inej is a nice parallel to that. I'm very emotional about this scene, because one of the first things we see of young Alina is her taking out a knife to defend Mal from the bullies, because she's protective and brave, but she's also aware the world is a shitty place, and so her giving that knife to Inej is a sort of spiritual transmission and recognition of sorts, that she trusts Inej with that fighting power, that she'll use this knife to defend herself and her loved ones and not abuse it. It's so interesting. And a counter point to the Darkling's fucked up relationship to power that Alina might at some point get afraid she'll replicate. That you could see Alina trying to gather followers and using people's admiration for her like he did but instead she sets them free and empowers them. It's great. And I feel that when Inej takes to the seas, she'll think about Alina. (I do hope somebody tells her Alina's not dead at some point though god). Girls giving each other knives is my spirituality, honestly.

- And I also noticed an interesting parallel between Kaz and the Darkling in terms of being two emo dudes who like to wear black, are prone to violence and have a thing for two very powerful women they think are special and want to have at their side, but of course, they go about it in very different ways. The Darkling comes at it from a place of power while Kaz comes from a place of utter powerlessness, first of all, and he understands why it's important to set Inej free. Him spending the entire season trying to earn enough money to pay off Inej's indenture is the opposite to the Darkling putting that collar on Alina and while I do have issues with how the show portrays him, I do love that. Love is about setting the person you love free !!!! And that confrontation scene was so powerful, when Kaz tells the Darkling Alina was tired of being a captive ! Drag him !

- As for Genya, I liked the actress and her chemistry with Alina, but I'm not sure they did a great job of making her arc very clear, for instance what it means for her to get that red kefta, her relationship with the other Grisha, etc. Her and David are already very cute though. Also very much looking forward to see where that goes.

So yeah I think they did a great job with this bit actually, I enjoyed a lot more than I think I would and even though it is a very tropey story, there's plenty of depth there too.

The Crows :

- I'm a bit more nitpicky about this because I care about these characters so much. I think overall the problem is that the SaB story in the books happens on this massive scale with enormous stakes, and that next to that the Crows' issues feel less important ; it's like their impact is distorted by the gravity of the much larger story. Like for instance, Kaz in the books is very much at the center of everything, this larger than life trickster figure who knows and controls almost everything by sheer cleverness, and he has this sense of allure and mystique that can't happen here, and so his aura just shrinks. On top of that they're not on their home turf. Being introduced to these characters before they've reached their full levels of badass is weird - there is a reason why prequels generally happen after the main stuff, because they count on the love you have for these characters at their full potential to make you interested in their story when they were less badass and interesting. So I had several moments where I was like 'oh this feels wrong'. Tbh the idea that they would even volunteer to kidnap Alina in the first place, what with Inej's backstory, feels kind of wrong, esp since they had no idea of what would happen to her if they succeeded.

- But I still enjoyed a lot of it though, especially the fact that they were this force of chaos in the midst of this bigger narrative that's a lot more self-serious. The bits with the train, or the circus acts were very clever. A lot of the best moments in the show happen when they come to disturb the other plot in unexpected ways. I'm still dead over the whole 'Alina jumps into their carriage' scene, that was fucking gold. The team up at the end !!!! Alina and Kaz making a deal ! Inej stabbing the Darkling !!!! Them stealing the Darkling's carriage !!! They don't give a shit that the story is supposed to be super dramatic it's great.

- Jesper is the one character they completely nailed from start to finish and he's probably my favorite part of the whole show. He's very funny without being reduced to the role of comic relief ; he's just so! damn! cool!!!!!!! I honestly feel this is a thing they actually did even better than in the books, or at least Six of Crows where I felt Jasper kind of disappeared behind Kaz and they insist a lot on his flaws and issues. So before we dig more into those problems I love that they gave him time to be this ultra badass who saves the day several times ; while at the same time, hinting at further developments like his powers or his gambling issues. Kit Young is just perfect, confident without being arrogant, a bit cold when it comes to crime while at the same time being so obviously caring with Inej - I loved their friendship, that was so sweet. My main criticism is that they should have made it clearer he was bi because there are already people calling him gay and that's very annoying. I know some people had a problem with his hookup and like...I can see it's a bit of a cliché...the charming badass bisexual adventurer....it's a trope I kind of love though lmao and the scene itself felt kind of cute and fun. He's not the only person who is shown to have an active sexuality and he's also not the only queer person around and we know he's going to have a more substantial romantic arc later so eh. On a larger note I loved the little casual hints of completely normalized queerness - Nadia thirsting over Zoya, Fedyor and Ivan, Poppy, etc. Having grown up with fantasy where queerness was either completely erased or very tormented and problematic, this was refreshing as hell.

- Inej and Kaz...my faves... They have a kind of relationship which feels so rare and unique in terms of what exists on TV and while I don't feel they entirely replicated it, the core is still there - the mutual respect and building of trust, the longing, the repression, the trauma, etc. One thing I really like is their arc around faith - in the books, Kaz is dismissive of Inej's faith in ways that often feel really shitty and I like that he learns to be more respectful of it. It's very much linked to hope/survival ; Inej keeps this token from her parents and she hopes to find them again ; Kaz tells her it's no use and she'll survive better if she gives up. He believes Alina is a fake, while Inej wants to believe that myths can come true and there is hope for good things in the world. Kaz comes to accept that Alina is the real deal and, out of respect for Inej's faith, to stop pursuing her. I loved the bit about Inej struggling to kill as well - it's the dilemma of what her survival and that of the people she really cares about are worth in such a shitty world - her compassion is a good part of her but so is her survival instinct, and that's the part Kaz represents - that even after she's been through hell, broken in unfathomable ways, even if she gave up all hope and faith in the world, even she becomes dangerous and ruthless to survive, she will still deserve dignity, and to be treated better. And meanwhile she is willing to break her principles, which she holds so dearly, to save him, when he's never had anyone who cared for him like that - enough to keep him alive. That bit in the church !!!!! God !!!!!! Bye !!!!!!! And then him basically calling her his own version of a Saint, that he doesn't believe in miracles but he does believe in her !!! It's very emblematic of their whole arc ; he empowers her to survive in a ruthless world and loves her at her most dangerous ; but he loves her laugh too, he finds her a ship and her parents, he honors her capacity for love and hope even when he can't share it. And she sees that he's capable of doing better, that he's worth caring for. This whole thing kills me honestly and I can't wait to see where they take this next. I'm not mad they're a bit more soft and obvious than in the books, Kaz would just have come across as an an asshole otherwise.

- That said, there are bits of how they introduced their backstories I don't like. I get that making it so Inej was still tied to the Menagerie gave them a very powerful reason to want to kidnap Alina beyond greed so that they wouldn't look like very shitty people. But in the books Inej is terrified by the idea of simply seeing Heleen or the Menagerie and the way they have her interact with her feels weirdly casual and dismissive of her trauma. Also, in the books, the fact that Kaz had to convince Per Haskell to buy Inej's contract through a lot of effort, that he wasn't the one holding that above her head either, made the power dynamics more palatable. I especially disliked the scene where Kaz says he won't free other girls because just Inej is special, it makes him look like he has the power but he's just too much of a callous asshole to do it, and that he just freed Inej because he liked her which is absolutely not what their relationship is about at the start, it's a lot more about seeing Inej's dangerous side behind a facade of powerlessness and relating to her, in a sense, and this scene made it all feel cheap.

- Also, what was that about Inej having a brother ? Not a fan of that either. I'm afraid they're going to make her story all about finding what happened to him, and that's 1) too on the nose similar to Kaz's story and 2) it kind of cheapens her own arc, a female character realizing that what was done to her was wrong, reclaiming her own power and dignity and then making sure it doesn't happen to anybody else, harnessing her personal experience to save strangers, that's so powerful - making it about a family member at first, especially if it's about revenge, it's so much more simplistic and unoriginal and the perspective really annoys me.

- Also not a fan of Per Haskell not being there because he's a very important part of Kaz's evolution, so I hope he shows up eventually - and the way they introduced Pekka Rollins was kind of like...weird and out of place. I just found the Crows' introduction scenes stilted and not as cool as they should have been - well, Jesper and Inej were very cool, but we needed to see Kaz in action first, we needed to see why he's such a menace before we see him flounder later, and I just...I don't know exactly but it didn't work for me. Also this is a very petty thing but I wasn't crazy about the Ketterdam sets, I know this is probably a budget thing but in my head it looked like this incredible mix of Amsterdam and Venice - specific locations in the book directly remind me of parts of Amsterdam I know very well - and instead what we got felt like this very generic London-ish fantasy setting....so boring. Also a lot of scenes that felt to exposition-y. I don't mind that Kaz was a bit softer than in the books, like many people have said some things work in books and don't work on a screen, and you need to make the character's inner dynamics more explicit. But I do agree that, at the same time, he should have been more ruthless towards people outside of his group. Loved that scene where he faces the Inferni though, and how well they illustrated his disability and aversion to touch.

- I don't have that much to say about Nina and Matthias ; I'm still not super sold on the whole 'haha misogyny!' thing and I dislike that so much of Matthias' change of heart relies on the fact that he finds Nina hot. But I did think that the actors had enough chemistry to make their scenes together interesting and cute ; I loved the waffle scene. Even though it's disappointing that they didn't find an actress who was more clearly plus size for Nina, I still think Danielle does a good job bringing her bold, unapologetic energy. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Crows as a whole team.

So yeah, even though the season didn't feel like a perfect, coherent whole, it was just a lot of fun and I really hope they get renewed. In particular I feel like tying the first trilogy to the Crows' story could create such interesting parallels in terms of themes, about power, the cost of survival, hope, trauma, etc etc

[eternalthenas]

what bothers me the most about tros and what i’m most unable to accept is how jj managed to destroy and disrespect EVERY single character. even the ones who technically had “happy endings”🤡

ben - i feel like this one doesn’t even need to be said, but i’ll say it anyways. after years of emotional abuse from palpatine, it’s disheartening to see that jj gave no explanation as to why palpatine wanted ben (personal vendetta against the skywalkers i guess??) when it semed like he only needed rey AND that ben never really triumphed over palpatine in any way. it hurts to know that leia straight up had a vision about her son’s death but that she still seemingly gave up on him despite knowing that he was struggling and that she sent him off to train to be jedi with a luke, when apparently she could’ve done that herself. it’s disheartening that luke who believed even vader could be turned back to the light also gave up on his nephew, when he was just a boy no less. it’s disheartening that although he was the last skywalker (a fact only palpatine acknowledged!), none of his family nor his namesake reached out to help him. instead of telling the last skywalker to rise, they ignored him (as they had apparently done his whole life) in favor of a palpatine. ok. even though as the last skywalker, he really should’ve been the one to have the final kill against palpatine since it was HIS family that palpatine destroyed, he doesn’t. he’s motionless in a pit for the whole final battle. ok. that will never not leave a bad taste in my mouth. his whole family (except for han apparently i love him) gave up on him and clearly so did the writers. as a fan of the skywalkers and their story, this isn’t the ending i wanted for them. especially when luke and leia and han had given their lives to see him turn to the light. and for what? so he could be used as a plot device to conveniently bring rey back to life and then promptly die (even though they’re a force dryad and, according to jj’s own fucking canon, supposedly one) without any fanfare, emotional reaction whatsoever, or later mention? wtf? it’s disrespectful not only to ben solo, who is easily the best character in the sequel trilogy and one of the best characters in ALL of star wars, but it’s disrespectful to the entire skywalker line!! (and to adam driver, who deserved so much better than this shit. go get that oscar)

rey - by making her a palpatine, jj completely disregarded her arc. whatever your opinions about rey nobody, once they went with it, they never should’ve retconned it and turned her into a legacy character in the final film. it felt cheap. in my theater, there was no cheering about this reveal. because jj had never properly set it up and he didn’t even bother to reveal it an impactful way. but what’s most annoying about rey suddenly being a legacy character is that it completely disregards the fact that she was powerful on her OWN, without any famous blood making her that way. furthermore, by turning her into the chosen one and giving her the entire skywalker legacy (which felt like a slap in the face to the skywalkers imo), she did turn into a mary sue, one of the biggest complaints about her since day 1. she was overpowered, morally perfect, and never faced any failure. i struggled to root for her as the “hero” because i felt everything was handed to her on a silver platter. so not only did jj turn her into a mary sue and take her power away from her by turning her into a legacy, but he also destroyed the fact that her whole arc had been “seeking belonging” and a family. rather than having her final scenes be with her new found family, she ends the movie with her canon soulmate dead and no one but a droid by her side on a desert planet of all places. to add further insult to injury, she also disregards her family name even though they supposedly loved her and sacrificed themselves for her (despite the fact that they sold her but whatever) in favor of a last name of a guy she had barely known. she had more emotional connection to han or leia, but she didn’t take their last name. she took luke’s, the guy who had refused to teach her and who she had come to view in a more negative light towards the end of tlj. in this house i will not EVER be calling her rey sky- i can’t even say it🤢

finn - in all honestly, they screwed finn’s character arc in episode 1 when jj turned him into a lovesick sidekick who served as comedic relief. as a deserted stormtrooper, he could’ve had the most interesting storylines. and he should have. but apparently the writers forgot about him. although they mention his past BRIEFLY, it’s paid no real weight or attention. instead, he spends the whole movie once again trying to (possibly) confess his feeling for rey. and for what? probably just to bait finnrey fans and prove the character’s heterosexuality bc it goes absolutely nowhere. although we find out he’s force sensitive, that too is glossed over and has no lasting effect. he’s also made co general, which okay cool, but then he does nothing?? so while finn could have and should have been a main character with an interesting storyline, they turn him into your average run of the mill action hero with an occasional quip. john boyega, sweetie, i’m so sorry (but i guess that’s kind of what he wanted since he hated tlj, the only movie where he actually had a main role with any character growth?? idk)

poe - it’s once again evident that they originally intended to kill off poe bc he has no arc whatsoever. he gets a little backstory as a drug smuggler now ig, which really came out of left field considering the already established canon with his past as a pilot. he’s more of the same in this movie, except more unlikable than usual (imo). he’s still stubborn, occasionally funny, but mostly he just bickers with rey, which isn’t funny, at all necessary, and doesn’t add anything to the “trio’s” dynamic. he’s at his best when he’s with finn but then, of course, jj has to remind us of how straight he is every single scene so. another character like finn who could have been great, but with the lazy writing, he has no arc, no backstory, no character growth, so he’s just mediocrity personified and just kind of there.

zorii & jannah - both could’ve been awesome. both are just there for a brief introduction and to help the heroes with maybe one thing and that’s it. both deserved better.

the skywalkers - yeah jj really said a big fuck you to luke, leia, and anakin most of all. the WORST part of tros is the fact that it basically makes the previous six episodes useless. anakin’s redemption arc? what does it matter now? he didn’t successfully bring balance to the force. he didn’t successfully kill palpatine. and now his entire bloodline is dead. ok cool😎 thank you jj!!!! what a hopeful end to the skywalker saga!!!! i love seeing that anakin failed and wasn’t REALLY the chosen one. i love that luke and leia gave their legacy to a descendant of the guy who tried to tear apart and terrorized their family. that’s really nice. i love that anakin NEVER reached out to help his grandson who struggled with the dark just like he did. but that he came in just in time to tell palp’s granddaughter to rise😍 really hopeful, lovely ending. thanks again jj! thanks for making leia seem like a bad mother who sees visions about her son but just throws in the towel and doesn’t really try to help him?? wtf??? not my princess leia. also tros luke? truly the worst luke. i really have no other words, i’m just disappointed. jj let me down in every single way possible and ones i didn’t even realize he could.

palpatine - jj also managed to ruin the best star wars villain, a feat i didn’t even think possible. palpatine had always seemed scary to me because of his inhuman qualities. but in this one, he’s back with no explanation whatsoever. he just is. he somehow managed to survive (ok🙄) and furthermore he had a kid. what in the fuck? jj clearly read harry potter and the cursed child, but he clearly also forgot to read the reviews. NOBODY LIKES IT WHEN THE PREVIOUSLY UNTOUCHABLE/SCARY VILLAIN HAS A KID OUT OF NOWHERE. NOBODY. i seriously spent the entire movie wondering who the heck would sleep with him? that’s it. he didn’t seem menacing or at all like a threat. this movie genuinely had no stakes whatsoever (that’s why ben’s death feels so out of left field bc literally for what?! but i digress) also the final “fight” where rey kills him??? very lame. he supposedly survived all those years to be taken out like that?? no thank you, i’d like a refund.

in conclusion, thank you to jj for ruining my favorite franchise by killing off every last one of my favorite characters, destroying the skywalker legacy (& killing them off), ruining seriously every character, and leaving me with despair!!! while i’ll continue to watch star wars without including episode 9, it sucks that some of my joy is zapped from my favorite series. because this is how future generations will know star wars. with this shitty ending. and any future movies will have this canon. and that really fricking sucks. thanks, i hate it.

anyways feel free to message if you’re also in the depths of despair about how this all ended!! bc the more i think about it, the sadder/angrier i get.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

okay so i just finished season 8, i can see why people didn’t like it but personally i really did. i feel like the thing people are mad about the most is that dany became a tyrant? watching the series knowing everyone’s endings allowed me to see things that most people probably wouldn’t catch on to. one thing is that arya’s end shot mimics the shot of her sailing to braavos at the end of season 4(i think it was season 4). also that danny’s speech to the dothraki, at the end, and her speeches to the unsullied,,, when paired with her actions(and with what tyrion said about how she kills evil men and we cheer her on i admit i did this too, but those cheers allow her to believe that she is always right and that makes her dangerous) it reminds me a lot of speeches dictators used. “you’re freeing the world” “we’re doing a great good” idk,, i like dany but i get annoyed when people say the signs weren’t there from the start, when they absolutely were. i do think that she could have been great, but people put to much faith in her which made her set extremely high expectations for herself and how people would treat her. and that ultimately led to her downfall. in short, i liked season 8. i like jon going north at the end, i like arya going off to explore, i really like sansa being queen, bran being king is eh but i like it overall. brienne writing jaime into the book of the kingsguard did made me cry, but i like that pod got knighted and i think brienne would have done something like that. even though he broke her heart.

My biggest issue with Season 8 is clear in my head, but difficult to describe with words. 

Everyone seems to have at least one major plot point that hated to the point of feeling like it ruined the show. Jaime going back to Cersei, Arya killing the Night King, the Clegane Bowl, Sansa’s betrayal, the “R + L = J” storyline not amounting to much/the overall path of Jon’s character. And of course, Dany’s conclusion is a big one for most people. I don’t really have anything like that. (Okay that’s a lie, mine is the Grand Council scene. Fuck that scene in fifty different ways.) I suppose what makes Season 8 the “worst” season for a lot of people is that things just feel different. The writing feels different, the characters feel different, the storylines...it all feels just a bit “off.” I’m not even saying that it’s bad-different, but it isn’t good-different either. In hindsight, the fact that the writers were rushing through GOT to get to Star Wars...yeah, I can believe that. 

But there’s a lot to like about Season 8 as well. Several things are carried over directly from Season 7 (which I’ll admit, is my favorite season) in particular, the first three episodes of S8 almost feel like the missing final three episodes of S7. I personally have no issue with Arya killing the Night King. While I did love the echoing of her boarding that ship like she did at the end of S4, and it totally feels like something she would do....I dunno, the line “A girl is Arya Stark from Winterfell. And I’m going home.” just really stuck with me, and I kinda thought she was over all that and just wanted to be with her family. I also have no issue with Sansa becoming Queen in The North. Like, what else was going to happen? Of course she would take up the mantle. Even if she wasn’t ready, who else was left? That said, she was ready and she damn well proved it in the final seasons. Sansa stood up for her people time and again. That was like, the entire reason for her conflict with Dany apart from overprotective sister instincts activating.

But, speaking of Dany...this is something that I always hesitate to talk about, but suffice it to say that I agree with you 100%. Of all the things in Season 8 that bothered me, I kinda saw this coming. Sure, I wish to hell and back that they hadn’t gone this direction, but it’s not even close to being as big a turnaround as Jaime had. I think a lot of fans identify with Dany and have latched onto her for that reason, and she’s a fantastic character to latch onto. But I’d be lying if I said that the signs weren’t there. She always did whatever the hell she wanted, and got away with it by the authority of “I have dragons.” This wasn’t just in the later seasons either. Remember the time she threatened to violate guest right because “My dragons made no such promise?” Tyrion’s speech to Jon in S8E6 was totally him being a loudspeaker for the writers, trying to convince the audience that this made sense...but it’s not like anything he said wasn’t true. As a Jon/Dany shipper, as someone who was rooting for either, or both of them, to wind up on the Iron Throne, as someone who unironically loved Dany’s character...yeah, it broke me. But it could have been worse. Some Dany stans hate Jon for killing her but seriously...at that point, what the hell was he supposed to do? She threatened Winterfell, and his sisters. Plus, y’know, she had murdered most of the population of King’s Landing. She had to be stopped, and Jon was the only one who stood a chance of getting close enough. He clearly hated having to do it, and he got a life sentence for it. So can’t we leave the poor guy alone? He’s suffered enough...

Jaime’s ending...is just depressing, and Brienne did not deserve that. I don’t hate Jaime for it, nor do I feel like it completely reversed all of the growth in his character. But it did yank his storyline in a total 180, and that can absolutely be utilized to tragic effect. The fact is, Jaime didn’t revert to being the asshole he was in Season 1. He simply resigned himself to the inevitability that he would always be that person. That because he still loved someone as wicked as Cersei, and had committed such crimes for her, that he would always be that person and there was no escaping it. The idea of becoming a better person was simply not something he would ever be allowed. This, my good friend, is 100% a symptom of abuse. Jaime and Cersei’s relationship is toxic as hell, not because of the whole twin thing, but because she is an abuser who brings out the worst in him. If Jaime had to die, I wish it had gone a different way. I can respect the full circle, but this is just so not the ending I wanted for him. And hell, seeing him cradle Cersei in his arms, seeing her sob about how she doesn’t want their baby to die...damn it, the character who’s death I was most expecting to cheer at, and I can’t even properly enjoy it. But it was a beautiful death scene, I’ll give them that, and seeing Tyrion’s reaction to finding the golden hand? Kill me now. 

The less that is said about the talking computer pretending to be Bran, the better. I won’t go into my spiel about why this enrages me because we’d be here forever, but I’ll just say that it actually made my knuckles whiten when they had the nerve to play House Stark’s theme over his coronation. Why? Why would they do that? It’s not like a Stark is being crowned King. Because, by his own admission, that entity sitting in the chair is not Brandon Stark anymore. He is the Three-Eyed Raven. Bran is effectively dead, and it low-key drives me crazy that everyone, including his family, just carry on as if that wasn’t the case. But I’ll leave it there. “King Bran” was a terrible idea, but I won’t go into the myriad of reasons why. 

[alexiaugustin]

pls give your honest opinions on eliola friendship / relationship 🤣

Okay so I think that most people already know that I'm not found of it at all so at the beginning I just wanna say that I do not hate it simply because I want to hate it and everything that happens on that show, but because I was thrilled and had high expectations when they first announced that they would have a brother- sister relationship this season. So everything I'm gonna say now isn't coming from a place of hate but complete and utter disappointment because that's what their storyline was. Also disclaimer; everything I'm gonna say isn't me hating the characters but me criticizing the writing and how the writing made both of them quite unsympathetic at times.

So let's begin with the first lola/eliott clip I ever really liked and that was their first meeting at the funeral. I just like how Eliott noticed that she was all alone and decided to talk to her because that's probably smth he wishes people would have done for him when he was lonely. I loved their bickering n how Eliott was the second person who made Lola genuinely smile that season and just like Maya he didn't let Lola's cold attitude throw him off. So being the naive clown I was I actually believed that they might do something good with them and that their storyline could live up to my expectations but oh hell no.

The opportunity of them getting closer n talking at the urbex party was right there and skam france just didn't use it. I actually thought that they would drop a clip after midnight as the first clip of ep3 where they would start making conversation because they were all hanging out with eachother anyway and then maybe start following eachother on instagram or smth. But no. Eliott and Lola meeting eachother at that urbex party wasn't there to develop their friendship and make them have a natural connection in the clips afterwards. Eliott being an urbex legend wasn't there to actually give his character more depth, it was just there so Eliott could lie to Lucas and Lola knowing about it so she could manipulate Eliott in ep8 but we're coming back to that plot later.

Well yeah wasted potential on that urbex party let's talk about the next party where they meet again: Daphné's birthday party. Again I know that it's a party and it's likely for people to just talk to everyone so I wouldn't say that Eliott and Lola talking there was coming out of nowhere. What did come out of nowhere tho, was their dialogue: "We're the same you and I" I'm sorry but first of all what teenager talks like that??? And second of all what exactly do you even know about eachother. Ah yeah right nothing because you never really talked to eachother before. I know that in interviews they have made up a whole background story as to why Eliott felt so cOnNeCtEd to her but none of this was ever brought up on screen so for me there's no explanation why he would say smth like that. Then the whole urbex lying to Lucas convo yada yada I pretend not to understand french and we're just gonna skip over that part of ep3 now. Next clip of the party Lola feels lonely and left out because Thierry acts like Daphné is his only daughter and for some reason Eliott looks @ Lola from across the room like that: [I'm to lazy to put a screenshot of the scene but y'all know the shot I'm talking about] and I remember the evening they dropped that clip and everyone was yelling and thinking that this look means that he's gonna fall in love with her. Yeah at best I would think that this looks like falling in love, at worst this look reminds me of Joe Goldberg. And I know that the scrip wasn't like: Eliott side eyes Lola like some penetrator from across the room but it really looked like that and it's the director's job to correct Maxence's acting because that really really wasn't it.

Next eliola clip is Lola going to Eliott's video shop. How she knew that he was working at that exact place at this exact time will forever stay a mystery. If only skam france would remember that they are a transmedia show and Eliott and Lola could have just texted after Daphné's birthday party??? But no she was just completely out of nowhere visiting him at his workplace and don't get me wrong the clip itself was good and them watching a movie together cute but I still wanna know where it suddenly came from. She didn't even seem to like him that much before so her going there when she wasn't feeling well just threw me off and I was like okayyyy whatever. It truly feels like they either deleted clips in between or forgot to upload some text messages.

Aymeric plot: I was kind of torn between liking the clip n disliking it because back when they dropped the clip I was just glad that Eliott got Lola out of there and I knew that he would bring her to his flat so she would feel safe but on the other hand I'm not a huge fan of this whole savior trope in general even tho I do get that it made sense for her to call him in that situation. But now that the season is over I don't even have to feel torn and can just say that I absolutely hate this whole storyline because they used sexual assault as a plot device so they wouldn't have to come up with some complex writing ideas to build up their friendship. So the next day skamfr acted like sexual assault isn't something traumatizing and never brought it up again it truly just existed so Eliott could play hero and Eliott and Lola could be friends. It was never brought up again not even in one single fucking conversation. How fun😑😑

I've said it before and I will say it again I will always hate that Lucas was allowed to have many friends and hang out with them whenever he wanted n be affectionate with them while Eliott's only friendship was actively written to cause problems in their relationship. I'm not even blaming Lucas' for his reactions this season because I'm sure that I would have reacted the same way if I were him but they could have just written the eliott/lola friendship in a decent way and left lucas out of it. It would have been really simple but instead they chose to make almost every Lola n Eliott interaction a problem between Lucas and Eliott and then they never even solved their relationship problems, not even off screen so that's truly a whole next level of skamfr being one hell of a stupid show.

Apart from that I really really liked the Saturday clips and they were the only clips I ever got sibling vibes from. Eliott being ready to run with Lola so she wouldn't have to face Daphné and Lola saying that she's gonna take responsibility and Eliott looking at her like a proud big brother> very cute also the way Eliott and Lola both got to speak for themselves about their mental health was one of my fave convos this season even tho- and call me a petty bitch for that- they even ruined that clip for me when Lola used everything Eliott told her in that clip against him later🙃🙃

The whole movie plot is ridiculous and I'm actually too tired to bring all of it up again so I'm just gonna say that Eliott asking a girl with zero acting experience and a crew with zero filming experience to shoot his uni project with him still has me laughing until today. No way in hell that this is something realistic to happen but #ohboy #nicetry for trying to sell that storyline. Eliott and Lola should have never kissed n they should have either changed the script to a friendship version of L&O for Lola and Eliott or let Maya take over Eliott's role when she showed up. This way it would have actually had a meaning for s6 and it would have made sense to end the season with a screening for that movie project. But what the hell was skamfr tryna tell us with that eliola kiss storyline?? The moral n the message where????

Ughhhh my favorite storyline: episode 8. Well I was gone over one weekend and this is the shit I came back home to. Let me tell you it really wasn't fun to watch these four clips in a row I literally had to pause the videos the entire time just to yell n question if I was hallucinating that shit. If their friendship wasn't written badly before then this was definitely the last straw for me. We all know what happened I'm not gonna explain it again let me just say that if I were Eliott I would have felt so damn betrayed and would have never just forgiven that shit in a week. Imagine trusting someone that much with your past and stories about your mental illness and relationship n even your relationship issues and all this person does is using everything you ever told them and even more (still wanna know how she knew abt the houseboat story) against you to manipulate you into drinking which then triggers you into a depressiv episode. Who wrote this and thought that we would still be rooting for this friendship?????

And well yeah that pretty much was it for the eliott/lola sIbLiNg storyline this season. Eliott didn't get to speak for himself about what happened and Lola only apologized for having called him and making him stay at the party but they never actually acknowledged what happened at that party and Eliott just took the blame n happy ending!!! They didn't even get one scene in the last clip together so that already shows us how the writers really didn't give a damn about their friendship this season and it solely existed to serve the mc and to get us to watch the new season n not because they actually cared and let's just say that one could really really notice that🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket, SE02, Ep17 (part2)

Now that the romance direction is canon, let’s deal with the dark foreshadowing. This ep is loaded with hints towards the direction kyo & yuki are moving at concerning their future & personal trauma. Off course tohru is involved since her story is linked to kyo, but nothing is shown much regarding the direction of her own personal trauma.

As usual the treatment of tohru’s personal issues within the story is less impressive than the boys or rather less artistically expressed. I’m sure more spotlight will be shown on her later in the coming eps, but looks like tohru is indeed the foolish traveler (giving more than taking/ important for what she gives more that who she is) even on how she’s handled by the writer/anime story-wise, so far. 

-Foreshadowing scene #1 ( the confession going wrong):

As I’ve stated previously, kyo’s “ why are you dreaming of dating a guy like me” is more towards tohru & himself than the nameless girl. Ep,9 has brilliantly established the realistic reasons & the logical justification of his mentality, emotions & decisions. The writer made sure to lock all doors in front of kyo to cleverly introduce a compelling dilemma & intriguing future climax. Kyoko’s “I won’t forgive you” is the key that locked the door for forgiveness. There is no way kyo will confess his love to tohru. She reaches out to him this ep (she’ll confess to him later). The realistic & logical cruelty of kyo rejecting the nameless girl will be paralleled later but harsher. However, I can’t figure out how the writer will open any of the closed doors?!!!! how there’s hope in the future for them?!!!

Possible scenarios are as follows:( I know I made the conversations simple & silly but that is for reasons of space & discussion)

1-Possible Scenarios (A):  [Tohru: I love you. Kyo: Me too, but I think I’ve hurt your mom & she said “I won’t forgive you”. Tohru: there’s no way my mom will ever say that. you must’ve misheard/imagined it. Kyo: really?! Ok. wow! I was in pain for nuthin. let’s marry then!]. Result:it is a possible outcome. I hope not. It would seem very anti-climatic & ruins all the efforts the writer did to create climax & drama. More importantly it would’ve rendered kyo’s dilemma & trauma simple & superficial. Guilt is coupled with extreme self-loath & it’s serious issue. Furuba has always taken mental issues seriously. so, I suppose the writer will respect that in the final eps. Plus kyoko’s harsh words as mere imagination is meh~ development.

2-Possible Scenarios (B): [Tohru: OMG! you monster! you’ve watched me grieve all this time!! mom is my world! I hate you! I can’t forgive you. then more drama happens such as..i duno.. tohru leave the sohma, kyo hurt himself, but first goes to burn the sohma’s estate as they’re the reason they’re all traumatized. Perhaps killing Akito unintentionally in the way]. Result: too dark!!! it scares me!! I mean furuba is capable of that, but there’s always hope...It’ll send a message that guilt & self-loath issues can’t be faced/dealt with/healed & furuba seems focused on healing, hence tohru’s very own existence & character.

3-Possible Scenarios (C): [Tohru: What mom said is tragic! but I forgive you. Kyo immediately forgives himself too. they kiss/or they part ways]. Result: that’s also too simple & unrealistic! if hearing one word of forgiveness can help/heal kyo. then he would’ve been healed by kazuma long time ago. The writer has established that mental & emotional issues run way deep than simple words can heal. She even made kyo say“ it’s not like she healed the ugly feelings within me” That’s part of the reason why kyoru is epic as OTP cuz the writer debunked popular romantic tropes of one saving the other for romance to sparkle & pain to go away. I find it so hard & unbelievable that kyo would forgive himself so easily if tohru forgives him. It doesn’t make sense. This isn’t part of the magical fantasy curse lore. It’s realistic depiction of trauma that has roots in the tender age of 4.

so how?! where’s the hope? where’s the open door? I think knowing tohru’s true trauma will help paint clearer, more hopeful picture or darker one? I duno. But There’s also the theme of accepting help & standing up by yourself. Yuki is doing it, I’m sure kyo & tohru will do it too. You gotta decide to heal, you gotta stop giving up on yourself. This is the hardest part: Being kind on one’s self. None of the trio (yuki/tohru/kyo) is kind on themselves, but yuki is getting there first . This ep showed him accepting kakeru & allowing himself to live! The other two will do the same (I hope), but I can’t figure out how! & I love it & hate it at the same time. XD

Foreshadowing scene #2 (I won’t forgive you Yuki-style):

yuki has his own plot-line & most possibly will have his his own climax that involves his own story. But yuki’s scene with kakeru contained darker foreshadowing with dark music, depicting kyo in dark background. I gotta say his line “I won’t forgive him” is the reason I viewed the nameless girl confession scene as foreshadowing! There is a theme of “forgiveness or lack of” with kyo which is obvious since his trauma revolves around guilt. Yuki will be involved for tohru’s sake. but how?..oh man.. I hope kyo doesn’t transform into his true form somehow with yuki! The climax should be as humanely as possible. no fantasy beings, plz.

-The trios growth, so far:

 I was happy seeing the new/real yuki sneaks through the princely mask in front of tohru’s & co. Not only did he complain abt kakeru openly but his body language wasn’t princely at all & he acted his age!! openly smiling, laughing & getting teased! Part of the reasons yuki’s character growth is more obvious than kyo/tohru is that ,unlike them, yuki’s true self was never out in the open. He wears a heavy mask to conceal his inferiority complex while inside he’s just like a child trying to discover who he really is while fearing ppl will hate the real him. Accepting help, & being content with who he is & forgiving himself/forgiving others is the path Yuki is walking in. Still not completely there but he’ll reach it.

Kyo (while having other issues) was always true to himself. While he’s becoming chill, calmer & more at ease with himself generally, he’s the same with yuki, hana. Arisa & his two dumb buddies: Speaking his mind & acting his age for the most part. The difference is kyo’s changed behavior & growth towards tohru exclusively as he has issues with accepting forgiveness & forgiving himself. he’s always believing he’s harmful/bad/monster/not worthy. So kyo’s growth has to be with his exclusive ppl: HIMSELF, Kazuma, tohru & perhaps yuki, too! The two of them are way more civil & tolerant with each other now. Able to hold regular convos regarding daily life in shigure’s living room with tohru & even shigure. They are accepting each other & they are BOTH aware of it whether they hate it or not.

Tohru is in the middle between the two, she wears mask like yuki but her mask is true to her kind loving personality, she’s honest with others like kyo but not honest abt herself/issues at all. She harbors low self-esteem & inferiority complex & deep feelings of abandonment. (her issues are yet to be explicitly explored/I’m just guessing/digging/trying to form an opinion abt her)Most of the things I say abt her real self is my wishful thinking & me building castles from the little foundation/personal scenes abt her. 

That was a rich ep! I love trying to guess stories’ direction as it’s exciting to be right & more exciting to be wrong! (depends on how wrong tho XD)