#they spent all of season six attempting a character assassination so they could kill him off

[worldsokayestdragon]

every once in a while a villain or random angel on supernatural starts talking to cas like "oh you're expendable, you're unnecessary, you're just back up for the winchesters but they don't actually need you" and it's like. those are bold words to be directing at the character you can't kill off, write out, or even ignore for too many episodes in a row without your ratings plummetting

[we-are-colleagues]

Villanelle - Character Analysis: Power & Growth:

Villanelle doesn’t kill without reason. 

This season has put a spotlight on her motivations, that can be traced back to S1. Villanelle kills for power and for Control. She’s not some Ted Bundy who kills to get her rocks off. It’s the power that she craves (and she gets off on). The changes we are seeing in Villanelle in the recent episodes are a product of this core drive and motivation being challenged. 

In S3, we hear Villanelle vocalise this connection. A lot. She names the scent she confronts Eve in "Power". She purses her family because she believes the knowledge – the truth – will make her more powerful. She agrees to work for the Twelve again because she is promised power.

The key to changes we are seeing unfold in Villanelle is due to them unpicking the driving force behind her actions. In her mind killing and violence has always granted her power and control. It’s a link her upbringing cemented in her and that The Twelve have fostered ever since.

The Evolution of Her Kills

The first kill we ever see on screen is bone-chilling (The Hairpin). She absolutely delights in the kill. It’s like she drains the life force out of him as he falls to his knees before her. She feels powerful watching him die.

But even in S2, her glee is diminished. I think immediately of the pig kill. Konstantin is distracting her in Amsterdam with this job. She’s killing for a scorned wife, hardly the world-changing targets she’s used to. She’s bored the whole episode and missing Eve. She has to dress the kill up to intrigue herself and to get Eve’s attention. To Konstantin, afterwards, she remarks, ‘It didn’t feel like anything’. That thrill from S1 is absent. She didn’t feel powerful killing this man and the experience pales incomparison to what Eve makes her feel.

In general, as of S2 there is no more looking into people’s eyes as she kills them. The last time she really felt the power she chases was when she killed Aaron Peel and it turned out Carolyn was using her. Then, of course, when she watched Eve kill Raymond, where she was the one controlling Eve and seemingly, getting everything she wanted.

The kills in S3 ramp up this contrast to S1. Her spice kill lacks her usual flamboyance, she’s more interested in posing the body and challenging Dasha than the kill. She wants to prove she’s better, more powerful. Her garden kill is almost merciful. She takes more joy in playing with the woman than killing her. 

Villanelle is motivated this season not so much by the power she feels from each kill, but the power promised to her by Dasha and The Twelve if she makes it to the rank of Keeper.

Her Relationship With Eve

This hardwired understanding is challenged when she attempting to kill Eve and their connection. Let’s dive into why she shot Eve, framed through this understanding of why Villanelle kills. 

Villanelle’s perception of love is also skewered around control. Villanelle tries to narrow Eve’s world and her options to just running away with her to Alaska. When Eve realises she’s been manipulated, Eve acknowledges how they are alike by chooses to walk away anyway.

Villanelle has just borne her soul to Eve, made herself vulnerable by telling Eve that she loves her and she’s shut down. Completely. As soon as that happens Villanelle feels like she’s lost control of this situation, of Eve, of herself and she shots. It purely an attempt to regain some control and power, as killing and violence have always been for her.

Villanelle believes Eve is dead and six months later she is talking about her on her wedding day. When she finds out Eve is alive, she can’t pretend that she was in control of their connection or had gotten over Eve. That is why she makes such a show of her power to Eve as if to say “it doesn’t matter that you didn’t die, I’m more powerful than ever now”. She dresses in a men’s suit, wears the perfume Power and invades Eve’s life on her commute to work. Even physically she takes control of Eve. But it doesn’t mean anything in the end. Eve has just as much if not more power than Villanelle in that scene. She has the power to give Villanelle what she really wants.

(Look I was gonna put a quote here from Sandra Oh about Villanelle being physically stronger than Eve in the bus scene but she still never hurting her. And that it demonstrates how Eve’s power over Villanelle’s psyche continues to grow. I can’t find it anywhere so like let me know if you know what I’m talking about. I swear it exists.)

UPDATE (edit): I found it.

"Villanelle at all times can physically overpower Eve, but what grows is Eve's influence on Villanelle's psyche. Which is like [Villanelle] won't, even though she can"  X

Villanelle entire relationship with Eve is a push and pull of power where Eve maintains her power without violence (aside from the stabbing in S1). In the bus scene, it is won through an act of affection, or omission that she feels similarly about Villanelle. 

Her Mother

What trying to kill Eve started, killing her mother finished.

Villanelle thinks killing her mother will give her control, give her power over herself.  Literally serve as a way to kill her demons. However, I think Jodie put it best in this interview:

“You can see the regret that she is already feeling but feels she has to go through with it — because I think she feels it’s the only way she feels she can fully kill her past and the woman that she was,” Comer says. “But actually in some ways, it’s like she kills Villanelle; it’s Oksana who is her true self and who she can’t get away from. So I think actually by doing what she has done, it has the complete opposite effect of what she was hoping for. For me now, at this point, I think Villanelle is her own worst enemy, and she’s coming to the realization that that may have been the case all along.” x

If we compare her killing Tatiana to say her first kill. The choice to not show her killing her mother cannot be ignored. It’s like even Villanelle doesn’t want to look at it:

“Villanelle has always looked into the eyes of those she’s killed, and in one draft the kill was actually [depicted], and I was like, ‘Maybe she can’t look at her; maybe she has to cover her mother’s face. This isn’t as easy as she thinks,'” Comer tells Variety. “I think Villanelle’s having a real identity crisis after the events of Episode 5.”

Villanelle doesn’t expect it to but killing her mother wounds her. Robs her of some of her power and makes her lose control.

S3 pulled off what could have been a disastrous dive into Villanelle’s past. You are encouraged to understand Villanelle was always like this. Probably would have always been. But we are also meant to see her mother’s influence, especially on her understanding of power and control and why she would be so fixation on obtaining it after being under her mother thumb.

We see Tatiana’s influence affecting her brothers lives as well. Pyotr stays there simply because he is told to. He has his own anger issues which he takes out on a couch. Pyotr attempts to control that side of himself, while Villanelle has always lent into it. She even suggests he just take it out on people instead, it will make him feel better. She doesn’t understand the need or benefit in controlling her own darkness.

In many of the scenes where Villanelle speaks to others about her mother, she mentions her mother’s covert and overt attempts to control all of them. Villanelle hopes that killing her mother might finally free her, give her back control. But in a echo of her advice to Pyotr taking it out on her mother doesn’t make her feel any better.

Dasha 

My assessment of Dasha’s role in this season has change from 3x01. She was quite impressive in the first ep. She looked dangerous, which she is, but having spent more time with her and seen how Villanelle easily copied her signature kill, how she messed up killing Niko and how she lost at bowling to Eve. It’s clear she’s a washed up has-been assassin. I think in a way she is meant to make Villanelle consider the future available to her in this kind of life.

Dasha is one of the few assassins that makes it to old age. Villanelle is too confident to consider she would die doing this job. That said, I don’t think she’s given much thought to her future, especially not one without Eve.

Dasha is our glimpse at it. A woman, who when she should be retired, rich, and happy is still playing this game. She can’t even return home. Whatever power Dasha wield doesn’t grant her what she wants. Her legacy and her status have earnt her little. She is still taking orders from the same people. This must surely motivate Villanelle’s ascent through the ranks of The Twelve. Villanelle is after power and Dasha is dwarfed by the likes of Hélène

 Keeper, but not a keeper

This brings us to 3x06. Villanelle is finally made a Keeper, the job description isn’t as lavish as she hoped. They offer her more money, more material possession but send her on the same old missions. Where is the power she was promised? It is here where she finally gets a whiff of how much The Twelve are truly controlling her.

I think this is why the Hairdresser kill goes so poorly. To kill this man is almost a forfeit of her power, to knowingly do it when she is being control. She knows she’s been fooled. It must be driving her crazy. Cause this is bullshit.  For the first time she feels like a pawn working for The Twelve rather than powerful.

She’s just killed her mother. She’s head deep in her childhood trauma, that is all centred around being used and controlled. This insult from The Twelve hits different. Killing no longer offers what she always sought from it. The strings are pulling loose on what makes Villanelle, Villanelle. Talk about an identity crisis.

It’s all quite raw, she’s changing before our eyes, I doubt we will see this weepy emotional Villanelle forever. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this unlinking of power and control with killing suddenly make Villanelle a saint. Not a single part of her felt bad for the man she killed, she just didn’t want to do it.  

It might lead Villanelle to ask whether she has ever been in control of her own darkness. We talk so much about Eve letting go, perhaps, on the other side of that Villanelle needs to take control and realise she is her own worst enemy sometimes.

In the same episode, Villanelle falls apart we see Eve wield her own power and darkness without violence, even though we know she’s capable of it. We are watching Eve reach an equilibrium with her darkness while Villanelle is seesawing.

In summary, this season has reinforced and emphasised why Villanelle does what she does – for power and control - and then gone on to challenge her understanding of it completely. It’s given Villanelle room to grow and change.

I think it’s so interesting, if you can’t tell from reading this whole thing. I always thought the show would be too scared to change Villanelle so drastically, though some change is definitely necessary, especially for her and Eve to have anything stable. I thought the show relied too heavily on Villanelle pulling of a hit every episode to tamper with her drive to kill. But it’s delicious and opens up a world of possibility. This doesn’t mean we’ll get soft Villanelle anytime soon but maybe a more calculated Villanelle, whose interests better align with Eve’s. 

[possessionisamyth]

i know the ending had to be rushed because instead of the usual 13 episode seasons AS decided to drop genndy to 10, BUT i started thinking about the daughters of aku and boy do i have some things to say writing wise, and no this isnt about “realism” but just how to make their presence as a unit more impactful or how to make ashi’s character development better as a temp antagonist to jack, spoilers below if you havent finished watching samurai jack

Option 1: Have the daughters of Aku be raised by Aku.

Some people have already suggested this as a cute AU, but to be honest that would strengthen the daughters bond with Aku more than just having hearsay through their mother. And since Aku does have emotions, isn’t afraid to spread propaganda onto children (the fairytale episode), and is building a kingdom that encompasses the universe, that would’ve been a great alternate to Jack’s stance, where instead of fighting just some assassin troupe he’s technically fighting an assassin troupe of princesses when he was once a prince whose own kingdom was destroyed by their father.

The bonds between the sisters would be tighter in that they respected their father both out of fear and the time they spent with him because he would’ve told them all the lies they needed to hear for them to trust him, he would’ve taken moderately good care of them(basic provisions), and he would definitely let them wreak havoc where ever they wanted without suffering consequences as long as they didn’t fuck up his own shit. “Mindless drone sisters except for one” doesn’t stick for long when it comes to guilt about murdering them, but “rebel girl gang who trusts their father and has many reasons to think you’re genuinely the bad guy” definitely would.

To not just have Ashi yelling at Jack, but all of the sisters shit talking him out of vitriol. Throwing his guilt back into his face. “If you’re so great, why couldn’t you save them? If you’re so good, why did you kill them?” Have Jack have to deal with his guilt inside and outside from a group of women who were indoctrinated to believe everything their father said just like Jack was and then really make him question what’s the difference between him and them? His father could’ve done all the same things telling him what’s evil and what isn’t. Yes, he still knows Aku is evil, but this train of thought would be humanizing them even further to the brink where Jack isn’t sure he can kill any of them. Cause it was “easier” when he could believe they didn’t have any emotions except for one (Ashi) but much more impossible when he has to accept that they all do. “They’re just robots.” No, they’re not. They’re just like you, Jack.

Option 2: Some sisters don’t die.

Make the killing blows accidents. Going with their canon way of being raised, have Jack still understand that they’re people, and make the killing blows reactionary instead of functionary. He doesn’t want to kill them, but he’s so used to fighting, he’s so used to defending himself that the weapons he grabs and the attacks he does manage to hit the vitals of a few of the sisters while the rest he leaves mortally wounded or physically incapable of fighting. If they’re really raised as machines to kill him, this would leave them useless to complete the task.

Then have Jack, as he’s leaving the scene of carnage have to witness the sisters who can move crawling towards their fallen sisters, trying to hold back bleeding wounds, scraping through the reddening snow in an attempt to show compassion for the one’s whose lives are fading away.

And then have Jack make a choice. He could leave them there. Some of them might make it, but probably not. Even if they all did, they wouldn’t be able to chase him any more. The wounds he inflicted on them would prevent them from fighting as they used to unless they got a fuck ton of physical therapy and/or robotic prosthesis. Or, he could do the same as he did with Ashi in canon and take the survivors. Teach them about the world. About Aku’s lies. About what he’s really fighting for, and let them make the choice on their own. Because they never had a choice before, but now they do, and let it be overwhelming and confusing. Let them make mistakes, but let them learn from it. They don’t all have to make the right choice at the end, but they shouldn’t have to die for it. Show the conflict and correction from sisters who did make the right choice and let them be.

Option 3: None of the sisters die by Jack’s hand.

Same as option two, but Jack doesn’t kill any of them. He saves the ones who need immediate medical attention, teaches them, and lets those sisters go back to the ones he only inhibited. The saved sisters try to pass the rhetoric they learned only to be deemed weak and now they all have to fight each other. It can be to the death. The evil sisters who refused to change or learn would die, Ashi wouldn’t be by herself. They’d all have to come to terms with what they’ve done as some either go to fight Aku with Jack and Ashi, while the others leave so they can stew in their guilt of killing their sisters.

Option 4: Get his ass!!!!!

Have Ashi actively resent Jack for killing all her sisters. No, I don’t care what half-assed explanation Ashi gave to her mother, you don’t get raised with 6 other people and some of them NOT form of bond between each other when you’re all working towards the same goal.  Especially when they had to function as a unit! Her mother wasn’t Aku, she didn’t see everything they did as soon as it was bedtime for 20 something years.

I want this to be a chip on her shoulder, I don’t want her shifting the blame of everything onto her mother. Yes, Jack was going to kill everyone and only Ashi survived, but why didn’t he do the killing blow for her? Why didn’t he try harder to save any of the other sisters? Why did he go for the kill shot every time instead of just mortally wounding them to prevent them from fighting if he knew they were humans and not robots? Isn’t he supposed to protect people? Isn’t he supposed to save people? Like yes, still have her learn the world is a wonderful place and Aku is making it worse, and still have her go to fight Aku for the sisters she’d lost, but don’t have her fall in love with the man who killed the only family she’d ever known before being thrusted into an unknown world and then have a sexual awakening on top of that??????? WHAT???????

Would've been better having Ashi see things and think of memories of her sisters that connected her with them through said images or objects, and then going through the process of mourning for each one before the confrontation with her mother.

Option 5: Have Ashi fall in love with Jack first. (Best One for Romance)

Can we say scouting missions? The daughters of aku were displayed as being curious through scenes when they observe unusual behaviors to the new environments they’re scouring through. Have them hunt Jack without the efficiency of the imakandi, and learn about the world on their own. Ashi is the leader so she’s responsible for finding Jack first, but that leaves the other six to sharpen weapons, get supplies,etc. They do need to eat and sleep as they’re still human. Then they have to interact with people, and animals, and nature and learn on their own. Have them hear stories about how great Aku is, and how awful Aku is from a variety of the people they have to meet from these supply runs or leads towards Jack that turn out to be false.

Make them argue with each other about what’s true and what isn’t from what they’ve heard of Aku. Show a struggle of acceptance when the strangers they talk to present proof of how “Great” or “Awful” Aku has been. Let them make the decision on what being human actually means WHILE Ashi is scouting and watching Jack do all these good things for innocent people, and then have her come back to settle any confusion ready to say their mother is wrong only to be interrupted by their mother telling them Jack’s location before Ashi can get the words out.

Even sweeter if you have Jack notice when he’s alone versus when he’s “alone” (ashi is watching), and he talks to her. It starts with things like “if your intent is to kill me, I ask you to reconsider” then changes to “if you’re hungry, i’m leaving the excess here, help yourself” until its “your killing intent has long since vanished, do you wish to speak to me finally?” because Jack is already used to randos turning into traveling companions (blue totoro, da samurai, scotsman, ikra) he can accept the stalking to an extent as long as it doesn't escalate negatively.

After their mother’s message, the sisters find Jack, but they struggle to fight him not out of lack of skill, but because they know so much about the world now, and they’re not sure what to believe anymore. Let Jack see their hesitation and capitalize on it with his words, until Ashi puts her foot down by taking Jack’s side. Since she’s the leader, and with all they know now, they choose to follow Ashi’s word. They then proceed to travel together and tease tf out of Ashi about her feelings for the samurai.

Final thoughts:

Any of these options excluding 4 since it’s more canon streamlined, could be much more easily done by having the first half of the series being about the sisters development flanking Jack’s turmoil plot, and the second half being about the daughters making mistakes and learning from them as they build towards the final fight which becomes much more badass in that Jack’s friends are fighting anywhere from 2-7 daughters of aku in that cool evil form with all the evil robots.

The relationship of the daughters of aku was more of a pacing issue than a writing issue, but I think if they focused more on the fact of we’re going to watch a family die over a lie instead of “they’re all mindless and only ashi has emotions” their deaths would’ve hurt A Lot more. Ashi’s development would’ve been more meaningful, and Jack’s guilt would’ve been much heavier. However someone wanted their hashed in romance so I guess this would’ve stuck a sword in their well-made plans.

Not to mention the idea that the daughters were the only people Jack killed over the span of 50 years makes it ring more out as shock value killing. As if there wouldn’t be non-robotic aliens or non-robotic humans or non-robotic human-alien hybrids who wouldn’t 100% follow Aku of their own violation? Nah, we’ve seen them, and we can see what privilege does to people. Plus if they had privileges that would be taken away by Aku’s downfall...well...I don’t think Aku was the only one asking for Jack’s head on a platter.

[penniesforthestorm]

“Release the hounds”: Thoughts On Justified, Season One, Episode Thirteen

As promised, this installment will follow a more familiar ‘review’ style-- if I were doing this for money, I’d write an article for each episode, but I am trying to keep this fun for myself (plus, there’s way more of a chance I’ll actually follow through). I may adjust the format somewhat for the next season. My thoughts on the pilot, episodes 2-5, episodes 6-9, and episodes 10-12 are linked-- drop me a line if you’ve been reading and/or watching along!

The first season of Justified presents two fairly different paths the show could have taken: The first, which might be called The Adventures of Raylan Givens and Friends*, is a classic procedural along the lines of Law & Order, NYPD Blue, or CSI, with serialized elements taking a back burner-- episodes like “Fixer” or “Long in the Tooth” function more or less as standalone entries, and with their witty dialogue and colorful characters, they have a light touch (nefarious drug cartels notwithstanding). The second option is a far more novelistic approach, with the episodes coalescing around the story of Raylan Givens And His Nemesis Boyd Crowder**. It’s a natural expansion of the arc of “Fire in the Hole”, and it’s not hard to see why the show takes that direction, reaching its initial peak in the season finale, “Bulletville”.

Several times in the episode, the phrase “you know me” passes between a set of characters. This theme has popped up throughout the preceding episodes, perhaps most sharply in the case of Raylan’s ex-wife, Winona Hawkins (Natalie Zea). Winona and Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) were married for six years, and it’s telling that, after Raylan shoots his former friend Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) in the pilot, she’s the person he runs to see. Winona and Raylan met as adults-- of course, she would know some things about his past, but one gets the sense that, for Raylan, Winona represented the future. Her comment about her current husband Gary representing ‘hope’ is especially cutting, because we’ve come to understand that Raylan hoped (and possibly still hopes) to be the kind of man Winona could respect. For her part, Winona moved on from Raylan because she saw how much of a captive to his past he still was.

As to the past, consider the case of Raylan’s father, Arlo Givens (Raymond J. Barry). In “Bulletville”, Arlo sits down with crime patriarch Bo Crowder (M.C. Gainey), to try and settle the bad blood between them. He offers to play double agent, tying up the various federal agencies pursuing Bo with useless information, while enabling Bo to stay ahead of their inquiries. “You’ve known me for fifty years,” Arlo wheedles. “I’m not sure if that’s supposed to make me trust you more, or less,” Bo retorts. Nevertheless, there is common ground between them: both of them are old men with sons who have failed them, deliberately or otherwise. (The fact that Bo transferred the majority of responsibility for his enterprise to Arlo and not his son Bowman is an interesting detail-- Bowman may not have outright defied his father the way his brother Boyd did, but I can’t help thinking of the similarly hotheaded Sonny Corleone.) Later, when Arlo attempts to set Raylan up, as Bo’s peace offering to the Miami cartel, he starts gently reminiscing about Raylan’s mother, and about his own shortcomings as a parent, which instantly ignites Raylan’s suspicions. Raylan, after all, spent the first twenty years of his life attuning himself to Arlo’s moods. Once Arlo is subdued, however, Raylan still tends to his wounds.

Contrast that with the earlier confrontation between Papa Bo and Boyd, at Boyd’s “church” in the woods. Bo, furious that Boyd has blown up the shipment of ephedrine from Miami, has shown up with an armed posse, including Boyd’s Cousin Johnny (David Meunier). “I can’t hurt my own son,” Bo says, smiling. “Johnny, hurt my son.” Johnny is pissed at Boyd for a different reason-- he tipped Boyd off about the truck’s arrival, hoping that Boyd would kill the drivers, and the two of them would convince Miami that Bo was responsible for the sabotage. Still, after the first few punches, Johnny’s reluctance grows, and when he asks Bo, “You want me to kill him?”, there’s a genuine note of fear in his voice. (I’ll have more to say about Meunier’s performance in future installments-- over the next few seasons, he quietly creates one of the show’s most fascinating characters.) Bo does something much, much worse-- he lets Boyd walk away, and then he and his posse slaughter Boyd’s “flock”.

This act of unfiltered evil sends Boyd into crisis-- upon seeing the corpses of his followers dangling in the trees, Goggins falls to the ground and lets out an anguished roar. That night, after burying the men, he prays in desperation, asking for a sign. As the silence of the dark trees presses on him, he murmurs, “Maybe I’ve just been talking to myself the whole time.” It’s a fine irony that this is the first time we truly understand the depth and sincerity of his former conversion. He shows up at Raylan’s motel room, stammering, “I am lost.” Without his followers, without whatever impulse was guiding him before, Boyd is compelled to find someone who knows him.

So he and Raylan ride off together to confront Bo, who has, in the intervening hours, kidnapped Ava and shot Johnny. They converge on Bo’s hunting cabin, where Bo hoped to draw Raylan in order to hand him off to Miami. Boyd discovers Ava, bound but unharmed, while Raylan parlays with Bo. The Miami contingent has other ideas-- a sniper takes out Bo, and Ernesto and Pilar, who drove the ephedrine truck, open fire. There’s some great banter as Raylan, Boyd, and Ava take cover in the cabin-- Raylan asks Boyd if he’s brought his rocket launcher, and Boyd ruefully responds, “I didn’t think to pack one.” Pilar calls for Raylan, and he answers, only to have Boyd shout, “No, I’m Raylan Givens!” (Raylan: “Are you trying to be funny?” Boyd: “A little.”) The standoff ends with Ava free, Ernesto dead, and Boyd in pursuit of Pilar. Boyd asks if Raylan will shoot to stop him, saying he’s pretty sure Raylan’s pistol is empty. “You gonna bet your life on that?” Raylan asks. “No, Raylan,” Boyd answers, “I’m gonna bet my life on you being the only friend I have left in this world.” They know each other, having faced death together several times and walked away alive.

* I know this is a horrendous title. I’m sorry. ** why yes, I did just re-watch The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford; why do you ask?

[bellamygateoldblog]

rate best to worst parental figures of the 100

worst → best (I tend to ramble throughout this, sorry!)

19 — Nia : I mean I don’t think an explanation is needed here lol. She burned Echo’s parents alive, it’s implied she then renamed her Ash, before forcing her into the identity of another child and filling her life with assassination and espionage. Mother Of The Year?

18 — Aurora : so firstly we have Octavia- who’s existence shouldn’t be. It was so incredibly irresponsible and selfish to subject her child to this life. If the ark hadn’t been dying and Octavia never caught, would she had been expected to grow old and die under the floor? Would Bellamy have spent his life, even after Aurora was long dead, being nothing more than his sister’s keeper?

And Bellamy- to manipulate your six year old son into believing it’s his responsbility to protect and care for his sister, so engrained into his mind and sense of self that he still lives by this mantra well into his 20s, to treat Bellamy being Octavia’s whole world as normal, having him go through his life with this small girl attached to him, entirely dependent on him, placing such a heavy weight onto a child- it’s UGH. No words, just a grunt.

He gave up his education and his personal life and he became a father when he was six years old. She took his life away.

This early family dynamic is at the root of ALL of Octavia and Bellamy’s major character traits, struggles and flaws, it drives them still, it’s effects are still felt and reinforced. BOO.

17 — Raven’s unnamed mother : And here is where I go off on a rant criticising the writing more than the actual mother. Just like Octavia, Raven was raised by another child, except in this case her mother is emotionally absent and said child is the same age as her (or younger) and thus i expect their experience and maturity levels are matched through their lives. Could this have bourne some co-dependency? Perhaps, but it’s never talked about i think because Raven’s backstory is practically a Schrödinger’s cat scenario with all the retconning that goes on. Like here- we recieved some more information in season six that directly contradicts what was already established of their mother-daughter relationship: “she never used me.”

*deadpan narrator voice* She did, however, use her.

That’s if we choose to accept this one as canon and not that one, god this writing is atrocious. Raven’s mother was neglectful, so much so that the only way she ate is through a boy sharing his own rations with her. Raven believes “she only had [her] so she could trade [Raven’s] rations for moonshine.” SHE DID USE HER DAUGHTER.

Furthermore, in season one she defended her mother (context: when a remark was made about selling sex in exchange for supplies), she tells her not to “dare talk about [her] mother that way” and i get the impression she at least respected her, but in season six she straight up calls her “a drunk who sold herself for booze.” In fact in season six she goes from being deluded one second- “she never used me”- to being scarily desensitised by a harsh reality the next, the same way she was in early seasons, speaking casually of her mother’s alcoholism. WHAT IS THE TRUTH? None of what we know of Raven’s family and backstory can coexist and yet here we are, talking about Raven’s family and backstory as if the writers ever cared enough to make it actually coherent.

16 — Murphy’s unnamed mother : did love him once, very much so, but let her grief poison her and turn her against her son. Another alcoholic/addict mother to add to the collection. We don’t have a lot of details about her, but the knowledge that she blamed her vulnerable little boy who had no control over his own health for the death of her husband who made his own conscious choice is enough for me to place her down here. The source of Murphy’s lack of self worth, *implied* intrusive thoughts, and difficulty connecting with others, and just in general sometimes being a total jackass. Yeah, it’s all her fault.

15 —  Clarke : like mother, like daughter. She electrocuted her child,  but what I find to be remarkably horrific about this is the simple fact  the device is the same one used to torture her in the  beginning of the season, the same one used by the so-called ‘villains’. She felt and endured the pain herself, and then decided subjecting her own daughter to that same treatment was an acceptable and necessary choice-  before leaving that decision completely redundant later by switching allegiance  and having Madi lead the army afterall. Madi was dependent on Clarke, the silent agreement is trust and respect, and this one singular  action showed Clarke violating everything it means to be a guardian and  protector. Also, she never apologised to Madi for this, nor did their relationship experience strain as a result when both of those  things absolutely should’ve happened. That’s my main gripe with the  relationship, the other being that it’s bourne of the same strain of  co-dependancy as the Blakes.

Something about Madi wanting to go to  school and be a regular child and Clarke responding to that with an ultimatum doesn’t sit right with me. At this point nobody cares about the Commander. Nobody- literally every single grounder is asleep- and, as her mother, Clarke has the right and the power to have Madi take out that damn flame to preserve her safety and youth and she doesn’t. She continues to let Gaia train her 12 year old for a dead position. Clarke is just as much culpable for the Sheidheda fiasco as Spacekru are for putting the flame into Madi’s head in the first place. That thing should’ve been removed as soon as it was no longer necessary. Clarke’s young, she had a child practically sprung upon her, and i want to give her the benefit of the doubt- but I won’t.

14 — Abby : I had no idea where to put Abby on this list and I think i’m being too generous but she’s a tricky one because I don’t think she’s necessarily a bad mother, not compared to the others on this list anyway, but the harsher aspects of her personality along with the high-stakes environment leads to the natural break down of her relationship with her daughter. I got the impression they were once close; Clarke is seen reaching out for her mother for comfort and validation multiple times during the first couple of seasons and she’s devastated and betrayed at the knowledge of what was Abby’s culpability in Jake’s death. Over time this falls apart. Abby never harms her biological daughter, but does have a very weird rival-like relationship with her, imo this being because they’re so similar. I can see so much Abby in Clarke and vice-versa. And they clash because of it, and Abby just doesn’t have any authority over Clarke, and over time their relationship distances to a point it lacks emotional value and other characteristics that make mother-daughter dynamics unique and meaningful. They love each other, no doubt about that, Abby’s been prepared to throw others to the wolves for her daughter a few times, just as Clarke does later in life. But the relationship between Abby and her daughter is strained from the beginning of the series, which makes her position as Clarke’s mother complicated.

Upon meeting Abby, Raven instantly viewed her through an almost idolistic lens- “relax, it’s a compliment, Abby’s a badass”- making me believe she latched onto this idea of The Mother She Never Had, and Abby’s first thoughts when encountering Raven were literally that she reminded her of her own daughter- “reminds me of someone.” This dynamic is absolutely intended as mother-daughter. While a mother-figure to Raven, though, Abby has directly and intentionally caused her harm. She’s electrocuted her, she;s then tried to avoid acknowledging her wrongness for that action- Raven in this moment of torture is as betrayed as Madi was by Clarke- she’s also hit her and while in a systematically higher position than her no less. These instances automatically make me wince away from the relationship because in no way does it come across as comfortable and safe for Raven. On the other hand, they’ve had a bunch of heartfelt moments even though they’re disguised as harsh jabs taken at one another. They’ve expressed the hard truth when nobody else will in times of the other’s vulnerability.

There is a stark contrast though between how she treats Clarke and how she treats Raven and the lack of biological relation, i think, is a buffer for Abby. IMHO i think her care for Raven is conditional, but unconditional for Clarke.

I don’t know what i should be feeling about her motherly-ness.

13 — Kane : I didn’t pay much attention to Kane’s dynamics, honestly, because I just didn’t like him, but as far as I’m aware he tried to do well by Octavia, Bellamy and Clarke, somewhat self-righteously and blaming, but trying is trying and he is always framed as in the right and morally superior so I guess that’s gotta count for something. This was all ruined during season five, though, with him attempting to have every one of them killed among other things. He didn’t appear concerned or reluctant- or anything about any of them.

12 —  Hannah : I think it’s safe to assume Monty had a good relationship with both of his parents pre-show. Hannah came across as misguided and manipulative towards Monty often, though, which i think came from both a place of love and desire to protect, but also, at points of most controlling, from a place of desperation and fear having already lost her husband. Honestly all I remember is not liking her very much so i’m placing her here in the middle/neutral area with Indra and Jaha.

11 — Indra : I place her here because we don’t actually have a lot of information about her relationship with Gaia. And I view her relationship with Octavia as mentor-mentee and eventually friends. They’ve had some sweet heart-to-heart moments, but i’ve always struggled to see the maternal connection. Octavia might be the daughter Gaia never was to Indra (I think Gaia might’ve even said this in the actual show?) but such a fond and pronounced memory of Aurora still exists within Octavia and with her very narrow-minded vision I don’t see her prepared to replace her or at the very least share that position with other people in her life. Indra is a stoic character, but it’s almost as if her emotional expression is reserved for Octavia. This speaks something of the closeness of their bond, but also tells us the climate between her and Gaia is more distant and troubled. There’s love there though- she was, afterall, planning to die so Gaia could live. Is this the only intended motherly sacrifice we’ve seen on the show?

The Blodreina of it all, while on one hand strengthened one dynamic, shattered the other. Indra is someone Octavia respected, trusted and listened to. I have to believe she was in the position to guide and advice her through the entireity of the time jump, but instead we saw her stand by and let Octavia slip further and further into her own darkness before turning on her in the most critical moment. And she might’ve tried and nothing worked, but really? You want me to try to make sense of this myself? The writers were on a quest to villainise Octavia and the fall of this relationship was a product rather than an intention.

10 — Jaha : he created a treasure, i’ll give him that. Admittedly we don’t know an awful lot about Wells or about his relationship with his father, but we do know he risked his own life to take care of Clarke, similar to Bellamy and to Raven who both also came to Earth to protect someone they loved. Both of those examples had terrible parents, so Wells’ goodness doesn’t necessarily mean we can credit Jaha, and as far as i can remember Wells never actually defended his father against the angry delinquents. Does him choosing to follow Clarke over staying with his father in space mean he must really love Clarke, or could it ellude to a certain father-son relationship not being as comfortable as it could be? When Jaha’s handed another child later on, he stops Kane giving him extra food because of something along the lines of: ‘he needs to learn the world’ so I think his parenting style may be more of the tough love and respect type. Wells is practical and strives to maintain order and squash rebelliousness thus his butting heads with the rest of the delinquents, but he has people’s best interests at heart (letting Clarke hate him rather than Abby, for example) and those are very Jaha characteristics i can see he inherited/observed and imitated.

9 — Monty and Harper : we only have a handful of information on this. Jordan has fond memories of them, but so does Octavia and Bellamy about their mother and we all know the truth about that one. Jordan is a backwards Octavia. Monty and Harper were all he had growing up, he wasn’t forced into hiding, but I can’t imagine it was a fun existence for him to grow up in isolation- watching the faces of other children behind the glass and never being able to wake them up to play. BUT his childhood is different to Octavia’s in a few ways that make a big difference and land them further up the list: 1) he’s clearly educated, 2) he has two loving parents even if they are all he has, 3) he has knowledge about the Earth, it’s story and the people from it so has a much stronger and more complex understanding of morality, meaning he’s less judgemental, and he’s also better prepared to interact with others by the time this oppurtunity arises.

They get points for leaving him in Bellamy’s hands, but are automatically relegated a few places for making Clarke his god mother.

8 — Bellamy : yes Bellamy is on this list because yes he is Octavia’s father and nothing you say matters. So every child he’s ever ‘adopted’ has died, but he tries his best to think of these children when nobody else was ever doing that. Octavia’s damaged and her more toxic traits have a tendancy to become amplified in times of high emotion, especially in the vicinity of her brother, but he was just as much a victim in all of this as she was and Aurora is entirely to blame for the disaster that is the Blake sibling relationship (I mean neither of them even had a frame of reference of what siblings look like, how were they to know how to relate to one another?).

He tries. He’s more equipped to and committed than most on this show to helping vulnerable people, he’s proven time and time again he’s willing to do whatever it takes to protect and love his sister, he gets it wrong sometimes, his efforts can be misguided and recieved differently than he might’ve intended them to be. But the facts are: he understands what it means to be a parent, he knows what it’s like to lose their child, he knows what it’s like to pour himself into someone else and hope for the best of them.

7 — Luna : she founded a clan and those people were, in a sense, her children. She kept them safe for years, it was peaceful, life was simple and fulfilling. Clarke observed her interactions with the actual children that lived there and they loved her, she was good with them. Her people respected her.

6 — Monty’s father : yet another heroic father to add to this fucking collectio-

5 —  Ginger dad : in one of the most heartbreaking scenes on this show to date, he does the David Miller thing, or i guess David Miller does The Ginger Dad Thing, and sacrifices his own life to pump more air into his child’s lungs.

4 — Murphy’s unnamed father : in a place you’ll be executed for petty crime, risking it all and stealing something as valuable as medicine just to give your son a chance at more life is commendable. He loved his son (literally) to death. It’s his memory and his sacrifice, like with Raven and Clarke, that pushes him to survive.

3 — Jake :  I think the show has demonstrated quite nicely that Clarke is a daddy’s girl. Jake The Good Engineer, Jake The Good Father, Jake The Hero. He inspires Clarke so much she goes to prison for it. And, like Sinclair-Raven, Clarke’s consciousness dreams him up whenever she’s in an intensely stressful situation and/or feeling hopeless about life and void of direction in general. This was a comfortable and secure bond, and his death marked the beginnings of Clarke’s entire story.

2 — David : easily one of the best fathers on the show, i mean he gave up the oppurtunity of claiming a spot in the bunker just so he could give his son better odds of surviving, he gave up the possibility of being in the bunker with his son. Another fatherly sacrifice for the collection. He loves Miller unconditionally, even when Miller himself feels like a disappointment.

1 — Sinclair : this was an obvious retcon, but still good as long as I don’t think about it. A cute father-figure, the mentor that took a chance on her, the first (or second) person to pick her. Everything about this relationship is sweet and healthy, a nice diversion from the usually exhaustingly complex dynamics. Their relationship was so meaningful, in fact, that it was him who Raven’s dying mind manifested to encourage her to go on living. 10/10.

(and don’t think i don’t peep that bad/cruel mothers, good/heroic fathers pattern here. These writers WACK…)

[hotdadslade]

Pennyworth Impressions

So I have seen more or less nothing about Pennyworth, and it’s little wonder why. It was released episodically on a channel/streaming platform no one I’d spoken to had ever heard of, with zero fanfare, and what marketing there was seemed to exclusively focus around ‘it’s about Batman’s Butler’.

So, first things first: Pennyworth is an alt history story with a young Alfred Pennyworth as the main character. That ‘alt history’ bit is important, but is in absolutely NONE of the promotional material I saw. Specifically, the story takes place in probably-the-60s, only it’s a vaguely dystopian world: people are executed publicly, there’s bodies in gibbets hanging around London, etcetc. I’ve seen a lot of people saying they’re not interested because... well, what’s so interesting about this kind of prequel? You already know what’s going to happen.

The actual plot is only barely about how Alfred meets the Waynes. The real plot is about political squabbling between two groups, the Raven Society and the No Name League, who are both secret societies which later become political parties, and they’re pushing England towards a full on civil war. Alfred gets involved on both sides, things get fucky, you know the deal.

That said, I’ve got four big points about the show for anyone interested so far.

One: This show is VERY gory. Not as bad as Swamp thing (which was some top-class body horror), but we’ve got torture, mutilation, heads blown off, etc... All shown with some pretty extreme detail. It is downright gratuitous at times and as someone who’s not a huge fan of gore I had to look away quite a bit. There’s also at least one rape, lots of animal dismemberment, cannibalism... You name it. If you have any sort of content you’re worried about, it’s probably in there.

Two: This show does nothing with the DC license, and seems to actively be made worse by it. The only named characters from the comics are Alfred, Martha, and Thomas. You’ll spend more time wondering how things connect to the characters they’re named after then making any actual connections, such as the reveal that Thomas Wayne has a sister and that he works for the CIA. Nothing really connects back and this would honestly have been a better story if it was just billed as a standard alt history political drama, because then I wouldn’t have spent all my time wondering wtf is going on.

Three: This show is, in theory, a political drama. That’s what it’s trying to be. However it has almost nothing to say about politics and the way it portrays politics is a bit... tone deaf. The fact that one side is described repeatedly (even by their own people) as fascists who are willing to engage in everything up to and including assassination and suicide bombing while the other side are socialists who... might be willing to kill a mass murderer - but are depicted as being on the same level is kind of surreal. All the sides are terrible yet the impression I got while watching is that we’re supposed to be cheering for the old guard (the Queen and Prime Minister) who are also terrible.

For a show almost entirely about two secret societies with opposing political views, the show doesn’t say anything about them, and keeping them all straight is... difficult. Alfred himself is almost staunchly apolitical, refusing to take sides, but considering one side is running around with women’s heads in jars while the other side is guilty of... trying to stop the other side... it kind of falls into the ‘not making a choice is a choice in itself’ category.

Four: The show has no idea what it’s doing.

There’s no nice way to say this, so I’ll be direct. There is a plot. There’s a story here. But that story is wandering and meandering in the most bizarre way. The first episode is astounding. Great character moments, fantastic world building, and it works almost as a standalone movie in its own right.

But every episode after that the plot gets more and more muddled. The characters wander around doing their own thing and only really come together at the end. A character who we should absolutely hate because he’s a complete fucking monster gets a multi-episode recovery arc to make him sympathetic, only for him to toss it away at the last minute.

The best example I can think of this comes midway through the series, and I’m going to go right on ahead and spoil it so I’ll drop it under the cut.

Midway through the season, Thomas needs to go out and do something to keep the show’s main plot going on. However, his drug addict sister, Patricia, has shown up at his hotel room, and he needs to make sure someone keeps an eye on her while he’s gone. He gets Martha to do this. Martha, for some reason I do not understand in the slightest, both says yes and then immediately agrees to go to a party with Patricia.

They then attend a bizarre party at the satanist Aleister Crowley’s house. It is vaguely implied that Martha might have been drugged, but left unclear. The party devolves into an orgy, and Martha repeatedly attempts to leave only to find herself back in the main room. The last time she does this she returns to find the room silent, with everyone staring at her, and she carefully walks across the room to be faced with the devil, featuring a goat head and six creepy eyes.

The scene cuts and we go back to Alfred’s stuff which seems absolutely inconsequential in the face of this bizarre reveal in what should be the B plot.We don’t pick this plot thread up again until the end of the episode, when Martha wakes up completely naked in a field.

The next episode establishes that Patricia has not come back, and that Martha has been missing for three whole days. Martha and Thomas investigate, find Patricia happy and healthy with Crowley, and Crowley is VERY intent on making it clear that no, he’s legitimate, he actually works for the devil. Thomas calls his bluff, insisting on negotiating, and is shown a piece of satanic ritual pornography featuring his sister, which mind controls him into attempting to murder Crowley’s assistant. He’s traumatized and more or less flees the building. At this point, Martha strongly implies that something terrible happened, and it is strongly implied she was raped by the devil and may or may not be pregnant or changed by this in some way.

This plot arc is then completely forgotten and effectively never brought up again.

It is so completely out there that my head was actually spinning by the end of the episode, because Pennyworth just established that the devil is real and may have raped Martha and then does absolutely nothing with it. It almost completely forgets about it, and I can’t even remember Patricia coming up again after that point. It was so bizarrely out of place that going back to it’s usual thriller political drama stuff felt completely wrong. If this was supposed to be a season two tie-in, they did a terrible job of it, because all I could think watching the last few episodes were ‘why do I care about this when the devil’s running around London’.

Overall, Pennyworth was a show with no clear direction and no idea of what it wanted to be. It didn’t use it’s license, it overly relied on shock value, and while there was some fantastic acting, it didn’t save the fact that the plot was all over the damned place. While it had some fun moments, I’d say most of those moments were at the very start and the very end. If you’re interested, I’d say the first three episodes (available for free on amazon) are pretty enjoyable as a standalone set, but I wouldn’t bother with the rest. If it gets a S2 (which so far seems unlikely), I’m not even sure I’ll go back to it.

[kcwcommentary]

VLD7x03 – “The Way Forward”

7x03 – “The Way Forward”

The end of this episode gives us an explanation for the time skip, but there’s a big problem: That explanation contains a giant plot hole.

This episode is another absolute mess of direction. The writing doesn’t help either. Main characters are given nothing to do while side characters are given the spotlight. The pace of the narrative makes much of the episode feel like it’s spinning its wheels. Character motivations are erratic at best. Most of the episode is either uninteresting or confusing.

The episode starts with the Galra cruiser in space, letting the writers skip over having to think through the logistics of how where the last episode ended got us to the point that this episode begins. There’s a shot of a Galra cruiser main cannon sitting in a cargo bay. And then finally with the third shot of the episode, we’re given some context to be able to orient ourselves with the narrative: The Lions are disabled in the ship’s cargo bay. Somehow, slamming the Lions into the ground with a tractor beam at the end of last episode didn’t just pin them down but also totally knocked them out. Somehow, the Galra were able to remove the Paladins from the Lions since the Paladins have been put in the brig. How any of that happened is not explained.

Lance is the only one trying to examine their cell. Everyone else is just sitting or standing around doing nothing. I guess she’s supposed to be behind where the camera would be, but after a few shots of the whole group, suddenly in the reverse shot, Krolia is standing near the door. It was weird and made it look like she came out of nowhere, or like she had been forgotten to be included in the group in the previous shots. Lance kicks the walls, it hurts, and it’s played for humor. It’s not funny. “Will someone shut him up?” Krolia asks. How about Krolia shut up. I am not interested in her. Don’t introduce a new minor character, have the narrative give her time and prominence while not giving any to most of the main characters, and then have her demand one of the main characters to shut up. It’s obnoxious.

“There’s only one guard patrolling out there,” she says. The visuals don’t match the dialog because the guard isn’t patrolling, he’s just standing there guarding the cell. Patrolling and standing guard are two significantly different activities.

Hunk then asks, “What happened to Coran?” Sadly, I hadn’t even noticed that he was missing. Krolia says, “He must have managed to hide when we were captured.” Since Krolia had to have heard Coran yell that he was joining her to fight the Galra who landed on the Black Lion’s back last episode, that Krolia then came back in the Lion and never wondered where Coran was does nothing to make me like her. “At least we have one ally out there still able to fight for us,” Allura says. I don’t know if there were some technical difficulties recording Allura’s line, but the sound of her voice has an unusually high amount of hiss.

What happens next makes me angry. Pidge reacts, saying, “Are you saying our fate rests in Coran’s hands?” There’s a supposedly humorous camera zoom out from the group, several characters have a supposedly humorous dejected facial expression, there’s supposedly humorous deflated music, and Pidge follows up by saying, “I will help you look for that passage.” This moment is the show trying to be funny by saying that Coran is an incapable person and how absurd it is that they all have to rely upon him. This infuriates me. Coran has spent this entire series working harder than nearly everyone, taking care of all these people. He’s the one who was constantly making sure the Castle Ship was functioning, often with no one helping him. He has always been depicted as someone who is fundamentally reliable and capable. And now for an attempt at humor, the episode assassinates his character.

So, Coran getting trapped behind the door on the Black Lion last episode is paid off in this episode. I’m glad that it’s getting paid off, that it didn’t just happen for no reason last episode, but it still doesn’t work for me. Last episode, his getting trapped was played for humor, but it happened quickly and was never referenced again in that episode. I now wonder if Coran’s quick, “I’ll help too!” and his running off after Krolia only to get stuck behind these doors was added really late in the production of that episode. It felt so out of place then and had no narrative impact for that episode. It annoys me that there were four people on the Black Lion other than Coran, and none of them realized he was missing once he got trapped, none of them heard him hollering for help, and none of them thought to look for him.

I briefly want to talk about how big the inside of the Lions are shown to be now. We’ve had six seasons of these Lions, and while we could assume there was at least a little more space inside than just the cockpit, I don’t remember the show ever showing any of it. The fact that it was never properly established that there was all this space, all these rooms, until now when everyone’s having to live in the Lions, it honestly kind of feels like a retcon.

Coran trying to get out of the room he’s trapped in is played for humor. He’s given a long comedy monologue. It’s funnier than the earlier character assassination, at least. Unfortunately, I don’t feel prepared by the episode for a big humor scene like this. I really want to like it more because all the comical stuff Coran is doing in this scene is decently written, especially his freakout over the sound of the mice coming into the room, but I’m still offended by how the narrative through Pidge demeaned Coran in the prior scene.

The mice somehow open the doors. Given that they’re mice, they couldn’t have physically pried the doors open (Coran, being an Altean, would be really strong, so if the doors could be pried open then he would have been able to do so). The Black Lion has no power currently, so the mice couldn’t have opened the doors by hitting a button on a control panel. The episode does not explain how the mice opened the door. I don’t know why the writers think it’s okay to have things happen without explanation like this. I know the intention is that it be read as funny, but it just doesn’t work for me.

Also, the wolf is hanging out, laying right at the other side of the door. He’s not shown to be laying there in the establishing shots when the camera first starts outside the room before cutting to Coran inside. He’s also just laying there, like he’s been sleeping right there against the door. The space wolf is supposed to be the childhood dog Keith never got to have, but my experience with dogs suggests he would not just be laying there if he heard Coran yelling on the other side of the door and banging on it. The space wolf has also demonstrated way higher than standard dog level intelligence, having rearranged the passengers via teleportation and having attacked the Galra fighter pilots with teleportation last episode, so the idea that he’d just lay here against the door and sleep rather than helping Coran get out of the room is not plausible. Also, if the Galra went into the Lions and captured everyone in order to restrain them and take them to the brig, then did none of them see the wolf?

For that matter, when the Galra broke into the Lions to capture everyone, did the Paladins just let themselves be captured? The last we saw of the Paladins, they were all conscious, so it’s not that the Galra grabbed them while they were unconscious. I can’t imagine the Paladins would get captured without putting up a fight, so with Keith, Shiro, and Krolia here on the Black Lion, was there not a loud fight that Coran would have heard? Are we supposed to assume that he just stayed quiet during that fight? (I think that would be out of character for him.) Are we to assume that the space wolf would not come to Keith’s aid in that fight? Why is the space wolf sleeping here against the door right now instead of trying to find Keith?

So much of this does not make sense.

Also, the show giving this hero moment to the mice reminds me again, especially since we’re in season seven now, that the show wrote more investment and importance into the mice than they did Adam. The idea that the EPs and writers considered Adam to be of such importance that killing him would reveal how significant the invasion of Earth is just isn’t plausible considering how little time they gave him in the show. They solely derived that supposed importance out of him being Shiro’s same-sex “significant other.” In other words, the whole reason they chose to kill Adam is because he was supposed to be important to Shiro. They killed Adam specifically because he was gay.

Coran lifts himself out of the room. Uh… when did the other room have a lower floor than this room? Coran says the space wolf as injured, and he did apparently get injured off-screen last episode. The wolf had been with Pidge in the Green Lion, not here in the Black Lion, so when did he come into the Black Lion? I assume he was looking for Keith? Still, if he saw the Galra taking Team Voltron away in cuffs, wouldn’t he have come to Keith’s aid? If he’s here at the door because Coran is the only one in any of the Lions, why wouldn’t he have just teleported into the room to be with Coran? None of the wolf’s behavior makes any sense whatsoever.

Coran and the mice are outside Black. The mice attack the one singular Galra guard, causing him to freak out and drop his rifle. Coran then slips off of Black, falls, and lands with his crotch in the Galra’s face. Let me say that again: The show has Coran (accidentally, but still) smash his crotch into another character’s face. Getting hit in the face by Coran’s crotch somehow knocks the Galra unconscious, and Coran strips him and puts on his uniform.

Ezor is sitting by herself, looking sad, when Zethrid enters the room to report that they’ve got the Paladins and the Lions secure. Ezor says, “If Voltron survived, do you think that means Lotor is still alive?” Zethrid says that they’re going to find out, and Ezor expresses worry about what Lotor would do to them now if they did find him.

Zethrid then says, “I will always take care of you, Ezor.” She kneels close to Ezor and continues, “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” We then get a little bit of context when Zethrid says, “We just took down a Galra cruiser, and we have the mighty Paladins of Voltron locked in our brig.” If we go by this line, then their being in control of this ship is a very new development for them. It makes me curious how they got the miscellaneous Galra who are fighting for them since the way Zethrid is talking about having to capture this cruiser suggests that Zethrid and Ezor are acting rogue and not as part of the Galra Empire. How did they get followers to help them run this ship and pilot all the fighter craft?

The moment has some romantic undertones, and they’re apparently supposed to be in a relationship here. The episode ending with the two of them seemingly blown up, especially given that the show in a few episodes blows up Adam, made this season look like it revealed four characters as gay and killed three of them by explosion. Of course, season eight has Ezor and Zethrid somehow survive being blown up without any explanation as to how they survived, but without season eight, season seven killing three out of four queer characters is infuriating.

And then Ezor gleefully says, “Let’s go torture some prisoners,” and Zethrid responds, “That’s my girl.” This bothers me on a whole different level. In the very end of the show, Ezor and Zethrid have joined Keith in the Blades of Marmora doing humanitarian work. While there’s a little content with Zethrid next season (and technically Ezor shows up weirdly for a brief moment but never does literally anything), the show does not give any reason for us to consider these two to be redeemed enough that Keith is working alongside. Ezor and Zethrid’s personalities here are villainous, talking eagerly about torturing people. That is not heroic, so it’s unearned for them to be reclassified as heroes working with Keith in the end.

Coran is sneaking through the ship, trying to fake a conversation with a couple of Galra. He doesn’t do well. Out of nowhere, Axca jumps out of a vent and attacks the two Galra.

Back at the cell (I’m surprised that the Galra are keeping all of the Paladins locked in one cell), two Galra open the door. And we see the butts of two characters walk in. There’s a dramatic fast pan of the camera to the shocked-expression of the Paladins that is unintentionally funny because the show thinks that there’s some big dramatic reveal happening here. It’s like we’re supposed to feel surprised because we’re shown the Paladins looking surprised, but because we already know that it’s Ezor and Zethrid, there is literally no surprise in this scene. This moment is given dramatic tonality, camerawork, and music, but there is no actual drama in the reveal.

Lance says, “Hey, you’re the ones Lotor shot into space.” So, we’re supposed to believe that somehow Lance, while in the Red Lion, was able to not just see that Lotor ejected people into space in 6x06 “All Good Things,” but that he could specifically see the identities of who those people were? This is not believable.

Hunk, trying to see if being diplomatic will help, says to Ezor and Zethrid, “I’m glad you survived.” Ezor responds, “I’m glad you survived too. It’s no fun torturing a dead person.” (And again, we’re supposed to forgive them by the end of the series.)

Zethrid demands to know, “Where have you been all this time, and what happened to Lotor!?” Shiro’s confused, and Ezor says, “We’re talking about your little disappearing act.” Zethrid asks, “How did you survive that explosion?” Hunk counters with, “Don’t you know, you were there.”

Hunk does bring up a good point, how did Axca, Ezor, and Zethrid survive the expanding tear in reality and the explosion used to close the tear in 6x07 “Defender of All Universes”? They did not have any ship, at most having a jetpack built into their suits. They couldn’t have gotten far enough from it all to have escaped.

Keith tells them that Lotor is dead in the quintessence field, and Ezor says, “Yeah, that doesn’t really add up, why aren’t you dead?” How does that not make sense to her?

This is apparently supposed to feel like some really tense moment in the episode, but the pace of the episode feels stalled, like the episode is stuck in mud spinning its wheels. Zethrid asks the same questions again.

Meanwhile, Axca and Coran are continuing through the ship without any explanation as to what they’re doing, what their goal is. They’re both hiding behind some of the ship’s structure, but Axca acts surprised to see Coran when she turns around. He asks her what she’s doing here. She says she picked up the signal Team Voltron was sending to Earth and assumes that that’s how Ezor and Zethrid were able to find them. That makes a better explanation for these Galra ships showing up last episode than how last episode leaves us to think they were hanging around waiting. Coran asks Axca why she’s helping them, and she responds, “We don’t have time for that now.” This is such fake drama. She might not have time to explain everything but explain something at least. Something as minor like, I thought Lotor was different than most other Galra, that he could change things, but I was wrong, if things are going to change, Voltron has to make it happen. Having a character say they don’t have time to explain anything doesn’t create tension.

Axca wants to break the Paladins out and help them get away. The show continues to have the Lions be conveniently low-powered to justify not using them as the super advanced technology warships that they are. Axca says they need to create a distraction and establish an escape route. Coran points out the giant cannon that was shown in that conspicuous, yet oddly located, shot at the beginning of the episode. Somehow this cannon, despite just sitting in the hangar, is functional. This isn’t a hand weapon, this is a major cannon that would have to be hooked up to specific ship’s systems in order to function. Those systems would not be in the hangar. This is totally contrived.

Somehow if they blast a hole in the hangar door, it’ll cause other doors to seal, and keep the Galra from being able to get to any fighter craft. Axca tells Coran to free the Paladins, find their helmets and weapons, and that she’ll blow open the hole so that “you and your Lions will be sucked out into space.” I don’t know why this misunderstanding so persistent in the writing of space shows, but the pressure differential does not result in being “sucked out into space,” you are blown out. I know most people don’t care about the difference, but there is very much a distinction.

Zethrid picks Pidge for their “first victim,” to use Ezor’s words. Lance screams and is animated to look in a way that is really jarring. I’m not saying that he can’t come to Pidge’s defense, but the tonal shift that happens is too severe and too sudden. Ezor knocks Lance down easily. No one else really does anything. Keith takes half a step forward, but that’s it. Shiro does literally nothing, despite our having seen how fiercely he’ll fight to protect his people before, like way back in 1x07 “Tears of the Balmera” when he fought Sendak while having both his hands tied behind his back.

Ezor uses her sock head to lasso Pidge and pull her to her. I still really do not like Ezor’s design.

The Galra that Coran knocked out with his crotch regains consciousness, sees that he’s in his underwear, and alerts the ship to “an intruder in hangar one.” There’s a shot of the hangar, and the Lions are rearranged in the setting to now be directly next to the cannon. The shot of the cannon at the beginning of the episode did not include the Lions, so this is an animation inconsistency. Similar to last episode, this one also feels like it was poorly directed. It shouldn’t be surprising then that this episode is the first solo directing work that Rie Koga has done for the show.

Galra show up almost immediately and start shooting at Axca. Why they think she’s the intruder, despite her being Galra, I don’t know. The writers wanted her to be attacked, so she’s being attacked. I guess it’s nothing more than that. This show has never been one that was good at having characters behave logically.

Coran, lacking a helmet, uses the Altean shapeshifting ability to turn his skin purple. A door opens and someone in a full suit that looks like a person-sized Robeast runs into Coran. This show has not given us any kind of explanation as to who all these people are, why they’re following Zethrid and Ezor. So much of what’s in this episode feels so out of place. Coran tries to punch the guy in the suit, hurts his hand, and they walk down the hall and doors shut behind them. Are the doors that shut supposed to be the same doors that opened? The doors that opened were to the side of a hall, looking like doors to a room, but these doors that close are in the middle of a hallway. Again, I don’t know if these poor logistics are the result of bad directing, bad storyboarding, or both, but the episode lacks clarity and precision.

Between fighting Galra and pushing buttons on a display on her wrist, Axca does whatever. The cannon powers up and begins to blast and then the episode cuts to Ezor still holding Pidge by the collar when the ship announces a hull breach in the hangar.

The plan was supposed to be that Axca would have the cannon blast open the hangar once Team Voltron were in their Lions so that they would be “sucked out into space.” No one is in any of the Lions, so why is she blowing stuff up now? Did the writer forget what he wrote Axca to say in her describing the plan?

Ezor, Zethrid, and the other Galra run out of the cell to handle the hangar issue, the cell door slamming shut behind them. Krolia gives everyone their plan: Wait by the door to overwhelm the guard the next time the door opens. It feels absolutely contrived because of course that plan is being established to be undermined. I thought maybe the door would open and it’d be Coran and they’d all jump him, but no, the door opens and it’s the mice. Somehow the mice knocked out the guard and opened the door. When the show writes the mice as being more competent than literally everyone else, something is wrong.

The show spends too much time having the mice tell Allura what’s been happening and her translating for everyone. Everyone just standing around in the hallway watching Allura talk to the mice is totally unreasonable given the situation they’re all in. The mice even tell Allura that Axca is helping them, and that gets Keith’s attention.

Coran is being beaten up by the guy in the armor, who is knocked out by a single punch from Allura, who used her shapeshifting to grow larger. Everyone standing around with a smile on their face while she returns to normal size is so weird. They are all trying to escape imprisonment, but they look like they’re about to wish Coran happy birthday or something.

Keith asks Coran where Axca is, and Coran replies, “I don’t know. Where am I?” He’s bruised and one of his eyes is swollen shut, and clearly he’s having cognitive difficulties. Shiro responds to all this by asking Coran, “Are you okay?” Clearly he isn’t! What is this writing?

Ezor and Zethrid are running down a hallway and look out a window to see the Lions have been blown out of the hangar. Axca scoots through the door into the hall just as it closes. The force of the air is enough to blow the large, metal warships that are the Lions out into space, but Axca is somehow able to move against that force in order to get through this door? That’s not how physics works.

There’s no explanation for why Zethrid and Ezor don’t like Axca now, even though they were all treated the same by Lotor the last we saw them. Ezor explains Axca’s behavior as being motivated by being attracted to Keith. It would be nice if male writers would write female characters without their actions being motivated by being attracted to a guy. Ugh.

This is another moment that reminds me, like several before, why I don’t like these characters. Lotor’s generals were introduced and for several episodes were really interesting. The fact that they’re half-Galra, and thus were subject to discrimination by Galra who believed in Galra-supremacy, was interesting. The fact that Axca, Zethrid, Ezor, and Narti were all female was interesting. But then, these characters got lost in a constant shifting of loyalties. Who they were willing to work for or against changed at the flip of a switch. It made them fundamentally inconsistent, their motivations being effectively nonexistent since they changed at any given moment. There is no core to who they are.

There’s a shot of the Paladins’ helmets and bayards, and the shot includes an animation error. There’s a pink bayard on the table. Allura, despite wearing pink in her Paladin armor, weilds the blue bayard. The bayard that’s colored pink should have been the black bayard. This animation inconsistency shows the absurdity of having Paladins wearing armor with colors that do not match their respective Lions.

Lance, who’s supposed to be looking after Coran per Lance’s own earlier statement, joins Keith and Pidge right at the open door to this room that has their helmets and bayards and two Galra. Coran, who still is exhibiting unusual behavior from being hit by the big Galra earlier, yells at these two Galra. Why Lance stopped and no one else stepped up to look after Coran is senseless. Characters are not behaving like normal, rational people in this episode.

Keith, out in the hallway, closes his eyes and the black bayard starts to glow red. Why does the black bayard glow red? Why red? If Keith is supposed to be the Black Paladin now, why didn’t the black bayard glow purple, which is the color of glowing for things associated with the Black Lion and being the Black Paladin? It makes it feel like the show has abandoned its lore entirely. The black bayard disappears and teleports to Keith’s hand, and he uses it to take out the two Galra.

The show had written Keith to have left the Paladins. He was not a Paladin at all, let alone the Black Paladin. And then he shows up in season six, the clone is triggered by Haggar, and suddenly Keith is the Black Paladin again. There show doesn’t do anything to have Keith or Shiro discuss this. The show completely unceremoniously rips being Black Paladin away from Shiro and gives the position to Keith. It’s offensive.

Keith tells Lance to “lead the way, keep the team together.” Lance questions him, and Keith says he’s going help Axca. Why are they going in separate directions? One, Keith has no idea where Axca is. The best assumption he could make right now would be to think she was near the hangar and is responsible for blowing it up. Since that’s the same direction that everyone has to head in order to get to the Lions, why is Keith going the opposite direction? This episode’s logistics make no sense.

The Paladins all put on their helmets. Somehow Shiro now has his black helmet, despite it not being on the table with the other helmets earlier. Krolia also has her helmet despite it having not been on the table earlier too. Coran and Romelle put on some conveniently nearby space suits. They open a door and jet out into space toward the Lions.

The show has Lance, at the direction of Keith, leading the group now. This infuriates me because its more of the show taking absolutely everything from Shiro. They’ve turned him into a background character. He was one of the two main characters of this show’s first two seasons, and now he’s given less to do than the mice. The EPs wanted to kill Shiro, and while they weren’t allowed to permanently do so, they’ve effectively done so by having him just standing around doing nothing. Again, it’s infuriating.

Some Galra follow the Paladins out into space, shooting at them.

Keith comes to Axca’s defense. Zethrid and Ezor taunt them, reducing Axca to being sexually attracted to Keith. Keith screams, “Can’t we just fight!?” For a situation that’s supposed to feel tense, it only feels silly and ridiculous.

Rather than continue on as fast as they can to get to the shelter of the Lions, the Paladins stop and turn to engage the Galra following them. Hunk wraps a rag or a scarf or some piece of cloth around the helmet of one of them to block his vision and keep him from being able to see to shoot them. Hunk then kicks the Galra into another Galra and then shoots at several Galra with his bayard.

The Galra scatter because apparently Hunk can’t hit them when they’re right in front of him. Krolia jets up behind one of the Galra, pulls a jetpack-style engine off his belt (seriously, rather than have jetpack engines built into their suits, the Galra are using belt clip-on engines), and the show uses an old sound effect from the Jetsons cartoon as he for some reason blasts away from Krolia. Her taking one of his clip-on engines from his belt causing him to then be thrust away from her makes no sense whatsoever.

Pidge gets to the Green Lion.

Zethrid, Axca, Ezor, and Keith continue to fight. There are no emotional stakes to the fight though. The point of contention between these four characters is nothing more than Zethrid and Ezor want to make fun of Axca for her being attracted to Keith. This fight is meaningless.

Zethrid shoulder-checks Keith hard enough to cause Keith to collide with Axca and the two of them to tear through a metal wall, which is absolutely ridiculous. Inside this new room are canisters of something that Keith and Axca look at and automatically know what’s inside. The canisters are explosive. Keith communicates with the Paladins and tells them to shoot his location. Keith grabs Axca, jets past Zethrid and Ezor just as the Lions’ blasts tear through the hull. The canisters are ignited, and there’s a huge explosion. Ezor and Zethrid should be dead. That season eight reveals that they’re not makes it feel like the show is just jerking the audience around.

Keith and Axca jet to the Black Lion. Voltron flies away and lands on some planet that is nearly physically touching another planet while sitting on top of the edge of a disc of clouds. What in the world is this design? The Lions have landed on one of these two planets, and there are broken metal buildings nearby. The Lions can’t sit like normal because they have no power, but of course we have to ignore that they were just shown having the power to spare that four of the Lions all blasted Keith’s location on the Galra ship. It doesn’t feel consistent at all.

Team Voltron is staying inside a cave with a sheet for a door. As I said in my commentary for 7x01 “A Little Adventure,” in 3x07 “The Legend Begins,” Alfor says that the Lions have “an endless supply of power.” The premise of these episodes that the Lions have little-to-no-power is inconsistent with what the show has established about how the Lions function.

“We should probably give them some time to recharge before we head back on our way,” Shiro says. Like last episode, the only thing this episode gives Shiro to do is to state the obvious. It’s infuriating.

Lance says, “Wow, a lot of things really changed over the past few weeks.” There’s nothing that’s presented itself as so different for him to make this comment. The script only has him say it so that the show can have its manufactured surprise moment in fully declaring the time skip. “Weeks!?” Axca asks, so taken aback by Lance’s comment.

Axca says that she, Ezor, and Zethrid made it “to cover on a meteoroid. There we saw both Voltron and Lotor disappear. Eventually, Voltron re-emerged alone. But then, there was an explosion and after that, nothing. That was three decafebes ago.”

Pidge says, “That explains the discrepancy in the star charts in our Lions.” No, it doesn’t. Yes, stars are constantly moving throughout space, and yes, they move really fast, but the amount of time that has passed has not been enough to make their star charts be significantly off.

Pidge then says, “I thought they were off because of our interdimensional jumping, which I guess they were in a way because when you think about it, that must have been the cause of the time slippage between our experience and that of the rest of the universe.”

Here’s the plot hole. Pidge is saying that time passed slower for them during their fight in the rift than it passed for everyone outside of the rift. Coran, Romelle, Krolia, and Shiro’s unconscious clone were outside of the rift. If the universe outside of the rift experienced more time than the Paladins when they were in the rift, then Coran, Romelle, Krolia, and Shiro’s clone should have lived the same extra three years that Axca, Zethrid, and Ezor have.

The show wanted this time skip to make the invasion and fight on Earth happen. But in the process of setting up the time skip, the EPs and writers failed to track the logistics of the battle with Lotor. Through Pidge, the show gives us this explanation for the time skip, but that explanation would mean that Coran, Krolia, Romelle, and Shiro’s clone would not have skipped time like the Paladins do.

Axca tells them that she worked with Ezor and Zethrid to take over a Galra ship that came to investigate Lotor’s last known whereabouts. Is this supposed to be the cruiser they were just on? Is it supposed to be the same cruiser that Zethrid referenced earlier when she told Ezor, “We just took down a Galra cruiser”? Did this taking of the cruiser “just” happen like Zethrid said, or did it happen three years ago like Axca says here?

Lotor’s death created a power vacuum in the Galra Empire. The Paladins knew this would happen since Lotor had been fighting specifically to keep it from happening. The Paladins were so much more interested in fighting and killing Lotor because of his Altean colony that they didn’t bother thinking about the consequences taking out Lotor would have on the universe.

Axca continues that Zethird and Ezor wanted to seize what power they could in the crumbling of the Galra Empire. Axca says, “I knew I had to find my own path.” It’s cliché and does not make her an interesting character. She turns to Keith, “…and it led me to you.” All this set-up for them to have a romance only for it to not happen makes it look like the EPs and the writers of this show wrote the story without any sense of cohesion, direction, or purpose.

Axca then complains about Lotor, “He preached unity, but in the end, he only sought power.” As Lotor said multiple times, the power he wanted was to find a source of quintessence that did not require killing life. Wanting power isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and Lotor was very specific about the power he was trying to acquire. The show then redefining that power to dictatorial rulership is a total retcon and character assassination of Lotor. Allura says, “I fell for Lotor’s lies as well.” The show has never even once identified what Lotor ever said that’s supposed to be a lie.

Pidge then wonders what’s happened on Earth in the past three years that she can’t get in touch with Sam or Matt. Allura ends with, “If Ezor and Zethrid became warlords in that time, what else has changed?” The ominous end of the episode doesn’t feel earned because Ezor and Zethrid do not feel any more threatening than they did before.

This episode was exhausting to get through. Too much of it made little sense. The episode engages in character assassination of Coran and continued character assassination of Lotor. The motivations of Axca, Ezor, and Zethrid continue to change depending on the wind. Most of the main characters are given nothing to do but stand around. The episode is significantly reliant on the mystery and reveal of the time skip, but that reveal does not have enough emotional weight. And the explanation the episode gives us through Pidge has a giant plot hole in it. The writing and the direction of this episode continues a clear decline from the previous seasons, which is saying something.

[truthbeetoldmedia]

The 100 6x11 “Ashes to Ashes” Review

Trust is hard to come by in a civilization built on lies. In “Ashes to Ashes”, Clarke, Bellamy and Octavia are forced to come up with a plan quick that will appease the Children of Gabriel and save their people in Sanctum while Echo, Gaia, Miller and Murphy forge their own respective plans to get out of the sacred city alive. 

Not only is the story in this episode captivating, thanks to veteran writer Charmaine DeGrate, but the acting and visuals are stunning as well — all due to Bob Morley’s natural talent in his directorial debut. He has definitely proven himself a force in front of and behind the camera, and I know I speak for the entire The 100 fandom when I say I cannot wait to see where his career takes him.

For now though, we are lucky to have him as our Bellamy Blake, who particularly shines in this episode as he faces Octavia and acts as the mastermind behind the plan that aligns them with the Children of Gabriel. That is until Clarke has other, more selfless plans, of course. 

For Monty

Upon waking up as 100% Clarke Griffin, our protagonist has a very different outlook on life. While in the mindspace, she was forced to face her demons in the form of people from her past who knew she could do better. Monty in particular helped Clarke to realize that violence isn’t always the answer. So, when Clarke comes to and realizes her people are still in Sanctum, she is dead set on masquerading as Josephine to get into the city and save them. 

We as the audience get to see that changed and evolved Clarke inside the mindspace come to fruition in the “real world” and witness the satisfying tension it causes between her and Bellamy. Bellamy, who has spent much of the season fighting tooth and nail to get Clarke back finally has her by his side again. So naturally, when she wants to thrust herself back into a dangerous situation, he isn’t a huge fan. 

Though it was disappointing that the two only briefly discussed the lengths Bellamy went to to save Clarke before refocusing their attention on the rest of their people, this is how it has always been. As frustrating as it is, they live in a post-apocalyptic world where there isn’t much time at all to discuss feelings and desires. After the ending scene of 6x10 in which we felt how desperately Bellamy needs Clarke by his side, it’s undeniable that they need to find the time to sit down and have a longer conversation someday about what it actually means that they will risk everything, including the safety of the people they love, to save the other (hint: It is absolutely not platonic). However, as we are approaching the end of the season and tensions are coming to a head, it doesn’t appear that they will find that time anytime soon. 

Regardless, just seeing Clarke and Bellamy back together, working through the problem in front of them side by side was much needed after a season of Clarke mostly existing only inside her own head. Clarke and Bellamy are co-leaders first and foremost, and as such are a force to be reckoned with. Though it pains Bellamy to consider the consequences of Clarke getting caught in Sanctum, he knows that this is what must be done — what Monty would do. 

Monty continues to be their moral compass this season as they try to work towards peace. Though this moon has thrown them for a loop more than once in their attempts to start anew and be better, our heroes know they must do so even when the temptation to get revenge is stronger than ever. Doing what is right is not always the easier route, but it’s still the one that should be taken. 

While callbacks to characters long gone can sometimes be tiring, this season has done a beautiful job at emphasizing the important roles they played and continue to play in the lives of the characters still standing. While Murphy is terrified of facing his mortality, we know through Monty, Maya, Jake and even Pike that dying does not mean you cease to matter. The impact you had on people while you were alive remains. 

And so, Clarke faces her own mortality head on for the greater good. If she doesn’t, she knows her people will likely die. While I’ve missed Clarke deeply, her returning to the screen in such a powerful way almost makes it worth it. She’s evolved into a whole new kind of hero. Just when I thought it was impossible, I love her even more.

The 10-Year-Lie

While brainstorming a plan that will lower the radiation shield and get Bellamy, Clarke and Octavia’s people out of Sanctum, the group is confronted by the Children of Gabriel. They believe that Gabriel is still Xavier, and that he and “the old man” are protecting Josephine, thus betraying their anti-Prime regime. When they discover that Gabriel has bodysnatched Xavier, and has secretly existed in this form for 10 years, the Children of Gabriel are understandably upset. 

Layla, the sister of Xavier, helps add an interesting layer to the story. As Bellamy and Octavia work through their tarnished sibling relationship, she must mourn the fact that she’ll never get the chance to do the same, as her brother is gone forever. Layla’s hurt and anger is palpable as she must cooperate with Gabriel in order to destroy the Primes. 

We also get to see more of how the Primes are directly hurting people and tearing people apart, even though they believe what they are doing is right. The 100 has always placed emphasis on the grey area between right and wrong, a space that many if not all of the characters on this show have occupied at some point in time. The view of the Primes as godly figures and the cold war between the believers in Sanctum and the nonbelievers in the forest once again highlights that grey area. Both believe they are right, and neither are willing to budge. 

Also interesting is Gabriel’s role in all of this. Though he has notoriously led an anti-Primes movement, he is still alive in yet another body. We get little insight as to why he was resurrected 10 years ago, only that it was done by a man named Eduardo without his consent. This explains why he’s been hiding for so long, pretending to be Xavier. Though this season has largely been about redemption for characters like Octavia and Clarke who we know to have done bad things in the past, Gabriel needs to redeem himself as well. He has his own demons that he must face by helping to rescue the innocent and unwilling before they become hosts.

What is still undetermined is whether he will go along with Clarke’s peaceful plan, or aid the Children of Gabriel in killing the remaining Primes. While Clarke and Bellamy have a moral compass in the form of Monty guiding them, he does not. Though he has agreed to side with Clarke, we know how quickly characters on this show can switch allegiances when it is convenient for them. So, Gabriel is certainly a wild card.

A Spy Named Ash 

Back in Sanctum, Russell and Co. waste no time finding a new host for Simone’s mind drive. Echo, who has just been betrayed by Ryker while attempting to assassinate Russell and save her friends, is the chosen one. 

As Ryker prepares to kill her, Echo stalls, offering up a backstory that gives the audience an important little tidbit of information: Echo isn’t the name she was born with. As a child living under Queen Nia’s rule in the Ice Nation, or Azgeda, Ash was forced to kill her friend, Echo, and assume her identity before a trip to a neighboring kingdom. 

She tells the tale through tears, seemingly still guilty that she was not able to spare her friend’s life. However, when Gaia and Miller (a dream team, might I add) come to her rescue, Echo reminds Ryker of something Queen Nia taught her, right as she plunges a spear into his heart: hesitation is death. 

While this was an unexpected “badass” moment, it completely alters the importance of Echo’s story. While watching the flashback, we’re supposed to feel bad for Echo who was forced to kill someone close to her at such a young age. We believe that this provides more depth to her character, shows her as more than just a spy with good aim. 

However, Echo does not redeem herself by doing better as so many others have done this season. Instead, she takes the easier route, revenge, and kills Ryker. 

While this may be smart and cunning, it makes all of Echo’s flashes of vulnerability up until this point seem ingenuine. If this moment, an important glimpse into her traumatic past, was only a ploy to set her up for revenge, how are we as the audience expected to interpret any moments of warmth or vulnerability from her as anything other than manipulative? I want so badly to like Echo and to see her become a well-rounded character, but unfortunately this flashback only aided me in viewing her as cold-hearted, one-note character. 

The “badass female warrior” trope is only entertaining up to a certain point. If Echo is to continue being a part of the story the writers are telling, she needs an emotional facelift. And pronto. In a season constructed around the idea of facing one’s demons, there’s no reason Echo couldn’t have done the same — and shown some real depth in the process. 

My Sister, not My Responsibility

While dangerous, Sanctum sure is beautiful. I’ll give it that. While foraging for the toxic mushrooms needed to make a bomb with the same hallucinatory properties as the red sun, Bellamy and Octavia get a much-needed opportunity to hash things out in a glowing cave.

Octavia has changed since going into the anomaly and facing her demons, the most significant of which was her brother and what she put him through. She knows that she cannot expect Bellamy to forgive her for the person she became in his absence over those six years, but she also needs him to know that she’s turned over a new leaf. 

It’s understandably difficult for Bellamy to believe that she could have changed so much in such a short amount of time, but it’s clear that he sees some sort of shift. While Bellamy refuses to forgive and forget, he does offer up a satisfying line, delivered perfectly by Bob Morley: “You are my sister, but you’re not my responsibility, not anymore.” 

For Octavia, Bellamy was her moral compass. She needed his guidance, although this is the first time she’s admitting that. The Blake siblings have been through a lot. At times, their tumultuous relationship has felt exhausting. Bellamy’s recognition that Octavia is still his sister, but that she’s not his to guide anymore is something that has been a long time coming, perhaps too long. Though they still have a lot to work through, when and if they ever find a moment of peace, this moment felt satisfying. Bellamy is no longer running away from Octavia and pretending she doesn’t exist, and Octavia is taking responsibility for her actions. 

Marie and Bob’s acting in this scene was impeccable and really brought this relationship back to life. This scene was probably my favorite of the entire night, purely because we got to see a pairing that has been missing all season return. And, perhaps more importantly, Bellamy was able to definitively tell his sister that he doesn’t forgive her for her abusive behavior, and doesn’t have to. 

From this point forward, Octavia will have to continue on her journey of redemption by herself, without that moral compass she claims to need so badly. Her demons are perhaps the darkest of all, so it will be interesting to say the least to see if she can reach some form of enlightenment or if she will fall back into her old ways. 

The Unsung Heroes 

An unexpected yet delightful pairing this episode was Miller and Gaia. These two minor characters got the chance to shine through and bounce off each other in ways I never knew I needed. Gaia helps Miller to forgive himself for following Octavia despite her wicked ways, telling him that mistakes can be forgiven, it’s not learning from them that cannot be. 

This line parallels Gaia greatly to Monty, whose only wish for his people was to be the good guys moving forward. While Monty is the moral compass for Bellamy, Clarke and Octavia in the forest, Gaia is that same moral compass in Sanctum. 

She and Miller escape their holding cell and manage to save Echo, but not before she’s been made into a nightblood. Gaia notices this right away as she’s untying her, and in true Gaia fashion is stunned. 

I can’t help but wonder if Echo’s nightblood is a setup for something greater. Will she take the chip and become commander? I don’t think so. More plausible, I think, is that she will have to lower the radiation shield. Of course this means something would have to happen to Clarke and/or Raven that would hinder them from being able to do so themselves. 

While Gaia and Miller got their chance to be unsung heroes in this episode, perhaps Echo will get that same chance soon, possibly redeeming herself. Though this is equal parts speculation and wishful thinking, The 100 is unpredictable. Regardless, I would like to see Gaia and Miller become best friends and continue being a dream team, please and thank you. 

Caught in the Middle

Poor Murphy, always finding himself caught between a rock and a hard place. Then again though, as Russell puts it, he’s willing to do whatever and align with whoever in order to save himself. While Murphy takes offense to this, he can’t necessarily deny it. 

However, there’s a shift in Murphy’s thought process that is visible when Russell warns him there will be consequences for not bringing Josephine back alive. Murphy assumes he will be killed, “an eye for an eye”. He seems genuinely accepting of this. It’s only when Russell says Emori will be killed that Murphy’s face changes. 

Murphy has always been a selfish person. Arguably, Emori changed that about him the moment they fell in love. In Season 4, he fought to make sure she would not be killed in the radiation chamber. Similarly, she refused to leave him to die on earth at the end of Season 5. The two are willing to die if it means dying by the side of the person they love. 

However, this is the first time we’ve seen Murphy really accept his own death as he recognizes Russell’s deal for what it is, immortality versus mortality. He still wants to live forever by Emori’s side, but if one of them has to die to save the other, he wants it to be him. 

I’m still waiting for Murphy to change sides as he does so well and become the hero we all know he can be (see: him helping to save Clarke in Season 3). This time though, perhaps he will stay on the “good” side and take Monty���s words to heart. 

Murphy’s internal battle with his mortality has been so interesting to watch, and has been perhaps my favorite storyline to come out of Sanctum’s body-snatching ways. He’s known as a cockroach for a reason, but does he want that to be his legacy? Though he’s high up on my list of characters most likely to die this season, I sincerely hope he sticks around purely because I want to see him accept his mortality and live with it.  

This is The 100 though, so I’m not holding my breath that he will get a happy ending. After all, does anyone ever get that on this show? 

The Academy Award Goes to: 

You’ve seen Clarke, Josephine, Josephine pretending to be Clarke, and a Clarke and Josephine combo. Can I interest you in Clarke as Josephine? 

Realizing that the only way to avoid killing innocent people is to lower the radiation shield before the less intense bomb is set off, Clarke knows she must pretend to be Josephine and do it herself. Clarke parallels Bellamy from Season 2 as the inside man, and she certainly isn’t expecting what she finds when she returns to Sanctum. 

Madi is strapped down and being drained of her bone marrow to allow for the creation of more hosts, including one for Simone, Josephine’s mother. Clarke takes on perhaps the greatest acting feat of all time when she tells Madi that she is Josephine, and that Clarke is gone forever. She must be apathetic as Madi struggles in place, promising to avenge her death. 

I genuinely expected Clarke to break in this moment, and I’m sure there will be many moments like it in the near future. Clarke knows she must remain undercover if she wants to save the lives of all her people, including Madi, but that’s her child strapped down and being used as a medical experiment. 

It has been such a joy to watch Eliza Taylor’s range this season as she’s taken on the challenge of not only playing two entirely different characters, but playing them as each other as well. She’s really done an incredible job with it and shown just how talented she is (though just her as Clarke was enough to prove that). With Eliza announcing that she’ll be directing next season, I’m already excited for what’s to come after Season 6 is over. However, we still have two more episodes to get through in which I’m positive she’ll shine in front of the camera like she’s done all season long. 

Final Thoughts

In his first episode as a director, Bob Morley really knocked it out of the park. Everything came together to showcase the story in the best way possible, with the actors shining through in their performances. It’s unsuprising that so many cast members have been singing Bob’s praises since before the episode even aired. Hopefully we will get more episodes directed by him in the future!

As far as the story goes, this episode was pretty on par with the excellent writing that’s been delivered to us all season long. Clarke has been set up to once again save the day, but will she be able to? It’s those unexpected yet expected twists that make this show so great. We know that something is going to go wrong with this plan, we just don’t know what. 

With Clarke and Murphy back in Sanctum, almost everyone is in the same place again. The stories are starting to intertwine, with Abby’s bone marrow solution incapacitating Madi and thus throwing an unexpected wrench in Clarke’s plans to stay cool and undercover. Meanwhile, Murphy has further aligned himself with Russell and the Primes and will likely be a key player in determining the fate of his people. Does this mean more Clarke/Josephine and Murphy? Sign me up. 

And then there’s Bellamy and Octavia who are still with the Children of Gabriel and Gabriel himself. These two will really have to work together to save those they love and avoid a bloodbath. Octavia’s redemption, incoming. 

After all is said and done, Bellamy is going to have to face what he did as well though. He cannot sweep under the rug the fact that he left everyone else behind to get Clarke back. Even if it was in the best interest for his people, his focus at the time was on saving Clarke. 

This episode did give us a few breathers amidst the chaos for characters to work through their personal issues, and I’m hoping that we’ll get more of that after the climax of the finale. If the story is to move forward, the characters' relationships need to change, whatever that means for each respective pairing. 

Interpret that however you wish. 

With two hours of Season 6 left to go, I think this episode ultimately did its job. It forced the characters as well as us to consider how this is all going to end, and if they can really follow Monty’s advice and do better. 

Next episode, the penultimate, will launch us head first into the action and thrill The 100 does so well with that morally grey area growing even bigger. I can’t wait!

Stray Thoughts

Where is Jordan? It makes no sense that he suddenly disappeared, especially having played such an integral role in the first half of the season.

Bellamy hiding his tears after talking to Octavia really got to me. Bob Morley truly is a force in front of and behind the camera.

Speaking of acting, can we talk about Eliza Taylor playing Clarke playing Josephine? Incredible. That “Boo hoo” was everything.

That parallel between Clarke pulling the gag out of Bellamy’s mouth and him doing the same to her in 3x02 was something I never knew I needed until now. *Chef’s kiss*

Gaia must be protected at all costs. That is all. 

Jessica’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝.5

The 100 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on the CW.

[tachipaws]

so uhhhhh

I watched the Game of Thrones finale just a little bit ago

and I have some thoughts

spoilers under the cut.

Firstly, seeing Tyrion find Jaime and Cersei together had me almost burst into tears. As soon as he saw Jaime’s golden hand I kinda thought, oh this is a big gag, the hand will be there with Cersei and Jaime will come sidling out from somewhere, he lived thank god. But no. Jaime died in the arms of a woman he loved, taking all these years of beautiful character development with him. And I don’t say this solely as a Braime fan. I LOVED Jaime’s character. He always tried to do the right thing, and even when he was tempted by Cersei, even when he gave in, he still came back and tried to do what he thought was best. He saved thousands of lives when he killed the Mad King, and he suffered in silence for it. He stood with Brienne and with the Starks in the Battle of Winterfell, even when his own queen refused to send her help. He tried to save Cersei from certain death, and their child, tried to get her to leave and live with him in obscurity, because they would be safe and happy and their child would grow and live. But no. They die, and all it serves is to give Dany her win and Tyrion some last-minute angst. But god, seeing him crouch over his beloved brother and sister, I could feel that he felt responsible for their deaths, and it was heart wrenching to watch.

And then Dany. Oh, beautiful Dany. I’ve loved her character from the start, and all through her arc, even when she made choices that weren’t for the best, even when they put her on a White Savior complex, even when it became clear the writers had lied and were going to make her turn out just like her father. I knew she’d die this episode, but it didn’t make watching it any easier. I had so much hope watching through the series that Dany would be the one to dethrone the Lannisters, give the people a kind and just ruler, and be everything she set out to be. For her to lose so much, from her family to her friends, and then die with nothing as well, broke my heart and even as I sit here typing I have to hold back tears. I loved Danaerys’ character so much, and I’m disgusted that she was turned into a Mad Queen. The writers don’t know jack shit about character development and it really shows with her. She should have grown and realized that maybe she wasn’t best suited for a throne, at least not the one in Westeros, and either become an adviser or return to Mereen when all was said and done. I’m so glad Drogon destroyed the Iron Throne, because it’s nothing but a death sentence anyway. Fuck that throne and fuck the writers for making it so unnecessarily important. Danaerys Targaryan was meant to be different, was meant to break the wheel. But in the end, she was crushed by it like her father and so many others before her. The Targaryans die out after a legacy of incest, mental illness, fear, and death. A complete waste of an incredible character played by an amazingly dedicated actress.

Bran being named King of Westeros was something I knew was coming bc I’d asked for the spoiler, but it was still kind of a surprise in an “are they REALLY gonna do it” kind of way. I really fucking hate that his title is Bran the Broken, as if that’s the only B word that can possibly describe a man who defied death and became the Three-Eyed Raven, but again these writers are fuckin terrible so I guess that’s what we get. I didn’t like how Sam’s idea to have the people choose a ruler was sneered at so harshly. It just shows that everyone there enjoys having all the power, which goes against the characterization of at least half of them. But I guess all the upper-class have to be assholes at least a little, huh.  I don’t know if I do or don’t like Bran being the king, but I did like how it was brought up. He is the living history of the realm as Tyrion said, and now he will live on to be its future as well. For a kid who was tossed out of a window after seeing the former queen having sex with her brother, I’d say that’s a pretty good decent glow up of sorts. I almost wish there would be another season, if only to see how Westeros fairs under Bran’s rule with Tyrion at his side. I can only hope everyone lives to see the peace they finally deserve, after suffering so much under the rule of families hungry for fame and riches and titles.

Arya leaving is the one thing I’m just, really fucking bothered by. I don’t recall anywhere her having a desire to travel and see new parts of the world. When she left Westeros she did so because it was life or death. She came home to be with her family. And now she’s leaving them for god knows how long to go god knows where. I can’t believe after all the chaos and death these kids have faced and grown up around, she wouldn’t want to stay in Winterfell to be with Jon and Sansa. I just don’t like it. Arya is one of my top favorite characters and watching her grow from a stubborn child into a ruthless assassin was amazing, but somehow her ending off as an explorer just doesn’t feel quite right.

Jon being sentenced to live out his days in the Watch is the cruelest joke in this whole fucking show. Right back where he started, the bastard son of Ned stark, forced to live out his days in the cold and snow at Castle Black, never to have any family or land of his own. After all the attempts to hype up the R+L=J shit, which so many people figured out way too easily, after uncovering the mystery of his real lineage and discovering he’s one of the only two Targaryans left in existence, after all the struggle within himself of not wanting to take the throne from Dany even though he had a legitimate claim and her Mad Queen story line made her unfit to rule (and after having to listen to Varys insist only men can rule properly, tbh I’m not sad he died, I never liked him and he got what he deserved for that shit), he ends right back where he started. Jon was my first favorite character, and I always hurt for him, how he was raised with the Stark children as Ned’s bastard, how much Catelynn seemed like she wanted to love him like her own but just couldn’t, how much it must have hurt him knowing he was hurting her and her just by existing. I would have loved to see Cat find out the truth and their relationship become something different, as he was the son of her husband’s beloved sister and she would have embraced him with open arms and a thousand apologies. She just didn’t know any different, and by the time Jon knew, it was all too late. He’s lost almost all the family he’s ever known, and all the real family he ever had. His whole character arc amounted to nothing. NOTHING. My only hope is that he just goes off north with Ghost, Tormund, and the wildlings, because who’s gonna bother to make sure? Aegon Targaryan will have never existed.

AT LEAST, he finally gave Ghost the fucking pats that direwolf deserved. I was actually really happy to see Ghost and Tormund again, and even happier to see Jon acknowledge Ghost, who’d been by his side from the very start. I’m at least glad knowing they’ll still be together in the true north.

And now the grand finale, the one thing I was completely satisfied with.  Sansa Stark The Queen in the North Seeing the crown placed upon her head, seeing her take her rightful place, and hearing her men shout “THE QUEEN IN THE NORTH” made me feel swollen with pride. Sansa has been through hell and back. She watched her father die at the command of a king who tormented her, she was raped by another man who executed her youngest brother, she lost her mother and her oldest brother to a supposed ally, and spent so many seasons a hostage or a tool for other people. But she fought, and she grew, and she became shrewd and cunning at the table. Sansa calculated every step she made and it saw her to ascend the throne, and take her rightful place as the oldest Stark heir. She secured her people’s land and ensured their safety. I can only imagine how proud Ned, Catelynn, Robb, and Rickon would be if they could see Sansa now. No longer is she the scared, air-headed little girl who just wants to marry a noble man and live life in the luxury she’s always known. She’s a war veteran, a general, a wolf through and through.

I started watching Game of Thrones in season 5 I believe, with a group of friends in a stream. I knew about the show but had just never bothered to sit and watch it. After seasons 6 ended, I figured I may as well start at the beginning and have a better understanding of what’s going to happen in the last 2 seasons. I spent about three or four weeks slowly marathoning it around my oldest daughter’s schedule (she’s only six and there’s no way she’s watching it any time soon lmao) and I couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters, the world itself, and the stories being played out. I have to say though, along with so many others, I’m utterly disappointed at the ending, and season 8 as a whole. It felt unrefined, and rushed, and there was no sense that anything meaningful happened in the end. When I saw the writers so brashly say that story lines were for 8th grade books, I realized just how little they care about actually writing, and this season truly reflects that. The deaths were for shock value more than anything else, and the major conflicts were solved so easily it felt as if all the buildup for them had been for something else entirely. I don’t regret watching Game of Thrones by any means, but I do feel sad for Martin that his beautiful complex stories full of beautiful complex characters, were reduced to nothing more than a circle story. All this talk of breaking the wheel, and yet it just rolled right back around to see the unspoken main character end right where he began. Because what’s the point of a story when there’s CGI dragons and big fight scenes?

[jbuffyangel]

The Light Bulb Moment: Arrow 7x05 Review (The Demon)

Oliver Queen has a light bulb moment that’s been seven years in the making. 

Team Felicity (yes that’s the name) has one as well, which means we are that much closer to being done with the prison arc!

Let’s dig in...

Oliver Queen

We finally find out who The Demon is and I gotta say I was legitimately surprised. However, as soon as I found out it was Talia Al Ghul I thought

It had to be someone related to the League of Assassins and Talia would consider herself The Demon since Ra’s Al Ghul is dead. It’s not like Talia and Nyssa are besties. The amount of hoops Oliver had to jump through to get to The Demon also fits perfectly with Talia Al Ghul, as he notes.

The real question is how Talia ended up in Slabside and it seems we have Batwoman to thank. Nice shout out to Gotham and a not so subtle reference to the rapidly approaching crossover. 

Talia survived Lian Yu, but it was Diaz’s super drug that healed her. Not unlike how it temporarily healed Diggle’s injury.  Excellent tie in writers. 

Talia is beholden to Diaz, but unfortunately she has no idea where he is. UGH. 

It’s a little surprising Talia believes Oliver will help her escape. Listen girlfriend, you sided with Adrian Chase and his baby Mama ended up dead. 

However, Talia (rightly) points out Oliver murdered her father. She’s not exactly an Oliver Queen fan. So, whatever Dr. Parker is doing to the prisoners is making Talia pretty desperate.

Oliver: You stood on the same side as Adrian Chase and my son lost his mother. So now I’m here trying to save what’s left of my family because I am stuck in a cycle of violence and I have been stuck there since the moment you told what to do with my father’s list.

(Not gonna lie, I was a little verklempt when Oliver referred to Samantha as his family. Olicity and Samantha would have killed it at co-parenting.)

It seems like Oliver has bought into Dr. Parker’s brain bullshit, but he’s just playing along. He doesn’t really believe he’s been stuck in a cycle of violence. I mean, he has but not in a bad way or at least not entirely. I also argue with his conclusion the cycle began when he met Talia. Oliver was thrown into violence the second he stepped onto the raft. 

Talia didn’t create “the monster.” She just gave Oliver direction on how to use it.

There are a couple reasons why Oliver is pretending to be brain washed. It is possible he believes he’s being watched and doesn’t want to tip off Dr. Parker. Also, he met “The Demon” and she can’t help him with jack, so I don’t think he’s highly motivated to blow his cover for Talia. Finally, Oliver isn’t convinced Dr. Parker is doing anything horrible yet. He’s not buying what Dr. Parker is selling, but Oliver still believes he is trying to reform prisoners. What’s wrong with that?

A lot if you try to kill them. When Oliver sees the dead body of the inmate who attempted to murder him in the shower fight, things start to look more alarming on Level 2. Talia is surprised Oliver cares about a man who tried to kill him, but he argues whatever is happening behind the creepy and nondescript door isn’t right. Talia is the one who told Oliver to help others and fight for justice, which is all he’s trying to do now.

This is an extremely important development for Oliver. Helping criminals has never been the Green Arrow’s modus operandi. Since Green Arrow is the warmer and fuzzier version of The Hood and The Arrow, you can trust neither of those identities were invested in helping criminals either. In fact, the Green Arrow put most of the criminals in Slabside. Oliver never thought much about why someone became a criminal and he never thought of them again after they were locked up. Of course, the locked up criminals are the lucky ones. There are many who never made it to jail. They went straight to a graveyard.

Oliver’s policy on killing is fluid, ever evolving and occasionally flip flopping, much to my frustration most of the time. Let’s review:

Season 1: Killing

Season 2: Not killing (except for The Count)

Season 3: Not killing (except for attempting to kill Ra’s Al Ghul on the mountain because Felicity said it was okay and ultimately killing Ra’s Al Ghul in the season finale)

Season 4: Not killing (except for Damien Darhk because he killed Laurel)

Season 5: Killing (except for Adrian Chase because that would’ve proved his point)

Season 6: Not killing (he never caught Diaz so the jury is still out on how Oliver plans to deal with him, but I am thinking jail)

Looking at this it’s fair to say Oliver doesn’t have a hard and fast rule when it comes to killing. He operated from a kill or be killed perspective in Season 1 and Season 5. 

His “no killing” rule was set aside anytime the Big Bad was perceived as a large enough threat or for retribution in Season 3 and Season 4. 

The whole point of having a moral code is to stick to it. If Oliver is prepared to deep six his code whenever it’s inconvenient or difficult to hold to then it’s not really a code. Hence, the reason I’ve been coming down on him so hard about this for the last seven years.

I believe all human life has value and therefore we cannot kill another human being. Of course, war or acting in self defense is a different story, but my overall stance on killing is a big, fat NO. However, I’m not losing any sleep over any of the people Oliver Queen has killed. These villains are awful, they did horrific things, and deserved to get got. We can even make the argument the world is a better place without these people in it.

However, simply because someone deserves to die doesn’t mean he/she should. Oliver doesn’t get to be judge, jury, and executioner simply because he wears a mask. He may catch criminals outside of the law, but Oliver is not above the law. His killing is a strong argument against vigilantism and Oliver has been striving to be a better hero for several years now.

This isn’t entirely Oliver’s fault. For some reason, the writers are determined to box him into an either or choice. Either the criminal goes free or you kill him. I’ve been screaming, “WHAT ABOUT JAIL?” for the last seven years because guess what? We have a way of keeping society safe without killing the criminal. 

Is it a perfect system? Of course not, but no system is. Not allowing Oliver to avail himself of this option while Barry Allen gets to have his very own meta prison seems a little unfair.  

Yes, men like Ra’s Al Ghul and even Damien Darhk may too much to handle even for Slabside, but Oliver had his very own A.R.G.U.S. prison on Lian Yu that he never used, except for Slade Wilson and the Boomerang guy. 

Why? Because that’s Arrow and sometimes Arrow is dumb. They want to Oliver constantly deciding whether the villain lives or dies because it’s one way they mark his superhero evolution.

I was particularly hard on Oliver regarding Damien Darhk. Not because I believed Darhk deserves to live – he nuked an entire city. However, Oliver killed Darhk because he killed Laurel. Damien was unarmed and de-magicked. Oliver easily could have handed him over to the authorities. Instead, he drove an arrow through him on live television. Thus, creating many of the legal problems Oliver faced in Season 6 and Season 7.

And that’s the point. Killing doesn’t erase consequences. It creates them. Yes, maybe the villain escapes prison and more lives are lost. Maybe the justice system won’t work. Although are we really worried the legal system won’t punish perpetrators of mass genocide? No. Probably not.

Killing Ra’s Al Ghul ignited a rage in Talia. She sided with Adrian and played a role in Samantha’s death. If you want to know how Damien Darhk’s daughter turns out flip on Legends. It ain’t pretty. 

Retribution begets retribution. This is the lesson Adrian Chase taught Oliver and so he began to view killing a different way in Season 6. 

It’s why Oliver tried to catch Diaz and not kill him.

Oliver: These people are being treated like they are disposable. No one deserves that.

Oliver’s always evolving morality is taking a very important step. He is feeling empathy for the very murderers he helped locked away. Oliver believes these people deserve basic decency despite the horrible crimes they committed. He is beginning to see the criminals’ humanity.

Why is this important? Oliver’s “destiny” is to become the Green Arrow – a fully evolved superhero. Superheroes typically don’t kill. These characters, for the lack of a better word, are Christ like figures. Superheroes have integrity, determination, love, compassion, honesty and honor beyond the regular, everyday person. They are capable of things most people could never dream of doing. It’s why they inspire us. They challenge us to be better because they are better. It’s what makes them superheroes.

This is where Oliver is headed. His morality has to be beyond reproach. Superheroes don’t lie, cheat or kill. Oliver has worked very hard at fixing these problem areas in his life for the last ten years. Is he perfect? No, not even a superhero is perfect. He/She is pretty close though, which is hopefully where Oliver’s origin story ends.

Maybe you or I can’t feel empathy for a criminal, but Oliver Queen is called to be better than us. He will draw the line in the sand, so it’s important he doesn’t cross it. The Green Arrow will be the example Star City will look to, so his moral code better be unbreakable.

This means NO KILLING. Not even when the villain deserves it. Not even when Oliver has the moral high ground. Not even when Oliver deserves revenge. Not even when it may protect the city. 

There will always be unforeseen consequences to killing, but the real reason Oliver shouldn’t kill is because every life has value. Oliver can understand and even empathize with some of these people now that he is considered a “criminal” too and has spent so much time with them. It will be very difficult for Oliver to kill a villain when he can see their humanity. It doesn’t mean they deserve freedom, but they don’t automatically deserve death either. There’s a middle ground here. If Arrow will finally allow the Green Arrow to avail himself of the prison system, then he can be a better example to the city.

Talia isn’t impressed with Oliver’s new found empathy for criminals, because he did not show it to her father when it mattered. Yeah, well your father tried to poison an entire city cutie, but that’s just details.

Oliver: No because I back then I still allowed the monster that you unleashed to take over.

This is how we know Oliver is faking with Dr. Parker.  You can call it whatever you want – Oliver’s monster, darkness, demons, etc. The name doesn’t matter. Oliver has evolved beyond it. The rage he feels no longer controls him. He faced his “monster” in Season 5 and learned to control it in Season 6. He’s already dealt with all of these issues.

Oliver: Ra’s death was my fault. I couldn’t see past what he intended to do to my city, so I didn’t stop and think about his family, and for that, I am truly sorry.

I could argue Oliver deserves prison. Technically, he is a murderer and not all of his “kills” were done in self defense. 

He acknowledges there was another way with Ra’s Al Ghul, but he didn’t take it. Talia is one of those unforeseen consequences to that decision and Oliver is truly sorry for the pain he caused her.

If you believe Oliver deserves redemption for some of those calls then apologizing to who he hurt is an important part of the process. It’s no different than Bl*ck S*ren. Is an apology enough? No, but Oliver has also spent six months locked away from his wife and child. He’s been beaten, tortured, psychologically lobotomized, and almost killed. (Also, I raise my “Ra’s Al Ghul committed mass genocide” flag again.)  We’re not dealing with apples to apples here, but in the cosmic scale I think Oliver Queen comes out just fine.

Oliver and Talia fight their way into “the room” to take on Dr. Parker. 

Source: @olivergifs​

We get some extremely excellent fight scenes.I am so happy we are back to the days of Oliver taking down 50 bad guys by himself or with someone who actually knows how to fight. 

Now it’s Oliver’s turn to drop some truths on Dr. Parker.

Oliver: My father pushed people away. He kept secrets, and I made those same mistakes. But if I choose to break the cycle, I’m gonna do it my way.

Source:  olivergifs

MY SON IS SO GROWN!!!!!! 

Oliver yelling his name in his growly voice will always be awesome. I am thrilled any time Oliver can achieve insights into himself and his father. It’s not the cycle of violence he needs to break. If he’s going to be the Green Arrow and Oliver Queen (and yes that’s where this is headed) then there’s going to be some violence. Oliver can tweak how much violence he’s going to engage in though.

What’s really important is breaking the cycle of lies and walls. Oliver cuts himself off from those he loves just like Robert Queen did. He has grown so much over the past seven years, and his sacrifice was so selfless, but he still lied to Felicity about prison. He made the decision without her. Every time Oliver lies and pushes people away he hurts those he loves and himself. 

The monster no longer has power in Oliver’s life because he’s embraced love. Every time he chooses an unrighteous path it’s an opportunity for the monster to regain control. Every step away from the light is a step towards darkness. Being a good man is not limited to wearing a mask. He must be a good man as Oliver Queen and as the Green Arrow.

Source: @olivergifs

SEVEN YEARS Y’ALL!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE WAITED FOR OLIVER QUEEN TO COME TO THIS CONCLUSION FOR SEVEN YEARS!!!!!!!!! 

Season after season, review after review, waiting, watching and hoping for him to finally understand man and mask must be one. I am legit screaming. SCREAMING.

This was the light bulb I’ve been waiting to go off in his head. THIS MOMENT WAS EARNED! And worth the wait.

Oliver gives Talia the USB with the evidence they gathered to give to Felicity. He refuses to leave the prison because then he’d be a fugitive for the rest of his life. #OliverQueenPuttingHisFamilyFirstAlways.

Source:  smoakmonster

Trust me, Talia. She knows. 

Oliver returns to Level One and is reunited with his prison wife Stan, who quickly informs him his real wife came for a visit. 

Every time Oliver hears Felicity’s name I swear to God his heart stops.

My heart broke for Oliver when he realizes he missed a precious visit with Felicity. He must have noticed she hasn’t visited as often as she could. (More on that in a minute).

Source:  oliverfelicitygifs

Stan tells Oliver that Felicity has a beat on Diaz and he’s not exactly thrilled. Oliver absolutely did not want Felicity going after Diaz and it’s clear he’s scared to death she’ll be hurt. He has no way of protecting or stopping her, which is exactly the point. Oliver doesn’t get to decide this time. He has to simply wait and see. Whatever is going to happen will happen. It’ll be interesting when these two are reunited because there are issues.

Oliver has retained his light inside of Slabside, he’s developed more empathy towards the people he’s fighting against, and he understands he can no longer separate his two identities. If Oliver is in need of redemption (particularly with Felicity) then I say he’s learned the necessary lessons to achieve it.  It may be difficult for a time, but Oliver and Felicity will work through their problems once they are together again. In no small part because Oliver Queen is ready to be the man Felicity Smoak deserves and the hero Star City needs.

Source:  smoakmonster

Felicity Smoak

I am falling in love with Felicity Smoak and Bl*ck S*ren. Nobody is more shocked than me. I don’t know what to tell ya.

They make the perfect odd couple. Felicity is sunshine and roses while Bl*ck S*ren is a snarky (reformed?) murderer.  There are some similarities to Oliver and Felicity or Laurel and Tommy, which is probably one of the reasons I am enjoying it so much. Light meets dark. Funny meets serious.

Source:  hollandrooden

The sass and banter is funny and honest.  Neither is worried about hurting the other’s feelings because they aren’t really friends. It allows the characters to say things to each other Felicity and our L*urel would never say. It also makes the development of whatever potential friendship they may have in the future feel natural.

Source:  dinah-lance

Whereas with L*urel, I feel her friendship with Felicity was rushed and didn’t develop organically. We went from L*urel glowering and not speaking to Felicity to immediately “favor friends” inside of a single episode. 

HUH? 

It was also a little weird how they never talked about the Oliver shaped elephant in the room too, but whatever that’s all past.  None of this is a problem with Bl*ck S*ren and F*licity. In fact, all the things I asked for with L*urel L*nce I am actually getting with Bl*ck S*ren.

The writers are giving Bl*ck S*ren screen time to develop at a semi reasonable pace, the lawyer thing notwithstanding.

The other characters aren’t pretending she’s a saint or glazing over her mistakes. Bl*ck S*ren is being held responsible for the things she’s done wrong.

Felicity (and Oliver) have no problem taking shots at Bl*ck S*ren occasionally, because they don’t trust her and she deserves them.

Bl*ck S*ren fires back (hilariously I might add) and is rapidly becoming the Spike to Team Arrow’s Scooby Gang - something I think the show needs.

Bl*ck S*ren is lawyering more than Laurel ever lawyered even though she’s not a laywer, which is hilariously amazing in an off kilter sort of way.

Most importantly, she’s helping Felicity in a way that’s actually helpful!

If Bl*ck S*ren helps get Oliver out of prison and then my faves have all the sex, Imma gonna bake her cake or something. Anyone assisting Felicity this season gets an A+ and a gold star from me and Bl*ck S*ren is at the top of that list.

Listen, nobody is as shocked as me since I was loudly advocating for BS to remain evil. I still like her evil and will be fine if she regresses. However, if they are going to have a L*urel type character on this show then I want the writers to use her effectively. Thus far, they are with Bl*ck S*ren. It may all go to hell in a hand basket shortly, but for now leave me to my joy.

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

The best scene was BS asking Felicity out on a friend date. It was almost as cute as Oliver asking Felicity out. It was really sweet to see the part of BS that craves human connection reaching out to Felicity in such an adorably awkward way.

Alright, that’s enough about Bl*ck S*ren. Time to talk about our girl. Did anyone notice Felicity seems reluctant to visit Oliver? 

Source:  smoakmonster

 Bl*ck S*ren tells Felicity to visit her husband and essentially kicks her out of the office. Welcome the Olicity ship BS! The bar is in the back.

Her reluctance is very telling. Felicity is feeling bad about her last visit with Oliver. Girl, why? You’re fine. The man has lessons to learn. 

Unfortunately, Felicity is denied access to Oliver when she arrives.  Felicity demands to see Oliver and think she uses “wife” and “husband” about twenty times in a sentence. Remember when we held our breath for one “wife” or “husband” last season? Now they use it with reckless abandon. It’s fabulous.

I have been dying for Felicity to meet Stan and yet I had no idea how Arrow would logically put these two characters together. I know logic isn’t always Arrow’s thing, but it’s not like Felicity can run into Stan and Oliver having dinner together. Turns out, this is not that hard!

Stan lets Felicity know Oliver has been moved to Level 2. I will always be eternally grateful to Stan for telling Felicity the photograph has become Oliver’s binky.

I guess I was a little surprised at Felicity’s shock over Oliver stabbing a guard. She’s very “He would never!” about it whereas I am more “Sounds right. He broke a dude’s neck once.” Yes, that was during Oliver’s pre-Felicity days, but he’d burn down Slabside if it means protecting her and William. Her whole “Oliver is a choir boy” reaction rang false to me because Oliver is not a choir boy.

The first person Felicity runs to for help is BL*CK S*REN. We are living in the Upside Down. 

Source:  dinah-lance

How much did you love Bl*ck S*ren yelling and threatening so Oliver and Felicity can visit each other? C’mere girl. Sit next to me. I made you a margarita.

Felicity confirms she’s only been there ONCE, and granted she was in witness protection for most of Oliver’s incarceration, but yeesh. It has to sting a little for Oliver that she hasn’t been back since. Don’t lie and make unilateral decisions next time, big fella. 

Felicity would visit in sexy lingerie and bring store bought baked goods if you just LOOP HER IN.

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

Bl*ck S*ren and Felicity go to Dinah to get information on Slabside’s Level 2, since there are no digital records. 

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

Dinah hems and haws about helping Felicity, and she pretty much has to beg, which ticks me off to no end. You are part of the reason Oliver is in prison, Dinah. MOVE YOUR ASS. If Felicity wants to access to the evidence room you should be making her a copy of the key so she can come and go as she pleases. #NewbiesStopPissingMeOff2018

The records are a mess. 

Source:  dinah-lance

Dinah and BS spend a lot of time arguing about which legal method is best to help Felicity, but to be frank both their ideas suck and take too much time.  Felicity kind of loses it.

Source:  oliverxfelicity

She’s feeling an immense amount of guilt for being angry with Oliver over his decision to go to prison and not visiting. In typical Felicity fashion, she blames herself for whatever Oliver is going through. She believes she could have prevented it.

Source:  oliverfelicitygifs

Felicity Smoak breaks my heart. Listen sweetie, Oliver is a big, dumb oak tree A LOT. It’s okay to get mad at him sometimes. This man is a full time project. He’s exhausting.

If anyone is concerned about Felicity and Oliver’s marriage then this speech should tell you everything you need to know. Being mad at your partner does not automatically mean you don’t want to be with your partner. Marriage doesn’t work like that. For better or for worse is legit. You can be so angry with your spouse you want to throttle them and yet still love them more than anything else on this earth. 

Felicity can be mad at Oliver and still be madly in love with him. What Oliver did is no little thing. He made a massive and unilateral decision for their entire family without consulting Felicity. She has to live with the consequences, but had no say in her own life. 

We’ve seen time and again when Felicity is angry with Oliver she needs time and space to process those emotions. Felicity needs to work through her feelings before she can work through the problem with Oliver. It doesn’t mean she wants to end their relationship.

While she’s been looking for Diaz and processing her anger, Oliver has been going to extremes in his battle to track Diaz too. Unfortunately, now he’s missing.

This all hits Felicity where it hurts because her worst fear is losing Oliver. She thought losing her husband was bad enough, but now Felicity is scared Dr. Power’s mind warp program will take Oliver from her forever.

Source:  oliverfelicitygifs

I just want to hug Felicity and tell her she doesn’t have to worry about Oliver’s mind being erased. 

He dealt with all his deep and dark issues in the sewer with her. Felicity loved him through it and that’s the reason Oliver has remained intact on this new island. UGH. MY BABES.

Oliver and Felicity have remained connected despite their physical separation, but the distance is having an impact on them. They are starting to feel the consequences of time, distance, hurt feelings, and lack of communication. ENOUGH ALREADY! LET THEM BE TOGETHER! I WANT IT TO STOOOOOP!

Long story short, Felicity discovers Dr. Powers is going to erase Oliver’s mind and finds evidence connecting him to a cold case murder. That, along with Oliver’s evidence, is enough to get the Level 2 program shut down. It makes me a little sad Felicity doesn’t know the evidence is from Oliver. TALIA YOU HAD ONE JOB.

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

Team Felicity, yes that’s the name, has such a fantastic light bulb moment when they realize they can use this Slabside evidence to appeal Oliver’s conviction. I don’t know how. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know how Oliver was convicted in the first place because he was acquitted. How is he legally in prison? Whatever. I don’t care. Just get him out and send him home to his woman. That’s all I want. I’ve enjoyed the prison arc more than I anticipated, but I’m ready to be done.

Curtis and Diggle

Lord people. I cannot with Curtis. His undercover mission takes up a significant chunk of the episode and this is how much I care:

Fourteen PhDs???? FOURTEEN!!!!!!!?????? 

I am trying to hang with you show, and I realize you are a fantasy drama, but this is not humanely possible. Also, I am taking issue with Diggle reading out Curtis’ credentials when just last week Felicity tipped her hat to her credentials. She mentions going to MIT and then next week we are listing Curtis’ ridiculous number of PhDs and six languages?!

It feels like a bizarre pissing contest and yet these writers want me to believe this character is not in competition with Felicity.

Cammien Ray tweeted something brilliant yesterday and I thought it really summed up one of my primarily beefs with Curtis and Diggle having this storyline. This is everything we asked for Felicity, but they gave it to Curtis.

Felicity is off doing her own hero-ing and therefore the writing team’s ass is saved, but this character is in constant competition with Felicity. More often than not, Curtis over shadows Felicity so he has a friggin purpose on this show. Arrow is an extremely male dominated series. We don’t need one of few strong female characters sidelined for another male character’s benefit. 

Curtis bemoans all of the misery being a vigilante has brought into his life. Yes, Curtis has suffered the most out of all the characters. 

Oliver lost his freedom, Felicity lost her husband and child and Dinah’s boyfriend is dead. Hell, even Rene has more to bitch about. Zoe’s life was in danger for most of Season 6. BL*CK S*REN has more to be upset about. Her boyfriend, father and pseudo father figure are all dead.

But Curtis? He got a divorce. Sure, that’s sad, but his ex husband isn’t dead. Curtis is probably paying him alimony. 

Curtis was stabbed, his boyfriend shot, THEY BOTH SURVIVED, but woe is me.

Diggle has the audacity to compare Curtis to soldiers who have fought in war. 

We are not comparing Curtis and his T balls to men serving in the military. The reason why Curtis doesn’t look “done” when compared to those soldiers, John is because HE HAS NOT FOUGHT IN A FUCKING WAR OR SUFFERED ANYWHERE NEAR THE AMOUNT THOSE HEROES HAVE. 

Both of you please shut up.

I couldn’t understand why Diggle was arguing for Curtis to remain Mr. Terrific when he’s given up on Spartan and Green Arrow.  This is the second character IN A ROW Diggle has argued to break the rules and continue life as a vigilante. Whereas when it comes to Felicity she can’t be Overwatch or break any laws to free her husband. 

I also don’t understand why Diggle is arguing Curtis is so vital to the team when the truth is there are other characters that can do what he does and BETTER. Rene and Dinah are better fighters than him. This is the first week he looked mildly proficient in the field. This is why I say he’s the new LL. One week he can’t take down one bad guy, but the next he’s fighting twenty different people. It’s inconsistent and illogical.

Felicity is a genius and all the tech goddess we need. 

Anytime they use Curtis’ brilliant mind it’s to short change her. NO THANKS. The only thing Curtis brings to the table is his T spheres and pretty much everyone can operate them. I am quite annoyed with Diggle for trying to talk Curtis out of sidelining himself. 

Arrow continues to glaze over Curtis’ role in Oliver ending up in prison, there’s been no apology and he refuses to help Felicity. Instead, they write an episode where Curtis is given all the storylines we’ve asked for Felicity. Then Curtis whines about how tough life is when the other characters he refuses to help are suffering more. This is not the way to win me over. USE THIS CHARACTER LESS. He needs to disappear from my TV screen for a long time or, God willing, permanently. The more this show shoves this character down my throat the more I dislike him and I have a sensitive gag reflex. 

Stray Thoughts

“Empathy’s a word I’m learning. It’s a work in progress” HA! Loved this line.

I know neither Dinah nor BS are Felicity’s besties, but it was nice having all the women work together in an episode. It also gave Felicity a chance to unload some of her grief and fears. Can we make this a regular thing? Felicity needs girlfriends.

“I taught you to separate the man from the monster. Instead, you exposed your true identity for all the world to see and became the monster you always feared you were.” Bitch where?

Talia teaching Oliver to separate his two selves ultimately lead to her father’s death, so there are consequences for her choices too.

Felicity changes out of her high heels and skirt into jeans and tennis shoes for her visit with Oliver. The practicality in Felicity’s wardrobe this year is A+, so let’s keep the logic. Nobody drives to a prison in heels and she sure as hell shouldn’t wear them out in the field.

Oliver’s face when he finds out there’s no visitation in Level 2 looks like he was just told his puppy has cancer. Source:  olivergifs

You have not met Felicity “I Will Always Always Always Wait For You” Smoak. Suck a hot one, guard. Source: olivergifs

Why are the A.R.G.U.S. uniforms so dorky? Let’s cool them up costume department.

I need Stan to be good. Can we just let Stan be good?

Stephen Amell is 6 ft so the inmate who died is ENORMOUS.

Don’t you love how there’s been zero Diaz in any of these past few episodes? He’s just like the Boogey Man, but we never have to see him. It’s fantastic.

I don’t buy for a second Diaz took out a bunch of Bratva, but my larger concern is don’t hurt my Anatoly.

No flashbacks. Interesting.

That Elseworld promo was jarring. I’m scarred for life.

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me. 7x05 gifs credited.

If you’d like to support the blog, please buy me a cup of tea!

[tylerhoechlin]

Back from the brink, Dylan O'Brien is ready to prove he's an action hero

or the past year, Dylan O’Brien has been in hiding. He spent most of his time inside his home in Sherman Oaks, wondering if he’d ever be the same person he was before the accident. Not just emotionally, but physically too: After major reconstructive surgery that left him with four metal plates holding one side of his face together, he feared he’d never look the same again.

“It’s a miracle, what they’ve done,” O’Brien says, placing his hand on his cheek. Indeed, the actor’s team of doctors must have done some incredible work, given the fact that he looks almost exactly as he always has — the boyish teen heartthrob who has amassed an army of young female fans since he began working on MTV’s “Teen Wolf” at age 18.

Of course, he’s 26 now, so he’s filled out a bit, and there’s also a hint of patchy scruff on his face. He had enough gravitas to him that the producers of “American Assassin,” which opens nationwide Friday, felt confident casting him as the grizzled action-hero Mitch Rapp — even though the character in Vince Flynn’s bestselling books was widely believed by readers to be in his 40s.

“American Assassin” is the reason O’Brien emerged from his self-imposed exile. He’d signed onto the film just a few weeks before he began work on “Maze Runner: The Death Cure,” the third and final installment in 20th Century Fox’s post-apocalyptic young-adult franchise. He was hoping “Assassin” would mark the beginning of a new period in his career. In 2017, after six seasons, “Teen Wolf” would come to an end, as would the “Maze Runner” series.

“I’ve never looked at myself as this pop candy type,” O’Brien says, peppering his speech with more colorful language. “I felt like I was more real than that, so I would get mad when someone would say [I was a teen heartthrob]. I’d be like, ‘I’m 19! I’m a stoner!’ I really resented that.”

He was so excited to begin work on “Assassin” that he fielded calls from director Michael Cuesta just as production began in Vancouver, Canada, on the final “Maze Runner” film. Together, they discussed how O’Brien would approach the character, a 23-year-old who is recruited by the CIA to hunt down terrorists after he witnesses his girlfriend’s murder at the hands of Muslim radicals.

“I spoke with him on a Saturday when he had just started ‘Maze Runner,’ addressing his notes and concerns about the character,” Cuesta recalls. “He was really excited and seemed like, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to do this.’ I was like, ‘Pace yourself, dude. Take it slow. We’ll talk when you’re off this project.’ That was Saturday, and on Wednesday, I got a text from my agent telling me that this awful thing had happened to him.”

On the third day of production in Canada, O’Brien was performing a stunt that required him to be harnessed to the top of a moving vehicle; reports claim he was accidentally pulled off that vehicle midstunt and hit by another vehicle. As a result, he suffered “a concussion, facial fracture and lacerations,” according to a report from WorkSafeBC.

Fox put production on hold in March 2016, and O'Brien ultimately returned to set a year later — after he'd shot "Assassin." “Death Cure,” which was originally scheduled to open in February of this year, is now set for release Jan. 26, 2018.

“I didn’t really wake up or become cognizant, in a way, for a good six-to-eight weeks after it happened,” O’Brien explains. “And then I entered a really difficult phase. I just wasn’t the same person. Things happen to you after something like that that you just don’t have any control of. Your body is designed to react in a way to protect itself if you have a severe trauma to your brain.”

The actor is sitting at a hotel bar in late August, publicly discussing his accident for the first time. He’s been anticipating this day for months. He knew how it would go, meeting reporters at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, where he’s done press a handful of times before. Even though he was supposed to be talking about “American Assassin,” he’d also have to talk about what had happened to him.

“I hid for a long time, obviously. I was going through a lot and didn’t want anybody to see me going through that, I guess,” he explains. “But I’ve gotten to an OK place of talking about it all. I’ve had to come to terms with people asking me about what happened.”

In a way, he admits, he regrets being so private about what happened to him, given the rash of recent on-set stunt-related injuries and deaths. Last month, stuntwoman Joi Harris was killed while riding a motorcycle on the set of “Deadpool 2.” In July, a stuntman on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” died after falling and suffering massive head injuries. And actors have been harmed too: Tom Cruise broke his ankle while attempting a jump from one building to another on the set of “Mission: Impossible 6,” and filming had to be halted in August. And on the sets of two different comedies this summer, Rebel Wilson suffered a concussion and Ike Barinholtz fell from a high platform, fracturing two cervical vertebrae in his neck.

“It’s really disappointing, and I think things like that should really wake the industry up,” says O’Brien. “It’s really easy, sometimes, to get comfortable on a set and get into the groove and think it’s all make-believe so nothing bad can happen. As an actor, you blindly put your trust in experts — and if they tell you something’s safe, you don’t fully vet it yourself. If you’re young and inexperienced, that’s just what you’re taught to do.”

While he never felt like a “gun was to [his] head,” O’Brien admits he always felt responsible for performing his own stunts. He’d get upset any time he had to be replaced by a stuntman. When he’d watch one of the first two “Maze Runner” films and catch a shot of his double, he was irritated.

“It bugs you,” he explains. “You see it and you’re like, ‘Ugh, what the [heck]? How do people not notice that’s not me?’”

But if he knew if he was going to move forward with “American Assassin,” he’d have to approach his action sequences with far more caution than he ever had before. Once he decided to stay with the project — and CBS Films, the production company behind the movie, agreed to wait for him to fully recover — he began working extensively with action coordinator Roger Yuan to ready himself for the movie’s hand-to-hand combat scenes.

Not surprisingly, O’Brien says, there were strict parameters set in place by the film’s insurance company that dictated just how much he could do himself in the wake of his accident. But he was still eager to do the fight scenes himself, so he rehearsed them extensively — to the point, he says, where he literally could do the choreography blindfolded.

“You just want to know it to that extent so that everybody knows what they’re doing on that day,” he says. “And then when you get to that day and somebody says, ‘Wait, can we just change this?’ You say ‘No.’ Things like that, you’ve gotta stand up for. I’ve understood more of where my voice can exist. When I was younger, I used to just want to please everybody and not want to be an issue or not be considered a diva. I’ve just grown up and realized you have to look out for yourself and stick up for yourself and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Other protections were built into the production to make O’Brien feel more at ease too: His father, a veteran below-the-line staffer, was hired as a camera operator so he could be there if needed for his son. And “on the days we were putting Dylan in a situation that might make him uncomfortable, we took longer than we might normally take because we didn’t want to rush it,” says producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. “We were acutely conscious of not putting him in a situation where he could have an adverse reaction — a stunt that might rekindle something.”

O’Brien had also spent time readying himself mentally for the return to set even before production began, visiting with a therapist two times a week. It was there that he realized the similarities he now shared with Mitch Rapp, a character struggling to contain his anger in the wake of a serious trauma.

“It felt like this version of me at the time, always trying to hide from people,” he says. “I was in a really dark place. Obviously, I didn’t experience what he goes through, but that summer when I was in recovery, I was going through a lot. Funny enough, I felt so deeply connected to the dude, and I don’t think I would have known how to play him if this hadn’t happened.”

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether “American Assassin” will be the role to catapult O’Brien into adult leading-man territory. His young female fans are still ravenous, anyway: On set in Rome, they once became so intense that the actor was forced to move to a different hotel.

“I saw some fans outside afterward, and three of their moms gave me the finger,” says Cuesta with a laugh. “They hated me because I was keeping Dylan from them.”

The producers of “Assassin” are hoping the film does well enough at the box office this weekend to launch a new action franchise. O’Brien knew that was a possibility, and says he’d be happy to play Mitch Rapp again. But he’s also looking forward to doing something smaller — “finding the new generation of filmmakers and taking risks on guys who don’t have a 25-year résumé.” The idea of acting in a Marvel superhero film, he says, makes him shudder.

“It just seems like too much,” he says. “I don’t think I’m a person who could handle being that face, that star who has to be on every talk show every year. It gives you a lot of flexibility and freedom in things that you do want to do, but it also takes a lot of your time away. And just artistically, it must be hard to keep suiting up and be the same character again over and over all year long in a bunch of different movies. I would like to have a lower profile and career, in a way, but still do things that mean something to me.”

He’s proud of his work in “Assassin,” he says, but he almost doesn’t look at it as a movie.

“It was everything but, in a way,” he acknowledges. “Look, I was angry for a long time. But at this point, that’s not going to do anything. I have to process what happened and move beyond it, and I have. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but it’s provided me with a lot of growth and insight that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

[source: LA Times]

[xavierfiles-blog]

Entry 063 - X-23

Art by Ariela Kristantina and Sonia Oback

Name: Laura Kinney

Code Names: X-23, Wolverine

First Appearance: X-Men: Evolution Season 3 Episode 11

Powers: Healing factor, enhanced senses, adamantium coated claws in hands and feet

Teams Affiliation: X-Men, X-Force, Avengers Academy

About

In 1943, the writers of the Batman movie serials introduced The Bat’s Cave, a secret underground lair for the caped crusader. Less than a year later, Don Cameron and Jack Bumley made the hideout a part of the comic mythos. The radio show, The Adventures of Superman, introduced a weakness for the man of steel with radioactive Kryptonite. Within six years, Kryptonite had become such a recognizable part of Superman stories that the comics added it. These are just a couple of examples of corporate synergy impacting storytelling in a huge way. It isn’t always successful (remember Spider-Man’s organic web shooters) but at the end of the day, when comics borrow from other media it does more good than harm. The X-Men were impacted by this in some subtle ways, the wedding of Cyclops and Phoenix, the black leather in Morrison’s run, the recent Apocalypse War event, but nothing was as impactful as the addition of a popular guest character from X-Men: Evolution.

Portrayed by Dafne Keen in Logan

So to ground ourselves on X-23, we need to understand a little bit about X-Men: Evolution. The show runners made the astute observation that the Xavier Institute circa 2001 wasn’t really qualified to teach calculus or chemistry and decided to have the strangest teens of them all attend public high school. Now, not everyone was aged down to a teenager. Professor Xavier, Storm, Beast, and Wolverine were all roughly their comics age, if not a bit older. Writer Craig Kyle decided that he still wanted to see what “teen Wolverine” would be like and created a character to fulfill that. She was young, younger than most of the cast, but she was the weapon that Wolverine’s creators only wished he could be. X-23 appeared in just two episodes of the show but she left a huge impact on an audience who only wanted more.

They got that in the comics when a top-secret facility dedicated itself to recreating Wolverine. Geneticist Sara Kinney was unable to creative a viable clone of Wolverine from the damaged DNA they had of him. After 22 attempts, she tried something novel, duplicating the X chromosome in place of the unsalvageable Y chromosome. It wouldn’t be a perfect clone but it was viable. Dr. Zander Rice forced Sara to carry the embryo to term and soon their weapon, X-23, was born. The child was tortured in the Facility, treated as more of a tool than a person. They coated her claws in adamantium, trained her in combat and killing, and dehumanized her. They developed a trigger sent to send her into a frenzied rage, pointed her in a direction, and got out of the way. When anyone treated her like more than a weapon, like her sensei did, they would use the sent to force X-23 to kill them. I didn’t matter if she was being used by Rice or tortured by her sadistic handler Kimura, the girl’s life was hell.

Art by Billy Tan, Jon Sibal, and Brian Haberlin

Sara felt a strange sense of motherhood to the child she carried. At one point her niece, Megan, was kidnapped by a serial killer and X-23 was sent to rescue her. After this, Dr. Rice decided that Dr. Kinney was emotionally unfit for the Facility and had her removed. Rice wanted to commercialize his child soldier, going as far as to create twenty-five additional clones, but Kinney had enough. She ordered X-23 to destroy Zander and the other clones, to cripple the facility. Rice was prepared, he used the trigger sent to throw X-23 into a berzerker rage, but he still fell victim to his creation. X-23 fulfilled her mission but Sara was caught in the crossfire. With her dying breath, Sara gave her daughter a name and Laura Kinney ran into the wild, free for the first time in her young life.

Art by Billy Tan, Jon Sibal, and Brian Haberlin

Laura journeyed through life, trying to find the closest thing she had to a family. She ended up in San Francisco at the doorstep of Sara’s sister Debbie and her niece Megan. Laura and Megan became quick friends and their relationship was enough to get Megan out of the slump she was in after she got kidnapped. Unfortunately, the Facility was not willing to lose their weapon so quickly. They had arranged for an agent to being dating Debbie and Kimura instructed him to unleash Laura’s trigger scent on the home. Megan was able to help Laura overcome the scent and stop Kimura but Laura knew that her family would never be safe. She left them to find the only other person to understand where she came from, Wolverine.

Art by Mike Choi and Sonia Oback

To her surprise, Wolverine was expecting her. Before her death, Dr. Kinney sent him a letter informing him about Laura and he tried to comfort the girl as much as he could. However, SHIELD was not thrilled about a dangerous mutant with an impressive body count running loose and captured her to be interrogated by Matt Murdock and Captain America. Capt was disturbed at the way Laura was used but understood she was just a child. He knew you don’t blame a gun, you blame the triggerman, and he let her free. With nowhere to turn Laura began selling herself in New York City to get by. She began cutting herself just to feel alive for the moment. It wasn’t until she met some other young mutants that she was able to break out of her funk and find a life outside of the underage sex trade.

Art by Mike Choi and Sonia Oback

She reached out to Wolverine and arranged a way for her to come to the X-Mansion without bringing up her dark past. Going from the sterile Facility to the vibrant school was a culture shock for Laura. She was reserved and rarely spent time with the other students. The Facility had trained her better in education and combat than anything the Institute could provide. It wasn’t until the mutant race was decimated that she found a place at the school.

In the wake of The Scarlet Witch’s curse, Emma Frost formed a squad of the best young students to be trained as the new X-Men. Though she initially didn’t permit Laura from joining, Cyclops thought it would be best for Laura to be among her most qualified classmates and put her on the team. The younger students encouraged Laura to curb some of her more murderous tendencies, and she even started to form a romantic relationship with Hellion (who is just the absolute worst and isn’t good enough for you, Laura). Kimura returned to torment Laura, capturing Mercury in the process, but the one-time X-23 lead her teammates to the rescue.

Art by Paco Medina, Juan Valasco, and Brian Reber

With the birth of the first mutant baby after M-Day came a power struggle for control of the child. To ensure the X-Men ended up with the child, Cyclops ordered the best trackers, including Laura, to join together as the new incarnation of X-Force. Once the baby was secure, Cyclops wanted to ensure the future of the mutant race and kept X-Force going as his secret kill squad. He told Laura that he needed her on the team and she accepted in spite of Wolverine’s objectives. X-23 was a valuable asset in taking on threats before they could threaten mutantkind. She was a weapon again, but she told herself it was for a better cause.

Art by Clayton Crain

Eventually, the team was found out and Cyclops disbanded it. Her friends from the New X-Men were disturbed that Laura returned to her killing was and she felt like an outcast once again. She struck out on her own but was quickly joined by Gambit. The Cajun knew a thing or two about having a dark past and was able to mentor Laura without making her feel ashamed for what she had done. After some misadventures, Laura missed school but knew she wouldn’t be welcome back with her old classmates. Following up on an offer from Black Widow, Laura joined the Avengers Academy.

Art by Kalman Andrasofszky

At the Academy, she struggled to bond with students who understood even less about what she did than her old classmates. She was quickly wrapped up in Arcade’s plot to have his own Hunger Games with teen heroes. She tried to contain herself, she knew she could kill any of the other competitors without much effort, but she thought of herself as more than a sharpened blade. As the ordeal came to a close Arcade released the trigger sent in the arena and Laura lost her control. It took the full measure of Hazmat’s radioactive blast to halt her but the damage was already done. Arcade had been streaming the whole thing online and now the world knew what a monster X-23 could be.

After being rescued from the arena Laura wandered Florida and was soon chased by the Purifiers. The time-displaced original five X-Men found Laura after blindly following a blip on Cerebro and took her in. They were initial apprehensive towards Laura but the young Cyclops knew what it was like to feel alone and reached out to her. He soon left to spend time with his space pirate dad, and Laura was alone again. He was the only thing keeping her with the O5 and when he left she tried to leave too. The time-displaced (but from a different time) Brotherhood of Evil Mutants attacked her as she left and she tried desperately to warn the X-Men. They battled, the X-Men won, and Angel realized that she was pretty great and they began dating.

Art by Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, and Marte Gracia

After Logan’s death, Laura felt the responsibility to keep up his legacy and became the all-new, all-different Wolverine. On a mission in Paris, Wolverine stopped an assassination attempt but was shocked to discover that the triggerman looked just like her. She soon found herself in a plot using cloned versions of Laura as assassins. With the help of the clones, Laura was able to take out this new facility, but with heavy losses. One of the clones died, the other betrayed Laura for Kimura, and the youngest, Gabby, stayed with Laura. She had to find a way to be responsible for a young girl who was a lot like her but soon Laura, Gabby, and their new pet wolverine Johnathan (not joking) tried to do what Laura had always done. They found their place in a world where they don’t fit in.

Art by Marcio Takara and Jordan Boyd

Must Read

So I am gonna get real real with y’all. I like the Kyle & Yoast X-Men stuff a lot less than most people. While I appreciate the role they played in Laura’s creation and development, none of their work with the character resonates with me. In fact, there has only been one run with Laura to make me really care about the character, Tom Taylor’s All-New Wolverine. The book’s first arc The Four Sisters sets the stage for this new Wolverine and has a perfect combination of humor, action, drama, and heart. All this being drawn by David Lopez elevates it to a whole new level. It’s all on Marvel Unlimited or check out the trade on Amazon.

Art by David Lopez

Ranking

Laura is a character I like, but don’t love. It’s a significant problem with distaff counterparts like Laura, they are often held back by being the “girl version” of the original character. On top of that, Laura is a character who it easy to write poorly and often struggles from an attitude that is a little too close to Shadow the Hedgehog. But when she is written well, she sure is a treat. Not to mention I have a huge soft spot for Evolution so that is going to help her case. Kid Omega is another character who falls into the same issues of consistency as Laura but I have enjoyed his stories more. Arcade is the floor for the character because she is way deeper than him as a character. Right above her is Legion and look, I’ve been thinking about Legion a lot recently and I have a ton of love for him right now. However, until TV Legion and comics Legion start to get a lot more similar I and gonna have to rank X-23 above him as the new number 23 (see what I did there? It wasn’t 100% intentional but it worked out nice) in the Xavier Files.

X-23 was requested by /u/wiseguy149, /u/Mastermates90, Tempest504, and Hayden. Thank you all for the request! If you have a request just submit it at the bottom of this article and I will add it to the list that currently stretches well into 2018! If you want to cut to the front of the line, we have a Patreon if you want to support it and get a line cutting reward for just a $1 pledge. We just hit our 2nd goal and now I guess I am reviewing X-Books so that will be coming soon. Oh and we also have exclusive physical items so check those out!

Make sure you check out Legion Quest a new podcast where me and Newsarama reviewer Matt Sibley talk about the FX show Legion. You can follow the show at any of these sources (iTunes | Google Play | Sticher | RSS).

Click here if you want to see the full ranked list, with links to every entry in the Xavier Files so far.

If you liked what you read be sure to follow Xavier Files on twitter, Tumblr, Facebook!

Next week (well later this week since I was late on this one) we continue the February onslaught of media tie-ins with the Reavers! See you then!

Entry 063 – X-23 was originally published on Xavier Files

[captainignatiuspigheart]

Gosh time really does fly, while simultaneously flexing with all the integrity of sun-warmed chewing gum… so, yeah, it’s Friday already and I haven’t completed my sole personal task of the week – recording what the I’ve watched and done. Obviously I’ve done relatively little, except drunk spectacular quantities of beer and gazed listlessly at our blossoming lilac tree. That’s right: I’ve been outside! In fact, I spent most of last week outside. Work very kindly ordered us some desks in an attempt to aid good workspace habits, since I’ve been sitting on the sofa with my laptop on my knees for six weeks or so… It’s a nice little desk, but it does rather fill our front room. The brightening weather gave me ideas! After a day sitting under said lilac tree I got quite enthusiastic, ordering a WIFI extender thing (with antennae! Must be good.) and unfurling the gazebo. I even went so far as to lay out four of the concrete slabs that have been stacked in our garden for more than a decade, pending the creation of a patio. It was quite lovely. I spent my days in sunshine, watching the cats race around the garden, the gentle scent of lilac and roses wafting into my hardworking face. Pretty nice week all round really.

Reading: The Human (Rise of the Jain #3) by Neal Asher

I don’t often pre-order books (I know, as a publishing person I should know better…) but that’s mostly because by to-be-read stack both physical and digital is absurd. The coronavirus means I want things to look forward to! I’ve been reading Asher’s Polity books for years – fast-paced military space opera with great intergalactic conflict, high tech, terrifying aliens and engaging heroes. The set up… it’s an advanced human civilisation slowly taken over by the AIs we built, so that now Earth Central is a massively powerful AI who runs the whole show, and much better than we ever managed. The AIs do have a ruthlessly utilitarian slant though, and while mostly that means they do make life better for the majority, sometimes it means they sacrifice whole worlds to save the rest of the Polity… This is so far into the story that it’s near impossible to summarise what’s going on! Ancient alien technology – the Jain – enables nano-(and even pico-)engineering on a thrilling scale, but is horribly prone to taking over its user and sequestering every resource in sight, utterly destroying the civilisation that tried to use it. A vast array of active Jain tech has been swirling around the heart of a galaxy for millions of years. For the last few hundred years, Orlandine, a vastly upgraded “haiman”, half AI, half human who has seemingly tamed Jain tech for her own purposes, as well as the gnomic moon-sized alien entity, Dragon, have been preventing it from escaping and wreaking havoc.

That all went spectacularly tits up in the last book, and this is the final struggle to contain the Jain before it wipes out everyone. This installment really builds on the transhuman character development of Orlandine, the Polity AIs, the horrifying crab-like human-munching aliens, the Prador, and a host of other characters, many of them infected with Jain ambition among other things. It’s impossibly epic, with vast stakes, finally revealing the true dangers of the alien tech and a lot more about where it truly comes from. As a huge fan of the universe, I was delighted by this, even if the ending comes about a little quickly. Fear not though, there are plenty of hints at what is still unknown, and critical figures are conspicuously absent. Bring on the next trilogy please!   

Building: LEGO Y-Wing Starfighter – LEGO 75181

Ermagherd, is I believe, how the young folk express their fondness for a thing. It is how I should like to express my fondness for this splendid build! This is the first UCS (ultimate collector series) I’ve had the chance to assemble, and I’m pretty impressed. In truth, I nicked it from work (sliced open the box and emptied it into a rucksack, walks away whistling etc), and probably would not have bought it for myself. It’s Star Wars, so it’s huge and mostly grey. The Y-Wings are rightly iconic for getting blown to pieces above various Death Stars, but they look so damned cool. I’ve already got a LEGO Y-Wing, now that I think about it – the 1999 edition that came with a tie-fighter. It was rad at the time, but this massive set comprehensively blows it out of the water and vaporises the lake it was skimming over. At a mere 1967 pieces, I was confident that I could build it in an evening, but naturally failed. Instead it dominated an entire Saturday afternoon while I watched more of season two of Agents of SHIELD (which I’ve had to pause to watch Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron because the latter takes place around episode 20!). Rarely have I spent a Saturday afternoon so productively!

New school

Old school

Beginnings…

Like a lot of the larger LEGO vehicles I’ve built, there are plenty of time when I have no idea what I’m assembling. This one went through a canal barge to crucifix stage pretty quickly, and as soon as the cockpit clips in it’s instantly recognisable. That cockpit itself is loaded with clever building tricks to give it a smooth and curved underside as neat as the top, sneaky stuff to invert the direction of the studs. It’s stuff I’m terrible at in my own building and I’m keen to learn from it. The nacelles have simpler tactics for allowing intense greebling all the way round the square pillars. The greeblage is mighty all over the back and underside of the Y-Wing. One of the things I often admire about official LEGO sets is the masterful balance of detailing, whether it’s in a scatter of cheese slopes, a light touch in patterning brick colours, or in this – while there’s a lot of detailing, it’s not so insanely overdone that it detracts from the model at a distance. The Y-Wing looks fantastically good, such a nice version of the film designs. There are though a bunch of stickers to apply on the cockpit which stressed me out to apply neatly. Not half as much as the massive sticker for the info plaque though. It really shouldn’t generate such anxiety! Nevertheless, I think I got it on perfectly. 

The minifigs are great, as you’d expect, with a finely detailed Gold leader and a shiny silver R2-BHD astromech.  Yeah, I love this thing. It is way too big to put anywhere in our house, sadly, but it will come apart into three neat pieces for transporting back to work once all this is over. Lamentably, having assembled this one, I now find myself eyeing up the far smaller A-Wing that’s just been released. That’s definitely shelf-sized…

Sticker hell

This has displaced a cat

Too big

Watching: Star Trek: Picard

We’d been waiting for all the episodes to be released on Amazon Prime before we began this. Our preference is definitely bingeing hard, rather than the agonising wait till next week. I’ve not reflected much on the change in our viewing habits in the last decade, but I think I’m getting more enjoyment from being deeply embedded in a show for a couple of weeks than dipping in and out of several simultaneously. However, I fear I’m going to have to do a second watch of Picard, because unlike Discovery which I adored from beginning to end, I just don’t know what to think of this new spin-off. Perhaps we’ll find out while I ramble…

The character of Jean-Luc Picard is obviously great – Patrick Stewart made Star Trek: The Next Generation come alive, and even though a lot of it is barely watchable now, the interactions of Captain Picard and his close-knit crew are delightful. TNG set the ground for the vastly superior Deep Space Nine that followed, with its huge and rewarding story arcs advancing the previous episodic narrative. With the exception of the Borg episodes, TNG never got the opportunity to do that, and with the similar exception of First Contact, its follow up movies are dreadful, though none as bad at those of the original series. I’ve been without Picard since First Contact in 1996 (holy fuck, how long?!), though the aforementioned dodgy movies have continued. So, a twenty year or so wait to return, that’s pretty high stakes. 

Picard disabuses us pretty quickly of this being a high action show like Discovery. In a curiously similar vein to the new Star Wars movies’ Luke Skywalker story, Picard is long retired from Star Fleet, having been fired/quit when Star Fleet backed away from a commitment to help resettle the peoples of Romulus after their home planet got fried. He’s spent the rest of the time chilling in his vineyard home, tended by ex-secret service Romulans and generally doing fuck all but seethe that Star Fleet let him down. He’s run away from his responsibilities, having failed to be the man he thought he was. Enter a young (spoiler) human-passing android on the run from some dudes trying to kill her. She doesn’t know she’s an android but knows a lot of stuff, is super-fast and knows she needs to find Picard. It’s no shock to discover that she’s Data’s daughter, somehow. But she gets offed by some more Romulan spec ops bad guys, and Picard’s off on a mission to find her twin sister, save the galaxy, stop the Romulans etc. 

Since Picard’s no longer Star Fleet he has to assemble a rag tag crew (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) since Star Fleet really don’t like him any more. The pacing is glacial at times, and it’s hard to understand what they’re actually aiming for in this. It takes ages to get into space (which is all fabulously Star Warsy rather than the Trek we’ve seen before) where we finally catch up with a ruined Borg cube that’s being rehabilitated by Romulans (for reasons I honestly can’t recall), and on which the android twin is working, while dating an actual piece of shit Romulan secret secret secret service guy who’s part of an inner circle dedicated to wiping out all synthetic life. 

There is a lot of great stuff in here – Seven of Nine’s return is a delight, Riker!, learning that Romulan assassin folk are just feudal Japanese folk, complete with haircuts and robes is peculiar, but kinda fun, and eventually a lot of things happen, quite fast. Picard nearly dies, they find more androids, he saves the day. I don’t honestly consider that to be a spoiler! The whole show is soaked in nostalgia, which is only partly rubbing off on me. If there weren’t so many people involved, and such cool design work going on I’d write it off as a vanity project. It’s definitely more than that, but I don’t know what… Watch it, if you’re into Trek, otherwise I cannot imagine this having any appeal at all.  

Doing: Virtual Improv Drop-In with MissImp

Last week’s new improv workshop was with Stephen Davidson, who’s just the loveliest and most passionate guy. His workshop is a real delight! Enjoy.  

  Last Week: The Human, Star Trek Picard and LEGO UCS Y-Wing - fun times with new Trek, splendid Neal Asher space opera and another fun MissImp online workshop! @missimp_notts #nottgoingout @nealasher #picard #books #lego @lego Gosh time really does fly, while simultaneously flexing with all the integrity of sun-warmed chewing gum… so, yeah, it’s Friday already and I haven’t completed my sole personal task of the week – recording what the I’ve watched and done.

[flauntpage]

Your Friday Morning Roundup

Ron Hextall pretty much described the Flyers game for us:

Current mood: http://pic.twitter.com/ulXb8SpeAS

— Chris Jastrzembski (@CFJastrzembski) October 27, 2017

The Flyers lost to the Ottawa Senators 5-4. It started off pretty bad. 91 seconds in, Ottawa scored on the power play. That was one of three goals they would score in the first 13:28 of the game.

Philly’s scoring came in short spurts in the second and third period. Jake Voracek got his first tally of the season, while Travis Konecny got his second of the season in the middle period. Ivan Provorov and Sean Couturier both scored late in the third.

Michal Neuvirth did not look good at all. He stopped 23 of 28 shots faced, and despite a good start in his first few games, Neuvirth came crashing down to Earth.

The game could have gone a different way had some calls went in favor of the Flyers. Early in the third, Brandon Manning’s goal was reversed due to Jordan Weal interfering with Sens goaltender Craig Anderson:

Refs checking if Weal interfered with Anderson on Manning's goal. http://pic.twitter.com/m85ypDajky

— Chris Jastrzembski (@CFJastrzembski) October 27, 2017

And as the Flyers decided to wake up and try and get at least a point late in the third, this was not called a goal because the refs deemed the play to be over. Somehow:

The play was deemed dead. http://pic.twitter.com/IygVKGF6nO

— Chris Jastrzembski (@CFJastrzembski) October 27, 2017

So of course, this game was a game the Flyers deserved to lose, but should have won, yet didn’t because of the refs. This team is strange. The extraordinary Anthony SanFilippo will have his takeaways from this game later this morning.

They stay in Canada for a couple more days as they take on Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday night.

The Roundup:

The Eagles continue to get ready for Sunday’s game against the 49ers. Lane Johnson will stay at right tackle, while Halapoulivaati Vaitai replaces Jason Peters at left tackle.

Mike Quick believed in Nelson Agholor for a long time, including when he struggled. Now, Agholor’s proving doubters wrong:

It took a while, but it appears the light has finally gone on for Agholor in this, his third NFL season. Through seven games, the 2015 first-round pick is tied with tight end Zach Ertz for the team lead in touchdown catches (5) and third-down receptions (11), is first in yards per catch (15.3) among the starters, second in receiving yards (366) and third in receptions (24).

Quick cited several reasons for Agholor’s not-so-sudden success, including his move to the slot, the additions of Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith and the hiring of a new wide receivers coach, Mike Groh.

But more than anything else, he thinks Nelson Agholor finally just got comfortable with being Nelson Agholor.

“I think just having success [helped],’’ Quick said. “Nelson has spent some time just dealing with Nelson, trying to figure out Nelson, and I think it’s helped him a lot.

With the team dominating in two areas of the game, the Eagles have what it takes to go all the way.

Kevin Kinkead thinks the Eagles can get more out of running back LeGarrette Blount.

Carson Wentz found a way to use one of his old college plays with the Eagles:

Following the spectacular third-quarter touchdown pass to running back Corey Clement against the Washington Redskins — in which Wentz ducked past an initial wave of defenders and tossed a perfect ball to the corner of the end zone while getting hit from both sides — Monday Night Football commentator Jon Gruden focused on the roots of the play while everyone else in the nation was buzzing over the fruit.

“Carson Wentz is unbelievable,” Gruden said. “That’s the same play that they featured at North Dakota State. He went to [coach] Doug Pederson. He said, ‘I want to put this play in our offense.’ They threw it for a touchdown against the Giants, and now they throw it for a touchdown against the Redskins.”

Offensive coordinator Frank Reich confirmed that Wentz championed to have that play from his Bison days added to the Eagles’ playbook.

“That’s accurate. Sometimes plays have a good mojo for you — you’ve had a lot of success, you’ve got a lot of confidence in them,” Reich said. “I think what happens when you run a play over and over again, you see it against all kinds of different coverages, you see it against different coverage techniques and leverage that defenders play, and really good quarterbacks learn how to beat any coverage when they have one play that they really like, and you feel like you can’t stop the play.”

On the 49ers side, the team has switched Eric Reid from safety to linebacker. Some think he’ll be really good.

With Stranger Things 2 coming out on Netflix, Matt Mullin of PhillyVoice.com compares Eagles players to Stranger Things characters.

—

Small Sixers news on the day, as Furkan Korkmaz practiced with the Delaware 87ers before being called back up.

If you want to remember Wednesday night’s heart crushing defeat to the Houston Rockets, Kinkead and Kyle have you covered. But don’t worry, there’s some good things from that game!

Kinkead also takes a closer look at the team’s pick and roll struggles, along with selling the contact for some calls.

So who’s better at 2K?

Markelle is at 2k

— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) October 26, 2017

Jojo is at 2k

— Markelle Fultz (@MarkelleF) October 26, 2017

I’m nice

— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) October 26, 2017

And who lives in Voorhees?

Finally, whoever made this cake and decided to use the “LOVE” sculpture instead of the Sixers logo should never be allowed to make wedding cakes again:

Philly sports-themed wedding cake! http://pic.twitter.com/DYgiCmLXq0

— Paul Lukas (@UniWatch) October 26, 2017

—

The Phillies are reportedly down to at least two solid candidates, according to NBC Sports Philly’s Jim Salisbury:

Team officials began the final round of interviews on Thursday. In-house candidate Dusty Wathan and outsider Gabe Kapler have emerged as finalists while former Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell is getting a late look, according to sources.

Major League Baseball frowns on clubs making significant announcements during the World Series, but there is a scheduled off-day in the event on Monday so an announcement could come on that day if club officials wrap up their search. Otherwise, an announcement would have to wait until later in the week.

By the way, Joe Girardi announced he wouldn’t return to the Yankees next season. Bob thinks the Phillies should go after him.

I had differing thoughts:

I'd rather have Wathan than Girardi. https://t.co/pvmMPnVb7X

— Chris Jastrzembski (@CFJastrzembski) October 26, 2017

Also, please consider helping Salisbury’s family:

You may have heard by now that Jim’s daughter, Mary, suffered a severe stroke in her spine that left her with a significant spinal cord injury and widespread paralysis.

Mary had recently graduated from Temple University with Honors as she earned a degree in communications. The summer after college graduation should be one of the best summers of a person’s life. New degree, new job, real money, and opportunity to go out and have fun in the city. The summer after graduation should not be spent in the hospital and at rehab facilities. It’s a terrible story, but it’s also one that can have a happy ending with some help.

Freddy Galvis is a Gold Glove finalist.

—

In other sports news, the Ravens shut out the Dolphins. Hopefully you didn’t watch. But if you did, Kiko Alonso tried to kill Joe Flacco:

Kiko Alonso knocked Joe Flacco out of the game with this hard hit to the head. http://pic.twitter.com/ChMmOA0Owi

— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) October 27, 2017

Alonso, who doesn’t say a ton when he speaks, defended the hit:

.@MiamiDolphins LB Kiko Alonso defends his hit on Joe Flacco tonight in #MIAvsBAL. http://pic.twitter.com/Lk2ArnkTAa

— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) October 27, 2017

Blake Griffin for the win:

5 seconds to go, down 2 … Blake Griffin, FOR THREE?!?! http://pic.twitter.com/2i4yonzvGz

— ESPN (@espn) October 27, 2017

Giannis tried to kill Aron Baynes:

Giannis attempting this slam on Baynes is so audacious http://pic.twitter.com/mRxml7jtJv

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) October 27, 2017

DeMarcus Cousins was the third player in NBA history to record at least 40 points, 20 rebounds, and five assists in a game. He did that last night against Sacramento, his former team

Philip isn’t a fan of the Zeke Elliott suspension saga.

Jim Tomsula is back:

From the man that brought you: "Everybody' gonna eat!!"

Here is: "Everybody play butt-ass naked!"

Jim Tomsula – Legend@PardonMyTake http://pic.twitter.com/eEvZIS9AN8

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 26, 2017

—

In the news, Philadelphia Police have confirmed that South Philly gunfire from early this morning is connected to the murders of two high school students earlier in the week.

Most of the JFK Assassination files were released, but some were still withheld for at least six months.

iPhone X pre-orders began this morning. They’re already sold out.

Your Friday Morning Roundup published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv