#they're not going out of their way to do a positive PR spin on someone who doesn't make them money

[dashakasatkina]

I don't think sinner actually did anything wrong so this post isn't about that. what pisses me off about this is that all the while this was going on the ATP was posting their little congratulatory videos for him on reaching no. 1 which even before this news people thought was really weird because they had never treated a new no. 1 like that before. alcaraz and medvedev did not get a video of all former living world no. 1s congratulating them on their achievement when they became no. 1, for example. it was bizarre as hell, and that was just one of the many weird, over the top congratulatory posts. and I'm absolutely not comparing zverev or sinner as people or their situations at all, but while zverev was under investigation the ATP's PR for him went over the top to paint him as incredible and special and wonderful too. they were suddenly SO many posts about zverev, he was everywhere as soon as they needed to create an image for him almost like a preventative measure in case he was eventually found guilty. and I'm just sick of the way the ATP uses PR to protect its male players because it fucking works and people do fall for it, and it will be used again for whatever man is in trouble next over something a lot more serious than unintentional doping.

[bisexualhobi]

im so ashamed of being an army (like i am most of the time tbh) and so disappointed in bts,,,, from calling out bullying and discrimination in a unicef campaign to completely glossing over - and thus endorsing - violent fan behavior... even if this little thing they did wasn't scripted (it totally was, it was necessary to put an end to the corden fiasco and redeem him in the eyes of the fandom) calling out james was correct, BUT AGREEING WITH LARGE RABID AND VIOLENT FRINGES OF YOUR FANDOM???? MAKING THEM FEEL IMPORTANT AND RIGHTEOUS???????? WHO ARE WE KIDDING.

They could have simply said they don't condone death threats and moved on, they have called out their fans for stalking them before, what's the issue now?????

okay. i'm gonna ramble a little but i need to get this off my chest. i say this as someone who works in PR so i'm talking from hands on experience btw.

one of the cornerstones of hybe's positioning for bts has always been victimization. like i don't think if you guys notice this but it's not NORMAL to have an entire fandom whose introduction to the group is "they are hated by everyone they came from the wittle small company and everyone bullied them these are all the receipts of that one time in 2015 a variety host was rude to them"

the moment you come into the bts fandom the FIRST thing armys tell you is "bts only has army" "all the other groups and the entire industry is plotting against them" "they were the underdogs so everything they do now has a reason" and hybe ACTIVELY feeds these narratives and rewards fans for this blind devotion. do you think it's a coincidence that every single time bts has a milestone celebration namjoon makes sure to mention "the bad years"? reminding everyone of when they were mistreated? bringing up the times when you were kicked while you're on top of the world is really fucking lame.

the thing hybe has failed to take into account is that yes, everybody loves an underdog story and rooting for the outcast. but when you stopped being an underdog 5 years ago a big chunk of your relatability and attraction is lost. hybe built bts' ethos as the "scrappy runt of the litter company" with the "relatable, goofy, humble group who aren't good at being the perfect idols" but that is literally a bygone era. bts have been the biggest act on the planet for 3 years now and hybe is literally the biggest entertainment company in asia.

so what do you do when you can no longer use the underdog story? you reinforce with your built in fandom that bts only has army. you spin the story to make bts look as helpless and hated as possible, with the rest of the industry plotting against them because they're scared of their power. because they're scared of army. you reward armys for being their personal defense squad and feed their delusions while guilt tripping them into supporting every decision the company makes because "they care for bts" and "the members have complete control over their management". by painting the situation as Us vs. Them you isolate the fandom and ensure complete loyalty not only to bts, but to the company.

bts is never EVER going to call out their fandom being racist, misogynistic and bullies in defense of the group and the company. hybe allowed armys to go unchecked for too long, so now they could risk losing money and tarnishing their image if bts were to call out the very thing they created. bts themselves are WELL AWARE of all the vile shit their fans do, such as doxxing black people, sending death threats to reporters, making deep fakes of female idols, harassing celebrities and journalists and anyone who so much as looks at them the wrong way. and they just accepted it with the james corden interview. they don't care about calling it out because the more the fandom perceives bts as the victims, the fiercest their loyalty is and the more cash that goes into hybe.

[coinofstone]

2x11 The Witch's Quickening

Hey Arthur, remember last time you were on a manhunt in Camelot and it led you to Morgana's chambers, and she talked you out of searching them and later admitted that she'd been hiding a fugitive in there? Have you learned NOTHING

And Merlin too, he doesn't like, double back and confront Morgana or suggest Arthur do that?

Why is Arthur yelling at Merlin so much in this? Who wrote this episode.

::Coin watch the show instead of playing on her phone challenge::

Morgana being manipulated by a nine year old

Why is Arthur insulting the food as if Merlin cooked it himself? Every other meal he brings up is from the palace kitchens but on this occasion Merlin cooked himself? Ok.

Even the fkin dragon is OOC in this ep

Morgana is so much more intelligent than this.

Gaius needs to bring this to Uther in the throne room like a member of the public? He couldn't get a private audience with the king? Ok.

I really don't remember this episode being so terrible, maybe I'm in a bad mood.

You know, not for nothing, but from Mordred's perspective Merlin is being an absolute dick, not only siding with the oppressor but actively working to sabotage their plans and hurt their people. As we, the audience, are privy to the reasons behind this, WE don't necessarily questions Merlin's actions, WE know he's after the crystal because he's trying to prevent Mordred and Morgana from teaming up and bringing harm to Arthur - that's all good and well but like... Merlin could never bring himself to kill Mordred because he's just a boy, but yet he's allowed the boy to go off and become somewhat radicalized (I say 'somewhat' because honestly, it's not all that radical to plot to overthrow the king that has been waging a genocidal war against your people for twenty fucking years) without ever trying to bring him into the fold. If Merlin had explained his and Arthur's destinies to the boy, made an argument for waiting out Uther's reign in the hope that Arthur's reign will bring peace and magic back to Camelot, but which may not happen if he sees his father killed by sorcerers, and explained his reasons for hiding who he is from Morgana, regardless of Mordred's ultimate destiny to be Arthur's doom, Merlin would've at least had a shot at cultivating an alliance or at very least an understanding between them. Instead, all Mordred sees is this supremely powerful sorcerer who isn't even a druid, serving the very people that would bring an end to their entire race if they could. Although, it seems as tho Mordred has forgotten who exactly snuck him out of the castle and back to the druid camp in three first place. Makes you wonder if Morgana never explained to him that she was believed to have been kidnapped when they found her with the druids last time, and that she went along with that lie for her own safety.

Tl;dr: communication is important kids!

Do I even need to point out how much sense Morgana's little tiff with Uther did not make? Or her sudden distrust of Gwen? If anything she should think Gwen would be an ally considering a) her father was killed by Uther, as an innocent victim of Uther's war on magic, b) Gwen was party to Morgana's previous involvement in aiding and abetting a druid fugitive, c) Gwen L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y sacrificed herself to save Morgana from Hengist's men, the is zero reason to question Guinevere's loyalty to Morgana, and d) Gwen has never said a WORD against sorcery or hinted at any kind of prejudice against druids or anyone with magic.

I looked up the writing credit for this, it's Jake Michie who is also credited with some fantastic episodes like Lancelot, Beauty and the beast, and the Lamia to name a few. It was directed by Alice Troughton who has also done some good eps, including other eps written by Jake Michie, so like I really don't understand what went wrong here.

Oh God there's a commentary track on this episode. I don't wannnnnaaaaaa but maybe I'll learn something, like why it turned out the way it did.

Commentary by Julian Murphy, Alice Troughton, and Katie. I do not have high hopes.

Katie right off the bat explaining shit that's important to note, God I love her on these tracks. Apparently, this was one of the last things to be shot (Merlin films everything out of order and films several episodes concurrently, depending on filming location.) and it was being shot while three other episodes were being wrapped up - so they had FOUR episodes filming concurrently and a lot of THIS episode was directed by Julian Murphy, and Jeremy shot some of it as well. This COULD explain a lot of the inconsistency, but I question how much since Julian seems to be involved in filming lots of scenes in lots of episodes. But I guess it's possible that just that on top of the rush to finish and the pressure of so many spinning plates in the air right at the end. They've just said that for this episode they had the least amount of days to shoot it out of all the episodes they've done, which is partly why they had so much going at once. It's as good a reason as any to explain it being so off, but I don't really see that explaining the wildly off characterization.

Katie going on the whole thing about Alvarr-as-revolutionary and Alice picks up on Morgana's sort of desire to be in that position and they're having a quite meaningful discussion then Julian:I think she just thinks he's hot 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Katie says the script changed a lot even as it was filming, and that things were being changed as it was filmed so I'm kind of thinking for whatever reason this entire thing was a mess and that's why it came across looking so disjointed to me.

At least Julian realize the soup scene was terrible.

Idk why they're ganging up on Katie over the chemistry between her and Alvarr. She says she wasn't playing it that way and that she wasn't feeling it and they're just like "yea uh huh sure."

They're talking about having two units filming like a few feet away from each other in the forest, while there is another two units going in France.

Julian says they had added Alvarr's girlfriend in because they wanted to dramatize his charisma and calculation... but it's not manipulation - ?????????? Someone get the man a dictionary. 'We added a random blonde in four him to kiss so that the audience knows he's got a girl already, who sees him working his charm on Morgana and comments on it 'you played her well', but Alvarr isn't actually manipulative' ??????????

They've just pointed out two entire significant beats within a sequence that was constructed on set and off script. Arthur's confrontation with Alvarr in the forest and Merlin's slow motion tracking the crystal to show its got a powerful draw. The more they describe the specifics of filming the more it sounds like an utter disaster which kind of makes me feel bad for being so harsh on the episode.

I keep having to rewind to focus on what they're saying and I feel like I've been watching this episode for about 4 hours.

Awkward bit of prop-exposure there. Trying to work out what LK could even stand for.

Idk everyone's really happy with this scene between Morgana and Uther and I'm still sitting here thinking the dialogue was utterly ridiculous.

They talked about changing that final scene, where Uther clearly knows/suspects it was Morgana who helped Alvarr escape, so that it doesn't prematurely push the story too far ahead. They cut a look Morgana gives Merlin which, rightfully so, because it would've been too much too soon. The ending to this episode still feels wholly unsatisfying to me. I understand the little tag with the dragon yelling for Merlin to release him, I don't mean that, but the ending to the main story where Alvarr just escapes and Uther not only accepts that but also accepts that Morgana must've helped him. Overall Uther's been entirely sort of neutered throughout this episode, which I understand that partially has to do with it being Morgana, but like, in previous episodes when she's been so defiant against him, he's had her by the throat and locked her in a dungeon overnight. So I just doubt understand him being so subdued here, especially since he directly threatened her when he found pr Mordred escaped, and now another druid's escaped and he essentially knows she was involved given how she spoke to him, yet he doesn't do anything? Just wildly inconsistent behavior.

Anyway apologies for overanalyzing this episode, I realize I tore it apart pretty thoroughly during the commentary and the post became quite long. I wish there was a way to add a cut on mobile but there isn't. I'll have the S2 finale post up in a few hours - I might hold off on posting until I've watched the extras, I didn't do that for S1 but then I felt the extras didn't quite warrant a whole post on their own, so I might just tack on any thoughts I have to the 2x12 post. We'll see.