#this is about severance only in the sense that severance s1 is what brought this memory back for me.

[iphigeniacomplex]

my first year of high school i was in this intensive outpatient exposure therapy program which i attended for the first half of every other weekday, or something. it was in this out-of-the-way room in some sort of hospital; the memories flicker a bit because i've been in a lot of rooms with buzzy fluorescent lights and adults who talk to me like a dog, so they sort of blur together. there are a few things that distinguish my time in iop, though, and one of those is the little boy on the other side of the room, with a different small group of kids and therapists, who screamed endlessly. he couldn't have been much older than eleven. he would come in every day a bit after me and start screaming and i would put my head down on the table between my arms, trying to cover my ears. i never heard him say a word. there was a tiny empty room they sent him to, but it wasn't actually soundproof, just a little further away, so everything we did at the program was accompanied by the background score of a little boy screaming in another room. at the time i found it only a bit more annoying than the slight buzzing of the fluorescent lights, because none of the adults gave any indication that something was wrong here, and all of us kids were crazy anyway. i graduated the summer before my sophomore year, and he was still there when i left. i don't remember his name or what he looked like, and it's not like i could reach back and save him if i did.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Personally, I'm going to need more than just one single scene between aegon and his son to be convinced that he's a good father, especially after what we learned about him and his bastards in s1. And no I don't care what Tom said about aegon not knowing he had bastards, one because I've only ever seen people say that he said it and when asked for actual links to the article or video in which he said it there's nothing but crickets. Secondly because even if he did say that, it makes no sense. You expect me to believe that erryk, or arryk whichever one it was, was aware that the child was aegon's child, but aegon himself didn't. When he took his brother to the pits he points out the child like he had seen the child before, he only attended the pits with aegon, so I don't believe for one second that aegon looked at that very targaryen looking child and didn't realise it was his, again especially when erryk did. The whole point of that scene was to show aegon's depravity. Erryk is telling his brother look not only does aegon enjoy watching brutal fights between children, but it's worse than that, look over there that's his own child that he let's participate in these fights. This loses any significance and weight if aegon doesn't know that's his child. Erryk wouldn't have pointed out that child as an example of how depraved aegon truly was if aegon didn't know it was his child. Sorry but the argument that aegon just didn't know sounds like nonsense to me.

OK so he doesn't care about his bastards so let's talk about his true born children. I keep seeing all this praise for aegon, talking about how he is such a good dad, how he is so much better than viserys and daemon etc. But like I said we only got one scene between aegon and his son and during this scene we see him smiling and laughing at jaehaerys, which yes had cute vibes about it.

But honestly, watching the scene, I think it was less he was laughing in happiness and pride at his heir and more because he thought it was funny that tyland was being annoyed. I saw posts talking about aww aegon loves his son so much that he knows he likes pony rides and wants tyland to give him one, and I'm just like ???

First off every child likes pony rides, aegon doesn't have to know his son really well to know that he might like a pony ride, secondly this scene wasn't about aegon's love for his son it was about aegon trying to humiliate tyland. It was supposed to show how unsuited he was to rule. He brought his too young son to a council meeting where the child proceeded to cause a distraction and then he tried to use that child as a way to humiliate a member of his small council causing the queen mother to step in. This was not some display of fatherly love, he was entertained by his son annoying tyland because he himself is very childish.

What we are shown in this episode when it comes to aegon's fatherhood was that he came to the children's quarters looking for his heir, approached his daughter then proceeded to ignore her when he realised she wasn't his son, didn't know where his son usually spends his time, doesn't know where he attends his lessons, takes him out of his lessons to attend a small council meeting, let's his son disrupt that meeting and laughs at his bad behaviour and also tried to use his son in an attempt to humiliate tyland, before he sends his son away again when he told this is no time for entertainment.

Don't get me wrong, as I said before, the scene between them was cute, but it doesn't tell me that aegon is a good father. I mean, if the standard for determining how good a parent a character is can be judged by having one cute scene with their child, then viserys is a top-notch father, he had several scenes with baby aegon where he was smiling and laughing at him after all, and daemon too has excellent parenting skills after all there was that adorable scene between him and baela where he was teaching her high valyrian and she kissed his cheek.

Point is people are judging whether a character is a good parent or a bad one based off of single scenes. Aegon is a good dad because in one scene he smiled at his son, daemon is a bad dad because in one scene rhaena said that he ignores her, etc. But I'm getting tired with seeing tg posts saying that tb don't want to accept that aegon is a good dad and we just want to villainise aegon, or maybe we just don't think one scene where he's nice to one of his children is enough proof that he is in fact a good dad. They'll say tb need to accept that daemon is a shitty dad and point out that one scene where rhaena, one of his children, said he ignores her and then get mad when tb say that one scene isn't enough to prove he's a bad dad and then give examples of other scenes that show him being a good father. For me it's the hypocrisy, they can take a single scene and base all their arguments for aegon being a good dad on it, but if tb point out that daemon has shown moments of being a good parent they get angry and return back to that one rhaena scene.

At the end of the day, personally I think they are all, aegon, daemon, viserys, corlys and even laenor, both good and bad fathers at times. Because they are all humans who are imperfect, they are going to have moments when they do things right, but they also all have flaws and moments when they fail as parents.

I am sure that aegon has love for his son, I'm sure he's going to be devastated by his death and feel anger and grief, just like daemon feels grief and anger at luke's death, like corlys felt grief and anger over his children's deaths. But the writers need to give me more than a 2 or so minute long scene of aegon in the role of a father if they want me to come to the conclusion that aegon is a good father myself. And that's my opinion on it.

[tessarionbestgirl]

I honestly don’t think Condal and Hess expected the backlash 2x08 brought, sure they knew some people will be pissed but I can totally see them believing Driftmark was going to be their Red Wedding. A shocking twist that had the audience at the edge of their seat, sealing HotD’s place in the HBO hall of fame alongside greats such as The Sopranos and The Wire.

In the lead up to Season 2 they kept talking about how there’s “still hope” for Rhaenicent, Emma was doing photoshoots with Olivia instead of Matt, Sara declared HotD was all about Rhaenyra and Alicent finding their way back to each other, Ryan insisted the sept scene in 2x03 was written because it’s what the fans wanted etc.

They really thought they ate with 2x08, instead it blew up in their face. It’s the show’s worst rated episode, George didn’t hold back with his full on rant against them, Olivia even went off script by saying she was portraying Alicent to be disgusted with Rhaenyra’s demands rather.

I don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors but HBO isn’t stupid, they can’t let idiot writers destroy their launchpad for the asoiaf universe after D&D already ruined Game of Thrones. I can buy the rumour higher ups told C&H to either fix this mess or they’re fired.

Thus comes Emma’s interview where they categorically deny the existence of canon!Rhaenicent on behalf of the show itself. Emma has never outright rejected Rhaenicent so the fact they did tells me this has less to do with their own personal opinion and more HBO cleaning house.

The idea of making two women the center of conspiracy political medieval show isn't bad at all in concept. And there were several cases in reality that was so. Like for I think, a century the succession where plots drawn up by the sultanas who wanted their children in power or reigned through them. I have so many problems with Magnificent century, but, at least sort understand and execute this better than House of the Dragon.

They promoted like a lot this a conflict between Rhaenyra Vs Alicent. They made that stupid queerbaiting photoshoot as well and that real-size, chess game, implying those women are against each other . The problem is they also want to make they victims of patriarch, and only that.

You can make them victims of the patriarchy as well become perpetuators and use this system to their advantage. The best example of this is the movie Blink twice, I will not go in details about the plot, but in it core, at end, it shows a dark reality when you are victim of organization that you can't fight against. So what you should do?

But Sara neither Ryan wanted to go to that because they are stupid.

So in reality what we got is Alicent that does nothing to the greens and betrayal them for nothing or Rhaenyra that acts stupidity for half of the season and then goes Machiavelli for the the last half of the season but she never was directly in conflict with Alicent.

If at least Alicent was the one pulling Aegon's strings, this narrative could some what work. But it was not so. So at end her turn is neither compelling plot twist or make sense. You have to ignore a lot of who Alicent is, and the story that have been told, and what she gone though and so abandoned logic all around to say Rhaenyra is the most important person to Alicent, the story is about them.

And you right they didn't saw that coming because they so sure the twitter Rh@enicest echo chamber represents the majority and they would only be frustrated by the lack of action and not Alicent character assassination.

What this season should have been it was green Vs black. The chess game promotion should have been everyone on the cast. They should have showed Otto dealing in with conflict in the Reach, they should have show more of actual deaths in Riverlands. Jace should have stayed in the North half of season.

But they stupidly thought that Rh@icest is enough. As if S1 was carried by then and not Matt and Paddy.

Like even if they are the center or the main matter of the story, it should never be the only focus of the story. Sure asoaif is about Dany and her dragons / the threat beyond the wall with the other. But it never the only thing going on for it. Sure the Starks are the heart of Game of Thrones, but it was never the only characters being show development.

House of the Dragon because of rhaenicest is called a fanfic, and S2 is mostly praised because of Aegon, Aemond, Jace and Daemon ( this one of more half-half). And the biggest complain this on what they done to Alicent and Rhaenyra this season. So yeah I don't know how much true is to the rumours going on BTS, even though, I would say that Martin post and the general bad reaction may got some investors insecure what may or may not made some of high ups put thejr feet down with Hess and Ryan.

Only time will tell. But there is a certain attempt to control the fans' nerves. That definitely exists.

[laiqualaurelote]

Follow up question from your Ted/Trent one: would you elaborate on your S3 disappointment? Thanks for letting me pick your fascinating, insightful, brilliant brain!

You're very kind. My disappointments with S3 are manifold but I will try to sum them up here.

There was a pervasive wrongness to much of this season that had not previously been present, unlike in S1 and much of S2, where radical kindness was a driving force and storylines would seem to be heading towards a predictable trope, then be surprisingly and pleasingly subverted. Several S3 plotlines were handled in a way that left an unpleasant taste in the mouth, without any catharsis attached. The truly baffling Shandy storyline is a prime example of this. I thought at first that this was part of a wider plan (the dark forest, so to speak, from which we would eventually emerge) and defended the show to friends as such, but weeks went by and it became clear that a show that had once been meticulously, lovingly plotted in every detail had devolved into a haphazard mess.

Story arcs came and went with no perceptible purpose. The show promised Important Social Commentary (the attacks on Sam's restaurant, Keeley's sex video leaking) then failed to revisit these issues once the episodes in question were over. Plot points were hinted at, then never brought up again (Higgins broaches the subject of firing Ted to Rebecca; this is never returned to.)

The characterisation was a mass of unfulfilled potential. Why make the reason for Sam not being chosen for the Nigerian national team Edwin Akufo's cartoonish grudge, and not his S2E3 calling out of government corruption, which would have made far more sense narratively and given Toheeb Jimoh far more to work with? Why tell us repeatedly that Keeley is a PR genius, then fail to have her take charge of her own PR crisis? Instead of Shandy proving to be a bad hire, surely a better way to show Keeley learning to be a good leader would have been for her to integrate Shandy and Barbara's diverse skill sets and attitudes into a functional workplace dynamic. Why not show the most key milestones of Nate's reformation, especially his confrontation with Rupert when he quit West Ham? for that matter, why give the moment of a West Ham coach standing up to Rupert for ethical reasons not to Nate, but to George Cartrick? I think we were robbed of a truly meaty Nate villain-and-back arc.

The season finale was a mess. Ted barely seemed present. I'm not a Tedbecca shipper, but even to me the fakeout at the beginning seemed unnecessarily cruel (and a waste of time in a season where so many things were not adequately explored or given closure). The truly bizarre choices in the final montage, especially Beard's Stonehenge wedding with a conspicuously absent Ted, were the final straw. That Ted needed to return to Henry was, for me, without question, but the way it was handled was deeply questionable.

What bothers me a great deal is the lack of change. Characters either regressed (Roy and Jamie re: Keeley, Ted re: Michelle) or had no agency in major crises inflicted upon them. The opening and closing close-up shots are meant to be of the character that changes most over the course of the season. This holds true for Rebecca in S1, and Nate in S2, but not Ted in S3. What changes for Ted is circumstance: he is in London, leaving his son; then he is in Kansas, back with his son. He himself, however, is not shown to be changed to a degree significant enough to close the show on.

This is not to say it was all bad. There are things I love very much about S3: Roy and Trent's surprise dynamic; Nate/Jade; the Hey Jude scene; the strings exercise; Beard's Jean Valjean backstory; the entirety of Sunflowers, a near-perfect episode that deserved the Emmy writing nomination that was mystifyingly given to So Long, Farewell. It is only that we were asked to believe that the showrunners knew what they were doing in delivering us the final season of a three-season arc, and we did, and that belief was not rewarded. Therein lies my disappointment.

[anthroposeen]

if im being honest you guys i kinda stopped caring/looking forward to tmagp updates and thats why i havent been posting about it at all recently. i trust the creative and writing team and im trusting the process!! but so far ive respectfully disagreed with a lot of the story beats, since old tma characters seem to be getting brought up mostly for fan service. i dont doubt that their appearances are important, and it makes sense that celia would seek several of them out, but im just not a fan of the call-backs. ive also come to only care about a couple characters (hello alice, gwen, and colin), and i just straight up dont care or dislike the others. i still have high hopes for the s1 finale, and im going to be sticking around for later seasons to see what happens, but so far ive lost my interest in it :( i dont want this to come off as purely negative, bc i still have lots if expectations and theories for where this series can go! but for right now i just feel aggressively neutral about it

[twig-tea]

Close Friend 3: Soju Bomb Lied to Me

Angry rant time!

I do not like to trash shows for being "not gay enough"; I think there's room in the BL sphere for all kinds of stories and I'm really interested in shows that would not typically 'count as BL' getting money and eyes, so I'm pretty forgiving of something being advertised as a BL and not meeting the criteria of a BL. I was not mad at Tunku Drama Shower for One Room Angel, for example, because that show was good and queerness was at the core of the story, and even though it didn't really work as a romance narrative, I'm glad they experimented with it.

However.

HOWEVER.

Close Friend 3 went too far and I'm mad about it. Let me break it down for you: Close Friend is a franchise that started in 2021; VIU hired a bunch of established pairs from other shows and got them to each do a microseries to see what stuck. The tagline was "six different pairs of men, six different forms of love". Then in Close Friend 2 the two most popular couples (Ohm & Fluke from Until We Meet Again, and Kimmon and Copter from 2 Moons and Gen Y) got a sequel series, in which their characters were put into the same universe, and we had essentially two BL couples co-heading the miniseries. And while Close Friend 1 and 2 aired on Viki, Close Friend 3 was picked up by the queer content distributor GagaOOLala.

All that's to say Close Friend 3: Soju Bomb is the third entry into a franchise that to date has been romance narratives featuring exclusively m/m couples, and is airing on a queer platform, has only the guys in the series on the poster, and has a heart in the logo of the show. And so I do not think I am crossing any lines to say it is a betrayal for this show to not be a BL romance, which it decidedly is NOT.

[Just to underscore that it makes no sense why this is "Close Friend 3": While all 6 of the microseries in S1 were unrelated, the stories that were in S2 were related and were sequels to S1. So it's REALLY strange that S3 had not a single callback to S1 or 2--especially since in those earlier seasons, Ohm played a music producer, so it would have been really easy to even just mention his character in a show about aspiring music artists. They didn't even try.]

Not only is this show not a BL in the more standard ways--it isn't about romance at it's core--but it also is not about androsexual men (men who are attracted to men). Even more egregiously, there is a kiss that it teases for several episodes, but that kiss turns out to be a drunken "I love my buddies" kiss that everyone agrees is no big deal once it's revealed.

At my most generous, one of these characters could be said to have maybe had some kind of questioning/queer awakening occur as a result of the kisses. He was ruminating on his flashes of memory, and clearly has a reaction to hearing about how difficult life was for the lesbian couple that felt personal. But it's not a central core of the narrative, and as soon as he remembers what happened and the band members have the conversation in which they agree they're just friends (and they joke that one day having a cush on him is possible), that thread drops. If he does remain questioning his sexuality (which, by the way, it was never clear he was doing in the first place--he says in the show that he was concerned about the fact that he kissed them and their reception of him afterwards. The actor definitely played it like he was queer, but the show does nothing to make that explicit), it does not remain a concern of the show and is never brought up again, not even in non-romantic context e.g. concerns about his future if he were to try to debut as a (closeted or out) KPop idol.

Meanwhile there are two heterosexual romances as subplots of this story (one of which is with their manager, and as trainees that is potentially exploitative but never treated as a problem by the show). There is also an older lesbian couple which would be extremely cute except one of them is dead (side-eyeing you, My Strawberry Film, for contributing to this becoming a pattern I hate).

There is also a "shippable" couple in the show that the show makes clear is not a couple because one of them is in one of the heterosexual couples I mentioned above. Seeing these two sometimes hit BL beats while knowing they're not going anywhere was frustrating and felt like salt in the wound.

By setting up audience expectations that this would be a BL story and then betraying those expectations (and in fact laughing at them), this show has done itself a serious disservice. If they had billed this as a general Thai/Korean crossover about Thai Kpop trainees who are filmed in some pretty iconic spots in Korea (e.g. most KPop listeners and kdrama watchers will recognize Yongma Land) where they explore their friendship, their reasons for wanting to debut, and their feelings around the restrictions that the company has placed them under for years just to abandon them, I'd have been on board, and said they did a decent job. The ending was a little pat (particularly the idea that anything at these companies would change), it didn't take things that it set up as serious very seriously, and the character arcs were not very strong, but I was entertained at some of the twists and the reveal of what happened during their blackout drunk night (Gaga in their listing compares this show to The Hangover and it's a similar premise), the friendships were solid, and it was very pretty; in other circumstances I'd happily say watch if you're bored or something specific in the show appeals to you (if you like The Hangover; if you like good cinematography and unusual locations; if you like boyband stories, as examples).

As it stands, I am now upset, will never recommend this to anyone, and these creators are on notice (the cinematographer, Job, was also involved in The Shipper and Our Days, so he is on my List. How dare this man continue to use his talents for shows that don't deserve them. The Trainee better be stunning, that's all I'll say about him. The screenwriter Rose is new so she gets a warning, and the director is Yoo who also directed 55:15 Never Too Late, which was ok so he also gets a warning).

TL;DR This show should never have been marketed as a BL. I do not enjoy being set up for disappointment or for queer stories to be sidelined in ostensibly queer content (same complaint I have about My Strawberry Film). This approach did this show no favours at all, and it means I cannot recommend it.

[strangerthings4theories]

Honestly, I truly believe, amongst all the other batshit theories that everyone has made about Season 4, that there was supposed to be more about the Russian prison in Kamchatka but for some reason, whether COVID-19 related or not, they couldn't do it.

You pointed out that the part of that prison we see in Season 3 doesn't match & never matches with the ones we see in see in Season 4.

All of this never comes back & there is no explanation why. And what we saw in Season 4 & what it made it out to be was so small compared to what we see here... I even find it hard to believe that even with the amount of power the Upside Down has, including it's creatures, it was able to take down an entire facility of that size especially since it seemed like the creatures where locked only in a specific place. (And again, given the rules of ST, there should have been a gate open in Russia for a long period of time, for what they were doing to work but this is never brought up at any point...)

Hopper couldn't have possibly been the American because we saw in Season 4 that he was somewhere else before getting to this specific base & he never goes to that specific part of the prison. It wouldn't make sense for him to be there, go somewhere else then come back. Plus we don't get any real reason why he wasn't given to the Demogorgon during that Season 3 scene.

Whether it was Billy or someone else, this just doesn't make any sense that there wasn't supposed to be more to it.

I'm choosing to be optimistic here but since we barely know how the Russians know about the UD & what they want to do with it, including the logistics of how they were able to pull off what they pulled off in S3, I'm thinking that we are going to go back to it in Season 5 because if not, this is the weirdest & most incoherent side plot in history.

No no you're totally right though. And I'm glad someone else feels this way.

The Russia plotline still doesn't make sense to me. Not in the slightest. I'd go so far as to say I'm not sure why the story even went to Russia. Absolutely nothing happened there to justify the setting. Hopper didn't need a Big Damn Hero moment because he's already had several, and everyone knew Hopper and Joyce would get together. There were no surprises, no revelations that made me think, "Omg this is why the story took us here." It was actually... um... pretty boring???

As someone who's gone over S1-3 with a fine toothed comb, that was a genuinely shocking thing to see. With every other plotline in the show, I've been able to say, "Oh this is what they were trying to accomplish with that." Not so with Russia. It's a mess that doesn't really achieve anything narratively or thematically.

And it just happens to be the plotline that, up until the last two episodes of S4, seemed to be prepping us for Billy's return.

Hell, even episode 8 went in that direction at first. When Hopper found the adolescent Demogorgon writhing in pain on an operating table, I legit freaked out! It was the perfect foreshadowing for him finding Billy - the teenage boy who's been written off as a monster, but actually deserves our compassion. Seriously, I couldn't have written it better.

And then we got... nothing? Nothing at all?

Lol nahhhhhh. Shit ain't right. I'd sooner believe they got screwed over because the pandemic took away their access to Dacre.

[i-am-eurus-holmes]

Alcohol in Good Omens 2

In season 1 we saw both Crowley and Aziraphale drinking with no tempting or hesitancy but season 2 created a clear distinction between Aziraphale and Crowley's alcohol habits, I believe this is important and here i lay out the information and some vague reasons why it could be.

Throughout s2 we see Crowley drinking alcohol or being associated with alcohol on many occasions, every minisode associates Crowley with it in some way

During the Job minisode Crowley drinks wine and offers it to Aziraphale

During the ressurectionists minisode Crowley both suggests alcohol to Mr Dalrymple and drinks the Laudenum that contains alcohol

In the Nazi Zombie minisode, Crowley is shown to be a bootlegger and he and Aziraphale are shown with glasses of wine after the magic show in the bookshop

During the rest of the season we also see Crowley drinking or being associated with alcohol on several occassions

Whilst waiting for Aziraphale to ask everyone about the shopkeepers association meeting, Crowley is drinking wine at the french restaurant, he then does the possibly most dangerous thing in the series of admitting the bodyswap to Gabriel

When Crowley is tidying up the bookshop he tells Muriel that he and Aziraphale will go to the Ritz for a very boozy lunch

In promotional materials, Crowley was always represented by/holding a wine glass

When telling Nina she is in trouble, Crowley relates the feeling of unease to a hangover (I might be reaching here but what is fandom for if not mentioning every little detail)

Aziraphale's interactions with alcohol are mainly framed differently. During the minisodes we see

In the Job minisode he is surprised at Crowley "its the source of drunkeness!"

In the Resurrectionists minisode he accepts a glass of whiskey but we see him make a face and not drink it

In the Zombie Nazi minisode he is drinking wine with Crowley (even then he has one glass in the time Crowley has two)

The other times Aziraphale interacts with alcohol this season are

A large sherry in the pub

Rejecting Crowley's offer for a glass of wine when Crowley is drinking at the french restaurant stating he is working

Maybe not notable since they hang onto the pretence of a business meeting but there is no champagne or alcohol at all at a regency style ball that Aziraphale organises

In relation to Crowley's wine glass in promotional material, Aziraphale is represented by a cup of tea.

At the ressurectionist pub he refuses an offer of a drink when questioning the bartender

Notably attention is also brought to alcohol by Maggie and Nina, when they are locked in the coffee shop, Nina decides to drink wine, Maggie refuses but says theres no judgement. Later, Nina says she is going to drink herself senseless over breaking up with Lindsey (but doesnt because of the shopkeepers meeting).

But What does this mean?

It seems that throughout season 2, drinking and more specifically drunkenness is being associated with Crowley and Aziraphale is being distanced from this behaviour, for a while I couldnt figure out why attention was being drawn to Aziraphale not drinking in some scenes whilst he clearly does in others, at first I assumed with the minisodes that Aziraphale didn't start drinking until sometime after the resurrectionists but before the war but then I remembered that he did drink wine in Rome in s1.

Then I came across @vidavalor 's explanation of the 1941 scene , and it pointed out that they are only drinking one bottle of wine between them and dont seem to be drinking to get drunk, merely to enjoy the wine. Similarly Aziraphale drinks sherry at the pub but not enough to become drunk. From here it seems that Aziraphale can be associated with alcohol but not drunkenness.

This makes sense because drinking itself is not a sin, wine is part of communion and Jesus famously turned water into wine, but drunkenness is commonly blamed for many sins, lowering people's inhibitions to the point them may indulge in lust, adultery or gluttony. So it seems Aziraphale is being framed as more heavenly and less taken by sin than he was last season when he and Crowley drank for 6 straight hours together, as for why there may be several reasons.

The Metatron using the book of life to alter memories and/or change the current events

A wonderful 5 part meta by @noneorother suggests that season 2 is made up of several 'loops' of the events we see with metatron resetting and changing things each time he does not get his intended outcome, going with this theory the rejection of alcohol in the current timeline could be a result of unseen or unnoticed manipulation.

Similarly the memories could have been altered using the book of life, several meta's including one by @indigovigilance highlight that all three minisodes are from Aziraphale's memories and are therefore subject to unreliable narration and doctoring, if the metatron is interfereing with current events, he may also be interfering with memories that Aziraphale has or somehow producing suggestions to Aziraphale that will highlight memories where he didn't drink.

If this is the case, I feel this is another subtle layer of metatron's manipulaton to make Aziraphale choose to go back to heaven, if he remembers that he's a good angel, he doesnt debase himself with earthly debaucherous things such as alcohol, he's not so different to the angels upstairs (I also think its worth mentioning that as I typed this I realised that I think the only time we see him eat this season is the ox ribs and then it was the lesser of 2 'evils' as it were, human food vs. human alcohol, he buys eccles cakes but we dont see him eat them, and the only things he drinks are I think a cup of tea when showing Muriel how to be human and the coffee the metatron gives him)

We, as the audience, were supposed to see these connections

Alternatively these connecions could have nothing to do with manipulating Aziraphale but may be purely for us as the audience, the scenes they chose to show us indicate that Crowley is associated with drunkenness whilst Aziraphale is associated with sobriety and theres a reason for this that I haven't found yet besides creating more of a divide between the two characters, portraying Crowley as more devilish and Aziraphale as more Angelic. This also ties in with Maggie and Nina being parallels for Aziraphale and Crowley as their 'counterparts' share their associations with alcohol.

Even if you think i'm completely wrong I hope I've at least compiled some useful evidence and I have certainly scratched an itch for researching that has appeared since i finished my degree

[eastgaysian]

hii, so. i've been thinking about it as a woc living in the third world myself but um. the critique of succession on like, neglecting race, don't make a lot of sense to me for a number of reasons like okay it's def a laugh whenever someone says "i wanna imagine what a black character would look like on succession" but it's not really an Elephant In The Room wrt to appraisal of the writers' room imo? bec from where i'm coming it's not so much an implicit thing that they've avoided dealing with race and maybe i'm wrong? but like stewy and lawrence were very important characters in s1, and marcia was too atleast till s2. we got shiv getting someone to look into marcia's background and the deleted scene from the s3 finale where they talk about their past. and everything that you talked about kendall after ep8 imo. employing jess and lisa and marrying rava (jewish) and telling sophie he loves her only to walk all over them. connor mentioning how poc and women were not allowed on the upper floors (decision-making rooms) of waystar when he was young. a black woman being one of the people who voted against logan in the coup in s1. other instances come to mind too (roman asking "is he a jew btw", shiv's implied backstory w lisa esp how sanaa lathan talked about it) etc but overall i feel, it's not like a sidelined thing as much as them hyperfocusing on the family as the show has gone on. i think they're conversation on gender gets more screentime since almost half the characters are women, and it's layered in with nuances of class and race but also how sexism just sometiems pervades those institutions as well. maybe i'm completely wrong though, idk :/

i generally agree with what you're saying, and this is what i'm referring to when i say that i do believe race is a concern for the writers. there's a demonstrated awareness of how race and class intersect in several instances throughout the show, there's some amount of thought put into it. but it's clearly not a central concern that gets intentionally, consistently explored and critiqued in the way succession deals with capitalism, familial abuse, misogyny, sexual violence, etc. the recurring characters of color aren't in the main cast, they've all been sidelined or written off for various reasons. while there's plenty to read between the lines about how race affects the way stewy or marcia or jess move in the world, this hasn't been explicitly brought up in the show until s4 (the direct comments about race are all from white main characters usually speaking in a general sense), and in s4 sophie and jess's responses to racist rhetoric have ultimately been in service to kendall's character.

this is kind of an inevitability of how succession is constructed. it's about the roys, an obscenely wealthy, privileged, white family. their space in the world is overwhelmingly occupied by white people who have insular worldviews and do not care at all about the people of color they interact with or the oppression they face. the people of color who work for them aren't real people to them, and the people of color they work with or hang out with or marry are only people to them as long as they don't really think about their race. despite all the jokes i make about What if the roys were wasian, the roys can't be nonwhite, and when the focus of your show is this kind of white family and their viewpoint you have very little space to meaningfully talk about race.

but like, if sidelining characters of color and never being able to meaningfully address race is an inevitability of how succession is constructed, then that doesn't make it above criticism, it just means that the object of criticism is how the show is constructed. (monster of a sentence, sorry, i'm not getting graded on this so i can't be bothered to edit it to be actually coherent.) stealing from caden romanroydinnerparty's response to an ask here:

i think the... strain? limitations? of succession's format and its ability to comment on race are more exposed in s4 due to its increased political focus, which requires acknowledging the racism + antisemitism within fascist rhetoric. given these constraints, there is at times visible effort to talk and think about race, but this is inherently limited and often awkward because from the start, the show wasn't 'designed' to do that. constructing a show that can't talk about race doesn't happen without some degree of racist bias on the part of the creators and, maybe more relevantly, in-built racism in the entertainment industry as a whole. i think succession could be better with how it handles race, but it could also be a whole lot worse. flawed as it is, there is still plenty of interesting stuff to me in the way the show does address race. i don't know that a show like succession - or any mainstream tv show really - could ever be devoid of racism or 'anti-racist.'

[andreal831]

sorry for all the asks, i just like word vomiting thoughts on shows. this is about Legacies though so uh, sorry for spoilers

i really liked Hope and Landon especially in s1 and s2. the concept of Hope who's immortal and has all this death based trauma finding love with someone who is also unkillable was really appealing. and then s3 immediately depowered him and made him human. the minute we started seeing him figure out other powers besides resurrection, they take them away. it really bothered me.

and while i have many issues with s3 (mostly all the fake Landons and useless Ethan), there is something about Hope refusing to let him go after he died (wish it felt like the show wasn't punishing Hope for having sex) that did make sense to me. Her growing incredibly toxic in s3 does work me, i really like her stubborn refusal to let go especially since she's already lost several people that her moving heaven and earth to try and save him makes sense to me.

i just wish they hadn't totally fucked everything up elsewhere. the fake Landons were just annoying and the fact that real Landon doesn't appear until s4 where Hope kills him to kill Malivore is messy. i like their goodbye scene (though it's a shameless Buffy rip off). Hope turning her humanity off afterward? makes sense considering how bad she'd gotten in s3. and then the fucking humanity arc dragged out too long. i'm glad it was at least her family that brought it back but it took way too long. for context, Hope flips it at the end of 4x04 and turns in back on (after a really weird fight scene with herself that makes no sense and also looks bad considering this is the same universe that did doppelgängers just fine) in 4x15. the arc did not need to be 11 episodes. the only bits of no humanity arc i really liked was the road trip with clarke (he's such a flop villain but i do kinda like him) and the early lizzie & hope sire bond stuff before lizzie runs off with aurora. hope's humanity arc reminded me so much of elena's in that in dragged on too long and neither actress (with love to both of them) played it as bitchy monotony.

lastly on landon in s4, i hated it, i hate the limbo stuff so fucking much. alaric and necromancer being there felt like hell, they'd worn out their welcome (alaric should've died when hope beat him up, im sorry, and necromancer should've been gone post s2). the only bit i remotely like is landon getting closure with his mom. the rest was blue tinted filler in an already boring season.

anyway, im sorry if this tangented and made no sense. anyway guess my overall point is that legacies s1 and s2 are the only seasons i find pretty good start to finish. the other two are messes pretty equally.

I will say one of my issues with Legacies is I prefer a closed world in my supernatural fandoms. Meaning, we have a set number of supernaturals and it can't vary much from that. TVD and TO do a good job with this. Yes, they add hybrids and heretics, but it's just a combination of what we already have, and it sort of makes sense. They even started to lose me when they introduced sirens and the devil, but again, they related it back to witches.

Legacies introducing phoenix and unicorns and everything else under the sun was just too much for me. But I do like the idea of Hope being with someone who could keep up with her, even just with mortality. She already lost so much and having someone she couldn't lose would be a comfort to her. I also could understand her becoming incredibly dependent on that. After all, she's a Mikaelson. They love their toxic, codependent relationships. A lot of this had to do with the fact that they were all immortal and could only count on each other living forever with them. So, again, it makes sense for Hope to develop this.

You lost me a little bit with the fake Landons, but I have heard Legacies is essentially a rip off of Buffy. I've also seen that the no humanity lasted far too long. I know everyone loves a heartless, badass woman, but it just makes me sad. Hope deserved better than a life where she felt the need to turn off her humanity at only, what, 18 years old? I've talked about how "no humanity" just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. They claim it means no emotions, but then are showing they are annoyed or frustrated or angry, all emotions. It's basically just them not caring about consequences and making the worst possible decisions.

I also have no idea who Clark is. But I have seen people like Hope and Lizzie and were excited to see Aurora back.

The limbo thing I have heard about. I feel like the show just kept getting rid of the afterlife but then essentially bringing it back but calling it something else.

I think it's so interesting that you only like the first two seasons. So many people have told me I just have to get to the later seasons and it gets better in Season 4. Again, I think people just like Hope behaving like a knock-off-version of Klaus. Which is just not my cup of tea.

Thanks for explaining all of that. I don't mind spoilers since so many of my mutuals love Legacies so I've seen a lot of it through edits.

[marvelfanfn2187a113]

How would you rate the supernatural seasons?

for me it would be like this

s1-s5: Excellent, I would say they are the best seasons, with unforgettable characters, the introduction of the angels, everything is incredible, my favorite seasons

s6-8: Bad, I love supernatural but these seasons for me are bad, of course, there are good chapters but the plot of these seasons...

Although I admit that season 8 improved when the tests began and the season finale, angels falling (I will never get over that ending)

s9-11: Good, I wouldn't say they are excellent but they are good, I have some conflicts with the end of season 11 but I think they are good seasons, the brand of Cain and Dean being a demon (these seasons are where you really see what Sam is willing to do for Dean)

s12-15: I have a conflict with these, we have the introduction of my beautiful Jack and it has good chapters but I think my problem with these seasons is that they are too forgettable

Ok so…

Season 3 is my personal favorite (although I can’t deny that there’s something great about the boys when they get older/when the bunker comes into play)

Seasons 1-5 really are amazing, although I personally would extend that to 6, I really enjoyed 6 and the soulless Sam plot line, as well as Crowley, Ben and Lisa, and Cas going through an existential crisis.

Crazy Cas of season 7 is interesting, but the leviathans were a little boring

Season 8 is my absolute least favorite—Sam and Dean drove me nuts for almost the whole season, the trials arc was the only saving grace of the plot, the rest of the season really didn’t have much plot, it was very…nondirectional up until the trials.

Seasons 9-10 are pretty good, the Mark of Cain stuff was interesting and cool to explore.

Season 11 could literally be skipped with almost nothing of importance missed, and that’s just ridiculous (the only good plot of that was Lucifer’s return)

Season 12 was…weird. Like the men of letters plot is kinda strange since it’s people as the bad guys and not something supernatural, however I didn’t hate that. I hate Mary personally, but I don’t really hate that they brought her back if that makes sense?? Like them fleshing her out was an interesting choice, even if they fleshed her out into a terrible person.

Seasons 13-15: I LOVE Jack so much, I hate the multiverse so much (gosh dang it it’s overused now, plus multiverse Bobby and Charlie suck so so so much). I like that they brought Lucifer back (he needed to be killed completely, not just locked away). The Michael story arc was good. And despite popular opinion, I do actually like the last season/the finale.

Although I do agree, some of the later stuff is forgettable, I get half the stuff in those seasons confused.

One main thing I love about supernatural, is that it doesn’t have a steady decline in my opinion. Most shows, when they go bad, they only get worse, and each season is trashier than the last. Supernatural—though it had several pitfalls—maintained itself to be a decent show, and when it had bad seasons (8 and 11) the writers more or less didn’t let that snowball effect them into another bad season; they came up with a new plot line (like seasons 9-10) and got better.

[variousqueerthings]

EDIT AFTER REREADING THE BELOW... I HAVE GONE SO FAR FROM THE ORIGINAL MANDATE OF THIS POST BUT WHAT ELSE IS A BRAND NEW ADHD DIAGNOSIS FOR??????????

started writing some thing about diefenbaker taking more of a backseat overall in s2 and while that is true, i did realise the themes that exist with him are still pretty strong as they pertain to fraser's relationships with meg and ray as metaphor for... stuff

there's an ongoing thing about how he's become addicted to junk food (played for laughs but still) and also that fraser is trying to make sure his senses stay sharp because he's getting sloppy, while fraser also has several episodes in which he is aware of the way he's becoming ever more... domesticated, shall we say (this is spoken to him both by people he knows from back home who are Tsimshian, and by a rambo-esque PTSD-suffering environmentalist who recognises a kinship with him)

in that sense, while dief doesn't lead parts of the narrative like he did in s1 (especially in the episode where fraser is almost driven to shooting him -- as dictated he must do by Society's Laws) it does give a certain... enkidu the wild man who is forever brought closer and closer to civilisation and further from nature and is this what's right actually?

fraser is being pulled by two things -- on the one side, represented by diefenbaker, the place he came from and it's suggested in many ways deeply misses (i mean, the lyrics of the theme song itself are very obvious "you know you have to leave here / you wish that you could stay / there's four directions on this map but you're only going one way / due south"), and on the other by his deepening human connections with especially ray and meg, compelling him to acclimatise for reasons beyond his initial banishment (and the fact ofc that it is banishment, he's not in chicago of his own free will, so is it kind of a cage? one he's forgetting exists bit by bit?)

that being said, am rewatching and need to remember what happens in the back-half of s2. my memory says that meg doesn't really interact much with diefenbaker at all/tends to pretend he's not there (which is in and of itself quite interesting -- is there an emotional threat there of some kind?) while ray's and diefenbaker's relationship i think runs pretty similar to how it was for most of s1, just more settled on the whole

questions here about meg -- who is also rcmp and isn't exactly a wilting flower by any stretch of the imagination and whom i don't necessarily connect with The City other than the fact that she's the inspector of the consulate -- and her role as pulling fraser away from diefenbaker a little? i may be reaching, i need more data! something perhaps of her masking her own true self because of her experiences as a woman in a canonically highly misogynistic space and fraser on the other side gently opening the possibility up for her of being less Proper and her fighting it tooth and nail and not acknowledging the wolf in the room!

and ray, who is domesticating both human and wolf simultaneously

ok let me make this about kink again somehow: you can put a leash on fraser for fun but recognise he's gotta go out somewhere and build a cabin with his bare hands or rescue people from a burning house or something along either of those lines at least twice a week or else he will fade away and die. try to put a leash on diefenbaker and he'd probably bite your hand off

i think both meg and ray know this and respect this, in each their own way...

smthin important for me in my understanding of mr benton bentoni fraser is that yes he's got the martyr syndrome and yes he was raised in a pretty austere (but loving) environment and was probably one of those kids with an unnervingly large vocabulary and he has real issues related to living up to his father's "image" and that image itself being tarnished and doesn't often allow himself to feel his feelings and has definitely always been an outsider to his peers but...

he is also an adrenaline junkie

my man isn't just jumping off moving cars and getting in trouble and putting himself in hospital a few times a month solely for the sake of the good of the people, he is in danger to Feel Alive and if some smart mean-for-fun dommy sadist figured this out he could get himself bruised (and bossed around) whenever he wanted..... oh look, the show introduced her in s2 👀👀👀

[love-byers]

it’s been a year, mike. (MAJOR BYLER REVELATION INCOMING---MUST READ)

mike and will constantly saying "a year" or "all year" when talking about the time since the move when it's only been six months keeps me up at night

i saw people talking about how they say a year when it was only 6 months because they’re idiots in love and are being dramatic. as cute as that is, i didn’t really buy it until RIGHT NOW. i just saw it as a cute headcanon, but now i see that the writers could be enabling you to make this realization by use of subtext.

allow me to explain

^ these are the three times they say it

at first i thought the writers may have just used year because that’s less confusing for the audience because 1 year time jumps have been used before in stranger things and are super popular in books/movies/tv shows. BUT, it clicked for me that that doesn’t make sense. the timeline in stranger things has always been acknowledged. throughout s1 we hear the amount of time will has been missing several times (as far as i remember). in s2, mike counted the days el had been gone. he called her every night for 353 days. when el and hopper argue in s2, el uses specific numbers to tell us how long she’s really been with him. in s3 hopper specifically says ‘6 long months’ when talking about how long he’s been dealing with mike (lol). that's the same amount of time between s3 & s4, yet mike and will don't say 6 months, they say year. there’s a date at the start of every season. and in s4, el says this in her letter to mike. 

185 days = 6 months (almost on the dot)

the writers have specifically told us how long it’s been since they moved, down to the amount of days. and it’s 6 months, not a year. this makes it very hard for me to write off mike and will saying ‘year’ as just the writers slipping up. also in el’s letter, she says this:

this is INSANE. 

mike and will are saying the wrong amount of time. the writers aren’t stupid, they know how much time has passed since season 3. THEY WROTE IT. i’m a writer as well, and i know how much time is passing between what im writing because I CREATED IT. IT CAME FROM MY BRAIN. and like i said, the stranger things writers have proven to be very keen on dates and time. all of this happening in the same season is not a slip up, its on purpose. stranger things 4 had a 30 million dollar budget PER EPISODE. do the math--that’s 270 MILLION DOLLARS. and yes, i know they supposedly forgot will’s birthday, but that’s different. his birthday is a date that was mentioned one time and served no purpose aside from creating emotional tension in that one scene. none of their birthdays are important to the plot, hell, will’s is the only one mentioned in the show and it wasn’t even on his birthday. one date that was mentioned one time and never brought up again is NOT the same as continuous attention given to timelines/time jumps over the course of all four seasons. and some fans theorize that they’re lying about forgetting his birthday anyway. either way, its not the same.  

so....the writers want us to know that emotions can make time speed up or slow down....and that el’s week has felt very fast because of her emotions....and then show us mike and will SPECIFICALLY deviating from the timeline established in the SECOND LINE OF EPISODE ONE “yeah, but you knew she was having problems for months and didn’t tell me.” “its been six months, mike.”, or “it’s been months, mike.” or not even including that line at all, or “the past couple months have been weird” would’ve worked and stayed in check with the timeline we’ve already established. but when writing those scenes, they chose to say year. which is flat out wrong and way off from the actual time they’ve been apart. 

and what did el say makes time speed up or slow down? emotions? oh, okay got it 

the first two times mike and will say it’s been a year are in the same scene: the rink o mania fight. emotions are high. they’re in a pretty serious fight. its not about something dumb, it’s about their ten year friendship and how they’ve grown apart. their friendship is VERY important to both of them. (remember when mike said asking will to be his friend is the best thing he’s ever done?) the third time it’s said is when mike is opening up to will in episode 4. it’s a very emotional scene. mike is being honest and vulnerable with his feelings. in this conversation he apologizes and admits that will didn’t deserve how mike had been treating him, which mike never does to anyone else. he admits his relationship with will is different and home isn’t the same without him, and that he feels like he lost will and wants to be best friends again. 

and the obvious: emotions making time speed up or slow down doesn’t just apply to in the heat of the moment occasions. (in theory) mike and will are in love. the six months they’ve been separated felt like a year to them because of their emotions, just like el said in the letter. and mind you, will is canonically in love with mike, yet they’re both acting the same way about this. it’s not just will. it makes sense for six months to feel like a year to will because of his emotions, because he is in love with mike, right? well, mike feels the exact same way. this isnt even about the characters as people. narratively speaking, mike and will both doing this doesn’t make sense if it’s unrequited. one way writers show how characters aren’t on the same page about something, a relationship for instance, is whether they’re on the same emotional page about different plot points. something major and emotional happens to all the characters---now we watch how they react to it. and i don’t mean small disagreements & such, characters are allowed to feel differently about things. i mainly mean when whatever happened is painful and important to one or more of the characters. for example, steve and nancy. steve and nancy didn’t feel the same about barb, barb’s parents, and everything that happened in general. steve wanted to keep on like nothing happened while nancy was literally eaten up with grief, guilt, and trauma. jonathan was the one who was on the same page as her and made her feel better about carrying that baggage around all the time. they understood each other. and who was nancy in love with? jonathan. narratively, that makes perfect sense and even further sways the audience into understanding they’re in love.

so...what? the emotions that made mike and will’s six months apart feel like a year to them is....friendship? not a fucking chance. mike and el are a couple, and according to mileven fans, they’re the main couple of the show who are in love and are going to be an endgame couple. why save this incredibly romantic coded trope for will and mike, the best platonic bros? idk, you tell me. and the fact that the line about emotions came from someone in the love triangle?? and it was said to someone else in the love triangle?? not a coincidence.

edit: someone reblogged and pointed out how el said 185 in her letter to mike that we SEE him reading. there is no reason for him not to know how long it's been. so either he isn't paying attention to a damn thing el says in her letters or he is just extremely in love with will

another edit: i keep seeing reblogs of people saying they're probably referring to the time since mike and el started dating, which i used to think too. but the context when mike and will say a year makes it hard for me to believe.

"but you knew she was having trouble for like a year and you didn't tell me"

here mike is specifically talking about el's bullying problem which has only been going on since the byers have been gone and she enrolled in school. what he's talking about is something very strictly related to the time since they moved, and it's been six months, not a year.

"you called maybe a couple times. it's been a year, mike. meanwhile el has like a book of letters from you."

will is again, very specifically talking about something that strictly happened between the time since the byers left and the start of s4. he's saying how crazy it is that it's been a whole year and mike has barely called. but it hasn't been a year, it's only been six months.

"the last year has been weird, you know? and you know, max and lucas and dustin, they're great, they're great, it's just..it's hawkins it's not the same without you. and i feel like maybe i was worrying too much about el...i don't know maybe i feel like i lost you or something."

this one i will cut some slack, i think he could be talking about literally the last year, as in since the beginning of 1985. but immediately after he starts saying how home hasn't been the same without will (and separates his relationship with will as being different than his relationship with max dustin and lucas and even el), something specific to the time since they byers have been gone, six months, not a year:

in conclusion: mike and will referring to their time apart as a year when it’s only been six months is not a mishap on the writer’s part. they go out of their way to make sure you know exactly how much time has passed, down to the number of days, and they put this much attention on time in every season. and in the same season mike and will do this, there is a line in the SECOND LINE OF THE OPENING SCENE OF THE SEASON about emotions making time go by faster or slower.

byler is going to be a s5 surprise, but its not coming out of nowhere. there’s piles of subtext in every single season---enough that when you look back, it all makes sense. small details like this aren’t outlandish because this is without a doubt the length writers will go to keep something hidden, and in byler’s case and many other tv show plots case, to keep something a surprise. and for christ’s sake, WATCH THE SHOW! the amount of attention to even the TINIEST details in stranger things is insane. they put so much thought into everything---not just ships, and not just byler. idk how many times the writers are going to have to say details matter and that there are no coincidences until people believe them. 

anyways, byler is endgame. thanks for reading :) 

[angelhummel]

And now for Santana! This is a little overlook of her season 2 wardrobe, as seen in Every Santana Lopez Outfit series. Brought to you by AngelHummel uwu

The best part about this season is that halfway through, we ditch the Cheerio uniform for good and get to see some actual outfits in this every outfit series. Outside of her uniform, Santana wears 73 unique looks this season. While variety is the spice of life, and it’s much easier on the eyes, we aren’t done with the old faithful red, white, and black just yet

Did you know that several changes are made to the classic Cheerio uniform from season one to season two?

For starters, the red piping around the arms has been removed. The WMHS logo seems to have shrunk a bit, and is situated on a plain white panel across the chest, with less stripes framing it. The white panels on the sides have also been removed, which makes sense because those panels only match on the fitted skirts, not the flared ones, and I’m pretty sure they never wear the fitted skirts again

Personally I like the s2 look better. It’s cleaner and more cohesive

And while we see the same variations of the s1 uniform repeated again with the new uniforms, we also get some original changes this season as well. Season 2 Cheerio uniforms are seen...

~ minus shoes ~ plus a blue Katy wig ~ flared skirt plus pompoms ~ Christmasified (plus cardigan, scarf, candy cane striped socks, and candy cane earrings ~ plus spooky zombie makeup

But Santana wasn’t only flaunting her Cheerio pride this year. She also got her gleek on with nineteen fun costume looks. Most were matching or coordinated ensemble pieces for group numbers. But we also got to see Santana as Magenta, Madonna, a candy striper, even as Rachel!

Speaking of Rachel, Santana clearly took some style inspo from her best frenemy. The minute she dropped the high pony, Santana started rocking some all too familiar fashion accessories. During season 2 she wore 13 headbands

Now while Rachel favors bright colors, Santana goes for fun patterns and textures in her wardrobe. So that’s what I’ve decided to quantify here

Her fifth most popular wardrobe staple was florals, with 7 looks featuring flower patterns from bold to sweet to groovy

In fourth place we have animal inspired pieces, including both furs and animal prints, which show up four times each

Third place with ten looks is leather, seen in a variety of jackets and even a vest, often dotted with studs or dripping in fringe

Her second most popular clothing staple is good old stripes, which make an appearance 12 different times throughout the season

And for Santana’s most popular wardrobe staple, which makes an appearance in a grand total of 16 flawless looks is... denim! (Which might not seem too remarkable but given how these girls dress, a simple pair of jeans is a rarity)

And as usual we’ll close this style summary out with my top 10 personal fave looks for s2 Santana

[jess-the-vampire]

If I may ask, what are your honest thoughts on the ship Alador X Darius?

ok so i surprisingly have quite a bit of thoughts on this ship despite their relationship being more implied and not as delved into.

i think for one, it's def a ship with some potential to actually go somewhere, def not without a timeskip involved for the series itself, but still.

They sorta have this fun dynamic where they clearly had some tension in the past, ending their friendship, but it's become this fun rivarly between them and despite everything they still seem to care about the other and you can def imply a lot of their small implied reactions are a bit flirty if you choose there.

it's kinda funny how these two have not really talked onscreen towards the other, at least not as adults, and you can kinda pick up a lot about their dynamic.

since they used to be a trio with odalia it does make you wonder....it's not confirmed obviously, but with how they wrote odalia and how it seems almost implied alador became more of a prop to her over time it does make you wonder if darius and alador's relationship being severed had anything to do with her.

it's not something out of character for her, she was adment on amity and willow's own friendship being severed because of her own goals, so the idea she may of pulled something as a kid to kick darius out is not completely out of the question.

the show sorta implies in COTH almost like, even if maybe at one point they did love each other, at this point alador is more of a pawn in constructing her perfect life then anything and i don't see the likelihood of them repairing this so easily unless she goes through MASSIVE growth offscreen....which is probably not likely.

so if he did find someone else....darius makes the most sense given everything we know at this point, and hey look, if they set it up well i don't mind. Some people think the show put too much on odalia and not enough on alador and tbh i think they were fair in mostly how they addressed alador tho i agree there were probably some rewrites involved somewhere because we couldn't get more episodes with them. They were clearly trying to imply alador was emotionally manipulated into doing things her way and he was guilty of following along but that it wasn't always what he wanted to do either, and i can't say too much goes against that idea.

Even EE, looking back on that episode now gives more of a light to his behavior knowing things now.

Not a perfect person but he's not meant to be.

Point being i don't really see it as breaking up one ship for another personally, i wish we had more time for the blight parents but i think to an extent we were always meant to pick up on the idea that odalia wasn't exactly great towards alador either....it was just way more noticeable in COT.

we'll see how things go.

on some other points, i see the criticism a lot about hunter having a thing for willow because people just REALLY wanted gay rep, and i assume willow's dads's weren't on the table because they wanted it to be with a more mainstream character.

But i never personally understood why it had to be HUNTER, every time this complaint gets brought up about no primary m/m rep it's always about hunter, even though he was ALWAYS the most unlikely male character to ever get that. It's a female dominated show, he was introduced in s2, so any romance he had was gonna be developed later, and the only way it's gonna be a guy is if you dig someone up and force them into the main cast...which....is gonna feel weird if their only purpose of being in the main cast is JUST to date hunter/ or are only established just for that purpose.

(Like gus is a main male character and his relationship with matty was set up in s1, why don't more people care about that, why does it gotta be hunter when this exists- ?)

Whether people like it or not, willow has been around since s1, she already has an arc outside of hunter, and because she's a main character that gives her ample reason to be around hunter frequently to set something up or develop it, she was always the best option for them to do this with. Like sometimes you have to think about about this from a technical perspective and there was no way in heck you'd be able to set him up with a guy without the character either feeling like he existed just to date hunter and nothing else, or being dragged into the main character group oddly....just to date hunter.

but that's something nice about alador and darius, because they already have an established history you can get right into, and are both characters with larger roles and lots of great set up and characterization. If they started building something it would not feel out of left field at all, or like either character was there just to date, they have their own drama and issues, but they also happen to have a history and a LOT of implications between them.

And i also like seeing adult queer characters have this kinda thing, like it's great seeing it with kids but it's always just as important to see it with adults. It's not like the gay parents who are in episodes but don't usually have bigger roles either, like these two may be supporting characters but they actually are in frequent episodes and are given quite a bit of development and attention.

i think they have real potential and i'm glad to see a potential "gay dads" ship but we'd actually see the dads more individually first as people and see them come together, i find that nice.

like i like willow's dad's fine enough, but i can't deny we don't know them much as people, we met them together and there isn't too much i can say about either of them tho there is a lot of fun details in the bgs of episodes that imply some stuff.

The idea of hunter and the blight siblings being his new step siblings is....also kinda funny , i mean it'll make all the ship fanart of him with the blight twins REALLY awkward, but it would be funny to rewatch the show knowing that might actually happen.

like can you imagine watching amity and hunter in EL knowing they'd end up as siblings?

i kinda like the potential of this ship i gotta be honest, i'm kinda intrigued by their mysterious drama and there's ample reason to assume it's possibly being set up.

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep 31 Part 2: Bakura Eats a Garlic

Pharoah, unaware that his friends are trying to find him in that maze that Yugi has never been able to solve in his entire life, is pondering on his new/ancient friends...and whether they classify as “friends”

They don’t actually! Good on him for picking up on this.

And yes, I still didn’t pick up on the fact this guy was Dark Magician, even after this girl shows up:

Just...it really tells you about my card game knowledge in how I saw this chick with that nonsense hat and was like “...Rebecca?”

Anyway, this girl is a lot.

Pharaoh almost got murdered by Bakura, the world almost ended just now, and she spent her time in a pot.

We gracefully left Rebecca back in Northern California, only to run into basically the same girl in Egypt. Neat.

(read more under the cut)

Remember how in S1 I was like “Yami probably had some child bride or some nonsense” and then I was like lolol of course not, he’s way too awkward for those freakin young Egyptian marriages and now it’s like...this is her right? This is this situation?

Anyway, she has a weird crush on Yami that she never actually says is legit crush or a hobby crush or if they just happen to be the only children the same age in this palace so they hang out too much but have never actually had any romantic interest in eachother. But, it’s enough of a relationship that this is the first person he recognizes without actually being told what her name is.

When Mana brought up his lack of hat that she assumes gave him sunstroke and roasted his bean, I looked at that head and was like....

...what type of hat does Pharaoh WEAR?

Like for reals, he’s already got a huge ass crown, so like...where does the hat GO?

Like I just never think about Yugi in a hat, but that has to happen occasionally, right? Like...is it a situation like Grandpa in that fedora where the extra hair vanishes? Or would the hat balance oh so delightfully on that middle hair spike?

It feel like thinking of Yami in a hat is a little bit this situation:

Woops, my apologies

There, better.

At least it makes sense to have a crush on Yami, as he is covered in jewelry and rich ass suave Pharaoh energy, vs Yugi, who is a nice guy but is in a constant state of danger and anxiety. That and she is the Dark Magician Girl card, quite obviously. (The fact I didn’t pick up on this right away is frankly embarrassing) And, as we know, card lovers are the only lovers that matter in Yugioh. Crosses 5000 years and several incarnations. Card love is eternal, even if you’re just “a girl that used to jump out at me from weird pottery, I guess.”

Can’t believe the Dark Magician Girl is so freakin unhinged but I’m sure we’ll find out more on that in time because wow this girl is a lot of a disaster.

Out living his best life in the desert, Bakura is having deep thoughts over dinner.

WTF was this food in the non-dub?

Like it had to be some sort of bao right? And they just deleted the filling?

If this is an Egyptian treat let me know, because from here that sure is an entire head of garlic skins and all om nom nom.

So Bakura makes a new plan, ignore Pharaoh, and go for the one that doesn’t have 3 entire God Cards.

Which...sorry this is the first time I’ve ever thought about this although this arc has gone on for so many episodes...they don’t have decks here. Everyone has unfettered access to every monster in the world in that temple. So like...you could just hail over anyone, and sure you have to sacrifice souls...usually...

...hey...wait a second...

...no one sacrificed their soul in these Egyptian duels I just realized...wait what?

Wait. Maybe that happens later in this arc but the soul sacrifices from earlier seasons that talked about ancient Egyptian duels that absolutely had soul sacrifices to summon cards and ended up in my deathcount...I think they got retconned. Oh shoot I almost didn’t realize that.

But anyways, you can hail people over a hell of a lot easier than it takes to play a normal ass Yugioh card. Like even in Duel Masters, which I now have experience in, I have yet to figure out how to summon a Link Monster higher than level 2, so this just seems way easier. Even if you have to kill a couple cultists (which again, seems to have been retconned)--easier to understand than than the actual card game Yugioh.

(My bro and I share a steam account and he made me a deck of just a bunch of cars and motorcycles, ps. They go vroom vroom and don’t require being killed or banished 12 times to work so now I main the vroom vroom deck. I don’t remember the official name of it, and I will never remember it.)

But just having an infinite temple of every card that doesn’t require an asinine set of steps to work seems OP, honestly. Bakura would have a hell of a time. Makes sense now how Seto could so easily murder Yami I mean...he had literally every card. Like the gun vault is just OPEN. For anyone to use.

The fact that this isn’t Marik gets rid of a lot of poetic energy here. What a bummer that the traitorous bromance between Marik and Bakura doesn’t return in S5 with yet another murder.

So the next day arrives, and Mahad is like “sure is a good day to freakin die on a hill.” Just like twitter.

Then back at the palace, Yami is trying to figure out what the hell he was ever doing with his past life. Here at the...whatever architectural decisions happened with his fence. Pharaoh needs to fix the statuary situation on his lawn.

Listen why is the tail on the right butt cheek? And if I’m supposed to think that the left butt cheek is actually legs...then what the hell is the right butt cheek?

What is this?

More confusing than the Millennium puzzle, this weird ram butt statue.

And then the other riddle of the sphinx:

So, this one time I saw a webcomic I’m gonna put on blast a little bit but they’ll never see this so it’s OK, and it had a name like “I’m a short 28 year old man that looks like I’m 12 and I can’t get a girlfriend” and I was like “...OK?” and so I was so weirded out by the longass and very specific title that I read the 5 pages it had before the author went on an infinite hiatus. The entire comic was a wealthy anime businessman in a hospital who was very short, and he was trying to get a nurse to marry him. But, no matter what, he could not get the nurse to figure out that he wasn’t 12 years old.

At no point did the guy say “Hey I’m not 12, and I just added you on linkedIn as proof.” At no point did he say “Sorry, I just got off the phone with my work, because I have to work for a living, because I’m Not Freakin 12.” Instead, of flashing his drivers license or his college diploma, he had to clumsily slip and fall on his nephew or something so that the nurse thought he was dating his own nephew (???) and he never says “that’s literally my nephew what the hell?” Instead, the guy proceeded to beg for her hand in marriage without addressing the problem in any way whatsoever.

Anyways, this is not nearly the same level of stupid, but the show needs to give us some actual magical reason why Mana literally can’t tell him his name, because it’s too easy to just cover her eyes and be like “guess who!?” like it’s so freakin easy to get your own name from your card girlfriend/card wife. Like I just wish the show gave us some better reason than “you’re pharaoh so I have to call you Pharaoh”...or we’re in a hospital and the plot is trying to explain it’s just because we’re too damn short.

Anyway, first day on the throne, and the Dark Magician has decided he wants to die and Yami’s like “already there, buddy.”

And then Dark Magician girl freaks the hell out and I finally connected the dots.

It took.

THAT LONG.

On the first watch of this episode I did with my bro, I probably saw the tablet down there and was like “nope this is a card duel, I know it in my bones” and probably fast forwarded and skipped this reveal. I have no other excuse other than my short term memory has been completely shot from pandemic exhaustion.

So like...Mahad may have actually been with this girl the whole time, I don’t know how dating in Egypt works, and I SUPER don't know how dating in Yugioh works, but like...Dark Magician Girl is actually Dark Magician’s Student...

That’s some lore, I guess.

But speaking of people with weird love lives, Isis comes up to Mahad, has an awkward moment, and spoils the future for him. Isis is just kind of quiet and awkward around people, and it does make you wonder if the awkwardness of the dub fueled some fanfic somewhere of her hooking up with all the other adults in his castle at some earlier point.

He tells her “take care of Pharaoh for me.” and she was probably like “wellllllllll the prediction on that kid is a weirder version of himself in a blue blazer suit thing”

And we get a flashback to Mahad’s history, where we see a younger, mini Pharoah. Nearly the same size as Yugi.

Anyway, he’s getting attacked by a snake because he wanted to give Mana a piece of fruit.

Took me this freakin long.

It took me so long.

When I saw that hair wasn’t white as snow I was like “ffffffffff” and I looked at all my caps and was like “I’m not changing them. I’m not. I’m going to keep them as is, and whatever. It’s part of the experience.”

And hey, maybe if Marik wasn’t trapped underground in very stressful situations, maybe his hair would be brown? Maybe he’d have sweet Zoey Deschanel type bangs like we all did in the early 2010′s? Maybe.

And then Pharaoh does this nasty snake bite remedy that was debunked like 30 years ago.

I assume that in the non-dub, Pharaoh was like covered in blood during this segment. Would be kind of disappointing if they didn’t tbh.

But it was because of stuff like that, as to why Marik is now hell bent on protecting his Pharoah. Because Yami might be a dumbass, but he’s a very good dumbass. And like he’s done better than the last Pharaoh who killed an entire village. Sorry his name is not Marik. I will probably never stop doing that, oh damn it, this is going to be rough for me.

Back in the present, Mahad decides to lure Bakura out by pretending to return Yami’s Dad to his tomb. Instead, Mahad goes to a completely different tomb where I assume Dark Magician hangs out.

This lure was completely unnecessary because 1.) Bakura knows where Yami’s Dad was buried, he was there 2 episodes ago and 2.) he only wants the ring so you didn’t need a freakin lure. Chances are, Mahad just wanted an excuse to fight Bakura without Yami getting worried and without any help from any of the other millennium item people. Which like...why dude? Yami proved he could protect you, why are you...whatever. Mahad does what he wants, just like Marik.

After Bakura enters the tomb, Mahad’s goons are ordered to just block that exit with big ass rocks, with the intention of killing them both.

And this horse. RIP horse. You were too hard to animate. Which, youknow, shoutouts to animators, it takes a long time to do, it’s really bad for your body to do, they don’t get paid enough, it kind of sucks, so go ahead and kill your horses, I won’t judge.

And so next time I guess it’ll be a card duel the entire time which I look forward to because these have been like a lot of information in each episode. Would be nice for me to have an episode that’s like 10 caps but we’ll see. This arc is just doing a lot of legwork, trying to wrap up stuff from like actual years ago. I can’t believe they decided it shouldn’t be the whole season but well, that’s TV for you.

And if you want to read these from the beginning in chrono order, here is your link:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono