#this isn’t even going into the storyline and dynamics and ships and the symbolisms and not yet revealed orange side

[kieumy]

First things, first. Merry Milfmas. Secondly... is Sanders like a fictional character or is he a YouTuber?

merry milfmas!!!

thomas sanders is a youtuber who has a web series called sanders sides. the sides are manifestations of aspects of thomas’ personality

there’s six sides so far:

roman/prince/princey: thomas’ creativity, passions, dreams, aspirations, fantasies, ego and feminine and fanciful side (the red side)

virgil: thomas’ anxiety. he also represents caution, the fight-or-flight reflex, fears and has some part of being a voice of reason, but in the way anxiety makes you think about all possibilities and spiral (the purple side)

patton: thomas’ morality, the sense of right and wrong, the heart and feelings. he’s the “dad” of the group and has a child-like nature (the light blue side)

logan: thomas’ logic, intelligence and the source of every fact thomas has ever learned. he’s also the voice of reason and the one who leads most of the discussions (the dark blue side) (and yes, i named myself after him)

janus: thomas’ deceitful side and self preservation (the yellow side)

remus/the duke: thomas’ dark creativity, imagination and intrusive thoughts. he’s roman’s twin brother (the green side)

because the series has its own plot, we refer to the thomas in the series as character!thomas (c!thomas) to distinguish it from the real thomas sanders

[piecedbytheear]

Carla and Samuel deserved better...

If you think I’m talking about the ship you better keep scrolling 💀 Sorry, I’m not here for Samuel huffing and puffing about Polo running around the school as a free killer but simping for Carla’s rich white girl ass, as if that bitch didn’t send his brother iPad Nano to jail...😭 Christian’s Himbo ass needs to come back and woop Samuel’s ass for falling for Carla 😳 After Marina he didn’t learn about toxic rich girls??👎

RANT 😤📝

Okay here me out ! This rant isn’t about Carmuel necessarily but their storylines in s3 and lack of development.

Elite followed the Clay Jensen archetype when writing Samuel because his character follows the basic white boy protagonist archetype...no originality at all! He wants justice for the girl he was in love with yadayada 🥱 Not much depth was given to him unfortunately to make him interesting, but that was a flaw given to most of the characters tbh. Samuel was probably the strongest in s2 but s3 didn’t give him much to do. s3 didn’t give Carla any depth too 😐 Them as a dynamic was wasted unfortunately.

Samuel

If Samuel was more so focused on getting justice or revenge for the collapse of his old public school that arc would tie him close with Marina’s being that in s1 Marina’s original motives were to expose her father and Carla’s father for their corruption and criminal activities that ultimately caused the ruin of Samuel, Nadia, Omar and Christian’s public school. That was justice deserved...I could care less about Nano going to jail 🥱 🤣 The show missed an opportunity on continuing the stolen red watch plot line that symbolised a lot of importance in s1 and it tied the arc’s of Carla, Nano and Marina together. That brings me to Carla...

Carla

One of the reasons the show messed up was the victimisation of Carla. She’s this strong, quick thinking young girl who puts her family before anything. She had people framed for murder,never defended her ex boyfriend after his “accident” instrumented by her father and was complicit to her father’s corruption. Despite her characteristics she fell for Samuel and felt bad about his disappearance, causing her to confess to Marina’s murder. It was kind of out of character considering the person Carla was but you can argue she didn’t want the bloodshed to continue. That being said remember when Carla was rebellious??? In s3 she’s this submissive Daddy’s girl, who still abides to his supremacy. She doesn’t change much, she’s just victimised even more.🥱 She doesn’t face much consequences for her actions, nor is she properly called out on them.

What should of happened for Samuel and Carla storylines

In a perfect world Carla would actually develop and grow out of the sex-symbol rich girl the writers held her to. Unfortunately her s3 storyline didn’t give her a lot of storytelling 🥱 What I WISHED that happened in s3 was Carla EXPOSING and freeing her self from her father. If Samuel continued Marina’s work in exposing Carla and Marina’s fathers corruption and Carla joined him, Samuel and Carla would:

Both be given interesting arcs because wtf were their s3 storylines 💀😐🥱

Carla would develop and free herself from her toxic, criminal father and try to learn from her actions.

Samuel would get the justice he so badly wanted but this time to his old public school, than just avenging Marina and Nano.

The watch and it’s information exposing the elite’s corruption plotline in S1 would have a resolution.

Carla’s father would be investigated and have a chance to rot in jail!

Carla and Samuel would work as a dynamic because in s2 they were tied together and this would put a resolution to their relationship.

Carla and Samuel would get a perspective into each other’s world, coming from two different socioeconomic environments despite fighting the same cause. For example Samuel would understand that justice is not so easy when dealing with corrupt people like Theodore💀 and Carla would see what her father’s actions caused and fight against him.

We wouldn’t have to watch Carla x Yeray and Rebe x Samuel struggle “relationships” 🤦‍♂️

Thank you for coming to my TED TALK 😘🙏

[dishwater-blondie]

I started to losing faith in Gabenath (Bc Gabriel is more crazy with each season) but in the other hand, I feel that their dynamic is one of the most important in the show and their scenes are going to end in something good

I do throughly believe that the relationship between Gabriel and Nathalie is one of the subtler and more compelling aspects of the show, and it’s had an immense amount of development with very, very little screen time. I do believe they are meant to parallel Marinette and Adrien (even if that parallel isn’t perfect), and I feel like that is supposed to bode well unless they intend Gabriel and Nathalie’s story to end in tragedy. 

When I say tragedy, I mean genuine, hard-hitting tragedy, because it would be lazy and bad and boring if things just didn’t work out because, oh no! they were thwarted and thrown and prison and that’s the end of them! The dilemma a lot of us Gabenath shippers are facing is not with the pair, because the pair continues to be framed as a positive thing for not only Gabriel, but for Adrien and the Agreste household as a whole - even as a positive thing for the entirety of Paris, because canon Gabenath would mean no more magical terrorism. The dilemma is with Gabriel and the rather flippant way the show likes to portray the extent of his villainy. I still think the Chat Blanc characterization is dismissible with the right analysis, which I attempted, but from what I hear about the special (that I have not watched) is that Hawk Moth almost starts nuclear war?? and yes, that’s less explicable when there's no super symbolic eraser lucky charm to make everyone forget that ever happened. 

So the difficulty is reconciling Gabriel’s over-the-top atrocious acts of evil with the actually heartfelt and authentic and comforting depiction of his relationship with Nathalie. I don’t know how I’m supposed to be receiving the characterization - am I meant to take it seriously or am I meant to think it as absurd and inane as I do that Hawk Moth has akumatized Mr. Pigeon 51 times? Where does the moustache-twirling cartoony nonsense end and the actual depth of character begin? That’s the show’s problem with Gabriel and it’s making it a problem for Gabenath even when Gabenath has a positive connotation and fantastic development and depth. 

The show keeps telling me to ship Gabenath. And in good faith I will continue to ship Gabenath in hopes I won’t be made a fool of by some absolutely irreverent and shallow conclusion to their storyline. 

[dotthings]

I recommend reading @occamshipper‘s post here [x] that does a whole lot to further unpack some spn fandom dynamics, beyond what I touched on myself earlier today, but more, discusses the evolving nature of SPN itself. Which got me thinking further (as you do).

With 6 episodes left of SPN left on the clock, it seems like a good time to talk more about my love for this series as a whole, and my perspective on the earliest seasons of SPN vs later seasons. 

I’ve tried to articulate this on various platforms at different times, but it’s sometimes hard to explain, because it’s a dichotomy but not mutually exclusive.

People will make all kinds of assumptions just because I’m expanded cast friendly, because I’m a Cas fan, because I’m ride or die Team Free Will, because I ship Destiel. Some will think but of course I couldn’t possibly have loved S1-2 with a bone deep love, couldn’t possibly have internalized Sam and Dean and relate to them and see my own weaknesses and strengths reflected there, didn’t have 15 years of emotional roller coaster with SPN. Not just 15 seasons, 15 years. I did have to step away a few times and took breaks from it but not years-long, so I have witnessed every stage of fandom and every stage of canon as it unfolded.

Min brought up in her post how earliest SPN started with archetypes. While the characters were also layered characters, they mostly stayed in their archetypal boxes. Not just how they mirrored archetypes of other media SPN has always been a response to (Dean is Han, Sam is Luke and so on) but how they fell into archetypes established of themselves. Early SPN had a start on overturning those self-created archetypes and expectations, a beginning. Dean in particular very quickly turned out to be not what even the show’s creator expected and they ran with it. Kripke created a show he envisioned as being about monster hunts, like Kolchak, like X-Files, and it was Bob Singer who said no brah it’s about the emotional bonds, it’s about the emotional story, that’s our unique hand to play, and whatever issues I have with EP Bob Singer later on, I respect how right he was about that. 

The irony of Dabb era constantly being ripped down and attacked for...being that, simply because it’s not only the brother bond any more. 

One popular negative meme in spn fandom involves complaining SPN isn’t scary any more. True, the style of its horror changed, it changed visually, and I do appreciate the early visual style, but the flip side of that statement is that SPN started out relying on jump scares and mere style for its frights, when even in the earliest seasons it was clear the most horrifying or wrenching moments were going to be emotional. As I said on twitter, over time SPN became an increasingly complex study of its main characters, with escalating moral quandaries, and increasingly a rumination on emotional horror, conquering of inner demons, and most of all the importance of love of all kinds. 

See, the thing is, I really really REALLY loved S1 and 2. No you really can’t even know how much I loved SPN in those seasons. It had a gestalt that cannot be recaptured, and I dove in head-first. The dusty back roads, the intense familial emotional storylines, the haunted houses, the monsters, the dilapidated or forgotten places, the cursed apple orchards, the abandoned buildings, the brothers, the tears. Yes, it’s gorgeous. Let’s light a candle and remember it fondly.

When I rewatch it holds up well enough...it also feels claustrophobic. Limited. Small. So small. Yes still beautiful. But much as I loved the Winchesters and their story and their family already then, a lot of that love is also bleedback because of learning so much more about them. So much more. After that. 

When I rewatch anything before Carver era it feels like that, too small, and I miss the full breadth of what the characters became. I do have some issues with Carver, but he did a lot of great things too. 

By S3 the magic was dwindling for me a little. S3 is when I started to think I was going to just get tired of the show and that was bewildering tbh, because S1-2 were just SO DAMN AMAZING to me. But that’s how it goes sometimes. 

S4 banged the doors open and blew my mind. It wasn’t just Cas’s arrival, but Cas was a herald of it. Cas the most of any member of Sam and Dean’s extended family got the closest to them, could carry stories of his own, and most embodied some of SPN’s biggest themes. But it wasn’t about Cas’s arrival alone.

I thought I knew all SPN was capable of and S4 showed me otherwise and I was a giddy, proud SPN fan about S4. LOOK AT WHAT OUR LITTLE SHOW DID. The canvas got bigger, the character stories got even stronger, more powerful, and more painful. Let’s pedal to the metal and see what she can do.

Season after season and showrunner after showrunner. Even my least favorite showrunner had something more to show me about these characters, something more to learn. (There are a few arcs with every showrunner where I did feel like SPN was spinning its wheels, I’m talking in aggregate, by era, although I don’t love every era the same). 

When I rewatch earliest SPN I miss the Sam and Dean I’ve gotten to know because of course they aren’t there yet, they are just beginning. I have a mirror to that with Cas. When I rewatch S4-6, even parts of Carver era. S4/5 Cas is still exciting. Those are his beginnings, like S1-2 are Sam and Dean’s. But I miss all Cas became. I miss how far he grew. Watching Sam, Dean, Cas on screen while also missing Sam, Dean, Cas. They also don’t feel complete to me without their earliest seasons in my mind to build forward from.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me about the goodness of modern SPN, but they could at least admit that the SPN they loved left the building long ago, eons ago, instead of staying around season after season just to tear down, to hate, to attack. Everything from character development existing as a concept to the basic easy to grok idea that people can love more than one person to *insert repetitive wanking here on how Dabb ruined SPN by utilizing themes SPN has always always had there since the start and took them farther* to just being mad that S15 isn’t S1.  Modern SPN gets torn to shreds for being SPN only stronger with more complexity, more character pov, more emotional unpacking, more and more about family and how family is constructed, and with a rich visual language and use of symbolism that can hold its own with earlier seasons, and it’s just plain fact, this vitriol was  aimed at Carver as well as at Dabb, FYI, and I have my own issues with both of them. 

Is it really REALLY necessary to hate on a show that has always been billed at being about family for being...about family. Really? Do people even go here?? What is UP with that. Season after season of hard core stans preaching “SPN is about family” and now they’re pissed that...SPN is about family. Upteen repetitions of whining about “too soap opera.” As others have pointed out, if you didn’t already figure out that SPN was and is a family soap opera with monsters, there isn’t much help to be had for you. Upteen repetitions of whining that SPN grants redemptive arcs. What show have folks even been watching all these years????? Upteen rages because on a 15 season show characters grow, things change, and S1 and S15 are not the same.

SPN has always been about the characters most of all, it’s always been about the emotions most of all, it’s always been about relationships most of all. 

SPN is not eternally 2 boys in a car shooting monsters in the face on a back road dilapidated barn while those 2 boys repeat their first look archetypal roles, undisturbed in an endless loop. I can recognize how beautiful S1-2 were without discarding all that came after, and I’m realizing more and more how Dabb era is making me reflect over the whole series run, and giving me a new perspective on the long journey of the characters. 

Speaking as a fan who has loved this show since September 2005, but is also intrigued by current storylines, that melding of old and new, of new light shed over the past, while bringing the story forward, moving the characters forward, is also beautiful to me.

[cto10121]

ok fine FINE here's a review on shadow and bone, good, bad, and ugly

the good

mal. almost everything about him is improved from the books and his POV is fully expressed here. the childhood bf to lovers trope is finally justified

the casting. spot-on for the most part, especially jesper, everyone really works well together.

there is an obvious sense of the show being conceived by people and portrayed by actors who actually like the original material, which is refreshing af. must approve

ben barnes

no seriously everything about ben barnes

alina and the darkling. these two, i just can’t

the crows were consistently good and they were well-integrated with the main storyline for the most part. that they they didn't accomplish much i don't even mind much, since they were enjoyable enough

the darkling being such an unabashed simp for alina is beautiful and hilarious and i am here for it. i am the elmo basking in hellfire with his hands outstretched for this

alina has more agency here, especially in her relationship with the darkling, which is passionate and sexy completely consensual. my oh my

the ~diversity~ being natural and organic for once. actually alina’s and mal’s biracialness does justify their outsider status, more so with alina. it gives an extra dimension why alina is so resistant to new life at the little palace and why she clings to mal instead of ugly-duckling thing from the books

the goat

but now the bad

in changing the relationship dynamic between alina and mal from plain-girl-with-unrequited-crush-on-jock-childhood-bestie, the show inadvertently removed genuine conflict and rationale for certain plot beats. here there is no real reason for alina and mal not to have gotten together—they clearly liked each other, alina is not under the impression mal doesn’t like her, mal passes up a chance to hook up with zoya to get her food...what gives? and so the malina ship feels more like a sibling/familial relationship because it lacks tension and genuine conflict. even when alina admits to something happening between her and the darkling, mal is immediately and unconditionally supportive. you’d think a teen boy would at least struggle a bit to accept his crush with a hot older grisha general whom he distrusts. i don't know, it feels way too idyllic. mal is just too damn perfect. there’s just no place their relationship can go from here story-wise but down

the darkling’s character is still very ambivalent. fun as it was to see, in making the darkling an (almost) total simp, barnes removes the chance for some inner conflict. book!darkling clearly felt conflicted over his attraction towards alina and the obstruction it had on his plans. show!darkling meanwhile is nigh planning the wedding from the war room scene on, and he was clearly taken with her beforehand. this succeeds not only in audience-baiting darklina something awful, but it makes the plot twist of his villainy something hard to accept. before this the only thing obviously manipulative the audience knows that he does is the blue iris thing—and that scene is hilarious in its comic timing. add in the strong beauty-and-the-beast/hades-persephone vibes, the symbolism of light/dark, ying/yang, the coolly composed ruthlessly villainous sophisticate versus the fiery orphan pure of heart naïf...yeah. suffice to say, darklina is the most popular ship for a good reason. sometimes, and only just sometimes, the fangirls are right.

speaking of which. the baghra tells alina about the darkling scene. the most fucked up plot point of the books, and they not only kept it in, but kept it in faithfully with few to no alterations. *facepalms* suffice to say, alina trusting baghra so readily makes even less sense in the series than in the books. they even included a flashback scene of the origins of the fold that subtly contradicts baghra’s account to alina (the darkling didn’t create the fold on purpose, it was an accident). if the plan was to make the darkling into a full-out series villain, they definitely failed

not only that, but it threw away the growth of alina’s arc!!! she was just coming to accept and own her powers, making friends at the little palace, pursuing the darkling, etc. she was a much more interesting character than the whinefest (safety and luxury, o heavy burden) of previous episodes. and now, knowing the books, they will start her out in the same position again in the second season, suppressing her powers yet again, and all for basic beefcake mal. i hate this direction, i hate it to bits, fuck it fuck it fuck it

the crows felt like comic side characters here instead of the more well-rounded figures they are in soc. which isn't a bad thing and actually the show did benefit a lot from their comedy, but it did make them much less compelling. hopefully season two will delve deeper

the ugly

i remember baghra telling alina that to seek refuge with some grisha faithful to her by going right at the fork of the tunnel, but instead alina chooses to go left on her own???? and this is not explained??? am i misremembering or???

a lot of beautiful shots interspersed with weirdly clumsy shots and direction? is it just me or did some of the blocking feel off?

the worldbuilding, albeit more consistent and unified, still lacks depth and is a trifle incoherent, but that is again something that plagued the book series as well.

the writing was a bit uneven; some strong, sharp lines but also quite a bit of weak lines i had to mentally rewrite.

alina's antler flesh necklace. they really went there, didn't they?

this is a malina show all the way, and for reasons i have already explained...yeah. there is still a chance, of course, that they do not do malina endgame, but with bardugo involved, it's doubtful. only if they do come to conflict over creative differences and bardugo leaves would the show be able to go in that direction, (or bardugo simply giving up and accepting this show as the canon-divergent fanfic it is). but one thing i am absolutely sure they will do is bait the audience with darklina.

mal fighting the darkling in the fold (!!) and actually holding his own. what malina propaganda dumbfuckery is this

this show probably did need to be at least ten episodes. the eight we got were fine and tight, and i don't blame the showrunner in the least for opting for the high budget, but again, some plot beats did not feel as natural or organic as they could have been. could have used the extra time

so my fix-it for season two regarding the alina-darkling-mal drama: have an actual good-guy (or even worse-bad-guy—maybe a hitler-type royal who begins to ramp up on oppressing and maybe even killing off all grisha after the darkling’s betrayal. maybe vasily? vasily sounds right) alternative to the darkling and not just "gather up the amplifiers and destroy the fold and discount lord voldemort." continue with the arc of alina learning and controlling and overall owning her powers, the force connection with the darkling, and mal torn between his fealty and his fear over her powers (maybe alina realizes sooner that she can control the darkling's powers too, muddy the waters a bit). maybe he and alina have a genuine falling out, he defects (temporarily before he comes to his senses) to the hitler guy, and alina and darkling, both hurt over their respective betrayals, come to a middle in their respective sides (alina realizes that hatred towards the grisha is a very real problem and the darkling realizes, from watching alina do her thing, maybe even with nikolai, of a different way towards grisha-acceptance, and alina and he are not really on different sides) and reluctantly team up or work together at the some point. oh, and the crows get involved somehow. i don't know. just something different from the mess that was siege and storm and ruin and rising.

[dalekofchaos]

JJ Abrams inability to understand Finn

Finn being the one Stormtrooper who could break away had a lot of potential. That potential died within minutes.

The death of Slip, one of his comrades that turned him... That made him torn apart, so he refused to kill the villagers... But then, he kills other stormtroopers without hesitating, without any remorse? I get they were on the run, but this is so tone deaf.

Then JJ Abrams made him the comic relief by drinking the space cow water and making bad jokes. You can argue that Rian did it worse, but JJ still made him the bumbling sidekick and even made him the janitor. All the while JJ PROMISED John he was the new star of Star Wars.

But Finn’s time as a Stormtrooper doesn’t really make sense when you think about it and his defection ultimately doesn’t matter. Let me explain.

Finn is not affected despite a life of conditioning and indoctrination. Finn is a character who was raised as a Stormtrooper, but there doesn’t feel like any indoctrination to begin with. Finn’s defection could’ve been a great story but it is never brought up again. What was life like in the First Order? But instead, his Stormtrooper past is never brought up again. When he throws away his armor on Jakku is when any exciting character development is thrown away, too. His past as a Stormtrooper is barely mentioned and is hardly relevant. For someone who’s kidnapped as a child, why does he act so "normal” when he escapes the First Order? People that escape cults and child soldiers have difficulty adjusting back into normal society. Why is he never affected by his supposed “indoctrination” why are there no signs of trauma or PTSD? Why doesn’t he hesitate to kill his FO brothers and sisters? It honestly feels like it didn’t have any impact on the story whatsoever.

Finn seeing Han Solo, Chewbacca and Leia has no effect on him. Finn was taken and raised by The First Order. He should be raised to hate Han, Luke Leia, Chewbacca and Lando. Hell, he doesn’t even know what Wookies are. He knows what Raftars are, but not Wookies? You’d think that growing up with Imperial Indoctrination, he’d be raised to believe that Wookies were their slave race, but no. He was indoctrinated as a child, so Finn should be taught from childhood to adulthood that Han, Luke and Leia are terrorists and war criminals who destroyed over 20 years of peace and would be taught that Luke, Han and Leia are responsible for genocide(you know that “I had friends on that death star” joke) so he is taught to hate them from birth and to kill them on sight. But he wasn't....he even says Han is a war hero....what kind of fucking indoctrination do you call this?

Has no problem killing his brothers and sisters. Seeing Slip die was the breaking point. He was so affected by his friend's murder that he swore he would never kill The First Order again. Finn is meant to show that Stormtroopers are human....only to show that they are back to being cannon fodder. The message they were trying to tell was dropped immediately. Finn defects because his Stormtrooper friend is killed. So what does he do? Kills more of his old Stormtrooper friends! Throughout the entire trilogy they don't acknowledge or care about that "Stormtroopers are human and could leave like Finn" they don't give the other child soldiers a chance to break free, everyone else is just disposable as Red Shirts.

Jakku is his first mission. Really? You expect me to believe a life time of serving The First Order and he only has his only mission that conveniently is the mission where he decides to defect?

Poe killing Slip is never brought up again. Just think, the very person he is saving is the very person who caused his break down on Jakku. Not once is it brought up. You'd think Hux or Phasma would've used it against Finn. Just imagine, Finn finds out and we have tension and animosity between Finn and Poe. It gives us the possibility of Finn going back or Finn forgiving Poe. None of that is presented. It's just never brought up again.

Finn and Kylo’s tension and animosity is never brought up again. After the massacre of Tuanul and Finn’s refusal to fire, Kylo stares at Finn. Then Kylo immediately knows that Finn was the one who helped Poe escape. Then Kylo screams traitor at Finn. Originally I thought this was because Finn was the awakening that Kylo and Snoke felt and my theory of the Knights Of Ren being Force Sensitive Stormtroopers, this is why Kylo saw his defection as a betrayal. But Finn and Kylo never share the same screen again. Really....the easiest thing they could’ve done was make the Force Bond be between Rey, Kylo and Finn. If you have to have a force bond. Make it between all three of them. Finn and Kylo are obvious foils. Finn was taken from his family against his will into the First Order and realized on his own that murder was wrong. Conversely, Kylo willingly ran from his family into the First Order and consciously uses murder to gain power. As Kylo kills his father, Finn becomes a Resistance hero. Their storylines and development are inversely proportional to each other- when Finn moves toward the light, Kylo falls further toward darkness. Finn is the humanity Kylo rejected when he chose to kill his father.  Kylo is the darkness Finn could have succumbed to but ran away from. So why not have them being connected by the force. Keep the dynamic with Rey and Kylo, but with a force connection established between Finn and Kylo, we could have Kylo wondering why Finn would desert The First Order, while Finn wonders why Kylo betrayed his family, the Jedi and joined The First Order. Kylo wanting Rey AND Finn to join him in bringing a New Order to the galaxy. They reject. But just imagine Rey, FInn and Ben  unite to end Palpatine. The Trinity in the Force. I just....they did nothing with Finn and Ben’s staredowns/animosity. Seeing the three main characters in this trilogy  first become enemies, then allies and finally friends who unite and bring down the Emperor would’ve been great. But no, instead we get nothing to resolve their differences.

A defecting Stormtrooper was ruined when we have him be revealed as the janitor. Instead of a battle hardened Stormtrooper who breaks free after realizing what he's doing is wrong, we get comedic relief: he drinks dirty water made for animals, and he acts funny. But what truly sealed away his fate was the moment he uttered the word “sanitation” We know most FO do Sanitation as jobs, but the way JJ wrote the movie made everyone think that’s all Finn did and only did it as a joke. There are some serious racial undertones with writing Finn as a janitor. People saying Johnson’s depiction of Finn was racist, but JJ was the one who ultimately decided that the one Stormtrooper with a face, who just happens to be black, was a Janitor.

His defection has no impact on the rest of the trilogy. As soon as we meet Jannah, I was like "holy shit, his defection finally inspires something???" and...it did not. His defection was taken from him. Finn refusing to kill for The First Order got copied on to a bunch of other Stormtroopers. Don’t get why we couldn’t at least have had Jannah mention they were inspired by Finn. Finn’s defection from the First Order ultimately meant nothing in the end and that is just depressing. Finn doesn’t even get to have what made his character great mean anything. There is no Stormtrooper Rebellion nor is Finn a symbol. Finn’s defection is forgettable….that’s the final insult degradation of Finn’s character

Bad enough he doesn't even come off as someone who's been indoctrinated for his whole life. He declares Han as a war hero, he doesn't know about Wookies(you think Imperial indoctrination wouldn't brainwash him into thinking Wookies are their slave race???) in fact none of the Rebel heroes are terrorists that destroyed 30 years of peace in Finn's eyes. Finn doesn't have any problem adjusting, he instantly acts normal upon defecting to the good guys. I thought it would've made for a good story to see Finn struggling with indoctrination(even attempting to shoot Han and Chewie) resisting with conditioning and programming and ultimately Finn overcomes it and chooses what's right. Instead "haha silly man drinks cow water, haha he falls down and Rey kicks his ass. Haha he knows about raftars but not wookies. Oh you better talk to Rey or woman will find out they always do. He wants to run away, isn't that funny? Haha he's not a battle hardened soldier, he's a janitor, isn't that funny?" Apparently comic relief and wanting to run away was more important to overcome than over a decade of indoctrination and conditioning.

It bothers me that the first time we see Finn is when he’s compassionately holding his fallen fellow trooper, but then TROS shows him mowing them down with Poe without even the tiniest flicker of hesitation or reluctance. And With Poe, the person who killed Finn’s squad mate. This is never brought up again or resolved.

“Like all of them I was taken from a family I’ll never know and trained to do one thing” But JJ wrote it that he can run through the halls of a FO ship blasting troopers the same as him without any hesitation, nice one JJ

Like I understand they had to fight their way through the ship to rescue Chewie, but they could have given Finn a tiny second or flicker of doubt and remorse and it would have instantly give a load of character depth and emotion. Hell show Finn running into Zeroes and they have a confrontation and Finn makes the same decision on Jakku. He lets Zeroes go and we see Zeroes leading a squad of Stormtroopers against The First/Final Order and they all throw their helmets to the ground and declare themselves for Finn the "Phasma Slayer"

Like everyone thinks that Finn was ruined by Rian Johnson, but at least he never had Finn mow down his fellow child soldiers. Hell, he was even pleading with the one Stormtrooper not to turn them in or kill them, DJ was the one going for his gun but Finn simply talked to him. In that one deleted scene. He showed more compassion for a fellow Stormtrooper in a Rian Johnson directed scene than he ever showed in both JJ Abrams movies. Yet JJ is the guy who “gets” Finn.

When I first learned about Finn and that he was a stormtrooper, I was excited. I really wanted a character with a different perspective/moral conflict like that in the movies. And I really wanted them to explore the PTSD and trauma of being indoctrinated your whole life as a child soldier. But they just wasted his potential.

It just comes off as

"Hi I'm Finn. I don't want to kill people, and my best friend was killed by The Resistance. So let me free that Resistance pilot and kill more people to escape with him." That's totally how character development works.

Finn’s defection ultimately means he’s good, his past doesn’t matter and it doesn’t affect him and we can’t see his slow process of fighting and resisting years of indoctrination and programming, his defection does not inspire Jannah, the millions to billions of potential people like Finn and Jannah do not matter and they are all expendable and canon fodder. The potential of the Stormtrooper Rebellion was wasted. JJ Abrams did not understand his own character and reduced him to a meme who just screams “REEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYY”

What Finn should have been.

Finn becoming a Jedi and leading a Stormtrooper Rebellion would’ve saved the Sequel Trilogy. I really wish Finn got to lead a full on Stormtrooper Rebellion in Episode IX. I think it was a perfect ending arc for him after where his character went in TFA and TLJ.  Sometimes a few pictures say it all...

A Finn who was able to resist Stormtrooper programming because he was force-sensitive and went on to become a Jedi himself and force the First Order to crumble from within by encouraging the other Troopers to rebel would have actually made for an original Star Wars plot that wasn't just a rehash of the OT.

To Explain how this Stormtrooper Rebellion could work, let’s go from the beginning.

In the TFA novelization, it’s stated that Hux ordered that  Finn's mutiny is to be hidden from the rest of the Stormtroopers out of concern that the potential mutiny within The First Order  and for others to start catching ideas like "independence" and "individuality. The vibe I get is Phasma would want it to be personal. Hux wanted it to be a quiet execution. And Kylo being the dramatic slut that he is, would want it to be a public spectacle. From this post it’s clear The First Order would prefer quiet executions to deal with traitors and deserters. Hux is all about control, of himself and others, while Ren is just an asshole who wants to destroy the things which make him upset. He wants to put the fear of the Force into people while Hux just doesn’t want them thinking anything other than the thoughts he put there.

Finn had to fight against one of his friends in his unit, FN-2199 or “Nines” as Finn called him. Nines was unaware of why he defected and I’m sure Phasma fed Nines lies, so Finn was forced to fight his own friend. How much do you wanna bet that Finn will be forced to fight the last member of his squad, Zeroes?

As for Finn’s time in the First Order, he was one of their best Stormtroopers and one of the elite. Highly valued by Phasma and Hux, yet his defection shocked them.

Phasma’s alternate death scene

I will never understand why this was deleted. Finn calls her out about her betrayal of lowering the shields and when this information is revealed, the Stormtroopers near her look suspicious and it looks as if they are going to turn on her. Phasma like the ultimate survivalist she is kills them with no hesitation. Finn cuts her hand off and blasts her into the abyss, giving Phasma a more deserving and better send off. Seriously, this is way better than their actual confrontation.  What I really like about this scene is its direct connection to The Force Awakens plot point and that it acknowledges Phasma's survivalist attitude which was introduced into her novel.

Now finally to the Rebellion itself. This all ties into it. Hux hiding it from those who needn’t know, Phasma’s killing everyone who dare believe her treachery, Kylo’s tyranny as the Supreme Leader and Palpatine’s return will all lead to Finn leading a Stormtrooper Rebellion. I think Finn will possibly use his force sensitivity and letting everyone in the FN corps feel what he felt when he could not bring himself to pull the trigger. What he felt when Starkiller Base committed genocide and what he felt when he stood his ground and fought Kylo Ren. This will inspire everyone to rebel, the first one to throw off his helmet will be Zeroes and everyone follows through. Humanizing Stormtroopers and having one become a hero is was a stroke of genius, but the way they did it in Episode 7 made it seem like Finn was the ONLY good Stormtrooper, which has to be an impossibility. If one Stormtrooper can suddenly switch sides, what's to say that others couldn't? TROS fucked up by not showing the fall of the First Order, I personally think that Finn should’ve convinced all (or most of) the Stormtroopers to turn against Pryde and Hux, leading to a cool final scene where the First Order is ultimately destroyed by their own henchmen. That would be cooler and more unique, I think, than fucking space horses, idiotic and incoherent Star Destroyers with Death Star lasers, another Resistance vs. First/Final Order space shootout, or Rey and her possible Jedi apprentice army taking them down. 

The children the First/Final Order abducted and trained against their own will finally taking back their narrative and fighting back against their oppressors. The First Order will be burned down from the inside, and I think that’s beautiful.

But as the Stormtrooper Rebellion happens, just imagine if Finn got to stand alongside Rey and Ben. Just imagine if all 3 were bonded by The Force. The 3 main characters of the trilogy. It began with Rey and Finn being at odds with Ben and it ends with Rey, Finn and Ben united against Palpatine and together they end the Sith and bring balance to the force. 

This was the best possible way you could’ve utilized Finn and JJ Abrams squandered it. He’s not a Jedi, just hinted at being force sensitive and we don’t even get an ending of Rey beginning to train Finn. Finn doesn’t lead a Stormtrooper Rebellion, he just takes a group of already deserters and leads them on space horses while running on the surface of a Star Destroyer(yes it’s just as stupid as it sounds) Finn is not a symbol to  the Stormtroopers, hell Finn doesn’t even inspire Jannah. Finn doesn’t save his fellow brothers and sisters, he kills them off like they’re canon fodder. Finn doesn’t get to be the catalyst in destroying the very people that took him away from his family or even free his brothers and sisters. Finn gets nothing, like at all. JJ Abrams failed Finn more than Rian Johnson ever failed Finn and JJ is the one that John Boyega and the fanboys thinks that “gets” Finn

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Did you say your favorite DW villain was The Master? What are your thougts on Dhawan in the role? I like the performance but it makes no sense given how Missy's story ended.

The Master is definitely my favorite villain.

 I remember being blown away by him during Season Three, both as John Simm and as Derek Jacobi, for how little he appeared. Watching him tear everything apart, getting to see the power of a Timelord turned to madness...and he very nearly won, too. Had he managed to kill Martha before she escaped, Earth would have been doomed. Even refusing to regenerate and letting himself die, just to spite The Doctor and force him to once again be the last of the Timelords. I couldn’t wait to see this awesome madman return. 

...and I was subsequently disappointed by his returning episodes. This is a discussion for another day, but “The End of Time” is...overrated. Well, the first half definitely is. Someday, somebody ask me to give my rant about how they bring The Master back in that episode, because what they do is actually unbelievable, and I have a rant about it. T’is quite long. Plus, then he spends most of the episode just acting like Gollum. But I will never not love the whole “Get out of the way,” sequence. Man, it’s the perfect symbol of their relationship. The Doctor and The Master, squabbling away, when the Timelords are the real threat...

Onto Missy. I was never a big fan, I have to be honest. There were moments where I grew invested, but for the most part she annoyed me. “The Witch’s Familiar” is borderline unwatchable to me for this reason. I did scream when she revealed her identity to The Doctor, but...why did she need to change her name? Why was that necessary? Thirteen didn’t do it. Well, that’s Moffat for you. If he was still writing Doctor Who, I bet Thirteen would go by “The Nurse.” That’s the main thing...Michelle Gomez gives a fantastic performance every time. She isn’t the problem...the problem, as I discovered in “The Doctor Falls” when John Simm came back, is...Steven Moffat doesn’t really know how to write The Master. (In my humble opinion.) 

That being said, World Enough And Time/The Doctor Falls is still one of the greatest season finales the show has ever had, and thank god John Simm’s return wasn’t spoiled for me ahead of time, because I screamed like a baby when revealed his true identity. (I tend to do that whenever The Master returns, it’s a problem.) For as much she annoyed me, I was able to get behind the development of Missy’s character in Season 10. Michelle and Peter really nailed it, especially with that wistful “But thanks for trying.”  The idea of The Master making a genuine attempt to be “good” isn’t a terrible one...the issue is, it was never going to last. Which brings us to Sacha Dhawan. 

Right out of the gate, I just want to say that Sacha is now my favorite Master. I am not joking, I didn’t think anyone could dethrone John Simm, but Sacha is just outstanding. Especially after seeing him in Adventure Through Space and Time, and how mild mannered he was in that role. Like...the range on this guy! He absolutely sells The Master in general, but also The Master going through his current crisis. Just...steals the show. Absolutely steals the show. But you’re right, it doesn’t make any sense with how Missy’s story ended - one foot in the door of actually being proactively good. 

But that’s the thing about The Master. He’s an iconic villain for this show, and his dynamic with The Doctor has too much legacy for it to ever be truly rewritten in any lasting way. The Master has about as much chance of being redeemed as The Daleks, the only difference is that they’ll constantly tease it with him...but it’s never going to happen. You ever notice how at the end of his episodes, the show goes out of it’s way to very definitely kill him off “for real” this time? And then, the next time he turns up, there’s no explanation given for how he escaped certain death? Yeah, it’s funny...but it does get old. Same as the “one ship survived” excuse every time they blow up all the Daleks. 

I honestly felt bad for all of the people rushing to speculate and compose theories about how Sacha’s Master could, potentially, be an incarnation that occurred prior to Missy. I’m sorry to say it, but they’re just not going to make it that complicated. This ain’t the Moffat era anymore. If we’re seeing a new Master, we can assume he followed the last one in regeneration order. We’re not seeing the growth Missy went through because that storyline is over. I mean hell, if we can’t even keep Gallifrey around, don’t expect Missy to get a reference...sorry, Missy fans. It’s just how the cookie crumbles.

[kaediisarchive]

𝐒 𝐇 𝐈 𝐏 𝐏 𝐈 𝐍 𝐆   𝐂 𝐀 𝐋 𝐋

          If you're interested in your muse having some type of relationship with Skarlet, send one (or more) of the numbers below to my Inbox or IM and I will definitely approach you about it through IM or dis.cord in the near future! I’m doing numbers instead of symbols because I know symbols don’t always work. This isn’t only for romantic ships; platonic and antagonistic dynamics are available, too.

          In terms of romance, Skarlet is bisexual/demiromantic and is open to a romantic/sexual relationship with people of any gender. While one-night stands and relationships based solely on sexual attraction are easier for her to engage in, she is open to romantic relationships, though she may struggle with pursuing romantic relations herself unless she has developed an emotional bond with the person of her affections.

          𝐑 𝐄 𝐐 𝐔 𝐈 𝐑 𝐄 𝐌 𝐄 𝐍 𝐓 𝐒  

We must be mutuals. 

You must be 18+ (preferably 21+ if you’re wanting things to get spicy between our muses but that’s not set in stone). 

If you are a multimuse, you MUST tell me which muse of yours you’re sending for! And, yes, it’s okay if you ask to ship multiple muses at the same time, just not in the same universe. 

No cheating plots or love triangles, please. 

We do not have to have written our muses together before, but understand that if we haven’t, I may want to test out the chemistry a little bit first before I sell my soul to a ship. But don’t worry, if the chemistry happens, it usually doesn’t take me too long to hop on board lmao.

And that’s all fam. I’m really not that hard to ship with. In all honesty you could probably just jump in my IM and say “HEY YOU ME SHIP NOW YES” and I’d likely agree. So, consider this more of a menu of dynamics or something like that to make it easier to ask for specific things.

𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐂 / 𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐔𝐀𝐋

1. Open to anything in this category!

2. Romantic + Sexual (The only difference between this option and the chaste option is the in-universe implication and ooc understanding between us muns that our muses are together sexually as well as romantically. Even if we acknowledge that our muses have a sexual relationship, it does not mean we have to write about those aspects of their relationship if you’re not comfy. I’m fine with smut/smutty headcanons but I know those aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, so don’t feel like you have to if that’s not your vibe fam!)

3. A Chaste Romance (For ace muses with no interest in sexual contact or muses who are otherwise abstinent by choice!)

4. Purely Sexual (friends with benefits)

5. Enemies / Rivals to Lovers

6. Ex-Lovers (rekindling)

7. Ex-Lovers (never getting back together)

8. A Political Marriage / Marriage of Convenience that becomes Genuine

9. Slow Burn ("Let’s still send shippy stuff anyway regardless of where our muses are in their storyline romance; I don’t mind jumping around in our threads!”)

10. Slow Burn (”Let’s hold off on the shippy stuff until our muses have worked into it in their main storyline; I’m not one for jumping around in the thread timeline.”)

11. Jump right into it! Yo let’s fucking GO!

12. I potentially want to be ship exclusive (for canon muses; means no shipping with another version of each other’s characters).

13. Other

𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂 /  𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐋

14. Open to anything in this category!

15. Friends

16. Family (symbolic family)

17. Family (adopted or actual blood relation)

18. Mentor / Mentee

19. Enemies / Rivals to Friends

20. Exes to Friends

21. Not really friends, but have a relationship of mutual respect.

22. The Friendship that No One Understands (AKA friends who annoy the fuck out of each other yet somehow are still ride or die.)

23. Other

𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂

24. Open to anything in this category!

25. Enemies that despise each other.

26. Enemies that respect each other but are still enemies.

27. Rivals (Not as extreme as enemies, but they compete with each other and can otherwise cause problems from time to time.)

28. Rivals that respect each other.

29. Friends to rivals / enemies.

30. Exes that will never get along.

31. Nemesis (attack on sight)

32. Hateship (claim to hate each other but can’t seem to stay away)

33. Enemies with benefits (like the above but with no romantic inclinations)

34. Other

[tanthais]

Why R U Episode 7 Thoughts

I really really enjoyed this episode it was really wholesome and I think a lot go done or portrayed to us as a whole during it.

1. The Saifahzon moments in the bedroom are really telling at the point they are at with each other at the moment. It's obvious to both of them that they like each other but these feelings are still new to Zon so he tends to still shy away a bit from actual kissing. But Saifah the big sweetheart he is understands and accepts that the other isn't completely ready for those big steps quite yet. He wants to kiss him so bad you can tell but his love for Zon is pure enough to let the other boy take his time. He can be content with playing around and teasing and having sleepovers for now even if his heart is longing for more.

2. I love the characterization that they have given and delved deeper into with Zon and Saifah this week. We already knew that Zon is a bit of a nervous and jittery boy in general, usually sticking to home or his small group of friends, so I think him having stage fright is so realistic. The feelings he had I kind of relate to in a way. He didn't really want to do the performance but he knew how much work their friends were putting into it so he went through it. Also Saifah being the bestest boy ever. When he senses Zon was anxious he immediately was like let's go and was ready to get him away from the situation. He never shames Zon for his nerves or extraness and sits with him and comforts him before they actually have to perform. Him joking around and trying to ease Zon's mind honestly is so sweet and as someone who goes through similar emotions it's comforting to have someone like Saifah.

3. Moving on to my cuties Tanthai and Japan. To be honest the majority of their scenes were in the part with the messed up subs so I'm not one hundred percent sure on their convo but it was still precious as always. I have kind of had the head cannon for awhile that they might already be together or some sort of already established mutual crush whatever. I'm probably wrong but whatever. I won't lie I do love how tactile Tanthai is but I also appreciate how like idk loving he is? He is always like defending Japan from his own mind like "no you like animals that's adorable keep doing it don't you dare think otherwise." You can see how much Japan melts at the affection too even if he doesn't like to show. They feel very fanservicey as a ship to me but obviously it's working on me.

4. No Blue...sad hours

5. Ngl I don't really care about the Zol, Natee, and Zen storyline all that much. Natee's goofiness made me enjoy it a little more though.

6. Hwahwa and Day I do think are pretty adorable together and probably would be an annoying ass couple. I still think they moved a bit too quick honestly and I still am hoping Hwahwa is not using him as a rebound because Day deserves better.

7. I start to question Hwahwa's friendship with Tutor quite a bit lately. Tutor is always trying to hang out but she's busy. And like not just straight up telling him her and day are dating. Idk like yeah somethings like that are kept private but like he's your best friend. And like he obviously could tell something was going on. But whatever make your heart eyes at day and be disgusting and cute. Idc

8. I liked Tutor's sister a lot and she did help give fightertutor the little push that I think they needed in their relationship. But let's start off with her first scene and telling Tutor she was leaving for Germany. I know Tutor was sad she pushed it off on telling him or going in general but as an older sibling as well I get why she did it. Their sibling dynamics were also the cutest and her trying to get Tutor to open up because she knows he internalizes a lot we stan.

9. Tutor finally admitting to some type of feelings towards Fighter to his sister was a giant step for him. Like yes Fighter is always denying but we know the truth with him, Tutor knows the truth, and fighter does as well. During all of this Tutor's own feelings have never been confronted and for him to actually go out and admit to his sister is huge for him. Her being accepting immediately and wanting to meet Fighter was also a big moment too. We stan supportive siblings.

10. The scene with Fighter and the sister made me soft. When interacting with people who know and aren't like in anyways hostile towards him you can see how sincere he is. He likes tutor so he wants his sister to like him. You can see how genuine he is about Tutor in the moments where she asks him to take care of Tutor and he wants to know more about the younger man. Fighter is trying his hardest even though he's scared.

11. The scenes where tutor is clinging to his sister and they're saying goodbye together are very soft and realistic. I love healthy sibling dynamics (aka not writing fanfic about your bro I'm looking at you zol). Also the talk about death better not be foreshadowing we do not want that in our lives

12. Tutor breaking down after his sister was gone. You can tell how alone he felt and how excited he was when he initially thought his sister was going to stay with him. The last few days he finally had someone of his own who was there to listen to him and be his shoulder for all the confusing things. (Another reason hwahwa and tutor's friendship is honestly questionable at this point) But now she was leaving again and he was losing that support system he just got back. But fighter made a promise and by comforting tutor and holding him through it I think it symbolizes him actually keeping to his words and standing up to be that for Tutor.

13. Tutor and Fighter both have many things they feel about each other and want to say to each other, but they're honestly not the best with communication yet. But at this point there has been a bit of a shift and there has been a bit of confrontation towards their feelings. A lot of people get annoyed with fighter's "do you actually think i like you tor?" But I don't think he's ever meant it in an "I dont like you way" but in a way where he's trying to make out what Tutor is thinking or feeling. Fighter knows deep in his heart how he feels for Tutor and what he wants but the fear of the unknown with Tutor is what has kept him acting up.

14. I really liked Tutor's lines about the person who feels the emotions needing to be the one to recognize them, because yes exactly. Tutor can't prove to you that you like him, but he can prove that he likes you. The staring game with the soft counting down, fighter glanced down towards tutor's lips a couple times but Tutor is the first to completely turn away. It gives Fighter the confirmation he had been longing for all this time and we get their soft little no excuse we actually do like each other kisses. Things are clear for them and like fighter is trying his best. He's going to take his baby to the beach!!

15. Also I've seen people questioning Fighter's I've known my feelings for a long time comment. I think he most definitely has known for a long time. Accepting it and admitting it are two seperate things. But our Fight has come so far at this point and we're proud.

[argyle-s]

On Supercorp

So, I am aware that, among certain circles, I have a bit of a reputation as an “anti”.  Anti-Supercorp, Anti-Lena.  I’ll admit, the reputation is well deserved.  I have, over the past few months, made a lot of anti-Lena posts.  Since Septemper 25 of this year, I have posted more than two hundred posts with the “anti lena luthor” tag.

Now, I’ve never really been a quiet fan.  Even before I started making posts tagged anti lena luthor, I was on the Sunshine Protection Force’s block list, because I dared to make a meme for a ship that Vv doesn’t approve of as a gift for a friend.  I once dared to point out that Kara was more likely to go to Alex with a question about something she didn’t understand, and got called a ‘granny stanning fuck’.  I got harassed to the point of taking down one of my fics because a bunch of teenagers in the Sanvers fandom didn’t like me writing about Alex and Maggie engaging in self destructive behavior.  Oh, and I had dared to write posts criticizing Lena’s behavior.

But why the sudden, vehement dislike of Lena and the Supercorp ship?

In order to explain that, I have to explain a bit about who I am.  I am a 43 year old bisexual trans woman.  I transitioned about 2 months after my 42 birthday.  I grew up in a deeply religious, homophobic, transphobic home.  My grandmother and her second husband were my primary care takes for the time I was about 6 months old, until he died when I was 16.  I finally managed to move out when I was about 21.  By the time I moved out of my grandmother’s house, I was already involved with a woman who was ten years older than me.

I was abused for the first 34 years of my life.  First by my Grandmother and her husband, then by my intimate partner.  When I was a child, I got the full buffet.  Mental, emotional and physical abuse.  My Grandmother liked wire and plastic fly swatters.  Her husband liked leather belts, his firsts, and on one notable occasion, a buck knife.  I at various times watched him try to murder one of my uncles with said knife, and try to choke my brother to death.  He was a prescription drug addict, and his moods were as unpredictable as his choice of drugs each morning.  I met my ex, who was my first girlfriend, when I was 19 and she was 29.  She spent two years grooming me.  We first slept together when I was 21 and she was 31.  We were together for 13 years, and the best thing I can say about her is that she never hit me.  The physical abuse stopped when I was sixteen and my grandmother’s husband died, but not being hit doesn’t mean that twenty-two years of my life weren’t filled with horrible abuse and violence.

I eventually escaped.  I got lucky.  My brother got remained to an abuse survivor, and the more she and I interacted, the more she picked up on the signs of abuse.  It took her years to coax me into standing up for myself, and when I finally did, when I finally stood up to my ex and said ‘you’re abusing me’ she immediately threw me out.  It was honestly the kindest thing she’d ever done for me.  She literally released me from the promises and commitment I had made to her, and let me walk away from the hellscape of that life with a clean conscience.

I walked away, but not without lasting injury, and permanent scars.  I have depression, anxiety, CPTSD and an eating disorder.  I’ve spent long periods of my life dealing with suicidal tendencies.  And I was, at the time I walked away, a 34 year old closeted trans woman.

What does all of that have to do with Supercorp you ask?

Pretty much everything.

Kara Zor-El has been my favorite Superhero since I was about 8 years old and say the Helen Slater movie for the first time.  Up until that point, Superman has held the crown, but I felt a much deeper connection to Kara than I ever did as Clark.  It would be decades before I really understood why she resonated so strongly, but my love for Kara has always been there.

Then 2015 rolled around, and Supergirl premiered, and I was blown away.  This was a version of Kara that I connected with so much more deeply that any other version.  This was everything I had ever wanted.  I fell in love with the show, and with Kara Danvers.  I felt a kinship and a connection to the character at the time in my life when I was struggling deeply with depression and anxiety.

As ridiculous as it may sound, Supergirl was a lifeline.  The show filled me with so much hope that I could survive, that I could make it.  Kara was a roll model.  She’s been through something horrible, and she came out of it and all she wanted to do was help.  And no matter how hard things were, no matter how cruel the world was to her, she still had hope, she still had strength, and she still did everything she could to help.

I came out the summer between the first season and the second.  Told the world that I am bisexual, that I have gender disphoria.  I did it in the wake of the Pulse Shooting.

A few weeks later, I got Kara’s symbol tattooed on my arm.  Below it are Cat Grant’s words.  “Hope in Stronger Than Fear.”  I did it as a reminder to myself.

Then season two started.

I admit, I didn’t pay much attention to Lena at first.  Cat, who I loved was gone, and I was swept up in Alex’s coming out storyline.  Lena was just kind of there.  I didn’t really connect to her.  But what I did see...  It bothered me.  The alien detector storyline in her second episode left a sour taste in my mouth.  The fact that she put Kara's life on the line by telling Lillian that Kara was investigating her.  It wasn't really until the end of Ace Reporter (2x18) that I really noticed just how uncomfortable her character made me.  There was something about that final scene between her and Kara that just didn't sit right.  Looking back, I think it's because that's the first time (at least that I remember) that Lena shifts the responsibility for her behavior onto Kara.  It's subtle, it's all the in the subtext of what she's saying, but it's there.

The next disturbing moment is in 3x02, and the confrontation between Kara and Lena.  Kara sets a boundary.  She tells Lena the problem she is having in personal, and that she doesn't want to talk about it at work.  Lena, instead of respecting that boundary, instead of backing off, immediately punishes Kara for daring to not share every detail of her life.  Yes, Kara was not doing her job, but Lena's obviously knew Kara was having issues, and she came down on Kara the way she did to punish her for having boundaries and feelings.

From there, Lena's actions towards Kara get more and more questionable, and I will not go through and innumerate all of them.  I've done so in a number of other posts.  But there is a slow but steady building of a pattern of abuse between Lena and Kara, with Lena as the abuser and Kara as the victim.  It gets progressively worse.  The pattern is clear.  Lena expects Kara to be completely emotionally available to her at all times.  She feels entitled to Kara's every thought and feeling.  She expects and allows Kara to perform all the emotional labor in the relationship.  And any time Kara doesn't to all of this, any time Kara sets a boundary, or isn't available at Lena's whim, Lena punishes Kara for it.  The clearest example of this, prior to the Lex reveal, was in American Dreamer (4x19) when Lena lays into Kara for not being there for her.

And ultimately, that's what is going on in season 5.  All of Season 5 so far, with the exception of Crisis, is Lena's attempt to punish Kara for not making every single part of her life available to Lena.  And there is a dangerous level of escalation to Lena's abuse that we see, even before the season starts. In the preview, we see that there is a clear desire, on Lena's part, to physically harm Kara.  It wouldn't actually be the first time.  Lena allows Kara to get hurt by not telling her that the forcefield will hurt her if she uses her x-ray vision on it back in The Fanatical (3x19).  It's a horrible moment, but I'm not including it in the pattern of abuse directed towards Kara, because at the time, Lena didn't know Supergirl and Kara were the same person.  I realize some people are going to point out that what was say in the VR simulations were just that, simulations, but Lena does, eventually, especalate to physical abuse in Tremors (5x07) when she cages Kara in ice and exposes her to Kryptonite.

Now that I've laid out all the back story here, let's address the original question.  Why am I so vehemently anti lena luthor and anti supercorp?

Because watching Kara and Lena's relationship feels very much like watching the nightmare of my relationship with my ex play out in front of my eyes.  The slow escalation of abuse.  The gaslighting.  The punishment for having feelings.  The inability of Kara to hold any part of her life back from Lena without being punished for her.  Kara is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction.  She has been for 35 years.  I feel a personal connection and kinship to her, and watching her be abused so badly and so long, until we get an entire episode like The Wrath of Rama Khan (5x08) where she sounds like nothing so much as a battered woman defending her abuser, is painful.  But worse than that, watching the Supercorp fandom glorify and romanticize it, watching then take delight in "the angst", is horrifying.

Kara is being abused by Lena, and the Supercorp fandom is out there cheering Lena on.  They are claiming that the abuse is absolutely justified by the fact that Kara kept a secret.  They are baying for the escalation of violence against Kara by Lena.

It's disgusting.  It is.

I don't expect this post to change the minds of the Supercorp die hards or the Lena die hards.  But there are people in this fandom who are going to see the fandom holding up Kara and Lena and screaming 'relationship goals'.  I hope they see this post, because there are people out there who genuinely need to hear that the dynamic between Kara and Lena isn't health, it isn't okay, it's nothing to be emulated or envied.  The relationship between Kara and Lena is sick, and toxic, and abusive.  If anyone *ever* treats you the way Lena treats Kara.  Run.  I don't care what you've promised them.  I don't care what committments you made.  Run.  Just run.

Because that kind of abuse will wear you down, it well tear you apart.  It will make you long for death.  It will make you dream of putting a gun in your mouth.

I know.  Because it did all of that to me.

That's why I have two hundred plus posts tagged anti lena luthor.

But I'm not tagging this one that way, because it's not hating on a character to tell the truth.  And the truth is, Lena Luthor is an abuser, and she's a villain.

[thecursedhellblazer-arc]

(( I had told myself not to write anything about this, but I kinda have a lot of feelings on the matter and I’ve seen several posts around, so I thought I could share my opinion too. This are just some random thoughts, so forgive me if they are all a bit all over the place. ))

(( Under the cut because the post got a bit long. ))

(( I’ve recently caught up with Legends, after having missed the two latest episodes, and I’m absolutely torn over the kind of twist some of the sub plots are taking. Behrad’s death was kinda expected, but I was still hoping that they would have kept him around for a bit longer. Of course, there is still the chance that he gets back, considering that we don’t really know how the whole Loom of Fate ordeal will end, but tbh I wished we had had more bonding between him and Zari before he was taken out of the picture. I understand that his death, together with meeting her older self, is important to Zari’s character development, but I still feel like it was a bit rushed. ))

(( One thing I really liked, even if maybe is a cliched, was Charlie choosing the Legends as her family and breaking away from the conditioning that her sisters have tried to force on her, even after all that time. And the fact that it was during the episode with the Spn setting...The whole “family doesn’t end with blood” trope was quite fitting. I love that she has found her place with them, after millennia spent on the run from a her “biological” family, which was obviously abusive. ))

(( Another nice surprise was Astra choosing to team up with Ava & Co, choosing to trust John, other than giving into Lachesis’s siren call. I’m really excited to see how they will deal with her character. In the comics, John eventually manages to free her from Hell, but we aren’t given much closure, especially not after how deeply John’s whole storyline is affected by the Newcastle clusterfuck. It seems that the show is trying to take another route to deal with it and I’m really curious and hopeful for what concerns it. Also, I do like the idea of her having a more active role in changing her destine. Quite literally. And Ava sharing her backstory with her, trying to convince her to be her own person? That was really good. Also because it shows the growth of Ava’s character too. ))

(( Now, the thing that has been bothering me the most. The turn in Constantine and Zari 2.0′s relationship. Personally, I don’t like it. I wasn’t a fan of Nate & Zari either, but pushing her towards just makes me straight out uncomfortable. I found myself looking away in the scenes where they were getting romantically physical and I’m not sure what I’m going to do if they will make them an official couple. I really don’t see the chemistry between them. Don’t get me wrong, they are funny, they have a good dynamic, the way their characters clashes because of the differences is interesting. They do have chemistry but as friends. I don’t really see how a romance could work out, and let’s not forget the whole Nate factor. I’m going a bit more in depth with this, even if no one really cares about my meta xD But since I’m at it, I don’t see why not. ))

(( Zari 1.0 and John had some very nice moments. Their relationship was different, also because they had more common ground. They had both known tragedy, they had both made bad choices and paid for them. Zari 1.0 could relate better to John, because, while she was a good person too, she knew what it meant having to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, and that something that John does a lot. I didn’t ship them, but I really loved their dynamics and I will always treasure that scene when she gives him the picture of his mother she had taken. There was a connection there and it was a really good friendship, not so different from the one John has with Charlie. ))

(( Now, Zari 2.0 is a completely different person. She has a completely different backstory and, as such, a different personality. I didn’t like her at first, but she has grown a lot recently and matured too during her time with the Legends and she has got back being a great character, relatable too. However, she still lacks all the common ground that Zari 1.0 had with John. This isn’t a bad thing, don’t get me wrong. The fact that they come from completely different worlds is one of the elements that makes their dynamic interesting, but it also underlines the fact that Zari has no idea of who John is and of how his world truly works and she probably will never understand it. She kinda reminds me of Kit (one of John’s lovers in the comics, perhaps his most important relationship together with Zatanna) under some point of view, even if the two characters have some very profound differences. Kit and John were very close, he was head over heels for her, but it didn’t work out because, while she knew him, she couldn’t grasp or accept his world. The magic, the darkness, the bad things he does because it’s what he is. And so it ended very, very badly between them. Honestly? That’s the only kind of dynamic I can picture in a romance between John and Zari. And it’s already a stretch, because Kit’s character had some traits that made her compatible with John, traits that Zari doesn’t have. Not to mention that Kit had a lot of history with John before they got together romantically, and that was what made them work, for a while. Zari doesn’t. So, it might be a way to make it sort of work (still forced for how I see it), unless they break his character...and I would HATE that. He is my favourite from LoT and I’ve waited a long time to see him brought back after his show was cancelled, so...please, don’t ruin it for me. ))

(( Also, their “romantic” connection really felt shoved in out of the blue. They have never really interacted much before and sure, being forced to team up can bring two people close, the timing is awful. Let’s not forget that Zari had just decided to blame John for Behrad’s death. She was supposed to have a grudge against him. Moreover, she is grieving the brother she was finally starting to properly connect with and she is struggling with a quest to rebuild her identity after she has found out about her other self. She is looking for her place in the world and a person who is dealing with that realistically doesn’t go and fall for someone just because they have shared an adventure. It feels forced and rushed. Maybe in another context I could have tolerated it or given it the benefit of the doubt, but not in this moment of the storyline. It’s out of plance to say the least. I had expected them to work out their differences in that episode, but instead all they do is bickering (which is fun) and then they fight together (which was great, tbh, because it shows them both that they can be a good team). However, there’s not a real moment when they properly talk about what has happened, about their conflict . We just see them being shoved together and forced to touch and then there’s that almost kiss moment and it’s just...bad timing. It feels awkward and yeah, forced too. ))

(( Also, let’s not forget that in the previous episode, Zari sleep-walked in Nate’s bedroom and half of the crew, including John, found them in the middle of a somewhat compromising position in the middle of the corridor. John joked and teased them as everyone else and wasn’t upset in the least. On the contrary, he was basically rooting for them. And this was perhaps the day, or a few days at most, before the whole romantic innuendos got thrown in the mix. Yet another reason why I feel this was forced and rushed and brought up out of nowhere. ))

(( As for John, his current focus is on getting the Loom back together and keeping his promise to Astra. We have seen him being reckless and single-minded about it, to the point that he almost got himself, Charlie and Sara killed. And did get Behrad killed, because he didn’t think his shit through. It doesn’t make sense to me that he suddenly finds the time to notice that he might or might not have feelings for Zari. It’s almost out of character. And it clashes with how he has been behaving so far. You don’t stop obsessing about the one thing that would allow you to FINALLY make amends for the greatest regret of your entire life just because you realise that one of your teammates is actually a nice company, all considered. Plus, he too has already too much on his plate in general to have the space for a romance. And, personal preference, John is good on his own. He needs friends that can help him picking up the pieces, not a relationship that will eventually just bring him more harm and complications. God, I miss Chas. ))

(( Someone could argue that they shared a moment during the Romeo vs Juliette episode, but I disagree with that too. That episode was all about Nate and Ray. The dialogue between Romeo and Juliette was not about John and Zari, it was all about Nate and Ray. They are the star-crossed couple of friends (lovers in the play), not John and Zari. That kiss was a symbol of Ray and Nate reconnecting with each other before taking different paths and it had nothing to do with John and Zari. At least, that’s the feeling I had from how the whole episode was built and I think that I’m not completely misled in that regard. ))

(( Last thing, I don’t want the whole thing between Zari and John to be a source of drama. Because that’s what we’ll get, because Nate is still very much in love with Zari, both Zaris. He has started to chase after Zari 2.0 thinking that she was his Zari, but he came to like her for what she is too. And maybe, yes, perhaps he needs to move on from her as some people have pointed out. It could be one way to go around it, but that wouldn’t spare us the classic love triangle crap we get at some point in every damn show and I’m starting to be a bit bored with it. And it wouldn’t really change my view on John and Zari’s relationship. ))

[hashtagartistlife]

To take a break from the wdkaly bs (but not from the bl**ch ending salt), I’ve been mulling around-- I wouldn’t even call it a meta, it’s nothing so grand as that-- an idea in my head for a while now, regarding ichigo-masaki, rukia-kaien, and loosely, isshin-masaki, and the point of all three of those relationships with regard to the ichiruki relationship. 

I’ve always thought the ichiruki relationship is a miracle of a balancing act, for the simple fact that it’s clearly mirroring ichigo-masaki and rukia-kaien, and yet it managed to never be dictated by those associations. How many ih’ers have made the claim that ichigo-rukia is a mother-son or a mentor-student relationship? With a literal mother-son and mentor-student relationship being their parallels, you might think this claim has some grounds-- and yet, ichiruki are anything BUT mother-son or mentor-student in their dynamic. Kubo has managed to avoid them falling into this trap so beautifully by virtue of two things: one, Ichigo and Rukia don’t consciously, directly associate Masaki and Kaien with one another, and two: yes, ichigo-masaki and rukia-kaien are parallels to the ichiruki relationship, but the whole point of them coming up as a parallel was that this time, things are different, and therefore better. 

Bear in mind that the ichigo-rukia similarity to ichigo-masaki and rukia-kaien was obvious to us as third-person omniscient readers, but Ichigo and Rukia themselves don’t consciously look at the other person and think ‘ah, mom’ or ‘ah, Kaien-dono’. Let’s start with the Ichigo-Masaki parallel, which is pretty damn clear cut: it’s directly paralleled with Ichiruki in the chapter Broken Coda. HOWEVER, there is not a single instance in which Ichigo puts Rukia up next to his mom and thinks that they are similar. In fact, in-narrative, their symbols are different: Ichigo describes his mom as the sun, and while we’ve never had in-canon material regarding which celestial body Ichigo thinks Rukia is, word-of-god tells us Rukia is his ray of light, which is much more moon connotations (a ray of light offering hope in the darkness) than it is a sun thing. Sure, he does have his mom flashback moment with regard to Rukia in Broken Coda, where he narrates that he wasn’t able to protect... again, indicating he’s equating this failure to his failure to protect his mom. But note, what he’s equating here is the failure; he’s not equating rukia to his mom directly. It’s made abundantly clear throughout the rest of the manga that Rukia’s significance to him is unique and not due to some random similarity with Masaki. When Orihime is asked, what makes this girl so special? she answers not with ‘she’s like the sun; she draws everyone in; she reminds him of his mother’ but with ‘she changed his world’, an answer that clearly sets her apart from anyone else mentioned in the manga for Ichigo.

Now, Rukia-Kaien. The Rukia-Kaien parallel is a little looser, and a little more extended than the Ichigo-Masaki one. The obvious episodic parallel here is Memories in the Rain (and just to reinforce it, Rukia’s flashback chapters involving Kaien are called… you guessed it, Memories in the Rain 2). But here, if Rukia is reminded of anything by Ichigo’s recklessness, it’s not Kaien himself; it’s Kaien’s recklessness, Kaien’s desire for revenge, and her inability to stop him from going to his destruction that she recalls. Just like with Ichigo, she’s not equating Ichigo to Kaien – she’s equating her helplessness in the first situation to her helplessness in the second.

But MITR alone isn’t the full Rukia-Kaien story parallel; it’s only a parallel to the first part of it, the part where Rukia struggles with her helplessness and indecision. It’s worth noting that Rukia actually does not recall Kaien at all during the first MITR mini-arc; all she flashes back to is Ukitake, giving the speech about fights to protect life and fights to protect pride. The second part of the Kairuki – Ichiruki parallel is the Soul Society arc, where Rukia is fully convinced that Ichigo (Kaien) is about to die (actually died) because of her (because she stabbed him). And yet, note again it’s not Ichigo’s similarity to Kaien that she dwells on, it’s the guilt that she feels for both situations that’s most prominent. And so, Ichigo’s similarity to Kaien, physical or otherwise, is never brought up by her, never even thought of by her, even thought she has obvious reasons to do so. In this way, Kubo cleverly overlays the Kairuki storyline over the Ichiruki storyline but also manages to avoid the major pitfall of Rukia directly equating Ichigo to Kaien: ‘DOES THAT MEAN SHE’S ONLY SEEING ICHIGO AS A REPLACEMENT KAIEN???’ The answer to that is a HELL NO. Rukia has never approached and bonded with Ichigo as anyone BUT pure Ichigo.

The only times Ichigo’s physical resemblance to Kaien has been brought up was through the mouth of other people; Byakuya, Ukitake. And this is yet another clever way Kubo overlaid these parallels; Kairuki doesn’t factor into the purity of the Ichiruki bond, because Rukia hasn’t ever dwelled on it directly, but this is a nudge-nudge wink-wink to the readers. Rukia doesn’t think about the fact that Ichigo looks almost identical to her first love, but we sure as hell do. ‘This is the same situation!’ Kubo says, ‘only this time, he’s not married! How do you think this will pan out, hmm?’ Additionally—this part is a bit of a reach, but whatever, I’m throwing it in—canonically, Ichigo’s never once thought anything about Rukia that seemed even VAGUELY similar to how he thought about his mom. But Rukia has described Kaien as warm—like putting your hand into a sunbeam without realizing it. Oh wow, I wonder who else Kubo has called sun in direct relation to Rukia????

I know this might be a bit confusing, because I just spent two paragraphs explaining how Rukia doesn’t equate Kaien to Ichigo, but now it seems like I’m saying Kubo’s equating Kaien to Ichigo. He’s not. What Kubo IS doing is he’s established a situational parallel in-narrative, in that the characters themselves only ever equate the situations and not the corresponding characters directly—but by fully utilizing his and our awareness as third-person omniscient readers, he’s pointing out additional factors that might be interesting but not necessarily critical for the overall plot. ‘Hey, that Kairuki tragedy sure was a shame. Luckily, we’ve got a similar story setup in which it was resolved happily! Also, Kaien ver 2 happens to be super not married. Super, super not married. Lol not that it means anything. I know everyone keeps pointing out how similar they look but pfft I’m sure nothing’s ever going to happen there.’ Yeah, fucking right. This asshole.

….Anyway, that leads me to the actual point of my post: THE MAIN PURPOSE OF THE KAIRUKI AND ICHIGO-MASAKI PARALLELS WAS NOT ‘OMG LOOK AT HOW SIMILAR THE SITUATION HERE IS, CLEARLY THIS IS THE SAME DYNAMIC IN THE PRESENT DAY’, IT WAS ‘YEAH, OK, THESE SIMILAR THINGS HAPPENED IN THE PAST AND IT SUCKED SHIT FOR BOTH OUR PROTAGONISTS, BUT THIS TIME THINGS ARE DIFFERENT.’

That’s the whole point. The parallels in the past sucked SHIT. They were, respectively, each of our protagonists’ worst trauma and memory. But THIS time, by virtue of the fact that things are DIFFERENT, by virtue of the strong bond they forged between the two of them (WITHOUT ANY SORT OF TAINT OR SHADOW FROM THEIR PREVIOUS COUNTERPARTS), they rewrote that story. They overcame their traumas. This dynamic in the current day is healthier and stronger than their parallels in the past, because DESPITE the parallels it is a different dynamic altogether. 

Now, here comes the Isshin-Masaki parallel. Once again, this isn’t a direct character parallel; this is a situational parallel. But unlike the previous two parallels, this has BLATANTLY romantic overtones-- AND IT’S ALSO THE MOST CLOSELY FITTING, MOST DIRECTLY OBVIOUS PARALLEL IN THE ENTIRE MANGA. It’s almost a rehash, not a parallel. IDENTICAL SITUATIONS, IDENTICAL STORIES, GENDERS REVERSED, AND THIS ONE IS A LOVE STORY.  Once again, this isn’t dwelled on by the characters in the manga themselves, but to us readers, it’s a HUGE wink-wink nudge-nudge. ‘Look, here’s a love story that looks identical to their initial story. Only, oh, wait, it kinda ended in tragedy. We know these two have a tendency of rewriting their old parallels for the better - don’t you wonder what they’ll do with THIS parallel?’ 

(the answer is, rewrite it better together. because that’s what they did with their other parallels. but that’s the furthest thing from we got in the end.) 

And now, given all this so far: consider the endgame ships(ok, ONE endgame ship, only because Renji was so irrelevant to the overarching plot that he never got any meaningful parallel anywhere), which seem determined to mirror all these parallels DIRECTLY, and copy them as much as possible, rather than rewriting them or creating any difference from them. The biggest attempt I noticed to try and ‘justify’ ichigo -> orihime after the ending, by both the fandom and the official franchise, was by playing up orihime=masaki as much as possible. Her appearance, for one; the way yuzu comments that she reminds her of mom and wants to be closer to her for that reason. As the fans like to bring up, their appearance. Their bubbly personality? Her hairstyle in the final chapter, etc, etc. But the whole POINT of ichigo-masaki in relation to ichiruki was RUKIA WAS NOT MASAKI AND THIS WAS GOOD FOR ICHIGO. By trying to play up orihime = masaki, they’re effectively telling ichigo, marry your biggest trauma. stay tied down to it forever. There is nothing different in store for you. You don’t get to override it, to rewrite it. Not a parallel, but a rehash. In a similar vein, Ichigo was given the Isshin haircut, maybe in a weak attempt to justify IH by attaching it to the Isshin-Masaki parallel. Once again: rehash, not parallel. And finally, Rukia is back in the same position as Kairuki regarding Ichigo: married to someone else. Rehash, not parallel. 

The absolute IRONY and TRAGEDY that the whole POINT of all of these intricately built parallels had always been that ichigo and rukia are different to all of these failed parallels in the past, and yet, in the endgame, all they are doing is desperately trying to copy the parallels to a T and attempting to convince everyone that it makes sense because, look, parallel!..... is an insult not only to our intelligence and comprehension as readers but to the narrative itself, since the parallels depended on BOTH to work. There’s several things I’ve mentioned already in Bleach that have, in the endgame, regressed back to or even past their starting point-- the Sokyouku, the Kuchiki Clan, etc. And now, I guess,  we’re adding Ichigo and Rukia to that list - tied down to all their old, doomed parallels, with the emphasis now on how SIMILAR they are to it rather than how DIFFERENT they are to it; and thus with nothing to break them out of the looming tragedy this time. Fuck this ending. 

.

.

.

.

**AN/Disclaimer: fdjskdjfh i said this wasn’t a meta and i honestly thought this was gonna be like... 500 words at most. but oops. this is meta. also, this probably isn’t as watertight as i USUALLY like to make my meta, because this whole concept of parallels is something I’m still poking at and refining. So I reserve the right to change my mind about any of my interpretation here. Goodnight. 

[zutaralesbian]

Hey anon. I guess I somehow accidentally deleted your ask because I can’t find it anywhere lol. So I’ll just answer it like this.

Anonymous asked: Black Sails, Zutara, and Jaime Lannister

Black Sails:

Favorite character: Max. But sometimes when I’m deep in my feels, it’s Eleanor. I love my ambitious Slytherin wlw and fandom doesn’t appreciate them enough.

Least Favorite character: Obviously characters like Peter Ashe and Thomas’ father are awful but out of characters who were regulars at one point or another, it’s a tie between Woodes Rogers and Charles Vane. God I hate. And I also hate that Eleanor got stuck with both of them as “love interests”.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Max/Anne, Max/Eleanor, Flint/Thomas….Max/Idelle, Idelle/Featherstone

Character I find most attractive: Max. But all of the Black Sails women are gorgeous. 10/10 would bang all of them.

Character I would marry: Max

Character I would be best friends with: …..Tbh I don’t think I’d personally click with any of them. They’re all very extreme and I’m more laid back lol

a random thought: It’s a good show with an exhausting fandom. Which is a shame considering it’s not a very big fandom to begin with.

An unpopular opinion: I don’t ship Silver/Flint. And I feel like there’s little point to be heavily involved in the fandom because of that since like, 75% of the content is about them. I also don’t really give a shit about any of the male characters except for Flint, Jack, and Mr Scott lol

My Canon OTP: Maxanne I love those lesbians. But Maxanor is a close second.

My Non-canon OTP: Max/Idelle. Also Eleanor/Miranda (fandom converted me to this one)

Most Badass Character: Flint

Most Epic Villain: Eh none of the villains were very compelling to me tbh

Pairing I am not a fan of: Eleanor/Rogers and Eleanor/Vane. The Worst.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I still loved her but….Eleanor. *sighs* Ever since they made her hookup with Rogers her storylines were going downhill.

Favourite Friendship: Flint/Miranda they make me cry. But also just Flint/Women in general.

Character I most identify with: I don’t strongly identify with any of them but I relate to aspects of both Anne and Eleanor. Anne because of how she’s kind of a late blooming lesbian who realized her love for women (and lack of attraction to men) during her twenties. And Eleanor because of her complicated relationship with her father. My dad isn’t as shitty as Mr Guthrie but he is awful and for some reason I can’t make myself completely stop caring about him. That’s why I get so mad when people give Eleanor shit for wanting revenge on Vane for murdering her father. Some people really lack empathy in that regard tbh.

Character I wish I could be: Flint. I’d love to start a war in the name of fighting homophobia.

Zutara:

When I started shipping them: I think it was sometime during my second watch of the series. The first time I watched it was when it was airing and I was just a kid, so I basically just automatically supported the canon pairings lol. But then I watched it again as a young teen after reading Zutara meta and fic and began to see the magic.

My thoughts: I love them so much. The best ship that never was. I love how many parallels they have with each other. The sun and moon symbolism. Their push and pull dynamic. The way they built a friendship in canon based on mutual respect. I could talk all day about why I love this ship tbh

What makes me happy about them: That the Zutara fandom is still going strong and producing great content. It pretty much makes up for it not being canon, honestly.

What makes me sad about them: I feel like Zutara is often very misunderstood as a ship? A lot of people (including Bryke) see it as a “dark ship” and that isn’t how I view them at all. I’m sure there are some people who do and have shipped them in problematic ways (especially back in the day) but most people in this day and age that I've seen ship them in a post redemption way after Zuko and Katara had already become friends. So...that makes me kind of sad lol. Also the way their friendship has been butchered by those stupid comics.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Demonization of Aang and Mai. It's so unnecessary and I like both characters on their own. (Aang is actually in my top 5 ATLA characters). I hate character flanderization in fic in general (even towards characters I don't like) because it's more than often ooc and takes me out of the zone.

Things I look for in fanfic: I think canon divergence and AU's still set in the ATLA universe are my favorite kind of fics to read for ATLA in general. It's an expansive world and story and I think people have a lot of room to be creative with it.

My wishlist: For their friendship to not be ruined in the upcoming live action remake. (I don't have a lot of faith lol)

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: My second favorite ship for Zuko is probably Zukka. But Zuko is so damn shippable as a character that I could come up with plenty of alternatives for him. Katara...with a girlfriend. Or Haru. They had cute potential and I still resent the fact that they gave him that dumb mustache lol.

My happily ever after for them: The two of them getting together a few years after the end of the war after continuing a strong friendship that eventually became romantic. They do marry someday down the line but Katara spends a lot of time going back and forth between the Fire Nation and the South Pole. After Zuko hands over the duties of Fire Lord to their oldest, they end up retiring somewhere between the two nations.

Jaime Lannister:

How I feel about this character: I enjoy him a lot (although when I say this I'm mainly talking about book! Jaime. I didn't know what D&D were doing with him most of the time lol). He's super complex and his arc is one of my favorites out of the books.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Brienne. They are my OTP of ASOIAF. But I'm not expecting a happy ending for them *sighs*

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Tyrion. Their relationship is much more complicated in the books than it was on the show (especially with how they left off with each other) but it still gives me feels.

My unpopular opinion about this character: When it comes to the great Jaime Lannister debate between Jaime/Brienne and Jaime/Cersei shippers (about whether he can be redeemed or not) I'm somewhere in the middle lol. I don't think his arc is one of redemption. And actually, what I think could possibly happen with Jaime/Brienne is that they'll both admit that they love each other but ultimately mutually decide that they can't be together due to how different they are as people. But I also don't agree with the idea that he's not developing at all. And a lot of his development is due in part to his relationship with Brienne.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I hope we get some canon validation of Jaime/Brienne in the books. But not in the shitty way that the show did it.

Favorite friendship for this character: I guess I'm just going to say Tyrion again? It's been a while since I've read the books but I can't think of any hugely impactful Jaime relationships outside of Brienne, Tyrion, and Cersei.

My crossover ship: I don't do crossover ships

Thanks! :)

[anjibooks]

The Diviners by Libba Bray (Book Review)

I'm not usually an audiobook kind of girl. See, I'm a fast reader, and can absorb novels far, far faster than can be comfortably listened to. But here's the thing, as I am a seventeen year old girl with the heart of a grandmother, I recently got obsessed with knitting and crocheting, and I can't very well read while doing such hobbies. So I decided to try the audiobook for the Diviners, since it's a book that been waiting on my shelf for a very long time. At first I found the voices and the pace a bit annoying, but as I got into it more, I found myself constantly listening to the audiobook, and getting through the absurdly long audiobook in a couple days. Not only did I listen to the book when I was crocheting, I would also listen to it while brushing my teeth, getting ready for school in the morning, while driving to the store to buy more yarn, and even while reading other school books (I'm surprisingly good at multitasking.) This was both due to the combination of an excellent novel and also because after getting used to being read to instead of reading, I really got into the whole audiobook format. I would set the sleep timer and go to sleep listening to the book. Really, there was never a quiet moment. If you're too busy to read, I would highly recommend trying the audiobook (or any audiobook)! It's actually quite useful and enjoyable. Now on to the actual novel. The Diviners was nothing like I was expecting. The story mainly follows Evie O'Neill, a girl who goes to live with her uncle in New York City in the 1920s after causing a little too much trouble at home. I thought this would be a very serious story with a serious investigation into murder and an Avengers-like come together moment,  it was nothing like that. I don't even know how to describe this book, it's so unique. There's a definite element of horror, like sometimes I deeply regretted listening to this as I was falling asleep. The murder scenes are creepy as what, made creepier by the audiobook since the narrator actual whistles and sings the songs as the murderer approaches. There's also just teen drama going on. Evie's a party girl, she's a flapper after all, and doesn't like to take things too seriously. It's such a strange combination, and yet... somehow it all works. If you're tired of the same old tropes and whatnot, definitely check this book out, because there's nothing like it. Evie is truly her own person, I can't think of any other protagonists to compare her to. She's extroverted, stubborn and possesses an overabundance of confidence. She has the special ability to read any object she puts her hands on, which, while some other protagonists might keep their talent a secret, she literally uses it as a party trick. Yeah, Evie is definitely different from any protagonist you might read, but she's not one you'll be likely to forget anytime soon. At first she may come off as frivolous and a bit annoying, but as you get deeper in the novel, you can't help but fall in love with her. This is one of those novels that has a whole giant cast of characters with a plethora of POVs. I found that Evie's POV and those around Evie were the most interesting. Meaning that every single time we got to a Memphis chapter, I got a little bored. Sorry everyone who likes Memphis, he's just not all that interesting to me. Here's a brief overview of all the characters you'll be meeting Mabel Rose-- she's Evie's best friend, and her polar opposite. She's meek, quiet and introverted, quite happy to just follow Evie around and live under the shelter of her helicopter parents and silently pine after Jericho Jones. I'll be honest, Mabel is not my favorite character, never has been. In the first book she's okay, but as the series progressed, she became my least favorite and at times I was ready to throw some punches at her. Sam Lloyd-- Let's just introduce this beautiful boy as my one true love. Sam is by far my favorite character in the entire series, with Evie coming in as a close second. He's a thief and skilled liar, yet he is also extremely charismatic and his banter with Evie is something I live for. He gets on her last nerve and will poke at her to get a rise just for fun. If that isn't #perfect, I don't know what is. Oh, and he may have a mission and goal of his own along with some surprising secrets... ​ Will Fitzgerald-- Evie's uncle who she comes to live with. He runs The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition and the Occult-- more commonly known as The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies, which isn't doing so hot lately. Like almost all the characters in this story, he's basically filled past the brim with secrets and backstory, many of which have yet to be revealed. Will is friends with a detective, which is why, when a ton of strange murders occur, Will is brought in to consult. (And then Evie tags along, much to her uncle's annoyance. ) Jericho Jones-- this is Will's sort of adopted son / employee. He's a stoic young man of giant stature yet quiet nature who is hiding (shocker) a big secret. Jericho is not my favorite character. He's sweet but when the book is filled with some much more colorful characters, Jericho falls behind in the race for my love. (also I will mention things later in other reviews of the later books). Theta Knight-- She's a strong minded woman who doesn't mind causing a bit of scandal-- not nearly as much as Evie does, though. At first when she was introduced, I expected Theta to be your typical mean girl, but instead she and Evie become fast friends. I loved that element of the novel. And yes, she's also hiding a deep dark secret. Theta lives with her best friend, Henry, and I have to say I adore their relationship and wish it was explored to greater depths. Henry DuBois-- Not much is revealed about Henry in book 1, other than he plays piano and is gay. He's funny for the tiny bits of time that you see him, and well, he's hiding something too. Shocker. You get to find out a whole bunch more about Henry in book two. I love this guy, can't t really say much more than that, sorry! Memphis Campbell-- yup. This is the guy whose chapters I found to be boring. He used to have power, but he lost it after a tragic event in his past. Perhaps one of the reasons I was so bored by his storyline was because it was so detached from the others who I already loved and whose fates were quite intertwined (and I'd argue their storyline was more intriguing as well.) He lives in Harlem with his little brother and their highly religious aunt. He's black, which adds an interesting and sometimes sad dynamic as you see how racist many people were back in the 20s. Remember how I mentioned earlier about that dash of horror? More like a heaping of horror. The story starts with some sort of spirit named Naughty John being released, and oh boy, do I wish those dumb kids had left that Ouija Board alone, because Naughty John created some creepyass scenes that will probably haunt my dreams for a long time. The creep factor of this story... Wow. If you get the opportunity, I would seriously suggest audiobooking this one because it elevates the spookiness by so much. Here's something to think about, cheerful singing whilst committing brutal murder... Overall, I just highly recommend this book. It's nothing like you're expecting, with a unique and interesting cast of characters and an even more unique story. Still, there were some things that just felt like they were missing. Like there were a ton of satisfying moments and scenes I would've liked to have seen, but they happened without actually being written, like they're mentioned, but we never actually get to be in the scene. The relationships are just assumed, too. Like pivotal moments between characters and just the characters getting to know each other and whatnot is more mentioned than what we actually see. I think the story's strong points are its setting and plot, while its characters' relationships and developing them is a bit of a weakness. (This becomes more prominent in later books.) See, I'm the type of person who wants to be IN the action, not hearing mention of it later! And I also love watching relationships build and seeing dynamic between characters instead of just assuming something happened "off-screen," and that a lot of what these books want you to do. 7/10 stars. The first book is nothing AMAZING, but it's a really fun read. I was left wanting to see more moments from the "side characters" aka everyone other than Evie, as some of them (Memphis) seemed pointless to the story arc. The novel definitely had a slow side, but it also created an enchanting world. Synopsis: ​Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult. Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer. As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.

[puppetmaster55]

Thoughts on S6

So. Season 6. I want to say that this won’t have my own biases, that I won’t go off on salty tangents or let my emotions get the better of me. I really want to say that this is my unbiased thoughts on the season (and on how it connects with s5, and how it acts as the conclusion of the narrative arc begun in s3).

But I can’t.

Anyone who’s followed me for the last… nine months, I think, knows how I feel about clone theory. I’m sure I’ve been vocal enough, especially in the months between s5 and s6.

And I still don’t like it.

And I really don’t like how it was handled.

See, any clone storyline has to feature an in-universe reason for there being a clone of a specific person. You can look at Young Justice as a major example of how to handle a clone storyline (Superboy is, naturally, a clone of Superman and it’s explained why he was cloned—for the day that Superman starts to move away from “the big, blue boy scout”—alongside the other clones all having a reason why they were created). There has to be an in-universe explanation for why the clone exists.

Which is what upsets me the most about s6, and Operation Kuron, is that… there isn’t one. There is never once given an in-universe explanation of why Shiro was cloned, or what purpose the clone was made for.

Well, that last part isn’t true. The purpose a clone was made, from a meta perspective, was purely to act as a new host body for Shiro’s disembodied spirit. That’s it. That is entirely why Kuron existed.

Which, since that’s the only reason Kuron existed, means… Naxzela wasn’t Haggar using Kuron to lure everyone into a death trap as means of revenge from the s2 finale, or to infiltrate Volton and deliver it to the empire, or to infiltrate the rebels and act as a spy. Kuron amounted to a total net loss for Haggar, and for the Galra Empire.

Kuron ultimately amounted to giving Voltron back their Black Paladin for the better part of a year, completely losing an entire one-third of the empire because of it and resulting in Zarkon’s death and the dissolution of the Galra Empire.

Kuron did more for Voltron than he ever did for the Galra Empire.

Not even to mention the absurdity that this is what Haggar was referring to back in s1, saying Shiro “could have been the empire’s greatest weapon.” What? Him? Him, the original, specifically? When you’ve already got like a hundred copies of him in cold storage?

No. Just… no.

And perhaps the worst part of it all is… now we’ll never know. We killed all the clones, every single one, destroyed the lab where they were created so all the data there is gone, and Honerva looks to be done with that and moved on to better things. The clone, in the meta narrative, did exactly what it was created to do: be a new host body for Shiro.

Wait. No. I just realized the actual worst part of it all.

Kuron ended up a braindead body for Shiro to inhabit, basically. That’s the worst part of it all. Because not only have we gotten rid of an interesting dynamic in having Shiro interact with a clone of himself, but that all that development Kuron had with the team in s4 and especially in how he opened up and trusted Lance in s5?

All of that is now gone. It’s dust in the wind as we return to Shiro and Lance’s relationship circa s2 (AKA, workplace colleagues who have never shared a tender moment opening up to one another or built up trust to share their worries about themselves)

As much as I would love to believe that Shiro inherited Kuron’s memories, I’m not holding out hope that Shiro will ever remember his bonding moment with Lance. The creators themselves called Kuron a “Shiro husk” in an interview, which doesn’t lend itself to meaning Shiro has or will have any of those memories that Kuron built up over the last 4 seasons.

MOVING BEYOND THAT.

I liked this season. It was nicely plotted, very tense over multiple episodes, and despite my having no emotional attachment to Keith, his battle with Shiro-Husk in the clone lab was wonderfully animated and really drew me in. Lotor too was great this season, being pushed and pulled so hard that he finally snapped. Romelle is really lovely, and I am surprised that she no longer looks so much like Allura or is related. Krolia too, was incredible, her love story with Texas Dad (which, I’m really sad that we never got a name for him and now I am forced to forever refer to him as Texas Dad) really tugging at my heart.

Did I hate this season? No, not at all.

Did I love this season? Hardly.

I liked it. It’s ranked either third or fourth on my list of “most to least favorite seasons” after s5 and s1. It’s a very “upper middle” ranked season for me.

But I did not love it. Mostly because of how it handled Operation Kuron, and also because of how it handled Lance.

…..I did say that I wished I could keep my biases out of this.

Lance… felt like a regression. Like we had him be so built up as a person, that s6ep1 then had it all get reversed. How, you ask?

Well, Lance had a near-death experience and Allura brought him back to life. Along with his life, Allura seemed to have resurrected Lance’s old romantic feelings for her, which is what I hope happened, otherwise it horribly colors a good deal of Lance’s distrust of Lotor in s5 and relies on tropes I don’t think any of us want to see (just visibly moon over the girl for long enough and she’ll eventually grow those same feelings for you! What a surefire romance this is!)

Not that I have anything against any ship, but that Allura might run into Lance’s arms because of her failed love story with Lotor just… rubs me the wrong way.

Outside of that, I’m not surprised with the lotura becoming (for like twenty minutes in-universe) canon. They shared a number of moments growing closer and closer and both showed some romantic interest in the other.

But back to Lance. Season 5 built him up as the only one who took notice of something going on with Shiro, and even had a number of scenes focused on Lance, and had all the narrative build-up that Lance was going to play a major part (he even came across worried about Shiro in s6ep1, asking over the comms about Shiro’s well-being).

But then, as I said above, Lance had his feelings for Allura rekindled and that took over his entire purpose in s6.

I knew, ever since we were shown the promo poster at the end of s5, that Keith “as many times as it takes” Kogane returning to Voltron meant that Lance would get the short end of the stick re: Operation Kuron. I just didn’t know that it meant that Lance wouldn’t even get the stick at all. I should have, though. Lance always gets shown up by Keith dropping in five steps ahead of him, after all.

I could craft a meta on how Lance’s reaction to seeing Kuron’s braindead body means that he’ll take it as reason for him to step down for good when they reach Earth but… nah. Not now.

I think I’ll just conclude this section by expressing what little shred of hope I still have that Lance finally has time in the spotlight in the coming seasons.

And now… Keith. I feel no emotional attachment to Keith, and this has been something slow going ever since s2 happened. His character archetype doesn’t appeal to me, and I felt whatever lingering interest in him die off when he failed to in the s4 finale. Because that was the perfect set-up for someone to die, someone like a major character, but… he didn’t. So when his life seemed in danger in s5 I didn’t believe it, and when he nearly got hit by spaghettification in s5ep2, I didn’t believe it. Keith, out of every character, is the one who will never be put in real life-threatening danger. Even when he is (s4 finale), Keith still makes it out unscathed.

So… about the only emotional connection I had when watching the Keith vs Kuron fight, was with Kuron. And even then it was tenuous because of how the clone thing was handled.

I dunno what to say about the whole 2-year age-up thing, beyond… that sure was a quick way to mature Keith away from his impulsive nature.

I am not emotionally attached to Keith, or interested in him enough to weigh in on that.

….I do like space wolf though.

I didn’t like that Keith is set up now as The Black Paladin, unlocking Black’s wings in a mirror of both the s2 finale where Shiro did it, and the s4 starter where Kuron awakens Black. That whole sequence very obviously was Shiro letting go of his place as a paladin and Keith stepping up to the plate in full, after the symbolic return by summoning the Black Bayard. I’m not going to get into how I feel about Shiro stepping down as the Black Paladin, because it’s been better said by others (notably, zilla I think said it all best), but I am saddened that he’s no longer the Black Paladin and that Keith now is in full.

Keith being the Black Paladin is still not something I’m on board with, but if the writers can pull it off without making the show all about him again then I can live with it.

If there’s one major plot issue, outside of the clone and Lance, that I have to take up it’s… Acxa. Apparently she’s been on Lotor’s side this whole time, and been leading Ezor and Zethrid to the other side because… Lotor wanted her to? IDK, that felt like a messy retcon done so that Lotor could have all three Sincline ships together.

Honerva being cleansed of the rift corruption from Oriande was interesting, I admit. Really interesting. And even more so that Acxa mentioned that it was Honerva who sent the generals to retrieve Kuron and Lotor. Which makes Honerva (who Lotor said, like two weeks before in the s4 finale, was his mother) doing that “I am your mother” reveal and them being shocked so… off-putting. But Honerva seeming to have no love left for her son in the wake of learning about what he did to the Altean colony is… fascinating. She sees the worst of Haggar and Evil Emperor Zarkon in Lotor.

Romelle was really interesting too, as was the colony. I liked that it was addressed that the Alteans who were off-world survived and went into hiding. I liked that we’ve got a source of meta to look into with the colony, and with the source of Lotor’s refined quintessence. And it doesn’t come out of nowhere, not entirely, because Lotor has always admitted to being the kind of person who would willingly sacrifice a few if it meant a great reward (he was fine with Voltron being potentially destroyed or lost in another reality when they were collecting the Sincline Comet, and didn’t care about the loss of systems to the coalition and Voltron, and willingly threw Throk into the lion’s maw, so to speak, just for the reward).

This whole season felt like the second half of what was set up in s3, felt like the endgame that those seven episodes were building up to.

But… it didn’t feel like it connected back to s4 or s5 all that much. The coalition isn’t featured at all after we spent all of s4 building it up and bringing it back up in s5 as being firmly against the empire.

Which brings me to the conclusion of a 26-episode arc. It didn’t feel like one, unless the arc was “Lotor’s arc”. I expected Sendak to play a part, but he only appeared once and then vanished entirely to raze the empire and build up his “Fires of Purification” group.

And where we left off with Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid was… disappointing, almost. I’m not sure if I should expect them to return, considering the likelihood that they were pulled into one of the rifts, and even if they managed to avoid all that they have no ship to get away on, since they abandoned Honerva’s ship (which left to go to the colony of Alteans, I suspect).

I LOVED the DND episode, so so much. That is exactly the kind of filler we’ve been crying for. I laughed, I cried, I didn’t cringe away in second-hand embarrassment, and I had so much fun. The best episode of the season, and one of the best of the series.

I loved Hunk in the opener. He’s getting better at taking charge (compare that moment with when he sat in Black’s cockpit in s3ep2) and growing into both a fine diplomat and a courageous paladin.

I loved Coran, and Pidge, and Allura this season.

And I still love Lotor. He’s such an incredible villain, right up there with Azula. I fully expect both him and the Sincline to make a return in the future, considering that he’s now left behind in the place where the Rift Creature exists and the Sincline is just… there waiting for it to take possession.

I dunno. I liked the season, despite how Keith returned and was reaffirmed as The Main Character We Should Care About Above Everyone Else (yes, yes, this is a salt mine I need to get out of, I know that). It was a good season. Not great, not hardly the best season, but good as ever. It connects well with s5, and continues parts of the set-up we got there, that I can almost see how they would’ve existed as a 13-episode season. Where the series goes from here, I can only guess at bits and pieces.

What would I have changed? I’d remove the clone plotline entirely, for starter. I’d keep it as Haggar using Shiro’s arm and that nanovirus from s5ep3 to mindswish Shiro into the perfect soldier. I’d have had Lance realize Shiro’s been mindswished and do everything he can to break Shiro out of it. I’d have removed that whole “Acxa was really on Lotor’s side all along” thing, because it changes her actions in s5 and sours the “For Narti” moment. Instead I would have had Ezor learn about Operation Kuron and realize that Lotor slaying Narti was because of this, and the generals leaving Honerva all alone while they take their Sincline and run. I’d have featured the coalition’s reaction to Voltron siding with Emperor Lotor, and how that strained and blurred the moral lines even further. I… am not sure I would change much with Lotor’s arc, beyond having increased his paranoia both bc of Haggar and Sendak but also bc of the rift affecting him. Push him with that paranoia, so that when Allura says that he’s just like Zarkon it really causes him to go full Azula and say all that.

So that’s it. That’s just about everything I wanted to say about s6.

[bombshellsandbluebells]

*coughs* I've been enjoying the side-eye you've been giving to aspects of the 100/it's fandom the past couple of eps so if you'd want to do any/all of 4,6, or 10 on the salty ask list is prob enjoy reading it

Hahaha, I’m glad you’ve been enjoying. I’ve been enjoying ranting about it instead of just holding it all in. I love this show dearly and I love the fandom BUT MAN sometimes I have issues with both.

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

I’m pretty sure this has become pretty obvious this season but I have two: Murven and current canon Bellarke

I’m specifying current canon Bellarke, because while I don’t really care much about Bellarke in general anymore, I don’t hate it how it once existed on the show. But currently in canon it is now VERY MUCH a NoTP for me, because I just can’t buy that it’s at all believable anymore or healthy for either of them. (If they just get together to kill people together and don’t actually know each other as PEOPLE, can’t trust each other, and don’t have similar priorities, they just don’t work as a romantic couple.)

And I love Murphy and Raven’s friendship so much, but I am so completely against a romantic relationship between them. Luckily, the show has never once intended to write them romantically.

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?*

Nope, so I’m going to answer: Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

Yuuuup. Bellarke. Like I said, even though I don’t hate the concept of their earlier dynamic and DID ship them in the first two seasons, the fact that some fans make every single thing on this show out to be about that ship and harass actors who don’t ship it or play an alternate love interest has turned me against it. 

Also just…..it’s exhausting to try and find content about other ships and characters and constantly have to dig through people trying to relate everything back to that ship. I just want to see some Memori content okay!! I don’t want to see you turn it into a Bellarke parallel or tag unrelated stuff with every ship and character.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of Bellarke fans that are great! It’s just some aspects of the fandom are so exhausting.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

OCTAVIA BLAKE SEASON 4

To preface, even when I’ve had issues with Octavia as a person (and I’ve had many), I’ve almost always liked her writing. It started to falter in season 3, but in s1/2 she was one of my favorite characters on this show. I also absolutely love her arc this season - so this isn’t just me not liking Octavia’s storylines.

The reason I despise Octavia’s season 4 storyline is that it is pretty abysmal writing, despite how much Jason tried to prop it up like the best arc last season. It could never figure out what direction it wanted to take and every other episode seemed to contradict the one before it. There was no consistent arc. It was not well-structured or paced. You can take out half of Octavia’s episodes last season and they don’t change her story at all, which is not a strong character arc. The only thing they knew where they were going was the end, but they sure could not make up their mind how to get there.

She symbolically throws away her knives (and violence) in a Big Moment, then turns around and kills people (in a pretty over the top violent way) within like 10 minutes of the next episode. There was all this buildup with Illian that did nothing for her character and went nowhere. She goes to his farm with him to live in peace, only to leave it like literally 15 minutes into the next episode. She suddenly becomes some incredible assassin despite never training as one - only to later loose half those skills in the Conclave. She falls off a cliff, only to reveal a little bit later she’s fine - and her brother finds out the next episode, so there was no point. 

They used her killing people as a message that her grief was sending her down a dark path, having other characters try to tell her she’s not a murderer and gave us several symbolic moments of her deciding against violence/killing (not shooting Illian, throwing away her knives) to suggest that was the right thing - but then all of that is forgotten when she wins the Conclave through killing and violence and the show props that up as the reason why she’s a hero.

She learns nothing, because even the lesson that people deserve to be saved she supposedly learns means NOTHING because it was 1) not at all earned as she never acted on it 2) contradicted half of her storyline 3) dropped immediately with how she handled the bunker situation. She also doesn’t hardly change - where she ends the season, aside from the actual position she’s in in society, is hardly different from where she started. There’s no growth really either way from the first few episodes of the season. They just went back and forth a lot and gave us a lot of scenes without really much point to any of them, or anything happening, or any kind of direction or overall arc.

And they also tried to have it both ways with emphasizing her flaws and her unhealthy response to Lincoln’s death and pointing them out as her fall, only to also ultimately tell us she was right and a hero and didn’t need to change. They tried to show us Octavia doing terrible things and tell us she was justified anyway. There was such a disconnect between what Octavia was doing and how the show was framing it, it was ridiculous. 

One of the biggest problems the show has had with Octavia in s3 and s4 is having her do things we don’t actually agree with and are wrong, but still framing her as a moral compass and someone we should agree with. It would have been much easier to take if the show pointed out that like all the characters, she’s flawed, but isn’t completely evil. It’s hard to watch a character do something you disagree with while the show tells you they’re absolutely right in all their actions. And that’s part of what made her arc so unbearable to me last season. I could have handled it so much better if the show stuck with the message that what she was doing was wrong.

Also. Luna should not have died. At all.

THANKS FOR ASKING!