#those subtle scenes the ed parallels

[nikkiruncks]

jeia crumbs - free leia

[buffaloborgine]

Ever wonder that something is off with this scene when you read the manga? 

This scene has always feel wrong to me, I mean, something is definitely not right with it. And then it dawned on me: what exactly is Kimblee’s purpose in killing the superiors and keep the stone? 

Well yes, many people had interpreted this scene as that Kimblee gets power hungry and killing the superiors is just moving away the obstacles between him and power - the stone.

But then, what’s the meaning of having power when you can’t use it? (Noting that Kimblee is well aware that he can always use the stone if he likes, even if he is locked in prison, as shown when Ed slashed his right palm, Kimblee dropped the round stone into his left palm to activate the explosion Alchemy)

Kimblee didn’t grab the stone and run, he stepped out of the command center slowly as if he invited the other soldiers to seize him for the crime of murder. And as far as we know, no other soldier was killed after that. 

So it’s simply that Kimblee let himself be captured and imprisoned, while keeping the stone insides him (probably somewhere around his intestine but surely not the stomach). 

However, we also know that Kimblee doesn’t really value the stone like something he has to take for whatever prize it costs as he also sees the stone along with the process to create it as “vulgar”  

He also shows that he doesn’t really need to keep the stone to himself at all cost, as when Ed kicked the edged stone off his hand, Kimblee doesn’t give any effort to go find it back again. 

Then, we go back to the main question of this post: what exactly is Kimblee’s purpose in killing the superiors and keep the stone?

Well, to answer this, let’s look at those panels again.

There is a pause moment between when the superiors giving order to Kimblee to return the stone and when Kimblee threw the stone into his mouth. 

It was the moment Kimblee contemplating on what best to do for the order given to him. 

Yes, the order of “This (the stone) must be kept securely stored away” is what Kimblee chose to follow, not “Give us back the stone”. That’s why his next reply was “Now with this... You are the only ones who know that I have the Philosopher’s stone.” 

There is no way to keep the stone “securely stored away” than all the people who know about are dead and the one holds it stays in prison, where it is then really well guarded. 

I also want to compare this scene in particular with the scene when Truth granted anyone opened the Gate of Truth then punish them. There is a very subtle parallel between Kimblee’s decision and Truth’s “punishment” as both were “asked” for something, they then make the equivalent exchange: granting what the person wanted but then also punish them in return. 

But it is always a “worthy” trade, isn’t it? 

[chiara1294]

I’m just gonna leave these here ……….

[dear-wormwoods]

Was there a moment in the book between eddie and richie that had you start thinking maybe there were deeper feelings between the two?

Like as in the earliest moment in the book where I started to go ‘hmmm’ on the very first read through?? Anon that was a long time ago!!! 

Okay so, assuming I am 14 years old and reading IT for the very first time, without that much practice interpreting symbolism and without the world knowledge needed to make certain connections that seem so obvious to me now as an adult, and I’m just casually reading the novel having only ever watched the miniseries as a little kid… these are the moments that probably jumped out at me first: 

For Eddie, it was The Dam in The Barrens (aka one of the most meaty chapters for Eddie analysis)

When Richie makes his entrance in the flashback, the first thing he does is pinch Eddie’s cheek. Then we get Eddie quietly observing Richie’s face when he’s being uncharacteristically solemn. Shortly after, Richie winks at him. 

And then we get THIS:

‘Ben, Eddie saw, was looking at Richie with a mixture of awe and wariness. Eddie could understand that.’

And this little reference:

‘….Richie’s sometimes enchanting, often exhausting charm.’

And then this:

“Oh—you mean it was your idea, Eds? Jesus, I’m sorry.” He fell down in front of Eddie and began salaaming wildly again. 

“Get up, stop it, you’re splattering mud on me!” Eddie cried. 

Richie jumped to his feet a second time and pinched Eddie’s cheek. “Cute, cute, cute!” Richie exclaimed. 

“Stop it, I hate that!”

And finally: 

‘A piece of Red Cross adhesive tape was wrapped around one of the bows of his glasses, and the loose end flapped against his cheekbone as he worked. Bill caught Eddie’s eye, smiled a little, and shrugged. It was just Richie.’

This is all in the span of like… four pages, and it’s relevant that our very first introduction to Richie as a kid is through Eddie’s eyes, and that he spends the whole sequence inner monologuing about how great yet confusing Richie is. 14-year-old me definitely picked up on the ‘this guy teases me playfully and I pretend to hate it but I’m actually obsessed with him’ dynamic.

But I need to stop and meta for a second because this chapter is FULL of Eddie subtext and most of it flew over my head 15 years ago:

Before we’re even introduced to kid!Richie, adult Eddie reflects on, and admits to the reader, that he actually liked when Richie called him Eds because it was a secret identity Richie bestowed upon him. He also informs the reader that as a kid people made fun of him by using homophobic slurs, and that Bill was not one of those people. It is so important that the chapter which contains an almost absurd amount of gay coding begins with those two things: that as a kid Eddie had more thoughts about Richie than he let on, and that Eddie was not just targeted by bullies for his asthma, but also for his sexuality. 

As the chapter goes on, it becomes very clear that when Richie calls him Eds, Eddie doesn’t always react to it. He reacts to it only when it’s accompanied by something flirtatious, a cheek pinch or a ‘cute’. This is the part that makes Eddie say he hates it, therefore it’s also the part he secretly likes. Also, when Eddie is watching Richie in that typical Eddie way where he can somehow make poorly taped up glasses sound poetic and delicate - Bill catches him in the act of staring, perfectly nonjudgmental. It’s important that it’s Bill who catches his eye - it connects back to the beginning of the chapter when he specifically states that Bill never called him a “sissy queerboy”. Bill never judges.

And then, of course, this scene leads right into Eddie’s recollection of the hobo sexually soliciting him, solidly drawing a connection between Eddie’s fear of sexuality and his fear of rotting/disease. Sandwiched between the real hobo and the IT leper encounter, there’s a short scene where Eddie tells Bill and Richie about what happened. Richie asks Eddie if he ‘knows about fucking’ and Eddie’s reaction is that he ‘hoped he wasn’t blushing’.

Then - THEN!! - Bill references gay sex, and in the same beat Richie says syphilis makes you rot, inadvertently creating a subconscious connection for Eddie between those two things. Sex gives you diseases.Sex makes you rot. Men can have sex with other men. If you have sex, sex with men, you get a disease, and you rot. It’s not a coincidence that after this conversation, not only is Eddie DRAWN to the house own Neibolt Street and pictures himself as the rotting hobo, when he eventually does encounter IT as the leper, it’s extra rotten and hones in on the blowjob solicitation… I mean, come on. 

For Richie, it was the following chapter, Georgie’s Room and the House on Neibolt Street:

So like, the possibility that Richie had a school-yard crush on Eddie had already crossed my mind before this because of him winking at Eddie and calling him cute and stuff in the previous chapter. But this chapter definitely cemented it because it’s from Richie’s POV and there is one obvious standout…

“They’ll all pinch my cheek and tell me how much I’ve grown,” Eddie said. 

“That’s cause they know how cute you are, Eds—just like me. I saw what a cutie you were the first time I met you.”

The SMOOTHNESS of it all. Richie has this wonderful ability to blatantly confess his feelings without ever being taken seriously for it. Can you imagine if Ben told Bev “I saw what a cutie you were the first time I met you”? It’s true, that’s exactly what happened. But would he ever say that to her at this point in time? NO! Because it’s very obviously FLIRTY LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT SHIT! But because it’s Richie and he’s cultivated a very specific persona where everything is done for laughs, he can just… make that kind of statement like it’s normal. Hiding in plain sight. 

More meta things from this chapter that flew over my head 15 years ago:

First, way before the movie scenes, Richie has to make sure no one is looking before comforting Bill because they are out in public on the street and he assumes that other people would think he’s gay for… patting his friend on the back to try to get him to stop crying. Compare this to his easy physicality with Eddie down in The Barrens - physicality that is much more likely to be interpreted as flirtatious if anyone saw - and it’s very obvious that Richie is hyper-vigilant about being seen, publicly, as anything but straight. In The Barrens, it doesn’t matter - they tell Officer Nell mere pages before this that The Barrens is where they can all be themselves. Richie is himself in The Barrens, when he’s pinching Eddie’s cheek and calling him cute. Out on the street, he can’t even do something as normal and expected as comforting his crying friend without worrying about the potential ramifications of it. 

Second, when Richie meets up with Bev and reflects on how pretty she is, he gets all flustered and shit. And although nothing here involves Eddie, we do get this iconic line and perfect insight into Richie’s behavior:

‘Richie, as he usually did in such moments of confusion, took refuge in absurdity.’

His immediate, instinctual response to this confusing, uncomfortable newfound attraction to Beverly is to… throw himself on the ground and comically praise her, do Voices, and generally act like an idiot. Who does he act this way around the most? You guessed it! Eddie Kaspbrak!

It’s also in this chapter that we’re introduced to Richie’s thoughts on the teenage werewolf:

‘The Teenage Werewolf was somehow scarier, though … perhaps because he also seemed a little sad. What had happened wasn’t his own fault. There was this hypnotist who had fucked him up, but the only reason he’d been able to was that the kid who turned into the werewolf was full of anger and bad feelings.’

At first it’s like, aw, that’s cute, Richie’s showing empathy. But later in the same chapter, when IT appears as the werewolf with Richie’s name stitched into the jacket, it hits different - Riche wasn’t just showing empathy, he was relating to the werewolf’s struggle with ‘bad feelings’ and the sadness of him being a monster through no fault of his own. 

Also in this chapter, there’s a small bit where Richie is lost in thought about Eddie’s trauma with the leper, and when he snaps out of it and talks to Ben, Ben is lost in thought about Bev’s trauma (the bruise on her cheek). Oh the parallels!

Anyway, this chapter functions the same way for Richie as The Dam in the Barrens does for Eddie - it starts out by demonstrating Richie’s discomfort with other people thinking he likes boys, moves into a series of interactions in which he flirts with Eddie and Bev, introduces the reader to his main IT manifestation, the teenage werewolf, and confirms that he relates to being a monster. Like Eddie, he feels an attachment to his ‘monster’ for reasons that are rooted in the way he sees himself. The subtext is much more subtle for Richie and there isn’t as much of it, but it’s there.

SO LONG STORY SHORT!! The moment(s) in the book where I first put two and two together as a casual reader were the ‘school-yard crush’ moments of pigtail pulling and flirtatious teasing. That stuff is obvious. Years later, as an adult, I can see that those same chapters that pinged for me as a teen are literally OVERFLOWING with subtext.

[artpoint420]

We Bare Bears Movie Review

🤎🤍🖤

So this is it, other than the Baby Bear spin off, this is most likely the finale to this gem of a Cartoon Network show. The WE BARES MOVIE ! And lemme just say it was a sight to BEAR!

Seriously, my sister and I were hyped to see what big crazy adventure our three bro’s would go on. We LOVED the show itself but didn’t quite know what to expect for a movie. So when I finally remembered it was out yesterday, I rushed to invite her to invade my sleepover at my Nanas house so she could make us some popcorn on the stove and along with some brownies and indulging in my obsession with bubble gum, we layer back and braced ourselves to see the final moments in grown bears story.

So right off I started noticing striking similarities to the Ed, Edd, and Eddy movie I watched exactly a week ago and also gave my thoughts on in a Tumblr post. To avoid giving spoilers for the Edd movie, I might save comparing the two for a separate post. What I will say is, they both have nearly the same theme: the desire for acceptance among their peers.

It also helps that Grizz acts a lot like a more kindhearted version of Eddy, both of them extremely extroverted and always up to a big scheme. Speaking of which, both movies essentially start out with a big scheme going wrong and now the main trio needs to escape to a place that the leader of their group seems to be much better than it actually is. In the Bears case, they want to go to Canada. The only thing that confuses me about this is that Grizz is already Canadian, having been born and raised there until he left the sitcom business. I really thought going in that would play a much larger role in the movie, but it seemed like they completed forgot where Grizz was from when it was time for the bears to go back from whence they came.

Yes, the main plot of this movie is the Bears need to escape a one note villain who wants to separate and send them back to their own country. Not only can you draw your own real life parallel to this, but you know you’ve seen this plot a million times in film. The difference here is how the movie uses this to round out the themes of the show in such a perfect way. I do not want to spoil the ending here, it is so good, it made me smile so hard and wide I looked silly.

The main thing I want to talk about, rather than simply review the movie chronologically, is talk about Grizz, most notably his dream sequences. One of which begins the movie and almost had me thinking this was a baby bear film, which would’ve been fine but yeah. Anyways, it revolves around the bears nearly being hi by a train, and is completed later in the movie when we see that Grizz saved them (using his brain rather than just brute strength) and this establishes how he, before he even knew their names, felt the need to protect his brothers in arms.

Another more abstract dream of Grizz is where he is carrying baby versions of Panda and Ice Bear as Panda repeatedly asks Grizz to help them. This represents how Grizz sees his promise to protect them as a weight on his back that sometimes pulls them down. Confident as he usually is, he, in this situation, lacks confidence that he’ll be able to protect his baby bros.

But seriously, even though Ice is my favorite bear, Grizz was probably my favorite character in the movie, given how is internal struggle balances out the chaos of the external stuggles. As an older sibling myself, I can relate to him feeling inadequate to protect his little bro’s. And yeah, my buff brothers can protect themselves and my sister is a real fighter, I still think there’s a natural, almost paternal or maternal drive in older siblings to protect those closest to them that are young. Yeah, most of the symbolism in this film is about as subtle as the yellow on Mac and cheese, but what matters is that there’s charm to it.

And trust me, this show has always been full of charm, even when they reference memes. And this movie has an entire sequence dedicated to memes. I am so glad the writers of this show seem to have at least some clue as to how Internet culture truly works, and this keeps everything feeling more like a homage to popular meme animals than a sequence thrown in there just to be hip with the kids. I recognized so many of them I felt like a loser, and got so excited when I saw the crabs because yes I still listen to Crab Rave more than I should.

The Meme-nimals are yet another way to represent being an outsider, and, despite not liking the fact the bears crashed the party, eventually sympathized with and helped them, except for pizza rat. He can just leave that pizza be and starve for all I care. And to think he and panda could have been good friends based on they both are hungry for internet fame.

The funniest scene in my opinion was when the bears rode away from the cops and were replaced by hippie versions of themselves. Seriously they have human equivalents and now hippie equivalents? This is great theory material for when I make a theory video on the show in the future. Let’s just say, that was hilarious.

Also, the van they basically run into on the highway was literally the mystery machine from scooby doo. I flipped out because I had literally just noted that their van reminded me of it.

I don’t have much to say about the villain, I don’t even remember his name. I do feel like they’re was plenty of moments were he could’ve been given more character, maybe have him tell some back story that explains why he hates bears so much. But at guess because he’s symbolic of an idea more than a character, this was brushed over.

The other police guy felt had some good development, and I like how he came through in the end, but again not much to say about him.

I do wish we had the other side characters play more of a role, most of them barely got much more than a brief cameo when they could’ve done so much more.

Overall, this was a fantastic movie and though filled with cliches and tropes it has a lot of charm and I plan on watching it again for the pure joy of it. My favorite line I feel like is best to wrap up this review, because they are brothers, they may be different, they may not even look alike but, hey, that’s he best part.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

10x09: Squeeze - First Thoughts

Hey Everyone! How did you all like 10x09? I loved it! Thought it was fabulous. As per usual, today I’ll just give you some broad, first thoughts. Tomorrow I’ll do details and TTD. After that, I have some predictions. My peeps and I have been discussing what the spoilers told us all week and I have lots of connections to make. So, stay tuned.

***As always, spoilers abound for 10x09 below. Don’t click the ‘Read More’ until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

The first thing that caught my eye was a weird thing Daryl did with a walker hand. A walker grabs Kelly’s leg and is trying to pull her down off the rock and Jerry steps in and cuts the walker’s arm off. Then Daryl asks if he can have the arm. 

Then…it just disappears. I actually re-wound that scene because I thought I missed something. It’s a right hand, btw. (Beth’s cast was on her right hand.) But from what I could tell, Daryl was carrying the walker arm/hand and a flashlight. The next shot (like 2 seconds later) both are gone and he’s carrying a torch. I’m thinking maybe he used the hand to prop up the flashlight so others behind him had light to see by or something. But again, we don’t see what he does with it. Or where/when the torches get lit. So, it’s weird. But there’s a tie to Beth and the fact that it just disappeared. And perhaps the light has something to do with it as well. There are lots of bathroom references in this episode. Some are gross. Can I just say…the whole Alpha/Negan thing is extremely cringe-worthy. *shudders* But even before that, he goes to talk to her when she’s at the latrine. He even makes a butt joke. Then she threatens to cut off his balls and kicks him into the latrine. Ewww.

I didn’t think much about it during that scene, but then Jerry makes a bathroom reference as well (but much less gross). He’s having a hard time crawling through the tiny passages in the cave and Aaron asks if he’s okay. He says something like, “I’m just a 6’2” dude who used to have a hard time fitting in airplane bathrooms. Why wouldn’t everything be alright?” When he said that, it occurred to me how many bathroom references they have in this episode. And we don’t actually see any toilet paper or anything, but the verbal references are there.

For those who don’t remember, we’ve seen a subtle bathroom motif around these kinds of scenes. Weird, I know, but it’s there. Back in S4, when Rick escapes the Claimer house, he does so through a window in the bathroom. Before that, when Carl is exploring the pudding house and loses his shoe, we have a walker that comes out of the bathroom and tries to get him. Carl shoots it in the head—same place Beth is shot—and the walker jumps back up again. So once again, this motif is there and very entangled with Beth symbolism. I definitely felt there were callbacks to Coda in Daryl and Carol’s conversation. Carol says she doesn’t want to just kill Alpha. She wants to torture her and make her beg for forgiveness and THEN kill her. 

It reminded me of Daryl killing Dawn after Beth was shot. And the way Daryl just kind of stares at his hands and nods, I think he must have been thinking of that. And I remember Norman talking about that moment in an interview. He said Daryl might have gone into full murder-mode, killing everyone in the hallway, if Carol hadn’t put her hand on his arm right then and stopped them. Only after she does that does he drop his gun and look down at Beth and cry. So during the scene in this episode, after Carol says that about Alpha, Daryl replies, “If I’d been through what you’ve been through, I’d probably feel the same way. Unless you stopped me.” That simply has to be a reference to Coda. Um…there are long stretches of this episode where the group is literally crawling through dark tunnels. Daryl is always out ahead with a light, so they are crawling through the darkness and toward the light. There’s even a part where Carol starts to have a claustrophobic fit and Daryl says, “come toward my light.” Carol says, “I can’t.” Which is very telling about her state of mind. Though eventually, she does get through.

I’ll talk more about this Daryl-is-the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel theme later in the week. I think it’s very important. At one point, Jerry gets stuck and some walkers are behind him, gnawing on his feet. They don’t actually bite him because they don’t get through his boots, but the camera focused on his shoes several times. So foot/shoe reference. Again, more on that in my details post tomorrow.

Let’s talk about the spoilers themselves.  I’m feeling very suspicious about the bird cage spoilers. It’s one of those things that was weirdly specific and not really emphasized in the episode. 

We definitely get a clear shot of the bird cage, but the camera just pans over it. There’s no actual mention of canaries or even that this is a mine. Maybe we’re supposed to glean that from the cage and the dynamite, but honestly, it might have all just been put there by the Whisperers. So I feel like this is one of those times it’s kind of apparent these spoilers might have been reported by AMC itself, and they want us to understand certain details that aren’t actually referenced in the episode.

There were other things that visually reminded me of Beth stuff. The episode did feel a lot like Consumed to me. When Carol fell and Daryl came to get her, it reminded me of Beth falling down the elevator shaft. And given the explosion when the mine caved in, it’s obvious why they would think Connie and Magna are dead. I mean, it was a pretty big explosion. If they’d been at the mouth of the exit when it happened, I’m sure they’d have both died. Only because they ran back in a little ways to fight Whisperers did they survive. There’s probably something symbolic in that. And this may sound really morbid, but even the way the debris and dust exploded kind of reminded me of the way the blood exploded from Beth’s head. So, I’m definitely feeling the parallels here.

We do see Connie and Magna very briefly. For me, it’s obvious that they’re showing us that they survived the blast. After it happens, we get a half-second shot of them turning around inside and then rocks sort of fall over the camera. So it’s like they’re watching their escape route disappear, but we don’t actually see any debris falling on them. So it’s obvious to me that they’re alive, but just trapped. And of course they could technically still die via walker, Whisperer, or just no food/water. It was emphasized several times that the group is very low on food and water, so that was a real concern for them. But the short of it is that we do see that they are okay inside.

I loved it when Daryl and Carol talked about not always telling each other everything. It came from the fact that Daryl told everyone Carol was claustrophobic and she was genuinely surprised he knew that about her. I think this is them acknowledging that they don’t talk about everything to one another, but also that, even though they don’t, the other one still knows.

So, I think it’s a way of pointing out that Daryl has never talked to anyone about Beth. Carol has also never talked to anyone about Lizzie and Mica (that we know of) or about Henry. Or about Sam. And it occurs to me that we know, via Henry, that she talked to Zeke about Ed and how abusive he was, but we’ve never been told that she talked to him about her lost children. To be fair, Daryl never talked to anyone about Denise, either, or anyone else he’s lost. But I think the emphasis here is also that the two of them (Daryl and Carol), because they’re so similar, can look at one another and know what the other one isn’t saying.

Maybe it seems fairly obvious on the surface. I mean, for anyone who looked at Daryl digging Denise’s grave, and stopping mid-shovelful to drink hard liquor, it’s obvious that this man is in an immense deal of pain. But the point is, even when he doesn’t tell her stuff, Carol still knows him well enough to understand what he’s going through, and vice versa.

It’s why she gave him Beth’s knife and wouldn’t let him go off on his own much during Them. And now the tables are turned. Just because Carol doesn’t talk to him about stuff, Daryl still looks at her and knows she’s not right in the head. Once again, the problem is that they don’t know how to heal each other. Carol isn’t responding to Daryl any more than he responded to her in Them or Twice as Far. At one point in this episode, he even says (and I paraphrase) “I want to be there for you, but I don’t know what else to do.”

I also think this may be a tongue-in-cheek way of the writers telling us to read between the lines. It’s almost kind of the “what cannot be seen” theme, except it’s “what is not being spoken.” 

The last thing I’ll say is that the final scene with Daryl and Carol is very sad. I don’t think spoilers mentioned this but Daryl actually breaks down and starts crying. Like, a lot. I’m sure there will be drama in the fandom over this scene. The Carylers will, of course, say it’s because he’s in love with Carol and she’s being destructive. Others will say it’s because he’s in love with Connie.

Honestly, I think it was a little of both. (I mean both because of Carol and Connie, not because he’s in love with either of them.) My first impression was that he was just crying because Carol was crying. He points an accusatory finger at her first, so he’s obviously angry and blaming her. But when someone you know well breaks down, it always kind of makes you break down too, and I think there’s an element of that in it. Like, it’s just a sad situation and he’s sort of sympathizing with her.

But I also think it’s because Carol’s break down him to face the idea that Connie might be dead. Before she started crying and telling him to say it was her fault, he was sort of in his determined, I’m-gonna-figure-this-out Daryl mode. I think it made him stop and realize that Carol thinks Connie is dead and she might well be (from his point of view) so he cried because of that too. Again, just a very sad, poignant scene. I’ll stop there for now. Details coming tomorrow. Overall, I really thought this was a great episode. What did you think? 

[pluviophile-bookworm]

AWAE 1x5 rewatch: thoughts and reactions

Here I am again with another AWAE rewatch. Writing these takes longer than you might think, so I don’t know how regular I can keep those coming, but I’ll see what I can do. For the time being, let’s dive into another episode:

And this episode opens in the best way possible - with Shirbert’s first spelling scene. Little did we know how important those would become - although reading the books kind of gave us a hint of it. And yet, this is one of the added charms of this incarnation of the story.

I have to say Mr. Philips is not being subtle with the words he is giving them to spell.

And there goes Gilbert’s first skipped E - in the word engagement, no less. That letter was given a lot more emphasis here than in the source material, and I live for it. 

“Anne, are you feeling alright?” Knowing what milestone Anne experiences later on in this episode, Anne’s discomposure probably has little to do with Gilbert’s effect on her. But who can ever know for sure? I have to say, this episode had one of the cold opens I call “gold opens”. 

And there it goes - Anne’s dramatic reaction to her first period. Is this an appropriate time to complain about the lack of health ed kids get in this setting? I mean, she would not have reacted like this if she had been talked to about this and knew what to expect. I doubt anyone’s reaction would be any different if they didn’t know what periods were, woke up in pain one night and discovered they were bleeding. Also, Anne better not be soaking that thing in hot water, or else the stain is never coming out. 

Anne’s “I’m not ready to be a woman” speaks so much to me. WARNING: intimate personal experience coming up. I remember my first period. I had just turned fourteen about a month prior, and I had pretty much stopped anxiously awaiting it after I had done so since they talked about it in health class when I was 12. So, when I went into school for a test one day 6 years ago - I was really sick so I only went in for the test in the middle of the school day - I was focusing on the material and on suppressing my sneezes so I wouldn’t spread the flu to others. I was not at all expecting to go into that test a girl and come back home  a woman. Yes, I was in pain, but I thought it was the usual stress pains I would get during important tests amplified by my sickness. Anyway, so after that day, for years after, I would cry when I got my period and insist that “I am not a woman, I do not need this” and this emotion was so strong in me that it would result in progesterone deficiency and my period would skip for months and I would be on meds for so long. Then, when I was 17, I talked to a therapist about this and it turned out my refusing to accept I was a woman (as opposed to a girl, not that I was questioning my gender) was making my body try to suppress my womanhood. So yeah, it was tough. But I’m ok now and Anne’s reaction just brought out this personal memory. I’m sorry. Maybe I didn’t need to tell you all this, but it’s closely tied to my reception of this episode, so the way I see it I couldn’t go without it. 

The way Marilla shooed Matthew out made me think. Was the existence of periods supposed to be kept a total secret from men at the time? Because that is not ok. Even today, there are a lot of men in the world, probably the majority of them, who don’t know the simplest thing about periods.Those are men who have mothers, sisters, girlfriends, daughters - they interact with women close to them and they at least need to know what to do and what not to do to make that time of the month easier for the women in their lives. But they don’t because nobody teaches them. This is just another part of making periods seem like a shameful thing that is to be kept secret at all times. And that’s not ok. But we’ll get back to that in future scenes.

While Anne is turning into a woman physically, Gilbert has to grow up too fast in a different way. What he has to go through with, and then without his father is just heartbreaking. Getting your period is a good and healthy, if unpleasant, way to grow up; losing your father - just the opposite.

Marilla cracks me up. “That explains all the children” is her hilariously deadpan response to Rachel saying she’d rather be pregnant. And I’m glad to see both women find it as hilarious as I do.

I’m even happier to see the girls at school are laughing together, too. However, things get serious quite suddenly. Apparently, Anne has just told them about her new maturity, so now they’re all sharing their experience. However, Ruby reminds me a lot of me in the same situation. Remember that health class I had when I was 12? It provoked a lot of discussion among us girls afterwards, and that was incredibly awkward for me because I was apparently the only one who didn’t have it yet. So yeah, I was Ruby in this situation, but I would go on to become Anne saying “Trust me, if I could give you mine, I would.” It reminds me of another personal story, and you’ll have to excuse me for telling it. A lot of my personal stories are coming out here, but I guess it’s the topic of the episode and there’s no way for me to comment on it without relating those stories. So, about a year ago when my 11yo cousin told me she’d gotten hers, I was in another one of my so-called “period-less periods” and I was seriously worried about my health. So, naturally, I was like “If I could take yours, I would.” Because, you know, it’s normal if you don’t have it at 11, but it is seriously concerning if you’re a 19-year old virgin going two months without her period. So, you see, I’ve been at so many points within the spectrum. Well, I’ll try to comment only on the episode from here on and not share my entire medical past. 

“Nice boys never say people eat insects”. I quote that pretty much on a daily basis - every time someone mentions mnemonic devices. It’s hilarious. One of my university professors went out of her way to say those two words as many times as she could one time last year and I could not contain my laughter thinking of this quote, courtesy of Gilbert Blythe.

Anne acts just the way I do on my period - ok, I said no more personal details, but that barely counts. It’s just, Anne is so relatable. But also, when she says “Nothing appeals to me, Marilla” - I know what you need, Anne. You need chocolate. But did they have chocolate like we do?

My, I had forgotten this was when the raspberry cordial incident happens. This should be fun. And then heartbreaking. But it’s kinda fun in the long run, you know.

Wait, is Matthew going to order a puff sleeved dress for Anne? Is this that? I mean, it has to be since he rarely leaves Green Gables unless it’s for something really important. And if this is important to Anne, then you bet it’s also important to Matthew. You gotta love that man.

Of course Anne would be wearing the special ribbon Marilla Gave her. And of course she would invest all of her energy into that tea party. This is beautiful. Too bad one little mistake will have to ruin things...

Matthew is visibly uncomfortable amid the crowd in town, but he’s doing this for Anne and that means he has to do it, even if it’s out of his comfort zone. Even if Marilla might disapprove. The world needs more men like Matthew Cuthbert. 

If Diana’s family had seen the manner in which Anne welcomed her to tea, they might have disregarded her mistake at the end, but alas, they didn’t. It was as classy and sophisticated as could be. The end was an innocent mistake. 

Ok, but how funny would it be if the first bottle Anne picked up was actually the cordial she was looking for? That was kinda like putting down the correct answer on a test, then correcting it to the wrong one. I know I said it’s funny, but now that I put it like this, it’s just as upsetting as it has always seemed to me.

“Will you take me with you, you have to take me”... imagine Anne at finishing school. Just imagine. 

Ah, yes, alcohol brings out the immature side of even the most dignified young ladies. There’s nothing like seeing Diana Barry, the poster girl for classy, shouting “Bosoms!” and giggling with her best friend. Her highly controlled young life finally saw a moment of blissful immaturity. What a pity it will end in tears. 

I see Matthew has finally opened up - and of course he has, he is talking about Anne. He just loves her so much. Ever since I was first introduced to the books, I’ve always thought it’s such a wonderful mistake that Anne ended up with the Cuthberts. It made life better for them as well as for her. 

Little Matthew reminds me a little bit of Cole - quiet and gentle, but, as Jeannie said, knows how to “make himself known”.  And also I love them both with all my heart. 

Oh my, so this is the reason Matthew had to leave school - because Michael passed away? I had forgotten. Well, thanks for breaking my heart a second time. But well, I brought this upon myself by deciding to rewatch the entire series. 

“A dignified affair”... if Marilla could see them now. Well, it’s better off that she can’t yet. Things are going down as it is, just let the fun last a little longer. 

And there we go. It’s like the whole world is falling apart. This is worse than that time in season 3 when Diana’s mother drags her away from the Baynard house. And both times it is just plain tragic because both Anne and the Baynards are beautiful, good people who are nothing but kind and loving to Diana, and yet her mother fails to see that anything else but what she has deemed appropriate for her daughter, can be good. 

If Marilla thinks some pairs of boots are “a frivolous expense”, I can’t imagine how she would react to the dress Matthew ordered for Anne. 

“I will never have another bosom friend” Well, no, you won’t have to, Diana. It might seem like it’s the end of the world now, but it won’t last. Then, of course, there will be that other time of separation, which, like the other parallel I drew regarding Diana’s mother forbidding her to fraternise with someone, has to do with Jerry. I don’t want to think about that one, but, you know - just like this one, that, too, was fixed within the next episode. Also, based on this scene, I totally see why people ship them. I mean, it lowkey reminds me of Rapunzel and Cass in the TTS finale. You should watch that show if you haven’t btw. 

Yes, Anne, life is so unfair, but not to you right now. To Gilbert. He’s losing his father. Forever. You just lost a friend for a little while. But of course, Anne knows neither one of those things. Life really is unfair, isn’t it?

“What wonderful red hair”, “I’ve heard nice things about you.” These must be some of the nicest things an adult who is not Matthew or Marilla has said to Anne in a long while. I wonder how that made her feel. If I were Anne, Gilbert’s father would have just made my day.

“Give my kind regards to Marilla” These words, coming from John Blythe, mean more than Anne and Gilbert can imagine. They mean more to me now that I’m watching this episode for the second time. That is why I love rewatches. 

“Fair and square” Another Shirbert moment that would go on to become iconic. In a way, this whole episode is. 

I see that, for once, Anne is putting her heart into her needlepoint. And not just hers, but, as it seems, Diana’s, too. She’s literally embroidered the words “kindred spirits” between two connected hearts. It’s beautiful. And sad to think that, as far as they know, they can never speak to each other again.

“I’ve come to realise that there are far bigger worries in the world” - is Anne referring to what Gilbert is going through with his father? Probably. I mean, being an orphan and going from one abusive household to another, Anne has probably never really had a relative to worry about. So she likely never even thought about how Gilbert feels taking care of his ill father until she saw it with her own eyes. This is why she won’t know how to properly react when John Blythe is gone. 

So, I was wondering what Jerry’s role in this very much iconic episode would be, and there it is - he will be the one to take the boots back and bring home Anne’s special dress. And return the button to Jeannie, of course. This is definitely a special part. And Jerry delivered - both figuratively and literally in this particular case.

Anne’s face seeing the big box on her bed is priceless. The moment she sees the dress inside - even more so. What is a moment of “frivolous expense” and “vanity” to see her dream come true. And, just like that, the Cuthberts are a happy family.

In this episode, we saw: Shirbert’s first spell-off with Gilbert’s first skipped E; Anne’s first period, commented on with a lot of personal details about mine; a memorable mnemonic device; the development of John Blythe’s illness; a sassy Marilla moment and the reason behind all of Rachel Lynde’s pregnancies; Matthew orders a puff sleeved dress for Anne and is reunited with an old... friend in the process; Anne invites Diana to tea with disastrous results; the (temporary) tragic end of a  beautiful friendship; Anne is older and wiser; Jerry delivers an important package; a happy ending to a tough week for Anne.

[kaspgaytozier]

ok, I’m not gonna pretend like I know everything about these characters because I only joined the fandom and I haven’t read the book, neither watched It 1990

But I’m seeing people saying ‘’fuck Andy’’ (yes fuck him for having the opportunity of make it better and still choosing to kill Eddie and Stan) but people are mad and saying he supposedly stole Eddie's arch to give it to Richie ?! and um hello? I don’t think that was the case, because the subtext is there, Eddie is a repressed gay. he even cast a look-alike for Adrian Mellon, a gay man. also the parallels x x 

no, they aren’t perfect movies, no, he isn’t the best director, yes he made mistakes, and the movies (itch2) could have been better, the final cuts didn’t do justice to certain characters and that sucks, but it isn’t like Andy had the 100% of the power of decision, he still had to answer to warner brothers, he even said they made him cut and cut the movie because no-one would watch a 4hr movie, and even after he cut stuff and the movie was ok for him they still asked him to cut another 7 minuter or so, but he refused to delete more scenes so he literally went frame by frame deleting one here one there through the whole movie without deleting any other scene, just a bunch of frames that equaled those 7min x 

and about [ I got a sense- a very subtle sense of Eddie being gay and Rich reading the book umm but it’s definitely something that was never consummated with Richie. I, in the process as I said before when you’re translating this huge piece it has a lot more layers and nuances into something that is a little more compressed and given that Eddie had a strong uh, y’know, history of trauma with his mom and overprotection and germaphobic and he marries his mom and Richie didn’t have much. You know you can see even in the book that we don’t really know what Richie’s family was like ...] x

some people went mad saying ‘’he’s crazy thinking Eddie had already a lot of traumas and it’s stupid of him that he didn’t make him explicitly gay because it was too much to Eddie's arch? so what? he instead give that to Richie wtf ? there are people that have more than one traumas blabla’’ , idk but that didn’t seem to me what he said, I understood it like there’s just certain time they can use to present the traumas of a character and they didn’t get to explore’s Eddie's sexuality because he had already the other issues, yet again I agree that the issues Eddie has are intertwined with his struggle of sexuality and SHOULD HAVE BEEN explored side by side, yes that’s for sure 100% right 

yes it’s sad that in 2019 we still crave for lgbtq+ representation that actually gets to be not sad

yes it sucks he decided to kill Eds 

yes it sucks he filmed ‘n’ versions of Eddie's death just to let the least meaningful for the fans one

yes all of other bunch of complaints we have

but also I am grateful because at least we got one explicitly gay character in a big film like the It franchise, can you imagine if the movies were given to another whoever director fanboy of Stephen King that didn’t have Andy’s vision? I’m grateful that Andy read the book and went ‘’yep reddie’’ idk much about the 2010 script but what if Andy didn’t get the opportunity? and today we would have been talking about how ‘x’ director decided to actually put the orgy scene in the cinematographic adaptation instead of making Richie gay?

there’s also the other possibility that today we could have reddie with actually both of them alive but what were the chances of that?

before fully complaining I'm waiting to see the supercut to see if there’s more to Eddie's sexuality (I really hope so) 

[safflowerseason]

veep rewatch 2.10

Season Two, Episode Ten - D.C.

aka - The One Where They All Look for New Jobs

I love Selina’s outfit in this episode (it is, admittedly, hard to find a more typical Safflower outfit than a black sheath dress with a pop of color through the jewelry or shoes.). More specifically, I love how this outfit is kind of an inversion of the red dresses she wears during important political moments. Red is Selina’s power-in-public color, and the flip side of course is that we rarely see her in a red dress for events she doesn’t think are important, or on days she’s just in her office with staff. In an episode where all the major political moments happen “behind the scenes”—and even off-screen, with POTUS—red appears only as an accent color, in her dramatic necklace. The eye is drawn to it because it stands out so completely against the simple dress, and it is very unlike the subtle jewelry she normally wears. In a way, I think the red necklace reinforces the “backroom” nature of the politicking that happens in this episode…and if you want, I think you can read it as also foreshadowing the very public campaign highs and lows to come in S3.

(Okay, I wrote this whole thing about the necklace and now I think the necklace seems reddish-orange instead of just red. Because of the material the necklace is made of, the shade changes depending on the light. But I still stand by my reading. It is a very unusual necklace for Selina to wear, and it’s not a mistake that she’s wearing it with such a plain outfit, and it is red or at the very least red-adjacent.)

Gary’s smirk at the group when Selina asks him to come sit by her…Tony Hale does some of the most subtle facial work on Veep in a show that’s chock-full of subtle facial work. There’s always something new to watch in his face. He is divine. 

“Let’s take it one day at a time…sweet Jesus.” Ed to Amy, upon her reflection that they have more time to spend together now that Selina is leaving the ticket. The first glimpse we get that Amy has a tendency to throw herself into (weak) relationships when her professional life is on the rocks. (Also, Ed sucks.) 

Dan picks up Justice Blackwell’s call…in Amy’s office? I like to imagine that during the back half of S2, he’s just in there all the time constantly bitching about his job while she’s trying to get work done. He must have (completely unconsciously) wandered in there while gleefully plotting and making his phone calls. 

Ben to Selina: “Well, it’s not the job that’s depressing. Life is depressing.”

It is incredible how quickly Selina blows the POTUS news to Furlong. Both she and Dan are politically trigger-happy.

“I’ve accepted a number of posts.” 

“You’re choosing dead milk over me?”

“He’s got the crazy money…and I’m crazy enough to go get it.”

“What’s wrong? You look like you did the time I asked you to talk dirty.” Dana to Gary.

I cannot believe Selina is so open about her reliance on Gary that she actually offers to explain the situation to Dana. This is downright heartwarming behavior. Their relationship is a lot more intersting when Selina is more conscious of what Gary does for her…that kind of fades away as the show goes on.

“Yeah, but as I said, the focus right now has got to be on…” and then Amy gestures at the door right as Dan knocks on it and enters. You can’t tell me that wasn’t intentional. 

I will always and forever love Dan mouthing the words to his own speeches. 

“Oh, that’s a brilliant plan, why don’t you change America to Shmamerica?!”

“That’s the worst kind of friendly fire. The unfriendly kind.” GAHHHHH. 

“Hey, don’t call me kid, okay?!” And Dan finally speaks his mind to Danny Chung. A flash of the real Dan underneath all his scheming and ass-kissing. Definitely one of his most honest moments in the series that isn’t related to Amy. (Also, super hot.) 

Andrew (to Amy): We know what she’s like. Amy: Andrew, don’t talk to me.  (Heh.)

I love all the chaos leading up to POTUS’s arrival, and even though it’s very predictable, I love that he comes in the back way and we still never see him. Some jokes are timeless for a reason.

Science Fair Kid: You’re not the President. Ben: No, but you’re not Justin Bieber are you, sport?

“Your boss wants to see you, don’t keep him waiting!” Love Andrew Pasquesi’s delivery of this line. 

Dan and Selina sharing the most awkward hug ever. (And then Dan and Amy do some weird fist-bump thing halfway off-camera?! Also weird, but they are also clearly giving each other *significant* looks so I will accept it.) 

“Gary, call Dana, she’s called ninety times. Call her, then sedate her.” 

Selina, about Ben and Kent: That was POTUS’s problem, because he relied on those two guys. One, a burnt-out loser, the other a conniving robot. Mike: Crazy. Dan: Bad combo. 

This little parallel drawn here between Ben/Kent and Dan/Mike is funny…but the show doesn’t really explore it, nor do these four characters actually resemble one another that much. (And the joke is a bit bittersweet now, because eventually Selina will rely only on Ben and Kent and get rid of Dan and Mike.)

Ed: We’re still together, right? Amy: I-I haven’t got time.  (Can someone make a gif of this interaction? Specifically of Amy saying “I haven’t got time?” I love her so much.) 

~*~

Veep S2 reflections: And behold, the ultimate Veep. All the parts have fallen into place now. Selina has been elevated to a new role within the administration, and is desperate to hold on to it in the face of her staff’s incompetence and her internal enemies within the party, such as Maddox and Furlong. She learns that with more responsibility comes more risk, as she struggles to avoid being thrown under the bus by her own POTUS. We’ve learned more about her personal life (and her weaknesses), with the introduction of Andrew and more information about the twisted Meyer family unit. Ben and Kent add new tensions and gravitas to the ensemble, allowing Dan and Amy to stop fighting with one another and settle into their love-hate-work-spouses-basically-dating-but-not-really status quo (even as Amy tries to break that pattern, to Dan’s subconscious consternation.) (Notably, very few explicit parent jokes this season). Mike, Gary, and Jonah’s roles become more finely-tuned within the ensemble, as we learn more details about their personal lives and foibles. This is Veep firing on all cylinders, and it’s only going to get better as Selina gears up to run for President herself. 

[khaleesiofalicante]

Shadowhunters S3E22 Thoughts

Okay let’s kill this crazy bitch covered in coal

Meliorn, you dumbass! That’s what happens when you scream during a sneak attack!!

That Lorenzo+Magnus magic move was cool!!! Also is Alec only shooting five arrows at a time now? Man has standards!!

YASSS IZZY!!!!! OH SHIT NOOOOO IZZY!!!!

Clary is serving runes like she is at a soup kitchen...

Shit they are all on fire!!!!

Yes yes get the fuck outta there!!!!!!

WE ARE COOOOOMING AFTEEEERRR YOUUUU. I will not skip the intro, Netflix! It’s the last episode, you insensitive asshole!!!

OMGGGGGGGGG SIZZY IS NOT WASTING ANY TIME HUH???

Clace is soooooo vanilla. Bless those two lil souls...

THAT HAIR TOUCHING WAS SO FUCKING SOFT IM GONNA LOOK AT IT FOREVER EVERYONE ELSE FUCK OFF

Simon went for the classic ‘It’s weird that this is not weird’. Nice...

Sure, babies!!! Do everything together :) <3 :)

Magnus’ handwriting tho!!! Dayuuum.

Man I love Alec’s I got laid last night face ;)

Alec Lightwood does not, never, ever, will pass up an opportunity to say FUCK YOU to the clave and other homophobes. I love my son!!

I Do LikE yOu iN aTuX OMG FUCKING KILL ME

Delivering handwritten wedding invites through fire messages? ICONIC!!

Did Jace just compare Clace to Malec? Jace is cracking me up in the eps!

In other news, Seelie Queen continues to be creepy...

OMG SHE JUST GOT INFINITY WAR-ED BY JONATHAN!!!

YES TO THIS PARABATAI CONTENT YES YES YES YES

CLIZZY PARABATAI????? I APPROVE!!!!

My man Underhill takes his job as Head of Security VERY seriously...

Miss the wedding? MISS THE WEDDING? I did not approve this?????

Jocelyn OMG WHAT THE FUCK 

Raziel needs to learn how to use Facetime or Facebook. Sending a girl’s dead mom as a messenger is not cool, bro!!

Okay true tho. Clary probably created to runes to get rid of dandruff...

OMG ALL THOSE CAKES ARE GORGEOUS AND GLITTERY!!!

I can watch Magnus eat cake forever tbh...

So Lorenzo gave back the loft? Why? How? When? Nevermind.

OMG MORE SELF-PORTRAITS OMG I CANNOT 

THAT BRO MOMENT BETWEEN MAGNUS + LORENZO WAS WELL DONE. YES TO SUPPORTIVE WARLOCKS YALL.

I just realised that Magnus photocopied the wedding invitations by magic. That’s a really cool trick....

OKAY MAGNUS BOUGHT MARYSE A DRESS FOR THE WEDDING I AM SOFT

I literally forgot about Robert’s existence...

LOS ANGELES BITCHES

How did Max grow so tall?????? What is your secret, child?? TELL ME!!!

Jonathan has gone full Blonde Badboy cool cool cool

SHIT ARE THE BLACKTHORNS OKAY?????

Damn it can we not have a wedding without all this drama????

Yall there was a random woman videoing Jonathan’s attack??? Wtf is wrong with people these days smh.

Yes clary please get your brother under control!!!

I do not feel bad for Jonathan for some reason. I also sense a pattern shit.

So Jonathan died? Just like that? Okaaaaaaaaay then.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SHEEEEEEEEEEEEET ITS HAPPENING EVERYBODY CALM THE FUCK DOWN BREATHE WOMAN BREATHE

Yaaaaaas Madzie, you perfect flower girl you!!!!!

Okay I LOVE LOVE LOVE this fall/yellow theme <3 

Alec looks so handsome and I am already crying FUCK

Yasss Catarina is the best woman!!!!!

OMG all their friends and family are there this is too much yall

OH MY GOD MARYSE IS WALKING MAGNUS DOWN THE AISLE MY HEART IS SO FUCKING FULL RIGHT NOW I CANT BREATHE

OMG THOSE FUCKING VOWS KILLED ME MALEC FOREVER OMG

I AM AND WILL ALWAYS BE YOUR LOVING HUSBAND OKAY BABIES OKAY <3 <3 <3

MY CHILDREN REALLY GOT MARRIED HUH I AM LITERALLY MARYSE RN

OMG THEIR FIRST DANCE!!!! WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD INDEED!!!!

Raphael, you beautiful goldfish!!!! I wish you all the best!!!!!! <3 <3 

Clary NO GOODBYES!!!

HALINE BITCH HALINE YES YES YES <3

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Andrew? Andrew? ANDREW? ANDREWWWWWWWWW??????

I CALLED THIS SHIP LIKE 12 YEARS AGO AND I AM STILL HERE FOR IT SUCKERZ

Omg they all know about Luke LAMO those two are apparently not subtle!

Okay Maryse is the best mom ever fight me

OMG they used that god damn ‘cell’ line from the books.. my heart :(

CLARY BABE NO YOU POOR THING TALK TO SOMEONE 

What is with these kids and leaving letters? Talk to someone goddamnit!!

ONE YEAR LATER WTF NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT THIS????

Idris looks GOOOOOOOOD

OMG INQUISITOR ALEC LIGHTWOOD BITCH I AM HERE FOR THIS!!!

Luke x Maryse one year into the relationship and vacaying in Brazil? I need footage thank you!

OMG MAGNUS THAT LOOK WOW JUST WOW

HIGH WARLOCK OF ALICANTE MAGNUS BANE BITCH I AM HERE FOR THIS TOO!!!!

IS ANYONE ELSE SEEING HARRY’S BICEPS??? GOD DAMNNNNN

MY BEAUTIFUL BLUE PEACOCK WITH HIS BEAUTIFUL HUSBAND WOW

Yes to Young Entrepreneur Maia. 

OMG TAKIS BOOK STANS HOLD ME PLEASE

She named a burrata salad after Clary. I am very emo right now...

HEAD OF THE INSTITUTE IZZY BITCH I AM HERE FOR THIS THREE WHAT EVEN THANK YOU????????

Sizzy is all soft and sailing. My ship is safe!!!!! <3

Okay this Jimon training scene was well done. HOT DIGGITY DANG

BOOP BOOP OMG CUTIEEEEEEE

Jace, don’t let her gooooo

Clary! Hey!!! You look...different.

SHEEETTT SHE CAN SEE HIM!!!!!

OMG 01X01 PARALLELS BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay um, it’s over?????????

What am I supposed to do now??? (After I finish crying that is)

I just want the record to show that I actually enjoyed the last eps. The writers and actors did a great job <3

Thank you, shadowhunters and shadowfam.

I will miss writing stupid shit about my stupid show I stupidly love so much

That’s it I guess...

Oh and fuck Freeform bro.

[dpillustrations]

A Discourse on Communication and Storytelling Part II: The Idealization of Nihilism

In my previous post, I outlined the flawed narrative structure of the conclusion of Game of Thrones. I focused primarily on Daenerys and how her story did not communicate effectively what Benioff and Weiss were wanting to accomplish with her, i.e. her becoming “Mad Queen” Targaryen. I then asked what it was that they did communicate through her story. Here is where I would like to begin.

As an artist and visual storyteller, I have become exceedingly grieved and disgusted with a lot of the stories in our entertainment today. Every one of my favorite shows one right after another ended in disappointment for me. I asked myself, why? Why were all these amazing shows, many of whom have exceptional talent working on them, crashing and burning, in my less than humble opinion? I believe the answer is multi-faceted, but I am going to zero in on one aspect for the sake of time and my argument. In short, cynicism and a nihilistic world view have poisoned the storytelling landscape.

I mean I get it. You only have to open your social media or major news page and you can find tons of reasons to bemoan the state of our society, our country, and the world. I understand the disappointment, the bitterness, the seething rage – I get it! I have felt it myself! I know precisely how everyone is feeling because I am feeling it too. I know that feeling of being utterly useless to help or stop any injustice or wrong from happening. The struggle is real. 

However, the struggle is not all there is, and I believe that is the crucial thing to remember because something much more sinister than our own despair is happening, which is that we are coming to love our despair. Our bitterness and anger is becoming a part of how we are defining ourselves every day. Suddenly instead of these ideas and attitudes being recognized as the poison that they are, we drink it like it is sweet nectar. And to me that is exceedingly more grieving than feeling negative emotions in of themselves. We all feel negative emotions, we all feel the pain of life to one degree or another. This is a part of life, but to actually redefine and look upon those attitudes and thoughts as beneficial, glorious, and wise? That is the truly terrible thing.

My own piece entitled: 美  which is the Chinese pictogram for “beauty”. 

Now let us dig deeper into what I mean. If you recall from Game of Thrones Season 4 where Tyrion tells Jaime the story about their cousin Orson Lannister. He describes how in his simpleness, Orson would crush beetles all the day long, and Tyrion became obsessed with divining why Orson was doing this. He felt there had to be a reason, that there had to be some meaning behind what he was doing. Obviously, this story is an analogy. What Tyrion was really expressing was the aged old question, what does it all mean. I will paste the discussion below:

Tyrion: [...] In any case, I found nothing that illuminated the nature of Orson's affliction or the reason behind his relentless beetles slaughter. So I went back to the source. I may not have been able to speak with Orson, but I could observe him, watch him, the way men watch animals to come to a deeper understanding of their behavior. And as I watched, I became more and more sure of it: there was something happening there. His face was like the page of a book written in a language I didn't understand, but he wasn't mindless, he had his reasons. And I became possessed with knowing what they were. I began spending inordinate amounts of time watching him. I would eat my lunch in the garden, chewing my mutton to the music of "kun kun kun". And when I wasn't watching him, I was thinking about him. Father droned on about the family legacy and I thought about Orson's beetles. I read the histories of Targaryen conquests. Did I hear dragon wings? No, I heard "kun kun kun". And I still couldn't figure out why he was doing it. And I had to know because it was horrible, that all these beetles would be dying for no reason.

Jaime: Every day around the world, men, women, and children are murdered by the score. Who gives a dusty f*** about a bunch of beetles?

Tyrion: I know, I know, but still it filled me with dread. Piles and piles of them, years and years of them. How many countless living, crawling things smashed, dried out, and returned to the dirt? In my dreams, I found myself standing on a beach made of beetle husks stretching as far as the eye can see. I woke up, crying, weeping for their shattered little bodies. I tried to stop Orson once.

Jaime: He was twice your size.

Tyrion: He just pushed me aside with a "kun", kept on smashing. Every day. Until that mule kicked him in the chest and killed him. So what do you think? Why did he do it? What's it all about?

Jaime: I don't know.

This here is a perfect encapsulation of what I have observed in so many of our stories of late, stories which by their very nature are asking that aged old question, what does it all mean. Benioff and Weiss have just expressed it with a heavy hand here, while other writers and artists have a more subtle approach. 

To make it clear what I am talking about, I want to draw a parallel between Tyrion’s story and what happened with Daenerys Targaryen. In this story, the audience is Tyrion – we are drawn to the story of Daenerys like Tyrion was drawn to the story of Orson. We were enraptured by her struggles as a character and divining the meaning of her story just as Tyrion sought to know the why of Orsen’s actions with the beetles. I mean isn’t that what we do as fans? We love going online and theorizing with other fans about what is going to happen, why it is going to happen, observing all the details of the plot and character arcs. We love seeking things out! 

I cannot remember where I heard it, but it was in something I watched where they pointed out that audiences love to discover things on their own. They like being able to feel like they figured out something, that they found out something the writer had hidden or perhaps may not have been aware of. There is excitement in exploring the story, just as Tyrion was enthralled with understanding the truth and meaning behind Orson’s beetle slaughter. Yet what happened after all of Tyrion’s study, observations, ruminations, and questions? What happened to us the audience when we came to the end of Daenerys’ story? What happened to all that time and effort spent in watching, theorizing, and discussing? Despite Daenerys’ struggle as the underdog in her own story suffering abuse and pain - despite the awe of witnessing dragons coming to life from dormant eggs - despite all the lessons Daenerys learned as a ruler through her mistakes - all of it came to nothing. Just as Tyrion never divined the meaning behind Orson’s senseless slaughter, so we came to the end of Game of Thrones, having gained no beneficial understanding by our journey. Mad Queen Targaryen. Jon kills her. Orson gets killed by a mule. All the world burns. Beetles die for no reason. The End. 

Tyrion: So what do you think? Why did he do it? What's it all about?

Jaime: I don't know.

Game of Thrones isn’t the only show with these problems. In the FX show Legion, David Haller, the protagonist of the story, is suddenly twisted to become the show’s villain. He’s been Daenerys Targaryen-ed. 

Trish Walker from Jessica Jones Season 3, also Daenerys Targaryen-ed.

This one is from a movie (it isn’t only in tv shows) and it is a little more subtle, but Professor X in Dark Phoenix was suddenly twisted as this arrogant douche who was controlling and manipulative - the “idol” of the X-Men school brought low. The “idealistic delusion” of Professor X as a heroic leader unveiled to show us the true frailties underneath! *GASP*

As you can see within the very fabric of Benioff and Weiss’s writing, nihilism pervades. It isn’t just in Daenerys’ story, but scattered throughout the stories of Game of Thrones - i.e. how Jaime Lannister went from redemption story to dying under a pile of rocks. Yet not only is nihilism pervading, but it is being romanticized, like there is something profound and powerful in its telling - like we are achieving some enlightened ideal in heralding its tenets. Many storytellers, not just Benioff and Weiss, have become just like that whole scene where Tyrion goes underground and discovers the dead bodies of Jaime and Cersei. Observe how the whole sequence was filmed in excruciating reverence, as we watch Tyrion walk through one ruin to the next. It is is a sobering moment, almost holy in how it is filmed - Tyrion’s silent pilgrimage as he approaches the thing he has dreaded most... 

Remember how I mentioned in my previous post that every aspect of the cinematic arts is communicating something? The dialogue, the lighting, the way something is framed, what is shown vs what is not shown, the music, the colors, etc. I would encourage you to rewatch this scene and pay attention to how Benioff and Weiss are wanting you to feel as all these elements are spun together. And when Tyrion does finally arrive, after seeing Jaime’s golden hand amongst the rubble, Tyrion expresses a kind of ritualistic act as he removes the stones one by one, uncovering the truth. Oh, the existential dread! Tyrion weeps and thrashes in the horror and pain of it all! Woe, woe, woe! How powerful, how terrible, how divine!  

Observe the way Jaime and Cersei are orchestrated here. Despite being crushed by an onslaught of incredibly heavy stones and rocks, they are pictured here in peaceful and reverent positions - something akin to a Renaissance painting. How does that make you feel when you look upon it? The gentle, diffused white light, the atmosphere of ecclesiastical reflection - it is romantic, is it not? It is showing a glorified ideal! Behold the profundity of the nothingness! 

Do you see what I mean? There is this glorification of showing the meaninglessness of life, of uncovering “the truth” that this life is full of ugliness and pain, of unmasking our delusions, of showing that there is always “someone behind the curtain”, our idols become monsters, our heroes become villains, it was all a lie, it was all a sick cosmic joke - and this is what empowers us and makes us wise. Oh, look how discerning and insightful we are as we reflect back to you the despair of a twisted humanity!

Me to Writers about how they believe their cynical worldviews are working in their stories:

Now, I am not at all saying that stories cannot speak to the ugliness of this world, because there is truth in ugliness. There is pain, suffering, dread, brokenness, disillusionment, bitterness, anger, hate, and a myriad of dark and terrible things. I am not saying we should only tell feel-good stories where everyone lives “happily ever after”. No, what I am pointing out is an attitude that many storytellers have towards that ugliness. All artists have an obligation to speak to all truth, but there is huge difference between telling a story about ugliness vs making making that ugliness seem romantic. There is a difference between showing how life feels arbitrary and meaningless vs saying life is meaningless and arbitrary. There is such a big gap there.

So, I speak to all storytellers now: you are not profound for making statements about the despair of reality. You are not wise. You are not enlightened. It is easy for anyone to despair. It is much more difficult to rejoice in the face of that despair. It is easy to grow in bitterness and disappointment, much more difficult to believe in hope in the face of that disappointment. It is easy to observe ugliness, much more difficult to discern the beauty underneath, within, and despite it. And so that is what it really comes down to – it is easy to write a story like Daenerys “Mad Queen” Targaryen. It is easy to have her twist her own ideals and dreams into the dying screams of a burning city. It is easy to tell a story where someone falls than it is to tell a convincing and realistic story of redemption. It doesn’t require any work – nihilism is the lazy man’s philosophy. If all is meaningless, if nothing truly has any value, than that means you hold no responsibility to anyone or anything. It means you do not have to change the way you are doing things, that you can coast, lay back, and just watch the world burn. You can pat yourself on the back for being “woke” and not falling for the opiates of the masses. You don’t have to do any soul searching. You do not have analyze your own world view or assumptions. You don’t have to work at trying to understand what life truly means or try to find the purpose amidst all the chaos. There is no truth except the truth of nothing, therefore you are free to do nothing without guilt or shame. Nihilism is one big fat existential cop out! 

Therefore, I say to all artists, storytellers, writers, showrunners, and creators – stop dishing out this crap for audiences to eat and get off your lazy asses and get to work!  

[dent-de-leon]

Because I’ve gotten countless asks and shitty replies on all my posts about this, I’m addressing it right here and now--why I still ship sheith and it’s not “dead,” here we go:

So, let’s get started with the dreaded ages thing that always comes up, just get that out of the way. According to the guidebook, they were 18 and 25 respectively at the start of the series. Shiro hasn’t aged in the astral plane. Since, you know he’s been dead. And it's more or less implied that Shiro has been gone for months, and then they meet Lotor and there's the whole time that conflict plays out, then we fastforward to after he lays low and keith says "Lotor hasn’t been seen for months.” We can infer that more or less a year has elapsed since Shiro’s death/disappearance. Adding in the two year time skip, that puts them at about 21 and 25 respectively. You know, a completely reasonable age difference. 

There’s literally nothing indicating Keith was adopted by Shiro period. You realize the guy was probably like 19/20 around that time, right? No 20 year old is out here going to college and thinking ‘hey, why don’t I adopt a teenager?’ I should know--I sure as hell aren’t. You barely feel like you can take care of yourself and a houseplant at that point, let alone a whole other person. 

People claim that Shiro had the “power” to send Keith back to the home because he was his guardian?? That’s not the case. He vouched for Keith, which is how he ended up in the garrison in the first place. When Keith tells Shiro to just throw him back in the home, he’s referencing something said by the other officer only moments before--the only reason he’s here is because of Shiro. One word from Shiro, and literally the whole thing’s off. Keith has very limited options here, and he knows it. 

Shiro seemed to be a recruitment officer sent to Keith’s school to look for new cadets. We can tell because Keith isn’t in the cadet uniform in that shot--he’s in a school setting in plain civilian clothes. Shiro is standing at the front of the room in his officer uniform, and it seems that the teacher is introducing him as a kind of guest speaker. Then there’s the flashback where he and Keith are standing beside Kogane’s hoverbike, implying that Shiro saw his skill as a pilot firsthand and was determined to get him in the garrison--to secure him a better future. Krolia’s thanks to Shiro is in relation to what we already know--that Shiro was there for Keith when he had no one, that he led him down the right path and changed his life for the better. His “guiding light,” as the show runners have said. 

But then they got older, and it’s very clear their relationship changed. The two are equals from the start of season 1, that much is obvious. Now that Keith is older, he’s able to protect Shiro in turn. In fact, more often than not, he’s shown to be the one caring for Shiro instead of the other way around. He’s the one always running to Shiro’s rescue and saving him from certain doom. Some people are so stuck on the flashback, but it’s painfully obvious that he’s no longer a child--after the time skip, he’s been explicitly referred to as a man. I think Keith looked up to Shiro a lot when he was younger, but now that he’s so much older and they’re closer in age, now that he’s had all this time to ruminate on it--there’s clearly something else there.

And Shiro sees Keith in a whole new light in turn, which is clear when he’s so thrown off by seeing older Keith. “Lance is right. You have changed.” I don’t understand how people can acknowlege two characters can change without their relationship evolving in turn--these have always been dynamic characters, nothing is static. It’s like how people claimed Allura was still annoyed by Lance and wanted nothing to do with him after she explicitly said she enjoyed his company. You can acknowledge that characters’ relationships are subject to change, that they can grow and develop and be organic, and move on. 

People latch onto the brother line and insist I can’t read, but then promptly ignore the fact that Kuron was completely unmoved by it. The thing that actually breaks through to him, that yields a very gutting, visceral reaction--that’s Keith’s breathless admission of, “I love you.” He also looks completely shocked by it, which doesn’t make any sense if this was coming from a familial love context that he was familiar with. 

In this season, sheith also covered a number of timeless romantic tropes reserved for a character’s love interest. The same exact tropes that fans praised as High Romance when they presumed it would be in relation to k/l, but then immediately backtracked to “oh,, it’s just familiar!!” as soon as those plot points were given to sheith instead. Shiro and Keith’s relationship is also shown to directly parallel Kogane and Krolia, as well as Zaggar--both canon romantic relationships. Not to mention the very noticeable korrasami parallel. You know, as if their relationship was designed to be interpreted as romantic. 

This is also literally the one and only declaration of I love you in the entire series, something not even explicitly romantic couples like Keith’s parents or Zaggar have shared. It’s completely unique to Shiro and Keith’s relationship, and holds just so much gravity to it. This isn’t even taking into account that distinctly romantic variations of “love” were used in other dubs, such as the Japanese aishteru. 

Nevermind that it’s common for someone that’s gay to refer to a close friend of the same gender as being “like a brother/sister” to avoid confessing their true feelings. Hell, I’ve done it before. And I’ve seen so many other LGBT people express relating to that aspect of Shiro and Keith’s relationship, that it’s a struck a cord with many other fans like me. 

When you’re talking about wanting LGBT rep--rep that Lauren and Joaquim mentioned they have been working towards and fighting for since the beginning--but then you willfully ignore and tear down the one relationship that’s been built up like that, when you understand that they might not have been able to get the explicit rep they wanted but still demonize the subtle hints of it, when you make actual LGBT fans feel like shit for identifying with this sort of narrative--you’re really missing the point. 

You know what else is very telling? That this was the one episode Joaquim directed himself--he cared so much about Keith and Shiro’s dynamic, he wanted to just go all out and really made the episode his. That’s how much this episode--this dynamic between Keith and Shiro--mattered to him. Here’s some commentary on it:

Marc: “Speaking of credits we’re not used to seeing—Joaquim, you wrote an episode!”

Joaquim: “I did!…Super excited. You know, it’s one of those things that I wanted to do for many, many years now, and finally got to an EP position. I said, ‘Guys, I’m just gonna write one of these things. And, you know—I’m emotionally attached to both Keith and Shiro, and had some ideas on how that episode could play out.”

Marc: “So you’re the one that has to decide how the battle between Keith and Shiro pans out.”

Joaquim: “Somewhat. Along with a consortium of awesome writers, and Lauren, board artists—yeah.”

Lauren: “Everything in animation is teamwork, but it was definitely Joaquim’s brain child. 

Joaquim: “…when you’ve gotta go back and do painful story edits on scenes that you wrote, it feels like somebody’s limbs are getting cut off.” (source)

Let’s also not forget the brother line has been used for a number of relationships that still became canon--Aang and Katara, Ed and Winry, Ginny and Harry, ect. And lastly, before you still want to call me a monster, let’s not forget that the staff supports sheith in a romantic context, and has since the beginning. They also are more than happy to talk about their intimate relationship. But I mean, of course,, the staff must hate us for this, right? Surely, they never intended for this relationship

to be interpreted as

potentially romantic,,

And sure, it could be that sheith will never be canon--or that it will to some degree, but not explicitly--either way, there’s literally no reason to demonize other fans for shipping it. Especially when the staff themselves have always supported it. If you think you need to take the time to comment on every single sheith post that “they’re only brothers!! You’re disgusting!!!” ect, don’t expect the staff to ever support or even tolerate you, becuase you are the reason both they and the fans are feeling alienated, you are the ones continually harassing the staff for just wanting to have fun. Besides, Shiro and Keith already have “the closest relationship” in canon--Joaquim’s words, not mine--and they love one another. Literally nothing can take that away from them, and if LGBT fans see themselves in these characters, who are you to lash out at them for it? 

[drunklander]

Drunj!Der Yells About Outlander

Thoughts on Ep. 401

Oh hey, y’all. We’re back for another season of that show we keep watching in hopes it’ll get back to its season one glory Outlander! Since I’m incapable of keeping my Opinions to myself and have no filter after a few drinks, I’m gonna do drunk recaps that no one asked for or wants again this year. Because why not. So buckle up, randos, because under the cut you will find nothing of substance, zero insights and absolutely no analysis!

Before I dive into the stream of consciousness, quasi-incoherent beat-by-beat nonsense, I just want to say that I overall liked this episode. I definitely enjoyed it more from the comfort of my own couch than in the theater with thousands of screaming sycophants at NYCC. It definitely had me singing along to the Federalist Papers part of Non Stop all day though. A series of scenes, tangentially related, introducing the Colonies to the public. Some are obviously just there to just set up the plot of the season or like check a residual box from last season. But some are solid world-building and character moments. And, because it’s Outlander, some are like *side eye*.

But I’m for real excited for the first half of this season! The second half of Drums is a dumpster fire (fucking Rogergate...) and it seems like the show is going to stick pretty close to the book, so I’m going to try my hardest to not let preemptive feelings about that nonsense cloud potential enjoyment of the first bit. Because dammit, I love me some domestic!Frasers. So yeah, happy end of hiatus, y’all!

Ok I don’t want to start off on a downer note, but jfc. I get what they were going for with the 2000 B.C. stone circle stuff, but omg no. I don’t care if certain indigenous peoples really did make stone circles and dance around them as the sun rose. I know they’re trying to show the universality of circles and these time portal thingies or whatever, but by making the parallel with the druids at Craigh na Dun, it’s basically being like “Oh hey! These Native American folks from *checks notes* North America are just like the white folks we’ve been hanging with for the last three seasons!” It came off to me like erasing the unique cultures of the diverse peoples of North America in favor of framing them as a generic group of “natives” who do the white people stone dance. And in a season that’s going to deal heavily with multiple tribes, this really isn’t giving me much confidence in how they’re going to handle the rest of the Native American characters.

I’m really hoping someone else will articulate that better than I did. Because I feel like I’m not communicating well what my actual issue with the sequence was.

Petition to make Jamie wear a hat at all times to hide his horrible bangs.

Gavin Hayes has to be being hanged for literally the dumbest crime ever. But he seems pretty chill about it so...

Ok I never liked book!Bonnet as a character (like obvi he’s a terrible person so I was never going to like him as a person, but I was always annoyed that he was still around rather than appreciating him as a villain), but even from that presumptuous “yeah can I snag some rum too, bruh” in the jail, I’m like solidly on board with show!Bonnet.

Jamie tried to save Hayes, but you see Hayes straight up killed a guy. Sure it was in self-defense, but, y’know, ye olde times and he did kill the dude. Sooo...

I want to feel for Lesley, I really do, but I’ve never actually given a shit or been given a good reason to give a shit about Rupert and Angus 3.0 so, sorry for your loss?

Unpopular opinion alert (should be the standard disclaimer on all of my #hottakes) but I really don’t care for the new theme music. Every time they change it, I find myself wanting the OG season one music back with just the images updated.

The bald eagle for the title card just gives me such mixed feelings that have nothing to do with the show. Like here’s a symbol of my country and it *should* invoke good feelings, but *gestures at the current political climate* every national symbol at the moment feels tainted by the growing white nationalist movement that’s being spurred on by the current administration.

Time for some post hanging brewskis. We are here to mourn Gavin Hayes. Who died only so the new villain could be introduced. Let us bow our heads.

Marsali and Fergus win the prize for least subtle “can we be excused to go bang” ever. Rock on, Fersali.

I fucking LOVE that they changed the tavern scene so everyone sings with them like they know what’s going on rather than how in the book it was like them making fun of the red coats as part of Gavin’s song and then Fergus passed around a hat for coins. But by having everyone in the tavern in on what’s going down and earnestly participating, it establishes that 20+ years after the failed Rising, after the Clearances, after everything the Scots went through at the hands of the English, they were not truly defeated. They may have moved across an ocean, but they are still Scottish and they still practice their traditions and dammit I’m having feelings about those resilient motherfuckers.

The scene with Jamie and Ian is very well done and I’m SO glad they included it because they did in fact include his rape last year, but fuck the show for including that rape in the first place. A very similar version of this scene could have been done without the rape, there’s enough trauma involved in being kidnapped, taken across the ocean, held hostage by a batshit lady and knowing that everyone else she kidnapped ended up dead for one 16 year old kid. With Jamie’s rape we got two episodes of trauma and four of recovery. With Mary, Fergus and Ian, we get three child rapes that could have all been avoided (especially Ian’s, but the plot points that come from Mary’s and Fergus’ could have definitely come about without them actually being raped), and they all just got one brief scene to express their trauma and then everything’s hunky dory again. (We know they’re going to include Bree’s rape, also fuck them very much for that, it’s completely unnecessary, and I’m guessing we’ll spend some time with her on her recovery. But that’s a rant for when we get there...)

For real though, Jamie parroting Claire as he comforts Ian is super sweet, but it makes me skeptically nervous for how he’ll react to Bree’s. Since in the book, it’s...not great.

Stephen Bonnet is so delightfully smarmy. Also, how fucking naive is our main squad now all of a sudden that they don’t realize from the jump what a sociopath he is? C’mon, y’all. Like I know Jamie came close to being hanged or whatever, but literally everything about this dude screams that he’s bad news. He is not subtle in his I’m a straight up unapologetic and charismatic good guy criminal. And like, he’s a friend of Gavin? Come the fuck on, squad. HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THAT HE IS FULL OF SHIT. *gets Det. JJ Bittenbinder on the horn*

For real though, dodgy accent aside, I fucking love Ed Speleers in this role. Why the fuck do they have to include the rape. Can’t he just be a bastard without being a rapist? Why must you make me rage, show. I just want to enjoy a decent villain.

Jamie and Claire are doing their best Jean Ralphio and Mona Lisa Saperstein trying to talk their way through this checkpoint.

“You’ve never parted with the ring from the first?” Yeah, I don’t get it either, Bonnet my dude. I don’t get it either. #FuckFrank

Bonnet talking about circles fascinating him makes me think he’d do well in a group of stoners having what they think are philosophical conversations at 3:00 a.m. “But like guys, have you ever like thought about...the rhombus?”

For real though, him being real with Claire about this drowning stuff makes him an infinitely more interesting villain than Black Jack ever was. Black Jack was kind of a crap villain tbh. He was horrible and did horrible things, yes, but like that was it. He was just horrible. Bonnet’s like oh I’ll charm you, be real with you and then fuck you up in the course of one episode and not give any of it a second thought because I have not a single fuck to give about anyone but me. I’m just out here living my best life, sorry not sorry. *puts on shades, drops mic, walks away*

For real though, his “be wary of thieves and outlaws” line might as well have been “it’s me, I’m talking about me.” And these dorks don’t even pick up on it. GUYS YOU ARE KILLING ME, YOU DIDN’T USED TO BE THIS SHITTY AT JUDGING SOMEONE’S CHARACTER.

I’m guessing this is the official christening-their-new-continent-bang because it’s too cold to do River Sex™ in Scotland. But I’m looking forward to getting the rest of Ch. 16 once they get to the Ridge. (We all saw those strawberries in the promo...)

The book lines still feel shoehorned in rather than organic to the show, but not as much as 95% of A. Malcolm felt. So I guess I need to just accept that the writers are going to keep doing this and I just need to stop expecting them to actually do their jobs and adapt for the adaptation...

For real though, I know Spotify doesn’t exist yet but jfc Jamie and Claire’s secksi time playlist literally just has this one song and guys, there’s a whole world of songs for smushing out there. My man Doug Judy would be glad to broaden your horizons.

Claire’s I just had sex smile as she looks out over the valley made me literalol.

Cool that we get woke!Jamie saying that the American Dream is a nightmare for the Native Americans after Claire’s Americana 101 speech, but this is a woman who lived in wicked racist 1960s Boston. She knows that things aren’t nice and rosy in America in the 18th *or* 20th centuries. Her speech makes me hate S3 a little more for focusing on Frank’s manpain instead of Claire and her and Joe’s time in the hospital, where the show could have explored gender and race in the 20th century to set up a contrast for how things will be this season in the 18th. Claire went through enough shit last time she was in the past, and so far this time, to know that the past isn’t idyllic. She knows enough about US history and 20th century America to know this mythical origin story she’s spouting is nothing but a fairy tale. I get why she might cling to that ideal, this is the first time in her life she might get to settle down and build a home with the person she actually wants to build a home with, but her whitewashing history like this strikes me as a way too naive for her.

The green screen as they stare out at that very much not actually there valley is killinggg me.

Ok for real though, this cut from them in the Uncanny Valley to the room getting ready for dinner is the most jarring of the episode. Like, I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is just a series of independent scenes rather than an actual, cohesive whole, but jfc. Who actually is Lillington, how do you know him? Nope? No info? Not important? Just need to get it out there that you have jewels so the last scene in the episode can happen so the ring can be taken so the rape can occur? Cool. Cool cool cool.

Ok so show!Claire makes me sad with being insecure/self-depreciating about her appearance. Like with saying brown is a dull color when Jamie calls her mo nighean donn the first time and when she asks Joe if she’s sexually attractive and when she dyes her hair before going back through the stones and now with the mutton dressed as lamb thing. (Claire, girl, how are you that up on Colonial fashion that you know what’s “age appropriate” already? Wouldn’t think there was much fashion gossip along the road from Georgia to North Carolina, but whatevs.) I know three of these four things are straight from the book, but in the show it hits me differently. Book!Claire is kind of a bitch when it comes to looks. Her parting words in her letter to Bree were “try not to get fat.” She like judged the crap out of that rando lady in Edinburgh before she went to the print shop just to make sure she didn’t look too old. So when she has these aforementioned moments, they land differently. Now I’m not saying I want show!Claire to be like book!Claire, quite the opposite. I’m glad they cut that other stuff. But now whenever show!Claire has a moment of self-consciousness, all I want to do is be like woman, you are a fucking smokeshow. Fuck the patriarchy for making you feel like you aren’t stunning exactly as you are. #LadyBonerForBeauchamp

Oh Governor Exposition. How nice of you to join our merry band of randos for dinner!

Man, I’d love to be so rich that I can pull a Baron and casually just happen to have 100 pounds on hand to buy a giant ruby at a random dinner party.

John Grey, who was shunted from shit post to shit post, totes is special enough to get Scotland’s Valjean to England’s Javert cleared. I mean, obvi.

Oh hey, Jamie remembers he has a daughter! Showed more emotion in that scene about how America would become her country than in the scene with the photos. Fuck Sam et al. for the disaster of a performance choice in ep. 306, don’t @ me.

OH HAI ROLLO I LOVE YOU YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD DOGGO I WANT TO SNUGGLE YOU WHO’S A GOOD BOY YOU ARE

“I dinna ken. But she’ll be saying it in Scotland, won’t she?” I do love Young Ian a lot. I know that’s in the book. But dammit I love John Bell in this part a crapton.

Casually lol’ing that they crossed the ocean because Ian was taken and now that they have him, they’re just going to send him alone off to sea again.

The first time I saw the episode, when Lesley gave his “my place is at your side” speech I was like crap, we’re going to be stuck with this guy aren’t we. BUT WE’RE NOT! (I am a terrible person.)

Fergus and Marsali are totes going to be the new Jenny and Ian, aren’t they? The characters who just show up once or twice a season when the core squad needs something and that’s it? Because they get tossed aside in the books like that. That makes me super sad (and I hope I’m wrong) because of how they changed show!Fergus and show!Claire’s relationship from the book that we won’t get to see more of them together. Le sigh. I hope they at least let Bree have a scene where she meets Fergus and learns she has a brother. Especially if she’s not going to go to Lallybroch to meet the Murray squad because Jenny isn’t in this season. Part of what I loved about the Lallybroch part in the book was Bree realizing that she wasn’t just gaining a father but a whole extended family. I hope they kind of transfer that over to her meeting Fergus and Young Ian in the place of [insert Murray kids who let’s be honest we really don’t care about here].

Hey remember that time Jamie was wicked opposed to Fergus and Marsali getting married for literally no reason? That was fun. But yay for Germain!

Holy motherfucking green screen, Batman. Please can we get to the woods soon? Or some other location where it’s not this fucking jarring?

Claire America-is-the-land-of-milk-and-honey Fraser suddenly is overly-on-the-nose indignant about slavery. Cool. Cool cool cool. Again, you know what would have been cool? Seeing her with her best and only friend in the 1960s more last season because he was a Black man. If they had let Joe be a fully formed character, navigating racist af Boston as a doctor, rather than just being Claire’s sounding board and martini maker, we could have seen how Claire being exposed to his reality shaped her views on race in America. But nope, that would have taken air time away from Frank’s manpain. (Seriously, my recent re-watch only highlighted just how much they screwed over Claire’s character last season.)

I’ve always loved that Jamie gives Claire the medical box. It’s just such a simple way to demonstrate that he *gets* Claire. (*side-eyes a certain other husband who patently did not*)

Jamie’s bangs are an affront to anyone with hair. Someone please give that man his hat back!

“This ring is all I need.” Aaand that’s when we all knew that Jamie’s ring would be the one stolen.

“Not for a single day.” Uh, *casually points at the episode in season three when she retcons her entire life in Boston to be not as bad as it was because Jamie’s been such an asshat to her*.

Ok. Holy shit this final scene. I love everything about this final scene. Except the song. This show is not subtle. It’s never been subtle. But holy shit, playing the iconic Ray Charles version of America the Beautiful at the end of an episode called America the Beautiful to be like welcome to ‘Murrica, fuckos, is like even less subtle than they usually go. I 1000% LOVE the choice to cut the audio from the end of the fight scene and just have the visuals, it just would have worked much better if they’d scored with with a regular instrumental piece.

Gah, Bonnet is such a smarmy motherfucker! The nose wipe before he coldcocks Jamie is just perf.

Claire’s face in this entire scene, holy fucking shit. *throws all the awards at Balfe*

And then Lesley dies and I’m a terrible person because I’m happy we don’t need to be stuck with him all season. But holy shit Bonnet when he pauses right before he cuts his throat and then kills him, I love show!Bonnet so much more than I ever gave a shit about book!Bonnet.

And honestly, Claire’s face when he’s killed right in front of her. *throws more awards at Balfe*

GUYS I FEEL MORE EMOTION ABOUT CLAIRE TAKING OFF JAMIE’S RING THAN I DID ABOUT CLAIRE LEAVING BREE BEHIND TO GO BACK THROUGH THE STONES HOW IS BALFE SO GOOD AT MAKING ME FEEL FEELINGS

I’m so fucking glad they changed which ring gets taken. There was an interview where they were like “oh we did it because it has to be visually distinct so Bree can get raped!” and I’m like a) fuck you for including that and b) right decision, wrong reason. This is the right reason for the change.

But even as I say that they made the right call in which ring to have stolen, it’s still a fact that they fucking chose to have one stolen at all. The writers and production team decided that Brianna needed to be raped so a ring must be stolen. Because Diana never wrote a character she didn’t want raped and the Outlander producers never read a rape scene they didn’t want to include. Fuck them all very much for that.

Fuck Them Very Much for That, the title of my memoir.

Oh god her face right at the end when she sees that it’s fucking Fred’s ring she’s left with and not Jamie’s fucking murders me.

*THROWS AN ENTIRE TROPHY STORE AT BALFE*

[zetalial]

BH rewatch episode 23

Previous Episode             Next Episode

Episode 23 Girl on the Battlefield

Wow. What was this episode? So much happened. I’m not sure if I can even have an opinion on anything as something else happens before I can digest what was happening. I’m exaggerating slightly – I have lots of opinions

So Alphonse is chasing after Scar. Edward is still in the alley with Winry, comforting her, and he gives her his red jacket. He doesn’t stick around long though as he needs to go and help his brother. Winry sits there feeling useless, that all she can do is wait (yeah we hear Winry’s thoughts all the time. It’s almost strange because we rarely hear the inner thoughts of other characters except when they’re expressed aloud.). Edward orders some of the soldiers to take care of her as he runs off.

Meanwhile, Ling is running away from Wrath with Lan Fan still over one shoulder. (Is Ling supernaturally strong and fit?) Yeah, he got out of the room somehow. I swear last episode he was practically cornered but whatever. Wrath gives chase.

As Wrath is chasing them, he hears that Scar is still out and about and orders Gluttony to deal with him. Why does he even think Gluttony can deal with Scar? Scar can just blow him up every time he gets close, which Gluttony has to given his only weapon is his face and he’s not very smart.

I am also wondering where Envy is. Last time we saw him, he was still just hanging around Central. He should really be helping out too. With his powers, he’d theoretically be able to be quite discreet in watching over the Elrics. He’d be far better than Gluttony.

Anyway, Lan Fan tells Ling not to be noble, that a leader needs to be there for his people and they need him alive. He doesn’t want to abandon her though. Lan Fan is looking at her severely injured arm and realising she’s useless to him while injured like this and she’s only weighing him down. We see her lifting her good arm to make a strike but we don’t see what she does before the scene shifts.

Al is still fighting Scar, saying he’ll make him pay for Nina and the Rockbells, Ed soon joins him. Oh, Scar notes Al is in a metal body and wonders at how he can use Alchemy when it put him in that form. Al points out that the alchemy also saved his life and he’s thankful to Edward for it. Now the fight is in a much more open space.

Then Gluttony appears and Ed and Al identify him as a homunculus and so the three of them all start working to fight Gluttony. It seems its Scar’s first time hearing that term though he has fought Gluttony before. Honestly that Gluttony even manages to bash his face into Scar is impressive. The homunculus is hopelessly outmatched.

Then, Ling appears from the Sewers and he’s taken his yellow shirt off to show off his muscles and cuts Gluttony in half with his sword. He asks Edward to make some restraints and Ed creates some metal coils. Ling quickly ties Gluttony’s regenerating body with them. He does it so tightly that Gluttony’s body is stuck constantly trying to expand but can’t because of the coils and so he’s completely trapped.

Riza appears in a car then, and shoots Scar in the leg. She’s in a paper-thin disguise of glasses and her hair down. It’s to trick the watching soldiers as she takes Ling and the trapped Gluttony away.

So Ed and Al have cornered the wounded Scar and intend to… capture him I assume? But then Mei appears, kicking Alphonse back. She calls Edward short – apparently unaware that she is a complete midget herself. She’s meant to be like 13 or something, right? Anyway, she makes three Alkahestry circles, causing a reaction from a distance to cause some explosions covering the area in smoke. Ed is very interested by this as he recognises it’s not normal alchemy. Mei then escapes with Scar.

Mei doesn’t seem to be aware that Scar is a killer. She has no idea why a group of Amestrian soldiers and Ed and Al were attacking him and she never asks! She just heals his injury. I hate that she’s just ignorant here. It’s so much more interesting if she knows and decides to help him anyway. Or at least have her be curious but show Scar trying to hide the truth or something. But, no, it’s just never addressed. (Also how many daggers does she have? She just used 15 of the things and 10 of them are definitely lost to her. Where does she keep them? Mei’s ridiculously powerful (throwing those 10 daggers perfectly) which I’m fine with but her being so out of the loop and how little information we get about how her power works is a little more annoying.)

Oh, Al has her panda. There’s a brief comedy scene of him holding on to him in spite of Ed’s protests about stray animals. The panda has this gag of a pyramid of hierarchy of Al on the top. I’m not sure why Ed was on the bottom with Yoki – it barely met him - more jokes at Ed’s expense?

Okay, so Lan Fan cut off her arm and attached it to a dog as a decoy while she and Ling escaped into the sewers. Wrath is fooled by this. When he follows bleeding arm and discovers this, his response is basically. “well-played”. This is a nice trick but I really think we should have been shown a bit more of it. Wrath was following them reasonably closely. He’s very quick while Ling was carting around Lan Fan on his shoulder. I would have liked to see them attaching the arm to the dog and then hiding in the sewers. Otherwise too much is happening offscreen. Like, when Mustang was fighting Lust, he cauterised his wound, walked through the empty laboratory and drew his array in his own blood all off-screen. (And got Havoc’s broken lighter working.)

Honestly, I’m not sure this is really feasible. I’m not sure I can believe that Ling really got away from Wrath long enough to pull off this bluff.

Oh well. So Lan Fan is wrapped in Ling’s jacket in a pretty dire state. Ling is in a car with Riza and convinces her to go and get Lan Fan. They take her to Doctor Knox’s place – Mustang got him to reluctantly agree as per usual. Wrath notices Riza and recognises her despite her ‘disguise’ and decides its best he deal with Mustang.

So we cut to Winry, who is waiting in the military and she’s talking with Wrath – well Fuhrer Bradley anyway. Ed comes in to see her and Bradley gives him a subtle warning that he should take care of her.

Winry gets a phone call from Rush valley and all her customers are begging for her to come back. (She was only there from Episode 11-15 and there’s dozens of automail shops and she’s only 16. Why on Earth are they trying to make her skills so ridiculous? This is way too extreme.) Just as she was having tough feelings about being stuck always waiting.

So she heads out on a train and they say goodbye to her as she leaves for Rush Valley. Ed tells her that she’s not going to cry again until it’s tears of joy when they’ve got their bodies back. She agrees. As they leave, Winry realises she has feelings for Ed. (Yeah more of her inner thoughts are being stated to the audience.)

Ling gets introduced to Mustang who thanks him for all his help. Ling, Lan Fan, Ed, Al, Mustang and Riza are all in this safe house together as Lan Fan wakes up. Ed apologises for her getting hurt but Ling says that it was his plan and Lan Fan was willing to make the sacrifice, doing what he could not.

Oh and Ling informs them that Bradley was a homunculus. Huh, a few episodes ago they seemed close to deducing that themselves but yeah it makes sense that Ling can just tell them. They act with typical horror as you’d expect. (Ling foreshadows that Bradley is different from other Homunculi too.)

Lan Fan explicitly draws attention to how her distraction plan was based off her and Ed’s fight. Aww, I thought it would be cleverly not mentioned. But they had to say it. (I’m just disappointed because I was feeling clever for noticing the parallel.) Lan Fan notes again that she is useless to Ling and Ed recommends automail.

Mustang wants to use Gluttony’s Philosopher’s stone to cure Havoc’s injury. Ling protests, saying how Lan Fan just got injured for it and he deserves the stone. Ed cuts in, pointing out how he needs the stone to fix his brother’s body as they’ve been searching for it for so long. It an interesting dilemma. Ed should be pretty urgent to fix Al knowing that his soul is being rejected but on the other hand Ling’s got a duty to his people and he is chiefly responsible for this capture (though it was only possible with Ed and Al luring the homunculi out).

But the argument is quickly cut short as Gluttony reacts to the mention of Mustang, who killed Lust, and with extra determination breaks out of his bonds. Nice to see he cares so much about Lust. His stomach opens up to show the giant gateway inside with the eye inside. It’s eating power takes out what looks like an entire wall and a car.

—————-

And finally, finally the episode is over. Wow, they stuffed in a lot. Can you believe it’s only normal length? Course, everything was very brief as a result. Sometimes the pace is too much. I guess I like it but more time could certainly have been spent on some events. I’m mostly thinking about Ling and Lan Fan. Their storyline is way too rushed here.

You know I’d like a reason to like Ling but how can I if it’s going to rush through the part where he is horrified as he ties his best friend’s bloody arm (which she just cut off for him) to a dog while she is practically bleeding to death next to him and he’s in a hurry. That’d be just the sort of scene to make me sympathise with him. We’d get to feel his guilt, mixed with a sense of duty and the dark side of Lan Fan’s loyalty. Instead we get him telling her not to do it and then a cut to him jumping out of the sewers with his shirt off and cutting Gluttony in half. Yeah, I get it, he’s ‘badass’ and a loyal friend. But his most interesting scene was offscreen! Instead we’re messing around with setting up Ed/Winry.

I’d also have appreciated lengthening the Philosopher’s stone argument. It’s interesting to see Edward, Ling and Mustang all in an argument where they all have compelling reasons. They’ve all sacrificed a lot after all. It’d be great too as it’d make the moment where Ling offered the Stone to Edward at the end of the series more meaningful.

I’m going to keep a watch out for the use of inner thoughts being stated to the audience. Often thoughts are expressed out loud but I think inner thoughts being shared is actually pretty rare. I feel like Winry’s thoughts have been shared before (just the other episode she was thinking in her head about Ed’s broadening shoulders). I don’t recall any other characters having this happening but maybe I can’t remember. Either way, I’ll keep an eye out in the future. (I’m curious if this is unique to Winry. Which would be weird as she’s not the protagonist of the story and I don’t see why her inner thoughts would deserve special treatment.) 

But it’s not a bad episode or anything. A lot happened and it was good, I just wish more time was spent on some of these events not that any of them were bad. But they don’t have the full impact if there’s not a chance to dwell on them a bit. 

[libralita]

Reread Review!

Title: Warbreaker

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Summary: This is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses. Theirs is a world in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren's capital city. A world transformed by a power based on an essence known as breath. Using magic is arduous as breath can only be collected one unit at a time.

Rating: ★★★★★

Review:

“It was the awareness all men had for others—that thing which whispered a warning, in the drossiness of sleep, when someone entered the room.”—Page 5

Like in Words of Radiance.

“Vasher himself had only managed to Awaken metal on a few select occasions.”—Page 8

*waggles eyebrows*

I still wish Kate Reading or Michael Kramer was narrating this.

It’s so weird going from Vivenna in Oathbringer to Vivenna in this.

Fafen reminds me of the Ardent who hangs out with Navani.

LIGHTSONG!!!!

“To the side, the lesser priest disappeared with the jungle painting. It would be burned. Such offerings were made specifically for the intended god, and only he—besides a few of his priests—was allowed to see them.”—Page 40

Unless some sneaky spren take it.

Bluefingers! Evil.

A lot of the culture reminds be of Alethi culture. I guess there’s a lot of mixing.

I just binged Fullmetal Alchemist and I only imagine Blushweaver as Lust.

Honestly the best idea would have been to just go to the God Court.

Denthhhhhhhh ugh you ass.

Well, Vivi now has the Breath.

“Will you please just get on with it?”—Page 122

Poor Susebron.

“Why was he sweating so? He’d been through thousands of petitions, and many had been worse than one he’d just seen. He’d sent pregnant women to their deaths, doomed children and parents, cosigned the innocent and the faithful to misery.”—Page 127

Seeing the petitions is really sad.

“The thing is, Your Grace, Returned aren’t meant to stay. We extend their lives, giving them extra time to bless us. But they’re really only supposed to remain alive as long as it takes them to do what they need to do.”—Page 130

This reminds me of Szeth for some reason.

“‘I see that you understand,’ he said. ‘I feel that…’”—Page 173

Wait, what was he going to say?

Time for the best scene ever.

“She began to bounce up and down on the bed, making its springs creak. Then, cringing slightly, she started to moan.”—Page 191

Oooooohh my goodddd.

“All was still. She glanced up, eyeing the God King. Some of his emotional mask had softened, and he displayed a very human look of confusion. She almost laughed out loud at how perplexed he seemed. She just met his eyes and shook her head.”—Page 191

Hehehehehehe.

“‘Denth,’ she snapped, ‘he’s here. In the city.’ ‘Good,’ Denth said, lounging back. ‘I owe that man a sword through the gut.’”—Page 202

Vasher.

The Lifeless parallel the Parshmen. Man there’s so many parallels. There must be a lot of travel between these two countries.

Tax? Also Vasher is a joke name? Which reminds me didn’t Frost think that Hoid’s name was also a joke. What’s with worldhoppers and puns.

“The God King jumped back, stumbling.”—Page 211

Precious child.

“The God King looked away, suddenly, seeming ashamed. He picked up the book, holding it to his chest, and moved to stand.”—Page 213

Cutieeeeeee.

“I really am better than a shirt. I would have killed them. Look, they’re still breathing. Stupid shirt.”—Page 219

I also love Nightblood.

I guess if you have more Investiture then you’re more impulsive like when a Radiant has a bunch of Stormlight. So maybe Siri has more which makes her more impulsive?

“‘I,’ Siri proclaimed, ‘want some books!’”—Page 267

Me.

“‘Oh are they?’ Siri said, smiling. Do not be afraid, he wrote. My mother taught me that the monsters are not real.”—Page 272

So cute.

“Because I did not know what else to do, he said. I knew that we need to have a child. So I sat and waited for it to happen. We must be doing something wrong, for no child has come.”—Page 273

HE’S SO CUTE!!! Always give your gods a sex ed. class.

“Red upon red, shades so subtle that the painter must have been of the Third Heightening at least. Violent, terrible reds, clashing against one another like wave—wave that only vaguely resembled men, yet that somehow managed to convey the idea of armies fighting much better than any detailed realistic depiction could have.”—Page 287

I can’t remember if this is the same painting the Kal saw in Oathbringer.

This place even has weird colored drinks.

Austre is Endowment? So Hoid probably knows him.

Hoid!! Actually, Siri, Hoid looks younger than he appears.

Y’know there’s a lot of paradises in the cosmere and people rarely stay in them.

The “shattering” of kingdoms, aye? Interesting language.

I should probably pay better attention to what Hoid is saying.

“I learned it many, many years ago from a man who didn’t know who he was, Your Majesty. It was a distant place where two lands meet and gods have died. But that is unimportant.”—Hoid, Page 384

NO IT IS NOT UNIMPORTANT!

“It makes you hungry every night? He asked, writing quickly. And you didn’t say anything?”—Page 427

He’s such a cutie.

“‘You,’ she whispered. ‘Me,’ he said between bites.”—Page 473

Donkey.

I think there’s an increase in soldiers because of the Idrian rebellion.

Vasher explaining Awakening to Vivenna is like when someone who knows a lot about the cosmere talks to me.

“That’s why I’ve never been that good a duelist.”—Page 543

And yet you taught Adolin Kholin. Or…will teach? Timelines!

“The sea talked to him sometimes.”—Page 583

Wait this is a normal thing?

Llarimar admitting Lightsong is his brother makes me tear up.

[kiev4am]

I think I've seen enough spoilers now to give my two cents' worth about Sofia and Oswald in Gotham. (Disclaimer: not seen the full episodes). Misgivings under a cut and tagged 'gotham s4 spoilers.'  It’s a wall of text, sorry.

Objectively, I think Sofia is great. I love how manipulative and unreadable she is; she’s either supremely intuitive or has done her homework on Jim and Oswald and she's constructing personae so carefully to appeal to each of them that it’s obvious they’re both being played. None of that in itself is problematic to me; in fact, I find this delicate relentless chess-game of hers really interesting. The huge red flag is Oswald's apparent reactions. Firstly because this plotline if played straight requires him to be ridiculously clueless - I fully expect Jim to sleepwalk into her traps until the plot demands that he wise up too late, as usual (Jim, I love you, but you are a lunkhead with women), but Sofia is basically a more elegant Season 1 Oswald here and for Oswald not to recognise such manoeuvres in his bones requires that he forget his own intuition plus every damn thing that’s happened to him to make him who he is, not least a certain climactic 'you were the one time I let love weaken me, won’t let THAT happen again' scene. Secondly, and more importantly, because of the potential gay erasure. Every choice made in Oswald's story up to now has coded him as unmoved by women and definitely drawn to at least two male characters (Jim and then Ed).  None of that was accidental or ambiguous, and his arc with Ed in Season 3 was decorated so specifically with romantic tropes it was as if the writers really wanted to make sure no-one could willfully unsee it.  What worries me is that, right now, I don’t have enough to go on to be sure that they’re not trying to unsee their own prior writing.

At the moment, I'm still hanging onto the hope that they won't throw three seasons of their best characterisation under a bus. The parallels between Sofia and Liza with Falcone in Season 1 are not subtle; she's primarily gotten to him by evoking his mother and at the moment you have to read between the lines to see romance (as you very much didn't with Oswald/Ed). The showrunners are walking a line; so far they’re on the right side of it, but people are absolutely justified in side-eyeing them at this point - especially while they’re showing other signs of last-minute directional change, like the revolving-door casting of Ivy.

The problem is, it's near-impossible to maintain trust or patience in this situation because the classic romantic 'will they, won't they' trope that we're used to applying when a long-plotted, central relationship breaks down doesn’t WORK for gay relationships in mainstream media, especially male gay relationships, because the answer is almost always: no, of course they won’t. Or they will, but one of them will die; or they will, but one of them turns evil; or they will, but then one or both of them will leave the show/comic for really important plot and character reasons - no, seriously, that empty space where a visible gay relationship could be is just a necessity of our thoughtful storytelling, we loved those guys, honestly, where’s our cookie? (Yes, I’m bitter). And what’s so egregiously wrong with this is that it's the exact opposite of how the trope was created and intended to work. In almost every straight romance it's obvious that 'they WILL' is meant to be the endgame - that it's simply a way to deepen a relationship, one that's clearly coded as inevitable and right, by adding challenges (legitimate or ridiculous) before the final reconciliation. But that reconciliation almost never happens satisfactorily - fully earned, expressed and kept on camera - for gay male characters. (Female gay characters get to stick around and even kiss because Male Gaze, of course; Gotham is as guilty of this imbalance as every other show, and needed Ed and Oswald to give itself some credibility in that department.)

tl;dr - I want to trust the writers, but they haven't earned it yet. If Sofia and Oswald get romance hints that are written as genuine on Oswald's part, and his feelings for Ed are never revisited meaningfully in shared scenes, I will flip a table.