#why was the whole plot of s3 'youre causing the apocalypse cause youre here but your parents dont exist'

[stardustinyoureyes]

The Umbrella Academy Season 4 moodboard!!!!

[diegosclownshoes]

it’s the self indulgent longcon commission agent oc who’s the handler’s secret daughter with powers au idea that the writers one-upped when they made lila the handler’s secret daughter who has powers, but make her british. except this one’s five-centric instead lol. this’s a compilation of the initial brainstorming i did over at @paperpocalypse​‘s with more details + more organized (minus the soulmarks aspect, which is explained in this post)

so the agent is one of the 43. the handler’s aware of her powers and orders the hit on her parents when she’s a child. her relationship w the handler is pretty rocky. unlike lila’s upbringing which was much more mother-daughter, the handler was focused on getting the agent to be able to make the maximum use of her powers. speaking of which, her power is the ability to freeze time, but only for as long as she can keep her breath held (held completely, no backup oxygen tank or anything to keep it going for infinity). 

the more people she keeps unfrozen alongside herself, the more energy it takes so she spends a majority of her childhood going through rigorous, borderline abusive training so she’s able to hold her breath for as long as possible and beyond her lung capacity. so it’s hard for her to see the handler as a caring mother figure when this is the same woman who made her hold her breath, put a noseclip on her and then held her head underwater while keeping a timer running. the whiplash from the handler putting her though harsh training and then lovingly holding her after has made the agent wary, and she doesn’t see either the handler or lila as family exactly, but there’s still that unavoidable bond that comes from spending your whole life with someone.

although everyone calls her the agent, she doesn’t work for the commission formerly as in she only goes on the occasional small scale mission and helps out the handler via her abilities. she can go up to 5-6 minutes without too much strain for a job, but the longer ones, around 15-20 minutes or so, require more time to prepare herself physically, the childhood training did help increase the time held, but she needs a couple minutes to breathe as deeply as she can beforehand + she’s a highly trained and highly skilled agent 

now how she fits into the story line considering the ages is a bit tricky bc i don’t see why she’d look younger if she time travels via commission briefcase which means there’s no calculation error that would affect her appearance (even if there were though, writing romance between kids, even if it’s only physically, is a bet iffy so let’s just leave that to the duffer brothers). if she’s actually the age five looks he’d be uncomfortable but if she’s older to match his mental age it wouldn’t work on her end since no matter how old he really is or how he behaves, he still looks like a teenager.

so the idea is when she’s around 18 (in 2007) the handler takes her to 2019 to stop the hargreeves. she first meets five bc the handler has her freeze time when five and luther are making the deal w hazel and cha cha. she’s waiting for the handler to finish up + it was sprung on her so it’s harder to maintain, and her lungs are burning and she feels like she’ll die when five says "just a minute,” and starts moving things around so needless to say, her first impression of him (or, his voice at least since it’s not face-to-face) is not the best.

the handler then sends her to 1960 alone with nothing but a picture of the hargreeves to wait for her mission. by the time s2 plot starts, she’ll be 21 so when later on after five’s aged up his body and the nature of their relationship changes it won’t be that odd. her mission is to protect five while lila handles taking out the other hargreeves. lila contacts her first after five makes it to ‘63, but at elliott’s they act like strangers (which isn’t too difficult considering the 3 years the agent’s spent alone in the 60s before reuniting with lila, who’s now nearly 10 years older than the agent when she can remember training together as teenagers just a few short years prior). 

five wouldn't trust anyone right away (obviously, he straight up tried killing lila) so he doesn’t let the agent out of his sight, which really only makes her mission 10x harder since she can barely get away to meet up  w lila and the handler. however, once she finds out the real motive behind the mission, which is causing the apocalypse, she decides to switch teams. 

revealing her power would be the #1 way to get the hargreeves to trust her, and this happens during the alley meetup. although the results are the same (vanya’s already been taken by the feds by then) and the briefcase is a no go, five notices how painful it is for her (nearly blacking out, muscles contracting, it's NOT a fun time) and how she's willing to go that far to help and forces her to stop for her own good and is like, ok, she wouldn’t go that far and put herself in danger if she’s wasn’t serious about joining us. and here the begrudging allies stage kicks off.  

neither of them feels the most mature for bickering with someone so young compared to themselves (five physically, her mentally), but a majority of their working together ends up being snippy comebacks and scoffing at each other, to the point where they almost end up one-upping each other with how sarcastic they can be. by the end of the season, they’re on good terms and both appreciate each other in both a professional and friendly sense.

post s2 five deals w the sparrow academy and she handles commission business (which is basically just setting up herb’s new office) since she’s joining the hargreeves. five finds a way to age himself up through strategic jumps, so he does them in small increments, just enough until he’s at least 10 years older physically, and then jumps back while keeping himself the same physically.

after this it’s a slow, slow burn. they reunite a couple months afterwards and their dynamic shifts from simply being comfortable fighting and working together before their snarky teasing isn’t so platonic anymore. the agent gets a total kick out of making growth spurt jokes (going “whoa is that a single hair on your chin that i’m seeing??”) but also tries to cover up how awkward she feels abt someone she just saw as a kid a few months ago, and felt only friendship towards now being an adult/older than her and huh, how come their banter’s making her feel kinda fluttery now instead of annoyed, when did that happen? 

and on the other end, five claims he’s not emotionally stunted like his siblings but 40+ years in solitude would make him terrible at realizing what his actual emotions are and he’d write off his own fondness for her as just  finding someone he gets along w who’s not his family. cue hours spent working together while coming to terms with their feelings, complete w obliviously flirting while everyone else pulls out the popcorn. this could go into a canon divergence au where they figure out what to do about the sparrow academy, or depending on s3 and how that goes, a whole separate story line.

[sometimesrosy]

What do you think made Bellamy fall in love with Clarke, and Clarke fall in love with Bellamy?

I mean. First of all, I actually think this show is ABOUT Clarke and her relationship with Bellamy, so the ship of Bellarke is inherently entwined with the narrative of The 100 from the very beginning, in the themes, the symbolism, the allusions, the roles, and the plot. To such a degree that whether or not they get together is not a matter of story, or timing or anything, like it can’t just happen ANY time, it is tied to the culmination of the story. LIKE a romance story, the larger 7 seasons long story is a love story, is THE love story of Clarke and Bellamy in the apocalypse, as they become heroes and save humanity, possibly from itself.

So to ask what made them fall in love with each other is to ask what need they fill in the each other’s characters, journey, and character.

Because they were LITERALLY designed to be each other’s other half. THIS is the story being told. 

Because of this, Clarke filled a need in Bellamy’s life, and Bellamy filled a need in hers.

What is it?

I think it’s tied to the Head and Heart dynamic.

Clarke was drawn, not to Bellamy’s strength and love for his sister, then his people, then her.

Bellamy was drawn to Clarke’s belief in a better world, a better humanity, a better HIM. 

Okay, so you see, we are attracted to the qualities in a partner that we want to have in ourselves. 

Clarke’s journey has been about being the good guy (through versions of herself where she didn’t know what that was or lost sight or whatever) and to save humanity/her people, but to GET there, she has, the entire time, been looking for love, to understand her enemy, to believe in another person enough to tie herself to them. Season 1 had Finn as her romantic interest at first, but then it became more about becoming close to and understanding Bellamy, being allies, partners... even if they didn’t take it romantic yet. S2 had her confronting feelings for Bellamy that were pushed into the romantic by Lxa, and then feelings for Lxa. S3 had her facing feelings she had run away from and letting Lxa into her heart (which ended tragically and painfully complicating her journey.) s4 had Bellamy acting as her balance, reachign out to him to be rebuffed and settling for Niylah for that closeness, but in the end, connecting emotionally with Bellamy. s5 was about the 6 years where she’d internalized Bellamy and let her love for him keep her sane, only to find he wasn’t the person she thought he was when he came back... except he was. s6 was about, okay. Her love journey is actually over here. She’s accepted that she loves Bellamy, that he’s too important to her, and that she respects him enough to not make demands on him. Because she’s accepted that, she’s now able to focus on her real goal, being the good guy and saving humanity.

Oh. Okay. s1-5 had Clarke working on the part of her that was weak, her heart, and when she had developed that, her masculine side, the part represented by Bellamy, then she could gear up for the end of her heroine’s journey and the end of the story with their redemption. Okay! That’s like what I’ve been saying about Bellamy’s hero’s journey being over in s5, and now he’s a romantic hero and working on his HEART goal, only in reverse. See they’re the yin yang. Which is not about SEPARATING the two halves of your soul, but incorporating them into your being, holistic, making you a whole person. Which is BETTER for a person and for a relationship. Not two incomplete halves who make a whole, but two whole people who fit together and make each other better. This happened for BOTH Clarke and Bellamy in season 5. Focusing on Bellamy’s hero’s journey and how he saved humanity had me ignoring the fact that Clarke resolved her fear and trauma over love, CHOSE love, discarded toxic love, freed Madi to make her own choice, let go of her fantasy of Bellamy but accepted the man as he was, even if he wasn’t hers, and committed to face forward and be the good guy, with him at her side. Cool. okay. Yin Yang. They echo each other’s stories.

SO. Let’s see Bellamy’s story. He came down to earth to protect someone he loved. He actually got her locked up because he wanted her to live a little, go to a dance, meet people, see the earth. With the delinquents he just wanted to live, but ended up having to fight. Confronted with the results of “just living,” first getting his sister caught and his mom floated, then causing the culling, what does he do instead? He starts putting everyone else ahead of him, jumping off of cliffs, getting hanged, going into mountains? But Clarke is the one who made him see he wasn’t a monster, she saw the good in him, was willing to BELIEVE in him, gave him a farther goal, something to work for, had faith in him as a leader, GAVE him leadership, or co leadership with him. S2 he first avoids leadership, gives it to Finn actually, leading to the massacre, then he takes lead in the mountain, and it gets the mountain killed. S3 he gives up leadership, lets Kane then Pike lead. It leads to disaster. S4 He saves the slaves and dooms his people. Can’t save Clarke. Can’t save Octavia. Can’t save a man and his son from the black rain. He learns to let go of needing to save everyone. But in the end, he saves his sister and hundreds of people in the bunker, and spacekru, but loses Clarke and is separated from O. s5 has him getting his two most important people back, but they are different. When he makes his decisions, he knows they are the right decisions, and even though he gives up his heart, TWICE (O and Clarke) he carries through. And it works. He saves everyone. His goal, in seasons 1-5 has been about becoming the leader he was meant to be. That’s why the hero’s journey ended because he became the hero... BUT that wasn’t his real, ultimate goal which was the heart goal. Love. Family. Living in peace. Safe. (we’ve had at least 3 characters imagine this goal, Kane, Monty, Brian and Miller. O too I think. And Bellamy.)

Now that he’s achieved his head goal of being the leader and hero, he can focus on his HEART goal. It’s NOT a coincidence that he had two established relationships and both of them happened off screen. They’re there to remind us of who he is and what he wants, but also to show us that his devotion lies with CLARKE. So that means that in this fight, season 6, to save Clarke from death and have what he wants “we get everything we want, Bellamy, we get to live.” NOT CLARKE. 

Clarke and Bellamy taught each other how to be whole in themselves, to accept the darkness (clarke) and to accept the light (bellamy.) Bellamy taught Clarke to love the enemy and believe in the future of humanity. Clarke taught Bellamy to love himself and believe he was worthy of love and happiness.

Twofold goal. Yin Yang. The head and the heart. 

I feel like you wanted a shipper answer that talked about emotions on screen or narrative points where we saw their connection. Instead I’m giving you a lit analysis of Doylist interpretation about WHY and HOW they are written as meant for each other.

I did the other one, pointing out the narrative where they fell in love all the way up to s5? s6? This one’s different. 

They were written as soulmates. This story is about them. Through their relationship, we see their desperation to save their people and humanity.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep1 Part 1: Yugi Ditches Algebra, Cards Become Real

Ah, a new season a new day. It’s Season 4. And we’re going to start of with:

A deep sea sub. Sure, why not?

So Yugi’s unofficial other grandpa, Arthur Hawkins, AKA one of the member’s of this show’s only really happening OTP has decided to kinda ditch his Granddaughter Rebecca and go to the bottom of the ocean. Don’t blame him. Down here is where, I guess, he will come across this very Grecian looking structure.

Like Yugioh nonchalantly passes a lot of bad history at me but like...he’s in the Atlantic Ocean and there’s Grecian style stuff everywhere?

Why? I mean at least he’s not in the Pacific but like...Yugioh. Anyways, we’re not in Greece but the show had very little time to invent a brand new ancient architecture style although I would be super down for that.

But like...here’s the thing about columns--you can go really deep into column lore and people are really freakin picky about columns and what they mean, and this could have been a low key hilarious place to make an entirely new column order just for Yugioh. They could’ve done it and they decided not to. It’s OK, I’ll save it for the Marik’s Boat Time spinoff they’ll never ever make.

But I just want to bring up just real super fast that Noah and Gozaburo must’ve known about this place for years right? Like they super lived underwater and had robots poised to attack mankind stationed all over the sea floor so...we can pretty much guarantee they already knew about this place?

Just gonna bring up what a shame it is Noah freakin died.

Also want to bring up what a shame it was that Arthur didn’t show up at the beginning of S3 and be like “hey Yugi, I was just in the neighborhood, noticed you got picked up by an undersea gang, what’s up?”

(read more under the cut)

Anyway, there he is, our 70 yo adventurer, who has more energy than I have at under half his age. Arthur Hawkins needs to take it down a few pegs.

Or is it Hawkings?

Wtv.

Anyways, I gave Hawkins this tweed colored font that I just realized is nearly the same as Joey’s so it’ll change if he ever comes back.

Thanks for that prologue, Yugioh. Anyway, apparently no one on this side of Japan freakin cares, because despite finding what looks exactly like Godzilla’s lair on the bottom of the sea, we’re gonna instead fixate on Rex and Weevil.

Y’all I was going to make a joke about “why does this show fixate so much on Rex and Weevil at the beginning of so many arcs?” when I remembered that Bakura basically murdered all the other mean mini bosses from S1 except for Bandit Keith, who probably got deported by now.

I had to think long and hard just now about whether or not I’ve used that joke before because it is S4 and y’all I just don’t even remember.

(I have a very long story about Warby Parker that I just deleted fyi)

Rex is a Christmas plaid now because there are too many characters in this show.

Now that Rex and Weevil have been reunited, which is surprising because I just assumed these two have been Bert and Ernie-ing it up in some condo in the NYC, They say:

I almost forgot about the secret side-plot of Yugioh, that everyone is a cheese monger and very open about it.

So anyway, they’re off to have a very simple storyline of “I will try and Challenge Yugi Muto for God Cards” which...good luck with that, it only took 2 seasons for Yugi to finally accept his challenge from Seto Kaiba. Have fun following around Yugi Muto for 2 seasons.

When there’s a...really bizarre twist that happens. Just a very weird turn of events. Like recall that it’s the middle of the day, and the sun is shining, and there’s people and cars everywhere, and it’s a good neighborhood, and then, like playing Pokemon in tall grass, this guy just appears in front of them.

And guys, I’m from the Bay Area and I have slipped and fallen right on top of my phone on Fillmore which was DEVASTATING so like...their unstoppable speed walk down this 12 degree slope is...

I think they wanted to run into them, I really think they did. I think people in this town are so desperate for any excuse to fall into a horrifying disaster that they are just magnetically attracted to anyone wearing an oversized blanket.

Also this guy’s look is...kind of forgettable. It’s somehow weird and also forgettable at the same time. Hit that sweet spot for me. I don’t even remember this guy’s name, it was so forgettable. I’ll look it up later. Maybe bro will do it. I dunno. He wears a Monocle so like...that’s all I can say about this guy.

OK so I just checked in with Bro and then Bro made a weird rant about this guy being called Gurimo and how bro had some strong opinions about Season 4. Then Bro said a statement that really stuck with me, although I only remember part of the statement which was: “...this guy can just go get more monocles from Forever 21 and Hot Topic...” which made me very quickly realize my adult brother has never entered either a Forever 21 or a Hot Topic if he thinks a cultist in a monocle would purchase monocles from there.

I learned a lot and now you have to know this too.

And in case you’re wondering “did Rex and Weevil deserve this?” No. He just immediately decided to steal their soul on the sidewalk in front of Women’s Foot Locker from what I assume is just down the street from Yugi Muto’s house/game shop.

(how did this storyboarder nail the 3/4 degree angle on Weevil here? Do you know how hard that is to do with not just glasses but weird ass chunky glasses?)

Ah, a duel disk that can stab yourself in the stomach with two very poorly laid out barbs.

Very nice rival to Kaiba’s duel disk that will behead you if you don’t fling your arm out just right.

So like...did he steal a duel disk from Kaiba and then mod it? Is that what they did? The whole point of duel disks is that you’re linked up to the Dueling Facebook or whatever...so did this Cultist buy a normal duel disk from Toy’s R Us and then say “ahahah I’m going to do so much card crime!” and then start modding it with help of a cosplay forum? Like what’s the story here of how this guy spent all of last year (and definitely all of last season) modding this duel disk over a computer desk, some metallic acrylic paint, and a sauntering iron, feverishly asking his forum if anyone can 3d print some sick ass runes for his soul-sucking duel disk?

And then I guess this guy dueled both Rex and Weevil at the same time? Like this was all off screen...but why didn’t Rex and Weevil just leave? Just don’t pull out your duel disk and you’re probably good?

Just so many ways to have avoided losing your soul in the first ten minutes of Yugioh.

Anyway, on the other side of town, Tea is worrying about Yugi which is basically her normal.

Joey and Tristan decided to meet up with her, not because she was clearly in distress, but because Yugi isn’t around, and why worry about Tea when instead your friend Yugi is probably going to destroy the world the moment you turn around (and he did. Yugi absolutely effed everything up the very moment these three took their eyes off of him)

And what was weird is that it took Yugi until, I dunno...several streets over to kind of come out of the ether and be like “heeey Pharaoh...um...what’s up?” Like it took him this long to say something. Probably so that by the time they would have walked back to school math would have been over.

So...did Yugi just not notice at first? Like it’s sort of amazing what these two don’t know what the other one is up to. Including this situation that little Yugi absolutely should have picked up on.

As it turns out, the cards are speaking very audibly to Pharaoh. This should have been somewhat of a...youknow...red flag...since Yugi can’t hear them but Pharaoh can. But, Yugi’s like “well...we’re so used to everyone just giving us the answer and that being the right call, I guess this must also be the right call.”

And...although he had quite the head start, These three are more than willing to drop the hell out of class and rack up those absences. I’m gonna assume they had to make up another wild excuse about Tea’s cat to that one teacher to get out of school just like last time, but they did all that offscreen.

And then Tea just kind of snapped, and she did so with a smile the entire time.

Her wording was somewhat different, but she did basically say something along the lines of “if you don’t remember me telling you this a million times, you are an idiot” and Pharaoh didn’t have an answer and so it was like he said without saying anything “yes, I am.”

Which he will further prove like five minutes from now.

Like Y’all, bless his cursed perfect ass, but Pharaoh is the biggest idiot in this show. Sometimes he’s brilliant, but if he’s ever left to his own devices, just the biggest idiot. He got duped by some guy pretending to throw his voice so that his cards looked like they were talking to him. Pharaoh thought cards can talk.

And so that’s how Pharaoh freakin caused the Apocalypse. The first of many.

He did so just so very easily.

His cards started wigging out, the tablet started icing over--it was like “hey remember what took 2 seasons to build up to? Well screw it.”

Also this happened, apropos of absolutely nothing.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand cards are real.

I mean they’ve been real for a few seasons but now the cards are officially real and they’re not cute like Pokemon. They’re all really gross and roided out and they probably have a funky smell. All of them.

I knew we’d get here eventually I just didn’t know it would be SO fast.

When no one was paying absolutely any attention--when my entire focus was inside of this museum, that was when cards became real.

Well...

...time to shove em into little balls I guess. Anyways, that’s it for this update because this episode was a lot of stuff so I’m gonna split it so y’all have it easier and so I have it easier too.

And if you just got there this is S4, if you want to start reading these from S1, here’s a link to the collection in chrono order, it’s basically like reading a Victor Hugo length of book except its just me ranting about WTF is going on in OG Yugioh for 100+ episodes, knock yourself out.

[kinetic-elaboration]

February 5: Thoughts on The 100 2x03 Reapercussions

I am very tired and I should sleep but instead I’m going to bring my The 100 rewatch project out of hiatus yet again with Episode 2x03: Reapercussions.

I miss Anya so much!!!!! This is mostly my Dichen Lachman obsession showing but also the way she gives Clarke that ‘yeah, whatever’ look when Clarke says she’ll get her out of the cage... your Grounder fave could never.

The show honestly peaked with S2 and after this it should have abandoned all attempts at edginess because nothing will ever be more Pure Nightmare Fuel than the Mount Weather Grounder Cages.

Clarke/Anya: the ship that almost was.

So when Clarke takes Anya out of the prison room, she opens a door that says “End Containment Area” and underneath that it says “U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Mount Weather Containment Protocol.” And people really thought JRoth made this up omg learn some history.

Considering how they left things (Anya literally trying to kill her and all her friends) it’s actually pretty impressively selfless and magnanimous on Clarke’s part to not just rescue her, but immediately and unthinkably rescue her. On the other hand, Anya feels some remorse for leaving her people whereas Clarke’s like ‘here are some clothes [even though those random bandages are holding up pretty well??], let’s get a move on!’ (I know she intended to come back for them and she was being smart and practical but from the pov of, say, Jasper or Monty, this is cold as hell of her.)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: early S2 Clarke is Peak Clarke: smart, sly, practical, brave.

Byrne mentions Earth Skills teacher “Davis” as being part of the search team for Bell et. al. My question: how many Earth Skills teachers did they have lol?

I fucking love this crashed-ship aesthetic omg I forget how much I love it and then I see it again....

“On the Ark, you did anything you wanted, without a second thought about the consequences.” Like mother, like daughter.

I ALSO miss Jasper and Maya. I’m probably like the lone person out there who still remembers them fondly but they were basically perfect because they were sweet but with the potential for a lot of darkness as well, my favorite combination.

WHERE’S MY ART SCHOOL JAYA AU?

So actually fun fact, that isn’t how the art work would have been stored in Mount Weather. They had special containers for the paintings to protect them and like a special cart thing to transport them quickly from their old homes to the bunker I read a book.

No one ever characterizes him this way sufficiently imo but Monty is really quite uptight in a way. Like first: don’t cockblock him man. And second: just chilll. This is probably why he used to smoke weed.

“Trouble? It’s Clarke. Whatever she’s up to, I’m sure she can handle it.” I mean.... he’s not wrong.

Except for the part where she’s covered in dead bodies. But even then...

So I always felt like the main point of the Reapers was as kind of a zombie police force for Mount Weather: to keep the Grounders scared of the Mountain, so they won’t poke around in it too much. Though of course they also collect Grounders, which is helpful, since the Mountain Men can’t walk that far from their home base (and, as stated, they probably want to keep most of that area Grounder-free anyway). But it occurs to me now that a third use of the Reapers is like dead-body collectors? The Mountain dumps the dead bodies out the trap door, and the Reapers take them away and eat them. So gross and efficient all at once. Mount Weather’s motto basically.

Murphy and his creating-a-distraction stones are still one of the funniest jokes this show has ever pulled, though if it were a quicker reveal after “something like that” it would be funnier.

Never mind, Bellamy appearing out of the bush is true underrated comedy gold,

That said, I feel like everything outside of the Mount Weather and Clarke stories here is filler.

Love! That! Ship!

Major Byrne says that Kane is on the verge of losing control of the camp but... I dunno.... everyone seems to be working together pretty well? Maybe if they had diversified the cast a little, not in terms of yet more Grounders but, like, non-leaders of the Ark, that would be more clear????

Okay, well, admittedly, when the Grounder prisoner is brought in they do start a mini-mob, lol. Also one of the delinquent’s fathers is shot, it would be cool if we knew who he was?? ETA: and then he dies and Abby’s like “does he have any family?” lol he just said that his son was one of the 100 so like obviously he does??

The costuming people, like the set people, really are the geniuses of this show. I love Clarke and Anya’s outfits, and Clarke’s hair somehow being both grungy and beautiful like THAT’s the apocalypse style I wanna see.

Also they absolutely 100% would have gotten together in the S2-S3 hiatus if Anya hadn’t been killed off.

“You saved my life because you needed me” IS true but she also did it absolutely without hesitation, even knowing Anya really quite truly hates her, so this speaks either to some foolhardy bravery mixed in with her practical thoughts, or just straight compassion, or both. I guess that sort of is a Clarke thing. She can be a grudge holder (seriously don’t tell me she isn’t: Wells????) but her grudges are NEVER more important than hard-nosed practical problem-solving.

Time for some gratuitous torture. Honestly, I like Season 2, it’s probably my favorite season, but it has some MAJOR filler problems. Like when it’s good it’s THE BEST but then other times it just doesn’t know how to fill 40 minutes so it resorts to pointless diversions (like Bellamy rappelling down the side of a mountain to save a character who is literally never seen again? for some reason?) or just straight out ugly violence for screaming’s sake (Raven’s surgery, Raven’s Grounder torture, Abby’s shocklashing, etc.) Like honestly I can’t even watch this. I’m just gonna browse tumblr until it’s done.

The Arkers really like the concept of “confessing” don’t they?

Like okay I’m not done WHAT IS THE POINT of this? It all but kills the whole Kabby vibe (I still lowkey ship them but sometimes I think...why?), it’s truly painful to watch, and it has no plot purpose AT ALL not even world-building because, lol, we know the writers don’t care to flesh out Camp Jaha in any real way.

Murphy is taking such sad glee out of instigating Finn’s madness/violence. The Luci of The 100 for sure.

This Bellamy story line is boring though I’m sorry. Some of these scenes (the Clarke or Mount Weather ones) I could watch a million times but this is like... kay, I know what happens already. So.

“There are some lines you can’t uncross.” I mean I think this show has actually shown that’s pretty untrue since people get over almost everything pretty fast. There’s always another horrific thing to do and/or experience!

Yeah my bitterness is seeping in.

Anyway when you come into an interrogation knowing what the “right” answer is, you’ll never learn anything, take note, stupid teenager boys + U.S. law enforcement.

Like honestly this Grounder is 500000x smarter than they are. He saves himself and rains gunfire and destruction upon his enemies. (Well, saves himself for a few minutes--but at least he got to cause harm to those he hates!)

“You thought I was the crazy one, huh?” Was Murphy ever crazy, though, or was he just coldly vengeful?

Speaking of coldly vengeful, Byrne could have been a potentially interesting character? Maybe? I’m not really into the type but as I said I want more Arkers wherever I can find them. And Kane needs real opposition. I have sympathy for him to a degree, but I also think he ultimately weakens rather than strengthens himself.

I love when Monty calls bullshit on stuff. “I can’t see Clarke? Try and fucking stop me, bitches.”

Jasper has such a big heart. Truly the emotional core of this friendship.

I like how Kane speaks as if his “diplomatic mission” of adults is so vastly different than Bellamy and Finn just going off on their own I mean, Byrne is little better than Finn? They’re both easily frustrated and fond of torture? It’s just that Byrne understands a chain of command--barely--that’s literally it.

How does it make literally any sense at all to shocklash a person one hour and make her the Chancellor the next? Like you’ve just encouraged the populace to think of her as nothing special, not above the embarrassing public application of extreme pain--but yes by all means expect them to fall into line behind her leadership. I mean I guess this sort of works if she was already somehow beloved (I guess I’m supposed to just believe that?) and now more sympathy has been generated for her--but such sympathy would seem to come at the expense of Kane. It would seem to be the opposite of what he, or really Byrne, was going for with that disgusting display. But whatever memory is a fiction I guess.

And they have this swelling-music romantic eye-fuck goodbye like??? He was just beating you!! JUST NOW!

What I’m getting out of Murphy advocating for killing the Grounder: first, he has a clear, cold, practicality not unlike Clarke, and two, he still thinks of the delinquents as his friends--how sweet. Two days ago he was killing them, holding them hostage, and stealing their ammo before a huge battle but still. Bygones.

This is not a great ep. for Bellamy leadership lol.

Finn executes a man, while wearing Clarke’s watch, in the place they had sex. Seems...symbolic?? IDK it’s late lol.

I miss Nyko a lot but also now that I’ve seen (part of) Slasher I’m not entirely sure I can ever see Ty Olsson in the same light.

Wouldn’t it be funny if they were literal brothers? Because I always assumed this was metaphorical but...was it? WAS IT?

Weird note to end on, I know. If patterns hold, it’ll be another 2-3 months before I do this again but I’ll try to be a little more on the ball about it.

[scuttleboat]

Do you like Echo? I really want to now that she's a regular but I can't shake my wariness of her. It seems like she's constantly in the antagonistic role for our mains, but then she'll look sad for like 2secs and people will feel bad for her. But I don't. Do you feel me? Im open to her changing and growing with the spacekru, and I hope I like her character next season. But as of right now I don't understand the fascination some people seem to have of her.

An Egregiously Extensive Echo Essay

I’m gonna throw this wild analogy at you: Echo kom Azgeda is James Bond.

She is a dangerous, beautiful, ruthlessly loyal spy. She serves the queen (or king) and has to kill a lot of people. Fanatically loyal, always gets the job done. She gets captured, she makes allies, she lies to people, she gets friendly with the enemy and then later has to fight them or kill them to save her country.

bad difference: she doesn’t get to have smokin’ sex with the enemy officer (yet)

good difference: she feels actual, on-screen, sincere regret and anguish for deaths that she knows are necessary for her people but will nonetheless cause pain to someone she respects. I don’t think I’d personally seen a movie with genuine anguish from James Bond until Casion Royale came out.

So James Bond is a superhero if you’re British, but if you’re Russian or Communist or you work for a well-paying criminal mastermind, he’s basically like a horrific monster who kills your friends and blows up your factory and keeps your homeland from winning the cold war either militarily or economically. Either way, a loyal killer lapdog of the monarchy.

That’s Echo. If you look at where she’s coming from, even the fact that Bellamy helped her once isn’t enough to counteract the belief from her people and her queen that the Sky People represent an extreme danger to the clans and to Ice Nation. So they betray Lexa (who they see as an unfit conqueror anyway), and take out the enemy stronghold (Mt. Weather). To do that, Echo lies to a man who helped her once and saved her life. Yes, it’s a cruel and terrible thing to do.  Yes, he’d be in his rights to hate her forever. But that doesn’t make Echo any less of a hero to her people.

((sorry this is getting long, so…. behind the cut))

The way I see The 100, the show goes to extreme lengths to show that everyone has motivations for evil acts. Most of the time, those motives start out “good” (such as self-defense, protection of community, stopping cruelty).  In a few cases, it becomes evil when A) the harm done so vastly counterbalances any possible rational good (Dante), B) when someone is just a total sadist (Cage), or C) when ego and neglect and vanity cause the literal apocalypse (Becca/ALIE). Echo does not meet the standards of either A, B, or C. None of the major Grounder characters do (maaaaaybe Luna? !SQUIRREL!).  Anyway, Echo, like our main characters Clarke, Bellamy, Kane, Jaha, etc… she’s done terrible things to protect and serve her people.  I don’t hate or even dislike her character for that. She just is a character in this universe. And I certainly adore Bellarke, who have done as bad or worse than Echo for the same reason, so I can’t point fingers on the whole military actions thing.

We didn’t get to really know Echo until this season, and I think the show tried hard to put a lot of character building in while not forgetting about what they’d used her for in the past. They did an… adequate job. There’s definitely stuff that could have been handled in a smoother or more complex manner, but at the end of the season I’m generally satisfied with how they brought her into the regular cast. Weak episodes aside, there were several of her scenes I liked, and plenty of points at which I felt sympathy for her, just as you mention in your ask.  

The biggest thing I had wrt Echo going into season 4 was “How is her relationship with Bellamy going to be handled?”  Because I stan that guy, and she did him dirty. She did him as badly as Lexa did Clarke, except no one was there to intervene and save the sky people this time. I was pretty frustrated with their dynamic in the first half of s4, especially 401, because I thought their scenes really underplayed the anger that Bellamy ought to have been feeling.  And then again in 405, their pivotal conversation didn’t feel successfully dramatic to me because I was just asking “WHEN IS BELLAMY GOING TO BE MAD ABOUT STUFF?” Like, Echo was a pivotal agent in a plot that got his friends and lover killed, she lured him into a potential bloodbath to disrupt a peace summit, she held a sword to Clarke’s throat, she mortally injured Octavia, and she advocated for war with Skaikru. Even if Echo was just protecting her own nation, it’s incomprehensible that Bellamy wouldn’t be angry that she used their past shared trauma to personally manipulate him. And then like, basically assassinated his sister.

For most of s4, I was like “????????” about how this was going, but that was more about Bellamy>>Echo than about Echo the character. Luckily, 410 went a LONG way to fix that for me. In 410, we finally saw Bellamy’s rage. I normally am not here for guys choking women on TV but in this unique case it felt really earned as a climactic fight. He almost kills her the same way they killed Lovejoy, the same way Murphy and then ChippedKane almost killed him. I cheered cause WOOOO DRAMA.Bellamy found out Echo was interfering and would try to assassinate his sister AGAIN, so he tried to kill her and his violence took on a form that is indicative of his lessons on the ground. We saw him finally let out that rage that was suppressed during their earlier encounters.

I’m glad he didn’t kill her, and she didn’t kill him, but I think they needed to come close. They needed that release, so the real forgiveness could come. We’ve seen Bellamy forgive–or at least live with–the people who tried to kill him or his loved ones before (Pike, Murphy, Jaha, Kane). Bellamy at his heart is a loving person who is damaged by anger, not made strong by it. Forgiving Echo at least enough to help her survive is absolutely in character for him at this point in the story. That’s what makes him a heroic protagonist. Being a protector is a core trait for both him and Clarke, and part of why they’re ultimately so compatible.  Does that mean Bellamy could fall for Echo? Ehhh… They’re in a fairly unique situation and I wouldn’t take sex off the table. I think a delicate strange friendship will come about. But I highly doubt he’d actually fall in love with her. If I was shipping them, that’s a really complex dynamic to write a ton of fanfic about. As I’m not, I don’t care.

“Do you feel me? Im open to her changing and growing with the spacekru”

Anon, I have to say that nope, i do not feel you on this. Specifically, I don’t think she has to “change” if ‘change’ means to go from being a bad person to a good person. From the POV of her journey, she did the right thing by her people every step of the way until 410. The conclave was the first time she went outside her orders and did a dishonorable thing to save her people. Ironically, the Skaikru did the exact same thing that very same evening. A lot of people cheated at that event. But why it mattered to Echo’s character is that honor was the heart of her story–and it was honorable, to her mind, to kill in defense of her nation in s3 and s4. But when she let her fear and distrust drive her to break the rules of this (totally outrageous fucking bonkers) murder game, she violated her own honor. Roan came down hard on her for that, because Roan happens to care a lot about honor when it comes to fighting, I guess. Echo went too far in 410–just as Clarke and Jaha and Miller did. Just as Bellamy has before, as Lexa has before. She was punished for it, essentially ordered to die in a few days time.

I don’t look at Echo’s character and see a bad person who needs to learn to care about things–Echo clearly cared about a fucking LOT. It just wasn’t what our mains cared about. Echo did have to learn a lesson about when to have restraint, but then that’s what everyone on the show has had to learn. Other than that, her being in a antagonist role has been entirely a function of plot on the show. The plot was that she worked for the enemy. Otherwise, she is pretty similar to our heroes, only taller. 

We did see, at several points this season, that Echo’s fierce loyalty to Roan and the Ice Nation caused her anguish when it came to betraying Bellamy. She was fully aware of what he’d done for her, and that between them personally he didn’t deserve to be so horrifically betrayed. To be a little callous, that’s more genuine visible remorse than we ever saw from Lexa or Pike or–check this out–Emori. As a viewer, I feel like we’ve been given enough material to see her position and to understand where she comes from. I’m content with her being in the main group. I think she’s one more interesting person in a mix of interesting characters who are trapped together in space.

I mean, I may have a bad reaction if we have to SEE her make out with Bellamy. Like, I hope I don’t have to see that. Otherwise, I’m cool with her on the show. I feel bad when she makes a face like a kicked puppy. I think making deep and meaningful connections with people outside her clan will enrich her as a character.

[kinetic-elaboration]

May 4: Thoughts on 4x10 Die All Die Merrily

So as expected this episode was generally pretty boring and focused primarily on the people, events, and actions that interest me absolutely the least in this show. But as I said, I was anticipating as much, so in a weird way, I was pleasantly surprised? I was expecting nothing and got a bit of something, whereas, for example, last episode I was expecting a lot and got less than nothing and was super disappointed. So... I actually feel kind of...good...for having watched it? Weird.

Anyway a few observations (in chronological order today because I actually paused to write down a few notes this time, which I don’t usually do for first watches):

Clarke would have sided with the council on the Ark, I think we’ve now more than established that. Her line to Roan “I want humanity to survive, even if it’s not my people” is pretty much indistinguishable from the guiding philosophy of the Ark, except that there were fewer “factions” on the Ark, so “my people” might mean, like, my family or my friends or this poor parent stealing medicine, etc. I’m not mad about this, I think it’s interesting. Clarke was so morally righteous about the Ark Council in early S1 but when push comes to shove she adopts their way of thinking: that the whole is more important than the parts. And even though I don’t have much by way of concrete thoughts on the Bellamy and Clarke stuff in this ep (yet?) I do think it’s inevitable, narratively, that they come to a head, because his guiding philosophy for the apocalypse is “We save who can we save today,” which is much more about the parts than the whole. (ETA: I do know she was lying but this is her philosophy, that the big picture is the most important thing. And while she was obviously taking the bunker for just her people, not the Grounders, she was also influenced by her belief that Luna would win, meaning that it was her people or nothing in her mind.)

I’ve never cared for Echo as a character or thought much about her appearance wise but she was looking hella hot in this episode.

Octavia’s Roan voice is hilarious. “I am a serious warrior now, a Damaged Person who’s Seen Things and Felt Tragedy and now wields Weapons of Death so I must talk in a low gravely voice all the time.” Imagine S4 Octavia stepping out of the dropship and snarling “We’re back bitches” lol.

I was thinking during the announcement of the champions (or whatever they’re called) that this Grounder language really makes no sense and is not consistent. I mean obviously they’re going to primarily speak English on this show but...didn’t they say once that only warriors understood English? I bet they’re regretting that line hardcore right now. Because it is QUITE obvious that everyone and their baby sister knows English.

Because my never-indulged-in kink is Emotional Conversations and Relationship Development there were a few scenes I liked. I enjoyed Bellamy and Octavia and Kane: I liked how smart Bellamy was (side note: the whole mess with Clarke and the twist ending could have been avoided with proper communication; she didn’t realize O had like a Great Plan in place to win and basically gave her up as a lost cause too soon haha), I liked the Octavia and Kane hug. I also enjoyed the Indra and Octavia scene, though it would have been better if their history wasn’t quite so...fraught. And I liked the Indra and Gaia and Kane and Bellamy scenes as well. Probably my favorite of this set was the Kane and Indra conversation, though. It still bugs me that we have no idea how they became the BroTP of BroTPs but...at least we have them.

Bellamy: “I will not stand for cheating! I will not stand for it!!!!!” The moral core of the show.

I hate Polis but it is a cool set, I will give it that.

Unpopular opinion but: Luna is the worst. I have never been a Luna fan. I liked her introduction and the first shot of her rig but ever since she’s been nothing but annoying and she’s been Extra Annoying this season. I do not regret in the least bit that she is gone lol. Maybe I should be interested by her whole philosophy and story or whatever but I’m just...not. It strikes me as very shallow and flat. Like absolutely the least amount of thought was put into it. Let’s-go-to-the-common-room-and-talk-about-apartheid Unyielding Morally Superior Undergraduate Faux Hippie devolves into Unyielding Pseudo-Goth all-humanity-is awful-without-question-or-exception kill machine is just not compelling I’m sorry.

Basically my biggest problem with this episode is that it is an Octavia episode and I’m just not that interested in her and haven’t been...well, ever, really, but I lost what little interest I did have in her when Lincoln was killed. Like, the episode was actually better written and plotted than I was expecting, but I still couldn’t really care about its main character. I do wonder why this is. Is it because of the fandom? Is it because her arc has been badly written? Is it just because it’s not to my taste, not bad in any way in particular but just not suited to my personality? I don’t know,

Re: the Roan and Echo scene: where tf did the word “sire” come from? Like I know what it means but has anyone ever called anyone else that on this show before, ever? It seems like kind of a weird word to survive the apocalypse considering these people’s closest real world ancestors are 20th century East Coast Americans lol.

Anyway, Roan was great in that scene, though. I liked his devotion to honor as an abstract concept not just like a badge you show to people so you can trick them into trusting you, and honestly it’s scenes like this that make me sad to see him go/hopeful that he’s not actually gone.

Also re: that scene, while I am of the belief that it’s Octavia, not Bellamy, who is at fault for the sibling rift, I did think the sequence where she overhears him talking about her was touching. Like I was touched ngl.

While watching Kane and Indra and appreciating their friendship, I started wondering if inter-clan dating/marriage/procreation is a thing. Like they all mingle together in places like Polis, certainly some people have got to fall in love outside of their little group. What happens then? Does one person leave their clan? Were there people watching the conclave who were like ‘well, my husband’s clan is gone but my birth clan is still in the race, I wonder if I can like sneak him in when we win?’

Re the deaths: I don’t care. As I said, I’ve never liked Luna, and as I might have mentioned repeatedly in other posts, I’ve never liked Ilian either so good riddance to bad rubbish that they’re gone. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Roan, and my mom likes him so I feel bad for her that he’s gone, but my feeling generally is...if he does miraculously come back, that will be cool, but if he doesn’t, I won’t miss him. In a way, I’m glad for all of these deaths because I feel like they were supposed to be really Upsetting and Scandalous and maybe that means we’ve filled our quota of death for the season. (Also, except for arguably Roan, these are all the sort of people who die a lot on this show: mid-level guest stars, characters introduced earlier in the season, etc. These sort of deaths comfort me because they show me the writers have some idea of how to kill people in a “we gotta kill people SOMEtimes” environment, as opposed to deaths like Wells’s or Lincoln’s that are just like ???? narratively.)

As for the ending...I know O made the right call morally and that in a sense it was the only thing she could do in this story and in order to fulfill the theme. She had to say the bunker is for everyone because that’s the truly humane thing to do; it not only honored Lincoln, it showed how wrong Luna was about the inherent badness of people. But...honestly when she was talking my first thought was to groan and think that this means that YET AGAIN an ENTIRE EPISODE was literally and completely POINTLESS like omg will literally ANYTHING happen EVER??

And the ending...Ok. IDK what to think of Clarke’s decision morally, like I didn’t have an instinctual reaction to it and I haven’t thought much about it because I just finished the ep like half an hour ago... but practically speaking, as it turned out, it was really dumb lol. If she had just let things run their course, Octavia would have won anyway, and then they’d be in place to keep the bunker without betraying anyone (or, more importantly, causing damage to the incredibly precarious political peace that Roan established with the conclave idea) and it would be fine. I mean, she’d have to contend with O’s promise to give space to other people but like I said, I don’t think Arkadia still has 1200 people so there’s wiggle room here. Plus, Octavia’s pronouncement made everyone all warm and fuzzy and compliant for literally the first time possibly EVER, so I think arguably some nice diplomacy, like by Kane perhaps, could have had at least a shot of smoothing things over. But nope. Griffin’s gotta do it all herself.

Basically, I’m saying: way to have faith in your friend, Clarke. Yet again she says all the right things, but then just like...does whatever the fuck she wants (see what I did there?) otherwise. I mean it’s very consistent and definitely IC of her and in that sense I can’t be mad, especially because her ruthlessness is actually one of my favorite traits of hers in a way but... I would like to see her grow. Finally. A little.

In particular “I have no choice,” “I did it because I had to,” “I’m doing what I have to do” and all variants thereof need to die. Or at least be Called Out. Because it’s never true that only one choice exists to a person, first of all. And second, it’s obnoxious. It’s a pass the buck phrase if ever there was one. I guess what I’m saying is I’d like Clarke to take responsibility for her actions finally, especially because I think she’s had enough opportunity to learn this lesson.  I thought maybe her S3 experiences might have helped. Also and most significantly, experimenting on herself instead of Emori in 4x08 did seem to be her finally comprehending that “I have no choice” is a falsehood. I know she was still being a martyr when she did it (her misuse of the Dante line) but STILL. UGH.

Also...obviously there’s a lot of THE SKY PEOPLE ARE BECOMING MT. WEATHER AHHHH going on, and it’s not subtle (experimenting on people, “welcome to Mt. Weather,” the gas canisters that are literally from Mt. Weather, the 4x09 blockade), but I don’t...really know what to make of it tbh. It’s falling a bit flat but I don’t know if that’s just me being dumb and/or unappreciative or if it’s a problem with the construction.

Yay two seconds of Miller. I love seeing him as a leader type.

BUT...sorry, what is this ridiculous stuff about each Station getting like half a floor though? Alpha, Mecha, Farm, and the occupants of prison station made it to the ground. That’s it. And most of Farm was killed by Ice Nation either during the hiatus or in 3x03. So, like, where are these alleged Hydra station survivors? Are our three Factory people (Bellamy, Octavia, and Mel) going to get a whole level to themselves or something? The inconsistency, it astounds.

And...yep, that’s that.