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milfbro · 2 years

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Please what are your thoughts on Merlin, I haven't thought about that show in 8 years

Forgive me lads for putting Merlin meta in your dash in 2022. I am sorry. But know that this could be much longer

important context tho, is that I find Merlin infinitely rewatchable cause I don't have to like, use my brain. So I pop an episode on sometimes. I must have rewatched the show like, 7 times over the years. Idk it's almost white noise for me

ok I guess my general thesis of the hypothetical presentation on Merlin I'd give on the fly is that Merlin is a show that's constantly in a tug of war against itself. It's already an extremely conservative show where the main theme is that 'things right now are bad, but we can change them for the better by keeping things exactly as they are' which is hilarious to me.

A bbc show for children can't encourage questioning authority and traditional values or the existence of the monarchy but also this show wants to have things to say about all of those topics. It wants to be modern but can't openly critique arthuriana, it's trying to both maintain the nonsense english identity and ideology attached to it over the centuries without embracing the weirdness of the old legends, but also is trying be hip and young, cash in on the freaky england fashion trend americans are going through

So how does that manifest in the show? Besides some vague nonsense with semi-colorblind casting and vague metaphors for every marginalized group possible? Every episode they introduce a new threat that, if they thought about it with the same mindset that they had in the previous episode, should lead them to the obvious conclusion that the monarchy that is currently committing genocide is bad. But they can't have that, so they have Gaius say the opposite of something he said in another episode (Gaius being the moral guide of each ep so we learn the new rules of the universe for the current one) and Merlin reacts as if it was understood that this new stance is the what they'd already had; they fight the threat and save the king. Rinse, repeat

It's a neverending cycle of moving goalposts and a completely fluid morality so that they always reach the same conclusion over and over and over, each episode echoing the overarching story. It's like a big conservative loop with no logic, only the idea that Arthur being king is good and will fix things (the genocide that is currently still happening), even after he is already king and is already not fixing anything. But he is 'the greatest king Camelot has ever had', whatever that means.

BUT there's a turn that happens in the last season that kind of collapses this whole schtick. I need to give context for this in case the person reading hasn't rewatched Merlin six times: Merlin is given the choice to save or kill Mordred, the guy he knows will kill Arthur. For convoluted reasons, saving Mordred will make magic legal. So Merlin has to choose to either save Arthur or end the prosecution of his own people. He saves Arthur, like he does for the entire show, and when he does that he accidentally kickstarts the last arc where Mordred kills Arthur and the show ends with magic remaining hidden for the rest of time. Thanks Merlin! This is kind of surreal coming from this show, and I AM reading too much into it obviously but you asked for it: the final arc is when Merlin has to face the fact that protecting the status quo and maintaining the state that is actively persecuting his people, doesn't do anything to end said persecution. He had the agency in this moment to cause the solution that he'd wanted the whole time but he doesn't do it because he has never accepted that the means to cause change is through change.

Anyway, the very ending of the show features Colin Morgan in old man make-up walking next to what I presume is the M-25 because it would be funny if it was. And we're meant to think that it's bittersweet and he's waiting for Arthur to return and take his place back on the throne, so he can be there to help him usher a new era where magic will be back to Albion. But given the reading I just gave you, the ending of Merlin, thematically, is a sad ending where the main character is still doing nothing to change the current world but expecting and hoping that change will come if we stay still. It's really sad and awfully tragic of the show. This is what will happen if you live your life to guard the institutions that do not love you back.

And that's what I have overthought about Merlin. I have much more where this came from. I'm sorry for this.

#I mention genocide a couple of times in this! beware #i don't go into it but I mention it

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droughtofapathy · 3 months

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"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

Encores! Once Upon a Mattress

This one's going to be a little longer than usual, but not as long as it could've been, so you're welcome. I've been listening to the Mary Rodgers memoir, and going in knowing how and why this musical was crafted the way that it was really shed some light on the process. Highly recommend listening to the audiobook (as narrated by Christine Baranski), because it's wildly entertaining at every turn. As for the musical itself? Well... It's a nostalgia piece that does well in high schools all across the country. And that's great. J. Harrison Ghee, great. Nikki Renee Daniels, great. Harriet Harris, so great she had the house screaming with laughter every moment. Worth the entire night just for her.

Sutton Foster was one referred to as "the luckiest chorus girl" and I don't disagree. Sure, she's talented in specific areas. She's a good dancer, and has the breath support to sing whilst doing it. Sing well? Mmm...no. I've never been the biggest fan of her voice, but it was especially weak in this show, and that's shocking because this is kind of a role made for her. It's big and brassy and doesn't need to be sung well, just loud. And she didn't manage to do that. "Shy" was tepid. Jackie Hoffman out-belted her when she did it eight years ago, and she's a comedy legend. Sutton can get the laughs, that's for sure, but it feels so inorganic watching her roll around on stage. Comedy is hard, and Carol Burnett is a master at it. Her schtick will make you cry laughing, and it feels effortless even if it takes so much work. Sutton makes it look like her entire internal monologue is "I'm funny, I'm being so funny right now, I'm doing comedy," on repeat the entire time. Which, fine, sure, it's a show that works with that. I don't actually care that she's too old for this part (just like she's too old for Marian the Librarian) because it's objectively hilarious that a nearly-peri-menopausal woman is going to be the princess of the kingdom and have heirs, but I do care that she's not delivering the goods.

Listen to this "Shy" and then go do yourself a favor and listen to literally anyone else sing it. She gets a semi-powerful belt in at the end, but come on. This is supposed to be her bread and butter.

Verdict: A Lovely Night

A Note on Ratings

#once upon a mattress #encores!#new york city center #sutton foster #harriet harris #welcome to the theatre: diary of a broadway baby #i've seen sutton foster in three shows now and each time i've been actively irritated by how unimpressive she is #the first time she was in concert with kelli o'hara and i gave her a pass because c'mon she had no hope in hell of comparing to kelli #the music man was...yikes... painful doesn't do justice to the butchery she did of my white knight (rebecca luker save me)#this should have been her role to dazzle in and *yet*... ugh

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redantsunderneath · 4 years

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DC COMICS: Incoherence as Not-a-Bug-but-a-Feature (Spoilers for Batman 89-100)

Due to the emergence of the new Batman villain character Punchline, I wound up buying the last 12 issues of Batman and reading them in a single sitting. I’ve had trouble following DC comics for a while, constantly feeling that they were in trouble since back in the mid 2000s (with a glimmer of hope here and there). The act of reading DC comics has been a frustrating experience, where individual good stories and runs were laying around in the context of a lot of things that didn’t make sense while the company’s thrust felt chaotic and ideas not well blended. Every status quo change seemed hard to figure out the rules of enough to parse the context. We’ll get into the background of this, but my reading today of this extended stretch of comics that keeps losing the plot in favor of a fever dream of what’s happening at the moment with specific characters that refuse to cohere, it became obvious that what I had been looking at as subtext or critique was actually the text. I could see the messed up trees but was missing the the forest the universe was trying to describe.

What happens in these issues (Batman current series 89-100, I missed the beginning of the first of 2 arcs) is rolling war between the major Batman villains and the heroes (plus Harley Quinn and Catwoman), which shifts into a Joker and Joker adjacent vs. all as the Joker double crosses everyone then manages to steal Bruce Wayne’s fortune. We meet 3 new baddies – Underbroker, whose schtick is putting ill-gotten gains beyond the reach of the legal system (with an explicit line to rich globalists drawn), the Designer, who back in the day offered the four A list Batman villains plans to achieve what they most wanted, and Punchline, who is your toxic ex’s new millennial GF who really has it in for you (there is also a new good guy Clownhunter, which is a whole different thing, and a new costumed detective that predates Batman). This doesn’t convey the chaotic nature of what is happening issue to issue, but there’s more than one Batman hallucinogenic spirit quest, dead characters ostensibly walking around, a plan revolving around the Bat’s origin story that tells some version of it several times, and a no-nonsense declaration that the Joker, as the Devil of the Batman spiritual system, cannot die. The whole thing has the effect of convincing you there is no definitive sequence of events, only versions.

Alan Moore’s Killing Joke is not a favorite of mine, for a number of reasons. But the ending holds up. The Joker has done terrible things there is no antecedent for, and Batman wonders aloud if this never-ending dance they do ends in anything but both of their deaths; can they uncouple from the unhealthy duality the cycle of which simply repeats. The Joker responds, well, with a joke about two lunatics trying to escape an asylum. One jumps the roof to the next building, while the other is too scared to try. The escapee offers to hold a light while the other crosses on a beam but he says no, no you’ll just cut the light while I’m half way across. This not very funny joke nonetheless has a bunch of resonances – BM and Joker as conspiring co inmates, BM wanting to break out, a commentary about their natures (almost a reversal of the frog and scorpion story where the scorpion won’t go because he knows how this ends), but mostly it implicates BM as the one who is enabling the cycle, the reason why it won’t end. They both laugh uproariously, and the ambiguous final panels can be read as the fundamental realization of his complicity causing BM to kill J. A lethal joke indeed… except, next month, we see the both of them again. In broader context, the ceaseless cycle of the diad is reaffirmed. This has been hellaciously sticky as an idea in the Batmen universe.

My realization of what DC has been doing is pretty banal in its pieces. Marvel has “ground level” heroes while DC has a mythos, a pantheon. Their archetypal makeup is strong, the seven JLA members lining up with the pantheon of Greek gods and the Chakras weirdly closely. DC has big characters that are somewhat flat which they can use tell big bold individual stories that are cool the way legends and fables are cool. But these stories require bold strokes that a bit incompatible with each other. People get attached to these iterations. Meanwhile, Marvel trucks in soap operas where the characters give you an empathetic stand in and are narratively flexible. Marvel events are usually about the writer vs. the company, asking you to sympathize or deconstruct the creative impulse amid efforts to impose control or order. DC’s events are about editorial vs. the audience, the shapers vs. the forces of the world. It may seem obvious, given this description, that DC’s focus is on an archetypal tableau though it may be less obvious that this tableau is under extreme pressure from expectations when trying to tell ongoing tales month in, month out (or semi-monthly in some cases). The stories are constantly compared against the big stories that have gone before, and the audience’s ideas of the characters exert pressure to push them in directions that capture “the” version they believe in. This circle is not possible to square.

DC and Marvel both have a multiverse of sorts. DC used to tell “Elseworlds” stories which were later tucked into pocket universes. DC invented crossing over between “realities.” DC’s continuity is heavy baggage and they began to have “Crises” to resolve the narrative incompatibilities. These only made things worse as you can’t get rid of the past people have a relationship with – it will come back. Now you have to explain that away too. Marvel just lets it lay – forget about the iffy stories, they count, sure, just no one is ever going to talk about them unless they have an angle. Marvel continuity is all angles and amnesia. This is just easier to do with dating and rent and your ancient aunt’s medical bills than with Gods. Marvel’s multiverse is about sandboxes that you can always dump into the mainframe if they work (and never really mention the sandbox again).

There is a shift that occurred in the industry in the 2004 to 2005 era that is less remarked upon than many upheavals in comic’s history. Marvel had gone through a period of incredible new idea generation in the early 2000s after a late 90s creative cratering but had just fired the pro wrestling inflected soul of that moment (Bill Jemas). DC was coming off of a period of trying to do moderately updated versions of what they basically been doing all along. The attitude was “yeah we’re under stress from the combined history of these characters, but we got to keep telling the stories.” Geoff Johns was one voice of DC over the 99-04 period that showed potential - he seemed to get how to find the core of characters and push them into a new in sync directions if they over the years have lost a clear identity. But mostly he had internalized a basic schism between something mean that the audience wanted, and something good and wholesome about the characters themselves, and figured out how to mess around with this in a equilibrating fashion.

Interestingly, the ignition point of the main forces that were going to blow DC over the next decade and a half was a comic that had virtually nothing to do with any of those main forces. Brad Meltzer, a novelist, was hired to do a comic called Infinity Crisis, which sold extremely well and was, justifiably or not, recognized as an event. At the same time, everyone also kind of hated it because the dark desires of some DC fans were pushed forward just a bit too much for comfort and for a comic with Crisis in the name it didn’t do a whole lot other than “darken” things. Nonetheless, this lit an “event” fire at both companies. Marvel chose a shake up the status quo for a year, then do it again, pattern and was off to the races (I have written about this, and more, here) while continuing its Randian framing of beleaguered do-gooders opposed by rule making freedom haters.

As this was playing out, Dan Didio quietly took power in DC Editorial. His outlook was more Bloomian – he seemed to spark off of writers who exhibited anxiety of influence. He recognized Johns was the one person they had could be promoted into something of a universe architect, starting work on two key projects from which the rest would evolve. The first, was bringing back Hal Jordan as Green Lantern and diffracting the GL universe into its own symbolic system, with parts frisson-ing other parts, and almost a Magic the Gathering color scheme of ideas. The other was to build up to Infinite Crisis, which would become the model for most of their universe changing events until the present day.

The basic frame is this: DC heroes want to be good (in a sense of their inherent nature) but forces outside form a context that makes them fall. It’s a very gnostic universe, DC. They examine reflections of the concepts, invent scapegoats for certain tendencies (see Superboy Prime as entitled fanboy, Dr. Manhattan as editors that try and fail to mend things, etc), make characters violate principles, rehabilitate them, then show that the world if anything is more broken than before. This is kind of Johns’ thing and it fits Didio’s narrative as historicval tension fetish. But then came Scott Snyder (not to be confused with Zack) who began to work on Batman in 2011. Since then, as much as Justice League is pushed as the central title and Lex Luthor has been pimped, Batman has been the core of the universe and the Joker the core villain.

Snyder had the same continuity conflict wavelength but was significantly more meta and able to contain multitudes than Johns. He was the first to make an explicit mystery of how there could be several Jokers around at one time (who are the same but not, he posited 3 – man, Christians!) that seems prescient given the near future coexistence of filmic Jokers that are not able to be resolved. I believe he was the first to begin to tease out an idea – that different versions of things in comics are not a diffraction or filter effect, a using the set of things that work best for that story and leaving the rest, but are a matter of the archetypal system of the audience coming apart. From an in story perspective what appears to happen is that multiple versions of incompatible things exist in the collective unconscious of the continuing narrative, and this is something that the characters may become conscious of.

The run I just read is written by James Tynion IV building on the above trends. The trick seems to be going all in on the Jungian aspect (at Jung’s most religiously epiphanic). The Designer was a progenitor and adversary to Batman’s predecessor and his intellectual approach eventually defeated the detective… broke him. At some point in early Batman history, the Designer brought the top four Bat-baddies together and offered each, in turn, a plan to achieve what they most desired: the Riddler, a way to achieve an empire of the mind; the Penguin, power; and Catwoman, money. They are all elated as they await the Joker to come out. The Joker emerges with a furious Designer on his heals and promptly shoots him dead. He explains that he didn’t like his joke in the form of a fable – the devil offered four people the path to their greatest desire: the three chose earthly things, but the Joker’s wish was to be him, to become the devil. The story proceeds to suggest that the Joker just exists, he is present as a necessary component in the system. You can kill him, yet he is alive.

DC has been using physics metaphors for the nature of their reality since Flash of Two Worlds in 1963. The multiverse as a continuity concept was their idea and the holographic universe of the hypertime was a thing. It seems like since Dan Didio took over, they’ve been heading towards a concept of broad superimposition, of measurement effect being weak, of the universe being like a quantum computer with all possibilities coexisting and the story instantiating not one reality but a path through all the possible ones. By making Batman trip balls through quite a few issues and relive his origin from different angles, the story is one of its own instability and the heroic task that confronts our hero is attempting to actualize the world. The Joker is the Devil in the sense of lack of fixed meaning, of relativistic chaos, of the world not making sense because it’s unmoored nature with ultimately no knowability. Batman, in this story, functions as a postmodern knight crusading against the impossibility of epistemological grounding.

There’s more going on, sure. One plot is, literally, defund Batman. There is rioting, people brainwashed by being exposed to toxic ether, people paid to go to theaters even though they will die as a result, and questions about neoliberalism similar to that one Joker movie. Punchline has no personality yet (Tynion’s not the best at that) but she serves well as a generational foil for Harley – a rudderless ideological vacuum susceptible to Joker-as-idea-virus rather than an unfulfilled MD who felt alienated due to the structures of her life and was seeking escape into structureless possibility. The Designer stuff is both continuity play (See why they changed from goofy villains to more “realistic” ones! Look how pulp heroes informed superheroes!), a comment on the nature of a longstanding narrative (strong intentions die out as Brownian motion overwhelms momentum), and a lawful evil/chaotic evil setup of the dualism of apocalypses (overdetermined authoritarian vs. center does not hold barbarism). But the thing that ties this to the past decade and a half of DC is the sense that the reality is fluid and susceptible to change or outright s’cool incompatibility.

This is different than other flavors of meta in superhero comics. Grant Morrison believes the archetypes are stronger than the forces that seek to bend them. Alan Moore wants you to deconstruct your sacred cows and probably hates you personally. Marvel might play with self-awareness, but effortlessly resolves inconsistencies after it’s finished playing. DC, at this point, allows you to watch the waves solidfy into symbols and dissolve, and the constant confusion and lack of grounding is more of a choice then I thought this time yesterday. The conflict theory of DC reality has been in full swing but this looks to be turning towards a kind of Zen historicism, holding contradictory things in your mind at once. Warren Ellis’ JLA/Authority book is the nearest comparable text I can think of. I need to call this, but I didn’t even talk about Death Metal, DC character multiplicity as meta-psychosis event extraordinaire. Comics just keep getting weirder.

#DC comics #batman #joker #punchline

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crusherthedoctor · 4 years

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Jungles may commonly appear earlier than other environments on the sliding scale of video game geography, and Viridonia is no exception to that cliche. But in this case, I purposefully used a jungle as the setting for Zone 2 to make a point.

Jungle levels are full of greenery, just like with Green Hill-esque levels, which means if done poorly, they can risk ending up blending together despite the different climate. By going all out with Tricky Tropics however, and giving it its own distinct qualities, the different (yet still upbeat) atmosphere compared to Gleaming Meadows would further my point about how you can breathe new life into any level trope if you know what you're doing. And if these two zones can feel unique when compared to each other, despite all that green between them, it sets a good precedent for the potential it suggests for later zones...

Creating Zone 2: Tricky Tropics

2-1: Luscious Jungle

When comparing Luscious Jungle to previous jungles and other foresty areas in the franchise, one of the two biggest inspirations was the very first of its kind: Jungle Zone from the Master System version of Sonic 1. Specifically, how the green REALLY pops out, and gives off a warm and inviting atmosphere despite the dangers present.

The other main inspiration being, as you'll already know from reading the fic, Frog Forest from Sonic Heroes, what with taking the idea of using fruit as a gimmick for obstacles and platforming, and heavily expanding on it. Unlike in Frog Forest however, they don’t require giant frogs to activate them. They’ll help or hinder you by their lonesome.

Though I suppose the wildlife hanging around in all shapes and sizes means there's a slight touch of Dinosaur Jungle in there as well, at least in spirit... if you replaced the dinosaurs with elephants, tigers, zebras, and all the rest.

Aside from the oversized fruit, as well as the deep brown trails of soil on the ground, additional flowers and other plant life help round off all the green, with the flowers in particular taking a page or two from the most striking ones in the Amazon rainforest. This doesn't just apply to the gimmick-related flowers either, it applies to the ones that are just part of the scenery as well.

Viridonia does not half-ass its vegetation. What motivation is there to saving the place from Eggman’s insidious influence if it doesn’t look as aesthetically pleasing as possible?

And obviously, the savannah area would be considerably more yellow, though its appearance and gimmicks would prevent it from feeling like a repeat of Yellow Hills from the previous zone. The beaming sunlight peeking through the clouds mixed in with the sprawling landscape may go as far as to bring back nostalgic memories of... LEGO Racers 2?

Um, sure, okay.

And before you ask, this isn't Trudy's family either.

First Section (jungle): Jungle Classic Tiny Temple (Crash Nitro Kart)

Second Section (savannah): Rock Star (Kirby 64) Jungle Falls (Diddy Kong Racing)

2-2: Temple Village

Remember the echidna village from the ancient past, before Chaos activated his trap card and sent them all to the Shadow Realm? Violently?

Well, we've got a similar schtick here, but different at the same time. The Mayan influence remains, as evidenced with the blocky pyramids sprinkled around, but you also have huge idol structures keeping them company, not unlike the ones you see in Idol Springs from Spyro 2.

The camp site and its explorer NPCs also help to liven up the place. But then, so do the Badniks, for a certain definition of “liven up”. (By which I mean, the intention to do the exact opposite of that.)

Then you have the wooded blockades, which are similar to those in Sonic '06, but with much more colorful paint markings, despite the rust accumulated over the years. They're also less prone to making the Havok physics engine shit itself. So they wouldn't make it into Tracy Yardley's good graces.

Meanwhile, up in the trees, the process of going through carved paths within the trees may bring Honeycomb Highway from Sonic Lost World to mind. But there's plenty of wooden walkways as well, and rope bridges of varying rickety quality, with all that risk that implies. Whoever designed them may not have the most advanced skills, but they’re still more qualified than Bioware.

And going inside the pyramids themselves will cause another bout of cultural whiplash, as instead of keeping up the Mayan feel, it's more reminiscent of the Ajanta Caves in India, gold lighting and all.

Perfect for somewhere so mysterious and potentially deadly, yet still early on in the adventure, and thus nowhere near as oppressive in sheer tone as Eggman's factories or what have you.

First Section (outside): Planet Wisp (Team Sonic Racing) Golden City (Bug Bunny & Taz: Time Busters)

Second Section (inside): Leading Lights (Sonic Adventure) Deku Palace (The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask)

2-3: Gloomy Bog

Gloomy Bog's rivers have been corrupted by Mega Mack. I assume you know what Mega Mack is; it's purple, it's unhealthy, and it gets a No from Trudy.

Despite this setback, the swamp otherwise has a laidback mood. The vegetation may be a darker green than two acts ago, comparable to the dark green present in the original Dreamcast version of Mystic Ruins...

...but that's to be expected for a swamp. And even so, the blue and white flowers still add some complimentary brightness and - say it with me, boys and girls - contrast.

As does the omnipresent white glow in the air, which even reflects off of some of the plants as well. It brings cloud forests to mind, except in this case, it's not actually fog.

Shining and hovering over the Mega Mack-infected rivers, it almost seems like there’s meaning to it, as if the swamp itself knows that despite its current predicament, the light will overcome and ultimately vanquish the dark. Very George Lucas as far as visual metaphors go, but whatever works, right?

As for the boardwalks, they were inspired by this concept art for Sonic Saturn, AKA one of the many decapitated heads of the video game hydra that was Sonic X-Treme(ly doomed to fail).

Fortunately for Sonic, his nose wouldn't be mutilated this time.

First Section (walkways): Misty Bog (Spyro 1) DK Jungle (Mario Kart 7)

Second Section (lake): Salad Plain (Sonic CD) The Great Boggly Tree (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door)

2-4: Hornet’s Nest

In the fic proper, I compared the exterior of the giant mecha bee hive with Great Megalith from Sonic and the Black Knight. This is because it shares similar thorny fortifications on the outside, albeit in a more modern and industrial form, as you'd expect from man who will conquer the world with his tools.

Even comes with the flags and banners! Though they too have been given the Eggman flavor. (Maybe he's getting revenge for not being in that game?)

As for what's inside... well, what do you expect the inside of a giant bee hive to look like, mechanical or no? Since Donkey Kong has probably one of the most famous examples in a video game, we'll turn to his franchise again to get the gist.

It wouldn't be all yellow though. Remember, this is the plant that's producing all that Mega Mack, so among all the honey and honey-associated gimmicks, there's some purple contrast as well.

And the area outside the hive entirely? There's still a bit of honey (and Mega Mack) here and there, and though the white glow from the previous act has largely disappeared, the blue flowers and dark green plants and trees remain. So in that regard, you could say it's akin to Honey Marsh from Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly.

Less buggy, though.

Probably.

First Section (outside): Mushroom Hill Act 1 (NicoCW) Wizard Peak (Spyro 1)

Second Section (inside): Minty Mines (Spyro 2: Season of Flame) Zip Line Shrine (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)

#Creating Viridonia #Sonic the Hedgehog #Fanfiction

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jewishaxelwalker · 5 years

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Honestly at this point in the comics I headcanon that Axel is completely aware of the Rogues' whole "upgrade plans bc CROSSOVER EVENT HELL YEAH" schtick and remembers how they became metas a few years ago and, like, does NOT want to join a potential repeat of THAT trainwreck so he'll just stay here on JJ's couch and play RAID: Shadow Legends thank you very much.

I’m gonna keep it real with you chief, I haven’t read the last 3-5 Flash issues because I haven’t felt like it. Wicked and the Divine ended last month right after Dragoncon and I’ve been pushing myself to finish reading all the First Second books I picked up at the Park and Swap event that happened right after. AND THEN my sleeper fandom Awakened and I’ve been preoccupied with that for the last two months and I just...

All comic book-related activities have been suspended until the end of the year.

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shirtlesssammy · 5 years

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1x05: Bloody Mary

Then:

A Season One Aesthetic

Now:

Toledo, Ohio

Sleepover Friends are playing a game of Truth or Dare. One girl tasks another to say “Bloody Mary” in the bathroom mirror three times. (The girl is Sam’s double in Mint Condition!) The girl, Lily, is impervious to the legends surrounding Bloody Mary so she heads to the bathroom to check off her Dare. Nothing happens and her friends and her laugh at their silly antics.

Their noise alerts her father, who tells them to keep it down. As he’s walking back to bed, he passes 5,000 mirrors, and each one is reenacting The Ring. He heads to the bathroom to pop some happy pills --and there’s another mirror.

Downstairs, Lily’s older sister busts in, with some mild ribbing for her kid sister and a whole lotta IDGAF attitude about missing curfew. She heads upstairs and finds her dead father in a pool of his own blood.

Sam’s dreaming of his dead girlfriend. Dean wakes him and says, “Sooner or later we’re going to have to talk about this.” Sam deflects in true Winchester fashion. They’re in Toledo at the morgue, investigating the death of Lily’s father.

The morgue attendant is less than impressed with the unannounced med students. I’m less than impressed with their cosplay. It is almost refreshing to watch these early episodes just to reflect on later seasons and know how much Dean embraces the things he loves about the job. He’s just cool bravado here, but no one’s buying the schtick. Sam cuts to the chase and throws money at the man. Dean balks at Sam’s careless use of Dean’s hard earned money. This appropriately timed post from @pinkandsatiny-blog showed up on my dash this AM.

Once inside and looking at the victim, they see his eyes have liquefied.

Sam posits that maybe this is just “some freak medical thing.” Dean scoffs and assures him that this is supernatural.

They talk to the daughter. At the wake. In their hunter garb. At least Dean has presence of mind to note that they’re underdressed.

On principle I refuse to stoop this low but, SAME, LADY, SAME:

The boys talk to Donna, the older daughter, about her father’s stroke. Lily pops in to say it wasn’t a stroke. She caused his death because she said Bloody Mary in the mirror.

The brothers head inside to take a peek at the bathroom. Sam info dumps lore about Bloody Mary. The legend indicates that the person who says the words will die, but that’s not what happened here. One of Donna’s friends, Charlie, appears and demands that the Winchesters tell her the truth. They do --to a point, and ask her to contact them if her or her friends see anything weird.

They head to the library! Time to dig a little into public records and such to find a Mary who died in front of a mirror. Dean’s already pre-annoyed with research, and once Sam sees the computers are out of order, he too is annoyed.

Donna’s two friends, Charlie and Jill, are talking on the phone about Sam and Dean, and then Jill jokes about Bloody Mary. (So does this pass the Bechdel test or not? Hmm.) Charlie tells Jill to knock it off. Jill utters the words in the mirror anyway --and screams and laughs and so funny amirite? Jill and Charlie get off the phone. Jill strips down to her underwear in her mirror filled room, as one does. And Bloody Mary is waiting (she’s even waiting in the reflection on the television --which sends me down a rabbit hole of thought: What makes a mirror?) Jill heads back to the bathroom, and while at the mirror her reflection doesn’t mimic her. Instead, it stares her down and the eyes start to bleed. But so do Jill’s eyes.

Then the reflection tells Jill, “You did it. You killed that boy.” Jill falls over dead.

Sam continues to dream of Jess burning on their ceiling. My heart aches for him. #GiveSamaDogandaTherapist2K05 He wakes and Dean asks what he dreamed about, but Sam deflects again. Dean’s been doing research but getting nowhere fast. Dean’s starting to doubt that it’s really the Bloody Mary legend at play. Sam gets a call from Charlie, who fills them in on Jill’s death. They enlist Charlie to help them with their plan. The boys do a sweep of Jill’s bedroom. Sam finds something on infrared and takes the bathroom mirror down. On the back, under blacklight, there’s a handprint and the name “Gary Bryman”. Research shows that Gary Bryman was an 8 year old boy killed in a hit and run that was never solved (like, Charlie knew instantly that it was Jill’s car, uh, what the hell DMV?) They head to Donna’s house to find the name “Linda Shoemaker” --Donna’s mother who overdosed on sleeping pills. Donna storms off after their inquiry. Charlie puts it together that their dad killed their mom.

Dean starts a nationwide search for their source.

He finds an unsolved murder of a Mary Worthington in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Cut to Fort Wayne, Indiana. A retired detective tells Sam and Dean about the Mary Worthington murder. Mary wanted to leave town and make a name for herself, but she was killed before she could make good on any of her plans. She was found with her eyes cut out. YEESH. The detective pulls out her old files. One of the shots of her body shows letters written out across a mirror; he thinks she was trying to spell the name of her murderer.

The detective’s bet? A local surgeon, Trevor Sampson. (He’s dead now.) So, a vengeful ghost! Sam asks where she’s buried but they learn that she was cremated. However, there was an ornate mirror in the photo of her body, which connects her to the mirror hauntings. The mirror is back in the family’s possession. The Winchesters are on the job! Huzzah!

Back with our tempestuous Toledo teens, they continue to argue over the existence of Bloody Mary. In a school bathroom.

Side note: I asked Boris to recap this episode because the Bloody Mary myth tapped into a deep phobia of mine. When I was in Kindergarten, we used to be ushered to the bathroom by our teacher and left there for ten minutes or so to use it as a class. Sometimes there were big kids using the bathroom at the same time, and a favorite way to scare the little kids was to turn off the lights and intone, “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, I killed your seven sons!” In our version of the myth, you turned around three times, repeating that phrase. Friends, I still get a little scared in front of a dark mirror, and refuse to do more than glance at one in passing. (Though after years of desensitizing myself, I can finally walk around dark mirrors without imagining that I’m seeing Bloody Mary’s dark visage.)

Anyway, back to the episode. Donna says “Bloody Mary” three times and then stalks out of the bathroom dismissively. Who’s gonna die? Who has a DARK SECRET? In chemistry class, we learn about ions and also that Charlie’s the one with the dark secret! She pulls out a compact mirror to look for monsters and spots Bloody Mary lurking behind her. She screams and flees the classroom.

Meanwhile, Sam’s trying to use his charm to get ahold of the mirror, only to learn that it’s been sold to an estate business. A week ago. What a coincidink. The mirror’s now in Toledo, which explains our traveling Bloody Mary. Sam explains a piece of lore that we never see again - that people used to cover mirrors so the spirits of the recently departed don’t get trapped. Dean’s ready to SMASH that mirror and kill the ghost. Go for it, Dean Bean.

Charlie calls Sam and the next scene has the Winchesters covering every reflective surface in her room. Sam coaxes her to open her eyes. Hey, Sam. What about those limpid doe eyes you sport in every episode? THOSE things are killers, man.

Eyes are the windows to vengeful ghosts

Dean grills Charlie about her deadly secret. She had a scary boyfriend who threatened to kill himself when she broke up with him. When he died, she blamed herself.

Later in the car, Sam spins out a theory that smashing the original mirror won’t do anything. They need to summon Mary to the mirror first and then they can smash it. Otherwise, her spirit will just flit from mirror to mirror like a sprite and never get caught. Sam thinks that Mary will go after him and Dean pulls over in disgust. Time for a parenting moment, friends.

Sam thinks that Jessica’s death was his fault. Dean gives Sam a rousing speech about not blaming himself which is R I C H coming from Dean. But…early days, right? Sam confesses that there are Further Sekrets of Sam Effing Winchester. Dean throws Sam some A grade bitch face.

For YOU THROW THAT SHADE Science

They break into the antique shop and stalk around, finding a giant storeroom full of mirrors. “Fuck my life,” Dean basically says. They explore the antique warehouse full of mannequins and insidious lamps. Sam calls for Bloody Mary and they get their smashin’ hands ready.

When Mary doesn’t show, Dean double-checks the entrance and spots bright headlights. He heads outside to head off security. Meanwhile, Bloody Mary shows up in the surrounding mirrors. AS we watch, Mirror!Sam starts to bleed. “It’s your fault,” Mirror!Sam says. “You killed her.”

Outside, Dean is…incredibly awkward talking with security. He claimed he was the owner’s son but the owner is implied not to be white. Dean explains that he’s adopted and…oh lord, Dean. They’re not buying his story AT ALL, so Dean knocks them both out quickly.

Mirror!Sam tells us Sam’s dark secret. Sam had been having nightmares about Jessica’s horrific death months before she died.

Dean races back inside, only to find Sam crumpled to the ground. Dean smashes the mirror like the goddamn HULK. Dean hauls Sammy “It’s Sam” Winchester out of the room. Unfortunately, by smashing the mirror they’ve only freed Mary.

She crawls out of the mirror Ring-style and starts to bleed out both brothers. Dean grabs a mirror and shines it on Mary.

Mirror!Mary actually seems more lucid that creepy-crawly Mary and tells her that she killed everyone. Mary dissolves in a puddle of blood.

Dean and Sam run Charlie back home. Be free, little butterfly! (I’m still super weirded out by your name.)

Sam tells her that she needs to forgive herself for her boyfriend’s death. Sometimes bad things just happen. Dean whacks Sam on the arm and tells him that it’s good advice. Pot. Kettle. Black.

As they’re played off the screen, Dean asks what Sam’s secret was, but Sam holds his cards close for a little while longer. As Sam stares moodily out the window, he sees Jessica standing on the street corner, white dress fluttering dramatically.

Yep. Everything’s fine.

(And because Boris loves those parallels, she’s just going to drop this gifset down and run away.)

Bloody Quotes, Bloody Quotes, Bloody Quotes:

Sooner or later we’re gonna have to talk.

How many times in Dad’s long career has it ever been a freak medical thing and not some sign of some awful supernatural death?

Spirits don’t exactly see shades of gray.

It’s Sam.

Hey Sam. It’s gonna be like six hundred years back luck?

You’re my brother, and I’d die for you. But there are some things I need to keep to myself.

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #spn rewatch #spn 1x05 #bloody mary #dean winchester #sam winchester #jessica moore #supernatural season 1

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hoogiehowser · 5 years

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MEDIA DIARY JANUARY

:::::::::: MOVIES ::::::::::

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) I liked this so much I ended up seeing it twice. The animation is on a whole different level from everything else in theaters I just can’t believe it. Nothing has immediately endeared me to a character more that when Miles gets to the place where he’s going to put up graffiti and yells “BROOKLYN!” to get the echo. Absolutely perfect.

Happy Death Day (2017) The trailer looked good but the trailer for the sequel looked even better. Good time repeating movie. Way better than Blood Punch. I’m excited to see more of this.

Alien: Covenant (2017) Had no clue what to expect going in but I actually dug it. It’s just Alien again like every Alien movie but what they do with David from Prometheus makes it really interesting. There’s also some straight up slasher movie sleaze that definitely appeals to me.

MacGruber (2010) It’s just a bunch of dick jokes while a bad action movie happens. There’s no clever spin to it.

Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) Wanted to watch this due to the Fast & Furious connection. It’s a great movie about overachievers and getting away with shit. I think Justin Lin is a great director and his unique voice benefits every movie he does.

Collateral (2004) I didn’t realize until the credits that this was a Michael Mann movie but it was so obvious in hindsight. The premise is simple, Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx are great, and everything comes together in a genuinely cool film.

Wilson (2017) Based on a comic I don’t particularly like from Dan Clowes’ grumpy old man phase. The cool thing about the comic is that each page works on its own and has a different art style. The movie can’t do that. But it’s still faithful to the book which means it feels like a series of one page gags strung together until it finishes. Woody and Laura Dern are great though and it is pretty funny at times.

Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare (2018) There was another truth or dare based horror movie a year before that was a Syfy original. The Syfy one is better. The problem with them both is the supernatural contrivances that make people play truth or dare against their will. It’s such a strained premise.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) Guy Ritchie made a King Arthur movie and it feels exactly like you’d expect.

Thoroughbreds (2017) Girl who can’t feel emotions befriends girl who is very politely hiding her extreme emotions. Things get bad when they start to think about murder. Anton Yelchin plays a druggie scumbag loser. It’s such a good movie. 100% my kind of thing.

:::::::::: TV ::::::::::

The Great British Baking Show (Beginnings, Collections 1-4) Got addicted to this one. I love cooking competitions shows and pleasant ones are usually the best. I like seeing competitors that like each other. I like Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry not trying to tear people down. I love Mel and Sue. It’s just a nice show for the nice people.

Toei Spider-Man (Episodes 1-5) I’m not a big toku guy but Spider-Verse got me curious about various Spider-Men. Takuya Yamashiro wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider, he was injected with blood from the last survivor of Planet Spider and carries out a mission against Professor Monster’s Iron Cross Army to avenge Planet Spider and his own father. Next to nothing present from the classic Lee/Ditko Spider-Man and that’s totally alright. I’m going to try to watch more because the episode where Spider-Man has to donate his blood to hurt child has some serious heart.

The Prisoner (Episodes 7-17) I started watching this a while ago but only now got around to finishing. Mostly super clever plots and the atmosphere is always great. Patrick McGoohan sells it every single time. Some of the later episodes go really off the rails though. There’s an entire wild west episode. Nothing in this stretch tops my favorite episode, The Schizoid Man, where Number Two brainwashes Number Six to act differently and then forces Number Six to pretend to be Number Six while a different man is already pretending to be Number Six. The ending is solid though and carries a really good tv series to a confusing, surreal end.

Cutthroat Kitchen (Season 7, Episodes 1-7) Polar opposite of The Great British Baking Show. It’s the Mario Kart of cooking competition shows. Everyone tries to fuck each other over and Alton laughs at them the entire time. It’s brilliant.

:::::::::: PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING ::::::::::

TJPW Tokyo Joshi Pro ‘19 (January 4) I don’t follow TJPW and don’t know any of their wrestlers besides Meiko Satomura but I watched this because it was on before Wrestle Kingdom. Meiko vs Reika Saiki definitely made the show worth watching and the rest was pretty alright. Lots of fun, new personalities that I like.

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 (January 4) Probably the most I’ve looked forward to a show and it absolutely delivered. For the past few years I’d watch WK and recommended matches but in in July I started following everything NJPW. That added investment made this WK special. Ibushi/Ospreay tore it up and I really hope Ibushi recovers soon. Jay White/Okada shocked me. Naito/Jericho was fucking brutal. And Kenny Omega vs Hiroshi Tanahashi was a match I was so invested in that I thought I was going to cry. If you haven’t checked out New Japan yet this show would make an excellent start. GO ACE!

Impact Homecoming (January 6) Impact has gotten pretty good. I’ve only seen a few of their most recent ppvs but it’s obvious that they have a wealth of talent and they’re willing to tell the kind of dumb stories that I really like. Since Homecoming was in Nashville I went and it was one of the best shows I’ve been to. The energy was insane all night and LAX vs Lucha Bros has to be the best match I’ve seen live. Now that they air on Twitch I’ve been following the weekly show and enjoying it quite a bit.

WWE Royal Rumble (January 27) I always love the rumble but the rumble was weird. Both rumble matches were okay but filled with dumb stuff and way too many recovery spots that were immediately deflated by the person getting eliminated. I like the winners. AJ/Daniel didn’t deliver like I wanted. Sasha and Ronda had a good match. I loved how Finn Balor worked Brock Lesnar’s diverticulitis. Fun show.

NXT UK Takeover Blackpool (January 12) NXT UK doesn’t really grip me aside from the women’s division. I liked this well enough but nothing really changed my mind. Finn Balor made a surprise appearance and he looked like such a star compared to everyone else. Excited to see what WALTER can do here though.

GCW 400 Degreez (January 12) GCW’s brand of hardcore indie nonsense is my absolute favorite. 400 Degreez isn’t the best they’ve done but it was full of disgusting beautiful deathmatch bullshit. Markus Crane vs Nate Webb especially.

NXT Takeover Phoenix (January 26) Takeover always delivers. Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet was definitely the match of the night. I don’t dig the War Raiders schtick but their match was great. Bianca Belair and Shayna Baszler also killed it.

:::::::::: COMICS ::::::::::

One Piece by Eiichiro Oda (Volumes 1-10) I wanted something long to start reading so why not One Piece? Enjoying it so far. I like getting the crew together and Usopp’s story in particular is great. Oda is a master cartoonist. I love every time we get reaction faces.

Spider-Man: Fever by Brendan McCarthy Spider-Man fever got me wanting to revisit Spider-Man: Fever because I remember liking it. I still like it. Doctor Strange accidentally opens a doorway into a spider dimension and Spider-Man gets caught in Doctor Strange’s bathtub and the alternate dimension spiders take him. All this and McCarthy’s art make Fever pretty far out.

Spider-Man 2099 by Peter David, Kelley Jones, and Rick Leonardi (1-15) Miguel O’Hara wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider, he had Peter Parker’s DNA put into him by weird future DNA machine and he wages war against the gigantic corporations that control everything. I like Spider-Man 2099. Miguel is so different from the Peter Parker archetype and he’s got claws and fangs. He’s brutal. It’s got a neat post-hero future kind of like Batman Beyond. I stopped reading because the next part is a crossover with Punisher 2099, Ravage 2099, Doom 2099, and X-Men 2099. I’ll hopefully pick it back up because I want to know what happens with the hologram that’s in love with Miguel.

Spider-Man by Kazumasa Hirai & Ryoichi Ikegami Yu Komori was bitten by a radioactive spider and he definitely wishes he wasn’t. It starts off a lot like our usual Spider-Man but the villains are so much more tragic and Yu deals with some heavy shit. Ikegami’s art evolves from cartoony to serious as the tone of the book changes. He’s a really incredible artist who is consistently pulling neat tricks and trying new things. I really liked this and it may top my favorite Spider-Man comics. It’s just so bleak and unforgiving to poor Yu. By the way, the final plotline is exactly the same as the Sonny Chiba movie Wolf Guy. Turns out the comic that movie was based on was written by the same guy that write Spider-Man. An odd find.

:::::::::: VIDEOGAMES ::::::::::

Axiom Verge Had my eye on this for a long time and finally picked it up on sale on my Switch. It’s okay. There are a lot of clever ideas here that I don’t think work for me. But I do like the decorrupter and the teleport. Some of the movement feels great but some stuff like the grappling hook feels awful. I hate the story. Completely incoherent sci-fi nonsense. But it’s a fun game and I enjoyed my time with it.

Hollow Knight I’ve spent about 30 hours on this game and I feel like I’m close to the end of the story. I absolutely love it. The movement, the combat, and the exploration all feel excellent. I’ve played over ten metroidvanias in the past year (I really like them) and this might be the best. My favorite part about them is how you’re almost never wasting time because there are new secrets to discover all across the map and Hollow Knight does such a good job with that.

#media diary

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mouthtin2-blog · 5 years

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10 Reasons Why The Heroin Tunnel Protests are Stupid

(10) Yes, you read that right: the City is relocating a few of the people who are camped out in the Tulip Street tunnel. It’s actually part of what the Kenney Administration says is a pilot project to transition heroin addicts to temporary shelter beds.

(9) The city’s pilot program only targets one bridge: the Conrail overpass at Tulip St. and Lehigh Avenue. Addicts who are living at the other railroad overpasses are not being removed today. “Emerald City”, which is a Conrail overpass at Emerald St and Lehigh Avenue, is not being touched, and neither are the other tunnels.

(8) Vanessa Baker, the protest organizer who’s Facebook profile features blue hair dye and Bernie protest signs–because of course it does–claims that the City is removing people from Tulip Street with zero shelter beds being made available for them. Liz Hersh, the mayor’s director over the Office of Homeless Services, has sent numerous emails to community groups and the public explaining that beds would be available and in place before police arrive to remove the encampment at Tulip Street.

(7) Some of the protestors online are asking for terribly high political asks, such as safe injection sites, and if Kensington can’t get them, then the encampments should stay there permanently. But an overwhelming majority of the public is against options such as that and recovery advocates have done very little to assuage the broader public that not only safe injection sites are necessary, but they will not be evil and damage quality of life.

It’s one thing to get sympathy from the newspapers for the idea; but it’s a completely different animal to get your local city councilperson on board. Protesting in Kensington–an area with a super-low voter turnout rate–will not win over hearts and minds.

(6) This tweet:

Protest en route to Fishtown w instructions on when to take street: “We’re not blocking traffic in the working class neighborhood of Kensington. But we’re making sure people who are building luxury condos on top of the tracks where they kicked homeless people out of can hear us.” pic.twitter.com/PmGtSeQaIv

— Max M. Marin (@MaxMMarin) May 30, 2018

There are very few condos anywhere near the Conrail encampments along Lehigh Avenue. They’re mostly single family rowhomes or rental units. But yeah, let’s go with the Bolshy schtick. I’m fairly certain that newcomers with very scant experience of Philadelphia and bought a unit near Lehigh Avenue will totally accept blame for addicts shooting themselves up near their homes.

(5) A quick look-see at Ms. Baker’s protest event page you’ll discover lifetime residents, some who presently deal with heroin-addled family members under their roof they’re trying to control and also former heroin addicts, telling Ms. Baker she’s lost her way.

(4) Also on Ms. Baker’s event page you’ll see distressed new and long-term residents who are complaining about the health hazards of the human miasma parked directly across the street from their front steps–and how dismissive Ms. Baker is about it.

This is happening right now, these people need help. But they do not need to be enabled at our expense anymore.

Posted by Patrick Daly on Sunday, May 20, 2018

(3) Prevention Point, Kensington’s largest opioid recovery non-profit, has been aware of the encampment removal project and has done what it can to dispel myths surrounding it, including available shelter space. Yet folks like Vanessa continue to repeat them. There’s no shortage of “I know what’s best; if only people saw it my way and did what I said” in the sphere of addiction recovery.

(2) Speaking of myths: that also includes facts that were once true but no longer are, yet still have become legend–long after situations have changed. For example, many addicts will inform you that they can’t get access to any services because they lack ID. The Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services was told about this problem for more than two years and has adjusted for these complaints. Prevention Point has been able to secure slots for patients lacking appropriate ID.

While your average Kensington-Frankford Medicaid billing factory might insist on ensuring a patient is properly enrolled in state insurance so they can submit medical claims; this isn’t the case if you walk up to Prevention Point’s office and ask for help. Prevention Point does daily outreach at the camp sites looking to connect addicts to resources.

(1) Yes, we know the City was stupid for clearing out the Conrail tracks. Everyone said it was stupid. Both the neighborhood residents and advocacy/outreach centers like Prevention Point told city officials going all the way up to the mayor that it was a major mistake.

So did neighborhood organizations like the Olde Richmond Civic Association, who knew that clearing out the Conrail tracks would result in an tsunami of heroin addicts roaming around residential areas along both sides of the rail line.

But Councilwoman María Quiñones-Sánchez insisted they had to go, and the mayor’s office was getting frantic about having the heroin encampments becoming a permanent stain on Philadelphia’s national identity.

The scenery of the Conrail heroin encampments was too much “heroin porn” for the city to tolerate.

Back when national reporters and TV crews were coming to film El Campimiento, all the newspapers were on board with the city clearing the Conrail tracks out. They’ve probably forgotten about it; but not a single resident who lives near the Conrail tracks has.

The cover photo for this article is by Max Marin

Source: https://www.philadelinquency.com/2018/05/30/10-reasons-why-the-heroin-tunnel-protests-are-stupid/

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sulietsexual · 7 years

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Arrowverse for 11-17 & 22 & 23. Or for any show if none of the Arrowverse applies since I know you're not finished yet. I like your unpopular opinions, even when I disagree. =)

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

I haven’t been in the Arrowverse fandom long enough to know which characters are currently unpopular, but I do adore Laurel, and I know she’s gone through periods of unpopularity before, which baffles me, because she’s so amazing. I love her for her resilience, her moral compass, her goodness and the way she always tries to do what’s right. Watching her fall so far in Season 2 was really hard, but she pulled through. She’s just an amazing character, and when she dies, I will probably stop watching for a while.

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

I actually really liked the Jay/Hunter Zolomon storyline on The Flash, which doesn’t seem particularly well-liked. I just thought it was a really fun arc and that Zolomon was a really interesting villain, especially regarding his true feelings for Caitlin and his motivation to become the fake Flash (being so sadistic that he literally gave people hope so he could take it away, I mean, that’s next level darkness).

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

I don’t think Amaya fits in with the Legends. I don’t hate her character, but I do find her unlikable at times, and I don’t really like any of her dynamics with the individual Legends. I would much prefer for the show to bring Kendra back.

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

Parts of the Arrowverse fandom are particularly venomous, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve held back from completely immersing myself in it. I’m talking about all sides here, no part of the fandom is completely free of nasty fans, but there seems to just be a lot of blind hate being thrown around, especially in the Arrow part of the fandom.

15.Unpopular opinion about the manga/show?

Both Arrow and The Flash get weighted down by their respective main love stories, and Legends is a really messy show, which doesn’t adhere to any rules regarding time travel.

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

I would make Laurel and Oliver the main love story of Arrow, with Oliver actually encouraging Laurel to be the Black Canary, to fulfil her potential. Laurel wouldn’t die, Moira wouldn’t die.

I would write Barry/Iris differently, giving it more development, not having it rely on the “Because it’s fate” schtick, and slowing it down. Also, I would change Savitar’s victim, as Savitar killing Iris was not only problematic, but produced zero tension, because we all knew Iris would somehow survive. Had he killed anyone else, their fate would be more uncertain, at least from the audience’s POV.

I would tidy the time travel in Legends up, and give them just one villain in Season 2 (Eobard), as having three villains during the second season diluted their characterisation and made them much less threatening, due to lack of screen time and solid motivation.

17. Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…

I feel like I would be repeating myself, as my answer to the previous question kinda covers this.

22. Popular character you hate?

I don’t really hate any of the characters, but I’m not overly fond of Amaya or Felicity, both of whom are fairly popular.

23. Unpopular character you love?

As said before, Laurel Lance. I also really like Julian Alpert, and I know he’s not well-received by the fandom.

#karaszorelsdanvers #answered #arrowverse

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