#SOOOO MANY because this episode and season were shit apparently

[ravilson23]

Okay so new ep of helluva boss came out and... it wasnt very good. For me it was actually the worst episode of all of them and here is why.

First thing, pacing. I think with this episode i finally understood what bad pacing is because everything feels rushed. From action and plot, by sound design to animation. And one of the reasons behind this is too many topics squished in only 20 minutes. We had Stolas and his divorce with Stella, Octavia and all her drama, Blitz and Stolases relationship, M&Ms relationship, Blitzos fear of performing and losing Loona, Loonas past and her getting closer to Octavia. Its so many things and such a short time. And because of this none of the subjects is getting focus nor time to build up emotional tension.

So lets take a closer look at each of those plot points.

First i will talk about Blitz and Stolas, because last episodes were all about it. And they could actually not exist right now because here its totally ignored. I dont know if it was somehow resolved in ep8 of season 1, but we didnt see it so i will just ignore it. All the tension between characters is gone, Blitz is turned on by Stolas praising his sexual skills (which u know, he is still treated like there is nothing more to him than sex), Stolas doesnt seem hurt anymore by being unloved, the Asmodeus Crystals didnt appear (which didnt have to be now, but its still little weird, it seemed important) , and everything went to shit. All this drama, pain and suffering didnt get a pay off and i am so dissapointed. Their dynamic got somehow turned into just being attracted and horny, and all the complicated intresting stuff got wiped out. (I really, really hope it wont be all season 2 and its just a hiccup, please let it be). Their moments are just shallow, short, out of character, or too focused on one of their trait. By this i mean for example Stolas laughing at Bllitzos jokes. Yea, it was adorable, but why do it here? Especially with all those puppy eyes (there was soooo many of them, seriously). And others are laughing too, so its not so special anymore. And in the end even he is bored! Another scene is the one inside a van, it was abrubt, meant to show Blitzos willignes to help Stolas, but the topic got changed so quickly and unnaturally u are just too baffled to react. It also meant shit in the end, cause u know, Loona. It was meant to be important moment but got turned into comedic one. There are actually two scenes i like between them though, first is Blitz calling Stolas, and second is Stolas asking Blitz about Moxxies phone number. It was interesting cause we dont really see Stolas sassy. And Blitz somehow saying exactly the thing he didnt want to say feels like sth he would do.

Now i will use this to write about Blitz. His personal traumas and issues werent treated seriously enough. First his panic attack in the office. It was put here but nothing was done with it. (And it could be powerful to see this usually confident character breaking down in public). Then his willingness to help Stolas (in the van), could show deeper emotions and in the end didnt because he was literally useless. Then we have more important stuff, his fear of performing. It lasted less than a minute i think. Its actually quite important and should have been explored. We know he probably hates himself, so fear of getting rejected and riddiculed makes sense. It may also be connected to some particular trauma from his childhood. But it wasnt in any way hinted that it may be the case and it got resolved very quickly, so apparently the issue wasnt this serious. And lastly his memory of adopting Loona. I feel like this would work much better if it wasnt shown in this ep. I think their relationship should get their own ep, or at least half of it. It could have been explored here (la probably would have to be wiped out) , him wanting to fire Loona is actually a good conflict. She could feel like he is abandoning and rejecting her, for someone who was adopted it feels like a powerful blow. Her anger and hurt would probably lead to some sheanigans, which would end with A. Her understanding that Blitz will love her no matter what and accepting he fucks up, B. Blitz understanding Loona more and maybe becoming a better parent, C. SHOWING THIS MEMORY, D. Moxxie and Millie learning to be less racist (cause here Mox is the one who advised Blitz to speak with Loona [not like he wasnt right, but u know, i dont think they are okay towards Loona either]) .

But okay, lets get to Millie and Moxxie. The biggest problem is that they literally didnt do anything to plot. U could erase them and the only thing u would lose is comedy (which was funny at first, but got boring very quickly). I liked seeing Millie getting tired at Moxxies antics becuse it was new. But i am unsure how much is this in character. Honestly, she was created to be perfect lover, strong and murderous but caring and loving to her partner. Its not much of personality so u can do many stuf but i think she should have her character developed in her own ep so we can explore those changes. Moxxie is also kinda different, because normally he is the responsible one. Wouldnt he go insane if he found out how easy Blitz made it to steal the book from them? Though, on a positive note, him being smug about berating Loona is on point. But him getting distracted in the middle of rescue mission of GOETIA PRINCESS? I believe he would panic hard. But well, we had Blitz already doing that, so the role was filled. The one thing i actually liked were his interactions with Blitz, cause they felt more like friends.

Now Octavia. It may seem like its her episode, but it really isnt. The beginning is good, her being happy, Stolas ignoring her, stealing the book. I actually liked that, it felt like a good conflict to resolve. Suprise it wasnt resolved by Stolas, but by Loona who didnt even know Octavia before! Like, i enjoy them being friends (just friends, please dont make it offical canon ship, i would like to see some platonic relationship for once), but it wasnt her conflict to resolve. It should be Stolas, who for example took her to space to see at least one meteor. (I know we had fireworks, didnt feel good enough). Or something else, but really, this plot didnt change their relationship at all. Its worse version of Loo Loo Land. BUT to say something positive, the line "why does he hates her more than he loves me" ( or sth like that) was great. Shame it was just that.

I wont write about Stella, she is in what, 30s of this ep?

So lastly Loona. She is the best part in my opinion, because she is mostly still in character. Her being angry at Blitz, ignoring Octavia sneaking in, not looking for her in LA depsite being said to do so, calling Moxxie fat. Its all things i think she would do. The only think that doesnt fit is ironically the last scene, with her cheering Octavia up. Or rather being some kind of mentor/ older sister/ please not romantic interes kind of person. I dont think she is mature enough to open like this, nor that understanding after Blitz said he may fire her. Like what the hell? Am i missing something? I also didnt like how she was portrayed in Blitzos memory, and i mean the crying part. I think she wouldnt show her pain cause it was dangerous where she lived. Obviously this part is more my preference than actual critique.

I wish i was done but i am not. (Sorry). Now, some other thing that bothered me a lot was sound design. Did u notice how one melody changes into other without some smooth transition? U can hear this first when action starts to take place in I.M.P. Then another very unfitting change is when van scene starts. This are not all, but they got stuck in my head the most. Even the animation is somehow rushed most of the time. And i dont know exactly why, but i guess it lacks balance? Sometimes anatomy of characters gets lost, other times they move a little too much and there are moments when characters seem to float above backround (i mostly mean when they walk).

All those things makes this weak. So summing up, past episode became irrevelant, characters mostly dont act like themselves, emotional moments that were strong became shallow, there was too many scenes with horny Stolitz ( the worst is shirtless Blitz, come on!), plot wasnt constructed well ( unnecesery plot points - Millie and Moxxie, Brandon Rogers and this sitcom drama, plot focused on everything and in the end nothing) as well as pacing, bad audio design, somehow weird animation, and in generall it feels like filler that works very badly for the show. I obviously will still watch helluva, but i really really hope it wont happen to whole second season. Because if so this show will became a wasted potential and leave me very bitter.

Sorry for long post and for all mistakes i did writing it. Thank u if u read all of this, i am seriously impressed.

#helluva boss #english is not my native language #disscussion #helluva disscussion #sorry for all misspeling i am not a native #helluva critical #helluva spoilers #helluva boss spoilers #helluva boss s2ep2 #please let this be a one time thing

[minalblood]

Ep 7, finally! Sorry fellas took a while.

I will try to skip past the Despair destiel parallels since they've been mentioned often enough and focus on other stuff i find interesting.

Ok 1stly Carlos jokingly saying they should try jumper cables for the Ostium only to then look back at Lata judgingly was A++ friendship moments.

Love the Tony mention from Ada so much!

I will say all the shell company and warehouse talk reminds me of spn season 7 and the Leviathan plans which to be fair, the Akrida's plans are basically the same. Both hungry, some type of shapshifting beings. Kinda wanna know which came first for Chuck, cuz we know the Leviathan are meant to have been genuine creature vs the Akrida who were deliberately made as fail safe plague.

Mary big mad this ep beginning and it's all because of her worry.

God I still love the Akrida design and I also adore their growls!!! Tho I add that the fact that they can feel pain but cannot be killed save for something out of this world is hella intriguing, feels like something a, to quote Chuck, "cruel, capricious God" would do.

I adore Carlos brain! They're soooo smart and it's constantly shown in all the subtle ways but it's so consistent throughout that I love it. And not just generally, but also emotionally speaking, especially highlighted in the scene with Mary. Putting the right blame on the shifters, being honest about dealing or not with their parents death and still succeeding in bringing Mary's spirit up.

Why would John be so shocked that Henry would've written something for the MoL? Henry was a MoL so it really shouldn't be that surprising that he wrote stuff down. I personally think it's because he chose not to ask more questions because it would've fucked with him too much and he couldn't handle it.

Millie in the Clubhouse! Finally! She's still too harsh, but this time I tend to give her tiny bit more benefit of the doubt since it's obvious being in the Clubhouse is bringing up all the very complicated feelings she has deliberately not dealt with about Henry. It's why she can go from mentioning love letters with a soft gentle loving tone one moment and then insulting Henry's chicken scratch and its supposed use in saving the world. She has dealt a lot more with her feelings about Henry these past... weeks months? since all the stuff began, especially having received a clear answer about where Henry disappear to (he died), but that in many ways likely made it so much more complicated because the anger hasnt gone away but now it feels almost unfair to aim it so much at someone that seems to have not had a choice in abandoning them as she initially thought. She's still mad tho, not just because of that but also because she was never allowing in by Henry, not really, and we learn later that he deliberately distanced himself from her as well so being invited to the Clubhouse is a huge step in slotting into place what she feels. It's also why I think she demands so staunchly to know exactly what's happening because last time she didn't, Henry died.

The implication that Samuel Campbell is messy from Mary gave me such a John's room in Pilot vibes. Love that parallel (read: hate)

The mention from the Akrida possessing Roxy bout Roxy's beauty is made sooo much worse by the later episode about her possession, but with it in my mind, it give such icky vibes now. Besides the sheer disregard about Roxy's life. It makes it even more clear how much humans are just things for the Akrida to use and discard whenever. And that will only be made more apparent in later episodes.

Carlos' miiind!! The hex bag!! God I love them.

Interesting just for me I guess, but the fact that u just need to know the ingredients of a hex bag to find it, is sooo fun. I have so many questions.

I also love seeing Millie adjusting to the whole supernatural thing, her mind just going and her saying shit only to find out she might actually be onto something to them using her plan. Love that, especially love that it happens in connection to Ada. Millie and Ada have been pretty linked throughout the show so far, and I love that it's while Millie is talking to Ada, one of the few people who actually knew Henry and Henry allowed in, that she gets the idea she does. I also think it's very important that Ada does tell her the stuff Millie didnt know.

Ok, maybe controversial opinion here but I actually agree with Ada here, John is not closed off like Henry. He just isnt here. He is extremly reactive which means you will know what you get with him cuz he will make it clear, in a very bone headed way, sure , but it will be clear what he feels. There are of course things he doesn't disclose, but it aint about him being open, its just that he isnt closed off like Henry. Henry who his wife thought didnt even think of her or if he did it wasn't good terms at least toward the end, Henry who planted a protective plant for his family but never said anything about it. John, in spn, certainly does become closed off like that, id say he gets even more closed off but not this John, not yet and hopefully never. This john is just angry. Really angry, but it's still not the same insurmountable situation.

I adore Lata's excitement about all things monster.

Ahhhhhh I miss you all too Carlos 😭😭😭 #SavetheWinchesters

Nixon being Akrida is a nod to Lucifer possessing the president vibes to me.

I kinda love that Millie sold her wedding ring, it makes sense on so many levels. 1. Shes a single mom with a business to run. 2. She s trying to distance herself from the pain Hwnry left her with. 3. She is very much a dont think about it and it'll not affect you denial stage of grief person.

The music box!

It says shit about Millie that she didnt know john still had the music box all these years. It makes it clear which parts of John's life she paid attention to (or could allow herself to pay attention to) and which not.

I hate that they cant actually deal with any of the stuff because of the short window they have, but that's how things are right? both generally and def in the spn verse, you never have the space or time to actually confront the person thats traumatised you, not really, you just have small pockets of chances to process what happened in the middle of world ending events.

Fun fact, I rewatched Inside Man recently and the spell they use here to summon Henry is the exact same one Sam and Cas use to talk to Bobby in Heaven. And the fucking meaning always hurts me, cuz it calls onto dead loved ones to answers their calls/questions abd it feels like a prayer to me tbh. I also headcannon that the reason the spell works differently here is because Henry was still in the veil rather than in heaven, but ive nothing to substantiate that.

Once more Mary and John have such a genuine relationship tho, they really are honest with each other as often as they can because of the connection and similarities they felt when they first met and everything experienced since. Unlike their spn counterparts who were very much not honest about themselves.

I really love that John gets to hear Henry unequivocally say "it was my fault, not yours". It's so so important, both that Henry immediately owned up to it, and that he made sure to let John know first that it wasnt anything he did and that he wanted to explain everything.

I also wanna point out the immediate dif in Henry's demeanor once John mentions the Akrida aka work. Henry instantly compartmentalizes alll the feels he had about seeing John and getting to see Millie because he very much knows the importance. Better to have ur family alive even though you can't get closure than risk their lives just to explain yourself.

The paaaiiinnn, the emotionssss ahhhhh!! They can't get through everything they want to say but they make sure to say the things they need and my heart hurts now thx! Im very glad Millie got to see him though. It helped close another leaking wound in her. Damn this whole ep is Millie being put through the emotional wringer as much as John and Mary are. It prolly felt really good to hit the cop in the face with a bat after all that.

Love Mary's fighting advice. It shows she gets the urgency and the need to not linger on too long since the end goal isnt to kick ass, but to actually defeat the Akrida. Her hubting experience shows and her reason for doing this shows too.

I just know Lara wouldve had a field day if she couldve gotten that monster essence. So sad for her actually.

Also you know if Ada had been left to her own devices she wouldve followed Tragic Haircut and found the Akrida queens location. We've seen she can be very cutthroat when needed and her input wasn't really needed in the van, but it was needed to follow the Akrida. Thats what i think anyways. Millie for all her harshness, would never leave the kids behind. Shes suprising soft underneath it all, Ada is surpsingly cutthroat. Yay more parallel and contrasts between them.

Oh Mary, you were wrong there and it almost cost you dearly (just like how Dean going after Billie assuming shes thanosing people went wrong). Love the call back to their first meeting. Hate the despair vibes cuz ouch. Samuel to the rescue, congrats, you did the bare minimum. ( i am not a fan of Samuel and all the call backs to Spn!john only make it worse everytime, especially the heroic last second save when he's been mia and shitty throughout otherwise).

God can't wait talking about the queen when she finally appears properly.

See y'all later for a double special of Dean alive (ish) and Trickster/Loki discussion.

#spn #spnwin #the winchesters #john winchester #mary campbell #lata dar #carlos cervantez #millie winchester #ada monroe #henry winchester #spnwin rewatch #spnwin 1x07

[boleynns]

LOOSE ENDS, ASSHOLES.

I wrote this 3 days ago, because I just KNEW they were going to fuck it all up.

^PHOTO OF A LIAR, for reference. LONG list of pissed off thoughts below.

ON YOUR WATCH.

That Molly scene in TFP was so horrendous. I don’t even ship them at all, but really. How much of an asshole do you have to be???

How did John and Sherlock survive a bomb by jumping through glass windows and landing 2 stories down on the concrete with no injuries?

How did they get on that boat?

WHY were they on that boat?

WTF was that imaginary plane bullshit???

NO ONE CARES THAT THE DOG ISNT REAL, ARE YOU KIDDING ME

Why did Mary think John would pull away from Sherlock if she died, if she didn’t know she was going to die saving Sherlock? If she’d died ANY other way, John would have no reason to pull away.

Why did Mary give Sherlock the 10000% worst advice in the world (seriously, who tf tells their “friend”, who is a DRUG ADDICT, “GO FUCK YOURSELF on drugs, and GO DIE on purpose” on the random ass off chance that John would find this out in time???)?

Why did Mary have a slip of paper to knock Sherlock out prepared ahead of time?

Why did Mary tell Sherlock and John that “A.G.R.A.” was her initials, when if they had just looked at the fucking drive they would see her real name?

Why was she SOOOOO worried that Sherlock and John would look at the drive, if all that was on there were A.G.R.A.’s identities???

Why did Mary shoot Sherlock directly in the chest point blank, which did kill him enough that the doctors GAVE UP, if she wasn’t trying to fucking kill him dead forever?

Why would Mary not recognize Vivian (or at least, her voice) if A.G.R.A. worked with her?

If Mycroft dealt with freelancers, why did he not know Mary wasn’t fucking MARY???

Why would Mary name her daughter after an alias that could get said daughter KILLED??? AND WE FUCKING KNOW THAT NAME WAS DANGEROUS, BECAUSE MARY LEFT IT BEHIND TO BECOME “MARY MORSTAN” YOU IDIOTS

What did John’s letter to Sherlock say? If is wasn’t going to be addressed, why the fuck would you put it in the episode??

Why did Molly deliver such a hard “John would rather have anyone but you. Anyone” message if it had NO POINT.

Where did the baby go when everyone the baby knew was at John’s “Therapist’s” office at the beginning of TLD? And don’t give me that “it was with friendS” crap, literally only Sherlock, Molly, and Mrs. Hudson went to that kid’s babyshower for fuck sake, John has no other friends.

If you can’t handle the placement of a baby for ONE EPISODE, don’t write one into your show FOR LITERALLY NO REASON.

What was Sherlock’s reoccurring dream that he was telling Ella? Why put that in if it wasn’t important?

If Mary isn’t bad, and therefore wasn’t working with “Faith” and Culverton to set Sherlock up to die (which would have been a perfect and interesting conspiracy), HOW did “Faith” and Culverton know Sherlock would be drugged up enough to fall into their trap??

WTF was the POINT of Eurus texting with John IF SHE WASNT WORKING WITH MARY to mess with Him and Sherlock? Literally ZERO point to the “plot”.

Also, we see that John and Eurus see eachother for a 2nd time at the bus stop. I thought it was important, even though y’all acted like all they did was text, BUT NOPE just another loose end.

TD-12 was absolutely useless, and you spent SO MUCH time on it. 

why did mary keep repeating villain lines (“Miss me?” multiple times, “Anyone!” multiple times in her video, literally fuck off)

If mary had time to jump 5 feet to take a bullet after its already been shot than sherlock had time to jump out of the way you idiots

also the irony of your holier-than-thou deduction sequence when Sherlock got shot, about how big spurts of dramatic blood only happens in movies? You literally fucked yourself.

zero point to Sherlock and John’s extended “ROMANTIC LOVE WILL COMPLETE YOUUUUU” scene on every level, went no where

speaking of that scene, how did Sherlock hear “Mary” say that he should wear the hat???? HUH>?

Mrs. Hudson WATCHED Mary’’s DVD with sherlock, why was she all “OH, wonder what this is, what could it be, WOW LOOK JOHN its your wife???” later with John and Mycroft WHEN SHE KNEW SHERLOCK WAS PROBABLY DYING

Also why would she just let John watch that cold, knowing Mary’s face would show up??

Why did you make Irene a lesbian if you were going to keep making her ride Sherlock’s dick via text message AGAIN.

I’m sure she would want to tell you this if she was here, so I’ll relay the message: LITERALLY GO FUCK YOURSELVES, YOU “SHERLOCK CAN TURN A LESBIAN WOMAN STRAIGHT, HES JUST THAT AMAZING, NO HOMO!!!” ASSHOLES

why was John still crying about his no homo bro being dead after two years, no offense to my best friend but I will think of you really fondly but probably not be going to therapy forever and being all “I literally am so heartbroken that i cant even say the things that i wanted to say to him when he was alive”

speaking of that thing that he couldn’t say out loud to Ella the Therapist: i guess he just really wanted to tell sherlock “No homo tho”, just to make sure he knew that before he died

speaking of things unsaid - I guess the serious thing that sherlock was going to say to john on the tarmac, that he chose not to say for absolutely no decernable reason, was “Bro, I’m gonna miss you, bro! We had some good bro times bro, NO HOMO!!1!” and then they do that back-slap hug that guys do so things don't get too homo

no offense to the prop department, but that light-up skull, that would be either lit or not lit or COMPLETELY BLACK, was bullshit

speaking of bullshit: kindly shove all of those elephants up your ass

including that Take-Out menu on Mycroft’s fridge. I hope you get a paper-cut that never heals.

i might as well have not even bothered taking notes on these episodes, when I could have literally never watched the show before, not cared at all, and been totally fulfilled by everything by not giving a shit about details and character arcs and, you know, literally all of ACD’s original works.

OMG SHERLOCK HAS A SISTER, I don’t fucking care.

AW POOR MARY, John and her were clearly soooo in love!! - says a person who thinks couples that don’t want to be together even a little are super romantic

literally he was trying to leave his marriage like a month after it started, literally go fuck yourself

Your show made less sense, in terms of emotion and character arcs, than Guy Ritchie’s cash grab movies. Yeah. I said it.

“Look at us both”. YEAH, LOOK AT YOURSELVES IN THE MIRROR.

oh wait i forgot, you don’t know what a mirror is. what is literature? what are emotions? idk, lets make mary gasp for breathe and say “you were my whole world!!!” to john even though that makes zero fucking sense for her character or their relationship at all and does huge disservice to them both LOL

Mary could have been the most Awesome Badass Mastermind EVER but you fucked her

An Emotional Arc: Its this thing where characters (who, like people) have emotions (CRAZZY i know), and they start in one place emotionally, and end somewhere new through the story! Lets see:

Sherlock: Starts as a suave, kinda swashbuckling guy who tries to tidy up his apartment for John, asks him to dinner, and basically blushes at John’s attention. In the middle: a bit of an asshole, but one who literally tries to die for John over and over, and literally COMES BACK TO LIFE from a FATAL gunshot bc his subconsious doesn’t want to leave John with Mary. End? “Sometimes I text Irene, just like you text your side-chick! No Homo For Life, RIGHT??? Don’t think about how every action I take is to keep you safe or happy, lol”

John: Starts as an emotionally repressed, suicidal, PTSD stricken loner who is immediately enamored with Sherlock’s brain, and literally kills a man like 1 day after they meet. Middle: A bit of an asshole who is horrible at understanding that Sherlock is NOT a robot without feelings - but an asshole who is willing to die for him, and with him, but who has major trust issues. End? “I wish I had REALLY cheated on Mary with Bus Girl, I can’t believe I missed my chance! Also, even though I’m reacting extremely jealously to you texting Irene, I think you should hit that! Now hold me while I cry, and then lets get cake while my baby cries on the floor like a Sim somewhere NO HOMEO”

I will never let you forget this.

Congrats actually, you HAVE made history! You’ve made a Historically Huge Fuck Up.

Your show’s depth is thinner than Donald Trump’s skin.

200+ adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, no courage present - oh, except for that one parody “Oklahomo” one (thanks for including Sherlock tweeting an “Oklahoma!” reference also! if I had balls, that would’ve been a kick to them!).

LOL Sherlock and John - literally so hilarious!! All those people whining “They’re Not GAY that gross, Doyle would be rolling in his grave if he found out people thought that!” and “NO! SHERLOCK IS AN EMOTIONLESS ROBOT except he can fuck irene I'm okay with that for some reason”? They were all right! What a fucking joke.

I guess “Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for you, and find nourishment at the very sight of you? Yes [he’s in love with you]. But do you ache for him?” meant nothing—OH WAIT that’s from a show that actually textually acknowledged the feelings of love between it’s two main characters. And they didn’t even say “No homo!” afterwards?? I can’t believe it.

don’t ever ask your audience to pay attention on a subtextual level again. clearly, you can’t handle it.

also: I honestly couldn’t give a shit about your endless and constant derision and annoyance with people asking about the relationship between the MAIN CHARACtTERS OF YOUR FUCKING SHOW get over yourselves, and i really hope somehow ACD comes back as a ghost to haunt you one christmas, just to tell you straightt to your stupid faces that you fucked up, and how sad he is that it will always be 1895 - because nothing ever changes, and they will be stuck there forever, out of time.

how dare you bring Oscar Wilde and Freddie Mercury into this mess.

Your intentions don’t matter - what matters is that I would have been better off not paying attention to literally ANY details, not caring one ounce about the characters, and just tuning in as a completely casual viewer. 

The real lesson was “Caring is not an advantage.”, and that is sad.

And the real Final Problem? “It’s not about the characters, its about some stupid ass dog and a stupid ass ‘Saw’ house, and who gives a shit about the rest.

Congratulations - I no longer care!

#sherlock spoilers #TFP spoilers #tjlc #sherlock meta #LOOSE ENDS #SOOOO MANY because this episode and season were shit apparently #good riddance #johnlock #LONG POST #btw

[sodasback]

SPOILERSSSSSSSSSSS

Things I did notttt like in season 2:

Alligators 🐊 …. Yep just alligators

They made JJ seem a lot dumber this season. Like of course we love crazy JJ, but last season he still seemed like he could be a secret genius. Now I’m like alright this is just a dumb 16 year old who strikes gold every once in a while.

The girl John B flirts with at the bonfire … sooooooo cringey like I’m kinda hoping they meant for her to be thattttt cringe so we would just automatically hate her. But I think it was a whole unnecessary level.

Kie says she’s been friends with the boys since kindergarten at one point (alright we’re abandoning the 3rd grade thing fine) …. Like I just don’t get loving/understanding parents disliking your friends THAT much. Like I get Kie gets into a lot of shit because of them, but do they not realize how much those lost boys need a Wendy??

I feel like Kie had a weird trajectory this season, but I think Bailey killed it.

Topper def loves Sarah more than John b does.

Wish there was like something cute between Rafe and Wheezie at some point to make us believe Rafe has a sliver of humanity left in him and that Wheezie (and Ward) is the only person he wouldn’t hurt.

We did not get the scene of Plum pushing JJ against the wall. (Maybe it was supposed to be her instead of the other officer at one point, or there’s a deleted scene that NEEDS to be shared)

We didn’t find out about anyone’s Mom?!!! Like so many opportunities for John B, JJ and the Cameron’s to get a mom backstory. They’re some frickin Disney characters over here with no parents.

Like maybe he’s not supposed to be, but Luke feels wayyyy older than Anna. He graduated like 10 years before her lol and for a split second I was like nooooo JJ and Kie are brother and sister somehow?!!!! Lol glad that didn’t happen

I get he was going off the deep end and it would have been super creepy and tooooooo inappropriate but the Drew Starkey lover in me wants him to at least FLIRT with someone. I feel like when he’s all drunk at the bar, he could have at least flirted with a person. It would have been cringey but still.

Sad Pope and John B didn’t like acknowledge the fact that John B kissed Kie in season 1. Like something stupid about bro code but then John b being like I dgaf. Anddddd I kinda felt like there was perfect opportunities in the last episode for Kie realizing she loves JJ to be like “well I kissed the other 2 already might as well give this a shot before I finally realize I’m a lesbian and Sarah and I are meant for each other.”

Everything medical except for JJ’s explanation of rebound pain in appendicitis. Everything else was soooo bad. They use the ambu bag backwards. WORST fake CPR I’ve ever seen. She was dead for minutesssssss; that would have caused brain damage for sure. The “paramedic” who doesn’t know how to give epinephrine???

The amount of times Rafe almost kills Sarah. Feels like a lot lol calm down bro

I wanted something different/more between Jj and luke. Idk what but I feel like that could have hit better

Also feel like they could have done some serious foreshadowing in the whole JJ after his dad is gone and his little speech into really making us think they killed him in that last episode.

John B’s mom supposedly being alive and not hearing about or acknowledging her son is probably on international news several times in the last few weeks and ya know might get the death penalty apparently.

Things I Loveddddddd:

Heyward. That’s it.

Topper redemption

Kie and Luke *chefs kiss

How John B narrates at the beginning that everyone dies, making us think that we’re gonna lose a lot of ppl this season and it’s going to be Game of Thrones level of no plot armor for the characters and then literally not one of them dies. Like everyone we think dies comes back to life. Lol …. I love this in an ironic way.

Rafe’s “nature kills” speech

Every time Rafe talks to Barry and gets all hot

I wasn’t like a big shipper of anyone really, but after JJ asked how Pope was in bed, I was like kayyyyy they have to.

Love that Pope was the MVP this season. Like it was his season.

Ward not choosing his children …like I’m really glad they didn’t do that. Even though I def wouldn’t blame him for being like oh shit Rafe’s a psycho

There were some ACAB vibes that I liked. But glad we got some Shoupe redemption too.

Barry realizing Rafe is a psycho. Lol

Jorge!!!! I’m so glad we saw him again, but he didn’t mention the bike

John B and JJ reunion, but I feel like they should have leaned into it more

John B finally being like ...okay let me save my friends and surrendering to the cops. 

“Kay round 3 bitch” 

Drew has to come back next season otherwise this was all dumb af. soooo we’re getting more Drew. like there’s no way out of it!! 

I’m def gonna think of more later lol Thoughts???

#obx spoilers #outer banks #obx

[shatteredatthealtarofwinchester]

Reminder that Jared thinks both 'Bloodlines' and 'Wayward Sisters' were great episodes (He apparently thinks of them as the same thing. You know, like how something nobody wants or cares about is the same as something lots of people want and care about. Same deal! Or you know how like when you hate someone and avoid them at all costs it's the same as when you love someone and want to hang out with them all the time? In that same way.. Bloodlines and Wayward Sisters are the same. #JaredLogic )

Aww I love talking about that!

Well yeah, Jared also thinks "Carry on" was his favourite of all 327 episodes and called it beautiful, magical storytelling. My jaw dropped to the floor.

I had a conversation about that yesterday, that's popping into my mind right now, I have to put her answer in here. She said the following:

"It actually makes me sick that out of 15 seasons THAT is the episode Jared calls his favourite. Nothing but nothing happens for most of it and then you get a filler episode of the most boring type of monster on the show and then soooo many bland montages, it's just one uninteresting scene after the other and then you watch your best friend and brother be killed off so he can waste the rest of the episode waiting for you to die too. He doesn't even do anything in heaven except drink a terrible beer and drive for 40 years. And your character spends decades being miserable despite having a family of your own and then you get some nameless faceless wife and a son that we get half an episode with so no one gives a fuck about him. And he's called Dean so he feels like a substitute and not a fully realised character. It was a shit show. It took a show about found family and made it all about blood family and it pretended that all of their loved ones were mere distractions that weren't worth screen time or mention. Let's not even get into why on earth John is in heaven...much less Dean's section of heaven. I don't think the writers even realized that they created a child abuser in John and he's not some beloved hero character. The fact that they wanted a big Winchester family reunion originally but also didn't want Cas there because they only wanted "important characters" there makes me livid. Cas is more of a loved one than John could ever hope to be. They literally spent seasons healing from the damage he caused them. After Jared said that BS it totally ruined the good #AlwaysKeepFighting meant because now its tainted."

Yup, I feel the same way.

#j*red #j*red padalecki #15x20 #spn #spnfamily #jensen ackles #misha collins #spnfandom #supernatural #castiel #dean winchester #destiel #dean #cas #deancas

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here friend, and happy to see you dishing out the salt now that you survived the finale. If you don't mind, I'd like to share my personal list of finale sins, a mini does not spark joy to get you started on this week: Jones's sword has more screen time and plot relevance than Alex Manes, half of the favorite ship and only gay main character; Sanders is abandoned after last week's sweet scene with Michael; Maria being given a vision because she had no relevance to anything happening TBC.

Maria has magical tarot vision she discovered with little effort and might have been nice of her to try before endangering people's lives and careers earlier; Maria cautioning Kyle about Is being happy, like he shouldn't interfere, is some fucking aneurysm-inducing hypocrisy; no one worrying over kidnapped Michael as much as fixing Max; Michael is at the fucking bunker the whole time which should be obvious; Alex spends more time consoling Max than them discussing Michael; Eduardo apparently tells Alex about Michael and we don't see it; Michael reunites with Alex bloody and nearly dead and we don't see it; Echo gets to talk and reassure other for the entire 2 hours with sweet scenes while Malex got maybe 3 minutes (Chris Hollier you are full of shit); Maria finds Michael and I reach a personal record in the octave hit with my internal screaming; Isobel is suddenly a lone wolf when since S1 she has always emphasized keeping her brothers close; Isobel's S2 progress erased so Maria could have a sister moment; the bracelet, that wasn't deliberately not used all season is suddenly reason that Is owes Maria an IOU; not even getting 5 secs of Kylex joy when Alex teasers Jones; Eduardo confronting Jones makes no sense; Michael's trip to the turquoise mines when time is precious to do therapy mining makes no sense; but Michael can apparently teleport now too; constant pep talks for Max, Liz, Heath, and Is by everyone; No one feels the need to check on the mental health of queer couple, one of who was stabbed and kidnapped and the other their soulmate; Kyle still not getting either a happy ending or acknowledgment besides Isobel; the ridiculousness of "the science" and the show's idea of how long experiments take; Max calls Michael "Guerin" during the Jones confrontation (when the fuck was that a thing); the frequency forcing body swapping is dumb; Rosa is completely underutilized; Finally Malex, still can't exist in public with the main group and Alex can't exist almost at all, even in the areas where his story arc takes place. Sorry this is long, it's been probably not even a complete list, but the finale seriously has me asking how much do I actually enjoy this show if this is how i feel at the end of every season. Is Malex being happy finally supposed to let me ignore how they are treated? I'll go catch up on weewoo show now friend, keep on salting!

Hello my friend! I'm still working my way through my very full inbox (this is what I get for taking so long to watch the episode) but I wanted to make sure I got to yours before tomorrow is taken up with the wee woo show my beloved, especially because my sparks/not spark joy post will probably still take me a bit to work up because I'm running so late and it was a double episode with lots of frustrations.

So thanks for your list! and wow, it is...hard to look at it all laid out like that. There were so, so many missed opportunities in these episodes and some straight up weird choices/pairings that were made. It all felt soooo rushed. If only there were some earlier plot lines that went nowhere and affected nothing that could have been cut earlier in the season to make time for this main plot to come together 🤔🤔🤔

It's so frustrating that by cutting that vision plot (whoo boy do I have a post in the works about that!), that a lot of these other issues could be solved because one of the big complaints (again, still, always) is the writers telling instead of showing important things and with more time we could have had that. And unfortunately since they still don't know what to do with m*ria or how to make her useful she ended up just stealing moments that should have gone to other characters, or Isobel had to regress in her progress to give m*ria something to do.

And the "science" 🙄🙄🙄 Look. Yes this is a show about aliens and a very smart scientist. But the science isn't real. So it doesn't really matter if we know "how" it works. Because a) people who actually know science are going to want to tear their hair out when it's incorrect, and b) people who don't know science aren't going to care because it's not real anyway. Just have someone holding up a cool looking vial and saying "the gobbledygook worked!" or dramatically throwing a clipboard down and saying "dammit! The blah-de-blah failed again!" We don't need an hour long lecture on how the fake science works! Keep it vague, make it visually look cool, and show us actually important character interactions, and it will all flow so much smoother!

*Deep sigh*

the finale seriously has me asking how much do I actually enjoy this show if this is how i feel at the end of every season. Is Malex being happy finally supposed to let me ignore how they are treated?

I'm so sorry you feel that way and man has it difficult to find any joy and excitement after that finale fumbled so badly again. It's a curse with this show, I swear. And it's extra frustrating that we did get to see some glimpses of happy Malex and a lot of people don't understand why that isn't enough but like, *gestures wildly at the finale with less than 10 min of screen time for Alex and all his big moments going to m*ria*. The journey matters, and what they show us on screen matters, and damn I sure bet Chris is regretting saying the words "same level of importance as Echo" in regards to Malex because that receipt is going to be brought up a LOT after what that finale served.

Okay, this is long and rambling and I've already cut out several portions to make their own posts about, so I'm going to stop there, but I'm always happy to hear from you and now that RNM is behind us for now, I can't wait to hear about your 911 watch and your thoughts!

#my sweet nonnie friends #sleeping at last anon #roswell nm #season 3 spoilers #roswell nm my behated #anti maria deluca #vision plot my behated

[daantaat]

twu s2 thoughts even though nobody asked <3 just a brain dump and it’s quite long so I tried to separate my commentary by categories but it’s still a mess unfortunately. Spoilers under the cut!

General

Overall, I enjoyed season 1 more than season 2. I’ve watched season 2 three times now, and I do think it had some good parts that I definitely overlooked during my first watch (probably because I was preoccupied with Charlotte x Shona 😶😅). My initial reaction to this season was like ‘hmm so that happened and I’m not sure what to think’ but then I rewatched it and tbh I think my complaints are mostly to do with the time jump between seasons and the pacing...

Like yeah there’s only so much to touch on in six 25-minute episodes but!!! I finished the season wanting a bit more, because I thought that some of the things that were introduced were either not explained fully/well or they just dropped off completely and didn’t really have an effect other than me asking questions after the season was over, like it felt as though there were missing scenes— more on that later (though maybe they will be addressed in season 3??? If there is one? How soon do shows get renewed? Idk). Though I guess the audience does have to do some interpretation of their own but still... Idk! Idk. And the assumption that certain events/plot points mentioned in a character’s dialogue would be enough for context had me kinda “:///” y’know? Like don’t tell me, show me?? I’d like the full course please!!

Charlotte x Shona (+ Vish I guess)

I think it was really jarring to see their relationship grow from colleague/business partners to friends and then finally to something more in season 1 only to see them awkwardly handle their unresolved feelings in the workplace with nothing to show for their actual relationship besides a mention of “a week-long gay safari” + the brief flashes of a sex scene that was intermingled with Shona and Vish’s cyber sex session, which in itself is 😐😐😐 like yes it shows that Shona still thinks about/fancies Charlotte in some capacity, but if I were to choose between that sex fantasy/flashback or a flashback of Charlotte and Shona together (like Charlotte telling Shona she was falling for her!!!!)... I think I’d choose the latter? I was just disappointed that we didn’t really get to see Charlotte and Shona being all cute and romantic with each other this season :(

ALSO I wished we got to see more of jealous!Shona; I was super hyped to see that since that scene was included in the trailer. It was nice to see her want the best for Charlotte because she’s “great” but the jealousy part of knowing Charlotte is dating someone great got settled pretty quickly and instead we got Shona evaluating her commitment to Vish and considering the idea of having kids after learning she has a womb of a 39-year-old (😐) and it felt.... like a lot!! It was definitely different from season 1 Shona (”I actually don’t want kids” “I genuinely, I genuinely don’t, you know, it’s not a big deal. Just never have” in 1x04) but if this was to show her dealing with comphet or internalized homophobia or just simply running away from her feelings then... idk what to think of it! I really don’t. I think this is where things could have been written differently because using an affair with Charlotte like that (an affair that we didn’t even get to see besides the stolen kisses at the finance event) was so... ugh, I’m suffering here

Anyway, I think their office scenes were definitely highlights of the season, like Indira and Sharon really gave those scenes their all!! Even though it hurts to see Charlotte so heartbroken and Shona running away from her feelings and hurting Charlotte in the process, I live for the angst lol. I will say though, the 180 that happened after their convo outside Charlotte’s office was a bit “🤔” considering Charlotte had talked to her therapist about Shona for 4 months. Like one hungover feeling dump from Shona and they can move on? Hmm communication is connection, huh. And I guess they were just excited that the article got good results? But how cute that they got each other gifts of their picture in the article??? Wtffff I love my “unfunny and obvious” gal pals even though I’m in pain

As for the voice note... omg, so many questions. Like did Charlotte try to reach out to Shona after she abruptly ended their call to check if she sent the voice note to Vish?? Was that gonna be the first time Charlotte heard Shona say “I love you” to her? What was the reason Shona said “I love you” anyway??? Is she, you know 👀 Also do y’all think Vish will listen to the entire voice note since it was clear it was meant for Charlotte? And who knows maybe Vish’s phone died and he can’t turn it back on or check his WhatsApp or whatever. I’m in denial lmao. But also I think he's a pretty good guy, like when he sent biscuits over to the house when Shona wanted some and him saying what’s the point of having fun in New York when she's not there with him... :/ but he was also a bit weird about her putting a nail in a wall or leaving out the egg duck or whatever as a display item in their house though I suppose that’s not a huge problem so like idk man idk!!! I'm just saying season 3 better not have a time jump I need to see what happens and not just in exposition

Shona and Aine

Love them :) I wish they had more scenes together (if that's possible??) but I liked the somewhat change in dynamic seeing Aine a bit worried about Shona (asking her if she’s okay when she mentions she’s thinking of getting a fringe lmao and again asking if she’s okay when they’re unpacking in Vish’s house). And of course Shona is still very protective and worrisome but seeing Aine just miserably lounging around her apartment over the weekend and getting in her bike accident after Shona wasn’t too supportive of her and James’s business idea made me so sad :( like Shona was so shitty about her not typing up everything in the notes for the meeting! And not even reading James's CV... big yikes. Anyway I thought it was odd that we didn’t get a follow up on the voice note Aine left Shona after getting into the bike accident... like she sounded soooo shaky and out of it :((( what luck Shona was sick and didn’t see Aine with a missing tooth before she got it fixed

Anyhow, Aine was right when she said Shona needs to talk to her and talk about her feelings more!! AND this is part of where my complaint about the pacing and the missing scenes comes into play! I think we should have seen Aine and Shona fighting about Shona’s affair and leaving Vish the voice note. The audience knows Aine cares about Vish and I’m not entirely sure where her relationship with Charlotte stands since Charlotte told Freddie about her being in rehab (on the assumption that he knew, as Aine’s ex-boyfriend) but!!! Just cutting to them on the floor waiting for Vish’s flight to land was not as hard hitting as it could have been

Aine x Bradley (+ Richard)

OKAYYY. Cute!!! I definitely overlooked the signs during my first watch here but yeah they were definitely there during my rewatch(es)!! I quite liked seeing Bradley try to get Aine to stop talking negatively about herself and just try to treat herself better in general like exercising and actually eating off of a plate :’) and the comparisons between Bradley and Richard have me like 👀📝 Bradley saying he likes how much Aine talks vs. Richard’s friend Mark saying she talks a lot and how he wasn’t expecting a whole show to which Richard replies he thought that at first too but she “calms down” like brooo... alright. Anyway Bradley going with her to Tom’s funeral/service made sense since he actually met Tom (though Aine did vaguely talk about him and his drinking problem to Richard in 1x05) and the fact that she told Bradley about PACT and her time there but she didn’t tell Richard (to be fair she was thinking about telling him) hmm 👀 Also Bradley saying “Sometimes it would just be nice to be with someone you could just relax with as yourself” yeah I’m on board with them

Loneliness, COVID, Communication is Connection

Initially I thought these themes could have come across a little stronger but after rewatching... hmm. Yes, Shona was lonely in the house by herself; she even asked Anil to stay for dinner, had her own “pile of shit” boyfriend on her bed (which she did clear off), and told Vish that nobody had time for her. Also after the business meeting she asked Aine what she was doing during the weekend (which Aine also spent alone anyway), but I dunno... oh yeah her hen/bachelorette party was a bit lonely since places were starting to go into lockdown and not everybody could attend, but I think the COVID element entered a bit too late into this season? I’m not sure it really added much in terms of the loneliness. Maybe it did add to the uncertainty of things though

“Communication is Connection” was there but I thought it kind of fell flat as well, but maybe that was the intention— to highlight the mess that a lack of communication can cause? Shona apparently writing off Charlotte’s feelings and them not necessarily talking about their relationship/feelings until their convo outside Charlotte’s office... Shona talking to Seema saying she’s never really asked what Vish wanted (regarding kids) and Seema saying that’s a convo for her and Vish to have... Aine not telling Richard she overheard him and Mark talking about her... Richard not consulting Aine about telling Etienne about them and just getting a new tutor for him... hmm. What does it mean. What does it all mean

Other stuff I’m still thinking about/have questions about

Shona mentioning it’s “annoying” how Aine talks like she’s the only person to ever get sad in episode 1 but still telling Aine she’s fine and then in episode 6 Shona saying she only has two emotions or whatever so she doesn’t need to talk to Aine about her feelings as much -____- istg we need to get Shona to talk to a therapist in season 3!!!

I also liked that Shona, Aine, and Eileen talked more. I’m still a little disappointed that the fact Eileen leaving Shona for three months when she was a baby was not mentioned at all. Yeah it was a secret but when Eileen said “well, you should never lie. You’ll always get caught out.” I— HELLO? If anything, that secret seeing daylight could have had something to do with Shona's sadness + loneliness this season. Also could you imagine that becoming a fear of Shona’s, like what if she doesn’t want kids because she’s afraid of doing the same thing to hers if she has any??

Jim asking Charlotte if she’s straight and Shona immediately going “what does that have to do with anything” or something like that and apologizing to Charlotte after Jim left— I’m not sure how I should have read that??? Did Shona mention to Jim that Charlotte is a lesbian?? When he started to ask, he was still looking at Shona (yeah I’m reading too much into this I know)

Marcia figuring out that Aine and Richard were seeing each other (after he touched her hand on his way out to get a taxi)— what was the purpose? Other than Marcia obviously feeling bad for Etienne, whom I assume she sees as a son of her own (based on the Mom Instinct™ snooping when she was doing housekeeping + her convo with Aine when he came back from France). She didn’t talk to either Aine or Richard about it, just told Aine to have a good time when they were leaving the house to go to their “separate” events. I guess it wasn't her place to say anything, but hm. Speaking of Etienne, it was obvious he had a schoolboy crush on Aine (or at least he was vying for her attention) in season 1 and it’s really too bad we didn’t get to see his reaction to suddenly getting a new tutor or dealing with Aine and Richard’s relationship other than him looking at them hugging while the new tutor was teaching him. He deserved some more screen time this season :(

Hmm so that was all very incoherent but if you made it this far thank youuu <3 here are some last silly comments:

Absolutely loved Julie!! I want to know what she knows about Charlotte and Shona 👀 girl give me the scoop on the last 4 months at the office

Super sad we didn’t get to see Charlotte’s cat (I’m always gonna be vocal about this 🗣🗣🗣) or know who her new girlfriend was but at the very least we were introduced to one of the most important side characters of all: Charlotte’s stompy boots <33333 she really wore those around the office with a blazer/blouse/leather skirt! We love that lesbian attire

#aka me: grasping for straws #also hulu changed the description for episode 6. interesting #this way up spoilers #this way up #spoilers #my post #k.txt #this is so long i'm sorry

[karma-jinx]

ML New York Special Babbles *Spoilers*

Ok so! Coming outta me hiding hole to bring you this ramblings. These are just my thoughts after seeing the new episode. This ones a LONG one.

I’m told that this particular episode takes place between seasons 3 and 4. A sort of bridge episode maybe idk. I mention this because there are some things it connects to in the past and introduces some new stuff. (In regards of what’s going on in Paris.)

The ep starts with LB and CN yet AGAIN fighting Mr Pigeon. Apparently for the 51st time. He wants to take the Eiffel Tower to space with his piegons???? Idk just an excuse for the hero’s to use their new power ups. Which tbh is kinda lame because we don’t even see them in the new forms for very long.

The light hearted banter between LB and CN about the rose was kinda nice. I say this because it seems like CN is maybe FINALLY going to give her space and not try to woo her every moment. Tbh I can’t recall if he actually did flirt with her in that scene. So that’s cool. (Boy did stroke his own ego by kissing his muscles.)

Marinette really out her denying she still simps over Adrien. (She does it through out the entire episode and no one believes her claim that she’s over him and that they’re “friends”)

Also uh.... so Miss Bustier is preggers???? Interesting cuz I thought she was single since we’ve never heard of any sort of partner she may or may not have. Also its Miss, not Mrs so I don’t think she’s married? But idk she can’t go to the trip so Ms Mendeleiev goes in her place.

And can I just say how hurt she looked when the students complained that she’s lame and wouldn’t be as fun as Ms B. Yeah Ms. M is strict and all but she’s fair across the board. Unlike Ms B. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about just look up Ms B salt.)

Random but why was Chloe SO Adamant in not wanting to go to New York? I mean didn’t she want to go to New York with her mom? Was it cuz it was a class trip instead?

Lila was there too but fuq her honestly. Lila was only there to push Marinette to claim they gotta convince model boy’s das to let him go to New York with them.

Why’d the WHOLE class go to Adrien’s house if Marinette was the only one let inside? Sure it could be argued that either the dad only allowed her in. Or her classmates pushed her to do it alone since it was her idea. Either way seemed unnecessary for them all to be there. That’s just my opinion.

Side note as this was happening Adrien and Kagami had another fencing match. (One she won becuz boi was having sad times)

But she him!!!! And such an odd scene too becuz it LOOKS like she MAY have kissed him on the lips. But I don’t think she actually did. I say this because Adrien showed no reaction to it until she pulled away. He was still sadly looking at the ground until she was leaving. So???? I still don’t think they’re a couple. Yet????

My girl Marinette being a responsible hero trusting CN to look over the city in her absence gives him a flipping kitty alarm. I want that!

Random comment but ofc marinette would miss the bus that’s taking her to the airport because why WOULDNT she right?

Luckily friend Luka was there to haul ass to catch up on it on his bike right? (Is he a wimp or not? Like???? Yeah we know he likes her but he also treats her like a friend. So idk of this scene is him kinda simping or him being a good friend.)

That plane scene huh? I feel like some ppl are gonna be mad about what happened. As the trailer shows Marinette and Adrien are seated next to each other. When boarding the place Adrien is actually happy, maybe even excited to see Marinette.

He runs down the aisle to help her with her things and find her seat. He even tries to help her work the ac over head. All in all he’s just happy to be near her. And everyone might’ve thought FINALLY some progress right? Only to see her beg for help because she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t spend HOURS seated by the boy she likes.

Why? Because at the end of season 3 we’re told that she chooses to bow out in the race for his affections because she thinks he and Kagami like each other. She couldn’t handle a few seconds by him so she knew she wouldn’t be able to handle hours seated by a guy she still very much likes but chooses she can’t have. As frustrating as it is I can at least see WHY she acted the way she did.

Alya and Nino being 100000% over these to but still trying to help them out. The patience they have for their idiot friends.

Everyone on the plane as it’s being attacked: scared and full surprised.

Alya: *nerds out about the super heroes helping*

She still hasn’t changed huh?

Why’s Majestia’s daughter and Android? I really wanna know the story there. Idk how to spell her name so I’ll be calling her by her hero name. Uncanny Valley, which I also want to know why is that her name. As well as the full extent of her powers.

Yay for Sabrina having fun away from Chloe for once.

Why are there SO many heroes in New York anyways? And some are random af. A guys who’s ability is that he can open a door to where ever he wants to go.

A hotdog hero with ketchup and mustard theme sidekicks? (Maybe)

Dude makes hotdogs filled with random temp abilities. Which explains wtf I saw a clip of Adrien and Marinette dancing in the air.

Sooooooo..... does everyone just think of convoluted schemes? Or meddle in things just willy nilly? Anyways Uncanny Valley and Jess’s scheme to “help” Adrien and Marinette confess sure was top tier wild idea. Alya and Nino just WENT WITH IT! They’re just like, “kay sure why not?” Sure ok!

Ladybug and Chat Noir are an efficient crime fighting duo. And Paris’ sworn protectors!

Can’t function for shit as civilians.

LB has sole custody of their brain cells. What happens to it when they change back is a mystery to me.

CN is an idiot for never telling LB that he was leaving Paris. Til it was too late and problems were happening in Paris. Caused by Mayura. Rip Natalie who seems bed ridden? But also if the miraculous is fixed is she still going to suffer the affects from when it was broken? Or is she healing from that?

Anyways a messy fight ensues. CN hurt he broke his Lady’s trust and almost killed Uncanny Valley. If LB weren’t there to fix things who knows what would’ve happened?

Still, he gives up his ring and is forced to leave since his father blames Marinette for convincing him to allow Adrien to go to New York. SCREW YOU GABRIEL BITCH NEEDS TO GET DUNKED ON IS ALL IMA SAY.

(That was a NASTY skid Marinette did. Like OUCH)

Why did Majestia’s skin tone go fucking white in her civilian form???? Her and her gf/wife’s skin tone was just, weird?

On topic of random/weird why did Jess HAVE to pretend she was a boy hero?

The explanation they gave was rushed and weak imo.

The eagles miraculous confuses me tbh. Even after seeing how it worked I’m perplexed by it. But seeing as it takes place in ‘Muerica land of the Free with an eagle Kwami its “on brand”. Sure.

HM really out here really to destroy the world without a second thought huh? Guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

Shouldn’t also be surprised that LB and CN saved the day with their new friends either. The ending was pretty rushed tbh.

LB and CN are thanked/praised for helping. Paris understand why they were absent now.

Jess gets to keep the miraculous and *le gasp* there’s another protector of the miraculous.

Alls well that ends well right?

In all honesty the special was kinda like any other episode. It did bring new lore like the heroes of New York. NONE of them seemed to be miraculous based type of heroes. So I makes me wonder the extent of unnatural aspects that have or could happen to make someone have super abilities. Or am I to assume that it’s like marvel/dc or any other super hero like comic book story. Because it that’s the case then that opens a whole can of worms I can’t get into rn.

There’s also the other guardian of the miraculous. How many more are there? Do they keep in touch? If so why’d Master Fu make Marinette the new guardian???? Just.. jakakandjfns

Why claim its SOOOO important to hide their identities then show how New York Heroes don’t seem to really give af about secret identities?

Might’ve missed some things but this is long af as it is.

#my thoughts #miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml new york #ml special

[sofiaguardalatempesta]

Soooo Cursed is my current obsession and I'm really bored (not really I'm just procastinating) and I had this words floating in my head for some days

so I had to free them

this is just my opinion, I don't want to attack or to roast anyone, everyone is free to think and to ship what they want I'm not judging. You are expressing your opinion, I am expressing my opinion and two different points of view can be valid at the same time.

I see people who ship Nimulot complain all the time because someone is apparently shaming them but when I look for the actual incriminated posts I find:

So since everyone is talking about this ship I also wanted to write my opinion (my university books are judging me, I can feel it)(btw my English sucks so ignore the mistakes).

Look I'm not trying to spit poison on the people who ship them but personally when I watch the show I see Nimue as a 17/18 teenager and I think that Lancelot is probably in his 20s (maybe 25) he is definitely a man not a teenager, let's not go to "at the time bigger age gaps were the norm" because Cursed is a fantasy and they already said fuck historical accuracy in at least five languages.

To be honest when it comes to Nimue I would really like to see her character being explored more (Lady of the Lake, that's some poweful shit), she is the protagonist but I feel like she doesn't really have a connection with the audience, I don't want to criticize Katherine Langford but her acting still feels a bit cold. Nimue is a teenager and tecnically she still has a lot to learn and I feel like she is just at the beginning of her "becoming the lady of the lake" trip. I know that some people ship her with Morgana, I would love to see bi or pan Nimue and I think that they actually have the best chemistry.

I can't understand why everyone has so many issues with the relationship between Nimue and Arthur, I don't think that chemistry is a problem, they are actually cute together. I think that Arthur and Nimue are nearly the same age, maybe he is one or two years older but they are both still teenagers and they both make stupid mistakes, I really liked how Arthur changed during the season and I can't wait to see how they will continue his storyline in the next one.

Lancelot is more adult than them and he still has a long road in front of him. Redemption is not something that can happen in the last five minutes of the last episode, that was only the beginning of something. Let's be real, he lost a huge part of his life and he needs to learn how to live in a normal society, I'm really curious about his journey of redemption and self discovery (if they don't mess this up). And yes he wears dark clothes like Kylo Ren but I don't think that they are actually that similar, he is more similar to Sebastian Morgenstern and to Murtagh from Eragon (I can write an essay on how similar they are but I'm too lazy).

I can't imagine Lancelot having a love interest in the second season (yes I know that y'all are already picturing him and Nimue play husband and wife in a Medieval cottagecore world). I actually don't think that the similarities he has with Nimue are relevant. What? They are both outcasts and they have scars on their backs? Sorry but this time Edward and Bella are winning, this is not a love story better than Twilight (and no you can't just know that they have the best chemistry, that's not how it works, we haven't seen them together on screen yet). In the Arthurian legends they have a mother and son relationship so they could easily have an older brother/younger sister situation (after his LONG journey of redemption). Of all the characters that we already met I can see him having romantic feelings for Gawain (I hope he is still alive). Gawain is the one that made the Monk start to think on his own and they are going to be important for each other (they are the KNIGHTS and they will both have a crucial role in Percival's life).

Another character I can totally see with Lancelot is Red Spear if she is Guinevere (that would be EPIC). Red Spear looks older and more mature than Nimue and Arthur, she and Lancelot are two warriors and they will probably fight on the same side, they would be diffident at the beginning but slowly they can develop mutual respect for each other and after some seasons that feelings can become something more? That would be an interesting interpretation of the whole Guinevere/Lancelot story.

It's just one season, the possibilities are ENDLESS (I didn't want to write that much but I couldn't contain myself). I know that Cursed is more an entertainment show but I really hope that they will take the necessary time to explore all the characters, they can play with the story because it's a fantasy and they really have infinite possibilities to explore. I think that a well made story, a story that puts quality at the first place, can make everyone agree with each other and how do you achieve quality? With time. (But we should bully Netflix until they announce the second season)

#cursed netflix #cursed nimue #weeping monk #the weeping monk #lancelot x gawain

[pinkievie]

I just gotta say some stuff about Season 3 of Charmed

I thought the premiere was soo boring, and the second episode was loads better because more stuff was happening but there is still so much lazy and inconsistent writing I just struggle

First of all there were a few great things about ep 2...

MAGGIE MY QUEEN!! 💕 I literally love it when they focus on Maggie because it shows that you don’t need to be the most confident or dominant or combative one in the room to be the most powerful. I think even going back to season 1 the show was implying that Maggie is lowkey the most powerful charmed one and she really keeps the family together. She’s the heart and soul of the power of three and she’s easily the smartest of the sisters because she has insight and premonitions that Macy and Mel don’t have. She also holds a lot of the responsibility and pressure and has had to be the stable rock in the family so many times when she has had arguably the most draining powers which takes so much out of her, but she always exceeds even her own expectations despite being the youngest. She’s literally the most powerful witch in the world and stands for an entire coven, and has continuously lead the power of three, and performed explosive spells as well as the most intricate empathetic spells. There’s nothing she can’t do. She is just 😍 and AS WELL AS all of this she has moments of vulnerability and panic attacks and personal struggles and it’s JUST AMAZING CHARACTERISATION showing that you can have low points and be open about it but that doesn’t mean you are any weaker or less powerful PLUS you can be empathetic and kind and emotional as well as being BADASS AND when I see the AMAZING Maggie moments like these, I just wonder how it’s the same writers who are writing the rest of the piss poor series 🤷‍♀️

Harry and Macy. Yes, we are getting literal crumbs like 1 x hug and confirmation that they will enjoy a #date when “the magical world is no longer in danger” or whatever, but you know I feel like their relationship might be the reason why 50% of us are still watching the show so I gotta give it to them

the graphics were alright

and the actors are all doing amazingly considering the source material

OKAY NOW on to my many many issues

It was definitely interesting to see Julian as Nadia but i gotta be honest, who even is Nadia? We hardly know her. How did she end up in a relationship with Jimmy? It doesn’t seem like their romance was relevant or important to the story . ? . What relationship is Nadia to Vivian and why does she even care about magic? We’ve only had like a handful of meaningful scenes with her and then in this episode they full on removed her from the story off-screen. The actress is really great so that was a blow in my opinion because she could have done so much MORE. (maybe we’ll see her again I dunno, but I doubt it because the writers aren’t even trying to hide how much they don’t care about her character)

Julian was 1000% done dirty. I wanted to see him come to terms with what he helped create, go against his aunt. What even happened with his sister, Rosemary? Why did Vivian FULL ON KILL her own nephew?? Was their whole relationship just a load of crap or did she feel at all guilty about killing him? Maybe the magic went to her head and made her crazy kinda like Parker with the powerful fruit things. What beef does Viv have with the magical world anyway ? What’s her history

THIS ONE REALLY TICKS ME OFF. The weird thanos infinity glove thing that Viv had to steal and utilise magic. WHere ? Did she ? Did she invent it? HOW? How does it work, what the hell we don’t even know its origins before its already destroyed along with Viv

I know I said they did Julian dirty but Viv also. Wow what a let down from apparently the biggest villain of the season. Again, the graphics were alright but all of the build up regarding her faction and her magical army, and suddenly it’s like “she’s cashed in on her army, destroying all the creatures, and now she’s dead” 🤷‍♀️

Jordan is by far the most pure sweetest character on the show but his small storyline in this episode was too vague, and other more important stuff was going on like did anyone care what he was doing ?? He deserves a part in storyline A. Also the Jordan and Maggie scene at the end was just meh like by this point i’m tired. They don’t seem to even like each other that much and are so distracted by their own problems, they not interested in helping each other. 

As much as I like Ruby and the actress, it just felt weird that she clearly didn’t want anything to do with magic the last time we saw her, but then SUDDENLY she comes running to offer her help with a giant crystal, and then at the end her and Mel seemed like they were like back together? They were going in for a kiss and I’m just like WAT has changed here? Don’t get me wrong, I like their relationship but I thought she didn’t want anything to do with this world and didn’t wanna be with Mel. I guess Mel’s life being at stake might have changed her mind ?? Although she already knew being a witch is dangerous so ~lazy writing~ 

RIGHT OKAY did the producers/writers seriously say that they were making the show darker and upping the anti after season 1 because season 1 was too tame and wishy washy and low-stakes and very like “ah let’s just destroy the monster of the week with the power of three” TO THEN LITERALLY destroy the season 2 big bad with the power of three 🤦‍♂️  i mean, enuf said about that, that last battle was such a let down, i was underwhelmed to extremes

Aside from that, seeing as the power of three did kill Viv, why were the charmed ones focused on protecting the sacred tree and sealing the vault like it was the ONLY WAY they could win instead of just, i dunno, goING TO KILL VIV with the power of three in the first place to prevent her from getting the amber. They were obviously clearly more powerful than her, so why did they all doubt that for the whole episode. Why was the power of three like their .. last...resort ?? 

OK so the sisters were told by the guardian lady that if humans touched the black amber then the magical scales would be unbalanced or some shit, so before they killed Viv was it not obvious that she had touched the black amber considering her appearance and the vault door was wide open. They’re smart girls, why didn’t they realise shit was going down sooner even after killing Viv. They should have checked on the sacred tree no? SOOOO like then everyone was all *shocked* in the final scene upon discovering that Viv had clearly touched the black amber and the magical kingdom was in danger and ON TOP OF THIS are you trying to make ME surprised by this. Bitch you showed us Viv putting her hands in the amber, we’re not shocked by this revelation that the ~battle isn’t over~ we’re not stupid

and -breathe-

#i know covid makes everything harder #but come on why are there not enough good writers in the world #charmed #charmed reboot #cw #maggie vera is a QUEEN tho #my stuff

[the-spoopy-pretzel]

so listen

i wasn’t gonna post about this until i got further in the show so I could be more educated. but i need to vent for a second.

i really like Claire, always have. she’s intelligent, caring, strong, witty. i like jamie too like whatever they’re good characters.

BUT. in season 2 they are REALLLYYY getting on my nerves!! Okay I was furious at Claire when she decided to stay with Jamie in season 1. It was kind of unclear if she even tried to go back through the stones. Maybe the point was she always knew the stones wouldn’t take her back, so she went back to Jamie because she loved him and knew that if she couldn’t get home she could be happy with him forever. But the way the show made it seem was that she had the choice and she chose Jamie!!! And like..... for Frank’s sake.... what the fuck!!!!

first of all, you just spent the past like 10 episodes trying your hardest to get back to Frank and he was all you cared about. And yes of course you get distracted there’s a lot going on. Obviously you were gonna develop feelings for Jamie. But let me ask you this: do your feelings for Jamie erase your feelings for Frank? Your HUSBAND?? the man you CHOSE to spend the rest of your life with, weren’t forced into a situation and developed feelings in the heat of the moment.

Let’s tell it like is: you chose Jamie because he was there. You were physically with him there and then, and Frank wasn’t there. if it were the other way around, you would have chosen Frank. Not to mention - why is it only your choice???? What about Frank???? What do you think he’s going through???? You think he was just like “ah well Claire’s gone, time to get on with my life!” NO. You knew DAMN WELL how he felt about you! You knew he would be devastated and tearing himself apart! For all you know your disappearance could have caused him permanent mental and emotional damage, not to mention attempts to self harm. did ANY of this ever occur to you? No. It was all about Jamie. 

ALso, even if the time travelling was beyond your control... you probably assumed that one day you’d be sent back without any warning. It would have been better to just say goodbye to Jamie then and go back to your real love.

ANYWAY. So then there’s the whole thing about trying to change the future and stop the rebellion. Which, obviously, for anyone with any knowledge of the physics of time travel..... this is not possible. It’s a waste of time, and any actions they take will either cause the rebellion to happen, or not do anything. You can’t “Change” the future, because it’s already happened, as has the past and present. But okay fine, they have to try, I get it, what else are they gonna do anyway? But they must realize, by changing the outcome of the rebellion, you’re also affecting countless lives. There are people who would never be born, or people who will live and reproduce if the rebellion never happens. History would be completely changed, and therefore, it is likely Claire and Frank would never be born anyway! (Further proof that you can’t change the future). But this brings me to my next point....

Claire’s obsession with Jack Randall conceiving the child who is Frank’s ancestor, to ensure Frank’s existence. .....WHAT.

I really wish I could just jump through the screen and scream in her face: “Oh, so NOW you care about Frank’s existence?????”

You literally said “Fuck Frank, I’m in love with Jamie!” and therefore said “I do not care what happens to Frank at all” If you theoretically spend the rest of your days with Jamie in the 1700s, you would never live to know Frank’s existence anyway, so it literally would not affect you if he lives or not. no, what’s really happening is you feel guilty!!! For abandoning him first, and now possibly stopping him from existing. ALso at this point, shouldn’t you put the pieces together and realize that if your actions ensure Frank’s existence, yours and Jamie’s actions will also ensure the rebellion? but anyway....

A much more logical argument from Claire would have been “Jamie, don’t go to this duel. Jack Randall is Frank’s ancestor, and we know Frank exists, so we know Randall lives. And if Randall lives, you must die”

THAT would have made sense. but apparently not to these two idiots who think they can change the future. I mean, same outcome technically, just a lot more frustrating to watch. And Jamie is not any better. What he went through was terrible. I hope he finds a different way to deal with it because this is just unsettling. 

Basically, it’s just really annoying how Claire decided she didn’t care about Frank anymore, but now he’s the motivation behind all of her decisions (Breaking up Alex and Mary?? Rude!! She does not care about Mary if she’ll let her be with Jack Randall!!) She didn’t seem to care about him much when she was back in the future!! Which by the way, I’m still really confused about. Was that a flash forward or a separate timeline? I’m sure it will be explained eventually. 

Another side note: Claire claims Jamie owes him a life because she saved his life twice. Ummmm okay, and how many times did he save your life?? Soooo many! The witch trial, when Randall captured her, that once towards the beginning, when the redcoats attacked them in the woods, offering himself to Randall so he’d let her go, oh yeah MARRYING you so that the british couldn’t arrest you! If anything I’d call it even, but he definitely doesn’t owe you shit! 

The one thing I did like was when the King made Randall look like a fool and was nice to Claire and Jamie. Super satisfying seeing them in the position of power for once. Of course it won’t last long.....

oh, side side note! I totally called Geillis being from the future from the very beginning!!!! it was just obvious, plus all her not-so-subtle hints and comments about not being from there, the way she talked about finding a husband and making a life for herself was clearly foreshadowing for Claire, the magic and the dancing and the general hippie-ness lol. At the witch trials I was almost giving up on it being true because she still hadn’t admitted it, but as soon as she said 1968 I was like I KNEW it!!! And the smallpox vaccine... man I am unbelievably bitter her and Claire never got to talk about it. I want to know her story so bad. Maybe Claire will encounter her in the future sometime.....

#outlander #outlander spoilers #this ended up being a lot longer than i expected so sorry!! #i've been keeping a lot of this in for a while now #gens world party time excellent

[blogmusicismydrugxo]

EVERYTHING WRONG WITH WARRIOR NUN (2020)

Welp, I know what you’re thinking now: Noon disappears for 2 months and then comes back just to bash on something that isn’t even a kdrama?? Well, I mean you are right. I haven’t had the time or will to write kdrama reviews in a couple of months, and I haven’t watched that many kdramas either recently. But then, pretty much just for shits and giggles, I watched this show and it spited me enough to want to write about it, so I’m just going along with it. I am in no way, shape or form a cinematographer, or writer, nor do I generally know much about film making, so take what I’m saying here with a grain of salt. These are just my observations and opinions, you are entitled to your own.

An important concept in fillm and tv is suspension of disbelief. While as a viewer, we are aware that the things on screen are not real, we pretend that the characters are real people who are experiencing those things. Therefore, a show must set up a framework that makes sense to the viewers, in which they can place all of the story. In general, that means that everything on screen must follow the rules of logic and common sense, unless the story explicitly diverts from that. A story about magic does not adhere to our common sense, but if the writers give us a set of rules to logically explain how magic works in this universe, we can suspend our disbelief. It’s important that the explanation is logical, and that the story does not break it’s own rules. This is one of the things Warrior Nun fails to do.

Warrior Nun breaks the rules of common logic on multiple occasions, in big ways and small, without offering the viewer an explanation that would help us accept this deviation from our world. Obvious SPOILER ALERT.

(Dead) bodies don’t work this way

- Ava has been paralysed for most of her life. We know she had her accident when she was 8, and that Sister Frances murdered her because she was about to “age out of the system”. We can then assume she is 17 or 18, which means she’s spent about 10 years being spoon fed and cared for. There is absolutely no way Ava just stands up and goes about her life when she receives the Halo. While the resurrection by the Halo and the apparent healing skills it gives her may account for the fact she seems to even have muscle mass left in her arms and legs, she hasn’t used any of those muscles for a decade. Have you ever seen those videos of people who were paralysed learning to do stuff again like walk or even hold objects? Other than losing the muscle they need to do those things, they also lost the motor skills to do them. Ava shouldn’t know how to walk, or even hold a spoon to feed herself, much less run or dance or fight (we’ll come back to the fighting later)

- TW // death and dead bodies: In one of the early episodes, a Tarask searches Shannon’s corpse because it’s looking for the Halo (that is now in Ava’s body). We can assume that at least 24h has passed since Shannon died, because the priest has already cleaned up her body and it’s night time again. The Tarask uses its claw to turn the body around and then slashes open Shannon’s back to check if she’s still bearing the Halo. There’s two things wrong here. First of all, Shannon’s body would not flop around the way it is shown in the show. Rigor mortis, or the stiffening of the limbs and other parts of a corpse, starts setting in a couple of hours after death and is complete after around 12 hours. If anything, her body should be behaving like a massive plank or brick, and not gently and delicately turn over with little force. Secondly, and I don’t know why I even have to say this but here we are, dead bodies don’t bleed. In a later shot, we see Shannon’s back is covered in blood where the monster cut her open, but how is that even logically possible when there is nothing pushing the blood through her body?

- Another illogical aspect of this show is Ava’s fighting. She can’t have spent more than a few days training with the nuns (she effortlessly finds JC and friends again, who act like she wasn’t gone for too long), so it’s ridiculous how she suddenly has the ability to fight monsters and demons and even other nuns. At some points she seems to not know what she’s doing at all (for example when she swings her sword at the Tarask attacking Lilith), and then mere days later she’s battling an angel/demon as if she’s on equal footing with him. Even if the Halo has given her muscles, it can’t have given her fighting skills because she constantly gets bested at the start of the season. The show has to make a choice: either she’s completely helpless and a klutz, which would endear her to the viewers more, or she’s a super skilled fighter, which would make more sense for the plot but also makes her less accessible and more Mary Sue-like. 

OTHER SMALLER AND LARGER THINGS THAT BOTHERED ME:

- The internal monologue was soooo annoying. This stuff works well in books, but not in a show like this. Ava seems to be a pretty expressive person, but her inner monologue is so boring and monotonous. I get they wanted her to be snarky and sarcastic, but it just sounded like she was desinterested. Big nope

- Can this girl just stop running away for 2 minutes? It got pretty annoying after like the third time.

- The whole love storyline with JC was a big let down as well. I loved the awkward flirting at first, it totally made sense for Ava to be unsure and a bit stupid when this is the first guy she’s met after years in forced isolation. But then she suddenly kisses him in a cupboard while they’re hiding and they immediately have sex? Not only does that not really fit her character, it’s just unnecessary for the plot. Oh, and then the next episode they drop him and he’s never seen again even though Ava genuinely seemed to like him. Justice for JC, Netflix. He deserved better. 

 - The whole angel/demon in a wall plot for the last couple of episodes didn’t make much sense to me and, to be honest, by that point I didn’t have the motivation left to even try to understand it. 

- The acting in general was stilted and unnatural. I can forgive Alba Baptista in some ways because she’s not a native English speaker (I assume), but the writing really didn’t help. I feel like the writers of the show thought their viewers were stupid and tried to explain every single detail in the show through characters’ dialogue. Big tip: if you want to have exposition, don’t do it through characters who supposedly already know the information and have no use for saying it explicitly. 

- When did we decide Jilian Salvius was a good guy and not the bad guy? Made no sense at all. And I won’t even start about her son. Confusion all over. 

SOME REDEEMING QUALITIES

While it was an absolute train wreck of a show, I did enjoy some aspects of it. Here’s a short list in no particular order. 

- The setting. Absolutely loved the Andalusian background and the juxtaposition between the ancient architecture of Southern Spain and the Vatican with the high-tech lab. 

- The whole catholicism thing was present but not overbearing. I am a pretty convinced anti-clerical atheist, but the religious aspects of the show didn’t bother me. The use of religious language was appropriate but not condescending. 

- I loved the use of foreign languages in the show. Father Vincent is Spanish so of course he speaks Spanish with the Spanish art collector. The cardinal and mother superion naturally talk in Italian, Ava grew up in a Spanish orphanage so of course she learned some Spanish, Camila speaks English with Father Vincent because another nun is present but does throw in a couple of words in Spanish when that makes most sense. So often these type of shows force every character to speak in English even when it makes no sense. (One thing though: why is it Orfanato St. Michael’s? Why not San Miguel?)

- Beatrice. Just everything about her. Give me more.

#netflix #netflix original #warrior nuns #alba baptista

[fizzingwizard]

I wanted to do the Kizuna countdown these guys made but I uh forgot. And I’m gonna forget again before friday because I tend to pass out after work and dinner. Sooo... I’m just gonna do it all right here right now, since it’s the last weekend before Kizuna!

First thoughts when Kizuna was announced:

“Holy shit they’re making another one!? How long will they try to squeeze every drop of nostalgia out of us? Because as for me I’m pretty sure that well is bottomless soooo can they just go on making new Adventure movies forever and ever?”

Expectations for Kizuna:

Based on what I’ve heard it kind of seems like the Digimon sequel we would have expected... but got Tri instead. I really enjoyed Tri, though it was far from perfect, so I’m not sure how to feel about Kizuna! But I’m really excited to see the kids as adults trying to balance adulting, their dreams, and the things they care about in their daily lives.

A headcanon/theory you’d like Kizuna to make canon:

Can’t think of anything, sorry.

Expectations for the new characters:

New girl has a butterfly in her hair. She’s probably a harmless guide/informant type. New guy looks strict and apparently is rather blunt. But my guess is he’s not the big bad either... maybe distrusting of the digital world though. There’s probably more to both of these guys but Idc as usual, I only care about my children.

First Digimon memory:

Was a 10 year old Pokemon fan. All 10 year old Pokemon fans thought Digimon was a rip-off (how were we to know it was actually the older of the two, and already part of an established monster tradition in Japan!). We were also obsessed with Pogs and had fights over Pogs on the playground, which I think says a lot about our mental state.

My bro rented some Digimon VHS from Blockbuster (fuck yeah 1999!) and it was the whole Devimon saga. I scoffed and then sat down and watched with him. Then I was freaking HOOKED. I turned on the TV to see the new eps, but actually the show was starting back at reruns before moving on to the Myotismon saga at the time, so I got to watch the whole thing from start to finish in chronological order. I cried buckets when the final episode aired and mourned for weeks.

Favorite Adventure series:

does this mean Adventure or 02? or including Tri? Anyway the answer will always be Adventure. That’s nostalgia central for me. A lot of it was pretty straightforward storytelling, other seasons did more creative stuff, but I think that’s to be expected - this series built the foundation for all that. And it’s great in its own way. What I particularly liked was always the whole “kids trying to figure shit out on their own” bit. For a kids’ show, they actually did it pretty well. Usually kids in that situation act just like really competent adults and don’t really struggle. Digimon certainly had that too, but it let the kids be crybabies, be selfish, be ignorant... it was really about their personal growth and that’s why they got to be kids as well.

Favorite Adventure Chosen Child (older 6):

Taichi!! Do I even need to explain myself? I will anyway. I didn’t care about him much when I was ten. For a long time I didn’t have a favorite character. It was Yamato for about thirty seconds, and then it was Takeru for about two years. After 02, I rewatched both seasons, and suddenly realized Taichi was Everything to me. I never really went for leader characters, never liked brash, brainless, bring-the-brawn types, or stern, distant ones, cold except when showing their passion for their mission.

But Taichi isn’t like either of those. He has bits of both - he can be brainless, and he’s pretty brash, but he’s calculating too. I liked that mix, but mainly I liked that he just seemed like a regular kid who the others were naturally drawn to as a leader because he was Mr. Get-shit-done. The older I get, the more I appreciate that proactive factor in people. Sometimes you just need someone to say the thing that’s on everyone’s minds. It can be scary. So I feel gratitude when someone takes the lead when I can’t. I think that’s how the other kids felt towards Taichi - for all his flaws, he kept them going, he didn’t let them waffle and miss their chances. I like him for a ton of other reasons too but I’ll end there for today!

Favorite 02 Chosen Child (younger 6):

Takeru. He was my original fav and I really really wanted to see him be awesome in 02. Unfortunately, he and Hikari didn’t really get much development. (They still made out better than all Frontier kids not named Kouji, though.) But I loved his anger issues and his facing his trauma. They should have done so much more. I really wanted him to bond with Ken over the fact that they’d both lost partners... I loved seeing older Takeru in Tri, the trauma issue came up again when he was the first one to realize his partner was infected. I’ve never been so moved by a crying plush doll lmao. Also his fashion sense, woot.

The runner-up is worth a mention since she wasn’t part of the original Adventure group and therefore could be considered my true 02 fav - Miyako. I loved the nerdy glasses girl because I was a nerdy glasses girl. I wasn’t as outspoken as Miyako, but I could go on and on about things I liked. I loved how pure and flawed she was and I loved her inner sense of right and wrong and her frankness. It’s refreshing when so many characters hide their true feelings. And I loved her and Hikari. Hikari and Miyako are the true girl friendship in those series. Sora and Mimi are nice but didn’t get the same level of development. Of course, I headcanon they were all awesome girlfriends.

Favorite Digimon partner:

This is an IMPOSSIBLE question, I love ALL OF THEM. I can’t pick one.

Gabumon: the way he and Yamato don’t need words, he just understands him, and when he doesn’t, always assume the best and gives him space. Their connection through music. And the way Gabumon will tease him especially over Taichi XD Gabumon keeps Yamato in line.

Gomamon: the way he is just what Jou needs, someone to keep him positive. I’m anxiety-prone myself and one reason I love my job working with young children is they make me see the bright things that I used to be able to see all the time when I was a child. I never really wanted to grow up. I think Gomamon is that for Jou, the child in him he doesn’t want to let go of, and doesn’t actually have to, because we take that part of us into our future.

Tentomon: because was he not MVP of the YEAR in Kokuhaku!?!?!?!?! That was amaaaaazing. Also he is easily the funniest Digimon and I love how he brings out the affectionate side of Koushirou. Again he’s exactly what Koushirou needs.

Patamon: Because he’s cuuuuute!!! and gives Takeru something to nurture and protect while also protecting him. Takeru, the youngest, who needed to be protected but also needed to grow, got a Digimon with those exact same qualities. PERFECT MATCH.

Hawkmon: I always loved him paired with Miyako. He was my favorite 02 partner. He was grumpy and irritable yet caring with Miyako, basically the compass she needed when she felt panicky. And he was COOL. Like he had the best evolutions lol. And as the only male/female partner set (I know Digimon don’t have true genders but this isn’t a made up thing either), there was a slightly different dynamic, like Miyako needed someone a bit more her opposite than other Chosen, to help push her in new directions.

Agumon: He gets honorable mention in particular because of Tri! But also because of 02. In Adventure, Taichi didn’t have a strong grasp of what it meant to raise his partner. He and Agumon saw each other as equals - which they are - but you do see a shift in that balance as Taichi gets older. Agumon is very powerful, but very child-like and thoughtless. In 02 and Tri, we see Taichi taking care of him much more like a big brother with a young brother. In Adventure, they just played together and wound each other up. What this means is Taichi’s grown up to be quite the caretaker, out of necessity - his partner is a bit high maintenance compared to the others! And caretaker isn’t usually the quality that jumps to mind when you think of “anime protagonist” or even leader. So I LOVE it. Also, Agumon struggles to express big concepts. But he can express really important things in simple ways, and Taichi needs that simplicity when his head gets all muddled with complexity. We definitely saw that in Tri. Agumon is kinda the Doraemon of Digimon, lol.

And I love literally all of the others and could go on about them for ages. But I’ll stop here. Will continue the countdown (er, I guess I can’t call it that when I’m doing it like this) later.

#digimon #kizuna countdown

[nikatyler]

Today has been frustrating. That’s all I’m going to say. Well, it started off nicely, I did something I was proud of. Then it went kinda downhill. I’m probably going to make it even worse as soon as I post this...there’s this thing I’ve been thinking about for the past few days. Considering I’m soooo good at communication and expressing my feelings, it’s going to end up great, you can bet.

Sarcasm aside, let’s talk about my legacies: 

I just queued the rest of part one of Gen 6! It’ll run for like 40 more days though.

After that, I’ll finally post the first generation of my BPR, almost a year after starting it. I know what you’re thinking, I’ve been posting TS3 for months, I should switch back to TS4 now, it would be fair, and yes, I thought about that too. But I kinda really want to get rid of the BPR. Gen 1 is finished and I don’t want to keep it to myself anymore.

As for gen 3 of NSB, I haven’t been playing it too much recently. I’ll play it a lot in June though, I hope. As soon as the exam chaos is over.

I’ve also made some decisions about Roses, but I’ll talk about these later. There’s still a high chance I’ll change my mind.

Besides, when do I not make decisions about Roses? They’re on my mind way too often. It can’t be healthy.

Update: I’m still not done with my replies but I just got a message from my teacher, saying that I did well on the English writing exam! I don’t know the exact grade but yay me. I mean, I knew I was going to do well on this one, but finally seeing I passed feels much nicer than “oh yeah, I’m confident about my English, there’s no way I can fail”. The way this exam system works...I was worried it wouldn’t scan properly or some crap. In the past, people had problems with that.

Update 2: Still writing the replies but I just found out that apparently I got 100% on the exam. Holyyyyy crap.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Courtney: I really married this idiot. I’m stuck with him forever. Oh...”

Don't worry it could be worse. It could be Ross for example (sorry, not sorry��)

Ooooooh. Yeah I mean, what Felix does is kinda natural, what Ross does (or used to do)...is just wrong.

sparkiemonkey replied to your photo “I have three weeks to learn everything for my last exams. Am I dying...”

Good luck with your exams. You can do it.

Thank youu! I hope so. I feel like I still remember nothing from the notes, but at the same time, when I read some of them, I’m like “duh, I’ve heard this a million times, of course I know what it is!”

desira-sims replied to your photo “I have three weeks to learn everything for my last exams. Am I dying...”

If it makes you feel better, I’m constantly rethinking how I should have posted my story too. I think it’s why I’m enjoying doing these mini photo shoots for Gen 2. It’s glimpses into their life that I didn’t fully express in my story.

I feel like everyone does this, they get great ideas when it’s too late to change it. Some people are just better at moving on, I guess. Not that I want to move on from gen 4, nope.

justkeeponsimming replied to your photoset “Let’s see what we have down here…”

The lighting in this shot is gorgeous!

It is! Isla Paradiso underwater is amazing. I wish there were more diving spots though.

deathflowertea replied to your photoset “It’s getting dark so fast. This should be a quick dive, or else…well,...”

this is how midnight sun challenges start...

Imagine if I did that. I love this idea.

dreamsongsims replied to your photoset “Houston we have a problem I forgot Isla Paradiso is a glitchy mess”

Yes. Yes it is. All that work to get to a dive spot and BOOM! Right back to shore.

It’s frustrating that it’ll most likely never get fixed :/

astraeanevermore replied to your photo “10 Day Self Sim CAS Challenge: You At Another Age Kind of based on an...”

I also got an ugly haircut with ugly blonde streaks when I was 15 :’D guess that’s a 15 years old thing? XD Anyway, love the pic! *O*

It might be?? And it wasn’t even a good blonde. In many photos, it just looks yellow, sometimes even a little green. But hey, I learned from my mistakes, now I’m never going blonde :D

And thank youu! ♥

justkeeponsimming replied to your photoset “I love this…wait, it seriously take me a whole day to get here?!”...”

most adorable screenshots ever! her expression is so cute!

She makes the best faces, I love her ♥

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “I was going to make a comment about her work outfit, saying the...”

The alien powers from Miracle are resurfacing lol

I mean, DNA is weird, sooo... 👀

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “Me during the first part of Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 4 vs me...”

Haha a BIG mood

Biggest mood

I thought episode 4 fucked me up...but then episode 5 came and...let’s just say ep 4 was alright compared to this.

twistedsim replied to your post “Well that was an amazing surprise! ������”

Shit! I just now saw the score. XD Damn, you whooped Sweden's ass!

Usually it’s the other way around :D Yeah, it was great to watch. I was expecting to be disappointed but not surprised, but actually...if I’m not mistaken, that’s our best score with Sweden ever. And then with Norway, we did great too...too bad we lost with Russia today. There were so many chances and not a single goal...but oh well, it’s just one game. It doesn’t mean anything. I hope.

flowerhoneysims replied to your photoset “I was just kidding I don’t actually want her to die jkahdkfahdflg”

My diver died because of a shark ;-;

Oh nooo ;-;

create-a-sim replied to your photoset “Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck was that a shark?? A SHARK??? I’m gonna die I’m...”

Ohhh :(

This was actually a funny moment. I thought “Awesome, her mother died in a fire, she’s going to be eaten by shark and who’s there to save their ass with a ‘quit without saving’ button? Me again! Maybe they’re telling me I should stop playing this legacy.”

But then she wasn’t actually killed by a shark. Phew.

desira-sims replied to your photo “10 Day Self Sim CAS Challenge: Date Night Bold of you to assume I’ve...”

I love this dress. ��

Me too! And I never use it for some reason. I wish I had something like this irl.

desira-sims replied to your post “So…I took a break from studying to watch the latest episode of Game of...”

I haven't watched this season yet. �� I keep saying I'm gonna sit down and binge it, but haven't done it. Maybe I'll do that Wednesday.

Oooh, I’m not sure if I would be able to binge watch it. Every episode left me feeling overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions, doesn’t matter if they were negative or positive. Actually, I don’t think this season is as bad as so many people online say...it’s not perfect but nothing is. 🤷‍♀️

Then again, speaking of binge watching, I was able to watch the previous seven seasons in less than a month last year, so maybe it is possible.

plumbobhart replied to your post “So…I took a break from studying to watch the latest episode of Game of...”

I hated it sooo... yay? D:

I’m not sure how I felt about it. Like I’ve said already in this post, today has been frustrating and this episode contributed to that. There were some things that bothered me, some decisions that bothered me, oh and there was a great example of character development going to hell (that really disappointed me tbh), but overall...idk, I guess I still kinda enjoyed it - I mean, as much as one can enjoy this tv show. It was brutal.

I’m not going to talk about it all in depth though, I could spend whole evening with that and I don’t want that haha :D

#replies #tiny-tany-thaanos #sparkiemonkey #desira-sims #justkeeponsimming #deathflowertea #dreamsongsims #astraeanevermore #alfalfalegacy #twistedsim #flowerhoneysims #create-a-sim #plumbobhart

[lightsandlostbells]

Skam Italia season 2, episode 1 reaction

Hello, how’s everybody doing? We survived the first week of a S3 remake. I wrote a little (a lot) about it.

Just to be clear: I completely understand if people just want to hang on and enjoy the ride because it’s S3 again, we love it, it’s an important story for many people! But so far there are aspects of Skam Italia S2 that I am positive about, and there are areas where I have criticisms. Don’t read if you don’t want to hear some comments that are not 100% enthusiasm. For real, I’m not trying to be a buzz kill, like I’m fine with posting these to crickets, lmao, because it’s a fun exercise for me to analyze the remakes even if I’m essentially talking to myself. 

Thank you so much to everyone translating this show! Imagine if no one was translating this season. The fandom would lose its goddamn mind. You are literally saving the planet from destruction, thank you for your service.

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I’m going to put additional disclaimers here, because people have strong feelings about Skam S3, and people also have strong feelings about Skam Italia, and there is already drama when those feelings bump up against each other:

The reason why I started doing reactions to the remakes was to compare the versions of Skam and analyze what worked and what didn’t in the adaptation process. This was a clever change to fit this culture, this was awkward and didn’t work, etc. While I do want to judge S2 of Skam Italia on its own merits, I’m not going to leave the original series out of it and look at this season as something that exists in a Skamless void, because that’s not my aim with these recaps. So if you are really not interested in comparisons to the original show (positive, negative, or neutral) then perhaps don’t read further.

I’m also taking into account this is a different culture than the original show and noting how that might affect this story, and that it’s a big deal to have an LGBT Italian lead in a series and Italian fans are very excited. So I’m keeping that in mind! But I also think that, should Skam Italia bungle something, it’s okay to call it out, it doesn’t get a free pass. We criticized parts of the original series while praising it where it succeeded. Sana’s season, for example, is extremely progressive as a concept (a Muslim girl lead is extremely rare) but had numerous aspects where it stumbled, and as a fandom there was no shortage of criticism. This goes for both the social justice and educational aspects of Skam as well as writing, directing, acting, and other basic storytelling stuff.

Okay? Okay.

Episode 1

Clip 1 - GET OUT OF THE FUCKING TUB, LOSERS

Right away, I loved the voicemails. They sound like real accounts of homophobia, and I don’t know if these are actors recreating them or real people sharing their own experiences, but it was a powerful intro to the season.

I also like zooming in over the city while these voicemails played, over all these dark apartment buildings, because it felt like those voices could be coming from anywhere. They were anonymous. Your neighbor could be gay, the woman who lives downstairs could be a lesbian, and you might never know because they’re in the closet. You might never know how much they’d suffered due to homophobia. But they’re also everywhere. Despite their treatment in society, LGBT people aren’t “the other” but can be anyone you know. That’s why it zooms into the party, to link these anonymous voices to a face that we we do know.

I saw some people suggesting that maybe these have to do with Martino’s involvement in the radio station, and that this will be some part of a project that he does, and while I think it’d be awesome if the radio station came into play with his personal development, I’m ehhhhh about these turning out to be part of Martino’s project all along because it doesn’t seem like it goes with the real time format, and IDK, it seems too literal. But I’d be OK with it these were more of a thematic device and Martino has a literal confession along these lines later on. 

Rainbow logo 🌈🌈🌈

...who’s that blue-haired girl?

I feel like Edoardo being immediately on screen was to reassure any OG Skam viewers and Incantava fans who hadn’t yet gotten the message that EDOARDO IS DEFINITELY NOT GOING ANYWHERE THIS SEASON DO NOT PANIC.

Silvia is watching some girls dance and for a hot second I hoped they were finally hinting at the lesbian Vilde story we deserve, but it seems like she is watching them because of their slim figures, because she reconsiders the piece of cake she was going to eat. Silvia, no.

Silvia is very upset about the hotties at the party and Sana says there only would have been four people there and reassures her that she’s beautiful, awwww. But Silvia is upset about some Argentinean girl, who I assume is an apex hottie that she fears will outshine her, perhaps?

Silvia waves at Edoardo, who ignores her. You know, Edoardo’s apology to Silvia would feel more genuine if he acted like a baseline decent human being toward her instead of refraining from basic politeness because OH NO he has to shake her off his back (except when he can exploit her interest for his own gain).

It’s Italian Eskild! He says that Edoardo’s hair is indeed shit, suggesting Eleonora has told him all about it (something for the Incantava shippers) and I mean, I support him giving Silvia a boost, and I support any dragging of Edoardo, except Edoardo’s hair is like the one thing about him that is not shit.

He takes Silvia to dance and comments about checking her boobs to see if she is a virgin, so this is filling in for S2’s “It’s Britney bitch” moment. I guess they’re going to incorporate some Skam S2 material into this season in order to accommodate for the switch in storylines.

Hey, you know what I could have strongly done without? Filippo grabbing Silvia’s tit out of nowhere. There’s sometimes a tendency for gay men to grope women and get away with it because it’s obviously not sexual, so what’s the problem? Except the problem is that men, no matter what their sexuality, feel like they have unfettered access to women’s bodies. I’m not saying HE’S CANCELED or anything, but it irritated me that they threw in such a small moment that wasn’t needed, especially because this is our introduction to this character. Thanks, I want casual groping to be my initial impression of this guy. (Just to be clear, this dialogue happens in the original, but there is no unauthorized tit-grabbing from Eskild.)

And the fact that this moment went so unremarked upon is a sign of how normalized this behavior is, frankly. But they played it off as a funny moment so it’s okay!! Lol Filippo, you’re supposed to be gay!!!

Incantava shippers get a morsel before Eleonora leaves for London as she and Edoardo share a ~glance.

So Filo is Eleonora’s brother, which is a good way to incorporate his character considering it’s unlikely for Martino or Eleonora to live with a random roommate instead of their families, and they hadn’t set up the Filo character in S2 so his appearance in Martino’s life is going to need to be established quickly. So that makes both the Eleonora-Filo and Martino-Filo relationships more plausible in this culture.

Although lmao, imagine some of Eskild’s S2 scenes now that he and the Noora character are related. I’m sure Eleonora will need to bleach her eyeballs if she walks in on her brother getting his dick sucked to Circle of Life.

Eva catches up to Martino in the kitchen, and the flirtatious vibes are there right away, you know this isn’t going anywhere good. She tries to kiss him, so this is basically that scene from S2 where Eva tries to make out with Isak at a party, except way more awkward because this Eva actually manages to get a few kisses on Martino. Yikes.

Of course he’s not into it, and she’s just like yeah, go to your friends. Go find Gio. She knows where his real interests like. 

Martino answering some random landline is pretty endearing, especially when he has cans of beer he needs to balance to do so.

Him being like “I am not the owner.” Lmao, he’s a sweetie. I suppose this was maybe a neighbor or someone wondering about the noise level and activity at the party, and that was why the police show up later? But I like to imagine that they were filming in this building, the phone rang randomly, and they were like, eh, throw it in.

So now we’re moving into the OG S3 content, with Martino entering the bathroom and sitting in the tub with his friends drinking and getting high.

Elia is the second person to mention the Argentinean girl, so I guess she must be a stone cold babe. Are we ever going to see her? Or will her hotness exist only in legends?

They do the whole song and dance where Martino pretends like these girls aren’t hot enough for him, while the other dudes are not having it. Well, to be fair, he really isn’t into them. I’m not sure what to make of his reactions, because Isak was very performative, and Martino just seems indifferent.

The boys claim to have gotten Fede a present, I wonder what it was? Probably just booze or something?

Lmao I was wondering why this girl would use this random out-of-the-way bathroom, but apparently two dudes are fucking in the other one (what are the odds it’s Filo).

What assholes, get out of the fucking tub for two minutes and let the girl pee in peace! I guess they’re just lazy and stoned, but JFC.

Instead of saying the girl looks like Eleven from Stranger Things, Martino tells her she looks like a frog… I kind of see it? But she’s also a babe, soooo. 

Not gonna lie, I really did not like how they adapted this scene. “We’ll leave you alone to pee but you have to hook up with one of us” is not … cute … like it takes it out of negging teenage asshole territory and gets creepy. Maybe because of the hellscape that has been RL politics for the past few weeks, but I’m not in the mood for any of this boys-will-be-boys shit.

We know that one new dude must be Magnus because he is instantly rejected.

Martino gives the boys the thumbs up once Italian Emma starts making out with him and they’re leaving.

Martino didn’t actually do anything to win over this girl, really? With Isak it was a performance: Emma came in and he made a determined effort to flirt with her, he negged her, he complimented her, he got out of the tub and was more active in his pursuit. All of that was because he was trying to seem straight in front of his friends. Martino, on the other hand, was far more passive. He made the frog comment but that seems less like negging when all four of them are sitting there being dicks to this girl, rather than him alone, and she just happened to choose him out of the four. Isak was putting some effort into it and pretending to be interested until the boys left and things got steamier, but Martino just plain is not trying. He ain’t feeling it.

This is one of the disadvantages of writing recaps episode by episode as they air and not when you can look at the full season, though. Because on the one hand, making Martino more of a passive participant in his fake heterosexuality is fine, but on the other hand, if that’s not their intent - if they’re more or less going to follow Isak’s character arc for him - then I think they missed a big point of this scene in not making Martino pursue this girl more actively. But we don’t know exactly if this is a thoughtful, deliberate choice or an oversight. (For example, in S1 of Skam Italia, several of Eva’s key moments of “who are you?” were eliminated, Gio’s skate park speech was rewritten with a different focus, etc. which made me wonder about her character arc. It could have worked if they had intentionally made these changes to arrive at a different conclusion, but in the end Eva’s final speech to Gio is the same, the arc is supposed to be the same even though crucial points have been left out, and it didn’t feel as strong. So it’s hard to say whether Martino’s character is supposed to be written with subtle differences that change his characterization, or if they don’t realize how small edits can affect the perception of this character.)

I am a little alarmed that the girl goes for the blowjob like immediately after choosing Martino? Isak was hardcore flirting with Emma so it made more sense she was trying to do that with him. With this girl, she’s just trying to pee and some random guy’s like “Hook up with one of us and we’ll leave you be” and she’s like, “Sounds like a plan!” Damn girl, didn’t you need to really use the toilet? But you’re going to stop to blow him? Okay.

Eva is stumped by seeing that Martino was in the bathroom with a girl,  probably moreso because he just rejected her upstairs. Well, this girl isn’t his best friend’s ex, sooooo it makes a smidge more sense, Martino’s sexuality aside.

Incantava moment: Edoardo brings up the deal with the apology to Silvia, so that made it into this remake. Part of the deal was to erase the wall of conquests - smart of Eleonora - and I guess Edo did that, hopefully, but he also reminds her that she agreed to a date.

What a power move of Eleonora to go to England to avoid this date.

At least Edo was not pursuing her prior to this, apparently. It would be a shame if they suddenly had him pressure her into a date in Eleonora’s season.

Okay, I realize that Martino didn’t appear to have the best options to hide his weed,  but he’s really just gonna put it in a box on the railing where it could easily get knocked over the balcony or blown away or something? Lmao.

The scene of the boys running away from the cops was cute and had that “reckless youth enjoying the night” vibe.

So Martino clearly still has Giovanni feelings, and Giovanni is going to be crashing at his place tonight. Look at that hand on Martino’s shoulder, probably burning through his shirt. I like perhaps acknowledging the idea that all this casual affection between guys in this culture can take on a hidden toll for a closeted gay kid.

Martino mentions that his mom is freaking out, so they’re openly acknowledging Martino’s mom situation in front of the other guys (when Isak was less open about it) and Giovanni gives him a hug that fucks Martino up. It seemed like Martino didn’t want Giovanni to come over, probably both because of his crush and because of his mom situation.

Clip 2 - Sad boy slumber party

Martino wakes up and stares at Giovanni, who’s still sleeping. Martino is not on the bed, but on the floor, ostensibly because Giovanni threw him off the bed but really because he doesn’t want to be so close to Giovanni. He pointedly turns down Giovanni’s invitation to get back in the bed. This is a really delicate situation; this is such a casual thing for Giovanni that he doesn’t even think about it, but for Martino it’s this extremely loaded scenario that comes with dangers, so better not risk it.

Eva calls and wants to talk to Martino, but he can’t since he’s with Giovanni. Giovanni says that he’s been trying to get back together with Eva, and making a fool out of himself, so Martino is certainly not enjoying about this reminder that Giovanni likes girls, Giovanni loved (loves?) Eva, it will never be Giovanni and Martino in the way he wants. Also, awkward of course because Eva tried to kiss Martino, which says a lot about how she thinks of Giovanni - probably not keen to get back with him if she can make a move on his best friend, even when drunk.

Okay, I have a deeply unpopular opinion and that is: while Skam Italia’s cinematography is often visually impressive, at times it does not work with the material it’s supposed to be conveying. It’s not style over substance, but style against substance. There are several examples, but to go into one now: why the fuck is the lighting so dark in certain moments. Whyyyyyy.

And before you tell me, I do know why the director is perhaps doing this. It’s supposed to reflect Martino’s state of mind, it’s supposed to make things seem bleak, it’s supposed to contrast with the sunnier scenes such as later in the episode with Niccolò, etc. etc. The problem is that I do not think it is effective for the format of this show. Here’s the thing: we are supposed to be in Martino’s POV for a reason. His reactions should not be hidden from us, this audience, and to me the lighting is a barrier from getting closer to him and getting fully into his mindset. Like, the camera should be eating this shit up! Give me all the microexpressions! Federico Cesari is doing a nice job of acting so far and it bugs me that the lighting is obscuring some of his facial expressions. Now it makes sense for ambiguity on the part of say, Niccolò, who will be keeping secrets for most of the season (based on Even’s role) but this is Martino’s season, and we as the audience should be deep into his head every step of the way. This is supposed to be an immersive experience. There is zero reason to obscure Martino’s reactions from the audience. Martino may have a barrier between him and his friends, his family, his schoolmates, society at large - but not us, the viewers. (And not just the lighting, but for example, that his face is shot in profile for part of this scene, which again doesn’t give us a full range of Martino’s reactions, or the amount of distance between the camera and Martino at times. Even if you can assume what Martino is thinking and feeling enough that you don’t need really clear reaction shots, it’s like there’s a gap and we’re not supposed to get too close.) 

Like obviously this cinematography is working for people, and if it is for you, great! If this were a different show, I could be fine with it. But not with a series that is supposed to put me fully into this character’s head, not keep me at a distance.

Covitti is the girl from the bathroom? She’s followed Martino on IG. I feel like, if they’re doing a repeat of Emma’s involvement, then it doesn’t work as well as to why she’d suddenly be interested in Martino. With Isak, there was something karmic about it, because he blatantly pursued when he met her, and it’s like he reaped what he sowed, you know? Don’t get me wrong, he absolutely did not deserve the much later repercussions with Emma outing him, but the immediate aftermath of him flirting with Emma showed that his actions had consequences. He couldn’t just make out with this girl for the benefit of an audience and then drop her. With Martino, he was so much more passive with Covitti, that it feels less earned. I mean he’s very cute, but him being doggedly pursued by her doesn’t have as much to do with his characterization, unless the point is that he refuses to put his foot down and reject her. (A valid characterization choice! But hopefully an intentional one.)

We get to see Martino’s mom and on the one hand, it’s pretty cool that she’s around in this version, but on the other hand, goddamn am I apprehensive about how they will depict her.

Martino really does not want to eat lunch with her. Apparently they have chicken and potatoes four times a week. Credit to Giovanni, he acts normal and is polite to Martino’s mom and is eager to eat with her.

Eva apologizes for trying to kiss Martino. So Giovanni is trying to get back with Eva and Eva made a move on Martino. Awkward! Eva is also probably dying to bring up the topic of that girl in the bathroom with Martino, let’s be real.

Giovanni chides Martino for being an asshole and says if he didn’t treat his mom like shit, maybe he would help her! Hey, no offense, Giovanni, but fuck off. I agree that Martino was not nice to his mom, I agree that he should treat her better. But Giovanni is a visitor. He is a guest in this household. He doesn’t know shit about what it’s like to live there or what’s the best course of action. No, actually it’s not as easy being kind to someone and it’ll fix their mental illness.

If I sound weirdly pissed about this, it’s because I am speaking as someone who has been a caretaker to a mentally ill parent. One of the most frustrating things was when people who were completely outside of my situation told me how to deal with it. It’s fucking easy to think you have the answers when you don’t live in this situation, when you have the freedom to go back to your own home when shit gets really rough. When you likely haven’t seen a loved one at their worst. 

To clarify, this isn’t necessarily a flaw of the show, just an area where I think a character is flawed. But I would hate for Giovanni’s POV to be validated. Of course Martino should not treat his mother poorly, but he needs to do that on his own, not because some outsider who has no idea what is going on in this house thinks so.

Anyway. Shut the fuck up, Gio. 

Eva also doesn’t want Martino to tell Gio, so you know Gio is going to find out at some point. Here’s the thing: if this drama is more along the lines of ~ooo Eva kissed Martino and he didn’t tell Gio and Gio feels BETRAYED when he finds out~ then it sounds tedious and exactly the kind of drama I don’t want. It’s not necessary, it’s honestly a very low-stakes situation. However, if it’s more of a lead-in to S1’s drama being revealed, and Gio learns about what happened with Martino ratting out Eva, that would be interesting. I’d be very interested in seeing where it goes. I think the writers have to know that this would be the most compelling aspect, so here’s hoping.

Not gonna lie, one thing I liked about S3 was the lack of heterosexual relationship drama (other than what directly serviced Isak and Even’s relationship), and I don’t want this season to stray too far into Eva/Gio stuff. Though I realize that by switching S2 and S3, they probably feel like they have to account for their relationship.

In S2 of the original, we saw the remnants of Eva/Jonas more on Eva’s side, through Noora’s eyes. Eva told herself she was over Jonas and they were just friends, but we could see that wasn’t totally true. With this season, though, we’ll probably see Eva/Giovanni more through Giovanni’s eyes, because even if Martino is Eva’s friend, he’s Giovanni’s best friend.

Clip 3 - The Phantom Clitoris

Lmao, Luca being like “Guess what happened to me” and Gio being like “Did you put an egg in the microwave again?” (I mean, you can cook eggs in a microwave even if it’s not the best way!)

Luca hooked up with a girl! If we believe him. She didn’t have a clitoris! Except he didn’t know what it was called. I don’t know whether to think that if it he didn’t know what it was called, he probably didn’t know how to look for one, or that he’s straight up lying. But this is interesting because Jonas was the one who went down on girls in the original and had this dialogue, and then Magnus was the virgin seeking wisdom from Isak, and here apparently Luca is already banging girls? Or he’s pretending to.

Martino sees Niccolò for the first time! Niccolò is adorable. He’s got the Even denim jacket and a nice smile. Sana and Silvia are shown going up to him while he’s talking to another dude.

Luca is like, I watched a 20-minute porn tutorial of how to eat a girl out. No offense bro, but I doubt you were in a very studious mindset during that. Or maybe he was! Maybe he made flashcards.

Martino gets a text from his dad about having dinner “with us” and I’m guessing that his dad has a new girlfriend or something, because it’s kinda weird to text your kid “have dinner with us?” about both his parents when his dad left his mom.

Silvia and Sana come up, Elia brings up the girl with no clitoris to them (why was that the first thing out of your mouth, dude), and Silvia mentions that she and Sana are now in charge of the radio. So this is our kosegruppa! I wonder if the radio itself will have more plot relevance for the season.

The guys are conveniently too busy to help on Thursday! But Sana thinks they’ll be helping soon enough.

For a moment I thought Luca was frightened by Silvia and saw that as a point toward Luca/Silvia happening, since it would be in line with Magnus’ sado-Vilde dreams, but then I was like, oh right, he probably means Sana, lol. (Silvia is way less intimidating than Vilde. Silvia is cheerful, Vilde was sugar layered over a core of menace when she pitched kosegruppa to the guys.)

Martino checks out Niccolò again, because who wouldn’t, and Niccolò is talking to the other guy … maybe Niccolò is flirting with that guy?

The boys suggest smoking a joint but Martino didn’t get the weed back yet, so the boys are bummed, but Gio keeps his disappointment restrained to a few jovial  throttles of Martino’s neck. Martino dies inside and tries not to develop a choking kink.

Niccolò did not look at Martino in this clip, there’s no evidence he saw him in this scene, and he was in fact preoccupied with conversation with another dude. So ... has Niccolo seen Martino yet? In an “I saw you the first day of school” way? Because with that knowledge in mind, in the original we could look back at Even’s first appearance in the cafeteria and see that he had obviously grabbed a seat with a good view of Isak and was sitting there alone, possibly sketching him. I guess you could say that Niccolò was standing there to get Martino’s attention, maybe even trying to make him jealous by talking to another guy, but that seems .... really convoluted. If they do include the “I saw you the first day of school” line, they should have had Niccolò look at Martino for even a brief moment. It didn’t even need to be eye contact! Like you could show Niccolò looking toward Martino when he’s out of focus, as a background event, a little Easter egg for the eagle-eyed viewer.

This is one of those original clip comparisons, so hold on to your butts. In the original clip, the way the scene is shot and acted combines multiple details to demonstrate Isak’s alienation from the other boys. Tarjei’s acting shows that he is disconnected from this conversation - he’s picking at his sandwich, checking his phone, he’s not really engaged with the cat tongue/clitoris talk. He has a few mild smiles but his facial expressions and body language show he’s checked out. He doesn't participate in that conversation at all, actually, other than a look or two. There’s no dialogue from him. And the camera contributes to this impression that he’s withdrawn: it’s often just on Isak with the conversation coming from off screen, rather than showing him in the shots with the guys. It shows him alone instead of showing him connected to the group. When it does show him with the group, he’s not reacting to them much. So when he hears a boy's laugh, it seems plausible that it would get attention as the boys’ conversation is not holding his interest.

With this clip, Martino might make a comment like "Oh no, don't tell us your dirty story" but he is otherwise very engaged in this conversation. He leans into it, he's listening, his face makes him seem eager. He's frequently shown in the shot with the other guys, part of the group rather than isolated. Gio repeatedly looks back at him and shares looks with him so there’s something reciprocal happening. Martino speaks to Luca and he high fives him. He's just a definite participant in this conversation, so there isn't much of a feel of alienation here. I mean, we know he's gay, and maybe we can assume that his participation in this conversation is forced or half-hearted, but that's not coming through in how it's portrayed. And I like Federico, I think he's one of the better actors on the show, but I also think he's playing it too comfortably, though I blame Bessegatto more for that since his direction is what guides the performance. It seems like Martino's a nice guy with some friends, who doesn't seem too detached this conversation and who seems totally fine with looking at a cute guy over there. Not much of an internal struggle. Not much of an external struggle either, really. 

It felt like there were missed opportunities. For example, when Martino says he doesn’t want Luca’s TMI, and Gio is like, “Yes we do, don’t listen to him,” we don’t even get a reaction shot from Martino to see how that affects him? We could have seen him annoyed, or exasperated, or uninterested in this conversation. We could have seen him drifting and doing something with his body language to indicate he’s not comfortable, and then THAT is when he sees Niccolò, because his mind is already wandering. Not when he’s engaged in this conversation. Or keep in Luca asking Martino about going girls and wanting to know how Martino finds the clitoris, and Martino having to struggle to answer that when the boys are all looking at him.

I mean, again, it makes me wonder what they’re going to do with Martino’s characterization because they’re playing up his struggles with his attraction to Gio, but he does not seem to be struggling as much with the public performance of liking girls. Or even perhaps the internal conflict of liking boys. And that would be fine except it seems like it should be. Martino was the one who introduced the idea of liking Eva back in S1, before Eva had even suggested it herself. He was definitely on the defense then, so what’s going on now? 

Also, Isak glanced at Even and Even looked back, which made Isak look away. Julie pointedly did not show Even again in that clip because Isak was clamping down on his attraction and forcing himself not to look. Martino allows himself a second glance. It frames the scene way more comfortably.

Clip 4 - Fede almost had it all

12:12 ...it begins...

Martino sees Fede and Sana, so he approaches them. He calls them “rays of sunshine,” which is cute! Though he’s totally doing it to butter them up so he gets his stash back.

LMAO I love the part where Federica is like, I found a drill, who brings a drill to a party? (Someone you pray to God remains sober.)

He asks if he can come over and Federica chokes on her drink. She’s really cute in this scene. Honestly, she didn’t make a ton of impression on me in S1 compared to other girl Chrises from the remakes, but I enjoyed her here a lot, she’s sweet.

They can “study” together in the living room because Fede’s parents are gone. Oh babe, I think you’ll be disappointed at the amount of actual learnin’ that would take place were such a study session to take place.

Sana sits there texting Martino that she has his weed while he’s right there next to her. I guess Fede was just really excited by the prospect of having Martino in her house, but did she really not notice that Sana was texting and Martino just so happened to receive a text at the same time?

Sana saying that it’s “a friend of her brother’s” who has Martino’s “necklace.” Is that an actual nod toward Niccolò or just a coincidence? If she means Niccolò, then why is she bringing him up?

Like I know people like this theory, but I don’t think it makes sense that Sana was trying to hook up Isak and Even all along (or Martino and Niccolò if the circumstances are the same), because how does that explain her reactions to being asked about Islam’s view of homosexuality, or to Isak being outed? Of course they could be going for a diferent approach in this remake.

Federica is really adorable freaking out over how she ALMOST had Martino within her grasp. Poor girl, I’m sorry to tell you that your day is never coming. (Lmao, I guess one day a remake could swap out Emma for Isak hooking up with the Chris character? I mean Chris >>>>> Emma, but then I’d feel so bad for her.)

Clip 5 - Here we gooooooooo

So the carrot cake (made by Silvia) suuuuucks. Martino’s disgusted face is pretty good.

The girl squad is trying to Skype with Eleonora. Meanwhile Martino sits there by himself, not having a great time. As a contrast to the girl squad who are laughing and having fun, Martino is on his own because his dumbass friends ditched him.

Sana wants Martino to let them use his Internet connection to continue the Skype call, he’s like lmao, she’s ditching you guys on purpose. Gonna go out on a limb and say that he’s projecting.

Tbh I do think it’s odd that they wrote out Eleonora so much if they didn’t need to. Like I know people think they switched S2 and S3 for dramatic, important reasons, but I get the feeling it was just a matter of actor availability. I could be wrong!

That random curly-haired dude at the meeting is the true star of this clip. He was INTO everything that was happening.

SIlvia says it took forever to make her cake. And it still sucks, apparently. Good thing that the girls never seemed to get her pineapple cake from S1? Was Silvia behind the Jell-O disaster, too?

She doesn’t want another piece, which might be another hint at her ED, but the cake is garbage soooo maybe she just has taste buds and a self-preservation instinct, IDK.

It’s actually intriguing that Silvia seems to be baking cakes for people and yet she monitors her own eating so closely.

Lmao at there being dead noise when Martino sees Niccolò enter the room. Everything fades except this smiley hottie. (For a second I was like “is he flat-lining?”)

Niccolò walked in with some other people, including Covetti. He sits on the table beside Martino. Martino keeps glancing at him but Niccolò will NOT glance at Martino. Again, if they’re going to go with “I saw you the first day of school,” I don’t think they set it up that well. It’s fine if they don’t, but there are really no fun “extras” you get from these scenes with that reveal. In both of his scenes Niccolò has been hanging out with other people, he’s not glancing at Martino. There’s no foreshadowing. You can be like oh, Niccolò positioned himself outside the school for Martino to see, he DELIBERATELY didn’t look at Martino for reasons! But that’s not very enjoyable on a rewatch.

The way Martino begrudgingly greets that Uglydoll or whatever is the best part of the episode.

Covitti notices Martino looking over at Niccolo, by the way.

Okay, WHO IS THAT BLUE-HAIRED GIRL. Like it seems as if she would make a good Sonja, she reminds me a little of Theresa. 

Covitti whispers something to Martino but we don’t know what.

“Bad story about Chicco Rodi” Who was that? I vaguely remember the name from S1? Oh wait, was he the guy who got the award for worst attendance? I hope that “tutorial” is foreshadowing for Martino and Niccolò breaking into the school at some point.

Silvia comes across as positively chill compared to Vilde. It must be Osvaldo’s influence.

Why is Covitti even there, since she’s not interested in what Silvia’s saying? To stalk Martino? How did she know he would be there? Emma knew Isak was going to be there because of signups, were there signups for this? (This is nitpicky and I’m sure that’s what they meant, it’s just that they’re skipping over some parts where her motivations become clear.)

Martino: Sorry I have to take this totally real and not at all imaginary call!!!!!

Wow, no finesse, just like our man Isak.

Martino’s fake phone call is pretty funny, like he lets it go on way longer than necessary.

He plops down in a chair in the radio room and then he starts talking to himself and pretending to be on the radio. I really do like the idea of Martino finding his voice through the radio, literally and metaphorically. And actually, when he starts speaking by himself, he sounds pretty good to me! Confident, composed, his voice sounds good, the words come easy. So maybe this is a move from him being passive to speaking up for himself.

That shot of Martino, fractured in the glass, when Niccolò turns on the light is fabulous. Showing how Niccolò’s introduction is going to break apart Martino’s sense of self. And Niccolò‘s image is clear and whole so Martino perhaps sees him as this cool, confident dude who’s got his shit together. So he thinks. (Plus Niccolò literally turns on the light on and all.)

Niccolò says it’s a shame Martino stopped talking, basically, and they laugh about Silvia’s dry-ass cake.

Niccolò has a shitty ancient phone? Would that play into his avoidance of social media because of his manic episode? Since you can’t post to IG/FB/any apps from one of those. Or is he just a hipster who hates technology? Or something else? 

Lol, I didn’t have to wait long before the “breaking into the school” prophecy was fulfilled. They end up climbing into a part of the school that’s closed.

Beautiful view on the roof, obviously. I guess for O Helga Natt, Martino is going to run and find Niccolò here, maybe? And then he’ll be in the radio room instead? Will they stare at each other from behind the glass? 

Niccolò asks if Martino knows Silvia, and he says no, she’s a friend of a friend. Niccolò asks which one, so he’s probably wondering if Martino is good pals with Sana.

Niccolò notes that Martino doesn’t seem happy to be there, and neither does Niccolò. Taking him at his word, he’s doing this as part of school-work interchange. So I guess he didn’t show up just to meet Martino? Again, I have no problem with that changing that (I loved it with Evak but I’m fine with them not repeating it), I just want them to do a good job of foreshadowing if they do go with that.

We get the conversation about Niccolò being from a different school, but there’s no line (as in the original) where Isak notes with some incredulity that he transferred during his last year, so there isn’t as much of a hint that something happened to Niccolò, provided they are still keeping in his backstory. (I think he’s still in his final year?)

The camera gets very close up in the boys’ faces as they talk about more personal topics, THANK GOD. Like I do think the coldness and distance in other clips is intentional, I just don’t think it works with this show, but at least we can get warmer, closer scenes when necessary.

Covitti (whose first name is Emma, by the way) shows up and literally comes between them. They do the whole thing where Martino “introduces” Niccolò to Emma, except they’re not trying to pretend they’re already partners to avoid her. 

“Fares” means horseman or knight in Arabic, so I guess Niccolò is going to be Martino’s knight in shining armor? Or fight for him? That would explain his flipbook in the trailer with stick figure Niccotino on a horse.

Covitti isn’t very awkward as a person. She and Niccolò have a polite, maybe even flirty conversation when filtered through certain jealous ears; it’s Martino who suddenly feels like a third wheel. Covitti is still making eyes at Martino, though. Niccolò says he and Martino will stay back and smoke, which pleases Martino, but she invites herself to smoke with them. It’s awkward but way less so that with Isak, Even, and Emma, in my opinion, maybe because Covitti seems like she’s enjoying herself even if the boys aren’t. 

The poppy indie song at the end of the clip feels out of place. Like if they wanted to emphasize the awkwardness, they should have just ended in a stranger song or complete silence to drive home how Martino did not want her there. If they wanted to use this song to emphasize Martino’s crush, show closeups of Martino glancing at Niccolò with the sunlight bouncing off his face without including Covitti in there. 

Oh god. Don’t kill me for this. Okay. So we have Niccolò’s introduction in this clip, obviously, and I like him in the sense that he's a friendly guy with an utterly beautiful smile. But I felt like they made him just like ... a really nice, smiley guy, in a way that was one-note. And I’m NOT criticizing the actor’s abilities, because I’ve seen his acting clips from other projects and I think he could do justice to the character. This is more about directorial decisions.

Part of the reason I love Even is because he’s fucking strange. Sure, he’s Isak’s dream boy with his denim jacket and styled hair, and he’s got a smile like the sun, and he just feels cool, but he’s also a bouncy, twitchy weirdo coursing with energy. In his first clip he makes a HELL of an impression and it’s by pulling a bizarre stunt in the bathroom with paper towels and then by making a blowjob joke as one of his first lines to Isak. Now I don’t think every Even of the remakes need to do that, not at all, but Even felt like a really specific character to me, someone who was weird and strongly himself and presented in a way that made us fall for him piece by piece. And one fear I have about the remakes is that they’ll remove some of his weirdness to make him more of a general artsy hipster type who gets along with the Isak. (Or maybe him an artsy hipster asshole, but that’s another story.)

I feel bad because I do actually want to love Niccolò I think the actor is tremendously adorable and enthusiastic about is role, and I think he can make Niccolò into someone specific and memorable. But the way this scene was directed and performed, it felt like Bessegatto told Rocco to be charming by smiling a lot. And I mean, he DOES have a great smile, but Niccolò has the same amused, benign friendliness the whooooole clip, and my gut feeling was that they were trying too hard to make us like him and eliminating anything that might make the character off-putting, which is unfortunately some of what makes the character compelling, especially this early on as he should be something of a mystery both for Martino and the audience. 

Where this approach would have worked more for me is if Niccolò was this unstoppable force of sunshine against Martino’s constant grumpy iciness, and he couldn’t help but melt in the face of it. But the thing is, Martino isn’t a constant grump who’s freezing people out. He’s actually pretty friendly to people. So it was like radiant sunshine against slightly less radiant sunshine, and there wasn’t a lot like I felt I could mull over, IDK. 

And yes yes I know this is only the first clip. Niccolò has tons of time to make himself into a distinctive, memorable character. I’m aware of that. But I don’t want to lie about my reaction. 

General Comments/Social Media:

Continuing with Martino’s crush on Giovanni makes sense considering only a few months have passed. Though it should be said that I never thought Isak getting over Jonas from S1 to S3 without any elaboration was like .. a flaw of the show? It depends on how deep you think Isak’s feelings were. Personally I never saw him as in love with Jonas, I saw it as an intense crush, compounded by Isak’s bad home life so that Jonas, his best friend who was always there for him, was someone who really made his life better at the time, and whose attention he craved.

There was almost a year between the end of S1 and the start of S3, and during that time, Isak had seen Jonas go from Eva to other girls, so I’m sure it sunk in that Jonas wasn’t suddenly going to go for him just because Eva was out of the picture. And Isak had moved out of his parents’ home so there was less of an immediately chaotic situation where he was more dependent on Jonas for support. I mean he’s clearly not in a great place at the start of S3, but he was able to get some independence and distance from his parents. I think his life was more stable on a day-to-day basis. So it’s not hard to see how Isak’s crush would have faded with those factors in mind. Martino, on the other hand, has had less time to get over Giovanni, Giovanni perhaps has not moved on to other girls since he’s still trying to get with Eva, and Martino is still probably depending on him for more emotional support since he has to deal with a more directly stressful environment at home.

In the texts, Giovanni refers to Sana as “Sana Escobar” in reference to her taking the weed. Pablo Escobar is obviously extremely well-known on his own, but I do think it’s a nod to all the Narcos/Escobar mentions in Isak’s season. Or at least they took inspiration there.

Elia is apparently one hell of a dumbass according to an essay he wrote that showed up on IG.

I wonder if they’re going to swap out the Grindr clip with Eskild for the first meeting with Filippo. I really do wonder how that relationship will come across, because I know people are excited about seeing them meet (and I am too) but the thing is, a big part of what made Isak and Eskild’s relationship in S3 meaningful was that they had months of trust to be established between them. Eskild saw Isak repressing his sexuality for months, and when Isak finally came out to him, there was pride in seeing this kid’s long journey to acceptance. We also got plenty of little scenes between them so the dynamic wasn’t just a big dramatic thing, we saw the casual side of their relationship. So I’m not sure how they can replicate that with a relationship that cannot help but have less buildup.

Niccolò is a pianist and there’s a video of him playing on YouTube! I’m really glad they incorporated the actor’s talents into the character and gave him his own artistic skill to make him a little different from Even. I assume that Martino will find the piano video and watch that endlessly. And it’ll be fun if Martino is all convinced Niccolò is a serious classical music snob but then Niccolò is like, “YES, this is my JAM” over a cheesy pop song.

One big problem I have is that it feels like a lot of potential for conflict or tension (both internal and external) is being minimized across various relationships, in multiple situations. It just feels safer for Martino despite him still going through some major problems that Isak was not at this point, and so it really shouldn’t. And that makes it harder to get involved in his POV or to immerse ourselves in his struggles. For example:

The boy squad isn't angry or annoyed with Martino for losing the weed, they're just kind of like lol, get it back. 

Sana and Martino don't clash with as much tension, and does Sana even explain why she’s holding onto Martino’s weed instead of giving it back? Sana B. was disgusted that Isak left the weed in Eva’s house where Eva could get in trouble if it was found; Sana A. is just doing it to be sassy, so far? Knowing that she found Isak’s actions distasteful upped the animosity of the Sana-Isak relationship, whereas Sana-Martino doesn’t have that element. I mean it’s certainly a reasonable inference that Sana is mad at him for potentially getting Fede in trouble, but it’s not a clear motivation. Martino doesn’t know why she’s randomly holding on to his weed. Does he think she’s doing it because she’s Muslim and disapproves? Because she wants it for herself? Just to torment him?

Italian Emma comes across way more of a chill, tolerable girl than Nowegian Emma and less of a persistent nuisance causing him stress just by existing.

Martino is less alienated and uncomfortable and more like a chill dude who likes to look at guys. The boys talking about going down on girls doesn’t make him uninterested and detached from the situation, he just mildly protests about TMI but continues to engage. He can look at Niccolò without having to make himself look away. He puts up less of a show to perform heterosexuality than Isak.

Martino doesn’t want to get involved in the radio show, except when he’s left alone he starts talking into a mic and pretending he’s on the radio, suggesting that it is of interest to him even if he’s not into Silvia’s leadership or whatever (as opposed to Isak who just didn’t want to deal with kosegruppa).

Even the Martino and Niccolò meeting had them bantering right away, practically as soon as they spoke, rather than encountering any moments of uncertainty or confusion, no time where they had to find their groove. And people are going to be like “They got along right away when Isak and Even didn’t!” when the reason Isak and Even were a little awkward at first was not because they clashed but because they were attracted to each other. Isak was shy about talking to a cute boy and taken aback by Even’s approach; Even was overwhelmed about talking to the boy he’d liked for weeks. It’s also a mark of how genuine Isak’s interest was: with Emma he was all slick and insincere, with Even he was real and tongue-tied. I mean, think about episode 2 and what a great moment it is when Isak runs into Even on the tram and they fumble for words at first. It’s so good! It’s human and real. It’s vulnerable, especially from Isak’s POV since we know how hard he has been pining over the last week, but also from Even’s POV especially when you know he’s liked Isak for a long time. The thing with Martino and Niccolò is that they settle into conversation so instantly, without any bumps, that I don’t think I would buy a moment like that happening. It’s not like I expect them to immediately become best friends but it would feel strange after this scene. And personally, it’s not like this relationship needs to develop the same as Isak/Even, but it’s good to leave some room for build-up from a narrative perspective. That’s why it’s so satisfying when Isak goes from barely being able to speak to Even to getting so comfortable with him that he can joke around and laugh with him. Like, let Martino say the wrong thing, or not know what to say, or make a mistake, so he can earn that more comfortable place with Niccolò, or so we can savor the moments that show him as vulnerable. (I mean, did people not enjoy Isak and Even being shy around each other? Because the awkwardness, the long silent pauses, the fumbling for what to say ... I ate that shit up. I loved it.)

Now on their own, it’s not wrong for any of these plot threads or scenes to go more smoothly. But do you see how cumulatively, they don’t contribute that much to creating a stressful internal and external climate for Martino? He’s just so much milder about everything, and the people around him are milder to him, and from a dramatic perspective it’s not as engaging.

I mean fandom does this thing where it’s like “These characters get along better! Things are Softer! Cinnamon rolls!! It’s an improvement!!!” but that’s not ... actually great from a narrative standpoint. We’re at the beginning of Martino’s story and it makes more sense to emphasize what a shit place he’s in so we can build him up over the season. 

The conflict that IS there, and felt like it had more of a presence on screen when it was addressed, is Martino still having feelings for Giovanni and Martino’s issues with his parents. I’m not sure how much farther they’ll take Martino’s crush on Gio, since now Niccolò is in the picture, but they’ll likely have Martino keeping secrets from Giovanni that are Eva-related. And we have Martino living with his mother and dealing with her problems, but I felt like that should have been more emphasized in this premiere episode and not just one clip, since it’s really fucking huge. It’s not a problem he can kind of repress like Isak because Isak can just ignore his mom’s texts. Martino has to go home and deal with it every day. (Like I would have put the radio/weed stuff for episode 1 and kick off with Martino’s parental problems and meeting Filippo, since that should set sooo much of the stage for this season, emotionally.)

I’ve also seen the idea that this season will focus more on Martino dealing with external homophobia than internalized homophobia, and that’s certainly a good idea, but then they really should have hit the ground running with that theme. Show the boy squad making casually homophobic comments, show him fearing what his mom will say. Show some random assholes making gay jokes about Filippo at the party and Martino overhears. 

I think they’re doing the meeting with Filippo in episode 2, so hopefully we get more meat to Martino’s conflicts.

I sound like I’m being negative, probably, but I’m aware this is only episode 1, and there’s plenty more to come. There are things that I do like, such as Filippo being Eleonora’s brother and the introduction of the radio. I think those could be really cool for the season. And I’m still intrigued by everything else, because this is S3 and of course I’m wondering how they’ll adapt it!

Please feel free to correct me if I missed or misinterpreted anything!

If you got this far, thank you for reading! Especially if you disagreed with me, lol.

#skamit reactions #skam italia reactions

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Tagged by @too-much-jonerys. Thanks, love!

do you watch the episodes when they air? Oh HELL yes. I watch them when they air and stay up practically the whole night after making gifs and flailing with you guys haha. Work the next morning be damned!

how often do you rewatch it? do you rewatch it from season one? I’ve rewatched several times now, both beginning to end and isolated episodes or seasons. I’ve lost count of how many times haha. But I watch season 6 the most because it’s my favorite.

do you rewatch the previous episode before the next one airs? I usually rewatch it the next day to write a review.

do you eat anything while watching? if so, what do you eat? Nope, but I always have a good pinot noir handy :P

one character that everyone seems to like that you don’t care much for: Stannis. I get that book!Stannis didn’t kill Shireen (yet?) but honestly the dudes in this fandom need to take several seats. Stannis is not what some make him out to be. There’s a reason Renly had more supporters.

your 3 favourite pairings: Jonerys, Gendrya, Sansa/Pod <3

favourite scene: Well, Jon and Dany on the ship after the Wight Hunt is probably my favorite because of the YEARS I waited to see that sort of tenderness between those two :’) But in terms of just epic moments, for me it’s a tie between Jon facing down Ramsay’s army solo, the battle scene in “The Spoils of War,” and Arya killing Polliver.

one character you wish got more appreciation PODRICK PAYNE MY CUTE SON

fanfic or nah? YAS

favourite quote “Lots of people name their swords.” “Lots of cunts.”

do you avoid spoilers? I used to. I didn’t last year, which is basically how this blog took off--talking predictions and leaks with you guys. But I kind of want to avoid them for the final season :/ I don’t think I can do that and still be on tumblr though, soooo

favourite house words: I like this slightly lesser-known motto from House Hornwood, “Righteous in Wrath.” There are some really hilarious ones on the ASOIAF Wiki that I wish I could confirm as canon, though. Like, “Come Try Me” from House Plumm. How bitchy and fabulous.

one character you’d bring back from the dead: HODOR </3

one character you’d kill, or kill sooner than they were killed: I like most of the remaining characters in show!canon. Even the villains. But I guess I’d kill Euron so I could save Yara :’)

direwolves or dragons? Dragons!

which was more satisfying: Ramsay dying or Joffrey dying? Joffrey. Ramsay was, I think, more evil. But he was also a more interesting presence in the series, a truly terrifying villain. In Jon’s own words, Joffrey was a little shit. I was more than sick of him. 

wildlings or the dothraki? Dothraki. STANDING ON HORSEBACK FIRING ARROWS OMG. (Edit: I accidentally left the answer of the person I shared this from on the first go lol).

favourite lannister? Jaime. DADDY omg I am so obsessed.

favourite stark? Arya. No question about it. 

would you rather be able to be resurrected anytime, but gain scars and all like Beric, or become a faceless man? Resurrected! In this universe there’s apparently confirmation of no afterlife. That’s scary. Plus, Beric just seems cooler after having been dead. He’s wise and cryptic and has a hot eyepatch. Goals. 

would you rather have the rebellion tv show or the conquest tv show? CONQUEST. LONG LIVE HOUSE TARGARYEN!

I tag (unless you’ve already done it or don’t wanna) @dracarysqueen @dreamofspring @manbunjon @annabelleebythesea @moonmillie @draganchitsa @misshoneywheeler @thatgirlnevershutsup @thefairfleming @drxgonstone @yocalio

#tag games #got meme :D