#i know canon really wanted to push that narrative that hes like selfish af but personally thats really hard to keep | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-music-maniac · 4 years

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I got sucked back into Ever After High, so hoo boy get ready for a long ass analysis about a ship

Did I mean to get sucked into Rapple? Uh, no. Fuck no. I usually make it a point not to sell my entire soul to small fandoms because the inevitable lack of fics will just break my heart. But here we are.

I'm low key distressingly neutral about the canon/popular ships for Ever After High. Namely Dexter x Raven and Apple x Darling. I have absolutely nothing against them, cause they’re both really adorable. I don’t know if appling is canon actually but it is strongly hinted at, and while I’m ecstatic that there’s some form of lgbt rep (however small), and that Dexter isn’t sadboi anymore cause he’s with Raven, I’ve always just liked Apple x Raven way more.

I guess I’m posting this cause I want to analyze why I like Rapple specifically? This isn’t meant to attack either of these ships or shippers in any way btw! This is just my personal opinion, I just felt the need to mention dexter x raven and apple x darling cause they are (for the most part) canon. :))

Tbh i really didn't mean to make such a gigantic analysis about this, but I got carried away lmao.

1. Rapple has a lot of narrative tension and weight:

I feel like rapple has more narrative weight as a ship then most I’ve seen in the Ever After High fandom. These two characters are undeniably the focal point of the story, and while all characters in the show have backstories and well developed characterizations, Raven and Apple are the "leaders" and the main main characters.

Raven with Apple could make for a really a complex and interesting storyline. After all, Ever After High is ALL about breaking free of your pre-determined destiny, it would be the perfect twist in the story for Apple to fall for Raven and vice versa. There's so much more to write with that kind of turn in the story; the growth of a relationship, character development, the backlash they might recieve from a hero and villain together, fighting what everyone else tells them they should be. Honestly if we're gonna go there, it kind of mirrors what lgbt people have to go through on the daily. In my eyes, appling and dexter x raven (I'm sorrryyy I don't know the proper ship name) pales a bit in comparison, just in the amount of weight they carry (not that it HAS to have narrative weight to be a good cute ship of course).

Darling for Apple is also unconventional and a plot twist, cause it no longer follows the stereotypical hetero-normative fairy-tale, and I absolutely ADORE Darling as a character, but in the end she is still a Charming. Apple is still pre-destined to fall for a Charming, she's still following what her destiny tells her she should be, and while that's good on one hand, cause Apple wants to follow her destiny, I feel like when she pulled Raven back from the brink in Wonderland, she realized that destiny is not so set in concrete and what matters more is the people behind those destinies. I think Rapple would really drive in that point; destiny or no destiny that’s not what matters. So while appling does have some narrative tension as well, it doesn’t make me gleefully go “oh my god FUCK, you wonderful DISASTERS, now you’ve gone and done it. Now you've fucking stepped in it. AMAZING.”, y’know? Dexter and Raven is the exact opposite. Destiny-wise it's pretty unique and frowned upon, but again, heterosexual romance (not that I expect all the characters to be lgbt, that's not what I'm saying) so it also doesn't hold as much weight as Rapple. I'm greedy ok? I want both. I want aspects of both. Maybe I'm just a shit-stirrer though lmao, maybe I just need a ship that fucking destroys all expectations and fucks shit up in the process XDD. It's possible *shrugs*

2. The amount of growth they go through together.

So it's pretty undeniable that Apple at the beginning is....um. Selfish, if we're gonna go with mild language. Kind of a bitch if we're gonna go with stronger language. She doesn't give a shit that Raven will have a horrible life if she follows her destiny, all she cares about is her part of the story and her happy ending. But the thing is, Apple doesn't stay like that. She becomes Raven's roommate and friend, and when it really came down to it, during the Wonderland part of the story, even though Apple is the one who gives Raven the book, she doesn't push and shows her support in thinking that Raven is too good to become the evil queen. And then when Raven was almost lost, Apple is the one who pulled her back and told her to choose who she wants to be. She let go of her need for Raven to be evil and saw her as her own person; someone she cares about deeply. Raven on the other hand starts off unsure and kind of insecure. She was still figuring herself out, and trying to resist what everyone is trying to tell her; that she has to be evil. I feel like through her personal growth and Apple's influence she starts to be more settled, confident. And Apple's support before and after she signed her storybook in wonderland definitely helped. This mutual growth actually brings me to my next point:

3. Rapple has a very strong basis for a relationship

So there's a definite reason why I love the concept of enemies to friends to lovers SO MUCH, and despite what people say, no it's not just because of UST (i mean that's a bonus but far from the only reason). What I care about is again, the mutual GROWTH.

What enemies to lovers does (healthy enemies to lovers btw, rivalries and stuff, not abusive shit) is force the two people to confront the worst parts of each other first and foremost. Meeting someone for the purpose of dating/because you like them means you'll put up a fake, mellower version of yourself to impress them, but there's none of that if you start off hating each other. Clashing is also often because of some underlying issue or sometimes because of a weakness in character; there's numerous reasons, pettiness, unhappiness, jealousy, anger, but it's never because everything is perfect. This means that, in order for these two characters who dislike each other to end up together in any capacity, they have to grow as people first, become better versions of themselves, and in the process they help each other achieve that. They also have to learn each other and let go of whatever was nagging them and compromise. It takes work and I love that, so much more than just a kiss to fall in love, or love at first sight or any of that fairytale stuff. Because that’s exactly it, relationships take work. It takes people repeatedly choosing to stay and work things out, and compromising, and that’s, in pure essence, exactly what you’re doing in enemies to lovers. Not only that, but it means they willingly choose the other person despite their setbacks, because god knows they're not the easiest option, means they see the worst in each other and want each other anyways.

Raven and Apple already have that set up in Ever After High, the only difference is, canonically, they're only friends (which honestly is just as good, not everything needs to be romance but this is a shipping analysis, so, I’m gonna stay on brand here). They disagree with each other, and they annoy each other, and they fight sometimes and they're still best friends despite it all. They really truly know each other, and that I feel like is such a strong basis for a relationship. Other than Maddie, I don't think Raven truly is as close to anyone else as she is to Apple, and the same goes in reverse. They even live together. *leans forward creepily* oh my god they were roommates.

I don't know, I just feel like, with other Raven and Apple ships, there's always a hint of potential for a relationship that the show and books never really explored or developed extensively, while Rapple already has these solid af steel foundations that could be built on and made into something amazing.

4. We know the most about Apple and Raven respectively

This is a rather minor detail, and more about me personally, but I'm the kind of person that has to really know a lot about characters in order to ship them. I also have to like both characters but I feel like that's kind of a given for shipping. If I know very little about the characters involved I lose interest. I know the most about Raven and Apple, we follow them closely throughout the series, and in the books, we see things from their viewpoints. In contrast, I just don't know as much about Darling or about Dexter.

5. I just find them cute as shit tbh

This is pretty self explanatory, they're just plain adorable. Something about them makes my heart go squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Oof this turned out WAYYY longer than I intended it to be, but anyways, stan rapple- or don’t y’know, stan appling or dexter x raven, or whatever other ships, stan ALL the other ships, ship anything and everything you want, be happy. I’ve been writing this ever since I finished my physio midterm and got this analysis idea that wouldn’t leave me the fuck alone so now my eyeballs feel like they’re about to fall out of my head, I’m gonna go pass out now, peace.

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ginmo · 5 years

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I’ve been sure since I read AFFC/ADWD that Jaime’s getting one of the better endings because House Lannister isn’t gonna be wiped out and both Cersei and Tyrion are now Too Dark To Live. But I’ve seen a lot of people rewatching bring up that awful sept fuck up and consensus is that it renders him irredeemable. The show is gonna have to WORK to avoid a million thinkpieces when he gets both power and a family. I’m not convinced they’ll pull it off.

That scene was gross af, but we’ve since learned that the intent of the scene was not for it to be rape. We also know that canon Jaime is not a rapist. So if the narrative intent was for it to NOT be rape (and ended up being just a really bad fuck up from writers, director, post production) then we can’t blame the non-rapist character for the shitty product. What’s gross is they didn’t realize they filmed a rape scene, so people need to shift their blame from Jaime to the filmmakers. If people are really stuck on Jaime being a rapist even though in canon he isn’t and wasn’t even meant to be on the show, then they’re going to really hate the outcome of this story, because there won’t be anything to revisit Jaime being a rapist in the narrative (such as redemption for that) because he isn’t supposed to be. This is why most of fandom acknowledges that scene was an oops from the production and don’t use it to judge the character.

In other words, since the show was doing a direct adaptation of a consensual canon sex scene from the books, thinking their adaption was also a consensual sex scene, then the narrative itself doesn’t need to, and will not, do anything to have Jaime redeem himself for something he didn’t do, but that the filmmakers stupidly did.

My friend Koops went off on this topic a while back, so I’m going to add a read more where I quote her posts. It’s way more than you asked about, and I already answered the question, but I just really love her rant over the sex scene lol. So for those who want cast, crew, and GRRM quotes, discussion of that D&D video people love to refer to, and a total take down of basically why using that scene against Jaime is completely moronic then here it is:

In response to this D&D video:

I don’t think this video disproves anything. The girl is calling it “rape” but they are not once owning up to it. They’re calling it “this” and insisting that’s something Jaime would do in that moment, but it feels to me like what they were trying to do is avoid getting into a debate about whether it’s rape or not, because they know that can get them into all kinds of trouble. ETA: Also, notice how David rolls his eyes towards the end and the person who captioned the video interpreted it as him rolling his eyes at the girl who asked the question. I don’t think he is at all, that was 5 minutes earlier, talk about a delayed reaction. I think he’s rolling his eyes at KIT stepping in just as David had finished answering with that stupid comment calling it rape and saying how great it is that the show has rape scenes, when David had been so careful in avoiding using that word all along in order not to get into an argument. And they’re emphasizing how hard this was for Lena and so on (despite, IIRC, her always saying it wasn’t intended as rape), just to earn feminist points of “we know how tough this is for women, look at how distraught we all were filming it”.If that had been their intention, they would have followed up on it in subsequent scenes/interactions, which is something the show does with rape scenes (see Sansa). Yet it was never mentioned again and it’s like it never happened. I think D&D sometimes have a bit of a rape-style fetish when it comes to sex scenes because it makes them come across as “edgy”. See the way they wrote the broken tower sex scene in the original pilot script or the way they changed Dany and Drogo’s wedding night. But they refuse to admit it and hide behind nonsense like “this is something the character would do”. They want to see how far they can push it, basically.Even if we want to say they’re admitting to have it intended as rape, saying this is something Jaime would do is absolutely ridiculous since not only he saved Brienne from rape but in the books he even has one of his men executed for TRYING to rape Pia. It’s nothing to do about having a linear redemption arc or not, it’s about WHAT kind of “bad things” the character does and whether it’s consistent with its characterization or not. Rape, for Jaime, is absolutely NOT. Equating that scene to Jaime pushing Bran out of a window is completely insane since the two things are dramatically different in motivation and intention and while Jaime is a complex guy that can do horrible things for his family and for Cersei, he doesn’t do them out of his own selfishness, especially when it comes to sex when he even refuses women throwing himself at him. Not to mention the entire point of Jaime’s “bad deed(s)” is that he has to own up to them and deal with them and their consequences. If you just ignore that sept scene ever happened and never deal with it again then you either think it isn’t a big deal, or it wasn’t a bad deed in the first place. Otherwise it adds absolutely nothing to the character’s arc. It’s like they think that a “complex/not good guy” engages into all sorts of “bad behaviour” just by virtue of being complex/not good, which actually does precisely what they’re claiming they don’t want to do; i.e. making a clear cut distinction between good and bad guys, since they’re equating all possible bad actions as being equal and the same and stemming from the same psychological motivations, which is ridiculous. The bottom line to me always comes to the fact that, unlike most stuff post S5, we have the scene in the books, in written format, and we KNOW it’s not meant to be rape. It’s meant to be the kind of gross, rough, angry sex those two have. To change the intention of the scene just because you feel “that’s something the character would do”, to me is not really caring about really understanding the character’s intentions in the first place, since you have source material and an author you can check with. They simply didn’t care in order to get HBO points.

And for some quotes

I find the idea that we are meant to read into Cersei’s actions after the sept encounter in the books as indicative of a woman who experienced rape, or that George did not come out to straight up say the words “I did not write it as rape” (he would never throw D&D under the bus that way, come on) as evidence that it was indeed intended to be rape all along in the books, even more of twisting oneself into a pretzel than trying to explain away the scene in the show as not rape. Neither D&D nor George have ever shied away from calling rape out for what it is in the show or the books. Why would they suddenly tiptoe around this one particular scene? I think it’s because the issue here is much more nuanced than just filming a rape scene; it’s about the grey lines of consent and it’s about changing something from the books to make it look much worse than it originally was intended to be, for a character they know it will be regarded as very controversial/OOC, which raises all sorts of uncomfortable questions about how far D&D are willing to go for shock value. This is what GRRM has to say on the issue (bolded and underlined for emphasis):

“I think the “butterfly effect” that I have spoken of so often was at work here. In the novels, Jaime is not present at Joffrey’s death, and indeed, Cersei has been fearful that he is dead himself, that she has lost both the son and the father/ lover/ brother. And then suddenly Jaime is there before her. Maimed and changed, but Jaime nonetheless. Though the time and place is wildly inappropriate and Cersei is fearful of discovery, she is as hungry for him as he is for her.The whole dynamic is different in the show, where Jaime has been back for weeks at the least, maybe longer, and he and Cersei have been in each other’s company on numerous occasions, often quarreling.The setting is the same, but neither character is in the same place as in the books, which may be why Dan & David played the sept out differently. But that’s just my surmise; we never discussed this scene, to the best of my recollection.Also, I was writing the scene from Jaime’s POV, so the reader is inside his head, hearing his thoughts. On the TV show, the camera is necessarily external. You don’t know what anyone is thinking or feeling, just what they are saying and doing. If the show had retained some of Cersei’s dialogue from the books, it might have left a somewhat different impression — but that dialogue was very much shaped by the circumstances of the books, delivered by a woman who is seeing her lover again for the first time after a long while apart during which she feared he was dead. I am not sure it would have worked with the new timeline.”

Nothing whatsoever of what GRRM is saying above in explaining how he wrote their sept encounter even remotely hints at the fact that he intended consent to be even a question in his original work. He is not pointing out that he is writing from Jaime’s POV to build a contrast with Cersei’s, he is pointing out that he is writing from Jaime’s POV to build a contrast between the books medium and the camera medium and what each does or does not allow. And he goes further by saying that Cersei’s dialogue from the books might have helped giving a different impression of the scene: i.e. that it was NOT rape. What is happening is George trying to distance himself from D&D’s choice while at the same time being a professional and not bashing their botched adaptation of his work, by explaining why perhaps they might have decided to approach it differently from the way HE wrote the original scene and how maybe some of his material might not have fit because of the timeline.We actually have Cersei’s own POV later in the books, where she reminisces about tons of events from her close and distant past, and not once does she ever think back upon that incident in the sept in a way so as to indicate it was in any way a “traumatic” experience for her, while she does plenty of reflecting back upon her unpleasant sexual experiences with Robert, for example. Meanwhile, Cersei being disgusted with Jaime’s loss of his hand, or the way his looks are changing and his personality is changing, is very much a plot point that she comes back to over and over. “How could I have ever loved such a wretched creature?”, or getting up naked from a bathtub in front of Jaime thinking he still wants her and even taunting him with “Pining what you lost?” and then getting annoyed that Jaime pretty much tells her she’s a fool for thinking that? Hardly dynamics one has with their rapist. And also GRRM also says:

The scene was always intended to be disturbing, but I do regret if it has disturbed people for the wrong reasons.

“It has disturbed people FOR THE WRONG REASONS”, means that he wanted that scene to cause controversy because of how damn gross it all is, them having sex next to the corpse of their incestuous son, not because there was an issue of consent. So, no. The book scene was not intended to have consent be a central point, let alone rape. Yes, something happened in the adaptation to make it come across as significantly more forced, in a way that can very rightfully be interpreted as rape, while at the same time not being intended to be rape for plot point’s sake. But, when it comes to the filming of that scene, this is what the director had to say:

Of course Lena and Nikolaj laughed every time I would say, “You grab her by the hair, and Jack is right there,” or “You come around this way and Jack is right there.“

Yeah. Lena was SO distraught and it was so difficult for her to film that “rape” scene. They was totally totally totally directed to play it as such, and were so serious and affected by it. Give me a break, David. And also:

The consensual part of it was that she wraps her legs around him, and she’s holding on to the table, clearly not to escape but to get some grounding in what’s going on. And also, the other thing that I think is clear before they hit the ground is she starts to make out with him. The big things to us that were so important, and that hopefully were not missed, is that before he rips her undergarment, she’s way into kissing him back. She’s kissing him aplenty.

So there’s two possibilities here: either D&D intended it as rape from the start, but didn’t give clear instructions to the director, and, in turn, Nik and Lena, so that they didn’t set out to shoot it the way D&D intended, or nobody intended it as rape but something was messed up in the editing process (apparently after this scene, they made some changes to the editing process? Not sure how reliable this info is, but maybe someone can dig it out, if they remember). Regardless, what they ended up with is a scene that has some serious, serious issues of consent, and the comments afterwards, trying to downplay the consent in favour of highlighting the context or the way Cersei did give non-verbal consent, only ended up stirring more criticism of the director and actors being rape apologists. So, it doesn’t surprise me if they’ve just given up trying to defend their original intentions, since it only made things worse (and rightfully so), in favour of trying to explain it away the way GRRM did; by trying to make up explanations that the narrative required it and it made sense to be filmed that way.So, to conclude and link everything back to the reason why we are debating this (i.e. “NCW is a misogynist for disliking Dany when Jaime is a rapist and he excuses him”), while I can totally sympathize with a show-only person who watches that scene and sees it as rape, I also think this particular scene is not something we can use in the discourse about Jaime’s character and arc, given that not only there are huge question marks about what was intended with that scene in the first place, not only it is forgotten like it never happened to the point that you could skip it and nothing would change, but we know for a fact that it was NOT what was intended in the original source material by the original author. The one who decides where the characters’ arcs are supposed to go. You cannot say “it doesn’t make sense that Jaime does X and Y in his endgame because he’s a rapist” when that endgame is being decided by someone who never wrote Jaime as a rapist in the first place. All you can say is that D&D messed up big time with that scene because it literally does not line up or fit with anything else that is going on at the time or in the past or in the future when it comes to Jaime.

- Koops (jaimetheexplorer)

#.#..#...#....#.....#sept sex #rape

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ethanalter · 6 years

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Toast of 2017: Sam Richardson on how Richard stays the nicest guy on 'Veep'

Sam Richardson as Richard Splett in ‘Veep’ (Photo: Colleen Hayes/HBO)

The conventional wisdom when it comes to long-running shows tends to be, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But Veep tossed convention out the Oval Office window in its sixth year, when the writers ejected Veep-turned-POTUS Selina Meyer and her semi-competent staff from the White House, forcing them to become political elites in exile. Along with that change of scenery came a shake-up in the established ensemble, with the different characters going their different ways. Dan Egan (Reid Scott), for example, left politics behind for a disastrous career in morning television. Meanwhile, strategists Kent Davison (Gary Cole) and Ben Cafferty (Kevin Dunn) went from advising Selina to (temporarily) advising a new Congressman, Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons). Jonah also said goodbye to his longtime aide, Richard Splett (Sam Richardson), who traded the U.S. Capitol building for Selina’s South Bronx office as her Chief of Staff.

Far from breaking the show, Veep‘s major and minor changes gave it new life. And Richardson, in particular, swam rather than sank in his character’s new surroundings. Always a reliable source of humor, Richard emerged from Season 6 as an invaluable fixture in the Veep universe — largely because he’s the only genuinely nice person on the series. “I was a little nervous,” the actor admits to Yahoo Entertainment about returning to a very different Veep between Seasons 5 and 6. “But I had so much fun. We all know each other pretty well and speak each other’s languages, so it didn’t take a long time for us to gel. Otherwise, the episodes wouldn’t get until Episode 8! I also feel like I know this character enough where I can make him work with anyone. He’s such a jovial person, and part of the fun is pairing him up with someone who hates everything, because he’s so overly optimistic. It’s also fun to be paired with someone who loves everything, because they’d be like two puppies in a playpen.”

If anything, Richardson is even nicer than his Veep alter ego. How nice is he? So nice that he called us on a rare sick day while recuperating from a cold, and happily answered all of our questions about Richard’s crazy backstory, and what it would sound like if he were to — gasp! — insult somebody.

Anna Chlumsky, Richardson, Matt Walsh, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Tony Hale in ‘Veep’ (Photo: Colleen Hayes/HBO)

I was the stage manager for an improv group in college, and I remember that one of the big rules they emphasized was the importance of listening to each other and choosing your moment. I see you doing that in Veep: you’re always aware of the conversation happening around you, and pick the right moment to slip in your line. Yeah, it’s kind of like comedy double-dutch. There’s so much going on and it really is like a game! You want your joke to land, but you don’t want it to be at the expense of anything else. It also goes to the way that Richard’s wavelength works. He’s like a coat of paint over what’s going on. It’s a different tone to whatever else is happening in the scene: he’s always a few degrees off from what they’re talking about, but he’s still part of the conversation, you know?

I enjoy how much of Richard’s history is revealed through your off-the-cuff asides. He’s got a bizarre backstory — how much of that is your own invention? I get Richard’s backstory through jokes from the writers, and over the years, they’ve built this history where he was adopted by his grandmother, and his family is heavily into basketball and also heavily religious. Or, you know, him knowing all about jug bands! Maybe down the line, there’s a jug band thing that Richard will be a part of. I never got a character background sheet explaining all that stuff; they’ve all been splattered in there. And there are little details that may be improvised that also go to the canon of the character. I can’t think of one right now — shame on me!

Do you ever worry about keeping his mythology consistent or introducing a bit of backstory that’s contradictory? I never really worry about that. I will bring it up [with the writers]: “Oh, he can’t do that, because he’s already said this was the case.” Again, I can’t think of any specific moments. I’m just the worst interview, I apologize. [Laughs]

In your defense, you are under the weather! I do try and keep track of the history of Richard, because who’s tracking him more than me? Maybe there are some big-time Richard fans out there who follow every reference, but for the most part, I think I know him. So if there are little details that don’t match, like a joke that says Richard went to a different college when we know he went to Yale, I’ll speak up. I want to keep everything as true as possible for him.

(Photo: Justin M. Lubin/HBO)

You’ve often pointed out that Richard is one of the few characters in the Veep universe who’s not motivated by selfishness or greed. Was that something you brought to the role or was it already part of the character? I think it’s a twist that I kind of brought to it — that he’s maybe the only well-meaning person in Washington who is truly guileless. That was the angle I took to kind of round him out and make him real. What if he was a regular person who watched Veep and was then put in Veep, and is also the nicest person in the world? He’s out of his element, but still really competent.

What’s your take on why he hasn’t been corrupted yet, especially since he’s surrounded by selfishness? He’s just super-positive at processing it, because he’s an incredibly smart guy. He knows so much about veterinary medicine and law, but he doesn’t want to push that advantage. He just likes the process of learning and being part of the government, because he has this belief that government is ultimately there to do good. So when he encounters a negative attack, he can twist it in his mind and go, “There’s gotta be some kind of positivity in this!” In his mind, he thinks that all people intend to do good and he can make anything fit that narrative.

What would an angry Richard look like? An angry Richard would probably bring up something so true, but also not something you would think of as an insult. Like, “You’re a poor decorator, meaning you probably have color blindness!” Or he’d be half-complimentary. Like, “This turkey is pretty dry. What kind of oven do you have? Can I suggest a GE?” People would be like, “Thanks? Should I be insulted?” [Laughs]

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I did enjoy how attentive he was to Catherine and Marjorie this season during Catherine’s pregnancy. No one else seemed at all concerned for her. Yup, although that’s not him being entirely altruistic because he’s the father of the child. It’s supposed to be a surrogate situation, but he’s like, “No, I’m going to be the dad.” He couldn’t separate that idea, so to him it’s like, “I’m part of this family right here.” It’s also compassion; everybody else can ignore her, but that’s not part of his DNA.

I’m sure you can’t spoil anything for Season 7, but will those fatherly feelings be an issue? I’ll have to be very careful with my words: it’s not even like it’s a huge spoiler, but I don’t want to be the one! [Laughs] I think Richard one-hundred percent believes that he’s got a son. So moving forward, I can’t imagine that he’d be completely uninvolved in the child’s life. Whether they like it or not, he’s going to be around.

When did the cast know that Season 7 was going to be the last year? We knew before we started the table reads. It’s definitely bittersweet, because you want these things to end on a high note, but it’s also a show that I love doing. I want to do this show for 40 years!

Did you have any input for how Richard’s character arc wraps up? Without spoiling, I’m personally going to be satisfied with his end. It’s a nice finish. [Veep showrunner] Dave Mandel and the writers arc out the whole season and told me. I don’t think I could improve on anything. I’m happy and excited to be a part of it.

2 of my darling Bozos (love them so much) psyche me up for 3rd chemo today. And guess what? It worked! I’m psyched AF. @SamRichardson @mrmattwalsh pic.twitter.com/OuwR5hvHlf

— Julia Louis-Dreyfus (@OfficialJLD) November 9, 2017

When did Julia Louis-Dreyfus tell the cast about her breast cancer diagnosis? She told us prior to the table reads. It was definitely a gut punch. She’s my friend, and I love her dearly. But we’re also work friends, so you don’t want to overstep your boundaries. We did whatever positive things we could do: send cards and text messages and videos. I’m scared for her, but at the same time I know she’s so strong and positive. The first thing she did was bring attention to health care, which is amazing. What person immediately thinks of someone else when they’re going through the hardest thing imaginable?

Has it been hard for the cast to hurl insults at her in the world of the show considering what’s going on in her real life? Well, we’re still in table reads — we haven’t started shooting yet. But I think we have the ability to disassociate ourselves from these characters. Otherwise, my goodness! The amount of vitriol that flies out of mouths at each other would be unfathomable. For Jonah alone! The list of insults that guy gets, come on. [Laughs] That’s the thing, too: You have to separate yourself from it, but it’s still based on you, you know what I mean? I don’t put on a suit and become Richard, and Timothy [Simons] doesn’t put on stilts to become Jonah. That’s us — they’re writing insults about us. But somehow you just get a thick skin and it works.

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You have a lot more creative control over Detroiters, the Comedy Central series you co-created and star in. How has being part of Veep helped you make that show? Honestly, so much, even just from following Julia’s lead on how she leads a series. She sets the tone of being very even-keeled and positive the whole time. She’s always there to do her best and be the best, and you learn from that. Also the notes process, in terms of getting notes on your performance and the script. You spend a lot of time writing scenes and, on paper, you’re like, “This is hilarious!” But then you’re on set and it’s not clicking the way you like. Instead of letting it sit, you can massage it and mold it and find what works. Being on the set of Veep gave me the confidence to do that on a level that I’m proud of.

Detroiters is coming back for another season next year. What can you tease about what’s coming up? I feel the second season, dare I say it, is head and shoulders above the first season. We kinda knew what we were doing this time, and were able to scale back on the things that we didn’t like from Season 1 and ramp up the things that we did like. You’re always trying to learn the language of a show, what works and what doesn’t work, and I think the second season really benefits from that.

Has Veep changed the kinds of opportunities that come your way as an actor? I don’t know — I consider myself new to the game still. I’ve only been in L.A. for six years. It does affect it, but I’m certainly going to be playing a guy who’s nice. That seems to be the way it goes. And I don’t mind; I know how to do that. At my core, that’s who I am, but I wonder if people can’t picture me as anyone else. Which my friends know otherwise! Just kidding. [Laughs]

So is your dream role to play a bad guy or a more darkly comic character? Oh yeah. I play a computer terrorist in a new movie called Game Over, Man from the Workaholics guys. But I want to play an evil person who has fun with being evil, like a comic book villain. I want to play my Joker. Not the Joker, but my Joker. Somebody who can have fun doing wrong.

You should write that role for yourself! I’m trying to figure that out right now. We’ll see — hopefully that’s something that will pop in the coming year.

Last question: is there a secret part of Richard’s history that you want to explore in Veep‘s final season? I’d like to incorporate maybe Richard’s love life or something. Some specific spin that you wouldn’t expect from him. Because we know he’s never masturbated! That’s ripe for a solid twist. [Laughs]

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Veep is currently streaming on HBO Go and HBO Now. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

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Toast of 2017: ’13 Reasons Why’ star Katherine Langford reflects on the teen drama’s big impact

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