#i'm hoping to do this for every season! which may be a trying ordeal for me but i wanna get all my thoughts down

[islandfate]

woooo boy. so – i'm doing a little lost season one character recap just to kind of find my footing and determine how i feel about these characters on this latest rewatch. which, also, i think this is my 12th rewatch? that's crazy. anyway, i'm going to go through the list of the characters and kind of talk about how i feel, how my views have differed from my previous watch, etc. warning for opinions 😔 but these will be in no particular order! this will also be under a cut bc it's gonna get long lol !!

jack – the only thing i really want to do right here is rant about how much i dislike this character, how he puts a bad taste in my mouth, how he can be a truly terrible doctor and how his stubbornness and judgement lead to awful, terrible decisions. but i'm not going to completely bash this character, no matter how much i'd like to. despite this, there's no easy way to say it, but i just don't like jack. i think he can be a good guy, and i think there are aspects to him that make him an interesting character, but in season one – for me – his flaws completely outweigh his positives. there is just something about him that makes me so frustrated. i genuinely think it's his attitude, that is, his constant belief that his way is the right way. and i'm always here for a frustrating character, i enjoy someone with flaws, but jack's simply ... fall flat, for me. maybe it's because he's meant to be our main character, and he just has zero charisma in my eyes. i think there are so many other characters that draw me in. jack is just there. and usually he's doing something to piss me off, but not in the fun way, in the “i really fucking hate you” way. and i truly do not like that he refuses to help people sometimes ( sawyer ), or that he brushes them off for being annoying ( sullivan ), or brushes them off because he thinks he's always right ( such as with claire's nightmares ). it puts a bad taste in my mouth fr !!! even him punishing kate for not telling him what she did, when he's the one who told her that he didn't care? make up your fucking mind buddy.

but of course, jack can be a compassionate person. and he does feel guilt for the things he does – like with claire's kidnapping – and i'm glad for that. maybe too much guilt sometimes, but i'm not gonna fault him for that because i always love seeing that in a character. him watching sayid torture sawyer and realizing that this is a bad thing we're doing here – i liked that. it was a bad call. and i truly adore the flashback where he turns his father in for drinking, because i cannot even imagine how difficult that would be, and the betrayal on christian's face ( and the pain on jack's ) is honestly hard to watch. and when sawyer tells jack about meeting christian, and how proud he was of jack, i do find myself tearing up every time lol. it just really kills me. anyway, i'm hoping to god that i like him more in season two because jack isn't a character i want to feel this frustrated with. i don't want to dislike him! i never want to look at a character and say “i hate them please get them off my screen” but that's usually how i feel about jack. and i don't know if it's the writing, or the acting, or jack himself – there's just something about his character i don't like. either way, i'm hoping for better things from him in season two.

kate – oh kate ... perhaps my second least favorite character in this show, right behind jack. i want to like her so badly but there's also something about her that frustrates the hell out of me. i think her infatuation with jack – for no reason, might i add – is annoying. and i hate their chemistry, because there is none. seriously, kate works better with sawyer, works better with sun, than with jack. though i will admit, i really like the plot twist of kate being the prisoner, and i do think it's interesting how much compassion she has for people, even the u.s. marshal, but something about her also unfortunately falls flat for me. she's just not all that intriguing in my eyes, and i really wish she was. i do like she and sayid's friendship, i think it's cute, and i think kate is far more interesting in sawyer's scenes. but i think i'd like her even more if she wasn't soooo heavily paired with a man, always. not even romantically, but i just mean, she's always in scenes with a guy! she always wants a dude's help! like, give her something to do on her own. but, truly, i have nothing more to say about kate, and i may never have more to say on her lol. i don't remember being super impressed with her in season two, but it's been a bit since i watched all of that season, so we'll see!

michael – truly, i do not have any words for why michael would be my favorite character in this season. he's frustrating, quick to blame, doesn't always make the best decisions when it comes to walt ... but that is what makes him so damn intriguing to me. i think it's his relationship with walt that really kills me. it's like, he's this character who wanted to be a father so badly but was never really able to be one. he fought tooth and nail to be able to be walt's dad and it just didn't matter. and then susan dies, brian comes by, and michael's reunited with walt. and he has to figure out how to raise his kid ( who isn't really his kid anymore ) and honor susan and brian at the same time. it's such an insanely devastating situation that i can hardly stand it. people misconstrue michael's intensions so much – like when they say he hates being a father. but i don't think that's true. he just doesn't know how to be one. he was never given the chance to! michael definitely has a bit of a hair-trigger temper, but i genuinely do think it's because of walt – most of the time. and also, michael and jin's friendship after everything that happened between them?? i love it so much. anyway, michael stays being one of my favorite characters in this season, and there's not a scene with him that goes by i don't enjoy. his centric episode nearly destroyed me this watch and i don't think i'm ready for the next one, which i know is coming soon. overall, i just really enjoy how michael has such this surface level look about him, then you look deeper and see who he truly is, what his motivations are, his regrets. he's just a really great character in my eyes. also, i'm not going to talk about walt on his own, just know i adore walt and i wrote a fic about him! so, he's def a fav of mine.

locke – i'm gonna be honest! locke has always been a favorite of mine, i absolutely love his flashbacks and i think he's so much fun to watch on screen. terry o'quinn really carries here, and i'm excited because i know just how great future locke scenes are. but, how do i feel about him in season one? well, i found myself ... being a little more on the bitter side with him! i think i formed an attachment to boone and to witness what leads to his death really hurts. and when locke brings him back and lies about what happened, causing jack to misdiagnose the problem – well, it really sucks to see. and i know boone was supposed to die, but that doesn't change the fact that if i was on that island, i'd be pissed at locke for this. aside from that, i really like his belief in the island and those intertwining themes of fate and destiny ... he just brings something that the show really needs. i will never get over this man having been in a wheelchair and walkabout still makes me cry to this day. and being conned out of a kidney? phewwww that's a tough one for me to watch. i love the scene where locke bangs on the hatch and the light beams up – it's so great. but, boone's death really hurt my opinion of locke in season one, but i'm sure this'll improve with time ( until season 4 🙄 ). anyway, the ending of this season really teases the jack and locke dynamic – man of science and man of faith ... they're so fun to watch and i can't wait to see them interact more in s2. but locke in season one is great, up until the moment he isn't. but he grew on me in the finale. his acting is so good i can't not like him, lol.

sayid – well, i suppose i might as well get it over with. so, i've never been much of a sayid stan ... i try, let me tell you, but the feeling just never comes. my opinion of him has been pretty consistent throughout my time watching this show, but i think he's mostly good in season one. and i'm not saying he's a bad character or anything, i simply find his flashbacks to be boring and i have no attachment to nadia as a whole. and i think that him torturing sawyer was awful! but obviously i'm not really here to judge characters based on how terrible of people they are ( look at my fav ... ), obviously these characters have flaws and are not always great people. my “meh” feeling toward him more so has to do with the fact that he falls a little flat, too. at least for me, he does. and i know people love him! i've just never felt much of a connection to him, and i'm not sure i ever will. let's just say, i don't watch this show for him.

charlie – charlie is definitely one of the highlights of this season. drug addict characters always, always draw me in, and i think his personality is just so great. he's definitely on the funnier side, but then we get to his backstory and you see just how fucked up things got for him! i love that he goes to the cockpit only to find his drugs – and i love seeing his notion that he's a coward, that really gets swept away come episode seven. i know, i know. people don't like the moth metaphor. but i've always had a soft spot for it, and i think the combination of acting and writing really brings that scene to life. i adore charlie and claire's relationship and they're just ): so cute. so when they get kidnapped ?!? god damn that angst is so juicy. but anyway, i've always been a fan of charlie's character and that hasn't changed one bit. i can't really remember how prevalent he is in s2 ( aside from fire + water ) but i very much look forward to seeing more of him and what he gets up to. i feel like i have less to say here bc ... idk! he's just a silly guy! i like him a lot, always have, and i don't see that ever changing.

claire – you know, i've never had much of an opinion on claire. she's always kind of just ... been there for me. however, i think because elsie likes her so much, it's really improved my view of her. claire is just so sweet and i can't imagine the terror of being pregnant on a fucking deserted island. she handles it much better than i would've, lol. but her pain and fear is definitely hard to see, and made even more difficult because of jack not believing her 🙄 which, of course. but i really like the ethan plotline and i like the little seeds they plant for s2 – such as showing that small flashback between rousseau and claire in the finale. we still don't know what happened to her! i will admit, i don't have a whole lot more to say here, but i think she's a fun character and i like the stuff they play with concerning the psychic. that's really all!

sawyer – sawyer!!! this man has always been one of my favorite characters and he's forever managed to crack me up... i just think he's hilarious, definitely one of the funniest characters on the show. even in the pilot, when kate asks where the polar bear came from and he says, "probably bear village, how the hell do i know?" i laugh every time. ANYWAY! i definitely thought sawyer was going to be more of an acquired taste this season, which, he is, but he really shines pretty early on. i expected to hate confidence man more, because i've never really liked that episode when watching alone, but it turns out i ... really enjoyed it this time around? i thought it was the perfect blend of realistic and horrific and it was a great way to stir up tension, especially between sawyer and sayid. everyone always assumes the worst of sawyer and they truly don't even bother asking him – they just blame him, which makes him mad ( as it would anyone ), and then he acts like an asshole in turn. he's backed into a corner and it's kind of fascinating to watch and see what he does, how he reacts, etc. and maybe i'm crazy, but i don't see having your own supplies as a ... necessarily bad thing? so many characters accuse him of looting from the dead, but it's not like he's the only one that's done that. and we're shown that in truly life threatening situations ( such as boone ) he's quick to help. i also love his relationship with michael and, by extension, jin, and him being a part of the raft is just so fun. truly, i think sawyer is just so interesting, and i'm very excited to see more of him in season two.

boone – ohhhhh boone. this man is someone i've always had a love / hate relationship with, but at the end of the day, he won my heart over. he's always been someone that wants to help sooo badly ( such as trying to give rose cpr ) and even if that doesn't exactly pan out, he still cares to try. his relationship with shannon is .... odd, to say the least, but i do enjoy most of their interactions. i think boone definitely projects his feelings on to shannon, like calling her useless and worthless, which is probably why he tries to help out as much as he does. and when he and locke find the hatch, this kind of gives him a new purpose, and so does locke. so it's devastating to see boone be convinced to follow locke out to this plane, and you can see that the only thing he wants to do is help. it just!! pains something deep inside of me. even when he's in the plane, it falls because he's trying to get everyone rescued – and i think that's how he deserves to be remembered. i do think his death hits so hard, and while the episode definitely prepares you for it, it's not easy to watch it play out. i love the scene where locke sees boone in his dream, when he's talking about his babysitter, and you see the flashes of him covered in blood. it's really trippy and foreboding and just ... so well done! i love the idea that boone's death majorly effects everything and everyone, not only in this season but in the seasons that follow, and it's nice that the show never forgets about him. i just really like his character and, though i'm sad to see him go, i know it's necessary.

shannon – surprisingly? shannon was one of the most enjoyable characters on this rewatch for me. i never thought much of her before, felt like she was a little annoying, but i genuinely liked her this season and i thought she was hilarious. i'm a little disappointed we didn't get a shannon flashback, but i know we will in season two, so i look forward to that. her grief for boone really fucking pains me and when walt gives vincent to her ... man. that scene hurts. i don't love she and sayid's relationship, to be completely honest, but i really like the scene where she tells him off for getting frustrated with her about the map. i still have mixed feelings about her going after locke after boone's death, but maybe it'll make more sense to me on another rewatch lol. anyway! not too much to say about her, except i enjoyed her presence ( a lot ) and that was a little surprising for me.

sun & jin – i'm combining these two into one, not only because i think they're important to talk about together, but also because i'm feeling a little lazy. anywho, i think it's really fun how the show makes jin out to be a pretty awful guy, but once you see his backstory – see his motivations, his fears – it starts to make a lot of sense. it's funny because jin is definitely one of my favorite characters, but it's pretty hard to like him at first. so i really enjoy his development in the first season, and his friendship with michael is really sweet. as for sun, i do like her! she's another character that's always just been kind of there, but i enjoyed her a lot more on this rewatch. her goodbye to jin before the raft leaves absolutely gutted me. the acting there was phenomenal. and i think it's really special we got these two characters because yunjin kim was so impressive when they were casting. it's upsetting to see these two characters who don't speak english, who are pretty much completely isolated because of this language barrier, but then sun speaks english?! the little twist there is just so great. her weird relationship with michael also isn't my favorite thing. i just really love sun and jin's relationship and how much it develops – they're probably my favorite couple on this show, tbh. and i know kate was behind a lot of the poisoning jin thing, but when jack tells sun he knows it was her, and she says, "are you going to tell the others?" that just BROKE me!! the fear and pain in her voice. ugh. she just wanted to keep him safe and off the raft. also, jin's dad is so sweet and i really love that scene between them in the flashback. and when sun is about to leave jin at the airport and he shows her the flower – god, that makes me cry every time. like full on sobbing. it's so good and their acting and chemistry is just amazing. anyway, i don't have too much more to say on them, but i adore sun and jin so much!!! definitely one of the highlights of this season.

hurley – i feel like it's a little hard for me to say much on hurley, mostly because we don't get toooo much development with him this season. like, we get one flashback but that's really it! so i'm excited to see more of him in season two for sure. but anyway, he's one of the funniest characters on this show and i love his interactions with literally everyone. and there is not one scene with him that i don't like. the numbers are probably my favorite part of this show, and i love his flashback about the curse and winning the lottery and all that. it's just great. and for rousseau to be the one person who tells him that maybe there is a curse? and that she doesn't dismiss what he's saying? it's so euphoric for him, and i love seeing it every time. hurley's friendship with charlie is also great – i just love those two. his flashbacks, alongside locke's, have always been my favorites and i just ... wanna see more of his character and past! he's just such a memorable character, and one of the first i think of when i reminisce about this show.

honorable mentions :

ethan – scary as fuck. this guy has always creeped me out, and the fact that he's tom cruise's cousin will never not be hilarious to me. he definitely scared the shit out of me as a kid and even still gives me the creeps. it's hilarious that the characters, especially charlie, start referring to him as a "what" rather than a "who." i love it. death was deserved, this man wouldn't have said shit.

sullivan – we were just calling him john lennon because we didn't know his name. his rash was a little concerning and jack brushing him off was annoying to me. and when he comes to the golf course and says "can i play?" i just love that scene. where did sullivan go ... 😔

scott & steve – i don't really know the difference between them, but rip scott. he deserved better.

arzt – probably one of my favorite side characters. he's so funny to me, and when he gets blown up i just ... bust out laughing every time. cannot wait to see this idiot again in s3 and s6.

#dr dipshit ( elsie rewatch ) #the hills have trees and the trees have branches ( s1 ) #THIS TOOK ME A WHILE .... #but i'm glad i got this out before we start s2 lol #i'm hoping to do this for every season! which may be a trying ordeal for me but i wanna get all my thoughts down #and i'm not trying to piss anyone off with these opinions! this is just how i feel #my mind is always open to change <3 #also sorry for writing 3.5k words about these characters idk what to say #also i feel like i missed someone. i don't think i did tho #maybe it's because the other seasons have so many characters #wish me luck on s4 jesus CHRIST #and if anyone has any opinions of their own ... feel free to comment i'd love to hear #character recap

[the-poutine-routine]

I loved your analysis of the short dance and I agreed with most of it. TS really should have been higher than PC but I'm curious to know what you thought of their free dance?

Edit: I’m really sorry that this ended up being so long, especially considering it’s a response to an anon, if you don’t want to read the whole thing, the final thoughts and PCS sections are the most worth while.

Hehe I was kind of hoping someone would give me an excuse to do this so thanks anon! 

Ok, I’m not going to analyze the free dance as thoroughly because I really need to start studying for finals, but I’ll try to put together a comprehensive set of takeaways. But first… the protocols:

Alright, to be 100% honest, I do think that Papadakis/Cizeron deserved to win in the free dance; I think overall theirs looked smoother and (as expected) Moonlight Sonata is a piece that is probably going to go over well with almost any judge. What I was a little confused about, however, was that Virtue/Moir were scored slightly lower than PC on almost every part of the score whereas, in my opinion, there were a couple places that stood out as being either significantly worse or better than PC’s free dance.

TES

Technically, I would have given both pairs more or less the same score. All their elements looked pretty solid, however, I am no expert in ice dance so I have no clue what aspects of each element are actually included in the description. I will say that I do think VM’s twizzles were pretty much flawless and am a little confused why judge 8 didn’t let them max out the GOE’s on that one (I would say it’s because judge 8 is French, but she gave PC a 2 on twizzles as well). 

Once again, neither pairs got their step sequences called. I’m not entirely sure why this is the case, however, I expect it may be due to some turns in which the exit/entry edges were not 100% clear that we could not see from the camera angles that we are stuck with. 

I do think that VM’s lifts are consistently much better (or at least harder) than PC’s, so I would have liked to see a slightly higher score there. Overall, however, I didn’t find anything completely unwarranted in the TES.

PCS

There are a few parts of the component scores that I am a bit confused about/in disagreement with most of it, however can be related back to the music choice for each team (more on that later).

First off, I will always think that VM deserve a higher skating skills score than PC. In general, their extensions are just a lot better, and they actually point their toes which is always nice to see. I do think in this program PC did look a little more flow-y with their skating skills, however, I don’t believe that PC actually have better skating skills than VM, so I think this has to do with two things…

First: music - moulin rouge is very ‘big’ music (for lack of a better word), and it’s pretty clear that VM are trying to up their interpretation and performance scores by skating in a style that matches the music, yet sometimes this can end up making them look a little messy and more like freestyle skates than ice dancers. 

Second: Tessa’s dress - T’s dress just kind of sticks to her. I mean it looks phenomenal because she’s freaking jacked, but it’s not super elegant. Now, technically the judges aren’t supposed to use the skaters’ dresses to help them make decisions, however they can actually have a big impact on how their skating looks. For example, because Gabbie’s dress is so much more flow-y than Tessa’s and has so much more movement when she skates, it can give the appearance that she’s skating faster than she actually is. Furthermore, Tessa’s skirt is very open, this leaves no room for error with extensions, leg placement, or anything else that is included in the skating skills score. Conversely, because Gabbie’s skirt is a little bit less exposing than Tessa’s there is a little bit more of a margin where certain things like bent knees may be hidden by the skirt. 

I kind of agree with the judges in giving PC both a higher transitions and a higher composition score (neither were really that much higher but every point - or tenth of a point - makes a difference). There were certain parts of VM’s program in which they just spent a while doing big majestic crossovers, and while they looked absolutely gorgeous, it kind of defeats the purpose of ice dance. Part of this opinion again comes down to the music. With any music that has lyrics, it’s really easy to add certain movements to certain words. And while this miming is usually looked down upon, if there’s a program that has lyrics, it’s almost equally as bad to just ignore the words completely. In general, I think VM (or their choreographers) do an excellent job of not miming to the music, however I think they could use more movements that are centered around instrumental queues (which are the only queues that PC have, as their music does not have lyrics) as this not only highlights parts of the music that one might not otherwise recognize, but also makes the composition of the program seem more sophisticated. 

As per usual, I think that VM deserved to have higher interpretation and performance scores than PC. At times (with Scott especially) it seemed like they were almost going overboard with the interpretation and intensity of the program/music, however, this is the type of thing that’s going to translate to every single person in the audience. With Moonlight Sonata, the expression throughout the program is generally the same. PC can just keep a slightly forlorn look on their faces the entire time, and they’re pretty much set for the interpretation mark. However, because VM’s music is so dynamic, they really have to go out in order to respond to the change in mood. This doesn’t seem to be fully appreciated by the judges however. I’m guessing that most of the judges were thinking that it is a lot easier to express music that has lyrics, and thus whenever PC moved their arms with slightly more force when the tempo of their music quickened, that it was “artistic,” “sophisticated,” or even “avant garde” (hon hon hon vraiment sophistiqué).

Final Thoughts

Overall, most of my critiques came down to the music. I really do love the Moulin Rouge free dance and obviously they can’t change the music at this point in the season, however, I starting to see why MF and Patch may have had some trepidations about the music. I guess what could help would be adding little arm movements here and there in order to reflect little nuances in the music (or even adding nuances into the music itself) and give the program the same level of sophistication that the judges seem to be seeing with Moonlight Sonata. 

Although I’m not a fan of using dresses to get more points, I would be interested to see if T changing her dress would help them at all with skating skills. I guess it’s kind of late at this point in the season, but I sort of think a change might be beneficial.

In general, I do think that PC delivered slightly better in the free dance than VM did. I think there were places where VM (well really just Scott, but they’re a team so…) were almost trying too hard and got a little bit sloppy. There wasn’t really anything in the judges scores that stood out to me as being unfair or clearly biased however, and I think it’s more of the SD that VM were 100% underscored and everyone knows it. Anywho, I’d like to see if anyone else has opinions on the dress thing, since I haven’t seen it brought up anywhere and thus could be entirely wrong about the whole ordeal.

Thoughts? :)

p.s. I’m really glad you enjoyed my first post.

#gpf 2017 #VirtueMoir #papadakis and cizeron #tessa and scott #procrastination