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eclipse-song · 1 year

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I can't stop thinking about a tweet I saw a few days ago commenting on some completely unsourced comment on the Rider wiki. It was trying to say Kobayashi hated showa rider and coming up with a whole conspiracy theory on hating Inoue because his dad wrote a lot of Showa rider and this made him not like her. It was all pretty ridiculous and a lot of people were laughing at it as they rightfully should. But...idk it got me thinking about how toku fans especially have a tendency to form a lot of strong personalities and ideas about these writers that we quite frankly....don't know much about personally. Especially when many people are basing these ideas off of their writing, which I know from my work, it's broadcasters and producers who have a lot more say on story direction. Depending on the production, the writer is sometimes even working until they create something they dislike but pleases the client.

Kobayashi has very few interviews to be found but most of them indicate she has no problem working with certain people, and honestly it would be fairly unprofessional to outwardly state that she did in the middle of an interview. She's even expressed how she and Inoue have quite similar writing processes in one that I did happen to read.

and for Inoue...I feel like I maybe just have this very glass half full mentality or at least a tendency to assume the best of people but....I get confused by how a lot of people in toku fandom talk about Inoue. Like the guy isn't without fault but also I see people talk about him like he is malicious and intentionally seeking to harm people when everything I've read about him is that staff and coworkers of all ages have had extremely good experiences with him. He's old and in his 60s and can put his foot in his mouth sometimes (like the rtr question in that one livestream he did say he thought it was a bit ridiculous to have two Kam riders having gay sex) but also in that same answer he said he wanted to do something he wouldn't be allowed to show on TV which is equally true. He also in other places has said a major reason was simply that he thinks Tezuka's actor is a good looking man. There's also the fact he's been writing queer storylines in shows since the 80s (dirty pair trans episode is legit a banger episode) and in the zio vs decade stuff he has Heure and Ora have a meaningful conversation about how it's perfectly fine to be a boy who likes other boys. IDK! I think those aren't really the actions of a person who is actively looking to harm people, it reads a lot more to me as a 60 year old man who is making some genuine attempts at shaking things up and is just sort of missing the mark in places. Him being a 60 year old cis dude is also where I just go “yeah that’s why he writes a lot of women like that” though he does have some stand out characters as well who can be excellent. He reminds me of a lot of my old uncles who are ultimately well meaning but just say shit sometimes. Along with the fact he said he's attracted to people regardless of gender I don't see him really as some huge big bad villain who's "queer baiting" or any of that nonsense.

Ultimately this is a conversation that happens at my workplace a lot these days too which is why it makes me feel some type of way. Directors and story artists and writers I've met who have been painted as not so nice turn out to be lovely people who've had their actions misconstrued. Then I've met people who I've been rather excited to work with and ended up severely disappointed in their behavior. I just can't help but feel it's really strange to have tons of focus on writers who we mostly know through their work that they're paid to do according to how some client wants it. I've definitely been guilty of this in the past but formulating personalities of strangers we don't know, especially when painting them in a wholly bad light, is just sort of uncomfortable to me.

#might delete this idk #its something thats been weighing on my mind #i have strange anxiety around voicing these thoughts sometimes

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looselysealedkrypton · 3 years

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So... Kara’s touchstone is her dad?... Who has been so essential during the six years of this show?... More than Alex?... I swear I feel like they spitball these ideas, put them on a randomizer and just write according to whatever comes up.

#cut to Alex rapping we only get one shot #supergirl #i’m only watching for the visuals at this point jahsjdhdh #idk man if i were some of these writers i simply wouldn’t put some episodes in my curriculum jshhdgd

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blackgirlsuperherorants · 3 years

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With more articulation, I'm ready to talk about why the push for Lokius simply bothers me, and this can be said for other m/m or w/w ships that fans push to be canon so hard just because they ship it.

It's the framing. The framing that if Marvel doesn't do it (or whatever the brand is), it's because homophobia, and if other fans don't like it/ship it, it's because homophobia (even if they ship other queer ships and are queer themselves.) And the biggest problem with that is that it overshadows the REAL issue of lack of queer representation on screen in mainstream nerd media, especially from big things under the Disney umbrella (Marvel and Lucasfilm/Star Wars, especially.)

It makes it bad that your ship isn't canon instead of bad that there haven't been any queer romances on screen in the MCU.

And like, as a writer myself, I find myself dissecting the stories of other media all the time. I can watch an MCU movie or series and pretty much assess what direction the story is going in by the narrative points they're hitting. I knew Sylki was basically gonna happen (even if just a kiss) because narratively, that's what the show was doing as soon as they had that "what is love" conversation on Lamentis-1. It didn't mean I liked it. But I knew it was happening.

Similarly, there's no romantic undertones to Loki and Mobius. None. For Marvel to make them a couple, it would mean they'd be doing it simply because the two present as men and it would make stans happy. And while there's something to be said for fan service, it would be annoying to watch them cram two guys together who aren't romantic in the slightest. I'd much rather see Loki meet some guy and have the same type of undertones they were giving to Sylvie and form a real bond to where the kiss feels earned and warranted. Not just put him with the nearest man because "he gay lol."

And how you guys are claiming it's being queer that makes you want this is beyond me. It's not being queer that makes you want this. I don't want queer characters that fuck everyone of whatever gender(s) they're attracted to even when it doesn't make sense for them to. I want real love stories. I mean, yeah, sometimes we can have a slut character, because that's fun, too, but that's not even what y'all think Lokius is. You seem to want them to be in love. But why? Because he's the first friend Loki made that isn't through Thor?

I hate that, too, because I hate this idea that queer people cannot have friends of their same gender without wanting to fuck them. IDK how y'all are, maybe y'all are like that, but I almost never have wanted to fuck any of my friends. The only few exceptions have been when I tried to befriend someone I had a crush on (in which case, usually the friendship can't work, really, because I have a crush on them.) I also think it's okay if you can have casual sex with friends, or if you have a friendship that develops into romance, but Jesus, do you people not have friends that you don't want to fuck? I am bi, maybe more pan (gender kind of doesn't matter to me, I guess) and I'm friends with people of all kinds of gender identities and like... I love them as people, which is why they're my friends, but I DO NOT want to fuck them. Especially my closest friend. I talked about her, before, here, but she's like my sister. The thought of fucking her is gross, to me. Not because she's gross, but because it feels incestuous.

Loki shouldn't want to fuck Mobius just because they developed a friendship. And that's very much how it's written on the series. They almost dislike each other (or Mobius is at least indifferent to Loki) and then they become friends.

That's not to mention the power dynamic that exists, there. And I know some of y'all are subs, but yeah, it's a bit gross to imply a sexual relationship with Loki's captor.

But on to Sylki. It sucks that I feel like most of y'all hate Sylki because Sylvie is a girl, and not just because it's bad in other ways. Like, the reasons Sylki is bad have less to do with "it should have been Mobius" and more to do with it being a lazy 1980s action movie plot that should have never happened. I'm not as creeped out by the selfcest (as many of you wouldn't have been if she was a he, I'm almost positive), but what's bad about it is that they couldn't have a strong female lead character without her being the love interest of the main guy. She didn't need to be, especially because she was a Loki variant, anyway. There was no need for it to have romantic undertones, and there was no need for them to kiss. It was sexist more than it was homophobic (and I can't help feeling like y'all are kind of being biphobic in this case. Maybe I'll talk about that, later, but yeah.) It was sexist bullshit. And there's valid criticism that Sylvie is underdeveloped. She's just angry and something for Loki to project affection onto.

I was also hoping they'd do a "found family" type of thing with Sylvie and Loki and let her be like the sister he never knew he needed, but no, they had to go trope and make her the love interest. It was lazy and bad and basically went "If Loki girl, main Loki want bone!"

Basically, having the main character fall for a character just because of their proximity and gender is bad and I hate it (and it would have been bad with Mobius, too, but yeah.)

Both the Mobius and the Sylvie thing also feel kind of racist, to me, because the show has prominent Black women who aren't even presented as desirable to Loki. And y'all, of course, ship him with anyone but the Women of Color. Y'all can pull true love with Mobius out of your ass, but he couldn't possibly fall for the Black women. lol.

Anyway. Not every show needs ships, and this show shouldn't have had any. I hate it. It's bad.

I guess on the biphobia front, I have heard some takes that it's not biphobic because Loki being queer in the MCU which hasn't shown any queer relationships, and Loki being the first openly queer character means they shouldn't have shown him with a woman presenting character. Which, I guess I get where you're coming from... but I have also been in fandoms for a long time and I see mostly girls saying this shit, which is what leads me to feel like it's simply jealousy. It happens all the time when a long-beloved single male character/celebrity suddenly starts dating a woman. Everyone hates it. And like, we haven't seen Loki be with ANYONE in the MCU, because mostly he's been doing villainy and his dating life hasn't been relevant. If the demigod says he's bi, he can kiss a woman. Especially a woman version of himself. Like I said, I hate it for other reasons, but pretending it's because he should have kissed Mobius is utterly delusional. He probably shouldn't have kissed anyone. Not in this series. There was no reason for any canon romance, especially because the show has a season 2 and we'll have time to see Loki develop earned, deserved romance with someone.

I'd much rather see them create a character just to be his boyfriend than have y'all push Marvel into making Lokius canon, which is a nonsense ship that only happened because Mobius is the only prominent male-presenting character before we meet the other Lokis.

My sincere wish is for people to remember that their ships are just ships and to enjoy them without getting all self-righteous about it. I TOLD y'all that Lokius wasn't gonna be canon like 4 episodes back, and here y'all are acting shocked and like Marvel took something from you. NOBODY expected y'all to ship Lokius. It's not even queerbait.

You can make clear arguments as to why Sambucky was queerbait. It's there in undertones in the actual series.

You cannot watch Loki and tell me you thought it was queerbait, unless you think men can't have conversations or hug goodbye without being romantically involved. Which means, in my opinion, that you need to learn about healthy masculinity.

Again, this is not a defense of Marvel. They DO need to let characters be queer, for real, and not just by saying " A bit of both". Like, let Loki be queer. Let Deadpool be queer. Let these queer characters be queer on screen. Yes.

But please stop making it about your ship. I'd rather see a flashback of Loki dating a guy and see him kiss someone he loved back on Asgard than watch y'all force Lokius. Because my queer rep is not about your crackship. It really isn't. And the fact that y'all keep calling us homophobic for not liking your ship REALLY needs to be addressed.

Like, when will y'all stop? I got on Stucky shippers about this shit in the past. All of us gay as hell, too, we just don't like YOUR ship. A lot of us like other queer ships. A lot of us like queer ships in other fandoms, too, and even have queer OCs. YOUR ship just ain't it. Stop forcing it. Literally, most of the ship wars between MCU fans have been queer ship vs queer ship, not really queer ship vs straight ship. Like, the number one Stucky rival ship was Stony. Not Steggy. People are not homophobic for not wanting your ship.

Sometimes it's because they ship something else.

And sometimes, like me, it's because they want something to make sense narratively and not happen for the sake of it happening. It's always better writing to have a character meetcute a new love interest than to magically turn a platonic friendship into a romantic relationship. Like, even when the characters are straight. Like, when Moesha dated Hakeem. It was just weird, even if he was kind of a great boyfriend. He was just supposed to be her friend, and people didn't really like it because it didn't fit narratively.

And that's why ships for the most part should be left to fanfiction, with the exception of a few where fans are right to call out the writers for not making it canon because it's clearly bait (like what happened to Destiel shippers. To see Lokius shippers compare themselves to THAT was so ridiculous. Destiel shippers had a decade of evidence only to be let down by a criminally unfair ending. Lokius shippers saw two men have a deep conversation once and lost their minds.)

Anyway, I'm not saying don't ship Lokius. I don't even hate it, really. I just think it obviously shouldn't be canon, and fans pretending like they were robbed of it is ridiculous. Literally, Ao3 exists for this reason. I will never see Steve fuck Sam Wilson, so I wrote it into my fanfic. I am not mad that they didn't actually date in the main MCU storyline.

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thebyunhip · 3 years

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Start Up | episodes 1 ~ 12

I feel like right now is a good moment to talk about the show, with the time jump and stuff. I’ll talk about the characters and then the plot, as I usually do. This is going to be a very long post, I never had so much to say about a drama before, so I’ll add a cut and it’s entirely up to you if you want to read my rant.

Han Ji Pyeong: look, he is not my favorite guy but I also don’t hate him and here’s why: 1) I don’t care how good he is at his job, I don’t care how rich he is, I don’t care how rough he had it in life, nothing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING gives him the right to be a dick to others. I understand that he is scared, had no one care for him and had no one to care for but he is still a human who lives in society. Being polite (and that’s really the only thing I’m discussing here), is not the same being someone that lets people step on him. And we’re all vert aware of the fact that he can tel people the truth, as harsh as it may be, without bein a complete fucking bastard 2) I fucking hate the tropes “he got there first” and “here’s a troubled man, fix him girl”. Like, just no. Teenager me would love that shit and eat it up like a fucking starved bitch, but not right now. I also think he is incredibly selfish and self-absorbed however both of these I can overlook, this is the kind of thing that be blamed on his upbringing (or lack of it).

Seo Dal Mi: the writers really said “let’s take this girl’s sister and mom away, make her sister say very stupid and hurtful things to her, now kill off her dad, she’ll get into a good college but will drop out because she has bills to pay”. I like that she is, after all that shit, bright and is willing to fight for things, not let her dad’s memory die. The world is telling her “bitch stay down” and she is legit yelling back “no motherfucker, I will not” and that’s great. The one thing I don’t like about her is that she is way too forgiving, I mean she found out that she was lied to by grandma, her mentor and her boyfriend of sorts and she just tossed that aside like it was nothing. Some of it I can understand, they work together so she would have to, you know, keep somethings inside. It all went away too fast, she forgave all three of them very quickly.

Nam Do San: at this point, if you’ve seen any of my previous posts, you’ll know that that he is my favorite and I’ll use this bit here to tell you why. I’ll put aside the cuteness, okay? Out of all the characters in this drama Do San was the one with the most personal growth. In the beginning you had a guy who couldn’t speak properly to strangers, let alone look at people eyes, when people put him down (yes, I’m fucking looking at Ji Pyeong and his dad) he kept his head down. And slowly, throughout these 12 episodes we see him mature (because yes, he was very immature), he can now answer, he can look at people in the eyes, hell he even can start fights. Like dude, he stood up to his father twice. He is not perfect and I’m no trying to paint him as if he were. He still has problem to deal with but he is open to do improve. This was not said anywhere in the show and it’s only a personal thought of mine, Do San suffers of the imposter syndrome and Asperger Syndrome, and that would explain some of his behaviors.

Won In Jae: now let’s talk about an underused character. She is here simply to be a shitty sister and drag Dal Mi down so we all can watch our beautiful protagonist rise again from the ashes. When you look at her, she just has that resting bitch face so she makes it easy to dislike her (but please can we please stop type casting Han Na as a bitch or someone can please tell me a show/movie she did where she is not one?).

Grandma: finally the real “villain” of the whole story. I get what she was trying to do, okay? Dal Mi’s life was spiraling out of control, shit hit the sky and she need some comfort and surely the letters were the best way to do that and it’s fine. But you all are willing to tell me that in those 15 years she didn’t have a single chance to say “hey kid, listen, there was never a Do San. I asked some boy to write you letters but he is gone now and so are the letters” or idk “The boy who wrote you letters was Ji Pyeong, a kid I used to help, he didn’t want to use his own name so we chose one from the news”. I’ve changed my mind, this not HJP fault. Its grandma’s.

Now, let’s talk about this drama’s biggest and most unforgiving mistake: the first episode. They spent way too much time on the letters and Ji Pyeong, making a lot of built up and then they didn’t showed the main guy at all. We got to see Do San in the last what, 5 seconds of the episode? I can get the confusion people are having as to who is the main and second lead here, for a second even I was confused. I only knew teenager Ji Pyeong wasn’t the main guy because before watching the show I read that Joo Hyuk’s character name was Do San. The first episode was a bad call. I mean it has 1 hour and 24 of running time and they could only spare 5 SECONDS TO THE MAIN GUY? No wonder there is a shit show towards Do San.

The entire revenge plot was poorly used but I’ll admit that I like the whole “my biggest revenge is to prove HJP wrong”. We’ve seen the destroy company, kill a guy ploy way too many times.But the entire thing was just tossed in there, there was maybe one clue but it lead to believe that Yeong San would steal the code, not seek revenge.

I know that some people were bummed out that there the show doesn’t focus a lot on how to build a startup but this is mostly a romance drama, so they wouldn’t include a lot of how to here.

Also, I know that people don’t think Do San has real problems because you know he has both parents and Ji Pyeong is an orphan, but like please… just listen. Being someone that has to live up to parent’s approval and expectations, especially to academic and business success, is not a problem that we westerns face so constantly in our lives. I know it happens, I’m not living under a rock, but we can’t even begin to compare to how it is for them and us. Suicide rates are high in Asian countries amongst younger people who fail to reach standards set by their parents and the society. Both Do San and Ji Pyeon have problem, of course, but they are very different and incomparable.

As for the next four episodes… I think we will see a very changed Do San, more serious, a lit bit more calloused from the three years in the US (the black gave it out). I feel like Dal Mi might have changed a bit but I can’t point how. Ji Pyeong had on line in the preview and it was enough to not give me any hopes about him.

I’ll just say this here because I feel like I have to: Han Ji Pyeong is not such a great a second lead, full of layers, that could actually make people question why he isn’t the main guy. The only character ever that has that right is Baek In Ho, and would you look at that he is also a character that went through shit but is not an asshole just because he can.

#startup #start up #start-up #nam joo hyuk #bae suzy #kim seon ho #tvn start up

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iamdeltas · 4 years

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1, 9, 29, 4?

1. Top 3 Doctors?Hmm... I think my top 3 Doctors would be 10, 13, and 12. Which, yeah, I know, how basic of me to have 10 as my favorite. But it is what it is. I mean, my second favorite Disney revival movie is Frozen so. I’m basic as hell.9. NOTP?Hmm. I mean, I don’t do shipping in general but I don’t know what ships I’d actively call a NOTP? There are definitely ships I don’t like, but IDK if they’re NOTP level. I guess a NOTP might be Donna x Ten in a romantic way? I really really like them as a platonic relationship. The Doctor x Amy or Rory is right out, obviously. (I mean, I could ignore the fact that they’re canonically his parents-in-law but why would I? It’s hilarious!) In general I don’t really love companion x Doctor romantic relationships? I just feel like the power balance doesn’t work, the Doctor is literally thousands of years old, it’s weird. Though there are fics I’ve read that do have Doctor x companion romantic pairings, so again, no idea if they are quite NOTP level.

29. Thoughts on the current Doctor?Oh gosh. Where do I begin? I adore her so much! In s11, I did still like her, and it was fun reading into the little hints we got past her cheery persona, but I was never certain if I was reading too much into it. And then s12 came along and validated basically everything I read into, and deepened my love for her.

I once saw a description of Trish Walker from Jessica Jones as something along the lines of, a very nice looking house but if you go inside, you’ll see a whole bunch of feral and rabid cats fighting each other. Or maybe I’m misremembering what the description was. But that general vibe is how I’d describe 13 in s11, and then in s12, the cats start tearing down the house and you get to see all the ferality that was locked inside. So that’s been fun to watch.

I think one thing I really like is the fact that she puts up a nice cheerful persona in what seems to be an attempt to live up to the promise they made to themself as 12, to always be kind and try to be nice. It is very much a front and not how she Truly Is, but what I find fascinating is that this isn’t malicious on her behalf. This isn’t a Bitch In Sheep’s Clothing situation, she’s not secretly evil. She’s just secretly more complicated than the image she tried to project of herself to the fam in s11. I get the feeling she wants to be that happy, dorky, gregarious space tour guide that she attempted to be in s11 and nothing more, but she isn’t that. Not that the dorky childishness is completely fake or anything, it’s just not the full story. She wanted to ignore all her unresolved past traumas so that she can pretend she’s just the fam’s friendly neighborhood alien, she doesn’t want to be the angry and traumatized eldritch and ancient being that she actually is. Also, the Doctor is always, at their core, an asshole, but she wanted to try to not be that, for once, and so hid all her asshole-ishness away from the fam, which is a decision that probably screwed the fam over for how to deal with her this season. Because while part of the danger of being the Doctor’s companions is the adventures, part of it is also the mercurial nature of alien taking you on these adventures. The alien is wonderful and kind, but they’re also very fae-like and so are dangerous and, well, a dick. Every companion has had to know how to stand up for themselves whenever the Doctor is being an asshole to them, and they know that’s what they’re getting into when they start travelling with the Doctor. I mean, think about it. 9 was initially quite icy to Rose, 10 was a dick to Martha, 10 also literally burned the Racnoss in front of Donna, 11 ditched Amy for 15 years (on accident, but still) and yelled at her and threatened to take her back home immediately because of a decision she made on her first trip with him that she doesn’t even remember, and 11 was a creep to Clara. But the fam was exposed to what’s basically a fake persona by 13. She hid away all of her jerkishness and tried to go out of her way to be as nice as possible. So when s12 comes around, and 13 is hit with a big Trauma Conga Line, and is not able to hold onto her performative personality, the fam are unexpectedly hit with the spiky asshole-ish sides of her personality and they’re not prepared for dealing with it at all! Which is part of why I kind of forgive them for being more passive than most companions when it comes to dealing with the Doctor being a jerk.

Anyway. Kinda veered off-topic there slightly. But yeah, I love that, even though her performative niceness is, well, performative, and she was sort of trying to trick the fam into thinking she’s nicer and sweeter than she actually is, I really dig that it’s not from a malicious place, it’s just from a very misguided attempt at trying to fulfill the promise she made to herself. It’s not something I’ve seen before in a character, because, like I said, most characters who aren’t actually as nice/sweet as they appear are generally Actually Evil, or Secretly A Bitch. Which isn’t the case with 13 at all. She’s an angry traumatized mess, but she’s not straightforwardly Evil.

Which brings me to my next point, I love how much of an angry traumatized mess she is! And I love how much s12 is showing that side of her! She’s trying her best, but her best involves possibly the worst coping mechanisms I’ve ever seen, she is such a disaster! And this is such a relief to see because I was so worried last season that the writers would cop out because she’s a Girl Doctor so clearly she has to be Emotionally Healthy Now. And I saw so many people surmising similarly, because of that and also because of the fact that 12 had so much Character Development, that she’d be the Doctor Who Is Completely Healed. Which I hated the notion of. I recall seeing a fic that had her be the one to bring her older selves together to force them to talk about their issues, which is absolutely hilarious to think about now, considering literally everything about her this season. (Though tbh, it still wouldn’t be out of character for her to do that, purely because she’s a little... lacking in self-awareness.) I also recall seeing a fic last season having 13 meet Clara and one of the things she mentioned was that as a man it was harder for her to talk about her emotions or whatever but she’s finding it much better to talk about them now, which, a) blegh, gender essentialist, much? and b) *starts laughing outrageously because I’m thinking about how goddamn emotionally constipated she actually is*.

I dig how much fun she has when dealing with a villain that is on her level. One of the fun things about how she takes joy in everything is the fact that this translates to maniacal glee when confronting villains. She has a thrill of the hunt that I don’t think other NuWho Doctors have had, and the smiles she gives to bad guys are deliciously creepy. She’s also just so feral. She made some pretty unhinged smiles when confronting the Master, which was so fun to watch. And of course, her crazed smiles when absorbing the Cyberium were *chef’s kiss.* They felt similar to the expressions 11 had in Nightmare in Silver, and that was because he was being possessed! 13 was simply acting that unhinged and arrogant solely because of her own pure ego!

I also super cannot wait to see what goes down in the finale because I get the feeling that she is absolutely going to lose it. There’s no way she’s gonna start developing better coping mechanisms within one episode, and it’s gotta get worse before it gets better, so I look forward to seeing her at her absolute worst.

Phew, wow did I go on for a while there! Sorry for the ramble! I just love 13 a lot.

4. Favorite Dalek story?It’s gotta be “Dalek.” That’s the gold standard for me. I love how well it established what a threat a single Dalek can be, which I think later Dalek episodes failed to do as good a job with partially because they used huge armies of Daleks. With a single Dalek, you end up leaving what an army of Daleks can do to the imagination. And also, this was just a great Nine episode. It showed such a vicious and unhinged side of the Doctor, which is always fun to see. Nine is normally icy on the outside, but he’s usually pretty chill most of the time, so seeing such an angry hateful side to him was absolutely fascinating, character-wise.

#s answers asks #doctor who #cauldronofmorning

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five-wow · 4 years

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i finally watched 10.10! here are some thoughts. you might maybe not want to read this if you really enjoyed adam’s plot in the episode, because i, uh, have some reservations.

i started laughing during the “previously on” flashbacks when adam told tamiko that she could get free of her yakuza ties because “look at me. i did.” are you sure, adam? are you sure you’re sure? because every single subplot you’ve ever had over your nine or so years on this show seems to contradict that, fjdkfd.

oof, poor adam has to fight his attackers utterly butt-naked, which is not the way you’d want to start your day. also, i mean, they have tamiko. double bad.

fdjkfd adam wakes up to tamiko’s dad’s men cleaning up the signs of struggle in the apartment and the dad standing over him, and adam’s been covered up with a sheet (very thoughtful mob men!) but that’s, uh, a very awkward position to be in with your girlfriend’s dad.

“we’ll leave five-0 out of it.” no adam, bad. bad idea. [sprays him with water bottle]

tani being the voice of reason in the face of junior and lou wanting to keep a tiny pink kid’s bike that samantha will have zero use for anymore is a thing of beauty, even if i do understand junior’s position.

fjdkfdjkf lou: “that’s right. [the victims are] all male, all in their early forties.” steve: “ooy. prime of their lives.” quinn, quietly but not so quietly steve won’t hear her: “guys in their forties love saying that.” haaa, i love her. so far, this is a GOOD episode for the women, omg.

steve talking about his health and getting older, even if it’s just that he’s a little down about it because his doctor says he can’t eat steak anymore (the horror!!!), is kind of very wonderful to see on screen, gosh. that’s the kind of content i want.

adam: “i came down with a bug or something.” yes, the bug is in his brain and it’s called i-have-a-stupid-need-to-tackle-my-problems-on-my-own. many people in five-0 are familiar with it, so you might want to ask their help, adam.

so. so here’s the thing: i never really liked adam for kono, and then i warmed up to them as a couple, and shortly after that they got divorced. i never really liked adam on the team, and then i started warming up to him as a member of it because he was being a genuinely good guy, making friends with a homeless man etcetera (and his last big yakuza plot was finally wrapped up), and now he’s going rogue and assaulting an informant and acting behind the team’s back, and he’s probably about to do worse things and get deep into yakuza business again, idk, and honestly, i just. i just don’t really care. i started to like him when he was kind and now he’s suddenly Bad Adam out of nowhere again (i mean, it’s because his girlfriend was kidnapped and that makes some sense, but we don’t really know her and i have zero investment in her or their relationship and she’s more of a prop than a person and it’s all just kind of whiplash-y and i wish i cared but i’m afraid i just don’t. they keep flipflopping between making adam a really sweet good guy and a violent, bad one and i wish they’d just choose, or at least make the seesawing more understandable and interesting. his motives and the stakes are too undefined to me, i guess. it doesn’t carry any weight.

quinn obnoxiously and loudly eating a malasada in front of steve while refusing to share for steve’s supposed health is wonderful though!!! i mean, steve almost gets into a car crash while trying to snatch a malasada, which shows slightly skewed priorities, but at least the desire for a donut is something i can relate to. that’s a good plot. (i kid, but not entirely.)

aha! duke finds out about adam’s activities for the day.

the adam plot is coming to a head and they have tamiko back but her dad’s been shot, and i know i just said i don’t really care and i still don’t for the most part, but my god, tamiko, that poor woman? she’s been kidnapped and drugged while naked and then there were people shooting over her head and just when she thought it was over, her father is dying, and doing a lot of violence to a woman is not the same as building a character or plot that makes me feel something (do! not! confuse those two!), but it does still make me feel something.

h50 is generally a fairly black and white show (the bad guys are bad and the good guys are good, and people who are in prison deserve to be there and worse), far more so than in any way fits into my own moral view of the world, so i really like seeing this plot in which a guy gets to be freed from incarceration by our main cast because it turns out he didn’t commit any crimes! it’s a nice turn around from viewing all prisoners as irredeemable bad guys - here’s a man who claims he’s innocent and actually is innocent. (even though his story also makes my heart hurt because he’s already been in there TEN YEARS and jfc, he’s going to need more therapy than tamiko.)

we get lou on the phone with samantha and it’s really cute! and then he also talks to tani and junior about how will’s gone now too, and it’s good to at least know that (i mean, we could guess, but we’d never gotten any kind of confirmation before), but it also puts into stark contrast that we still don’t actually know for sure where grace is this year, fjdkfd. we can infer that she went to college, but like. mention it. (hashtag don’t let grace be the next female character that disappears on this show, please.)

dsfjdkfjdkfjdfjdk right SO. adam has realized that the guy who now inherits tamiko’s dead dad’s power probably plotted to murder tamiko’s dad, and then the guy is like “let’s finish our business” and essentially, it boils down to adam having kidnapped and tortured a guy for information and now that man is about to get killed while adam’s there and very definitely guilty of a number of things and i’m screaming because this gives me extreme déjà vu feelings to the time adam killed two guys in the woods and that time he tortured another guy, i think? both also after he’d finally gotten onto the right path, and then he ended up in prison. i guess they want adam off the show again, so they had to make him do ~bad things~ that were definitely totally absolutely against his will for [cue dramatic music and wind machine] The Woman He Loves! [dramatic zoom on Adam’s face or something, idek, eagle cries in the distance]

now adam is being threatened by New Baddest Guy and i am genuinely confused, because i think we’re supposed to feel sorry for him when the guy says adam’s career with five-0 will be over? but i kind of, um. kind of think that might maybe be a good idea? not even just because he did bad things, but also like, adam keeps getting drawn into this yakuza shit and he just really, really needs to move states and start a new life from scratch that doesn’t involve law enforcement but accounting or painting or modelling or what have you, because this is like an addiction that keeps pulling at him and it’s good for no one, least of all him.

dude gets shot (the one adam abducted and hand delivered), adam looks shocked. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT, ADAM.

and then steve calls adam and asks him to come to hq and we get a little scene showing us that duke brought steve all the evidence against adam, and the episode ends. oh boy.

so i liked some things about this episode! all of tani and quinn’s lines, lou talking about how he feels about his kids moving out, tani and junior’s interactions, steve’s health being a topic that gets brought up even if it’s jokingly, the general substance of the case steve and quinn solved. i feel like i’m being very negative about the adam plot and if you’re someone who does like it, obviously that’s cool, and i’m happy for you! i’m glad you can enjoy that. i just. personally, i’m so tired. this makes very little sense to me in ways that aren’t “i don’t understand this” but rather “this doesn’t logically work for me” (and i’m also simply not very interested in it, i’ll admit) and if this is a thing leading up to adam leaving, then if this is the version of adam we’re going to get for the forseeable future, i honestly wouldn’t mind. i liked good, kind, found-a-good-place-in-life adam! but oh dear lord, i’m tired of watching him slide back into yakuza drama over and over and over again because the writers don’t seem to want to think of a different storyline for him that might not involve... whatever this is. (also, tamiko absolutely failed the sexy lamp test in this episode (as in, she could have been replaced by a sexy lamp and the plot would have been the exact same) and it makes me sad.)

#h50 #10.10 #i guess there's some #h50 criticism #*#honestly the longer i'm in this fandom the more i realize that what i really want #is all of the characters sitting in steve's backyard or at rumfire or wherever for the entire episode and just talking #about their day to day lives and how they're feeling and when they last talked to x character we haven't seen in a while #idk let them discuss football or something #i don't know the first thing about football and i don't give a hoot about it but most of the characters would enjoy it!!! that's all i want #and i know canon is never going to give us an episode like this because that's not how this show works but gosh #it's a shame

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purest-love-deepest-pain · 4 years

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aight so I have a lot of (mostly non-positive) thoughts on the new episodes of Doctor Who so lemme rant for a bit because I’ve been wanting to do this for ages.

(if you enjoyed the new episodes and liked the storyline/execution/whatever or you just don’t want to get into The Discourse TM, I wouldn’t recommend reading this post, but do what you want):

This rant is mostly for myself to rant a bit, but also to see if anyone else feels the same way, which, is kind of the point of Tumblr anyway but akshjajsa

this isn’t an attack on Jodie as the Doctor or a “Chibnall ruined Doctor Who!!!!1″ type of post, but a measured critique on the aspects of the premiere of Series 12 that I really didn’t like.

This is only discourse on Spyfall Part 1 and Part 2, as I haven’t watched Orphan 55 yet.

Here we go.

First things first, the things I actually did like:

I actually only watched a few episodes of Series 11, so I’d just like to note I love Team TARDIS with my whole ass heart ahsjahsja they are great companions and have a great dynamic

I liked the concept of the mission they had to deal with it, even if I didn’t like the execution

Sasha Dhawan was EXCELLENT in this. The way his demeanor changes completely when he stops pretending to be O, his portrayal of the Master, everything about him here was great

The plot twist scene was great. The Doctor’s reaction, the Master’s child-like attitude and excitement, Team Tardis being confused af, it was really good from start to finish and Jodie and Sasha’s acting truly made it click.

Jodie was also really excellent here btw. The way she portrayed the Doctor’s feeling of being frozen during the reveal scene perfectly, her finally getting to show off the Doctor’s darkness, her dynamics with the Master, her seeing Gallifrey in shambles, etc. She killed it

Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Khan were GREAT additions and I kinda wish they were full-time companions lmao. Also I ship Thirteen and Ada a lot tbh

The whole scene with the back-and-forth between the Doctor’s message and Graham and Graham landing the plane was hilarious. Graham used to be my least favorite new companion but I think he’s one of my faves now

Part 2 was overall much more fun than Part 1, and the characters were more entertaining as well

I mentioned this before when talking about Jodie’s acting, but seeing Thirteen finally go dark is great. I’m excited to see where this is heading towards, and from what I’ve seen, it’s gonna cause Team TARDIS some conflict, which was kind of overdue. I just really hope Chibnall can lower his ego and allow other writers to execute these concepts in ways he can’t throughout the series

I was also left genuinely intrigued by the whole Timeless Child thing and am looking forward to that so. Yeah.

Now, what I didn’t like:

First of all, it’s written by Chibnall himself and he’s the only writer. ‘Nuff said

The episode seems to take a bit too long to introduce the characters once more and show their daily lives before we get to the point or even first see the Doctor. Maybe that’s just me but idk

Like I mentioned, I like the potential of this mission. A CSI-esque episode but make it sci-fi/Doctor Who. My problem lies with the execution. It wasn’t a fun storyline, and after the Master reveal, it just feels like it’s sidelined and simply there as “oh look Doctor, you looked away and the Master started using ANOTHER alien race to get your attention AGAIN”. It didn’t feel fun either, since there was just. So much info-dumping and not enough answers. The problem isn’t that it was unoriginal, it’s that it was uninspired and boring

Not to mention the Kasaavin ended up being sidelined so much that everyone was just ??? kind of confused about them. Also I’ve seen some people say they are literally just the Cybermen 2.0 and I kind of agree

I got the vibe that “O” and Yaz were flirting and just. Ew. I do not fuck with that

Part 1 in general just felt completely boring and the storyline was so generic you could replace the conflict with literally anything else and keep the twist and it wouldn’t change a thing lol

Also, as happy as I am that we have a POC incarnation of the Master, I’m...conflicted. I am going to miss Missy a whole lot, and the Master going back to being a man is...kind of boring, but that’s not my issue. I understand that, after what happened with her, Missy might’ve given up on redemption and decided to go back to her old Master-y ways, specially with the whole Timeless Child thing, that was so traumatizing the Master felt obligated to destroy Gallifrey, BUT it feels like it just inutilizes Missy’s entire character arc during Capaldi’s run and introduces a new plot element just to make the Master go back to their old villanous ways. It’s sorta cheap

Speaking of cheap plot elements just introduced to retconn things Moffat did, we’ll get back to Gallifrey later

The scene with the Master telling the Doctor to kneel made me uncomfortable. Having Thirteen be the first female Doctor (and arguably the gayest Doctor at that) and then have the Master, her antagonist, be a man...meh. But then have him tell her to kneel and to essentially humiliate her by telling her to call him “Master”, that had my stomach a bit uneasy. Like, yeah, Simm!Doctor did much worse to Tenth, but the implications are much, much, different in this context. Idk, I personally was left uncomfortable by that scene

The Doctor turning the Master over to the N*zi officers was so, so fcking shitty like. I’m not mad at the Doctor, I’m mad at Chibnall for putting that in the fcking script. WHY DID HE THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?????

The Doctor wiping Ada and Noor’s memories just felt so...unnecesary. Like, the Doctor has interacted with historical figures in the past and kept their memories intact (Agatha Christie comes to mind as an exception, though that was accidental). And besides, what for? Ada and Noor having memory of what happened interfered with nothing (I might be wrong on this as I kind of erased anything the Doctor said in that scene from my mind involuntarily lmfao but even so, I can’t come up with any good excuses that could be used there anyways, but if I am missing something notify me in the notes) and they don’t seem like the type to tattle about it or smth

Ah, and now we get to Gallifrey, or what I like to call, both the best and the worst example of what a retconn is. Listen, it doesn’t matter whether you liked Moffat and/or his decision to bring back Gallifrey, but you have to agree this is ridiculous. Chibnall didn’t want to have to deal with what Moffat left him with (a restored Gallifrey and the implications of that) so he had The Master just destroy Gallifrey by himself and discarded it like a chess piece, like. Am I the only one legit dumbfounded by this???? First of all, it took the Daleks an entire war to attempt to destroy Gallifrey, and they actually failed in the end, and yet the Master destroys it by himself, no stress. I legit don’t get it. Listen, I have mixed thoughts on Moffat’s decision to do so and I hate Hell Bent as much as the next person, but this is Chibnall discarding yet ANOTHER arc. That’s two arcs in one premiere. Wow. It legit sealed the deal for me that this premiere was a hot mess.

That’s it (that’s it, she says, after writing a whole essay). Again, this is not an attack on Chibnall’s Doctor Who, Jodie as the Doctor or me telling you how to feel about this episode. My opinion seems like an unpopular one from what I’ve seen but I stand by it lol.

As a closing statement, fingers crossed that Chibnall lets other people write too this series lmfao.

(This is my first indepth critique of anything here so, hum, if you disagree, please be kind akhjahsjahs I doubt this will get much notes anyways but)

#doctor who discourse #I guess?#you could call it that but #I generally dislike using the word discourse #feels like a dirty word lmfao #anti chibnall #lightly anti hell bent as well #spyfall critique #spyfall review #kinda??#doctor who

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chellyfishing · 7 years

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telling a violent story vs using violence as a story

i really want to write this essay but as usual i don’t have the spoons for doing it justice so it’s pretty much just extemporaneous word dumping. anyway.

every story has a different tone about where they draw the line with violence and death. you can probably think of a lot of examples of both ends of the scale. there’s a misconception that being higher up on the violence/death end of the scale is more adult and more realistic, which ps is bullshit thanks bye. if anything it’s a sign of immaturity but that’s sort of beside the point atm.

the point i wanna make is this: it’s not a secret that i have strong feelings about killing off major or otherwise sympathetic characters. i have an opinion about this that differs from the majority in that i don’t like a character dying in order to motivate another character. it’s tacky. it’s cheap. it’s boring. it’s overdone. and a character can motivate another character while like. still being alive? weird right? live characters always present more options than dead ones. (obviously discussions of character death but also #rape mention ahead.)

to me character death should be a result rather than strictly a catalyst. think about ASoIaF, which is much more violent and upsetting than my typical tastes lean but credit where it’s due, GRRM knows how to do character death. when you know they’re coming, it becomes incredibly obvious. choices, circumstances, motivations all come together to create this unavoidable moment. nothing exists in a vacuum. in ASoIaF, death is a result and a catalyst, but not purely for character motivation; rather, it changes the game itself, leading to a domino effect. ned’s death at the end of AGoT is unavoidable, and it turns things on their heads (heheh) for everybody. the red wedding is built up to for a long time, and obviously that goes on to have huge repercussions. so, counterintuitively, one of the most violent stories in the zeitgeist right now is, for the most part (not a perfect record) is telling a violent story without necessarily using violence as a substitute for a story.

contrast with GoT, which throws in rape and gore like glitter to accent their teenage/twenty-something boy hypermasculine wank power fantasy. GoT is at the other end and it’s super gross and disturbing.

one of the best-known and most prolific offenders of “death because death” is joss whedon. it seems to be the only way he knows how to create shocking “plot twists” and heavy emotional drama. and the worst of the worst sins was tara macclay on buffy. the thing about joss is that he thinks he’s being incredibly clever surprising his audience with this stuff. he’s said as much himself. there is no effort to build up to it. it’s just, well, nobody’s died for a little while so idk find something to impale someone on. tara’s death was everything death in fiction should not be. first of all she was a lesbian, and one in a happy relationship to boot. need say no more. second of all she was literally caught in the crossfire. the bullet that killed her was meant for someone else and it just happened to strike her down instead with no effort or chance to save her. third, it had to happen so willow could be evil for a bit. and fourth, most obnoxiously, that episode was the first and only time amber benson appeared in the opening credits. this was done deliberately. i wish i could find the quote but alas. to the best of my recollection joss said they wanted to do something like this with another character, possibly jenny calendar, but were unable. it was fully planned well ahead of time to “trick” the audience, which is kind of... sad? that you feel the need to resort to a meta trick like that to maximize shock value? (oh, and don’t even fucking start me on dr. horrible’s and penny. ffs, joss. that didn’t even fit the fucking tone. fuck.)

there are more examples (i am looking directly at you, the 100) but i think those two pretty much put the cap on that point.

death in a story can be important and moving without making the audience feel cheated. HIMYM is largely a light-hearted romantic comedy, but it’s also one about transitioning to adulthood and what that means. and unfortunately, adulthood often means unexpectedly losing loved ones. the death of marshall’s father was surprising, but less than to motivate marshall in some way, it’s more to clarify that adulthood means loss as much as it means gain. it means change more than anything. also story-wise it was a good choice of character, as marvin had deep important connections to a character we loved without leaving a gaping void full of what might have been.

wynonna earp is another story that knows where to draw the line. most of the “victims” are cartoon villains who are inhuman and already dead. the framing of the story leaves us no reason to have sympathy for these literal monsters. when a more sympathetic or humanized character has to go, it’s because there’s no other choice, and each time rather than being a motivator for wynonna, we can see instead the psychological toll it takes on her. she is someone who is surrounded by death, the one with this burden to make the hard decisions and pull the trigger. she killed her father on accident when she was just 11. she’s forced to kill beloved shorty, who is pretty much family and one of the few people who didn’t think she was trash, in order to save him and potentially a lot more. levi and fish were mercy kills that forced her to confront the fact that these monsters truly were once human. and in the finale she gets a double whammy: willa’s betrayal leaves her once again turning her gun on a family member and fatally pulling the trigger. we’re even relieved to see her shoot bobo, not just because she has to if she ever wants to break the curse but because again there’s another dimension to it, maybe even a tinge of mercy. bobo is not exactly sympathetic, but he is someone with dimension, someone we know. willa pretty much had to go story-wise, if nothing else she was a threat to wynonna’s position as the heir and the show is called wynonna earp. but her death also tied into the themes of the show: how to make and live with hard choices, how to stand up and be the one to do the unthinkable because you’re the only one and you have to, whether you want to or not, how to be the one who bears the hate of the very people you’re sacrificing everything to save.

and of course, i can’t not address harry potter, which i think is hit or miss. surprisingly i think cedric’s death was well-done and important, because it was shocking without being done for shock value, and because it was a result: a result of cedric being honorable and good and at the wrong end of the wand of a man who feels nothing about killing anything not useful to him. and ironically, it should have been a catalyst, but it wasn’t, but that’s its own story: the warning everyone failed to listen to, at their own peril. some deaths were organic in that jkr herself went against her plans once she realized what made more sense for the story. iirc, she’s on record as saying arthur weasley was originally meant to die when he’s attacked in ootp, but she spared him at the last minute. he didn’t need to die, it wouldn’t have added to the story, and killing arthur weasley is like joss whedon-level bullshit. on the other hand, she initially intended to let snape live (again iirc) but here she backed herself in a corner. snape was another result. it became obvious that according to the story there simply wasn’t a feasible way to save him, even if in context his death was for nothing. and of course la pièce de résistance, dumbledore, who is GRRM levels of inevitable and necessary.

i feel different ways about other deaths. they mostly happened for the sake of happening, to remind us it’s a war and people die in wars and she wanted faces and names we knew. that’s fair, as it goes. and i don’t begrudge the fact that she didn’t stop to dwell over some of them, because again, war, chaos, you don’t have time to grieve as it happens. but like. fred? i feel a little cheated. lupin and tonks? especially transparent and... unfulfilling. it was like bringing them together was done only to produce teddy, and then they became more useful dead first so harry would be more important to teddy and also because lupin needed to be there with harry in the woods alongside the rest of the marauders. i think of all the deaths these ones are the ones that bother me the most. just... really... meaningless.

also, the movie feeling the need to go a step further and giving us a nice close-up of lavendar brown’s very dead face because... aesthetic? it’s more ambiguous in the book, and even pottermore can’t seem to decide which way to go. it’s so irrelevant that people can’t agree it even happened.

death isn’t the only kind of violence in fiction or necessarily even the worst, but it is the one that’s always on hand like a tissue to grab as you need and the one that is abused by unimaginative writers who just... can’t think of how else to move the story forward. i do think there is a place for stories that involve rape, because it’s real and just like any other group survivors need to see themselves acknowledged as being real and more than their trauma. i don’t really feel too comfortable speaking for survivors here tbh but i do know that all of us need stories to keep us from feeling isolated and unworthy. but i cringe at the idea that it’s just something that happens to women and therefore let’s add it here, here, here, and here. using it as a turning point for the survivor like assault is enlightening and transformative is gross. using it as a turning point for someone else, usually a man, is A WHOLE LOT GROSSER.

also i just realized i didn’t get into tarantino, but i’m too tired for the kind of analysis his work requires. anyway one of the things i liked about kill bill, for example, is that the violence is so over-the-top that in places it’s comical. the whole film is just so extra. afaik that’s what tarantino was going for.

quick shout-out to snk: my favorite comedy. when this first came out it was hailed as The Best Thing Of The Year, it was SO GOOD, so quality. anyway so i finally got around to watching it. i watched it twice in relative succession in fact. and i laughed a lot. you can ask @second-stringer, she was like “oh my god, i’m in a room with a sociopath.” snk is so extra, but i... don’t think that’s what it was going for. i think it was going for shock! and drama! and plot twists! and look at all that blood and gore and dead people! this is obviously Very Mature! i feel so cool and grown-up watching it! and (sorry, not to get passive aggressive at my mutuals who were into it at any point, this is honestly about conversations i had with or read between people not on tumblr/in other contexts) the general trend was the raves were coming from the younger and frequently male audience. like it was the usual kind of thing where you couldn’t be like, are you... serious? didn’t you find it kind of... ridiculous? because you would be mobbed by rabid fanboys eager to mansplain that i don’t know i stopped listening. anyway, the steep decline in worship for the series over time leaves me feeling smug and satisfied. i actually might still watch it out of morbid curiosity and in the hopes that it’s as funny or, prayer circle, even funnier.

in conclusion, bobby has an email from me that includes a lot of yelling, “DON’T KILL THE LESBIAN. DON’T FUCKING DO IT.” this is my contribution to the cause.

#deep thoughts #this got long

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scrambledthoughtz · 4 years

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okay. wow. can we just talk about how INSANELY talented Jodie Comer is??? like holy shit man. her character in “Killing Eve” is TRULY something else. her facial expressions, her accents, the different languages that seem to so easily roll off her tongue (even though she doesn’t actually speak all of these languages). it’s just absolutely phenomenal. she truly does deserve all the Emmy’s. same with Phoebe Waller Bridge, who acted and wrote “Fleabag” and who was also a writer for “Killing Eve”, and Elizabeth Moss, who plays June in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Damn, these are all some of the best shows out there, in my opinion. The writing, acting, cinematography are just *chef’s kiss*. I’m honestly pretty speechless at just how TALENTED these individuals are. Like they embody so many different facial expressions and mannerisms that are so subtle yet so essential to the characters they play. I’m honestly blown away. and when I watch their acceptance speeches at the Emmy’s or any other awards shows, they all seem so surprised, shocked, and humbled to win an award. but they’re all phenomenal actors so why wouldn’t they??? it almost saddens me to see when they’re so surprised bc did they really think they wouldn’t win?? of course we are all our own worst critics, but wow. These actors are next-level talented. Honestly, I’ve been thinking more and more about what my dream job would be if nothing else in the world mattered, and here are the top 5 that I’ve come up with: 1) journalist 2) author 3) filmmaker/ screenwriter 4) interior designer and 5) photographer/ videographer.

Now I know that Hollywood isn’t all glitz and glamour, but the whole filmmaking/ screenwriting/ directing process honestly seems so fun and a great way to express creativity, and it seems like it would be cool to dabble in. I’ve even looked into some film organizations at UCLA bc it occurred to me out of nowhere that if it’s something I truly want to learn more about, LA is probably the best place to explore that interest.

Or maybe I’m just riding the high that I always feel after finishing a show or a season of a show. It’s hard to put it into words, but whenever I finish a show or season, I feel so nostalgic, a little melancholy, and just overall hyped and I end up binge-watching interviews with each of the cast members (usually each and every one of them on YouTube and I’m not even exaggerating) to kind of emulate the emotion and excitement that I felt while watching the show. It’s almost like I want to prolong that high. and honestly? I think that’s part of the reason why I am so hesitant to start a new show sometimes -- because I know that I will feel the exact same way after each of them finish and that I won’t really be able to focus on anything else in the few days afterwards. and once I finish the show, it’s almost like I need to start a new show immediately to satisfy that craving or urge, and it becomes a dangerous cycle that’s not worth falling into, especially when I need to focus on school or other work. This has happened so many times: during the second semester of my senior year of high school, I binge-watched the entirety of Grey’s Anatomy. There would be days when I come home from school and immediately open my laptop and start watching until the sun set, and the only light in my pitch-black room would be the blinding brightness from my laptop screen as I devoured episode after episode after episode. Sometimes I wouldn’t even start the homework that was due until the next morning. It was bad. I got lazy, sloppy, careless with my work. Not one of my finest moments. Last last semester, I binge-watched “Friends” up until the point that they took it off Netflix starting January 1 of this year. Literally up until the last minute. I was in Yosemite and I decided to watch up until the very last minute until the new year began. I bet Netflix regrets taking that show off -- especially with the total shitstorm that this year has become, I’m certain a lot of us could use the distraction. Now, last semester, I started watching “The Office” and there were so many days that I simply let myself go and binge-watched entire seasons of the show instead of working on school. See the pattern? It’s why I’m so hesitant to start shows. I was actually doing pretty well at one point -- I hadn’t watched a show in a long time, and I decided to indulge and I watched the entirety of the last season of “OITNB” within a matter of days, and it destroyed me. I don’t know why I have the tendency to let shows get to me so deeply. But once I start a show, I can’t stop. It’s like an annoying itch that I feel the need to get rid of, so I just finish everything at once. I finish everything FAST with the intention of finishing it quicker so that I can get back to my work sooner. But sometimes even that doesn’t work -- I binge-watched “Dead To Me” and I watched it so quickly that I actually didn’t catch a lot of the crucial moments, so I ended up re-watching it. I’m doing the same with “Fleabag” right now. I don’t know why I feel the need to do that, either. More often than not, I speed through shows, books, even tests and readings to get a glimpse into what I’m getting myself into or out of pure curiosity, and then I go back and re-read or re-watch in-depth. This actually isn’t a bad habit to have when it comes to carefully checking my work during tests or when grasping assigned readings, but it’s a terrible habit to have when watching shows bc then it takes up more of my time that could be spent doing something more productive. In fact, I think part of it might be attributed to counteracting anxiety with familiarity. Sometimes I like to re-watch shows that I’ve already watched bc it takes away the anxiety and anticipation that often leads to binge-watching. If I already know what’s going to happen, I’m less likely to spend so much time trying to reach the ending. LOL idk my mind works in strange, ineffective ways sometimes.

#personal

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chronicallycal · 7 years

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Hi Callie, and thank you for your wishes! 2017 started off pretty good for me, but I’m going back to college next week, so… I’m still gonna do my best to keep conversing with you though. Well, I kinda ruled out Castle’s dad because there once was an interview stating that he wasn’t LockSat, but I can’t really remember if it’s Marlowe or the new showrunners that gave this information. After all, I don’t believe LockSat was initially meant to have a connection with Beckett either. (NSA)

:“I guess that people might have thought about him given Rita’s involvement, but it would have required bringing James Brolin back on the show (preferably), and idk if it was feasible. I’m also glad they didn’t go down that road because man, the one-on-one confrontation with Castle would have been ten times worse. Another option of mine for LockSat was indeed a guy we hadn’t met before, but I get that it wouldn’t have the same impact on the audience. (NSA)

I admit the ending of 8x22 gave at least fanfic writers plenty of ideas, including the making of a great virtual season 9. What may have simply lacked in the version that did air is a small clue that Castle and Beckett wouldn’t die. Let’s say if after they held hands we would hear Lucy calling Caskett, or a door knocking, a phone ringing… and then leave out or not the scene with the voice over depending on the scenario. Oh, I had forgotten that you’re a sadist when it comes to “Castle", (NSA)

while I’m more of a masochist lol (sorry, I reminded myself of a hilarious Youtube video for which I'm sadly not allowed to give the link). Here’s the list of the underrated episodes that currently stick out for me: 1x02?, 1x09 (which stays with me more than 6x10 for example), 2x01, 2x02, 2x12, The Mistress Always Spanks Twice, 2x22, 3x10, 3x11, 3x15, 4x03, 4x11, 5x18, 6x11, maybe 7x22? There could be more episodes ofc, especially after season 5, but I would need a rewatch to find them. (NSA)

There are also popular scenes in eps not cited in any list: all the Caskett scenes in Hell Hath No Fury, the fun interrogation scene in 5x14, the kiss in 7x03, etc. Now, one unpopular opinion: I often rewatch The Limey, and aside from seeing Jacinda in the Ferrari, I quite like this ep. Voilà! I’ll probably detail a few things the next time, and add something about your take on 3x01, but until then, feel free to give me your opinion and maybe share a few favorite of yours. See you soon! (NSA)”

Response under the cut.

Hi NSA! As always, my apologies for my tardiness in my response. I could offer another in-depth explanation of why my health issues postponed my response, but the gist of it is that I haven’t been able to be on my computer and wanted to give your message the attention it deserves. I hope you’re return to school (I think my math is correct and you’ve gone back by now?) went well and that you’re doing okay. :)

I’m by no means saying I thought it was Castle’s dad, if only for the issue of getting James Brolin back (and also because based on past story lines, the show doesn’t seem huge on making “good” guys “bad”, spare for the case of Montgomery in which they definitely avenged, imo, his backstory). Rather that I think I would have been more impressed if it had been someone people had a previous idea about. It could have been interesting for it to be someone related to Mayor Weldon or Judge Markaway or even the AG from Beckett’s time there, too, just someone that would have shocked me a lot more than Mason because tbh I didn’t even recognize him at first oops. Rita being a double agent of sorts could have been really interesting, too.

I actually didn’t know that it originally wasn’t supposed to be tied into Beckett (assuming you’re remembering correctly, lol) but if that was the case, I’m actually glad it was. (Fair warning, ramble about parts of why I don’t mind S8 ahead.) I think it posed an interesting story arc, not to mention that without that relation to Bracken the entirety of the separation arc would have been far more terrible than many, myself not included, perceive it to be. But I also think it provided some interesting albeit subtle growth for Beckett. To put it as simply as I can: people often argue against the separation arc with the argument that it makes no sense because Beckett already learned she works best with Castle, which is arguably very true. But this lesson also came at a time when she had no choice, in the sense that Castle had already involved himself and whether she worked with him or not, that wouldn’t change. In S8, Beckett was presented with a case where Castle wasn’t aware, and she chose a route people weren’t fond of, but in the grand scheme learned without him already knowing everything that she needed to work with him, and whether the writer’s intended it that way or not, I do perceive that as character and relationship growth in the characters.

(Anyway, you most likely didn’t care about any of that oops.)

Season 9 is certainly a great idea on behalf of L that has been executed well by the fanfic community, as were many of the post-finale fics, so the finale did certainly provide fodder of sorts for fic writers, but I do think it would have been a good plan to include a more clear scene that they didn’t die. It could have also been cool to have a voice over that included lines not previously heard on the show, that hinted/explicitly referenced a recovery to bridge the gap between the shooting scene and the 7 years later scene. (Wow more rambles you didn’t ask for.)

Okay I’m going to be annoying and give short reactions to your underrated episodes list:

1x02: okay yes I love that episode and fetus bickering Caskett is adorable.

1x09: also great but I prefer 6x10 because there’s more fluffy domestic Caskett and also the more references to future kids than any other ep offers, and also I don’t like Sorenson.

2x01: yes any episode with both angry baby Beckett and Russian Beckett has to be fab (also I think this is one of the first times we saw Castle’s more sensitive side with his apology which is great).

2x02: precinct fam banter = fab

2x12: idk if I’d consider this ep underrated but I love it and jealous Beckett is adorable.

2x16 (Mistress Always Spanks Twice): Yesssss.

2x22: Maddie and little Castle babies = omg yes

3x10: tbh I don’t remember much of the case part of this ep but many great scenes so yes I approve.

3x11: also dk if I would consider this underrated but it is one of my favs and I love it very much.

3x15: CASTLE BACKSTORY YES PLEASE and also Caskett went out for Valentine’s Day so very very good.

4x03: that end scene about beating the odds. enough said.

4x11: Yesss this might be one of the eps I rewatch the most because I find the case fun and Beckett;s “thus reinstating my faith in my gender” (or something like that) always makes me smile and HAPPY RYANS AND CASKETT ON A DATE.

5x18: RYAN BACKSTORY YES. This is, imo, the best side-character centric arc and I love it a lot.

7x22: Caskett dancing like giddy little idiots in love while on a case because they just really really really really really really like each other.

All those scenes you mention are also fab. I personally have so many scenes I adore so much. Like the end of Once Upon a Crime and just a bunch of random post-couple moments that just make me swoon. Whole eps though, uh, I do really like Close Encounters and Poof! You’re Dead and The Dead Pool. Also Heroes & Villains and Embarrassment of Bitches (I mean, come on, pre-couple Caskett with a DOG). After Hours is another one I really, really like, as are Scared to Death and Law are Boarder. I also feel like the whole PI arc, like, the original in S7, is hated by a lot of people but I liked it.

Anyway, wow this got so long. Sorry about that. I do hope that we’ll be able to keep talking despite you going back to school.

Callie xx

#Anon: NSA #callie rambles #a lot #Anonymous

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