#really feeling the fact that s5 is less than 2 weeks away | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

twdmusicboxmystery · 3 years

Text

Emily’s Instagram Live

Okay, let’s talk about what Emily said on her live, yesterday. Actually, it was kind of funny. @fangipanilove messaged me about it, but I couldn’t sit down and watch it right away because I was with my niece and nephew. But she said I would probably get all kinds of messages and Asks about it. And almost instantly, the messages started rolling in. ;D Do we know our fandom or what?

Okay, so if you didn’t watch it, you can do so HERE.

During this live, Emily is answering questions. She gets one about if she will be returning to TWD and she says, “Not that I know of, but that would be fun, wouldn’t it? If I got asked, I’d probably do it.” So naturally, that’s causing some concern in our fandom.

(Thanks to @doeroseq for this edit.)

I can address this from two different angles: what she says, and how she says it.

What Emily says:

Yes, she seems to say that she won’t be returning anytime soon. But you guys have to remember that TWD actors sign dictionary-sized, iron-clad contracts. They legally CANNOT reveal spoilers. If they were to do it anyway, they would be fired, sues, and likely never work in the industry again. That’s not an exaggeration.

Two examples to illustrate when we’ve seen this in the past.

A. When Lenny James returned for S5, he told a story about how while filming, they wanted to keep his return super-secret. Instead of putting him up at a hotel (because they feared him being seen by spoiler cameras) they had him stay with a local couple who rented out their basement apartment. They didn’t even know who they would be hosting, other than that it was someone who was going to be filming for S5 of the show.

And to hear Lenny tell it, the way the show drilled into this couple’s that they couldn’t tell ANYBODY the identity of their lodger--no way, no how, or else—bordered on harassment. (Okay, not really, but you get the idea.) When the woman saw Lenny James (she was a local and a fan of the show, so she definitely knew who he was) she’s was like, “Ah, YOU’RE the reason.”

So the point is, when they don’t want something spoiled, they’re very aggressive about it. (Which is why so many of us believe that when spoilers DO come out, they’re leaked by the show itself, but that’s a topic for another day.

B. I use this as an example a lot, but that’s only because it’s a real-life, proven thing we can point to. Remember when between S6 and S7, before we knew for certain who Negan’s victim would be, every single actor who was asked about it said they didn’t know? It was kind of a ridiculous lie since they’d FILMED the scene, but the point is, they looked straight into the eyes of the fans and lied.

And I’m really not hating on them for it. Look, you can be as angry as you want at the actors and writers for lying about things, but the fact is, it’s in their contracts. You could argue it’s not really their fault.

I do believe they’re very careful with their words, planning them whenever possible and going out of their way to not lie if they don’t have to, simply because they’re uncomfortable with it and don’t like lying to fans.

But when they get pinned down and asked directly, they will lie rather than tell spoilers. And we have precedent for that.

So, if Emily really isn’t returning, she’ll say she isn’t returning. If she actually IS returning, she’ll still say she isn’t returning. We’re going to get the same answer either way. Just keep that in mind.

How Emily says it:

Before I actually watched the clip, the way people described it to me, I thought it was a question that really flustered and frustrated her. Again, it was just the way people were describing it to me and I made an assumption before watching for myself.

So, when I did watch, it surprised me how NOT flustered she was. She answered quickly and easily and even smiled when she said it.

That’s really not the norm for Emily. In fact, back in S6, TD got all suspicious because they kept canceling Emily’s TWD panels. Then she did an interview Kate Nash, who has a huge social media following, but isn’t mainstream or affiliated with the show. (X)

And it wasn’t a formal interview, actually. She just invited Emily to watch episode 6x09 with her live. I don’t think Emily realized Kate knew anything about TD or would ask about it, but she did. Emily got all flustered and very obviously avoided answering questions and tried to redirect Kate’s attention. We all joked that this is why they kept cancelling Emily’s panels: she really has no poker face. (X)

And has she gotten better at answering questions about Beth’s return over the years? Sure! But that still suggests she’s had to get better at lying about it.

So, the instant I watched it, I felt like this was a question she was super-prepared for (maybe it was even planted?) and that’s why she answered it with such serene confidence. She was expecting it and had an answer all prepared.

So then I sat back an started thinking about it, especially the timing of it. And the more I thought, the more suspicious I got.

From what I can tell, it’s less that she said it that’s freaking everyone out and more that she hasn’t said this so directly much, if at all, over the years since Coda. This feels like a direct confirmation, which we haven’t had before.

But guys, they also haven’t said Beth’s name in the last 6 years, either.

I find it highly suspicious that after 10x17 comes out, when her name is mentioned twice and EVERYONE is talking about her and the sister theme (not just our fandom but other TWD fans, too) that suddenly Emily gets this question in a live. Her answer is, unlike what is usual for her, direct, serene, confident, and said with a smile. In it, she directly refutes her return, while simultaneously hinting that “someday she might.”

Yeah, I’m really not buying it.

It actually reminds me of when she was filming the missing scenes in the white cabin back during S5. Spoiler cameras actually caught her—recognized by her yellow polo and blond ponytail—getting out of a white van and going into that cabin. The instant it hit the airwaves (everyone was so glad she was filming bc it meant Beth was alive and not eaten at Terminus—Emily instant jumped on Twitter and tweeted that she was going to the movies with some friends.

Even the spoiler site who famously hated Beth’s character laughed about what an obvious attempted-misdirect that was. Especially because it came RIGHT after fans started figuring stuff out.

This feels the same to me.

On a slightly different note (but somewhat relevant) it seems that they MIGHT not be releasing 10x18 early. I don’t know for certain, so we’ll just have to wait and see, but I read an article that said that because they released 10x17 a week early, the people who watched it early spoiled it for those that didn’t and half the fan based was pissed off, so they might not release 10x18 early.

That doesn’t seem like a very good reason, to me. Not that I don’t sympathize with those who don’t want to be spoiled, but they’ve been releasing episodes 2 days early for several years, now, and people who watch early almost always post about it online.

I’m sure releasing it 7 days early instead of 2 compounded the problem, but they MUST have known that going in. Why pick now to suddenly decide spoilers aren’t a good thing? It seems like a made up reason to me, which means there’s some other reason they are contemplating not releasing the episode early.

I truly have no idea what it is, but my TD brain can’t help but wonder if it’s because SO MANY people are talking about Beth and the possibility of her return in the wake of 10x17. And I’m not suggesting that she’ll return in 10x18 or anything. I’m not at all expecting that. I’m just saying something’s going on there.

So I get why some people might be upset about Emily’s live, but don’t be. We have plenty of precedent for them lying about what’s going to happen in the show, misdirecting when people get too close to the truth, and Emily was just entirely too happy to answer that question, in my opinion. My take on it: tptb are doing damage control. ;D

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth tis almost here #bethyl

32 notes · View notes

canonicallyanxious · 3 years

Text

phew okay for this week’s druck episode i honestly don’t really know how to start because it kind of feels like this episode was a set up for something bigger and i still feel like it’s kind of early for me to really try to speculate/theorize what’s happening and i don’t want to put half-formed thoughts out there without the full context [like there’s already a ton of things from last week’s episode rambles i would change lol] so i’m going to try my best to stay away from all that and just focus on things i thought were compelling or interesting

so, some disorganized thoughts about druck s5 ep 6 as follows:

1. i’m pretty into the way druck has been integrating covid-19 into the storyline so far. Granted druck s5 is so far one of the only seasons of the SCU [skam cinematic universe] that engages with the pandemic at all [aside from... wtfock s4 I believe???? idk i don’t watch wtfock rip] so it’s not like there’s much precedent to compare it to but even so, i think they’re doing a good job with it! like they integrate it into various important subplots - nora’s mom’s hours being cut due to the pandemic; abi parties being canceled and part of the conflict between the ca$hqueens and the instas; and now mailin’s conflict with the rest of the ca$hqueens in this episode - in a way that feels thoughtful but not overdramatized.

Like I feel like it could easily become a point of High Drama or completely ignored [as it has been in other skam seasons, for to be fair understandable reasons!]??? but with druck s5 it feels like a fairly natural extension of the story and these characters’ realities. it feels like this specific story would be different in a non-pandemic context, like a lot of thought was put into how the pandemic would affect these plot threads. another example of this would be how Nora almost seems disconcerted that her symptoms can’t be pinned on the virus, as that was how she first tried to downplay them to herself.

Granted, being an American i can’t say how accurate everything is to how things currently are in Berlin [getting test results back in less than a day?? not wearing masks in public???? absolutely cannot relate] but storywise at least i feel like i can see where thought was put into the story which is nice!

2. so like i said this episode to me feels like set-up for something bigger. The first couple weeks really focusing in on her family life and her finding her support system; episode 5 where things are stable and looking up for her finally, kind of like the calm before the storm; and this episode, where now that things should ostensibly be going quite well for Nora it becomes even more noticeable that things don’t feel right, establishing those symptoms so they can be built on later in the episode.

This is actually where i personally get kind of nervous. To be clear i don’t mind the pacing of this first half of the season; in fact i’m actually pretty into the relatively low drama and the focus on character building and relationship development. What makes me nervous is that from prior experience i tend to get lulled into a false sense of security and then druck in some way fails to stick the landing for me in the second half [again! very much a personal opinion here! feel free to disagree with me i am only one person!]. now i’m entirely aware this is a very skeptical and wary view of druck lol and i do think so far they’ve been doing an impressive job. but i just hope they don’t go for something extremely dramatic in the last half that they won’t have time to properly resolve or address, especially with something as sensitive as mental health issues which they have already been under criticism for dropping the ball on.

that said, i do think the execution of this set up is VERY well-done. Cinematography and music continue to hit just the right notes in creating the right tone for getting us to connect to Nora’s headspace. It’s actually to the point where some of the clips make me feel quite anxious to rewatch; I can’t say I’ve experienced Nora’s exact symptoms as whatever she’s going through does feel different from the way my specific symptoms manifest for me, but they are a little adjacent to some of my past experiences and especially the Wednesday clip where she feels disconnected from the present while making out with Josh feels so viscerally real to me I actually have to skip over that part. Of course i can only speak for myself here, but at the same time it does feel just intense enough, like for the most part it’s not overly dramatic, just hard to watch Nora go through something so scary when she doesn’t know what’s happening.

i have to say i actually didn’t expect them to go down this route - with the previous scenes in this season of her experiencing similar symptoms i thought it was pretty likely that it was going to be glossed over - but with the heavier focus on the symptoms now that many of the stressors nora was previously dealing with are mitigated as well as the doctor’s visit, it feels very clear that they are indeed headed in that direction and i have to say i’m grateful that they would try at all, and really quite looking forward to seeing where it goes.

3. i like the way the mailin conflict was handled in this episode. we could immediately tell in the clip where she freaked out on the girls that there was probably something underlying her sudden spike in fear that we didn’t know about; the storyline was well-substantiated with social media and texts without taking away from what we saw on screen [not really sure what it would be like to watch this show as a casual viewer skdjnfdskjfs but i wonder if having mailin off screen for almost the entire week makes up for a casual viewer not knowing 100% what’s going on in the texts]; then the resolution with the girls, with some solid acting all around.

the conversation being juxtaposed with nora’s continued feelings of unease about her well-being is interesting to me, too. here we have Mailin explaining her reaction and apologizing to the girls, with ava and fatou offering their unconditional support and letting her know she can talk to them about anything, in sharp contrast with nora who might not even really know how to talk about what’s going on with her friends and who attempts [successfully] to divert their attention by reminding them of the concert. as well the framing of nora being slightly separate from the rest of the girls in that scene, good visual storytelling that highlights how she’s feeling in the moment. as i’ve discussed in the past this kind of thing, as sad as it makes me that nora can’t fully open up to her friends yet, also gives me hope that in the future when she does open up to them they will be there for her in the way that she needs.

4. speaking of ca$hqueens - have i mentioned how much i adore their dynamic??? their banter feels SO real to me, i especially love the scene where they’re quarantining and Ava melodramatically bequeaths her possessions to her friends. it’s nice, it reminds me a lot of my own friendships in hs. also, like, these girls are all so empathetic and caring of each other, so them not noticing what nora is going through highlights that to a certain extent it’s up to Nora to seek out help/support as well; they can only meet her halfway.

5. druck’s social media game this season?? absolutely KILLING it. don’t remember if I’ve talked about it publically in my past few recaps/rambles but one criticism I always had of druck was that the text messages didn’t feel as well-thought out in terms of supporting the narrative as they could be. But i think they’ve massively improved on that this season, like so far every text feels relevant to what’s on screen and the ones that aren’t in nora’s POV are pretty sparing but still support the main narrative in some way [such as kiki and zoe arguing about zoe staying at home with nora].

in terms of instagram i feel like druck’s been on point for the last few seasons, but this season especially i’m very impressed! all the social media posts feel very in character for the person posting it - for example fatou’s memes, ava clearly being well-practiced with insta [her videos are very good!], mailin’s more naturey pics, and nora’s more artsy insta. like whenever multiple characters post about the same event you can still pretty easily tell who posted what which i think is really cool!

and will i ever be over druck making josh an entire spotify account to host the playlist he made for nora [which is IMPECCABLE ftr josh lastname is a man of TASTE] and randomly playing in-character songs in real time throughout the day like showstopping brilliant spectacular!!!! whoever is responsible for this i owe u my firstborn child

[i actually can’t let myself talk about josh in this episode too much or i WILL explode all over my keyboard and this episode is not really about him but just know that i love him dearly and already have extensive headcanons about how much shit Yara has had to put up from his lovesick ass in the last month]

#sarah.txt #druck #okay i'm trying to cut down on my tendency for long paragraphs #i'm sorry i'm a lit major it cannot be helped #druck meta #story meta

15 notes · View notes

inmyarmswrappedin · 3 years

Note

Imo: in being good and having this (better than) expected, clean and well fleshed out story, it seems druck just stayed afloat. Instead of being outstanding and enticing more viewers, it fell into doing what it was intended to do with only a portion of it's old viewership. S5 was good, but it didn't do anything out of the ordinary or experimental or particular interesting. If they stick to this formula, which works to an extent, they'll need more eclectic or charismatic mains to give it an edg

Hi anon 🎨 I actually think this season did something experimental, by using audio and video cues to portray Nora’s disassociation. The only other season to use cinematography to portray a main who experiences reality in a different way was Arthur’s, and imo they didn’t properly stick with it past a certain point.

But I mean, by charismatic, do you mean gay? 😂

Here’s my thing. Personally, I’ve felt like the Skam phenomenon, such as it is, has been on its way out since around the time Skam Italia was first cancelled. And not even because of skamit itself, which was in fact brought back because of Italian outcry. That was just the point where I felt we’d start hitting diminishing returns, the remakes would never become much bigger than the heights of popularity reached from January to June 2019 (and definitely would never reach the heights that Skam got in Norway or abroad). I also thought the “fad” of buying the rights to adapt Skam had passed—no other producer would agree to NRK’s conditions and make an eighth remake. From that point forward, I felt like we’d only keep losing remakes, not gaining them.

As an additional note, I only have follower numbers for Isak’s account (the most followed account of all the Skam characters) from 2018, a full year later Skam had finished. At that point he had 685K. Cris, the character to have the most followers out of any remake character, never broke 200K.

Let’s talk Wtfck. The Isak season dropped during fall 2019, past the Skam remake golden era. Despite the fact that Robbe and Sander are white and cis, and that the show exploited their physical relationship as much as they could get away with... By the end of the season, Robbe and Sander had less ig followers than Matteo and David had by the end of theirs. A couple that included a trans moc, and was thus rejected by large sections of fandom. It doesn’t matter that endless moaning about Kato or endless moaning compilations have made it the most popular show on tumblr this year. When it comes to Instagram numbers, Robbe and Sander were solidly a flop. (And, of course, so is Kato, who Nora passed in followers around ep 3 or 4 of Nora’s season.)

Now, let’s talk Skam France. Arthur’s season was also the yawn collectively heard round the world. It kept losing followers on Youtube every week, despite the fact that at that time the show was not geoblocked (it’s geoblocked now) and Youtube still allowed random users to add subtitles. (In comparison, Amira N’s season aired when community subs were no longer allowed.) Lucas L’s season was, at least imo, the season that ushered the remake golden era. Despite the fact that Martino’s season aired a few months earlier, and was also not geoblocked, they didn’t get the attention. Skam France just knew how to promote their gay season effectively and, in so doing, also garnered attention for everyone else. Fun fact: before Lucas L’s season, no remake character had reached 35K followers on ig (Megan Flores had the largest amount at 33.6K).

So, if Skam France, with its keen sense of promotion and their Lola season that aimed to fulfill every request fandom had (wlw main, the explicit s*x scene eskam didn’t deliver, Daphné subplot, Eliott subplot, substance abuse issues, mental health issues) didn’t reach the numbers Lucas L’s season got, did in fact not even come close (Lola has 31.7 followers on ig. That’s less than Megan before the Isak seasons really got going!!)... Do you really think this is an issue of Druck not being enticing?

There’s also Norway. The Skam format, with “real time” clips, has a longer history in Norway. Skam was maybe the third or fourth show with that format. But none of the shows in that format that came after Skam have been as successful locally as Skam was. Lovleg was cancelled after 2 seasons. Blank closed shop with 3. 17/18/16 keeps going, but the format isn’t exactly the same (iirc every daily drop is actually an episode unto itself, and the shows drop over a period of less than 20 days). Afaik, lik meg is the only show in the Skam format currently airing, and it’s aimed at a 10-12 y/o demographic, not the 16 year olds that Skam targeted.

Anyway, fwiw, shortly after Amira M’s season finished, s4 had 12.7M views. As of two days ago, Nora’s season had 11.4M views (danke, @tirpse). Nora has 28.3K followers, only 3K followers less than Lola, despite the fact that Nora is a straight character and she didn’t get a s*x scene.

I gotta be real with you, I don’t think these numbers will improve with Fatou’s season, because both Fatou and Kieu My are woc. If there’s a main who fits the “exciting” bill (I know it’s not the word you used, but I just feel like Druck mains are generally charismatic, if not eclectic), that is Ava. And we all know people will find many reasons not to watch Ava’s season.

So, all in all... I guess Druck will remain a small show, unless something happens with one of the still existing remakes, and the Skam phenomenon gets a second wind. Because I really don’t think a flashy main is going to turn the tides around, anon.

#ask #druck #skam france #wtfock #Anonymous

8 notes · View notes

artificialqueens · 4 years

Text

All The Qualities of a Winner (Rotox/Detoxxxy) - Dvious

a/n: i went into s5 totally expecting to love jinkx the most - and i did! but i also couldn’t help but sympathize with all of roxxxy’s insecurities and the unfortunate way they expressed themselves, and 2/3 of rolaskatox being all over each other constantly was ridiculous and adorable so i had to produce something about it…

she has all the qualities of a winner, she thinks. for example, she doesn’t want anything sentimental to come up in this competition, anything that reminds her of home.

roxxxy andrews doesn’t need a security blanket. this is a competition, after all, and while she’d expected to recognize some of her fellow competitors, she had no interest in anything that would distract her from showing her best, and showing everyone else up in the process. so it feels a little scary when the two of them so easily fall back into their old patterns, because it looks like vulnerability, like each of them have an achilles heel.

not scary enough for her to stop, though. not scary enough for her to move when they’re squeezed together on couches or at tables, and not scary enough for her to pull her hand away when detox reaches out to grab it.

the night of the very first runway, there are way too many girls for them all to sit comfortably in the lounge. roxxxy catches the scent of mugler perfume and feels the back of the couch sink down behind her, but she doesn’t turn to see who it is.

she already knows.

it’s not like her to doubt herself this way.

ask any of the girls back home, any of the girls she’s competed against in pageantry. roxxxy knows she’s a winner, or at least she tells herself she does, and maybe it’s the newness of everything here - but she’s never felt quite this shaken. it manifests itself in the way her lips purse distastefully whenever jinkx is contouring, the way she nervously babbles her way through confessionals with the main goal of cramming as many reads as she can into two minutes.

so when detox showers her with compliment after compliment in the lounge and roxxxy virtually melts into her chair, she tells herself it’s because she just needed some good old-fashioned praise. she craves validation, but it always seems to come with a side of genuine criticism on the runway. it’s fine, she expected it, she wants to say it’s making her better but instead it makes her vitriolic and confused.

maybe it’s good, then, that she’s been hooked up to a constant iv-drip of bitch you look fucking sickening, sickeningly gorgeous 24/7. she never feels glowing until she’s told she is.

detox tells her she is glowing unceasingly, and roxxxy repeats those words to herself the same way jinkx whispers her mantra onstage. except roxxxy says it in her head, so that she can feel like she needs it less.

she prides herself on her independence.

this is a competition, after all. she’s not here to rely on crutches to get her to the top. in her heart of hearts, she knows that once rolaskatox gets to the top three (and they will, of course), things will change. but for now - when there’s so many of them and she can coast through - it’s easy. she’s getting more used to things, and she’s pretty sure she’s getting better by the week. alaska looks down and purses her lips whenever the judges mention cliques, but roxxxy stares straight ahead, willfully content in their little trio.

i just don’t want to lay it on so thick in front of the judges, y'know, alaska tells them in the workroom. they both agree. but it’s reflexive, detox just won, is roxxxy not supposed to congratulate her? she can see michelle’s eyes flicker over to the way they’re holding one another at the back of the stage, but so what? they’re friends congratulating one another on a job well done, on earning another week to show everyone what they can do…

they start to walk up onstage to congratulate coco for winning the lip sync, and when the two of them inevitably separate, roxxxy’s fingers hook in the mesh of the other queen’s dress. she pulls on it reflexively, and then half-shouts something brash and nonchalant, to make herself look less desperate. but her words are wasted; detox must have some kind of touch-starvation sixth sense and she loops their arms together again. and roxxxy’s smile returns easily to her face again just in time for a camera pan.

by the final three, she won’t need this, roxxxy thinks. she’ll be on her own, in the center of the stage, a crown on her head.

as a rule, roxxxy loves crowds.

there’s really nothing like strutting your stuff in a sequinsed gown to the roar of an auditorium filled with adoring fans. or lip syncing to the perfect j.lo song with a backdrop of cheering and clapping. a silent crowd, however - staring up at her as she shuffles her notes and tries to roast the straight-faced panel - is another thing entirely. as she steps to the side she takes solace in the fact that she at least was second to go, so they really won’t remember how bad she was. hell, all the other girls had at least one or two sullen responses from the crowd. she’s good to go, probably. it’s still a disgusting feeling, having everyone look at her like that in silence and reading her own failure in their eyes.

but even if she doesn’t feel as confident as usual it’s important to project confidence, which is why she’s so nonchalant in the lounge when they talk about their childhoods. she’s not about to give a sob story to everyone; the point of her explanation is to get it over with as quickly as possible so that everyone thinks about how impressive it is that she’s gotten over it so well. roxxxy presses her fingertips into the jewels of her ring, over and over again, leaving imprints on her skin and wondering why she’s so resistant to the spotlight tonight when she’s normally out to steal it.

she is in the bottom two for the first time, against the consummate performer of the season, the pageant girl with spice. she thinks she turned it out, but she really doesn’t know because she could hardly see alyssa through the hair they were both whipping around. here she is, in front of a much smaller crowd, but this time she’s finding out how badly she failed instead of whether she’ll be first place or runner-up. her throat feels tight with shame and when rupaul asks her what’s wrong, she fumbles her way through a response twice until before she knows it she’s sobbing - which is so ridiculous to do on a runway of all places and she wants to curl up and hide and never let anyone see her ever again.

she regains her composure, kind of, because that’s what she does. she prepares herself to give a gracious smile, in preparation for when alyssa will be told to stay, but the moment never comes. she gets to stay, too, and when she bursts into tears alyssa is the first one to make it to her for a hug. she feels detox pulling her close and kissing her hair clumsily (god that lip gloss will be hard to get out) and then the wave of everyone else’s arms around them. she feels hidden. protected.

she feels enveloped in a crowd, unseen but a spectacle at the same time, safe.

competition is where roxxxy thrives.

hell, she’s based her entire career on voluntarily competing and being judged and being the best. she thinks of it as her forte - a place where everything else falls away and, ideally, she is rewarded with recognition for all the work she’s done. it’s not a competition about being yourself, roxxxy thinks sourly when jinkx says she’s made it this far because she’s true to herself. it’s a competition about being the best. so what if jinkx is good at comedy, and acting, and singing, and being charismatic, and all of that stuff. drag is about sewing and makeup and looking untouchably fierce and having a presence. roxxxy repeats this internal monologue to herself at least ten times a day. she eats licorice strings and fumes and glares at her dress form. no matter how many times she tries to read jinkx to filth, she comes away feeling worse. it makes absolutely no sense to her.

she troubleshoots the sewing machine once every ten minutes or so for detox, and spends the entire time shooting shady comments in jinkx’s direction. the redhead won’t say anything to them anymore, painting on her contour in the mirror with a face of stony focus. roxxxy’s fingertips tingle with a combination of fear and anticipation. rolaskatox top three! she yells over her shoulder as they leave the workroom for the runway, but it sounds more like she’s trying to convince herself than celebrate.

even through the lip sync she fiddles with the licorice strings, telling herself she’ll be so happy when rupaul announces detox is staying and she can relax. in fact, by the time rupaul gives jinkx her spot in the final three, roxxxy is so shocked that even when her lips start trembling and her brow furrows she refuses to believe it. her pageant smile returns reflexively as they quickly swarm the stage for a goodbye hug before the producers corral them away; she catches the scent of mugler perfume again. she thinks it starts with an a. angel or alien or awesome or something. it’s perfect. it makes her throat feel tight and her eyes sting with unshed tears.

she watches the last swish of chiffon disappear backstage. a licorice string has fallen off her dress and lays at her feet. she is in the top three; she is a finalist; she has almost proven that she is good enough to win.

roxxxy beams at the judges. she feels a little empty, a little hollow, like a piece of her has been removed.

this is where she’ll show her very best.

now is the time to prove that she really does deserve to be here, that rolaskatox is as sickening apart as they were together; time to pull out her sparkliest gowns and her tightest corsets.

instead, as she reads her note from detox, something ugly and vindictive bubbles inside her. jinkx’s presence doesn’t fit here; her spot should have gone to someone else, someone more deserving and neon and angrier. everything that comes out of roxxxy’s mouth is dripping with venom, some of it even directed towards alaska. she smirks and taunts her way through the workroom on those last few days, feeling less focused than ever. she spends the majority of their final challenge trying to get herself to do not as well as she can do, but just better than everyone else. all the while she sulks in her head about how of course their final challenge is some comedy acting thing where it doesn’t matter that her contour is more snatched than jinkx’s or that the wig looks better on her than alaska. she can’t judge herself by this yardstick, not when the other two are better than her.

she thinks she brings it for the runway, at least, except when she has to give her speech. compared to jinkx it sounds far too pageanty (more polished? she hopes desperately) and compared to alaska it sounds far less funny (more professional? she thinks, grasping for something there). it sounds like herself, she thinks.

she wishes she could take it less seriously. in roxxxy’s mind, jinkx has been coasting, how can you take comedy seriously? she can’t fit the pieces together in her head to understand and she’s done trying. all she can repeat to herself over and over is that, well, she takes it seriously, drag is serious to her, she’s better, she’s good at it, she has to be.

in the weeks following, she feels a different kind of shame.

the embarrassment of watching herself try so hard to fuck over someone else is enough to make her shy away from any type of stage for a while. but the reunion and crowning is coming up anyways, and even if roxxxy’s pretty sure she won’t be standing there basking in the glory of being a drag superstar, she still has to sit there on stage and hear the results.

and they’re what she expected; and her smile flickers to life right on cue; and it still hurts so badly, as much as if rupaul looked her in the eye and personally told her you are simply not as worthy as everyone else.

confetti rains from the ceiling. she doesn’t feel the burning resentment that she did when she’d last seen jinkx, but she doesn’t feel any better like this, either. at the afterparty she spends a lot of time taking shots with alaska, the two of them so boxed in by the crowd that they can’t move from the bar (not like either of them are complaining). when roxxxy finally extricates herself, she has no issue finding the person she wants. it’s an unusual subversion, seeing the most colorful person in the room appear in black and white.

hi honey, detox says, you look so pretty, and slips her arm around roxxxy’s waist. roxxxy is far too proud to ask for comfort. instead she says ohmymgod you look friggin’ insane, which doesn’t sound like the compliment she meant it to be, but it’s okay. her intention was there, and understood; and she is here, and understood, and roxxxy laces their hands together. they have their drinks and they look fucking great, and they’re together, and that’s really all she could have asked for.

she smells that perfume again, leans in close and lets the waves of praise encircle her, give her solace.

she is enough.

#rpdr fanfiction #roxxxy andrews #detox icunt #detox x roxxxy #canon compliant #dvious #submission #s5 #on set fic

16 notes · View notes

tonystarkbingo · 4 years

Photo

TSB Mark IV Week 2 Roundup!

This includes the Round Robin fic that several participants wrote as part of our Discord Party, as well as a whole bunch of other amazing works. Go leave them some love!

Title: Adventures of Tiny Dragon Tony and His Treasure (Loki) - Chapter 41: Snapshot #41: The First of Many Meetings Collaborator: tinydragontony Card Number: 4005 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: T5 - more than a partner Ship: FrostIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: Fluff, first meetings, 5+1 Summary: Here it is, the most requested chapter to date! How Loki met tiny dragon Tony! Word Count: 3300

------------------------------------------

Title: Snowed In Collaborator: eachpeachpearplum Card Number: 4003 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: S2 - snowed in Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: snowglobe, possible imprisonment?, art Summary: Tony was just minding his own business, taking a quick zip around the city, just because he can. Next thing he knows, he’s in a glass ball sat on some evildoer’s shelf. To make things worse, he’s not the only one…

------------------------------------------

Title: Man on the Run Collaborator: ceealaina Card Number: 4008 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: R1 - Old Team Ship: Background Pepper/Nat, Background IronHusbands Rating: Teen Major Tags: Fluff and Humour, Team as Family, Post-Endgame, Fix-It Summary: Saving the world is important. But Tony really, really just wants to retire and spend time with his family. And if faking his death is the only way to do that, that's how it goes sometimes. Word Count: 1115

------------------------------------------

Title: Inktober - Day 19 Collaborator: monobuu Card Number: 4040 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: S3 - AU: Star Wars Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: Scandalous amount of leg Summary: Uuuuuh. Yeah. (*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)

------------------------------------------

Title: Scrunch Me Collaborator: martianwahtney Card Number: 4011 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A2 - Victorious Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: fluff Summary: 3 times Tony asks Bucky why he wears scrunchies, and 1 time he figured it out for himself Word Count: 995

------------------------------------------

Title: The Best Bathtub Collaborator: camichats Card Number: 4049 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: K4 - Kink: Bath/Shower Sex Ship: Tony/Sharon Rating: Mature Major Tags: Minor sexual content, allusions to sugar daddy/baby relationship (though not actually present in the fic) Summary: Sharon is a tough Shield agent and she’s proud of that, but sometimes it’s nice to relax and feel pampered. Word Count: 1649

------------------------------------------

Title: Baffled, bewildered and bemused. Collaborator: JehBeeEh Card Number: 4058 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K1 - Learning to be Loved Ship: Stony Rating: Mature Major Tags: Super Fluffy, Implied Sex Summary: Baffled. Bewildered? Perplexed. Tony couldn’t quite figure out which version fit this situation best, but they all seemed to apply. Perplexed seemed a bit much though. Puzzled? Bemused. Word Count: 3197

------------------------------------------

Title: wound with your eyes (kill with a smile) - Chapter 3 Collaborator: deathsweetqueen Card Number: 4066 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A5 - Restrained Ship: WinterIron Rating: Mature Major Tags: graphic depictions of violence, Spy Kids AU, Secret Identities, Kidnapping, Indian Tony Stark Summary: Tony Stark and Bucky Barnes were once the renowned superheroes, Iron Man and the Winter Soldier. Eventually, they put aside the masks and the armour to get married and raise a family together. Twelve years later, SHIELD agents go missing, and Tony and Bucky decide to go on their first mission since their eldest child was born. When they're mysteriously kidnapped by a psychotic TV show host, it's hardly a great first step to getting back in the game. The worst thing, though, might be the fact that the only people who can rescue them are their own children. Word Count: 12,872

------------------------------------------

Title: with or without his unhallowed touch - Chapter 24 Collaborator: deathsweetqueen Card Number: 4066 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K1 - myths and legends Ship: Tony/Thanos, Stuckony Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Tony is Kidnapped by Thanos, Tony is the Soul Stone, Female Tony Stark, Obsessive Behavior, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Emotional Manipulation, Stockholm Syndrome, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Physical Abuse, Domestic Violence, Forced Relationship, Gaslighting, Rape/Non-con Elements, Warnings for this Chapter: Explicit Violence, Major Character Death, and Cannibalism Summary: Toni sees the Chitauri mothership high above her, sees the hundreds and thousands of warships that circle the Earth, and she knows, she knows. She thinks, oh, I understand. A beat. Her hand burns. Wow, we are so fucked. She lets the bomb slide out of her hands, watches as it floats towards the mothership, and fire rains down on her, even in the dark, pale, cold hollow of space. She laughs, breathlessly, thinks of all the ones who’d loved her the most, and dies. Word Count: 129,402

------------------------------------------

Title: What We Do in the Tower Collaborator: newnewyorker93, rebelmeg Card Number: 4042, 4034 Link: AO3 Square Filled: S2 - Forcibly Adopted (4042) A5 - WTF (4034) Ship: Peter & Tony, Pepperony Rating: Gen Major Tags: Vampire AU, Avengers family, crack and humor, unapologetic cherry-picking of vampire lore Summary: Peter Parker has been having an awkward time as a brand new vampire. But now he's got Tony Stark whisking him off to meet a whole group of weird and hilarious vampires that live in Stark Tower and maybe this won't be so bad after all? Word Count: 5185

------------------------------------------

Title: Prince Tony and the Red Headed Princess Collaborator: PoliZ Card Number: 4007 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K2 - AU: Fairy Tale Ship: Pepperony Rating: Gen Major Tags: fairytale elements, domestic fluff Summary: Morgan asks her daddy for a bedtime story with knights and monsters, and wizards and princesses. With some help from Pepper, Tony is happy to oblige. Word Count: 866

------------------------------------------

Title: A Bottle and a Half of Whiskey Later - An 1872 Playlist Collaborator: moosh Card Number: 4037 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: S5 - Canon: 1872 Ship: None Rating: Gen Major Tags: Playlist Summary: A playlist based off some of the songs that Tony sang in the comic. Word Count: N/A

------------------------------------------

Title: The Gift of Jab Collaborator: dracusfyre Card Number: 4032 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A2 - Dares/Bets Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: Pre-Relationship, Sparring Summary: For the ImagineTonyandBucky prompt: Hi! I'm always up for some sparring hotness, so how about Tony being present for physical training sessions (working/watching), but says no everytime Nat/Clint/Steve/etc invites him to do it. Rhodey laughing every time the team says that it's bc Tony doesn't want to embarass himself. Bucky suspects his BF is actually well-versed in hand-to-hand/martial arts/self-defense; so he gives himself the challenge of getting Tony onto the mat. When he does he ends up a)on the floor & b)really aroused. The fill is less horny than the prompt, sorry. Word Count: 2453

------------------------------------------

Title: Lady in Red Collaborator: JehBeeEh Card Number: 4058 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A5 - Steve Rogers/Captain America Ship: Stony Rating: Mature Major Tags: Summary: “I GOT SCARED, ALRIGHT?”“Steve, sweetheart-"Steve kept pacing their room like he hadn’t even heard her. “I got so scared, you have no idea. And I know, okay. I know you can take care of yourself, and you don’t need me to save you or protect you, and it is sexy as all hell, but in that moment, I forgot all about that, and I was scared that I couldn’t protect you.” He collapsed on the bed, elbows on his knees and his head in his hands and Toni could hear him take long slow breaths.This had definitely not been how Toni envisioned their return home going. Word Count: 1176

------------------------------------------

Title: i come as a woman, dark and open Collaborator: simi Card Number: 4066 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A5 - Resolve Ship: Toni/Steve/Bucky Rating: E Major Tags: Female Tony Stark, Regency AU, Misogyny, Racism, Explicit Sexual Content, Emotional Infidelity, Slurs, Marital Dissatisfaction. Summary: When Toni first meets Captain Steve Rogers at one of the biggest gatherings of the season, she is not impressed. On the other hand, his best friend, the charming James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, was an utter delight. Unfortunately for her, after a series of misunderstandings at said party, she is forced to accept Steve’s hand in marriage in order to save her family’s reputation. And while Toni never expected a fairy tale, she had always hoped that companionship would one day turn into something more. How was she to know that Steve was just as charmed by Bucky as she was? a.k.a. Steve and Toni get married to each other; there are more misunderstandings; Bucky is an absolute delight and possibly the saving grace for their marriage; and somehow, all three end up falling in love with each other in the process. Word Count: 25, 335

------------------------------------------

Title: TSB October Discord Party Round Robin Fic Collaborators: rebelmeg 4034 Politzania 4007 EachPeachPearPlum 4003 summerpipedream 4045 Ducky 4013 Magica 4019 SomeSortofItalianRoast 4036 DarthBloodOrange 4010 Link: AO3 Square Filled: rebelmeg: A4 - Huddling for Warmth Politzania: A5 - Dog Park EachPeachPearPlum: S1 - Premonitions summerpipedream: A5 - Clint Barton/Hawkeye Ducky: R5 - Fortune Telling Magica: T2 - Fortitude SomeSortofItalianRoast: S2 - Magic DarthBloodOrange: T4 - Robots Ship: None Rating: Teen Major Tags: animal transformation, magic/witchcraft, Kate is a hero, Clint is a disaster human being Summary: Tony has been turned into a dog, and he is going to straight-up murder whoever made him a corgi. Word Count: 2634

------------------------------------------

Title: I Know You Collaborator: iam93percentstardust Card Number: 4012 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R5 - Sam Wilson/Falcon Ship: IronFalcon Rating: Gen Major Tags: Established Relationship, Domestic Fluff, Sickfic Summary: When Tony gets sick and hides away from everyone else, it's up to Sam to find his wayward boyfriend. Good thing he knows him so well. Word Count: 1316

------------------------------------------

Title: Thriller - Michael Jackson Collaborator: monobuu Card Number: 4040 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A5 - Murderchildren Ship: None Rating: Teen Major Tags: Creepy? Summary: N/A Word Count: N/A

------------------------------------------

Title: I’ll keep your brittle heart warm Collaborator: peachy Card Number: 4017 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - Protectiveness Ship: Stony Rating: Teen Major Tags: Breaking up and making up, fluff, getting back together Summary: They got married when they were young, just twenty-four years old, despite the arguments from their friends that they should wait, that neither of them were ready for a commitment like marriage so young. Steve distinctly remembered Sam pointing out that the male brain isn’t even fully developed until age twenty-five. But they were young and passionate, so sure they’d found their perfect person that they could overcome anything and everything life threw at them. And it was true. For six months. Word Count: 4223

#tonystarkbingomarkiv #tsbmiv #tsb weekly roundup #tsb week 2

6 notes · View notes

burritodetodo · 4 years

Text

Burrito’s Guide To Survive Coronavirus Quarantine

We got to keep social distance (1 or 2 meters each other) or stay home during coronavirus outbreak so I thought I can share with y’all some things I’m gonna watch or do doing quarantine (this is a very long post, REBLOGS ARE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!).

BUT FIRST SOME RULES:

Wash your hands: do it for 20 seconds or a while, but ALWAYS do it. It prevents the virus from spreading. If you don’t have sanitizer, water and soap! The cheapest and best ally against the disease.

Buy everything you need: if you can, try to buy stuff so you can stay some days at home. If the place is crowded, go back home and come later when it’s more empty. Same as medicine.

You can go for a walk: stay at home all day can be overwhelming for your mental health, but unless the goverment puts a curfew or gets strict about it you can go walk outside for a while always respecting the 1 or 2 meters from other people and without making contact (chatting) with other people. This ain’t my rule, a CDC professional says. DON’T go visit your friends or to crowded places such as bars, restaurants, shoppings, etc. If you want to buy something, ask for delivery or take away.

If you have coronavirus sympthoms (high fever, diarrhea, cough, feeling tired, breath difficulties) DON’T GO TO THE HOSPITAL YET, CALL TO YOUR PUBLIC HEALTH ORGANISATION OR WHATEVER YOU GOT AND THEY’LL TREAT YOU.

(credits to whoever made this meme)

SO YOUR LIFE IS ON QUARANTINE

Let’s say your boss or your school told you can stay at home. Okay then, you gotta prepare for some days inside *Isolation by John Lennon plays in the distance*. The first thing you think is you have to prepare a batch of series and movies to watch in order to kill some time. I’m gonna recommend you some you can find on VOD or cable, if you don’t have it don’t worry because I got you covered!

Infinity Train: a yet two seasons saga about people who got to face their problems aboard an endless train. The protagonists are joined by creatures who have different nature and help them, or not, to acknowledge their issues and leave the train. It’s on CN, it will continue on HBO Max.

The Owl House: a teen girl who daydream a lot was going to be sent to a down-to-earth camp but then she crosses a portal to the Boiling Isles, a magical world where she is taken care by a powerful Owl witch/saleswoman and her adorable demon. Lots of fantasy, some action scenes and many many puns. It’s on Disney Channel, it’ll be on Disney+ in some weeks.

Primal: Genndy Tartakovsky delighted us with the alliance of a caveman and a dinosaur, two rivals in a wild world who ally after facing a devastating event. It IS brutal and beatiful, has no dialogue and keeps you watching closely. Five final episodes are set to premiere this year. It’s on Adult Swim, maybe on HBO Max.

Tuca and Bertie: for the critics, one of 2019 best shows. For Netflix, a show that had to be cut off because the studio unionized. Two friends in their late 20s face changes in their lives: from living with a boyfriend and plan a life to look a way to stay sober and get a job. Deals with trauma, ptsd, anxiety and more harsh moments very well. In fact, the creator is a vital part of Bojack Horseman! It’s on Netflix.

Aggretsuko: red pandas are cute eh? But what about a antopomorphic red panda who releases her anger and frustrations by singing at a karaoke? This awesome comedy by Sanrio & Netflix is one of anime’s big hits lately. Like T&B, has a good handle of adult problems but not going too deep just to not break the comedy. You can watch it on Netflix.

Regular Show: yeah-uuuuhhhh! Eight seasons, a movie, five Halloween specials and some others. The adventures of a racoon and a blue jay with their co-workers/friends that relies on psychadellia and 80s and 90s nostalgia. It begins good, gets better, then lowers the quality (they were producing the movie at the same time tho, give some credit) and with and after the movie ends awesome. It’s on CN web, dunno if on Hulu (US only) and proably on HBO Max.

Evangelion: it’s a classic at this point, but addictive to me because I end rewatching the series or the final movie many times. A post apocalyptic future where the world has to deal with strange creatures known as the Angels and a boy with lots of traumas has to get on a mecha to save the humankind. All the characters have traumas and issues, the interaction between them or the action makes it worth. The End of Evangelion is a movie that ends the unfinished series. Warning: at some point it becomes very twisted and there are scenes which are too much violent. Viewer disclosure etc. It’s on Netflix worldwide.

Steven Universe & SU Future: this is the tale of the gem boy who ends a galactical tyranny and brings democracy to the universe. A acclaimed show that broke through many topics like gender, identity, ptsd, relationships and many more. Besides it’s got the best scores of the Milky Way and beyond thanks to the talent of Rebecca Sugar, Aivi Tran and Surasshu. And the actors and acrtresses! I don’t forget the movie, a musical that is an introduction to the epilogue: Shippuden Future. The show is available on CN and will be on HBO Max. Worldwide? No news.

Adventure Time: something that began as an innocent boy and a magical dog having adventures in a post apocalyptic world turns into the journey of Finn Metens from childhood to almost adulthood. There is a lot of fantasy and comedy you enjoy, but there are dark moments and serious ones through S6 that find a balance with early seasons form S7 to the finale. It also has great music, memorable moments and colaborations. And guess what? There is going to be a special set to premiere on HBO Max in some weeks! You got plenty of time to catch up or rewatch before that on CN or only (!!) S5 on Netflix.

Final Space: a dude tries to save the universe with their friends, where we can find his love interest, a cat-man and his kitten son, a intersexual alien, an AI then robot that is the best of them, two particular siblings and an annoying bot that prevents insanity that makes you insane. Crazy adventures in space, lots of situations, sadness, an evil smol bean who is a space emperor, a dude who looks for revenge, space deities that can destroy the universe. Is this a lot or info? It is not, because there is more and you can watch it on TBS, Adult Swim and Netflix (the world except US).

Rick and Morty: the most powerful, smartest human in the universe has adventures with his grandson. It’s awesome, but has a very toxic fanbase. Anyway, you can enjoy it on Adult Swim or Netflix (which is up to date!) and the rest of S4 is set someday.

Bojack Horseman: a Hollywood satire about human relationships, fame, traumas with a pour of comedy. Alongside the previous series, the best adult animation of the decade. Sadly cut by Netflix because the studio unionized (see T&B), said by both the creator and Aaron Paul. You can watch the six amazing seasons on that platform.

I’m not an animated movies guy, but here are three I really like and you can watch:

Porco Rosso: a handsome Italian combat aviator turned magically to a pig has a face off with an American pilot hired by pirates to get rid of him before WWII in Fascist Italy. It’s entertaining and, like every Ghibli movie, nice to watch. It’s on Netflix and will be on HBO Max for US.

Lego Batman Movie: Batman is depressed and has to get over it. It’s wacky and has lots of comedy. Plus Will Arnett is top 3 Batman. On Netflix (Latinamerica).

Spiderverse: Oscar winner movie about your friendly neighbour Peter Parker Miles Morales. Miles sees Spiderman die and feels bad after being transfered to a private school. Then a radioactive spider from a Fisk compound bites Miles and he’s Spiderman... among other dimensions’ Spiderpeople: Gwen, Peni, Peter Parker, Noir and Peter Porker. It’s visually amazing. On US it’s on Netflix (I guess), on Latinamerica on HBO.

Some interesting live actions I watched lately

Atlanta: Donald Glover is Earn, a dude who struggles to find a job for her baby girld and sees an opportunity when his cousin, Paper Boi, has a hit and uses him to make his cos famous. Sometimes a comedy, sometimes a social satire with touches of drama. And all protagonists are now big shots, like Zazie Beetz, Brian Tyree Henry or Lakeith Stanfield. There are two seasons and two seasons set for 2021 (2022 possible beacuse of coronavirus). It’s on FX, Hulu (US) and Netflix (world)

Avenue 5: this is brand new. On 2060 space cruises are a thing, and one cruise (the Avenue 5) has an accident that leaves the crew and passangers stranded for years. The captain (Hugh Laurie) has to solve this shit with a bunch of incompetent crew, bosses like Judd (Josh Gad), except one female engeneer who is very smart. Lots of crazy things happen in this series from the creator behind Veep. It’s on HBO (it’s free in the US!).

Peaky Blinders: it has some years but damn it’s epic. A gang from Birmingham makes their way to the top during the late 1910s after the Great War and extends through the 1920s. S5 is right in the ascension of fascism in Britain. ALL THE CAST acts spectacular, names like Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Anna Taylor-Joy and a long etc. But my fave is Paul Anderson, that ultra violent junkie Arthur Shelby is splendid, then is Tommy and aunt Pol, the baddest badass woman in Britain. Blinders is going to have seven seasons, there are two left. You can watch it on BBC or Netflix.

Sex Education: speaking of Britain, excellent teen comedy. Horny, doubtful teenagers going through those hard years. Stories of sex (duh!), abuse situations, abortion, there are gay relationships either, Gillian Anderson! It’s on Netflix, go go go!

Watchmen: despite not having Alan Moore on board, Damien Lindeloff did a tremendous job with the comic. Way better and less misleading than Zack Snyder’s 2009 film, Watchmen is again at the gates of the world’s end (like today) and handles the problem of racism and white supremacy quite well. Just 9 episodes, but worth to watch. On HBO.

CAOS: Sabrina the Teenage Witch is over. Warner and Netflix made a revival of the Archie Comics character and brought her to XXI Century. But gorier, hornier, dark and magical than the nice 90s sitcom. Sabrina Spellman goes from a doubtful teen who has to decide if she has to be a witch or a powerless woman to rule Hell. How she does it? Find out on Netflix! Note: S1 and 2 take some episodes to start properly. Don’t get bored too easy.

There are A LOT MORE to recommend and I make a list: Harley Quinn (DC Universe), OK KO (Hulu -US only-), House MD, Young Justice (DC Universe/Netflix), Ken Burns’ documentaries (Netflix), Titans (DCU), Over The Garden Wall (CN), Seis Manos (Netflix), Thundercats Roar (CN), Easy (Netflix), GLOW (Netflix), Star Trek Discovery (CBS, Netflix) and Picard (CBS, Amazon Prime), etc.

- You named cool shows, but I’m not from the United States or I don’t have a subscription to (insert VOD here) because I can’t afford it

- Glad you asked, I have the answer here

Introducing Stremio. It’s an open source platform where you can watch shows, movies or even live TV on Windows, Linux, Apple or Android. You create an account, install some addons and start looking for what you want to watch.

Stremio is based on torrents, you should install addons from many known torrent sites. So maybe you find an old show, but there aren’t many seeds to watch. And it could be frustraiting, so make sure there are people sharing so you can watch it.

You can download Stremio here and check the FAQs which is very clear.

NOTE: Stremio is note quite “clean” way to watch, but if you do please support the shows you watch by posting, commenting about them, making memes, thanking the creators and crew for their work, buying merchandise if you can. They put a lot to make the shows we love, let’s give ‘em back that love and effort.

You’re tired of the same music, the same movies or need to leave something to make company? There is Vaughn Live, a streaming page where are lots of channels with movies and series on strem (not VOD). For example, there is a channel that streams Adventure Time, other Regular Show, other Sci-Fi shows, another with DBZ and so on. Take in count that if the channel has +70 viewers, the free access is cut and if you want to watch it you have to pay.

En Vaughn también hay canales en español, como Simpsonmanía, Dragon Ball, Futurama, dibujos viejos y muchísimo más. Anyway, go to https://vaughn.live/ and enjoy yourselves!

Y hablando de canales en español, pueden ir a SeriesLan donde está el mayor reservorio conocido de series animadas de entre 1960 a 2010 en español latino. Pueden encontrar tesoros desde Don Gato, los Halcones Galácticos o Street Sharks a Flapjack y Mechas XLR. Otra alternativa para que pasen el rato.

Some interesting facts:

Epic Games releases a free game per week in their store. This week will be two games. You can check in https://www.epicgames.com

Steam has good prices on games and some free ones. There even is the latest Football Manager for free until March 25th. Check on https://store.steampowered.com/

If you’re interested,

I got this playlist I made on Spotify

with songs I liked in more than one year. More than 1200 songs.

And that’s pretty much it! You got resources for a lot of days, 14 initially since that’s the quarantine time in my country. Remember: obey the indications of the Health authorities, this is no time to play the “fuck the goverment” game. We will overcome this pandemy together, helping and caring for each other. That’s why I did this guide, to keep your minds busy in these tough times! Wash your hands, keep social distance, stay at home, go outside if necessary and have some patience please. This has been a PSA.

Stay strong!

Burrito

20 notes · View notes

miss-musings · 5 years

Text

“THE BLACKLIST” & WHY PEOPLE HATE LIZ SO MUCH

I’ve discussed on here several times how much I’ve been annoyed with the way TPTB have written Liz’s character over the course of the show. But, I tried to keep my frustration and annoyance directed more so at the writers/showrunners and less on the character herself or the actress Megan Boone.

However, after watching 6x10 “The Cryptobanker,” I think I may have finally hit the point where I really started to hate Liz in and of herself. So, I started writing this post, which I’ve added to and edited over the past few weeks, but I still stand by my original point.

Now, I follow the Blacklist on Facebook, and almost every single time there’s a new post, the top-voted comments are always praising Spader/Red and hating on Liz. I’ve seen people say she’s annoying, that they didn’t like this S6 plotline with her and her sister, that they hoped the show kills her off for real soon, etc.

I always thought that most of the comments were somewhat valid but maybe a little overblown (especially the ones about wanting her off the show). But, it really made me wonder why so many people hate -- and I mean HATE -- Liz so much.

While I admit that her character is starting to really get on my nerves, I’m going to try to put my personal feelings aside and tackle this objectively. I want to really look at what reasons within the show, its writing, its format, etc., Liz receives so much more hate -- vastly more than any other character on this show. As I said, Red/Spader is always highly praised along with Dembe, and I rarely if ever see comments complaining about Samar, Aram, Cooper and Ressler. I would guestimate that 95 percent of complaints about any one character are directed at Liz.

A THEORETICAL POSSIBILITY

Now, I will theorize -- and keep in mind that this is only a theory -- that part of the reason for this hatred toward Liz has to do with some male fans being misogynistic/sexist and some female fans’ annoyance at what a crappy avatar Liz makes for. (I’m talking about straight viewers, FYI.)

With regard to male fans, I think they look at Liz -- who at times has been terse, mean-spirited and vindictive -- and see her as a giant bitch. After all, that was the whole idea that Liz herself sets up in the pilot. She is not who her male colleagues expect her to be. She doesn’t play into the traditional feminine role of simpering, smiling and content to sit on the sidelines and let the men sort things out. (And, I’m really generalizing here.) So, I think it’s a fair assumption that some male fans have the same sentiments about Liz that her colleagues canonically have too.

As for the female fans, I think Liz might come off as a poor avatar. When you’re plunged into a fictional universe, usually there’s a character who’s plunged into the story along with you, and you learn as they do, to the point where you start to project yourself onto them. Think Neo in “The Matrix” or Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker. It’s every person’s fantasy to discover some great power within, harness it to defeat the bad guy and win the heart of the beautiful woman/handsome man in the process.

Liz was clearly meant to be our avatar into this universe. We were brought into the world along with her, saw her learn about Red, begin the Task Force, and plunge into this world of the FBI and the Blacklist.

Now, I imagine that for older women, especially, the fantasy is to be the kind of gal that a guy like James Spader would absolutely devote himself to. And that’s exactly how Red treats Liz -- like a woman he would do anything for. However, unlike many viewers, Liz is ungrateful for Red’s devotion and continual sacrifices for her benefit. Instead of seeing him as a savior and white knight, she often sees him as a nuisance and a terror in her life. I personally think she’s often justified in that, but I’d guess that 80 percent of the current audience is watching it simply for Spader’s performance alone. So, when the favorite actor’s character is not appreciated and is continually hated on by his co-lead character, it makes for uncompelling television from a “I want to project myself onto this character” kind of way.

But, with the theoretical discussion out of the way, let’s examine some more concrete reasons as to why people hate Liz.

LIZ IS OFTEN WISHY-WASHY (ie, has little conviction) WHEN IT COMES TO HER FEELINGS AND DESIRES.

This is what I’ve often described as the “Liz loves Red, Liz hates Red, Liz forgives Red” song-and-dance routine. But, there’s much more to it than simply Liz’s relationship with Red.

Liz was first introduced to us as a woman who wanted to start a family, and yet she thought about giving up her baby for adoption and then later gave Agnes away to her mother-in-law so she could spend more time on her revenge plans. The entire pilot goes out of its way to show Liz struggling with the demands of being an FBI agent and a prospective parent, and drives home the whole “Mommy Liz” vibe with the admiral’s daughter.

Yet, when she finds out she’s pregnant, she hesitates and thinks about giving it up for adoption. Then, when she has Agnes, she agrees to Kaplan’s plan to fake her death so she and Tom and Agnes can be happy and safe away from his world. And, later when Agnes gets kidnapped, she frets and worries about her constantly.

But, the minute she wakes up after being in a coma, she’s totally cool with pawning Agnes off to someone she’s never really met. Cool.

I realize there are mitigating circumstances, but this is a woman who made all her loved ones -- Red, Cooper, Ressler, Samar, Aram, any family members she had left (except Tom) -- believe she was dead so she could live with her daughter in a safe location!!!

The idea that Liz wouldn’t just drop everything and give up the Task Force indefinitely to heal and spend time with her daughter after losing 10 months of time with her is absurd, IMO.

But, no, revenge is far more important.

It’s also really annoying that after finding out Tom had betrayed her, she was able to give him a second chance and continued to love him despite all sorts of stuff in Seasons 2-5, but the minute Red does anything, she wants to drop him like heavy airline luggage.

So, in case you forgot: in S1, she found out that Tom had been lying to her, manipulating her, and abusing her. So, after shooting him in the S1 finale, she chains him up on a boat for several months in an effort to make him useful to the Task Force. However, the minute that she hits the “hates Red” part of her “love Red, hate Red, forgive Red” cycle, she runs right back to Tom and very quickly forgives him. And, while her positive feelings for Tom continue from late S2b until his death in 5x08, her feelings about Red are all over the place, as mentioned.

Now, in her defense, her feelings about him seem to waver whenever a crucial piece of information about his involvement in her life is discovered. When Tom’s fake passports were traced back to Red in 1x06, she blamed him and said she didn’t want to work with him anymore. But, then the very next episode, when he offers to leave the Task Force completely, she doesn’t tell him to do so.

And, when Red admitted to killing Sam toward the end of S1, she was again ready to let him leave. But then at the end of the episode, she stops him.

In S2, when Liz believes that Red was only interested in her for the Fulcrum, and never really cared about her, she gives him the cold shoulder. And then when he admits that he did hire Tom to be in her life, her coldness toward him again grows.

While they’re on the run together in S3, their relationship is at its best, arguably. Until she finds out she’s pregnant and he tells her that the fight is not over, and she doesn’t want her child to be in Red’s world. (Which is understandable)

And on and on it goes through S4 and S5 and now S6. The minute Liz realizes that he stole her father’s identity, she’s ready to burn him to the ground. But then only a few episodes later, she’s teary-eyed and regretting that she turned him into the authorities.

AS OPPOSED TO RED’S ...

But, what really makes this all so annoying is the fact that while Liz’s feelings toward Red are cyclical, his feelings for her are constant, enduring, and never wavering. I mean, he’s basically Garth Brooks’ “Shameless” in human form. He is completely devoted to her, would give his life for hers without hesitation, and has loved her (in some form or another) far longer and far deeper than she has seemingly ever loved him.

If both of them liked each other, or if both of them disliked each other initially but then grew closer over time, the show would be much better. For instance, ABC’s Castle -- while it definitely has its flaws -- started off with the two leads liking each other from the start. Yeah, maybe they’re trying to get used to each because he’s a goofball and she’s kind of a hard ass, but it seems like by the end of the pilot, they both generally like each other as acquaintances.

Or NBC’s “The Enemy Within” -- which is eerily similar to TBL and I’ll have to do a whole post on their similarities some other time -- which starts off with the two leads being tenuous with each other. He hates her, and she is kind of neutral toward him, but the two of them need to cooperate to accomplish a shared goal.

This was never the case with Liz and Red on TBL. In the pilot, Liz is very wary of Red, as she should be. However, he -- according to Zamani -- is obsessed with her, and it’s clear that he cares about her far more than he should. To our knowledge, Red has never met adult Liz. He’s seen her from afar and kept tabs on her, of course, but this was the first time he’d met her (presumably) since The Night of the Fire. And from that meeting, his love has only grown, while hers -- as discussed -- has been all over the place.

THE TWO ARE NOT EQUAL

As I’ve said in previous posts, while the show wants Red and Liz to be partners, they are really so unequal on multiple levels. The same could be said of the two leads on “The Enemy Within, but their inadequacies tend balance each other out. She has all the know-how, but he has the freedom and jurisdiction to do things, and he is the one who ultimately makes the decision on what his team should tackle and how. She has some of the power in their dynamic, and he has some as well. Thus, their advantages tend to cancel each other out.

This is not the case with Red and Liz. All this time, Red has withheld crucial pieces of information from her, which he gives to her in piecemeal and only when she demands them. I won’t judge whether that’s the right or wrong thing to do, but it puts her at a disadvantage as far as their dynamic goes. And while Liz should be given some advantage of her own, she really doesn’t have one. Red has an immunity agreement and gets to do pretty much whatever he wants, unlike on “The Enemy Within” where the male FBI agent has some say over what privileges the female CI has because she’s still in custody.

I guess the one advantage that Liz has over Red is that he’s told her he will never lie to her. And she has confronted him and asked him direct questions before because she knows he *has* to tell her to truth if she does. But, that doesn’t stop him from stalling, changing the subject, or trying to do a verbal workaround.

And then, when the show was promoting S6, they made it seem like the power was finally in Liz’s hands -- she knows he’s an impostor and he doesn’t know that she knows.

But, while the show tried to give Liz a bit of an edge over Red, it ultimately fizzled out. She knows he’s an impostor, but she no longer has an interest in pursuing it. Which goes back to my previous point about her not having conviction. She wanted to destroy Red, and betrayed him to ensure that he wouldn’t get in the way of her and Jennifer’s quest to find out his true identity. But then, she drops it.

Again, I realize there was a lot going on -- Jennifer was kidnapped; Red was almost executed. And while I think the fact that, right now, she’s fine with not having all the answers is a sign a maturity, it’s also incredibly frustrating to see how she went from 0 to 100 in such a short span of time.

Anyway... moving on to my next major point:

LIZ DOESN’T FEEL LIKE A REAL PERSON

Relative to the screentime she’s received, Liz does not feel like a real person, but merely a plot device or a vehicle for Red’s schemes and/or the Task Force’s missions.

Very rarely do we get to see her on her own, doing her own things, outside of Red/the Task Force -- going to the store, doing chores at home, hanging out with her kid, etc. The only times we do are when it’s relevant to the overall plot. Like when she gets beat up in the parking lot in 3x11 or when she brings that Lady Ambrosia kid over to her house, tries to cook him something, and then the fire alarm goes off.

She seems solely to exist within Red’s/the Task Force’s orbit.

I feel like the fact that Liz doesn’t have any friends or family outside of the Task Force, Red and Tom (when he was alive), really speaks to how she seems to exist more as a character, not as a person within a fictional universe.

She doesn’t seem to have any hobbies, and outside of her mentioning the Wizard of Oz and a few other things, she doesn’t really seem to have any interests in anything.

By comparison, we have lots of scenes with Red and Dembe, doing puzzles, playing cards and board games. We know Red enjoys art and food/alcohol and traveling, and he has a penchant for some types of drugs -- his favorite being sex.

And even Aram enjoys Doctor Who, biking and cooking.

I’m not saying that Liz needs to start chatting with Ressler about Monday Night Football or playing pool at some local dive bar, but something! Just a line about how she Skyped with Agnes last night, or her talking to Samar or Aram about her trying to decide whether she should download Tinder and try to get back into the dating scene, or a scene of her running around a park but she’s disturbed by memories from her past. Just something. Something to make her feel like a real person, who does things outside of the Task Force.

Again, I always hate the fact that Liz was supposed to have all these friends in S1 (the house party at the end of 1x03 and the vow renewal later in S1), and yet, they seemed to have vanished. I hate the fact that Liz doesn’t have any support system outside of Red and the Task Force. The girl needs friends! Hobbies! Interests! Something!!!

LIZ TRIES TOO HARD TO PROVE HERSELF, GETS IN TROUBLE, AND OFTEN NEEDS TO BE RESCUED BY RED AND/OR THE TASK FORCE AS A RESULT

This gets into a personal pet peeve of mine where Liz reassures people that she can do things. In the most recent case, she told her sister that she was definitely capable of deceiving Red and keeping him from finding out that she knows.

But then within the episode or two, Red definitely knows that Liz is up to something because she has been acting weird around him. And, before she begs Dembe not to tell Red that she was the one who betrayed him, Red was pretty certain that she was the one who did. I would suggest that the minute he was arrested, he had a good suspicion it was her. Hence why he said that what he would do to his betrayer would depend on who they were. He was hedging his bets, in case it was Liz.

Liz and Jennifer kept going back and forth on trying to convince the other that they could pull off this “Find Red’s true identity” side-plot, but ultimately, Jennifer got kidnapped, Liz killed a dude, and ended up having to recruit Ressler and Red to help her find Jennifer and confront the people who took her.

This type of situation happens A LOT on the show. Liz will try to do her own thing (finding Red’s true identity, etc.) and it ultimately gets her into trouble. It seemed to happen more often in S1-3. One example I can think of was when she didn’t kill Tom, but instead captured and imprisoned him, and then he killed the Harbormaster and forced Liz to face charges for murder. Red and the Task Force and even Tom had to come to her rescue to make sure she didn’t face the consequences of her choices. Yes, Tom did kill the Harbormaster, but Liz was the one who had decided to chain him up on the boat in the first place. The murder is on him, but the imprisoning is on her.

Liz also killed the Attorney General, and Red and the Task Force (and Tom, once again) were ultimately responsible for saving her from the Director’s plot while she was trapped in The Box, bringing the Cabal’s actions to light, using the Director as the scapegoat for Hitchen and then getting Liz out of the murder charges by bringing in Karakurt. And then, later, Red was responsible for leveraging the President into pardoning her so that she could become an agent again.

Now, there have been a few occasions where Liz was kidnapped simply because she was an FBI agent, not because of her connection to Red or anything else. For instance, in 1x04 “The Stewmaker,” she’s kidnapped and almost killed because she had her own personal history with that Lorca guy.

But, again, too many times Liz is put in the “damsel in distress” position where either she’s in trouble or her life is threatened and others have to be the ones to save her, either by saving her life or by saving her from legal repercussions, etc.

In a way, this whole S6a has been the consequence of Liz’s actions, which she regretted and then was looking for any and all help to make sure Red wasn’t executed after she’d turned him in. Yes, Red was the one who insisted on the death penalty, but he never would’ve been in that situation if she hadn’t betrayed him. And ultimately, it was Cooper who came through and pressured the President into staying Red’s execution.

Going back to the “Red and Liz aren’t equals” thing, very rarely is Red the one who needs saving. And, even when he is, it isn’t always Liz who’s rescuing him. Again, Cooper was the one who saved Red from execution. Liz has saved him a few times that I can recall -- she stopped that guy from shooting him in 2x14 and she leveraged the Director into calling off the hit in 2x19.

But, again, Liz seems to be in trouble far more often than Red is, and she very rarely is able to save herself (with the solo-Liz episode being one of the few times she does). Meanwhile, Red is able to get out of jams on his own much more often, such as when he escapes Anslo in 1x10. And, he and the Task Force save her far more often than Liz and the Task Force save him. And, even then, sometimes Red saves her single-handedly (like in the S2 Super Bowl episode) while she usually has to work with others to save him.

Once again, I realize there are a lot of mitigating circumstances. Red has a vast criminal empire and more knowledge and resources than Liz does, most of the time. But, I do wish that 1) Liz wouldn’t be kidnapped or have her life/livelihood threatened so often and 2) that Red’s would be a tiny bit more frequently, so that *she* can save *him.*

It also doesn’t help that she was sidelined in S3b partly because she was a felon who was no longer able to be an agent on the Task Force and because both Liz the character and Megan Boone the actress were pregnant. And then she was sidelined again in S4a because of the whole felon thing / trying to get Agnes back.

TL;DR

I believe the reasons why people hate Liz are similar to why people hate Sakura from the “Naruto” Universe (as YouTube channel SwagKage describes in this video):

Liz doesn’t get the character development she should relative to her screentime; and any development she does get seems to be cyclical and inconsistent. (ie, she acts however the writers need her to for the given arc/episode)

Liz often tries to do her own thing, despite warnings not to; and while she’s by no means useless to Red or the Task Force, she often has to be rescued (either directly or indirectly) far more than she does the rescuing.

Liz often acts demanding, ungrateful, and selfish -- or at least relative to how the audience might want her to act, especially with regard to Red. And, jumping off the second point, also has a bit of an ego and can be proud and willful, which as I theorized, might be a turn-off for some male viewers.

Also, the Lizzington shipper in me could point out the parallels between Sakura liking Sasuke (who was a giant dick to her) and hating Naruto (who was constantly helping her out) and Liz’s dynamics with Tom and Red, respectively, but I’ll leave you all to watch the video for yourself.

Overall, I think some of the reasons for hating Liz are valid, but as I said, I *try* not to direct my annoyance toward the character of Liz herself or Megan Boone, the actress, but rather the writers, who I feel need to take responsibility for what they’ve done and continue to do with this character.

Don’t take this to say that I hate the writers, but rather that I want them to do better. I want to see this show succeed and I want to see Megan have some amazing material to work with the same way that James seems to with Red.

I’ll say it again: I don’t hate this show; I merely want to offer up my criticisms and objective-ish insights into why I think people hate Liz so much. In that way, we fans can have a discussion and perhaps maybe the writers will take some of our points to heart.

For my next major TBL post, I’ll try to tackle the similarities between TBL and The Enemy Within. :D

#lizzington #reddington #raymond reddington #liz keen #elizabeth keen #the blacklist #nbc the blacklist #nbc blacklist #blacklist #james spader #megan boone #harold cooper #donald ressler #samar navabi #aram mojtabai #red reddington #masha rostova

94 notes · View notes

sueboohscorner · 4 years

Text

#Outlander S5, Ep5 - "Perpetual Adoration"

#Outlander Season 5, Episode 5, “Perpetual Adoration”

Claire reflects on her faith, Jamie resorts to extreme measures to protect Murtaugh and #Adso joins the Fraser clan! Let’s recap #Outlander, S5, E5, #Perpetual Adoration.

The episode begins with Claire back to the future as she sits in a church talking about faith. Pardon me for this girly moment, but I love 1960’s Claire’s eye make-up! OK, back to the recap. Claire leaves the church and meets Brianna for lunch. Claire tells Brianna that she lost a patient to a penicillin allergy after the patient had tested negative for an allergy to the drug. A false negative is rare, but it does happen, she explains. We don’t know who the patient is just yet, but his death has clearly had a profound effect on Claire, and she asks Brianna if she’ll come to London with her. At first, Bree doesn’t want to go, blaming upcoming final exams. But Claire explains how much this trip with Brianna would mean to her so Bree agrees to go.

At Fraser’s Ridge, Claire is looking through her microscope and is shocked to see that her attempt to create penicillin worked! Marsali enters the room and Claire has her look in the microscope. She sees it too! Claire shouts “Eureka,” a word Marsali has never heard. Claire explains and Marsali shouts “Eureka” too! Now Claire can remove the infected tonsils of the Beardsley twins!

Roger is back home having safely escorting Claire back to Fraser’s Ridge. He and Brianna are in their cabin and getting “reacquainted” with married life. Roger is still fretting about Jamie sending him home with Claire rather than continue with the militia. He and Bree talk about the universities that will be created in the future and wonders if he might be able to continue his life as a scholar since he clearly isn’t meant to be a soldier. But he has sworn an oath to fight alongside Jamie and he won’t break his word.

As Claire celebrates with Marsali, Jamie, Fergus and the militia ride into Hillsborough. The townspeople mistake them for Regulators and are less than happy to see them. Jamie explains who they are and that the crown will pay each man who enlists but it seems that the British soldiers have worn out their welcome in Hillsborough and none of the men enlist. As Jamie and Fergus enter the pub, he sees Lt. Knox throwing darts at a wanted poster of Murtaugh. Knox informs Jamie that Governor Tyron has ordered a pardon for all the Regulators, except Murtaugh. Knox has been ordered to keep searching for Murtaugh, but that Jamie is free to go home to Fraser’s Ridge. Knox tells Jamie that he has requested a list of all the men who were in Ardsmuir prison with Murtaugh thinking that he may be able to track him down by locating his cellmates. Of course, Knox has no idea that the names on that list will include Jamie. Knox challenges Jamie to throw a dart at Murtaugh’s picture, he takes the dart, but intentionally misses.

At Fraser’s Ridge, Claire and Marsali, aided by Lizzie who is a bit squeamish. She tests both boys for an allergic reaction to the penicillin and both are negative. Now, I’m wondering about the needle Claire used. Did she bring it with her when she returned through the stones? Would a needle like that have been invented at this point in history? Anyway, the surgery takes only moments and is a complete success.

Back to Claire in 1960, she enters the room of Graham Menzies. Menzies is a charming Scottish man and talking with him brings back her memories of Scotland and Jamie. When Claire explains that he has gallstones that must be removed but first she must treat an underlying infection, we realize that this is the patient that Claire is going to lose.

Roger is babysitting Jemmy who is screaming, Roger tries to calm him and accidentally knocks over a box on the hearth. He sets Jem down to pick everything up and sees a diamond. He recognizes the stone as the one that belonged to Stephen Bonnet. Roger has a flashback of playing cards with Bonnet on his ship. This is the same diamond that Bonnet wagered in that card game. Later, as Brianna returns to the cabin, a slightly drunk Roger, confronts his wife about the diamond. Brianna does her best to explain what happened, but when Bree tells him that she told Bonnet that the baby was his, Roger demands that Bree tell him if she believes that Bonnet is Jemmy’s father. Brianna’s silence is enough to prove to Roger that she does believe Bonnet is Jem’s father and Roger storms out of the cabin.

In 1960, Claire learns that Mr. Menzies passed away and unfortunately takes her anger out on the nurse who delivered the news. Claire let herself get attached to this patient and Claire is angry with herself for doing so. But isn’t that the best thing about Claire as a doctor? She deeply cares for all of patients, past, present and future. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Claire heads back to the church to honor Graham Menzies “perpetual adoration,” a promise he made to his late wife. She speaks briefly with the priest as she lets in her memories of Jamie. She tells the priest that being here reminds her of someone she lost, and the priest tells Claire that as long as someone is remembered, they are never lost. Claire feels comforted by his words.

There’s a bit of bouncing back and forth between the past and future this episode and now we go back to Fraser’s Ridge and Roger has spent the night in the woods. He hears something and raises his rifle. Fortunately, he does not fire because it’s Claire. Roger and Claire share a bond and Roger confides in Claire and tells her the whole story. Claire shares her story about Frank raising a baby and loving a baby that he knows isn’t his. She tells Roger that their marriage was complicated but that they made it work for Bree’s sake. Roger is bothered by the fact that they she and Frank never told Brianna that Frank was not her father. Claire explains that there was no way that Brianna could have handled the news when she was younger, so she waited for the right time. The time came when she and Brianna travelled to London. It was hard for Brianna to learn the truth but after Bree had some time to process the news, she and Claire became closer. Claire tells Roger that he mustn’t be careless with the time that he and Bree have together.

Claire’s words have given Roger some clarity and he returns to Brianna with a bouquet of flowers and an apology. Brianna again tries to explain but Roger tells her its not necessary. Bree tells Roger that Stephen Bonnet is alive and that she suspects it was Bonnet who was talking to Mrs. Bug in town. Bree is terrified that Bonnet will return but Roger tells Brianna that it doesn’t matter. As soon as they find out the Jemmy can time travel, they’ll use the diamond as their trip home.

In Hillsborough, Jamie knocks on Knox’s door. In his hand is the papers that Knox has requested from Ardsmuir prison. Knox asks Jamie to join him for a game of chess. Jamie agrees to one game and as they sit, Knox starts to open the papers. Jamie tells Knox that he will find his name on the list. Knox doesn’t take him seriously until Jamie explains that Murtaugh is his godfather. Knox pulls a knife on Jamie as he tries to explain his actions. Knox is freaking out now and Jamie strangles Knox. Jamie is quick to cover his tracks as he throws the documents in the fire and closes the flue, filling the room with smoke. He moves Knox to the bed and escapes out the window.

As Jamie hides nearby, Knox is pulled from the smoke-filled room. As Jamie waits for his opportunity to escape, he spies an adorable gray kitten and when the coast is clear, he and Fergus head for home.

Claire is tending her garden on a beautiful, sunny day when Jamie returns. He doesn’t tell Claire what has happened yet. Instead, he reaches into his satchel and pulls out the little gray kitty. His name is Adso because that was the name of the cat he had at a child. A little gray cat that looks just like Adso #2. Claire is thrilled with the kitten and feeds Adso a nice bowl of milk.

Later, as Adso enjoys his bowl of milk, Claire tells Jamie about Graham Menzies and that she realizes that his death was the start of her journey back to Jamie. It’s in these little private moments between Jamie and Claire that I think the chemistry between Caitriona and Sam really shines.

Next week’s episode is called “Better to Marry, Than Burn.” Yikes! Please be safe everyone and take this pandemic seriously. If you’re stuck at home, remember that seasons 1-4 of Outlander are on Netflix! Good time for an Outlander binge!

#Outlander #perpetualadoration #adso

1 note · View note

chid-sen-gan-blog · 5 years

Text

My Reaction to GoT 8.04 (”The Last of the Starks”)

Hello, everyone! So, I’m back once again for another recap/review of the latest GoT epsiode. I’m sorry this took so long, but I spent most of my week in a deep depression over it, so I only got around to editing it now…

Anyway, this review is as much of an emotional roller coaster as the actual episode was, so read at your own risk.

Once again, these are my thoughts from my first time viewing it (I read the leaks prior to seeing the episode, but I took them with a grain of salt, so everything written is based purely on my own emotions), and, once again, it features running commentary from my Dad and Brother because I love them and they’re amazing.

WARNING: Spoilers for the episode, if you haven’t seen it yet. Though considering how late I’m posting this, the warning may be irrelevant

WARNING #2: Please excuse my emotional state throughout. This show is designed to break me in many, many ways

Thanks you to everyone who supported the first three installments! I hope you enjoy the fourth!

Considering there are only two episodes left in the series (not counting this one), I think it’s kind of pointless for me to say that I’m still not used to the opening credits. If they haven’t grown on me yet, then they’re not going to in time for the finale

Every time I see D&D’s names at the start of an episode, I die a little inside

YES!!! I CAN SEE ACTUALLY SEE THIS EPISODE!!! (#still salty about squinting in 8x3)

Ugh. Dany. On second thought, I’ll take the poor lighting back. Please? Thank you

Aww, Sansa giving Theon her Stark pin. *tears up*

*quickly wipes tears away* Nope, not now, I’m saving my crying for later

I really hope that I’m not going to have to bring out the tissues for this episode even though all the leaks are pointing to it

Yikes. That’s… a lot of bodies

And just think of how many of them could still be alive if the dragons had just lit some ice zombies up instead of getting lost in a snowstorm

Or if the Dothraki hadn’t charged right into the Army of the Dead when they could hardly see where they were going

Then again none of us could really see anything with last episode’s lighting, so…

#still salty about squinting

Noooooo! Ghost!!! My poor baby’s covered in wounds!!!

“Alright, which of those undead creeps beat Ghost up that badly?! Because I will kill them all over again!” – My Wonderful Dad

“By the looks of it, he did a lot more fighting than the dragons. Point: Team Direwolves.” – My Wonderful Brother

Once again, just when I think Jon can’t look any more tired, he raises the bar

(at this point he could probably list “being tired” as one of his skills on his resume)

So, with this lighting, I can finally find out who survived. Okay, so let’s see… Jaime, Brienne, Davos, Gendry, the Hound…

Good speech, Jon. I’m surprised Dany let you take the reigns and make it

The score is fantastic once again. I can’t express how happy it makes me that Ramin Djawadi always brings his A-Game

(even when certain members of the crew don’t seem to *cough D&D cough*…)

Okay, this scene is really touching, I admit

Though I’m honestly a little confused why we still have to burn the bodies with the White Walkers gone, but, oh, well…

Oooh, a feast. Nice. I’ll stick to my potato chips and gummy bears, though

Gendrya’s canon and I’m glad

I wonder who curses more: the Hound or Bronn?

Oh, shoot. Dany, no. No, don’t call to Gendry…

NO!!! WHO TOLD THE WHITE-HAIRED DEMON THAT HE WAS ROBERT’S SON?! WAS IT YOU, DAVOS?! IT WAS YOU, WASN’T IT?! YOU AND YOUR OBSESSION WITH HER “GOOD HEART”!!!

I SWEAR TO EVERY DIREWOLF THAT’S GONE BEFORE GHOST THAT IF YOU LAY A HAND ON GENDRY I WILL TWIST YOUR DOUGH HAIR INTO A NOOSE, DANY!!!

Anyone else think it’s rather telling how everyone looks absolutely terrified when Dany’s speaking to Gendry?

“If Gendry dies, I will riot.” – My Wonderful Brother

Wait… Dany legitimized him?

No, there has to be something more to this. Dany never does things unless it’s for her own benefit…

Aaaaand there it is. Typical. Figured it was some ulterior motive

(my Dany bitterness is seriously at an all-time high tonight, and I’m not quite sure why)

Jon smiles more around a kid he barely knows (Gendry) than he does with Dany. And that’s the tea

“Sure, Dany, you just told everyone in this room now that Gendry has a claim to the Iron Throne that supersedes yours, but, yeah, you’re soooo clever.” – My Wonderful Brother

Even Tyrion looks done with her at this point. ‘Took him long enough

Jaime putting his hand on Brienne’s reminds me of a similar scene with them from S3, E6 (“The Climb”). *sighs* Ah, the early seasons. Those were good days…

Aww, the way they look at each other. *heart melts*

I’ve never been much for shipping, but when it comes to Jaime and Brienne, I’m shipping trash. And I’m proud

“JUST KISS ALREADY, YOU TWO!!!” – My Wonderful Dad (edit: apparently, I’m not the only one who’s shipping trash)

“Just nudge Brienne a little closer to him, Pod. Just enough for their lips to meet.” – My Wonderful Brother (edit: my whole family is shipping trash, and I couldn’t be happier about it)

Ah, Davos, Tyrion. Discussing Melisandre, are we? Pour one out for her on my behalf, would you? I owe her for lighting things up last episode

#still salty about squinting

Good question… what does R’Hollor want? Not that I expect D&D to explain it, but still…

Bran’s still a robot. Wonderful

Please tell me he has some purpose in this show other than creeping out his family and their guests

You know how you have that one friend that just won’t take no for an answer and tries to talk you into all the worst things and then acts like they’re doing you a favor? Yeah, that’s Tormund

Aw, Sansa encouraging Jon is everything. Even if it’s encouraging him to drink

Tormund, why would you toast to Dany? Why would you hurt me like that? Is it because I ship Braime? I always said Briemund was fine, too!

(though some Briemund stans that I’ve met… less so)

Dany toasting to Arya. Wow, it certainly looks like someone read their kiss-up handbook, doesn’t it?

“That woman is saccharine, spice, and nothing nice.” – My Wonderful Brother

The Hound barely acknowledges when Gendry’s named a lord, but is visibly amused when Arya’s mentioned. Oh, Sandor, you softie…

Seriously, though, the fact that we have Northmen, Free Folk, Southerners, Starks, Lannisters, and Varys (from Essos) all together in one room is amazing. And beyond that, they’re happy; they’re not fighting, they’re not trying to kill one another – they’re celebrating. Together. It’s actually making me tear up a bit

Well, we were all happy until Sansa saw Dany and left

I can’t blame her there, though. Wanting to book the moment you lay eyes on Dany is a personal mood of mine

Okay, confession time: I really want to play the drinking game one of these days with my family (though I’ll substitute the wine with something non-alcoholic)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I adore Lannisbros, and I always will

Like, Tyrion’s charm has been lost on me since S5, but whenever he’s with Jaime, I can’t help but fall in love with him all over again.

And whenever Jaime’s around Tyrion, it always brings out a sweeter, softer side of his personality that we don’t normally get to see, and I live for it

Honestly, I can’t credit Peter and Nikolaj’s performances enough

Honestly, I can’t credit the entire cast’s enough

(especially in this season where the acting is pretty much the only thing worth watching for)

(well, the acting and the score)

“I can’t believe Jaime’s seriously using the drinking game as a way to show Brienne he remembers what she tells him.” – My Wonderful Brother, with a mile-wide smirk on his face

“The guy’s such a dork. I love it.” – My Wonderful Dad, smiling like the proud papa he is

I honestly can’t help but laugh at how Pod seems to be enjoying this as much I am

Okay, drunk Tormund’s funny. I admit

Tormund really seems to be intent on making Jonmund canon, I’m just saying

Awww, how I’ve missed Jon’s smile

… is that a Starbucks coffee cup?

Is that why they had such poor lighting in the last episode? To cover up coffee cup cameos?

#still salty about squinting

*opts to ignore it for now*

“A madman? Or a king?” Very telling words, Tormund. Very telling, indeed

And as if to confirm it, the score gets sinister, the noises muffle, and Dany starts to get… uncomfortable, for lack of a better term

Kudos to the cast and crew on this scene; it’s chilling my bones more than anything in the last episode did

Varys sees. Varys knows. And what Varys sees, Varys doesn’t like. Trust Varys

Back to the drinking game, and my children are still acting as dorky as ever

So, I’m curious. How did Tyrion and Sansa’s marriage get annulled, exactly?

*Jaime smiles at Brienne* // *Brienne smiles back at Jaime* // *my heart stops*

Woooooah. Tyrion, too far. Too far!

Pod grabbing a drink and downing it uncomfortably is me right now

And Jaime trying to cut Tyrion out is my wonderful Brother, who’s saying “stop” in the most warning of tones

And Tormund to the… rescue, I guess?

Tormund’s joke didn’t make me laugh, but Jaime rolling his eyes at Tormund’s joke sure did…

… while Jaime blocking Tormund’s path when the latter tried to follow Brienne only added more mirth to my mood

Tormund’s expression of rejection and anguish is the same one I wear whenever Dany’s being lauded onscreen

Yep. Drink up, buddy. You did your best

Pod’s smile gives me life. That is all

Me: *sees Tormund talking to the Hound about his heartbreak* // Me: *spits out soda two seconds later*

(And now I want to write a fic where the Hound’s a psychologist. Someone help me)

“No, really… could he have picked a worse person to talk to about his feelings?” – My Wonderful Dad

It took Tormund approximately two minutes to get over Brienne. … yikes

So… to everyone who said his feelings for Brienne were simply lust, I just want to apologize for ever doubting you. *shakes head* Really, Tormund, I had more faith in you

Oooh, Sansa and the Hound. This should be interesting. I don’t ship SanSan in the slightest, but I always did like their dynamic

“Broken in rough”? Really? *sighs and rolls eyes* That’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one

Okay, so just to be clear, the show basically just said that it’s a good thing that Sansa was abused all those years, ergo implying that – on some level – someone who’s been abused should be grateful to their abusers. *flings confetti listlessly* Quality writing, everyone. From the minds of D&D

“With sentiments like that, it baffles me how there hasn’t been a petition to fire D&D yet.” – My Wonderful Dad; a man who gets it, who I will forever love and forever stan

Ugh. Well, that scene was a train wreck. Time to try and get back on course

(sadly, that’s become my motto for most of these episodes recently)

Oh, good. Gendrya. Save me, Gendrya

And of-fricking-course she’s in BAMF Arya mode. Because when is she not anymore? *groans in annoyance*

Honestly, why do writers feel compelled to turn every single female warrior into variations of smug ninjas? I mean, is it too much to ask for a powerful woman who’s both in-tune with their emotions and a fighter?

(on a side note, that’s why I love Brienne; because she’s both)

I have unpopular opinions. I’m sorry

Gendry… Rivers. Rivers? Seriously?

His surname is WATERS. Every fanfic writer worth their salt knows that

“Please tell me Joe Dempsie accidentally got the line wrong and that D&D didn’t actually write the wrong surname into the script.” – My Wonderful Brother

“To echo what you told me last week, you’re asking for waaay too much.” – My Wonderful Dad

Anyway, let’s try to get back on track, shall we?

Tip #1 for using a fork, Gendry: Stick ‘em with the pointy end

This has to be the dorkiest proposal of all time, and I love it

… yeah, I knew she was going to reject him. But, hey, the score’s still pretty

*heartbreak level: 1000*

Ah, Brienne, I missed you… even though it’s only been a few minutes since I last saw you, but I digress

So, moment of truth: I’m in love with Oathkeeper, Brienne’s sword. Like, unnaturally so. I would fricking marry that sword, and regret absolutely nothing

*instantly loses all followers because I’m crazy*

Ah, Jaime, I missed you, too… even though, again, it’s only been a few minutes

Okay, series, so Jaime shows up at Brienne’s door significantly more disheveled and drunk than he was earlier, and you just expect me not to question how he came to be that way? Nice try, HBO. I know you have footage of him pacing and drinking in the hallway like a nervous wreck until he finally mustered the courage to knock. Release it

………… Yep, nothing like casually taking off your clothing with a lame excuse like “it’s hot in here” to set the mood. Sheesh, Jaime. You’re so awkward you’re making me cry

(on the other hand, to everyone who told me he’d be suave-as-suave can be when trying to flirt… I win. Prepare to part with your money)

Even when these two are going back-and-forth in flirtations, they’re still arguing like an old married couple. I love it

Hey, Mr. I-Hate-the-North? Yeah, sorry to be the breaker of bad news, but you’ve hardly stopped smiling since you got here. So, don’t give me that

Don’t know why, but Jaime admitting he doesn’t want things growing on him kind of breaks my heart…

… As does Brienne seeming surprised that Jaime sounds jealous of Tormund. Seriously, these idiots are going to kill me

And again with the “hot in here” excuse. Really, Jaime needs to get some flirting tips from Tyrion

These. Two. Dorks. That is all

Like, Jaime has no chill, and no idea what he’s doing despite being the, erm, “experienced one”. And Brienne is so rough-around-the-edges but so fricking gentle, too, I just… ah! These two will be the death of me, seriously…

On another note, I’ve been paying so much attention to how adorkable these two are that my mind didn’t register what was actually happening until right now and………… *screams and squeals like a group of pigs*

“OH MY GOSH, IT’S HAPPENING!!! STAY CALM!!! STAY FRICKING CALM!!!” – Me to Me, clearly not heeding my own advice

*meltdown intensifies*

(*briefly notices that D&D didn’t give Brienne her scars from fighting a bear but opts to ignore it for now*)

*meltdown seriously intensifies because, aside from Jygritte/Jongritte, this is my fricking OTP and I’m going to enjoy it, because, dang it, I’ve earned it after S7… and the last episode*

(#still salty about squinting)

Brienne looks so darn majestic and Jaime looks like a lost little puppy and I just… Really, it’d be sort of hilarious if it weren’t so cute

AND THERE’S THE KISS!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!! I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS SINCE SEASON 3!!!!!!!

(random note, but I love how it’s sloppy and awkward. It’s believable, and it’s sweet, imo)

“WELL IT’S ABOUT DARN TIME!!!!” – My Wonderful Dad, who just jumped out of his seat to cheer

“NEVER STOP!!! NEVER. FRICKING. STOP!!!” – My Wonderful Brother, who’s also abandoned his seat to cheer

I love them so much. Bless them

I love everything right now, honestly

OH COME ON, SERIOUSLY?! NOT NOW, DANY!!! NOT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

My Wonderful Dad: *turns the tv on pause* “Nice try, Dany, but we’re celebrating first!”

Which is why I’m now typing away while eating a giant ice cream sundae made by my wonderful Dad, bingeing on excess candy, and drinking a liter of pineapple soda as both he and my wonderful Brother dance around to “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” blasting on the laptop

Can you believe we’re all completely sober? Because we are, we’re just nuts

I really adore my family

*twenty minutes later*

“Okay, party’s over. Time to suffer through Dany.” – My Wonderful Dad

“Daddy, the party will never be over. Even if Dany is present.” – My Wonderful Brother (huh, and I always thought he was a cynic)

Dany: “Are you drunk?” // Jon: *stumbles in response* // Dany: Oh, good, time to manipulate you

Honestly, this woman reminds me of Cersei more and more every time I see her, but with none of the charm

Ewww. No. Stop kissing. Stop kissing this instant

Oh, thank goodness

(can’t believe my OTP’s scene got cut off for my NOTP’s scene. Yes, I’m petty. Sue me)

Oh, brother. She’s really complaining about how she’s not happy? Like: Yes, Jon, your entire life was a lie, but let’s make it all about me, shall we? Give me a break

I mean, okay, you’re upset. That’s fine. But how about adding an “I can’t imagine how you must feel” or “it must be even worse for you” to the end of your sentence to at least show you care? That’s just relationship 101, honey

Sheesh. And I thought I was self-centered

So, does anyone else notice that Kit is acting oddly akin to how he did in that scene with Jon and Littlefinger? The little sighs and the head motion and all? Or is it just me?

“Kit’s kind of acting like he did in that scene with Jon and Littlefinger in the crypts.” – My Wonderful Brother, confirming my thoughts

Well, congratulations, Dany. Now you know how Viserys felt in S1. Don’t think that’s a good thing, though…

Ugh. Okay, so Jon and his whole “you’re my queen” schtick is annoying as all heck, but I can’t deny that it’s pulling at my heartstrings. Whether political!Jon is real or not (and I’m sure by the time I post this, so many of my wonderful mutual will have made new posts explaining how it is), the sheer desperation in the guy’s voice is horrible. It’s not the voice of a man in love, or a man who would do anything for his SO. It’s the voice of a man who’s terrified, who’s trying to do everything in his power to keep the peace, who would do anything to keep the people he truly loves safe. And – political!Jon or not – to see someone who we’ve known and watched grow since the start of the series be broken down to such a pitiful extent is heartbreaking

I mean, the guy’s on his knees claiming that he doesn’t know what else she wants from him, and, instead of comforting him or trying to work things through with him, she takes his face in her hands and tries to swear him to secrecy? To swear his “brother” and his best friend to secrecy? How can anyone ship this?! How?!

And to top it off, her telling him to never tell anyone who he really is has to hit hard even on a personal level, too; given that his greatest insecurity in life has always been finding out who he really is, and if there’s anywhere where he really belongs. But, then again, I wouldn’t expect Day to know that, considering the guy never reveals anything personal about himself to her! But, no, they’re sooooooo in love. How adorbs uwu

No, Jon, don’t just tell Sansa and Arya. Pick them up and run away with them. Take Bran, too. Take all the redeemable characters and hightail it out of this terrible relationship and show and never look back

(it would be so ideal, if not for the fact that there must there always be a Stark in Winterfell)

Oh, nice victim-blaming there, Dany. You’re right, though. Sansa’s not the girl Jon grew up with. She’s better

Funny how Dany’s tears magically disappear the moment she thinks she’s getting what she wants

Wow, would you look at that. Dany trying to cut Jon off from his family, and giving him the “me or them” ultimatum. It’s a beautiful parallel to other such great moments, such as Balon telling Theon to choose between the Starks and the Greyjoys in S2, Cersei telling Jaime to choose her and Tywin over Tyrion in S4, and Joffrey forcing Sansa to pick sides between him and her family pretty much throughout the entireties of seasons 1 and 2. I mean, can anyone say life goals?

“So… where am I supposed to call if someone fictional I love is trapped in an abusive relationship?” – My Wonderful Dad

On a happier note, my OTP is together. I’m happy

(and maybe I’m wearing my shipping goggles, but Jaime looks like a man who just realized that he’s in love. Fight me)

Now why D&D won’t give me more of them, I’ll never know. Oh, wait… it’s because they hate their fans

Aaaaaand… this might be the tensest war council ever. How will Jon try to keep the peace this time?

Anyone ever notice that people tend to handle Dany like they did Joffrey – which is to say, like you would a petulant child?

And on today’s episode of “Let’s Just Listen to Sansa”, Sansa says something sensible and everyone ignores her… again

Okay, so I can already hear everyone calling for Jon’s head for apparently snapping at Sansa, but just from a different perspective, the look he gave her seems less like someone who’s taking sides, and more like someone trying to keep their family member out of trouble, imo. In fact, it resembles the look my wonderful Brother gives me whenever I get carried away with my big mouth (which is often)

Sansa knows, Brienne. That is all

Yes, Dany. Go get the throne already. But when Cersei kicks your lizard butt, don’t say Sansa didn’t tell you so

Finally! All the Starks together!!! (and, yes, until Jon starts saying “burn them all”, I will continue to view him as a Stark, thank you very much)

And on today’s episode of “Jon Tries to Keep the Peace”, Jon has to realize that he doesn’t need to shoulder everything on his own

Yeah… no offense, Arya, but I don’t really think we needed Dany and her scaly babies all that much. They were pretty much useless in the fight. At least from what I could see…

#still salty about squinting

Oh, boy. Arya saying Dany’s not one of us. I can already hear the D stans screaming how she’s pocket-sized assassin Donald Trump

Awww, Sansa coming to Jon’s emotional aide and assuring him he’s Ned’s child as much as the rest of them are

Awww, Arya coming to Jon’s emotional aide and telling him he’s her brother – just her brother, nothing less

“Darn it, kids! Just hug it out! Hug!!!” – My Wonderful Dad

This is seriously tearing Jon apart inside, and Kit is nailing it with his acting

Yes, you are family. Never forget that *tears up*

So, I kind of wanted Sansa and Arya’s reaction to the news, but since I don’t trust D&D to effectively write such a powerful scene, I’m okay that we didn’t get it

(fanfic writers, on the other hand – please, work your magic)

I want a spin-off series with Jaime and Tyrion hanging out. I said what I said

Jaime being an awkward dork in love is my aesthetic. Again, I said what I said

It’s probably just me, but the fact that Jaime didn’t fully loosen up with Tyrion until the latter said something snide kind of pulls at my heartstrings. Like, he was fully expecting to get mocked – he was fricking waiting for it, almost – and that look of disbelief when Tyrion said he was happy for him… I just… *curls in a corner and cries*

Can I please just give everyone in Westeros a hug. Please? The Starks (Jon included), the Lannisbros… heck, I’ll even hug Cersei and Dany, why not?

(I’ll hug them with less gusto, though…)

Bless the acting on the show and its actors, who help me forget how much I absolutely detest the writers

And Ramin Djawadi. Bless him, too

And his score

*sighs* Oh, Tyrion. Leave it to you to turn a nice, normal conversation into something dirty

Wait……… what the heck is Bronn doing here? How did he get here? Where did he come from?

Judging by how the Lannisbros are reacting, apparently, I’m not the only one confused

“Great. Now Bronn’s a ninja, too.” – My Wonderful Brother

“I still stand by what I once said: Bronn should’ve been written off in “The Spoils of War”.” – My Wonderful Dad

Tyrion gets punched in the face. Jaime immediately gets to his feet for a fight. As it should be, and I love it

So… remember how I asked who curses more between the Hound and Bronn? I think it’s Bronn, going by this conversation

Bronn: Cersei’s screwed // Jaime: *message checked and read at 9:58pm*

A.k.a. my boy doesn’t care and I’m living for it

Hey, Bronn… kindly refrain from shooting arrows at my problematic child’s head. Thank you

Yep, this is definitely a D&D episode. Even if I didn’t look at the opening credits, I could’ve figured it out. Want to know why? The abundance of manhood jokes

So, what I’m getting is that Bronn basically just came by to see if his ship was confirmed and to negotiate for a castle. Sounds legit

Arya accompanying the Hound on his journey was Beric’s last wish, so that she may continue their legacy of buddy-cop movies

(or, at least, that’s what I’m telling myself to overlook the fact that Arya heading off to tick names off her kill list is a huge step backwards for her character)

Yeah, Dany, stop smiling. Rhaegal still has holes in his wings. If you really loved your “child”, you would let him recover completely before dragging him into a war

Wow, Sansa is really ticked. Like, really, really ticked. I’m expecting some very interesting metas on the subject…

Yes, Tyrion, you’re afraid of Dany. Admit it. There’s no shame in it – I’d be afraid of her too, if I knew she sucked everyone’s purpose and personality out of them just by interacting with them

(which I do, so I guess I’m scared of her, too)

Alright, so I can already hear the Dany stans bashing Sansa for “betraying Jon’s trust”, but she promised not to tell if Jon told her. Bran told her, so therefore, loophole

Also, she’s doing it to protect Jon. A nice little foil to how Dany tried to make Jon keep the secret earlier, knowing full well it would hurt him

And got to love how Sansa adds “someone better” to the end of her statement. She believes in Jon, and not just when it comes to drinking

*sighs* It feels like all the Starklings are leaving, and it saddens me

“When Jon Snow cares more about Rhaegal’s well-being than Dany does, take warning.” – My Wonderful Brother

Tormund: *makes quip about Jon’s weight* // My Wonderful Dad: “You know, now that he mentions it, the guy could stand to eat more. Matter of fact, so could Jaime. And Bran. They all need to go see Hot Pie, stat. Seriously, doesn’t anyone feed these guys?”

“Not since Dany burnt the wagons of food, apparently.” – Me

“And now part of me wants to ship supplies to Westeros.” – My Wonderful Dad, making a joke that I laughed way too much at

Cue my wonderful Brother and I sharing a smile over how protective our wonderful Dad is of his fictional grandchildren

Awwwww… Ghost. My poor baby

Yep, Tormund’s still trying to make Jonmund happen

Jon instinctively knowing Gilly’s pregnant brings me so much joy, for some reason

On another note… GILLY’S PREGNANT! SAM’S GOING TO BE A DAD!

(shout-out to @cantfightfatetoo, who speculated with me. You’re amazing!!!)

Aw!!! Baby Jon and Little Sam!!! My heart…

“I hope it’s a girl”. Yet again, another arrow through my heart – but this one not as joyous. Jon just comes off as so broken down in this episode, I can’t help but feel badly for him . It feels like I’m watching someone trapped in a toxic relationship while the rest of the world keeps moving on around him. It just feels like he’s at his lowest point, imo… even lower than when he came back to life. And that’s just sad

Good thing he still gets the best hugs, though

“WHAT?! REALLY, JON?! YOU’RE JUST GOING TO LEAVE GHOST LIKE THAT?! REALLY?!” – My Wonderful Brother

“TAKE HIM! HE’S WORTH MORE THAN ANY DOOFY DRAGON!!! JUST TAKE THE GOODEST BOY IN ALL OF WESTEROS!!!” – My Wonderful Dad

Okay, so a part of me wants to believe that if Jon did properly say good-bye to Ghost, he’d never again muster the strength to leave Winterfell and his family. Another part of me is really ticked. And another part of me still is annoyed at the fact that this was all to cut down on the CGI budget, most likely… even though it was totally fine to spend the cash on that dragon-riding scene from episode 1

*sighs* ANYWAY…

On the less depressing side, it’s sort of like Jon left his past behind to figure out his future. Ghost, Sam and Gilly, Tormund… they’re all physical manifestations of who he was, and he has to come to terms with who he is, so……….

Nah, frick it. YOU SHOULD’VE SAID GOOD-BYE TO GHOST!!! DARN IT, D&D, LET THE MAN SAY GOOD-BYE TO HIS DIREWOLF!!! LET HIM!!!

#JUSTICE FOR GHOST

*ten minutes later*

So… I’ve calmed down. Now, where were we?

Grey Worm smiled. That definitely means something bad is going to happen

Oh, dear. Tyrion told Varys. Welp, there goes that secret. Good

No, Tyrion. Everything that happened didn’t happen because Lyanna didn’t love Robert back. It happened because Rhaegar was the literal embodiment of Mambo #5

“She’s his aunt.” Thank you, Varys. The last of only two sane people left in Westeros

Tyrion is trying waaaaay too hard to convince himself that Dany’s a good person/a good ruler, and I respect him less for it

“Look, Tyrion. Jaime saw the warning signs with Dany, Varys sees the warning signs with Dany. They both served under Aerys personally. If you were really as clever as you like to boast you are, you’d hear them out.” – My Wonderful Dad

Tyrion, the #1 Dany stan, everyone. *Blackfish voice* I’m disappointed

Say what you will about Dany and her reptile children, but their score is epic. Unfortunately

Oh, shoot! Rhaegal got shot?!

(I mean, I’d read it in the leaks, but I didn’t think it was true…)

So… a dance of dragons 2.0 with just one dragon? I wonder if musical chair rules apply in deciding who gets to ride it

Euron makes the creepiest faces

NOPE. SCRATCH THAT. DANY DOES

Aaaaaaaand… she just left everyone behind. Inspiring

“Did a ship mast just land on Tyrion’s head?” – My Wonderful Dad

“Good. Maybe it’ll knock some sense into him.” – My Wonderful Brother

Grey Worm looking for Missandei is breaking my heart all over again. Especially if the leaks are to be believed

And back in King’s Landing with Cersei, and… ACTUAL VIBRANT CLOTHING OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!

Lena Headey, you are rocking that red

Euron and Cersei still have more chemistry than Jon and Dany, and that’s disturbing

Ah, Qyburn. I had this really weird dream that he and Cersei were a thing, and… well, never mind. I have really weird dreams

(For instance, there was this one time when Jon and Jaime opened up a restaurant called “J&J’s” and all the other characters were their employees. Let’s just say it was chaos)

Soooooo… Cersei’s baby. Is there a baby? Was there ever a baby? Why does she seem all disoriented when the baby’s brought up? Tell me about the baby!!!

Nooooooo. Not Missandei. *resolves not to cry because, dang it, I know I’m going to sob later*

Oh, hi, Dany. Yeah… I’m not in the mood for you right now

Varys, you’re my third favorite character. Congratulations

Man, I knew Varys cared about the people, but I had no idea just how much. Seriously, why has no one made this guy the hand of the king yet?

Oh, yeah, because every person he’s served thus far has either been evil or an idiot. Or, in Dany and Joffrey’s cases, both

…… Dany’s talking about destiny now. First official villain achievement, unlocked

Talking in third person. Second villain achievement, unlocked. All she has to do now is spin a globe… or stroke a map, considering these are medieval-esque times

So, Dany’s going to save the world from tyrants by… becoming a tyrant. Okay, then

Bravo to Emilia Clarke’s acting, though. She’s nailing Dark!Dany

Varys echoing what I said about destiny speeches being in a villain’s wheelhouse. Thank you

(Turns out I really did learn something from binge-watching multiple animes)

Dany’s convinced she’s here to save us all, a.k.a., she has a savior complex. And yet my extended family laughed at me when I diagnosed her with that during our Thanksgiving get-together. It’s going to be fun to see them again this year

(Now I just need Varys to confirm that Jaime most likely has PTSD, and I’ll be completely vindicated)

No, Tyrion, Jon “bent the knee” because he needed flying, fire-breathing lizards to help him destroy undead popsicles. Not because he wanted to give up his crown for lolz

Any more manhood jokes and I’m going to pull a Tommen right out my bedroom window

Varys is me. Varys has always been me. I love Varys. The end

Okay, I’m starting a petition to get Jaime some new clothes. Who’s with me?

Yipee. Cersei’s winning. And if she wasn’t winning, Dany would be. I. Just. Can’t. Win *bangs head against wall*

Oh, no, Sansa. I still think you’ll have your crack at Cersei. At least, you’d better

No, Jaime. No. I know that look. That’s your “I’m about to do something so ridiculously dumb that no one else would ever dare to do for reasons” look. Don’t even think about doing what you’re thinking of doing

In other news, has anyone else ever noticed how the guy seems to age about twenty years whenever Cersei's in the picture (or mentioned)? Just saying…

Brienne has super-hearing. Take that, wights from the last episode who could hear droplets of blood

Jaime, no. What are you doing, you idiot…

Awwww, Brienne. The way she just straight up takes his face in her hands and tells him how much she believes in him… it’s just… *tears up*

And the way he looks at her like he wants to believe her even if he doesn’t fully believe it himself… I mean…

(Don’t even try to tell me that this isn’t a direct parallel to Jon and Dany’s scene before, because I won’t accept it)

No no no no no no no… don’t cry, Brienne. Jaime, listen to her. She loves you, she really does. Don’t make her cry…

Nooooo… the way he holds onto her wrist and strokes it and looks down. I can’t…

Jaime, you know you want to stay. You know you do. So stay

Oh, shoot. There’s that heartless façade he used with Edmure in S6. Oh, no… not against Brienne. Don’t use it against her, no matter what the reason

Yeah, yeah, Cersei’s dandy. You did a lot of terrible things for her. We know. That doesn’t mean we’re just going to accept you leaving

You would’ve killed everyone in Riverrun for Cersei, but you didn’t kill anyone in Riverrun… because of Brienne. So there

“She’s hateful, and so am I.” Yeah, maybe I’m just putting you on a pedestal, pal, but I don’t think that’s entirely true

I mean, you love Tyrion when you could’ve hated him just as much as Cersei and Tywin; you saved a city from being blown to smithereens because you couldn’t just sit by and let innocents burn alive; you jumped into a bear pit with no plan and no defense to save a woman who up until that point hadn’t done much for you except call you by your name; you rode North to fight an army of undead popsicles to protect the people of the Seven Kingdoms – most of whom detest you and would be perfectly happy if you died. So are you hateful? Nope. Bitter, yes. But hateful? Try again. (I mean, you’re, like, the only member of your family who’s never killed anyone on-screen for vengeance. Honestly, for all that you claim to hate, I think the only thing you sincerely hate is yourself)

Ummmm… sorry, what was I saying again?

Honestly, though, this whole scene is just heartbreaking. I mean, Gwen and Nik just nail it. Give them their frickin’ Emmys already

(If they don’t win any, I’ll riot. And, for the love of all things good, give one to Lena Headey, too)

I’m crying my eyes out right now. My wonderful Dad and Brother are crying their eyes out right now. It’s a tearfest

I still have faith in you, my problematic child. But in D&D’s writing… not so much

If they built all this up just to have Jaime die with Cersei I’m seriously going to be ticked

Honestly, out of all the ways I would like to see his ending go, that is at the literal bottom of my list with “burnt alive by Dany”. Jaime deserves better

So does Brienne fight me

Well, I can’t really see straight because I still have tears in my eyes. But I still know Varys looks like a boss

“Umm… Cersei. You have all those scorpions and Drogon’s right there. Why not just shoot him?” – My Wonderful Dad

“Who cares? He’ll probably be written off next week, anyway, for the CGI budget’s sake.” – My Wonderful Brother

So, what I’m getting from this meeting is that the battle for the Iron Throne has come down to the war of the two pyromaniacs. Lovely

Tyrion doesn’t want to see the city burn, yet he’s still rah-rahing for Dany. I have no words

Cersei, once again, doesn’t kill Tyrion when she has the chance. Then again, she hasn’t killed Drogon yet, either, so…

Tyrion claiming Cersei’s not a monster, yet I have such little faith left in his judgement that I don’t believe him

Got to say, red really brings out Cersei’s green eyes and golden hair

(at least one of the Lannisters still has their blond locks)

And… they’re not seriously going to end things like this, right? Right?

And… they did

Just like that, it’s over

So… Missandei’s last word was “Dracarys”. How utterly terrible

And they killed Missandei. Just to further Dany’s plotline. Jorah and Rhaegal and the Dothraki weren’t enough for her to snap, oh, no, they needed to kill Missandei, too

I would rage, but I’m sure there will be plenty of metas already written about how wrong this is by the time I post this, so I won’t bother anyone with my anger

“Screw you, D&D.” – My Wonderful Dad

“Yeah, thanks for ruining everything.” – My Wonderful Brother

I share the same sentiments

They’re lucky their cast is so wonderful, otherwise I’d honestly quit watching

Meanwhile, Dany’s officially on the brink of turning dark. I do wonder what her stans will say to justify things this time

If I had to guess, it’s that she has a good heart. Haven’t heard that one 60,000 times before

Welp, that’s the end of the episode. I miss Bryan Cogman and Dave Hill

Thank you every single actor who made this episode worthwhile. I love you all more than you’ll ever know

I’m going to go eat some more ice cream

#anti daenerys #anti jonerys #dark!dany #anti d&d...#politcal!jon musings #please help my children #i can't bear to see them suffer like this

40 notes · View notes

hopevalley · 5 years

Note

Why was Mountie Nate sauntering when he heard Lucas was running towards trouble? He should've been galloping and then some. I'd love to know your analysis of why the drama didn't work. It felt forced and fake to me. Not believable.

I’ll give you a brief synopsis of why I think drama in general doesn’t work in this series.

1. Character relationships and/or motivations are weak.

2. They film in a patch of forest that feels like it’s the size of your average master bedroom and time/distance is meaningless.

3. There are never any consequences.

All right, so let’s start with the first point: weak relationships and motivations. Depending on the drama in question, it’s usually one or the other, but occasionally you’ll find it’s both. I gave a good example in my write-up of the Frank plotline. We didn’t think anyone would die, but we also didn’t feel like everyone was safe, either. Jesse acted as a go-between enough that we knew he was being used; we knew Frank was being watched; we knew something could happen at any moment. Sure, the actual drama was little overall (rock through window, our boys converging on the enemy, Jesse rushing in to save Frank), but there was a build-up to it, Jesse got hurt, and when threats were made, they felt legitimate enough to be a real and honest concern. By courting Abigail, Frank inadvertently made her a target.

To contrast that, Nathan and Lucas barely have a relationship at all and in fact nobody really has a solid relationship with the new guys. The worry Fiona expressed to Elizabeth wasn’t detailed enough for my liking to start (I mean, if she was like, “Look she was panicked, you could tell, and the way he ran out of the saloon…it was something serious, I know it.” we’d have something more concrete to believe in; this is the problem we had in S5 when Abigail had Bill look into the widow–more info would have made it make sense). Then Elizabeth talks to Lucas but I really and truly didn’t feel like we’d SEEN them interact closely enough to justify her acting so worried about him, or at least the way she went to get help, if that makes sense. Why not go in there like “YO LUCAS GOT A GUN I’m worried he’s gonna go kill someone”? I mean, that’s the actual concern there, not so much that Lucas is gonna get hurt.

I could go on forever but nobody knows Lucas well enough to be That Concerned about this. If Elizabeth’s concern was that Lucas was going to kill someone, maybe Nathan would have gone a little faster. :P

Which brings me to my second point. Time is an illusion in this series. What month is it? Day? Year? It was August a couple of episodes ago. What month is it now? Who knows? How can Jack have been dead over a year? How did Elizabeth find out she was pregnant and deliver a full term baby less than a month later??????

It drives me batty. I hate it. It’s not that hard to keep a timeline; they should have been doing this from the start.

But to add to the confusion, Cape Fullerton, which would be hundreds of miles away, is somehow travelable in mere hours (or at bare minimum a day). That makes the drama here seem fake, too. Why would Lucas leave his friend back east if he’s out west and can’t get to her in a few hours at a bare minimum? What good is he? His whole history and everything just shatters with that knowledge. Are we supposed to believe he’s an actual idiot? I can’t imagine so!

So on the way back they employed something that has driven me mad since for a while, and that is Extremely Slow Horse Walking.

I could roll along on the ground faster than these people are allowed to walk their horses!!!!!!!

And the reason is because of filming and like, the ‘forest’ they film in is very small. You can see too much sky sometimes; it’s obviously just this little patch of land lol. It was the most obvious in S5 when Bill and AJ were riding double and he was walking along toward the place where they had to film the snake stuff but like at a SNAIL’S PACE. I mean it was awkward because the horse wasn’t even able to step normally.

And sure Nathan and Lucas weren’t going that slow, but they were crawling compared to how they ought to have been if they were actually worried. You’d think Lucas would kick that horse into gear and go rushing back toward Hope Valley!

Finally my third point… CONSEQUENCES: or lack thereof. It’s enough to drive anybody crazy, but it seems like people who should suffer the consequences of their actions don’t, and characters who maybe don’t deserve it as much do.

Sure, they needed Henry for more seasons so they got him out on parole lol, but we’re all sitting here like, okay but how could he get out on parole while AJ’s gotta do her time? When the reason is Because We Don’t Want to Hire Her for the Next Season it’s like…really. You couldn’t have gone with something else?

That’s a pretty minor case, though, ‘cause at least Henry faced some consequences. Heck, he had a few seasons of them if you really think about it. But on a general level you’ll notice that Abigail got away with everything she did and never put anything in danger: not herself, her relationships, her position as mayor, nothing. That’s a problem! Clara disagrees with Jesse and yeah, we know they love each other, but it still feels like a risk. Lucas and Elizabeth in the saloon… Eh. They played it up so hard and yet we ALL KNEW nobody was gonna get hurt. Not Bill, not Nathan, not Elizabeth, not Lucas. We knew the bad guys would get caught and Lucas would get his money back.

The drama falls flat and feels boring because it is. I’m not saying we should operate like Game of Thrones and start offing characters for shock value because we don’t get how to write a sociostory instead of a psychstory. But we shouldn’t ever feel that literally every character is safe from all harm.

(And the whole town running toward the danger was stupid. The only person in that town likely to run toward trouble is Bill. Everyone else wouldn’t do that. It made the drama feel silly. Maybe if people were peeking out their front doors or something, but they ran like a mob right over there. UGH.)

Seriously, if Nathan would have been shot, we’d all be like, “Holy shit that was so dramatic!” But literally nothing happened. Of course Nathan found an easy way in! Of course the front door was unlocked! Of course Lucas failed to get the upper hand with his own gun! Of course Elizabeth and Lucas were able to overpower the guy with a little teamwork!

I mean, we had similar stuff with Bill and AJ in S4, but the difference was that the plot never pretended it was dramatic suspense. They were out there in broad daylight and the plan could have gone awry but it didn’t.

The show trying to trap you into feeling suspense only for nothing bad to happen kind of feels like a letdown!

(S5′s Bill and AJ scenes were closer to this kind of bad drama. The script was stilted, it felt like things were cut out, and worse: when it was over Bill’s just perfectly fine. He wouldn’t be. He’d need weeks to recover from a bite like that. And that lack of ‘consequence’ (and lack of mention of it later, because surely Carson would be confided in) made it all fall completely flat. Not that it would have been good WITH it, but there was no reason not to include it in the next episode. Bill barely did anything there except get laughed at.)

I guess this wasn’t so brief, but yeah these are the reasons drama in this show tends to feel flat. They try too hard to convince you that it’s dramatic and suspenseful! And then nothing happens of import. You’re lucky if character relationships shift in a believable, reasonable manner. But there are almost never any real consequences for something happening unless they can conveniently toss a consequence out that also involves taking a character off the show or offscreen for a while.

#when calls the heart #anonymously asked #answered mail #analysis and meta discussion

3 notes · View notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 5 years

Text

Predictions - The Sequence Leading to Beth (as Hinted at by 10x01)

Okay, Gang! Prediction time is here! I’m going to lay out the sequence for how I think TF will finally run into Beth. We’ve had lots of theories about how this will go in the past, but it was hard to zero in very specifically on one. I feel like we’re finally starting to hone in on what will go down and who will be involved.

So I really wanted to get this posted this week before episode 2 airs. Not that I expect a ton about this to change due to episode 2 (it seems to be focusing on Alpha and Beta’s backstory, rather than TF) but I just think I’ll have very different things to focus on after episode 2. And most of what I’m going to say here came from what I’ve posted this past week, and specifically the symbolism we saw in 10x01.

Let me first give the disclaimer that, while what I’m going to predict here IS based on the symbolism we’ve seen, and precedent in the show (in other words, things we’ve been right about in the past) it’s still conjecture on my part, and it’s very broad. While I do think I’m barking up the right tree with the major concepts I’m going to lay out (dog pun intended ;D) I’m absolutely positive there will be many small, cause and effect events in between that I have no way of predicting. The details are very probably wrong and my opinions will change as the season progresses and we learn more.

But overall, I’m still thinking this is the basic gist of where they’re heading and it makes me super-excited!

So, let me start with Daryl and Carol. I said last week in THIS POST that they’re following a template from S5. So I do believe Daryl and Carol will leave together on his motorcycle at some point and that will lead to them running into Beth.

Well, I’ve gotten some resistance to that theory, which is perfectly understandable. Other than people not liking the idea of Daryl and Carol running away together, the biggest objection I get is the fact that Daryl is pretty much Lydia’s father now, and he really wouldn’t just leave her.

I 100% agree with that. Unlike Carol, Daryl doesn’t just take off and leave those who need him. So I didn’t know how to square that, exactly, and the only thing I could come up with was that maybe Lydia will die. That would definitely depress Daryl and perhaps make him want to take off with Carol. They could bond over lost children (in a platonic way, of course) and just want to get away from it all. Understand, I didn’t want Lydia to die or anything. It was just the only explanation I could come up with.

Well, I’ve changed my opinion on that. And the answer came from 10x01.

I made a big deal about Connie bringing Dog back to Daryl, right? We have a case of Connie LITERALLY returning Daryl’s dog to him when they parted ways. A literal representation of what Daryl said to Beth in the funeral home (“Go up the road. I’ll meet you there.”) Because of the Sirius symbolism, Dog = Beth (I mean that in a symbolic way, not a derogatory one, but check out this edit for proof.).

So I came to the conclusion that Connie is literally going to bring Beth back to Daryl in some way. THIS is why they need to establish Daryl and Connie’s relationship so heavily. THIS is why all the reminders and callbacks to Beth around her.

But that is not all, my friends. No, that is not all.

In thinking about this, something else occurred to me. In S5, Daryl and Carol didn’t take off for Atlanta simply because they wanted to leave together. Actually, Carol was attempting to leave on her own and Daryl was trying to stop her. (Kinda like she keeps leaving on the boat this season.) But the real reason they left was because Daryl recognized the Grady car and that it might lead him to Beth. So they left to go find someone who’d been separated from the group (Beth).

I honestly think it will go down that way this time around too. Despite talking about leaving together, I don’t think they’ll just take off for the reasons they talked about here. The foreshadow is that they’ll leave together on his bike, but not why.

So what does that mean? If they go somewhere (New Mexico, perhaps) and Connie is with them, what will that look like? Are the three of them going to ride Daryl’s bike to New Mexico together?

No, I don’t think so. The thing is, Connie is a Beth stand-in. She always has been.

So, my theory is that Connie will be taken by someone. Taken captive, I mean. When Daryl and Carol leave, it will be to find her and bring her back to the group/the community. Connie even has a sister (Kelly), so Daryl may want to bring Connie back to her, much like he wanted to bring Beth back to Maggie.

(And yes, I know there are some rumors that Kelly may die. Honestly, I think this may be true. So bringing her back to Kelly may not be part of it if Kelly has already died. We’ll just have to wait and see. But the parallel to Maggie and Beth is still there.)

Now, I know this will cause some problems for people in our fandom. They’ll see it as more evidence of romance between Connie and Daryl because he’ll be looking for her, the same as he looked for Beth. Or they’ll see it as the writers stealing/recycling Beth’s story line. But I don’t think that. They’re following a template and, as with S5, this is how Daryl will finally come face to face with Beth again. Connie is not Dog. She brings Dog back to Daryl. Beth is Dog. (Again, see edit above.)

Now how about Carol? Another thing that makes me think Connie will be taken is that, when Carols stepped off the boat in 10x01, she and Connie hugged.

That really caught my attention because we haven’t seen much interaction between Carol and Connie. When they first met, Carol showed Connie she could sign her own name, but that’s pretty much it. So why the hug? Maybe more has happened that we haven’t seen yet since The Storm that has brought them closer together, but the point is, they seem to want us to understand that these two women are friends. So if Connie is taken, much like with Beth, Carol will want to help Daryl rescue her

In short, I think Connie will be taken, and Daryl and Carol will leave to rescue her. But they also specifically mentioned New Mexico, which kind of suggests Connie will be taken there. Also, getting on the bike to go find her suggests that it won’t be a matter of simply being taken by Alpha to her camp or something. It suggests a long distance (just as Carol and Daryl drove a long way into Atlanta to find Beth).

So who will take Connie? I don’t know. I’ve considered three possibilities, but this is one of those things that could happen any of a thousand different ways.

1) the helicopter people take her, much as they took Rick and Jadis. And how/why would that happen? No idea.

2) Alpha, like Jadis, knows about the helicopter group and is selling people to them. We haven’t seen a whole lot of symbolism for this, I’ll admit, but I could see Alpha taking Connie for various reasons having to do with the Whisper War, but then Daryl and Carol learning she’s been given to some other group. Alpha (or another of the Whisperers) tells them about the helicopter group and where she’s been taken, and they take off to find her.

3) Alpha takes her. We know the Whisperers range far. They basically migrated to the south for the winter before returning. So maybe it has nothing to do with the helicopter group (at first) and it’s just a matter of Alpha taking prisoners and then leaving the area. Meanwhile, Daryl and Connie follow.

Again, these are just some possibilities I’ve considered. It could be something completely different as well.

And what happens from there? Well, you know by now that I think Beth, like Rick, is with the helicopter group. So either Connie ends up with the helicopter group or else, if it’s something closer to #3, and it’s just Alpha who takes off with Connie, perhaps they end up in an era where they come upon the helicopter group. Again, Carol and Daryl talked about New Mexico, so that’s going to play into things somehow.

But I said it was complicated. And I meant it. Did you notice above, I suggested Alpha might take prisonerS? Plural?

So here’s the thing. After looking over many seasons of symbolism EXTENSIVELY over past weeks, the characters I think will be most heavily involved in bring Daryl and Beth back together are Carol, Connie, and Aaron.

Michonne and Maggie get honorable mentions, and I’ll get to them in a minute. But the symbolism is much less heavy around them than around these other three. So how does Aaron end up in the mix?

Again, it’s hard to say when it comes to the details. But remember what I talked about with Gracie last week? A Nonny sent in an Ask and we decided that when Rick stumbled upon Gracie, it probably foreshadowed that Rick would stumble upon Beth…in the helicopter group. That’s why the Blue Heron painting appeared in that scene.

But we also know the helicopter group will have a lot to do with the water scarcity situation that’s coming up after the Whisper War. They know how to purify water. And remember that in 5x10 (red letter Beth episode) Aaron brought TF water and left it in the road for them just before the storm. (X)

Even more telling, the music box woke up when Aaron showed up. He’s also been a stand in for Beth at various times, getting her dialogue and having scenes with Daryl. So I firmly believe he’ll have something to do with her return.

But back to Gracie and the scene with Daryl watching Rick give Gracie to Aaron. I’m wondering if Gracie will be taken too. Along with Connie, I mean. I think it’s possible that multiple people will be taken. Such as Gracie, Judith, RJ, and/or Ezekiel.

Originally, I felt sure Ezekiel would be in this group, but after analyzing the symbolism more carefully, I think his death fake out will come before this. I think Carol will already believe he’s dead at this point. It’s always possible that he IS taken and she learns he’s alive and with Connie. In that case, his death fake out will simply be short-lived. But again, I’m not entirely sure how that will all work itself out.

I include Judith and RJ as possibilities because we’ve always believed Beth might save Judith in some way. We (me, @wdway and @frangipanilove) have a theory that Beth, with the helicopter group, might be taking care of the kids there. Hence all the children and baby symbolism around her. Like she’s just taken it upon herself to look out for the kids and make sure they’re okay. So if kids were brought in, they would probably go to her.

And I don’t know if you guys even remember this, but I once did a post about the scene in 4a where Michonne had hurt her ankle and Beth was singing to Judith. This was the part where she sang about being a Dog (in other words, Sirius symbolism: leaving and returning). Judith then throws up on her (carrots of all things) and she asks Michonne to hold the baby. Michonne is mad at first, but then cries and hugs Judith. I always thought that foreshadowed that Beth would bring Judith back to Michonne in some way. And because of the dog reference, it would be specifically when Beth returned.

Then there was that episode last season where Michonne’s old friend showed up and took Judith. I always saw that as a foreshadow. I figured Michonne’s friend was an anti-parallel to Beth. She was evil, where Beth won’t be, but both are taking care of groups of kids. In that episode, it jumped back and forth between the past, when Judith was kidnapped, and the present, where Judith went outside on her own and Michonne went to get her. Just before Michonne finds her, we see a random bicycle. Perhaps representing Carol and Daryl taking off on his motorcycle when Judith goes missing?

The other thing I’m seeing now, that I didn’t before, is that Michonne’s evil friend kidnapping Judith could foreshadow some other evil woman *coughs Alpha* kidnapping her sometime in the future.

I mean, imagine Beth taking care of kids in the helicopter group, and suddenly new kids are brought in. Doesn’t mean anything in particular to Beth…until one of them says she’s Judith Grimes. Beth would probably have a complete meltdown. Not to mention, Rick should be there somewhere too.

Okay, I’ll admit I’m letting this run away with me a bit. It’s totally a headcanon. But it would also be the perfect way to explain all this symbolism we’ve been seeing for years but didn’t know exactly how to interpret.

So, Gracie would explain Aaron going along. Ezekiel would explain Carol (although she also hugged Connie, and I honestly think that would be enough).

Also remember that Carol and Michonne (or at least Danai’s stunt double) were seen filming in Texas, which suggests Michonne and Carol, at least, crossing paths in the Texas/New Mexico area at some point.

I said I’d come back to Michonne and Maggie. I already talked about the possibility of Beth bringing Judith back to Michonne.

I recently rewatched Inmates, and learned some interesting things. I’ll do a full post on it later on, but one thing that caught my attention was something Beth said when she and Daryl were sitting around the fire. She’s talking about how they can’t be the only ones who survived the downfall of the prison. There must be others. First, she says, “Rick and Michonne. They could be out here.” Then, “Maggie and Glenn could have made it out of A block.”

Now, on the one hand, she was kind of naming the death fake out couples (Richonne, Glaggie, Bethyl) with the exception of Carol. You could argue that Ezekiel wasn’t acquainted with them and so it would have been impossible to name them as a couple. Plus, to Beth’s knowledge, Carol wasn’t even at the prison when it went down.

But because of the “A Block” comment (remember Jadis was getting As and Bs for the helicopter group), I feel like it’s a foreshadow of some future thing as well. A foreshadow of Beth’s return, perhaps. And my only point here is that she mentions Rick, Michonne, and Maggie.

The other thing I can point to with Maggie comes from 5x10. When they go into the barn, and see the walker in the back room with the blue coolers, it’s Maggie and Carol who see her there. We can also connect that to Maggie and Carol being taken by Paula’s group in 6x13, and how many Grady parallels there were in that episode. So it makes me think Maggie and Carol will have some arc together that has to do with Beth. But again, no idea what it will be or how it will play out.

Finally, let’s touch on illness. There are the theories about Ezekiel’s coughing from 10x01 meaning he has cancer or something. I’m honestly not convinced of this. Maybe, but I think it’s probably more symbolic than literal. So what does it mean? Well, it occurred to me that if it’s correct, and he does have cancer, he may end up with the helicopter/Grady group. Remember, they’re probably using radiation to fight the virus, which means they might have the resources to actually cure his cancer.

But again, I think that’s getting ahead of the symbolism we actually have. It’s entirely possible that this represents some injury or illness for him, but not specifically cancer.

And that leads to the last thing I want to mention. One of my fellow theorists—either @wdway or @frangipanilove; we have so many conversations I can’t keep track and I’m constantly crediting the wrong person in my posts, lol) came up with the following idea.

Remember how Jadis was telling the helicopter people she had an “A” to give them. We all conjectured about what A and B might mean to the helicopter group. Strong people? Leaders? Something else? Then, when she sees Rick on the bank, she says she doesn’t have an A, she has a B. Well, if “A” were a strong person or a leader, why would Rick NOT be that?

Remember that Rick was blown off the bridge and into the water with a LOT of walkers. Many were on fire. Some were probably put down in the blast. But others might have been alive with him in the river.

Is it possible B stands for “Bitten?” We think it’s possible that Rick was bitten, and Jadis could tell he was, but they didn’t show the viewers that.

If that’s true, it doesn’t worry us. It would just make him that much more heavily paralleled with Beth, and if he ends up with Grady/the Helicopter group, they can probably treat it, the same as they did with Beth.

Which brings me back to Ezekiel. I’m just saying it’s possible that doesn’t have cancer at all. Perhaps it’s just a foreshadow that he’ll be “treated” with radiation, which suggests he could be bitten during his death fake out, and end up with the helicopter group in the same way. How would that go down? No idea. I get that it’s a bit of a reach given what we currently know. I’m just throwing it out there as a possibility.

The other thing I thought of is that if at some point, Beth, Rick, and Ezekiel are all with the helicopter group and then return to their significant others, what that amounts to is the return of the three living death fake out characters. (The fourth being Glenn, who is deceased.) In other words, three resurrections. Which would be the fulfillment of the St. Nicholas/pickle symbolism.

So I think that’s basically it. I know this is a lot to process. The short of it is that I’m looking for Connie (and perhaps some others) to be taken or go missing. Once Daryl and Carol have some idea what might have happened to them, they’ll follow. At least, once we see that (may not be until the end of the season, honestly) we’ll know we’re on the right track.

Thoughts?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

15 notes · View notes

daemoniumsanguine-blog · 5 years

Text

SPN Questionnaire

Tagged by: @beautifullyxbrxken

***

1. When did you start watching Supernatural?

I don’t remember exactly, but it was sometime when either season 4 or 5 were currently airing? My mom got super into it and she started watching it every day so I’d catch bits and pieces of it until I finally decided to watch it from the beginning. I caught up just before season 6 started and I’ve been watching the new eps with my mom ever since.

...Fun fact the first thing I saw of Supernatural was part of that ep where Sam, Dean, and John go after a group of vampires and from the small part I saw I thought Sam and Dean were the bad guys c’:

2. Who is your favorite in TFW?

I LOVE THEM ALL... but if I had to pick it’d be Sam ;;

3. Who is your least favorite in TFW?

They’re my sons I refuse to pick a least favorite ;;

4. Tag your top 5 Supernatural blogs.

tbh I stayed far away from the Supernatural fandom until I very recently caved and made this blog so I don’t know too many Supernatural blogs c’:

5. Who is your favorite character (not including TFW)?

Either Bobby or Jody! I hate that every time Jody appears I spend the whole ep fearing for her life, why does this show have to keep killing my faves?

6. Who is your favorite woman in Supernatural?

Jody!! Jo’s a super close second though.

7. John or Mary?

I feel like people would murder me for saying John but he’s such an interesting character? Yeah he’s a shitty dad but he really does mean well

oh wait that’s just like Sam

8. What were your first opinions of Sam, Dean, Cas, and Jack?

LISTEN I didn’t know the person they were holding a knife to was a vampire so of course I thought Sam and Dean were evil c’:

I honestly don’t remember my first impression of Cas, but I think my mom showed me some funny scenes with him so I liked him?

JACK... I was so sure Cas was wrong and Jack was going to be the big bad lmao. Now he’s one of my favorite characters and I’m very concerned for him.

9. What’s your favorite season?

Probably 1 or 2? I feel like the writers decided episodic monsters of the week wouldn’t keep viewers interested forever so they kept one-upping their big bads with even bigger bads and that started to get ridiculous after season 5. Then again you can’t really top Lucifer without getting ridiculous c’:

I still enjoy the newer seasons (some more than others) but I do miss how simple things were back in S1-2.

10. What’s your least favorite season?

I...wasn’t a huge fan of God’s evil sister or her having some “connection” with Dean so that whole season kind of bugged me ;;

11. Opinions on Destiel?

It’s probably my favorite ship but it’s also a huge reason why I stayed away from the fandom and feel nervous reblogging Supernatural stuff on my personal blog. The fandom is too obsessed with it and I don’t want people to think I’m one of the toxic fans just because I ship it ;;

And honestly I love Dean and Cas as a familial ship too because those are super important and shouldn’t be treated as “less” than romantic ships.

12. Do you believe Supernatural queerbaits?

Maybe? I think they definitely throw in jokes or teases but I’m not sure I’d go as far to call it queerbaiting. It does bug me they killed Charlie but they kill practically everyone so?

13. Seasons 1-7 or 8-14?

1-7

14. Favorite villain (plot wise)?

Does Crowley count as a villain at this point?

15. Do you think they should end the Lucifer plot line?

Yes c’:

16. Who do you think has gone through more trauma (Sam, Dean, or Cas)?

I feel this isn’t a fair question because the trauma they go through is completely different.

Dean had to deal with his dad selling his soul for him, with being told he might have to kill his brother, and with being tortured in hell for years.

But Sam had to deal with the fact he never really got to apologize to his dad before he died, with being told he had demon blood and that his own brother was thinking of the possibility of having to kill him, with being the reason their mother died, and dealing with the pressure of taking control over Lucifer just so he could drag Lucifer down into hell with him.

If I HAD to pick one I’d probably say Dean, just because I recently rewatched the S5 finale and that look of utter despair and hopelessness on Dean’s face when he thinks Sam lost to Lucifer and that he lost his brother and the world was going to end killed me, but I think both of their trauma is pretty equal.

17. What’s your favorite Supernatural episode?

I think I’d have to go with the one where Dean gets ghost sickness and ends up terrified of everything.

I 18. Do you like case episodes?

They’re usually my favorites!

19. Who do you relate most to in TFW?

tbh Castiel because I, too, am an extremely socially awkward nerd who can’t use a phone and loves Dean Winchester c’:

20. Why do you like Supernatural?

I got into it because of the humor and the episodic monster hunts, but I fell in love with the characters and they’re definitely the reason I still watch Supernatural.

21. If you could bring back one character and kill off another who would they be?

I wanna say Adam, but I have to go with Bobby because as great as AU Bobby is, he’s not the same and doesn’t have the same bond with Sam and Dean that their Bobby had ;;

If I had to kill someone... literally anyone except Jody Lucifer I guess?

Tagging: Uhhh if you’re following me and haven’t done this yet then go for it!!

#outofhunting #mun things #tag games

1 note · View note

tomeandflickcorner · 6 years

Text

Top 12 Worst OUAT moments

While I still like Once Upon a Time, I can admit that the show has had its share of moments that make your nose wrinkle at best and feel utter rage at the worst. So this is my personal countdown of what I feel are the worst moments in the show.

12) Graham’s Lack of Recognition- Even though he was killed off only seven episodes into the show, Sheriff Graham still has a small but devoted fanbase. So it’s quite vexing that he has virtually been forgotten within the show. The fact that he was murdered by Regina was never addressed. We didn’t even get a scene with Emma checking for his gravestone in the Underworld (even though Regina was allowed to get proper closure from Daniel.) Just the knowledge that Graham’s spirit was at peace would have gone a long way. But we never got that.

11 The Canonization of Neal- Regardless of how you feel about this character, Neal was directly responsible for Emma’s inability to trust and fear of love. His actions subjected her to the traumatic experience of being an underage pregnant teenager behind bars. The mental scars from that left Emma feeling as if she wasn’t worthy of love, and it would be ten years before those scars started to heal. And contrary to what Neal may have claimed, the reasons for his actions had more to do with his desire to continue avoiding his estranged father than helping Emma break the curse over Storybrooke. (The fact that it was later revealed that Neal was actually looking for a way to destroy magic proved he didn’t care about breaking the curse.) Even his death was the result of his own self-centered nature, choosing to put his own desires over the safety of practically everyone in the Enchanted Forest. And yet, despite this, the show’s narrative began to portray him as some great fallen hero. They even named Snow and Charming’s newborn son after him. While this was obviously done to appease the avid Rumpelstiltskin fans who probably didn’t appreciate the storyline their fave’s son ended up getting, it made little sense in the overall narrative.

10) The Relationship Between Emma and Snow- This is a relationship that really went downhill. For a while, there was true potential here. They actively interacted with one another, and when Emma was feeling upset about something, Snow would at least try to be there for her daughter. But after the birth of Baby Neal, it was as if their relationship hit a dead end. All of a sudden, all of Snow’s inspirational speeches and consolations were reserved for Regina. Whenever Emma was in need of her mother, Snow seemed to be ignoring her completely, even to the point when she would actually send someone else to talk to her instead. The only time when Snow was shown interacting with Emma was when she was scolding her for not coming to her mother with her troubles. Mama Snow, I’m sorry, but you really are the worst mother around.

9) Belle’s Death- Even if you’re a low-key Rumbelle shipper, I’m pretty sure it goes without saying that the way Belle went out was a discredit to her overall character. Throughout the show, Belle was portrayed as a young woman who craved adventure, with a desire to see the world. But in the end, we’re told that her ‘happy ending’ was to live a cozy non-adventurous life with her hubby, in a place where she’d never see her father or any of her friends ever again. What’s more, she even chooses to live out the rest of her life in a realm that’s essentially on fast-forward, despite the fact that she has a living son out there, who might end up going on to become a respected professor, possibly fall in love and get married himself, and maybe even have kids of his own. Does anyone out there actually believe that Belle would be perfectly fine with not being around to see all of that? Would she really be okay with not being there to meet her future grandchildren? Sorry, show, but I refuse to believe that.

8) Regina’s ‘Redemption’ arc- Regina is one character that I have a love-hate relationship with. There are times when I can tell she is trying to become a better person. And during those times, I actually start to like her. But whenever something doesn’t go her way, such as when Cora framed Regina for the murder of Archie and everyone believed it, or when her week-long relationship with Robin came to an end with the appearance of Not-Marian, Regina would immediately throw a tantrum and even start to relapse. Moments like that made Regina’s Redemption arc look less like a true redemption arc and more like her saying ‘okay, I did a good deed, and I haven’t killed anyone in a while, so where’s my cookie?’ The fact that Regina would also go around yelling at Zelena for wasting all of her second chances and stating that she couldn’t ever forgive her sister just makes Regina’s redemption even more laughable, considering how many chances Regina got.

7) The Split Queen Story arc- While this is partially related to #8, it was stupid enough to warrant its own slot. At the end of S5, Regina, in an attempt to rid herself of her murderous impulses, tries to sever away her ‘evil’ side, a la Jekyll and Hyde. What follows is a rather painful story arc in which everyone starts to act as if the Evil Queen was a completely separate person from Regina, as if Regina was not responsible for anything she did as the Evil Queen. This plotline was made even worse by Lana’s painful attempt at portraying the Evil Queen once again. Instead of coming across as the fearsome woman who wouldn’t hesitate to order the massacre of an entire village because of her misplaced hatred of Snow White, she came off more like a cheesy one-note bad guy from a B-list movie. And in the end, instead of Regina accepting the fact that she and the Evil Queen were one and the same, we got this warped moral of how it’s important to love yourself. All in all, we’re left wondering what the point of this story arc even was

6) Belle Taking Rumpelstiltskin Back- While I wasn’t necessarily opposed to a happy ending for Rumbelle, I did expect it to be earned. And after everything that happened in 6A, I’m sorry to say that it wasn’t. Throughout the Patchwork arc, Rumpelstiltskin treatment of Belle was nothing short of abusive. Belle had reached the point when she’d had enough of his behavior and had practically placed a restraining order on him. But Gold proceeds to blatantly ignore her wishes, forcibly trapping her on the Jolly Roger when she refused to accept his help (and practically calling her an object in the process), slapped a magical tracking device on her when she was considering leaving town, and made it clear that he wanted to forcibly tamper with her unborn son’s fate. She was so scared for her baby’s future, she actually sent her son away to safety mere minutes after he was born. (And this is besides the fact that the baby was arguably conceived via rape, as Belle had no clue that Rumpelstiltskin had taken back the power of the Dark One at the time, and probably wouldn’t have slept with him had she known.) And yet, despite all of this, Belle still ends up taking him back when the Black Fairy abducts Baby Gideon, even though there’s nothing substantial within the narrative to suggest Rumpelstiltskin was remorseful of how he treated Belle. This is made even more disturbing by the fact that this implies that Rumpelstiltskin was right in saying that Belle would come back to him out of necessity. Is this really the message the writers wanted to convey? That it’s healthy for a woman to stay with a man because she needs him?

5) Robin’s Death- Why was this even necessary? Robin’s death was the final insult in the painful misuse of his character. In the beginning, there was a lot of potential to his character. This was the famous outlaw who robbed from the rich to give to the poor. And the fact that they were setting up a potential romance between him and Regina made for an interesting element. But from S4 onward, Robin was woefully underutilized. He became little more than an extension of Regina, and rarely got his own storyline. Even when it was revealed that he’d actually been living with Zelena instead of his late wife, Marian, the fallout from this revelation was more about Regina than of how Robin felt about the whole matter. And when he was ultimately killed off, the narrative once again focused on Regina’s feelings instead of the fact that Robin had died and left behind a small son and newborn daughter. All I can say is, Rest in Peace, Robin. We hardly knew you.

4) Zelena’s Return- Why did she come back? While I won’t deny that Bex did a terrific job at portraying Regina’s jealous half-sister, and that she can be a delightfully devious villain, the method they used to bring her back was just so insulting. Sure, lets retcon the fact that Emma unknowingly saved Robin’s wife, Marian, before she could be killed by Regina in the past. Let’s completely ignore the possible fallout Regina could have faced by being responsible for her death in the original timeline and how that might have affected her relationship with Robin. Let’s just have it so Marian died mere hours after Emma saved her. This time by Zelena’s hand. And lets have it so the Marian that made it to Storybrooke was Zelena in disguise the whole time. The fact that Marian was portrayed by a colored actress kinda makes her treatment a bit more insulting. Not to mention it brought about an asinine rape baby subplot that I can’t imagine anyone wanted or asked for.

3) Golden Queen- Just...Golden Queen. You all know what I’m talking about, so I don’t have to describe it. Who thought this was a good idea? I refuse to believe that ANY focus group wanted to see this on our screens. So, why did A&E decide to include this in the final script? Did they just want to gross us out?

2) Milah’s Fate- I don’t care if you didn’t particularly like Milah. The way her storyline ended was horrendous. I won’t defend how she walked out on her son without a word, but at the same time, she was a deeply depressed woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who had proven he didn’t care about her feelings or autonomy. If she stayed where she was, it’s entirely possible that she would have grown to resent her son. And it’s not as if she could have taken the boy with her. A pirate ship is no place for a boy that young. All things considered, leaving him under the care of his father was the safest option. To top it all off, it was shown repeatedly that Milah sincerely regretted how she handled things with Boy Baelfire. She even spent hundreds of years in the Underworld because of how guilty she felt. All Milah wanted to do was to apologize to her son for what she did. But instead, she is thrown into the River of Lost Souls. And by the man who murdered her, no less. What’s even worse is that he got away with this, with the Nevengers never finding out that Rumpelstiltskin had been the one who condemned her to eternal misery, with no known way to save her. For a show that’s supposed to be about hope and happy endings, this decision was truly anger inducing. Especially when Cora, who was a far worse mother than Milah was, was allowed to cross over. Why was Cora granted a reprieve when Milah wasn’t? This is something that I will be bitter about until the day I die.

1) The Creation of the Wish World- I think we can all agree that this was one painful episode to sit through. This episode was presented to us with the promise that it would show us how things would have turned out if Regina’s curse was never cast. Instead, we got a cluttered mess of continuity error (how could Neal be around to father Henry if he was supposed to have been in Neverland/The Land Without Magic?) Regina getting away with murdering a version of Snow and Charming by claiming they weren’t real, even though it was proven that Wish! Robin and Wish! Killian were real, and, to make it worse, the utter assassination of Emma Swan’s character. This episode told us that, if Emma had been raised by her parents, she would have ended up as a weak, spineless simpleton who couldn’t stand up for herself. What kind of message is that? That if you grow up with loving parents and have a happy life, you’ll turn out to be weak? Way to contradict the message that Love is Strength, which is what Emma’s story was all about.

Do you agree with my list? Is there something you think I should have included? Please, feel free to discus your thoughts.

#anti neal cassidy #anti regina mills #anti rumbelle #tagged anti to be safe #graham deserved better #belle deserved better #milah deserved better #marian deserved better #ouat negativity

225 notes · View notes

iheartarrow · 7 years

Text

Random Arrow thoughts

Arrow's 6x03 was awesome! The pacing in this episode was very well executed. Diggle even used Oliver's signature move of hand-driving an arrow into someone's leg. I love that move, very personal and savage! But that move makes me think of the position Diggle is in right now.

It's like he took on a role of GA, much like a new actor takes on a role that was recently played by a deceased actor. It's a morbid comparison, but I feel like it works. Oliver is not deceased, but the GA part of his life is deceased. He didn't just ask Digg to cover for him as the GA, he asked him to be the GA. What Digg is now doing is trying to be Oliver's version of the GA. It won't work...

Another bothersome thought I have is the isue of leadership that, I feel, hasn't been resolved between Oliver and John since S4. Since the end of S3 Diggle has been the leader of the team,then in S4 Laurel and Thea come to ask Oliver to come back and he resumes his position of being in command. There was an interesting scene where Oliver starts giving out orders, and the team just looks at him annoyed like "you're not the boss, Diggle is...", and Oliver corrects himself. But the fact is, Laurel and Thea went behind John's back to ask Oliver to return.

In S5 premier, Felicity pointed out to Oliver, that he wasn't the leader of the team, because he never set out to be one, he always wanted to go it alone. And she was right, of course. But here's the thing... he was still the man that others followed. Even Nysa with her ninjas in S2 finale, still followed Oliver! Being a leader is instinctual to Oliver, wether he wants to be one or not. With Diggle it's not the case. John has always been in a position where he was under someone's command. In the Army there was chain of command and he was following someone's orders; as a bodyguard - he was a hired man following Moira's orders (Ha!); on team Arrow Diggle was following Oliver's lead. Can he be team leader, the GA without the shadow of Oliver Queen always hovering over him?!

Oliver Queen was a good leader because people had faith in him, that faith made him believe in himself. He was a good leader because he inspired people, including John himself. It was truly a symbiotic relationship - John inspired Oliver to be a better man and a hero, and thus saw Oliver worthy to believe in. Now Digg keeps his condition a secret from Oliver, because he doesn't want to be seen as less than he used to be, I think. Oliver always told John that he is a better man than he is, and a better leader. He has that much faith in him. And John feels undeserving of that faith, that's why he hides the severity of his condition. Him taking that drug is equivalent of men taking viagra. (that's what immediately went through my head when I saw that scene).

No man will willingly admit to taking the little blue pill, same with Digg. I think, Diggle is having an existential crisis right now. Who is he if he can no longer be Spartan? He's a husband and a father, unemployed. What else is there in his life, what is its purpose?! This situation is somewhat similar to what we saw Felicity go through after she was paralized. Though, since her superpower is her beautiful brain, her adjustment to life was a bit easier and faster. John can't shoot, his nerve damage is degenerative. His active vigilante life must look fucked up to him right now. He lost faith in himself to the point of taking shady drugs (are there any other kind?!) in the back alley. Either he learns to shoot with his left hand, or he's off the team completely.

Anyhow, I digressed... I've been wanting this issue of leadership between Oliver and Diggle to be addressed, for a while now. Maybe now it's finally happening? Oliver and Digg butting heads like two Alpha males, that would be interesting to see. Haven't seen them punching each other for a long time. Hehe... Maybe the team would even split to 2 sides for a while?!

Now, personally, I like Diggle not as the team leader, but as Oliver's second in command. It's always been Diggle's job to guide Oliver, nudge him in the right direction when it's necessary. So, going back to my morbid analogy of Diggle being like an actor taking a role after his deceased predecessor... Digg was never an actor to begin with, he was always the director to Oliver's hero journey. I miss him in that capacity, even though Oliver has now matured and grown enough to be his own guiding light (at least it looks that way, now). I really like Digg's storyline this season, it could lead to interesting places. Not fond of the drug use, but it's just a point to show how much Digg is affected by his injury and is questioning himself right now.

***********************************

I also really really liked Willicity scenes in this episode. Finally they are interacting with each other. "She's pretty cool!"... Damn right she is, kiddo! He is so Smoaked!! Having a little crush on your father's girlfriend there, son?! LOL Seriously, though, I liked that William asked Felicity to tutor him some more, and Oliver's surprise that they've actually clicked right away. I liked how the writers constructed this importand scene. Felicity wasn't pressuring the kid, while teaching him, or parenting him, or giving him some slack, or "kissing ass" to appear more likable as his father's girlfriend, etc... She actually pointed out that he's new in class and is behind, but also aknowledged his potential in math. I loved how Oliver sneaked in to watch them. And after watching them interact, I think Oliver fell in love with Felicity Smoak a little bit more. He's sure that his son's life would be better with Felicity in it, just like his... I'm dead... First of all, everyone's life would be better with Felicity Smoak in it, she's that amazing! And second, Oliver didn't just say you're good with William, so lets date... He wants her in his kid's life... present and future... life... that's a commitment.

The only complaint I have for this episode is that we just got a hint of a sex scene... for the new time slot, Arrow is being too modest... though I really enjoyed Felciity in that tank top with her bra peeking. Emily is working out hard, her body is so well sculpted. And the music, was that the same one from 3x20?!

*********************************** Random thoughts...

- I didn't enjoy the villain in this episode all that much, she was okay-ish. There was a potential for a good villain, I really liked how she didn't fear the GA and his team and kept her cool when faced with them. But the reason behind the villain of the week was too weak.

- Loved Digg's new bow. How cool is that?! He's becoming his own version of the GA bit by bit, I love it.

- Felicity is thinking way too hard on her company's name. Just Smoak it, honey. It's your baby, you have the right to put your name on it.

- So is Dinah becoming O|iver's Diggle from early seasons?! Is this what's happening here?! God, I hope they don't get them romantically involved. I like Dyla and Lyla.

- I like the FBI agent Samanda Walson more and more. Now that's a professional woman. Takes no crap, especially from Oliver. She knows almost all of the team members. I cannot wait when she goes after each of them, it will be so awesome to watch. Especially Felicity. The last time someone was after her was in S1 with Quentin and she was almost shaking. I wonder how will she handle herself against this agent. This woman is no empathetic Quentin, she could trap Felicity in her babbles like a pro she is. I will probably have a mini heart atack, but it would be worth it.

- Oh, Rene, you little snitch... his code name Wild Dog is totally justified. When you own a dog and don't tame it, it will fight with you for dominance. Rene is onto Digg hard right after their first mission together. Granted, two people died and many were injured, but he's being too harsh on Dig. And then goes behind his back to Oliver, wich shows disrespect. That I do dislike in his character. It's like the show is making two steps forward and one step back with his character.

- Those two guys in the truck... I loved that scene! And when Digg joined them... that was golden, I laughed so much. What a brilliant comedic moment!!

This was a solid episode writing-wise (apart from the villain). I really really enjoyed it! Thank you, Arrow!

@almondblossomme @hope-for-olicity @felicitys @tdgal1 @felicitysmoakq

#olicity #arrow 6x03

28 notes · View notes

miss-musings · 7 years

Text

Why I want to stop watching the Blacklist (a.k.a., A Rant by Me)

This used to be my favorite show. Hands down. I would legitimately schedule things around it; I would leave events early to make sure I could watch it live; I would post about it on Tumblr and read other people’s posts the rest of the evening; I would search through multiple review site’s posts the next day.

I loved the dynamic between Red and Liz. I loved the mysteries and the little morsels of answers that we would get. I loved how, in the S1 finale, it felt like no one was safe: Meera got killed; Harold got attacked and nearly killed; Tom was shot and left for dead.

But, over the past few seasons, this show has become the bane of my TV-watching experience.

(EDIT: this post, which quietly keeps gaining notes, was written post-S4, pre-S5. So, there’s still plenty of relevant things in the post, but just keep the timing in mind.)

I would watch it, sure. But that was because I didn’t want the folks on Tumblr spoiling it for me. It was because I thought we were finally getting answers – which is what they teased us with every other week – only to feel so disappointed.

This last year, I made reaction videos for a friend of mine for every single episode. You know what one of the most commonly said things in those videos is? “Well, at least next week’s preview looks good.” Only to be disappointed in that episode, and to say the same thing about next week’s preview, and the cycle repeated itself until we actually got a half-way decent episode (which was usually some kind of finale or premiere, because that’s the only time actual shit can happen – during Sweeps Week).

Over and over again, both online and in person, I compared this to those scenes in cartoons where someone puts a carrot on a fishing pole in front of a donkey, and the donkey runs so hard to reach the carrot, only to never get there.

That’s how this show has felt the past season or two.

It’s only a shadow of what it once was, and I’m tired of it. I wish I could stop watching it.

So many other people I follow on Tumblr have said they’ve either stopped or thought about stopping. By comparison, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and the Walking Dead seemingly increase their viewership every season; the Blacklist has been NBC’s lowest-rated show in the demo for the last year, IIRC. The ratings for the Redemption spin-off were so low, the showrunners tried to pass it off as a one-off miniseries, when it was ALWAYS intended to be its own full-length show.

I understand that the show does well in DVR viewership numbers, and it was the most expensive TV show that Netflix had purchased when Season 1 was released.

But, this show continues to disappoint me. There’s hardly anything I like about it anymore. Hell, even James Spader, who’s a master at his craft, seems to be bored with it. His monologues are becoming more and more cliche, and even his amazing performances can’t save this dumpster-fire.

Its protagonist, Liz, is all over the fucking place in terms of characterization. First, she was naive and learned her “husband” had used and abused her. Then, she went to the dark side, chained him up on a boat and said she’d never forgive him for what he’d done. Then, she apparently forgave him, slept with him, had his kid, tried to remarry the guy, and then faked her death to get away with him and is now living her happy dream life with her little girl and her ‘perfect’ husband.

What happened to the dark, morally questionable, grungy Liz? What happened to the Liz who was jaded and afraid after being on the run for several weeks, or months?

She just settled down with a guy who she used to hate and she’s living the dream.

What in the literal fuck?

And, for all the time that has been invested in Liz, she has made little to no progress in her characterization these past few seasons. In fact, she’s done more of a 360. She’s right back where she started, more or less.

Why should the audience give a shit about her journey if she’s not making any progress? Why should we care that, halfway through this show, she has everything she’s ever wanted?

The side characters, like Aram, Samar, Ressler, Cooper and others are there just to serve the plot. Any time there’s a semblance of some character development or plot progression, the showrunners regress everyone back to Stage One so we can do it all over again. Aram and Samar look like they’re making progress in their possible romantic relationship? Fuck that, we’ve got to make sure Aram runs back to his abusive girlfriend and string this thing along another season! Remember when Ressler got shot, had prescription drug problems, and was in Narcotics Anonymous? Yeah, me neither.

Mr. Kaplan, who was best when she was on-screen to sass and help Reddington once every few episodes, gets pushed into the spotlight for some made-up bullshit reason that had never been discussed or hinted at previous to the “Mr. Kaplan used to work for Katarina Rostova” storyline. And while Susan Bloomaert is a fantastic and underrated actress and did her absolute best to make those scenes between her and Liz feel emotional, I didn’t really care about their dynamic at all because it felt so forced, underdeveloped, and out-of-nowhere.

Whereas the relationship that I care the MOST about – that between Red and Liz – that has been the most built-up and developed over the course of the show keeps getting thrown under the bus as Liz does the whole “love Red, hate Red, forgive Red” song-and-dance routine. She claims she agrees with Red when he tells her not to go back to Tom in Season 2… only to go back to Tom later in Season 2. She’s totally down with asking Red to help her whenever she’s a criminal on the run… but the minute her wedding gets shot up, she yells at him and says it’s his fault.

And now, as far as the Lizzington fans go, which I count myself as one of them, the show has written itself into a corner. Because all the amazing chemistry and romantic tropes throughout the show feel incredibly creepy now that Liz believes Red is her dad, regardless of whether he actually is or not. I don’t care how they try to pull themselves out of the ginormous hole they’ve dug for themselves on that one – why the hell would a woman ever end up with a guy that she once thought was her dad, even if it turned out he actually wasn’t?

And the only real way out of it is the Impostor Theory – a well-written and well-researched theory, but one that makes people have to do fucking mental gymnastics for it to work. You have to assume a lot of people like Naomi and Reddington’s former roommate from the Naval Academy who’s now an admiral, are in on it. Whereas dudes like Finch or the Director aren’t…

Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s a wonderful theory and it explains a lot. But, if it ends up being true, it means one of two things:

1) The writers didn’t plan this from the beginning and lucked their way into it

2) The writers DID plan this from the beginning, which means they have the ability to be really good writers, but then they fell into all this other bullshit – like Liz’s weird arc and other things – which really means that they’re not that good of writers; they just had the one good idea.

And if the Impostor Theory DOESN’T end up being true, in some form or fashion, that means that Red really IS Liz’s dad, and this whole fucking show – Red’s entire characterization, his relationship and dynamic with her – has been a lie. Canon can be throw out the window to rot in the sewer and fuck itself in the interim, because the writers don’t even care any more.

Which, I realize is unfair, because I know there are hundreds of people who work really hard to make this show happen, and while it’s not, like, the worst show of all time, the fact that it had such potential and has fallen so far, almost makes it seem worse than a show that was so bad from the beginning I never invested time in it.

And what makes it even WORSE is that the showrunners continue to act like this is the most groundbreaking show on television, and put it on a pedestal On High, along with the likes of Game of Thrones, The Americans, and The Sopranos… you know, actually good shows.

That would be the equivalent of the Taken director demanding that his movie should’ve gotten an Oscar. It’s like, you know it was a fine movie, and I had a good time watching it, but like, bring yourself back down to earth. Taken is okay, but it is NOT Oscar-worthy material, so get off your high horse, dude.

I guess, if nothing else, it shows that the showrunners, writers and actors are so talented that they got me to invest in the show to the point where I can’t not watch it, even though it’s fallen so far and I feel like it’s nowhere near as good as it used to be. They hooked me and got me to care about these characters and their dynamics so much that, even though it frustrates me week in and week out, I will still keep watching it.

It’s just that, now, I might be doing it with a bottle of vodka, taking shots every time:

Red has a monologue that proves James Spader is too damn good for this show;

Liz is bitchy to Red for little to no reason, while continuing to be lovey-dovey with Tom;

Ressler survives a fight or car accident or some other action sequence with no injuries whatsoever;

Harry Lennix is completely underused as Harold Cooper in an episode, because he only tells his employees to do the obvious… and literally nothing else;

Samar and/or Aram take a step back from getting together, despite hints that they’ve liked each other since Season 2.

So, bottoms up, Blacklist fans!

#blacklist #nbc the blacklist #the blacklist #raymond reddington #lizzington #keenler #elizabeth keen #harold cooper #aram mojtabai #donald ressler #samar navabi #dembe zuma #mr kaplan #katarina rostova

636 notes · View notes