Do you see how Alicent is so dissatisfied in the scenes during the Green Council meeting in episode 9? How utterly surprised and somewhat disappointed?
It's not because she falls from cloud nine to discover the possibility of Aegon becoming king when she learns about the lords' "long-laid plans" from Tyland Lannister. She knew that it would make sense for Aegon to inherit the throne for both the realm and the survival of her family, and basically gave us hints she realized this as early as the hunt scene in episode 3.
More specifically, she understands that she might have to put Aegon on the throne during the scene when a heavily drunk Viserys laments his fears of making a mistake in naming Rhaenyra his heir since he now has a son, and reveals to Alicent his prophetic vision of seeing his son with the conqueror's crown. Even if at that moment, Alicent reassures Viserys he made the right choice, you can see that the doubt lingers in her mind, and in seeing Rhaenyra return from the hunt covered in blood in absolute and ruthless callousness, Alicent recognizes the danger.
It is a wake-up call: in the end, she might have to choose her son over Rhaenyra.
And of course, we know that as Aegon was growing up, Alicent spent hours musing these doubts and even confronts him with them in episode 6: "You are the challenge, simply by living and breathing. You are the king's firstborn son and what they know, what everyone in the realm knows in their blood and in their bones, is that one day you will be our king."
So what explains her dismay during the Green Council meeting??
As I see it, the cause of Alicent's distress during the Green Council among other things is not that the lords planned a whole operation to crown Aegon as king, but that they did so behind her back, as if she is not fit to be included in these discussions, let alone be consulted for her own son's future and survival.
She rightly says: "Am I to understand that members of the small council have been planning secretly, to install my son without me?" and right after that comes the condescending reply: "My queen, there was no need to sully you with darkling schemes."
No sh!t.
Remember how betrayed and distraught Alicent felt went Aemond lost an eye and everyone dismissed her concerns as that of an overreacting and overbearing mother? The Green Council scene gives flashbacks to this.
Once again, Alicent's wishes, her wills, her thoughts, and her whole person as a mother, queen, advisor, and woman, are sidelined and minimized by members of her own council.
So this is why I think it makes sense that episode 9 is called "The Green Council" which contrasts the name given to a different council meeting in episode 10, namely, "The Black Queen." Because apparently, Rhaenyra owns her council meeting, even if she has to shut down Daemon to do so. But Alicent is not yet perceived as her own council's queen.
I hope we can somehow see Alicent truly become her own Green Queen in season 2.
After Stan gets taken into custody by federal agents, Dipper and Mabel must find something to prove his innocence, but then begins to have second thoughts on whether or not they should trust him. “Not What He Seems” premiered on this day, 9 Years Ago.
Never before have I unironically used the phrase Mary Sue, but what they did with Carter in this final episode was just fucking nuts man. Kohhori was cool, I like her, but giving Carter every fucking major weapon in the canon? And then having the fucking WATCHER?? Jump in with that “it couldn’t have been me, it had to be you” fucking bullshit? She is not all that, marvel.
But you wanna know who is???
FUCKING STRANGE SUPREME.
I cannot FUCKING believe they made the most profoundly powerful iteration of a character, just to fucking throw him in the waste bin when it turned out people were way more interested in what he had going on than what Carter was doing.
There was no reason they couldn’t have made her interesting without nerfing everyone else, except that they don’t fucking know how apparently because marvel is fucking trash these days…
Seriously, there are two big ways to ruin any interest people have for a character you plan to make the face of a show/arc/phase. One, shove them in every episode and keep forcing them into plots where people don’t want them. Two, fucking killing off better characters for taking up the limelight!
Look, I like the idea of Strange fighting the amalgamation of his grief, but there’s no reason he should have died over it, especially when Carter is in the same boat. This episode would have been way better if we got rid of the forced high stakes, and just had two characters suffering the same kind of grief talk it out with each other, find a way to heal, maybe by leaning on each other a little bit. They are unique in the sense that they are always lost in time, struggling to find their place.
Marvel used to capitalize on character moments like these, use them to build up their characters and give them some sense of home to keep them moving forward as heroes. Now they just kill off characters around their current Big Cheese to keep the focus on them. When did this become storytelling? When did this become cinema?
I’m fucking tired of marvel’s shit man, and I want Strange Supreme back…
I had this idea for a little Gravity Falls AMV after hearing this song a few days ago. I think it works pretty well with the tone of Dipper and Mabel vs the Future; IMO still the show's most difficult and emotional episode to watch (minus the finale of course, lol)
Song: SAINT PEPSI - ISLANDS
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Talk about a downer post to make right after I announce that me and Hana interviewed Alex Hirsch, lmao!
Like, imagine: you're minding your own evil business in your own evil lair and then two people you absolutely despise break into your house, steal your dinner and THEN they take turns beating the shit out of you as means of bonding romantically.
*laying facedown on the ground* how is it going to be 30 minutes. it can’t just be 30 minutes can it (🤡)??? because, from what all we’ve seen in bts vids and the like, we have to fit (ofmd finale spoilers beneath cut)—
- Ed fishing and coming to the realization that Stede/the crew are in danger, and doing whatever he has to do in order to get back (fishing up his leathers, emerging from the ocean, etc etc)
- The crew getting captured, or maybe just something with them jailed already
- The crew devising some kind of fuckery where they dress up as naval officers
- Whatever sort of hijinks goes down in the forest where some of the crew are battling/tripping up (literally) the actual naval officers
- The actual beach battle sequence itself where Ed and Stede are both fighting through it
- The both of them reuniting and having some kind of romantic moment (I would really like them to aPOLOGIZE TO EACH OTHER BUT Y’KNOW SKDJWJD)
- Ed and Stede teaming up with Zheng and Auntie
- Some sort of sequence where Ed appears to be dressed in some sort of extravagant white outfit and also appears to have been stabbed (or is otherwise in contact with a lot of blood. please see also: that one bloody hand shot)
- Some sort of VERY suspicious looking sequence where the crew seems to be near a makeshift grave of some sort. So if someone dies, we’ll need time to sit with that/allow that moment to breathe (but also I can’t see how because everyone has died numerous times and quite literally just Can’t Be Killed DKWKD)
- That other sequence where the crew is all inside and Ed and Stede have the “it’s a suicide mission/only if we die” exchange. Which…I can’t tell where that is in the timeline?? Because I would assume Ed and Stede dramatically reunite on the beach but maybe not depending on time?????
- Some sort of scene where the crew all seem to be running towards a dinghy/trying to get away from danger
- Some sort of scene where Ed and Stede are looking at that one little house that has appeared in the background of a few shots and more than likely having some sort of discussion about their future/their relationship