#that last episode did a 180 on their relationship

[goodobservationshirley]

#harlan coben's shelter #shelteredit #rachel's like 'let me just put my hand on your leg on the pretense of asking you if you're okay #and then casually leave it there for the whole conversation' #girl please #that last episode did a 180 on their relationship #like even on the episode just before #where they literally pretended to be together #i never once thought the show tried to go somewhere with them #but i guess the cobens had an epiphany reading that script #because oh boy is that last episode going for it

[antianakin]

Pong Krell. It’s universally agreed that he deserved worse than what he got and I get that. I just wished we got to see what he was like before he Fell. Did he always hate clones, was it gradual? Did he suspect something off and went over paranoid?

I’ll say this one and I’ll say this probably a thousand more times but I wished the creators focused on more details with characters. It’s absolutely fascinating that they created a Jedi that Fell but did nothing with it besides outright evil.

How other Jedi reacted to learning that a fellow Jedi betrayed everyone? How did the Republic?

I just wished they did more with him than just, yeah that dude was a dick and killed clones.

Yeah, it's one of the things I don't like as much about TCW, the extremely episodic nature of it means that there really is never any build-up to anything or lasting impact from anything. Unless it's happening within one of the 2-4 episode arcs, we RARELY get to see any kind of build-up or fallout. It's one of the major issues with Barriss, too, we see her ONCE in season 2 and she's calm, kind, methodical, and selfless. And then three seasons later in season 5 she's suddenly ruthless, selfish, doubting everything and everyone, merciless, etc. There is NO BUILD UP to that radical 180 to her character and there's no real exploration of how Ahsoka really feels about that particular betrayal afterwards, the focus in later episodes after the Wrong Jedi focuses only on Ahsoka feeling betrayed by the COUNCIL and her feelings about that. Nothing since TCW has ever touched it either (Rebels, Mandalorian, the Ahsoka show). Satine's death never really comes up again after it happens aside from Bo-Katan being an asshole. Obi-Wan goes from being totally fucked up about Maul coming back to being chill enough to take on Maul and Savage alone and winning without us getting to see him actually deal with those emotions.

Pong Krell and the Umbara arc IN GENERAL falls into this category easily (so do the Zyggeria and the Deception arc tbh). Krell is such a basic evil character, there's so little nuance to him and we never get to see the Jedi react to the revelation that one of their own turned at all. Dooku turned after he had already left the Order as far as any of them really know, but Krell was still IN the Order when he decided to betray them and it would've been really interesting to see the impact of that on them. It would've been ESPECIALLY interesting to explore that more during the Wrong Jedi arc in particular in how the Jedi feel like they can't trust their own people not to betray them anymore after Dooku and Krell.

Krell is presented with like. Zero nuance. He is just unequivocally evil and despite Anakin greeting him in a friendly way at the beginning, the visuals tell you this dude's no good right from his first appearance. There isn't really any chance that he's going to be a good guy at all. So all we are left with are headcanons.

And I remember discussing my Krell headcanons somewhere, but I think it might've been on a Discord server I've since left, so I unfortunately cannot find them again. So I'll try to remember them and immortalize them here, I guess.

Here's the thing about Krell. NO ONE suspects him. So he cannot be overtly acting like a bigoted asshole from the jump at any point, he HAS to be acting in such a way that it's not trickling out to the other clones and to the Jedi themselves that Krell is an absolute monster. Even Fives takes a moment to decide that Krell is suspicious and only brings up Krell's casualty numbers after he sees Krell's behavior for a minute and combines that knowledge with what he's now personally experiencing and is starting to come to conclusions based on that. He doesn't go into the relationship thinking Krell is worse than any other Jedi already.

And based on what we know of EVERY OTHER FALLEN JEDI (Dooku, Anakin, Barriss), they didn't start out as monsters. Dooku was a highly respected Jedi Master who seems to have had a really positive relationship with Yoda and Qui-Gon and simply became disillusioned with the Senate and his care for the people of the galaxy got twisted into something darker over time. Barriss was kind, selfless, compassionate, brave, and resourceful, and it was the war that caused her to start letting her fears and pain consume her into turning on the Jedi. Anakin was kind and spent years having his fears and doubts twisted into selfishness and greed and darkness that allowed him to justify murder and genocide for power. So it wouldn't make sense to me that Pong Krell wouldn't fall into the same pattern where he was once kind and good and selfless and brave, but that the circumstances surrounding the war caused him to lose faith and fall.

My headcanon is that he lost an entire battalion early in the war, much like we see happen to Plo Koon during the Malevolence arc and that that loss and failure just BROKE him. Krell DID care about the clones, he cared about his men, and he FAILED them all. And I think that he saw all of these clones dying by the dozens in all of the other battalions and instead of choosing to let go of his pain and fear and lean into his compassion, he chose to distance himself from them entirely to make it hurt less. If he didn't care about the clones, if he just saw them as the cannon fodder that the Senate treated them all as, then it would hurt less when they died. Maybe the Senate itself even dragged him over the coals for that initial loss. Or perhaps it was the opposite, maybe most of his battalion was killed, but it ultimately ended in a victory anyway because they were forced to just keep going despite the consequences. And so Krell decides to enter this mindset where he is disillusioned with the Senate and just CANNOT allow himself to care about the clones, because it won't change what the Senate is going to do to them anyway, so he may as well just treat them the same way.

And this wouldn't have happened overnight. It wouldn't have been a sudden 180 where he decided he was just going to treat them like shit. But he maybe decided to put some more professional distance between himself and his new battalion, not get close to them, not use their names (although he still knows them, still remembers them all). Maybe one day they're in a tricky situation and all of his options are bad, he HAS to sacrifice some of his men in order to salvage the situation at all, and it's a choice between a full retreat that he KNOWS the Senate won't take well, or sacrificing the men to achieve the victory. So he sacrifices the men. It's not an entire battalion, it's not even a whole company, but it's more than it would've been if he'd retreated. Maybe next time, there's a choice between going back to save some of the men even if it poses a risk to his own life or the mission or something, and he chooses not to go back for them because the mission is more important, or he rationalizes that his life is more important as the Jedi General. And it's just more and more little decisions like that that add up over time to being able to see the clones as nothing more than tools.

The disillusionment with the Senate leads to him sort-of agreeing with things Dooku and the Separatists have said and he can look at the war and realize that it's entirely possible that the Republic is going to LOSE, and he CANNOT be the one who loses again, so maybe he starts bouncing around the concept of maybe switching sides. And of course initially he rejects the idea. He's a Jedi, he won't just abandon the Republic, he can't be a traitor, who in the Separatist side would ever trust him anyway. But once that seed is planted, it doesn't go away and it keeps coming back up and he keeps finding ways to rationalize why it might be a good idea and then deciding not to do it over and over again. Until one day, he can't convince himself that it's a bad idea or that it wouldn't work. He tells himself it's the ONLY option, if he doesn't change sides then he's dead. But Dooku WON'T trust him unless he can prove that he's not on the Republic's side, so he has to come up with a plan to gain their trust. And what better way to earn that trust than to ensure a Separatist victory in an important campaign by double-crossing the Republic.

And once he's chosen to go down that path, it's even EASIER to stop caring about the clones because, well, they're all dead anyway. The Republic is going to lose, the clones are all dead men walking no matter what, so why bother caring about them or trying to keep them alive? He can't lose so often that the Jedi or the Senate become suspicious of him, of course, but it's REALLY easy then to get to Umbara and treat the clones like crap and turn them against each other and intentionally try to get them all killed. They're dead anyway, he's not the one killing them really, is he, the Senate is, the Jedi are, the war is. They were dead from the moment they were created in that test tube because they were created for this specific purpose. It's not his fault.

And much like Barriss turns against the Jedi in part because she did LOVE the Jedi and was devastated by what she saw happening to them and the pain of seeing her people forced to become something they were never supposed to be, as much as her actions were intended as some kind of message to try to sort-of save the Jedi from a course of action she saw as their downfall, I think that Krell turns on the clones because at some point he DID care about them. A lot. And that care became his downfall, the pain at what was being done to them just absolutely gutted him and it threw him down a path that ultimately led him to turn against the very people whose deaths had hurt him so badly just a few short years ago.

Krell might not have been the most effusive or emotional person prior to the war or anything, he might've been a more reserved person similar to Mace or Dooku or Luminara, but I think he probably was a perfectly good Jedi who was kind and selfless and compassionate once upon a time.

And none of the headcanons above have even touched what his relationships with other JEDI must have been like. It's just as possible that he did have friends and people he considered family among the Jedi. Maybe he had a padawan once at some point. And maybe all of those people had died by the time we get to Umbara. Maybe he had to watch a lot of the people he was closest to just fall like flies, and so it starts feeling like nothing matters. Maybe one of the Jedi who died on Geonosis was a former padawan of his, but Krell himself obviously wasn't there and the pain of THAT loss and the guilt he feels at not having been there (even though this padawan had been knighted for a while and there was a good reason Krell wasn't there that day) just sticks with him, too, and he never quite manages to let that go, either.

I think a lot of people choose to just headcanon Krell as having just always been kind-of an asshole even when he was a Jedi, but that doesn't work for me. If Krell was always an asshole, I feel like the Jedi would've stepped in at some point before the war even HAPPENED and tried to manage that situation. And it doesn't match up with the way pretty much every other fallen Jedi has ever been written, where they were GOOD PEOPLE once upon a time who saw awful things happen that they couldn't stop or had an awful thing happen TO them that they couldn't stop and the pain of that experience consumes them to the point that they spiral into darkness as a result. Krell should be the same way, which means he likely was a perfectly good normal Jedi before the war. He would've been kind, he might've been good with younglings (he's tall, maybe he was the one the younglings went to all the time for piggy back rides, maybe he often taught dual wielding to padawans who asked because of how clearly proficient he is at it), he might've taught a student of his own successfully, he would've been wise and selfless and compassionate, he would've loved the Jedi and the people of the galaxy.

Like, to be frank, if Tales of the Jedi HAD to explore a fallen Jedi story, they should've explored Krell instead of Dooku. Dooku has been explored before, we know quite a lot about him and his motivations and his backstory, but Krell, as you noted, is left a mystery and is stuck in the realm of being just purely evil for the sake of the story they were telling in this one arc. Krell needed more nuance in a way Dooku just did not.

#star wars #pong krell #tcw #the clone wars #umbara #umbara arc #krell

[anyydidi]

N x Uzi works and N x V shippers should accept that.

Even though i’m a Nuzi (N x Uzi) shipper at heart, I like Envy (N x V). I think it’s cute and they have a great history. But…

That’s about it.

We need to realize that they are both different people now. Yes, N kind of kept his personality through it all, but he has gone through so much development, mainly thanks to Uzi. Not to mention he got his memories completely wiped out and the only reason he has/had feelings for V is because he felt the remnants of their past stronger feelings. Yes, he got his memories back, but only from the Cyn incident. We don’t have any proof of him having all of his memories from the mansion back.

We don’t even know if they just had crushes on each other. We’re not sure if they really had an established romantic relationship in the first place. Did they only have mild crushes, or were they madly in love? That’s something we’re not sure about.

And lastly, people move on. How i mentioned, they’re two different people than they were at the mansion, with absolutely different lives. It’s not wrong, or weird of N to start developing feelings for Uzi. After all, even though N’s personality didn’t really change from his past one, V has made a practically 180 turn. She’s seen as shy and reversed in the past, but ignorant, mean and murderous in the present (before her character development of course). She’s a different person from what N has fallen for. Plus, let’s be honest, V hasn’t been treating N nicely.

V has treated N very poorly. Ignoring him, pretending she doesn’t know who he is, generally just being mean to him. She probably did that to protect him, yeah, but N isn’t aware of that and really, is that an excuse to behave that way? On the other hand, Uzi has helped N grow as a person. She helps him believe in himself, she shows him what true love feels like (platonic, and now even a little romantic). She started treating him as his own person, as a person who has feelings and deserves to be treated as such. Not just some killer machine that you can use and throw around. And in turn, N was Uzi’s first friend. Someone who finally loves her for who she is. He supports her and helps her grow emotionally. They support and love each other and it’s HEALTHY.

And last but not least, NO. Nuzi is not rushed and the hand holding scene did not come from nowhere. Uzi has been shown to develop some sort of feelings for him for EPISODES now. We can see her starting to develop them in The Promening. Which is kind of a long time ago. As for N, we don’t exactly see him having romantic feelings for her until recently, we can definitely see him start to lose feelings for V since Cabin Fever. The point where he definitely realizes he feels something for Uzi, is in the scene prior to the hand holding scene, where Uzi asks him if he’s good. Obviously, he probably had some feelings for her even before, but i would say that was the realization point.

So, in conclusion, i would say both Nuzi and Envy works. The only difference is that Nuzi is in the present, and Envy is more in the past. But, let’s be honest here, does it really matter? Yes, I am more of a Nuzi shipper and definitely am rooting for them to become canon, but i wouldn’t be mad if Envy is the one who wins in the end. Both relationships have chemistry. And i think we all know that Envy is absolutely tragic and it makes me sad. So, stop the ship wars you guys. It’s not worth it. Let’s just enjoy our respective ships as they are, it is Liam’s show after all and he can do whatever he wants with it.

(This is a Nuzi defend post, I am in NO WAY hating on Envy, as i hope was stated enough. I am just tired of toxic Envy shippers attacking Nuzi for pointless reasons. Oh and btw i am a strong “V is alive, or at least comes back” believer. And that is not delusion, guys, it was clearly stated by J earlier in the episode that the disassembly drones were cloned. Glitch, I am watching you 👹👹.)

#murder drones #murder drones uzi #uzi doorman #murder drones n #serial designation n #murder drones v #serial designation v #n x uzi #md nuzi #murder drones nuzi #nuzi #biscuitbites #n x v #md n x v #murder drones envy #envy #md envy #btw i am a j x v shipper #hehehe #you cant stop me #murder drones episode 6 spoilers #spoilers #murder drones dead end

[autumnteawithfriends]

I despise CherriSnake and here’s why

Before we begin, something I want to clarify is that I don’t care if you ship or don’t ship CherriSnake. You do you, I’m not here to stop you and neither is this post. I just personally wanted to make a post on why I absolutely hate this ship.

Also, props to @cagneyblooms for helping me come up with some of the points.

REASON#1 - They don’t really work as partners for me

This is more of a personal reason to me, but CherriSnake is one of those ships to me where it feels like they absolutely can’t work out as a couple. Since the pilot is somewhat treated as canon in the show, they make no sense considering the fact that Pentious and Cherri absolutely despised eachother in the pilot. Both of them were locked in a turf war against one another and that hatred was mutual. Yet the show does a complete 180 from that and makes Pentious have this crush on Cherri out of nowhere, likely because Vivziepop wanted a straight HH ship and instead of deciding to just make a different character to pair Pentious/Cherri with or just make a entirely new ship. She just looked at the fandom, saw that CherriSnake was somewhat popular, and decided to make it canon last minute. CherriSnake during 2019-2023 just felt like a joke ship to me or something shippers who ship every character together would make. I mean, CherriSnake practically falls into a TON of popular tropes (Enemies/Rivals to Lovers, Angel x Demon, Girlboss x Goofball, probably way more) I’m not dissing this tropes, I even do these tropes myself with OC x Canon pairings I make. It’s just that CherriSnake felt rushed and last minute.

REASON#2 - They lack chemistry and actual interaction

To be fair, I partially put the blame on both Amazon Prime and Vivziepop for this. Amazon Prime because they only gave HH 8 episodes to really show its story, but I also blame Vivziepop for this. Because not only did she waste whatever time she had with those 8 episodes by showing us useless filler with the Vees and The Overlords instead of actually delving into the main sinners and why they’re in Hell. But she also crammed WAY too much content into 8 episodes instead of giving HH proper pacing.

But onto CherriSnake chemistry, Cherri and Pentious’s regular interactions pretty much prove to me that Vivziepop understands nothing about how actual relationships work and just make their dynamic one sided on Pentious’s part. Let’s be honest, Cherri does not reciprocate Pentious in the slightest considering the stuff she does to him. The shitty two dicks joke aside, not only was the kiss between her and Pentious forced because it was only a “heat of the moment” deal, but she also did this.

(Source: TV Tropes under Sir Pentious’s page)

I get that Cherri isn’t exactly a nicest sinner demon in Hazbin, but this combined with the two dicks joke and the kiss she and Pentious share makes her seem incredibly shallow (which she is considering how rushed this ship is in general) If Hazbin Hotel was like Bojack Horseman like some people claim it is, either these would happen.

A. Cherri realizes she was shallow for only wanting Pentious for his two dicks and never really considered how he felt, either leading Cherri and Pentious staying friends or Cherri breaking it off with him.

B. Pentious calls out Cherri for being shallow, thus giving both him and Cherri some development.

C. Cherri realizes that she only liked the kiss because it was less of them being in love and more of a heat of the moment adrenaline rush.

Or literally anything else. Cherri and Pentious never have a genuine interaction that either doesn’t make Cherri seem incredibly shallow or isn’t comedic.

As for the final reason, it may be a bit of a stretch, but I still think it counts.

REASON#3 - It’s borderline pedophillia

Again, props to @cagneyblooms for making me realize this point. Also, because pedophillia is very much a serious topic + I don’t want to throw the term around. I’ll be providing more evidence than the other two.

I’m not kidding, CherriSnake (atleast to me) becomes borderline pedophillic once you think about the lore Vivziepop spoon feeds us through her livestreams instead of diving deep into it. According to Vivziepop, Sir Pentious was in his mid 40s (best speculated to be 45) when he died while Cherri died in her early 20s, already raising a few eyebrows.

Yeah, this is already gross enough, but something that makes the age gap worse is the difference timeframe in which these two died in. Sir Pentious was confirmed to have died in 1888 London and Cherri Bomb died somewhere in the 80s. So not only was Pentious A GROWN ASS MAN WHO ALREADY HAD LIVED AND DIED BEFORE CHERRI WAS BORN, CHERRI WAS LIKELY BARELY A ADULT SINCE SHE WAS EITHER IN HER EARLY 20s AT BEST OR BARELY IN HER 20s AT WORST! This is also mentioning that Sir Pentious is also technically older than Cherri in Hell because depending on what exact year Cherri died in, Sir Pentious had either already spent nearly 100 years in Hell or he actually spent 100 years exactly in Hell when Cherri died. The only thing that really softens blow is that Pentious got a crush on her when they were both in Hell, meaning Cherri was technically still in her 20s in a way.

To conclude this, I hate CherriSnake. It’s one of the few Canon ships I actually despise since I either don’t care for Canon ships or I actually ship Canon couples as well. Even if Vivziepop wasn’t a terrible person, she’s still a really fucking awful writer who can’t stick to anything at all and is more concerned about her shitty Stoltliz soap opera rather than writing a good story. Writers like Vivziepop are the reason why research makes a good story.

#anti hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin hotel critique #anti vivziepop #vivziepop criticism #vivziepop critical #sir pentious hazbin hotel #cherri bomb #anti cherrisnake

[imreallyloveleee]

Where do you think it all went wrong with Riverdale?

honestly, part of me is like, the show's over and nothing but fandom matters. so who cares?

the other part of me loves to complain about Riverdale and will continue to do so until the day I die in the parking lot of Michael's Diner in Montgomeryville, PA at the age of 86. so, long-winded answer under the cut

I'm tempted to say it's the s4 b*rchie kiss. It was so wildly out of character for both Betty and Archie that it's laughable. You know how you can tell when something is just blatantly OOC with no justification? They...don't justify it. They find ways to dance around any interaction that might offer clarification. They mute the reactions of the characters who should be devastated by it. And then they jump ahead 7 years so it's easier to just handwave it away as something that happened a long time ago.

but the thing is, I did keep watching after that. I thought: okay, at least we should get an exes-to-lovers arc out of this, which is one of my favorite tropes. there is no way they would spend 4 seasons developing Bughead as this loving, supportive, communicative, sexy, and almost-unbelievably-compatible couple just to tear them apart and never do anything with that dynamic again. maybe it'll be even sweeter seeing them come back together after so much hurt and longing.

boy was i wrong!!!!!!!!!

so, the episode that actually made me stop watching for good, with the exception of some standalones like The Jughead Paradox and the finale, was the s5 musical. that was when i realized that this team of writers was 100% willing, maybe even eager, to completely drop storylines they themselves had been building over the course of a season - do a 180 with all of the characterization and relationships - and then act as though the buildup they wrote never even happened.

in this case, i'm specifically talking about the Bughead reunion storyline they dropped in s5. i'm not going to pretend like it was a GREAT buildup - and it was mostly on Jughead's side, Betty's character in s5 was basically an emotionless misery bot that had sex sometimes - but it was there. Jughead told Tabitha he had unresolved feelings around Betty. that's followed by an entire episode that lays out Betty & Jug's time jump relationship, and how Jughead still believes she's the one who saves him from himself. they work on a case together, they start opening up to one another. Jughead's so worried about her he can't eat.

and then...you know what happens.

(i'll also note here that there was random bts stuff that strongly indicated the musical ep storyline had a drastic last-minute rewrite: lili tweeted a blue dress, suggesting the song with that line was meant for her character; RAS said cole had to do last-minute recording sessions; supposedly crew members have confirmed this was the case, too. since none of it's 100% confirmed you can take it all with a grain of salt, but i believe it.)

it was so fucking insulting as a viewer to give my time and attention to a show made by people who would not only randomly drop the threads they set up, but torpedo them altogether, and then behave like the fans are the ones somehow at fault for expecting a story that actually follows through on its own emotional and plot beats. we're just shippers, so our opinions are dumb and biased! it's just a tv show, so who cares! get over it!

so, i stopped watching, because i knew they would continue to write without any thought or respect for their characters or their audience, and therefore inevitably write themselves into another corner. and, shocker, i was right. they did it again, whisking everyone away to the 1950s because actually resolving any of the scenarios they set up was ToO hArD. why bother when you could just make every single character Righteously Angry and Incurably Horny all the time, lecture the audience about social issues that have already been mainstream progressive for the last several decades, and call it a "love letter" to your fans?

#WHEW ok anon idk if this was what you were looking for but it's what you got #hopefully this has fully exorcised my need to Go Off against the creators of this show but you never know!! #my capacity for bitter resentment is apparently endless when it comes to this show #rd negativity #riverdale #anti b*rchie #anti j*bitha #just in case #anon

[mattoidmeerkat]

This is me working through my main issues with Bathena in 7x01. If you have no issues with the transition from 6x18 to 7x01, I'm happy for you and there's nothing to see here. If you'd do see some issues and/or are willing to help me work through some of them, please continue reading after the cut.

Disclaimer: The long hiatus and my recent cold definitely did not positively influence my experience. I'm aware of this.

Man, I'm so conflicted about Bathena's story in 7x01. I mean, the acting was top notch. The scenes and dialogue? Instant classics. The dancing? Swoooon. And we finally get to explore the foundation of their relationship? What's not to love?

Well, this really feels like the perfect follow up to Season 4. They had just addressed their communications issues and still had topics to work through. They would soon be empty nesters and didn't know how that would impact them.

But this isn't the beginning of Season 5. This is Season 7. Since then we have seen Athena and Bobby go through so much separately and together. They have grown closer and have developed their communication skills and the foundation of their relationship.

They struggled together and supported each other through the Hudson ordeal and the fallout around Harry in 5A. We've seen them make time to focus on their intimate relationship (5x09, 6x13) and to sharing personal history (5x15, 6x02, 6x03, 6x13) and support each other through oh so much personal trauma (5A, 5x14, 5x16, 5x17, 6x02, 6x03, 6x09, 6x12, 6x17). They've put the other's happiness before their own without a moment's hesitation (5x05) and developed a deep and easy intimacy with each other (5x08, 5x09, 5x11, 5x15, 5x17, 6x02, 6x08, 6x12, 6x13, 6x17) without ever losing their individuality in the process. Athena built a relationship with Bobby's sponsor and Bobby shared his AA world with her. Athena allowed herself to be vulnerable with him by admitting fears while she developed a deep understanding of how Bobby worked on a fundamental level (6x14).

And then Tim came back and decided nope, none of this. Gonna reset Athena to Season 4 (when he left as showrunner) and leave Bobby as confused as me.

I love me some good angst and conflict to explore characters and their dynamics. But what explanation were we given for this drastic change in Athena's personality? She is afraid to find out who they are when it's just the two of them? Which we have just seen again and again in Season 5 but much more so in Season 6?

Characters being flawed and acting irrationally is not bad writing. On the contrary, it can be excellent writing because flawless characters are boring and bland. And Athena and Bobby are so deliciously flawed. Have been from the very beginning.

So why not provide us with an explanation for how 6x18 Athena went from happy and confident in her marriage after settling into her empty nest with Bobby for a year, to the neurotic mess we see in 7x01? (A highly entertaining and cute mess, but still a completely different Athena than literally one episode before.)

How did 6x18 Athena, after recently celebrating her fourth wedding anniversary with Bobby and saving him from a bridge collapse, from one moment to the other decide to go to therapy (something she canonically avoids like the plague - see Seasons 3, 4, and 5) and do a 180 on cruises (despite copious discussions of cruises her fear did not come up with Bobby in 5x18, 6x01 or 6x18, with May in 6x01, or with Hen in 6x01, or in the conversation about cruises with her parents in 6x01 despite those two apparently being responsible for that fear)? How did that Athena then board the cruise with Bobby at the end of 6x18 full of joy and happy anticipation after a last minute cancellation? And how did Athena then manage to have a therapist appointment about the last-minute cruise two months in advance somehow?

I'd love to find some explanations for this beyond sloppy writing at best and blatant disregard for the prior story lines at worst.

At this point my only hope is that the next two episodes will shed some light onto what exactly triggered Athena's abrupt change in personality from one episode to the other. (actually retroactively within the previous episode somehow) But I won't get my hopes up too much because so many of Athena's, Bobby's and Bathena's story lines have been left to fizzle out without any kind of explanation or resolutions over the years (under both Tim and Kirsten).

So what's my takeaway here? I desperately want to love this episode. It has so many amazing scenes. But the retconning is making it really difficult for me to process as a coherent story line. And that's on me. Shows do this all the time. THIS show has done it plenty of times in the past.

But I feel so sad that I seem to care more about Season 5 and 6 Bathena than the show itself. It feels dismissive of the growth those two have gone through. And it makes me fearful of what kind of disregard the show might display towards these characters, their arcs, and their growth journeys in the future.

Thoughts? Helpful ideas? Number of a good therapist? 😅️ (One that doesn't just say "I'm sure you'll be fine.")

#911 #ramblings to make peace with 7x01 #to be deleted later #I know it's just a TV show

[wendytestabrat]

cartman did absolutely nothing wrong in season 20 (FROM THE VAULT [2020])

Honestly I feel like I’m the only one who felt bad for Cartman after everyone broke his stuff for no reason. Like ik Cartman has done a lot of shitty stuff in the past, but he didn’t do anything to deserve that. He was trying his best to make changes & become a better person in that season in his own stupid way even tho he doesn’t rlly know how to do that but at least A for effort. I really feel like the only reason why they had Cartman go through that dramatic character change that season was so they could show how shitty Kyle has gotten in comparison LMAO. Kyle is rlly becoming just as toxic as Cartman, he’s the one that falsely accused Cartman of being the troll and got everyone in the school all worked up and riled up over it (he’s always been the one that’s trying to turn all his classmates against Cartman) so that they’d break his stuff. Kyle vowed to take down the troll no matter what, but stopped caring about it once he found out Cartman didn’t do it even though his OWN DAD was the one who was the troll, like how could he be so clueless about that. It didn’t even take him until like one of the last episodes of the season to figure that out bc all he was focused on was Cartman. Heidi sucks, but I get why Cartman fell for Heidi in s20, and why he felt like he was losing Kyle. Cartman made some really good points to Kyle about how much he had changed, and how he wasn’t acting like himself. Heidi was very similar to Kyle, she was just as smart, and she actually did care about finding out who the troll was and making positive changes and all that shit. While Kyle on the other hand was just being a hypocrite, he was just acting like he cared about this shit when really all he wanted was an excuse to fight with Cartman. That’s why he was so petty & jealous over Cartman & Heidi’s relationship and couldn’t just accept that they were together. Even when they were doing good things together, like trying to track down the troll, which is something Kyle should support bc he allegedly cares about this stuff he still decided to be an asshole and threatened to share Cartman’s entire internet history. That’s why even when he was AGAINST the wieners out stuff before, and wanted to support the girls, he pulled a 180 and then joined Butters bc Cartman wouldn’t help him take down Butters, & he saw Cartman & Heidi together. Kyle was NOT acting like himself at all in s20, he was completely sexually confused abt his feeling for Cartman and the first 2 episodes of s20 set it up perfectly by calling Kyle a little gay boy and then having him cry over Cartman.

update 2024: ok i feel like this rant was wayy ahead of its time bc i was like one of the first people to point out how kyle was starting to become more toxic than cartman, yet the normies didn’t start to notice it too until all the kyle bullshit that happened in s24 lol.

#south park #kyman #KYMANRANTGARBAGE

[themountainsays]

It looks like the writers at Loki decided to undo all the romance, prune sylki from the timeline, srly if you don't watch season 1 you can't even tell they had something going on once. More surprising is that Loki doesn't care at all when Sylvie kissed him like, 3 days ago. He just forgot.

And I think that's bad writing because... as Brandon Sanderson puts it, stories make promises, for example, "this will be a love story", "this will be a coming of age story", "this is going to be a vampire story". If you set up a story as a vampire story but then only focus on the werewolves, even if most of it is good, it's inevitably going to feel like nothing is happening and there was no story, because in the first two or three chapters, you sold your story as a vampire story, even if you thought you were writing a werewolf story, and the readers will think they're reading a vampire story in which it just takes ages for the vampire part to actually start, and then it never arrives, and they didn't even enjoy the werewolf story because it felt like useless filler taking up the space meant to be for vampires. And it just feels like nothing ever happens.

In this case, Sylki is vampires and the temporal loom plotline is werewolf. Not only is it uninteresting, but it also just feels like the writers did a 180 and decided to take the show on a completely different direction out of nowhere. And if you're going to not fulfill your narrative promises, then you need to deliver something BETTER than what you promised - and Loki did that! In the first season. It set it up as a story about Loki playing cat and mouse with another Loki, which is cool and interesting, but then, Loki and the other Loki fell in love! Add drama, add character, add emotion and growth, and THEN it becomes even better, to the point you forget you ever wanted Loki trying to arrest another Loki in the first place.

But this season does the complete opposite. The temporal loom has no character, no personality, no emotion and no growth. The characters in the crew are either underdeveloped, have underdeveloped relationships with each other, or both. So when the writers want us to believe Loki's true motivation is to keep his friends close because he discovered the power of friendship, we don't buy it. I could buy Loki and Sylvie loving each other if the writers put a little bit more effort. I can buy Loki and Mobius being... coworkers who get along and work well together, they may even be friends if they talked about their feelings a bit more. The rest? I can barely remember their names or any significant conversation they had with Loki that wasn't about saving a soulless, empty, narratively useless temporal loom. This show became less about Loki and his loved ones, and more about a machine they need to fix. That's all everyone does all the time. And the one time Loki talks about his feelings... I'm not even gonna say it's ridiculous that he says he wants his friends, or that he suddenly cares about the TVA, "savings things", order or what have you, as if he hadn't tried to destroy New York like 2 weeks ago. Because ANYTHING he could have said would have been ridiculous. Be it love, friendship, redemption, duty, basic decency, power, ego or anything else, had NOT been set up at all during this season. The only thing they had going on, maybe, is some love for Sylvie as a leftover from last season, and even then it'd be shaky because Loki and Sylvie haven't shared an atom of affection at all since this season started, and even THAT would feel forced at this point.

I'm really disappointed in this season, I really loved the first one, I loved sylki and the sylki fandom, I'll still watch the last episode, but I'm pretty sad this is what we get in the end. A non-ending to an abandoned story about Loki, Sylvie, free will, chaos and identity, forever without conclussion, with only a storyline about a broken machine to call a continuation, a Loki whose only ACTUAL motivation is "Save the TVA or everything gets destroyed", but says he's only doing this for the power of friendship... without forming any friendships along the way.

What I would have done instead would be to amp up the character tension - remember that storyline about Loki chasing around another Loki? Bring it back. Make Loki and Sylvie "enemiss", with an obvious sexual tension, maybe, or make him desperately look for her as a villanous outcast on the run, just give some texture, some meat, anything at all to their relationship. And give Loki an actual motivation. Erase the temporal loom storyline. Keep He Who Remains as the main antagonistic force. Make it opposing him something... optional. Something Loki is either choosing to do or choosing not to, because if it's something he HAS to do or else the world ends, he necessarily would need to potpone any real desires of his, and that's not an interesting story. Whether he fights HWR or not, it has to be because it connects to something he actually, really wants. Because this show isn't fooling anyone. Loki doesn't care about the power of friendship. He just has to "save the TVA or everything gets destroyed". If he was only in it because he wanted friends, he would have actually befriended someone along the way, and not just pulled around coworkers to help him fix a broken end-of-the-world machine they had to help fix anyway.

#sylki

[look-how-they-massacred-them]

Preliminary Poll

Chakotay

Submission reason:

Chakotay is an Indigenous American. However, the "expert" they hired as a consultant for writing the character turned out to be a fraud. He lied about his ethnicity and level of knowledge...article here: https://redshirtsalwaysdie.com/2021/02/26/voyagers-native-american-consultant-was-a-fraud/ Chakotay's actor's ethnicity is also part of the problem: "Robert Beltran is Mexican American, and although he tried to justify his playing an “Indian” role by evoking the Mestizo heritage of many Mexicans,16 many viewers experienced his presence as “yet another non-Indian actor […] in a part that is identifiably Indian and uses trappings from the culture."" http://www.asjournal.org/49-2007/star-treks-native-americans/ Over the course of the show, writers tried to improve their writing of Chakotay's Indigenous identity. But these are fundamental mistakes, so a lot of moments dedicated to establishing Chakotay's character and building emotional depth are tainted. On another note, the show gave Chakotay so much little attention in comparison to other characters...one of the biggest examples being a complete 180 in his romantic interests that makes nearly 0 sense for him. Chakotay falls in love with Janeway, the Captain, in the early seasons. It's mutual!! But because he is her First Officer, they agree not to have an affair, as that might mess with the already tense status of their crew. But the two are emotionally intimate throughout the show, having dinners together, calling each other by first name rather than title...a lot of superficial nods to their mutual romantic attraction. The whole show is about their crew trying to get back to Earth. If/when they succeed, they would no longer be Captain & First Officer, so they could date! But the show decided to make Chakotay fall in love with a more popular female lead in the last season, just because he was "available." So, they explore her interest in Chakotay, but not his in her...effectively reducing him to an accessory to the show's most popular character. This relationship is established in two, arguably 3 episodes. We only see them show romantic interest in each other/spend time together as a couple for less than 10 minutes...and it's not deep shit, it's flirting and a first date. We're then TOLD that, offscreen, they got married and fell super in love. It's ridiculous. She's also much younger than Chakotay, and MUCH less emotionally mature. It's pretty gross imo, especially after the show consistently emphasized Chakotay and Janeway's intellectual & emotional equality. He goes from being interested in a woman his age with similar life experience, to being interested in a younger woman whose whole deal is that she's still learning to form relationships and identity! It's bullshit! Chakotay was written and performed to be a very morally complex character with real emotional depth. There are a lot of good character moments, but they exist amongst scenes that flaunt negative stereotypes of Indigenous Americans or reduce Chakotay to being an oversimplified version of some of his traits. In a serial show, it's inevitable that a character's going to be written poorly every once in a while. But the extent to which they made Chakotay into a mere prop for other characters in the later seasons, and the damaging relationship this sidelining has with the racist legacy of the character overall...it's bullshit. His character concept could've been made good on, and but the show failed hard.

Propaganda:

I've found academic studies on how Voyager majorly fucked up with Chakotay

#look how they massacred them poll #look how they massacred my boy #star trek #star trek voyager #star trek chakotay #chakotay

[skye-huntress]

I’m in Love with the Villainess Reaction

Episode 12 / Finale

I feel like they could have skipped the OP and just showed the title like so many other shows.

Guess they don’t plan on leaving us in limbo, they skipped straight to Manaria’s confrontation.

Seriously, Manaria, you’re the one who was trying to drive Rae away and now you’re mad at her because you succeeded. Like I get what you were doing, but maybe opening this test of yours up with a magic duel of all things wasn’t your best approach. You beat her so badly and completely you crushed her spirit.

Her methods aside, at least we’re getting to the heart of the issue now. Rae’s love for Claire is not as selfless as she claims, how could it be? She wants Claire to love her back, to be in a relationship with her but she was afraid of being rejected.

In many ways, Manaria and Rae are similar, which is part of why Manaria knows she can’t leave Rae alone, lest she make the same mistake she did.

I hate to say it, but after everything that happened, this had to be the last card Manaria could play. Claire’s safety and wellbeing is still Rae’s priority. The only reason she could even imagine leaving Claire’s side is because she knows Manaria could protect her from any threat, even if that threat is Claire herself. But if Manaria is the one who becomes the threat…

“Again, I wasn’t consulted.” Look, Claire, you were free to step in at any time but you let this play out. You allowed your affection for Manaria to blind you, but everyone else from your minions to the Princes knew what was going on.

Sorry, Claire, you’re too late to stop this and Rae doesn’t have the time to idle about, not with what she’s looking for.

Ah, the tediousness of farming for that ultra rare drop.

Claire kept that necklace Rae gave her the entire time. In fact, she’s been wearing it everyday since. It’s proof that she wants to believe in Rae’s love, if only she wasn’t given so many reasons to doubt.

Woah, woah, woah, that vision of the future! They didn’t just include the two together, and their house, they also showed the twins! Don’t tease me like that, I want to see it all in anime form! If only the odds for a second season weren’t so low, this wouldn’t hurt so much!

Damn, Rae is going all in and all out. That line made more sense in my head.

Yes, Claire, tell us how you really feel! None of this will matter if you’re not even honest with yourself or with Rae.

All those damn expectations of being a noble lady. Let’s be frank, nobles don’t marry for love, marriage is a formal contract between families.

Predictable. This is yet another contest that is practically rigged in Manaria’s favour. There is no offering known to be heavier than the Flower of Flora, so the best you could hope for is a tie, and even that is a difficult feat, given how rare that flower is and how difficult it is to obtain.

Ugh, more poems. And it’s so obviously fake, too. You’re just reciting someone else’s words that don’t carry the same meaning or feeling as the original.

Cutting it a little close there, Rae.

Wow, Manaria actually looks happy to see Rae, meanwhile Claire is immediately concerned by the state she is in.

Manaria has a flower of legend, and Rae has what looks like a random stick. Not hard to imagine the reaction she’d get.

They have no faith in her. As if Rae hasn’t proven that she tends to know more than she could possibly know.

Well, Misha, you got your miracle.

Rod, don’t act like you didn’t have your own doubts not two seconds ago.

YES! THAT’S HOW YOU DO IT! THAT’S A REAL CONFESSION OF LOVE!

That 180 is just as jarring in anime form. It’s like this girl just forgot she’s been playing the role of the villainess for the past few weeks.

Look at Claire’s hand, like it’s still searching for Rae’s.

The most shocking part about this is Manaria is actually serious. In fact, at this point in the novel Rae suddenly remembers a little bit of trivia about Manaria from the game. It was possible that Manaria might confess feelings for the protagonist, not that it actually led to anything if she did.

This is even better than the novels and manga, Claire didn’t just yell her true feelings (and Rae’s name, finally), she actually grabbed Rae and put herself between them.

Oh, how we missed this banter. It’ll take a bit longer for Claire to get over that knee-jerk reaction but now we know she doesn’t actually mean it.

That crowd’s getting a full show today. The following year’s festival is going to be a snore fest in comparison.

Early credit again, I see.

Someone actually made an accurate prediction that the story of Poesie Amour was foreshadowing Rae and Manaria’s fates. Like the two suitors in the story, Rae would go on to marry Claire, while Manaria would go on to be a great queen. I can’t believe it never occurred to me before, not even on rereads when I knew the outcome.

No, no, Rae has a right to feel the way she does. Manaria spent most of the time being a menace to Rae, stomped all over her feelings and even threatened Claire. Even if it was all ultimately for her benefit, that doesn’t erase all the emotional damage or the scars.

Wow, Rae, you just figured it out. And yeah, there very likely was a better way to go about it, but Manaria has already admitted she’s kind of a shitty person.

After those confessions, everyone’s pretty much accepted that they’ll be getting together.

I’m surprised more people haven’t confronted Rae about the things she seems to know. I suppose everyone else is taking the wait and see approach, but since she’s leaving, Manaria had to ask now.

As has been hinted many times, a revolution is coming, and those don’t tend to end well for the people in power. Even if Claire doesn’t turn full Villainess, she’ll still likely be executed for no other reason than that she is a noble. That is the future Rae has been working to prevent.

Look at their classmates, they clearly have no idea how to react, yet all their friends have accepted that this is just the way they are, even as a couple.

And that’s a wrap. While I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a Season 2, I will recommend that novels and manga. The next few arcs are particularly interesting. Personally, I’m a big fan of Chapter 6: Yu’s Secret (FYI, this episode ended Chapter 4: The Scales of Love). That chapter is packed with all sorts of good and interesting stuff.

#i’m in love with the villainess #i'm in love with the villainess

[p4nishers]

They're going to ramp up Sylki again next episode just watch She's listening to I found a reason in that record store scene. 180 turn coming

unfortunately i have to agree they did this last season too i dont think we r free of them yet marvel will find any opportunity to force a straight relationship and i mean ANY

#just look at victor and ravonna they knew each other for an hour and marvel still squeezed out an almost romance between them #we can never win with this fucking industry i swear #loki season 2 #loki

[dramallamas]

Rewatching Beyond Evil and I’m taking (somewhat) unserious notes! Enjoy my brain worms.

Episode 1 || Next Episode

Ooooo dead body

Mad to think that when I first saw Jihoon’s actor he was playing a bully. This is a complete 180 and he does both roles well.

Intense middle aged running with intense music

(Spongebob style) Flashback~

Ah a church. You will never catch me there

The song they’re singing is oddly fitting to the theme of the show sans the whole God thing

We don’t stan Dongsik slander in this household.

Lee Dohyun <3

The signs in this flashback. The shot of the guitar pick, Kang Jinmuk being seen a lot but in the background, Bang Juseon being rude to Dongsik, Dongsik telling Yuyeon to leave at night (aka he had “motive”) etc

Lee twins crumbs I love it.

The cold filter when Dongsiks mum finds yuyeons fingertips nice touch

The title being “(to) Appear" mwah nice

Love the shots of how everything is “worse”when we transition to Dongsik now

Oct 11 2020 remember that me

HERE HE IS ITS JUWON

Dongsik saying stop in english <3

Pls the dramatic slow mo 🤣

Dongsik is a true justice/law upholder. Never letting things slide if its wrong. He and juwon are alike in that sense.

“Many a mickle makes a muckle” netflix what does that mean???? Like i get it but ive never heard that saying in my life

Everyone turns to see Juwon par Dongsik… that is until he speaks.

Juwon judging people and things right off the bat. Bro is not amused.

Technically Juwon is higher rank than Dongsik because Dongsik is assistant inspector and Juwon is flat out inspector

Dongsik immediately knew something was up as soon as he heard who Juwon’s dad is.

Juwon’s first impression of Dongsik is that he is intelligent and follows the law like rulebook when dealing with people (ofc he also thinks he is a murderer and should avoid someone like him and has already decided he hates his guts)

The tension starts as soon as Juwon drives past Dongsik. They immediately are making notes on each other

YOO JAEYI MY GIRLBOSS BELOVED. She is so much more clever than people give her credit for.

Jeongje and Dongsik being best friends…

OH JIHWA ^^

I love the manyang crew interactions.

“He’s not my type” not now… but he will be. you have no idea whats coming for you, Dongsik

Ew Hna Kihwan

I love these dinner scenes with Juwon. They so clearly reflect him and his attitude at the time as well as his relationship with his dad as well as how they change over the show.

아버지 and not 아빠 really emphasises the father-son relationship they have (or lack thereof)

Their first interaction and they already dont like each other.

Everyone sucking up to Juwon and trying to work with him and hes like yeah… no. Y’all are weird.

THEN GETS OFFENDED WHEN DONGSIK SAYS HE DOESNT WANNA WORK WITH HIM LMAOO

so hes like… two can play at this game bitch and calls Dongsik a nutjob.

Their reaction when Sangbae pairs them up is top tier

Juwons inner thoughts: “Day one… fuck my life”

Dongsik started teasing Juwon off the bat

They both have a super impressive memory wtf

“There are no secrets in this town. You are always being watched by someone.”

Dongsik nags Juwon about his aggressive driving and immediately drives aggressively because he can

Ah the reed field…

Juwon traipsing through the mud was me last week when I had to walk home (our area flooded)

We dont give the score for this show enough credit its so good like

“Why did you just stand there when a gust of wind was coming? You’ll learn once it slaps you in the face.” Metaphorrrrrrr

Juwon is already accusing Dongsik like 40mins into the ep like damn

Fresh out the shower dongsik is so yes.

Juwon in that white jumped is also a yes.

Mate respectfully I don’t think you got how relationships work. “People at my school or in my hometown want to be my friends by showing me unwanted kindness or attention. But at get-togethers they all talk about what I have or my connections. They gossip and laugh about it. In the end they all come to me for favours.” Dongsik is right in asking “Is it that simple?” Because it isn’t. (I will make a full post about this omg)

“What could you possibly have that makes you think you are the most important person in the universe?” THE MEANINGS OMG

Man gets so offended when people are like you have mysophobia then ends up roped into a get together.

Juwon trying to text a fake excuse to get out of the get together is so me because I have done that (its the anxiety for me)

Juwon is so awkward bless him.

“You’re supposed to stay glued to your partner all day, and know the colour of his underpants.” Dw Jihoon Juwon will learn ;)

Everyone clapping for Jinmuk and calling him the most important guy in manyang…

Juwon not liking his dad being brought up and Dongsik joking about it to diffuse the situation and also poke at Juwon

All important scenes happen when it rains.

Juwon quickly learns to not believe what dongsik says half the time XD

“I don’t want you to like me.” “It’s up to me to like someone or not.”

“Leave before you get caught.” What interesting phrasing Dongsik

Ah yes the Juwon and Hyeok brother dynamic. I find it interesting and think its an underrated Juwon relationship.

Hyeok trying be Han Kihwans son and Juwon is like “dont. Trust me.”

We mention Dongsiks wall of notes and stuff on the Yuyeon etc case but we dont talk about Juwons enough. Mf has two. Two fricken boards. One he makes in his closet (?) above his computer and the other next to his bed.

The! Score! Ugh im a lover

It takes a whole day to get to the reed field this time??? Cause he arrived in the morning (i assume) at the police station and then the sun is set by the time he gets there. I think he may have procrastinated bc of the mud or he actually arrived in the afternoon and the sun sets ridiculously early in late october?

Juwon getting jumpscared by Dongsik again XD

I love how this episode brings us full loop to the start of the episode but includes Juwon the second time to add fresh perspective and the aftermath.

Juwon’s step back and shaky hand is a give away that he knows her and Dongsik immediately picks up on it. Yet Dongsik tells Jihoon to leave knowing this must be a secret.

And Juwon doesn’t miss a beat when Dongsik says its a woman. They’re both one upping each other all the time

We give Juwon shit for constantly grabbing juwons collar/shirt but Dongsik did it first! (And it was hot because he smooths out Juwons shirt after) Juwon just copied and repeated.

And Dongsik quickly realises why Juwon is in Manyang and decides to just play with him and be a little shit.

Mate you guys are at the first ep and already in each other’s faces

Ok fin see you next episode ^^

#this is my fourth rewatch #and first time in 2024 #this helps me write the fic and remember what was what and how they felt #jwds #괴물 #kdrama #beyond evil #han juwon #lee dongsik #my ramblings

[hush-pup-py]

I’d like to chat about 2x06 real quick if anyone wants to join

• the entirety of Madeline’s performance as Egwene

• whatever was going on in that scene where Ihvon, Maksim, and Alanna confronted Lan. I thought the threesome were all in the tent and then I saw Maksim and I’m like “oh I guess it’s just Ihvon and Alanna” but then Ihvon showed up and I’m like ?????

I thought the dark one or Ishamael was impersonating LAN’s friends but no turns out that actually was them? If so, then how did they get from being in the tent to standing in front of him in .2 seconds?

• no Perrin and Aviendha this episode was a little sad

• but Loial being concerned for Egwene was just *chefs kiss* because he has such a big heart

• meanwhile that other fuckhead was more worried about a horn, I’m not even sure what that horn does.

• the Ogier Singing thing, I didn’t know about because I haven’t read the books but I’m assuming it’s a very personal thing because Loial was so hesitant

• the sul’dam trying to tame Egwene being so kind was nice because I’m like “if Egwene and the sul’dam become friends maybe she’ll set her free” but then that complete 180 when Egwene yet again cannot touch the pitcher

• After the last episode I read about damane and what the collar can do, and the way they visualized that not just with Egwene but the other damane we see when Ryma and Basan were fighting

• speaking of Ryma and Basan, their brief relationship was so sweet, it was sad when he was killed

• also that Blue Aes Sedai we once saw Moraine speaking with being revealed to be a damane now was a little chilling. I’d love to know the story of how she got captured after being seemingly untouchable in the white tower

#wheel of time #egwene al'vere #ihvon #maksim #alanna mosvani #a’lan mandragoran #lan mandragoran

[queen-mabs-revenge]

well. that was an episode of something alright.

no but truly whatever is happening is so fucking disappointing wrt the emotional journey and catharsis for these characters, and honestly i feel condescended to as an audience member and as a football fan. you can't just slap an isolated didactic speech over a heart tugging score and call it story telling, you can't take an 11th hour 180 turn while ignoring the characters for 10 episodes and call it character development, and you can't take a story of mass working-class fan protests against club owner greed and give it to a rich white lady as her slay girlboss story without it being actually gross.

sorry but this was 63 minutes...of what exactly?? just going through the story lines in some kind of vague order of least to most consequential for sam, keeley, roy, rebecca, and nate and this gets long so under the cut it goes:

sam - what was this supposed to even be? ok so you bring back edwin akufo for the superleague story (which by the way, changing this to the akufo league instead of the story's inspiration the european super league - which was proposed by white european billionaires - is some level of racism i can't even...) to do what? get some laughs in by retreading the grudge? putting sam through the ringer again for...??? what was the end result here? like i'm genuinely asking bc i don't understand what i'm supposed to get from his being all smiley and putting the nigerian national team photo in his locker? he's happy because jamie gave him a shout out and that's good enough for him? what the fuck is this even supposed to mean?

keeley - what was the purpose of any of this genuinely. the amount of time we spent with kjpr and i have no idea what keeley does, if she's good at her job, how she's built her relationships with her silent co-workers. when she was at richmond we got to see her in action and her stories brought out not only her own character but other characters we cared about. keeley has been utterly passive this season - her biggest moment of agency was hiring shandy and that was exploded and scrubbed from the narrative. everything else from jack to the leak to being defunded just happened to her and she cried about it. and now rebecca's swooping in to refund her again and genuinely what is even happening here? the conflict for her character that was set up last year was that she was experiencing success in a completely new way and she was scared she wasn't going to live up to it and the conflict between the work she felt she needed to do to live up to expectations and how that would affect other relationships in her life, especially that with roy. how was that addressed? at all? we've seen her nebulously stressed, we've been told she's working a lot without being allowed to experience what she's doing, we've seen her try and emulate both ted and rebecca without success, and what? what else? a couple of looks between her and roy? her getting picked up and put down by a vc funder both financially and personally? what kind of synthesis has she reached here???

roy - which brings us to roy. we get the 'i'm talking about my football career but actually i'm talking about my relationship with keeley' in the chelsea episode which was great because it set up a conflict for roy this season - the idea that he cuts and runs to put distance between himself and moments of vulnerability to avoid possible failure and as a result never truly engages and enjoys experiences or people in the moment. great brilliant amazing love it -- what the fuck happened. i feel like you can vaguely connect something about how his training jamie is teaching jamie not to do what he did - to actually give his emotional all to his development as a footballer instead of detaching when things were at there most frustrating with zava there. that where roy used his anger and gruffness as a mask, jamie was using his cockiness but both to the same end of detaching from a situation they felt was out of their control. but i feel like i'm carrying a lot of water with all that, and while yes there have been moments of roy being more open this season, he's for a lot of it been relegated to weird comic relief if you can even call it that? (sorry but the rope monologue and the dick string training are both fucked up and weird and went on for way too long). he pulled a ted at the press conference (and told someone else's miscarriage story hmm)? he and keeley have been kept apart for the entirety of this season so like....i don't know? what was this? a fake holiday to wedge in a scene with his sister, phoebe and jamie? an epiphany that he was a mess? that he caused damage? and he writes a letter and now everything's good roykeeley back on track? the fact that they were kept apart for the majority of the season just feels like.......was any of this actually sorted through? did we experience either of these characters interact in any way where they challenged each other in this journey? that lead up to this reconciliation? this culmination feels so unearned.

rebecca - and speaking of unearned, the entire set-up for her arc of getting the fuck over rupert and finding joy in the team without it being about someone else was there. from her rashness in swooping zava from under rupert's nose, to her yelling at ted about winning, the 'him-you-mean-them' conversation, her maniacal behaviour at half-time during the west ham game. but where was the move out of this? she met a guy on a boat? she..........what??? how have we seen her grow out of this moment? what have we seen besides this deus ex machina of....what? remembering a story about rupert's childhood and bing bang boom - oh he was just a child once too? and the end, job's a good'un? fast forwarding through the total football catharsis short-shrifted rebecca, too. if the football is the expository tool to reveal things about our characters, the idea that a strategy that puts a singular thing at the focus to the detriment of everything else is bad for football and it's bad for people is a great narrative device. but...just as we're being told and not shown that it's working on the field, we're getting the same treatment off. rebecca is realising that the community both in and around the club is more fulfilling than a psychic's quote unquote predictions and using the club as a tool for narrow-focused spite -- ok show that??? show her reactions to the fans attending training. show other small moments where she enjoys the game? puts the club above embarrassing rupert at all costs? that moment with higgins talking about possibly firing ted bc of the winless streak could have been a glimpse of that but it was thrown away instead (but to be honest, how much of that is a retreading of her journey in s1?). so what do we get instead - girlbossery with, i'm sorry, a really fucking beyond heavy-handed moment with seeing her young self in the mirror? that does what? tells us that she's able to stand firm in a room full of men? did we...not know that? that she realises she's in it bc she loves the game? does she?? again, by not seeing the moments of total football triumph, we missed out on the opportunity to show her falling in love with the sport and becoming a true fan, not just an owner. if that's even what i'm supposed to be getting from this!!?? not to mention that her big moment of realising passion for the beautiful game was more important than her spite was directly ripped from the headlines but completely twisted. as i mentioned before, in april 2021 a bunch of white european billionaire club owners did indeed try to form a european super league out of a closed group of 12 of the richest european clubs, but clear cash grab wasn't stopped by a rich white lady having a moment of #selflove and altruistic benevolence, it was stopped by a mass protest of working-class fans pointing out the clear capitalist greed of the move:

nate - and god if all of this isn't just a slap in the face to nate's character arc. again, the set up of the first two seasons was clear and great! nate's struggle with self-worth especially rooted in his inability to live up to his father's expectations; his being bullied and undervalued and then clinging to someone who was giving him the affirmations he was craving, his projecting those unresolved issues onto ted who both couldn't live up to those expectations, and who made his own mistakes as he struggled through his own personal turmoil and mental health issues. the way all of those unresolved issues and referred anger came to a head for the both of them in nate's exposing ted's panic attacks to try and hurt him the way he felt hurt. and then falling into the arms of someone who was ready to exploit nate's talent and insecurity for his own gains. it's so good! it's so fucking good that it's bananas that we barely get to see any of his reconcilation play out! we get the beginning with rupert's emotional manipulation on display...and then what? nate is sidelined for the majority of the season! he's absent in some episodes altogether! HE QUITS HIS JOB OFF SCREEN AND WE GET NONE OF HIS INNER THOUGHTS AS TO WHY EXACTLY AND WE'RE LEFT TO DO THE WORK OF FILLING IN THE BLANKS??? we get that tell-not-show moment with his family with his dad's map, but like then there's no significant interaction between nate and his father until this episode? we get most of nate's personal development through his relationship with jade instead of diving into his relationship with his parents and teasing that out to build up to the emotional cathartic moment in this episode? there's so much untapped complexity in nate's arc! that tension with his parents, how the pressures both his father as an immigrant and himself as first gen are amplified by the pressures of rigid masculinity. how his father felt the need to stifle that creative sweetness in himself to make sure nate succeeded and had the best opportunity because of the combined pressures of race, class, masculinity, and feeling out of his depths when faced with his son's brilliance. nate's conflict between expressing his own softness and creativity v his feelings of the expectations of masculinity and success. so much of that could have been drawn out instead of sidelined and then infodumped and concluded in a few minutes of one episode! look! nate plays the violin aren't you feeling emotions? so many minutes of nate laying in bed and so few of the exploration of his and his father's dynamic that was set up to be the hingepoint of his frustration, insecurity and anger that manifested in his ruptured relationship with ted and richmond! and it's back to the total football -- that jade is part of his development isn't a bad thing! showing nate as becoming fulfilled both familially and romantically is actually good, esp for a character of colour! the idea that a healthy life is a full life with many different elements of one's community playing in tandem and concert to build towards a fulfillment and joy! but like...ok??? do so that???? and not all in one moment with All The Right Words At The Same Time???? what the fuck man this feels so fucking surface level and i just with the sheer amount of minutes given to episodes this season, what the fuck were they spent on if not this???

i'm sorry, but epiphany moments like the four (four!!!) in this episode work in romcom movies because we have 90 minutes with the characters. we accept certain shorthand for character growth because we understand the constraints of the narrative framework. it's bananas and fucking lazy to think that's OK for a serial format, especially one that's ballooned in time over the past season! what the fuck have those minutes been used for except for apparently spinning the fucking wheels on all of these development arcs until the last saccharine moment? aren't you crying with emotions, hmmmm?????

none of this feels earned and i feel genuinely gross at being thrown a few Emotionally Coded scenes and being expected to have my little heartstrings pulled enough that the squandered and self-indulgent mess of this season - that threw all of this character development into the trash - doesn't matter. we've spent years with these characters, the first two seasons carefully set up deep conflicts that should have been given careful and deep resolutions.

instead this episode gives us a naked ass and insists that it's clothed in glorious tie dye.

it's a naked fucking ass. and whatever patchwork loincloth the last two episodes whip up, it can't make up for the wasted potential, laziness and self-indulgent disaster of jason sudeikis's showrunning.

#ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso critical #seriously dead dove do not eat #but like...fairly i think? dead fair dove do not eat lmao #anyway trent crimm you will always be famous please make it throught the last two relatively unexplored #and therefore relatively unscathed by whatever the hell is going on here

[convolutings]

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again:

I LOVE THAT CHENFORD ARE TOGETHER! Since they’ve started their relationship their communication is peak romance and I will expect it from every other ship. They just care about each other so much and ughhhh last night I died at how much they were willing to sacrifice for each other to finally be together out in the open. We finally got to see Lucy talk about them to another person without any barriers.

but…

their getting together and the way they approached their relationship still doesn’t make any sense and it makes it difficult to appreciate their relationship as it is now.

There was no indication that they were ready to approach real feelings. Ashley and Chris were completely misused and did not bring any development to Tim and Lucy as individuals or as a couple. There has not even been a discussion about how they almost cheated on their SOs with each other. Where did Tim’s morals and Lucy’s trauma from having been cheated on before go?

As I said previously, Lucy has always been a talker to understand her emotions and we never even saw her process the feelings she had towards Tim let alone talk about them. Yet somehow the one person she talks to is a 20-year-old who she’s basically fostering and who she only opened up to because she got caught?

And Tim had so much to work through re: the power dynamics and Lucy wanting to be U.C. before asking her out that it feels rushed for the power balance to have been resolved in one episode and for U.C. to have not been mentioned at all. And also he suddenly goes from being her boss and thinking about seriously being with someone else, not even really thinking about the two of them at all beyond weird feelings about kissing her to being ready to jump head first into this serious relationship?

Their characters did a complete 180° in order to be together as solidly (and wonderfully) as they are now.

It feels lazy from the writers. As if they just wanted people to stop asking when they were going to get them together.

We’ve thought it was slow and we were ready bc we’ve been shipping it since TO/Rookie days and it’s been 5 seasons. But time progresses differently in the show and it wasn’t even until that dynamic changed that they could even think about it and it’s less than a year since then and they were both with other people for more than half of that time and Lucy was grieving (not that we saw that properly).

How could they go from all that miscommunication in 5A and two kisses undercover to talking so clearly with each other in 5B. Am I wrong in thinking that just bc it’s the right person doesnt mean it’s easy to change behavior? It’s not as realistic or genuine as people are saying it is. At least not to me.

Where was the development for Tim being willing to GIVE UP HIS JOB for her? (when he gave up being a Sergeant he was at least still a TO which he loved) When did Lucy become so confident in them? Where was her realizing she didnt have to be afraid of commitment with him? Even in 5x08 she was nervous about that. Where did wanting to take things slow just two episodes prior go? They development wasn’t there yet for the steps they’ve taken.

#the rookie #the rookie spoilers #chenford #tim bradford #lucy chen #tim x lucy #it’s probably always gonna bother me

[qiivuu]

This is going to another post on the webtoon “The Guy Upstairs.”

I’ve read the most recent episodes and a few theories have bubbled up in my head and I feel the need to share it with everyone.

First of all, it’s been confirmed that Adam’s mom did have the same wavy brown hair as all his victims. We also saw a small of peek of his father who has the same hair as Adam. Now, this doesn’t completely debunk my theory from my last post because here’s a couple of theories I’ve come up with.

We don’t know the relationship between Adam and his mother but from his past relationships and his current one with Hawa, I came up with some ideas.

The first one is, maybe his mother had an abusive with Adam and now he’s seeking the motherly love everyone else had. The requirements he set so far is that they must look like his mother and if my original theory is at least somewhat correct, be kind. At least, to him. As we can see, small, even accidental acts of violence and aggression toward Adam can make him snap. I don’t really believe this theory because it seems a little obvious but because it’s obvious that no one suspects it so therefore, the author can pull a full 180 and use this and no one would suspect it.

The second theory is that maybe Adam didn’t have an abusive relationship with his relationship. Maybe they even had a healthy relationship. Maybe, Adam looked up the his mother and father’s relationship because it was so amazing. They might have told him the typical love story like, “Oh, I met your mother by chance at the park. I saved her from a hoard of pigeons and it was love at first sight.” And after his parents died, (Assuming they’re dead. I don’t remember if Adam mentioned it but even if he said they were alive, I wouldn’t trust him.) Maybe he wanted to intimidate their relationship. It’s also possible that he wanted to be just like his dad so he went to look for a girlfriend to build a relationship with. If the relationship didn’t match the fairytale he had in mind, he would kill them.

I think this theory is a little more plausible because it could explain why the first girl we saw (Back in Adam’s apartment) died. It didn’t seem like she was violent, if anything, she seemed timid. It’s possible that there was just one specific thing about her that Adam didn’t like that caused him to kill her because it didn’t match up with his idealized relationship.

The fourth theory ties into the first one in this post which is basically the exact same but instead of an abusive mom, he had a kind one and he’s desperate to replace her after her death (Again, assuming his parents are dead.)

The fifth theory is that maybe his parents are either divorced or widowed. If Adam had idealized their relationship for so long, then this would crush him. He wants to recreate his parents his relationship by putting himself in a relationship. Adam parents could have been the pillars for his entire life and once one of them is gone, he breaks down completely. At first, this started off as innocently enough. He would date and then break up with them. But then, Adam could grow paranoid. What if one of them tells a friend what a horrible relationship they might of had. What if they exposed his family life? What if one of them posted their relationship online? Then everyone would know him. Eventually, his thoughts got to him and he went to kill the as a “safety procedure.” It unclear how many girlfriends he had but we can all safely guess he must have had quite a few.

After this theory, we move onto ones that have to do with other characters.

Next up, we have Rozy.

By this point, I’m almost certain that Rozy isn’t related to Adam. I don’t think she’s related to the police man either because the timelines don’t match up but it’s still possible.

The theory I have so far if Rozy is related to the police man then his parents originally gave Rozy up for adoption and had another child later. The child, being his sister, could be either biological or adopted.

Now, time for the Rozy theory. This theory is that Adam isn’t actually the killer. It’s Rozy. Here’s why I think this is possible. What if that small memory we saw of Adam’s isn’t actually his? It’s Rozy and she’s just projecting herself onto Adam. All of Adam’s thoughts could apply to Rozy the same way Rozy’s thoughts could apply to Adam. Those parents could have been Rozy’s parents and after they died (I’m assuming from a car accident because they were shown to be inside a car), she unable to understand that they died from an accident and it’s easier for her to understand that someone forcefully took her parents away from her. She could few Hawa as not just a friend but also a mother figure. Once Adam came into the picture, Rozy doesn’t understand how Hawa could be actively choosing to leave her, at least, from Rozy’s perspective. Either that or Rozy remembers her parents’ death and sees Adam as “death” personified. This make it easier for Rozy to understand that someone is taking someone away instead of someone just naturally leaving. It could be a way of coping for her. For Rozy, she still needs to somehow justify how Adam’s a death so she either imagines all the killings, or the killings really did happen and she’s just blaming Adam, or lastly, she killed those people herself. It’s possible that her body was moving on it’s own and she just doesn’t remember it. This theory doesn’t explain how the woman in Adam’s apartment died but it could explain why Adam saved her.

Maybe Rozy rented out both apartments and allowed Adam to live in one, in the apartment, she killed the woman and Adam caught her. Of course, in Rozy’s mind, Adam is a killer but in Adam’s mind, Rozy who might even be his friend, just killed someone. Rozy fell out of the window and Adam caught her because he didn’t want another person to die. His motive’s could have also been a little selfish and he was worried the police would suspect him murders and throw him in jail.

At some point, it’s possible Rozy was actually friends with Adam but maybe the pills she’s been taking has been messing with her memory.

That brings me to another couple of theories. Either Adam had been supplying Rozy’s boss with all these pills (First Theory), claiming that it would help her or Adam really is Rozy’s friend (Second Theory). This cycles back to previous theories. Whether his parents are dead, divorced, or widowed, he sees Rozy as his only friend and she can’t remember him. He’s been desperate enough to kill people in hopes to somehow trigger memories of their friendship. Adam secretly hopes that Rozy remembers him and tries to reason with him by using their friendship. If this theory is true, then Adam’s end goal wouldn’t be to replace someone with a girlfriend, instead, it would be have a friendship with Rozy again.

If this theory is true then that would mean that maybe the only reason Adam chooses to date Hawa is because she’s the closest thing to Rozy that he’ll ever get. Maybe he’s given up on trying to save Rozy and convinced himself that Hawa is enough.

I don’t really believe in the theory that Adam is killing to be Rozy’s friend because to me, it doesn’t make sense and it leaves too many questions. I do believe it’s possible that Rozy is just projecting herself onto Adam though.

Finally, we have the last theory. The Hawa Theory. What if Hawa’s the killer. Here’s how this could possibly work. As we can see, she’s very sociable and many guys like her. Not all guys have good intentions, however. Hawa knows this as we can see. What if Hawa is framing Adam? She’s been projecting all her worst fears onto Adam because she knows that Rozy will try to protect and care for her. She likes that sense of protection. Even though Hawa has what seems to be loving parents, they’re old and can’t do much, unlike Rozy. Hawa could enjoy that sense of safety. That’s why she kills to frame Adam. Adam would be unaware and Rozy wouldn’t immediately report him because Rozy knows that there’s no concrete proof. It’s also possible that Hawa has somehow deluded herself into truly believing Adam is a killer.

Honorable Mentions and Questions:

R.I.P Milo, you will be missed. You will always be alive in our hearts.

The Ravi Theory. It possible he’s a murderer or an accomplice or can save convinced to either help or become one. He can work for Rozy or even someone else. I think he would work for Rozy, that just seems more likely but I’m. It sure. We don’t know much about Ravi so a lot is up for interpretation. He seems to have connections and he doesn’t seem like he could be suspected of murderer. When Rozy asked Ravi how he found out that there was a party that the suspect attended, he was very brief and said he just wanted to helpwhich caused me to be suspicious of him. He always knows people very well, at least, people he’s acquainted with which means it’s possible that he knows how he can manipulate them. He’s already shown to be good at bribery as seen with the confession page guy.

Either that or he could die soon, in that case, Ravi, you will be missed.

Is Adam interested in men? What if Adam meets a man with gorgeous long brown wavy hair and that man is kind and caring toward him? Would Adam wave this off because he’s only interested in woman or would he shoot his shot and ask out the man?

#webtoon #adam bahri #Hawa #Rozy #Ravi #the guy upstairs #the guy upstairs webtoon