#this post is soooooooo long oh my god i could have fit it in three short paragraphs probably

[leatherbookmark]

a thing i have JUST realized, isn't the human brain amazing lol -- is that we talk about izzy's thoughts and feelings on ed, on blackbeard, about how he serves one but not the other, etc, etc, and how it means he never loved or even respected the True Man Underneath It All but rather the bloodthirsty legend of a pirate--

e x c e p t izzy is not the first person who makes the distinction between edward and blackbeard. it's ed himself, when he says "actually, i want to be called edward from now on".

before, when he was with stede, it didn't bother him at all that the crew called him blackbeard. that was his name! he was blackbeard, what else would they call him. only stede and izzy got to "ed" or "edward" him, because they were closer -- stede was his first close friend, izzy was his friend and first mate for decades. (note that fang was with ed the longest, but he doesn't call him by his name! you gotta deserve it.)

izzy doesn't do anything inappropriate or out of proportion when he snaps at the crew to call him blackbeard or captain -- that's who ed is, is supposed to be, to them. they're not friends! they even call stede captain, and have you seen that guy?

it's ed that makes the connection between his current state: draped in fuchsia robes, singing sad songs about how sad he is, showing his vulnerable and emotional state in front of people who are supposed to respect and trust his authority. and by that he splendidly loses that authority, to the point that wee john calls him ed, and when izzy snaps at him for disrespecting his captain, ed goes no, actually, yknow what, do call me edward! and then he goes on to encourage the crew to sing as well and hey, actually, why are we being pirates! we should do a talent show!

the distinction is clear here. before all that, in izzy's eyes, his boss was blackbeard, captain, ed/edward -- different names for different occasions, but one and the same guy. but now? this guy singing songs in a pink bathrobe doesn't want to be called blackbeard, he's edward! ed time now! we're going to eat marmalade and express our feelings in front of everyone! and hold talent shows! Ya Hoo !

yeah, it's no wonder izzy doesn't want that. he wants his competent captain back, and this current dude, edward? he's not him. so, uh,

#shrimp thoughts #AND it's not izzy that's the final nail to magenta ed's coffin. it's the lads calling for EDDIE to come and sing for them again #right after izzy -- his first mate! the guy who followed him for all those decades with only mild complaining and an occasional #fed up tirade here and there -- tells him he has no reason to respect him the way he is now. if that's the way with izzy -- then fuck! #what about these guys? those basically strangers to whom he stupidly bared his soul? who are treating him like a source of entertainment? #man's just lost izzy's support. he doesn't have stede (the guy who has the sort-of loyalty of the crew). and the crew respects and admires #blackbeard -- but ed? eddie? uh oh. #look at his face and body language before and after the 'hey eddie give us another song!'. before: he's clearly upset by what just happened #but he starts to fix the robe on himself. starts trying to deal with it and stuff. but the second he hears that one sentence? he freezes. #he turns his head towards the source of the voices -- the crew chanting his name -- very slowly. his eyes are barely moving #this is not to say that izzy's words had no effect on him because they clearly did! but he did not go full kraken to make a point that izzy #is wrong and actually pink and karaoke are good. he goes kraken because attack is the best defense. and it's so fun when #everyone laughs at your jokes and claps when you sing! it's just that people are fickle as fuck :/ #tl;dr the bekrakening is a complex process that doesn't have its source in one grumpy first mate who just wanted everyone to do their jobs #but rather in a fuckton of factors from which one was -- yeah -- stede abandoning ed after he bared his feelings to him. leaving him a #confused raw wound. which would be fine if ed was a teenager but unfortunately he's a scary pirate who loves a good maim #this post is soooooooo long oh my god i could have fit it in three short paragraphs probably

[mirkwoodest]

History Channel's Vikings By Season According to Émile, post-rewatch (spoilers!)

vikings s1: Good

yeah it just slaps, sets of the world, makes you care. there's a reason it got renewed. the themes get set up, the cool stuff they do with languages, all good. Not perfect, but good.

vikings s2: Great

Plot is even more exciting than s2 in my opinion. The family reuniting in a new way rules. the set-up and twist in the finale is *mwah* 'My main issue was that Kwentrith was given a really 2D pussy-nality. Her stuff with Ecgbert and hitting on everyone was a red flag for the pointless horniness of the next few seasons, RIP.

vikings s3: Cringe until the last 3 episodes

U g h Yeah it gets very annoying here. The horniness of this season gets really tiresome here. Where before if felt like there was sexual energy that served a purpose, it started to get really pointless and annoying in this season. The way they wrote Þorrun off was annoying. Her arc felt very pointless and her motivation for leaving lacked depth. I couldn’t make myself care at all about the Saxon politics and that’s the show’s fault, not my fault, because I found that stuff plenty engaging in  The Last Kingdom. 

Good character development for other characters, especially Rollo and Bjorn. Aethelstan's stuff is pretty good. Was I sad to see him go? Yes, but I know George got a great gig as the main character of Versailles after this and I thought his death was respectful of his narrative arc. Unpopular opinoin maybe, but I appreciated Ragnar’s first signs of downward spiral. THE SEIGE OF PARIS IS SO GOOD. Literally felt like I was just waiting for the whole season to get back to this section. It seems like they put all their energy into these three episodes and it made all the cringe worth it. 

vikings s4 part 1: VERY cringe until close to the end. 

The Yidu plot was a HUGE fuck up. one of the worst of the entire show imo. Introducing a woman of color doesn’t get you any diversity points if make her a 2 dimensional sterotype and kill her horribly, lol. The political stuff in Paris with Odo and Charles and the offbrand Lannisters? Not a fan. Don’t care. Didn’t come here for that. Contributed nothing. The political stuff in Wessex with Exbert and Judith and Aethelwulf and Kwentrith? Not a fan. Don’t care. Didn’t come here for that. Could have all been cut and nothing would have been lost except for maybe little glimpses of baby Alfred. So many excessive and pointless horniness. Like WHY?

The only sex scenes that didn’t make me cringe were with Rollo and Gisla because they were funny and light and served a narrative purpose. Rollo and Gisla’s stuff was all solid gold. I would have liked more of it, to be honest. Enemies to lovers arranged marriage slowburn? Medieval powercouple? Girlboss/Malewife vibes? I wanted them to have a spin-off. Bjorn and the bear was a GOOD plot. It was a very effective way to make Bjorn grown up very fast. Lagertha making good on her promise to kill Kalf and doing it on their wedding day? A real GirlBoss move. I was similarly satisfied by Torvi’s stuff. I think it’s rad that she was such a minor character in season 2 and by season 4 she’s gotten pretty interesting. Ragnar’s downfall hurt, but it was a long time coming. It narratively made sense. As soon as they got back to Paris, the battles were once again wicked. That shit with the towers and the chain and the fire arrows was beautiful. Seriously, planning out interesting and engaging battles is one of the main strong suits of this show, it never disappoints. Finale? GOLD. Making us root for Rollo and feel satisfied that he had defeated the family of protagonists we’ve been rooting for this whole time? Genius. The jump forward in time!!!!!!! I remember I lost my shit watching it the first time. Because all of the first half of S4 is all about Ragnar falling to pieces, it was really useful and hopeful to see OH YEAH the next generation is about to take over.

vikings s4 part 2: Soooooooo good oh my god.

The tragedy. The coming together. Knowing that everyone's shit is about to get wrecked. TBH this might be the strongest season in terms of big-picture storytelling without neglecting nuances of individual characters. Biggest complaint is just that Gisla was treated as a dead end when there was still so much potential for interesting shit to happen with her and Rollo. Sigh. I thought Lagertha's characterization started to fray a bit though. Like it seemed like she was at peace w/ Aslaug so why kill her after she surrendered?

vikings s5 part 1: Decent

Good plot. Less over-the-top horniness. Very solid except Heamund was very annoying. Stuff with the brothers was pretty good. Lagertha's characterization continued to fray though. Idk why I don't have much to say, I guess that kind of speaks to the quality of 5a. Not mindblowing but not rage inducing.

vikings s5 part 2: Okay...

The plot itself was pretty good except Freydis is 2D as fuck. Great potential just left to rot on the floor. I'm in love with Gunnhild. Heamund was.... poorly cast. They continued to tone down the over-the too horniness and everyone benefited. Gunnhild my beloved... Thorra's character existing just to be fridged was 🙄 Speaking of which Hvitserk's arc was all over the place and totally disconected from where he came from of where he was going.

vikings s6 part 1: Good

Good tbh. Kiev is DOPE. Ingrid was kind of 2D. Hvitserk's fixation on Thorra was kind of hard to buy into because she had so little screentime and personality before being fridged. Bjorn's, Ivar's, and Hvitserk's arcs all felt solid and interesting. Loved everything with the little Russian prince. Yeah. Bjorn's kid dying felt very pointless though, and made me annoyed at Lagertha. Lagetha's end was good. Bjorn wrecking Hvitserk was extremely triggerig hahaha but good. The battle with the Rus was good. Character development for everyone but Hvitserk felt solid

vikings s6 part 2: Good

Mostly all good. Bjorn's final stuff was great. Hvitserk and Ivar's stuff was good, the Rus plotline was good. I really disliked the Gunnhild, Ingrid, Harald, Eric stuff. Like compared to the other plotlines it felr very hollow. They made Ingrid more 3D at least. I have mixed feelings about Gunnhild..... like it was kind of a badass end, but she was supposed to be the mother of kings???? The England plotline was pretty good, especially Ivar, Hvitserk, and Harald's stuff although Alfred just couldn't compare with TLK's Alfred in terms of depths. He was comparatively very 2D. I think they rushed Hvitserk's arc completion. There was interesting stuff that could have been mined. Ubbe and Torvi's stuff was p agonizing but the payoff was huge. I liked the Canada plotline. Very satisfying and a beautiful counterbalance to to the tone of the entire show, creating a really fitting ending in my book. Like perfect? No, of course not. The had sooo many strings to tie up so it would have been almost impossible to do it perfectly. But overall it was a satisfying and natural end. I felt like investing so much time to go on a journey with these characters was worth it in the end and it gave me a lot to think about.

#rape mention #vikings tv #I probably left out some stuff but this isnmy general take #txt

[big-urchin-energy]

About me tag

got tagged by @siarven,, thank you very much this has taken literal hours,, if i’ve been slow replying for a while, this is why skdfhskdjdkjfh

Name/Nickname: maisie

Gender: approximately genderfluid, with a side of ‘no’, ‘yes’, and ‘idk man i just work here’

Star sign: taurus

Height: 158 cm

Time: 10:15pm 1:55am

Birthday: 21 May

Favorite band/group: this is so hard! there are lots and they’re all very predictable! they might be giants and the fratellis have been long-time favourites of mine (and then of course there’s mother mother, the mechanisms, tally hall, etc. you get the idea, and thank god you didn’t ask for solo artists)

Song stuck in your head: dirty imbecile by the happy fits

Last movie: i genuinely do not remember. i watched jojo rabbit in the summer? but i think there’s probably been some more since then

Last show: wandavision

When did I create this blog: late 2013 i think

What do I post about? mostly tma, but usually just whatever takes my fancy. politics as well, or anything else i’m into

Other blogs: @aromichaelshelley (where i put the vast majority of my aro, ace and gender stuff but also posts that are specifically about michael shelley, the love of my life. might start putting fic updates on there as well idk)

Do I get asks: not very often, it’s usually just the chain ones which i’m too lazy to do half the time

Why I chose my url: my friend told me a couple of years ago that i had big street urchin energy which is true

Average hours of sleep: i am currently unemployed and un-studented so i go to sleep whenever and wake up between 8 and 11

Lucky number: i’m not sure if i have one but i like 4 and 0

Instrument: flute but i hardly play anymore,, i really want to but it’s been so long i sound dreadful

What am I wearing: cool skull tshirt over long-sleeved rainbow top, and pyjama pants

Dream job: i think i’d like to be an editor, although i would also love to be unemployed forever, i don’t dream of working fuck capitalism

Dream trip: i’ve never been super into traveling, but if i could afford it i’d love to visit new zealand. there and scotland,, i wanna go all over scotland. i was supposed to go last summer on a scout camp, that would’ve been fun

Favorite food: i feel like it’s kinda a weird one but ever since i was little my mum made pizza but instead of a tomato base it’s spinach and pesto? and it’s soooooooo good, just chopped spinach, pesto and mozzarella on pizza? god tier meal

Nationality: british

Favorite song: okay here we go, we’re getting one of each,,,, For No One is one of my favourite beatles songs and sadly i’m a huge beatles stan (revolver is maybe my favourite album of theirs), i’m not sure i can pick just one tmbg song but for sheer Makes-Me-Smile vibes, We Want a Rock bc i’m weak for audible smiles in songs, Blood and Whiskey by the mechs, because of course it is, i’m only human,, and i can’t for the life of me think of any more that wouldn’t lead me to just. picking 30 songs

Last book I read: Thirteen Storeys by jonny sims (i enjoyed the making fun of rich people)

Top three fictional worlds: i have suddenly forgotten every single piece of media i have ever seen or read oh no,, but i love the Inkworld in Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, the Diskworld comes to mind too, and, because i refuse to say harry potter, i’m gonna say Yonderland from the series Yonderland, because that always seemed like a pretty cool place to be and i feel like i cant just say ‘the world from this fic i read one time’

tagging @chikacupcake and like. whoever else wants to do it but no pressure, you don’t have to, but if you follow me then feel free, it’s fun :))

#tag game #maybe txt