#wanted to rewatch the story to see if i could include any plot points

[myymi]

hey, what the fuck

#wanted to rewatch the story to see if i could include any plot points #lost all my braincells in the process #crying w passionart rn #sonic the hedgehog #sth #sonic #sonic forces #i don't remember this thing being in the game #infinite the jackal #what is it

[funhouse-mirror-barbie]

I talked a lot about Stella’s appearances previously, but I wanted to talk about her other appearance in season one—this scene:

This scene is interesting to me. I’ve seen some discussion on tumblr debating that this scene was only showing that Stolas felt guilty about cheating on Stella, not that Stolas was actually in the wrong for doing so.

And I find this logic fascinating b/c, yes if you would like to interpret it that way, you can. It’s up to you to decide how you want to interpret or engage with any work.

That said, I don’t think that competent and consistent writing would make the audience try to justify why Stella was there in hindsight. (Conversation continues below cut)

This scene is significant to me because the visual composition and direction of the animation puts Stella at the same level of importance as Octavia.

Which, in my opinion, means that this is one of the few times Helluva Boss did “Show don’t Tell” really well.

Through the visuals, the lyrics of the song, and Stolas’ reaction to Ozzie’s conjured Stella and Via, the audience is told that “these are people Stolas has both failed. He knows he has failed them and fears losing them. But he still hasn’t considered how his actions would impact them, and is now being faced with the idea of that possibility for the first time”

I specifically say that “he’s afraid of losing them” because the illusion of Octavia and Stella both turn their backs on Stolas, leaving him with just Blitzø. It’s extremely clear visual story telling—Stolas wants to be with Blitzø, but in doing so he is neglecting and will potentially lose his relationships with his wife and child.

And, at this point, because it’s before S2E1, the audience has still not been told that Stella is evil and abusive, and have no reason to think that Stolas wouldn’t care if Stella left (and again you can argue that there’s foreshadowing in hindsight but I have already gone over in depth why there isn’t enough information about Stella for the audience to see that coming)

What this part of the song is communicating to us is that Stella has at least some importance in Stolas’ life.

I think you could say that “well obviously Ozzie just didn’t know enough about Stolas’ personal life” but at the same time, what is being depicted in the show is also for the audience’s benefit.

When you are using a visual medium for your story-telling, your compositions and what you physically show the audience is important.

Like this isn’t subtext, it’s not even subtle—in a scene that is depicting Stolas’ shame, guilt, and embarrassment over his affair with Blitzø, Stella is included with Octavia because he knows he wronged her too.

(Also I almost didn’t write “Stolas’ shame, guilt etc.” b/c I was like “well wait, I can’t remember for sure that Stolas was shown as being ashamed or embarrassed about his relationship with Blitzø” so I went back to check and rewatched Ozzie’s and like.. Stolas being ashamed of his affair with Blitzø was shown even more explicitly than I remembered. Like, he straight up tries to ditch Blitzø and then hides his face after Ozzie asks him if he gave up his family to be with Blitzø ????

And Blitzø’s reaction to this shows he’s obviously hurt by this? Like. I know some people have acted like Blitzø is in the wrong for rejecting Stolas after Ozzie’s but I can’t imagine not being hurt by this reaction…)

But anyway, back to the main point—All of these visuals and the character’s reactions to what’s going on around them are meant to illicit emotions within us, but if Stella’s abuse and complete cruelty were always planned and she was always supposed to be hated, the emotional impact this scene is significantly lessened.

I know I’ve already said this, but I just can’t help thinking that the story would have been SO MUCH more interesting if Stolas was held fully accountable and actually had to reflect on his actions. There was so much potential for the plot and deep nuanced character development and change.

At the end of the day though, it’s not my story, and the writers and creative heads of HB get to tell the story they want to tell.

As a final note—I am not trying to nitpick, these are things that occur to me while I am trying to understand the story and engage with it on a deeper level.

But with every new episode, I find myself having more questions about why certain choices were made, and getting more and more confused about why characters behave the way they do. I can’t help thinking that the story was never fully planned out, and I worry that’s only going to become more obvious as time goes on.

#funhouse convo #media criticism #media critique #helluva boss critical #helluva boss critique #media conversation #writing critique #stella goetia #not tagging st0las cause people will probably send me hate #please don’t send me hate I’m not trying to attack anyone and the show does not have feelings it is just media

[bitterseaproduction]

An Indispensable Silver Lining | The Hobbit Ref Dump

So, I can’t (see: don’t want to) go on with An Indispensable Silver-Lining until I can sit down and rewatch some Desolation of Smaug to pin down some character locations, and I really wanna decide if I’m going full movie-verse or embracing a specific fanedit or book+movie mix and what timeline I want to hold myself to for Thorin—

Can you believe I started this fic thinking ‘I’m not going to get bogged down by canon or details this time. I just wanna write for the fun’? 😂 That went well.

Point is, just because I want to gather some canon facts? It hasn’t stopped me from writing up 1500 words of a chapter 2+ plan, or over 6 THOUSAND WORDS of long-term storyboarding in less than THREE DAYS covering Smaug and the men/dwarves/elves factions and the orcs and some of the bagginshield progression and the ‘act 1’ climax and like three ways ‘act 2’ could break bad, and— well, you can tell it’s a true passion project when I keep stepping away, think of another thing, and scramble back to my phone to jot down a few hundred more words in whatever moments I can steal. And, more pertinent to this post, I can’t stop devouring a ton of resources and inspiration.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d just share something of those sources! For fun, for later reference for myself as I write, for practical use if you’d like it yourself, or maybe you just want something else to read and these are great fics/lore bits to choose!

Updated May 15th, 2024. Additions marked with a *

The Hobbit Trilogy Fan Edit Sources

A Comprehensive Guide to Fan Edits of the Hobbit Trilogy An older list, but viable for what it covers

Help on choosing Hobbit fan edit? Which is the best? A second reddit list, a bit more modern.

FanEdit.org: Lord of the Rings franchise A comprehensive list of options for The Hobbit + other LotR works

* Specific Fan Edits

I still need to watch all of the edits I've found properly from beginning to end, but after skimming through a number of options, looking for specific wants and do-not-wants in each and reading/watching a few things on how each version was created, I think I have narrowed my interest down to these three fan edits:

Chris Hartwell's Hobbit Trilogy A very comprehensive cut that keeps pretty much all of the movie beats intact, just trims down the trilogy's more clunky spots to create a more polished film experience. (i.e. a reduced Radagast, Alfrid, older Bilbo, some of the action scenes, etc.) Generally prioritizes Bilbo as the MC and his dynamic with Thorin as the through-line of the story and includes some of the extended scenes that highlight both, which I really appreciate.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again An edit that more fully cuts some of the less loved factors of the movies like the Tauriel romance, but not nearly as cut-heavy as a lot of the more well-known fan edits.

The Compromise Cut Very similar to 'or There and Back Again' but more ambitious in rearranging footage to create new beats to cover cuts vs 'or There and Back Again' being more of a clean 'straight from the source' cut.

~

For my purposes, Hartwell's will probably be my go-to for full lore and plot inclusion & the most 'bang for my buck' while being a cleaner watch than the OG, while There and Back Again or The Compromise Cut are what I would share with friends who despise some of the film-only content, but are willing to give the trilogy another try.

I know there are a number of other great edits of there, M4 and MapleFilms being especially loved, ~but~ I set a rule for myself that any edit that cut the carrock hug was instantly out, so these were the three I landed on.

Resource Websites

The Encyclopedia of Arda Tolkien Gateway LotR Online

Specific Details

TEoA: A Viewer’s Companion (AUJ) TEoA: A Viewer’s Companion (DoS) TEoA: A Viewer’s Companion (TBoFA) TEoA: Longbeards + The Other Clans

TG: Quest Motivations Generally good overview of the point of the quest and what happened.

TG: Smaug Role / Gandalf motivation "Following the sack of Erebor, Gandalf felt that Sauron would take advantage of Middle-earth's weakened state and attack Rivendell and Lothlórien or try regain Angmar; he also feared that Sauron "might use" Smaug "with terrible effect". [...The White Council] attacked Dol Guldur in TA 2941, while Sauron and Smaug could not "help one another". [...] his adversaries were able to drive him from the fortress with relative ease. [...] Sauron abandoned Dol Guldur willingly, and returned secretly to Mordor, where he would openly declare himself in TA 2951, and began preparations for his final war to dominate Middle-earth."

TG: The Arkenstone Arkenstone info from book and adaptations

* Khuzdul Words for Fanfiction Writers A resource for Khuzdul words for - as the name says - fanfic writers!

Durin's Line Tapestry from DoS Shows the family connections with original book birth dates for all. Even though it was presumably made pre-sacking in 2770, and 3 of the company depicted were born after Erebor fell. That... is curious.

The Line of Dwarves A more thorough (and intriguing) look at the dwarf lines and relevant dates, all book-based.

Comprehensive Genealogy Chart of all the Hobbits from J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium My gosh is this expansive... and hard to load up on a screen, but if you don't want to miss something, check this!

HOBBIT FAMILY TREE: How are Bilbo, Frodo, Pippin, Merry, and Sam related? The less brain-breaking hobbit tree that focuses on the main 5 from the books.

Lord of the Rings Hobbit Family Tree More of a middle-ground on the 2 above options.

* Prominent Hobbit Families and Individuals A lovely breakdown of the hobbit families as a group, what they are like and who are the crucial members of those families.

Bag-End PJ Hobbit Map Crucial for Bilbo background & any Shire scenes if they come!

* Untangling Middle-Earth's many routes to evil A map of where all of the characters traveled in The Hobbit and The Lord of the RIngs! I found this handy when I was trying to track Gandalf in particular.

A chronology of The Hobbit A day-by-day breakdown of the journey in The Hobbit, great for what-ifs and assessing likely travel times!

Suggested Alternative Timeline For The Hobbit by @avelera A very nice older post on a potential timeline alternative for The Hobbit films. As said above, the films do use the original dates in places, but as this post says, they don't always make sense about it. This is a nice option to consider instead.

Major Inspiration Fics

Backs To The Wall by @conkers-thecosy My current top TH/LotR read, a great active WIP, definitely a direct inspiration to me with the failure to get into Erebor leading things off course! And I'll likely have a parallel Laketown focus for a bit, though nothing as detailed and lived-in as Conkers' fic. And, aside from great writing and general motivation to write TH/Bagginshield, I love the portrayals of the characters (BILBO, Thorin, Gandalf, Dwalin, Nori, Bard and the Bardlings--) and pairings. Definitely tempting me towards Dwalin/Nori here!

And I'm Your Lionheart by Lee_Whimsy There always seems to be a fic in every fandom of mine that draws me in very early, becomes and instant fave, and then hangs there unfinished but perpetually on my mind. The 'one that got away' fic. This is it, and I shall forever love it, and you can just bet it will bleed into my takes somewhere, especially with Gandalf and Legolas and Bard and Fíli, if I recall correctly. I should totally reread this, or at least sections of it. Reading to the 'end' is... painful.

The Most Precious of Treasures by @sapphireshelle91 Another long untouched WIP, but a VERY different one, as it is a) post-TBoFA, and b) features a female Bilbo and parentshield with dwobbit!Frodo. I include this one because a) I love a number of the characterizations, b) if 'And I'm Your Lionheart' gives me the infrastructure and maintenance inspiration for Erebor, THIS fic delivers on the politics and intrigue, and c) I am a HUGE sucker for parentshield, be it biological or adoptive, so naturally I'm contemplating it for my own fic. Still iffy on which way I'll take it, but I've fallen down some intriguing rabbit holes in regards to Shire culture and Bilbo's background while considering the biological option, and I'd be loathe to abandon those ideas now. But either way, this fic deserves a definite nod for motivating me to come up with ideas.

Home Behind and Home Ahead by Etharei Love the characterizations in this one, and anything that gives me a tap into Bilbo's character is appreciated. And I don't know if I'll draw much on it for this fic in particular, but I love all forms of parentshield and this is a lovely dynamic between the three characters, so I'd happily draw from it in the abstract.

* Planting a Hobbit by @northerntrash I adore the vibe of this! A sweet 'Bilbo in Erebor' AU focused on the dwarves (Thorin especially) being so silly and endearing in their efforts to make Bilbo happy, and featuring some nice world and dynamic building in the process.

* Bad Blood by @conkers-thecosy Yo~ give me a nice what-if any day, and having it feature a protective!Bilbo + ardent!Thorin + gremlin!elvenking in the process, with a side of dwarven culture and royal politics? For it.

* [explicit!] Safe and Distant by Lindzzz I ADORE a Bilbo like this. A Bilbo who isn't oblivious about his feelings or denying them, but whose self-image/image of Thorin makes him unable to Comprehend anything not one-sided could come of those feelings. Who celebrates Thorin's good regard with joy and accepts it as 'enough' and 'more than he could ask for'. Who would probably just combust at the idea Thorin might want more, might want something beyond what their adventure can provide, just as Bilbo does... or just as Bilbo would, if he would allow himself to even accept that as a possibility. A Bilbo who finds the idea of Thorin wanting him back terrifying, because to hope for that and be wrong? It would shatter him. ...Yeah, I am very, very for this Bilbo. (And that doesn't even touch on the Thorin or the last chapter, omg-)

* [explicit] Canoodling by @avelera This fic is sweet. This fic is funny. This fic touches on differences between the Tolkien cultures and misunderstandings and the unique ways that could affect intimacy with a couple, and you know that bagginshield is a gold mine opportunity for all of that. I love any explicit work that plays with experience levels and expectations and lets the couple mess up and then swing it back around to lovely afterwards, because that's realistic and relatable and thus, when done right, all the more attractive a read! And this one does it well, a good foundation read.

#bagginshield #the hobbit #an indispensable silver lining #aisl reference #reference post #fic recommendations #the hobbit fan edits #If I don't get to watch DoS or at least a fanedit this weekend I will riot

[avelera]

OK, so, I have now seen Good Omens Season 2 and had a moment to muster my thoughts after binging it.

SPOILERS below the cut, if that needed saying.

--

Let's start with the good.

Loved that Beelz/Gabriel became canon. What can I say? I love stories about immortals falling in love over the course of several meetings at a pub ;)

John Hamm in general was fabulous

I cackled at the fact we were getting an actual fem Aziraphale/Crowley, human coffee shop AU running parallel with the absolute fanficciest of justifications that Aziraphale and Crowley HAD to make them fall in love in order to *mumble mumble* something plot whatever, lol

I loved the bits of lore flashbacks we got about Aziraphale and Crowley first meeting when they were both angels and I found the whole Job encounter overall charming.

I was deeply fascinated by the fact that Crowley consistently performed selfless angelic acts while Aziraphale consistently needed to learn and grow around doing the right thing. Even to the end he remained, for the most part, a good little soldier. Aziraphale thinks the system can be fixed. Crowley "knows" that it can't. Presumably, Crowley is right. More on that later.

Muriel was adorable

Loved that we got the kiss. Also, huge shoutout to the fandom that I genuinely went in unspoiled on that front after the whole trailer debacle. I SUSPECTED based on the reactions that the spoiler was a kiss, but I was able to successfully forget all about it so I genuinely gasped when they kissed.

I'm not really all that bummed by the ending. It's so obviously a "temporary breakup so we come back together stronger" moment so I was largely unbothered. I actually want MORE angst, not less, in fic after that, please and thank you.

Unpopular opinion praise for S2, but I'm glad we didn't get more of The Them, or Madame Tracy (though the recasting of the actress in another role puzzled me?) or Anathema/Newt, or any of the non Aziraphale/Crowley, Heaven/Hell stuff. I found all those plotlines hugely boring and I'm glad the story moved on from them.

Did I mention I adored Gabriel/Beelz? Loved that plotline. Might rewatch that bit again just for that. I SORT of suspected it was happening but was still delighted by the confirmation. I couldn't BELIEVE this minor ship got made canon, but along the way I was sort of side-eying Beelz's reactions through the lens of, "Wait, what if Beelz is WORRIED for Gabriel?" and it worked very well so I was tentatively *glad* for the shippers who might view it that way and NEVER guessed they'd make it canon this season with more than a few tidbits for those shippers to cling to. Wow. Whole-ass parallel instead of what Aziraphale and Crowley COULD be if they actually 1) communicated and 2) understood each other's values and valued the same things.

Truly, it was a love letter to the fandom I found that to be very sweet as a choice made by Tumblr Girlie Neil Gaiman.

H'ok, now let's get into the negative. To be clear, I enjoyed the season! A lot of room is left to explore stuff in Season 3! And I'm not a deep Good Omens fandom person, I didn't read much fic after S1 dropped, I was more of a book fandom fic person for it. So my level of investment isn't such that I'm *crushed* by any of this, these are just more things I found a bit "meh"?

I really thought we were heading to a side-swap story about Aziraphale and Crowley and I was little bummed it didn't happen, though there's still room for the possibility in S3. The whole "maybe I did the good thing and you did the bad" taken to the max. I really wanted the angst of them finding each other only to end up on opposite sides again and opposite-OPPOSITE sides of where they'd been and been comfortable up to this point. I really wanted to see IMPACT and SUFFERING and DISCOMFORT and... idk, more drama? Than we got?

Like, there were SO MANY references to Crowley being selfless and doing the RIGHT angelic thing while Aziraphale did a lot of HORRIFYING things, including all the mind-fuckery stuff he did around the ball, totally insensitive to the needs and wants of the humans involved, only seeing them as tools, that REALLY made me wonder if we were getting a swap by the end.

The fact we saw SO MANY ominous references to Aziraphale FALLING because he was tempted by Crowley, over and over, because he questioned God, over and over? I thought something would come of that! I thought Crowley would get through to Aziraphale just in time to have Aziraphale fall and for Crowley to do something truly angelic, to have Aziraphale get through to HIM at the same time so they'd swap sides officially, against their will, the same way Crowley never meant to fall. It seemed like falling was something that COULD HAPPEN TO YOU AGAINST YOUR WILL and I wanted REDEMPTION to work the same way, AGAINST Crowley's will. I wanted them to get absolutely FUCKED by the moment they finally got through to each other and swapped philosophies.

So that was a bummer. Could still happen in S3 but...? I'd be a bit surprised at this point given I think it will instead focus on (*sigh*) averting the Apocalypse again.

I thought the pacing was fucking atrocious. There was so much dead time. So many scenes that were simply *not* needed and didn't add anything. So much meandering script with darlings that desperately needed to be killed for the sake of a snappier story. So much that felt like padding. With a better editor and 2 fewer episodes, I think it would have been a much tighter, better, fast paced show.

S2 recalled with a problem I have with Neil's writing in general - he's a short story writer/comic issue writer at heart. I, personally, am a long-form novel writer. Neil is not great at writing novels, he's a novella/anthology/short story person and it shows when he so often, so consistently, fails to pull a long-form story together in a satisfying way (to me, and this is just my subjective opinion).

It shows up in so many ways with how, in my opinion, S2 seemed to flounder with how to fill 6 episodes. The flashback to the Resurrectionist stuff could have been half as long and I found much of the writing pretty awful and cliche in it.

I liked Aziraphale learning that morality is complex, truly, but that was all I really liked of that bit of flashback and it could have been much shorter. I found everything around Elspeth exasperating and on the nose. It was a short story straight out of a random issue of "The Sandman" and sometimes it really feels like Neil has never managed to break out of the same stories, plots, and themes, with a dash of horror as he did from that era. He's always, always, still just writing either 1) fanfic of another person or mythology's work or 2) an original Sandman short stories/issues with no long-form plot. In his defense, they're always COOL and have an interesting VISUAL or IDEA but these stories aren't very... good? Writing? Or rather, he tends to just do the same things over and over again. Nifty idea that don't actually really *gel* into anything more complex than a single storyline?

I felt the same way about the Nazi Zombie plotline. I found that entire story beat EXCEEDINGLY tedious and pointless except to fill airtime, not to mention a bit gross to watch. I found the Magician Aziraphale plotline in general EXCEEDINGLY pointless and tedious to sit through. I thought it added absolutely nothing and was incredibly dull for 99% of the story.

Everything with Shax was exceedingly tedious and boring to me. The fight in the bookshop felt nonsensical and poorly choreographed. That needed to be a 2x speed to feel any sense of peril or urgency at all, and not knowing where it was going, or if anyone was actually really threatened at all just robbed it of any real sense of tension.

There was just... zero sense in general of important stakes in the Shax storyline or really in the season because there was no Apocalypse to build towards, no event that we knew about to worry about.

The world wasn't ending. Shax didn't seem empowered to actually do anything or hurt anyone. They were just a random action plot for... reasons? To make the climax in the bookshop come together so we could have a Jane Austen ball at the same time as 69 demons (heh) invading? There were so many logical leaps there to make that happen and the pacing/editing being garbage just... robbed it of any feeling of importance except as a time waster of a plotline. The actress is great and all but dear lord was that plotline dull.

A lot of the flashbacks in general just felt like... padding. Yes, we got a bit more Aziraphale and Crowley but they never quite... worked for me in those. It was always pointless STUFF they were doing rather than anything that contributed to the plot or even to my sense of them being in love or working towards becoming a couple! They were just... there, a lot of the time, sitting next to each other.

Some of the script pauses were SO BIZARRE. Like as if they'd just written the script and not realized how bloody often Crowley is given NOTHING TO DO in the background so he just... stands there, waiting for his next line, or taking a nap, or observing random stuff. David Tenant in the Resurrectionist bit with all his theatrics felt, again, pointless and tedious but also the best the poor guy could fucking do to fill out this incredibly boring story with any sort of entertainment. Bless them, the actors worked their ASSES off to get some fun and excitement into huge swathes of this script.

Maggie and Nina's relationship was cute but ENTIRELY pulled off by the actresses, the story was again, incredibly tedious and pointless otherwise, as many coffee shop AUs are in my opinion. Their personal charm elevated the material but it all felt like more stalling tactics with a wink-and-a-nod at fic writers, with this entire season was stretched out to justify, presumably, Aziraphale being in Heaven after being promoted to Archangel while Crowley is on Earth and they're fighting.

Quite frankly, if the "real" sequel, which Pratchett co-wrote, just opens with Aziraphale thinking Heaven's shown up to destroy him, only to promote him on the spot, basically the last scene of S2, you actually don't need 99% of this season at all to get there. In fact, it's a pretty fun comedy beat to do quickly. Basically, "Oh shit, the cops!" then "Actually, we're here to promote you!" and boom, we've reached the same spot as we got to after 6 episodes of S2.

Not that I didn't enjoy many of the character moments! But overall, it felt like stalling for time to make it a trilogy series, since only a few plot threads had any longer term importance to anyone who isn't a fanfic-writing super fan who knows what a coffee shop AU is and can giggle over there being one in the actual show.

Basically, it was very lacking in the strengths of the story that I attribute to Terry Pratchett - like the ability to pull a long-form story together, and certain clever turns of phrase.

There were so many lines where there was a pause where it was as IF they were going to say something clever, and then they just... didn't? And the line was just another cliche or a trail-off of someone mumbling "comedically"? That's where I very much felt Pratchett's absence. It indeed felt like half the writing duo was missing in many ways. And I'm not personally... all that convinced of Neil's chops when it comes to long-form stories or romance, two things that this season kinda relied on pulling off right that I was left feeling pretty tepid about after.

Look, overall, I did like it! I'm really excited for how the fandom will run with what happened and make their own stuff with it. I'm very excited for Season 3, whenever we get it, and the return of Terry Pratchett's fingerprints on the story. I think it's going to be great!

It's not that I think my time was wasted so much as I thought places where *I* would have done things differently, which is not a fair criticism of any work. From a technical perspective, really I just think it needed a tighter script or tighter editing, and they just might not have been able to do that if they were contracted for 6 episodes when they only really needed 3. Oh well. Onward and upward!

#good omens #spoilers #good omens spoilers #good omens season 2

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "The Wynkahthu Job"

The space = ocean metaphor really getting stretched here.

Hoo boy, here we go.

Hondo's converted the Imperial shuttle he stole into his new pirate ship. Mostly by way of strapping cargo crates to the top like it's a minivan lol.

Love how literally no one but Ezra is happy to see Hondo.

"But it all worked out in the end right?" It in fact did not work out in the end my love, you lost the Phantom and nearly fell to your death in a gas cloud.

Azmorigan wiping his earwax off onto the door panel, gross.

Yeah no I'm with Hera on this one I wouldn't want to work with him either.

I SHOULDN'T LAUGH BUT HONDO'S BLIND JOKES ARE ACTUALLY KIND OF HILARIOUS.

Right so, Rebels kind of leans into this whole aesthetic of depicting space with ocean and seafaring metaphors, which I guess ties back into the whole idea that Star Wars is Space Fantasy, not science-fiction, imbued with the romanticism and swashbuckling adventure of weekly serials. We have knights and princesses and pirates, the most iconic weapon is a sword (Ezra's first lightsaber in particular is kind of akin to a rapier, and his fighting style evokes fencing), we have ancient wayfinders (bo-rifles and Lasat culture) and migrating pods of whales. And now we have a shipwreck being slowly drawn in by a whirlpool.

It's a pretty cool reoccurring element.

Ezra still looks a bit uncomfortable with Hondo's affectionate shoulder wraps.

I love that they brought AP for this mission, he's always hilarious.

Oh good we're at scene the first of my least favorite part of this episode, Ezra randomly being an ass for no real reason. It's especially jarring and grating after the maturity he showed last episode so frankly I'm just kind of going to wander away from that plot thread and ignore it whenever it happens, it's dumb and I refuse to entertain it.

There isn't even any real lesson learned??? Ezra never apologizes for being a shit and Hondo proves he is actually a good and loyal friend by coming back for the finale so what was even the point of this contrived piece of conflict? Nglh.

"This is your plan!" "I have factored that in. Without me your chances would be almost zero." <33333 I love him.

Hondo and Azmorigan play off each other hilariously.

Keen-eyed can spot Melch running around the corridors in the background.

I'm remembering why I tend not to like stories centered around or heavily featuring Chaotic Neutral characters, all the times Hondo's double-crossed someone gets very tiring and hard to keep up with.

"You attacked an Imperial ship." "We do it all the time." "Exac--Really?" I DIED. I LOL-ED AND I DIED.

That sighing eyeroll from Ezra in the background there ha ha.

I really am going to have to refrain from quoting Hondo every single time he makes me laugh, but this line about how they used to get none of the truth is hitting me right in the funnybone.

The gag with the door is great too.

Oh! The whole nautical swashbuckling adventure vibe I mentioned? Yeah, now they're gonna fight enchanted skeletons. In the form of the sentry droids.

The cable ziplines make this feel a little like a heist movie.

Ignoring this whole exchange...

Oohhh they are taller than Zeb, that's scary.

AP-5 FORGOT TO INCLUDE THE SENTRY DROIDS IN HIS SCENARIO CALCULATING LOL.

Hello Darktrooper precursor.

AP-5's sullen disappointment when Ezra tells them the first sentry droid got blasted lolol. AP you could have saved everyone a LOT of headache by just forewarning them about the droids.

This whole exchange. <333

Ezra that "I'll catch up." was dangerously close to "I'm right behind you." and also the last time you used that phrase you found Maul lurking in a pit. Do not tempt karma like that.

The sentry droids show a remarkable amount of strategic intelligence shooting the cable out rather than continuing to fire at Zeb and Ezra.

Worried Sabine be worried. :)

"It's okay! Zeb's got him! [Ezra]"

*raises eyebrow*

Interesting specification, Sabine.

This bit is pretty awesome.

And wow that was a quick climax.

Eyyyyy Melch is fine! And taught Hondo a lesson hopefully, lol.

This episode frustrates me because on the one hand it is HILARIOUS and I love the spacemariner and swashbuckling aesthetics of it but on the other hand *gestures to all of that*. With some tweaking this could have been the funniest episode of the series but as it is it just winds up landing as a mixed bag.

We're back to form next time, though, and we really don't stumble again for a good long streak. We're also going to start running into more and more episodes I've already liveblogged through. As I said previously those recaps will likely be shorter, unless I find something I really want to ramble about.

#star wars #star wars rebels #rebels rewatch #liveblog #ezra bridger

[wheelercurse]

hi sandy! i saw your post yesterday and wanted to ask - do you think that if season 4 had come out all at once, more people would have seen where the byler storyline is heading?

i feel like what you said is correct, that most people who shipped byler between vol 1 and 2 lost hope specifically bc they were expecting something different from vol 2 instead of what we got (with mike piggybacking off of will's feelings), but people who didn't ship byler until volume 2 could see where the story was heading more easily since they weren't burdened by any sort of disappointment from volume 2 not giving byler the resolution they expected. i'm one of those people that didn't watch s4 until after volume 2 aired, so when i watched it i was surprised that so many people lost hope bc of volume 2 since for me (as a complete GA member at the time), it was the thing that finally pushed byler into the territory of something that could actually be canon.

imo that if the season had dropped all 9 eps on the same day, fewer people would have seen the monologue as a sign that mlvn is fixed and more people would treat the will/mike/el triangle on the same level of seriousness as the jonathan/nancy/steve triangle instead of automatically assuming that mlvn is endgame and will is going to be rejected.

i also think that they would have realized more easily that the painting plot was unfinished, since the month-long wait between volume 1 and 2 made it seem like will giving up the painting/his feelings was the conclusion of that storyline rather than just another step (iirc even the duffers described vol 2 as baby steps). if we'd gotten all 9 eps at the same time, it would have been so much more obvious that this story wasn't over. what do you think?

(btw, i love your analysis so much!! hope you have a great day ❤️)

Hello, Rae!!!

I agree with you; I think more people would have seen it coming or at least taken the love triangle with an unambiguous ending like the j*ncy/st*ncy's one.

Actually, I understand why casual viewers don't see byler coming because they probably forget some things about the story and the characters, especially when they take years to release a new season. But if you're a fan and rewatch the show or think more about it, you are more familiar with the characters and their arcs, so it's easier to see where the story is leading. And it was just a month between volumes, but some people probably forgot details, especially about the Cali plot, because some complained that nothing happened. When the point is that the most essential part of the plot was to develop Mike and Will's inner conflicts.

And definitely, I wouldn't have lost hope that easily if I had watched it entirely, too, because, like you said, I thought the painting's plotline ended with the van scene and the monologue. The waiting made me believe that I would get a resolution. But when I pondered more about it, I realized that it was pretty intentional all the loose ends, and they were gonna close everything up in the last season (including the painting's subplot)

p.s: I'm glad you enjoyed my analysis!!! Have a great day too <3

[unlockthestars]

So I rewatched season 2 of g.en:LOCK today (shh, I know we don't talk about it, but I have a point), and it was interesting to see some of the parallels between a few of the plot points and some of the things that happened in the last few seasons of R.WBY. Spoilers for V9 of R.WBY and S2 of GL, along with trigger warnings here for discussion of suicide later in this post, below the cut.

Like for example: a decorated General who has spent the entirety of the show up until this point working with our heroes, even if they butt heads a little bit on how to go about things unceremoniously descends into not caring about casualties as long as their goal is met. Now, which show am I talking about there?

And then the other one, which is vastly more disturbing: one of our main characters gets so broken down by all of the fighting and the losses they've had to face that they willingly choose what is for all intents and purposes, suicide.......only to come back in the next episode, better than ever!! Depression is magically fixed, and they just don't have to put in any of the work that it takes to come back from the edge of suicidal ideation.

And it was explicitly called 'suicide' in GL. Several times. By multiple different people. They put the whole "If you or someone you know is struggling with feelings of depression or suicidal thoughts, help is always available" thing at the end of the episode, for fuck's sake. But it's just.........completely negated??? And then the person who decided that that was their only option just.....comes back. And not only are all their problems fixed, they're just.....better.

It wasn't treated quite the same way in V9 of R.WBY; they wanted to insinuate that it was more of a "metamorphosis" type of thing, but it's pretty damn clear that the Ever Afterans have to DIE in order to be reborn to a new purpose.

Which Ruby knew. She and the others had been told that quite a few times, by the point she drank the tea. But she chose to do it anyway, believing that the world was better off without her. Which is, again, a pretty clear suicide attempt, at the very least.

And it's so frustrating to me that such a serious topic is treated so cavalierly. If they had wanted to tell the story of "Ruby needs to choose herself, to believe that she's enough," they absolutely could have, but as it stands, it really bothers me that that was the way they went about it. It probably also bothered me more because RT has already done this.

Not only have they already done it, but it's so much worse in GL, because not only does a character commit literal suicide, it's treated as the way to ultimately save humanity???? Like....., she convinces her teammates that it's also better and that they should kill themselves too so they can come back Better Than Ever and "they'll probably treat us like gods," she says at one point. And her teammates just......kill themselves. INCLUDING one of the teammates who had seen this same substance murder her family before her very eyes.

I just......I have a lot of feelings, and I don't know what to do with them. Because I absolutely adored S1 of g.en:LOCK; it was innovative, had actual diversity, it was fun, and it told a good story. And I genuinely enjoyed V9 of R.WBY.....up until that point. And I'm gonna have a hard time when they inevitably move forward and just.....don't address this issue at all.

#★ general || ooc ★ malaprops: of or concerning mal / in an inopportune way #suicide tw #discussion of suicide tw #suicide cw #discussion of suicide cw #[*singsong* this is another one of those things that I don't know how to tag]

[urne-buriall]

ive had a bad day and find myself here to humbly request any behind the scenes insight to the crafting of your fics (research, writing habits, inspiration, teasers) im currently reading the 90s horse girl dean wip and the ashes canon fixit 💌

sorry you're feeling down. here are some trade secrets.

spirit of the west:

for research I read My Friend Flicka, Misty of Chincoteague, Phantom Stallion: The Wild One and watched the first season of Heartland, which was harrowing because a) so many of their horse plots were things I was already going to write, and b) being a Canadian alive at the time that season aired I felt personally attacked by the similarities to my own life. she had my freaking alarm clock. they played a song in the background by a band called Tangiers, an obscure indie rock group from Toronto that I listened to constantly in '06/'07 and was certain no one but me had heard of. I digress. I also started reading The Horse Whisperer but it was more peopley than horsey so I watched the movie instead, which was very visually rewarding. total love letter to Montana.

I also sometimes go to youtube and watch videos of stallion taming or horse farm chores to see if there are any details I want to include that I might otherwise have missed. my youtube history got so weird for this one.

for any vet stuff, I read a few blogs and articles as I approach the scene. I've seen a foal being born before, and seen more than one cattle-birth, but want to get the details right for a more complicated delivery.

oh yeah, I rewatched the John episodes of SPN, something I never thought I'd set out to do, because keeping away from caricature is really important to me, considering what he's like in the fic.

this is almost a teaser: for my latest research I opened up a vintage copy of a 1990s GED preparation guide on archive.org to skim through the table of contents and introduction. the GED lore.

another teaser: I have a chapter heading for Chapter 16. the chapter contains one word: "Rodeo!"

our lights in ashes:

for this one I read a whole bunch of Southern Gothic short stories, because the short story is where it's prime. I also read The Road by Cormac McCarthy (father and son traumabonding in the Southeast) and watched Eve's Bayou (very good!), Shy People (weird), the original The Beguiled, and the documentary Southern Comfort. there may have been more I read - I easily convince myself I'm not doing writing research, just having a fun time with a book I'd long intended to read, but it really is writing research.

the inspiration was because it was originally for @deancaspinefest, and the best part of pining to me is when both parties want to be together and know it, but can't. I asked myself, how could Cas and Dean see each other frequently and want to be together while something external to themselves keeps them from fulfilling anything? because writing them together is the point. no scenes between Dean and Cas until the end of the story is just no fun for anyone. so I asked if Cas might be slipping in and out of the Empty - thought "no that makes no sense based on what we know of it" - then went and created my new realm of Apeiron. once I had that, man, everything else about the story fell into place.

#spirit of the west #our lights in ashes #research #loreboy #I swear I spend more time writing than researching but some days it's probably pretty close #in my defense I watch all those youtube videos at 2x speed

[fkevin073]

I'm staying anonymous for now.

This is because of this post (post/668044585142992896/since-that-gifset-of-nick-yesterday-and-your) that I'm overly thinking details like this again. So my scattered thoughts might not make sense to you.

And I will take you ahead of time, I never meant to write this message to be a long message. But my thoughts are always this scattered a lot of the time when I'm thinking about characters, plots, stories, things..

I've watched and rewatched Fear Street movies a few times, and I will watch it again because why not watch horror movies for Halloween.

And if I'm honest... I enjoyed the movies more that I actually thought I would have. Which is saying a lot from me. But there are some details that bothered me, obviously the continuation errors really bother me.

I don't know if I'm the only one with that problem. But I also wish that there more depth to the characters, the plot, the story, to everything.. The acting was fine. The special effects were fine. Things were fine.

I wanted more depth, even just a little more depth.

Like before Nick Goode knew about his family tradition (the Pact), he genuinely seemed like a sweetheart who never discriminated against anyone for their differences. Including Shadysiders. That's the way I'd view his character. He was a sweetheart who wanted to help anyone - like Ziggy - in any way he could. And if I'm honest, I'm not sure if Nick was already crushing on Ziggy at that point. Or if he just didn't want a person to be constantly harassed, and almost killed, for petty reasons like everyone kept doing to Ziggy. Ziggy was just blamed because she was the only Shadysider in those situations whenever counselors had been involved. But, then again, the viewers never really see Nick even interacting with any other Shadysiders besides Ziggy. So I'm not even really sure if Nick's sweet spot was only for Ziggy, or for anyone else if they got to know the real him. Not his family name, not his reputation or his status. The real him as himself. Maybe I'm overly thinking this.

Nick told Ziggy that he's never wanted to be a part with the traditions of his family like the Pact, and tried finding ways to talk himself out of doing the ritual. The viewers never thought the Goode family was this evil family, until the reveal in 1666. But the scene with Ted Sutherland as the teenage Goode men, as Nick, he does really list Thomas Slater. But when he listed Tommy as a name, that happened before he really talked to Ziggy. Because Tommy was killing people during the scenes of Nick and Ziggy kissing, they heard screaming in that moment. And that was when Nick's fate was sealed. But he did try saving people, as many people that he could find. And he was traumatized by the death he did witness, he even got sick over what he saw. Either... Nick never didn't believe the Pact was actually real, or maybe he never thought a situation like that would have never lead to killing dozens of people all at once like that. I don't know. I don't really know if his fate was sealed when he listed a name on the wall, or when he wish to resurrect Ziggy back to life. And I've had similar thoughts as you. After you find out all the antagonizes were actually the Goode family, maybe Nick was also trying to find ways to redeem himself in some way or another but the situations always kept getting worse rather than better. But I wonder.. Do you think he lost his entire soul from the '78 Nightwing Massacre, or do think he kept losing pieces of his soul whenver he added names to the wall for another massacre. A thought that comes to mind a lot.

The Goode father was dead. Nick and Will weren't being controlled by their father anymore. So Nick didn't have to keep that tradition going.

There are details that I always wish was explained more in depth - the minor and major details that weren't elaborated on in the movies, and especially the audience who never read the books or don't remember those details in the books. I know they altered a a few details though.

Like for the Witchcraft, the black magic. Obviously the witchcraft was a part of the Goode family since 1666 because of Solomon Goode did use the magic book, which was passed down for many generations.

How did the Goode father die? So I know not many people care about the father of Nick and Will, but I'm kinda curious to know how he died though. Even if his death might not be an interesting death either.

Did any of the females, like mothers and sisters, know about the Pact in the family. Or only the males. I know, I know.. People have theories.

Just about any and every detail of the plot that was elaborated on are the same details I'm overly thinking about, whether or not the details are interesting. Whether or not the details are major and minor details to the viewers of the movies. Even if the details are to the plot.

I'm just overly thinking through with scattered thoughts right now. And, I know that I keep saying that, but that's how my mind is for me.

ah no this is so great! the great thing about this trilogy is the characters. the must frustrating thing about this trilogy is also the characters, Nick in particular.

The thing that guts most people about Nick is the potential he had. To be better. To forsake the curse. Because Nick obviously had a lot of feelings for Ziggy and knew what he was doing was wrong, but he did it anyway. He succumbed to the curse and his privilege, even if he didn't necessarily seem happy about it based on how he looked when he said Tommy's name.

LOL in my head canon Nick had a crush on Ziggy for a really long time and only found the courage during that summer because of what he decided to do.

I've talked a lot about this with other people - like Nick's intention with the curse, because he was trying to save people and he was frolicking around with Ziggy shortly beforehand. To me, he did know it was real, even if he didn't want it to be. He got close to Ziggy because he wanted to make sure she was okay, even if that epically failed and he was a complete idiot about all of it. the thing about Nick is that he has some humanity in him, especially when it comes to Ziggy. Maybe he didn't want the curse to be real, but he knew it was deep down (in my mind). He just tried to justify his reasoning to himself and was weak.

In my mind, Nick lost a major chunk of his soul when he turned his back on Ziggy at Nightwing. When she pushed him away. Nick in 1994 and Nick in 1978 are two very different people. Nick when he puts Ryan's name on the wall is so much more of an asshole than Nick when he put Tommy (though obviously he's still awful either way). Part of my frustration with this trilogy is that Nick totally becomes a textbook moustache twirling villain in 1994 after he holds Ziggy hostage. Like his whole speech to Deena? totally lacking in nuance. He was just straight up evil. And while some people are like that (Nick’s dad was totally a creep), it was disappointing that they reduced his character so much especially because they’d shown him as a more nuanced character in 1978. 

There’s been a lot of debate on how the curse actually worked because the film implies that the first born son kind of automatically inherits the burden? Like the devil ensures that the cycle continues by each Goode having a son and so on. The son doesn’t know until they’re like 17 or something and then they’re told. But if that’s the case - how much free will do they have? Does the heart disappear after the Goode heir dies and then reappears when the curse is renewed? It’s very unclear because the wall has the names when Nick says Tommy and his dad is dead by then. When Nick dies in 1994, it all disappears, so the nuances of the curse are very unclear. 

In my head canon, Joseph Goode (Nick’s dad) died from a sudden heart attack or other accident as a final fuck you from satan, though I know other people have different ideas on how Joseph bit the dust which are so fun. 

In terms of the females though, people have looked at the Goode family tree and there were barely any females born. Like it’s sons and sons and sons. In my opinion, I think the Goode matriarch’s knew something was up, but maybe not the full details. Same with Will. I like the idea of the curse being something solely thrust on the shoulder’s of the first born son, and so he’s very isolated from the family afterwards. 

lol so sorry for the long reply but let me know what you think! always fun discussing this stuff.  

#nick x ziggy #ziggy x nick #nick goode #ask

[collectionoftulips]

re kate and edwina, i think objectively the biggest problem with s2 is pacing and how rushed the last several episodes, or actually, the second half feels, and why it feels like what you mentioned wasn't entirely resolved. and if charithra isn't coming back for s3, then we can't even assume they deliberately left it to be further developed in subsequent seasons. a hugely unpopular opinion, but i didn't actually hate most of s2 plots, i don't think k&e's relationship was that badly done, at least the gist of the conflict, it just seems super rushed in the end. and it winds up being like, 5-6 episodes of tension/build-up, 6-7 is like a fallout and then 8th is like, everything is wrapped up nicely now very quickly and a lot of it offscreen. and i don't actually mind that not every conversation between kate, mary, edwina, was shown, we didn't need to see everything, but together with other issues with the writing, the season imo ends up feeling unbalanced. (another my opinion is that many fans were disappointed bc they wanted edwina to be a superficial background character whose only purpose would be to be a kathony cheerleader. the book edwina is hardly a well-rounded character to be realistic)

Yeah pacing is a huge issue in season two, which is a shame because if the pacing was more balanced I would like to believe some of these issues wouldn't be so severe.

Up until the announcement that Charithra isn't coming back, I just kinda foolishly assumed that all of the Sharmas would be permanent fixtures in season three (but in retrospect I think it was probably more fuelled by the fact that I connected to their family more than the other Bridgerton families for some reason).

I have a complicated relationship to the subplots of season two (or the other plots, I guess I might call them). Theoretically, I wouldn't have minded them but, I think, for me, the biggest problem is that unlike s1, the subplots in s2 were not really connected in any way to the main arc. In s1, the subplots would eventually reveal something to either Daphne or Simon or mirror the journey they were at, etc. That made all the different bits feel like part of a whole. I did not have the same feeling with regards to season two (and even upon rewatching it again I feel the same). It makes the subplots, to me, feel like filler or like I'm not entirely sure why I'm watching it. Penelope's story I guess was set up for s3, Eloise's arc I'm still not entirely sure what the main point of it was aside from the fight with Penelope (like the stuff with Theo I'm not sure what they were going for there).

Because season two felt like they lacked a bit of narrative connective tissue (if you will), I wonder if that's why the lack of Sharmas in s2 stands out to me? Like, if we can now sadly dispense with the idea that they get more space in s3 😢, they constantly hinted at backstories and plots (like Mary's whole deal etc) and the lack of showing any of those things stands in stark contrast to the intricate insight we got into the Featherington's financial situation. I think being shown everything would indeed be excessive, but there were certain things that I think they could have given maybe five more minutes to, at least for the stuff that really matters (which at least to me would include the relationship between Edwina and Kate considering they were both sort of vying for the attentions of the same man and a lot of Kate's conflict was how what she wanted went against the good of her family).

That's at least my general take that I'm gradually building as to why I feel like season two felt so unbalanced. That in combination with, as you say, they had to squeeze so much into the last two episodes. So I'm not necessarily disagreeing with what you're saying but complementing it with my own take, if you will.

Not an expert on the books but I agree that book!Edwina was hardly a well rounded character (but she wasn't bad) and I didn't mind the sheltered spoiled younger sister vibe they went with her on the show (I don't understand entirely all the Edwina hate I hear being floated around) and I definitely like she got more of her own identity with flaws etc. so no complaints from me on that score.

Thank you so much for your ask ❤️

#bridgerton #kathony #kanthony

[sandymybeloved]

Rosa

How does one even talk about this in a way that does it justice? I was so nervous going into this that I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I did the first time, that it wouldn't live up to my expectations, and boy was I wrong. Why have I not rewatched this before, why, for all these years, have I been satisfied with just my initial viewing. In case it wasn't obvious, I loved it, an incredible piece of television.

Introduction and links to other reviews

I'm sure everybody’s heard all of this before, but I’m going to gush about this anyway. This episode had such a thin line to tread in so many aspects. When someone describes the basic plot, the fam lands in 1955 Alabama the day before Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat and ensure that it happens, you can see all the potential pitfalls plain as day, and thankfully the episode manages to avoid every single one expertly.

The one that I was most afraid of and therefore most impressed by, was giving the fam something to do to facilitate Rosa Parks' actions while avoiding them influencing her to do it in any way. That needle is thread perfectly, the fam's role is to facilitate the circumstances that causes Rosa Parks' decision to have to be made, and from Parks' side, we really just see her story play out, largely how it really did. Even though there’s plenty of interaction between our characters, it really felt like, from Parks' perspective, the fam were just some people she briefly met completely separate from her protest on the bus.

This episode also avoids tonal pitfalls, this is a very heavy episode, and it could have been very easy for it to become depressing to sit through (which wouldn't have been right for what Doctor Who is as a show), or for it to lose its weight in an attempt to avoid that. As it stands, it allows its setting and story to speak for itself and includes just enough lighter scenes and moments (such as Ryan being excited to meet Martin Luther King Jr, or Graham and Ryan getting the bus driver to leave the waterfront), that it never becomes a difficult watch. The other aspect of this is how this episode shows just how far society has come, and yet never letting us forget just how far we've still got to go.

One of my favourite things about this episode is the pervading sense of danger created by the setting. Even though they were on a death planet last weeks, and implanted with DNA bombs the week before, this is the first time I have felt afraid for our main characters. From the moment Ryan is assaulted in the park until the end of the episode, the tension never truly breaks. It feels as though we are always a moment away from something terrible happening. Certainly the most engaging episode so far.

Is this episode beyond reproach? No. but its issues feel necessary, if that makes sense. Its weak points very much felt like there was no way around them, for example some of the dialogue felt a little on the nose, but the primary audience for this is the British general public, and frankly, we do sometimes need to be beaten over the head. None of issues like this were ever pervasive or distracting, none of them ever pulled me out of the episode. 

The main criticism that I remember being bought up a lot was Krasko, which I personally didn't find to be a problem, but it would feel disingenuous if I didn't address it. Now, I'm mostly going off memory here because I don't want my opinion to be coloured by other people's, that’s the whole point of me doing this, but as far as I'm aware, the main complaints that get bought up are 1) he's poorly written as a character and, 2) he detracts from the plot. And look, both of these are valid points in theory, if he was anything other than a plot device. Sometimes, characters are plot devices, they're not here to do anything other than make the plot go. He's not even really the main antagonist, history's the main antagonist, he's just here to divert history enough that the fam has to fix it. Oh no, you couldn't understand the space racist's motivations, he wasn't a believable character to you? Maybe you weren't meant to. Seriously, if this is the reason you don't like this episode, maybe go back and rewatch it and stop paying more attention to him than the episode itself does.

To finish on a much more positive note, watching Rosa Parks be led off the bus is gut-wrenching and yet triumphant at the same time, and isn't that just the perfect encapsulation of what makes this episode great.

#Lilly rewatches 13 #Doctor Who #DW #new who #nuwho #chris chibnall #chibnall #13 #13th doctor #thirteenth doctor #ryan sinclair #yasmin khan #graham o'brien

[wawamouse]

Oz Rewatch 3: S3E04: Unnatural Disasters

Plotlines

Andrew Schillinger in Oz; Schillinger is upset; Keller, O’Reilly, and Beecher plot

Howell sues McManus for sexual harassment and is reinstated at OZ

Said’s sister comes to visit him to ask about Patricia; Poet asks for permission to write again; Said meets with Patricia again

Sister Pete: meets with Chris Keller, meets Miguel to propose the prison-victim program

Out of Solitary, Miguel is recruited to fight for the Latinos in the boxing match against Cramer

O’Reilly running bets; fixing the fights; drugging the players; Miguel loses to Cramer

(mini) Cudney gets in front of the TV during Miss Sally

Hughes stuns El Cid with a smuggled stun gun; Glynn gives him a slap on the wrist

Hanlon gets off Death Row and is killed by Stanislofsty

In Unit E, Nappa talks to Mukada and decides he wants to confess his sins before he dies

Kenny turns 18; his mother visits with bad news about his baby and girlfriend/wife; Kenny schemes to have his girlfriend and her new boyfriend killed

--

I liked this episode overall, I'd say. I feel like Andrew Schillinger arriving to Oz is a fun plot point, especially with the way that everyone starts conspiring against him. Like, he never got a chance, but it's also pretty entertaining and I like seeing the Keller/Beecher/O'Reily team up, especially Beecher's turn toward being more calculating and vengeful while also being uncaring. It's just more exciting to me than when some of the drama/guilt/fallout stuff is happening. More straightforward action, basically. I enjoy the scheming and plotting and being determinedly two-faced because I think Toby is a little smarter with the way he goes about things (at, least when he's doing evil lol; his plots to do good have negative consequences).

Sister: Ok, that was a pretty good cut. I’ll give them one point

Sister: doesn’t he looks like an earwig? I mean, doesn’t he look a little buggy up top?

Sister: Why does he still not have a mustache? He looks like if he was in an animal cartoon, he’d be a badger. And with the cane, too? I know he'd be a woodland creature with a cane.

Sister: Can you? You don’t have a mustache. You can’t even help yourself.

Sister: Whaa?

Sister: Why do they keep giving Said so many life lessons? He’s like nonstop educational after school specials. This episode’s moral was like “You must be true to your heart”. It's like that puppet show they watch. Everyone else just gets to be the boobies and he’s out here having to learn the lessons. Why don’t they give O’Reily a life lesson for once? He hasn’t learned anything in this show.

Sister (muttering): Not eye-to-eye?

Sister: you know, I had a dream the other night that we were in a tour group for something and they were offering tours with language options in Mexican Spanish, Castilian Spanish, and Catalan, and everyone was so happy that Catalan was being included because it was like they never had that option.

By the way, after some investigation, I believe he is saying “Tu error, mamao” right here --> “your mistake, stupid”. Mamao is Caribbean Spanish slang from "mamado", and as slang, means something like "stupid".

Sister: I thought they were going to steal his towel like some kind of dumb high school hazing thing but then I realised that would be stupid because their showers already have a bunch of windows. Me: I could see him doing that just to be petty…

Sister: (sighing) Maybe Alvarez won’t be thirsty. He’s been in Solitary. He’s been drinking pee. He’s lost his taste for water.

Sister: You know, the problem with this is that usually in boxing there’s a story so you can get behind someone. Here, they don’t tell you any story. Me: The story is that Alvarez needs to regain his honor. Sister: No, but I mean like usually they wear costumes and stuff and have characters. Me: That’s professional wrestling. Sister: What’s this? Are they allowed to kick? Me: No. This is boxing. Sister: I’m reading a manga right now where they’re allowed to kick, though. And the sabotage is a lot better. They do the drugging the water thing just like this, too, but then another guy drinks it and passes out and they realise it's drugged. Me: That’s probably MMA, not boxing. Sister: What's the difference? 😔

Sister: Maybe his liver and kidneys are super-powered now. They’re so used to him drinking his pee, they’re just like “mm toxins everywhere!” Maybe this won’t affect him.

Sister: He’s gonna snap that dude’s neck.

Stray thoughts:

Sister was very distressed by Beecher’s lack of mustache (“I guess he’ll grow a mustache once he has his next mood change”)

I liked Said’s sister. I never noticed in previous watches that she was wearing a clerical collar; google says that women in the Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches were clerical collars so I guess it’s one of those

Sister, who is very into Ancient Egyptian history, kept heavy sighing during the Narrator monologues when he was wearing that Party City pharaoh costume lmao

Sister on Tina Rivera: Why’s there always a yelling family member whenever tough decisions need to be made? Like in medical dramas? The patient is always chill and then there’s like a mom or wife flying off the handle and being a shrew.

Sister: They include the captions of the guy yelling about the orgasm, which you could barely hear, but for the Spanish, they just wrote “speaking Spanish”...

Final Thoughts:

Sister thinks the water drugging boxing plot is really dumb because the drug they’re using (chloral hydrate) is a apparently very bitter tasting sedative; “They should be dying with how much he’s dumping in the water”; “I guess the water in Oz just tastes that bad??”; “Also, it’s a sedative, so even if they don’t overdose on it, shouldn’t the guards find it odd that the losers are always falling asleep like 5 minutes after the match ends? I mean, they should be like passing out on the walk back to Em City, right???”

Sister enjoys Nappa (“Mr. Carrot”) a lot; his scene talking to Mukada is the only time she’s specifically commented positively on the acting in this show

Sister thinks Ryan should be forced to go in the ring and fight someone because Cyril already beat up someone so technically he’s already proven himself lol

#text #oz rewatch #oz hbo #hbo oz

[caffeine-n-words]

Building the Ace!Mikaela Universe pt 1

(Picture made with DollDivine)

This ramble is brought to you by Caffeine, Rebecca On A Transformers Kick, Rebecca’s Constant Pokémon Kick, A Fanfic Idea Of A Fanfic Idea I Had Five-Ish Years Ago, and Transformers’ Lack Of Continuity Even Within Continuity Families.

Let’s start with the fanfic idea of a fanfic idea, shall we?

So, about five-ish or so years ago, I had an idea for a Transformers (Bay movie continuity) x Pokémon crossover that I originally titled The Legend of Samuel Prime series. It was going to be a multi-fic rewrite of the entire universe (which at the time was around when The Last Knight came out, but I hadn’t yet seen that or Age of Extinction, so it would only have covered up to Dark of the Moon). It was going to be epic and include Sam being an awesome trainer, an OC ace trainer mentor, and one fic was going to be a time-travel fix-it that would be technically AU to the rest of the series because it would have pretty much erased those actions from that timeline. It was one of the first fics I started writing on Scrivener.

Then Scrivener crashed and I lost the project.

It was demoralizing. Apparently I had accidentally turned off backups for that file, so when the main file got corrupted, I didn’t have a backup to start from. It was one of two times I had lost about 20k-ish words of notes and actual fic. Though I really do wish to remake that file and start again, I haven’t quite gotten my mind into the required state for it, for a couple reasons: first, in order to recover from that loss, I moved onto a different crossover project (The Samaya Court) and second, because I decided to give Boku no Hero Academia a shot during the summer of 2020 and became hyper-focused on that instead. I’ve only just recently started looking into Transformers fics again.

About six months ago, I started idly thinking about another Transformers x Pokémon fic, but I wasn’t (and still am not) ready yet to get back to TLSP. I wanted to write something both interesting and unique. I decided to focus on a character that seemed (at the time) to either get side-lined or just outright hated, and one that I personally didn’t like to see assassinated in Revenge of the Fallen: Mikaela Banes.

(And yes, her character was assassinated, but that’s a post for another time. Long story short, she was reduced to “jealous girlfriend” status and then just disappeared in the next movie without any explanation, and I don’t like that.)

Mikaela actually had the potential to be an amazing character. I’ve found a lot more fics about her, and a lot of them feature her working with the Autobots, or at least apprenticed to Ratchet for medic training. But I wanted a fic that was all about her, not just seeing her in the background or as Sam’s girlfriend. Why did she need Sam at all? She’s a lot more interesting than he is, at least to me.

(No, I don’t hate or dislike Sam. Normally I’m more attached to the male characters, but he was just…too relatable, I guess? So incredibly painfully awkward. My favorite characters tend to have a few more differences from myself.)

My first concept of this idea was Mikaela as the main character of the movies. No big changes, just no Sam—she felt bad for him and bought Archibald Witwicky’s glasses to support Sam’s car fund. This cut Sam out entirely as Bumblebee switched to her guardian and she became involved with the Autobots.

(Note that I might still write this version at some point.)

But that wasn’t unique enough for me. I like heavy AUs. I like seeing canon changed, and the resulting fallout. So I asked myself what the biggest change could possibly be, and the answer was obvious: 

Mikaela could be a Decepticon.

But why? The Decepticons want to kill humanity, don’t they? Actually, why do they want that? With these questions in mind, I jumped into my favorite part of the plotting process: Research bingeing. 

At this time, I’d also been rewatching a few episodes of the Unicron Trilogy and found Transformers: Prime. I knew their plots didn’t have anything to do with each other or the movies, but I had thought the background and history of the universe would be consistent. So I jumped into the Transformers Wiki, and immediately found out how wrong I was.

Apparently Transformers is far more expansive than I first thought, because there are no less than eight continuity “families,” some of which have dozens of continuities within them (Looking at you, Generation 1). And every continuity family has its own backstory to the war, its own history of events. Some of them echo each other, but most of them are pretty drastically different.

At first I started with the movie continuity’s background, but it wasn’t exactly appealing to me—Megatron was a power-grabbing dick brainwashed into becoming even more power-hungry and ruthless. Yawn.

Then I poked around some more, read through the major continuity families, and found Aligned.

I want to keep this under 1k words, so I’ll pause here and pick up next week!

Next time:

When the writers are scared to make a villain too sympathetic, it shows.

Blending the Aligned and Movie continuities.

How and why Mikaela became a Decepticon.

#fanfiction #meta post #writing rambles #Tuesday Fanfic Ramble #Transformers Movie Continuity #transformers movie #Transformers Aligned Continuity #transformers aligned #pokemon #mikaela banes #plotting #decepticons #Ace!Mikaela AU

[llycaons]

other nice things about iontbo in it's final third of the story - kmy's character growth! finally! mst protecting and calming that old man who was in a panic attack just like mgt does for him! in general mst's increased confidence and pride in himself and his determination to confront and move on from what happened to him. I love him so much

kmy and ju-ri being friends WOULD be nice but they don't actually feel like friends the show just tells us they are 😭

discussion of child abuse under the cut

the entire show I've admired the way kmy was written in reaction to her father dying...very few times have I seen it depicted that survivors absolutely refuse to forgive their abusive parents, refuse to consider their point of view, refuse to empathize with them, or refuse to try to reconnect with them. kmy doesn't want to spend time with her father. she has no interest in improving their relationship. she refuses calls from the hospital and she treats him as if he's already dead. she frequently affirms that she doesn't care what happens to him no matter how he's related to her. she only interacts with him to prove a point to him. consistently. and this is an unusual character but it's such a satisfying arc to watch after seeing how abuse survivors are usually written

the single concession she makes is sharing a story about something kind he did for her as a child, but that changes nothing about what he did to her. but she doesn't make a move to go to him as he's dying because dying doesn't absolve anyone of the hurt they've done. she'd rather be with her friends and her new family. and she clearly still has some conflicting feelings after his death - we can see her stone-faced staring at his urn - but as a whole her reaction to him is just. chef kiss. I think it conveys the nuance that would be realistic without diminishing her for her feelings. her father's final words may have been regretful and tearful, but she wasn't obligated to be there and cry with him. even if he acted the way he did out of motives that are slightly more noble than she expected, and no matter than he had a brain tumor interfering with his judgement. he still hurt her

this show covers quite a lot of cases of child abuse, domestic violence, and trauma but none relating to sexual violence which does make me think. was it too upsetting to include? too messy?

this show also shies away from structural violence and systemic problems, leaning more towards individual mistreatment and individual mental illnesses. the most troubling implication is how the murderer is written...honestly I think the murder plot is very jarring and doesn't fit the rest of the story at all. having the obsessive, abusive, controlling, murderous character so heavily tied to mental illness really weakens the message that people with mental illnesses and personality disorders are human beings deserving of compassion who have a high chance of experiencing, or are currently undergoing, some kind of trauma

like they could have very easily made their main villains the people who mocked and humiliated mst, or the politician who mistreated his bipolar son, or any of the abusive parents and spouses the patients encounter. but they had to make it this ~crazy~ woman who's oohh hiding in the shadows the whole time because she's so evil and sneaky and manipulative and loves tormenting the children she once knew. because...she's crazy?

related to that - that reveal came out of NOWHERE! now that I know who the murderer is, nothing changed. this was a pporly written reveal...no hints, no suggestions, it's nonsense. the character's behavior was exactly as expected of her in her role. no satisfaction in the rewatch, nothing new gleaned, and no way to predict this very random character was the killer. besides like, she has access to the hospital

and oh, a psych hospital for the site of a haunting. very original and not at all encouraging the very mindset it seems to be trying to counter

OH. also how did kmy grow up in a house with a father who tried to kill her? did she just live with him until she was 18? this was never explained

AND ANOTHER thing. I don't know if this is the same in SK but a pt with a brain tumor wouldn't even be in a psych hospital. that is a medical problem - unless experiencing depression or other psych issues, he would be in a cancer center! MAN

#well I started with the positives but it all went downhill ig #regardless it is close to my heart #you know those 'most homophobic gay shows' this is the most ableist disabled show #makes some great points. and then goes about it in the worst way possible #iontbo lb

[swashbucklery]

Ok so for reasons that are not relevant I, a 23 year old, have just finished watching battlestar galactica for the first time in this the year two thousand and twenty two and I don’t know anyone besides my family who has seen it so I have to ask: do you think bill and Saul explored each others bodies

as;lkdfj;saljfa so true story when I first read this ask I had this moment of sheer. . .why would you ask us, a narnia blog. . .

AND THEN I REMEMBERED the deep lore of BSG fandom was lost to time bc all of that was pre-Tumblr so STRAP IN AND LET ME GIVE YOU AN OLD PERSON YELLS AT CLOUD ESSAY ON BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

So like. First of all, and I truly mean this from the bottom of my heart to this day, I will always treasure BSG fandom for being one of the single most courteous and thoughtful fannish experiences of my life with regard to spoilers and I wish that more folks would learn from them. Because, as you likely have realized, there are some key plot beats through the series that benefit from being surprises. And not surprises in the new-MCU-movie way of like, this is unwatchable once you know the twist. But surprises as in oh, [redacted] is actually [redacted], I want to go back and rewatch the episode because this recontextualizes what I've just seen!! And because the miniseries aired in 2003 and the series didn't start until 2005, there were a lot of new folks catching up throughout the run and the statute of limitations on posting untagged spoilers was broadly seen to be a year from time of airing. And that included user icons with spoilers. A truly magical time.

And even with that, when I told friends of mine I was thinking of getting into the series (which i think I caught up midway through S2's airing?), they very sweetly would check exactly which episode I was on before chatting with me about it to be sure they didn't feed me any future plot elements and just - so thoughtful. So kind.

The second thing that I think is really unique - and like I've seen this in other fandoms but it felt so pronounced in BSG, is that depending on your perspectives and which characters you gelled with most, you and other fans could sometimes be watching an entirely different series.

What I mean by that is, there are multiple perspectives on who might be considered the "main character" of that show or at least the access point character of that show, bc it was such a big ensemble with so many interwoven throughlines. So like, some people were watching it as The Story Of Laura Roslin And Some Fucking Idiots, some people were watching it as Kara Thrace Makes Bad Decisions (and some other idiots), some people watched it as Bill Adama Learns To Not Army So Hard, some people were watching The Story Of Gaius Baltar Who Sure Does Regret His Life Decisions, some people were watching Lee Adama Is Trying His Best: The Series - you see.

Because I was (as ever) heavily invested in femslash fandom, the show I was watching was Kara Thrace Make Bad Decisions And Has Several Boyfriends (And Girlfriends), as well as the sadly underrated sub-series Cylons Have So Many Feelings And It's Great.

And so for a hot second I read your ask and was like. . .who the fuck are Bill and Saul.

I got there, though.

Anyway: Bill and Saul were definitely Old Army Buddies, and depending on how you interpret that I think the answer can be most likely an unqualified yes.

#name two bsg characters who haven't explored each others bodies honestly #it was a stressful time! #bears beets battlestar galactica #fandom nursing home for elderly twentysomethings (and thirtysomethings too!)

[lambourngb]

I'm new to the Roswell fandom, and I have this burning question that might have already been discussed to death but I can't find the answer anywhere. So if this is something everyone has already dealt with, just let me know.

Max is genetically Michael's father. Yeah? The Dictator is Michael's father, and Max is the Dictator's clone, so genetically, Michael has half of Max's DNA. They're father and son. Which makes the fact that Max is always annoying Michael by trying to take care of him really funny, actually.

Are there fics where Max tries to get fatherly and Michael freaks out? What's the fandom consensus on this truly weird relationship these two now have? I know we're all super excited for lots of Malex in season four, but I'm hoping for some really awkward father/son issues too. Max will be totally sincere and Michael will be horrified and Alex will snort-laugh about how, out of the two of them, Michael ended up with the weirder father situation.

Would that make Liz like Michael's step-mom? And so Rosa is like Michael's step-aunt? And Arturo is his step-grandpa on his father's side the way Sanders is somehow his brother/grandpa on his mother's side? Michael always wanted a family, and now he's got loads of family.

(Also, I absolutely loved last year's wishes are this year's apologies)

First of all- welcome to the RNM fandom !

Secondly, wow, this question. You’re asking about season 3 plot points regarding genetics/hereditary, and while I’m a close watcher of the show, and did multiple rewatches of the last few episodes of season 3, the science of this show is just bad at times and overly dramatic for plot reasons.

While the Dictator - Jones- is Michael’s father, somehow, when Nora cloned Max from him, she changed a part of Jones’s DNA- creating this tether between Max and Jones that was very …Voldemort/HP. Somehow an Oasian alien like Jones has 3 strands of DNA? I don’t even know what’s that about, but apparently a biochem genius like Liz overlooked that in both Max’s and Noah’s samples from season 1? My guess, for my own sanity, when Nora created that tether, it added/changed some of the DNA expressed in Max- IE, he can’t jump into people’s heads or doesn’t seem to be fire resistant like Michael - which is just enough of a change to make him biologically related to Michael but not enough to be considered his father. Jones explained those traits were hereditary- passing from father to son, and as his clone, Max SHOULD HAVE THEM.

I wrote a 20,000 word story that basically bullshits my way through explaining why some powers are "hereditary" and why some aren't post-season 3- but that was connecting dots that I don't think the show meant us to do. Michael being able to body-walk someone like Noah and Jones for the last 13 years is a little hard to believe, because why wouldn't he have used that to send Jesse Manes away? Or just "body-walk" Jesse off a cliff after the shed. Anyway.

I haven’t seen any fanfics that are going after the Max/Michael relationship as father-son, but all I’ve seen instead has been exploring them as brothers who were intended on being raised together with Isobel by Nora and Louise on Earth. Those stories could be out there! (There was a truly funny gif-set that paired this reveal with the scene in 1x11 “I’m not your father, Michael”) I don’t know if fandom has had a consensus on Max being the genetic match to Michael’s biological father either and what it means in regard to Max & Liz being together, and what does that make Liz and Rosa. (I firmly believe, as an Arturo Ortecho stan- that he has adopted every lost soul in Roswell, including Michael during the Lost Decade, while he grieved Rosa and missed Liz).

I do hope we some good snarking/teasing between Max & Michael in season 4, I want more of that brief scene in 3x01 where they are drinking and teasing each other about picks ups. I’m particularly keen to see Max realize Isobel is dating his one-night-stand now. That’s gotta be fun for the Evans twins.

Thanks for the ask- I’m sorry I don’t have a clear answer for you. I’m so glad you enjoyed LYW! I wish I had the stamina to write another 175,000 explainer/fixer epic for season 3, because damn do I need it!! This show... it drives my logical brain crazy.

#thank you for the ask #max evans #michael guerin #season 3 thoughts