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extremelyblackandwhite · 4 years

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handmaid - 26

PAIRING: mob!sebastian stan x ingenue!reader

WARNINGS: age gap, mention of weapons and gunshots

A/N: will i ever write a chapter without a musical reference? no as i literally cannot help myself.

NEXT CHAPTER

The night was like a warm blanket tonight yet the world somehow seemed wider, brighter as she laid against his chest, hearing his heart softly beating against his ribcage. The sound itself sent her in a spiral of her own mind, the sound itself proved he was alive, he was real and he was there. Laying down next to him was just the right thing to do despite it being at the same time the wrongest of all wrong things. Sure, this was the man Gwen had been promised to ever since she was born but at the same time whenever she was next to him he seemed like a completely different person than the mythical mob boss her mind had fabricated over the years. When she was next to him he was her lover and at the end of the day that was what overwhelmed her overall perception.

- What are you thinking about? - Sebastian slightly raised his head with precaution as to not disturb her. - You’re very quiet.

- Just basking in the feeling. - she looked up to him without really moving the rest of her body, hand remaining in its imaginary circle drawing. - We should probably return to doing what we were doing.

- I think there’s more boxes in the garage. - he sat up, arms wrapped around her figure so she didn’t fall off his lap and landed on the ground. If it was up to him, he would remain in that position for another hour with his nose buried in her hair smelling the scent of her fragrance mixed with her shampoo. - Maybe there’s something there.

- You don’t need to do this for me. - she pushed her hair to the side, cocking her head slightly as her hand searched the ground for her jumper which was colder than she would like due to the winter weather just outside. - I know you probably have your own business to take care of.

- I’m a good multitasker, my angel. - he kissed her naked shoulder before she slide her jumper on, shivering at the contact of her warm skin with the cold fabric. Y/N gave him a playful smile followed by a roll of the eyes before getting up, picking up his garments in the process and throwing them at him.

Smiling like a fool who just won the lottery, and in a certain way he sort of had, he got dressed up in the wrinkled clothes and wrapped his arm around her natural waist before leading her out of his office and into the life to the garage. If there was a room in the house that was always, if not ever since its construction, in chaos, it was the garage. Whatever he didn’t want in his home anymore or anything for which he didn’t have space, he would send it down to the garage which meant the room was filled to the brim with boxes and boxes along with some record books and more contracts, most likely belonging to his father as Sebastian prided himself in keeping an electronic copy of all his contracts, just in case. Y/N couldn’t help herself but sneeze at the amount of dust that had gathered over the years as she grabbed one of the boxes. Surely he had enough money to hire someone to clean it, however it seemed to always escape his mind.

Sebastian took the other side of the box created walls while Y/N started to go through the first box which weirdly was filled with clothes, children’s clothes. She cocked an eyebrow in confusion, but continued to go through the box’s contents, carefully putting the clothing off the box by her side until she reached a silver picture frame of a woman holding a baby whose gaze was somewhere else. She smiled at the warm nature of the photo which looked to have been snapped unknowingly. Her fingers traced the contours of the photo as she wondered who the two individuals were until she felt Sebastian’s hand on her shoulder.

- That’s my mother. - he pointed at the woman in the photo. - And that’s me.

- Why is this photo here? - she asked, turning her head to stare at him. Y/N knew Sebastian clearly had a soft spot for his mother as he spoke of her like any kid spoke of their parents, something that didn’t seem to occur whenever he mentioned his father whose relationship seemed to be more apprentice-master than father and son.

- In all honesty, I didn’t even remember it was down here. My father got rid of most stuff related to my mother after the divorce. - his hand left her shoulder as he took a seat next to her.

- You’ve never spoke to me about your mother. At least not a lot. - it was in her nature to be curious, she found the most she knew about people, the best she could connect and help them out. Sebastian normally would’ve taken curiosity at harsh value but whenever she asked him something, he couldn’t help but feel wrapped around her kind nature.

- Well, they got divorced when I was 6 or 7. Bad divorce, my mother didn’t have enough money to get a legal team so my father got everything, including me. One visit a year ... she ended up dying when I was 14.

- I’m so sorry, Seb. - she wrapped her arms around him, kissing his temple, trying to console him the best way she could. Sebastian however had closed that wound a long time ago and instead looked inside the box she was looking at, recognising most of the items as childhood belongings. With a curious look in her eyes, his hand rummaged through the box’s belongings taking an old teared by time stuffed bunny which gained Y/N’s attention. - What’s that?

- Oreo. - he said nonchalantly.

- Oreo? - she giggled. - It has a name? You don’t mean to tell me that the mob boss had a stuffed animal named Oreo.

- Mob bosses aren’t born mob bosses. - he put the stuffed animal back in the box. - I thought one of my kids might want it someday but if they’re anything like Gwen, I think they won’t want something this old.

- Right. - she swallowed her worries which kept telling her that she would never be the one to bore him a child. Mr. Williams words rang inside her mind like terrifying echoes. Mistress. Mistresses don’t get happy endings. - Well, you have good taste, Oreo is a great name.

- Good taste ... - his eyes seemed to rewind to a past time, leaving Y/N to look at him weirdly as he jumped on his feet to walk to a little shelf filled with books which turned to be photo albums. Looking through several pages in second-like intervals, he finally stopped in the middle of the album, a smile on his face as his memories proved right. Quickly moving towards the young handmaiden, placing the book in her lap. Her eyes glued to the photo which was of a round table filled with mostly men and little to no women, however, a specific woman stood out in the middle of everyone, a kind smile contrasting with the tight lipped smirks of the rest of the crowd. Around her neck a golden necklace just like the one which was wrapped around the young handmaiden’s neck. - I knew I remembered the name Robin.

- What happened to her? - Sebastian sadly couldn’t answer this question as he was rather young and most of the times forbidden to even be close to any of his father’s parties or dinners. Y/N flipped through the pages noticing she showed up in a few more pictures before completely disappearing. - She seems to stop appearing.

- Whoever she was, she was no mere worker. My father had a rather elitist taste when it came to who got to attend his dinners and parties. - the theory that her parents didn’t want her screamed at her again. At that point, it just sounded like the most plausible theory. Noticing this shift his attitude, Sebastian closed the photo album, putting it away from her. - You don’t need to keep going, angel. You turned out just fine without them.

- I know. - she forced a smile, trying to see if she could fool Sebastian but he was much too familiar with her characteristics to be easily fooled. Sighing, Sebastian took her hands in his, slowly yet surely getting her on her feet.

- I think that’s enough detective work for today. - he leaned down, pecking her lips two times, a smile on his face. Y/N nodded, thinking it would be best if she didn’t dig in the past and together they returned to the lift which took them back to the penthouse. The lift doors slowly open and Y/N noticed her suitcase standing slightly to the side of the lift. She didn’t think much of it knowing Sebastian to be a man who had man for everything so he had probably gotten someone to grab it earlier than mentioned. Even with that, she felt a somber heavy vibe in the air as she located her suitcase, something that seemed to push her down, like a weight. - Your suitcase is here.

- Oh ... I guess I should just unpack. - his words took her from the glued, almost hypnotic glare at her own bag. Sebastian shrugged, letting her do her own thing, only offering his help to help her move the suitcase into her bedroom to which she declined.

Her intuition was telling her to be careful and as such, she closed the door behind her immediately opening her suitcase. There was nothing odd about it, mostly filled with the clothes she had brought to the Forrest along with other objects and personal belongings. Still there was a heavy weight which seemed to grow heavier and heavier as she folded her clothes and put them back in her wardrobe which hit a climax as she noticed a piece of white like fabric right at the bottom of her suitcase. She took a step back however her hand leaned forward, her fingers lightly tracing the fabric as if the fabric itself were a bomb.

The fabric itself didn’t feel worn out and as she raised it into the air so she could inspect it better. It was an old fabric which at his prime was white but had started to grow slightly yellowish with the passage of time, the material of cashmere itself however still had the same comfort of a new one, almost as if it had never been worn. However, the most notable feature of the blanket was the cursive embroidery spelling Ella next to the silhouette of a robin. Without much thought to it, she brought the blanket up to her nose, inhaling what was reminiscent of fresh rosemaries on a hot summer day spent in a garden. Then out of the sudden, just as her nose sensed the scent of the blanket, a loud gunshot sound seemed to reverberate from the back of her skull to the front. She let out a scared scream, dropping the blanket on the floor as if the fabric was burning her hands. Her eyes scanned the room, looking paranoiacally for where the gunshot could’ve come for but there was nothing in her bedroom, there was no one in her bedroom. That was until Sebastian broke into her bedroom, black revolver set in the air to which she immediately put her hands up, noticing there were few tears rolling down her cheeks and meeting at her chin. Sebastian lowered his gun, after inspecting her bedroom for any threats.

- I heard a gunshot. - her breathe came rather harshly through her mouth, almost as if she had been holding in her breathe.

- There was no gunshot, angel. - his hands cupped her face, kissing the top of her forehead as she leaned into his embrace. - Your mind’s playing tricks on you.

- No, I heard it. - she heard it, she could still hear it ringing in her ears like a never ending sound. Sebastian’s lips tightened as he embraced her tighter, letting go of his revolver on top of her bed. - I heard it.

- I know, angel. I know. - he spoke very lowly, whisper-like even. - You’re tired, you need some rest.

- I swear I heard it. - she looked around, her eyes convincing her that there was no real danger but her mind telling her to keep her guard up, specially when the blanket on the ground caught her attention once more like a cursed amulet. Like a child, she hid from it on Sebastian’s shoulders, the contrasting cedar wood scent almost erasing the soft and fresh rosemary from her mind. She had heard it, she knew she had heard it. - Maybe you’re right, I just might be tired.

- C’mon, I can make you a cheese toastie. - he rubbed her arm soothingly, a inviting smile on his reddish pink lips which just always looked so inviting. - It’s gonna be alright, angel.

- Well, I’m surprised you can use a sandwich maker. - Y/N pushed the worries to the back of the brain, that part you only see when you’re trying to fall asleep or too lost in your own mind to visit those darkest parts which you hope disappear with time.

- I’m not completely incompetent in the kitchen. - she looked up at him, a seemingly calm smile masking all her worries. - I never set it on fire.

- What an amazing astonishment. - she giggled, a hand coming to stand in front of her lips.

- C’mon angel, let’s get some food in you.

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kovecs · 3 years

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Hi everyone! I think I’ve shared my Cyberpunk 2020 character before, but I figured that -- in anticipation of 2077 -- I would put out a series of quick short stories that would follow his adventures in Night City. He is a pretty somber guy; glass half-empty type, but he has a good heart. So here’s part #1!

~Kovecs

Ash, 2020: A Cyberpunk Series

Part #1: Party Time

Neon lights flickered in a field of darkness, cascading off of floods of dancing pedestrians. Throughout the room, the buzz and hum of modern music berated what little remained of their eardrums. The nightclub smelled like must, booze, and second hand smoke. Ash, NCPD Detec, sat at a rust-stained booth. He was a complete contrast from the partying denizens; blinded by their revelry. He had been there for a haze of time, watching with cybernetic eyes and waiting patiently.

“You’re a cop, aren’t’cha, baby?” A female voice called over.

“How’d you guess?” Ash responded in a monotone voice. He turned his head. The voice was a young woman standing at the edge of the crowd. She wore colors which rivaled the neon lights. She was dramatically augmented, almost enough to the point that “cyborg” wouldn’t be an insult. Ash was one to talk, though, with his augmented eyes and cheap metal arm. The lights reflected off of the woman’s chrome cybernetics, making her look like digital distortion.

“Because cops are boring, and I can tell you’re no fun.” Her voice had a playful gleam. Ash couldn’t tell if her edge was taken off by bliss or booze. Maybe both.

“How do you know I’m not fun?” He asked, meeting her glowing gaze.

“Because there’s a fucking bitchin’ party and you’re sitting there all alone like an asshole.”

“I’m working.”

“See? No fun, asshole,” she stated, saying that last word with a playful giggle before turning around and disintegrating into the crowd. She was right. This, among many reasons, was why Detective Ash hated parties.

Ash disliked this party in particular, with its indistinct pandemonium of drugged up punks and abrasive music. He wondered if it was his nomad roots, but he hadn’t lived in the badlands since he was a kid. Night City was his home now, whether he liked it or not.

The detective sat there quietly for a few more minutes before suddenly, he was joined by a spindly man and his burly bodyguard. Ash looked at them both, his bright blue cybernetic retinas scanning them with an untrusting gaze. He knew them both. The bodyguard was Rage; hired muscle who worked for different gangs on and off. The gangly one was called Bisby Bracken, a low-tier fixer who was as likeable as radiation dust. He wore clothes of countless colors, like the young woman from earlier. Kitsch, they called it; all style, no substance.

“Didn’t think you were gonna show your face, Ash.” Bisby said, grinning wolfishly with chrome teeth. Ash could smell cheap moonshine and metal on his breath.

“You’re the one who’s late.”

“Fashionably, fashionably,” he responded, flicking away a cigarette butt. “Besides, I’m the one who called this little meetup.”

“Was the party your idea?” Ash asked in a monotone voice.

Bisby scoffed and rolled his eyes. “You see, Ash, that’s your problem. You can’t ever have fun.”

“I’ve heard that once or twice,” Ash grumbled. “Get to the point, Bracken. Why are we here?” Ash was hoping this would be worth his while. Bracken was scum, but he was connected. That could be useful.

“What’s the point of you guys anyway?” The Fixer was distracting again and it was old before it began. “Private cops are so much more efficient. The NCPD is old news, man. But you; you’re the most obsolete.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you still think it’s about good guys and bad guys, man.”

“Is that why you brought me here?” Ash was getting uneasy. “Just to tell me you don’t like me very much?”

“Naw, man,” Bisby said as he lit another cigarette. He puffed it and exhaled the smoke into the musty air. “I don’t really give a fuck about you, Ash. But my boss? He’s a different story… and he’s got a message for you.”

Before Ash’s heart even had a chance to beat, Bisby pointed a pistol at his face and moved his finger to the trigger. Ash only had a millisecond to respond. He jerked his head to the left, sending him to the side as the bullet burst through the back of the booth. Before Bisby could reload, Ash kicked the table into the thug and drew his own pistol.

“Fuck!” Bisby cried before Ash’s bullet ripped through his chest. He died immediately.

Ash was so dumbfounded that he did not even realize that Rage had picked him up. The hired muscle lifted him with ease and threw him into the crowd of party goers; most of them hadn’t even noticed or cared.

Ash quickly sat up and shook his head. He was still in a daze when he turned to finish Rage the same way he had killed Bisby, but he realized that his gun was gone. It had been knocked away during the struggle. Damn it.

Rage did not even say a word as he drove his boot into Ash’s face. Blood shot from the detective’s mouth and nose as he went back down. When he was lifted again, he made eye contact with his assailant. There was a reason they called him Rage; he liked this work. He’d rather kill Ash with his bare hands than use the gun at his hip. He rammed his head against Ash’s, sending his consciousness halfway through cyberspace. He did it again, then again, and then… BAM. The two of them crashed to the ground.

This time, it was enough for the partiers to scatter. On the dancefloor, the neon lights still flickered, the music still blared, but there were no dancers to be seen. Just Ash and the dead body of the man he had just shot with his own gun.

This was just another day in Night City. The detective wiped his face absently, smearing the blood. Rage had done a number on him. But whoever that boss was would have to be disappointed… for now. As Ash got up and left the club, he could not help but think that that girl was right: He was terrible at parties.

Dear Reader,

There’s part one! I’ll hopefully put out a few more of these before the game comes out. For this one in particular, I wanted to pay homage (best I can) to the style of William Gibson’s Neuromancer. I was also trying to give it an 80s vibe. I hope you enjoyed reading.

~Kovecs

#cyberpunk #2020 #cyberpunk 2020 #fanfiction #fanfic #fanart #cyberpunk fanart #cyberpunk art #cyberpunk fiction #cyberpunk 2077 #2077 #cd projekt red #neuromancer

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in-a-cave-with · 4 years

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ok just to start you off: here’s the full list of all of the main iron man runs in chronological order. obviously it’s a kind of wacky idea to start from tales of suspense and work your way down the list (imv1 has over 300 issues and it takes. A while to read through) it’s still helpful to have as a reference

this is a link to the list/the download links for all of them, but you can find them all on readcomiconline.to if downloading isn’t your thing. just an fyi though readcomiconline titles the iron man/invincible iron man volumes by year it started rather than volume number, so iron man vol 4 is listed as “iron man (2005)”, invincible iron man vol 2 is listed as “invincible iron man (2015)”, etc.

when you download comics, they come in .cbr file formats. there are plenty good cbr readers out there, like cdisplay or comicrack for pc/simplecomic for mac. personally, i use yacreader/yacreaderlibrary because it keeps track of whether i’ve read an issue and what page i’m on

now to the actual guide part! but it’s not really a guide, more like “here’s some comics to read if you have no idea what’s going on”

invincible iron man v2 (2015), international iron man, and invincible iron man v3 (2016). these volumes are all part of bendis’ run, which is seriously not as bad as everyone says it is. they take place after the 616 universe reboot, so you don’t really need too much knowledge going in. if you look at my blog’s archive you can see that i pretty much started reading comics from here. the reason i’m reccing this first is a) the art is gorgeous and b) bendis’ characterization of tony is a blend of both mcu and 616, making it a pretty friendly jumping-off point for people who want to get into comics.

some extra notes: international iron man is a one-shot comic and isn’t connected to iimv2 and iimv3. / civil war ii at around the end of iimv2, which is a horrible comic that you should only read if you have a death wish. all you need to know is that rhodey died at around the beginning and tony gets put into a coma by carol around the end. / iimv3 is about riri williams aka ironheart. she gets mentored by our favorite boy AI tony, who’s a digitalized version of tony’s consciousness. / the end of iimv3 makes pretty much zero sense and i still don’t know what’s going on

tony stark: iron man #12-13 and ONLY THOSE ISSUES. this is a short story about tony interacting with wacky magic things. it’s also the part of ts:im is the only part that’s not written by d*n sl*tt, making it instantly better than the entire rest of the volume. there’s some mention of earlier events from the previous arc (#1-12) which you can read if you want, i guess, but i don’t think it’s too important. also the art for ts:im is GORGEOUS the whole way through, so if you just want to flip through it without actually reading anything that’s valid

iron man: fatal frontier. this one isn’t on the list but it’s REALLY good. it’s a story about tony on the moon, featuring the model 42 armor aka the best iron man armor in comics tbh. i’d REALLY recommend you download it, bc it’s meant to be read digitally i’m pretty sure. also, little to no background knowledge needed going in! here is a link to downloading it (there are also some smaller-file-size comics for other iron man volumes in the post too)

iron man v4 (2005). this is a start of a reboot and meant to be a place for people to immediately jump in. the only thing you need to know is that most ppl dont know tony is iron man bc of a weird retcon, and he reveals it in civil war so it doesn’t go on for too long. this volume goes through civil war which is a Very Bad Comic but the tie-ins are fairly well-written. after civil war steve dies and tony gets put in charge of SHIELD, and the issues after the cw tie-ins are about him as director. also, the last 3 issues deal with rhodey during the skrull invasion and don’t have much to do with everything else. fair warning though the entire volume is pretty dark and probably the most violent out of all of them

iron man v3 (1998). AHHHH vol 3. start from the beginning and read the entire way through. you will learn to simp for rumiko fujikawa as i have. little to no background knowledge is needed, sometimes they reference things that happened in iron man v1, but it’s not hard to follow the story if you haven’t read it (even i haven’t read through imv1). the art gets a little sketchy after the first tiberius stone arc, but the story’s interesting so it’s fine. the art gets good again in issue #50 and is part of one of my favorite iron man runs ever

you may be wondering “why is this going in reverse order by year” FAIR POINT! this was actually the order i read them though and it’s good for transitioning from mcu tony to 616 tony, because they are surprisingly more different in vibes than you may think. however you can choose to ignore the wack order i put these in and read them in your own order, it really doesn’t matter. iron man volumes aren’t very interconnected story-wise, except for TOS/imv1 and iimv2/iimv3.

TOS and imv1 are Vintage and Quality content, but i prefer to read them last because there are a LOT of issues. imo it’s easier to consume the smaller volumes first and then work your way up

finally, some notes on the other iron man volumes:

iron man v2. this sucks. stay away from it. don’t read.

invincible iron man v1 (2008). ok so the story is alright up until after the stark disassembled arc. but the art is ugly as hell. f.

iron man v5. the writing is. ehh. the art is ok, i guess? i just have no emotions about this entire volume . also arno and the “tony is adopted” subplot is introduced here

superior iron man: the art is good but evil tony sucks and doesn’t pay for his heinous crimes. a lot of people only like it bc tony looks “hot” or whatever. imagine how hard it was for an aroace tony stan to try to read it. i hate this comic so much.

infamous iron man. this is about dr doom suiting up as iron man! the art is pretty and i really like dr doom but there’s not much tony content in it. definitely the most readable out of the ones i’ve listed here

#I TYPED RHIS ALL ON MY PHONE ON THE MOBILE SITE BC I DIDNT WANT TO GET OUT OF BED AND I DONT HAVE THE APP THIS HOUSE IS A NIGHTMARE

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gansey-just-gansey · 5 years

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Under the Needle part Five

“Please! Stop!” Matthew begged.

They didn't stop. Ronan threw a punch that landed squarely on Declan's right eye. In return, Declan grabbed Ronan by the back of the neck and slammed his fist into Ronan's face twice. The fabric of Ronan's shirt rubbed searing pain into the back of his neck where the tattoo reached up. His mouth filled with blood. He spit on the ground and hooked his leg around Declan's ankle and brought him down to the ground. He put one foot on either side of Declan's legs, planning to straddle and beat the ever loving shit out him, but then he was hit by something very solid that pushed him away from the motherfucker.

“Get off me, Gansey!” Ronan growled. Declan sat up and wiped under his nose, pulling it back to look at the blood gathered on it.

“Stop! We're out of here. Get in the car,” he ordered. Ronan shoved away from him and went to sit in the BMW. He threw himself in and slammed the door, crossing his arms like a petulant child. He glared out the window to where Gansey was helping Declan up off the ground. Declan brushed himself off and proceeded to yell at Gansey for several minutes, alternating waving his arms around and pointing at the car Ronan was in. Gansey nodded through the whole thing until Matthew finally pulled Declan inside to clean him up.

Gansey knocked on the driver's side window. Ronan rolled down the window without moving his eyes from where they stared, straight ahead.

Gansey leaned down so his head was next to Ronan's ear. “So.”

“So,” Ronan mimicked.

“Ronan.” Gansey sighed. “At least wait so Matthew can say goodbye.”

“Fine.”

Ronan got out and leaned against the side of the car while Gansey went to go get Matthew. He just wanted to get out of here. He gently touched the back of his neck, where the tattoo still burned. There was blood on his hand when he pulled it back.

“Fuck,” he murmured. Matthew came bounding out of the house.

“Ronan,” he said, his eyes already wet.

“Don't, kid.”

“No, I'm just going to miss you so much!” He threw himself into Ronan's arms. Ronan patted him on the back gently.

“I'll be back. And you can visit me at college,” Ronan promised.

Matthew let go of him. “You'll be here for Thanksgiving right? And Christmas?”

“Of course. It's only a couple hours away.”

“Okay,” Matthew sniffled, backing away. “Okay. I'll see you soon, right?” Ronan nodded. “I've gotta help Declan. Have fun at college!” He ran off back into the house. Gansey came out a minute later.

“Ready to get the fuck out of here?” Ronan asked.

“Ready as I'll ever be,” Gansey said, pulling out the keys to the Pig. They both got in their cars, which were both packed to bursting with all of Ronan's belongings. Gansey left first and Ronan followed behind in case the Pig broke down again.

They arrived at William and Mary close to two hours later. They parked as close to the dorm rooms as they could. Moving all of Ronan's things took about another hour with the walking they had to do and the elevator they had to take up to their floor.

Gansey sighed when they were finally done. “Ready to unpack?”

“Fuck no. I actually have to head to Cabeswater again,” Ronan replied, walking around Gansey.

“Again? You might want to try not being so obvious,” Gansey said.

“You're one to talk,” Ronan shot back. “But I actually have to go in this time. I need Adam to check if there was any damage to the tattoo in the fight. There was blood, I think Declan ripped the scabs off when he grabbed at my neck.” Ronan was also a little worried about the tongue ring having been ripped a little with all the blood in his mouth, but he could always let it heal and get it re-pierced. The tattoo was more permanent.

“Turn,” Gansey commanded. Ronan obeyed and let Gansey pull down his shirt collar from the back. “Oh damn. You really should have him look at it, actually.”

“Fuck. I knew it. That worthless jackoff wrecked my tattoo.” Ronan was livid.

“You don't know that yet,” Gansey said firmly. “Just go get it checked out.”

“You coming?” Ronan asked.

Gansey beamed. “Yes.”

They made the quick trip to the tattoo shop, choosing to drive this time to get there faster, as though it might help save Ronan's tattoo.

The bell chimed as they walked in. Blue smiled when she saw them, then dropped it when she actually took them in. She straightened up from where she had been leaning against the wall near Noah's station. Adam stood up from his station and came to join the group when he saw Ronan's face, his own filled with worry. Ronan could fly away at the idea that Adam Parrish, the most beautiful boy Ronan had ever seen, was worried about him.

“Another question for Adam?” Noah asked suggestively, not looking up from his sketchbook. When he did he gasped. Apparently Declan had left a mark.

“Yeah, and one for you too, Blue,” Ronan inclined his head toward her.

Her eyebrows pulled down. “What's up?”

“I need you to check my piercing.”

“Why? What happened to you?” she asked.

“I got in a fight. My mouth bled and I want to be sure it wasn't from the piercing. I'm not sure if maybe it ripped a little.

Blue's face immediately became serious. “Open up.” Ronan stuck his tongue out for her to look. She pulled him down to her level by his shoulders. “Whoever you fought really did a number on your mouth,” she said, inspecting him. “But it doesn't look like there was any serious damage to the piercing. It is red and angry so you definitely pulled it a little bit but I don't see any reason it shouldn't heal right. If it migrates, let me know and we can take it out and let it heal then pierce it again.”

Ronan straightened up. “That's good. I think the tattoo might've gotten messed up though.”

“What?” Adam strode over to Ronan in two long steps and turned him around roughly. He pulled the collar of Ronan's shirt down like Gansey had earlier. “Oh,” he breathed.

“Is it bad?” Ronan asked, expecting the worst.

“All the scabs ripped off the top, but I think we can save it. I'll bandage it again and you'll have to go back to the Aquafor for a couple days. Once the shading and everything is done, it shouldn't be noticeable even if there are some wonky lines,” Adam said, letting the shirt go. “Come back to my station and take your shirt off.”

Ronan stripped it off. Adam pulled on some gloves and started getting out the bandage and surgical tape. Ronan waited in front of the large mirror on the wall, trying to get a good look at his back. What he could see was as angry and red as it had been the day it was done. Ronan sighed.

“I really think it'll be fine, some people pick at the scabs and it doesn't mess up the lines too bad,” Gansey said next to Ronan.

“Most people pick them, not violently rip them off with cotton fabric,” Ronan said angrily.

“So who did you pick a fight with?” Blue asked.

“Why are you so sure it was me that picked the fight?” Ronan raised his eyebrows.

“Just the vibe I get from you,” she chuckled.

“Well you'd be wrong,” Ronan said. “It was my brother this time.”

“The dickhead?” Adam asked, returning with his arms full of the supplies he needed. “What'd he do now?”

“He was being a condescending fucker about my tattoo and piercing. I told him he was a disappointment to our father. He hit me. So it goes.”

“It sounds like your thing was a little worse than his thing,” Adam said mildly, putting Aquafor on Ronan's back. Ronan fought back a groan that threatened to escape as Adam rubbed his back gently.

“Maybe. But I'm just paraphrasing. He still deserved it.” Gansey looked like he wanted to argue but he bit his tongue for Ronan's sake.

Adam laughed and taped the bandage on Ronan's back. “I imagine so. All dickheads do.”

“What about your dickhead? Ever fight with him?” Ronan asked.

Blue's face screwed up in a cringe and Noah looked paler than he normally did. They both looked at Adam.

But Adam just shrugged. “Something like that.”

“What do you mean some- oh. Oh.” Ronan internally cringed. “Shit, Parrish.”

Adam shrugged again. “It's over now.” He pulled the gloves off and tossed them in the trash. “You're done, but you can hang around the shop for an hour so I can check it when it's time to take the bandage off if you want.”

“Yeah, I've got time,” Ronan answered. “Gansey can get that matching tongue ring you were talking about.”

Gansey chuckled nervously. “I don't think so.”

As Blue and Noah attempted to sway Gansey into getting any kind of piercing, Ronan walked over to Adam's station, where Adam was putting away the after care supplies.

“Hey, about earlier-” Ronan started.

“Don't worry about it,” Adam cut him off. “It was a long time ago.”

“Do you ever talk to him?”

Adam seemed surprised by Ronan's genuine interest. “No, I don't. I haven't spoken to him since I moved out my senior year of high school. I ended up in the hospital once and after that I never went back.”

“Jesus, the hospital?”

“Yeah, I had some bruised and broken ribs.”

Ronan swore. “What a bastard.”

“Yeah, but I moved out, saved enough money from tattooing and mechanic work to open my own shop.” Ronan paused to admire Adam's work ethic. Beautiful boy and a hard worker to boot. And he knew about cars. Adam was exactly Ronan's type, if he had one at all.

“I'm surprised you don't have any tattoos, owning a shop and all,” Ronan said, trying to subtly probe for more information from Adam.

It worked. “I have tattoos, you just can't see them.” Fuck. He shouldn't have asked. Ronan was going to go crazy imagining all the designs Adam could have hidden underneath his clothes. “Your eye is looking real bad,” Adam said, taking the attention off himself.

Ronan reached up and touched his left eye, feeling for swelling. It was a little, but not enough to really impair his vision. “It's fine. My dad definitely taught us how to leave a mark though.”

“I can see that.” Adam looked over Ronan's shoulder. “Also I think the wolves have descended upon Gansey.”

Ronan looked over at the other three. “I better help him.”

Ronan shooed Blue and Noah away from Gansey. They spent the rest of the hour comparing the flash tattoos that were hanging around the shop. There weren't the usual dragons and tribal and barbed wire that usually littered the walls of tattoo parlors. Instead there were ponds with lily pads and and tiny stick and poke ideas and fairies caring for flowers. Slightly more detail and much more original.

“Ronan,” Adam called from his station, where he had been engrossed in his sketchbook. Ronan savored the way his name sounded in Adam's mouth.

“Been an hour?” Ronan asked.

“Yup, time to take the bandage off.” Ronan walked over and took his shirt off again, giving Adam access to his back. “It looks better already. It looks like scabs are reforming. I think you'll actually be okay.”

“Perfect. How many days of Aquafor?

“I think you'll be fine with two. We'll keep the appointment next Saturday and check how it's healing, but hopefully this won't mess with our time line. Try not to get into any more fights,” Adam joked.

“I'll try but I'm not going to promise anything,” Ronan laughed.

“The best I can hope for I suppose.”

They stood there awkwardly for a minute.

“Well,” Ronan cleared his throat, “we better get going, I have to unpack all my shit.”

“Sounds good, I'll see you that Saturday.” Adam said.

“I'll be there.” Ronan looked back to Gansey, who was leaning back against the wall with Blue. “Gansey,” he called.

“Okay, I guess we have to go.” Gansey bumped his shoulder against Blue, meaning he nearly hit her in head since she was so much shorter than him.

“Saturday,” both Gansey and Ronan said as they exited the shop.

The Pig broke down half way back to campus and they had to walk all the way back to get Ronan's BMW to jump start it, but even that combined with the fight couldn't bring Ronan down now.

He was walking on air.

13 notes · View notes

jbuffyangel · 6 years

Text

Truth and Lies: Arrow 6x18 Review (Fundamentals)

I love Vertigo. We get the best Olicity episodes out of this drug and "Fundamentals" did NOT disappoint. Angsty Arrow driven mad by his own internal demons and the love of his life fighting through the darkness to reach the light within him?

If you are wondering why this review is delayed it's because I've been watching "Fundamentals” on a loop. And binging Westworld, but that's not my fault. @callistawolf told me to watch it. But really also watching "Fundamentals" on a loop. There’s so much to unpack that this took me three days to write and another full day to gif.

I am prepared to say 6x18 might be my favorite episode of the season. I think I liked it better than the wedding AND the wedding RECEPTION. I know I know. That's crazy talk, but that's what Vertigo does man. EMBRACE THE INSANITY BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME.

Let's dig in...

Olicity

I'm not really sure how to divide this review into sections primarily because it's just a mass of Oliver losing his shiznit, punctuated with extremely excellent scenes with Felicity. So we're rolling fast and loose on the headings. Cool? Cool.

I like angst. No, that's not right. I LOVE ANGST. You really can't survive seven years of watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer live, in your formative teenage years, and not come out with the ability to embrace the pain. But I don't enjoy angst that's just angst for angst's sake. (Yeah that's a sentence. I think.) I want angst with purpose. I want it to move the characters somewhere or at the very least reveal truths. Maybe they are truths we already know and simply need confirmed once and awhile. Maybe they are truths we didn't even know existed. Regardless, if angst has a point then I'm in.

Some may disagree with me regarding the angst in "Fundamentals." It may feel like ground we've already covered, and I can certainly understand why some may have that opinion. I have a differing one, however. I feel 6x18 unearthed some new truths regarding Oliver Queen and his journey this season that I have not previously considered.

Source: @olivergifs

The opening is familiar, but new. The Arrow is back! It's been so long since we've seen Oliver as the Arrow that the action felt fresh. Immediately there was a different vibe compared to all the other action scenes we've seen over the past three years. It is dark, brutally violent and fast. And extremely hot.

The Arrow moves like a shadow and creates a visceral reaction of fear. That piece is familiar. The skill set of the Arrow and the Green Arrow remain the same, but their tactics are not. The Green Arrow works within a team. He is quick, but deliberate. Strategic, but adaptable. He is threatening, but instills a sense of calm. The Green Arrow doesn't shy from the light the same way the Arrow does. Both masks serve justice, but one instills hope while the other instills fear. We are supposed to notice a difference between these two personas, which is why "Fundamentals" opens fast and hard with the violence of the Arrow. It's to remind us of Oliver Queen's evolution and how far he's come. What drives and fuels the Arrow is something the Green Arrow does not have:

Rage.

Oliver has opened up his heart over the last six years. He rediscovered brotherhood and friendship. Oliver fell in love and became a father. The anger created by the injustice all around him and his five years of trauma is no longer burning him up inside. Oliver faced the worst parts of himself, and by doing so, the anger gave way to something else. Something more hopeful. The Green Arrow fights injustice just like the Arrow, but the tactic is not merely to beat it down. The Green Arrow wants to build upon the ashes of injustice. Oliver also recognizes the mask is not the only avenue in which he can be of service to Star City. He finally realized the man behind the mask can also have an impact.

Or at least... that's what Oliver tried to do. As usual our hero fails as much as he succeeds, but real change does not come without failure. The problem is Oliver does not understand where he went wrong. Team Arrow has fallen apart. Rene and Dinah betrayed him. Curtis turned his back on Oliver. And John Diggle, his brother, left him.

"You've become a better man, but a worse leader."

John's words are haunting Oliver because he doesn't understand them. How can he be a better man, the man John always asked him to be, and a worse leader?

Listen, I am 100% on Team Oliver with this one. That's straight up bonkers and Diggle doesn't have Vertigo as an excuse. We're also supposed to wonder what in the blazing hell happened to Oliver that he's wearing the Arrow suit, going full rage-a-thon, and walking into what is obviously a suicide mission (even for him).

*Drugs, drugs, druggidy, drugs* Oh sorry. We're supposed to be pretending we don't know why Oliver is cuckoo for cocoa puffs right now. My bad.

Source: felicityssoliver

So, we're flashing back to ten hours earlier. Now it's really important to remember we are supposed to be confused with the timeline. Both the police captain and the DA have accused Oliver of firing them to impede the Green Arrow investigation . Unfortunately, Oliver just fired them because they admitted to being Diaz's lackeys and not because he has actual proof. I think. Last week's episode was so many levels of screwy I kind of stopped paying attention to some of the details. Anywho, Oliver begs his genius wife to get some rock solid evidence against them so he can hold onto his day job. Also, avoiding prison would be neat.

The SCPD security monitors go white noise at exactly 10:13 every night, so Felicity rapidly deduces Diaz is monitoring his lackeys at that time. Oliver agrees and wouldn't you know that's prime Green Arrow time! Felicity immediately tells Oliver he can't go in there alone because suicide, but he's too jazzed about ending all his Diaz problems to listen.

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

Felicity, bless her heart, decides to play marriage counselor one more time and parent traps Oliver and Diggle into meeting into the bunker. Yes, she actually uses the words "parent trap" and it's awesome. I love one cupcake. Also, the original Parent Trap with Hayley Mills will always be the superior version. Come fight me.

It's a disaster. Both Oliver and Diggle are still extremely pissed off at each other, which is fair. This was one horrid fight. Diggle informs Oliver he's considering taking a job at A.R.G.U.S. and Oliver offers a solid burn in return:

“Last time you needed something from A.R.G.U.S., you had to steal it.”

I, once again, am on Team Oliver on this one. I don't mind the snippiness and think it's fairly warranted. If John is looking to find a purpose beyond Oliver Queen and live outside his shadow (and he is - even if he can't admit it yet), then I fail to see how A.R.G.U.S. is any different. Diggle needs a purpose of his own. As much as I will love seeing a Dyla team up, I don't think it really solves John's problem all that much. A.R.G.U.S. is Lyla's purpose. It always has been. I'm not saying John can't find purpose with his wife and her employer. He certainly can, but a lot of John's argument against Oliver was about striking out on his OWN. This isn't exactly an independent venture. So, I understand why Oliver may see some hypocrisy on the wall.

Diggle: Oliver, you keep up that attitude man you are gonna end up all alone.

Oliver: I've listened to your advice for the last six years. I think I've earned a reprieve.

Oliver has taken, what I feel, is a lot of unnecessary shit from everyone and quite frankly it's way more entertaining to see him swinging back than simply taking it. Felicity is disappointed her little make up session didn't end with bromance hugs and kisses, but Diggle is not surprised. He essentially tells Felicity Oliver is stubborn, alienates people with his attitude, and likes to be alone - and nobody knows that better than her.

It's an irritating comment and not a fair one. If that was all true than Oliver would have never married Felicity in the first place. Diggle keeps throwing ALL of Oliver's past mistakes in his face (and now Felicity's) to continue making his argument as to why Oliver is a crappy leader. Again, Diggle's beef and his snarky comments would have made so much more sense in SEASON THREE.

The real goal of the comment is to make Felicity worry Oliver will ice her out next, which is as about as mean as John Diggle gets. However, it's primarily intended to make us worry about the status of their marriage. I RAISED YOU BETTER THOUGH.

Oliver has a meeting with Councilmen Kullens who tells him he can't fire the very people who are investigating him. That looks really bad. Oliver insists the two are working for Diaz.

Kullens: From what I understand, Ricardo Diaz is a second rate drug dealer who was released from prison on a technicality.

He got the second rate part right. Kullens cannot fathom how a two bit hood like Diaz could possibly coerce city officials like the DA and police captain and oh my god it's even more stupid when I type it. Can we put an arrow in this guy? He bugs me. Kullens informs Oliver impeachment proceedings begin that afternoon and he'll have a chance to please his case then, which means Oliver is on the clock and needs to get some evidence FAST.

Oliver races home to check in with Felicity and take William to his science fair. The kid cloned cabbage. Yes, CLONED.

This is one character we never want to have a dark spiral on Arrow. Use your powers for good William. That's all I'm saying son.

On top of being a child genius, William is also extremely OCD about time. So, when Oliver comes in late his son is extra anxious to get going. This is my child in TV form. She puts her winter coat and snow pants on 20 minutes before she leaves for the bus, stands in the kitchen watching TV, so she's in direct eye line to clock because GOD FORBID she's a micro second late.

Unfortunately, the evidence Felicity compiles against Diaz is only something a police department to get their hands on or... the Green Arrow.

Oliver drops to that lower octave which increases the hot by several levels.

Felicity tries to joke her way out of it by telling Oliver to inform the council he's married to a super hacker and HUBBY IS NOT AMUSED. It's one thing for him to get imprisoned, but he cannot joke about it happening to Felicity. Ugh. I love him.

Unfortunately, Oliver's adorableness is short lived. He rapidly spirals into an asshole. Felicity tries to explain that she tried to set up a believable trail for the evidence but that she ran out of time.

Oliver: You ran out of time because you're focusing on making John and I reconcile instead of doing your job!

HIT THE DECKS. HUBBY IS ABOUT TO BLOW! I think my husband values his life to much to ever say something like to me, but he's been at this a little bit longer than Oliver. Give him a decade. He'll learn.

Felicity is WTF and rightfully so. They segue into arguing about whether or not Felicity is on Oliver's side.

(She is you big, angry tree trunk).

William chooses this exact moment to interrupt their argument by reminding his father that they are running late. When my parent's fought I found the nearest exit. Read the room kid.

Oliver blows. Big time. He yells at William while simultaneously destroying the science fair project. Ah man, that was cloned cabbage dude. That would have made an interesting salad.

Cue awkward silence and horrified looks from Felicity and William. I am so uncomfortable. This feels voyeuristic. *She says while having zero issues watching Olicity sex scenes on a loop.*

Source: @olivergifs

Oliver tries to apologize to William, who storms out, and explain to Felicity it was an accident but she tells him to get the fuck out. I added the fuck because that was the tone and if we were on cable it would have absolutely been there.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

MAMA BEAR MODE ACTIVATED.

Nobody messes with the cub. Not even Dad. Honestly, the addition of William was one of my big worries for Season 6 because I questioned how Arrow would integrate the child into the story lines. But William has become one of my favorite parts of the season, particularly when it comes to his relationship with Felicity. Felicity becoming the world's best step mother is not remotely surprising, but it doesn't lessen the joy watching it develop on screen. William has come to depend on her just as much as Oliver. Maybe even more because they bond frequently over their genius level IQs.

Sometimes you need to tell your child "Not right now" in a stern voice. Sometimes raising your voice is required. Sometimes you blow a fuse as a parent. We are, after all, only human and humans are imperfect. Parents make mistakes. Oliver raising his voice to William didn't bother me too much. Although, I think he could have directed a little more tough love when his son wandered off from the bunker into the field and almost got himself blown up. Screaming over being late to the science fair was a gross overreaction. A stern "take a number buddy" would have sufficed just fine. And yeah, sometimes you have to tell a kid twice because he’s a kid.

What bothered me was the violence of Oliver's reaction. The way he whirled around at William, breaking the science fair project as he did, wasn't simply frustration. It was rage. We haven't seen this level of rage from Oliver in an extremely long time. Even in his fight with Diggle, he tempered his anger and fought defensively during the brawl.

Oliver has a temper. It's a fact of his personality. Nearly every person in Oliver's life has been on the receiving end of it at one point or another - including Felicity. However, Oliver has directed a violent reaction to those who can physically take him on - Diggle, Roy, Rene and Dinah.

Oliver has always been calculated, even to a certain extent controlled, as to who he responds physically to in anger. He has NEVER reacted violently against those he views as physically defenseless against him.

His physical altercation with Thea was defensive even though Thea can kick his ass. He never took Laurel on even after she became BC and I know there were times he just wanted to lay her flat on her ass. The only real exception was when he confronted Moira as the Green Arrow, but she shot him so we see how that went.

There is only one time I can recall Oliver using his body in a physically threatening way against Felicity. Although, there was so much sexual tension I often wonder if he just used the moment to get up in her bubble and enjoy a little physical proximity. Regardless, there's a reason the first time Oliver Queen got in Felicity's Smoak's face was the last time. SHE was the one who put HIM down hard. Strength doesn't have to equate to the physical kind. Felicity Smoak is Oliver's match in every way. She puts his alpha male ass in its place every time he's ever tried to pull this nonsense with her, which is why it only happened once. Any time after was often in defense of others. Felicity always makes Oliver back down.

But this moment is different. The hair trigger rage we often saw in the early seasons of Arrow has returned and Oliver directed it at his son, a defenseless child. There's no excuse for it. Yet, Felicity's reaction is no different than the one we saw in 1x15.

She steps from behind the counter and defensively approaches Oliver with so much speed and protectiveness over William he is the one who immediately backs away.

Source: mingrose

The movement immediately forces Oliver to turn his attention away from William and direct it to Felicity. It's essentially Felicity putting her body between William and Oliver. That said, she always uses her anger and strength to deescalate the situation. Felicity essentially puts Oliver in a time out by kicking him out of the apartment and rightfully so.

So, obviously we are supposed to be asking what the hell is wrong with Oliver? Diggle's words are supposed to haunt us. Perhaps Oliver hasn't changed after all.

Oliver descends to his bunker of solitude. He's obsessively watching the video feed of white noise on a loop, so he's in a super healthy space.

The scrambling of the video and the white noise in between is symbolic for what's happening in Oliver's mind. He's on a loop of white noise that he can't figure his way out of.

There's a knock at the bunker door and this should have immediately tipped everyone off to something being amiss. Why would Felicity knock? When Oliver turns around she just appears. Out of nowhere she's standing behind him. He's startled and Felicity wonders why. Oliver tries to explain what he heard, but can't. The knock had a pounding, distant, echoing sound to it. Like someone trying to open a tightly shut door closed long ago. It's the sound of Oliver's past beating it's way open. He just doesn't know it yet.

Felicity has her arms tightly crossed and keeps her distance from Oliver. He immediately tries to explain what happened, but again he can't because Oliver doesn't understand it himself. He doesn't know why he lost it on William other than things are beginning to pile up.

That's as far as he gets. Felicity coldly and resolutely tells Oliver they should take some space. Oliver is heartbreakingly confused until he looks down at Felicity's crossed arms and realizes she took her ring off.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

The devastation rapidly begins to overtake his confusion, but even then this has to be a joke right?

Oliver almost laughs until he realizes it’s not. Then he becomes helpless as his world begins to crumble.

Source: @olivergifs

Felicity tells Oliver he crossed a line with William. A line he should never cross.

Felicity asking Oliver for a separation sounds like a protective measure for William, but it still doesn't make sense. It's a 180 degree turn. It's too fast. Too abrupt. If you are still harboring PTSD from the Olicity break up in Season 4, and particularly if you read cast interviews previewing the episode, it's understandable why this scene would be extremely alarming. For some, I am sure it was confirmation of a deeply rooted fear Arrow is going to divorce Olicity soon after they married them. This is just another stop in the never ending "will they/won't they" ride.

But there is something in Felicity's speech to Oliver that should have tipped you off something else was going on.

No matter how disappointed or angry Felicity is with Oliver this is simply not something she would ever say under any circumstance. Felicity never believed, not even for a second, that Oliver was the violent, rage filled, monster he tried to portray himself as and believed himself to be. And that's the key right there. This is something OLIVER would say.

William discovering the monster within is a deep rooted fear of Oliver's - not Felicity’s. She never believed the monster existed.

When Felicity looks at Oliver all she has ever seen is a man with a deeply good heart. Felicity always saw the light within Oliver, even when he could not see it himself. Especially when Oliver couldn't see it.

Felicity has admitted she fell in love with Oliver the first moment she met him because of what she saw. Her love is rooted in that belief.

That's not to say Felicity's belief in Oliver's goodness has not been challenged over the years. Particularly when Oliver was doing everything he could to make Felicity believe the monster was real and he was beyond change. Yet, time and again she saw through the facade of darkness to the truth - the light within.

Oliver has "killed" Felicity via LOA gas and shattered their life together with a lie that seemed almost impossible to forgive. I'm not saying yelling at William and shattering cloned cabbage wasn't bad, but I wouldn't rank it in the top ten worst things Oliver Queen has ever done. Let's remember she fell in love with him when he had a penchant for breaking necks. All I'm saying is, Felicity has a high threshold for Oliver Queen darkness.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

So, surgically cutting the cord on their marriage like this feels offs. Extremely off. It is Oliver who fears William will learn of his father's darker side. Not Felicity. Felicity confirming Oliver's worst fear, that he is truly a monster, doesn't sound like her voice. It sounds like Oliver's voice.

Now would be a real good time to remember Diaz and BS maniacally laughing over their last vile of Vertigo at the end of last week's episode. Although, I will give Arrow kudos. They did their level best to fool everyone with the way they cut this episode together.

Source: @olivergifs

The knocking returns after a heart to heart with Lance. This time it is louder and more insistent. Oliver cannot ignore it. Instinctively he picks up a gun, walks to the elevator doors as they open

Source: leraswift13

and there stands Adrian Chase.

Prommy is back to play mind games! TIME FOR SOME CRAZY!!!!

Oliver doesn't understand how Adrian can still be alive because, ya know, bullet to the brain. Adrian's response is basically, "It's Arrow man.. Didn't you fall off a mountain once? Nobody ever really dies."

Now, I know Oliver is trippin on the light fantastic, but that's some solid logic under Vertigo. I give him credit. Prometheus still scares the ever loving crap out of me and the ensuing battle with Oliver is more exciting than all the villains combined this season. I miss you Josh Seggara. Please come back.

Oliver holds Adrian in the same neck hold in 5x23. He dares Oliver to do it and once again we see the moral struggle tearing Oliver apart. He fights the urge once more, but then Adrian reminds him that his mercy cost the mother of his child her life. Oliver snaps when Adrian threatens William and Felicity once again. He snaps his neck.

Source: @olivergifs

Sparing Adrian's life was a moment of triumph for Oliver in Season 5. It was proof to Oliver that he was not the man Adrian Chase accused him of being. He knew the threat Adrian posed, but taking his life would simply be confirmation Oliver was a monster. Killing Adrian Chase would be proving him right.

If Oliver killed Adrian the island would have exploded and everyone, including Oliver, would have died. His mercy didn't stop Adrian from killing himself and ultimately killing Samantha, but that choice was Adrian's. Not Oliver's. There was no avenue Oliver could choose that would not result in the spilling of innocent blood. It is why Adrian Chase is so diabolically evil. Yet, Oliver still harbors guilt over Samantha. Particularly since Diggle used her death as a knife to twist in his back. He still believes there's a way he could have saved everyone, which is the curse of being a hero. The God Complex is often more crippling than any villain.

If you didn't figure out Oliver is hallucinating by the time Adrian pops up alive again, then I can't help you my friend. But if it helps Oliver figures it out and tells everybody what's going on.

Source: @olivergifs

Hallucinating Adrian Chase is the pitch perfect choice to show the manifestation of Oliver's fears. Refresher course - this is what Vertigo does. It really makes you wonder why anyone willing takes this drug if all you get from the high is seeing your deepest fears become real. Can't say that's a party favor I'd be interested in partaking in.

Oliver Queen essentially created Prometheus, so therefore Adrian Chase represented Oliver's darker half. Prometheus is what Oliver could have become if he never met John Diggle and Felicity Smoak. He was Arrow's most effective villain because he was a living confirmation of everything Oliver feared he was.

I give you The Adrian Chase As Oliver Queen's Inner Voice highlights:

Adrian: I always was the one person who saw you for the murderer you are. What are you doing? Oh you are running a blood test. you think you've been dosed with something. You know there is another explanation. A more likely one in my considered opinion. You're finally going crazy. It's completely understandable, Ollie. You've lost everything, even the people I couldn't manage to take from you. I really like this Ricardo Diaz. If he didn't exist I'd have to think of him myself. He's going about this exactly right. Don't hurt the people that you love. Just get them all to abandon you. It's actually the easiest thing in the world. I told you this Ollie. I told you this man! Everything you touch dies. What you're going through right now, losing your team, your wife, the impeachment, all of it is happening just like I told you it would. And nothing in that blood test is gonna change that.

Adrian: It's tough to say you're in a good place when your oldest friend leaves you high and dry.

Oliver: John made his choice.

Adrian: And deep down you know he's right. You've changed Oliver. Sure, maybe you are a better Oliver Queen. A happier Oliver Queen. But it has sure made you a worse hero. You have a wife, son, you're the mayor - all of which yes may be going away, but still it's a fair assumption. You are stretched too thin buddy. Maybe you've gotten so good at being Oliver Queen that the Green Arrow's mission is suffering. You may be happier, but the people that you love - they're not.

Yes, I typed that all out because every line is gold.

Source: dctvgifs

It's very difficult to watch Oliver's brain beat the shit out of him so effectively. Stay strong my son!

In a nice reverse from 3x01, Oliver and the Arrow come face to face once again. Only it's not Oliver Queen who is the villain. It's the Arrow.

For those wondering haven't we déjà'd this vu already, the answer is yes. But the point is to show the flip. Oliver isn't afraid of being Oliver Queen anymore. His fear has shifted into something else entirely. Oliver is afraid being Oliver Queen isn't enough.

He's become everything John and Felicity believed he could be. Oliver has embraced his humanity and in doing so has become a better friend, lover and father. He is actively trying to save the city during the day and in the night. Oliver is trying to be everything to everyone all the time. And yet everything is falling apart. Oliver is still losing everyone he loves. He is still all alone.

It's one thing to be afraid of embracing his humanity. It's another for Oliver to realize even when he does he still falls short. The city is still in shambles, people he loves still die, his team betrayed him, his best friend, wife and son left him and Star City is intent on taking not only his job, but his freedom. And it all happened when Oliver was being the very best version of himself.

Oliver compartmentalized himself because he feared if he merged the two personas then all that would remain is a monster.

It took a very long time,

and facing the absolute worst in himself, to realize there is a good man

under the mask.

However, now Oliver has combined those two personas and yet nothing is getting better. Trying to be everything to everyone and yet still not feeling like enough is crushing.

It's almost more comforting to believe he hasn't changed at all - that Oliver can understand. If Oliver Queen "the hero" is simply a facade, and the monster who fails and alienates everyone while leaving a trail of bodies in his wake still remains, then this all makes sense. As much as it terrifies Oliver, he can understand why everyone has finally left him.

Oliver chose to stop hiding from love.

It is the bond that tethers him to his humanity and what allows the light to break through all the pain, loss and trauma. He has chosen to love with everything he has, and to his horror, it's not enough. His love for his city is not enough.

Source: @olivergifs

His love for his team is not enough.

His love for his brother is not enough.

His love for his son is not enough.

His love for his wife is not enough.

Source: feilcityqueen

This is a different ballgame. It's not a repeat of Season 4. Oliver tried being his best self and FAILED.

Season 6 he succeeded, but it did not create any different result.

It's a confirmation of his worst fear. Any version of Oliver Queen is alienating. Any version of Oliver Queen is a failure.

Oliver always had the mask to blame. He always had the monster to hide behind as the reason why everything he touches he destroys.

But that's gone now.

He conquered his demons.

So, all he's left with is Oliver Queen, but he is incapable of building anything.

He will never be the man he wants to be, the man Oliver promised his father he would be, because that man still falls spectacularly short. That's almost a fate worse than death for Oliver. We've asked Oliver to try for six years. He did. He failed. So now what?

Source: @olivergifs

The only conclusion Oliver can come to is... he was right all along. The monster and the man are one in the same. Oliver will never escape the darkness because he is darkness. Whatever light he has is ultimately powerless to overshadow it.

So, suffice it to say Oliver is spiraling down the insanity hole. The drug is taking a stronger hold on him. He can no longer distinguish the lies from the truth. If he was right all along then the only option is to shut Oliver Queen down again. He lost sight of the mission and losing everything even as Oliver Queen proves to him that the mission is all that matters. He has become the mask and only the mask. The only way he can truly serve it is the way he originally intended. Alone and as the Arrow - the conduit for the darkness within.

If you think Oliver is off his rocker then you'd be right. HE'S ON VERTIGO. He's supposed to be off his rocker. None of this is right. Our boy is so many levels of wrong it'd take me another six years to explain all of them.

Oliver decides this is still a really excellent time to make decisions that will absolutely impact his ability to live as a free man.

Oliver hands over the evidence because it's the only card he has to play to stop the impeachment.

AND QUENTIN LET’S HIM! For the love of God man don't hand Oliver the bullet and help him load the gun! Tackle him. HE IS HIGH AS A KITE. This is not the time we allow Oliver to make decisions. This is the time we tie him to a chair!

Then, Adrian/Oliver convinces himself to go after Diaz.

Adrian: The only way to prove you are the hero you say that you are and keep being mayor is to take down Diaz tonight.

The way Chase uses his finger as a gun to Oliver's head when he says, "I'm in here" sends chills down my spine. It's a striking parallel to the last image we saw of Prometheus.

Adrian always believed Oliver would be the hand causing his own destruction and we are alarmingly close to him being right. Even closer than we were in Season 5.

Source: oliverxfelicity

Felicity and William return from the science fair and her purse starts beeping. Felicity has a GPS on Oliver's bow because that's the smart thing to do when he's fighting crime every night. So the newbies can pass me with their royal indignation. Don't want to get dead? Then get okay with trackers dipshits!

Enough of this hallucination bullshit. Let's get down to what is REAL and TRUE.

Felicity calls Quentin after Oliver doesn't pick up his cell and he fills her in on what's really going on.

Quentin: He said you kicked him out.

Felicity: No, I didn't. I would never!

For all those worried Arrow will eventually take another Season 4 route with Olicity, it’s time to let it go.

Arrow is not interested in will they/won't they with Olicity anymore. Admittedly, they drove that arc into the ground, but THIS episode is about the shift not only in Oliver and Felicity's relationship, but in the way Arrow views it.

Yes, they are going to have angst. Yes, they are going to face problems. Yes, they are going to fight. But none of this will break them apart. Their love is Arrow's anchor. It is what holds this show steady.

The pattern is the same Every. Single. Year. We get snip its of Olicity scenes punctuated by big episodes. 6x18 is a big episode with a big purpose. Arrow played on the audience's fears and insecurities with the promo and cast interviews, because they are Oliver's fears and insecurities too. The show is giving Oliver and the audience one last scare (because it's a television show and that's what television shows do), but now it's time to get down to business. Now it's time to deal in truth.

Oliver and Felicity are married. There are no more break ups. This is forever. PERIOD. Oliver will never leave Felicity and Felicity will never leave Oliver.

FUNDAMENTAL DEFINITION:

adjective

1. serving as, or being an essential part of, a foundation or basis; basic; underlying: fundamental principles; the fundamental structure.

2. of, relating to, or affecting the foundation or basis: a fundamental revision.

3. being an original or primary source: a fundamental idea.

noun

5. a basic principle, rule, law, or the like, that serves as the ground work of a system; essential part: to master the fundamentals of a trade.

There is a double meaning to the episode title. Yes, Oliver is returning to what he believes were the core “fundamentals” of the mission. However, Arrow is outright stating that the solidity of Olicity’s relationship is also a fundamental of the show.

Still don't believe it? Well, then buckle up because Arrow is going to show you how true it is with what can only be called FANFICTION COME TO LIFE.

William, bless his pure soul, eavesdrops on Felicity's call and is all in on mission "Save Dad."

Source: dctvgifs

He hands Felicity a pair of running shoes and holy mother of freaking crap I've never seen the show make this much sense! Felicity is wearing practical shoes in the field y'all!!!!!!!!!

Quentin does his best to stop the beast, but he's no match for Oliver on a regular day. Oliver high on Vertigo and reverting back to the Arrow? Umm... no chance Quentin. Oliver knocks him out cold. A for effort though bud.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

Felicity channeling her inner B*rry All*n to save her batcrap crazy husband is a big mood.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

Felicity saying she's going to save her husband is an even bigger mood. And Felicity saying the word husband is hotter than Oliver saying wife. I don't know why.

This is not the first time Arrow has used Felicity to break through Oliver's delusion,

but is the first time they've used such a direct approach. What follows is probably one of my all time favorite Olicity scenes - and that's saying something after being on the air for six years.

Source: feilcityqueen

Everything swimming in Oliver's mind is lies, so Felicity has to use the truth to break through. At first she tries using William because he used to be a hindrance to Oliver's willingness to sacrifice himself. However, even in the haze of crazy Oliver knows if he dies then William still has Felicity. He will never be alone. Typically, this should be a comforting line, and while it remains a beautiful commentary on the bond Felicity and William have formed, it is utterly terrifying to hear Oliver so willfully discard his own necessity in his son's life. And that's because of the lies in his mind. His love for his son is not enough. He is a monster. He is a failure. William will be better off.

So, Felicity uses another truth. It's the one she finally confessed to Oliver the day she asked him to marry her. The day all Oliver's dreams came true. Losing Oliver is Felicity's worst fear realized. Would he willingly do that to her? Will Oliver abandon her again?

Oliver believes he can't abandon what he doesn't have. Felicity left him first. Another hallucination Felicity can only combat with what is real.

Felicity calls Oliver baby. It's canon.

I really wish I could sew worth a damn because I'd embroider "I'm glue, baby" on a pillow. Also, be prepared for me to abuse that gif in asks. Fair warning.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

Oliver hears her voice and the truth in her words. He desperately wants to believe she is real, but he is so terribly lost. Oliver cannot see what is real with his mind. So, Felicity tells him to feel with his heart instead.

From the moment Felicity Smoak entered Oliver's life she found a way to not only touch his heart,

but to break it wide open.

Felicity has found Oliver every moment he's been lost.

Vertigo is not a challenge for Felicity Smoak.

She found her way through Oliver's darkness and showed him the light within.

He hears her words, feels the certainty of her love against his chest,

and Oliver knows who he is again.

Felicity's truth is the very beat of Oliver's heart.

Oliver reaches for Felicity's hand, holds her close, and lets the light guide him through the dark. Just like they've done before.

Just like they will always do.

Light can travel without end. It is infinite and so are Oliver and Felicity.

The relief Oliver feels is overwhelming and he smiles. Just like that the Arrow fades and Oliver Queen returns.

Diaz gets impatient and decides to attack,

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

which means we get an old school Olicity stunt.

I am super chill about it.

Felicity offers Oliver a Vertigo cure all based off of her hard core partying days of the past.

My kingdom to see Goth Felicity Smoak at a rave... high.

Quentin commends the bad assness that is Felicity Smoak while he recovers from his absolute trouncing.

All it takes is Felicity calling Oliver her man and he becomes a friggin rainbow. He is putty in her hands.

Source: @oliverfelicitygifs

I cannot even believe we are getting these lines.

There is so much eye sex in their trip down memory lane that I am convinced they took the Arrow suit home for their own special kind of spin.

Source: @oliverfelicitygifs

You know Felicity has fantasized, so I think it's high time they make it a reality.

Oliver's high on crazy has given way to clarity.

This is worrying given everything we've heard his brain say over the last hour. He's not completely throwing the baby out with the bath water. He remains committed to being a husband and father. He’d like to remain mayor, but finds out he's going to be impeached. Still, Oliver believes in the good he can do as the Green Arrow. However, he is reverting back to doing things alone.

Source: dctvgifs

Felicity stresses what a colossally bad idea this is back at the apartment, but Oliver is determined to separate his worlds again.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

Lord, boy. It took us five bloody years to get you to this spot, one fight with Diggle and some bad crack, and we're right back to Compartmentalization Oliver.

Oliver regresses in some way every single season. It's always a mistake and it always reveals some greater lesson Oliver has to learn. Comparatively speaking, this is fairly late in the season for Oliver to be regressing which in and of itself shows some character growth. It probably means we'll be dealing with the consequences of this choice into the beginning of Season 7.

So, where do I think this road leading? The fundamental and inescapable truth is compartmentalization does not work. Oliver was on the right track merging his two selves. Quentin is right. Oliver is a better man, but everyone's reaction to it (fueled by their own issues) is throwing him off. He will fail even as Oliver Queen and the Green Arrow, but that doesn't mean the path is wrong.

This road Oliver is about to travel alone is only going to lead to more problems. The season trajectory is pretty clearly moving from Oliver united with those he loves to Oliver separated from those he loves. My guess is prison. But I don't believe Oliver is the character who needs to change the most. My hope is watching Oliver travel this road alone, and still fighting to be the hero he is, will trigger change in the supporting characters. A fallen hero could stop all their childish nonsense and make everyone realize they have to stop blaming Oliver for everything and take responsibility for their own lives. I include Oliver in this as well. For better or worse, Oliver holds himself responsible for EVERYONE. And that's what he has to learn. Oliver is enough, but he cannot be everything.

Source: olivergifs

Quentin and Oliver

Quentin Lance is firmly wearing his Team Oliver hat this episode and it's a welcomed reprieve from his usual crazy pants talk. I guess since Oliver is going insane Quentin had to sober up - mentally speaking.

The scenes between Oliver and Lance are some of their best all year if not the duration of the show.

Source: @olivergifs

Oliver is still a young man trying to make his way through the world. The fact that he's also an orphan seems magnified now that Thea and Diggle have left him. Captain Lance, bless his soul, steps up into the father figure role Oliver desperately needs right now.

Oliver tells Lance Diggle quit the team and blames Oliver for its disintegration. Lance is quick to defend Oliver, who to his credit, does remind Quentin he's not there to witness Oliver's leadership style.

Source: @olivergifs

STANDING. FUCKING. OVATION.

A supporting character is talking sense y'all!

And it's LANCE. Did not see that coming given his trajectory this season. He's spot on. What Oliver has wanted more than anything from Quentin Lance is his respect and he has it. Oliver earned it with six years of hard work and NOBODY gets to take that away from him. Not even John Diggle.

Oliver calls Lance to give him the evidence that clears him of impeachment but incriminates him as the Green Arrow. Quentin asks what Oliver is going to do and he answers helplessly, "I don't know." He tearfully tells Lance that Felicity wants a separation and that he lost his temper with William. Oliver is as lost, alone and heartbroken as we've ever seen him. Quentin accurately points out that losing his shiznit on William is more of a night on the couch punishment and a separation is extreme. Ummm.... YEAH.

But Oliver simply believes Felicity has left him like everyone else. UGH.

Source: @olivergifs

This might be one of the most heartbreaking lines Oliver Queen has ever spoken

and again shows how much he's grown. The old Oliver would simply shut down and solider on. The fact that he's allowing himself to feel this pain and question where everything went wrong shows Oliver embracing his humanity rather than hide from it.

Quentin has probably the best answer and gives the most insight into what is going on with all the people in Oliver's life - particularly John Diggle.

Source: clevercloudpoetry

Can I get an amen?

This is as close as Arrow has come to confirming my suspicions about John Diggle. Oliver becoming a better man means he doesn't need John in the same way. That's incredibly painful for Diggle and would certainly cause him to question his life and purpose.

I am the youngest of three girls. My parents sold my childhood home when I graduated from high school and moved away to college. My father was anxious to move out of our increasingly violent area, but my mother had other motivations. She told me the house made her sad. Every where she looked was another memory of raising her babies and now we were all moved out. We didn't need her in the same way anymore and it hurt. My mother needed a fresh start - a new purpose. The new house was really good for her and allowed her to shift into the new phase of life with my father more easily.

Oliver has grown up and moved away to college for lack of a better word. Everywhere John Diggle looks on Team Arrow is another memory and a stark reminder that he's no longer needed in the same way he once was. He's looking for a fresh start and a new purpose. John needs something beyond raising Oliver Queen the same way my mother needed something beyond raising her children. Unfortunately, Diggle hasn't dug deep into any of this yet. Instead of some self reflection, John has relied on an old standby to explain his rudderless direction - it is all Oliver Queen's fault. John believes this is a stagnancy in Oliver's growth, and not his own, when in fact the direct opposite is true.

What has not changed is the power of Diggle's words and the impact they have on Oliver. He acknowledges what Quentin says might be true, but also fears Diggle may be right - that he hasn't changed at all. Quentin delivers another humdinger of a line:

"Come on. I don't buy that. From what you've told me about John and Curtis and all those guys - they've got their own issues alright? They're just putting them on you."

Hello Quentin Lance. I have missed you.

Source: @oliverfelicitygifs

Oliver's voice breaks when he asks Quentin about Felicity, but Lance is unwavering. He adamantly reassures Oliver that Felicity loves him and this will all blow over eventually. He just needs to stay the course and Quentin will be by his side. Robert and Moira Queen could not have done any better and I have never loved Quentin Lance more than in this moment.

While this speech gives me all the feels it also fills me with dreaded certainty. Lance is reminiscing about the past. He's admiring how far Oliver has come and is basically the perfect father figure. These signs tend to point to full character evolution. We are on episode 18. This means one thing:

Quentin Lance is going to die.

Just mentally prepare okay? His character arc has circled the drain all season with this "BS is my daughter" crazy. Now he's done a 180 by embracing sanity and offering wise and sage advice for Oliver. You know who else offered sage advice to Oliver just before their deaths?

Sara.

L*urel.

Sageyness is one of the seven signs of impending death on Arrow. Particularly when it comes to Lances. Prepare your souls.

Oliver and L*urel

Speaking of L*urel, we are paid a visit from Oliver's departed ex when he hallucinates his way back into the Queen Mansion (I miss the mansion y'all). There is L*urel,

Source: supercanaries

wearing her Red Coat of Pain.

Since Oliver's deepest fears often equate to his deepest guilt then seeing L*urel at her most innocent, before she knew about Oliver's cheating and the consequences for all parties involved that it unleashed, is not surprising.

Source: katie-mcgraths

In some ways, Oliver kept L*urel frozen in this time even when she was alive. The image of who Oliver saw L*urel as, eternally innocent and broken by his deceit, never quite matched up to the woman we saw on screen. Particularly when Arrow went above and beyond to show L*urel was anything but innocent.

Sara: Do you remember when you spilled that beer on me at Tommy’s party? Well, I wasn’t even supposed to go. But I snuck out out of the house because I knew you were gonna be there. And I had this embarassing crush on you. And, Laurel she knew it. And that’s why the party got broken up by the cops. She tipped off our dad. Then I was grounded for a month and the next thing I knew... you and Laurel were together.

Oliver: You think she did all of that on purpose?

Sara: Not everybody is what they seem.

L*urel was not broken by Oliver's deceit, but by her own anger.

What's important to remember is this isn't Adrian's voice we're hearing. This is Oliver. So everything Adrian is saying is what OLIVER believes.

How he really feels about L*urel becoming the BC is not a pretty picture.

Adrian: My question is why did you let her become the Bl*ck C*n*ry in the first place? She's a lawyer. What, after a couple self defense classes and a few sparring sessions you think she's ready to go handle thugs and killers?

I mean... he's not wrong.

It's refreshing to actually HEAR Arrow admit to the unbelievability of L*urel's training. Yeah yeah, I know she trained with a boxer/vigilante for a couple episodes. Somehow that's supposed to equate to the years Oliver spent training with martial arts experts, an ASIS agent, a highly skilled and lethal Russian mob organization, and an elite member of the League of Assassins. Or the years Sara trained with the League of Assassins. At least they gave Thea six months of intensive training with Malcolm Merlyn, who was also trained by the LOA.

Oh that's right. She trained with Nyssa too. For three episodes (that we saw). L*urel was barely able to stop a knife attack in 3x21 (after supposedly training with Nyssa for several weeks) and then suddenly she's taking several armed LOA members down in 3x22. But you bet, totally believable arc. Made total sense.

Oliver harbors serious guilt over L*urel's death and this hallucination is simply a manifestation of that. There are truths, but also a hefty dose of lies.

Source: supercanaries

The primarily lie being Oliver believing he could have stopped L*urel from becoming BC, or is responsible for the life she chose, or her death in any way. The truth is Oliver wasn't supportive of LL becoming BC and he did everything he could to stop her.

In fact he told L*urel, to her face, he thought she was a liability, a loose cannon in the field, and was going to get herself killed one day.

And he was fucking right.

Oliver begrudgingly accepted her decision, but that was primarily because Diggle and Felicity illogically had L*urel’s back.

JOHN DIGGLE IS A SPECIAL FORCES SOLIDER AND HE SIGNED OFF ON LL IN THE FIELD WITH NO TRAINING AT ALL. AGAIN, MAKES TOTAL SENSE SHOW.

Quite frankly, Oliver had bigger fish to fry in Season 3 and he had to move on.

After L*urel resurrected Sara in Season 4, who then tried to kill Thea and put her in the hospital, she threw another "it's all about me" bitch fit

and Oliver folded.

He helped get Sara's soul back and all of their issues were swept under the rug.

Then Arrow killed L*urel.

So, listen buddy. Sure, L*urel eventually worked her way to capable, but to be frank you had very little to do with it and THAT'S where the guilt comes from. The sparring sessions you speak of only took place a few episodes before she died. This is Oliver's God Complex rearing his ugly head again. Maybe if he trained L*urel more (or at all), maybe if he protected her better in the field, maybe if he found a way to keep her out of the field entirely - then she would be still be alive.

Nope. Sorry fella. None of that would have worked, because L*urel was L*urel and she was gonna do what she damn well pleased. Never mind the fact that Damien Darhk magically froze the team and they were all essentially defenseless when he killed her, but that's just details. Oliver thinking he is somehow responsible for her death in any way takes away from the legitimate heroism L*urel earned.

He understood that in Season 4, but he's pretty high right now. So, I'll give him a pass this time.

Legit question though. If you are a LL fan - why are you still watching Arrow?

I am curious, because I have never seen a show so willingly shade their own creation at every turn like Arrow does with LL. They flat out called her BC arc a bunch of illogical nonsense.

I appreciate the brutal honesty from the show, but it's a zing that packs some punch. After six years of this aren't y'all tired? A few interspersed scenes of Bl*ck S*ren should as hell wouldn't keep me around.

Straight Thoughts

I've never felt so spiritually connected to Felicity Smoak in all my life. Source: felicitysmoakgifs

I appreciated that Arrow used a flashback during Oliver's hallucination with Rene to show his injury was not remotely Oliver's fault. I like when my show talks sense.

Oliver's hallucination of the newbies was the most accurate. They are petty babies in real life too.

Adrian's scar on his temple from the bullet wound is unnerving.

Don't ever kill Raisa again, show. My heart can't take it. Not even when it's fake.

"I always wondered why nobody just does that. Kill you straight." Diaz needs to watch Season 3. See how that option goes. Source: dctvgifs

"Not a great track record when it comes to hiring DA's though." Of all of Adrian Chases' lines are fab, but this is my fave.

This evil cupcake. Source: olivergifs

"He's buying us expensive gifts if he knows what's good for him." Felicity wifes like I wife.

I love this kid. Source: olivergifs

Arrow wisely previewed an Olicity kiss for the all villain ep this week.

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me. 6x18 gifs credited.

#arrow #olicity #arrow 6x18 #oliver queen #felicity smoak #arrow reviews #quentin lance #arrow spoilers #anti laurel lance #anti black canary #anti lauriver #arrow season 6 #season 6 episode review #season 6 episode reviews

205 notes · View notes

lightsandlostbells · 6 years

Text

Skam France 2.10 and 2.11 reaction

Skam France dropped two episodes last week, so I’m gonna put them together.

this is another angry recap so heads up if you’re not into those

Episode 10

Clip 1 - Mickael and Lisa are very loud

Right off the bat - worst birthday ever. Making it Manon’s birthday was a good way to adapt these scenes into a holiday setting, though.

Are they play-acting so Manon can hear, or is this supposed to be a conversation between them and they’re careless enough to be too loud?

Actually I think this is a real conversation, not a performance for Manon. I think Lisa is sincere and she’s genuinely forgotten Manon’s birthday. Also that she really thinks for a second they’ve got to celebrate the pope’s birthday.

Lisa saying she misses Manon is sweet. Pretty sure they’re not going to delve into this family relationship or anything but it’s nice especially considering Lisa seems quite cantankerous.

Lisa telling Mickael to open the door faster made me laugh for some reason. She doesn’t have time to prolong the drama.

This whole conversation is funny but poor Manon, she just wants to shut out the world.

Clip 2 - Mickael gets real

Manon’s actress continues to do a good job. She looks so tired and beaten down by everything.

Mickael and Lisa are both cute in their rendition of Happy Birthday! Lisa has so much more energy than Linn.

“We’re sorry to steal from your cupboards all the time and ruin your life like leeches from hell.” lmao I love Mickael.

I was apprehensive following the previous scene, because we got a funny conversation between Mickael and Lisa, but not the more serious and caring side of Mickael and the talk with Eskild that was in the original clip. I was worried because overall his character has felt less nurturing than Eskild and he hasn’t seemed to have as close of a bond with Manon - there were a few moments that were played more for humor than to indicate a strong relationship. It made me nervous that they were taking Mickael more in the direction of “gay comic relief” rather than showing his more substantial sides. So the fact they followed up the earlier conversation with Michael talking to Manon in a heavier way here was reassuring. We get to see his more caring side. He sympathizes with her and acknowledges how much he talks about his life but offers to listen as well. The actor is great and I hope they continue to give him the meatier material, especially in S3

I know he’s saying it because he’s worried, but telling a person with an eating disorder she has to eat entirety of her tray maybe isn’t the best advice? Though I doubt he knows about her ED.

Clip 3 - Charles shows up

I do think it makes it more random and less sense that she’d be like “go party with your friends, Charles” when it’s her own birthday. Or does he know that? He has to know that, didn’t he get her the cake? He’d probably see it on social media?

This is in my opinion the best Noorhelm scene of that relationship, and it almost was of Marles, too. Charles/William acts like a decent person, comes in semi-confrontational but gets his priorities straight when he sees that Manon/Noora is breaking down and panicking, and tries to calm her down and support her. The original scene of him lying down with Noora was genuinely touching and supportive.

They were on the right track and then they botched it. I have an anxiety disorder. I have had panic attacks. I know how scary they are. You don’t “help” someone with a panic attack by physically picking them and making them leave despite them crying at you they don’t want to go out. What the hell. Why would they add that?

I mean I feel like there’s some weird gender shit going on here, with Charles being the alpha male type and then Manon being the fragile woman and it’s OK for Charles to ignore what she’s saying because Charles Knows Best. Not to mention this is the show’s idea of a swoon-worthy moment. We gotta get the guy carrying the girl around like a little doll.

Lol, I even saw some weird justification of this moment along the lines of “Well, if she really didn’t want to go out, I’m sure he would have respected that.” She’s crying and telling him she doesn’t want to go out. What more does she have to do to get the message across? Does she have to physically fight him?

Clip 4 - Birthday cake

Well, the cake looks pretty, and at least they wrote in a new scene to acknowledge her birthday.

Also, don’t totally love that he took her phone away. I get it, he probably wants her to just chill, but in connection with everything else, it’s just another small way he’s jumping in and making decisions for her. I would not have been as annoyed if this wasn’t a pattern in their relationship or if this wasn’t immediately following a moment where Charles overrides Manon’s pleas on how to handle her own panic attack.

This scene of them on the rooftop felt like something out of a kdrama in terms of music and slow motion staring at each other. Or at least how I remember the kdramas I’ve seen.

I don’t get why he needed to take her to the rooftop other than the #aesthetic since he just carries her back to her room. I know it’s where their first date was, but she was freaking out and panicking when he tried to make her leave. I really can’t get over that! Whyyy did they need that moment?

Did Charles look at her phone? Sort of dilutes the impact of him not reading her Facebook messages.

He muted the volume on her computer at least.

Episode 11

Clip 1 - Charles writing

I guess Charles was up writing this article for a while since it’s like 5 in the morning.

Confession time: I’ve never really liked that William (and now Charles) wrote the article for her. I know it’s considered to be one of the better things he did for her but even when I was watching S2 for the first time, I was like 😕 “Can’t they give me something to like about him that I don’t have reservations about?” I don’t think this was a terrible horrible thing he did, and admittedly I am bringing personal feelings into this situation, but it’s just something that I would not be OK with if someone did it for me without telling me first. I would be really panicked and upset if someone did this to me even if they meant it to be a kindness. He wrote the article and submitted it without her consent. Her name is on it. That means she’ll be held accountable for whatever the article says. Consider that Manon and Charles have been disagreeing on tons of topics so far - in fact Charles’ ability to make Manon rethink her opinions is a point that has been explicitly made about their relationship. So when it comes to the article, how can you expect that Manon and Charles would agree on the same points? Someone can be well-intentioned and still say stuff that’s a bit clueless, or make a mistake, and then it’s Manon who would be responsible. This only works if you assume Charles was a great writer with the right opinions - it excuses the action based on the outcome, without considering if the action itself is appropriate. (Which, to be frank, is true of many actions in this season.)

I would’ve preferred if he’d written it and then shown it to her to get her approval before sending. (“But that would have ruined the surprise/she wouldn’t have agreed to send it” - uh, too bad? She should get a voice in this. I get that she’s dealing with serious anxiety, I know what that feels like. But lol, imagine the resulting anxiety if Charles had sent out the article and it had a bunch of errors or some questionable opinions in it and Manon was criticized for it.)

The best case scenario is that he just took her notes and compiled them into something cohesive, which was somewhat implied, but she didn’t have enough notes to make a long enough article without him injecting his own thoughts.

Clips 2 and 3 - Manon and her girls

Did Charles make her tea? Now that’s a nice gesture.

Charles is watching her sleep, just to bring in those true Edward Cullen vibes. Manon was right about this being Twilight!

Lmao, explain to me why she had to wear that tiny dress? That looks like something I’d have worn to a middle school dance when I still had braces. It’s not Norwegian Constitution Day where the girls are going to be dressed up. It’s Manon’s birthday - she can dress however the hell she wants. She doesn’t have to dress up, she could wear her normal clothes. She could roll over to the party in sweats and a nacho cheese-stained T-shirt.

The music and imagery in the last two clips has been getting super soap opera-ish.

And when Manon shows up, the other girls are wearing their normal clothes, jeans and comfy clothes. Again, why did Manon need the dress?

Heh, how much did they pay for the rights to sing Happy Birthday? Or is it only in the US that you have to cough up a pretty penny to use it on TV?

I looked it up and apparently the song was officially recognized to be in the public domain in 2016! Good to know.

The girls are very cute performing Happy Birthday, though. Love the placement of the birthday hats at jaunty angles.

I’m not really qualified to talk about this as a non-Norwegian but I’ve read a bit about the patriotic themes in S2, and how it’s fitting that Noora tells the girls on Constitution Day (how living in a free, democratic country means you have to believe the law will protect you from assholes like Niko) and that ties in to the overall motifs of the season, and so that’s obviously lost here. It’s a missed opportunity, especially with the article. I think if they tried harder they could have written, you know ... something that related more to this adaptation and French youth, instead of repeating a speech that specifically about Norwegian culture. That’s the bare minimum, my dudes.

Like when Daphne says they need to go to the police because they’re in France and the law will protect them ... I mean, sure, but it’s just one of those things that lacks the thematic relevance of the original as it’s not a national holiday at the time.

(They’re going to do 21:21 for S3 without any changes, aren’t they? Goddammit. I will believe them that they’re changing the storyline when I see it and not just hear it.)

A minor nitpick: I also feel like it’s kinda odd to read her article aloud? It made sense with Noora since it related to the holiday they were celebrating and could fit into their festivities but this is just a random article. In that case I’d find it weird if my friends just started reading something I’d written out loud. I mean it’s one thing to congratulate her for a job well done but IDK, felt out of place.

But Emma only gets a few lines in, so thankfully we didn’t have to hear the whole thing awkwardly re-purposed for this remake.

Poor Manon with tears in her eyes. Her acting continues to be very good. Manon is more openly emotional and sad than Noora, who seems more like she freezes or shuts down or tries to close herself off.

Hug pile :(

Loved to see Daphne be at the forefront of taking Manon to the hospital and supporting her while they’re there.

Clip 4 - Justice

Nico is such a rat.

Also his ass is dumb.

But that’s no surprise.

Manon is more no nonsense and less playing with Nico than Noora was.

Actually I preferred that they cut out the line about not dropping the soap and had her throw her drink in his face instead, good job, Manon! That was satisfying.

Clip 5 - The point of no return

So. This is the part when watching the original series where I knew I could never like William or Noorhelm.

I’m going to go into a personal tangent, skip if you want. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned how I got into Skam in one of these recaps so my apologies if I’m repeating the story.

I discovered Skam completely randomly during S3, via a YouTube recommendation. Of all things, strangely it was because I had watched a preview for the show Eyewitness, which was an American remake of a Norwegian show about two boys who witness some murders while making out in the woods. I enjoy crime stories/mysteries and the premise sounded intriguing, so I watched the first 10 minutes of the pilot that the network had put on YouTube as a teaser, and then some interviews talking about the show. Eyewitness turned out to not to be my thing and I didn’t watch more than a few episodes, but because I’d watched it, YouTube started recommending me clips from other shows with gay couples, including Skam. One night I was bored and decided to finally click on one of the Skam clips. I was hooked right away, impressed by the writing, directing, acting, and chemistry.

This was still really early in Skam’s viral spread during the fall/winter of 2016. There wasn’t nearly the amount of information and organized how-to-watch-Skam guides available in English at this point. I learned about the social media concept and real-time distribution of the show from reading the YouTube comments. The first clip I got to watch in real time was the pool scene. If you were there at the time, you might remember the 10-day hiatus between episodes 5 and 6. That was when I decided to watch seasons 1 and 2. Before that point, I had not heard a single bad thing about Noorhelm, William, or S2. In fact, I only heard overwhelming praise from the YouTube comments - people commenting that they missed William, encouraging people to watch the previous seasons and singling out S2 as an amazing storyline (and a number of people saying S1 was boring but to stick it out to S2), telling people Noora and William’s relationship was fantastic. I mention this because for some reason, certain fans are under the impression that people decided to randomly hate S2/Noorhelm/William based on opinions they read on Tumblr and it’s only bandwagon hate. So this is just to say - I did not go into S2 with any negative expectations. I wouldn’t even say I was hyping it too much in my mind so that I was bound to be disappointed. I just expected it to be decent television.

I watched S1 in like a day and loved it. I especially admired how all of the characters had both good and bad sides, and how the characters who easily could have been demonized, like Ingrid and Iben, were made into human and sympathetic figures by the season’s end. Did not love William’s behavior at all, thought he was a creep, but hey, he apologized to Vilde at the end of the season! That must be the character development I saw people mention in the comments! And so I reasoned that S2 would redeem William and manage to sell me on Noora/William. It wasn’t my preferred storyline but I loved S1 and I loved what had been released of S3 so far, so they could probably make me enjoy it, right? And besides, S1 had been pretty good in a lot of ways about sexism and gender roles, I trusted the show to continue that into S2.

So I started S2. And I saw William text Noora even when she’d rejected him. Okay, I thought, not a great start, but it’s the beginning of the season. Surely this behavior will be addressed, and he has plenty of time to change his attitude. And I saw William use Vilde in order to finally get Noora on that date. Yikes, I thought, I thought he was supposed to get better? This is textbook male entitlement. I didn’t feel OK with his behavior.

But OK, we’re only on episode 2! So much time to turn it around! And then we learned that William apologized to Vilde in exchange for a date with Noora. Errrr, that makes his apology a lot less satisfying and much more self-serving, I thought. And then I watched William take Noora on a date, and Noora confront William with his shitty behavior toward her and Vilde, and to my great bafflement, I saw William not express regret for his actions, but instead justify his actions not once, but repeatedly, with reasons that were flimsy at best and appalling at worst. I saw Noora tell William he had manipulated her in order to get her on that date and William deny it and turn it back on Noora. The scene made me furious. At that moment I hated William even more than I’d disliked him in S1 - because S1 was supposed to show him at his worst and ended with a moment of him displaying some self-improvement. Why the fresh hell would we then get this scene that effectively erased that character growth in order to show how selfish his motivations really were? I hated that scene. Hated hated hated it.

We were still early in the season, though. And episode 3 had admittedly a nice scene of Noora and William hanging out together - it was a nice scene because Noora was so cute, though, not because of much to do with William, and marred by William saying some misogynistic crap and then not owning up to it when called on it. But all right. It was progress.

Throughout the season, however, there was a pattern, where there would be a moment where William seemed decent for a fraction of a second, only to show his ass and do something I found obnoxious, entitled, or awful shortly afterwards. The midseason peak was him bashing a bottle over a dude’s head, justifying it, and belittling Noora for not understanding his Great and Important motivations for bashing a bottle over the guy’s head. This was followed by a scene I found horrific in which the show’s designated voice of reason told Noora that she needed to understand why her boyfriend bashed a bottle over a guy’s head, or else it was unreasonable and just like how war begins or some shit like that, in response to Noora’s objections to her boyfriend being violent. Viewing this scene was deeply surreal, as I was aware that this was the voice of the writer telling me why I should like William or why it was wrong for me to dislike William. The scene’s message made no sense in context.

At this point I had realized I probably wasn’t going to like William - in addition to his crappy behavior and attitude, he wasn’t written in a particularly compelling or 3D way, and the performance wasn’t charismatic enough to hold my interest (although I want to stress that it wasn’t the deal-breaker and I could tolerate mediocre acting for a well-written complex character). Yet I held out a little bit of hope that there would be an 11th hour revelation or redemption arc where we could see how much William had grown and the sexism and male entitlement that had been threaded throughout the season would be addressed properly. We got William calming down Noora from anxiety in what I thought was a genuinely lovely scene. I didn’t much care for him writing the article but it wasn’t something I hated him for. For a moment, things seemed like they might turn around.

And then, we came to this clip. The point of no return.

A scene in which William gets in Noora’s face, towers over her, doesn’t hear her out, shakes her off and leaves her crying in the middle of the schoolyard.

That would be bad enough as it is, though I can maybe understand his reaction in the heat of the moment. Maybe. But it wasn’t until I read the text messages afterwards that I was well and truly done. Noora texts William like an hour after this scene happens. She explicitly says that if anything happened between her and Niko, it would have been assault, she blacked out, and she’s pressed charges against Niko. And William ignored her for days afterwards.

This is so unbelievably cruel that it killed any hope I had for this storyline, it killed any possibility that I could like his character or root for this relationship. He knows she might have been raped and he ignores her when she is pleading for him to talk to her. He doesn’t reach out to her on his own, either; it takes Noora tracking him down and demanding his attention. I don’t remember him ever specifically apologizing for this behavior (if he did and I forgot about it, feel free to remind me). He apologizes for Niko. Not for himself.

Imagine Noora, who still thinks she may have been assaulted, who is still dealing with the trauma, having to also deal with the boyfriend she loves abandoning her and shutting her out. Imagine how tender William was with her earlier in the episode as he saw she was breaking down, and how it feels when he withdraws that tenderness after he finds out the reason why she was breaking down in the first place.

Let’s not even get into the real-life context of this scene, and how rape victims are often treated like dirt by friends, family, and romantic partners after they come forward about their assault. Let’s just mention that rape victims fear their loved ones won’t believe them, will blame them, or reject them, to the point where it’s a huge factor in why they don’t come forward, and that what happens with Noora here when William leaves is the embodiment of that fear.

It’s not just that William has flaws. Everyone on this show has flaws. It’s the way his flaws are handled. There is too much baggage with his character in terms of real-life sexism and gender roles, too little remorse and empathy from the character himself, that it’s beyond what I can enjoy in a fictional love interest.

“We don’t know what Niko may have told him.” That’s true, and I did consider that at the time. But you know what? William knows Niko is a creep. If Niko made any kinds of threats toward Noora, if there was any way he misled William other than just saying Noora was a slut who threw herself at him or anything we could have predicted knowing what we’ve seen from Niko, we needed to hear about it once the situation had been cleared up. Julie needed to have William explain so we know he at least had an understandable, non-self-centered motivation for reacting the way he did.

“William was just hurt/didn’t know how to deal.” I cannot stress how much I don’t give a shit about how William was so hurt compared to how Noora must feel in this situation. Noora told him rape may have happened. Why in the world would I prioritize William’s feelings over the feelings of a sexual assault victim in relation to her own potential rape?

Fuck William. Fuck Charles. Fuck this narrative that is constantly putting a guy’s boner feels and manpain above the female lead’s agency, rational concerns, and mental health. Fuck this narrative that is constantly encouraging us to empathize and understand an entitled dude’s emotions and actions, including sexism and violence, while the same entitled dude shows little empathy or understanding for a potential rape victim, a girl whose self-image was damaged by him telling her she wasn’t attractive enough, or a girl who rejects him romantically. Fuck the double standards of women having to understand and empathize with men when they are behaving like assholes but men not having to empathize or show compassion to women, including when they are victimized, by putting aside their own feelings for a goddamn minute.

Anyway, back to the Skam France clip.

Daphne got aroused from kissing Emma … hmmm

Once again, absolutely no comment from or about the supposedly bi girl sitting right there with them, which might change the context of the scene a bit.

This soap opera music starting as Charles comes thundering up to Manon.

DID THIS ASSHOLE MOVE IMANE OUT OF THE WAY WHEN SHE TOLD HIM TO WAIT

FUCK YOU DUDE

DID HE SHOVE MANON AGAINST THE WINDOW

“Answer yes or no” “I don’t know.” YOUR FIRST CLUE, JACKASS.

oh BOO FUCKING HOO Charles is crying, so glad this is about his hurt feelings and not his girlfriend potentially being raped.

Oh cool and he knocked her on the floor so she’s crying on the ground, great, she thinks she might have been raped and here’s what we have now.

SHE TEXTS HIM AFTERWARDS. AND TELLS HIM. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AGAINST HER WILL.

HOW DID THEY MAKE THIS SCENE WORSE

General Comments

I was willing to give Marles a chance in the hopes that they would rewrite the worst parts of this relationship, but instead it’s like they’ve double down on Charles’ domineering bullshit and it makes me so angry. That’s really all I have to say.

I’m not French so if I misunderstood some context, feel free to correct me.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

#skamfr reactions

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wordlesscaptain · 6 years

Text

Tinder Bait: Part 2 (Steve x Reader)

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Word Count: 2.1k+

Warnings: language

Prompt: “I’m very, very bad under pressure.”

Summary: Tony decides to meddle in your life yet again and sign you up for Tinder…but there’s a catch.

A/N: This is my entry for @e-g-b-o-k’s 500 Follower Celebration Writing Challenge. This is part 2. More of Tony’s incessant shenanigans occur. Also, there’s a sprinkle of Worried!Steve.

Series Masterlist

The next day, Tony called you back into the briefing room to get the specifics for Friday’s date. You were thankful that he and the team had a game plan for this. Tony planning things by himself was always dangerous. You had definitely been on the receiving end of Tony’s spontaneous plans, which usually never went the way he intended for them to go. Having the entire team, not just Tony, work on this eased your worries. Unfortunately, Natasha and Wanda were still working on whatever it was Tony had tasked them with. Clint and Vision were currently out on a last minute mission. So, it was just you, the three army veterans, and the billionaire. It made for quite the dynamic. You were currently seated at the table next to Steve while Sam and Bucky sat on the opposite side of you. Tony stood at the front of the room with a remote in his hand.

“FRIDAY, cue the presentation, please,” he bellowed.

“Right away, sir,” the AI replied. Instantly, the lights dimmed and a holographic projection of a presentation appeared behind Tony. Just as he was about to start his presentation, you spoke up.

“Did you really make a PowerPoint for this?”

“A stroke of genius, I know,” he retorted.

“Probably your best idea yet,” Sam smirked. Everyone laughed, minus Tony.

Tony cleared his throat, “Anyway, we’re going to go through a basic rundown on what’s going to happen Friday night. If you have any questions, please keep them to yourself. I don’t want to hear them.”

“What about-,” Bucky interjected.

“Barnes,” Tony warned, glaring at him.

“Hey, why don’t we-,” Sam started.

“Shush!” Tony cut him off. You rolled your eyes and smiled slightly. Those two could go on bothering Tony for hours if no one stopped them. Tony was never able to stop them himself, because he often got too caught up in their shenanigans. You always thought he secretly enjoyed it. So, it was up to either you or Steve to end it. But you weren’t going to stop them, at least not yet. It’s not that you didn’t want to hear what Tony had to say, you were just enjoying the friendly squabble unfold before you. They continued to bicker back and forth. You glanced at Steve and saw a small smile on his face. He was enjoying it, too. He caught your eye and you gave him a knowing look.

Steve leaned in close to you and whispered in your ear, “We should probably put an end to this.” You could feel his hot breath on your skin. It sent a slight shiver down your spine.

“Be my guest,” you offered, gesturing towards the group.

“But I always do it,” he protested.

“They’re your friends, Steve.”

“They’re your friends, too.”

“They listen better to you.”

“That’s not true and you-”

“Ooh, Capsicle and Y/N are having a moment,” Tony blurted. You immediately looked away from each other, your cheeks both dusting pink. Was it really a moment? It didn’t feel like anything special. It felt normal, natural even, being that close to him. You didn’t want to overanalyze it, though, not right not at least.

“Can you get on with the presentation, please, Tony?” you asked, hoping he wouldn’t bother you and Steve any further. That was the last thing you needed.

“I don’t know, can I?” he retorted. You looked at him flatly. “Okay, let’s get started. I’ve already set up a time and place for Friday,” he clicked to the first slide with the name of the restaurant, ‘Le Bernardin’, and the time, ‘7:00pm’. “It’s fancy, but not high end.” That most likely meant it was high end. “I personally know the owner and have informed him of the situation. So if anything does get a little weird, he won’t be freaked out.” He knew the owner personally? Yep, definitely high end.

The second slide popped up and you nearly fell out of your chair. This slide had a picture of the interior of the restaurant. The walls were all covered in dark wood panels. A giant abstract painting, that had to of cost thousands if not millions of dollars, hung on the wall. In the middle of the dining area was a table covered in a satin white table cloth. Four giant, rectangular, glass vases sat atop it with giant hydrangeas delicately placed inside them. Each table also had satin white table cloths. The chairs alongside the tables were plush and dark brown. The place setting was incredibly over whelming. There were way too many spoons and forks to make sense of. And the dishes! They were rimmed with gold. You hoped to God it wasn’t real gold.

“Not high end, my ass!” you hollered. “There’s no way in hell I can afford this place. Not to mention, I’ll stick out like a sore thumb there.”

“Not to worry,” he waved. “I’ve got the bill covered. You deserve to go somewhere a little fancy. And regards to ‘sticking out like a sore thumb’,” he put in air quotes, “I’ve also got that covered.”

You crossed your arms over your chest and slumped down into your seat. “Okay, okay.”

“Good.” He switched to the next slide. “We’ll have you take a cab to the restaurant. We can’t have you arriving in style in one of my easy to distinguish cars. You’ll go up to the hostess and she’ll lead you to the table. You’ll talk to the guy and when we think we’ve gotten all the information we need from him, we’ll give you the signal to get the hell out of there. You’ll say something to him along the lines of ‘Hey’-smirk or something, I don’t know-‘wanna get out of here?’” he said in a sultry voice.

“Channel my inner Tony, got it,” you replied.

“Exactly. Then you’ll lead him out the front and we’ll be there waiting for him.” You nodded.

“Tony and I will be up in the air circling the building to keep a look out for any suspicious behavior,” Sam added.

“Bucky and I will be on the ground doing the same thing. Bucky will be stationed at the front door and I’ll be at the back.” Bucky nodded as Steve continued. “He’s an important guy to HYDRA, so we suspect he’ll have guards or something in the surrounding area.”

“As for your date, here’s what to expect,” he said as clicked to the next slide with a few photos of the man in question. You grimaced. His first photo was a cliché mirror selfie. That was always a telltale sign of douchebag. He had dark brown slicked back hair. It was pretty obvious he used way too much styling gel, because his hair looked greasy. He had a pointed nose and a well defined jawline. He was muscular, but not nearly as much as Steve or Bucky. He looked very stoic in his photos. He definitely gave off a narcissistic vibe.

“This is William Rowland. A real catch, as you can see. We know he’s pretty high up in HYDRA’s ranks. He’s not at the top, but he should have top level information that hopefully you can get out of him. Let’s see, his bio says he’s 6’3, loves dogs…and promotes world peace. I’m pretty sure he’s killed a guy.”

“So I’m going on a date with a murderer, great,” you replied flatly.

“At least he likes dogs,” Bucky chimed in.

“You know,” you paused, “this actually might not be the worst date I’ve ever been on.” They all looked at you with skepticism.

“Really?” Steve asked. You nodded.

“Do tell,” Sam encouraged.

“Okay, so I had this friend in high school who set me up on a blind date. She said she thought we’d be a perfect match. I believed her and agreed to go on a date with this mystery guy. I was on my way to meet him, when some guy rammed into the side of my car. I pulled over and he got out of his car and started yelling at me for hitting him. It was clearly his fault, but he wasn’t convinced. He kept saying he had to be somewhere, so he couldn’t wait for the cops to come. We exchanged information and he went on his merry way. I called the cops anyway to get things sorted out.

“By the time I got to the restaurant, my date was already there. I saw him from afar sitting in the back of the restaurant. He looked oddly familiar, but I thought it was probably just because we went to school together. But when I got closer, he turned out to be the guy who hit me just minutes earlier.” Sam and Bucky erupted in laughter.

“Nuh uh!” Sam bellowed.

“No way!” Bucky yelled.

“Yep,” you nodded.

“Wow,” Tony muttered. “Even I haven’t had a date that bad.”

“What can you do?” you shrugged. “Let’s just hope this Tinder date goes better.”

You noticed Steve was awfully quiet. You gave him a quick glace and noticed his jaw was clenched. Was he…angry? You had no idea why. Was he upset by the story you just told or your upcoming date? He seemed like he was hiding something from you. You two had an open and honest relationship with each other. That meant you told each other everything. Every time someone got on your nerves at work, every time your coworkers didn’t do their job and you had to pick up their slack, every time a mission didn’t go the way he wanted it to, every time Tony pressed his buttons too much. Everything. You were determined to ask him what was bothering him later.

“Well,” Tony spoke up, breaking you from your thoughts. “That’s the end of my presentation. Any questions?” Bucky and Sam’s hands went up instantly. He turned to them with an annoyed look. “Not from you two,” he scolded. He turned to look at you. “Y/N?” he asked with calmer tone. You shook your head.

“Alright! We’ll regroup on Friday.” He gathered his belongings and left the room. Sam and Bucky soon followed suit. You and Steve were the only ones who remained in the room. You let out a heavy sigh and turned to face Steve.

“Alright Rogers, spill it,” you said a little more harshly than you intended.

“Spill what?” he asked. You rolled your eyes. You knew he knew what you meant.

“What’s bothering you,” you replied flatly.

“Nothing’s bothering me.”

“Steve,” you gave him a pointed look. He sighed and looked away from you.

“I don’t know how I feel about this,” he mumbled.

“About what? Me? The mission? Tony and his terribly expensive taste?” you asked hoping to lighten his mood with the last question. It worked because he let out a laugh.

“No no, I know exactly how I feel about Tony,” he looked at you with a small smile. “It’s you I’m worried about.”

“Me?”

“And the mission!” he added quickly. “You and the mission.”

“What are you worried about? I’m going to be in some the best hands in the entire universe. I’ll be alright, Steve,” you reassured.

“Yeah. It’s just-I don’t,” he paused as he rubbed the back of his neck, “I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you,” he said barely above a whisper. You were slightly taken aback by his words. You knew you two were close. Extremely close for that matter. Was he saying that because of your friendship or was there something more there? There was definitely something in his tone of voice that was throwing you off, but you couldn’t put your finger on what it was. You shook off the pestering thoughts and replied.

“Well, if you’re so worried about that, let’s do everything in our power to prevent something like that from happening.”

“That’s the goal,” he said, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.

“I have an idea,” you smirked.

“What?” he asked apprehensively, but with a gleam in his eyes.

“Remember way back in the day when we first met?” He nodded. “I was sitting at the receptionist’s desk and Tony was there?” He nodded again. “And he kept poking me with-oh, what was it? Pencils?”

“Mhm” he nodded with a smile.

“And then you said to me, ‘Remind me later to give you some self-defense lessons. You’re going to need them around him, ’” you said in a mocking tone. Steve’s smile got bigger. “That was years ago, Steve. I’m still vulnerable to Tony’s pencil attacks!” you joked.

“We’ll start tomorrow,” he laughed.

Part 3

Taglist:

@superwholockian5ever @e-g-b-o-k

Please let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist!

#steve x reader #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers #captain america x reader #captain america fanfiction #marvel fanfiction #marvel imagine #avengers imagine #avengers x reader #avengers fanfiction #captain america #reader insert #wordlesscaptain #tinder bait

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crazy-noonoohead · 6 years

Text

So no one told you life was gonna be this way. *CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP!*

I’ve spent the past two months re-watching all of Friends from beginning to end (that’s right, all ten seasons in two months), and I just finished the series a couple of days ago. This was a project I had wanted to take on for a while now (and yes, binge-watching a TV show totally counts as a project, especially one that ran as long as Friends), and thanks to Netflix, I was finally able to do it. Friends is the first TV show that I remember ending. I spent most of my childhood under the assumption that TV shows just kept going until they got abruptly cancelled or the entire cast died of old age, but then the words “series finale” entered my life. Watching it now is a very different experience than watching it when it was on TV, and I have some thoughts.

Things that don’t hold up (I forgive these things because we were a lot less conscious of them in the 90s/early 2000s than we are now, but it’s still important to acknowledge the parts that would be considered offensive if the show had been written in this decade):

*Awful lot of straight, white, cisgender, thin people in New York City. In ten seasons, I think there have been three interracial relationships, and two involved the same person outside of the friend group (Ross and Julie, Joey and Charlie, Ross and Charlie). If I missed any, someone please let me know.

*Toxic masculinity. A lot of the jokes in this show give me an “LOL STRAIGHT MEN DOING SOMETHING FEMININE” vibe now (nap buddies, Chandler calling Joey a woman when he gets into potpourri, Chandler and Joey worrying if they hug too often). If those same jokes were in a script today, I would want them to make fun of the internalized toxic masculinity instead of making fun of the actions themselves. Although, in the episode where Ross freaks out about Ben having a Barbie doll, his side is clearly written as the wrong one, so they get points for that.

*Body shaming jokes. This one gets more of a pass, because even Monica joked about how she used to be overweight (“I WAS the pile of coats!”), but a lot of the comments about her past appearance would be criticized a lot more heavily today. Unfortunately, this is still an issue in media, but I think viewers are more likely to call TV shows out on it now than we were then.

*Ross’ jealous, controlling tendencies were written as funny quirks. Now I know to stay away from people who have those qualities as strongly as Ross does. That’s not endearing. That leads to unhealthy relationships.

*Trigger warning: Sexual assault. They completely made light of the fact that Joey’s tailor sexually assaulted him for most of his life. While I admit I still laughed at the “That’s not how they do pants!” line, I don’t think a network would even dream of having that happen to any of the women on the show. Also, Paolo didn’t “make a move on” Phoebe. What he did was harassment.

*Semi-related to the last one, there was the occasional comment about characters liking certain celebrities who were later revealed to have sexually harassed and/or assaulted people. I 100% don’t fault the writers for this because they couldn’t have known, but watching now, with that knowledge, I definitely had some “...Oh” moments. Of course now I can’t think of any examples, but I know I’ve gotten that feeling a few times.

*With the exception of Rachel, everyone starts the show with stable jobs and enough financial security to live independently in nice apartments in their mid/late 20s. REALLY? Maybe that was easier in the 90s, but it wasn’t THAT easy. I’m now older than these characters were at the beginning of the series, and very few of my friends have moved out of their parents’ houses. Our 20s aren’t as grown up as we used to think.

Things that totally still hold up:

*Everyone’s comedic timing! They may not be the greatest, most versatile actors ever (I still see their Friends characters in other roles they’ve played), but they’re still very funny and they delivered their lines and reactions in just the right ways.

*The bittersweet, mostly-feel-good, classic sitcom ending. Its series finale had every quality most people would expect and want, and while most of my favorite series finales don’t wrap everything up neatly, this one did so in a good, effective way. I do have that “one coupling in a TV friend group is enough” mindset, and I even thought that when I first watched the finale at 13, but I still wasn’t bothered by Rachel getting off the plane. Although, I cared more that it would be easier for Ross to see Emma than I did about his relationship with Rachel.

*Their willingness not to shy away from some of the more serious life events, obviously aside from the one I mentioned earlier in this note. The best example is when Monica and Chandler found out they probably couldn’t have children. This was one of the only times Chandler didn’t try to lighten the mood with a joke, because it was a big deal and had to be treated as such. Showing the difficulty of the adoption process added to this, because while I may not have personal experience in the matter (yet), I know it’s not easy.

*Alternatively, finding the humor in serious situations. Phoebe had a very disturbing past, but the way she talked about it so casually is still funny. No one’s laughing at her mom’s death (hopefully), but the show allows us to laugh at her willingness to joke about it...and use it to guilt-trip people into giving her what she wants.

*How quickly Chandler accepted his dad after going to his show. I don’t think his issues were ever with his dad being gay, but more that he left, and the person he left for also happened to be a man. Yes, there were jokes about his dad wearing dresses in public, but of course that bothered him as a child, because kids in elementary and middle school are mean and used that to make fun of him. Allowing himself to move past that and reconnect with his dad after years of not speaking was a great moment in the series, and again, wasn’t played as a joke. Something funny probably happened immediately after that, but the moment itself was taken seriously.

*So many things are still relatable. The struggles of finding a job, eventually finding a new job you really love, finding meaningful romantic relationships (for those of you who are interested in those), etc. will always be relevant. Watching Rachel’s journey from someone who still relied on her parents’ money to someone with enough financial independence has a lot more meaning to me now than it did when the show first aired.

*Going back to Ross being jealous and controlling, I like that Rachel got mad and called him out instead of immediately forgiving him because it meant that he cares about her. His actions may have made the audience laugh, but he still didn’t get away with it.

*Despite the lack of non-white characters, the few interracial relationships just were. Julie happened to be Asian and Charlie happened to be black, and no one made a thing out of it.

*All six characters have both flattering and not so flattering qualities, and you never doubt that they genuinely care about each other. I don’t think I need to elaborate any more.

Other random thoughts:

*I’m definitely the most like Phoebe, but I have Chandler’s sarcastic humor, as well as some aspects of Monica in the way I like some things organized.

*I want a CD of all of Phoebe’s songs. “Smelly Cat” is still better than the entire score to [show title redacted].

*A lot of cool celebrity cameos/guest stars, most of which are people I wouldn’t start recognizing until years later! (Hank Azaria, Jane Lynch, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Ellen Pompeo, Ron Glass, Mae Whitman, and Danny DeVito, to name a few.)*I never watched Mad About You, but now that I know Ursula is a character on that show, I appreciate the cross-over.

*There’s a fan theory that Ross has Asperger’s, and I’m into it.

*Rachel ordering the lobster on her date with Joey was definitely a shout-out to “He’s her lobster” back in the second season, her getting sick from what she thought was the lobster was an indication that they didn’t belong together, and her getting sick right before she has an affair with him in the alternate universe episode proves that even more (shout-out to my friend Tracy for bringing that last part to my attention), and nothing will convince me otherwise.

*To help myself ease out of the withdrawal, I started watching Joey. It’s not as bad as I remember people saying it was, but...it’s not that good. With the exception of Joey, the characters are pretty one-dimensional, and a lot of the jokes feel forced. The fact that I only remembered two things from the show (memorizing a monologue but performing it at the wrong play, and presenting an award to the wrong person YEARS BEFORE STEVE HARVEY DID IT) says a lot about its quality. As much as I love Joey, I think the wrong friend got the spin-off. The one I’d really like to see is about Phoebe’s life before she met the rest of the group. Just like she always does, she’d be able to find the humor even in the toughest of times, and I think it would be a very interesting story.

*I still hear, “we’d come up to poop in your ear” instead of, “your week, your month, or even your year,” despite knowing better.

*They were most definitely, without a single doubt, on a break.

So parts of Friends didn’t age well, but 10-20 years from now, we’ll be saying the same thing about beloved TV shows from this decade. And in my personal opinion, the parts that did age well outweigh the parts that didn’t, which is why I love it just as much now as I did back then. I’m thrilled that after all these years, it’s still there for me, like it’s been there before.

#Friends #Friends TV show

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winstonhcomedy · 6 years

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How’d Winston Do Last Night? 10/25

I AM SO BEHIND ON EVERYTHING I’M A GIANT FAILURE!!! OMFG

JK baybees and laydees! I am back to run down and reminisce about an insane night packed with three, COUNT EM, three shows in the comedy hub of Richmond, VA.

So after work my day started by running my PA over to Crossroads Coffee where Sarah Ahmed runs Beans Bits and Brews a monthly showcase/open mic! That show is always super fun and Sarah does a good job of curating a fun show/crowd. Sarah was actually one fo the first comics I ever met, and at my first show she was one of the people who placed in the competition with me! So I've known her for a long time, and always love seeing her!

After that I jetted over to The Camel which is run by Jameson Babbowski. Jameson is one of my favorite dudes to hang with, and I continue to enjoy watching him curate and run what is slowly but surely becoming my favorite open mic in the city.

I think I’m going to start calling him Jameson BadBoyski for no other reason than it’s not funny to anyone other than myself and I want it to stick. I get there and I get to see Francesca Lyn. She’s a comic and friend and wonderful comic book artist/creator who I unfortunately don’t get to see very often.

Then Bert “the Squirt” Martling, Rick “Paw Paw” Williams (I didn’t make that one up, that’s his actual nickname” and Paige Campbell show up, and now we’ve got a riff session started! We are all busting balls, chops, ovaries, etc. and having an amazing time. Bert had on an adorable Bill Cosby sweater, he can really pull off that look.

At the beginning of the show it was a pretty light crowd. Honestly the lightest I’ve seen there. I went up and did about 7 minutes of the newer stuff I’m trying to hash out. As I did my set more people came in, so they missed parts of the joke, but only one joke got no response. Not a great set by any means but productive. I’d give this set a C- to a C.

After this I jetted off to start my weekend at the Richmond Funny Bone Hosting for Leonard Ouzts (Conan/netflix/wildnout/Master of None etc) and Eva Evans (Hustle in Brooklyn).

The Richmond Funny Bone is my home club. It is the first place I ever did standup. My first set was there for their monthly comedy contest “Clash of the Comics”! I had never done standup before, and luckily had a good set and won the competition against some people I really respect and who would go on to later be some of my best friends in comedy.

With that said, it is in no way an easy room. It is an urban room, and on some of the off nights when the room is comped out (given free tickets) and not full it is almost like the audience could not give less of a shit about what is happening. Hosting isn’t easy anyway. It’s the worst gig in all of comedy, and is a hell of a skill to have. Being able to go up in front of a cold room, train them into a comedy audience, keep the show going, give the announcements, introduce comics, get their credits right, and close the show. It is super unfun. If you have a good set as a host it is a bonus.

I have struggled a lot in this club, but also it has taught me a ton and I definitely feel like it has helped me be prepared for any room or audience. So this club is my home, but my home is brutal, unforgiving, and a proving ground.

SO WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY. OH BOY DID I BOMBALOMBBBB!!!!

This was one of those sets where every other joke works. Which is worse than just bombing in some ways, because when every joke works it gives the illusion of hope. You have a joke hit and you’re like oh dope I’ve got this, and then one bombs and you’re like SHITTT BACK TO SQUARE ONE! So that is how my set went. It was like a pendulum between good feelings and total despair.

I’d give my set a D-

That crowd wanted crowd work. That’s what a lot of the crowds in that club want. I’ve always been taught the host should never set the tone for the show. A host shouldn’t do crowd work, or be super dirty. It is up to the feature and the headliner if this will be a crowd work or dirty show. My job is to be a host just like at a party, and rarely at the party is the host having the most fun.

My point was proven when Eva had a pretty rough feature set as well and actually got off stage a little early. She didn’t go into the crowd, and they didn’t seem to enjoy material either. Leonard went up and immediately started doing crowd work. He used the first 15 minutes of his set to get them where he wanted before we started his material. It was super impressive and he killed.

After closing the show I got in my car to head to Crossroads to finish my night on their open mic. The crowd there was a little dead. All the comics who went before me said they just couldn’t get any life into the crowd.

I got to see some of my buddies Alex Castagne, Kat Malone, Bert Martling and Rick Williams again. It was a fun hang just busting balls and enjoying the weird vibe of the crowd.

They were using my PA and it had started to tilt and the one speaker looked like it was Michael Jackson swaying to one side. It was legit about to fall and was being held up by the cord. I was dying laughing because my PA dropping and breaking would be the perfect ending for this night.

I went up and actually did well. My new stuff did well and connected and it immediately erased the bad set from earlier. I didn’t kill, but I was told it was one of the best sets of the night and that felt good to hear at the end of a show on the open mic portion. I’d give my set a C+. Productive and fun af.

I chilled and hung out with some friends for a bit then headed out. I got McDonalds and gorged myself. All in all not a bad night, but the Funny Bone set definitely put some questions in my mind. I won’t lie I think about quitting comedy all of the time. I feel like I’m wasting my time, and could be using it to further my education and fully focus on my teaching job. This was one of those nights. I’m 3.5 years in and I know I don’t know everything, but this night felt like the beginning of the end. Fortunately I’ve got really good/supportive friends who are making this journey easier.

I love you baybees and laydees! xoxoxo I’ll see you all real soon.

#comedy #improv #funnybone #standup #comedyclub #Leonard ouzts #bet #jokes #hilarious #open mic #wildnout

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dingoes8myrp · 7 years

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Orange is the New Black: The Road So Far

Now that I’ve finished the fifth season, here are my thoughts on the show.

For the most part, I feel like this season was 80% filler, 2% character development, 8% set-up, and 10% compelling story.

I should mention, as a viewer and as a reader, I loathe filler. I’m a minimalist. I probably write this way, too. I like every piece of dialogue, every description, every scene, to either move the story forward or give important information. I like to be constantly moving or thinking. My perfect movie, episode, or book is one where I’m captivated and engrossed. And this doesn’t have to be a high-octane thriller either. Really, it just has to keep me moving or keep my brain working. I lose interest in books with paragraphs and paragraphs of detailed descriptions (George R. R. Martin and Cassandra Clare). I tune out of shows or movies with a lot of side-stories with no real bearing on the main arc (The Vampire Diaries and Game of Thrones), or with a lot of expositional dialogue and unnecessarily long shots (The Walking Dead). I’m not a fan of old Westerns with their wide, expositional shots and slow-moving stories (3:10 to Yuma). However, I’m captivated by mysteries and thrillers with unsettling suspense (The Killing and Gone Girl). I love a story that focuses on character development even when the plot doesn’t move much (Titanic and Lost). Just an aside so anyone reading understands where I’m coming from before I get into the nitty-gritty of this.

Season 5 of Orange is the New Black wasn’t bad. It was well-written, and some of the performances were absolutely amazing. Danielle Brooks (Taystee), Uzo Aduba (Suzanne), Selenis Leyva (Gloria), Elizabeth Rodriguez (Aleida), and Brad William Henke (Piscatella) were particularly stand-out for me. However, there is a stylistic difference in the later seasons of the show versus the earlier ones. The first two seasons in particular were well-paced with a steady arc and compelling characters. I couldn’t stop watching because I felt like I was being pulled through the story by what was unfolding. Last season and this season in particular felt different: drawn out and inconsistently paced with an overarching story that was muddled and unclear. I believe this trend began in season 3. Seasons 1 and 2 focused on Piper’s arc as the main story with everyone else’s stories revolving around it, much like the spoke method used by Seinfeld. Other stories and characters were artfully folded into this main arc, but Piper was the show’s heart: the lens through which we viewed the world. Gradually, other characters came into the spotlight with Piper. Dayanara’s relationship with Bennett became its own strong story. Nicky’s battle with addiction and her relationship with Morello became a compelling story on its own. Meanwhile other characters became near and dear to us through compelling personal arcs: Taystee with her dynamic personality and her drive, Red with her no-nonsense Alpha vibe and maternal role, Suzanne with her troubling but endearing quirks, and of course Alex with her anti-hero road-to-redemption arc. There was a nice structure and momentum to the first two seasons that made me feel grounded, and managed to reveal layers of individual characters while balancing a few different side-stories without losing sight of that main grounding arc.

Season 3 began to lose this balance. The departures of Bennett and Mendez drastically changed Dayanara’s story and took something away from the dynamic of the guards. Nicky’s stint in Max left Morello with nothing to do and removed an entire layer of story from a lot of other arcs Nicky was involved in. Larry was ultimately written out of the story, which removed a complication from Piper that made her relationship with Alex less dramatic (so other plot elements were added, presumably to keep the drama going). Meanwhile new characters were introduced or focused on, and those characters didn’t have two seasons of story under their belts to help them carry the weight. As a result, we started getting these “filler” episodes that focused on an underdeveloped character to sort of catch them up to everyone else (i.e. Boo in “Finger in the Dyke,” Flaca in “Fake it Till you Fake it Some More,” Chang in “Ching, Chong, Chang,” basically the bulk of the episodes). We were introduced to a whole new cast of characters and their stories while the characters we’d gotten to know took a back seat. While I appreciated some of these episodes individually, I didn’t appreciate them as a part of the whole. Pulling so many new or background characters into the spotlight so quickly created a need to hit “Pause” on a number of stories and slowed down the show’s momentum.

Seasons 4 and 5 continued this trend of introducing or expanding characters, but also reintroduced characters that had been minimalized or written out. This has bloated the story to the point where it’s difficult to discern the main arc or to keep up with all the side stories and character arcs. We’re picking up threads of stories that were back-burnered trying to remember where we left off while some newly introduced stories are put on pause and some even newer stories are being set up. There’s just way too much going on, and the 10% of it I’m actually invested in has gotten lost in the shuffle. Aleida being released from prison was a big deal at one point, and I was very interested to see how she adjusted to life outside. However, a very small amount of screen time was spent on this compelling story and instead Aleida’s role became relative to Dayanara’s story (which stopped being compelling as soon as she lost the gun). Alex killed a man and buried him in the garden and that somehow wasn’t even in the top 5 storylines. It was just something we were reminded of every few episodes through expositional dialogue, presumably so we didn’t forget that this was once an important plot point. Poussey, a beloved main character, was horrifically killed. Instead of the fallout becoming the main story, as was set up in season 5’s premiere, it somehow became a setting in itself rather than a plot. This is actually something I’ve seen in other shows, where a character’s death becomes a part of the atmosphere (Sons of Anarchy and Outsiders come immediately to mind). However, if Poussey’s death wasn’t the overarching plot, and the riot it caused wasn’t the overarching plot… then what the hell was? I still don’t know.

My major problem with season 5 is that it took way too long for anything to move forward in a significant way, and when it did everything happened all at once. Red, Lorna, and Suzanne are all competing for Little Miss Crazypants of Litchfield. Piscatella’s in the house and he’s also throwing his hat in the Crazypants ring with a side of torture just for funzies. Humps died and no one seemed to give a shit despite his death being a BIG FUCKING DEAL because all the negotiations between the inmates and the gun-toting officers hinge on the fact that no one has died, and because a beloved character shot the guy while another blew into his I.V. for shits and giggles, and another whole shit load of characters fought like hell to save him. All but one of the remaining guards got out, which was also a big deal. An overzealous S.W.A.T. team stormed the prison. I mean, Jesus, we couldn’t have spaced this out a bit to make the previous 8 episodes more interesting? As entertaining as it was to watch Angie and Leanne fuck around like Lucy and Ethel, I really didn’t need as much of it as I was given and I would have loved more of Alex or Almeida or even Pennsatucky. As fun as Linda as an inmate was, that was an entire storyline I could have done without in the grand scheme. Brook’s grieving was super compelling and we barely got any time with her.

This brings me to my secondary problem with season 5, which was the fact that a number of compelling stories and characters got lost in everything going on. Lorna got pregnant and doubted her sanity while playing fast and loose with everyone’s medications. Burset became a badass MacGyver style medic and then disappeared for the rest of the season when she could have been super useful to have around. Pennsatucky engaged in a consensual relationship with her rapist and somehow that wasn’t the most interesting thing going on. Bayley was having a straight up mental breakdown because of his role in Poussey’s death and it’s just a side story we get a glimpse of here and there. Instead of focusing on any of this, we spent a lot of screentime watching Caputo and Taystee negotiate with Figueroa. We followed Leanne and Angie around while they decreased our brain cells with their stupidity. We hung out with Red and Flores in an office for some reason. We watched Frieda and company smoke pot in a bunker because why the hell not? We watched Boo court Linda despite the fact that her friend Pennsatucky was clearly in need of some sort of support. We watched Piper walk around talking to people while Alex rolled her eyes (legit, that is the extent of their plot this season as far as I can tell).

Oh my God, that ending. Really?? You’re going to cram all the good stuff into the last 3 episodes and then end with a fucking cliffhanger? Not an earned one, either. This reminded me of the end of season 6 of The Walking Dead. Whatever impact the S.W.A.T. team storming into the bunker is going to have, they just cut it in half by making us wait a year to finish watching that fucking scene. I’m not a fan of that trick. So, they could kill off anyone in the bunker and they’re shipping the bulk of the cast elsewhere (“probably not max” is all we know). So, does this mean we’re going to be splitting our screen time between THREE different settings next season? Or does it mean virtually ALL of our beloved characters are being written out? Either way, it doesn’t look good.

All told, while this wasn’t a bad season, I felt like we were focusing on all the wrong things, and it slowed everything down while hurting the flow and momentum of the other stories. Not my favorite season by far.

#orange is the new black #dingometa

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lightsandlostbells · 6 years

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Skam France S2.2 reaction

they managed to make one of my most disliked parts somewhat less bad

slow clap for Skam France?

some very heated opinions below, be aware!

Episode 2

For real, some very negative opinions are coming, and it’s not my intention to make anyone feel like garbage about something they like. If you’re a fan of Noorhelm/Marles, maybe don’t read.

Clip 1 - Manon and Emma in class

I like Emma a lot more this season. I didn’t feel like the actress quite carried the really vulnerable moments, but she’s exhibiting more personality with her take on S2 Party Eva.

They cut the scene with the two girls asking Noora if Jonas had a girlfriend and if he were dating Eva, so the vibe is kind of different. With that context it seems like Noora wants to gently nudge him Eva into moving on because she suspects Jonas is moving on. This has some of that but it also feels less urgent, because Manon doesn’t have quite the same reason to be concerned for Emma’s feelings in that moment.

I do like Emma’s bit about being kidnapped by that prostitution ring in Taken, that’s funny.

Clip 2 - Yann the Man

Charles’ text about seeing Manon even though she was trying to hide - WHY. Why would they add this shit? Do they not get how uncomfortable this makes girls feel? Manon goes to school with this guy so there is nothing she can do to completely avoid him. He is not only just checking her out, but he’s making sure she’s aware of it. Let’s be clear: she wanted to hide from him, and he made sure she knew that he noticed she was trying to hide, and he made sure she knew that it didn’t work.

Look, I know that many Noorhelm fans also hate William’s behavior at the beginning of S2 and only warmed up to him as the season progressed. For me it’s that this opening behavior is so bad, such a textbook example of male entitlement in action, that it’s hard for me to ever get past it. I just have very few fucks to give about men who prioritize their boner feels over women’s boundaries.

Lucas, Sarah, and Ingrid here are like when Ron Weasley and Lavender Brown started sucking face and Harry and Parvati Patil had that shared moment of “God, our friends are getting on our nerves.”

I super love French Ingrid. I love her being bored and annoyed by Lucas and Sarah, and then her flustered reaction to Yann was great.

So what I’m taking away from Daphne’s reaction is that Manon and Emma probably told the whole girl squad about what they saw on Lucas’ phone. Not cool.

AND NOW a breakdown of Yann’s power walk. This scene annoyed me, because they did not put in the work of setting it up. This is Skam France’s worst quality; it copies the events at surface level without understanding why they are there or how they got there in the first place. At least this is a smaller humorous moment and not something dramatically important, even though it is relevant in terms of Emma’s character this season.

Let’s go over how the two shows set up this scene. Skam plants the setup during last Friday’s scene at Noora’s. The girls get to talking about sex, it’s a frank conversation. Vilde wants to know if the others have ever experienced a guy going down on them, because she thinks (hopes) William may do it to her. Eva jokes that no Norwegian guys will go down on girls, telling us in an indirect way about this aspect of her relationship with Jonas. This part of the scene is so comedic and light-hearted that on first viewing, you might not assume that it’s not anything except banter, a fun conversation that Noora has no part in and serves as a contrast to her anxiety over William’s attempts to contact her and Vilde’s continued interest in William. At the start of the next episode, we have a clip with Noora at her locker and being approached by two unknown girls who clearly catch her off guard, too, and want to know whether Jonas has a girlfriend. This random encounter leads her to prod about Jonas from Eva and subtly push her in the direction of moving on, as she suspects that Jonas may no longer be single. Then we get The Clip. As Vilde makes conversation with Ingrid, Eva notices girls’ heads turning in one direction, whispering and giggling. She follows their gaze. They’re looking at Jonas. She wants to know why, and she gets the answer about Jonas going down on a third year. Vilde looks confused, then starts to ask Eva about what she said on Friday, but Noora shakes her head as we get Eva’s stunned reaction. Jonas comes up to them and we get an iconic quote.

Skam France sets it up like this: Sarah tells us that Yann is the big man of campus, we see him walking and girls reacting, we get the explanation about Yann going down on the third-year, Emma seems a bit upset, he goes up to the girl squad and drops his line.

We don’t get the setup of “French guys not going down on girls” so there’s no impact of Yann being THE man, THE one true cunnilingus hero (and I have no idea what’s the general attitude of French men toward going down on women but I mean, you could spin this as “teenage boys are all about their own pleasure and don’t eat out girls” no matter what country you’re in) (except lol it ain’t gonna work in Skam Italia, thanks Giovanni!) - like I can understand in-universe why the girls might be impressed but from an audience POV, we’re not given any means of comparison to understand just why this is such a big deal

We don’t get that earlier line from Emma in particular so there’s no impact of understanding how upset she might be about this - not just that Yann is hooking up with other girls, but that he’s doing something with them that he apparently never did with her

There’s no additional moment of realization, “oh, so THAT’S why those random girls suddenly wanted to know if Yann is single,” a Brick Joke to use a TVTropes phrase, because they cut that scene

Even within the scene itself, it’s not built up? Like in OG we see girls reacting to Jonas and Eva picking up on it before we land the punchline. This one just tells you off the bat that Yann did a Thing, look at him (this bothers me less than the omission of the other stuff but in combination with it, it’s another symptom)

Is any of this a crime? No. Could people still find the Yann scene funny? Sure. But if this were my show, and I had to cut some things that didn’t fit into the episodes? I would question whether this scene was as effective without the buildup. I would question whether it was necessary. If I had to get across Emma’s moment of hurt, that likely inspires her to start hooking up with dudes from social media, I would consider whether it could be written in another way.

TBH I know I’m sounding nitpicky, but honestly this is why I enjoy overanalyzing the remakes. I felt like I learned something about setup and punchlines from observing the two scenes, and I appreciate how deftly Julie managed to make an extended oral sex joke pack some emotional punch.

I did like the music break from when he was walking to the exposition, and that was an admittedly great line from Yann about being hungry.

Clip 3 - Daphne loves lesbians

Daphne was sitting apart from the other girls at the beginning of the scene seeming very disconnected, hmmm.

Also Emma is not using Tinder in this version, she’s using Instagram and seems a bit firm that she isn’t using Tinder, so I wonder what the significance of that was. Maybe because Tinder is an app used for dating, and she doesn’t want to seem like she’s trying too much to move on, whereas Instagram is a more generic app with other purposes and hey, if a guy happens to message you, why not just roll with it, right?

And Emma immediately says no fake plans, like she just immediately calls it, though Manon fakes them anyway.

Does anyone else think that Alex’s sexuality is being handled really strangely, and by strangely I mean not at all? Because from what I recall, in canon we really just that comment about her hooking up with the girl named Clara and wanting to see Daphne’s topless pics. Her bisexuality was confirmed by the actress, outside of the show. This scene would’ve been a perfect time to address Alex’s sexuality directly, especially because Daphne is the kind of clueless character who would say something boneheaded that would require some education. When Daphne asks Manon whether she’s a lesbian, why not have her mention something like, “It’s OK if you like girls, so does Alex,” or even make a misguided comment about how Alex and Manon could pair off? Or have Alex make some kind of joke related to the discussion? Like this is genuinely weird to me not to acknowledge it at all in this context, when Daphne is even saying that their laughter makes it an unsafe environment for Manon to come out, but there’s also a bi girl sitting right there, participating in the laughter? It feels like another example of them just not thinking through the script that much.

This is why I’m skeptical about how they’ll handle the bit with Daphne and Emma making out, as seen in the trailer. Because again, they have a girl in the group who actually is supposed to be bisexual and who has apparently hooked up with girls, and yet we don’t hear much about it except in passing, but if we get these two supposedly straight girls making out because they’re drunk … that’s not a great look? What I’m worried is that they’ll play it completely like the original show because they’re just following the script and not thinking about it, while ignoring that they’ve changed a character’s sexuality and it might be relevant.

They cut the bit with Jamilla and her crew, so maybe they won’t play a role this season. I guess if they ever get to season four, they’re really going to have to rewrite the story because the bus plot will not make sense. But it’s kind of a bummer, I hope they find another way to include those girls. I think Skam France could improve on the original in how much they used the hijab squad in the show.

Manon, what was your objective in coming on to Daphne like that? You just have to get in her personal space. MMMMkay girl.

OK I laughed my ass off at Daphne posting a “love is love” image immediately after this clip.

God, I really wish we had Daphne for season three.

Clip 4 - The date

It only took me two whole episodes to figure out who Mika reminds me of: Ben Whishaw. Which is super obvious now that I recognize it.

Mickael’s DRAMAAAAAA is up there with P-Chris’ iconic version. Manon’s imitation is also good.

Mickael is smart negotiating for a birthday gift even if it didn’t quite work. I like his style.

Manon doesn’t wipe off her lipstick (like Noora did) which maybe is supposed to signify that she’s attracted to Charles, or maybe that she’s less concerned with how she presents to him. She does seem to be more confident when she squares off with him verbally.

I know the part in the car with The Weeknd is Iconique but I thought this version was fine and worked about as well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is one of my most hated parts of the original show, so let’s see how they did.

Disregarding the context of how he got her on this date, that’s a nice setup with the chairs on the rooftop (which I’m guessing he dragged up there himself).

Actually ... you know what, there’s a lot of uncomfortable stuff about this part that I didn’t even realize previously because it’s presented so cinematically. (Assume that when I refer to Charles here, I also mean William because it’s more or less the same writing.) One thing I’ve never really considered until now is that if Charles (or any guy) pressured me into this date, didn’t accept my rejection, said that saying no will just make him want me more ... I would be fucking afraid if I finally went with him on a date and he took me to an isolated area. Now I didn’t think about that at first because this is a very beautiful scene from an aesthetic point of view! There is some gorgeous cinematography in both this scene and the original version. And he gives her something to drink and it’s cute because he remembered she doesn’t drink alcohol, so he made cocoa, cocoa is a drink that brings to mind warm, cozy feelings! Awww!

But take this out of the pretty TV context: in real life, a guy who has made it clear he doesn’t take no for an answer and who takes me to a nice secluded area and gives me a drink he made himself? Would raise serious alarms. I would have this feeling of dread in my stomach. And I don’t think you can disregard this train of thought or call it unfair or over-the-top, because guess what, Noora (Manon too by the looks of it) is potentially drugged later in the season when someone gives her a drink (I don’t remember if they ever confirmed if she was drugged or if she just got very drunk and blacked out, but we’re definitely supposed to think it’s a possibility). We do have a sexual assault storyline later on, with this very same character. It is completely reasonable to consider these dynamics especially in light of the season’s larger themes and topics.

I am being 100% serious ... what reason does Manon have to think that Charles is not capable of date rape at this point? Think about it, consider it from her POV where she doesn’t know what’s going to happen later in this season, just analyze what she knows in this moment. So far he’s had sex with her friend and then ignored her and cruelly put her down, and he’s pursued her despite her rejecting him, he’s openly said that he doesn’t take her “no” seriously, he’s sent her messages that make clear he’s noticed she’s tried to hide from him and he doesn’t care, he’s cornered her into this date. Other than the fact that Charles is our designated male lead, why should Manon trust him? Why should we? The only reason is because we know we’re watching a TV show, we know that this is the scene where we start to build up to our characters getting together later. Charles is handsome, Charles will be The Love Interest, therefore Charles is going to be a good guy. If Charles was some gross, unattractive, obnoxious dude who would clearly not end up with our heroine, how would this scene feel?

The jab at Twilight is hilarious and accurate. They are Bella and Edward.

“Why did you get into my car?” You fucking know why, dude.

This shit about him not pressuring her to go out with her is wrong. Yes. He did. Him just saying he didn’t doesn’t make it true. If just saying stuff made it true I’m going to go around calling myself Julie Andem and telling people I’m working on Skam Season 5: The Adventures of Dr. Skrulle and Her Wife, The Danish Receptionist.

In original Skam Noora did tell Vilde that there was nothing going on with her and William before this point, I don’t think Manon did. So I guess Manon could have done that. But Charles has put her in a complicated place. Manon asked him to apologize to Daphne. He did so on the condition that Manon go on a date with him. At this point Manon can’t tell Daphne she’s going out with Charles without having to explain why, which means nullifying the apology in the first place. And Manon is trying to avoid him but he won’t let it happen, and he’s shown that he’s willing to use Daphne to get to her.

All right, here’s why I fucking hate this scene: this is a prime opportunity for William/Charles to show some humility and character growth about what happened with Vilde/Daphne, and he doesn’t. Not once during this conversation does he express regret for how he handled the Vilde/Daphne situation. Not once does he express remorse or consideration for her feelings. Instead he offers several excuses about why what he did was justified, which happen to be about benefiting himself. So basically his apology was hollow and only about getting this date with Noora/Manon. Yes, it is early in the season and his character should be able to grow in future episodes, but I don’t recall William ever changing his tune on this topic, specifically.

And tbh what's irritating is that this is framed like William/Charles has some reasonable points, and no, he doesn’t, literally every excuse he offers can be easily torn down. Noora/Manon can be judgmental, for sure, they can assess people incorrectly, but in this scene, they are completely right in their criticisms of what happened.

“Being nice to someone you want to get rid of doesn’t work ... I’ve been clear with her.” So did he ever try ... telling her outright ... you know, BEFORE they have sex, “hey, I’m not looking for a relationship.” Oh wait, the girl might not want to have sex with him then. Or even explaining it in direct but not malicious words afterwards? From what I remember, he basically just ghosted her until she confronted him and he tore her down. He doesn’t have to promise her anything, but he also owes her some basic respect. And he knew he was doing something cruel. Remember when he walked by Daphne and the girls in the schoolyard and he made a point of establishing eye contact, then looking away?

“I’m not responsible” for harming Daphne’s self-image - oh shut up. If I went up to a random person on the street and told them they were ugly, I probably wouldn’t break their spirits forever and ever. But I probably would play on any insecurities they had. I would possibly create new insecurities that weren’t there. And I would possibly make them feel like garbage. So yes, I have to take some responsibility for the fallout.

And lmao, what bothers me is that yeah, actually we do see how cruel comments can affect one’s self-image over and over throughout the show. We see it with Vilde and Daphne, how this made them feel like they weren’t pretty enough and influenced their disordered eating. We saw it with Noora, how her shitty previous boyfriend also messed up her self-image and caused her to get sick. We saw it with Isak, how casual homophobia and comments about gay people around him influenced how he saw himself and made it difficult to call himself gay. We saw it with Sana, how she was bullied at her old school for being Muslim, how Islamophobia affected her and shaped her, how desperate she was to prove herself because people were judging her on all sides. It’s fine if William/Charles is meant to be wrong. What bugs me is that the way this is presented, makes it seem like he’s supposed to be right.

“I’m not letting her think there are chances when there aren’t” - aren’t you texting Daphne and inviting her to things? He absolutely knows how Daphne is going to respond to this. If he was so desperate to use one of the girls as a go-between for him and Manon, he could easily get Emma’s number from his pal Alex. But no, he is going through Daphne deliberately, because he knows she’ll be an enthusiastic messenger. And he knows she’s going to get hopeful. He literally says that she’s into him again!

Characters can be flawed, characters don’t need to always say the right words. But William never had a turnaround where he acknowledged that his courtship of Noora or his treatment of Vilde was wrong, outside of that apology that he apparently didn’t mean, when these were things that he really, really needed to address in terms of his development. I fear that they’ll do the same with Charles since this remake is so close.

That being said, there are a few things in this scene that I preferred to the original:

One of the dumb things William says is that “if you see if from his side” Vilde is the one who pursued him, she approached him and wanted to sleep with him,. This is the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard. William is not obligated to sleep with every girl who comes on to him. He and Vilde had a consensual sexual encounter, Vilde did not trip and fall on his dick, and he was participating in her flirtations and contacting her. Take some responsibility for your role in this, dude. This bit of blame-deflecting is thankfully missing from this scene, sparing me that particular headache.

Charles’ actor has more emotional range than William’s and I felt like he maybe did feel a bit less assured in his position, whereas William felt pretty smug about it the whole way through.

Manon seems less stumped by Charles’ comments than Noora did. Not that Noora needed to have all the answers all the time, but it always saddened me that William’s BS excuses were what had her tongue-tied. Also her turning his sad anecdote into sarcasm about the homeless was good.

When Manon says she’ll walk home, Charles doesn’t push her and says it’s fine. That seems counter to chivalry, but it’s at least him respecting something she wanted, even if it might just be because he was busy with his fight drama.

The music throughout the clip was good, but the music at the end got too DRAMAAAAAAAAA for my liking.

General Comments:

I’m going to be honest, I think the actor playing Charles has more charisma than William, so on a superficial level I’m engaged more during the Manon/Charles scenes, and like I said above, I think it benefited his character in the date scene. But there are some ways I think this might make his character seem worse, for instance when telling Daphne she wasn’t good enough, it felt a lot more deliberately mean whereas William seemed so checked out of the whole thing that it was less like he wanted to twist the knife. So we’ll see how he fares at some later parts of the season.

Tangent but I love the girls texting about Jane the Virgin. Also that Manon references Pedro Almodóvar and Emma’s like “we don’t have the same reference pool,” that legit made me laugh.

This had a lot of negative remarks, lol. Probably this will be as negative as it gets, tbh. That one scene just makes me angry.

I’m not French so I apologize if I misinterpret, and feel free to correct me.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading!

#skamfr reactions

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jbuffyangel · 7 years

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The Season 2 Effect

Something's been gnawing on me the last couple days. Well, for most of Season 5, but it reached a high point after I read the TVLine Winter preview. It mentioned the new character, SCPD Detective Tina Boland. TVLine said she and Oliver would form a “connection” (TVLine’s words - not Wendy’s. That’s an important distinction) because (and these are Wendy’s words), “she has been through her own hell, her own sort of ‘island.”

There were, of course, some immediate concerns that Oliver and Tina will be in a romantic relationship. Just to get this out of the way - no, I don’t think they will be in a romantic relationship. I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m just saying I think it’s unlikely.

First, we still haven’t ditched Susan Williams. They’d have to unravel Oliver’s relationship with her and with Felicity while starting up a new relationship with Tina all by season’s end. That’s a lot to accomplish in 5B, even by Arrow’s standards. Not impossible, but unlikely.

Second, “connection” is an arbitrary term, which is probably why TVLine used it. It doesn’t necessarily mean romantic.

Third, Tina has to form a connection with Oliver. She’s going to be the new Black Canary and join the team. Anyone who joins the team A) has a connection with Oliver and B) goes through some kind of “island” at one point or another. That’s the show. The fact that Tina already went through hers I’m viewing as a positive. They want to get her up and running fast. Fine by me. She’s a guest star at this point and the less time we have to spend on her character the better. I’ve had my fill of newbies right now.

But that’s not what this post it about. No, when I read the article my first thought (and what’s been gnawing on me) was, “Man this feels a lot like Season 2.”

Then I recalled something Marc told me at SDCC. He said he hoped fans got more of a Season 1 or Season 2 vibe from Olicity. Lord, he wasn’t kidding.

Now, I’m not saying, “Hey Arrow Season 5 is just like Season 2! Everything is wonderful! Problems solved!” Uh... no. I think those who are unhappy have valid reasons. I also think those who are happy with the season also have valid reasons. I am joyfully in Switzerland for the most part on this topic. Truthfully, I think entertainment is subjective. Everyone likes what they like (or dislike) for their own reasons. Arguing about it is as arbitrary as arguing about whether or not you like cheese. I am quite content owning my choice and believe everyone has a right to theirs. (For the record, I really like cheese.) I’m simply pointing out some similarities I’ve noticed between Season 2 and Season 5 in terms of Olicity and promotion.

I think the cast and crew get an overwhelming amount of feedback. One of the consistent things I’ve heard over the years from fans is that Season 2 is the best season. So, I have to believe that Marc, Stephen, etc have heard it to. Stephen actually made reference to Season 2 in a recent convention. He said he watched a few episodes and he thought it was “okay.” Translation: He doesn’t think Season 2 is as great as everyone remembers. Or at least that’s my interpretation of the remark.

When Marc told me he hoped fans got more of a Season 2 vibe from Olicity, I internally started screaming. I felt a little better when he said there’d be longing looks and tension, but in general I wasn’t overly jazzed. Whenever fans start screaming for S2, I am screaming just as loudly, “NOOOO!!!” Why? I don’t feel a need to return to their earlier dynamic. I liked where Olicity had evolved to. Certainly there are aspects of Season 2 I loved (Slade, OTA, action, etc) and I loved Olicity, but I don’t have a yearning for the days of yore. Season 2 was freaking STRESSFUL for me as an Olicity fan.

I wasn’t online when Season 2 aired. No blog. I wasn’t participating in fandom. I was, for the most part, an enthusiastic viewer working her way towards obsessed. I’d been watching Arrow from the beginning and very much loved the show. I hated the L&uriver love story, adored Olicity, but wasn’t sure if Arrow was actually going to go there.

After 2x06 and 2x07, I felt confident Olicity was in the game. However, they were throwing plenty of love interests at Oliver - Isabel, Sara, Laurel and Felicity. Technically, Sara, Laurel and Felicity were all viable options for whoever “Oliver loved the most,” which I quickly deduced was the romantic theme of the season. I was nervous. Laurel was sobering up. Oliver and Felicity had barely shared a freaking scene alone together in 2B. Maybe I was imagining what I saw between them. Maybe I was crazy. Would Arrow actually throw the Plan A love story overboard for a character that started out as a guest star? Man... I don’t know!

So I hit the internet. I was looking for ANY signs from the writers or cast in interviews that Olicity was a thing that was happening. I found... nothing. And I do mean nothing. There was some talk from Stephen about Oliver being domesticated. Yeah - that was about his relationship with Sara.

In fact, I found lots of interviews and comments on Sara and Oliver’s relationship.

Some discussion about Laurel and Oliver’s relationship (boo! hiss!!)

Stephen made some remark about how Oliver wasn’t jealous about Barry and Felicity, but “curious.”

Sure looked pretty freaking jealous to me Steve, but okay.

But as far as romance? I couldn’t find much from the writers. Heck, I didn’t even find that many comments from Stephen because I was outside the fandom and I didn’t know where to look. Whatever comments I did find seemed pretty vague.

Hmm... vague is pretty similar to ambiguous isn’t it? Yes it is.

2x23 was a mind blower for me. First, I was elated because Oliver said he loved Felicity. Then I was confused because it was all a ruse?

Then they were smiling at each other on the beach and I didn’t know which end was up.

I hit the internet again and found a tweet by Marc Guggenheim that said Felicity was the unthinkable act and it all made sense.

Then the next few days were mostly Stephen doing damage control interview after interview. I settled down and rejoiced in the fact that I WASN’T crazy to see what I saw in those subtle scenes between Oliver and Felicity.

When I started this blog, someone asked me, “When Did Oliver Fall In Love With Felicity?” It is, to this day, by far, my most popular post. I thought it was an incredibly fair question. L&uriver fans were telling Olicity fans we were nuts to have hope. Oliver was asking Sara to move in with him a few episodes prior to his big confession in the finale. So, I pieced together all subtle (and not so subtle) moments that, ultimately, were the narrative thread of Oliver’s Season 2 journey with Felicity. I pieced together why that love confession made absolute sense. Arrow didn’t ignore Olicity. The beats were there. It was like following breadcrumbs along a path.

So, when Marc told me that Arrow was returning to a Season 2 vibe with Olicity, one singular word flashed in my mind, “SUBTLE.”

I took a deep breath and buckled up because I knew we were in for a long journey. Also, Marc said it would be a long journey. Hehehe. Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting very much movement in 5A. Those wildly low expectations were met.

The moments between Oliver and Felicity have been so subtle, I’ve even thought (briefly) am I nuts? Am I seeing things? Especially during the 5x09 flashback. Some fans have been told they are crazy to have hope. It’s like a freaking time warp.

I’m not stressed out, thankfully. Season 2 was a big learning experience to me and I have Season 3 and Season 4 added to the pile.

Arrow follows through on the narrative beats they thread in, for better or for worse. In Season 2, we didn’t have a lot to go on other than “hope” for Oliver and Felicity and those beautifully crafted scenes. Five years in we have an entire EPIC love story. Felicity Smoak is Oliver’s great love and we have more than enough story evidence to back that up.

So, I was never particularly concerned that Arrow was dropping Olicity. That said, I think some feel they are. Many anti Olicity fans feel this “Back to Basics” tagline means no more Olicity. The subtle approach to Oliver and Felicity’s scenes has these same people screaming that Arrow is done with them. Olicity fans are crazy to have hope!

Personally, I’ve never heard Marc or Wendy say anything about “Back to Basics” meaning they are done with Olicity. They haven’t even come close to saying that. Whenever they are talking “Back to Basics” it’s almost always in the context of stunts, a return to the gritty street fighting and a more “Arrow-esque” Big Bad.

That’s not to say there’s been an overabundance of promotion, although it is different than Season 2. Now, Olicity is almost always a topic in any article written. However, the answers are very Season 2. Vague. Ambiguous. At times, Marc and Wendy are pushing the other love interests way more than they are Olicity. We’re hearing all about Susan. They couldn’t stop talking about Billy and the guy had like 10 minutes of screen time. Now, Tina is popping up. We are not hearing very much about Oliver and Felicity in terms of romance. And that feels very familiar.

What was successful about the Season 2 promotion was that it maintained the 2x23 surprise. I think one of the reasons I loved 2x23 so much was because I was legitimately surprised.

I am a spoiler hound by nature, but even I can admit we were spoiled too much in Season 3 and Season 4. There wasn’t a big moment for Olicity that we didn’t know was coming - either from the promos or leaks. I do feel like Arrow is cracking down on spoilers and returning to a format that helped them maintain a level of surprise. Hence, all the vague non answers about Olicity from Marc and Wendy.

Now, I’m not saying the approach is working. Especially from a promotional standpoint. Olicity was coming off a very poorly received S4 storyline. Our beautifully organic couple was broken up in an inorganic way.

It left many fans nervous, distrustful and angry... and it’s okay to feel that way. The “off hands” approach to the marketing certainly hasn’t helped cement confidence. Furthermore, going from Season 3 and Season 4 where Olicity’s romance was a primary focus (front and center), to a more subtle approach in Season 5, has been jarring for many.

It, however, is not Un-Arrow. At least not to me, because it’s an approach they’ve tried before and it was successful -- universally praised by fans. I think the writers chose to go back to the more subtle approach because they were trying to slow Olicity down and it worked for the narrative this season. I also think they believed it would be well received because... it was well received before. All they hear is how much fans love Season 2.

Let’s look at it from a purely Felicity standpoint. Felicity was back burned in 5A. There’s really no other way to describe it. She had virtually no independent storyline outside of Team Arrow and a boyfriend that, to be honest, I still can’t figure out the point of... yet. She was back to being comic relief. No more CEO. No more mom or dad. Any independent storylines (other than the boyfriend) all, but disappeared. Even her PTSD storyline was fairly Rory focused.

This is not unlike Season 2. Felicity had no independent storylines. Her scenes revolved around Team Arrow and Oliver. She was frequently the comic relief. There was the pseudo boyfriend moment with Barry, but that was all intended to push Oliver’s buttons.

Here’s the problem, while I understand why the writers may have believed the return to these Season 2 elements would be well received, the characters have evolved past that. Felicity is now the female lead. She was not in Season 2. She has grown leaps and bounds in her role on Arrow. Felicity Smoak was always more than comic relief, and I think the writers know that. However, they expanded on the character so much in Season 3 and Season 4 that this hands off approach feels ridiculous. It’s left a gaping hole in the first half of Arrow’s fifth season.

If there is anything Season 3 taught us with John Diggle, back burning any of the core three is always a colossal mistake.

The saving grace is, thus far, it’s only been half a season. Diggle languished on the bench for a full season and I don’t think they are intending to do that with Felicity. He was also the only character back burned in Season 3. Felicity has Lance and Thea to keep her company.

That’s not to say Felicity’s “independent” storylines are in abundance in any other season. At the end of the day, this is Oliver’s show and Felicity is a supporting character just like anyone else. But if I’m comparing seasons, then... yeah. I think 5A pulled focus off Felicity more than S3 or S4.

And why did all of this happen? I don’t think it’s out of any desire to get rid of Felicity. I think Arrow overdid it on the new characters so much that even their female freaking lead got benched.

Like the newbies or not - they required screen time because Arrow had to build the characters. Lance, Thea and Felicity all took a hit. Certainly, Felicity played a major role in managing those newbiews (and did a fantastic job), but it felt primarily supportive in pushing Oliver’s and the newbies’ storylines forward.

I also think Arrow may have pulled back on Felicity’s more independent storylines like the company and her parents because they are trying to drive her to a darker place. I think the intention has been to isolate Felicity a bit more, so she reaches this point where she’ll do “morally questionable” things. That remains to be seen. That will require a full season to know if I’m right. I also believe we don’t get handed everything in the first half. Felicity’s company is going to be a big part of her arc and, while the writers are taking their sweet time getting there, I do think they have a plan for this character.

As for all the love interests, this feels like the same white noise as Season 2. More so than Season 3, because the only other viable love interest was Ray and that was a singularly focused storyline. Season 5 has Susan, Billy, maybe Tina and heck they might even squeeze in another one for Felicity. Who knows?

There’s a lot of love interest options at the moment and that feels very Season 2. We aren’t suppose to know which way is up so that when Oliver and Felicity do find their way back to one another it feels more surprising than predictable. That’s just my guess.

@louiseblue1 and I often say figuring out the pacing on Arrow is next to impossible. However, even the pacing from an Olicity perspective is feeling very Season 2. We’ve had three very significant scenes early on:

Green Light - 5x02

Is it Real? - 5x05

Mortal Lock - 5x05

The nature of these scenes are completely different from what Oliver and Felicity discussed in 2x06

and 2x07

but the narrative beat feels similar. By that I mean the placing of the plot points, even though the plot points are wildly different.

Then, we shifted into some other love interest drama in the mid season finale.

2x09 - Barry coming between them

5x09 - Billy coming between them

Concluding with a series of shots and dialogue that point to Felicity as the person Oliver loves.

2x09

5x09

All very similar! I’m not saying this automatically makes all the storylines good in Season 5. I’m not saying people who are unhappy don’t have reason to be. That said, I’ve really enjoyed Olicity’s scenes this season when we get them. My point is simply that Marc’s remark about Season 5 Olicity feeling like Season 2 Olicity is turning out to be more on the nose than I thought it would be.

It gives me a lot of hope for 5B. We know how Season 2 ended, so if there are similarities between the seasons I think it can be a good thing. Yes, even if all those similarities have led to some unsuccessful aspects. There is one difference between Season 2 and Season 5 that gets me excited about the back half of the season. In Season 2, Olicity’s focus was primarily in the first half. After 2x10 the writers backed way off and things didn’t get revving again until 2x21. I feel like the writers backed off in 5A, so I’m hoping things get revving again in 5B. Hopefully, the stronger focus is coming in the back half of the season. Time will tell.

Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if we languished a bit in the middle of the season. As much as I hem and haw about Arrow’s pacing, after five years, I do think there is a pattern to how the writers break down the season.

Episodes 1 - 7: Tie up loose ends from previous season’s storylines, set up new season storylines.

Episode 8: Crossover (this is new as of Season 3 of course). Although Barry did make his first appearance in 2x08.

Episode 9 (Mid Season Finale) - This is when something “big” happens to launch the next half of the season. Big Bad is revealed in some way.

Episodes 10-17: Deal with the fallout from the mid season finale & the storylines it launched.

Episodes 18-20: Something “big” happens which launches the final three episodes.

Episodes 21-23: Deal with the fallout from the last big event and race to the finish line.

Now, I don’t want anyone screaming at me about how events are taking place at different episode numbers than I listed this season. This is a FLUID pattern y’all. I’m not laying out hard and fast rules, but a generic “high level” musing. But for anyone expecting big Olicity movement in the 10-14 zone... I’d really get comfortable with the idea that this will be a season long journey.

Now, I know many will argue that going back to any type of Season 2 dynamic is repetitive. Other love interests are repetitive. Sure, that’s a fair complaint and I can understand why some feel that way. However, there are repetitive aspects of Arrow every season for me, just like there are storylines I love and ones I hate every season. That goes for a lot of television shows for that matter. So, that’s not necessarily a deal breaker for me.

Nor am I ready to deep six the other love interests quite yet because I haven’t watched the full story yet. That said, I’m not loving them - although I wasn’t really expecting to. I was definitely hoping for more with Billy. If he’s Prometheus - great! If he’s simply the little wind that blew down the house of cards... okay. I can probably accept that. I do see some growth with Oliver, so I’m less cranky about Susan. That has nothing to do with Susan though. That’s just about Oliver being hopeful & trying to move on. We could insert any love interest and get that. I think it’s pretty stupid that Oliver is dating the reporter that has tried to bring him down, but 90% of the show’s drama is derived from Oliver doing stupid things. I also think Oliver and Felicity are dating the anti-Oliver (Billy) and anti-Felicity (Susan) for a reason.

But I’m getting off topic. Anyways, I’m sure others have pointed out all of these things before, but I just wanted to put them down on paper for my own sanity. We shall see if these similarities pan out all the way to the end of the season.

#arrow #olicity #arrow spoilers #olicity meta #olicity season 2 #olicity season 5 #spoiler theoretical

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