#i've been waiting to see if any eps would have the same emotional impact as stephen's in s1

[pleasetakethis]

Episode 4 is my favorite so far. Live blogging thoughts beneath the cut.

FUCK YES S1 GAMORA'S STORY. This immediately makes up for my ep 3 mehs.

FUCK YES 2012 AVENGERS TONY.

THE GRANDMASTER, YES <3

TONY'S RELIEF UPON SEEING PEPPER. MY HEART.

Tony saying he put his party days behind him--again, MY HEART.

Only 4 mins into the ep and all I can think is that the writers are doing a damn good job with this Tony.

Valkyrie!!!!!!! MY LOVE, YAS!

Tony saying the following to GAMORA, of all characters, got me in the feels: "Victory? Glory? People died. I lost a friend. Do you know what it's like to see your home world destroyed? Almost brought to its knees by a madman?"

TONY HEARING THE GRANDMASTER SAY HE WASN'T A HERO BUT A NASTY MAN AND THEN TONY NOT ZAPPING GAMORA!!!!!!!!

SDKFJALDJSFSALDJFLAJDF

I LOVE THIS EP. LOVE.

Tony & Valkyrie kicking ass together is a vibe <3

BAMF Gamora <3 yasssss

Tony building shit <3 with a lil fuzzy critter on his shoulder <3

...how does Tony know campground rules 🤨 Howard did not take him camping. My first thought was Rhodey, but I bet it was Jarvis. FEELS. 😥

Grandmaster calling Gamora a moppet of Thanos and finishing that exchange with "Daughter, really? [scoffs] Sure, I'll stick to that story, too," was fucking brutal. Fantastic writing here, too, showing Gamora outside perspectives on her father and their relationship.

I want to give a huge fucking hug to whoever wrote this Tony because I love him. 100% spot on for what I'd expect from 2012 Tony after surviving, realizing Pepper was safe, and figuring out he might be able to get home. No perving, no giving into hedonism--only righteous anger for others being treated badly. Respecting and trusting and bonding with the individuals he meets <3 Tony's so charismatic and this is showcased perfectly. AND ACKNOWLEDGING HIS DADDY ISSUES AND TRYING TO HELP SOMEONE ELSE WITH THEIR OWN?? I JUST. MY. HEART.

Jeff Goldbum has so much fun with Grandmaster and it shows <3

The feels when Gamora gave Tony her name <3

King Valkyrie of Sakaar, yassssss.

Tony needing to get home to Pepper... AGAIN, MY HEART.

Tony and Gamora bonding and having each other's backs and taking down Thanos??? FUCK YES.

I loved this ep. As a Tony fan, this ep went HARD and it did not have to do that but it did and I just. jfdlajsflajsd. FLAILS, FEELS, ALL THE THINGS.

#what if #what if s2 #what if s2 spoilers #s2e4 #what if iron man crashed into the grandmaster #my brain is still squeeing #no thoughts #only squee #so many new ships unlocked #from tony/grandmaster to gamora/valkyrie to tony/pepper/gamora #shipping goggles aside #this episode was SO GOOD #SO SO SO SO GOOD #the part of me that adores tony stark is speechless #no notes #just happy happy happy #well done to the writers of that ep #they understood the characters AND the assignment #i've been waiting to see if any eps would have the same emotional impact as stephen's in s1 #this is the closest so far but the emotion is happiness instead of angst #i would have enjoyed more gamora but i think she needed time off-screen to process what everyone was saying about thanos #i hope we see her again this season #that second korg reference to rock/paper/scissors cracked me up too #lbr mcu korg is a taika self-insert but i appreciate his korg in appropriate amounts

[raayllum]

i feel like people were expecting something as impactful as s3 felt, especially after the 3 year wait and just the hype in general for s4 – which, imo, it was more about the Saga returning and new plot points taking shape + ppl had a lot of personal opinions over the hiatus of how the story should go and which character should do what, so i guess this is making some reactions feel... biased, at least from my standpoint

I think what gets me is that structurally and pacing wise, the season isn't that different from basically any other in the show. A lot (not all of course, but some) of the S4 criticism just feels like people not giving S4 the slack and/or patience they gave every other season of the show. Which is a pet peeve of mine that I've talked about before specifically re: people's complaints at S3 Rayllum back in the day, when it was beat-for-beat very much the same amount of plot focus and importance they'd gotten in the previous seasons. If you're gonna complain about something show wise, I expect that complaint to be consistent (probably bc of my autism) not just when it occurs to someone that it is a Thing that is happening that they Suddenly don't like (as though again, it hadn't happened in every other season)

Eps 1-3 are typically set up (we see this in s1 and s2 first hand). The kiddos have a more specific goal than ever before (going to see someone somewhere specific, i.e. Rex Igneous at Umber Tor) and it's more detailed than just "seeing the Dragon Queen just somewhere in Xadia" and with very little reference in universe as to how close to the border the kids are at any given time up until 2x07, lmao.

Now that Claudia and Soren have been fully bumped up from side characters (S2, S3) to main cast members a lot of their previous screen time is allocated to Janai and Amaya's subplot. Viren's subplots were often disconnected entirely from the main plot (i.e. anything after 1x06 for Viren never affects the main characters in any significant way until approximately 3x04, and even then, only with Ezran) but nobody complained about that, because it was compelling and interesting to watch. And if the Sunfire elf stuff wasn't to someone, okay cool - but again, very subjective. Now Viren's plot line has been merged with Claudia's, so again, it's about the same amount of time allocation.

(And part of the reason I know that is because I once did the math to see literally how much screentime Rayla and Callum - and often including Ezran - get in previous seasons, averaging 50+ minutes in S1 and S3 and under half an hour in S2, due to the flashback episodes and no interaction in the first ep and minimal interaction in 2x08. I would expect S4 to be over half an hour simply because a scene like the end of 4x01 would count and once they're together, they're rarely apart / not talking about each other.)

Like 1x05 and 1x06 are some of my favourite eps in the whole show, and they are effectively filler, particularly 1x05. You could remove Viren and Amaya's plot line and remove very little (particularly because Gren's imprisonment didn't amount to anything in the first arc, and likely won't in the future since we already know Runaan is in the coin). 1x06 is plot relevant for Viren and Claudia but arguably only plot relevant for the trio at the very end. As expressed before, significantly more is established and discussed in 4x01 than almost any premiere except 1x01; very little substantially happens in 2x01 and 3x01 besides either 1) worldbuilding or 2) travelling. 2x04 is another one of my absolute favourite episodes, and it is entirely filler. The Amaya-Janai storyline doesn't come back all season and purely exists to set up their S3 storyline and Callum's struggles with magic. Of course all these filler eps do the work of furthering the trio's and particularly Callum and Rayla's bond, but outside of emotional stuff, they are filler in regards to the plot

But suddenly 4x05 and 4x06 are too filler-y? Episodes in which the kids determine their specific goal is to hunt down Claudia, go to Rex Igneous, stop Aaravos, the immediate fallout of the possession, starting to actually mend Callum and Rayla's relationship (they hadn't gotten a significant scene together since the beginning of 4x03, after all), demonstrate Soren's place in the group, etc etc? The purpose of these episodes and the plot beats are exceedingly similar to 1x05-1x07 smushed together (with 1x07 again being mostly filler, there to set up how Claudia does the tracking spell and how the kids find out about the 'miracle healer'). There is a shit ton going on amid setting the stage for emotional beats, giving room for some to happen, and getting the rest of the season's plot under way.

I've also seen some people saying that that indications we've gotten that Rayla has changed isn't enough bc it's only a couple of scenes, but 1) the girl who was once like "I don't have to explain anything to you" / "time for my least favourite course of action: reason" is now leaping up like "I love talking" because she wants to make things work and 2) her "We can't save everyone" scene in 4x05 hits so hard because it's her most basic core character trait that's been utterly decimated in a major way. Not completely, as we see in 4x09, but like, this is her Core Character Trait. Every season show us this. Forget a needle in a hay stack in terms of big flashing lights of This character has changed!! It's like smashing a sledge hammer into a wall. It does what it needs to because they know where to hit the hardest in the time they have

And once again, we see this pattern in earlier seasons. Rayla has one (1) scene expressing doubts regarding being an assassin in 2x06 before the immediate next episode is building on that to set the stage for the entire conflict of 2x07 and the rest of the season by extension. We get one (1) scene of Callum being interested in magic and Ezran sneaking around the castle before it's being utilized by the plot and Callum being a mage is his main drive for the first three seasons. If anything I like that we're give this sledge hammer moment, its immediate consequences, and a meta-narrative reflection that since the one person Rayla routinely opens up to doesn't want to talk to her, we're not privy to what she's going through either, and that it's given time to stew.

And I'd be more willing to take structural criticism of the season seriously if there was one that acknowledged the structural similarities 1) virtually at all and 2) so much of S4 criticism wasn't couched in very subjective opinions. Like for me, S2 is the season with the slowest pacing in some ways for the first half of bc 1) 2x01 isn't my fave although I have grown to appreciate, 2) Viren and Aaravos' plot line isn't that engaging to me personally up until like 2x08, and 3) 2x04-2x06 is virtually all filler that just reaffirms things we knew or gives more context to events prior, but the flashback eps are absolutely crucial theme wise. And again, S4 is doing some major thematic heavy lifting that I want to explore further, so like - for me it just doesn't compute why that has to be so dissimilar in public opinion?

Like yes, the search for Soren leading to the path to Rex Igneous and N'than's existence is convenient. But so is Ellis' existence (we see the path the kids take on the Caldera and a 9 yr old child carrying a heavy wolf pup in her arms somehow took the same path completely by herself?) and the fact that Claudia and Soren somehow reached the 2x07 town a day behind the trio (who travelled by boat and flight) while not being able to even use their horses because they had Corvus with them, thereby having to travel on foot? Or Opeli and Corvus' one line mention of going to Duren (not even Aanya by name) and relying on people listening for her name when Opeli lists off who's attacked and noticing who's not there leading to the event that allows the heroes to win the Final Battle in the first place? That Janai's forces just happened to go to the Storm Spire at all?

None of this makes the previous seasons bad by any means, but the writing is as consistent as it's always been. But no, season four is the breaking point, Apparently, of suspension of disbelief or a willingness to give slack / time for things to play out

Again, I don't want to dismiss anyone's feelings about season four. People are allowed to feel how they wanna feel! I waited like four years for "Blood of Olympus" to come out and it was the last PJO book I ever read and it was ultimately disappointing to me like, I know it can suck. But the book wasn't bad because I'd waited so long and then it didn't progress enough or anything like that. My experience reading the book would've been completely the same in terms of my enjoyment whether I'd waited four years or four weeks.

One of my big worries going into S4 was that during the hiatus, I'd gotten too attached to what I thought had to happen that I wouldn't be able to enjoy whatever did happen. Things like Callum had to go after Rayla because she'd never come back of her own accord. Aaravos was going to get out by the end of the season. Big stuff like that. I found the Rayllum reunion anti-climatic on my first viewing. Now it's one of my favourite scenes of the season and I love how much it parallels their first meeting (Rayla pursuing) while also inverting (lovers rather than enemies, Callum not wanting to talk vs talking to stall/convince her) and giving so many emotional layers at once

All of this being a very long winded way of saying

4x01 is my favourite premiere after 1x01. I think S4 did the best job at incorporating bouts of flashbacks without bringing the plot to a stand still in order to do so. 4x07 is probably my favourite ep7 after 2x07, and I adore 2x07. S4 does some of the most interesting thematic and character work in the whole show, mostly because we have three seasons of context to draw comparisons and correlations from, and it knows how to draw on those things exceedingly well. The most filler eps of the season is before Rayla even shows up, so how could time before her home coming be even effectively re-allocated to after?

Season Four is not what I expected in almost any way. It surprised me, did some of what I expected, plenty I didn't, and then so much more in a lot of ways.

I love(d) it, and I think my opinion and affection for the season is only going to grow as time goes on, tbh

#tdp #the dragon prince #analysis series #the english major strikes again #bc that is my tag for Structural things #arc 1 #analysis #s4 is my best friend #s4 #arc 2 #parallels #thanks for asking #arcmagecallum #like honesty ezran and janai's season and i loved that for them #feel like i just ran a marathon lmao #i said 'okay brain look at the structural parallels i give you permission' and this came out

[bestworstcase]

"[Rapunzel] stops accepting blame for things that aren’t her fault". I've seen this mentioned before on other blogs talking about Rapunzel's character growth over the series, but I don't understand what it's referring to. Sorry if this is too vague/broad an ask, but what are you thinking of in seasons 1 and 2 when you say that Rapunzel has learned to stop taking the blame for things that aren't her fault by season 3? Apart from Rapunzel's Enemy and maybe QFAD, I can't think of anything.

i think this is one of the more understated things about rapunzel’s characterization in that there is never like, a specific moment where rapunzel Verbalizes acceptance of blame for things she clearly isn’t responsible for, but it still imo informs a lot of her behavior?

and it goes all the way back to the film. right out of the gate we see that guilt tripping and blame passing are two of gothel’s chief weapons: when rapunzel’s feelings get hurt by one of gothel’s “jokes,” gothel chides rapunzel to “stop taking everything so seriously,” which is abuser-speak for “nothing i say is wrong, it’s your fault if you’re hurt.” 

then there’s digs like “oh, rapunzel, you know i hate leaving you after a fight—especially when i’ve done absolutely nothing wrong...” 

and the big one, after gothel loses her temper and yells at rapunzel, and then immediately collapses disconsolately into a chair and says “ugh, great—now i’m the bad guy.” overtly blaming rapunzel for “making” gothel snap at her. (this of course gets called back to at the end of the film, though it’s less a guilt trip there than it is a threat.)

aaaand right before “mother knows best (reprise)” when rapunzel asks how gothel found her, gothel says, “oh, it was easy, i just listened for the sound of complete and utter betrayal and followed that.” this one imo is the clearest illustration of how all this impacts rapunzel emotionally, because she goes from scared/alarmed/startled to just. sagging, in obvious guilt. 

but then of course there’s also the scene right after rapunzel leaves the tower, where we see her oscillating wildly from jubilance to despair and guilt as she frets over what her leaving will “do” to gothel, how mad / upset / betrayed gothel will feel, etc. so even when gothel isn’t there, actively reinforcing this behavior, we can see that rapunzel very much feels that gothel’s feelings are her responsibility—and if gothel is upset, that’s rapunzel’s fault. 

anyway!! all this adds up to rapunzel leaving the tower with this subconscious mindset that all problems are her problems, and we see this expressed very early on in s1. i would even argue as early as before ever after... with both frederic and eugene. 

BEA goes really hard right out of the gate with driving home how restless and uncomfortable rapunzel feels in corona; how stifled she is, and how badly she wants to go out and explore the wider world. but it also shows how hard she tries to stuff it down, because her success as a princess is “important to [her] dad.” she tries to bring up her discontent with eugene, but in a roundabout way so as to avoid actually saying she’s unhappy—and then when he says that he’s perfectly happy and content, rapunzel takes a deep breath and agrees with him. it isn’t overt text, but she’s still in “managing other people’s feelings” mode, and there’s a reason the only person she is honest about her own feelings with is cassandra—because cassandra signals very clearly that she is not going to feel hurt, offended, or disappointed if rapunzel is less than happy in corona. quite the opposite, cass is the one who suggests sneaking out in the first place!

now obviously, neither fred’s nor eugene’s feelings are rapunzel’s responsibility and i think both would be horrified to know that rapunzel feels like it’s her job to make them happy... but that doesn’t really matter, because rapunzel has been trained all her life to do this and that’s not a pattern that just goes away overnight. 

and then also in BEA, we see how quick rapunzel is to castigate herself for doing something that upsets someone else... when eugene proposes and she panics and runs away, her reaction is “i feel horrible about eugene” and to feel guilty/upset about not wanting to marry him Right Now.

aaaand of course caine blaming rapunzel for stuff frederic did goes entirely unremarked upon, partly because things like the hair reveal took priority over that but partly also, in my opinion, because rapunzel just kind of Accepted That because she’s so used to being blamed for everything.

this is sort of a recurring theme throughout a lot of s1. you mentioned RE, but for the sake of completeness—i think the most telling thing in that ep is that, when rapunzel finds out what booing really signifies, her first question is what could i have done to this person?, because the concept that this might be a HIM problem doesn’t even cross her mind. she assumes that it’s her fault he doesn’t like her. 

and then there’s stuff like pascal’s story, which i think is an interesting one because like... frankly, it’s not entirely rapunzel’s fault that she stood pascal up. yes, as the princess she could have stood up at six o’clock on the dot to say no more petitions, i am going to dinner. but also she’s the princess, and she’s busy, and pascal’s story is as much an episode about pascal learning that just because rapunzel is busy that doesn’t mean she doesn’t still love him as much as it is about rapunzel learning how to navigate work/life balance—but it’s also very clear that rapunzel’s perspective is “i have been a HORRIBLE friend and i need to put EVERYTHING ELSE on hold until i have FIXED my TERRIBLE BEHAVIOR” when the reality is more like “rapunzel and pascal are both going through a major adjustment period and need to have a realistic talk about expectations now that rapunzel is, like, training to rule a country.” 

in painter’s block, rapunzel feels so traumatized by the (largely correct) decisions she made in QFAD that she can’t make any decisions at all and falls prey to sugracha’s manipulation, and i personally think this is the beginning of the tipping point for her where she begins to see that hey... she’s just a person, she literally cannot be responsible for every bad thing that happens, she can’t be in two places at once, she can’t fix everything for everyone... and sometimes she needs to prioritize one problem over the other. that’s why the emotional climax of that episode is rapunzel saying “difficult choices are what make us who we are.” that’s her letting go of the horrific guilt she felt about choosing corona over varian, and letting eugene and the others put themselves in danger to save her parents. 

that epiphany carries her through SOTS and enables her to make the tough calls she needs to make re: stopping varian, but it also doesn’t mean that her tendency to blame herself for stuff that isn’t her fault goes away altogether. just look at BTCW: while she’s trying to make sense of how/why eugene could be marrying stalyan, her first instinct is to blame herself. to wonder if maybe this is a response to her kind of sort of turning down his kind of sort of second proposal. 

and the rest of the vardaros arc is like... i would say half rapunzel delaying moving on because she’s scared of what waits for her at the end of the black rock trail (as freebird confirms) and half rapunzel making vardaros’s problems her problems and trying to fix them because she feels responsible. 

curses is... not a good episode (canardist, why) but the plot basically hinges on canardist successfully making rapunzel feel guilty / dubious enough about taking back her own telescope that she starts buying into the curse stuff and psyching herself out. 

*as a sidebar here, there are also instances in this same period of rapunzel acknowledging her culpability in stuff she DID do wrong, for example in under raps—but in these cases, it’s interesting to me to note that her apologies actually aren’t very good apologies. in the under raps example, for instance, she also foists off blame on cassandra (saying basically, well i wouldn’t have interfered and put you in danger if you had told me everything, even though i am terrible at keeping secrets and we both know it). and this makes sense, because gothel certainly did not model good, healthy apologizing habits for rapunzel, lol. so she’s in this weird zone where she tends to feel guilty for everything / feels responsible for other people’s feelings but when she DOES mess up for realsies she also doesn’t really have the skills to navigate a true apology. this poor girl

i would say that RATGT is about the point where rapunzel switches gears from accepting blame (both for things that aren’t her fault, like all this stuff, and for things that are, like when she apologized to cass for being a dick in goodbye and goodwill or when she apologized to pascal for belittling him in king pascal) to sort of... overcorrecting and entering her “i’m right, you’re wrong” phase. RATGT is when she starts overtly shutting cass down, and RATGT is when cass’s injury happens—something so horrific and scary that i tend to think rapunzel just cannot process the guilt. it’s too much, too painful, and not something she is emotionally equipped to hold onto or work through in a healthy way...

...so she shoves it away and blames cass instead, very openly. she transmutes her guilt into anger, lessening the pain she feels. and she sticks to that throughout RDO, throughout the rest of s2, and evidently through the rest of the series given she literally never apologizes for it. which is outside of the scope of what you asked alksdfjklsfd but i tend to think basically, rapunzel is not very good at distinguishing between “i feel guilty, but it isn’t my fault” and “i feel guilty, because it is my fault” so in the process of unlearning the former behavior she also forces away the latter, and at the end of s3 she’s in a place where she needs to re-learn how to feel guilt in a healthy, reasonable way. because guilt isn’t always a bad emotion, sometimes it’s just your brain’s way of saying “i did something bad, and i want to make up for it” and That’s Good. 

#rta #im just rambling but bhjhjfhjdfs #i guess in the broader sense anon #'blame' here doesn't exclusively mean 'feeling guilty' #it also means 'feeling responsible' #anyway this is a bit of a mess but these are my thoughts #Anonymous

[columbo-of-narnia]

I posted 3,949 times in 2021

67 posts created (2%)

3882 posts reblogged (98%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 57.9 posts.

I added 349 tags in 2021

#joshua bassett - 85 posts

#ricky bowen - 54 posts

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#when will my husband return from the war - 50 posts

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Longest Tag: 57 characters

#after everything he deserves all the smooches and cuddles

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

So this post is just going to be me sucking Joshua Bassetts lyrical cock because holy moly guys. I waited two days for this so i could listen to the songs enough and just be washed away by this man's musical prowess.

All his songs including his self titled EP have been lyrical masterpieces. Every word is chosen on purpose and every line is written in a way that had an impact. They make you feels things that had they been worded any other way, or written by anyone else, would have lost their meaning and impact. Set me free gives you the sense of something being let go, of being set free because of the words and the raw emotion that Joshua put into the song

Crisis, Secret, and Set me free are no exception. Each one of them is beautifully written and tell a story that josh has been dying to tell for months it seems.

Here are just a few lines from the songs that i fell in love with.

Crisis: "Dont you ever wonder if im okay after all you put me through" "messing with my life is a career move" "i cant help but wonder why you won't make it end" "my momma called cause she heard i had death threats" "but you sensationalized, keep fanning the fires for the headlines"

Secret: "swore that you only had a crush, told me that you would cut him off" "but i defended you still cause i knew rumors could kill" "your secrets safe with me, and him and all of our friends you told, you don't even know i know" "your smoke and mirrors had me hypnotized" "when woe is me stops working, i bet your songs won't sound the same" "you can't hide behind what's clear as day"

Set me free: and basically this entire fucking song but some examples "i don't wanna be rude or on the defensive but I've been going through it too" "and nothing i say can say will ease the pain, but why do i hurt for you to feel okay" "you don't get to take all of me" "i don't recognize you, not anymore. Your not the love that i fell for" "I've been running away ive been facing my fears" "wasn't sure I'd survive, never felt so weak" "i hope you know that i still care about you darlin" "i won't ever let you hurt me how you hurt me again, ever again" "i don't need your apology, let me be" "you don't get to take all of me, set me free"

In short Joshua Bassett is a fucking lyrical master and on a different level than any of his peers. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

54 notes • Posted 2021-12-05 16:58:12 GMT

#4

See the full post

69 notes • Posted 2021-10-18 18:01:57 GMT

#3

See the full post

82 notes • Posted 2021-11-30 00:46:28 GMT

#2

Joshua's new songs tell a story of a guy who has been harrassed and bullied because obsessive stan only got half the story. He went through so much and was silent and graceful through it all. Crisis, Secret, and Set Me Free are all so powerful.

The song that i love the absolute most is set me free because of the message it sends. That he wont let her hurt him anymore and he is taking himself back.

The three songs take the narrative that have been shoved down our throats since DL was released and flips it because we finally have the other side and quiet frankly i think these three songs reveal more about the situation than everything. Not to mention Joshua seems more genuine about the entire thing. these three songs have more emotion and soul than DL ever did IMO.

Forgive me if this post is scattered i have alot of emotions and thoughts right now

144 notes • Posted 2021-12-03 06:21:50 GMT

#1

I just wanna say that if you joke or trivializes Josh's Sexual assault statement. You are a horrible person. It takes so much courage to come out and say it (especially with how josh was raised), and whether josh sees your belittlemnet or disbelief dosent matter because other sexual assault survivors will and know they can't trust you. Survivors of sexual assault deserve to be heard and believed, no matter if you like them or not.

181 notes • Posted 2021-12-03 17:29:59 GMT

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