#losing all (well most of) my stuff and working from scene packs is my villain origin story

[herinsectreflection]

Faith, Buffy, Dreams, and Secret Kisses

This is one of my favourite scenes in the series. Partially because it’s just my personal jam - I admit that I am Fuffy trash, and I have a real love for dream sequences. Buffy had great dream sequences, but this is where they take a step up. It’s a precursor to Restless in this regard and others. It feels weighty and meaningful, but also a little off and incongruent with itself, in that way that only dreams are. Lines are exchanged that don’t quite follow as direct responses to each other, clashing in interesting ways. It’s packed with foreshadowing, metaphor, and other juicy things. And beyond that, it’s a conclusion to Buffy’s entire arc this season about dealing with her shadow self, and it leads to what I think is the single most romantic moment in the series. I want to talk about this scene and unpack some of what I think it’s saying.

First of all, let’s talk about the setting. We’re in Faith’s apartment, bought for her by the Mayor. Essentially, the villain’s lair, where the two Big Bads plotted their evil plans against our hero. But it’s also a set where we saw most of the bonding and semi-familial love between Faith and the Mayor. A place of both evil and love. And for Buffy, a place of trauma. This is where she makes the decision and takes the action to kill another human. I don’t think she was unjustified in doing so, but it’s still an immensely traumatic act for her, and I think she loses a little part of herself when she does it. The location is very much a reflection of Faith, and Buffy’s relationship to her. I don’t think Buffy loves Faith romantically at this point, but I think she cares about her, and remains concerned about her, and I think it’s fair to call that a kind of love. Faith is also evil, a figure of betrayal but also temptation to the “dark side”. And she is also a figure of trauma, clear deep-seated trauma that she fails to resolve, and just gets worse over the course of the season. Buffy is essentially inside her own relationship to Faith, inside a stadium of sin, trauma, love, and shattered glass. Faith looks out of the broken window that they fought through, and we are reminded that their relationship too is broken, unrepaired, littered with the detritus of conflict. There’s no going back from this - even in dreams that window remains broken, and their relationship will always have this damage.

The props too are an interesting choice. TPN’s video on Graduation Day pointed out the painting of a giant snake with a man’s head on the wall. More conflicting feelings here - the Mayor is Faith’s closest connection to humanity and love right now, and also the reason for her betrayal of Buffy. Her redemption and damnation. We also see boxes of various things piled up - including the crossbow that Faith stole in Bad Girls. The image of packing up a room into boxes makes me think of moving away as a student. We must remember that Buffy is graduating today, on the verge of packing her life away and taking it somewhere else, and this reminds us of that.

The first thing of real substance we see is the cat, which jumps up on Faith’s bed. This is one of the aspects of this dream in direct conversation with Restless, where a cat symbolises the Slayer - a specifically feminine, solitary predator that stalks the night. In Restless, we cut to Miss Kitty stalking the camera from shots of the First slayer stalking Willow. Here though, the intercut images are between the cat and Faith, lying bruised and helpless in a hospital. The cat (and the Slayer) is, as far as Buffy is concerned, not a danger but a creature in need of help.

Buffy: "Who's going to look after him?" Faith: "It's a she. And aren't these things supposed to take care of themselves?"

They’re very clearly talking about their respective approaches to slaying, and to life in general. Buffy tries to encourage ties to humanity, telling Faith back in Revelations that she is on Faith’s side. Faith retorts that she alone is on her side, and she repeats that sentiment here. But Buffy is obviously proved right - Faith is lying almost dead because she rejected all help and care.

Buffy: "A higher power guiding us?" Faith: "I'm pretty sure that's not what I meant."

If the cat is the Slayer in this conversation, then the “higher power guiding us” could refer to the Watchers. It makes sense that Buffy delivers this line with a little wry smile, given that she’s just resigned herself from the Council. This allows a little bit of ambiguity in their debate - Buffy has taken on a little bit of Faith’s advice in emancipating herself and so making herself as the Slayer more self-reliant. The show agrees that that too is the right move. A little independence is good and healthy. What Faith means when she talks about “taking care of herself” is not self-reliance or independence, but emotional hardness and self-marooning to avoid hurt. This is something that Buffy will continue to struggle with for the rest of the series. Faith is kind of right when she states that the Slayer is alone and must take care of herself, and it’s up to Buffy to find a healthy way of dealing with that.

"Oh yeah. Miles to go - Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0.”

The scene shifts a little, and we get some foreshadowing for Dawn (Little Miss Muffet), and for Buffy’s death (730 days from now). This is done with the the lighting too, as Faith faces the camera, and the light of the dawn hits her face, in a shot extremely similar to the end of The Gift.

Interestingly, Faith is repeatedly used in this way. In This Year’s Girl, Faith talks about “little sis coming” as she and Buffy make the bed in her first dream. In Restless, that scene gets a callback (”Faith and I just made that bed”), in a scene that ends with the most anvilicious foreshadowing (”Be back before dawn”), as well as a callback to the 7-3-0 line (”Oh, that clock’s all wrong”). In Graduation Day, Faith refers to Buffy as being “dressed up in big sister’s clothes”, however to me Faith has always felt more as being the “little sister” in this relationship. She looks up to Buffy yet is also deeply jealous of her. She wants to be Buffy, to have her friends, her life, the love of her mother. She’s kind of a precursor to Dawn in this respect, so it makes sense that she’s a prophet for her coming.

Slayers having prophetic dreams is well-established, so it makes sense that a dream shared by two slayers would allow them to prophesise a little further ahead in time. Faith hints at this, remarking "Sorry, it's my head. A lot of new stuff.". You have to wonder what other “new stuff” Faith is becoming aware of. Perhaps a new perspective on everything Buffy’s been saying all season. Sharing a mind temporarily is often helpful in seeing another’s point of view. Faith does seem unusually thoughtful as she looks out of the broken window and remarks "They are never going to fix this, are they?".

This is perhaps my favourite line in the scene. It’s a slight mislead, as it comes right as we get a flash of the cat-as-Faith in the foreground. So we assume it’s a reference to her own injuries, which she is expected to never recover from.

But the Faith that’s talking isn’t looking at her own body. She’s looking at the broken window. The symbol for her broken relationship with Buffy. She has become us, the audience, looking at Buffy and Faith and saying “boy, those crazy kids really are never going to work it out, are they?”. It’s true for Faith, it’s true for Faith&Buffy, and it’s true for Buffy herself. When that knife entered Faith’s gut, all three were irrevocably changed forever. You can never put back the life you had before after it’s broken like that. All you can do is take what you can work with, and try to make something new.

Buffy: "What about you?" Faith: "Scar tissue. It fades. It all fades." Buffy confirms that the previous line was not about Faith specifically by asking “what about you”, in a lovely expression of concern. After everything, Buffy does still care about Faith. Faith’s reply of “scar tissue” is an obvious reference to the literal wound she is now carrying (emphasised by the shot of the knife that Buffy sees afterwards), but it’s interesting that she gestures to her face when she says this. It feels like a reference to her entire self. If we accept Faith as Buffy’s shadow self, then “scar tissue” is an accurate description of her. As Buffy herself says, Faith is who she could be if her life was worse (or, perhaps, who she would be if she allowed the tragedies of her life to rule her). She is the part of Buffy’s unconscious self that is revealed after receiving violence. She is the physical proof of trauma. The self that remains after pain. 

Buffy: “Is this your mind or mine?” Again, hitting that note of symbiosis; emphasising how inextricably tied these two characters are. The lines between their psyches are blurred to the point of no longer existing. This is such an intimate moment, almost sexual, with Buffy and Faith unable to tell where their own mind ends and another begins. Imagine the intimacy of that - entering another’s mental space and allowing them into yours, so wholly that they become one and the same. It becomes a mutual recognition of unity and shared pain, and an affirmation of the eternal divisions between them.

I love the ambiguity of the “human weakness” line too. One way we are invited to read it is that Faith is doing a heel-face turn, and intentionally giving Buffy the means to defeat the Mayor. But we’re not allowed anything that easy, to wash away Faith’s sins with a quick redemption before the climax. Faith has miles to go before she can achieve that. It’s just as likely that Faith is talking about herself, and the human weakness that led her down a dark path, or that Buffy is talking about Faith through the Faith in her head, or Buffy is just working it out on her own, etc, etc. This is the information that saves the world, and I like that it remains an unknown. A permanent “maybe”, just as Buffy and Faith’s relationship is. 

Buffy: "How are you going to fit all this stuff?" Faith: "Not gonna. It's yours." Buffy: "I can't use all of this!" Faith: "Just take what you need. You're ready?"

As the scene reaches its climax, we see the most obvious recitation of the season’s themes. S3 is about Buffy coming into conflict with her own shadow self, and here the show tells us how she does that - by taking what she needs. I mentioned earlier that we saw the crossbow from Bad Girls, from the “want/take/have” scene. Here, Faith is telling her the same thing, but in a more healthy way. She cannot just hedonistically consume everything like a crazed id-monster, but she also cannot deny herself things that she needs. 

Most importantly, the “stuff” they are referring to is Faith’s, but as Faith says, it’s also Buffy’s. Everything that Faith is, Buffy is too, because she is her shadow self. Buffy must recognise this, accept it, and incorporate the shadow self into her own identity. She cannot be consumed by the shadow self and simply become Faith, allowing her shadow to consume her conscious personality (”how are you going to fit all this stuff?”). Instead she must recognise her dark mirror, and take the healthy parts, and integrate them into herself as an individual (”take what you need”).

It is at this point of healing and merging between Buffy’s self and shadow self that Faith reaches out, almost touches her in an action that feels so tender, and Buffy becomes conscious. She literally becomes her conscious self by making peace with her dream (unconscious self). She stands up, and walks over to Faith’s bed. This is the moment that their relationship all season has been leading to. She leans over, and places a kiss on her forehead.

This kiss is everything. It’s an act of thanks, as Buffy realises Faith may have given her what she needs to save the day (at the cost of Faith’s one familial figure). It is an act of service, as Buffy literally gives Faith the kiss she asked for when they started to fight in Graduation Day. It could also be an act of forgiveness. We know from I Only Have Eyes For You that forgiveness, Buffy learns, is done not because somebody deserves it, but because they need it. Faith at this point probably does not deserve it, does not want forgiveness (she wants to be punished), nor can she recognise it in her current state, but Buffy gives it anyway, adding another layer of heartbreak. It is given not for any purpose, but for its own sake.

Above all though, this is an act of recognition. We must consider the previous forehead-kiss that these two shared, back in Enemies, and Faith’s words directly before: “What are you gonna do, B, kill me? You become me. You're not ready for that, yet.” And in Graduation Day, just after Buffy stabs her: “You did it. You killed me.” And her words in the dream, just a few seconds ago: “You're ready?"

Now I don’t think that Buffy stabbing Faith to save Angel is morally equivalent to Faith voluntarily killing people to help an evil guy become a big snake. I don’t think the show wants us to think that either. But the line is firmly blurred. Angel says in Consequences that the act of taking a life will change Faith irrevocably, and Faith agrees. She sees herself as tainted from that point on, and if Buffy took her life, she would be tainted too. And though it’s understandable and morally defensible, there’s no doubt that a part of Buffy - her innocence - dies on that balcony when she sticks that knife in. That act is forever. The choice to do violence is permanent. 

So when Faith says “you killed me”, she is saying “you have become me”. She identifies a common nature in them. And when Buffy kisses her, returning it in the exact same way as when Faith first said those words, she is saying “I know”. She recognises and responds to Faith’s mirror by holding up one of her own. She matches similarity with similarity. She is finally “ready” to assimilate her shadow self, and does it by telling her shadow self that she sees her, and that she was right. 

The beautiful part of all this is that it is silent. Faith would’ve been aware of their unification in the dreamscape, since it was happening in both of their heads, but she has no way of knowing about this. I wonder if Buffy would ever tell her. I doubt it. This is the core of the Faith/Buffy tragedy. This is why I find this relationship so compelling. Buffy performs this act of recognition and devotion entirely in secret. It is a stolen kiss and a private confession. A whisper made to a sleeping lover. A letter written, sealed, stamped, and set on fire. It is an act of love and tenderness made entirely for its own sake, without witness or reward. 

This is the single most romantic moment of the show for me. In this show that in many ways about how when nothing you do matters, all that matters is what you do, what could be more romantic than this gentle kiss that changes nothing against this aching hole of violence and betrayal between them, but exists anyway, just because Buffy felt it needed to be done. It’s a silent moment that nobody but Buffy and us are privy to. Neither Faith nor the rest of the world will ever know it happened, but I know I for one will never forget.

#btvs #buffy summers #faith lehane #graduation day #fuffy #s3 #meta

[yandere-mha-blog]

Chapter 1: Boredom

Words: 2130

Boredom, Sure most people hated the feeling of fear the worst, or some people even hated the feeling of love. But you hated the feeling of boredom, so why you chose to take this excruciating lackluster lecture for your class was beyond you. You were tapping your nails against the desk scribbling down a few notes here and there, stuff you already knew. Why this college made you take classes that were so painfully basic was beyond your understanding, oh wait a second, money that's why.

“Hey (Name)?” your seatmate said to you

“Hmm?” you said

“Can I please see your notes? You always know the right stuff to write down,” she said

“Sure,” you said pushing your notes over a bit so she could get a better look at them

“Thank you.” She said, you nodded your head and kept listening to the drone of a lecture. Once it was finally done and over with you packed up your bags and were going to head to the courtyard.

“Man, that was boring. I don't know how you pay attention to this so well.” Your seatmate said

“I can’t really.” you said putting away your pencil case “Hope the notes help.”

“They will, hey you want to eat lunch together?” She asked

“Sorry but I like to eat alone,” you said

“Ohhh, okay we'll see you in class tomorrow (name).” she said and left, you followed suit and went to the vending machine, got a quick snack, and headed back to your dorm, the next class was in an hour and might as well relax a bit for the time being. You pulled out your phone to read the latest news.

Villain dubbed the Name NightHawk strikes again, police are looking for any leads.

“This guy again huh, he must be stalking this area.” you thought “Wonder how long he is planning to stay around this boring area.”

After looking at one too many cat videos you headed off to your next class, Mutation quirk and medication. With the wide range of quirks, there were many issues that could harm the quality of life. Studying to become a doctor sure did take a lot of work, even more work now that humans could have any range of growths, bumps, dry spots. Could that be a part of their quirk or is it a tumor that needs to be removed? This was one of the classes that interested you, the hands-on approach, if you didn't have a strong stomach you shouldn't take this class, takes you back to high school when you had to dissect a frog, then a squid, and who could forget the pig fetus. The teachers were not too thrilled that you used your quirk to open up the animals though and sent you to the counselor afterward.

Oh well

Drawing down the diagrams, your seatmate who you seem to have a lot of classes with looked over

“Man you are really good at drawing, can I take a photo?” she asked

“Sure,” you said

“You are a woman of few words huh.” she said, “but you are really nice (name).” “Thanks,” you said, trying to pay attention to the lecture, she must have gotten the hint and went back to her note-taking. Still with this being the last class of the day you were finally ready to take a nice hot bath and relax.

“So (name).” she said, “I was wondering if you want to come with me and a couple of friends tonight, we are getting some drinks.”

“Hm I don't know, I don't like getting drunk on a school night,” you said

“You have classes tomorrow?” She asked, sounding let down by that news, well not like you had anything else to do and maybe a couple of drinks with some people would curb your boredom a bit.

“Oh wait, today is Friday, I have tomorrow off.” you said “I don’t like to stay out too late, I'll still go just won't be there the whole time.”

“That's fine, I've been wanting to hang out with you, I'll pay as thanks for helping me with the notes.”

“Sounds good, which palace are we meeting up at?” you asked

“Oh, it's called cherry steam.” She said, “You know I just realized I never told you my name, it's Fumiko. Also, we are meeting there at six so in two hours

“Okay I'll meet you there,” you said and left, it had been a while since you went out so finally an excuse to wear that new dress you bought months ago, you didn’t get invited out often because most of your classmates thought of you as aloof so this was a nice treat.

So when you arrived outside Cherry Steam and it only hit you then that this was a mixer, and they were short a girl for this group of five men, just great. You sat at the end sipping away at your, you lost count, fruity drink as the guy across from you tried to make conversation.

“So uhm what are you in school for?” he asked

“Doctor, what about you?” you asked taking another sip

“Business major,” he said

“Is that so,” you said swirling the drink around your glass, god could this be any more painful, this guy was incredibly duel.

“So what's your quirk, not to brag but mine is really cool.” he said “I'm able to see behind my head with a third eye.”

“Huh that's neat, guess it must be hard for people to get the drop on you.” you said “My quirk has a habit to scare people off, so not sure if you can handle it.”

“OH come on you can show me,” he said, finally something interesting, so you held out your hand

“You sure you wanna know.” you teased

“Well now I can’t, not see it,” he said, as you flexed your fingers and your five-inch talons came shooting out of your nail beds, he jolted back. “Holy…”

“Told you.” you said taking another sip, this got the attention of the others “I'm able to flex my fingers and these talons come out.”

“Wow you could become a hero with those.” the other guy said as they looked over “can I touch them.”

“Only if you want to get cut,” you said putting your talons back in under your nail beds.

“Does it hurt when they pop out like that?” another guy asked

“Not really.'' You said, as you continued to have the conversation with these guys, you didn't notice the other girls getting a little pissed off by the lack of attention they were getting. Till Fumiko tapped your shoulder

“Hey, I need to go to the restroom. Can you come with me?” she asked

“Sure, I don't mind,” you said getting up and walking out of the booth and following her, only for her to stop outside

“(name) I'm glad you are having fun but the other girls came here as well, can you dial it down a bit?” she asked, you were now confused

“Dial what down?” you asked

“You are flirting with all of them.”She said, “So can you just, you know tone down the flirting a bit.”

“...I think I should leave,” you said

“(name) wait that's not what I meant.” She said

“Look it's getting late anyway I wasn't planning on staying out past ten.” you said “I want to make a scene I’ll just leave so you can all have fun.”

You walked back to the booth and grabbed your purse slinging it over your shoulder.

“Heyy where are you going?” the guy asked

“It's gotten late.” you said “I need to head back, thanks for the drinks.”

“Awwww, what lame.” Another guy said

“Maybe another time, bye-bye.” you said and left the booth, Fumiko came back

“Fumiii your friend left, I didn't even get her number.”

“Hey who said you would be the one getting her number?”

“Hey who said, who said you would be getting her number!” his other friend yelled at him, they started fighting amongst themselves they didn't see their other guy friend leave, till Fumi looked

“Hey didn't we have an extra guy just now?” she asked

“Hey, where is Akio?” His friend said, “That lousy bastard ditched us.”

Well, at least now we have a perfect amount of people.” One of the girls Fumiko brought said

“Greta another round then!”

You were walking down the street rather pissed off, first, she tells you it was just a couple of drinks, not the fact it was a mixer, and that they needed another woman to come. Secondly, the second that they start paying attention to you, they get all pissed off. You never understood people as you kept walking down the street in a huff letting people know to stay out of your way.

“Hey (name).” you hear a males voice oh it is one of the guys

“Huh what are you doing here?” you asked, man you felt drunk this is why you didn't drink you can't handle your booze.

“You just left all of a sudden, you okay?” He asked

“I'm fine, I'm fine, you can go back to your friends now,” you said your words were a bit slurred but you could make it home by yourself

“It's no fun when there isn't the same amount of men and women, here let me walk you home.” He said, and oh no you knew what that meant with these guys

“NO need, I can take care of myself,” you said and kept walking, he must have not gotten the hint because he kept walking behind you, before putting his arm over your shoulder

“You are stumbling let me help,” he said

“I told you I am fine,” you said slinging his arm off and kept walking, you just wanted to get away from this guy, there was a shortcut you thought not thinking correctly as you tried to lose him.

“Hey (Name), can you just listen to me, I'm just trying to be nice,” Akio said grabbing your wrist

“I don't want you to be nice, I want you to let me go before I cut you.” You said as he grabbed your other wrist.

“You won't be able to cut me if you can't move your hands.” he said, his tone shifting yup he was getting violent “You do have such an amazing quirk you know.” “Let me go already.” You said struggling before you flexed your fingers and pointed them down to stab him in the arms

“AGH YOU BITCH.” He yelled pulling back his arm and you booked it down the alley shortcut, you could hear him chasing after you. When he grabbed the back of your dress and yanked you into his chest.

“What's this, a lovers quarrel?” you heard someone else's voice, having no idea where it was coming from “You know women don't like pushy guys.” “Who the fuck said that?” Akio said not letting go of you

“I did up here.” the voice said with a whistle, and you looked up to see a man who looked around your age on fire escape legs dangling down as he was eating take out.

“This doesn't concern you,” Akio said, as you kept trying to crack loose, Akio was freaking out and now this strange man was just watching on.

“It kinda does, because here I am trying to enjoy some take out after a long day and now I see some brute manhandling someone who isn't interested.” He said as a can of coffee hit Akio on the head, not even in front of the direction the man was in. Akio must have thought it was not worth it and shoved you down and ran for it.

“Yeesh what a load of work.” The man said, “You good down there.”

“I'm… fine,” you said trying to gather your thoughts as you got up, great you skinned your knee, the man got up on his feet and looked down.

“I saw that you have a pretty neat quirk.” He said, “ Reminds me of bird talons.”

“Most people say cat paws.” you said getting up, was this guy trying to lift your spirits or something “I really wasn't thinking while coming down here, do you know the way out?”

“Yup, strength down that way to the left, wouldn't recommend going that way,” he said pointing the direction Akio booked it at.

“Thank you,” you said grabbing your purse and walking down, As the man looked in the direction Akio came to. Before an arrangement of red feathers came out from hiding in the alleyway and attached to his back, he had one more thing to do.

#yandere hawks #yandere keigo takami #yandere keigo #yandere takami #yandere my hero academia #yandere boku no hero academia #yandere

[roostercrowedatmidnight]

TV Show Soundtracks, and Why Buffy’s is So Great

There are a lot of ways in which Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an incredibly intelligent and well-crafted show, so much so that there are tiny details in the costumes, the acting, the set, etc. that you only notice after your fourth or fifth rewatch. One of the places where you can see how much care went into the production is the soundtrack. Buffy had a lot of different composers, some of which would compose the soundtrack for a few of the episodes and some of which were the primary composer for entire seasons. Some of the most prominent composers include Christophe Beck, who was one of the main composers for season 2, the sole composer for seasons 3 and 4, and composer for one episode in season 5 and one in season 6; Thomas Wanker, who was the main composer for seasons 5 and 6; and Robert Duncan, who was one of the main composers for season 7 (a complete list of Buffy composers can be found here). I’m mostly interested in these three composers because they wrote a great deal of the music overall, and their music tracks are most important in terms of what I hope to convey here, which is that one of the best things about the Buffy orchestral score is how beautiful it sounds and how smartly it is utilized. To convey my point, I will explore the use of music in the show, especially in the season 5 finale, ‘The Gift.’

WARNING: gonna be lots of Buffy spoilers. Mostly just up to the season 5 finale, but possibly smaller spoilers for seasons 6 and 7 as well.

A TV show doesn’t need a fantastic soundtrack to be good — many shows have a more minimalistic, atmospheric score which serves its purpose. A lot of shows also use contemporary pop songs instead of an orchestral soundtrack (which Buffy also does). However, I think having a good orchestral soundtrack elevates a show to an even higher level, and can add layers of emotional complexity that would otherwise have been absent. To achieve this greater emotional depth, I argue that there are two main criteria a score must have: music that is enjoyable to listen to, and music that is intelligently employed.

It’s difficult to define what ‘enjoyable’ music is. Any song is going to reach some people and not others. However, some are definitely more likely to create a response in people. It is important for composers to make soundtracks that create an emotional reaction in the viewer. Some composers do this very subtly, and others more saliently. There is no definitive way to determine if music is good or not — that is completely up to the individual. However, I’d argue that there are some composers who are better at creating a consistent emotional reaction in viewers. (If you’re interested, a few composers I love include Ludovico Einaudi, Murray Gold, my man Christophe Beck, Rachel Portman, Thomas Newman, and Joe Hisaishi. I would definitely recommend checking their stuff out if you’re into soundtracks.)

The second criterion for a good TV score, which I will be discussing in more detail, is that it is intelligently employed. What I mean by intelligently employed is that the music is thoughtfully applied to the story. This ultimately ties back to emotional reaction as well -- if the people behind the scenes are smart in where they put the tracks, they’ll create a stronger reaction in the viewer. Soundtrack is best employed when certain tracks, or leitmotifs, are used for specific characters, ideas, or plot threads, without being over- or underapplied. If you just slap the same track over every single emotional scene in a show, or add a random new track when you could have reused one that relates back to the character/theme in the scene, you’ll be missing out on a chance to create a response in the viewers.

Before I continue, I just want to quickly clarify that a leitmotif is essentially a small chunk of music that is associated with a specific character, relationship, setting, or idea. Basically, it’s a theme, and is tied exclusively to a certain element in the story. For this essay, I will be using leitmotif sometimes to refer to an entire track that is tied to a story element, and sometimes to refer to a shorter phrase of music, which may sometimes be contained in larger tracks. That’s not super important, though. Basically, leitmotif = theme for a specific thing.

When a leitmotif is given to a specific story element, such as a character, then using the leitmotif in scenes that are significant to that character gives the viewer a sense of familiarity and nostalgia. This is especially great if the character has been gone for a while and has just returned, or if they have died and the leitmotif is used while other characters are remembering them. Leitmotifs can be used to draw subtle parallels to earlier episodes or certain story arcs, and if the viewer is paying attention then they will be able to understand the show in a deeper way.

Some shows have great music but a poor application of it. One example of this is BBC’s Merlin. For the record, I am not dragging the composers here, because they did a beautiful job and created some great music for the show (if you want to check out the soundtrack, a few tracks I love are ‘The Burial’/’Merlin Buries Lancelot’ by Michal Pavlíček, ‘Merlin Lost’ by Rob Lane, ‘Farewell to Gwen’ by Rohan Stevenson, and any of the suites from the finales). I don’t know who actually makes the decisions about which tracks to put where in a show. It probably differs from show to show, depending on how involved the composers are. Budget probably also plays a role, with some shows being forced to reuse music if they can’t afford a full score for every single season. With all this in mind, Merlin has a lovely soundtrack, but hardly any thought went into its application. Songs are reused constantly, to the point where they have no special attachment to specific story elements, and therefore carry no emotional meaning. You won’t gain very much insight into the text when you hear them, and they appear so often that you lose the emotional reaction you once had to them. Simply put, the Merlin soundtrack is not intelligently employed.

There are a lot of shows with great soundtracks that follow these criteria of emotional reaction and intelligent employment. A few that I know of include Once Upon a Time (composer Mark Isham), Sherlock (composers David Arnold and Michael Price), and Doctor Who (composer Murray Gold from s1-10, and Segun Akinola from s11-present). I especially love Murray Gold’s work in Doctor Who — he created a leitmotif for every single Doctor, practically every companion, and even for some of the major villains, and the music would sometimes even be used to foreshadow the return of a character. I could write several dozen essays about the thought that went into Murray Gold’s composition, though that obviously isn’t the point of this particular piece.

Now onto Buffy. Buffy has such a wonderful soundtrack because the music is enjoyable and emotionally evocative (in my opinion), and it is very smartly employed. The show has certain tracks it reuses which hold significant meaning, and that are used throughout an entire season, or several seasons. Some of these include the Angel/Buffy theme (plus an Angel/Buffy breakup theme used towards the end of season 3), the Buffy/Riley theme, the Spike/Buffy theme, the Giles/Ms Calendar theme, the Tara/Willow theme, and doubtless many others that I haven’t noticed yet. As you can see, the Buffy composers are big on relationship leitmotifs which often span multiple seasons. There are leitmotifs for recurring ideas as well, like Joyce’s illness in season 5. All of these are used over many episodes. They create an emotional reaction in the viewer because they carry a sense of familiarity, tie plot arcs together, and give you nostalgic feelings towards character relationships.

Other tracks in Buffy are limited to a single episode or a single scene, instead of being reused frequently. Because of this, they pack a lot of emotion and make the scene or episode even more memorable. Think the score for ‘Hush’; ‘Restless’; the track ‘Slayer’s Elegy,’ which plays during the big final fight scene in ‘The Wish’; or the track ‘Spellbound,’ which plays during the Faith/Riley-Willow/Tara sex/magic parallel scene in ‘Who Are You’ (by the way, all of these episode scores were composed by Christophe Beck). The track ‘Spellbound’ is actually sort of an extended version of the Willow/Tara leitmotif. 'Spellbound' only plays in one scene, and it’s my favourite track in the entire show. By using certain tracks sparingly, instead of overapplying them, the composers can create a memorable musical experience out of a single scene or episode.

Some tracks get reused across episodes, but only once or twice, instead of many times. They may be attached to a very particular setting or idea. Reusing this kind of track in a later episode draws you directly back to the previous time it was used, creating a sense of familiarity and reminding you that you have encountered this sort of thing before. For example, there is a track called ‘Little Miss Muffet’ by Christophe Beck, which appears in the dream sequence shared by Faith and Buffy in the season 3 finale, ‘Graduation Day Part 2.’ This track does not appear again until part way through season 4, when a version of it plays in the episode ‘This Year’s Girl.’ It appears during the opening scene of the episode when Faith and Buffy are sharing another dream together, establishing it as the leitmotif for Faith/Buffy dream sequences.

Even when you aren’t consciously aware of the significance of every leitmotif in Buffy, they still create subtle emotional reactions in you which help you engage with the story better.

To wrap up my point, I want to offer an example of a fantastic track in Buffy and how it is used to draw viewers to a specific moment and create an intense emotional reaction. One of the absolute best episodes of Buffy is the season 5 finale, ‘The Gift.’ One of the many great things about it is the soundtrack, done by composer Christophe Beck (who also composes the orchestral score for Frozen, Frozen 2, Bring It On, WandaVision, and Ant-Man). Christophe Beck came back to the show to compose for this episode, and the most important track he created was ‘Sacrifice.’ From what I’ve observed, there are only three instances in which this leitmotif is used: twice in ‘The Gift,’ including Buffy’s pivotal final scene, and once in ‘Bargaining Part 2’ from season 6. The most important time that ‘Sacrifice’ is used is obviously when Buffy is sacrificing her life for Dawn’s at the end of ‘The Gift’; that’s why the track is called what it is. The track is used earlier on in ‘The Gift’ when Buffy and Giles are talking as they prepare for the final battle, and Buffy expresses her exhaustion with life and her vow that if Dawn dies she will stop being the Slayer. The use of ‘Sacrifice’ here is to foreshadow what’s to come. The longing for rest Buffy feels, and her wish to stop being the Slayer, will both be fulfilled when she dies at the end of the episode. The track is used in this scene to hint at what’s to come for viewers. The track is repeated in the second part of the season 6 opener, ‘Bargaining Part 2,’ when Buffy is standing at the top of the tower shortly after being brought back to life. This entire scene is a very deliberate callback for viewers as well as for Buffy: she is standing right where she was when she died, flashback clips play of her final moments, and Buffy repeats her own words to Dawn from ‘The Gift.’ Using the track ‘Sacrifice’ in this scene helps make the callback even more obvious. The song is able to elicit an extreme emotional memory for the audience, which the familiar setting and flashback clips may not have been able to create on their own. It reminds you not just of what happened in the season 5 finale, but of how you felt.

Of course, this foreshadowing and flashback use of ‘Sacrifice’ would not be as emotionally effective if Buffy’s last scene from ‘The Gift’ wasn’t such a fantastic scene, the song so skillfully employed, and the song itself so beautiful. ‘Sacrifice’ is one of my favourite tracks in Buffy. I love playing it on the piano. I love listening to it. When it plays at the end of ‘The Gift,’ it makes me almost cry. It’s saved for one of the most significant scenes in the entire series. The emotions are so elevated because soon after ‘Sacrifice’ starts playing, the rest of the audio is stripped away. All you can hear is Christophe Beck’s music and Buffy’s voice as she says her final words to Dawn, overlaid with silent shots of Buffy’s body, her heartbroken friends, and finally her gravestone.

In summary, I think the Buffy soundtrack is especially strong for a TV show, since it not only features breathtaking music but carefully applies that music to create the best emotional response from the viewers. TV shows don’t require a fantastic soundtrack to be successful, but I definitely think that the strength of the soundtrack makes Buffy infinitely better than what it would have been without it. The orchestral soundtrack for Buffy sadly isn’t available on Spotify or Apple Music at this time (though the soundtrack for the musical episode is). However, if you like instrumental scores, the official Buffy soundtrack can be found in various places on YouTube, and there are also many people who upload unofficial tracks (including here and here). Either way, I would definitely recommend checking out the music, or at least paying closer attention to it next time you watch Buffy. The creators clearly put a great deal of thought into it, and once you start recognizing the leitmotifs of the show, it reveals a whole hidden layer of storytelling.

#happy 20th anniversary of the gift #this took a lot out of me im tired now #anyways enjoy #this is for all you music buffs (enjoy my pun) #essay #analysis #meta #buffy #btvs #my post

[nzvalley]

Rewatching some Star Trek: Enterprise (”E2” & “Zero Hour”)

The last section of the season becomes very procedural, very perfunctory. It’s well-crafted and well-executed, but it’s plot-heavy and militaristic. The scenes of MACOs preparing, of soldiers discussion tactics and training, feels like what some of the writers really wanted from the show. The one exception, which seems out of place, is E2     

3x21 – E2

I usually like time travel episodes, but this episode is hard to get through for me. For the obvious shipping reasons, definitely, but also because this idea could have been great. As it stands, the writers attempt to pack too much into too short of time.

The scenes where Archer and T’Pol in the “past” are poignant. Very ambitious effect to distinguish it in the timeline. 

T’Pol seems a little too aged for roughly 180 right? We’ve seen Vulcans well over 200 be spry and steady. T’Pol seems elderly and frail. Maybe it has something to do with her Pa’nar Syndrome or the effects of her addiction.

Elderly!T’Pol comes close to hugging Archer when they meet, but stops at grasping him by the upper arms/shoulders. Similar to the manner that he frequently does to her when he is trying to comfort or steady her. 

Looking at the story through (heavy) shipper goggles, T’Pol stayed very dedicated to Archer’s mission. She met with Archer first, before anyone else. And eldery!T’Pol remains as loyal to Archer as ever, even going against Lorian’s wishes. 

3x24 – Zero Hour (Finale)

Lots of plot, and more plot. This is a well-crafted finale, a well-crafted last act of the season, but very mechanical too.

Love the Archer/Hoshi scenes, even though she is distressed. Their connection seemed so strong in the pilot, and I always hated that their relationship receded into the background. Hoshi’s guilt about giving up the third code really comes through.

Archer is ruthless and selfless, always willing to sacrifice himself most of all.

Daniels spoils the finale for Archer! The bastard! Seriously, this last-ditch effort by Daniels is pretty epic. Daniels again seems like he’s a voice of some of the writers who don’t like the changes in S3. It almost sounds like the fate of the character of Archer is being argued about, whether or not he can really be killed off.

DANIELS: It's too great a risk. If you're killed, none of this will happen. At least, not the way it's supposed to happen. ARCHER: Then it'll happen some other way. Who's to say whether it'll be better or worse? DANIELS: It's essential you be a part of this. ARCHER: Where are we? What planet? DANIELS: Earth. ARCHER: Seems to me it's just as essential that Earth be around for this too. DANIELS: Lieutenant Reed can work with Sato. They are not crucial to the future of mankind. You are. ARCHER: My mission is to save Earth, not your Federation.

Interesting scene between T’Pol and Phlox about death. She acknowledges she finds death distracting, and tries to put it out of her mind. Putting her reaction to Archer’s believed death in Azati Prime  in a new light. 

T'POL: I have always found it distracting to think of death, especially when entering a dangerous situation. PHLOX: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. I don't know about Vulcans, but Denobulans take great pleasure in bequeathing their belongings to far-flung relatives. T'POL: We're not dead yet.

Hoshi should save the day more often. It really is a tragedy they didn’t focus more on her. With humans venturing into the wider galaxy for the first time, encountering many new alien species, it would have made sense for the communications officer and linguist to be particularly highlighted.

T’Pol acquits herself well when in command of Enterprise. Hard to believe how out of control she was half-dozen episodes ago.

Shran! Bringing the Xindi arc back into the Federation arc, and eventually the Temporal Cold War arc is woven in as well. This episode does a fairly good job of reintegrating the show back into what they’d established in the first two seasons. Shran once again saves Archer and humanity, for little reason other than the trust and respect that has grown between the two.

SHRAN: And tell Archer we're not even any more. He owes me!

There’s a theme of cooperation in this finale and season. Humanity would not have been saved without alien allies. Shran and T’Pol, of course. But Phlox is also essential to the Entreprise crew’s survival. And the Xindi species that allied themselves with humans. This season often gets mischaracterized as being xenophobic and jingoistic, but it ultimately has a very kumbaya message.

T’Pol thinks Archer is dead again. She is visibly distraught. She doesn’t cry this time, but the camera focuses on her gutted reaction. It also cuts to her alone in the ready room, at the window of despair. This is where she came to cry for Archer when she thought he was dead last time. Archer has angsted about T’Pol there too, so there’s a lot of meaning. 

T’Pol’s meeting with the Xindi representative continues the preview of T’Pol in command, showing what the ship (and show) might be like if Archer was killed off for real. In that scene, which immediately follows her learning about Archer’s “death,” she is still anguished. The way she holds her book defensively to her chest and to her mouth. She freezes and closes her eyes when the Xindi mentions Archer’s sacrifice.

T’Pol’s scene with Phlox is touching. Their interactions with Porthos especially, and their elision of the fact that they’re talking about T’Pol’s loss.  

PHLOX: Only time. How's morale? T'POL: It isn't easy for a crew to lose it's Captain. PHLOX: I suppose we'll all need time to heal. T'POL: Will he be all right? PHLOX: After a while. He's lost his best friend, but it's just a matter of time. He'll be fine again. T'POL: Did you hear that? The Doctor say's you'll be fine. It's just a matter of time.

The way her voice breaks on that last sentence! T’Pol believes she has lost a close friend, a trusted partner, and perhaps more. And is this the first time T’Pol has touched Porthos willingly?

Timey wimey stuff! Returing to the notion, which as far as I know I made up, that some producer or network exec wanted Archer/Bakula off the show: imagine this episode without the capper scene revealing Archer is alive. Where the season ends with Mayweather, Trip, and the fighter planes. Seems pretty natural. Maybe that was an option that was discussed or set up. Just speculating. But thankfully that didn’t happen, because we get some awesome costuming, set design, and character beats in the premiere episodes of Season 4!

Final Thoughts on S3

A major flaw in this season is its weak villains. The Reptilians end up seeming misguided, too quick to believe their Guardians and too stubborn to change course. The Guardians/Sphere-builders literally aren’t there. They are a phantom villain. The biggest antagonists are the weapon and the spheres, technology.

Such a flawed season, but still with strong episodes and high points. The season-long narrative was mostly well-done, but the militaristic tone and content they were going for didn’t match the ethos of the show. The season is over plotted. The Xindi were awesome as new species, but not great as antagonists. And of course the Trip/T’Pol neuropressure blight! 

I’ve said several times this season that certain episodes should have been expanded, and each one had to do with time travel. With as important as time travel ultimately turns out to be in this season, they should have played that up from the beginning. That would be the simplest way to fix the season. Cut out some of the extraneous plot and overbearing romance, and expand the time travel episodes. 

The Xindi arc never should have presented as different from the Temporal Cold War, but as that war going hot and putting everything we know about Star Trek history in jeopardy. The time travel stories they had, like Twilight, Carpenter Street, and E2 should have been expanded and/or played up as essential arcs. The presence of Lorian and elderly!T’Pol should have been revealed early into the season, at least to the audience. Although his paternity could still be a reveal later on in the season.

With whatever time is left after expanding the time travel stuff, dedicate that to fleshing out T’Pol’s addiction arc and making her romantic experimentation more natural. The writers actually set up a good way for Trip and T’Pol’s romance to start, with them working on Trellium- they just never followed up on it. I would continue their work on Trellium (high stakes, high pressure, and often alone,) while also revealing to the audience that T’Pol’s experience in Impulse caused her to start ingesting Trellium as a drug.

The season wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be greatly improved by 1. improving the villains, 2. expanding the time travel stories and making them a central thematic arc, and 3. expanding T’Pol’s addiction arc by revealing her “drug use” early in the season to the audience.

Transcripts: http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/episodes.htm

Screencaps: https://ent.trekcore.com/gallery/index.php?cat=4

#Star Trek: Enterprise #Star Trek #Captain Archer #T'Pol #S3 #E2 #Zero Hour

[ziracona]

Thinkin about how the NOES 2010 movie is so good. Listen…listen. It has really unusual structure. Most of the time, a horror film follows either a single unit (one person, one family) through a whole plot (The Witch, The Babadook, Saw, Halloween) or a group of victims with one pretty obvious final girl in the mix (Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I Know What You Did Last Summer), but NOES 2010 doesn’t do that. It takes you through several protagonists, one at a time, moving on from one teen to another when your initial protagonist is killed, starting with Dean, moving on to Kris, then Jesse, and then Nancy and Quentin when they’re the last two standing. It’s a fresh take, which makes everything so much less sure, and gives narrative weight to the characters who die instead of just making them bodycount. Everybody gets treated like the final girl, not canon fodder, which is extremely important to the story the film is telling. Nancy and Quentin don’t even become the film’s focus until almost halfway through the story.

Probably someone who is unfamiliar with the original film would assume Kris is the protagonist until she is killed thirty minutes in a little ala Psycho. It makes everything seem less certain, and makes the characters who you lose as important as the ones who make it, which is a really responsible way to tell something. A lot of the time, the characters in horror are kind of assholes (which is great and another rant for another day, because since the stakes are so low [literally you just have to care enough to not want the character to be brutally murdered], you can get an audience invested in an willing to explore the complexity of even a shitty  person—but like I said, that’s a wholeass other rant), but in NOES2010, they’re not, which I think is important. Never does the film want you to feel like the characters either suck and deserve something happening to them, or are stupid (look, when the publicist in Scream 4 got out of her car in an unlit parking garage in the middle of a Ghostface chase, I saw the wholeass theater stop cheering for her to live because she was so stupid we just couldn’t root for her anymore—it happens) and to care less about their outcome that way. Everyone fights hard and tries hard and it’s just not enough.

Obviously it’s a slasher, but NOES 2010 is really like a thesis work film on CSA and how it affects people, and the commentary is both responsible, and really, really well done. As someone who has had to write a character who has committed that kind of crime, and walk the fucking razor’s edge between making them duly awful, and not crossing the line into anything exploitative or gratuitous, I can say with certainty that is not an easy thing to do. Because you want to give weight to the suffering that has been inflicted and realistic portray of the depravity of your villain, but again, you really don’t want to show anything more than you have to. That’s not what it’s about, and honestly, you can talk about that kind of a serious issue without actually showing things on screen. A film about CSA would be kind of defeating its own purpose if anyone who had ever experienced that shit went to watch the movie and went away more traumatized. The film does a really responsible job of walking that line. Freddy is awful, and there’s a constant threat with him—especially in the film’s climax—but he never actually assaults anyone onscreen (or off, except in the referenced past. The worst thing he does onscreen is lick someone, which is still incredibly disgusting), and the film still manages to keep how awful he is very, very real.

CSA is a really shitty thing to go through, obvious, it feels incredibly of dumb to type that—any assault is. Obviously. One of the big things in dealing with it after is a lot of the time, victims can feel broken, or damaged, and even worse, be talked about like they’re some kind of ‘damaged goods’ by incredibly shitty people in their life, but the film doesn’t even give that enough weight to bring it up. There have always been two big ways in film to combat ideas, one of which is direct confrontation (IE a film specifically about something being wrong—Do The Right Thing talking very openly about racism for instance) and by just straight up not doing the thing (Star Trek dropping a woman of color in as both a major cast member, romantic interest for people of other races, and someone working in a position of power, and just being like Yup. This is just normal). Both of which are very necessary and useful approaches. In NOES 2010, all four of the protagonists are in romantic relationships at some point (and so is Dean, the mini-lead protag). It’s not played out voyeuristically, and you don’t get any hot makeout seshes, but they’re definitely in comfortable, functional, physical relationships. In a silent but fucking hardcore stance, while Kris and Jesse spend the night together early in the film, there is not a single on-screen kiss until Quentin and Nancy have found out the truth about what happened to them as kids, and a few minutes later, right before their final confrontation, they kiss. Not even a second thought about anything, except how much they really need and want to kill this piece of shit coming after them, as it should be. It’s a rockhard solidification that not only do the characters not see each other differently because of what happened, but it has done nothing to change who they are or what they can be.

The movie is only an hour and a half, which isn’t that long, but still manages to pack in not only multiple different realistic reactions, (Quentin goes through some hardcore withdrawl/denial after finding stuff out initially, Nancy gets fucking mad), but to cover some of what this is like for their parents. In one conversation with Alan, Quentin’s dad, he tries to explain the mob enacted justice on Krueger years ago by telling him that he hopes someday when he’s a parent, he never has to experience how it feels having utterly failed to protect your child. Even though they only have like thirty seconds of flashback to work with, the script gets in one of the parents in dismay asking what other choice they have about hunting Krueger down, because the alternative is making their three-four year olds get on a stand and tell a room full of strangers what happened to them. It’s a horrible, awful situation to be in. Although it would be really easy to make some drama between characters and their families, even the characters who die have good relationships with their families, and neither the dead teens or their parents are ever narratively ‘punished’ for anything that happens. Kris’ last words to her mom before she leaves on a flight, about eight hours before Kris is murdered, are, realistically, “Love you.” The last thing Nancy says to her own mother is, “I know you were just trying to protect us. Thank you,” and her mother’s last words to her are, “I’m just glad you’re safe.” Characters still die, but they at least get the peace of deserved last words to each other. The film also not only definitely does not vilify the parents for burning Freddy to death for assaulting their preschool aged kids, but comes down in its finale openly supporting that vigilante justice decision, with Nancy’s last words in the film being thanking her mother for protecting them.

Even the whole nightmare theme fits in well with the story being told, because nightmares are a very common side-effect of past trauma, symbolically, there’s a lot people have to fight through in their lives when that kind of shit happens to them, even years later, and it genuinely isn’t given enough weight by most people. As kind of icing on the cake in the film, not only does Nancy get to kill Freddy, he dies in a very ugly, undignified way, with a slit throat and gross expression on his face, after getting his ass handed to him in a like a thirty second fight in reality with two very motivated teenagers.

Plus, Quentin Smith is canonically ADHD, and Nancy Holbrook is a really underrated protagonist who reads autistic and I love her.

Anyway. This movie does a great job about using horror as a medium to talk about a topic usually only people already interested in that specific topic would check out, plays out its narrative very responsibly, comes down hard with a big two thumbs up to murdering your local pedophile in a bonfire, and says fuck you to assault victim stigma. My only real beef with this film is that they were so dead set sure they would have a sequel that instead of ending with real resolution, it’s got a stinger at the end (on rewatches I always skip the last scene lol).

Not that it’s a flawless film—it’s got budget parents, which I think is both hilarious and fantastic (meaning everyone except I think Dean has only one parent, the same gender as them, and it’s hilarious and I adore it). They had rushed filming for some of the end. Etc. But it’s really solid, and doesn’t get enough credit as a film. It’s very different from the original—less campy, less funny. But it’s supposed to be. It’s telling a different story. And it’s telling a really good one.

#a nightmare on elm street 2010 #anoes 2010 #a nightmare on elm street #noes #I finally wrote that rant #CSA/pedophilia mention #someday I will write a proper-er rant but damn I love this film #quentin smith #nancy holbrook #nightmare on elm street #long post

[atamascolily]

Lily liveblogs: “The Rise of Skywalker”, part one

I only made it through the first hour tonight because I had to keep pausing to yell at the screen.

"The dead speak!" Okay, but I don't get it: how do they know the Emperor isn't a recording or a hologram? Or, I don't know, someone pretending to be him like the "Hand of Thrawn" duology?

"Supreme Leader Kylo Ren" will never not be a stupid title, gag.

So the Sith wayfinder is just... there. In a forest. In a box with a conveniently removable lid. Okay, I'm going to need some context here. (Ironically, this scene was added back into the film to provide context, lol.)

I actually really like the whole "Force compass" idea, although I wouldn't have made it a plot point in my fix-it if it hadn't already been a thing.

Why the hell would you fly a TIE when you’re supreme leader, those things are shitty af.

So he's the Supreme Leader and he just... runs off to Exegol alone? No backup whatsoever?? I guess Hux or the moffs or whatever does all the actual work, lol.

What can I say? Ian McDiarmid's still got it.

10/10 for aesthetics in the evil Sith pyramid ruins. Kylo looks so out of his league.

So Kylo did actually hear Darth Vader's voice in his head.... or thought he did. Wow.Does Kylo recognize the Emperor's voice? Who knows! But the look on his face when Palpatine says he played him is priceless.

It will surprise absolutely no one that I love the secret underground evil lab with Snoke clones floating in tanks and a "Black Hooded Robes" dress code.

The throne reveal with the flickering light and the medical stuff... excellent.

Kylo's really more a follower than a leader and it shows at how quickly he's willing to serve Palpatine.

Uh, Palps, the last time someone ordered Kylo to kill Rey it didn't go well.... I can't imagine you don't know that.

Poe and Finn teaming up to play against Chewie and still losing is delightful. Also: DATING.

Who the hell is Klaud? Should I know their name? What are they doing there on the Falcon randomly?

I gotta say, I love Poe and Finn and Chewie's dynamic in the drop-off scene. Also blasting through the wall. And the aesthetic of the ice planet in general.

Lightspeed skipping's still dumb, though. Like, everybody is totally right to ream them for it.

Rey's flip to the ground when she's done meditating is perfect.

The Leia footage looks like it ought to fit, but it doesn't look right to my eyes, even if though I can't figure out what's off about it in context.

The training course run is awesome, but I can't help wondering how that hood doesn't choke her in the process or at least get in the way. Nice improvised quarterstaff there.

What the hell is this moment with touching Vader's mask and making a connection with Rey, I don't get it. It's clearly meant to be a moment. Both Kylo and Rey have flashbacks to traumatic past memories, but why right at that moment???

Ahhh, I love Connix's new look here.

why is Rey giving the saber back to Leia?? She's totally earned it several times over in the last two movies. And who else is going to use it??(And when did it get fixed, last time we saw it was split in two as a ~metaphor~ or something.)

Aww, Rey's doing her Jedi independent study with the sacred texts that ghost!Yoda told Luke were so boring he was glad that they were burning just to fuck with Luke. (Ghost!Yoda was an asshole. I am offended on Yoda’s behalf.) 

Yay for Poe and Rey interacting, but this is such a stupid conflict--or at least a stupid way to have written this kind of conflict. And yet somehow they still have more chemistry when Rey calls him "difficult" than Rey and Kylo have had in two entire films.

Why didn't Rey go on this mission again? I don't get it.

Poe's eyeroll on "Somehow, Palpatine returned" is the best.

Rose says what I'm thinking: "Do we believe this?" GOOD FOR HER.

"Dark science. Cloning." Dark Empire, here we come!

I would have bought Palpatine hiding in the Unknown Regions better if we already hadn't had Snoke hiding out there with an entirely different fleet/organization. Even assuming Snoke is Palpatine's puppet, how could Kylo not... notice?? Maybe he's just that self-absorbed. 

And they only have 16 hours before the attack. What a stupid arbitrary deadline to create suspense that ALSO makes no world-building sense. Got it.

(There are times when adding a deadline is a smart narrative choice and there are times when it is stupid. Guess which one this is.)

How does Rey connect Exegol to the books? I feel like the movie skips a step or two in explaining that.

What is Maz doing here?? I thought she was a free agent. Wouldn't it have been easier for her to bring the news from the FO mole, since she's usually the Agent of Exposition in these films?

Looks like the start of a Fetch Quest! Wow. Like I said, I really like the idea of the wayfinders, but not the execution. Also, way to shit on Luke for not finishing the job earlier.

What sort of relationship do Rey and Poe have that Poe is just casually gonna go along with her? I'm not complaining, I just would have liked to see some build-up... literally anywhere.

Finn invites Rose to come along... and she conveniently declines. WTF. I mean, there could be some UST here if you squint and I don't like this pairing, but... I don't get why she declines, except plot, I guess. 

Poe is rocking that scarf action.

Leia gives the saber back... all of Leia's scenes with Rey are literally the same. I think that's what bothers me. They just.. happen and they're all the same, because they're re-using old footage, and it doesn't quite fit the context of the narrative. And we just saw Rey give Leia the saber, so it doesn't quite pack the emotional punch it ought to when Leia gives it back so quickly before Rey has "earned" it. WASTE.

Kylo with the Knights of Ren, re-forging the mask he discarded in the last movie with the help of someone from... Planet of the Apes, I guess. Oh, hey, and there's no context or characterization for the Knights, they're just faceless background minions.

Also, WHY DO THE STORMTROOPERS CALL THEM "GHOULS"? That would actually be interesting to know why!!!

This movie is a bunch of ideas held together with duct tape and the barest streams of logic.

The moff council: most awkward meeting ever. Hux is legit trying not to laugh the entire time. Also, you can easily pick out the New Asshole Villain we're supposed to hate instead.

Kylo snaps at the one moff who actually asks a sensible question, lol, about Palpatine's ulterior motives. Kylo announces he's going to just fuck off with his biker gang to hunt for Rey, because it's not like he's Supreme Leader and actually in charge of anything...

Oh, hey, Space Burning Man. How about that. Poe actually facepalms, lol. ... How did they not notice that when they were landing??

There are just random First Order patrols on Pasaana? Really? Wouldn't they... I don't know, stand out? I need more context, this worldbuilding is so confusing.

Oh, fuck, Poe suggests they split the party, that's a terrible idea. I get that you're supposed to be a spymaster as well as a hotshot pilot, and your colleagues aren't exactly subtle, but...

All the aliens on Pasaana look like Ganesha, lol. I actually like the scene with the kid, because you can see how it pains Rey not to have a family--it's a good scene, it's just in the wrong place.

Geh. Time for more Force(d) Skype sessions with Kylo Ren, sigh.

"Serving another master?" Rey has Kylo's number 100% right there.

Oh, okay, so apparently they saw each other's worst moments in that vision sequence, got it. Still no good reason as to why, though or what Darth Vader’s mask had to do with it. 

Kylo sounds like such a stalker here. Scratch that--he IS a fucking stalker here. I don't find that attractive at all. "When I offer you my hand again, you'll take it" is a THREAT, and I want to deck him, especially since it’s very clear it will come true (but the context will have changed, which is supposed to make it okay, but is still gross to me). 

What the fuck it got worse, he actually touched her and pulled the necklace off GROSS. (Also, HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE???? Didn’t Luke die from pushing himself through space like that???)

Like how does the stormtrooper just start pointing a gun at them and nobody in the crowd notices? And nobody bats an eye when Lando shoots the stormtrooper, either. What?? And that stormtrooper was just patrolling by... himself? WHAT?

This fetch quest is SO STUPID whhhhhhyyyyyyyyy

Makes sense that Luke would hunt down a "Jedi Killer" except... what Jedi did this Ochi fucking kill? All of Luke's students died when Kylo destroyed the temple, so who was left to kill???? I DON'T GET IT. Also, is Ochi a Sith himself, or just in the employ of the Sith? NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE.

How does Poe know where Lurch Canyon is? Do they have local planetary maps in the Falcon??

Poe would 100% know how to hotwire a speeder. But why do they have to take two of them??

How come this is the first time FINN has seen a FO stormtrooper with jetpacks? Is he mad that they never gave him one???

Personal jetpacks are one of those things that sound cool, but are actually really difficult to work with in practice, lol. I can't imagine strapping something that explosive against my back.

Wait, Rey is able to shoot out an entire craft with a small hand blaster??

Ochi's ship is just... there. On the rocks. the entire time. I guess there aren't any scavengers on Pasaana.

Conveniently, they only start sinking in the sand once the trooper is no longer firing.

"Rey, I never told you..." what?

what is the point of the exchange with General Leia to build tension wtf. But Rose is just there, I guess!  

Poe's eyeroll when Rey turns on the lightsaber and he flicks on his lamp and realizes... hers is bigger. LOL.

Poe is so jealous of Finn and Rey, it would be cute if he weren't an asshole about it. Finn's like "tell us about all the shifty stuff you do" which would make more sense if the films actually showed us spymaster stuff in action instead of just talking about it most of the time. (Yes, I know, there was that mission to get the map at the beginning of TFA, but that was... it? And also two movies ago, so hasn't played a role in character development since. FINN got the spy mission in the last film.)

that dagger is... just conveniently there, huh.

Rey gets a vision when she picks up the dagger, she is TOTALLY A PSYCHOMETRIST, fight me.

Why would you put the location of the wayfinder on a dagger, this makes no fucking sense, this fetch quest is so dumbbbbbbbbbb. Also Threepio's programming is such a STUPID OBSTACLE TO OVERCOME on so many levels gaaaaaahhhh.

We're a half-hour in, and most of the movie so far could have been cut without missing ANY of it, fuck.

Threepio yelling "Serpent!" is actually kinda funny to me, but not in this particular context.

I really love the serpent-creature-sandworm-thing and I'm just sad this side quest has so little relationship to anything in the actual main plot because THIS COULD HAVE BEEN INTERESTING. Also, convenient healing magic time! (Introduced here so it seems like less of an asspull later.)

Rey is just so casual about how she transferred a bit of her life energy to the worm. Does it come back? Is it renewable? Is this permanent? I NEED MORE CONTEXT THAT THIS. I feel like I would be hella shaken to realize I’d just done something like this.

If the Knights of Ren had any distinguishing features or personalities, I'd be more nervous about them, but no, they're just mooks with better armor.

So they just assume the FO is watching the Falcon instead of impounding it? Seems like a bold choice, but okay. And what are the Pits of Grig?

Between the lightsaber when Rey was healing the worm and her bag and staff just now, Finn is really just there to carry Rey's things, isn't he? What a WASTE. I HATE THIS SO MUCH.

And the Sith ship... just works. Hasn't been scavenged or damaged at all in years. Okay then.

Gotta admit, I love Rey wandering off into the desert, lightsaber on her belt and blaster on her side holster like a badass.

Finn says, "It's Ren," and I'm like YEAH FINN, but also.. how does he know? Lucky guess? Process of elimination. LET HIM HAVE THE FORCE YOU COWARDS.

Oh, the FO captured Chewie and now they conveniently have the dagger. Sigh. THIS STUPID FETCH QUEST.

Rey's leap over Kylo's TIE is fucking EPIC and I love it. Sadly, Kylo is not dead for some reason despite his ship fucking exploding.

Also FUCK YEAH Rey just grabbed the ship out of the SKY with the FORCE, she is not fucking around. Of course Kylo starts playing tug of war and it explodes, and everyone's devastated except there were TWO TRANSPORTS in the last shot, so I'm just like... I see what you did there.

Also, the same thing happened the LAST time Kylo and Rey tried to play tug of war with an object (the Skywalker lightsaber, which Rey re-built off-screen, so you'd be forgiven for forgetting that happened--which again, would have actually been interesting instead of all the handoffs to/from Leia) so LITERALLY NOTHING HAS CHANGED, so I don’t even understand what the writers are trying to accomplish here.

Also, why does Kylo go for the ship instead of trying to Force choke her directly?? I don't get it.

i'm sad she doesn't bring the transport down on his fucking head, lol.

Wait. Force lightning. She pulls FORCE LIGHTNING??? wtfffffffffffffff?

Where the FUCK did Kylo go while Rey's angsting over Chewie? Was he even there to begin with? What is reality in this movie? What the FUCK??? (Normally, questioning reality would be my jam, but that's not supposed to be a theme of this movie.)

Nope, he's just standing there, not attacking her, because... why?? He's scared and horny because she blasted Force Lightning, and he thinks she's about to turn it on him? (I WISH.)

And he just... lets her go... WHY????????????

Meanwhile, in an asteroid field, Finn and Rey are having a moment, and it's really sweet, and maybe it's just my shipping goggles talking, but would this pairing have been so bad? It would have been so great instead of what we're getting with Kylo. Sigh.

Rey also has a vision of the throne room of the Sith with her and Ren as emperor and empress, gag, gag, gag. John Boyega looks so sad, here, and dude, #same.

Threepio uses the word "sinful" to describe the procedure they're going to use on him, which... actually says a lot about droids in this universe and I am drowning in feels.

SO NOW THEY'RE GOING TO KIJIMI FOR THIS STUPID FETCH QUEST AAARRRRGGGHHHHH dagger macguffin blew up and this quest is still not ovvvveerrrrrr

(I actually don't hate this movie as much as I hated TLJ - this is still dumb, but it's dumb in a way that is just dumb, as opposed to TLJ, which was still dumb but trying to be clever and smart and special and sophisticated about by winking knowingly as it "subverted expectations" by shafting all of my faves. This movie doesn't have the self-awareness to wink.)

They all clasp hands and I'm supposd to feel something but I don't because the group bond doesn't feel real to me or developed or EARNED, and also Threepio rushes in to join them and they're about to shaft him (and he already had that conversation with Artoo about how Artoo was his only real friend, sob). sigggghhhhhhhh.

They only have 8 hours to save the world and it takes HOW long to fly to Kijimi in that derelict ship? Just asking.

But somebody EVVILLLL was following them the whole time, lolololol.

D-O looks like a lamp, but he and BB-8 bond over being Round Things, I guess.

Rey tries to reassure D-O that he's safe, but considering what they're going to Kijimi to do to Threepio, I'm not buying it.

(Apparently, since Han and Luke are dead, and Leia's off-limits for the moment, it's Threepio who gets shafted in this film? Sigh.)

I actually like the landscape of Kijimi, even though it feels more like Disney World with fascism and snow than an actual place. Maybe it's just because Poe looks so good in that hooded jacket.

Zorri can't resist Poe when he looks at her like that. Oscar Isaac's just that good. I literally don't know why this character is here except to provide an unncessary love interest, though.

Poe as a spice runner (aka drug smuggler) is SO STUPID and also MAKES NO SENSE WITH THE REST OF HIS ESTABLISHED BACKSTORY. Also, like... way to make the Latinx character the classic stereotype even in a futuristic space film. Like, you have to go OUT OF YOUR WAY to do that. gag

Funny that Rey doesn't ask the translator droid WHO'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER what Babu Frik says.

So Sith is a language now? Why do the Sith have their own secret language and the Jedi don't? What are the Sith in nu!canon? A culture? A cult? Is the Rule of Two still canon? WTF is even going on here??

Threepio deciding to sacrifice himself to save the world breaks my heart, especially since he's trying to console himself by calling the party his "friends". YOU DESERVED BETTER, THREEPIO, I'M SO SORRY.

Poe and Zorri are up on the rooftop... she's still wearing her helmet. I'm not sure why you cast a famous actor if you're never going to show their face, but whatever, fine. Zorii says the FO took all the kids, and she's going to the "Colonies", whatever that means. I'm not sure how that's possible, this world-building really sucks. Would they take ALL the kids? Somehow, I doubt it. Even the rich kids? What about the non-human ones? What is the FO's relationship to Kijimi, anyway??? I DON'T GET IT.

Oh, hai, another macguffin. This one's a FO captain's medallion, which lets you land anywhere. And she's just going to give it to Poe because...  he's just that hot.

Why did the Emperor put a wayfinder on ENDOR of all places. (Okay, it's not the "forest moon" of ROTJ, it's Kef Bir or something like that, but still. WTF.)

We're an hour in and this fetch quest is still GOING. WHHHHHHHHYYYYY.

I'm surprised Rey hasn't realized that Palpatine has made contact with Kylo and doesn't just fed-ex herself to him and pretend to join him so they can go visit and she can destroy Palps. I mean, that TOTALLY worked in the last film, right??? Why wouldn't she do that again???

(Alternately, there's stealing Kylo's wayfinder, which again nobody seems to consider as an option. Do they not know about that one? I'm sooooo confused.)

"Only this blade tells" is super-creepy in that robotic monotone, y'all.

There is literally NO REASON for Zorii to give up her dreams  by proxy through the medallion macguffin except that Poe is so hot. No reason at all. Sigh. SHE COULD COME WITH THEM BUT SHE DOESN'T, BECAUSE PLOT. She’s literally a living plot device instead of a character and I hate it.

#star wars #WHY DISNEY WHY #lily liveblogs

[ultward]

34 for the renaissance ask

34. What changes would you make if you were asked to readapt Twilight?

oh BOY here we go

so i think about this A LOT, and i have a bunch of different ideas but i’ll give y’all the one i come back to most often

animated netflix series. 2d animation with 3d utilized for certain complex action scenes. my favorite animation styles are typically the really loose(?) and expressive ones (think studio trigger productions), so i’d try to get something like that

in terms of NARRATIVE CHANGES:

reworking the werewolves. stephenie actually gave me enough ammo to fix the problem in my own way? this might be kinda long. the origins of vampires would be a lowkey mystery in this adaptation, but they’ve been around since the dawn of time. in response to this, certain early humans evolved into werewolves—specifically, the children of the moon present in canon. many of these CoM were killed, either by humans or vampires, but those who survived long enough to procreate passed on their wolf genes, and those genes evolved as time passed, losing a lot of their negative traits (warped beast form, uncontrollable transformations, etc). these NEW genes became the shifting wolves we see in canon. both forms of lycanthropy still exist, and caius hunts the CoM into near extinction just as he does canon. this new version of the shifter gene expands with the general human population, but, over time, it becomes rarer and rarer as humans spread out. in present day, the gene is most common in places where the same groups of humans have lived for extended periods of time, so not only do the quileutes have a historic pack, but there are dozens of other packs across the globe that adopt similar practices. there are also plenty of “lone wolves” who wound up with the gene outside of these communities. some humans have it, but if they never meet a vampire, it just doesn’t activate. if someone’s gene never activates, there’s less of a chance of passing it on to future generations, which is why shifter wolves become less and less common as time goes on EXCEPT in areas where vampires are commonly found, like forks and la push. that was very long and i could go into more detail but basically ANYONE can be a werewolf in this version! and there’s no weird cultural appropriation!

a diverse cast. this pretty self-explanatory. i was going to make a separate point about character designs, but basically, emmett would be black, alice would be asian. stephenie’s weird skin tone thing is out the window: everyone just looks “dead” for their skin color, they’re not all white. edward is an actual redhead with freckles (why does vampirism get rid of freckles, stephenie? what the hell?) the volturi are made up of a wide variety of races and ethnicity; i cannot dive into every character, but basically, it would just be... realistic

jacob is not a love interest. he’s just bella’s childhood friend. i think i’d have him keep his initial crush on her, but he gets over it pretty fast and does not become an asshole later on. maybe blackwater is endgame? who knows

in a similar vein, all of the characters are... fixed. edward doesn’t stalk bella; maybe he peeks into her room from the trees outside, but he never sneaks in. he doesn’t do weird shit like tear up her truck to keep her from driving places? he just... gets some chill in this. he’s still melodramatic and he still makes mistakes (yes, new moon will still happen, but more will go down to prompt him to leave than just one incident) but he’s not abusive. jasper won’t be a confederate soldier. sam won’t have scarred emily. everything is just better. characters will still keep some flaws but not like... outright terrible stuff

more action! twilight vampires are so cool and i wanna see them FIGHT! just more action scenes, for whatever reasons i could come up with. i envision the fight scenes being kind of like the scenes in movies where speedsters are moving so fast that everything around them slows down. you have these epic fight scenes going on at what LOOKS like normal speed, but the world around them is moving in slow motion. for example: when edward leaves in new moon, victoria leads him on a wild goose chase. i’d add in a scene where he does briefly encounter her in rio, and they get into this quick fight in the middle of a crowded street, but no one can see it because they’re moving so fast. they’re bouncing around all over the place, narrowly avoiding all these humans. it’d be super cool

expanded perspective. so much stuff happens—even during the present action of canon—that we don’t see from bella’s perspective. i think the movies did a good job of pulling back and showing us other things (like adding in bits of the newborns in eclipse), but because this would be a multi-season show, there would be WAY more time to look at what other characters are doing, allowing them to have more development!

THE TWILIGHT-NEW MOON SUMMER! you get to see it! it’s included!

new villains! new monsters! twilight has such cool lore and i’d love to expand upon it even more. i’m big into shonen manga, and i’d inject a bit of that arc structure into this adaptation. for the most part, it’d stick to canon plot points, but there would be new things going on every now and then. i really like the ghouls that i came up with in my fic, and i think they would fit well into canon among other things! like i said earlier, the origin of vampires would be a lowkey plot point, so there would be things to do with that

BREAKING DAWN GETS A FACELIFT. i’m not sure exactly how much i would change, but probably a lot? i think i would have to get through re-adapting the first 3 books because i think those are pretty much fine, but BD would need a complete overhaul. there are elements in there that are cool, like the cullens learning to work with the wolves and having a big confrontation with the volturi that i would LOVE to expand upon, but we’d definitely have to get there... differently. no imprint. no weird pro-life narrative. as much as i’d like to rework renesmee, i’m not sure i’d have bella get pregnant at all; she’s not a mother in my eyes

that’s everything i can think of off the top of my head (which is a lot, i know). netflix please call me

#headcanon #ask #anon #adapt or die #that's gonna be my tag for if i ever post anything else about this lol #Anonymous

[johannas-motivational-insults]

She-Ra season 2 episodes, ranked

All right, I have a lot of feelings about She-Ra season 2 and what was good and not so good. I’ve been doing a lot of shitposting but this is legit analysis/meta, or at least it wants to be.

To be fair, though I’m trying to rank these as objectively as possible, it will be influenced by what I care most about and find most interesting in the series. I stan Catra and the Superpal Trio and think Adora is a loveable mess, and I really can’t stand Swift Wind. So, take this with a grain of salt. Needless to say, SPOILERS AHEAD.

7. 2x03 “Signals”

I would rank this episode higher, except the A plot was so meh. It felt like it should have been a Halloween special, and if it was I’d give it a pass, but I found it so thoroughly disinteresting I all but tuned out. Of course, people who stan the Best Friend Squad might have still loved it, but their dynamic isn’t as interesting for me anymore because we’ve seen so much of it, and this episode didn’t do much to change it other than add Swift Wind in (and he really, really annoys me). The only real thing it did to move the plot forward was introduce the subplot about the mysterious transmissions, and it didn’t do anything characterization wise. Ultimately, it’s a set up episode, and to be fair it might be more interesting in retrospect once we get some payoff and see where that whole thing is going. But I dunno, I kinda doubt it.

It’s mostly a set up episode in the other subplots too, but I enjoyed watching the political machinations in the Horde because there were real, tangible stakes and important power shifts. Catra learning that having power and authority is not all it’s cracked up to be was a crucial bit of character development. That bit of her getting the air sucked out of her lungs was more genuinely scary than the creepy ghost holograms by far. You felt her desperation trying to save face with Hordak and regain her sense of power and safety after that terrifying threat, and watching Shadow Weaver tune in to and play with her insecurities was a good bit of development for and insight into their relationship. It also foreshadows how easily Shadow Weaver is able to manipulate Catra later in the season.

Meanwhile, Entrapta’s excursions and work with Hordak supplied some comic relief (which I think the A plot also tried and failed to do) and also made the Horde plot take an interesting turn. This is the episode where Catra really starts to lose power, and meanwhile Entrapta gains a lot without even meaning to. She just wanted to fix the problem with Hordak’s experiment, dear girl. On that note, I did not expect to enjoy watching Hordak and Entrapta so much, but one thing this show does really well is throw together unexpected combinations of characters and make an amazing dynamic (e.g. the Superpal Trio, Scorpia and Seahawk, Catra and Glimmer and Bow).

The Entrapta subplot was the most interesting of the episode and unfortunately it was relegated to the C plot. This episode would have been way better if they’d put more focus on the Horde side of things and/or given the “Best Friend Quad” something with more substance.

6. 2x01 “The Frozen Forest”

This episode was fine, but it didn’t do much to stand out. It was important, of course, to follow up on the end of season 1, and if they had skipped this episode entirely it would have left a huge gap. But with the two main groups of characters not interacting at all in person, there was little reason to be emotionally invested in the fight scenes. We don’t really care if Horde bots get destroyed. It would have been more interesting to see the Superpal Trio directly fighting the Princess Alliance, but on the other hand it did set up just how big a role Entrapta’s tech knowledge was going to play this season. The stuff with the princess alliance was cute, I always enjoy seeing more of Mermista, and they did some character work (which I can always appreciate) with Glimmer and Frosta. But since we only see the princesses once more this season, it hasn’t had much of a chance to pay off yet.

The highlight of this episode was Adora fighting Catra in the simulation and her ensuing conversation with Light Hope. (“There. There.” and “I also have buttons” were two of my favorite one-liners of the season.) The simulated fight was very cute, and I definitely screamed when Catra grabbed Adora’s hand while delivering her customary “Hey Adora,” right before taking her down. And look, the fact that Catra was flirting so hard with Adora in that simulation means that an AI with very poor social awareness has picked up on their sexual/romantic tension, and that’s hilarious.

The Horde side of things gave us more time with the Superpal Trio, who are always delightful, but not a ton happened over there either. This episode established that Entrapta has fully moved in to the Fright Zone and Catra is comfortably leading the Horde’s advances and has respect from Hordak and the Horde’s soldiers. It also foreshadows how impressed Hordak is going to become with Entrapta’s work (and unimpressed with Catra’s) when her EKS bots steal the show in that meeting. Finally, the episode introduced the shifted dynamic between Catra and Shadow Weaver now that the power position has flipped. That ongoing subplot was possibly the saddest part of the season, and this one scene did a good job of setting that up.

Overall, this was a good and necessary setup episode, but because it had all that exposition and setup to do we didn’t get a ton of good character/relationship moments (Frosta/Glimmer and Catra/Shadow Weaver being the notable exceptions). So yeah, it was fine. But there were definitely stronger episodes, which we will now get into...

5. 2x04 “Roll With It”

This was a very cute episode, a fun one to watch. The reason I ranked it fifth is because there are three very strong episodes this season and 2x07 had higher stakes, being the season (mid-season, lbr) finale. On the Horde side of things, I loved seeing more of Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio. Lonnie really shined this episode and I keep waiting for someone to realize how smart and capable she is and promote her. And of course, Scorpia. Darling oblivious Scorpia who just wants to impress her crush. She’s not very smart but she’s earnest af and can pack a punch, and this is the first episode where she really stands out.

The planning session in the rebellion camp was really fun to watch, though I’m sure I missed a ton of jokes because I’ve never played D&D. The chaotic way the princesses all play off each other was more evident here than in 2x01, which made for some great gags. The different approaches they each take and the different aninmation styles used to portray them were a lot of fun. Glimmer’s noir hero fantasies were my favorite, personally. (And apparently she sees Catra as a very sexy villain? I need more on this, please.)

Adora’s monologue about the worst possible secenario revealed all her insecurities, and it was one of the highlights of the season. Her anxiety issues and messiah complex have been touched on before many times, but this is the first time they’ve really come bubbling to the surface this season. It was really nice to see the whole group reassure her that she isn’t in this alone, much like Bow and Glimmer did before the Battle of Bright Moon. And while it’s been hinted at before, this episode really solidified her obsession with Catra. And Scorpia’s too, as I mentioned above.

It’s easy to forget that Catra wasn’t actually in this episode (AJ Michalka was, but her character was not, not for real) because you felt her presence everywhere. The bit with all the princesses’ different renditions of her was hilarious. But you know, it was nice to see the show put together such a strong episode without Catra. Having the emotional focus on Adora again was a nice change of pace.

4. 2x07 “Reunion”

This episode gave us what 2x03 lacked: it made the Best Friend Squad interesting again. That group is most compelling to watch when there’s conflict among them, like in the stretches of 1x01-1x02 and 1x08-1x10. They weren’t in an actual fight this time, but Glimmer and Adora being so thrown by Bow’s secret family life meant that things didn’t feel “as usual.” Glimmer’s insecurity about not meaning that much to Bow resurfaced, and Bow’s “coming out” scene was extremely moving. But thankfully there was comic relief, too. Adora mispronouncing words to try and sound scholarly was a great ongoing gag, and the eventual fight between the Best Friend Squad and the elemental was really fun because it was so chaotic with Bow’s dads being extremely confused.

Okay and look, Bow’s dads. Finally we get to see why Bow is the most well-adjusted person in the group. His parents aren’t perfect, but they did way less to fill their kids with insecurities than Angella or Shadow Weaver. Angella’s not a bad mom but it’s easy to see why Glimmer feels so inadequate. And Shadow Weaver is, well, Shadow Weaver.

This episode was sort of oddly structured for what is essentially a mid-season finale in the sense that the A plot was about relationships more than the overarching plot, but that’s not necessarily bad. And they tied the plot back in at the end with the reveal about the Crimson Waste, setting us up to finally move forward in this transmissions subplot in season 3.

There wasn’t a lot of time for Horde stuff this episode, but Scorpia forcibly loving Catra and turning her into a burrito was one of my favorite scenes of the season (maybe I will do a Top 10 later on). Catra opening up to Scorpia about her problems for the second episode in a row was huge, especially after experiencing a heart-shattering betrayal in the previous episode. Catra’s final scene where she gets exposed as a liar and choked out felt a bit truncated to me... like after they set that up as this terrifying threat in 2x03, they lingered a lot less in the terror of that moment in this episode. So that was kind of disappointing, but it still worked well as half of the cliffhanger (the weaker half, imo, but it was still extremely nerve-wracking).

It was hard to pick between #4 and 5 on this list, but ultimately the amazing cliffhanger was what put this one over the top. Both our protagonists are in danger, at the mercy of our two worst villains, and even though I knew what was coming as soon as I saw Adora sleeping, the shot of Shadow Weaver standing over her bed made me scream. I hate this show for leaving me hanging here, so they did it right.

3. 2x02 “Ties That Bind”

Ranking this one so high may be an unpopular opinion, but I personally loved this episode. I didn’t care much for the B plot except it was good insight into Adora, but the A plot was so delightful it made up for it. Mixing members of the Superpal Trio and Best Friend Squad almost always results in something good... maybe not for the characters, but for the audience. Watching Catra and Glimmer play off each other’s insecurites was great, and it was sweet watching Bow attempting to befriend Catra, just like he did with Adora. The conflict between him and Glimmer about how to treat their hostage felt very in-character, a good callback to the beginning of season 1.

Of course, Catra is a much more annoying hostage than Adora was. Her being a little shit and doing everything she could to get on their nerves was amazing, and I would have gladly watched a full hour episode just of that. The sassiness and manipulation we see from her in this episode balances nicely with the deep emotional stuff she goes through this season in her fight to win approval and prove her worth. It also produced my favorite joke of the season: “How are you such a nightmare?!?”/”Eh, years of practice.” I felt that in my soul as a youngest child. I also loved all the cat mannerisms they incorporated in this episode, it was very cute.

There is a bit of emotional meat to that story, with Catra and Glimmer’s confrontation at the end after Glimmer says Adora ran away from Catra, not the Horde (rude, btw). But the real emotional moment comes when Bow and Glimmer find out Entrapta stayed willingly with the Horde. That was heart-breaking. Heart-shattering, even. Especially because Bow and Glimmer feel such guilt for her being left there in the first place. I wish there had been more follow-up on this major emotional beat, but that’s not a weakness of this episode itself. This was my favorite Entrapta scene of the season, even though there were a lot of other great ones.

Like I said, the B plot was... okay, but not amazing? The bits with Light Hope glitching were funny, if a bit creepy. (But she’s always creepy, so.) Swift Wind annoys the hell out of me when he’s being hyper, but seeing his eventual heart-to-heart with Adora gave him some good depth and development. Plus, this episode does a really good job of illustrating not only how uptight Adora is, but why. There’s that messiah complex again (which I don’t blame her for btw, that’s Shadow Weaver’s fault). I like episodes that focus on Adora emotionally, and separating her from Glimmer and Bow meant her storyline got to be a bit more serious and in-depth. I just wish it hadn’t been opposite Swift Wind... not because it wasn’t effective, but because Adora’s arc was good but I have little desire to rewatch it if it means I have to watch more of him. Sorry, I guess I’m an anti.

2. 2x05 “White Out”

As I’ve said before, this episode is the highlight of season 2. Once again, that has a lot to do with the dynamics that occur whenever we mix members of the Best Friend Squad and Superpal Trio, and this time we got all of them in one place! And they added Seahawk to the mix too, which I didn’t expect to like because he tends to get on my nerves, but pairing him with Scorpia was a move of pure brilliance.

Scorpia and Sea Hawk’s little heart-to-heart about feeling unappreciated and Drunk Adora validating and encouraging them was so so cute and heartwarming. All the Drunk Adora and Scorpia stuff was great, actually. It was funny but also made very textual how much Catradora is an insecurity for Scorpia and how she’s afraid she’ll never be able to live up to that and Catra will never open up to her the same way. And Adora actually seems to genuinely like Scorpia when she’s not focused on the evils of the Horde, so that’s good to know moving forward. And yeah, that pairing also brought us “Girls night in!” and the closet joke, another highlight of the season.

In the other mixed grouping, Catra and Glimmer renewed their rivalry, and that’s always fun to watch. Entrapta continued to be her usual chaotic self, and any time we see her interacting with Bow it tends to be a great scene. The reveal at the end that she had the tech all along but didn’t tell Catra because she liked hanging out in this remote place with her friends was really, really cute.

I would be amiss to not mention the Catradora of it all in this episode, because holy shit this is actually the only time they interact in person all season. That is just wrong, by the way, but I did thoroughly enjoy what we got. It’s very clear they still have an emotional hold over each other despite their attempts to “let go,” between Adora’s overly-focused anger and Catra’s expressions whenever she hears or sees Adora. Adora actually kind of hates Catra right now and I think that caught Catra off guard. Catra’s panic when Evil She-Ra almost killed her was a great moment of vulnerability, how she tried to appeal to the Adora inside. She dropped the act for a moment and genuinely tried to connect with Adora, and maybe it made me tear up a little.

Along those same lines, the one thing that pissed me off about this episode was that we didn’t get to see Catra interacting with Drunk Adora. That would have allowed Adora to interact with Catra in a vulnerable state too, and in general it just would have been amazing. And the trailer kinda suggested we would get to see that, so that made it extra disappointing. Can’t these two just talk about their feelings and actually hear each other and communicate properly, please? Ugh. Still, despite these frustrations, I loved the Catradora content.

But the real highlight of the episode was Scorptra. The scene where Scorpia tried to ask Catra out on a date was amazing and so freaking cute. Of course there’s also the stuff I mentioned where her insecurities about Adora came spilling out. And the look on Catra’s face when Scorpia aborted a mission to save her life and then whisked her away despite her protests... that was a huge moment. She doesn’t think of herself as worth saving, but someone else does. And despite the fact that Scorpia disobeyed direct orders, I think this is where Catra really comes to trust her. It’s certainly where she comes to respect her. And then they shared a blanket! God, this was so cute. I expected to enjoy the Catradora stuff more but a) there wasn’t all that much of it and b) this was so incredibly pure and sweet, watching Scorpia finally make some headway and Catra finally open up to someone again, even if it was only a little bit. I am a multi-shipper now, I can’t help it.

1. 2x06 “Light Spinner”

It was hard choosing between this and White Out for top spot, but I’m a slut for villain backstories. This episode was the less entertaining of the two, and I think I’d have to say White Out is my subjective favorite, but objectively I do think this is the better episode. Why? Character development.

Shadow Weaver was a bit too twirly-moustache of a villain at times in season 1, so seeing how she became what she is now did a lot for her character. Seeing how a desire to do good mixing with a thirst for power can drive someone to make mistakes and turn evil was very interesting, and having Micah be part of the backstory made it all the more compelling.

The ways Shadow Weaver tries to mold people with more intrinsic power than her so she can use that power was a crucial new insight, one we’ve never seen before. It explains why she’s so obessed with Adora, which was never really explained in season 1. And it also suggests that part of Shadow Weaver’s dislike for Catra came from Adora’s connection to and therefore influence over her. Shadow Weaver wanted Adora’s loyalty to be to her above all, even above the Horde, and Adora having a close friend (who’s a rebellious loose cannon, to boot) was a danger to that goal.

This episode is essentially about Shadow Weaver and Catra, both separately and together, and it does a great job of drawing parallels between them even before Shadow Weaver outright tells Catra that they are the same. They both go off on a rant about how no matter what they do, no one listens to or respects them. Shadow Weaver seems to have a bit of a self-loathing streak that she took out on Catra, too... kinda like Glimmer being annoyed by all her worst qualities manifesting in Frosta.

As for Catra, it shocked me that she was so upset about Shadow Weaver being sent away to die. Though she obviously still craved Shadow Weaver’s approval, I didn’t expect her to react so badly to this. Clearly Scorpia didn’t either, and her trying to tease Catra’s reasons out of her was sweet. It was nice to see Catra continuing to open up to Scorpia after that moment with the blanket at the end of White Out, but there’s still a lot she’s holding inside. She still genuinely cares about Shadow Weaver despite how she’s been trying to hurt her for revenge and her own satisfaction... that sound familiar?

And unfortunately, Catra’s connection to Shadow Weaver and her need for maternal love and approval was her downfall. After she mocked the rebellion for their bleeding hearts and how easily manipulated they are, mind you. This is where Catra’s tendency to sympathize with Shadow Weaver (which we saw at least twice in season 1) finally came back to bite her in the ass. It was terribly sad because Catra actually has a big heart and Shadow Weaver knew that and took advantage of it.

It’s hard to say how much Shadow Weaver meant of what she said to Catra when they had their big confrontation. It wasn’t clear whether or not she had seen her badge hidden in the food, whether she was only trying to manipulate Catra or if she was being earnest about any of it. Was the physical affection she gave her genuine, her way of making up for things and saying goodbye, or was she just fucking with Catra? I dunno, but either way this betrayal she pulled was awful, and if she was trying to be nice she would’ve been better off holding Catra at a distance than letting her get her hopes up. For real, Catra’s reaction when she realized Shadow Weaver had used and betrayed her was gut-wrenching, one of the rawest moments we’ve seen from her. I might have cried, a lot. She let herself be vulnerable in a way she rarely does, and for that she got absolutely obliterated emotionally. Again.

So yeah, this wasn’t a particularly fun episode, but it was a very strong episode of television and it did a lot to make Shadow Weaver more fleshed out and interesting. It finally brought one of the show’s most fraught relationships into the spotlight and let it combust in front of us, and as painful as it was to watch, I can’t help rewatching the Catra and Shadow Weaver scenes again and again. I never expected Catra to so openly ask Shadow Weaver why she was never good enough for her and what she did to deserve all the abuse. It was an incredibly rewarding scene to watch with great emotional payoff. And for a stan like me, that made it the best episode of the season.

#spop #she-ra #she ra #meta #season 2 #spoilers #episode rankings #scorptra #catra and shadow weaver #catradora #best friend squad #superpal trio #superpal duo #scorpia and catra #catra/scorpia #catra #adora #scorpia #entrapta #shadow weaver #screencaps #pics

[sikereviewdotcom]

undercover brother (2002) review

sup been a while but didnt forget about yall and your eager butts to dive head first right in the flooding words coming out of my mouth today gonna rev "undercover brother" (2002), its gonna be solid guys

so we start with an introduction where we talk about how black culture was losing its flavour after the 70s, progress was slowed down n all as we reached 2000 but dont be fooled, its all cause of a buncha events orchastred by "the man"... a big racist mf ig whos also the kkk equivalent of the team rocket boss, sitting in a ig chair, never see his face in the flashbacks or like the bad guy in inspector gadget, more like him ig since we actually see the team R boss face quite often nonetheless, theres a form of mystery folding this whole business... THE MAN acts in the shadows and he hates to see how dark those are, he wants things to be like it used to be back in slavery times good oltime for him but.. not for the fam

ofc then here is introduced THE REAL MAN OF MEN => undercover brother, our hero and damn he has the style of a whole pack of elephants trampling around in pink disco suits every ladies wanna a piece of that sweet fro he is packing up on his head, funky

ngl, the whole way this mov is filmed n edited is sike asf, dope guys especially considerin its actually made in 2002, loving it anyway then were also introduced to the other secondary protags who are from an organisation here to stop The Mans evil doings and careful: undercover bro was actually a solo act until now cause now they gonna collaborate all throughout da mov: its the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D, with conspiracy brother (tbh a fav here, guys wack like the whole plot guy thinks computer comes from a story involving peanut and idk guys he keeps rambling bout bs which makes him a+ character) smart brother, chief and sister girl (original name/10)

so btw the organization is on a mission rn at the beginning to destroy The Man (lets call him tm for the rest of this rev) financial infrastructure aka funds to stop him better or smthg and it gets spicy as they get caught but ofc undercover bro barges in from nowhere wow big disguise as an old man no one noticed him so like slash bawow boom vlam, bad guys ko and he squeedaddle out of there like twas breeze gg man, he also get fed a nice editing of xrays battle like with a side of kungfu n whatnot, undercover bro knows his stuff

nice sounds effects ah yes btw romantic intrigue with sister girl begins here, its the zinc of the flinch as ub (undercover brother) notices her big wink wink nudge nudge, btw later she is asked to go enlist him in the corps so he can help stop the man with them n shit and he trynna get her in his bed cause thats we this brother is used to, getting laid as soon as he meets a chick, who can resist this dude?

he gots moves, fro, style, skills and also at times he is a pussy but k, not everyones perf sometimes you just simp for a white blond blue eyed woman (spoiler) and crawls on all four looking like a big preppy nerd btw in this review im trynna not spoil the whole plot cause guys, this movie gotta be on yo watch list kay? im not here to ruin this experience in yo life itd be pretty uncool of me so im just gonna state the big lines then its up to you to swoop the tiny ones out of the watch, knot your own breds n stuff

back on the whooper slapping: intro credits roll, we get some nice back story for our hero, making sure we can understand his cause in saving the black peeps from TMs assholery might truth n justice be your guide

so what the big plot then? well yknow how a big antag cant do shit on his own cause hes too busy sticking brooms up his ass in his private quarters? yea well same goes here so there this gay guy who will be twerking later on btw, a scene to behold, rumps to ogle at, so hes a bad guy and gay n gonna do most of the dirty work for TM, whats new? idk what to think of it yknow its a stereotype in movs so ig ok still uncool but ill see it as all in good spirit cause theres bad n good im not excepting this to be the best watch of my life, nah it wasnt either, but i had a good laugh kay? makes up for it cause unlike some here i got no shit up my ass alley its clean scrubbed up n down so i can smoothly take a chillax up n a shit out without a night tormented by constipation, nah its all sliding where it should no pain no sweat

so the big lines is that a war hero whos a black man is gonna become president and wtf no is the only react racist mf could have which is what they have, bad guys gonna stop it from happening at once and the brotherhood aint letting it happens cause obvs something is wrong as every black peeps gonna turn into a stereotype like waddup in this mad world? its all because of the poisonous fried chicken brand TM will get around ty to another poison to make our war hero delusional n so on were also introduced to white evil she-ra later btw, just dropping this in cause undercover brother really wants to make oreos with her n sister girl (his words) ig shes the second love interest, im not too invested in this romantic intrigue it was just necessary not like twas very developped anyway its even more of a bedroom intrigue when it comes the the white blue eyed blond chick, sister girl before hoes yo

whats it in conclusion about this movie? first, the plot: hilarious biznasty worthy a+ bs especially how its turned yknow, the clichés were turned upside down n if not theyre just turned into a big satire of themselves editing + music ? yknow its actually good, and funky asf im digging it, a travel in time nostalgia of times i lived acting is pretty neat its not an ironically good movie cause its hilariously ridiculous in the making way its all about the plot here, plot twists and characters, the whole universe ig like its superior to big mamma sorta plot or maybe im dropping this comparison cause its been a while since i saw big maam, for sure twas under estimated while over brought when this here? it got freshness packed in

the spoiling was light and this is cause this movie got a 69/10 rating jk 8/10 if were gonna be serious, im gonna list wats unwoke n uncool here: 1 gay villain stereot, gotta be honest here its not that big of a deal tme seeing when it was made and how i still laughed yknow idc this much but some could go apeshit over it 2 not enough conspiracy brother content: this is all i ask for 3 had no snacks while watching the movie, too bad id dig a aj or grape soda right about now n then 4 more lines for car wash chicks jk this last one idc about, but car wash representation is lacking once again in american movies, i cant believe how looked over it is, as if they didnt need smore rep in the medias its not an easy job washing car all day long, standin in those ghost buster lookin suit while staring at the hot guys in hot wheelys, whos gonna pay you a drink when youre just an old carwash lady? thought finally a hero would step up in this movie but there it goes thrown out da window, the potential was real until it got blown away sure sister girl was a solid character but give the washers some credits cut them a slack of free time n have a lil date together there on top of a truck to keep it native

nonetheless this is a top rec for anyone who feels like slipping into some conspiracy slippers

tg, out

#undercover brother #sike reviews #movie review #undercover brother review

[guardianreadersofthegalaxy]

Dom’s mini Who reviews - the decent episodes

Aliens Of London/ World War Three – One of Davies’s ‘people watching the news’ episodes. The Slitheen design is good but the CGI and prosthetics have aged poorly. The Iraq allegory is solid and Jackie and Mickey get plenty to do. And Penelope Wilton is awesome.

Army Of Ghosts/ Doomsday – Yet more news watching. Torchwood are a bit boring but part 1 does a good job building mystique around the breach & sphere. The Dalek reveal blew my 13 year old mind. The scenes at the wall and Bad Wolf Bay pack a hell of a punch, thanks to Tennant, Piper & Gold.

Boom Town – Capturing the villain at the end of act 1 and having to decide what to do with them is fantastic premise. The restaurant scene is the highlight and I think it works that you never find out what the Doctor would have done. The setting is pretty dull though, as are the first fifteen minutes.

Fugitive Of The Judoon – This is just bananas. The Ruth & Cpt. Jack plots never converge for some reason. It’s not good but it is refreshingly mad. The Judoon look great and 13 gets plenty of comic moments as well as more serious stuff. Ruth Doctor is fine in the short time you see her.

The Girl Who Waited – Another solid premise. Even though you know young Amy will be alright, the drama works. Both Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill shine and the robots are fairly intimidating. My only gripe is that old Amy still has incredible hair for some reason.

The Husbands Of River Song – I love 12 doing comedy. Capaldi and Kingston have great chemistry and the final scene is really sweet. Matt Lucas’s best days are still ahead of him but Greg Davies is hilarious. The joke of River stupidly not recognising the Doctor is played out way too long though.

The Impossible Astronaut/ Day Of The Moon – IA feels like a really game changing series opener but knowing how it all turns out sours it on the rewatch. DotM is fun but crams way too much set up and it’s screwed up how they save the day. Still there are plenty of memorable moments and the setting is cool.

Into The Dalek – ANOTHER solid premise! This looks great and is actually exciting. It’s weird how they conflate hating the Daleks with goodness. They clean it up at the end but by then it’s too late. And the Dalek going rogue when they fix it is predictable. But I’m a sucker for good action and visuals.

Night Terrors – This is up there with Midnight & The Empty Child for DW’s scariest story. Those dolls are so creepy! I can take or leave everything else tbh. I only watch this on Halloween.

Partners In Crime – Great comedy. The running joke of the Doctor and Donna missing each other segues into the excellent dumbshow sequence. The Adipose CGI is rubbish but just look at those little guys! Loses points for the dull setting but earns them for giving Bernard Cribbons screentime.

Planet Of The Ood – Now here’s a cool setting! They don’t tend to do many ice planets. The scene of 10 running from the crane is unnecessary but who cares? Donna is so lovely when she sympathises with the Ood. Not all the music works for me though, bit too weird? Maybe.

The Rebel Flesh/ The Almost People – This is kinda underrated. By the end I’m a bit sick of the castle and brown jumpsuits. And I find it hard to believe that the humans would want to kill their own clones. That said, the action and mystery is solid and two 11th Doctors is fun.

Robot Of Sherwood – This is so much fun! Tom Riley shines as the swashbuckling Robin and has great comedic chemistry with Capaldi’s Doctor. 12’s grumpiness serves more of purpose here than in most of Series 8. Comparing the Doctor to a legendary folk hero is a bit wanky though.

The Snowmen – The first 20 minutes are really good. The scene when Clara follows the Doctor up the ladder is magical. The Doctor giving up on a heroics is abandoned way too soon. When he puts on his bow tie again it should have felt like Spiderman 2, not The Amazing Spiderman 2.

#aliens of london #army of ghosts #doomsday #boom town #fugitive of the judoon #the girl who waited #the husbands of river song #the impossible astronaut #day of the moon #into the dalek #planet of the ood #the rebel flesh #the almost people #robot of sherwood #the snowmen #Russell t davies #chris chibnall #tom macrae #steven moffat #phil ford #mark gatiss #matthew graham #Christopher eccleston #david tennant #jodie whitaker #matt smith #peter capaldi #doctor who #reviews #doctor who ranking

[ducklingdraws]

My Idea for a Scooby-Doo! Reboot

So a while back, after noticing that Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated was on Spectrum On Demand, I decided, "Hey, I'm gonna rewatch this show." I don't know why I did it, because I rarely ever rewatch shows. I'll watch reruns, but never have I actually decided to rewatch a television series. But, I did it for Scooby-Doo.

And frankly, I had forgotten how good the show was. It's honestly really dark, while also being absolutely hilarious; and in its humor, the show actually does really unique things with the Scooby-Doo gang, with the biggest example being this show's version of Fred Jones. It's wild. But in my opinion, the thing that really makes this show what it is...

...is its story. I feel like the story and characters are fuel for this show in a way that feels different from other shows, somehow. I don't really get it, but that's the way I see it.

So, seeing as there's all these serialized cartoon series nowadays, and Scooby-Doo is always getting rebooted in one way or another, I figured... what if I rebooted Scooby? If I had the opportunity to reboot Scooby-Doo and the only Warner Bros requirement was "just make it," what would I do with it?

Without further ado, this is To the Future, Scooby-Doo!

First up: The Premise

To kick things off, I'll discuss how the show is set up. This version of Scooby-Doo is set in the future. Technology has become more holographic and stuff like in the movies, but fashion hasn't evolved to be nothing but latex bodysuits yet. Flying cars are real but not very widely used, and clothes can tell the time.

On the biological side of things, prosthetics are holographic as well, and incredibly easy to attach. It's almost like having your original limb. Food is healthier while also being more environmentally friendly, and animals have been genetically modified for a very long time. They have been allowed to mate, which has eventually lead to many domesticated animals being able to speak!

The main setting is a large port town known as Port Intrigue, where all sorts of goods are traded, and many people lead peaceful lives. It's a nice place, and a lot of the economy is structured around it. There are other important trade cities like it, but Port Intrigue may be the most powerful.

It's also probably the weirdest, because in true Scooby-Doo fashion, no one can just "be a criminal." Heck no! Where's the fun in that?? If you're gonna try and get money through illegal fear tactics, you've gotta do it in style!!

And for some reason or another, the police get a little help with solving a lot of the more, uh... colorful mysteries. Help from a group of kids attending Intrigue High...

Next up: The Scooby Gang!

So here's the big part! All of my redesigns of the classic gang! Let's kick it off with:

FRED JONES

So this version of Fred is definitely toned back from various recent versions of Scooby-Doo, particularly the DVD movies and Mystery Incorporated. He's a lot more laid back, and has a sort of "cool guy" persona.

One day a long time ago, his parents, 2 great scientists, didn't pick him up from school, and apparently they mysteriously disappeared. So since then he's been living with Shaggy. At Intrigue High, he is in the theater program as a Tech, so he's good with pulleys and ropes and other various behind-the-scenes theater things, which makes him really good at making weird Rube Goldbergs - and traps, whenever the need arises. But when would Fred ever need to build a trap?

NORVILLE "SHAGGY" ROGERS

...Y'all can excuse the scribbles in the lower corner, right?

Anyway, this version of Shaggy is just as uptight as he always is, but instead of that only being attributed to mystery solving and creepy ghoulies, it's evolved into some much, much greater!!!

He's the mom friend now.

Y'know, telling everyone to watch their eating habits and be careful of opening soda cans because so help me if you scratch yourself...!

Long time ago he lost his arm so now he has one of those cool prosthetics. The trauma of losing it though has made him extra cautious, and a bit of a scaredy cat. Of course, he's willing to do whatever it takes for his friends, just like the Shaggy we all know!

He still likes to eat and is a bit of an amateur chef, participating in the culinary club at Intrigue High.

VELMA DINKLEY

This is my rendition of Velma Dinkley. She's still the smartest one of the group, and good at technology, but is also a boxer! She's not just strong, but also strong willed!

The Dinkley's have a long, long history of scientific endeavors, and Velma's father is a great scientist as well! Though really, it's more of a hobby for him.

Velma lives with her younger sister Madelyn (who some of you might remember from Abracadabra-Doo) and her father, Victor.

This Velma is snarky, yet quirky. She's got a real go-getter mentality, which everyone can't help but to respect.

DAPHNE BLAKE

Daphne Blake is a bit of a softie. She was never very forward with making friends, but developed a clique of her own with Fred, Shaggy, Scooby and Velma.

Her house used to be the gang's main hang out spot, but after the kids moved on to high school, they haven't been over to her house at all.

Daphne likes to draw, and really wants to be a fashion designer. In fact, she's a part of Intrigue High's costume design team for the theater program!

SCOOBY-DOO

Scooby-Doo has been part of the Rogers family ever since he was a puppy, and Shaggy was a little kid. The two have been basically inseparable their whole lives, with Scooby even attending school with everyone else.

He likes belly rubs, scratches behind the ear, and food. So in other words, he's the same Scooby we all know and love! Still fearful, but dedicated to his friends, including...

MEASLES

Shaggy and Scooby may have been buds since they were little kids, but before Shaggy, Scooby had Measles.

Since they're both GMO animals, they both have the ability to speak human language, which they would use to try and get food. Eventually, Measles was able to get Scooby into a good home with the Rogers family. Unfortunately, Mr and Mrs Rogers couldn't afford to take care of Shaggy, Fred, a dog, and a cat, but Measles promised to visit Scooby whenever she could, or that they'd at least see each other around. And she's kept that promise! Even to this day, the gang will sometimes find her in random locations, like... the Theater Program's costume box?

Measles has a lackadaisical, yet somewhat snarky personality, but definitely cares for her friends. It just may take a while to show it.

Last up: Everything Else

Uh, hm. I guess this is the generalization of the show.

Well, it's a giant celebration of Scooby-Doo. The gang wears different outfits, rarely wearing the same one in consecutive episodes. And each outfit would be pulled from a previous Scooby series (yes, including *shivers*... Get a Clue).

Also, other characters from previous series and Scooby media are not only in the show, but play decently sized rolls. For example, I already mentioned Madelyn Dinkley, but there's also Red Herring from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, or Mayor Nettles and Sherriff Bronson Stone from Mystery Incorporated (they're married from the start this time!). Even the dreaded Scrappy Doo makes his return at (what I imagine to be) the start of Season 2, hopefully to redeem himself and not be relegated to a tired joke about "lol Scrappee sux XD"

Flim-Flam is back too, but is rebranded as Frida McScam, the fast talking troublemaking free spirited girl who takes everybody's crap and spins it in her favor (and also might be psychic).

Scooby's family tree is mentioned, and his parents even have a major role in Season 1.

Just a whole lot of Scooby-Doo trivia and stuff. Stuff that I imagine the people working on the show would be way, way better at remembering and putting to use than I am!

As for the overarching plot?

Well, what futuristic setting would be complete without aliens? I imagine the aliens would be a race of owl creatures known as the Willawaw (another Scooby reference because I hope this show is FULL OF THEM). Basically, these aliens are the bad guys, both in the show proper, and in a lot of the show's backstory. They're like myth villains, or greater scope villains, or something.

I was even thinking like, when the gang ends up running, rather than using a recyclable run cycle from a side view, everyone could have brand new running animations, like to distinguish them all as unique. Although I guess that's what the running cycles were... but the chase scenes are a lot like Mystery Inc, where they were a lot more action packed. It could be great! And of course, everyone would use the classic running style at some point throughout the show, because that seems to be tradition for Scooby-Doo.

This was a really big post! But if you read all of it, thanks a million! I hope you liked the small amount of art within, or just the idea in general! Maybe I'll even draw my reimagined takes on the other characters some day. But for now, I'll leave at this.

#drawing #art #my art #cartoon #cartoons #character design #my artwork #artists on tumblr #aliens #Scooby-Doo #cartoon network #warner bros #boomerang #velma scooby doo #shaggy and velma #fred scooby doo #fred jones #daphne blake #velma dinkley #shaggy rogers #oc #fan art #fanart #scooby doo fanart #mystery inc

[imagitory]

Tory Ranks the HP Films! [review]

Hi everybody! So I was chatting with a good friend of mine the other day about our favorite films in the Harry Potter series, and...well, the whole discussion got me thinking, so I decided to jot down my personal rankings!

I’ll just discuss the eight films based on the original books for this, but if you want my thoughts on the Fantastic Beasts series so far, you can read this FB-centric response and this review for CoG! These rankings are unique to me, but will be affected both by how much I personally enjoy the movie as well as how well it adapted its respective book. Hope you enjoy -- if you want, feel free to like and reblog, and of course reply/reblog with your own thoughts about the HP films!

8) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I’ll be honest, I was torn between this film and the one just before it as my personal worst, but in the end, I had to acknowledge that this one, out of all of the films, was just the least interesting of the lot, not just from a story perspective but also in the visuals and music. Everything was so gray and murky and dark: the only faintly creative visuals I really remember from this film were the inky effects in the Pensieve scenes (which didn’t match up with the established continuity of previous Pensive scenes) and the juxtaposition of a bird’s cage in the corner of a shot where Draco is walking down the hallway, and the only music track I remember liking at all was the choral piece In Noctem. Plus the plot itself was pretty tedious, as the filmmakers apparently decided that the book’s romantic side-stories were more worthy of focus than the main villain’s entire backstory. I mean, come on -- Harry making goo-goo eyes at Ginny and Ron being a complete idiot when it comes to the girls in his life is somehow more interesting than Dumbledore and Harry learning about the Gaunt family, Tom Riddle’s past as a neglected, but vindictive bully, and Riddle turning objects that meant something to him into Horcruxes, which sets up the Golden Trio’s quest to find them in the next book/movie? Good call on that one. Speaking of Riddle, the two new actors that were cast to portray him in this movie are also easily the worst performers in the entire series, and the completely unsubtle, black-and-white characterization of Riddle in the script didn’t do them any favors. After how much Voldemort was built up in the films, Riddle being so ridiculously obvious in how evil he is makes everyone around him (like Dumbledore and Slughorn) look like an idiot for not seeing he was bad news from the start. This film makes me a lot less angry than the #7 slot, partly because HBP is my least favorite of the books, but it also prompts just about no positive feelings either, and if there’s anything Harry Potter has never been, it’s “boring.”

7) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

*dodges knives* LOOK. I know this is a lot of people’s favorite HP film, and I understand why. From a cinematography perspective, it’s easily one of the best. It’s very pretty to look at. The shot composition is excellent. The visuals are creative and striking. But all of that beauty is at the cost of the story and characters. Not only does Hermione become even more of an idealized Action Girl, losing even more of her wonderful, three-dimensional book characterization and flaws -- not only does the film break away from every bit of continuity established from the previous installments or even within its own film, from changing the layout of Hogwarts and the students’ uniforms to having Harry constantly light up his wand with magic no problem only ONE SCENE before getting punished for using magic outside of school -- not only does it make no sense unless you’ve read the book, given that the script just assumes that you’ll remember details like Lupin and Snape having seen the Marauder’s Map, which explains how they knew Sirius and the Golden Trio were in the Shrieking Shack -- not only does it add things that I don’t like and really don’t think fit in the established Wizarding World like the shrunken heads and a slide projector being used in Snape’s DADA class -- not only did this film depict its characters blatantly showing off their supposedly “secret” magical artifacts with no repercussions, such as Harry under his Invisibility Cloak stealing a lollypop from Neville and whamming through a crowd of people and Hermione not even trying to hide the Time Turner around her neck -- not only did Ron lose one of his best scenes in the entire series, where he stands on his broken leg yelling at Sirius that he’d have to kill him and Hermione to get to Harry, and was downgraded to the point that he pretty much became dead weight -- not only did Lupin’s werewolf form look more like a half-bald monkey than the hulking, terrifying mass I’d wanted to see -- not only did Lupin and Sirius talk to Harry about Lily almost exclusively and barely mention their best friend James -- not only was everything Crookshanks did except him chasing Scabbers left out -- not only did the script never explain that Lupin, Pettigrew, Sirius, and James were the Marauders and the reason behind the pen-names -- not only did the film originally MISSPELL “MOONY” WHEN IT WAS WRITTEN DOWN IN THE FRIGGIN’ BOOK -- but this film ruined the best part of the entire story. The descent into the Shrieking Shack and the revelation of who really betrayed the Potters took three whole chapters to unravel because of how much information was revealed and how many emotions were packed into it...yet the film decided to spend less than TEN MINUTES on that three-chapter-long plot twist. TEN. And most of the exposition dialogue was shouted haphazardly across the room in about five minutes of that time. It’s honestly little wonder to me that director Alfonso Cuaron originally hadn’t wanted to read the book before making the film and had to be convinced to do so -- he clearly was more interested in putting his own stamp on the story than respecting what was already there in the books or even in the previous films, and although yes, the darker tone and more unique visual style did help the series in the long run, I just wish that it hadn’t been done in the adaptation of my favorite book in the series. Azkaban deserved a more faithful adaptation than this.

6) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In a way I almost feel bad for the filmmakers trying to adapt this book. GoF is the longest in the entire series and arguably has the most subplots and tiny important details casually slipped into the text out of all of them, which would be difficult to adapt in a three-act feature film. I can’t help but feel it should’ve gotten the halfsies treatment the way Hallows did, given that it would’ve been difficult to fit every little important thing into one movie, even a long one. That being said, though...yeah, this film really is incoherent unless you’ve read the books. How do you even try to tell Goblet’s story if you’re going to cut out all of the Crouch family’s backstory? Answer: by revealing the twist ending in the first ten minutes by showing Crouch, Jr. is alive and turning him into an uninteresting, one-dimensional character, I guess. David Tenant is a wonderful actor and he could’ve been a wonderful Crouch, Jr., but in this adaptation he had just about nothing to work with. Then of course they also cut out Winky, Dobby, Hermione’s SPEW movement, the Quidditch World Cup game, Bertha Jorkins, Ludo Bagman, Percy Weasley joining the Ministry, the Weasley twins and Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, Rita Skeeter getting her comeuppance, and Crouch, Jr. getting Kissed by dementors before Fudge could hear his testimony about Voldemort’s return. I also wish they hadn’t turned Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur into such one-note, one-dimensional characters either -- Robert Pattinson got the most to work with out of the three actors, but the characters still seem very shallow compared to their book-originals, and considering Viktor and Fleur get no further development in later films, their characters pretty much start and end with the little material their actors get in this movie. Even Voldemort’s depiction I’m somewhat torn about: I like Ralph Fiennes as an actor, but I had sort of hoped he’d look a little scarier and that he’d have red eyes the way he had when he was attached to Quirrel’s head in Sorcerer/Philosopher and as described in the book. As much as I sympathize with how difficult the task was to adapt this story, Warner Bros. still could’ve made a longer movie and kept in more of the stuff needed to understand what was going on. Still, there are some good visuals in this film and I like a lot of the new music tracks, too.

5) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

The Hallows films overall I sort of just see as “okay,” mainly because they and Prince’s adaptation are so dark that at some points I think they forget what made the stories so likable in the first place -- namely, the characters. Sure, we can’t have as much humor here, but where’s the love? Where are the distinct personalities, where’s the friendship? And really, one of the few answers this film gave was in that OOC Harmione dance scene, which...yeah, not only did it have no romantic chemistry (which I suppose I should be glad of, as that would be even more OOC than the scene already is), but it also had very little friendship chemistry too. It was just awkward and stilted to watch. Even Ron’s return wasn’t as strong because the film adaptations went so far out of their way to marginalize Ron and not make him an important part of the trio...so yeah, contrasted to the book where Harry and Hermione mourned Ron’s absence, the awkward dance scene attempting joy and failing miserably just falls even more flat. There are some good moments, like Luna and Harry interacting at the wedding and the break-in at the Ministry, and there’s a lot less stuff cut from this film than in others, but there’s also a lot less that I can say I loved in this film than in others.

4) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Part 2 is pretty even with Part 1 for me, as it doesn’t cut as much out but also left a lot to be desired. Because of the lack of explanation about what things Voldemort would turn his Horcruxes into, Harry has to rely solely on deux-ex-machina visions to tell him what to do next, Harry breaking the Elder Wand felt like such a cop-out, and the Battle of Hogwarts, although not bad exactly, really never showed off the scale of the damage and loss the way it could’ve. Fred’s death isn’t even given its proper screen time! But at the same time, I found more memorable scenes in this movie -- the Room of Requirement confrontation, McGonagall taking charge before the Battle of Hogwarts, the ending at Platform 9 3/4 that actually used the Leaving Hogwarts track from the first movie the way I’d dreamed that they would when I first read the book -- and of course every moment of Alan Rickman as Severus Snape. Yes, Rickman portrayed Snape as a much more likable, much less gray character than he was in the books, but he was still wonderful to watch every second he was on screen.

3) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone

I acknowledge nostalgia might play more of a role in my judgement of the first two films, given that I was a young teenager when they first came out...but I’m sorry, aesthetically, Columbus’s films were the most true to their source material. The darkness didn’t really start in the books until GoF, and since Cuaron jumped the gun on the darkness in Azkaban, we lost that gradual fading of the light from the original novels. And really, the Wizarding World was charming! It still is! And with the departure of Columbus, we kind of lost that charm in future films, even during the parts that were supposed to be less dark and gritty. We never got it back, and yes, one could see that as somewhat reminiscent of childhood innocence -- but I disagree, charm can be appreciated at any age. Even in my darkest days, I still could appreciate it. If anything, charm in the midst of despair and gloom became all the more precious. But regardless...Sorcerer/Philosopher is one of the most true to its subject matter -- it really does depict things almost exactly the way I’d imagined them while reading the book. The score John Williams wrote for the first two films in particular made everything feel just as magical as when I was first reading the first two books, and as the films went on, we lost that recurring score that favored the reuse of certain themes to instill various emotions: instead we just got individual themes for each film that were rarely used outside of that particular film. But I acknowledge Sorcerer/Philosopher doesn’t take nearly enough risks, the details cut so as to compress scenes sometimes create plot holes (like Snape protecting the Stone and supposedly bullying Quirrell to find out how to get past his defense, even though both their challenges were not included in the film), the CGI is pretty outdated, and a lot of the child actors were at the beginning of their learning curve. Really, the only stand-out performances among the child actors in my opinion were Tom Felton and Rupert Grint -- Dan had his moments, but Emma and a lot of the more minor actors like Devon Murray as Seamus at points sounded like they were acting in a school play. And when you placed those kids alongside great adult actors like Robbie Coltrane and Richard Harris, it could be a bit jarring. Still, I’d be lying if I said I don’t really enjoy watching this movie, almost as much as I did when I watched it as a kid so many times that after a while I could recite the entire script from memory.

2) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I was fortunate enough to see this film opening night with my mum and best friend at the time, and really, Chamber just built on Sorcerer/Philosopher’s cheesy yet charming, book-loyal formula. Like the previous film, there are some important details cut and not that many risks taken from a visual or film-making perspective and the CGI often doesn’t look that great (Dobby in particular hasn’t aged that well), plus some of the scenes aren’t that well-directed (i.e. the fight between the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch teams lacked any real anger or energy, and even the Dueling Club scene was oddly slow and lacked excitement)...but even so, I think the child performances are better here, and we got a lot more scenes with excellent adult actors like Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy, Julie Walters as Molly Weasley, and Kenneth Branagh as Lockhart. I also laugh a lot watching this one! Lockhart gets a lot of his great, funny lines from the book, but young Rupert Grint also shows a great talent for comedy that, I must be honest, is kind of lost after Chamber, as he becomes less of a distinct character who happens to say funny things and more of just a wimpy, tag-along sidekick who’s often made the butt of a joke. Even now, my mum and I smile at the memory of watching the film in theaters and laughing and cheering with the rest of the audience when Lockhart cries, “Amazing! This is just like MAGIC!”

1) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This film adaptation is based off my second favorite book in the series, and as much as it cut from that book, I think it overall captured the spirit of the book the best out of the series while also making a visually distinctive film. Yes, it cut out Marietta Edgecombe and the moral grayness her inclusion represented, Sirius’s passive-aggressiveness, pettiness, and cruelty toward Kreacher and the depth that it gave him as a flawed father figure, Harry’s lashing out at Dumbledore and how real it made both Sirius’s loss and Harry’s grief, Percy’s alienation of his family and the exploration of the cost of standing by one’s ideals, Neville and his family at St. Mungo’s and the pathos and complexity it gave his character, Umbridge running Hagrid out of Hogwarts and McGonagall being injured and how much that cut Harry off from the Order, and Umbridge’s revelation that she’d sent the dementors after Harry and how neatly it tied up all the loose ends. But at the same time, I hated Umbridge in this film just as much as I did in the books. I felt the sorrow of Sirius’s loss just as much as I did in the books. I felt the satisfaction at seeing Neville grow through joining the D.A. and becoming a more three-dimensional, heroic character despite his shortcomings just as I did in the books. I felt for Trelawney when she was being forcibly evicted from Hogwarts just as much as I had in the books. I felt the triumph of the Weasley twins’ rebellion against Umbridge just as much as I did in the books. I felt the camaraderie of Dumbledore’s Army just as much as I did in the books. I felt the love that Harry had for his friends and believed in both his hopelessness and his desire to fight for them just as much as I did in the books. And yet there were also film-only additions that I really liked -- the emphasis on Harry’s friends being the reason he resists Voldemort’s control, the montage of Umbridge sinking her Inquisitorial claws into Hogwarts, the music written to accompany the scenes at the Ministry and featuring Umbridge, Sirius punching Lucius Malfoy in the face and calling Harry “James” by accident. Even in a visual sense, it wasn’t too dark and gritty, but not too rosy and colorful either. Yes, this film had dark moments, but it never lost sight of what the original book series was about -- not the doom and gloom, not the action and thrills, not the drama and intrigue, not even the flights of fancy, but the love. What even are our heroes fighting for, if not the ones and things they love? Why do we even care? Why would we even watch any of these films at all, if not because of the love? In Order, I never forgot what Harry was fighting for. It balanced out the doubt and fear with kinship and nobility, just as I felt the books always had and the films often didn’t. So as many important details are shaved off, it at least still felt like Harry Potter. Not perfect, but hey, what adaptation is?

#oh boy here i go #analysis #reviews #opinion #harry potter #harry potter and the sorcerer's stone #harry potter and the philosopher's stone #harry potter and the chamber of secrets #harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban #harry potter and the goblet of fire #harry potter and the order of the phoenix #harry potter and the half-blood prince #harry potter and the deathly hallows #harry potter and the deathly hallows part 1 #harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2

[the-end-of-the-storm]

GoT 8x03 aka The Battle of WinterHELL

I can’t help but feel like this is the episode of missed opportunities and (unintentional) wtf moments. Just a little warning: this will not be the most positive review and I hate that I feel this way about the episode because I know how much work (55 consecutive night shots!) went into creating it but I can’t help but not love it. There was some good stuff in there too, and I’ll mention it but don’t expect hails of praise from this. Also, keep in mind, that I LOVE this show to death and that it’s not my intention to bash it – it’s still the best and most thought-through show I’ve ever seen – but I also need to get all my feeling about this mess out.

They foreshadowed the crypts being unsafe in 8x02 with the subtlety of a sledgehammer and then it turned out that they actually were breached… but it has like no consequences? No one that we know died and there wasn’t even a good close combat scene. Super odd. The whole crypts stuff in general was really … underwhelming.

I was really out there expecting some Sansa x Varys’ (ya know, Varys meeting his Dream Queen) bonding in the crypts but instead I got … another conversation with Tyrion … ok lol, thanks. Next.

On a positive side note, however, if they’d wanted to make Sansa x Tyrion romantic, they would have made a Wight attack her and Tyrion save her, you know this whole thing with her wanting a hero … or to make it a twist Sansa would have saved Tyrion. But D&D noped out of that big times.

Missandei, I love you, but you need to chill.

Alys Karstark, what are you up to? Stayin’ alive and all that … So far, at least.

Why bring Ghost out for 0.2 seconds for no purpose at all? Fighting with the Dothraki? Am I to believe that Ghost wouldn’t be with, um, I don’t know … Arya, Sansa or Bran? I’m sorry I don’t buy that. If you can’t afford or don’t want to spend money on his CGI to give him meaningful scenes THEN DON’T FUCKING SHOW HIM AT ALL! The only theory I have about Ghost being in both episodes since the parentage reveal but not in 8x01 when Jon returns to Winterfell and a Jon x Ghost reunion would have made sense, is that Ghost is a symbol for Jon’s Stark-ness and therefore I suspect that we’ll see him further until it is once and for all revealed that … tamtatatam … Jon wants to stay a Stark. Surprising, right? -.-

My main problem with this episode is that I felt disconnected to it all. Even in the bits where Jaime saved Brienne I felt like they were shot in a way that didn’t evoke emotions in me. Don’t know how to express myself correctly but it was just off. Felt like we were just swiping through the scenery, and over characters but didn’t actually focus on anyone.

That Arya x Walking Dead scene was alright HOWEVER how ‘bout some dialogue instead??

Ok, so the Night King raises the dead but no one has to fight a killed loved one??? (Or, you know maybe they did and I just couldn’t see it …) This is a missed opportunity so big I can’t quite believe it. Maybe it is time for a proper re-watch, idk.

Most of the episode I was wondering what the dragons were up to ... only to realize over and over again that they were up to LITERALLY nothing O.o 

I’m forever going to be pissed that when Bran said “You’re a good man. Bye.” He let Theon f*cking die when I was fully expecting him to be like: “You’re a good man, thank you. But now it’s time to go.” I would have felt that. But of course f*cking not. I suppose I did feel that, too.

Would it have killed them to give Jon a decent fighting sequence with the Night King though? Jon has been so obsessed with him and sacrificed so much to defeat the NK, he would have deserved to get to kick his ass a bit in one on one combat. (And no, the dragon fighting doesn’t count because I couldn’t tell shit apart. I still don’t know which dragon got bitten and which did the biting, like … this is what you chose to spend so much CGI on, are you for real???)

I’m slightly disappointed that the NK only tried to shot a dragon with his badass spears one f*cking time!! It’s not because I dislike the dragons and want them gone (which I do), I just think it could have made good visuals and raised the stakes even further (I know the stake were pretty darn high to begin with but I just didn’t feel anything.)

Can the Night King speak or does he just choose not to cause “reasons”? Well, at least he can smirk like a boss … Seriously, he’s the most generic and boring villain ever. Glad he’s a goner though.

Also, what was the point of the White Walkers? Like, did they do anything but stand around at the tree line? I was really waiting for them to … I don’t know … try to shoot a dragon out of the sky or fuck things up in the castle.

I like that it was Arya who saved the day, I wasn’t expecting that and I feel there was a bit of foreshadowing for this but it was done so anti-climactic I couldn't properly enjoy it. I still wish they would have done some more foreshadowing for this but they probably wanted it to be a complete “twist” that absolutely no one saw coming. I think I actually would have preferred Bran to be the NK but alright …

Am I wrong or were there less than 10 sentences spoken in 82 minutes?

I am not going to lie; I really wanted Jon to slay Wightserion. I love this man with all my heart but they have been butchering his character and POV to protect their Pol!Jon plot twist and I get it and I believe in Jon but having him slay a Zombie!Dragon would have been a great metaphor for him getting his old self back and literally slaying his dragons, you know? The more I think about this, the more I’m pissed that they didn’t …

I’m so confused that they killed of both of the Mormonts. The only good thing I saw in having Lyanna killed was that at least that would mean that Jorah would live … which is probably exactly why they did it. BIG DISLIKE.

I was relieved to see D*ny cry about Jorah’s death, he loved her so much it’s killing me inside. (How do people see the way Jorah loved her so fiercely and then see Jon with her as a contrast and are like … Yeah Jon and D, man, that’s love … TF?) Anyways, Jorah did her wrong, he did her good but he certainly deserved to be cried over by D*ny. I hate losing Jorah, I loved that devoted fool but I’m also low-key relived that at least this way, Jorah doesn’t have to pick between the North and D*ny. Also good, I loved Jorah and D fighting side by side – one last ride, I guess, going down together ... that's my kind of tea but whatever.

Also interesting, Jorah stayed at her side till the very end, while Jon ditched her first chance he got.

On that note, I also want to say that one of the most interesting things that happened in this episode was that Sam x Jon scene. You know the one where he walks past Sam, although Sam could’ve obviously used some help. Of course, you could say, yeah he just wanted to go kill the NK (which he obviously did want to) but I do believe that Jon’s decision to keep moving has a lot more to do with Bran than the NK. When he ditched D*ny, he said he needs to get to Bran, not “I need to find the NK and kill him”. He was under a lot of stress but his mind immediately went to Bran his brother and not to the Night King his enemy. I do believe that means something. Obviously, the argument can be made that it means the same but I doubt it. The walking past Sam thing could have been easily omitted but they didn’t. Sam, Jon’s best friend and BROTHER of the Night’s Watch. To me, it means that the Starks still are the priority of his heart, siblings or not. Jon knows now that Bran isn’t really his brother, that he’s the 3ER and let’s be real, he hasn’t had a meaningful interaction with Bran in years. He doesn’t know him anymore. But he still chose Bran. He couldn’t spare those ten seconds to help his best friend because Bran needed him. He ditched his NW brother/best friend AND his aunt/lover for his cousin Bran. I don’t know about you guys but I really loved that. Because it means so much regarding him being part of the pack and shit.

I very happily noted that D&D really went out of their way to make sure that absolutely nothing of significance was accomplished by D*ny or her armies or her dragons. Drogon and Rhaegal didn’t even take down Viserion, Arya Stark did. Kinda.

What will Arya be called now by the smallfolk? Kingslayer? Dragonslayer? Nightslayer? Armyslayer? Sooo many possibilies ...

I'm in the serious need of a Jonsa scene. I've been patient but now I need Jon to gaze at Sansa from the side and being awkward around her and then I'll need him to reveal his parentage to her and Ayra.

Also, big F*ck You to all the “leakers” out there who made me worry all week about B*atbang!Baby and lines like D: “Ily but you need to keep the Targline alive. Do you understand?” J: “No, I get it, Auntie, but Ily and I only want you”. I mean that Exodus dude wrote a fucking essay based on nothing but lies – why do people even do that? Get a hobby, man!

Resume: I still have faith in Pol!Jon, Dark!D and Jonsa but I’m really confused about the route they’re currently taking. I’m assuming Dany will leave for Dragonstone in 8x04 and Jon will join her and we’ll have another Jonsa separation with only three episodes left, so that’d really suck. However, if I could wish for only a single thing next episode, then I want Jon back, I miss my man so much.

I realize this all must sound kinda anti but I’m just a bit upset and tired. I do love this show and I will keep watching till the bitter end, obviously. Also I respect all the work that went into creating this episode. It just wasn’t my kind of tea. Cheers xx

#jonsa #jon snow #got 8x03 spoilers #anti-daenerys #dark!dany #anti jonerys #game of thrones

[jordancat]

'Shadowhunters' Series Finale: Bosses Explain Clary's Cliffhanger and Malec's Near Perfect Wedding (Exclusive)

By Leanne Aguilera‍ 7:30 PM PDT, May 6, 2019

ETOnline

https://www.etonline.com/shadowhunters-series-finale-bosses-explain-clarys-cliffhanger-and-malecs-near-perfect-wedding

Go to the article and give it a hit, but in case the article is moved or has been taken down if you are finding this post in a year or so after Shadowhunters has been saved, here is the content. 

WARNING: If you have not watched the series finale of Shadowhunters, then grab your stele and escape through the nearest portal. For everyone else, grab that extra box of tissues and listen up...

After three action-packed seasons filled with gut-wrenching twists and heart-pounding turns, Shadowhunters has come to an end.

The series finale of the Freeform drama has just bowed on our screens, but if you're anything like us, then a lot of questions must be racing through your minds as you try to catch your breath through a river of tears.

In one last quest for answers – and perhaps a bit of closure – ET called up Shadowhunters executive producers, Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer, and asked the co-showrunners to explain our most burning questions after that two and a half hour finale.

Read on for exclusive explanations about Clary's shocking cliffhanger, the few things missing from Malec's near "perfect" wedding, and one last answer to the question that every fan has been asking: Is this really the end of Shadowhunters?

ETonline: How important was it for you deliver a Shadowhunters series finale that you knew fans would be proud of?

Todd Slavkin: It was hugely important. We poured our hearts into this finale and we wanted every moment to count – especially Malec’s wedding. That was a big moment for a fandom that had been waiting a long time to see it and it had to be really, really special.

Let’s talk about Malec’s wedding – it was gorgeous. What little details did you make sure were included in the Malec wedding, so it could be perfect for the fans?

TS: The flower girl was really important in that it had to be Madzie. Maryse walking Magnus down the aisle was a really powerful statement after all they’ve been through and knowing what the wedding was like in season one. It felt important that it was full circle and that hug between them still breaks my heart when she sends him up on the stage. The vows needed to be perfect – every single word needed to count. There was a little fun behind-the-scenes moment where it felt right that Alec would be very nervous – more nervous than Magnus. After all, this is The Institute, this is The Clave and there’s a great moment where he’s nervous and Harry just gives him a little nod like, “Its okay. You’re going to get through it.” And it felt so right and so honest and like a lot of weddings that I’ve been to. Just capturing those human moments – the whole show has really been about that. Even in this heightened reality, these human emotions and moments really mean a lot to all of us.

Darren Swimmer: We wanted to populate the wedding with as many of the characters in the overall series as we could. So anybody who wasn't at the wedding, you can be pretty sure was not available due to scheduling, or they were deceased on the show, or a villain.

Speaking of deceased villains – Let’s talk about Jonathan. How did you guys decide that Clary would create one last rune in order to take down her brother?

TS: Well, it felt so right that the ultimate sacrifice that Clary had to do would be killing her brother and saving the world at the same time. We knew that he couldn't die by anyone else’s hand. And we knew that it would be incredibly heartbreaking that his sister – this human that he’s loved so much and he’s wanted her love for so long – is the one who finally wanted to take his life. The idea of creating this new rune and using this winged embrace to kill him just felt like such a perfect moment. Rhyming the wings that we had seen before and with white conquering darkness and all of that.

Even though Clary used this new rune to save the world and take down Jonathan, Ithuriel (sic - it was asctually Raziel - jordancat) still stripped her of her Shadowhunter status. We had a one-year time-jump and a cliffhanger ending with mundane Clary recognizing Jace and seeing his runes. Can you explain the meaning of that last scene?

TS: The expression of the love between Jace and Clary is such an integral part of the series and we knew we had to pay it off in a huge way. The idea that the love that they have is even more powerful than the wrath of the angel Ithuriel (sic Raziel - jordancat) is just such a great statement. Love conquers all. Love conquers darkness.

DS: I would also add that we see the inevitability of Clary as a Shadowhunter. At the end of the day, her fate is that she’ll be a Shadowhunter. We don’t completely answer that question or present that, but I think that’s what the takeaway is. She’ll be a Shadowhunter.

Take me past that cliffhanger of an ending. What do you envision what happens next? Does Clary need to re-learn her training? Does she need to re-form those bonds with all these people? Does she need to re-fall in love with Jace?

DS: I don’t want to give too much away because we want to make it something that the fans can think about in their imagination. But in the fourth season that we were hoping might somehow materialize itself when we wrote this, we would see Clary and Jace working together to sort of re-train her and get her to back to Shadowhunters status 100 percent.

TS: We’d have this new Clary with the cool hair, and the awesome outfit, and she’s kind of like a strong young woman who’s found herself as an artist, but knows there’s something missing in her life. Even just like in the pilot, there was this feeling that would just start all over, but they would be more adult now.

In this potential future for “new” Clary, is there a possibility that she would get her memories back?

TS: Yes. In the Shadow World anything can happen.

It was so amazing to see Clary ask Izzy to be her Parabatai. It made it even more gut-wrenching to realize that this wasn’t going to happen once Clary lost her memory. Can you talk about dangling that conversation over the fans and then your decision to have that not come to fruition?

DS: The two of them becoming Parabatai was something that we always imagined we would work towards, but it was something that we also thought needed to be extended and pushed as late as we possibly could. So when we knew that we only had two episodes left, we wanted to take advantage of that and present it here.

TS: But the great thing is when Clary recognized Jace at the end, you’re like, “Wow! Okay I could see that happening again for sure.” That [bond] is not going to go away.

Izzy and Simon’s slow-burn of relationship was sped up quite a bit in that series finale. What was your goal when it came to showing the love story of these two characters?

DS: We have to thank the Sizzy fans for being so patient while we laid the groundwork over this season for their relationship. We always felt that the longer we pushed it off, the more powerful it would be once they got together – and then suddenly we ran out of runway. I still think there was enough of the lead in, and the start of their relationship happens basically when we wanted it to happen. We just didn’t get to see as much as we wanted.

TS: The original end of season three was their kiss and then fire consumes Izzy. That was going to be the end of season three and then we would've spent the entire season four having to heal lizzy and there would still be more of a slow burn. So in a weird way, Sizzy fans got it early. They lucked out because we had to jump the gun.

DS: Yeah, how many times can you have the two of them start to kiss and then have an alarm go off? [Laughs]

What is a loose end that you guys wish you could’ve tied up differently?

TS: That’s a really good question. I feel like the loose ends were tied up really nicely. There’s a little bit of stuff that we would’ve wanted to see and we would’ve wanted to explore more.

DS: We tied things together, but we would've wanted to tie them together in a little bit longer way. The wedding wouldn’t have been planned in one day.

TS: But you know after thinking about it, I would've loved at the wedding if we would've seen a conversation between Jace and Magnus being like, “Thank you. I couldn't have asked for any one better to take care of my Parabatai.” And I would’ve loved to have seen Robert Lightwood say to Maryse, “I’m so happy for you that you’ve found love again.” And I wish Luke Garroway was at that wedding and I wish Maia was at that wedding. There are those little things. That wedding could’ve been an entire episode. It could have been a full 42 minutes and I think the fans would've loved it just as much and we could have had all of these moments that would have just gone on and on and on. We just were limited.

Was Clary losing her memory always part of the plan or was that conceptualized once you knew that the show was ending?

TS: It was conceptualized once we knew the show was ending.

Had the show not ended – and Clary never lost her memories – what would’ve been Clary’s fate as we moved into season four?

TS: Great question! I think she would have really been healing over the guilt she felt over Dark Clary and the terrible things she did and would’ve been cleaning up that mess. And Jace would have been helping her, like, get back to normal. I think Jace and Clary could’ve had this normalized relationship – at least for Shadowhunters. A peak in the normalcy and I think the fandom would have craved that a little. Those moments that we’ve had when they’ve gone out on their dates – like the ice skating moment and the moment in early in season three when they went to dinner with Simon. These are these great human moments that stand out and again I think we would've leaned into that more.

Would we have seen a Clace wedding?

DS: Absolutely.

The series finale of Shadowhunters is here, but the fans have not stopped fighting to save the show. Is this the official end of Shadowhunters?

TS: I think it’s the end of Shadowhunters in this permutation. Those books live on and the rights live on. Darren and I don’t have the rights and we don't control the rights. I think we’re all kind of going onto other things, but having said that – you never say never. What I wouldn't rule out and what I don't think is impossible is doing, like, a future movie. Where you could get everyone together for a few weeks and do like a two-hour, or a four-hour, or a limited six-episode thing. Maybe with the same cast, but you never know. Weird thing happen in today’s TV world.

DS: The only reason that it seems like it would be a long shot to [continue this show] in this permutation is that everything has been disassembled. The sets have been sold, and all the props, and that stuff [is gone.] It’s not like we could ever come back and just continue it where it is. It would be starting from scratch.

TS: Yeah they auctioned off props, like, in August or September. It was crazy and horrible.

The fans have been asking, “What more could we have done to save Shadowhunters?” What do you want to say to them?

DS: The fans did everything right.

TS: It’s an incredibly passionate, creative, strong fandom that should be so proud of themselves because this won't be forgotten and it’s bigger than a TV show. What this fandom is preaching is inclusion, and love for all, and all these positive things in life and I think that’s a rarity. I think that will go down in history.

DS: And I was just going to add that without this incredible fan base, we might not have had a two-parter [finale] at all. The show might have just been canceled. But knowing that there was such a devoted fanbase, the powers-that-be decided to do this two-hour finale.

#shadowhunters #saveshadowhunters #todd slavkin #darren swimmer #malec #clace #sizzy

[heylir]

New fic

Post-CC, the first scene happens on Barbers' farm, the rest does back in Widdershins.

Good Luck

There was silence in a room, except for the rustling of the book's pages that Wolfe turned over and scraping of Ben's pencil that he scribbled in his notebook with. Mal got bored and reached into his pocket for his tobacco, but he looked at Ben and decided not.

"Wolfe, can ye?.." He stopped himself. "Th’ hell, I forgot. I wanted t’ask ye th’ other day, where d’ye put yer violin?"

Before Wolfe had a chance to reply, Ben shut his notebook.

"I remembered something," he said quickly. "I must ask Sidney Malik about some details. And Vee, too. Anyway, I'll leave you for a time."

He took his notebook and pencil and hurried from the room.

"What’s wron’ with ‘im?" Puzzled, Mal looked at Wolfe.

"Never mind," he waved his hand. "I left my violin in a secure place... in the hands of some reliable person. Just for keeping it safe. I shall take it when we come back."

"Ah," Mal seemed to relax. "Alright. Whom d'ye give it to?" he asked casually.

Wolfe coughed gently, closed his book and put it aside.

"To Dominik," he said at last.

"To whom?" Mal didn't understand at first.

"To Dominik Voss."

"T’ whom?! T’ Voss? Th’t traitorous..."

"Mal."

"...envious..."

"Mal!"

"...double-dealin’ bast..."

"Mal, please, don't!"

"S’him y’called a reliable person?!"

"Mal, look. He is a different man now."

"‘eard ‘t already, y’know. Now ‘e's singin’ th’ same song, ‘gain?"

"He is not. I have seen that, with my own eyes. Dominik helped us defeat Envy and saved us all. If it was not for him..."

"’f s’not fer ‘im, nobody ‘ad t’ be saved from Envy."

"That is not true," Wolfe said gently. "The Seven Deadlies would still get released, with him or no. And maybe, we all were very lucky that it is Voss summoned Envy, not someone else."

Mal grunted, “S’not ‘is credit, y’see. That ‘e in’t any good as a villain or anythin’ else.”

Wolfe shook his head, “He managed to do something no one of us was able to do. He broke Envy’s string as it wanted to make him…” He looked at Mal, “...well, kill me. We, everyone, did what it wanted, and he could tell it No.”

��None o’ ye’s been keepin’ company w’Envy fer years. ‘e ‘as.”

“Yes, so I hoped he could help us because of that. And he could. The good things came of the bad ones.”

“Doesn’t cancel th’ bad past 'ings,” Mal muttered.

“And the other way round. The past does not cancel what he has done now. Mal, he risked his life for mine. He offered himself to Envy, instead of me.”

Mal shrugged, dismissively.

"I didn't kick ‘im, ‘en. Didn't mind yer lettin’ ‘im go. Now ye gave ‘im a chance, it worked, fine. Y’re a good fellow, he... s’not a complete so-an’-so. But givin’ yer violin t’ him?" Mal’s voice pitched a bit higher. "Jus’ don't say y’couldn’t find some other secure place fer it."

Wolfe looked at Mal, a little apologetically. "I could not. He... he won the day, he saved us all, but he was not happy. He looked like... he felt lost. I wanted to support him, somehow. What else could I have done, my friend?"

Mal grinned, "Don't ask me. Alright. ‘e's surely gonna break or lose it, but w’can get another violin, not another ye."

Wolfe smiled, "Thank you, Mal. But I am sure he will return it safe and sound, I would not give it to him otherwise."

"Wanna bet?"

"On what?"

"Ye'll play whatever I wish. W’ a new violin."

"You do not need betting for that. And if I win the bet?"

"Then ye may ask me fer anythin’," Mal promised generously.

***

Wolfe held the violin case carefully, with his face beaming, but Mal looked above him, at the violinist playing inspiredly and glowing with joyful colours.

"My violin is all right!"

"See I've lost m’ bet", Mal said nonchalantly. "Make yer wish."

Wolfe shook his head, "I do not need anything."

"Think ‘gain?"

Wolfe thought for a moment and smiled cunningly.

"Very well. Please bring some rice from the kitchen, I have to clean my violin."

Mal frowned but went to fulfil the wish.

"Thank you," Wolfe tore a pack open. "And now I ask you for something, but it is just a request, not the wish to be granted."

Mal grinned, "A sly thin’, ye’re. Shoot away!"

"Dominik wants to talk with you."

Mal scowled, "What’s he ‘ave t’ talk w’ me about?"

"I do not know. But if you find it disagreeable..."

"Can’t care less. S’not ye that put ‘im up t’ it?"

"Of course not. I did not say a word... "

"I know ye, don't need words fer ‘ese things. Alright, let ‘im come in. We're gonna have a talk."

***

O'Malley sat on his bed and passed his hand through the air as if he stroked an invisible cat. He didn’t look up as Voss came in.

“He said, ye want to talk to me?”

It seemed to Voss that O’Malley tried to talk more properly than usual.

“Yes. I want to... say sorry.”

Thus engaged, O’Malley didn’t still look at him.

“Why to me?”

“I apologised before Wolfe and Thackerey already.”

O’Malley shrugged.

“Ye were Envy’s tool. Did what it told. You ain’t gonna mess with me, yourself. Ye were scared to death of yer master, that’s all.”

“How do you know?”

“I saw,” O’Malley muttered between his teeth.

“How?”

“With my eyes. If it weren’t for Ben jumping at ye, you’d know what I talk about.”

“You mean...” Voss stopped. “It’s your vision it told me to steal? You were able to see Envy... and it said you can see many things. You can see spirits and... people’s feelings?”

O’Malley didn’t reply.

“It said later that I wouldn’t like it,” Voss recalled.

“Even liars tell th’ truth sometimes,” O’Malley said grimly.

Voss thought for a moment.

“But then... Then, in Prussia, you could see my true feelings? It’s why you tried to talk Wolfe out of going with me?”

O’Malley get up abruptly and went to the wall.

“I could. I tried. An’ y’know what ‘e said t’ me?” O’Malley attempted to imitate Wolfe’s talking. “But most people are good inside, yes?” He snorted in disgust and pounded his fist against the wall. “Bugger ye! How could ye? How could y’do such a thin’ T’ HIM? ‘e called ye ‘is friend, he trusted ye, an’ ye... How COULD ye sell ‘im out like th’t?”

In excitement, O’Malley began to speak rapidly and skip sounds, so Voss made out no more than one word per three ones, but he understood the point. He got to know English and himself good enough for giving the true answer, but he didn’t think it would help anyone. So he just said, simply and calmly,

“Wolfe’s very lucky that he has such a friend like you.”

Unfortunately, O’Malley mistook his words for a mockery. He turned on his heels to Voss, clenching his fists, “I ain’t an angel, ne’er been, ne’er pretended t’ be! But I’d ne’er...” He stared straight at Voss, for the first time in their talking, and cut off suddenly. In silence, he went back to his bed and sat on it.

“What’ve you seen?” Voss demanded.

“Ye don’t tell ‘bout it!” snapped O’Malley. “An’ ye don’t ask, ‘bout yerself or others. Is it clear t’ ye?”

“Yes,” Voss replied obediently.

After a pause, O’Malley went on, more mildly.

“He said, ye saved his life.”

Voss got heavily embarrassed, “It isn’t...”

“I know that ‘it isn’t’,” O’Malley said sullenly. “Ye haven’t t’ explain. But if we were so lucky, an’ we’re alive an’ all,” he moved his shoulder, “what’s th’ use of thinkin’ about old past stuff?”

Voss raised his good eye to O’Malley, incredulous.

“You really think so?”

“Can’t tell fer all, nat’rally. But I’ve got enough on my hands fer mindin’ all that crap.” He passed his hand through the air again and turned away, letting Voss know that the talk is over.

"Thanks," said Voss, instead of good-bye.

***

"How was it?" Wolfe asked, rosining his fiddlestick.

"So-so. We didn't come t’ blows if ye were ‘fraid of that."

He smiled, "No, I was not afraid of that. Or something else. But I am glad."

Wolfe put the rosin away and took his violin out of the case. Getting ready for listening to music, Mal sat in the chair, tucked his legs beneath him, shifted a little and made a casual-like remark, "He's changed."

"We all change," Wolfe replied serenely as if there was nothing unusual in Mal's words.

"But fer that, not everyone’s gotta..." Mal thought it best not to finish.

"Yes, some people are more lucky than others," Wolfe agreed, in the same tone, putting the violin under his chin.

The bow touched the strings. As usual, Mal tilted his head back for a better view of Wolfe's spirit. For a moment he remembered another, changed aura, with a human face, two sound eyes, and faint glimmers of the same colours. But the music began, and he could think only about it and Wolfe.

Mal knew his good luck when he saw it.

#widdershins #fanfiction #mal #wolfe #voss

[officialthiamlibrary]

Hello! Hello! Hope everyone is having a glorious weekend thus far.  With enthusiasm, we are finally introducing you to another spectacular creator, pettigrace. The author of buy and sell gravity, its sequel free fallin’ in the jungle lights, and other fantastic works across 5 fandoms! Why don’t we just dive in?

Omg, Yas! Hi. It took us a while to get here, but we finally made it haha. Why don’t you start by telling us about yourself? The twist, the word count has to be either equal to or less than the number of letters in your two favorite Teen Wolf episode names.

Motel California and The Divine Move are the only episodes I remember by name, so I guess they must be my favourites. (15 + 13 = 28)

My name is Yas, I am an aroace being from Germany and I absolutely fucking hate time travel. I work as a journalist sometimes and I love writing.

Oh wow, a journalist! I love meeting people who’ve made a living out of their writing! What’s a typical day like as a journalist?

Mind you, I am not your typical journalist. I may look like Clark Kent most of the time, but I don’t do the stuff he does (that extends also to the superheroing, sadly) - I work for the youth page of my local newspaper, which means I get to write a few articles about/aimed at children a few times a month. I usually go for reviews of media (as in books and tv shows most of the time but movies, games and all that jazz, too!) but every once in a while I get to do something bigger as well. That means (typically) interviewing people in sports clubs, writing about my personal experience about a topic or doing surveys about things. It’s not much, but my name is in the paper pretty much every week.

I’m trying not to be super impressed and failing, but that’s honestly phenomenal! Obviously, you’re a huge fan or movies, books, and tv shows. Did that influence your name, pettigrace?

It refers to Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter! (But Yas, you go, isn’t that the guy who doomed James and Lily Potter? To which I say: He also killed Cedric Diggory! And faked his own death! And gave Voldemort back his body!) No, hear me out. I don’t love the guy. Hell, I hate Peter Pettigrew as much as we all do. But he’s an important character in the world of HP and doesn’t get the recognition for it. He’s the unsung villain of the story. Is he a good villain? Heck no, he’s probably one of the worst. He doesn’t even have his own agenda! Still, he symbolizes something that’s important to me when I look at characters: The way they develop. How they used to be in certain situations. General character development. We don’t talk enough about the secret talents and thoughts of him.

Also, ace. Because like many characters, I headcanon Peter Pettigrew as asexual. Thank you.

And, how did you find your way to the Thiam fandom?

Here’s the funny thing: I think that I only started shipping them as much as I do now while I already wrote fic for them. I don’t know, I saw the appeal because I love those ships with awful banter and the enemies-to-lovers trope, so the arguments Theo and Liam kept having right from the beginning practically screamed at me to ship them – even if it didn’t fully hit me yet and I hated Theo during season 5 (which is to say, I loved him as a villain. He has always been a great character, just not a good person.). I’ve read a couple of fics for them at the end of last year and then decided to write my own and both of those actions made me realize how well they fit together and helped me learn to appreciate them both in their own ways.

Gasp, How can anyone hate Theo?! Though, I might be a tad bias lol. I think a lot of people would agree with you about how well they fit together. Since you’ve only had time to grow in your appreciation for their relationship, why don’t we try a little game?

Let’s pretend this was a Stranger Than Fiction situation and you could predict any aspect of their lives with your writing. How would you set up the follow scenarios:

a. Their first postseason 6 interaction:

Okay, I’m a sucker for canon so let’s stay with that. I think that after the hospital scene, after Theo’s taken Gabe’s pain and the battle is won, it would not be Liam who approaches Theo to talk about. In my head, it would be Mason – he’s the one who realizes the significance of this, he’s the one who told him he doesn’t care enough to take someone’s pain (I think Liam doesn’t know about that in canon? If I remember wrong, let’s just pretend he doesn’t know.).

So I don’t know, maybe Theo leaves the hospital while everyone’s celebrating, completely overwhelmed and also feeling wrong there – he’s not part of this friend group and now that the battle is over, they don’t have any use for him any more, right? So he slips out; only to be followed by Mason. And we know Mason.

He’s clever and determined and he doesn’t back down from confronting someone. He doesn’t like Theo, he’s said as much, but now he’s seeing progress in him. He knows what an aide Theo has been for Liam, both in the fights and with his anger. He addresses all of this and Theo reacts like we all expect that he would: dismissive and sarcastic. Mason doesn’t buy into it for a single second, but he doesn’t try to make Theo stay when he says he needs to leave. I feel like it would actually be good for him to leave for a while because boy, does he need a time-out. Let’s be real. It’s clear that Theo isn’t as much of Liam’s responsibility any more. Liam doesn’t keep him close and he can leave and Liam wouldn’t feel like he needs to watch him. Theo’s come back from hell and then he’s had to fight battle after battle. He’s not friends with any of them and there’s no reason for him to stay around. So, he leaves, and Mason lets him leave, both because he gets it and he doesn’t really care if Theo is around or not.

Now Liam. I feel like even at that point in canon, Liam doesn’t really see Theo as a person. He knows him as a villain and as an ally but never just as Theo, and even with the almost-kiss between them (because that’s what the elevator scene has been, goddammit. There’s an attraction between them and it’s only been increased by the adrenaline, but especially Liam doesn’t really realize that he cares about Theo), he doesn’t even notice at first that Theo is gone. He’s too full of ecstasy and when he’s reunited with the rest of the pack, that only becomes more. It takes him a few days, maybe even weeks until he truly notices that Theo is gone. It’s not that he just forgets about him – Theo’s been present enough in the past few months, especially to him – so the remainder of him helping clings to Liam’s mind. He doesn’t ask anyone about Theo, though. It’s not like anyone really cares, he thinks. And he knows Mason’s dislike for the chimera, so bringing it up to him wouldn’t be fruitful either.

Of course, Theo comes back. Beacon Hills is his home and he just feels this draw back to it and (that much he can admit to himself) to Liam. He’s also the only one whose phone number he has so after much thinking – and Theo’s logical, so he doesn’t try to convince himself to ignore it – he calls Liam. It’s awkward because Theo had just disappeared like that (which Liam would call him out for) and maybe that leads to a fight between them; one that ends with Liam admitting he’s needed Theo around because he’s felt so restless and he’s not stupid, he knows that’s what it feels like to lose your anchor. Theo grows silent at that, not sure what to answer, and Liam almost hangs up because he’s too embarrassed by that confession and hell, they’re not even friends. He practically admitted to be in love with him, which is not even the case. They’re not in love yet, that’s for sure. But then, suddenly, Theo just says, “I’m coming home,” and that’s a promise.

The call would end shortly after that, with awkwardness hanging in the air, but Liam’s excited and content at the prospect of Theo coming back. And Theo, completely beside himself, sets off towards Beacon at once.

I have the image in mind (and heck if I knew if that works time zone-wise but maybe Theo’s still in the same) that the next day when Liam comes out of school, he finds Theo chilling in the parking lot, leaning against his truck like that’s his usual spot. Liam, not sure whether it’s appropriate to hug him or whatever but shit, is he happy to see him, jogs up to him and beams, saying, “You came.” And Theo, the little shit that he is, just rolls his eyes and clicks his tongue and goes, “Yeah. You’re paying lunch.” And then they climb into the car and ride off into the sunset.

(God I can’t believe this became almost two pages of basically just relationship study, I’m so sorry!!)

Never apologize for passion! What about a Thiam Double Date with any other ship from the show?

Well, Morey is obviously a given. Seriously, once Thiam started dating, Liam would definitely make the two of them see how much Theo has changed – I have no doubt it would become somewhat awkward, with Mason outright having stated that he despises Theo and Theo having worked with the people who killed Corey… Still, I think they’d go out for a movie or something or maybe just happen to be all at the Geyers’ home at the same time and maybe they would bond over video games or something.

I could also see that after some time, Theo would make up with Melissa. If he stays in Beacon Hills, he might end up being the one who brings her lunch – a weak attempt at making up for all the things he did to her and her family, but it’s the best they can do. After a while, Melissa would probably inquire him about what has happened and try to make him deal with the guilt; at the same time, she could see he’s different now, so then she insists that Scott and Stiles see it, too. So, she’s the one who’d set them all up. Probably a giant dinner or something at her house where she invites Thiam, Scalia and Stydia. And maybe she has Papa Argent over, too. It would be awfully tense, especially with Stiles’ and Malia’s hatred for Theo and maybe it ends in a disaster, who knows? But maybe Melissa mentions a fun story from when they were kids and Lydia, though she isn’t completely at ease either, would remember something she saw the guys do in elementary school (remember, she was there, too, even if they weren’t friends) – and then they would forget themselves and explain how they came up with the idea of stealing a toilet seat or something. They’d just chat about how things have been and then suddenly there’s a silent where they all swallow and remember that it can’t be like that anymore, can it? But there’s a promise: If they all can remember and laugh about it, and if Theo’s truly changed, then maybe there’s hope.

Finally, one conflict they’d have as an official couple:

Liam’s anger, without a doubt. I don’t think Theo can be as patient as fics make him out to be. He probably doesn’t know how to actually react to one of Liam’s outbursts and the way he talked to him during 6B wouldn’t always help. If Liam lashed out at him, Theo would probably let him – that’s another topic between them, the way Theo will accept anything as a sort of punishment for what he’s done. Liam would be overwhelmed by guilt and Theo would try to talk him out of it, say it’s okay and it’s not like he didn’t deserve it. And then Liam would tell him that no, he doesn’t. Theo’s already paid for his sins and he’s learnt to do better and anyway Liam isn’t his judge. It’s a vicious cycle because they’d argue and then Liam would get angry again and maybe then he’d just walk away and punch a tree, but the problem stands. I just made myself sad :(

If you could magically write any Thiam story with your mind, what story would you craft?

I have a few stories in mind that I want to write, especially for Thiam, but there’s one I keep putting off because it would require me to rewatch some of season 5 and basically all of season 6. I just don’t have the time or spoons for that at this point. If I had, though… Oh dear, hold on to your seats.

It’s told from Mason’s point of view, believe it or not. Either while or after he’s been possessed by the Beast, he’s developed powers of his own: He can suddenly see some kind of aura around people. It’s kind of a count for karma, with bad people having really dark colours while good ones have bright colours – later, though, he finds out that was aren’t general ratings but how the people view themselves. So, the last glimpse Mason gets of Theo is before he goes to hell. 

His aura is really bright except for a few specks here and there. When he comes back from hell, it’s the darkest Mason’s ever seen. 

Basically, the story would be about character growth and the way people see themselves. For example, both Stiles and Liam have darker auras than you’d expect them to have, because they’re good people, right? It wouldn’t surprise you after the nogitsune and Donovan that Stiles doesn’t think that of himself but Liam? It gives both the reader and Mason new insights into the characters of Teen Wolf.

The fic stays close to canon as it plays out, only that with Mason being the narrator, you get to see more of the puppy pack, of course. The way both Liam’s and Theo’s auras change as they interact with each other and Theo truly betters himself until in the end… Well, that’s it, right? Does the end stay lie in canon, too? Would Mason do something about the way his best friend feels better about himself when he’s around Theo? Who knows, definitely not me yet.

I’m excited to jump into your writing! First, if you could describe your creative process as a living entity, what would it look like? Wear? Listen? How does it handle conflict?

Hm, they‘re always around, though usually pretty chill in the background. Like, you turn around and they’re there but it’s not like they’re really annoyingly present, if that makes sense? I’m always working on something in the back of my head, and a lot of time it becomes more pregnant, so from time to time this person would be more active. And maybe they would be annoying from time to time, like when an idea doesn’t let me sleep or occupies my thoughts at all times, though that’s become a rarer happenstance lately. They’d be dressed pretty casually, maybe just a hoodie and sweatpants or something – my writing isn’t anything extravagant, and neither is the process of it for me. Actually, I don’t think they’d be a person, to be honest. I literally just described my cat.

ALOL, well, looks like we’ve discovered one of your writing influences haha! Do you and your cat have any Writing Kryptonites?

Oh, probably action. Which is especially sad in regard to Teen Wolf because you can come up with such amazing fight scenes in this fandom! But I’m struggling with writing motion, actually. No idea if it’s just that my vocabulary is limited in that area, being non-native to English and all, or if I generally suck at it, but it always feels so wrong to me. I write from a single person’s perspective, usually, so I’m limited to what they see and how they move and even then, it doesn’t feel swift enough. I’m working on that, though – there was a time when my writing basically only consisted of dialogue, and that became much better during the past years.

That’s amazing! What are some ways that you try to better your writing? Besides, well...writing haha. Have you done any type of skill building that you thought worked for you?

Most of it has definitely come just from continuing writing, to be honest. I’ve only once told myself to actively focus on something (it was really early in the beginning of my writing where I tried to get more skilled in describing people - the way they look and move, stuff like that). Otherwise, it’s basically just that. In writing class ,there were a few things you could try out, such as focussing on different emotions while writing or something.

Things that do the trick for me, usually, are PoV switches (meaning one chapter from A’s perspective, the next from B’s, stuff like that) and waiting to write something specific until I’m in the same mood as well. So if a character’s particularly sad in one scene, I’ll leave that for a time where I am sad as well. It works well for me because I don’t write chronologically anyways.

And is there one trope or scene that always ends up in whatever you’re writing? 

Well, I barely write anything that doesn’t include an asexual character. Also, there’s always some meta-ish reference to canon in AUs and, weirdly enough, I always have characters either watch or talk about Star Wars. That even happened before I watched the movies myself!

In case of Teen Wolf, there’s always the act of redemption for Theo. I feel that it’s an essential part of both him and Thiam as a relationship – the way Theo grows as a person and becomes better. I’m a sucker for parallels to canon, so that’s always a topic in one way or another. Of course, Theo doesn’t kill someone in every AU, but he deals with something that holds him back, makes him kind of a bad person, every time.

And then, I always come back to his friendship with Scott and Stiles, especially the latter. I’d have loved to see more of that in canon, maybe in stories or flashbacks or something. You’ve always had Scott and Stiles as practically one entity up to season 5 and suddenly Theo comes along, and you’re supposed to believe they used to be three? And nothing was ever mentioned? Of course, the writers only came up with that plotline for season 5, it makes sense they didn’t have anyone discuss Theo before. Still, it feels like something is missing there to make you truly believe it and I love to reflect on that, play with it. Stiles’ stance towards Theo draws me in a lot – how come he doesn’t trust him right away? Was something happening between them? How would it have been if Theo never left? I love to dig into that.

Mental illness is also a big thing for me. We have canon evidence for mental illness, even if they’re never named. They all must have PTSD. Stiles shows extreme signs of ADHD. Lydia is practically a survivor of sexual abuse. Multiple characters have attempted suicide. Liam is canonically diagnosed with IED. It would be ignorant not to refer to any of that while writing. Lots of fics I’ve read mention the struggles, depict them greatly, but only a few talked about handling them, about recovery. It’s about time we make progress in that department.

Hmm very true. And not a thought, as a perpetual fluff writer, that I’ve considered until now. You deal with quite a bit of mental issues within your main story, Buy and Sell Gravity. Before we chat about it in depth, can you give us a quick synopsis?

Buy and sell gravity starts with one of Liam’s outbursts of anger. In his social studies class, Monroe has talks badly about adoptive/step-parents and Liam started arguing with her until said he sent him out. So, then he goes and slashes her tires in classic Liam-style. Theo, who has only moved back to Beacon Hills recently and is surrounded by awful rumours, but nothing specified, catches him and decides to take care of it. He saves Liam’s ass and in return he demands that Liam pays for his food during lunch. But then they actually become friends and Liam learns more and more about Theo.

And did anything inspire you to create the premise?

The idea just came me at random – I just had that image in mind of Thiam making a deal. It’s classic romcom stuff, right? And I had thought it would just turn into a lengthy oneshot at most but now it’s the longest thing I have ever written. It’s crazy.

The story is told from Liam’s perspective. Do you think the story would unfold differently had we’d experienced it from Theo’s POV?

I’m actually writing a sequel at the moment, which is from Theo’s perspective. There’s references to buy and sell gravity, of course, so you actually do get part from Theo’s point of view! In general, though, had you seen it all from his point of view, the slow burn would have felt even longer, I imagine. The sound of the fic would have been darker, because that’s Theo’s mindset for the most of it, and there wouldn’t have been so many questions. Theo doesn’t really wonder about anything in this fic, he reflects and draws his own (mostly correct) assumptions. I feel like it would have sounded pretty monotone – it made sense to only pick up his PoV in the sequel and if you’ve read buy and sell gravity, you might be able to tell why. He’s opening up more towards the ending and a more pleasant person to be around to.

I’ve noticed most of your stories turn into longer fics. Have any tricks for keeping yourself motivated to write those longer plots? (Clearly, this is purely self-indulgent here haha. It’s a near miracle if I stick through a long, complex plot!)

I usually only start posting multichaptered fics once they’re already finished. This way you can motivate yourself by going “Well, if you don’t finish it then you won’t post it, nobody will see it and you worked for nothing.” That method works well for me because I love recognition for my works, even if a lot of them are for obscure pairings.

In case of buy and sell gravity, I’ve already started posting while working on it, however. I’ve felt stuck because it’s been my first fic for Teen Wolf, so I was very unsure about whether I hit the characters correctly, if it felt believable; stuff like that. I needed feedback from more than one person and since I’ve never really been in the fandom, going ahead and posting it was my only option. I wanted to know whether it was worth continuing working on it. the feedback was amazing and the fact that a few people came back for every new chapter was a wonderful motivator. Oh, and it certainly doesn’t harm when you have someone literally show up on your doorstep and demand you write a new chapter.

Your first Teen Wolf fit?! Impressive!! Is Teen Wolf now your ultimate favorite fandom to write? (*Wink Wink*) Or, do you have another favorite fandom/ship to write for?

The Arrowverse is generally my favourite fandom. I love all the shows and the way it consists of multiple worlds give you so many things to take away from! You can write any AU, you can write for abandoned timelines or worlds, crossover between the shows and ship practically anything. You can go all out, have doppelgängers appear (like one evil and one good version of the same person, stuff like that). There are no limits. Writing for it is fun because you can draw from so many shows and even include the original comics, if you want. Right now I’m (and have been for the past one and a half years) working on a Groupchat AU set in the Arrowverse where everyone is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and even that doesn’t seem too out of character.

As to a ship, I probably enjoy Simon Lewis/Raphael Santiago from Shadowhunters the most. Writing for them is almost easy because I can relate to both so much. Depending on which mood you’re in, you can write Simon’s optimistic and reference-heavy rambling or maybe you write the angst that constantly underlines Raphael’s thoughts. I can always find a way to write for them because they’re so different and yet fit together so well.

Yoooo, we could honestly strike up a whole subconvo dedicated to Simon x Raphael lmao. Since we’re supposed to be all about Thiam around here, I’ll restrain myself and simply agree about your opinions on Saphael. (I’ll miss them, sad face)

Being a writer of many fandoms then, what’s your ultimate Teen Wolf crossover with any other show or movie universe? What character would you see interact?

God! I’m a sucker for crossovers with DC! There’s a few I read where Stiles is always the person in question (whether he’s a member of the Batfamily or the brother of The Flash, I’ve read both of those cases, haha). I love the connection of the Teen Wolf world with DC Comics. I wrote a retelling of a Flash episode with Thiam in the focus and someone else wrote a Under the Red Hood AU which still keeps me in awe. (And also, it’s too funny how much the casts overlap, the double identities practically overlap – suddenly Liam is Superboy, Derek is Superman, Allison is a mafia daughter, Jackson as Red Arrow… It’s great.)

Otherwise, what I haven’t seen yet: Twilight. I’ve (re-)discovered my love for it last year and honestly? Let those mix up! Washington and California are both on the West Coast!! I have no idea about how far exactly but let them meet! Let Emmett Cullen beat up Peter Hale! Have Edward and Derek suffer together through their depression and Scott and Jasper try to comfort everyone. Lydia and Alice? Nobody’s dying on their watch. Let Rosalie and Malia kick ass together and Melissa and Carlisle swap hospital stories! Stiles and Bella hanging out together, being sarcastic little shits and also way too much into all this stuff. Hell, I’m gonna write this myself if I have to! (Otherwise I accept fic recs. Thank you.)

Before we wind down, what’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten? Any advice you feel compelled to share? 

I used to be really bad at discussing plot ideas with people – I dunno if it was an irrational fear of them running off with what I thought of, but it’s been there. I’ve been in a creative writing class about two years ago and there I was basically forced to do it. It helped somewhat with the progress of my story and being around people who like to do the same thing as you is always a great motivator.

I don’t listen to those conventional writing tips, like what atmosphere you’re supposed to have around you and how to depicts things. Writing is a personal experience and you can do it in a way you seem fit. Not everyone feels at ease in the same environment, so just write when you feel like it. Forcing yourself to do it doesn’t help anyone – except you can only work under stress, of course! See? There’s that individuality again, ruining my own writing tips.

Ahahaha, advice giving is a definite catch-22. Thank you for hanging out with us!! What’s next for you in the world? Both creatively and lively?

I’ve started an apprenticeship to become a bookseller this month! It’s a huge change compared with the life of a student that I had before, but after finishing my Bachelor‘s degree last December, it’s what I needed. Sadly it means that I don’t have as much time to write as I’d like, but I’m doing my best to squeeze in some of that. For Teen Wolf I‘m meaning to wrap up free fallin‘ in the jungle lights finally - otherwise, there’s a few WIPs in the Arrowverse and (uncharacteristic for me) MCU lurking on the back of my brain.

Anything else you’d like to share, in general. The floor is all yours!

I’m not really in the Thiam fandom, I think (really, the number of people I actually chatted with outside of ao3 comments can be counted on one hand), but here’s a massive shoutout to everyone! To the people who write, the people who read, the people who leave long comments, the artists, the meta-people, the ones with the headcanons. The people here from the officialthiamlibrary! You make writing a better experience and your opinions and reflections upon the show and characters help me become better at understanding them. Thank you all for being so lovely and just… into it. You’re all amazing!

And Behind the Screens presents Yasmin to you! Naturally, the conversation doesn’t have to stop here. Meet them at these places:

Main Tumblr: @joanthangroff

Inbox/Ask: joanthangroff ask

AO3: Pettigrace

Twitter: LI4MDUNBAR

Thank you for letting us get to know more about you! And thank you all for reading and requesting her. As always, if you have a Thiam Creator that you fan over, send us their names. Likewise, if you as the creator, would like to be a part of the Behind the Screens series, give us a shout too! We’d love to get to know you, as well.

@joanthangroff

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