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msbeccieboo · 5 years

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Arrow 8x01 Brain Dump

So that was....awesome! I’m in shock! Obviously there was a gaping chasm where our precious cupcake used to be, but that’s gonna be the new normal for this last run, so I’m gonna try to not dwell on that too much in these last few reviews. And apparently these aren’t getting any shorter, even without Felicity...

Oliver Jonas Queen: Paragon and bestest hero everrrr (suck it, Larry)

Our beautiful boy 😭😭😭 kicking the episode off with stunning recreations of the very beginnings of the show, first on Lian Yu, then returning to Moira was just *chef kiss*.

That Oliver is now able to relive these moments, really feeling the feelings and speaking the words that he was previously too broken to, upon his real return from the island, and expressing them to both himself and to those people he can no longer see in his reality, is just heart-breaking and tear-inducing and beautiful and satisfying and all of the feelings. He worked his arse of to get here and to experience it and he fucking well deserves it. Ugh I just made myself cry haha.

More under the cut...

Stephen’s acting was a beautiful thing to watch in this episode. Oliver’s scenes with all the returning guests were just so perfect; his emotions over seeing Tommy and Moira again 😭, then not-Felicity 😍💔 then Adrian 😂 were all perfect. The scene where he was trying to seek advice or validation from Moira over leaving his family for this mission (even though he couldn’t reveal why) was just heart-breaking. Then when he breaks down (along with us!) and tells Moira he’s sorry, it’s almost like he’s doubly apologising; to Moira for not better understanding her, now that he is a parent himself, and to Felicity, William and Mia, for having to leave them behind.

It was so sad seeing Oliver doubting himself throughout the episode. He tells Diggle that Earth 2 has so many more people alive without him having been there, and then when Moira astutely observes that he is a better man now than before he went on the Gambit, he replies he’s not so sure. How can he still not see this yet?? He’s clearly been away from Felicity for too long! By the end of the episode he seems to be making some headway, at least in realising that he doesn’t need to face this crisis alone, when he delivers an EPIC SPEECH to Tommy “because were only as good as the people in our lives. Every one of those losses brings with it a choice between darkness and light. Make the right choice.” YES MY BOY!!! I’m totally here for this whole season of Oliver going to other Earths, realising how awesome he is, then imparting this wisdom on everyone by delivering rousing speeches!! The Monitor said it himself in his voice-over, referring to Oliver “the highest [form of heroes] belong to those known as the paragons and they are the only hope of all creation.” YAAAASSSSS!!!! SUCK BALLS LARRY AND LARA!!!

Felicity/Olicity

Just because she’s not there, doesn’t mean she’ll be forgotten! I’m honestly so pleased that the show isn’t going to pretend Felicity doesn’t exist just because Emily left. Her absence is palpable, so the mentions and nods to her character throughout the episode (and the rest of the season, it seems) are very much welcomed!

The fake-out Felicity scene was beautifully done! From Oliver’s initially excited face and “it’s supposed to be red” 😭😭, his “good for her” when he found out that E2 Felicity is a badass mogul, to the OLICITY LOVE FERN on not-Felicity’s desk!!! Perfection!!

Source: eloquence-of-felicities

Ugh and the scene with Oliver staring lovingly at Felicity and Mia’s photo...HFDSKGHFKJGHDSFKS NOT OK!!! 😭😭😭😭

Source: olicitygifs

Diggle

The Diggle ‘reveal’ was nostalgic perfection:

My live reaction 😂😂

Can I just say that I loved that he’d spoken with Felicity about Oliver, and gone after him. OTA for life!! I’d hoped that that would be the case, but you never can tell with these writers in recent seasons 😬 Dig is a master at advice-giving, and getting Oliver to see the big picture. Oliver needs a friend in this endeavour, and neither Felicity nor Dig would have him doing it alone. Dig’s purpose throughout the whole episode was pretty much to tell Oliver that he’s not alone, his death is not necessarily unavoidable, that he NEEDS TO ACCEPT FRACKING HELP (”that’s the thing about being brothers; you never, ever have to ask”😭😭), and that the whole reason that E2 has gone to crap was because Oliver was not there to protect it!

In John Thomas Diggle we stan.

FTA

Our FTA babies were back, and in the lair!! AHKASFHDSDAKF!!! I loved the power struggle, with the team trying to find the right dynamic, before finally deciding to just make the Olicity baby the leader (duh), or moreover, Mia demanding that things be done her way from now on (apples, falling, tree?).

Source: oliverxfelicity

William’s little comedic moments just popped.

Source: olicitygifs

And then his delivery of a Felicity-worthy pep-talk to Mia had me falling infinitesimally more in love with him. This is the spin-off team we need to see!!

We finally met JJ Diggle who appears to be irredeemably (not likely) evil, and very handsome to boot, leading the Deathstroke Crew (baby Sara would have NEVER 😒😒). I was hoping for some Old Man Diggle, but alas we were not so lucky this week. Much as I actually LOVE the flash-forwards, I did feel like they were a little shoehorned in in this episode. There was so much to unpack in the present story, that I kind of just wanted that to continue?

Special Guests

From Moira’s first words I was crying.

Susanna Thompson continues to be outstanding as Moira, I love her! E2 Moira married Malcolm Merlyn, meaning we got John Barrowman back 😍😍, in a non-evil role (YAAASSSS!). Although there was no mention of Robert, given that we know on this Earth he returned from Lian Yu, and was later unmasked as the Green Arrow?? Anyway, this new Queen-Merlyn union officially made Oliver and Tommy brothers 😭😭 Oh btw.....TOOOOOMMMYYYYYYY!!!!!!!! AGSHAGFKJSAGFJKAG!!! Back, alive and kicking (literally) and gorgeous as ever. Ugh I just adore my Merlyn men 😍😍😍😍

Source: feilcityqueen

Tommy turning out to be the Dark Archer on this earth is all we had ever wanted to see!! Evil!Tommy is a thing of beautiful fanfiction dreams!! (I also lolled at the OTT, campy, cowering Malcolm, as Oliver realised it wasn’t him!) Not to mention this scene, that re-lit our Toliver flames in the most perfect way 🔥🔥

This moment was so good that I can just about forgive Oliver’s historically inaccurate non-shirtless state 😒😒 (strike 1)

In trying to track down the dwarf star shizzle at Queen-Merlyn Enterprises👀 , Oliver stumbles across the E2 GA who turns out to be ADRIAN CHASE!! YAAASSSS!!!! It was great to have him back, in the growly S1 Oliver-esque fashion! E2 GA also enjoys the salmon ladder....Stephen really played us all when he told us that we’d see the salmon ladder in episode 1 😡😡 (strike 2 Steve, you’re on your last warning!) I loved Oliver’s little inside joke with himself when he said to Adrian “maybe I’m just 10 steps ahead of you” lolololol!!

Thea OD’d on Vertigo and passed away on E2, which was sad, but meaningful, as it spear-headed Tommy’s war on The Glades, much like Rebecca’s murder did for Malcolm on Earth 1. (Psst, it’s ok though, our Speedy’s back in a few weeks).

Superfluous Cast

Rene and Dinah remain disloyal rats on this Earth, and with no Oliver to mentor them, they turn out evil as well as incompetent and we got to see them taken into custody at the end of the episode...wah-wah-wahhh!! I would definitely be happy with this nice small amount of relevance/screen time for them moving forwards, please and thank you. Let’s let our boys shine for the last few outings!

Black Siren’s presence in the episode was thankfully small, and although she was saved in the end, presumably to go on to help Oliver and Dig (she kinda owes them now), I’m hoping that we continue with this minimal exposure, because, as much as I enjoyed her last season, with no Felicity to make her likeable, I’m not feeling her. I also laughed for a disproportionately long amount of time that her ‘iconic’ Pretty Bird moment that we all heard about beforehand came from Adrian, not her ‘Ollie’ 😂😂

That ending

Following on from the press previews and interviews leading up to the episode, there were comments along the lines of Oliver suffering a devastating loss, and that the Arrowverse would never be the same etc etc, regarding the end of the episode. Well...I have to say I just wasn’t as ‘shooketh’ or as moved by the ending as the previews implied I would be 😬 I mean of course the ending was awful; a whole Earth was erased, and Oliver having to see Moira/Tommy die at the end (especially after managing to redeem Tommy) must have been devastating for him in the moment, but the thing is, I’m not all that invested in Earth 2, so the magnitude of it didn’t really affect me that much. Maybe I’m just a cold-hearted bitch my heart has simply been irrevocably broken by 7x22. Anyway, I’m sure Oliver will be back and fighting fit again next week 😂

When MG, Beth and even Stephen had been throwing around the dreaded term ‘love letter to the fans’ I was more than scared about this season 😬 but the episode really did play out that way in my eyes, something I’m hoping that they are able to continue over the few remaining episodes. So yes, I lost my shit and (begrudgingly) loved this episode 😂😂 It was easier to deal with the lack of Felicity when they had thrown the (brand new, super high-spec) kitchen sink of guest stars at the episode. So it will be interesting to see how we fare over the next few episodes, where the guest stars won’t be such scene-stealers.

Thank you to the amazing gif-makers 💗💗💗 It’s so wonderful to see beautiful new scenes again! Any uncredited gifs are mine.

#Arrow 8x01 #Arrow #Oliver Queen #Olicity #John Diggle #Tommy Merlyn #Arrow Season 8 #Arrow spoilers #beccie's brain

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bootlickerhawks · 3 years

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I just watched Madoka Magica Rebellion, and now I finally get why it was such a big deal lol

first i'll go over the non spoiler stuff and then i'll put the important spoiler stuff under the read-more. (btw this isn't a review i finished watching it an hour ago and i've barely gotten the time to fully process it but i wanted to give my "raw" impressions)

- First off, the animation is fucking gorgeous and I'm really happy they brought back the original "aesthetic". At the end of the series when I saw the designs of the wraiths I was worried that this movie would use those, imo, boring designs, but thankfully they brought back the cool aesthetic. Overall the visuals were stunning and the movie was chock-full of interesting visual metaphors which helped grab viewer attention (like the Owls with Homura, ect).

- It was really nice to see all 5 girls interacting with one another and not trying to kill each other. Despite it being very clear from the get go that something is wrong I really appreciated that we got to see them relax, have fun and kicking ass together as friends.

- The transformation sequence and the opening song really captured the iconic Madoka vibe which is cutesy shit with a dash of dark and disturbing visuals lol. Something I noticed in the transformation sequence (notably Mami and Kyoko/Sayaka(?)) was the imagery of ripping > Mami rips her body apart to fully transform and Kyoko/Sayaka rip apart the "screen" during their sequence. The opening song does a great job of both subverting our expectations (much like the opening in the anime) and foreshadowing the upcoming events.

- Bebe was fucking adorable, too bad my subtitles stopped working halfway through the movie, so I didn't know what Bebe was saying during some key scenes ^^'.

Now it's time for the fun stuff and the meat of the discussion. /!\ Turn back now if you don't want to get spoiled, Rebellion is a movie that I really recommend watching without knowing any spoilers /!\

- not gonna lie that lil fucker Kyubey had me in the first half. It was acting so cute and then of course it had to open its stupid mouth again and i wanted to choke it all over again.

- The Mami and Homura fight was stunning. And it was really moving when Mami jumped to stop Homura from shooting herself (only for it to turn out that she had kinda predicted that Homura would trick her)

- Sayaka and Homura's conversation was sooooo good. By that point it was kinda obvious that Homura was the one behind the fake world but seeing Homura's internal conflict and Sayaka unknowingly(?) calling her out on her hypocrisy was so fucking good.

- Sayaka and Kyoko's moment of closure was great and I'm really glad both characters got a chance to let the other know how much they mean to each other.

- Homura's transformation into a witch was predictable but it still broke my heart. And it was during the fight when everyone tries to save Homura that I started crying (btw Sayaka and Bebe turning into witches too during the fight was so badass)

And now for the ultimate gut punch, the emotional bitch slap that was the plot twist of the movie. The story did a great job of making it seem like the (predictable) plot twist was Homura being a witch and the mastermind behind the labyrinth. And despite me knowing beforehand that this movie was controversial I really believed we were gonna get a happy ending and a nice implicit message abt the value of moving on and learning to accept help from loved ones BUT NOPE.

Noooooo nono no what we get instead is Homura giving a giant Fuck You to both the universe and everyone else around her and rewrites the entire universe for her own selfish desire. Homura became the anti-Madoka in this scene.

Honestly I can understand why fans would be pissed by this ending but personally I think I really loved it. Gen Urobuchi is known for writing nihilistic and tragic stories so I can't say I'm surprised he chose to end it this way. And as sad as it is to say Homura's devotion to Madoka was already unhealthy in the og anime I'm not surprised her love became so toxic and lead to this tragic turn of events.

I do think there's probably some fair criticism to make about the kind of message Urobuchi is sending given that his writing can be pretty sexist (*cough* looking at you Fate/Zero novel) and he seems to find great enjoyment in making female characters suffer. And I think it's fair to have skepticism about how he chose to portray a queer/wlw romance as extremely toxic.

But yeah to conclude while I did have a whirlwind of emotions after watching this movie I can pretty confidently say that I liked the ending and I kinda wish there was a sequel exploring the aftermath, but I doubt we'll get one 😔

#cami watches madoka magica #madoka magica #long post #its 1am now gn yall

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