The I feel like she sees me line being said to Eddie who is the person that truly sees Buck for all that he is. Are we supposed to take this line at face value which would indicate piss poor writing because they needed to rush to a horrible ending or do we take it as Buck being an unreliable narrator? What was the audience supposed to interpret from Buck saying that, were we truly supposed to believe him or we supposed to be pissed at Buck for saying this to the one person that truly sees Buck?

Good morning to me, I guess.

I'm assuming you haven't really seen people's reactions in the fandom on tumblr because I feel like I saw this said in quite a few posts going around, but you are absolutely not supposed to take this line at face value. I'm surprised that people think you should. 9-1-1 has from the beginning had a habit of turning friendships into romantic relationships (Bathena and Madney) and taking their time with these things rather than having an instalove situation. Even Karen and Hen, who meet when they're set up on a date together, don't instantly fall in love. I do not think they would set Eddie or Buck up for an endgame relationship with a woman by having them date that woman immediately, even if they didn't plan to make Buddie canon.

Buck is clearly struggling post-death. He's lost and once again looking for the answer from a romantic partner. He did a lot of growth in regards to his family relationships this season but not his romantic ones. Remember, his couch ended up destroyed and he asked his latest girlfriend to pick the new one out for him. Again. He's still not picking his own damn couch. After being unable to sleep on the one his mom gave him but passed out instantly on Eddie's where he ran to feel safe.

If people think this is all, somehow, an accident or the writers are doing this without knowing what they're doing, then I can't help you. Do you also think the symbolism I put into my fanfics are a total accident? Do you guys think I picked the name of the poem "Fuchsia Emerald Alizarin Rose" just because the colors are fun and they accidentally spell out F.E.A.R. or do you think maybe I did that absolutely 100% on purpose and was waiting for someone to realize?

Buck saying that to Eddie is 100% supposed to make the audience raise their eyebrows. Especially when we see Eddie's reaction. He's confused and he's hurt and he's annoyed. Eddie then spends his next few lines showing Buck (and us) that he sees Buck. Buck misses it, it goes right over his head, but the audience is shown that Buck is wrong and Eddie sees him.

I think there was a lot of internal stuff going on behind the scenes way high up the ladder that meant Buddie didn't happen this season. No, I don't mean that in a tinhatting way, I just mean that they knew Fox wouldn't renew them, they didn't know if they'd get picked up somewhere else, Fox hasn't promoted or cared about this show the way it has its other shows in a while, and I think it's pretty clear there was shuffling and changes going on with 6B. So I think things had to be put off. Similar to the pandemic, where I genuinely wonder what kind of season four we would've gotten if we'd had the full 18 episodes and hadn't had to work around Covid. I think that when we know there was a big shift going on behind the scenes, we need to have some grace and patience in how that will effect the story that's told on screen.

But I think that this default to "everything good we see on our screens is an accident and the writers are making shitty choices" is a horrible bad faith argument, and it's exhausting. Aren't you exhausted? I'm exhausted. Fandom shouldn't treat the writing and production team like their enemies any more than the writing and production team should treat the fans like their enemies in some kind of war they have to win (looking at you, GoT showrunners).

We are supposed to be annoyed that Buck is missing the point. We are supposed to see Buck's yearning to be a husband and a father, and how he's missing what's right in front of him. We are supposed to put two and two together and see that Eddie was hurt by Buck's words, that Eddie sees Buck, that Eddie is Buck's safe place, and that Eddie in that moment decided he might not have a chance with Buck and needs to move on, because previously we saw Eddie admit he wants romance again but he doesn't want to go out on dates, we saw his aunt say she met her husband through work, we saw him say 'we have time' and then we saw him immediately after Buck tells him about this new girl who "sees him" flee to visit his mother and then immediately actually try dating. On a meta level this is also because Eddie needs confidence in himself as a romantic partner and needs some more experience under his belt before he's ready to take the plunge with Buck, but in Eddie's mind, I think it's pretty clear he feels Buck will never want him back and he's trying to find the love he wants somewhere else, even if his heart is still Buck's.

So that's what I think. I think it's not explicitly spelled out for a few reasons, but frankly if one of them was a woman we wouldn't need it explicitly spelled out and personally I kinda like that it's not. Something that annoys me with M/F pairings is the constant "we all know you two like each other" talks from third parties that half the time aren't about the characters but are about the audience, to either tell the audience SEE THEY LIKE EACH OTHER THAT'S WHAT THIS IS ABOUT or to give the audience some fanservice while the characters aren't ready to get together. I don't need to be pandered to that way, thank you, so I'm a fan of the slightly more subtle approach that I, personally, see going on with Buddie.

If you or anyone else disagrees with me and feels it was just "piss poor writing" then that's entirely your right. I'd just appreciate it if people who feel that way would stop watching the show, and stop putting their complaints into the inboxes of people who clearly do enjoy the show.

TL;DR - You answered your own question, Buck is an unreliable narrator (and always has been) and we are supposed to be frustrated he said this to Eddie who has proven time and again (and does so in that very scene) that he sees Buck.

How are you feeling with that last episode :)?

Hi hi hi!!!! Oh gosh! It was so wonderful. Honestly I think it’s going in my top three episodes of all time. I always love when Hen and Karen get the spotlight, but to have an episode that was so explicitly THEM, that was so KAREN!?!?! Unparalleled.

What a joy to get to see so much of their story in real time, and not just the good stuff, the bad stuff, the broken stuff, so we can really—finally—understand just how far they’ve come, the depth and breadth of their love for each other and Denny. I was in tears multiple times. It’s just so special and meant so much to me. Other people have talked much more eloquently about how important it is to see vibrant, sexy, human queer characters and love stories on mainstream, prime time tv, but I was also just so so so moved to be remind how beautiful that is. I’m so thankful that even thought we still have so far to go, there are young people who will maybe see this episode, or episodes like it, and feel seen. I sure would have.

And KAREN!?! Karen my beloved who now has been given maybe my favorite character arc on the show to date. To see her go from that cold, brisk woman at the bar, someone with so much drive but what seems to be a lack of connection in her life, to the paragon of warmth and emotion (WITH THE SAME AMOUNT OF FEROCIOUS DRIVE) we know her as today, to see the way love has cracked her open and turned the earth of her heart so that now the garden of her hopes and dreams runs so rampant and lush and wild??? The way we have seen so often how she uses the beautiful things that grow there to nourish those around her? I’m just ��😭😭😭😭😭😭.

The way both of them chose each other and the life they were building over the bigger dream. I honestly was expecting to have a little trouble with that (because I figured we’d end up with Hen back at the 118 eventually), I thought I’d be disappointed to see Hen give up on what I saw has her chance for greatness. But the thing is, greatness looks different for everyone, and I just found this story to be such a beautiful example of the choices we make, and the lives we build, and how maybe our future doesn’t look the way we thought it would, but that doesn’t make it any less precious and we CAN CHOOSE the things that give us joy even when they aren’t the things we thought they might (or even should) be. ALSO ALSO to be reminded that you can make compromises for your love and family and still have exciting, important, fulfilling careers, that no one gets to tell you what that looks like but you.

And OH the Hen/Chim of it all. I keep thinking I cannot love them any more, that I cannot be more deeply moved by their friendship and they keep proving me otherwise. Really just to see how the entire 118 rally behind them, Athena too, they didn’t need big involved scenes to show just how much they love each other, how hard they fight for each other. Whew, my emotions!

I’m so thankful for the happy ending. I didn’t reeeeeally think they’d kill Karen off, but I wasn’t entirely sure either. Lol. So so glad this show proves yet again how much it values hope.

Wow. This got so long. Clearly I have a lot of feels. 😂😂😂 Thanks for asking. What did you think???

SaL anon here bestie and still feeling bitchy if you feel like indulging. So I've had a couple of issues this week and the first i'll get to came as a bit of a combination of reading @canonicallyobserving911 latest post and seeing the LS promo with Owen and Andrea (incidentally we've had like 3 trailers and a whole ass preview scene from LS this week alone, WTF is OG's promo dept doing??). I thought the parents-taking-over-the-wedding clip was funny, but made me think when was the last time we

had fun stories/episodes in 911 OG?? And I don't mean one liners or ridiculous emergencies or people making a joke out of one characters actions that actually carry pretty serious implications (glares at jokes getting made about BOTH Buck's cheating and sperm donor arc). I mean episodes that were fun because we know the characters, we know that of course this is how they'd react, and it's ridiculous but real because we all have a side of us that's ridiculous at times. Where did all the fun episodes go?? I tried to think of the last example and I guess you could count the Eddie and Chim with the cursed bracelet thing (which was almost immediately undermined by the fact Chim knowingly bought a murder house 🙄). But I can't think of the last time the show was really and truly being fun. 

Second on my things-I'm-pissed-about list is the return of Ravi. Not because I'm upset Ravi is back, I'm thrilled actually, but seriously KR?? After completely sidelining his character in 5b in favor of trying to make L a thing, after literally cutting him out of the HenRen vow renewal photo, after not even mentioning once during 6a where he was but making sure we had a whole damn scene devoted to explain L's absence, suddenly we're supposed to be excited you’re promoting him in the BTS?? I just can't be grateful that it took 1.5 seasons of negative feedback for KR to give people something they want. I hope they have no budget for effects that episode because it all went to pay Anirudh to bother with this show again after his character got so disrespected. Anyway that's my bitchy thoughts for these last few days, enjoy!!

Hello my friend! You have definitely caught me in a salty mood because my family is occasionally infuriating 🙃 I am SO with you and everyone about how LS has gotten all kinds of promos, and official stills from set released by Tim, meanwhile, OG is continuing to languish with barely anything and who knows if what we DO get from the official releases is actually something we’ll get to see.

I also agree with the lack of truly fun episodes. Cursed was trying to be Jinx but where Jinx was all about the firefam and their dynamics, and a fun montage of them doing their jobs, Cursed wasted all it’s time showing us every aspect of some random starlet’s life with barely any firefam (and while Eddie talking to Bobby and Athena was great a) that story didn’t line up with literally anything we’ve ever seen or been told about Isobel and b) it didn’t have Eddie’s continual investigative partner Buck involved). Plus, it didn’t even have a good resolution like Jinx did which gave us a brilliant scene with Eddie talking someone down and into doing the right thing. Cursed spent the whole episode setting up a “the assistant colluded with that guy to cause accidents to her boss to make her believe she was cursed” and then just...didn’t do that and instead had the assistant just skimming money and the guy having some randomly flimsy reason to come after her. But like, who cares? In Jinx we care about the guy (Brian, right?) insofar as he is directly putting the firefam and people in danger by doing things wrong while trying to “help”, eventually making a good-faith call about something that wasn’t actually what he thought it was, and then ultimately stealing the truck from the firefam when they needed to get to a fire where their help was needed. We don’t care about Brian as much as we care about how his actions affect the 118 and their ability to do their jobs. Cursed has nothing to do with the firefam except that they keep getting the calls. We get a little bit from Eddie but it’s never focused on enough to be called the central story. The central story in Jinx is the firefam. The central story in Cursed, even up to the end which SHOULD have been focused on Eddie and Chris (and fucking BUCK because the tsunami came up), is Felisa who the audience doesn’t know or care about. Yes the episode had some laughs, but just like everything in s6, is lacking heart, depth, and focus on characters we actually know and love.

Same with What’s Your Fantasy which was SO wildly all over the place in tone from cute sisters talking female empowerment-turned emergency situation, to murder fantasies, to sex fantasies overlaying a conversation about a child’s crush, to a huge, misogynistic, terrorist plan running throughout the episode. Again, a few cute surface level scenes, but mostly just filler with no consistent tone or through-line for any of the characters. Even back in season 5, FOMO had some funny moments, but again didn’t devote enough focus to main characters and instead spent too much time on some random emergency character having a whole arc, and the episode had a whole tragic ending. Honestly I can’t think if a single other “fun” episode in the whole of season 5, which people can say was the “point” but given that almost nothing got any (on screen) resolution (or any that wasn’t immediately undercut/forgotten) it doesn’t feel like there was a point. Previous seasons did so much better balancing tone throughout episodes, and being able to cut the heaver episodes by moving towards lighter arcs, and then back again. An ebb and flow across the whole season vs a whole oppressive season followed by episodes packed with wildly different stories that tonally do not fit together and leaves the viewers with whiplash. I’m still sooooo frustrated with how the sperm donor (and the cheating) storyline has been turned into a big joke. Especially because we KNOW the potential that was there for a meaty, and emotional storyline and Oliver has consistently delivered GOLD on that kind of stuff. And instead we got masturbation jokes, and jokes about being accosted at work and literally every other mishandled aspect of the arc. 😤😤😤😤

As for your second thing, I’m right there with you in regards to Ravi. Like, they couldn’t be bothered to let Bobby or Buck or literally anyone drop a single line about how their probie had grown and was lent out to the academy for a few months?! Especially after the audience was begging for more of him and irritated that he got sidelined and lost out on screentime and storylines so KR could force L into every little thing. The show KNEW going in to s6 how the fans and the general audience felt about L, and about Ravi, and it definitely feels vindictive and petty on KR’s part to allow no mention of him, even after every single episode had the audience asking where he was, BEGGING for any line about what happened to him, and saying how weird it was that he disappeared without anyone saying anything. For the only mention of him to come not even in the show itself but in an interview after the whole first half of the season was over is such a slap in the face. I hope Anirudh got every single thing he wanted out of coming back (I also hope someone had to grovel at least a little bit) and I hope that the very loud chorus of “FINALLY” from the audience when he’s back will stick in KR’s craw because of how universally beloved he is compared to every other random recurring and one-off episode character she’s tried to force into focus so she didn’t have to actually deal with the main characters of the show. My only worry is that she’ll try to do something to his character out of spite because I absolutely wouldn’t put it past her. For now I’m going to hold on to the joy at Ravi/Anirudh coming back, and excitement at seeing what he’s up to.

Thanks for giving me somewhere to focus my other frustrations today! And in a few days we’ll have some Yehaw wee-woos to flail about. And since we still have some time before our OG team comes back, I’m always here to dig into the salt mine! 

Why I Think Albert Doesn't Die in 4B: A Meta Post

Maybe this is me reaching or some really wishful thinking, but i don't think albert is the one who dies, though i think he does get seriously injured (explanation below the cut so hear me out lol)

Based on scenes from 3b, 4a, the 4b promos, and some interviews done after 4x08 about 4x09.

In multiple interviews (one example below ⬇), Tim has stressed that there is going to be a divide between Bobby and Athena because he feels that she's too independent and won't let him in when she has issues. 4b is being set up to build off of last season's attack at the storage unit. Athena has made peace with the attack, so it will take something (encountering the attacker, being trapped while looking for a suspect, a storage unit, or experiencing other trauma) to act as the catalyst to trigger her into needing Bobby's help but refusing to ask. Albert dying will in no way drive or affect this plot line and will only really heavily affect Chimney, Maddie, and Buck and maybe Chris and Eddie.

Tim did a different interview where he said that multiple characters will be in life or death situations ⬇

As far as we know from the promo Hen, Buck, Bobby, Athena, May, Eddie, and Chimney are working the crash and Maddie is shown at work going into labor or having false contractions. None are likely contenders for a life or death situation, which leaves the side characters. Since this involves a massive pile-up, and we already know that Albert is in one car, that leaves three others.

The scenario I see best playing out in term of writing and setting up 4b and going into season 5 is this:

Albert gets horribly injured in the crash and has a long recovery. (This plays into 4a when Taylor said Buck was selfish and has no real friends because he doesn't know how to treat a friend.) If Albert gets injured and has a long recovery, he has 2 options for care. He either moves back in with Madney (but they have their hands full with the baby) or he stays with Buck, who has had to recover from a serious injury before. By staying with Buck, he learns how to really care for a friend unselfishly (tho we're gonna ignore the Buddie friendship for a minute bc the writers did). This also gives them the opportunity to set Albert and Buck up in a friendship so Buck can have friends outside the 118.

OR Albert goes into a coma because the writers are playing with a lot of characters right now and I don't think they know what to do with Albert and how to give him enough screen time for anything meaningful to happen. This way, they can revisit his arc in the future. Also, imagine Chimney and Maddie getting ready to take their daughter home and stopping by Albert's room to introduce their baby to her Uncle Albert 😭 Putting Albert in a coma or giving him a long recovery time is something that could be revisited at the end of the season easily.

I think the 3 others in jeopardy are in one car and I think it is Michael, David, and Harry after going to dinner one night or something and I think they are at the center of the crash.

I think the person who dies is Michael or David, mainly because of this interview ⬇

First, they've brought in David, but like Albert's storyline, they can't fit him in enough for it to really be meaningful. We see them meet towards the end of season 3 and by season 4 they have quarantined together (even though David is on the front lines) and are now living together. Most of their story occurs off screen. The only reason we even saw Michael and David in most of 4a was because it was a storyline attached to Athena and Bobby. Killing off David is less characters to deal with and would affect Bobby and Athena, but not to a degree I would see it driving a wedge in their own relationship. It would affect Michael and encourage him to complete his bucket list he referenced in 4a but it wouldn't have an impact on the whole 118.

Both Bobby and Athena are really close with Michael, though I'm gonna focus on Bobby for a minute. If Michael dies suddenly, that "lighthearted and hilarious" relationship "quickly turns on a dime" and suddenly it "ends up being quite emotional" because Bobby is dealing with losing a friend. This could also dredge up those feelings of having lost his family in a fire and not being able to save them because Michael is now part of Bobby's family. Later in the season, it would be easy to revisit if Harry is mad that his step dad and dad's boyfriend weren't able to save his dad. Bobby would be dealing with his feelings of losing a friend while trying to help Athena (who doesn't want help) deal with the loss of her ex husband.

Shifting the focus to Athena, Michael dying would absolutely devastate Athena. They were married for nearly 2 decades and he is still a close friend and confidante. Losing her ex husband at the site of a crash she responded to would be traumatic. And if you compound that with her unresolved trauma from the attack, now you've got Athena trying to deal with everything on her own and not asking for help. Now Bobby gets mad/sad/distanced because Athena won't ask for help and he needs his own support from her. And maybe she is giving that support but she won't let him reciprocate it and now you have a recipe for anger and unresolved grief that begins to drive them apart.

Focusing on May for a moment, she became an operator because she wanted to make sure Athena was never alone in the field. Though I can't imagine her taking the call for Michael because he is on the line when Albert is injured, her dad dying in a crash she responded to would likely drive her out of the field and into college or another path (1 less character to have around to try to give screen time.)

Michael's death was also foreshadowed in 4a when Athena is concerned he gets the telescope and is spying on neighbors. He talks about having a bucket list that he never got to do because the pandemic forced him into isolation. He also talked about how his only concern during the cancer was preparing his kids for losing him.

Michael's plot is stagnant. He is happy and living with his boyfriend and son. He's cancer free. His whole plot is tied up in a nice bow where they could easily kill him off and the only loose threads to deal with on screen are his family members and friends grieving his loss. This would impact the 118 as a whole.

Honestly, I thought they were going to kill off Michael when he first got cancer and he decided to stop treatments but they bad May talk to him and convince him to go through with the treatments.

Now, by killing off Michael, it is 2 less stories they have to tell, and it is less they'll have to include storylines for Harry as much as they were because he was linked to Michael's storyline. And if they have May decide to leave the field to pursue other dreams or complete her dad's bucket list for him, that is 4 less storylines where they can now focus on the Madney baby, Bathena's relationship, introducing friends for Buck (they mentioned brining back Taylor), focus on ending Eddie/Ana, and establishing Albert as a character (based on a quote from the above article, I think Albert's storyline is going to parallel Buck's 1.0 to 2.0 phase ➡ "If you think about how we ended season 2, Buck being smashed by the firetruck. We knew he was going to survive... I would expect something similar here.")

Referring back to that first article, where it says "Then look for a significant source of agitation for the entire 118."

At this point, Michael would have passed and Bobby and Athena are now having marital problems AKA mom and dad are fighting.

Hen would be stuck in the middle because she is good friends with both Bobby and Athena. She is also facing her own loss of Nia being returned to her birth mom and doesn't have time for their marital problems but still tries to help. She can also pull from her experiences from the season 1 cheating storyline to tell them to communicate or it'll ruin their relationship (yes i too hate that storyline but it would work here)

Buck would likely (nonverbally) side with Bobby, but he sees them both as parental figures, so he gets stuck in the middle like a middle child who is just going with the flow. This would also parallel the Buck Begins storyline where Buck feels caught in the middle after his parents face a loss.

Chimney is raising a baby and (if this theory is right) worrying about Albert in a coma or recovering from a massive injury. He has no time for their marital problems but still lets Bobby confide in him and gives advice (maybe this is just cause i wanna see the bobby/chim friendship we used to get in s1)

Eddie sides with Bobby but he thinks the whole argument is dumb. He can also offer advice to Bobby based on his own experience, but it's going to be something about communication, at which point Bobby will start ripping his hair out because why won't she just tell me her problems and let me help?

Lastly, when have we ever known the show to go ahead and give a major spoiler of the episode 2 weeks in advance? They let us speculate about Daniel for like 8 months and imo it wasn't as big of a deal as they made it out to be. It seems more likely to me that they offered the promo to get the viewers with a twist ending when the show comes back.

Feel free to share your thoughts if you made it this far lol

TL;DR Based on the interviews Tim has done, Albert dying would have little impact on the 118 as a whole, but Michael dying would offer exactly what they need to set up season 5 and finish 4b.

I've been rambling so much about the finale today because I have so many thoughts about the growth of the stories of the different characters and/or relationships.

BATHENA 4.13 had them talking about how communication is still an issue for them and with it came the underlying hurt of "Do you not value me enough to include me in your decision making especially when it comes to life-changing choices?". But Athena literally walking through fire for Bobby - and also essentially going against protocol and risking the job she loves - is a loud declaration of how valued Bobby is in her life and how much more important he is.

HEN So Hen's story actually mostly "wraps up" in the previous episode, where we not only see that she has earned the respect of her study group but also her mom. Her struggle to prove herself despite being a "minority" in so many ways is shown here. Hen is a woman who defies odds. She's a well-respected member of the LAFD, despite being a queer woman of color in a boy's club. Now, she's an older medical student who was able to successfully diagnose and seek help for a patient (her mom) better than a real doctor did. She demonstrated an empathy this doctor failed to have and basically assuaged any doubts her mother had of Hen making the right choice by pursuing this career path. She also grew from her struggle of entrusting Nia to someone else, of allowing another person she perceived as failing Nia to love her. While there was closure when they discovered why Nia was separated from her birth mother, this new step of allowing Nia to be a part of their lives again while knowing that it is not in a parental capacity speaks even more of her ability to love deeply. I think with her, it's less growth and more of further proof of Hen's heart and love for people.

MADDIE Her admitting to Sue that something was wrong and then telling Chimney that she needs help is a huge thing. We saw how she was trying to appear fine and put together for him in the previous episode. We also know that she began this show as a "lone wolf" thinking that she couldn't drag others down into her problems with her. (Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Buckley + Doug for being awful examples of "love"). Buck had to convince her to stay and let him be her support system. Chimney had to work to be let in. Maddie is more often seen as the one supporting instead of being supported. So Maddie realizing it's okay to ask for help and also realizing she has people she can count on is the biggest sign of growth from Season 2 Maddie.

CHIMNEY We know Chimney sees Buck as a little brother, especially since he's Maddie's brother; but he also had no say in Buck joining the academy and then the 118. With Albert though, he definitely could have stopped his plans in the tracks especially since it would have felt remarkably similar to Kevin joining the academy and becoming a fellow firefighter. That he supported Albert's firefighting journey (and likely encouraged him every step of the way - we know he and Buck probably did a lot of drills with Albert, with Hen definitely helping with the written parts) feels like a beautiful full-circle journey. Now he gets to do what he loves with a brother again. Also, not to mention how he used to be jealous of Albert but now he lets the boy "follow in his footsteps"? As someone who struggled with constantly comparing herself to her siblings, this is huge. It's damning proof that he no longer sees his brother as the golden child he has to compete with but a person he gets to share the things he is passionate about with.

BUCK + EDDIE (But not in a Buddie way, hear me out. It's worth it). The will is such a game-changer and basically the loudest statement anyone could ever make, both with regards to Buck and Eddie. With Eddie, it is the biggest proof that he has finally found someone he could trust Christopher with (aka his whole world). Eddie's core struggle is similar to Maddie (and most of the 9-1-1 characters), which is being able to let someone else help him as he juggles his different roles. Eddie came into LA feeling like he was drowning, cutting himself of from his former support system because his parents wanted to permanently take Christopher in. That definitely made him more wary of asking for and accepting help. But lawsuit fiasco notwithstanding, there was suddenly a person who provided him with help without removing his autonomy and parental rights. This person introduced him to Carla, got "bring your son to work day" all cleared, built a skateboard for his son, and poured himself out to save Christopher during the tsunami. The will is him acknowledging that after Shannon, after his parents, he can finally relax a bit and not worry about Christopher or even himself. Did you see how unworried Eddie was when he saw Buck the first time he woke up? Did you notice how, after checking that Buck wasn't hurt, he didn't have to even worry about making sure that Buck would take care of Christopher while he was healing up? The guy knew his world was in good hands. Now compare that to the Eddie who was stunned after Bobby let him bring Chris to the station, to the Eddie who hesitated before telling Buck about his son, to the Eddie who debated about letting Shannon back in to Christopher's life again. What growth. With Buck, his central struggle has always been finding people who love him enough to stay. Buck 1.0 was him avoiding commitment because he thinks this is all he can get to temporarily fill the void. Firefighting and the firefam were another set of void-fillers (hence why he fought so hard to come back to the 118). Both the arc with Red and that really damning statement in the crossover (where he actually doubted that Hen would break rules to rescue him for a second) tell us that he's not completely secure about people staying for him. He wasn't enough for his parents, for Abby and Ali, for Maddie (for a while), for his firefam. That's why he thinks he's expendable. Eddie including him in the will takes on a different light when you think about all it's trying to say. It's not even just, "You have people counting on you now." or "You have a Christopher that's going to stay a you stay for him too.". It's also Eddie saying that, "Even if I might leave you physically, I am leaving the last part of me - my life/heart/world - Christopher to you.". Which is a less cheesy, less cringy and much more concrete way of saying "I'm still here in spirit.". Buck finally has two someones who will stay. (And now I think I've just made myself cry).

Hi C!!! It's meeee

Anyway I don't know why but I just kinda want to put this out in the world. You got me on Jercy (I'm not kidding I hated Jercy before you) but Percabeth is my OG ship like they started me ok fanfics and they're like my first real ship period. And I hate all the hate Annabeth gets because I really love her so I just wanted to ask you if you could go more in depth with why you aren't big on her/Percabeth please

Love you!! ❤❤

Hi my Gretch seeing your username (on any of the platforms) makes me forever and eternally happy. Okay onto this beautiful, intense ask:

First things first: I love Annabeth. Like Annabeth as a character? wonderful, incredible, unreal. She is so versatile and full of so many things that make us human and I see her character and character arc as a complex web full of intricacies and weaknesses (yes i said web on purpose).

My favourite things about her:

1. She always has a goal, whether it be long term or, I'm just trying to stay alive in this second. For people like me who kind of go through life on vibes and a vague sense of what they want it is awing to read about and meet people who have solid, planned goals that they live, breathe, and perform by.

2. She is proud of her friends. Since her fatal flaw is pride it is very easy to see the downfall but there is also an upside in that she uses that well of pride as an extension of her and it reflects on others. We know she is proud of Percy, and grover, and Thalia, and why Luke’s betrayal hit so hard for her

3. She continues to break stereotypes. Not just as the dumb blonde (which was admittedly a big thing at the time of the book’s release) but also in her being a girl who saves herself, who goes on the dangerous quests, who isn’t helpless. I never had a lack of female role models in my life but adding Annabeth to the mix only did me more good.

4. She thinks things through: I am kind of impulsive when it comes to certain aspects in my life and I have some thought process for other parts but Annabeth is not impulsive. As much as she has ADHD, in which impulsivity is fairly common, she doesn’t present with it. And it’s refreshing and exciting to see this character that thinks through plans and decisions and tries to predict the outcome, not only so she can change it if need be but also to prepare herself for what is to come. Narratives (especially at the time of those books) were full of impulse and quick decisions and always being on the spot. Hell Percy was exactly this kind of narrtator. And while I love dit because I mean what ten year old doesn't love fast-paced intense excitement? it was so truly wonderful to read about someone who thought further. It allowed you to connect to the next page, chapter, book. 

5. She is a complete badass. And I love it. I love badass women. I could never get enough of them and I think they should rule the world. And I love smart people. I love them. Smartness, intelligence, is so attractive to me. Because it means you have passion, and the ability to think beyond your surroundings. Annabeth Chase is hella smart.

What I've been having a crisis over for the last few years is Percabeth. It is summed up most accurately here but just to continue my thought:

Rick changed the percabeth dynamic so much in HOO that it became almost unrecognisable. I think in the bid to have this whole, everyone is a couple and everyone deserves someone (which boosted Leo’s narrative but was also the cause of great conflict in everyone else’s narrative expect percabeth) he forgot to make them friends. And that was the basis of percabeth. It was the reason percabeth were so godsdamn cute in PJO. Because they were friends who ended up becoming a couple. In HOO they were just a couple. And it sucked out the life of their friendship so that we could only focus on their relationship.

And unfortunately it is Annabeth’s narrative that really brings this home for multiple reasons (all of which we can blame Rick for):

1. This is the first time we got other points of view beside Percy which means everyone’s flaws were much more obvious. Annabeth’s fatal flaw specifically was really played (the entire reason she went on that Mark of Athena quest; why  they landed up in Tartarus). it made focusing on her harder especially because Percy’s Fatal flaw is loyalty so he spent a lot of his narrative focusing on others. this one is mostly my bias as I prefer to have a character’s narrative that also focuses on the happenings of others with the characters personal thoughts. Annabeth was the kind of narrator who focused on herself first. 

2. The entirety of HOO was about relationships. Rick didn’t bother to form any actual friendships with any of the characters (something he was undoubtedly great at in PJO) so when we got to percabeth scenes it was things like: Piper being jealous of them; Percy being worried about them; Annabeth being worried about Percy as a person or herself in her quest; Leo being sad that he was alone; etc. It made liking any of the couples extremely hard.

3. As you (and my other Tumblr babies) may know I don't believe Percy and Annabeth’s fatal flaws work well together. I think Percy is often the one to sacrifice himself and Annabeth sacrifices her wants (material things) and it is not the same. Percy is loyal to Annabeth. But Annabeth’s pride continues to rule her life. For example, if Percy had gotten in the way of Annabeth rebuilding Olympus I fully believe she would have attempted (at the very least) to get rid of him. I don't necessarily mean kill him I just mean he wouldn’t have been in her life. Don’t get me wrong this does not mean she did it or there was even a possibility that she could have. but the reason for that is because Percy is loyal to her. So he wouldn’t have gotten in the way of her dreams. And I think there’s something fundamentally dangerous about sacrificing yourself for someone else’s dreams. If Percy became loyal-to-a-fault towards Annabeth and she then decided to join Luke’s army he would not have stopper her. In fact it’s quite possible he would have joined her. And Annabeth has so much pride for Percy, but her pride-to-a-fault does not lie in people it lies in material things. So she would have gone after her own goals if Percy did not follow. It just seems like it’s luck that they continue to work well together. Percy sacrifices himself. Annabeth sacrifices herself. But only cause their goals align. What happens when they don't?

Please do not make the mistake of thinking I hate percabeth because I don’t. I cannot hate them when those books were the heart and soul of my life for so many years. Percabeth was such a big part of them, to hate the ship, would mean to hate the books and that is absolutely not the case. Annabeth and Percy’s friendships is so important to me. 

TL:DR I love Annabeth she is an absolute badass; I am not a fan of the percabeth dynamic especially in HOO; my bias is present in everything I do. I acknowledge it and try to work to bring all the facts together.

I hope this answered your question Gretch! And do not hesitate to ask if you want me to elaborate on a anything further.

I, of course, also welcome dispute from anyone but remember we do things nicely on this blog.

BSG 4x19 Daybreak rewatch

I cried. This is the end of this epic journey, this is a goodbye to those amazing characters.

It’s really hard to talk about it in a calm and analyzing fashion, but I believe that the resolutions we got were fitting and satisfying.

What really struck me is that in the finale finally we reach a real unity between Cylons and humans. They now fight side by side as comrades and it’s not just the skinjobs, but Centurions too. Even Adama crosses the line he thought he’d never cross - he allows for Sam to be hooked up to systems in CIC, becoming a Hybrid for Galactica.

This episode does this really neat trick of showing us the life of certain characters before the fall. We see how certain events and decisions they made, seemingly random and insignificant, led their fate to Galactica and now.

The whole mission to save Hera - I like how it’s shown as this crazy, for volunteers only, last stand of Galactica, the last battle. But this irrational mission is the key, the visions and prophecies came to fruition there and Kara finally fulfilled her purpose and found the way to Earth.

I love the moment in which Kara puts in the coordinates she got from her father’s song and they jump. Incredible scene.

Hoshi becomes Admiral of the remaining Fleet. So he followed in his boyfriend’s footsteps in a way.

Hera is rescued thanks to Boomer. Boomer’s fate is just really bittersweet. We get a flashback of her when Adama gave her the second chance instead of throwing her out for doing a bad job as a pilot and how she said she owed him one. Returning Hera is Boomer paying that debt. She can become that person she once was, before all the betrayals - one of Adama’s kids. Boomer’s final choice is to side with humanity, with Galactica. But she still pays for all her sins with death by Athena’s hand.

I don’t really know how to feel about Athena killing Boomer. On one hand who else would be more suitable to do it, on the other hand maybe suicide would have been a better option? As a callback to S1 when Boomer was unable to kill herself because of her programming, if she overcame that now... However, Athena killing Boomer is the closest it can get to a suicide. They share those memories from before the attack on the Colonies. Athena is who Boomer could have been.

Gaius deciding to stay on Galactica in the last minute makes sense. I wonder why Head Six told him to go, to use his new political power and influence thanks to his followers in the Fleet. Maybe reverse psychology? Maybe she was testing him. Because he had to stay for everything to unfold in the right way.

I love Gaius and Caprica reconciling. It’s not hard to see that he chose to stay because she was staying. And for once Gaius didn’t listen to his self-preservation instincts, because something was much stronger - his love for Caprica Six.

Gaius’ flashbacks to how he met Caprica Six were wonderful. She became a witness to an argument between Gaius and his father who stabbed a nurse and I love just how it must have affected her. She thinks of Cylons as humanity’s children and then she saw this example of a father and son being so completely at odds, unable to understand each other, fighting.

Caprica Six finding a nice retirement house for Gaius’ father where he could be happy may have been part of her scheme to get access to defense mainframe, but I believe it was more than that. I think she would’ve been able to seduce it out of Gaius without that. Caprica through this good deed won Gaius’ heart, she saw and reached the man under the arrogant scientist. And how funny it was him who first used the “L” word. Gaius Baltar talking about love, than quickly backpedaling to cover up that he was actually open about his feelings for once.

Gaius’ role in the finale is what he does best - talking. This time his words reach CAVIL, so that he gives them Hera.

Turns out that Roslin’s opera house vision had one purpose only - so she’d hide Hera from Centurions in that one critical moment on Galactica. If she never had that vision, she’d never go out of sickbay to look for Hera and the child would’ve never gotten to Gaius and Six and CIC and there would be no ceasefire between Cavil faction and human-Cylon alliance.

Final Five scene. Oh wow. So Tigh offers Cavil resurrection tech for Hera and all Five have to combine their knowledge, but it also lets them know everything else about each other. And that’s when the hour of reckoning comes to Tory.

I have to say that on one hand I love that Tyrol had that Cally flashback, how she was on his side from the start. He loved her, maybe not like Boomer, but they built a life together, a marriage, she stayed by his side through some very tough times. Their relationship meant a lot to him, otherwise he’d never have grieved like he did. And Tyrol attacking Tory when he saw her memories of Cally’s murder is significant of that. All in all, after this season did Cally so dirty, I like that the last thing we see of her is a positive memory Tyrol had of her. And her death is avenged.

Ironic that Tory’s downfall was exactly as foreshadowed. She kept this big terrible secret and when it came out, it destroyed her. Gaius did warn her about it once. The secret of her affair with him destroyed Tory’s friendship with Roslin and her last real tie to humanity. But she didn’t learn anything from it, she never came clean about murdering Cally and so she paid the price.

This situation is also interesting when we look at Tyrol’s perspective. After Boomer’s last betrayal he lost all trust in Eights. “They’re just machines,” he says to Helo. Tyrol was once able to forgive Cally for shooting Boomer, he even married her, the killer of his first love. But what Cally did was out of love for him. She was fiercely devoted to him. Tyrol couldn’t forgive Tory for killing Cally, but what Tory did was pure calculated murder. She did it for her own selfish reasons. And even with Cally out of the way, Tyrol was not interested in a relationship with Tory which is something she must have hoped for. In the end he kills Tory in rage and then he swears off all women and lives alone in highlands on some northern island, away from people.

What all of this says about Tyrol is that in my theory he never had a real, deep love with Tory and he compensated by creating Number Eight. Boomer was his perfect woman. Pygmalion and Galatea, anyone?

I can’t help but feel that Tory was so alone. As a human all she had was her job and Roslin. She and Gaius just used each other, it wasn’t meaningful. She easily let him go. It seems in the end she fled from her humanity into giving her all to be a Cylon, but even then she continued being alone. She didn’t really become close with her fellow Final Five and she had no other friends, human or Cylon. I liked that in finale Ellen had a few moments with Tory, giving her some friendship, but it was too little, too late. Tory lived and died alone.

Because of Tory’s death the secret of resurrection is lost. Chaos erupts on the bridge but Cavil’s side is going to lose, so he kills himself.

We finally learn what happened to the mutineers like Racetrack and Skulls - they were imprisoned, but now they got drafted for this suicide mission to attack the Colony and rescue Hera. These two get shot down early in the mission, but when they drift dead in space, in just the right moment Racetrack’s hand falls down and hits the missile button and the Colony is blown up. This is the true end to Cavil’s faction.

I love how the show isn’t afraid of showing this higher power influencing people and events according to its plan. The moment when Caprica Six and Gaius see Head Six and Head Gaius is still one of my favourites. The whole vision coming true and Kara putting in the coordinates she took from the song and Racetrack’s missiles shooting at just the right time all aren’t an accident.

So they found Earth, our Earth, and they decide to settle all over the planet and start over with a clean slate.

Kara’s goodbye with Sam was just so touching. The dogtags, I love you, “See you on the other side.” Sam took the Fleet into the sun. And when Kara disappeared we know she joined him.

I love how Sam’s flashback about his search for perfection ties with his ending. By becoming a Hybrid he gained access to that higher plane of mathematics and launching the Fleet into the sun was him achieving that “perfect throw” he was looking for. Through the flashback we saw the deeper side of Sam than the jock. It makes so much sense why he’s one of the Final Five.

Everyone’s settling on Earth, Agathons are back to being a happy family. Ellen finally gets to be with Tigh full-time. Adama and Roslin go off to find a place for their cabin by the lake.

I got so emotional when Gaius said “You know, I know about farming.” This is a beautiful ending to his arc. Not only the skeptic became a true believer, also the man who once despised his upbringing, who wanted to be something more and better than a farmer, now goes back to his roots and it’s important and useful skill to have. He’s no longer ashamed of coming from Aerilon.

Adama and Roslin slayed me. I cried when she died and he put the wedding ring on her finger like in her visions from The Hub. I cried again when he sat by her grave and said that the sunrise reminds him of her. Wow. That love.

Roslin’s flashbacks give us one important insight into her - she literally had no life before Galactica. She lost all her family and her life became empty. She tried to fill it - a date with Sean didn’t work, so she threw herself into politics and Adar’s campaign. Galactica and Adama became her real home. As bittersweet is that they couldn’t have a fairytale perfect ending, I appreciate that Roslin died loving him and being loved in return. She brought them all to Earth as the Dying Leader. It was her time to rest.

Speaking of Earth, it looks like D’Anna really stayed on the nuked old Earth because she never showed up after that episode :(((

Lee and Kara. Their love is really tragic because they could never really be together. The flashback of their first meeting when she was Zak’s girlfriend and they almost cheated puts into focus that they were doomed from the start. All they had were those stolen moments, but something always got in the way, sometimes because of their own doing. In my eyes, Lee and Kara had a complicated love, because they were so many different things to each other all at once. I guess in a way Zak’s ghost always stood between them.

So in the end Kara’s like that pigeon, she annoyed Lee to no end so he smashed a few things chasing her and then she flew away when she wanted to and left him alone.

Okay, so maybe to some people tying up BSG to current times, Hera as the mitochondrial Eve, is controversial, but I think it’s pretty brilliant. Showing how people make robots again in real life now is not really as much about robots as about every other issue BSG told us about. Because we have it all here, right now, happening - torture, terrorism, war, slave labour, corruption, everything. By tying the story to our reality the viewers can’t just close it like a book, “it’s just a scifi, it’s fictional, none of it is real, let’s forget every lesson this show imparted because it has nothing to do with reality.” Wrong! Yes, it’s not real, but it talks about things that happen in real life. It shows us that when we only see the same-faced enemy, we forget that they are only human just like us. To avoid the mutual annihilation, we should strive to better understand each other, to find common ground.

So that’s it. This is the end of line. Farewell, BSG, one of the best frakking shows ever made.

Who the Hell is Apollo Justice? - an AA5/AA6 critique

A twitter thread reminded me that during NaNoWriMo last year, I wrote 1,600 words on why Apollo in AA5/AA6 frustrates me so much.  Be warned, this is only very lightly edited, so it’s more of a ramble than a full essay. 

So, Apollo! Lemme start off by saying that character-wise, e.g. personality and dialogue and whatever, I don’t really have any objections to how Apollo’s portrayed in AA6 or AA5 (give or take some of his DarkMode angst in AA5-5.) People go on and on about how AA5 and AA6 “totally redeemed” him but he honestly doesn’t feel that different from AA4.

The trouble with Apollo is basically everything surrounding him, and how it was handled.

I’ll be really direct: AA5 and AA6 should have been Apollo-only or Apollo-main games. I recognize that Phoenix’s return was not entirely a creative decision, and I’m guessing that for AA6 in particular there was probably a time when going full Apollo was on the table before they settled on splitting screen time with Phoenix.

The thing is that for all people grumble about Phoenix stealing the spotlight from Apollo in AA4 (which he does), Phoenix at least felt like he had a purpose in the story in AA4. He might have been awkwardly handled and inexplicably missing his entire supporting cast, but he had personal stakes and ties to what was going on. So while it was strange for him to get so much focus in what was ostensibly a game with a new protagonist, it didn’t feel like he was taking away from the game’s overall story, just Apollo’s. And while Apollo kind of got sidelined in the last case of AA4, it at least laid the groundwork/put in the time to create a network of people and histories around Apollo.

Apollo’s handling in AA5 is kind of ridiculous. Let’s be real: Clay Terran is not a character. He’s a plot device for Apollo to leave the agency and have a crisis of faith. Giving character to victims is easier said than done, but taking the POV and moving it to Phoenix really makes it clear how little the writers actually cared about Apollo and Clay’s past.  If the entire game was played from Apollo and Athena’s perspective, there would have been more opportunities for Clay to be introduced and examined, which would have given his death more meaning, and which would have made Apollo’s development in the final cases feel more natural.  Instead, Phoenix Fixes Everything, Hooray.

It’s also extremely noticeable how AA5 pretty much jettisons all of AA4.  Trucy is pretty much background noise, and Klavier is a cameo (not even in a case Apollo handles!) which adds to the sense that Apollo is kind of just a character floating detached from any actual history or motivation beyond what the current game’s plot requires.

It’s that particular trend of defining Apollo in terms of the current game’s overarching plot that really gets me about AA6.  Again, let’s be real: Apollo’s backstory in AA6 is completely ridiculous.  So he’s not only secretly a member of Troupe Gramarye and working with his half-sister by chance, but he’s also… the adoptive son of the exiled king of the country of Khura’in, which is also where Maya’s channeling technique has its roots? ???? One of the issues I have with Yamazaki’s writing is that he favors big stakes where they’re not really necessary, and AA6 pretty much twists that dial as far as it can go by actually having the plot involve a country-wide revolution.  Not even the AAI series, which aimed for “bigger” cases, went that far.  

But in AA6, The Stakes Are High, and that means Apollo gets jammed into yet another new backstory.  It’s true AA6 doesn’t explicitly contradict anything in AA4, but it’s harder to swallow Apollo’s “I was raised by a revolutionary leader in a foreign country, sorry I never mentioned it” than something like Phoenix never mentioning he met Mia when she got him off the hook for murder.  At this point Apollo isn’t a character with his own history - he’s a character whose history is explicitly defined by whatever game he’s in at the time.

In other words, each game feels like you’re playing a different Apollo, even if his characterization and backstory remains the same.  I think part of the reason this sticks out is that the game has to push him aside to make room for Phoenix (and Athena to a lesser extent.)  If Apollo was given a majority of the cases in AA5/AA6, it would have been easier for the games to work in connections for his arc between each game.  I’m not looking for AAI-style cameo parades, but bringing back at least one non-main character from his arcs would go a long way to making it feel like there was a consistent world around him.

Instead, AA6 gives Apollo exactly as much screentime as the plot demands.  To give credit where it’s due: I liked 6-2 a lot, and I’m really glad they gave Trucy some spotlight and revisited the Gramarye plotline.  But even there, it feels disconnected.  Reus’ presence as part of Troupe Gramarye is a retcon unto itself, and nothing from the Gramarye plot of AA4 actually has any relevance in the case.  Valant, Thalassa, and Zak aren’t even mentioned by name.  “This is Apollo’s history,” the game wants to say, but never backs it up.

6-5 takes the problem and really twists the dial up to 11.  The thesis of 6-5 is basically: “the characters of AA6 are the truly important ones in Apollo’s story”.  Trucy gets left behind in Japanifornia.  Athena sits out the final trial (and doesn’t do much of anything in the investigation.)  Klavier just straight-up isn’t in the game.  The lone exceptions are Phoenix, who’s maintained in order to give Apollo a “you’ve finally surpassed me” moment, and Ema, who’s mostly been running her AAI personality for the entire game.  (To be clear, Phoenix and Ema being around is certainly better than nothing.)

But all the emotional stakes of 6-5 for Apollo come from characters we’ve never met before AA6, and in the most direct example, not even before 6-5 itself.  For what it’s worth, I think they did as good a job with Dhurke as they could.  Having him be the investigation partner for the first day was the right move for the story they wanted to tell, and letting him act on his own and interact with Apollo so much meant he was a real character, not just a plot device like Clay.

And yet… that doesn’t change the fact that all of Apollo’s arc is suddenly focused on these characters we’ve never seen before.  Nahyuta is a friend even closer than Clay (fun fact, by the way: Clay is never mentioned in AA6), Dhurke is the reason Apollo became a lawyer, Datz is an old buddy, Ga’ran is the architect for Apollo’s life.  Even Rayfa winds up having her final development spurred on by Apollo in the trial, which is particularly odd given up until that point it was Phoenix and Maya helping her.  At this point, there’s little reason for us to be playing as Apollo Justice - we could just as easily be playing as any Khura’inese attorney.

To really drive the point home, consider the ending of AA6-5.  Here more than ever, the game tries to bring Apollo’s arc full circle.  The moment the photo of Jove was added to the court record, it was clear the final step of the case would be investigating Apollo’s father’s death.  But who is Jove? We never hear a word from the man himself; we never get any real sense of his life with Thalassa.  The game acknowledges this by having Apollo reiterate that Dhurke is just as much (if not more) his father, but it leaves Jove as another character-as-plot-device.

So Apollo solves his father’s murder (carried out by Ga’ran), supported by Rayfa, and in order to help Nahyuta and Dhurke.  It’s a plot point from AA4, but once again, it’s effectively absorbed as part of AA6’s plot.  Thalassa, the other character who would have been a vital part of this story, is absent until a credits cameo (and there reduced to an anonymous voice.)  Trucy, who was before AA6 Apollo’s sole family member, is absent entirely.  While the plot and setting of AA6 means it would have been nonsensical for Trucy to take part in the trial, it would have been thematic mirroring for her to help Apollo solve his father’s death, as he did hers.

But that’s just it - Trucy, and the rest of Apollo’s entourage, doesn’t belong in the world of AA6.  In the world of AA6, Apollo is defined by his childhood in Khura’in, by the Defense Culpability Act and his promises to Nahyuta, by the struggle between Dhurke and Ga’ran, and by Phoenix throwing up a giant sign saying “WOW APOLLO YOU’VE REALLY SURPASSED ME” every few minutes for the players.  

And to be honest? It sort of works, especially given AA6’s overarching themes of legacy and inheritance.  But the Apollo Justice of AA6 is not the Apollo Justice of AA4.  He’s probably not even the Apollo Justice of AA5.  He’s a character defined by the plot around him, and even if that works within AA6, it makes it hard to feel like he’s truly a part of the Ace Attorney series as a whole.

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Wonder Woman

Gal Gadot in ‘Wonder Woman’ (Photo: Warner Bros)

It took the better part of a century for the comics’ most famous female superhero to get her own movie, but there’s no denying the box office clout of Wonder Woman now. So, more than ever, it’s fair to ask: What took so long? The character’s unique, politically charged, and frequently controversial history dating back to World War II may have had something to do with the extended wait. In 2014, Jill Lepore’s book The Secret History of Wonder Woman unearthed fascinating insights into the character’s past. Now that Wonder Woman has been redefined for a generation of movie fans by Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins, we took a look back at Lepore’s book and a few related sources to find 10 facts about Wonder Woman’s origins and legacy that may surprise you.

Wonder Woman was created in 1941 by William Moulton Marston, the inventor of the lie detector test. An eccentric visionary who had trouble holding one job for long, Marston studied psychology at Harvard. In 1914, he became the first to use a person’s blood pressure to determine whether they were lying. Though the method was far from perfect, it led to the creation of the polygraph still used today — and entered the comics as Wonder Woman’s “lasso of truth,” which forces its captive to speak honestly.

The character’s original look was inspired by ‘40s pin-up girls, the Miss America pageant, and the newly popular superhero Captain America. Hence the skimpy costume, the tiara, and the patriotic color scheme, respectively. The bullet-deflecting bracelets had a secret inspiration: Marston was a believer in “free love” with three female life partners, who also collaborated with him on his scientific and comics work. One of those women, Olive Byrne, wore thick bracelets — much like Wonder Woman’s — in lieu of a wedding ring.

Wonder Woman was meant to channel the ideals of the country’s first feminism movement. Marston was a big believer in the turn-of-the-century women’s movement, which advocated for voting rights and access to birth control. In fact, Marston believed that women were inherently superior to men (not a belief of mainstream feminism, then or now), with, as he told the Washington Post, “twice the emotional development, the ability for love, than man has.” Per Lepore’s book, he predicted in 1937 that within 1,000 years, the United States would be run entirely by women. Wonder Woman was meant to be an ultra-patriotic model of the justice and compassion that women could bring to the nation.

The character came with her own curse words. The backstory of Wonder Woman, born of ancient gods and raised on an island of female warriors called the Amazons, is derived from Greek mythology. Marston wanted Wonder Woman’s language to reflect this, while keeping the emphasis on what Marston’s wife Elizabeth Holloway called “feminine expletives.” Examples included “Suffering Sappho!”, “Great Hera!”, and “Athena’s shield!” The last was suggested by Holloway to DC Comics as an alternative to the exclamation “Great Caesar’s ghost!”

In 1942, Wonder Woman became the first female character to have her own comic. One year after she first began appearing in DC titles like Sensation Comics and All-Star Comics, Wonder Woman was already the publisher’s most popular superhero after Superman and Batman (who were introduced in 1938 and 1939, respectively). That fall, she became the first female superhero to join the Justice Society, the earliest version of the Justice League…as the group’s secretary.

Early Wonder Woman comics include a feature called “Wonder Women of History,” stories about real-life female heroes. The women profiled in these 2- to 4-page sections included Florence Nightingale, Joan of Arc, Sojourner Truth, Abigail Adams, and Susan B. Anthony, along with important but lesser-known figures in women’s history like home economics creator Ellen Swallow Richards and astronomer Caroline Herschel.

Controversy followed Wonder Woman from the beginning. In 1942, the National Organization for Decent Literature, composed of Catholic bishops, condemned the character for being “not sufficiently dressed.” A decade later, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham declared that Wonder Woman promoted S&M and lesbianism in his book Seduction of the Innocent, which led the comics industry to develop new censorship standards (the “Comics Code Authority”).

The feminist ideals of Wonder Woman’s origins didn’t survive the 1950s. After World War II, women who had been in the workforce resumed their roles as homemakers, and Wonder Woman’s politically progressive storylines became unfashionable. Instead of fighting for justice, she tried babysitting a dinosaur, becoming a fashion model, and writing a “lonely hearts” column. Even “Wonder Women of History” was replaced with a feature called “Marriage A La Mode,” which detailed the customs and traditions of matrimony. In the 1960s, Wonder Woman gave up her superpowers entirely to be with love interest Steve Trevor, permanently transforming into her human alter-ego Diana Prince.

Wonder Woman’s renaissance began in the 1970s, when she appeared on the first-ever cover of Ms. Magazine under the headline “Wonder Woman for President.” The editors of the feminist publication wanted to pay tribute to the Wonder Woman they remembered from their childhoods, who fought wartime dictators, protested unfair labor conditions at home, and would always break the (literal) shackles put on her by men. But the comics were slow to pick up the feminist pace. In 1972, a series of “women’s lib” stories, including one in which Diana Prince defended an abortion clinic, was cancelled after the first issue. DC finally began assigning some female writers to Wonder Woman in the 1980s, though the first woman to write the character long-term was Gail Simone from 2007-2010. In April 2017, after 75 years, Wonder Woman finally got its first all-female creative team.

As late as 2015, Wonder Woman was declared “cursed for movies and TV.” That statement was the headline of an article in The Hollywood Reporter that ran after the first director of the Wonder Woman movie, Michelle MacLaren, dropped out. (She was replaced by Patty Jenkins.) There were many failed attempts to bring Wonder Woman to the big screen, including a 1999 film meant to star Sandra Bullock. Most of the Wonder Woman TV shows developed over the years never even made it to the air, with the notable exception of the hit series that ran from 1975-1979 starring Lynda Carter. The THR article’s author claimed that the problem was “the character herself,” because she’s not accessible to audiences. Of course, the author was ignoring a fundamental truth about Wonder Woman: In the past 75 years, every time she’s been knocked down by a man, she always rises up.

‘Wonder Woman’: The Cast Explains Why This Is a Landmark Movie:

Read more from Yahoo Movies: 

Why Women Really Want to Love Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman: 10 Big Differences Between the Movie and DC’s Comic Books

Who’s Who in Wonder Woman: A Photographic Guide