#ask me about my version of the noora characters guys
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1, 2 and 6 for skammaker? <3
Oh my gosh! I started answering this question than accidentally closed my tab...😭 this is why you don’t have a billion tabs open friends and foes ...
Okay, to start, I want to say. That I haven’t really thought about the SKAM remakes beyond this post, and I honestly wasn’t expecting an ask. So, yes, I will be making up stuff as I go along, and yes, I will be taking criticism!
1. What country + Language is your SKAM set in?
The countries that I would love to see SKAM remakes in are, but not subjected to. Brasil, Russia, somewhere in the UK (not England, they had Skins), India, the Philippines, Malaysia, and New Zealand.
The language would be the national language of the country except for the Malaysian, Indian, and Kiwi remake because than the language would reflect the ethnicity or state the main of the season is from.
2. What is it called? (is it SKAM (insert place), a different word (wtfock, druck) or something else?)
I actually don’t know enough about the cultures/slang of the countries to be able to create a cool/unique name, so most of them would probably just be Skam + The Country. The exception being Brazil and Malaysia.
SKAM Brasil = Mó Bafão
SKAM Malaysia = Geram
Skam NZ = Sweet As
6. Introduce us to your version of Eva?
Okay, I really wish you hadn’t asked for Eva, because I hadn’t thought this far... thus I will be making up stuff as I go along! So, I will only be answering about certain countries... lol.
SKAM India - Anjali
The season starts with Anjali, a native of Kerala who now lives in Bangalore (yes, I was inspired by Bangalore Days) moving in with her Aunt’s family in order to get a new start. Determined to not bring that much attention to herself or her family (again), Anjali just wants to keep her head down. However, when her cousin insists that Anjali make new friends instead of constantly moping about and following him around, Anjali reluctantly agrees to try. When her family throws a huge function (maybe due to a religious holiday or a wedding?) Anjali bumps into the part of the past that she has been trying to hide from. This is where she also meets one of her extended, crazy extended, family’s friend, the beautiful and independent Nana (my version on Noora). Nana’s family is originally from Nagaland, though they have been staying overseas and have just moved to Bangalore, where she will be attending school with Anjali. Anjali is delighted to find herself a friend in Nana and the Girl Gang. However, Anjali is constantly on edge due to the familial pressure that she is receiving (to not bring shame upon the family again) as well as the paranoia that her new friends may find about the incident from her old school and judge her.
Anjali is the second daughter in her family, and so she constantly put in her position where she “needs” to sacrifice her own desires for her family. Before the incident at school, she was a happy-go-lucky, super kind, as well as musically talented. At one point, she used to post videos of herself singing and playing the guitar on YouTube, but it seemed she stopped doing that completely. Anjali’s family is Catholic, though it becomes evident as the season unfolds that Anjali feels some form of resignation about the church and religion, as well as feeling like she is not good enough... It also becomes evident that Anjali feels some form of aversion to her older brother, who her parents praise to no end. As the season unfolds we see how these familial pressures come to head in Anjali’s life and how she deals with them.
* tw for the season : familial pressure + slut-shaming
** additional notes: Anjali is probably attending an all-girls school, where she will meet the girl gang. The “shame” of the season will deal with the fact that Anjali had a secret bf when she lived at home who she had s*x with. However, when her parents and community find out they all have opinions (especially the church), which Anjali thinks is unfair because her bf and also her brother (who also had a gf) are not shamed for their actions. This is why parents send her to live with her aunt’s family.
Geram - Alicia Tan
Alicia Tan is a Chinese-Malaysian girl who is starting school at a new school (due to the fact that things got messy at her old school). As she starts her new school year, Alicia feels lost, very lost. Her parents are never around, and when they are, they criticise her, expect scholastic excellence from her and compare her to her cousins. This doesn’t help Alicia as she tries to transition to attending the all-girls convent school her parents have sent her too with hopes that it will bring a positive change in her life (especially after what happened at her old school). However, Alicia just feels lost, in part, due to the disconnect she feels with her fellow peers for being so white-washed. All Alicia wants to do is keep her head down, listen to her favourite K-Pop artists, and sketch.
However, when her grandma encourages her to make new friends and her parents sign her up for tuition in order to help with her failing grades, Alicia meets a group of girls that actually seem really cool, ones that she can trust. On a whim, Alicia stalks the strange and alluring Nor, the new Malay girl who’s back from living in NZ, and the girls click. This ends with Alicia joining the girls as they join a school club (the drama club?), much to the chagrin of her parents, who want her to stay focused on her school work. Alicia just wants to forget about her past and move on, however, her past keeps on coming back to haunt her and she wonders if things will ever go back to normal.
* tw for the season : mental illness + suicide attempt mention
** additional notes : the “shame” depicted in this season is pressure brought on from her family (to be the perfect daughter) + the fact that she is mentally ill and there was an incident at her previous school. Her parents don’t want that to get out, and blame Alicia’s ex-friend for being a “bad influence”, and Alicia lets them (this is my version of the whole cheating thing).
Mó Bafão - Marie Vitória Silva
The season starts with Marie Vitória Silva entering a new school year in São Paulo, Brazil. Originally from the city of Cuiabá, Marie moved to São Paulo around the age of twelve. Much like Eva, Marie’s parents are divorced and she lives with her mom. Marie feels a lot of pressure from her extended family about the way she dresses, her weight, her hair, her skin etc. She is very self-conscious, which is totally amplified by the fact that her boyfriend (who she spent the “best summer of her life with”) sometimes belittles her. Said boyfriend insists that Marie should go to a party and “have fun”, which Marie does only to feel incredibly self-conscious by the appearance of her ex-friends. However, Marie also meets Grace Lee, the new Coreano-Brasileira (Korean-Brasilian) international transfer student. Marie eventually finds herself befriending a new group of misfit girls, due to the fact that they end up working on a group project together.
Marie Vitória Silva is a young Brasilian girl who doesn’t necessarily fit into Brazils mould of a beautiful young woman. Marie is more on the thick side, with curly hair that she can’t seem to control (unless it's straightened), She is not doing that great at school, and is constantly compared by her family to her more successful cousins. Marie Vitória Silva enjoys watching movies and TV shows and is a pretty important voice within certain Brasilian fandoms. She spends a lot of her time on the internet creating content for said fandoms and prefers that to party and whatnot. However, as the season goes on Marie Vitória Silva starts to come to terms with herself and the things that she enjoys, including finding peace with herself as the way that she is.
* tw for the season : slut shaming + fat shaming
** additional notes : the “shame” depicted in this season is pressure brought on by Brasilian society to look and behave a certain way. Marie feels the pressure to constantly look beautiful and constantly party. Much like the original SKAM series, it will involve the tension between Ingrid and Marie. However, this tension is exemplified by the fact that during her previous year of school, Mó Bafão!Ingrid would pressure Marie Vitória Silva to drink, party, and find a boyfriend, instead of staying home all the time. This led, Marie to go out and party which would eventually lead to the infamous kiss, and Marie being labelled a slut. However, one of the things that the season will touch on is Marie’s introversion and also the fact that she is asexual.
BONUS:
SKAM TURKÏYE : Eda
(Me? Being inspired by the dizis I’m watching? More likely than you think!)
Eda is a young Turkish woman, who’s family is German - Turkish, but decided to move back to Istanbul when she was younger. (This has nothing to do with the fact that I am a complete ho for Serkan Çayoglu, this is straight-up coincidence, don’t @ me). She’s starting a new school year, after spending the best summer of her life with her boyfriend, Can (my version of Jonas). However, Eda feels ostracised at her new school due to the whole Jonas/Ingrid thing.
Eda is a total nerd and really loves watching Dizis, which Can totally give her shit for because they are apparently “so dramatic” and “so long”. However, Eda is a total romantic at heart and doesn’t really care. She has difficulty at school due to her dyslexia, which has caused her to be the butt of numerous jokes in her family and accounts for why she isn’t doing great academically. Her parents are together, though they constantly fight, which causes Eda to feel uncomfortable in her own house, accounting for why she spent so much of her summer at Can’s house. The shame that is dealt in this season is about still more or less about slut-shaming, and the isolation that Eda feels before and even when she joins the girl gang. It also has huge and insanely important themes of girls supporting girls.
* tw for the season : slut shaming
#skam#skam malaysia#skam brasil#skam bangalore#mywritings#ask me about my version of the noora characters guys#or the sana characters I have a lot to say#asks#bi-amira-naybet
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WILLIAM REMAKES RANKING
And here is a new post about my characters remakes ranking ^^
other rankings I made :
the Eva remakes
the Jonas remakes
the Noora remakes
the Isak remakes
the Even remakes
the Sana remakes
Now William is a complicated case. I hate this guy's gutts, he was the worst thing to happen to Skam, especially when Julie decided he was the Best Character Ever and that him and Noora formed the Most Iconic Couple Ever even after admitting IN THE SHOW how bland and fucking cliche he was. However, the remakes (well most of them) actually seemed to understand that was bullshit and improved his character (or at least tried to), but without changing his actions, so the result always made me perplex as to where I stood with their version of William.
As always, this is my opinion only, not a diss at anyone who does not feel the same. Feel free to discuss respectfully in the comments if you read this ^^
(I did not watch Skam Italia, which is the reason why Edoardo -I think that's his name?- is not in the list)
1- Senne (WTFock)
This is the only William I can say with confidence that I truly like and always love to see more off. Which could be weird, considering how awfull he was in season 1. His "you're not even my top ten" to Amber, and "you're so sexy" instead of the normally "you're so beautiful" to Noora definitely made me think he would become my least favorite William Remake. However, they still managed to improve him in the same season! For example, letting Zoe the choice to give him a call or not if she changed her mind about going on a date with him (yes I know he said it in a very confident implication that she WOULD change her mind but it was still a lot less pushy than this scene normally is). Even in season two, his blackmail to make her go on a date with him put a lot less pressure on Zoe, like she is the one who suggests it and he does not except anything from her, agreeing with it being "just a meeting". BUT the major and best change they did with him is when he apologized to Amber after his conversation with Zoe, without expecting anything in return, it coming from a place of truly wanting to change and improve (thus actually aknowledging that what he did was wrong) instead of just thinking that being decent makes him "earn" a girl. Honestly it always bugged me that the og did not do that because it was like the perfect opportunity to show there was more to his character and that he could have a redemption (not that William have any lol). And then, there was a lot of little things that just made him more human, endearing and likeable. His banter with Zoe felt more real and did a good job at showing they really did get along, the actor was very talented at portraying his emotions, and I felt so much for him when it comes to his brother and his family situation in general. I also love how supportive he was of Zoe when it came to his brother, even if it ended becoming too much in season 3 (like the dude was literally ready to fucking STAB the asshole get me a man like that). His whole relationship with Zoe felt a lot more real and cute actually, because they both had flaws and he knew that and did not put her on a pedestrial (like a lot of men charcater do in this trope), and even though they could fight he was still very endeared with her said flaws lol. ALSO he actually asked for consent for their first time instead of saying "I know I should ask if you're okay with it but I don't care" to his girlfirend who has just been sexually assaulted and who just confided in him her past trauma regarding sex (yes I know the bar is very low but still). He ended up having a lot more dephth and, I would not say this about any other William lbc, but it was very cool to also have him as a sort of awkward step dad to Robbe in season 3, kind of oblivious and always lost with a coffee in his hand, but being a real support and having a real good heart. Also his relationship with Milan is so adorable and beautiful too, I love how different they are and yet how much they love eachother, how they started to bond because they both care a lot about Zoe, how Senne is always very happy to be physically affectionate with him or to play along with his gay jokes, which actually shows that he is not the cliche popular jock... Really amazing!
One thing I really do not understand the writers did tho : when he wrote the thesis for Zoe. Like this moment in the og was supposed to show that he actually listens to her and that he cares about other people, the thesis being about something she did believe in and fought for, and the "people need people" even came from there, which makes a full circle when she tells him that to make him stay. But there she had to defend an idea she did NOT agree with, that women should not be able to work I think, so it just made him write something sexist and mysoginistic??? What was supposed to be the point of that, to show that Zoe was "too" feminist and that his views would help her "calm down"? Because if that's it that's really gross (don't get me wrong, there are extrem feminists I definitely don't want to be associated with, but Zoe is far from being like them). I don't know, it's just a thing I still can't wrap my mind around...
2- Noah (Skam nl)
Okay so this is the start of me not really being sure as how to feel with the characters.
I always thought that was the writers did with Noah was very weird, it was like they were not sure what they wanted to do with him. Like this dude is supposed to be this weirdo hyppy artsy guy who does not really have a clue about social interactions BUT ALSO the popular fuckboy??? In highschool???? Maybe it's because I haven't been in highschool i a while but unfortunately I really don't think those two things go together...And like he's supposed to be socially clueless but also have no problem rejecting Engel like he did? Wouldn't have make more sense for him to accidentaly hurt her without realizing simply because he just does not know how to deal with this kind of situations? I don't know, his character was just very weird to me, which made his characterisation really inconsistent and all over the place. And i felt like we were supposed to forget everything bad thing he did simply because he was an artsy weirdo. Season 2 was such a mess and his scenes were so rushed that it did not help to clear things up... I don't even think him and Liv fit well together tbh (but not because I hate him so there is that) and the wedding dress scene was such nonsense, unrealistic, and a real mess. Not even talking about how he kind of victim blamed Liv about what his brother did to her when he says "well I did warn you about him"...
BUT he's not in second place for nothing. He is actually the first (and only) William that made me want to watch season 2, which had never happened to me before even when I love the Noora because I hate the Willhelm plotline with a passion (and if you saw the Noora ranking you'd know that Liv is my fave), so I think he deserves to be hyped for just that. His weirdo vibes really intrigued me and even made me like him, and I like how it was more dwell upon in season 2, that it actually gave him more dephth, altho not as much as I would have liked. He also kind of reminded me of Even with how artsy and always being between very awkward and insecure and very confident at the same time he could be, and since Even is my favorite character of Skam, it could only make me like him more. It was a good way to not make him the bland and cliche fuckboy jock William is. So props to Skam nl for making such big chnages with him, it could only be an improvement with this character.
3- Alexander (Druck)
I really like how this guy really defied toxic mascunality, especially when we know the kind of character he was based on. The one thing that hit me the most was when he had a panic attack, like that's not something we get to see often for men characters, especially this kind, and with Mia taking care of him instead of the reverse (which happens in the other remakes)...I just really loved it. I also loved how goofy and dorky he was, but sometimes it felt a bit too much and forced it was like the writers came through the screen to shake me super hard while yelling "SEE??? SEE HOW LIKEABLE AND WEIRD HE IS???? ISNT HE SO FUNNY????? LAUGH!!! LAAAAUUUUGH!!!!!". So yeah it did not always work for me but it was still enjoyable. Plus, I really admired how he accepted Mia's breaking up with him with such grace and understanding in season 4, even though he was ready to give up everything to go with her to Spain just the day before, I don't even know if I would be able to do that lol, but that really shows how much he loves, and most importantly respects, her. Honestly I almost put him in second place, but I don't remember enough of him (in fact he is probably the William I forgot the most about) so I was not sure if he deserved it and well i guess it also meant he did not have so much impact on me...
4- Alejandro (Skam Espana)
So first of all : Truly Iconic Introduction!!! Not sure if the writers decided his name just so they could use this song lol but damn it was probably the best choice they ever made XD Just...amazing. I will remember this moment for years to come ^^
More seriously, though, it definintely showed that the writers were aware at how abusive and just all around horrible William was and that they tried their best to change that. They made Alejandro appologized to Vilde on his own, the dig he made at her was less bad and like it was at a party and he was kind of drunk so I guessed that makes it a bit better, he never pressured Nora, etc...Him and Nora were truly adorable actually, I LOVED their banter, how they were nerds togethers (like for the halloween party where they were the only ones who knew who she was dressed up as lol that was a nice touch to show how well they fit together) and I actually could not wait for them to get together because they were just so cute (yes I did not believe it either but I actually ended up shipping a Willhelm pairing, even Zoenne did not get me until the second half of season 2)... only for them to get together off-screen, never truly addressing the Viri situation, and then immediately breaking up the first scene they have together afterwards lol. which, after two seasons of waiting, felt very underwhelming (well one season, I only started to ship them in season 2). But like I understand that Nora's arc about getting out of an abusive relationship was more important to talk about that a love story we have already seen a million times so I'm not too mad about that, even though it would have been nice to see them together for a longer time (maybe in season 2???) so that we could see the difference between Miquel and Alejandro as boyfriends (the only thing we got was social media and not everyone has access to it).
Alejandro's character truly suffered from this decision though. The Noora season is supposed to be the one that lets the William "shines" (unfortunately), we get to know more about him and he (supposedly) becomes more than just the asshole jock character (og never truly managed that but you get my point). And here...well...he was just kind of there. It was very nice to see how supportive and respectful he was towards Nora, even when he was still very in love with her and she was dating someone else, but he kind of stayed personality-lacking for me. He ended up being very bland, only there to be the Good Boyfriend for Nora and don't get me wrong, like I said they are very cute and I'm glad they're endgame, but he has next to no dephth appart from that...
5- Daniel (Skam Austin)
I hate his face. Don't know how to say this in any other way, he has just this kicked puppy face all of the time, like he is always playing the victim even when he is the asshole. I just could not stand that. And damn, his introduction is like the opposite of Alejandro's, you can tell that this is an American show lol (no hate I love Skam Austin but still). Anyhow, there was not just bad things regarding his character, I can give him that, like he is already better than William (yeah that does not say much but Improvement is always good!). The thing I appreciated the most about him was how his relationship with Grace was portrayed. The writers really insisted on them being goofy kids in love, instead of being super serious and intense all of the time, it was really refreshing and nice to see a couple like that, especially for their first time having sex, it was so much more realistic. Also his Big Fight was against homophobes and in defense of Tyler, which made it better I guess (and is actually in the line of the "everyone is going through something, be kind, always" quote that follows the season)....
But for the other things? Damn I hate him so much. Like he pressured Grace to go on a date with him for A WHOLE YEAR even though they barely know eachother, and he was so creepy to the point that she had to invent a fake boyfriend to get him off her back (which is like my nightmare, I don't think the writers understand how exhausting and scary that kind of guy is, this is nor cute nor romantic, no matter what Grace's speech at the end of season 2 says, I'm still fuming about that), because of course he only respects her boundaries if she is already "claimed" by another man (eyeroll). And he even defends his brother after what he did to the woman he supposedly love and basically emotionally manipulate her to not attack him in justice? Wow boyfriend goals amiright???
Look, I could see the writers really did try to make him more likeable, and in some respect he was, but since, like I said before, they did not understand what was truly wrong with William's character, it did not work for me.
6-Charles (Skam France)
I don't think they even tried with him. On the contrary, they probably said to eachother "you know what we should do?? We should make him even worse!!! Groundbreaking!!!!" and then they did. Rape apologist, fights over Manon with Sofiane (btw I also have my beef with him but he will always have a special place in my heart for pushing Charles lol) even after she clearly made him know she did not want anything to do with him anymore, never actually appologized for what he has done nor admit he was in the wrong (they tried to make their issues about his relationship with his dad like in the og but like...no...that has no link whatsoever to the real problem), makes the same bad things William did without being given any nuance whatsoever, not to forget his glorious "you know what we say about people who say no? that their no is a yes in waiting" line, etc.... He really has all the qualities!
You know, skamfr season 2 was actually the first Noora season I have ever watched, even before the og. I was a real innocent and naive sweet summer child back then and I remember thinking at the begining of he season "Well I am relieved, they made him so creepy and mean, there is no way he is the love interest :)"...Yeah...And I did not learn my lesson, because I thought the exact same thing in season 4.... Poor naive little me lol. ^^
#druck#wtfock#skam españa#skam nl#skam france#yeah i tag skam france because i think the majority of the fandom agrees with me so#charles munier#alejandro beltrán#alexander hardenberg#senne de smet#noah boom#zoenne#norandro
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Mia, episode one
Okay, so as I have said numerous times and at length I haven’t seen Mia’s season before. I can’t stand Noora’s season so I’ve never wanted to watch this one. But I’m giving it a go because apparently it’s better than Noora’s. I already really really dislike Alex, though. He’s gross to the last moments of Hanna’s season so this may be an uphill battle getting me to like him. Plus, this is likely more a live reaction thing since I really have no idea what’s coming (except that it��s based on Noora’s things) We shall see. Anyway, let's get to this:
1. The opening bits just reminds me how ridiculous kissing looks like up close and from the outside. I don’t know what the point here is, but I’m vaguely uncomfortable rn, so if that’s the intention, then well done I guess! These tongues are really bothering me for some reason. Kiki really needs to have more self respect. I mean, I know she gets there, but this is not it, child. He’s really not great.
2. Seeing a shot of the girls: wow I missed these people so much!!!! (It’s been a couple of days, self. Chill out!!) Again, this is super pretty. The colours etc of this scene are lovely. More cool and cold than Hanna’s (I guess because of the time of year????) but lovely anyway. I do not like this swinging camera though; it’s making me queasy. I am also seriously side-eyeing the ‘kissing’ thing between Hanna and Mia. Like, I want to believe the creators were leaning into the gay vibes the two gave off last season, but... eh. It feels off a bit. Still. Mia’s gaze when she says ‘why not?’ when asked if they should all be lesbians is... well, I think a case can be made that Mia is into Hanna at least.
3. Oh. Hans my love. It seems this place is a mess and disgusting, but aww I do love him!! ‘I’m finished in a second’ - lol. Poor Mia, but she knew he had a visitor and she pushed her way in anyway. She deserved to cop what she saw. But she’s right of course. If they keep doing the gross clean ups for him, he really will never learn. I love Hans, but ‘tomorrow’ is waaaaaaay too late in a situation like the one they have here. He really needs to start thinking about other people!!
4. Aww I do love Mia and Hanna, and I’m glad we still have their friendship here. But is this sort of awkward not-quite-hug thing normal in Germany? None of these people look like they want to hug each other and are just doing it out of some sort of obligation. I get that between Hanna and the boys (there’s some history there after all), but Mia and them? Still, it’s nice to see these storylines continuing from season one so fluidly. Like there’s very little awkward ‘so let’s summarise the previous season in stilted dialogue for you’ and yet new viewers should be able to pick up on what’s going on through context and in the ways they have integrated and alluded to it all.
5. Alex comes on screen and I’m all ‘ugh’ and then sadly he says some stupid stuff. Mia is super pretty in this scene, though, and I’m a bit baffled about why they chose to film her in such a gorgeous way and then to put Alex in pale colours against a pale background. He doesn’t stand out at all. ‘He’s insecure, he just wants his parents’ attention’ - I kind of like that this is coming from Kiki because she sees him with rose-tinted glasses and so it can be seen as biased and excusing him for no reason. But since I assume this is heading in the direction that Noora’s did, where William didn’t ever have to change but we were expected to excuse him because we found out bits about his background, I’m also assuming that this is going to be a case of ‘Kiki, while being obsessive and too naïve about him in some ways, was right all along about him’ but I guess we’ll see. Also, he’s basically with Kiki and yet he’s still looking at Mia like that? He’s clearly not changed at all since last season.
6. I just realised we haven’t had any moments with Mia alone yet and we’re already more than halfway through the episode. I don’t know where I’m going with that but it’s just interesting. Hanna was so in her head and by herself so often, and it was really nice to be so tight in with her. It’s a bit odd to not have that anymore. I know that the two characters are different but I miss that getting-to-know-you stuff of the main character.
7. The stuff with Kiki is really good, though. I like the way her issues are being highlighted but in a way where it’s clear that her thought processes aren’t immediately obvious as toxic. It’s really good that what she says and does is logical and can be seen as ‘healthy’ and so dismantling that thought process is really important to teach. Now, I only saw Noora’s season once so I don’t know how much is coming from the original but even if this is coming through from there, I like the way it’s going.
8. Alex again. I do not like him. His attitude to girls is so shitty. I mean I know this is William’s fault but I still really really do not enjoy this type of guy. Again he’s shot in faded out and pale colours vs her darker and stronger ones. I don’t know what the point is, but I assume there is one. Maybe that she doesn’t really know him and so she’s only seeing a pale and washed out version of him.
9. Hanna, darling, I’m with you. I too hate volleyball and when I was at school our PE teachers were obsessed with it and we had to play it FAR too often for my liking. Also these looks they are giving each other are super gay. I don’t make the rules!
10. This Christmas scene is so super cute!! The colours etc are glorious. Hans’s little festoon of lights is adorable. This little hug with Carlos and Kiki; it’s nice to know where that’s going. She definitely deserves someone like him (someone who is a bit messy and has some faults but who grows and is under it all a loving friend, and above all is someone who genuinely cares about her). I know 50 billion people have pointed it out, but I love that Matteo is off to the side and away from the group and that although he’s sort of joining in, he’s not a full part of it. It’s nice the little hints of how his season is going to go.
11. Boo Alex. Blackmail isn’t cool. It wasn’t cool in Hanna’s season and it’s not cool now.
And we’re at the end. We still have very little time just with Mia, just this little moment right at the very very end. I miss that tight PoV and I hope we see more of it soon. I still really really dislike this type of love interest and this type of romance. Alex may not be as bad as William (mostly because he’s better acted) but he’s still a few million miles away from any guy I’d want anything to do with romantically. Let’s see if that changes as we go on.
#druck#og druck#mia - episode one#update on Alex feelings - I still really dislike him#stay away if you like this character#because you won't enjoy what I have to say about him
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i am catching up on some of your posts from yesterday and i wanted to add that i don’t think that the remakes have exactly tarnished og skam, but maybe more like watered it down in some viewers’ eyes? a lot of people saw og skam as unique in its format and way of portraying teens along with important topics. but after three years of the same stories being repeated across the remakes, it seems like some people have just gotten tired of those same stories and that then gets translated into people forgetting that they were actually new and unique when just og skam was airing. i don’t know if that makes sense? the stories got wrung dry, honestly. which is why i so wish that the remakes had just used the skam format and told their own stories, so that the universe could expand in terms of who is being represented and also so that og skam could just stand on its own once again.
Hi anon! 🍒 This is an interesting ask (btw thanks for the thoughtful asks you guys have been sending me all this time! I genuinely enjoy not just reading your asks, but giving them a platform and discussing them). I feel you in some aspects, but maybe not others.
I agree that the remakes have watered Skam down for some viewers, but I wouldn't say they have watered down the stories per se. I think it's more, like, for some people Skam is simply a show that drops in clips during the week with yellow timestamps and a lead character. That is all that Skam is and nothing else. But if you've been reading my tumblr long enough, you might've caught discussions about how Skam made use of the illusion of "realism" to actually show idealism and hope. However, for some viewers, Wtfock is just as realistic as Skam even when it is continually cruel and disdainful towards its characters. This is a way in which (certain) remakes have watered down Skam, because Skam had a very specific mission statement and feel and intention, that people don't think it's an essential part of Skam that should be kept throughout the versions. And this also goes for aspects like showing a character's vulnerability, for instance. (@lightsandlostbells explained how that was lost in some remakes because they cast actors who, simply put, were too old and self-aware to convey teenage vulnerability anymore.)
I also feel like Skam was really good at finding very specific and personal moments that hadn't really been shown on mainstream TV before, like Isak taking that gay quiz for instance. That was the first time I saw a gay character do that on a piece of media, and yet soooo many people resonated with it! It's small stuff like Noora losing her shit over the fish cakes, which was such a poignant portrayal of controlling one's intake of food not to lose weight (as EDs are often portrayed on TV), but to have control over something when your life is unraveling. I feel like this kind of scenes came about as a result of the extensive research NRK did before sitting down to write the show, like I genuinely feel they listened to the people they interviewed and sought to be accurate and respectful of their experiences. (However limited by their own views as white feminists/white moderates they were.) The remakes, for the most part, have lost these small moments, because they're more focused on dropping as many clips as possible to keep tags alive, more focused on having lots of things going on, maybe to make up for shorter, less intimate clips.
This is how I feel the remakes have watered down Skam (and tbf, the extent to which the remakes have watered down Skam varies as far as I'm concerned, like I don't place Druck and eskam and Austin with Wtfock, France or Italia, and I don't think anyone will be surprised there). Because I think if the remakes had focused on truth over spectacle, I genuinely feel people wouldn't be as tired nor the stories as wrung dry. I feel like they focused more on telling the story than telling the emotional truth behind the story.
At any rate, I feel like if a story is adapted well, it can be adapted over and over and over. Like, how many versions of Romeo and Juliet are out there? Or Pride and Prejudice? But not every version of these stories is equal, which I also feel was something the wider Skams fandom had issues with facing for a while. Like, it was kind of verboten to like one remake more than another, and even more so to like a remake better than Skam. (And for as much as this ask is all about how the remakes watered Skam down... Here's the thing: Some people like those remakes better anyway. And that's fine!)
You could say, "well, people don't just mainline 8 versions of P&P in a single year, maybe those stories would be wrung dry if people did." And like, while I do think all the remakes try to capture international fandom to a bigger or lesser extent, or at least enjoy the international attention... I also don't think any team is expecting people to watch all 8 versions lol. I don't think all that many people involved with a Skam (whether crew or cast) has watched all 8 versions with all of its seasons. So like, that's on us for feeling like we have to watch everything or we're somehow being unfair to a remake or another. And it certainly doesn't help when stans of a particular remake will be like, "well, you're just looking for reasons to dislike this remake, Sander forgave Robbe so idk why you're still talking about it!!" as if I had some sort of vendetta against the Belgians or some shit.
I do miss Skam (or when Skam was at its best rather, like I don't miss Noora's season lmao, though it had its small moments like I've mentioned), but I also feel like... Maybe the people who enjoy the "watered down" remakes never really enjoyed Skam for all that it was, but only certain elements of it. And like, I can certainly relate to that!! Because I definitely enjoyed certain elements of Skam while not liking some other aspects and liking how the remakes did them more (like, for instance, I MUCH prefer how eskam did Nora/Alejandro over Noorhelm and idc that it's "watered down" Skam and that we don't see as many small moments with Nora G as we did with Noora). And I get that Skam stans (or, like, evak stans, because I truly only see this sentiment about wishing that Skam hadn't been wrung dry from evak stans, sorry, I've never seen it from Noorhelm or Sana stans, and Mohnstad stans seem to be angrier that none of the remake P-Chrises capture Herman's raw sexuality (LMAOOOOOO) than anything else) got to have a fandom without comparisons to other evaks or without complaints that evak was too white, cis and male. Honestly, when people draw certain comparisons between Isak and a remake Isak, I too want to scream. But otoh, without the remakes, I wouldn't have David (or Shay, Jo, Cris, Joana, Eva V, Nora G, Amira N, Lucas R, and many others) so you know... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
#ask#Anonymous#skams adjacent discouse#my inbox has become a refuge for bitter skam stans and ykw I'm cool with it#because I hope to see YOU ALL here when I start posting about skam scenes#(and compare them to the remakes but dw I'll only really be mean to skam for the isak/sana bench scene)
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I'm going back for seconds! Viri/Hugo, Nora/Miquel, Lucasim, Emma/You. Lol tbh I just want an Emma ship and I feel like we haven't properly settled for one. 😔 Who should end up with Emma, Mia excluded since you haven't watched Druck yet?
ardi round 2, i loooove this :)
VIRIHUGO:
i think at the end of the day i’m just resigned to virihugo’s existence. do i hate that they just Start pining for each other with no setup at all? yes. do i hate that their relationship was a noorhelm+vilde esque get-together where dylan is the one who ends up alone? yes (imagine if noora had told william something like “oh lol vilde is just some slut that goes for every boy around her, she’ll get over it soon and she doesn’t really care about us being together ;)”. bc that’s essentially what virihugo did LOL). do i hate that half of their clips are they just standing still and monologuing about each other? oh yes. do i care? not really. i would resent them a lot more if viri had been the protag of s3, but eskam had really compelling couples with noriquel and norandro so i just spend my time focusing on them and not the lesser part of the season.
viri is an endearing character, and although i didn’t like most of her subplot in s3, i do think eskam made her an interesting character with what they had and i’m happy she got a nice boyfriend that she has lots of fun with. moreover, norandro was lacking the enemies-to-lovers snarky interactions (too busy being a really compelling couple!) and the trope was picked up by hugo and viri. which i kinda dig, because those interactions were the only things that i enjoyed about various noorhelms in the skamverse - if most of them were like that and less bad abusive boy feminist girl jerk-fest, i wouldn’t loathe noorhelm as much as i do. although this also makes me wish viri and hugo had been that kind of dynamic from the start, and just gotten a lot of will-they-won’t-they glances from their friends throughout the show until they finally got into each other on s3. but i guess that would’ve made it impossible for eskam to use dylan just to *checks notes* make every person in the love triangle insanely infuriating, oh well.
tl;dr: they are allowed to exist.
NORIQUEL:
ardi, you just want to see the world burn LMAO
to me it’s hard to dislike any pairing with nora on it because she’s a very good character and that just means she’ll always have great dynamics with other good characters. and oh is miquel a good character. in a lot of ways, eskam gave us two great williams in one season: my boy alejandro, who is the perfect candidate for a nora love interest, who earned his place and then helped nora earn her place as the best candidate to be his love interest as well, and then miquel, that has just enough characterization to be exactly what the narrative of the season needs him to be - not only a mustache-twirling antagonist who will punch out then smirk his way out of situations, but a real person.
see, they could’ve made miquel into a one-dimensional asshole that nora is stupidly into because he’s hot (does that sound familiar to you? LOL) but oh no, miquel is way more than that. he earns nora’s trust because he’s not an asshole, he resents olga for cheating on him and you can see how nora waits until the moment where he’ll call her a slut but it NEVER comes, he defends nora in front of his friends... he gives her what she needs, and he fits right where she expects him to. and that’s so important in a season where every other character is challenging nora in one way or another: alejandro doesn’t fit in her box of “incorrigible fuckboy”, viri doesn’t fit in her box of “helpless friend who needs my pity”, emma doesn’t fit in her box of “s/a victim”. being with miquel is easy, when he just humors her and spits out thoughts that nora agrees with all the time. it’s just REALLY great to watch. not only is her season a display of how emotional abuse looks like, but also her entire relationship with miquel showcases her shame, her flaws, the things she needs to work with to better her relationships with the people who ask more of her because it’s only fair.
i honestly never was in the miquel hate train. once you get the point of the character, it’s easy to love him for what he is. as i said before, miquel was also a call of attention because the conversations that he had with nora reminded me of talks with male friends i’ve had in my uni years, and it really put it in perspective and made me realize that i have been humoring numerous miquels by sitting through their “i’m actually a feminist, ya know” think-pieces and agreeing with the general feeling of it. and i don’t think a character like niko could EVER make anyone feel like that.
i’ve checked the middle square because that was my reaction every time eskam made a point to parallel noriquel to noorhelm. like YES. YOU DO GET ME. TRULY A SEASON FROM NOORHELM ANTIS TO NOORHELM ANTIS. what a skamverse treat. this relationship is good for the SOUL. that’s why i never got infuriated watching the couple, despite knowing what the point of their existence was: at the end of the day, i knew that the signs of abuse weren’t pointless and just fillers for an end-of-season sex scene, but they were actually going to do something interesting with them. and that’s exactly what they did. noriquel is actually a perfectly crafted relationship for what its message is and it deserves to be remembered as that.
LUKASIM:
oh BOY.
i just.... kasim is in this relationship. that already makes this REALLY difficult to tackle it. the thing about kasim is... if you only watched the season as the movistar+ channel shows it, kasim is simply a plot device. he’s not a character. he’s only there to introduce conflict and stir some shit and then fuck off to the sunset. he doesn’t have an og counterpart which meant that eskam didn’t have to actually try with him, and kasim is just what they need him to be: a way to introduce the main conflict, a reason for dounia to hate amira, boy on boy action for that sweet fanservice, misogynist microaggressions towards amira, a loose way to wrap things up at the end of the season and absolve her from any guilt or shame, etc. he just shows up when the plot needs him and then walks away very swaggily. and that’s why kasim is an essay kind of topic because to talk about him, you have to tackle the racism in s4 and all the ways they could’ve made a conflict-inducing gay muslim guy actually likable. which i won’t do here.
but then if you look at the lucas extra clips... he’s actually LIKABLE. he’s a character: he has personality, he’s funny, he doesn’t take lucas’ shit, he will only be with him if lucas apologizes and changes first. and as someone who desperately wants to protect kasim from the shit characterization and treatment he got in the show, i treasure those clips immensely - which i don’t think a lot of people do, and i can see why. it’s just sad that the moments where kasim was a likable, real character were hidden behind a paywall, and drown in a convoluted plotline of outing people when they behave badly as a good punishment. the thing about their get-together is that their impact relies only on amira, and is meant to make her life a living hell. other than that, there’s not really a narrative or character reason why they’re both into each other. is it only because they’re conventionally attractive guys and the only recurrent mlm in the show? wow, that shit’s BORING.
sigh, anyway. in a slightly better world, kasim being gay wasn’t actually a nuance as it was presented in the show. rather, kasim was out and confident about it, close to his sister, probably a regular in las labass where he could also work with organizations of other queer muslims in madrid. this also means that lucas and kasim’s relationship wasn’t the typical hidden gay love story that they were in the actual show, but they’re just, ya know. typical gay kids who made out in the club and then became just friends. or lucas’ activism on s2 warranted some instagram dms and then they upgraded to acquaintances. it’s upsetting that lucas is the only eskild who doesn’t really get to hangout or be in queer circles like other eskilds are implied to, so it would be great for him to actually have gay friends that he enjoys just as much as his primarily friend group. like, their version of lucas’ queer lifestyle being going to bars and hooking up with older guys it’s so....................... why. they didn’t have the time to say anything interesting about it and so obviously they didn’t do it lol. at this rate lucas’ only platonic queer companion is cris, which is lackluster to say the least.
the decision of making kasim lucas’ endgame is just another one on the list of things s4 got so, so wrong. what for? why does lucas need (another) boyfriend, again? why does every queer person in this show have to be dating someone and also come out to their parents? again, their relationship is just another rushed hidden gay love story that i found interesting at 13 years old and then never again. they could’ve taken it into ANY other direction, please. i’m begging.
anyways, you had really nice headcanons of lucas being the only eskild willing to revert to date a muslim guy, so that’s the only reason why i’m open to the idea of them being a couple. in a better universe, eskam actually made a case for these two being a good couple, and i agreed with it. as it is for now, it’s just really pointless, and rooted on the fact that kasim is not a real character to begin with. so i’m OBVIOUSLY sending them to superhell <3
EMMA/ME:
standard wlw relationship that would probably get sooooo much backlash about how neither of the characters Really feel like wlw and the emma love interest being boring as fuck, tbh.
alright, now that we’ve covered all that.... should dear emma grace even end up with someone in the skamverse? maybe one of the skamau girlies, given the proximity? maybe she’ll hook up with the female eskild that i know so many people dislike? idk. emma deserves a nice love story, in the same wavelength as nora. she deserves someone who is patient, who communicates well, who establishes boundaries and asks for respect, who understands she’s not only the act of crazy party girl and there are really interesting, carefully placed layers around her. maybe someone who went through a similar situation or at the very least sits down with her and tries their hardest to understand all the things going on with her life. like... there’s something about emma dropping the accusations and then dipping to another country, away from her parents and even her hometown in the states, just to throw herself in a city as busy as nyc is, that is desperately asking to be explained and explored. in a lot of ways, emma’s story is the other side of the noora story that couldn’t be told through nora’s perspective. in a perfect universe, there’s a spinoff that takes place right between s3 and s4, where emma gets the news of how much of a shithead miquel actually is and she has to question all of that yet again, and break the sense of normalcy and comfort she had built during all those years. it would be great if that story featured her closest friendships, and a newfound love. yes i was serious when i talked about the emma grace spinoff @ movistar+
#the emma grace spinoff involves updates of nora + therapy and the sekou/lucas endgame that we all crave#skam españa#answered#ardi this reminds me of your druck post about how every druck fan will disagree with at least one of your opinions#i feel the same about this LOL#meta
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wtFOCK season 3, episode 4 reaction
Kiss kiss fall in love? More like kiss kiss stay away from me.
I have to warn you. This is the episode where I lost it. I had to go back and edit so much unhappy capslock out of my notes.
Episode 4
Clip 1 - Het drama again
Zoë shows Milan a video of the shooting prank. Milan asks about romance on the trip, Robbe says there were too many people and too little privacy.
Senne and Zoë have tension because Zoë is pissed that Senne was partying? And that he was posting pictures of parties on IG when she wasn’t there? I mean … look, I’m never a William fan, but this seems like Zoë’s problem. If you can’t trust him to behave when you’re gone, you SHOULDN’T BE WITH HIM. And if you feel like you can trust him, this dude going to bars or whatever shouldn’t bother you. At least it seems to be portrayed as Zoë’s issues. Milan mentions that she’s jealous. He seems to like Senne, and I do find that dynamic cute so far.
I do appreciate that the Noorhelm drama this time is boring and not like “Senne was mad about how Zoë handled her sexual assault” levels of offensive.
That being said ... Robbe’s story. Where.
If you’ve been telling a very tight story so far, where Robbe’s personal journey has been steadily progressing clip by clip, then a clip like this wouldn’t be that bad. We absolutely have not been watching a tight story. Even with the next clip of Robbe doing some introspection, I’m like ... can we not make every scene count toward his story when there’s so much catching up to do? Ten seconds of Robbe looking vaguely troubled out of a two-minute clip that’s mainly about Zoë and Senne’s relationship does not count. A better writer would find some way to make Zoë/Senne parallel to Robbe/Sander, like how Noora talking about William and “if he loves you, he’ll choose you” in the first clip of episode 4 is relevant to Isak sitting there texting Even and Even choosing his plans with Sonja over Isak.
Clip 2 - Milan and Robbe talk gaydar
Robbe checking out Sander on Britt’s IG … finally, some cyberstalking. Did he take a screenshot of a pic of Sander? Lol.
Milan sits down and asks Robbe his opinion of a guy on Grindr, sexy or not? Robbe is lukewarm, giving neutral answers, Milan says he’s allowed to have an opinion on whether a guy is hot or not.
It feels SO WEIRD to have this clip so late, and I’m trying to like … recalibrate my brain so it’s not just because it’s later than usual. I don’t inherently hate if a remake changes up the order of clips. But the problem is that we’re now FOUR episodes in and it feels like Robbe’s sexuality crisis has just begun, I guess? Or rather, efficient storytelling would start out with this clear view of what Robbe’s issues are, rather than muddling into it a few episodes in.
Milan’s all, this guy says he’s not gay, but he likes to blow guys. This turns into a conversation about Milan’s gaydar and how to know if a guy is gay. In the original scene, the purpose of this conversation with Isak and Eskild was there as a way of Isak figuring out if Even was gay. That ... does not really fit this version, because this clip is so late in the season. Isak was getting Eskild’s wisdom right after meeting Even, when he had nothing but a BJ reference to go on. But Sander eyefucking Robbe while kissing Britt and leaning in to kiss Robbe should be pretty big clues to Robbe that Sander likes men, no? And that he likes Robbe specifically. Yeah, Robbe might be doubtful because Sander is still with Britt, but nothing new has happened since the almost kiss to make Robbe doubt! It would make way more sense if they’d adapted the opening clip of OG season 4, with Even texting Isak that he had plans with Sonja, into the clip prior to this one. If Robbe had texted Sander an invitation to hang out, or even just a “hey, what’s up?” and Sander wrote back “plans with Britt” then it would be an understandable transition for Robbe to have some doubt about Sander’s sexuality in this clip, like hey, maybe he’s not actually into me, after all.
The scene might make sense if you think about Robbe listening and applying Milan’s words to himself. Thinking about how there’s “something trapped in them that desperately wants to come out.” Wondering if it’s obvious to other people that Robbe is gay. It still doesn’t quite work and I actually doubt that was their intention (I think it was all about how to detect if Sander is into guys) but I am searching for any scraps of Robbe introspection, so.
OK, at least they had Robbe immediately look up Grindr (I laughed that he searched “grinder”). Good! Sexuality conflict! Why is it so late! Although it was probably more about trying to find Sander rather than a personal move on Robbe’s part.
This is a very gay song, btw (I Like Boys by Todrick Hall).
Clip 3 - Robbe and Yasmina talk het drama
Aaron talks to Robbe about sitting close to his teacher to see her boobs and the teacher saying she knows why he’s sitting there. I highly suspect this is just a dream Aaron had, unless the teacher said it in a pissed off way. Throw his ass in the back row, big-breasted teacher!
Robbe meets up with Yasmina. Yasmina wants to know the dirt from the seaside, Robbe fills her in. Soooo are they good friends, or what? He tells her about Aaron and Amber and they laugh and stuff. I mean it’s cute and all but like … where is this coming from? Did they become great friends in the S2 that I didn’t watch?
And that’s the whole clip … again, I ask what was the point?
To establish that Robbe and Yasmina are friends? Way to undermine the development and importance of that relationship by basically cutting through the buildup and hard work to the payoff. Sana and Isak meant more to people BECAUSE they started off prickly and grew to like each other and respect each other via their actions and words, right? That their conversations were more interesting because of their opposing views and resulting friction? That the friction was extremely relevant to the religion discussion?
Was the point to talk about Aaron/Amber and how Amber supposedly isn’t interested? We don’t need Yasmina’s commentary on that at all since we could see how Amber herself reacted to Aaron. Like if Yasmina was all, yeah, Amber couldn’t stop talking about Aaron, she says she doesn’t like him but I think she does, then I guess I could see the relevance of this conversation since it’s “new” information ... but it’s just the same shit we already know. And again: why spend so much time on a SIDE HET ROMANCE during a gay character’s season? Two of out three clips in this episode so far have been about side het romances!
This clip was just not needed at all except to set up Robbe and Yasmina so the impending religion conversation feels mildly less like two characters who have barely spoken on screen suddenly have an intense and somewhat personal talk. Something they could have done in earlier episodes instead of the other repetitive, unnecessary clips they’ve done this season.
Clip 4 - Dance chicks
At Noor’s dance performance, Robbe’s pals are drooling over the performers (and honestly being rather inappropriate and distracting). At least they got Robbe’s lack of interest right. Even though they have established this FIFTEEN THOUSAND TIMES with the lack of interest in Noor, like this clip almost doesn’t feel necessary at this point! If they’d had it earlier in the season, sure, but now it feels redundant. Like we really super mega get it by now that Robbe’s not into the girls.
The instructor thanks the performers at the end and Robbe says that he was “so gay.” Hey, except you know what? THERE IS NO BUILDUP TO THIS MOMENT. ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NONE. Except for the homophobic jokes from his friends in the previous seasons, but there’s nothing I can recall in this season. But more importantly, Isak’s similar comment was prompted by him taking the gay test in a preceding clip. Taking a quiz about generalizations of gay people, rooted in homophobia! Which Isak applies to the dance teacher! In order to distance himself from being gay! WE GOT NONE OF THAT HERE. For fuck’s sake.
There is no setup or reason why Robbe goes from being somewhat neutral about gay people with Milan asking him about the Grindr dude two clips ago - where Robbe is just kinda like, yeah OK, whatever, you think everyone’s gay, Milan (but he’s not overly grossed out or homophobic) - to this moment where he’s making a derogatory comment about a person he perceives as flamboyantly gay. This scene just happens because it did in OG. And the thing is, obviously you can attribute Robbe’s reasoning here to internalized homophobia. We know internalized homophobia exists and why he has it. But this is a scripted narrative, and any scripted narrative needs to have things happen for a reason rather than just because.
I remember complaining that Skam Italia had a bizarre take on this scene. But that’s nothing compared to the laziness on display here.
Jens is like WTF at Robbe’s “so gay” comment, it’s clear he’s not feeling it. I do like that Robbe gets defensive when Jens scoffs at him. They ask Robbe why he’s such a downer lately and if it’s because of his dad, or because of the Vlogs. Robbe blames the vlogs and yells and walks off, they’re confused.
Lol I just realized that I don’t think there was any followup to the prank from the seaside trip that had Robbe all pissed off. Nothing to show that the boys reconciled or that Robbe didn’t get over it right away.
I have a big problem with the way the boy squad is characterized so far, and it might be because they come across as more self-absorbed than other boy squads, as well as having a more superficial bond. I feel like so far they’re a rather cynical take on teenage boyhood. Again, not expecting them to be perfect or to be overly mature, but this show has to do a lot of work to make me believe they have the empathy or maturity to deal with Robbe’s situation kindly. (EDIT from the future: lol)
Clip 5 - Robbe and Yasmina talk religion
Oh shit, somehow I didn’t connect that dots that Aaron mentioning the teacher’s boobs would lead to THE boob teacher making an appearance! Unless there are multiple teachers with notable breasts at this school.
Another scene of Robbe not interested in breasts ... I mean, not to sound like a broken record, but this would have been good about three episodes ago.
The teacher is talking about religion and Darwininsm and creationism, which prompts Robbe to complain about how people still have religious beliefs in 2019.
Heavy fucking sigh. Have we gotten ANY religious moments from Robbe’s mom this season? Or from anyone else? Do the writers realize that Isak grilling Sana about religion was prompted by his OWN MOTHER’S religious beliefs and his fear of her judgment of his sexuality? No? Not surprised.
For real, Robbe just complains about religion out of nowhere … and like, obviously religious homophobia isn’t a rare thing, it exists. But it has not been established why Robbe in particular cares about the effects of religious homophobia, compared to say, the casual homophobia of his friends, or gay stereotypes, or gay bashing … we don’t know why religious homophobia has PERSONAL relevance in Robbe’s life. And yes, this is a concern for every gay person! But from a STORYTELLING perspective, there should be some focus as to what Robbe’s main fears are about being gay. Lack of acceptance from his peers? His family? Religion? Violence? Homophobic slurs?
I would say based on previous seasons, the most compelling basis for Robbe’s internalized homophobia would be the homophobic attitudes of his friend group. A revised take on the dance chicks scene might have been done with this in mind, but it wasn’t, and so it’s all just very muddled.
Anyway, Robbe goes on this tangent and asks Yasmina why she believes in God. The teacher voices what I thought and is like, why the fuck are you talking in class?
Again, there is NO BUILDUP to the involvement of religion at all. They have this shoehorned in friendship, I guess so he can ask her. He does bring up homosexuality at least, and how religion is so black and white.
Yasmina asks him what he believes. ONE THING they got right: they had Robbe challenge Yasmina on an intellectual level, and so Yasmina challenges him on an intellectual level right back. Because a lot of their dialogue is lifted right from OG, that’s why it works. LMAOOOO. Yasmina points out that homosexuality is an evolutionary “dead end” so therefore it can’t be genetic, so what is it? A disorder? A choice? I will also give some credit for her invoking the most anxiety-causing options to get under Robbe’s skin.
But the tone of their friendship does come across very different, because in the previous scene they seemed like good chums who had a rapport, and here it’s like Robbe lashed out at her for no reason, even less than Isak did with Sana, because Robbe just decided to torch his friendship with Yasmina out of the blue. I guess the answer is that Robbe is cranky so he decided to grill Yasmina over religion, but again, the fucking question is: why was he cranky? Two clips before this one they were on warm, friendly terms. In the last clip, he lashed out at his male friends, but that has nothing to do with religion. What the writers are asking us to do is basically just imagine all the stuff that’s happening in Robbe’s brain instead of doing their jobs and showing it to us. You don’t have to spoon feed us but you don’t also get to stick a few peas on a plate and wonder why we’re going hungry.
(REALLY. IT WAS NOT PROMPTED BY ANYTHING, NOT A TEXT FROM HIS MOM. WHICH IS WHY ISAK WAS UPSET AND LAUNCHED HIS INTERROGATION AT SANA.)
(CAUSE AND EFFECT, MOTHERFUCKER)
Clip 6 - Bowie playlist
Robbe is doing homework when Sander sends him a Bowie playlist. Robbe listens to Space Oddity and has a brief Moment. It’s very nice but wow, wouldn’t it be even better if Robbe fell for Sander listening to that? Say, in the last episode? Before they almost kissed? And before Robbe was suddenly declaring himself a Bowie expert to Noor?
Sander calls him, I like Robbe fixing his hair before he answers. It’s a video chat, gotta look his best! They have an actual conversation about Bowie and they flirt. Sander invites Robbe to the cafe later and Robbe is happy except then Britt is in the background and apparently she’s going with them, so it’s not a date after all, oh no. Robbe’s actor is good at subtly conveying his disappointment here.
Robbe hangs up and sticks his head against the bed (lol) and then goes back to Grindr. He immediately gets messages for horny sex and then gets rid of Grindr.
At first I was like, yay, this clip had a clear point and a sense of cause-and-effect, but now I’m like ... ehhhhh. Because the purpose of Robbe checking out Grindr is either A) so he can look for Sander or B) so he can check it out as a general way of exploring his sexuality (or both). The suggestion is that it has a lot to do with the former, because it was part of Milan’s advice as to how to find out if someone’s gay. But it’s a little weird here, because Robbe just saw that Britt was coming along to the cafe, so he should be discouraged about Sander. I mean, I think it’s still possible that he’s trying to figure out if Sander likes him because he’s getting mixed signals between the playlist and Britt, but it’s just a little off. And as for option B, I’m not sure why now of all times is the best time for that, like if you think about it, the sting of getting his hopes dashed should be the predominant emotion here, would he go straight to Grindr just to be like hmmm, maybe I’m into dudes?
And it bugs me because there is a super easy fix to this clip! Just have Sander send the Bowie playlist, Robbe listens to it, and as he’s daydreaming and smiling a bit, he gets out his phone and checks out Grindr, ready to search for Sander. But there are too many sex messages so he’s just like WTF and gets rid of it. Then Sander calls and they have this conversation that ends in Robbe being reminded that Britt is still in the picture. (Or he doesn’t need to get the sexy messages at all, I mean they’re kind of funny but I’m not sure they’re plot-necessary here.)
Noor texts him that they’ll meet up later. It’s not 100% clear but it sounds like she knew about meeting up with Sander and Britt, so that means Britt probably told her previously. Which is a little bit of different context from OG, because I was under the impression that Even asked Isak to hang out with them hoping that they’d be alone, and then somehow Sonja found out and made it into a group thing with Emma, making Even grumpy. With this it seems like it was planned as a group thing from the beginning, Britt knows they’re meeting up later.
Or wait, when Sander says he’ll give Robbe advice at the cafe later, does that mean Robbe already knows they’re meeting up? That would make sense because it’s what happened in OG (Even invited Isak in an earlier clip and then Isak found out Emma and Sonja were coming in a later one). They’re incorporating all kinds of OG elements in this episode so I wouldn’t be surprised. But I assumed that this was the invite because we didn’t see Sander talk to Robbe earlier this week? Shouldn’t we have seen that clip since it’s the first time they’ve interacted since they almost kissed? I checked the texts for this episode and I don’t see anything like Sander inviting Robbe, either? Did I just miss something? What is going on?
Clip 7 - Robbe is late to meet Noor
Later that day …. Robbe rides a bike. Very fast. The music is dramatic! This would not be out of place for an O Helga Natt scene
And yet it’s not OHN, it’s Noor? Noor seems annoyed. Because Robbe is late. OH NO THE TENSION WHATEVER WILL WE DO. WE CARE A TON ABOUT ROBBE AND NOOR.
Noor is super pissed at him and starts screaming and shoving at him. What the actual fuck? She complains that she thought he was dead or something and is mad he didn’t even send a message. She says fuck you and walks off. Robbe follows her on the bike.
I don’t know how popular this opinion is, but Noor did not come across as great here, like when I watched it I was baffled at her response. I say this as someone who is chronically early and also gets annoyed at lateness. She has every right to be annoyed that Robbe is late and that he didn’t message her to tell her he’d be late, and I get that there’s supposedly more to her reaction than just this one incident. But the screaming and especially the shoving at him is just WTF.
Also, she told him to meet him at 19:00, and the beginning of the clip is at 19:21 (I see what you did there) and Robbe arrives like a minute or two later. So he’s 20 minutes late, which is certainly annoying, especially because it’s dark and chilly outside, but IMO not a cause for “I thought you were dead or in an accident!” and the OTT reaction.
Clip 8 - Robbe and Noor fight
Sander and Britt are in the cafe, Robbe and Noor argue outside about him giving her mixed signals. Has ... he ...?
OK, I’d say I half-see her case, and I half-don’t. If Noor can somehow sense Robbe’s disinterest during their makeouts or lovey-dovey moments or w/e, then I can buy that. I think there are slight moments where he doesn’t seem into it. But Robbe has put so much more genuine effort into their relationship than Isak did. He hasn’t even turned Noor down for sex, really, they’ve just gotten interrupted every time, or she’s thrown up. He didn’t want to go to her dance performance except then he told her he would go approximately thirty seconds later. He went to her dance performance. He went to the seaside with her and kissed her and slept in the same bed with her. This is the first time he’s actually fucked up with her.
Noor sounds ridiculous right now. “Do you still love me?” Uhhhh what??? You’ve been dating for less than a month, really? Did he tell her he loved her at any point? I’m serious, is there some material I missed? Some nuance in the language that didn’t completely translate?
I get it, I’m watching insecure overdramatic teenagers! I’m just wondering if I’m supposed to be on Noor’s side here. They could have portrayed this less OTT and more fitting to Robbe’s actual offenses.
Anyway Robbe and Noor have a screaming fight in the street and he says he can’t breathe anymore because of her. I can buy that even if it’s dramatic because he’s feeling trapped by her due to his sexuality. She walks off, Sander and Britt come outside. Britt goes after Noor and hugs her, Sander sings Space Oddity to signify the crash and burn of Robbe/Noor. He has on a Pink Floyd shirt so at least his musical taste is more varied than Bowie.
Clip 9 - Robbe and Sander by themselves
Robbe and Sander drink alone at the bar, they don’t think the girls are coming back. Sander texts Britt and then tells Robbe they’re going to do something else. He shows him Britt’s text saying that Noor needs some time alone. I mean. this drastically changes the context of them going off together … it’s not because they want to be together, necessarily (although they do) but it’s by default now.
So they leave.
Yeah, I do not love what they did with this scene. It’s short and to the point but I want to point out a few things.
First, because again, there’s no need to break up most of these clips into such short, choppy scenes just because 15 or 20 minutes have passed in-universe. It might be exciting if you happen to be watching and following at the exact time these are being posted, but it also messed with the flow of the scenes and the build of emotions. Imagine if we cut off after Isak and Even left Emma and Sonja and then 10 minutes later we got them riding around on a bike. We’d missed that beautiful transition from the silent, empty room to Isak on the bike and then Head Over Heels kicking in. That’s one of my favorite moments in season 3 and it’s because of that transition. It’s because I was sitting there watching this uncomfortable scene and wishing Isak and Even could be alone and then they got to be alone and my stomach swooped! If you break up moments like those, there’s just not as much build. (Or imagine - horror of horrors - an O Helga Natt where Isak gets the text from Even and it cuts off after he runs out of the church and then resumes when he arrives at the school, so we don’t see his journey. You lose so much.)
Second, there is a curious lack of romantic/sexual tension in this scene. It’s there on Sander’s end, I think, or at least you can read it there due to his focus on Robbe and even some of his body language. Robbe, on the other hand, seems more upset that his girlfriend who he doesn’t even feel genuine attraction to has walked out on him rather than the fact that he is sitting next to the boy he’s crushing on, alone together, right before they share their first kiss later that evening. And it just makes me want to know why.
I don’t blame Robbe’s actor at all, because it’s the director’s job to tell him how to play the scene. But I rewatched this scene trying to be generous, and there is not a single shred of attraction or tension from Robbe toward Sander. He checks the cafe door when it opens, he asks Sander to text Britt, and when Sander suggests they leave, Robbe’s first instinct is to ask what if Noor comes back. He sits there moping into his beer the whole time. He doesn’t sneak looks at Sander. He doesn’t try to talk to Sander about anything except Noor and Britt. No banter, no discussion that’s focused on them, Robbe-and-Sander, you know, the main couple of this season (supposedly). It doesn’t even feel like he’s consciously trying not to look or interact with Sander because of the romantic tension. No, it genuinely feels like Robbe’s #1 thought right now is Noor. Does that make sense to you? It makes sense for him to be a little out of sorts due to the fight, but does it make sense that Robbe seems to have no perceptible reaction to being alone with the guy he likes? Does it make sense that they didn’t take this chance to throw in some romantic and sexual tension in order to pave the way for the kiss that is going to happen very shortly? Gotta say that I think this scene exemplifies my earlier complaints about how Noor was so prevalent early in the season and how Robbe/Noor was built up. Because once again, Robbe/Noor has taken precedence over the undeveloped Robbe/Sander pairing.
Finally, as I said above, the situation makes it so that Robbe and Sander are on their own by default, not by choice. Combined with the bizarre lack of tension, that makes this scene fall totally flat. There’s no sense that these two really really want to be alone together. There’s no joy in them running off together. Robbe actually seems reluctant to go off with Sander. And not even because he’s fearful of what might happen, ooooo things might get a little gayer than I can handle right now, but like he’d rather sit here and drink and think about his girlfriend.
It’s like they were concerned that Isak and Even were too mean to Emma and Sonja so they decided Robbe and Sander would only be alone because it was the girls’ decision to leave them, not the other way around. We even get that text from Britt so we know that Noor totes isn’t coming back and it’s OK for them to leave. I have no idea what their actual motivation was to construct the scenario this way, though. I would love to know. (The answer would probably annoy me so I’m better off not knowing.)
It’s little stuff like this that makes me want to sit down the writers/directors/whoever’s behind wtFOCK and have them watch scenes from Skam S3 and write an essay on the construction and execution of clips. Do some homework about timing, tension, narrative structure, and everything else that makes S3 work.
Clip 10 - Smooch time
It’s 21:21 so you know what’s happening. Also, bullshit! Why is this happening so fast. You haven’t earned this!!!!
Sander buys them booze. The Sander actor is very good, honestly. I like his screen presence. It is a testament to his abilities that this relationship is working for me at all, because it sure ain’t the writing. (Robbe’s actor is doing well, too, but the writing is dragging him down since he’s present for all this nonsense.)
This scene of Sander and Robbe drinking and riding bikes is genuinely good on its own and they have strong chemistry when they’re allowed to show it. They have easy banter and interaction, there’s a callback to the booking.com reference from when they met. Really, this part makes me sad, because I can see the potential here! If the writing was GOOD, if the story had a legit direction, if it was just better storytelling all around … this season could have been wonderful, they had the right guys to do Isak and Even’s story justice. Instead it’s like this one terrific moment in a sea of wtFOCK.
If they go in the pool I will roll my eyes. C’mon, guys, you DO NOT HAVE THE SYMBOLISM to do this scene. It had a meaning in Skam, in most of the remakes it���s just an arbitrary location.
Yep, it’s a pool.
Sander takes off all his clothes so he jumps in bare-assed, and Robbe laughs. Sander yells at Robbe to get in the pool so Robbe does a fucking striptease while Sander watches, more or less, and he’s about to get in the pool in his underwear, but Sander is like “all the way or no way” so Robbe takes off his underwear after a brief moment of hesitation and jumps in. So they’re naked in the pool. Cool cool cool.
Seeeeee, on the one hand this COULD be a moment of liberation, I could see it, taking off the clothes and jumping in as a representation of abandoning the stale hetero life or w/e. But I don’t think wtFOCK has built anything resembling a clear arc for Robbe, to the point where this act means anything, really. (Can you imagine Isak doing this in episode 4? I don’t know if it fits his character at that point, but I could at least be like, OK, this is part of his ~rebirth and I think we’ve built him up enough that this moment of liberation feels like a culmination of something.) I’m also not totally sold on the way they presented this, like we’ve got a closeted gay kid alone with his crush and the crush takes his all his clothes off and then Robbe takes all his clothes off with only the barest reluctance (but he’s not like … distressed or worried, just kinda like “aw, man!”) For some closeted gay kids? Sure, guess I could see it! But in the context of “this kid is struggling with his sexuality and he’s alone with the boy he likes and he’s supposed to be going through Some Shit”? Why doesn’t this have a bigger reaction in Robbe? Since they are drunk and not necessarily overthinking things in the moment, however, I will let this slide. Cynically I think this is mostly about trying to make wtFOCK Sexxxxy. I’m not a prude and I don’t have an objection in theory to a teenage couple skinny dipping together, but wtFOCK has a trend of taking a thing that happened in OG and going “How can we do this but more?” and these remakes know Evak is the big sell in fandom, so. They’re making it spicier. (EDIT from the future: Jumping ahead to later content on wtFOCK ... they very much are trying to make it Sexxxxy.)
Also, these guys just haven’t had a lot of buildup yet! And I can see like … rewriting this scene so the first kiss isn’t necessarily some epic release of a simmering tension and growing love, but more of a tentative, pivotal moment with a gay kid kissing a boy for the first time, and having the relationship grow from there. But wtFOCK isn’t doing that, it’s trying to do the Evak thing with the epic romance, and they haven’t earned it.
They go underwater for the breath-holding contest, Sander tries to kiss Robbe (Robbe’s eyes are pointedly closed so this feels like some unnecessary POV breakage) and Robbe shoves him back. He’s still in a good mood, though. They go back underwater and Robbe kisses Sander. Yay, I guess.
Lol, I don’t actually want to sound like a bitter asshole. The song choice is lovely! The cinematography is pretty good! And like I said, they have nice chemistry. It’s just that the storytelling has been so messy up to this point that I can’t get too invested. The very first clip I saw in real time for Skam season 3 was the pool scene - I had just discovered the show a few days prior, and I kept watching the clips on repeat. I could not get enough of this story. I really really needed those guys to kiss. Yeah, I recognize that at the time the story was brand new and this wasn’t the fourth iteration of the same pool scene and the sixth first kiss for this couple, and you really can’t recreate that feeling of not knowing what comes next in a remake like this. Still, I think that if the writing had just been better, I could have been happy and invested in this moment.
I also think that the pool scene in particularly has a tendency to get written in kind of a rote way in the remakes. Some of them have put their own spin on it - I had plenty of criticisms of Skam France’s S3 but I did enjoy their first kiss and I praised that they made up their own symbolism - but some of them have gotten so close to the original, the exact same banter, the interruption at the end, and it doesn’t feel natural for those versions of the characters. I’m not sure if the remake showrunners think that the original scene is something the fans want to see or if they’re being lazy or if they think the OG is just that good (which it is, lol). I don’t think any remake has been that faithful with their O Helga Natt clips, by comparison.
Anyway they get caught, yadda yadda.
Clip 11 - Morning after the pool smooch
Robbe gets up and sees Zoë looking at Senne, seemingly hungover, on the couch. She makes coffee to spite him since the coffeemaker is loud.
Zoë asks Robbe about last night and says Noor was at the door. Robbe doesn’t tell her what really happened. Apparently Noor looked like she felt bad. I don’t think I can handle more Robbe/Noor, guys. I appreciate that OG didn’t drag out Isak’s thing with Emma once he kissed Even, but I’m not confident this won’t happen here.
Zoë asks if he’s all right. Man, the most effective relationship this season is probably Zoë and Robbe? Which is fine! But like … boy squad ain’t great, Sander and Robbe aren’t well developed, they fucked up Yasmina and Robbe already, Milan and Robbe are way behind schedule…
What if the reveal were that Sander were in Robbe’s bed?
It’s not. Instead, Sander texts him as a cover of Space Oddity plays. Robbe has angst and blocks Sander on WhatsApp. Ohhhh my. Another thing I appreciated about OG? That Isak was all in after he kissed Even, and that the angst came from different places besides the typical gay coming out storyline of “kissed a boy, regretted it, went back in the closet temporarily.” Not that it’s unrealistic, just that it’s done so much.
I think we’re supposed to take away that Zoë saying Noor was there looking sad made Robbe reconsider what happened with Sander? Or just general internalized homophobia. I don’t think the latter is totally out of Robbe’s characterization based on what we’ve seen so far, although I wish there was clearer writing so it felt more like “Robbe has internalized homophobia that made him block Sander” and less like “????? internalized homophobia I guess.” Again, I’ll letting this slide because I can also rationalize it as him being a little drunk last night, and now that he’s sober he regrets his choice, even if I don’t think this is a great choice at this stage in the season.
Clip 12 - The heaviest of sighs
The subs helpfully gave a trigger warning for homophobic slurs so I knew this was going to be “good.”
Robbe is listening to music as he goes home. Sander comes up to him, smiling, wanting to know why Robbe blocked him. Robbe says to leave him alone, that Sander got him drunk and took advantage of him.
L M A O welp, this would soooo kill this ship for me if I were invested.
FIND SOMEONE ELSE, SANDER, YOU DESERVE BETTER
Oh, so Robbe also shoved him and called him a dirty f****t! What a great romance!
No, really - this is the EXACT THING I was so glad that Evak DID NOT DO. I’m not saying their romance has to be free of flaws, that there can never be fuckups, that Isak can’t ever hurt Even and vice versa. But this is such a common and ugly trope in gay media.
Robbe goes inside and slams his door, Milan asks what’s wrong, Robbe tells him to leave him alone. We get Milan’s POV and not Robbe’s at the end.
Anyway lmao. wtFOCK indeed.
Did you enjoy the cuddle scene in Skam, where a same-sex couple got to be tender and sweet and open with each other for almost seven minutes? A clip that felt refreshing and even revolutionary for its normalization of gay intimacy? Hahahaha, fuck you.
Okay, seriously though. It’s not a problem that we didn’t have the cuddle scene immediately after the pool scene. It’s not a problem that they want to change up this storyline and make it their own - though again I would ask the creative powers at wtFOCK why they’re making these particular choices. It’s not a problem if Robbe and Sander’s relationship has some extra bumps along the way to their happy ending.
WHAT EVEN PROMPTED THIS CHANGE IN ROBBE, like I get the answer is “internalized homophobia” but Robbe was BUCK NAKED WITH SANDER IN THE POOL so like. Can we please get SOME context for why he suddenly had a freakout? Can we please get some narrative structure with cause and effect? Can we get a fucking reason that Robbe went from 0 to 100? Because if it was just the blocking Sander on WhatsApp, that’s one thing, but accusing him of sexual assault and calling him slurs is so vastly beyond that. If we’re supposed to take away that Robbe feels bad about Noor, that still doesn’t explain the ugliness of his reaction, rather than just telling Sander that he has a girlfriend and it was a mistake or whatever.
I’m going to add that I understand that Robbe went through some additional homophobic shit from his friends in previous seasons - I remember Moyo saying crappy things to him in S1, and I watched a S2 scene where the same thing happens. So I can understand if Robbe’s internalized homophobia is very strong. But they’ve also cut out so much stuff in this season that added to Isak’s internalized homophobia (no mom’s religion making him anxious, no gay test, no gay generalizations from Emma...) If they want to rely on internalized homophobia from previous seasons, then we really need a reminder in this season, such as his friends making homophobic jokes, which I do not recall hearing so far. And they need to show what happened between the kiss to provoke such a homophobic reaction.
After Sander said that thing about not knowing if anyone would ever love him … why did they do this? I love me some pain in storytelling but this isn’t just angst, this is needlessly cruel.
There is, believe it or not, a middle ground between “conflictless fluff” and “cruel homophobia and assault allegations” where you can have some tension, even have Robbe have a freakout, without bringing in this kind of material. Robbe could have told Sander to stay away without accusing him of assault or calling him slurs. He could have said he wasn’t gay or that it was a mistake or even “I was drunk” without following it up with “and you took advantage of me.” All of these options might have stung for Sander and for any viewers who were hoping for morning-after cuddles, but they also create conflict without pushing it over the edge into OTT cruelty.
HOW I WOULD REWRITE THIS EPISODE:
Ahahahaha
So far this season is like a disconnected set of scenes from Skam S3 with bonus filler scenes and unnecessary clips about non-Robbe things. It’s getting hard to think about rewrites because the point, if you will, so often so unclear. It’s also hard because this episode squeezed in so many OG scenes that were missing from earlier in the season that it’s like, well, shouldn’t we have had this a few episodes ago? Should we just leave them out now?
Okay. Start by getting rid of the first clip in this episode that’s mostly about Zoë/Senne, bump up the Milan clip. We start with Robbe looking at pics of Sander on IG, Milan comes in and asks if there was any romance on the trip, then they get into the Grindr talk, etc. The Grindr talk makes more sense before Robbe almost kisses Sander, but like. We can’t do anything about that now. What might be better is if the whole “how do you know if a guy is gay?” thing takes a swerve into not just Robbe trying to figure out Sander, but to something uncomfortably close to Robbe’s own behavior (like IDK, referencing body language and how a guy will lean in closer, like Robbe did with Sander) and then Robbe gets cranky because he’s worried he’s too obviously gay to other people. After Milan leaves, he starts looking up stuff like “how to act straight” or “how not to seem gay” or whatever. That leads us into the next clip...
... the dance chicks scene. Now we’ve seen plenty of Robbe being disinterested in girls already, so this time we’re going to show him trying to be interested in girls instead. Like he’s watching his friends’ annoying horny reactions and he’s clearly trying to imitate them and join in, but we can see that he’s awkward and not totally feeling it. But he’s trying. Then after the performance, Robbe makes the comment about the dance instructor being so gay.
There is a problem, IMO, in that Robbe’s friend group has been shown to be more homophobic than the average boy squad (as seen in S1 and S2). And frankly I don’t really believe yet Jens is the type to shut down a homophobic comment. Like in S2 Moyo and Robbe straight up start calling each other f*gs and Jens is like chill, no one here is a f*g, but if there were, you should date each other. That’s his idea of intervention. So I’m not sure how to handle that.
I don’t love this idea, because I hate what they’re done with Moyo in particular, making him pointedly more homophobic (to be discussed in a future reaction) but Moyo and Aaron could perhaps laugh at Robbe’s comment and start riffing off it, while Robbe is sitting there pretending to laugh but looking increasingly uncomfortable, and Jens notices something is off with Robbe, and he tells the guys to knock it off, the guy is gay, so what? Big deal. Then aside from the other guys, he asks Robbe if something is wrong, and Robbe snaps at him or attributes it to family problems again.
I was going to also say that the setting for this clip doesn’t really allow for Sander to swoop in, like Even did to return the snapback, but actually maybe it could? Noor could have invited Britt and Sander to watch the show, right? So maybe when Robbe makes this gay joke and his friends are laughing, Sander comes up while Britt is talking to Noor and is like, hey guys, what’s up? Robbe’s friends are just like, oh nothing, did you see how gay that guy was? Then Sander is like, sorry, what’s the problem with being gay? He tells them off a little. Meanwhile Robbe is standing there awkward as fuck, not looking Sander in the eyes, while Sander is looking at him for backup, but Robbe just makes an excuse to bolt. Maybe he walks past Noor without saying anything, so she looks confused.
Now onto Robbe and Yasmina. Man, I truly hate saying this. But: If you are not going to incorporate other religious themes into this season, then you don’t need to redo the Isak-Sana friendship. Again! I don’t like suggesting this! But what actually is Robbe and Yasmina’s relationship bringing to this season when it’s portrayed like this?
They left out the weed blackmail, which is really just a plot device in OG, but it’s a plot device that sets up Sana and Isak’s thread. It also gets Isak to kosegruppa to meet Even, something which is irrelevant here.
Sana’s main tie to S3 is Isak’s mom. Isak’s mom is religious, that makes him anxious, and it’s a hurdle to coming out to her. Robbe’s mom is not religious, Robbe’s internalized homophobia doesn’t seem to have anything to do with religion specifically other than this one scene with him and Yasmina. It’s just a disconnected tangent. What’s more, what is Yasmina’s eventual advice going to do for him? Sana’s advice led Isak to come out to his mom.
I really like Yasmina. If there’s another way that her presence is relevant to the themes of this season, by all means let’s find it and include her. As it is, either make it that Robbe’s mom is religious and include the Robbe-Yasmina subplot, or don’t and leave it out.
I would love to see in-depth and meaningful friendships develop among all the characters in the Skam squads, just because I love all those kids. Jonas and Vilde? Even and girl Chris? Eva and Mahdi? I don’t care how random, let’s have them all! But there is a finite amount of time per season, and we can’t extend time for all possible relationships - just the ones that are most relevant to the story we are trying to tell.
I mentioned above a fix for the Bowie playlist clip that makes it have a little more sense to me. If you include Sander in the dance chicks clip like I said, you could have Robbe thinking about Sander again and wondering if he’s into men since he called out the boys’ homophobia. That’s how he ends up on Grindr. Then Sander sends him the Bowie playlist, Robbe listens, Sander calls and they talk, Robbe apologizes for bolting out of there the other day. Sander invites him to the cafe later, Robbe’s all :D until he realizes Britt is there and is coming too, then he’s :(
He’s late to meet Noor and Noor is upset, but not like ... screaming and shoving at him. She’s more snippy and passive-aggressive, she walks off. She says she’s upset because he ditched the dance performance without talking to her, and then he’s late to meet her, it seems like he just doesn’t care that much. They have a fight but it’s like a normal fight and not The End of the World. Just tone down Noor’s OTT anger and make it more natural.
I don’t have a preference in this version whether Noor and Britt leave the cafe and Sander and Robbe know they’re not coming back, or whether Noor and Britt just go to get some air and cry it out and Sander is like fuck it, let’s leave. The important thing for me is that Robbe sits there with Sander, painfully aware that they’re alone, and there’s lots of tension and awkwardness and his brain is clearly hyper-focused on the proximity of Sander’s knee to his own. They banter and flirt and then when Sander suggests they leave, Robbe acts like he wants to go.
Don’t do a pool scene for the first kiss. Give a shit, make it your own. Except IMO they have done so little to establish this relationship in terms of larger themes or symbolism that they have nothing to choose from.
Man, what if THIS episode was about going to the seaside, after they had been talking for several episodes, and they kissed in the sea when they were alone? That would be at least somewhat plausible? A take on the pool scene/underwater kiss that wasn’t the exact same.
You could do something related to graffiti, perhaps? Instead of breaking into a pool, they break into the tagging place or wherever. Or something else related to Sander’s artwork, because I know that this comes up in their version of O Helga Natt.
I’m not wild about adding this blip in Robbe and Sander’s relationship after the kiss, because of how much ground we need to cover the rest of the season (it messes with the pacing yet again) and also just because I like that Skam didn’t do this expected route. However, if they wanted to make Robbe try to shut out Sander again: the strongest case for his internalized homophobia seems to be his friends. So have him meet up with them again the day after kissing Sander. His friends bring up Sander and how weird he was at the dance performance about the gay instructor, like it’s just a joke! He took their comments way too seriously! Is Sander gay or something? And maybe Robbe tries to defend Sander - no, he’s a cool guy, really - and then his friends are like, pffft, what, do you have a crush on him? Robbe denies and everybody chills out, but Robbe seems troubled. Maybe this is when Jens finally gets a fucking clue and realizes something’s up with Robbe, and in the future there’s a scene where he shuts down gay jokes. For now, though, we do see how Robbe would feel compelled to go back in the closet. Sander texts him and Robbe blocks him.
Now we come to the worst part. So. Take out Robbe calling Sander a sexual predator and a homophobic slur and pushing him, that’s for sure. If he must reject Sander, do it in another way. “I’m not gay.” “I was drunk.” “It was a mistake.” “I have a girlfriend.” It’s not actually hard to do this clip without adding this ugly taint to their relationship.
Since I’m trying to think of rewrites without just copying Skam, here is a radical change on how to include a post-kiss freakout from Robbe earlier on so the pacing isn’t as odd. In previous recaps, I suggested Sander should be introduced earlier as a mysterious stranger that Robbe is trying to find. Well, maybe we can rework that. Robbe and the mysterious stranger share a kiss in episode 1. They’re hiding from the police or security or something after getting busted at a party or while tagging or w/e, and they’re both a little drunk and high on adrenaline, they’re smiling and laughing because they actually got away, and it just ... happens. The mysterious stranger can initiate it, but Robbe tentatively reciprocates before running away. Robbe freaks out and it’s after this that he starts heavily pursuing Noor. Because, you see, he’s not gay, he was just drunk, and it was all that other guy’s fault. But at least he doesn’t have to see that random guy again, right? No one will ever know. Just like no one will ever know if late at night when he can’t sleep, he does a Google search to see if he’s gay if he liked kissing a boy or if he can’t get it up with his girlfriend. Or if he goes on Grindr to see if he can find the mystery dude. It’s a bust and Robbe gives up and settles into dating Noor. Except in episode 2, OH SHIT, he’s introduced to Sander again via Noor, and it’s awkward and fuck, Sander has a girlfriend. Well, that’s good, right? Totally not a bummer. Anyway, Robbe tries to avoid Sander or tiptoe around him but they end up spending time together because they’re stuck at the seaside under the same roof. Maybe they directly address the issue by Robbe saying he’s not gay and Sander being like “me neither” (which technically is not a lie, lmao) and brushing it off as a mistake, or maybe they both pretend that it never happened. Maybe Robbe is more aggressive about it at first and Sander is like, whoa dude, chill out, I’m not going to tell anyone. Still, they get to know each other, there’s heaps of sexual/romantic tension, and in episode 4 (or 5 or whenever) they kiss again and it’s Epic.
This arc is definitely not the same as Isak’s or Evak’s and I absolutely won’t claim that it’s in the same league as what Julie Andem did, but I can see a narrative arc like this making some sense. Better than trying to do Isak’s arc half-assed.
It occurs to me just like … how little we know about any of these characters in terms of subtext or something? No hints about Sander’s background, really? Let’s get some clues in there.
I think something I miss about Skam was how kind it was. How all the characters were at heart, good people capable of the most generous love and empathy. And maybe we’ll get there with these characters in the end, but overall, so many of these people just don’t feel like that! There’s so much more ugliness and cruelty involved in this story, and it doesn’t feel like it’s done with good intentions, like to show the audience how to handle these situations and to heal.
There’s this weird attitude of defense where cruelty, tragedy, and negative events are defended in the name of realism and there’s a backlash to the backlash, acting like the critics just want fluffy plotless hand-holding and cuddling, a conflict-free season, or a story where no one makes mistakes. And it’s like people forget that in Skam season 3, the story was FULL of angst! We know Evak get their happy ending but like … from episode 1 all through O Helga Natt, the story is packed with conflict. People hurt each other. Even in episode 10, not everything is perfect. It is very possible to do angst and conflict without this ugliness. Like … I have to assume people weren’t here for episodes 5 and 6 of Skam S3, or for the hotel scene, or episode 9 up to OHN, because I can assure you, there was no lack of angst. There was just a lack of shock value gratuitousness.
As always, let me know if I missed something due to cultural or linguistic context.
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SKAM: An analysis
Part 3
Tonight i’m analysing one of my personal favourites, a beauty among the remakes. It is none other than...
SKAM Italia (The one that rose from the dead)
Likes:
This is probably the most basic thing but italian is such a beautiful language. Sometimes i forget to put on subtitles to understand what they’re actually saying.
I like Eva’s red hair
All the curly curlssss
Norwegian and Italian culture is very different. So it was fun to see which major changes had to be made to make the series Italian in a cultural way.
I personally find Martino’s season to be one of the most interesting interpretations of the «Isak-season».
Many international viewers did react to the lack of parents in the original series. Which is true! In Norway youth tend to become independent from an early age and often move away from their parents as early as 15. That doesn’t mean that parents are not a part of their life at all, but ofcourse less than if the youth was living at home. Therefore it was very nice to see how SKAM Italia changed that and the role especially Martinos mother played in his season, which was not as physically present in the original.
I also liked that they switched out the bus with a radio station! This is not something that’s regular in my country, so it added this foreign, interesting background that mixed up the story slightly.
I think this remake is very beautiful. The cinematogrophy really gives me an «italian vibe» and a certain beauty to scenes i haven’t necessarily paid as much attention to in other versions.
The boys in this remake are supreme. They’re all really funny and supportive, and they’re probably one of my favourite remakes of the boys.
I think Eva og Martino’s friendship is very well displayed in this one, including the drama from Eva’s season. I really think putting those seasons right after eachother, not with a season between, really helped that storyline. I think Eva, Isak, Noora, Sana, is a much more natural progression that the original one.
The struggle of homophobia and discrimination based on that was a much clearer and concrete topic in this version. Which Martino also speaks about in the «speach» at the end of his season.
I like the Filippo/Elia thing that the fandom really pushed on with. It was fun and sweet. Generally a very nice fandom.
The scenes with the boys at the cabin in season 2. They’re all great, honestly the best part of the season.
Based on the subtitles i could find many of the dialogues are very good and actually discuss the topic. Some remakes are guilty of just never talking about the shit that happens, but Italia isn’t one of them!
First off I am not Italian myself, but through my experiences and research about Italian culture I think i can say that some of the topics from the series are definitely even more taboo than they were in Norway. I appreciate that courage to make a series about topics such as homosexuality and Islam, in a culture where it isn’t as easy as in my own. I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant and that you understand what I mean. OG SKAM was a brave show, although in a very liberal country.
Dislikes:
The inavailability. Some versions have geoblock and some don’t. I respect both solutions. But when TIMvision was asking people to pay for that content alone, it got a bit frustrating. The SKAM concept has a very large international audience, and to shut not only them but also the national ones out was a bad move. I understand that the budget was low but I still don’t think that was the way to go. One did not «stumble upon» SKAM Italia, you searched for it, badly.
The cancellation and The Netflix take over. Don’t get me wrong, i LOVE netflix for taking on SKAM Italia (which was very much thanks to engaged fans!!!) and giving it it’s fourth and final season, and making sure that the important Sana season was made. But there was a big gap between the third and fourth, which for me harmed the continuity. Also season four didn’t follow the original SKAM posting pattern, just dropping the entire season at once. All of this i really think cost them a lot of viewers, as it became less exciting to follow.
I’m gonna admit right now I have not seen the last season. It was just recently uploaded to Italian Netflix and there are much fewer accounts that are posting it online. For me Martino’s season stands out as the golden star of the show. Eva’s season was okay, and I feel Elounora’s season (although the rainscene was beautiful) was very predictable and less exciting. Might be an unpopular opinion, but that’s what I think.
You know I love Italian, but compared to my own language, my oh my are your words and sentences long. They’ll be talking for ages, and the english subtitles will consist of five words. Sounds beautiful though, it’s not really a complaint.
Favourite characters:
Martino Rametta. If you read through all of this it probably doesn’t come as a shock. It’s a very well written character and Federico Cesari performed it beautifully. I think it really portrays the loneliness, anger and frustration within the Isak-character, at the same time as Martino made it his own. Because it also shows all the love and will within the Isak-character, which are two different emotional weights that can be hard to balance, so kudos to the writers and actor. Building the character so well made sure that the «Martinico»-storyline didn’t take over the entire season. Additionally i also enjoyed his relationship with his mother, the boys and Eva.
Giovanni Garau. If Gio isn’t one of your favourite characters, did you even watch the series? He’s such a nice and trustworthy guy, and such a good friend. The coming out scene is almost better than the original. Although I love the fact that Jonas simply does not give a single frick is great and also a bit funny, it was nice to see a reinvention of the scene. It still wasn’t a «big deal» but you can still see that it meant something, in a greater deal than other remakes. You can tell that Gio finally understands and that he’s also relieved that Martino told him. And you can also tell how much it meant to Martino. Idk man, i just think that scene is beautiful. Gio was a good friend before that, and follows that up after that scene as well. There’s a reason that multiple remakes’ tumblrtags have at some point contained posts like «Fly in Gio Garau».
Filippo Sava. Fun twist to make him Elounora’s brother! Defintely played an important part in multiple seasons. He was a great Eskil, and I like him for many of the same reasons that I liked the original character. He’s caring, serious and funny, with slightly better timing than the norwegian one. He’s more of a natural part of the gang, and I like him. And the last episode of Martino’s season when he sees Niccolò, and just gives this thumbs up and «not bad» face to Martino, priceless.
Okay so that’s it for SKAM Italia, hopefully I will get to watching the fourth season sometime soon. If I were to give this one an award I would say it is the most beautiful remake and I think it is slightly more poetic and artistic than the rest. Let me know if you agree or disagree! Which one should I do next?
#skamverse#skam italia#skam it#skam#skamily#skam italy#martino rametta#martinico#trying not to crosstag too much#skam rekames#skam remakes#auroras skam analysis
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hi! i don’t know if you already answered this (and im so sorry if you did!) but i was just wondering what your favorite and least favorite portrayals of all the skamverse characters were and why?
oh hi anon! i haven’t actually answered this ahahha all day i only answered when people told me their faves and never counted mine. this might take a long time to answer because i have to think and reply so long so sorry for replying late in advance...
eva:
favourite is lisa. she just started the whole thing and she was so real and authentic in her portrayal like everything she did felt so fitting with eva nothing less and nothing more. i would give a special shoutout to ludovica just cause she is my fave eva and i think she added a good comedic acting and edge to her character.
least fave might be alba not because she did so bad but because i didn’t connect with her character much. idk either the acting or the writing didn’t resonate with me she felt a little too plain. but maybe i need to do a rewatch. and anyway she grew on me.
noora:
favourite is nicole. she showed us how much nora faded away and a hollow ghost of her came forward throughout her seasons. the change in nore is apparent even in her posture, her tone.
least fave benedetta. kinda ironic because skamit is one of my top 2 remakes but yeah she didn’t work on me at all in s3. i didn’t buy most of her scenes which is a shame because she was good in s1 and she had good chemistry with the edoardo actor.
isak:
favourite is tarjei, definitely. there was something about his portrayal that made me feel like watching a documentary and no remake reached that level. he was so nuanced and a lot of his emotions were in the little mimics, looks and gestures. axel and michi are a close seconds.
i can’t choose a least fave here. i mean i like all the isaks in their own way. i don’t think any of them were like bad. i wish we got to see florian too. or or if we are counting lucas rubio is a isak remake then alejandro isn’t good as the extra clips show...sorry.
sana:
favourite is tua. she had the heart eyes for mohammed, she had such easy chemistry with him. but then she played amira’s anger and her pain and her pain through her anger in the henna party and the break up with mohammed so well.
least fave ugh maybe assa? this probably has more to do with the writing then her acting but idk there was something there that didn’t communicate her relationship with sofiane or her anger to me.
jonas:
favourite anselm. i literally spent the day praising him...the thing is while michi and lilly are easing into their roles in s1 anselm already seems to portray jonas so well. like he is so relaxed and natural in his role. and then he added a ton to jonas with his softness and his funny side. kudos to the breakup with hanna + coming out scene. with ludovico as a close second because he made giovanni his own too.
least favourite nathan bouts. i swear this has less to do with writing and more with acting. i find him similar to reiky’s jonas and while reiky communicated the loveable asshole vibes to me nathan didn’t. maybe he had better material to play with in s3 it would be different.
william:
favourite is nathan. i might like alejandro's william more as a character but nathan did the best with the not much changed storyline. he literally took the william we saw in og and added so much dimension like the softness with zoe, his voice when he is defending his views, his anger towards his brother chef’s kiss. chris veres is the close second here i mean even his comedic delivery is everything.
least favourite thomas. while trying to have him be this cold, popular guy i think he didn’t actually played well mostly just stood there with no expression. and that’s just no.
even:
favourite is henrik. really shows his power how no one was able to top him yet. i think in praising tarjei we forgot him but like i talked about all day THE LOCKER ROOM SCENE and how much he communicated with his eyes yup.
least favourite maxence. like i said he started bothering me on the rewatches and i realized they relied too much to his looks and natural charm of the actor. i might be biased here about rocco’s acting because i like nicco and marti and nicco so he is not my least fav.
yousef:
favourite is hassan who plays mohammed. maybe it’s because he had more heated arguments with amira about religion and their ‘breakup’ was more painful so i liked his portrayal much more. he just put something into the character like he defended his beliefs with as much fierce as amira.
least fave is lucas nabor who plays dani because spoiler! dani is yousef in skamesp. i will give him the benefit of the doubt maybe by the end of the season i could like his acting more and he does have good heart eyes but right now i don’t vibe with his acting much.
vilde:
favourite is lula. suffered through s6 for her acting’s sake (and for flavie’s) and she is just so good. the pain is in her eyes throughout s6, her breakup with basile was so heartbreaking. but also in earlier seasons she got daphne’s energetic and naive self so well.
least fave is nona who plays amber. idk i don’t vibe with amber and since wtfock cast put a lot into the characters even when writing is bad i think it’s more of her acting issue. it feels like there isn’t anything to her character and amber feels so one dimensional.
chris berg:
(not counting irene here) ah i would say fave is coline. i think she is the chris character that got the most material to play with (maybe why she is my fave) and she did the best out of it. but her scenes in s5 especially the one where she opens up is so nice i could read her emotions on her face.
least fave is nonexistent? i mean most of the time the chris character doesn’t get stuff to act with so like i cannot really judge the actors much when i haven’t seen much from them. and i just vibe with all chris versions.
mahdi:
fave is robin. s5 of skam fr might have gone downhill but robin had a really good performance that only got better throughout the season. especially the ending of the first ep where he looks over the street with his hearing faded away just the look in his eyes wow. honorable mention arda because his little improv lines with louis is amazing. he steals the backgroudn.
least fave again nonexistent because aside from robin and maybe francesco they didn’t get stuff to play with. i mean how can i judge dilan’s actor’s ability?
magnus:
fave is paul. his comedic timing is everything!! and most of that is improv so additional kudos. the way he stole a lot of background moments in s3!!! and s5 and s6 showed how well he could do drama too. when arthur tells him about his hearing the way his face crumbles - wow.
again no least fave because they don’t get material. like i may not like aaron as a character but i cannot say the actor does a bad job when he has to play one side of a character.
i think that about covers everyone!!! naturally i didn’t do anyone from druck or skam france new gen because this was just the versions.
i am so sorry that this is too long......but i cannot just name actors and not explain myself come on. and thanks anon for asking this i enjoyed typing out this a lot!
i also discovered something my fave version of the character doesn’t equal to my fav portrayal always. like nora isn’t my fav noora but she is my favourite portrayal. but jonas augustin and giovanni are my fav jonas characters interchangeably and anselm is my fav portrayal with ludovico following behind.
anyway let me know what you think about my answers!
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What’s your favorite version of season 3?? And what about your favorite remake (in general)?
Those are easy questions that I’m gonna give a confusing answer to hahaha
Season 3: I can’t pick one, there’s no way. It’s a tie between Robbe’s, Lucas’ and Martino’s. And I love them for very different reasons.
Martino is this soft grandpa that acts a lot like me, he has an amazing group of friend that have some much chemistry it’s ridiculous. Italia usually feels a little more like home to me, the way they act, the way they talk, etc. I loved the pace, the color palette. I hate the unnecessary use of the N word, the way the boys talked about the girls, no news here. Nico is also this soft, gentle, mesmerizing guy that’s actually so relatable and patient, waiting for Martino to do things his way until he realizes what’s going on.
Robbe is a koala baby and that’s enough explanation for me. He’s kind, sweet, patient, but also a little problematic deep down, saying shit he shouldn’t be saying. I get it about the “realism” and I don’t think it was OOC of him to say those words, it just bothers me how after a whole season about the assault, they decided to use that subject again so lightly and make him say so much bs to Sander. I was thinking about it earlier: the apologies should have happened later in that week, they should have shown Robbe going to Sander’s college and being turned down, trying to text him and going back to Sander’s college on Friday, then Sander goes to meet Britt and later the same day we have the cuddle clip. Sander is brave, a mesmerizing creature that bows down to Robbe because who would be able to say no to those cute Bambi eyes and he only behaves like that with Robbe and we stan. I love the Casa Milan plot, it’s probably the best found family in the remakes, loved the music they used. I also hated the boys (Jens got some positive points at the end of the season, not enough tho), the pace and the Zoenne plot (this writers need to learn how to let season 2 and the Noora character go)
Lucas is the chaos. This boy has serious problems using his brain once he’s falling in love and we love him for that. He dives headfirst and we all wish we were as brave. That’s not always good, he’ll say shit as well while pretending to be the ~straight male alpha~ when around his friends, watching girls. Eliott is a little bit like Nico where both are this mesmerizing creature that inside it’s so soft and gentle that surprises everyone with it. I love Lucas, his relationship with the girls during his season, I learned to love Le Gang, how open they were to welcome Eliott, I loved the chemistry between Lucas and Eliott. I love Lucas x Manon (and it makes me so mad comparing them to Eliott x Lola...just don’t. It doesn’t compare). I hated whatever they made with them during the course of the next few seasons.
And if you read all of that, you’ll probably come to the conclusion: Italian feels like the least problematic, but considering just season 3, I was a lot more invested in Robbe x Sander and Lucas x Eliott chemistry (doesn’t mean I feel the same after watching the seasons after that) and that’s just personal preference, so no right or wrong. Maybe Marti’s season was the more certain, calmer of the three, but I love the whole season 3 package equally.
Remake: That doesn’t seem fair to me! Some remakes have a million seasons, the chance to use original plots and characters and some only have four seasons or less and not enough screen time or budget to make all of that. And every single remake made big mistakes that makes impossible to me to choose a superior remake (hate that expression so much you don’t even know), so let’s make it like this:
season 1: SKAM NL
season 2: WTFock or Skam España (didn’t watch it, but love the way they did Nora’s season)
season 3: WTFock, Skam Italia and Skam France
season 4: Druck!
extra points for Skam France for managing to get so many extra seasons, for good or bad, they did something right to pull this one out. For WTFock for creating WTFock Down, for SKAM NL for getting people so invested with only two seasons and for Druck for also getting original seasons and Skam Italia for getting the show to come back from the dead to be broadcasted by fucking Netflix!
So, if you count all of that about the remakes, WTFock would be a little higher (in my opinion) for managing to create two good seasons, one following the other and for also putting the skam core to good use (using social media to basically create a tiny in-between season during a global pandemic).
Did I bullshit my way through this to not give you a proper answer? Yes, I did. <3
But thank you for the ask!!! This was actually fun!
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15 + 24?
hi!! thank you so much <3
15. introduce us to your version of william
oh BABY!!!!
okay. so. the thing about william is i have always hated him. as someone who has been in a manipulative situation similar to noorhelm, just hated the man. so, i decided to create a new man. a good man. complex, but good.
enter JAMES ABRAHAM COHEN!!!!! he’s introduced to the song teenagers by mcr and is wearing a trenchcoat over his school uniform, not only because he’s edgy, but because he’s cold because he immigrated to the uk from the middle east. he is, at the beginning, a manwhore, yes. but he’s a party boy, a guitar boy, who rori sees and thinks Yes. My Future Husband. meanwhile he’s just having a drinking contest with his Boys and then talking about his favourite comic book character. he’s not a bad boy TM. he’s a Dumb Teenage Boy.
he's a genuinely nice guy. he apologises to rori as many times as he can, and only stops because she asks him to, and they become friends. he falls madly in love with liz as soon as she starts roasting him. he’s just an Understanding guy who’s made mistakes and is always trying to get better and be there for his friends. he literally let jake live in his flat for a good while.
and, my favourite thing about james is that he forced his friends to audition for a production of grease with him to see the girl he Loves So Much and ends up getting the lead role???? TWICE???? this man is danny zuko and roger davis.
also, in my personal opinion, i think james is kind of a superior arthur skamfrance. both have a disability (arthur is hard of hearing, james has autism/adhd), both have abusive family, both are in a love triangle with two beautiful girls (one of whom is a wlw chris b). and also a surprise member of the boy squad starting in season 3.
also, in a way, my william is a william/jonas/eskild combination??? which is very fun. i just love taking all these different skam dynamic, cutting them up and throwing them in a pot and seeing what looks nice.
also, ONE LAST THING, i think my william has the most reasonable reason to go to london. as it is an hour away from brighton by train and he can come back before the day’s over. because he’s a teenage boy. and we will be seeing a lot more of james in season 5. get ready for it.
24. tell us about a ship that is endgame.
i’m going to be real with you all on tumblr dot com on this night. i honestly don’t know what romantic ships are going to be endgame, because i plan the seasons i’m writing as i’m writing them, so i only have the vague framework of what i want for the endgame of skambr as a whole. so i’m just going to talk about the 3 main romantic ships that are canon as of the end of season 4. and i’m gonna Go Off.
esther/sandy:
OKAY. taking sandy’s story as a whole. she’s kissed her best girl friend. she started dating a guy she doesn’t like. she’s desperate for something new to come along. and esther has just moved back from germany. she just wants to meet someone to talk to because she’s so lonely. and boom. they run into each other one night by chance and it’s “oh my god she’s so pretty” at first sight. and then they start talking and become friends so quickly (and esther introduces sandy to the keysmash). also, nooreva should’ve been canon. i have rectified that.
but god. the way they have their conversation in s1 e4 and almost kiss but get interrupted by sophie??? god. and when they actually kiss in s1 e6 and suddenly everything’s Good until they get caught. and sandy Runs because what else can she do? she’s terrified. and esther stays. and when they see each other again, esther doesn’t say anything because she knows sandy can’t talk about it. until sandy gets outed and attacked by the football team, and esther instantly goes to protect her and puts her own feelings aside to make sure sandy’s okay. and sandy just Needed a safe place to land like esther for so long. and when they finally kiss at the christmas fair as “girls like girls” plays????? god.
and their relationship in all of the later seasons GOD. i love them. their fight and reconciliation in season 2. them just being together casually, with sandy healing from her past and learning to truly love herself, and esther opening up and having someone there to comfort her when she needs it. and the fact that they’re still friends throughout it all, because it;s not just friends to lovers. it’s friends to friends AND lovers. also when esther sang “boy problems” by crj at sandy..... ICONIC
liz/james:
GOD. okay these two are really one of my favourite dynamics i’ve ever written. because they start as “oh you’re the annoying guy my best friend’s got a crush on”. and go to “oh you’re the ASSHOLE who broke my friend’s heart”. to “oh she may have forgiven you, but i Have Not”. and james is just like “I Am Being So Nice And She Still Hates Me”. but then we see liz seeing james’s art piece at the end of s2 e1. and she connects with it so deeply. and then they have their first real conversation in the next episode and they have a lot in common. they get each other. and he sings “perfect for you” from n2n to her. and she gets so overwhelmed by the fact that her mind might be changing that she just Runs Away.
and then we get the sleepover scene and GOD. one of my favourite scenes to write. james being a good cook??? james smoking out the window and liz making fun of his guitar. and then liz beginning to play james’s brother’s piano and james making it a duet as they sing “falling slowly” from once together. and then they share a bed and instead of saying something creepy, james just says “i think we might be becoming friends”. and she texts him immediately after the prank on the holiday episode. and their first kiss. GOD. with him always calling her elizabeth and the pride and prejudice parallels and “bad idea” from waitress...... and then them spending the next day together. also, in the first kiss clip liz says that she “hates one direction”, and in the next morning clip, one direction plays as she walks with james. it’s a metaphor baby!!!!!1
and their whole political dynamic GOD. it’s actually based a lot on how my politics have changed from when i was 14, beginning to write the series, and now. with going from the centrist-liberal ideas of “all violence is bad :) racism isn’t that bad guys :)” to liz using her privilege as a rich white girl to fully bail james out of jail for assaulting the man who’s been racially harrassing him for months. and the scene where liz has her meltdown at school and james takes her home, puts her to bed, and sings her to sleep. AND THE SCENE WHERE HE COMES OUT TO HER AS TRANS GOD. also them just being nice in the background of season 3 and 4. delightful.
bree/rori:
THIS RELATIONSHIP IS LITERALLY ONE OF MY FAVOURITES TOO GOD. their DYNAMIC in the scene where bree is introduced and rori is all starry eyed over her and bree will already do Anything for her. it’s about the “i want to be her friend so bad” kind of crushes. and bree and rori getting closer and closer as the season goes on, and they get the “i bet i can make you horny” scene because i just think it’s really fun.
and GOD. the evilde plot in skam og makes me. so Mad. but here...... it’s about the internalised homophobia. it’s about the wanting one good movie kiss. it’s about the them making out to one direction in the middle of a school event. AND THEM DOING THE PRANK TOGETHER ON THE EASTER HOLIDAY EPISODE. QUEEN SHIT! and the scene where bree is drunk and talking to liz about how it feels to be in love...... that was about rori!!!! and when they played sandy and rizzo in grease together. the homoeroticism, the best friendship.
and in season 3 when nick and rori get together and bree is just standing there, jake talking to her and she looks into the camera...... god. and SEASON FOUR RORIANNA. WHICH IS THEIR SHIP NAME IN MY HEAD. GOD. them just being best friends and bree being silently in love with her because she’s happy that rori is happy with nick (who is also her friend). the scene where they “practise kissing” because rori is scared to kiss a girl onstage (we love internalised homophobia), and how bree also ignores it because she’s scared of conflict. and they’re always so there for each other. rori being there to support bree so hard when bree’s at her lowest point. bree being there for rori and ready to fight for her. bree going from waking up next to josh, to waking up alone, to waking up next to rori. them going from slow dancing to daylight by taylor swift to laughing and dancing on a crowded stage in la vie boheme.
quite genuinely? they have it all. evilde. sana/chris b. eva/chris b. noora/chris b. noora/vilde. it’s about girls supporting girls and also them kind of being cut from the same cloth as sandy/esther. one of them having internalised homophobia and running away from the kiss, and the other silently loving them until they get a yes or a no.
anyways every relationship i write is about having clear consent and respect for your partner at all times. and also about friends to lovers. and also the tenderness of musical theatre couples. oh shit now i want to talk about jake/al. well. this is my tumblr blog and you all have to deal with me.
jake/al: jake and al are currently Not Together as of skam brighton season 4 but god. i love writing their relationship so much. it’s about them meeting when al is in a manic episode and jake is deep in his depression and grief. about the nothing and the everything. it’s about the jason and peter secret gay lovers, the tony and maria falling in love on the balcony and having their first kiss at a pretend wedding, the romeo and juliet whirlwind romance that ends in tragedy. it’s about the bright orpheus al with his music and his bright life and sad, bitter jake, hating everything about himself and holding his own, but then falling in love and finding a way to build himself a new life, while al is falling down into a deep depressive episode. and then jake picks al up and gives him the tools he needs to help him step back from the ledge. and then al, who’s spent the entire season chasing after jake and the joy he gives him, turns around and walks away to better himself. and jake is okay with it, because he also needs time on his own to get better, and they agree to stay close friends, and they do!!! it’s about the gay experience of falling madly in love and then going back to be friends.
#skam brighton#isaac speaks#skam brighton spoilers#thank you so much for this <3 enjoy my infodumping that i wrote while watching bway jackbox
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Can you rank the noorhelm reunions too? :)
Sure, thank you for this ask! 😚
1. Zoenne - I think none of us expected to be that blessed that day. I didn’t even expect the reunion to happen that fast and then it happened and I was soooo happy omg guys, so happy. And then the rest of it happened!!! Reunion that was mixed with their first time. I freaked so big. I don’t think it was rushed or anything, I actually think it was so fitting for zoenne, there was so much tension between them throughout the whole season so it made sense. But, regarding to the reunion alone, I think it was SO emotional and full of feelings. Both zoë and senne were so amazing, and a big applause for both nathan and veerle here. Both senne and zoë struggled so much, I think no one believed him when he said he doesn’t love her. He was probably the least convincing of all the williams. And he struggled so hard. I also love that when he came back, he was not all smiley and happy, but concerned and full of emotions and that he apologised to zoë immediately for the way he acted and even paused their reunion kissing (which was so passionate omg) to say to her that he loves her, it’s like he wanted to make sure that she knows he didn’t mean it before when he said he doesn’t. It was so amazing.
2. Incantava - so many feelings omggg. Edoardo was so emotional, he was literally crying. And ele was so sad :( I just LOVE that edo came to ele just so he could apologize. He is truly amazing. And then, when he came back, he was also so emotional, just like senne, but even more, he was so careful walking towards eleonora and then just giving in with kissing her so passionately, like he was apologizing again with every kiss. And also THAT HUG at the end, he hugged her so tightly omg.
3. Graciel - okay so, grace’s speech was the best out of all for sure. She was amazing and she slayed. “What happened sucked. FOR ME” like yes girl I love it. She always delivers the best speeches. And then when daniel came back them kissing and hugging was so cute with the sun and the lighting, I just loved it it was the cutest.
4. WInterberg - this being the end of the season was so powerful. Mia was great and I loved her approach. “Listen to me, Axel. If you look into my eyes now and tell me that you don’t love me, then you can go study engineering in Timbuktu for all I care” was the best. Also, them saying I love at the end was too lovely. And their little hugs were to adorable for me to handle. Oh my, this just reminded me how much I miss my winterberg.
5. Marles - I’m usually not a fan of their scenes, but I have to say that this one was good. Manon telling charles he is a coward was really important because that’s exactly what williams are when they just decide to leave. Also, what I like the most about their scene is how passionate it is. Charles is literally running towards manon when he comes back and putting it in slow motion heightened it even more. It was probably the most dramatic version and the hug at the end was sooo good.
6. Noorhelm - I love noora’s speech so much, her saying „People experience horrible things every day, and they still manage to be nice to others“ was so important. Also, the iconic “people need people” line was delivered perfectly there, I will always love that. William coming back all smiley like nothing happened wasn’t maybe the best part, but their hug was cute.
7. Noliv - this is the only reunion that I didn’t like at all. It was all about noah instead of liv. Noah is the only william that was not called out for his behaviour and they made it all about noah and how he was feeling and how much he was hurt instead of making it clear it was about what happened to liv. She was so out of character in this scene for me honestly because she was too focused on apologizing to noah and not calling him out or anything. Also, the wedding dress thing was too much for me, I know it was supposed to be cute because of the marriage joke between them, but honestly, to me it was not cute at all, but rather humiliating for liv. Actually, the whole scene seemed very humiliating for her and then him coming back also so smiley like nothing happened, without the apology or anything was not good at all. And him saying “crybaby”, what was that about? Idk, I just didn’t like it and it was the scene before the last one so none of the things were really adressed properly like in the other skams because they all have a scene after when they talk about it and noliv didn’t really had it, it was just a quick mention in the last scene which was not enough and the whole SA storyline resolution just lacked a lot of things and it was not handled well in my opinion which is a shame because I had so many expectetions and faith in skam nl and it had so much potential so I’m so sorry it wasn’t handled better. So, I didn’t like that scene at all, the only thing that was nice was the aesthetic of the scene at the end, them kissing with the greenery and the fontaine in the background, that looked very nice.
~ask me anything skam/remakes related~
#ask#zoenne#wtfock#incantava#skam italia#winterberg#druck#graciel#skam austin#noliv#skam nl#marles#skam france#noorhelm#skam#graniel#wilsen#noorhelm remakes
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Evak Fics - Genderqueer
Includes transgender, genderfluid, non-binary, genderswap characters. Please let me know if I should include any other fics.
Fics are under a read more.
Here's a piece of art created for one of the fics below by @hjertetssunnegalskap1
The research nerd and the storyweaver by evakuality (SERIES, 4 FICS) - Trans Even
An Eternal Golden Braid by Stria (Asia117) (SERIES, 4 FICS) - Trans Isak
Missyadventures by Laika_the_husband (SERIES, 6 FICS) - Genderfluid Isak. Starring or featuring Isak's alter ego Issy-Missy. She's a riot. Co-starring Mister Even, ultra polite dom and an old fashioned gentleman. Co-co starring Magnus, the new member of this poly family.
im a fucking mess sometimes by queerness (196 words) - Trans Isak. Isak's on his period and Even ate his fucking candy
blood in the water by orphan_account (2.4k words) - Trans Isak. Isak has always hated this time of the month.
Feeling Fizzy by colazitron (2.6k words) - Genderswap. Isabell's life feels like it's slowly unravelling, and then this gorgeous girl approaches her in the bathroom.
now and forever by reasoniwantyoutostay (4.1k words) - Trans Isak. Isak began transitioning two years ago and there'd been many milestones along the way. Coming out to his friends and family, changing his name, starting his hormone therapy. But this milestone, one he'd been dreaming about for far too long, was just for Even and him to explore together.
Little Black Book by Laika_the_wife (4.3k words) - Genderqueer Even. Isak Valtersen is studying his third year at the University of Oslo and having the time of his life. Enter Evy Bech Næsheim, straight out of Nissen, in his stockings, mini skirts and bubblegum scented lip gloss.
We Can't Choose How We're Made by Sandpfote (6.4k words) - Trans Even. Isak had been crushing so hard on – falling in love with - Even in the past months, and now Even wouldn’t even tell him, what was wrong. Maybe he just grew tired of Isak. Decided to get someone, who wasn’t as needy and young and boring.
Plum by Jamz24 (13k words) - Non-binary Even. Pretty teacher!Even asks masculine! plumber!Isak to fix a broken shower on a scorching hot summer day...
Girl Of My Dreams by DustyAttic (13k words) - Genderswap. Isabel is a member of the girl squad and, in this story, there is no Noora. Evelyn is a transfer student from Bakka who tried to kiss her best friend Sonja.
shred by Jules1398 (22k words) - Trans Isak. There were two versions of Isak Valtersen. He was cool, smart snowboarder guy. The real Isak, was also trans, gay, and a father. Keeping the two Isaks separate wasn't that difficult. At least, not until he saw Even again.
There's also a part 2 that's a oneshot:
first tracks by Jules1398 (1k words)
A Wolf And A Lioness by Flatfootmonster (31k words) - Trans Isak. Prince Even is in line to the throne, and a desperate search is underway to find a suitor. But this life really never was for him... and then he meets a beautiful Princess who gives him the courage to live the life he wishes to, and find the love he is deserving of.
pynk by panshambles (41k words) - Genderqueer Isabelle and Trans Eve. They meet online, and trust only each other with their vulnerabilities. DELETED :(
This Love Has No Ceiling by photographer_of_thoughts (45k words) - Trans Isak. On his seventeenth birthday, Isak did three things. He cut his hair, he gave himself a new name and he changed his gender from ‘female’ to ‘male.’
In his third year, Even finds himself needing his wheelchair more days than not. It’s the year his supply of optimism begins to dwindle.
Moondust Will Cover You by Laika_the_husband (76k words) - Trans werewolf Isak. Isak is an alpha, but his body is an omega. Basically, a trans werewolf. Who has a human for a best friend. As if that wasn't complicated enough, one night he meets a guy he's really kind of falling for - but he's an alpha too.
********** WIPs **********
Beautiful Creatures by Jamz24 (last update in March 2019) - Genderfluid Isak. Rich artist!Even struggles to find love while prostitute!Isak tries to earn enough money to leave the slums and find a new life in America.
The Darkness Just Lets Us See by imaginaryturtles (last update in July 2018) - Genderswap. In a parallel universe not far from this one, Isak is Isra, a girl whose just trying to survive school without outing herself to everyone she loves. In this universe, Even is Evanna, a girl whose just merely existing, not living.
#evak fic rec#skam fic rec#genderqueer#let me know what fics i'm missing please#eyy this is my 21st list#21
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Andem and Be Kind always? :)
Ooh, hi! Thank you for playing!
Andem - If you were writing a remake what changes would you make?
Oh. Holy crap, that’s tricky. I suppose I have written a billion remakes already with my fics. But, of course, a fic is not the same as a remake. With remakes you want something new and interesting, but I’m gonna answer this as if I got the chance to write my version of Skam. So. This wouldn’t be a popular remake, probably.
First of all, I would keep everything that’s awesome, like the music, the cinematography, the realism, all of that. And I think I would keep Isak’s arc pretty much as it is, or at least strongly inspired by it. I just love his development so much.
Season 1 would be pretty similar, too, at least with Eva and Jonas, their backstory and how things ended. I love that season. With Noora, though, I think I would choose a different path. I must I’m one of the few fans who actually liked that Noora learned to lower her guard a bit. I just wish that her love interest was more... likable. That whole “girl falls in love with bad boy” is such a tiring trope, especially when it’s “ice queen warms up to bad boy”. Ugh. I can buy that Noora and William both are hurt by their experiences and that they are pushing people away and are acting as assholes at times, and that it’s a good thing that they learn to open up to each other. BUT. I would definitely try to tweak their story. I think I might let William leave for London and let Noora take some time to figure out what she really wants. She could learn something about herself with help from the William character, yes, but that doesn’t have to mean that they should end up together.
Season 3. Well. I wouldn’t change a thing, to be honest. I would even keep the Neon party scene, even if it’s kinda awful with the boys kissing the girls, looking at each other. I mean, the tension in that clip is off the charts, I wouldn’t miss that. So yeah. No changes in season 3. Well. I would like it if some of the characters around Isak told him they were sorry. Like Emma, for instance. And Jonas, too.
Season 4. It started out promising. I would give Sana more time, though, and more resolve towards the end. I think I can say it as simple as that. And I would show more of Even’s story, too, and his old crew. The balloon guys!
Across the seasons, I would have shown more of girl Chris and Mahdi, especially. They would really benefit from being fleshed out more. And I would give season 5 to Vilde. She’s an interesting character, and I would love to see more of her as bi/pan, too. The show hints about it, but never expresses it. I would love to see representation of a bi/pan in a relationship with the opposite gender. Also, I would actually like to see a Sara season, because she’s always there in the background, on the outside, and I like it when we get different perspectives. I bet she has some interesting thoughts about all the other characters.
Shit, this got too long. Sorry. And I haven’t really answered properly, since I would have done things a lot more different with a remake, based on the actors, and the country and everything else. Ah well. This was what I could think of now.
Be Kind always - Unpopular opinion about skam?
I think I have spilled some of my unpopular opinions already, in my answer over here, lol. I think that I like that Noora learns to let down her guard is a pretty unpopular opinion, for instance. Or that I want a Sara season, haha.
Please don’t hate me. These are only my opinions. :D
Ask me a Skam question, please! (I’ll try not to rant so much in my next asks)
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11 questions asked and answered (skam edition)
I wanna thank @happystrawberry1998 for tagging me 💕
1. Always repost the rules
2. Answer the questions given to you by the one who tagged you!
3. Give 11 questions
4. Tag 11 people
1. If you could live in any Skam version which would it be? God, this is a hard question. It would probably be the og, because I absolutely love Norway and I have some friends living there who have great experiences. On the other hand, Italy is beautiful and I've been there a few times but the temperatures during the summer are too high for my liking (similar to my country) so...
2. What apartment/house in Skam or the remakes is your favorite? Eleonora Sava’s place is probably my fave because it’s nice and she has a beautiful garden in which I can imagine myself reading a book or just chilling with a cocktail or smth.
3. If you could go out for a drink with two characters from the OG or the remakes, which two would you choose? Shit, these questions are hard lol. I think it’ll be Eskild and Rich King Incanti (even tho I kinda can’t decide between him and Yousef).
4. What quote affected you the most in the OG or the remakes? It’s mostly Sana but also, Eleonora’s speech about family had a huge impact on me. But overall, Skam has some great quotes, I mean it’s one of the main reasons why we all love it.
5. If you could give advice to any skam universe character, what would you say? I’m not sure if I have to choose one character, but I’d advise them to not waste their precious time on wrong people because life is too damn short, and to live life to the fullest. To take a good care of themselves and to not let anyone walk over them.
6. What is the most important thing you learned from Skam? Nothing is ever black and white or as it seems to be. There’s always more to the story and we should never be the one to judge. It’s all about accepting that everyone is different and cherishing those differences because it would be boring if we all were the same, wouldn't it?
7. Is there a skam remake in your home country? If yes, do you like it? If not, would you like to have one? There’s not. To be completely honest, I’m not sure whether I would want my country to have a remake of skam. I just feel like we’re not there yet but at the same time maybe that’s the exact reason why we need something like skam to raise awareness about some important things.
8. What crossover would you like to see the most? Hm, I haven’t really thought about this. It would be fun if Matteo visited Italy or smth
9. If you could change any scene in all the Skams, which scene would you choose? Yousef and Noora kissing. Completely unnecessary if you ask me... also that scene where Noora falls to the ground breaks my heart every time.
10. Do you think there were any missing scenes in any skams or what would you have liked to see? I feel like there were missing a few more scenes of incantava. Like, we would get a chat and everything and then there wouldn’t be a clip. I didn’t have to be anything too long, it could be a few minutes but still. I wanted them to have some more deep and meaningful convos idk
11. What scene made you laugh the most? It has to be some scene with Eskild because that guy is so fucking amazing lmao or maybe that scene from the og when Isak decided to tell Jonas about Evan because it was just so awkward, especially when Jonas thought he was the one he likes lmao boy if you only knew.
My questions:
1. How did you find out about skam?
2. Which character (from the remakes) deserves its own season and why?
3. Some of your favorite songs that you discovered while watching skam?
4. Is there anything that you would like to change in any of the seasons?
5. Favorite version of Noora and why?
6. Favorite version of William and why?
7. Top five moments from the og?
8. Which skam characters would you date in real life?
9. Would you want for the og to have more seasons?
10. Your favorite character from the skam universe and why?
11. Best girl and boy squad in the skam universe?
I tag: @incantieleonora @contrabbandieri @ilsuosorrisoilmiopreferito @incantsava @edonori @myskamlove @sttrawberries @donutsatisfied @aelingalathyniux @teamnick @soon--soon
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I always wanted you to do a noorhelm ranking, especially since all them are officially over ?
Hi 🌻 First off I have another ask of yours I haven’t forgotten about. I just want to do another post before I get to your ask. And hopefully organize my tumblr a little.
Second! I don’t think I’m qualified to rank noorhelms because I’ve only watched the Noora season in Skam, Skam España and Skam Austin. And even when it comes to these three I don’t think there’s a cut and dry way to rank them, because Skam was doing so much more than the other Noora seasons even attempted.
So, I’m just going to post some thoughts on each couple, unless I’ve watched the season, in which I will post about the season itself:
Skam España, Nora/Miquel and Nora/Alejandro: Nora’s is the only Noora season I’d feel comfortable showing to teenagers. In fact, it should be mandatory viewing in high schools tbh. I think the story they told really suits the format, because during a binge watch, a viewer would just breeze past the red flags and subtle manipulation techniques in order to get to the cute content. When it comes to pomenora, I’m almost shocked that Skam España teased us with their relationship for so long, only for them to agree that it wasn’t their moment. I’m not mad, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that happen on a teen show before. In some ways I feel like the writers preferred for fandom to come up with their version of pomenora, rather than writing it themselves lol.
Skam, Noora/William: I think Noora’s season fails in its goal of educating viewers. I don’t think it’s realistic in terms of how the characters behave, it sacrifices believability in favor of highkey dramatic moments out of a cheap teen drama. At the same time, the Syrian refugee crisis and Norwegian national identity are two ideas that are present throughout the season and keep coming up, and I think William (who represents a more sexist, violent side of Norway) and Noora (the feminist, open-minded side) coming to the conclusion that Norway’s national identity isn’t threatened by refugees, but rather enriched by them, is a hugely powerful message to have on a show that was watched by 2/5 of the country. I don’t think any remake team had the range or balls to put that in their most cliched “bad boy is redeemed by the love of a good woman” season.
Skam Austin, Grace/Daniel: I mean, I’m just going to be honest here. The only reason Noora/William even remotely work is because of Julie Andem, and Josefine Pettersen’s insane charisma. Yes, Daniel has an emotional range, unlike William. And Grace was told off by Jo, unlike Noora. But this is still the story of a guy coercing younger girls into sex without protection, who zeroes in on the one girl who presents a challenge, and who makes his girlfriend’s sexual assault all about him. The different teams will change details here and there, but this story needs a serious rehaul to be palatable. What Austin has going for it, is that the writers realized the side characters are all much more interesting than the Grace/Daniel drama, and they gave them storylines of their own.
This is getting long, so everyone else goes under the keep reading.
Manon/Charles: What they have going for it are steamier scenes than Noora/William, being the first Noorhelm remake, and the actors being together in real life. I don’t think any Noorhelm fan would care about them otherwise. Manon and Charles are a toxic relationship that the writers haven’t even realized they’re writing as toxic and harmful. Manon at Imane’s Eid party looked like the protagonist of one of those 19th century novels where the women are trapped in awful marriages.
Mia/Alex: I don’t really have an opinion on them as a couple. All my opinions are confusion about how the writers chose to shoehorn them in s4. Another Noora/William ship where all the characters do after their season is argue and cause drama. At least the arguments aren’t about the Noora’s sexual assault though. A plus!
Eleonora/Edoardo: Are they interesting, or are people just thirsty for Giancarlo Commare? I have to say Eleonora reminds me of a teenie Laura Pausini, and that makes me a tiny bit fond of her ngl.
Liv/Noah: These two actually frustrate me, because I think a good writer could’ve really made them shine. Both of them are given a more attractive persona, the whispery singer and the unwashed artist, but then the writing keeps forcing them into Noora and William’s scenes/characterization. To this day I have no idea if Noah is meant to be moc like his actor, or whether he’s a Blaine Anderson case where his actor is biracial, but the show gives him a white last name and white relatives. And when it comes to Liv, one thing I’ve noticed on twitter is that a lot of Noora/William fans are (imo, not accidentally) woc who relate to Noora and want a William. And it just feels like a missed opportunity that Skam NL didn’t focus on the parts of Noora that these fans relate to, such as her choice to wait to have sex, or her image as the perfect girl (the model minority) which hides a lot of insecurity, curiosity for/interest in the things she rejects, and more work than people guess it takes to be that Perfect™.
Zoë/Senne: Wtfock really said, “oh, you’re telling everyone within earshot that these are a good Noorhelm and they fixed all the dodgy shit in Skam? Lemme take care of that real quick by having Senne make Zoë’s sexual assault all about himself yet again, then date a woc while clearly still pining over Zoë. Everything shall be ruined in the name of realism!” But anyway, I think Zoë is a parody of Noora in looks, lines and jfc that cringy ass instagram bio. And Senne has all the edge of a fluffy kitten, the bad boy persona doesn’t suit him at all.
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SKAM Austin Season 2 Episode 9 Thoughts
So, I thought this was the last episode, but then a clip was released today. I’m guessing there will be ten total episodes in this season. Like I said before, Daniel is officially canceled in my book, so if you don’t want to hear me ranting about what an asshole he is... maybe don’t read this.
Home
Grace had to drive out to Clay’s school just to talk to him. God, can she get a break?
Clay is trying to laugh things off, but Grace is serious AF.
And then that asshole calls Grace a slut. He is such a horrible human being. Why does Daniel believe him over Grace? I will never understand this storyline. He knows his brother is psycho, why would he believe anything he says?
Grace “apologizes” to Clay and he says: “It is a scary time to be a guy, you know?” I thought that was an especially good line to put in to SKAM Austin. Men in the United States say that all the time now that #MeToo is a thing. Heck, even our president says it. It is disgusting. I mean, you think it is scary to be a guy and be accused of sexual harassment? How about being a woman and experiencing sexual harassment. That is a hell of a lot scarier.
Then Grace goes off on him, exposing him for the terrible person he is. She is such a badass in this scene. I missed this beautiful, strong woman.
Clay rushes to assure Grace that he didn’t do anything to her, but it is hard to believe him. Grace just threatened to report him to the police. I am willing to bet he would lie to her, just to get her off his case.
But I have to say, my favorite part of the clip is when Grace walked away and Megan was waiting for her on the curb to drive her home. This brings up a small issue I have with Austin. It is not even really an issue, but something I would have liked to see. I wish we could have seen Megan and Grace’s relationship more this season. Last season, we didn’t really get much and we didn’t this season either. I think it is a problem with the remakes in general. The Eva character kind of gets sidelined in Noora’s season. The remake that portrays these girls’ friendship the best is SKAM NL in my opinion. I love seeing scenes of Isa and Liv together because they are just so close.
That being said, I adored this scene. I think it may be my favorite iteration of the confrontation scene yet.
Ready to Talk
Grace texts Daniel about everything, explaining that she might never know what happened, how terrifying the whole ordeal was, that she might have been drugged. Daniel starts texting back, but never sends anything.
This is the point of no return for me. Let me tell you a story. When I first watched SKAM Season 2, I didn’t find anything too inherently wrong with it. At this point in time, I wasn’t aware of the whole social media and text aspect of the series, so I was just watching the full episodes without any of the context of the instagram posts or text messages posted. Sure, I definitely felt uncomfortable about some parts of the storyline, like William constantly pressuring Noora to go out with him or come to his parties. Even when the scene came out where William confronted Noora about the Niko situation, despite how awfully he treated her, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I thought, “Well, he doesn’t know the whole story. Who knows what Niko told him and Noora really didn’t get a chance to explain herself.�� I finished off the season with this mindset. It was only later that I learned about the text messages posted online. I learned that Noora had explained what happened to William, telling him that she had most probably been sexually assaulted. This is where the character of William lost any sympathy I might have had for him. Going back to SKAM Austin, Daniel disregards his girlfriend’s feelings when he has full knowledge that she might have been drugged and sexually assaulted. He treats her like shit after this, not texting her or talking to her. Nothing he does can ever redeem him in my eyes. Grace deserves better.
God is a Woman
The girls are all chilling, getting ready to go to Prom later. Kelsey waltzes in, looking gorgeous in her pale blue prom dress. She talks about she used to feel that she had to be skinny to be successful, but now she realizes otherwise. She pulls out a water bottle that is filled with alcohol.
Megan refuses a drink when Kelsey offers, saying she wants to take a break from drinking - and from Marlon.
Kelsey whole heartedly agrees, stating that they don’t need boys to validate them. This is one of the most flawed parts of Season 2 for me. Kelsey and Megan realize that they don’t need boys to have self-worth (which is such a great message for teenage girls), but Grace (the lead of this season) experiences the opposite of that. She is strong and confident without a man in the first season and the beginning of this season, but by the end she needs Daniel to be happy. There is so much disconnect between the two messages this season is trying to put forward.
Jo complains about her boy trouble with the guy she’s been talking to online and the girls assure her she doesn’t need him.
#Prom
OK, well this Prom is a hell of a lot nicer than the one my school offered. We actually had Prom on the exact same night, so…
Pen-Joe comes up to Jo and Grace, asking Jo for a dance. Like the boss lady that she is, Jo replies “I already have a boyfriend” in Spanish. That is right, Pen-Joe. You lost your chance with the beautiful woman that is Josefina Valencia.
Back inside the dance, Abby announces Daniel as Prom King, but apparently he didn’t show up. This reminds me of yet another awful thing Daniel did to Grace. He said they were going to Prom together, but then he never shows up. Dude.
Zoya wins Prom Queen!!!!! I wasn’t sure if we were going to get this scene, but we did and I am so damn happy for her. She deserves it.
Grace asks Pen-Joe where Daniel is, but he just says that “family stuff”. What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Out on the dance floor, Kelsey is dancing with a nice-looking dude, Zoya and Megan are dancing together, and Jo accepts Pen-Joe’s offer for a dance. You better make him apologize for the rude way he treated you, girl.
Aw, Grace posts a selfie of herself looking happy, but you can tell it is all a facade. She goes to join Megan and Zoya.
Welcome to My Life
It is the middle of the night and Grace gets a message on instagram from xxtrinity2121 about Clay.
A conversation ensues between the two girls. Apparently this mystery instagram girl is their version of Mari, telling Grace nothing happened between her and Clay. Obviously, this news is a great relief to Grace.
They also talk about how stressed they both are, with xxtrinity2121 confessing that she is very depressed and sometimes thinks about killing herself. Since this clip was posted, a chat was posted on SKAM Austin’s website between Grace and this girl which leads me to believe she has a more important role than just being the Mari stand-in. I have heard a lot of theories of who she is. A lot of people think she is Tyler, who is either trying to fool Grace or he was actually the person in bed with her and Clay. I don’t think the latter option is true because it looked like a girl in the bed to me when I re-watched that clip. Another interesting idea is that she is the Austin version of Even. I mean her username xxtrinity2121 has the number 21:21 in it. I really like this theory and hope it is true. That would be so interesting.
Usually Never Wrong
Zoya and Grace are walking down the hall, when Zoya pulls Abby over. She apologizes for not believing Abby about what a bad guy Hunter is. Abby tells her no problem and says she is really happy how everyone came together to support Zoya as Prom Queen, how it would have been racist if Zoya hadn’t won. Now, I don’t think Abby was trying to be mean. I genuinely think she was trying to be nice, but obviously it really hurt Zoya. She walks away. God, I feel so bad for Zoya. She deserved to win Prom Queen on her own merit, not because people think it would be racist for her not to. I think this is really gearing up to her season and I really hope she gets to have one.
Grace spots Daniel in the quad and rushes up to him, asking where he’s been. He says he’s been to see Clay. No elaboration. Then he tells her he’s going to New York for the summer. Well, I guess it’s not as bad as moving to London permanently like William was planning on doing.
Grace says she wants to talk and Daniel says “I’m done talking. It’s too much.” Too much? For you? Grace could have been sexually assaulted and this asshole has the nerve to claim it’s too much for him?God, I hate Daniel.
Grace runs after him, yelling her most iconic line yet. “Daniel, stop being a little bitch.” She tells him off. She says that a lot of stuff happened and it sucked. For her. I’m really glad they gave her that line. Because it is so damn true. Then she starts talking about how no one has loved her like Daniel has, blah, blah, blah. I wish we’d gotten more of Grace’s parents backstory because that would have given better context to this scene.
Daniel still gets in the car and drives away. As Grace is crying at the curb, we see him run back to her and they embrace.
She says she can explain everything, and he says she doesn’t need to. A lot of people were overjoyed at this line, but…. She already explained everything in the text she sent him and he ignored her and treated her like shit afterward when he finally saw her. This line makes no sense to me.
Whatever, I know a lot of people were happy they finally got together, but I can never fully forgive Daniel.
General Thoughts
This was a weird week because we got a bunch of clips on Saturday and then on one Monday and nothing else the entire week. I do think there were a lot of good parts of the clips, aside from Daniel drama. Also, the clip where Grace and Clay talk might be my favorite clip this season or for SKAM Austin in general. I think they executed it beautifully. See you next week for the last episode of this season!
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