soba on his way to plap his gf silly. rain or shine

TW// IMPLIED PHYSICAL ABUSE

Ive never been hyperfixated on my own ocs before…….

This is genuinely so weird to me, ive never cared about developing new ocs, usually its a chore but god damn it Jari has taken over my life currently, so much so he has multiple playlists and pinterest boards, help.

Finished! Sorry I got quiet during the beheading and-- Some stuff:

- elitism -> rando switch to southern accent = evil

- anti-semitism -> mr sheffield's golem went into a furnace 😬 Maybe SPN needs more Stefferson Starship type monsters

- so, mr sheffield is an evil british nazi who experiments like an angel of death wwII trope, he adopts a southern accent when he goes evil (because that's code for monster-hating bigot), and he's nazi, hooo boy it's mishmash with your fave "evil" tropes, I guess

Like, to a degree I expect bad WWII-unit 731 human experimention references and "let's shit on 2d southern sap" in my american media, but it's eeeh. It undercuts a bit the more natural-flowing dialogue and improved performances. (I'm just so relieved the main characters weren't walking-taking therapy dolls this time though. It's been killing me slowly on this show.)

Anyway, I wasnt crazy about original SPN's Thule and Oz stuff because it always struck me as too meta, like it leaned a little too much in to bragging about story mechanics. I tend to dislike Dorothy's about-face, brainless orientation to Charlie, "you're a genius!" (Like, it's so meta, right? Charlie's got main character syndrome teehee). And the grouchy golem was always cringey to me because he was like a puppet to such a degree that his free will disappeared (he's a mechanistic support character / protector, just like a dark shadow of our attack dog monster support characters. He doesn't get to be complex, ofc. So meta. *pats self on back*) These were bad doylist pyrotechnics in the original. The only one allowed to do bad meta and stereotype is my love, Metatron, who gets a pass for all the struggle and despair with God. And what eorked sbout Metatron's meta is he failed to execute it, ergo it was so much better bybthe end he was yelling at Chuck.

Also, I get that lobotomies are relevant to free will theme, buuuuut... sigh.

But on the QC: The dialogue and pacing/production was better the last 2 eps. I'm so relieved because I genuinely thought the early eps were verbose and weird.

The "therapy talk" was a little less stilted, and when it does occur, it comes from kindness, not preaching. (For example: Roxy decided to keep her memories as opposed to Lata lecturing / pressuring her to keep them. Small detail, but very important.) All the core characters continued to sound better, more like people. I'm glad to see Carlos get some much-needed neuroticism around his relationship; dude seems too well-adjusted and "feisty" all the time, and that can occasionally ring hollow because of it. (Luckily for them, the actor's charismatic. But no one always says the right things, especially under duress.)

The themes on grieving without self-annialation were GOOD this time, and there was some great Jary foreshadowing that stood on it's own for once instead of coming off preachy. Roxy's confrontation of violation was well-acted. I liked Millie's face at the end when she thinks John's murdered someone--too unsurprised!

The bit about Mary ruminating on love and selfishness? Fantastic!

I do think a lot of GA will not recognize the golem and Jewish cultural iconography and sidestep the WWII discomforts, because the show wrapped Mr. Sheffield in the drawling language of "southern white bigot" at the end 'thar. And if there's one thing that modern TV audiences agree on, it's that evil southerners Deserve Their Stereotype and What's Comin' to 'em. 🤷‍♂️ Smokescreens not to look deeper.