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inmyarmswrappedin · 3 years

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So, because Fatou’s season ends today and, as far as we know, Druck hasn’t been renewed yet, I want to go over the things I feel the team did well in this season and the things I hope they take with them when they sit down to write the next season (which I’m manifesting will be Ava’s).

I think that s5 and, perhaps to a bigger extent, s6, were the team’s attempt to address fan feedback for and criticisms of s3 and s4. So I have hopes that, after possibly the most scrutinized season of any Skams, they are still willing to read even more feedback and sit down once again to craft a couple more seasons (possibly even 3 or 4 more seasons!).

So, without further ado, things that were done well! (Do I have to add “in my opinion”? Do I??)

I liked that for both s5 and s6, the thorough-line for the season wasn’t made obvious or shared in a press release, but rather it was up to fans to connect the story threads for themselves.

I loved that the team sought to address one of the biggest criticisms of s3, that is, that Matteo was given so many symptoms of a mental illness, but it ultimately went unaddressed in the narrative. They did this by giving Nora a dissociative disorder, and Fatou dyscalculia. (Matteo has been headcanoned as being mentally ill and having a disability.) It allowed the teams to develop both fan theories into full-blown seasons and give each of them the importance they deserved.

I have said this already, but I really appreciate that the team chose misunderstood, misrepresented and underrepresented mental illnesses and disabilities. I feel like s5 and s6 will be referents for many years, because they really took the time to portray a dissociative disorder and dyscalculia in a down-to-earth, unhurried way that isn’t meant to shock and awe, but simply allow us to understand why and when Nora and Fatou will struggle. Druck got the viewers to anticipate when Nora and Fatou would struggle, and that’s the first step in being able to anticipate and accommodate the needs of the Noras and Fatous of the world. I really can’t overstate how important this is and what a difference it makes in a real, tangible way. These seasons aren’t meant to be enjoyed for voyeuristic reasons, but they will legitimately help people.

One of the biggest criticisms of s4 was that Amira and Sam didn’t connect as women of color. In fact, it seemed like in s4 Sam was treated as another white friend, when in s2 both she and Amira were the victims of Kiki’s racism. The team addressed this by giving us Ava and Fatou’s friendship, which I want to say might be the first friendship between main characters of color where their race is a substantial reason for their bond. (There are the Sanas with their Jamillas, but the Jamillas aren’t main characters, and then there are friendships like Jo and Megan and Zoya, or Imaan and Liv, or Luca and Yasmina, but iirc in every case their bond as women of color isn’t made explicit.)

Another criticism of s4 was the way Kiki turned into the world’s most understanding white friend offscreen. The team addressed this with the Ava and Mailin storyline, which I think was wonderfully and subtly set up in s5, then built on with the biology test leaked answers.

On the topic of race, I think a major criticism of s3 was that David’s ethnicity wasn’t acknowledged (to the point where a white actress was cast to play his sister gvhvhv). The team has made up for this with Josh (more in the s6 sm than in s5, but I still count it) and with Kieu My. Fatou and Kieu My bonded over being first/second gen children of immigrants, and in doing so, they acknowledged that these characters aren’t white and have different experiences than white Germans.

The first 6 episodes of this season were some of the finest writing in the Skams. The storylines all connected and built on each other. The motifs were just so good and beautiful and fitting. The themes were all clearly defined and easy to follow.

The tortoise plot was one of the most fun and imaginative storylines in any Skams, it connected Fatou and Ismail in a believable way. And not to rave about a fucking tortoise, but animals can be really uncooperative and that tortoise delivered every fucking clip. Druck has a reputation for being one of the most depressive versions of Skam, but the Maike/Burger plot was just plain fun.

I feel like some of the old gen’s instas were a bit self-indulgent. I’m thinking specifically of Matteo’s memes and how they they weren’t necessarily the kind of memes a gay dude born in 2001 would pick, but someone a decade older. I think this is much better done with new gen. Fatou’s memes reflect her age and her sexuality, and not just that, but Ava, Mailin, Kieu My, Josh, etc. all pick memes and even focus on different aspects of recent news, based on their gender, race, personalities, interests, etc.

I appreciate that the team found a way to fit a sex scene between Fatou and Kieu My to add to the small catalogue of wlw sex scenes on Skams (I’m including the scene in lovleg or we’d only have two lol). While I understood the reasons eskam opted not to include one, I thought there were ways to feature a sex scene that didn’t sexualize the actresses and didn’t require nudity. Cases in point: the lovleg scene, and this scene in Druck.

And it also needs to be said. This is the first original season with a main of color, and the third season overall (after Liv and Imane) where 10 episodes are given to a character of color and no one else. Of the three, it’s certainly the season that loved and respected its main the most. The bar is so low it’s in hell, but Druck did clear that bar!

With all that said, let’s talk about the things I would really want the team to address in following seasons:

The thing I most want them to fix might be small or unimportant for a lot of people, but I think it’s at the core of why the season has been unenjoyable or certain plot points haven’t come across the way the team wanted, for many people. I am talking about the overly expositional nature of the writing. It appears as if the team approached the writing of the clips with the intention of hitting each beat as noted in their agreed upon outline, and absolutely nothing else was to be added. This is an issue both in s5 and s6. It’s just less noticeable in s5, because s5 is setting up stuff for Fatou’s season, and possibly even seasons that haven’t been written yet. The fact that absolutely every second counts makes for a stressful watching experience for me, because the narrative tension is always heightened. Whereas with Skam, the narrative tension would build throughout the clip. Take the Pride scene in Skam, for instance. The clip allows for Isak and Eskild to get increasingly more agitated as they butt heads. I feel like if this Druck team had done the Pride scene in s5 or s6, the clip would’ve started with both Isak and Eskild already on edge, and cut much of the dialogue that got them there.

On the topic of naturalistic dialogue, this season doesn’t have it. Here is an example from ep 10 clip 2, Wieder vereint/Reunited 11:37.

Fatou: I’ll get a certificate too and bring it over to you. And I checked it, I only have to change one course and my schedule will work.

Teacher: Miss Jallow, you are not the first one to come to me with an epiphany. We could fill entire school weeks with the lessons you missed. In addition, Doctor Steinberg told me about your, well… activities. You don’t have a lot of arguments on your side.

Fatou: But I’ve spoken to all of the teachers and they said they are okay with it.

Teacher: You seem to have friends among the teaching staff. Mrs Pavlovic put in a word for you. Okay then, do it and go before I change my mind. [translated by @kieu-tou! Thank you!]

Like. This is the bare bones version of a dialogue. This should be the first draft, not the final version. The coordinator goes from absolute no to yes, with just one line from Fatou. The coordinator gives reasons that would necessitate more than one sentence of counterargument, like Fatou’s absences and the Biology test leaked answers. The coordinator even says Fatou doesn’t have a lot of arguments on her side, and yet it takes Fatou one line to change her mind!

And of course we viewers don’t want or need a lot of time with the coordinator. And particularly at this point in the season, no one would enjoy a naturalistic dialogue with the coordinator of all people. But my point is that this is an issue with the dialogue all this season (and last season as well, but this season has been more scrutinized), the reason I picked this example is because of how easy it is to see here.

Which brings us to the pacing of the clips, and specifically the Friday clips. Because the script goes straight to the information the team wants to convey to the viewers, skipping the build up to it, many Friday clips have fallen flat, felt abrupt, and have been, tbh, unsatisfying. Again, I had this issue in s5, but as that season went on, I felt like the team had a better grip on Friday clips. But then they did it again in the first Friday clip this season, and so I think this is something the writers really should work on. The first Friday clip in Isak’s season closes on Isak being sandwiched by Emma and Even on a bench, visually setting up the love triangle, or more accurately, the personifications of who Isak should want to hook up with and who he really wants. But in order to get there, we’re shown a good amount of info, from the way Vilde, Eva and Sana are handling Noora’s absence, to Chris and Kasper, Even hovering around Isak, Emma trying to impress Isak, Isak escaping and, like, draping himself on the walls because he’s so over it all. Isak playing a game on the bathroom to stall for time. The paper towel maneuver to immediately give us a sense of what a weirdo Even is. A conversation between Isak and Even that gives us some clues about Even’s shame, as well as establish interests in common (like weed), and this is all before Emma even joins them! Just think of all the stuff we learn about who Isak, Even, Emma, Eva, Vilde or Sana are as people, before we get to the point of the clip! Fatou’s season simply didn’t have that. Compare it with the first Friday clip of Fatou’s season where the cashqueens quickly talk about the leaked answers, one of the major storylines this season that only gets a couple lines, before Fatou says she doesn’t want to talk about school (Fatou’s struggles with school, another major storyline), and then we’re onto the point of the clip, which is that Kieu My likes girls too. AND FADE TO BLACK. When people say they want longer clips, what they mean isn’t artificially inflate the clip length or add more plot stuff. Just let us watch the characters interact with each other so that we get a feel for how they relate to each other. I know I wish we’d have gotten more of Ava and Fatou interacting with each other before things turned to shit, and Ava with the other girls, so that I know why they all like and value Ava so much. I wish we’d have gotten more of Kieu My talking to the cashqueens about, like, why she didn’t make use of the biology test answers, instead of getting it on a chat. Or food combos they don’t like. So it makes more sense that later on Kieu My actually thinks she and Fatou are friends. And every line doesn’t have to count. In Skam España, the characters are constantly talking and not everything they ever talked about ended up being relevant. When one of the characters lied about her house undergoing renovations to hide the fact that she was poor, the characters joked about Italian marble and put on bad Italian accents and made that Italian hand gesture. None of this was important to the plot because those renovations weren’t real to begin with, but they made viewers feel like these were real friends joking around, instead of characters needing to hit every storyline beat in a clip.

I have this joke with my friends about Druck always going 🤪🤪 in the last third of every season, in which a season that was very tightly written and cohesive suddenly pulls something inexplicable and pretty much impossible to resolve in 1-3 episodes. Hanna’s season suddenly switching to Mia, Björn creeping on Mia in episode 9! of a total 10, David getting outed in episode 8 and then disappearing for a whole week, Amira’s season pivoting to Mia and Hanna. It has happened in every season except Nora’s, so I thought the team had learned its lesson, but then the forgotten date with Ava happened. To be clear. It really makes no sense that Nora would have hung out with Ava several times since Tuesday, and the topic of the cashqueens being officially introduced to Kieu My wouldn’t have come up. it’s just not realistic.gif I feel like at that point the writing for the rest of the reason became super contrived to keep Fatou miserable and apart from Kieu My and Ava to artificially delay the reunions until episode 9 and 10. Why add a cheating insinuation and the main checking her partner’s messages in episode 8 if you know you won’t be able to properly resolve it? Why make Kieu My mock Fatou’s “uhm” if it’s not going to be addressed in their reunion clip? Kieu My had taken the initiative for a lot of the relationship, so it’s okay for Fatou to take the initiative when it comes to making up. You don’t have to add things that can only be resolved through an expositional info dump. (Please no more exposition than it’s necessary! I think we’ve established that at this point lol.) In the case of Fatou’s season, this is even sadder because I feel like Kieu My’s intimacy issues could’ve been the reason to drive them apart for two weeks, rather than the Maya/uhm stuff. This could’ve also been resolved through Fatou and Kieu My explicitly negotiating their boundaries and how they want to be comforted and how they want to comfort each other, which I thought was the issue with Fatou rejecting Kieu My’s attempts to help while wanting physical touch, while Kieu My didn’t want to be touched but rather seen.

There are going to be many thinkpieces on why a myriad of stuff didn’t work for people, so I’m going to keep this simple and address one last thing. I think that choosing to focus on Nora’s mental illness and Fatou’s disability is a great choice that doesn’t complicate the themes too much, but Druck (and all the Skams, but I’m invested only in Druck succeeding at this point) still struggles with being intersectional. This is the major reason why the Ava/Mailin storyline ended not with a bang, but a whimper. There just wasn’t enough work done to connect Fatou’s struggles not just to her disability, but also to her race (and even her sexuality). I think that if people really want (and lbr, it’ll be mostly poc who will put in that effort and work), they can see how Fatou’s race affected the way other people and especially adults reacted to her, but this wasn’t made explicit. If Ava and Mailin are going to argue about racism all season, why not connect that with Karin firing Fatou from Aquarius? As it stands, Karin fired Fatou because of a disability neither of them knew Fatou has, and that was the resolution to that storyline. Why not make it explicit that the Physics teacher had preconceived ideas about Fatou because Fatou is black? Why wasn’t Fatou’s disability addressed in the meeting with the coordinator? Why didn’t Fatou express to Mailin that Fatou, too, had issues with how Mailin was acting wrt racism? It felt like, with the way the season was putting so much emphasis on racism, all these threads were going to be connected. In the end though, it almost felt as if only Ava is affected by racism (aside from Mailin mentioning Fatou in the last episode). It’s not like talking about how racism affects Fatou is going to make the topic redundant for Ava’s or Ismail’s season. As a light-skinned black lesbian with a disability, Fatou’s life is going to be impacted by racism in a different way than Ava’s will, as a dark-skinned black fat straight cis girl, or Ismail’s, as a Turkish-German possibly Muslim possibly non binary person. All these experiences are specific enough, and different enough, that they can be touched upon in different seasons without becoming redundant. The fact that Fatou’s season almost seemed to forget at times that she is a black lesbian, doesn’t bode well for Ava’s and Ismail’s season to acknowledge all their struggles.

The bottom line is that this season really was great and did a lot of good, and I feel like the writing just needs to be tweaked a bit for further seasons to be even better and more enjoyable overall. I am very pleasantly surprised by how the team took s1-s4 fan feedback to heart and worked to implement suggestions, and so I really trust them and hope they keep working on the show. It’d be a shame if Druck wasn’t renewed, with this team at the helm.

#druck #this post is 3K+ words in word I'm so sorry #but I really hope it makes its way to the writers and is helpful

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steve0discusses · 3 years

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S5 Ep6: Joey Wheeler is on Fire, Yet Again

Came down with a little sickness-not the biggie, just a little sly guy. But I took some meds, I’m a little floaty, I’ve only been listening to baroque music all morning for some reason? And I hate baroque music usually? But I’ll leave it to bro to tell me if this is fluid enough.

Just so you know, these caps were kind of a hot mess for a while and some of them read like that Garfield in of hot eat the food comic until...today. So pls don’t judge me, Judge my damn DMV where no one was following Covid regulations because I’m pretty sure that’s where I got this damn cold.

We start off with Roland getting more attention than he ever has in his entire life. Like honestly, I don’t know what Roland’s job really is...but he’s got a very diverse set of very useless skills. One of which, is knowing how to announce sports games that aren’t really a sport, while those games he’s announcing slowly fall into chaos.

Anyway, Roland’s taking so long cherishing his sweet time before everything goes to hell, that he’s boring Joey, who’s kinda turned into a ball of stress in the waiting room.

A lot of this episode is us watching them watching Joey having a break down moment by moment, TBH.

(read more under the cut)

Yugi telling Joey to study his cards and straight up--what?

Like at this point they know what’s on the cards, right? Like there comes a point where even Yugioh cards have a finite amount of words and I’m just going to assume that like...Joey probably knows them all in his own deck, right?

(bro note: they have no limit on what they will put on a card)

Then again, maybe Yugi doesn’t know what “study” means?

Also, appreciate how some artist crosshatched the hell on Joey’s nose there and I zoomed out and ruined it.

Now for some reason every duelist is hanging out in the duel lodge, including our current arch-villain guy who’s brought a book. I want to know what book this guy even reads so no one could suspect he’s actually a hacker who uses computers. He’s reading romance, right? And I don’t think he’d even be into Twilight, I think he’s straight up into hard core Mom romance like a lame ass Nicholas Sparks over there reading “Dear John” for the millionth time because he is completely un-phased by anything else happening in this room.

Joey, our hero, just out there being an asshole for no reason.

After Tea is pushed into a locker or something screaming about her need for female friends (which she screamed in earshot of Rebecca again, who I figured was on friends terms with her after last episode...but I guess not) Leon hops up to remind us that we should be caring about the fact that his character exists.

And like, I love Leon’s hair color--that’s a good choice, and legit that is the color I tried to dye my hair at the beginning of the epidemic (it didn’t work PS, my hair cannot take dye for the life of it) but also like...he just kinda feels like a weak Rebecca as far as characters go. He’s young, he’s good at cards...I think he goes to a private school? That’s all I can think of about Leon.

He mostly just reminds us that the big prize of this tourney is to duel Yugi, who anyone could have dueled at any point even without the tournament.

On the way out of the...duel room? lounge? Area? Joey decides to like...make peace with Zigfried, and I gotta tell you, I kinda have to side with Zigfried, because Joey spent the last ten minutes being a freak in the dressing room/lounge/bathroom and at one point looked like he was going to hold the entire locker room in a stranglehold.

I would also want some space from Joey Wheeler, is what I’m saying.

After insulting Joey’s style (which honestly, Joey...has a style? He pops his collar, that’s his entire style.) Zigfried assures us that Joey’s gonna lose and like...

...probably, right? Just looking at the plausible direction this season will go.

Anyway, Joey is such a mess (which is the theme of the episode, that Joey needs to learn to chill in order to win at card games) that Rebecca is like “I understand if all of you leave me to go help our poor baby Joey.” And no one felt bad for her.

Mokuba comes over to tell everyone all of the Kaiba family secrets because Mokuba has no filter.

Seto has devoted himself to staring at a computer screen for the rest of this episode. I guess he’ll put their names into Google, realize that social media hasn’t been invented yet, and then just lie his head down on the desk and take a power nap until the tournament is over. Much like I did after taking Dayquil this afternoon.

I like how Seto dressed for success and then locked himself in the server room for most of this arc so far. Maybe he’s just...really tired, I dunno. I don’t really blame the guy, he’s had a hard time.

And then Yugi was like “DAMN IT MOKUBA, JUST ONCE CAN YOU NOT INVITE THE ILLUMINATI???”

And we had a weird scene where Yugi just started talking to the ghost and it was while he was talking to everyone else, and the show didn’t treat it like that’s a weird thing to do...but it was a weird thing to do.

This show does that sometimes, where I guess they imply that Yugi’s Pharaoh conversations are split second conversations but...they’re not, right?

Also this chick ain’t gone yet, and Mokuba is just failing at his entire job for not zeroing in on vibes coming off this chick like stinky cheeseman.

So listen.

Did the Kaibas make like 3 types of Blue Eyes Caboose to one up Noah? Because Noah made one choo choo dragon, and then Mokuba and Seto were like “how dare” and then made sure that everyone ride every single version of the blue eyes caboose just to see how proud of them they were.

How many months of troubleshooting was the train? Like how long in development did Seto and Mokuba spend on these? A lot right? Like most of the time?

I did not check the subs to see if Roland said Jumping or Champion but I like to believe that Roland thought it was a cool new name he gave him.

Then these guys all showed up.

Hey so...can we talk seating arrangements?

Tea decided not to sit next to Yugi after complaining about not spending time with him for like how many episodes? Or was it too awkward to sit on top of what was probably Pharaoh?

Or did Mokuba go like “please, Tea, I cannot sit next to the others because I’m pretty sure one is a mole that is about to go cray” and was Tea like “Good, I need female friends, these ones are driving me crazy!” and then was Mokuba like peering desperately over the edge of his self made dragon train prison realizing he has to listen to Tea complain about boys for the rest of his ride across molten lava?

Headcanons abound about this weird seating arrangement that the animators drew for the reasons they did...but reasons I cannot fully understand. That and the Dayquil is making me overfixate on random stuff.

And also, Tea is kind of the Kaiba’s security’s understudy. Just there to always protect Mokuba with her ass because she’s the strongest woman alive.

PS I missed the tumblr wars because at the time I was trying to like...run a proper business on blogger. When Blogger died and I jumped over here it was like a weird ruin where everyone was like “tumblr is the most toxic place alive” and...I’ve had a really nice time here, actually. Completely missed that civil war period and I have no regrets.

Now I was there for the Petz wars (warz, I guess) where people were very militant about Petz abuse (abuze?) where apparently people were using the spray bottle on their catz too much and people were very, very upset about it to the point that they were like campaigning about it on their angelfire websites with the most bizarre grassroots campaigns that I still recall, to this day because they were like...well they looked like this:

PLAPA. Not only am I 100% positive that only this one guy ever called this movement PLAPA, but I’m 100% positive that not only are Catz not real people, but also this wasn’t actually happening and we never had any proof that it was. Either way, if people knew or suspected that you hadn’t deleted the spray bottle from your game (which at the time I had no idea how to do because I was a wee child) they would basically assume you were on a one way road to being a mass murderer in real life.

In real life we were 7 years old so like...thanks?

But that’s the closest I got to toxicity and at the time I was too young to make an email account and actually converse with these people. I was just there to download their Petz hexes, and I already made a post about how wonderful and incredible Petz Hexing was.

And y’all, I heard, just now after a little deep dive into the Petz Abuse debacle (which yes, is on the wiki), that apparently, like gardening, Petz Hexing came back in a big way during the epidemic--and I have found an active Petz forum in this the year 2021. The only problem is that I no longer remember how to use old timey forums...and I think I’m locked out of seeing most of these threads (and like this forum is so old I think I have to send them a letter in the physical mail to apply). But, I’m pretty sure they’re hosting a picture contest for who’s dogz poses the best. And I’m pretty sure someone created a hexxed Pickle Rick. Or it’s a photoshop that was made to look like a hexxed Pickle Rick.

Dammit why did it have to be Pickle Rick? That’s not worth re-installing Petz and getting it to run on Windows 10...

Guys is this the Dayquil? Is this really happening? I feel like I’m losing my mind for so many reasons...

Anyway, speaking about useless hexing it’s about time that our villain did something that was actually dangerous, so Zigfried decided to install a new virus that does more than turn off the lights. (it still turns off lights)

the Spreadsheet Virus!

Confounded by the spreadsheet software, it...um...it does this:

Straight up how does Excel make a volcano erupt? Is that why I have to pay for Microsoft office now?

All this because Joey made fun of Zigfried’s naturally pink hair? Which is the most normal hair on this series outside of like...Tristan?

Hey guys...Joey’s fine, right? Like how many times has Joey been on fire? And once in an iron cage next to like...a Fire Golem?

Joey’s fine.

MAN I miss Fire Golem. He had a good mug.

And then we just kinda watch chaos go across the park, chaos that includes: Too many ghosts in the haunted mansion (which honestly--you’ll get your money’s worth, sounds great!), the Ferris wheel goes kinda fast and thus might accidentally be fun, the lights turn off at some concert stage that only had 2 people on it (so it might just be motion detector lights and not even a virus), and um...literal fire and magma are going to set Joey Wheeler on fire.

Just...one of these events does not seem like the others. In fact most of these things sound like good improvements to the park and they should just hire Zigfried at this point.

Roland puts down his microphone and jogs across the stage, about a mile through the audience bleachers, and into the staff lounge, to go and bother Seto Kaiba, who is in a room that has a hi-def classical painting copy-pasted on the wall and I can’t look away from it.

I almost did a Google search on this painting but then thought better about it. There’s like...a billion classical paintings that look exactly like this, and they wouldn’t use like a Monet, they would have to do something that’s harder to catch to avoid copyright issues (because yes, even old ass paintings have copyright issues, but no one tell NFT’s which are going to be so freakin screwed and was such a bad idea, that I can’t even start).

Anyway, I have no idea who it is and it is legitimately driving me up a wall, but I’m on too much meds to do the effort of putting it in a reverse google image search.

Plus, a reverse google image search would only pull up Seto Kaiba.

So Kaiba takes us on a little flashback to his weird ass past, a weird ass past that just...doesn’t follow any of the established timelines, but I assume was shortly after adoption but before Seto got into a phase where he wore his school outfit everywhere and tried to shove his MMO off onto his Dad as a business model.

Seto is like 8 for some reason. I don’t know why, they kinda drew him younger this season anyway, like maybe they got a lot of fan mail and realized “Hey I think we made the 16 yo boy too sexy?” And they just toned Seto the hell down. That, and it’s a different animation team, and maybe they looked at Seto’s character design and were like “we don’t get paid enough to draw this well.” So...since Seto actually looks like a teen again, I guess his 12 year old self has to look like he’s in Elementary school.

Also, I only recognized this, because at some point in S3 as I was roasting Noah Kaiba’s weird fashion:

I remember distinctly roasting that little bow tie. I don’t remember when I wrote it, I think there was a version of this outfit that was in color...but I don’t remember where.

Anyway, it’s not the same jacket...but man that’s kind of awkward, ya? Like the maid who dressed Mokuba deffo got fired?

He um.

Turned the lights off a little bit.

Guys this villain is like...

...why does he think lights are scary? Like look at little Seto here. The boy is already bored. Seto duels on the edges of cliffs...he doesn’t care about the freakin dark.

We had a guy who killed everyone on the planet last season, and this season we have a little fashion gremlin standing in the corner and flicking the light switch going “wooooo you never catch me!” and it’s like...

...I’m starting to think this guy isn’t a witch.

Like we’re at Episode 6, there’s still time for this guy to be a witch...but I really am starting to think this guy is just...straight up not a witch. It’s everything Seto wanted, a rival who isn’t a freakin magic person...and sets Joey only fake on fire instead literally on fire like last time...

and Seto is just completely unhinged by it.

Anyway, I’m off to go drink a bowl of soup and pass out. If you’re new here, this is a link to read these in chrono order.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#yugioh #yu gi oh #ygo #S5 #Ep6 #Yugi Muto #Seto Kaiba #Joey Wheeler #Tea Gardner #Tristan Taylor #Mokuba Kaiba #zigfried von schroeder #rebecca hawkins #I talked about catz again #leon #but not the kings of leon guy #I mean he could be

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angelhummel · 3 years

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So I saw a post about the eras of the Glee fandom and I am in the Resurgence Era. I began watching the show back in May 2020. I know people like to make fun of the show a lot, and I totally understand, but I unironically enjoy this show. Well maybe not a majority of S4-S6, but I like the music, the comedy, the heartfelt moments, the zany characters. But I can also see how even in the early seasons, which people hail as Glee's Peak, how it could have been better. (1/?)

With the exception of a few song changes and polishing clunky dialogue, there isn't much I would change in S1 or S2 (although I would cut down on the cheating plotlines in S2). S3 should have been about the club finally being unified with almost no infighting, and they shouldn't have tried to cram so many PSAs into one season AND Santana's coming out story should have had more focus than it got (and it should have been handled more sensitively period) But the music in S3 still rocked.

In S4-S6 I can see almost exactly when people began dropping from the fandom and I understand why. S4 through S5 (especially S5) seemed to be flailing for some sense of direction with the characters and juggled too many nonsensical (and often tone deaf) storylines for it to be coherent. S6 saved it from ending disastrously, but by then it was too late to truly save the show. Not to mention Ryan Murphy's unprofessionalism leading to actor drama and just butchered story lines.

But I can see how the show could progressed coherently and satisfyingly. In S3-S4 the New Directions should have become the champions for the underdogs. In S4 with most of them graduating, they should have had the theme of branching out into the big world beyond their small, closeminded town in Ohio. S5 could have been them getting too big for their britches and then failing because of arrogance. Then S6, they go back to Lima as a humbling reminder of where they started.

In S6, with the allotted 22 episodes they should have had, they could have started up the Glee club again, and be reminded why they joined in the first place. It makes me sad that bad writing and Ryan Murphy's unprofessionalism tanked a show that had all the groundwork for being absolutely amazing. Glee is many things: wacky, musical, bizarre, heartfelt, frustrating, insensitive, sometimes all those things in the same episode, but when it was good, there was nothing else like it.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I mean that last plot is basically what they tried to do but just with Rachel while everyone puttered around for ten episodes before they wrapped all the pointless crap up. I mean I was never a fan of them having to go back to Ohio in the final season just bc they’d already done it multiple times by then and it’s like can we please see something new?? All I wanted for the last two seasons was all my faves and a few guest stars in NY lmao. It’s still an ensemble show with like 7-10 characters and some good guest stars, right??

Also like I’ve sort of said this before lately but. S2 is a hot damn mess. If you didn’t have Kurt or Klaine and you didn’t have Santana or Brittana?? That season would be nothing lol. Maybe it’s just me but idk all the het nonsense that season really drags it down for me. And s3 is fucking awful but that’s what so many people cite as their favorite. Which to me it just proves that people talking about “it was really good at first then sharply declined when everyone graduated” is complete bullshit and it’s just people looking at the seasons they actually watched through rose colored glasses and just saying it got 100% when they stopped being interested in it.

And I swear I’m not trying to just shit on everything you’re saying lmao but again people saying s3 had the best music of all but like. I dunno I think DWS had the best music and was the best actual tribute ep. Michael also had really good performances. Then there’s maybe five other performances I’d put in the iconic tier lol. Idk I think it’s overrated all around and I just hate s3 so damn much (: But yes it does have some good music

But anyway your last paragraph. If I could rewrite Glee with 20/20 hindsight I would have the s4 and s6 newbies switch. So the new and interesting characters for s6 are introduced earlier and actually bring something new to the table. And then in s6 we get the wannabe copies of the oldies so that when all the alums are there, they pick out the person that reminds them most of their high school selves to mentor them. So like Thanksgiving but for like half the season or whatever lol. And it’s like sweet and nostalgic for them to sort of see themselves at the start of their friendship again and to give everyone the advice they wished they knew back in the day. Stuff like that. Could’ve been cute

And idk I don’t agree with everyone else saying s5 sucked lol. I mean obviously one of the contributing factors to the strangeness and sloppiness was one of their main characters dying and having to write around that. And poor Sam having to fill Finn’s crap shoes and become Finn 2.0 and I think you can see that best with the nurse Penny stuff. But idk I mean there’s twerking and puppets which are nonsensical and only one of those things comes off as tone deaf to me. I don’t think it’s as bad as people wanna say. But after the boringness of them coming back to Ohio for the glee club in the middle of the season?? And then my favorite characters are in NY after that?? Those are some of my absolute favorite episodes. I mean I’m in my top 40 glee ranking episodes and I’ve got 5 eps just from the back half of season five to go. I love it. It’s some of my favorite Glee

Although I still agree that s1 is the best. And that’s with the show focusing mainly on Mr. Schue, Finchel, and Quick. And I still adore it as much as I do. Season one really is something special. I mean just about every season is like watching a different show. And no one is going to agree on what they like best or why. But idk I’m just glad everyone in the fandom has something to hold onto.

#glee #asks #answered #long post #my thoughts #oh and rm letting cast drama fuel his writing choices #fuck him for that #i didnt need a pezberry feud just bc nr was sick of lm's bullshit #seasons-of-stories

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elsarah · 4 years

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Favorite clips of s5

Thank you so much @smblmn for tagging me, I love the idea! While the season as a whole was kinda underwhelming, it was full of amazing clips and I do have a lot of favorites. Here’s my top 10 and a few honorable mentions. I tend to have one favorite clip by episode, except for episode 8, which I REALLY didn't like. I didn't rank my picks, I'll just list them chronologically.

And since I didn't have the opportunity this season, I'm also making gifs to illustrate my picks :) I need the practice, as you can see.

Ep.1: Samedi 0:25 - Le choc

One of my favorite things this season has been the symbolism and the metaphors around sound and silence. In the first episode, there were 2 occurrences: Arthur seeing Noée for the first time underwater at the pool and him looking in the street as snow falls and slowly realizing he's gone deaf. I thought this was an amazing idea and that it gave disability more depth and beauty.

And that look at the camera in the last seconds… And the piano music… It was so chilling.

Ep. 2: Jeudi 20:59 - La nuit de

Globally, the scenes at the association were my favorites, even though I have a complicated relationship with them. Before shooting started in October, someone from the crew promised they would invite me on set during the filming of these scenes, but they ended up breaking their promise. I try to be as drama free as possible on the internet so I didn’t talk about it publicly but now that the season has ended I’m like “Why should I bottle this up, I’m not the the one who screwed up and I’m still hurt about it”.

The first time I watched that clip in January, I was heartbroken. Not just because of the missed opportunity but because I realised I never got to experience what Arthur did; there was no association for me, no one. But I still have a really soft spot for this scene because it's just gorgeous. The aesthetic is incredible and I totally understand what Arthur feels (minus the alcohol). Overall, as bittersweet as it is, it's probably one of my top 3 scenes this season (and it looks like it's one of David's too, this man has great taste). I can’t help but feel for the teenager I was and I wonder how I would have felt watching it then.

Ep.3: Vendredi 13:12 - Check de frérot

Arthur and Basile's friendship was one of the highlights of this season, heck Basile WAS the highlight of this season. Basile and Arthur never shy away from hugs and I'm living for it. I'm so looking forward to see more of Basile in season 6 (since I guess we'll see more of his relationship with Daphné). I loved seeing him be so well-intentioned, despite his usual clumsiness. Seeing Paul in a more serious register (for instance when Arthur lashed out at the boys in episode 6) was delightful.

Ep 4.: Lundi 19:02 - Les entendants

This one also belongs in my top 3. This is the representation I was looking for when I learned Skam France would tackle hearing loss and deafness. It doesn't come in the same package for everybody, and I love that they tried to show it through so many different characters. The situations described here are universal among deaf people.

On a more personal note, I loved that the extras were actual deaf people and sone of them well known. The lady interpreting is Jennifer Lesage-David, co-director at IVT, and she helped David and Niels a lot this season. And the girl speaking about her relationship with her dad is Lulu, she has a YouTube channel with her sister where they raise awareness about hearing loss. The instagram post that was published that day also featured a lot of people I more or less know.

Watching this clip was an experience in itself. I was attending a conference that night about deaf TV archives. The clip dropped 2 minutes before it started and I had to wait for it to end to finally watch. It was excruciating. Also, half the staff of IVT was there and I actually ended up watching the clip in front them. There were like "Wait? Jennifer was in Skam?".

Ep.4: Vendredi 20:43 - Ma vie a changé

While I'm still sceptical about Noée falling in love with Arthur so quickly (this sign song is unambiguous), I think this is one of the most beautiful scenes in the whole series. I don't care very much about this being romantically coded, I just choose to focus on the sign song, because I'm so happy they featured deaf visual arts.

My friend and I spent hours trying to decipher what the song could be about and our interpretation differed a lot from Winona's original text but we loved doing this. David was curious to see how my friend would understand it (especially the part where Noée signs a growing love which she cradles) and he was so happy when she understood it right.

For those interested, here’s what we interpreted (roughly translated into English):

Like two souls lost in the storm, Swayed by the tide, Never really seeing each other Until ours eyes meet. Something is growing inside me, something new, That sets my heart beating. You take off my mask and the truth in your eyes, Fills my heart. Look at me, I also see you.

Ep.6: Mercredi 18:31 - Un simple bout de métal

Also one of the scenes I was expecting the most this season, especially when it transpired that Noée was a bit radical. Her letter echoes my own fears and I thought it was really on point. Arthur admitting he needs her made my heart melt, he's so lucky to have met her. And Winona was amazing in that clip.

Ep.7: Vendredi 20:31 - Sourd dating

Just like for "Un simple bout de metal", I was also expecting that scene. I like that they made Noée and Camille voice their opinion like both faces of the same coin. It was a great way to address cochlear implants as they're a sensitive topic in the deaf community. I think this is one of the most shining example of the research work they did. They could have just stopped at Noée’s letter. But since they had deaf actors like Lucas, who is also implanted and has faced prejudices from radical Deaf people in the past, they had to show implants were not evil and that the situation was more complex than just “Doctors who want to act as gods”.

Learning Noée’s backstory was also interesting, although I didn’t expect her to be an "ex-implanted" deaf. She explains that she learned sign language at the association, which can't be more than 3-4 years ago (and if you look closely in ep 3, when Arthur checks the website, she says she joined the association at its beginning), but there's no way Noée would have that proficiency in sign language in just 4 years of practice. Winona's fluency in sign language is clearly that of someone who grew up with it. I loved being able to notice these subtleties.

Like all the clips at the association, it was a joy to watch because of the atmosphere and the sign language. The deaf extras were lovely. I actually got to meet a few of them last month and had an amazing time with them.

Ep.9: Vendredi 20:17 - Choisir pour toi

Coline. singing. Do I need to say more? I like that both Noée and Alexia had their shining moment and as clumsy as the story got, I appreciate that the writers didn't try to pin one girl against the other and make one superior. Noée had her sign song and Alexia her own composition. And both were breathtaking. What really gets me in this scene are the colors. I'm a sucker for aesthetics.

And of course, it was great to see Alexia stand her ground and break up with Arthur. I have nothing but respect for her and I'm team Alexia + happiness all the way.

Ep.10: Lundi 10:04 - La même vie que vous

When Melchior, Laura and the brochure subplot was introduced, I was a bit wary because their introduction scene was really, really awkward (it wasn't very well tied at first). By their second scene, at Arthur's place, I was sold. It was great to address accessibility and show that there's no point putting people with disabilities in the same bag, because there are hundreds of them and the needs are different. What doesn't change is our wish to live our life at the fullest, just like abled people. And this scene was precious. Seeing Arthur endorse this new part of him and support his peers was everything.

Ep.10: Vendredi 20:47 - Le meilleur des mondes

I'm still very emotional about this scene. Like… I don't know what to say, the music still sends shivers down my spine.

Honorable mentions :

Ep.1: Mardi 11:59 - 3, 2, 1,…

One of the only things Robin told me about the season when I met him at IVT was that the first clip would drop on New Year's Eve at 11:59 p.m.. That date became a beacon during fall and oh you wouldn't believe how much I waited for that clip to drop and how much I was looking forward to it. And it freaking delivered. The atmosphere, the tense music, that first shot on the loudspeaker, the confetti clogging it gradually… That teaser was a masterpiece.

Ep.2: Like… the whole episode actually. The alarm clock concept was genius.

Ep.4: Samedi 10:15 - Nouveau style

One of these gorgeous clips without dialogues that still say lots.

Ep.5: Samedi 10:03 - Maîtriser le langage

Oh my, this one was so relatable and a joy to watch. Camille explaining that sign language and mimes are different, Arthur being that dimwit asking about swear words and being told off for speaking… Kuddos to the deaf extras who had to pretend they didn't know any sign language, it was so funny (looking at you, Enzo).

Ep.6: Samedi 8:30 - Mythos

Seeing Arthur lashing out at his friends was cathartic. He roasted them so well, I wished I had his ability to speak so well when I'm angry. A+ work.

Ep.6: Dimanche 14:41 - Envie de rien

Alexia being the real MVP, as always.

Ep.7: Samedi 2:15 - Pool Party

It’s strange, because even though a lot of the story went down in this particular episode, it must be one of my favorites, like… tied with episode 2. It has probably a lot to do with the fact there were mostly deaf characters and that they had so much fun together. It’s something I can relate do, the sheer joy of signing the night away, which is something I didn’t get to experience until very recently.

As gorgeous as the underwater scene is, I'm not a fan of Noée and Arthur's almost kiss. I picked this scene because I love the moment of sheer joy that follows; everyone joining in the pool and having fun together. And of course the rise of Camika. I know it's a bit convoluted to have the two openly gay guys fall for each other first time they meet but… it just worked so well.

Ep.9: Mercredi 21:34 - Frère

This clip was about to make the top 10 cut when I remembered about another one and I had to remove it. Just Basile being lovely Basile.

Ep.9: Jeudi 17:30 - T'es pas tout seul

This clip was so important, bless the nurse and bless Jérôme. I wish Jérôme was my audiologist, to be honest.

Ep.10: Samedi 13:39 - Maman

Arthur's mom was so lovely and I'm so sorry she had to go through this shit with her trashcan of a husband. I liked her relationship with her son and her reassuring him he's not like his father was very soothing. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Arthur at the end of this season and I appreciate he’s well looked after after what he went through.

Ep.10: Jeudi 17:46 - Recommencer

Just like "Nouveau style" from ep 4, it's another one of these silent clips that has lots of meaning. Arthur putting back his glasses, slowly accepting his life won't be the same and that he has to move on. Except now things are clearer. Skam France love its symbolism and while sometimes it's very poorly done (like the love triangle emphasizing on Arthur's balancing between two worlds), more often than not it's very compelling.

Now I want to rewatch everything, so see you soon I guess :)

#skamfr5 #Manon rambles #I'm so sad my gifs look so ugly #I spent a lot of time on them but smart sharpen in a pain in my butt #I can't control it very well #oh well #I'll practice and I'll get the hang on it #my edits

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travllingbunny · 5 years

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The 100 episode 6x01: Sanctum

I have mixed feelings about this episode. I'm very glad that I got to see this and 6x02 together, since 6x02 was amazing.

Season premieres on The 100 are rarely among my favorites of the season (and in season 1 and 4, were the weakest of the season), except for season 5. Season 2 premiere was also pretty strong. Here’s how I’d rank them:

Season 5 (Eden) 9/10

Season 2 (The 48) 8.5/10

Season 3 (Wanheda, Part One) 7/10

Season 6 (Sanctum) 6.5/10

Season 4 (Echoes) 6/10

Season 1 (Pilot) 4.5/10

First to get it out of the way - the things that bothered me about this episode:

So, Shaw is another black guy who got Killed First, and Zaven got Clexaed. Was this really necessary? JRoth says it was because Jordan Bolger got a role on another show, but They could have left him cryo-frozen for some time until Jordan finished his other obligation, like they did with Kane/HIC, who also now has a major role on another show.In any case, killing him off in the premiere not long after he and Raven had sex for the first time is a really lame old trope. And I wasn't even particularly invested in that relationship or his character, but it's such a waste after he was introduced in season 5, let's face it, pretty much just to be Raven's love interest and finally give her a good relationship.

I am glad that the show is following up on the things that happened in season 5 and that everyone is talking about their issues with each other. For them, it happened yesterday (I am just going to ignore the 125 time jump, since it practically didn't exist for any of the characters other than Monty, Harper and Jordan, and the people of the new planet). And I was in favor of characters not forgiving Clarke immediately, before I saw this episode. However, the way they did felt so forced and unnatural. Murphy's remarks made no sense, as if he forgot or re-wrote all of seasons 1-4. Not only was he hypocritical, but I don't even know what he was on about. Clarke's 5th chance? What?? Does he mean all the times when she saved them? Did he confuse Clarke with, well... himself? Shaw felt particularly OOC. It's like JRoth wanted random characters to blame Clarke and deliver speeches about morality and redemption to her, and didn't care who it was, or as if Shaw was a stand-in for Raven, Sure, it makes some sense he's angry she gave them up, but to that extent and in such a personal way? Especially since we don't see him showing anger over the fact that Echo wanted to murder him? Or that Raven at one point was OK with Echo murdering him? The latter would have actually been more of a reason to feel hurt personally, since they already had some kind of a relationship up to that point, and he had helped her. But he was not Clarke's friend - she did betray her friends when she sided with McCreary: Raven, Murphy, Emori - but Shaw was nothing to her. Their only interaction in S5 was when he was one of the people (together with McCreary and Diyoza) who had her captured and tortured and threatened her daughter.

Echo lecturing Bellamy about forgiveness made me roll my eyes. Is this an even worse line than her season 5 line about finding each other in a cage? "Who knows that better than us". Err, I don't think "I did so many horrible things to you, and you forgave me (after being stuck with me for years in close quarters and with just 5 other people and I tried to make you forgive me for 3 years)" is such a great selling point or a positive thing about a relationship. And no, Bellamy doesn't have to forgive Octavia. I think he will eventually, but it's certainly not an obligation or Octavia's right, or anyone's right. No one has to forgive anyone. It's entirely due to the person who was hurt/wronged. Nor is "well, you forgave other people who hurt you, so why not that other person?" a good argument. Also, did she forget that he only forgave her after 3 years? Octavia threw him into a fighting pit (not to mention everything else she did) just a few days ago (obviously I'm not counting the cryo-sleep time). Their relationship is also complicated and different,, Bellamy probably has a time dealing with what his little sister has become and didn't expect that from her.

On the plus side:

The visuals are amazing, and everything about the new planet moon is really interesting. Including the setup for the next episode, with all the mysteries of the new planet, including the past of the people from Eligius, and the psychosis that first overcame Emori. I love the bright colors - they feel both hopeful and fun, and psychedelic and sort of disturbing. For once, it's great to see a post-apocalyptic drama that doesn't have muted colors and dark cinematography.

Jordan is lovely - it's great to have an optimistic, innocent character, as a contrast to all the damaged, angry people, and he also obviously has many capabilities worthy of his father.

All the callbacks to season 1 were fun., especially Murphy playing the role of season 1 Octavia. Also, Bellamy telling Clarke that others will come around felt like a callback to their season 4 scene where Clarke was comforting him and telling him that Octavia would come around and forgive him.

Jackson was so excited to realize he and the other humans are "aliens" now, LOL.

Even though it was awkward in execution, I generally like the fact that they're dealing with everyone's issues, guilt and resentment from season 5. Clarke and Octavia are both set up to have great arcs. Abby and Miller also deal with guilt. There are so many interesting relationships between people who need to sort out their issues: Bellamy and Octavia, Abby and Raven, Octavia and Abby, Bellamy and Clarke...

I think Abby has a very interesting storyline now - trying to stay on the wagon and not relapse into addiction and trying to do better and make up to Raven, and her relationships with both Raven and Octavia will be interesting to watch. Kane might not really have a story of his own now, but, contrary to what many think, it would have sucked if he had died now, with how Abby felt guilty over letting him down and then tried everything to save him.

The scenes between Abby and Raven were really strong. Raven is very hurt and angry and unforgiving - of Clarke, but most of all of Abby, her substitute mother figure who really let her down and hurt her in season 5, in ways that reminded her of her biological mother. Neither of them beat around the bush, and this relationship will be interesting to watch.

Octavia scenes were amazing. I really don't get those stans of hers who justify everything she did, but I do appreciate her more and more as a great character. She acted exactly the way I'd expect her to act - angry, confrontational, unable to apologize and admit to her mistakes. While Raven is refusing to forgive, Octavia is refusing to say sorry to anyone. We saw at the end of last season that she feels guilty, and she wanted to have a big heroic redemptive death, but she didn't get that, and now she has to work harder for that redemption in the way she isn't used to - to try to really change, accept responsibility, admit mistakes and change her way of dealing with things. She'll have a long way to go and a lot of character growth to do. Octavia talked about Kane's past, but Kane did acknowledge his mistakes, almost 7 years ago, and changed and learned from them, something Octavia needs to do.

Niylah waking up Octavia after explicitly being told not to was funny - it's not a great thing to do, but I could have guessed she would, with her huge crush on O.

I'm glad that Bellamy is not forgiving Octavia easily. I think their relationship had been pretty dysfunctional way before season 5, and that she treated him like crap way before season 5 (including that time she chained him and beat him bloody because she needed a punching bag for he pain, and after that, it was still somehow all about her having to forgive him for an entire season...) so I don't want them to make up immediately. That relationship needs to be changed and reinvented, and Octavia has to change, and learn how to treat both Bellamy and others in a different way, before they can be reconciliation.

The Bellarke moments were great - especially the radio calls conversation. It's clear that this is definitely not the last time they talk about that: that plot point has been brought up since the beginning of season 5. It took the whole season for Bellamy to learn about them, after Clarke was too embarrassed to tell him. Now she knows he knows - and it was cute to see the panic on her face when she thought he had heard all that she was saying (and we never heard all the things she said during those 6 years, so who knows what else she said!), and then the way he used a joke to lower the tension and let her off the hook. But we know from the trailer that both the radio calls and the fact she left him behind to die in 5x09 would be brought up. Yes, he has been forgiving and supportive of her since he found out the truth about those radio calls - his real problem was that he thought Clarke left him because she didn't' care, so learning that it was the farthest thing from the truth changed everything - but that doesn't mean he has fully forgiven her in his heart. He still wants to understand how exactly she feels about him, and they have so many issues to discuss.

And just look at that plAtOnIc chemistry:

I generally don't mind the Becho stuff, which continues to be along the same lines as season 5: no matter how forced those scenes feel, they're very easy to ignore, since their one-on-one interactions take up about 30 seconds of screentime (which could as well been written by some computer program for how to insert a perfunctory scene to remind people that characters are in a relationship), and, no surprise, a lot of their overall screentime is scenes where Bellamy, Echo and Clarke happen to be in the same scene or same shot, and their narrative purpose is not hard to figure out:

(How awkward when you're the third wheel to your own boyfriend and his... whatever exactly Clarke is to Bellamy.)

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twdmusicboxmystery · 5 years

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5x03: Humbug’s Gulch

Hi everyone! I’m just gonna dive right in today. ***As always, spoilers abound in this post for FTWD 5x03. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

This episode of FTWD (5x03: Humbug’s Gulch) was awesome! I loved watching it because there were so many important symbols and set ups. I'm loving where this is going.

So, we start with our group traveling around, trying to take down all of the Red Rover walkers and marking where they are on a map. As they mark them, they realize that it's a perimeter of walkers tied up around an area of land in the center. They have no idea what's inside the perimeter of walkers. So, kind of an intriguing mystery.

One of the first symbols that caught my attention was that when they mark the locations of the walkers on the map, use Xs inside of circles. (X Theory.) It would only be that, if it had only been Xs. But they drew an X within a circle. Remember, we saw this exact symbol around Morgan on a tree in Coda. What that tells me is that

1) whatever's going on in the season, we can connect it to Coda. That's number one. And

2) whatever they’re planning for Morgan in the season has been planned since Coda and S5. That's awesome.

Also, remember the X within the circle is sort of a skewed version of the coda symbol. A coda is more of a T, straight up and down over circle, but the X is like a version of it that’s been turned on its side.

This episode is called Humbug Gulch.

It’s the name of the Western town they go to, which I’ll talk about more in a minute. But I looked up the meaning of gulch. It can be a V-shaped valley formed by erosion. It may be a small stream or dry creek bed and is usually larger in size than a gully. It just reminded me of the dry riverbed in 5x10, Them. If you keep looking at the definition, it means different things in different places, but is often associated with water. The actual definition of humbug is deception or something that's not true. Which is why Ebenezer Scrooge always said, “Bah, humbug.” It's his way of saying something is ridiculous or that's untrue. And of course, the most famous pop culture reference of the word humbug IS Ebenezer Scrooge saying it. Which makes it a Christmas reference as well. So, we have a reference to Christmas, and something that has to do with water and something we saw in Them.

In terms of the show, the phrase would literally mean ‘deceptive gulch.’ Something about this town they went to is deceptive. The meaning of the title, other than the fact that they went to a place called Humbug Gulch, wasn't obvious. But I’ll come back to this.

They mentioned a gas station when the group talked to each other over the walkie-talkies. John also mentioned their luck turning (Luck Theory). We saw a windmill at the Gulch, much like the one on Herschel's farm in S2. In most been a common symbol since then, and we usually see it in conjunction with Beth symbolism.

The intro was kind of interesting. It basically just showed a wind storm and a rolling tumbleweed. I wasn't sure what that meant. But as we get into the episode, John and June do have to wait at a windstorm. So, the reason for that became obvious as the episode progressed. Then we heard just a snippet of a voice on the radio. There was a lot of radio talk in this episode, and what happened at the end had a lot to do with speaking over the radio. When I heard that in the intro, it reminded me a lot of the phantom voice we heard at the end of TWD 9x16. I don't know for supposed to be connecting those, but I couldn't help but hear similarity there.

So, we had a heavy similarity here to 6X16. While attempting to take down one of the rows of Red Rover walkers, someone starts firing on John and June. They jump into their car and run for it. They ended up going to a little Western town called Humbug Gulch. This is one of those Western tourist attractions. Apparently, John used to work at one—not this specific one, but another one in a different city—so he knew what it was. Even though it was a tourist place, he knew they’d find real guns there.

I totally didn't register this on my first watch, but when the re-watch came on, I heard it, and my mouth dropped open. Right before he being shot at, John remarks that there must be some “serious people” behind these this perimeter walkers. June then says, "We’re serious people too." When they jump in the car, John says his line again about these being serious people. Obviously a Sirius/Dog Star reference, and it’s repeated three different times.

I’ll jump forward to mention that we saw Dwight in this episode. At this point we can't prove the Sirius reference isn’t about Dwight and Sherry, but I don't think the two of them necessarily qualify. They didn’t go out of their way to make the audience think either one was dead. In fact, they kind of went out of their way to set up this story of Dwight searching for Sherry, which suggests the opposite. I'm really hoping this means is that something about this arc will lead to the original character associated with Sirius symbolism. (Beth).

They get to the town, and we see some more interesting resurrection symbols. There’s a carousel with bright yellow horses with blue saddles that the camera focuses on for a minute. There’s also a light colored horse statue. (Looks like a palomino.) So, horse theory. And the light colored horse represents Beth and resurrection (“You’re still alive.”)

John leads them upstairs to a gun locker. June picks the lock. Inside, they find guns and ammunition. @wdway noticed little tins, two green and three yellow (both Beth colors) inside of it. Even more exciting, we see ammunition for .45 colt. Remember that issue 45 of the CBs is the one where Andrea is resurrected from the dead.

We also saw an “Exit” sign over the door, which reminded us of the one in Beth’s cell in 4x01. And the bag June carries out of the building has a B on it. Just saying. ;D

They had all kinds of fun with their Western themes in this episode. It was a really obvious old West/Outlaw/Sheriff kind of situation. So that alone is significant. John and June get the guns, but a windstorm picks up. June wants to wait it out, but John doesn't. He wants to make a run for their van and try to get back to the group. We thought John's bandanna looked an awful lot like Daryl's black bandanna from season four. An interesting callback, given all the other symbols.

When they make a run for the car, the phantom shooter starts firing at them again. John eventually comes face-to-face with him and June hits him over the head. Guess who? Dwight.

We've known we’d see Dwight this season, but I was still excited to see him. His first question to John is, "Where is she?" Naturally, John has no idea who he's asking about, but we, the viewers do. We know he's looking for Sherry.

Random detail, but I have to say I think it's adorable that John calls June, “June Bug.”

As I said, we saw something of a replay of 6x06, Always Accountable (major Beth symbolism episode). We had John and June doing their own thing, and then phantom people started shooting at them. That's exactly what happened to Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham at the beginning of 6x06. They were returning from Operation Lead the Walkers Away, and were fired on by unseen people. In that case, it was the saviors who fired at them, looking for Dwight. Then, in the same episode just a little while later, Daryl met Dwight. Here, it was Dwight (previously a Savior) who fired on John and June. Only a few minutes later, in the same episode, they met Dwight. Don’t tell me episode parallels aren’t a thing, y’all. ;D

In the next scene, we see a deer crossing sign. Yet another indication of possibly someone coming back from the dead. Again, this COULD be a Sherry and Dwight thing, but I’m not convinced of that. Unlike with Glenn, Rick, and Beth, they haven't gone out of their way to make us think either Sherry or Dwight died. They merely disappeared from TWD. Also, keep in mind that this wasn't an actual deer that we saw get shot. It was a deer crossing sign. It may not represent an actual resurrection, not like the deer we saw around Rick in 5x12. But it's a symbol of the resurrection arc. I'm interpreting it as something about Dwight in this arc leading to a resurrection.

Another call back to 6x06 comes when Dwight wakes up. He basically has the same conversation with John and June that he had with Daryl in 6x06, protesting that he held the gun to their heads and he didn't understand why they would help them after that.

He said that same thing to Daryl in 6x06, about how he tied Daryl up and put a gun to his head and kept prisoner overnight, yet Daryl still came back to help them. Lots of callbacks to a Bethyl-heavy episode.

We also see lots of infinity symbols here because of Sherry’s notes. And granted, we saw them between Dwight and Sherry before, so it’s nothing new. But still interesting, all things considered.

I also think it's interesting the way they set this up. Because John looked for June (they are also Bethyl proxies) John completely understands the lengths Dwight will go to to find Sherry. He's probably the one person in the world who would have given Dwight a break over this and even helped him find Sherry. I’m just saying the crossing of Dwight’s and John/June’s stories required a lot of planning and has probably been in the works for some time. I’m positive when the writers wrote John and June’s story for last season, they already knew the two of them would cross paths with Dwight/Sherry.

We noticed John and June played piano music to distract the walkers so they could escape. Not only a musical reference, but we can tie it to 4x01, in which they used music to lure the walkers way from the Big Spot. And of course Beth specifically played the piano in 4x13, Alone.

Rather than escaping to his car with June and John, Dwight ran to their van, which by then he'd shot the tires out of. They talk to him on the walkie and he finally admits that Sherry has left messages for him as she travels. The last one he found was written on the registration for a van that looks exactly like the one John and June were driving. That's why he opened fire on them in the first place. He thought that was the car Sherry one drove, which was why she left a note for him on the registration.

Okay, this gets super-interesting at this point. Look at this scene with Dwight in the van. Remind you of anything?

It looks exactly like the scene where Aaron and Daryl got caught in the wolf van in 5x16.

Walkers all around trying to get in, him trapped with no way out, and then Dwight has a moment where he more or less gives up.

He basically tells John to go on without him, giving up both on the idea of getting out alive, and on his search for Sherry. This is a combination of a couple of things. We could compare it to Daryl in 5x16. They had no way out and Daryl insisted on sacrificing himself so Aaron could get away. He was willing to die right then to save Aaron. Maybe even wanted to die because he was still so down about Beth. Of course, Aaron insisted that they would work together to get out, and then Morgan—*clears throat* MORGAN!!!*—saves them.

Something similar happened here. Dwight is alone in the car. He gives up, even looking at his gun as though he might shoot himself, but John and June talk him out of it. June tells him that giving up his search for Sherry would be just as ethically wrong as hurting someone. I think it's interesting that it's June—the once missing woman—who convinces the depressed man not to give up. Very Beth-ish. Then they help Dwight escape the van by shooting the walkers and creating a clear path for him. Much like Morgan did for Daryl and Aaron in 5x16.

Some of the dialogue was also important there. June says Dwight doesn’t feel like he deserves to find her and find happiness again. Dwight says it doesn’t matter if Sherry is alive or dead, because he’ll never find her. Never be able to make things right. He says that’s “who I am now.” Making things right is a callback to what Daryl told him to do in 8x16. I also think this dialogue could apply to Daryl at various times after he lost Beth. Interestingly, “Who You Are Now” is the title of the first episode after Rick disappeared (9x06) so we have a connection between this arc and what’s happening on the main show.

The other thing that this really struck me is that Dwight gets a version of Beth’s suicide arc. It obviously wasn't as long or protracted as hers, but the difference between Dwight in this episode and Daryl in 5x16 is that Daryl tried to sacrifice himself for something noble (saving Aaron). He didn’t simply decide to give up and shoot himself. So, this felt a lot like Beth’s suicide arc in TWD S2. Back then, she really did just want to give up and die. Much like Beth, Dwight came through his depression with a new resolve to live and find Sherry. Again, very Beth-ish.

Another detail I didn’t catch until the second time through? Remember that colt .45 I mentioned earlier, which points to Andrea surviving her gunshot wound in the comics? It was that gun Dwight contemplated killing himself with. John gave it to him to shoot walkers. Coincidence? Yeah, really not.

After rescuing him from the van, John tells Dwight he had the wrong car. He compared the VIN number on the registration to van’s VIN number, and they don’t match. Obviously, the make, model, and color of the van are exactly like the one Dwight was looking for, but he just so happened to find the wrong one.

I think all this car stuff is super interesting. Given that we think Beth was left in a car, and that we often see clues in car license place plates and car trunks, it’s just interesting that there's a car arc going on in this season of FTWD. Registrations have lots of numbers and letters in them. And the fact that he found the wrong car? I think that's significant. I wonder if something about this will end up playing out as part of Beth’s arc as well. They left her in the “wrong car” somehow. I have no idea, really, but it’s fun to contemplate the possibilities.

At the end of this episode, Dwight and Morgan meet and recognize one another. Morgan is instantly accepting of Dwight and he officially joins their group. One super-subtle thing I caught here was that Dwight went to Georgia before going to Texas. He just mentions it very briefly in passing, saying “Once she hit Georgia, everything seemed to drive her this way.”

No way that’s a coincidence. They could spin it many ways. Maybe Dwight already ran into Beth in his travels. Maybe he was wrong about Sherry going to Texas and will eventually return to Georgia. Maybe she’ll head back to Georgia for some reason and he’ll meet up with her then. Either way, this arc is subtly pointing back toward Georgia. And Grady, which we can only assume is still standing.

He tells them that he's never been inside the perimeter of walkers either, but he's walked all around it. He takes them to one particular place where they plan to break through and see what's on the inside. Just before they do, they hear something on the radio.

I haven’t mentioned Alicia’s minor arc this episode because it has less to do with Beth symbolism. She hears the kids they met in the first episode on the radio and keeps calling out to them, promising to help them in asking where they are. At one point, she hears Annie and Dylan talking on the radio, with Annie telling Dylan to hide because she can see “them.”

We don't know who “them” is. It's definitely interesting because it's the name of episode 5X10, so we could see it as another tie to Beth. It sounds like there are bad people that the kids are running from. In the end, the kids radio and ask Alicia to meet them at the truck stop where Morgan's group originally took them.

So, Morgan’s group doesn’t break through the Red Rover walkers right then, which means we can after little longer to see what's inside the perimeter.

On the way back to the truck stop, they see the van the kids were driving. Inside, Dylan is laying on the seat. He looks hurt, or perhaps just sad. He’s covered in either mud or blood (probably both) so it’s hard to say how injured he is. But he’s alone. Annie and Max aren’t with him.

The most interesting symbolic thing about this is that we once again have Morgan finding someone inside a car who's hurt. It’s pretty much the biggest symbol of Morgan finding Beth in a car that we have, and we've seen it many times now. Alicia asks Dylan where his brother and sister are, but he doesn't really say anything before the episode ends.

Then it cuts to Max and Annie putting up Red Rover walkers. So, as it turns out, these kids are the ones tying them across the roads. I'm of two minds about what this might mean.

The show implies there's nothing inside the perimeter of walkers. The kids just put them up to keep strangers away from the area. But I don't know if I believe that's true. Maybe these kids are just super- smart, but I don’t see them going to this kind of trouble to protect…nothing.

I also don’t think they could have put the walker heads up on the billboard by themselves last episode, and there’s still the question of who took Al. I don’t think it was them. In fact, Max says he wants to find out who took Alicia’s friend, so it wasn’t them. So overall, I'm not sure what to make of this yet. But it makes the mystery of this place intriguing and I'm excited to see where it goes.

So once again, we don't know if "them," is really a group of baddies, or just something created by these kids. I'm not even sure which one I hope it is. Having something crazy inside the perimeter of walkers would definitely be a cooler plot twist. But if there's really nothing there, the reference to Them becomes purely symbolic, which is good for us, too. Also, I’m wondering if the “humbug” in the title perhaps refers to the way in which these kids are deceiving Morgan’s group. Not sure how that will pan out yet, but it’s interesting.

Some final symbols: we saw Max drawing on a map and I noticed it said, “Broken Bridge.” So, not only Bridge Theory, but I feel like that’s a connection to Rick’s bridge in TWD S9.

So yeah, I really loved this episode. Lots of fun set-ups and I'm super excited to see where this arc, both with Dwight and with this perimeter of walkers, goes. Because they used Xs within circles to represent the perimeter of walkers, I really hope whatever is within the perimeter will lead to Beth. Thoughts?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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