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mynonclicheblog · 2 years

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FR I actually really appreciate how Lisa left off James and Erin. I mean, do I think the finale would’ve been degraded if she threw in a mention that they were dating? No; but I get why she didn’t. The show isn’t just abt their relationship, it’s ultimately abt friendship and it makes sense to have it end in a place where they are all, still, just best friends. The show leaves off with everything about to change (Jerin becoming a couple someday, the vote, the girls graduating + growing up, Sister Micheal leaving, etc), but not just yet. And idk if it was a deliberate choice on Lisa’s part, but it seems like James’ and Erin’s scenes in the finale are purposely ambiguous. You can interpret their relationship anyway you want. Depending on how the viewer feels abt their relationship they can either be friends who will never get together, friends who do get together eventually, friends who get together soon, or already a couple. (Also I agree, I know it’s Lisa’s show and her word is truth, but I’m sorry no two people who look at each other like that take 15 years to get together.) And honestly I think some fans need to understand that their kiss + confession wasn’t a promise of them becoming explicitly canon before the finale, it was a consolation prize, for the fans, for the fact that they didn’t. It was a way for Lisa to reassure us that there’s something there without having to actually make it happen.

Oh, hi Derry Girls/Jerin anon! Welcome to my humble abode 🤗

You said it all, my friend! The finale was heavily blanketed in the show's most obvious and poignant symbolism of all time, which is exactly what you said: ambiguity and uncertainty, but with the promise of hope. Almost every single character arc throughout the episode ended in such a way, which is just brilliant (and, I totally believe, 100% intentional). Even Gerry and Uncle Colm's discussion about Eammon's living situation was left off this way lmao. It's such a nuanced line that Lisa walked with her storytelling in this special episode, and it could have been infuriating, but she knocked it out of the park in a way that still felt like closure.

I also truly do think that this is what's best for the James/Erin relationship. Not only does it beautifully tie in with the overhead theme of all the other stories, but it just... feels right to me. A budding romantic storyline was never going to be at the center of this show, and I think the way Lisa played it was very smart. It provided all of the hints and intimacy and looks that we need to contextualize their future together without becoming an unnecessary focus of the finale. I wasn't expecting anything else TOO major after ep 4, so I honestly thought it was perfect. I certainly wasn't expecting the proximity and soft intensity of their scene at Jenny's party 🥺 that one took me by surprise in the best way. I felt that one.

But yeah, I agree about there being no way it should take 15 years after That finale! That's another great thing about the ambiguous/hopeful note they were left on - plenty of room to create your own canon. 😊

#derry girls #derry girls spoilers #jerin #james x erin #erin x james #ask #but yeah this was all wonderfully said anon 💜 thanks for stopping by with your thoughts!#also - as usual - there are way more complaints about jerin complaints than there are actually jerin complaints 😂#i have to laugh because it happens every time

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drivingsideways · 3 years

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The Rebel Princess review/ spoilers upto ep 12

Under the cut

At the end of 12 episodes I have to say I’m..underwhelmed. I mean, I knew going into a 68 episode drama that it was going to be really slow for most parts, but it’s still hard going even with low expectations.

I think the first thing that threw me was Zhang Ziyi playing a 15 year old. Don’t get me wrong- I don’t think it’s her looks per se that make it unbelievable-she’s incredibly youthful and beautiful, of course. And I’m well aware of the sexist double standards re: casting, and I’ve generally always hated it when older actors are cast in roles of teenagers or people about two decades younger than they are! It’s just that I don’t think she’s suited to the cutesy/naive A’wu that we meet in the initial episodes. You can see the effort she’s putting into it and that makes it all the more apparent that she isn’t that character. I just didn’t buy into the performance, I think. It’s only in episode 12, in the scene where she learns about her father’s and aunt’s lies re: Xiao Qi that I felt that spark you feel when an actor is totally in sync with their character in a scene. (Her earlier “big scene” after the wedding felt more ho-hum to me, though heaps more engaging than anything that had gone on before then.)

But Zhang Ziyi’s strained performance is not the only problem I’ve had with this part; it’s that fundamentally I just can’t buy into the idea that A’wu is the person she is when we meet her- seemingly utterly unaware of how the society around her works, or her position in it? She’s reached marriageable age- though not by modern standards of course- i.e. she’s entered into adulthood, and is presumably not unintelligent or entirely blind, but she seems downright surprised by the fact that she should be expected to marry for reasons other than love, or that other people around her, in her family even, have done so. I can buy that she thought she would be the exception to the rule, because she has been pampered all her life, but she seems actually astonished that the rule exists! Or that other people may be ok with not marrying for love, but have other considerations (See early conversation with Xie Wanru regarding Xiao Qi). It speaks to a laziness of characterization/ world building for me. We are meant to accept A’wu’s incredible naivete re: marriage as plausible for a woman of her age and societal position, in the same breath that we have to accept the multiple rape/ threatened rape storylines as historically accurate/ plausible because women were tightly controlled as a class. Watch me roll my eyes so hard that they’re falling off my face.

But I’m hoping to god that now that we’ve put the “woman-child” part of the story behind us, things will improve!

The other thing I feel that keeps me..whelmed..is the general pov choices. The story is ostensibly being told by A’wu- she is literally narrating it to the audience. Yet for extended periods we have to leave her pov to get all the plot machinations in place. There’s also a time skip of approximately 6-8 months after her marriage to when we meet her next; in that time, she seems to have made peace with the fact that the great love of her life whom she sacrificed her life for turned out to be a wuss, and also somehow magically “grown up”. The naive A’wu we saw has disappeared and instead we have grown up A’wu who’s quite capable of manipulation and running a household (and from spoilers I’ve seen, become adept at military strategy etc). I mean, it’s GREAT, for the character, but the transition feels sudden, presented like a fait accompli. I wish we’d gotten to see those 6-8 months in Huizhou is what I’m saying, or even earlier hints of her talents and interests. But we were stuck in “I’m a young, pampered princess in love, I have no thoughts beyond getting married” mode for like ten episodes. If they’d laid a little more ground then, and also given us some more of those 6-8 months, I would have enjoyed it. But then, I suppose that requires an entire different kind of story telling focus. This show, despite being titled “The Rebel Princess” doesn’t seem to really be about *her *. That’s probably an expectation mismatch between me and the show (I haven’t read the novel or any of the press/ previews etc), so I’m having to swallow my disappointment a bit!

As usual, and this is specifically a me thing, I admit, I’m more interested in the “supporting” characters than in the leads. And again, specifically me-thing, I love the awful ones the MOSTEST.

I LOVE Wang Lin. I love the actor, I love the scheming, and I honestly think he’s literally the only character that makes any kind of sense in this story so far. Am I supposed to be horrified that he’s willing to barter his daughter for retaining the family’s power? On the contrary, I think A’wu needed a solid dose of reality and maybe a little time living her maid’s life so that she could understand just how right her dad is. *shrug hands emoji * . I’m 50 x more interested in Wang Lin and Jin Ruo’s Terrible and Complicated Marriage than in Xiao Qi and A’wu making doe-eyes at each other, sorry, not sorry.

I also love Xie Wanru; I know she’s probably going to come to a terrible end, after getting her shot at being Supporting Villainess until the Real Main (Male) Villain can fully take over etc. Still, she has done nothing wrong in her life and I fully support her in her quest for revenge.

Su Jin Er’s story in Ep 11/12 was incredibly poignant and heartbreaking for me; even though I objectively understand that what she did to Zidan was rape. I know she’s also being set up as plot point for Xie Wanru’s villainy to bloom, and idk, will probably die in the next few episodes. Alas. I shall have to write the fic where Su Jin Er survives her punishment and goes on to live happily ever after with a beautiful boy of her choice and lots of money from idk black market trading of grain or something, I accept this and I will do it.

Surprise entrant for GIRL I AM ROOTING WITH ALL MY HEART FOR is A’wu’s sister in law, who’s fucking the second prince and refusing to produce a Wang clan heir right under the nose of that Incredibly Smart Villain Daddy Wang Lin; honestly that reveal was the best second best thing the show has done so far.

The best thing the show has done so far was when a giant bat swooped down and kidnapped A’wu from the marketplace in ep 11...I was HOLLERING.

Anyways, I am going to keep watching mostly for my queen Zhang Ziyi, spoilers I’ve seen in the tag indicate that the next set of episodes will be actually good? *cross fingers *

#the rebel princess #monarch industry #unpopular opinions cw

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magpiefngrl · 4 years

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The Witcher S01

Various thoughts:

--First season is based on the first two books of the saga, which are collections of short stories, and that results in a rather choppy, episodic nature of storytelling in the first half of the season. There’s a disconnect between the female characters’ journeys and the monster-of-the-week feel of Geralt’s storyline in the first few episodes. Not great, but also it’s not terrible either; still enjoyable, still a good introduction to the world and characters, and, because this is streaming, I don’t see it as a huge problem. Most people will mainline the season, or at least a few episodes at a time, so they’ll prob get through the introduction in one sitting.

--Which also means that this season becomes progressively better. I was def more engrossed in it as it went on, and it’s something that most reviews touch on. It’s an uneven season but in an upward trajectory kind of way, rather than having ups and downs.

--Non-linear timelines!! Gosh, I loved it when I realised it was happening. It’s excellent to see a swords-and-tits fantasy TV show taking risks. Will the non-fans be confused, though? Depends on their ability to follow a slightly more complex narrative, I guess.

--The non-linear timeline makes it poignant to watch a character you’ve seen die calmly going about their lives in previous happier times. It’s also thrilling to reach the end and see the stories come together in one timeline and one narrative. The creators said in an interview that next season will feature the more traditional storytelling of a season-long narrative arc.

--As mentioned above, this is a very sword-and-tits show; if nudity is something you hate, maybe don’t watch it.

--The casting is phenomenal. They’ve done a fabulous job with all of the characters, not just the three main ones. I fell in love with Eist in the space of one short scene and was heartbroken when he died.

--The Law of Surprise is marvellous, I’m in love with it and all its possibilities. Not only is it a stellar worldbuilding element but it’s also crucial to the plot, as the very best of worldbuilding can be. I want to write a dozen stories with the Law of Surprise; make it heartbreaking at times and humorous at others and everything it can be.

--I’ll need to rewatch it, but there were a couple of deviations from the books that didn’t work imo. They didn’t mention in the first episode what Renfri’s plan was and why Geralt killed her and her fellow bandits. Or did they and I missed it? If Renfri’s plan was to kill Marilka (rather than slaughter the whole village), it feels much less impactful and it doesn’t reveal how cruel she’s become (justifiably (?), sure, but it’s her cruelty that makes Geralt act this way). And Geralt only knew about Marilka after he’d killed the bandits. So idk -- I’ll need to rewatch.

--I also wish they’d had Geralt and Ciri meet in the woods of Brokilon before the fall of Cintra like in the book. It felt much more satisfying when book-Ciri leapt in Geralt’s arms in the books, because she’d known him and liked him, whereas here he was a stranger to her really and only trusted him because her grandmother’s last words were to find him.

--Jaskier is everything. He’s so much better than the books or at least it feels that way to me. That song!!! Toss a coin to your witcher! Man, I’d give my life for him already.

--Overall, it was fun and enjoyable and a good fantasy fill with monsters and magic and some gore and armies and swords and tits and a hunky Cavill and strong women and some humour and a meditation on legacy and family and destiny. It does also feel, however, as an extended backstory. Like the first books are, I guess, so it’s more about the source material than a show failing.

--Finally, and this is just me, but it’s hard to be entirely satisfied when one half of your OTP (thanks, Astolat) isn’t cast this season (or is he??? hehe) and I have to wait for Season 2 to see who they’ll cast for his part and what his interactions with Geralt will be etc. Suffice it to say that the mention of his name in the last couple of episodes had me squealing :D

#the witcher #the witcher spoilers #off to reddit to read episode discussions

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musical-chick-13 · 4 years

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Doing this because I’m bored, an insomniac, and @i-am-adlocked said I could.

Rules: Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. Don’t cheat. Tag 10 (or how ever many) people.

1. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

2. Game of Thrones

3. Doctor Who

4. Kill la Kill (in the interest of talking about things I don’t normally talk about)

5. The Five (ditto, also there’s literally nothing on this show and I need to tell people about it)

Who is your favorite character in 2?

CERSEI. LANNISTER. THE LOVE. OF MY LIFE.

Who is your least favorite character in 1?

...Nathaniel. (And here is the part where all the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend people who follow me will unfollow me.) Okay, okay, he’s my least favorite main character. Silas is obviously the Worst™ person on the show, hands down. I don’t even...necessarily dislike him? I just think fandom gives him a pass on too many things and I much rather would follow the other characters than him. I could have had more Jim songs. I could have had more subplots with Hector and Heather. I could have had more Audra or Maya. I could have had a stretch of time where I look through the tag and it’s not inundated with Rebecca/Nathaniel stuff when romantic pairings have never been the point of the show. I’m just salty.

What is your favorite episode of 4?

"Tell Me Why” aka episode 17. We get backstory! We get setup for the primary conflict! The other characters get to do so much!! WE GET THE BEST PLOT TWIST OF ALL TIME!!!!!

What is your favorite season of 5?

It only has one season, which, tbh, is all it needed. Everything was wrapped up perfectly, and all the parts of the overarching mystery fit together, and THE ENDING. I CRIED. THE ACTING IS SO GOOD, THE CHARACTERS ARE SO WONDERFULLY INTERESTING. EVERYONE GO WATCH THIS SERIES.

Who is your favorite couple in 3?

Ugggghhhh. Twelve/Missy 4ever. (Any Doctor/River combination works too.)

What is your favorite episode of 1?

Ooh. Ooh. That’s...wow, that’s so tough. Although I do so very much enjoy the “Sexy Revenge Movie” parody of “Josh’s Ex-Girlfriend Is Crazy,” (and the fact that it has “The End of the Movie,” my favorite song in the show), I think I’m going to have to go with “Josh Is Irrelevant.” It’s probably the biggest development milestone in Rebecca’s growth arc and, because of it’s accurate, straightforward, and poignant discussion of mental illness, is an episode that means a great deal to me. I never thought I’d get to see something like that on TV. Like...“A Diagnosis?” THE. MENTAL ILLNESS. EXPERIENCE. The whole “But what if I am my illness, OMG I’M CRAZY™” thing? FINALLY. SOMEONE. UNDERSTANDS. This was the first time I ever, ever watched a TV show and went, “Someone gets it, someone hears me, someone thinks that I am worth talking about and getting better.” And I can’t even begin to mention how important that was for me to see and how much that helped me.

What is your favorite episode in 5?

THE. FINALE. Such an emotional ending, such a wonderful wrap-up of everything. So utterly satisfying in every way. A perfect cap to a fantastically-crafted show.

What is your favorite season of 2?

I love all of them except season 5 (yes, even season 8, I’m That Person™). But I particularly, particularly loved season 3.

How long have you watched 1?

It was...I think a month or two after season one ended? One of my dance instructors mentioned it and I said, “Oh, that sounds interesting, I’ll see if it’s on Netflix.” I watched season 1 in two or three days. And the rest is history.

How did you become interested in 3?

My dad saw a commercial for it on PBS and said, “I’m going to start watching it.” I wanted to spend time with him, so I agreed to sit down and watch an episode. It was one of Amy and Rory’s first ones, and I became invested in the characters. So we just watched the whole thing soon after.

Who is your favorite actor in 4?

I absolutely adore Erica Mendez, who voices Ryuko in the English dub. But my heart forever belongs to Ryōka Yuzuki, who voices Satsuki in the original Japanese version.

Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5?

So, this is a difficult question. In terms of “consistent characterization, plot points that resolve in spectacular ways, everything I wanted from a show period, things that give me hope, things that are important to the general cultural consciousness, and things I would recommend to others as Art™” then Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. In terms of “things that I am actively involved in the fandom in, will be way too emotionally invested in until I die, and scream the loudest over” then Game of Thrones. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a better show. I’d go so far to say that, as a piece of art, it’s my favorite show. But GoT is probably the thing I have the biggest emotional connection to.

Which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3?

Well, Doctor Who has more episodes. But I haven’t seen all of Classic Who and I have seen all of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

If you could become anyone from 4, who would you be?

Idk. Everyone’s lives kind of suck in this, so I wouldn’t really want to be any of them? I guess Ryuko. Because she’s kind and a badass and has two great best friends. She also knows how to fight with swords and rides a bike.

Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple?

So CxGF actually did this by giving my Hector and Heather. Which I never thought would work, but THEY WERE SO GOOD. SO. GOOD. GUYS. Um...I also liked Jason and Mona, even though they never met. But they both deserve to be happy and were the only...functional people on the show.

Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5?

It depends on which season of Doctor Who you’re talking about. I’m more invested in Doctor Who as a whole because it was the first fandom I was ever really in. It got me into writing, cons, and, really, just using fiction to help process things in a non-self-destructive way. And the female characters got me through...a lot of tough shit. But The Five’s entire storyline was absolutely airtight. So...objectively it’s 5, but emotionally it’s 3.

Which has better theme music, 2 or 4?

UGH WHY DID I HAVE TO PICK ALL THE SHOWS WITH THE MOST ICONIC SOUNDTRACKS GoT. Nothing will ever compare to the opening theme. (Or “Light of the Seven.” Or “The Rains of Castamere.” Or Jaime and Cersei’s theme in “The Bells.”) But the Kill la Kill soundtrack kicks. ass.

tags for @equusgirl @sorrowsflower @lannistermartell and anyone else who wants to!

#mc thir-MEMES

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laufire · 5 years

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ENDGAME

Okay. I definitely won’t be able to sleep today, so I might as well pour out all my Endgame feelings right now.

First thing first, I was probably in the WORST POSSIBLE HEADSPACE to watch this film; national elections where fascists could take over Congress (spoiler alert, they didn’t. I literally just cried with relief for over ten minutes) AND being extremely concerned about characters you over-identify with on the same day, all after the worst year of your life, apparently don’t mix well. Who would have thunk.

(btw, I was spoiled as I was voting about That Very Big Thing; everyone who follows me probably can guess what I’m talking about. I almost threw hands tbh. Then almost cried over a dozen times on the way to the theatre because the stress of the day was killing me ugh).

All this to say, my head is a mess right now, I don’t even know if this post is going to make any sense, and I will probably take time to process certain things and have a definite opinion on them LOL. But well, here is now.

And err. Warning for a brief mention of suicide ideation?

(crossposted to dreamwidth, livejournal, and pillowfort)

TONY (& CO)

– In case it wasn’t obvious, the thing I was spoiled about? Yeah, it was Tony’s death. FML. I mean, even if I wasn’t spoiled, I would’ve seen it coming as soon as we saw him after the five years jump, lbr (happily off-screen married to Pepper? With an adorable daughter? Pepper resigned to the possibility of losing him instead of begging him to stay like in IW? And then the movie kept hammering it home LMAO; that and a lot of things for the mains that I kind of saw coming from less than a third into the movie, which IDK if it’s because I was particularly intuitive, or the foreshadowing was that heavy handed xD).

Obviously, I’m not rocking your world if I tell you I’m extremely heartbroken, I guess. Especially because, as I said, my emotions were already all over the place. And seeing a character I adore, and in who I project a lot of my issues on –including, yes, suicidal issues–, sacrifice their lives (no matter how poignant, and moving, and well-written it might be) was incredibly hard for me. So, yeah. I’m going to have to deal with that for a while I guess. Which I plan to do by writing a bunch of Fix-It and Not Actually Fix-It fics ASAP.

But. I mean, out of all the endings Tony could have, this was always my second choice for him. And he was grandiose in this film. He figured out time travel. He created a gauntlet capable of holding the Infinity stones. Beings far more powerful than him were trying to carry that gauntlet to the van and none of them thought to use it, but he did. He was completely vindicated. He is the Saviour of the Universe.

And he looked gorgeous the entire time, which is truly important for me.

– In all seriousness, the thing I take to heart the most is that

his legacy remains intact

, and it’s inspiring, and heroic, and poetic, and prosperous. Clearly, without him, my enthusiasm for the universe will never be the same, but one thing that worried me is that I wouldn’t want anything to do with Marvel for a while after this film, and that’s not how I’m feeling; I’m very much looking forward to further parallels and homages to him in my ever-growing list :P

Tho, honestly, I’m kind of side-eyeing myself for the fact that, the one time!!! I go and fall in love with a male lead character, he happens to be genuinely heroic and self-sacrificing, instead of just using those concepts as lip-service and getting to have his cake and eat it too LMAO. I mean, sure, given my reactions to those characters, the AeJons Snowrgaryens of the world, I wouldn’t have liked him so much if it was the case, but dammit. It’d be nice to experience that high sometime xD

– The Iron Fam is the best part of this movie for me. Tony’s relationship with Morgan was way too adorable to handle it; Pepper was enormous and so poised (and the scene where they circle around each other in their armors… poetic cinema); I didn’t get enough Iron Husbands to satiate me (Rhodey’s caress should have been skin to skin!), but I loved what we got; Happy is an assholes who made me cry ABOUT CHEESEBURGERS.

And let’s not talk about Peter, OMG. My heart. And Harley appeared to Tony’s funeral! Though, honestly, the person I missed the most there was Christine Everhart, who should have been there just on the basis that I like her (plus, ya know, IMO she was important to Tony’s origin dammit).

I’m going to consider Nebula an honorary member, tbh. Her scenes with Tony in space cut me deep; and she and Rhodey are buddies!

Natasha and Fury (I loved his appearance *sniffs*) are honorary members too, because fuck it. They both appeared first vis a vis Tony on his movies, and have two of my favourite relationships with him, and I say so.

– Related to that, one Failure™ of this movie, is not providing a Nat & Tony one-on-one scene. Seriously, I can’t believe they didn’t realize how necessary that was. But I ADORED the scene where they and Bruce are lying down bouncing ideas about the stones (it made me softly whisper “ot3” LOL); it was possibly the only “Avengers” moment that worked for me –other than Clintasha, but that’s on a different league tbh.

I wanted more Nebula & Tony scenes too; I would’ve loved to see Tony interact with Past!Nebula. Yes, realistically, he would probably had made her LOL, but. I needed it. it’s definitely on my to-write-list :P

– I wanted just some positive interaction between Carol & Tony to counteract Current Comics Bullshit and I got Carol rescuing him, smiling beatifically at him, and Tony basically saying she was Da Bomb and the Avengers should follow her lead instead of keep sucking xDD So that was nice.

– I loved the scene at the beginning where he fucking SNAPS, and goes for Steve’s throat. It was probably my favourite scene. It’s resolution with everyone’s reactions and after the flashforward kind of… totally sucked, but whatever. Still amazing.

– The only part of his storyline that I HATED, and I mean absolutely loathed, was his scene with Howard. Jesus Fucking Christ. They went with the most simplistic take they could have, didn’t they. I haven’t felt more insulted in the theatre in my entire life, and my family made me watch both Ocho apellidos movies with them, so Marvel? That’s a feat. The moment where he says his father hit him with a belt so we (Tony included) are supposed to think, well, at least Howard wasn’t physically violent with his son, hooray?

And I think we’re supposed to take his “wouldn’t want my son to turn like me” as motivation for Tony’s actions and like… newsflash, but Tony has “put the worlds’ needs over his own gain” since Iron Man. Fucking. One. It’s literally what he does in this film, because we’re shown that, despite having achieved his happy ending, he was still trying to figure out time travel even if it meant risking his future.

Seriously, if they wanted me to be moved, they should’ve used Maria. Or hell, Edwin Jarvis was right there. And if whitewashing of Howard’s abuse becomes one of those MCU things that ends up bleeding into the comics, I’m gonna riot. Ugh.

BTW, just thought about this. Has anyone confirmed what the H. of Morgan’s second name stands for? Because my immediate idea was that it was for Happy, but now the fear that it might relate to Howard has entered my brain and I need someone to drive it out.

OTHER FAVES :P

– I am a lot more heartbroken over Natasha’s death than I expected to be. I like her character on paper a lot, but sometimes the writing or the acting don’t agree with me; neither was the case in this movie. I thought she was incredible. I loved the scene where she’s leading the post-dusting council. So losing her in this movie, of all movies, really hurts. And I understand why people who love her would be unhappy, and even furious –to some extent, so am I, tbh; specially because I don’t think she was properly honoured by the other characters after the fact–, but I do think it was extremely fitting for her arc.

– I loved Nebula’s storyline; how she was able to form new relationships, and what I know will be enduring friendships. Her interactions with her younger self were fascinating too; I loved that she perfectly followed the time-travel mumbo-jumbo. And she was so adorable at the beginning. Her bond with Tony didn’t have as much screen time as I wish it had, but the rest of the movie really shows how much his kindness touched her, and I love it. I’m a bit sad she didn’t get to kill any Thanos, tho.

– Okay, putting him in the “faves” section doesn’t exactly feel right, but whatever: I maintain that Thanos is a great villain. I don’t know what people that say otherwise are thinking. He’s the perfect foil for so many characters, and he is genuinely villainous; he is so delusional and self-righteous (seriously, his “solution” for the Snap 2.0 was… o.0) his plans feel sincerely menacing. He perfectly spells out his own doom; narratively speaking? He’s a joy of a villain to me. And I loved how he reacted to the information about the future; specifically, that upon learning about Nebula’s “betrayal”, his tactic was SOFTENING towards past!Nebula to make her even more eager to please him.

– Carol didn’t have much screen time, but I liked what she got (like, nothing too deep, but I didn’t expect much). I liked the Carol/Rhodey nod, even if I’m not sure how I feel about the ship in this incarnation. I wanted to hear something about Maria, but welp.

And on a shallow note, I kind of love that fandom absolutely freaked out about her wearing lipstick on a scene (while praising the “~natural no-make-up make up, effortlessly feminine without looking like you’re actually trying” look that she sported on CM, and disregarding that while yes, it was a troubling look that fitted a pattern across movies, A4 was made first so it was hardly a “betrayal” of the semi-grunge style), for the movie to go and give her the butchest look she’s ever gonna get on film lmao (and I will be pleasantly surprised if they’d keep a look like this for a movie where she’s the lead and not a supporting character, tbh).

– Sam and Bucky were So Soft™ with each other OMG. If their show doesn’t have at least ONE episode centred on them going undercover as a married couple, I’ll write it myself, because they are perfect for it (especially if you add some of the early banter/antagonism).

Btw, Sam getting the shield? The only good part of that mess at the end LMAO.

– I have mixed feelings for the Alt!Gamora development. I just… really loved the GOTG-IW versions of her character and her ship, and she’s gone and just… :( And that type of pseudo-amnesia/relationship do-over thing can be so badly written sometimes… But she’s back, and if done right, the role-reversal between her and Nebula could be gr10 for GOTG 3. We’ll see.

THE BAD™

– I know if I walked up right now to the Russos, and asked them why they hate Thor so much, they wouldn’t even understand the question. They would say, but we love Thor?? He’s such a fun character?? Or some version of the sort. They can fool themselves, but not me. You don’t do this to a character for whom you feel a modicum of respect, IMO.

Like, the fat-phobic jokes? The way they dealt with his substance abuse? How his arc about stepping up and assuming responsibilities ended by… him throwing away his responsibilities. Losing his hammer was a turning point for him to relearn the lessons about value and worthiness and power he’d been taught, and then… this movie. I couldn’t even fully enjoy his scenes with Frigga because I was so appalled by it all.

His only great scene, IMO, was how horrified and out of it he sounded after killing Thanos. I really felt that.

I didn’t even enjoy that he passed his power to Valkyrie because… unlike with Sam, that basically came out of nowhere. If they at least had given them ONE more scene at the beginning; seriously, it writes itself: just put her in the room when Bruce and Rocket are trying to convince him to go with them, and have her being the one that does it. Make her help him the way HE helped HER in Ragnarok; show her trying to help him and getting angry and frustrated. IDK, something.

And I know I’m probably alone in this because everyone around me practically creamed their pants when it happened but… having Steve control Mjolnir felt like adding insult to injury. Not just lifting it (which I would’ve been annoyed by too, given that they rewrote the new Asgardian mythology just to have this scene lol), but commanding it as only Thor did. Just. How much more are you going to take from Thor, people.

I want to make it clear that my problem is with the execution, not with Thor going through this; that, written differently, with more care, I could have loved.

– I’ve always been conflicted with MCU Steve. I loved the Captain America old comics I read as a child, and 616 Steve was A Hero. So I wanted to love MCU Steve just as much but… it often felt that he just didn’t measure up.

Well, conflict over. I don’t like the guy. Reading Man Out of Time just a few months ago probably isn’t helping (and yeah, that’s not a fair comparison, but it illustrates why I look at 616 Steve, and I adore him, and then I turn to MCU Steve and just… this guy is not worth my time).

I couldn’t even enjoy the ship, because my feelings for it come solely from my love for Peggy, and she didn’t even get to say a word? Add to that the fact that an endless loop of “OMG HE MADE OUT WITH YOUR NIECE. NOW HIS NIECE. RUN” was going through my head the entire time (the fact that Sharon was absent from the funeral when EVC acted in half of the MCU Russos films is hilarious in light of this xDD).

MISC

– I really enjoyed some of the heist shenanigans. Especially Tony’s plan for a distraction being GIVING HIS PAST SELF A HEART ATTACK. How extra and edgy can my man be xD Tony and Scott are A Duo.

– I was thinking that Alt!Loki might make an appearance in GOTG3 if Thor is really a part of it, and how that might mix, but then a friend reminded me about his show, so I guess that’s where they’re going? IDK, The Avengers’ Loki is probably the one I liked the least out of all his appearances, so unless I hear something really good about it, I’m not picking it up.

– IDK if it’s because I was desensitized, but the white suits and Clint’s hairdo didn’t look as ugly on the final product?

– So THAT was the gay character Feige went on about. I knew he was going to be an unnamed nobody with less than five lines LMAO. Stop being cowards and give us Danbeau and WinterFalcon.

– I was very touched about Ned and Peter’s hug (MY BBYS), but isn’t Ned supposed to be five years older? AKA out of high school? I mean, he looked like he had missed Peter, not like he had disappeared with him too? And the entire class is going on a trip in FFH? Is it because of nostalgia/a friends thing? Were all of them dusted? Because poor teacher then xDD

– I think a lot of emotional threads were unceremoniously dropped, but other than the ones I’ve mentioned, I’m more indifferent towards their recipients so… eh. A great example is the fact that Bruce’s conflicting journey with Hulk was solved off-screen LMAO. Some of the humour felt extra-cringy too tbh.

– I have Tony-related fanart as my lock screen, my computer background, and my phone background. I get teary eyed with just looking at them. I should think of changing them, but I wont xD

– I know I’m forgetting things but whatevs, I can talk about them later.

#tony stark #mcu #marvel #iron family #thor odinson #nebula #natasha romanoff #thanos #winterfalcon #and other stuff but i'd be here all day #marvel (movies)#gamora #avengers (movies)#avengers: endgame #endgame spoilers #my thoughts #talking to the void #marvel thoughts

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sceawere · 6 years

Text

We’ve lost more than just the plot: my thoughts on the season 4 finale

I have a lot of problems with this season. I have problems with characterisation. I have problems with storylines. I have problems with the way things were shown (I’m looking at you, informed consent).

But last episode was so good! The Luca/Alfie scene was one of the best pieces of television I’ve had the pleasure of consuming. So, there were problems, but I went in with high hopes because, you know, it’s Peaky Blinders, and I love it, so I ignored stuff. But how am I supposed to ignore that raging inferno of a dumpster fire that was the finale. Look. I’m so mad I’m using Americanisms. On that note, give me a Changretta spin off because we deserve it.

A lot of the arguments I make here are going to circle back to a few main points which can be covered by various subtitles such as: ‘Holy Fuck, is someone going to jump a shark in the cut at some point?’, ‘Tommy Shelby is a 4D chess master, except he hasn’t told anyone else where the board is kept’, and ‘Why?’.

This is rambing and probably at times confusing but bleh. Let’s begin.

Major shout out to dorahog for her comment where she said that it seemed very truncated – I think the events of the finale should have been spread over at least two episodes, and maybe three. A lot of the tying of the knots to me still left loose threads and didn’t really seem complete.

I think this, and some of the editing as a result is what causes some of the major problems I have with the episode. Lots of rushed finishing off to introduce too many new lines, idk. Anyway, I’m going to walk through it pretty much scene by scene, so buckle in.

We spend at least the first quarter (in terms of irl play time) of the episode at the boxing match. I was pumped. It was great. The Gold’s are my new faves, and while I may try to present myself as a refined you know, whatever, I love watching two people kick six shades of shit out of each other in a semi controlled manner any day of the week.

Even better when everyone is wearing sharp tailoring and it was someone’s entire job to light the place fantastically. I was about to write an ode to the costumes and props people but then I got a shot of Abbeys wig and the feeling swiftly fled.

Still, I will give the editing people props for this particular section. The pacing was great, the frenetic activity, the flicking back and forth between sets. Here, the editing was spot on. It built up the feeling of not only the excitement, but a sense of panic. Arthurs paranoia really seeped into me and I was on edge about whether Bonnie might be just a little over his head.

Since I’m going to reference pay off recurrently, I want to point out these elements. Arthur is always a paranoid, frenetic, madman. Bonnie has been woven into this season and everything has been building to this moment. The scene with the garotte and Bonnie winning the match – that’s how you do payoff.

Before we move on, I’m focusing on Alfie’s story a lot more later, so I’m skipping over that particular scene for the moment.

I loved the scene in the loos. It was funny, it was an accurate depiction of the politics and preening that goes on, the interplay between the women was indulgent. We got exposition, we got characterisation, we got costumes that made me salivate. More of all of this please.

I’m assuming that Linda is going to get a bigger role in Season 5 – the focus on her descent into Shelby Ladyhood, and the mentions of her past and family (especially her mother) seems to point that way. Which, I for one would enjoy. I think Linda gets a lot of hate because she’s written to. She’s portrayed as the shrew who tore poor little rabid dog Arthur away and leashed him up. I don’t think their relationship is completely healthy, I think there’s co-dependence issues there. But the way I’ve seen her described in fandom is eye-rolling to an extent that I physically injured myself on at least three occasions. So, please, give me more of her as a character and less as a caricature.

I’m so upset that Tommy would lie to Finn about Arthur being dead. Finn, the baby of the family, who wasn’t in the war, and doesn’t think and feel the way they do, was lied to about his brother dying just months after his other brother died. I think it’s sick emotional manipulation and unconscionable on Tommy’s part. If you can’t trust Finn, don’t bring him near the business. You can’t have it both ways. Either he’s in and you bring him in, or you don’t, and he needs to leave. I understand keeping the circle small, but they’ve just learned with the ‘don’t tell Michael about the plan’ plan that it doesn’t really work, and you just end up causing more problems.

Tommy has no consideration for people’s emotions or their state as beings of their own. They’re players to him, pieces on a board, and he’ll move them how he wants. He gets to make all the decisions, they don’t have any real input, and they have no ability to decide if they want to accept the consequences or not, because they’re already five steps deep in the process by the time they learn about it.

Side note: I’m bored of all the plans being made off screen and magically revealed to us later. If you’ve seen the really good video essay about why Sherlock is shitty for doing this, that’s the basis of my argument. It’s not smart or exciting to say ah! Got you! When I never had a chance to work it out in the first place. It’s just kind of lazy and boring.

Also, Tommy lied to a pregnant woman and caused her great distress, so that’s nice.

I cannot believe this is the first proper scene with Isaiah we get, because opening car doors and skulking in the background doesn’t count. Jordan Bolger is a great actor who brings so much to the character and they continually waste him. Isaiah could be so much more – he’s a black, working class kid, with a preacher for a father, in a crime family, and all he gets is a two-minute scene where he’s a bystander to Finn’s character development. Give me his struggle, give me him working through the moral conflicts – even the times they’ve just shown him to be a young lad being a young lad it’s been great, give us more. I assumed with the including of him in the heist plot that he would be stepping up into actual business, but they seem to have abandoned that idea and it’s disappointing. He can firmly join the ‘they deserve better’ club.

Finn should be left to be smol and soft, those are my complete thoughts.

Also, Tommy terrifies and holds hostage a whole room of innocent people as a charade because he doesn’t give a fuck about anyone else’s feelings or autonomy any longer than they are useful to him.

Also, I love Goliath and I’m sad that with Alfie gone we’re probably not going to see anymore of him, my big son, I loved you while I had you.

We move away from the boxing scenes and get Arthur’s ‘funeral’.

I will say, I bloody love the wagons and wish my alternate theory that the Shelby’s did in fact lose everything to Luca and have to start from scratch could have happened because they were would have got more shots of them being ethereal in the forest somewhere surrounded by beautiful woodwork a la the Polly/Abbey scenes, but alas…we get this instead.

The shot of the empty room and the fireplace was beautiful, and poignant, and I’m gonna give them that.

Also, was that Karl? Thank fuck if it was because I had assumed Ada had abandoned him in the states somewhere for all we’ve seen/heard of him so far. It’s not as if any of the children are seen to be particularly important or have any type of characterisation of their own though so why am I surprised?

The way that Tommy treats Michael is ridiculous. You can’t complain about Michael keeping something back from you when you are lying to him about the exact same thing. I am so heartened by Michael saying, ‘I chose my mum’ because it not only shows that Michael isn’t Tommy Jr after all, but also that there’s a chance that the new generation will succeed the old guard after all and that this won’t just carry on forever.

Also, if Tommy can’t trust Michael with his life of all things, why would he trust him to handle the American business alone? How ridiculous. If I think someone was willing to screw me over in a double-cross that led to my death, I wouldn’t hand them the key to my secondary kingdom. Sense – this makes none.

Audrey Changretta turning up at the funeral like the badass she is and I’m so sad that her whole life has been torn apart in order to make Tommy Shelby look like a big man. Honestly, if you ask me, the Shelbys should have lost. Luca should have won. It would have made more sense, and provided such great material for next season.

The Shelby’s, having lost everything and become the people they used to rule, must fight to get back to the top. It should have been everything this season was meant to be, getting back to their roots, scrapping again. It would have provided stakes again. They need to be taken down a few pegs. If I know that Tommy is just going to fix everything off screen at the end anyway and everything turns out the same, then why am I wasting my time?

But that’s what the show has become. It started off as an interesting look at the moral complexities of the family, how they worked together, struggling to be something other than what they were destined for by the people who consistently maligned them. Now it’s a show about how amazing Tommy Shelby is. But the only way they’ve made Tommy Shelby great, is by making everyone else an idiot.

Tommy is a 4D chess-master, but only because no else knows where the table is being kept.

Luca Changretta was introduced as what should have been the most terrifying antagonist yet. And they turned him into an idiot. Luca Changretta, mob boss, doesn’t know to leave men behind to keep an eye on the kingdom? Bullshit.

I understand that Tommy is the main guy and has plot armour, but he doesn’t need to be the centre of the universe to be compelling as a character. This guy has manipulated Churchill and the king, got a city, a country, and an empire revolving around him, been given an OBE and now is an MP. But he can’t count two steps in front of himself and predict that killing a mob boss’ father might bring the mob down on him? He never really sees the consequences of his actions. His wife dying didn’t change him as a person, he just got meaner. His brother dying didn’t change him as a person, he just got reckless. I need a little bit more.

Alfie is such a beloved character not just because Tom Hardy plays him so well, not just because he belts out hilarious nonsense like a slightly faulty spitfire, but because he’s a match for Tommy. A much-needed match. He can go toe-to-toe with him, hell, even half the time get one over on him. He tells it straight when he knows Tommy needs it, and he doesn’t take his bullshit. He’s a breath of fresh air in a show that wants to convince us the literal world (or at least the empire, and America, and the political-social climate of the period, and every woman in sights life) revolves around Thomas Shelby.

Even add Campbell to that pile. He was a shit show. He was disgusting. He was mildly inept at times. But he was menacing. He had political connections. You knew he was the guy they sent out to do the work that everyone turned an eye to, and how much damage he could cause without official recompense. But in the end, it wasn’t Grand Master Tommy who got him – it was Grace, and then Polly. Hell hath no fury like women scorned, and the beauty came so much more from the fact that it wasn’t the person who he perceived as his adversary that ended up doing him in. Someone he trusted, and someone he abused, doing what needed to be done. The priest last season was menacing because of the same, and in the end, it wasn’t Tommy that brought him down, it was Michael. It meant something because it was Michael.

I don’t see how killing Luca makes sense except it as a way to make Tommy look good and have the big Arthur reveal, which was bullshit anyway. There was little pay off there.

And Alfie. Oh, sweet love, Alfie. So, not only do they take what is pretty much the most beloved character in the fandom, even casuals love the shit out of this man, and dispatch of him like a secondary mop up, but they do it in such a shitty way.

When the spoilers came out about Alfie’s cancer I had a personal reflexive ‘well fuck off with that’ having just lost someone irl to a long and messy cancer battle, so mainly I pushed it away and thought ‘ah, that won’t get dealt with yet, they’ve done nothing about it for season upon season, it’s probably just internal backstory bullshit’. Nope.

Alfie has been chronically underused in this show, and I understand it. I think the rare glimpses we get are so powerful that it makes sense. It’s Christmas Day. It’s an island in the sea of winter, and the anticipation’s half the fun. You get presents every day, and you’re just going to turn out to be a spoiled brat. But we spend seasons adoring this guy who lives in the damn shadows, scrapping together parts of his life so that we can better understand him, only to be fed a massive plot point as an offhand spoiler and then have the entire thing resolved in what felt like 20 minutes? There was no anticipation. There were no stakes. There was no payoff. I was just…sighing, mostly.

I knew when he started talking about Margate that I was about to be emotionally ruined, but I expected at least to get a fitting end. But no. We got Alfie screwing Tommy over again in a predictable but fucking useless way. We got Tommy shooting him on a beach and walking away. And that was it.

I think the Tommy breakdown scenes would have had a bigger impact on me two seasons ago when I still had care for his character, but I just used the time to check my messages, so it didn’t really land with me tbh. The whole last segment of this ep just flew over me.

The malignment of Jessie Eden’s character will likely get a post of its own soon. Except I am going to say here that I’m entirely sure that what Tommy is doing counts as sexual assault – see the case of the woman who had a child with someone she didn’t know was an undercover agent in her what I think was also Communist action group, and also the new laws that stop undercover people from sleeping with those they are surveying. Because you can’t give informed consent. But they’re probably not going to address that, because we have a love triangle to deal with now.

Also, Tommy abandoned a dog and tampered with an election so he’s everyone I hate now. You don’t come for the animals or the democratic process. Taking inspiration from my dear love, Alfie Solomons, what a fucking cunt.

But besides that, it was fine.

#peaky blinders spoilers

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