Little Red Writing Hood

I decided I post too much meta on my personal blog so to relieve my followers I'm going to start posting it here

[asagimeta]

The time has come again to remind everyone that good queer representation does not necessarily equal morally good queer characters

I’ve heard that apparently there’s a renaissance of anti-Hannibal going on lately? And that + the rise in popularity of media like Helluva Boss and Killing Eve, and the addition of more openly queer charectors in existing media- from comic book based media to long-running shows like American Horror Story- I feel like this needs to be said again- not necessarily by me but I posted about it way back when Hannibal originally aired it’s finale so I figure, what the hell

Good representation =/= morally good characters

You can have both, absolutely, but you can also have them separate, and you can have all combinations of the reverse too

Ofcourse, to be clear right in the beginning, what counts as “good” representation vs “bad” reputation is going to vary from person to person, everything from life experiences to media exposure to personal opinions will dictate where you land on the sliding scale of “good” or “bad”, someone who’s consumed quite alot of queer-focused media, for example, is going to have a very different opinion than someone who’s only seen one background gay in a TV show that one time, and someone who’s a really huge fan of horror is going to have a much different opinion than someone who’s only a fan of lighter-hearted fair

With that said, in my personal opinion, the measure of good vs bad representation relies less on the character and more on the presentation of said character- less, not entirely

To get what I mean, here’s the best example I can think of:

Castiel from Supernatural is, objectively, a good charactor- if nothing else he’s morally good by most standards, certainly by the time season 15 rolls around, but his canonically queer presentation is just.... horrible, horrible representation and I’ve only met literally one person myself who disagreed with that

Cas is presented as being a really tragic figure right from the start of his coming out- the one thing in the world that would make him truly happy for even a single moment is confessing that he’s in love with Dean, even if Dean rejects him, just saying it is enough, that is..... sad

If it had been framed differently, it actually could have been very good representation, in a “I don’t need you to validate me, I’m being honest about who I am for the first time in my life and that’s enough, I’m enough” way, but it wasn’t, it was framed as pining, as “Even if you don’t love me, my acknowledging openly that I love you is enough to make me happy”, and again that could have worked if framed differently but.... it’s followed up by the infamous “Gay angels go to Super Mega Turbo Hell” thing and like.... no....

Cas is a good character who is queer, he is not a good queer character, because his existence as a queer character lasted less than five minutes and was immediately followed by literally going to what’s worse than hell for expressing his queerness

There is no way I can express the amount of levels of Bad that is, to say nothing of how Dean treats the entire experience for like.... ever... from there on out

But now let’s look at Hannibal, who is objectively a pretty bad character morally- he’s stupendously written but yeah I mean look the dude eats people there’s just no getting around that

But I would argue that he’s excellent queer representation because of how he was presented

Hannibal’s sexuality is never defined, for starters, there’s never a “very special episode” moment where he has some long-winded coming out speech, in fact we don’t quite know how he identifies but because he’s written so artfully we don’t really need to, his exact sexuality doesn’t feel like it needs to be known because, frankly, not much personal information is known about Hannibal anyway, and sexuality feels like one of those arbitrary things that he wouldn’t really care about defining

And that’s the other thing- he’s far from sexless and yet he places no emphasis on sex, he isn’t hypersexualized but he also isn’t being kept as a Ken doll to preserve the message of gay purity (because I don’t know apparently there’s a Thing some people have about how gay people aren’t allowed to be sexual???) he’s just... a person

And that’s really what it comes down to that makes him great, he’s a person first and queer second... or third.... or fourth or fifth.... it never defines who he is, it’s just part of who he is, and regardless of your opinion on Hannibal specifically, I think that is something most queer people strive for in representation

It’s great to have stories that are focused on queerness but it’s equally exhausting to only be able to have characters who’s lives revolve around their sexualities, it’s nice to go into media and go “Oh that character that I already like for these reasons is also queer, that’s so cool!”

Hannibal also skillfully side-steps stereotypes, despite falling into the category of being “polite, thin, and neat”, despite loving fine wine and fine art and fine culture, he never feels like a flamboyant theater kid with a decoration-diploma, wich is how alot of queer characters in this category can feel

His story is about alot of things and his relationship with Will is at the center of much of it, but that relationship didn’t become explicitly queer until the show was almost over- not because it was sudden or poorly written but because it was a slow build up, wich is also refreshing, as alot of times it feels like queer characters are made as explicitly queer as they’re allowed to be as quickly as they’re able to be on screen so that the show can grab those important Representation Brownie Points from episode one and either introduce a Manwhore or a Uhaul Lesbian right away and just kind of leave them in that trope until “someone comes along and changes that” or whatever, I don’t even know what straight writers do half the time, but Hannibal- as a show and a charactor- doesn’t do that, he’s just allowed to exist and tell his story, and THAT is good representation

With the heavy-handed example over with though, I want to tackle the biggest part of this entire “debate” that makes me interested in it:

Queer people are allowed to be bad people

Queer people are allowed to be lazy and unattractive and non-political and angry and jealous and yes, “bad” and evil too

Wile I DEFINITELY prefer to have morally good characters- especially after literally a century of rarely getting more than The Evil Homosexual stereotype and all it’s kin- I also don’t like the direction some people are taking this where queer people are only “allowed” to be 100% morally flawless and good and righteous at all times because it’s just so unrealistic, and because it does the exact same thing that the opposite stereotype does: Puts queer people in a box, makes us a decoration for the straight cast so that the creators get Representation Brownie Points and can’t get yelled at on Twitter, and treats us like we’re some other species (and not in the cool way like werewolves but more like... well, decorations, as I’ve said before)

And if you’re worried about the way straight-cis people perceive us due to seeing evil queer characters, you should be equally worried about how they perceive us seeing nothing but morally flawless ones

I could get into An Entire Thing about the history of Straights trying to turn queer people into what they want us to be and present an inaccurate depiction of us to their brethren for their own benefit but I’ll make it relatively simple

The old way of keeping The Queers away from their Innocent Straight Children was to turn us into villains so that we would be ashamed of who we really are and hide ourselves and pretend to be The Good Christian Folk nextdoor and not get overly political or loud or different

The new way of keeping The Queers away from their Innocent Straight Children is to turn us into sexless Ken & Barbie stereotypes so we can be ashamed of who we really are and pretend to be The Good Christian Folk nextdoor and not get overly political or loud or different

By sterilizing queerness into something they find more “acceptable”, they’re doing the same thing they used to, but now through a lens of “Aren’t you happy you get what you want? You can get married now! You can hold hands in public! Just make sure not to do any of that other crazy stuff you people get up to and you can stay at the Civil Rights Table :)”, we’re still not “allowed” to be sexual human beings, it’s just framed in a way that makes us feel like the people shunning us are on our side wile those same people are still in the corner going “Just don’t kiss in public ok?”

And I could go On about this for some time but let’s get back to the point-

Queer people are three-dimensional people and we should be allowed to be so, we should be allowed to have characterization outside of The Gay Love Interest and The Gay BFF and The Gay Butler and so on, outside of the stereotypes being imposed on us

That’s one of the main reasons I love Yuri On Ice so much, and love Batwoman so much.... and one of the main reasons I love Hannibal and Harley Quinn and Helluva Boss and Killing Eve so much, all of these things star queer characters and queer relationships to different degrees (Batwoman, for example, makes a MUCH larger point and political stance about queerness than, say, Hannibal) and they’re all about something other than queerness too, the charecters are three-dimensional and they’re not built around their sexualities or side peices for straight people

And none of them are PUNISHED for their sexualities either

Going back to Castiel earlier, stereotypes are hardly the worst of our worries when Burry Your Gays, Gayngst Induced Suicide, and Gay Guy Dies First are still alive and well- among others

From Frank N’ Furter in Rocky Horror Picture Show to Tara in Buffy The Vampire Slayer to, oh look, it’s Supernatural again with not just Cas, but also Charlie, and even arguably Dean (but that’s a much longer story for a much different time) and many many more... sometimes just having any gay charecter live through a franchise is enough on it’s own- setting the bar awfully low there but it’s still hard for a shamefully large amount of franchises to step over

In some cases like Tara, it can be pretty decently argued that the death has little- if anything- to do with queerness, but in examples like Cas and Frank, it’s pretty blatantly obvious, especially when the other queer characters in their respective franchises didn’t exactly fair well either....

Matt Baume put it best when he said that until recently, you had to choose if you wanted your only source of representation to be dead or evil, and most people chose evil

Now-a-days that’s clearly not the case as much but there’s still a heavy enough flavor of it there- and villains are just part of gay culture, dating all the way back to prohibition, queer people identified as outlaws because we literally were, so pirates and cowboys and other anti-heros and villains became a staple of the culture that’s still very much alive to this day, thus leading to another point: Identification

Straight people can identify with pretty much whoever they want- from superheros to princesses to any and every kind of villain

Tony Soprano is a horrible, horrible person but is notorious for being beloved among straight white males because he’s a projection of who they want to be- powerfull (and wealthy)

Stolas from Helluva Boss actually presents a pretty similar power fantasy, he’s part of a family who lives outside the larger part of the law, he can kill (nearly) anyone he pleases, he’s physically and socially powerfull, he’s wealthy, he has a nuclear family, he gets to screw around with whoever he wants with the only one taking issue being his wife, the only real difference is that Stolas is queer (and much more fashionable... and pleasant)

Queer people should be allowed to have those power fantasies as much as straight people are

Speaking as a bisexual female myself, I absolutely ADORE Villanelle from Killing Eve, I really don’t care that she’s a bitch or has killed an uncountable amount of people, it’s fun to project on her, and seeing a very flawed woman fall in love and be vulnerable and open herself up to a relationship and get that relationship with another woman is AMAZING to me, that doesn’t make the relationship it’s self healthy or good, but it’s still fun to watch and plays further into that identification

I love Korra and Asami from Legend Of Korra, they’re a sweet, wholesome relationship between two sweet, wholesome characters and I adore them... but I’m allowed to adore Eve and Villanelle too, even if the relationship is toxic and the characters have baggage and Villanelle is literally a serial killer

Ofcourse enjoying something doesn’t make it “good”, I enjoy alot of trash B rated (and C rated) horror movies too, it doesn’t mean I think they deserve Oscars (if that’s really the measuring stick we’re going to use), but I think when it comes to representation, it’s important to distinguish the difference between good queer character and a moral queer character, they just... aren’t the same

Light Yagami from Death Note, Bill from Kill Bill, and Joker from Batman are all just... horrible, horrible people, there’s no doubting that, they are morally terrible... but my god are they fantastic charecters- they’re interesting, they’re three dimensional (even if only occasionally in the Joker’s case), they’re well written and complex, there’s a reason why they’re iconic and why they’re still talked about decades after their introduction into the world, they are GREAT characters who are morally bad, and characters like Hannibal and Villlanelle are in that boat too, they just so happen to be queer- and there’s what it all boils down to

People being queer, not queer people

Some of the most beloved examples above like Yuri On Ice and Legend Of Korra are praised for being about people who are queer, people who have stories focused on other things and are just allowed to exist without their sexualities defining them, and the same should be said and appreciated for villains who are queer too

In an age where so much queer-focused media is about tragedy (the period lesbian dramas and Gayngst teen media for example), and so much of it is focused on the same exact aspects of queer life (coming out, dating around, getting or being married, but mostly coming out), it’s great to have characters who just so happen to be queer without those things being the center of their storylines- and without them being canon fodder or the Gay BFF, or being a terrible stereotype from the 90s that just won’t die...

And that by no means is to say you have to like these characters- not at all, there are PLENTY of objectively good/well-written queer characters who I don’t like for whatever reason- but to call them bad representation just because they’re bad people is sweeping ALOT under the rug

And I know I’ve harped alot on avoiding queer-centered storylines like coming out stories and relationship dramas, but those are fine, they have their place just like everything else, really, they just don’t need to have the only place- that does a disservice to so many other types of queer stories- for the heroes and the villains, because morality and goodness have nothing to do with one’s sexuality, just like one’s sexuality has nothing to do with morality and goodness

[ren1327]

Incoming theory later but I want to point something out.

Notice how the tar/mud clears when Stolas is shown. Also how he's elevated. Blitz sees him clean and smiling warmly at him compared to the others. He sees Stolas as too good for him. A fling that has yet to hurt him.

Those figures fanning him have his horns and form. He already holds Stolas in high regard and some part of him already cares for Stolas.

When the gold cuffs and collar appear, Blitz is clean, his forehead crest normal. Yet despite these cuffs, he keeps climbing towards him. He WANTS to be owned by Stolas. But he's scared to be in a committed relationship. It would hurt so much more. Hence, golden cuffs.

He's so scared and doesn't want anyone, let alone Stolas to see. But he wants him. Doesn't fight when Stolas pulls him in. He wants be held and looked at. To be cherished even if bound.

And he gets angry because he's scared and insecure and Stolas makes him feel safe. He just wants Stolas right now because Stolas makes him feel better.

Then his fear when Stolas disappears.

And fear that Stolas leaving him will break him. His greatest fear is losing Stolas.

Blitz is scared of letting people in. His family is gone and many crushes/flings have hurt him. But Stolas stayed and cares and Blitz cant handle letting him close, but losing him would destroy him.

[asagi-s-garden]

Another thing - I thought "Supergirl" was ending because Melissa simply opted not to renew her contract since she's a mom now?

Oh is that really why? I've been searching for answers and always get the *shrug* response basically

I heard in the very beginning that Melissa was "as shocked as everyone else" that the show wasn't getting renewed but that could have just been people making assumptions or her saying that publicly to avoid any backlash (ugh backlash...) but the timing of the baby as well would fit pretty easily

Being an actress and a mom is incredibly difficult even on the "easiest" (IE: least physically and/or emotionally demanding) projects but Melissa has all of my awe and respect for going through this final season doing all the stunts and physically exhausting shit she has to do after having just had a baby, not to mention that, if the preveiws are anything to go by for the tone of the last half of the season, she'll be doing some really exhaustive emotional work too with the PTSD stuff

If it was Melissa's decision then I really can't be mad about it; if it was WB's/CW's decision I can be absolutely bi-furious about it :)

I still find the timing of Superman & Lois to be extremely sus to be perfectly honest though, I mean, people have been screaming for Tyler's Superman to get his own show for years and they JUST SO HAPPEN to air the first season of it at the same time they're airing the last season of Supergirl? To the point that they really decided to split the seasons with eachother (air Superman A then Supergirl A, then Superman B and finally Supergirl B) with Supergirl getting FAR less promotion than Superman?

Mmmmmmmm smells executive to me

But to be just extremely and entirely fair, it's also possible that Melissa gave the network plenty of head's up that she planned on becoming a mom and wasn't going to renew past season six, wich would leave the CW one Kryptonian short and thus motivate WB to go ahead and greenlight Superman, knowing that it would have atleast the amount of success Supergirl did- and remember that Supergirl has been regularly coming in just under The Flash for the most watched DC show, with, I think, last year possibly being the exception due to Batwoman claiming that slot? I actually don't know if Batwoman claimed silver on this or not but I think it did

In any case I hope that you're right so I can let go of my bitterness @randomnessoffiction xD

[asagi-s-garden]

WB is the worst when it comes to DC. It's no coindence that Constantine is leaving 'Legends of Tomorrow" in the wake of the upcoming HBO Max show. And this pandemic ruined a lot of plans. As you said "BL" wasn't meant to be in the Arrowverse put when it happened they were all gung-ho for it. They had plans for Jeff to visit Central City and for Anissa and Grave to chill in Gotham. But then the pandemic and whatever BTS drama that got "BL" canned. Like *something* happened. It got an early renewal in Jan then it was cancelled in Nov. And CW didn't even bother to have proper trailers for new episodes. Don't tell me somebody on the show didn't rub the network the wrong way to result in that level of pettiness

Yeah, WB isn't just the worst with DC, but really the worst with favoritism in my personal opinion

They tried so hard to make the DC streaming service a huge success but as soon as they saw it wasn't going to be they got rid of everything like it was on fire, HBO Max is the new golden child so they're cutting their own throats in other areas to make it succeed- IE: Theaters

My poor Suicide Squad 2 ;_; no I won't say "my THE Suicide Squad" it won't roll off the tongue it was a sacrificial lamb to the damn streaming service :(

I know it's an unpopular opinion to not be all over streaming but they're really clearly cutting way more than just corners in order to feed that specific beast and try to make it compete with Disney+, that's why they're starting to draw the string on the Arrowverse :/ The same thing happened, I think, with the DC streaming service though, when they saw that the biggest success of DC was the Arrowverse, they decided to pull their dying streaming service as well as the DCEU into it to pump the Arrowverse up more, now that the Arrowverse is starting to go under- with three shows being gone, Batwoman being in questionable territory, and the two biggest successes of the year being largely disjointed from it (Superman and Stargirl), I think they're going to try to scramble it like eggs :/ They're doing the same with the DCEU to a degree though, by having loosely connected stories that do more universe hopping and tone changes (IE: Joker coming out just months before Birds Of Prey and having been preceeded by Shazam!) I think since they're seeing more promise in that approach right now for the movies, they might be trying to do the same for TV- or they're just trying to let the Arrowverse die of neglect so they can pump up HBO Max like you said

Ofcourse now that WB has been bought by Discovery, we might get some big changes to this; Discovery already said they wanted to pour seven BILLION dollars into DC properties specifically in the first year alone, and I know the rumor is that they're only going to try to gloss up DC so that they can sell the assets to the highest bidders once their "probation" period ends but like.... seven billion is a hell of alot of gloss..... and if they can start pulling in more numbers like Joker, Superman & Lois, and The Suicide Squad (wich may have not been a huge hit at the box office but wich reportedly smashed the HBO Max numbers enough that WB is circling James Gunn like a starving shark), then I have a hard time believing they'd be wanting to get rid of it, especially when, let's face it, DC is easily the most well known and most marketable asset Discovery has ever had and probably ever will have purely because of Superman alone, you can't find a person anywhere who hasn't atleast heard of Superman, regardless of how much the film properties are hit-and-miss financially, I have a hard time believing anyone would just throw that kind of name power to the wolves....

But onto Black Lightning, I actually have a pretty strong theory about that one

I'm almost certain that China Anne McClain is why the show was canned

And do not get me wrong, I don't mean that in a snippy way, but China quit Black Lightning pretty urgently- to the point that she only wanted to do limited episodes for the final season

Backing up a moment here though, let me explain why I think this was the nail-in-the-coffin

Black Lightning was very quickly becoming centered around Lightning specifically

That doesn't mean to say that it wasn't still Jefferson's story and that Anissa wasn't still important, but Jennifer was getting set up to be The Powerhouse of the show, with the bulk of the drama probably surrounding her and the thought of her potentially taking on her father's mantel

It seemed like the idea of Black Lightning retiring or atleast putting on the suit a little less was starting to become a thing, and with Jefferson firmly accepting his daughters as part of the world of Metas at that point, that would have lead to Anissa and Jennifer taking much more of the spotlight than they had in the beginning- that's a natural progression of things, and although I actually prefer Anissa's storyline (it's just more my personal cup of tea), I will readily admit that Jennifer was the one who had the ability to carry an entire season's worth of story on her shoulders.... not so much Anissa, who has her wife (so romantic subplots are pretty toned down), her powers are developed and stable (nothing quite like the learning curves Jennifer was facing), she has a stable job and a stable superhero identity- two, in fact-, so no literal schoolyard drama or issues with "Am I in my father's shadow? Is this how the world sees me and do I want them to see me this way?" much like what Jennifer was starting to experience in the end of the show either

TLDR Anissa mostly had her shit together, wich is great for her, but it doesn't lend to being able to carry the most dramatic storylines like it does with Jennifer, who's still figuring out pretty much everything

I think Jennifer was already starting to take a very large amount of the story as of the last season and even starting to steal the spotlight before that, if they were to come back for more I feel like she would have been in a place of being much more obviously groomed to take on the main charector status wile Jefferson stepped back just a little bit to be more supportive to her journey instead of the other way around

And the show could still exist very much as Jefferson's story wile that story happened to center on Jennifer

.....Buuuuuuuuuuuuut that's where the problem comes in

China said before the show was cancelled that she was going to step down from playing Lightning because she wanted to focus on her faith more and be removed from anything that wasn't "in service to God", wich is totally fine for her, but it does put Black Lightning in a bit of a difficult position because the charector they were gearing up to make their breakout star was suddenly going to either have to pull a Winn and just... be.... gone.... or have to get recast

To be entirely honest, I'm not sure why they didn't stick with the recasting instead, I thought Laura Karuki did a fantastic job as Jennifer and the "Am I Jennifer or am I JJ?" story would have been a great thing to explore for an entire season, but if I had to guess, they maybe just didn't want to mess with it?

Black Lightning had good numbers but it wasn't in the top five or anything to my recollection, not since it's premiere season anyway, and it could have been a compound decision of "We weren't going to keep this up much longer anyway so let's just take this as a sign to wrap it up", although I think that the way the recast was done could have presented a stable option for them if they had decided to give it a go for a full season, although maybe that's just my opinion and they initially made the recast so that the people behind the curtain could see if Laura would work well enough as Jennifer and when they decided that the vibe wasn't right they went on ahead and pulled the plug rather than risk getting the same um... resistance.... than Batwoman met over their recasting choices

Although I could go on for days about why that situation is different (to be clear: I do like Ryan quite alot but I don't think the Batwoman situation was nearly as seamless as Black Lightning's in terms of recasts, but that's another story for another day)

TLDR I think if China had stayed aboard they would have gone on for atleast another season or two, but there are some shows where members of an ensemble cast are so essential that their leaving is too big of a blow to stay through

It's much like when Dylan O'Brien had to bow out of Teen Wolf for a little wile, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a fan who absolutely loved season six, and even before that people were having a hard time staying with a lack of Tyler Hoechlin, with some even stepping away when Crystal Reed left, even though- at both of those points- most of the core cast was still there and at no point did the titular main ever leave, I feel like Black Lightning's situation is very similar, people were just too invested in Jennifer

[asagi-s-garden]

I really wonder how "Supergirl" will end. And it's not just Kara it's the other heroes too Until Diggle showed up there was no acknowledgement they even existed

I know part of it has to do with the pandemic

Batwoman was originally supposed to have a minor crossover with Superman this season, as well as Supergirl at the end of season one, and I would be more than willing to bet a similar situation went on with Supergirl, it's just too strange that they wouldn't feature her at all in the debut of her cousin's show when there wouldn't be a Superman & Lois without Supergirl, and it's equally strange to think that Supergirl is going to end without a cameo from her- to be perfectly realistic- more famous cousin, but I'm pretty sure Clark isn't going to make it

Another problem is filming schedules colliding

Remember that Melissa had her baby several months back, causing Supergirl's filming to be pushed back by a few months, so by the time most of the Arrowverse was half-done with their seasons, Supergirl was only just starting

The producers have mentioned multiple times that it's really hellish to rig even small cameos because of getting filming schedules and locations and paychecks straightened out, but when you add in the pandemic precautions, I'd say that it's especially shut down this season- wich absolutely sucks being Supergirl's last :( And when you add the fact that Melissa had several weeks where she would've been out of commission thanks to being a new mom, you just tighten that noose even more....

Supergirl is probably going to have a much quieter, more downplayed finale than it deserves because of the combination of these problems :/

I also wonder if there's some WB Fuckery going on

Before Supergirl made history by getting a real Superman appearance on TV at the same time that the DCEU had him in film, Superman and Batman were hard "no"s for appearing on TV from WB, that's why Smallville and Gotham were prequels and always made sure to use "Clark" and "Bruce" instead of "Superman" and "Batman", because WB didn't want people to like a TV version more than the film version, wich hilariously is what ended up happening on Supergirl- people were campaigning for Tyler Hoechlin to take over as Superman pretty much as soon as his first cameo aired- but it's also what sparked WB to loosen that leash and allow for doubles to start up

....However....

I don't think it's a coincidence that Supergirl- wich actually has higher ratings than many CW shows, even including other Arrowverse shows like Legends- got canned the same year WB decided to bring a version of Supergirl into the DCEU (although there are rumors that it's Lara Lane Kent who will appear, not Kara, the design does look alot more similar to Lara) and the same year that they premiere Superman- wich is by FAR the most removed series from the rest of the Arrowverse since Black Lightning- wich wasn't supposed to be in the Arrowverse initially in the first place so that one makes much more sense

Superman & Lois also seems to be getting a different audience or, atleast, a much broader audience, in comparison with Supergirl, Batwoman, and alot of the "less grounded" (because I don't know a better comprehensive word for it) Arrowverse shows, and that may be part of the reason too- an effort to create distance between Superman & Lois and the Arrowverse, to keep that broader audience

The CW does seem to be steadily inching towards that more "family oriented" Americana flavor lately, with S&L, Stargirl, and Walker being their most notable recent successes and what they're pushing hardest, with the only one breaking from that mold being Kung Fu, although that one is successfull without the push and is still family oriented

I really hope it doesn't mean that we're going back to Mayonaise Land and losing some of the great diversity- both in terms of the casts AND the stories themselves- CW was starting to have on it's roster as of 2018/2019...

But back to Supergirl!! xD

I feel like it's going to be a more downplayed finale than it deserves, as I mentioned before

I have the sense that the end of the season is going to be much less "Giant Big Bad To End All Big Bads" like alot of series ends, and much more introspective and sort of a "Kara started Here and now she's Here" type of story, reflecting more heavily on the Super Freinds and Kara's personal growth and her overcoming her PTSD- wich we've been seeing in the commercials, one of those "Supergirl's last battle is with..... HERSELF" types of moments

And I DON'T mind that at all, Supergirl has always been more about personal growth than it has been about the villain of the month, but I fear it means that we won't get cameos from our freinds like Clark, Winn, and James :(

[amorjakey]

THERE ARE TIES TO BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER!

IN THIS SCREENSHOT, WE SEE THE WORDS “BEWITCHED, BETROTHED, AND BEWILDERED” AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN

in this episode, because of love, a spell is used, but it ultimately goes wrong. they have to find a way to lift the spell. this supports my idea that the carnival is a metaphor for losing control!

[imyjw]

I HAVE CONNECTED SOME FUCKING DOTS OH MY THIS IS THE FIRST TIME - Enhypen Theories

So you know this building in the Given-Taken Teaser?

It is an orphanage called 'La Compassion'.

And there is a story behind it.

A Bruxa is a VERY powerful type of vampire, mostly found as women, however their true form is a large black bat with sharp claws and fangs. THIS IS A VAMPIRE SPECIES NOT AFFECTED BY THE SUN.

In this scene from the dusk-dawn trailer, it looks like most of them are burning, meaning they possibly vampires. Sunghoon isnt burning because we are guessing he is a werewolf. The only other person who looks like they arent burning is Jake. Could he possibly be a Bruxa? Or could he possibly be the alpha garkain (leader of a group of garkain vampires) that attacked the orphanage? Or was he the one who turned the rest into vampires?

In my opinion, I think the common occurrences of books has something to do with it. Books can symbolise knowledge and intelligence. However it can also symbolise truth and judgement. Truth: to reveal his (or their) true selves?

Also theres been alot of bloody hands down the window, they need to stop wasting the strawberry jam.

Yeah thats all for now.

If these dont connect then I'm an absolute clown 🤡

Please feel free to add more if you find anything else.

[asagimeta]

Enhypen Theory- Ruins & Rituals

So I've been watching Given/Taken alot lately for writing purposes and am curious about something....

What's with the weird monument?

The beginning of the video starts with Jungwon standing in a desert with a bleeding nose, but we don't see this scenery again until the third "arc" of the music video, when the rest of the boys join him and immitate firing arrows at this broken monument of some kind- we later see them at night, dressed in their uniforms, dancing in front of it- though before this Jungwon is seen again slowly burning from (presumably) the sunlight

But... what is it? What's the significance and why does the video open there? Why are they firing arrows? There are just so many questions and I, personally, haven't really seen this part of G/T addressed yet so I'm going to take a shot at it for my first HYBE theory! (I actually have been *following* HYBE theories for a few months now but I'm new to K-Pop in general so I've been quiet until now)

First, it's important to note that it stands out as odd from the rest of the video

The beginning and middle of the video have two primary locations with similar but still considerably different vibes-

Old fashioned clothes, indoors, a sense of containment and "other"ness, even though they aren't the same, you can still feel the connection to eachother- but that's completely removed in the desert scenes, wich are outdoors, in modern clothing, and present the boys with more individuality (IE: lacking uniforms)

And it makes me wonder if the ruins they're visiting are of their old testing facility

Let me break it down a bit better-

The two primary locations we see other than these ruins are a mansion-wich I'll, possibly incorrectly, refer to as "the orphanage" henceforth- and a testing/containment/research facility of some sort

At first I wondered if the ruins were simply the orphanage but that's clearly not the case as you can see the exterior of the mansion in one of the snapshots early on, it's very different looking- even the shape is extremely different, and it seems to be in a forest just below a hill, not in the middle of a desert

What about the other place though? The facility- as I'll call it from here on- doesn't have the same deniability

In fact, we see a very similarly shaped building to the ruins during one of the snapshots, but we don't have any clear indication of what it is, why would it just randomly be there? Unless, ofcourse, it isn't random

Initially I assumed the orphanage and the facility were the same place because the boys are wearing the uniforms in both locations, but I'm starting to think that isn't the case, and that the boys were moved to the facility after being experimented on at the orphanage

The thing is that vampires don't always turn when they're given the venom/virus/blood/whatever-it-is-that-turns them, and when this substance is manmade or engineered somehow, it takes even less frequently, this is true of all supernaturals, and again, is emphasized when the people attempting to make the transitions are humans experimenting with forces beyond their understanding, so it's typical of these practioners to have large "sample sizes" of potential experiments, often turning to hospitals, schools, and orphanages (to name a few) seeking the few candidates that can survive and thrive under these new conditions- from there they'll experiment on all of them until they get the desired result, and those select few will move on in the process to the next step

Sound familiar at all? I think this is further representative of the idol industry

We know that a big theme of Enhypen's storyline is going against the toxic nature of the idol industry, with songs like "Not For Sale" and "Mixed Up", and themes like being museum or display peices in "Let Me In", and the process of a large group of young boys being picked through and groomed until there are only a few left standing, who are then taken away from the "orphanage" and brought to a more intense experimentation/testing facility, sounds alot like idol-potentials who are on talent shows, win, and then assigned to a group and agency who put them through intense preperation for their debut

We know Enhypen went through that exact process on I-Land, so it's not a stretch to say this may be what they're referencing

But back to the ruins

You can see a definite difference in the way the orphanage looks vs the facility, wile the orphanage is a western style mansion that looks like it came from the late Victorian era- though, as Laina Sunflower pointed out, it does seem to have some modern conveniences like pen lights and electric fans- (the person conducting the experiments is also wearing a face mask, wich looks more modern from what I can tell)

-the facility is seemingly more modern than that, and has a much less homey feel, resembling instead a more containment type of vibe- large areas of open space, large glass windows dividing one from another, and the boys all seem to have their own rooms to keep separated from eachother, very unlike the mansion where you can probably safely assume that they share rooms, as unlike the sleek, minimal style of the facility, is cluttered with children's toys, furnishings, and accents, and you get the vibe that the boys are allowed around eachother often, the entire feel is more casual, and considering the number of tables in the dining room, you can also safely assume that there are many more inhabitants of the orphanage than just Enhypen themselves, meaning that it's more likely they share rooms

We know what the outside of the mansion looks like, but we don't have as definitive of a space for the facility

Wile the tower in the snapshot is a bit different in shape from the ruins, they're similar enough, and the landscape is notably perfect for a facility containing baby vampires- a barren desert devoid of the one thing they need most (blood) and full of the one thing that can most harm them (sunlight), it would be like keeping Superman in a chamber beneath the red sun surrounded by kryptonite, there's very little chance of them escaping

There's also something particularly strange about the ruins, in that there's a LADDER hanging off of one side leading to the top of the facility

The entire set up reminds me of the vampire facility in True Blood, and I wouldn't be surprised if the facility had this peculiar setup to make it even more difficult on the boys to possibly escape, I wouldn't even be surprised if these ruins are only a small portion of what's been left, maybe the original facility was a little in tune with the building from the snapshots before whatever happened to it... happened

There's also some other things I want to point out with this line of thought-

Sunghoon is kept in a room filled with orange light at one point, sitting on the edge of a bathtub-?- when his hand catches on fire

Some have theorized that this is Sunghoon's power, just like other boys have the power to levitate, hypnotize, and teleport, but what if that isn't it? What if that was the facility testing him in a room full of manufactured sunlight to see if he indeed burns in the sun? True Blood, again, has a similar theme (and it wouldn't be unusual for HYBE to draw influences from other popular media, what with TXT's frequent Harry Potter references)

Additionally, could this be in part about their escape from the facility? We see the boys make a running motion as though they're trying to get away, only to stop

We see something almost exactly the same in "Fever", but this time they succeed in seeming to go through the door to their freedom

I also wonder if the Victorian style clothing vs the French Roccoco style clothing is meant to show that there was a large gap between the time they were originally imprisoned and the time they got out?

This also fits with "Drunk Dazed", we see the mystery woman before the boys, still in their Rococo style clothes, performing a "ritual of blood" by pouring blood into the fountain, could the boys have been rescued, found, or "adopted" by **real** vampires after their, probable, human experiments? If the French Rococo style represents the boys during their escape period, this could make senses, and could also serve to explain, to a degree, their blood festivities in the first place

This doesn't make alot of sense though in terms of timing as the Victorian era is around two hundred years *after* the French Rococo period, so unless it's symbolic....

But I've wondered about the weird contrast between the boys being experimented into vampirism vs being turned naturally, as the mystery woman seems to heavily implicate that she herself is a vampire and that she's showing the boys a "natural" ritual, something that's part of the vampire community/species/way of life, but this is a giant contrast to the more clinical, experimentation vibe of what the boys had been going through in their orphanage/facility days; I'm reminded again of True Blood here, as well as "Bitten", "Servamp" (the manga), and plenty of others where the older, stronger vampires (or werewolves) free the younger ones from human captivity

Things I still haven't figured out or that I find most notable:

-Jungwon seems seperated from the others the most here, he's the one at the beginning with the nosebleed and the one catching on fire- something that doesn't happen to any of the other boys- and in one of the flashbacks he's the one standing outside of the orphanage banging on the window as the others go about their routines, and in “Fever” he’s the one left behind/last in line when everyone is running towards the door, he seems to be the "main" charector in Given/Taken, as he's the last one on screen revealing what everyone suspected: that they're vampires; he's also the one with teleportation, most prominantely seen in Drunk/Dazed, flittering around outside the room where Sunoo is pouring his blood into his glass and coming in between the two groups of three who, according again to Laina Sunflower, seem to be at odds with eachother

-Sunoo is also the one seen to be biting (or attempting to bite) Jungwon, this could be a really interesting nod to their relationship, the two seem to be connected in a special way (is this why Jungwon is outside Sunoo’s room in Drunk/Dazed, flittering around anxiously as though he’s not sure what to do with himself or isn’t sure what to do about something that’s bothering him?) Could Sunoo have been responsible for turning Jungwon, or maybe completing his transformation? Or even just feeding off of him, wich, in some lore, creates a special bond between two vampires?

-Speaking of Drunk/Dazed, we see the mansion reappear during their first "bloody birthday party"- when there was only one candle on the cake- does this mean that they celebrated their life as vampires before being transferred to the facility? Were they vampires for a fair amount of time- several months or maybe even a year or two- before being taken away?

-Why are they immitating firing arrows? They don't seem to be *actually* doing this, just mimicking it, why expose themselves to the sun just for something symbolic? Is it a repetition of something they've done before? Did they originally destroy the facility themselves? Or it it something else..?

If anyone has any ideas definitely let me know, HYBE is my new favorite thing for theorizing!

[amarriageoftrueminds]

Please Please Please explain the teacup and what does it symbolize when it shatters and comes back together. Is the teacup will's transformation or will/hannibal relationship? 3 seasons in i'm still unsure what the teacup is all about. Does abigail have anything to do with the teacup? Thanks <33

Simply put, the shattered teacup coming back together represents the reversal of time.

It’s to do with Stephen Hawking’s theory (which even he dismisses as science-fiction) that the universe, which is currently expanding, will one day instead begin to contract, meaning time itself will reverse. 

Hannibal wants time to reverse, because that would mean his sister Mischa can come back to life. That’s why he said he drops a teacup to watch it shatter on the floor, and is not satisfied when it doesn’t gather itself up again. This is because it means the universe isn’t contracting yet, time isn’t reversing, therefore Mischa isn’t coming back from the dead. 

The first mention of teacups came in the Pilot where Hannibal compared Will to one - which, when I think about it, is astonishing. When you realise that, to him, the image of the teacup has enormous personal significance. He wasn’t even on first-name terms with Will yet he was already blurting out teacup analogies at him? Boy fell hard.

Anyway, the first time we saw a teacup was when a shroom-trippin’ Abigail dropped one on the floor of Hannibal’s kitchen, which I assume was a signal to book-canon savvy folks that Abigail was Hannibal’s latest Mischa-substitute. 

That idea was cemented in season 2 when Hannibal actually told Will about his little teacup-dropping ritual, and mentioned Mischa and Abigail in the same breath. 

“Occasionally I drop a teacup to shatter on the floor, on purpose. I’m not satisfied when it doesn’t gather itself up again. Some day, perhaps, a cup will come together.”

Then he looks right at Will and we get this:

The teacup as a symbol for the reversal of time had been expanded to include Will. 

Similarly, when Will looked to be in danger of becoming an actual biological father, Hannibal told him:

“Should the universe contract, should time reverse and teacups come together, a place could be made for Abigail in your world.”

Meaning?

Well, Hannibal was signalling to Will that time was going to reverse - Hannibal was going to surprise him by staging a time-reversal for him, bringing Abigail (his Mischa) back from the dead, the way he wishes he could revive his dead sister. 

He explained that to Will just after he stabbed him:

“Time did reverse. The teacup that I shattered did come together. A place was made for Abigail in your world. Do you understand? A place was made for all of us, together. I wanted to surprise you. But you… you wanted to surprise me…”

.

Then, in season 3, when Will is stuck in a trauma-loop and keeps reliving moments from Mizumono, deluding himself that Abigail is still alive, we see a broken teacup coming back together (because he is reversing and replaying time in his head; he’s indulging the fantasy he was living as a murder husband with Hannibal; the world in which it is physically possible for time to reverse.)

That re-gathered teacup stayed whole right up until Digestivo, when Will finally stopped living in the past, stopped romanticising his relationship with Hannibal and pretending that they can recapture what was lost. 

This is signalled by the image of a teacup breaking, and staying broken, inside Will’s head, as he lies sleeping in his bed in Wolf Trap, Virginia.

Then, of course, he wakes up, and finds Hannibal’s notebook beside him, full of equations which Hannibal has written - as Bryan Fuller told us on Twitter:

And because these two are ridiculously attuned to each other, Hannibal sits down and immediately starts talking about teacups and time and the rules of disorder. 

He’s newly in love with Will again, he wants the teacup to be whole (at this point time reversing is like a metaphor for them getting back together).

But Will doesn’t. Will sees that the teacup is shattered, and he thinks it - and they - should remain broken up. 

( This is different to how it is in the books. In the books, my understanding is that Clarice helps Hannibal reconcile himself to the idea that Mischa is really gone, forever, but lives on inside him. Therefore, whenever he drops a teacup he is actually content to watch it not gather itself back together, because it doesn’t matter to him any more that time isn’t reversing. )

.

If Will and Hannibal were to reunite, now, I imagine we’d see some re-gathering teacup imagery or have some teacup reference in the dialogue. 

For a long time I’ve thought that kintsukuroi would be the perfect metaphor - for not only their scars, but for them getting back together:

For the shattered teacup to come back together not because time has reversed but because they made it. That would be a more realistic, healthy view of things.

As Leonard Cohen sang, ‘forget your perfect offering, there is a crack, a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in.’

.

Hope that clears up the confusion for you, Anon!

[rainstormcolors]

Jonouchi’s instinct to dive into the ocean after Yugi’s cards feels indicative of deeper things within him to me. There are two layers here.

Jonouchi throws himself headfirst into things and throws himself into acts for the benefits of others because he needs to be useful. And this stems from the neglect of his home life. Jonouchi was affection-starved and he’s hungry for attention. And he needs to feel useful or otherwise he’s useless. He loves his friends of course but diving into the water for Yugi’s cards was reckless. And yet this instinct may have bloomed in part from Jonouchi’s poor esteem—that impulse, that feeling that those cards were worth more than his risked life.

The other layer is that what Haga does to Yugi’s cards is a mirror to what Jonouchi had done with Yugi’s puzzle piece, tossing them away like trash and hurting Yugi. Jonouchi probably carries guilt for how he treated Yugi in the past, and watching Yugi’s cards be tossed into water hit too close to home. Jonouchi’s impulse may have been the desire for atonement, out of guilt for how he’s hurt Yugi.

[wolvesofinnistrad]

So let me get this straight, no pun intended.  We’ve now had TK (a canon gay character) think Buck was flirting with him, Josh (another openly gay character) imply that he almost thinks Maddie is trying to set him and Buck up (which no one denies being because Buck isn’t Bi), Buck mistake Maddie talking about Chimney because he was going on about how hot/cute Eddie is, The Christmas Elf think that Buck and Eddie were boyfriends, the Livechat of that one ep thinking Buck and Eddie were a cute couple, as well as the iconic lines “There’s no one I trust more with my Son” “You dont find love like that you make it” “You ready to go for the title?” “I’m not really a guest” AND the song choice ending with talking about coming home to you and then having Eddie show up at Buck’s door, and that’s not to mention all the coparenting Buck does or the flirty looks and cinematography that paints Buck and Eddie in a romantic light all the time, or the lawsuit fight being treated like a break up, or the way Buck looked like he might die when Eddie was buried underground or Hen’s “And Buck invites Eddie” line or so many more things.  All of this and they expect us to think that Evan Buck Buckley is straight and not in love with interested Eddie Diaz?

[asagimeta]

I think what's weirdest is that like. if CHAOS was cut short, then... I would assume that it would have ended on a season of witch hunters led by Ms. Wardwell (and I don't know if they could've done the same sort of final season that Teen Wolf did better or not). That they only changed the final moments to Sabrina's death instead of keeping her alive and simply dropping whatever "bait" there was for followup IS disheartening, I agree

With the understanding that I know very little BTS stuff regarding Sabrina, we do know what season five was supposed to be, and I actually wonder if that’s part of what got it axed

We know that Roberto is going to continue CAOS in comic book form with what his plan for season five was- wich was “Witch Wars” and about Sabrina + co battling “the witches of Riverdale”, I find that... really interesting, because wile I don’t think anyone would have been surprised at a crossover, I’m pretty sure everyone was surprised to hear the crossover was meant to be the core of an entire season and not just a small wink-and-nod in one episode or two

Remember that Riverdale has always steered away from the supernatural, even though it often flirts with it, and even if Riverdale as a series kept away from it.... for Sabrina to have an entire season with this theme, there’d have to be aloooooot of cooperation between both the CW and the Riverdale writers

Cooperation that may not have been in the cards

At the very least, Riverdale would have had to lend it’s charectors to Netflix for what I can’t possibly believe would be less than half a season (4-5 episodes), wich is already asking quite a bit, because as the Arrowverse crossovers have mentioned repeatedly, it’s hard enough to create lengthy- or even cameo- crossovers on shows that share a network (I remember during Crisis, the writers talking about how immensely straining it was on everyone involved, from the writers to the cast to the crew, and why downsizing future crossovers would be a releif) but to arrange a crossover with a different network... that’s got to be a logistical eldritch horror all on it’s own

When you couple that with a crossover that would change one show’s entire canon (introducing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the supernatural to Riverdale, and in a way so significant that the main charectors of the show would be deeply involved in it- as the cover of “Witch Wars” directly features Archie and the gang meeting up with Sabrina), I would imagine that would be asking for alot of stars to align really perfectly... and then the pandemic happened and all of the stars were promptly scattered, as Riverdale it’s self has had to undergo some changes due to the pandemic, and I imagine that would make it nearly impossible to do the crossover at all, as timing, remember, would have to work out perfectly, not only for filming (Archie and co can’t be lent to Netflix wile filming Riverdale, after all, Sabrina would have to be filmed probably during the off season) but also for the story, as I’d imagine that a change that significant would have to be craddled in a very specific spot in Riverdale’s storyline

What I’m getting at is this: The crossover quite probably was axed before it even got out of the doorway, and when Netflix got word of that, they probably decided to go on and cancel Sabrina rather than let Roberto come up with something else (or Roberto was insistant on the crossover and wouldn’t let go, but I tend to doubt that more as he runs so many shows that I don’t think he would be that hard to work with) also considering that Sabrina was at the “four limit capacity”- that unspoken rule of Netflix’s where everything has to be cancelled by season four (*eye roll*) unless you’re Stranger Things- so they just felt the timing was right

Or maybe I’m completely off and it was ratings or something, you never can tell about this shit

But anyway, my point is, I’m not so sure witch hunters would have been the bait they were using, I think it was more likely that they planned to introduce a very large Riverdale Easter egg to introduce the next season, wich... I can understand why they didn’t do that, but it feels like their replacement ending was really sloppy

Keirnan Shipka said that they had four different endings written, I find it really hard to believe that this was the only one they had in mind that would work with a cancellation, and I have to wonder if perhaps the writers were just irritated with being cancelled- wich is understandable- and went with the least impressive ending as a sort of “just getting it out of the way” type of a thing

I do wonder what their plans for Miss Wardwell ultimately were though, she’s one of the most interesting charectors in my opinion, because she’s had such a fascinating journey and I couldn’t have predicted where she ultimately ended up, it’d be something if she had ended up being the ultimate Big Bad, given another two or three seasons, and Sabrina was kept as something more intimate villain wise, like, yes she defeated Lucifer and Eldritch terrors and witches from another city but it’s the smalltime antagonist she never paid much attention to that ultimately proves to be the most difficult to overcome, that would have been really cool, and I think Sabrina had the capacity to do better than Teen Wolf with the witch hunter plot personally, because I think Sabrina’s shorter, more intimate seasons were more primed for that type of plot to really thrive

It’d be nice if CAOS could get picked up at some point, Netflix has a monopoly on it for I think three years, but if Riverdale keeps being so successfull, maybe the CW will pick it up like they’re doing with alot of DC’s shows...

I’d still love to see the witch war season on screen at some point

[asagimeta]

The Irresponsibility Of Sabrina’s Ending

Ya’ll I deadass am hopping on my computer before I leave because I’m so angry about this that I can’t hope to survive the day until I release it into the void of the internet

Spoilers ahead!

As if Sabrina’s death wasn’t bad enough- and trust me, it is, because these days you can’t end a series without killing off a/the main charector, and it would have been refreshing for Sabrina to buck that trend, especially because the show often took the unexpected route of it’s tropes and expected plotlines, and because it would have been perhaps the ultimate feminist message for Sabrina to survive the unsurvivable thanks to the worship of Hecate- the death of Nick is what I’m particularly angry about

Not because I don’t ship Nabrina, and not because I have any particular feelings on Nick- to be perfectly honest, I’m pretty neutral on both, I’d be equally happy with a Nabrina ending as one where Sabrina was single or with someone new or... really anything, I’m glad she had love in any regard though- but because once a-fucking-gain teen suicide is glorified

Like... is Romeo & Juliet really not enough? In today’s society when teen suicide rates are going up year after year, mental illness is at a high, and we know for a fact that teenagers take romanticized relationships at their surface and try to copy them/seek them out, are they really saying “The best ending is to kill yourself when your girlfreind dies”???

It’s just so... so.... rotten....

The biggest problem by FAR isn’t even that any show does this- it’s that SABRINA does this, specifically

Like, Riverdale would have been bad enough, but atleast it’s... Riverdale, and responsibility has never exactly been in the tagline (and before you come after me I’m a huge Riverdale fan), but this isn’t Riverdale, it’s Sabrina, it’s the show that drove home to it’s core not only season after season, but as one of the main progressive plotlines of the show that it’s important to be responsible as a society

It’s important to be feminist, it’s important to spread messages of empowerment to women, to LGBTQ+ people, to beat fascism and not only be not fascist but anti-fascist, it’s important to fight for yourself, it’s important to love yourself (in perhaps the best way I’ve ever seen this portrayed to be honest) all of these things are IMPORTANT- not just in the world of Sabrina, but to Sabrina as a person

And you cannot tell me that Sabrina Spellman would ever be in support of portraying a message to thousands of teenagers that you’ll get a happy ending if you kill yourself to be with your true love instead of trying to move on, or even waiting until you see them again naturally having lived a full life, or even trying to bring that true love back, suicide shouldn’t even be on the table as an option and yet this is really the ending they went with huh?

I cannot fathom how CAOS spent four seasons hammering home with a SLEDGEHAMMER that social responsibility is important- especially to teenagers- and yet in the last two minutes provided THE most socially irresponsible message of them all, this is just as bad as if Blackwood had won- because it’s portraying a message that your average teenager can take into their own hands and act on, it’s not Cthulu or making a duplicate of yourself or fighting the king of hell, it’s picking up a belt or a razor or a bottle of pills and doing something that ALOT of teenagers are already considering doing

And perhaps WORST of all is the timing

2020, the year filled to the BRIM with death and depression and personal tragedies, wherein mental illness and suicide rates are at a MASSIVE high because of these things already, is really the year you’re going to tell teenagers that suicide will bring you peace and happiness huh?

Like, this is such an enormously toxic combination of bad that I can’t even process it and I’m actually really saddened that after a quick Google search I only found one article that’s as upset about this as I am

There are other bad things about the finale`- Sabrina’s death, as I mentioned, wich just feels monumentally overplayed and lazy, Zelda being alone, the plothole with “Marie’s” magic shaker never getting used when it really, REALLY could have been to bring Sabrina back, etc- and it’s especially disheartening because season four is by FAR my FAVORITE season- it’s magnificent in all the best ways right up until the last episode and I wanted so badly to be hyped up for starting 2021 on the best note and letting CAOS wash out the bad taste Supernatural’s finale` left me with... but the thing is this-

You can totally disagree about Sabrina’s death, about Zelda, about anything and everything about the last episode or the last season, that’s all opinion and everyone’s free to it, but the part that isn’t opinion- the part no one can reasonably disagree about- is that portraying a teenager committing suicide as ROMANTIC and a HAPPY ENDING is an absolutely horrendously irresponsible thing to do- especially for a show aimed at teenagers, and that’s spent it’s entire history trying to portray positive messages

My heart is broken and I’m going to go drown my sorrows by remembering that Yuri On Ice exists so there’s exactly one show in existance that portrays mental illness well, bye

[adventures-in-poor-planning]

watching the avatar ep where zhao is too pissed off by aang’s affronts to his dignity to notice that he is literally burning down his boats around him.

that seems to be a big thing in the series, that fun and laughter are important and getting caught up in your own dignity makes you … brittle. 

zuko’s so obsessed with regaining his honour that every embarrassment or failure hits him hard. zhao’s so intent on his image that he destroys his own tactical advantages when it’s threatened. and ozai … well, ozai cares so much about his dignity that when his son “threatens” it in even the slightest way, he burns half his face off.

meanwhile, aang is off embarrassing himself like three times an episode and not giving a shit.

[all-inmoderation]

Remember that time Aang went to a Fire Nation school and the teacher was like, “what’s your name? Or should we call you mannerless colony slob?” and Aang just laughed good naturedly and said “just slob is fine,”? Because I do, I think about it a lot. The way he lets insults roll off his shoulders and has such a strong sense of self-assurance speaks volumes about his maturity, I think. It is this that Zhao, Zuko, and Ozai lacked in themselves and also what made Aang so charming as a protagonist to me.

[ibenology]

Dean died working one of John’s unfinished cases. After 15 years of character development, his life ended being daddy’s little soldier.

I am crushed

[tinkdw]

This makes it so much worse.

It’s like they meant for it to mean this, they meant to say the abused boy can’t ever get out even when he’s found a way out, when someone tells him he deserves to be out and he finally accepts it, he will never escape.

Fuck them.

[aro-as-in-straight-as-a]

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but like. I do not find comfort in Dean going to heaven.

I’ve had suicidal depression for seven years, and one of the things that always made me feel more like giving it a go were because at the time i was very christian (protestant, not catholic) and i felt sure that i could go to heaven and all of my pain would go away. The only thing that would snap me out of it was the fear that I’d go to hell instead.

Dean Winchester having peace in Heaven is not a happy ending. It’s just not. Its what people say at funerals for their loved ones trying to console themselves, saying “oh they’re in a better place now, it’s okay.”

Even had Dean not previously expressed extreme contempt at Heaven previously in the series, I would be full of rage. Even if Dean hadn’t been inclined to suicide (which, considering his frequent reaction to choose to sacrifice himself when other options are available, he absolutely fucking was), I would have still been furious.

Heaven is not and never will be a happy ending. And their claim that it is is deeply, deeply fucked up.

I don’t even think having a montage where they grow old and end up in heaven is happy. We can assume this happens, it doesn’t need to be said. By saying it, you are contributing to that same insidious narrative that the only true happiness can be found in death. That all of your life didn’t matter; that it WASN’T about the journey, just the destination.

You can find comfort in heaven. No one is saying you can’t. But not like this. Never, ever like this.

Dean Winchester had just found a reason to live, after decades of throwing himself on the grenade, and they killed him. That is unforgivable.

[nealcassatiel]

With everything coming out, it's becoming increasingly clear that in the end the Winchesters lost their final fight. Like, Chuck is the CW and in the end, he/they got the ending they always wanted. Where the Winchesters/cast and crew of the show lost their fight. Like, this is the most meta shit I have ever seen with any show ever. It's utterly depressing and heartbreaking to think that TFW lost in the end.

Yep, for sure. The more I think about it, the more obvious it is that this isn’t the writers. And I have literally experienced this myself. It has literally happened to ME. I think because I’ve been watching Supernatural since I was basically a kid, I forget that I’m an actual adult who works in TV now. 

So, let’s say “a friend” and their colleague were developing a show with a writer. I’ll imagine that I’m that “friend”.  We worked for weeks with the writer making the show have complex layers and fleshed out characters, and ultimately the central premise of the show was a love story. It was about how in this strange world, these two characters were fighting against their fears and doubts about their reality so that they could be in love. The Exec, an old white man, would half-listen in when us and the writer would go through the story and nod and listen and go yep keep going and then leaving the room. The Exec comes in one day, having watched a show the night before that was doing well with ratings and on the call that day with the writer said ‘the show needs to be about this big exciting conspiracy - the love story isn’t what matters’. He tore up all the work and told us we weren’t seeing the show correctly, and we just couldn't argue with him. That was months and months of work that we and the writers had to tear up. We tried to rewrite it all, and finally gave him something he was now happy with, but it didn't make sense. The nuance and the complexity was gone for the sake of simple and action-filled plot. The character intentions no longer made sense and it was just disheartening. This happened all the time. The creative team would make something amazing and beautiful, and the old exec would say ‘nah that won't sell. you need more nakedness, more sex, more action, don’t be so liberal.’ Production companies are run by old white guys who sell shows to old white guys who work for broadcasters and SVODs which get their revenue from advertising companies run by old white guys. 

I was shocked when I watched the finale and saw a complex and nuanced story destroyed, but if I remember that I’m not just a fan of TV any more but an adult with experience working in the industry, I don’t know why I'm shocked. Par for the fucking course. 

[mittensmorgul]

You know, I find it REALLY interesting that a shot they used in a lot of promo for the finale was that final shot of 2.18 Hollywood Babylon that had Sam and Dean walking toward a sunset, but the illusion is broken when the painted backdrop is moved aside for them to pass into the grey reality of the film studio sets.

Even going back to s2, the show itself had begun taking shots at the corporate nature of television storytelling. It was revealed in interviews that EVERY suggestion the nitwit movie exec who “ruined the integrity” of the original script had been actual notes that the creators of Supernatural had received from corporate. And even when he learned the truth, that ghosts were real, he only took as much from that experience he could use to make HIS version of the script more authentic for fun and profit.

And they weren’t done with that theme in s2, either. They doubled down on this message in s6, with The French Mistake, which has been referenced multiple times in Dabb era even through the basic narrative themes of “alternate universes” explored in canon. And in that alternate universe where their lives were a television show, there was no real “magic.” It was all just a product that “not very many people” even watched. So also take this how you will.

The show has ALWAYS had this struggle with the higher ups, and I can’t imagine it became easier in Dabb Era, where fundamental character growth and transformation and the overthrow of the entire original narrative were being explored as the central themes running through an entre era of the show.

[tinkdw]