I’m enjoying it a lot! It’s the first book in awhile I’m looking forward to!
It definitely keeps you on your toes with what could be happening and to me nothing is too obvious. I haven’t figured it out myself yet and true crime/mysteries are my thing lol
Could be I’m just enjoying it and not trying to solve it myself though, but I think it’s a great addition to the playchoices library.
This. And I always feel so guilty when I can’t keep up with either. Cause I wanna support my friends and leave feedback and all that but I also really wanna work on my stuff. Sigh.
You could switch Sophie with Madison in all of the episodes after the wedding and it wouldn’t change anything 😬
I think it would. It would show that Kevin’s development into who he is at the end of the series mattered. He wanted to be a father with a family providing for them and what he got wasn’t that. The build up to Madison and Kevin makes more sense and feels way more natural than Kevin suddenly after six years deciding AGAIN that Sophie is the one.
If I was Sophie I’d be hella pissed with the back and forth.
Plus it seems like Madison/Kevin were the back up plan to Sophie and Kevin and that’s why I think all of her scenes are so short and clipped - they only had so much time with her to film. The actress is in another tv series. She’s barely registering as a character imo. But with Madison there would be a continuous relationship, scenes of them in each others lives for years before Kates wedding (where Sophie is miraculously on her second divorce and is still forever in love with Kevin) and certain scenes, I think filmed before Sophie’s actress became available show what was supposed to be.
I also think there would have been more time to shoot longer more meaningful scenes with Madison as the wife 1. The actress isn’t contracted to another show so they can shoot longer. 2. Madison has been front and center to Rebecca getting sick so she’s seen it from the beginning.
Being there for Kate and Kevin and how seen how it’s affected the whole family especially after so many lines in the series alluded to her being apart of the family. After Kevin blew up on her at the hospital when Kate was giving birth and her saying she wasn’t family, to her becoming pregnant by Kevin and literally being apart of the family. Hell, Randall even told her she was apart of the family and them being there for her wasn’t weird or odd when she was giving birth while waiting for Kevin. Kevin also proposed TWICE. (He doesn’t seem like the type to just do that especially S5 Kevin. Maybe S3 Kevin but not S5 Kevin.) That was emphasized way before she even got pregnant and I always found that scene to be foreshadowing and it was.
I just feel like it’s more impactful that’s she’s been there from the jump than Sophie who has been out of their lives for years and is shoved back into the family six years into Rebecca’s illness. Idk but Sophie feels like an after thought.
Even the scene where Kevin tells Madison he’s taking her off as his emergency contact seems like there’s pieces missing like it was too big of a build up to be just that conversation. Since S5 the build up of Kevison was there and obvious and suddenly there’s an Elijah and Madison accepts his proposal after six months - a man that’s barely on screen when she literally almost jumped into a wedding just months before????
Even the flash forward we got in S5 I believe where Madison tells Kevin she told him “12 times” no boys allowed was acted and shot to show how close, friendly and intimate they were with each other. The way she walked up to him is not a way a married woman with a new baby would walk up to the man who just happened to father her children and wasn’t in love with her.
There’s an obvious shift in S6 regarding Kevin/Madison and I believe for some god awful reason the writers or maybe just Dan wanted everyone watching to believe Sophie was always it.
I just don’t buy it.
At all.
Sorry if this all over the place my brain just vomited words.
I would love to read a fix it fic where it follows the same plot as what’s canon in S6 except Sophie and Kevin never get together and it’s Kevin and Madison as end game.
If you place a portal on a surface, and then that surface moves, the portal immediately closes. A good example of this is one of the last test chambers in the first game. There is a surface that, upon a button press, is tilted upwards at an angle. If you place a portal there and THEN hit the button, the portal disappears.
The ONE, SINGULAR EXCEPTION to this has been in Portal 2 when you are deactivating the neurotoxin generator. But it is fair to assume in all other cases a portal would not be allowed to move.
I will grant you that it may just be the limitations of it Being a Video Game. But there is no more concrete evidence to suggest they could move in reality than there is to suggest they couldn’t.
Bruce Willis is my favorite actor and Unbreakable is my favorite movie. I’m sending good vibes to him and his family. I’m so crushed by the news of his health deteriorating and his retirement but hope he gets well.
Honestly curious for my Dragon Age stans out there. Is there a character that you don’t want to see in DA4?
Not like to cut them out completely or because you don’t like that character, but to retire them? Like you just want them to live their life?
Mine would have to be Morrigan and possibly Leliana (depending on if she’s the Divine or not).
Better yet, is there a supporting character that you want brought in as a companion? Say Rylen and Krem? :D
Edit: Of course I’d love to hear which companions you’d like to be brought back. I realize that I didn’t add this in until seeing peoples tags! But it’s been great seeing peoples responses!
if u dont acknowledge the fanfics u read, the writer won’t think anyone is actually taking the time to read their stuff, which makes our effort feel wasted and our passions feel worthless
ngl I'm losing hope :'( are you still confident that they're endgame?
Aww anon, how come? There is absolutely nothing in the narrative that shows that they aren't endgame! In fact, every episode is solidifying even more that they are!
Let me alleviate your concerns!
6.01 The Challenger
we were introduced to a Kevin who believes that he's been jilted at the altar when this is clearly not the case. Reminder that jilted means that a lover's bride-to-be left them hanging at the altar. Kevin seems to think that Madison left him for other reasons apart from them loving each other when in actuality Kevin couldn't say ILY to her and that's why Madison stopped it (and called him out on the ep itself).
we met Elijah, Kevin's romantic rival. Yes, ro.man.tic. Not (step)father to the twins as others say, but romantic. This was clear through Kevin's green-eyed monster wanting to erase Elijah's existence altogether. And Kevin has been actively trying to delete him from the narrative until Cassidy put some sense into him. But we'll get into that later.
Kevin's defence mechanism a.k.a. his way of protecting himself from getting hurt, is to not acknowledge his true feelings about what's going on and to find a way to get out of it. We saw this in little Kevin when he chose to focus on mac and cheese or popcorn even though later on we realise just how detrimental the impact of the disaster was to his life. Cue pilot episode with his speech.
This was specifically paralleled with Kevin's inability to accept that Madison is trying to move on from him. Because he was hurt by that fact, what does he do? He moves away. On the same night, damn it!
6.03 Four Fathers
Kevin cannot see his family without Madison. "This was gonna be us... me, Madison, the two kids. A square. A solid unit." Till now, he still cannot grasp the idea of a family without Madison. Let's unpack this with Toby's argument:
"I think kids would much rather have parents who are happy than parents who are together."
"Yeah, but I'm not happy."
Apart from this speech being more of a foreshadowing of KaToby's doom, it also reinforces the fact that Kevin is happy when he is with Madison. Remember that Toby tried to argue about parents who "can't stand each other" and not just about being a family. Kevin makes a face at that because he knows that that's not true about him and Madison. He then follows this up with the above line about being happy.
Toby tries to make Kevin see a silver lining in not being together by telling him to build a solid triangle unit with him, Nick and Franny and what does Kevin do? Laugh it off in its absurdity. His line to Toby? "The hell are you talking about right now, man?"
This episode reinforced that 1. Kevin is unhappy without Madison and 2. he cannot stand the idea of his family without her and thinks that any other alternative is absurd.
6.05 Heart and Soul
Kevin's still jealous and still cannot stand Elijah. He only tries to be nice to him because Madison makes him but we all know if he had his way, he'll ignore his existence forever.
Kevin tries to connect with Cassidy romantically after seeing Nicky and Edie and hearing about their meet-cute story, which is just another addition to his already being hurt with seeing Madison try to move on romantically from him.
When Kevin tells Cassidy that she's just "scared" about connecting with him, Cassidy talks about the logistics of a relationship between them and how that couldn't work (both living on the opposite sides of the country) and how their "inner darkness" is not the same and they could never truly share that with one another. This conversation, apart from her saying "leave me in peace" closes any romantic possibility between them (not that there ever truly was in the narrative).
"You are chasing the wrong blonde in the wrong city." Now, others may think that this means Cassidy herself or Sophie or Madison, but the next lines prove that this was all about Madison because when Kevin says "I'm not even sure which blonde you're talking about..." Cassidy laughs and says, "Can't you see how that's a problem?"
When Cassidy said that line, she already knew which woman she was talking about. Madison. And this was again reinforced when she lists out Kevin's 20-year destructive romantic hailstorm and specifically notes his two most significant relationships: Sophie and how he completely destroyed that by cheating, and Madison, the "current one" whom he "couldn't say I love you to. But now [he's] obsessed with hating the new boyfriend." Note her referring to Madison as "the current one" that he needs to make right with.
Cassidy tells Kevin to "be careful" before he blows this one up because she knows that it's Madison that Kevin actually wants to be with, but if he doesn't overcome his fear and his running away defence mechanism, then he's going to truly blow it up and he'll never get his rom-com love story happily ever after.
At the end of the episode, Kevin calls Elijah and talks to him about how to take care of Madison. Here is where we're given two very important things of note: 1. Kevin knowing about Madison's inner darkness, how both of them share it, how he understands it and how he knows how to both handle it and take care of her, and 2. Kevin's true love and care for Madison.
Now, you can argue that this was not actually love, it's just Kevin being naturally caring, but Elijah's line sets it all straight that yes, this is definitely about Kevin's romantic feelings for Madison. How? Because Elijah says, "You called just to tell me that?" Elijah's actually surprised, taken aback, at the idea of Kevin going out of his way to not just talk about Madison but how to take care of her. We'll see even more evidence of this being about romantic rivalry between Elijah and Kevin in:
6.06 Our Little Island Girl part 2
WE OPEN UP IN SONG! (JUSTKIDDING)
Kevin takes Cassidy's advice about making things right with Madison by hosting brunches. The convo between Kate and Madison talks about him trying really hard. Maybe too hard:
"Kevin's trying to show that he's supportive that I'm dating."
"Yeah, I know. It's really cute when he tries to make it look natural."
Note the emboldened line. Kevin can't make it look natural because well, he just can't. He doesn't like it, but he has to do it because he knows that if he stuffs it up, Madison will be far too hurt for him to ever get that second chance with her. He can't ruin it so he "brunch and stuff"s it up.
I'll talk about the Thanksgiving debacle in a separate post, but in short, the whole argument between that wasn't about custody or whatever, it's about Kevin learning to put others' needs/wants before him.
When YA!Kevin didn't get what he wanted because him and Sophie were geographically and emotionally separated, he went and got it from someone else, thus destroying the relationship forever.
Adult Kevin was on the same boat again and Kate (finally) sets him straight. How can Kevin expect Madison to create traditions with him and his family and completely disregard Madison's own wants (as she heals from him) when it was his fault in the first place for not being able to say ILY to her?
Kate knew that if Kevin kept pushing Madison and she just gave in to all of his wants and needs, then Madison will forever be hurt in the process and her relationship with her will never be the same. Kate didn't want to lose her best friend, so she stepped up. And this provided the full circle moment between her and Sophie at the end with their exchange.
After the wake-up call, Kevin's extra ass goes all the way to Madison's just to tell her that it's okay for her to go and do whatever she wants for Thanksgiving. They flirt and be cute and they end on good terms about it all. Now, for the meaty part:
Elijah follows after Kevin and puffs his chest out a bit with a challenge for Kevin: "I hope you're not biding your time and playing nice because you think I'm going away. Because if you are, you're going to be waiting a long time."
Now, listen. Argue however way you want, but this line cannot be any clearer that they are head-to-head now about Madison romantically. It isn't about the kids because if it was, then Elijah would've acknowledged that and said something like, "You'll always be the kids dad", etc.
No, this was all about who gets to be Madison's endgame.
Since the last episode when Kevin called Elijah about just getting the smoothie for Madison, Elijah has noticed. He's aware of Kevin and Madison's bond with their children, yes, but he's also threatened enough by Kevin's presence in Madison's life as a romantic partner that he went out of his way to let Kevin know about his feelings for Madison and where he stands.
"Point taken," Kevin said. Because now everything's clear. If he's going to get Madison back, then he'll have to fight for her. And in the process, fight Elijah too. Not literally, but like, wouldn't that be a hoot! JKSS
Now, the trilogy episodes await us where Kevin's "coming of age" will finally come in its full glory. The one where Kevin spends time with what seems to be just the twins minus Madison at the cabin where he reflects and tries to prove his mettle as a father (and more, I'm sure since summaries are always so vague).
This is where the anchor drops, anon. This is where it all comes down to. Now that we've just proved these last six episodes that Kevin and Elijah are romantic rivals for Madison and that if Kevin were to get his second chance and have his happily ever after rom-com love story, then he will have to step up and fight for Madison in all of the "next level" romance that our girl deserves.
Note that in all this, we still haven't seen Madison's POV either. Everything's just been about what Kevin feels about the whole thing and setting up the stage of his fight to get her back. There's a reason for that, and we are going to see it all beautifully unfold in the last half of this season/series.
It's a journey, but the stage is set for their road to endgame, anon. And I'm not going to even apologise for how long this is haha!
