All The Things @everythingthatdidntfitelsewhere - Tumblr Blog

I just finished the ep., haven't digested it yet, but *shock face*

Raven and Echo remembering that they actually know each other? It's okay, I forgot too.

(Some) Themes being presented in a nuanced, organic manner rather than being told to us through some characters unnatural, choppy dialogue? That scene between Gabriel and Bill stole the episode.

Back to questionable use of dialogue though...the actress who plays Hope. Wow. What's often packed upon her is clearly a disservice if her chops at the end of that episode have always been underneath it. I suppose delivering exposition as genuine characterization isn't ever natural when your character often operates as a plot device intended to prop up the arc of others, but my god. It'd be misplaced coming out of just about anyone's mouth as far as I'm concerned after that last 10 seconds of the ep. Girl is a talent and she really got to show it off. The way she emoted *chef's kiss*. I teared up and I don't do that often.

Before I wrap this up, how about hiding in a compound circa season 2 but instead of Jasper, Monty, Milller, and Harper you have Murphy, Emori, Madi, and Indra? Yes please.

And then call me a sucker, but all it took to make Sheidheda mildly interesting was a return to visceral grounder lore. Those earth era vibes are real and that vintage Indra look also took me back. That being said, I shouldn't be more interested in that than going forward. Nostalgia only goes so far, and Wonkru's role in all of this is so frustrating that it's almost too annoying not to fast forward through.

#the 100 spoilers #the 100 #hope diyoza #john murphy #memori #raven reyes

When I'm sick I put on shows I have already seen so I can doze in and out but still be entertained. I started with late S2 of The 100 and oh boy. It occured to me today that this show has ultimately been a victim of the use of time, mainly when considering the story told versus the story shown when using time jumps. Now, time jumps aren't inherently bad or lazy writing. Take the two or three MONTHS between where S2 ends and S3 picks up. Now contrast that with the five YEAR time jump between S4 and S5, along with S6&7's increments in time dilation where characters have spent five to twenty years with or without each other in varying forms. It's obvious why the latter was a lot more challenging to pull off than the former and didn't land nearly as well when considering the rest of the way The 100 was structured.

Each season has us following our chracters over the course of a few weeks (give or take) in canon time. This is what we are shown and what we are connected to. Between S1-S4, we witness approximately three months out of a six month period in our characters lives in total. Already young adults prior to even meeting one another (if not well into adulthood in some cases), to jump five years literally makes that a blip in the radar. Their development off camera is realistically going to have been more meaningful, and we miss it all while separating the lead character through which we experience so much of the show. She knows no more than we do when you throw us all back together. Their dynamics from then on largely swing between feeling forced, played out, out of character, or just downright uninteresting. It would seem the show after season 5 became so plot driven out of necessity. Our characters and their relationships were no longer realistically entwined by more than proximity and a vague sense of obligagtion that proved to be naive when push really came to shove.

S7 has only underlined that for me with the rest of these spurts in time, each one just adding more and more to the distance between them. There is no chemistry between the characters at all, whether it's Raven and Clarke, Echo and Raven, Octavia and Bellamy, or Bellamy and Clarke. They never should have introduced one of these huge jumps, much less multiple. Even if they had done it all the same and kept Clarke with one of the groups prior to S5, it may have been better. Maybe they could have extended the initial time the group spent with one another between S1-S4 to match a larger time jump, it may have solidified their relationships to one another and our relationships to them. I donno. All I know is they feel like strangers to me and to one another and I miss the show I used to watch.

#the 100 #clarke griffin #raven reyes #bellamy blake #octavia blake

Just throwing this out there, but people don't seem to realize that storytelling within a television show is not like writing a book. By nature, a tv series is far more fluid or volatile due to the greater number of individual variables. The likelihood of circumstances unforseen from the beginning only increases the longer the series goes on for. Additionally, an author doesn't need to consider a budget when making story choices. Their characters are unreliant on an actor's willingness or ability to portray them. The story isn't the compilation of adjusting to life's curveballs on top of a writing team's script that is then processed through a director who captures various performances before sending it off to be edited into a final cut the studio approves of. That is just the price one pays for collaboration over singularity.

Anyways as I said, the longer a series goes on, the less likely it is that the ending reflects exactly what was planned or built towards from earlier seasons. If they're lucky, often times vague notions of how the series was foreseen to end may be present in the final cut, but often times not even that is the case. Go listen to Vince Gilligan talk about the writing of Breaking Bad, largely considered to be one of the best written shows ever, and it will put into perspective just how much luck is involved.

My point is that Bellarke, regardless of how the series ends, was supposed to be a thing at one point whether it actually happens or not. I myself believe that it was supposed to happen at the end of season 4, but something changed. It became less likely every season after that. If you listen to interviews, the season 6 finale was a hail mary gamble, but the finales for season 4 and season 5 were structured under the premise that they may not be approved for a new season. If bellarke wasn't made to happen then, it would seem it wasn't important for them to do so, and isn't something to blame only on Bob's absence in season 7 if it doesn't work out that way.

#the 100

I get the knee jerk reaction to Echo's decision to leave Orlando behind and kill his people. Morally, emotionally it doesn't feel good regardless of the rationale. However, come on people. What show have you been watching these last seven years that a character gets this much condemnation for that? No, it's not something the other characters have developed beyond fathoming. Less than a month ago in canon time, Clarke literally executed a man who was not only in complete submission, but solely responsible for the fact that her and Madi got out of Polis alive. Despite his initials orders to kill them, he became less than a threat. He visibly softened, expressing his devotion to the spirit of the Commanders (threat of Bloodreina be damned) as he dropped his weapon and kneeled in front of Madi, only for Clarke to put a bullet in his head. Clarke's response to Madi's horrified questioning wasn't even an attempt to rationalize it as anything more than the fact that he represented everything Clarke feared the most, not an ounce of strategy or necessity behind it.

Anyways like who you like, hate who you hate, I'm just saying. Not one of our favs is innocent and I would argue that to be one of the more glaring concepts to be explored and expanded on through each season.

#the 100 #echo kom spacekru #echo kom azgeda #clarke griffin #anti clarke griffin #but not really just tagging for the blacklisters more serious about it

I may be out to lunch... but Orlando is a "Level 12" disciple. I couldn't figure out why that stood out to me but then it was followed up by Hope's explanation that Level 12 has access to everything on Bardo and then I remembered season four. Twelve... as in the exact organizational structure of the Second Dawn followers? As in the level above eleven that one had to be to gain access to the true bunker and not the decoy, which ultimately ended up containing the sole grounder survivors of the nuclear apocolapse? The ones that encountered an A.L.I.E. 2.0 and nightblood toting Becca Pramheda upon her return to earth? The Becca Pramheda that was known as Becca Franco, the thread that conencts the origins of the Eligius crews, with the Ark and grounder culture, the creator of technology that both destroyed the world and then played such a hand in rebuilding it that more than one creation has been confirmd as an object of worship on two separate planets? What topped it off though is that when Gabriel walked in on Orlando praying, he said something to the effect of thank you to the shepherd for saving us from the fire on earth, seemingly in direct reference to all of this.

Shit is about to get crazy. Fuck the Sanctum storyline at this point I just want the anomaly.

#the 100 #becca pramheda #Earthkru #hope diyoza

In regards to Kat...

Euphoria, at it's core, is about addiction (hence the title), and addiction to drugs is only one facet of that.

Addiction: continuously engaging in a behavior or activity for the sake of obtaining pleasure or some sort of value despite negative consequences

I can't find the quote or I would put it in here and source it, but someone once said that us drug addicts are sometimes the lucky ones, because our lives get so obviously unmanageable, we engage in behaviors so outright risky and SOCIALLY FROWNED UPON that a lot of us figure out we're addicts at some point. Much of the population isn't so lucky. Everyone is addicted to something. Many go around engaging in more accepted, slower progressing, or subtly consequential addictive behavior that damages them just the same.

Here's the thing, I didn’t sit around idly chit chatting about the fire dope I got the day before to just anyone like my friend talks about his fourth Tinder date in as many days. People never patted me on the back for how strung out I looked like they did when my friend with bulimia started losing weight. We are introduced to Rue in Euphoria as the OBVIOUS addict like I was. Getting high. It's what she does. When experiencing emotions she doesn't wish to, she uses it to numb. When happy, she uses it to celebrate. When bored, she uses it to entertain herself. When she doesn't want to use, she uses. When it negatively impacts her relationships, her life as a whole, she continues to use. Through denial, she can ignore the severity, even at times asserting she's happy. The thing is, Rue isn't the only addict on this show. Here's how the other characters present as addicts, albeit in a much more insidious fashion.

Although maybe in an earlier stage with physical encounters compared to characters like Jules and Cal, Kat sees Ethan talking to the girl at the carnival and feels rejected. Rejection has been shown to be a massive theme in Kat's story. Where once she used to turn to the community she found online via fanfiction for a sense of acceptance to quell the sense of alienation/insecurity she experiences in her real life, she then progresses to underage camming when a video is posted online without her conesnt (drawn to the comments not all that different from those she once associated with her fanfics), and now she immediatly sets her eyes on sleeping with another man at the carnival. By doing so, she regains a sense of control, power, and receives that validation. In her third physical encounter, she ignores a distraught Maddy in favor of giving another adult stranger a blow job (or more accurately experiencing that sense of power and control again) despite being shown earlier in the series to be a friend people confide in. Does that behavior look familiar, maybe like when Lexi tries to reach out to Rue, a lifelong friend, and Rue brushes her off for inconviencing her drug use? It goes without saying that getting into these encounters with random, adult men is risky behavior, but how much different is that from Rue ingesting a substance of unknown origin?

As another example in this series, Maddy receives a sense of stability from her relationship with Nate after growing up in a troubled environment and seeing how much more Nate appears to offer her in comparison to what her father does for her mother. Despite Nate's abusive behavior, how much he hurts her, she continuously goes back. She'll love him no matter what he does to her per Rue's narration. She literally end ups in a police station being strapped down because of him, with her parents absolutely horrified, and yet texts him 200+ times. Abusive relationships are a common metaphor for drug addiction in recovery communities for a reason. Your best friend, your worst enrmy. Rue ends up in the hospital, only narrowly escaping death, and after seeing the impact her drug overdose has on her younger sister and mother, after landing in rehab, continues to use. She even tells herself she's happy, damn near skips out of the hospital. Seeing a trend here?

Cal and his hookup from the newest episode really displayed this point perfectly. He's a distraught man when he is talking in that hotel room. He knows what he has put Nate, his own child through by living this double life. Yet there he is, so what do you think he's going to do to blot it out in that moment? He tries to find the solution in the problem, getting his fix all over again, just like Rue. When overwhelmed by the state of her life, she just swallows another pill, snorts another line, downs another bottle, turning to the source of the mess she's in.

Even Rue herself has reycyled one addictive behaviour for another with Jules. The obsession, the dependence, it's all still there, but it's wrapped up in a person instead. I'm far too tired to continue this with characters like Jules, Nate, and Fez, but you get my point.

#euphoria #rue bennett #nate jacobs #cal jacobs #kat hernandez #maddy perez

As someone that has lived Rue’s story

And as someone really not that far removed from it despite how many lifetimes ago it seems, I can't say how weird it is to really "see myself" on screen for the first time.

It is so damn refreshing too see the topics of addiction and recovery through the lens of a young person tackled authentically. When I first heard about Euphoria, I was intrigued given how much I related to the premise, but years of disappointment had me hesitant. I've seen many shows over the years try to tackle these topics, only to fall flat and teeter between glamorizing or overdramatizing, often turning into a shortlived after school special ripped right from the D.A.R.E. curriculum or devolving into a beautiful tragedy. Despite the increased visibility of those in recovery over the last few years, many of the creators/writers/producers/advisors etc. brought onto these series had struggled with addiction as young people, but entered recovery well into their adulthood, therefore lacking experiences specific to entering recovery as a teen. Needless to say, when I heard Sam Levinson's life story, I got hopeful, and that hope seems to have been well placed. The man lived through this shit, and it shows.

Something I'm particularly loving is the depiction of Rue's relationship to Jules and the nuances of it all. For those unfamiliar, it's common in the rooms of Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous to be told not to enter into a new relationship in your first year of recovery. It's a suggestion commonly ignored by the younger and older alike, especially by those trying to get into recovery for the first time. Heartbreak is a pain pertinent to the human experience, but for a group of people lacking the tools to cope and the experience to recognize when they're in trouble, that emotional ruin has life or death implications. As dramatic as that may sound, relapse has never been more dangerous with the emergence of fentanyl.

Nonetheless, there are many good reasons why remaining forseeably single is recommended, some of which revolves around the tendency for those struggling with drug addiction to replace their substance of choice with a number of things, healthy or not. Rather than using their newfound free time to work on themselves and their recovery, they instead transfer their obsession to anything from food, to sex, shopping, or relationships. Where once they fixated on getting and using drugs, now they may mood alter and avoid pervasive feelings of boredom, hopelessness, loneliness, etc. by inserting themselves into a relationship. Often times the person they are dating will also be troubled in some way, so they will alternate between rescuing each other, forgetting about their own problems by trying to fix someone else's. Although it is normal to share your struggles with a partner and them walking beside you, that is much different than needing them to carry you and coming to rely upon that, as you never learn to stand on your own two feet in the event that person can no longer be there. If you are the person looking to be carried, you are putting far too much pressure on another person, not to mention selling yourself short. If you are the person doing the carrying, you are robbing that person of their independence

THIS IS TOXIC. THIS IS CODEPENCY. Toxicity in a relationship can be subtle and innocent, it doesn't have to be abusive or malicious. As a young person, I had it in my head that being saved by another person was what true love looked like, like Freddie and Effy in Skins. They did love each other, but they were also extremely codependent, and there is nothing healthy about that, and it's so cool to not only see that being explored on Euphoria, but not being romanticized by the creators and viewers alike.

Then there is Rue's friendship with Fez. God, does addiction ever have a way of twisting things up. That scene where she flips out on him, my heart broke for so many reasons, such an amazing perfomance of that desperation, but yes, I say friendship very purposely, because that is another nuance not often depicted. Drug dealer usually = bad person, addict usually = bad person. People often say you can't care about someone and _______ . In this case, that Fez can't possibly deal the drugs that are fueling Rue's addiction and really be a friend, or that Rue can't be funding the criminal behavior that may land him a lengthy jail sentence and really care about him. That's an easier reality to accept than that someone can both love you and hurt you, can do bad things and be a good person. In addiction, I hurt the people I loved one way or another every single day, and some days I could keep that shoved out of my mind, but other days it made me want to pull my own hair out. It's so cool to see that they're showing Fez is a good guy that legitimately cares for Rue despite the contradictory behavior leading up to him finally doing the most loving thing a person can possibly do: refusing to enable someone even if it means they hate you for it. I'm sure we can all agree Rue is better angry at him and alive than happy with him and dead.

But yeah, I mean there are some minor screw ups in Euphoria, like the fact that they're still using the terms OCs/Oxycontin (which is a brand name that hasn't been produced since 2010) in reference to oxycodone and not to fake, pressed pills often containing fentanyl. Also, the fentanyl storyline where Rue took it from Fez's supplier does not reflect the typical climate of fentanyl on the streets that is responsible for thousands upon thousands of overdose deaths the last few years if that was what they were going for. Rue took some gel from a patch, which is dangerous all the same, but pharmaceutical grade, making it marginally easier to dose. The stuff on the streets now isn't pharmaceutical grade, but created in a lab and then mixed by black market suppliers into powders, so no quality control on dosing whatsoever. It's so toxic that two grains of salt worth is enough to kill someone without a tolerance, hence the public health crisis.

That's just me being picky though, all and all I can't complain one bit!

#euphoria #zendaya #rue bennett #jules vaughn #hunter schafer #rules #sam levinson #addiction #recovery #addict

everythingthatdidntfitelsewhere

Bellarke COULD be platonic

Now disclaimer before you start jumping down my throat, let me just say I do believe Bellarke will get together before the series is over. The writing is on the wall there, but I do believe television/film/literature does a notoriously shitty job of resisting the urge to turn a relationship romantic between two characters with chemistry instead of exploring the nuances of human connection. Anyways...

Clarke could have called Bellamy everyday for six years and they could still be platonic.

Bellamy could have poisoned Octavia to save Clarke and they could still be platonic.

They could be physically affectionate and still be platonic.

They could have betrayed and hurt one another, Bellamy siding with Pike, Clarke leaving after the Mountain, Clarke locking Octavia out of the bunker, Bellamy putting the Flame in Maddie, Clarke leaving him to die in the fighting pit, yet been forgiven/loved unconditionally, and still be platonic.

They could pull the lever together, write each others name on the list, and still be platonic.

They could know each other better than anyone else and still be platonic.

They could tell each other things they never tell anyone else, share their fears and insecurities, and still be platonic.

Everyone around them could think they are or should be together, and they could still be platonic.

They could risk everything for one another, including other loved ones, and Still. Be. Platonic.

It irks me, this idea that Bellarke can’t POSSIBLY be anything but in love, implying that it’s not possible to have a strictly platonic relationship with such depth/complexity if a romantic/sexual relationship is in the realm of potential outcomes (because it’s two people of the opposite sex who are both attracted to the opposite sex)

Some of y’all seriously sell friendships short if you believe that to be the case, especially ones where shared trauma is concerned. I’m not going to say that it doesn’t mean that at some point one or both parties don’t question if it could be something more. That’s only natural, especially when you have a bunch of people around you saying it isn’t possible for it not to to be more. Regardless, these relationships exist, even if admittedly, platonic seems an insufficient label for it, as does family or best friend.

tvshowsyespls

I’ve thought a lot about the kind of things you’ve said before and this was my conclusion:

They COULD be, depending on your definition of sexuality. Platonic is defined as ‘love or friendship that is affectionate/intimate but not sexual’.

If Clarke died next ep, bellarke will be remembered as platonic by those that believe sexual acts are what make a relationship romantic and remembered as romantic by those that infer sexual chemistry/feelings/thoughts in certain bellarke scenes.

Imo, it’s not logical to believe sexuality is only physical: it goes against basic common sense in that people would only be considered straight/gay/bi etc. at the point of their first sexual encounter and dating relationships would be platonic until the first sexual act within it. More obviously and simply, sexuality is psychological.

Personally, I think romantic relationships arise with intention: the shared understanding of what you are offering each other (sexual acts included) and how you prioritise your person over all other humans. As you said, they prioritise each other and are to each other almost everything in a way that could be platonic BUT:

The problem with bellarke is that there IS sexual chemistry and attraction (est. season 1) - both types of people (that would now consider bellarke platonic and those that wouldn’t) will have picked up on it guaranteed because this aspect of their relationship was written into the story as their roots. It’s not crude to appreciate the intricacy of physical attraction or understand the implications of it driving the need to be as intimate as possible with someone - it lingers in subtext every season after.

Longing and pining (the most obvious manifestation of said subtext) to just BE with someone is the pinnacle of romance and not only is that canon in the way they look at each other (which, let’s face it, is flimsy and too subjective to be considered concrete evidence -even though the actors are absolutely amazing!) but more importantly through framing, writing, direction and music. Every second we see on screen is significant, controlled and crafted to be seen a certain way. So I’m failing to understand why some people (not you and I, the majority, who are on board the ship, as intended and expected by the writers I’m sure) don’t want to remember/understand all the evidence or draw the clear conclusion: Bellarke tick every box for a romantic relationship except sexual acts and I think it’s a disservice to not recognise the reality of them as the epic love story that they are. Using them to make the point that platonic relationships are just as powerful as romantic relationships is almost counterproductive.

We both seem to think they will tick the box one day, since the narrative suggests it as a strong possibility, but even if they don’t, they would still be romantic because that is the story they’ve told so far. As much as I would love some epic female-male platonic rep (re: Lucas and Haley from One Tree Hill), bellarke ain’t it. I’m sorry to say that they can’t be anything but in love -they can grow out of love and learn to love other people but what they have is the purest love. We arguably saw this with season 5 Bellamy and Season 3 Clarke but they seem to always find their way back to each other.

I do understand the frustration of seeing people say ‘you wouldn’t do XYZ for just a friend’ but human interactions are too complicated to get into on a twitter thread lol. We only point to narrative actions in an attempt to convey concrete objective evidence. Imagine the argument for romantic bellarke being made with only gifs of bellarke looks and lengthy explanations/interpretations of direction, writing and framing that only the shippers will spend time considering anyway. I strongly share your sentiment that platonic dynamics deserve more iconic and complex narrative tropes so here’s to the future! But let’s trust that we all, as humans, understand the romantic-platonic differentials within the beautiful bellarke relationship.

Let’s not even mention the possibility that the reason they haven’t ticked that box yet is because they have given themselves over to their people in selfless duty - name a more iconic selfless duo!

What do you think? :)

everythingthatdidntfitelsewhere

I agree with what you said :) Admittedly platonic seems to be an imperfect description, as does family or best friend. I understand that depending on where one lives/life experiences, it's not necessarily a normal thing to go through sustained life or death scenarios with more or less the same group of people, so I probably have a bit of a different view. Using Haley and Lucas as an example, what would that connection look like in the context of a war zone instead of the backdrop being highschool? What limits, if any, would that push a friendship of that depth too, how would they express it? Although anecdotal, it looks and presents quite differently in my experience, and that is a shortcoming I see in media representation particularly when it's two people with the potential to be romantically/sexually involved. The importance of that stability, the depth of trust, comfort, understanding, love is magnified. That's not to say it isn't misleading. Being in love with someone versus loving someone under extreme circumstances can be pretty muddled and confusing. In the case of Bellarke, they didn't know each other prior and despite seeing some of the uglier sides of each other sooner rather than later, stuck together anyways. They lead together, survived together. Believed in each other when they couldn't believe in themselves, when the world around them literally fell apart. That's why Bellamy risking everyone he loves (including Octavia and Echo) to save Clarke on the surface doesn't say much to me. The framing, however, does.

Friends don't _____ is just a flimsy (and limiting) argument I see a lot of. If Bellarke ends up not being together by the end of the series, I won't be surprised because of their head & the heart convos, the way they look at each other, the unconditional love, how much they mean to one another and how they express that. I will be surprised because a television show actually portrayed a friendship of that complexity and (spoiler) wasted all of that screen time doing things like having multiple characters in the span of two episodes bring up how Bellamy cares for Clarke more lol.