Declan O'Hara, Rivals S2Ep6
Photos: bibs, X
Cosmic Funnies
RMH
Xuebing Du
I'd rather be in outer space šø

Origami Around

shark vs the universe
Mike Driver

Love Begins
Keni
šŖ¼
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almost home
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if i look back, i am lost
KIROKAZE
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
TVSTRANGERTHINGS

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occasionally subtle
Monterey Bay Aquarium
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@hellolaracroft
Declan O'Hara, Rivals S2Ep6
Photos: bibs, X
some quick art of mr. clark backrooms. i am endlessly fascinated by his progression as a character.
I have nothing to say about Rivals episode 6 except this: the show's greatest achievement is, without a doubt, its cast. Its biggest strength. Its greatest victory. Not the drama, not the scandals, not the romance. The cast is the best thing about Rivals.
Claire, David, Katherine: you're all brilliant as hell!
Declan at Fred's place.
My expectations for episode 6 are becoming dangerously high. The complete lack of spoilers and the fact that nobody has seen a single scene from it is not helping.Ā Depending on what happens, this will either be my healing era or the official start of my villain origin story.
Itās 2am and Iām out here looking for Maud/Tony fanfiction. I fear that if Tony doesnāt do something absolutely terrible in the next episode, there may be no saving me. Because I cannot spend the next few months rooting for him during the hiatus, so I really, really need him to do something awful in the next episode.
RIVALS | 2x05
bonus:
I love Mike hahah
I think we all just died a little.
Iām down on my knees I want to take you there
That scene is SO good, the soundtrack, him throwing the tapes in the air with the cigar in his mouth š absolutely iconic! He looks like such a diva here, how was I supposed to not root for him in this moment?š
Rivals season 2 is failing Cameron Cook so far.
We donāt get her POV.
We donāt see her vulnerability.
We donāt get a quiet moment with her.
We know only this about her life prior to 1986:
Her mother is an activist;
Her father a teacher;
Her parents divorced when she was 14;
Her mother didnāt really want to be a mother;
Her motherās next partner āwas an assholeā;
Sheās from New York;
She left home when she was young;
And sheād been on her own for a while, until Tony. And Corinium and Venturer and Rutshire.
Now when I write it out it seems like itās a lot to know about character until you remember that we learned this 11 episodes ago in a show thatās aired 13 episodes.
Weāre told she feels lonely in her relationship with Rupert, we donāt see it. We donāt see how she grapples with the fact that she almost killed someone she was in a relationship with. Someone who was manipulative, and dare I say abusive, someone who put his hands on her, tried to coerce her into sex then bribed her when the coercion didnāt work and you know what? Letās say we take the BaddingCook out of it, just the fact that she almost KILLED a personā¦We donāt see her take any of that in.
And even if you want to say āoh the show is not that seriousā that I āshouldnāt be expecting them to deep dive abusive relationships and power imbalancesā or Iāmāmaking everything about raceā,
1. THE SHOW made her Black and its acknowledged in the material: Tony and Ginger made it a Thing in 1x01 when Declan arrived at Corinium by saying āwho says no Blacks, no Irish?ā; when Ginger chortled after Tony told Cameron sheād ābe on the next boat backā; when she was called āexoticā by Val and Fredās kids. All this means they should, ideally, be willing to understand how things will read differently now that there is Blackness where there was none before and that they be mindful of unconscious biases.
and 2. her writing is lacklustre this season with other characters too. Iām not going to lie, Cam and Declan being such good friends in this episode honestly took me by surprise because we donāt get more than one quick scene every other episode with trading barbs. Or Cam with Rupert, or Cam with Patrick, or any other woman.
Cameron is just there to have sex and solidify that the white right people remember in their hearts that they love their white right partners and not her. Weāre five episodes into a 12 episode season and theyāre only just now starting to develop her supposed endgame, Patrick, who has been markedly less into her in season two than he was last season until this episode.
Cameron is running the risk of falling into the disposable black girlfriend trope and even if she breaks up with Rupert, itās the same trope just superficially feminist.
Right now? Sheās the Jezebel trope, her entire character revolving around her romantic/sexual tension and relationships with the 3 main men (Tony, Declan and Rupert.)
Sheās a girlboss, sheās a āball buster,ā sheās quick as a whip, can hang with the boys and donāt forget SEX!SEX!SEX! but all that without the more human and low sides to her just make it seem to me like sheās falling into a common way Black female characters are written/viewed: good enough for sex but never for love.
As of 205, Cameron Cook is not given the same amount of well roundedness that her white counterparts are given. I havenāt completely written off this season in regards to her, I really hope the 7 episodes remaining do better and change my mind because I know Nafessa would be so good with a meatier script, and it would be refreshing to have a black female character that isnāt strong all the time. A messy Black woman. A Black woman that isnāt there to be the devil to another womanās angel. That isnāt stagnant.
Oh, hereās a meme I made. Go follow me on twitter for Rivals season two tweet-alongs, Iām hilarious
OMG, YES! Cameron is one of the characters suffering the most from this messy, lazy writing!
AIDAN TURNER Rivals 2.05
and this was supposedly meant to make me hate them? š i will never forgive the season 2 writing for making me like maud and tonyā¦
like whatever.
A shout out to ao3 writers in this fandom: write fanfics about them pretty plsssss
LOOK at the chemistry between these two, absolutely devouring each other with their eyes š Why couldnāt the writers give them proper development too? We were robbed!!!
Daily Mail, 29 May 2026:
"Rivals star Aidan Turner sets pulses racing as he strips off to recreate Poldark's nude swimming scene in latest episode of Disney+ bonkbuster"
Every Friday I wake up wanting to hate Tony Baddingham and then the writers go and make me root for him again š
Tony and Maudās piano scene? Beautiful. Actual development, vulnerability, him telling her sheās even more beautiful now than before, and the camera thing was sexy and genuinely well-built. And the worst part is Maud somehow tricks me into believing Tony is capable of redemption for approximately five minutes every time sheās on screen with him. Then Monica appears and I immediately remember: oh right, heās still a complete bastard.
Declan and Cameron? The only genuinely good dialogue was the marriage conversation, which was lifted straight from the book. Everything else feels rushed and messy. Are we really supposed to believe a handful of longing looks counts as relationship development? They go from fighting to sleeping together because⦠Mike mentioned it a few times? And right after that conversation about Patrick? Oh okay. Sure. Totally natural progression there.
And when exactly did Cameron become nice and protective of Shelley? Is this the same Cameron from season 1 who screamed at everyone in Corinium to bring her coffee, treated Daysee like she was useless, and snapped at Taggie during dinner when Rupert was the one at fault? LOL
Cameron and Declan: lots of horny staring, zero actual development, and Declan honestly comes across as a massive traitor to Rupert right now. Unfortunately chemistry and development are not the same thing, despite what this season seems determined to prove.
Tony and Maud though⦠maybe he really is falling in love with her? Am I just being manipulated by David Tennant at this point? Iām still going to enjoy watching him furious and heartbroken when she eventually ends the affair and goes back to Declan.
Also, the tape situation? Why on earth are you talking about drinking when sending those tapes shouldāve been your number one priority if work is supposedly your entire life, Declan? And Freddie, my beloved... why didnāt you buy the fields the second they were offered to Sharon? Why did you wait?
God, am I actually going to start hating Tony next week? Because so far itās been surprisingly difficultā¦