#besos!

[thetaoofbetty]

time to watch outer banks ☺️

see now i need to know if that show is over or not because i can’t remember the last show i watched that had a good ending 😭

[thetaoofbetty]

What do you think of ST finale? About El’s ending in particular?

upfront i will say that the pacing has been one of the worst things (and the plot holes, dear god the painful plot holes) about this entire season.

now, for other thoughts:

i am not a particular fan of ambiguous endings. it's sort of cheap to me? lazy, even?

there's nothing satisfying about positioning mike's eternal grief mixed with the idea that it's a choose your own adventure on whether or not eleven is alive but they're both going to be separated forever.

(though i do think she's alive)

the idea that he's not going to go look for her doesn't fit with mike's character and i'm not even that invested? i can't imagine what it would be like as someone deeply invested into the show.

if you have to have interviews to clear up what the story meant (will, jancy, eleven, etc) then you have failed in the writing.

this season definitely lacked some things about the previous seasons i liked and they choked at offing any character beforehand but then played fast and loose with the one who genuinely felt like she earned her happy ending?

please excuse my side eye but i've seen plenty of male writers do this to powerful female characters and it hardly ever gets received well (perhaps reddit is a safe space for them, idk).

so while i rarely rewatched the show, i'm even less likely to now knowing that there's no real payoff for the heroine and the boy who loves her who now only ever gets to write her happy endings in his stories while everyone else gets to live their lives.

[thetaoofbetty]

with some time removed now i look back at our Riverdale time and just....what even. i've been in a few fandoms by now but that one really was extra bonkers.

I did chill me out on other fandom bullshit tho, i've seen it all and worse before.

seriously tho!

you can't survive the riverdale fandom and not come out like this at the end

really gives us some perspective when joining other fandoms, ha.

[thetaoofbetty]

Why do you think there's so many bad takes in fandom? I know you've been watching/reading Bridgerton lately and there's so many terrible takes in that fandom that it's making me cringe.

literally only asked me this bc you know i'm fandom old. pfft.

no but also we (i'm guessing) were in the riverdale trenches and does no one remember those takes? like, remember when 4 underage teens were sitting by a fire in a promo and it turned into 4 underage teens on the lowest standard of basic cable were having an orgy within hours of said promo bc someone turned their anxiety into everyone else's problem? i do. it's also hilarious but that's not the point i suppose.

my best guess is media literacy is now a long lost art bc you're reading a lot of takes that stem from very and extremely literal interpretations of promo/interviews/trailers. they lack nuance and paint a lot of things in black and white and any deviation will be met with swift accusations of doing wrong think in fandom for whatever character/plot/ship they don't like.

let's all remember alex. not a good or right take in his career and there he is, being paid to share his bad takes with the rest of us. people playing telephone without context and letting their bias talk them out of simple logic is sort of wild when those people also have access to the rest of us online, ha. i can see how easy it would be to let someone's anxiety spike over hearing/seeing something they were already worried about happening and turning it into a full fledged theory based on something that, in all probability, won't be anything like they imagined.

in my (long and varied) fandom experiences, the best theories come from the english degree girlies who are quietly discussing themes and motifs with their friends and not the people screaming every 5 mins about how this is going to happen bc a social media post/promo got met with vibes and anxiety. or, to be totally honest, a lot of people just write a fic summary and call it a theory while passing it around making everyone else anxious with them.

actually tho, i can think of so many people who would be better off just writing the ideas they have as fic instead of passing it off as fact and then getting mad when people don't agree with them. 🤔

[thetaoofbetty]

I think the ending was a lot more closed off for the core 4 than people have been saying for these past months. It still sucks that they didn’t commit to anything when they could’ve given us the perfect endgames that were destined to be but….

That “quad” dating was ridiculous and it basically says BA and JV dated but realized that they just needed their exes to complete them. Only to break up later on.

That BA moment was Betty basically saying goodbye to the “picket fence” life Archie wanted. He got to have his happy ending w a (unknown) wife, kids, working at construction and Betty go to be an accomplished writer with a daughter she adopted instead of bio (because with Betty’s history with her family that tracks) and unmarried. This is not even good for BA because it confirms what we’ve been saying about how the “married life” was just something Archie wanted but not Betty. She basically turned him down and decided to live for herself instead of Archie’s “perfect life”.

Veronica was a successful actress that was praised and acclaimed until her last day. I kinda wished they’ve given VA something. But maybe both Archie and Veronica ending up in California can open up to some interpretations.

And Betty’s last moment were with Jughead. The beanie Jughead she once felt in love with. It showed us Betty kept track of Jughead all of those years and had his newspaper obituary. And that Jughead regrets never getting to marry Betty. And all of this during Bughead’s theme and holding hands. It feels more like a win for Bughead than what BA/VA got.

kind of weird since the ending feels like it was written for this season vs the previous 6 but also yeah, like, i can see the hints of it all.

tho this:

That “quad” dating was ridiculous and it basically says BA and JV dated but realized that they just needed their exes to complete them.

is very funny because it's like, well, sure we like the people we're with but you know what would make it better? not being monogamous with them.

tho i am starting to wonder if we need someone to talk to roberto about whatever it is that stunted him at 17 since these kids are now 17 for the third time, only now it's forever.

[thetaoofbetty]

Are you going to see Cole's new movie?

that's a negative, anonarino. i gotta be honest, i don't even really know what the premise is. franken-esque? i haven't seen any trailers or ads yet so, you know, i'm going off of zero knowledge about it.

i did promise to take my exchange student to see that rom com with that capybara guy for a little galentines night out tho. mostly because i enjoy movie theater nachos and i am trying to steal one of those kung fu panda 4 popcorn buckets without being caught.

[thetaoofbetty]

What's the last song you listened to?

uhmmmmmm lemme look real quick

istg if anyone roasts me for another sad song i am going to sue

lover, you should have come over by jeff buckley

[thetaoofbetty]

How would you describe the energies of the Riverdale characters?

i did not complete the assignment as asked but also i give you this instead:

plus a bonus: