#stargirl s2

[felicitykings]

Oh, yeah, and I love being Black.

STARGIRL (2020-2022) ↳ 2.08 Summer School: Chapter Eight

[bluevalley-esque]

DC’S STARGIRL 2x02

[superiorhart]

The Wilson brothers love jet ski’s

[superohclair]

the way that courtney and yolanda didn’t know where rick was so naturally the only obvious solution is to ask beth

[bethchapel]

stargirl as the onion headlines (part 3)

it’s back <33

[nyikondlovu]

No other thoughts other than the fact that:

Beth Chapel and Rick Tyler always run parallel to each other. in season one they also shared an episode of their origins as Doctor Midnite and Hourman II respectively. We saw in 1x05 how Rick relied so much on anger about how his parents died in order to avoid dealing with the pain so he emotionally isolated himself from everyone while Beth became the opposite as a people pleaser because she didn't have her best friends aka her parents by her side 24/7 and she points out that she ‘talks a lot but people don't like it’, that episode was about how they process their emotions while 2x08 was about identity for the two of them.

Rick was in pain regarding how cruel his uncle was and if a criminal was who he was destined to be but he had some comfort in that his father's hourglass worked for him meaning he had enough good in him to be a superhero while Beth on the other spectrum was quietly questioning HER identity as a daughter, as a superhero, as a young black woman. Rick had his cushion of superhero-ness taken from him by Eclipso when he convinced Rick enough that Grundy was bad and bad could never change so he used the one thing he believed confirmed he was a good person, his fathers hourglass. At the end of the episode Rick doesn't know who he is.

Beth started as someone who lost her best friend Chuck, her parents wouldn't talk to her about their divorce and barely spent time at home and she needed to be saved from physical attacks by Rick. She was questioning what she truly brings to the JSA and who she really is. Eclipso trying to use things that she's most probably been told or seen behind the bs of such as her gender and her race and her fighting abilities or lack thereof. He tried using the every new JSA member was chosen except you to break her but he didn't account for her finding strength within herself because (what I believe is) Beth is one of the strongest members of the team mentally. She ends the episode confident in herself and her abilities.

Now that we’ve come to the end of the season I felt it only right to look at the journey Beth has taken from season one to the end of season two (growth over 26 episodes)

Season one we see Beth from a spectator’s perspective because we are seeing her through Courtney’s eyes. Beth might have come off as annoying to some viewers because we didn’t know her and had no reason to love to hate her (Cindy) or just immediately like her (Yolanda). Even her origin story needs you to look past the ‘I saw your dog chewing on these and now I own them’ because that is not what happened. What happened was Beth was concerned about people who didn’t much care for her but because she saw Yolanda scaling up the hospital, she went to Courtney to find out what’s going on showing her compassion immediately.

Next she helped a group of people who kinda didn’t want her as a member of the team or didn’t care enough about her to officially let her join and even AFTER Courtney asked her for the goggles back she refused because she wanted to help the group anyway because she was best suited to use the goggles and she knew it. There is the stubbornness subtly put on show.

Finally, you have her rushing to protect Barbara in the finale even though she has no combat training but she still went through with her attempt. There is the courage and bravery she’s ALWAYS had.

Coming into season two we are now in HER perspective. How she feels like her parents marriage falling apart is something SHE needs to fix. There’s her people pleasing always have to take care of people coming back into play. She makes it HER job to fix her parents when it’s THEIR job because it’s THEIR relationship.

We see how she bottles everything up to the point where when Rick asks her what’s wrong she lashes out then bursts into tears. She’s someone who suffers in silence.

All of these traits come into play in Chapter eight of season two. All the insecurities and horrible things she’s been having thinking about herself and role in the JSA are fully realized.

She uses her courage to call Eclipso out on his racism

She uses her bravery to pull the goggles from him and tell him she chose herself to be Doctor Mid-Nite.

She uses her stubbornness to keep fighting against Eclipso instead of giving in like her other teammates have

She takes her compassion and people pleasing and turns it toward herself. SHE is Doctor Mid-Nite because she’s proud of all these things he tried attacking her with. She’s fully acknowledged her fears but doesn’t hide from them. She faces them head on. She emerges CONFIDENT in both herself and her abilities.

We see this confidence when she tells her parents how she feels at the end of the episode. We see it in chapter ten when she tells them no and she isn’t ready to talk about her jsa related missions. We see it when SHE walks out on the people she’s most wanted to pay attention to her because there’s something more important going on.

Beth evolves this season and I’m so glad she did because she is a wonderful character. I hope she continues growing while Rick continues on his journey of finding himself outside of the hourglass. While he learns that people love him and he’s worth caring about.

I really enjoyed season two and can’t wait for season three.

[utrhood]

I'm just thinking about Yolanda and Court telling Beth that Rick is into her. He's so in love with her that everyone around him notices except for Beth, she just thinks Rick is being nice. I love these clichés and Rick already looks at Beth like that, I really need them canon as soon as possible.

[mejcinta]

This. This hit me in ways I wasn't prepared for.