#tp meta

[lewis-winters]

thinking about how john basilone struggled with the idea of home because he centered his whole life and career around the marines, and he never thought he'd find anybody who'd understand that on such a fundamental level until lena.

thinking about how lena is the same. that she's fought tooth and nail to be taken seriously not just by the soldiers around her, but by her whole family. how she found contentment in proving herself in her job, and never thought twice about sharing that with someone until john.

thinking about how, despite how they planned everything to a fucking tee, life still managed to surprise them with each other.

thinking about how death snatched that all away, just when they started getting used to being somebody to somebody that isn't the marines.

[forcentreuseonly]

You know what it bugs me that they never resolved? Lyle and his mysterious string of murdered college girlfriends. They all but flat-out stated that he was torturing, murdering, and then /eating/ these women, but then the show just dropped it and never said another word.

Oh man, the show has dropped so many storylines I feel I could talk about it forever lol

Not knowing more about Lyle’s sordid past never bothered me because I always felt they showed too much. The threat behind ‘Mr. Lyle’ was that no one really knew exactly how dangerous he was. By adding cannibalism and rape into the mix they turn him into an almost caricature of the kind of villain he was supposed to be.

Beyond the obvious racism behind that particular narrative, it became an issue when the main heroes of the show found out about his most heinous crimes and did nothing about it. Not only nothing was done to bring justice to Lyle’s victims, everyone saw him surrounding himself with beautiful asian women – his known favorite victims – they were very blasé about it.

Lyle’s crimes were treated like a “quirky” personality trait and not like the cruel, evil crimes of an extremely dangerous and unhinged man.

I know life at The Centre required a certain level of ‘moral flexibility’ but, imo, this storyline clashed directly with Miss Parker’s arc of becoming a better, more aware person.

To be fair (and extra clear) I’m not holding any of this against the characters. This is a writing room issue.

[therewas-a-girl]

I think there is a bit of a 'missing moment' between Frank talking to Karen on the street, and them walking into her apartment. and im not talking about a scene, but emotionally, for them.

what did they talk about? did they talk? how did frank go from knowing that he left that Karen - probably the only person during the whole duration of his trial that wanted to help him just to get to the truth of things (tho I think he did sense that there was something in it for her personally, aside from her pitbull-like-personality when it comes to injustice and truth)  - to fend for herself during a cold night, when she had her arm hurt and she'd hit her head and had no car cause he'd totaled it--- how did he go from that to thinking 'I can go to he rand ask for help'. was that homeless man thing more than just a way not to scare her? was it to see if she really was all heart, still? did he have a bet with himself that if she didn't give him the money maybe he wouldn't ask for help? or is that too casual for Frank? I don't think he makes those kinds of decisions, tbh. that's a way of removing responsibility for his choices and I don't think he does that - leaving important things to chance like that just cause facing consequences of shitty choices he made is too hard. (when Karen says 'youre such an asshole' he says 'yeah u got that right'. he doesn't hide, there's no point).  but I do think her stopping for him and handing him that change proved a point. that's why he was smiling.  

did he apologize for that up there ^ ? did he feel like he had to? how did they go from their last conversation to that conversation in her house? there is a bit o a jump, from 'you're dead to me' / 'im already dead' - to them talking about calmly about him having unfinished business that he had to finish - not so much from her side, but from his.

Karen's side is a bit clearer to me. when she asks 'did you finish it', it implies an acceptance of what he had to do, how he had to do it. something she probably reached in the end of dd season 2, and that she mulled over all those months between this moment and when she last saw frank.

what, I think, requires unpacking (what I wanted to unpack, anyway) - is her point of view on herself, following what happened. on what she wanted to gain, prove to herself - to him - by getting him not to shoot Sconover. how she internalized that, what it meant to her that he didn't chose her way. that he chose vengeance over truth (I think that meant quite a bit to her actually). how she stopped superimposing herself to him, defining the value of her choices by using frank as some kind of standard. or rather, how that refusal in the end was the breaking point because it made her separate the two of them, stop conflagrating them. how he's not that essential to her self perception now.

all that process already happened and seems to lend itself to that calm that Karen seems to have when she's around frank in TP. she's more planted on her feet, she knows herself, her place, her way of thinking. she has made peace with whatever it was that in season 2 threw her for a loop - all that dialectic inside her sparked by frank, by the fact that she didn't feel she could stand up for herself and her own choices out loud, that they weren't defendable, not really. But she fueled that part of her that thought they WERE into her defense of frank.  that when she stood up for him she was also standing up for herself (in a way)

(I find it very very interesting that she was very hesitant not to advocate for him too hard in front of others, that throughout the season she is relentless when searching out facts, but less so when it comes to justifying his actions. that she's a bit halting when she does that, as if not to give too much of herself away. and only reached the point of really 'putting her foot down' for what she believed in at the end of the second season - when she raises her voice in Eliot's office. 'HE IS NOT A PSYCHO MURDERER'. its an important journey of self acceptance, but also of self-definition - away from frank's person - that brings her to that point.) -

anyway, all that dialectic inside her has resolved itself. she's at peace now with what she is. and she also seems more confident, less fidgety.

I hope that carries onto DD3. I want to see that Karen dealing with Matt - no longer sort of trying to be someone she thinks is her 'best self' that doesn't quite match reality and only makes her feel not enough. Im not talking in terms of her refusing any self improvement of course, but rather of that lack of insecurity (about herself as a person, what she is deserving of - kindness, someone to stand up for her, goodness, patience love etc.), that she seemed to carry around in s1 and 2, and which became ever smaller as the story went on and she found herself.

[requiemforareverie]

I feel like part of the reason Frank spent so much time with Micro's family - besides missing his own and sort of making up for it - was to rub it in his face, "hey look, I'm spending time with them and doing domestic shit while you CHOSE to stay holed up and playing dead away from them". Frank Castle is the punisher, right? He's punishing Micro for this.

[geraltcirilla]

Realistically I don’t see Karen and Frank every having a love confession. But I can see Karen telling Frank, “Frank, I....” and he goes, “I know.” And they look at each other and their expression says everything.

[forcentreuseonly]

but, Sydney getting himself addicted and then going through withdrawal didn't actually do anything to help Jarod. it's not like Sydney offered himself up in place of Jarod to protect him, he just protested a bit and then gave up. Catherine Parker gave her life to try to save Jarod, and yet Sydney gets all the sympathy because he looked vaguely upset while experimenting on Jarod.

You know, the first time I watched the episode – when I was much, much younger than I am now – I was moved by Sydney’s gesture but now, having actual adult experiences as a caretaker I’m like…NO!

I mean, he did more than most but his ‘most’ is nowhere near enough. His kindness towards Jarod doesn’t erase the fact Sydney was complicit in all the abusive horror they did to that poor kid.

I get hat Sydney’s original offer was ‘use me instead of him’ and get some points for doing (at least) that but the right thing to do would be to remove Jarod from that situation altogether. We are talking about a guy who abused – or by inaction allowed Jarod to be abused – on a daily basis. I find very naive of Sydney to believe they would pass on the change of abusing Jarod a little bit more. They never cared for Jarod’s well being until that point, what made him think they would suddenly start now?

Overall, I like the episode because at least the writer didn’t have Jarod letting Sydney off the hook for what happened to him.

[lewis-winters]

don't mind me. just thinking about the ethics behind the construction of merriell shelton's character in the pacific and if their making him some sort of angel-of-death character/sledge's narrative foil instead of actually going by the real merriell shelton's personality is ethically justifiable.

[therewas-a-girl]

Reasons Why I Think Dinah Madani Was Built To Also Be Frank’s (slow-to-develop) Love Interest; an ongoing list. 

they share a lot of personality traits and sometimes - tho im not gonna meta about it now - it feels like they are two sides of the same coin, only she still believes in the system she protects while frank is far beyond that. 

just think about these two assholes playing chicken  without flinching in that car chase scene. i mean, do i need more words??? if david hadn’t intervened, they totally would have crashed into each other cause they’re both just That Stubborn(TM) 

the sheer need they both have for closure that dives them to extremes, even when its them against the world. because when their whole world is shaken, they both find their own tools to make it make sense again. for frank is revenge. for dinah is justice, so that murder of her partner does not go unpunished, and therefore in vain. 

they both have the need to give meaning to the mental places they inhabit. they can’t let loss mean nothing. they both need to hold on to a guiding principle in the world.  and when it’s not there they either make it (like frank), or sink their teeth in and not let go, until something, anything, gives, like dinah. 

her and frank’s arcs don’t parallel, exactly, but i feel, when im watching dinah, and comparing her way of functioning to frank’s - i feel like in frank one can see what would also happen to dinah, if she got pushed hard enough. actually - 

‘i think to beat these people you have to become them’ ‘i dont believe that’ ‘you will. in the end.’ - I MEAN THAT FELT LIKE FORESHADOWING TO ME. i think dinah has it in her to make better choices than frank and that in the end she wouldn’t ‘become him’ or anything. but i do think she would be a catastrophe on legs if she ever cracked - or got close to - and she is built in such a way that .when i try to imagine how that would look like, i immediately think of what that looked like on frank. 

‘i might have seen her naked but she has the hots for you’ 

‘you know who that sounds like? frank castle! you two are a lot alike’ - or sth to that effect, said by sam when they were sitting down outside her office after they found the bug. 

the parallel of Billy cleaning both of them up - or rather, Billy invading their personal space horribly while both were in a terribly vulnerable place, after BILLY was the one that caused them such a shock and pain.