Carrie Ann

I made the coconut cupcakes, years ago, and they were delish.

I do think Malia's hair looks lighter than last season, in the photos I've seen, and the Kiss Girl is wearing a tan sweater, not a leather jacket. If it's Lydia, then I think it's a dream for sure.

Yeah, I think you can still find those out there. He keeps things more private now, but I do chuckle a little about the Tumblr belief that he and EBR are a couple.

Steven R McQueen is a series regular on TVD. Why would he guest star on another series, as a different character? Especially a potentially recurring character? Especially on two series that film at the same time on opposite sides of the continent? I don't remember any other series regulars guest starring on other shows on The CW (aside from TVD/TO crossovers). I think this all started because he made a joke on Twitter or Instagram about being Nightwing, and people kind of ran with it, and he's been sort of teasing about it since then. I think the odds of that happening are very slim. And I love him as Jer, but...no. Even if he didn't have another job already. Just no.

No, I'm not saying that he should have done that. I'm saying that GRRM is not beyond judgment for the choices he makes in creating his world, because it's not historical fact. He's picking and choosing what he wants in his world, and how things play out. He wants this one to be a patriarchy, where sexual violence is widespread and women are oppressed in every way possible. Sometimes they subvert that oppression in awesome ways, and I cheer. Other times, they are punished and abused in ways that make me side-eye GRRM/D&D.

Based on the way SA always says, "Was it?" when people ask it being a ruse, I think it's pretty obvious that Oliver did mean it, in some form. Now the question is: how will they show that? I suspect it will be some sort of obvious pining, but I'd love it if Oliver talked to Diggle about it instead. Especially because Dig broached the subject with each of them this season, but in a way that still leaves it sort of below the surface. First with Oliver, when he said, "I think you didn't have a problem with Felicity's performance until she met Barry Allen," and Oliver just stewed on it until the end of the episode when he indicated to Dig that he wanted to be alone with her. Then with Felicity when she was insecure about Sara being on the team, Dig said, "I know we haven't talked about this, but it can't be easy seeing them together." She quickly said it wasn't about that, but neither of them denied what Dig was implying. So they sort of both have an understanding with him about it, but it's still kinda subtext. It'd be nice to have it become text. And I think Dig would be a good arbiter for how to handle it, for Oliver.

Sure, but this is a fantasy series, not a historical one. Fantasy authors who base their Other Worlds on ours are still making choices about what their world looks like. GRRM kept the patriarchy and misogyny of medieval society while downplaying other things, like religious and racial intolerance, for example. The religion piece is becoming more important as of Book 5, but there hasn't been a single all-powerful Church force prior to that.

ITA with the above, and not trying to pile on, but I'm gonna address a few other points in the original post. Matt Donovan has a pretty strong leg to stand on, and so does Jeremy. These things are not equal. @truthaboutluv addressed the Jeremy and Stefan issues, so I'll go deeper on Caroline. Damon raped Caroline, then physically and mentally abused her and controlled her actions, for weeks. Her sleeping with Klaus one time doesn't come close, and does not victimize anyone else. Even Tyler or Elena or Stefan, who were all hurt deeply by Klaus, are not victims of Caroline's sex life. No more than Elena or Caroline were victims when Stefan slept with Rebekah or Katherine. I personally don't believe Caroline would be in a relationship with Klaus while he's still an abusive monster, so her loved ones don't have to enable her relationship with someone who has personally victimized them, and who they think is harmful. That is why I still think she can sit in judgment of Elena--until the end of time if she wants to--and it's up to Elena to decide whether she cares. If she really hates it, she can end the friendship or the relationship. It's not up to Caroline to get over it. Once again, I'll point out that these things aren't equal. Caroline being judgmental of her own rapist is not equal to him raping her. Elena being a baby (?) is not equal to Damon killing people when he doesn't get his way. Stefan trying to control other vampires into not feeding on or killing people is not equal to Damon killing them for fun. (Stefan killing out of crazy Ripper urges IS equal to that, for the record.) This is why--I disagree that he has atoned for his sins. Atoning means taking action to make amends. And though he sometimes makes sad faces about things, he usually doesn't actually take responsibility, or apologize, or make changes to his behavior. Or if he does, he doesn't do these things to the person he actually victimized--he does it to Elena. Because he mostly only cares about his bad actions insofar as she cares about them. And the text does not give him appropriate consequences for his actions--instead, he's rewarded for them. Every other character is forced to at least tolerate him, if not outright prop him up, even when it makes no sense for their character. He got the girl, and Season 5 showed that there is nothing Damon can do that is so awful it will cause Elena to leave him. He could kill everyone else in the cast and the whole town and she'd look shocked for a whole hour, and then get over it. Contrast that to what happened to Stefan, post-Ripper stage. He lost himself and his own free will, then Elena died and turned, then he lost her to Damon for good, and then he drowned for three months straight, before losing his memories and then realizing he had no relationship left with the two most important people in his life. He lost everything. We are hopefully on the right track now that Damon's died--I mean, really, that is one step toward the appropriate consequences for his actions. When he returns, I'd like to see that taken further.

Ugh, I hate that scene so much, and I dread seeing it on screen, especially after the response to the rape scene this season. There was just a tone of...relishing seeing Cersei be punished that was really gross to me. The pain and abuse she endures always seems to be related to sex and her gender, and it's uncomfortable. I anticipate a lot more of that coming up next season.

This episode had another bit of WTF when it comes to that relationship: Oliver slept with Fuller's bride-to-be the night before the wedding. We don't know the exact timing, but it presumably happened not that long before he went down on the ship because he indicates that was sort of the last time he saw that guy. So, probably another person with whom Oliver cheated on Laurel. (Note that Tommy still finds that whole thing pretty funny, which is indicative of why I'm not a huge fan of Tommy or their friendship. Oliver laughs about it too, but he's still in Fake Oliver mode when it comes to Tommy, so I'm less annoyed at him.)

I wonder if they would have Jaime and Tyrion part on friendly terms. As you've all been pointing out, the changes made so far will make it difficult for Tyrion to hurl anything at Jaime and have it make much of an impression. I don't think Jaime would believe that Tyrion killed Joff at this point, and I don't believe he would be surprised at Cersei's indiscretions, or even particularly care. So while Jaime's revelation about Tysha would certainly hurt Tyrion, I don't think there's anything he could throw back in return. I don't see any reason that Jaime and Tyrion hating each other really matters in terms of the action of the books, or the series. Tyrion has to disappear, and Jaime wouldn't be able to help him once he left town, regardless. So unless there's something coming in the future books that would require Jaime and Tyrion to hate each other, I don't see a need for that scene at all. One way to avoid it would be for Jaime to just mention something about Tywin forcing him to do something w/r/t Tysha, and for that to be enough for Tyrion to run to Tywin's chambers. Then Tywin could be the one to tell him what really happened, while Tyrion aims the crossbow at him. Tywin would never really believe Tyrion would do it, because he always underestimated him. Also, just knowing that Jaime had a part in it would hurt Tyrion enough--he wouldn't have to hear it from Jaime first--and Tyrion killing their father would be tough for Jaime too. So it would leave them in a complex place, but avoid that scene where they break each other's hearts. I'm just grasping here, because I really don't want to watch that, and I'd prefer to imagine the brothers thinking about and rooting for each other from a distance. The other option would be to skip the Tysha thing altogether, and instead have Jaime or Varys slip and mention Shae and Tywin together; Tyrion goes to his chambers, kills both.

I don't think I even want the answer to this, but who would second-guess who the leads are?

I agree, and both the S/O relationship and breakup made sense to me. I think Oliver's not thinking in terms of a normal, stable relationship (moving in together) made Sara realize that probably neither of them were in the right place to be together, in many ways. And I think the reasoning she actually gave him made sense too--it's like two people in the fairly early stages of recovery trying to be together. I think she sees that he's further on the path, and she just isn't, and she didn't want to be something that brought him down. I thought that was awesome. Sara fucking rocks, period. Last season, Oliver was WAY too young in his recovery to try to help Helena with hers, and there were consequences. He's screwed up rather soundly in his mentoring of Roy, which again is an example of trying to put the oxygen mask on someone else before securing his own. I mean, he should help Roy as he can, for sure, but he's still becoming a hero, and is going to make a lot of mistakes along the way. But down the line, I think either of those relationships could be viable, depending on the growth of the characters. I'm personally an Olicity fan, but I can't believe that is the only love story in Oliver's future from now until the end of the series. With that in mind, I like to see the characters in relationships that are compelling and complex, that tell me something about the characters themselves that fits with what is going on with them generally. That's what Helena and then Sara did, for me.

Maybe Katherine got sucked into The Great Somewhere Else because of the thing Grams did for Bonnie. Because of doppelganger magic! And because then Katherine can still exist somewhere! And Bonnie and Damon will find her when they get there, and a new OT3 is born! OK, Dries and Plec, I'm gonna just give you this crack!theory and you can take it and pretend it was your plan all along.

Yeah, again, Duncan also being drugged makes the whole situation hard to judge or evaluate. I know we missed a lot of scenes between the two of them between S1 and S2, and that's fine, I guess. But it is ridiculous that I have to fanwank a scene in which Duncan apologizes profusely for leaving Veronica at that party (possibly only partially clothed) and for continuing to avoid her like the plague afterward, all the while knowing that she had no clue they might be related. I mean, that was her first time, and he said not a word to her for months afterward. What a fucking prince. I have to assume he did apologize, because any human being with a conscience would feel like shit about that, even if it wasn't technically his fault. And I would hope that Veronica would expect that apology as well, especially from someone she loved once and we're supposed to believe loves again. But I can see your previous point about Veronica dating him again to "make it OK" in her mind--I've had the same thought, and in that case, I think she might have been fine without an apology because then she doesn't have to think too hard about the weirdness of what happened, or how Duncan continued to shun her for some pretty flimsy reasons. Instead, in the only conversation we ever got to see between them about it, Duncan's reaction to Veronica sobbing that he'd raped her was anger that she was acting like she "wasn't there too." Like he thought she was faking a rape by pretending not to remember? I've never understood how to interpret that moment. But at best, he just seems to blow off what should have been a shocking thing to hear, like he puts no stock in her experience or her own words, because he's mad that she thinks he might have killed Lilly. So his own feelings are more important, and he can just ignore her feelings. It's actually pretty consistent characterization, when you think about it that way. Compare to Logan's reaction in the very same episode: "Just tell me what I can do, Veronica," when she first raises the possibility that it was him. Then later when she tells him she knows it wasn't, and he asks if she wants to tell him what happened: "You don't have to tell me anything. I'm just here for whatever you need." He also takes full responsibility for dosing Duncan, and feels like shit about it.

Yes, I assume Sansa dyed her hair because she is still going to be Alayne to the rest of the world. When she was speaking to the council, she said that no one could know where she was, and they said her secret was safe with them. I was freaking out when she said her real name, and later when Arya and the Hound did the same. In the books, they are so much more careful about that. It made me nervous. I love the changes in the Sansa storyline, because it makes her more of an active participant in her own survival. I love Book Sansa, but I get why others find her boring or frustrating. It's hard to see a character who is so consistently acted on, who so rarely acts on her own behalf. I still worry about her, especially w/r/t Littlefinger, but I have high hopes for her.

Watched this today, and was struck again by how much Dig and Felicity add to the series. The "And I'm going to stop in 3, 2, 1," ramble, and of course "My coffee shop's in a bad neighborhood." [Felicity: incredulous head tilt] [Oliver: can't keep from smiling]. Those moments are so cute and fun. Such a different energy from the rest of the show. And I love Oliver revealing himself to Diggle. The scene where Oliver climbs up the brick wall to pull the bullet out is one of my favorite early stunts from the series. I also appreciate Deadshot

OK, I don't remember everything exactly, but I think the spirits do see each other and can communicate on the TOS. But it's hard to find people (Anna and Pearl, sob), and it's not constant. So maybe the witches, over 2,000 years or whatever, have found ways to stay close to each other. Like, maybe that's why their spirits need to be consecrated to the Earth (or whatever it was Sophie wanted to do with her sister's body on The Originals), or why when they die, especially en masse, that physical place is suffused with magic. And TOS was built with magic, so it would make sense that witches might have a little easier time working the system over there.

My unpopular opinion is that the one moment of this season that I believed and appreciated Laurel was when she said that when the ship went down, she felt like all three of them died, but when first Oliver and then Sara came back, she realized that she was the only one who'd died, and that they were both strong and beautiful and she was not. That actually rang really true to me--how awful a feeling that would be. Not that she wished they'd died (although, she did basically say that to both of them), but that because they hadn't, it threw her own emptiness into stark relief. If the rest of Laurel's actions reflected this moment, I would find that much more moving and authentic. If you could see her struggle--between being happy Oliver and Sara are alive and being envious of their vivacity, between using her anger to fuel her work and using substances to get through every day, between wanting to do good but not really believing in good anymore--I would be more interested in that. But instead, the show wants her to just be some bastion of moral certitude and goodness. But they can't quite pull it off, so we end up with the flip-flopping, where we never know what to believe, so nothing ever seems true. With Oliver, it's all "Come here/Go away," sometimes within a single episode. Then there's the weird blackmail to get her job back, and "sometimes when you let the darkness in, it never comes out," which happened in Ep 17, and then we never saw another moment that hinted at that darkness. Ah, I'm just so bummed about this character because it's the one sour note for me on a show that otherwise hits them all. And even if she's not my favorite, I can see where things could have been improved, but I don't think the writers feel the same, so now I just dread being stuck with this off-note in my show until the bitter end.

The island flashbacks were a huge problem in Season 1 for me. I just didn't care about them, and therefore couldn't get myself to pay attention or remember what was happening in them week to week. I found it easier this season, especially once Sara turned up in them, because I was invested in her story as well as Oliver's. But in rewatching S2, I'll probably skip most of them, because the Island is just not the reason I watch the show.

It's obvious that Felicity told Roy that white lie just to get them through the battle, because there's no way she would have expected everything he did to remain secret. Thea was supposed to be leaving town, yes, but Felicity would have to assume Roy would try to contact her as soon as possible. He also killed a cop and hurt many others in a public venue--he should, by all reason, be in hiding immediately after the battle if they don't want him to be arrested. So yeah, if the new season starts with Roy in the dark about what happened during his blackout period, I will not be pleased because that just makes no logical sense.

So he's the source of her strength, and also her Slayerness, and her Inner Darkness, and then what's next on the list? Does Buffy exist at all outside of Spike? As I said, I don't think their relationship post-Tabula Rasa has anything to do with giving Buffy strength. I think she was depressed, and he took advantage of it because he saw it as the only way he could have her. He encouraged the worst feelings she had about herself and about life, told her he was the only one who really knew who she was, encouraged her to withdraw further from her loved ones and her life. I'm never going to see that as a positive thing that happened in her life. That she got through her depression and near-rape stronger isn't about him and it's not because of him. It's about her.

I have definitely done that before, but that wasn't quite the texture I'm talking about here, which is why I found it puzzling. But it could still be the case, and overbeating plus the yogurt or something adds up to the weird bounciness.

Yeah, I think what I like about the show and what Spike likes about the show are about as opposite as possible. I FF through all the couch-fighting scenes. I like to watch the tattooing and the judging, and that's about it. The last thing I want is a season devoted to the nastiest personalities ever to appear on the show. I think we'll skip that one, and in all likelihood quit the show altogether.

Sorry, I meant to make my sarcasm a little more obvious and I didn't go into detail about the pros and cons of how they handled things, but I agree with you completely. I was intending to say that it's only in reflection that I can appreciate it somewhat in comparison to the handling of rape on The Vampire Diaries and Game of Thrones, for example, which both have instances of rape that are never called that and the perpetrators have no consequences. I had and have a ton of problems with the storyline, and with Spike in general in later seasons. And I'll never not hate Spuffy in Season 6, post-Tabula Rasa--I don't see the way he pulled her "into the darkness" with him as giving her strength, @Dianthus. I saw it as exactly what he said it was. He brought her down, and she finally brought herself back up.