Winter Rose

I was a 90s kid but I have a feeling I'm probably not the target audience for this either. I agree, I'm just happy for Kurt and Debra, I'm sure they'll be great.

It's long but if anyone has the time, might I recommend I say this as a fan of the show, I do think this guy made good points. It's not really about shipping, it's mostly a critique of the writing, especially Moffat's habits. I don't deny that those showrunners, in a general sense, tended towards asking for the audience's investment and then punished them for caring. How Sherlock survived the fall, for example, I think what they made a mockery of was for people trying to answer how Sherlock did it rather than making fun shippers with fake Sherlock/Molly and Sherlock/Moriarty scenes. I do think they at least thought they were giving those shippers a treat, and I've seen plenty of gifsets use those Sherlock/Molly and Sherlock/Moriarty scenes. Interestingly enough, TJLCers tried to claim that as proof of Sherlock/John being real because Sherlock/John didn't have a fake make out. So if the showrunners were making fun of shippers, TJLCers were all too happy to join in. But however right or wrong it was for them to play with subtext, they were clear that playing was what they were doing. And when it got to a point where denying became more of a "Okay, it's not funny anymore, we're really NOT making Sherlock and John a couple", there was some expressed acknowledgement that maybe they had gone too far in the past. I seem to recall it being in an interview, I want to say a couple months before S4 aired. I think they didn't expect certain parts of the audience to take it as seriously as they did or apply how "maybe we're lying, maybe we're not" the writers were about other aspects of the show to a ship. But that didn't mean they weren't adamant about not putting Sherlock and John together. Steven Moffat also wasn't the only showrunner here, Mark Gatiss was too and what ended up resulting was a gay man being accused of queer-baiting his own show.

Now this makes me think of what went down in the Sherlock fandom. The show itself pointedly kept Sherlock, the character, out of a relationship but so much of the show's driving force was in Sherlock's interactions with other people. And actually, that's something that made shipping in Sherlock really fun, the endless possibilities of what a relationship with this character or that character or whatever would be like. And all without feeling like you're going against canon to imagine it. But while the writers enjoyed playing with subtext, I think it was done in such a way to signify that it wasn't promising anything. You were more than welcome to take Sherlock's scenes with a character romantically but the only way you'd see it play out is in your head, which I think the audience at large understood and accepted. Except... for a particular set of Sherlock/John shippers. And I want to be clear on this because it's important, I think large fanbases are vulnerable to getting a bad rap simply because when they have a small percentage of bad eggs, it still amounts to a lot of people/they seem louder. But a certain subset of Sherlock/John fans came to the conclusion that the show was one big conspiracy - TJLC (The Johnlock Conspiracy) - where the last episode was going to reveal Sherlock and John had been in love all this time and they were going to be made a couple. It was to set the course for all representation and finally, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's soul could be at peace, because "obviously" the reason he'd grown to hate writing Sherlock Holmes stories was because society wouldn't have accepted Holmes and Watson as a couple. So when S4 aired, and Sherlock and John were still NOT canon... all hell broke loose. From attacks on other fans, including the Sherlock/John shippers who simply liked the ship but didn't believe in canon, to hating the actors whose non-Sherlock or John characters dared take attention away from Sherlock and John's love, and then the general love/hate relationship with the writers. The writers were either bad for denying the ship or lying because it would've been a spoiler, but still queerbaiting for not following through on a promise that they never made. And then there were others who refused to let it go, from imagining a secret fourth episode of S4 would put Sherlock and John together to S5 revealing S4 had been all a dream, or Mind Palace, and S4 was written bad on purpose. If there's ever a S5, it was always such that it wouldn't be for many years - it's been five years already. I have a really hard time believing they'd leave the show in a fever dream when there's no guarantee they'd ever get to reveal that. I find it even harder to believe anyone would write a show badly ON PURPOSE. A lot of the criticisms of the latter two years can be chalked up to Steven Moffat's typical habits as a writer. I certainly preferred S1-2 but I still found things to like afterwards, but I do think S3-4 were guilty of being high stakes/no fallout and I'd agree Moffat's generally better at the self-contained story than a series' long arc. But, this is just my theory of it, I think for those who fell down the TJLC rabbit hole had invested so much in, not only in a ship, but being RIGHT, that they couldn't handle the reality and the problem still had to be everyone else.

There are ships out there where I can understand their merits, even if I personally don't agree. And there are certainly those where I can (reluctantly) still admit when I think there's chemistry. But Sawyer/Juliet is something I'll go to my grave never understanding. For one thing, I barely bought them as friends let alone in love - at best, I saw them as stuck with each other so might as well make the best of it. But I remember being so disgusted at how OTT cheesy and OOC Sawyer was when they first introduced it that I couldn't wait to read reviews that ripped the writing apart. Instead, it was like a punch to the gut how they were hailed like the best thing to ever happen in LOST. Sawyer was my favorite character and I'll forever be bitter at the way they neutered him to try to sell me on this horrible ship. And I'll never not be convinced that at least some of the regard was just out of spite because the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle was more grating by the day. The other thing is, I HATE the use of time jumps to steamroll character development. I often see whining when a love story is crafted between two characters who had limited on-screen interaction but I'd rather see the limited interaction that led to it than be told two characters are in love because of all this bonding they did for years off-screen. To me, time jumps are often a sign of writer laziness or incompetence.

The Jimmy and Kim montage in Better Call Saul, set to Lola Marsh's cover of Something Stupid, is a thing of beauty. Part 2 (it was just uploaded that way) And in honor of Reichenbach day, Moriarty staging a theft of the Crown Jewels along to La Gazza Ladra - The Thieving Magpie - is one of my favorite sequences in any TV show, not just in Sherlock. Hannibal made good use of this music too with Jack fighting Hannibal. It's also on youtube but I didn't know if it was too graphic to post (it has a bit of the old ultra-violence).

The Rise of Skywalker has its problems... oh so many problems... and I know Ben has his haters, but I don't care. This is a beautiful scene and genuinely my favorite across all three movies (and small miracles that Han was one of the only characters I think the sequels didn't ruin).

While I find the plot of The Last Jedi weak and the humor painfully forced (worse than in the other sequels), I have the most respect for it for at least trying to do character development. I do think it fumbled a bit in its approach but in this age of sequels and reboots and whatnot, I don't think there's enough of letting characters be characters and too much of this new character has to embody that old one. If all that matters is being reminded of original characters/dynamics, then I say let the original characters be front and center and damn if they're older - Harrison Ford is 77 and still doing Indiana Jones. And TLJ isn't to blame for The Rise of Skywalker's failings... at least not the cause, maybe a symptom. Different people will have different ideas, that's a risk you run with no overarching plan (from what I saw). A dumb analogy I think of is when there's a station swap on cooking competitions, they're always clueless of what to make from their opponent's ingredients but they're all professionals and it's their job to use the resources at hand and make a satisfying dish. TRoS is still responsible for its own final product and it prioritized fanservice over storytelling. But giving a nod then pulling back, so as not to alienate the other side, just shortchanges everyone; you can't please everyone but you can sure as hell piss off everyone. You want Kylo Ren to be an irredeemable villain, stick with it; you want to redeem him, take the time so he can turn AND be accountable, that's where the payoff is. But I know, that's work, it's easier to rip off Vader's end and call it nostalgia. Or acting like Rey/Finn/Poe were the "new" Luke/Leia/Han just because they happened to be the three main heroes of the sequels, when that was only established off-screen between TLJ and TRoS (time jumps don't equal character development) and their trust/importance was always undercut by never telling each other anything. Real unpopular opinion: Finn/Poe/Rose were more of a/better trio. Of course nothing takes the cake of fanservice, to the point of incoherence, like Rey Palpatine Skywalker. Palpatine being back at all... oh but wait, it's a clone. Rey's his granddaughter... oh but wait, she's the granddaughter of a clone. Her parents loved and tried to protect her... oh but wait, her father was (also) one of the clones, making her (also) clone Palpatine's daughter. But Ian McDiarmid probably can't pass for her father so let's focus on grandfather. Not that this was even all in the movie, some was pathetic overcompensation afterwards. Or that being a Palpatine doesn't define you, that you don't need a name to be somebody (ironically a message TLJ already conveyed in Rey Nobody... which I actually liked) is immediately undermined by Rey taking the name Skywalker because legacy is all that matters. The novelization even said it was Leia's wish that Rey continue the Skywalker legacy (with Poe carrying the Organa legacy and Ben with the Solo legacy). But I get it, 'Skywalker' is more profitable for the brand than 'Rey'. TL;DR: Own your writing choices, don't let fanservice come at the expense of storytelling.

More excerpts from the novelization (longish thread): https://twitter.com/thislilstangirl/status/1239704343760207872 Just Rae Carson (author of TRoS novelization) - imo - being funny about the "gratitude kiss": https://twitter.com/raecarson/status/1238524861338628097

I found some screenshots of the passage with the kiss and Ben's death if anyone's interested: The kiss His death For my money, I don't think gratitude says anything one way or the other about feelings towards the person one's in gratitude to. One can be grateful for something towards someone they're in love with, they can also be grateful for something towards someone that they're not in love with. I do think TPTB's trying to have its cake and eat it too as not confirming Reylo but not denying it either. Personally, I wouldn't take a moment to take in the other person and only then kiss them, and for a lot longer than a peck, if my thanks was platonic. But since this was Ben's POV here anyway, I take it as his gratitude that Rey didn't just walk away once she'd been revived.

I mostly lurk anyway, and will go right back to it after since I'm more of the "I hope Adam Driver doesn't get back problems from carrying the weight of this trilogy" variety, but as a movie itself, I think it had some good ideas but didn't really follow through on them. (The consequence of trying to appeal to everybody, rather than writing for the good of the story, being the constant backpedaling/half-measures so as not to step on any toes, then nothing reaches its potential.) I think they should've started Ben's redemption earlier, I remember sitting there feeling like I was suddenly watching a different movie. It's like the movie simultaneously dragged on and was rushed with an ending that had no time to let the emotional weight of anything settle. They were just scrambling to get the characters to where they needed to be at the end. But as I love all things Han Solo, naturally my favorite scene was Ben imagining talking to him again. How it acted as a callback to TFA when killing Han, instead of cementing Ben's allegiance to the dark side, it tore him up more than ever, now it acted as the final push for Ben to drop the Kylo Ren persona once and for all. And I think that's how I have to treat these movies, enjoy the moments I liked, and take each movie for what it is, rather than hoping for a consistent whole. Because as a followup to TLJ, TRoS doesn't really work just as, as a followup to TFA, TLJ doesn't really work. It's like no one could agree on the story this trilogy was trying to tell. As for the novelization, I'm not bothered by the use of "gratitude" but I am annoyed at how both sides seem fixated on the word without bothering to look at what it was for in the context of the whole quote: "A kiss of gratitude, acknowledgement of their connection, celebration that they'd found each other at last" (also that the paragraph came from Ben's POV). Gratitude doesn't negate love but neither should everything have to be explicitly spelled out, there's room for interpretation. It also seems to give context to Rey not seeming to mourn him because just after he dies, she hears Ben's voice saying "I will be always be with you" and she whispers to herself "No one's ever really gone." The Palpatine thing though - UGH. He's a clone, Rey's his granddaughter but her father was also one of those clones (which wouldn't that make Rey his daughter?! Or his clone self's daughter?!)... I don't know, the more they seem to try to justify it, the worse I think they make it. I'm with Elijah Wood on that one, it needs to stop. I do find it curious though, per the novelization, that apparently it was that Leia wanted the Skywalker legacy to live on through Rey, the Solo legacy to live on through Ben, and the Organa legacy to live on through Poe. Sadly I feel like new footage with Carrie Fisher was needed for that to work.

When it wanted to, Scrubs really knew how to pack the emotional punches. The saddest for me were with Dr. Cox, probably because he was one of those characters who was usually so above it all. And this:

The sneaking around is actually the part of Monica and Chandler that I didn't like. It was fine at first but they dragged it on so long and the "they don't know that we know that they know that we know" got so absurd that it was just annoying. I know it's one of the most popular but it's one of my least favorite episodes of the show. I also think Monica and Chandler were aided by Friends being an ensemble show. There wasn't always the pressure to write them something to do, some episodes could focus on them while others could focus on the other characters. I think that made it easier to make them the stable couple of the show. Although ironically, while I don't dislike the pairing (despite how I might come across), I still preferred both characters as individuals before they got together.

Gotta be honest, I'm looking forward to when they can't be dominated by Game of Thrones. I'm happy for the actors but I hate how a season as awful as S8, according to both fans and critics, can still get all the love because it's just that 'big' of a show and was on its last season. They can get away with mediocrity that others can't and probably got chosen over shows that were more deserving. Or maybe I'm just angry that the Starbucks cup and water bottles got snubbed. Otherwise I'm thrilled for Chernobyl and am really pulling for Jared Harris. I'm also happy to see the love for Better Call Saul but I'm surprised at Rhea Seehorn getting left out when the rest of the core cast (not that I'm not happy for them) got recognition. Actually, it's the same surprise I have about Fleabag in that basically everyone except Andrew Scott got nominated.

I guess we're in for plenty more Helping Hands and Living Scenery. I liked last year when they had just done away with celebrities and there was more variety of games. Still looking forward to the new season though.