Featherhat

From various "After The Storms" and other media it seems like they're going for the "redeemed by the love of a good woman" trope, which is interesting in a female relationship but not a storytelling device I enjoy by any means. The trouble for me is that we found out in the pilot that Scylla was Spree and had a mission to recruit Raelle and saw her do various shady/smug things after that and never really got the chance to see her falling in love with Raelle on her own terms. It wouldn't be the first show to skip over that part when telling this story, but it is the most vital. But they have 10 episodes to cram a huge amount of story into. They're also leaning heavily on "The Spree have a point" and "poor Scylla recruited when she was a young orphan" neither of which I fully buy right now. The Spree would burn the world to destroy Alder/Bellweathers/witch military and Scylla stops being able to use that as an excuse when mass murder starts. ATS also seems to say Scylla is a true believer as well. I have shipped my share of toxic relationships in the past but I need something more than what they're giving me, which is a version of insta!love and because the story says so. Rushing it to pack all of this into 10 episodes isn't working for me and worse looking at that list of couples, it feels like she's the Aria of the group where 90% of her scenes would be able/with Fitz and 10% with the girls and it was the opposite ratio with the other 3. Combined that with the grossness of Fitz , instant relationship and *no way*. Maybe it would have worked better if the audience had been shown the Spree reveal at the same time as the other characters so it would be a shock. They could use the red headed girl disguise more when talking to the balloon etc. I do think they're leaning into the lesbian couple shipping a bit but there's a lot of other stuff going on as well. I mean we're also supposed to be rooting for Tally/Gerit I think even though that's extremely complicated right now.

I have legit blocked so much about the Civil War arc out for mental health reasons, both what was on screen and BTS. Just all around terrible and WTF? JH could have conducted herself better in the beginning it is true, Kat knows how to do it perfectly and she's 10+ years younger than anyone else. She'd had her own show already with her own very loud fanbase and took the time to play to her Arrow/Olicity fandom audience with acknowledgment of the history of the show and research. Tyler Ritter (Tiny Hands) handled fans on twitter well IIRC, he came across that he accepted that his character would be the focus of some *displeasure* and took it for what it was without letting it bother him. As a result I was pleased for him when he got a CW pilot that year and other opportunities soon after.

Next interview she'll be back to wanting SA to guest star so they can explore more of any variation of Oliver and Laurel some more. I don't think she hates EBR at all, though I don't think they're BFFs like some claim, but she never supported Olicity or Felicity herself. Which is fine, she wanted the ship/leading lady position that she was promised and Olicity was one of the reasons that sank. Definitely not the only reason but the most tangible. She has clearly never let go of "Loliver" (heh) because she wanted that leading lady position back. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous, especially when it was noticeable that she started live tweeting episodes when EBR left. IIRC she also liked tweets saying Blackstar should be revealed to be Oliver and Siren's daughter and that they should get together. Not to mention that she seemed to go out of her way not to mention Mia/FTA when directed the biggest twist of the season. With JH I don't think she was ready for a lot of the intensity and speculation from many sides of the fandom or perhaps too ready having been gee-d up by someone because she came in very much "I'm the badass, GD Black Canary!" on SM sometimes and that involved liking a lot of "Down with Olicity, up with BC!" stuff and people wondering if they were going with GA/BC 3.0.

They finally found a use for all the ancient Egyptian costumes and sets they created for S1! And Zari looked amazing. And TA shined pretending to be Cleopatra. And we got to see more of nu!Zari's layers and thoughts. I did like her chemistry with John but I don't think I want them to get together because that's not going to end well for my precious Z. Though it would be much better to watch on screen than Nate/Zari whilst it lasted. The show's obviously teasing it at the end though so we'll see what happens. Love Charlie's hair this ep. As a British person it's just a tick but it annoys me when the keep putting Northumberland County, UK in the title card. No need for the middle part. Nate is a little self aware and funny about falling in love with women from different time periods who leave him. I guess CL was either finishing up the crossover or attending Oliver's funeral this ep. I guess I really shouldn't complain as she had a good sized role in the crossover and definitely needed to be there for Oliver's funeral but with that and CL directing it does feel she's been barely in a lot of episodes and often Ava's Girlfriend first in others. Assassin's Honour! Heh. The Dinner of the Encores was fun and then watching them take each other out. I fee like Ava has let finding out she's a clone being a clone define her more than she admitted to Astra. She's a pretty boring leader of the Legends so I hope Sara's in the final eps a lot. So Astra's becoming a team frenemy, should be interesting.

To me it was more "big confirmation" because a couple of weeks ago we were discussing the possibility of that being a generic Spree mask or somehow not Scylla when discussing possible redemption arcs and if she was a mass murderer (which yep, confirmed). I just roll my eyes when she was all "we're the only ones that can liberate witchkind". Yeah by making people more afraid of them than ever and killing them (witchkind as well) in the nastiest ways possible. If Congress takes the military away from Alder then people aren't suddenly going to leave witches and their powers alone. And the Spree want it to be Witches Vs Humans which is going to end badly for everyone. Good episode, cutting the volunteer's throat and going through a random and long explanation for why whilst she was dying next to her was brutal. Abigail was being the MVP of the Bellweather Unit solidarity and camaraderie. I liked her storyline with Adil, they have nice chemistry and it showed Abigail still learning to deal with her Bellweather arrogance or at least know when to use it and when not to, when to glorify the military and when to shut up. And the fact that war weather weapons cause devastation to civilians. As all weapons and wars do. ANW is doing a great job with the different aspects of this character, especially since this is her first job. Jessica Sutton continues to have the most amazing expressions. Poor Tally dealing with her issues and the hook up with Gerit is not going to end well, even if he doesn't love his fiancée. So she's a powerful knower? Wouldn't you know the unit has one of each and (probably) Scylla 2.0 as a Necro. I liked Raelle okay in this episode. I think the mixing in of Christian prayers and passages with her folk paganism/low magic is interesting. A lot of her power does come from being inherited from her mother but also because it's completely unorthodox so takes everyone by surprise. However I wasn't a big fan of the big Scylla reunion. I've never been on board with this relationship because we saw from the pilot Scylla was a terrorist and I don't think they put enough into it to be all "but I really truly fell in love with you". Also because Raelle continues to be wrapped up in that drama and the Unit takes a back seat to all of that, even when she's going along with them it feels like it's second to everything else in this ep. I get that Scylla was an orphan in very difficult circumstances recruited by a death cult but "twinge of regret" doesn't count for much when she actually went through with mass murdering. She also hasn't openly expressed any regret to anyone. Not even when talking to Raelle about how much she loves her. What was going on with the Colonel Doctor and the mushroom insect? Adler continues to be Adler and definitely not to be trusted with powerful songs from other witches and cultures.

I've seen "Merlance" floating around as the more popular smashed together version. The scene was alright. Nowhere near the scene in the pilot though, where both injected a lot more life and flirtiness into it. In this neither of them seemed in to re creating the moment, even CD who put a lot of effort into lifting their scenes the first time around. The pilot scene also set up their series long love triangle and GA/BC/Dark Archer origin story that wasn't. I guess if they already planned to have Tommy/Laurel married for a few years in the finale this would remind people that they had a thing. This is the scene that's the reason KC said she doesn't want E2 to have anything to do with Prime!Tommy if the spin off is picked up? Granted it's potentially really questionable to replace loved ones with their multiverse counterparts but that doesn't stop her from saying she wants SA to guest star so they can explore Laurel and Oliver backstory some more. She's welcome to her preferences of course and I guess it gets the most attention from her fanbase but at this point she should be hoping all versions of Laurel move on to someone who loves them the most and doesn't chose her sister over her twice, propose to someone else at least twice and you know recreated the universe and made it so she married someone else. Whether that's Tommy for an ep or two or a completely different guy.

It feels like for whatever reason they need NZ to be in a ship on screen, whether it's part of what sold him on the show/contract (main romantic hero) or just Klemmer's personal preference. Because they already had Avalance who are popular albeit not with me and could have done a lot more with Ray/Nora both last season and this season. With Nate/Zari it just felt like she was the only woman of appropriate age and sexuality so slap them together, formulaic and done. Oh and now it's "tragic" a love where they don't remember. 🙄 If they'd taken longer to build it up and make it unique it might have worked better but LOT rolls on instant! relationships quite a bit. Nate/Amaya just suddenly happened as well, I like them a lot more, yeah when they backed off the tragic stuff and had some fun (as we got to experience through poor Zari herself!).

Hmm, I really enjoy Tala Ashe interviews and I love her love of OG Zari. I miss her so much. Sigh it doesn't seem like we're getting her back though. They do have chemistry, not sure if I'd want them to pair up because everyone Constantine loves dies horribly or worse but it would be more interesting than "Steelhacker". I don't know why Nate has always had a romance on the show, NZ's best work has been without one (4A). I mean I get why in theory but it hasn't worked out that "the beefcake" 🙄 of the show has the hottest chemistry with people, IMHO anyway.

I remember there were promo pics of the Monitor which was part of people piecing together the "OMG Mia probably time travels back to 2029!" Good to see the scene had have an on screen reason why Oliver doesn't call Sara - especially as the show used her *a lot* as a time taxi in the final few episodes. Also the Monitor really should have been more bothered Oliver didn't trust him and told him he was working against him. I know he was all "all roads lead to Crisis" but you don't want your supposed big asset on the wrong page thinking you're the Anti Monitor instead. Although he did end up getting blindsided by most of what actually happened in COIE.

Ok so it looks like I wasn't the only one thinking it looked like Julia and Sophie were going to get cosy. They did have chemistry last episode but it's going to be messy due to Kate, even if it ends with Sophie and Kate acknowledging their feelings ala Oliver/Sara on Arrow. And I'm still very on the fence about Kate/Sophie in general. I liked Reagan so I don't mind she's back but she's probably not going to last past the end of the episode if the promo of them jumping into bed again is anything to go by. And whilst bartender works better for Kate now she runs are bar it's still an extremely "temp love interest/stall" job. With Mary, yes, I assume it's going to be her thinking she has to prove herself to Kate to be on Team Batwoman and get involved with a side of Kate worrying about her getting (even more) hurt if she's deliberately confronting danger with them. Even though she's been Robin Hooding it on her own for ages.

Pretty much. Or at least to me. RS can chew scenery like a boss but Mary's always my MVP. Especially here. She told Kate she knows and adorably chided herself for not realising earlier, gave Kate a comforting yet very firm speech to get back out there, she refused to leave her patients who were too sick to move! And almost broke Luke at the end. Really good episode. I liked Kate exploring how she feels after her first official kill. Slid into cliché at times but I'm glad they showed it. I don't actually mind it when heroes kill, it's sometimes a lot more preferable than not making the hard choice and letting a bad guy go to kill others because you want your own hands clean but I'm glad there are emotional consequences as well. Luke continues to grow on me week by week "there is no Bat Team HR department" snerk. And his anger and pain in confronting Robles were really good. And swapping pep talks with Kate about the nature of heroism. And babbling futilely about Kate not being Batwoman at the end. I liked Julia more this time around and she and Sophie made a good B team with what little screen time they had. Now they're going to be working together. I was wondering if I was supposed to be picking up on attraction/UST hints or not. I hope not, that would be an incredibly soapy triangle. Even if it ended with Julia spelling it out to Kate that she's still in love with Sophie. Alice and Mouse were good in their C plot escape/decision to be royalty in the asylum. Although that is a lot of trouble to go to get some thread. I did feel sorry for Alice being tortured at the beginning even with all she's done. I enjoyed the group therapy session and Tommy Elliot ranting about Bruce, and now he's connected to Lucius Fox's murder. Hmm. So Bruce killer the Joker? Ok. We got a version of his Ferryboat conundrum this ep musing in the nature of humanity and heroism. @quarks Has your brain reset and recovered a bit now or are you still trying to find out who really killed the Joker?

Very random, but Spoilertv often has very strange user polls. I legitimately can't remember the hallway fight when Oliver saves Walter, though I remember him flying on to the roof and bursting in to the room and seeing Walter. I also have a sneaking suspicion that Walter realised just who had rescued him as well, though it was never hinted.

Yeah basically it's a site that tricks you into thinking you might actually get into a personal conversation with your celebrity of choice but it's a way they can "connect" with you more easily so you don't miss exciting opportunities to buy, tickets, sponsored products, merchandise, random stuff via text that you otherwise might have missed if you didn't happen to be checking their twitter and insta accounts constantly. The S4 discussion posted up there is actually interesting and reasonable on everyone's parts. I don't adore 4A but I do like it pre crossover. The New Green Lantern had a conversation with the old Green/White Ranger (I feel like he and Sara might have an interesting meeting).

Getting killed off and knocked down hasn't actually changed how KC comes across in interviews even if it gave her new perspective in real life. Even if they hadn't done the brilliant game changer of bringing the kids back from the future I doubt Oliver and Laurel would have got very many more significant scenes, they seemed somewhat allergic to writing those in the last couple of seasons. The ones that she was tweeting about "hey check out Laurel and Oliver!!" in eps 1 and 2 were the most they'd had since S3 but not amazingly emotional - mostly for me because I was incredibly annoyed she was blaming Oliver for the destruction and *how* she was blaming him. It is amusing that she's completely "nah to Tommy and Laurel because of stuff that happened" and yes! to exploring more Laurel and Oliver who seem to have a completely effed up relationship on every Earth. I think at this point it's because she knows her fans want that interaction and she'd be proving some kind of point about what she was promised 8 years ago. JH did this as well when they were promoting the BDP episode (and kinda spoiled Oliver wasn't 100% dead) but why say you really want SA to guest star when the last Arrow show was completely about his character? Pick someone less obvious because you have a GA. Especially when SA had been ranting about how done he is for months and the spin off was only commissioned because he was done.

I think this virtual press tour has been a lot about the spin off, either trying to sell it to the fans or sell the CW on the idea as final decisions are being made in the next couple of weeks remind everyone it exists in a very uncertain time. They sent these three out pretty much exclusively and no one else for a reason, because they're still under contract and have a stake in the future of the franchise. I mean no point trying to ask SA to do something right now, even if good DVD sales help his bottomline but DR or BL or JDJ would be professional and amusing as well. And BL and JDJ also have a stake in the future but they went with new GA and the Canaries because those are the headlines for the potential new series. That said I think KM usually comes off as more thoughtful and invested in promoting Arrow than KC does, talking about what an honour it was to come in to such a long running show and play such an important character and how she brought her to life. - She also does things like comment "My actual Parents" when TVGuide randomly tweets about the Olicity hiking pic when she doesn't have to. And also the possibility of continuing and the spin off. In these interviews KC often comes across as saying nonsense word salad like about her clairvoyance that the show will get picked up. And yeah like with a lot of things she talks about it's entirely about her and her character but that's the case even when she's talking about Arrow. And she really needs this spin off along with JH whilst KM has more options.

I think this was my favourite line and kind of summed up a lot about B99. I really enjoyed that, clichés and all. I was kind of surprised no one on the show mentioned the time they kind of subverted the cliché and had Sharon *almost* give birth in the precinct. Loved Jake and Charles trying to get back and disasters just kept getting heaped on them, but hey Jake packed a lot into one night especially with stopping a huge robbery (off screen!). I loved when he called Amy and was all "but getting to the hospital with this crazy crew on a peddle bar was my crazy birth story" and Amy just could not give a crap. Adored Holt and Terry in the elevator and then helping Amy take her mind off the pain in labour "do you think they're stealing drugs from evidence for me?" Holt has come such a long way that I felt it was still within his character growth and not entirely just random sitcom highjinks. And it all stemmed from the inadvisable idea to read the municipal code book before bed. They brought back the FDNY rivalry "Firefighters are just EMTs with bunk beds!" hehe, but they also get a great reputation for great baby stories. Loved Amy/Rosa again "half Cuban Jimmy Neutron!", this is where I especially don't miss what would probably have been a "Gina Saves the Day!" storyline. And Amy running the precinct like a boss. It might have been good if she'd been successful at hiding them earlier in the day so it wasn't count down to 3 minutes right away but it worked. Hitchcock and Scully panic eating food as soon as the blackout hit and then providing a great birthing suite was good. Aww McClane/MacLaine, cute. That was a big baby they were holding at the end. Jake and Amy were going to combind their names at one point but that never happened and we never found out if it was going to be Peralta-Santiago/Santiago-Peralta for both or literally Peraltiago. I wonder if the baby is hyphenated? I liked that they didn't end on a cliffhanger for once, it felt appropriate, especially as the so often involved Jake having to leave for months it would have been cruel.

Obviously it doesn't solve anything. I think them making a mistake after a near death experience and all having sex *could* be an interesting wrench in the storyline as they struggle with the fallout because the strong emotional bonds were one of the reasons Maria started it in the first place (after nearly dying). But the way they set it up and how Heather is talking about it in that interview just scream that it's going to blow back on Maria in an ugly way. And it truly plays into people's fears that CAM is willing to throw her under the bus to get her cosmic love back together eventually. It would take much better writers to do it justice for all three of them. Theoretically it could have lead to them attempting a throuple situation storyline because they emphasised the Alex-Maria bond, (even with Alex identifying as gay) but that doesn't seem on the cards from the look on his face and the completely separate morning afters. Even if they did, I doubt it would work longterm with their character traits and probably none of them being ready for a strong couple let alone anything more complicated requiring everyone be willing to communicate 100%. And that would need much more nuanced writers to do it justice as well.

Amanda Tapping is one of those actors who actually made a serious second career out of directing so she should be good and I think she's also doing a Batwoman episode. She had some serious issues with how they wrote her character in SG-1 early on and ended up just telling the writers "write her like you would a guy and I'll bring the feminine aspect to the character with the acting!" and it worked. I'm very interested that have hired a black female writer and cautiously optimistic that it's a step in the right direction. I'm sceptical that she's going to be calling out the treatment of Iris in the show because she's new and presumably wants to keep her job and even if she did would they listen to her? Wallace listed hiring a black female writer as an order that Berlanti gave him at the beginning of the season so I hope she's not just a tickbox hire. When the show had other female writers I never felt their scripts were particularly better for the female characters than those written by men because the overall writers room was such a boys club as was the tone of the show. Sigh, Iris is still in the mirror in 6x18? Who thought this was a good idea? Even if you had another 3-4 episodes after that, there's not a lot of time to give real WestAllen a storyline dealing with this and explore their changed dynamic or whatever was going to be going on. And with 6x19 the new finale it's all going to be up in the air.

They've had an issue with using powers and other SFX for a few seasons now. There were always multiple times no one or only one or two of them used them when they should have had the full team all out. I think Constantine and the magic/hell stuff is sucking what there is of the already very stretched budget. I do like Constantine but I am very ready to move on from magic/demons after this season. He's such a big character that he sucks up so much of the show even when he's not actually on screen that much. I get why they wanted to do this storyline but hope after he saves Astra or at any rate however the big plot thread from his own series is given closure, that he leaves. That would be a good end point for him. Or failing that he fades into being part of the crew and snarking not constantly doing spells and driving so much of the show.

I'm doing a rewatch of the OG series in quarantine and I just saw the episode where Liz's Dad sees Maria giving Liz Echinacea for her cold and thinks it's drugs instead. That and the whole Alex thinks Liz is into Max because drugs thing took the place of Rosa's storyline in both the books and now the new version. Although in the book he was constantly on guard for Liz doing the same as Rosa as well.

To be honest I have no idea I haven't read them for years and the books are in a box at my parents if they haven't been given to charity so I can't check. The nostalgia would be big for me if I did. I remember really enjoying them as a kid and IIRC writing wise they were roughly on par with some of the Buffy/Angel/X files tie in books I was reading around the same time if that helps? Not great but readable I would think. I remember I really liked the auras and scents the characters had which wasn't really carried over to the TV series.

IIRC she found it at the mall after the showdown there in the previous book with Valenti and Niklaus getting killed. She gets powers and starts getting really close to Michael. The stones had something to do with joining the collective consciousness they have to do when they become adults and the alien puberty? I think Ray the adult alien died in book 4 or 5. I think that's how Adam died over the stones and the rebels but I can't remember, I only borrowed later books from the library instead of buying them.

I don't think of her as an evil mastermind. If it hadn't been for HH's interview and knowing about the Cosmic Love from the showrunner etc I'd be saying it was a questionable decision brought on by nearly being axe murdered by a random evil twin and it could be interesting for the characters to deal with. Neither guy seemed interested at first but both could have walked away from it you are 100% correct. That visible reluctance and the separate "morning after" with both of them just left it in a really weird place, especially as "enthusiastic consent" was actually mentioned out loud in this episode. And yeah with this show there's no such thing as subtlety or nuance to make the characters grow and there's not going to be a happy ending. The way they set it up seems like it's going to blow back on Maria but if they'd just done it differently it wouldn't be so sudden and potentially troubling. They could have spent more time building up to it, especially with Alex. But that would be because they actually wanted to create a potential throuple, which they don't. Both of them can certainly do better than Michael.

I think it's possible that there could be a situation like this on the show and it would be more a case that Maria just plain messed up character-wise and it played out without being/seeming racist. Maria could have legitimately thought this was a good idea for the three of them and it exploded in their faces instead. However because of Carina's treatment of Maria in general, the fact that it was extremely sudden and completely out of character and played as extremely questionable for Alex, and HH's interview it's going to end up coming across terribly and blow up everything whilst the Cosmic Lovers work their way back towards each other. I have seen some Maria and Maria/Michael fans hope it means MM are strong and Alex is satisfied but set free because he was loved by both of them but I don't think that's going to be what happens. The meteors having a strange affect on people might be a way they can spin it. However I think they'd have said that. And it would have fit more if it was Isabel/Bartender/Kyle in that case.

People thinking EBR and AT were dating because they publicly posted pictures of them kissing just seems like it was designed to get attention and then be able to go "what, obviously not you trolls!". But not everyone kisses their same sex best friends like that so it was obviously going to get questions. They love poking the crazies so they can laugh at the reaction and also feel superior to them. I feel like they're bringing Stemily up to get attention, when he's working he doesn't bother with it, or actively profits from playing with it (recent con pictures). I think the only people who thought they were married was the one pic where EBR was wrongly labelled as his wife and at the time they laughed about it. So jealous of EBR right about now, in all the ways.