Dandesun

The fear of a false rape accusation being thrown around is the one thing that really has me dreading this whole storyline. All I wanted was to enjoy some good soapy ridiculousness even with an older woman and a barely legal young man because why the hell not? Why can't I have fun, ridiculous things since I know I can't have nice things? Why must I always expect awful things with this writing team?

In the real world, the camera necklace is a huge problem. In soap world, it's not. It just isn't and I would be utterly gob-smacked if anyone brought up the illegality of Franco's evil eye. Then again... that may well be their get everyone out of jail free card. It's hard to say how Ron will play this. Real life legality has no bearing on what he writes.

So Ron thinks that all serial killers are Norman Bates and their issues lie solely with women? Way to think outside the box, dude.

Port Charles could start a conga line with that one. I feel like this is a trick question. I mean, the answer is obviously 'because this is Sonny we're talking about.' You know how they say that the villain is the hero of his own story? That's Sonny to a T.

For the most part, I always thought that Carly viewed Michael as a tool to be used to control... first Jason, then Sonny, usually both. Sure, you got some scenes here and there where she behaved like a mother but, for the most part Michael was useful to her to keep her mits on Jason and to shoehorn herself into a position of power with him and Sonny. She can bleat about love all she wants... to be honest, I've never felt that Carly understood the word anyway. Granted, a lot of the Jason/Michael early years were Guza doing every contortion known to man to make Jason the Ultimate Father for the Red Menace and Carly didn't fit into his plans there at all... but she benefited from Jason's attachment to Michael which was all that mattered to her. They're all so fucked up.

Isn't that the same 'critical thinking' that caused him to kill AJ? I have no real proof, just a basic idea fueled by my hatred! That's never wrong!

Roger's fine for the most part but he doesn't belong on GH. Not anymore. He had two shots. One was blessedly taken out of Ron and Frank's hands and then they blew the second one. Completely. There is no third try. It's long past time for him to go. What's more, I don't think he even cares... he's relying on too many of his old crutches and he's doing very little that's remotely worthwhile. Off to Crescent City with you, Roger. Hopefully The Flash will keep him occupied for the foreseeable future and I PRAY that he has no need of that fucking woobie face there.

It was like that scene from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. "Why a spoon, cousin?" "Because it's blunt, you idiot! It will hurt more!" As if Carly doesn't know how to go after people where they'll hurt the most. Seriously, Ron writes her so badly, so stupidly, and I can't stand the creature. It's like her well-earned comeuppance doesn't have the satisfying feeling it should simply because she's written so poorly it takes a lot of the pleasure out of it.

At this point, I have no idea why JJ and Paige even want to be together. Early on I liked them because they had that sweet high school/early college sweethearts vibe that was charming. Plus, Paige seemed smart and level-headed and actually showed it. But now, I don't understand why they're in love (allegedly) or trying to be together at all. And this seems to be an issue with the show runners because they start off fine and then they veer into the angsty turmoil area way too quickly with not enough build up to really root for the pairing. Seriously, these show runners are astoundingly good at wrecking pairings. I admit that I FF a lot these days. Although Kristen creeping out of the bushes after overhearing Theresa might be one of the funniest things of the day. Her stance was like a gorilla. It was hilarious. Eve getting the bad news about her voice... KDP played the shit out of that. It's just too bad they haven't given her more of an emotional connection to her so called singing career before this. Even if we had gotten a day or two of her explaining to someone what it meant to her instead of having her go on and on to people who seemed to not give two shits about it and couldn't wait to get away from her. Let this woman emote! She's really good at it! And, dude, Eric... way to be a thoughtless jerk. "Yeah anyway... byeeee!" You know Eve was distraught... she left a glass of wine behind in her misery! And now there's JJ. And I just don't see much good happening here... even if they do sleep together (which I don't have an issue with) I get the feeling it will get REALLY ugly right after.

Well, if the writers were SMART (ha ha!! Excuse me while I wipe several tears of helpless laughter from my eyes!) they'd have Michael do another one of those 'defense of others' situations and NOT go to Sonny or Carly for help and have the system go the way it should. Then have him really open his eyes to the knee-jerk 'cops are bad and are out to get us!' response that Carly and Sonny (and Jason) always took on because THEY WERE ALWAYS BREAKING THE LAW!! Also, I hope that if Sonny mentions the word 'honor' in front of Michael, he kicks Sonny's teeth out.

Brenda also got a bit of a reformation story after her full on bitch stuff with Karen. Plus, I mean... she lost. She suffered the fate that bitches suffer when they go after a man who loves another. Triangles have losers and Brenda lost. She lost a few times there. So it was a bit easier to accept her shift. She went from bitchy bad girl to vixen with a heart which wasn't a huge unbelievable change. But she should still end up with Jax and in my head, she with him and it was bad medication that had her going 'Oh poor Sonny' when he told her about setting a car bomb. Because... what?

One of the reasons I was relieved when Howarth left. I was so sick of him dicking around, out-right sabotaging scenes in some cases and then pulling out the woobie face to show some pathos for a split second about once a month. It's one of the reasons I was very hesitant about him coming back. He earned my good will again when he returned just as he earned my absolute Howarth fatigue back in 2002-03.

I'd very much like to know who was responsible for that travesty so I can give them the proverbial Internet stink-eye. Repeatedly.

You're right, I got a wee bit carried away with that... but I still have so much resentment over his lying about Sonny shooting him in the chest. And having anything to do with Sonny at all. You're right, Dante isn't the biggest Sonny apologist out there (Robin is far more guilty of that when it comes down to it) but he's still deeply infected by Sonny's malevolence as most in Port Charles are.

Soaps used to be a collection of people. Heroes, villains, those somewhere in between... and I would agree that it started going downhill in the 90s because that became the Era of the Antihero... with people not getting what antiheroes are really all about... or basically eschewing their legitimate heroes and thinking the antiheroes could move into their place with no problem. Stories. Need. Heroes. It's as simple as that. And they have been necessary to storytelling since the earliest days. There are tragic heroes that battle against impossible odds; there are those that prevail; there are larger than life douchebags who prevail over the far more noble, it's all about the storytelling but it NEEDS the heroes; it NEEDS the good guys. GH is completely off kilter because Frons and Guza wanted it to become the Sopranos -- not accepting the concept that Tony's story was finite and that he wasn't a good guy! He was a complicated, layered guy, sure, but he wasn't a good guy! Walking into his world was like walking into a funhouse, everything was skewed and messed up and the writers knew it! That was the point of it all along. Don Draper isn't a good guy on 'Mad Men' either. He's a fucked up, cramped little man who is so broken inside he constantly sabotages everything in his life... and he's a symbol in and of himself of the way New York crumbled from the glittering metropolis of the 50s to the hell hole it became in the 70s. You didn't have the writers excusing them, they know what these characters are. There's no dialog of them comparing themselves to firemen and soldiers (Captain America should have busted through the window and kicked Jason's fucking head off for that line) -- they are infinitely flawed and everyone knows it. Sonny, at this point, is some malevolent being out of Lovecraft. He's the colour out of space... sucking up the lifeforce of everything around him and spreading his sickness further and further each year. He's the blasted heath in the form of a man. I always like breaking it down... villains are ruled by their fears, antiheroes are driven by their fears and heroes overcome their fears. You need all of that. You need balance and GH hasn't had balance in a long time. There may be more now than there was during Guza's time but sometimes it's hard to tell because Ron falls in love with Howarth 'revealing' stuff in his quirky Howarth way or Dr. O and her crrrrazy accent and Margot Channing quips. Who are the heroes of GH? Anna? Who gets shunted aside for weeks at a time and is made to play to fool for Duke (whenever they dust him off) or not be able to figure out that shit is really really wrong with this Robin stuff? Dante? The biggest fucking Sonny apologist out there? Sorry kids, Dante's been infected by Sonny's colour out from space and will either fall to corruption or madness. (That's how Lovecraft works.) Nate? He's too damn new. Robin? She of the constantly being kidnapped and not a regular part of the firmament anymore? Where is the balance? It's been missing since the 90s and until they realize that and start actually writing HEROES again (male, female, whatever) they're never going to get back what's been lost.

I watched the whole 'Todd gives himself therapy' scene yesterday and found myself quite torn. On the one hand, I felt like it was TPTB just giving Howarth free rein to do whatever and he ran with it. Switching positions on the couch to be 'him' and 'Rae' -- messing up his hair when he was playing out 'Rae' -- it felt so over indulgent when I was watching it. However, when he stopped with that bullshit and was just Todd it got much better. He wasn't fucking around he was just acting. Meanwhile, Blair was with Kelly trying to explain the way Todd was and how much she loved him even as they were putting together a plan that Blair knew would drive Todd away (the fake being pregnant with Max' baby plan that Blair wound up really playing when she a) realized she actually was pregnant and b) that it was Todd's but she said it was Max' to keep Todd from going to prison for her; as he volunteered himself to Nora in order to save Blair. Very 'Gift of the Magi' inspired, obviously.) Todd went from refusing to believe that Blair loved him; that he had made it all up in his head; to realizing that she absolutely did. He talked about the beautiful things she said to him, about him, and about them at their non-wedding while all he did was stand there thinking she had betrayed him. He berated himself for not considering that they had been set up while she was saying all of those beautiful things. He said he should have trusted her... then that he knew she loved him because he could see it in her eyes and 'see it in her... pain.' Then vowed that he was going to show her that she could trust him because he was going to save her and fix everything. It was just a frustrating time. Rumors abounded at the time that though Howarth wanted to be strictly paired with DePaiva's Blair (which makes sense to me because they never wavered from that the entire time he was present in those years save for that blip in the South Pacific that ended... how? "Oh, I do... I do love Blair.") but had that ridiculous stance on love scenes. I don't know how much of it was true but he did have a certain amount of sway back then and could easily get whatever he wanted from the showrunners. At any rate, it was frustrating because there was never any real reunion in all of that. Hell, they barely ever kissed back then! Most celibate couple ever... which is kind of a travesty because RH and KDP were both looking good at the time. They should have been naked a LOT more. For all that they tried to make Todd this stunted creature... and they mostly succeeded at that... it was always kind of nice to hear Todd recognize not just that he knew Blair loved him but he loved her, too. It was very clear how much he wanted her in those scenes... even if they were dampened a great deal whenever he got around her and wouldn't remotely act like he wanted or loved her. Anyone who ever wonders why I write fanfic that focuses more on what Blair feels and what Blair has gone through just needs to look at the show. They ignored her thoughts and feelings and agency for years and she was just as messed up and complicated and interesting as Todd ever was.

Look, it's been 15 years since I found Carly remotely interesting as a character so this is all coming from a place of hate: No, she wasn't this fucking stupid. But this is what Ron does. He writes characters egregiously out of character in order to suit his plot point agenda nonsense. (Carly and Todd did not make any sense given who those characters are but I've already written plenty about that.) Carly with Franco from jump was nonsense. Nonsense!! I fucking loathe Carly and yet I'm going 'She never would have done this. NEVER!' Carly wouldn't have even pretended to like or love Franco even to get the goods on him... she loathed and feared him that much. So this whole scenario? Ri-god-damn-diculous. Basically Ron wrote Carly as dousing herself in gasoline, climbing on top of a pile of dry kindling and handing Franco a lit torch. And even though her hopefully finally losing the love and respect of her son happens... the execution of it is flat out stupid. This should have come through AJ... not even AJ being vindictive but just being honest, the way it was being portrayed when AJ was on the show. AJ getting to tell his side of the story finally and Michael listening and putting the pieces together and realizing just what Carly, Jason and Sonny had robbed him of. But instead it comes through Franco. RoHo's Franco who is just a garbage character and a means of Ron writing RoHo doing his RoHo thing which is quite tedious when it's not backed up by story and a fucking effort on his part every now and again. Howarth can do this sort of scene in his sleep. This isn't a challenge for him by any stretch. I still hope it drives a serious and long lasting wedge between Michael and the garbage that teamed up to raise him.

It needs to happen. Soaps pull the 'and everything changes forever!' bullshit all the time with no real follow through. This is the kind of shake up that works. I will admit that there is a certain amount of fear that if they do follow through with this... it means that Jason will remember his Jason Q days and be horrified at his Jason Morgan days and he and Mike will rebond over their complete disgust at all things Sonny and Carly... because if there's one bond that cannot be broken, it's the one between Michael and the dude who facilitated all of this crap in the first place. I still hate Jason. Not sorry.

I think the other major difference between this and the OLTL version is that here you've got Franco -- who is human refuse -- calling out Carly and Sonny who are really no better. It's just a whole bunch of shit-ass people doing shit-ass things and lying to everyone about it. Todd was always a pariah but the secrets he unloaded were secrets kept by the legitimate 'good guys' -- most of whom used Blair as a tool to keep those lies covered. Blair colluded with Max to fake his way into being Asa's son -- at the time, Max was desperate to get a hold of money because his twins had been kidnapped and all sorts of bad shit went down and then he wound up need brain surgery but throughout the con, Asa actually gave a damn about Max who decided he LIKED being a Buchanan and Blair was suddenly disposable. Ben and Viki both leaned on Blair to keep what she knew quiet. Skye became the mistress of Blair's husband, Max, and Asa absolutely approved and encouraged it... so it was all of these people who were 'better than' hiding all sorts of secrets from and about each other. So Todd unleashing it all was him playing the truth teller and it was kind of fun. Todd was always a bit of a bastard but those secrets needed to come out. It wasn't a serial killer calling out a lying, cheating, selfish beast and another murderous, lying bag of crap. It was a severely damaged bastard of a guy, unleashing the truth about the self-righteous population of town. What's more... he was wrong to turn on Blair. Franco's not wrong in what he's doing to Carly. I mean, he doesn't have much of a leg to stand on but this is Ron basically going scorched earth on this couple he tried to push for so long because... well, most likely because he's got a new toy to play with in regards to Nina and the Franco/Nina possibilities he sees dancing in his head. Todd realized he was wrong, realized he should have known that he and Blair got set up, realized Blair really did love him and vowed to prove to her that he was worth counting on and believing in (he failed at that... miserably... but it was nice while it lasted.) Franco is not likely to realize that Carly was set up (since she wasn't) or turn around and try to prove himself to her. At this point, Franco's part in the tale should be pretty much over (it won't be, it's Ron, but the point remains); now it should be ALL about Michael. Of course, none of this should be news to Michael. Not really. He's been around his parents all of his life. He's suffered the slings and arrows of their bullshit before. He should know that none of this is actually beneath them. He should know that when push comes to shove they will always, always cover their own ass in his name and let him take the fall before they ever own up to their own shit. And I can only hope that whatever rift happens is serious and long lasting. It should be. This should shake the foundations of Port Charles. Todd's 'Hell No' wedding was a clearing house for the stories/secrets that the previous writers had let languish. Franco's 'Hell No' should cease to be about his poor widdle broken heart and be solely about Michael cutting ties with his parasitical parents and opening a new chapter in his life.

Really the use of 'whore' has never been the same since Matt Ashford's serial killer on OLTL screamed 'WHOOOOOOOOORRRRRRE!' at Rae Cummings. No word bounces back from that... it was so ridiculous and over the top and campy that it should have retired the word once and for all. As for the rest of it... meh. I mean, I'm not watching. If want to watch Character RoHo Plays unveil his issues and grievances at a wedding I'd just go back and watch the OLTL version of 'Hell No' which unleashed a bunch of secrets that needed to come out but Blair didn't deserve the treatment she got since she was set up, drugged and blindsided by it all... but it led to a scorching kiss, Blair realizing that Max knew more than he let on, her going after him with a gun to get him to tell the truth, Todd refusing to believe her until he started realizing that things weren't as they seemed and went to bury Max alive to get the truth but by then, he'd gone a step further and Blair had no interest in trusting him after that... which led to lots of wacky hijinks and close calls and the two of them being pretty obvious about how they feel about each other (though both were too dumb to realize it, a la soap trope) and even though it led to one of the most spectacularly AWFUL storylines ever... it was still better than this sounds. Although I do get a kick out of the fact that Carly just seems so surprised that her serial killing gigolo would turn on her like this. Talk about stupid. Anyway, Roger... hie thee off to Crescent City already. Port Charles should be more than done with you. Let Carly and Sonny wallow in their own messes... and whatever new pets Ron wants to bring on.

I'm just hoping that The Flash makes it necessary for RoHo to leave. It's long past time.

I don't consider it to be slut shaming when a woman is actively cheating on her fiance. I consider that calling out someone for cheating. However, I would love it if they used the term 'whore' for the men who cheat, too. I mean, Sonny's the biggest slut on this show and someone should damn well call him that.

It could be done. One of my favorite stories like that was Dorian/Joey on OLTL. Dorian totally set out to seduce him to get to Viki but she ended up falling for him for real. They weren't meant to be, lots of other things wound up getting in the way, but for that brief period there was legitimate sweetness to that pairing. She ultimately stepped aside in order to make way for him to be with her niece (Kelly and Joey, at that time, were charming and fun, too -- it's only the years afterwards that were unkind) and I'm not at all averse to an older woman/younger man dynamic and I would also trust in both of these actors. I do not, however, trust in the writers. They seem to get a perverse joy out of dismantling pairings left and right in the worst possible way, too. I shudder at what the writers might do, I really do.

I'm sorry, guys, I thought Kristen and Daniel getting it on was hilarious. Also, inevitable given that the way they've played every scene since her return was seconds away from rutting like farm animals [/GH's Lucky]. Also hilarious was Brady just hanging out for what seemed like forever as they rolled around on each other, grasping and clawing as if neither one of them has gotten laid in twenty years. "I really like you, Eric." Dammit, can Eve and Eric just have a fun fling? And then be friends with benefits afterwards or something? Come on! Especially with the weirdness that seems to be creeping in between JJ and Eve. Okay... so... Eve seems to not want much to do with JJ at all, keeps comparing him to Jack (I agree that Jack's absence here is keenly felt.) And I can understand that given that Eve never seemed to see the better parts of Jack so much as the swindling, mercenary side of him. That being said, it's frustrating as hell to have her focus on the rapey part of Jack since that was just the one time with Kayla, yes? He wasn't a serial rapist and he actually did suffer and pay some penance for that and earned the status of 'decent enough citizen' on his own afterwards. Jack was probably one of the last of the Daytime Rapists to actually not get it whitewashed, glossed over and forgotten and given this show's history with rape that seems very rare indeed, Meanwhile, JJ seems to be having horny thoughts about Eve and that's where it gets really complicated. I remain torn. I think it could actually be fun and twisted and weird in all the right ways IF they don't go down the rapey path right after and this show I definitely do not trust to do that. Eve's clearly the villain of this piece (this show is also not sly in regards that sort of thing) but I'd just rather they don't go that route period. And I'd like a pony.

So, I have to clarify something... The 'video' that Franco's evil eye took, that he keeps watching, has magically managed to capture video that the show camera has taken, right? Because in reality anything that was strapped to Carly's chest the way that eye seems to be would have gotten a lot of Sonny's moob shots during the sex. Which, let's be honest, would kind of be hilarious to play at a wedding but everyone is probably really glad that's not going to be the case.