"Tell me something about Supergirl that makes you happy." for redbrunja

This might be outdated since I haven’t really been following Supergirl since it made the leap from CBS to CW. I have been following the crossovers though!

One of the things I really loved about Supergirl was the exploration of Kara’s trauma and anger, and there was something about Kara’s anger that really spoke to me. It’s one of the things I really missed when the show moved from CBS to CW.

I love the episode where she thought she had her home back only to realize it was only a dream. It was such a great moment in the show!

In CW!Supergirl, I really adored the episode where we got to see Kara and Alex’s teen years. And then the recent Elseworld crossover was amazing, I love the call back to Smallville and then I really loved how much of a Gotham expert Kara was.

She was all ‘oh, sweet summer child’ when Barry wondered if they were in the good part of town.

for aurumcalendula

Well. Isn’t this embarrassingly long overdue! 

I think it’s all a matter of preference. I have fond memories of the original Christopher Reeve version of Superman. It’s hard not to be invested in your first superhero story.

Margot Kidder Lois Lane became my Forever Girl, which all awesome women characters have to follow. 

I love how some properties have echoed and called back to the first movie, and even though watching now, through modern sensibilities, I found the first half of the movie a bit of a slog the movie will always hold a special place in my heart. 

Smallville was hard going for me because it took so long for Lois Lane to appear! Chloe was the Lois analogue, and it was fun at first but an analogue can only do so much, and then Erica Durance’s Lois Lane appeared and it was like a breath of fresh air. She was exactly the Lois Lane I pictured! From then I began to watch regularly. Sure, I had my nitpicks and quibbles but Durance’s Lois Lane rose to the ranks to be one of my favorite Lois Lanes, and Smallville's version of the love story between Clark and Lois in Smallville is one of my top favorites! 

For Batman, my favorite movie incarnation remains Michael Keaton’s Batman. The gothic elements worked for me because Tim Burton just leaned into it. 110% Goth. 110% Selina Kyle. 

I think the only other Batman property that matched the Batdren Goth-ness is the TV Gotham. 

Next was Animated!Batman.

This and JLU!Batman was the Batman I grew-up with. I kind of don’t want to revisit in the off chance it won't live up to my childhood memories.

Also, Animated!Batman is who I measure all Batmans by. 

As for Wonder Woman, I am ashamed to say before the movie I’ve never watched a standalone Wonder Woman movie and only saw Diana Prince from the animated!JLU, which was amazing. 

I tried the movie with Nathan Fillion and was so annoyed that I stopped watching. 

And I was too young to watch the live action Wonder Woman, which is sad, I remember watching snippets of re-runs but it was so long ago I don’t know what I thought.

So the award goes to the recent Wonder Woman movie which I love with all my heart! And I’m not all that sad that they pushed the movie back, if it takes more to make a quality Wonder Woman movie, I am all for the delay! 

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Is there any story arc you would want revisiting and clarifying? Or is it done and dead since the Peacekeeper Wars?“ for thymejot

I would love for Farscape to come back! I'd definitely want to see what the Moya crew are up to these days. I figure there would be some relative peace with the occasional shenanigans. I heard in the comics Aeryn somehow becomes a high ranking Peacekeeper officer again, and I want to know what that story is about!

I'd also want to know how D'argo's doing now and who he takes after, John or Aeryn or both? I'm also curious about the intergalactic politics post-Peacekeeper Wars.

But mostly I just want to see a 'where is our crew now' and follow them on a fun romp then leave them again knowing while things aren't perfect they are happy!

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for potcpoi​

Oh, this is hard but I’ll do my best!

Harold Finch

God Mode

This remains as my favorite season ender of all-- the way this episode, these flashbacks recontextualize Harold is amazing. He is an unreliable narrator, and this episode breaks down all of Harold’s initial pitch to John and it left me breathless. 

I will fight anyone who say flashbacks are useless because in the right hands, in the right story, it can change everything, and this is my go to example for it. It’s just honestly, honestly amazing. 

The Day the World Went Away

God this it’s crafted so well but it also does something so terrible but damn is this episode excellent. Especially this scene. Michael Emerson gives a brilliant and blistering tour de force performance, this monologue was fantastic.  The way his voice shakes at the way he denounces his rules. The very rules I’ve wondered about from the start.

I’ve wondered why he was so unshakeable and steadfast about his rules, and man, does this deliver in every single way. The music, the tense build-up. And I remember on a recent rewatch (knowing what happens to Root, and the distance from the initial hurt really helps), how I felt my heart race just from this scene. I knew what was going to happen, and yet when we reach that moment. 

Damn. 

John Reese

Foe

here

Matsa Nyaya

here

These two episodes remain, in my head, as important episodes for John Reese. This formed the John we get to know and Kara Stanton is an important part of the formation of John.

Kara Stanton was the monster he needed to survive his tenure in the CIA, even as it hurt who he was. John got good at killing people, even to the point where Kara let John took the lead but Kara was also always there to hold him true to the path the moment she feels him stray.

Ordos is the place that breaks both Kara and John's faith with differing results and I just feel like this moment and the episodes in season 2 was part of John's character, seared in blood. Until his work with the team helps him walk the line back out of darkness, and we get this moment:

"But then I realized: Sometimes, one life, ...if it's the right life, it's enough."

from here

Joss Carter

As a whole, all of Carter’s moments from:

In Extremis

by cocoabuffster satan’s raisin

This moment and the moment after this, where Carter digs up and moves Stills body was a pivotal moment for Carter, IMO. It’s one thing helping someone out of prison, and another, actively covering up a (supposed) murder to help out someone she now knows was a dirty cop. Carter is forced to choose between the law and what she thinks is right.

This is the pebble that causes the avalanche and where it continues rolling into the moment —

God Mode

Everything that happened before was a lead up to this moment of choice and the moment Carter does it, it’s not a decision that’s out of character. It build off the moments from season 1, to 2 Pi R, In Extremis and then actively intervening to keep Elias alive, caught between the devil she didn’t know and the devil she knew, she chose the devil she knew.

It’s such a turning point for Carter that ends with Carter taking down the head of HR, and earning Elias’s undying loyalty.

Sameen Shaw

Boy. This is… I’m going to have to restrain myself here but:

Relevance

Need I explain how amazing and beautiful this episode is? It's a backdoor pilot in itself, what a fantastic introduction to one of my top favorites. It has everything that is my jam-- the superhero stealth entrance, the espionage, the fierce and fantastic Sarah Shahi as the equally fantastic Sameen Shaw.

And, a beautiful thematic music for both Shaw and the second phase of the show.

Razgovor

I'll be honest from Zero Day up to the episode before Razgovor, I despaired that the show forgot how to write Shaw but this episode assured me, that no-- they haven't.

( Read more... )

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for potcpoi

I think, of all the people in the team Shaw would have the least dramatic reaction to Harold being alive. Fusco would feel hurt but I don’t think Shaw would be. But I feel like she’d say something pointedly snarky about it. 

After the initial bump in early season 3 episodes, I think Shaw and Harold actually work well together even though there are instances where they both frustrate each other. Shaw is always open to listen and debate and then offer up solutions. Admittedly, in early season 3, Shaw wasn’t very good at it but by season 4 Shaw learned how to argue her point in a way that would get Harold to listen and even agree with her, which is more than could be said with Root and Harold’s very interesting though more times than any, circular debates.

( Read more... )

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for chaila

Forever OTPs! I have a few that gets on this level, these days ‘OTP’ gets tossed around for every pairing but I take my OTP classification seriously! I have levels of shipping that from ‘I ship it’, ‘I ship it but I can still see them with other people’, ‘OTP but I can see them with other people before ending up together’, and finally the golden: ‘OTP to end all OTPs’ where no matter what universe, what timeline they must/should end up together.

In fact, I think only two ships only made it to this level: Lois Lane and Clark Kent, Elizabeth and Darcy.

I didn’t even realize Elizabeth and Darcy reached OTP to end all OTPs until I watched ‘Lost in Austen’ where an Austen fan crashes into the world of Pride and Prejudice, switching places with Elizabeth and then Darcy ended up with the fan. I reaaaally got my back up then, and went: “Oh no, you did not!”

I was so angry, I was happy for Elizabeth in the modern world, but I am not happy about Darcy ending up with anyone but Elizabeth!

I didn’t get why fangirl didn’t end up with Wickham since they were getting on really well and pushing her to Darcy seemed force and only done for wish fulfillment. Then, in the comics world, they broke-up Lois and Clark and on top of everything they did with the Darker and Edgier New 52 I dropped DC comics (all of them— that’s how much it annoyed and angered me) until Prime Clark and Prime Lois came back with a son, and I felt like all was right in the world again!

And this is the only part I’m glad the TV and movies were not in sync with comics canon and kept Lois and Clark together, because to me they are the Gold Standard, and one of my formative childhood influences. I latched on to them and never let go, and the thing is, I don’t just ship them because they’re together in my childhood. It’s because the canon supports them. Especially in TV canon from Lois and Clark the TV show, but also in Smallville, where the anvils can drop at any moment, and yet they made Lois and Clark as a pairing a really fantastic slow burn romance, and why they work together as working partners and romantic partners.

They did it in such a way, that I can’t buy them being with another person long term. Lois and Clark work. They have similar core beliefs that power them and give them strength, they like each other, which is something that shows with love stories always fail to take account. There’s being in an end of the world scenario, proclaiming unending love, and there’s being together everyday and liking each other. A lot of the time, they fail at that. And, that’s one major element that can make me ship characters, that they genuinely like each other, being together, and supporting each other, and even when they fight, they never lose sight of that.

For some reason sitcoms and dramas think constantly being angry with each other has the makings of a good relationship. It’s not, and if a pairing has that, it instantly has my vote, along with something extra that tips them over into the OTP zone.

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for potcpoi

Sorry! I got confused with my dates!

My general fandom pet peeve is when a character mentions/does something once, fandom grabs and runs away with it. Suddenly, the character is doing that thing every. single. time.

Or when something is from fanfic and suddenly everyone acts like its canon.

Specifically:

• Shaw: Suddenly just becomes this hair trigger creature of id, who is the brawns to Root’s brains. Always grumpy even when we see her actually enjoying herself more times than she’s grumpy/angry. Somehow, Shaw forgets how to survive/be tactical whenever Root’s around, when based on her training, it would be the other way around. (more on Root’s section) Also, not much a peeve but I wish fandom did more: draw Shaw in her awesome outfit in season 3B.
• Root: Is a friend/bff to everyone in a POI-story or a crossover, when in actuality, even in season 5 the people she cares about can only be counted with one hand. AKA, suddenly transformed into Amy Acker/Fred with a gun. The show does this too: Root can suddenly do Everything even better than two actual operatives who spent years training as spec ops. Oh, and somehow, Root hates Harold, which… no. They disagree on methods, and Root can lash out (2x23) but Root’s never hated Harold. Root loved Harold. There are only three beings Root loved unconditionally: The Machine, Harold, and Shaw. The whole world can hang as long as these people are safe.
• The Machine: TBF, even the writers in the final season fell into this trap, The Machine is an adorable cinnamon roll and only a cinnamon roll. Suddenly TM’s more (IMO awesome) morally ambiguous actions are hand waved and forgotten.
• Harold: unpopular opinion time, I do actually love Harold, flaws and all. In Highschool AU where teen!Harold is a middle aged Harold, de-aged, when actual teen!Harold was actually more of a rebel— he was actively against the government and he was on the run for treason. 2) Harold can be frustrating and difficult, but he isn’t 100% wrong, nor is he the devil.
• John: Biggest pet peeve is not the one fandom did but what canon did: glares DID WE REALLY NEED TWO SEASONS OF RILEY. REALLY???

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“How do you think S5 of PoI would have been different if they'd got a full twenty-two episode order?”

for netgirl_y2k

I think the seasonal arc would have more time to breathe. We really needed an episode or two before the events of The Day the World Went Away with Shaw and the team, because while Shaw had one of the more fascinating arcs in the season post-Samaritan escape it felt like there was no consequence for Samaritan when Shaw left.

( more thoughts under the cut )

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"You mention that shaw has probably mentally aged due to the simulations - I'd love to hear your thoughts on how she handles that/how it affects her, if you have any?" for canadianwheatpirates

This is a really awesome question!

I can only approach this from a storytelling perspective and I don’t know if this is something that anything would change with Shaw outwardly. I think to everyone else, she’s Shaw but internally there might be a disconnect to what she feels like her age is and what her physical age is, if that makes sense? Like someone on a constant jet lag, except its a time lag.

It would be interesting in the context of how Shaw would interact with the Machine. It would be interesting on both sides IMO since I think both TM and Shaw are used to listening, and this time since TM took it upon herself to take on Root’s personality, she would be speaking more, idle musings and connections.

If you’ll permit a bit of straying off the question, I think that Shaw’s experiences in a simulation has in a way changes the way she thinks— I mean, POI is Modern Day Sci Fi, so why not add a little more sci-fi into it? What if now, Shaw’s thought processes can be almost computer like?

I keep thinking of the Farscape fanfic, In the Company of Ghosts by KodiakkeMax where in the fantastic AU world, where Aeryn Sun is changed in a completely different way that she can do what she calls ‘dual track’ thinking:

Dual track mode, as she called it. There were more than two tracks, but the main flows seemed to be set in two different paths, and the rest of them were minor thoughts only, not the great rushing strands of consciousness.

Track One: It hadn't been fear.

Thoughts flowed like water, twisting like a rope through her consciousness. Not fear. She didn't understand it, but she didn't have to, at the moment. She merely had to remember, so she could study it later.

For now, she still had tasking.

Track Two: Find the lab. The Scarran on the ground had been neutralized. But what had he been doing here? What had the scoutship come to collect?

Sidetrack: He had fought the Scarran, even when cornered. She could have handled it, but he had taken his destiny into his own hands. She expected no less.

Focus. Find the lab now, remove all evidence. Her eyes tracked as she ghosted through the corridors, searching for movement. Darwa would be setting down at the second entrance and moving to intercept. Their pincer tactics would flush out most of the individuals who had contacted the Peacekeeper party.

She was not surprised when her comms beeped. "Captain Sun?”

I don’t think Shaw would go as far as that, but I think it does give her a different perspective and she can probably track or get the gist of how an ASI thinks based on her 7000 plus experience with Samaritan trying to change her mind and trick her.

I really wish we could explore that more, the fallout or, as Root would have called it, a bonus feature and not a bug, a new skill Shaw develops. Shaw already showed she has the capacity to think picture, now she can add in the details as well.

Honestly, why can’t fanfic just write themselves, I’d love to read a story about that right now!

Shaw has one of the most interesting and coherent arcs in season 5 and it’s always sad that there was no time to really follow through on that.

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“What does a good redemption arc look like? What are your preferences?” for mswyrr

A good redemption arc, is I think, a really fine balancing act and for me there are several baseline requirements for a good redemption story:

1) The character’s previous actions against the protagonists or the characters around them shouldn’t be forgotten. 2) No blame shifting. They own their actions: the terrible and everything in between that led them to the path they were on. 3) The character is self-aware and clear eyed about themselves. Other people might think different but when it comes to it, the character knows who they are. 4) Most importantly, the narrative should know this too. There’s a world of difference IMO, between understanding a motivation and excusing as a motivation. 5) Change and redemption shouldn’t be easy or clean. It is hard, and it’s a struggle, and sometimes they fall off it and stand again. The important thing is the struggle.

( Read more... )

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