"I'm Glad You Found A Family." -Amiee

There’s an underlying bitterness in Percy’s tone in this scene, despite the fact that he’s making a “joke,” that couples with the way he doesn’t look at his mom while he says it but kind of just stares distantly. And also the way his eyebrows go up and down in a quick, wry — and almost judgmental, even — way.

This one singular line hit me so hard as a neurodivergent person because it’s all you need to see the way that Percy feels about his own inability to do “basic” things, like pay attention. He’s making a joke that’s also a dig at himself for “screwing up” in some way and it felt so relatable.

And the fact that it’s basically setting up him the next scene when he tells his mom that he thinks there’s something “broken” in his brain?

It hurt in all the best ways that seeing an accurate representation of yourself in a series that’s been your comfort series since the moment you picked it up 🥲

We love having happy gays for once

I fucking love bottoms. its like the gay teen sex comedy of the year. We need more movies like this- like enough of the sad love gay stories, I want movies with funny lesbians- absurd football players and that gay loser all of the internet is in love with

I honestly love it so much. It makes me feel grounded and safe.

You better believe I have watched the entirety of Lockwood and Co three times. I’m absolutely enamored with this show. What a love letter to the original content. What an incredible adaptation. So yes, I’m gonna be streaming this show in the background for the next month because everybody involved in this deserves another season. The actors and crew have earned it and the fans have too.

I will go feral if we don’t get to see Hollow Boy and Creeping Shadow adapted now. Can you fricken imagine

Ithan Holstrom home alone

I’ve seen some people complaining about Channing Tatum/his accent in Deadpool & Wolverine, and I just want to set a few things straight.

Channing has been on the docket to play Gambit since 2005, but each and every time, the character was cut from the script, he had a prior contract, or the director kept getting replaced until the project was scrapped 4 years later with the Fox/Disney merger.

He has family in Louisiana and grew up in the bayous (albeit in rural Alabama). This character has meant something to him since CHILDHOOD when it comes to representation in media.

Gambit doesn’t speak SAE (Standard American English). He’s a street urchin from Acadia/New Orleans. He grew up speaking Cajun (a mix of Southern American, Canadian French, and España Spanish grammar applied to a mostly English vocabulary) and Louisiana French (an offshoot of Canadian French from Acadians).

Every person I’ve seen online who ACTUALLY GREW UP around people who speak Cajun, Creole, and/or Louisiana French has said that his accent is SPOT ON, maybe even a little too clear.

All this to say: if you can’t understand Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine, you’re not supposed to. That’s the bit: unless you’re used to those dialects and accents, you’re shit outta luck trying to parse it out without help. Hell, even Rogue, who grew up in the South, doesn’t know what he’s saying half the time.

For the sake of my sanity it needs to be renewed

I’m not lying when I say I will weep if this show doesn’t get renewed so I am shamelessly BEGGING YOU to watch it.

Here’s a few reasons why:

Like???? Look at them?!??

Found family?? Lost, lonely teens finding each other and hunting ghosts together?! Literal sunshine cast??

PLEASE WATCH ❤️

I suddenly woke up stupid early on my day off with multiple weird random aches and pains and a revelation about the Leverage chess metaphors.

They’re all wrong.

Look, I obviously adore the white knight/black king motif, and it works really well for that very specific discussion of Nate’s shift in morality and position at the opening of the series. But the show as well as I and other fans have then tried to take that equation and apply it to other jobs and to the crew as a whole. This is fun and awesome, but I believe you’re going to get it wrong every time if you start from the white knight/black king line. 

Because in all other situations, Nate is not the king.

Couple important things about kings in chess: 1. They don’t move much. They can only move one space at a time, and for most of the game they stay in their own little box, well guarded by other pieces. This is because 2. When the king is checkmated (threatened with capture and no possible escape), it’s game over. There is no more hope. This is the sole requirement for losing the game. No matter who else is in play, if the king is down, you lose.

This is NOT how Nate operates. Yeah, he makes the plans, but he doesn’t just hide in the office while everybody else carries them out. He’s almost always right up in there playing the most obnoxious guy you’ve ever met or smashing windows or something. And if Nate gets captured, it’s not game over, in fact, it often isn’t even a PROBLEM. Let’s look at a few times that happens, just for fun: - In The King George Job, Nate’s getting beat up and Eliot slightly panics and is about to run to help, when Sophie says “NOPE, don’t do that, I can fix this without blowing our cover” and saunters in at her leisure. The jig isn’t up and she’s not even particularly concerned about him getting punched. I love it. - In the Maltese Falcon Job, Nate sacrifices himself to save the team. This is a classic thing to do in chess and chess metaphors, but, I cannot stress this enough, you cannot sacrifice your king. That’s just called LOSING. -In The Long Goodbye Job of course the whole con is structured around Nate getting caught. I guess this one kind of makes sense because the whole point is to look like they HAVE completely lost, but then at the end it appears that Nate’s going to secret prison and everyone else is escaping WITH the black book, so they STILL would be losing Nate but winning the job. 

So if Nate isn’t the king, who is?

Hardison.

Let’s look at our points about kings again:

1. Doesn’t move as far or as quickly: Yes, Hardison ALSO gets out there and participates in the cons, everybody does. But Hardison does stay in the background more often, because that’s where his power is. He does the behind the scenes tech stuff and the remote stuff, he can wreck your shop without showing up through the power of the internet. He also does the forgeries of identities and objects, which are also done in his own space. At the same time, he has less physical power and less range – you don’t want him in a fistfight, or a gunfight, and his grifts are notorious for being a little… uh… interesting. So he has limited physical range and power but at the same time… .

2. The game is over if you lose him. That far-reaching behind the scenes power is absolutely vital for 90% of the jobs. He does the massive amounts of research and hacking legwork needed just to START a job, even before you get to actually completing the job. You are pretty much dead in the water without Hardison. But that’s just from a practical standpoint. Losing Hardison is also a crisis from an emotional standpoint. He’s our moral compass and our sweet baby brother and when Hardison gets in trouble there is no “well he’ll be fine for a few minutes” and no “well he kinda had it coming.” No, when Hardison is in trouble everything else grinds to a halt and everyone comes running. (See: The Experimental Job, The Grave Danger Job, The Long Goodbye Job.)

So like, yes Nate is in charge. But the king isn’t in charge on a chessboard, the king is just a piece with a very unique role, which Hardison fills much better than Nate does. So, now that we have our real king, who are our other pieces?

Queen: Parker. This has nothing to do with her dating Hardison. The thing about the queen is she can do a little bit of everything – she can move in any direction, making her the most dangerous piece on the board. Parker’s whole character arc is about learning all the different roles and how to access the whole playing field. She’s the only one who plans and executes an entire episode-length job by herself (okay, with a little help from her girlfriend). Plus, the other cool thing about a queen is she has a built-in transformation story – a pawn that crosses the board can become a queen, which Parker mimics by initially being dismissed as “the crazy one” and ultimately becoming the mastermind.

Knight: Sophie. I know, I wanted Eliot to be the horsie too, but this makes more sense. The knight’s deal is that it’s sneaky – it’s the only piece that can turn corners – and it can jump over obstacles. Sophie’s whole philosophy of grifting is that she shouldn’t need to know about safes or security systems, she should be able to bypass (jump over) all that by insinuating herself with the mark (being sneaky by playing a character to get behind enemy lines)

Rook: Eliot. This is the straightforward one – it goes in a straight line. It also literally represents the castle walls. It’s also so, so fucking helpful to have around, I fucking hate losing my rooks. It’s your solid right hand man, basically. Is this a little reductive of Eliot? Absolutely, but I’m jamming five complex characters into five predetermined boxes, it’s not all gonna be nuanced. And I think Mr. Punchy would like being seen as the fortress that everybody depends on, and to let all the nuance go under the radar. That’s where he likes it. 

Bishop: Finally, here’s where Nate is hiding. While the rook can only go straight (lol), the bishop can only go diagonally. Nothing can be straightforward for the bishop, he always has to come at things from an angle. Like, you know, constantly looking at all the different angles of a situation and finding the right angle to come at a mark from. Also, the bishops sit right in the middle right next to the king and queen. I don’t know that this is historically accurate, but when my dad taught me to play he told me that was because the bishops were important councilors to the rulers, they were the ones who had important wisdom that would tell them the best plan of attack. So the king here isn’t necessarily the one making the plans – that’s the bishop. And finally, apparently the bishop is called lots of different things in other languages, but we’re operating in English, which means it makes Nate a priest, and that makes me happy.

“Parker cycles through every character in this episode. This episode’s the one where we show you she can inherit the mantle. She manipulates like Sophie, she masterminds like Nate, she does electronics like Hardison, and she takes advantage of her surroundings like Eliot.” - John Rogers, ‘The Broken Wing Job’ DVD Commentary

the vague sexuality of YD

I was thinking about Young Dracula and things I could talk about... so I took a look at the episodes and was once again reminded of how it really toed that line between being a children's show and something more. As a kid, you're not really noticing it, but as an adult... it makes you sad they couldn't openly do more stuff like:

I mean, it's seemingly apparent that Vlad and Ingrid are aware and unfazed by their parents' sex life. He walks in on this and is mildly annoyed because of the failed plan, and she's not bothered by having to photograph them (for blackmail purposes). Plus:

If this was a teen show, I wouldn't have batted an eye but the fact that I was in primary school watching these two casually discuss their parents having sex and then Vlad suggesting Magda had sex with Patrick and that's his baby, not their father's... it's a lot lmao.

It's not even that. There are moments throughout the entire show, like the Count pinching Mina's ass when he's in Eric's body, OR the "lock up your daughters" about Boris. There are so many, I'd be here all day. It's why I get ahead of myself, like in Season 3, I always expect Ingrid and Bertrand to just GO AT IT.

Like, what the fuck is this, CBBC? They have better tension than some couples in adult shows and I'm just supposed to forget about them? Without even one kiss scene? I was truly robbed. They kinda disintegrated in Season 4, but the enemies-who-fuck thing they had going on in Season 3 is unmatched. After losing Will, the love of her life, Ingrid deserved to have a hot thing with Bertrand, dammit!

I even read too much into scenes like this:

I can't have been the only one who thought (as wrong as it is because it's her father saying it) that Adze was going to enter the show and straight up seduce Vlad. How else is she supposed to "persuade" a blood-free, already-in-love guy to do whatever she wants? There's even a scene later that season where Ramanga encourages her to "play" with Vlad on the wedding night before killing him. What does that mean? Other than what I'm imagining? Torture? Because the implications kinda overpower that.

Vlad and Erin, after he bit her, was a trip too. They became a lot more... charged. Their exchange and back and forth when he calls her out on biting breathers and catches her with Bertrand...

It obviously doesn't scream "sexual tension". I don't think their relationship does in general, but with the extra vampirism involved and the possessiveness that comes with Vlad biting Erin and making her a vampire, and the "hatred" festering... it does create some, shall I say, questionable moments like the one above, where I'm like "am I supposed to be feeling like they'll start violently making out, where in the midst of it, Vlad is saying she is his and Erin is saying that she hates him".

Like, half of these two interactions was, yeah, about him being paranoid and pressured because of the peace treaty. But like I pointed out in that other scene, Vlad seems to grow even more irritated by finding her stood close to Bertrand, tucked away in Malik's room, all alone together. Hence why he's used the choice words of "cosy little chats" here, like an overly jealous, paranoid husband. It gave off the same vibes as him saying "I know you're into Malik, maybe you're with Bertrand too, since you hate me so much".

This scene also. It intrigued me because Vlad was showing that possessiveness for the first time. We've seen him get possessive over his title and status as the Chosen One and as the Count's favourite child, but never over a person, never over Erin. And I just loved it.

It showed the darkness and the sexuality of vampires, and how far Vlad is pushed into that when it came to the idea of losing Erin. I think, before, when he hadn't absorbed the evil reflections, he would have maybe scoffed at the idea of a macho showdown for a girl. But he's dead serious, taking in Bertrand's advice, like "yeah, if I kill Malik, it'll turn her on and she'll be all over me and I'll win her back".

It's all interesting, is all. I feel as though the vagueness of sexuality in YD served its purpose enough, but it would've been cool to have seen a more adult portrayal (like I always say) because of the lack of blood and gore, and the lack of open sexuality that naturally comes with being an immortal, supposedly evil supernatural creature. I always picture Ingrid and Bertrand getting hot and steamy, or Bad Vlad being caught in the bathroom with piles of bodies (which the Count and Renfield have to dispose of and come up with a cover story). Stuff to really make me believe they're adults and vampires.

I've seen a lot of praise for the Netflix Lockwood and co. adaptation. I haven't read the books, enjoyed the show. Lots of people already said a lot of positive things about this series concerning plot, characters, and so on that I largely agree with

You know what hasn't really been talked about?

How BRIGHT and WELL LIT everything is. Like, this show mostly happens at night, with characters running around with torches to see anything, because their job has to be done during the night.

But I can still SEE EVERYTHING.

I noticed that in the graveyard scenes especially. The sky is pitch black, we know it's the middle of the night. But the grass in green and I can SEE IT.

Love them for not going down the path of GOT, DC, and so many more. Of saying "well, it's the middle of the night, so nobody can see anything, and neither can the audience".

Instead they went "we told our audience it's the middle of the night, we're showing it to them, but we're also giving them the opportunity to see what actually happens on screen".

Amazing.