I'm A Disabled And Chronically Ill Writer. I Can't Write Every Time I Want To. I Can't Use A Keyboard

Writing using genAI is a special kind of lazy. You couldn't even be bothered to plagiarize the old fashioned way, noooooo, you had to use the Planet Killing Water Waster 3000 to do it for you. Incredible. Truly.

Good Omens S2 Incorrect Quotes 2

Nina: I am not an early bird or a night owl. I am some form of permanently exhausted pigeon.

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Nina: I'm not funny, I'm just really mean and people think I'm joking.

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Crowley: So jellyshish-

Nina, laughing: JELLYSHISH!?

Crowley: You know what I meant!

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Maggie: Made you all playlists!

Maggie: Nina, yours has only heavy metal, and is dark like your soul.

Maggie: Crowley, yours has sad songs and blues to pair with your crippling depression.

Maggie: And Muriel has the ABBA Gold album.

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Crowley: I have met some of the most insufferable people. But they also met me.

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Crowley: Name a more iconic duo than my crippling fear of abandonment and my anxiety. I’ll wait.

Nina: You and me!

Crowley: *tearing up* Ok.

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Crowley: Nina likes to say ‘you can be part of the problem or part of the solution,’ but I happen to believe you can be both.

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Maggie: Today, Muriel said a swear word, so Nina said that they were going to wash Muriel's mouth out with soap. Muriel replied, “It’s okay, I like the taste of soap”. Turns out, they’ve been putting soap on their lips to blow bubbles.

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Crowley: *raises eyebrows*

Nina: Put those back down!

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Nina: Don’t be sad!

Crowley: Why not?

Nina:

Nina: I don’t have a good answer.

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Crowley, to Muriel: Please, picking locks is my specialty.

Crowley: *throws a brick through the window*

Crowley: Okay, let’s go.

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Crowley: While I'm gone, you're in charge Muriel.

Muriel: Yes!

Crowley, whispering to Maggie: You're secretly in charge, but I don't want them to feel bad.

Maggie: Obviously.

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Nina: Do you need help getting up?

Crowley: Nah, I'm cool down here on the floor.

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Crowley: My crush isn’t picking up on my hints.

Nina: What hints have you given them?

Crowley: Well, I think about them a lot.

Crowley: And sometimes I even think about talking to them.

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Nina: How would you like your coffee?

Crowley: As dark as my soul.

Nina: Got it, one cup of milk coming right up!

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Maggie: You know what your problem is?

Crowley: I only have one?

Something I have realized the last few years that has made it so much easier to have fun consuming media:

I can choose whatever bits of a series/franchise I like and disregard the things I don’t. I am not obligated to acknowledge what is officially canon when engaging in media recreationally

The creator of a piece of media is not owed my unwavering support for every aspect of a story.

I can pick out the things I like, ignore anything I don’t then go make a Headcanon or write a fanfic that gives me what I personally want out of a character or property.

The canon content is still there for those who enjoyment and this doesn’t take away anything from the original author/creator. In fact, it just means that someone loves some part of their work enough to want to think about it and play in the world they made.

That isn’t to say I don’t critique media, it’s something I enjoy. I can still debate and disagree with other fans (as long as I do so respectfully). Other opinions and interpretations are valid and wonderful.

But I can engage with story or media however I want, in a way that makes me happy.

I watched the first three episodes of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 5.

I…Eh…

First of all, where is the Gaslight? We haven’t seen it in so long.

Second, I’m sad to see that there’s still a lack of long stand-up performances…in this show about a comedienne. This was a problem in season 4, and I hope they fix it as S5 goes on.

I’m so glad season 4 Midge is mostly gone. I hated how insufferable she was in Season 4 and that Susie was never able to get through to her. That’s the core of their relationship, and I don’t like that it took so long for her to get over herself.

The flash forward openings were…weird. On one hand, Miriam being kind of an absentee mother makes some sort of sense, but seeing her as another version of Rose is kind of disappointing.

As is the reveal that she’s apparently been married four more times. Like, why can’t she find happiness? I never liked the arc about ending up alone, but I was willing to accept it as Midge putting romantic relationships on hold for a bit after putting it ahead of everything for so long.

But apparently she no longer speaks to Susie either? I HATE the explanation they give too. Their whole “we’re not friends, we’re coworkers” finished midway through the second season, and was a huge and endearing bit of Susie’s growth. I’m sure they’ll expand on it, but it’s just sad. And they showed the inverse of it mostly effectively in Season 3.

I hate that this show seems to really be doubling down on its message of “you have to be alone and distant from literally anyone to achieve your dreams.”

Season 1 and Season 2 (barring the finale) were about finding personal growth by pursuing your own ambitions.

Season 3, which I didn’t enjoy as much, is where the “ending up alone to succeed” stuff really started after being seeded in the Season 2 finale. Yeah, it’s hinted at in the S2 premiere, but it’s more about the final end of Midge and Joel specifically. The plot line with Ben is also more about Midge opening up with a potential romantic partner, and how perhaps she isn’t ready or compatible with someone in that moment enough to settle down.

She’s only about a year out from her divorce, so it makes sense that she realizes that she isn’t ready to settle down again.

I don’t really get why she decided that one failed relationship automatically equals alone forever. I guess it’s because she’s also super influenced by Lenny’s performance, but…that’s another problem. Her idolization of him is just such a weird step in the wrong direction for her character.

She’s putting him on a pedestal the same way she did with Joel, and it’s him that is the one to get her out of her self-destructive phase.

Susie once told her “You do not need a … man at your side to do this”. Except she does.

I hate some of the messaging in this show, but hopefully the final episodes will make up for the stuff I didn’t like just like the Lenny and Midge blue room scene did last season.

Because of Good Omens brain rot, I’ve been doing a Ninth/Tenth Doctor rewatch. And I was reminded of something I started to notice when I did my first ever rewatch.

The jokey attitude Rose has in the face of danger is a trait she shares with the Doctor, but it’s not something she picks up from him.

In Aliens of London/ World War III, Harriet chides her for making jokingly says something to the effect of how the Slitheen’s compression field works as a kind of weight loss program. This is the first time it’s ever been called out, but it’s not actually the first time she’s done it.

In the first episode, while the Doctor is explaining the living plastic she makes a wry comment about all of the breast implants coming to life. She’s only known the Doctor for a few hours at this point. It goes completely unremarked on, but it’s there.

She does it in the Empty Child when Jack catches her in his transmat beam. Her voice is literally shaking in this one, both from physical exertion and terror.

The thing is, I think it’s a coping mechanism. I think Rose has learned to bury her fear behind snarky remarks and jokes, one she probably picked up to deal with her life on the estates, to deal with being belittled, to deal with her abusive ex.

The first time I really came to this conclusion was while watching Tooth and Claw for the second time.

During the episode, Ten and Rose have this little bet running to see if she can get Queen Victoria to say her “we are not amused” line. Every time Rose does it, she is giggling.

Until she says it after the werewolf (this is a really strange episode even for DW…) attacks.

After taking a second to be relieved at being alive, her face kind of drops, her eyes widen and glaze over a little bit. The line “I bet you’re not amused” is rushed out of her mouth and significantly quieter than she was a minute ago. The delivery is uncharacteristically monotone until the little emphasis she puts on the end.

She does this weird almost-smile like she’s going to laugh even though she is patently not smiling. She does this small little head shake, her arms are tense.

It’s a really unsettling moment, and it was this performance by Billie Piper is what made me start thinking about this.

Queen Victoria yells at her, and Rose immediately apologizes, won’t even make eye contact with anyone. She curls in and turns away a bit.

This moment always bothered me and it took me a few watches to really articulate why.

Rose is scared.

I didn’t see it immediately because Rose displays fear in so many ways.

When she fears someone she cares about is going to leave her, (usually it’s the Doctor), Rose will lash out. This happens in Father’s Day, School Reunion, and Girl in the Fireplace. (The last one is so justified. She’s way more compassionate than I would’ve been at the end of that episode). She also does this Fear Her (when Nina Sosanya’s character continually refuses to watch her possessed daughter)

Other times, she’s able to turn her fear into action. She does this in her very first episode, the series 1 finale, the Cyberman two-parter, the Satan Pit two-parter, and earlier in Tooth and Claw.

Sometimes, she runs. In Christmas Invasion, she is facing a world-ending threat without the Doctor for the first time. She can’t do the heart of the Tardis trick again without ripping a hole in the universe.

Many times she’ll turn to the Doctor or her mother (who does her best but doesn’t always say the right thing)

But sometimes she makes a snarky comment or tells a joke to convince herself and maybe others that it will be okay.

She uses jokes for this specific reason to cheer up the Doctor in the Satan Pit.

Because Rose is compassionate. To Raffalo, to Gwenyth, to the Empty Child, to Jack. To Cassandra and Flora and Elton. She even tries to comfort Reinette, who is condescending towards her and who the Doctor repeatedly abandons her for because she regrets antagonizing Sarah Jane last episode. (I mean Sarah Jane was kind of mean too despite being a grown woman and Rose only being in her early twenties).

It’s the final confirmation the Doctor needs to realize she’s possessed on New Earth.

She will allow the Doctor to sacrifice her without question to save people and shows compassion to a Dalek both before she knows what it is and after it proves to be capable of changing.

She will drop everything for her mother despite whatever disagreements they have, will bend the universe to keep her father from dying alone.

She will literally sacrifice herself and stare into raw time to save the Doctor.

A lot of people think that Rose’s character in s2 is not as interesting. While that’s true, I think it’s more to do with the lack of interactions between her and Ten that aren’t about their romance. Nine and Rose have interactions that challenge each other’s morality. (Dalek, End of the World, Fathers Day, Unquiet Dead). On the rare occasions that Ten and Rose clash, it’s over jealousy brought on by Rose’s fear of being forgotten and Ten’s fear of committing, or feels like it’s in the shadow of his behavior with Reinette. Ironically, it’s their debate in Fear Her (a not great episode) that is one of the more interesting exchange of views that they have.

I wouldn’t completely agree that Rose loses her compassion in the second season. I think some of her more toxic pre-existing traits are just brought to the surface. And her protectiveness does become selfish.

But series 2 dumps a lot on Rose’s shoulders.

Ten’s weird hot and cold demeanor is probably emotionally taxing too. She has a lot of inferiority issues, probably because of how she’s been treated by her mother and others in her life. She frequently reiterates that she doesn’t matter. You can see how much it means to her when Nine earnestly admits she saved his life in response to her nervous teasing and posturing. And you can see how crushed she is when he calls her stupid in a moment of anger in Father’s day. (An event that is partially his fault because he didn’t explain the rules to Rose until afterwards) He immediately apologizes. (He does have that weird flirtation with Lynda but that is dropped just as abruptly as it starts).

The Tenth Doctor has this deeply frustrating set of episodes in series two where he is utterly awful to watch, and it’s after this that the relationship becomes the shallow, unhealthy, codependent one people remember. (I will expand on this in another post)

But it’s not even necessarily because of the Doctor that it’s hard for her. She says in Parting of the Ways that it wasn’t even the adventures she loved, it was him showing her a better way of life.

The adventures, the death, those are what wear her down the same way they wear down Ten.

She is, at one point, told by literal Satan that she is going to die imminently.

No matter how cheerful an episode begins, the loss always brings something melancholic out of Rose, but also someone desperate to hold onto the person she loves and carve out some sort of hope for a future. Impossible Planet does this really well with the little exchange about getting a mortgage. You can tell both of them find the idea appealing, or would if the Tardis was on call for the occasional weekend trip and weekly visit to Jackie. Because Ten likes Jackie, likes having a family.

Because deep down what these two want is each other and to rest. Not stop, they never could do that entirely. That’s why, I think TenToo works well in Empire of the Wolf (I don’t think it’s handled well in the actual show). Because they are still having new adventures with their daughter, just smaller ones.

So while Rose does have her flaws (selfishness, jealousy, a coping mechanism that is not always in the best taste). But she’s 19, she’s human. She’s allowed to and -as a character in a piece of media- should have flaws. I think they are what make a fundamentally brave and compassionate character feel like a real person. They make her more compelling.

(I want to do a later meta on Mickey, because Rose could’ve handled that better, but I also have issues with early Mickey. And it ties into some other stuff…so later meta.)

Good Omens S2 Trailer Thoughts:

- What’s going on with Crowley and Aziraphale? Where was Crowley? Why is Crowley so nervous. Why is Aziraphale so chilly? Maybe this takes place later in the series than it appears? Wait! I got it! Crowley went into hibernation during lockdown remember? Maybe that's actually canon?!

- Aw! Crowley takes off his glasses to be more open with Aziraphale.

- I liked the bookstore set better last season.

- Michael…your hair is so awful.

- Poor Muriel. How did no one tell her about Crowley? How does she not know what Gabriel looks like? There’s literally a poster of him in Heaven. Maybe by this point she’s already working with Aziraphale and Crowley.

- Um, Mr. Gaiman have you been spending time on ao3? Because um…the whole amnesiac/ Gabriel stuck with Aziraphale for some reason on Earth thing is familiar…

- Poor Crowley. He’s just not having a good time. I wonder if that lightening is coming at him or from him. The latter is kind’ve angelic…

- “You know what it’s like, when you don’t know anything at all, and yet you’re totally certain that everything would be better if you were just near one particular person?” Ahhhhh! My heart!

- Aziraphale thinking back to 1945 and Crowley during that line. Ahhhh! Az is still so in denial it’s hilarious.

- Ooh, Crowley in heaven! I wonder if we’ll get to see how it feels for him to be back.

- Crowley’s angel disguise is so awful! What is his hair? 😂

- Tennant and Sheen together again!

The mystery plot is great and everything, but I’m here for Crowley and Aziraphale adopting Muriel and watching their found family create chaos…

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

Why is Season Abe 1 here?

Poor Ethan.

And…Susie’s gambling. Damn.

Oh good. We’re still hating on Shy Baldwin.

I like Mike though.

Midge’s career stuff is pretty interesting this episode.

Why don’t we get to see her do her set? Ugh.

Susie is amazing and it’s great to see Midge do something nice for James.

Aw! Midge is doing something so nice for her mother.

Wait, that’s the whole episode? That was mostly filler.

Also, why are the Weissmans stupid now? I literally saw Rose get a match to light the oven last season.

I was thinking about Midge and Lenny while working on a new chapter of “Very Blue Lives” (it’s on ao3, please go read and review. I need validation like Lenny and Midge need each other).

Anyways, I was thinking about Midge and Lenny in Miami and why Midge turned Lenny down.

Sure the bs Vegas train wreck just happened, and Carol kind of freaked her out, but those answers are boring.

First of all, he’s weirdly reluctant to talk about her career. In Miami, whether she knows it or not, Lenny’s avoidance to discuss her career is part of the reason she walks away. Flash forward to the blue room, he’s making it clear that he listens to her and promises to take her seriously, and that’s when she decides “yes, okay. Let’s see what’s between us.”

She needs him to take her seriously as a comic, and once she realizes that he does, she’s willing to be vulnerable with him as a woman.

And that’s a great step for Midge, who isn’t taken seriously personally or professionally, especially by people she loves.

So I’m doing a Marvelous Mrs. Maisel rewatch (to remind myself of when the show was good). I got to the Season 2 episodes with Benjamin and… I don’t like him. I always thought he was kind of boring, but had a few good moments with Midge, but now…

From the beginning, he’s just so unnecessarily rude to Midge, and only after she riffs along to the radio and proves herself sufficiently “weird” that he shows any interest in her.

Their relationship seems rushed too. We don’t see their first kiss or him meeting the family.

He springs marriage on her out of nowhere, after ambushing her at the park. The man is a doctor and supposedly very smart, I don’t know why he would think this was a good idea. He hadn’t met Joel but he’s proposing? Even Abe points out how rushed their relationship is.

Then there’s Midge, who falls back into old habits. She bends over backwards to meet Benjamin’s desires, even if it means putting herself at risk. She feels like she has to put makeup on in the mornings. She didn’t even mention Benjamin to Susie.

It’s later revealed that he bought a townhouse for himself and Midge, but didn’t consult her about it, because she apparently didn’t even know about it.

Even from their first date there are signs that Benjamin is never going to be enough for Midge. First of all, she knows immediately when and where Lenny’s show is, and it is her first instinct to go to him. Once Lenny is onstage, Midge is captivated. She only looks at Benjamin to gauge his reaction to Lenny. Her approval of Benjamin hinges on his approval of Lenny. (Personally, my favorite part is when Benjamin spends less than a minute watching Lenny and Midge interact and he is immediately like, “Did they…?”)

But the most interesting interactions come in S2E7: Look, She Made a Hat. Benjamin takes Miriam to an art show, something he knows she has no interest in. Now, yes I think you should try to take an interest in your partner’s hobbies, but the thing is, Benjamin keeps leaving to go brag or get drinks, and makes no effort to include her.

Now, contrast that with Lenny in S3E5: It’s Comedy or Cabbage. Lenny says he has a “work thing” which he brings Midge to, which turns out to be an appearance on Miami After Dark. He could’ve easily dumped Midge backstage for the entire show. But does he? Of course not. He brings her out to do a bit, have fun, and get her some exposure. He does this over the objections of the crew, because he loves her.

Returning to 2.7, Midge finds a painting she likes and buys it. She returns to Benjamin excitedly to show it off, but he demeans it. “That’s where they put the very minor artists. Or the mops.” Then he tells her that she overpaid and Midge feels the need to justify her purchase.

After the show, they head to the Cedar Tavern and Midge expressly tells Benjamin that he isn’t paying attention to her. Then, Declan Howell is introduced and Midge is captivated. Here is a man, an artist, who talks dirtier than he looks and can hold a crowd’s attention and make them laugh. And Benjamin is hesitant for Miriam to be around him.

Benjamin abandons Midge again in a situation that he thinks could be dangerous (yes he’s on call but still). And Declan gives Midge his complete attention. He is no longer dismissive, but attentive.

He asks her why she bought the painting she showed him yesterday. He remembered. She seems taken aback by the question, and even more shocked when he doesn’t accept her flippant response. She realizes he isn’t asking to make her feel bad.

When she finally gives her answer, “…She knows a joke that I don’t…” (Midge likes art that is warm and full of laughter which is a piece of characterization that I love), he is staring at her intently, and realizes she is worth showing his life’s work to, being vulnerable in front of. He listens to her answer.

Like Lenny does. Yup. It’s time to talk about The Blue Room.

Lenny stares at Midge like Declan does (but more because it’s Lenny). Lenny was listening to her, he always listens to her, and proves it by quoting her act.

“You are more important than God.”

“You were listening?” Midge asks this like it’s something she’s unaccustomed to (because it is).

“To you? Always.”

Men like Declan, men like Lenny, hold Midge’s interest for a reason: they listen to her. They make an effort to understand her. They show interest in things she likes without real judgement. They are real with her when no one else is. And that’s why it didn’t work with Benjamin. Because he just wanted someone to bum a light.

Midge needs someone who will give her the last puff.

Okay, the next installment of Domestic Burlesque is up. This deals with some heavy elements so mind the tags. Please tell me what you think!