angel

if you're primarily engaging with things that have been completely catered to your hc's, and that you can critique and help mould during its formation, of course you're going to find most of mainstream media disappointing. this idea that everything has to have a happy ending, or has to be satisfactory to the consumer, is ruining art, and destroying storytelling.

and also making it really fucking boring

she was free for years, made her own family, lived life on her own terms, and even manged to get a little revenge, only to have it all ripped away from her and end up back in the lab. i think to her, freedom is the true illusion. as long as her, jane, and henry are alive, there will always be a 'brenner' looking to use them.

i think she's tired and jaded, and sees death as the only way they'll ever truly be free and the only way they'll ever truly gain control

this whole "el needs to learn independence away from men" narrative feels an awful lot like "this female character is getting in the way of my ship so let me use this feminist argument so it looks good and well meaning and hides the fact that my actual intention behind it completely centres a man"