blessed are the broken

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Night Agent (TV) Relationships: Rose Larkin/Peter Sutherland Summary: Peter and Rose have been exemplary partners so far, but tonight’s mission might test the line between work and personal feelings. They’ll be forced to keep their emotions in check and control the instinctive reactions born from love.

what can i say, i see two characters who are fiercely protective of each other at first sight and i lose my mind a little

sutherkin + height difference

https://deadline.com/2026/04/the-night-agent-season-4-cast-titus-welliver-li-jun-li-1236867650/

Let's start off with the good:

- I like the plot they're hinting at. Accountability is always interesting to watch and I'm curious how a program like Night Action could ever fall under some sort of judicial review given how they operate almost entirely extra-judiciously and without oversight.

- I also like the concept of seeing a married Night Agent because we haven't heard mention of that since Rose's aunt and uncle

...

THAT BEING SAID.

How was someone like Titus Welliver's character not introduced after season 1?? Or even season 2? The vice-president had an assassination plot against the sitting president and actively tried to take over the presidency with the secretary of state assisting him in the cover-up and there was NO overhaul of the Night Agent program at that time? Especially since two Night Agents were murdered as part of this all unravelling? This plot would have been *perfect* as a season 2 storyline but bringing it up now makes little to no sense. An assassination attempt, or a terrorist plot in New York didn't do it but a President covering up violating campaign finance laws did?? No fucking way.

And while Peter's new partner may help him and show him a life beyond all this, instead of introducing even more new characters, I would much rather hear about Rose's aunt and uncle as characters and learn more about their backgrounds and their relationship, hopefully FROM Rose. Imagine Rose coming back into Peter's life and the example of her aunt and uncle being used to show how they can be together and are better together. Wouldn't that tie things in well?

Secondly, I'm not sure if I'm the only one but the end of season 3, in my opinion, set up either Rose or Chelsea as Peter's partner going forward. Why are we getting additional new characters?? Is Chelsea disappearing again with no explanation? Her arc in season 3 shows her becoming disillusioned with her job and learning how quickly things can change at the White House (like what happened to Peter in season one) and transitioning to working with Peter would make sense, no? What was the point of all that talk of balance between Peter and Mosley if there's going to be more new characters introduced and Rose isn't going to be brought back?

And finally... Zoe. I cannot begin to explain how mad I am that out of ALL the characters they've mentioned and all the characters we love and would like to see more of, they chose Zoe. WHY. What possible story reason could there be for this? And even if there is one that you could come up with, why bother?? You're not gonna give the fans more scenes of Cisco? Of Diane Farr, or Chelsea, or Maddie, or President Travers, of Jim, but you're going to bring back fucking Zoe???

So blazing mad.

And can I say, of course she's fucking blonde and white. She's never been shown on screen before but the entire fucking fandom, small as it is, just knew she was blonde and white. And I am so fucking mad that we were right. I loved that Rose, Cisco, Farr, and Chelsea were people of colour in the original series but it feels like such a shitty choice to make Zoe white and blonde and I have literally no interest in any storylines involving her character.

The Night Agent, s3e10

Fandom: The Night Agent Relationships: Rose Larkin/Peter Sutherland Summary: 

Peter had spent the better part of his life chasing after the nostalgic happiness bound to the taste of an ice cream. It felt almost cosmically ordained that Rose was the one who found it for him.

“He still loves Rose,” [Basso] said. “I don’t think he is this character that’s like, oh, Rose isn’t here, so I’m gonna do this. I think he wants a relationship, but at this point in his life and how important he sees this job and rooting out corruption and doing the right thing, I think that ultimately is more important to him than having a relationship. But I think if anyone, he would probably try to find Rose again and track her down and see what happens with that.” (x)

Doctor Who (Steven Moffat specifically)

Sherlock (Steven Moffat specifically)

Actually Steven Moffat is basically just this sentiment given human form.

A version of this happened with The Magicians, tbh. Though instead of expectation: men, reality: women it was expectation: smug nihilists, reality: mentally ill queer folks.

Arguably Game of Thrones.

If we broaden it outside of television…I think Star Wars falls into this, at least the sequel trilogy. Maybe the MCU as well. And I can’t help but think of every band that’s ever complained that their fanbase is mostly women. 5 Seconds of Summer comes immediately to mind.

In general, most white male creators seem to have this massively entitled mindset where they want–and think they deserve–the time, attention, and enthusiasm that creative fandom (i.e. the side of fandom more dominated by women) is known for.

They want our eyes for ratings, our word-of-mouth for free publicity, our metas for social media buzz, and our spending power for merch and cons. But they don’t want us. And they don’t really want the responsibility of telling a story to a thoughtful, engaged audience, regardless of that audience’s demographic makeup. They just want to be praised for whatever schlock they cough up.

Mind you it is perfectly possible to make the switch in marketing, but execs would rather throw it all out than have something that doesn’t perform well with male viewers. For example the Rey merch was not expected to be popular, for some reason, there had to be public outcry to get merch of one of the main 3 protagonists. A PROTAGONIST. The fact that she wasn’t a huge part of the 1st launch says a lot already.

And what happened when female fans got too invested in the Sequel Trilogy? The entire writers room didn’t necessarily lash out, but they sure forgot how to behave.

Young Justice

Paul Dini: Superhero cartoon execs don’t want largely female audiences

#WhereIsRey (initial)

#WhereIsRey (ongoing)

Simply, they’re trying to assert a particular worldview via fiction, and upon getting confronted with something else, begin foot stamping. It’s not just men wanting male attention and gatekeeping. It’s that the fiction in the first place was an attempt to curate dominance and whoopsie! they miscalculated.

“The real truth is, I would perform my show and I would meet kids after and young girls would come up to me and they understood what I was expressing in that bit onstage way more than guys my own age. Way more. So if there was a bridge between us that I had to cross to write the movie [Eighth Grade], it was built to me by them. I felt understood by them before I presumed to understand them.”