#oof sorry

I was rewatching atla…a show that is well-written and well-crafted…and kataang features consistent heart-to-hearts like byler did to build up their dynamic…simply to show that these two characters have a bond that they don’t have with the others. the usage of romantic tropes like kataara being the one who is always able to calm down aang from his avatar state/mike being the one to pull will out of his trances and comfort him the best out of anyone else, kataara and aang saving each in dramatic emotional ways/mike and will doing the same for each other (s2 shed scene and s5 sorcerer moment), the characters’ individual arcs complement each other and they’re both actively shown to be a team. it is frustrating.

also just watched bridgerton s4 p2…and yeah this show is more messily written compared to the former (this season was better in many ways)…what i find great is the inclusion of a queer romance with one of the siblings…francesca and michaela…I’m so happy to finally see a central queer storyline that’s sapphic no less…and I can hardly hold my excitement in for their season. so far in s4 p2 their scenes are shot with intimate framing, romantic music and we get a closeup handhold shot…which in film language…is usually romantic.

these are all established romantic things and byler scenes are shot in the same way…they got a closeup handhold shot too…they are shot differently to all the friendships within st like friendship heartfelt conversations don’t look like that but shot similarly to romantic couples (specifically lumax, jopper, jncy) in the show. so many parallels to these couples through framing, music, tropes, dialogue, etc.

byler also parallels romantic couples in other shows simply by framing and music and dialogue because this is a shared visual language that helps set the mood for a romantic pairing. whether we look at a well-written show or a more messily written show. it is a shared visual language. this is why “byler has no canonical basis” arguments are just wrong wrong wrong! if you’re looking at the show from a craft perspective the romantic nature of byler is fairly obvious. the snowball was built up across the span of 5 seasons using the same visual language as other romantic pairings but unlike other romantic pairings the avalanche failed to happen. that’s what makes it frustrating.

I won't lie to you, anon. Ripper wouldn't notice it's Mother's Day. Ripper wouldn't even keep track what day of the week it is, unless it's necessary for investigations or shenanigans. In fact, I don't think they'd realize it was Mother's Day until after a month has passed.

Not to say that Ripper would have no resurfacing issues about their mother in general, but at least it wouldn't be at that moment. Less suffering for them.

Alex, on the other hand, would have so many flashbacks, so many relived moments of his childhood that ended up disappearing in an instant. Feeling all sad and shit and wondering about all the what could have been. About all the things he could have done to avoid it. Feeling alone in a world of deceit, just very close to breaking down but he also can't because he has to stay steady for his sibling.

and then the next time there’s a knife in Marc’s hand it’s certainly not nice and shiny like it was before- no, it’s buried in bad guy #1’s gut. there’s so much more blood.

… listen i came into this ask wondering if marc and jake had different styles of fighting with weapons- with knives specifically- and walked out with too many more questions than i had answers.. Marc’s movements with the knife were. very certain and fluid- well practiced, even. and yet he seems to shy away from picking one up- he sticks to his fists.

It doesn’t help that there’s not much footage on how jake uses a knife, we just see the .. result. anyways this is for you to munch on when you find a spare thought cos i know this’ll be rotating in my brain on repeat for a goooood long while. skdjdksj byeeee

Percy, have I ever mentioned how much I love when you talk to me about House Weaponry? lsdgjskljgs ANYWAY. I have.. commentary on this.

So, in that scene on the rooftop, there's three guys he's fighting total, five knives (the particularly flashy guys are carrying two. Y'know. For funsies, I guess.) The confrontation starts with Marc being, bless his heart, more himself than we see very often. A little sassy, a lighthearted jab here and there. Oh shit, you killed him? I needed to talk to that guy. Oh. What, are we dancin'? We fightin'? What are we gonna do? He's more comfortable, the situation more familiar.

And throughout the fight, he's more focused on getting the knives out of their hands. He disarms, but he doesn't necessarily take advantage of the weapon itself. (It's something we learn in combat self defense, your best chance of survival is to take the knife out of the fight entirely.) Marc's strategy is this:

Guy #1: Dodge the first slash so the knife is already directed away from him, takes his wrist holding the second knife, forces it in the same direction so both points are no longer a threat, and uses his own momentum to push him away, falling to the ground.

Kid and Guy #2: In the time it takes Marc to land a solid kick on someone else, the kid manages a good slash against his back, distracting him from the older men. When he tries again, Marc grabs at the wrist holding the knife, twisting the joint in a way that makes it fall from his grip. It's important to note too that he hesitates for a second, striking his back with an open palm instead of a closed fist. Less pain, more jarring or surprising than anything.

Guy #1 again: He crosses the guys arms across each other, making it pretty difficult to near impossible to stab forward. He brings his knee up to strike his wrist, and so another knife falls. The second knife comes up, and Marc strikes again to the same result.

With every motion and decision Marc makes, a weapon falls to the ground. But he doesn't reach for it, not until the end. And even then he's angry, the adrenaline is pumping, he's reaching for that familiar violence, but at the last moment, Steven steps in. That's enough.

And I used to think it was so strange, because Marc's very familiar with utilizing the crescent darts when he's wearing the suit. There are multiple times he uses them to stab, to cut, to slash, in the same way a knife would be handled. So why did he seem so against taking advantage of a dropped weapon, when he was very clearly outnumbered? And then I remember this line:

Or it was just a way for me to keep being what I've always been. A killer.

And that is Marc's entire struggle with his identity as Moon Knight, isn't it? He refuses to accept that certain satisfaction he finds in his own violence, because in doing so, he thinks he's confirming everything his mother ever made him believe. He finds it easier to use those weapons wearing the armor because he thinks he can almost.. draw a line between himself and what he becomes as an Avatar. He can separate the two.

At first, I was like hmm...not sure what she’s basing that off of. Because from my point of view an act of mutual acceptance happened on that bridge so there was really no need for V to try and change. But then the more I thought about it, it actually could explain how things ended up where they are now.

On the bridge, Eve asked Villanelle to help her make it stop. The only way Villanelle knew how to do that was to walk away from Eve. Yes they both turned back, but Villanelle knew that if she stayed she would be dooming Eve to a fate that Villanelle had been so desperately trying to escape from. So Villanelle walked away. But faced with the reality of never seeing Eve again, she decided to try to become “good”. She decided to try to become someone who wouldn’t encourage Eve’s monster the way she had done in the past. So she finds a church and desperately begins the journey of trying to reform, so that she can be the type of person who would still be able to be with Eve.

However, Eve may not have seen Villanelle walking away as a act of sacrifice. She may have seen it as an act of rejection. Eve turned back, she turned back for Villanelle. So Villanelle still choosing to walk away may have stunned Eve. Here is a woman who had been relentlessly wooing and pursuing Eve and right when Eve finally lets herself surrender to that reality, V walks away. So maybe that’s where this “change” stems from. Maybe Eve wanted to completely burn down her old life and build a new one. Maybe she wanted to be someone who doesn’t let her feelings control her, someone who doesn’t ask, but just takes what it is that she wants. But underneath this rough, hard exterior is still the woman who was left standing alone on a bridge. That may be the anger and hostility that we see towards Villanelle. I read an excerpt from an interview that alluded to Eve being “heartbroken” by Villanelle. I’m not sure when or how else this heartbreak could’ve occurred. 

So Eve finally, finally, finally starts to get her feet under her again. She’s more self-sufficient, stronger, tougher, takes no bullshit. Then she starts receiving baptism invitations from the very person who drove her to these lengths. And this INFURIATES Eve, because how dare she? After all this time, how dare V just try to walk back into Eve’s life? So when they finally come face to face, everything just bubbles over. Eve doesn’t want to hear her or see her. She just wants to keep everything buried. So when Villanelle has the audacity to call her out on the fact that she hasn’t changed, Eve snaps because it’s true. Eve still cares. Even though she doesn’t want to, she does. But she’s not about to let Villanelle know that, so she marches over and slaps her and definitively lets her know that she is a “different person.”

On Villanelle’s end, this is all utterly confusing. Because here she went on this journey to “change” just so she could be with Eve. So she’s not prepared to face rejection and this different Eve. She has spent months (I’m assuming) molding herself into a person who, in Villanelle’s mind, should have been welcomed with open arms by Eve. So it is completely jarring for her to discover that this isn’t the case. That all of her efforts seem to be for naught. That Eve no longer cares. Villanelle’s social skills aren’t nuanced enough for her to pick up on any underlying factors that may have played into the fish tank interaction with her and Eve. So for V, slap=rejection=God is not real because if he was, this wouldn’t have happened. V being “good” now would’ve been enough to bring Eve back to her.

Oh honey darling sweatheart, no no no, i am so sorry its your ask that is going to be on the recieving end of this onslaught you've just walked into the intersection of everything that makes my brain go brrrrrrr