u/NerdOfAllColours

If you look at the story through the lens of Sam being in love with Hannah, the final chapter becomes pretty much a Greek tragedy. Sam is the one who finds Hannah’s diary in the mines, discovering the horrific truth about Hannah becoming the Makkapitew. Contrary to Mike’s reaction of disgust and horror, Sam's is pure heartbreak. Like, she just looks like she’s going to cry as she tells him. And later, when she’s about to tell Josh, she focuses on the fact that Hannah is suffering rather than the danger she poses to them.

The ending is when things get even more tragic. Sam is forced to stand there in silence and try not to move as the monster that was once the girl she loved is inches away from her face, about to murder her. And either Hannah does murder her, or Sam has to flip the light switch that incinerates Hannah. Doomed yuri.

And then Sam trying to comfort Josh and get closer to him is her way of coping, and she comes to believe they have a connection in their shared grief. Josh interprets it as flirting, but it’s actually just Sam being Sam. She was always the nicest and most caring in the group.

I know it’s all based on subtext, but so is Sam x Josh, so I view this as being just as plausible, if not narratively richer as a whole. I mean, Sam was the only one who never dwelled on or joked about sex (aside from Ashley and Beth anyway) or romance (just Beth). I think it adds a lot to the game to play it while considering the theory of Sam’s unrequited feelings.

I’m on my second playthrough of Dragon Age 2, and ughhhh I can’t get over how frustratingly realistic Leandra is. Don’t get me wrong, her ultimate fate is still devastating for what it does to Hawke and the surviving sibling (always Bethany for me). And she clearly does love her children. But maaaaan…

The Gamlen stuff, whatever. He’s awful, he’s the worst, I still believe he was the antagonist in that relationship. I mean don’t get me wrong, he was right when he asked her to pay rent. But everything else? I can’t be bothered to deal with Gamlen right now.

But okay, yes, she’s still bad. On top of being obsessed with climbing back up the social ladder, she’s also really vindictive and manipulative. Idk what she does when Bethany dies, as I’ve always had Carver die, but her first instinct is to blame Hawke and she doesn’t apologize unless you call her out on it.

I don’t even know where to start with the way she completely doesn’t see the hypocrisy of the fact that she tries to set you up with a spouse at the start of Act 2, even if you’ve either already been romancing someone or have only ever shown interest in the same sex. She doesn’t seem to ever realize she’s doing exactly what her parents did to her, trying to force her into a heteronormative marriage to continue the bloodline and have a good social standing, rather than let her kid be happy like she was when she ran off with Malcolm.

I think what makes it so frustrating, though, is you can’t ever actually call her out on that last part, as she only ever says those things in static lines you can’t reply to. Idk how she reacts to most people when you hook up with someone (my Fem Hawke got Isabela the first time, Merrill this time 🙌), but for me she only ever repeats the same line about Orana being hired so 🤷‍♀️

But oh well. She’s very well-written if that hypocrisy was intentional lol

dk how other people feel about this, so I have no clue if I’m dropping a hot take or not. But I’m on my first watch, and I’m on Season 2.

In the first season, I really liked how while the other Winx had boyfriends, Flora remained independent. With her growing emotional bond with Mirta, though, it started to feel lesbian-coded. Hell, Flora’s most prominent arc in Season 1 centred around the deep emotional bond she shared with Mirta, and worked tirelessly to break the curse. There was a level of intense care and emotional intimacy between them that made me perceive their relationship as romantic-coded. I knew they would never actually do it outright, because this was the early 2000s, but I was still impressed by how progressive the show seemed to be for even having it be hinted at.

Then came Season 2. Flora largely feels like the same character, except when Helia is around or Chatta is talking to her. It feels like a sharp shift in Flora’s character direction, I’ll be honest. It feels like they suddenly pivoted Flora toward a heteronormative romance with some dude she just met and suddenly started fawning over like a complete giggly mess. It feels jarring to me, as I liked her Season 1 trajectory and characterization. And freaking Chatta constantly and aggressively pushing for Flora to obsess over boys and stuff. It just feels like Flora’s gone from being independent and grounded to being completely flustered and tongue-tied around Helia, who again, she just met.

I don’t have any issue with Helia so far, he seems like a decent guy. But this feels like a complete corporate decision to ensure every Winx girl has a corresponding Specialist boyfriend for marketing and merchandise purposes, when I feel they neglected a natural progression for Flora’s character.

I’m not saying have her hook up with Mirta, as I know there’s no way that would happen with this showrunner and the time it came out. But they could have kept her single and ambiguous like Disney did with Elena in Elena of Avalor years later, or Elsa in Frozen. And if they HAD to give Flora a boyfriend, at least do it in a way that doesn’t change Flora’s personality 🥺

Idk. Maybe I’ll come around to it as I go on, but right now it makes me feel kinda annoyed by the missed potential lol

Maybe I’m crazy here… but at Hock’s party, when you’re on the balcony, a woman says in a hushed voice “It’s good to see you”. And it seems to be coming from a woman who looks a lot like Emily Wong. Granted, I know a lot of the models are reused, so it could just be a random woman. But she’s even wearing the same dress that Emily was wearing in the Shadow Broker footage.

I assumed in the moment that it was Emily Wong undercover and that she was there to expose Hock or someone else there, and she recognized Shepard and gave a subtle greeting without blowing Shep’s cover, knowing we must be there for a good reason.

But then I looked on the wiki and I couldn’t find any mention of this, so maybe it was just a line meant to be background noise at the party? Idk. Am I crazy? 😂