u/jos10s

i’m trying to get back into language learning and i have a subscription for this app so this was the obvious choice instead of starting over on a new one.

only thing is what on earth is with all the ai???

if i don’t use it will i still get a well rounded and useful educational experience? or has it gotten to the point where not using the ai will detrimental to trying to learn and it’s in my best interest to try and find another app without it (if those exist?)

i see most of the ai is in the conversation part which feels pretty freaking important which is why i’m nervous

anyone have experience with avoiding the ai on the app? developers if you’re listening pls take it out or make a way to turn it off at least please

before i say this i wanna be clear i am a day 1 melanie defender i never switched up never turned on her never made fun of her for the “give me 10” or called her a bird for the sincere stuff

that being said

as much as i was originally rooting for her to win and despite her being one of my favorites y’all are dead wrong for voting her and sincere as most compatible

no one wants her to go home and i get it the longer you’re on the show the more sponsorships and stuff i get it!!! i want her to succeed!! i want her to get out and succeed more than anyone i do

however yall are wanting her in the final 4 at the cost of her sanity…

she already feels crazy and now all her friends are defending that man and the ONE TIME she’s putting the screws to him (a pillow between them no kissing etc) yall turn around and tell her that america wants them together

not only is sincere gaslighting her but lowkey anyone voting for them is messing with her head too bc all it’s doing is reinforcing the idea “this is what i deserve i’m the problem for not forgiving him”

LET HER GO HOME!!! its gonna kill me when she leaves it is but it’s only fair let her go home and work through this shit stop reinforcing the idea that she needs to make this toxic relationship work

voting them for most compatible is truly insane we’ve all lost our minds this is not a show of “which girl is your favorite and vote them all the way to the end no matter what” this is LOVE!!! island and what they have is not a kind of love anyone should be endorsing

(disclaimer this does not apply to you if you didn’t vote for them)

i genuinely was moved to tears watching melanie cry like full on tearing up with her

i think it’s hard for some ppl to realize how devious sincere is bc instead of going mask off like KC (who was nuts trying to run up on aniya like wtf sit down…) sincere plays the dope in a way

he’s constantly giggling saying “oh well i think i told her? well it’s not a big deal bc i didn’t LIE i just like left 1 part out” and it comes off like a joke or like it’s not a big deal that he’s gaslighting the hell out of melanie

someone on tiktok said KC is a better like tv type villain bc you get the vibe he really doesn’t like maybe even hates aniya but sincere has plausible deniability bc you think deep down somewhere that he likes melanie he just can’t get it together

i just wanna say i worry people like can’t fully understand what melanie’s suffering rn bc gaslighting is some real deep dark stuff

and i don’t think you even have to be gaslit by like a lover bc even just family or friends it will truly shake you to your core and make you rethink everything even stuff you know in your heart is true and it doesn’t go away quickly like at all

everyone kinda jumps melanie for never leaving sincere but what he’s doing is so twisted like i get why she’s with him

not only is he making her rethink all of her intuition and what she’s seeing and hearing with her own eyes but he’s breadcrumbing her by being sweet and nice to her and making promises that he’s gonna change causing her to feel like “oh well if i don’t hold him down then i’m the bad guy” she’s not trusting what she’s hearing and seeing bc he’s made it so she CAN’T

those first few weeks where everyone told her she was crazy are definitely lingering in the back of her head and i think she feels like she’s wrong if explores bc don’t forget when she showed any excitement towards a bombshell he guilted the crap outta her while being disrespectful with sol

if she cries or yells everyone but especially sincere was telling her she was doing too much like i think the way she’s moving makes more sense when you realize the impact sinceres crap is having on her mentally pair that with former islanders discussing the lack of sleep and real food and the sun

never forget leah from s6 was being gaslit by rob to the point she wanted to go home she was suffering so bad and the therapist they had there did nothing for her bc they needed her to stay and she told people that she kept trying to explain that she had memory issues and she wasn’t lying she genuinely didn’t remember things people were telling her only for stuff like movie night to happen and she realized they were weaponizing her memory against her making her feel crazy

what she’s going through is unimaginable and worse he’s pretty much blown her shot at true love bc it looks like the chances for bombshells are low that villa is PACKED already and most everyone is coupled up by now

so now she’s forced to either stay with sincere who’s destroying her or leave and go home a “loser” and have to unpack everything that’s happened without anyone like her girls in the villa who can relate or understand what she’s going through

watching her parts of the show makes me physically sick especially bc unlike aniya who’s getting her rightful happy ending (barring any insane plot twists) melanie has nothing to give her that pick me up and that comfort

i really wanted her journey to mirror leah’s and have her find her miguel and come out the villa with success and love but it looks like she’s getting what aaron did to kaylor and it’s just so unfair

melanie trust girl there are women and men ready to wife you up the second you get out of that villa it’s coming girl

so it’s my second time rewatching the finale so likely my third time seeing it overall?

and tbh i don’t mind the whole “girl power” ending bc i do think it’s fitting joe who victimized women was taken down by women who he underestimated and thought he fooled

however it comes across so badly for a few reasons that REALLY stood out on this rewatch

firstly the whole “tiktok/reddit/podcast” sleuth thing while it gave us a few memes was so… stupid and badly used in fact the show sort of suffered by using it as a vehicle to take joe down it was cheesy and not even played up as a serious threat because… joe outmaneuvered it? so it was pretty much just a vehicle to get brontë to joe which could’ve been done in more interesting ways

secondly the show did indeed largely suffer because of brontë

yes i agree some of the hate towards her is sexism and misogyny but i don’t think it can really be denied that no one rooted for brontë because her being the one to take down joe felt unearned

brontë unlike the other women knew who joe was from the get go

you had women like beck and marianne who didn’t know until it was too late then you had women like love and kate who were in too deep emotionally and thought they could fix him only to find they couldn’t

brontë had no period when she didn’t know who joe was and what he was capable of she had proof ontop of proof that joe was a psycho freak and that gives the viewer a sense of “well she brought it on herself” which is not what you want for a final girl

secondly she was competing with kate who’s arc while unrealistic (the basement….) was far more compelling she’s like if love had woken the fuck up and realized joe was never possible to redeem

i don’t like kate in s4 but in s5 she’s infinitely the better final girl she’s more interesting she’s better equipped and her plot lines are far more interesting i get that the show was trying to save her morals by not having her kill joe but it doesn’t make better that brontë was the one to finally take him down

especially because well… brontë was a boring choice… her entire character was boring when you look at all they had to choose from

ellie finding out joe offed delilah and avenging her sister?

marianne coming back and being the one to take joe down maybe bc of how he ruined her relationship with her child (unlikely sure but interesting)

nadia who was fucking wrongfully imprisoned

kate who was already there and primed to do it

even left field options like becks brother clyde who we saw in the tiktok compilation could’ve been cool

instead we went with “girl who doesn’t know joe , barely knew beck , and knew joe was a crazy psycho killer from jump” it just came across as lackluster and put a bit of a damper on a final season with potential

even avenues aside from brontë were underutilized

henry lashing out and his trauma , kate struggling with her morals , the entire doctor nicky’s son plotline , beck and brontës entire relationship… , the girls who survived joe just.. having more time together , joes mental state after his split last season what happened to that other than vague (i’m my whole self now comments) , wishful thinking but i would’ve even liked to see joe reckon with his dad being abusive growing up and how his own crimes affected henry the way his dads must have affected him

i dunno i definitely don’t think it was as bad as i remember it being , i do think i liked kate considerably more than i remember , the ending wasn’t as bad as i thought it was originally but its just like so hard not to watch it and wish they had done MORE you know?

how are you guys feeling about the finale on rewatch? or even the final season in general

so i’m rewatching the show and something is really bothering me on s1

the show keeps trying to get around the age gap by implying aria chased ezra but that’s just… not how consent works

they have multiple scenes of ezra turning her down saying she’s not ready for this that people will judge them and everytime the show has aria specifically talk him into trying

the idea behind this is not thinly veiled at all… the show is trying to push this idea that their relationship is consensual because she wanted it

but that’s not how consent works… they can add in 80 scenes of her chasing him her kissing him her begging him to be together and none of it negates that he’s the fucking adult and she’s a teenager

consent laws say no matter how many enthusiastic yes’s she gives him that her age and his age overrides any verbal or physical consent she gives him

yet somehow the show runners seem to think forcing scene after scene of him hesitating and her saying she wants to be together makes the dynamic any less creepy??

i’m curious how other people feel about the way the writers portrayed the idea of consent between them in s1 with taking the route of aria pursuing vs fitz being the initiate

willing to take genuine answers or even speculation!

1. how did mona know the things she blackmailed the girls with??? how did she know spencer kissed ian or that emily was gay or that aria hooked up with ezra? i get knowing the stuff about hanna but like i doubt allison told her anything and hanna doesn’t seem the type to spill about spencer she didn’t know about emily or aria either
2. the girls hadn’t spoken in a year so how does the show justify mona’s reason being A being that “she wanted to keep hanna close” the girls only started speaking again because of A If anything threatening hanna was the worst way to keep her close she could’ve just threatened the others girls to keep them away from hanna if anything
3. did ashley really have no other options but to sleep with wilden? as far as we know it was hanna’s first offense and ashley even says he hat she buys hanna tons of high fashion items so she’s popular couldn’t she have just paid whatever the store was gonna charge hanna for the glasses? there’s no way they were gonna jail hanna over a first time offense of stealing sunglasses???
4. why was wilden even convinced the girls killed allison? he didn’t know any of them outside of hanna supposedly being a “kleptomaniac” what logic reason was there for him to even assume the girls weren’t innocent?

so far those are the things that are are bugging me lmao

EDIT: thank you to everyone who filled in my memory gaps! i completely forgot some of this and others of it is pretty much the show being as dramatic as possible lol which i should’ve accounted for