meridian_rose

Recap/review/rant about S3e08 La Confessione Della Machina. SPOILERS.

It's taken me a long time to get around to this one. Unlike S3e06, where I had a lot of feelings to process before I could recap, the problem here is that I wasn't really invested in the episode.

My reaction to the episode, as a pie chart

Still, I made a commitment to work through each episode, so here goes.
La Confessione Della Machina; roughly seems to translate to The Confession Machine. Unlike other titles, I don't think there's any deep meaning here. Riario stupidly makes a confession and Leo kind of invents a machine. I'd come up with a better title but it would be something about chess, the most interesting part of this debacle. Possibly with reference to the Queen, the most powerful piece on the board, or the Bishop, who moves in unexpected ways.

Pretty much the conversation I had with my sister when she'd watched the episode before me:

Me: How terrible was it?
Her: Ugh. You'll hate Lorenzo even more this episode. Riario's an idiot. There's shirtless Riario though. And Leo. If it weren't for the shirtless scenes I'd not sure I'd still be watching. Leo's been working out again though.
Me: Unnecessarily so?
Her: God, yes, like an eight pack now.
Me: I've seen pictures. But there's Zo and Nico?
Her: Yes, Zo and Nico! Zo's the best thing in this one. And Vlad, he's always good.

I could leave it at that, since it pretty much covers it. But I won't, because I like to overanalyze in excruciating detail. I'll touch on all the aforementioned, with some things we didn’t directly discuss until I had seen it.

As always I rely on the transcript to help me remember, but I may still get things wrong.

Leo has gone home to Vinci, to his old house.
How is that house untouched? It's been abandoned for years and yet no-one else has moved in or stolen what goods remain, the roof hasn't given way in a storm, there's just a bit of dust around the place. Totally believable, like that flying pig.
Leo goes off to the cave he's always remembering, where he saw the original Hanged Man when he was a boy. He's assailed by his memories of the place.
And then Carlo is there.
Lying git is alive. Again, did Riario kill anyone to save Leo from the Labyrinth or not? Because if all he did was untie Leo and drag his ass out of a cave it's not nearly as impressive as fighting his way out – but I'd still like to know the details.

Next we see Laura, no longer the fierce matriarchal warrior who pretty much organised the Crusade, but a damsel wandering around the woods. She's half-dressed, her hair is loose, and she keeps almost tearfully calling Riario's name like he's a lost puppy.
FFS, did you take your eyes off him again? Someone needs to put a damn bell on Riario like he's a cat!

made by me and posted to tumblr

Where's her bodyguard or advisor? I expect someone supposedly as powerful as Laura, who sent guards door to door in Florence on the "Doge's orders", to have someone at her side to help her here.
I also wouldn't have so much of a problem with her being upset if she were also still an authority figure. If she did what I'd expect, which is I'm in charge and I'm upset so I'm making it your problem now. Don't whimper, demand the guards find Riario! Send someone to wake the Pope so they get yelled at before you even show up!
But love-interest/motherfigure Laura meekly bothers the Pope. "The guards say Count Riario left camp before sunrise."
Then why are you wandering around the camp calling for him? Send a search party into the woods or something!
Sixtus doesn't know where Riario is, but that's no real surprise.

I'm going to mention the fic The Reed and the Olive Tree because this:
"Then a nebulous plan begins to take shape. Maybe he can still protect Laura. Maybe, if he goes back to Lorenzo, confesses what he has done, admits the truth. Maybe he can make amends and hope for the punishment for himself, not the Crusade, and secure Florence as an ally.
Even if it means sacrificing himself, maybe he can spare Laura more pain. Maybe he can protect her in a way he couldn't protect Zita. If he doesn't gain more forces for their army, he knows she will fight alone. But without Florence and its allies, the army—and Laura—will fall."
is more reason for Riario's choices than anything given in canon.

Because Riario has gone back to Rome to confess. And I don't buy it. He didn't get absolution before, and that threw him indirectly into the clutches of the Labyrinth.
If he wants to make amends, he'd do better by risking sacrificing himself during the goddamn Crusade he and Laura and Leo are so adamant about. What purpose does his confession solve, except to sully the Crusade – one of the reasons Leo gave for not revealing Riario to be the Monster of Italy? He'll not gain forgiveness from Lorenzo nor absolution from his father.
Maybe he wants Lorenzo to kill him?
He mentions a supposed reason later, that the fic touches on, so I'll address it again then.
Anyway, hypocrite Lorenzo is sobbing over skeleton Clarice's tomb. Again, I'm not buying this level of grief over a woman he cheated on repeatedly, and whose children are nowhere in sight.
I don't know how Riario got in or why he's allowed to wander freely about the Palace, after Lorenzo's shrieking when he was able to storm in wearing a Turk's armour. But he walks in on Lorenzo.
Lorenzo thinks Riario's come to kill him and that I would actually approve of at this point. But no, Riario's an idiot. He's come to confess, knowing Lorenzo will not let him explain.
Lorenzo starts beating Riario. Riario doesn't even try to resist; he thinks he deserves this punishment. Lorenzo seems to focus on the head, in particular the face. I don't see that ending well.
To repeat myself, I don’t buy it. Lorenzo killed a man in the Council Chamber over less. We're supposed to believe Riario survives this at all, let alone without serious injury? Not unless someone interrupts them.
I addressed this in an angsty fic Play the Hand You're Dealt
Zo and Nico. They're walking through Vlad's creepy avenue of impaled corpses. Laura would probably approve :)
"I wish Leo were here," Nico says. No, Nico, Leo's run off on some mad quest because hallucinatory liar Lucrezia, in a vision sent by seer and liar Caterina, told him to. It's like, totally important that he abandon everyone at the drop of a hat.
"Leo trusted me to get Vlad on our side," Zo says, and he's so proud that it's adorable. Even if the truth is more that Leo went off on a mad quest and Zo was the closest other person to ask to go on *this* questionable errand.

Poor Nico is not reassured when Zo's grand plan is to have him push a note under Vlad's door while Zo looks out for "large bats".
"Dear Vlad, most honorable impaler, please don't kill us."

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This is the best stuff in the episode, the Nico/Zo/Vlad exchanges.
With comedic timing, Zo, says he'll keep Nico safe. And then the guards show up! Wow, great looking for the Draconian Guards like you promised two minutes ago Zo :D Babysitter, Bodyguard, are there no jobs you can't prove yourself completely inept at?
Vlad's with his guards, Zo gets shot, Nico is terrified when Vlad promises to kill him more slowly. But Zo is alive.
"Ah, the mongrel lives," Vlad says, because clearly he and Riario have similar opinions on Zo.
Zo is wearing the breastplate, and he tries to assure Vlad that it wasn't stolen by him but taken from a Turk.
Vlad orders Zo and Nico to be taken inside and prepared…for dinner. Ha, Ha, Ha.

by me, not currently uploaded to Tumblr
Vlad thinks he's in some other show entirely, or possibly that he's the star of his own show, which at this point wouldn't be a bad thing. I'm not complaining, because the comedic element is my favourite thing right now, though your mileage may vary.

Carlo's tied Leo up. I'm going to stop for a moment and talk about the unnecessary abs, though we get a better shot of them later:

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This obsession with abs is more of a male gaze than a female one. Over and over it's discussed that women are not, on the whole, attracted to abs. They're attracted to various body parts. They like tone but they don't like it to be overdone. There's something nicknamed the "dad bod" which women generally find attractive.
There are a lot of reasons given but they include the idea that men who are obsessed with their bodies are vain men without much personality who don't make good companions. You can't eat a hearty meal and cuddle on the couch with someone whose idea of a good evening is a plate of steamed vegetables and disappearing off down the gym for three hours. Not mention that women are generally insecure about their own bodies and don’t need that exacerbated by living with someone who freaks out if they think they've gained a pound.

You know who does like six packs? Men, who often think this is some ideal standard of male physical strength and beauty. It shouldn't be any surprise in a show obsessed with tits and ass, that the showrunners are pandering with tits and abs by insisting that Leo and Riario are often shirtless and toned to the max.
Also, ironically, likely to appeal to gay men, the least targeted demographic. Bi-in-name-only Leo, appeal to gays? The showrunners would be horrified.
Women will often find ways to subvert media to their liking, hence the prevalence of fanfiction which is still largely a female sphere. This will sometimes include learning to like the things on offer, even if they're not want they really want.
But even if women do like a man who seems to have nothing more worthwhile in his life than to spend every spare moment working out, it doesn't fit with the characters, especially Leo. Leo, the picky vegetarian without access to supermarkets full of things he'll actually eat, who forgets to sleep or eat much of the time, who is supposedly busy inventing things?
Tom Riley might be eating a lot of protein, including meat (at Comiccon when asked, none of the panel were vegetarian see around the 33 min mark), and working out like hell between takes, but Leo, not so much. I'll accept sword fighting practice, I'll accept muscle tone, but I do not accept wanna-be Mr Universe. Add it to my list of things I Don't Buy in this episode and from this season.

Anyway, they talk about how this is holy ground to the Sons of Mithras. Leo's not with them but Carlo wants him for the Labyrinth. Join or die. Yawn, we've heard this before. Also for people that supposedly Love God and Don't Kill (according to Riario) the Labyrinth is pretty keen on Join or Die.

"Prepare the Calvariae Locus," which some googling tells me is the hill of the Crucifixion. But Leo's later tied upside down, he as the Hanged Man as I've discussed before, more Odin than Jesus, though there are parallels between the two. Interestingly though, Jesus was executed but Odin chose to sacrifice himself for the gift of Wisdom. Leo's being forced into this, yet he's in Odin's pose and Leo has always sought truth at any cost. I could unpack the symbolism more, but I'd probably be giving the writers more credit than they deserve.
Leo says when he gets free he'll kill Carlo. Someone should.
Also Carlo pulls Lucrezia's ring from round Leo's neck which is going to piss him off later. The writers never want us to forget Leo's obsession with the woman who lied her way into his life.

Meanwhile, Laura, still without a bodyguard, walks through a crowd on the verge of becoming a mob. This is not sensible behaviour. Even a nameless, faceless guard, a few steps behind her, shoving people away from her would make me happy. I make a big deal out of my original character woman in power's need to be independent, but even she has to agree to a bodyguard and/or advisor keeping close by, not least in situations like this.
The mob is throwing vegetables at Riario, who's chained up uncomfortably. Not in the stocks, but kneeling at an odd angle to show off his abs or some bullshit, but it's hard to enjoy the spectacle even if that's your thing, under the circumstances. For someone who was almost beaten to death by Lorenzo he doesn't look too injured. You'd expect a broken nose, black eye(s), etc. This is why I'm always saying he and Leo are immortal, they walk away from many things with barely a scratch and survive things that should kill them.
There are barely any screencaps for this episode so you'll have to make do with my poor quality screengrabs. There's a bit of blood and bruising, but it isn't as bad as I'd expect from Lorenzo's strength and rage which he did nothing to defend himself from - as opposed to his fight against the Incan warriors - and there's some bruising to the chest, but if Riario's coughing up blood or has a concussion or something we never hear of it.

There are more unedited and one edited screengrab at the Tumblr post I made.

He just looks miserable. The whole scene is just sad in every sense of the word.
Laura is horrified, and next we see she's confronting Lorenzo and Vanessa.

She argues his innocence due to diminished mental capacity. She has a point.
She says that Leo cured him and swore Riario would never be mad again. First off, Leo is making wild guesses. Second, Laura is repeating information she believes to be true. Third, she calls Leo "Your Da Vinci" which just pisses Lorenzo off.
Lorenzo says Leo now serves Rome, and for hiding the truth, if he returns to Florence, Leo will be executed for treason.
Vanessa doesn't like this of course, and says that "She uses Leo's name to sell her lie without him here to disagree." She too, has a point. I've never been clear on how much she and Nico knew about Riario's supposed madness and cure. A Tumblr post captions this 'Vanessa is a loyal friend'.
She also says that "You'd say anything to save Riario. I can see it in your eyes. Innocence or guilt be damned. You are in love with him." Vanessa's right. She sees it and she's right; and in Laura's place she'd do the same thing.

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These powerful women could be allies, equals and opposites the way Leo and Riario are. Instead the writers commit character assassination on both their behalves, and reduce them basically calling each other lousy mothers and filthy liars.
If only they could take Giulia Farnese's advice.
“You will learn my dear. As women we control so little of our destiny, men do. The outcome is we hate each other but we should not.” one example of the quote

Laura points out that "Only a tyrant would condemn a man without a trial."
I was begging Vanessa to intervene here. She's doing what she has to, to protect herself, but Laura has given her the perfect way to intercede. The Vanessa I fell in love with would still want justice.
Lorenzo dismisses Laura with a threat. His behaviour is well out of hand, and it wouldn't surprise me if someone in his Council assassinated him before he causes a civil war he can't win.
"There may be value in a trial," Vanessa says carefully, winning him over with "prove to them that you are not a tyrant." That's my girl :D

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Vlad is hosting dinner with Nico and Zo at his table. Zo points out all the things that happened to Vlad last time they were there. Vlad is unconcerned; his flesh does not burn, his bones do not break (or so he says, which is a different matter to supernatural healing). And he claims he has all the blood he needs.
In fact Vlad is snacking on someone seated nearby. He offers Zo a taste, and when Zo jokes about rotten meat, it is revealed that the victim is still alive while Vlad's pulling chunks off him.
"For the love of God," Nico says, but "God has no seat at my table," Vlad returns.
Zo tells Nico to avoid the wine. "Don't eat anything," my mum advises. But they don't listen.
Zo gives his spiel about the crusade but Vlad thinks it's hilarious.
"Count Vlad Draculea Tepes the Third, Lucifer's disciple, on a Holy Roman Crusade?"
Meanwhile the broth has been drugged. Which Vlad thinks is fair, given that they poisoned him last time. He doesn't want Zo's apologies, but penance.

Laura visits Riario in the dungeon. She points out that he has put the Crusade in jeopardy, as well as his own life.
Riario says a life for a life, but he killed more than Clarice, so IDK.
"You were not yourself when you did those things," she reasons. True.
Riario isn't convinced, saying that maybe that murderer is the real him. FFS, we went through this with Leo. Not as well as Leo should have done as I keep pointing out, but enough to prove that the possessed Sinner was not the real Riario.
Laura's reasoning makes me eye-roll. She's sure "because [I] cannot love a murderer."

screencapped from this gif post
As mentioned when I reblogged that post, I’m as guilty as anyone for loving Riario and for writing sympathetic Riario, even woobie Riario, but can we all not forget that while Riario was not in his right mind and therefore not guilty of Clarice’s murder, he’s killed plenty of people.
Right back in the first episode, someone has to die because the fake Pope is a blabbermouth. He killed a woman who turned out to be his mother in pre-canon. Yes, Riario always has a cause/reason/excuse but neither he nor Leo are innocents and some of those deaths must be classed as murder. Sorry, Laura.
(Also remember when he threw Zo and Lucrezia overboard? He didn’t expect them to survive, unless he gives Lu a lot more credit than canon suggests! That was an intended execution.)

"You gave me strength," Riario says, "And now I must use it to keep you as far away from the monster within as I can." Leo, you did not fix Riario. He's still convinced he's a monster. His next choice is to throw away the second chance you've given him.
Also I can't help but feel that his need to protect Laura falls as much under 'mother' category again as 'lover', and that he wouldn't feel the need to protect Leo the same way. Leo can look after himself. For all the way the writers want to us be obsessed with Laura/Riario het sex, they not only muddy the waters with the 'mother issues' but give us reasons that Riario would be better off staying at Leo's side.

Leo is tied upside down. He's been whipped. But it's okay. Here is Sophia to the rescue! We don't see how woman with zero combat experience takes down a guard – pure luck if anything – but she topples him over a cliff and goes to help Leo, cutting him down.
"I know a salve to heal such wounds," she says, because we can't have Leo scarred. This is the only Sophia moment I buy into. She was raised in a convent. Helping the sick would have been an important part of her life.
I'd have liked to have seen this aspect explored with Vanessa. We've seen her be compassionate and I've explored her bartender-therapist side in fic, though I haven't yet written healer!Vanessa. I have plans to, but I have a long list of fic that might never get written now that everyone else seems to be cheerfully throwing in the towel :/

x while I'm still

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Leo says he sees their mother in Sophia's eyes. We'll come back to that in a minute. Sophia says their mother is dead. For real, probably, this time. Leo picks up his ring again.
Carlo finds them escaping.
"Riario saved you in Rome," he says, "Now it's a girl."
Did Riario just knock Carlo unconscious or what? And yes, Leo needs rescuing a lot.
Leo and Carlo fight. Leo drowns, or possibly more accurately smothers, Carlo in a mud puddle. Finally, Carlo is dead. He had it coming.
I guess Riario had his epic fight last season so Leo had to have one this time. It's raining. I can't help remember this is Wales and possibly winter and it's probably freezing and how did no-one ever get hypothermia during filming :P

Back at Vlad's place, Poor Nico is in a cage. It looks kind of a like a really vicious game of Kerplunk.

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Worse even than the Simpson's Halloween Special version (though that proved deadlier)

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He's begging Zo to wake up. Zo comes to, seated at a chessboard. Vlad explains the rules. Zo claims to be an expert at chess.
"You can't bluff a man without a soul," Vlad retorts. You know he's an interesting character and maybe we could have done more with him?

To win, Zo needs to make the right sacrifice. The game begins. While Zo ponders his move the blades are adjusted, slicing into Nico's back.
Vlad's fantasising about bathing in their blood, which is kind of offputting for Zo. He suggests Zo could make a run for it. He says Nico wishes Da Vinci were here (echoing Nico's earlier statement which I've no doubt that Vlad heard).
Zo wins - we've found his area of expertise! - but Vlad isn't done. Zo hasn't made the right sacrifice.
With inspiration, Zo dashes to the parapet and tosses the coin he stole from Vlad to the courtyard.

Sophia is tending Leo's wounds. "How does it feel?"
"It stings." As I've said before, Leo can be very literal at times.
She meant having vengeance on the man who killed his teacher.
Leo corrects her that Verrocchio was "much more than a teacher. More like a father. A friend." If I were writing that, I'd have had 'friend' first and finished with the stronger, 'like a father' to emphasis the loss. But what do I know?
They talk about Lucrezia and her captors. Leo says he thinks the Commander might be the man who executed their father and he'll hunt him down and rescue Lucrezia and blah.

Their father? Hold up, Leo. Half-sibling I accept, and you said you saw your mother in her eyes. But I do not believe you share the same father.
Leo's mother disappeared when he was just a baby. I'd say there's a good ten years or so between Leo and Sophia. I cannot accept that Piero welcomed back the woman who left him and dumped a baby on him all those years ago and knocked up her again.

Sophia's brought the goddamn page of the Book, which only Caterina's bloody offspring can read. Also, though this is a nice touch, it can only be read under moonlight, but it was Lupo who originally realised it and Sophia who recounts it to Leo. I have more to say on Sophia shortly.

Back to Vlad. He used to play chess with his brother until Vlad was betrayed by him and imprisoned, where he made a deal with the devil. Zo tells Nico, who has doubts, not to antagonise Vlad.
"Fucking Zo," Nico complains, "He's crazier than Da Vinci."

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Leo is a bad influence on everyone!
Vlad is pissed that his brother gave the secret of their father's steel to the Turks, and tells them the game was just to be sure Zo and Nico are loyal enough to join with his quest for vengeance. Turns out Vlad was always going to Otranto to destroy the Turks.
Before Zo can get too angry, Vlad shows them his storeroom, full of ready-made armour.

Leo and Sophia are looking around the cave again, commenting how it doesn't feel right. Leo recounts how he wandered down there as a boy, came out with blood on his hands.
"It's everything I saw then. It happened today."
I'd be happier if Leo had seen himself to be honest, some sort of timeloop. It would be no wackier than anything else we're being asked to believe, and would answer more questions than Leo's mysterious half-remembrances do.
"What if everything I saw then, was it a glimpse of some possible future?"
Maybe. And I have/had plans to write something about the way the show plays with time and possibilities, and I've mentioned when reviewing previous episodes that most of this could be a dream, one way or another.
And then Mary Sue Sophia starts wittering about magical places and how lines between them are a River of Time. (1) Ley lines seem to describe what you mean (2) River of Time suggests you can navigate time and make better decisions, please let this season be just one branch and somewhere things went better.
And she makes a compass to prove there's no true north.

I'm well aware of the baggage around the term Mary Sue and I don't deploy it lightly. I know it can be used against almost any female character, in particular any original female character. I don't disagree with the attempt to reclaim it, nor the discourse around it. But in its essence of the Perfect Character Who is Good at Everything and Who Everyone Loves, well, Sophia seems to be a good example of the trope.
Leo could be a Marty Stu, but you know what, historical Leonardo was a polymath, dabbling in everything. And canon Leo is much older than Sophia. He's lived in the world. He's been taught by others, has read masses of texts, has experimented and failed and tried again.
Sophia was raised in a fucking convent. She's a very young woman who has no experience of life outside in the world. I doubt the convent was so progressive as to be teaching her heretical ideas about the River of Time or felt the need to teach her how to make a compass. What kind of library did the backwater convent she was hidden away in have to let her become so educated? No, not buying it.
Maybe the mysterious energies will let them read the page? Under moonlight. Because they share blood. Special Mary Sue club rules!

Laura has gone to Sixtus, insisting they can defend Riario at the trial, which is apparently going to go ahead.
"It will not be Riario who is on trial, it'll be me!" Sixtus is enraged. He has a point. And you know, even if Riario is found not guilty and I don't see how, Riario's reputation is ruined, and Sixtus's damaged. Who is writing this stuff? How can things reasonably go forward from here?
"If any of my troops survive Otranto, they will march on Florence!"
Again, Lorenzo's death and a pardon for Riario as a gesture of goodwill would solve so many problems here.
Laura thinks Sixtus speaking for Riario might help spare him being hanged, but Sixtus is adamant that Riario is guilty.

Sophia and Leo read the page under moonlight but they both see different things. Leo's needed help from his friends but now he needs the writers' new favourite woman Sophia to do anything effectively.
Leo sees storm clouds, Sophia the glider Leo invented back in season one.
Leo decides he needs to build a wooden frame.
"Ah, I wish Zo were here," he says. Probably to do the heavy lifting, more reason I don't buy Leo's washboard abs!

Vanessa is doing what I choose to see as manipulation in self-defence, wooing Lorenzo and telling him that he's not alone. Nothing, other than Leario happening, would make me happier right now than this leading up to her killing him and seizing the reins of power for herself, pardoning Riario, and generally tidying up the mess Lorenzo has caused.

But why would Vanessa need to be a hero? We have the Blessed Sophia! It's not that I hate Sophia, I just question the necessity of her existence and do not believe in her abilities as presented to us in canon thus far. I do think that Lucrezia was the writers' favourite before and now they've switched to Sophia, and we're supposed to adore them Because We Say So and screw all the other women in the show.

Blessed Sophia and Leo have made a device.

fan edit by vinictrice
At this point bubble making would make as much sense as anything else.
Sophia's project, the glider, is to be attached to it. Clever Sophia made a whole glider in one afternoon. I presume Leo helped with the actual details but they seem to have accomplished a lot from a few odds and ends lying around the miraculously untouched house and whatever trees were growing nearby. Did Sophia have woodworking or engineering classes between prayers or something?
In a nice nod to the pilot, Leo talks about the first glider
"Well, I designed something very similar for an old acquaintance of mine. Bore him aloft without harm.
The first time we met Poor Nico, and luckily Leo's experiment worked that time!

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They try the device out but nothing is happening. Sophia points out the crystals and so Leo rotates that bit, because Sophia is more of a genius than Leo. It seems static electricity is being generated. Storm clouds gather. The glider and the machine combine to bring a lightening strike to a nearby tree.
Marty Stu and Mary Sue have discovered electricity!
I'm just glad that first strike was almost a disaster. They need to work on their aim. Leo's devices never work perfectly the first time, after all.

And after that I needed to write the aforementioned serious fic and one crack fic to deal with my rage and days to summon up the energy to overcome the 'meh' about the rest of it, aside from the Vlad stuff. Vlad was awesome.

Two more episodes to go. I've broken my rules a little –

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but my rules are rather complicated about spoilers anyway, especially when it comes to character death.
I've seen enough spoilers and peeked ahead to make sure it's safe to proceed, or I'd forgo watching at all. I'd rather not watch something that would destroy my last desire to continue in the fandom, and keep writing than consume canon I can't live with. But while I am probably going to be Not Impressed the whole way through, I can probably suffer through them. We'll see if I can keep up my enthusiasm for fic after that.

As always, I fell in love with this show and these characters. If I'm particularly harsh this season it's because I see the wasted potential and character assassination and I'm not happy about it. I wouldn't expend this amount of energy on something that wasn't important to me.

I am still toying with the idea of posting all the reviews, once finished, to AO3 under the meta tag, though I worry about "reprisals". Though no-one will probably read them anyway, now the fandom is dying, and perhaps those who would read them might agree with me more than they disagree regarding the choices the writers have made this season.