I preordered it in December, promptly forgot it existed, saw it on a new rec list recently and tried to preorder it like five times until I realized Amazon was telling me I’d already done so.
But at least it’s almost summer already? I hadn’t even noticed the date for This is How You Lose the Time War, I was too busy trying to figure out if it was f/f or not. It was up front about being a romance but so coy about the genders, I had to look through so many blurbs and tweets till I finally found a review that said it was two women. And it’s not like I need books to be f/f, my two most often recommended don’t have any, but if they have a romance? Yeah, actually, yeah, then I do.
I guess I use Amazon for remembering? I don’t read enough to really need to keep track of things but I signed up for Goodreads under my real name and then couldn’t put the gay stuff. Downloading Kindle samples is effectively my “to read” system and I started keeping track very recently of books I’ve already read as a plain text list.
Anon, you’re so right. But, but, you would put Lupita’s kidnapping in hospital era? It had the kiss! It should be separate.
Okay, I have these:
Meeting and getting to know each other, until the fight
Guille’s party
Lupe’s kidnapping
Hospital
Tentatively getting together, the kiss in the car, the talk in the cafe, breaking up with Lucho, sex
Getting outed left and right, breaking up, Val’s hostage situation
Separated but then still hanging out together, investigating the Jacobo thing, Lupe finding out
The Sergio thing and Juls’s kidnapping and rescue
Getting together till the end
Is that too many? Maybe Lupe’s kidnapping should be merged with the hospital…
Guille’s party was so good too…and after the hospital…honestly, every goddamn era until the last two was amazing. And even the last one had don’t provoke me.
Full stack. But I prefer back end, especially database work. I feel like that kind of comes through in how I watch and post about media? Looking for patterns and not just parallels to gif but filing things away as a specific archetype, a specific trope, comparing across media, how is this show doing compared to that show, taking into account different times, genres, networks, countries, etc. Like, obviously it’s about personal enjoyment but all the rest matters somehow too. So when things stand out, they’re really noteworthy.
Oh my gosh, but isn’t it? It’s gorgeous! It’s literally art on its own. There’s something so wonderful about art you like inspiring more art and both are elevated through your connection to them.
Not to mention, many of us used to English language media keep overlooking or just plain forgetting the significance of Juliantina. Not the quality, even we are amazed and unused to that, but the existence, the scope, the worlds of difference between censored lesson-teaching and…romance. Pure romance.
All those times people would ask, is there a chance of a season 2? A spin off?? And I’d listen to the experts who’d say noooo, nevvvverrrr, that’s not how it workkkkksssss. I added that to my FAQs!
Oh, I think a fair number of people watching are into Mel x Niko, it’s just that they’re okay with Mel x Jada too. It’s interesting you see them as soulmate-y because I think most people aren’t really seeing that, which is why they’re open to whatever ship. Even I don’t really see that, not the way I’ve seen it in other ships.
I do think it’s interesting that Niko is back in the picture, increasingly so, maybe that does add an element of destined to be together, but it also solidly works from their feelings, Mel is unable to truly resist her and Niko, somewhere in there, has a strong affinity and potential for attraction to Mel. I guess it depends on what you mean by soulmate-y. To me that feels like something where it’s the universe also working to get them together but here, it’s kind of just them? Or is it…
I guess we’ll have to see where the show goes with it, it seems less obvious than usual when they’ve placed Jada as a pretty appealing option too, one where if Niko ultimately married Greta and went off, the audience would be fine with. I do ship Mel x Niko more but that’s because I usually tend to stick to the first one. And at the moment, it can’t be denied that Mel definitely still has very strong feelings for her.
Yeah, I think it was handled pretty weirdly all around, which is a pity. I enjoy it a lot too! It’s so…relaxing? Like, okay, I genuinely find it funny and sweet and quick paced enough to actually like it as a TV show, but there’s also the part where you don’t have to brace for shitty, mean things that most media still takes for granted? It’s super direct and earnest, sure, but it’s just so nice to see characters actively speak against bigotry instead of reinforcing it and to not have the narrative treat them as hysterical overreacting killjoys (TINA FEY).
They make mistakes, the casting was pretty major, but for the most part, they clearly try and that is worth so much.
Also that moment when juls is leading val away after lupita catches them. Ugh that angry walk of hers is hot lol
I was thinking about how many moments there are when one grabs the other by the hand and leads her around (spoiler alert: a LOT) and how natural it was for them, despite it being a kind of intimate thing, no? But Val started it immediately, the first time they met, and coming from her, it really could just be friendly, she’s so naturally tactile and open, she feel she does that to everyone.
But Juls returning it is definitely not such a normal thing. @dealanexmachina pointed out how careful Juls is when she touches Val, how aware and watchful she is around her, and that’s not just a Val thing, she’s as guarded with people as Val is open. But somehow she’s been able to take Val’s cue on at least this, deciding it’s just something friends, becoming second nature.
Sure, in the hospital and away from Lupe, it’s more a protective thing, wanting to get away from a situation and taking Val with her. She didn’t need to do it, Val was going to come with her anyway, it was just an additional reassurance to have Val’s hand in hers, a way she could feel better about being so helpless otherwise.
Even in this moment, when they’re about to have an enormously significant conversation about their feelings for each other, and so this might have been the moment to put a bit of distance between them or maybe it’d be too awkward? Nope, Val’s feeling down, so let’s take her to a place to do what she wants.
And here she kind of needed to actually physically pull Val along, even if it was all in front of her overbearing strict sister.
But very early on, it was a natural instinct.
So natural she does it when she’s taking Val literally three feet away. 😀
Now, the chasing is totally different and adorable. It’s kind of the opposite of the above, Juls is too focused on something to grab Val’s hand.
Ah, this one, when Val’s happily chattering about the chocolate she’s prepared and Juls is angry and preparing for their Talk (which, Val handled so maturely! All babe, no, I would have but you said not to, remember? So cute).
And this shot that they included right after just made it so extra cute, with her duster billowing behind her, lol. One of the things I loved about the hospital era was that when things were happening to Juls, the show included Val, a lot, her thoughts and feelings, but let the focus be on Juls.
And here we see a Valentinius Carvajalas chase her not-girlfriend in the direction of literal gunshots.
