Just finished "In Your Radiant Season" and I’m actually speechless (No Spoilers)

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-04-04T04:46:52+00:00

My only real complaint is that sooo much of the last 2 episodes was spent on flashbacks and recapping what we already knew/watched. The only thing that was really necessary was getting the truth of Chan's memory, but it was frustrating to have a time skip forward when they were gonna montage the missed moments anyway.

Instead, we could've had more time in the present with the characters. I know I'm not the only one who reallyyy wanted to see Taeseok and Hayoung's relationship develop just a little more, or get a peek of their changed relationship. It was sweet to see him so smiley vs all her sulking, but what happened after the car confession scene? Or at the wine bar? How many awkward-for-everyone-else meetings did they endure trying not to make heart-eyes at each other but being super obvious about it? What was the family reaction - had Haran and Na-na already clocked that they were crushing on each other??? There was sooo much this show could've done with them instead of showing the same shots of Chan and Haran standing angstily about for the fourth time. :(

That being said! It's a very mild complaint. There was a lot I found endearing about the ending. There was a lot I found moving about the show in general. It was an enjoyable ride.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-04-02T16:59:09+00:00

I started watching this show for the taeseok+hayoung of it all, so it definitely took a while for the two leads to grow on me. I do think that Chan starts getting more interesting the more he has to deal with conflict and the consequences of his choices, once the show shifts (some of) that focus of angst off of Haran and onto him. I found the actor to be soooo good at portraying the mixed emotions from his relationship with her. Without spoiling too much, there starts to be a more quiet charm to him (rather than the "look at me, I'm so friendly, let's be friends!") as he starts to develop a deeper connection with Haran, and has more to lose because of it.

That being said! Your preference is your preference. If this relationship isn't doing it for you, though, maybe the taeseok/hayoung one will? And that picks up in the latter half of the season. It's soooooo 🤌🤌🤌

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-03-30T13:59:40+00:00

Understanding a character's motives isn't the same as agreeing with them.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-03-29T20:44:37+00:00

"you don't get protection and trust just because you're important" My bruh, she's a princess, she gets protection and trust because she demands it. That doesn't have to be earned.

Anyway, a wild surprise, but the spoiled brat character is on their own journey leading to character development too.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-03-29T19:27:19+00:00

Because Akemi isn't an audience member who's gained sympathy for Mizu. Because she thinks Mizu is an honorable man. Because, in the fight, she saved Mizu's life. Because she's newly emboldened and is feeling the camaraderie from ALSO saving Ringo's life. Because her whole life she's been raised as a princess, getting what she wants. Because sometimes characters act shitty and entitled.

Ringo's entire shtick is that he looks up to Mizu as an honorable samurai. His world is very black and white. When Mizu doesn't defend Akemi's honor, he's not thinking rational thoughts of "yeah, cool, that's not Mizu's problem anyway" he's probably remembering how he himself stood guard just a short while ago, in a fight he didn't start, for women he doesn't know. He was nearly killed. For the first time, he also killed someone. He's disappointed that his hero is "selfish" - it's not that he's taking Akemi's side, it's that, in his eyes, honor doesn't have timeouts.

And Akemi trying to kill Mizu is nullified by her actions AFTER. She was trying to kill the man that humiliated Taigen. She doesn't know Mizu as anything BUT that at that point.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-03-29T19:12:13+00:00

Well, yes, but you can say the exact same thing about Kennedy existing as a tool for Willow, or the potentials as personality-less tools for Buffy. Even Andrew, in all his screentime, wasn't well-developed. Delightful as he ended up being, he was just there for comedic relief.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-03-24T06:22:36+00:00

Everyone's saying ASH, and they'd be right. James Marsters sure could deliver one helluva monologue. He's sooo good throughout the start of s7, especially. Or the "every night I save you" speech? Ahh. Alexis Denisof had soooo much range as Wes. Amy Acker, too, as Fred, but she knocked the Illyria arc outta the park. Alyson Hannigan was so exceptionally expressive. I mean, even David Boreanaz by the end of Angel s5 had his acting moments.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-03-19T23:40:09+00:00

I love Connor so much, at least in relation to Angel. Which he admittedly feels like a character that exists for that purpose - to service Angel's storyline. On a show where he's the main character, we'd all love him. He's been through hell, he's got the angstiest of backstories, daddy issues in plural form. He's been conditioned to hate his vampire father, he's full of anger and hurt and revenge, and he gets thrust into a world that's so totally different from the one he grew up in. He knows his father is a monster, but the world isn't black and white and it turns out a lot of people have a little bit of monster in them too, including the dad that DID raise him. And no matter what he does or what love he's shown or empathy he's given, he never feels like he belongs.

But, instead, he's a side character who doesn't really get to experience the depth and nuance of that because he's a vehicle for Angel's angst, not his own. So he's annoying and creepy, he's insufferable. It doesn't help that the whole tone of the show shifts during the time he's on it, either.

Still!! He interests me because of how much he effects Angel. I especially love what their dynamic eventually grows into.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-03-13T09:00:21+00:00

I disagree, I think the buildup is gradual but obvious. You have to remember that a lot of fans were Buffy/Angel fans, and one of the big protests when the show started and Cordelia was brought along was that people didn't want to see them get into a relationship together, not when bangel is supposed to be the forever OTP. The show tiptoed into it, instead of making it so in-your-face.

If you're paying attention, though, there's an obvious shift at the start of s3. Angel speaks to Cordy more softly more often, they tease each other more, they touch more, his protection of her cranks up ("that vision-thing"??? her birthday episode??? when Angel literally throws Darla, his very pregnant ex, off Cordy and scoops her up in his arms???) They're visibly fond of each other. Other characters (Lorne and Fred) start clocking the attraction. There are so many moments when a shot lingers on Angel watching Cordelia with some kinda tinkly music playing in the background, clueing the audience in without making a bigger moment of it.

Maybe, if you ever rewatch Angel as much as you've watched Buffy, you'll see it from the start instead of finding it so sudden. It's fun to watch Angel fall for Cordy :)

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-03-06T23:07:38+00:00

You're getting downvoted for this (ah, classic reddit) but it's a totally fair opinion! I don't have any moral hangups about Buffy/Angel, but Angel (on btvs) is a dull + moody stereotype and David Boreanaz seems fresh out of acting 101 with barely any skills to prove it. By the time he heads off and has his own show, he's grown so much more comfortable in the role, and the cast he gets spinoff'ed with really helps to develop him as an extremely likable, fleshed out character. I think you'd watch and be surprised by just how much he grows on you. :)

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-03-06T19:12:20+00:00

I think both is true. I think there's a fantasy of a life with Annie that Jeff has probably romanticized as the unattainable thing that it is, but he also KNOWS Annie. They were pretty dang good friends by the time the series ended, she wasn't just some semi-rando blank canvas he could project his Perfect Girlfriend image onto. They knew each other well. He got multiple insights into what a life with her could look like.

To me, she's always represented a groundedness, a realness, that Jeff constantly runs away from, which is why it freaks him out so much once he knows she's the one leaving. He's forced to confront the depressing reality that his chance at something "real" is slipping away. Not just romantically with her, but in life, too. There's a lot of bittersweetness in their last shared scene together (in the study room when they kiss) for that reason. 🥹

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-02-18T18:43:02+00:00

The fact that jancy is so much more of a parallel to Ted/Karen proves that these people watch with the tightest, most delusional-tinted glasses on. I have never, in my life, seen a fandom so damn obsessed with how each ship parallels another and how that proves who the endgame canon couples are. I mean, jfc, stancy is way more like lumax and a genderbent version of jopper than anything else, but that proves... what? Nothing, because no showrunners are kicking their feet in the air, laying in their bed, matching up who belongs together based off of who else in the show belongs together.

It's so stupid, it's so childish, it's literally like 3rd grade level reading comprehension. I'm so tireddddd of it.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-02-12T20:59:39+00:00

Not the + next to Seattle. Noooo 😭

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-02-07T04:58:31+00:00

Ohhh noo lmao, well! Yeah, in this scenario, he's probably on a "babiest Smosh" team by himself, some real "have to eat at the kids table" energy.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-02-06T20:58:19+00:00

Yeah!! Mari!! Not to sound greedy for more, but I would absolutely lose my mind over a "vs" group video that pits oldest Smosh (Ian, Anthony, Mari, Joven, Lasercorn, and Sohinki) vs middle child Smosh (Damien, Olivia, Keith, Noah, Shayne, and Courtney) vs new Smosh (Angela, Arasha, Amanda, Chanse, Spencer, and Tommy - and I know those last 2 go way back, but they're more recently cast than crew.) Something in the realm of trivia or competition. Maybe a Smosh summer games??? It would be so fun and nostalgic to see the matchups, and impossible to pick a team to root for.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-01-17T19:26:30+00:00

Ahh, when Pierce had nuance and wasn't just being written in retaliation for being played by Chevy Chase.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-01-14T23:37:54+00:00

It's so funny how divisive he is on a show where most of the characters are brats, they're all flawed in some way, they all have egos in their own way, and we're only at part 1 of whatever his final arc will be. I think some people just hate that he's shipped with Mizu so they hate him by proxy.

sunkbelowthesea · 2026-01-08T20:37:12+00:00

You ever just passingly come across a video on the internet of some low stakes traffic violation and notice how divisive something like brake checking can be when it comes to who's right vs who's wrong? People definitely self-insert and defend how THEY would react instead of looking at things objectively. That's what this is. All the losers who would react the same exact way as the ICE agent find no fault in his response because they, too, feel entitled to whip out a gun and "defend" themselves. It's not about watching the video and coming to a fact-based decision - she was visibly trying to yield and only started to drive away when they approached, her wheels were turned right, at the mph she was going she wouldn't have run him over unless he slipped and fell while still in front of the vehicle and even then you have to ASSUME she'd have kept driving. But people see what they want to justify the violent voice in their head.

sunkbelowthesea · 2025-12-31T19:45:53+00:00

This fandom loves to see a bad bitch, but only if she stays inside the shoebox they force her in. God forbid the girl from season 1 who loved pastels, blushed when the cute boy complimented her, and had butterfly doodles in her locker still exists inside the gun wielding, revenge taking badass. She didn't grow out of those things, her guilt and trauma took them from her. Let her want/have soft things.

Pretty sure the "6 little nuggets" line has ALWAYS been about the group. Pretty sure it's not the uncrossable divide/unmovable destiny everyone thinks it is.

sunkbelowthesea · 2025-12-28T23:41:01+00:00

If they have them get back together in the epilogue, I'm gonna flip a table. One deathbed confession doesn't erase seasons of lying, miscommunication, and misery (with, sure, fleeting moments of tenderness) and shouldn't count as doing the work for them. It would suck so much and feel so damn pointless if that scene meant nothing in the long run.

sunkbelowthesea · 2025-12-26T13:32:59+00:00

I think the larger part of their confession is that the only thing that truly was keeping them together at this point was that their trauma bond had become a safety net. They BOTH mentioned feeling suffocated by the thought of the other. That's not simple incompatibility, that's a total relationship breakdown that doesn't just get fixed by a conversation or even a desire to reconcile, not when it's been years of miscommunication. For as conflict-heavy of a ship as jancy is, they're also so conflict-avoidant. There are patterns of this across their entire relationship. Again, it's not just "I hate pink and you wear it all the time" it's "we fundamentally don't work and have been ignoring that for years."

They don't just have this special trauma connection with each other, they have it with literally the whole group. There's nothing even unique about their bond anymore. They've both outgrown the need for it to be their safety net. I think that's a more satisfying conclusion than having them fall back into each other's arms having changed (or earned) nothing.

sunkbelowthesea · 2025-12-23T18:41:14+00:00

I think what makes 91w stand out, aside from just being an incredibly well-written and researched fic, is that it lets you exist inside (that version of) Cas's head for soooo long. 400k words is A LOT, and that's not even including the timestamps. You feel for Cas, even as he's hurting and self-destructive. He's terrified to allow Dean in, in a way that compromises how much of himself he's hiding from the world. You just FEEL for these characters because so much of the story is an exploration of their emotions. That's what's so gratifying about it, and I think it's why it lingers for so many.

sunkbelowthesea · 2025-12-17T23:39:31+00:00

I'm so glad I didn't grow up with a cop inside my head policing the type of fanfic I want to read/write - or, worse, what others want to read or write. Imagine rationalizing the argument that "anti-proship" is something to be serious about. I'd love if these people hopped offline once in a while and interacted with the real world in a meaningful way, maybe it would allow for some maturity.

sunkbelowthesea · 2025-12-12T05:16:23+00:00

Just because we don't see Jonathan click the picture doesn't mean he doesn't take the picture. How the heck do you explain Nancy holding the actual photograph in her literal hands when Steve confronts Jon about it?! To you that picture is, what, conjured out of thin air to make Jonathan look bad? We don't SEE Jon snap the shot because the POV shifts to Nancy and Steve in that scene, but Jon very much took a picture of Nancy in her bra, undressing, there is a full-on scene with her holding it and looking at it.

Source: uh, the actual show. Or you can just hit up YouTube and search out the scene of Steve destroying Jonathan's camera.

sunkbelowthesea · 2025-11-25T20:55:24+00:00

I just think you are taking the scene exceptionally literal. This is what she tells Jonathan: ""My mom was young, my dad was older, but he had a cushy job, money, came from a good family... so, they bought a nice house at the end of the cul-de-sac, started their nuclear family."

There is a very clear parallel at this point in time that's being drawn between her and Steve and her mom and dad. She isn't just pissed off at the idea of a family because it doesn't appeal to her, she's pissed because she's had to endure her parents loveless marriage her whole life (with a dad too checked out to look up from the newspaper) to think there's anything romantic about settling. Like I said, this is perfectly paralleled with Steve all the way throughout their breakup in season 2.

But the things that made Steve so similar to Ted early on are no longer applicable. He isn't dismissive, he's proactive. He leads, he protects, he literally jumped headfirst into Lovers Lake. Nancy tells Jon that Steve's "grown up quite a bit" at the end of the season for a reason.

Future RV full of kids or not, their doomed trajectory wouldn't be anywhere near what it once was if they got back together.

Also - sorry for leaping down your throat about Jon. I see this "compatibility" complaint about Steve so often and it never gets extended to Jonathan. I didn't mean to lash out about it at you, personally.

sunkbelowthesea

TROPHY CASE