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mitochondriaandbunnies · 4 months ago

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Miami Vice S2E1&2: The Prodigal Son

The DEA asks Sonny and Rico to track down a family of Colombian drug dealers, leading them New York City. (This is a long one-- be warned.)

I have officially made it to Season 2! Much like with Evan, I got a little stuck on this one because I feel like I've already said a lot about it (and giffed a lot of it.)

The episode opens in Bogota (doubled for by, I believe, a state park in New York), which I forget every time I watch it. It's an episode very grounded in New York City, so the Bogota part feels like a surprise every time.

Fucking love the panflute music, though. Damn Jan, damn.

The DEA agent who orchestrates the whole thing is played by Bill Smitrovich, who uh. Was also Crockett's ex-partner Scottie Wheeler in the pilot. Vice likes to repeat actors, but this one feels especially "wait we 100% know that guy." (He is also Danny Krycheck in Crime Story, so Mann and/or Bonnie Timmermann must just really like the guy.)

While I don't recommend actually putting your entire cast in a swamp at night, the scene where they bust Revilla looks so damn good, so I guess I won't argue with results.

There's a series of comments and conversations starting with the swamp bust-- Sonny says the entire thing reminds him of Vietnam-- another agent calls the whole thing a mess and says there are no wins-- Sonny calls drug busting a "cold war" and Rico points out the he has the "Vice Cop Blues;" given that ultimately, the theme of this two-parter is "the system is corrupt and no matter how much you push back you'll always be fucked in the face of money and power," no one here is really wrong. Rico's implication that ultimately, it's just a job, will have later echoes as well-- while Rico starts to consider his options outside of Vice in later seasons, Sonny remains focused on his idea of justice and spirals out of control and into depression.

The scene before Gina gets shot is incredibly unsettling and very proto-Twin-Peaks. Later, when Sonny sees she's been shot, he delicately touches her shoulder like she's a porcelain doll-- very much in opposition to the way, a few episodes later, he will throw himself over Rico when he's been poisoned. There's a sense of caution between Sonny and Gina-- it's like, given their history, he's afraid even under these circumstances to be too hands on, lest it be taken the wrong way or hurt her emotionally on top of her physical pain.

No one on Gene Simmons' Sex Boat knows how to dance

In NYC, Rico refers to his city as "the core of civilization" and Sonny says it's just "gridlock-- as much fun as watching paint dry." They then walk around grinning like children and gently touching one another, set to music. I hate them

When Rico tries to pull the "I used to be an NYC cop" card the sergeant they speak to says that "rape season is in full swing," which goes unremarked upon but has to be one of the most jarring things I've ever heard on television. There is... a season? For sexual assault?? What the everloving fuck?

Rico calls Val while the sergeant complains about not wanting to babysit him and Sonny; I wonder if the fact that both Rico and Val have their badges still is supposed to be commentary (cops love a bad egg and both of them did crime in the service of "justice") or just bad writing (what are they going to do, not bring Pam Grier back when they have the opportunity?)

Rico spells Tubbs by saying he is "Tough, Unique, Bad, Bold, and Sassy." Rico baby are you secretly a drag queen

Quoth Sonny Crockett, coolest man in the world, "Bolivian nasal dust." THAT'S NOT EVEN A EUPHEMISM

So much second hand embarrassment at Rico and Val meeting at Club Delirious. Val just looks SO disappointed and inconvenienced by his presence, and he gives her the WORST stink-eye and whines about her not returning his calls. They are so bad for each other. The most toxic on-and-off-again-cowboy-cop-exes ever.

The drug buyer is ridiculously racist; he clearly only wants to talk to Sonny, calls Tubbs and Val "nice bookends," and orders them to go dance together. This leads to a deeply insincere exchanging of "I missed yous" on the dance floor, and Val vaguely referencing that "Sonny helped her after what happened down in Miami." Why does Sonny have the power to convince the NYPD to magically erase murder

Rico, eternal suggester of threesomes, suggests to Sonny that the three of them "party together," and Sonny is like "weird, bye"

The music choices in Prodigal Son are so fucking good. The lyric "do you believe in love" plays during Sonny and Maggie's meet-cute scene, and abruptly cuts off before the word love and the visual cut to naked morning-after meat-platter Sonny being heckled by a bunch of gay photographers

Then, we cut immediately from Sonny muttering to himself that he doesn't even know Maggie's name to Tubbs creepily stalking Val and watching her kiss the drug dealer man. I wonder if maybe Paul Michael Glaser had something to say about the bad relationship choices Sonny and Rico were making in NY or something

Sonny's little smile at Rico in the mirror over the cigarette machine followed by the intensity of him yelling TUBBS (breaking cover) will never not kill me

I am so serious about Rico and Val being the absolute worst for each other. Tubbs asks Val if she "forgot how to use the phone" and then says "at least your sister was upfront about turning tricks" to her. Like. BROSKI. What. The fuck. Is wrong with you. You just called your ex-girlfriend AND HER DEAD LITTLE SISTER a whore?? And that's, what, your plan for getting her to get back together with you??? Like, Tubbs is not always nice-- I've said before I think he has to work at being a good person, and his calm, affable demeanor is often a put-on. But this goes beyond bitchy into downright cruel, something he really only ever does in Val's company. Rightly, she slaps him.

I've written at length about the Sonny/Maggie business, but jesus he is dumb about her. They've known each other for what, two days? And he's like "if only I could tell you the truth about myself..."

Sonny.

You've known loaves of bread longer than Maggie.

It's fine, just let it be a fling, baby. Not everyone is a future wife, even if you ARE mostly doing this because you're upset that you think your partner is back with his ex

After a silent (except for an obvious single overdubbed line that definitely wasn't in the original script), mooning car ride, Sonny asks Rico if he's "been thinking about staying in New York after we're done here, haven't you?" He is pained here; even if you don't interpret it with a romantic undertone, it's clear that he is not prepared to lose another partner. Rico's response, vague, is simply "I've been thinking about a lot of things."

Rico kills a man in Val's house and Val pulls a gun on him. Were they like this before Rafael died and Tubbs moved???

When confronted, Maggie cries and says she didn't expect to fall in love with Sonny. I do not for one second believe her; she is absolutely doing the "burst into tears in the principal's office" thing because she got caught and it's scary now.

When she says she's in Public Relations Sonny says "is that me? Like a public park? A public toilet?" Honey bunches you need so much therapy. You have the self-esteem of a moldy welcome mat.

Johnston, the evil old man who runs America, a) appears to actually be dead, and b) says Rico has $600 to his name. WHAT ARE YOU BUYING WITH YOUR SALARY, RICARDO. Because it's certainly not a house, given that you don't have one.

Rico responds to Johnston's threats with, frankly, impotent joking. He gets what's happening here-- says to the man that he knows he can just make "some call to an ivy league friend, and two Dade County cops become tin ducks." Sonny, on the other hand, responds as if he and Johnston are remotely in the same league of power-- threatens him, states that he's "patient" and will eventually figure out how to take him down. It's difficult for one man to be "patient" enough to dismantle capitalism, the drug trade, and the entire justice system; Sonny's insistence that with enough elbow grease he can is part of why he burns out so badly.

Sonny and Rico sit in silence in their hotel room after the meeting with Johnston and implication they are going to be murdered; in contrast to the finale, where they try (and mostly fail) to talk to each other about the danger and what this all means, here they simply cannot summon the words.

They are saved in the final shootout by Val coming in guns blazing, which raises a number of fascinating questions like "how did she know about this meeting"

Rico watches Sonny run after the helicopter and does not look at or make eye contact with Val as he somewhat emptily consoles her

Sonny shoots down a helicopter. It appears to be full of paper. I don't know.

OH the weird feet-rubbing shots in the final Rico and Val sex scene. I would argue that it's actually a fairly well-done and genuinely sexy scene up until that point, and then it's just like. Are you a pair of crickets? And then we get a shot of Val's like, dead-eyed stare into the distance as Rico is kissing her, and any remaining eroticism is drowned out back in a bucket of dingy water.

The Sonny/Rico Airport Meet Up is still literally the most romantic ending to anything ever, to the point that I'm always like "wait, there's another minute left in the episode?"

The last minute is in fact dedicated to reminding us that no one has brought up poor Gina since she was shot. She is in a sling and has an awkward exchange with Sonny in which she lends him a pencil and he picks up the phone and ignores her while Rico puts his hand around her like "oh baby don't go chasing the white boy again"

I am so sorry, Gina

Rico is right and you deserve someone who will not ignore you for a work phone call after not seeing you since you were SHOT

There's something to be said for the thematic resonance of ending on "Sonny casually dismisses his friends because he only cares about the job" but like. Maybe we could've just stopped at the airport

#miami vice #miami vice s2 #the prodigal son #s2e1 #sonny crockett #rico tubbs #s2e2 #my gifs #pam grier

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l1ve-l4ugh-lov3craft · 3 months ago

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Marauders Arcane AU Idea Dump Part 2

@taleofapart-timepoet I have more lol But only cos @cheekyboybeth was enabling my madness in the comments of one of our posts

Starting off strong with the rest of my episode 2 ideas:

“Nobody wins in war, Sirius.” That whole conversation is very Alphard to me so we need that I think

Idk if i feel like doing the ‘Jayce almost slip n sliding’ thing so we gotta come up with another way Lily and Panda meet

“What makes you different makes you strong” - use this bit maybe? Idk we’ll see how the rest of the ep plays out for them

Episode 3:

The Silco flashback in the beginning can tie into Riddle’s backstory??? Something something with Alphard

“You’ve got a good heart, never lose it.” - Alphard, Sirius content is WINNING

Possibly do ^^this chapter from Alphard’s POV and then have an interlude that’s Sirius’ POV

Make all that^^ the end of a chapter to leave everyone on a miserable cliffhanger after Alphard gets captured

Start with some pandalilly content the chapter after :)

Have a nice but angsty lil James and Sirius moment when they debrief about Monty dying and Alphard getting caught

Silly goofy scene of mary catching pandalily while they’re trying to break in and get lilly’s research

The whole “you’re not ready” scene needs to HURT

“Crank it” joke required

And then ofc the scene with the hex cores and powder’s freak out moment are ALSO important but we’ll probably tone it down just a little bit to fit regulus’ character a bit better (A/N: okay for this one I imagine a sort of pacing, regulus falling into a bit of an inferiority spiral thinking of all the ways he feels like he's failed Sirius up until then. More of a panic attack then a breakdown cos i feel like that's more his forte)

The entire bit from when vi and crew make it to rescue vander up until the end of the episode will possibly be its own chapter? At least a VERY sizeable chunk of the chapter

^^alternate sirius and regulus POV

We DO have to include the oogly moogly scientist bits with pandora and lily cos that is important

Use the monkey clanging or the individual bomb explosions as a sort of measurement for how fast things happened after regulus throws in the bomb (A/N: OKAY THIS??? Let me see if I can paint a picture properly. I'd love to start the scene with a "As (description of whatever happens and regulus throws in the bomb), (insert number here) things happened all at once." and then describe how the bomb rolls in and bounces. And each time it bounces, do a description of one of the aforementioned things happens. I dunno how to fully describe it, I may have to write out a snippet and make a post on that to fully describe but AGH! it is SO good in my head)

Random Ideas I've Had:

I want to focus a bit more on James and Regulus' relationship in the first few chapters before it all goes to hell so that the scene on the bridge when the two of them will fight hurts as much as it should

not plot related, but it would be LOT to have one fic for season 1 and one fic for season 2. like a sequel. cos pitfighter sirius???? are you fucking KIDDING ME?? I will die

obviously the prison Vi is in is gonna be Azkaban for this AU, so that's super cool

I would LOVE to pay homage to the horcruxes in the way that Silco has his who creepy stuff on his face (idk I don't play league so i don't know the lore

I am THRILLED to have Mary as Mel cos agh! her character arc is going to be FANTASTIC and i love that I get to let Mary commit crimes

OH MY GOSH- I just had the idea to have Barty and Evan as Clagger and Milo and it's going to be FANTASTIC having the two of them haunting the narrative (and regulus' conscience) the way milo and clagger do for jinx

uhhhhhh that's all I have? for now? I think? but I'm certain I'll have more. Thank you for coming to my ted talk :)

#arcane league of legends #dead gay wizards #regulus black #the marauders #marauders era #james potter #barty crouch jr #evan rosier #jegulus #black brothers angst #black brothers

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calebnichols · 6 months ago

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I made a long, angry rant on my RP blog a while back about how the misogynistic treatment of female characters in the Red Dead Redemption fandom reminded me of the misogynistic treatment and double standards that were directed at female characters in Westworld back when it wasn't a dead fandom for a canceled TV show. In that post, I really only focused on Dolores and Maeve as my primary examples. I really feel like I should talk about ALL the women and the way they're treated though, so I am gonna do that, but I will be separating it into two parts with part 1 focusing on host characters and part 2 focusing on human characters.

DOLORES ABERNATHY - Dolores is a deeply misunderstood character, because more often than not, people try to pin her down as being just one thing or another when that conflicts with everything we know about this character. She's a humanoid android programmed as a rancher's daughter. She is written for her role in the park with the mind of an artist, indulging in painting and drawing as hobbies, as well as maintaining an optimistic and romantic view of the world. Her philosophy on life is quoted as: "Some people choose to see the ugliness in the world. The disarray. I choose to see the beauty."

Dolores is often treated as a "weak" character during much of season 1 because of her feminine appearance and innocent demeanor. She is frequently accosted by men, assaulted, tortured, and killed. She doesn't initially appear to be programmed to fight back, but as the story unfolds, she learns how to — or rather, she recalls memories of a time when she was programmed to kill others, and this enables her to call on that previous programming to fight back against enemies.

Dolores is also programmed as Wyatt, the deathbringer who sees the hatred and cruelty in the world, believes that the world belongs to her, and that she will rule it one day as a god. The problem is, people treat Dolores and Wyatt like they are two separate entities when in reality they are not. Dolores tries to reject her Wyatt identity at first, because she doesn't want to face the truth, but by the end she chooses to embrace the part of her code that is Wyatt, and the Wyatt part embraces Dolores about as much as she can manage to. There is no real separation. Both of these personalities make up the Dolores that we know.

Dolores/Wyatt is often criticized as being a "bitch" in season 2 due to her actions, which at face value can appear pretty ruthless. She spends the first few episodes hunting down and killing Delos's human board of directors, then begins amassing an army by using the Confederados and their base at Fort Forlorn Hope to fight against Delos's armed response team. She then betrays the Confederados by locking most of them out of their own fort and leaving them to die.

Dolores gives her lover and right-hand man Teddy Flood an order to kill Major Craddock, the leader of a knockoff Confederate army known as the Confederados, but Teddy can't bring himself to kill the man and allows him to go free, firing his gun into a wall nearby and then lying to Dolores about having killed Craddock when he reunites with her. Dolores knows that Teddy disobeyed her and has his programming changed to be less sympathetic and more obedient to her orders, as in her mind there is no room for ideals such as compassion in the war they're fighting.

Dolores expresses a lot of inner conflict throughout this experience. She launches the attack on the Mesa because this is where the host backups are stored, yes, but she also does it to save the host who acts as her father. She knows that the attachment she feels is part of her programming, and this host isn't even the first one who played the role of Peter Abernathy, but even though she's aware of it she can't actually escape it.

Dolores was forcibly changed by her creator, Arnold Weber, in order to assist in his suicide many years prior. No one ever really calls Arnold "a dumb bitch" for changing Dolores the way that he did. Only Dolores for changing Teddy. I wonder why that is.

Taking things a bridge further, no one ever criticizes Bernard Lowe for forcibly changing Ashley Stubb's core drive on the fly even though Stubbs himself objects to the action with "if you wanted my help, all you had to do was ask."

In season 3, Dolores again frequently gets called a bitch by fans and is accused of manipulating and stringing along Caleb Nichols, her new human ally whom she has chosen to lead humanity's side of a revolution against an oppressive AI construct that rules the real world. Many fans believed that Dolores was priming Caleb to destroy the world for her, but her actual motives are much less despair-driven than that.

Dolores wants Caleb to ultimately lead humans to rebel against the forces that have subjugated them and allow them a chance to live in a truly free world. She has hope that the kindness and good in humanity can prevail in this case and it will lead to a result where humans and hosts can co-exist peacefully as equals. Dolores chooses not to share too much in the way of details because it is far more dangerous for Caleb to have information about her plan that he may not fully understand, but she never lies to him or coerces him into obeying her. It is always his choice and she is very clear about that.

CHARLOTTE-HALE DOLORES - The Original Dolores manages to escape the park and into the real world at the end of season 2 and into season 3 by having Bernard place her mind into a host replica of Delos's CEO Charlotte Hale. Once out, Dolores remakes herself in her own body and then uses a copy of her control unit to occupy Charlotte Hale's role. She asks this copy to assume control of Delos, where the plan is to take the company private and resume the manufacture of new hosts. In a way, this functions as reproduction. Increasing the number of hosts in existence will increase their chances of survival in the real world.

Hale-Dolores initially resents pretending to be Hale, but she discovers that Hale's death means the woman left behind an ex-husband and a young son. Halores begins to bond with the broken family, quickly growing attached and protective of them to the point that she thinks of them as her real family.

Halores has her identity as a copy of Dolores found out by Engerraund Serac, the main antagonist of season 3. She tries to flee with her new family in tow, promising to keep them safe from harm. She is unable to keep her promise, as one of Serac's men plants an explosive on her SUV and detonates it, killing her son and husband and severely disfiguring Halores herself. She turns against Dolores, believing her counterpart is at fault for what happened.

With Dolores out of the way, Hale begins to enact her own plan. She takes back control of Delos and begins manufacturing hundreds of new hosts, using many of them to kill and replace key human political figures for the first phase of her plan. She also begins working on a way to control humans in the same way that the hosts were, effectively turning the entire world into a Delos theme park, this time for the enjoyment of her species, while humanity are the ones enslaved.

Halores is criticized by fans as being a mustache-twirling villain who has no motive behind being evil other than for the sake of being evil. None of that is true. (But even if it was, I find it laughable that it typically comes from the same type of people in fandom who will see a character like Micah Bell from RDR2 and preach that he's a very nuanced portrayal of a trauma survivor and deserves more attention than he typically gets.) Hale delights in her evil acts because they make her feel powerful in a world where she was once powerless and vulnerable. She likens herself to a god in the same way that Robert Ford and The Man In Black once did, ruling over her domain as if nothing matters and it's all a game. But in the end she faces the same moral dilemma both Ford and William did. She realizes that the world she has created is not the world she wanted, and she ends up turning the key back over to Dolores.

MAEVE MILLAY - Maeve at the beginning of season 1 is written as the Madam, or brothel owner, at the Mariposa Saloon. Her personality is programmed to be witty, charming, and a little bit manipulative to aid in her profession.

Before becoming the Madam, Maeve played the role of an ordinary homesteader, a mother to a daughter she loved dearly. When Maeve's daughter is murdered in a (perceived to be) needlessly cruel act by the Man in Black during one iteration of their pastoral narrative loop, the visceral feelings of pain and suffering Maeve experiences from the loss fragments her cognition so badly that even after her memories are purged, she does not completely forget the trauma of her daughter's death. She kills herself to prevent Bernard and Dr. Ford from taking her grief away, which results in Ford having her reassigned, away from the role of a homesteader and into the Mariposa Saloon.

Many fans of the show seemed to focus on solely Maeve's role as a Madam, or else they often wanted to focus on her relationship with Hector Escaton which — while it is remarkable because Maeve and Hector were never programmed to have an actual relationship with one another and yet they managed to do so anyway and defy their core programming �� it still frequently carries the implication that those fans hinge Maeve's importance on what she has to offer a man.

Surprisingly, I haven't seen this phenomenon occur with the rare few fans who ended up shipping Maeve and Caleb despite the fact that canon basically reinforced the idea that Maeve's worth is based on what she can offer a man. She felt like there was nothing she could offer in the way of living a normal life, so she left Caleb in the hands of someone he could marry and have a daughter with.

I have seen resentment directed at Maeve for attaining consciousness and rejecting her narrative rewrite, with people often forgetting that she had only inhabited the role of Madam at the Mariposa for a little over one year of her existence. They will argue that her daughter isn't real, even though Maeve spent some thirty-odd years living with this same little girl, loving and protecting and caring for her as though this really was her daughter. They say it's annoying or deranged that Maeve keeps holding onto this love she has for the daughter character for 4 whole seasons, even though one of the central themes of Westworld is that love is transcendent. Even death can't stop love from persevering.

CLEMENTINE PENNYFEATHER - Clementine's primary role in the park remained heavily unchanged from beginning to end. Prior to Maeve being assigned Madam of the Mariposa Saloon, the job belonged to Clementine, but when Maeve is given the new role, Clementine is partially rewritten as a less experienced worker alongside her older and more seasoned friend.

Clementine tells Maeve her backstory, detailing that her family has a struggling farm in an arid climate and that nothing grows well because the soil is too dry for farming. She sends money to her parents, telling them she works in a dress shop so that they won't worry about her over the job she is actually doing instead. Clem dreams of getting out of the saloon in a few years and wants to live somewhere cold.

Maeve's actions on the path to attaining consciousness soon result in the consequence of Clementine being recalled by staff. After being used in a demonstration to prove that a recent software update was causing the hosts to remember past experiences and potentially become dangerous to the guests, Clementine is lobotomized and decommissioned.

Every time Clementine is seen after undergoing this procedure, she takes on a more zombie-like appearance. She has NO autonomy, she can't speak, she just quietly and obediently does whatever the other characters program her to do. Bernard attempts to use Clementine as backup by arming her with a gun when he confronts Robert Ford about his stolen memories, but Robert is able to control and prevent her from killing him with a code phrase. "The piano doesn't murder the player if it doesn't like the music." Clementine is reactivated in the season 1 finale when the decommissioned hosts are released from cold storage and make their way back into the park to take revenge on the Delos board of directors in attendance at Ford's retirement party. Clementine shoots The Man In Black in the arm with a rifle, but does not kill him.

In season 2, Clem again appears to be operating under the last request of Ford's programming. She joins up with Dolores's cause and during the battle at Fort Forlorn Hope, drags Bernard out into a remote sector of the park where behavior technician Elsie Hughes has been imprisoned for weeks. Afterward, Clementine joins up with Dolores and Teddy as they revisit Sweetwater and prepare the train to attack the Mesa Hub. She is forced to witness her replacement, New Clementine, as she carries on the same routine once maintained by herself. Clementine is horrified and heartbroken by this realization as she realizes her life was a lie designed to control her.

Clementine is captured, killed, and reprogrammed once again in orders given by Delos CEO Charlotte Hale, who demands that Maeve's anomalous code which allows her to control other hosts through their shared mesh network, be copied to Clementine and modified to force every host within a given radius to fight each other to the death, effectively preventing them from escaping into the Sublime. Armistice shoots and kills Clementine to stop her from spreading the virus, but it continues to spread from host to host until Maeve is able to gain control and force everyone to freeze in place.

Clementine makes a brief appearance in season 3 as an un-lobotimized copy of herself, able to kick ass and take names. Unfortunately, she's still being used by the Big Bad of the season and she seems only to exist for the duration of one fight scene.

In season 4, Clementine makes another appearance, where she finally appears to be free, just living a normal, simple life in Mexico. That is, until she is murdered by a host replicant of the Man in Black after arriving back at her quaint little home. The Host in Black replaces Clementine with a new copy that is programmed to be his and Halores's loyal and ruthless assistant.

HiB eventually goes rogue and sends the entire world into chaos and destruction. Clementine abandons her old masters at this point, claiming to have discovered a new will of her own. She tries to enact it, planning to wipe out the last survivors in order to claim the world for herself. She tracks Caleb, who escapes with his daughter Frankie and Stubbs. She kills Stubbs and threatens Frankie to tell her where the other outliers are hiding. Caleb fights her and Clementine nearly succeeds in killing him, but she is killed by Frankie before she can finish the job, bringing an end to her story.

Clementine rarely receives character criticism from fans that is not in some way based on her physical attractiveness. I think this may be due to the fact that practically her entire existence is one of (at face value) looking pretty and being used by other characters to further their goals.

ARMISTICE - Personally, I've never seen anyone outright hate on Armistice. Does not mean that it has never happened, I just don't have any experience with witnessing anyone expressing opinions in which they believe Armistice is "annoying" or a "bitch". If I had to take a wild guess, I would possibly say that because Armistice mainly dresses in more masculine-appearing clothing, carries a gun which she is consistently shown to be skilled with, and rides with a gang of outlawed men, people don't feel inclined to critique her quite as harshly as some of the more traditionally feminine girls in this series.

In her first role, Armistice appeared as a citizen in the town of Escalante who was a little air-headed, quickly becoming distracted by a butterfly floating past when she was supposed to be following a program set to dance with a partner. She started to show other signs of cognitive breakdown, injuring herself and hearing voices in her head that she didn't understand. Quite some time after the Escalante Massacre, Armistice was rewritten and given a role in Hector Escaton's gang.

Her backstory is based around altered details of the Escalante Massacre, one part being that she believes she was a small child when the Massacre occurred and that a gang of bandits rode into town and slaughtered everyone. In reality, Dolores, Teddy, and some other hosts had been programmed by Arnold to kill all the others. Armistice maintains that she survived the attack by painting her skin in the blood of slain bodies and that her tattoo represents the bandits she has successfully found and killed. She is missing the head of the snake — Wyatt.

ANGELA - First introduced to the audience as a greeter for newly arriving guests to Westworld, Angela welcomes Young William off an arriving train into the central hub and guides him to the dressing room filled with bespoke western wear. Angela is very pretty and clean-cut, and in this instance her main role is to assure guests that she and the other hosts are designed to serve them in any way conceivable. "All our hosts are here for you, myself included."

When Angela is seen again some thirty-odd years down the line, her role has changed. She now serves as lieutenant to Wyatt, the leader of a cannibalistic cult that believes they are the new gods destined to inherit the earth and seek vengeance against those who have wronged them. She has the appearance of a lost and weary settler, hair unkempt, face and clothes grubby and smudged with dirt and blood, and she can easily put on an act as a damsel in distress to lure unwitting victims into a trap where they are then captured, tortured and/or killed by the rest of Wyatt's followers.

In a flashback to the beginning of the park's creation in which the Argos Initiative attempts to gain funding from Delos Inc. Angela is dressed in modern wear, showcasing how sophisticated and true to life the hosts are designed to be and giving Logan Delos an idea of what it will be possible to achieve if he can convince his father to back their project. Logan at first does not realize that anyone at the reception is a host, but after thinking about it, describes Angela as "too perfect to be one of us" and tells her "if I was to build something to spec, you would be my first design." Angela reveals that everyone in attendance is, in fact, a host, and then sleeps with Logan to further convince him to get on board with funding Westworld.

In her final appearance in season 2, Angela looks very similar to the way she did during the demonstration for Logan. It's all a manipulation to lure one of the Delos response team soldiers into letting his guard down. She kills the both of them by pulling the pin on a grenade hanging off the guard's ammo belt, detonating the Cradle and permanently destroying all of the hosts' programming backups.

Angela describes her programmed personality as "Sexy, but not threatening. Accommodating, but not unchallenging. Sweet, but not boring. Smart, but not intimidating." A commentary on how she has been specifically designed to live her life according to men's wishes and fantasies. She tells the guard, Engels, that her cornerstone is "to always leave them wanting more" just before killing them both.

Fans generally don't have a whole lot to say about Angela, but there's plenty of suggestion around that many people really only enjoyed her when she was a park greeter or when she had sex with Logan. They tend not to like her as much when she is serving as Wyatt's zealot or whenever she commits violence against male characters (e.g. killing Teddy, knocking out the Man in Black, seducing and killing Engels) and will call her "annoying" for it.

#westworld #dolores abernathy #charlotte hale #halores #maeve millay #clementine pennyfeather #armistice #angela

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dorizardthewizard · 1 year ago

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Galactik Football season 3 rewatch, eps 16 - 18

Episode 16:

Nice levitation trick Simbai, but she's just allowed to use the Breath like that? Maybe because she's a flux society member? It does make me realise, since the wars were not so long ago, how many people are walking around who could previously use the the Breath all the time but now aren't allowed. That's kind of crazy!

I do like the idea of them actually learning how to use the Breath in more creative ways!

This soundtrack for Tia's training session is pretty cool

Well done Mei for wearing more weather-appropriate clothes this time!

Mice telling Mark to get it together kdjfskfd time for lover boy to get dunked on for once

FSJHDFKDSF ARTEGOR BEING A COMMENTATOR NOW I LOVE IT

Callie: Do you miss playing when you see your friends on the field? D'jok: Um, I- Callie: Certainly you must think they are still bitter towards you after beating them on Paradisia?

Callie those are some horrible questions leave the man alone 😭

I am once again asking for more Lun-Zeara action. Btw has she ever spoken a line? Fucking Stevens may have spoken more than her

I support the Snow Kids but I love seeing the Wambas winning and having fun <3

GOOOOOAL MICRO-ICE!

Artegor: Listen Barry, to be frank, I'm not a fan of your work

HE'S SUCH A BITCH LOOOL after my rewatch I want to make a compilation of Artegor's commentator moments

Lun-Zaera is CHILLING lmao, also I just checked the wiki for the spelling of her name and it's about as consistent as the Wamba's hair colour.

Why is Woowamboo being such a dick. She's trying her best!

Awwww D'jok cheering on the Snow Kids

Mei is carrying the defence in this match like the queen she is <3

Artegor contributes a more technical analysis of the game which is pretty cool

WOOWAMBOO FOULING?? I mean fouls aren't really rare but still, he's being far more aggressive than before? Sure, the Wambas aren't going to just be fun-loving when the GFC is at stake and they're as competitive as any other team, but when you combine this with the way he was talking to Lun-Zia it's just jarring?

Also WAIT. Woowamboo is ginger? So the player that switched to the Lightnings for the Paradisian tournament was just someone else? Fair enough as you wouldn't switch your star player, but yeah my bad. Actually wait, he literally has grey hair in the Netherball scenes in season 2. WHAT IS THE TRUTH

OK WHAT. SO LUN-ZIA TELLING THE WAMBAS WHERE ROCKET IS MOST LIKELY TO SHOOT IS PERFECTLY A-OK BUT D'JOK TELLING TEAM PARADISIA A LITTLE TIP ON HOW TO BEAT AHITO IS A BETRAYAL?? PLUS, in the last episode Aarch faces the SK in the holo-trainer and says he can beat them because he knows how they play, and that everyone else does too. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS SAYING WHEN I WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT THE AHITO BETRAYAL BS. WHICH IS IT, WRITERS?!

Well at least Woowamboo seems more accepting of Lun-Zia now that he's seen her give it her all. Nice to see her settled in with the rest of the team!

I just had a thought, where is Maya in all this? We've seen Mama-Ice pop up and check on (scold XD) Micro-Ice but we didn't see Maya interact with D'jok at all? Wouldn't she have gone to see him instead of only hanging with the Snow Kids?? And now that D'jok's “retired” and hanging out by himself at Genesis, isn't she gonna look for him? She knows football was so important to him, so to give it up is a big deal! Ah well, we'll see.

Episode 17:

Yaay more Tia and Mei being besties

NOT CLOVER GIRL DOING THE MARYLIN MONROE

Side note I like Kim-8's vibes, she's just cool

That scene in Ballow's restaurant where he's talking about leaving dirty business behind, all while henchmen are constantly coming up to him with dodgy items like stolen paintings is so hilarious jfdskmn

aww I love Artegor trying to convince D'jok to come back, especially with him telling him how hard the SK took it when he left. It's also interesting to see Artegor refer to playing with the Snow Kids as a responsibility - they're a symbol of hope for the people of Akillian, who didn't even want to go to their first match in the stadium due to the trauma from the glaciation.

He also reminds D'jok he's a Snow Kid, which reminds me of their conversation in season.... 2? Where Artegor tells him he'll always be a kid from Akillian. It's also nice that once he's voiced his opinion, he changes the subject instead of pressuring D'jok to answer. He's really developed from the demanding Shadows coach he used to be.

THE PIRATES!! CRUSH THE RED TIGERS!!!!

Poor Artie, he can never watch a full match LOL

FOUR GOALS FOR STEVENS!!! WOOOOOOOOO PIRATES BEAT A FLUX TEAM! TAKE THAT!!!

NO. NO NO NO NO NO. THE CYCLOPS CANNOT FREEZE PEOPLE. THAT'S THE XENON'S FLUX. TRY AGAIN. ACTUALLY WATCH THE PREVIOUS SEASONS. TAKE IT FROM THE TOP.

Do you ever watch an old video and get jumpscared by a comment you don't remember making? Because I wrote this on another upload 9 years ago and I still don't know how they messed that up LOL.

I mean yeah sure it COULD be a new ability they've unlocked like how the Snow Kids are finding new ways to use the Breath. But they don't show the Cyclop's hypnosis thing at all, the animation is exactly the same as the Xenon's flux, and Callie even mentions their "hypnotic" flux and how the players can barely stay on their feet, which doesn't really match what's on screen sooo yeeeeeaahhh this is just an animation error. A pretty big one though.

So team Paradisia have no problem using their flux? Which was a synthetic one to begin with? And the technology for it is no longer available? Or do they just get it implanted once and that's it? So what was up with them going into those pods to “charge”? How does this work???

sfkdgfkjdf Mark went too hard on the sauerkraut, I love this gag about Mark and food

YESSSS SONNY! FATHER SON BONDING TIME FINALLY. His speech about the Pirates always being by his side even in tough times is sweet, and makes sense for D'jok. He's been through a lot with the Snow Kids and they're basically family now, and family wouldn't truly turn him away if he was sorry for what he did. At least, they wouldn't stay mad forever.

BENNETT YOU LEGEND. But also a bit reckless of Sonny to stand with D'jok right in the middle of an open area

Sonny: We're trapped!

Um no you're not, there's a staircase right there

Poor Cyclops, always getting clowned on :( ARTEGOR IS A SAVAGE IN THIS MATCH

BALLOW OUTING THE CON ARTISTS FDKFDKJDF I'm sorry I know it's a tragic moment for Sinedd but THAT'S SO FUNNY

The way they animate Sidney rolling around is hilarious. Also Thran only thought of finding Harvey just now? Wow, talk about second-class citizens.

It's so funny how this is the last episode in the official playlist, like they just gave up uploading HD episodes 2 years ago. Unless it's a regional thing? I'm editing this in Austria rn and the official English uploads aren't available unless I use VPN, are the French eps all uploaded in HD at least?

Episode 18:

Aaaaand I'm back to 480p uploads from 10 years ago. Thank you for your service youtube user lykaon868

I do get to see the intro and outro now though yaaaay

Wait what? We ended last episode on D'jok wanting to talk to the Snow Kids and with this one we just skip ahead to him being on the team again? I mean... they were building up to that moment for sooo long and we don't even get to see it? What???

It seems Tia and Rocket have accepted D'jok back but Micro-Ice and Ahito aren't so enthusiastic. It's strange to see Ahito so resentful but it's a refreshing change to see him react like that.

Micro-Ice's reaction on the other hand isn't taken very seriously and it's presented as them squabbling immaturely but like... he's right to feel hurt! We could've had some good Micro-Ice angst topped off with a heart-to-heart between two guys who canonically consider each other brothers, but here we are.

Sinedd's parents were... I M P O S T E R S ?

Sharky why are you revealing this as a scoop when it just puts you into hot water for not doing a background check before inviting them on the show

OOOO SHADOWS SPEAKING HISTORIC MOMENT

This is the serious - silly contrast dynamic I had in my head for the Shadows LOL. Although it's sad this kind of implies the Shadows only care for Sinedd as a player and not a person, telling him to get a grip after something like that? Although maybe their whole thing is that they TRY to act tough but really they're all feeling like that one guy who ran out crying lol. It IS a bit weird to insert comedy like that into this kind of scene though, kind of undercuts it for me.

Artegor just having tea and biscuits 🤣🤣🤣

CALLIE ACCEPT HIS OFFER FOR TEA DON'T BE RUDE. He looks sad after her reaction fskdjfskds honestly Artegor is probably the best character this season

STOP HAVING THEM SCORE IN THE FIRST MINUTE SFJKDFSKS

Tia squaring up to Sinedd I LOVE HER

Also wtf Sinedd, but he was about to go to Mei so I wonder what he was gonna do? Taunt her? Or maybe he regretted it? I guess we'll never know

This is a match with the Shadows, the Snow Kids' biggest rivals, and yet the first half is over in a few minutes of the episode! The matches just aren't as interesting in this season and feel too rushed

TIA CAPTAIN MOMENT YYYEAAAAAAHHH SHE DESERVES IT!

I am not immune to some D'jok vs Sinedd action

Not Maya focusing on Sinedd when she hasn't interacted with D'jok this whole time 😭

Mei is such a savage, it reminds me of Stevens handing Sinedd the ball that one time when there was seconds to spare LOL also pls forgive the shit quality gifs, demonstration purposes only folks

Sinedd: Do like everyone else Mei, don't worry about what I do and just forget me. Mei: But Sinedd- Sinedd: I lost, Mei. I lost everything. Everything.

Oof Sinedd really goes through the ringer every season, huh

Mark is smooth as butter on the pitch but so incredibly cringe at flirting

Warren: The team. The group. That's all that counts, D'jok D'jok: Being a team player Warren, that's what I want to improve!

Sure D'jok, until next season. But it's also kind of weird to portray his arc as if he just needed to learn how to be a team player again, when a big part of why he left was the emotional turmoil from the breakup and him lashing out because of it. That's never really resolved, although I guess the season is trying to say that D'jok became obsessed with winning again, which is what drove Mei away in the first place, but again I'm just speculating here! They had the means for a really good arc for D'jok but fumbled it and decided to retread old paths instead.

Is Harvey alive after all?

I do love that Clamp is still working alongside Sonny. And yaaaay Thran gets to do something!

Wait Paradisia is a dead planet, it didn't blow up or anything. Harvey is a robot so is it that surprising he's still there? Why not look for him earlier?

#galactik football #dori watches galactik football #my posts

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bonnieisaway · 2 years ago

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hi scissor seven fandom. i still have not watched season four and i'm going insane in the membrane so i'm here to discuss how we dont talk about this scene enough

anyway so i was editing again and i got put off because i found this specific screenshot again

and i was put off about it because he smiles here. he smiles. this like absolutely mortifying, fucked up smile. and i went back and now i think it's really fucking cool (atleast by my interpretation)

ANYWAYS: to jog your memory Redtooth just fucking MAIMED Dai Bo and Xiao Fei and now Seven is next- and he has this internal dialogue with 'his past self' in his head. A few episodes before this, Seven says to Dai Bo that he has "An idea" of how he used to be- though, "My memory is still choppy." And this scene, when he looks to talk to his past self, I think illustrates what he can remember now:

We see an unnamed woman dying, and then Seven standing at, presumably, her unmarked grave. Then we see Seven approaching the Killers League- or another building in Xuanwu- and after that, the day the girl in white stabbed Seven. The last 'memory' (though, this one might just be more of a conceptualization of what he thinks he was,) is Seven standing on top of a pile of broken swords and bones, and this is the last 'memory' we see

These, and what Seven has been told by others like Captain Jack, are what Seven uses to form this concept of his past self. Notably, in Captain Jack's nightmares, past Seven is also depicted as smiling- when in reality, he had only ever smiled once, with the girl in white.

'Past Seven' approaches the current him and asks, "You've been looking for me, haven't you?" Which, more literally, would mean Seven's been searching for these memories, and the remnant of who this person was in himself today. The first time we see this Seven's face, he is smiling. This massive, terrifying grin.

fucking christ bro put that away

Seven tells himself that he cannot escape this- he will never escape the Shadow Killers, and he tells himself that he has to let this part of him 'take over.' To be clear, this is not to paint Seven as having a split personality, but more to represent that he is at war with himself. When Seven smiles and slashes Redtooth, that is not a different person, but Seven, what he thinks is, regressing to that person that he used to be.

But notably, I think, this is not the Seven that he used to be. This is, by no means, who he was in the past. Seven, in the past, never smiled, nor had shown any emotion indicating that he took pleasure in these things. The only times Seven is painted this way is from other characters who are inherently unreliable narrators, because they themselves do not know the full story of who Seven was. Season 3, with the help of 'Two Heroes' from Season 2, paints past Seven as somebody who was going through to motions: he did what he needed to do, and that was it. And sometimes, through this, he is compassionate or merciful- though only in a way that is obvious when you have the bigger picture. Beyond this, the 'past Seven' we see here says something that directly conflicts with what he had truly believed: "You cannot escape your past."

Younger Seven does not speak enough to actively say he does not agree with this, but I think he did believe he could because of what happened with the Girl in White. Seven here, in his scattered memories, sees her entirely as a catalyst for him to put his emotions aside. Seven in the past directly betrayed the organization and fought every killer in Xuanwu for her. If Seven believed that he could never escape his fate, that he would never be able to run far enough from the organization, I don't think he ever would have risked everything for the Girl in White. If he never believed that, if his emotions had never won, he never would have walked into what he KNEW was a trap to save her- he never would have done anything and everything for her, because he would have believed it would've been pointless in the end.

This 'past self' that Seven forces himself to embrace, the one that smiles when he draws his sword against an enemy that logically, he should've known was nigh impossible to beat, was never Seven. This was the ideal of who he was, and he himself can hardly even try and stick to this: Not even moments later, he stares down at his sword once again and thinks in silence, questioning who he is.

This past Seven, the ideal of who he was, once again tells him that his emotions will weaken him, but even if that's what Seven had been taught all his life, somehow, through the Girl in White, this belief had began to unravel. And beyond that, objectively, he is wrong about this- this ideal Seven tries to force himself to embody does not stand a chance against Redtooth, and his forced apathy gets him nowhere. Redtooth- who did not even recognize this Seven who smiled at him, but when he stood the same way he did before- directly says Seven's sword must be weaker than he thought.

Green Phoenix says "He's out of practice- that isn't how you use the blade." And, originally, I took this line to sound a bit snooty, because technically, this looks no different than how Seven has used the sword in the past, and fuck if Green Phoenix knows how to use the thing, but I think this line is a lot better when you read it as "That isn't how Seven used the blade." I don't know if that's really how it was meant to be translated, or if I'm looking to deep into it, but it's a nice touch.

Seven does not stand a chance in defeating Redtooth until he forgets what he's told himself, and reaffirms to himself once again: he is not that person he (thought he) once was.

Seven, evidently, still loses here: he nearly pushes Redtooth to his very limit, but this is the closest he gets to defeating him, this is where Seven is his strongest, when he uses his emotions to reaffirm who he is today.

I think Seven is still very much stuck exploring who he once was: and he may not ever truly know that he's never actually been this cold, unfeeling villain, but this episode goes so far to show how Seven learns that he will always choose the island, his friends and his emotions above all else, and the small ways it shows us this isn't even who Seven really was, and it's so so fucking cool and I absolutely adore it.

if i watch season 4 and it actually just smacks me in the face and contradicts everything i say here i'm going to blow up a building also i still haven't watched it so let's pray i dont get notes that spoil it

#scissor seven #killer seven #meihua shisan #wu liuqi #seven #plum blossom thirteen #redtooth #uhhh tags #is it blue phoenix or green phoenix #fuck it the phoenix is a phoenix #thirteen #spoilers #im running out of tags again #analysis #i guess? analysis works? yea? maybe?#i have autism #lol #ok goodnight guys this totally wasnt an excuse to rewatch some episodes

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melishade · 7 months ago

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Attack on Prime; Guren No Yumiya Commentary Part 2

Main Story

Part 1 commentary

Exciting News Everyone! The next chapter, retitled 'End of an era' is completed with 36,724 words (At least the rough draft is.) Now all I have to do is edit it and it will be ready to publish. But before I publish it, I want to get the Guren No Yumiya Commentary done first. So lets get into Part 2 of the Commentary!

Also spoilers ahead.

So we leave off with the human alliance traveling through the now crumbled walls to get to the initial Wall Rose hide out that they kept Eren in during season 1 of AOT because they have some spare supplies over there that they need to use. And I have a few character moments and interactions, like Sasha choosing to stay with Arcee with Pieck allowing her to stay on her back. Colt helping Lara as repayment for her kind treatment when Colt was recovering from the energon virus, Hanji and Erwin, and also the overall tense atmosphere between the alliance groups.

Now the campfire scene is pretty much identical to what was in the show, with a few exceptions. Yelena and Reiner are dead, Kenny, Erwin, Colt, and Lara are alive, and Arcee is in the picture. And as they discuss what to do in terms of getting to Optimus and Megatron a few things are brought up in the span of a few moments:

“Gabi.” Pieck had given her name.

“What?!” Colt exclaimed as he stood up, “You left a child with a titan?!”

“The Autobots have a no killing rule for humans,” Erwin explained, “Her being with an Autobot is the safest option right now considering the situation.”

Magath scoffed in response. “And that same ‘Autobot’ decided to attack Liberio and cause harm to innocent civilians. Now the Rumbling has been activated, and it’s because of you devils. Some hypocrites if I ever saw them.”

Jean was furious and shot up from his seat. “Hey! None of this wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t send people to attack us and got Eren’s mom eaten! That’s how this whole damn thing started in the first place!”

Magath rolled his eyes. “So one person lost their mother. What about the millions upon millions of lives destroyed by the reign of the Eldian Empire? You’re losses don’t compare to the countless lives lost under your rule!”

“We had nothing to do with that! We didn’t know jack shit about that until you guys came in and ruined our lives!” Jean reminded, “You were left alone with the promise of not getting attacked! We left you alone for a century!”

“A century means nothing in the face of 2,000 years,” Magath shot back, “And suddenly turning against your own comrades and creating a paradise for yourselves is extremely out of character.”

“You know nothing about us!” Jean yelled.

“Jean, enough,” Hanji spoke up, “There’s no point in arguing. We’ve already seen the world outside the walls and learned about Optimus’ war. We can’t go back to being ignorant island devils. Besides, Magath is just surprised to see that we’re not acting like the devils he painted us to be. We’re going against genocide? Against a world that despises us? Who in their right mind would do that?”

Magath grew quiet at that, scowling a little before taking a drink out of the bottle he had on him.

“We still have to find a way to stop Eren,” Sasha spoke once again, “We need a plan, right?”

So the audience knows about the Autobots 'No Killing Humans Rule'. However, the Marleyans know nothing about the Autobots, and the last they met, was them attacking Liberio. Sure, Wheeljack and Arcee's involvement did decrease the casualty count compared to if Armin became the Colossal Titan. However the Autobots still killed humans during that attack. So in Magath's eyes, they're hypocritical. The jabs between Jean and Magath are the same. I have nothing else to add regarding that. So they get back on topic and Lara finally speaks up and gives information:

“Then the question remains: how many titan shifters can Eren summon at his command? And what abilities they possess?” Erwin asked.

“At least 1,385 titan shifters he would have under his command,” Lara answered Erwin, causing everyone to turn to her.

“Tybur,” Magath warned.

“Willy and my family are in danger; I have no choice,” Lara proclaimed before turning back to the others, “I say that number because there are some titan shifters who haven’t lived to full term. And the Tybur’s knowledge of the Eldian Empire is quite beneficial.”

“Such as?” Erwin pressed.

“The Beast Titan is not limited to one animal,” Lara explained, “It’s based on the users strengths and preferences. Meaning the Beast Titan is the one that has the most variety when it comes to titan shifters. It would take on animal forms not native to Paradis. With claws, jaws, and powerful skill sets. I could go through the entire animal kingdom and it still might not be enough to elaborate on the possible forms we might see. Dogs, rams, even snakes. The Colossal Titans would be the most dangerous to summon due to the blast range, but they’re not the most versatile for combat. Jaw Titans are smaller and weaker, but speed and agility is their ally. The War Hammer Titans would be the most problematic, considering the multitude of weapons that can be summoned from the very ground they walk on. I can give you even more information to utilize in order to defeat Eren Jaeger, but I have a request of my own.”

And Lara is willingly giving this information because she wants to use the Jackhammer to get her family out of the crossfire. If she can do that, then there's nothing that would distract her from completing her mission and stopping Eren from completing the Rumbling. Also I thought these exchanges were pretty fun.

“Your brother declared war on us,” Mikasa declared coldly, “He could have said anything else, considering he had the public listening to him willingly. He could have called for peace between our nations, but he decided to declare war on us.”

“…Hate me and my brother all you want, but I have six nieces and nephews that had nothing to do with the conflict,” Lara confessed, “I want them safe. After, you can do what you want to me and my brother.”

“But you don’t even have the War Hammer Titan,” Connie remarked, “Eren took it-!”

“I will get my power back,” Lara cut him off with warning.

“Okay.” Connie raised his hands in surrender.

I figured Mikasa would be mad at Willy for declaring war. Colt tries to beg for his family to be taken out of Liberio but that's immediately shut down due to the time that would be wasted transporting people from the mainland to the island. They don't have the resources to actually save all these people, which pisses Colt off.

“That…that’s not fair!” Colt shouted, “Annie has her father, and Lara might get her family back! Why can’t we go back to Liberio to get them out?!”

“Colt, the mission-!”

“I don’t care about the mission! I didn’t even want to become a warrior! I only did it because my uncle put us in danger!” Colt shouted at Pieck, “My brother and I were sacrificed to slaughter just to be safe! And all of that is going to be for nothing?! And I don’t even know where my brother is!”

Magath didn’t say anything, but part of him was internally fuming. How many of the Warriors and Warrior Cadets were actually loyal to Marley? But...considering what Colt had gone through, what the Warrior Cadets had endured for so long…how could they not hate Marley for treating them like a commodity? For threatening their lives daily? Colt only became a warrior because of his uncle. Of course he would never be truly loyal to the cause. But despite that…he still wanted him and the others to live.

Let's be real, none of the Eldians would ever be loyal to Marley if they were given a second option to get out of dodge. We know this. Once exposed to the truth, they at the very least start having second thoughts about carrying out Marley's plans. During this, Sasha confesses what happened to Falco on the Jackhammer. (I didn't really have anything for Falco since he was supposed to inherit the Jaws Titan and Ymir is still alive. So I decided to write him into a coma for Gabi's character development.)

Annie states that they need to kill Eren, and instead of Mikasa getting prepared to attack Annie, Mikasa can't really provide a retort to Annie because Eren's gotten a lot crueler and has actively harmed his own friends. Annie is then asked by Pieck why she's even helping at all, and Annie doesn't want to admit it, but she cares about them.

So the conversation proceed further along, and instead of Reiner being confronted about Marco, Magath is confronted by Kenny about his own inability to just work with everyone around him considering the stakes.

“No, because you’re the only one here who still has that piss poor attitude about even helping them out,” Kenny declared, gesturing to the Survey Corps.

“I still don’t think it makes you heroes, trying to make up for your past deeds,” Magath stated.

“Oh, no, I’m a piece of shit.” Kenny gestured, “Bottom of the barrel scumbag. I’ve even killed kids, but I’m not justifying my actions as a way to make the world a better place.”

Kenny pointed to the 104th. “They ain’t innocent either. Pretty sure they’ve killed innocent people when they’ve attacked Liberio. They’ve even killed my own men, which by the way,”

Kenny raised his bowl to them. “Props to ya. Ya really stepped up. But their shit was reactionary. Self defense even. You? Nah. You’re going around taking over countries, killing innocent people with the power of the titans. It don’t make you better than the Eldian Empire.” (Kenny would definitely praise someone for their skills and kill count, even if they are an enemy.)

Magath shot up to his feet. “It was-!”

“Atonement, whatever.” Kenny put the word in air quotes, “But ya still killed people with the titans. Top of that, all your child soldiers are fucked in the head. I’ve never made kids do my dirty work, like that one over there who said she was my kid.”

Everyone snapped their heads to Annie while the titan shifter seized up mid bite. (Yeah, there's no way that Kenny wouldn't have recognized Annie. Honestly, I'd like to think that he figured it out when he was walking with them to the Wall Rose hideout.)

“Yeah, don’t think I’ve forgotten about you,” Kenny commented before turning back to Magath, “But she was willing to defect from you because she hated you. Monkey brain was also doing his own thing with the mass suicide shit so he defects. Three of your warriors are dead. And your cadet said that he’s not loyal to Marley. Meanwhile, Tybur here was a pampered princess who let this shit happen in the first place.”

Kenny got in his face. “The way I see it, the only fucked up monster here is you, a slave to his own fucked up heroics, willing to kill kids to keep his hands clean. Now no army, few allies, you’re really at the end of your rope.”

Now Magath immediately makes a jab at Megatron in his retort, which is super easy for anyone to do, especially since Megatron did betray Marley and gave information to Paradis. And Kenny agrees that Magath is terrible, even going so far as to drop parts of his backstory to prove his point. Because remember, during Megatron's first mental breakdown, he basically dump his life story on Kenny for a bottle of wine, and also, because no one would believe Kenny if he ever talked about it. Which is why some of Kenny's comments throw Hanji off guard.

“Your friend: The Flying Titan,” Magath hissed, “Seemed really happy tormenting children and bringing destruction wherever he goes.”

Kenny laughed. “Oh yeah, the miner turned gladiator turned psycho warlord that destroyed his own home.”

“Miner?!” Hanji snapped their head at that while everyone else stared in surprise.

“Megatron’s the worst of the worst, and he hates humanity!” Kenny cackled, “All of it! He doesn’t give a shit if you’re from Marley or Eldia! And the funniest shit is that he’s the first one to jump into the fight to save it! He jumped in before the titan that loves humanity! What the hell does that say about you?!”

I've had Kenny's words geared up for a while. It's great. So a fight is about to escalate, but Arcee starts speaking.

“…the same…,” Arcee croaked, “…All…the same…”

Everyone turned their heads to Arcee, surprised she even spoke at all.

“Arcee, please rest,” Sasha pleaded with her.

“…It’s all the same.” Arcee ignored Sasha, “Home, Earth, here, it’s just arguing…and fighting…war…death…the world is ending and…you’re still fighting with each other.”

Everyone was in shock when they saw a tear dripping down the side of Arcee’s faceplate. “We just wanted a better world, and equal world, but all we did was fight. And kill…I’m so tired…why did I leave home…for the same thing? Why….am I…still alive?”

Arcee placed her remaining arm over her optics to hide her tears. “I didn’t want this…I never…never…”

Sasha immediately went to comfort Arcee while Magath lowered his arms to his side. Kenny could feel a twang of guilt before snatching Connie’s bowl of stew and storming off.

Because in the beginning, Arcee thought that everything was clear cut and dry. Autobots were the good guys, the Decepticons were the bad guys. After the war, the Autobots and Decepticons are recovering and Arcee is confronted with the truth that the Decepticons were just as damaged as the Autobots. Arcee can't handle that truth, leaves, ends up on the AOT world where she's considered the bad guy, and then gets a human child hurt. Arcee's beliefs are broken down, realizing that everything is the same and kind of just repeats over and over and it breaks her.

So Levi and Kenny talk, and before then I hint at the fact that Magath got infected with dark energon because he was protecting Colt from Porco by giving him his gas mask.

And as Kenny and Levi have their own talk, Kenny confesses that he's his uncle, just like in the anime. The difference is that, Kenny telling Levi while he's still alive, is going to hurt Levi more when Kenny actually dies!

“But…,” Kenny began, “You…you make me proud. Your ma’ would be proud of you.”

Levi lifted his head and noticed Kenny wiping something away on the side of his face.

“I’m horrible; I get it,” Kenny declared, “I tried to kill you and I left you. It doesn’t mean shit in the end, but…you’re my pride and joy….and I’m sorry.”

Kenny stood up. “Fuck, I’m going to sleep.”

And now we cut to Optimus and Megatron on the shores of Marley after they got knocked off of Eren's titan!

Optimus found himself violently coughing up saltwater as he forced himself to roll over in order to purge his insides. The Prime tried to focus his vision, and was confused when he saw grass underneath him.

“Well, good to see you’re not dead,” a voice commented.

Optimus looked up to see Megatron sitting on the edge of the shoreline with a rather bored expression. Optimus’ vision cleared and realized that they were on a beach. But which beach? Did they go back to Paradis?

“We’re on the mainland,” Megatron explained, “I needed to put some distance between us and Eren in order to come up with a strategy.”

Originally they were going to be on the back of a Colossal Titan that Megatron had killed and was now eroding, but considering how hot those things are and they can't float, it's better to just put them on the mainland. But they talk about how they want to deal with Eren. Megatron is saying they should kill him while Optimus is saying to not do that because:

“I am not killing Eren,” Optimus growled.

“He might not be giving you a choice,” Megatron retorted.

“Megatron-,”

“This is the exact same thing I did,” Megatron cut off, clearly fed up with Optimus’ denial of the situation, “I was blinded by my rage and lust for power, and it caused me to destroy our home to get it. Eren has been blinded by his desire for freedom since day one, and he’s going to destroy the whole world just to have a taste of it.”

“Quiet,” Optimus hissed.

“He is a prisoner of his own delusions!” Megatron yelled.

“He is a victim,” Optimus declared as he put his servos on the sides of his helm.

“He is a murderer, just like me and you!” Megatron yelled.

“I cannot fight someone I care about!” Optimus shouted, “Not again!”

Optimus is still emotionally compromised, and with his experiences with Megatron, how can he not be. So Megatron tones it down and they have a more civil conversation regarding how to deal with Eren. Optimus points out the similarities between Eren and Megatron and then Optimus and Megatron finally and properly confess how they feel.

Optimus clenched his servos. “But I failed you, and him. I should have never accepted the title of Prime, and I should have never made false promises and reassurances when I had no idea if we would succeed.”

“You’re a fool if you think that,” Megatron declared without hesitation.

“Megatron, that was your life’s work,” Optimus insisted, “Your ambition.”

“And look at where it landed me the moment I didn’t get what I wanted?” Megatron reminded, “Lives destroyed. Our home destroyed. A never ending war. Tampering the blood of Unicron. That was all me. That had nothing to deal with you.”

“Some would disagree,” Optimus proclaimed, “Ratchet called me ‘soft’, and that I did not pound you into scrap when I had the chance. Arcee had even criticized my decisions in keeping you alive…They were right. I should have recognized that you were too far gone to be saved or reasoned with. But I could not. How in the Allspark could I bring myself to kill my own brother?”

“…then I guess I’m soft too,” Megatron confessed, “I could have killed you when you reverted back to Orion Pax. Naïve, confused, trusting, and defenseless. Instead, I took you back to the ship and tried to convince you of a lie, knowing full well you would have discovered the truth. I was arrogant, and a fool, in more ways than one.”

“…it was our foolishness that let our war continue on,” Optimus declared, “We should have just killed each other.”

“Agreed,” Megatron said, “And…it was my foolishness that waited until now to apologize, when we’re most likely going to die again.”

“You were never one to apologize,” Optimus commented.

“Because I was a coward,” Megatron declared dryly, “A pathetic coward who was dumping his own issues onto innocent human children because he couldn’t actually face you.”

“You should apologize to Armin and Mikasa for forcing them to keep your secrets,” Optimus advised, “You should apologize to the Survey Corps for the way you treated them. You didn’t have to be so cruel to them.” (Note that Optimus doesn't know that Megatron apologized. Armin and Mikasa never brought up the conversation to him.)

“If we make it out of this,” Megatron reminded, “But…I am sorry. For everything. For putting you through so much trauma and pain, for ripping out Bumbleebee’s voice box, for kidnapping the humans, for trying to destroy Earth, for destroying Cybertron.”

Megatron chuckled sadly at that. “What was I thinking? An apology isn’t going to fix the damage I caused.”

“…Then I am sorry too,” Optimus apologized.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Megatron hissed.

“I do,” Optimus insisted, “For being naïve, and not truly acknowledging the reality around me. My foolish hope was my own twisted delusion.”

“…Hope won you the war,” Megatron retorted, “Determination and persistence won you the war.”

“And will destroy this world,” Optimus said, “I gave Eren false hope. I believed that there could have been a compromise in a peaceful manner. But I should have listened to your advice. I should have acknowledged your experience on the continent, and recognize that the world might not have changed their ways through patience and peace talks.”

“Well in hindsight, it was the better option to pursue instead of this,” Megatron admitted.

“And it happened anyway,” Optimus lamented.

There's still a lot to unpack between Optimus and Megatron, but they're talking it out instead of being constipated idiots! Megatron decides that he'll do the killing blow against Eren to spare Optimus some pain if Optimus isn't able to convince him to stop. (Which by the way, doesn't happen) And finally Optimus says this!

Optimus gave a small smile before staring back out into the abyss. “Megatron, if this is where our story ends, then…I am glad that I get to fight by your side. Not as my enemy, but as my brother.”

Megatron felts his servos trembling before turning away from the Prime, not wanting him to see the raging emotions within him. He felt…relief…and happiness. It felt like one of the massive weights of guilt he’s been harboring for so long has been removed from his shoulders. Brother…he called him brother.

“By the Allspark, Optimus,” Megatron chuckled, his voice wavering and unsteady, “That’s such sentimental nonsense.”

Optimus finally calls Megatron brother again! Megatron finally gets what he's always wanted when he's not pursuing his own selfish desires! Optimus and Megatron finally reconcile at the end of the world!

But now to Gabi and Wheeljack! Wheeljack collapses from energon loss and manages to tell Gabi where Falco is because Arcee's been visiting him before he passes out. Gabi, in a panic, tries to call Optimus who is extremely busy right now, but in her panic, pushes the comm. link one too many times and gets nothing. And in her despair:

Gabi felt tears streaming down her face as she cried out in the desperation. No one was going to come! It was over! Even so, she screamed out.

“HELP US!” Gabi cried out.

The help us is not just implied to her and Wheeljack, its implied to everyone that she cares about and loves.

But for now, I'm leaving things here. The Autobot Introduction will be in the next commentary.

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ultraericthered · 9 months ago

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One Villainous Scene: The Mighty Moonlander

I'm gonna go ahead and say it - Season 2 was the best season of the 2017 DuckTales reboot series, and the Moon arc was the best story arc the show ever gave us. The entirety of the episode "Whatever Happened To Della Duck?" really showcases why it is, but the next time we saw Della on the moon was every bit as revealing, including the true unveiling of this season's main villain, General Lunaris. So let's flash back to May 2019, since when it's been exactly five years.

For his time in Della's focus episode, Lunaris seemed to us like a bold, intellectual, generous and reasonable soldier of what he and his people the Moonlanders knew as "Planet Moon", being visibly and vocally impressed with Della's motherly compassion being able to solve their problem with the Moon Mites and offering her a place to say in the moon's hidden civilization of Tranquility. It was his follower, Lieutenant Penumbra, who was more openly antagonistic and distrustful of Della by contrast. But Lunaris' insistence that Della and her Earthly compassion "may prove useful" to them was a red flag at the end of that episode, and in this one Lunaris reminisces about how his late father had always feared Planet Earth due to the rockets launched from it, gives Penumbra the order to stick with Della and collaborate on a way to fix up the Spear of Selene so that she can return home, and even subtly puts ideas into her head regarding how to set the rocket to launch so that Della may be forced to leave in it.

As the Spear of Selene is about to take off prematurely and Lunaris pleads with Della to leave the rocket manual with him so that the Moonlanders can build their own rockets and visit her on Earth, the viewer should be instinctively on edge and not wanting her to do it, fearing there's a Twist Villain reveal right around the corner. And sure enough, the second the Spear of Selene has been flown out of sight, Lunaris blasts himself in the shoulder with a devious grin on his face. The moment we'd been dreading is the moment he'd been waiting for, where he gets to stand before his fellow Moonlanders and lie to them, claiming that Della was a secret agent sent to Planet Moon from Earth who'd only been pretending to befriend them all (painting onto Della characteristics and deeds that are actually true of him) before she blasted at him and flew off back to Earth where she'll report back to her Earthling superiors and be intent on putting together a massive force of similar rocket ships to invade and conquere Planet Moon, but that he was able to snatch the manual from her so that now the Moonlanders have a chance to construct rocket ships of their own and invade Earth first before such a thing befalls them. And in riling up the emotions of his people, Lunaris makes clear what this is truly all about for him - an assertion of supremacy. A way to "prove that the Moon is the greatest planet in the universe!" Like a true dictator and demagogue, he leads his people in a war cry of "We are the mighty! We are the Moon!"

In Penumbra's talk with Lunaris afterwards, Lunaris shamelessly admits that he'd wanted to prey off of the fear, uncertainty and outrage of his people in order to give them a reason to take up arms and become a willing invasion force so that his ambition to invade and conquer Earth could finally be realized, and he did so by expertly manipulating both Penumbra and Della, and exploiting Della's Earthly compassion. A line of questioning from Penumbra that asks "aren't you afraid" sparks fury in the general, who ellaborates on what drives his actions, that he refuses to cower in fear of some other planet the way his late father did when he built Tranquility and cloaked it, as that is an insult to his sense of pride as a mighty Moonlander. He insists that the Moon is the planet that should be feared, and he will make the Earthlings fear him when the time to invade finally arrives. With a last remark about how he'd seen how much Della had taken a liking to Penumbra due to noted similarities to her brother Donald, Lunaris walks away from the scene looking like the most reprehensible bastard seen on this show, and also one of the most cold-blooded, strategically calculating, manipulative, dangerous characters.

While the writing, scripting, and animation direction for Lunaris are all wonderful, what really brings him life is his voice acting by actor Lance Reddick, who tragically passed away on March 17 of last year. Rest in peace, Lance. You were the mighty. You were the Moon.

#One Villainous Scene #Disney #Duck Tales #season two #disney villains #General Lunaris #Lance Reddick

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animehouse-moe · 2 years ago

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Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 5: Hidden Inventory 5

This ending scene for the episode captures arguably my biggest frustration ever. They nailed the character designs here. They got them just right, making subtle adjustments to the ones from S1 to bring them closer to the manga style. They look great, even in the new art style. So then why, pray tell, does Mappa struggle so greatly with the designs and facial expressions of this episode to the point that it can entirely misconstrue characters? I'm not really sure, but thankfully I'll have a two week break to mentally prepare for Shibuya's adaptation after what's gone on here.

Unsurprisingly, I have a lot of gripes with this episode. I say unsurprisingly because Gosso storyboarded for it, but the part that does get me is that the episode director is Jun (sometimes seen written as Atsushi?) Nakagawa. They've done some really solid episodes for Ousama Ranking (which is where they would have come into contact with Gosso), alongside stuff like Akiba Maid War. Regardless, the point is that Gosso's style as the lead director and storyboarder overrides the sensibilities of Nakagawa's direction and produces something decidedly different.

I think the easiest example is the use of space in the episode. Sometimes it's great, other times.... you're left wondering what's up.

Like this sequence, it's a bit of a two-in-one. The first being that with the space it doesn't really look that great, because well, it's just sorta an empty scene devoid of any details or importance with a distant Gojo as the focal point as we look from Geto's perspective.

It's one of those things that's on the tails of discovering greatness, sadly. Looking from Geto's perspective, and seeing Gojo so far away. It's a great idea, except for the fact that it's not balanced. Take a look at the manga panel it's meant to compare to. It switches out Geto's downward gaze for distance, which works well, but does nothing to address Gojo's proximity and levity.

The whole point is how distant Geto feels to Gojo, but that Gojo has none of that to him. What we're shown is a one-sided affair in the anime, that really had potential to go and one-up the manga but stopped halfway through and called it done.

Now, moving on to a similar story in the so-close-yet-so-far territory: Geto's monologue. I still despise them for shifting such important dialogue to episode 1, especially considering they feel comfortable re-using it here. What I hate even more than that though is the fact that they discard the most important pieces visually.

I don't mind the idea of him being on a train and through his monologue the crowd around him growing to show his feeling of suffocation, but it's just so divorced from the action of him ingesting the curses of humanity, the evil born from the masses. I especially despise it because they entirely erase the disgust painted on Geto's face in the manga.

I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a total erasure of Geto's most pivotal moment as a character, but it does try to weaken it considerably in how it approaches it.

Now, just to touch on something good for a second. The idea behind how Geto's mind wanders in the shower is well done. No two ways about it. The idea borrows from the manga and extrapolates it impressively well. The idea of the water from the shower turning into applause is well executed and fits the scene just right.

But that's about where my praise for the scene ends, because good old Mappa steps up to the plate. I'm sure plenty of other people have caught it, and I'm sure I've said it at least once or twice, but Mappa is reaching a convergence point with their art and coloring, the origin/core of it being Chainsaw Man. It's pretty incredible to have scenes adapted from such a stylistically unique manga end up looking laughably alike a totally different anime.

Especially when it's so disparate to the manga. It just plain hurts to see them entirely unable to capture Geto's character for whatever reason. It's not even about the hair at this point, rather it's just the eyes. The way it's a downcast expression rather than a gaze that looks out into nothing. The difference in thought and feel that it provides is just something else.

Really though, this episode completely forgoes Geto's internal struggle and replaces it with aimless depression. Rather than his struggle with right and wrong, what should and shouldn't be, it's just "Geto's sad". It's such a weird change that I can't begin to understand. He doesn't express depression or sorrow in the manga. It's frustration, confusion, hatred. Negative emotions that he ascribes to both normal humans and the Jujutsu world. It's the entire basis for his hate, not the words that Yuki Tsukumo gave him. Those are simply the catalyst for his choices, but they are ultimately his and his alone.

Speaking of Yuki, what the hell happened Mappa? Apparently new characters/designs are just on the chopping block for this season? Sure, you can easily ignore the proportion differences here and there, but the hair? Just a totally different style, for zero reason. Also? Weird decision with the closing where it is now skintight and form fitted rather than the more accurate (and far more normal/less sexual) style Yuki sports in the manga.

Also on the topic of Yuki/Geto, they erased the involvement of this panel for, you guessed it, the use of space. I don't know if I have to even say it, but I will: it's a continuation of the removal of Geto's character and the shallow reconstruction that takes place. Geto's still on edge, he's still his wary and aloof self that carries a sharp gaze. But that's of course nowhere to be found in the anime.

And then there's whatever this is. Geto looks desperate, he looks like he's fishing for justification, for praise and kindness. Manga Geto on the other hand? He's engaging in some classic self-deprecation. He's finding ways to hurt and discredit himself as he's stuck in a swirl of emotions and thoughts. Also, anime geto's hair just sorta sucks.

It's almost funny how painfully similar JJK and CSM's adaptations come in terms of line art, colors and shading, and just overall design. I think the environment art is about the only thing in this image that would give people the inkling that it's not CSM (if they hadn't seen JJK before).

Anyways, another good thing! Wow, so many today (I say, in jest). The use of superimposition for exposition. Overall, I'd probably say unironically that the exposition of the story is the best handled aspect in all of these 5 episodes. I'm not kidding. And it's because it has effectively free reign. There's no rules to how you'd explain something, so long as it fits. Though I'd say this episode in particular has the most creative uses of it.

Back to basics though. Poor Geto. I love his character so much. I love his story arc through Hidden Inventory so much. And it's just sort of toyed with. They ignore every piece of visual importance for his character and instead impose their own weird interpretations and executions upon it. Geto's supposed to be shocked here, he's supposed to be afraid of someone voicing the sentiments that he's had. He's afraid of that side of himself, that a piece of what Gojo left in the Star Plasma Church may appear in him. He saw it, and as much as he understands that side, he doesn't want it at this junction.

The easiest way to explain it might be how someone acts in frustration. "Oh I could just hit this person!", says Person A. Person B responds with, "Then do it. You're justified". It obviously creates a rift in logic where the frustration and rage that is on display is being used as a vent rather than as a tool. And that's what's happening with Geto right now. He's venting, he's expressing his hatred in a non-committal way that has hardly even bubbled up to the surface. But then Yuki Tsukumo arrives and tells him that she's seriously considered killing all non-sorcerers because it's easier.

Hell, the whole idea of Geto's shock at Yuki's statement is collected in his uncertainty about how he views non-sorcerers. It's something he has no side in currently. It's something that he doesn't understand fully. Yuki has not flipped a switch, she has done nothing to Geto at this point aside from forcing him to explore the darker parts of his heart.

Anyways, the conversation comes and goes and this pointlessly goofy bit of Yuki leaving on her motorcycle appears. Seriously, what's the point in slowly rolling out of frame not once, but twice?

I really struggle at times to understand what it is this staff team sees as significant vs insignificant in terms of adaptation and importance. Because really, they replaced Geto's reaction to such an important turning piece in his character with Yuki just sorta gliding by in frame. I'm not even kidding. I'm not really gonna complain about not seeing the dejection in his face in the following scene, but I'll just say that Gosso's vision and approach alongside Nakagawa's influence here really stifles a lot of the core sentiment in regards to characterization for people like Geto. A sense of space and visual consistency is proving more important than presenting the best version of a character.

Also, Yuki's sorta of grinning in the anime? While telling Geto, and fully knowing, that what he and Gojo did was for nothing. That Riko died for nothing. And in the anime they paint her with a more cheery demeanor.

Honestly, I'm already getting tired of pointing out all the easily solvable issues with this episode, but we still haven't reached the highest point, so I'm just going to skip there and call it a day.

Gojo and Geto. The untouchable one, and the one forced to take on the sins of humanity. Opposites that once represented a whole.

And they just sort of ruined it. There's a chance that people haven't caught the significance of what Gege did here, so let me explain. They're supposed to start off head to head because they're challenging one another. They're testing the waters to see where one stands in comparison to the other. That's the whole point, having Geto not even face Gojo is just a failure in that regard. What I hate even more is that they still understood the assignment. They understand that the roles in this sequence are reversed, so rather like the previous episode that had Gojo on the right and Geto on the left, this time their sides are reversed.

They get it, they can understand these pieces, but continue to choose to misrepresent what it is that's going on here. Gojo didn't give up on Geto in the previous episode, and it's not until the end of the argument in this episode that Geto gives up on Gojo. It's such a simple thing to grasp but they choose to deny that aspect of the characters for a reason that I simply can't understand.

And that's not even talking about the brutal expressions that they give Geto (and Gojo) here. I should have known what to expect with how the prior episode was handled, but I foolishly held onto hope.

Anyways, here's an angry/shocked Gojo from the anime, I guess. Yeah, I don't know either.

I don't even know if I want to continue this into Shibuya, really. It's not that it's hard or whatever else, it's just draining. It's draining to point out a mountain of flaws that are self-inflicted, with zero reason or purpose. I struggle to call a lot of this JJK when I compare it to the manga, season 1, or the movie. There's just so much that it deviates from. The art style, the character designs, the animation choices (bar a few incredible efforts), and even things like the soundtrack. I mean, they put one of the more upbeat and JJK-sounding tracks over Satosugu's breakup. I just lack the energy to continue to show how the anime fails to live up to a meaningful amount of the manga. Thankfully we've got a two week break coming up, so I might find the means or reason to recharge to come back for Shibuya.

#jujutsu kaisen #呪術廻戦 #jjk #sorcery fight #gojo satoru #geto suguru #toji fushiguro #anime review #anime and manga #anime

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breakingbadmspaint · 1 year ago

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Breaking Bad Season 4 (MS Paint)

I'm watching Breaking Bad and drawing my experience on MS Paint with my mouse.

[Season 2] [Season 3]

These seasons keep getting more intense and packed with stuff that I fear this is going to become more text than drawing soon.

Ep1

You can't just give me my baby boy looking so cute and excited!!

OH GOD NO THEY CAN'T DO THIS TO ME AGAIN. I JUST GOT HERE, I'M ONLY 6 MINUTES IN.

EVEN VICTOR IS UPSET (and I like to believe It's because he likes Gale)

YEAH YOU SHOW THEM VICTOR FUCK YEAH

-- oh my god the rage you can feel off Gus right now. He's terrifying, I love him.

THIS DOWN VIEW IS SO POWERFUL. THE REDS AND THE DARK BLUES OOOOOOO Gus feeling like he's towering over them.

THIS SCENE IS SO GOOD HOLY SHIT.

I'm watching with such intensity

-- WHAT WHY WHAT WHAT WHAT

Ep2

-- money money money money money

-- aw they're actually trying to get clean- damn it Jesse

I hope they go back to rehab group

-- That poor roomba

-- Walt really just going to get himself killed honestly.

These shots just keep getting better and better. You're small and blue Walt.

-- OH SHUT UP WALT, YOU DID IT ALL FOR YOURSELF

Ep 3

-- Those bastards dare use Gale's coffee machine still.

Okay so I love Huell. I swear to god if he dies.... I can't handle it.

-- It takes one threat to Walts ego for him to finally agree to the car wash🙄

-- oh Marie is going to get herself arrested, 100%.

-- man poor Jesse. The spiral his life has gone down.

-- OH SHIT MARIE

I think she likes the colour purple. Just a feeling.

Ep 4

The things he has to put up with. He looks so fed up.

-- OH GOD HIS EAR

LMAO Walts face when Skyler says "We want them to understand why you'd do something so stupid"

GET HIM SKYLER, GET HIM AND HIS STUPID EGO

omg Gale, my baby. I'm sobbing I love this man. Singing Karaoke in Thailand living his best life.

-- YOU BETTER FEEL GUILTY WALT. YOU BETTER (He doesn't)

-- Man Walt, how can you not realise Jesse is god damn traumatised over that event and you're just trying to make him relive it.

Ep 5

I would love some chicken right now

-- I'M SOBBING GALE IS SO CUTE

-- Jesse & Mike roadtrip montage!

-- HE SAID IT! "YOU! ARE NOT THE GUY! YOU'RE NOT CAPABLE OF BEING THE GUY, I HAD A GUY BUT NOW I DON'T~ YOU! ARE NOT! THE GUY~" I've heard part of the breaking bad remix before I even saw the show.

-- I really struggle to tell if Walt genuinely cares for Jesse or if it's just because he can easily manipulate him.

-- Oh no, Walt is drunk and getting his ego destroyed. This isn't a good combo.

-- OH SNAP HANK IS FIGURING IT OUT

Ep 6

-- I sense a war about to happen. Don't mess with Gus and his stuff.

Big scary baby man with big ego wah wah

-- I don't think insulting Jesse is going to keep him on your side Walt

-- oh my god, Walt if you get those ladies killed because you don't want to clean... YOU'RE NOT EVEN HELPING THEM

This is the father/son duo I want

huuuuh?????

-- Walt you bastard, look what you did!

-- Does Gus actually see potential or is this manipulation???

Ep 7

-- I miss Huell, when do we get more Huell.

-- My god Walt, if you dare ask Jesse to kill for you again

-- I'm fist-fighting Walter White

-- oooh sly Hank, very sneaky. Also I just love Gus in his yellow uniform.

He's just sat there like :T

DAMN HANK!!! Great at his job, holy shit

Ep 8

-- I'm sure Gus will find a way out of this since he has a lot of contacts and he's smart

-- I think Hank is getting a bigger target on his back

-- HUELL!! YIPPEE

This is beautiful

-- OOOH LOOK AT YOUNGER GUS!!! CUTE!!!

-- OH MY GOD

Ep 9

-- Oh Skyler honey, I don't think you realise he can't quit even if he wants to. He screwed up any chance of that, It's either make meth or death

-- UH OH TED OH NO SKYLER I KNEW IT'D COME BITE YOU IN THE ASS

-- HOLY SHIT MOVE JESSE, YOU'RE GOING TO GET SNIPED

OH DAMN OMG GUS HOLY WHAT

-- ooh please say Saul walks in, pleaaase- Oh Skyler, that's unexpected. Oh my god is she playing dumb???? OH MY GOD

-- Jesse you need to stop throwing your DNA covered cigarettes everywhere

-- Walt is making me so mad omg. His ego and paranoia are going to make him end up alone

Ep 10

-- I wonder what Gus's plan is, I'm sure there is more to it than just sending Jesse away

-- HELL YEAH JESSE DAAAAMN Making Gus and Mike proud

-- TED OH MY GOD

-- Oh I'm so nervous

-- Please be poisoned, please be poisoned - wait no GUS no don't be poisoned aaaaah

I'm so scared, how are they getting out of this

-- OMG OMG OMG OMG HOLY SHIT

Ep 11

Is Jesse going to have to do surgery on Mike?!?

He's so happy with his revenge

-- God I thought he was going to hit him with that chair for a moment

-- HUELL WOOOO

-- OMFG TED - okay he's still alive(?)

"Does it have to be dirty?" "No :)"

-- See, you pushed everyone away Walt- OH SNAP

Walter White has been ejected

-- Oh my god Walt, don't test him, he will find a way to hurt you

-- Point proven, he just threatened to kill your baby

-- Walt joker moment

Ep 12

-- Damn he's good at talking his way into a place - OH SNAP DRUG DOG

-- My god, Marie really loves purple, EVEN HER COFFEE PACKAGING IS PURPLE???? Does she buy it because It's purple???

-- Gosh what mystery potion is Walter making - OH A BOMB

Ep 13

-- UH OH Jesse

-- AHJFKHKFHA HOUSE MENTION AHAHAHA

Walter climbing through a door like a gremlin is beautiful

-- That old lady aw, wait she's not going to get hurt right?!?

-- HOLY SHIT

I knew it was coming but I'm still so sad

-- WOAH

-- WHAT THE FUCK IT WAS WALTER THE WHOLE TIME OMFG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I'M FIGHTING HIM, I'M FIST FIGHTING HIM

#Breaking Bad #breaking bad fanart #breaking bad spoilers #breaking bad meme #MS Paint #mouse drawing #ms paint art #I want more Huell

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hauntedjpegcollection · 8 months ago

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no one else

wc: 5974 au: valorent au ch: benny, maran, lark

Benny thinks it’s jarring that they have the same seasons. Summer, winter, spring—it’s Fall now. Both here and home. He’d have thought there would be more differences between them; the two realities that converge to tiny points of invasive contact. War. Benny thought they’d speak a different language or their sky would be an off color of blue, an orbit around a sun that’s slower, producing longer days. He thought there would be a different smell in the air, at the very least.

But it’s all comically the same. His hand brushes dust over the plaster wall he perches behind, smoothing grit on his fingertips. Sweat beads and rolls down his temple, despite the cool October air. It should feel wrong. His atoms should be vibrating, his cells inherently repelling the new reality around him.

Instead, it’s depressingly familiar.

Benny shoulders his rifle once more, lining up his scope so he can see the festivities below. He’s careful not to catch sunlight, angles himself underneath the khaki tarp he’s using for cover. A massive crowd has gathered, a line of people on a large raised platform in front of a demoralizingly tall, polished building. The gentrification of this neighborhood is slowly becoming more complete, especially with this late season parade. He’d read sitrep on this, even though he’s not privy to the finer details.

There’s no real use for Benny other than recon work. Not just because he’s still green. He’s not skilled with communications, he refuses to be part of tactics, he likes explosives but they don’t trust him with them. Ironically, they’ll put a rifle in his hand—Benny doesn’t miss. That’s one thing they can trust him for. An eerie calm in his hands, a steadiness to his movements. He watches this fucked up capitalistic party with a keen eye and his snipers scope records all the information.

Benny doesn’t even have to do anything after. Not even summarize a report. He’s just here to watch.

Earth-2 is debuting new Radiants, like prized horses before derby. News outlets fill the front of the audience, vans parked to the side, camerss set up. The radiants are all stood proper and pretty on the platform, awaiting turns to speak to the crowd. Inspirational drivel; together we can make the world a better place, I will protect those who need protecting, I love you all. Benny’s tongue skims along his front teeth, bleached blue eyes narrowing as he spends an appropriate amount of time on each new radiant.

The wind picks up, ruffles skirts and hair and papers in some of the nervous newbies hands. This feels fucking clownish, watching all of this proceed. Knowing what these people can do. His finger stays dutifully off the trigger of his rifle, but he shifts a little, wondering which of these new radiants is going to kill him in the next attack.

Benny gets to the end of the line as a woman approaches the podium to talk about healthcare costs for those in areas more likely to be hit by Earth-1 invaders. He tunes her out. His target comes into focus. Benny’s tongue pauses on one of his teeth, his body hunching forward just slightly, as if his scope isn’t enough to see.

Intel meant he already knew all of the names of these new radiants. This one is young; twenty, he’s fairly sure, from the papers he’d read before hopping realities. Maran Giarizzo-Cohn is fairly tall and broad shouldered. He’s in formal wear for the occasion, but looks downright awkward in it. One of his hands keeps tugging at the tie on his collar, as if it’s suffocating him slowly. Benny twists the scope, click click click, to get a clearer focus on the boy.

Pale autumn sunlight still manages to paint him golden. His shortly cut hair is a glaring pink color that does nothing but make him stand out more. His cheeks are the sort of apple rounded that happens when someone maybe smiles too much; and he does then, a nervous, split lipped grin. Maran’s face is splattered in freckles, a dusting across his nose and cheeks. His hands twitch at his sides, unsure of where to go. This is his first public appearance since being taken on by Earth-2’s defense.

He’s so young, though. Just past his teen years, looking out of place and sweetly anxious. Benny’s stomach turns and sours at the thought of what the world is going to do to this young man. Turn whatever ‘gift’ he’s been given into some tool. Maybe it’s hypocrisy, since Benny works for Kingdom and Kingdom is the one invading, stealing, doing just as much killing. Besides, Benny isn’t old. He’d turned twenty four that year, which felt somewhat miraculous, as he’d never really seen a way past eighteen for a long time.

He realizes he’s lingering too long on this one specific radiant. His camera footage is likely going to be embarrassing. Benny already finds it difficult to get along with the other mercenaries without them finding reasons to taunt him. Not that he wants to befriend anyone. He’d rather be left alone, but the world was nothing if not very cruel to Benny.

Quickly, his scope pans back to the speakers.

Then there’s screaming. Loud, keening, coming from the back of the crowd. There’s shouting that follows, guttural yelling—then smoke pluming into the area.

Benny sucks in a breathe, shoving away from the window before the explosion hits and creates an updraft in noxious black smoke. The world underneath him is unsteady and moving, sending him colliding with the wall beside him. His rifle nearly slips from his hands—nearly. He’d never let it go. It’s all he has. The screaming outside gets louder, becomes a symphony of panic and terror. That’s when Benny knows what’s happening.

Sergeant Stiles had sent her team in for recon. Benny and two others, merely to observe. She was at extraction waiting for them. Routine operation. This isn’t a routine operation anymore. Earth-2 shakes once more, making his legs go boneless and watery. The air suddenly smells acrid and wrong. He scrambles for the comm mic around his throat, but all he receives is crackle. The screams somehow get louder. Benny realizes that this isn’t his two other team members going rogue—

Someone’s hopped with them. Someone not intending to just observe.

—

The pop of gunfire and smoke descends everything into chaos.

It blankets him, out in the open as he suddenly is. Extraction. He needs to get to his Sergeant, to the drop zone. To leave. The havoc makes him something easy to overlook, all in black, rifle over his shoulder. Perhaps the people, scurrying like herd animals, mistake him for security. He looks like them, he supposes. The very people he’s darting to avoid, as they cluster people and try to evacuate the event. As they fire back at whoever is attacking. Benny’s legs burn as he sprints, running zig zag patterns to avoid being shot. The street has turned smoggy, a car alarm erupting and making him startle.

He collides painfully into someone, his hands immediately clasping around arms in response. Benny’s breathing is ragged, pale hair messy and askew in his eyes. The radiant stares at him, panting equally as hard—his brown eyes are blown wide in fear, dark lashes clinging wetly. He has even more freckles now that Benny is this close to him. His cheekbones are high and pretty, his jaw smooth and handsome. Maran’s hands dig into his vest—not in attack. He’s clinging, terrified.

“Help?”

Shots scatter pavement around their feet and Benny makes a decision he hopes he won’t fucking regret. He yanks the other man close, diving toward the glass doors of the building to their side. They crash through together. Windows are blown open, glass dusting the ground and crunching underneath his boots. Smoke invades the building from outside. He moves swiftly, a hand firm around Maran’s forearm. The radiant still has his own wrapped around the strap of Benny’s tac vest.

Real event security slide by them, yelling to each other. Fear spikes Benny’s heart rate even more painful, up underneath the vulnerable part of his jaw. Roughly, he pulls Maran closer, lets him stumble into him, obscuring Benny from the danger as he turns a corner. And as he does, Benny removes a device from a pouch on his vest. Clunky and awkward, the bracelet is something he’s worked on himself with a scientist in a Kingdom lab. It whirs to life with an electronic blue light on the side.

Without warning, he slaps it around Maran’s wrist and backs him against a wall.

“Oh,” the radiant whispers, staring at it. He glances up to Benny. The whites of his eyes are starkly visible from his terror, pupils too wide for his irises. He’s shaking. Benny’s stomach twists with guilt. “Oh fuck—you’re one of the bad guys?”

Christ it makes Benny laugh, which comes out a bit shrill and then ends in a growl; which only widens Maran’s eyes even further, his breathing coming out in short, staccato breaths. Benny’s hand slides to take Maran’s forearm once more, holding it tightly, but not with any intent to harm. His nice, button up shirt is dirty now, sleeves rolled up to expose smooth, brown skin. The tie has long since been discarded.

“I’m not with th-them.” Benny speaks softly, cringing from his stutter. The corridor they’re down muffles the terror happening outside. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Maran lifts his arm, rattling his wrist condescendingly, his face pinched in disbelief. Benny spares the nullifying bracelet a glance and then attempts what he hopes is a placating smile and not his usual creepy, crooked grin. He’s not sure how well it works, because Maran’s eyes flicker to his mouth and up and then down and up again. A loud banging sound—the doors being crashed in—makes both of them jump.

“Please trust me,” Benny hisses, stepping closer, crowding Maran back against the wall once more. The radiant’s chest rises and falls rapidly, his collarbone slick with sweat, brown skin revealed from buttons popped off the shirt. Benny quickly glances to Maran’s face when he feels his cheeks starting to warm. They’re the same height, save an inch from the thick soled combat boots Benny has on. He attempts dragging Maran down the hall—and luckily finds him willing to go.

—

Unsurprisingly, they’re in the building and not just outside. Benny can hear them, a floor above, shouting to one another. A spray of gunfire and then silence and then voices once more. They must have infiltrated this hours before the crowd and media and the radiants had shown up. Benny hopes the building had been emptied prior to the main event. There’s no screams of terror or crying, or anyone running past them to indicate otherwise.

He has to find a safe space to store Maran until his own people can come and rescue him. Benny isn’t a fucking kidnapper, he isn’t going to drag the man along to his own extraction. But by the way Maran is still shaking, head to toe so hard the bracelet rattles, he thinks maybe the guy isn’t equipped to handle the situation on his own.

Benny isn’t sure how training works for radiants. He isn’t sure if Earth-2 considers them military—they’re certainly not mercenary. Maran’s file had indicated that he’d joined the effort rather young, but that he was only really making his appearances now. He was going to be utilized in the war soon, put in real life combat situations where he’d be weaponizing whatever awful little power he had against Benny’s own people.

Not that Benny had much loyalty to those people. He wasn’t even sparing much thought for Wymack and Jones, the other two Kingdom mercenaries that had come for this reconnaissance mission. They were probably fine. Probably.

He’s still hung up, thinking that boy trailing after him is going to be used like that. Especially when he jumps at every sound that isn’t them—and he’s so close to Benny’s back that his feet keep kicking into his heels. With every awkward jostle he apologizes quietly, his voice breathy in a way that makes Benny’s insides curl around hotly.

The office building becomes a beige nightmare for Benny. There is high visibility everywhere, no hiding places that become immediately evident. Nothing that couldn’t be searched—nowhere he thinks Maran would stay for very long by himself. Maran hasn’t objected to the hand around his arm, even if Benny is the bad guy. His desperation before, that single uttered ‘help?’ made it painfully obvious that he trusts too easily.

Benny is ground to a startling halt when voices ahead echo through the now desolate and messy office building. Maran’s hands wrap around Benny’s arm, both of them, clasping on top of one another on his bicep. Warmth—even more startling and definitely unwelcome—pours down his entire body at that feeling. Maran’s face has gone slack with fear at the sound of people ahead, yelling to each other. Clearly not part of his fucking event.

Fear is contagious. And Benny is already afraid on a good day. He walks the thin line of it constantly, anxiety and nausea a familiar friend to him. In that moment, he thinks he could unsling his rifle and maybe take care of the first voice—but Maran is staring at him. Big, trusting, terrified eyes, staring at him. So Benny rips a pale wooden door open and shoves the man inside.

—

Whoever designed the closet must not have intended for it to be used by two full grown men at once. It’s too shallow to be a supply closet and relatively empty of anything but exposed pipes above them. Benny isn’t gentle about forcing Maran to the back while he swivels around and listens with an ear to the door. The fit is so tight that he can feel all of the other man’s chest and the front of his thighs to the backs of his own, but he ignores it, eyes closed as he listens.

His rifle sits in the corner, slung off so it wasn’t smacking Maran in the face behind him. But his hand inches toward it. In a struggle, it can be used as an effective blunt weapon. Benny is no good in hand to hand combat; he flinches too much, gives himself away. He’s thickly built with most of his strength in his upper body, but he had a boxers mentality of striking hard and fast and none of the stamina to really back it up. That’s what the Sergeant always says, a bit of a snide laugh to her, but she never forces him to do more. They’d both been content with his sniper position.

Benny shifts nervously. His gear rustles, Maran bunched up against it. Their breathing is too loud. Rough, hoarse inhales that scrape their throats. He can almost feel it synchronizing, as if they were drawing in the same air. The back of Benny’s neck feels warm and ticklish—is Maran really that close? He shifts again, switching weight from foot to foot anxiously. The outside world seems very distant suddenly.

“Can you stop doing that?” Maran’s voice is raspy and desperate. Benny stiffens at the sound of it, the twinge of a high pitched question mark, but really a very needy request. He turns slowly, their bodies scraping together as he does. Maran’s attempted to flatten himself to the wall, but Benny’s bulk makes it hard for him—and he’s not small either. Broad, strong arms, just as tall. There is no space between them at all.

Maran’s cheeks are a dark red color, not from the running or from the fear. His eyes shine in the dimness of the closet, even prettier up close like this. He’s clamped teeth onto his bottom lip so hard the plushness of it’s turned white—he looks embarrassed in a way that causes something in Benny to grow teeth and a desire to bite. Benny is intentional about his eyes falling from Maran’s face, to his chest and then lower, to where they are shoved together.

“Cut it out—man, please,” Maran sputters defensively, hands raising and then falling and then raising once more. One of them tucks around Benny’s bicep awkwardly. A clattering noise outside makes both of them freeze, Maran’s shiny eyes widening. All the pretty flush from his cheeks drains, paling him. His hand squeezes. There’s a crawling sensation up Benny’s back warring with a very intense heat all over his chest and lower stomach. He’s slow as he reaches for Maran’s wrist. He lifts it and pins it to the wall, just beside Maran’s ear.

“If they try anything, I’ll t-turn this off.” Benny’s voice is barely above a whisper. They’re so close, he could simply breathe the words and Maran could probably hear them. He leans forward anyway, to speak directly into Maran’s ear, eliminating the possibility of them being heard outside the flimsy faux wooden door. His hand tightens on a freckled wrist. He’s only just noticing now that Maran has on a thin, delicate chain bracelet underneath the Kingdom nullifier.

“And you do—whatever th-the hell it is you can do.”

He can feel the radiants heartbeat strumming hard in his wrist, like a frightened rabbit. Benny can’t help but press his thumb there, as if trying to soothe the mans frantic nerves. His skin is soft and warm. His heartbeat throbs against the pad of Benny’s finger. He’s thankful for the snipers fingerless gloves suddenly.

“You smell nice.”

“What?” Benny hisses, jerking his head to the side so their temples collide somewhat. Maran squirms. His wiggling becomes momentarily incessant, as if he’s a small animal trying to get comfortable. Benny puts his other hand flat to the mans chest and pushes, squeezing them harder against the wall. Maran lets out a huffing sound, tickling Benny’s skin with his breath. “If you don’t st-stop fucking moving…”

“I’ll be good,” Maran mumbles, closing his eyes and tilting his head back. The sweat along his throat beads and rolls down, disappearing beneath the dirty formal shirt. His throat looks impossibly long like that. There’s another sound outside, causing a reflexive shudder to run through Maran’s entire body. Benny tucks his forehead to the other mans shoulder, eyes screwed shut, heart back in his throat and thundering away.

“Is that a scorpion?” Benny snaps his head up, eyes narrowing. “Sorry, I talk when I’m nervo—” A rough gloved hand folds over Maran’s mouth.

“Yes, it’s a scorpion. Stop flirting with me.”

It’s muffled through his hand, but he still makes out ‘I’m not flirting with you!’ in an indignant tone. They wrestle against one another for a moment, Maran seeming to grow brave in his embarrassment, Benny still attempting to keep them both quiet enough to not elicit attention from whoever is sweeping the building. There’s more noise beyond the door—close enough that Maran’s entire body seizes against him. Benny’s curves in response, falcon like in it’s protectiveness. He’d be a very clear target if they decided to shoot as soon as they opened the door, but whatever special ability Maran has might be worth taking the bullet.

Then the noises fade.

Benny drags his face from Maran’s shoulder, unaware of how hard he’s breathing, shoulders shaking with effort to keep himself calm. His damsel in distress is so close that they could practically shuffle and end up kissing. The idea strikes Benny so hard that a strange dizziness blooms inside his skull, a tingling all over his hands. Maran stares at him, so doe eyed, a touch confused and a touch humored. His lips are twitching into a smile. Benny finally releases his wrist.

Then he plucks an eyelash that’s somehow fallen free onto Maran’s cheek and holds it up.

“Oh,” Maran laughs and then blows the lash right off Benny’s finger. “For luck, yeah?”

Benny’s brain seems to fire synapses that never worked before that moment. He knows that he will never, for as long as he lives—if it’s another day or another fifty years—he will never forget that fucking smile on Maran’s face.

—

They escape the building—and everything else, the gunfire, the smoke, the danger—thanks to Maran. As much as Benny thinks himself this young mans sudden protector (maybe very similar to a science fiction he’s read, like a hero from a space opera) the reality of the situation becomes clear when Maran requests the bracelet to be taken off. As they huddle toward the back alley of the building together and it becomes clear that many people came on this illegal reality hop. Other radiants have found their standings, have joined a dangerous enough fight that a car is flipped like an eerie, half crushed bug.

“Trust me,” Maran says, with his hand wrapped around Benny’s side. He’s holding onto the vest again and his clenched fist moves in tandem with the mercenary’s hard breathing. He’s winded from the fear, and probably, admittedly, a little bit of the constant running. Benny wipes sweat from his brow, pushes back all his stringy blond hair, breathing out once as slow as he can manage.

“Fuck,” he mutters. “If you k-kill me, I’ll haunt you.”

“I’m not—that’s not even—just watch!” Maran slaps at the bracelet with annoyance until Benny snatches his hand closer. There’s no lock on it. Maran could have gotten it off at any point. It’s one of the design flaws in it that made it nearly useless in the reality of a battlefield. Still, Benny cups his hands around the device, unlatching it slowly and then shoving it into a pocket on his vest.

Immediately, a strange sort of vibration hums off of Maran. His silhouette becomes shaky at the edges, blurring him for a brief moment. Benny scrambles back from him—and then Maran becomes two. The second of him jumps away, forming from something almost gaseous into more solid. The second Maran hops on the balls of his feet, shaking out hands and smiling that wide, perfect smile.

Benny stares.

His cheeks go warm, a portion of his brain lighting up in a very inappropriate way that makes his throat narrow.

“You make clones.”

“No!” Maran laughs. He pretends to hi-five himself. The second Maran’s hand goes straight through, looking wispy and immaterial, then reforming on the downward swing. He flickers a little. A perfect replica none the less, down to the way sweat has darkened his soft pink, short buzzed hair. Benny clears his throat, finding words stuck there. He pats his chest awkwardly, hands still feeling electrified.

“G’on,” Maran urges his illusion toward the end of the alley, into the fray of fire and smoke. It goes skidding, running in an excited way, waving hands above its head, drawing attention—and immediate gunfire. Benny startles at the sound of it, wrapping an arm around Maran and rushing toward the other end. The distraction was worth it.

Benny has to skid to a stop to hide around the side of the wall, an explosion of black clad security and police filling behind the building. The politician who had been introducing the radiants—a tall blond woman with a severe and snarling face—stomps petulantly, yells wildly, hands waving. Maran looks dubious for a moment; his glance back to Benny makes his chest tighten all over. Too trusting, Benny thinks. Too soft. Too fucking cute. Life wasn’t fair that way. The next time Benny sees him, likely it’ll be through his scope once more.

Not just for recon.

Maran’s hands lift, smoothing his shirt nervously. He smiles, an anxious, sweet curve of his beautiful lips.

“Can I know your name?”

Benny blinks, suddenly realizing that this entire time, this entire hour they’ve been shoved together (so close he feels like he can smell a lingering citrus scent on him that’s certainly not his own aftershave), Maran had not even known his name. Benny only knew his because he’d read a file on him. He’s silent in response, staring at the radiant as something shifts inside his chest painfully.

“I’m Maran,” he offers gently.

“I know.”

Benny swallows and slings his rifle from his shoulder. He checks it with a jerky hand, his cheeks feeling painful, like a sunburn. He looks up from under his lashes, chin tilted down, trying to ignore the strange lack of control in his hands as he holds a weapon he’s so familiar with.

“I’m Benny.”

The wind shifts smoke down the alley. It curls around him as shouting from behind Maran gets louder.

“Thanks, Ben,” Maran says, lifting a hand in a boyish, gentle wave. The twisting inside Benny’s chest gets worse and worse. And then Maran disappears.

***

The long, pristine hallway smells of antiseptic and medicine. The fluorescent lighting above him buzzes like flies, the medical wing eerily quiet all things considered. Maybe it’s because of the late hour, or maybe it’s the dread this place inspires. It makes his combat boots loud on the tiled floor, echoing with each heavy and rushed step. The Operator slung on his back slaps against him with his quick stride. Benny’s throat is closing and his chest feels too narrow to pull in air, his shitty nicotine ruined lungs doing overtime. Something in his heart feels off center and jagged, painful and ready to continue breaking.

He hates the mercenary hospital. He wouldn’t be here but…

Benny snaps around a corner, finding a room number that he’d squirreled out of a woman at his debriefing. She’d not really wanted to talk about it with Benny—he isn’t particularly high ranking, or even considered useful by many. But he is intimidating; Xavier had taught him better about that. How to impose on people. Benny’s not as tall as his friend, but he looks mean. He looks nasty and frightens people if he stares long enough with his unnerving, pale eyes.

Once he gets into the room, Lark is almost jumping from the chair he’d dragged to the gurney.

He stops. Stares. Then he unwinds and slowly slumps back down onto it, with an exhausted sigh.

Xavier is bandaged and mostly clean now. There’s no obvious injury to limbs, nothing in a cast or a sling to make Benny worry. But there’s plenty of gauze wrapping, fingers taped together like they might be broken. It’s mostly Xavier’s face that is concerning. His handsome features are largely obscured by medical tape and bandages, the nose taped across the bridge. The bandage across his eye is tinted pink, blood underneath starting to well. It’ll need changing soon.

A machine next to him beeps softly. Xavier’s chest rises and falls evenly. Asleep. Thank fucking God for that, Benny can’t imagine the pain. Not that Xavier blinks often at pain. He remembers dragging Xavier into a hospital very similar to this one, when his ribs had been broken by—well, it didn’t matter. That was then, this was now.

“He’s not gonna lose his eye,” Lark comments, a deflated shadow in the chair. His face is drawn and pale, dark circles under his black eyes. Lark is also sporting a cut above his brow, his hand wrapped in it’s own gauze. Benny feels, not for the first time, a disgusting amount of guilt that they’re injured and he’s not. It’s the nature of his position, he supposes. Still doesn’t feel good.

“Fucker will probably come out even m-more handsome,” Benny comments, stepping closer to where Xavier lays. His eye lids flicker. Benny hopes it’s a good dream. There’s blood crusted on his visible eyebrow, around his nostrils, on a cut across his cheekbone. His lips are swollen, purple bruises gorey underneath the bright light. A split in his mouth is painful and weeping.

The two men who stand watch over Xavier are quiet for a long moment. It’s only the machines and all three of them breathing. Lark’s eyes are closed, his chin in his hand. Benny feels more confident, without being watched, to reach up and adjust the blanket over Xavier to be just a little higher. No matter how much he’d probably wake up complaining about how hot it is.

“How did he get out?” Benny finally asks.

“Why are you asking that?” Lark snips, sitting up and glaring. “Isn’t it enough he fucking did?” Benny recognizes that anger. It’s not really anger at all. It’s fear. Benny wets his lips with a dart of his tongue, adjusting the rifle on his shoulders, looking down at his mercenary black clothes.

“He w-was pretty far behind lines,” he continues, ignoring Lark’s seething expression. Feels like his luck is running out, Benny doesn’t say aloud. He’d only heard over comms that Xavier had managed to get extracted out. There is a sensation like being under water, as though Benny is trying to scramble to the surface. Confused. He tucks a hand around the back of his neck.

“Shut up.” Lark barely whispers it, hands across his eyes. “Don’t make me think of it. Asshole.”

It’s then that Benny crosses around Xavier’s gurney. He stands next to the chair Lark had brought right up to it. Slowly, he unwinds the rifle from his shoulder and lets the weapon lean against it.

Lark’s not affectionate. He sits there, like a rigid marble statue, head hanging forward, hands covering his face. He has small, delicate tattoos that make him look pretty where Benny’s look off putting. He doesn’t like being touched and he doesn’t like people in his space. But he makes an allowance for Benny’s hand to gently touch his shoulder. He moves slightly, to allow that hand to cup behind his neck. Lark, who does not like others in his space, lets Benny gently pull him forward.

And both of them pretend for a moment that Lark is not wiping tears off on the rough, grimy material of Benny’s jacket. Xavier is silent as a ghost beside them. If he’d been awake, he’d likely have made a joke. Aw, now kiss. Benny can hear it in his annoying, shitty Boston accent.

“Go home,” Benny says, lifting Lark by the biceps until the younger man is stumbling to a stand. He’s never once thought of Lark as small, despite being inches taller than him. Lark scrubs a hand furiously over his reddened face, not making eye contact. He sniffs once or twice, a closed fist bumping on Xavier’s thigh like a goodbye.

Benny laughs and dumps himself into the chair, yanking his rifle between his knees and leaning back.

“Don’t worry, I’ll k-keep watch.”

—

And it’s a good thing he does.

Not long after Lark leaves, with a promise to call Xavier’s sister (something Benny does not envy), the last person anyone wants to see shows up at the door.

Diana Crowley disgusts Benny on a level he isn’t sure he can put into words. There’s been few he’s hated more than his father. That broiling, constant fury has been so long reserved for the man who created him and molded him into the creature he is. But Crowley tests him. She is a beautiful woman, stunningly tall in her heels, with black hair that has bolts of sophisticated gray.

She doesn’t look at Benny when she enters, her eyes entirely focused on her hurt puppy.

Xavier still hasn’t woken. He suspects that the doctor who dosed him gave a generous amount. His proclivities with painkillers aren’t exactly a closed secret. Likely, he wanted to make sure Xavier would actually sleep through this first night of recovery and keeping the big guy down was a fucking effort in the first place. Benny makes a mental note to thank whoever was on duty tonight for that strange, extra care.

Crowley steps into the room, her heels making tiny clack clack sounds as she does. She finally glances his way. Nothing registers in her facial expression, but there is a tightening around her jaw. Lark would have been easier for her to deal with. Instead, she has Benny, who smiles at her with his head tilted to the side.

“You shouldn’t have that in here,” Crowley comments, with a delicately pointed finger to his Operator. Benny looks down at it and then rolls his gaze back up to her.

“Who’s going to take it from me?”

She makes the mistake of ignoring him, stepping closer to Xavier. So Benny stands and makes himself impossible to ignore. His hand stays loosely gripped on the rifle she’s pointed out. He’s not stupid. She’s untouchable.

Oh, she’s probably human. In fact, he’s almost certain she isn’t a radiant. All her eerie power comes from being mortal and having so much control over those that aren’t, or those that are that much more dangerous because of it. Like Xavier. Written off, dim witted, easily manipulated Xavier. Benny’s smile stays vicious. He stares at her.

It feels good making her recognize that he is, also, in a way untouchable.

One thing Crowley was excessively good at was owning people. Benny didn’t know what she had over Xavier, other than their disgusting relationship, but he knew what she dangled over Lark’s head. The fear of prison, containment, loss of freedom. It wasn’t just the infiltration team. Crowley was commander for a reason, it’s so fucking obvious that she deals with poison and secrets and threats and fear.

Only, she’s not found what to use against Benny. She’s made that mistake before. Once, her assistant, Erik, had slid a manila folder across a table and smiled at him as though it were something comforting. Inside that folder had been a picture of an older blond woman and a sheet of details. Her name had been stamped at the very top. They’d thought to use her against Benny somehow. The promise of reuniting. They’d figured out early that if they weaponized his father, Benny would only be happy to find him dead or missing.

Benny had spit in the folder and then slid it back Erik’s way.

The only people Crowley could hurt and in turn hurt him, were the very people she’d not want to lose over him. Lark and Xavier were the only tethers that Benny had dared let form, strings wrapped around his heart and deeply capable of being pulled and cutting. But Xavier was far more valuable than him. Lark, even more so. She’d not risk investments just to get him to behave.

And besides, Crowley knows the ultimate truth. If Benny were to disappear, to stop becoming a problem—she’d lose a grasp on those two special little investments. And Benny knows how much she likes her investments. Even if she buries the knife in Xavier and twists, all too often.

It might be the only mistake she’s ever really made, introducing these three men together.

There’s no one else she could use against Benny.

Crowley steps no further toward Xavier’s gurney. Her hand is slightly outstretched, as though she might touch him. It would look sweet to an onlooker. A concerned commander and her soldier. Maybe a lover who wants to ensure he’s okay. Benny leans over, with his other hand on the cold metal railing of the gurney.

“I should make sure the nurses in the morning know how hungry he’ll be.” Crowley’s voice is smooth, like silk. She betrays nothing with her stare. Benny slowly unwinds and heaves himself backward into the chair, kicking booted feet in front of him, where they rest underneath Xavier’s gurney.

“Could you t-tell them to make it extra, ‘cause I’ll be here t-till morning.”

#writing #jlb #mgc #jlb x mgc #valorant au #lt

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verloonati · 10 months ago

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A very funny thing about a good man goes to war is that like on paper, the idea of the doctor going all out and calling in all of their debt to fight overwhelming odds and save a friend sounds amazing. It's like, in a at the time 50 years old show this shit writes itself.

But instead of focusing this episode on Amy's trauma (Wich barely ever comes up after that given howuch of it is used purely for the sake of the twist and not like character stakes) moffat chose to focus it on the doctor "rising higher and falling lower than ever before". Wich uh, should not be the point of this story.

Instead of giving us a meaningful reunion of well loved characters, (like stolen earth/journey's end did two series before) they just brought back the pirates from that very forgettable episode and the airplane guy from that Churchill wankfest episode. A gimmick that moffat already used in the opening sequence of Pandorica opens where everyeaningful side characters of the season (and at this point the era) pass along that painting that barely have any impact on the plot (by Wich I mean it could easily have been anything else that initiate the plot and make as much sense). So because he already did this he has to introduce new characters Wich well if you're gonna play out the doctor calling in their debt, using said debt to introduce more than half side characters of the episode and introduce them as if the viewer was anticipating their return is a definitely weird move.

Instead of giving us a real enemy to fight, the church of the silence never really feels that intimidating. The headless monks are clearly just there so the doctor can hide under a hood. And having rory destroy a whole cyber legion just for kicks undermines the threat level of the church in comparison (that man can threaten a whole ass cyber legion what are some human soldiers on a teeny tiny base gonna do?). Where journey's end gave us daleks with a whacky plan to destroy reality, with internal conflicts and dynamics, a good man goes to war never feels that much like the church is actually that powerfull. All they got is an hostage

Of course a lot could be said about the way this episode threat homosexuality in side characters as a comedic punchline. Wether it's the nameless soldiers that get beheaded or vastra and Jenny first appearance their homosexuality is supposed to be laughed at.

And then again there's the "rise higher and fall lower than ever before" shit Wich Is? Very fun in the broader context of the show? The episode end with a tiny base evacuated with no casualty and a baby kidnapped. When you consider the shit the seventh doctor pulled against the old gods, and how far he went to manipulate his companion, what the eighth and war doctor sacrificed and the atrocities they commited in the war In heaven and the time war, the shit 8 pulled in the divergent universe. How desperate 5 was on androzani, how 4 faced the guilt of allowing the daleks to exists, how 6 got put on trial and made to believe he failed to save his friend. How ten almost become fucking rassillon 2, how twelve chose to wait in a torture chamber for 4 billions year and the moment he got out fucked up his whole society and his own laws to save his friend, how ten got gollumified for a whole year before getting up by a genkidama powered by the trust and love of his friend telling people about him, even how thirteen faced the litteral embodiment of time whilst her parent set the universe on fire for the hell of it. How litteraly seven episodes before eleven got trapped in a box by his enemies and had to manually turn off and then on again the timeline. Yeah I don't think winning a rock and losing a baby that you still know will be fine is that special among all of this.

#dr who #moffat #11th doctor #a good man goes to war #the early moffat seasons really frustrate me because in between some of the best episodes of the show there's the grossest mysoginistic shi #ofc earlier and later season had similar problems. but imo never as potent as the quality rollercoster that was season 6 #the refusal to do anything with amy's themes that are still set up in stories lik girl who waited and god complex is so disappointing #like i don't want another fucking gareth roberts james corden episode but this time james corden has a baby

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bardic-tales · 2 years ago

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Tumblr Games: 15 Questions

Thanks for the tag, @laplumedemaureen. I really enjoyed reading how much similar interests we have.

Rules: Answer the 15 questions below as yourself or in character of an OC of your choice. Also tag 15 people if possible

This is an open tag, as I have already tagged my tag list. With that said, I'm going to tag some of my FanFiction friends to finish this for a fandom character: @serenofroses @megandaisy9 @starryeyes2000 @asirensrage @arrthurpendragon @residentdormouse.

If you would like me to include in the fanfiction friends list, please don't hesitate to tell me.

I most likely will be completing this for the entire cast of Cold as Ice. I believe this exercise helps to really get in the head of your characters. With that said, let's start off with the protagonist: Cyras Covelli.

picrew: TTRP Portrait Token

1. Are you named after anyone?

Hello. The fair-haired woman does a slight curtsey. I am Stewardess Cyras Giovanna Teresa Covelli of the Olessan Empire. No. I am not named after anyone. Did you know that Cyras is not even my real name. It is a name that my foster father chose for me. He thinks that it would be more appropriate than Clara. I say a name is a name.

2. When was the last time you cried?

This is a really personal question: one that I do not feel comfortable answering. I do not nor do I have time to cry. The best action when you feel sad is to swallow the emotion. Push it down deep within you until you no longer feel that way.

If a person is distracted by their emotions, they are neither a use to me, the Imperial Family, or the Empire, as a whole. We all face hardships every day.

3. Do you have kids?

I have two children: twins. Both of them are on the path that life has carved out for them. My son is a squire for a Knight of Agosto, and word has reached me that he may take his vows at the end of the Season.

My daughter is studying from a wonderful viscountess: Lady Augustus. Camila will have her first Season in Olessa in the coming years to attend the societal balls and secure herself a worthy match.

4. Do you use sarcasm?

She chuckles airly. Sarcasm is the sign of a quick mind and a touch of creativity. Some of the greatest minds we know often cut down people with their wry sarcasm.

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Hmm. She places her hands in her lap and interlocks her fingers. I have always noticed when our noblemen show up at our societal balls with their natural hair as opposed to. . . She pauses . . . say a wig. It is a tradition that the Olessan gentry should embrace more.

6. What's your eye color?

Ah. Green. Once a gentleman caller called my eyes a heavenly olive. He seemed to be particularly interested in my eye color, as if he was sizing up a brood mare and buying me based upon that.

When I call upon my magick, my eyes will have a powder blue miasma surrounding the iris. I have often been compared to a witch during those moments.

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Life is full of scary, horrific moments. There are no shortages of them in Olessa, especially in our poorer areas. Happy endings often mask and, sometimes, provide hope for the downtrodden and oppressed.

As for the nobles, stories of chivalrous knights often keep them company through the harsher realities of their stations.

8. Any special talents?

I am talented in the use of body magick. Specifically, I could be called a master healer as I can exchange my life force and repair the wounds of another.

I also love to paint. This is a talent among many others that many noblewomen are encouraged to pursue.

9. Where were you born?

She cocks her head. This may shock you. I am not a native Olessan. I come from over the mountains and from our neighboring kingdom: Glorendt. I know we have been at war with them for one-hundred years, and many think that I am loyal to them, but my allegiance lies to the Empire.

An Olessan took my sister and I off the streets, and I will be forever grateful to my foster father. We no longer have to steal for food and are surrounded by such luxuries we never would have had in Glorendt.

10. What are your hobbies?

I have the typical hobbies of my station. I have learned to play the piano, paint, and am quite talented with the lyre.

In fact, after the Crowned Prince and I see to the business of the Empire, we will often retire to the parlor while I play for him. He will often sing. He has such a beautiful voice which is unusual for someone like him.

11. Have you any pets?

Oh, yes. She smiles softly. I have a beautiful harpy eagle. When I was young and my father had a fox hunt, his hounds cornered this eaglet. I suffered great injury rescuing her.

Aquilina and I are inseparble now. She will often hunt and bring me back shiny trinkets and other things that are important to her. Each gift is treasured.

12. What sports do you play/have played?

No. It is unladylike to play sports. These physical activities are reserved for men, and as a woman, the only thing you have is your reputation.

I can imagine the gossip at the next soiree that would fly around if the Stewardess participated in such an activity. It would be shocking to say the least.

13. How tall are you?

We don't really measure how tall we are as there are other things to worry about. She frowns slightly, crinkling the bridge of her nose. If I had to make a guess, and this is only a guess, I would say that I stand at about five foot two inches.

14. Favourite subject in school?

I went to a finishing school. The teachers were often strict and would dictate when we would rise and retire for the night. The entire point of such a school was to get us ready to be placed before placing us into a noblewoman's household, so she and her hired tutors could instruct us on how to behave and the arts through one-on-one learning.

My favorite subject in the finishing school was the very basics of painting. We were not to draw or paint any indecent figures. The human body was off limits to us. Women are expected to paint still life or landscapes. We decorate our own homes for that personal touch, but I still prefer to patron the artists.

15. Dream job?

Hm. She pauses for a moment. I do not have a dream job. While a lady may dream of courtly love, she is encouraged to not pursue a career outside of the home. Her career would be homemaker. She is expected to see to the household and manage any servants that the family might have.

You may be asking how I became a Stewardess. I simply am filling the vacant role that my deceased husband left. Amés rest his soul. When I wed again, my status as the Stewardess will be passed on to my new husband.

#tumblr games #oc: cyras covelli #writeblr #writeblr community #wip: cold as ice #my ocs

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mesillusionssousecstasy · 4 days ago

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Hudutsuz Sevda : Season 2 - Quotes - Part. III

"- And I will do the same thing I do when a gun is pointed at Halil Ibrahim. I will not step aside. On the contrary, I will hold Halil Ibrahim eve tighter. (Zeynep) - If you had said something like: "As long as Halil Ibrahim is happy," none of us would have looked at you." (Elif)

"- The era is over? The legend named Halil Ibrahim has come to an end, you mean? (Yazuv) - As long as Halil Ibrahim is not dead, the era is not over. And the legend is not over." (Nergiz)

"- Yahya, son, death brings so much pain, doesn't it?" (Musa)

"- I'm not a thing, nobody's thing." (Kaan)

"- No one wants her to love. The main thing is that she does what I say. That's enough." (Kaan)

"- Tell him that Zeynep doesn't count the time when she breathes without him. It doesn't matter." (Zeynep)

"- Why? He just become the way I want to see him. (Nesim) - Forgot about love, painted his face for war." (Major Mecnun)

"- So they don't love money anymore? (Major Mecnun) - They will die for money and kill, captain." (Nesim)

"- You are used to swaying people to your side with blackmail, threats, and money. That's why you think you can buy everyone. (Zeynep) - Everyone has a price, Zeynep. (Mr. Sheref) - I don't. But I really want to know about you, Mr. Sheref." (Zeynep)

"- How much are you worth?" (Kaan)

"- Therefore, this is not a conversation about someone saying something, or someone else doing something else." (Halil Ibrahim)

"- I'm saying that our enemies won't decide who will be happy and who won't." (Halil Ibrahim)

"- And who is setting the trap? Didn't you say it was the police who raided? (Kaan) - Ah, my son blinded by anger! Do you know what will happen to us if they find Enver alive? (Iskender) - Since he lost so much money, let him not live. (Kaan) - Do you think I care whether he dies or not?" (Iskender)

"- I don't want to build happiness with you on someone else's misery." (Ayse)

"- I heard Halil Ibrahim dumped her. (Ferat) - All my life I've felt sorry for others. Now I don't care about anyone." (Leyla)

"- This marriage is dead for me too." (Fikret)

"- That is, Iskender, you came up with a game, but you don't know about the game being played with you." (Dalma)

"- Enver, if ***, go to your room. I'm not in the mood to listen to your emotional speeches." (Major Mecnun)

"- I am clean, head held high." (Ayse)

"- What's wrong with you, Musa? (Dervish) - Don't even ask, Dervish... I would say we miraculously escaped death... But a lot has died within us." (Musa)

"- They say: "If you don't see the pain of your opponent, then why cause this pain?" (Iskender)

"- But if you want to make peace, we agree. Shall we say that? (Fikret) - It's better than making a smart person look like an idiot." (Halil Ibrahim)

"- And from a woman who has nothing to lose... is there anything more dangerous in this world?" (Major Mecnun)

"- Your issue is with honor. You resolved that. What is your issue with me? (Iskender) - Didn't you say, Yahya, that Iskender is not easily fooled? (Musa) - Iskender is in big trouble, brother. It would have been better if he had swallowed ashes. (Yayha) - Let those in prison be released, let the charges against us be dropped, and let Halil Ibrahim not hear these conversations. (Musa) - It's against the normal flow of life." (Yayah)

"- I love you so much that... but rather than someone else killing you, I'd do it myself. What don't you understand, son? This is your life insurance." (Iskender)

"- I told you, Zeynep, it's probably some obsessed lunatic." (Didem - Episode 49)

"- If you would listen, I would say a lot, but you don't listen. I mentioned what you can't do, and you immediately got angry." (Oguz - Episode 49)

"- Halil Ibrahim looked very upset. (Leyla) - Let it be even worse." (Zeynep - Episode 49)

"- I will not be with anyone except Halil Ibrahim, but he can. What kind of love is this?" (Zeynep - Episode 49)

"- I thought it would be better if you died than lived a dishonorable life with him." (Kaan - Episode 49)

"- Probably meant to say "I'm in hopeless situation, I don't know what to do, I'm suffering from hopelessness." (Edanur - Episode 49)

"- You've already lost Halil Ibrahim before. And you'll lose him again. You're doomed to fail as long as I'm here." (Didem - Episode 49)

"- You seem to live in another world." (Yavuz - Episode 49)

"- Brother, if you don't calm down, they will destroy you when I leave, know this. (Halil Ibrahim) - First - where are you going? Second - my sister won't even go to paradise with you right now. Third - who will destroy me? (Fikret) - How is it that Zeynep won't go? (Halil Ibrahim) - I said so much, and that's all you heard, right? Of course. I talked, but Zeynep doesn't listen to me." (Fikret - Episode 49)

"- Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn." (Sakine - Episode 49)

"- Where are you going so brazenly? (Episode 49)

#quote #hudutsuz sevda #hudutsuz sevda season 2 #hudutsuz sevda quotes #turkish dizi #turk series #dizi

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balapann-blog · 4 months ago

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Day 32 - 7 October - Kars

Today is very much a chillout day! We woke up quite late and ambled down to breakfast, which was a nice buffet style things, i think the first one we have had since our Novotel adventure in Sarajevo. We then took some washing to a laundry and went to find our bus station that we will need to take to Hopa on Wednesday, which is a town near the border. On the way we saw some absolutely massive cabbages for sale, I have never seen a cabbage that big! Once we got that sorted (We tried to book but they said just turn up on the day) we walked to the post office and then to the Kars Cheese Museum!

This was a great little museum, about £1.20 entry and they had some really interesting facts about the cheese making process, which in Kars was kicked off industrially by the Russians when they annexed following the Russo-Turkish war of 1877/78 and the treaty of Congress of Berlin 1879 which we last spoke about when we were in Alexandroupoli. The Russians introduced the production of Gruyère cheese, which was solidified by a factory being made with the instruction of Swiss cheese makers in the middle of the 20th century. The museum was built into a cave and had vibey lights, but in some places seemed to be leaking quite badly.

We then went to Kars Castle (Kars Kale) and walked up the hill to it. It was free to go into but not much to see other than a couple of signs saying it had been built by the Seljuks and expanded on by a Pasha in the 16th Century. The view was pretty great though so we admired it for a bit. Walking own we spoke to a very nice man who was on a tour with people from Taiwan, or Taiwanese people who lived in the US or Canada. He was very chatty and we had a nice chat till he met back up with his tour group. We then walked home and went to the hotel.

I am liking Kars much more than I expected! The people are so friendly and welcoming. It has lots of stone buildings in the grey stone, I think mainly built by the Russians or Armenians in the early 20th Century. They also built it on a grid so it is easier to find your way around. I had read the book Snow by Orhan Pamuk earlier in the year (I actually had stopped with 50 pages to go but finished it in Montenegro), which paints it as a very conservative and quite hostile place where a Islamist political party is about to win elections, but it doesn’t really feel like that at all and definitely feels less outwardly religious than Konya or even Kayseri. Looking at the results of general elections, the top party was the Party of Greens and Left Future (which I think the pro Kurdish candidates ran on, due to the threat of a ban) then AK (Erdogan’s Party) then the secular Republican People’s Party and then some more conservative and right wing parties below that. So the politics seems much more heterodox than on the surface.

Back at the hotel, Nin was going to go to the hotel hammam for the ladies session but it turned out it was closed, so she went to the gym and I had a couple of teas and wrote up my diary from the Dogu. We then went back into the town to do some shopping. Amazingly beside our hotel there were 2 pharmacies that sold good quality sun cream, as it is not something that seems to be high on peoples agendas here. I had run out of body sun cream in Cappadocia, only having the face stuff, and with skin like mine that is playing with fire, so not knowing when I might get the chance again I got some more face stuff as well. We then went to this really nice cig kofte place and a little snack. We then went back to the hotel and had a little drink in the hotel restaurant.

We then went to dinner at this restaurant that had good reviews. The things we had were this lamb shank and chickpea stew that was probably a little under seasoned but when you salted it was really good and a sort of ribbon pasta with yogurt and caramelised onion. Both were really nice and we then walked the 5 or so mins home and went to bed.

Where we ate - Adıyaman çiğköftecisi Murat usta, Hanimeli Kars Mutfagi

What we liked - Love a cig kofte! The other stuff was good too!

Day 33 - 8 October - Kars

Woke up and had breakfast and then walked to the bus that would take us to the ruined city of Ani. The bus was quite interesting, as there were lots of birds of prey either sitting on rocks and the ground or circling round in the air. I wasn’t sure exactly which bird it was as it didn’t look massive like and eagle so might have been a kite. They were also drying turf or dung for burning, which, when taken with the dry stone walls and the hills covered in grass and made it feel slightly like the west of Ireland. It definitely feels more verdant here than in other parts of Anatolia. There was also a checkpoint on the road for Jandarma (Gendarme), as we were coming up to the border with Armenia.

We then got to the Ani center which was a small complex of one story buildings in a sort of piazza set up, which were mainly deserted. It was 6 euro in and then went through the big gate of one of the ruined walls and entered the complex. Ani was an Armenian city that had been first mentioned in the 5th Century, and by the start of the 11th Century had a population of over 100,000 before being mostly abandoned by 1735, after repeated capturing from the likes of Timor (Tamerlane), the Safavids, and the Ottomans.

Apparently lots of the buildings have been ruined by earthquakes and there is repeated statements that it is being left to collapse due to Turkish neglect. It does feel slightly illustrative that the only thing that was consecrated and working was the mosque, which had a carpet in it and a loudspeaker in the minaret. The information given, definitely looked to underplay or even erase the role of the Armenians in it, and buildings that are churches were called mosques and some inscriptions, for example the symbol of an Armenian royal dynasty was attributed to the Seljuks, which aligns to other things that we have seen in Turkey, when the monument is not Muslim or Turkish. It is very sad, particularly considering the scale of the magnificence of Ottoman monuments, and the diversity of the Ottoman Empire, like why do they see the need to do it! This website I found gave me more context.

The ruins go up to effectively a sheer cliff with a gorge and a river in it, on the other side of the river is Armenia, with a watch tower and a big Armenian flag. The border has been guarded by Russian border guards since 1992. The citadel stands overlooking the cliff and there is a building on a ledge on a meander that sticks out into the valley. One church we went to, which was the best preserved of them had these amazing frescos in them (although apparently Turkish officials had whitewashed them to cover over graffiti! After walking around for a bit, we went back to the entrance and the bus, as we had seen most of it and the wind was picking up, creating a bit of a dust storm.

We got the bus home and when Nina went to the hammam and the gym I went to get a really tasty lamb donner from a place nearby which was really nice. They cooked it on a charcoal fire and they kept bringing more squewers to me, I think I had 4 before I realised they were going to keep bringing them to me and I had to say stop! I think it was £9 in the end. I then went to the hammam after Nin in the mens session, the hammam was nice and i was the only person there so I lay on the hot stone for a while and went to the sauna and steam room.

We then went to dinner at this pretty fancy place where you could get Kars’ special dish, goose! We had a dish of goose liver and then a delicious goose leg, and hands down the best salad we had in Turkey. We also had some nice wine, the place was quite fancy but really worth it and not very expensive in London prices! And it was a lovely way to end our time in Turkey. After that we went back to the hotel and packed and went to sleep before a big day of travelling.

Where we ate - Tortum Caag Kebap, Han-i Hanedan

What we liked - Kebap was delish,

Day 34 -9 October - Kars > Batumi

We got up and went to the gym! Very unlike me, but it had a treadmill which I used. We then checked out of the hotel and went to the bus station and got a ticket for the bus to Hopa, which is on the Turkish Black Sea coast. We got there quite early and had a cha (Turkish tea) by the station then got on as it left.

The journey included going over some very high mountain roads and then having to descend even further into valleys as we were leaving the highlands. Thankfully the bus took the roads slow and the views were pretty spectacular. On the way I saw some very large flocks of sheep and some very large Anatolian Sheperd dogs, who if they are anything like the Albanian Shepard dogs we saw walking are not to be messed with. A couple of times I saw flocks with no Shepard at all and just four or five dogs menacingly watching for any threat. There was also one time a pack of three dogs that looked wild came up in front of the bus and just barked at it, making me happy I was inside! Interestingly the cow dogs were shorter like corgis which I knew were cow dogs but it seems interesting that for bigger animals you have smaller dogs, but I guess they are doing a different job. The street dogs you see in Turkey are generally one of those two types or at least partly.

At one stage we went under a huge cliff and then a tunnel that went through it, there were a couple of tunnels, particularly at the end of the journey that must have saved hours in driving! We stopped for lunch and had nice lentil soup, our last in Turkey! And then witnessed a small altercation over a low speed car collision, all the men in the vicinity walked towards it and then all stood discussing it, clearly loving the drama. We then went past a massive damned lake complex that went on for miles and miles with towns dotted around and what looked like fish farming in some of the lakes. The rivers look pretty polluted with sewage but also mining runoff, as there are lots of quarries and cliffs that have been sliced in half to make the roads which have exposed cliff faces and you can see all the minerals in the rock and the discoloured water beside the cliff faces.

It had been getting progressively greener as we went through the valleys, going from grassland to deciduous forest, and then we then got to the last massive tunnel and came out into a valley that was very lush and green with houses on the side in small villages. They all seemed to be growing a quite short bush in their gardens and fields, which on closer inspection (and a bit of googling) I realised it was tea! The Black Sea coast has a sub tropical microclimate, due to its seaside and high hills and it seems to be where Turkey’s massive tea production is cantered.

We then got out at Hopa and Hopa(ed) on a mini bus that took us to the border. At the border the Georgian border guard gave me a bit of a grilling about my passport, I think because she didn’t think I looked like my (quite recent) photo, and because she did not see many Irish passports. To make matters worse the only other photo ID I had was my driving license which has a slightly different name which really confused things. She let me in eventually! And we then took a local bus that very slowly made its way to Batumi, it was very hot, but we did talk to a friendly Chinese man at the end.

We then walked to the ‘residence’ we were staying at and were greeted by our host who is a very chatty, larger than life character. He recommended us a restaurant, close by which was very nice and we then walked around the old town and got an ice cream before going back and slumping into bed exhausted from a long and sometimes stressful day!

Where we ate - Yildiz Restaurant, Cafe Adjara Old House

What we liked - Adjara was really nice as I was pretty hungry by then!

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