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chalkrevelations · 4 years ago

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Huh.

Well, this is not the next episode reaction you were expecting, but a while back, in the middle of the night, while I was ready to cry from working on a pharmacology paper, out of nowhere, Youtube threw up Street Dance of China S3 Ep1 at me. And yeah. I am, admittedly, f’kn weak for a dance show. (There are enough SYTYCD episode reax on my old Livejournal that I feel there’s no point denying this.)

So – no, actually, wait. FIRST of all, I do NOT believe the “towel vote” we ended up being given for the opening routines from the four captains. That was the most blatant bit of bullshit chicanery I’ve seen in my LIFE, and I say this as a person with a ton of SYTYCD episode reax on my old Livejournal, and I also say this not because Wang Yibo ended up last (well, not entirely), but because I saw Wallace Chung’s routine. As someone closer in age to him than to the other three captains, I have to give him props for trying, but come on, man. The critique that Yibo got from random contestants – if the subtitles are to be believed, so I realize this needs a grain of salt - basically boiled down to “it was too good for the stage lighting.” :hands: Also, I saw your face at the reveal, Wallace, and you were as shocked as I was. No way you got more towels/votes than Wang Yibo. Not unless there’s some super wild undercurrent of nostalgia propping you up, which, I guess could happen, because literally all I know about pop culture in China, current or otherwise, is filtered through Tumblr and Youtube, both notoriously suspect, but … anyway. There’s got to be a TON of behind-the-scenes manipulation going on for Yibo to be rock-bottom with last pick of teams but then also to end up with THAT pool of possibles. Are you kidding me with this?

ANYWAY, what I wanted to say is that I actually really like Wang Yibo here, and it’s not just because he’s the only captain I have even a sliver of familiarity with, and it’s not just because Lan Wangji was banging Wei Wuxian. I do realize all of this is influenced by whatever edit they’ve decided to give a particular captain or contestant, but I’m impressed with the way Yibo immediately starts team building by getting his group into a warmup, getting them dancing together, getting them dancing with him before they have to worry about dancing for him. (I mean, come on, Jackson Wang. The way to get people to stop being nervous is not to say “Stop being nervous! It will make you fuck up!”) The way Yibo immediately recognized and responded to his group’s concerns about that one dude copying someone else’s routine probably also bought him a lot of return investment. He’s dressed to work it, in his sweats and his flannel (what IS that fake-leather TAC vest and random leg holster-looking thing, Jackson Wang?). He’s convincing me he really loves to dance, he can’t hold still while he watches the contestants, he’s wandering over into other captains’ turf when it sounds like there’s a dancer performing who he might like to see, he’s being the best Yibo he can be, and I’m grooving along, wind in my hair, totally down for this ride. He’s also adorable at the beginning when all the other captains are like, my goal for this season is to slaughter the competition and dance on their graves! And he’s like, well, I’d like to … make some friends? And learn some new stuff? I don’t know if the perpetual Humble Student schtick is natural or persona, or whether it’s general or specific to dancing, but it’s working for you, my dude. This is also made better (read: ironic), by the fact that it’s immediately before the towel reveal, when he flips over to utter disbelief and gets all sulky for a while over the “fact” that his dance routine got the least votes.

Also, OH WAIT. This is where that clip of Yibo dancing with his crew ALL OVER HIM came from that I saw floating around a few months ago, isn’t it? You’re telling me those guys had never danced together before and had like, three minutes to throw together that routine? I’m even more impressed than before. Meanwhile, the towels symbolize courage and challenge, Mr. Emcee? OK, fine, cheesy reality show blah blah whatever. Can we get to the dancing now?

I’m going to put the rest of this behind a cut, because it got super long, because it turns out, when you watch in 5-minute increments, it takes two and a half weeks to get through a single episode, but you actually can see and have opinions on all 5,328 contestants, plus every single one of the captains’ battles. Meanwhile, I’m trying to convince myself this is not going to be another series of episode reactions, but 1) I do have the benefit of not having a ton of hometown media giving me a next-day play-by-play, so even though this is six months old, everything’s a surprise; 2) I am, admittedly, f’kn weak for a dance show; and 3) it’s easy to watch in 5-minute increments between researching drug interactions in hypothetical hypertensive patients with stable ischemic heart disease, erectile dysfunction, and seasonal allergies. So, I guess we’ll see. It’ll be slow going, though, because I don’t ever have two and half hours to sit down and watch an ep cover-to-cover – if it happens, it will likely keep happening in 5-minute increments. Meanwhile, there is a metric shit-ton of nattering below the cut, so caveat lector. No, seriously, I kept adding to this little by little until it became a monster. Hashtag long post (remorseful).

OK, I am generally out of my depth here, as this is not at all my area of dance not-really-expertise, but some reactions:

Team Wang Yibo: I can see why he didn’t want to choose between Colin and Dian Men – Colin might have been a touch better technically and a better showman, but Dian Men didn’t seem to have a single wasted move – but, also, my dude. Yibo. You maybe should look a little bit less stunned and overwhelmed by the mere presence of Colin, it’s giving me ideas about your taste in men. Continuing with the powerhouses, I probably shouldn’t even attempt to critique Klash, but I did feel like he was a bit stiff in some of his footwork; that final V kick, though, shit, that’s what having that kind of upper-body strength is for. Bouboo … I mean, excellent flexibility and control, of course, but mainly I’m just terribly amused that Yibo got last pick of teams but somehow ended up with the guy who’s literal world champion, and who’s just as useful for getting into the other captains’ heads – without even trying – as he is for his talent. And then there’s a montage of Yibo giving out towel after towel after towel, and my dude, you cannot keep up this pace. There are still too many dancers to see, and you don’t have that many towels. AAANNNND Towel Battle #1 (See Footnote 1).

Team Jackson Wang: I do like Gai Gai, although that may be influenced by the fact she’s working in the twilight area between hip-hop and contemporary that I have more familiarity with - but also, I suspect she’s pretty good in her genre. I thought Xiao Jie was inconsistent and didn’t stick the landing on his initial attempt, so I have to give you that hesitation, Jackson, even though you’ve somehow ended up the villain in my inner narrative for this show, for no particular reason I can yet discern. Maybe it’s that you’re the direct competition for Yibo’s team in the towel battles. Good enough. Anyway, Xiao Jie definitely stepped up his game for the battle with Bingo, so I can kind of see why both of them got a towel, but we’re not even halfway through this, and most of y’all are giving away towels like you have an endless supply. Yang Kai is a fucking menace with fantastic musicality, and I’m just gonna say it and take the fallout - I think he gave a better performance first time out of the gate than any of Yibo’s powerhouses did. Whatever power Klash has got, whatever skill Bouboo has got, Yang Kai feels more explosive and engaging, at least in these initial showings. He’s going to be one to beat, I’d hug him too, if he was on my team and was going to help me WIN. Yibo’s probably lucky that happened during his little stroll over to check out the competition, so that he can see they’re definitely competitive and be prepared for it. Also, Jackson, I have to admit - that face you made when Chao really kicked in? That was the same face I made, because wt actual f, you have a literal secret weapon – secret because he CAME FROM NOWHERE and NO ONE EVEN KNOWS him, how is that even possible, how did he get that good – fluid, creative, controlled, incredible musicality - without anyone having any idea who he even is? And then there’s a montage of Jackson just giving out towel after towel after towel, and my dude, you need to slow down. You can’t just be like, “THEY LOVE DANCE WITH ALL OF THEIR WHOLE HEARTS!!!!1111!!!!11!” I get it, but everyone there loves dance with all of their whole hearts, and there are not enough towels to send all of them on to the next round. ANNNND, Towel Battle #1 (See Footnote 1).

Team Lay Zhang: lol at how diplomatic you’re being, Lay Zhang – your team’s fierce roar startled you, OK. At this point, I suspect you’re the street most likely to have a knife fight break out before this is all over. I do like Alex, I think he’s got a lot of interesting, super-clean details in his moves, and he’s engaging - I cannot BELIEVE you made him battle that dude whose moves were so mushy, Lay Zhang, it leaves me doubting your ability to judge this thing. At first I thought maybe you were just looking for an excuse because you wanted to see Alex freestyle, but then you actually said something about both dancers being equal, and my estimation of you plummeted, and also sadly, my sound dropped out for the actual battle, including the part where the clearly inferior dancer fell over and then accidentally POPPED ALEX ONE IN THE EYE, and I TOLD YOU SO. I do agree it’s a good idea to make dancers in the same genre do some battling, so you can kind of plan out your towels and put together a team with broad strengths, instead of giving out towels like you’re making it rain for the first 20 contestants, and then you have 1,375 more people to get through, with 3 towels left, as EVERYONE ELSE seems to be doing, so it’s nice that at least one of you guys is thinking – if not actually acting - strategically. That was clearly not even a contest, though, GIVE ALEX HIS TOWEL and send him to the next round. Xiao Bao is hilarious, with his concern that his team captain, who’s into krump, which is “beating,” isn’t going to appreciate his waacking, which is “slapping.” I also don’t know a whole lot about waacking, so thanks for the primer, Xiao Bao, and don’t worry, your performance is just as engaging for those of us who don’t know what we’re watching as you are generally. You deserve that towel for your ability to interact with and engage your audience, alone. Lingo is a good solid performance, although he’s got his team captain strategizing edited over some of it, and here’s the thing: we are 1:56:00 into this, at this point, with another half hour to go, and all of you are starting to disappear into the sea of dancers who are very good at what you do, but at generally the same level? Anyway, Lingo, I approve of your ability to interact with your audience (read: your captain) to ensure engagement, too, so keep that up. Annnd, we actually haven’t seen that much of you guys, but it’s time for Towel Battle #2 (See Footnote 2).

Team Wallace Chung: I’m glad Su Lian Ya insisted on performing, I thought she started off slow but warmed up, and that ending was creepily fantastic and had me spontaneously grinning at the screen in delight. Then we lose sight of this group for a really long time, actually. We go back to find Wallace putting through a couple of urban dancers who we barely see, but who apparently claim to have some choreography experience, and he really likes that. TI shows up, and they’re solid, but honestly, not as good in this performance as they were in some of the stock footage the show threw up to introduce them, but Wallace remains super-excited about the idea of choreography and sends at least choreographer Zhang Jiang Peng through to the next round. And then, we really haven’t seen that much of you guys, either, which maybe doesn’t bode well, but it’s time for Towel Battle #2 (See Footnote 2).

FOOTNOTE 1, aka TOWEL BATTLE ONE, Team Yibo vs. Team Jackson, 3V3 freestyle: First of all, I have to say, I love Yibo - Mr. I Just Wanna Make Some Friends And Have Some Fun - being all, “I have three crappy white towels I’m stuck with for coming in last place that I can’t use to send dancers to the next round and that I DO NOT DESERVE, and I am getting BACK the colorful towels that ARE RIGHTFULLY MINE. I am coming for whoever is in my way.” Team Yibo is Bouboo, Klash, Dian Men, and OK, given what we’ve seen so far, that’s the safe choice, but honestly, I think we’re just taking some things for granted right now, and I’m not sure they actually have given the best performances so far. Yeah, I said it. Team Jackson is Yang Kai, Chao, and Xiao Jie, and … ok, on that last one, I think you probably could have substituted Bingo, but all right. Yang Kai is a definite yes. Chao will be great if he can stay out of his own head and not psych himself out, but given what we’ve seen so far, he’s an obvious pick. First round, Yang Kai vs. Klash, and Yang Kai is still a fucking menace, with super lines. Klash definitely stepped up his game for the battle, and I can’t get over the upper body strength he’s got, to get that kind of airy bounce in his moves, but to be honest, I can’t even be mad the first round went to Yang Kai and Team Jackson. Second round, Yang Kai is still … y’all, the beautiful lines from this guy in his poses, I can’t get over them, but I think he doesn’t have the stamina, his footwork is getting sloppy. Bouboo also steps up his game for an actual battle, his fluidity and control is amazing, and yeah, round to Team Yibo. Round three, Xiao Jie gives it a decent effort, but the polish isn’t there; meanwhile Bouboo is still in champion mode, and I was kind of surprised this was a split vote and went to another round. Xiao Jie absolutely surprised me, coming back stronger on his second try, although I suppose a more familiar genre helped, but Bouboo continues in champion mode. Round four, Chao looks like he’s going to throw up right before he steps out there, and then as soon as the music starts, it’s like, he doesn’t even think. The music just moves him. I feel like his dance vocabulary is more limited than Bouboo’s, though, and Bouboo’s flow is amazing at this point, so I feel like the judges just want to drag this out and see more dancing when we go to one more round. Strong effort all around, but yeah, round four and two towels to Team Yibo. I can’t really complain about that. I do feel like Yibo’s powerhouses have been holding back until now, though, and I’m not sure how I feel about THAT.

FOOTNOTE 2, aka TOWEL BATTLE TWO, Team Zhang vs. Team Wallace, 3V3 w/ captain: lol, Team Zhang really wants someone to pick the Sailor Moon song because they know Xiao Bao and his waacking will tear it up. Anyway, Team Zhang includes Lingo and Xiao Bao, who does not get his Sailor Moon song and continues to be hilarious in his disbelief about being chosen to participate in this battle, when he’s not looking almost as sick as Chao from Team Jackson before HIS performance. Team Wallace includes Su Lian Ya – and honestly, despite how I’m getting ready to bag on him for the entire rest of this battle recap, I like that Wallace put one of his female dancers up there for the battle - and some dude named Ba that they haven’t given us any footage of, up ‘til now, at least that I can remember and who I … don’t even know has been formally given a towel and sent on to the next round, yet? Oh wait, he must have, because there’s talk in the pause for choreography about somehow using the towels during the battle. Wallace relies on Su Lian Ya and Zhang Jiang Peng to choose Ba, and then Ba ends up choreographing a lot of the performance, at least from the edit we see. I continue to feel you may be in over your head, Wallace. This feeling … is not assuaged by your performance in the first round, which is fine, but not really up to the level of almost anyone whose name I’ve bolded so far in this entire recap. Also, using the towels was a cute idea, but it doesn’t translate well, and Team Wallace has a lot of wasted time throwing the towels around instead of actually. You know. Dancing. Lingo gets a credible solo during Team Zhang’s performance, and even though Xiao Bao is clearly lost during a good bit of his backup dancer duties, he manages not to throw up, which – given this team’s general skill level – should be enough to give them the first round, EXCEPT SOMEHOW Team Wallace gets the point from the judges, who then try to justify this inexplicable decision by saying Team Wallace had better interaction, I guess because of the hot mess with throwing the towels around, but adding that Team Zhang was more scattered, which what? More scattered than the hot mess with the towels? I’m not buying this. I can’t tell if they’re propping up Wallace or fucking with Lay Zhang’s head, but I’m having bad acid flashbacks to the many and varied ways dance show judges will try to gaslight you, telling you that things you just saw with your very own eyes did not actually happen when it’s right there! On camera! Visible, despite whatever edit bs you’re pulling! ANYWAY, they’re definitely managing to fuck with not only Lay Zhang’s head, but Xiao Bao’s, and Xiao Bao still doesn’t seem to have his choreography down, but they manage to pull it together enough to take the second round, which to be honest is kind of a muddled mess on everyone’s part. The only one who really stands out to me on this go’round is Su Lian Ya, but OK, Team Zhang might have had it slightly more together as a unit. And then, yeah, OK, I think they were fucking with Lay Zhang’s head, because we then find out that, holy shit, the song the show powers-that-be chose for the tie-breaking third round is that gd Sailor Moon song, and we can all see the writing on the wall. Poor Team Wallace is no match for Xiao Bao, who frankly, carries this entire round on his shoulders without breaking a sweat and barely needs any backup dancers to do it. There’s some ridiculously dramatic reveal of scoring, with the judges dragging out their decisions like this was any actual contest - I’m beginning to suspect that some of them grew up with Wallace Chung posters on their bedroom walls - but finally, round and towel to Team Zhang.

Cut to a little bit of Next Time On, and wow, the first two-and-a-half-hour episode is over, and we aren’t finished with the initial round yet. It’s gonna be Christmas before I make it halfway through this season.

#street dance of china #sdoc episode reax #should i put yibo in the tags for this?#sure #i guess #wang yibo #anyone else?

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the-littlefangirl · 4 years ago

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TFATWS episode 2 rewatch commentary

We should've guessed John Walker was going to be an asshole the moment it was revealed he played football in high school

That remix of star spangled man is my villain origin story JEEEEEEESUS i want to punch something

They literally mass produced a Walker action figure in two weeks what the fuck

"Your new Captain America" GAAAAAAAAAAh * angry noises *

"For those who aren't familiar with John's resume" thank you GMA lady

My face during that whole speech: wtf and indignation intensify

Bucky's face: yep same.

Imagine being Sam and everywhere you go you're seeing your one (1) mistake spit in your face overandoverandover again that's g r e a t

Tbh that sambucky reunion was anticlimatic as fuck but i actually liked that, it was like WELL HERE WE GO AGAIN they can’t look at each other for 5 seconds before they need to start bickering

"You think it didn't break my heart" SAM SWEETIE

YeAH TELL HIM SAM

The way I know this clip by heart help me. It's still hilarious but it's even better now that I know that they literally just met and they're already bickering can you PLEASE stop you children

T H E B I G T H R E E

Spoiler it was a thing

Love how nonchalant Joaquín is about this entire situation lmao

"You sure about that"

*Fakes smiles* yeah, * screams *

Congrats at least you didn't rip your arm off this time that's what I call progress

is he… is he wearing high wasted skinny (jeans) combat pants?

Redwing i'm sorry for what's about to happen :(

"Look at you all stealthy" PLEASE

"it's white wolf, actually" n e r d

SAM MATERIALIZING OUT OF THIN AIR SAFHAJSFHA this is the second time that happened it’s so funny

H E LLO H O W A R E Y O U?

GOOD! WHAT DID I MISS! NOTHING

They're literally 5 CHILDREN CHILDREN PLEASE STOP

AND I CAN FLY WHO GIVES A SHIT fsdjhfadjkfh

L e t m e s e e

Four

Yeah

Five!

YeaH

“So they're strong. W h a t e v e r”

SFHJDASKFA we're superheroes ma'am vibes

3 supersoldiers what could possibly go wrong

REDWING MY BELOVED FAREWELL

"I always wanted to do that" *gets punched in the face* you deserved that

YEAH BABEE look at those wings

Why do the knockoff duo have a special handshake jesus fucking christ i hate them

“SAM JOHN WALKER CAPTAIN AMERICA” Sam: *Glares harder*

Sam is having a very shitty day

So are we going to ignore that Bucky did t h e t h i n g with the shield? Ok? Ok.

You can't tell me he wasn't thinking of just grabbing it like a toy and not returning it in the middle of the fight sfj

LOOK AT THOSE W I N G S

*whispers* t h e e arm thing

*Stares at the wall* I CAN'T WITH THAT SEQUENCE WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO MEJSFHJASFAH PLEASE they didn't have to go that far with the grunting noises PLEASE

John Walker getting his ass served is something that can be so personal<3

Also, I like that they've now established that he CAN lose a fight, which makes me wonder if he's also going to use his political influence as leverage against sam and bucky once he goes berserk

"It's one of the big three" "Aliens, androids or wizards" "pretty sure" lmao yeah I don't think that's the vindication Sam was looking for

"Look, I've done the work, okay" SHUT THE FUUUUUUCK UP

"You ever jump on top of a grenade" bucky finding out about it in the middle of a briefing during the war fic trope intensifies

"It's a reinforced helmet" well you're fucking losing the point there then you naive clown

Captain "Kind of the government" America??? NOPE NOPE GOODBYE N O P E NOOOOOOOOOOOPE

"Usually said by the people with the resources" daaamn

“I'm Battlestar. John's partner" A clown that’s what you are

Bucky: YES I'VE REACHED MY LIMIT STOP THE FUCKING CAR

"It'd be a whole lot easier if I had Cap's wingmen on my side" FUUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUU

"It's always that last line" yeP

Erin Kellyman is??? So pretty???

"The GRC care more about the people who came back than the ones who never left" love how they keep putting those random bits since otherwise their position sounds??? Extremely reasonable?? BUT THEY ARE V I O L E N T R E V O L U T I O N E R S fuck off

"Let's take the shield, Sam" oh you BET he's been spiraling thinking about 3224 strategies on how to steal the shield during that flight

Sharon name drop:)

YES I KNOW YOU WERE ON THE RUN FOR TWO YEARS I'D REALLY HAVE WANTED TO SEE MORE OF IT JFC @marvel i hate you so much

The whole Baltimore sequence * chef's kiss *

ELI SWEETIE

Friendly reminder that Isaiah Bradley won a fight against the Winter Soldier. Proceed.

"I'm not a killer anymore" bucky sweetie

"You think you can wake up one day and decide who you wanna be" OOOOF

Carl Lumbly's acting f u c k

"How could nobody bring him up" SAM SWEETIE

I'm going to go ballistic now excuse me:))

This whole scene is so well written jesus fucking christ

Have you praised Anthony Mackie's performance today?

Twitter is this clear enough for you?????

Tbh i'm actually surprised marvel allow them to go there even if the situation didn't escalate.

They put the tiiiiniest handcuffs on bucky lmfao

How many more "bucky"s from Walker's mouth until someone punches him?

"He's too valuable of an asset to have tied up" YEAH BEEP BEEP ALARMS GOING OFF RIGHT THE FUCK NOW UHM THOSE WERE SOME… WORD CHOICES… THAT WERE USED… fuck you Walker

"It's something I use with couples" oh coME ON

SFHAJSDFH this is ridiculous i love it

Malcolm Spellman: * agressively takes notes on Stackie's interviews *

SOUL-GAZING EXERCISE LMFAO

THEY'RE SO STUPID I HATE THEM

Sambucky: *chaotic leg positioning*

Dr Raynor: WOW ALL RIGHT

I love that the staring contest thing is the conclusion of the bucky staring joke lmao

AND DON'T SAY SOMETHING CHILDISH

this is literally not about you bucky

"Maybe this is something you or Steve will never understand. But can you accept that I did what I thought was right?" YEAH!!!!

Why is everyone, on the show and outside of it too, acting as if Sam made that decision of out the blue and didn't think about it for six months straight, and look what happened! He got fucking played! He's feeling enough remorse as it is jfc

"Thanks Doc for making it weird I feel much better" LMFAO

Oh you KNOW that the shoulder clap is going to come back unironically and it's going to be soft as fuck

"I feel better" "I feel awful" props for the honesty boys!

"It wouldn't make sense to work with you" more like you're the fucking government's lap dog and we wouldn't touch that with a twelve feet long pole. Let's fucking go Sam let's fucking go

10/10 building of Walker actually being a fucking asSHOLE

The Power Broker name drop!

Yes Bucky SHOULD beat the SHIT out of Zemo. As a treat.

"We're going to go see Zemo" *CLASSICAL MUSIC STARTS BLASTING IN THE BACKGROUND*

Oh I love that last bird eye's shot at the end of the scene

Overall thoughts: This episode was MUCH MUCH better on second viewing. I do think it’s a little bit too fast paced so a lot of things keep happening and there’s not enough time to process them in between?? Again the best moments are the quiet ones like the flight back and the Baltimore scene, but mad props to everyone from jumping between comedy and drama so fucking well. Even though there are, in tone, some very opposite atmospheres in the episode it never feels chaotic, and the situations that happen are very well connected and don’t feel disjointed at all.

The highlight of the episode was definitely the two different ways Sam and Bucky are (avoiding) grieving over Steve, and how his legacy hangs between them at all times. It makes so much sense for Bucky to take the entire situation so personally because Steve was the One thing he knew he could trust, while Sam is trying to see the bigger picture and not just what Steve demanded of him.

Hope that makes sense!

#tfatws commentary #tfatws #tfatws spoilers

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saleintothe90s · 4 years ago

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422. ”Carrie” (May 12 - May 15 1988)

I adore reading about flops. One of my favorite flops to read about is Carrie the musical. A doomed production from the start. Millions of dollars wasted. Bad costumes. Filler songs.

Similar to my Simpsons season 10 review, I wanna give something to the worst aspects of the show. With Simpsons, bad episodes were awarded Marge’s homemade Pepsi. For Carrie, I think I’m going to give the bad parts the “Vending Machine Maxi Pad” award.

As most anybody who follows Broadway flops knows, clips from Carrie are scarce and are in poor condition on YouTube. Most of the actual clips are from when the show was in test productions in Stratford Upon Avon, but the music has been replaced with the Broadway soundboard. So, keep that in mind. Most of the time you can’t even make out what’s going on. Here’s the closest copy of the entire show I could find on YouTube, from the Sratford Upon Avon production.

I know people bash the musical, and sometimes it’s rightfully so, but two things are consistent: Linzi Hateley who played Carrie, and that orchestra that is on.point. Check out the overture.

(source)

The show begins with girls cheering in gym class in the beginning of an aerobics lesson? The white gym shorts look like diapers. That’s the first of many costume mistakes.

The song is a banger, I love Darlene Love playing the gym teacher, she’s my favorite part of the song. The only part that is cringey to me is when the girls sing “I go CrAzZyyyyy” and they get on the ground and dance like a toddler having a temper tantrum in a Toys R Us. Since the audio quality is so bad in these clips, I thought at one point the girls were singing about not being caught picking their nose, no, the lyric is:

Bought the clothes, did my nose,

Near the end of the song, the girls are on these rising rafters? It took me for-ever to realize that they were simulating a cheerleader pyramid, and that Carrie had snuck in near the end of the number to be on the bottom of the pyramid. Oh, and she causes it to fall and someone tells her to eat shit.

“Dream On” is the song that the girls sing while in the showers. Why yes, it does look like they’re in the nude due to the poor quality of the video. The song is ok, it gives total night driving home from the mall in the late 80s early 90s vibes. Although one girl says the line, “Six foot three and he's in his forties!”. WHAT.

Carrie breaks those vibes at around 3:44 by screaming that she’s bleeding. When Miss Gardener slaps Carrie, a cymbal plays. I love it.

I like to imagine that when the girls threw the tampons and pads at Carrie, some flew into the audience.

“Carrie” is shrill at first, and then it turns into a bit of snoozefest. Linzi sings the name “Carrie” about 458 times.

Betty Buckley who previously had played the original Grizabella in Cats. and who played the gym teacher in the original movie plays Carrie’s mom. Her song, “Open Your Heart” is pretty good. It’s a nice little break before mom goes bottoms up on Carrie for getting her period (”And Eve Was Weak” [Stratford version with Barbara Cook]):

Carrie: I was in the shower and...

Mom: You’re forbidden from showering with the other girls...

Carrie: I started to bleed!

While Carrie spends the rest of the night in a cellar, the popular girls are at the drive-in. Now, this musical cost over $7 million dollars 1, but yet this was the best set they could think of for a drive-in movie theater:

It looks like something out of a high school play -- which I guess makes a little sense since they are high schoolers? I’m grabbing at straws here. It cost so much money to put Carrie on, what’s a few more dollars to have two real hollowed out cars on stage, one with Chris (in the red) & Billy (in black) in it, and the other with Sue (pink leggings) and Tommy (purple windbreaker)?

“Don’t Waste the Moon” is the song sung at the drive-in, with Sue having regrets about throwing tampons at Carrie in the beginning of the song. The song is very 1980s, and it kind of doesn’t fit in the musical. Gene Anthony Ray’s (Billy) talent is wasted here.

It’s time for some “Evening Prayers” for Carrie where she discusses with God her new telekinesis powers. Meanwhile Carrie’s mom is being a worrywort. During the Stratford production, Carrie’s mom is in a rocking chair over there looking like Whistler’s Mother.

“You’re going to tell Carrie that you’re sorry!” belts out Miss Gardner. In the musical, Chris seems more obsessed with torturing Carrie than in the movie or book if that’s even possible. Sue is like, “What did she even do to you?”. Even Billy asked earlier, “Who the hell is Carrie White?”.

Oooof. Seeing the gym teacher try to cheer Carrie up by singing a song about the prom (”Unsuspecting Hearts”) and how she could go too is patronizing. Even if its sung by Darlene Love.

“Do Me a Favor” might be the most infamous song from the musical. It’s the song I see referred to the most when I read bad reviews. For some reason Chris is wearing a metallic red bodysuit and Sue is wearing a light pink bodysuit. Are they supposed to be that cliche devil and the angel on the shoulder thing?

Chris looks like Evil Homer!

I’m going be the unpopular opinion here and say that I love the song! The erratic dancing also fits with the song.

Carrie tells her mom before “I Remember How Those Boys Would Dance” that Tommy is sweet and polite, but the audience doesn’t know that. Tommy is barely a character in this production. In the end, Carrie uses her powers to shut her mama up.

From what I gather in “Out for Blood” (audio) where Chris and Billy go looking for a pig to kill, the chorus dancers are the pigs? The video quality is so poor. Chris had another crazy ass red outfit on, some sort of shiny red skirt and a crop top. The costumes in this are just horrible. It was like the wardrobe budget was $50.

This song is so.so.bad. It reminds me of whenever Rocko from Rocko’s Modern Life would see a movie trailer or a parody of something on TV for some reason?! Or the “gotta get that Reptar song” from Rugrats when the kids saw Reptar on ice. Especially when the chorus tells Billy to kill the pig:

CHORUS Cha! Kill the pig, pig, pig! CHRIS Go! CHORUS Kill 'im, kill 'im, kill, kill! We'll make him bleed! CHRIS Go! CHORUS Get the blood, blood, blood Oooh, blood! CHRIS Oh, baby show... CHORUS Kill the pig, make 'im bleed Let's get the blood, that's all we need!

Sue’s song “It Hurts to be Strong” is a bit of a throw-away. It gets a vending machine maxi pad award. Moving on. It’s filler

In “I’m Not Alone”, Carrie sings while using her powers to move things around in her room. What things? I don’t know the video quality was so bad. That’s another thing! The sets are nonexistent! I wouldn’t know we were in Carrie’s room unless the Playbill told me. It’s another forgettable song. Three in a row!

Betty Buckley saves the day in, “When There’s No One”, a sad song about facing life without Carrie being her subordinate.

I don’t understand the prom dresses in “Wotta Night”, they’re all garish giant white numbers that make the actresses look about 20 pounds heaver. The guys look like that Rio doll from Jem. The costume designer couldn’t just go to Alexanders or A&S and buy prom dresses? You know, why am I even asking at this point. We all saw what Chris has been wearing this whole time. There is a disco ball thrown aside in the corner instead of hanging up. More on that later.

The song sounds way too much like that song “Rock on” by David Essex. Automatic Vending Machine Maxi Pad.

Here’s a cute rehearsal clip I found of “Heaven”, the song sung while the Prom Queen and King ballots are being counted. Unfortunately, the audio is bad. Chris is there to remind us that she’s still out for blood.

Finally, finally it’s time for Carrie the prom queen to get drenched with blood -- but the thing is, due to microphone technology back then, Carrie really couldn’t have blood dumped on her. Chris and Billy just run up to her and half ass pour the bucket at her. Could the set designer not suspend the bucket from above the stage? Is that also why the disco ball is thrown in the corner? I don’t even think she has stage blood on her during “The Destruction”, (which is the best song from the musical). I think a red spotlight over Carrie signifies the blood.

I think Linzi is really only truly covered in blood for press shots.

Anyway, the Destruction, I love it when she screeches “DOESN’T ANYBODY EVER GET IT RIGHT??! DOESN’T ANYBODY THINK THAT I HEAR?!” It’s the best. I could listen to it all day and I almost did the other day.

Due the poor video quality, I can’t really tell how the prom-goers are dying. They’re kinda just twitching there in the laser light or slamming themselves against the clear barrier that descended from the stage to signify Carrie closing the doors to the gym.

After Carie kills everybody, this giant white staircase descends and covers up the gym. I read somewhere, I forgot where, that its supposed to be the school stairs? We’re led to believe that Carrie’s crazy mom ran to the school. The first time I saw it, I thought that it was Carrie and her mom getting ready to go to heaven. I thought maybe someone over at the set department took the classic song too literally.

It appears that while the stairs are descending, Carrie smears stage blood on her.

The reprise of “Carrie’ is so much better than the original. Carrie stops her mom’s heart cold mid song. Then she slins down the stairs and Sue catches her. In an interview on playbill.com, Betty Buckley says that on opening night (I don’t know if she meant the first preview, or the official opening night), there were boos from the audience at the end, but cheers for Linzi and herself. I believe it. Betty and Linzi were amazing. Darlene Love was amazing. The rough scenes are the scenes with the school kids. They’re awful, in the words of my boy Jay Sherman, “they’re awful I tell you. aw.ful.”

(relevant prom .gif)

1. Rothstein, Mervyn. “After Seven Years And $7 Million, ‘Carrie’ Is a Kinetic Memory (Published 1988).” The New York Times, May 17, 1988, sec. Theater. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/17/theater/after-seven-years-and-7-million-carrie-is-a-kinetic-memory.html.

New York City Broadway reviews on the news in NYC for Carrie. That first reviewer, Stuart Klein, I love him. I’ve watched several of his reviews on flops on YouTube. Joel Sigel who was the Good Morning America film reviewer is here too.

Archive of Betty Buckley interview.

#carrie #carrie the musical #1988 #betty buckley #linzi hateley #charlotte d'amboise #broadway #musicals #broadway flops #flops #the 1980s

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makeste · 5 years ago

Text

BnHA Chapter 249: Todoroki Taco Night

Previously on BnHA: Nothing happened at all, because the manga was on break last week! Fortunately the anime had finally resumed after a billion years (estimation; exact length of time may be slightly off), so we had that to take the edge off in the meantime. Except we didn’t, because the anime also ended up going on break due to a rugby game or some shit. So that was nice. On a related note, when I die I’d like the Basement arc to lower me into my grave, so it can let me down one last time.

Anyway, Endeavor did some mentoring and gave Shouto and Kacchan a power-up assignment and told Deku to work on Air Force to help him master the fine control he needs for the Bloop. Then Fuyu called a week later and was all “HEY DAD, DINNER, OUR PLACE, TONIGHT, BRING THE KIDS.” And then as previously mentioned, we waited two whole fucking weeks and MY GOD, my body is ready, on to the new chapter we go!

Today on BnHA: Shouto, Katsuki, and Deku are cordially invited to Todosmith Farms for an evening of food and fun! They make it approximately six minutes into dinner before Natsu loses it and exits with more theatrics than a spurned reality TV show contestant. Baku and Deku spend the next hour being all “!!!” at each other back and forth, and whispering about how fucking dramatic the Todorokis are, which fully kills me and is my favorite thing ever to happen in the world. Deku then begins to guide Shouto through his personal healing process like fucking Mufasa booming at Simba from the heavens, and meanwhile Endeavor listens in while quietly kneeling before HIS DEAD SON’S PHOTOGRAPH, IN THE SHRINE THEY BUILT FOR SAID DEAD SON IN HIS BEDROOM, and sorrowfully wishing he could do more for his family. Anyways so I’m in ruins now, but otherwise fine. How are you?

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity afterward, and added a few ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.)

well it’s Thursday morning, and I have just seen the picture of baby white-haired Touya because no one in this fandom knows how to fucking spoiler tag (and that’s on me too for browsing the BnHA tag on a Thursday; I know better, but I was just curious how this new group chat thing was working out), so here are my immediate thoughts

we never actually confirmed that the hair color correlates to their powers, huh. we just assumed. but come to think, there’s no reason why someone couldn’t have mom’s hair but dad’s quirk. it’s all Shouto’s fault for being a perfect 50/50 split and thus making everyone assume that THAT’S JUST HOW IT WORKS. damn you Shouto and your dramatic character design

anyways I tried not to look at the pic for too long -- once I realized what I was looking at, I averted my eyes -- but he does look like Dabi, I think. oh shit guys. it’s really fucking happening

and I also didn’t get a good enough look to determine whether this was a photo of Touya (that Deku or whoever happened to spot while visiting the Todochester Mystery House for the much-hyped dinner) or a flashback image (in which he is just standing really fucking still for some reason and staring directly at the camera), so I guess we’ll see. but anyways, Deku and Kacchan didn’t come all the way down to Todoroki taco night to not have their evening peppered with intricate family drama and reopened wounds and hysterical conspiracy theories, so you had better keep them goddamn entertained! lord knows the Todorokis don’t do small talk. this is literally their only way of spicing things up so their guests don’t die of sheer awkwardness while Endeavor sits in stony silence and Shouto just stuffs his face with soba all night

also aren’t we due some popularity poll results soon? just getting in all my random thoughts now before we dive in. anyways Horikoshi, so you know what I want to see now and you better deliver

aaaand now it’s Friday! so Happy Birthday Aizawa, and LET’S GET TO THAT CHAPTER

and we’re opening with Endeavor’s Redemption Arc: The Page. omg

holy fucking shit BnHA. you sure do have a way of making me wait WITH BATED BREATH!! FOR TWO WEEKS!!! ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT!!!! for the new fucking chapter only to have me immediately suck in a deep breath through my teeth and seriously reconsider whether I am in any way emotionally prepared to handle this. “you think you know what you want?!” Horikoshi demands. “YOU HAVE NO IDEA.” sob it’s trueeee

okay. okay. we can do this. hell, if we made it through Tomura’s flashbacks then this should be child’s play. so all right, let’s go

-- oh wait, but before I click to the next page, I just want to note that Endeavor isn’t the only one who’s nowhere to be found in this pic, though! boy you have three sons. uno dos tres

“the hellish Todoroki residence” lmao this legitimately sounds like the title of a Buzzfeed Unsolved episode

ARE YOU TELLING ME ENDEAVOR PROVIDES LUXURY APARTMENTS FOR ALL HIS FUCKING EMPLOYEES OMFG

SO MY THREE SONS HAVE ALL BEEN ROOMING TOGETHER UNDER ENDEAVOR’S ROOF!? THE FANFIC ENDEAVOR AGENCY RESIDENCES?! WHAT KIND OF OT3 SHENANIGANS HAVE BEEN ABOUNDING THIS PAST WEEK OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS LIKE A DREAM

OH MY GOD

okay I have like... ten different notes I want to make about Katsuki and I don’t know where to start SO I’LL JUST START SOMEWHERE!

I’ve legit wanted to see how he would look with his mask pushed up into his hair like a headband for the longest fucking time (I don’t know why! I just wanted to see it!) so this. is. Christmas for me omg. if only he wasn’t making one of his (◣д◢) faces and was instead making a normal face. but that’s probably too much to ask of him at THE CRACK OF DAWN, which brings me to my next point,

I thought he was a morning person?? [furiously checking headcanon notes] kid you go to bed at 8pm. you have your full eight hours by four in the fucking morning. and the full nine and a half hours that GROWING BOYS ACTUALLY NEED by 5:30am, which is when I always assumed you typically woke up in order to get in your morning workout and BEAST IT UP IN THE PIT or whatever gym people do. yet here you are, half dead, while Deku and Burnin’ are raring to go. were you just burning the midnight oil and that’s why you’re grumpy? WAS IT THE FANFIC AGENCY RESIDENCES SHENANIGANS, OH MY GOD I CAN’T

lastly, look at that unzipped collar. why is it that the more disheveled he looks the more I want to pile him up in a headlock and give him noogies. I love him so fucking much, this is ridiculous, he was only gone for two weeks but it felt like SEVENTEEN YEARS anyway

so Burnin’ is all “catch any villains faster than Endeavor yet, LOL, LIKE THAT COULD EVER HAPPEN!!” and they’ve been putting up with this trolling for a fucking week now huh. no wonder Katsuki’s ready to pack it in and sleep for the next year

motherfucker holy shit

sure thing coach. Todoroki Shouto out here ready for the morning huddle. BRING IT IN! ONE TWO THREE PLUS ULTRA

meanwhile Katsuki better keep his hair like that for the rest of the arc now. the collar too. I am living for this

what is Shouto doing with his hands

are you blowing a kiss. or beckoning toward her like Neo in the Matrix. are you channeling your inner Iida. wtf is this

this one panel perfectly encapsulates everything I love about this OT3 dynamic oh my god

Katsuki screaming at Todoroki that he’s better than him (based on impeccable, flawless logic). Shouto completely disregarding this and calmly continuing to have a normal conversation at a normal person volume. and Deku ignoring them both while sending the chipperest, most positive energy in the world out toward this other person because he loves everyone!!

and now there’s three closeups of the boys showing how worn out they are

they’ve been working so hard I’m so proud of them and also they totally deserve a night off to go gorge themselves on soba at Toderly Manor

and then there’s a whole nother page continuing to establish that it has been a week! and they’re working hard! and YES, WE KNOW, though

yep yep yep we get it now WHAT ABOUT THAT DINNER oh my god. it’s been four pages! and if we’re only getting thirteen again then this is precious real estate we’re just wasting here, come onnnnn

so Endeavor is continuing to show off how great he is while the kids look on in frustration

heh but I like this panel because LOOK AT THEM

ALL THREE OF THEM CAN FLY (basically). I love it. yes. just let them be airborne for the rest of the series

meanwhile Endeavor’s thinking agitated thoughts about how Fuyu wants him to try and CONNECT TO THE CHILDREN ON AN ACTUAL EMOTIONAL LEVEL, like what do you think he is?? a human being??!

lol he’s got that look like “WHY DON’T YOU JUST KILL ME NOW AND BE DONE WITH IT.” things he would rather do than have a family dinner with his kids and his two new apprentices: literally. anything. else. ah, but Endeavor. no one said the path of Not Being A Bastard would be easy

he’s thinking about how happy Fuyu sounded on the phone, though. “the thought of us finally becoming a real family...” c’mon Enji you can’t just let your only daughter down like that

and also me. you better not fucking let me down. I was promised dinner at Todoton Abbey and DAMN IT THIS IS HAPPENING

lol he’s getting all fired up and the kids are just mindlessly yelling back like “FUCK YEAH”

even the guy in the background’s like “YEAHHHHHHH LET’S DO ITTT.” the best part is how not a single one of them has any clue what they are loudly agreeing to

OH MY GOD

TODOLAND RANCH, AT LONG LAST. YESSSSS

lmao Kacchan

“it’s not too late!” he is so desperate, bless him. all he wanted was to curl up in his room with a bowl of spicy ramen after a long day and watch old All Might clips on Youtube while blissfully not interacting with a single other soul. and now instead they’ve dragged him to fucking Todo-a-Lago for dinner with his boss, his two best friends who he hates, and SOMEONE’S SISTER. what a nightmare

FUYUMIIIIII

worst part is, I don’t think Kacchan will be able to resist Fuyu’s Kind Elementary School Teacher Energy at all. he’s totally screwed. -- OH MY GOD, IS HE HIDING

like, I know this is the Todoroki drama chapter and that’s where my focus should be, and I’M SORRY, but you guys all know what you signed up for by this point, right? you can read a million other Todo hot takes on tumblr today, but this will forever be the blog that spends paragraphs and paragraphs obsessing over Kacchan hiding behind the door frame and sulking and asking “why though?” in increasingly petulant tones like a four-year-old because SOMEONE DRAGGED HIM TO A SOCIAL EVENT and this is his personal hell! Fuyu’s gonna end up having to manually feed him chicken like Satou did at the party

meanwhile now that I’m actually READING THE REST OF THE PANEL LIKE A NORMAL PERSON, I have to pause for a moment to let my heart break over Deku saying that he hardly ever gets invited over by friends. hey Deku come here for a moment, I just have to give you a dozen hugs real quick and then you can continue as you were

anyway so guys I literally owe Todoroki Fuyumi my life and I want to send her flowers with a “THANKS FOR SAVING THE MANGA” card but it’ll have to wait until the chapter is done. let’s continue

NATSU’S HERE TOO, SHOUTO SAW HIS SHOES, OH M Y GO D

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(ETA: shout out to Natsu for wearing the greatest shirt of all time and taking Deku’s rookie-tier gags to THE NEXT LEVEL!)

I LOVE EVERYTHING. I’M SOBBING. BLESS YOU HORIKOSHI. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!

holy shit Deku

Alton fucking Brown over here. chill my dude

NATSU BRINGING THAT DRAMA YESSSS

and look how oblivious Deku is to the general vibe settling in here

what the fuck do you see. you just literally had no idea how else to respond to that, huh

oh my god oh my fucking god

(ETA: I’m laughing so hard and I’ll explain in the tags. sob.)

guys let me just break down these two panels for you

1. Fuyu is all “NATSU YOU COOKED TOO”

2. Shouto is all “WTF, I ATE NATSU FOOD AND NO ONE FUCKING TOLD ME”

3. Natsu is all “YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T BECAUSE... THAT MAN PROBABLY WOULDN’T ALLOW IT”

how the fuck is there drama brewing over the fucking cooking. this fucking family. and Shouto’s face is two seconds away from being my new icon omg

LMAO

SO YOU TWO FINALLY FUCKING CONNED ON TO THE DANGEROUS SITUATION YOU’VE FOUND YOURSELVES IN, HUH. that’s right bitches. welcome to Todo’s Landing

and now Fuyu has finally made a FATAL ERROR IN JUDGEMENT oh no. that error being trying to fall back on Shouto of all people to ease the awkward tension. that boy literally is made up of awkward tension. right down to his atoms. Fuyu what were you thinking??

FUYUMI: [SLAMS HANDS ON TABLE] “SHOUTO WHAT KIND OF FOOD DO YOU EAT AT SCHOOL!!!!”

SHOUTO: [LEAPING TO HIS FEET] “AT THE CAFETERIA!!!!”

someone help me I’m fucking dying. actually, you know what, help them

“yo Deku, do you wanna get the fuck out of here right now.” “yes, yes I do.” turns out, they didn’t really need that internship anyway. maybe they can still convince the centipede man to take them instead

holy shit

like, I feel so bad for him, but also Fuyu looks so fucking sad and I can’t?? this is too much, and things haven’t even gotten spicy yet. this arc is going to leave me a wreck

DSFKSLDFJLK

“it’s okay,” Horikoshi says comfortingly, “here’s a panel of your two good boys helping clean up.” WELL THANK YOU, EXCUSE ME FOR A MOMENT, I’M GOING TO GO SIT. and think about Katsuki being a fucking gentleman whose momma raised him right and who helps clean up the dishes after being invited over for dinner. never mind that he didn’t even help clean up the Christmas party. but he saw Fuyu being sad and immediately went MY GOD, I’VE GOT TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP THIS STUPIDLY NICE LADY

anyway so are you two going to ask Endeavor why his kids hate him so fucking much. or just ignore it because you pretty much know the gist already because Shouto can’t keep a lid closed on anything

OH MY GOD THEY’RE HAVING A SECRET CONVERSATION ABOUT IT

FFFFFFFdfsLK -- “YOU GUYS WERE TALKING ABOUT IT RIGHT NEXT TO ME, ON ACCOUNT OF I WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE, IN THE SHADOWS, BECAUSE I WAS EAVESDROPPING, SHUT UP”

anyways so did you guys know that Deku and Kacchan having whispered conversations about how dramatic the fucking Todorokis are is my all-time aesthetic. I didn’t know either actually. but it is

Fuyu why are you apologizing to Shouto for making him help clean up

AND WHY ARE YOU PERSISTING IN MAKING THAT FACE. SON OF A BITCH. GIRL I’M BRINGING YOU SOME ICE CREAM AND SOME DVDS. WE’RE GONNA HAVE A SLEEPOVER AND FORGET ALL ABOUT THIS SHIT. PLEASE FEEL BETTER. I’M SORRY YOUR TWIN BROTHER IS DEAD AND YOUR WISH TO HAVE A NORMAL FAMILY IS NEVER GOING TO FUCKING COME TRUE BECAUSE WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS OMG

oh my god she’s having a heart to heart with Shouto about how he feels about Endeavor. oh my god I see Horikoshi aiming a bow right at my fucking heart. he’s notching the fucking arrow, this is it, it’s been real you guys

that look in his one visible eye. god. there it is. oh god. hurts

(ETA: do you suppose all of the Todorokis have secretly had that exact same dream. we know Fuyu has, and Rei as well based on her letter. I’m starting to think that Shouto has too. it only makes sense that a boy who was denied a real childhood for the first fifteen years of his life is going to have some part of him that secretly longs to just have a normal family. in related news, Shouto had better get some fucking hugs in this arc!)

-- ARE YOU SERIOUS

WHAT IS IT WITH HORIKOSHI LATELY AND BEING DONE WITH JUST IMPLYING THINGS AND NOW VERY INTO SHOWING THEM IN EXPLICIT HORRIFYING DETAIL. HERE’S A DEAD DOG! HERE’S A DYING CHILD! HERE’S A SIX-YEAR-OLD WHOSE MOM JUST POURED SCALDING WATER ON HIS FUCKING FACE AND SHE DIDN’T MEAN TO BUT IT’S TOO LATE AND NOW THEY’RE BOTH TRAUMATIZED. AND SHE’S USING HER QUIRK TO HEAL HIM AND HELLO, THIS ONE PANEL IS ABOUT TO MAKE ME START CRYING. KATSUKI YOU WERE RIGHT. WHY, THOUGH

(ETA: yeah this does not bode well for an upcoming flashback in which a child was presumably burned the fuck alive. feels like Horikoshi was testing the waters to see how much he could get away with. we may be in for some brutal shit pretty shortly.)

OH MY GOD A LETTER

they’re going to discharge her soon!?? IMMINENT FEELINGS INBOUND. I HAVE NO MORE SPACE TO PUT THEM!! MY HOUSE IS PACKED WITH FUCKING FEELINGS ALREADY, PLEASE

ahhhh he says he doesn’t know

this is the most realistic fucking thing I’ve read in this manga to this date. not knowing how you feel about the abusive parent who did so much harm but is now trying to change. boyyyyy howdy I feel that in my fucking bones. Horikoshi is out there delivering the real shit. goddamn

KATSUKI MY HERO

it’s as though Horikoshi placed his hands on his shoulders and said “listen up sonny boy, I’ve got an important job that only you can do. defuse this tension. in any way you can.” and Katsuki looked him dead in the eye and said “I got this”

meanwhile Deku’s hoping he can spontaneously develop another new quirk which will open up a hole in the ground to swallow him up

DEKU: “I HAD PERMISSION!!!” KACCHAN: “I DIDN’T HAVE SHIT!!”

HE IS BITCHING LIKE A DISGRUNTLED HOUSEWIFE HOLY SHIT I’M LOSING MY MIND

“A NORMAL, PLEASANT EVENING!!” yes of course, that’s why you spent the entire ride over here clinging to Todoroki’s shirt and repeating “WHY” ad infinitum. anyways as usual this child is a nightmare whose fickle tirades absolutely no one deserves to be subjected to, god bless him and I adore him so

and Deku is again apologizing for him like they’re fucking married. this chapter is filled with so many highs and lows for me, it’s wild

this, to be clear, is one of the highs. god I love it

oh shit it looks like Deku’s getting ready to say something! SOMETHING WISE, I BET

YESSSSSSS

IS HE?? sometimes this kid can just peer into other people’s souls with perfect clarity, it’s uncanny

oh my god Shouto’s face

genuine shock. he doesn’t even know how he feels, but somehow Deku is able to cut right to the heart of it

oh my god Katsuki’s there to chime right in too and say “but if you feel like he doesn’t deserve forgiveness that’s fucking fine too”

this is actually incredibly fucking supportive? anyway so guys have I mentioned within the last five seconds how much I love Bakugou fucking Katsuki. I have? well that’s okay I’ll just say it again anyway. and also I love Deku and Shouto too oh my god. bless this chapter

oh lol nevermind that still Deku talking while Katsuki is just making faces. well he’s doing his best. anyways so like I said I love Midoriya fucking Izuku

(ETA: [chinhands] do you guys think. that perhaps. Midoriya Izuku might be harboring some unresolved feelings regarding his own absent daddo. maybe. ??? why does this chapter have so many layers??)

ah I see, Katsuki spied Natsu just STANDING THERE LISTENING IN THE DARK, as one does, and that’s why the face

and also YES, Shouto is like the kindest fucking person in the whole series possibly. thank you for acknowledging that?? I’m in the process of arranging all of these new feels into a comfy little pile now, so maybe I can curl up in them. if Horikoshi insists on delivering more and more

SLDKFJSLDKFLSHGLKJKLJSLGKJSDLFKSDLFKJLSDKJFLKSL

“THE OTHER CHILD WHO’S NO LONGER THERE” RED ALERT, RED FUCKING ALERT, IT’S REALLY HAPPENING, HOLY FUCKING SHIT. REMINDER TO SELF, NEXT THURSDAY I’M GONNA HAVE TO GO ON A SELF-IMPOSED INTERNET HIATUS FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS BECAUSE FANDOM’S GOING TO LOSE THEIR FUCKING SHIT WITH THE SPOILERS NEXT WEEK AND I’M NOT EVEN MAD

sdfhk. oh my god. and so it was a photograph! but one which appears to be a segue into a flashback! and the law of escalating tragic flashbacks states that Touya’s is somehow going to be even more horrific than our last flashback, in which, let me just think back for a sec, oh yes, an entire family was massacred and torn into bloody chunks including a six-year-old girl and a dog, and the surviving child was then adopted by a psychopath who adorned him with severed hands and was all “NEVER FORGET HOW FUCKED UP YOU FEEL ABOUT ALL THIS” and then the child murdered some people to feel better about himself. so this is somehow going to be worse than that. well that’s just. ...I don’t even know. I literally can’t think of a lighthearted way to end that train of thought lmao. WE ARE FUCKING SCREWED. get ready to burn, baby

but meanwhile, parting thoughts

so they really do believe he’s dead. that’s confirmed. and he died (or, well, “died”) young, too, based on this picture and on the toys on that shelf. fffff

Endeavor kneeling at a family shrine to pay respects to his dead son and miserably wishing he was still alive is just. repeated stabbings of my already mutilated heart. thanks. thanks for that

he heard EVERYTHING and he’s saying nothing, because what can he say?? I meanwhile have already said “oh my god” about 1600 times in this recap, but I’ll go ahead and say it again anyway one last time because oh my god, the fucking Todofam AND THEIR FUCKING DRAMA!!!

what can I do for my family at this stage? the last plea of a desperate man struggling to make amends and piece together something he’s already shattered into a million pieces. he keeps dreaming of them being happy together, even if he’s not in the dream. he wants to do right by them, finally. but he doesn’t know how. anyways so people have been saying and saying that this arc so far has been death flag after death flag for this old coot, and you know what, they’re fucking right. this does not have a happy ending. this is going to be fucking devastating. and here I am, fully obsessed with it. fuck me

anyways I guess that’s finally everything I can think of to say. this recap is already a million fucking words so that’s fine lol. why though

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha 249 #todoroki shouto #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #todoroki fuyumi #todoroki touya #dabi #endeavor #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #so guys #when I'm writing up the initial recap and making notes of what screencaps to use #I use the first few words of dialogue from each panel I want to crop #for example: [why though]#anyway so long story short that led to me having one set of brackets which contained the words #[you cooked/endeavor]#and yeah. and then I was looking at natsu's face #and like #I don't know why I can't stop laughing?#'sis. you cooked endeavor??'#he's not sure how he feels about this. but he's probably going to allow it #anyway so when I'm busy sobbing next week I need to try and remember this to cheer myself up #'you cooked endeavor.' classic natsu #what a knave

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kryativelogos · 4 years ago

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tl;dr : Scarlemagne Deserves at Least SOME of our UwUs (spoilers for S2)

I just finished watching Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts’ second season and gosh, Hugo is such an interesting character to consider. Like wow, they really exposed this guy (and Lio), hard. This post will break down his past, why he ended up going bananas (haha- get it?), and potential routes for this character in a future season. WARNING: Long-ass post ahead... again

The mysterious Scarlemagne is first introduced in S1 as this Victorian/Elizabethan-era (sorry, I don’t really know my history beyond SIX) loving, piano-playing mandrill who was controlling humans and trying to basically take over the world. In the first season, we only see him as a bit crazy and with no reason behind his want for world domination, as most villains do. We get hints of a history between Kipo’s dad and a-once-known-as Hugo, but aside from that, we know next to nothing about our main antagonist. In terms of S1′s Scarlemagne, I saw him as calculative and clever, he had a backup plan and was teetering between a composed civilian and instinctual animal. Because of all the foreshadowing, I was glad to find an episode in season two (2) that delved into Hugo’s story with Lio (specifically Ep8, although throughout the season there are clips of the two’s history together).

In S2, we find out that Scarlemagne was once one of the last non-mutated animals in the world named Hugo. Lio and his wife, Song, were his caretakers and experimented on him to discover and isolate the gene that caused the animals to mutate. As Hugo grew up, he learned how to read and play the piano by Lio and Song. The couple loved Hugo as if he were their son and honestly, they really wanted what was best for him.

However, it was unclear how long Lio and Song had mutated Hugo and how long he was used as a milking machine by Dr. Emilia. These two scenes were strictly a montage to the audience and that’s why I believe we need to cut him some slack (just like how Kipo did in this season). If we’re going off of Hugo’s point of view, we need to consider that he was in a box for his entire life before escaping to the surface. Since we don’t know how long it was before Dr. Emilia discovered Hugo, I can only assume that there was simply enough time for him to learn/read about the old ages when monarchs were still a thing. He may have a larger vocabulary, but socially, I believe his mental age has got to be no more than 14 years old. I say this because his behavior during his time with Lio and Song (such as when he was playing the piano before he got caught) was still respectful, open to learning about the surface before it came crumbling down, and he was caring - especially with the unborn Kipo. That means he wasn’t introduced to distress until after Dr. Emilia had found him.

Even after Dr. Emilia started abusing him, he was still visited by Lio (as seen in the montage - Song was most likely busy with managing her own mutations and Kipo) but these visits were limited. Meaning that Lio was no longer teaching, and more there to provide accompaniment and comfort. Therefore, if he was still mentally at 14, he certainly did not grow to experience any sense of negative emotions aside from Dr. Emilia; even then, he shut out most of those emotions and kindly did this for Dr. Emilia for the sake of Kipo and her family - his family. So without learning that humans could be “bad” or had mixed emotions aside from loving - thanks to Lio and Song - Hugo grew up incredibly ignorant of the “outside world” and believing that humans had his best interest at heart. This is apparent when he defends humans once up on the surface and generally shy/awkward when he meets the goth apes. Again, this is because of his literally sheltered childhood where he lacked the social interactions he needed to develop as he grew up.

So because of all this, when Hugo notices not only that Lio left him behind, but didn’t look for him, didn’t trust him to hold Kipo, and even gave her his own blanket, the anger and all of these pent up negative emotions come rushing back tenfold. In terms of character, I think the way he received the news was very appropriate for the show. He didn’t know how else to think. So going off of the one book he was obsessed over and just trying to cope with the betrayal, Hugo goes off to make sure nobody ever feels left out again by forcefully uniting all of the mutes and turning the tables on the humans that he once trusted. Hugo took advantage of what he was given to try to make means of what he was feeling in his heart. I mean throughout the last two episodes you can see Kipo really getting through to him, but I believe that he was/is so full of grief and anger that he pushes away that lost feeling of being loved as a defense mechanism so he could never get hurt again.

In the final episode of season two (2) Scarlemagne was carted away with the TimberCats and was genuinely astonished that Kipo would willingly sacrifice her sanity to save mutes. This is a foil to when Lio left Hugo behind. Leading up to this point, Scarlemagne had pegged all humans to always think of themselves before anyone else, so when he finds out a human would go out of their way to help a mute, aka someone like him, he doesn’t know how to compute. I think in a future season the show could really work on a redemption arc with this character. Scarlemagne is still socially ignorant - he doesn’t understand what complex emotions are, and if Kipo was already starting to open up his heart this season, I don’t see why she won’t continue to try to help him in a future season. My only hope is that Kipo won’t take what her dad said to heart, that Scarlemagne will never change, and that she’ll continue to be as stubborn as ever to help those in need.

The other route I can possibly see happening is Scarlemagne turning into a mega mute, as in, no longer humanoid and going complete animal. This would be an interesting route to take since we do see a progression of him going slightly more insane by the end of the season. We have to also consider that the formulas given to Hugo were the same given to Kipo and Song, who both turned into mega mutes that lost their sanity. If this were the case, however, I feel like two consequences would occur: (1) any character development for this character from that moment on, would be wasted (2) progression of the plot may become stale given that there is no longer a clever antagonist and solely an enemy that needs to be taken down, which can be a hit or miss with the audience and the show becomes more or less one-dimensional. So in my opinion, a redemption arc, though cliche, would be a much better route to take, although I wouldn’t mind seeing how the plot changes if they choose to do something like the latter.

What do you guys think? I’m always up for discussion - and as always this was just a fun post, so please don’t judge me based on this! Thanks~

#kipo netflix #kipo and the age of wonderbeasts #scarlegmane #i use uwu as a term of appreciation don't think too deep into it

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cartoonnonsensegirl · 4 years ago

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The Cast of Justice! Excellence! Defense! Intelligence! (J.E.D.I.) and their Star Wars knowledge

Alexis Tano: Has seen the all the originals, but only one prequel: The Phantom Menace, and it was when she was like, 3, so she can barely remember it except for Jar-Jar and some of the other funny moments. She once told Patrice (who’s from Italy) that she thought Queen Amidala looked like she belonged in the Venetian carnival, and showed her the Episode I promo pics to prove her point. Patrice agrees, but she has never seen the prequels (more on her later). Has yet to see AOTC and ROTS. Alexis has also seen the sequels and the spin-offs. Has no idea The Clone Wars exists. Is not a big SW fan in general, and would rather watch Kim Possible or Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Anatole Spacewalker: Has only seen the original trilogy. None of the prequels or sequels. Like Alexis, has never heard of The Clone Wars. He’s heard the Jar-Jar criticisms, but his main thing is that people called Darth Vader “whiny” in the prequels, and he’s afraid that the criticism may be true and it’ll ruin his image of Vader being a fearsome and intimidating villain. He liked the “I am Your Father” scene and considers it one of the best duels in movie history. The one modern SW movie Anatole may consider is Rogue One, because Alexis convinced him that it has great re-watch value. In all honesty, he’d rather be re-watching Lady and the Tramp with Patrice.

Obadiah Kenoly: Like Anatole, has also only seen the original trilogy. Finds Yoda funny in The Empire Strikes Back, and was initially shocked by the reveal that Leia was Luke’s sister. Is also jealous of Old Ben’s beard. Has heard of The Clone Wars but is disinterested.

Patrice Amaretti: Like her J.E.D.I. friends, has watched the originals, but really has not a care in the world for Star Wars. She does have a bit of prequel knowledge from some promo pics and movie stills she’s seen in magazines and online, but only that it’s the story of how Darth Vader became Darth Vader. And even though she has nothing against Leia’s character and strong personality, she thinks her design and costuming could use some work because, in Patty’s own words, “Its Space! You’d think there be more elaborate designer clothes and hairstyles with intricate headpieces! Not just a white dress and cinnamon bun hair”. Honestly, Patty would rather watch a cute, down-to-earth romantic comedy with tons of fashion changes for the female lead and a handsome male lead that is “Mr. Right” than watch a space fantasy. You know what movie she’d watch that has a space setting but also a cute love story? WALL-E. That one and Lady and the Tramp are her and Anatole’s movie night faves.

Yo Fu Wei: Has watched them all, but forgot the plots, he has.

Mace Windham: Has watched the originals and has just started the prequels. He’s been putting off AOTC due to all the deployments the J.E.D.I. Academy has been sending around the globe with their soldiers, but he’ll get to it someday.

Sidonia Palpatine: Has heard of Star Wars, has seen all the memes on the internet (and some clips in videos) when the senators critique her on social media, but never actually watched them until she finally sat down to start with the prequels. Up to now, she’s only seen TPM and AOTC. Doesn’t know the TV shows exist. While she has yet to get to the originals and sequels, she does think Luke is cute, and may also be partial to Kylo Ren for his “puppy-dog eyes”.

Bail Organic: Has seen all the movies. Has tried to convince Patrice to watch the prequels and sequels, but to no avail.

Moira Morgan: Same as Bail. She’s actually told Patrice that she might like Attack of the Clones for the cute romance moments, but the more Patty thought about it, she was like, “So if Darth Vader is Luke and Leia’s father, that means there was a Mrs. Vader...did she go evil too? Why is there no Mrs. Vader in the original movies? Did Darth Vader break up with Mrs. Vader? WHY WOULD ANYONE FALL FOR A MONSTER LIKE DARTH VADER?!!”, thus further pushing Patrice away from the franchise. Moira’s personal favorites are Return of the Jedi and Rogue One, and likes wearing necklaces with the Rebel Alliance symbol.

Rina Chomse: Has seen all Star Wars media, even though she’s not a big fan. She thinks Riyo Chuchi should have gotten more episodes in TCW.

Preston Kelsey: Has seen the originals and prequels, but not the sequels. Wishes to know the lore about the minor Jedi (not the J.E.D.I. Academy that he’s part of, but the Jedi Order in the movies) since he thought they were underused, and the alien designs are too cool to go to waste.

Captain Regis: Has not seen Star Wars

Commander Colby: Nope

Sergeant Republic Face: Nope

Alycia Spurgéon: Has seen memes and only clips. Okay, maybe the Genndy Tartakovsky cartoon, since it’s short and not lengthy.

Sheila Ti: Has seen the first six but has been putting off the sequels. The scene in Revenge of the Sith with the younglings makes her cry, so she usually skips it. She does find the Ewoks and Jar-Jar cute.

Lu Undulashian and Barrie Offerson: Would rather have a Disney sing-along marathon than watch Star Wars.

Kit Ferguson: Has seen them, but not a big fan. Like Preston, thinks all the minor Jedi were underused and just a plot device to be killed off in ROTS to set up the OT.

#star wars #the clone wars #real world au #clone wars au #ahsoka tano #anakin skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #padme amidala #mace windu #yoda #palpatine #captain rex #commander cody #justice excellence defense intelligence #jedi

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keelywolfe · 5 years ago

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FIC: Beneath an Aurora Sky ch. 11

Summary: The South Pole Station is equipped for research and Edge has always made sure things run smoothly for the inhabitants. His charges are meant to follow his rules and regulations, and in turn, he makes sure they survive in the arctic temperatures. It takes plenty of hard work and determination and Edge, along with his crew, can handle both.

He wasn’t counting on one of the newest researchers. He wasn’t expecting Rus.

Tags: Spicyhoney, First Time, Arctic AU, Hurt/Comfort

Notes: So, bourbon came up with an amazing AU and did some lovely art for it: please look at it and love it.

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four

Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine | Chapter Ten |

Read Chapter 11 on AO3

Read it here!

~~*~~

The next morning, Edge reluctantly resisted the temptation to go to Rus’s room and check on him. To begin with, it wasn’t really appropriate to show so much favoritism, no matter how amusing it was the others at the station. He was here to keep them safe, not entertained.

His other reason for was more for his sanity. Trying to sleep the night before had been less than successful, his mind was filled with Rus, pretty Rus and his eager kisses, wondering if that eagerness would be extended to other areas, how the soft sounds he made muffled between their mouths would be in the open air. If Edge went to him this morning, he didn’t think he’d be able to resist if Rus invited him in again and he couldn’t shirk his duties no matter the temptation.

Instead, he wasted a shower token and stood beneath cold water until his bones were chilled, dressing briskly before heading down to the dining hall. Deciding to give in to Rus’s charms didn’t mean there wasn’t a great deal of work he needed to get done today and tonight…well, he would deal with that when it came.

The obscene pun that floated through his thoughts was firmly pushed aside, along with the mental picture of his brother grinning at it. A stroke of luck that Red was vanishingly unlikely to be up for breakfast this morning; his healing sessions took a toll and much as Red hated enduring them, he was usually happy to take advantage of the excuse to sleep in.

In the dining hall, the large table was already mostly filled, and to Edge’s surprise, one of the benches held Rus. He skipped breakfast regularly and after last night, Edge expected the same, the drunken flock that followed Undyne sleeping off whatever hangover they’d been granted.

His worries earlier about being invited into Rus’s bed now looked to have been for naught. Rus looked rather wan, his skull a shade paler than normal. It was a match to the other scientists who’d been with them the night before, the three of them looking more like extras in a polar zombie film than researchers. Breakfast this morning was a hearty porridge with plenty of topping to add, syrups and jams, berries grown in the hydroponic gardens and a dish of chopped dried fruit. Delicious and filling, perfect for dealing with the subzero temperatures, but those three were stirring their bowls apathetically more than attempting to eat any of it. Rus was slouched over his dish, his skull propped up on one hand and his sockets closed.

Unlike Undyne, who was shoveling in her portion eagerly, her bowl heaped high with all the fixings. She swallowed before flashing Edge a sharp-toothed grin. “Morning, boss!”

“Good morning,” Edge said evenly to the table in general. There were several empty seats he could have chosen. A message was being sent by taking the one directly next to Rus, and while Undyne surely got it from the way her needle grin widened, Rus didn’t seem in much condition to appreciate it.

Edge leaned over to him to ask softly, “How are you feeling, Rus?”

One of his sockets opened with a nearly audible creak, the pale eye light bleary and tinged orange. “thinkin’ about changing my middle name to regret.”

A mumble of agreement came from the others further down the table. Those two were leaning against each other, one holding up the other and Edge felt a faint jealous pang that he couldn’t do the same for Rus. No matter that a relationship with any of the researchers wasn’t against the rules—they were all adults and could choose to share whatever beds they liked—but some decorum was necessary. His command of the others depended on it.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t offer some soothing, and while he was trying to decide where he could safely touch Rus in front of the others, the kitchen door opened. Bonnie emerged, ducking a little to avoid clipping her long ears against the doorframe and carrying a tray of steaming cups. That in itself was unusual; coffee was readily available at all times in vast quantities, one of the largest supplies they ordered. She only set a one of the mugs in front of Rus and the other two in front of those who’d made the mistake of taking Undyne up on her offer of a drink.

What is that? Edge signed, warily curious, but Bonnie only gave Rus a light nudge, pointing to the cup.

Rus sat up straight, blinking, then took the cup and sniffed it. He cringed, his face clearly reflecting what he thought of the contents. He started to sign something, paused, and made a shoving aside gesture to begin again. He was facing away from Edge who only caught flashes of his hands, but Bonnie was watching him, her scarred face twisted with amusement.

When Rus finished, she shook her head and pointed firmly at the cup again. Whatever it was, Bonnie wasn’t taking no for an answer, and Rus sighed exaggeratedly, picking up the cup again. His face scrunched again in distaste, but he swigged back the contents, coughing and gagging lightly as he swallowed it.

The mug was nearly slammed to the table as Rus quivered, scrambling for his water glass and downing half the contents. By now, everyone was watching him, mostly with a sort of dismayed awe, or in Undyne’s case, glee, except the young women from the night before. Their horrified looks kept darting from Rus to their own mugs to Bonnie, who was waiting patiently for them to drink it.

“it does help,” Rus rasped out, flicking his bony finger against the mug. The ceramic chimed lightly. “old monster recipe, you’ll feel a lot better after. only problem is you need to drink it for it to work.”

“Is it safe for humans,” one of the women asked uncertainly. She was peering into the cup, attempting to identify the murky contents.

“oh, sure, it’s fine. you’ve all had a recent tetanus shot, right?” Her head snapped up and Rus laughed. Some color was starting to return to his skull and that alone was a good testimony, “kidding, kidding, yeah, there’s nothing in it that isn’t food-worthy. it’s just not usually mixed together. don’t think about it too hard, get it down the hatch, keep it down, and it’ll help.”

Edge fully expected them to both decline and instead, head back to their rooms to search out whatever analgesic they’d brought with them. It was certainly a surprise, and a pleasant one at that, when both of them clinked their mugs together in a sort of toast before slugging back the contents.

True to Rus’s word, getting it down was the most difficult part. Sweat broke out on their faces immediately, their eyes nearly bulging as they gagged down the sludgy liquid. Everyone was watching them avidly, taking in the latest episode in this ongoing drama as both women managed to swallow it, slamming down their mugs in triumphant unison.

“water,” Rus called, “trust me!”

Again, as one they scrabbled for their glasses, drinking them down and by the time they’d finished, some of their pallor was already receding.

“That actually helped,” the first woman said, wonderingly. She turned to Bonnie and her signing was awkward, one speaking by rote rather than a learned language, but it was still a recognizable ‘thank you’.

Bonnie’s smug expression flashed with shock. Unsurprising, no other researcher who had come to their station ever bothered trying to communicate to her in her own language. They took their food as their due, their heads and thoughts buried in their notes. Rus was the first exception, but a Monster speaking in hands wasn’t nearly as astonishing as a Human. Bonnie signed back ‘you’re welcome’, every movement slow and deliberate, chosen for one who was not fluent, and the Human woman smiled with delight, awkwardly mimicking until Bonnie nodded in satisfaction.

With a huff, Bonnie gathered up the mugs and disappeared back into the kitchen, paying no mind to the astonishing scene she was leaving behind.

Another researcher, one of the climatologists, spoke up, “You said it was an old Monster cure. Do you happen to have the recipe?” He already had a pen in hand, poised over a blank sheet of paper, but Rus shook his head.

“sorry,” Rus smiled wryly. “i can’t boil water without causing an incident and bonnie probably isn’t going to share her trade secrets.” Almost, Edge expected some belligerence, the common reaction when telling a Human researcher that he wasn’t allowed to know something; recipes, Alphys’s research, the Core. But he took it well, only sighing in mock disappointment and set his pen aside.

“If you want to try it yourself, I bet Undyne would be more than happy to help out,” the other woman said wryly. She was starting to show more interest in her oatmeal, spooning up a mouthful.

Laughter rounded the table, Undyne’s the loudest of all, “You bet, come on down to the kitchen tonight, nerd, I’ll show you some real research.”

More laughter, and Edge could hear the warm rasp of Rus’s, throaty and charming, so close to him. The table settled down, everyone digging back into their breakfasts. Even Rus, who began adding brown sugar and berries to his bowl, stirring it into a sugary sludge. He was left-handed, Edge realized, his right hand resting on the table between them as he spooned up mouthfuls of porridge. Sitting next to him was a message of its own and Edge knew that lightly settling his ungloved hand over Rus’s was another, not quite twining their fingers together, allowing for escape.

Rus stilled briefly, his spoon hovering in the air between the bowl and his mouth, dribbling porridge. Then he moved, but not to pull away. He only turned his hand over, meshing their fingers together and if it was slightly awkward trying to eat while holding hands. Edge found that he didn’t mind.

He could feel the weight of Undyne’s stare, her palpable satisfaction, but she said nothing, only helped herself again to the porridge pot, piling her bowl high with fruit and a heavy douse of syrup.

Edge’s own bowl was plain, with only a little dried fruit stirred in, but eating it was satisfying, and scraping up the last of it came far, far too soon.

~~*~~

Today was one of Edge’s days to work in the hydroponic gardens and normally he enjoyed it, picking over the plants for dead leaves, gathering the produce Bonnie requested for the evening meal.

But now with his thoughts lingering on his possible evening, the damp air seemed aggravating, too warm and claggy, clinging uncomfortably to his bones. Edge never claimed to be one of great imagination, but some heretofore undiscovered creative side of his thoughts seemed eager to suddenly prove their skill, offering him sly images of what Rus would look like it his bed, his pale bones against Edge’s sheets.

Ridiculous thoughts; he hadn’t even asked Rus if he would be interested yet. It could very well be that he had time-sensitive research ongoing and he didn’t have time to spare for Edge’s whims. Flirtations aside, that was what Rus was here for and it would be a very expensive waste for him to neglect it in favor of a little indulgent bed play.

The truth of that had no effect on Edge’s libido and while once it had been dormant, only showing itself on the rare occasions that Edge woke in the mornings to find a need for a little self-service, now it was well and truly roused. Demanding satisfaction in the form of a tall, slender skeleton with a soft laugh and teasing smile.

The crackle of the radio interrupted his untoward thoughts, his brother’s staticky voice coming out, “boss, you need to come down to the radar, right now.”

“On my way,” Edge said, already sliding on his coat. He bundled up hastily, hunching against the wind as he crossed over to the main building. The radar was in a room off the main entrance, meant for easy access. There was another in Alphys’s lab and he was sure she was looking at it with the same bleak dismay as Red and Undyne when Edge came in.

He didn’t bother shedding any of his outdoor gear, boots leaving puddle on the floor as he demanded, “Report.”

“There’s a storm blowing in,” Undyne said grimly. She tapped the screen where a large blob of red glowed. “We didn’t get an alert earlier because it wasn’t supposed to head this way. Looks like it decided to take a detour.”

“Who is still out?” Edge snatched away the sign-out sheet when Undyne held it out, scanning it.

“The seal gals are already in, I saw them coming in when I grabbed the sheet, I just didn’t give them a chance to sign off. But boss,” she pulled up the last sheet, tapping the surprisingly tidy signature at the bottom. “Rus went out to Checkpoint #3 after breakfast and he ain’t back yet.”

“He could be heading back right now,” Red pointed out.

“Or he could be standing out there with his ass hanging out and have no idea what’s coming,” Undyne countered. Her voice was sharp as her teeth, rich with concern. “We can’t reach him on the radio, but that station’s behind a ridge, communications have always been shit. Or the snow could already be interfering. Alphys’s been working on it, but—"

“I’m going out,” Edge announced abruptly. He tossed the sign-out sheet down on the table with a clatter as he pulled his gloves back on.

“Boss—“

But he was in no mood to hear their protests. “Even if Rus is headed back, he drives so slowly, he wouldn’t be back in time to beat the storm. He won’t make it if I don’t go out there.”

“you go out now, you’re staying out,” Red warned. His eye lights were dark, implacable. “unless you bump into him right outside the door, when you find him, you get to one of the shelters. don’t try to head back, not even in the cat.”

“I don’t need you to tell me how to handle a rescue,” Edge snapped, turning to the door. “keeping the researchers safe is my job!”

“Our job,” Undyne cut in, stilling him, “and no, you don’t. But you’re pretty damn fond of the fashion victim and you don’t have the distance you usually do.” Neither of them so much as flinched from his temper, following behind him. “Red’s right, you two will be safer in a shelter than trying to head back, you’d do better to shack up. Take one of the Core kits, just in case.”

“they ain’t been fully tested,” Red protested.

“They’ve been tested enough,” Undyne countered. She briskly unlocked one of the storage lockers, pulling out one of the units. It was the size of a lunch box but much heavier, a compact version of the Core that Alphys had been designing and tweaking. At the moment there were only a few locked up and scattered around the buildings in case of emergency. “It can work as a heat source. The shelters all have kerosene heaters anyway, but this works a hell of a lot better and if it doesn’t, you’ll still have the others as a backup.”

He took it, balancing the weight in his gloved hand even as Red eyed it warily. His brother shook himself visibly and said, “if you’re going, you need to get gone, bro. take any of the snowmobiles, they’re all fueled up and checked over. be fucking careful.”

“I will,” Edge promised. He dared to lay a hand on his brother’s skull, gloves scruffing over the knit cap that covered his injuries. But that was all and he turned on his heel, heading back out.

There was nothing but white emptiness on what little view there was of the hardpacked snow that made up the roads, no signs of the headlights of the Cat heading in. He hurried to the vehicle shed and the snow was already falling as Edge turned the snowmobile towards Checkpoint #3, obscuring his vision through his goggles. He knew the route well and didn’t hesitate, the headlight cutting through the darkness as he pushed the machine to its limits, the engine roaring over the sound of the wind.

There was a little time yet and he would need all of it.

tbc

#spicyhoney #papcest #keelywolfe #underfell #underswap #underfell papyrus #underswap papyrus #beneath an aurora sky

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girlobsessed21 · 5 years ago

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The 100 6x11 discussion - burning desires of change

Hey guys, as usual, here’s my breakdown of the episode. Props to Mr. Bob Morley on his directing debut - insert applause emoji here. All in all, it was great, I enjoyed it, albeit a little weird. But it’s to be expected of a conversion episode taking us into the finale.

Like I explained in my 2nd predictions post, “Ashes to Ashes’ has Biblical connotation and it’s also a British crime drama about time traveling back to the early 80′s as well as David Bowie’s 1980 hit single about addiction.

Apart from Ash being Echo’s real name, I struggled to find the link to the title until it hit me with a wrench from behind. It’s about cycles, repetition, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results (which Einstein did not say btw). Only now, it’s breaking that rotation. Demons are overcome (apart from Madi), and it’s time to do better.

Octavia’s no longer Bellamy’s responsibility, Clarke refuses to kill innocents, the children of Gabriel learn the truth, Miller disobeyed to transcend and Echo (or Ash), well, I’ll talk about her later. To Monty! Will this also be the end of the ‘will they, won’t they’ dance for Bellamy and Clarke? See my thoughts on this.

That said, let’s fall into the recap.

A child possessed

Okay, Sheidheda was a lot creepier in this episode than the previous ones. if Madi wasn’t completely overthrown before, it seems like she is now and her driving force is pure vengeance. The bond between Madi and Clarke is harder to break than diamonds, which we saw in season 5 and here again.

For six years, all they had were each other. Since the little Natblida was only six when Clarke found her, she won’t even remember her real family all that well. To Madi, Clarke was her savior, her family, her protector, her mother and basically everything else. Having such an influence taken away from you is artery-slicing.

The demon in her head knows this, plays on it and manipulates in a way an abuser lures children in with sweets. Given her age and lack of experience, she follows blindly. I have a feeling this might continue onto season 7 but I hope Raven finds a way to eliminate him. That face freaks me out. For now, he’s gonna cause a lot more damage than we anticipate and will probably be a spoil of war for the peaceful plan.

John Murphy - court jester or hero?

Yeah, he’s been a fence-sitter the entire season, but you have to admit, Murphy provides some much needed comical relief. Granted, the writers have turned up the humor via Bellamy, Clarke, and Diyoza, yet Murphy’s sarcasm should never be taken for granted. “Houdini Miller.” He might not make it to the end of the season.

If someone threatens the life of the person you love, will you protect everyone else or only that person? Ask Bellamy, he did the exact same thing. Risked the lives of everyone else to save his girl, of course Murphy will do the same. He wants to marry Emori, he’ll face hell to ensure her safety.

Still, he warns Echo in good old Cockroach fashion. Don’t let them find out I’m on your side, there’s but one side and it’s mine - and Emori’s. As long as the primes think that, he’ll have a chance of being spared. Murphy is such a great character, sure, he has deviated from being good, but that’s what makes him interesting.

The more layers and substance a character has, the more convincing and relatable they are. All of us have flaws, Murphy’s biggest one is his selfishness, does this make him a bad person? Absolutely not. He struggles and sometimes stumbles due to it but he still cares. Only the size of his heart’s in question, not the existence and it gets them out of some serious syrupy situations.

The makes of the Blakes

So, Bellamy doesn’t care about the delusional cult followers, he merely wants to save his people, to hell with the rest. In a sense, he betrayed them to rescue his love? soulmate? person? and has to make up for it. Now, Bellamy, did Monty not teach you anything?

Being so determined, he calls his sister the queen of cannibals. Killing her own people to ensure their survival. She did what she had to do, why can’t he? I didn’t know Bellamy even knew about this, why didn’t they show his reaction to finding out? Wouldn’t it have led to him cutting her some slack? He was in the exact same situation many times before.

Probably not. His whole life has always revolved around her, everything he did was to protect his sister to the point of borderline, unhealthy codependency. Octavia was his purpose and yet she threw him in a fighting pit to die after he once again tried to save her - from herself.

Gabriel then tells Bellamy his sister is special, she returned from the greatest mystery of Sanctum. If I remember correctly, Lincoln called her special too when she was unaffected by the biological warfare. There’s more to it though, in my opinion, I still think Diyoza will return, they were both called by the anomaly, why would only O survive? That anomaly is going to be some crazy wow-factor, I’m certain.

I believe a cult won’t be too happy to find out that its leader is the exact thing they’re rebelling against. And the children of Gabriel seemed pretty pissed, especially Xavier’s sister. That is until Bellamy gives them a plan to fulfill their cause. Unfortunately for him, it means teaming up with O to find the powerful red sun toxin. For once the cultists weren’t useless!

Poor Gabriel, all he wants is peace. I thought Jordan would be a Monty reincarnator but apparently, that’s Gabriel. Or he’s more of Lincoln II? Either way, I hope he doesn’t die. Speaking of Jordan, I miss him in his recovery bed.

Anyway, “what do you say when sorry isn’t good enough?” Despite Bellamy’s countless efforts to keep O occupied, she won’t stop breaking down the walls around his heart. Those mushrooms were strong, Bell, we saw it. Octavia’s speech was so deep, honest and touching that Bellamy’s stray tears hardly seem enough.

The way it was resolved though, is more than satisfactory. After everything that’s happened, it wouldn’t be enough development for him to simply accept what she’s done and move on. But, he’s willing to give her a chance to prove herself while no longer being the core of his world. “You’re my sister, but you’re not my responsibility, not anymore” is probably the best metamorphosis I’ve witnessed on this show. It clips the umbilical cord for both of them to emerge as individuals.

Echoes of a cold-hearted spy

So, I assume Echo protected Ryker thinking she could bank on his morality to spare her. And of course, she keeps scraping at the flesh wound. But Ryker believes saving his family keeps the peace, killing Echo saves everyone else. One life instead of thousands - it’s for the greater good, right? Wrong. The acting here was great, I was totally convinced of Ryker’s bouncing morals.

Off-topic, I completely forgot Miller used to be a thief and I’m glad we got to see his pick-pocketing skills in action. He deserves some credit and screentime, since being a part of this show for six seasons. Oh, and the transcending moment between him and Gaia was super sweet.

For a second I thought Echo would become Simone and then I remembered that she also took ALIE’s chip and they wouldn’t rehash the neural mesh storyline. Meaning my fears were quickly soothed.

Onto the important part, what was that back story supposed to mean? All I got out of it, is that Echo’s cycle isn’t broken. That leopard hasn’t changed its spots. Don’t get me wrong, it broke my heart that she had to kill her friend and resume her identity in order to survive. But, it felt like a turning point in Echo’s character that plunged her into heartlessness. Will she become that person again?

I know Echo might not be a fan favourite, but she’s really grown on me this season. She’s smart, loyal and fierce, I like her. Not Bellamy and Echo together though, I can’t see a semblance of a connection between them. And their relationship is only hurting their characters.

Why would they build her up as a great character just to show that she cares about no-one, not even her friends? I mean I get why she killed Ryker, leaving him alive was too much of a risk - he would tell Russel about her, Miller and Gaia being at large. Though that murderous glint in her eyes tells me that was purely for revenge and completely against their newfound lifestyle. Maybe I’m wrong.

I’m curious to know what being a nightblood will mean for her now and how her character might change after being held at gunpoint.

Meanwhile, Monty’s mantra rings through Clarke

Oy, Bellamy risked everything and everyone to save Clarke and if she can’t play the part of Josephine convincingly, that was all for nothing. And our boy’s not happy about it - at all. Only, Clarke refuses a Mount Weather do-over.

I just need to mention Bellamy’s face when Murphy come’s through the tent - priceless. Then Jade finally gets a chance to knock someone out too. Yay for her!

The moment Clarke’s safe, she goes straight to Bellamy for reassurance and goodbye. Backtracking to the start of the episode, the way he flung to her side when she woke, touched and comforted her was toothachingly soft and way too intimate to be non-romantic.

Bellamy gets this shy, ‘aw it’s nothing’ expression when Clarke thanks him for saving her life. Because to him, it really is nothing, there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for her. And while he’s making heart-eyes at his friend, his girlfriend is being prepped for a blood transplant and murder. I cannot see how there won’t be any followthrough on this.

If there’s not, it’s altogether bad writing, showcasing and wasted potential. Right now, there’s too much going on for a decent conversation that’s years overdue and I’m hopeful they’ll get it. In the synopsis of the finale, there’s a hint at romance and I truly believe it’s theirs.

Well done Eliza! For playing Clarke and Josephine, Clarke as Josephine and vice versa. She’s an amazing actress and has come a long way from, “Stop, the air could be toxic!.”

The woman must have been devastated when she walked in on Madi strapped to a chair, being drained for her blood. Yet, in the scheme of greater good, she acts oblivious. She plays the part of a nonchalant sociopath so well, while sparing Madi via a sedative and shifting the focus to her mind drive.

Those newlyweds sure know how to act and direct!! Like always, I’d love to hear your thoughts, did I read the Echo backstory correctly? Till next week, bye!

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scripttorture · 5 years ago

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Torture in Fiction: The Umbrella Academy: Episode 1-6

I tried to start this saying I was only going to review episode 2 which has a prominent torture scene. Several hours later I am… significantly closer to the end of the series. So I thought I may as well include what I’ve watched.

The Umbrella Academy is a Netflix original series based on an independent comic book. With great acting, excellent music and a cast of deeply flawed characters it was (I understand) quite a hit.

I’m enjoying it a lot more then I thought I would. It’s violent but it’s also ridiculous in a way few stories but superhero comics tend to commit to. There’s a 60 year old man stuck in the body of a thirteen year old after travelling to an apocalyptic future and being in a thirty year relationship with a mannequin. And I just- I love comics.

This series feels very much like a superhero comic book on screen. With all the good and the bad that goes with that concept.

But I’m not here to tell you what I think of the superhero genre and it’s relationship with violence. I’m rating the depiction and use of torture, not the series itself. I’m trying to take into account realism (regardless of fantasy or sci fi elements), presence of any apologist arguments, stereotypes and the narrative treatment of victims and torturers.

Umbrella Academy is the story about a group of very damaged people with super powers. Adopted as babies (born in extraordinary circumstances) by a millionaire ‘adventurer’ six of the Hargreeve children were raised to be superheroes. The seventh, apparently without powers, was isolated in a world of talking chimps, robots and extraordinary abilities.

The story starts with Reginald Hargreeve’s death and the five surviving children (including one who’d been living on the moon, apparently for years) meet for the funeral. In the course of this ‘Five’, teleports back from the future.

While the story overall focuses on the way an emotionally abusive and neglectful upbringing effects all of the major characters I’m going to be focusing on the clear instances of torture in and solitary confinement in some of the episodes.

Both Luther and Five are subjected to extreme solitary confinement. Luther is isolated on the moon for four years, Five is isolated as the last person alive for several decades.

Five stops up in a donut shop late at night and sits next to a tow truck driver. They have a brief conversation and the driver leaves. An armed gang then attacks Five. He kills them and two more people (Cha-Cha and Hzael) are sent after him, apparently by the same organisation.

Believing they’re looking for a man in his 50s they go after the tow driver. They torture him and while they eventually believe that he isn’t Five, they continue to torture him to get information on Five. The driver tells them everything that happened the night before.

Later Cha-Cha and Hazel mount a raid on the Hargreeves estate looking for Five. They don’t find him but they manage to capture his brother Klaus.

Klaus is an addict (what he takes is not explicitly defined) and talks to dead people. The two are linked throughout the story with the heavy implication that Klaus avoids sobriety in order to escape his powers.

Klaus is tied to a chair for about a day and a half. He’s beaten, strangled and ‘waterboarded’. (Cha-Cha calls it waterboarding but didn’t actually carry it out properly. I’ve assumed that was for the safety of the actors).

Klaus escapes and shows no mobility problems after being cut off the chair. He then spends several months in 1968 (as you do). On his return his mental health problems seem to be no worse then they were before he was tortured.

I’m giving it 0/10

The Good

The actual forms of torture shown in The Umbrella Academy are reasonably realistic. They’re not always accurate to the time period or place, but when time travel is involved I’m willing to let that slide. The electrical torture shown, with a battery and bulldog clips, could be taken directly from Alleg’s accounts of his experience at the hands of French troops in Algeria. The stress positions and strangulation are shown realistically. And while the waterboarding isn’t shown realistically I think it was done this way to protect the actor and allow him to breathe.

The Bad

I’ve covered solitary confinement before. The estimated safe period for most people is about a week. While both Luther and Five has a strong sense of purpose during their confinement (and this seems to be a protective factor) that wouldn’t help a lot when they’re confined for such an unrealistically long period. At four years Luther should be a complete mental and physical wreck. At several decades including puberty, Five shouldn’t be able to interact normally with people and should be more obviously mentally ill then Klaus. Both of them are shown without symptoms and this downplays the damage of torture that’s routinely depicted as harmless.

Umbrella Academy shows torture ‘working’ with victims giving up accurate information if only you know how to hurt them. This isn’t true. Torture can’t result in accurate information. This kind of misinformation encourages torture in real life.

Klaus’ response to torture is to thank his torturers for inflicted pain with the strong implication that he’s enjoying being tortured. It’s implied that he’s turned on by pain so ‘can’t’ be traumatised or hurt by torture. This is ridiculous and insulting to both the BDSM community and torture survivors. BDSM practitioners don’t stop feeling pain and they aren’t immune to trauma. There is a world of difference between a consensual and non-consensual encounter. Personally I think this kind of portrayal is akin to suggesting that victims can’t be raped because they’ve previous enjoyed sex. It’s unacceptable.

Klaus is held in a stress position for at least a day. This is a survivable time frame but on release he should have significant mobility issues and should have needed help escaping. Instead he’s perfectly capable of making his way out with a heavy time-travel device. He can walk and move his arms freely. This completely ignores that the way he was held is torturous.

Neither Cha-Cha nor Hazel show any of the mental health problems typical of torturers. They’re portrayed as competent and able to investigate effectively, even though they torture. Torturers are not good investigators and torture consistently undermines effective investigation. Realistically a character can be one or the other, not both.

Cha-Cha and Hazel are also depicted as good fighters and generally skilled. In reality torture produces a deskilling effect in torturers, they get worse at what they do.

Cha-Cha and Hazel are shown as obedient to their superiors, only targetting people who have information or are ordered as targets. This isn’t how torturers operate. They disobey orders, ignore superiors and target a wide array of people who usually have nothing to do with anything the torturers are supposed to investigate.

No one in the series so far has shown any long standing mental health problems as a result of torture or isolation.

No one has shown any memory problems as a result of torture or isolation.

The end result is that the series suggests torture doesn’t have any long term effects at all.

Overall

I think this series really highlights something I’ve been saying a lot on the blog: It’s very easy to find realistic depictions of how torture is carried out and it’s very hard to find realistic depictions of the effect it has on people.

These episodes, and I suspect (from what I’ve seen) the series more generally handles torture terribly. It’s unrealistic and it’s parroting a lot of tropes that either excuse torture or belittle survivors.

That didn’t get in the way of me enjoying the series outside of these scenes. There are a lot of great characters and character moments.

But none of that excuses this senseless repetition of torture apologia.

For a series that works so hard to highlight the effect of childhood emotional abuse it downplays the effects of physical abuse at every turn.

It uses torture as a short cut in the plot. It portrays torturers as smart and restrained badasses.

It basically does virtually everything I advise writers not to do.

And this comes about simply by repeating the same old genre tropes without bothering to look up the subjects involved.

There are other ways to have your bad guys find out the information they need to know. There are other ways to establish them as terrible people.

There are realistic ways to show people resisting torture, which don’t diminish the pain they suffered.

I think what I want to stress most of all is that this apologia is unnecessary. It doesn’t add anything to the story. The fun stuff, the super heroics, the ridiculous time travel escapades and carefully choreographed fight scenes can all happen without apologia as the background noise.

For once- I’m not really mad. I’m disappointed. That these tropes creep into genre after genre, put down roots and keep coming back up. The mainstay of this story wouldn’t be any different if they took out torture or even used it in a more realistic way.

Five’s isolation in an apocalyptic wasteland doesn’t last. He’s picked up by an agency of time travellers and offered a job. This could have happened more quickly, especially since the time he spends alone and the time he spends with the agency are both poorly defined.

Luther’s trip to the moon functions to build a wall between him and his siblings. And again, that could have happened in a much shorter time frame.

Cha-Cha and Hazel could have just interviewed the tow truck driver for their information. They’re shown conducting successful interviews later.

Klaus’ resistance could have been framed as natural and there are several points in his dialogue already that could have supported that. The story could have used the fact that Klaus genuinely does not know where Five is.

In the end The Umbrella Academy’s use of torture is a waste of narrative space. None of these torture scenes are essential to the plot and every single one of them is handled badly.

It’s an example of a narrative that wasn’t prepared to commit to showing the consequences of torture.

We can all do better.

Edit: I forgot the full title. Oops.

Available on Wordpress.

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#tw torture #tw rape #torture in fiction #the umbrella academy #torture apologia #solitary confinement #mental illness #superheroes #writing victims #writing torturers #torture and memory #stress positions #electrical torture

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huntertales · 5 years ago

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Part Three: At First If You Don’t Succeed. (Clip Show S08E22)

Episode Summary: Sam, Dean and the reader share a bitter reunion with Castiel after finding the angel beaten and bloody in the middle of the road. While digging through the Men of Letters’ files, they stumble upon an undiscovered film which could be the key to completing the third trial. Meanwhile, Crowley digs into the reader and boys’ past, putting people they saved in mortal danger. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Word Count: 3,744.

Previous Part | Supernatural Rewrite Masterlist

You had your doubts on Dean's plan of digging up a demon you had buried away in the outskirts of town for the past few months. There was no reason why she wouldn't come back to life after all this time. While you were still skeptical, it seemed you were discovering new things about demons today. You learned that you might possibly be able to cure one with some Latin and purified blood. And if you chopped the head off of one with a devil's trap bullet in her skull she'd come back to life like a typical functioning monster. While you wanted nothing more in this world than to leave Abbadon buried six feet under with her still conscious of her surroundings after all she did to you. The desire to figuring out how to close the gates of hell was stronger.

You stared at the demon with your arms crossed over your chest, the sight of the red head alone made your desire to bury her alive came back even stronger. All the things she did to your father fueled the idea of leaving her in solitary. But you knew if this plan worked—if you somehow could turn her into a human again—the guilt of the blood she had on her hands from countless murders and terrible acts she committed for hell would be the best kind of punishment of all. It might be just enough for her to end her own pathetic life.

“It worked.” Dean declared the obvious. He slapped his brother on the chest for his doubts. “You owe me a beer.”

“And I owe you both so, so much.” Abbadon thought all of you were stupid enough to attach her head back on to her body with free mobility to her body. It seemed she wasn’t all back to her normal self when she made passive threats to the older Winchester. “I can’t wait to tear those pretty green eyes out.”

“Good luck with that.” Sam told the demon.

You nodded your head to the lack of human parts she woke up a little less with, your lips stretching into a smirk at her new discovery. "We figured kitty didn't need her claws.”

Abbadon stared down to see you were staring at her arms, to be specific, the bloody stumps of where her hands should have been. You couldn't help yourself but snicker as you saw her struggle to get out of her seat and come after you from the reaction alone. Abbadon enjoyed a challenge on taking down her victims. "Then I'll stump you to death. It'll be swell."

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen, either." Sam said. "The bullet, remember?"

The bullet that was currently lodged in the roof of her mouth if you took a wild guess from the angle Henry shot her, before she ripped his insides out and left him to bleed out. Long as the bullet was in her body, there was no way she was going to smoke out or escape from your clutches from what you were about to do to her. It was sweet, sweet karma coming her way that was fifty-five years in the making from what she did not only to your own flesh and blood, but to all the others she tried wiping out.

“So you sit there like a good little bitch. We’re gonna consecrate the ground, and you’re gonna get to fessing up.” Dean explained the plan for today to the demon, thinking she had no clue what was about to go down. He thought it would be a nice little surprise to ambush her with after waking up the demon from her little dirt nap. He might not be able to kill her with the demon knife, but she'd do his job for her after that soul of hers turned a little less dark.

“Oh, I know this tune.” Abbadon said. Sam scoffed quietly at the secret the Men of Letters kept hidden for decades. It'd be impossible for the demon to know, however he didn't connect the dots together. Only it was the exact reason why she was here in the first place. "Father Max Thompson, born on October 12, 1910. Died, August 5th, 1958. Who do you think ripped that priest apart? Word got back to home office that Maxie was messing with things, so we made an example. It wasn’t my most artful kill, but it was effective. But Andrew...oh, he was my pride and joy. What I did to him was a true work of art. A masterpiece, if I may say.”

“What you did is that you turned him into a monster. Like yourself.” Your insult to the demon was like a compliment from the smile that spread across Abbadon’s smeared red lips. “This entire time I thought it was because you needed someone on the inside to help you. But I’m guessing the chick you’re wearing was one of them. You did it for revenge. You knew about the rituals this entire time.”

“Father Max spilled his guts before I ripped them out of his body. He told me all about Josie Sands. I rode her into the Men of Letters and what I did to them—that was fun. But you really don’t care about that. You care about why Daddy didn’t die like everyone else.” Abbadon took a wild guess at the questions you still had. “Andrew was a special case. His family has a long history of messing with demons. It only seems fair he got a taste of his own medicine. Took days and countless demons, but it was all worth it when his soul turned black as his eyes.”

“So you knew what Max was doing.” Sam said.

“I had an idea. Fella screamed the basics. I tried getting more information out of Andrew, and, well, you can’t say much when you’re choking down demon blood.” Abbadon nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders at the inconvenience for her. “I can only imagine what kind of half breed you turned out to be, Y/N. Your little plan isn’t gonna work.”

“You keep telling yourself that.” Dean said.

You found the conversation taking a momentary pause when you heard your phone start ringing from an incoming call. You shoved a hand inside your back pocket and pulled it out to see a three number digit on the screen. “666.” You furrowed your brow slightly from who it could be from the usual number. You answered the call and pressed the phone to your ear, deciding to let the caller say hello first. The person on the other line was a voice you were expecting to hear in person after he popped out of thin air. It was Crowley, with that obnoxious accent of his.

“Hello, Kitten.”

You rolled your eyes from hearing that stupid nickname of his you were given. “Crowley.”

"Crowley?" Abbadon repeated the name of a demon she remembered before being thrown into the twenty first century. He dubbed himself king of the crossroads back in the day. She smiled slightly, wondering why he was calling you. "The salesman?"

“Try the king of hell.” Dean corrected the demon.

The smile on Abbadon's face fell quickly as it came after hearing the words come out of the man's mouth. Hell must've froze over for that pompous prick to have gotten such a prestige title. When Abbadon was around there were key players still alive—Lilith, Azazel, just to name a few on the top of the food chain. There was no way Crowley got ranks over hell above all of them. Things really went to crap while she was gone. "This a joke, right?"

You nodded your head for the boys to follow you outside so you could take this call in private. Whatever reason why Crowley was trying to contact you like this it was important. Dean ordered for the demon to stay right where she was while all of you stepped inside to figure out what the king of hell wanted. You thought Abbadon would have done what she was told. After all, there was no way she could escape if she had no hands to sneak out the bullet.

When you got outside, you pressed a button on the screen to put the call on speaker so you weren't the only one graced to hear the demon's voice. You continued on the conversation by asking a very important question. "How'd you get your slimy hands on my number, Crowley?"

"Ah, first thing's first," Crowley answered your question with a sleazy one of his own. "what are you wearing, Kitten?"

"Oh, okay, hanging up now." Dean jumped into the conversation when he heard the demon try to get cheeky with you. He nodded his head for you to end this call once and for all, thinking the demon was trying to be funny with you by wasting your time. "Hang up."

"Don't get your boxers in a twist, Squirrel. This isn't a social call. I was wondering. You lads been reading the papers, say, Dever Times from yesterday? No? Well, you should. It's side-splitting." Crowley said. Dean pulled out his phone and pulled up the newspaper the demon was talking about, and why he was going through all the effort to tell you about it. "What the hell—I'm sexting you an address. Check it out. Then we'll talk. Cheerio."

"Wait, what?" Sam tried to figure out what the demon was talking about, but he was a little slow on the draw when he heard the dial tone coming from the other end of the line. "Crowley?"

You hung up the phone and shoved it back into your pocket for safekeeping after Dean pulled up the front page of the newspaper Crowley was talking about. You spotted a news article that caught your attention, something about a freak accident always raised a few questions. "Here it is. Vic's name was Tommy Collins." Dean read off a bit of information after skimming through the article. The name sounded familiar to him, but he couldn't place where he heard it before until today. "Tommy. Why do I know that name?"

"Tommy Collins. We saved him from a wendigo like forever ago." Sam said. "It was the second case we ever took with Y/N when she was still learning how to hunt."

"Wow. Talk about a blast from the past." You mumbled the slightly insensitive remark under your breath. You vaguely remembered the case that you took back when John was missing and you were figuring the ropes of how to be a hunter without getting yourself killed. You wondered why Crowley went after Tommy after all these years "You think Crowley blew his head off? I mean, what are we dealing with here? Some sort of demon-wendigo team up?

“No clue.” Sam admitted.

“All right, well, we’ll pour one out for Tommy later.” Dean said. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and headed back inside the building, knowing you had more important things to do than worry about what Crowley was up to. It was sad at what came of Tommy, but you didn’t have time to play games. “As far as Crowley goes, screw him. We got everything we need to put him in a permanent time-out.”

You thought you were one step ahead of the game from Abbadon sitting in the building with no where to go and Crowley thinking you were going to play his little game. It seemed for a second you had everything exactly where you wanted. Life has a funny way of not always working in your favor. When you stepped back inside the place and into where you left the demon, you felt your heart stop in panic when you saw there was an empty chair—and no demon. You swore on your life she was there when you left her only a few minutes ago. Somehow the bitch managed to sneak away while you weren’t looking.

“No. No! No! No! No!” Dean growled to himself at the unfortunate sight. He raced forward to the empty chair and looked around to see if he might be able to spot the red head around here somewhere. “She’s gone. She’s—son of a bitch!”

Dean took it upon himself to try and track the demon down while you and Sam figured out how Abbadon managed to get herself free. She might be immune to the demon knife, but you’ve never met something like her that was resistant to a devil’s trap. You should’ve take it one step further and made one around her before you brought Raggedy Ann back to life. You walked over to the desk you had laid all the materials out on when you noticed something was off. You reached for the metal box that you had put her detached hands for safe keeping. When you noticed they were empty, you let out a frustrated sigh and threw it back down to the desk, causing you to make a banging noise that echoed through the place. Who would’ve thought her hands were like Thing Addams.

Sam started to figure out how she managed to get herself free when he spotted something red on the ground he didn’t seem before, not too far from where the chair was. He bent down to examine it further to try and figure out what it was. Sam didn’t take very long to realize it was the bloody bullet that was lodged in Abbadon’s head. She must’ve somehow gotten it loose from using her unattached hands and snuck out while the demon had the chance. Sam called for yours and his brother’s attention to show you what he found. The sight of the bloody bullet made you grow even more pissed off. Before you could let out a swear word like you wanted, you felt your phone vibrate. You snatched it out from your pocket to see it was a notification.

“It’s a text message from Crowley,” You told them. “an address in Prosperity, Indiana.”

“Prosperity? Didn’t we work a case there? Yeah, yeah, the one with the witches and the baked goods.” Dean said, figuring out why the place sounded so familiar to him. You guessed it was during your absence away, that’s why you were out of the loop. “So what? He’s going after somebody there now?”

“I don’t know.” Sam said. “We got to check it out.”

You raised your brow slightly from the obvious reason not to play along to Crowley’s game. He would stop at nothing to see you dead. No matter how many bodies it took to get you where he wanted you. “Well, you know it’s a trap.”

“Of course it’s a trap. But a trap means demons,” Sam stated the reason why it was important for you to go to Indiana. He raised up the bullet that held the one that you had at your disposal, before she ran away. “And we could use one right now.”

+ + +

You didn't have much of a choice but to follow along with Crowley's instructions and take the long drive to Indiana with the hopes that you were on time to save this Jenny person from the fate Tommy had suffered. Along with a few demons that he might be stupid enough to have waiting for you. All you needed was just the one to get this entire situation wrapped up for good once and for all. No more kings of hell calling up to harass you. No more demons trying to toy with your life for the hell of it. You could finally have the life you've been yearning for decades now. Most importantly your child could have a life without worrying things were going to end up the same way as it had for you.

When you pulled up to the apartment that Jenny was living in after her near death experience with some pissed off witch, you and the boys wasted no time in getting out and heading up there. You were anxious about what was waiting for you inside the apartment. Every part of you was hoping Crowley was going to slip up and have one of his goons waiting for you. Dean picked the lock in record time and swung open the door, stepping into the dark apartment after testing the light switch only to conclude the power was out. He made his way inside first with Sam following behind. You lingered in the hallway as the both of them made sweep around the place to see if there was anyone hiding in the shadows.

You made your way inside when you noticed there was most likely no one here, all though you still kept the demon knife close to your side, wanting to err on the side of caution just in case someone wanted to get the jump on you. You noticed right as you stepped into the apartment Dean found something. You made your way over to the kitchen area to see Jenny had been busy earlier from the sight of delicious looking cupcakes and a mess of ingredients around the place. You peered over the counter to meet Jenny for yourself. However the both of you couldn’t be properly introduced from the sight of her.

You grimaced at the burnt smell of human flesh that made your stomach feel queasy, the sight of Jenny with her head in the oven after someone most likely forced her in there. You had to cover your mouth with your hand to keep yourself from throwing up. “Is that…Jenny?”

Dean slowly nodded his head to answer your question. He stared at the body for a moment, a sense of guilt coming over him from how the poor girl fell into the clutches of Crowley's plan "You were a great gal, Jenny Klein.”

You heard your phone start ringing again just a minute after you arrived to Jenny's apartment and discovered the present Crowley had left for you. You quickly pulled it out to see the familiar three digit number on the screen. You let out a frustrated sigh at who was calling you again and got the boys’ attention before answering the call. "What the hell are you doing, Crowley?"

“Oh, Kitty, isn’t it obvious?” Crowley asked you, wondering why you haven’t caught up to the little game he wanted to play. “I’m killing everyone you and those neanderthals ever saved—the damsels in distress, the innocent whippersnappers, the would-be vampire chow—all of them.”

“How do you even know—” Dean tried to ask the demon a question, but he was quickly cut off.

“I have my sources and a cracking research team. When you kids hit a town, you tend to leave a mess. Now, you’re probably wondering why my droogs aren’t in there giving you the bum’s rush, so let’s bress these tracks, shall we?” You felt your grip around the knife go slightly tighter as you looked around the room, wondering if Crowley was just bluffing. But the place was empty except for the three of you. And Jenny’s charred body. “I’m gonna gut one person every twelve hours until you bring me the demon tablet and stop this whole trials nonsense.”

“We don’t have the tablet.” Sam lied to the demon, hoping it would be enough to buy you some time and figure out another plan to stop Crowley before he could hurt anyone else. “Kevin took it and—”

“I took Kevin. Then someone took him back. Word from the cloud that it wasn’t heaven. So either the cutest little prophet in the world is with you two lads and Y/N, or you better find him tout-bloody-suite because time, she is a-wasting. About now, you’re thinking of ways to stop me. You won't be able to, but you'll try because that's what you do. You try. So, time for an object lesson.” Crowley decided to be nice and throw you another chance at saving a life you already did many years ago. “Indianapolis, the Ivy motel, room one-one-six. You have fifty-seven minutes."

You peeked at the clock on the oven to see that it was a little after eleven. You and the boys had until midnight to find this person and save them from whatever twisted plan Crowley had. When you heard the dial tone come from the other end, you wasted no time getting out of there and back down to the Impala. There was no way in hell you were going to let that bastard win again.

+ + +

On the way to the motel you tried racking your brain for old cases that you worked here to help figure who Crowley might be going after. Maybe he was just pulling at your strings and leading you to another dead body. A warning for the people he was going to pick off if you didn’t do what he said. You felt a nervous knot in your stomach began to form as you cautiously watched the time on the clock as it ticked down to a half an hour until midnight. You were determined to make it there with time to spare and prepare yourself for whatever sort of twist Crowley wanted to throw your way.

Dean stayed behind to collect some things for you while you and Sam rushed to find the motel of Crowley's next victim if you weren't quick enough. Sam rapidly knocked on the door until someone finally answered it after a long grueling minute of waiting. Who you saw answer the door took you by surprise if you had to be honest. Sarah Blake—she was a young woman at the time you first met all the way back in '05. The daughter of an art dealer who got caught in the cross hairs of a spirit of a child who murdered her family and anyone who had taken possession of it. You saved her from the spirit after it trapped her and Sam in the home of the last person who took ownership of the painting.

“Sam.” She spoke the name of a man she hadn't seen in almost eight years. All though she only met him once, the encounter they shared together was something she'd never forget. It took a second he didn't come here alone. You greeted the woman with a forced smile as a sense of fear slowly crossed her face. "What are you doing here?”

[Next Part]

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evakuality · 5 years ago

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They probably want clarity as well: Communication in Druck s3 (part six)

This is the sixth and final part of my discussion of the theme of communication in s3 of Druck. You can find the other parts here:

You look good tonight: Communication in Druck s3 (part one)

Make a clear statement, straight up: Communication in Druck s3 (part two)

He doesn’t talk to me: Communication in Druck s3 (part three)

Do you want to talk to me? Communication in Druck s3 (part four)

I want to tell you so much: Communication in Druck s3 (part five)

I got really caught up in all the Abi stuff this last week and so didn’t get this finished. Whoops. I mean, it was worth it, and you know, I’m here finally with the last part of this communication analysis of mine. The analysis that was supposed to be one or maybe two posts long. And yet here we are, six posts later and we’re finally finishing. Anyway. Episode ten. The one where everything comes to a nice conclusion in terms of communication. The old reliance on nonverbal communication has dissipated somewhat (though there are still heavy traces) and actually communicating verbally is suddenly ‘in’ for our lovely characters. Well, for some of them.

Of course, having said that nonverbal communication takes a back seat, we go right into a situation where nonverbal communicating is rife. In the first clip, Matteo and David know exactly what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and there’s no discussion. Out loud, anyway. It’s actually a really lovely moment, as consent is sought and given multiple times without having to verbalize it at all. It’s a very good example of how you can make consent work naturally and organically in these moments. One nice thing is the way it calls back to the conversations around Carlos and Kiki and how she wanted sex and he didn’t know, and the much more obvious parallel with Sara and her attempts with Matteo in which his nonverbal signals clearly shouted out a huge ‘no’ and which she didn’t really deal with very well. Her insinuations later (via the messages, I think, which I did swear not to talk about but which seem relevant here) that he was ‘weird’ during their intimate moments and so must be gay are so hmmmm. Consent, wanting sex, asking for it, checking in on your partner about it. These are all important things that should actually be communicated clearly and openly before you get into these situations and the casual assumption she makes that if he doesn’t want it sprung on him out of the blue it must be because he’s gay is so dodgy. Still it does serve as a nice counterpoint to what happens here. The fact that earlier in the season communication around sex was so bad (neither Kiki and Carlos nor Sara and Matteo managed to approach it well), just makes this moment here stand out more. We don’t see them talking about it but it’s clear in what they do and how they act that they are both willing and that they probably talked about it before they got to David’s place that night. The discussions in this season about how you navigate the delicate issues of sex and consent are really fascinating and I could probably write an entire many-thousand-word essay on it, but I’ll leave it there for now.

The only time they do actually speak in this clip, the apparently untranslatable nervous/excited comments, is nakedly honest. Not only is it honest, but it’s accepted and treated with understanding. The communication underlying the words is ‘I need to take this slow’ and there’s an innate understanding and acceptance of that need, a willingness to listen to what is being communicated rather than just spoken. And that’s pretty much where Matteo and David are in their relationship at the moment. It’s all out there and all on the line. ‘I love you’ is felt and has been expressed by both. They’re secure and content now, and in fact any secrets they may have had are now completely gone. Not only are they open and honest with each other but they’re also open and honest with the world. Matteo wasted no time at all in shouting his feelings to the entire world via his instagram. Indeed, he hasn’t stopped. He’s come a long way from the start of the season when he was so careful with everything and hid his true feelings behind his memes and his casually isolationist attitude. Even from more recent times when he posted cryptic things that literally only David would understand. He’s quite at ease communicating openly and honestly about who he is and who he loves.

Obviously, we then move into the next morning where there’s more open and honest communication happening. The thing here too is that we’ve been set up throughout the whole season for this point. From the beginning these two have been more willing to be vulnerable and open with each other than with other people. And that still holds true. We don’t see them have these deeply personal conversations with anyone else. It’s highly unlikely that David would so willingly talk about his past and how he’s felt about it with everyone. He’s open and out about it, yes, but that wasn’t his choice with most other people. But even though he’s seemingly okay with people knowing, he doesn’t trust them in the same way that he trusts Matteo. Part of that is obviously because he hasn’t known them for as long or as well. But it’s at least partly because, from the first moment when David shared his art notebook and Matteo respected his boundaries around what he was and wasn’t allowed to see, David has known that he can trust these parts of himself with Matteo. That hasn’t been an easy road to walk for either of them. But that early foundation is what led to this. They have always been good at communication of the important kind, and it has paid off at this point. As soon as everything was laid out for each of them this was inevitable. Because they’ve been building to this point all along and every time one or the other shared something vulnerable or fragile with the other, the other respected it. We’ve been shown all along what good communication looks like and it’s no surprise that they are able to be so casual and easy together.

The third clip is where we’re really allowed to see the point of communication in this season. In fact, the message is pushed quite a lot. Abdi serves as a reminder of where some of our characters have been: awkwardly trying to communicate via ineffective metaphors instead of real words. He’s so clueless around how to do it that he doesn’t even pick up on what the boys are so desperately trying to tell him. In fact it’s not until Matteo and David use their words clearly that he actually figures it out at all. What’s really interesting is that in episode seven, the boys had given literally the exact same advice to Matteo who instantly took it, and for whom that was a big turning point in terms of moving his relationship forward. He’d already been good at communicating with David, particularly nonverbally but with words too, but it wasn’t til that point that he actually made a ‘clear statement’ of his needs and was therefore able to make things clear and open with David. As I said when discussing that episode, neither Jonas nor Abdi was making his own ‘clear statement’ at this point and they still aren’t. The fact that this is still the advice being given shows that they’ve stagnated. Matteo and David are perfectly in their rights to be smug here. They’re actually very good examples of communicators and these other boys are still good examples of bad communicators.

Before all this, we have a discussion around Jonas’s song for graduation and it’s really quite awkward, highlighting the differences between Matteo and the other boys. Matteo states plainly that he likes the song and leaves it at that. Direct and clear. By contrast, Carlos while clearly trying to give good genuine feedback actually offends Jonas because he isn’t reading the situation very well. Jonas’s body language and actions are of someone who’s hearing stuff he doesn’t want to. But frustratingly he doesn’t say this. He just gets up and walks away and doesn’t address it. The others try to recover once they do realise but the damage is done. Unfortunately, here we have an example of communication going awry. It serves, again, to highlight just how much better at communication Matteo has become. This sort of behaviour is what he used to do, vague comments or literal walking away or isolating himself, culminating (with this group) in him finally speaking his mind to his friends by finally having enough and yelling at them and kicking them out of his house in episode 6. It’s been shown to be not healthy, and there’s clear warning for the way these boys are communicating. Of course, this again sets us up for the ‘you could say it with words’ ‘directly’ thing. They know what they’re talking about, partly because they’ve been there and done that and realised how bad it tends to go but also partly because they genuinely have good communication skills. Matteo has had to extrapolate them out from David to other people but he got there.

Abdi and Sam is an interesting example of specifically how these characters are not good at this communication business. He says here that him not getting with Sam must be his fault and there’s some truth to that because he literally hasn’t told her how he feels. But he doesn’t work that out, instead assuming (don’t make assumptions, people!) that it’s because she doesn’t want to sleep with him. But he offered her a lollipop! And she didn’t understand it! There’s no hope! Even when he’s told to tell her he equivocates. He prefers ‘sucuk with eggs’ over actually saying he likes her. He can’t possibly tell her that directly. And it is a scary thing to do, of course. We’ve all been there where saying something directly would be the best course of action but anxiety or insecurity or whatever has held us back. Unfortunately for Abdi’s progress in getting past that here, he’s encouraged by his other friends to keep with the awkward metaphors. It allows him to slide back from the actually good advice and keep thinking that he can use lollipops etc. The fact that in the recent content, even when he’s trying to be clear and open, he takes Carlos’s terrible advice to use ‘sucuk and eggs’ rather than just saying ‘hey I like you’ shows that, while it seems to have worked in the short term, he’s still not great at communicating and things are still not clear and ‘direct’ between him and Sam. The others are no better. Jonas is making awkward attempts at wooing Hanna via song and longing looks, and that too just isn’t working. Even Carlos who’s in a relationship is (at the point where we are now after the Abi stuff) not talking directly to Kiki but rather showing passive aggressive jealousy about the people she was dancing with.

Apart from Matteo and David, these characters are still not good at this, and it shows in the way all of them are having issues with their relationships (or lack of them) even to this point. We get other little hints at the way communication should be clear in the episode too. For example, in the office when Sam blurts out that they’re there to support Matteo and David and Kiki says they were trying to keep that quiet. These characters are still trying to keep things from each other and hide behind polite fictions. It’s understandable and we all do this to some extent, trying to preserve someone’s comfort etc or put our best face forward, but again here we’re told it’s better to be open. Matteo isn’t upset they’re here and so they didn’t need to hide behind the fake reason.

The message we’re being clubbed over the head with at this point is that only genuine clear communication will achieve happiness and success. Among many other messages from this season, we are being explicitly reminded that we need to talk to each other. There is an emphasis on verbal over nonverbal by this point, but there’s still a lot to be said for clear nonverbal communication; it’s just that we’re shown several times that the nonverbal can be misinterpreted, so back up with verbal communication is important. From the positive version of this in the first clip (there is a clear verbal connection to the nonverbal even while it heavily relies on the nonverbal communication) to the much less successful version in the clip with the boys talking, this is repeated over and over. Communication, in other words, is key. Just be clear and honest about it and it will all work out.

#druck #my meta stuff #davenzi

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duhragonball · 5 years ago

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Dragon Ball Z 174

This is the one where Goku solves ring puzzles, but it starts with Trunks turning Super Saiyan and kicking at the air for a minute while he waits for Vegeta to come out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Not sure why they put this in. I’m also not sure why Trunks has been on the Lookout for the past two days straight. I understood Vegeta waiting right here at the door, because he’s that kind of guy, but Trunks knows he can crash at Capsule Corp., and he also knows exactly when his turn will be, so why hang around?

Meanwhile, Gohan and Krillin are hanging out with Dende, and they both whip out their homework. They’re like “You have homework on Namek?” and he’s all like “Yeah lol.” Then Krillin feels left out because he doesn’t have any homework. Wait, did Krillin ever go to school? He was pretty smart as a kid, but he also was a 14-year-old who just ran over to Roshi’s island one day and never came back. And before that he was some sort of Shaolin monk? Maybe those guys taught him how to read?

Never mind that shit, here comes JIMMY FIRECRACKER. I’m pretty sure the name was given to him by Funimation when they dubbed this episode back in 2000. In researching this, I ran across some bitter sub purists who despised this, but come on. If he had an original name and Funi changed it, I could see cause for concern, but he didn’t have a name, so Funimation gave him one, and it was awesome. This guy rocks. He’s got such an excited and apoplectic voice and he’s a total mark for the WORLD CHAMPION OF MARTIAL ARTS, MISTER SATAN. I’m pleased to see his Japanese voice actor is just as energized. Not sure what happened to him in Dragon Ball Kai, though. He sounds much more subdued there.

So this is some sort of rally for Mr. Satan before the Cell Games. With Jimmy hosting the thing, I have a hard time telling if he’s a legitimate reporter or just some guy in Satan’s entourage. Anyway, Satan comes out pulling FOUR BUSES! Holy shit!

Aw, this is that good animation. When you see those big teeth, you know you’re in for a good time. So the animation supervisor here is Keisuke Masunaga of Studio Cockpit. This is his first episode, which kind of feels like a waste, because it’s all filler. It’s a shame they didn’t get this guy on board earlier than they did, but hey, this is a beautiful filler episode.

Speaking of that, the previous episode looked pretty good too, even though all that happened was Dende turning the Dragon Balls back on, but hot damn did that look good. I wanted to make a gif of the energy bolts shooting out to one of the Dragon Balls, but it was just too many frames, which tells you something. I looked him up and he’s Tadayoshi Yamamuro, who’s also the guy they got to supervise the latter half of the movies. I think it’s fair to say these two guys are among the best DBZ animators.

But back to this episode, Keisuke Masunaga rocks. He goes “off-model”, exaggerating the character’s features, but in a really dynamic and expressive way. Look at this shot of Mr. Satan holding a stack of West City phone books. This could have easily been the dullest shot of this series, but it looks friggin’ epic.

Did Mr. Satan have a bunch of phone calls to make? Is he so popular that fans will cheer for him even if he reads the phone book? Hell no, Mr. Satan brought these phone books so he could RIP THEM IN HALF. YEEEEEEAAAAAHHHH.

And this right here is Keisuke Masunaga’s signature. This clenched teeth, gums-exposed expression. You see this expression and you know the character is putting in work. I don’t think Masunaga has a nickname in the fandom, the way Yukio Ebisawa is not-so-affectionately called “Triangle Guy.” I’m kind of thinking he needs one though. I’m thinking of calling him “Teeth Guy”, because that’s how I recognize his stuff.

Anyway, fuck all those phone books! Seriously, I wish they’d stop making these things, no one needs them anymore.

Then a girl in a swimsuit just walks up and hands him a microphone. I don’t quite get that, but okay. This is one of those moments when I’m reminded that this show is Japanese. Same thing happens whenever I notice a mountain in the background of an outdoor shot. That shouldn’t surprise me, but I live in the Midwest, so I never expect to see one, and then I do and I’m like “Oh, yeah, they have a lot more mountains in Japan. They’re used to having them in the background everywhere.” So Swimsuit Microphone Girl seems out of place to me, but I feel like I’ve seen this sort of thing somewhere before, maybe from a clip of a NJPW show. I may be thinking of the girls who hand out flower bouqets to the wrestlers sometimes, although I think they wear sexy dresses instead.

Anyway, Satan takes the mike and cuts a scathing promo about how he’s gonna do to Cell what he’s about to do to this bus he’s standing next to. What, is he going to drag Cell around by a chain? Is he going to blow off having Cell’s tires rotated?

THEN HE PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE BUS. RIP BUS YOU SHALL BE MISSED. This is what I’m talking about. The joke is that Mr. Satan is a weakling compared to the main characters, and that he has no idea what he’s getting into, but he’s still jacked as hell. Yeah, he can’t beat Cell, and he probably can’t beat Master Roshi, but could he kick Batman’s ass? You bet. How many buses has Batman beat up?

Then again, I guess Batman could lure him into punching a bus and then Mr. Satan would have his arm stuck, leaving him vulnerable to some Batarangs. Tough call.

This is an example of why the dub rules. In Japanese, these guys are watching Mr. Satan’s show on TV, and Chi-Chi just deadpan goes “There sure are some interesting people out there.” Not a terrible line, but not quite funny enough to pay off this setup. In the dub, Roshi remarks that Satan’s performance is “just sad”, and Chi-Chi goes “It sure is. Somebody could have used that bus.” And it’s beautiful, because it’s not only funnier, but it’s just such a Chi-Chi thing to say.

Also, what the hell is up with Roshi’s legs in this shot? Everyone dumps on Triangle Guy and praises Teeth Guy, but this is a Teeth Guy episode and someone really blew off drawing Roshi’s legs. They didn’t even move in this shot, so how hard could it have been?

Hey, Vegeta’s done with the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Piccolo notes that he’s a lot stronger, but not enough to do any good. Also he’s got a lazy eye thing going on.

Meanwhile, Tao Pai Pai is back, and he’s found another criminal to work for. This time it’s a guy named Vodka. and Tao is selling him Dragon Balls. Vodka has some sort of fortess of his own, and I think his plan is to ride out Cell, wait for the dust to settle, and use the Dragon Balls to wish for... well, I’m not sure exactly, but presumably, he’d rebuild society with himself at the top of the pecking order.

I never thought about this before, but it really doesn’t make sense for Tao to have these Dragon Balls, since they were ordinary stones until Dende reactivated them only a short time ago. Also, it’s not like Tao has been off the radar for a long time. He just appeared in another filler episode set only a few days earlier. So it’s not like we can say that he’s been hunting Dragon Balls for years and that’s how he has two of them.

But the episode at least attempts to acknowledge this by having him think about how he found these two Balls by pure chance. Even that seems kind of odd, but maybe he found them during the past year, before Kami and Piccolo merged, and he hung onto them, then they turned to stone, and now they’re active again. And he just got home from his gig with Bourbon, and he noticed they were active again, and he figured he could score some quick cash by selling them.

Honestly, I’m not sure what Tao’s game is here. Is he just after money? I never understood why he needed money in the first place, and he sure doesn’t need it now. The whole world has become a looter’s paradise, and he’s strong enough to take what he wants. Besides, a stack of bills won’t mean squat if Cell kills everyone.

Is he just looking for a place to ride out the Cell crisis? Bourbon and Vodka both have shelters of some sort, so maybe Tao wants to get in with one of them when things go bad. Only they don’t need anyone assassinated at the moment, so he’s had to find other ways to make himself useful.

Or maybe Tao is just living his life right up to the end, like the old store-owner in Episode 170 said. The difference is that that guy was just minding his store, while Tao’s business is shady crap like what he’s doing now. But in the back of his mind, he’s wondering if this will all just end in the blink of an eye.

But Goku is looking for the Dragon Balls, and he has a Dragon Radar, so it doesn’t take long for him to show up. Tao notices that Goku has brought Dragon Balls of his own, so he remarks that a pigeon has come to their doorstep, and they can just go ahead and pluck it. The gag here is that Vodka doesn’t get the metaphor and thinks there’s a literal pigeon somewhere.

So they just let Goku in, thinking the booby traps will kill him, but then he makes it into Vodka’s office, and Goku recognizes Tao and tells him who he is. That takes the fight out of Tao real quick.

Goku feels kind of bad about all of this, because he has to take the Dragon Balls they have, and he has nothing to offer in exchange. What a nice guy.

This gives Tao an idea, so he spits three ring puzzles out of his left robot arm. Since they can’t trade the Dragon Balls for anything, Tao offers Goku a wager instead: If Goku can solve all three puzzles by daybreak, he’ll win Vodka’s two balls. If not, Vodka will win Goku’s four.

Goku accepts and gets started, while Tao and the others excuse themselves and take all six balls with them. This is so Goku won’t be distracted, you see.

The they just pile in the car and drive very far away.

My favorite part of this episode is that they left a guy behind, and he gets so wrapped up in what Goku’s doing that he tries to help him, but Goku’s all “shush, I’m doing this on my own.” The thing is, I don’t see how that guy wouldn’t be screwed if Goku got mad over the others ditching them. They just sort of abandoned this goon. Maybe they would call him later?

But it’s all good, because Goku finally solves the last puzzle, and the goon applauds. You know, I was about to say he needs a name, but I distinctly remember Tao addressing him as “Henchman A”. Fair enough.

For some reason, Vodka and Tao pull over to wash their feet in a stream, and Goku just teleports over to them to collect his winnings. And they’re like “Yeah, okay, take ‘em.” I mean, what else can they do? He solved the ring puzzles, he found them, it’s awesome.

Meanwhile, Bulma and Dr. Brief seem to have 16 fully repaired. You know, that is pretty impressive, considering how they didn’t even have the right plans when they started on the guy.

And Goku just found the seventh Dragon Ball, so we’re all set there. So what’s left to cover?

I guess nothing. We flash forward to “M 17th”, the date of the Cell Games. I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be May 17, but that makes no sense, because the android battle was supposed to be on May 12, right? I’m gonna look this up.

Yeah, I think someone caught the error at some point, because Daizenshuu 7 established the Cell Games to be announced on May 17, then taking place on May 26. At least, that’s what the Dragon Ball Wiki shows.

Shoot, I may as well lay out that part of the chronology for reference. All dates are Age 767.

May 12: Episodes 126-145 (Androids Saga to the destruction of Gero’s sub-basement.)

May 13-14: Episode 146 (Piccolo hunts for Cell)

May 15: Episodes 146-147 (Goku wakes up and shows Vegeta the Time Chamber)

May 16: Episodes 148-166 (Cell absorbs the androids and defeats Piccolo, 16, Tien, Krillin, Vegeta, and Trunks)

May 17: Episodes 167-169 (Cell announces Cell Games, Goku and Gohan exit the Hyperbolic Time Chamber)

May 18: Episodes 170-171 (The episode with Lime and Tao, and Gohan’s 11th Birthday party)

May 19: Episode s 172-174 (Goku installs Dende as Kami and gathers the Dragon Balls. Vegeta and Trunks use the Time Chamber again)

May 20-25: Not actually shown, but referenced in Episode 174

May 26: Episodes 175-193 (Cell Games)

But right now, there’s only one hour left until the Cell Games begins. Jimmy Firecracker and his cameraman are the only civilians in attendance, and they’re still waiting to see who shows up to fight. Ooooh, this gonna be gooood.

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howlandreads · 6 years ago

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I Really Hate This Show, Which I Love More Than Life Itself

Hey guys!! I know I haven’t posted any metas in months, (I’ve been super busy between work and school) but Game of Thrones is back and I’m really going to try and make Tumblr a priority for at least the next six weeks! As you can probably tell from my previous posts I’m pretty anti D&D and have significant issues with their adaptation of ASOIAF, but I’m also pretty excited that one of the biggest events in fandom history is taking place every Sunday for the next month and a half, so I’m pretty conflicted about my feelings for the show right now -- That being said, here’s my general thoughts on Season 8 Episode 1 – “Winterfell”:

I don’t have too much to say about the “previously on” section of the episode, but I did find two things particularly interesting. The first is something @theusurpersdog mentioned to me; Cersei says “The monsters are real,” and then we get a smash cut to D*ny riding Drogon. Most people have assumed the audience is meant to see the dragons as monsters, but it could also be foreshadowing some oncoming Dark!Dany content. The second thing I found interesting was how the clip of Bran’s Warg eyes is shown right before we see Viserion’s Wight eyes, which might be some foreshadowing for the popular theory that Bran’s going to Warg a dragon this season.

Next is the opening scene where we see Jon and D*ny arriving to the North, which is the first of this episode’s 1,000 callbacks to the first episode. It’s a scene that’s clearly meant to mirror Robert’s arrival to Winterfell from “Winter Is Coming”, which mostly works except for the fact that the Baratheon theme is playing in the background despite the fact that there’s not a Baratheon in sight, except for Gendry, who’s not even a true Baratheon.

I adore Maisie Williams in this scene. Last season’s Arya was such a mess, and though I still feel show Arya is nothing compared to the complexity of ASOIAF’s Arya, she seems to be much more herself this episode. The look on her face when she sees Jon is perfect, as is her subtle heartbreak when he doesn’t notice her. I continue to be tired of the amount of The Hound content D&D continue to subject us to, but I do like that we see Arya’s joy at seeing that Gendry is alive.

Though I love Arya in this scene, the most important part is D*enarys. In a crowd of dark fur coats, she stands out clothed in pure white, and the Northerners take notice. This scene also sets her up as a liability to Jon, both with the North and his own family. When he’s with D*ny he misses Arya in the crowd, setting up the recurring theme of the episode that the more he’s with her the less he’s a Stark. I also appreciate that her first appearance of the season shows that the fear of the subjugated is what she’s after, not their love or respect. Her delight at the terror her dragons instill seems to bode well for Dark!Dany theories. Overall, I enjoyed how the dragons were portrayed. I love that Arya is awestruck, and that Sansa is in wonder for a moment, but immediately sees the danger in their presence in the North. Sophie plays this brilliantly, and the look of resolve Sansa has shows that she won’t be intimidated by grand displays of superiority from D*ny.

I have a lot of thoughts on the courtyard reunion scene, but I’ll only mention the really important things since I don’t want this post to be too long. The reunion of Jon and Bran was good, but not nearly as good as their relationship deserved. Jon and Sansa’s reunion left a lot to be desired. Why is Sansa only glad to see him for less than a second before she’s side-eying D*ny? So many of my issues with D&D come from their inability to write women who aren’t reduced to pure pettiness, and this episode was a classic example of their failure to provide complex female characters. Sansa is so justified in her concerns about D*ny and I wish the writing portrayed her as a an incredibly intelligent Lady of Winterfell, who has every right to bitterness towards the woman who’s demanded the fealty of her people, instead of just another small-minded and petty female character who’s more concerned with glaring at D*ny than she is with fighting the fast approaching White Walkers. D*ny stans also have a right to be offended by this episode as D*ny is fairly one dimensional as well.

Sexist writing aside, my biggest issue with this scene is that somehow nobody cares that a freaking undead dragon is coming their way. Not even D*ny, the Mother of Dragons, is given more than a two second reaction shot. This should be devastating for her, and her plotline for the episode should have been her processing her grief.

There’s a lot of issues with this scene, but I will say that Bran is amazing throughout this scene and the whole episode. Is he the ASOIAF Bran that I love? No, but he is spectacularly dramatic and I’m here for it.

Next is the Great Hall scene. Again, the Northerners are treated as small-minded and petty over their concern for titles and independence, and I fail to see why. Westeros is a feudal society, which means of course titles mean everything. And beyond titles, of course Northerners are justified in their want for independence. Each Kingdom has its own argument for independence, but the North’s is by far the strongest. They’re larger than the other kingdoms combined, and have a completely different climate and a completely different set of needs than the southern kingdoms. Not to mention the fact they’ve been the most consistently victimized by the tyrants of King’s Landing.

This scene is much better about treating Sansa as an intelligent leader who’s aware of the North’s situation. Again, there’s a lot more I have to say but this post is already getting pretty long, so I’ll move on to Sansa and Tyrion’s reunion.

I’m so torn on how to feel about this particular reunion. It’s deeply upsetting because it’s a wretched reminder of so many of D&D’s past sins, in particular the whitewashing of Tyrion’s character, and how Sansa’s development was completely undercut in the process. This scene also shows a stark contrast between show Sansa and book Sansa. It’s impossible to imagine book Sansa fondly remembering Joffrey clawing at his own throat, unable to breathe – it’s actually essential to her character that she wouldn’t. What leaves me torn is that I still really love show Sansa. Though D&D’s adaptation will never compare to the beautiful and brilliant character GRRM created in Sansa, I can still root for a badass Sophie Turner fondly remembering the day her serial abuser died.

Now onto my favorite scene of the whole episode, Jon and Arya’s reunion. Both Kit and Maisie were so good in this scene. I love their genuine happiness and comfort at seeing each other again after all these years apart. I love the silent mourning of their youth when Arya confesses to Jon that she’s used Needle once or twice. It was also really nice to see Arya defending Sansa after the absolute tragedy that was Arya and Sansa’s plotline last season. It was also good to see how clearly hurt Jon is by what he perceives as Sansa’s lack of faith in him.

I don’t have all that much to say when it comes to the section of this episode that takes place outside Winterfell, since there’s not a whole lot of substance in it. All I really need to say is that I continue to adore Lena Heady, I love the reference to elephants, I’m continually upset by the writers seeming lack of understanding when it comes to consent, and the Theon and Yara plotline is mostly a waste of time, which is incredibly disappointing because it has so much potential.

The next scene is by far the worst of the episode. I still can’t get over how unbelievably disrespectful to the source material it is to have Jon’s first time riding a dragon be written as comedy. The only thing worth noting from this sequence is the ominous way Jon keeps his eyes open while making out with Dany, and how foreboding his eye contact with Drogon was.

Though I loved every second of Arya and Gendry’s reunion, it was a mostly superficial scene so I’ll skip passed it.

Jon and Sansa’s candlelit and tense conversion was content™, but I’m hoping to make a Jonsa focused post about this week’s episode in the next couple of days so all I’ll say is that I loved this scene.

Next, we have Sam’s discovery that his family has been executed, the reveal of R+L=J, and the beginning of the emotional and political fallout these revelations will cause. I’m so unbelievably disappointed by this sequence. Jon discovering the truth of his parentage should have easily been the most important scene in the series to date, and the whole thing just fell flat. The main problem with this scene is that it focuses on the political ramifications instead Jon’s emotional response.

In the second to last scene Tormund discovers the dead body of the child Lord Umber surrounded by some pretty horrific centipede arms. The White Walkers haven’t really been all that threatening since Hardhome, but damn was that shriek unsettling.

The episode closes with Jaime’s arrival at Winterfell, and I couldn’t be happier. Hopefully confronting the man who crippled him will be enough for Bran to not be a robot, at least for one episode. That combined with the fact that Sansa and Jaime will finally be meeting is more than I can handle. As much as I was excited for this week’s episode, I can’t begin to express how ready I am for next week.

Overall, I had some issues with D&D’s execution, but I’m mostly excited for where it seems this season is going.

#game of thrones #A Song of Ice and Fire #ASoIaF #got #asoiaf meta #Jaime Lannister #Sansa Stark #jon snow #gotjonsa #jonsa #anti daenerys #anti targaryen #house stark #gothousestark #bran stark #I really hate this show which I love more than life itself

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murderwasthecase · 6 years ago

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Showcasing Marvel’s Daredevil - The Crown Jewel of MCU

Quick rant about the situation

So this shit just happened and of course I wanted to say something. Daredevil has been CANCELLED by Netflix. Honestly, if you follow this kinda stuff, I think you all saw it coming after they did the same thing to Iron Fist and Luke Cage, but this shit hurts because the show’s third season which was, in my opinion, maybe the best one yet still hasn’t cooled off, people are still talking about it, it received many praise from critics and audiences alike, and it just came off as a really cold thing to cancel the show now especially if you’re a fan of the series.

There are already millions of videos and essays on what this kind of Thanos-snapping his fingers action that Netflix just did with Marvel’s heroes could mean and I will not talk about them in this particular piece. Instead, I’m gonna pay a tribute to the show by going through some of my favorite moments of the three seasons that we got. We definitely deserved a few more and as of now it could theoretically happen on some other network, but the Netflix era of Daredevil is over and during that time, it made it the best superhero tv show that was ever created and probably the best thing to ever come out of MCU alongside Infinity War. And now you’ll see why. By the way, the idea is to showcase the genius of the series through some of its best scenes so if you haven’t seen it, you are warned.

Writer’s room of Daredevil has blessed the MCU with some of its richest characters. Their actions are well-thought, striking and every one of them has some kind of dilemma going on in their heads which makes them more human and more interesting for the viewer. They have personal demons and individual values which are fleshed out to the maximum. That characteristic just brings those fictional people closer to the audience, resonating with their own lives. While MCU’s movie characters are more concerned with battling aliens and saving the planet, ones in Daredevil fight the battles of the ordinary people.

The drama in Daredevil is mainly based around the clashes of polar opposites in the lives of its main characters. The best example of this is, of course, Matthew (brilliant Charlie Cox), whose ever-lasting moral fight with his Catholic faith and God is one of the running themes of the show. The crescendo of it comes in the series’ third season when Matt, much more pessimistic than before, considers taking another man’s life which he earlier swore never to do, running away from the fundamental principles of his religion which earlier guided him through his vigilante mission.

While the aforementioned third season takes that battle inside the mind of Matt Murdock, in the previous one, we can see that fight literally taking place with another person. Enter Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, played by the amazing badass that is Jon Bernthal, who does the same thing as Daredevil, except he TAKES lives because of his beliefs. Psychological clash between these two broken men takes it’s heights in the third episode of the show’s second season, where Daredevil confronts Frank Castle and tries to reason with him, eventually planting the seeds for clash in his own head a season after that.

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That is exceptional writing and phenomenal acting right there. Even though I think the second season of Daredevil is the least good one from all of them because of the tiring ninja subplot, the Punisher arc is one of the strongest things that happened in these series. That’s another polar opposite for you.

Dialogues like that are one fantastic way to flesh out characters and their essence, to show us who they are and what goes on in their heads. Daredevil isn’t overcrowded with quips and sarcastic insults like the movies are, the time it’s not wasted on melodramatic, soap-opera style love triangles which occur in the CW shows. Compared to them and even to other Netflix superhero TV series, Daredevil brings a deeper meaning to its characters by including philosophical arguments that connect us to their dilemmas, layering the story in the process. For instance, take a look at this scene (can’t embed it because of Tumblr) from season 1, when father Lantom tries to answer Matthew’s question about the existence of Devil.

Have you heard the last question in that clip? This scene not only brings a thought-provoking anecdote to the table - it’s much more than that. It serves as a great MOTIVATION for the main character to link the speech to his real-life situation, to try and stop the evil, even if its power seems impossible. This is superhero mythology at its finest.

And it works for antiheroes as well. Like the situation from season two, where Punisher refuses to deny his radical beliefs, taking a piss on the whole judicial system in the process, packed with another great Jon Bernthal performance.

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Talking about great acting, it would be a sin not to showcase the ability of Vincent D’Onofrio who gives a role of his career as the main villain Wilson Fisk, the pinnacle of excellent writing on this show.

His portrayal of this crime lord is so menacing. D’Onofrio plays Fisk who with his posture and gestures reminds you more of a shy child than a criminal mastermind, but he’s at the same time almost harrowingly dominant and explosive. This makes for an extremely unpredictable villian who is layered, complex and whose character development is, as a result, ever-lasting. Just watch as he transforms the scene by delivering this great analogy about the good samaritan.

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To all you aspiring writers, actors and directors who want to work in the superhero medium - take notes.

When talking about Daredevil I obviously have to talk about action scenes. I would argue that Marvel’s Daredevil is probably the best action series of all time considering how it balances good writing and exhilarating fighting sequences, but I’ll let someone more experienced to prove that hypothesis.

The action in Daredevil has reached almost a mythical point by now, with fans making memes about their duration and ridiculously coordinated and well-executed stuntwork and camera work. Hallway fights have become a norm on the show and there are lots of good YouTube videos that analyse them so I won’t get in detail here and dissect them even though that would be fun - I will rather point out the one geeky detail about them which is key to why the most talked about action scenes in Daredevil are so good.

You know what was my all-time favorite action scene on tv for a long time? Let’s take you back to the first season of True Detective, precisely, to the end of fourth episode, when Rust Cohle infiltrates this biker gang and goes on a mission to the hood with them - just to blow his cover and capture their leader. This is one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen in tv series, ever. Director Cary Fukunaga decided to film this as a TRACKING SHOT.

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By placing the camera directly behind Matthew McConaughey’s back he placed US in the perspective, almost creating a 3D, video-game like environment in which we get close to the situation as much as possible. Doing this, he creates tension, the feel of urgency and danger which resonates with audience and makes everything more interesting. That raid scene was six minutes long without visible cuts or edits. Fukunaga used a long take which made episode end on the high note. In my opinion, this is how grounded action should be made. It has to communicate with viewer, it enhances the atmosphere.

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When I saw something similar in the hallway fight in Daredevil’s first season, I was hyped. It wasn’t exactly that as we watched everything from the hall, not from “behind Matt’s back” perspective, but it reminded me vividly of Fukunaga’s take. And in the second season, when they filmed the Staircase scene, they used that exact method which they pushed it to the limits in the prison sequence in the third season which is as of right now definitely my favorite action scene in any tv series, of all time, period. And another thing which is mind-boggling is how they make it longer every season. Hallway fight from the first season was three minutes long, Staircase was five minutes, while Prison was around eight. All in single take. By that, you can see how the cast and crew tried harder and harder every season, pushing the boundaries of not only superhero genre, but the tv series making in general. Do you know how hard it is to film something like those scenes? You can look it up online, it’s an extremely difficult work.

DAREDEVIL has created a perfect mixture of drama and superhero crime story, presenting us a gritty world of crime-ridden New York. Of course, as everything, it has a few problems here and there, but it’s by far the most mature thing to come out of MCU. I don’t know who’s really responsible for the cancellation, is it Disney or Netflix or both of them, but I hope they’ll realize what stupid move they’ve made and let the cast and crew continue their magic. Because if not, our dear MCU has just lost one of its crown jewels.

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makeste · 5 years ago

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BnHA Chapter 246: Plot Whiplash

Previously on BnHA: Hawks handed Endeavor a copy of Re-Destro’s NYT bestseller and was all “ಠ_ಠ READ THIS!!” He then flew off back to the PLF and was all “hey guys just got back from handing out free copies of Destro’s book to everyone in a 1000-mile radius, which absolutely nobody asked me to do, well anyways you can thank me later” and they were all “SWEET.” Back at the Endeavor HQ, Bakugou got all fired up to BUST SOME HEADS but Endeavor’s sidekicks were all “WAIT FOR THE PLOT YOUNG MAN.” Meanwhile in his office, Endeavor discovered a secret code in the book Hawks gave him, which basically read “HEY WHAT’S UP THE LEAGUE HAS TAKEN OVER THE MLA AND HAS AN ARMY OF 100,000 PEOPLE” and Endeavor was like “!!!!” And then we cut to the League and Toga was all “IN FOUR MONTHS TOMURA IS BLOWING THIS SHIT TO KINGDOM COME” and then the chapter just ended. Sometimes it be like that.

Today on BnHA: Tomura sits down with Ujiko who monologues a bit about Quirk Singularity and then starts some sort of quirk-upgrading process which will apparently take four months to fully set in. And also he’s like “oh btw let me tell you about One for All” so THAT’S A THING NOW, GREAT. We then cut back and forth between Endeavor and Hawks, who both somehow come to the weird conclusion that THE INTERNS ARE OUR ONLY HOPE NOW using logic that is hard to explain on account of THERE ACTUALLY ISN’T ANY LOGIC BEHIND IT, SHHH. But anyway, so Endeavor figures out the rest of Hawks’s message and he knows that Hawks is trying to figure out what the League is up to, and something something that’s why the internships are so important. Like, I get that the Terrible Trio are future legends in the making, but these guys are seriously like “well okay let’s just go ahead and rest all our hopes on them” out of the blue, and Hawks has this big monologue about how “THINGS WON’T GO ACCORDING TO YOUR PLAN, VILLAINS” and okay then!! And then the last two pages are basically just DID SOMEBODY ORDER SOME HYPE with more shit going on than I can possibly sum up so I won’t even try lol. But damn.

okay guys, I’m feeling kinda under the weather today, but I know this chapter’s gonna be good so lesssssss gooooooo. bring me back to life Horikoshi

(ETA: lol well there sure was a lot happening in this chapter, that’s for sure. my head hurts.)

oooooh it’s a sexy Jump cover celebrating season 4!

I really need the anime team to step up and give Ochako and Tsuyu some more screentime in the Basement Arc since the manga did not do them justice. there’s only like a 20% chance of that happening, which is depressing, but it’s 2019 and the winds are slowly changing, albeit at a geriatric pace. so I’ll allow myself to have some hope. you never know

YEAH SON LOOK AT THIS COLOR SPREAD Y’ALL THIS IS RAD

hello I love everything about this. the colors, the focus on our best girls, Deku’s bizarre-yet-awesome assorted sci-fi accessories (Deku do those headphones let you communicate with space or what), and of course, the five million TVs in the background which for some reason all appear to be from the 70s. all of this to remind us to TUNE IN TOMORROW FOR THE LONG-AWAITED SEASON 4 DEBUT. I will definitely tune in! the first episode is just gonna be the usual half filler/half clip show, but honestly season 3 was so good that I could sit through a whole hour of nothing but highlights and still be thoroughly entertained

anyway let’s move on because there are GAMES AFOOT, and we’re hopefully about to learn which direction this arc will be headed in!

OH SHIT OH FUCK

yep, that’s him. Shigaraki “destruction incarnate” Tomura. I see we’re getting our weekly dose of “just a reminder that WE ARE SCREWED” even earlier than usual this chapter, huh

so does anyone else get a chill up their spine every time Ujiko makes an appearance, or is that just me? like, god. he may honestly be even creepier than AFO. he’s just completely soulless, this guy. he’s got like this Mengele vibe to him (though that may be kinda dicey to compare horrific real-life atrocities to fictional ones in a shounen manga, but I’m just trying to explain why I find him so disturbing) and it really freaks me the hell out, ngl. anyways so him wearing a surgical mask and standing in front of this weird examination chair is pretty much the last thing I need right now. go away Ujiko

so Tomura is all “I want it cuz you promised, so pay up jackass”, and like. fair, though

I really like this new art style Horikoshi’s been using for him since his Awakening. kinda curious how it’s going to translate to the anime, or even to a color spread. but at the very least in black and white it looks siiiiick

smh look at this little punk trying to downplay how insanely freaking overpowered his quirk currently is

okay first of all, “President Baldy” is only alive because you left him alive. and he also had to chop off his own legs to stay that way. like, what kind of argument is this, Tomura? “this power is far from invincible, all my enemies have to do is amputate their own limbs and then they’ll have me right where they want me.” you know what, just go on and destroy the world right now kid. you’re getting greedy now and it could be your undoing

that is a nice parallel between him and Deku there, though. now I’m craving some Symbolic Artwork of them standing back to back each holding out their scarred right arms. maybe with their respective mentors in the background. here at BnHA we prefer our parallels nice and dramatic

sdskfjlaskdj

son of a bitch. I really wish he wouldn’t say that with such utter certainty. “the next conflict will be our last.” cue me flipping through the BnHA table of contents and trying to determine just how far along we actually are here, because this is veering dangerously close to Final Battle signaling, and like, ALREADY?? TOMURA ARE YOU JUST BEING THEATRICAL OR ARE YOU FOR REAL OMG. motherfucking DARK LORD’S LIPS curling into the WICKEDEST FUCKING CRESCENT I’VE EVER SEEN, fuck me

(ETA: it occurs to me on readthrough #2 that “the next conflict will be our last” could be interpreted to mean him and All Might specifically. like, the last conflict between the two of them. and that might very well be true, and would not surprise me at all. shit.)

fjsgk now Ujiko’s talking about research. and quirks!! glkjlkl

fully expecting the camera to cut to some NOUMUS any second now oh my god. also trying not to think about how crazy ominous that fucking chair looks. and how many people this maniac has probably strapped down to it and done god knows what to them. hey Horikoshi you know what, I’ve had just about enough of this dark shit, can we please cut back to my kids now I’m feeling too unsettled. goddammit

anyhow of course we are NOT cutting away, and Ujiko is continuing to talk about quirk evolution, and now segueing into a speech about that quirk singularity thing. -- which he apparently named?? wow

is he actually going to do something to Tomura? holy shit?? this whole time that they’ve been talking about this “power” I’ve just been assuming it was something external, like some other handy dandy villain resource that AFO’s just been sitting on or something. this is not where I expected things to go. didn’t he just get an upgrade??

anyway so here’s a brief summary I just wrote up of The Past Six Months of BnHA:

Deku: [gets a new quirk]

everyone: bruh. Horikoshi really out here giving Deku AFO Powers while Tomura just sits around starving to death on a couch. what the heck

Horikoshi: [powers up Tomura to the point where he can destroy anything just by it being in contact with something that Tomura happens to be touching] [has Tomura use this power to level an entire city]

everyone: -- oh. okay, you know what, never mind --

Horikoshi: [gives Tomura an army of 100,000 people] [also gives him command of 11 extremely lethal and nigh-unstoppable killing machines, just one of which was almost enough to take out the number one hero, LITERALLY THE STRONGEST GUY THE GOOD GUYS CURRENTLY HAVE IN RESERVE]

everyone: okay we’re sorry we get it you can sto --

Horikoshi: APOCALYPSE IN FOUR MONTHS!!!

everyone: WE GET IT WE’RE SORRY PLEASE

Horikoshi: [GIVES TOMURA ANOTHER POWER-UP]

everyone: [curled up in fetal position sobbing]

starting to think the mangaka might be the actual final villain here. hmm

anyway. so I guess we have four months until Tomura ascends to Actual Godhood and proceeds to rain hellfire down upon the world. what are you all gonna do with your four months. I personally have a lot of stuff to binge, but knowing me I’ll probably just waste all my time reading fanfic while youtube videos play in the background which I’m not paying any attention to. what am I doing with my life

oh were we not done hyping him up? there’s more??

(ETA: I got so caught up in the OFA comment I didn’t pay attention to Tomura becoming a beautiful decayed butterfly in this exquisitely creepy panel here. but damn.)

-- HOLD THE FUCK UP. does Tomura know about One for All??? because I was under the impression that AFO hadn’t told him? this would change a lot if he knew this entire time, holy shit?!

aaaaaaaaand exactly one panel later Horikoshi is all “no he didn’t know calm the fuck down” lol

okay then. so he didn’t know, and he’s only just finding out now. well tbh that’s still worthy of a smiling crying emoji face though :’) this is fineeee

shit here we go oh shit

-- WAIT, SO WE’RE JUST CUTTING AWAY FROM THEM? NOW YOU CUT AWAY? YOU GET WITHIN INCHES OF CONFIRMING THE FUCKING ALL FOR ONE FOR ALL THEORY AND THEN IT’S JUST “ANYWAYS HERE’S ENDEAVOR” YOU KNOW WHAT, HORIKOSHI, I --

just. come on dude. AFOFA 2019! let’s make it happen! dammit

sigh, so looks like it’s back to the admittedly-still-epic “Hawks passes down secret information about the villains to Endeavor” plot. I guess we’re not exactly hurting for good plots all around. I may complain but honestly we are spoiled

so Hawks is saying that he actually doesn’t know the specifics of the villains’ plans yet. well shit

apparently his feathers can only pick up sounds from short range, and the villains keep escorting him away whenever they get to talking about the good stuff. well at least that explains that potential plot hole from last week. Hawks’s feathers may have a short range, but Horikoshi’s plot hole caulking gun can fill in leaky plot holes from fucking miles away. amazing

ffffffff

don’t mind me I’m just sitting here fretting about Hawks continuing to be in mortal danger and risking his life to gather information in a race against time against the end of the world. Horikoshi out here piling up stakes like a freaking vampire hunter

but in the meantime, everyone please stop what you’re doing for a moment to look at this absolute unit of a bellhop slash security guard

apologies Lord Vader he was just trying to get to the dining hall. my bad. as you were

and holy shit I hope you enjoyed that light comedic break because two seconds later Re-Destro has dropped in to fixate Hawks with one of those Lightly Menacing Smiles he’s so infamous for. so that’s just fucking great!

HAWKS WATCH OUT FOR YOUR FINGERS

omg. imagine, a showdown between the two stealth murder MVPs of the series, Yotsubashi “Sleeper Hold” Rikiya (yes I did have to look up his real name just now) and Takami “Tag Em And Bag Em” Keigo. true, RD may no longer have legs, but he didn’t need them to choke out our little mouse buddy now did he? anyways speaking of which I just remembered that I fucking hate Re-Destro and I honestly hope Hawks does kill him. it’d be pretty easy to fit him into a bag too. he’s basically just a torso and arms now

oh sure Horikoshi go ahead and spring this on me after all of that ranting why don’t you

by the way does Re-Destro have Robot Legs now, or

looool he does

I will say this for Horikoshi, he knows my weaknesses. more robot limbs please. either badass or memeable ones, either is fine

meanwhile I skipped over this panel of Hawks and Twice being buddies in order to get to the legs, and shame on me for that. let’s go back

Twice is a genuinely good guy and I hope Hawks can tell. I wonder how fake this smile is. I feel like it’d be easy to relax around Twice regardless of how tense you are about your secret spy mission which could go south at any time. anyways this is wholesome

and now we’re cutting back to Endeavor who is taking his sweet time reacting to this whole thing. Endeavor can you fucking chill with the poker face already geez

okay wait, what

are you serious?! I fucking can’t with this lady. “now make sure to throw these children directly into the line of fire! it’s good for them and builds character!” I’m sorry, I thought this was the Hero Public Safety Commission, not the Putting Juveniles Directly Into Harm’s Way Commission?? at least change the acronym to something more appropriate then. Heinous Pathetic Soulless Cowards. just a suggestion. jesus

anyway so for a moment I got confused as to whether this was implying that she’d told Endeavor about Hawks’s undercover mission. but it seems like he’s still unaware. shouldn’t be too long before he puts the pieces together though at this rate

lol in the very next panel, even

meanwhile you’re just sitting on your ass reading a book! FUCKING DO SOMETHING ALREADY, ENDEAVOR

so he’s thinking that the “preparation” part of Hawks’s message is referring to the interns. let me back up a sec and write down the entire message as he’s read it thus far

“four months from now / rising to action / until then / will send / signals / in case / of failure / preparation / numbers”

...read like that, it really does sound like Hawks is advocating to get as many soldiers ready as possible. even if that includes actual children. including Endeavor’s own son. shit. I mean, I get that they don’t have much of a choice, but that’s still so fucked up. sure, we as omniscient readers know that Deku is their one and only hope, but they don’t know that. as far as they know these are just a bunch of teenagers with less than a year’s worth of experience that they’re propping up on the front lines. and the plan is then... what? hope they don’t die too quickly?? fuck

Hawks is out here having an argument with me in his thoughts. you wanna play it like that, Hawks? fine

I don’t know what kind of “but” you can tag on to the end of that paragraph that could possibly win me over, dude, but go for it I guess

and we’re finally cutting back to the kids in question now! with Burnin’ casually trying to crush Kacchan’s hopes and dreams

okay but I love how both Deku and Shouto are like “easy there buddy, we got you” and trying to keep Kacchan from having a fucking aneurysm sob. JUST TRY AND HOIST HIM ONTO SOME DUMB SIDEKICKS, LADY. YOU’VE MADE A POWERFUL ENEMY HERE TODAY

oh shit

oh my god. are we going to get our first actual interaction between the three of them that doesn’t consist of them grumbling annoyed introductions at each other and then running off to fight an old fortune teller omggggg

I love how Deku and Bakugou look weirdly intimidated by him lol. Bakugou where did all that “YOU’RE KIND OF A JERK” confidence go all of a sudden

YESSSSSSS

GODDAMMIT, I’M STILL SO MAD AT YOU GUYS FOR BEING ALL “LET’S JUST MAKE THE CHILDREN DO IT,” BUT DAMMIT THEY KICK ASS THOUGH SO I CAN KINDA SEE YOUR POINT

NOW HAWKS IS METAING ABOUT THEM AHHHHHHH

DAMN STRAIGHT THEY WOULD HAVE. BRING ON TOMURA AND ALL OF HIS STUPID POWER-UPS. WOW I’M WEIRDLY HYPED UP ALL OF A SUDDEN WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME

AND FUCKING LOOK AT THIS TWO-PAGE SPREAD AHHHHHHHHHHH

MOTHERFUCKER [WHIPS OUT PEN AND NOTEBOOK] TIME TO ANALYZE THIS BITCH

so Ochako and Tsuyu did indeed go back to intern with Ryuukyuu again! makes sense, she is a top ten hero after all. who’s that with them, though? almost looks like Yanagi from the hair and the mask, but the costume looks different? hmm

I CAN’T BELIEVE IIDA WENT BACK TO INTERN WITH FUCKING MANUAL AGAIN. THIS GUY IS THE BRAN CEREAL OF HEROES. though I fucking love him though so yeah it’s fine

JIROU AND SHOUJI TEAMING UP WITH GANG FUCKING ORCA AW YISS BOYS THIS IS THE GOOD SHIT LET’S GOOOO

KOUDA AND MANGA TEAMING UP WITH WASH OMG. MANGA IS THE ONLY ONE ON THAT TEAM WHO ACTUALLY FUCKING SPEAKS. IS WASH’S SIDEKICK SOME SORT OF BROOM PERSON OMG

A WHOLE FUCKING ACRE OF KIDS HAVE ALL GANGED UP ON THIS CAVEMAN-LOOKING FELLA I DON’T EVEN RECOGNIZE. WHO ARE YOU. DID YOU CROSS OVER FROM THE FANTASY AU

KIRI BACK WITH FG AND BROUGHT TETSUTETSU ALONG FOR THE RIDE HELLS YEAHHHH

KAMINARI AND SERO WITH KAMUI WOODS AND EDGESHOT I’M HYPERVENTILATING AHHH. AND SHIOZAKI TOO!! I’LL JUST PRETEND I DON’T SEE MINETA THERE IN THE CORNER. MIGHT BE TIME TO DUST OFF THE OLD “CANCELLED” STAMP AGAIN BUT WE’LL SEE HOW THINGS GO

WHO ARE MOMO AND TOKAGE AND MINA AND AOYAMA (WHICH BTW IS THE GREATEST HERO TEAMUP OF ALL TIME HOLY SHIT) TEAMING UP WITH!? TELL US. AND PONY AND MONOMA. GODDAMMIT HORIKOSHI

whew! anyway. they’re all still screwed, but by golly that was nice to have that little invigorating breather of life and hope

LOL OH SHIT THERE’S ANOTHER ONE

okay, SOMEONE TELL ME RIGHT THE FUCK NOW WHAT ALL MIGHT IS LOOKING AT OR I’M GONNA LOSE IT. holy shit. he was researching the past users of OFA, wasn’t he? WHAT DID YOU FIND OH GOD. he’s not just upset, he looks one step shy of fucking crying?? did he learn about what happened to Nana’s son and his family, maybe? shit shit shit

so Yanagi is interning with Kendou then? so who was that with Hadou and Ryuukyuu and the rest. one of Ryuukyuu’s sidekicks?

IS THAT FUYUMI (SPOILERS FUCKING YEAH IT IS) AND WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE SHE’S FUCKING PRAYING OMG. it looks like she’s kneeling at a family altar?? like saying a prayer for someone who is PRESUMED DEAD, maybe?? LIKE MAYBE A LONG LOST TWIN BROTHER OH SHIT OUT OF NOWHERE THE HYPE DON’T STOP!!

AND WHY DOES NAO HAVE HIS HAT OFF AND CLUTCHED TO HIS CHEST LIKE HE’S TELLING SOMEONE BAD NEWS. GOD WHAT THE HELL EVEN ARE ALL OF THESE PLOT THINGS HAPPENING ALL OF A SUDDEN. LIKE I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO LOOK NEXT

KUROGIRI AHHHHHHHH

WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING TO ERI’S HORN!? DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE THIS?? AIZAWA??? HELLO!?!?

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, TEAM OT3. TIME TO FUCKING SUIT UP. APPARENTLY. WELL ALL RIGHT THEN. [JACKET ZIP] [GUN COCKING SOUND EFFECT] LET’S GO PUNCH ‘EM IN THE MOUTH

y’all. this chapter was like plot whiplash. this went in so many different directions and hinted at so many different things that I’m at a complete fucking loss as to what to process first. but I guess the interns are gonna save us all, somehow. lol okay then

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha 246 #shigaraki tomura #hawks #endeavor #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #horikoshi: [makes tomura sexy]#everyone: okay that part is fine I guess #horikoshi: [tells tomura about one for all]#me: :') :') :') :') :') :') :') :') :') welp

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