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pageandpanel · 1 year ago

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(originally posted @ Page and Panel on wordpress)

For my first post on my new attempt to ~have a blog~ I am reposting an old entry into my failed wordpress blog. My attempt to read Marvel Comics start to finish is something I am hoping to get back to in the near future. I have edited this and reformatted it for tumblr so hopefully it's not too much of a nightmare to look at but it is WAY too long.

Why in the world would anyone attempt to read more than half a century of comics? I’m fascinated by the concept of an ongoing continuity and how different writers and artists interpret characters. And the fact that so many hands have touched this project with so many different interests and priorities and yet it continues on as a cohesive (a term we’ll use loosely) and linear story is actually really cool.

There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on here so I’m going to try to write about it at regular intervals that are sometimes strategic and sometimes completely arbitrary. The first chapter of Page Main Lines Sixty Years of Marvel Comics (more clever name tbd, probably) covers the first three years of the Marvel Comics Universe designated 616. This is the main universe that has been ongoing from 1961 to every Wednesday until the world ends, probably.

Just to establish some parameters for what this project is, I’m reading Marvel Comics chronologically starting with the Silver Age, launched by Fantastic Four #1 in 1961 written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. There are some ongoing anthology titles carrying over from the pre-616 era that I’ll be picking up here as well because they introduce key players in the Marvel Universe (specifically Spider-Man, Ant-Man, and Thor). The Golden Age doesn’t really interest me all that much beyond its history and the characters that get carried over to the new continuity (Captain America and Namor the Submariner, most famously). And while I’m trying to read everything, I did make a decision early on to skip out on Strange Tales because I don’t really care about Johnny Storm’s solo adventures.

The format of these posts, like everything else I throw up on this blog is subject to change forever and ever. But for now, I think book by book and then covering some broad themes/connections at the end is the easiest way to tackle this.

We begin, like most stories begin, with a family of four on a trip to outer space...

Fantastic Four

Written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby, as all Marvel Books were at the time, Fantastic Four #1 starts off in media res and we are introduced to our heroes as they drop whatever mundane activities they are doing as civilians and respond to the impending thread of Mole Man.

As each member makes their way to the scene, Stan Lee takes a step back to give us a classic origin story that is BEYOND bonkers: Reed Richards is the most brilliant scientist in the world and he absolutely must break into a government facility to fly a rocket into space. He is accompanied by his college roommate, Ben Grimm, his childhood sweetheart, Sue Storm, and her little brother, Johnny Storm. Ben, like anyone hearing this plan obviously thinks it’s stupid and crazy. But Sue Storm is quick to remind him that they, four regular civilians with no real training, absolutely have to do this because if they don’t then the Commies will win the Space Race. Because it truly wouldn’t the 60’s without some good, good anti-communist propaganda. So much more on that to come later.

They make it, miraculously. But cosmic space rays have given each of them incredible powers. Reed is stretchy, Sue is invisible (oh the metaphor), Johnny is on fire, and Ben…

Thanks for that little nugget of a plot line. Ben actually resents Reed because he has a thing for Sue. That will go in a lot of different directions and definitely has more teeth than the time that Professor X had a thought bubble about being in love with Jean Grey, his student, that never gets mentioned again (until it does, unfortunately). But let’s put a pin in that and red string it later.

With the flashback over, our heroes arrive on Monster Isle to find Mole Man who is responsible for several cave-ins across the world. His plan is to unleash his monsters on the world to get revenge on women who weren’t interested in him. Mole Man: confirmed Incel. The Fantastic Four easily defeat Mole Man by sealing him inside a mountain and straight up killing him. I guess. Reed eulogizes their first on page enemy by saying “It’s best that way! There was no place for him in our world…” right in front of his rock monster best friend. Tough look Reed…

Fantastic Four #2 introduces a foe that made their on screen debut in the Captain Marvel movie: The Skrulls! I love Skrulls and truly didn’t realize that they showed up this early in continuity. In part 1, our heroes are engaging in some distinctly unheroic behavior. The Thing attacks an oil rig, Invisible Girl does a jewel heist, Mister Fantastic messes up an energy plant, and The Human Torch melts a statue made of marble. And I know I’m expecting too much from a comic in which four people take a family trip to space and come back with super powers, but it’s important to me that everyone knows that marble is heat resistant and doesn’t melt. The world, who apparently all know that the Fantastic Four exist and are totally cool with them, freak out. Are New York’s favorite heroes breaking bad!? Nah. It’s just shapeshifting aliens attempting to ruin the reputation of the only people on Earth who can stop their invasion.

The US Army, ignorant to a large scale alien invasion, is called in to deal with the threat the Fantastic Four pose. Our heroes hide out in an isolated cabin to regroup and figure out what to do. But the military surrounds them and takes them in.

Each member is put in a cell specifically designed to withstand their powers. Which seems silly because if you put an invisible woman in a regular cell, she’s still there even if she’s invisible. But whatever. This also the first appearance of Asbestos in the Marvel Universe. And if you think that’s a dumb thing to notice, you clearly didn’t grow up in the 90s, seeing commercials for Asbestos lawsuits on every single tv show. I know this stuff was in regular use in the 60s but I seriously hope Johnny was able to get in on some of those pay outs because it’s really his biggest foe in the early FF comics.

Once they break out, the team regroup to plot against the unknown foes turning the world against them. They send Johnny to sabotage a rocket launch in order to draw them out. When Skrulls disguised as Sue and Reed pick up the real Johnny instead of a Skrull, the jig is up. The Fantastic Four take the Skrulls prisoner and Reed, expert level spaceship driver, steals their rocket to travel up into space where the invading Skrull army is waiting. Reed, pretending to be a Skrull, passes off images from Marvel Comics horror/monster books Strange Tales and Journey into Mystery as real photos from Earth. He convinces the Skrull leader that Earth is simply too dangerous to invade and volunteers to stay behind.

As the rocket re-enters earths Atmosphere, they pass through more cosmic waves. This turns The Thing back into regular old Ben Grimm. But, because Ben will never catch a W, he’s a rock monster again before the spaceship lands. It’s not easy being Grimm.

Back on earth, the question remains as to what to do with the remaining three Skrulls that Reed has taken prisoner. In another “though look my guy, Reed” moment, he decides that the only option they have to deal with aliens who can literally turn into anyone or anything is to force them to turn themselves into cows. Reed then hypnotizes the Skrull Cows into thinking they are real cows. Which is pretty fucked up and Reed should probably be considered a war criminal at this point, literally two comics in. But don’t worry. I’m sure there will absolutely never be any consequences for his actions. (Just kidding, this will be one of the catalysts for Secret Invasion in 2005. One of these Skrulls is the Emperor Skrull’s son.)

While FF #2 gave us one of Marvel’s most prominent Alien Invaders, Fantastic Four #3 is a much slower issue that doesn’t bring in much of anything. We open with our team taking in a stage show. They’re here to see the Miracle Man who promptly recognizes them and begins heckling them from stage. At this point, the Fantastic Four are basically celebrities. Though, we’re going to back track on that in a few issues, I think. He challenges The Thing to a test of their strength, which the Thing promptly loses. On their way home from the show, Reed talks about how lucky they are that Miracle Man is not a super villain. Which… you know…

Really, there isn’t a lot that happens in the A-Plot of this issue. Miracle Man brings the monster to life, they rob a jewelry store, and then the team defeats him and everything is fine. What is way more interesting happens between the Miracle Man problem. The B-Plot of this issue is rife with conflict between the members of the Fantastic Four.

This issue isn’t the first time we see the role Sue gets shunted into as the caretaker of the boys on the team. But it is the first time she names it herself. While later interpretations of Sue will have her displaying a lot more power, right now she’s written as the mom of the team. She is the one who sews the team’s infamous costumes that, even today, have barely changed. Though, given that she made them with a material that Reed has coined “unstable molecules,” it seems she’s a perfectly capable scientist as well. Though, we’ll rarely see this aspect of her. There’s only room enough on the team for one Smartest Man in the World.

We also see tensions rise between Ben Grimm and the rest of the team. He has been a volatile figure since day one, prone to outbursts of anger and violence. It’s still unclear as to whether or not this is his pre-rock monster personality. It may also be a side effect of his powers or, justifiably, anger at being the only member of the team to get turned into a rock monster.

But anyway, Fantastic Four #4 is a much more interesting issue with one major and very precious addition to continuity:

Kidding. But this is a bit that I find absolutely hilarious. Actually, the issue opens with Johnny quitting the team after an argument. The three remaining members split up to search for him. Ben is the one who finds him working on hot rods with his friends at a garage. And, because Ben doesn’t have a gentle touch when it comes to Johnny, property damage ensues.

Thankfully before he can actually hurt Johnny, Ben suddenly changes back to his human form. It only lasts like two seconds because Stan Lee loves to torture Ben apparently.

So he’s back to his rocky self in no time. It’s actually pretty in the tragedy of getting to see him constantly being given these moments of hope, only to have them snatched away seconds later. No wonder he’s so angry all the time. But this does give Johnny a chance to escape.

Because he can’t go home, he seeks a bed for the night at what looks like a halfway house or a youth hostel in the Bowrey. Once he has secured a bed for the night, he settles in to read an old comic about the iconic 1940’s Timely Comics hero, The Sub-Mariner. When another patron notices what he’s reading, he points to a disheveled man who claims to be as strong as The Sub-Mariner. And this enters one of the absolute greatest characters in all of Marvel Canon. Just as soon as Johnny gives him a haircut with fire.

The King of Abs-Lantis has arrived and I already love him. But also, the burnt hair smell in that hostel right now… 🤢 Even though Johnny recognizes him, The Sub-Mariner himself does not seem to remember who he is. So, Johnny takes him to the ocean and basically tosses him in. Once in the water, the Sub-Mariner remembers who he is and returns to his home of Atlantis only to find it in ruins. It has been destroyed by atomic weapons testing.

When The Sub-Mariner returns to land, he informs Johnny that he will avenge his home by destroying the human race. Now, Johnny is smart enough to know that this is obviously a problem worthy of getting the team back together. He sends up a flare for the others to find him and while they’re en route, The Mariner summons the “largest living creature in the world” using the Horn of Proteus. Oh, and the monster’s name is Giganto, which is objectively hilarious.

While New York is evacuated and the army attempts to take down the monster, Ben comes up with a fool proof and probably technically impossible plan. With a nuclear bomb strapped to his back, he launches himself into the mouth of the beast. Never mind that nuclear weapons are what got us into this mess in the first place, but okay.

Ben does, miraculously, manage to escape very certain death. With his monster defeated, The Mariner threatens to summon more creatures with the Horn of Proteus, but an invisible Sue Storm sneaks up behind him and steals it. The Mariner tackles her and tells her if she will become his bride he won’t destroy humanity. Sue agrees, reluctantly-ish. But Johnny saves the day with a fire tornado that plunges the Mariner back to the bottom of the ocean. Leaving everyone who is in love with Sue a little confused about where they stand with her, and Sue a little Hot of Mariner. Understandable, Sue. I get it. The Mariner vows to return and he definitely will.

Tales to Astonish

Tales to Astonish #27 is the first appearance and origin story of Henry Pym AKA Ant-Man. The issue opens with Henry making an incredible discovery. He shrinks a chair with a miniaturizing serum and grows it back to normal size with an enlarging serum. Unfortunately, the rest of the scientific community is less impressed with Henry’s experiments.

Fueled by his need to stick it to his haters, Henry tests his serum on himself. Thankfully, it works instead of eating through his skin like acid or something and Henry shrinks himself down to the size of a… you guessed it! An ant! What he doesn’t plan for is leaving the enlarging serum out of reach. The rest of the issue becomes a quest to turn himself back into normal size. As he tries to get to the serum, he is chased by ants into an ant hill where he gets stuck in honey. Which… makes sense. Sure.

He is fortunate enough to befriend one ant willing to help him. Henry is surprised when it works to pull him free from the honey and let him go. But he also torches the ant hill so I guess fuck that ant.

When Henry finally manages to get to his enlarging serum he is so shaken by the experience that he decides that his creation is too dangerous for man kind. He then pours it down the drain. Just because it’s too dangerous for man kind doesn’t mean it’s too dangerous to dispose of properly. And now the Marvel universe is overrun by enlarged bacteria from Henry’s kitchen sink. But as long as he lives, he will never forget the ant who saved his life. Even though he totally burned down that ant’s house. Which especially sucks because I doubt ants have homeowners insurance or anything to cover fire damage.

The Incredible Hulk

And the last issue I want to hit in this first installment is Incredible Hulk #1 because I think it establishes an interesting pattern with our first three protagonists of early marvel comics.

This had been advertised in the previous FF book with “Who is the Hulk?” Printed in the margins of the story, which I think is a pretty cool way to drum up interest for the book. The first run of The Incredible Hulk only lasts 6 issues. But it’s some of Jack Kirby’s best work.

This one, like Tales to Astonish, is a straight up origin story for Bruce Banner and the Hulk. If you’re familiar with Hulk through the movies, this is going to be a story that is familiar in all but one key difference.

On a military base, Bruce Banner is getting ready to test his invention, the Gamma bomb. Bruce fits in along side Reed Richards and Henry Pym in the Smartest Man In The World category. He is also kind of an asshole with little regard to what others in his community have to say about his work. In fact, he has refused to share his work with his colleagues and doesn’t want them to check his work. Seems like a dick move to me.

There’s actually a lot going on here in terms of toxic masculinity. We also have Thunderbolt Ross who doesn’t understand science or anyone who isn’t punching things 24/7 and all he really ever does is yell and tell his daughter to stay out of “man talk!”

Once everyone is done yelling, it’s time to test the bomb. Bruce takes one last look at it just in time to see a wayward teen, Rick Jones, driving through the test field. Bruce chases after him, because it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that he will not only catch a Jeep on foot, but he’ll also be able to do so before the bomb detonates. At least the last part wouldn’t have been a problem if he hadn’t pissed Igor off. Before running after the boy, Bruce tells him to shut down the countdown and Igor casually decides not to. And while Bruce does manage to save the kid, he gets caught in the Gamma explosion.

Hours later, Bruce wakes up at the base where he stays, being monitored for any symptoms caused by the explosion. That night, while Rick watches Bruce, he transforms into a giant Grey monster and breaks out of the base. This is where the origin deviates from what is mostly considered canon at this point. The Hulk isn’t triggered by rage or heightened emotion. Instead, he just comes out at night. Essentially, Bruce Banner is a nuclear powered werewolf.

The monster sneaks (which seems unlikely since he’s a big monster, but who knows) through the base, followed by Rick Jones. He makes his way to Bruce Banner’s cabin, where they find Igor rummaging through Bruce’s stuff. Igor shoots at The Hulk with no effect except to piss him off even more. Finally, Bruce picks up Igor and slams him down into the table where all of his research is scattered. The absolute best part of this is we learn where Bruce hides all of his research and proprietary secrets. Pages labeled “Top Secret Report on Gamma Ray Bomb” are tapped to the bottom of a beaker. Come on my guy. Buy a safe.

When the Hulk finds a picture of Bruce in the cabin, he is appalled to see such a weak creature until Rick reminds him that he is that weak creature. I don’t think triggering an existential crisis is the best way to defeat a radioactive werewolf, but I’ve also never had to calm one down after a rampage, so who am I to judge?

Eventually, the sun comes up and The Hulk is returned his normal Bruce Banner shape just in time for soldiers to storm his cabin, demand to know where the Hulk is and take Igor and the Top Secret Gamma report away. Betty hangs back to apologize, once again, on behalf of her father and suggest that he see a doctor. To which Bruce replies, “Baby, I am a doctor.” Okay, no he doesn’t. But we do get a fun snide commentary from Rick who has no time for Betty’s crush. Bruce tells Betty he’ll call her but also tells Rick that he’s afraid that the will never escape becoming The Hulk.

Meanwhile, Igor has been taken into custody. In his cell, he uses a transmitter embedded in his fingernail to contact the Soviet scientist known as The Gargoyle. Not a great look for the Soviets to have given him that name based on his facial deformities, but what do we really expect? The Gargoyle makes his way to the states via submarine.

Back over in the A-Plot, Bruce and Rick are experimenting with ways to manage the Hulk for the time being. They drive the Jeep out into the desert before nightfall to get him away from the base before he changes again. After a run in with Betty that causes her to faint, the Gargoyle shows up. He shoots The Hulk and Ross with bullets filled with drugs that basically allow The Gargoyle to control their actions. They follow him onto a sub and head back to the USSR but on the rip, sun comes up and Hulk turns back into Bruce Banner.

When The Gargoyle finds him, he begins to sob, saying he wants to be a man and not a monster too. Bruce treats him with radiation which makes him look normal but also takes away his super intelligence. I guess that’s a trade off. Once he’s “cured” Gargoyle reveals that he has hella daddy issues and with the new realization that he has been used by the USSR, he basically renounces the Soviet efforts. Finally, he puts Bruce and Rick on a rocket headed for the US and blows his base up in a final act of defiance.

There's a lot to unpack here...

It’s actually kind of impressive to revisit comics I read as a teenager and thought very little of at the time and come away from them with a lot to chew on. There are a lot of interesting themes here with regard to how the comics interact with real world ideas and politics.

Communism, The Cold War, The Atomic Age, Vietnam

So, these comics are coming out in 61 and 62. The Cold War is in full swing, America is a few years out from entering Vietnam, and a few months prior to the release of Fantastic Four #1, the first man went to space. So much of what what we see happening on the page are consequences of that political climate just as so much of what our characters go through relate back to that central unease. Science was advancing at a more rapid pace than ever before and citizens were being warned of the constant threat that communism posed on their way of life.

There is also A LOT of anti-communist propaganda in the first decade of Marvel comics. Here, we’ve only seen it so far with the Fantastic Four needing to go to space to beat the “commies” and the Igor’s attempts to be the worlds worst double agent. We’ll see a lot more of that once we get to Journey into Mystery, because somehow the book about Norse Gods got turned into the most deliberate and most obvious anti-commie book for a while.

Science and Intelligence as it relates to Toxic Ego and Fragile Masculinity

It’s not a mistake that our three “main characters” so far are Reed Richards, Henry Pym, and Bruce Banner. All brilliant men of science who are exploring new technology in their own ways. The contrast between how Reed is treated, versus Henry and Bruce is fascinating. Reed and his contributions to science, as well as his powers have made him a celebrity. He is celebrated by his fans and his family and is all around viewed as a good guy (despite the fact that he turned three autonomous beings into cows). On the other hand, Pym and Banner are belittled. Pym is belittled by his colleagues who think his theories and his studies are outlandish and impossible. Banner is surrounded by military men who value brute strength over science. Thunderbolt Ross will constantly diminish Bruce as less of a man because he’s smart rather than strong.

The most fascinating part of this, to me, is knowing what becomes of Hank Pym in the future. Jumping ahead a little bit, his reputation in the universe and among fans will be forever tarnished by how he treats his future wife, Janet Van Dyne. In a sequence of events in a 1980s issue of the Avengers, Hank appears to strike Janet across the face. This has been, rightfully, called out as an act of domestic abuse by fans and has utterly ruined Hank’s reputation as a character. At the time, and in future incidents, the creators of that moment have discussed how they had never intended it to be viewed that way. But, even now in his first appearance, you can see the groundwork of a volatile man with a fragile ego and it’s not that much of a leap to see this man committing domestic assault.

Women as Caretakers and House Mothers

Right now, the only woman we see with any regularity is Susan storm. And we see her slotted into that mother role with the rest of the team. She is their caretaker, their costume maker, and the object of two members’ affection. This does not really improve until much later. For now, we have a woman doing woman’s work and not much else.

The only other woman we have to compare her to is Betty Ross. For the first six issues of Hulk, she is less a character and more of a background object. A full table lamp of a person, much like the earliest version of Jane Foster, who we’ll soon meet in Journey into Mystery.

‘Nuff Said!

And that wraps up the first six issues of Marvel continuity. It literally took me two months to write this post so who knows when I’ll cover the next few issues? But if you’re interested in something I update more frequently check out this twitter account I made to clean all the screencapped panels out of my camera roll: @616caps.

I’ll leave you with this incredible cutaway of the Fantastic Four’s HQ because who doesn’t love a cutaway!

#marvel comics #the marvel method

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tookishcombeferre · 1 month ago

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Good point!! (Tho, it seems so ooc that Sofia didn't react more horrified when Cedric got directly hit; it could have killed him, and it looked like it hurt a LOT. She looked horrified, but she didn't cry out "MR. CEDRIC!" or anything. Did you get that too?) Plus, I refuse to believe he wasn't also a bit injured from his fall when he saved Sofia! Yet, he seemed like he didn't even have a SCRATCH from either of those!! I know cartoon logic, but come on!!

That entire situation was so weird to me. My spouse and I said the same thing when we watched it. We were so confused. I was like ... there is no *way* he does not have a concussion at least. There is no way! Also, why was Roland about as useful as a stool during that battle? They teach them *knight skills* in RPA! What was he doing during those classes??? Like, what?? I just do not understand how James is more capable in battle than his own father who is like, at least 40! It baffles me. Ugh! Himbo King (affectionate)! What are you doing?

Do you think after the wedding or at the grad party, Grandqueen told Cedric how sorry she was that he didn't have her back?

Yes? I think so. I'm not sure exactly when that happened, but I think it did. I'm not sure it was during/ immediately after the grad party because, I'm pretty sure, if I were Cedric, I'm taking the first quick exit I can to go take a NAP after all the craziness with the Amulet. (I'm also very much not a crowds person.)

But, let's assume she stayed a few days after the grad party to visit and said her piece then.

And it's so cool that you geek out about the show with your spouse! Haha! yeah ... Not to be sappy on the thread, but our anniversary is this week. Spouse Unit 1 and I have some great banter when we watch the episodes together. The first episode he ever watched was the one where they ended up in Elf Wonderland ... I cannot for the life of me remember the title of that episode ... but we both almost fell off the couch laughing. Our kid probably thought we were absolutely bonkers, but we absolutely lost our minds. Needless to say he was absolutely invested after that. (I caught him up backwards afterwards with like "the highlights.") For our 5th wedding anniversary, and kiddo's 3rd Birthday, next summer/early fall, we're planning to do a two day stint at a Ren Faire where we had one of our first dates in college.

One of the days, Spouse Unit 1 and I plan on dressing as our favorite characters from Sofia the First. Our biggest rule for cosplay has always been we choose based on favorite characters not based on ships. Couples costumes can get boring. But, all of our plans must center the toddler now, so kiddo picks the shows and we pick whatever characters we, personally, like best. Those are our rules. The two of us organically chose, based purely on our favorite characters from the show, to be Cedric and Baileywick.

I don't think we'll even have to act to be in character for the cosplay. It's just who we are as people.

When the two of us first met, I was the perpetual recluse who thought if I worked hard enough I could 4.0 college and finally make my father proud. And, my spouse was like "Yeah ... you could do that ... or like ... you could have friends and tea." (We had a tradition in our friend group to talk literature, history, and philosophy at a tea shop near our university every Friday from 4:30 until the place closed starting in my 2nd year of college. We were mutual friends, and part of the same group of friends, for about 2 and 1/2 years before we started going out.) My spouse was also the dude in college who texted the GroupMe to make sure everyone ate breakfast and drank water in college. He also had the only car ... It's just ... it was in his spirit to choose Baileywick as his favorite character. Not a ship I necessarily ship in the show. But, like I said, that's not how we pick costumes.

But, yeah, he's great. He makes sure I take care of my physical body, and I ensure he's never bored. ;)

We'll be married four years this Halloween. Time flies.

Cedric, Tilly, and Grandmum (Roland's mother)

I really would have loved to have seen Tilly and Roland's mother interact with Cedric. I would love to know what they thought of Cedric, especially ever since the Incident.

I always thought Grandmum was genuinely just as strict and traditional as her husband, before older age- and the death of her husband- somehow mellowed her out.

Given how strict she was supposed to have been, I hc she and King Roland I both strongly disapproved of Cedric after the Incident (but remained good friends with Cedric's parents), and strongly discouraged their son from being friends with Cedric anymore... just as Goodwyn likely did with Cedric, all three of them seeing Cedric as a bad influence and a hazard to both the prince and his reputation. They likely did the same with Tilly, who I hc was similarly close to Cedric.

I have always wished we had seen Grandmum interacting with Cedric in at least one of the few episodes she was in, especially the finale where Cedric not only at last seemed like part of the family, but led everyone in saving Sofia and demonstrating just how powerful he was.

I also wish Tilly had interacted with Cedric on the show, since they grew up together with their siblings. I hc her and Cedric and young Roland and Cordelia all were very tight together before the Incident, and that Tilly was the only one who didn't blame Cedric or turn his back on him (aside from Winifred). Being a bit of an unconventional princess who didn't really fit in herself, I can't see her judging anyone else as 'different' or an outcast according to society's standards; besides, she seemed way too chill for that! I also hc that she tried to remain Cedric's friend, but he pushed her away out of fear that she would soon come to turn his back on him like everyone else (which was the start of him hardening his heart and refusing to ever get close to anyone again- except for Wormwood- despite his true loneliness), and then she eventually left the castle to be an adventurer before they could reconnect. 😟

#cedric the sorcerer #cedric the great #cedric the sensational #sofia the first #character analysis #pip does life

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into-september · 3 years ago

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to cross your DNA with something reptile

With the answer set to be given within the next couple of days (to what extent it even was a quesetion any more), I guess now’s the time for me to pull together the the threads from some three or four different drafts of blergh and explain why no amount of desperate positive takes has made me excited about the sentiadrien narrative.

I’m putting this under cut because god knows I am myself tired of seeing this disc horse on my dash; I just need to get it out before whatever meltdown tomorrow will bring and because I’ll probably be AFK for most of it because Christmas is all around us (as evident in how I’m posting this between batches of Christmas sweets made with my sisters, thirty minutes before Kuro Neko drops. See you on the other side and DM me when the subs are out; spoiler tags shall be ON after this) (welp). I also want to stress that this is in no way meant as salt; I’m writing this from a place of profound love of this show, and I’m fully aware that it’s not that deep, sis. I’m not taking this terribly seriously because the show isn’t going to either, but.

Well.

Loving something for what it is does not mean that I have to deny its genre and target audience and they way they’ve previously dealt with anything demanding the audience to question the story. TL;DR, the inclusion of heavy existential themes into a story without the backbone to carry them is a substantial part of why my feelings about this are pretty much

The title of this post isn’t completely random, and the lord only knows that my predictions about MLB are usually proven wrong. The show has done some legit clever storytelling before and I don’t doubt there’ll be more of it to come. Maybe they’ll pull this storyline and make something truly fantastic out of it, and that’s the hope.

And that’s all I have.

I. The dubious narrative precedent

Miraculous Ladybug is this absolutely bonkers, absolutely adorable series of twenty-three minute episodes about two teenage superheroes who fight dinosaurse and weaponied pidegons and don’t know that they sit next to each other in class and are desperately in love. Yeah yeah there’s a magical terrorist posessing innocent citizens and sending them out on murder sprees weekly, but his presence is merely the excuse for having our two heroes look cool and be cute at each other. Miraculous Ladybug is very, very good at being that show.

The introduction of season-spanning plot developments creates two issues. First, of course, is that breaking away from the formula means that Miraculous Ladybug no longer is that very thing I love. This has of course been what many fans have been crying for since like season two, so... good for you?

But that makes the second problem all the more urgent: The few previous times the show has batted its kitty-paws at more meaningful storylines, the results have been mixed. And by "mixed”, I mean “mostly not particularly good”.

Succumbing to pessimism is an individual’s choice, and honestly: I can’t say I entirely have, because observe the prime example of my very objection - the fact that Season 4 includes a number of plot elements that by all accounts should have turned the story from the episodic nonsense to something at least somewhat more grave and comtemplative. Instead, the writers opted to let the characters almost uniformly ignore huge changes that should upset any status quo. In theory, it’s not terribly good writing to refuse to let universe-changing events have narrative consequences. In practice, it’s letting me continue to watch the same delighfully dumb show, so I’m not actually complaining.

This is of course not to say that they won’t suddenly start being as good at writing long plots as they are at writing singular episodes, but the way S4 has gone about the other changes is not promising. And let’s be real: For all the good times they’ve given us, the writers of the show are not above being blatantly lazy.

The resident mean girl having a super sweet and super stylish and super sad sister who was introduced to the story completely out of the blue to instantly befriend the established cast, discover her silly stepfather’s abandoned dreams, and being given her undeserving sister’s miraculous the episode after she met Ladybug - that was a thing that happened.

II. The thematic collapse

Either sentimonsters are merely objects to be used and discarded, or Gabriel and Nathalie are serial murderers. TPTB on are bending over backwards on twitter to deny the first and I sincerely struggle to see the show confirm the second, and that’s not indicative of a lot of thought having been put into this.

III. The philosophical pretension

I don’t give a rat’s back end about the question of whether or not non-human intelligence should have their human rights recognised. IRL, it’s a hypothetical. In fiction, it is usually brought up to justify the existence of already beloved "artificial” characters. It’s not a question that merits discussion, unless it’s an allegory for recognising the humanity of real people who would somehow be dehumanised. And when we’re at that point, in a liberal western work in the twenty-first century, that would raise the question of who. Who are these people whose humanity is not recognised in our society?

Not queer people or racial minorities - both groups are visibly present on the show and portrayed as no less included and accepted than the straight whites. A less usual suspect would be disabled people, particularly pertinent given that Adrien’s original character conception used a walking aid, but the prejudices they are met with are usually of a different breed entirely. The similar absence of lower class people and visible religious minorities is a flaw in the show, not society.

Of course, I’m just being difficult. The question of does non-human intelligence deserve recognition on par with biological humans has been posed twice already and answered as the banality it is both times. Even without the pocket-sized alien gods making up the story’s entire premise and their recognition as individuals, Markov is human enough to be targeted for akumatisation at least twice, and Aeon’s death was so traumatic that it effectively ended Paris’ superhero duo until she personally put it together again.

Unless there is something substantially more lore to sentimonsters than what we know at this point, sentiadrien can’t be included for the purpose of inciting any profound reflections about the human condition. Discount the existential horror that is every sentimonster’s fate, and we’re left with the magical equivalent of “found out I was adopted”.

IV. The thematic collapse, part two

Unless Duusuu’s powers are permanently and fundamentally changed, ~senti representation~ is not something for which the show should strive, because real people living under that condition is, uh.

Screwed up, to put it mildly. To recap:

1. The point of Duusuu’s power is that whoever has the amok has control over the sentimonster, fully able to overide any free will it has and effectively render it a puppet at their command. The only known way a sentimonster can escape this fate is to have the amok item somehow embedded inside their bodies so that it can neither be lost nor reached by anyone else.

2. When Duusuu’s powers are being used, the wielder can remove the amok as easily as plucking a hair from their head; they are figuratively holding the sentimonster’s beating heart in the palm of their hand. Even without the slavery to the amok, they are living under the threat of instant death at the hands of the peacock wielder. As the number of lost and found miraculouses on this show well proves, a sympathetic and trustworthy peacock wielder can never be taken for granted. As was demonstrated by Feast, eating your amok is no path to liberation from this master. The only known way a sentimonster can escape this fate is if Duusuu’s miraculous is cast into the fires of Mount Doom.

V. (and you want to bridge the schism, a built-in mechanism to protect you)

(the entire problem, the only problem, is that Duusuu’s power is to create life for the purpose of unconditional servitude. This is morally questionable if said life is clearly non-human and with limited degrees of intelligence [hence the name and the “goes ape crazy if amok is no longer in charge]. It comes a horror show of entirely different dimensions when it is used for creating life that for all intents and purposes is human and capable of participating in human society like any other person. Banana Boom Boom probably wouldn’t spend time mulling over his slavery to Queen Banana, but it is a crisis that could explain a lot of Felix’ allegedly uncharacteristically rotten attitude in his intro episode.)

(the question, then, is this: will Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir ever acknowledge that Duusuu’s power is so ripe for abuse that it should come with an ethical charter?)

(because lol, wasn’t it funny that Plagg sunkt the Atlantis. Isn’t it hilarious how Sabrina does Chloé’s homework in her closet. Wasn’t it just any akuma attack like usual that time a teenage girl disappointed in love drowned every person in western Europe except for a handful of middle schoolers)

(through real world lenses, Su-Han’s rage at finding the miraculous box in the hands of a fourteen year old girl is entirely justified. Per the established reality of canon, of course, he’s just a boomer)

(it’ll be fine as long as the person with the miraculous is noble and well-intended. And that’s easy, since there are only two kinds of people: Nice People, or Bad People. Sometimes Nice People do bad things under the influence of Bad People. That’s okay; they’ll come around. How lucky that Marinette always knows to which group a person belongs. This is a show for primary schoolers, it’s not that deep, sis)

(will Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir ever acknowledge that Duusuu’s power is so ripe for abuse that it should come with an ethical charter)

VI. And now for something completely different

Yeah yeah, I probably won’t be done with this anytime soon, because the narrative parallell between Gabriel’s “super strict parenting” and Adrien being a sentimonster whose amok is in posession of his father who also has the peacock miraculous cannot be an accident. One reflects in the other, and the yikes is twofold.

First: We’ve by now got confirmation that the show isn’t out to thematise emotional abuse, since the head honcho denies that Audrey’s treatment of Chloé is causing harm, nevermind that the show clearly shows that it is. Of course, Thomas Astruc’s understanding of the semantics is one thing; another entirely is that it is in fact debatable to what extent Adrien is a victim of parental abuse. Not because Gabriel’s actions and attitude aren’t abusive, but because Adrien’s bottomless optimism lets him excuse it as the results of his father’s grief. Even though the neglect hurts him, he has yet to question whether he is worthy of his father’s love and attention. Dad’ll come around once he moves on, and Adrien’s self-worth remains solid.

The audience, of course, knows that this is technically true but not for the reason Adrien thinks. The message, at any rate, remains the same: Gabriel isn’t treating Adrien badly because sometimes adults intentionally hurt their children. Gabriel is treating Adrien badly because he’s a supervillain, and if Adrien isn’t harmed then it’s not that bad, anyway. Certainly not next to the willingness to use the amok to force Adrien into hurting people he loves.

(yes, I’m like 70% certain that a sentiadrien storyline will be part of a Gabriel redemption storyline, and I hate it here)

The other “hoe don’t” is the - mildly put - unfortunate implications in how sentiadrien has been affected by his father’s non-magical mistreatment. Namely, that the reason he "just puts up with it" is because the core of his existence is that his father literally can control his mind and his every action.

Not because so many children will accept and internalise their parents’ abuse in the horrible misunderstanding that this is how we care for them. Not because abuse will tear down your self-worth until you truly believe that you are unlovable, that your feelings and opinions are irrelevant, and that you deserve being treated like a nothing.

Adrien's tacit acceptance and steadfast defending and excusing his father's treatment of him is a realistic response in abused children. One very obvious reading of the sentiadrien narrative is that he is like that because he is a puppet at his father's command - that he would rebel if he could, because his submission has nothing to do with his father’s attitude.

That victims of "real" abuse would take a stand, would talk back, would make accusations, would know that this is wrong. If you're a passive victim like Adrien, then clearly the things destroying you is all in your head, sticks and stones, because it's not his father's treatment of him that makes Adrien Like That, it's his father being a supervillain.

VII. and then what’s the point

With how easy come, easy go Marinette and Gabriel’s power upgrades have been this season, the show has paved the path for sentiadrien to release himself from his slavery by just really really wanting to. Amoks are visually equated to akumas, and the lord only knows Alya and Nino needed little else than a friend telling them to get it together. Why should it be any more difficult for sentiadrien? “Using their imagination”, after all, was all it took for Ladybug and Shadow Moth.

And at that point, then what was the point, except giving the audience one more horror to wait for him to discover, and giving him an episode or two of misery, and possibly pursuing some insipid ruminations on a topic whose truth the story has been long since established.

If they’re going to re-define the entire existence of one of their main characters, then it has better be for something more than cheap angst.

#miraculous ladybug #mlb meta #blah

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zackcollins · 3 years ago

Text

i can’t sleep without you || penny oleksiak

Author’s Note: Look... She’s the Canadian record holder for most medals at the Summer Olympics. My brain decided that warranted a little piece of writing. I hope I did it and her justice because she truly is an icon. Both for the sport of swimming and for the Oleksiak family. GIF credit to maljic!

Warnings: I don’t think there’s anything! Feel free to let me know if anything should be warned about though. I’ll gladly add a warning for you.

Word Count: 1.5k+

Title: Sleep Without You by Brett Young

Additional: The reader should be gender-neutral. They’re implied to be a swimmer, so I did the best I could. Anyways! I hope everyone enjoys this! Feedback is always welcomed!!

You were humming along to the music filtering through your headphones. On the tray in front of you, you were tapping a pencil against your crossword book. You only had a few words filled in and it was driving you bonkers not being able to figure out some of them. Shifting your attention from the music to the crossword puzzle, you scanned the clues again to see if there were any easy ones that you missed.

5 Down: Layman’s oesophagus

Bopping your head along to the music, you smiled as you wrote ‘throat’ in the appropriate squares. You were grateful that you had found at least one easy clue. Filling out a few more answers that you had somehow missed, you tapped his pencil against the book a second time when you reached a stalemate at one of the remaining clues.

13 Across: Town at Eighth Mile of Boston Marathon

You paused your music, slid your headphones around your neck, turning to your best friend, Penny, beside you. You put the crossword book on the tray in front of her, pointing at the clue.

“You’re a trove of useless knowledge,” You said, “do you know the answer to that?”

Instead of answering, Penny grabbed the pencil and wrote Natick across the correct squares. Smiling, you slid the crossword book back in front of yourself. Penny handed you the pencil, turning back to the movie she was watching on the seat display; it looked like Finding Nemo or Finding Dory if you were to guess.

“Thanks, Penny,” you said, punching her playfully in the shoulder.

Humming, Penny smiled without looking away from her movie. “You’re welcome, babe.”

Leaning over, Penny checked her shoulder against yours. Your mouth went dry, face heating up both from the contact and the fact that Penny had called you what she had called you. Despite yourself, your traitorous body felt gooey and fuzzy. You quickly slid your headphones on, restarting the music. The last thing you needed was Penny to figure out how you felt.

For the rest of the flight to Calgary, you tried to focus on your crossword puzzle and the music you were listening to. You tried not to focus on the lingering gooey and fuzzy feelings the shoulder check and pet name from Penny had caused. Keyword: tried. Even with your music blasted as loud as was safe, you could still hear Penny laughing along to the movie. Every time Penny laughed, the gooey and fuzzy feelings bubbled back up deep within your gut.

When the plane finally landed about an hour later and everyone was disembarking, you kept to yourself. You knew your face was burning as bright as the morning sun after everything that had happened. The last thing you needed was someone to question you about it.

Thankfully, the bus ride to the hotel was without incident. You were also able to finish your crossword. Seeing as Penny was the last person you wanted to interact with right now, you went to Maggie for help. Maggie was concerned as to why you weren't asking Penny because she knew the two of you did everything together but she ultimately helped you when you said that Penny just wanted to rest after the long flight. Though, you were fairly certain you saw Maggie give you a sideways glance once or twice as she was giving you the answers to some of the clues. You couldn't be sure if it was because she didn't believe your story about Penny, or because she thought you were an idiot for not knowing the answers. Either way, you kept quiet and thanked her when the crossword was finished.

When everyone was assigned their rooms, you and Penny were paired together to the surprise of absolutely no one. Penny was talking to you about ways to refine your butterfly stroke when you put the keycard in the door. Walking into the room, you both froze as you dropped your suitcases beside each other.

Looking at each other after a moment, Penny cursed while you ran your hand down your face and around to the back of your neck, sighing.

“One bed,” you said, swallowing thickly. “There must’ve been a mix-up with the room assignments.”

Penny sighed, turning to you. “I’m alright with it as long as you are.”

You noticed something strange beyond the surface of Penny’s eyes; it looked like hope.

Feeling yourself short circuit, you nodded quickly. “Yeah, it’s fine.” Your words felt heavy, nervous. If Penny noticed, she didn’t acknowledge it.

Motioning to the bathroom, Penny began unzipping her suitcase. “I’m gonna take a quick shower. It helps me sleep.”

Feeling your mouth go dry for the second time that night, you nodded. You had seen Penny after a shower plenty of times; this time though, this time felt personal. Intimate. You would be sharing a bed, something that you had dreamt about for a while.

As Penny went to shower, you changed into your pyjamas. Swallowing thickly, you wanted to kick himself for packing nothing more than a pair of loose boxers and a skin-tight undershirt to wear to bed. Normally, that would be sufficient; you always had your bed. Today though, some power that existed made it happenstance that you would share a bed with the woman you had a lunar-sized crush on. In other words, loose boxers and a skin-tight undershirt felt insufficient.

When the bathroom door opened and Penny emerged wearing only sleep shorts and a sports bra, you felt less psychotic for wearing what you were wearing. Shimmying over toward the window, you allowed room for Penny on the side of the nightstand. Penny hummed in appreciation, slipping under the covers. Flicking on the lamp, she rolled over to face you.

“I hope you don’t mind that the lamp is on,” she said, motioning behind her. “Leaving a light on helps me sleep more soundly.”

You could see a blush rising on Penny’s face. Smiling softly, you slid under the cover and fluffed your pillow to get comfortable.

“No,” you said, “I don’t mind.”

You felt your heartstrings tug in different directions when Penny lit up with a genuine smile.

“Night, babe,” Penny yawned, closing her eyes. A few moments later, Penny’s breathing evened out.

“Night, Penny,” you mumbled, rolling over. You closed your eyes, drifting off to sleep after a few minutes. Your mind was transfixed on the fact that Penny had called you a pet name again.

In the morning, you felt warm. Too warm. Your first thought was that you had a fever. You grumbled and shifted around, trying to get comfortable in your newfound heat. That caused another grumble that you decidedly did not utter.

“Stay still, babe,” Penny mumbled, “cuddling you is no fun if you move.”

You sprung up as if you were on fire, looking down at Penny. Penny grumbled leaning on her elbow to look at you.

“Everything okay?” she asked, sounding concerned.

You swallowed, nodding haphazardly. “I’m sorry for invading your space like that.”

Penny ran a hand along your bicep. You shivered, leaning into the touch.

“You didn’t invade anything. I would’ve stopped you if I didn’t like it,” Penny paused.

“You mean...” the cogs started to turn in your head.

Nodding, Penny smiled. “Yes. I have feelings for you. Have had feelings for you for a long time.”

Sitting up properly, Penny cupped your face. On instinct, you brought your hands to Penny's ribcage. Shivering at the contact, Penny leaned in and ghosted her lips over yours. You felt your lips tremble at the feather-light sensation. You leaned in to chase the feeling, lips making contact with Penny's.

You kissed each other for a moment, pulling back when you nibbled on Penny's lower lip. Penny looked blissed and content when you looked into her eyes. She caught you staring and smirked.

Ducking your head, you placed it on Penny’s shoulder. Grabbing your chin, Penny pulled your head up. Looking into Penny's eyes, you could see nothing but tenderness and care staring back at you.

“You have pretty eyes,” you blurted.

Penny's face turned a soft shade of pink as she leaned in, kissing you. The kiss was soft, sweet, and the most meaningful kiss you had ever experienced. Unlike the kisses you had had with people in the past, this kiss with Penny felt like it mattered in the grand scheme of things. It felt right.

Laying down to cuddle some more before practice, you heard one of the phones vibrate on the nightstand. It was Penny's phone that had vibrated but when you went to give it to her, she had already fallen back asleep. You looked at the phone screen and saw that the notification was a text from her brother, Jamie. You knew what Penny's password was because she had trusted you with it ages ago. Sighing, you entered the 6 digits and opened up the text thread to see what Jamie had wanted this early in the morning.

After reading the message, you placed Penny's phone on the nightstand. You kissed her on the forehead before curling around her and drifting off to sleep. The only thing on your mind was that you were grateful that Penny had a brother like Jamie.

To: Coin

From: Giraffe

You're welcome for getting you two a room with one bed. All it cost me was a signed jersey. Now, it better have worked or else I'm flying up to Calgary myself to get you two fools together. Do you understand?

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garnetsandroses · 3 years ago

Note

ask game: cquackity (you might need to skip a couple sorry we have a fandom overlap of One <3)

Why I like them

(please assume i always mean to put the c! in front of names, rn i’m so lazy)

ohhhh my god big q’s so quirky but in that terrible way where you feel slightly uneasy and worried every time he’s around. his character development has been so good (in terms of narrative, not for him personally) and it’s a delight to revisit old streams to see how far he’s come. all sorts of disparate character types like a suave businessman, slimy politician, or revenge-bent ex all come together to make a very compelling and interesting antagonist or at least anti-hero. there’s just so much emotional stuff that he’s gone through that drives me bonkers! so much angst to draw on!

Why I don’t

some plot threads got dropped, or just aren’t focused on as much as i’d like them to be. like, why go to the trouble of eating your fiance’s heart raw and exhibit signs of possession just to not go deeper into the paranormal aspects X_X

Favorite episode (scene if movie)

most definitely the stream (forgot the title, oops) where slime dies. it was absolutely devastating and the contrast between quackity’s struggle to trust in someone again versus purpled’s heartless betrayal made for an amazing conflict

Favorite season/movie

definitely S1. manburg v pogtopia was an amazing conflict that really drew out cc!q’s acting ability when he could play off of both schlatt and wilbur. quackity breaking free from the terrible administration and making himself a place in pogtopia was great

Favorite line

“i have a pickaxe” for sure. idk if hitting on 16 completely counts, but “i don’t think about you at all” is second place in that case.

Favorite outfit

i mean, he’s a minecraft skin, but . . . that las nevadas uniform is very swaggy

OTP

sorry for being a tntduo fan but i absolutely am one. it’s not like i need the streamers to go romantic, god forbid they try to rp through a dramatic reconciliation all the way to marriage. but in some way i just feel like they’re a pair

Brotp

this is a hard question to answer now, honestly. quackity’s not exactly doing too hot. but i adored the idea of quackity and fundy having a bond from the manberg administration, and knowing each other’s habits from staying around the white house so much.

Head Canon

i like to think that he was always closer to sapnap. ofc this has been joked about, but i like the idea of quackity and karl always needing sapnap w/ them to bond, so when their relationship soured, quackity jumped to “oh, karl hates me now!” instead of maybe thinking about the possibility of memory issues

Unpopular opinion

quackity was practically superfluous during the egg arc. him crashing the red banquet was a pretty cool appearance, but once it wore off it felt out-of-character and it threw a wrench into the interesting dynamic with bbh set up in the las nevadas streams

A wish

wishing on a star for him to start treating his employees better ⭐

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen

it would probably be the worst-case scenario for him to die. it just doesn’t feel right thinking about such a tragic character getting offed instead of letting him right his wrongs and find some lasting happiness

5 words to best describe them

desperate, conniving, haunted, pragmatic, ruthless

My nickname for them

mostly i just use “q” but there’s always the alternative of calling him blorbo B) ask game here: https://garnetsandroses.tumblr.com/post/682767381198684160/give-me-a-character-and-i-will-answer

#ty for the ask!!#ask game #mcyt #dream smp #quackity

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scribeofred · 3 years ago

Text

Thanks to @onereyofstarlight for the tag!

1. What fandoms have you written for?

This is embarrassing but I actually had to look at both FFnet and AO3 because I couldn’t remember all of them. TRON: Legacy, Assassin’s Creed, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, Sherlock, Final Fantasy VII and XV and Kingsglaive, Voltron: Legendary Defender, Merlin, Skyrim, and, of course, Thunderbirds. I have a couple other fandoms that crop up in various wips, including a Tom Swift/Thunderbirds crossover that I really should finish.

2. How many works do you have on AO3 &/or FFNet?

FFnet has 45, and AO3 has 41. There’s also a couple stories lurking on tumblr, notably a final chapter for Reflection.

3. What are your top 3 fics by kudos on A03 &/or Favs on FFNet?

AO3 dominates in this area, if I can use a word like “dominates” for stories that have less than 125 kudos each haha. Oh well, the numbers don’t matter!

1. 118 kudos on tell the shades apart (my world is black and white)

2. 94 kudos on Reflection

3. 91 kudos on The 43rd Hour

4. Which 3 fics have the least kudos & Favs?

Again on AO3:

1 kudos on I Am You (And You Are Me)

5 kudos on The Dragonborn Chronicles

6 kudos on cynosure

5. Which Fic has the most comments and which has the least?

Reflection has the most at 29 threads, and I Am You (And You Are Me) has the least at zero.

6. Which complete fic do you wish had gotten more attention?

Lodestar, definitely. Sure, it’s for something of a rarepair, but they aren’t that rare, and I just really really like the way the story came together. On the other hand, of course my unfinished Merlin fic has gotten probably the most attention, because that’s just the way it goes, eh?

7. Have you written any crossovers?

None that I’ve published! I have various crossovers lurking in mostly unfinished states, including the aforementioned Tom Swift/Thunderbirds crossover, and an Assassin’s Creed/Thundeerbirds crossover that is very good and I should also finish. There’s an Expanse/Thunderbirds fic lurking in my brain that I may or may not ever commit to paper, who knows. I’ve also very vaguely toyed with a Batman/Thunderbirds crossover, in the sense that “nebulous” is too strong a word for the kind of toying I’ve been doing.

8. What is the craziest fic you’ve written?

I don’t really write crazy or crack or humor in general, so probably the closest thing to “crazy” is On the Lam, which was the result of wanting to throw Scott and Penelope toward an Egyptian stud farm. It ended up being the host for a bad joke about that, courtesy of one @thebaconsandwichofregret, who consistently gives some of the best dialogue advice I’ve ever encountered.

Actually, the true answer is probably a chapter in Glimpses into a Supernova, maybe the one about blood? It seems bonkers when I think back on it now, but I admittedly haven’t read it in many years. Possibly I am misremembering. Glimpses has some weird ones, though.

9. What’s the fic you’ve written with the saddest ending?

It’s a tossup between The Painting and a place where the water touches the sky. The former deals with a prior off-screen death; the latter is (maybe??) an on-screen death. People seemed upset by it, at any rate. I said it was ambiguous!

10. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

“Happy” is probably a matter of perspective? Depends on the overall reading experience and the ending within that context. Either septet or Three Towels and a Tracy, they’re both pretty fluffy overall.

11. What is your smuttiest fic?

protoinstincts, which I completely forgot I wrote and then rediscovered like a year later and realized “hey, this is actually pretty good” and you know what, despite it not being overly spicy, it is pretty good.

12. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not hate, per se, but someone left a review on Less Than Nothing saying they “didn’t like” that I “wrote the story as a series of drabbles.” Cool, I didn’t write the story for you, random guest reader, and the back button exists, friend 😂 It didn’t bother me on a personal level because I wrote the fic for an audience of one (incidentally, not myself and rather the recipient of a secret santa event), but I was mad because the reviewer had no way of knowing where I was at as a writer, and I know from longtime observation how that kind of comment can crush less experienced or confident writers.

Don’t leave flames, kids, you don’t understand the power your words have. Don’t like, don’t read.

13. What is the nicest comment you’ve received?

The nicest? Goodness. Hmm. I’d have to go hunting to find the nicest, but in recent memory, @ayzrules sent me a couple passages from Spanish texts she’s been studying that reminded her of my writing, and I was honestly so touched by the fact that she even thought to make such comparisons, much less mention them to me. Taking the time to familiarize yourself with someone’s style until you can make comparisons between it and someone else’s work is so much more meaningful to me personally than a basic “Nice story!” or “Loved this!” type of comment ever could be. <3 Ayz <3

14. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I’m aware of, but I’ve never gone looking on any sort of copycat site or whatever either.

15. How many fics do you have marked as incomplete?

Two. First is The Dragonborn Chronicles, which is a retelling of Skyrim from Lydia’s perspective via her journal, to complement the in-game journal. It’s a slog of a style to write, though, even for someone who loves writing first person and doesn’t really want to write a lot of dialogue, and the outline is huge, and the story will be many times more huge, and just. Some day. Some day.

Second is tell the shades apart (my world is black and white), which has always been unfinished because the outline itself is over seven thousand words and the fully written story would undoubtedly land between 100,000 and 200,000 words, and there’s no way I’m writing that. I’ve always meant to upload the outline, but I got kind of self-conscious about the way I formatted it, and ugh I just haven’t bothered. One day, one day, right?

Moral of the story is I’m intensely a short story writer, and I’ve really found myself settling into that role over the last couple years. Better a clipped, punchy short story than a bloated slog of an epic.

16. Which of the WIPS will most likely be finished first?

Literally no one knows that. I wrote 95% of the observable entropy of a closed system over five years ago, and then I proceeded to pull it out roughly once a year and write and rewrite various endings until last month, which was when I finally figured out how I wanted to end the story. septet, too, languished for about five years before I finally remembered it existed and managed to wrangle an ending. Endings are hard, man. So are those third plot points. Terrible creatures, those, bog me down every time.

17. Which WIP are you looking forward to finishing?

Uh... mm. See. If I were looking forward to finishing any of them, I’d be actively working on them. At this moment, writing fic isn’t exactly high on my list of priorities, but I am also coming off a four-day idle game bender, so I still feel like I haven’t quite reengaged with myself as a living person. Give me another few days and I might have an answer.

(I am always most looking forward to finishing this ridiculous Ignis-drives-the-Audi-R8 fic that’s been languishing in my wips for literal years. As mentioned above, third plot points. Killer, man.)

(oh and also the working-titled the art of murder. Scott and Penny attend a private art auction. Things don’t go to plan. It, too, is stuck at the third plot point. I know, I know I have a problem, shush.)

18. Is there a WIP that you’re considering abandoning?

Any wip has the potential to be revived—this year and the old wips I’ve unearthed, dusted off, finished, and posted have been proof of that. I don’t intentionally permanently abandon anything for that reason, some stories just probably will remain dusty old wips forever because I didn’t actually need or want to write the full story for one reason or another.

19. Which complete fic would you consider rewriting?

Now that’s an interesting question. Hmm! Honestly? None of them. Once I finish a story, I’m not inclined toward rereading it again any time soon, to the point of years in some cases, and I feel like I’ve moved on from the stories I wrote one, two, five, eight years ago in the actual writing sense. They’re finished stories, and on top of that are relics of their time, which doesn’t mean the stories don’t have any ongoing significance on a reading level—I just don’t have any interest in rewriting those particular stories. I’ve gotten them out of my head, to the point of not remembering at least a third of them on demand anymore, and I don’t have any desire to “retell” those exact stories. I do tend to tighten the wording and fix perceived errors/weaknesses whenever I do end up rereading an old story, and I usually silently update the AO3 version if I make any significant changes because AO3 makes it a breeze to update a posted fic. I might do FFnet too if I’m feeling up to it or have the time.

20. Which complete fic is your favourite?

Once upon a time I would’ve said Holding On, but I honestly find it kind of unbearably melodramatic now. the observable entropy of a closed system is equally melodramatic, as it was written in the same era, but at least it has the excuse of being told in second person and via a style that is a half step away from being poetry. Possibly I will reread it in a few years and find it equally obnoxious and overly dramatic, but it received some shockingly positive comments, which I wasn’t expecting at ALL, and I’ve been honestly blown away by the amount of praise it’s received. <3 to everyone who’s said anything about it!

21. What’s your total published word count?

141,000 on AO3, 160,000 on FFnet, but technically the light of my life SS wrote fifty thousand words of each. It’s too late for math.

I tag @velkynkarma, @lurkinglurkerwholurks, @writtenbyrain, @thebaconsandwichofregret, and anyone else who wants to play!

#tag games

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ariyadaivaris · 3 years ago

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- christ i hate smug mma dudes more than anything on this earth. you're a man doing mma what do you have to be excited about? washing out of ufc and having to resort to a dying professional wrestling company? the systematic oppression of women? the paul brothers? i'm putting nails in your shoes

- the rare and coveted tshirt ariya. phwew he's really uh. he's very. twirls hair. he's kinda

- ariya using a rose metaphor for himself teehee i love being very smart and always right about everything

- "i guess you don't think tony can do it on his own aye" is soooooo so so far from anything that has ever happened between tony and ariya that it's LAUGHABLE. ariya deserves to laugh in his face. cringe and fail broadway-musical-rock-of-ages-male-lead-understudy looking little man. no i'm gonna argue with the kayfabe enemy actually the WHOLE THING up to this point has been ariya trying to prove himself and the subtle tension of tony becoming champion where ariya never has, the only the ONLY time ariya has ever not believed in tony is when he had a full on spiral breakdown towards the beginning of the year when they were questioning splitting them up again for some fucking reason and then it got retconned because DUHHHHHH why would you ever split tony and ariya up just for fun or a giggle when they;ve got the most complex relationship on 205 if you re*you walk away knowing all of this already because you have heard this every week for the last three years but you can still hear me talking in the distance, talking and talking though no one is there...*

- obsessed with this promo actually...ariya's mannerisms are so good he's SO...FUN. i LOVE watching him. he is so self-assured and so charming and there is so obviously so much frustration buried like, an INCH deep beneath all of it. it takes grey pushing him ONCE for him to lose his verve. im SO interested in this

- the thread here is, of course, "you think tony can't do it on his own?" which, as i've stated, is so far from true or what ariya thinks that it's comic. when ariya spits, "of COURSE tony nese can do it on his own", there are a lot of factors at play. when he concedes that maybe instead of going out there, he WILL stay backstage, there's a lot going on there!!! there IS!!! *voice of an unwell person* there IS a lot going on - tony doesn't need to prove he can do it on his own, because he already has. ariya's storyline...like i mentioned, he had a weird moment at the beginning of the year, when it seemed like maybe he and tony were going to be split up. that was very much a moment of "okay the writing might change so it's time to set something up" of course but i think it's interesting to think about as a character impulse. ariya is working to prove he can do things on his own. this has BEEN his thing. he and tony are a team again, but ariya's tried to win with other teams and he's tried to win alone, and though he's successful more often than 205 would have you believe, he's still very shaky. tony has been allowed to work outside of the orbit of other people, and ariya hasn't gotten that chance as much. and, besides that, tony doesn't CARE about it in the same way ariya does. tony...when he gets intense, it's about interpersonal stuff. drew, buddy, cedric, akira, swerve. tony competes with people! ariya competes with himself. does that make sense. i know what i mean. its fine ariya...is on edge. he likes tony and he likes working with tony, but he hasn't been a competitor like tony is. tony's been very accomodating, stepping back or supporting ariya's feuds and allowing him to do What He Needs To Do, which means ariya can try to work alone without going completely rogue and sabotaging shit. when he tried to cut himself off from tony, it was...well it was retconned. but. that's what he's done before and this time it didn't work because ONE it's just tony and ariya, there's no exacerbating force, and TWO, tony and ariya are, after all, friends. tony wants to be friends with ariya and it is hard work to be friends with ariya but he will do it. so they work it out. and ariya is left feeling very very weird about it, and very very aware of how much he kind of depends on tony, when tony doesn't depend on him, at all. ariya tries to protect tony and gas him up and keep an eye on him to make up for All That He's Done Before and to feel like this friendship is two-sided (which it is, of course, friendship is more than a strategic advantage but that's how ariya's always approached it and it's a hard habit to break), but he doesn't have the wins to back up the feeling of being Worth It as a friend. it's...i feel like i just sound out of my gourd saying all of this lol and i am. but when ariya bitterly says, "of course tony nese can do it on his own." it's not just the anger at grey being a dickhead towards tony. it's also ariya being painfully aware that tony can do it without ariya's help. there's a threat in that statement, that question that doesn't need to be asked. there's an irony to it. its...think about it this way: if tony was talking to grey about watching ariya's match, grey wouldn't snark about if tony thought ariya could do it. you know?

- that doesnt make sense. whatever <3 im free

- wow love seeing kushida defending the title. imagine if that happened.....on.......205 live

- ariya literally getting successfully talked out of watching tony's match because he wants to show he believes in tony :( i'm hurt...i'm so hurt. so fucked up and twisted. by GREY too, ariya has kind of a BIT with grey huh. him cheating to pin ariya and then going noooo cheating is wrong against all other opponents. the way grey is super hypocritical and shitty to him and then to no one else. ariya almost respecting him for what ariya understands as Someone Who Gets It and then revealing oh no i just really don't like you and want to piss you off. this one dude who keeps targetting ariya specifically in all the ways that most drive ariya into a frenzy and he managed to hit him where it hurts the most enough to drive him into hiding. oughhhh aughhhh - everyone on 205 being a hater for no reason and seeing ariya trying to deal with his Issues(TM): hm. i can make him worse

- SUNFLOWER JACKET!!!!!!!! SUNFLOWER JIRO. PRECIOUS AND BELOVED. KING AMONG ALL CRUISERWEIGHTS. I DONT KNOW WHO ARIYA IS

- the exaggerated "BOO!""YAY!" cheers for jiro. who am i to say he doesn't deserve them. he DOES. we LOVE jiro. jiro is allowed to homewreck gold standard if he wants to i'll pretend not to see

- UNBREAKABLE!! AUGHHH HE'S SO COOL AND FUN AND HIS MIND IS SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL. jiro has such a fucking bonkers sense of like...dragging a move out. that man can MAKE a sequence! he gets the upper hand and he holds onto it for ages and the entire time its never dull. always with the momentum! always with the visualization of everything around him and how to make it into a show. i just simply think that jiro kuroshio

- HE'S DYINGGGGGGG NOOOOOOOO JIRO. TONY NESE YOU'RE A DEAD MAN. he looks great at this angle though love you weirdo. oh NO your jacket is NOT cool enough to pull this off fkshsdskd - jiro injecting some MUCH needed humor back into 205 thank you so much

- tony's stupid joth uniform next to jiro's sunflower pattern is SO good. fuckin goth v prep diagram dynamic. creamsicle blogging moments

- OH I LOVE A GOOD PIN. we LOVE a good pin don't we. that kick to tony on the apron ROCKS

- clearly you don't own an air fryer...

- OH HIS FORM IS FUCKING UNREAL. WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!! JIRO KUROSHIO BABEY

- i REALLY like this match. this is 205 to me

- IS THAT A 205 CHANT??? IS THAT A 205 CHANT I HEAR??? OH????? WORM????? ITS BEEN LIFETIMES....................

- ooohohohoohohHOOO tony's recovery from the moonsault. that was. dare i say. Epic

- JIROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

- jiro treating mister nese like a little football. sorry anthony. perhaps you should just be cooler <3

- THAT WAS SO FUN......what a meaty episode this week. harkens back to 205 of old.............i love it. im loving this energy. jiro kuroshio you are going to save 205 i believe it

#205 lb #meta tag #long post -#sorry

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Army of the Dead: Time Loop Theory Explained

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Army of the Dead article contains spoilers.

It’s the most far-out moment in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead: when Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) finds the skeletons of another squad of “graverobbers” just outside the casino vault, Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick) asks the young safecracker an ominous question: “Is it another team or is it us, Dieter?” As the camera slowly pans over the corpses, we’re shown captivating evidence that Vanderohe might be on to something (or possibly knows something the rest of the team doesn’t). One skeleton has Scott’s (Dave Bautista) red scarf, while another died wearing necklaces that look identical to Maria’s (Ana de la Reguera). A third skeleton wears the same Hawaiian shirt as Peters (Tig Notaro) in an earlier scene in the movie.

The very first skeleton that appears on camera? One wearing a backpack and scarf just like Vanderohe’s. The corpse is holding some kind of cutting tool, suggesting it was this thief’s job to open the gate to the vault. Is it coincidental that our Vanderohe is also in charge of getting his gate open for Dieter? Boom!

“Think about it: us. I mean, look at them, it’s us,” Vanderohe says to Dieter and Guz in a surreal monologue that lingers through the rest of the movie. “It could be us in another timeline, and we’re caught in some infinite loop of fighting and dying, fighting and dying, fighting and dying. And Tanaka? Puppet master, Devil, God. And we — you, me, Guz, and the rest of the team — simply pawns in some perverse play where we’re destined to repeat our failures. And finally, in some mind-bending, ironic reveal, it all begins again.”

So, are the characters of Army of the Dead stuck in an infinite time loop? It certainly would fit in with the rest of the bonkers twists in Snyder’s insane new take on the zombie genre, which also features theories about alien pathogens, conspiracies about robot zombies, and a secret plan to build the ultimate undead army. By the time Vanderohe shares his theory with the rest of the class, it’s clear this movie exists in tinfoil territory.

Of course, like with many of the movie’s key mysteries, we’re never actually given an answer to the time loop question, and the audience is meant to believe that everyone except Kate and an infected Vanderohe has died at the end of the film. If you’re down with a nihilist interpretation of the ending, then you probably went to bed last Friday night certain that Scott and the rest of his team had died in vain, and that Mexico City would soon hear the death knell of Snyder’s cruel zombie universe.

But the director says not all might be as it seems. When asked by The Film Junkee about the time loop theory, Snyder replied that there was other evidence sprinkled throughout the movie that Vanderohe might be right, including a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of another group of corpses sitting at a casino table as Scott and his team make their escape (it happens at about 1:53:26).

“I will also say that… there’s a chance – and I’m not saying this is 100% true, and in some ways it’s not – but the group at the table, I mean, it’s pretty subtle, but that’s them also at the table as well as… they get farther every time … possibly… Is this the time they made it all the way to the money?”

One Twitter user posted a thread of some other teasers you might have missed. For example, the body meant to resemble Maria at the vault has a necklace with a three-hole skeleton key, while Reguera wears a four-hole skeleton key during the events of the movie. Does this mean we’re actually watching the team’s fourth attempt to complete the mission? Richard Cheese seems to think so:

“Are you ready boys, a-one, two, three….four” pic.twitter.com/LZCWf2DpjA

— Sam (@SamParkerMetal) May 22, 2021

The planning montage before the actual heist also features a slightly different vault door than the one Dieter eventually opens during the mission, suggesting we’re actually watching a previous loop during the montage:

The safe in the montage is different to the real mission… 🤔 pic.twitter.com/V87TSuCaR9

— Sam (@SamParkerMetal) May 22, 2021

And while Vanderohe doesn’t appear to get bitten while fighting Zeus, the Vanderohe on the plane to Mexico City has clearly been infected. Are we watching the Vanderohe from another loop, or is this just a surprise twist designed to set up a sequel south of the border?

He never actually got bit by Zeus, was the epilogue a different timeline? pic.twitter.com/y4wlpte88L

— Sam (@SamParkerMetal) May 22, 2021

When the team enters the vault, we also see that there are already three AK-47s just like the one Guz is carrying inside, another weird coincidence teased in a promo picture (bottom right) released by Netflix months before the movie’s release:

Ultimately, there are no clear answers. Just more questions to be answered in future installments. As far as that’s concerned, Netflix already has two prequels planned for its fledgling Army of the Dead extended universe. One is an anime series that takes place at the onset of the outbreak in the city, suitably titled Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas. The other is a movie called Army of Thieves, which is directed by and starring Schweighöfer, who will reprise his role as Dieter. Will either of these installments shed light on Vanderohe’s time loop theory? Or will we have to wait for a proper sequel?

“I’d make it in a second,” Zack Snyder said of Army of the Dead 2 in an interview with Polygon. “What we have planned is too crazy. Once we knew Vanderohe was bit, and he’s going to Mexico City, I was like, ‘You know what’s gonna happen?’ And then I just went on a tear. And by the time it ended, Shay [Hatten, co-writer] was like, ‘OK.’”

Fifth time’s the charm?

Army of the Dead is streaming now on Netflix.

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The post Army of the Dead: Time Loop Theory Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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entamewitchlulu · 5 years ago

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so i did a reading challenge this year and i wanna talk about what i read

transcription under the cut

i did Popsugar 2019 and wanna talk about what i read: Book Reccs and Anti-Reccs

1.) Becoming a Movie in 2019: Umbrella Academy (vol 1) by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

4/5. A fascinating take on superpowers, dysfunctional families, and the apocalypse. Can get pretty gory, confusing here and there and you have to pay close attention to panels for lore, but overall an entertaining romp.

2.) Makes you Feel Nostalgic: Circles in the Stream by Rachel Roberts

4/5. Middle grade novel about the magic of music, belief, and of course, friendship. Definitely written for kids, and has some unfortunately clumsy Native rep, but overall an absolute joy to dive into once again.

3.) Written by a Musician: Umbrella Academy (vol 2) by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

4/5. Ramps up the confusion to ridiculous degrees with some absolutely bonkers, unexplained arcs, but still fun to watch this dysfunctional family do its dysfunctional thing.

4.) You Think Should be Turned into a movie: All That Glitters by Rachel Roberts

4/5. Continuation of Circles in the Stream, but with more unicorns, more rainbows, and more fae, which makes it automatically even better than the first.

5.) With At Least 1 Mil. Ratings on Goodreads: 1984 by George Orwell

1/5. I understand why it's important and all but wasn't prepared for some of the more graphic scenes and the overall hopelessness of the message. Would not recommend or read again.

6.) W/ a Plant in the title or cover: The secret of Dreadwillow carse by Brian farrey

5/5. A fantasy world where everyone is always happy, save for one girl and the princess, who set out to solve the mystery of their kingdom. Poignant and great for kids and adults.

7.) Reread of a favorite: Cry of the Wolf by Rachel Roberts

4/5. Yet another installment in the Avalon: Web of Magic series, which clearly I am obsessed with. Please just read them.

8.) About a Hobby: Welcome to the Writer's Life by Paulette Perhach

5/5. A welcome kick in the pants, chock full of great advice told without condescension, and full of hope and inspiration for writers both new and old.

9.) Meant to read in 2018: The Poet x by Elizabeth Acevedo

4/5. Absolutely beautiful coming of age novel told in verse. Do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook version.

10.) w/ "pop," "sugar," or "challenge" in the title: Black Sugar by Miguel Bonnefoy

2/5. I think maybe I just don't understand this genre. Or maybe the translation was weird. I was confused.

11.) w/ An Item of Clothing or Accessory on the cover: Our dreams at Dusk by Yuhki Kamatani

4/5. It had a lot more slurs/homophobia than I was prepared for, but otherwise is a very touching, relatable collection of queer characters living in a heteronormative world.

12.) Inspired by Mythology or Folklore: Ravenous by MarcyKate Connolly

3/5. A girl goes on an impossible quest to save her brother from a child-eating witch. Really wanted to like it more because I loved the first one, Monstrous, but it dragged a little.

13.) Published Posthumously: The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones

3/5. I adore Diana Wynne Jones, but this one was missing some of the magic of her other books. Not sure if it was because it had to be finished by someone else, or if I just grew out of her stories.

14.) Set in Space: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

4/5. Powerfully written story of a girl straddling tradition and innovation, who wields power through mathematical magic, surviving on a spaceship alone with a dangerous alien occupation after everyone else has been killed.

15.) By 2 Female Authors: Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

2/5. Ostensibly a story about a revenge pact in a small island town, but leaves far too many dangling threads to attempt alluring you to the sequel.

16.) W/ A Title containing "salty," "bitter," "Sweet," or "Spicy": The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

3/5. It's okay but I literally just never know what anyone means at any time. Are they being reticent on purpose or do i just not understand communication

17.) Set in scandinavia: Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura

2/5. Technically and historically accurate and well made, but the story itself is not my cup of tea. Very gory.

18.) Takes Place in a Single Day: Long WAy Down by Jason Reynolds

4/5. A boy goes to avenge his murdered brother, but ghostly passengers join him on the elevator ride down. Stunning and powerful character-driven analysis.

19.) Debut Novel: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

4/5. Charming and then surprisingly heart-breaking comic about Nimona, a shapeshifter who wants to become a villain's minion. Really love the villain/hero dynamic going on in the background, along with the dysfunctional found family.

20.) Published in 2019: The Book of Pride by Mason Funk

4/5. A collection of interviews with the movers, shakers, and pioneers of the queer and LGBTQ+ community. An absolutely essential work for community members and allies alike.

21.) Featuring an extinct/imaginary creature: Phoebe and her Unicorn by Dana Simpson

4/5. Incredibly charming, Calvin and Hobbes-esque collection of comics featuring the adventures of Phoebe and her unicorn best friend.

22.) Recced by a celebrity you admire: The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen

2/5. Recced by my fave author Brandon Sanderson. An unfortunately disappointing anthology proving that any story can be made uninteresting by telling the wrong section of it.

23.) With "Love" in the Title: Book Love by Debbie Tung

4/5. One of those relatable webcomics, only this one I felt super hard almost the entire time. Books are awesome and libraries rule.

24.) Featuring an amateur detective: Nancy Drew: Palace of Wisdom by Kelly Thompson

4/5. REALLY love this modern take on Nancy Drew, coming back home to her roots to solve a brand new mystery. Diverse cast and lovely artwork, though definitely more adult.

25.) About a family: Amulet by Kabu Kibuishi

4/5. Excellent, top tier graphic novel about a sister and brother who have to go rescue their mother with a mysterious magic stone. LOVE that the mom gets to be involved in the adventure for once.

26.) by an author from asia, Africa, or s. America: Girls' Last tour by Tsukumizu

4/5. Somehow both light-hearted and melancholy. Two girls travel about an empty, post-apocalyptic world, and muse about life and their next meal.

27.) w/ a Zodiac or astrology term in title: Drawing down the moon by margot adler

3/5. A good starting place for anyone interested in the Neo Pagan movement, but didn't really give me what I was personally looking for.

28.) you see someone reading in a tv show or movie: The Promised NEverland by Kaiu Shirai

4/5. I don't watch TV or movies where people read books so i think reading an adaptation of a TV series after watching the series counts. Anyway it was good but beware racist caricatures

29.) A retelling of a classic: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Rey Terciero

5/5. We can stop the Little Women reboots and retellings now, this is the only one we need. In fact, we can toss out the original too, this is the only one necessary.

30.) w/ a question in the title: So I'm a spider, so what? by Asahiro Kakashi

4/5. Cute art despite the subject matter, and a surprisingly enthralling take on the isekai genre. Love the doubling down on the video game skills.

31.) Set in a college or university campus: Moonstruck (vol 2) by Grace Ellis

2/5. An incredibly cute, beautiful, and fascinating world of modern magic and creatures, but unfortunately falls apart at the plot and pacing.

32.) About someone with a superpower: Moonstruck (vol 1) by Grace Ellis

4/5. Though nearly as messy plot-wise as its sequel, the first volume is overwhelmingly charming in a way that overpowers the more confusing plot elements.

33.) told from multiple povs: The Long way to a Small, Angry Planet by becky Chambers

4/5. Told almost in a serial format, like watching a miniseries, a group of found-family spaceship crew members make the long journey to their biggest job ever.

34.) Includes a wedding: We Set the dark on fire by Tehlor kay mejia

4/5. Timely and poignant, a girl tumbles into both love and resistance after becoming one of two wives to one of the most powerful men in the country.

35.) by an author w/ alliterative name: The only harmless great Thing by brooke bolander

3/5. Much deeper than I can currently comprehend. Beautifully written, but difficult to parse.

36.) A ghost story: Her body and other parties by Carmen Maria Machado

4/5. It counts because one of the stories in it has ghosts. A sometimes difficult collection of surrealist, feminist, queer short stories.

37.) W/ a 2 word title: Good omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

4/5. Charming, touching, and comical, probably the best take on the apocalypse to date. Also excellent ruminations on religion and purpose.

38.) based on a true story: The faithful Spy by John Hendrix

4/5. Brilliantly crafted graphic biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and his assistance in fighting back against Nazi Germany.

39.) Revolving around a puzzle or game: the Crossover by Kwame alexander

4/5. The verse didn't always hit right with me, but the story is a sweet, melancholy one about family, loss, and moving on.

40.) previous popsugar prompt (animal in title): The last unicorn by peter s. Beagle

5/5. Absolutely one of my all-time favorite books, it manages to perfectly combine anachronism and comedy with lyricism, melancholy, and ethereal beauty.

41.) Cli-fi: Tokyo Mew Mew by Mia ikumi and Reiko Yoshida

4/5. Shut up it counts

42.) Choose-your-own-adventure: My Lady's choosing by Kitty curran

3/5. Cute in concept, a bit underwhelming in execution. Honestly, just play an otome.

43.) "Own Voices": Home by Nnedi Okorafor

3/5. The storytelling style was definitely not my style; while the first book was slow, too, it felt more purposeful. I found my attention wandering during this installment.

44.) During the season it's set in: Pumpkinheads by rainbow rowell

3/5. Cute art, but precious little substance. The concept simply wasn't for me in the first place.

45.) LITRPG: My next life as a villainess: All routes lead to doom! by Hidaka nami

5/5. An absolute insta-fave! Charming art, endearing characters, an incredible premise, and so much sweet wholesome fluff it'll give you cavities.

46.) No chapters: The field guide to dumb birds of north america by matt kracht

3/5. It started out super strong, but the joke started to wear thin at a little past the halfway point.

47.) 2 books with the same title: Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roger

4/5. A brave and enduring personal story of growing up in and eventually leaving the Westboro Baptist Church. Really called to me to act with grace and kindness even more in the future.

48.) 2 books with the same title: unfollow by rob williams and michael dowling

1/5. How many times do you think we can make Battle Royale again before someone notices

49.) That has inspired a common phrase or idiom: THe Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

4/5. Definitely good and deserves it's praise as something that pretty much revolutionized and created an entire demographic of literature.

50.) Set in an abbey, cloister, Monastery, convent, or vicarage: Murder at the vicarage by agatha christie

3/5. I just cannot. physically keep up with all of these characters or find the energy to read between the lines.

ok that's all i got, what did y'all read and like this year? (oh god it’s gonna be 2020)

#book reccs #lulu booktalks

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johnmurphysreddit · 5 years ago

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You're right fandom is dying, but it's still such a bitter pill! So frustrating as a fan in this late stage w/nothing to theorize about outside of gossip re the IRL scenarios! I'd much rather speculate about plot & possibilities for S7! I stick on anon w/you due to my bell*rke pals, but I prefer other characters/actors & always have, but this fandom has never made that position easy. I feel angry the last season is affected by IRL drama & it makes me worry the ending will suffer for it too, grr.

Let’s take a shot at this nonny. OK, so I 100% get that you can’t respond on this thread because you have other friendships to preserve. Respect. That’s the same this is a subblog. This fandom gets Heated. BUT, we need content, community, discussion, etc.

Anyone is invited to reply to this thread or hit me with asks on any of the following.

1. Wild speculation about season seven. This isn’t what do you think or what do you want to happen, although those are fine too. This is “hey what if...” Jason is bonkers. No one seriously expects fan predictions to be more than 20% right.

2. Suggestions for fic titles. Complete the sentence “Username left kudos on ____” in a way that amuses the reader.

3. Anything else you’d like to cast out into the universe for a response.

I’ll be off work after lunch and jump back into the conversation then.

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starwarsnonsense · 6 years ago

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Top 10 Films of 2018

This is rather delayed (mainly on account of an extended bout of laziness on my part), but I was still determined to get it out there! While I don’t think 2018 quite reached the heights of 2017 (nothing matched The Last Jedi or Blade Runner 2049, for example), there was still a lot of great cinema.

As always, keeping this list at 10 meant I had to omit some great titles. Just so you get an idea of what I had to leave out, here are some honourable mentions: Eighth Grade, Lady Bird, Revenge, Phantom Thread, Thoroughbreds, Lean on Pete and Game Night.

1. Roma, dir. Alfonso Cuarón

Roma is a deeply special film, and I’m very fortunate in having got to see it in the best possible circumstances - projected on a huge cinema screen, with its gorgeous, silvery cinematography a marvel to witness. This film takes the kind of life that would usually be forgotten and turns it into an epic, interweaving the story of a loving, resilient housemaid with the seismic political events unfolding in Mexico in the early 1970s. The shots are highly symmetrical and geometric, with characters passing in and out of pre-established frames. But this is clearly intentional, and - to me at least - the story felt no less personal for it. There are several all-time great scenes in this film, and while I don’t want to spoil any of them with extended descriptions, I will say that there’s a sequence in a hospital that balances the mundane and the monumental in an extraordinary and heartbreaking way. This is breathtaking, masterful filming, and I felt it did justice to Cleo’s life without ever attempting to claim her experience. The film is quiet and the dialogue is almost perfunctory, relying heavily on its visuals - it’s cinema at its purest.

2. Annihilation, dir. Alex Garland

True story: I was so desperate to see Annihilation in a cinema that I flew to New York for it. Of course Annihilation wasn’t my sole reason for travelling to New York, but you can be damn sure I made a point of tracking down an Alamo Drafthouse that was showing it. And boy was it worth it. This movie does a magnificent job of fulfilling the potential of sci-fi, taking otherworldly concepts and ideas and using them to interrogate some of the most profound and frightening truths of what it means to be human. This movie has a quietly hypnotic quality to it, and Natalie Portman continues to prove that she is one of the finest modern actors - she says so much with her face and her movements that lines are hardly necessary. I will continue to follow Alex Garland’s career with great interest...

3. Beast, dir. Michael Pearce

Beast was probably my biggest surprise in film in 2018 - I went in expecting nothing, and was bowled over by it to the point that I rushed out to see it again at the first opportunity. This film follows lonely outsider Moll and her ardent love for the mysterious Pascal. There is a heightened, almost supernatural, quality to their romance, and the actors - Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn - have electric chemistry. This film delights in playing with the viewer’s fears and suspicions, constantly adjusting them as the characters evolve over the course of the movie. It’s a great fusion of genres - mystery and romance - that also functions as a superb character piece, and it is entirely worth your time.

4. Bad Times at the El Royale, dir. Drew Goddard

This film is bonkers in an amazing way. A bunch of seemingly random strangers gather at a hotel that’s far from its glory days, and it isn’t long before all hell breaks lose. The ensemble here is terrific, with all the cast members playing off each other in a succession of utterly delightful ways. Every character conceals a secret history and motive, with their layers gradually being peeled back as the movie plays out. Special mention must go to Cynthia Erivo, who is simply stupendous as a session singer who I wound up considering the film’s real hero - she’s marvellously charismatic and complex, and her voice is a complete wonder. This film is a messy tangle of mysteries, and I had a wonderful time unravelling them.

5. First Reformed, dir. Paul Schrader

I have a weird soft spot for ‘crisis of faith’ movies (think Silence), and this is a very fine entry into that niche. Ethan Hawke is superb here as a priest attending to an old church that has effectively been reduced to a chintzy tourist attraction, and I found the depiction of how he struggles with his faith, overwhelmed by disillusionment and the immense crises facing the earth, fascinating and beautifully written. Schrader wrote and directed this film, and it is one of his greatest achievements - the dialogue probes deep, never feeling trite or obvious. I also appreciated how the spiritual was so often conflated with the personal, with a thin line drawn being drawn between the divine and the carnal (that end scene is a woozy thing to experience). It’s a beautifully judged film, made all the more fascinating for its ambiguity.

6. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, dir. Morgan Neville

The greatest testament to the power of this wonderful, good-hearted documentary is probably that I went into it knowing practically nothing about Mr Rodgers (he just wasn’t a thing here in the UK) and left it thinking he’s the hero the world needs right now. I’ve seen so many documentaries illuminating the ugliest parts of humanity that I didn’t realise how much I needed one spotlighting the best bits. But this documentary isn’t pure sentiment, though there’s a lot of that - I found a lot to admire in Mr Rodgers approach to child psychology and education, particularly his conviction that every child can benefit from a warm, steady presence, even of the source of the reassurance happens to be trapped in a TV monitor. I can only hope this inspires a fresh wave of documentaries on similarly worthy subjects.

7. The Wife, dir. Björn Runge

Glenn Close is coming for that Best Actress Oscar and no one can convince me otherwise. With The Wife, the whole movie transparently rests on the shoulders of one woman - Close’s performance is almost sphinx-like, being enigmatic and low-key to the point that her emotions are almost invisible. But their failure to manifest doesn’t mean they don’t exist, and that is perhaps the point of the whole movie. Joan Castleman might seem like the ideal wife of a great author, but she is revealed to be far more than that - a singular individual with dreams, passions, ambitions and regrets. Glenn Close makes the gradual reveal of each facet magnetic, to the point that the slightest twinges of her facial muscles become potent symbols.

8. Blindspotting, dir. Carlos López Estrada

This is an urgent, gripping movie that tackles some of the biggest issues there are. Collin and Miles are friends, but this film sees their friendship challenged, the dynamics underlying it interrogated. I’ve seen movies described as “empathy machines” before, and Blindspotting is a great example of that. It sucks you into the day-to-day experience of living Collin’s life, whether he’s getting a window into the hang-ups of the people whose belongings he is moving (he drives a moving truck) or just chilling out with his friends. Alongside this, it also portrays how terrifying it is to live as a black man in America, how vanishingly little value appears to be placed on your life by those in authority. There’s a rap scene at the film’s climax that consolidates all of Collin’s rage and hurt, and it truly packs a punch.

9. American Animals, dir. Bart Layton

This film portrays a very different side to young American manhood from Blindspotting. Instead of living from day to day, the protagonists of this film start out with pretty much everything they could need - stability, support and good prospects. They choose to unsettle their existence by staging an outrageous heist, clearly dreaming of becoming legends and injecting excitement into their comfortable lives. American Animals does a fantastic job of pulling their plan apart, and since it was based on a true story director Bart Layton does something quite ingenious - he combines real interviews with re-enactments, the filmed scenes being switched out and adjusted according to the conflicting testimonies. In this way, American Animals becomes much more then a depiction of entitled young men seeking to mythologise themselves - it also functions as an interrogation of truth, and the myriad deceptive qualities of cinema.

10. Mission Impossible: Fallout, dir. Christopher McQuarrie

I have no idea how this franchise keeps on stepping up its game, but it does. It reminds me of how the James Bond films ended up taking Bond to space. I can see MI doing that at this point, except we all know that Tom Cruise would actually fly into space for it. With that prelude out of the way, I just need to stress what a fantastic action movie this is. The set-pieces here are marvellously staged, and their execution made them absolutely gripping - I was anxious over every punch, flinching at every cracked bone. McQuarrie is a true master of tension and suspense, and the movie was simply a magnificent ride. I was lucky enough to see this in IMAX with @bastila-bae, and the mere thought of people watching this on smartphones fills me with the rare kind of sorrow known only to shameless film snobs.

Look out for highlights from 2019 - coming up in a few months!

#roma #film #cinema #movie #movies #film in 2018 #review of 2018 #annihilation #beast #first reformed #blindspotting #mission impossible:fallout #american animals #bad times at the el royale #personal #the wife #won't you be my neighbor

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lia-nikiforov · 6 years ago

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Spring 2018 Anime Final Review

So, uh, this is six months late. I’ve had half of this post in my drafts forever. To make it short, as I’ve mentioned previously, mom lost her job, which has not only been a heavy hit to my sense of stability for the last six months, but also means my time to watch anime was seriously reduced and even now a slight change of plans fucks up my whole schedule and sets me back for a full week. Anyway, nobody cares about any of these shows anymore so let’s get straight to it? I’m gonna ommit the two-cours that continued into the Summer - hopefully I’ll be able to make that post soonish? idk. Worst to best, same as usual

The crappy gender politics pit of shame

Darling in the FRANXX: I think everyone has ripped this show to threads at this point and there isn’t much I could add to that. It is quite funny to me to see how many people flipped out when the show went completely bananas in its last few episodes. Feels a bit like KADO, I’ve been telling y’all this was a ton of empty crap since episode 2, it just took the writing to completely self-destruct for everyone else to notice. A part of me feels tempted to do a long post breaking down just how badly the show collapsed in its final shebang, specifically how every single twist and turn completely nulled any remote kind of message or central thesis the show may have had, but at the same time it doesn’t seem worth the time. In the end, I may have given What is Internal Consistency, The anime way too much credit. It’s not hateful antigay propaganda, it’s just dumb as shits, with a writer and creators who didn’t think for half a second of the implications of what they were doing, and who were so incompetent they couldn’t even conserve the minimal plot and character coherency within a single episode, let alone 24. In other words, Darling isn’t saying “gays shouldn’t exist” but “I have no idea of anything regarding gay people”. What makes it egregious is that the show spent so much time acting like it was “meaningful” and “important” and yet it ended saying absolutely fucking nothing. Except mayb “have babies”. Down to oblivion you go, along with the likes of KADO, to the void of shows that couldn’t even be offensively bad and no one will remember a year from now. Bonus garbage points for the half-assed “bury your gays”.

Nil of Libra Admirari or whatever this show was called: I’m not trying to diss on the show, I just genuinely never remember the title because I have the JP and EN all mixed up. Not that it matters much, as far as I could tell, the show could call Shalabalabatuna and it would have the same significance in regard to the content. But the title isn’t important. In fact, it may be a bit unfair to have this show in this section. For the most part, Main Girl is very self-determined and has an active role in the story.... but then the last two episodes heavily featured a lot of rape threats or rape themes and forced pregnancy (real and threat) and I don’t really understand why they’d go there all of a sudden. One of them was treated relatively well, even empowering the victim in the process, but when the ikemen bad guy was rambling endlessly about how he wanted to impregnate the protagonist it really turned me off :/ I’m also not a fan of “main boy was her secret fiancé all along”, but at least they also handled that somewhat decently. It’s a very disposable series, but since I watched all of Amnesia, I think I owe every otoge adaptation at least the smallest chance to clear that very low bar, and Libra of Nil does it, more competently than most other stuff in the same genre.

Hisone to Masotan: I really, really wanted to love this show. Even now, as I put it in the pit of shame category, I’m pained. There was a good show in this, and a lot of it made it to the screen: an adorable, charming little story about a woman finding her place in the world, making new friends, finding her calling and bonding with an adorable dragon. Unfortunately, it got buried down under this opressing, horrendous gender politics that tried to do something with bringing attention to sexism in the military only to cancel it out making the one dude that embodied that sexism getting rewarded with the affections of a girl he explicitly tried to crush. It also called back on the virgin or whore fallacy and even managed to shove in a “bury your gays” trope. Even though Hisone challenges the ritual bullshit, it’s too little, too late, and she does end up carrying it out anyway, so the defiance to the status quo is of little importance in terms of problematizing the ritual itself. Sorry BONES, it wasn’t meant to be this time.

The ni fu ni fa section

Ni fu ni fa is a Mexican colloquialism for “It was okay but it didn’t change my life.”

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu HAPPY KISS: This soft reboot of the franchise had some really great episodes and did an actually good job of developping its characters. For the most part, it achieved what its predecessor did in terms of satirical comedy and I enjoyed it quite a bit. However, what bunked it down so low in the list was the final episode. At some point, the writers forgot they were doing a parody and made the show somewhat self-serious, way closer in tone to the magical girl anime it was supposed to be making fun of, rather than the satire its predecessor was. Whereas S1 ended with the whole Magical boy stuff being revealed as a crappy space reality TV show, this one ended with a real cheesy conflict about happiness and family and blablabla. Which is not bad by itself if this were a Precure show, but that kind of self-serious plot development just didn’t work for this series. I still enjoyed it, and the fanservice episode is one of the best of the whole franchise, but I’m a bit sad the finale missed the mark so badly.

Hinamatsuri: Hinamatsuri was very hit-or-miss for me. There were some truly brilliant episodes, a lot of funny vignettes and heart-warming stories, and then there was some stuff that made me uncomfortable -like every single Hitomi story- or felt unnecessary and dry. It also threw me off that the superpower dynamic completely disappeared in the second half of the show, especially in Anzu’s part of the story. It was okay but I feel like I needed something that felt like a closing, and choosing to end it with Mao who featured very minimally in the show overall didn’t cut it. It’s a fun show, I’d reccommend people check it out, but it felt a bit too disjointed for me

Persona 5: The Animation: This is a hard show to place because I love the looks of it and I think the concept is interesting and pretty cool, but there is something that’s keeping me from connecting emotionally to the story. The part where changing the villains’ heart makes them repent from their sins and become “good” feels very artificial and very tasteless when you’re dealing with rapists and abusers. I ended dropping it at episode 16, I just couldn’t find the motivation to catch up with the 6 episodes i’d fallen behind on because my schedule is a tragedy

Tokyo Ghoul: Re: I guess it’s fair to say I’ve kind of outgrown Tokyo Ghoul. There’s something messy and confusing about how this season panned out, and there comes a point in which misery porn just doesn’t cut it anymore. I still watch because Ishida has a way to make every single goddamn character extremely sympathetic, which makes for an emotionally engaging viewing even when you’re not sure of what the plot is supposed to be or who you should be rooting for. I tried picking up the new season that just started airing and immediately found I had no idea of what was going on, who was on who’s side and in general, who the fuck were 90% of the characters, so I dropped it.

Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu: I’ve mentioned it before, this second season had the opposite problem than the first one: the pace was too slow. It took more than half of it to get to Escanor, and then the season ends at a kind of random spot. I really thought we’d get further along on the story, since Gowther’s backstory was hinted at in the openings, but no such thing happened. They did manage to give us a variety of cool moments and fights, and I love Ban so his scenes with Zhivago and Elaine made me quite happy, though I really wish the romance between Elizabeth and Meliodas wasn’t su dubious and cringy. In light of some revelations that take place further along the manga, going out of their way to emphasize that Meliodas was a sort of mentor figure for Elizabeth when she was a toddler seems unncessary and just very squeamish. I do hope we get a third season though, and an OVA of the Vampires of whatever side story would be great too.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori: I was pleasantly surprised by this show, and it’s closer to being one of my top of the season than it is to “meh”. It had some weaker, cheesier segments, but it also managed great whacky moments and a genuine soothing atmosphere. What surprised me most is that the vanilla looking cast of moderately handsome dudes managed to develop into interesting, funny individuals with a dynamic that made every episode enjoyable. A solid reccommendation for anyone wanting to see delicious looking food and moderately handsome dudes being ridiculous. Also, the cat episode is the best episode of anime ever produced.

The I’m probably the only person alive who enjoys these shows

Mahou Shoujo Ore: This is a difficult show to place because it wasn’t quite as great as I wanted it to be and its parodic nature took me by surprise, but somehow I was still seriously entertained more often than not. The twists in the final quarter and the absolutely bonkers finale was a total riot, but I definitely advise caution before going in, given that some of the jokes may seem insensitive or in poor taste in regards to gender presentation, sexuality and there are even some mild harrassment jokes that certainly made me roll my eyes.

Yowamushi Pedal: Glory Line: I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but I think through half of the show’s 25 episode run, I was convinced the title was actually Glory Road. It’s kind of anticlimactic that it’s called Glory Line if they don’t actually reach the final Goal btw. Anyway, I feel I say this a lot, but really, if you didn’t like the previous Yowapeda seasons, there’s nothing here for you, and if you did, you’re probably not gonna hop off this late in the game. This season does suffer from the same dragging than its predecessors, with the added issue of being quite pessimistic for no reason in about half the episodes, and a diminished presence for Onoda. I really wish they hadn’t dragged the Day 2 goal so long, I really hoped we’d see the end of the race, but no such luck I guess. Still love most of it and hope we get one more season or a movie to complete the story.

The favorites of the season

Golden Kamuy: In spite of its pacing issues, terrible animation and general clunkiness, I can’t help but love this show. When season 1 ended my feelings for it had mellowed quite a bit, but as soon as I picked up season 2 this Fall I just fell in love all over again. It’s fun, unique, over-the-top in some ways, incredibly grounded in others, and the dynamics between the characters are incredibly charming.

Hozuki no Reitetsu: It’s hard to talk about this one because it feels repetitive, given how tonally the show remains just the same across its three seasons. It could’ve very well been a one-season, 36 episode show, for how little it changes in spite of the time that transpired between the first season and the second. But in short, the comedy continues to be as spot on as always, the Zashikiwarashi twins are the best addition to the cast. It’s definitely a show I could watch endless episodes off, and the rare case of an episodic series with no overarching plot that I can enjoy wholeheartedly.

Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card arc: Over the course of the series, I’ve expressed a few concerns and misgivings about how the story of this 20th anniversary sequel was playing out. The final episode was particularly troublesome in that it left the story unfinished in spite of deviating from the manga. In spite of this, more than anything I’m very happy that this continuation still retains what made the original so special, that they captured the magic behind Sakura’s “everything will be alright” spell and gave us the chance to spend more time with these beloved characters and see their stories continue. The slow but sweet development of Sakura and Syaoran’s puppy love is a definite highlight. Needs more Touya/Yukito and Yue in general.

Piano no Mori: This show got heavily overlooked because it was kidnapped by Netflix (pls stop immediately), and then when it was finally unceremoniously dumped a month or two ago, it came under fire for the wonky CGI during the piano scenes -and it is indeed very wonky-. But beyond that, I found the story very engaging, especially because Kai is such a fascinating protagonist, his intense rivalry-friendship with Megane-kun (sorry, it’s been six months, i can’t remember names) is exactly the type I can’t help but root for. Kai’s participation in the final episode gave me goosebumps. I’m very happy we’re getting a continuation, can’t wait to see how the Chopin competition develops.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii: Sweet, funny and absolutely delightful from start to finish, Wotakoi was easily one of the highlights of the season. Although there were some aspects about Cosplayer-senpai and Yuri Otaku-senpai’s (I’m really trying to remember the names, I’m sorry!! ;---;) that didn’t work for me -namely the izakaya segment- Narumi and Hirotaka more than made up for it with their clumsy yet adorable romance. I spent the entirety of the amusement park episode screeching. I really hope we get a continuation -and get a chance to see more of Hirotaka’s brother and his gamer friend too- and that in general we can get more anime about adult stories

Megalobox: Who would’ve thought that a show that wasn’t even in my radar before the season started would’ve end as one of my favorites, possibly of the year? Even as someone who’s only marginally acquainted with Ashita no Joe and has no interst in the sport of boxing, I was completely enthralled by the style and passion of this production. As I said a bit above, intense rivalries are very appealing to me, and the build up in the tension between Joe and Yuri was almost palpable, their mutual respect gave me chills. Definitely the surprise of the season, made even better by its optimistic happy ending to contrast with its predecessor’s tragedy. Megalobox is a unique anniversary project that is closer to an homage and it works perfectly. Definitely check it out.

That’s it for the Spring season! I hope i can do the summer season this weekend and maaaybe even my watchlist for the Fall season. Fingers crossed i won’t get swallowed up in other stuff :’D

#anime final impressions #spring anime #god i've forgotten 95% of my tags #darling in the franxx #megalobox #wotaku ni koi wa muzukashii #piano no mori #card captor sakura clear card arc #hozuki no reitetsu #golden kamuy #yowapeda #mahou shoujo ore #rokuhoudou yotsuiro biyori #nanatsu no taizai #persona 5 #tokyo ghoul: re #hinamatsuri #hisone to masotan #binan koukou chikyuu boueibu

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cococassey · 6 years ago

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Kdrama: Memories of the Alhambra

Rating: 9/10

Review (finale):

Guys guys why the outrage? Don't you think we all owe it to Hyun Bin to let him rest and take it easy on the last episode of the drama? Poor guy, alternative title of this drama should be 'The Hundred Ways to Torture Hyun Bin'. He seriously got thinner with each episode after that unforgettable badass performance as Jin Woo.

About that finale, I'm not as mad as people are over that sort of 'hopeful' open ending. Honestly a lot of drama writers are in love with that. I thought before, ok if she just explained 'the bug' why playing the game can get you killed in real life, then it's all good. We kind of passed that hurdle. But she last minute added this 'instance dungeon', the idea has its merits, but it was explained and executed poorly as there was not enough time.

So as the writer wants me to fill in the blanks on my own, I'm assuming that instance dungeon is a safe zone (Seju created) like 'Cafe Alcazaba' where you can survive free from attackers, but you're stuck in the game and frozen in time (Hello wreck it Ralph?). Maybe Jin Woo survived (as he is a living person) but was weakened after Emma deleted the bug off him, panicked and stumbled upon it, and got stuck there, escaping the reset? In my own happy ending Hee Ju will level up to be the new master to save Jin Woo, with allies genius brother Seju and funny techie Yang Ju, they'll get Jin Woo out in no time. And Hee Ju will keep him far far away from playing games for the rest of their lives lol.

But boy do I need more peace and closure for Jin Woo after all he went through. Please something more. For him and Hee Ju. Though that ending takes away nothing from the fact that there's simply nothing like Alhambra in dramaland yet, and I hope it starts a genre trend. It's mainly a scifi thriller with a futuristic theme, but at its heart it's still about very human things like love, family, and friendship kdramas excel at. There's a tragic tone throughout, but there's lightness and hope amidst it all.

The tale is how the camaraderie of four men with seemingly strong ties, was broken through jealousy, greediness, and pride. How both horrifyingly tragic and fitting is it that it's the son who put an end to his father's evil ways because of the professor's own plans? On the other side of the coin, when Jin Woo was at his lowest, there were also friendships that lasted over and beyond life itself. Director Park has to have the most thankless job ever (no wonder he's resigning) and an underrated role, love how his character hit that perfect blend of 'he thinks Jin Woo is crazy bonkers but he's still concerned as a friend'. Of course I may never recover from the tragic fate of ever loyal Secretary Jeong Hun who can seriously give Hee Ju a run for her money as true OTP of Jin Woo.

Speaking of the romance, I'm such a sucker for that 'Florence Nightingale' angle. When zombie Hyeong Seok started haunting him, Jin Woo was broken physically and his sanity hanging on a thread, he desperately latched on to Hee Ju as his light. Hee Ju, from feelings that started from gratitude and being in his debt, took care of him and never gave up on him until the end. I'm infatuated myself with him after this, how can I question Hee Ju's feelings lol.

Hee Ju's character was sorely underused. Even though she's emotional, she's so capable, nurturing, and the backbone not only of her family, but Jin Woo as well. He wouldn't have survived this long without her strength. Another big minus for me is the lack of more good female characters in the drama. The writer can only redeem herself if she writes about the adventures of awesome sister Min Ju sometime in the future.

Finally, Hyun Bin. The heart and soul of this show. Jin Woo is Memories of the Alhambra. Hyun Bin is back on top of dramaland, and he so deserves it. He never overacts and his performance is so understated, but I felt for him throughout his roller coaster ride, the slow descent from an arrogant CEO to someone who is questioning his own sanity, truly one for the books. He suffered and survived on his own, not wanting to include others in the cursed bug, tried to make a new 'normal' for himself and had the tenacious will to finish the game till the bitter end.

The ending left me with a melancholic feeling, but given the chance I'll watch it all over again. All those memories with Jin Woo and Hee Ju are worth all the anxiety it caused me. Not the best of wrap ups, but what do we know? Maybe one day it'll be raining, and you'll hear a familiar guitar song playing, and when you look up, you'll once again see that impish smirk, we already dearly miss. We'll wait for you, Jin Woo.

#memories of the alhambra #hyun bin #park shin hye #chanyeol #kdrama #korean drama #review #cassey final review

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sol1056 · 6 years ago

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S7 data cronch pt2: get the hot dogs, the fandom’s on fire

Before I jump into the more tangled datasets, there’s something interesting I want to call out, and that’s the vlogs.

In September of last year, DW released vlogs for Coran, Keith, and Allura. A month later, we got vlogs for Lance, Pidge, and Hunk. Shiro’s vlog finally arrived on June, this year. That final vlog now shows a July date, but when it was first discovered, its posting date was 6/28. (I have no idea why it was changed. Ask @ptw30.)

In the first part, I mentioned audience engagement. The vlogs are a good object lesson. If we take the number of views divided by the number of days since posting, we get an idea of the daily ‘value’ of each vlog.

Shiro clocks in at 6877 views per day, while the next closest, Keith, has 4796 per day. Hey, so maybe that’s just everyone excited after waiting almost a year.

So, how about this graph?

Shiro has 4,293 comments. The next closest are Allura and Hunk, with 692 and 976, respectively. All told, Shiro got 1.5 times as many comments as all the rest of the characters together. Now that is audience engagement.

Alright, now that you’ve got a bit of data on which character clearly gets the fandom engaged and talking, let’s see what else we can learn about S7.

Hop to, behind the cut.

so about that twitter debacle

There’s no way to fully illustrate just how incomprehensibly bonkers twitter was for awhile. I know there’s a toxic side to the fandom that weaponizes twitter, but... in general, the VLD fandom isn’t noisy, compared to other fandoms. Daily counts range from 30-100 tweets. That makes it harder to tell when things go dead quiet, but it sure makes it easy to tell when things explode.

So let’s go back to the Sunday after S7 landed. For this season, I included sentiment analysis. At first I searched on #voltron, then I realized one of the trackers lets me go by keywords, so I did a comparative search on ‘voltron’. Hashtag use seemed to be for being seen by others, while keyword seemed to be more for conversation, reassurance, and reflection.

That’s... pretty strong, for both. And I honestly had never seen a twitter stream get a sentiment analysis as negative as the one on the right. After working my way through 11,889 tweets (from Aug 10th to the 25th), I can tell you one thing for certain.

Everyone was angry about something.

One group, predictably, was angry at being denied their long-awaited affirmation. A second was furious at the queerbaiting; that group overlapped with a third enraged at the Bury Your Gays trope. A fourth dismissed the BYG trope yet were angry at the lack of explicit relationship beyond a single break-up scene; that caused a few flare-ups between the 3rd and 4th groups for the latter treating Shiro as queer purely on his facebook status. A fifth group (oddly, calmer voices, for the most part) was upset at VLD’s treatment of Shiro in general, from his isolation to his tokenization.

On the other end of the spectrum, the majority of positives loved the season but were angry that others didn’t or wouldn’t. A much smaller percentage took their own shots: insisting children don’t need LGBT+ rep, calling LGBT+ fans entitled, telling DW not to pander, or complaining DW/Netflix had mixed politics and entertainment. (There’s an answer to the last one, but that’s for another post.)

I believe the technical term for Aug 10th-25th would be clusterfuck.

going deeper for context

Getting a clearer picture than the donut chart meant considering the context. In other words, for every seemingly-neutral tweet, I’d open the feed, and majority of the time I found threads voicing bitter disappointment, frustration, and hurt. These deeper threads almost never tagged anyone, and they tended to be more nuanced, compared to upper-level mentions loaded with easily-classed negative or positive keywords.

Here’s a snapshot of the twitter stream on August 10th, which includes metrics for those deeper contextual threads.

There’s just no way to spin that much of a backlash. By the end of the first day of release, the signs were already there that --- at least as far as the majority of the internet-based fandom was concerned --- S7 was an unmitigated disaster.

it’s just twitter, no one’s paying attention

That sounds like something a Boomer-aged exec might say. They’d also be wrong (not to mention ignorant).

Note: I used two different analysis apps. Both were rather blunt-force, rating “S7 wasn’t half bad” or “brutal but what I wanted” as negative, while "go to hell, I loved VLD but not anymore" was rated positive. One of the two apps let me re-evaluate, but it only allowed for negative-neutral-positive. (Lesson learned: set up a twitter scrape ahead of time, so I can run it all against a good AI.)

For this part, I used the second tracker and manually evaluated the values for ‘voltron’ mentions. Unfortunately, I had to rely on the tracker’s value for most non-English tweets. I designated ‘positive’ for explicitly pro-S7, and ‘negative’ explicitly con-S7. For any mentions that were ambiguous, incoherent, or personally-directed, I defaulted to neutral. My goal was to measure who was or wasn’t happy with the season itself, and not attacks on or support for the staff, DW, Netflix, or other people in the fandom.

With that madness done, here’s the entirety of August.

On the day of release, a total of 1853 mentions created a social media reach of 1.46 million. My next question was: is this low-influencer unhappiness vs high-influencer happiness, vice versa, or something else? This next chart is the data filtered down to influencers with a score of 7 or above (based on followers, retweets, and replies).

That’s 78 negative mentions, 16 positive, and the remainder neutral. All told, 194 mentions had a social media reach of 1.36 million. That’s a lot considering the voltron keyword usually has a social media reach of 50K, tops.

This was a groundswell reaction. The reach was driven by big voices, but the bulk were individuals unhappy for any of a variety of reasons. Any apology --- after four days of fever pitch --- was going to have an uphill fight to calm the crowd, no matter how gracefully it was written.

On the 14th -- when news outlets began reacting to JDS’ apology -- we got a second spike. 1573 mentions with a social media reach of 1.3 million; the new megaphones in the stream were news outlets promoting articles. (Also, most of their tweets are strongly click-bait in tone, compared to the actual article titles.)

If you googled ‘voltron legendary defender’ on the 14th, you got these results:

Voltron Showrunner Apologizes to Fans Following Outrage over Gay Character’s Storyline [Syfy Wire]

Voltron Showrunner Pens Open Apology Letter [The Mary Sue]

Voltron Showrunner Apologizes for Series' Handling of Gay Relationship {CBR}

Voltron's Complicated, Imperfect LGBQT Representation Is Tearing the Fandom Apart [In-Depth-Gizmodo]

Joaquim Dos Santos Shares Letter About Voltron Queer Representation [The Geekiary]

The ‘Voltron’ Showrunner Apologized For Making a Mess of the Show’s Gay Representation [Hornet]

Of course, Josh Keaton got sent out to calm the anger, too.

'Voltron' Star Josh Keaton On Season 7, Shiro's Sexuality, and How a Leader Grieves [Comicbook.com]

Shiro Voice Actor Responds to 'Voltron' Season 7 Controversy [Inverse]

Exclusive: Josh Keaton talks 'Voltron' season 7, Shiro's new arc, love and loss [Hypable]

You had to scroll past all that before you could get to anything remotely like a positive news item (and nowhere near the usual post-release deluge of compliments to the creators).

On Aug 15th, more articles:

Voltron: Legendary Defender’s Showrunner Offers a Genuine Apology to the Fandom [Gizmodo]

Voltron's Complicated, Imperfect LGBQT Representation Is Tearing The Fandom Apart [Kotaku Australia] (reprint)

Either these were latecomers, or DW was pulling out all the stops to hit every possible venue. Didn’t matter; the furor wasn’t dying down. Josh wasn’t sent out again, either. DW may’ve realized that ship had sailed (so to speak).

On Aug 16th, these articles appeared:

Voltron creator addresses fans over season 7's queerbaiting controversy [Polygon]

How “Voltron: Legendary Defender” Queerbaited Its Fans [NewNowNext]

Voltron showrunner apologises to fans after backlash over treatment of gay character [DigitalSpy]

Voltron: Legendary Defender showrunner apologises to fans after killing off gay character [PinkNews]

Why 'Voltron' fans are furious after season 7 [The Daily Dot]

Voltron Showrunner Apologizes for Season 7's Treatment of Gay Couple [ScreenRant]

'Voltron' Shiro: Stop Preemptively Outing Gay Characters To Generate Buzz [Inverse]

And it kept going through Aug 17, 2018.

Voltron: Legendary Defender Showrunner Joaquim Dos Santos Apologizes For Alleged Queer-bating Of Fans Over Handling Of Shiro’s Sexual Orientation [Inside Pulse]

Who's Sorry This Week? Lindsay Lohan, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and other public apologies [Mic]

Meanwhile, as of the 18th, the predictive algorithm for #voltron (the actual hashtag) was estimating +6% for the upcoming week, and +6% for the month. Not even half what S6 had in its first week after broadcast, but remember, the majority of S7′s traffic wasn’t happening on the hashtag. It was happening in mentions.

You might think from the above that things quieted by the 19th. You’d be wrong. It’s still going on. Keep in mind these pie charts are cumulative by month. On the left are the totals through the morning of Aug 22; on the right, the totals through the afternoon of Aug 25.

Midday on the 22nd, we had another spike, one large enough to offset that these are monthly totals, not daily. (The most likely culprit is the DW marketing gif that showed the scene where Adam dies, thus kicking the hornet’s nest all over again.)

As we entered the third week, the predictive algorithm for #voltron dropped to -1% for the month, and -5% for the week; for #vld, it’s -2% for the month and -6% for the week.

In fact, almost every related hashtag is predicted to drop in popularity and use over the next week or beyond. That includes:

voltronlegendarydefender, -2%

keithkogane, -8%

keith, -3%

shiro, -9%

lance, -6%

lancemcclain, -1%

takashishirogane, -20%

allura, -5%

princessallura, -10%

hunkgarrett, -6%

lotor, -4%

katieholt, -5%

Even ship names:

klance, -2%

shadam, -8%

adashi, -3%

plance, -2%

pidgance, -5%

sheith, -2%

lotura, -10%

kallura, -1%

The exceptions? allurance (4%) and pidge (1%).

It took a bombshell EP interview to knock S6 off its upward rise. This time around, the fall looks more like people tiring of the fight and checking out.

one more part coming

Thanks to the additional manipulations I did on twitter this season, this section took more words (and I cut it down from walking you through every agonizing step, no need to thank me for sparing you). I’ve also added a new dataset, and that pushed the total word count beyond even my long limit.

I’ve broken the last part out, where i’ll cover the long-term impact and possible fallout of S7.

#vld #voltron #doing the data cronch #sol thinks about stuff

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sebastianxainsworth · 5 years ago

Text

Redemption // self para

Sebastian pushed open the door with a loud ominous creak, an action he’s managed to do dozens of times in the past for various occasions. This, however, was under different circumstances. The first time in three months he and Ryan left the city and longer since...

The last time Seb stepped foot in the penthouse office of the Ainsworth tower was the day he sent Theon tumbling through the window. The glass had long since been replaced by a brand new sheet, the blood cleaned extensively, and the desk itself vacated other than the current residence of Wayne. Thankfully, the man was gone for the night, leaving the rest of the tower for the youngest Ainsworth to explore old stomping grounds and simply wait.

Sebastian couldn’t understand what possessed him to make contact with Madyson and he wouldn’t expect her to come, not after their first and last meeting. Who would dare grant the wish of a deranged man who held a letter opener to her throat? Would she be forgiving or leave him without answer as he dealt with his demons alone out of spite within her anger? Sebastian didn’t feel right having the discussion over the phone or through text messages despite how easy it would be, not when it was this significant.

Seb moved across the threshold, his steps echoing through the silent din as he reached the large oak desk his brother and father sat at before him. Its twin matched the same one back at the mansion, but there was something incredibly royal and intimidating about this one. The deals that crossed its shiny surface, the conversations and secrets dwelling within the wood like an imprint. He never considered it in such a way, but the desk became witness to the company he desired to take the mantle of. His hand glided along the top, fingers barely glancing over the small antique knick-knacks lining the edge. It was difficult to imagine Theon sentimental about the little things, then again, he hardly knew his brother at all.

Madyson watched the man from the door frame for a long moment as she observed his quiet reaction to what should have been an ordinary office, but now she must have known was the sight of a former murder scene. The thought sent chills down her spine, the same factoring into her hesitation from coming here from the start, however, her previous words reminded Mady why she did this for a living. Was this Sebastian asking for help finding his way again? “Doctor Beckett?” The formal title shot through her thoughts like a hot knife and immediately caused the blonde’s posture to straighten as she stepped into the space. “You were having a moment. I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“You weren’t. Preferred if you did anyway.” Sebastian moved his hand from the desk to the wheeled leather chair, gently swiveling it back and forth, “I, um, I just,”

“You just wanted to talk?” Mady filled in the blanks with a slow nod, “As long as you promise to refrain threatening me with a knife, I clearly see you’re in desperate need of someone to talk to.” She made herself at home in one of the chairs in front of the desk and dropped her bag at her feet, pushing aside the weird sensation looking at the window behind him. “Consider me a listening sound board.”

She was being too nice. Too understanding. It made this all the more worse. “About that, I need to apologize. You came to the house with nothing but an open heart and willingness that night and I pulled you into something you shouldn’t have been in.” Something Seb was involving her in a second time around, the man realized, as he responded quietly, “I’m sorry, Madyson.”

“I was never angry at you for that, Sebastian. You were fresh off of doing, you know, what you did and Ryan was under medical treatment the last I remembered from that session.” If she could call it a session. Mady placed her hands in her lap and looked down, “You weren’t the first of my patients to threaten my safety.” She repeated, “I’m not angry.”

“You should be. I went full psycho.” Seb’s fingers squeezed the chair’s back, “After what happened with my brother, I was,” Crazy? Delusional? Or maybe in deep enough to know what power felt like when he took it in his own two hands? Sebastian possessed power before, that came with the last name and family reputation, but he just didn’t know how to use it. That learning experience died with his brother. “I was just on this high. I thought I could do what I wanted, where I wanted, to who I wanted without consequences.”

Madyson pressed her lips tightly together, gathering her thoughts cautiously and carefully. There is always more to the story. “Apologizing wasn’t the only thing this was about, was it?” She responded quietly.

“No.” Seb’s equally soft response came as he pulled the chair back and slid into it with a low squeak. “I enjoyed it. Killing Theon, I enjoyed it and I can’t pretend I’m able to separate who I am between who he and my father were. I tried denying it with myself, with Benji, and I can’t.” Saying Theon’s name triggered an apparition he could see from the corner of his eye, forcing Sebastian to glance behind Madyson and spot a vision of his brother lifting his dark gaze to the ceiling in an eyeroll. The moment lasted longer than it should have and more often than the man would confess to.

The woman turned her head to see exactly what he was staring at, finding nothing but an empty door. Like he saw something she couldn’t quite see with her own eyes. Oh, no, this was an all too familiar sign. While Mady hated making assumptions, his history gave her one significant conclusion. “Sebastian,” She turned to face him with a sympathetic expression, “Do you mind describing to me what you’re seeing? Who you’re seeing?”

“Theon.” Seb groaned, leaning forward and placing his head in the palms of his hands, “They’re just flashes. Sometimes, I’ll have full-on conversations with him like he was actually in the room and I know it makes me sound like I’m fucking crazy. I’m not. I killed the fucker and I expected him to stay dead.” He lifted his head slowly, “You said I lost my way before, Doctor Beckett, but I obviously lost my goddamn mind too. The world already took away everyone I ever cared about, so what’s my sanity?” The Ainsworth patriarch released a second groan, “I lost Ryan, Doctor. I lost what was left of my family by my own decision-making and my best friend can’t handle a single second standing in the same room with me. This city, three months later, still thinks I attacked Newford. And the worst part, Madyson, I deserve this. I deserve every second of it.”

Mady stuck by her original diagnosis. The nature versus nurture theory became invalid when Sebastian’s case proved environment and biology were key factors in his deteriorating mental stability. He was now having hallucinations no one else apart from her knew about, lacking sleep, and it’s obvious he let go of his hygiene judging from the growing beard. “I cannot condone what you’ve done in your past, Sebastian, and yes, perhaps karma has caught up to you, but I don’t think you attacked Mr. Vincent. There’s always going to be doubts and theories and no one can say for certain what really happened. I just need you to know you’re still worth saving.”

“You don’t give up, do you? Never met anyone so damn relentless.” Seb’s lips quirked in a weak smile that was quick to leave, “You’re going to really waste a lifetime’s worth of years better spent on helping other people more deserving than me.”

“Perhaps, but I know I can help you. It’s not about what you do and don’t deserve, Mr. Ainsworth.” Madyson leaned forward thoughtfully as she permitted the silence to grow. Was she absolutely bonkers coming here and chatting with him? Or did the true insanity lay with the decision she considered? “This is typically the part where I prescribe you medicine for the visions, but this goes far deeper than your mind, Sebastian. You think you have no one here that cares for you, well, I’m disagreeing. You have me. So,” She sighed. This was it. “If you consent, we need weekly sessions. No more of these...spontaneous talks in the dead of night. Real, one hundred percent sessions, dedicated in my office.”

Okay, now, this was not what he anticipated. Going in with the apology and coming out with an official therapist jarred Sebastian. Therapy was scoffed at in his family, if you were having strong emotions and needing a conversation to speak of them, you locked that shit away. “Wait, you would do that for me?” The relief splashing along Seb’s expression lit a spark of overwhelming hope long lost in St. Cascadia. That’s what the city did, took away any shred of wishful hoping until you no longer knew how it felt. “Yeah, I mean, I want to. I need to.” Ah, then came the awkward and extremely uncomfortable thought. “What about Detective Hardass? He hates the factions, he hates the leaders, but he’s really gunning for me nowadays. He won’t like you and me doing,” The male waved a hand between the two of them for indication. “This.”

“No, he won’t.” And that’s what she was always fretting about in the back of her mind even on her way to the tower. It hadn’t flown over well with Derek when she talked to Morrigan and she was sure he’d nearly blown a gasket after she told him about the first very violent talk with Sebastian. Madyson was a grown woman with a job she loved and she can’t do it properly if she wasn’t helping everyone. “You let me worry about Derek. Besides, I still have doctor-patient confidentiality. I can’t tell him who I’m treating unless given special permission.”

“Tell him.” Sebastian granted without hesitation, threading his fingers together. “I’m not going to be responsible for ruining a relationship based on keeping secrets.” He knew what concealing the truth could do to any relationship. Lying about the nightmares and hallucinations or even hiding how deeply satisfying watching a man tumble through a window from Ryan, from himself, pushed away his wife. What she thinks he did to her brother may have been the real cause, but letting the cat out of the bag on his dwindling mental state would mean losing her entirely. Forever.

This was a dangerous game potentially playing with her life. Sebastian wasn’t a apart of her faction, in fact, she knew the gossip whispered about her helping the same man everyone believed had attacked Newford could have been considered career-ending, but it was downright scandalous. Speaking with a faction leader wasn’t taboo, becoming the therapist to one surrounded by controversy and heartache to her home is. Drake Vincent still hadn’t awaken and where was she? Supporting the man responsible, not the family.

Mady rose from her seat and glided forward, “I need to make myself extremely clear here, Sebastian, and I’m only going to say this once. If I feel any backlash from these sessions endangers my well-being or that of anyone I care about greatly, I won’t hesitate putting an end to it. I know what I’m getting myself into, who you are, your reputation. I may be willing to help you and foolishly,” Madyson pressed her palms to the surface of the desk and leaned forward slightly. Almost...threateningly. “But I will not tolerate the physical violence. Shout and scream as you wish, I can handle it, but no more letter openers. No more fists.” She heard Sebastian‘s chair squeak as he leaned back, “It won’t be just Derek you’ll have to fret over, it’ll be me. Do you understand?”

“Where’s this Doctor Madyson Beckett been hiding?” Sebastian couldn’t mask the playful amusement lacing his tone. The behavior brought a familiarity to the forefront previously shrouded by depression and self-loathing. Hidden from view, concealed from the light of day with a crippling breaking point that had been so much a part of who Sebastian Ainsworth is. Yet, with the darkness crashing through, he’d rise again. “Yeah. Yes.” Correcting his proper grammar, Seb pushed himself from his seat, “I understand.”

“Good.” Madyson moved to grab her bag before hearing, “If you really want to make this official, it has to be the proper Ainsworth way.” The blonde turned to spot Sebastian’s hand jutted out palm open. Deals were a Davenport trademark, a contract binding the signer or hand shaker, in this case, to a promise. It seems Seb found an affinity towards them just as his brother and father. She had nothing to be nervous for, right? “How impolite of me, good sir.” Mady reached out and took his, the two shaking their connected hands firmly.

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Doctor Beckett.” Releasing his grip, the youngest Ainsworth smiled. “And thank you. For everything.” The first deal. The first of many, it would seem.

#redemption #self para #madyson

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