#(although that last one feels a little unfair. I think Keith and I are probably both A cups)

[waugh-bao]

The story about the pool always makes me think that whoever called the cops must have been like “There are naked girls in the Holiday Inn pool! The most flat chested girls I’ve ever seen in my life wearing men’s swim trunks! One girl appears to have hair on her chest! Please get here immediately!” The one with chest hair would be Charlie as he seemed to be the only one with body hair in the band for quite some time. Or maybe the only one who didn’t shave his chest, I don’t know.

Keith’s re-telling of that incident, from 2015, is still one of the funniest things I’ve ever read:

“There were many, many incidents like that, and if Phelge remembers it, it must have happened. Usually, that stuff was like water off a duck's back. I had far worse in America when we first arrived. In the Midwest we once got arrested for being girls! (Laughs) We were in a swimming pool in a Holiday Inn on a highway in Georgia somewhere, and suddenly (makes siren noise), "Oh, the cops are coming... and they're turning in here!" The cop gets out and shouts, "Ok, where are the topless women?" Someone had called in saying there was a bunch of girls in the pool. We were like, "Right (Cups non-existent boobs) This is all we got!" Obviously it was some irate person - probably a woman - who called them, thinking we were chicks. She must have had pretty bad eyesight!”

[thisbluespirit]

James Maxwell TV/Film List

More of a guide than a recs list, because old tv/film depends so much on availability.  It’s also hard as there’s nothing surviving that’s really like SotT for him (his voice is always slightly different, too & rarely the grand one from SotT) - I found it hard to find where to start back in the day, so I hope this makes it easier.  However, I have starred my favourites (rated for JM content only). 

I’ve divided things into categories and @jurijurijurious​ (or anyone) can make up their own mind as to what to go for.  (Also @jurijurijurious I have NO idea what old telly you’ve already seen, so forgive me if I’m telling you things you already know.)

Where to find it:  Luckily in the UK, it’s not too bad!  Network Distributing are the DVD supplier to keep an eye on (they do great online sales), you can find secondhand things cheap on Amazon Marketplace & eBay, and several Freeview channels show old TV & film, especially Talking Pictures.  I’ll note if things are on YT or Daily Motion, but they come and go all the time, so it’s always worth searching.

***

Film serials (ITC mainly)

British TV made on film in the US mode with transatlantic cash, so generally pretty light,  episodic (continuity is almost unheard of) etc.  Some turn up on ITV3 & 4 on a regular basis (colour eps). 

*** Dangerman “A Date With Doris” (ITC 1964)  James Maxwell is a British spy friend of Drake’s (Patrick MacGoohan) called Peter who gets framed for murder.  Drake goes to Fake Cuba to rescue him by which time JM is dying from an infected wound and faints off every available surface, including the roof.  It’s great.  On YT.  (The boxset is v pricey if you just want 2 eps.)

“Fair Exchange” (ITC 1964) JM is a German spy friend of Drake’s called Pieter who helps him out on a case.  Not as gloriously hurt/comfort-y as the other, but it does have some excellent undercover dusting. (Why  Patrick MacGoohan has JM clones all called variations on Peter dotted around the globeis a mystery.)  On YT.

The Saint “The Inescapable Word” (ITC 1965) This is pretty terrible, but  entertaining and James Maxwell plays the world’s most hopeless former-cop-turned-security guard. With bonus collapsing.  On YT.

“The Art Collectors” (1967).  JM is the villain of the week.  It does include a v funny bit, though, where the Saint (Roger Moore) goes for JM’s fake hair (and who can blame him?  How often I have felt the same!)  This one’s in colour so should pop up on ITV3 or 4. 

The Champions “The Silent Enemy” (ITC 1968).  Surprisingly good JM content as the villain of the week who drugs sailors and steals their clothes before realising that maybe he should have worked out if he could operate a sub before he stole it.

The Protectors “The Bridge” (ITC 1974, 30 mins.)  Not worth seeking out on its own, but ITV4 seems fond of it and James Maxwell gets to do some angsting and wears purple, so it’s worth snagging if you can, but too slight otherwise.

*** Thriller “Good Salary, Prospects, Free Coffin” (ITC 1975; 1hr 10mins, I think).  James Maxwell moves in with Julian Glover and runs an overcomplicated murdery spy ring where they bicker a lot in between killing girls by advertisement and burying them in the back garden.  What could possibly go wrong??  Anyway, it’s solid gold cheese, has bonus Julian Glover and a lot of natty knitwear.  What more does an old telly fan want?  (tw: Keith Barron being inexplicably the very meanest Thriller boyfriend.)  On YT but tends to get taken down fast.

***

Films

Design for Loving (1962; comedy).  Can be rented from the BFI online for £3.50.  Isn’t that great or that bad (or that funny either), but does have JM as a dim layabout beatnik, which is atypical.

***The Traitors (1962).  This is a low-key little 1hr long spy B-movie, but it’s also thoughtful and ambiguous with a nice 60s soundtrack and location work (it’s a bit New Wave-ish) and the central duo of JM and Patrick Allen are sweet and it all winds up with James Maxwell going in the swimming pool. One of the things where JM is actually American. (Talking Pictures show this occasionally & it is out on DVD as an extra on The Wind of Change.)  The quality of the surviving film is not great, though.

***Girl on Approval (1962).  A Rachel Roberts kitchen sink drama about a couple fostering a difficult teenager.  It’s dated, but it’s also really interesting for a 1950s/60s slice of life (and very female-centric) & probably the only time on this list JM played an ordinary person.

***Otley (1969).  Comedy that’s generally dated surprisingly well & is good fun, starring Tom Courtenay +cameos from what seems like the whole of British TV.  JM is an incompetent red herring & there are more cardies and glasses as well as a random barometer. 

Old Vic/Royal Exchange group productions

(Surviving works made by the group that JM was involved in from drama school to his death, made by Michael Elliott or Casper Wrede.  I like them a lot mostly, but they are all slow and weird and earnest & not everybody’s cup of tea.)

Brand (BBC 1959).  The BBC recording of the 59 Company’s (the name they were then using) landmark production, starring Patrick MacGoohan.  This was a big deal in British theatre & launched the careers of everybody involved.  It’s very relentless and weird but interesting & I’m glad they decided it was important enough to save.  First fake beard alert of this post.  It won’t be the last.  On YT & there is a DVD, which is sometimes affordable and sometimes £500, depending on the time of day.

***Private Potter (1962).  The original TV play is lost and this film has an extraneous storyline, but otherwise has most of the TV cast & gives a pretty good idea of why as a claustrophobic talky TV piece it made such an impact.  Tom Courtenay is Private Potter, a soldier who claims to have had a vision of God during a mission & James Maxwell his CO who needs to decide what to do about this strange excuse for disobeying orders.  Tw: fake eyebrows (!) and moustaches.  Only available on YT.

[???]One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (1970).  Again, no DVD release (no idea why), but it is on YT.  I haven’t seen this yet, but it’s another Casper Wrede effort starring Tom Courtenay and apparently JM is especially good in it.  (I’m just not good at watching long things on YT and keep hoping for a DVD or TV showing.)

Ransom (1974).  A more commercial effort starring Sean Connery & Ian McShane; it gets slated as not being a good action movie, but is clearly meant to be more thinky and political with the edge of a thriller. JM’s part isn’t large but Casper Wrede shoots his friend beautifully, & it’s a pretty decent film with nice cinematography, shot in Norway, as was One Day.  I liked it.

[I think this post might be the longest in the world, whoops.  Sorry!]

Cardboard TV (the best bit, obv)

One-off plays etc./mini-series

Out of the Unknown “The Dead Planet” Adaptation of an Asimov short story; this is very good for JM, but hard to get hold of unless you want the boxset.  I think someone has some of the eps on Daily Motion.  (His other OotU ep is sadly burninated.)

The Portrait of a Lady (BBC 1968).  Adaptation of the novel; JM is Gilbert Osmond, so it is great for JM in quantity and his performance, but depends how you feel about him being skeevy in truly appalling facial hair.  Do the bow ties and hand-holding make up for it?  but he’s in 5 whole episodes, and Suzanne Neve, faced with Richard Chamberlain, Edward Fox, and Ed Bishop as suitors, chooses instead to marry the worst possible James Maxwell.  Relatable. XD

***Dracula (ITV 1968, part of Mystery & Imagination).  JM is Dr Seward, fainty snowflake of vampire hunters, who falls over, sobs and can’t cope for most of the 1 hr 20 mins.  More facial hair, but not as offensive as last time.  Suzanne Neve is back again, although now JM is nice, she’s married Corin Redgrave, who’s more into Denholm Elliott. Anyway, I love this so much because it turned out that I love Dracula as well as shaky old TV with people I like in getting to fight vampires and all be shippy.  Good news - TP keep showing M&I, the DVD is out, and there are two versions of it up on YT.

The Prison (Armchair Cinema 1974).  This is the one with Lincoln in it, but it’s not that great & JM isn’t in it that much, so depends how curious you are for the modern AU!  (But my Euston films allergy is worse than my ITC allergy, and I watched this when very unwell, so I may have been unfair.)

Crown Court “Fitton vs. Pusey” (1973) - part of the Crown Court series, set in a town full of clones who all keep returning to court.  JM is on trial for his behaviour in (the Korean war?  I forget?) although he ought to be on trial for his terrible moustache.  It’s not that great, but it is nice JM content.  He probably did it, but for reasons, and he wibbles & panics whenever his wife leaves the courtroom.  Also on YT.

*** Raffles “The Amateur Cracksman” (ITV 1975) - He is Inspector Mckenzie in the Raffles pilot & is a lot of fun.  At one point when there was a Raffles fandom someone in it claimed he was too gay for Raffles, which I’m still laughing about, because Raffles.  Anyway, watch out if you try to get the DVD because it is NOT included in S1, whatever lies Amazon tells. It is up somewhere online, though, I think.

Bognor “Unbecoming Habits” (1981).  Some down marks for possibly the worst 80s theme & incidiental music ever, but fun & has been shown on Talking Pictures lately.  JM is an Abbot running a honey-making friary that is actually a hotbed of spies, murder, gay sex and squash playing.  This is the point at which he chooses to strip off on screen for the first time, because strong squash-playing abbots do that kind of thing apparently.

Guest of the week in ongoing series/serials

Since even series with a lot of continuity tended to write episodes as self-contained plays (like SotT), these are usually accessible on their own.

Manhunt “Death Wish” (1970).  This is one of the most serialised shows here, but this episode is still fairly contained.  WWII drama about three Resistance agents on the run across France.  JM is... a Nazi agent & former academic trying to break an old friend (one of the series’ three leads, Peter Barkworth) with kindness, possibly??  (Manhunt is very angry and psychological & dark and obv. comes with major WWII warnings (& more if you want to try the whole thing), but it’s also v good.)  Up on YT, I think.

Doomwatch “The Iron Doctor” (BBC S2 1971).  “Doomwatch” is the nickname of a gov’t dept led by Dr Spencer Quist that investigates new scientific projects for abuse/corruption/things that might cause fish to make men infertile etc. etc.  JM is a surgeon who comes to their attention because he’s a bit too in love with his computer for the comfort of one of his more junior colleagues.  (I think it’s perfectly comprehensible & a nice guest turn, but it is hard to get hold of outside of the series DVD.  Which, being a cult TV person, I loved a lot anyway, but YMMV!)

***Hadleigh “The Caper” (S3 1973).  Hadleigh is a very middle of the road show, but watchable enough (lead is Gerald Harper, who’s always entertaining) and this is pretty self-contained as it centres around an old con-man friend (JM) of Hadleigh’s manservant causing trouble by pretending to be Gerald Harper, for reasons.  JM seems to be having a ball.

Justice 2 episodes, S3 1974.  He guests twice as an opposing barrister & gets to be part of some nice showdown court scenes.  Again, a middle of the road drama, but stars Margaret Lockwood, who was still just as awesome in the 1970s as she was in the 1930s & 40s.  On YT.

Father Brown “The Curse of the Golden Cross” (1974).  JM is an American archaeologist getting death threats; stars Kenneth More as Father Brown.  Just a note, though, that 1970s TV adaptations tended to be really really faithful and this is one of the stories where Chesterton comes out with an anti-semitic moment...  (JM was unconscious for that bit and, frankly, I envied him.)  But otherwise lots of angsting in yet another fake moustache about someone trying to kill him.

The Hanged Man “The Bridge Maker” (1975).  Confession time, I have v little idea what this one was about apart from Ray Smith being an unlikely Eastern European dictator, as this whole series went over my head and was not really my thing.  (Ask @mariocki they’re cleverer than me and liked it & can probably explain the plot!)  I don’t know if it’s available anywhere off the DVD but on a JM scale it was v good/different as he was a coldly villainous head of security & it wouldn’t be too bad to watch alone, but there was an overarching plot going on somewhere.

Doctor Who “Underworld” (1978).  This is famously one of the worst serials in the whole of classic Who, but largely because of behind-the-scenes circumstances, not the guest cast.  There is some nice stuff, though, esp in Ep1 (JM is a near-immortal alien who’d like to lay down and die but still the Quest is the Quest as they say... a lot) & it’s bound to pop up on YT or Daily Motion.  The DVD has extras that include v v brief bits of JM speaking in his actual real accent (which he otherwise does in NONE of these) & making jokes in character.  Honestly, though, this is the only DW where the behind-the-scenes doc is genuinely the most exciting bit as they desperately invented whole new technologies & methods of working to bring us this serial, and then everybody wished they hadn’t.

*** Enemy at the Door “Treason” (LWT 1978).  This is a weird episode but I love it lots - from a (v v good) series about the occupation of the Channel Islands.  (So obv warnings for WWII & Nazis.)  JM is a visiting German Generalmajor, but he’s come for a very unusual reason - to ask for help from his brother-in-law, a blackballed British army officer (Joss Ackland).  It’s all weird and low key and JM is doomed and nevertheless probably my favourite thing of his that isn’t SotT.

* The Racing Game 2 eps (1979).  Adaptation of Dick Francis’s first Sid Halley novel Odds Against (ep1) + 5 original stories for the series.  This is an interesting one - JM plays Sid’s father-in-law & they have a lovely relationship that’s central to the book BUT Dick Francis loved this adaptation and Mike Gwilym who played Sid and was inspired to write a sequel Whip Hand, which he tied in with TV canon - and adopted at least three of the cast, including JM.  Which means that all the Sid & Charles fanfic is also JM fic by default and it’s quite impressive. (There’s not much but it’s GOOD.)  On YT.

Bergerac “Treasure Hunt” (1981).  Not a major role, but pretty nice & it’s one a Christmas ep of the detective show (also set on the Channel Islands) that involved Liza Goddard’s cat burglar, which was always the best bit of Bergerac.

His guest spots in Rumpole of the Bailey (1991) “Rumpole a la Carte” and Dr Finlay (1994) are both really just cameos, but both series come round on Freeview; the Rumpole one is funny and the Dr Finlay one his last screen appearance before his death the following year.

Not worth getting just for JM: Subway in the Sky; Bill Brand and Oppenheimer.

These films only have cameos but some quite fun ones and they come around on terrestrial TV: The Damned (1962), The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) & (more briefly) Far From the Madding Crowd (1967).  (I think his cameo in Connecting Doors must be at least recognisable as someone spotted him in it just based off my gifs, but it’s not come my way yet.)  I’ve never been able to get hold of any of his radio performances, not even the 1990s one.

ETA: I forgot The Power Game! This is the one surviving series where he occurs as a semi-regular (at least until halfway through S1 when he went off to the BBC to be in the now-burninated Hunchback of Notre Dame).  This isn’t standalone, but it’s a good series and it is on YT.  See how you go with crackly old TV before you brave it but it’s the snarkiest thing ever made about people making concrete and stabbing each other in the back.  JM is a civil servant who tries to run the National Export Board and is plagued by Patrick Wymark and Clifford Evans as warring businessmen.

***

[... Well, now I just feel scary.  0_o  In my defence, I have been stuck home bored & ill for years, and often unable to watch modern TV while trying to cheer myself up with James Maxwell, so I didn’t watch all of this at once.  It just... happened eventually after SotT. /waves hand 

But if anyone feels the need to unfriend my quietly at this point, I understand. /o\]

[wrightiverse]

Hello and this is me annotating/doing director's commentary for the last chapter of Crowd as a victory lap. There's no indulgence like self-indulgence.

“I’ll just make my hot young boyfriend help me,” Robin teases. “When I’m eighty, you’ll only be sixty-nine.”

I love to take a thing from the beginning of a story/scene and revisit it at the end. In this case, 'hot young boyfriend' is a light callback to 'sexy-ass, significantly younger boyfriend' back at the beginning when Robin was sad about the empty nest situation. This is, I think, the first time we specify their exact age gap. It is also the exact age gap I have with my own partner, because I’m very lazy like that. (None of this was written with any reference to what's gone on in the podcast over the last year or so, which is good because it sounds like the whole aging thing for Glenn could have gotten really confusing. Wrightiverse Glenn came back right after Ravenloft, none of that other stuff happened to him. It's all good. Canon is optional.) * * * * *

It’s not like the men in his family have much luck in that area, anyway; Glenn never met either of his grandfathers, and Bill didn’t make it much past fifty.

I think Meryl actually lived for hundreds of years and is still alive in Faerun and they should totally meet, but Glenn doesn’t know all that. * * * * *

Aesthetics aside, it didn't seem like there was much for Glenn to look forward to in middle age and beyond. Nick would grow up and wouldn’t need his dad anymore, and Glenn would be all alone.

From Glenn’s second chapter in Crowd, when Robin is sad about Connor leaving for college:

“I want him to be independent,” Robin is trying to explain into Glenn’s knee, “but also I don’t want to be all alone.” Glenn flicks his ear reproachfully. “You're not all alone. I’m right here, dumbass.”

Sometimes what seems obvious when we're explaining it to somebody else doesn't feel as obvious when it's our turn. Admittedly, Glenn is coming to this with a different set of experiences than Robin is. More on that later. * * * * *

His career would go to shit, because getting old only works for rock stars if they’re actually bluesmen in disguise, like Keith Richards.

I think I got this theory from something Chuck Klosterman wrote, probably Fargo Rock City. * * * * *

He starts his grounding exercise without even thinking about it. Five things he can see: one, an information sign for the city park. Two, a freshly-painted bike rack. Three, some big public art sculpture that looks like a giant rusty hairbrush…

This particular grounding exercise came up earlier in Crowd. I didn't make it up for the story, it's real and many people find that it works well. Feel free to try it! The exercise he alludes to when they’re on the beach, creating ‘safe spaces’ out of vivid memories with lots of sensory details, is also based on a real thing. Lauren, his therapist, is named after the therapist who worked with me on my own PTSD and taught me that and a lot of other good stuff. At least based on my own experience, I can highly recommend EMDR if you can find a good practitioner. * * * * *

It was a hella sweet gesture from the kid.

Connor’s introduction in Name has to do with him carrying shirts past Glenn, and one of those shirts becomes important later to Robin. Given how big the GC3 actually seems to be, I don’t think Connor did the majority of their merch. I assume they used a regular printer and Connor just did small runs of fun custom stuff when he feels like it, meaning not much changed after Glenn quit. * * * * *

Of course, Robin is the only member of the family wearing the shirt right now, because Robin is the only one who doesn’t care that it isn’t cool to wear merch from the gig at the gig itself.

I have no idea how widespread the ‘no wearing merch from the gig at the gig’ thing is, but that’s the rule I learned. * * * * *

Robin is chatting away about something, but it’s hard to follow with all the noise and distraction around them. Glenn decides to let it ride, and allows himself to zone out and just watch Robin talk.

As requested by my brilliant co-author, this is a callback to when Robin spaces out watching Glenn talk on their first date. Both Robin and Glenn are consistently very prone to tuning out when the other one is talking, but neither of them particularly care. As Glenn says on their dinner date - sometimes a man just wants to think out loud for a while and get a ‘hell yeah’ in response. * * * * *

It's vastly unfair that Robin looks so good in direct sunlight, but he probably pulls it off because he's the one person in Los Angeles who isn't trying to look younger than he actually is.

Glenn should spend less time in WeHo. * * * * *

There’s already more gray in Robin’s hair than when they met, although Glenn will only accept partial blame for that. Either way, the old man’s on track to be a full-on silver fox before he even hits fifty.

It felt necessary to drop a reminder that despite how Glenn talks about him, Robin is not actually that damn old. I mean, I'm sure that sounds very old to some of you, but when you're in your mid-to-late 30s like Glenn, somebody in their late 40s is not unreasonably decrepit. I think it has more to do with their respective energies than actual birthdays. * * * * *

“What is it?” Robin has noticed Glenn’s gaze, and he touches his own face to check if there's something on it.

Glenn grins. "Nothing, just ogling."

This is another callback to their first date:

“Do I have something on my face?” Glenn asks, and rubs at his mouth.

“No, you’re good.” Robin says. “You’re great.”

Because I adore a full-circle moment, that's why. * * * * *

“Your eyes were intense," Robin laughs. "It looked like you were going to start growling redrum at me."

This is my own fault for saying in the last chapter that Glenn was rambling about Kubrick moon landing conspiracies when he comes back from his walk. I tried like seven different ways to get them on the subject. I still don’t know if it feels natural. * * * * *

Glenn stabs an accusatory finger toward Robin. “Did you suggest not doing the show because you knew I’d argue with you and talk myself into doing it?”

Can’t outro this story without at least a little argayment.

Glenn usually finds him in the bathroom at the end of the night, looking grumpy about being up past his bedtime and holding some girl’s hair back while she barfs.

With what we've learned about Robin over the course of Crowd, we now have the context to understand that for Robin, this drunk girl is very much the ghost of Christmas Past. I don't imagine he goes to many of these parties.

* * * * *

It doesn’t bother Glenn a bit. Life isn’t a movie, the cheerleader doesn’t have to put on leather pants and start smoking in order to get her bad boy and her happily ever after.

I know that there’s more going on in Grease than that, but consider: would Glenn know that?

* * * * *

He and Robin are very different people, and they always will be. They don’t make sense on the surface, but they both know who they are, and who they are fits together perfectly.

Circling back to Robin at the end of Name, expressing his anxieties:

Robin rests his forehead on the steering wheel, avoiding Glenn’s eyes. “Like I don’t make sense for you, and everybody can see it.”

Some of the circles that I closed in Crowd were ones that were opened in Crowd, but some went back further. * * * * *

Love bubbles up in Glenn like a shaken-up soda, and he finds himself standing up suddenly and grabbing Robin’s shirt collar to tug him down for a kiss.

I wanted to mirror the ‘Hot Dad surges forward to kiss him, hard’ thing from the beginning, but given the established height difference, Glenn can’t just go for it unannounced unless he’s gonna stand tippy-toe. Thank you @whotaughtyougrammar for this art of what happens when Glenn tries the collar-tug and Robin doesn't notice fast enough.

* * * * *

Robin is caught off guard and stumbles half a step back, managing at the last second not to drop his drink. “One second, sweetheart, just one second. You surprised me. What was that about?”

Glenn gives him a lopsided grin. “Luck?”

“Oh, well, then. For luck.”

Luck and how to change it is a big theme throughout the whole series, both in the sense of ‘good fortune/unearned blessings’ and ‘random, unforeseen chance.’ More later about that. * * * * *

When Glenn presses his tongue forward to slip between Robin’s lips, he tastes lemon and sugar.

Same as the first time they kissed, when he’d been drinking whiskey sours.

* * * * *

“Right, yeah,” Robin breathes, but he doesn’t let Glenn out of his arms quite yet. “You know,” Robin adds, “Nick was telling me earlier that he’s going to sleep over at Grant’s tonight.”

So I'll be there when you arrive / The sight of you will prove to me I'm still alive / And when you take me in your arms / And hold me tight / I know it's gonna mean so much tonight * * * * *

She’d found him there, and she'd saved him, like she always did.

We didn’t know Morgan’s name when we first wrote the scene where they discussed her in Name, so we wrote around it as though Glenn was reluctant to name her out loud. We maintained this throughout the rest of Crowd except for the line where Glenn says that he’ll tell Robin about the phone call with Morgan. Felt right. Her presence is very much felt but Glenn, at least, is not in the habit of talking about her unless he has no other option. * * * * *

They ran out of the venue and down the street, hand in hand and giggling like kids playing hooky.

@shrack was the one who began writing our Glenn with very physical methods of showing affection. I liked it a lot as a vibe and carried on with it. He and Morgan are also very young here. Glenn would be 21 or 22 at the oldest, which is barely older than Connor is now. I've always attributed some of his immaturity to the fact that he became a parent pretty young. (Glenn is 36 when Name starts and Nick is 13, meaning Nick was born when Glenn was 23 and probably conceived when Glenn was 22.)

* * * * *

It was like falling in love with every single person in the crowd, all at once. Glenn felt like he would never be lonely again as long as he could have that feeling.

Facing twenty thousand of your friends / how can anyone feel so lonely? * * * * *

By then, the GC3 performed in venues so cavernous that Glenn couldn’t see anything outside his own spotlight. He could hear the audience roar approval at him, making a wall of sound that he could feel like a physical force. It was loud enough to drown out the screaming in his head, loud enough to let him forget that she wasn’t out there among them. It was the closest he could get to forgetting, so Glenn did it as much as he could.

Part of a success that never ends / But I’m thinking about you only... * * * * *

Slowly but surely, he’d been learning how to go through life with his mind and heart focused on someone else’s well-being. It didn’t come naturally: that wasn’t the kind of family either of them knew. Still, they’d promised each other that they could do better than how they were raised.

I am never here for iterations of this dynamic that assume Glenn is the fuck-up and Morgan was the perfect parent. They both became parents at exactly the same moment, you know? The world does not need one more story with an incompetent sitcom dad and his smoking-hot wife who does all the actual parenting. * * * * *

Nick is long since asleep, but Adele fucking Close has stayed up until these sickening hours of the early morning.

Conveniently, Glenn’s brain has overwritten all his memories with the correct name and pronouns for Nick, because writing around it is a pain in the ass otherwise. * * * * *

“Hello, Glenny.”

Bill calling Glenn “Glenny” that time at Ravenloft really stuck with me. I don’t know if they ever revisited that in the actual podcast, but it was so slimy and chilling somehow. * * * * *

“I fucked up,” Glenn says bluntly, and his mother narrows her eyes ever so slightly at his cursing.

Glenn gets in his own head early in Crowd about comparing himself to Penny, and Robin later worries about putting himself on ‘the same level’ as Morgan. Neither of them are quite galaxy-brained enough to realize that there’s more than one person in Glenn’s life who uses a lot of terms of endearment for him, considers themselves old-fashioned, and wishes everybody wouldn’t swear so much. * * * * *

“Thank you, mother,” Glenn grits out. He sounds absolutely nothing like himself, not that she minds. “I appreciate your help.”

I assume that part of the reason Glenn has such a hard time offering genuine apologies is that when he was growing up, too much of his apologizing was forced rather than sincere. * * * * *

“You are out of chances. If you continue to neglect this child, I will get the state involved, and I will take custody myself. I’ve already spoken to the Freemans, and I have their full support.”

Morgan’s parents are not mentioned very often and don’t seem to be a big part of the Close boys’ lives. I imagine that whatever tenuous relationship Glenn had forged with them post-accident was pretty much destroyed by Adele forming this alliance with them and telling Glenn about it. * * * * *

Her patient demeanor is meant to remind him that she's here to clean up his mess again, like she always does, and his proper response is humble and apologetic gratitude.

And that is why Robin being patient can set Glenn off so bad, such as after the bike accident when they were arguing:

Glenn doesn’t really hear most of what Robin’s saying. It’s all just soothing, pointless stuff in that obnoxious tone that means Robin thinks he’s the smart, calm, mature one here and Glenn’s the immature asshole who lost his temper again. He’d never say it, but Glenn can tell what he’s thinking.

I hope it came across clearly in that part that Robin doesn’t actually see the situation that way and isn’t saying or thinking anything to that effect, but Glenn feels like he is because he’s had this somatic/emotional reaction triggered. Spatially he's arguing with Robin, but his body and a lot of his brain thinks he's arguing with his mom. Trauma can be like that. * * * * *

His mother keeps talking like he didn’t say a word. “We can all stay in each others’ lives, Glenny. I’m not trying to cut you out, I’m trying to help you. I know you think I’m a monster, but I’m just trying to do what’s best for my family.”

Sometimes the monster will tell you it's not a monster. * * * * *

From that night forward, Glenn will always know that he’s not a good person, because he almost takes his mother up on the offer.

I don’t think being tempted by this offer means Glenn’s a bad person, but we write Glenn as somebody who wishes he was a good person but is really afraid that he isn’t. He was at a very low point here and he needed help. Feeling drawn to the only help on offer, even if it was from a toxic source, is pretty understandable. * * * * *

"I'll get Nicky ready for school tomorrow and you can sleep in. We’ll finish talking about this when you feel better.”

Man, I hate that abuser thing when they start being sweet as soon as you muster the energy to fight back. You get a little bit of steam built up and then they dodge you like a matador so that it dissipates again. To be clear, Nicky isn't Nick's deadname or anything, it's just the somewhat baby-ish diminutive form that Adele uses for him, like how she calls Glenn "Glenny." * * * * *

“Family is important,” his mother says sadly. Just before she closes the door, she gives him a look that’s an exquisite mix of regret, tender affection, and a tiny spark of hope. Adele would have been a great actress, but Glenn can’t imagine who that particular performance was for.

Performance skills run in the family and Adele comes by her acting chops honestly, although she doesn’t know it. I picture one of those situations where a young woman from a good background gets pregnant by some rakehell actor and her family covers up the scandal by raising the baby as a new sibling. That would mean that as long as Adele’s “older sister” never spilled the beans, nobody in their family at this point knows that they’re related to Meryl. If Nick ever decides to do one of those ancestry DNA tests, things are going to get interesting. * * * * *

He certainly didn’t find it very compelling. Family? All the family he will ever need is sleeping soundly down the hallway, tiny arms wrapped tight around a stuffed plush Babar.

I wanted Nick to have a stuffed animal that was sort of his parallel to Mr. Lion. Robin is drinking with Mr. Lion in the beginning of Crowd when he’s upset about losing Connor to college, and Mr. Lion appears again when Glenn comes in to talk to Nick and Connor after Robin’s accident.

“I… I guess I don’t know.” Nick looks down, avoiding eye contact by staring into the darkness under Connor’s bed. Mr Lion is under there in a clear plastic box, along with some other stuffed animals. Even when Nick first met Connor, the stuffed animals were already banished underneath the bed instead of on top of it. But over the years, Connor’s never thrown them away.

Mr. Lion is one of the various ways we played with the theme that Connor is, as Nick puts it, “somewhere between a kid and an adult.” Connor is a very confident and clever guy, but you don't magically get a giant box of maturity and life experience on your 18th birthday. At various points, he asks both Nick (at the campus concert) and Glenn (after Robin’s accident) to try to understand that he's still growing and figuring stuff out. Nick has definitely been deprived of some chances to be a kid, but in some ways Connor has as well. He started hanging out with Glenn after Penny and Robin split up, and although he and Nick obviously hit it off, Connor was closer to Glenn for a while. In a different universe, that might not have turned out as well - I mean, tell me you wouldn't side-eye that arrangement in real life. I sure would. Robin just sort of flings his hands up at the role Connor plays for the Close boys, but I strongly suspect that shit would not have flown on Penny’s watch.

It’s funny - he thought Connor was so grown-up when they met, but the guy was only 16 when the Wrights moved in next door. He wasn’t much older by the time he was over at the Close place almost every day, helping Nick with homework or cleaning questionable leftovers out of the fridge. It didn’t strike Nick as weird at the time, It was just another thing about his life that wasn’t like anybody else’s. He never questioned what was in it for Connor. Back then, Nick didn’t even realize how lonely he himself was - he wouldn't have figured out why a kid whose parents had just gotten divorced might want to come over to the chaotic Close apartment to get away from the quiet in his own home.

Everybody was doing their best, and everything worked out for the best, but Connor over the course of the stories is sorting out the balance that works for him in terms of responsibility and playfulness. Fortunately, now that he has less responsibility for Nick, he can enjoy Nick more as a friend and brother. In Name, Robin and Glenn both sort of assume Connor will act as a babysitter to Nick while they go off on their first date; by Crowd, Connor is hanging out playing Smash with Nick and Grant as the gents get ready for their dinner date, but he's there socially, as a peer. Him being goofier and more immature also frees up Nick to do the same, since if Connor is cool and Connor is being playful, then "it's not a little kid thing, it's a bro thing" They both get to be kids now in a way that they weren't before, and I love that for them. Anyway, the point of Mr. Lion and why I wanted to give Nick a stuffed animal as well was to draw the parallel between the sons more directly and to anchor the stuffed animal component. So far there hadn't been any moment in which an actual kid was holding an actual stuffed animal.

[ghostasinhades]

Falling Behind

Julance 2019

Day 3: Older Lance/Garrison

···

It.. It just wasn't fair.

Lance worked just as hard as the other kids that wanted to be fighter pilots, yet he was the one that always fell just short. Every time. With every attempt at the simulator- it was never enough. It wasn't even enough to tip anything in his favor, but just enough to keep Lance placed as second best in comparison to Keith Kogane.

Keith Kogane who soared ahead of him and even had Shiro to mentor him. At least, that was what Lance heard. Keith made it look so easy, it was enraging. He got praise from everyone when he wasn't getting scolded for being so temperamental. From the directors, from his classmates, from Shiro… and the boy didn't even seem to care about anyone else's opinions. Nobody but Shiro, and it was infuriating.

Then again, Lance wasn't going to be the one to verbally admit how much it hurt to be compared to Keith. To always be second best. Ever since Keith enrolled, it was like Lance didn't even exist. He only seemed to exist when it was convenient to someone who wanted to get out of a conversation.

Lance wasn't going to admit that he felt loneliest when Keith was around, not out loud.

Looking at the board to find that he was, once again, right behind Keith, only reinforced the feeling.

"Wow, look! I jumped ahead of Griffin!" Lance thought that it was.. yeah, Rizavi talking.

"Aw man, I'm back in last place." Lance actually couldn't place that voice.

"Look at that. Kogane's still in first place." Ugh.

"Yeah, he really is the best pilot of our generation. No one's been able to top him since he got here." Lance didn't even want to know who that was.

Keith had a lot more admirers since getting into the Garrison, too. And watching him avoid them and ignore them like he didn't care really made Lance's blood boil. 

The worst part was when Keith himself looked at the board and didn't even crack a smile. No happy little hum, no raised eyebrows, no physical reaction. Keith just lazily eyed the board and then walked away without a second glance. Like he was bored. It just felt so unfair.

Lance couldn't even do anything about it. Keith was always in the simulator when he wasn't, they studied the same material, did similar practices… but Keith always won. And Lance always lost. 

Lance could only sit in his bunk, face scrunched up in his frustration with Hunk on the way back after finishing his test. His results wouldn't come out until later, but Hunk didn't even care about this stuff all that much. While he was passionate about his areas of expertise, he didn't get that upset, not in the way Lance did. It was just so pathetic. 

Luckily for Lance, Hunk didn't think he was pathetic. Hunk sat beside him with a hand on his back as he rambled on and on about.. everything. There was no way that Lance was going to tell his mama about his situation, about always being second place, much less about how upset he was getting over it.

"It's just.. It's like he doesn't even care that he's always first. He doesn't care that he's progressing so much faster than everyone, or that he's reaching higher levels." He rambled on, eyes the slightest bit teary as he spoke on. "It's like.. no matter how hard I study o-or practice or anything.. it's like I'm destined to fall short every time. Like I'm destined to always be second best, the second choice, the first loser." His voice was thick with the tears he was holding back, his nose itching like he was going to sneeze, but Lance knew it was because of how hard he was trying to hold back tears.

Lance could only wait and desperately hope that there was something his friend would say, anything that would make him feel like he was being silly and over dramatic, and Lance knew that he was being over dramatic. James probably didn't cry every time Nadia got above him. Ina didn't cry when Nadia got all in her face about being better. Hunk didn't cry every time he had to get in a simulator of sorts (although he did get a bit teary eyed from the motion sickness). Lance was being silly because he felt like this one kid, this one boy, was always going to one up.

And Lance would always be invisible because of it.

But Hunk didn't say anything. All he did was pull Lance close and wrap his arms around him in a hug.

It was that moment that Lance decided that he hated Keith Kogane and everything about him. After that, anytime Keith showed up, instead of wanting to shrink into nothing, he got angry and made himself the star. Instead of letting Keith get to the simulator, Lance would be there, peeved as he dodged his way through the courses. And instead of crying when he was second place, he would get that much more frustrated and work that much harder, because it would eventually pay off.

And, eventually, it did.

It was just enough to pass into fighter class, but Lance managed to beat Keith at something. In fact, Keith's name wasn't even on the board! It felt like a genuine accomplishment. Lance even danced a little, all smiles and grins as he learned that Hunk was his engineer, too!

Only to learn, after his first simulation with his team, that the only reason Lance managed to make fighter class was because Keith was cast out for disciplinary issues. At that point, it felt like he was cheating. Like he didn't even deserve to be a fighter pilot.

In the end, Lance just wasn't good enough.

[b-kitsune]

Many ways to say I love you: Day Fifteen.

Kidge-a-palooza 2019 Prompt: Towering. Pairing: Kidge (VLD) Universe:  Canon.  Status: Part 4/7.

''Pidge, can you scan the atmosphere of this planet?'' The static in the communications was present while Keith waited for the response from the side of the green lion. ''Pidge, are you there?''

''Will she have fallen asleep?'' Asked his mother from the side of the cabin of the black lion, Keith shook his head after considering it for a couple of seconds.

''No, she must have left the autopilot and engaged in a conversation with Shiro.''

''How are you so sure?'' Krolia tried to see if she could find the green lion around the formation they were following in space. She listened to her son sighed tiredly as he continued to insist, without an answer.

''Pidge, I'm talking to you.''

''Hey Keith, do you think it would be very bad if you let me explore on the next arriving?''

''Yes, it would be.'' They all affirmed as soon as the message resounded in their communicators. Lance moaned wounded.

''I can also be pretty good at directing!''

''Surely we will end up in something as dangerous as the yelmors of the last time.'' Hunk replied with the annoying moan of Romelle resonated in the communications before the memory.

''Yeah, I definitely wouldn't follow him.''

''Allura, do you think the same?'' Lance asked, but the princess's nervous laugh made it clear that the answer was implicit. Lance grumbled.

''This is unfair, Keith just returned a couple of weeks ago and now everyone following him.''

''And even then, it's much safer than following you, Lance.'' Pidge argued at last. Krolia didn't miss the quiet air of his son when he heard the green paladin through the helmet. ''Keith is the leader, you're the shooter, remember?'' Lance hummed a few moments before nodding satisfied with the title that now everyone accepted openly.

''I agree.''

''Well, then stay in the rear and don't fuck again.''

''Pidge, take care of your language!'' Shiro answered the words of Pidge, who only apologized quickly.

''Pidge, answer.''

''Oh sorry, did you say something, Keith?'' When Keith connected the video call to the green lion, he could see her returning to her seat with Shiro following behind her. ''I was talking to Shiro, I didn't know you were talking to me.''

''You have to be more careful with that, you should always be alert in case there is an attack in space.'' He said patiently as if explaining a rule to a small child. She just nodded disinterestedly and opened the message Keith had sent her minutes ago. ''They are the closest planets in the orbit of this galaxy, scans which are the most suitable to get new resources.''

''More vegetables! Choose the one with more vegetables!'' Hunk asked anxiously when he heard the word resources. They had been flying for days and their supplies began to decline rapidly thanks to the new crew and the cosmic wolf.

''Although food is scarce at the moment, I believe that the collection of drinking water is much more significant. Since the last time, we weren't able to find any source or civilization to help us.'' Pidge argued when she finished scanning the three planets they had at their disposal. ''Keith, this planet is surrounded by a dangerous nature where it will be a bit difficult to get food resources, but it has freshwater wells inside caves that are accessible from the surface.''

''Wait ... The planet at your side indicates that it has a much more peaceful fauna and probably apt to harvest delicious things. Let's go to that first one.'' Hunk asked audibly scared at the idea of ​​going down to a jungle planet, to which Keith shook his head.

''I know is important Hunk, but Pidge is right. The amount of water at this time is too low, we will first go to the dangerous planet.''

All nodded as they followed the established coordinates. Meanwhile, Krolia thought carefully what had just happened in front of the team dynamics.

 ...

 When they arrived, they were immediately attacked by an unstable ground that tried to swallow them while the surrounding vines made their way through the legs of the lions, pushing them into the jungle. Quickly Lance began firing to burn the nature that threatened them and they headed towards a height that they were sure that there would be nothing that would attack them for many hours. The atmosphere was quite clean given the lack of civilization close to its surroundings, but Romelle and Coran preferred to stay above the blue lion while they were completely sure that they would be safe once below. They had had enough with the last adventure a few weeks ago.

Pidge would also have liked to stay upstairs, trying to hide somewhere in the green lion playing while they collecting what they needed, but she armed herself with energy to descend with the others.

When she began to observe around her while Hunk and Allura tried to devise a plan to get to the aqueducts that were below them, was intercepted by Krolia, who for Pidge knew that she was part of the Blade of Marmora and the apparent Keith's mother, she seemed overly towering. She usually didn't smile or speak more than usual, and she usually referred to Keith when she was talking about a particular subject, and again she just kept quiet most of the time while they were traveling. She was kind enough when they went towards her while Lance and Hunk talked about anything, but the feeling of the stoic image didn't melt under any circumstances.

Basically, Pidge was scared of her. Something about her reminded her of her own mother.

''Pidge, isn't it?'' Pidge nodded when she stood in front of her and took out of her pocket a kind of compact screen that gave different types of signals.

''You need something?''

''Yes, you will come with me to monitor a base of the Blade's that are hidden in the center of this planet, it doesn't seem to respond to my signal no matter how hard it tries.''

She agreed again to be part of something she was interested in doing instead of crawling through wet caves with the others. But Keith approached slightly as soon as he heard his mother, with some concern in his eyes.

''It's better if I go with you, Pidge doesn't know very well the bases of the Blades...

''She will be Ok.'' Answered Krolia concise, stopping any argument from Keith when she began to walk in the opposite direction. ''Let's go.''

Pidge began to run as soon as Krolia made her way quickly into the jungle, giving a quick glance at Keith who watched in dismay. She gave him a final greeting to reassure him before entering the jungle that awaited them.

The trip had been quite silent, to Pidge's liking, Krolia was good at avoiding the dangers that were found through the brush and the animals that tried to stalk them in the dark. It took them about three hours to finally find what Krolia had mentioned on the cusp of a rock that was cunningly hidden around numerous giant trees, intercepting alien signals that weren't previously known.

It seemed that it had been evacuated for many years like the vines of the roots curled around the entrance with force.

''It seems to have been abandoned for a long time.'' Pidge commented while using her bayard to cut the roots.

''Is a central reservation for some of our infiltrators in the empire to hide for a while when they are discovered. Be alert, although it is highly possible that it is abandoned, there may still be enemies who have found it.''

Pidge nodded as she fell with Krolia into the bunker that was curiously well arranged. Boxes of possible reserves and clean walls while in the deep, a simple central generator dictated signals occasionally with multiple encryptions. Pidge liked the place she was observing while Krolia sent a few signals possibly to the central command of the coalition.

''It hasn't been updated for three years, that's weird.''

''Maybe three years ago that no one galra had to use it.'' Pidge said when she approached the screen. Krolia nodded and she unloaded the information she needed. ''Why did you need to come?''

''Protocol of the Blade. We need to evaluate our hiding places occasionally.''

''And why did you need me to come with you?''

Asked a little more curiously, Krolia however just watched her for a few seconds before heading towards one of the boxes to take a pair of cylindrical bottles from a cooling system, and deliver it to Pidge while there would be one with her hands in silence, Pidge preferred to do the same while the silence again became present around them.

It was water, a lot sweeter than she had drunk in the castle before it was destroyed.

''You have the smell of Keith on your body.'' Pidge coughed audibly as soon as she heard Krolia's words, making her cheeks redden with embarrassment.

''What?''

''Keith's smell is around your whole body.''

She repeated as if the question had been directed toward something Pidge hadn't understood. She tried to see if something in her eyes indicated that it was a strange bad joke on her part or some kind of suggestion. But she found nothing, Krolia was as distant and stoic as ever.

How could she respond to something like that!?

''Excuse me ... But I'm not understanding what you're trying to say.''

''It's possible that no, you're not galra.'' Her words weren't directed towards any insult, Pidge felt that Krolia was trying to understand how she would say what was in her head. ''We have a unique way of matching ourselves, we leave our essence around the couple we have decided to have in our life. We are not so ... Open about our displays of affection like you people. And that is a way in which others know that there is a special connection.''

Pidge nodded, getting an idea of ​​what Krolia was trying to explain. And vaguely remembering, the last time she had been alone with Keith before fully integrating himself into the Blade's missions and disappearing for months.

The memory after what happened in Naxzela was constantly turning over her mind when his kisses and caresses felt like a phantom memory under her skin, especially during the moments of silence in the castle when everyone was sleeping, and she tried to make herself an idea of ​​why Keith didn't reply to communications once Kolivan said he had left for a secret mission during the last talks with the coalition.

She lowered her gaze in distress when she felt Krolia's eyes on her. It was not a conversation she knew how to deal with, much less with a woman who was a little afraid of her.

''I don't want you to think I'm trying to corner you, Pidge. But I need you to know, that we are governed by a code with all our life decisions.''

''Veprit Sa.'' She mumbled barely, Krolia nodded patiently.

''You know what it means?''

''That you prefer to die before giving give up for anything.'' Pidge smiled sardonically at the thought that came to mind. ''Are you trying to tell me that Keith has decided to be with me for his whole life only because his galra race demands it?''

''Not yet, but he's considering it.'' Pidge opened her eyes with surprise, it had only been a guess for her. But Krolia was recognizing her it was a truth. She saw her look away from the floor with regret. ''I wasn't the best mother for him when he needed me, but I can do it now when I have him by my side. And what I least want is that he get hurt because he doesn't know what his race imposes on him.

Krolia approached her side to place her hand on her shoulder as a sign of comfort, causing Pidge to lift her chin to look directly into the eyes of the galra woman. She knew she wasn't trying to sound intimidating or aggressive so she wouldn't take it the wrong way. In the background, Krolia was just a mother trying to avoid greater pain than her only son with whom she had reconciled after many years without seeing him.

But Pidge? She was not sure about how she felt about Keith. She loved him so much that she considered him part of her family and missed him all these months without knowing him, it made her happy to see him again after all the events that had happened in such a short time. It reassured her to hear him from the black lion commanding orders as a natural leader, something that felt strange since Shiro came back after disappearing, and that Pidge knew it didn't have much to do with the fact that it was a clone who was piloting all this time.

She was just a sixteen-year-old teenager who hadn't had the chance to fall in love as befitted her age, but ... Could she see herself capable of loving a single man all her life?

''Pidge, do you think you can match the feelings of a galra once Keith made the decision to ask you?''

''I ...'' She swallowed hard a few seconds before answering, staring into Krolia's dark eyes. ''I don't know.'' She said at last. ''But I know I'm not able to see a future without having Keith by my side. Humans are not monogamous, but ... I think I've broken the rule of what is expected of my race too many times during all this time in space.'' Smiled determined. ''When the time is right, I think I'll know.''

Krolia was not particularly satisfied with her question, but she smiled in the anyway when they started back to the lions.

There was only one way to know how it would all end between Keith and that tiny human girl, but at that moment ... She couldn't be less proud of the woman her son had chosen to court.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S2 Ep 26-27: Marik Also Tries Mind-Crushing, Except Literal and With A Very Large Storage Unit

Ah, Yugioh, where two children are possessed by ghosts and two other children are possessed by just some guy named Marik.

He’s still pretty sure he has a plan. To be honest, at this point it just seems like he’s desperate, but I have to hand it to Marik, that he’s doing more than just relying on a spooky golden maraca thing he keeps in the side pocket of his cargo pants. Something that a lot of shows do really wrong with villains (pointing fingers directly at My Hero Academia while I’m typing this) is that they rely too much on their fancy looking superpowers to show they’re a bad guy. It’s fine to have super powers but you gotta back it up with making sure you’re throwing your heroes into a psychological nightmare--at least once.

At least once, MHA, it is Season 3. Please. You have such a huge budget and the best animators in the world. Please. I beg of you.

Yugioh, on the other hand is like...when WON’T we be in a psychological nightmare?

And so Marik has decided, after the bandsaw murder clown incident, the blown up skyscraper 100 story fall to your death incident, and the spooky mime incident, that he was ready to just really go to town on effed up villain stuff today. It’s time to pull all the stops. He’s got Yugi’s BFF’s all ready to turn on Yugi, he’s got an abandoned shipyard...for some reason...

All in all, as much as I rat on Marik, I very much appreciate that he didn’t monologue in some Mahjong bar for twelve episodes about all the reasons he wants to do evil stuff, he just goes out and does it. Let me rephrase, he just goes out and makes other people do it, but at least someone is doing something in every episode. Can’t say that about all the TV I watch.

You do have to hand it to him he never does the same plan twice.

(read more after the cut)

So, spotting Joey from afar, Kaiba lands his helicopter dangerously close to him, and just walks out unarmed, his smallest brother standing next to him. Mokuba is still taking everything in from last episode apparently and he’s just really confused most of the time as Joey starts going off about himself in the third person to Yugi.

And Seto decides to just watch? He doesn’t call for help, he doesn’t use his crazy amount of leverage, and he doesn’t do the smart thing which would be to run the hell away, he just kinda soaks this all in and has decided that he lives here now.

So, Marik, who can do a lot of the dark magic stuff Pegasus and Bakura have showed us, decides to instead go old school and forgo magic for most of this fight (other than some possession of course.)

Like I said before, if you’re gonna write a villain, they gotta get in your hero’s head a bit. It’s villain 101. Should it ever go as far as a Yugioh villain on kid’s TV? I mean proooobably not necessary? But something this episode does is show that a villain does not need superpowers. All they need, is to test your hero’s greatest insecurities to the breaking point, which is something Marik does really well, and surprisingly a lot of shows I don’t need to mention, because I already have, don’t do. They kinda rely on “well he’s got evil powers, so he’s evil and they punch a lot” while not understanding that it was never the powers that gives a show that tension that villains bring.

Like, Yugioh does a lot of things wrong, but surprisingly, they know how to write a clearly evil villain who’s just overheard that Yugi’s big thing is this bond of friendship--which is really childish--but he goes with it anyway. So he makes this bizarre Joker-like card game scenario that is based on breaking those friendship connections. But leave it to Yugioh to have something really pure in theory but in practice turn into this screwball nightmare. Yugioh is kind of like a really simple chocolate cake but there’s a tire on it and it’s on fire.

I will say, it is odd that Seto got dragged here into the friendship battle, as he is the worst friend. So now he also gets to go through friend torture with some school mates he occasionally has class with. TBH, I don’t think Seto has even realized yet that he has also been 100% abducted since the moment he walked off that helicopter. Seto lives in a nice denial place.

So lets go over Marik’s Big Plan #7.

First, off you gotta put on these shackles, seen here:

I feel like Shackles are this seasons Maze Labyrinth. I mean I guess Yugi’s shackled to his destiny? Or at least the destiny of the ghost he’s attached to? Anyway, so many shackles this season.

And then these shackles and chains are connected to Joey as well as this anchor we see here:

What nice symbolism to illustrate that Yugi’s friendship will drag everyone he knows along with him--as it has for the past 2 seasons. Not really a big spoiler for everyone involved in this battle.

And then this was a thing Marik added just for kicks, which can be symbolic, too, but I don’t feel like diving into it:

I actually never thought these two would actually cancel a game. Mokuba decided against blowing his whistle at it though, he decided it was probably too late for that. Aaaaaand it was:

Yo, how do you sneak up on people with a 70 ft crane?

Honestly I was surprised that Seto cared enough about Tea to not move, but I guess he couldn’t kill Tea in front of Mokuba. And I dunno, Seto and Tea never really talk to eachother, so I guess I’ve never noticed that he thinks she’s decent enough to continue existing. He might like her better than anyone else on this show other than Mokuba. And I’m not saying that to ship them, although I’m sure it’s a fine ship sailing around out there, I’m just saying that it is notable when Kaiba accepts that someone else besides a Kaiba deserves to live.

And then one last touch:

I guess no one told Marik that Tea and Yugi aren’t actually dating? I mean how much would it suck to go on one date with a guy and then all of a sudden you’re dealing with all of his villains?

Accurate, actually, that is exactly how dating works. You go one date and then you casually run into him in an elevator and then all of a sudden he’s like “So my ex fiance took me to court over the engagement ring and it’s so unfair that I can’t get that money back when she’s gonna marry this other guy she’s only known for a month anyway.” and it’s like “You were engaged?”

But, for his credit, 2 weeks later I needed a date, called him up, and he was like “Sorry, I’m in the hospital because I got an ulcer removed because apparently there’s too much stress in my life pulling these allnighters for my classes, and my car died and it’s gonna cost 2k to fix it, and then my ex fiance visited me in the hospital which was hella weird because my Dad is here. Anyway I got a tube down my pee hole and it was the worst pain I’ve felt in my life including the ulcer they removed from my gut. But I dunno. When’s the date?” and I just assumed he was pranking me but turns out, the next day, my teacher confirmed the kid was in the hospital and as high as balls.

Anyway, Pharaoh isn’t the worst person in the world to date, I guess.

It’s nice that Yugi was able to find all of his accessories in blue leather and silver rivets.

The duel begins, everyone cries, except for Tea who’s just screaming from the sidelines that Joey needs to remember how much he loves Yugi. She reminds him to think of the experiences they’ve shared and it was like oh boy maybe skip the part where you bullied Yugi to to hell and then he got cursed with a ghost that lives in his body.

TBH, I feel like it would be bad to introduce Serenity to the fray? Like if I were Marik I’d be like “woah get Joey’s sister out of here, that’s gonna snap him out of it.” but it’s not like Marik gets the whole family love thing anyway, living with Ishizu.

In case you were wondering, yes Mokuba actually tried to explain to Tea what was going on, so the show went over what the hell was going on I want to say like 3 times. Which is something you kinda have to do when you’ve turned your card game into Mousetrap.

And so this is where the episode ended, and I was capping along and felt like this could be a two parter post for this weekend, so why not? Lets continue.

Ah, and it starts out with Marik on a boat.

That boat gets mysteriously bigger and bigger every time it shows up. How many Rare Hunters are there? Like 10? And do they have to rent an apartment on this boat, like how does this all work? And if they do rent an apartment on the boat, who’s cooking? Like Marik, obviously is not a cook since he’s a living disaster, but I want to know more about boat life. Did Bandit Keith ever make them a crunchwrap supreme? Is one of the Rare Hunters always playing Wonderwall? Do they tan on the bow? Why would this boat ever need to be this big?

And I know this isn’t any of the Yugioh spinoff shows, but if I were to write one it would absolutely be Marik’s Boat Life. That would be the name.

Anyway, Yugi decides to fly over Pharaoh’s shoulder like a little angel. It’s been kind of a while.

So like it’s foreshadowed pretty strongly that Yugi’s decided “why even bother, Pharaoh, we don’t need your card talent today. At least my life will end as I lived, short and very awkward”

On the other side of town, Tristan has to go up a group of these Rare Hunters, and from everything we know about Tristan, this shouldn’t be so difficult? Like he punched out Bakura and threw Double Spike Mullet over his shoulder at one point, but unfortunately, punches don’t seem to work. But do you know what does?

I completely forgot Duke Devlin was a character in this show. Surprised he’s not in this competition, but apparently his game he’s making alongside Pegasus is really panning out--which is kind of effed up because Pegasus is a murderer. But youknow...I guess that everyone in the show decided to overlook that?

Whatever, I spent an entire episode trying to understand that, lets get back to the friendship plot line. Yugi decided to play a card that lets Joey take a card from Yugi’s hand, which gives him an opportunity to show Joey’s dragon. But will Joey overcome Marik and take this very good card to use on Yugi? (bro just corrected me and told me this card is actually not good but wtv)

He takes a different card. Friendship triumphs over...this card that I should know more about but I don’t watch the card games so I’m just gonna wing it here.

And then Yugi plays it anyway, and the music swells and it’s meaningful again.

Because the Red Eyes is connected with his heart now. Not sure when that happened exactly but it apparently happened at some point.

Seriously, when did this happen? I ask a lot of questions rhetorically but feel free to answer that one. Did I miss something? S1 this card was just kinda there.

Pharaoh, sensing that Yugi has very well lost his mind and will be absolutely hit by a fireball, decides to take over. Remember that the last time Yugi got hit with a fireball, he passed out pretty much before it hit him. And then he died. Yugi died last time a fireball hit him (I’m pretty sure that was a fireball in the Pegasus fight? It feels like years ago). Mind, that was a shadow duel, but apparently that doesn't matter this season because all the cards are real and no one cares that this is a very big problem.

Pharaohs legs are either three times the size of his torso OR they’re wearing extremely high waisted pants. Both scenarios are good.

And he gets hit in the face with a fireball.

And doesn’t pass out. Good for him. He is about 15% alive though, Yugi is basically going to die if he gets hit with another fireball. Like his lifepoints still say 1000 but it takes him like ten minutes to walk all the way around this pier and give Joey this:

Luckily, Marik as Joey plays cards so slowly, that the ten minute walk was still shorter than a single turn in Yugioh.

Also this is a thing? Just anyone can put that on?

so this whole time anyone could have been wearing the ring to Mordor? Just anyone? OK then.

Anyway, next week, on Yugioh:

Does Marik have any lag on that superpower of his, because I feel like it would make this show make some more sense on his part? Did the mime just walk home? If they all did die this way--not saying the will or won’t because they’ve died so many times now, but if they DID--weirdest way to die, amiright?

And if you’ve stumbled onto this blog which is halfway through S2, let me direct you to this handy link, which gives you all the recaps in chronological order from S1

[findmyhouse]

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER - WORKS, VOLUME 2 (1977): 6/10

(Originally posted on 17 October, 2017)

The second Works album (released eight months after the first one) is really strange. It feels even less like a coherent whole than its predecessor, because Works, Volume 2 is less a real album and more a collection of outtakes. Most of the tracks on this record feel like they could have fit in perfectly on Works, Volume 1 and were even recorded at the same time but didn’t make the cut (presumably because they ran out of disc space with that one). Other tracks even hail back to the sessions for Brain Salad Surgery, including a track called… “Brain Salad Surgery”. Finally, “Barrelhouse Shakedown” and “I Believe In Father Christmas” had previously been released as solo singles by Keith and Greg, respectively, and appear here without any alterations. For this reason, Works, Volume 2 is often dismissed as a throwaway or stop-gap album, but while I think it’s certainly quite pedestrian compared to ELP’s earlier work, I still think such a classification is unfair. Like Volume 1, this album is just a mixed bag of moments that are bound to bore you and moments that are worth your time (many of which even exceed most of Volume 1 in beauty).

This album isn’t strictly divided into separate parts for each band member but most of the tracks still feel like they’re courtesy of one specific musician rather than the band as a whole. For example: “Watching Over You” and the aforementioned “I Believe In Father Christmas” are clearly Greg’s songs: both are relatively straight-forward pop numbers, but they're actually better than what he put on Works, Volume 1: they’re less dragged out and they’re a lot more sparsely arranged, which actually helps make them seem more authentic (at least in comparison to the bombastic, out-of-place orchestral arrangements which made the banal pop stuff like “Lend Your Love To Me Tonight” seem all the more pathetic). “Watching Over You” is basically just a gentle acoustic guitar ballad; certainly no “From The Beginning”, but still good enough and not pretending to be more than what it is.

“Bullfrog” and “Close But Not Touching” were written by Carl and follow the same big band jazz style as on “Food For Your Soul” from the last album. Both take influence from military march tunes, with “Bullfrog” sporting a snare-heavy main theme with a catchy main melody played by Carl himself on the marimba, and “Close But Not Touching” opening and closing with a Yankee Doodle-like flute theme. Carl also hands a solo spot to his fellow band members on both tracks: Greg plays a mad guitar solo on “Close But Not Touching”, and on “Bullfrog” Keith plays a synth solo with the same steel drum-like tone as on “Karn Evil 9”.

Now, Keith is the only one whose contributions here differ notably from those on the last album: There’s no classical music here. Instead, he plays a bunch of cute ragtime tributes on honky-tonk piano with a brass section backing him up, including a cover of Meade Lux Lewis’s “Honky Tonk Train Blues” and his own “Barrelhouse Shakedown”. Finally, he plays a really nice version of “Show Me The Way To Go Home”, another hit song from the 1920s (which you may recognize from the movie Jaws), although Greg manages to steal the show on that one with a lovely vocal performance.

All of the remaining songs do feature the boys working more together as a group, but this time there’s not that much to say about them, so it’s like a complete reversal of Volume 1. Out of the songs taken from the 1973 sessions, “When The Apple Blossoms Bloom In The Blah Blah Of Your Bleepity Bloop” is just a pointless jam, while “Brain Salad Surgery” is pretty funny, though probably a little too inessential to be featured on the album which was named after it. But all of the other tracks are completely forgettable: some generic blues stuff, an orchestral version of “Maple Leaf Rag” (why?)… Let me just end by saying that if you want to see a completely different side of these musicians, you might find this album quite interesting and enjoyable, but if you want to hear more grandiose prog in the vein of “Tarkus” or “Karn Evil 9”, don't bother with this album because it doesn’t have what you’re looking for.

Although the Works albums aren’t bad, they clearly present a band in crisis: a band that can no longer agree on a unified vision or direction, but also cannot manage to truly excel in the new directions pursued by the individual band members. And as much as it pains me to admit it, these two albums may also illustrate the inherent limitations of Emerson, Lake & Palmer as a unit. When you think about it, all of the previous studio albums followed a certain formula: a number of (usually lengthy) prog epics with emphasis on synths and organs, along with some rocky adaptations of classical compositions and at least one introspective Greg Lake ballad. That’s not to say of course that they didn’t make truly great music within this formula; Brain Salad Surgery arguably marked the perfection of the formula. However, the moment when the band tried to escape from this formula was the moment when they set their own downfall in motion. ELP would only go downhill from here on, as was painfully evidenced by their notorious follow-up album which I’ll hopefully discuss soon. Prepare for a riot. 

Best song: a tough call but it’s probably BULLFROG

[teaandspacekittens-blog]

How to Rock an Apron (Part 2) - A Klance High School AU

I was hoping to finish this up in 2 parts, but alas, the words started getting away from me yet again.  i decided to break it up and post this part in celebration of S2 (there are no spoilers though, so you’re safe).  You can find part 1 HERE.  There will be one more part after this, and it’s almost finished, so yay!  Thanks again to the friends who cheered this on while it was happening.

The hell of it was, the bastard was right.  It was unfair - really, really unfair Keith's poor beleaguered sanity interjected - how attractive Lance managed to make the same apron every other student was wearing look.  The same criminally pink shade that made the rest of them look ill somehow complimented Lance's hair and skin and made them look luminous.  The cut that didn't work on anyone else made his shoulders broader, his waist thinner, and his legs longer - something about the lines it created suggested bendy to Keith's brain, but Keith suspected his brain was a filthy pervert.

He should look just as ridiculous as the rest of them - and in a way he did - but the way he owned it the way other kids tried to do and failed utterly took the absurdity and flipped it on its head and left Lance looking stupidly hot.  The combination of his brazenness and the frills and his dirty grin and his ridiculous fucking face somehow added up to an overall look that was somewhere between adorable and filthy hot to the point of obscenity.

The things Keith had imagined doing to Lance in that apron, on top of that apron, using that apron as a prop, would haunt him for the rest of his life.  Or until his dick fell off from over-handling.

Of course there was no way he was actually telling Lance any of that.  He was horny and pathetic not suicidal, thank you.  Although there was something in the air between them, something pregnant and pulsing, a tension that felt delicious in its pressure but so close to popping Keith didn't know if there was anything they could do to maintain it.  He really didn't want to anyway.  He raised a gently mocking eyebrow.  "Strangely, you have found a way to make it work for you."

Grinning, Lance fluttered his eyelashes outrageously.  "Of course I do."  He smoothed his hands over the stretch of the apron over his hips.  "I'm the prettiest princess in all the land."

He said that without an ounce of shame, or humor, or anything else that indicated it was supposed to be a joke or something.  Keith seriously fucking loved that about him.  Lance legitimately did not care about how "masculine" he was or if others perceived him as feminine. Their second week of school, some dumb jock had thought he'd come up with a real zinger when he told Lance, "only girls take Home Ec dude, you a girl now or something, Sanchez?" and Lance had just looked at him and said, "and if I am?  You say that like it's something to be embarrassed about.  I dare you to tell my mom or one of my sisters they should be ashamed of being female."  Keith thought that might have been the moment he got in so deep.

So yeah, it was stupid hot that Lance was comfortable wearing girl things and calling himself a pretty princess and it not really meaning anything other than that he liked those things - but it was also stupid fucking brave of him too, and that might be what really did it for Keith.  Either way, it gave him the courage not to laugh or play it off either.  He hummed thoughtfully.  "Huh, you might just be," he muttered like he hadn't been thinking that Lance was the prettiest boy he'd ever seen on a pretty much daily basis for months.

The bubble of whatever between them popped - it was clear as day on Lance's face.  Heat chased shock through his expression and he ducked his head a little like he was suddenly shy.  "Yeah, you think so?"  His voice was rough, like the words had been dumped into a blender with a pound of gravel yet somehow still fragile and hopeful.

In a flash the inevitability of this moment exploded in Keith's brain in a shower of electric sparks.  The saying went that you saw your life flash before your eyes before you died, and this wasn't a near death experience, and it wasn't his whole life, but Keith was definitely seeing still images like bursts of memory superimposed on this moment, a replay of everything that had led him here.

Like he'd been asked to make a timeline, Keith relived their first argument in the hallway, Lance's opening volley in their prank war, the escalation of their stupid rivalry, and the moment when Vice Principal Iverson had caught them both red-handed trying to pull off separate pranks at the same time in the teacher's lounge and arguing over who got there first.

They'd of course been immediately hauled to the office and subjected to a diatribe on their lack of discipline, but Keith couldn't remember any of the words Iverson had snarled.  It was the ghost of the self-satisfied smile Lance had flashed at Keith every time Iverson looked away the crept through Keith's brain now.  Followed by the stunned look of horror that had replaced it when the VP had dropped the bombshell that they would both have to attend a detention hour for their last period for the entire year.

No amount of pleading had been able to convince Iverson to change his mind about that and Keith remembered the apologetic look the guidance councilor had worn when informing the two of them that rearranging their schedules to accommodate the punishment meant the only elective available to them was Home Ec if they wanted to fit in all the requirements for graduation.

The images kept coming, so many overwhelming him: the first time he'd put on this ridiculous apron; the first time he'd seen lance in his; the day he realized sewing was a piece of cake, cooking he could do passably well, but baking was simply out of the question; the look on Shiro's face when he'd suggested Keith ask Lance for help with this cupcake assignment so he didn't fail (since Lance was inexplicably good at baking for some reason); the way Lance hadn't reacted like it was weird at all when Keith had caved and took Shiro's advice; the look of faint amusement on their teacher's face when they'd asked to borrow the classroom kitchen after school.

All of it was a clear path from that first moment to this one and Keith could see now that they had always been heading here.  The two of them were a runaway train headed for the bridge that was out - and there was no way they weren't gonna go over that cliff.  Once they'd set that first wheel in motion there was no getting off this track.  Keith could blame Iverson, or Shiro, or himself, or his hormones, or anyone else he wanted - but the truth of the matter was that fate was really the one to blame. They were destined to tumble over this edge together, go out in a blaze of glory - egging each other on the whole time.

Knowing that made it easy - so fucking easy - to take a step, get in Lance's space, crowd him against the counter and cage him in, bracing his hands on the table, one on either side of Lance's hips.  "Mhmm."  he leaned forward and whispered the rest straight into Lance's ear.  "I think you're the prettiest thing I've ever seen."

A fine tremor rolled up Lance's spine.  They were still close enough that it had their bodies just barely brushing against each other in interesting ways.  He sucked in a stilted breath that sounded like he only vaguely remembered how to do that breathing thing.  "I wanted you the first second I saw you," he blurted.

Keith pulled back enough to look at Lance, dying inside at how edible the faint blush staining the bridge of his nose made him look.  He raised an eyebrow.  "Oh yeah?"

Lance bit his lip and nodded, flushing darker.  "And then hated myself immediately.  Fingerless gloves.  Popped collar.  Mullet.  All things one should not have to list when describing their crush."

Keith just stared at him.  "You hung an eight foot poster in the gym before the first student assembly.  Of yourself.  Dabbing."  He gave Lance a pointed look.  "You think I'm not questioning my life choices constantly?"

That cocky little smirk of Lance's that seemed to exist just to test Keith's grip on his self control made a reappearance at that.  Lance leaned back against the counter and tipped his chin up.  "Yeah?  You come up with any answers yet?"

Keith leaned in closer, enough that all it would take to press their lips together would be one of them tilting their head a little.  He offered his own smug smirk.  "Is this a multiple choice question?"

Lance laughed, breath puffing against Keith's lips.  "A) I'm a powerful warlock that has cast a spell on you, causing you to become enchanted with me.  B) You're just really into delightfully tacky shit - as evidenced by your wardrobe.  C) This was Iverson's plan all along because he figured if we were too busy hitting on each other then we couldn't have time to keep our prank war going.  or D) This was always going to happen and even though it's insane and probably very ill-advised we should just go with it and crash and burn together."

Keith smiled and dared to move his hands from the table to Lance's hips, heart beating wild and fast against his ribs.  "You forgot a few."

Lance raised an eyebrow and lifted his hands, curling them into the fabric of Keith's t-shirt just above his waist.  "Enlighten me."

Was flirting supposed to be this much fun?  Was it supposed to feel this much like what they used to do when they were "rivals?"  Keith's blood sang with the thrill of competition, the hind-brain desire to prove his strength and cunning to a potential mate.  It was heady, and arousing, and addictive - but most of all it was just really, really fun.  He rubbed his thumbs absently over the ridge of Lance's hipbones, noting the way every part of Lance he'd touched so far seemed to fit perfectly in his hands.  "E) This was Iverson's plan all along, but it's going to backfire because the two of us teaming up will cause him far more hell than we ever could have separately.  And F) all of the above."

Lance curled his fingers tighter around the fabric of Keith's shirt, bunching it up so that his knuckles just barely grazed Keith's skin.  He smiled when Keith shivered at the light contact.  "You have a final answer, or do you need to phone a friend?"

A hundred witty responses pushed themselves to the forefront of Keith's brain, but he realized that the two of them could probably keep this game going forever if they wanted to.  And... Lance was touching him, skin on skin and they were damn near pressed together, they were close enough that Keith could kiss him if he wanted to (spoiler alert: he very much wanted to).  So why in the fuck would he worry about keeping this lively back and forth going when what he should really be trying to do was end it as quickly as possible in favor of trying to get his mouth on Lance's?  He snorted and answered, "All of the above."

Rolling his eyes, Lance whispered, "it's always 'all of the above,'" before surging forward and kissing Keith

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S1 Ep 18: Just Put A Giant Deadly Boulder On It

Last we left the Yugi team, we were left a surreal tapestry of them fighting off some completely harmless skeletons, and Joey being completely shocked that cards can be resurrected from the graveyard despite the fact that when he was turned into a literal card himself he was resurrected from that very same graveyard before and should know this drill really well by now.

Albiet, it is a little unclear how much of that whole “Honey, I shrunk the kids” incident they remember, if they think it was a dream although Yugi admitted to being half a card wizard and basically telling them it was all real, or if Joey is even smart enough to tie his own damn shoes (I’m pretty sure Pharaoh stops them every twenty minutes and does a quick laces check, explaining to Joey that the Bunny ears go over and through while Joey goes “Why, I autta!”)

Somehow, during the skeleton freak out, Bakura just wandered off. I don’t know why I didn’t catch on to this back when Bakura got possessed by the evil-est ghost, but youknow, it turns out Bakura just isn’t good at life.

To be honest I’m not entirely sure why they decided to drag Bakura through this cave to begin with. He’s like two hairs from snapping, if we’ve learned anything from Kaiba’s experience with Pharaoh’s mind-wipe (which they have not.)

But, this wouldn’t be an anime if the main characters didn’t trust their friends beyond all common sense, so lets just babysit Bakura until he inevitably loses his freakin mind again.

(read more under the cut)

Just when you thought we were done with human skulls, it’s more human skulls! Lets get a graphic close up of that skull action.

Pegasus’ cave of spooky horrors continues with a series of good ol cartoon tropes, starting with the unmarked junction:

This is the third trap he’s set off (assuming the skeleton from the beginning of the episode was a trap and not just Bakura deciding to randomly wear a skeleton.) and if it weren’t for the fact he JUST got un-possessed by Pharaoh’s mind-wipe, I’d just assume he’s still trying to kill all of them.

I’ll be honest, when this giant boulder came into screen I was like “This finally feels like something I’d see in a kid’s show.” This wacky giant rock is the least weird and threatening thing they’ve come across so far: Hijinks. Actual hijinks. Nothing bad can happen during a silly hijink.

And they freakin killed Bakura!

What’s unique about Yugioh is that it’s the only kid’s show where a guy can die on screen and I’m like “Yeah they’re really actually dead.” vs any other show where it’s like “there’s no way they’d be crazy enough to kill off a main.” So, despite the fact I should have never accepted this wackiest of deaths as a death, I admit that I totally did.

THE AUDACITY OF THIS SHOW. The balloon was filled with a speaker that sounded like a boulder or something? Like c’mon, show, what--WHAT? You had a literal fire tornado a few episodes ago but now you hold back on the rocks? OK. Fine. I’ll...I’ll accept that.

Anyways, Bakura’s still not dead, even though that would have probably helped the team out in the long run. This guy is a disaster on a plate.

Also, Weird peeve of mine but, oh, those are a lot of details on the fingers, huh? whoo boy. Oh man those sure are fingernails.

Like a ping pong ball switching sides, it’s very quick for Yugi to say “No guys, violence isn’t the answer!” and then in basically the next episode be like “EFF EM UP, SOCRATES!” Maybe it’s his Pharaoh side? It’s actually pretty convenient they made their main character two people so they never have to worry about being super consistent.

And again, when Tristan actually needs to punch someone out his super punches just kinda don’t work. I mean I guess he is like 12 or something. So, he decides to remind Joey of what he’s dueling for by tossing Joey’s wallet over, because Joey has forgotten--yet again--because Joey has the memory of a goldfish that is constantly getting psychically manipulated.

And Yugi kinda yells at Joey “So you have a MAGIC CARD that fixes everything, remember?” And Bandit’s side of the field was like “Gol, this game is unfair.”

Speaking of Unfair, Bandit Keith basically flat out tells them he’s gonna freakin destroy everyone to get to Pegasus and everyone else is like “ya but if you don't use cards how are you gonna do it? I don't really understand what you mean, brah.”

That’s right! My title of this episode was no lie! The first boulder was but a red herring, this is the REAL giant deadly boulder.

Despite the fact that Pegasus banned him from the competition, Mr. Keith has decided to just walk in through the front door anyway, glove and chips in hand. At this point it feels like the rules to this competition are becoming less and less mandatory by the minute.

Next week, on Yugioh:

Will Pharaoh bother to help out to move this giant boulder or is he too busy playing whatever the deadliest version of Solitaire is in this universe?

Did Kaiba ever make into the castle or is he just sitting outside on the steps eating a sandwich waiting for someone with a key to show up?

When Pegasus and Keith eventually fight it out will they bother with the cards or are we going to get a fist fight between a guy in a pink leisure suit and a guy in a biker bandana? One can only hope.