#(to be clear this is not judgemental... one of my main characters spends 3 days in March over the course of the novel in flip flops)

[elizabethrobertajones]

I think Modern AU Halsin should wear my Does A Bear Shit In The Woods socks

(Don't worry about my anatomy, I'm just taking advantage of being one of the few people who can show off the sole and leg of a sock in one go... This is nowhere near stretched enough to hurt myself :P)

[wavebiders]

what do you think about campaign 2? is there anything it does better than campaign 3, and vice versa is there anything campaign 3 does better than it?

Interesting question! Gonna put the answer under a readmore since it'll probably get long and also bc my feelings on cr2 aren't all that positive so superfans of that campaign have a heads up to keep scrolling

So, I'm just gonna be completely honest up front and say I never finished cr2 so my judgement is gonna be very flawed. At the time I was younger and very caught up with the toxic positivity aspect of this fandom, so I stamped down basically every issue I had until it all spilled over and I was left feeling so negative about it I had to go complete cr cold turkey until tlovm aired.

I know that's oversharing, but I just don't feel right commenting on cr2 without being upfront about how my personal feelings on it come from a weird place. I try to be more objective about it these days, but I'm afraid I'm not entirely objective.

Anyway cr2 and cr3 are really two entirely different kinds of stories. The former I consider to be most like an open-world video game, while the latter is more like an ongoing comic book. It's hard to tell which one does things better because they're not really doing the same thing at all

In terms of pacing they both struggle in opposite directions. Cr3 has had too much going on for a long time with very little breathing room while cr2 was 90% filler. We haven't had balanced pacing since cr1 so for these two it's more about what you personally prefer. For me the difference would be determined by my connection to the characters.

Which brings me to the characters. This is of course the most subjective thing of them all. I'm not going to pretend I don't prefer the Bells Hells by a mile, but there is also a reason the Mighty Nein are so popular on social media. It's the party of NPC's vs the Be Gay Do Crimes party. The latter may has well have been built in a lab for tumblr queers. Hell it's what drew me to the show in the first place.

I think cr2 was more experimental for most cast members, with them really going outside their comfort zone(Travis playing a more serious character, Liam going more morally questionable, Travis and Ashley dipping into romance) and the results really resonated with a lot of people. Personally I struggled with most of the party for a few reasons. What they were trying didn't suit me, Ashley being gone for most of the early days, a party member dying before they could really get started, etc.

With cr3, I think it's clear they took the lessons they learned from the past 2 campaigns and really played into their strenghts while still exploring new ground. The fact that the players have lived in Exandria for so long now also allows them to craft backstories more tailored to the world around them which gives them a very unique feel. I also personally just find myself resonating more with the themes they chose to explore.

Honestly I could do a whole breakdown of each character and which ones I think work best for their campaigns but this is getting long enough so I won't.

Cr2 did spend more time digging into characters backstories but for me that had the massive downside of the gap between which characters got focus being incredibly blatant. I know people like to complain about main character Imogen, but that's nothing compared to how badly cr2 sucked at balancing narrative focus amongst the party.

That's not say I'm not bothered by cr3 not taking more time to explore things specific to the pc's backstories, but with the way most of them are tied to the main plot it still works. I do think it does a much better job at balancing focus, even if Imogen obviously has the strongest plot connection.

And finally, I think cr2 is best at being a more typical found family fantasy experience(cr1 is too but a very different flavor) in that you have a bunch of assholes slowly learning how to trust each other and help each other face their demons. The bond between the Hells is just as believable and more compelling to me personally, but it is not gonna scratch the itch a lot of people are looking to scratch with an actual play show.

What cr3 excells at is deconstructing tropes, posing ethical dillemas, really making you think about the world the story takes place in and considering different point of views. This is why so many long-term fans struggle with it so much. It's also why I think, especially if all 3 campaigns get adapted, cr3 will be the most memorable one with the biggest impact.

[melohax]

I’ve seen some people who finished Omori talking about how they don’t understand the game’s plot, what happens in the good ending or why the protagonist even decided to change his ways. So then, here’s my thoughts on Omori’s story.

Warning: SPOILERS AHOY. Only read this if you’ve already finished the game and seen the good or true ending. Or if you don’t plan on playing the game at all but still want to know the whole story.

I’ve seen some people around the internet talk about how Sunny’s character isn’t clear to them or how they feel Sunny doesn’t deserve a good ending. Here’s some thoughts I have on why I think Sunny’s growth was well depicted.

There’s two main routes you can go through in the game: the “Reality” route and the “Hikikomori” route.

In the “Hikikomori” route, Sunny stays in Headspace forever and we get to learn many additional details about him. Sunny’s parents are implied to have known what Sunny did to Mari all along. It’s also implied that Sunny’s mother covered the whole thing up and chose to present it as a suicide as well cus, in her own words, she can’t bear the thought of losing both of her kids.

Sunny’s mother insinuates her son isn’t a “good boy” even though she begs him to be good but she still sees him as her little boy (as seen by the overly-sweet and positive messages she leaves around the house and her voice mails) and needs him alive so she can survive her own grief. Sunny’s father is shown cutting down the hanging tree and telling Sunny he isn’t his son, presumably disowning Sunny. The father keeps being absent forever afterwards.

Fast forward to the present and the “Reality” route, Sunny’s moving in 3 days. He knows his time is up in the real world and the biggest catalyst for his personal growth is that he’s finally seeing his old friends in the REAL world after 4 years of only seeing their loving, idealized child version in dreams. For the first time, he gets to witness the collateral consequences of what he did to Mari in his now teenaged friends: Aubrey spirals into delinquency after feeling like she was thrown aside by everyone she loved. Hero is guilt ridden, can’t even go near Mari’s grave and gives up on his dreams of being a chef. Kel wants to make things better but feels powerless, useless and like a screwup. Basil lives in a miserable state of almost constant fear and psychosis.

Sunny finally gets to see the huge toll his lie took on his friends’ entire lives as they keep blaming themselves for not knowing about Mari’s supposed suicidal ideations. He’s finally forced to face reality and he still tries to hide in dreamworld but he can’t. The inhabitants of Headspace are all people or fictional characters he knows or likes in real life (that he changed in his dreams, like how Kim’s brother is a sweet gentle giant and Sweetheart looks just like the candy shop owner at the supermarket) and their quests end up leading him to events where he’s reminded over and over again his dreams will end soon (the end of the underwater highway, the tree near the whale, the shadows of Mari and Basil) and that he needs to delve into Blackspace.

This shows how his own subconscious mind knows well what needs to be done; he’s putting the mental and emotional effort of making himself face what he’s done, shown through the contrast between the whimsical nature of Headspace and the dark surrealism of Blackspace.

As this happens in Sunny’s psyche, in the real world he can try to “atone” a bit by doing good things for his little community like completing requests people around him have. He still has a lot of trouble being near Basil in the real world but considering his entire subconscious mainly revolves around finding and rescuing Basil, he wants and needs to face Basil sincerely before he runs out of time.

We’re shown through memories that Sunny’s personality was always quiet, wary, a bit distant and very bad at dealing with pressure. Some people even describe him as cowardly or mediocre but he was just a small kid who’s entire world ended when he was 12. Since then, he never left his house, spending most of his days asleep rather than awake. It’s no wonder his personality isn’t as developed as his friends. His friends, although they were also in immense pain, at least still continued to live beyond Mari’s death. Sunny didn’t. He only lived through sleep.

Subconsciously, it’s shown Sunny both loves and hates Basil. This is seen in Blackspace with the dialogue he has with the “strangers” walking in the void. They talk about how Sunny (as Omori) does horrible things to Basil in the darkness of Blackspace because he struggles with facing the truth of his own actions. It’s also revealed through datamine of Blackspace’s metaphorical photo album that Basil, in his attempts to save Sunny from the judgement of others and to get him to come out of catatonia, was the one who come up with the plan to hang Mari.

Sunny describes Mari as looking as if calmly asleep when he drags her up the stairs. Her eyes remained peacefully closed until Sunny and Basil hung her. Then, Sunny turned back to look at Mari’s corpse, her previously closed eyes were wide open. She might have even been still alive, might have opened her eyes during or after the noose was tied to her neck. Or the belief he saw her eyes open could have been a manifestation of Sunny’s guilt, instead.

Either way, the horrifying possibilities surrounding Mari’s death lead to Sunny handling his emotional pain by subconsciously taking it out on Basil. It’s why Basil in Blackspace is shown constantly suffering and dying in many different ways. It’s the only way Sunny has been able to deal with himself; by forcing Basil into the darkest corners of his mind, his perfect colorful dreamworld can’t be ruined by the ugly reality Basil’s mere presence represents. It’s less painful to try to forget Basil and to forever blame him for both of their sins.

Still, even with all these conflicted feelings, Sunny’s tried to come to terms with love he still feels for Basil many times before. The shadows point out how this isn’t the first time he’s tried to save the Flower Boy; how all the previous times before ended in Sunny failing to find redemption and so his mind turns back to torturing the Basil of his dreams instead.

However, one of the Blackspace shadows also mentions a very important detail that changes almost everything this time around: his time is almost up in the real world. Whether this means he’ll commit suicide or move away, it’s almost time for him to leave the friends he’s always loved so much behind.

Sunny is forced to do a lot of internal work and self-reflection in what little time he has left. It’s shown through his dream actions, the surreal imagery surrounding him and the characters with all the sub plots his subconscious makes up.

In the route to the good ending, he traverses Blackspace and manages to listen to every harsh truth Basil’s shadow has to tell him. His attempts to save Basil mean he’s fighting his own mind, forcing himself to accept the truth.

To achieve redemption for his greatest mistake, Sunny needs to start with accepting Basil entirely; he has to stop making Basil take the brunt of their combined regrets. It means being willing to finally face the REAL Basil instead of permanently burying him in the most painful place within Sunny’s mind.

So basically, it’s obvious to me that Sunny is forced out of his “comfortable” hikikomori misery the moment he opens the door to meet the REAL Kel.

Sunny and Basil have a confrontation in the real world. When Sunny entera Basil’s room, we see poor Basil suicidal and at his limit. He’s clearly in the throes of a psychotic episode and at the mercy of hallucinations and delusions he can’t escape from (“There’s no way out of this is there, Sunny?”). Basil attacks you in an attempt to save you by killing the “thing behind you” but as we know, there isn’t actually something behind you.

There was never any monster to take the blame for Basil’s regrets, nor yours. It’s always been just you.

Meanwhile, Sunny is trying his best not to completely lose his shit so he can save Basil and stop him from potentially killing the both of them. Sunny likely loses an eye in the fight, shown by the blood coming from your socket and the bandage over it in the hospital.

Incidentally, the eye you lose is on the same side as the eye that can be seen peeking through the hair of Mari’s face as she’s hanging from the tree.

In the good ending, the song at the end talks about how even after confessing the truth, Sunny is alone once again, so it’s not actually clear if Aubrey, Kel and Hero actually forgave him. I feel like this is deliberately left up to interpretation by the writers. The lyrics then continue on to say Sunny still finds it hard to wake up, still finds himself plagued some days with lingering regret, but that he still tries to take it all one step at a time to carry on living.

With the song’s lyrics in mind, the end scene that shows Basil and Sunny smiling at each other while Mari’s shadow leaves them doesn’t mean they’re completely fine all of a sudden. Whether their friends forgave them or not, they at least finally have the relief of honesty. The burden of their unbearable shared secret is now off their shoulders. It’s finally out in the open, which means they both can now start healing and working to find the redemption Sunny was looking for in Blackspace. It also means they can go back to loving each other again without the crushing pain they both felt in each other’s presence.

I agree that Aubrey and the gang get pretty left out in the good ending, though. I wish there was more of them and their reactions to the truth BUT I think it’s sadly a deliberate choice by the writers to leave their reaction up to the player’s interpretation. This can feel extremely unfulfilling to many people (me included, I hate when authors do that tbh) but also to many others that’s a good thing cus they get to apply their own personal meaning and feelings.

I personally feel like the friends forgiving Sunny and Basil right off the bat would be incredibly unrealistic. I think they would need a lot of time (especially Aubrey) for them to forgive the lie that wrecked their lives for years. Forgiveness isn’t impossible but it would probably come in the form of a slow, difficult, heartbreaking process. Bittersweet.

Redemption isn’t just about forgiveness, anyway.

Even if a person is never forgiven by the people they’ve hurt, they can still find redemption for their actions through doing good for the people around them and the world at large. An example of this is shown through what Sunny can do on his last days in his neighborhood. The gratitude and additional flowers he receives in the hospital from each person he’s helped are proof he can still do good for others even after something as horrible and unforgivable as accidental murder. In a way, it’s proof that his life is still worth living.

But ultimately that’s just my own interpretation of the ending and I understand other people would interpret it all differently. Some see forgiveness as a given in the story while there’s also others who think Sunny doesn’t deserve forgiveness or those who think Sunny is a sociopath/psychopath or that Basil is the true villain of the game. I think this is why the ending was left so open, to favor all the different interpretations people have of it.

ETA: Here’s a different take on Sunny’s parents. This post argues that, despite the initial implications, they actually didn’t know about the attempted coverup. It’s a really good writeup explaining the whys and hows and has me reconsidering that part of the story!

https://www.reddit.com/r/OMORI/comments/kr9nvx/major_spoilers_regarding_sunny_his_parents_and/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

[kaylorrehabcenter]

Gold Rush and Happiness are Sisters

Gather round everyone and witness the clown try to prove that Taylor Swift wrote songs about a married (now pregnant) woman in the year of our lord 2020.

Also this is a seven page doc in my google docs so like. Get a cup of tea and some popcorn.

Ok full disclosure this is…..mostly me clowning. Like seriously. Don’t take my words as the word of God, this is just my interpretation and how I listen to the songs. And as a (former? Idk man) Kaylor I’m going to want to make these songs about my ship. Acknowledge your biases kids.

Also like. I change my mind a lot, but for a while this theory that Gold Rush and Happiness are connected has been stuck in my head and I wanted to write it down and post it in case anyone else got something out of this.

If you read my last post on Gold Rush (here!) you’ll know I don’t think of it as a happy song. To elaborate further- I think it’s Taylor catching herself looking back on Karlie/that time in her life (Because I think Karlie is emblematic of the 1989 era for Taylor and is thus tied to the pain that came out of that, along with her ties to the masters heist) and reminding herself it wasn’t good and ended for a reason.

“Gleaming, twinkling/eyes like sinking ships on waters/so inviting, I almost jump in”

“But I don’t like a gold rush” 

The sinking ship line makes me laugh. I like to think it’s Taylor saying she’s literally sunk our (dead) ship, but that’s mostly regressing to 2015 tumblr humur.

To the actual analysis, she almost jumps into these waters, maybe it’s literal (don’t text your ex kids, write a bop like closure instead) or maybe it’s more metaphorical. She almost allows herself to think the good times were the only times. Maybe there’s a desire to move back to nyc, capture the magic that she may have felt during the era. 

“I don’t like that flying feels like falling till the bone crush”

But that’s the thing. It feels like flying at the time, but it isn’t a feeling that can last. These relationships built on temporary promises (we’re assuming here Taylor was a side thing for Karlie, not that serious and built not to last, even if there were genuine romantic feelings on both sides, which I think there were to some level) won’t last, and will hurt when they do end. At least, this one did.

“Everyone wonders what it would be like to love you”

Everybody wants who she’s singing about and is imagining what it would be like to be with them, they think it would be a fairytale. Hell, Taylor probably thought their relationship would be a fairytale against her better judgement. Karlie is a celebrity and a model no less, yes she has other things going for her (Koding and investments), her brand and her success in the fashion world depends to some degree people desiring and fantasizing about her.

“I don’t like that anyone would die to feel your touch”

The funny thing about that, Taylor’s the only one who knows the pain of that relationship, of being a side thing and never committed to. It’s draining. It's difficult. She isn’t allowing herself to jump into those waters.

“I see me padding across your wooden floor/with my Eagles t shirt hanging on the door”

I point out this line mostly because it feels like a Delicate call back (Echoes of your footsteps on the stairs). Am I reaching though? Probably. Also as someone with parents about the same age as Taylor’s (give or take ten years), I like the Eagles reference. Stream Hotel California for clear skin <3

“At dinner parties, I call you out on your contrarian shit”

Taylor was the first person to call Karlie out on her “I’ve tried!!” bullshit, how cute. <3

Besides this line being very iconic, it also shows to me that Taylor’s been frustrated with Kar even when she was busy giving her heart eyes. She’s a frustrating person to be around even when you are “turning her life into folklore”.

“What must it be like to grow up that beautiful?/With your hair falling into place like dominoes”

Damn that’s a gay couples lines you got there Tay. Wonder if you’re wondering what it must’ve been like for Kar to grow up in the model industry, and all of the pressure and exhilaration that entails. From a male’s perspective ofc.

I also take the dominoes line to be Taylor saying what must’ve it been like to have this easy idyllic childhood. Maybe Taylor is the first time Karlie’s been with a girl outside of a hookup and didn’t have to go through the pain of realizing she was into women until later in life. (Not that that’s not painful, it’s just different, and allows you to have a perfectly straight childhood/teenagerhood)

“And the coastal town we wandered 'round had nеver seen a love as pure as it/And thеn it fades into the gray of my day-old tea/'Cause it could never be”

Maybe this relationship never existed in the way she thought at all. You know Carrie Fischer’s character in When Harry Met Sally and how until she meets the right guy, she spends the whole movie insisting that whatever married guy she’s seeing really loves her!! And he’s gonna leave his wife for her!! That’s what these two songs make me think about, waking up and realizing they were never going to leave their wife, you were projecting this whole story onto someone else, but that doesn’t mean there was no value in what happened.

“And the coastal town we never found will never see a love as pure as it/'Cause it fades into the gray of my day-old tea/'Cause it will never be”

The coastal town seems an obvious Rhode Island reference, to get more specific it reminds me of when Josh and Karlie visited Taylor at her Rhode Island home in 2014 and Josh looks peeved as hell. 1, 2 Also if I remember correctly, enty has a blind where he says there was a huge fight between Josh and Taylor which ended in Taylor not wanting to be around him again. Just interesting to note. (And if anyone has the receipt, please send it my way!)

Taylor may have been projecting this fairytale narrative at the time of being able to make it work, of being friends with Josh even but it didn’t work and the fairytale is left to be folklore, never made real.

The outro is the same as the intro to the song, implying to me that while she’s telling herself it was bad, you weren’t happy, she’s still catching herself missing it and what she had with Karlie. She left a part of her back in New York see, and she can’t stop her mind from retracing old footsteps.

Now, onto how I think Happiness and how I think it connects. I’m about to audition for the national team in the reaching Olympics. Wish me luck. :)

A bit of a preamble though, I don’t take this song ~super~ literally. Depending on what day of the week it is I think it’s probably her divorcee rpg simulator or her closing the book on her ex situationship gf on her own terms ~in a straight way~. So not to discredit this whole ass post but. Take with a grain of salt.

“Honey, when I'm above the trees/I see this for what it is”

See that bold bit? That’s the main connective tissue between these songs. She’s finally woken up and now that she’s this far removed from the relationship she sees what it was. To add to the pain of it all, this is especially potent if you wonder if Karlie gaslit Tay into thinking this wasn’t a big deal, they were just fucking around when Karlie has literal Softest Love Song You Are In Love dedicated to her.

“But now I'm right down in it, all the years I've given/Is just shit we're dividin' up”

This seems to me to be a masters heist reference. Karlie since Lover, is musically tied to this event in Taylor’s life, it’s what I think is keeping Tay from making a clean break from her so to speak. 

“Showed you all of my hiding spots/I was dancing when the music stopped”

This seems to be a Rep era/dwoht reference. Yes, Taylor constantly references dancing, but the hiding spots (loved you in secret! you had turned my bed into a sacred oasis!) combined with the dancing when the music stopped (I'd kiss you as the lights went out! Swaying as the room burned down!) brings out the full kaylor clown in me. 

“There'll be happiness after you/But there was happiness because of you/Both of these things can be true”

This is probably some of the most gut wrenching lyrics Taylor’s ever written. Damn, imagine having that written about you. Anyway, the point here is the thesis of this whole damn post. Gold Rush is Taylor catching herself daydreaming about the happy parts, and reminding herself about the bad to make her snap out of it. Happiness is her coming to terms that both parts of that relationship were true. Things aren’t that simple. 

“Haunted by the look in my eyes/That would've loved you for a lifetime/Leave it all behind”

This feels very Cruel Summer doesn’t it? “I love you ain’t that the worst thing you’ve ever heard?” These lines make this relationship read as two things to me. One, it was very one sided, and Taylor/the narrator, was obviously left behind at the end of it when she was heavily invested into making this work. And 2, it was doomed from the beginning. Again. Big cruel summer energy here.

Or it’s a divorcee rpg simulator 3000. Now with extra glamour and opportunities to dramatically drink wine in dressing gowns.

I don’t have a lot to say about the second verse of the song that. Karlie has a nice smile, Gatsby reference, dig at whoever the next person to take Taylor’s place as a side fling (or a dig at Josh, or a baby reference since that’s what the Gatsby line refers to). The only other thing worthy of note for this post is the line following the Gatsby reference.

“No, I didn't mean that/Sorry, I can't see facts through all of my fury”

 is the next line, where she regrets what she just said and admits to saying overly harsh things and overlooking the truth of the matter when she’s angry, which to me feels like a big Afterglow/Me! reference.

“There'll be happiness after me/But there was happiness because of me/Both of these things, I believe”

I think a lot of what Taylor’s doing emotionally in the chorus is legitimizing this relationship for herself. Yeah, Josh and Karlie will have a happy life in Florida with Ivanka and them, but Taylor also made Karlie happy too and she doesn’t want Karlie to forget it. 

It reminds me of the way she talks about August, that she genuinely loves James/Karlie, and thinks they have something. But she’s just the pit stop on the commitment highway, and the depth of her feelings for the other person will never be acknowledged. It’s exhausting you know?

“In our history, across our great divide”

“Guilty, guilty reaching out across the sea/That you put between you and me”

Nothing to see here, just a nifty parallel. Karlie doesn’t want wrinkles in her new life see.

“There is a glorious sunrise/Dappled with the flickers of light/From the dress I wore at midnight, leave it all behind/And there is happiness”

This bit (which has some of my favorite imagery in this whole dang album!!!) reminds me of the end of the Wildest Dreams mv where she runs out to the car with the lover following her after the big charade of pretending not to care as much as she does, while knowing you aren’t the one that got picked.

Interestingly, if you look at the shot of the four characters together near the end, the outfits parallel the ones worn by Kar, Tay, and Josh at the 2014 Met Gala. This was of course the one where Tay and Kar got ready together and Karlie proceeded to spend the night with Josh and where Tay just looks. Miserable. (see here!)

The line also parallels Wildest Dreams lyrically.

“Say you'll remember me standing in a nice dress/Staring at the sunset, babe”

Which you know. Worth noting.

The last line (And there is happiness) seems to point to there being happiness in leaving the bad situation just as much as there was happiness in the situation. It’s Time to Go anyone?

“I can't make it go away by making you a villain/I guess it's the price I paid for seven years in Heaven”

A series of thoughts. One, I love the first line where Taylor acknowledges anger isn’t going to make it better. There’s only so much being angry in this situation will do, and it’s not like Taylor’s record is clean here either. (I mean I assume. We know she went psycho on the phone anyway)

Two. Seven years in heaven is both a play on a famous game/turn of phrase (Seven minutes in heaven) but one of the more bold references to Karlie in her whole damn discography. Do I think they’ve been together for seven years straight? Not really. But do I think Taylor saw an opportunity and jumped on it? Yep. 

“And I pulled your body into mine/Every goddamn night, now I get fake niceties”

No thoughts head empty this line is a sucker punch and I love it. If anyone needs me I’ll be watching her perform ikywt on the vsfs and crying to yail.

“All you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness”

Oh look! Another Gatsby reference. Or Taylor calling Karlie out on profiting off of her association with Tay after they clearly did not end on good terms. (Folklore themed maternity shoot anyone?) I mean, whatever floats your boat. 

A bit on the green light metaphor from Gatsby, because it’s worth noting even if I don’t have much more to say on it here.

“Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal.”

Yes I copied that from Spark Notes. No I am not sorry. I have an exam tomorrow and I’m writing about a dead ship on a dead social media website. Sometimes we do what we must do.

I love the ending of this song, I really really do, it feels like taking in a breath of air and finally feeling free of the weight you’re carrying. It feels like a final goodbye, like Tay’s getting closure on her own terms and I truly love that for her. Bb’s stepping out into the daylight. <3 

There is happiness

In our history, across our great divide

There is a glorious sunrise

Dappled with the flickers of light

From the dress I wore at midnight, leave it all behind

Oh, leave it all behind

Leave it all behind

And there is happiness

So, what was this whole seven page post for then? 

Gold Rush and Happiness being connected has been a theory rattling around in my brain for forever and I’ve wanted to write it down for just as long. The tldr of it all is pretty simple, Gold Rush is about her reminiscing about the good parts of Kaylor, and pulling herself out of it, reminding herself it was bad and bad for her. Happiness is her legitimizing the relationship, and moving on while acknowledging there was bad and good in their story. It just took me seven goddamn pages to articulate that.

If you’ve reached the end of this. Damn. Thanks. Go get a snack or something, you deserve it after reading this.

[kittinsrkillers]

So I'm a die-hard wonder woman fan, and I'll be honest, I'm super not into all these internet edge lords hating on WW84.

It came out yesterday my dudes, you can not feasibly have a fully fleshed out opinion on it yet.

Give it a few more days, talk to a few people about what they thought about it, I guarantee that you will view it much more positively.

That is, of course, if the conversation had isn't actively trying to tear it down.

This is made mostly in response to all the reviews that didn't understand either or both of the film's villains and about the magical McGuffin involved.

Actual spoilers below (it's where I start really complaining)

Now what I said above also applies to me, but I did spend several hours analyzing the movie with friends and family so there is that.

I'm going to be talking about things I've seen and how I think those opinions are one dimensional

1) Barbara did need to be in the movie and/or her storyline dragged

I think this is mostly clouded by the iffy cgi when Barbra becomes Cheetah, because her storyline actively parallels Diana's. Max Lord is not the antagonist to Diana but to Wonder Woman, Barbra is Diana's “antagonist”. She gives up her kindness to gain power and Diana gives up her power, her ability to help other, to gain Steve. Diana relinquishes her wish but we never have any confirmation Barbra does the same despite knowing it will only hurt her. One is willing to see the truth of their world, while the other let their desires consume them.

2) Max Lord doesn't have any clear motivations

Most of the complaints I’ve seen of this don’t understand how he could let things get so bad, as if people don’t dig their heels in and refuse to change plans when things go wrong every day. He is already shown to fall into that with his cooperation, he falls into sunk cost fallacy so easily, his greed blinds him to the cost of his actions, he just needs a little more power and then his son will be proud of him, he will be respected, just a little more, and then things go wrong so he needs just a little more power to fix them and the cycle repeats.

3) The villains' didn’t do anything that bad, they shouldn't of been vilified

They didn’t and they weren’t. I have seen posts addressing this but I’ll do so too, to be inclusive. The villains’ were just regular people blinded by the injustices of the world till they too became part of the problem

Max Lord wanted to be respected and successful so he “cheating” others like he felt life had cheated him.

Barbra was trampled on by people her whole life, so when she got power she trampled on others too. Though hers is harder to talk about because the dream stone stole her warmth and empathy, she no longer cared for other people the way she once used to.

Then they were “forgiven”, able to grow past their mistakes to try and be better.

4) Steve was forced into the movie and he didn’t add anything

This is where my personal opinions really start to show up because I personally don’t think that that was really Steve. I think he was Diana’s memory of Steve, the Steve she wished for.

But before I get into that, if you pay attention to Steve's timeline then he’s just come off major character development and is now more idealistic, he trusts in Diana's judgement and his already strong moral code, he doesn't even consider that Diana could lose because he’s already seen her fight a literal god of war. He has already made sacrifices for the good of mankind, he can and will do so again.

The next bit is connected to my “Steve is a memory come to life” theory so I’ll include it here.

Diana only knew Steve for like a week why is he the one thing she wished for

How could Steve fly a 1980′s jet

Diana left Themyscira for mankind, she attached to Steve so hard because he is one of if not her first love. He was the catalyst for her leaving her home, possibly forever, he was her connection to mankind, so she fixated on him. She is also much older than a human and has a much longer lifespan, theoretically, it could mean she views time as much less important, she can grieve over her dead boyfriend for decades because she will be alive for millennia's.

We do not hear the specifics of Diana’s wish. We do not know the wording used, thus we could hand wave away a lot of the weird bits about Steve. Diana first meets Steve when his plane crashes and she last sees him when he detonates the aircraft full of poison gas. He introduces himself as a pilot, but the lasso of truth compels his to divulge that he is a spy, the rest of the movie focuses more on his ability to spy than his ability to pilot, and with seventy years of nostalgia, Diana , who knew Steve for a week, likely only came to know Steve truly through the rose-tinted stories of his old friends and family. Thus, when he is returned to her, he is her perfect, idealized Steve. The one who she admired for his ability to fly.

Of course, I’m sure there is just as much, if not more evidence to indicate something else entirely, but it’s only been a single day since I saw the movie.

5) It is campy, cartoonish, and less impactful than the first movie

Being campy and cartoonish does not make it less valuable. What does cartoonish mean in this context? Does it mean childish? Does it mean silly or simplistic? Does it mean better actualized through animated film? Because this is a comic book movie. A Wonder Woman comic book movie to boot. It will be hopeful and inspiring, about an incredibly powerful, mythical woman who helps humans by inspiring them to be better. Though a crude comparison, she can be likened to a “Girl Superman” though the tone of the two heroes is drastically different.

I genuinely don’t know why people are criticizing the themes and message this movie is trying to make. People keep throwing around words like heavy and deep about the first movie because it talks about mankind's willingness to hurt others to achieve their own petty goals, as if this movie isn’t exploring how mankind will hurt themselves in their own misguided desire for what they don’t have, how their greedy desires will only hurt themselves and others.

Is it because this one doesn't have a war in it?

I’m getting petty now so I’ll only cover one more thing.

6) A lot of the plot is just handwaved away and we’re just supposed to believe things

This is particularly used regarded the dream stone, it wasn’t explicitly explained and the god that made it is only vaguely mentioned. This applies to all the magic and mythical elements of the movie. Magic and gods are often portrayed as based in belief. Wonder Woman has unwavering belief, belief in people, gods, truth, justice, forgiveness, honor. In return people believe in her. This belief is the main force behind the magic involved in the movie.

We the audience believe in this universe created -> this universe has gods in it capable of incredible feats of magic -> these gods do not always approve of or care for humans -> these gods do not necessarily force humans to participate in what they hold domain over -> A god of lies and deceit made a wish granting stone -> the stone shows the lies of human greed -> the lasso of truth is the embodiment of truth -> one is unable to lie in its hold -> one can “see the truth” in its hold -> the particle satellite thing was wished into working perfectly -> Now the particles “touch” all of mankind (though they can only understand Max Lord through their screens) -> The lasso of truth becomes part of the broadcast thus “holding” all of mankind -> all of mankind can mow see the truth (though the screens only show the magical golden light because they are machines without thoughts)

And though it does not matter if this fits into the DCEU timeline, by all of the other movies, 30 to 35 years have passed, it was a week of unexplained, but certainly not known to be magical, chaos when all of the rest of the justice league was either a child or simply not born yet.

I’m sorry for the crazy rant, but I feel like the internet is full of people who seek out reactions so I made this for people to read when they feel like WW84 is being clogged with negativity. You don’t need to give them the reaction, I already have.

(P.S. The Trump thing isn’t real, Max Lord is the 80′s archetype of the cooperate raider, I didn’t even make that possible connection till the bigots online with their ever present victim-complex started acting all offended)

[anarchy-lives-eternal]

First of all, I’d like to apologize if you don’t like OOC fanfics or Charlastor fics, please ignore this one if that’s the case! So basically, this is about if Charlie and Alastor had been human and grew up together. This is entirely based on if Alastor was Demiromantic (which actually falls under the Aromantic umbrella) and had fallen in love with Charlie towards the end of their schooling/early adulthood. It is set so that they were born around 1904/1905. But anyways! I’m giving away the whole entire plot! Don’t mind me! Some warnings do include: References to violence/murder, OOC-ness of main characters, and there is some r-rated language. There are almost zero references towards, ahem, adult activities, or even really any kissing. Mostly references cuddles and hugs. Also, if anyone wants to suggest a name for this, please do so. Again, wasting your time! Sorry! Let’s get this show on the road!

A Charlastor AU

Alastor was angry. He was sad. He was grieving. He stood at his wife’s funeral, his smile was in place, but it looked more like a grimace than anything. Her friends and family had come, as well as his.

“She left this world far too early.”

“Taken away before her time.”

“She was far too kind for this world.”

Alastor couldn’t agree more. Charlotte, or Charlie as she preferred, his wife, his confidant, his world, was gone. They had grown up together, even though they came from wildly different backgrounds. His mother had been the Magne family’s head chef, and they had allowed her to bring Alastor along, saying that they had a daughter of the same age, and they could even play together.

Alastor had been a shy child, though, so when he first met Charlie at the tender age of 5, and she had immediately declared him her “bestest friend”, well... he had hid behind his mothers skirts. She had pushed him back out though and urged him to get to know the little heiress, telling him that he couldn’t spend all his time with his mother, and he knew well enough he wasn’t allowed in the kitchens anyways, “Too many knives, dear.”

So, he had been pulled out of the house and into the lavish gardens by the little girl wearing a frilly pink dress, that apparently she hated.

They had spent the entire day and the days to follow together, and when the time came for them to go to school, they both thought that they would be separated, only for Alastor to be invited to attend the school Charlie was going to go to. When he asked his mother, she said that Charlie’s parents had offered the scholarship as a “perk” of working for them. (Later on, Alastor would find out that Charlie’s mother, Lily, had seen the school Alastor would be attending and immediately denied it, saying there was no way any friend of Charlie’s was going to go to such a run down school)

And so the trend continued through their adolescence, until it was time to graduate. By this time, the two were nigh inseparable, and Alastor, despite his best efforts, had fallen in love. It wasn’t until his first broadcast a year and a half later that he finally got the courage to ask her out for a date. And only because he had found out the hard way that Charlie had a jealous streak a mile wide.

Alastor had laughed at his own idiocy, “Darling, why don’t we go out dancing tomorrow night?”

Charlie peeked up at him, her cheeks a rosy hue from her embarrassment, “Like a date?”

Alastor grinned, his chest warm, “Yes, Doll. A real date.”

And the rest was history. At least to the rest of the world.

You see, Charlie was the only person in the world who knew the identity of the New Orleans killer. And not only did she know who he was, but she literally helped him get away with murder. After all, she loved him.

She also created his cause: only ever kill the ones who were dirty. Abusers, rapists, dirty cops and dirtier officials.

She had helped him bury bodies or clean up blood on multiple occasions. She had even acted as a lure for others. She had been the one to come up with the template for his victims when he had admitted to her his desires to hurt others those years ago, “We can’t control your urges, Al, but we can aim them in a more... proactive direction.”

The 1930’s were rife with crime, if the FBI were to be believed. Just last year they had come out with a Bulletin, trying to get the public to speak up. They also had a fancy new lab for solving crime. ‘Oh well’ Alastor thought, ‘37 victims in and they’ve yet to even come close to me. Then again, I had Charlie before.’

Another wave of grief washed over him. He felt actual tears roll down his cheeks. Finally he was asked to speak.

Alastor cleared his throat, speaking was his specialty, but now it seemed so hard, “Charlie... she was my entire world, my confidant, my only love, and my.. partner-in-crime. She never deserved this. She was always so happy! Her smiles even outshone mine! I just want her back, if I’m entirely honest. I’d give anything to hold her again.” He turned, a blood red rose and a fist full of dirt clutched in either hand as they finished lowering her, he kissed the rose and tossed it down, then threw the handful of dirt as well. At that moment, something about Alastor seemed to fracture. After that day, no one ever saw him without a smile again.

Charlie

She awoke in a strange, gray room. Surrounding her were 3 forms, their faces indistinguishable, “Charlotte Rose Magne, you have been brought before us for judgement. Do you repent for your sins? Do you accept Lord Jesus Christ as your savior?”

“Repent? Repent for what?”

“For aiding in the murder of 37 individuals.”

“You mean taking horrible people off the street? For loving my husband?”

“If you shall not repent, to Hell you shall be sent.”

Before anything else could be said, three gavels slammed down, and Charlie could feel fire burning her soul. As she fell, she changed. Horns grew from her forehead, curling backwards, her sclera turned blood red, and her iris poison yellow. She lost all color, turning porcelain white. Her canines sharpened and she could taste blood in her mouth. She landed on a strange ground, everything around her was red, and there was a set of wrought iron gates in front of her. She picked herself up, walking forward.

So this was Hell. It was nothing like what she expected. Demons walked the streets, from all the eras thus far. She looked to her left and saw her reflection, ‘Well this just won’t do.’ She felt a strange tug as she concentrated on changing her appearance to that without the horns and eyes. There. Once her eyes had changed to black with yellow sclera and her horns were gone, she looked like an actual doll. She grinned.

Looking around some more, she noticed there were demons selling drugs and murdering others out in the open. It was obvious to her that everything goes in this place. There is one thing she is certain of, though. She needs some kind of protection.

There was a commotion to her right, a building that looked like a jazz lounge stood, and in front of it she could hear two demonesses arguing, “you can’t just up and quit! You’re our only Canary!”

Mimzy, I do believe I just did! Now enough with this jive, I’m off to bigger and better things!”

Charlie decided this was her chance. She knew she had a great voice, Alastor and others had always told her so. She felt a pang of grief and pain. Alastor...

She pushed it aside. She needed a job to survive now. She would just wait for her husband. They wouldn’t be apart forever.

“Excuse me! You’re Ms. Mimzy? You own this lounge?”

The demoness turned to her, “Yes, that’s me. What do you need?”

Charlie grinned, using the charm that her husband had taught her when she wanted something, “Why! I’ve heard quite a bit about this place and I would just love the chance to audition for a singing position. I’m told I have quite the pipes, and you seem to have found yourself in need of a canary!”

Mimzy looked Charlie up and down before hefting a heavy sigh, “Fine, at least you’re a looker. Let’s go. Hopefully you aren’t a trip for biscuits.”

Charlie just kept her smile at full blast. She was taken into the clip joint and straight to Mimzy’s office, where she was given a list of songs to pick from. She chose Blue Skies by Irving Berlin, as it was one of her favorites.

As she sang the song, she watched Mimzy’s face go from doubtful, to elated, to downright giddy. When she was done, Mimzy jumped up, “Why I never! What a talent! You can count yourself hired. What is your name anyway? You never told it.”

“My name, Ms. Mimzy, is Charlie.” She said, adding a flourishing curtsy.

“And what kind of demoness are you? I was a Lady in White until they finally got a hold of me and sent me down here.”

Charlie didn’t know how, but she knew the immediate answer, and her grin widened, “I am a siren. If I wanted, I could entrance all those around me. Make them do what I wish. But no worries, Ms. Mimzy, you’ll not have to deal with that unless you ask it of me. I prefer to just let things lie.”

Mimzy laughed, “Oh, but I wouldn’t mind at all if it brought more patrons in. What with that new lounge down the street, patronage has been on the fritz lately.”

“Well then, Ms. Mimzy, I do believe you have yourself a new Canary!”

And thus, for the next year, Charlie would sing at The Black Silhouette, and business was booming. Charlie would use a siren song once or twice in a night in order to draw in patrons, and Mimzy paid her extremely well. By the end of a year, Charlie had more money than a couple overlords with how much she made the lounge. Mimzy ended up having to buy a bigger building just to keep up with the intake of patrons.

There was one incident that became the reason Mimzy knew why Charlie was in Hell in the first place.

One of the men her husband had murdered, a serial rapist if she remembered right, had come to The Black Silhouette with a pally or two and recognized Charlie right away. After all, she’d actually lured him into the trap, and considering his pastime, had wanted a personal hand in bumping him.

He’d made a huge scene, of course, so Charlie had to deal with it personally. Killing him again in front of all her patrons had admittedly been a tad bit thrilling. Unfortunately that nagging guilt had nipped at her heals again. She pushed it down. He was the real monster. Still, she wished her husband was here. He’d enjoy doing the dirty work so she could keep her hands clean.

When Mimzy had asked what that was all about, Charlie had a simple reply, “Why, I used to help my husband murder people of course! He was one of them. Even had a hand in it myself, though I usually prefer not to do the real dirty work.”

She had grinned the entire time. As her husband used to say: smiles are power. If you can smile through anything, then people will always move out of your way.

Charlie missed her husband dearly. Her heart ached every day. She hated the pain, but she also hoped that he didn’t join her too soon.

“Charlie! You’re on in 1 minute!” She grinned.

Alastor

Hell. He was in Hell. The crown of his head still ached where his horns had come in, his smile still ever present, only now his teeth were sharper. There was a constant pain in his stomach, and he knew it would never be relieved. Wendigo. That word crossed his head and he knew it to be true. He stepped through the gates and into Hell’s streets. He didn’t expect to find his wife. She was probably sent up top. The grief struck again.

Truthfully, Alastor had only gotten angrier and messier once his beloved departed.

He would have kept going though, if not for the hunter. That fucking hunter. Those fucking dogs.

As he passed by a Jazz lounge called The Black Silhouette, the door opened and a voice he knew all too well came lilting out, curling around him and soothing something inside him that he didn’t realize until that moment needed soothing.

His head whipped to the side, and he immediately made for the doors to the lounge. He passed the Bouncer and as he caught sight of her, his lungs stopped working.

Up on stage was his Charlie. His doll. His partner-in-crime. She was beautiful in a sparkling red floor length dress, her blonde hair longer now than he remembered, but still gorgeous as ever. She looked like a porcelain doll.

He stood for minutes as she finished, heading backstage. He rushed to go find her. He had to.

Charlie Charlie Charlie.

He was stopped by a small woman, “You may be a fan, but no one is allowed back stage to go see her.”

Alastor felt rage at being held back from his beloved. Red sigils started dancing around his being, smile becoming sharper, “You will not stand between my wife and myself. Move.”

The woman looked shocked, but not by his power, but by his words, “Wait. You’re her husband?” She narrowed her eyes, “What is your name. I’m the only one she’s ever told her husbands name to, so I’ll know if you’re lying.”

Ah. So Charlie trusted this woman enough to tell her his name? He supposed he could play along then. Wouldn’t want to upset Charlie, after so long apart, “Alastor.”

The woman looked at him closely, “Very well. Her dressing room is the third door on the left. There are no names on the doors so people can’t just see who’s in where.”

Without another thought or word, Alastor rushed forward. He got to the door before bursting through it, forgetting for the moment all the manners his mother taught him.

He watched Charlie whip around, her eyes red and yellow, and a vicious smile on her face. Until she caught sight of him, “A-Alastor? Is... that really you?”

“Why hello Darlin! Wasn’t expecting to see you down here!” His heart wouldn’t stop beating.

Charlie let out a watery laugh as Alastor stepped through the door, shutting it firmly, “I refused to repent when they offered, and I knew you wouldn’t, so I got sent here. I managed to run into Mimzy right as I arrived. Her Canary had just flew the coop and she needed a new one so I offered right then and there. After all, I had a lavish lifestyle I was quite used to.”

Alastor chuckled, “Darling, you hated that lifestyle.”

Finally neither could take it and Charlie was in his arms, and he finally felt whole again.

[etherealwaifgoddess]

To Give Him The World, Chpt.3

Main Characters: Thor x Ellie (original female character)

Summary: Ellie and Thor wake up together and receive an unexpected guest before breakfast. Thor learns to make pancakes.

Warnings/ Content: None really in this chapter. 

Word Count: 1.8k

Author’s Note:  Hello lovelies! Hope you’re all having a good start to your week. I have a serious case of the Monday’s but I’m excited to get this chapter out to ya’ll. I’m going to try and keep posting every other day, the final outline is now 8 chapters + an epilogue. Thank you for reading, I truly appreciate all the love and comments for this fic so far ❤

To Give Him The World, Chapter Three

The sun shone in the bedroom window directly into Ellie’s eyes waking her with a start. She looked around disoriented for a moment until she realized where she was. Thor snored softly, pulling her eyes to him. The morning sun cast a golden glow to his skin and she imagined his hair would have been equally beautiful had it not been so dirty. Memories of the previous day flooded back to her and she smiled to herself. Ellie moved back into his arms to steal a few more minutes of quiet before he woke and they had to start their day. She had just gotten comfortable when she realized he was staring down at her. 

“Good morning.” Thor rumbled. He moved forward to kiss the top of her head in sleepy affection. 

“Morning.” She echoed, “You seem to have slept well.”

“Yes, first time in a long time. I could use more nights like that.” 

“I’m glad. You deserve some rest.” 

“Did you sleep well?” 

“Mmm yes, you make a wonderful pillow.” 

Thor laughed at that and curled his arms around her a little more snugly. For the first time Thor was thankful for his heavier body since it gave Ellie a pleasing spot to sleep. Ellie wiggled, needing to get up to use the bathroom. On her way back she grabbed her cellphone and sent a quick text to Valkyrie letting her know she wouldn’t be in. Ellie resumed her spot in Thor’s arms and they laid quietly together, absently stroking any skin they could reach on one another. Ellie heard her phone ringing but refused to leave the bed to get it, assuring Thor she could just check her voicemail once they got up. 

A few minutes later a loud bang came from inside the cottage followed by Valkyrie’s yell. “Odinson! Where are you, you bastard?” she bellowed.

Thor and Ellie’s eyes met, both surprised and a little guilty. They could hear Valkyrie stomping around the cottage and Ellie pulled the blanket up over her head, feebly trying to hide against Thor’s side. The bedroom door opened with another bang and Valkyrie stood holding onto the door jams on both sides. She lived up to her namesake, looking every bit an avenging Valkyrie ready for battle. 

“What in the name of the Allfather have you done now?” She demanded. 

Thor tried his best to play dumb, “Good morning to you too, Valkyrie. Now, what are you talking about?” 

“You know what I’m talking about. Don’t tell me you cleaned this place yourself. Ellie came over to clean and make sure you were alive yesterday. Sweet girl, short, blonde, curvy. Now she texts me that she’s not coming in today and isn’t picking up my calls. This has you written all over it.”

“I have done nothing untoward to that girl. She did a wonderful job cleaning while I napped yesterday.”

“Really, Odinson? Because she didn’t go home last night. And there seems to be an Ellie sized lump next to you in that bed.” 

Thor looked down, guilty. 

Ellie gave herself up, knowing it was inevitable. “Hi Valkyrie” she gave a small wave as she emerged from the covers. 

Valkyrie threw her hands up, exasperated. “Really, Odinson? You couldn’t leave this poor girl alone? And what now, you’ve sexed her brain away and into spending the day in your bed?” 

Thor did his best to look offended but he wanted to laugh at his friend’s outrage. “If only I possessed such powers. Did you know Ellie and I grew up together on Asgard?”

“You know this oaf?” Valkyrie turned her wrath on a startled looking Ellie.

“Yes, my mother ran the palace kitchens. We played together as children.” Ellie admitted. 

“So that’s why you jumped at the chance to come see him. I wondered why you were so excited to go clean but honestly you were the best bet. The others would have been bitches about it. How bad was it when you arrived? It looks spotless now.”

“It wasn’t... terrible.” Ellie lied and Valkyrie saw right through it.

“Yeah, sure it wasn’t.” Valkyrie pointed a finger at Thor, “You know the deal big guy. You take care of this place and yourself or you’re out. I’m not going to have you self destructing up here again.”

“Yes, I’m quite aware.” Thor grumbled, “And I’m doing just fine. Never better now that Ellie and I have reconnected. She was going to teach me how to make pancakes before you so rudely interrupted our morning.” 

“Yeah, sure ‘making pancakes’. I’ll leave you two be, but Ellie I will need you back on Monday.” 

“Not a problem boss. I’ll see you then.” Ellie assured her. 

“I’m off. You two behave yourselves.”  Valkyrie headed out without a goodbye and Ellie rolled over, hiding her face against Thor’s chest. 

“We got in trouble.” She giggled. 

Thor’s chest shook with a laugh, “She can be terrifying when she wants to be. But she let me keep you so I consider this a win.” 

“Mmm, agreed. Did you really want to learn how to make pancakes?”

“Yes, of course. Ready to get up?” 

Ellie nodded and pulled herself away from Thor begrudgingly. She stretched as she stood up and Thor couldn’t help but enjoy the way the shirt pulled up exposing more of her thighs. He wished it was just a little shorter so he could have a glimpse of her well rounded bottom as well. Ellie turned to catch him staring and his cheeks heated in embarrassment. 

“Enjoying the view?” She teased. 

Thor coughed, clearing his throat before he could speak, “Ahh… yes, I am. I hope you’re not offended.” 

Ellie shook her head. “Not at all. I’m enjoying the view from over here as well.”

Thor looked down and realized he was shirtless and the color drained from his face. It was one thing under the covers in the dark of night, but in daylight his self consciousness grew once again. 

Ellie noticed his reaction and could guess at the thought process going on in his head. “Thor,” she drew out his name slowly, cautiously, as she walked around the bed to stand in front of him. “Don’t get lost in those thoughts, okay?”

Thor’s beautiful mismatched eyes met hers, his uncertainty clear. 

She pressed both of her palms against his chest and he inhaled sharply. Ellie continued, “I like what I see Thor. Truly, I do. If I had to pick a perfect type, your body would be it.”

“But… why?” Thor was at a loss, years of self loathing clouding his judgement. 

“I don’t know. I like what I like. It’s like asking someone why they prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla. It’s a preference.” 

“And I am your chocolate ice cream?”

“You are a chocolate sundae with sprinkles on top.” Ellie went up on her tiptoes to pull Thor down into a deep kiss. 

Thor groaned a little at her words and the kiss. “I’m glad then.” And he was. It was going to take time and Thor wasn’t sure he would ever really be comfortable in his own skin again but he liked pleasing Ellie. Her enjoyment of his body made it a little harder to hate it himself. Thor’s stomach growled and Ellie raised an eyebrow at the sound, “Come on you.” She pulled at his hand, “Pancake time.”

Thor resisted the urge to put on a shirt and followed. Ellie was moving around the kitchen as if it were her own. Thor watched her pull out the ingredients and supplies, setting everything up on the counter top. “Okay, this is pretty simple.” She began, handing him the box. Thor was entranced watching Ellie move around with such ease and grace, as if she was dancing. He listened attentively as she explained how to measure ingredients and how to mix things without making a total mess. Thor did his best but still ended up covering himself, and then her, with a dusting of pancake mix. He winced as the air cleared waiting for her to scold him as he was doing to himself mentally. Instead she laughed and wiped her hands down her shirt. “We’re going to need a shower after this.” She told him. 

Thor let out a relieved breath, “I suppose we will. I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t be, it happens. Cooking can be messy work. Hang on though, I’ll get you a towel to brush yourself off.” 

Ellie returned with a checkered dish towel and Thor tried to wipe the pancake mix off his chest and belly. He had been sweating a little and it didn’t all come off much to his dismay. 

Ellie took note of his forming distress, “We can take a shower later. The pan is hot, let’s just get moving on this.” 

Ellie patiently walked Thor through the steps to measure and pour the batter on the hot pan, and then how to flip it over. After the first one Ellie had him give it a try and after four misshapen, too raw, too burnt, and then completely collapsed pancakes, Thor flipped one perfect golden round disc over. Ellie gave a cheer and high fived him. Thor beamed under her praise as he flipped the pancake onto the waiting plate. The next one wasn’t as perfect but Ellie was a patient teacher and by the time the last of the batter was used Thor had become proficient at making them. Thor divided the pancakes between two plates and handed one to Ellie. She joined him at the small wooden kitchen table and they started in on their creations. 

Ellie gave up halfway through, the stacks they’d made were huge and she couldn’t even come close to finishing. Thor eyed up her plate and Ellie could tell he was still hungry as he took the last bite of his own. She pushed her plate to Thor, not wanting him to have to awkwardly ask when his inner dialogue seemed less than kind. 

“I really shouldn’t.” Thor rubbed his stomach self consciously but didn't look away from the food. 

“Thor, if you’re still hungry you can have them. I’m not going to judge you.” She said calmly. 

Thor still looked conflicted but his hunger finally won out and he accepted the offered plate. “I am. And they’re so good.” He admitted quietly. 

Ellie smiled at his sheepish admission. She stood up to take his plate and started loading the dishwasher while Thor quickly polished off the last of her pancakes. He handed her the empty plate and she added it to the rest of the load. 

“I could have done that.” Thor said giving Ellie’s shoulder a rub. 

“I know. But just let me take care of you a little, okay? I enjoy it.”

“You’re going to spoil me.” 

“Oh absolutely. You deserve it too. Now, we need a shower.”

“Do you want to go first?” 

Thor was missing her point and Ellie groaned internally, “Or we could save water and take one together?” 

Thor was caught between anxiety over being fully naked and raging desire to see all of Ellie’s perfect body. Desire won out in the end. “Well, we wouldn’t want to waste water.”

Tag list lovelies: @thorfanficwriter @lancsnerd

[fates-theysband]

i was going to make a full playlist for each individual main or primary f/o, but that was going to take forever so instead i decided to take a different approach and explain all my f/o song tags so far (with links, obvs!)

thanks to @somethingscarlet13 for the idea!

alright, let’s begin this Lore Dump

Tim Wright: 400 Lux - Lorde

Why I Chose It: I extremely associate road trip romance-type tropes with this self ship due to what happens in season 3 of mh, and this song just generally has the energy of falling asleep in the passenger seat of your partner’s car as they drive down the highway at 3 AM while rain falls, only waking up when they stop at a gas station to buy drinks.

Relevant Lyrics:

we’re never done with killing time / can I kill it with you?

you drape your wrists over the steering wheel / pulses can drive from here

I can tell that you’re tired / but you keep the car on / while you’re waiting out front

Evan: Leather For Hell - Bitter Ruin

Why I Chose It: this is one that’s more the character’s general Energy than being shippy (which should be clear once you hear the song). Evan’s a really chaotic dude, and as the series wears on he gets increasingly frustrated whenever the boys’ investigation stagnates, and add that on with how bad he wants to kill the entities hurting his friends and I think this song fits very well

Relevant Lyrics:

my feet are burnin’ and the clock don’t seem to be turnin’ / it seems to take an hour to put one foot in front of the other / and how is the world spinnin’ when i get to thinkin’ it’s fallen asleep?

to waylay this aching / my fingers are shaking / my knuckles are breaking

and you don’t know it yet / but every time you take a breath / ten thousand other people suffer ‘cause they feel the way i do!

Steph: Addict Of The Gallery - Faith Marie

Why I Chose It: well obviously the art metaphor is appropriate. also, the whole message of the song is “i’m better off alone, it makes it easier for me to thrive, being around people just makes things worse for everyone involved”, which is a big theme for steph as a character since she isolates herself because she doesn’t want to spread her “infection” and potentially get more innocent people killed.

Relevant Lyrics:

guess i turned something bad into something worse / i’d rather be alone and maybe that’s how it works

i’m a complicated mess that i’ve come to accept / so go ahead and disappoint me / i’ll always feel isolated and lonely

migraines and bad days / madness and caffeine / i welcome you with open arms and a handful of advil

Noah Maxwell: The Storm - Victim

Why I Chose It: well, because at first i was like “...surely this isn’t an actual t12 fansong?” when i heard it (it is not). seriously, though, way too many of the lyrics in this song are applicable to noah’s situation of being powerless, pursued by enemies he doesn’t have a chance against in a direct conflict, and the entire time being watched by uncaring strangers who see his personal hell as entertainment.

Relevant Lyrics:

i spill my blood into the moment / pull my heart out on display / will i ever make it back? / i haven’t slept alone in days

so you think about surrender / and survival on the run / if you’re caught out in the open / then your destiny is done

i am the jester of the masses for the conflicts that i face / judgement cast in by the people who have never known the chase

Kevin Haas:  Sorry 2.0 - A Love Like Pi

Why I Chose It: this one required a little more mental gymnastics but like...think of every time we have 100% confirmed that observer’s grip on kev slipped long enough for him to try to communicate with noah. the first thing he does, every single time, is apologize. and for some reason i couldn’t separate that extremely heartbreaking fact from this song so now like...Guess It’s A Kevin Song Now.

Relevant Lyrics:

this is just a version of “i’m sorry” / oh my love was strange and made you change your mind

can you hear the chorus of “i’m sorry”?

so when you left / i knew you would / i just don’t know how to make you stay for good

Milo Asher: Strings - MS MR

Why I Chose It: the song is about worrying about someone who’s clearly going through some problems in their life but won’t--or can’t--admit to it, and considering that i first like...had notions of Feelins about milo after i read the excerpts from his journal that detailed just how awful and traumatic his life really was it seemed appropriate to use this song

Relevant Lyrics:

how i worry about you / no one to pull you out of the blue / anger and sadness get the best of you

wish i could erase the pain / to better help you survive another day

spend every day by your side / ‘til i know that you’re alright

Aurelia Hammerlock: American Love - Smallpools

Why I Chose It: the song uses a few metaphors relating to ice and snow, and it’s about a rich woman in a romantic relationship with a (implied to be poor) man, and idk it just seems extremely appropriate to the relationship.

Relevant Lyrics:

she doesn’t panic from the warning signs / she’s hiding under foreign cotton and sheets of ice

it was colder by the pond / so she wore a pair of my gloves

a bay and gable in a small lake town / she wants to buy it from her dad just to tear it down

Usagi: Blood And Bones - Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra

Why I Chose It: i dont have a really complex symbolic reasoning for this one. usagi is a necromantist (not necromancer, the distinction is apparently VERY important to him) who calls the zombies he reanimates his “friends” and this song is about making friends with murderers.

Relevant Lyrics:

i had a lot of friends / till i drove them ‘round the bend / and then they left me all alone

if blood and bones are what you want / i suggest that you look behind you

and when they get out / we will be friends! / bestest buddies until the end!

[zak-helling]

Big Hero 6 Theory: Liv’s Next Mutation

Even though it’s not the main focus of my blog, it’s no secret that I love Big Hero 6: the series. I love the characters, I love the animation, I love the stories, and I, of course, love the mysteries. The show keeps you guessing as to what’s going to happen next, but the tragic thing is that, despite being popular enough to warrant a renewal for a third season before season 2 premiered, there doesn’t seem to be much of a fan community online. Unless you tag your fan art, theories, quotes, etc. it’s unlikely a piece of fan art will drift across your dash like it does for shows like Steven Universe, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, She-Ra, etc. I’m hoping that changes soon, but I digress.

Also, this theory is going to contain spoilers for season 2, so I’ll go ahead and tuck it under “Read More”.

Getting back on topic, one of the biggest mysteries thus far in season 2 is the monsters and who is making them. We know Liv Amara is the culprit, but as of episode 10, “Lie Detector,” it becomes less clear what’s going on. Who’s the real Liv Amara? Why is one Liv in what appears to be cryosleep? Why is the other Liv making these monsters? How long has this apparent clone been running amok? Have we only known this clone the entire time? Does the sleeping Liv know what’s going on? There are so many questions, but not a whole lot of answers. Seeing as it’s been a few weeks since the last new episode, we might not know for some time. All we know is that the active Liv Amara is turning old villains into monsters for some kind of fee and, at the moment, no known benefit for the villains. Well, yeah, the villains become stronger, faster, and meaner, but as we saw with High Voltage, the process kind of interferes with living their best lives. We don’t know why they want this or why Liv is doing it. All we really know is that Liv is turning humans into monsters and turning them loose in the streets, sometimes being the one to take them down and look like a hero, other times letting Big Hero 6 do the dirty work.

So now let’s take a look at what we know about Liv’s monsters. I’ll bold the important stuff, as most of this will just be recap:

The first one, introduced in season 1 although we don’t know the full story yet, is Orso Knox, the Shakespeare fan turned whale mixed with a dinosaur and some hair, put into a blender, frozen, and then partially thawed. He spends the episode rampaging through the streets of San Fransokyo, attending his meetings, destroying offices, and speaking cryptically. We later learn that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, but is more beast than man, and was only trying to get help the best he could. Had it not been for Karmi reversing his mutation in the episode “Prey Date,” Liv probably would have kept Knox as a monster for even longer, potentially pulling him further and further from his humanity.

The second one is Momakase, who can be best described as turning into a werewolf from Skyrim (although her appearance is likely based on Lady Deathstrike, another Marvel villain). Momakase has always been strong, but she is heightened way beyond her normal abilities. Her nails are deadly claws that can cut through anything, she can escape the trap Big Hero 6 creates her and escape into the night, and has so far not been seen again since the episode “The Seventh Wheel.”

Third and fourth is the mother-daughter duo High Voltage. When they make their season 2 debut in “Something’s Fishy,” they discuss wanting to go straight with Liv, telling her that their crime days are over and even trying to lead normal lives after doing Liv’s dirty work. Unfortunately, once they mutate, those dreams are crushed, and they end up being kept in a tank until Liv needs them again in the episode “Lie Detector.” Barb and Juniper even end up turning back over their new leaf after an entire song and dance number about wanting to be normal, which, suggests to me at least, that Liv’s mutation process also messes with free will. Is it possible the two really did just learn they love crime that much? Sure, but I’m not convinced.

The fifth, arguably, is Nega-Globby, a destructive blob made from Globby’s already mutated DNA, introduced in the episode “Nega-Globby”. Side note, I love this episode. Globby makes such a sacrifice in the name of goodness and, I’d say, has been pretty thoroughly redeemed. While our Globby is victorious by the end of the episode, Nega-Globby is still part of him, suggesting that it’s not easy to undo one of Liv’s mutations.

The sixth is the Hibagon in the episode “Muira-Horror!”, the mutated Ned Ludd, back again for more action. Unlike all the other mutations before, Ned’s mutation leaves him a mindless killing machine, further supporting the idea that Liv has the power to interrupt or even override free will. Even Orso Knox had the ability to quote The Tempest, but Ned doesn’t say a word. He comes out of his mutation dazed and confused, with no recollection of what happened.

Mutant number seven is Mr. Sparkles, who is made into a fluffy green monster in the aptly titled episode, “Something Fluffy.” Also introduced in this episode are the Mayoi, adorable, fluffy fungus creatures created by Liv that grow into towering kaijus that can be controlled by Mr. Sparkles. Basically, Liv can create hive minds, or at the very least can put one mind in charge of many. She’s the one to save the day at the end of the episode, boosting her appearance and making Big Hero 6 look inept. After Hiro learns the police already don’t much care for the superhero team in the episode “Something’s Fishy”, this event creates more tension between them and the people they protect, possibly setting up the conflict for the rest of the season, or maybe even the main conflict of season 3.

Finally, we have the big Bessie Bear from the latest episode, “Lie Detector.” This mutation shows us that Liv can essentially give life to inanimate objects, as all she needed was a lock of grizzly bear hair to create the technology cancelling beast. This shows that all Liv needs to make a monster is the tiniest amount of DNA.

So now we know/remember what Liv can do with her technology. We know she poses a threat to Big Hero 6. Seeing as she has only done experiments on past antagonists (as well as Orso Knox and, as is implied, her Chris-sistant, although we don’t know enough about him for him to make the recap), why would she experiment on Big Hero 6? In my mind, the answer is simple: to break them apart. If she mutates one of the characters, crime fighting will be a lot harder. Public perception of the team will plummet. And, if she works her magic with tampering with free will, she can even have another henchman on her side. In short, there’s no way Liv loses in this scenario. Now that we know her motivation, who’s on the chopping block?

The first person who comes to mind isn’t a person at all. We know that Liv can make monsters with a frame and just a bit of DNA, so in theory, she could mutate Baymax. This doesn’t seem likely though, as it would be much easier to just unplug him. Plus, he was part of a super villain grand scheme last season, so it might be repetitive. It could be Hiro. He’s the main character, and having him mutated would force him to hide more things from Aunt Cass, force him to go to Karmi for help, and would give us more insight into the lives of the mutated villains. Although, because he’s the main character, I can’t see him switching sides. Fred is already pretty animalistic, as reflected in his costumes and behaviors while wearing them. But, I don’t know how much mileage we can get considering how Fred is still very much a comic relief character. Wasabi is probably the least developed character on the team, so a mutation could push things for him in a new direction, but that would probably come at the show’s detriment. Honey Lemon’s chem purse already puts her in harm’s way of suffering the same mutation as Globby, making her an easy target, but that would just be repetitive at this point. And so, we are left with one person, the character who I think this is most likely to happen to:

Go Go Tomago.

In a way, season 2 has been Go Go’s season. She’s had more development than the rest of the cast, maybe even more than Hiro. “The Fate of the Roommates” shows her emotionally vulnerable and opening up about her feelings for the first time, developing her as a character and her relationship with Honey Lemon. The very next episode, “Muira-Horror!” shows her learning to let go of some of her stubbornness to trust in Krei’s judgement. The episode “Supersonic Sue” shows her crisis as she fails to prevent an old criminal fresh out of retirement from escaping a crime scene, an old criminal who, as it turns out, was inspired by Go Go to go back to crime. Basically, Go Go has been on an emotional roller coaster this season. We see her get angry, we see her get sad, we see her challenged in ways we hadn’t before. These episodes gave her highs, but they also gave her lows. In fact, “Supersonic Sue” didn’t even give her time to get over what happened, nor does she get a chance to redeem herself from her failure. Right now, Go Go has the most to lose and would likely be the hardest to fall. If anyone on the team is going to get mutated, I’m betting it’s her.

As of right now, we don’t know if the show is going in this direction. For all we know, the mutations stopped at Bessie and the rest of the season will be rounding up the mutants and returning them to normal. But the season is only half-over. I feel like we have plenty of time to play around with the status quo and shake things up a bit. If they do go this route, I doubt it will be permanent, but it could be fun and heart-wrenching at the same time. We’ll see, when Disney finally airs those new episodes.

[pyreo]

Fixing Incredibles 2: stuff I would do

Hey wanna hear some thoughts on what I’d do to tune up a movie I found slightly disappointing? There’s three main aspects I want to deal with which are

1. badly utilised new supers 2. iffy villain motivation 3. third act was a mess

So here’s a few things I’d wanna do to rework some of that

So first off, that’s a lie, there’s really 5 things that bothered me. this should not have been an immediate sequel where no time had passed. they actually had to backtrack on the character development from the first movie to have them do the same character arcs again. Helen’s back on wanting her kids to stay away from dangerous heroics. Violet’s reward for learning to assert herself, a date with Tony, is erased and she has to win him all over again. Bob, in a weird 180 from his first portrayal where he adored spending time with Violet and Dash during his training montage... suddenly struggles with caring for them, though that’s mostly the fault of Jack-Jack’s powers manifesting. 

So firstly, I’d do what I always imagined the sequel would be and push it a few years forward. Allow it room to change. Have Violet be a college student with Tony as her longterm boyfriend. Have Dash be a teen who’s still eager to save the world, but needing to learn that no danger is better than stopping danger. And make Jack-Jack a child, still in need of supervision but not a total cartoonish liability who necessitates long sequences of adjustment to discovering his powers, again, a retread we already saw last time. Every character arc was a re-do and the constant burden of dealing with Jack-Jack really slowed stuff down. (this was my 5th thing) Fix this by skipping forward. (Also, Violet’s hero moment being... learning that she has to set personal glory aside and babysit Jack-Jack while everyone else does stuff? Are you kidding me?)

We now have a different angle on Helen’s worries - she’s not just concerned about putting her kids in danger. She acts like it, she tells them not to start jumping at the chance to get into heroism. She tells them to apply themselves in school and get normal lives too, in case it doesn’t pan out. But this feels familiar, because it’s what she said in the first movie, and it’s a front. She’s worried about her kids growing up, becoming adults - Violet basically is one - and how she can’t protect them if they move out. She pretends it’s about their powers to cover this. This also refocuses the movie’s main character arc onto Helen like it’s... supposed to be, instead of putting it on Bob’s learning to parent and accept his wife’s super- importance, because despite being framed as Elastigirl’s time to shine, it’s not her story when she doesn’t embody a change of character. It’s still Bob. 

So, those things established:

1. Better villain ideology

Revenge because supers failed to save your parents? Basic. Also not that believable, because the reason the heroes failed to answer Daddy Business’s call is that they’d been outlawed and given new lives as normal people. They could not have come to the rescue; it was illegal. And a superhero enthusiast would have known that. And, hey, ‘criminals shot our dad and then our mother died afterwards of a broken heart’? Are you kidding me? Just have them both get shot, fuck it. Stop this ‘women dying because their man tragically died’ shit. It’s getting melodramatic at that point. 

No criminals, no revenge stuff. Have the Deavor’s parents die when they were in early teens. The brother and sister had to support each other as they started to navigate adulthood. This instilled in them the philosophy that’s common to the type of silicon valley startup wizards they parody - that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and be hugely successful if they try hard, having come from orphans near poverty to multimillionaires. 

I want both of them, brother and sister, to be the villains together. You don’t really need to twist that. They both come off as helpful fans who want to put their money to use helping supers get back in the game. After all the biggest complaint keeping supers illegal is the property damage and lawsuits, and what fixes that? Money. They also both believe, as is Evelyn’s motivation for real, that superheroes are actually causing the public to develop dependency on them. 

I would set up the siblings as advocates of Randian objectivism in how they work. They think everyone can go from nothing to having everything. They think it’s a personal imperitive to be hard working, to contribute and make yourself a success, without relying on others. They think needing a safety net - superheroes, as a metaphor for social facilities - is a weakness that stops people from taking responsibility for themselves. I want to downplay the ‘tech company who makes tiny cameras’ thing, because that was far too modern day to fit in the 60s, and make it more about sheer money generation and the ability for the siblings to pay off debts and influence public opinion; essentially, that money can get you anything, glossing over the corrupt nature of that by claiming it’s doing the right thing to help the heroes. 

Winston still had a childlike adoration for supers as a kid, but it was killed when he grew up without parents who couldn’t BE saved, followed by extremely hard work in the financial sector, dealing with stress, and realising that he worked just as hard, but got no media acclaim, as people who just happen to have been born with powers. Both siblings invest in personal security solutions, aiming to eventually reveal a plan to put superheroes out of business by outpacing them with technology. To use the free market to provide ways that normal people can protect themselves, without becoming complacent, relying on dubious, flawed heroes, without becoming blind to danger because they expect to be saved. Their evil motto is basically ‘don’t expect anyone to save you’, putting the burden of responsibility on the individual to take care of themselves and be solely in charge of their success or failure. 

The superheroes, of course, represent altruism, saving people just because they can, just because they were given an ability and can use it to help anyone and anyone they wish. Making no judgements between rich or poor, personal backgrounds, social class... everyone can be saved just the same. 

The villains intend to gain the trust of the three main heroes - Mr Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone - and push them into good public opinion by funding everything they do or break. Destruction is paid for, claims are settled. Heroes shouldn’t have to worry about it, they say. What they actually intend is for the heroes to become dependent on their company for money, just as they see the public growing dependent on supers instead of taking steps to protect themselves. They will set up a huge, climactic battle in the most expensive part of the city, after the heroes have been encouraged to ignore the financial cost to their feats. Then they’ll withdraw support, burying the trio in horrific debt to a level they cannot recover from, while also pushing a new line of tech solutions to make money off people’s protection. Technically, they want to help people, but they need to make sure the legal battle for supers will finally crush them out of work so they can get the maximum profit from their products. 

2. More cohesive new super team

It’s not that they were bad, I just felt it was jarring after the profiles Syndrome kept on his targets - all supers were completely normal people who happened to have abilities. The new guys were okay, but felt like oddball ideas and out-of-place mutants (the whole point is that supers are being pushed into normal lives and hiding their innate abilities. I dunno how you do that as an owl-man). I would make all the new guys young adults and teenagers. 

One, to point out the reality of the situation with supers. The new blood is going to be young. After what Syndrome did, nearly all adult heroes have been killed. I want to point out that, in order to bring back the idea of superheroism, we have to acknowledge that the ones who are going to do that are a generation down. Elastigirl meets them (we’re keeping Voyd obviously, but they’re all nervous youngsters like her, 15-22 ish). Elastigirl get confronted by her protective instinct - legalising supers means all of these kids going into danger. But, through talking with them, she realises how much it means to them, not having to hide who they are. They’re all like Voyd is. They were all shunned, pushed away, and ultimately hid their powers while feeling like absolute shit for being abnormal. There is a very clear real life allegory here. Helen realises that legalising supers isn’t just about throwing yourself into danger. It’s about allowing people to be who they are, and not shame them for something out of their control. They’re unpractised, they’re ashamed of showing their powers to her, and Helen mentally adopts every single one of them instantly. 

Helen gets a montage of training her super team to understand their powers better. She sees them become more at home with themselves after an early life full of restriction and even self-hatred. It’s not just about being cool, it’s about your identity, and Helen gets that and stops having reservations about legalising supers again. It’s bigger than her family. And the Deavors arrange and fund this, because they want as many heroes implicated as possible, they want both generations of supers wiped out and to never be able to return. Dependency is a crutch they would say, and humanity needs to learn to survive without it. We can keep Screenslaver as the fake villain setting up the big final battle, and we can keep his monologue about dependency on screens as a metaphor, but devolving into a diatribe against the nature of neglecting your personal success by vicariously watching someone else’s. 

3. The third act didn’t fit 

We already don’t have the dead weight of baby JJ crashing the pace of the story. He’s a young child, and we’re going to have Edna watch him (she can love it like she does in the movie, Jack-Jack can find her research enriching too). This time it’s Frozone, Elastigirl and Mr Incredible who get taken by mind control. The siblings are going to stage a fight between all three, pretending that superheroes are unstable, liable to turn on each other at the cost of civilian lives. That should turn the public against them for good, while causing massive amounts of damage. They use the Screenslaver persona to set up a showdown in the city, only to capture the three supers and turn them on each other. 

Not mind controlled? Elastigirl’s recruits. They just barely manage to escape it. They go to get help from their mentor, only to find the supers gone, and Violet and Dash seeing the carnage on TV and getting suited up to find out what’s going on. The kids get an introduction and team up together, heading off to stop their teacher and parents, new blood vs old guard. 

That results in six or seven barely trained supers going up against three extremely experienced ones, while they also have to try to minimise loss of life and property damage. While dealing with the trauma, for Violet and Dash, of being attacked by their own parents and not knowing why. Also, they get backup from Honey. Frozone’s wife. SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THIS MOVIE. She was designed and then cut and that’s a TRAVESTY. She’s already popular, she was a breakout hit, let her be in this. She steps forward, no powers, regular civilian clothes, and helps the kids out with advice from the ground, picking them up when they fall, and huge vocal encouragement. She kicks ass because that’s what she fucking does. She helps direct the crowds to safety, she tells these kids to look at their super suits and believe in what they’re capable of. And it’s her who snags Frozone after his powers get strategically rebuffed, she grabs him and grabs his goggles off and fixes it herself. 

With another adult on their side and better confidence the new supers manage to pull Elastigirl and Mr Incredible back to reality too, which concludes Helen’s anxiety about their capability and the passing of the torch. They did it, they were responsible - there’s no casualties and with all their powers combined, they managed to avert damage better than Helen and Bob ever did. The adults realise that the kids can be trusted to handle heroism and Helen is super proud of her trainees-slash-children. 

That leaves the actual capture of the villains, which comes down to running from the combined might of all the supers who gradually cut down their ability to escape, culminating in Winston stopping Evelyn from getting away, and having a personal realisation. A resurgence of the boyish glee he once had for heroes stopping the villains. He foils his sister and turns both of them in, willingly, in a weird way fulfilling his dream of saving the day like his idols did. 

To round off, thanks to the rehabilitated (and not sabotaged) hero image, and the display of capability the young supers put on, supers are legalised again. Helen and Bob now work as teachers to the kids as part of a new government program to make sure kids with powers learn how to responsibly control them, Helen of course continuing her role as mentor to her massive new family, and Bob finally able to work without restraining himself. The government agrees that encouraging kids to train properly and learn how to avoid risk and costly situations is worth endorsing. Dash befriends some of the other teens in the supergroup and has friends he can push his abilities with, without it being unfair. 

Finally, it’s time for Violet to move out, because things must move on. Helen, Bob and Frozone (who gets an updated suit because come on) are accepting that they’ll eventually they’ll have to let others take their place. Violet’s going to move in with Tony and get a normal job, because she still yearns for a normal lifestyle underneath it all, but she won’t be far away and can always answer the call to join the family in the field. They all bid her farewell (”Finally maybe I can get some peace without Dash bursting into my room-” “I can run to your apartment in one minute 28 seconds, I checked!!”) but Helen isn’t worried any more, because she has renewed faith in how well her children have grown up and is accepting they don’t need has as much any more. And besides, she has tons more children who need her too and it’s up to her to help them find their true potential. 

Thanks for reading this way too long exercise in figuring out what I wanted from the sequel to one of my favourite films in the world... the original Incredibles was centred around heroes also just being human, who make mistakes and have to grow up and change, and the villain’s fanboy mentality was the antithesis to that. I would’ve wanted a sequel that understood the message of its predecessor in that people have to develop and grow, one aspect of which is letting go, but what we actually got seemed too static and unwilling to move away from what we had already resolved in the first one.

[morkaischosen]

Sage and Joan Gardener

Some More CMWGE Characters

The original idea here came from Wounded Angel, and the idea of doing mirror-image versions of the same character, where each was the other’s sealed-away Blasphemy monster form. Then I decided the version that’s slightly truer to the Nobilis half of the inspiration was better. I’m pretty sure wanting to use Prophet wasn’t even the main reason for that!

(Sage is, as you will likely notice, using standard-issue Fallen Angel arcs, while Joan is on the canonical Angel arcset, yes shut up Prophet is definitely an Angel arc and you can’t convince me otherwise.)

Sage Gardener, the Friend to All Weeds, is a foundling of mysterious parentage. He was raised by the Kichi family, whose sacred pools long ago prophesied his arrival; sealed away within him, the prophecy says, is an apocalypse of fire and brimstone that will bring ruin and destruction to the world. The only way to avert this doom is for him to live a peaceful, compassionate life; if he gives in to anger, the terrible forces he contains will escape into the world.

If anyone can raise him and keep him safe from that fate, it’s Fortitude’s shrine families - but adolescence will test even their tranquility.

Sage is a small, slight boy with a shaved head and a smile that ranges from calm to cheeky, depending on his mood - he almost never frowns. He has a kind word for absolutely everyone he meets; in Fortitude that’s not particularly surprising, but he shows the same polite respect to rampaging abominations of science, monsters, and even door-to-door salespeople.

The grass stains on his knees and the scratches on his hands somehow entirely fail to make him look messy - they seem as much a part of him as his clothes and skin.

Sage is one of those people who can have a conversation about anything someone finds interesting, but his personal passion is botany. He tends a small wildflower meadow not far from the Kichi shrine, full of plants most of his neighbours think of as weeds - Sage maintains that everyone else not wanting them in their gardens just means it’s even more important to make space for them here, and sometimes even transplants weeds to make sure they have somewhere to grow. He’s so used to the thorns, thistles and stings that he sometimes forgets to warn people, which can be a problem when he invites people to sit with him in the garden - it’s not that they don’t hurt him, it’s just part of life.

His unshakeable calm is starting to shake as puberty makes itself known, though. He’s starting to find his mood swinging more than he’s used to, particularly when people are judgemental towards those they don’t understand - he can’t stand that kind of behaviour, but it’s so much easier to be angry about it than anything else. He’s managed to keep it under control for now - despite a few forlorn patches of fresh ash in his garden - but he’s scared of what could happen if he’s not as good at that as his (consistently supportive) foster-parents and teachers think, and too worried about upsetting them to bring it up.

Sage Gardener, the Friend to All Weeds

Superior Holiness 2 (but Sage’s Holiness is entirely unsuited to scourging anything - he can heal people, inspire them, and calm wild animals with a word, but ghosts and monsters can tolerate his presence just fine.) Kindness 2 Meditation 1 Botany 3

If Joan also exists, Sage should have a Connection 1 to her, even if they’ve never met.

Wounded Angel 2:

Dramatic: Sage tends to turn up when people really need someone to talk to - as often for “ohmygod I just read this book and it’s AMAZING” as anything else.

Devices: herbal infusions and incenses with mystical properties, efficaciously channeling his Holiness.

Blasphemy: when Sage loses his last Divine Health Level, he flowers into a terrible mandala of fire, wings, and lidless eyes that scourges away all spiritually impure things - and most things are spiritually impure.

Empowered Wounds: handles everything from holy powers of peace and love through the corrupt powers of a malevolent spirit possessing him (because malevolent possessing spirits deserve somewhere to live!) to manifestations of the terrible doom of scourging flame he could become.

Creature of the Light 1:

Tireless: Sage has access to Miraculous Will while showing compassion and acceptance to the things others reject.

Well-Lit: Sage is a blessed and holy being, and the world shows him to the best of its ability.

The Auctoritas Magister

Appear: Plants often turn out to have been Sage (or have had a Sage sleeping underneath them) when he needs to be where they are.

Transfix: Sage’s calm motions hold people’s attention, bringing peace to the world.

Possible starting Empowered Wounds include nettle stings that mark him as a friend to weeds, allowing him to manipulate plant life and giving an Affliction of “My skin stings like a nettle,” as well as barely-controlled mood swings allowing him to summon fire, with some appropriate Affliction.

Perks: Affliction: “When I give in to anger, things burn.” (Tied to Wounded Angel - currently 2)

“It’s like a home to me” - Sage’s wildflower meadow gives a +1 Tool bonus to feeling at peace.

XP Emotion: Believing In You XP or D’awww XP are the two I’d be likely to hit.

Joan Gardener, the Foe to All Weeds, is a foundling orphan. Her adoptive family are a quiet Fortitude couple who’d already been looking to adopt when she was found, a baby, on their doorstep with a cryptic note explaining that young Joan Gardener needed a home. As she grew older, it started to become clear that she might not be an entirely normal child - nothing that would be that obvious on its own, but the coincidences are piling up.

Joan is a stocky girl with shoulder-length mousy hair, often tied up in a slightly messy ponytail. She spends a lot of time frowning, either in concentration or because someone’s said something she disagrees with - she’s a wilful sort, and her teachers very rapidly learned that it’s difficult to satisfy her with a partial explanation. She’s willing to back down if you can actually convince her she was wrong, but doing that isn’t easy.

She’s fond of most forms of art - a beautiful painting or a well-performed song always replaces her trademark frown of concentration with a surprisingly sweet smile - but she decided at an early age that her true love is gardening. As always, she committed, and every day when her lessons are done, she armours herself in her apron and her gloves, belts on her secateurs and the weed-killing blowtorch nobody will admit to having let a child get hold of, and sets forth to earn some pocket money. Her campaign against weeds is legendary - she fights them with zealous efficiency, often insisting on staying out late if the root system is more extensive than expected.

She’s often frustrated by grown-ups not believing her, especially when she can’t explain why she needs to do something; as puberty starts to make itself known, her parents are finding themselves at odds with her more often. She’s a good kid and she doesn’t like being disobedient, but more and more often, the alternative seems just as bad. It’s frustrating and confusing for everyone, but as ever the idea of backing down is far from her thoughts.

Joan Gardener, the Foe to All Weeds

Superior Holiness 2 (but Joan’s holiness is harsh-edged - she can inspire people, cure infections or drive back a ghost with a word, but when it comes to encouraging growth she’s better off using good compost and the right fertiliser.) Confidence 2 Making an Effort 1 Gardening 3 Flying 0 (she can jump about as effectively as a normal child who jumps a fairly normal amount but has no particular investment in this mode of transportation).

If Sage exists, Joan should have Connection 1 to him, even if they’ve never met.

Prophet 2:

Joan is the Prophet of Pruning, the cosmic principle of carefully cutting away imperfect or unwanted things to allow space for beauty to grow. It’s most deeply tied to gardening, but it can also be found in surgery and the like. Her enemies include Sage (whose message of acceptance refuses to allow the destructive side of pruning); other foes might be an industrial interest representing Productivity - where Pruning cuts away some stems of the bush to promote more flowers to grow, Productivity uproots the whole bush so it can build a factory.

Divine Guidance: Joan can allow the cosmic weight of Pruning to guide her towards what needs to be removed. If she sustains this for a whole chapter, some broader-scale beauty is given space to flower into the world.

Materialization of Possibility: Joan can call on Pruning to solve an immediate problem - coincidence and chance conspire to cut through the Gordian knot, or doubts and confusion are removed to make a chaotic mess suddenly simple and clear. Pruning is reductive - it’s well suited to removing obstacles and bringing clarity, but less adept at creating new things.

Inspiration: When performing the work of Pruning, Joan can escape the bonds of gravity to find the best angle to work from, using the Flight of Pruning; and her actions take on divine force, cutting through obstruction and indecision and removing her audience’s doubts when she moves and speaks with the Confidence of Pruning.

Vestments: Joan has a weed-killing blowtorch of flame. Nobody’s quite sure who let a 12-year-old girl get her hands on something that dangerous, but it’s definitely hers and taking it off her seems like a bad idea. The “of flame” seems a bit redundant, but omitting it feels like abbreviating the thing’s proper name. With this mighty weapon, Joan can burn weeds and purify away all manner of malign presences.

Hallow: given a few minutes to work, Joan can prepare a place for Pruning. This enshrines the region property that “Impure and unwanted things can be cut away to give beauty space to grow.”

Illumination: It can be hard to cut away the things that hold you back; when Joan listens to people’s struggles with what it means to give themselves the space to grow, it can be Foreshadowing or Sympathetic Action.

Keeper of Gardens 1:

The World, Like Clay: Joan Gardener is a gardener and Keeper of Gardens, and thus can garden her gardens with her Gardening skill. But, like, more than normal gardeners can.

Toxic: Joan has a Bond 2: “I make everything simple and straightforward.” Her confidence is infectious.

Land-Rule: The rules allow shifting some points into Superior Land-Rule, but I feel like the things of Joan’s gardens likely respond to Confidence and Holiness well enough that it’s not necessary.

The Great Magic: By wounding a Divine Health Level, Joan can shape the way her gardens grow, allowing them to develop into ever more beautiful forms.

Guide: Talking flowerbeds and sentient water features are possible, but - unsurprisingly - Joan’s most common Guides are created as topiary.

Perks: “It’s like a home to me” - Joan’s parents have let her take over the gardening at home, and the results are elegantly beautiful. (Both Prophet and Keeper of Gardens will allow her to claim more gardens in future).

The other perk slot is flexible if you have a good idea; if not, a second Bond: “I must eradicate weeds wherever they may be found!” should lead to Fun.

XP Emotion: Believing In You XP or Fist-Pump XP?

(If you’re running a martial arts version of CMWGE where everything is inexplicably bound up in martial arts tournaments, Sage is a student of baguazhang, true to his Airbender inspiration; Joan insists that European longsword styles are entirely valid martial arts and shows up in full armour.)

[suyg2]

organizing

i want to get this one thing done before bed. it's a blueprint to becoming organized, awful as that sounds. it will have to cover a lot of things, i would imagine, and i'm willing to let it be ugly and discursive if it means i can have something to work with when i wake up tomorrow. league of legends volleyball people - friends - myself - parents school obligations desires wishes virtues and lifestyle and habits league and volleyball my goal has always been to be excellent. rank is not important, and it will come anyway besides. respect in volleyball is not important, and it will come anyway besides. all these things are given by or for other people. i'm going to take a break from league. from now until the end of november i should not play league nor log into my league client. to be honest, the main purpose for this is to clean up my thoughts on the game so as to improve. take a more removed stance. also it's good in every other way literally. in the meantime i can think about becoming excellent. excellence is part knowledge (knowing precisely what ought to be done in a situation and using that knowledge flexibly to make correct decisions) and part execution. good judgment is the most important thing, and once you have good judgement all you need to do is play a lot in order to improve your execution. hopefully the break will allow me to clear up my thoughts and let go of habits. in every case i want to ask, what are the strengths and weaknesses of this character re: winning the game, how can i optimize my play of this character, taking it to its limits to secure a win? you can always take your play a step further. as for the specifics, you are best off with a teacher, unless you want to redo several years' of players' collective work. watch instructional videos. watch your replays. and then play those characters. then, devote yourself to perfecting the mechanics of a few characters while seeing how they would apply to all chaarcters. volleyball - improve your physical condition, which you have left off for a while. resume your pushups, go to the gym maybe 3 times a week. then watch instructional videos on topics such as - setting, serve receive, digs, diving receives, hitting, positioning and movement, and do what is necessary to pracice those - go to quiet drop ins with serious people and practice. basically, you need to do things with intent now. people friends - what you really want is someone to make you feel less lonely whenever you feel lonely. only a few people make you feel less lonely though. there are barely 5 people i can think of who could make me feel less lonely and they are all busy a lot of the time, and anyway i see them to sickness all the time anyway. the solution is: be friendly when you get the chance. if they fix your loneliness, then show that you appreciate them and enjoy spending time with them. that you way you get more friends and more time with them. also, depend less on your friends. if you are at peace then you won't fear being alone nor will you need your friends, although it will be a great pleasure to see them still. and so, do not go seeking friends by running to goldring every day blindly. consider whether you really do want to see the people who will realistically be there. by spending less time making mistakes re: friends you will have more time to actually have good times with good friends. lifestyle, virtue, habits the greatest habit is the self-care. good sleep, good food, good execercise, and good fun are all necessary. if you take things patiently and one by one you will have the time take care of yourself, and besides it is more important than many other things. personality, virtue i admire rickey greatly. it is important to be upright and friendly, naturally at ease and confident. more on this later. fear nothing. love either resist or accept, that's all. work this is the most important right now. there is nothing to fear. there is nothing you are missing any more than if you didn't do work. you will be proud of yourself. you will be happy. you will be good tired. you will sleep. if you schedule and you follow through like you used to but you remain critical and tihnk about what you are missing, if you can do all this that will be magical. the cat's eye is boring. neds is awful. goldring is just empty in general. stop going there. go to people's homes. go to the faculty of music. don't waste time at goldring. go outside. go to class. leave this city. do something. if all else fails, enter into the aesthetic realm. there's always that. the future. search things up, look it up, this must be one of the most asked questions on the internet. search within yourself. nothing is off limits. you're a smart and courageous boy, right? god, i'm so tired. tiem to sleep.

[ineedrelationshipadvice]

Almost relationship but why do I feel like this??

REPLY

Okay, you asked a lot of questions, so I'm going to separate them from the main message and try to hit them one by one. 

The one take-away that I want to emphasize before I begin is that, yes, this does seem to be your friend detaching himself from this relationship. He's creating a distance between himself and you by not speaking to you, both because he probably needs to for his own sake and probably because he also feels a bit burned by the way things went. But we'll get to that in a minute.

1) Why is he being like this all of a sudden? 

This is the question that's most important to me, because you seem to have missed a piece of critical information in your own actions that would potentially illicit this response. There were THREE problems with this relationship that you listed. The obvious one is his internship, and that you both decided not to take things too seriously. There is nothing wrong with that. But the other issue is, "he's not of my religion or race." 

That's harsh, no other way around it. The internship issue and not wanting a long-distance relationship is perfectly understandable. But you also explicitly singled out BOTH his theology and racial disparities with you. I can almost feel him, in his mind, saying, "Well if that was a problem from the beginning, why did you even associate with me?" Having experienced this in my own life, first-hand, this is exactly how I felt - it's this feeling of, well you obviously knew how I felt and who I am as a human, and if you didn't like that, then we shouldn't have even started anything together, because that sucks. This guy was making active efforts toward a person who he later learned had essentially ZERO long-term interest in him as a romantic partner, not based on his character, but based on his theology and skin colour. That sucks any way you swing it, and it does bear the question of why you did let this thing you have with him cross that line if you knew this was a problem. If you didn't know, that's understandable, but I don't feel like he keeps his religion a secret, and he definitely doesn't keep his race a secret. 

This is in no way to shame you, to each their own, and your perspective is valid. But you were essentially leading him on when his core self was already diametrically opposed to your needs, regards, and interests, and you should have taken the initiative and restraint to not pursue something with someone you knew you wouldn't like long-term, short-term feelings aside. If you don't like or can't handle someone because of their beliefs or race, then don't interact romantically with them. 

2) How do we go from "this" to friends again?

There's no right or wrong way to actually handle this. Sometimes people can't step back from their feelings; other people have zero problem doing this. I feel a lot of this may be cleared up by your last hang-out session. But it basically requires both of you talking about your feelings and figuring out what to do about it. Do you need some distance from him? Does he need distance from you? Should you maybe just reconvene when he returns and see how you both feel about friendship when he gets back home? Or are you both willing to stay friends despite everything? That's on you, and nobody can really advise you on what is right for you beyond saying that you should voice all your opinions on the issue and try to hash everything out before the distance between you two grows.

3) How do I go about detaching myself when I want to keep talking?

Again, really differs from person to person. The best advice, hands-down, is to create distance. Just put them out of mind for a little while, and focus on yourself and your own hobbies and interests. This is usually the  most effective way, as it allows you to recenter your life, and focus on what's important to you rather than your feelings. Would it be harder to keep talking? Maybe, but everyone's different. For instance, I personally don't struggle with this issue at all, and can completely detach myself when I need to; it's a process, and hurts, and takes awhile, but I can stay friendly with ex-partners. But you and your emotions might be different, and generally you'll want to go with a "gut check" on this one. Your body will generally know what to do in the situation. Do you feel awful talking to him and thinking about him all the time? Maybe create distance. Are you just fine talking to him? Cool, keep doing it. Is HE enjoying talking to you, or does he need some distance? That's something you ought to ask him directly so you aren't accidentally stepping on toes by trying to be friendly with him. 

4) Should I get closure and talk about our future? 

I'm generally going to say yes. Even if the conversation would be kinda awkward, I feel like if you both don't hash this out before he goes away, it's just going to make emotions confused for both of you. It's better to just clean the slate before anything happens and it starts to percolate weird drama due to time and distance. Just ask the simple question, "What do you expect between yourself and me whenever you're done with your internship?" Listen to him seriously and give him validity in any feelings he has. Try to meet in the middle as best as you can.

5) Is he no longer talking to me because he "got what he wanted?"

No. And you have no reason to feel used. That's a very serious statement, implying that he had weird ulterior motives with you. You've mentioned multiple times in your message that this was intended to be short-term given his situation. Regardless of who has feelings here, you or him, implying that those feelings are not valid because all he wanted from you is some hand-holds and make outs is just a pretty low move, and seems like an easy way for you to claim a moral high ground. "I did nothing wrong, he just was USING MY BODY for his SELFISH DESIRES."

No. It seems like he had legitimate interest in you, either short or long term, and when he learned that you had no long-term interest in him, he seems to have made up his mind. Is that why he's no longer talking to you? Can't say. Is the way you treated him the reason for this? Also can't say. But what can be said is that he didn't use you, and suggesting as such diminishes the experiences of people who are actively used by their partners for physical affection regardless of feelings involved. You both DID exchange feelings; just because he won't talk to you and no longer is actively reciprocating doesn't mean you've been wronged. 

_____________

It's fine if you still crave his attention in the future. I understand on some level that you like and care about this guy. And although I have highlighted some pretty strong claims against your judgement, that doesn't make you a bad person. Detaching from relationships is always hard, regardless of context. And how you do it, as mentioned, will be largely up to your conversations that you have with him as well as making a gut check and determining how you feel in the moment, based on your knowledge of yourself. Beyond that, where the future will lead you both will likely lie where the cards land. 

_______________

ORIGINAL MESSAGE

Hi! So recently the guy I’ve had a big crush on for the past year and a half finally showed interest in me and took me out. It started by him giving me his number 2 months ago and we texted way into the morning almost every other day until one day he suggested we go see a movie. He held my hand and said we should do this again sometime. We’ve “hung out” 4 times since then like painting, ice skating, eating out, etc. however, here is the twist. He’s leaving for the next semester for an internship opportunity so this “short term thing” has a definite end. We’ve even talked about this and I said I didn’t want to lead him on because even if we do date it can’t go serious since he’s not of my religion or race and can’t think of marrying him. Anyways, he’s made out with me on our last date and kept making sure we were on the same page and Makes sure that I don’t get attached. We plan on staying friends when he does return to finish his semester but how do we go from “this” to friends again? We went from joking friends to “this” in the first place and I feel like the mistake we made was not setting clear boundaries since we know this Has to end. He suddenly went from long text convos about random topics we’d talk about to not responding to a simple question I asked him last night. It’s been an entire day he hasn’t responded and Ik he’s definitely looked at it. Why is he being like this all of a sudden? Is it cuz he know he has to leave in a few weeks and is already starting the process of detachment? Either way I enjoy texting him and his overall attention. I like the convos we talk about and in general texting/spending time with him. I’m afraid when he comes back for the fall semester, even though we said we’d be friends, he won’t talk to me and things will be awkward because of this “almost relationship” short term thing we had. I definitely do not want that happening because we started out as good friends and it would hurt me to loose him completely. How do I go about detaching myself from him when he leaves even if I still want to text him/snap him like friends? Would I be hurting myself more or would the transition to friends be easier if we still kept communication while he was gone? Also, we’re hanging out one more time before he actually leaves. Do you think I should get closure and just talk to him about what I would like from our relationship when gets back as friends? Also with him not responding to my text do you think he’s losing interest in me since he got what he “wanted”?? I feel used especially because we made out and since then we haven’t talked like that. Thanks SO MUCH IN ADVANCE I know this was super long but this is my first “relationship thing” ever and I m just confused and worried that I’ll get hurt but still crave his attention.

[apprenticemages]

What’s this? Published on time? With screenshots and reasonably fully worked out thoughts and everything? What is the world coming to?

It’s my thoughts on this week’s shows, plus mid-season gut check time!  Hit the break and let’s talk!

The shows that I am watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics.  Question marks denote shows not watched yet (during the premiere weeks), and strikethrough marks dropped shows.

For those that haven’t seen it before (mostly because I’ve been lax the last few seasons), it’s time for the mid-season gut check.  This is when I take a close look at what I’m watching to make sure I’m actually enjoying it and getting something out of it…  As opposed to watching out of habit and being unhappy each week.  Yeah, “grumpy old man” is part of my brand, but nobody really wants to read all that week after week.

3D Kanojo / Real Girl Ep 7

We pick up right where we cliffhangered last week – with Iroha watching Tsuyu as he converses with Ayado.   And she’s pissed, and jealous.  Interesting how she feels that she lacks the right to impose her demands on Tsuyu.  (And unsurprising how Ishino keeps egging her on.)

Yeah, Ishino is kinda self centered when it come affairs of heart…

Sorry for the crappy screenie, but HiDive has… a crappy POS idiosyncratic UI.

But when Iroha sees Ayado being bullied, her intrinsic kindness comes to the fore…  And she learns of Ayado as a person, rather than a threat.  Ayado’s feeling that she doesn’t belong in and shouldn’t intrude on the friend group coalescing around Tsuyu and Iroha nicely echoes Tsuyu’s own feelings at the start of the series.  And also highlights how he’s starting to take the whole situation for granted.  Pride goeth before a fall?

Along the way, Itou (he of the cat ear hat) and Ayado discover…  a certain spark with each other.  (As if things couldn’t get more complicated.)

The final segment…  Everyone’s going camping and except for Iroha (who seems genuinely interested), each is joining in for their own selfish reasons.  It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when they collide.

Midseason thoughts:  It’s not the best high school romance ever…  and it could seriously do with a couple more editing and smoothing passes…  But despite that, it’s realistic and enjoyable.  Keeper.

Comic Girls Ep 6

I wasn’t to thrilled with the first segment, as it relied too much on Kaos-chan being an incompetent fraidy cat.  Consistent with her characterization, yeah.  But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I did enjoy the second half…  I liked how the theme of connecting with fans echoed with Ruki’s experience back in Ep 4.  Plus any plotline that gives Best Girl Tsubasa screentime gets a thumbs up from me.

Midseason thoughts:  I have my problems with how they portray Kaos-chan, particularly her lack of development and progress – but I’m liking the senpai pair.  (Particularly Tsubasa!)  So….  Keeper.

Crossing Time Ep 6

Too weird and pointless for words this week.

Midseason thoughts: If it wasn’t a low investment short, I’d be dropping it.

Cutie Honey Universe Ep 6

Panther Claw finally makes a serious move – a full frontal assault on Honey’s school with the intent of drawing her out, running her down, and seizing the whatever-it-is device.  Pretty much everyone who isn’t Honey dies.  Cliffhanger.

One problem though.

Despite the seriousness and all the final battle tropes…  I simply didn’t care.  They haven’t put in the effort to give a reason to care.  I mean, Honey goes on about her friends, but she’s barely interacted with them at all.  She’s pissed about the destruction of the school, but so far as they’ve shown it was just an out-of-the-way place where she was stashed to keep her away from Panther Claw.

Yeah, Cutie Honey has been a real mess from day one.  I wanted to enjoy it, but I just can’t.

Midseason thoughts: Dropped.

Hinamatsuri Ep 6

https://twitter.com/RemyFool/status/995531016453275648

An exchange of tweets after this week’s episode…

The first part, watching Nitta try to introduce Hina to his family was funny as hell.  They’ve certainly got his number, and seem to take his (err…) gradual approach to the truth in stride.

The second half…  defined by tears.  Anzu crying as she was separated from the mean of the homeless camp, who’ve become her family.  (I almost typed “surrogate family”, but that’s not right is it?)  The men of the homeless camp crying over the same separation.  Anzu’s tears, first as she struggles to accept that it’s OK for her to be in a better situation – and of happiness when she accepts it.

And last, but not least, my tears.  With all the emotions flying around (in both halves), this episode was (as Remy said) was a real gut punch.   And equally, very realistic.   Hinamatsuri has been consistently good…  But this week, they produced a true standout.

Midseason thoughts:  Hina and Hitomi’s standalone segments have varied from decent to very good…  But Anzu’s story has been consistently excellent.  OMG, are you kidding me?  KEEPER.

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits / Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi Ep 7

Moonflower is not making any money – and Tenshin-ya’s Chief Accountant makes it very clear that if Aoi can’t turn things around then he’ll shut her down.  Very, very worried and needing to work very hard – she wanders off on a pseudo date with the Master.  Which is about par for the course for Kakuriyo…  Aoi spends a lot of time wandering off and doing other things rather than concentrating on what’s in front of her.  Also she has pretty much no spine for actually telling the Master to piss off because she has work to do…  But suddenly gains a spine when he speaks of marriage.

Speaking of gaining and losing something – that was this week’s animation glitch.  Aoi kept drifting on and off model.  Not a background detail this time…  the main freakin’ character.

Anyhow, with pretty much no effort on her own part and with the deus ex machina intervention of a guest at the inn and some kind of spirit – Moonflower is suddenly a happening joint.  And Aoi is summed to a command performance, cooking for the King of the spirit world and his human wife.  (Heh?  Looks like Aoi isn’t the only one.)

And is there anyone in the spirit world without a Shiro story?  That old dude certainly got around.

Anyhow, after this week I’m so done with Kakuriyo.   My wife still wants to watch, which means I’ll probably keep watching…  But unless there’s a vast change in quality or plotline I will no longer be reviewing it.

Midseason thoughts: Technically dropped.

My Hero Academia 3 /  Boku no Hero Academia 3 Ep 6 (Ep 44) Honestly, as the credits rolled, I was left with more questions than answers…  What exactly is the endgame for the League of Villains?  How did this attack further their goal of drawing out and destroying All Might?  What is goth girl going to do with that blood?

And what do they hope to gain by kidnapping Bakugo?  Maybe they, like a lot of viewers, think he can be turned to evil.  My answer to this?  Wrong, wrong, Wrongitty, WRONG!!

Next to Deku, Bakugo is the character with the most clearly articulated and consistent goal.  He wants to be be the Number One Hero.  Period.  It will take a great deal to sway him, even temporarily, from that goal.  That being said, he’s also one very smart cookie – in his own way as smart and resourceful as Deku.  I won’t rule out temporary cooperation with the villains.

Tsuyu is cool and deserves her status as fan favorite – but there’s nothing like watching Ochako in full on badass mode.  More please!

Speaking of Ochako, I love the creative uses of her power. Sure, sure – Deku came up with the idea of making them weightless (and presumably inertialess) so Tsyu could catapult them… But the flawless execution was all Ochako.

Midseason thoughts:  HeroAca is its own thing…  And as this season is (once again) going to be two cour, as good as it is I know it’s just getting going.  Keeper.  As if there was any doubt.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori Ep 5

The first few episodes showed promise as a nicely done slice-of-life with decent characterization.  Episode 3 was particularly interesting in this respect, as it gave hints that Kyousi had ghosts of some kind in his past.  (Something also hinted at in the OP.)

Eps 4-5 however, dropped into a pretty bland formula…  Customer has a problem, the boys help him out.

Midseason thoughts: Until I peeked ahead at ep 6, I thought it was going to be dropped.  But for now, it’s on double secret probation.  I’m going to still be watching, but it won’t take much to push it over the precipice.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online – Ep 5.5 Refrain

What the actual H*ll?  A recap episode?  A recap episode! Fer goshsakes, WHY?

My feelings on seeing this was a recap episode…

Supposedly, this was planned and not a sign of production problems…  But I simply cannot grasp what the purpose was.  I guess some of Pito’s snarky commentary was not entirely bad, but otherwise this was a waste of time for all involved.

The very end of the silly ass post credits was intriguing though…  Why is the next episode titled “SAO Loser”?

Midseason thoughts: Against my better judgement, I’ll keep watching.  Keeper.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai / Tada Never Falls in Love Ep 6

Charles-sama (Theresa-hime‘s intended) shows up unexpectedly…  No, wait, scratch that.  It’s made pretty clear that Charles-sama is hot and heavy in pursuit of Theresa-hime, but she doesn’t actually appear to have any feelings for him.

That non-reciprocation may be pretty important…

When he meets the photo club, he quickly charms other members of the cast.  (And does so again at the family coffee-house.)  To me, it didn’t really appear forced.  He laid it on pretty heavy, but it appeared to be genuine.  And he’s a smart cookie, immediately picking up that Class Rep is actually HINA.  (And classy, by not pointing it out.)

I’m not really sold on the back half of the episode though…  Being trapped together in the rain and the dark is certainly a romantic situation, but there’s no actual romance between Tada and Theresa-hime.  There’s some kind of feeling there, certainly, but not romance.  Either the show is incompetent, or there’s something more subtle going on here.

Midseason thoughts:  Mostly harmless.  Keeper.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Ep 8

This week’s carrots…  When Trainer-san is paying for a feast to celebrate Silence coming home from the hospital – carrots are definitely on the menu.

A lot of time skipping covering Silence Suzuka’s recovery…  Also showing just how devoted Spe-chan is to Silence.  And how this is slowly and subtly distancing her from the other girls.  This comes to a head when Spe-chan comes in second to Grass Wonder in a race…  And Grass Wonder is righteously pissed because she doesn’t think she won fair and square.  She (correctly) thinks Spe-chan wasn’t giving it her best because she was more concerned with Silence than running for herself.

Which is something a recurring theme in Umamusume…  The girls perform their best when their running ‘inside their heads’ – concentrating on their own goals and the joy of the sport.  Get distracted, and you’re done for.  The notable exception here is Silence herself – we still haven’t been inside her head during a race, or at all for that matter.  She remains a calm, considerate, kind enigma.  In some ways, she a more interesting character than MC-chan.  While this is undoubtedly Spe’s story, I hope we dig deeper into Silence’s story.

The end of the episode, Spe is heartbroken over losing, heartbroken over dissapointing Grass Wonder, and heartbroken over losing sight of her goal to become the best horse girl.  Trainer-san is an absolute jackwagon for once again making it out to be Spe’s fault…  Really, it’s his fault for being a useless lump of flesh.  If the girls are doing well, it’s in spite of him more than because of him.

Midseason thoughts:  Heaven help me and I can’t explain why – but I’m staying the course. Keeper.

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku Ep 5

Hate to say it, but this week’s ep was pretty weak.  We’ve all seen the “mistaken identity” and “not actually a threat/romantic rival” schtick done too many times before for such a weakly executed sequence to carry much weight.  In the same way, having the everyone act like Naoya was some kind of odd-man-out just didn’t feel right…  especially after it was made clear (to the characters) that he knew that his brother was a game otaku.

Wotakoi has varied in quality all season, and this wasn’t one of the better episodes.

Midseason thoughts:  Despite the occasional unevenness, this is actually a decent show. Keeper.

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And there you have it – my thoughts this week.  What’s staying, and what’s getting the ol’ heave-ho.  How did your week go?  Any shows you’re dropping in midstream?

Drop a reply and let’s chat!

Spring 2018 – Week 6 & the mid season gut check. What's this? Published on time? With screenshots and reasonably fully worked out thoughts and everything? What is the world coming to?