#ARC“ like i am killing you w hammers now | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

Text

New X-Men Xtrospective Part 1: E is For Extinction “They Will Need Us”

I am SO fucking excited for this one. As might not be obvious to ALL of my readers but should be obvious to some, I fucking love the X-Men. They are one of my favorite superhero teams period as are several of their spinoffs such as X-Factor (All versions), New Mutants, and Marauders. I love the wide cast, the hugely vast universe within the already vast and wonderful marvel universe, and the sheer amount of GREAT stories. I own all 11 movies, have several action figures, and two posters from Jonathan Hickman’s current and utterly dynamite run right above me right now as I work, as well as a marvel 80′s themed poster behind me that’s at least half x-men for good reason. I love this gang of mutants and I have not talked about them enough.

I”ve done some X-Men stuff sure: I’ve talked about hickman’s time as head writer of the books a year in earlier this year, I did a few scattered reviews back when I did single issues of comics, and then we get to the one I beefed big time: covering ALL of X-Men evolution. While it’s a noble endeavor I freely admit to overexerting myself: I recapped the episodes way too closely, gave myself no real schedule and did so while I was already covering two shows a week at the time. My point is it was a good idea, but the timing was REALLY fucking bad and if I do it again, I intend to do it right and iwth a proper place in my now properly paced schedule. I also planned to do the movies which, unlike evolution, I have solid plans to do once I clear out some of my projects. Point is I burned bright and then exploded and took a whole projecet with me phoenix style.

I had until this moment yet to do a really big x-men project, something digging into the comics, something that could help fans both of the comics and not get familiar with something really good, and help me dig into both the good and bad of something. I jsut needed the right start.

Then Christmas gave me that spark, that project that gave me the idea for a butload more x-men content on here and was the perfect starting point for some. See my friend Marco lives in Honduras, and so since i couldn’t afford to send him anything for christmas in the mail, as i’m not exactly rich, I instead offered him three reviews of anything.l He still hasn’t taken up two of them, nor one I gave him for graduating college, but the first one was a doozy, something he hadn’t read due to not liking the art, which is fine as I have some art in comics I don’t like everyone has diffrent tastes, at least for the first arc, and something VITALLY important to x-men as a whole and that’s the backbone of hickman’s current run: the first arc of new x-men, e is for extinction. And given New X-Men is one of my faviorite comics of all time I not only lept on it.. but decided fuck it I’m covering the whole thing. So every so often on here from now until I finish, i’m going to be covering Grant Morrisons ground breaking, mind shattering, status quo destroying run on the children of the atom. This.. is going to be fucking awesome. Buckle up.

New X-Men came about in 2001. Stop me if you heard this one: The X-Men, once marvel’s best selling title and one of i’ts most beloved, had been set adrift in a seal of editorial bullshit, bad writing, bad storylines and a stale continuity where not much could change or grow and things always reset to about the same place it was last week. If this sounds familiar it’s because it somehow happened AGAIN thanks to Ike Perlmutter’s bullshit, hence the current hickman run, but we’ll get into all of tha tsome other time. Point is as it was in 2018, so it was in 2001: The x-men were in bad straits and marvel reached out to a host of various creators to swing for the fences and find a new direction, something to bring sales and life back to the book. To my shock they actually took a LOT of diffrent pitches in before Morrisons won and from huge names: Geoff Johns, who had not yet returned to DC never to leave, Alex Ross, Keith Giffen.. all huge creative types. but in the end the best man won.

For those unfamiliar with him, Grant Morrison is a gloriously batshit scotsman with a long, storied and delightfully insane history in comics, mostly at DC before and after this comic. This is for good reason: DC scouted Morrison specifically because of his early work at 2000ad. See at the time Alan Moore had hit it really big with Swamp Thing, taking a d list, so so book and making it into an utter masterpiece and giving it thoroughly interesting mythology. Given it was a blockbuster hit that’s still widely loved and discussed, as it should be today, DC decided to repeat the strategy of asking British indie comics creators to come do the same to another property. This same experiment is why Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman exists, so.. yeah it was actually a great strategy and naturally Grant had their first big hit with Animal Man, a metafictional take on a b-list hero that made him a loveable family man, while also putting him through hell and playing with the medium and dc’s vast history, the last two being Morrison’s trademark from then on out.

They’d next go on to reinvent one of my other faviorite teams: THE DOOM PATROL! The patrol are a bunch of victims of strange accidents who got powers out of them that are basically curses... and Morrison solidified that concept, taking over after a weak run that ironically enough was trying to imitate the x-men’s success at the time. Instead Morrison just went all out with his weird shit for the first time and made them a team of broken but likeable people with weird powers fighting just the weirdest most incomprehensible shit, a run i’ll likely be digging into eventually along with the team as a whole. It’s also, along with Gerard Way’s recent run, the bedroock for the current and utterly masterful doom patrol series I need to catch up on. They also apparently once wrote a satrical comic starring and lik mocking hitler... a fact I somehow JUST learned but naturally doesn’t surprise me at all.

Morrison’s career at dc, after doing some creator owned stuff there when Vertigo opened up, hit it’s peak in the late 90′s as they were given the go ahead to reinvent the Justice League, with the wildly successful and awesome JLA, another book I probably need to take a look at that put the big 7 back into the team. And by now your probably getting the point of me covering his career pattern.. besides giving morrison the praise they deserve, and they’d have some really great runs after this.. and some terrible ones but no one’s perfect. My point is that at this point in their career Morrison’s greatest skill was taking something that had grown stagnant or been forgotten, blowing it up and reworking it into something glorious and new. Taking what worked, scraping away what didn’t and on the whole making something fucking glorious out of it. So here we are. The X-Men needed a new coat of paint and uncle grant had their lcd laced psycadelic paint bucket and brush shaped like a pidgeon at the ready. And for better, way better and admitely sometimes here and there worse,they changed the x-men for good. Some changes were rolled back out of spite, others finally got their chance after said rollback recently, and some were just outright thrown on the grown and smashed with a hammer. But for the most part Grant left a huge impact on the x-men and i’m here to show you why, warts and all. To me my x-men, this is new x-men. Now naturally there’s even more exposition but i’ts more in what COULD’VE been. Originally while Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Professor X were all part of the team the other two members of the slim roster for this run, Beast and Emma Frost.. weren’t. Originally Morrison was going to have Colossus and Moira Mactaggert, long time team ally, token human until very recently, and now thanks to hickman one of the most important x characters peirod and long before that a fan favorite of mine, on the team, with Moira taking over for beast.

This.. didn’t pan out since Marvel apparently either didn’t give a shit about their plans or already had things in motion as the climax of the longtime legacy virus storyline killed both off. Colossus until Joss Whedon, bastard he may be, brought him back for his terrific Astonishing X-Men, and Moira SOMEHOW stayed dead until House/Powers of X. See this speaks to one of the big roadblocks morrison faced: Jonathan HIckman currently has absolute power and all his writers working in concert, a new way of doing things comic companies shold honestly copy en masse as it’s really working wonders. Grant.. was just one of many writers and one of three main x books the others being Chris Claremont’s XTREME X-MEN, basically “let the legend do what he wants since he can’t get freedom on the main book” and another writer on uncanny... before eventually chuck austen took over and I will tackle that horrible mess some other time. Point is while Morrison was setting the tone, costume style and making the big waves, they still didn’t have full power and thus had to play nice with eveyrone else. So their next idea was Rogue, making mer more like her x-men evolution version.. except Chris wanted her, so that was out, though being a decent enough guy he willingly gave up Beast since the moira thing meant Morrison needed a science person. As for Colossus replacement, as it turned out a fan had suggested Grant do something with Emma Frost since Gen X was canceled and while Morrison had zero intention for it clearly Emma clicked with hthem and she was soon both a main part of the cast and one of their biggest contributions to X-Men as a whole.

As for what I think of the needed changes.. they ended up being for the best. I do like Moira... but Hank ended up being a much better fit for the team dynamic wise and power set wise, while Emma was the same. While Colossus, Rogue and Moira are all fantastic characters, I think what we ended up with was just a better mix overall. I DO think the team is incredibly white, but that’s a general x-men problem, even with having an assload of diverse and intresting characters, so it’s not entirely his fault. All in all it’s a fantastic roster: four of the x-men’s best, their leader in the field for the first time in forever, and a new and intresting wild card. IT’s a nice ballance of characters and we’ll get more into it as we go. Now all the expositions done, we can finally dive head first into new x-men. I hope you survivie the experince under the cut.

After an utterly gorgeous and striking cover, the one used up top, we get one solid page to introduce us to Morrison’s mission statment, how they feel and how good Frank Quitely’s art looks

I cropped it best i could for tumblr but this one image immidetly says a lot. Our heroes are just.. easily taking down this sentinel, an old model... the same one we’ve seen a dozen times. What were once the grim, possible destroyers of an entire race of beings in days of future past and devistating killing machines in the present.. had become stale easily defeated murder bots There had been noble attempts to really make the sentiinels work again like the horrifying omega sentinels, humans forcibly converted into sleeper agent killing machines, during operation: zero tolerance, but otherwise they were mostly just a prop for the x-men to knock down. And that.. really is morrison’s whole point. Lampshading and mocking the fact the x-men had grown stale, things hadn’t really progressed.. and that it was time to move on. But to Uncle Grant’s credit, they not only uses this as a mission statment but it’s plot relevant: this mission will both be explained soon and explains why Logan and Scott are out and about enough to end up where the plot will soon need them. It also helps, via the sight of the syndey opera house establish something Morrison made a staple of their run: the X-Men going global. While the x-men were never really NOT global post claremont, Morrisons run has them handling rescue missions and what not worldwide far more often than most runs before it sans Claremont, and really made it feel like they weren’t just another super team but a global force of good with a specific goal and mission. More on the global aspect next time, as that’s where it really comes in but I felt it was important to show it was there for minute one.

So yeah before we move onto the first full scene of the run, let’s talk about the costumes.

We’ll talk about Emma’s later since she’s not introduced to the story for a while but yeah. There’s a sharp, obvious and immediate change just in the outfits, which take after the movie’s more military look, having the x-men not only look more like a unit but more like a professional orginization. Someone to come and help when needed. While this would take on more siginifigance in a bit, we’ll get to it, it also fits Morrisions own views that the x-men were less of a traditional superhero team and more something different on the edges that fought things out there, sorta what like he did with doom patrol. And it’s honestly a valid interpretation as the x-men are often seen as outlaws and misfits by society for beingn well.. mutants. Not as trusted as the avengers. So having them adopt this look played into that: Having them look more professional and focused as The X-Men have a less blanket mission statement than the avenger.. but also mildly threatning. Something to alarm the humans. It’s an utterly brilliant look thrown best together by the big yellow x’s, still giving it a nice flash of color to show off and show this is still a comic and this is still damn colorful.. this just isn’t your AVERAGE supherhero comic or the x-men your used to. IT’s a real shame the only fox x-men movie to use it was fucking dark phoenix.. a film where it didn’t even fit as xavier was getting flashier and more reckless so why wouldn’t he have more garish and colorful and more traditional superhero outfits. They did look good in their variants in first class though. Props there. Point is this is a classic, utterly stunning look, and tha’ts coming from someone whose fine with goofy superhero outfits and perpetually bitter hawkeye is almost never allowed to wear his actual comic outift and is instead stuck with shades instead of you know.. a mask. Or anything resembling an actual good looking costume. This though this is how you do a less superheroy costume: practical and realistic, but still cool looking and comic book friendly.

We cut to a mysterious lady, we’ll come to know her as Cassandra Nova and while I know her origin... i’m saving it for later as the comics themselves explain it eventually, and a simpering dolt she brought with her, Donald Trask, a distant relative of the creators of the sentinels who, via holograms she’s showing cro magnons slaughtring the neanderthal. Her point is that Mutants are going to do this and she’s clearly fearmongering him and trying to talk him into genocide: to wipe them out before they wipe out humanity. And it’s here we get one of hte most important plot points of Morrisons run and one of the most intresting: according to cassandra’s research Humanity will be no more in 4 generations. Mutankind is on it’s way to overtaking them at last.. i’ts still a few decades off.. but it’s coming. It’s sometihing that the whole decimation nonsense sadly snuffed.. and John Hickman has thankfully brought back. I’ll get to his run once i’ts complete in a few years, but point is it’s an utterly marvelous plot hook: Humanity, whose already attempted genocide a few times, is now in real danger of what their petty, racist, fearful attacks have been about: being replaced. It’s one of the central themes of the work the other two being “Just what IS mutantkind and what will it be”. WHat are they as a people? We’ll dig into these as we go but the threat of exctincion is the backbone of this arc... and will lead to something truly ghastly.

It’s then we get our title page.. which nothing really to add it just looks really good and helps show off who are cast is and what they can do with striking simple art.

And since we’re already talking the art of the book, let’s take a moment to discuss an intresting detail of this run: despite it’s short length there’s quite a few diffrent artist, who we’ll talk about of course as we get to each one. The most common and notable though is Frank Quitely. Frank Quitely is one of Morrison’s closest and best creative partners, having a unique, squishy art style.. i.e. the one my friend didn’t like which is why i’m covering this. And while I like the art style quite a bit, I do get why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea: His art is squashed, weird, and admitely some faces can be good god no incaranate. But it’s also why I like it: his characters feel unique, each body and figure feels like it was custom made and thus feels.. real. Like this is a person before you. And given comics can often surrender to having everybody look the damn same, this is nice. His faces may sometimes look similar but his bodies are where the action is. But while having a realistic feel his work also has a weird alien quality that perfectly fits Morrison, and thus his run on x-men. I will say while I love All-Star Superman, his art fits less there in the more hopeful silver agey story, so he’s not an artist for EVERY STORY OF EVERY TYPE.. but when it comes to sci fi weridness, he fits it like a glove so i’ts unsuprising he and morrison are practicaley soul mates, nor that his art sets the tone perfectly for the run: this is something new, diffrent and strange.. and what says x-men at it’s best more than that?

So after our opening titles we cut to the mansion where Hank is showing off his latest and greatest invention: Cerebra. Cerbebra is a massively upgraded version of Cerebro, aka Professor Xavier’s iconic helmet that allows him to track mutants to help them out.. and covertly backup their conconousness for his long game plan, but shhhh, don’t tell anyone yet that’s not going to be retconned in for a few decades. Though i’m damn certain if Morrison has heard about the current era of x-men and how it both builds on what he built, shatters the status quo and is incredibly weird, he’d be damn proud. As for how it’s diffrent Cerebra not only has a large dome around it but said dome allows the machine to amply Charles powers to a global reach. He can now see mutants all over the world anywhere in the world, something I didn’t realize wasn’t ALWAYS a thing because it seems so simple. It’s also likely to bring it more in line with the movies. And while marvel has done TERRIBLE with bringing things in from the movies or in line with them in recent years, i.e. making star lord more like his movie self while forgetting that’s how he already used to be in canon before later writers thankfully did hte better step of merging the two, Hawkeye’s outfit, Cap’s outfit or Nick Fury Jr. But for every mistep there’s also been tons of times it’s worked out really well such as here, as well as bringing hulk into the avengers for the first time since the founding, making tony stark more like the mcu version and less like a nightmarish self righetous dicktator who rightfully gets beat up and called out a lot, making Scott Lang prominent since he became prominent in the MCU, Wakanda being a major force in the marvel universe as it always should have been and various titles that have popped up to tie into movies, often bringing back a team or property that hadn’t had a book in some time like Ant-Man, Black Panther, and Shang Chi just to name a few. It’s not always hawkeye looking all jeremy renner is what i’m saying.. though thankfully comics clint isn’t that uninteresting. Hopefully the series will change that.

So yeah along with a bigger shinier cerebro we’re also introduced to a big change in Hank whose taken on his lion form rather than his classic gorilla with a weird haircut or his return to that except bald. Here he’s more like aslan in a human body and I.. love it. It looks great, helps sell hanks delima of being brilliant while looking like a beast and makes sense: he kickstarted what was likely his own secondary evolution by drinking the potion that made him bestial, so it only makes sense his body wouldn’t be all that stable even if it took years to change again. And even that makes sense as hank was breifly turned back to his original hairless ape mutation during x-factor, easily one of the books.. worse decisions honestly and one that louise simonson thankfully later undid. That probably bought him some time hence why it’s only mutating further now. It also adds an intresting wrinkle which the run will explore further: how far does this go? Will he regress? and how much hank will be left? And how will society treat his new form?

For now he’s actually extatic. While he’s going through hormonal changes, and giving out some excellent banter with Jean

Which also includes one of the greatest lines in comic book history, one that’s been in my head for decades and made me absolutely love henry mccoy.

He’s just great is what i’m saying. As you can tell it’s stuff like this why i’m glad Moira fell through. While I love her.. Morrison’s hank is just a delight and one really questionable subplot aside, we’ll get to that, he’s one of the highlights of this run with an intresting internal struggle, and great chemistry with EVERYONE. And that is the main reason i’m glad Moira fell through as his history with everyone but Emma, who he still has a great raport with, means each interaction has weight. He’s close friends with both scott and jean and thus serves as their needed confidant, while still being able to buddy and banter iwth good old weapon x, and speak with his mentor charles as an equal. While I love moira... Beast just fits into the cast too perfectly and I 100% suspect Morrison was only using her because, while she’s awesome, Claremont wanted her and thus gladly snapped her up when he no longer had a science person. I’ll get into his Jean soon enough but she’s likewise fantastic and easily my faviorite version of the character.. not that until very recently there was much honest competition.

So Cerebra fires up showing a massive cloud of mutants, showing just how much of a huge spike theirs been with Xavier wondering what it all means.. and Hank seeing a weird flare on the mointor for just a second with his special eyes. But since Xavier isn’t stupid and isn’t the kind of idiot who just dismisses it as a fulke, and since Scott and Logan are in the field, he decides to confrence call them in to see if they can go take a look.

And naturally we get to see what their up to and get context for what the hell happened in the first page. Our heroes were on a rescue mission to save Ugly John, tha’ts what people called him, a three faced mutant who ends up passing out as they head out of the atmosphere for a second. Wolverine is regenerating and smoking out of his neck becaue he could still smoke back then before marvel decided “he’s setting a bad example”.. in a comic meant for teens and adults.

I mean I get it on some level as the x-men cartoon was a huge thing in the 90′s and Ben Grimm is basically a giant children’s toy with the mind of a surly 40 year old jewish man from yancy street, but stilll it’s just.. why. I may not like smoking but it’s not like it was SPIDER-MAN saying

It’s a grown man.. whose not a sterling roll model and who Claremont went out of his way to have Logan point out his healing factor means it really dosen’t hurt him in the long run and when Kitty, an actual teenager, tried one of his cigars she choked. I know it’s a weird thing to get hung up on but while i’m all for keeping kids from smoking, this was a really clumsy way to try and hehlp that that made no sense and will never make any sense.

One tangent later we find out that Cassandra was showing Trask a simulation on a flight to, unsuprisingly, south america, to a sentinel blacksite. Between covertly funding civil wars as they do, the US Goverment naturally founded an experimental sentinal project, and a second master mold during the production of the first line... when larry trask asks where it could possibly be well...

Subtly was not the trasks strong point.. or common sense... or.. not realizing their creations would dominate humanity too or not dying.

Anyways we then cut back to the x-men, as their having a psychic zoom meeting with Charlie giving one of his patnted big speeches.. and like a lot of this comic it’s too damn good not to use

The reason I couldn’t should be obvious: This one speech sums up the x-men, why their great and why their necessary in a nutshell: in a world full of prejucided morons.. there’s plenty of scared kids who NEED the x-men to protect and guide them, and with a surge in the mutant population, their needed now more than ever. We also get a good explanation in universe for the uniform change: Charles had them in the superhero outfits hoping humanity would accept them if they were packaged as something they know. Since that clearly hasn’t worked he’s trying new ways to reach out and thus going with a diffrent more rescue team approach to the uniforms. He assigns Wolvie and Cyke to go check out the flair as you’d expect and the meetings over. On the blackbird we get our first hint at a subplot as Logan noticed Cyclops couldn’t wait to get out of there, and is being a tad distant to his wife. He actually has reasons for being kind of cold for once instead of just bad writing as he just came back from being possed by apocalypse. Yeah that happened. So the experience has rattled our boy some what. More on that as we go. But Jean ducks the subject with hank but does breach the fact that Charles has been going kind of crazy with the spending, new uniforms and ambition lately. Hank explains it perfectly: After all the death, suffering and misery the x-men have endured lately, the aforementioned deaths I talked about that took Colossus and Moira off the roster, have lionzed Charles to make sure it was all worth something and look towards the future.

But enough hope time for horror as Cassandra makes her first direct move, trying to take over Charles brain , make his body her own and use cerebra to kill lots and lots of mutants. We then get one of the best moments of Morrisons run with Charles response to a horrifying monster trying to take his brain

While it is shocking to find out Charles has a gun..it��s a grim but kind of understandable precaution. The guy once got fully taken over by a brood, assembling the New Mutants in part because the brood wanted to create more of i’ts kind with more super powers. You’d be paranoid too if some of your beloved students were brought together partly due to your good intentions and partly because a space monster wanted to make more space montsters out of helpless teens, and even horribly gaslighted one of them. We’ll get to that some day. Point is Charles brain is one of the greatest weapons on earth and if the wrong person got a hold of it, it’d be the end of said earth. Thankfully Charles does not need plan gun, as Jean yanks Cerebra off him but the sheer HATE Charles felt from Cassandra, the sheer power has rattled him.. and also told him she’s in Ecuador and his X-Men need to be warned NOW. It’s a great way to set up just HOW powerful Cassandra is. Speaking of which as our first issue of the arc ends, we find out two things: Cass faked being int he government but really just used dead soldiers as prop.. and just what kind of sentinels are out there.. wild sentinels. Easily my faviorite variant of the old killing machines and one that’s barely used despite being really damn awesome. Their adaptive killing machines, designed to mutated just like their pray and take tech from around them, as a result they look like a jumble of guns and parts.. but not only does it give them a unique, cool look.. but it makes them ten times deadlier as instead of being big bricks of robots that while intimidating, the x-men know how to kill... their unpredictable variable killing machines. You can figure out how to kill one sure.. btu the next might be entirely diffrent. They are one of morrisons best creations and I hope someone uses the idea again.. aka hickman. Please use it jonathan I know your focused on nimrod but come on.

And we end on one of the best lines of the entiire run as we close out the issue

Yeah it goes without saying but i’ll say it anyway; Morrison is really damn good with dialouge and being damn quotable.

So we open with another great quote “When I got up today I didn’t expect to kill 20 million people”... and Cassandra being aware Wolverine and Cyclops are on their way and sending the Wild Sentinels to dispatch them. Also our heroes brought Ugly John along while while a dumb move, Wolvie does point out how dumb it was to divert to Ecuador with a civlian in tow.. after the plane crash of course. As for “wait what plane crash’, the sentinels attack and start picking it apart... and since letting them have such good tech is a terrible idea, Scotty blows up the damn plane. So to recap our heroes are stuck in ecuador, surrounded by murder machines, and oh look their there and knock off cyclops viser. Fantastic. So yeah our heroes are fucked. And naturally captured by the enemy.

The rest of the x-men are doing SLIGHTLY better. While beast makes a note for his girlfriend, more on that later on, Charles is in bed, half alive, explaning the rationale I gave for why he has the gun with Jean refusing to let him get back out of bed and you know.. put on the device that just nearly killed him. But when beast announces they lost contact with our boys.. yeah that ceased being an option.

Back in the Ecuadorian Genocide Factory, Cassandra does the obvious and kills donald trask as his real purpose..was to stick around and be stupid for a bit while she copied his dna so she could have full control of her new murder toys.She soon uses them, having a horrifying death chamber slaughter john.. or at least flash fry him. Wolverine takes it how you’d expect and since the sentinels need to “perserve trask dna”.. they can’t fire on him without killing her. Scott escapes.. and in a heart wrenching scene mercy kills john.. before getting badass.

To anyone who says Scott Summers is boring, unintersting, or a stupid asshole idiot head I present exhbit shut the fuck up. Morrison gets scott just right, deconstructing his emotional suppression, while showing him off as a dedicated, companionate man who gets the job done and who seconds after tearfully having to mercy kill an innocent mutant whose death was partially his fault, wastes no time making it painfully clear to the person responsible she WILL die if she tries that again. Logan however realizes she’s already won in some fashion as she’s grinning.. and yeah never a good sign when a genocidal madwoman is grinning like a loon.. and when we find out why.. it’s even less good> We cut to Genosha. A lot of you probably know what happned to Genosha but in case you don’t know what it is it was once a horribly racist country that genetically enslaved mutants and used them for slave labor. It was freed, but still struggled to truly move on.. till Magneto showed up, took the country for himself and made it a home for all mutants. When we last saw him he once again tried to take over the world leading to Logan seemingly killing him. Right now though Emma Frost finally enters the scene teaching some mutants.. when a young one named Negasonic Teenage Warhead.. yes that one and yes she was entirely chosen for deadpool for her name, reveals, via precognition, that their all going to die.. right as the sentinels attack.

Genosha.. is gone. In an eyeblink 16 million mutants are dead, a possible future gone, and one of their greatest leaders is no more. Yeah Magneto WAS alive.. but paralyzed so he could do nothing when his island was utterly slaughtered. Only a handful of mutants will be revealed to survive. Humanity had done a lot to mutants before .. but for once.. they’d succeeded in wiping a massive chunk out. What was an x-men location for DECADES at this point.. was now a smoldering crater. A what could of been that would hant the x-men ever after, even now into utopia it remains the darkest day in mutant history outside of hte decimation. It is a truly horrific moment.. and if the changes already hadn’t made it clear this is morrison saying “NO character is safe, nothing is safe, and nothing will be the same and I damn well mean that”. In one act of hate the world has changed. And it hasn’t finished changing yet.

Issue Three opens hammering in things, as Jean and Beast are in the ruins of genosha, with Xavier having found ONE surivor among the rubble, and our heroes sturggling to find even them, though Jean eventually picks them up and uses her TK to sift through the rubble.

They find Emma who emerges from a bunker in shock, clutching NTW... and not realizing she’s dead until later and revealing she now has diamond skin, her own secondary mutation. Secondary Mutation was a birlliant idea, new powers sprouting up within established mutants.. it’s just morrison barely used this great idea as did hardly anyone else. Only X-Men Blue ever really dug into it and those were artifical at that. IT’s a great idea..it’s just barely used and at most heavily implied to explain changes in powers like Jamie Madrox Multiple Personalities later on or Doug Ramsey’s vast increase in power. Disapointing.

While Charles takes in the tragedy and the fact his old frienmie is dead, the x-men wonder what the fuck Cassandra is and what to do with her.. why did she kill 16 million people, and what the fuck is she. I mean I know, but as I said i’ll explain that when the story does. IN the other room Beast tends to Emma who wants none of not fucking killing Cassandra.. and is utterly right. Bitchy, because i’ts Emma, but right: she killed 16 million people. Say what you want but while it may not be up to the x-men to kill her.. she shoudln’t be living much longer. She commited genocide. Emma decides fuck that and prepares to leave summoning a cab and making peace with being a glorious living fabrige egg. Emma did apparelty change in generation x.. but Morrison is responsible for returning her not only to being a bitch, but a gloriously delightful one And really I don’t think they reset her character entirely: she’s not the heartless monster she started out as: she has empathy, grace, and caring.. she just buries it under a lair of absolute bitch and after you know, surviving a fucking genocide who can blame her? And honestly.. I love their verison of her. She provides a nice contrast to the more idealistic, even logan, x-men and a nice contrarian voice in the room without being obnoxious and her style and sacrastic swagger makes her endlessly entertaning. Thanks to morrison she’s stuck around to this day and went from a pretty good character.. to a great one. And what makes her this way, or as jean puts it “such a bitch?”

With that settled, Hank explains what Cassandra is: a competing species. As he puts it sometimes evolution takes a quantum leap forward.. and Cassandra is the result. Thus she wants to wipe out the compettition and is so far above humanity, she dosen’t need them... especially since she knows what Hank now knows: humanity is at an end. As hank puts it we have an E Gene, one that basically shuts off a race.. and thus the x-men now know what we learned earlier and that cassandra wasn’t lying: in 4 generations there are no more humans and something has to repalce htem. And Cassandra wants it to be her.

Before Logan can do what he does best, and asks why she looks like charles, Cassandra escapes, and Scott briliantly urges them to fight only on instict as she’s a telepath. A damn awesome fight insues including Cassandra donning Charles Psoonic battle armor, Scott being put in his black bug room and the general good looking chaos you’d expect from a superhero fight. While this goes on Emma has an ephinany and realizes she likes to teach, the x-men have a school.. and she shoudln’t give up on helping kids just because of what happened and turns around.

Cassandra is near victory, slipping her way to Cerebra.. and planning to kill only one mind before getting to the millions she wnats, a horrifying slug manifesting around her.. only...

So the x-men accept this and cassandra rises.. seemingly saying “I am charles” Huh... and then charles uncaracteristiacally shoots her saying things must change

We’ll get to what all of that means next time as we close on Jean and Scott in bed. Scott explains why he’s been so distant as what I said earlier: fighting off apocalypse stripped away a lot of illusions about himself and he’s having a hard time walking back from that but Jean is willing to help.. but before they can resolve their issues.. charles has an annoucnment to make and grant has one last whopper of a suprise to end his opening arc on, and just like genosha...it’s a game changer of titanic proportions

No longer is Xavier’s School hidden. Their walking into the light now and so is charles. Hope they surivive the experince. Obviously this move is brilliant: while it removes the veil of saftey the x-men had it also brings on tons of new possiblities and unlike secondary mutation, this one not only stuck but would impact the x-men for good: no longer would they hide and cower.. their mutant and proud.. and their here to stay. E For Extinction is one of the best x-men stories period. Blisteringly paced, full of great character, great concepts and utterly terrifying and terrific moments that would impact the x-men all the way to present day. It’s beautifully drawn, well paced, and a masterwork. I highly recommend it and it’s a great kickoff to a great run. Shame the run couldn’t of ended on this kind of high but.. we’ll get to that. For now this is a masterclass in how to start a run and if you haven’t read it do so NEXT TIME ON NEW X-MEN: A bunch of weirdos try to harvest mutant organs, the x-men get a brain in a jar and a new teamate, and Scott maybe cheats on his wife. Until then, goodbye goodbye goodbye.

29 notes · View notes

danurso · 5 years ago

Text

Salem's favorite buttler - Part 2

(Hi, before you ask yes i am alive. I was suposed to end the story here but it got way too big so i'll split it into 2 parts)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

*in front of salem's castle*

Ruby: so, we're finally here.

Ozcar: yes we are miss rose.

Yang: four years to get here, i can't believe we finally arrived.

Qrow: stay on your toes kids, we don't know what kind of traps there could be around here.

Jeanne: don't you think this has been too easy?

Ozcar: what do you mean miss arc?

Jeanne: haven't you noticed? We didn't faced a single grimm ever since we got here, and even on our way here we only fought common grimms like bewolves and ursas, don't you think that's strange considering we're on the grimlands and going on our way to face the grimm queen.

Weiss: . . .you're right, now that you mentioned it, we didn't fought any really powerful grimm in awhile.

Jeanne: not only that but salem has been less and less active for a long time now.

Ozcar: so you also noticed that miss arc?

Jeanne: it's been bugging me for awhile now.

Ozcar: i feel the same, and that is just an extra reason to be careful. We don't know where salem's underlings are or what they are doing, and we also don't know what she's planning after being quiet for so long, but one thing i know for sure, salem wouldn't just give up from her revenge. So as qrow said, stay on your toes and be careful.

RWBY/JN_R: *nods*

Ozcar: *reaches out for the massive castle door*

*the door suddenly starts to open before ozcar can touch it.*

Ozcar: what the- *staring at the young man with blonde hair, blue eyes and wearing a butler suit who just opened the door*

Jaune: *with a polite smile* welcome visitors, my queen is waiting for you.

Qrow: *pointing his sword at jaune* who are you?

Jaune: please come in first, answering your questions at the door would be rather rude. *turns around and starts walking* please follow me.

Nora: . . .who's the weird guy?

Yang: no idea.

Ruby: and that might just be my imagination, but didn't he looked way too much like jeanne?

Jeanne: . . .

Yang: . . .jeanne? What's wrong?

Jeanne: *with a conflicted expression* i-it's nothing. What do we do now?

Ozcar: we follow him for the time being, but keep your guard up.

*the group follows the butler into the castle, and they all stay silent for some time*

Qrow: where are you taking us?

Jaune: you'll see.

Qrow: *stops* we're not going to blindly follow you around this castle just like that. For starters, tell us who you are.

Jaune: *halts* well, i think it's fair. *turns around and bows* i am salem's personal buttler, my name is jaune arc. It's a pleasure to meet you all.

Ozcar: jaune?

RWBY/_N_R: ARC!?

Nora: b-but, isn't jaune the name of jeanne's-

Jeanne: *speed past them, swinging crocea mors at jaune and stopping a centimeter away from his neck* don't you dare say that name.

Jaune: *doesn't budge, just raises a confused eyebrow.*

Jeanne: that name *glaring daggers at him* belongs to my brother only!!

Jaune: still, that's my name.

Jeanne: stop lying! Jaune arc is the name of my brother!

Jaune: and how are you so certain that i'm not him?

Jeanne: because my brother is dead, he died a long time ago in a grimm attack, and even if he was alive, he would never join salem and her forces.

Jaune: *chuckles*

Jeanne: *gritting her teeth* what's so funny!?

Jaune: grimm attack? Is that what they told you? I guess it does sounds better than what actually happened.

Jeanne: w-what do you mean with that?

Jaune: i mean that it sounds better than they telling how they were backstabbed by the other huntsman and abandoned me here on the grimlands.

Jeanne: *flinches* what? no. . .our parents wouldn't do that.

Jaune: yet they did.

Jeanne: you're lying!! *swings sword at him*

Jaune: *steps back, dodging with ease* your name is jeanne arc, and you have twin brother called jaune arc, and that's me. since we were twins we had to share most of things, and we usually got in trouble for fighting a lot, but even with the fights we still had each other's back, like on the time you threw a rock at me because i made you angry, it hit my forehead making me bleed a bit, but i still told our parents that i just tripped because i didn't wanted you to get into trouble. *lifts some hair strands revealing a small faded scar on the corner of his forehead*

Jeanne: *eyes wide* n-no. . .it can't be you. . .you're dead. . .

Jaune: i can guarantee you that i'm not.

Jeanne: then why? Why didn't you came back? Why did you joined salem!?

Jaune: because she made me feel important for the first time on my life.

Jeanne: *shocked* w-what? What do you mean!? You were always important to all of us! Mom and dad spoiled you every single day! As did our older sisters! How can you say you never felt important before!?

Jaune: *sigh* you never realized it did you?

Jeanne: realized what!?

Jaune: that they were pushing me down. Every day they tried to force me to be happy being something they wanted me to be, i wanted to be a huntsman but all they cared was to make me into something else, they spoiled me because they thought that one day i would cave into their desires and forget my dream, all that just because i'm the only one of the arcs who was born a boy, and our dad needed someone to take over the family if he died.

Jeanne: . . .

Jaune: So don't misunderstand things my sister, yes i was important for my parents but because of what they wanted for me to be in the future, i am important for my queen because she allowed me to grow up following my dream while giving me the support i never had, me being loyal to her is just something that came along with the process of growing up around such an amazing woman.

Jeanne: . . .so that's it? You're betraying mankind just because that monster helped you to get stronger!?

Jaune: *smiles* but i'm not betraying mankind, mostly because i never really cared for it to begin with.

Ruby: and you don't care for the people she killed!?

Jaune: all i care about is my queen, and my sole life objective is to please her every day of her life.

Jeanne: *jaw clenched* that's wrong. . .you're not my brother, my brother was kind, gentle and cared for others even more than himself, you can't be jaune.

Jaune: time changes everyone sister, you didn't thought i would stay the same forever, did you?

Jeanne: no, that's not right, time may change people but you're not like this, salem must be controlling you somehow, i refuse to believe that my brother is like this!

Jaune: but i am sister, and i can assure you i'm not being controlled.

Jeanne: LIES!! *points sword at him* that woman manipulates everyone in her way, and she did the same with you! I don't know how but i will find a way to free you, even if i have to beat you down and take you back to atlas wearing handcuffs.

Jaune: *keeping the polite smile* i would prefer if you all just followed me, i don't want to fight right now, my queen is in the middle of a very important task, and she needs absolute silence.

Jeanne: like i care for whatever the hell she's doing! I'm taking you back with me!

Jaune: i would love to go with you but my queen really needs me around here. you see, she sent all of her subordinates away and i'm the only one left in the castle, so i can't leave her alone here, specially now.

Qrow: so you're the only one around? Good *pulls out scythe* that means after you we can meet salem.

Nora: *pulls ot hammer* sorry fearless leader's brother, but we're going to break your legs just a tiny bit.

RWBY/Ren/Ozcar: *pulls out weapons*

Jaune: you're all really adamant on taking me down, aren't you?

Jeanne: you can bet we are! *charges at him*

RWBY/_N_R/Qrow/Ozcar: *also charges at him*

Jaune: i wouldn't mind taking you all right now, but as i said previously. . . *snaps his fingers, releasing a gust of wind and pushing them back.

*before they can try and charge again, they feel ice crawling up on their legs and trapping them in place*

Jaune: *glaring at them with a grin and white flames on his eyes* . . .my queen needs silence, so you can either follow me quietly or you can perish right here.

Yang: *trying to break free, but the more ice she breaks more ice grows around her legs* what the hell!?

Ruby: professor ozpin! Is he using-

Ozcar: yes miss rose, he is using magic.

Weiss: *using dust to break the ice*but how!? I thought only maidens could use magic!

Ozcar: and they are miss schnee.

Jaune: not actually mr.ozma, according to my queen, the magic that the maidens posses came from you, so it wouldn't be impossible for other people to have magic, well, as long as my queen was kind enough to give it to them.

Ozcar: what!? Salem would never give her magic away to anyone.

Jaune: correct, she would never do that, she would never be stupid enough to give away all of her magic like you did, that's why she gave me only half of her magic.

Ozcar: *speechless*

Jaune: and so, i will say that again. . . *fire from his eyes fade along with the ice* you can all quietly follow me or you can perish here, which one will you choose?

Jeanne: *clenching her jaw* . . .what do we do professor? Is there any way to beat him?

Ozcar: i'm afraid there isn't miss arc, of he really has half of salem's magic, then he's far more powerful than we can face right now.

Yang: great, what do we do then?

Ozcar: for now, *folds his cane and stores it* we follow him.

Blake: what if he's taking us to a trap.

Ruby: i doubt it, if he wanted to kill us he would've done so already.

Ozcar: exactly miss rose, even if he couldn't kill all of us at once, he would probably take one or two of us out before the rest could react.

Yang: so we're just going to follow him like that.

Qrow: i don't think we have much choice now firecracker, if that jaune kid really is so powerful then only someone like raven would be able to try and fight him, and like you know, your mom is pretty busy right now.

Yang: tch. *folds her weapon* fine then.

Jaune: *back to his polite persona* wonderful, please follow me then, my queen is waiting for you. *walks away with the group after him*

#rwby #jaune arc #salem #jaune x salem #grimm knight #salem's favorite buttler

254 notes · View notes

bladekindeyewear · 4 years ago

Text

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-09-15

This caught me laaaate at night gosh I’m tired but I’m gonna get it outta the way so it won’t stick in my craw! Already saw the first page, so it’s time for:

> CHAPTER 13. The Funeral

Church with chess symbols at the peaks and a Prospit/Derse or Hope/Rage split color theme on the stained glass windows.

JANE: Dearly beloved...

> (==>)

Trolls, humans, and papparazzi. Oh, hm, this church is RATHER carapacian isn’t it? Between the chess and the continuing Prospit-Derse themes, like how this corresponds to how they align in the incipisphere top-left to bottom-right if I recall:

(Minus the outlying orbs to the left and right for symmetry.)

That twisted pattern is interesting, and not quite a spirograph. Is that gonna be important later? If we’re going to get some sort of class chart later in the comic, it’d be easy for them to hint at the chart’s graphical structure subtly by dropping it places like here.

JANE: Ladies... JANE: Gentlemen... JANE: News outlets... JANE: And other valued members of the Human Nation State.

Technically true, but still odd to hear-- ...oh right, I forgot this was asshole dictator-wannabe Jane, too.

I read an interesting twitter thread recently about the intense psychological distinction between wanting to BE the best, and wanting to be TREATED like you’re the best. Epilogues/HS^2 Jane is kind of written as a case study on the pitfalls of leaning on the latter instead of the former.

> (==>)

They brought Yiffy WITH them-!? --Oh right. The hostage exchange was supposed to happen here wasn’t it.

Yiffy definitely looks like a Harley-Lalonde daughter in this shot.

JANE: Gamzee Makara, High Court Jester, exalted saint of the purple veil, has left us to traverse that grand, gay carnival in the sky, where, I am told by various members of the clownly cloth, he will spend the rest of history, honking in grand tribute to the Mirthful Messiah.

SINGULAR???

Weird. Is it because Alt!Callie “won” here?

Or is Jane just forgetting because she’s culturally used to monotheism (ironically) and is insensitive.

JANE: And my first memory of our Purple Prince, was his robust codpiece--

Wow.

> (==>)

JANE: --As he offered me his friendly support, along with the sacred blood of his brethren, the holy sacrament--

He STILL killed trolls??! (EDIT: No, a friend points out that she's talking about when she met him first in Act 6 and he tried selling bottles of troll blood to her. EDIT2: -which may be another inconsistency, since Vriska supposedly overwrote that post-retcon.)

> (==>)

It takes Jake a few seconds of puzzled eye contact before he catches exactly what it is Yiffany is tossing down. In his defense, he is distracted by his wife’s speech, which is doing the emotional equivalent of wringing him out like a wet towel, before using that towel to slap the sweaty buttocks of a large, odorous man. Even if he knows everything she’s saying is a load of horsefeathers, it does nothing for his composure to hear her heap praise on that smelly, homewrecking clown.

Bad things about Gamzee deserve to be said here, yes.

Jake wonders what she’ll say about him, at his own funeral.

Now those are some uncomfortable thoughts.

He narrows his eyes in Yiffany’s direction. She’s a lovely girl, really. He wishes he could have gotten to know her under better circumstances. He’d known she existed, of course--Jane had complained about her often enough--but they’d never had much chance to get acquainted. He rather believes her and Tavvy would have been fast friends.

Then again, perhaps it’s better that she never had much of a chance to get to know his family.

He lets go of the leash.

Yep, there’s a plan to set in motion that he’s probably already discussed with her privately. Gotta unite this four-kid team after all.

> (==>)

Wait, are you ATTACKING?!? --Of course you’re attacking. You would even if the plan was something different, wouldn’t you.

JANE: And I know that at times like these it is easy to want to give in. JANE: To throw in the towel, and turn our faces away from the light of democracy and moral fortitude that we, the citizens of the human kingdom, are blessed with from birth. JANE: God knows I’ve had my own faith tested in the last few weeks.

Jesus Christ, what has she turned the place into, a fucking theocracy?

She sounds like the leader of some screwed-up, fundamentalist country! Like the United States!

*rimshot*

JANE: As many of you know, I did not grow up with the same privileges that all of you enjoy.

Jesus.

JANE: I was born on proto-Earth, that half-finished dystopia mangled by the ravages of foolish leadership and endless war.

Jesus, she really IS a self-evident takedown of hypocritical entitled political figures. With the bonuses having Jasprose explicitly ADDRESS said entitlement to make things even clearer cut.

JANE: And as for Gamzee, well, his upbringing was even worse. JANE: He was born to a violent and uncaring home, a lonely child with few natural gifts.

...Some natural gifts and status.

> (==>)

She’s just, shaking with fury here isn’t she? And about to perform an impressive corpse-lob.

JANE: It would be simple to let this disgusting, vile, SHAMEFUL act of spiteful revenge turn us away from the blinding light of the sword of justice that hangs over us all--

This sentence seems suspicious so I’m quoting it to refer to later if I need to, but is probably just platitudes.

> (==>)

JANE: Poised

> (==>)

JANE: Trembling

Okay maybe the sword’s a dick, but what exactly is Yiffany doing?? I’m finding it difficult as usual to tell between some of these image transitions.

> (==>)

JANE: Ready to burst forth--

Bad PR to shock-collar a kid mid press junket. (Very dicks description.)

> (==>)

Click. (Did they swap the shock function with Jane’s necklace somehow, that’d be fun.)

JANE: I want to give up, at times. I understand your pain.

While shocking a kid? GREAT PR.

> (==>)

JANE: I sympathize with your pain.

Wow, those horrified audience members. She REALLY can’t even see herself anymore can she? Not even hear herself. And they’re making sure this is pointed out to EVERYONE watching. They described this as in large part a PR campaign to defeat her, didn’t they?

> (==>)

Great furious businesswoman-villain look, that art.

JANE: But when that pain! Becomes too hard! To endure! JANE: Remember poor, lifeless Gamzee! Who suffered pain far worse than any of us could ever fathom! JANE: THE PAIN OF BETRAYAL!

Click click click. This is a fun sequence.

> (==>)

DIRK: Dude, didn’t you lower the voltage on that shock collar? DIRK: Little Red isn’t looking so hot. JAKE: Yes of course i did but the damn doohickys got the kick of a donkey! JAKE: I couldnt remove it completely shed know i was the one who did it! DIRK: Well, if that supervillain cuntwaffle doesn’t stop, she’s going to kill her. Not really the best at hostage management, is she.

Decent plan. (And of course Dirk would pull out the word cunt.) When’s the cavalry coming?

> (==>)

JANE: But we cannot allow his memory to be in vain! JANE: For Gamzee Makara taught us that even the most loathsome degenerate can take their place in society. JANE: All they need is the right redemption arc - !

Trying to hammer home some of the Epilogue’s trolly-critical themes a little less bleakly, I take it.

I kind of like the violent vibration in ALL of these gifs in a row. It makes the scene seem small, slow, teeth-clenching but still full of steady action, emphasizing the importance of the relatively small events from panel to panel while giving them the sense with the animation of them being [i]drawn out[/i] and tortuous instead of just “occurring”. It feels that way to me, anyway.

> (==>)

If he got up alive here, that’d be hilarious. (Presumably he’s been treated and done-up like a normal funeral body, not “dormant” and undecaying like a dead god-tier.)

> (==>)

CORPSE PUNT w/ CLEATS

> (==>)

That face is just. I love that face.

> (==>)

SHE MAD

JANE: Young lady, I am just about at the end of my rope with you. JANE: Throw all the dog bowls you want at the walls of my warship. JANE: But don’t you dare act up in front of a JANE: Live JANE: Fucking JANE: Newsfeed! YIFFY: Grrrrrr

What did you expect to happen? Do you expect to shout her down from this, Jane?

JANE: After everything I’ve done for you--paying for your education, helping your parents cover up your existence from the world! JANE: Just imagine what Rose and Jade would say if they could see you now, even dissidents can have a little decorum! JANE: Get down from there at once! YIFFY: Grrrrrr

But this is GAMZEE. --I guess it’s seriously disrespectful to his followers, though. Still. If you wanted civility from her, a shock collar, leash, and food bowl wasn’t the way to go about it.

JANE: Don’t you threaten me, young lady. Not today! YIFFY: GRRRRRRRRR

What is your PLAN even, Jane? You’ve completely disregarded her.

JANE: There’s nowhere for you to go. My agents are swarming this church. Be reasonable, Yiffany. JANE: Ugh. JANE: Disgusting name. JANE: But that’s hardly your fault. You were always just a footnote. Your parents’ little prank. JANE: Honestly, that’s why I helped them all those years ago! I do love a good jape. JANE: But let’s be serious. JANE: You don’t matter. If you did, they would have come for you already.

Can all the press hear her being such an asshole?

Okay, stereotypically, their arrival should be the next couple panels:

> (==>)

Jake, do something useful like hoping harder.

> (==>)

And she knocks the remote away. Excellent.

And she does. Seemingly at the end of her tolerance for insults toward her name, social status, and heritage, Yiffy performs an impressive backflip off the podium and down onto the church floor. One that, if it hadn’t been happening amidst a sea of other newsworthy events, would surely have ended up on someone’s instagram story within thirty seconds. She gives Gamzee’s corpse one last parting kick: a hard, proper kick that proves those cleats aren’t just for fashion. Although they are certainly also for fashion.

Good, good.

He vanishes into the seething crowd, and we are confident that we will never have to deal with this asshole ever again.

God damnit.

> (==>)

Jake watches this from a safe distance, poised on the edge of intervening to pull Yiffy out of there. But in the end he doesn’t have to. Instead he watches in admiration as she tears the place to utter shreds. An echoing sympathy swells inside of him as she rends apart the funeral flowers and punts Gamzee into the shrieking congregation. Here is a girl who felt the cold, indecent hand of fate wrapping around her, and instead of submitting to it and slowly sublimating down into morasse of boiled doormat, she slapped it away from her with a lively oh, no thank you.

All at once, Jake feels immense affection for his granddaughter. He hopes the two of them can make up for lost time.

Lessons belatedly learned, but learned nonetheless.

> (==>)

JANE: Enough of this. JANE: Seize her!

Kind of Red Queen of you. (Are those stained glass windows in back of the frame about to burst?)

> (==>)

Yep.

The stained glass window shatters inward, obliterated to stardust. The war is knocking.

Even attacking a disgusting faith’s church is pretty bad form, though.

Tired and busy, seeya next upd8. <3

#Homestuck #hs2 #Homestuck Liveblog #upd8 #Homestuck^2 #spoiler #spoilers

15 notes · View notes

thedeevirus · 5 years ago

Note

Hi, I’m a big fan of your work! I’d absolutely die for some more Star Wars Nygmobblepot if your still open to prompts and such.

Thanks so much! Please enjoy!

Also uploaded to Nygmobblepot Ficlets on AO3

***

‘Rigid. Sterile. Unimaginative’.

‘I’m sorry Master. I don’t know what’s-Ow!’

Ed rubbed his forehead where Oswald had jabbed it with his forefinger.

‘You keep letting this-‘

Oswald withdrew his finger and pointed it at Ed’s chest instead.

‘-get in the way of this!’

‘I, uh, see’, Ed said, touching his chest thoughtfully.

‘Really?’ Oswald asked sceptically.

‘I will, don’t worry’, Ed said, ‘Are you alright by the way?’

‘W-why do you ask?’ Oswald said, sheathing his saber.

He walked to a nearby rock and took a swig from a canteen. A group of disturbed fluorescent insects that cheeped musically as they swirled into the air. Ed sheathed his own saber and regarded their surroundings. The twilight bathed the forest in vibrant red and purple shades and the scent of large flowers hung heavy in the warm air. The forest floor was soft beneath Ed’s feet as he walked to join Oswald. The insects fluttered amongst the canopy as living miniature lanterns.

‘Your overhead strike was slower than usual’, Ed listed, ‘Your left heel lifted which robbed the move of most of its power and you totally neglected to impose any spiritual pressure to prevent me from parrying the blow’.

Oswald had just finished absorbing Ed’s tactical analysis when Ed gave a start.

‘Wait a second, are you holding back?! Because if you are, there’s no need! I can do it! I just need to-!’

‘No, no!’ Oswald said hastily, ‘I just don’t want to damage my apprentice. At least, not this early into practice’.

‘You would never hurt me’.

Ed blinked as he felt a sudden cool gust of wind slice against his cheek and realised that Oswald had just sliced cleanly through a large boulder to his left. As he watched, the huge stone split apart then crumbled into smaller pieces. Ed blinked again to clear the dust from his eyes as the glimmering insects scattered. Oswald’s speed had been impressive but Ed had felt the energy shockwave of the move. Which meant that Oswald had still clearly restrained his strike. Usually when Oswald attacked, the unfortunate target (and all those around it) never had time to feel anything before the inevitable. Intriguing.

‘So certain all of a sudden’, Oswald smirked, his extended arm the only sign that he had moved at all.

‘I thought Sith are expected to deal in absolutes’, Ed joked easily, ‘You’re my Master. I trust you’.

‘Another mistake’, Oswald said, smile fading, ‘I’ve told you. You can’t trust anyone’.

‘I’m beginning to realise the Sith and Jedi aren’t so different’, Ed mused, leaning against a gnarled tree, ‘I always thought the Jedi were the ones who were forbidden to let people in. They can’t even love someone’.

‘The Jedi are “they” now?’ Oswald said, amused.

‘What’s the point in them defending a galaxy they can’t love? People they can’t love?’

Ed nodded gratefully as Oswald offered him the canteen. He drank long and deeply. It was a welcome relief from the humidity.

‘I personally assume it’s because of an over inflated sense of hypocritical self-importance’, Oswald said.

‘Have you ever loved someone?’ Ed asked, offering Oswald the canteen.

‘What does it matter?’ Oswald said, sloshing the contents thoughtfully.

‘Just curious. The instructors used to warn us about the Sith. Their dark rituals and the accompanying carnal pleasures-‘

Oswald choked and sputtered.

‘Do all Jedi had such vivid imaginations?!’

‘Just me I guess’, Ed laughed.

‘Still, love is one area that the Jedi and I happen to agree on’, Oswald said, shuffling, ‘It’s nothing but a distraction. A chain that ties you down and a weakness that I-we cannot afford. You said it yourself when you talked about the Jedi you killed. You are better off unencumbered. Free of doubt. Like me’.

‘I thought we swore to always tell each other the truth?’ Ed asked, brow furrowing.

‘Truth is created and enforced by the strong’.

‘I don’t understand. You lecture me about letting down my defences and letting my feelings guide me but you’re not willing to do the same?’

‘It’s time to get back to saber practice’, Oswald said, unsheathing his saber.

‘When should I construct my new saber?’ Ed asked, turning his own blade over in his hand.

‘When I say you’re ready’.

‘I meant to ask earlier. Why has yours changed colour?’

‘I prefer purple. That’s all. Take your stance’.

‘But I thought all Sith Masters had red sabers because the crystal changes over time the more you bask in the glory of the Dark Side-?’

‘I commend your Jedi powers of perception but…’

He flung out a hand and Ed felt himself shoved back. He flipped away and stood tall, saber raised, annoyed at how Oswald had caught him off guard.

‘-the colour is the least of your concerns right now’, Oswald grinned.

Ed leapt forward and they began.

‘You will tell me what’s bothering you’, Ed said after a few minutes.

‘Seriously?!’ Oswald guffawed at Ed’s suggestive hand movement, ‘A mind trick?!’

‘Tell me why you’re going easy on me!’ Ed snapped, ‘You’ve done nothing but fight defensively since we started!’

Ed saw a bright flash of purple and smelt the acrid scent of Oswald’s blade. He barely had time to dodge and even then, tasted copper in his mouth. He jumped away and touched his lip. Warm blood stained his finger.

‘Is that more to your liking?’ Oswald asked wickedly.

‘You will tell me why you won’t let me in’, Ed said solemnly, taking a double handed grip.

‘You’re wasting both of our time with these tricks’, Oswald said, circling him, ‘As well as your energy’.

‘No. There’s something else you’re hiding’, Ed said, mirroring Oswald’s steps, ‘I sense it. It’s something recent. Something you didn’t expect. Something that frightened you’.

Like lightning, Oswald closed the distance and their blades clashed.

‘Stop it. Now’, Oswald growled.

‘Make me’.

‘I’m not holding back!’

Ed dropped and swept Oswald’s bad leg. Oswald fell hard with a cry. Ed lowered his saber to Oswald’s throat. As Oswald glared up at him, Ed couldn’t keep a smile from his face. Oswald looked like a pouty child!

‘Then you’re not the master I thought you were’.

Ed looked up, as if considering.

‘Riddle me this-ah!’

He ducked as a stone was launched at his head and cursed at his own hubris. It was utter stupidity to take eyes off Oswald, especially when he was supposedly helpless.

‘Still clinging to pathetic Jedi mind games?’ Oswald mocked.

As if to underscore Ed’s mistake, he flicked his fingers out, showering Ed with a hail of petty shale shrapnel.

‘Fun fact’, Ed said through gritted teeth as he spun the saber to deflect the stones.

‘What?! Another anecdote about those birds on your home planet and their eggs?’

‘You remembered?’ Ed chuckled.

Oswald snarled and they resumed sparring. Ed controlled his breathing and tried to ignore the harsh electric crackling as Oswald’s blade grew closer and closer.Finally, Oswald was getting serious.

‘Fun fact’, Ed repeated with feigned light-heartedness, ‘Jedi ‘mind tricks’ become more effective when the opponent is distracted’.

Oswald blinked in confusion at Ed’s offhanded observation which allowed Ed to thrust suddenly. Oswald parried at the last minute and both men struggled to overpower each other.

‘Now. Riddle. Me. This’, Ed said, straining, ‘I cannot be bought but I can be stolen with a glance. I’m worthless to one but priceless to two. What am I?’

‘,,,passion’.

‘Beg your pardon?’ Ed asked, eyes narrowing at Oswald’s mumbled response.

‘Peace is a lie’, Oswald growled, ‘There is only passion! Through passion I gain strength’.

Ed ground his heels into the soil, readying himself, recognising the Sith mantra. And also what Oswald using it represented.

‘You are afraid’, Ed said, heart hammering in his chest.

The answer to Oswald’s restraint and indecision was there. He just couldn’t quite see it yet!

‘”Through strength I gain power”’.

‘You’re afraid of…me?’

‘”Through power I gain victory!”’ Oswald yelled.

He struck out with his hand suddenly. Ed once again mirrored the move and both men were flung away from each other. Oswald scrambled to his feet and advanced on Ed, saber raised high.

‘Through victory your chains are broken’, Ed whispered, ‘You helped me break my chains, remember?’

Oswald didn’t answer.

‘I think it’s my turn to teach you something’, Ed said.

He threw his saber and Oswald instinctively threw his own to counter. Ed saw his chance. He knew Oswald would counter him with his own move; no doubt as a punishment for irritating him. Ed flexed his fingers and felt the Force take hold of both sabers as they made contact. They clashed and both flew across the clearing into Ed’s waiting hands. He spun both at once flamboyantly, one raised up high, the other in a reversed grip.

‘How dare you presume to teach me anything Jedi?!’ Oswald snarled, stamping a foot.

Oswald’s fingers curled into claws and lightning sparked in his hands. Ed’s eyes widened. He had known Oswald was strong but not privy to the so called ‘Force Lightning’ technique. It was risky move by default but from the way it was striking the ground haphazardly, Oswald was not in the right state of mind to control it. Oswald had obviously had enough of their fight.

Ed inhaled and exhaled slowly. He knelt on crossed legs, sheathing both sabers as he laid them on the ground.

‘Do you yield, Jedi?’

Oswald clicked his fingers dramatically causing sparks to strike near Ed’s seated form. It was close enough for Ed to enact his plan. Ed closed his eyes and opened his palms simultaneously. The lightning arced into his palm like an alighting insect and swirled into a harmless vortex. Contained and controlled. Ed’s eyes snapped open as he stood up and raised both hands high. The lightning flashed upwards as it was drained from Oswald and dissipated harmlessly into the clouds with a rumble that almost sounded resentful.

‘I am no Jedi’, Ed said, unable to keep a grin off his face at Oswald’s naked shock.

Oswald surged forward, ready to resume his assault but stumbled. He reached for his purloined saber as he fell. The saber twitched but did not fly to his hand as it should have. Ed walked to Oswald and knelt down. Oswald tried to rise but Ed placed both hands on his shoulders gently. The lightning had truly exhausted the last of Oswald’s energy reserves and he only struggled for the briefest of moments. Ed lowered Oswald down gently. Ed straddled him, his own energy flagging, as thunder rumbled overhead.

‘You see? You would never hurt me’, Ed said breathlessly, ‘Now, where were you? “Through victory your chains are broken”’.

‘The Force shall free you’, Oswald whispered, sighing heavily in defeat.

‘No’, Ed corrected, ‘You freed me’.

Oswald laughed shakily.

‘You’re so much more than I could have ever hoped for’, he said, ‘Now, take your reward’.

Ed knew what he was expected to do by Sith tradition. He had beaten his master in combat and the weak had no place in the galaxy. Oswald had even turned away to better expose his neck for Ed’s killing stroke. This was tradition as well; the last chance for a defeated Sith to show he was unafraid of the inevitable. But Oswald’s eyes were glistening and Ed was surprised to sense the unshed tears weren’t because of fear. They were tears of regret. Sorrow that their partnership had ended so soon. Disappointment that his apprentice had chosen such a weak master. A master that couldn’t even bring himself to answer such a simple Jedi riddle.Ed realised that Oswald, apparently feeling he had nothing more to lose, had completely dissolved his mental defences and the emotions crashed over Ed like waves against a shoreline. An aching loneliness. A calm, companionable silence. Happiness in a shared joke. A swelling pride. A sudden uncontrollable, terrifying, desire for more. Forever and ever. The awful realisation that the saber, somehow, impossibly had lost its hard earned crimson colour, threatening to expose his vulnerable heart for all the world to see. Fear of being denied if he confessed anyway. The terror of rejection. The dread of how Ed would look at him. The vibrant, electric pulse whenever Ed smiled at him. The resignation that Ed was destined to kill him to become what he was destined to be. And finally, the emotion that had begun as a dull roar became a howl from the depths of the soul, suffusing Ed’s body with warmth. Ed knew the name of this emotion and now in this moment, he knew this was what he, unbeknownst to Oswald, had been feeling as well: Love.

‘My reward’, Ed repeated around the lump in his throat.

Oswald’s eyes closed and Ed knew what he wanted. What he had wanted for a long time. What Sith wanted, they took.

Their lips met and everything else fell away.It was like nothing Ed had ever felt before and his body surged with new, erotic sensations, setting his nerves alight. He felt his powers bleed from him as his control slipped, shaking the trees, scattering leaves and blossoms around the clearing. He was vaguely aware of nearby rocks shaking and rising from the ground, the Force flowing through them, through Oswald, through him… It felt natural. It felt wonderful. It was perfect.

After what simultaneously felt like an eternity and bizarrely not long enough, Ed drew back.

Oswald’s eyelids fluttered as he gasped. Ed stroked the red blush flooding Oswald’s cheek beneath his bright green eyes .

‘Seems like you enjoyed that’, Ed whispered, 'I thought you said love was a weakness you couldn’t afford?’

Oswald shifted and Ed found himself on his back. Oswald held him down and tore his robe from his shoulder. Ed was too shocked to struggle as Oswald fixed his lips on Ed’s shoulder and bit hard. Ed squirmed and whimpered at the harsh yet delicious sensation, knees grinding together desperately.

Oswald drew back and Ed shivered at the sudden chill on his shoulder’s bare skin. He thrilled as Oswald’s eyes melted into a harsh yellow in the dimming light.

‘Do I seem weak to you…Apprentice?’ Oswald purred.

The clouds cleared and the planet’s red moon rose high behind Oswald bathing his pale skin in a bloody light.

‘No’, Ed smiled, overwhelmed and exhausted, ‘Master’.

#nygmobblepot #star wars au #Oswald Cobblepot #edward nygma #nygmobblepot ficlet

19 notes · View notes

meggannn · 6 years ago

Note

(based on your previous ask) do you mind if I ask how you feel about lok? is there a general consensus if it's good or bad? youre really insightful and just wanted to know if there were any major issues you had with it

yeah sure, i’ll do my best. if you want a quick answer to your question, here is a link to some of my other korra posts where i say pretty much the same thing as i do here, just in fewer words. cause this post will be mostly an unhappy summary of my experience watching the show. this post will contain spoilers, and disclaimer, i am a really biased, disappointed asshole, so i’ll just admit that now.

short answer: i liked the concept of lok more than the product we got. a lot of that is because you had a physically buff brown wlw protagonist written mostly by cishet white men and, as you can imagine, it wasn’t handled great. when i think of lok now i tend to fluctuate between bittersweet nostalgia and quiet, simmering rage.

if you don’t care about the show summary, skip at the middle paragraph break down to my tldr.

so for those who don’t know, LOK was really my first “big” fandom on tumblr. when it was announced, a bunch of ATLA purists were already hating on it because 1) brown woman, 2) it was unrealistic to go from ATLA’s technology to streampunk in 70 years, and 3) it wasn’t ATLA, basically. it was my first big interest that i got to participate in as it was airing, and i was really excited about it. i defended it, i wrote meta, i liveblogged, i wrote tons of fic and spammed theories/wants before the damn show even had a release date. all that is to say, i was Invested, and i believed in it before i even saw it. people called me a bnf, i’m not sure if that’s true, but i did gain a lot my followers in my first few years on tumblr by posting korra stuff. a lot of them – hello – i think are still around today (i’m not certain how all the video games hasn’t scared them off yet)

i should say at this point that my opinion of LOK the show has been really wrapped up in the ugly stain left by the fanbase. korra the character has been the subject of tons of racist, misogynistic criticism since the moment we saw her back; when she showed up on screen as a proud young woman who fought with authority and stood up for herself, that was the nail in the coffin for her reputation. i agreed that she had a bit of growing up to do, because ATLA/LOK have always been stories about coming of age and maturing, but i disagreed strongly with this notion that she deserved to be “humbled,” which is what a lot of fans were looking for.

the overall consensus on if it’s “good” depends on who you ask. most people agree that ATLA is better overall: it was better plotted because it benefited from more writers in the room and more episodes to flesh out the world. opinions on LOK specifically range based a lot on their opinions of the K/orra/sami pairing, if they were involved in or what side they were on in any of the fandom wank, and also just complete random chance.

i’ll go more in depth into my ‘history’ with the show below, but i just wanted to mention that all the while the show was airing, korra was being hit with waves of criticism by so-called fans for basically being a confident brown woman who were calling for her to learn her place, respect her elders, etc. another common theme was fandom’s brilliant fucking idea that asami, a light-skinned feminine non-bending woman who was more polite and reserved than korra, would’ve made a better avatar. because you know why. (korra was often described as brutal, rough, unsophisticated, next to pretty, perfect asami. and asami is a fine character, to be clear, but that’s what she was – fine. nothing really stands out about her, which is a fault of the writing, because she had a lot of potential too.) so anyway all of this did sour my mood toward engaging with other fans outside my friend circle.

–

it was around maybe the middle of book 1 that i realized the writing for the show was simpler than what i was expecting – not that it was childish, which it was (because it was written for children, i understood that), but i felt like the plot meandered and the twists came out of nowhere. it felt like they were making it up as they were going, and it opened threads it didn’t answer. one of the biggest threads was the equalist revolution, which was a very sensitive topic that got jettisoned when the leader was revealed to be a fraud, and that devalued the entire movement in an instant. really disappointing, because i was looking forward to seeing that addressed. for a lot of people, this was a dealbreaker, and they started walking. i stuck with it, but loosely.

book 2 aired, focusing on the spiritual world and some really cool history. it still suffered a lot from awkward b-plots and loose threads it didn’t know how to tackle. korra lost her memory and then regained it 2 episodes later with no consequences, mako flip-flopped between korra and asami because bryke don’t know how to write teenage romances without making it a love triangle, and at some point bolin kissed a girl against her will and they didnt acknowledge that at all? i honestly don’t remember. anyway at the end of book 2, even though korra saves the day and prevents the world from descending into darkness for ten thousand years, due to events beyond her control, korra loses the spiritual connection that ties her to all of the previous avatars – aang, roku, kyoshi, wan, everyone. and people hit the fucking ceiling. “korra’s not a real avatar if she lost her connection to the old ones! that’s the entire point of the cycle! this show is bullshit, it’s not canon anymore!” (the entire point that finale demonstrated that korra’s power alone was enough to save the world and she didn’t need anyone else. but people found that ~unrealistic~ i guess). as you can imagine, being a fan of LOK is starting to get a little tiring by now.

books 3-4 is where the korra haters got to love the show again, because they were both straight-up torture porn. after everything she did saving the world, this is the arc where korra got beat down, tortured, dragged into the dirt, swallowed and spat back out. book 3 is a lot of people’s favorites because it was the first book that felt fully plotted out before it was put on air, which is why i enjoyed it too. but for me it was difficult to see a girl, whose identity revolved around being the avatar after being raised and sheltered to think it was all she was good for, effectively abandon her life and even her name by the beginning of book 4 because the events of book 3 were that traumatizing for her. somehow this was character development. we were encouraged to stick with it because we hoped korra would find herself again. and she did, sorta.

but it makes me furious that people who had quit in books 1-2 came back during 3 because they heard these books were better – aka book 3, the book that featured korra the least, and books 3-4 in which korra got her ass handed to her in some of the hardest fights vs some of the cruelest villains of the series. (nevermind that the book 3 villains suffer from the anime villain curse: they quickly went from “cool character design” to “wait, how does this rando group of villains show up with powers literally no one in the universe has ever heard before?” – questions no one ever answers)

anyway book 4 is a mish-mash of… i’m not sure. i’ve rewatched all the books but i don’t know if i’ll ever touch this one again. the culturally appropriating airbender wannabe, zaheer (a complete rando who somehow masters airbending enough to fly, which was a huge middle finger to airbending masters aang and tenzin for no reason) a guy who literally tortured korra one season before and put her in a wheelchair, is the one who the writers send korra to for her spiritual awakening that lets her save the day. not tenzin or jinora, her spiritual teachers with whom she has positive, healthy relationships – they send her back to her abuser who terrifies and degrades her a bit more before deciding to help. this was a pattern: the writers made both korra and asami face their abusers (in asami’s case, her father) for catharsis instead of gaining peace over their trauma another, healthier way because…. i’m not sure why. there is no reason why. and then there’s the guilt tripping nonsense of asami feeling as if she had to forgive her father, who tried to kill her, because he said he was sorry and sacrificed himself for her in the finale. it’s angst galore, if you like that kind of thing, which i normally do, except this is less angst and more just the writers trying to hammer in torture porn, grimdark, and poor attempts at morally gray nonsense into their finale season.

anyway at the end of her journey, korra, our buff brown woc, learns that she had to suffer to learn how to be compassionate and relate to her enemy. i’m not exaggerating, she literally says that. which is lovely.

–

tldr: i wasted a lot of emotional time and energy into this show and was extremely disappointed when some of the ending’s notes were “you had to suffer to become a better person” and “forgive your abusers/villains because aren’t we all the same in the end?”

but also on a strictly narrative level, LOK also bit off way more than it could chew both emotionally and thematically. it had an amazing premise, but it was not committed to

utilizing the steampunk genre to its best potential in the bending world (after the creativity in the rest of the worldbuilding, the LOK series finale was literally fighting a giant robot – seriously?)

giving its hero the respect and character arc she deserved. and i don’t say that because i think korra had no growing up to do in b1, she did, but she didn’t deserve for it to happen like that.

so basically i realized that a lot of the writers that made ATLA great weren’t brought back for LOK, and it showed. i realized that the LOK writers, when they listened to fans, were listening to the fans that whined the loudest, or (more likely, since they plan seasons years before we see them) they thought from the beginning that it was a good idea for korra to go through years’ worth of pain just to be spat out a humbler, “better” person

the reason i told you all that about me defending LOK in the beginning is because i need you to understand that i believed in LOK longer than i probably should’ve. i wanted it to be everything i was expecting in a diverse children’s show with an unorthodox female protaganist. but just because they had a brown wlw heroine doesn’t mean that they deserved to be praised for it when they treated her like garbage.

and korra and asami walk into a beam of light together in the last second of the show and i’m supposed to applaud the writers for their bravery or something

#megan talks about korra #Anonymous #askbox #this is a very condensed summary because otherwise i'd be here all day talking about the pro-asami anti-korra fandom wank

50 notes · View notes

demi-angel-novel · 6 years ago

Text

Chapter 2

After two years we return to the aging and decrepit orphanage. Its once pristine wooden floors are now stained in an old and patchy green paint, with the smell of mold and rotting wood wafting through the air with its foul odor. As the orphanage, it self-was sweating from the humidity of the southern climate.

On the two sides of the orphanages, walls are two twin staircases, each connecting at an overarching balcony which rests in front of an ancient and old copper bell. Its surface now rusted and green due to its old age. But there seems to be an oddity on this day. Crouched in front of the bell are three children, each no more than twelve. Two boys and one girl. And they seemed to be discussing something.

“Tom, are you sure this is a good idea, I mean, you know more than any of us how bad she is!” John whispered harshly

“Thomas, this is not a good idea at all! if what John told me was real, why would you do anything to make her mad?!”

“Because that old puttana deserves it! Plus, it’ll be hilarious to see her face!” he chuckled.

“Yeah, your right, it would be pretty fun...but what if we get punished, We’ve seen your back, Tom, what if she does something worse?” John asked meekly as his body began to shiver despite the summer humidity. And to this Thomas just shrugged. “Thomas, you can't be serious,” Indica said dismayed

“I am entirely serious, well as much as I can be. So, are you guys ready or not?” he asked with a clap as he awaited their response, and to his question the two nodded as they each grabbed a sack and two buckets, each filled to the brim with strange materials.”thanks you guys, alright, everyone in positions! This is gonna be fun!” Thomas whispered excitedly

And so the trio made their way to their positions. In one of Johns buckets, he ran the edge of the opening on the floor in front of a wooden door, coating eh ground in a slick reflective liquid as he dripped some on the rails. Indica stayed at the beginning of the right staircase as John made an arc around her as she held her sack. As John mad his way back up to the door he held his other bucket as the two looked toward Thomas as they awaited him to start. And as he saw his best friends primed and ready, he now stood underneath the lever, as he held out his other hand as three fingers fell as he mouthed.

3...

2..

And with that last finger, he yanked down the pully with the bell striking its hammer delivering a deafening sound throughout the building. As Thomas drew in as much air as he could before bellowing “FIRE FIRE HURRY GET OUT!!!” And with that, a rush of clicking sounded as the caretaker burst from her door giving it a sickening crack as it hit the wall, and as she sprinted onto the liquid John hurled the contents of the bucket atop her, splattering her with glue.

“What on earth is thi-” Before she could finish John shoved her forward causing her to slip and slide down the long staircase. Unable to slow down at all. And finally, she rocketed towards the front wall, landing back first as she groaned and tried to stand slowly slid on the back of her neck. And do to the commotion the other kids came out and saw the display and everyone laughed their butts off at the caretaker. Unable to suppress it as the old toucan tried to stand and fail.

The trio each rushed to the other as they gave each other a great big hug out of their excitement as they laughed along with the other children each complementing the other over and over again.

“You both were amazing! I'm so proud!” Thomas laughed giddily

“Oh man, we should e thanking you for being crazy enough to come up with it!”

“He’s not lying Thomas, none of us would have thought of it.”

“enough it was all of us! Now let's go and check on the old toucan” Thomas said. The trio leaned over the balcony as they saw the caretaker pick herself up. Her face red and filled with unyielding rage as her very body began to jitter and shake as her eyes bore holes into the laughing children as with one sentence, ended all the joy in the room, as she spoke with that cold and grating voice of hers.

“Who. Did. This” She snarled, her voice was cold and steely as her anger was cracking her mask of calmness as she bore holes into every child, freezing them on the spot as they could only look at her. With just a look alone, she turned every child into stone. “If whoever did this atrocity doesn’t speak up ow, Everyone shall receive a punishment! No matter what! So I suggest you make your way here, now.” If they were frightened before they surely were now, everyone could still remember the pain from their own punishments, the stings, he burns, the feeling of their back aching in never-ending ghost pains. And especially the screams, those screams would follow all of them for as long as they’d live. And now everyone was begging each other to confess and other just stood in place, no sound, no movement, only fear was left for them.

T-Thomas, what do we do I can't get another punishment again, the last one still hasn’t healed! It still burns!” John spluttered

“J-John don’t be a coward about this! We-”

“Indica you’re just as scared as I am you’re literally shaking in your shoes” He whispered sharply. And so the two went into a mini argument before Thomas broke it up.

“Silenzio! The both of you! here’s what's gonna happen the both of you go down the other flight of stairs and blend in with everyone else. I’ll take the hit. Don't worry about me, I’ll survive, just go”

“Survive? Tom two years ago you cried for months as you could barely sleep cause of pain, and you still wince whenever you talk about what happened, W-we’re taking it together!” John whispered

“He’s right, we’re friends, and we have each other back, no questions asked” Indica agreed. But Thomas’ face stayed the same, he wouldn't budge.

“Both of you go down now. I’m not taking that as an answer,...just please allow me to take it this time. Alright?” Thomas pleaded John and indica both looked beside themselves as they couldn't believe what Thomas was saying, they were each about to open their mouths again, but as they looked into their friend's eyes there was no way they could change his mind, it was set in stone. And with that they relented and gave their friend a hug as they gave their parting words.as they made their way down.

“Fine, you crazy boy. Just please stop doing this to your self, you aren't a superhero you know.: Indica scolded.

“ Good luck Thomas, please don’t get yourself killed doing this. You don’t have o protect everyone all the time..” And with that they each broke apart. With Thomas whispering this as they went out of earshot

‘I know, thank you’ And with that Thomas made his way to the balcony and peered over the rail at the fuming caretaker as she began a ten count, and as she made her way to three he got her attention.

“hey old Toucan, shut up we cant understand your squawking, we need English! We don't speak bird!” As he yelled that out the caretaker's face turned as fast as lightning as her eyes burned with hatred as she looked up at Thomas.

“YOU!!” She roared

“Yes, me! So what are you gonna do huh? You gonna jab my eye out with that nose of yours? Oh, my dearest apologies your beak my mistake, their both so long I forgot which is which/ SO how about we make this short. Are you gonna burn everyone’s brain cells or are you gonna actually do something productive so we can get on with the day, it's humid and we need water! And your spit doesn't count. We’d rather drink sand that that poison!” As Thomas looked at the caretakers face it turned a new shade of red as he eyes and nose seemed to release smoke as he breathed in and out like a wild animal that was angry or furious at is pray with every deep and hot breath she released a wave of heat spread throughout the room. as she said only to words and each sounded inhuman,

“come here.” She growled and with his signature grin, Thomas said. “With pleasure, just don’t kill me with your breath before I actually get your punishment.” And with that thought out the whole night and most of the morning, there were cries and screams of pain echoing throughout the orphanage in an unending symphony of bloodlust and pain traveled throughout the orphanage as an unconscious Thomas laid in his bed for two days due to blood loss.

1 note · View note

petersvibes · 7 years ago

Text

infinity war: a film in review

click the “keep reading” to see my fucking opinions (all of which are correct) about this hell movie

ok ONE: cap, buck, falcon, t’challa DESERVED MORE FUCKING SCREENTIME, shit was stupid, cap didn’t even look surprised when buck just evaporated like that, i’m mad

SECOND: VISION AND WANDA SHOULD BE DEAD I FUCKING HATE THEIR DUMBASSES. VISION SHOULD HAVE CROAKED WITHIN THE FIRST TWENTY MINUTES WHEN THAT ROBO FUCKER WAS STABBED. I’M SORRY PAUL BETTANY YOU SEEM LIT! YOU DO! BUT YOUR CHARACTER IS A MAGENTA PUSSY BOY AND I HATE HIM

WANDA TOO. W H E R E WAS HER ACCENT? WHY IS SHE FUCKING THE ROBOT IT JUST H U R T S

let me chill. i’m just saying i would’ve cut wanda/vision by like 60% in order to flesh out the holy quartet: T’CHALLA, STEVE, BUCKY, SAM. i’ll get back to that later

peter was sensational throughout his last scene killed me oscar worthy i was deceased

THOR STOLE THE FUCKING SHOW BREH! SO DID TYRION LANNISTER! (i know his name is peter dinklage lmfao) BUT! HE TOOK THE CAKE

but if i could’ve cut out like 3 minutes of his big arc for a LITTLE BIT OF FUCKING BUCKYCAP I WOULD’VE!!! THEY BARELY TALKED!! CAPTAIN AMERICA HAD LIKE 8 LINES!

^^^ this is also just me complaining because i want chris evans to r** m* but that is neither here, nor there

i’m so glad hawkeye isn’t in this i hope he never comes back

as for scott lang: dude you weren’t missed. i’ll see your movie though. maybe like, the second weekend tho.

suspense was killer!

bruce in that damn suit was just odd as a mf i respected hulk’s choice but why??!?!? wasn’t he putting his intellectual input into helping shuri?? tea?!?

no idea how cap and nat and co ended up in scotland but Respect

I AM SO FUCKING READY FOR CAPTAIN MARVEL! this is what i need

also i didn’t cry solely because i aint no pussy ass bitch but i’m just saying. Peter killed me. read this for proof

i’m also just saying that infinity war two is gonna change the game. i’m so glad it’s only a year away.

nothing but respect for My president, tony stark.

ok but tony was actually so good.

fuck bendyuck cumbersome but strange was good

OK THE EFFECTS OF EVERYTHINF WERE SO GOOD!!! LIKE THANOS? the LIGHT CAST ON HIM WHILE IN THE FOREST = BREATHTAKING

also anyone who pretends he doesn’t have a h*** d*** is fuckign lying to themselves. fucking lying

the guardians = gold

even tho quill destroyed the universe #tea

sometimes it annoys me that they announce what’s coming bc now i know T’Challa and Peter P. will come back for their movie sequels

TEA: everyone vaporized will come back, but the asgardians, loki, gamora etc = Gone i’m sorry but it’s Troof

and if loki and gamora come back imma be MAD, not because i hate them but because their deaths were really important to the story (esp. gamora)

i think, while you don’t have to REALLY watch ALL the movies from the beginning before you see this, some of marvel’s greatest hits will suffice. eSPeciallY! iron man, cap 1, thor 1, avengers 1, gotg1+2, cap 2, avengers 2, ragnarok, hoco and civil war

this movie really doesn’t stand alone well, hence that list. like if you watch ragnarok and THEN civil war you’re really mentally prepared i feel

i just fucked so hard w thor, when he came out in that classic suit with the new hammer and the two eyes, the lightning and everything. i’m hip

drax = that bitch

unpopular onion but i don’t want thanos to suffer in death he’s really such a bad bitch despite his stupid ass logic, bitch the universe is infinite idk why you think population control is the issue when the rich procreate too… but whatever purple daddy, push me off a ledge ig

i want him to mean more tho.

overall this is a really good movie, super entertaining with literally with no logic whatsoever but there’s no intellect in space. i give it an 85.5 right now but i’m seeing it at LEAST!! 2-3 more times in theaters so that might change

if you want to talk about it! my inbox is free!

#infinity war spoiler #infinity war spoilers #iw spoilers #iw #spoiler alert #infinity war spoiler alert #you have been warned

5 notes · View notes

themanicgalaxy · 4 years ago

Text

SPN 4X7 It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester

wow working off of....a very fun...adrenaline crash

I’m so tired, panicking is a bad vibe

let’s do this, I hear Sam meets Cas in this episode

wow look at this nice and lovely family, can’t wait to see how they FUCKING DIE

why is the candy shot like this, what happens to the candy

WHY IS THE RAZOR LODGED IN HIS THROAT

WHY IS IT BLEEDING

WHAT THE FUCK

HE’S COUGHING UP RAZORS WHAT THE

just my luck it’s a scary one and on the big screen

the *holds up spell bag and then hides it once Sam sees and starts questioning* was smooth, I like when they do the teamwork thing

Dean why are you eating candy, there are razors in the halloween

oh lovely that’s a Cursed Hex Bag

“he made vanilla look spicy” is a funny line

These people look so young

OH GOD NO DON’T BOB FOR APPLES

STUPID FRAMING DEVICE

ah I see love triangle or something

oh mY GOD SHE’S STUCK

IT’S BOILING THIS IS HORRIFIC

they’re high schoolers ah

because the hail bait comment wheeee

Sam does the hold up this time!

AGENT SEGER

Samhain! Halloween origin! that’s kinda neat

600 years! “and the next cycle is” “Tomorrow” “naturally”

so it raises All the Supernatural that’s fun

DEAN STOP EATING CANDY WHY

aH THE TEENAGER!

Of course her name is Tracy

never heard of Luke Wallace my ass

“if you could pick any costume to come back in, wouldn’t you pick a hot cheerleader? I would”

DEAN WHAT THE F U C K DOES THAT MEAN THAT’S DEFINITELY NOT HOW OBJECTIFICATION WORKS

ooo flashbacks to hell in the mask!

Sam asks if it brings back memories of being a teenager, Dean interprets Hell

...what...brings back memories?? DEAN?

huh the Occult Drawings that’s interesting

“emancipated teen” DID NO ONE FUCKING CHECK THAT

“Trick or treat” “This is a motel”

Dean just wants to eat candy

Dean stop antagonizing the kid

CAS CAS CAS!

SAM IS SO STARSTRUCK THAT’S SO CUTE

Castiel what the actual fuck you’re adorable but fucking terrible at communication

“we’re working on it” “that’s unfortunate” KILLED ME

That was a Significant Look of Uriel

of course it’s a seal

“purified a city” aka kill 1000 people wheee

“you’re bigger picture kind of guys” oooo interesting

“have faith”

OOO CAS BLINDLY FOLLOWS ORDERS

heh puts it in context of his daddy issues but Dean’s been growing past that

Uses his own life as a bargaining chip AGAIN DEAN

Although to be fair, that works

Castiel takes! chance! on DEAN!!!

Angels are assholes, time to figure ir out

“they are righteous that’s the problem”

“there’s nothing more dangerous than some asshole who thinks he’s on a mission from God” OHHHH COME ON THAT’S SO LOADED YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE THAT THERE

“This is what I’ve been praying to” OH M Y G O D I HAVE THING ABOUT THE FAITH AND SIBLINGS AND AHHHH

“bad apples” SERIOUSLY THIS LOADED ASS CONVERSATION

DEAN WANTS HIS BROTHER TO BELIEVE IN SOMETHING STILL O W

Sam figures out where to go based on the burning of the bone wow!

Sam being smart Sam being smart!!!

“you shouldn’t call them that” Castiel #1 human stan

Why stand and then sit, why stand and then-

disobey orders oho

ah so Tracy’s the sacrifice, and Don’s the Evil One and used her as a scapegoat? ?

of course the perving on the teenager why wouldn’t we god fuckign dammit kripke

...that’s her brother? what the fuck?

ok the eye glitter/lighting was neat

no ok but Magic Witch Lady is kinda a fun character too bad she’s gonna die

Sam do ur magic

Dunks them in blood? Sam what are you doing?

kills her? I feel like kills her?

bro that’s your brother’s body technically

yep

...whore...

Still kinda funny tho

heh they play dead

OH THE MASKS! THE MASKS CALLBACK!

SMART SAM SMART SAM SMART S A M

“you gave it a shot” god i love that, I love when Sam just tries Wack Shit

“BeCauSe thE aNgEl SaiD so”

Angst Teen Sam

bUT DEANNN Why can’t I use my POWERSSSS

just gonna kill the teenagers and trap them with the corpses

oh sweet jesus

oooo CLASSIC horror iconography

IT JUST DOESN’T FUCKING WORK ON SAM OH HELL YEAH

And then they graduate to fistfight but still

Dean’s just going on the Murder Train

GOOD YES DO IT SAM!

FCUK EM UP BABE HEAVEN’S A PIECE OF SHIT ANYWAY

OOO THE ANTICHRIST IMAGERY, THE HORROR IMAGERY, THAT’s SO COOL

AND THE STAND IN FRONT OF STAINED CLASS AND DEAN IN FRONT OF LIGHTS WITH LIKE THE “OH SHIT AM I GONNA HAVE TO KILL MY BROTHER”

November 2nd is the day AZAZEL killed Jess and Mary, making the day before, day after, day of, two days before thing Neat

“you were told” THAT’S NOT COMPELLING H E A V E N

~wing flap~

“ask Dean what he remembers of hell” oof

CASCASCAS CAS AND DEAN CAS AND DEAN CAS AND DEAN

ordered to follow Sam and Dean?? what?

the ripped jeans by the way, good

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow” he never knows, that’s why-

THE KIDS! THE K I D S

the angel that loves humanity ~too much, the way God told them to

Aziraphale and Cas should hang

“I’m not a hammer” “daddy’s blunt little instrument” DAOFIHADSPIASFSIP

RIGHT AND WRONG RIGHT AND WRONG RIGHT AND WRONG

DID THEY PASS? WE DON’T KNOW AHAHHH

MEANINGFUL STARES

and then just the Disappear is so good

ok uh first

1. Sam praying. I don’t really know why this one got me, but the fact that Sam believes in a higher power, or tried to believe with his entire soul, and Dean desperately tries to get his brother to believe in something(unbroken? tries to make sure he’s ok because Dean never will be? Something like that?) feels important? Or maybe it’s that for Dean, Dad’s Orders and Consequence hit as the Ultimate Punishment, whereas Sam got to relax about it a bit

Look am I directly finding parallels to my own experience now? yes of course, it’s my unparalleled media experience and I can project if I want to. I’m WAY more scared of my parents/dad and what they do than I am of any higher power(crying while driving home as Vibe Music that I generally enjoy vs the Season 3 finale scene wheeee), whereas my sister actually tried to give religion a fair shot and used to pray. It’s not a direct parallel, but it’s been a bad day, I wanna put that in there somewhere

(also if it genuinely wasn’t my fault and I just assumed that I would never be able to explain my way out of anything so I shouldn’t try, leading me wishing to never be perceived so I don’t get punished for things that weren’t my fault. If true then Pain)

*insert Paws Meme*

2. Smart Sam. I liked Sam being smart, doing shit for the case in interesting ways, and I really like his powers plot line! Like you’re right dude! Heaven has no compelling reasoning other than “because I told you so” and it’s way more practical to just do it! His mom and girlfriend are already dead there’s nothing else to be done now! Like! Sam’s Antichrist arc is actually interesting! And I like him getting to be a character! The mask Idea was SO NEAT!!

3. bad apples+mission from God. I. Ok. Listen. This is just that one loaded conversation with “bad apple”(I’d like to point out that at some point it shows Cas as the Only Good One, right? dismantle the institution type thing, right? Is that what they were going for?) and also that “people who believe they have a mission from God do bad thing” LIKE SO CLOSE ! To SO MANY! lOADED THINGS! A G H

Look I’m too tired to type out all my thoughts to this, but I think you get the point that this is shit I wish they’d explored more

4. I entirely forgot that whole thing where they tried to show Dean objectifying teen girls and accidentally made Dean sound like he wanted to be a girl. Like even if that’s simply sexuality, or both gender and sexuality...like that’s. how did you do this. How did you accidentally make him like this.

5. Cas/Cas+Dean. Ok first off, having him desperately try to save humanity(reminds me of aziraphale) is so interesting! like It feels like Dean(who's working on not taking orders blindly anymore following that demon deal) doesn’t like seeing Castiel and Heaven because it reminds him of that part of himself he’s worthing through! and that one scene where Cas said “I’m not a hammer”(Directly parallel to “Daddy’s blunt little instrument”) is like. Dean started that journey in Cas. Getting him to question things.

that whole thing about “I know this was a test, but we don’t know if you failed it or not” because I don’t know what God would want because God’s the ever present father figure for Cas, and Dean’s lack of faith in God, and Cas’s lack of faith in God and

ok they have an INCREDIBLY compelling story currently, and I am kinda excited to see where they go with it.

yknow before the queer bait REALLY sets in

6. I was ready to write this episode off with the horror but the iconography at the end with the seal/witch/Sam and Dean scene was rEAlly fucking cool and I loved it.

7. the beginning of the stares

#pawswatchesspn #Very Big Brain in this episode #but still incredibly compelling #to me #again circumstance circumstance #yada yada yada #I just like the Cas episode building the dynamic leave me alone #4x7 It's The Great Pumpkin Sam Winchester

1 note · View note

niobiumao3 · 7 years ago

Text

TLJ: Spoiler Edition

ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE

Okay so.

Things I really liked:

I liked the Kylo Ren arc; I liked how we got more insight into the past with Luke and how Luke’s one moment of weakness sparked something ugly in Ben, and how Luke has been punishing himself for this ever since. And I am of the opinion the narrative doesn’t want us to hate Luke for this. I think the point of the conversation with Yoda was to indicate that it was never going to be possible for Luke to be a perfect Jedi Master and make no mistakes, and that failure is the greatest teacher. That really, the failing is Ben’s, in giving himself over to the dark side such that when Luke does make a mistake, Ben is unable to forgive him or understand. Rey makes the same mistake, initially, in blaming Luke, and I think once she gets to Snoke and Ren and Ren refuses to turn back with her, she better understands what has happened.

I liked the discussions of how perfect binaries/dichotomies of light and dark and good and bad are useless and dumb and probably lead to more problems than they solve. I like that BJ, an ultimately reprehensible character, is the one who points out, ‘have you considered it’s in the best interest of war profiteers that no one ever wins, that war is forever?’

THE ADMIRAL FLIPPING THE DOUBLE DEUCE AS SHE LIGHTSPEEDS HER CRUISER INTO THE FO’S SHIPS AND OBLITERATES THEM. FUCKING, ANNIHILATED. The pure silence of that moment was so good.

Luke tossing Anakin’s Lightsaber like ‘fuck this thing’. Bigtime mood.

‘Lifting rocks.’

‘Page turners, were they?’

Rey, literally and figuratively, shutting the door in Ren’s face. Like I don’t get why anyone thinks Reylo will be a thing?

Johnson was continually subverting tropes. ‘Wild crazy plans cost lives and seldom work’ was used to great effect with Poe, and I appreciate that while Poe’s attitude frustrated Haldo and Leia neither of them hated him or resented him for it. It was more a ‘in order to lead you’re going to need to learn that you can’t bank everything on a crazy win’ plot arc, which IMO is okay, and not seen enough in these kinds of films.

The situation where Hux (who has clearly been ‘managing’ Snoke because Snoke is, despite being powerful, also quite predictable) trips up constantly wrt Ren because Ren is a rageful manchild whom Hux totally cannot grok was great. Perfect example: Ren says, PUT ME DOWN ON THE SURFACE, LUKE AND I ARE GONNA FITE, and Hux, being totally reasonable, says, ‘Like, why, there is no way we benefit from this, let’s just blow it all up and--’ and Ren temper tantrums and knocks Hux out, but the pilot says, “Right away sir.” Like, Hux, yes, you’re right, but who cares? Best case scenario, Ren dies fighting Luke and now Ren is out of your hair; second best, Ren kills Luke and now Luke Skywalker isn’t a problem. Win-win! But Hux doesn’t get why Ren is so irrational and always railing against the universe, and he trips up on this cognitive dissonance several times. It was a very well-written interaction.

I also liked the trope subversion of Ren rising up and killing Snoke. We are constantly denied this in earlier SW films. And as we see, it’s not sheer power than enables Ren to do it. The one time he tries that, Snoke bitchslaps him into next week with a simple hand gesture. No, it’s subterfuge and hiding his motives, which is a big theme for Ren. He does it to everyone, IMO in a suggestion that he has no idea who he actually is. And he doesn’t want to continue the Sith tradition or whatever; he’s a nihilistic, angry manchild who wants to burn it all. It was some very good writing for him.

I know a lot of people are mad about Luke’s characterization, but honestly, I liked it. I liked that it was his turn to be Ben Kenobi, the angry old hermit living in the middle of nowhere not wanting to get involved because he fucked up badly. I loved his ‘old master skywalker’ look, it was very Alec Guinness, and I wanted so much more than we got of it. And his super badass ‘no Snoke I am not falling for your bullshit’ astral projection move, spot on.

What I disliked:

The characterization of Rey and Finn seemed off. The girl from the first movie would have, I think, been a little more likely to trust Luke and not Ren. And she seems to, at first, but then her conversion is so fast. It felt more like something that needed additional time to happen. This said, I think you can make a case for Ren constantly leaning on her vulnerability wrt her parents. He found that pressure point and hammered on it relentlessly. But Rey’s initial round of blaming Luke for Ren should have given way to her realizing she was right the first time; that Ben had ultimately failed Luke just as Luke failed him, and that while Luke might not have stopped the situation, he was not the sole person involved. That Kylo Ren has to also be blamed for his own actions; the standard ‘just because someone did wrong by you it does not give you carte blanche to do wrong by others’. IMO Rey, or Finn or Poe, would be the people to be compassionate in this way, and ultimately only Leia is for like, 2 seconds. It was a bad turn for Rey which I didn’t care for.

Likewise, Finn continued to try and bail and that seemed like a regression from the end of TFA. You can argue we don’t really see him come to terms with ‘fight for these things worth saving’ in TFA the way we do here but it still felt like a duplication of previous things for him, rather than a growth. And I don’t know why he’s shown as being so susceptible to the lavish excesses of Canto Bight; sure, I can see him being dazzled, but more in a ‘what the hell, people live like this???’ way, not in a ‘I clearly need to get me some of this’ way. It seemed weird and off. It might have made more sense for Rose, if she’s the ‘hidden princess’ she’s rumored to be, to act like this, and Finn to be the one to pull her back.

Speaking of Canto Bight, that whole segment bogged down the movie and needed to happen while they were already on Crait, or instead involve them sneaking onto a Star Destroyer. Like, then you could have had Finn accidentally or intentionally inciting a Stormtrooper Rebellion, and get more Phasma, and keep BJ as a POW they release who then turns on them. You can even keep the discussion of war profiteering in--just have some impounded arms dealer ships, and he was arrested for stealing them or w/e...it would have kept narrative tension intact, provided a better structure tin which to build Finn and Rose’s characters...ah well.

Also, again, too much music. Way, too, much, fuicking, music. Give me the subtle background sounds of the ships, of the base, of the island. Not 1000000000000 strains of music. That moment when the ship went to lightspeed and sundered Snoke’s command ship, the pure silence, was breathtaking. The movie needed much, much more of that.

So yeah, overall, not a bad film and I appreciate the trope subversions, but I wanted better writing for Finn and Rey--equal to what Ren got--and I wanted more Luke and Leia, and I wanted less music. It’s still a gorgeous movie, and a solid SW film, but not as good as it could have been. In this way it’s like the prequels for me; annoying due to its wasted potential, though still enjoyable.

#star wars #the last jedi #the last jedi spoilers #spoilers #star wars spoilers

10 notes · View notes

couldbeyourlife · 6 years ago

Text

that’s a party platter it serves 12 people

avengers done been assembled spoilers below the cut ramble ramble garble garble hyperbole and capslock

Caveats(?) as it were? My reactions are my own and not a judgment of anyone else’s feelings, thoughts, or reactions. There are like, many paths to the rainbow, dude. It ain’t that deep here for the most part. In this movie especially, there were a lot of moments where my feelings can be summed up with:

Also, Steve and Natasha are my babies my faves I love them most and best.

Overall, liked MUCH MUCH better than IW. IW focused way the hell too much on people IDGAF about. This one was about the OGs and people I care about so I am here. for. that.

Has me thinking reallllllly how much of all of this is about getting that Moment On Screen. The “avengers assemble” or steve with the hammer or w/e. Things as “fans” we all have these images of in our imaginations or have seen on page and grown to see as iconic. And really, so very much of all of the Avengers movies mostly seem to be plots strung along to get to those moments? Which, I mean is it what it is. That’s what comic book team up Event Books are about. We’re getting an 18 months crossover event stuffed into a couple of hours BASICALLY. This movie, even more than the others, felt most like a comic book.

I yelled “fuck you” at least twice at the screen to Tony in the first 20 minutes. The entire thing between him and Steve after Tony gets back was so very not a good look.

I mean Tony was worse and then better and god as a character he is just so much better in HIS OWN MOVIES. JESUS GOD. Let me stop at IM3 and sing Adele at that. I mean, he’s dead now which works for his arc within the avengers movies. I’m glad he got to form a baby? Ugh. I still find the Iron Man --> Spidey thing odd in the MCU since Spidey is the og really here, y’all. IDK MAN.

“HEY QUEENS” MY HEART IT HURTS.

All of Steve and Natasha’s interactions made me clap with JOY. It made me want so much MORE of team Cap’s initial time on the run and then afterward with the two of them. UGH. The fact that Natasha is what Steve is crying about in that crying scene from the trailer? JUST LEAVE ME IN THE ROAD TO DIE OKAY.

Which gets to, I am super very glad I both waited and was spoiled. There were a lot of things I would have been less down with if it had been a LE TWIST! if I didn’t know. Such as the failed mission to kill thanos. Also, if Natasha’s death had been unspoiled for me I probably would have gotten the fuck up and walked out the theater yelling OH FUCK ALL Y’ALL.

SAME BUT DIFFERENT FOR LEBOWSKI THOR. EVEN KNOWING IT WAS COMING I WAS STILL BASICALLY THE THIRSTIEST FUCKING BITCH IN THE UNIVERSE WHEN HE WAS REVEALED AND EVERY FUCKING MOMENT AFTER THAT ESPECIALLY WHEN HE SUITED THE FUCK UP. Had I not been prepared I probably would have thrown my bra at the screen. I mean y’all my fucking husband for life is jack black i gots a type. my eyes are just rolling back in my head w/e w/e w/e I’ll get to Thor more later I just gotta thirst all over this god damn page because UGHa;ldafdaadf9df;/ ; I KNOW WHAT I’M ABOUT, SON.

if you aren’t here for wanting ten million pages of lebowski thor and bearded cap fucking then idek

Speaking of the porn. The following are things I want: Five year gap Steve/Natasha, Natasha/Carol, STEVE/NATASHA/CAROL, Thor/Valkyrie, Carol/Valkyrie, Carol/Thor/Valkyrie (GOD BLESS YOU, TESSA AND BRIE)

CAROL DANVER’S SHEER DEEP POWERFUL LESBIAN POWER AND ENERGY MADE ME SWOON EVERY TIME SHE WAS ON SCREEN. I loved her interactions with everyone of course. Her eye roll at Rhodey at the start was grate. Enjoyed what interactions we had of her and Steve A LOT. I clapped when he radioed to Danvers during the big scene.

SCOTT LANG BEST AVENGER OR MOST BEST AVENGER Y/MFY/CAP’S ASS IS THE BEST ASS SIR ROGERS CAPTAIN SIR???!!!

Really, Scott is and was the best and I just loved him so much. Definately one of the characters that can keep me engaged with the MCU going forward (see also: Carol and T’Challa)

I have so many frustrated and angry feelings about Natasha’s death. I get what people are saying about her and full circle etc. But I think that’s all bullshit really. It is a narrative choice to make that her arc? Like, her entire thing was she had things to make up and redeem herself for. Tony’s entire thing was that he was a selfish dick that learned to be unselfish. Natasha didn’t have a self-sacrifice problem. SHE WAS RAISED TO BE A GOD DAMN WEAPON. SHE’S A SURVIVOR because that’s what a weapon does and there is a huge difference in that. I get they needed to rid themselves of several of the OG Avengers so Dead Tony, Time Jump Steve, and Natasha being dead? I just. I’m too tired to get into hardcore, but I am mad. I will be mad and I will stay mad. Like, I get why they did it, but the writers MADE THAT CHOICE and so I am perma fucking pressed about it.

I honestly dgaf about the GotG and anything related to them and any moment with any of those characters, other than the Rabbit and Thor together, was basically dead airspace. I just DON’T FUCKING CARE. So every minute with them was wasted except for Thor. Oh THOR. Honestly, talk about a dude that started at the bottom for me and now we at the top. (THAT’S WHAT YOU FUCKING GET, TONY STARK FOR BEINGdl;af). Ahem. I feel like Thor’s arc made sense to me? Like he gets to go be the sort of person he’s always wanted to be who he is inside which is PROBABLY a well meaning and heroic semi-frat boy who wants to play with his Rabbit friend and have adventures and drink beer? His entire thing has been about how much he was or wasn’t able to be a good person v. a good king etc and idk IT WORKED FOR ME and he had one of the better OG endings imo. Also, like THOR HAS SEEN SOME SHIT? SOME REAL ASS SHIT THAT HE GETS TO HAVE SOME FUCKING FEELINGS ABOUT? AND REAL ASS SHIT THAT HIS LIFE UP UNTIL SHIT GOT REAL DID NOT PREPARE HIM FOR AT ALL? Like, I made a C on a paper in grad school and drank an entire bottle of champagne and fell off a chair. I GET IT. (I get a lot of this in the meta context comes from Hemsworth being fucking miserable with what they were doing with Thor because it SUCKED and people realizing that he’s fucking HILARIOUS and rolling with that). Also, a lot of the upset people seem to be really attached to Loki and liek w/e, but who hurt you?

Speaking of OGs. The entire Bruce/Hulk thing was weird. I get they were real into what they could do special effects wise but... idk man. I wasn’t here for it?

No one cares about Hawkeye. I mean I know there are people that say that but like. Him?

ON YOUR LEFT, CAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IF YOU DON’T LOVE SAM WILSON AND SHIP HIM AND STEVE IDK WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND WHAT YOUR PRIORITIES ARE?

SAM WILSON CAPTAIN AMERICA IS ALL I HAVE WANTED AND NEEDED OTHER THAN THE OTHER THINGS I HAVE ALSO WANTED AND NEEDED.

Which gets us to the last two and biggest two things: Steve and MCU’s entire time travel theory? They even SAY the BttF time travel theory and hint at the multiverse/DC theory of time travel. They seem to be hitting to something closer to the Umbrella Academy where what is going to happen is going to happen except?????????? HOW IT DOESN’T but it also can split into other realities but only because of the stones or? (This is also where the entire event book crossover Big Bad is always annoying because a) everything bad ends up being about that and b) there is way the hell too much bg mythology to care about. Hydra - Nazis MAKES SENSE! Evil Grimace abuses his daughters for fun and profit and wants to make the universe great again but thinks LotR didn’t go far enough with the jewelry thing???) AHEM. I mean, I got to a point where I was like, “this is the most 2019 movie because evil is inevitable because Hope is a Lie and Evil Always wins UNLESS YOU CAN BEND TIME TO YOUR WILL except nope not even that HA HA” So, I can’t really lockdown the internal logic completely on the MCU theory of time travel. It is sort of making sense until we get to Steve’s ending?

SO.

I have no dislike of this. It is cute. It is fine. It is what Steve deserved. Hell, it is what Peggy deserved. There are other ways it could have went and I would have been down with that too? I’ve been prepared for Steve to die for like 4 years now so you know, this is fine. It removes Cap from the action equation so CEvans like ScarJo and RDJ can be free. I think, if you’re inclined that way there are a ton of character questions you can ask there? Things to pick at and find interesting. I enjoyed Steve’s entire thing this movie immensely (his interactions with 2012 self were great. Him using Bucky against himself I thought was amazing). But here is where I start questioning the time logic which can be summarized with:

WHAT ABOUT POPSICLE STEVE?

Is there a Steve floating out in the ocean still to be found in 2011? There would need to be a Cap from 2011-2019 to put other people in place. You don’t have Sam and Bucky (for example) where they are at UNLESS THERE IS CAP AT THAT POINT??????? Which makes sense because there has to be a Steve to go back to Peggy (AWWW MY HEART IT HURTS), SO does it reform the mobius strip of the timeline to where Steve was ALWAYS in the past with Peggy (but on the downlow???????? WAS HE JUST TOTES NOT STEVE CARTER HUSBAND OF PEGGY CARTER and IDK taught P.E. in Brooklyn???) and so it basically reforms itself to where what was happened always happened but it MEANS that popsicle Steve and Steve from the future that is now in the past exist at the same time and THEN STEVE HAS TO NOT MAKE OUT IN HIS UNDERWEAR WITH HIS OWN MOM????? Or? Like, Hulk even says that when you mess with time, time messes back what are the consequences? Are there? At some point wouldn’t THAT cause some sort of weird paradox? I realize I’m asking SRS questions about fictional time travel so really who is the broken weirdo here me or Marvel (MARVEL OBVIOUSLY?). I’ve read a lot of theories on this and explanations, but none of which really satisfy me.

and REALLY isn’t that the most comic book thing of it all? The points don’t count and the rules don’t matter. I mean that in the best way possible, really. Fine, it was a yellow bug in Hal Jordan’s brain all along. Oh okay, Barry Allen’s grandson from the future? SURE WHATEVER. I eagerly look forward to ten years from now some fucking fetus getting cast as a new Captain America and being able to yell at whippersnappers how the only REAL CAPTAIN AMERICA IS CHRIS EVANS I HAVE BEEN THIRSTING CORRECTLY SINCE 2009 YOU PUNK ASS LITTLE BITCHES.

#avengers spoilers here yo #le spoilers de avengers???? (something somethidlf)

0 notes

sekerenews · 6 years ago

Text

Avengers: Endgame Review

Welcome to Sekere’s Podcast, On this episode, the Sekere Team and our guests will be sharing their opinions on Avengers: Endgame. https://soundcloud.com/user-243775710/avengers-endgame-review Christiana: Welcome to Sekere News podcast, my name is Christiana and I'll be your host for today. My guests today are Imoh and Tolu and they are both movie lovers. On today's podcast will be reviewing Avengers Endgame. This is Marvels final Avengers movie, the movie is the sequel to Avengers Infinity War. Christiana: It follows what happens after the infamous Thanos snap and we see the Avengers try to get everybody back and defeat Thanos. Let's hear from our guests to see what they thought about the movie…. Imoh Imoh: Hi…Good afternoon. Thanks for having me. Christiana: You're welcome. Imoh: So the Marvel Avenger… It was an incredible action movie with special effects. It was everything you hope for and everything you wanted�� it was time well spent and I had the chance, I’ll definitely see it again….No, I have to definitely see it again. Christiana: Okay. All right. Thank you…. Tolu Tolu: I think I agree with Imoh… the movie was amazing!!!!! (Special effects)….I really love the movie. It was intriguing, it was exciting, it was Innovative, it was creative, it was colorful…think of anything…you could actually think of…it was that. Tolu: I think they did a great job at this and it was worth our time. Christiana: All right. Thank you Christiana: For me… the movie was definitely as awesome as Tolu and Imoh have said… it was definitely an epic movie. It's something that would definitely go down in movie history as the ultimate superhero movie. I think our children would probably be talking about see from generations to come. This would be a reference point for how to do superhero movies. Christiana: It was a very satisfying or fitting farewell to the original Avengers characters. It was very satisfying, it was humorous, it definitely paid homage to the whole Marvel franchise and it was very nostalgic. It was humorous. Like I said, very humorous especially the scenes with Thor… I don't know… I don't know it was as humorous as other Marvel movies… Tolu… Imoh… What do you guys think? Imoh: It's like their go-to theme team to add humour and comedy to everything. Right from Thor Ragnorok, even when Thor lost his dad, they kept up with their humour and comic relief throughout…. So you don’t really experience this hard reality checks that come in during the movie, they just find a way to give you a soft landing. It’s their go-to thing. They put it out there once again. It was right on the mark. Christiana: Yes, unlike DC… When you compare DC to Marvel. Imoh: DC is more of like Gloomy, action, doomsday, destruction and all that. Christiana: Yeah, so I think Marvel… it was humorous….I don't know if it was as humorous as other ones but it was definitely very humorous. Tolu: Sure it was Christiana: Tolu… Tolu: I agree with you both, it was humorous especially for Bruce's part Thor. Both of them killed it for me… Thor being the melted ice cream looking like the melted ice cream and also Bruce always trying to make fun out of every situation. So of course, it was… Christiana: Yes. Another thing I liked was the battle sequence especially the final battle… I think that was epic. It was one of the most epic battle scenes I've ever seen. Christiana: I thought… I think Marvel keeps getting better and better with their battle scenes. With Captain America Civil War, the two teams fighting. I thought I was like… Wow!.... the maddest superhero battle scene I had ever seen. Then with Avengers Infinity when they were fighting with Thanos I was like… Wow! This is mind-blowing and finally, they top it off again with it…. It was great…. Christiana: I'm really sorry for this small spoiler. But when Captain America was using and Thor’s original Hammer….the…(what do they call it) Imoh: Mjolnir Christiana: Yeah the Mjolnir…it was… it was just mind-blowing… everybody in the cinema…they were just laughing, clapping and it was really good. Imoh: It was epic. Christiana: It was definitely very epic… It was… Wow! Thinking about it now I am already excited again… if you watch that scene, you will just get giddy… It was definitely a badass scene. Another thing I liked about the fight scene was Captain Marvel and Thanos when they finally got to fight. Imoh: When she stopped him from snapping. Christiana: Yes. It was….Wow. That was also not that good one. Then I liked the… you know… the little shout out to girl power… when Captain Marvel was with It Tolu: Yesssss!!! Imoh: Yeah yeah yeah Tolu: That was really really good. Christiana: The boys in the house would not get it but we girls would understand. Imoh: It seems like they dedicated a couple of minutes just to showcase that…Well Christiana: Yes Tolu: Yeah trying to pass a message. I think which everyone got… Christiana: And they did…which was nice. Tolu: and the exciting part for me… I literally had Goose pimples all over my body. I wanted to stand and clap was when Dr Strange introduced everyone else… the warriors, T’challa and all Christiana: Yes!!! Tolu: It was amazing. Christiana: Yes, Yes… I am even getting chills thinking about it no. Tolu: It was off the hook… That scene alone I would see it over and over again. So yes, and I'd also like to add another part that really got to me was the part of Thor when he saw his mom. Tolu: That's the role of a mother can't be overemphasized when she spoke to him and he actually decided at that particular point in time. I think he just needed that pep talk from his mom. She believing in him and he can do it again and all of that. I think that just place them in the right path. So I think those were exciting scenes for me. Christiana: Okay then so let me just ask a couple of questions… which character really stood out for you because there were so many characters… which character really or two or three characters or a character that really stood out for you. Imoh: For me, I would say Thor and the Hulk... You know Hulk became more refined... He found the perfect balance between monstrous Hulk and Dr Banner. He became more refined, would I say he became a public icon.. when they wanted to take selfies with him. When they went back in the past and they saw the old Hulk smashing Christiana: Smashing was just thinking about it Imoh: He also tried to mimic that again doing the little destruction, here and there… Yeah… It was really cool… that was my character… Christiana: Alright Tolu, Tolu: For me. The characters that stood out. I'll say that…Thor…I would never think that I will see the side of Thor… I had always seen Thor as a very strong, determined confident, all six packs and everything but it also showed us that no matter how strong and confident and everything a man is… life can also beat you down. And at the same time, you can get yourself back together with the help of your loved ones around you. So yes, I love that side of Thor. Tolu: Then asides Thor, there's something about Dr Strange. I really can't explain. I love him. I really love him. I can't explain why or why he stands out for me in this movie, but I just love him and there's just this thing about him. And so those are like the two characters that stood out for me. I could mention… I could go on and mention others but since its two I think I'll stick with those two. Christiana: Okay for me… Thor…So like everyone said his character Arc from becoming who he was, falling down… He was w the brunt of a lot of Jokes which made it very lively and I'm going to say a very minor character that stood out for me… Tony Stark's daughter. I really like her…. She was precious…. She was just precious. Tolu: She was super adorable Christiana: I loved her. I would love to hope that she will become Iron cause I think she would definitely have the personality… something I would definitely want to watch. I know… she was adorable, I love her …so those are the characters that stood out for me… So what about your favourite scene different? Imoh: Ermmm…. Favourite Scene, it was definitely when Captain America, Iron Man and Thor ganged up on Thanos and he kicked their ass… literally... Yeah, that would be it for me…. I love the battle sequence and how it played out. It was more of very serious combat and Thanos showed himself. Imoh: Though Thanos is a villain and all… but... mehn… You have to like Thanos Christiana: He tried… he did well Imoh: That was my scene that was it for me. Christiana: Tolu Tolu: Like I mentioned earlier my favourite scene was when Dr Strange brought in everyone the warriors… it’s a whole lot for me because it shows a lot in unity… then their entrance through the… what is it called… I don't know… circular. Imoh: Dimensions Tolu: Through the dimensions… that was my favourite scene even before they started… the entrance and how the camera took us through all of them, each and every one of them bringing back memories like… oh my God… oh my God that T’challa…oh my God that’s… Imoh: Of Course Black Panther was repping Tolu: Of course, so that was that was my favourite scene. Christiana: Wow for me. Now. I'm confused. I really liked the battle scene… then the way Tolu is reminding me about how they came in... It was exciting and it was such a proud moments. To just see them come in especially since we all thought they were dead. It was very emotional and the fight scene. I'm sorry Captain America holding Thor’s Hammer. That was just too epic. The way he struck the Thunder and everything… It was mind-blowing… Imoh: He turned to God of Thunder Christiana: I am telling you. Tolu: And the part he was like…you know what, this is lighter... take this… Christiana: Yes! It was good Tolu: I love that part. Christiana: So what about the most emotional scene? Because there were some emotional moments. Imoh: Definitely when Iron man passed on… Tolu: Of course… Christiana: Yes it was very sad especially since he did not really want to go at that a particular time and he had a family…. So Imoh: He took the responsibility and he did it for all of us. Tolu: Yeah… When they were… I don’t know what it is called…Like the playback video that he made after he died and I saw his daughter when you said I love you 3,000. It really got to me. Christiana: It touched me. Tolu: It was… that’s like my most emotional scene. Christiana Okay, so obviously you're all talking about how much we love the movie. There are some scenes we did not… like me… there are something’s you know... Some questions, I have, something’s that might have been a low point for me. Maybe loopholes that kind of thing. Do you have anything similar or any thoughts? Imoh: I Think I have a couple of them. Christiana: Okay… Imoh: The whole time travelling thing and how they set their own rules. Christiana: Thank you. Imoh: It's different from what we've seen… we may not know all the theories but from movies we’ve seen... they have been consistent and all and let’s stick with that... don't write a new script for us just to fit your narrative. Christiana: Yes Imoh: Then secondly with the gauntlet Iron man made….We all know how Thanos went to dwarf Kingdom to get the dying star. He made them create a gauntlet that could harness the powers of all the stones but here is Iron Man with tech and all that… now with technology from Wakanda, he is creating a new gauntlet. I really don't see how they compare or how were they able to level up to harness the stones and withstand the effect of the snap because they used it about two times. Okay, just once, when Hulk tried it on and Thanos tried again. I felt it… Christiana: And Iron Man. Imoh: You know Iron Man had his own gauntlet already. Christiana: Oh, yes, yes Imoh: So actually they made two gauntlets now… It’s now like the gauntlet is something… Christiana: that anybody can use it? Imoh: Anyone can make and anyone can use… So that’s a little glitch for me but besides that I enjoyed it. Tolu: Okay for me, I agree we Imoh when it comes to time travelling. Physics and what we know basically when you time travel, you try not to do anything funny so it doesn’t alter or change things in the present or in the future. So if they could have changed certain things how come it didn't affect the future or the present. So I really didn't buy into that working especially for Captain America if he could do that in certain things should have changed about certain people because that's that singular decision would have influenced certain things. Tolu: He wouldn't have met certain people. He isn’t even supposed to remember or know them at old age because you wouldn't have met with them and have a personal one-on-one relationship with them. I think you went back to the time before he even took the serum Christiana: Because he was able to age… Tolu: Exactly … So some things I don't really buy into..but besides that… it was an amazing movie. Christiana; Well my problems with the movie first of all Captain Marvel... the way they put her was like she was going to be a major person, character in a movie and she wasn't…so she played a very small role but I can understand why they did that because it was all about the original character saying goodbye to them. So I'll leave that. Christiana: Another thing. I was kind of disappointed I didn't see Loki. I know he died in the other movie, but I felt that the way he died… they didn't pay like…. the way Iron Man passed on and everything. It was very significant. They didn’t pay homage to him in the way that he died. Tolu: I will disagree with you there… we wouldn’t pay homage to Loki? You can't… I think it's really an insult on Iron Man to compare Iron mand and Loki. Christiana: But he is a major character… Imoh: He is a major character. Christiana: Not on the same level but he is Imoh: Several times he switched sides fighting for good and all that. Christiana: Yes… They should have done more Imoh: Yeah… They should have done more for Loki Tolu: Oh well! I still disagree with Loki’s Christiana: But I feel that this would not be the last time we would see him. I hear that they might be a Loki movie. Maybe that's why we didn't get to see him. Tolu: Exactly Christiana: And things like that Tolu: We would get to understand things better. Christiana: Yes, then another thing I did not… another question was Hulk and Black Widow had a relationship previous to this thing and they did not tell us why they broke up or if they really… they didn’t say anything… it was just…. obviously, I know he became the Hulk…. That would have obviously stopped the relationship one way or the other. They didn’t explain to us or anything…they didn’t… Did he still love, did they move or did they decide to be friends…what happened… I know it’s not love..romantic movie but still we deserve to know that… Christiana: then the time travelling thing like everybody has said, they were too many loopholes. Now that look he Loki took the time soon at that point in time. What is going to happen? Is he going…Where is he now? So he did not die if he did not die… there are like so many things that… and like Tolu said the Captain America thing he went back in time. He stayed there…what’s going to happen. I don't know. So those were the bad parts for me when it came to the movie. Christiana: I think we're done with everything... if you are going to rate the movie…If you were going to rate the movie what would you rate it. Imoh: I will give it a solid 8.5. Tolu: I will give it solid, I'm sure 9.5. I loved it. Christiana: I'll give you it… so I am going to be the one in between... 9…It was great. Just a loopholes. I wish they answered some of my questions but apart from that it was a great movie, very entertaining, epic, satisfying and it was great. So does anyone have anything to add? Imoh: We have seen the end of an era, the end of The Avengers and it's been an awesome journey which we have all witnessed the conclusion of the movie. So I am looking forward to what comes next and every other thing they have… and definitely its Marvel, they will kick ass… sorry… I am excited… Christiana: Okay, sorry I just want to… Imoh made me think about... Did the movie get you excited about future Marvel movies? Tolu: Of course sure…It did…. Christiana: I don't know how they are going to top Avengers. I don't know o! but they would… Tolu: Then another part….I noticed where I think I've heard and there are a lot of theories when I'm Stark died and everyone was around, present at this porch. I think in front of his house trying to pay homage… There was this particular guy…I don't know if it was a guy or girl that the camera was on and theories have said that the person is going to be the next Iron Man. I really do not know what you think but it will be exciting to see but can anyone really take the role of Iron Man like Tony Stark did? Oh, well our fingers are crossed… so I am excited to see what Marvel has up their sleeves. Christiana: All right. Thank you guys very much for coming… Imoh and Tolu…We thank our listeners for also listening… if you agree with the review or you disagree or you have any insights or comments you like to share. Please leave a comment below. We are very eager to hear from you. Thank you. Read the full article

#AvengersEndgame #AvengersEndgameReview #Podcast #SekereNewsPodcast #SekereNewsReviews #SekerePodcast #SekereReviews

0 notes

the-firebird69 · 5 years ago

Text

and i help my sons build New Vegas and he is shilo and is surrounded now we moved several inlast night...and have foundations being built if we have to we move. one casino by s only we surround him. and moved several in, about ten. and it is huge each casino dwarfs Vegas Casinos which are vast, ours are ten times the size several million square feet each, about 50 thousand rooms each...tons of space no we have it now..the raili s almost done and lots paved tons of equipment...tons. and we see it is about the future... huge Casinos and we speak to Hooters they are wiating.....he sits adn thinks...this always goes pop in my face. we use thier girls in ours. they can go on the outskirts. no Hardrock they took him for a ride too, we use it now...no to Hooters nope....stole it from our boy and used it on him lots and he hurts still..nah....we f you up too. we have a few in they want to knoow which Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and it is fully operational and you wear protective gear and enter and sign an agreement noswimming touching even w your gloves and so on y ou may veiw it remotely in the store, and movecameras and all. it is amazing most see it in the store and run to the line. huge pieces of candy that are edible for aprice you may buy a piece or the whole thing andedible decorative pieces are for sale in thelobbytons of them all different shapes....a favorite the white swan...all candy and fluffy marshmellow mainly, but the kind at easter,and he says it...tons love it...huge ones too that are about the sizeof a giantpolar bear in the shape of men women and more even ofy ou. tons do it and bring it to tier parties they hvae off campus or in rented rooms or halls tons of halls huge ones. and he will be offered candy bars by bg. tons. each scanned so they wont let him no want him to and be dissapointed. he doesnt want to go to iether so ou watch ok. Kid Hotel we named it that. and it is for you s and your kids your kids now ok. a baby lamb or soemthing yes. goat. and it has the track. they check first and entered thier cars to be in the ride only a few were selected as were collectors items. wie hadone. and th two with him. we knew....and they loaded up all collectors cars. old new and the first off the line. tons willride moslty adults at firs to the kid hotel. Auto Mile it is a big attractor he says anchor. and it is massive. it has tons of his dispensors and it is usually Pennywise Inc most think it is these here. and we hear himno wedont care it is not. huge too and plenty of showrooms andhis ideas, a track to try them and all feed to it....it is massive, tons like it and hit has a main street you go to and from the track on. and beep and play loud music. nad more.....huge with ppl huge. they all go and buy tons of things. his cars too are intermingled and are like Tesla, no, same name only branded differently. he calls them Thor but are not called that go and see. he is a genius with marketing with yours s. genius. we have our brands too that are intermingled lots buy them we know what to do with the money Apollo showed us. and it is good. bg runs Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, and he is happy doing it. has funny costume as he does in the movie and it is geat tey all love it...says try wait thought a few days too. then vrooooommmmmm you will wash away iwth customers....wash away..he laughs and booze there too, tons of candy flavored....and mine yes....for those who need health..he laughs....tons of cars all big four. all fast car makers. all specialty, alltrucks up to six tons. and all other means basically, Harley all japanese and all usa ktm and the trke one and the smallco he liked. asked they sent some....are a huge hit on the strip...he likes it asked to be in the Man Cave....so he did they like seeing him...and he is like this what am i to do it is buietifiul a bueitiful ride lol. ohno fun. and he runs the Hammer the popular Carnival strength test but right in the middle of th man cave you hear the ding and he chose, the prize, a free room. the Hammer and bell means your the man...and its yourhammer and night etc. so not many can. bill hit it right away....and preston...have the swing and arc. tons laughed it is them. they won. saw went at it..... thror tried missed came back jacked an hour or two later andwon. got a roomloved the room too had a great time...beer galore the room is setup like a mancave allof them and you can pick Patriots and so on..not just pillows,chairs and tbles lamps andash trays and much much more you can buy thingsin the room too almostany of them. amarkenting guru but wethougt of that. he had itfor a while we did too lots of hft so no Movie Casino and of course bob wanted more and gt it, ceo of the movie casino...a real one and ours. a drive in or three, huge. roller skated servers.....tons of movie theatres like man caves rentable,headlinemovies in the middle, and more...and we see allare in and weheari t cfo is Enzo fromhere. and John C Rielly is the Ceo Death Race Casino and Bar and Raw Bar lori runs the latter saki served there too. ahuge track. she is the CEo and it is massive. tons of space and huge tracks. massive and weloadedit allin. tons of it is fromcali. huge amounts. and down the street all the refinery stuff and we see t is like howw ilwe and we know how. massive lines to this one folks it is an alltimefav....and weheard this like Arlen Ness they can buy sign certify and race. tons like it andneeded the break lol..... we outfit them too. racin gear customized....and a special request for veep, crazy chicken el polloloco heagreed has sharesnow....and knwe who andwas upset allnight...youi can bo buy a car like the transporter had and outfit it using our stuff, and go and race, get up on the board your name too, tons of stars signedonright away most go for hp first and other stuff later, smart if you canarmor as wieght ruins speed and we know it s true tons of drop plates and more...huge with fans.tons see stars buy one and drive it in traffic it is only outfited the day of the race. not before entreing the pit area...you watch it fromabove andtattoed guys there...and Kat von d has a shop there in New Vegas only two shops now are yours s. one is a casion it is Shilo’s but named Saul’s..and is huge. he is rich already. tons go there are comfortable... Bar Cafe is huge too it has so many bars you could choke a thousand small ones pubs from allover Earth are replicated he says a bunch are real lots of real memorabilia from Three Cheers and Bullfinch...and more tons of boston bar memorabelia. a realone here and theretoo. lost fromnh the strip. huge ones there arefrom all over all clean. decon notnecessary...wekeep it allnice. and ahuge beer factory,allcan see andor tour. it is huge samples at each batch. and are safely handed out. no trouble pls or arrested...it is easy no thsor that simple rules. huge vats of beer. huge. tons arrive. and wine halls thatare massive and cigars and bill is ceo. a huge jobhe says i have to count it andmore tonsof things could g wrongor right. it is hard. like a factory ihadin lewof this beer thing. so i am disgruntled. weill lastonly afewmonths nah he says it willmove...if need be. wesee it hesays. dontlike it. but im the bar restoring guy who never gavehim abreak got a job ok. see how itis Superhero Bar and Casino tons of cosplay and all workers are in costume some are s some are not real ones and cosplay all have fun and like it. occasionally Superman shows, looks real form the last movie series Zod too and co all look real helmets and all. ons love it..huge huge conventions now...huge. allover Earth they show tons of star wars and Darth Maul allover he is athome now it isterrible again. lol. huge crowds ovewhealm him andhe hisses at them like the real thing would. they are shocked he moves so fast and they call thiers security always intercepts, he is agymnist and they move on bt mark him up somehow some stick things to him athey did caa. huge lines there too to get in get a room or play the outragesou games wonder women is there....and he got it off the Seminoles, who want him to open a branch there a whole branch....Superhero Branch, says ask Uriel on a seperate occasion they shall...and will. and they laugh ti will sell Vegas but it is a taste of it and they see he gets it. massive cranes get it done and we plan need land andhe sees. we work now. tons see it more friendly or appearst o be Jurrasic Park and Casino with real dinasours setup like he said vip pay and get a real view. others the zoo and it has relics there meaning old lions and tigers and bears no Kaiju. it is very tame but holy crap real dinasours..real. and eat large animals that areskinned anddead. full cows trex swallows one a day. huge ones too. fullblownsteer. and he eats allday too. snacks. on chickens andmore. tons seehim andboast i can kill that and more. and wesee....he likes tosee it live. it is the dinasour....andhe is the LIzard King andhe has justin as Ceo well justin says he is andi s. and he is Jim Morrison........and he thankshim but no ok lol. movies yes and a few theatres and tons of film like museums and tons of toys and artifacts for sale and viewing real fossils galore tons...and we see. more there now ok he is tired. Thor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=094MOX6ALMc

0 notes

readbookywooks · 8 years ago

Text

26 I spew the berries from my mouth, wiping my tongue with the end of my shirt to make sure no juice remains. Peeta pulls me to the lake where we both flush our mouths with water and then collapse into each other's arms. "You didn't swallow any?" I ask him. He shakes his head. "You?" "Guess I'd be dead by now if I did," I say. I can see his lips moving in reply, but I can't hear him over the roar of the crowd in the Capitol that they're playing live over the speakers. The hovercraft materializes overhead and two ladders drop, only there's no way I'm letting go of Peeta. I keep one arm around him as I help him up, and we each place a foot on the first rung of the ladder. The electric current freezes us in place, and this time I'm glad because I'm not really sure Peeta can hang on for the whole ride. And since my eyes were looking down, I can see that while our muscles are immobile, nothing is preventing the blood from draining out of Peeta's leg. Sure enough, the minute the door closes behind us and the current stops, he slumps to the floor unconscious. My fingers are still gripping the back of his jacket so tightly that when they take him away it tears leaving me with a fistful of black fabric. Doctors in sterile white, masked and gloved, already prepped to operate, go into action. Peeta's so pale and still on a silver table, tubes and wires springing out of him every which way, and for a moment I forget we're out of the Games and I see the doctors as just one more threat, one more pack of mutts designed to kill him. Petrified, I lunge for him, but I'm caught and thrust back into another room, and a glass door seals between us. I pound on the glass, screaming my head off. Everyone ignores me except for some Capitol attendant who appears behind me and offers me a beverage. I slump down on the floor, my face against the door, staring uncomprehendingly at the crystal glass in my hand. Icy cold, filled with orange juice, a straw with a frilly white collar. How wrong it looks in my bloody, filthy hand with its dirt-caked nails and scars. My mouth waters at the smell, but I place it carefully on the floor, not trusting anything so clean and pretty. Through the glass, I see the doctors working feverishly on Peeta, their brows creased in concentration. I see the flow of liquids, pumping through the tubes, watch a wall of dials and lights that mean nothing to me. I'm not sure, but I think his heart stops twice. It's like being home again, when they bring in the hopelessly mangled person from the mine explosion, or the woman in her third day of labor, or the famished child struggling against pneumonia and my mother and Prim, they wear that same look on their faces. Now is the time to run away to the woods, to hide in the trees until the patient is long gone and in another part of the Seam the hammers make the coffin. But I'm held here both by the hovercraft walls and the same force that holds the loved ones of the dying. How often I've seen them, ringed around our kitchen table and I thought, Why don't they leave? Why do they stay to watch? And now I know. It's because you have no choice. I startle when I catch someone staring at me from only a few inches away and then realize it's my own face reflecting back in the glass. Wild eyes, hollow cheeks, my hair in a tangled mat. Rabid. Feral. Mad. No wonder everyone is keeping a safe distance from me. The next thing I know we've landed back on the roof of the Training Center and they're taking Peeta but leaving me behind the door. I start hurling myself against the glass, shrieking and I think I just catch a glimpse of pink hair - it must be Effie, it has to be Effie coming to my rescue - when the needle jabs me from behind. When I wake, I'm afraid to move at first. The entire ceiling glows with a soft yellow light allowing me to see that I'm in a room containing just my bed. No doors, no windows are visible. The air smells of something sharp and antiseptic. My right arm has several tubes that extend into the wall behind me. I'm naked, but the bedclothes arc soothing against my skin. I tentatively lift my left hand above the cover. Not only has it been scrubbed clean, the nails are filed in perfect ovals, the scars from the burns are less prominent. I touch my cheek, my lips, the puckered scar above my eyebrow, and am just running my fingers through my silken hair when I freeze. Apprehensively I ruffle the hair by my left ear. No, it wasn't an illusion. I can hear again. I try and sit up, but some sort of wide restraining band around my waist keeps me from rising more than a few inches. The physical confinement makes me panic and I'm trying to pull myself up and wriggle my hips through the band when a portion of the wall slides open and in steps the redheaded Avox girl carrying a tray. The sight of her calms me and I stop trying to escape. I want to ask her a million questions, but I'm afraid any familiarity would cause her harm. Obviously I am being closely monitored. She sets the tray across my thighs and presses something that raises me to a sitting position. While she adjusts my pillows, I risk one question. I say it out loud, as clearly as my rusty voice will allow, so nothing will seem secretive. "Did Peeta make it?" She gives me a nod, and as she slips a spoon into my hand, I feel the pressure of friendship. I guess she did not wish me dead after all. And Peeta has made it. Of course, he did. With all their expensive equipment here. Still, I hadn't been sure until now. As the Avox leaves, the door closes noiselessly after her and I turn hungrily to the tray. A bowl of clear broth, a small serving of applesauce, and a glass of water. This is it? I think grouchily. Shouldn't my homecoming dinner be a little more spectacular? But I find it's an effort to finish the spare meal before me. My stomach seems to have shrunk to the size of a chestnut, and I have to wonder how long I've been out because I had no trouble eating a fairly sizable breakfast that last morning in the arena. There's usually a lag of a few days between the end of the competition and the presentation of the victor so that they can put the starving, wounded, mess of a person back together again. Somewhere, Cinna and Portia will be creating our wardrobes for the public appearances. Haymitch and Effie will be arranging the banquet for our sponsors, reviewing the questions for our final interviews. Back home, District 12 is probably in chaos as they try and organize the homecoming celebrations for Peeta and me, given that the last one was close to thirty years ago. Home! Prim and my mother! Gale! Even the thought of Prim's scruffy old cat makes me smile. Soon I will be home! I want to get out of this bed. To see Peeta and Cinna, to find out more about what's been going on. And why shouldn't I? I feel fine. But as I start to work my way out of the band, I feel a cold liquid seeping into my vein from one of the tubes and almost immediately lose consciousness. This happens on and off for an indeterminate amount of time. My waking, eating, and, even though I resist the impulse to try and escape the bed, being knocked out again. I seem to be in a strange, continual twilight. Only a few things register. The redheaded Avox girl has not returned since the feeding, my scars are disappearing, and do I imagine it? Or do I hear a man's voice yelling? Not in the Capitol accent, but in the rougher cadences of home. And I can't help having a vague, comforting feeling that someone is looking out for me. Then finally, the time arrives when I come to and there's nothing plugged into my right arm. The restraint around my middle has been removed and I am free to move about. I start to sit up but am arrested by the sight of my hands. The skin's perfection, smooth and glowing. Not only are the scars from the arena gone, but those accumulated over years of hunting have vanished without a trace. My forehead feels like satin, and when I try to find the burn on my calf, there's nothing. I slip my legs out of bed, nervous about how they will bear my weight and find them strong and steady. Lying at the foot of the bed is an outfit that makes me flinch. It's what all of us tributes wore in the arena. I stare at it as if it had teeth until I remember that, of course, this is what I will wear to greet my team. I'm dressed in less than a minute and fidgeting in front of the wall where I know there's a door even if I can't see it when suddenly it slides open. I step into a wide, deserted hall that appears to have no other doors on it. But it must. And behind one of them must be Peeta. Now that I'm conscious and moving, I'm growing more and more anxious about him. He must be all right or the Avox girl wouldn't have said so. But I need to see him for myself. "Peeta!" I call out, since there's no one to ask. I hear my name in response, but it's not his voice. It's a voice that provokes first irritation and then eagerness. Effie. I turn and see them all waiting in a big chamber at the end of the hall - Effie, Haymitch, and Cinna. My feet take off without hesitation. Maybe a victor should show more restraint, more superiority, especially when she knows this will be on tape, but I don't care. I run for them and surprise even myself when I launch into Haymitch's arms first. When he whispers in my ear, "Nice job, sweetheart," it doesn't sound sarcastic. Effie's somewhat teary and keeps patting my hair and talking about how she told everyone we were pearls. Cinna just hugs me tight and doesn't say anything. Then I notice Portia is absent and get a bad feeling. "Where's Portia? Is she with Peeta? He is all right, isn't he? I mean, he's alive?" I blurt out. "He's fine. Only they want to do your reunion live on air at the ceremony," says Haymitch. "Oh. That's all," I say. The awful moment of thinking Peeta's dead again passes. "I guess I'd want to see that myself." "Go on with Cinna. He has to get you ready," says Haymitch. It's a relief to be alone with Cinna, to feel his protective arm around my shoulders as he guides me away from the cameras, down a few passages and to an elevator that leads to the lobby of the Training Center. The hospital then is far underground, even beneath the gym where the tributes practiced tying knots and throwing spears. The windows of the lobby are darkened, and a handful of guards stand on duty. No one else is there to see us cross to the tribute elevator. Our footsteps echo in the emptiness. And when we ride up to the twelfth floor, the faces of all the tributes who will never return flash across my mind and there's a heavy, tight place in my chest. When the elevator doors open, Venia, Flavius, and Octavia engulf me, talking so quickly and ecstatically I can't make out their words. The sentiment is clear though. They are truly thrilled to see me and I'm happy to see them, too, although not like I was to see Cinna. It's more in the way one might be glad to see an affectionate trio of pets at the end of a particularly difficult day. They sweep me into the dining room and I get a real meal - roast beef and peas and soft rolls - although my portions are still being strictly controlled. Because when I ask for seconds, I'm refused. "No, no, no. They don't want it all coming back up on the stage," says Octavia, but she secretly slips me an extra roll under the table to let me know she's on my side. We go back to my room and Cinna disappears for a while as the prep team gets me ready. "Oh, they did a full body polish on you," says Flavius enviously. "Not a flaw left on your skin." But when I look at my naked body in the mirror, all I can see is how skinny I am. I mean, I'm sure I was worse when I came out of the arena, but I can easily count my ribs. They take care of the shower settings for me, and they go to work on my hair, nails, and makeup when I'm done. They chatter so continuously that I barely have to reply, which is good, since I don't feel very talkative. It's funny, because even though they're rattling on about the Games, it's all about where they were or what they were doing or how they felt when a specific event occurred. "I was still in bed!" "I had just had my eyebrows dyed!" "I swear I nearly fainted!" Everything is about them, not the dying boys and girls in the arena. We don't wallow around in the Games this way in District 12. We grit our teeth and watch because we must and try to get back to business as soon as possible when they're over. To keep from hating the prep team, I effectively tune out most of what they're saying. Cinna comes in with what appears to be an unassuming yellow dress across his arms. "Have you given up the whole 'girl on fire' thing?" I ask. "You tell me," he says, and slips it over my head. I immediately notice the padding over my breasts, adding curves that hunger has stolen from my body. My hands go to my chest and I frown. "I know," says Cinna before I can object. "But the Gamemakers wanted to alter you surgically. Haymitch had a huge fight with them over it. This was the compromise." He stops me before I can look at my reflection. "Wait, don't forget the shoes." Venia helps me into a pair of flat leather sandals and I turn to the mirror. I am still the "girl on fire." The sheer fabric softly glows. Even the slight movement in the air sends a ripple up my body. By comparison, the chariot costume seems garish, the interview dress too contrived. In this dress, I give the illusion of wearing candlelight. "What do you think?" asks Cinna. "I think it's the best yet," I say. When I manage to pull my eyes away from the flickering fabric, I'm in for something of a shock. My hair's loose, held back by a simple hairband. The makeup rounds and fills out the sharp angles of my face. A clear polish coats my nails. The sleeveless dress is gathered at my ribs, not my waist, largely eliminating any help the padding would have given my figure. The hem falls just to my knees. Without heels, you can see my true stature. I look, very simply, like a girl. A young one. Fourteen at the most. Innocent. Harmless. Yes, it is shocking that Cinna has pulled this off when you remember I've just won the Games. This is a very calculated look. Nothing Cinna designs is arbitrary. I bite my lip trying to figure out his motivation. "I thought it'd be something more. sophisticated-looking," I say. "I thought Peeta would like this better," he answers carefully. Peeta? No, it's not about Peeta. It's about the Capitol and the Gamemakers and the audience. Although I do not yet understand Cinna's design, it's a reminder the Games are not quite finished. And beneath his benign reply, I sense a warning. Of something he can't even mention in front of his own team. We take the elevator to the level where we trained. It's customary for the victor and his or her support team to rise from beneath the stage. First the prep team, followed by the escort, the stylist, the mentor, and finally the victor. Only this year, with two victors who share both an escort and a mentor, the whole thing has had to be rethought. I find myself in a poorly lit area under the stage. A brand-new metal plate has been installed to transport me upward. You can still see small piles of sawdust, smell fresh paint. Cinna and the prep team peel off to change into their own costumes and take their positions, leaving me alone. In the gloom, I see a makeshift wall about ten yards away and assume Peeta's behind it. The rumbling of the crowd is loud, so I don't notice Haymitch until he touches my shoulder. I spring away, startled, still half in the arena, I guess. "Easy, just me. Let's have a look at you," Haymitch says. I hold out my arms and turn once. "Good enough." It's not much of a compliment. "But what?" I say. Haymitch's eyes shift around my musty holding space, and he seems to make a decision. "But nothing. How about a hug for luck?" Okay, that's an odd request from Haymitch but, after all, we are victors. Maybe a hug for luck is in order. Only, when I put my arms around his neck, I find myself trapped in his embrace. He begins talking, very fast, very quietly in my ear, my hair concealing his lips. "Listen up. You're in trouble. Word is the Capitol's furious about you showing them up in the arena. The one thing they can't stand is being laughed at and they're the joke of Panem," says Haymitch. I feel dread coursing through me now, but I laugh as though Haymitch is saying something completely delightful because nothing is covering my mouth. "So, what?" "Your only defense can be you were so madly in love you weren't responsible for your actions." Haymitch pulls back and adjusts my hairband. "Got it, sweetheart?" He could be talking about anything now. "Got it," I say. "Did you tell Peeta this?" "Don't have to," says Haymitch. "He's already there." "But you think I'm not?" I say, taking the opportunity to straighten a bright red bow tie Cinna must have wrestled him into. "Since when does it matter what I think?" says Haymitch. "Better take our places." He leads me to the metal circle. "This is your night, sweetheart. Enjoy it." He kisses me on the forehead and disappears into the gloom. I tug on my skirt, willing it to be longer, wanting it to cover the knocking in my knees. Then I realize it's pointless. My whole body's shaking like a leaf. Hopefully, it will be put down to excitement. After all, it's my night. The damp, moldy smell beneath the stage threatens to choke me. A cold, clammy sweat breaks out on my skin and I can't rid myself of the feeling that the boards above my head are about to collapse, to bury me alive under the rubble. When I left the arena, when the trumpets played, I was supposed to be safe. From then on. For the rest of my life. But if what Haymitch says is true, and he's got no reason to lie, I've never been in such a dangerous place in my life. It's so much worse than being hunted in the arena. There, I could only die. End of story. But out here Prim, my mother, Gale, the people of District 12, everyone I care about back home could be punished if I can't pull off the girl-driven-crazy-by-love scenario Haymitch has suggested. So I still have a chance, though. Funny, in the arena, when I poured out those berries, I was only thinking of outsmarting the Gamemakers, not how my actions would reflect on the Capitol. But the Hunger Games are their weapon and you are not supposed to be able to defeat it. So now the Capitol will act as if they've been in control the whole time. As if they orchestrated the whole event, right down to the double suicide. But that will only work if I play along with them. And Peeta. Peeta will suffer, too, if this goes wrong. But what was it Haymitch said when I asked if he had told Peeta the situation? That he had to pretend to be desperately in love? "Don't have to. He's already there." Already thinking ahead of me in the Games again and well aware of the danger we're in? Or. already desperately in love? I don't know. I haven't even begun to separate out my feelings about Peeta. It's too complicated. What I did as part of the Games. As opposed to what I did out of anger at the Capitol. Or because of how it would be viewed back in District 12. Or simply because it was the only decent thing to do. Or what I did because I cared about him. These are questions to be unraveled back home, in the peace and quiet of the woods, when no one is watching. Not here with every eye upon me. But I won't have that luxury for who knows how long. And right now, the most dangerous part of the Hunger Games is about to begin.

#HungerGames

0 notes