#And also miri is SUCH a good four year old character

[raging-barbarian]

One of my favorite things about rei, trained from childhood to be the perfect assassin, immediately folding like wet tissue paper when it comes to kazuki and miri. He's just a big awkward softie and it's SO tragic that he had to grow up like his father expected him to.

[novelmonger]

Seriously, though. Buddy Daddies. Oh my GOSH it's so good and I'm going slightly feral because no one I know has seen it yet, and like...I need to reassess my top 10 anime list, but I think it might be up there ;A;

The premise: Partners in crime, professional assassins Kazuki Karusu and Rei Suwa receive a mission to kill a certain man at a Christmas party. Unfortunately, as they carry out their task, they discover that his four-year-old daughter is there, going to meet him for the first time. They kill their target...but what happens to this little girl, Miri? Her mother was the guy's mistress, and she apparently doesn't want Miri anymore, so now Miri has no one. No one, that is...except for the two of them! So these two hardened assassins decide that they will be her family, and suddenly they have to figure out how to be dads while also being the assassins who killed her father.

Gaaah, everything about this anime was so much fun! <3 Kazuki has a sunny, friendly disposition, cooking and cleaning and bouncing around and making Miri laugh. Rei is dour and taciturn, speaking in a monotone and never cracking a smile. And Miri is the most adorable little girl you've ever seen. Five seconds of her on screen, and I knew that I never wanted anything bad to happen to her, ever. And it's clear her two papas agree! The three of them just work so amazingly well together; I loved how Kazuki and Rei interacted with each other as well as with Miri.

It's hilarious, but it's also so sweet and heartfelt. There were multiple times that I laughed out loud, and one part towards the end got me bawling like a baby (even though I could see it coming a mile away). There's found family, characters overcoming trauma, dealing with the ups and downs and ins and outs of parenting a small child, and then they throw in some awesome gunslinging every now and then as a treat. The animation is slick, the character designs are great, and Miri's actress does such a good job of sounding like a four-year-old, I would never have guessed she was an adult if I didn't know otherwise! :O

Mmph. This is just...so precisely my cup of tea T^T

[impromptu-sketches]

Buddy Daddies, final thoughts.

I had such a fun time watching this show one episode at a time every Friday morning. I haven’t been this tuned in to an anime in a long time but I was so excited about this one from the beginning!

It’s so weird thinking back to everyone saying “it’s like Spy x Family with two guys” because that became inaccurate so fast haha we really thought it was going to be a light-hearted comedy... they really got us.

I loved the Wednesday previews, the music (especially the lofi remix!), the instagram posts, the notes, and whoever started the bingo, bless you! ♡

♡❤♡❤♡❤♡❤♡

Overall Buddy Daddies was a rollercoaster (not ferris wheel thank goodness)! I really could not guess where it was going from episode to episode, it could have gone in a million different directions, but I am so happy that this is the story we got.

The way Miri burst into everyone’s hearts from episode one ♡ and for a four/five year old, was shown to be such a great kid who wants to be accepted, wants to make friends, who sticks up for others, and who tells people when they’re doing something wrong.

Rei starting out as a stereotypical quiet mysterious dark haired character but becoming SO MUCH MORE. Sure it took him a minute but he was the one who FOUGHT for their family the most - he became the GLUE. We all thought it was going to be Kazuki, but it was Rei. He said ‘I want to be a family’ and then they DID.

Kazuki on the other hand, the overprotective mama hen, he created their family. He CHOSE Rei, chose to move in, chose to take care of him, to buy him a couch, cook for him, and stay with him. He took one look at Miri, smiled and chose to run after her - he didn’t have to do that during their mission. He chose to risk the mission to save her, to call himself her papa, to take her home. This means so much more knowing he’s an orphan who never had a family - he went and created one.

♡❤♡❤♡❤♡❤♡

About the queerness specifically ~

From what I saw -from the show- if I knew nothing about it and just hit play and watched all the way through...

Rei seemed ace/aro to me. He’s not shown to have any romantic or sexual relationships past, present, or time skip. This guy grew up with ZERO affection so it’s either he doesn’t know how, can’t, or isn’t interested. But there’s no attempt or interest, so aro/ace it is! Even with Kazuki, we see him accepting help, them clearly forming a bond to be living together for three+ years and be partners doing dangerous work together - that requires a lot of trust and we finally see that trust and teamwork in episode 12 - but it’s unspoken between them. They’re not affectionate with each other, not physically close, etc. (that we see anyway).

Kazuki definitely seems bi or pan. He’s obviously into women, but he also does this thing where he’s kind of flirty with guys in a joking way? (see images below) To me that’s nervous bisexual energy. That’s just the overall vibe I get from him too. Also that look he had on his face when he first saw Rei... suspicious.

Would I have liked it if they showed each other more affection? Yes! Especially in the later episodes. If their relationship was canon? Hell yes! Because I like BL and I think it would’ve been cute and also made sense and added to their character development. 

There’s ~plenty~ of room to read into queerness in this show... I actually think it would be an even better story if they were in a relationship for a few reasons.

For Rei, finally being free to be his true self, being with someone for love and not for the family bloodline, to accept love and affection. And Kazuki, forgiving himself, letting himself be happy again, finding love again. I think that’s an amazing story for the both of them!

But they didn’t make it that way. This show isn’t (technically) a BL and that’s okay. They still both found happiness and family - and that’s what’s most important.

♡❤♡❤♡❤♡❤♡

Buddy Daddies was FUN and that could have been it but it was deeper than that, watching all of them grow and change together. The ending made me cry tears of joy and relief that they’re all happy and safe.

I have a few tiny things I didn’t like or would have changed, but they’re so minor looking back at the show as a whole.

I do wish they spread out the story, either with more episodes, longer episodes, or both. I wanted to see more small moments, more fluff, more day-to-day family activities, more Rei & Kazuki being friends and having regular conversations, and more assassin scenes with them working together like in the beginning of ep. 1 and in ep. 12. We mostly saw them mess up their work... I wanted to see more action!!

But the show did SO MUCH more than expected with this story. 

The ending episode was AMAZING!! We got to see them fight together for themselves and their family, we saw them being there for Miri, and the time skip!!!! I CRIED EVERY TIME I WATCHED THE TIME SKIP SCENE!!! Miri growing up to be a lovely happy healthy girl. Rei & Kazuki owning a diner at the beach. A simple life full of love and acceptance.

From episode 1, did I think Buddy Daddies would make me cry? NO

Did I think I would post this much about this show? NO I wasn’t planning on posting about it at all!

But here we are crying and spending all day/night on tumblr sharing our thoughts, reading the thoughts of others. It’s been a blast!

♡❤♡❤♡❤♡❤♡

*Update ~

I wrote all that ^ the weekend after ep. 12 came out and now it’s almost a month later.

I’m so happy to see everyone still posting about them ♡♡♡

Lily is still posting drawings - we’ve gotten so many great ones, official images from the DVDs are coming out, and I’ve seen so much fanart and fanfiction going around! Amazing!! Thank you to all of the creators out there!!

Shoutout to some fanarts on twitter I’m loving!

@KMRbd5118 ^

@tamsekai​ | twitter

@toroandpoko11

@NasuNattou

@dailykazurei

@incorrectbudds

♡❤♡❤♡❤♡❤♡

[irenewsky]

Anime I watched in 2023 (Part 1)

In honor of the new year, I’m gonna be casting a look back at the anime I watched last year. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of free time to watch anime at the beginning of the year due to university kicking my ass, but after I finally graduated with my master’s degree, I could finally work through some of the backlog I had accumulated on Crunchyroll and Netflix.

Anyway, without further ado, this is a list of anime I watched in 2023 with some short descriptions and my own personal opinions. Let it be known, there is a lot of text in this one.

Also, since there ended up being a lot more shows that I watched than I thought there would be, this had to be cut in two -> Click here for part 2

Some of my older lists:

My favourite animes (Old. Tells of my tastes back in, like, 2018-2020 or something. Updated list coming once I get around to it)

Feel good anime Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Handa-kun

Handa Seishuu is a calligraphy prodigy and a high schooler. For years he has been living under the assumption that his student peers all hate him. This is, of course, a huge misunderstanding. In reality, Handa is very much admired in his school, to the point of being popular. Where did this misunderstanding stem from and how can it be resolved?

12 episodes - comedy, slice of life

I liked this one! Although I did have a little bit of distaste towards one of Handa’s so called friends. You’ll understand who and why if you decide to watch this.

Barakamon

Handa Seishuu, now a 25-year-old man, punches a famous, older calligrapher judging his latest work. As a consequence of his own actions, he is sent to live in small town in the countryside where a group of kids rutinely keeps breaking into his house. Beautiful friendships bloom between Handa and the people of this town.

12 episodes - comedy, seinen, slice of life

Took me an episode or two to get in to, but once I did I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Backflip!!

Shoutaro Futaba enters high school with intense love for sports, especially men’s rythmic gymnastics after he saw Shoushukan high school’s team perform in a competition. He enrolls into said high school and hopes to join the team despite not having any prior experience with gymnastics. Another boy, Ryouya Misato, get recruited alongside him and together with their senpais they start to work towards Inter-high tournament.

12 episodes and an OVA - sports

I started this in the beginning of the year and only got around to finishing it in November. Actually liked this one a lot! The final movie left me feeling so happy yet bittersweet. I recommend this one!

Skip and Loafer

Mitsumi Iwakura leaves her small countryside town and moves to Tokyo to live with her aunt in hopes that attending a prestigious high school would aid with her ultimate goals in life. As the new school year begins, Mitsumi leaves for school with high hopes, gets lost at the subway station, runs into classmate called Sousuke Shima and together the two barely make it to the entrance ceremony. What will her school life shape up to be?

12 episodes - romace, shojo

Nao-chan supremacy! The bestest aunt!

I really liked to animation animation style of this anime. For me, the show looks very soft and fresh in a spring and pastels kind of way. It’s hard to explain but I hope at least one person gets what I mean. I like the characters a lot and their interactions feel nice and grounded. The romance isn’t the main focus in this one, at least not in this season, which I liked since it’s always lovely to just see friendships put into the spotlight.

Buddy Daddies

What do you get if you combine two trained, professional assassins who live together and an accidental child acquisition? A riot of a family dynamic. Katsuki Kurusu and Rei Suwa fumble through their new shared life as parents to a four-year-old Miri Unasaka. What seemed like a temporary situation at first, stops looking temporary when genuine affection and care for the little girl and her well-being start to blossom in both men’s hearts.

13 episodes - action, comedy

This one was so good. I loved every minute of this and the characters’ dynamics worked so well together. Anyone in the shows comment section who complained about Miri being annoying had clearly never been around young children and it showed. Miri is a delightful little girl who loves her dads very much. There was also a fair bit of action in this which was a nice change of pace amidst all the parenthood things.

My New Boss Is Goofy

Momose Kentaro is a 26-year-old office worker working for a marketing firm, Minette. He is new to the job, having just recently quit his previous job due to power harrassement and abuse he received from his former boss. Can his new clumsy and little goofy manager Shirosaki Yuusei make him feel comfortable in his new job?

12 episodes - comedy, slice of life

I love everything about this show. The characters, the storylines in each episode, the art style. This just makes you feel happy and a little giddy. Definitely my favourite show of the year. This one earned the top spot on my rewatchable shows list.

If you liked Play It Cool, Guys or The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague, you might like this one.

Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions

Kamonohashi Ron was the best stundent of an elite detective school until an incident took away his future career path and made him live as a recluse as he refused to receive any information about the world outside his four walls. One day a police detective Totomaru Isshiki is adviced to approach Ron about a series of cases that have stumped the police for a while now. But because Ron is not allowed to do any sleuthing, Totomaru has to work as Ron’s puppet of sorts. Oh, and there is also the thing about having to keep Ron from influencing the killers to take their own lives. Oh well.

13 episodes - comedy, mystery

I’m a sucker for anything ’Sherlock Holmes’ type of media so this show was right up my alley. Eagerly waiting for the confirmed second season.

Play It Cool, Guys

Group of goofy and clumsy guys from different stages of life happen to meet one another and develop heartwarming friendships. Little mishaps won’t ruin their day!

24 (short) episodes - slice of life

Easily one of my favourites of the year. Watching this felt like sipping a cup of hot green tea while wrapped up in a blanket. Instant rewatch.

If you enjoyed The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague or My New Boss is Goofy, you might also like this one

Vanitas no Karte

A vampire named Noé Archiviste is looking for a book called ’the book of Vanitas’ in the 19th century Paris, when he unexpectedly meets a man calling himself Vanitas and carries the book he’s searching for. The Vanitas he meets isn’t the original maker of the book but a doctor who possesses the ability to save vampires by returning their true names to them.

24 episodes - action, fantasy, mystery

Me, mere minutes into the first episode: ”If anything were to happen to Noé, I would kill everyone in this room and the myself.” Anyway, love me some vampire action, especially with that late 1800s, early 1900s Paris vibe. Delicious.

Vampire Dies in No Time

One day vampire hunter Ronald is tasked to infiltrate a castle and save a woman’s son. Things don’t quite go as he expected. Inside the palace, he meets a vampire called Draluc, who is truly so pathetically weak that he turns to ash from smallest of things that ahppen to startle him, and Draluc’s companion, armadillo John. The kid he seeked was totally fine and playing with Draluc’s video games. Oh and Draluc’s castle gets destroyed. Yeah… Ronald has a new roommate now.

2 seasons - comedy, supernatural

This truly is armadillo John’s world and we’re just living in it.

Love me some more vampire action. Only this time it’s a lot less angsty and violent and a lot more ridiculous and goofy. I laughed so much while watching this.

[dk-wren]

Buddy Daddies Actor AU

Firstly, still trying to wrangle all my thoughts from the finale, but in the meantime the Buddy Daddies brain rot continues to run strong leading my mind to wander off to something like this. Perhaps this is my way of attempting to stay committed to this fandom? Secondly, I don't know if this has been established or done before, but here are some of the ideas I had for an actor au for the main characters. Don't know if I'll write a fic, add on with hcs or other actors, etc., but if you're interested or want to add to it, please feel free to.

Rei

Rei's actor is the total opposite of the character he plays

Total goofball and jokester in between takes/when the cameras aren't rolling

Likes to make his costars break or laugh, especially when filming a serious scene.

A seasoned actor who is really good at "flipping the switch," meaning he knows when to be be his more lighthearted self, a calm or reassuring presence with Miri's actresses, and can quickly get into character

Maybe not a child star, but was at least a child actor who unfortunately experienced some of the bad/exploitive practices. As a result, is very protective of Miri's actresses and making sure they won't have to go through the same thing

Kazuki

For Kazuki's actor, this is his first leading role

Has had multiple guest appearances or minor roles, but this is the first time he is playing one of the lead characters (perhaps this role would be his "big break")

Being a full-time actor was a lifelong dream of his, which now that it's some what come true, trying to make all the people who've supported him on his journey proud

Wants to enjoy his experience, but also doesn't want to blow his chance as a leading man

Therefore, attempting to balance staying present and enjoying the moment while on set, but is very serious when it comes to memorizing lines or learning fight choreo

Miri

How is Miri portrayed so energetically? Well, for one she is a four/five year old, who normally have lots of energy. But, behind the scenes, Miri has two excited and adorable little actresses bringing her to life

In other words, Miri is portrayed by twin actresses.

Similar to Kazuki’s actor, this is the twin actresses first big/leading role, moreso because of age though

They’ve already done some ads and maybe like community youth theatre, so not completely new to acting

Both actresses are old enough to know Rei and Kazuki’s actors are not their actual papas, but they still view them as close family

Off camera, if referring to Rei and Kazuki's actors by like a family title, they’ve chosen uncle. However, all four actors have more of a sibling dynamic.

I have a few other ideas running around in my head about this au, but thought I'd start with the main trio.

Might add on to their backgrounds or add info about like Kyutaro, Misaki, and Ogino's actors. Also playing around with some (fic) ideas for this au like shomance between Rei and Kazuki's actors, how a non-traditional press event or interview would go with the main cast, or like the day to day process of filming.

Let me know if you're interested in having me add on to this au or like I said above, add on to it with your own ideas!

[westgateoh]

The Mother Problem and “Buddy Daddies”

SPOILERS AHEAD “Buddy Daddies” was a surprisingly wonderful little anime! They did a fantastic job of creating three lovable main characters and a couple of also-lovable side characters, and I got very invested in the story right away. It was also darker than expected, in a good way that gave the show depth and stakes. However, it had the Mother Problem, which so many media have. 

Mother characters always seem to baffle writers (almost as if they’re not sure how to write them as real people), and writers often blunder when trying to solve the Mother Problem. People are accusing “Buddy Daddies” of this same blunder.

In short, the Mother Problem is that our culture assumes that mothers are magical creatures who would never let something bad happen to their child and, more importantly, that if they do let something bad happen to their child then they are bad mothers, and maybe even more importantly, we can’t possibly depict bad mothers. (Bad fathers are fair, rich game, of course.) When media does depict bad mothers, which absolutely do exist in the real world, it’s a risky endeavor, so they often use the Standard Mother Problem Solution: get rid of the mothers entirely, early, so they’re out of the picture and our narrative doesn’t have to worry about them. Mothers die offscreen a LOT in media.

  A story about two men who find a four year-old child (after killing her father) and decide to raise her (causing beautiful character growth for both of them) definitely is going to have the Mother Problem, and it appears that the writers knew this and didn’t want to go the easy way out. They didn’t want to kill the mother character at the beginning, the easy route, because they wanted her to be able to come back later and decide to step up and take Miri back to raise her and be a Good Mother. The coming back arc was the way to show that our beloved dad characters have Actually Grown, and they are both devastated to lose Miri. We needed that arc, especially with Rei’s character, who had been reluctant so far about being a dad. Mom had to come back for a short time. Makes sense.

  What do with her, after, though? We need our dads to be able to be dads again! We need the mother out of the picture! The Internet is abuzz this week about how they solved the problem. I would argue that the only way they could have solved the problem differently was to keep Misaki alive and have the three of them co-parent, like a divorced household, with Miri spending time at both places throughout her childhood. HOWEVER, this would not have our beloved dads the center of attention, and was not really a good option, narratively. It would have been clunky to set up, and we would have lost the found-family focus that the story sets up.

  They maybe could have had Misaki decide that parenting wasn’t for her after all (which is where I expected them to go), but two things would have happened there, very importantly. One, Misaki would have been a Bad Mother and, honestly, it would have been tough for people not to see her as a kind of villain – but we didn’t want that because she was clearly the victim of domestic violence and in a tough situation. She wasn’t ever a villain. Two, if they had made her a Bad Mother, people would have cried misogyny, likely. I think we need to see that reality more often, but the show runners wouldn’t have wanted to deal with those accusations, I imagine.

  Some might argue that they could have had her willingly give Miri up because she didn’t have much money, but there’s a lot to unpack around that, including the fact that our boys were about to leave their only known profession and be done with Rei’s family money, so they weren’t very well-off, either. Also, a lot to unpack around that in general around poverty and single motherhood, as well as how hard it would be for her to do that and leave the picture entirely. They also would have had to do that in a single episode, cutting short the other emotional beats the show was aiming for.

  The narrative kind of demanded that Misaki got killed, really, even though it sucks, of course. The boys needed the jarring reality that they couldn’t stay in the hitman business with a kid because the stakes were too high and the possibility too real that Miri could also get killed. They needed the push to call everything off and get out. Misaki was that push, to say nothing of how the narrative didn’t have the time or space for a three-parent situation.

  In the end, when they set up the premise for the show, they had to deal with both of Miri’s bio parents, and the choices they made were difficult. I wish the Mother Problem didn’t get dealt with this way so very, very often, but for me, it played out in a necessary way here (at least it wasn’t offscreen), and didn’t feel like an easy out or misogyny, just the way the story traveled.

[goldenlie]

glad we share an opinion queen!! also getting annoyed because of 4 year old acting like a 4 year old is incredibly valid to me tbh definitely had my own share of yup definitely no chlidren for me ever moments. I feel like later on it gets a little better because now we are focusing more on Kazuki and Rei's past and issues each of them brings to the table lmao I usually have issue only when people claim Miri isn't at all acting like an actual 4 year old and compare her to... Anya... a child who can literally read minds 😐 and will change her behaviour accordingly to what she hears as we have seen her do many times before and I didn't even watch all of spy x family like sir surely you are joking right now?? anyways I hope you are doing well, it's been a while ^_^ what are you up to these days? hope uni isn't giving you too much of a hard time!

(formerly) QQQQQNFFFFFF ENJOYYEEEERRR!!!! AGNESSS!!! It's so good to hear form you <3

If there's one thing I'm reliant at its being a bit of a hater to kids antics, I simply lack the gift of patience. I am right there with you in those moments I'm ngl. Okay the focus on more of their past dynamic and potentially how they got to be in the profession they're in sounds pretty interesting. The potential for angst skyrockets with each word I hear about this show and I am loving it.

That is,,,, a real unique comparison people have made. As someone who has suffered through two seasons of spyxfamily I can definitely vouch that Anya and Miri are not similar characters at all (To clarify spy family was good up until every progression the characters had was wrote away for a cheap punchline or coincidental memory loss, literally happened every second episode after s1 ep9). The only similarity between the two shows point blank is the premise. I would assume people are trying to draw nonexistent parallels purely based off of that, I have no idea as to why though. From what I saw (so, so little) Miri was undoubtedly acting like a four year old, when she spilt that drink in episode 2 it was very on brand kid looking for attention, I thought it showed her age pretty well. Anya as an older character, literally six years old, but she had a lot more motives at play. Obviously she's still young and immature but a lot more mature than Miri nonetheless. Anya could play strategy and was attempting to aid Loid with his spy missions, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume Miri is not going to locate a bomb or something in the remaining 10 eps I have to watch. Miri seems to be a much more honest and open character whereas Anya can be more scheming and conniving (I say with love, I did like Anya's character up until everyone minus Yor became very dislikable very fast), for her own self preservation. The two of them are pretty incomparable, I can see where your disbelief is coming from.

Uni is making me spin in a circle five times and then jump through a hoop 2 meters off the ground. The biggest thing rn is finding time to carry out experiments for my thesis which I will hopefully finish up with this week! It's actually such coincidental timing but this week I have to give a presentation on the most impactful book I've ever read (purely to build confidence in public speaking, damn though, thought I was in science so I didn't have to talk personally) which was extremely difficult considering all impactful "books" I've read in the past four years have been on ao3. So I ended up scavenging through our old messages trying to locate some book recs you had! I actually ended up with another recommendation from the bts boy though, who was reading Almond, this one is called "The Midnight Library" and sounded pretty intriguing! I'll be reading it tonight and tomorrow so if it's worth it I'll update you. What about you queen, are you still working in the job you started last year? I hope it's been going well if so! I know you're into buddy dads these days but anything else been keeping you occupied? Anime wise myself I'm actually about halfway through hunter x hunter?? I started the end of December and it intrigued me ngl. I'm not sure if you've seen but it's very easy to like the main character and his three main besties so I'm looking forward to seeing how things progress further. I also watched the entirety of Voltron out of pure curiosity for how bad the ending was? And I was surprised to see it was actually as shit as they say. However comma the show did lose its appeal much much earlier, have you ever watched? I actually finished up a kdrama series recently as well I believe you recommended me last year called Beyond Evil and holy fucking shit was it good. Usually I fear for around the halfway mark of kdramas that they lose their purpose but I swear they had only warmed up the engine by ep 8. It was addictive to watch and I was so immersed, my love dong sik and his relationship with inspector Han growing and changing throughout the series was extremely interesting to watch unfold. They were a powerful duo when they worked together and I will miss the thrill of each ep.

I hope you've been having a good time in general queen and things have been going well for you :D

[shigarakis-fifth-hand]

The Big Three x Reader Imagines

Anonymous said:                                                                

I don't know how many characters you take for headcanons but here it go... How do you think The Big 3 would handle having a crush on a first-year student?If this excees your maximun on characters, just a one headcanon or scenario with favorite Big 3 it's perfect too ^^

Tamaki

When he first meets you, it’s when he’s helping out Present Mic

That’s when you walked in to give him a note from Mr. Aizawa

Tamaki didn’t know how, but Present Mic knew you

“Ahh, Y/n! There’s my champ! How did training go?”

Tamaki just sat on the sidelines, trying not to be obvious when he was staring at you

You explained how you had gotten hurt, and then gestured to your leg that was wrapped up

“Recovery Girl wanted to give me crutches, but I told her I’m not a weakling!”

Tamaki couldn’t help but chuckle, and that’s when you finally noticed him

“Oh forgive me, this is Tamaki! Tamaki, this is Y/n from Aizawa’s 1-A class. Y/n, this is my student Tamaki. He’s apart of The Big Three.”

A first year student??? With a body and face like that???

Wait, no... she shouldn’t think such dirty thoughts.

Over the next few weeks, he somehow runs into you a lot

Like... too much to be just a coincidence

Little does he know that you are just as smitten with him as he is with you

You give him your number, and it takes the power of Nejire and Mirio to get him to text you

When he does, you’re so happy

The four of you make plans to go to a café down the street, and you guys have a good time

You learn that Tamaki’s shy, but he has a lot to say

Mirio makes sure to ask a lot about you, hoping that you and Tamaki will build something cute

Him and Nejire already ship it

Over the next few weeks, Tamaki finally grows comfortable around you

That is, until the dance comes around

Tamaki is terrible at dancing, but lucky for him you aren’t

“That’s it! Every day, from 2 pm to 4 pm, we are dancing!”

You teach him everything Mina taught you

You guys grow close, really close

Finally, the dance comes around and Nejire dresses you up in the cutest dress possible, which happens to show off your chest immediately

Tamaki is quick to let you borrow his jacket

You tell Tamaki to go dance with a pretty girl when he says that the prettiest girl there is you

You’re not stupid, and end up dancing with him the entire time, laughing and joking

You realize that you couldn’t have had a better time with anybody else

When you’re walking home, it starts raining, so you two squeeze under an umbrella and hold hands

When you’re about to go inside your dorm, he decides it’s now or never and kisses you

You kiss back, and smile

Is he dating you now? He needs to talk to Mirio and Nejire for several moments about how he’s questioning everything.

But he doesn’t question that you like him, and he likes you back.

You’re his favorite person in the entire world.

Nejire

When Aizawa calls her, Tamaki, and Mirio to his class, you stick out to her

It’s like there’s a glow around you the entire time, and she can’t look away

She doesn’t really hear much before they have to go back to class

She’s not stupid! She knows she likes you!

She makes it her mission to know your name, quirk, friend group, and to find your old year book

She even makes her two best buds help her out

They think it’s creepy, but at the same time cute

She’s just so fond of you!

She finally talks to you in the cafeteria and is her own bubbly self

She easily becomes friends with you and invites you to a movie

“You’ll be my date!”

You both laugh it off, but she has a plan

She buys your tickets first, far away from all the people

She then buys you one soda with two straws, and your favorite candy bar which she made Tamaki find out

By the end of the scary movie after Mirio found out you were easily scared

You’re holding her hand and pulling her close

She isn’t watching the movie

Near the end of the night, you’re holding her hand tightly as you walk home to your dormitory

Good thing she had Mirio dress up as a ghost to scare you from the bushes

By the end, you two cannot be closer

“I don’t know about you but I had fun.”

You agree, and she bends down to kiss you

You kiss back slowly and passionately

“Well then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Gosh, why do you have to be so cute?

Mirio

Mirio couldn’t be in love with you! You’re like a little sister to him!

At least that’s what he is thinking when you walk by him in that bathing suit in swim practice

Mirio always comes to your swim meets, you’re just so good!

But you also look sooooo good.

He doesn’t like the way your young coach looks at you. Mirio wants to kill him.

Doesn’t he know that you belong to Mirio? Or... as a friend obviously.

Today Mirio cannot think about all that though, it’s the day of the Sports Festival.

After months of you and him training together, it’s your time to shine.

Your quirk is amazing, and you easily make it into the top 4.

You’re fighting Tokoyami when he run around him, swing your legs around his head, and throw him out of the arena.

Mirio jumps out of his seat, along with most of the arena in applause.

Mirio’s crying, he’s literally crying

He’s only known you for three months when you got into 1-A

But ever since then, his life was changed thanks to you

He was able to talk about his issues to you, have sleepovers with you, and he had taught you how to drive

You two needed each other more than you’d ever know.

But during that entire time, you had only talked about one dream of yours!

Winning the Sports Festival!!

And here you were, about to accomplish your dream

As the final round came, you weren’t able to talk to anyone

The festival had already gone on for too long

Your final opponent is one of your classmates, Katsuki Bakugo

“Just so you know, I’m not going easy on you because you’re a girl, or my friend.”

“Just know I won’t go easy on you because you’re a guy, or my friend.”

He grinned, and then the sound signaling the start rang out in your ears

In a moment of desperation, Bakugo leapt forward, explosions coming towards you left or right

In the smoke and dust, you were able to run out of his sight and disappear into the dust

Mirio was watching, terrified as he watched fire graze your skin and burn you

He heard you yell, before you jumped behind Bakugo

From above the arena, Mirio found himself biting his nails in worry

You were getting hurt, and going up against one of the most violent people he knew

It didn’t matter that you were one of Bakugo’s only friends, he wanted to win

But so did you...

it scared Mirio that he knew that neither of you would give up, and with both of your quirks together, it would be a messy fight.

The fight was mainly Bakugo firing shots at you, and you dodging every one of them

It was obvious that you were showing off, hoping that hero agencies would take note of your skill against someone so desperate to hurt you

Mirio and everyone else could see Bakugo quickly running out of energy, but so were you

You looked thirsty, out of breathe, and like your entire body was aching

You were using your quirk to propel you around like that, and Mirio knew that you were already overdoing it

Luckily he had packed his backpack with chips and your water bottle

The moment Bakugo took a moment to breathe, you ran at him and kicked him in the stomach, sending him out of the stadium into the wall

“Katsuki Bakugo is out of the arena! Y/n L/n wins the sports festival!” Midnight yelled into the speaker, beginning to walk up to you before you fell to your knees weakly, smiling ear-to-ear

The entire stadium erupted into screaming of joy, as practically everyone had been rooting for the cute, sweet girl against the rude, loud, violent guy

Even Endeavor could be seen clapping off the sidelines!

Mirio looked around to see Ochako shaking Asui ecstatically, Denki and Sero crying happily for their Minecraft girlfriend, and Aizawa and Mic, who were staring, happily shocked, at you.

Mirio just sat there though, staring at you with hearts in his eyes

You were the most perfect thing in the entire world

Once you were finally let go of the nagging press and all the wonderful pro heroes congratulating you, you got in line with your friends to board the bus

“Y/n! Wait!”

You turned to see Mirio sprinting after you, hoping to catch you before you went back to school

He needed to talk to you now or never

“Here! Don’t forget!” He handed you your water bottle and a bag of chips, as well as the sweatshirt you had asked him to hold

“You’re so sweet. Tha-”

He stopped you mid-sentence by kissing you, cupping your face sweetly

You pulled back, appalled by your best friend’s actions as a regretful look spread across Mirio’s face immediately

“I’m so sorry Y/n, I’ve just been feeling a certain way about y-” Mirio was interrupted by you squirting a little bit of water onto his face from your water bottle

“You’re so cute Miri.” You winked at him before turning to the bus, to see all your classmate’s faces pressed against the window, not even trying to hide the fact that they were watching

“Might as well give them something to watch.” You laughed, before grabbing his collar and pulling him into another deep kiss

[notjustdrwhoboards]

3, 21, 25, and 27 for the OC asks, any character(s) of your choosing! ❤️

Ah, thanks for asking baby <3

I think I'm gonna ramble about my Resi Village OCs, if that's okay.

3) What is the meaning behind their name? Do they have any nicknames?

Edric: The name itself means rich and powerful, which is fitting for a member of house Dimitrescu, added to that, it starts with E. Which is apparently a secondary Dimitrescu theme considering the other four. He's referred to as Ed, though that's mostly when people want to irritate him. Otherwise, his sisters just refer to him as baby brother (Dani & Cassie especially). Alcina tends to refer to him as little one or sweetling.

Wolf: Has no particular meaning and is just something she chose because it sounded cool. In and of itself it's technically a nickname, but only because if you ask her she'll tell you that her full name is 'Jesus kid, were you raised by fucking wolves? Stop biting me you little shit. Heisenberg', which, obviously is not actually an appropriate name. Other nicknames include brat (affectionate), pup, kid and very rarely Wolfie. Child (derogatory) is one that Alcina often uses on her, as is Savage.

Miri: It's a derivative of Miranda, given Moreau's worship of the woman, he decided to name his child after her, but he equally didn't want to be too obvious about it. The actual meaning of the name is 'wonderful' which isn't too relevant, but is still very cute. Her cousins still tend to refer to her as Fish, or Fish girl. Mother Miranda calls her disappointment.

Luis: In universe, he's named for Donna's grandfather. Out of universe, I put way too much effort into thinking of a name for him. Someone pointed out that Donna and Angie's names are a potential reference to the original owners of the Annabelle doll, so I decided that I wanted her child to be able to have the nickname Lou, who was Angie's boyfriend and the first person to be outright attacked by Annabelle. It's meaning is 'fighter' or 'warrior', which is actually pretty far from the truth when it comes to Luis himself. As far as nicknames go, it's generally Lulu, and only Angie really gets to call him that.

21) What is their favorite thing about their personality?

Edric: If everything is an option, then everything, Edric is the type of person who thinks very highly of himself, which just comes from being raised the way he was. But if he had to narrow it down to just one thing, he'd say his respect for women. It's just so engrained in who he is, both from being afab, and from having the mother he does.

Wolf: Her adventurousness. Wolf loves the fact that she just does not give up, ever, likes that she can find joy even in the most mundane of places. After all, everything can be fought if you try hard enough. Because of her adventurous nature she's discovered all sorts of places in the factory that even Heisenberg doesn't know.

Miri: She loves how loyal she is. It's a very genuine sort of loyalty, not codependent like Luis can be. Others might think that her loyalty can be too extreme, but personally, Miri thinks they're just angry about getting bitten in the leg...

Luis: Though this isn't necessarily a good trait to like, he likes his ability to keep negative emotions away from himself. He's in general fairly calm, and it seems like negativity just rolls off of him, but no, he's just good at compartmentalising.

25. What is their biggest flaw?

Edric: Arrogance is a fatal flaw and Edric has that in spades, the boy is a straight up narcissist which leads him to view himself as superior to those around him.

Wolf: Has no common sense. With invulnerability comes a complete lack of common sense, this girl will straight on try to fight natural disasters if you let her.

Miri: Tends to attack first, explain later. Heaven help you if you insult her papa, Miri's rows of teeth are sharp and her love for him knows no bounds. If you infringe on the people she loves or insult them in any way you're getting bitten or shocked. And then...maybe she'll give you a long list of reasons why it had to happen.

Luis: CODEPENDENT. Try to remove him from Donna in any capacity and he malfunctions. He needs his mother as much as she needs him and the two have a highly codepent relationship with one another.

27. What is their biggest strength?

Edric: His love for his family. To Edric, family is everything, he adores his sisters, his mother, even his aunt, uncles and cousins...sometimes...

Wolf: Her trust. Though she leaps into situations headfirst, like a tiny missile, Wolf also has complete faith in her father.

Miri: Her patience. Miri is an ambush predator in every way, she's patient and loving in the best possible way. She's always ready to be the shoulder to cry on or a listening ear, and though she can't speak she enjoys giving comfort to others.

Luis: Self control. Of all the children, Luis is the one with the best control over his mutation, even before he first arrived at the Beneviento manor at age 5, he had better control over it that 9 year old Wolf did. Unlike the others, he can recognise the danger of having such mutations and learnt to control it.

[pinnochiro]

pinn reviews - final fantasy xv

a long ramble about final fantasy fifteen that sort of looks like a review, as written by someone who finished the game fifteen minutes ago and needs to get these words out of his head. spoilers inbound.

i'm a pretty big fan of video games. i don't know what my first was, but it was probably either banjo and kazooie or mario kart 64, at my cousin's house when i was very small. i think that video games as a medium are so interesting, since the fact that video games are inherently interactive changes the way that they tell any story. it's a shame that despite loving video games so much, i'm absolutely terrible at them.

i'm absolute dogshit at video games. whenever i boot up something new, i always play on easy mode because. i'm that bad. unfortunately, this means that a lot of video games are simply. impossible for me to beat. that's fine, as at the moment i live with my good friend lizz, who is certifiably Good at Video Games, and so we've been playing video games together for a little bit now. typically this means that she will actually play the majority of the game while i sit with her and watch, but occasionally i'll have a go, but she'll end up with the controller as soon as a boss fight or puzzle or a mechanic i just can't seem to grasp shows up. we recently played through the entirety of the kingdom hearts series together, and this was an absolute blast of a time. i'm glad to say that i adore kingdom hearts now, and it's become one of my hyperfixations, which you might be able to tell from my icon. but we'd finished the kingdom hearts series, and we were left to move onto something else. we'd also played final fantasy 7 remake, so in my wisdom, i suggested that we play another final fantasy game.

we looked through the ff games that were already purchased on our consoles thanks to lizz's uncle, and eventually, we decided that we should play. all of them. however to start, we were going to play final fantasy xv, 15, and work our way backwards through the mainline, single-player games.

i'd heard that xv wasn't very good, but honestly, i was still quite curious. one person who i'd been following on twitter for years was pretty obsessed with the main party members, to the point where i knew their names and what-not even though i didn't have much of an idea what the game itself was about. i remember watching a video by supereyepatchwolf a few years ago about how the game sucked, but i couldn't remember much of the details, and i knew, based on my obsession with kingdom hearts, that xv had started as a different game called final fantasy versus xiiv. i don't know all the details about versus thirteen, but i do know that it was originally helmed by the creator of my beloved kingdom hearts, mr tetsuya nomura, and that after many years, the vast majority of the game was thrown out, nomura wasn't in charge any more, and the whole thing was rewritten and reworked, which sounds like a fairly rough development cycle. but so what, i don't care about gameplay. i want to play the video game with those cute guys that i see fanart of on twitter, and lizz seemed happy enough to play through it with me.

and so we started final fantasy xv. i've been told that since the game was practically dead on arrival, they threw in a bunch of new content and reworked a lot of the early game before i got my hands on it. so my gameplay started with a scene of the four guys fighting some demon dude on fire and they're all old and grotty. whatever, that cutscene ends and we're put into a combat tutorial. that's over and we're on the road in what looks to be central america, pushing a car.

our four leading lads are noctis, the prince of the lucis empire, his best friend prompto, his bodyguard, gladio, and his chef and other things, ignis. i do quite like the main four members of the party in xv. prompto is quite easily my favourite, voiced by robbie daymond of goro akechi fame and with a bunch of fun little animations and quips that make him very likeable. he gets extremely excited at the idea of riding chocobos and has what i considered the best scene of the game, where he and noctis meet on a motel rooftop and discuss prompto's imposter syndrome, since he's only part of noctis' official retinue as his best friend. noctis is a fairly typical main protagonist, he's in love with a woman he hasn't seen in eight years and needs to go marry her or something, i don't care. gladio is a tough macho man with a mullet who wears leather jackets and wields a greatsword, and is apparently only 22, which is at least 10 years younger than i assumed. ignis is a strategist and chef, who takes on the most authoritative role and constantly tells noctis to not drive his car at night. i was not a fan of ignis at the start, but he grew on me, especially with how hard the game hit me with his personal arc. the four boys are off, driving to noctis' wedding in a different country across the desert when their car breaks down. we then run into the first issue of the game.

cindy is a mechanic. she also has her ass and tits out constantly, like your sleazy uncle's shirt with a naked woman was instead semi-alive as a video game person. she fixes your car and acts fairly sexual and it's just like. why do we have to do this. aren't we over overtly sexualised women in video games who have no reason for the way they dress other than the character designer was horny? whatever, i like women as much as the next guy, but cindy's design just. makes me feel so uncomfortable.

anyways you get to do a little driving around with the boys, until you stay the night before catching the boat to your fiance. overnight, you find out that noctis' kingdom has been basically destroyed by an invading empire called niflheim, and practically everyone noctis knows, including his father, are dead. you learn that noctis and his bride to be are also assumed dead, with noctis hearing his own death announcement on the radio. the game has a bunch of added cutscenes that are actually footage from the three-hour-long prequel movie that came out after the game, are extremely hard to follow and honestly i had no idea what i was looking at. anyways, noctis' family is dead, so it's time to do some hunting sidequests.

that brings us to the combat, i suppose. rather than the turn-based or even active turn-based combat that the series is known for, xv opts for more modern action rpg-styled combat. i was, naturally, terrible at this, but i managed to get around it with the fact that. it is almost impossible to die in this video game, provided you have enough items. the game allows you so much time to heal yourself that there's practically no way to have your entire party wipe unless you're doing absolutely terrible, and even then, your party members will probably try and heal you themselves before that happens. lizz tells me that the combat is boring, you just push the same button over and over and then you win. i do appreciate that, for someone like me who is terrible at reading enemy movements, there is a giant button that pops up on screen that tells you when to push the block button, but even then i was prone to fucking it up. whether that's the bad game design or my terrible gaming abilities is up to you to decide. anyways, the game is fairly easy but has annoying combat, your teammates limit breaks will only land about 50% of the time (or never, if you are gladio) and i was still bad at it, so i didn't have all that much fun.

instead of an active levelling system, the game will only tally your character's level ups when you either make camp or visit a hotel. camping is, in my opinion, the only saving grace of this game. each time you make camp, you get to see the characters doing fun little camping activities together and just hanging out, ignis will cook up a new meal in a dramatic fashion and everyone will compliment him and eat it off their coleman's branded plates, it's just very fun. you also get to see what pictures prompto has taken, which is one of my favourite gameplay features. prompto's passion is photography, and while i support him in this wholeheartedly, his picture taking skills are, quite frankly, awful. the game will randomly take shots while you're on the move, which leaves you with a delightful selection of awkward poses, characters hidden behind bushes, pictures taken while someone is half-dead in combat, and snaps where the natural lighting absolutely makes it impossible to tell what's going on. it's hilarious and going through prompto's collection of photos each night is honestly the best part of the game. we managed to wind up with a few shots that, even despite being scripted events, turned out absolutely terrible, and i will cherish those forever.

anyways, since noctis' father and fiance are dead, that leaves him the king of lucis. the only important person to make it out of the capital alive tells you to drive to the middle of nowhere, where he randomly springs on you. hey. go into a bunch of these dungeons and absorb a bunch of swords, this is your destiny as king and how you will defeat the empire. noctis goes, uh, alright i guess, and you're set loose again to wander around for a bit collecting the 'royal arms'. this plot point wasn't explained well but hey, whatever, we're collecting the glowy swords and that's fine.

you're introduced at some point to ardyn, the main antagonist. he's old, kind of groady and wears a fedora. he's a dick to you and talks about his automobeeel. apparently my friend miri thinks he's hot, she is wrong.

i can't remember what happens specifically but you're told that your fiance is still alive and in fantasy venice, and she's talking to the gods on your behalf to borrow their powers. there's a mission where you follow some purple trees that are electric, and you do that i guess. i enjoyed riding the chocobos around, but couldn't care much for the plot at this point. ardyn leads you to a volcano, where you fight a giant lava god. he tries to step on you and i, a denizen of the internet and with an active fear of foot fetishists, was extremely uncomfortable. noctis becomes friends with foot man and a lightning god who lived in those trees, and ardyn steals your car.

very upset by this, noctis and his gang risk everything to sneak into a military base and steal it back. because this is a video game, this works out fine.

there's a little mining city which is all about Girl Power, because all the Women run the Mining Industry like Girl Bosses, and you hang around there for a bit. because all the women are so Empowered, they wear bikinis all the time with overalls over the top. gladio decides he needs to fuck off for a bit, i have no idea what he does since i haven't played the dlc, and then he comes back with another scar. you hang out with his sixteen year old sister, who has a crush on the engaged and 20-year old noctis, and then you drive her to a lighthouse. when she's in your party, she can't really fight, but she gets a pink chocobo and i thought that was very cute. we turned out own chocobo white and lizz named him 'jones' after a mount she has in ffxiv.

eventually, you have a long boat ride over to fantasy venice. this is the part where the game stops being 'fun with a few issues in combat and a rushed and poorly told story.' the open world, which was a main feature with a bunch of little areas to find where noctis can fish, little hunting sidequests and random photo spots where prompto takes touristy photos, is now gone, and it will not return for the entire rest of the game. you can 'go back in time', but the open world was the most enjoyable part of the game, and it kind of really sucks that the main story doesn't let you have any more freedom like that.

after arriving in fantasy venice, you have a talk with fantasy hillary clinton and beg her to let your girlfriend summon a god into the middle of her city. hillary agrees, and you don't get to meet up with your fiance, because even if the game is constantly telling you how much noctis loves her, there is. barely any interactions between the two in the entire game. from what i can tell, they met when noctis was a child and they haven't seen each other in ten years but are still fantasy dog pen-pals. noctis marrying her was supposed to make an alliance or something like that, but her brother has betrayed her to the army. noctis' girlfriend is also an oracle, which means she can heal people, i guess? everyone talks about how important she is and she's constantly telling people that she needs to use her powers to help noctis but she's practically a non-entity.

as can be expected of most female love interests in a game primarily focused on men, noctis' fiance is killed while summoning a god for noctis to befriend. noct gets very mad about this, and turns super saiyan and kills the god back, but his girlfriend is dead and that's super sad you guys. there's a beautiful prerendered cutscene where she says goodbye to noctis but since we barely know her, and we've only been told over and over that they're in love without anything to actually well, show this, it didn't have much of an impact. fantasy venice is destroyed, and ignis is blinded while trying to help calm the giant raging god.

iggy's blindness and how the game makes you account for this and grow to care for him was one of the highlights, in my opinion, as well as crushingly depressing. while i'm not disabled and have no right to say if this was 'good disabled representation' or anything like that, i believe that the game handles it decently enough. the group falls apart as noctis is upset about his girlfriend, gladio is extremely mad that noctis won't care for ignis, and prompto just wants everyone to get along. there's a mission where gladio constantly yells at you passive aggressive things to noctis about how he's a cunt for running, which is obnoxious, but the character arc itself is fairly strong. when you make camp, ignis can't cook anymore, so everyone eats cup noodles in a depressing ass cutscene. ignis remains in your party for the rest of the game despite his disability, and he doesn't magically regain his sight like other fantasy media would do, which at the very least i think is good. i'm not sure what the opinion of actual disabled people is of the character, considering how often disabled characters are either turned into misery porn to make the abled audience be glad that isn't them and if ignis' arc falls into this trap, but i hope that it wasn't handled too poorly, as that would just be another terrible mark in this game's list of bad moves.

the characters eventually make it to the evil empire's capital, which is abandoned and filled with daemons. the characters learn that ardyn is super evil and taught the king of the empire how to turn humans into daemons, which has now happened to the entire city. the 'magitek suits', presumed to be enchanted armour that fights as the empire's infantry, actually house the souls of the human-turned daemons. honestly i like this as a plot point but the game handles it pretty terribly. there could have been more lead up to this, the explanation is pretty lacking, and prompto's Big Plot Twist is. terribly handled. turns out that prompto was born in the empire and was going to be one of those empty soldier daemons, but he was rescued by people belonging to noctis' empire. not that the game tells you that. instead, prompto goes 'turns out i'm one of ... them' and Does Not Elaborate. The game doesn't tell you shit, not about prompto's past, not about how he feels about this, not about how anyone else feels about this either because the other party members just go 'oh that sucks, good thing you're not evil' and the scene ends. robbie daymond tries so hard to sell these terrible, terrible lines, and it almost entirely fails, i'm so sorry prompto. fortunately because i'm a nosy ass, i read prompto's wikia page and knew the plot twist ahead of time, because i don't think i would have even registered it if i didn't.

anyways everyone in the evil empire is dead and ardyn starts talking about how he's immortal and an ancient king of noctis' country but the gods thought he sucked because he's too evil. i missed most of this because the cats got the zoomies and were dashing across the couch right in the middle of his speech so i can't tell you anything else. noctis tries to get a big magic crystal to fight him and instead. gets schlorped inside.

TEN YEARS LATER

yes then ten years actually pass while noctis is asleep. the game shows this by switching the head on noctis' character model to have a beard, but that's it, no changes in animations or whatever. the sky is permanently night and only one human civilisation remains, the rest destroyed by daemons. as a plot point, this ends up feeling. extremely worthless. why was noctis asleep for ten whole goddamn years? so we can wake up and go 'damn it sucks out here'. but it's barely even a like, incentive to fix everything, because you have a long talk with a former child you were friends with where he talks about how humanity is still going fine and everyone's okay and the world has moved on without you. it feels. pointless. when you meet up with your party members, they are exactly as you left them, only with slightly different character models. there is no change in the voice performance, the character's movements or how they talk to show that they've been without you for ten years. they barely mention it. i'm just. so confused as to why they decided that a ten year timeskip was the way to go? since nothing really changes, couldn't you have made it like, two years? one year? six months?? have the characters react a little more? something??? at least if it was only a year or so i wouldn't have to deal with the fact that noctis looks like norman reedus with his shitty facial hair now.

anyways after that there's a bunch of long and boring boss fights. you fight some dead kings for some reason, your party members get a little bit to talk about how cool they are and how much they love noctis, and then you meet up with ardyn. there's another boring boss fight and god this was only a few hours ago but it's already gone from my head. you summon the gods and the old kings to beat the shit out of him after you both go super saiyan again? there's incredible music but it feels barely earned and just kind of eh. anyways, noctis dies, which was the price of using the crystal of light or whatever the fuck. his ghost marries his fiance's ghost finally, and they smile as they look at one of prompto's pictures. you can pick any picture you want to go here, and then the credits roll, showing all of the pictures you saved of prompto's shots. showing me all the pictures at the end is honestly lovely, but it really only served to remind me of how much more fun the game was in the first half. and that's the end, of final fantasy xv.

so what did i think of the story? it's terribly cobbled together and struggles to get you to feel anything and play out all the plot beats. you feel awful for the countless employees who spent years working on the beautiful cutscenes only to have them be in this game, which sucks and the story barely gets through. there were parts that i enjoyed, mostly the thing about the daemons being people, but honestly the rest of it is a mess. it's hard to follow at the best of times and just awkward and terribly written at the worst. the ending is cheap, and it doesn't feel like you've actually accomplished anything. i left that game feeling numb and empty, sad that i'd wasted so much time to end up with such a colossal failure of a conclusion.

i had fun with the game when it was my four little guys running around doing sidequests and camping together. after the midway point of the game, there's none of that, and you're bogged down into a plot that just pushes you from point a to point b and boring overlong bossfight to boring overlong bossfight. the character moments between your party are a lot of fun, but the second you hit fantasy venice, everything is pretty much on rails and you can't do anything except what the game tells you explicitly to do.

should you play this game? no lol. if anything i've mentioned about the story interests you, you'll be better off watching a lore video or reading the wiki. if you do want to play it after all that, just don't proceed after the myrthril refining quest, it's pretty much all downhill from there. will i play the dlc? unlikely, i think lizz and i will just watch a cutscene movie of those.

this game left me feeling empty and numb and not in a fun way. i wanted, so, so hard to like this game, and it all crashed around me in a beautifully overproduced and confusingly written cascade. i love you prompto, but even your cute little freckly face and terrible photography can't save this trainwreck of a game.

tl;dr - final fantasy xv sucks. i hope that 13, our next ff game, will be better.

[elcrivain]

It’s time. You have to pick up that dreaded classic you have lying around. Maybe it’s Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, or even worse, William Shakespeare’s Richard III. Those things look terrifying with all that fancy bindings and annotations. But you have to read it anyway, either because some lame English professor assigned it or because you want to be well-read. Either way, you know it’s going to be hard.

Why do we struggle so? Why do such books make even the most avid of readers tremble in their boots? What is the problem with these damned things?

It’s all about the context. Or, rather, about how most modern readers lack the context to understand and appreciate classics. The boring dictionary definition of context is: The circumstance or setting in which an idea or even can be fully understood. If you don’t have context, an idea — such as the ones in classics — are liable to be misunderstood or outright overlooked. We, in all of our modernity, lack context for many classics in several respects.

The Context of Prose and Style

Language evolves. Sentence structure shifts. Words fall in and out of fashion. Even word meanings metamorphose.

It takes only a quick survey of English literature to see how much can change in a few hundred years (and we’re not even getting into translations):

A wys wyf, if that she can hir good,

Shal beren him on hond the cow is wood,

And take witnesse of hir owene mayde

Of hir assent; but herkneth how I sayde.

— Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath” in The Canterbury Tales (1475)

This isn’t the work of a drunken five-year-old with atrocious spelling skills. It’s Middle English, a variant of English spoken after the Norman Conquest in 1066 and before the 16th century. It bears some resemblance to modern English, but it’s gosh-darn hard to read without annotations (and alcohol).

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? — To die, — to sleep.

— William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1603)

Now that we’re in Modern English — yes, Shakespeare is modern — the spelling is improving, but it’s still tough to get through. Shakespeare’s heavy use of figurative language flummoxes us, literal-minded modern readers. No, those slings and arrows aren’t real!

The ledge, where I placed my candle, had a few mildewed books piled up in one corner; and it was covered with writing scratched on the paint. This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small — Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton. In vapid listlessness I leant my head against the window, and continued spelling over Catherine Earnshaw — Heathcliff — Linton, till my eyes closed; but they had not rested five minutes when a glare of white letters started from the dark, as vivid as spectres — the air swarmed with Catherines; and rousing myself to dispel the obtrusive name, I discovered my candle wick reclining on one of the antique volumes, and perfuming the place with an odour of roasted calf-skin.

— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847)

Compared to Shakespeare, Brontë seems straightforward, except for one thing. Like many other 19th century writers, she uses long, flowing, and descriptive sentence structure that seems incongruous compared to today’s staccato sentence structure.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

— George Orwell, Nineteen-Eighty-Four (1949)

Now that we’re in the really modern part of Modern English, things are so much better. Orwell adopts the simpler, more direct style that we’re more used to. Whew! (Note that simple and straightforward prose doesn’t always translate into simple and straightforward meaning.)

Not all troublesome prose comes from old and dead white folks. Some contemporary authors eschew plainness for some flair in their prose. Whether you find that dazzling or confounding is up to you.

…I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire… I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.

— William Faulkner, The Sound and Fury (1929)

Faulkner’s convoluted prose forces the reader to focus single-mindedly to follow along. Confusing as it may be, Faulkner’s marriage of the stream-of-consciousness writing of modernists and descriptiveness of Romanticism give a certain élan to his writing. Just don’t read him before bed as you’ll fall asleep without any memory of what you’ve read.

Now a member of the company seated there seemed to weigh the judge’s words and some turned to look at the black. He stood an uneasy honoree and at length he stepped back from the firelight and the juggler rose and made a motion with the cards, sweeping them in a fan before him and then proceeding along the perimeter past the boots of the men with the cards outheld as if they would find their own subject.

— Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (1985)

McCarthy’s combination of complex sentences and a disdain of punctuation gives his writing an air of inscrutability. Love or hate him, you have to admit that the dude got a style.

The Context of Historical Settings and Culture

Most authors write for their contemporaries, not for some unknown high school student 100 years in the future. They assume that their reader knows the social and cultural contexts. Once a book survives the test of time, this assumption fails.

Jane Austen’s books serve as a good example of how our ignorance of the social mores of early 19th century genteel society can lead the reader to miss allusions that would’ve been obvious to a contemporaneous reader.

“Are any of your younger sisters out, Miss Bennet?”

“Yes, ma’am, all.”

“All! What, all five out at once? Very odd! And you only the second. The younger ones out before the elder ones are married! Your younger sisters must be very young?”

“Yes, my youngest is not sixteen. Perhaps she is full young to be much in company. But really, ma’am, I think it would be very hard upon younger sisters, that they should not have their share of society and amusement, because the elder may not have the means or inclination to marry early. The last-born has as good a right to the pleasures of youth at the first. And to be kept back on such a motive! I think it would not be very likely to promote sisterly affection or delicacy of mind.”

“Upon my word,” said her ladyship, “you give your opinion very decidedly for so young a person. Pray, what is your age?”

“With three younger sisters grown up,” replied Elizabeth, smiling, “your ladyship can hardly expect me to own it.”

Lady Catherine seemed quite astonished at not receiving a direct answer; and Elizabeth suspected herself to be the first creature who had ever dared to trifle with so much dignified impertinence.

“You cannot be more than twenty, I am sure, therefore you need not conceal your age.”

“I am not one-and-twenty.”

— Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

A reader unaware of the importance (and meaning) of “being out in society” in Georgian gentry wouldn’t note how uncouth it was to have five sisters out all at once, a serious social misstep by the Bennets. (And no, “coming out” doesn’t mean the same thing as it does today.) They would also have missed how tactless it was for Lady Catherine to harp on this point and Elizabeth’s impertinence for evading Lady Catherine’s question. This is why an unschooled reader would overlook the biting satire in Austen’s novels, which is a horrible shame.

Many classic novels attack contemporaneous cultural, religious, and social conventions. If you don’t understand the norms under attack, you lose context to why the novel was so daring, so bold.

I made this mistake with Jane Eyre. Upon my first reading at 13, I dismissed it as melodramatic slop. When I revisited it at 18, I saw how Charlotte Brontë criticizes the prevailing religious belief of charity and how remarkably independent Jane Eyre is, a shocking thing for a Victorian woman. I, however, still think that the book has too many dei ex machina (overly convenient plot twists).

The Context of Narrative Conventions

Following or breaking it, many classics take a stance on narrative conventions. Thomas Hardy embraces the pastoral and tragic narratives in Tess of d’Urbervilles as James Joyce bucks the Realists’ more removed narratives with his stream-of-consciousness writing.

To understand a book’s attitude toward narrative conventions is to understand why certain writing, plot, or characters elements exist (or disappear) from a novel. These expectations ease the way for your reading. Really!

When I began reading Tess of the d’Urbervilles, I knew that it was a pastoral tragedy, which prepared me for two important things. First, since it was a pastoral, I knew Hardy would describe the setting to such detail that the town(s) would become characters in their own rights. So I was prepared for passages like these which would seem unnecessary and boring to the average modern reader (fairly enough):

The village of Marlott lay amid the north-eastern undulations of the beautiful Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor aforesaid, an engirdled and secluded region, for the most part, untrodden as yet by tourist or landscape painter, though within a four hours’ journey from London.

It is a vale whose acquaintance is best made by viewing it from the summits of the hills that surround it — except perhaps during the droughts of summer. An unguided ramble into its recesses in bad weather is apt to engender dissatisfaction with its narrow, tortuous, and miry ways.

— Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Second, since Tess is a tragedy, I prepared myself for many frowny-face moments. If you go into a Hardy expecting a happy ending a la Pride and Prejudice, you’ve taken a wrong turn in the 19th-century bookstore.

The Context of Symbolism

When you’re a high school student studying The Great Gatsby, it might seem like the teacher is inventing all those meanings from rivers and currents to justify their paycheck. You think, “Damn it, why can’t a boat just be a boat?”

English teachers’ flights of fancy aside, symbolism is a real thing. Under the best of circumstances, symbolism deepens existing themes and ideas already present in the novel. Problems begin when you don’t recognize the signs of symbolism.

Here’s an example: The last lines heard ‘round the world:

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning-

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Scholars have quarreled over the meaning of this passage for decades, showing that there is no purely correct answer. Therein lies the subjectivity of literary analysis — but it remains vital that you understand the purpose of symbolism and are able to recognize it. (Hint: watch for recurrent motifs and ideas.)

The Context of the Original Publication (or Performance)

This oft-overlooked context can massively alter your reading of a classic. Many classics weren’t originally presented in the format in which it is read today. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales was performed in verse. Shakespearean plays were meant for the stage, not small English classrooms. And so it goes.

But those are well-known examples. The examples nobody talks about are these 19th-century epics, most of which were originally published in a serialized format where the author was paid by the word (Anna Karenina, A Tale of Two Cities, The Count of Monte Cristo). This small detail completely alters the structure and flow of those stories. The serialized format and the pay scheme encouraged such writers to write more, more, and more. This is why Anna Karenina clocks in at almost 1,000 pages filled with descriptive passages of Levin moving grass. The format also means that the author didn’t consider the “flow” of narration from chapter to chapter, creating a disjointed reading experience as the story hops from one perspective to another. These stories were never conceptualized as a novel in today’s sense. You might even benefit from reading in small bursts, just like these newspaper readers did more than 100 years ago.

If you happen to read a classic out of its original publishing context, be mindful of how that’ll affect your experience. To get the fullest and richest experience, you might want to revert back to the original storytelling form, such as watching a Shakespearean play or movie. (I recommend Much Ado About Nothing, just ignore Keanu Reeves.)

Context is everything. Without the right context, many classics appear inscrutable and downright mystifying. Most of us aren’t born with a knowledge of Middle English syntax and deep knowledge of manners among the English gentry during the Georgian era.

Where does that leave us, the befuddled readers? It leaves us with the hard reality that we need to investigate the context in which the classic was written. That means glancing at a Wikipedia page about the French Revolution before (and during) reading Les Miserables. It also means preparing yourself for a fantastical twirl through time in a South American village before you read One Hundred Years of Solitude. With some preparation, you can actually appreciate those dusty little classics.

N.B. I adopt the more expansive definition of classics as notable works of literature due to their excellence and significance, rather than the more traditional definition as pre-17th-century works of literature.

[writerly-ramblings]

Thoughts on “The Penderwicks at Last”

All right, there’s been enough interest from the (so sadly tiny) group of Penderwicks readers on here, so here are my semi-coherent thoughts on the last book, At Last, because, as previously stated, I have Thoughts. Spoilers ahead for all the entire series.

I’m going to start by saying that I am not the intended audience for these books: I’m in my twenties. That being said, I’ve waited over a decade for The Penderwicks At Last, and I reread the entire series to prepare. I read the last one in a few hours, and ugly cried through the second half.

Fair warning: my parenthetical comments waged a territorial battle and won.

PROS:

Everyone gets a happy ending. I think, over time, I’ll feel less conflicted about At Last because, in the end, everyone is happy, and does it matter how they got there?

Skye, particularly, is so much happier. The events of the fourth book clearly had an impact, and Lydia has grown up with a much less fearful, hurting, angry, or traumatized Skye.

Batty’s memories of Arundel being mostly patched together from stories her family has told felt incredibly realistic to me, and I enjoyed watching her rediscover the estate.

Ben is great, and I’ve always loved the Penderwick children’s dedication to their chosen obsessions/careers, so I’m glad he’s got that. I also loved when he told Jeffrey he’d marry him, but not if he was broke. (The humor in these books!)

Rafael is still around. We don’t see him, but we know he’s still friends with Ben. Other Penderwick friends have fallen off the map between different books (Anna, Keiko, Molly, Mercedes), and it was good to see someone stick around.

I liked Wesley. He felt like a red-herring (I can’t be the only one who was desperately hoping Batty was going to decide she wanted to be with him after all), but he was a delightful character. He’s kind to Lydia and Alice, makes himself helpful around the house/with wedding prep, loves Hitch, and respects Batty’s boundaries. He’s a good person. And the mobiles!

Cagney’s family is adorable. And Skye teasing Rosalind about her childhood crush on Cagney is a dead-on sister thing to do.

Mr. Penderwick and Iantha are still very much in love, and still very much adorable and loving parents.

“Jeffrey, no one wants to marry you!” (Okay, this is was a laugh-or-you’ll-cry moment, but I did laugh!)

Also in the bittersweet category would be Mrs. Tifton’s talk with Jane in the carriage-house. We won’t talk about the fact that I really, really wanted Mrs. Tifton to be right. What we will talk about is Jane rage-sewing, being a good older sister, holding it together, and refusing to sully her honor (I love that Jane has maintained her bizarre approach to honor that includes even hypotheticals). Thinking about it, this scene mirrors the one with Skye and Mrs. Tifton in the first book (with Lydia standing in for Batty here), and I like that touch.

CONS:

A lot of the issues I had with At Last are really my own problems, not shortcomings in the book. One instance of that is how I felt about Lydia as a narrator. The first four books mature in tone as they go along, due to the seriousness of the issues facing the characters, making them compelling reading for someone older than the intended audience. I liked Lydia, but she felt much less mature than her sisters at similar ages, and wasn’t facing comparable difficulties. And she wasn’t nearly so interested, or involved, in her sisters’ lives as I would have liked. (Which is understandable, given the age gap, but frustrating as a reader who cares mainly about Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty.)

Technology is weirdly handled? I’ve always liked the timeless quality of the previous books, and all the texting and general cell phone use threw me. (And, really, how many eleven-year-olds have access to cell phones and use them exclusively to text their brothers?)

Jane gave me a kind of dispirited, hollow feeling. She’s twenty-five and still hasn’t sat down and written a full novel. She has two abandoned books and one in the planning stages. I don’t mean I wanted her to be published, but it felt very flighty, especially for someone who’s been serious about writing since she was younger than ten. (I kind of wanted more of Jane in general, actually. How was college? How is she managing to keep a waitressing job she’s terrible at, and why wouldn’t she work in, I don’t know, a bookstore or library instead?)

This leads into my next, larger but vaguer upset: Everyone’s happy, but I was still dissatisfied. I know that most of the time life isn’t glamorous, but aside from Skye, the other sisters don’t seem to have done much? Rosalind has taken fifteen years to marry Tommy, Jane hasn’t finished even a draft of a novel, and it seems like Batty’s going to graduate college and start a music school in western MA (which is fine, but also, where are her years touring in Europe and her own career in music?). I don’t know. I think I just wanted to believe, for 256 pages, that adult life could be more exciting and adventurous, and live up to childhood expectations.

Honestly, I like Lydia, but she’s not why I wanted to read At Last. This goes back to me not being the target audience, but it’s the older four I care about, and I felt like frustratingly little was said about them. And I’ve read interviews with Jeanne Birdsall, where she talks about this book being the point she was writing toward, and I’m just having trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that, if this was the endgame, middle-grade novels were the best format for the story. (Am I biased here? Definitely. Did I love these books as a child and teenager? Without a doubt. Would I, right now, prefer to have read a literary fiction novel where the older sisters’ adult lives were given as much weight as their childhoods? I’d be all over that. Again, I acknowledge this as my own bias, not a shortcoming with the book.)

SKYE:

(Because, let’s be honest, this is where I fell apart.)

I’m so, so happy Skye is working on her doctorate. As someone else who didn’t want to date at seventeen because I wanted to “soak up the universe,” I appreciate the fact that she’s out there, doing just that. But it also made me so sad. Because her family loves her, so they put her on speaker phone during important family meetings, and they miss her when she’s gone, and Lydia doesn’t know her, as a person, the way her other sisters and Ben (sort of) do. And this is very much tied to my own life, as I look at likely moving to a different country, leaving behind parents I love and a whole host of younger siblings.

So I’m glad she has the life she spent her whole childhood wanting, but I also wish we’d gotten to see more of how she grew, and healed, and changed post-In Spring. Because the Skye we see in At Last isn’t the Skye from the other books, and that’s good, it means she’s less hurt (and also almost ten years older), but it also means I didn’t feel like I knew much about her anymore.

I have almost no thoughts on Dušek and agree with the opinion other people have voiced that he seemed to be there mostly to squash all doubt about Jeffrey. He seemed sweet, but I didn’t know, or care about, him. (And I think the lack of Skye contributed to this: I didn’t know her, so I didn’t feel invested in him.)

THAT ROMANCE:

I feel like noting that I’ve read Little Women more times than I can count, and I willfully ignored not only that, but also the blatant Penderwick-universe foreshadowing (like Batty saying Jeffrey could marry her, after he saves her from the bull all the way back in the first book). Because Birdsall did deviate from Little Women in other, large ways, for example: none of the sisters die. Did I suspect Jeffrey would end up with Batty? Yes. Did I fervently hope that he’d actually end up with Skye? Also yes. Does it make me seem incredibly shallow that this is what occupied a great deal of my brain for twelve years? Probably.

It’s worth pointing out that I’m a sucker for childhood friends who fall in love and get married (Anne and Gilbert, Meg and Calvin, Ella and Char, Miri and Peder, don’t get me started on FMA … I’ll cop to having a problem), but also that I’ve never been bothered by Laurie and Amy. They make sense together, and Jo’s opposition to Laurie is based on legitimate concerns that just don’t exist for Skye and Jeffrey, thanks both to the fact that they live in the twenty-first century, and that Jeffrey doesn’t have Laurie’s hot-headed argumentative steak, stubbornness, or laziness.

And it’s not necessarily that I think Batty and Jeffrey wouldn’t be good together (other than the fact that, unlike Skye, Batty did, at least while younger, consider him not an “honorary Penderwick” but an “honorary brother”), but we never get an explanation for how Jeffrey feels about Skye now, or how/when he got over her (because, when you think about it, that must have been a Process. According to Jane, circa In Spring, Jeffrey’s been in some form of adoration/love with Skye since a few weeks before he turned eleven, and at least until he was eighteen, which is seven years. He’s twenty-five in At Last, which means, in the span of time the series covers, he’s spent just as much time in love with Skye as not. And seven years is a long time - more than a quarter of his life. And that’s a conservative estimate, since the last we hear of this is that he and Skye fight about this at his graduation, but that likely wasn’t the exact moment he fell out of love with her. And the jump from Skye to Batty is more difficult to swallow, given all of this, than Jeffrey going on to marry a non-Penderwick. Though, to Jeffrey’s credit, it’s heavily implied he’s going to marry Batty, but this is conveyed strictly through Jane; he’s not out there himself, desperately trying to win nineteen-year-old Batty’s affection in order to replace her sister).

Mostly, while reading, I felt misled, because if there was creeping Batty/Jeffrey foreshadowing, the Skye/Jeffrey foreshadowing was burst-into-your-music-room-and-tell-you-off strong. Jeffrey asks Skye if she ever thinks about them getting married all the way back in the third book. And Skye never shows similar inclinations toward romance, but the whole plot of In Spring makes it seem like this is due to being traumatized by the circumstances of her mother’s death. She isn’t interested in romance as a teenager, but she does love Jeffrey as a friend, and since the purpose of the events of In Spring is to make her less terrified of relationships, and because it’s Jeffrey she originally opens up to about this, there’s a lot, thematically, implied here. (I feel like the argument at Jeffrey’s graduation is maybe meant to show that she’s never going to be interested, but given both that she states that she wants to prioritize college over romance, and that the fight happens off-stage and is only summarized, this isn’t really clear.)

I do feel like this is where Little Women has the advantage: Jo doesn’t love Laurie, and she also has practical reasons why marriage wouldn’t work for them. We never see that from Skye. We see her afraid of love, and fighting with external factors, but we never actually see her not loving Jeffrey for reasons that are related to him.

So I think my main issue here is that their relationship felt very unresolved. Are they even still good friends? And why was it necessary for Jeffrey to fall in love with her in the first place? The fraught conversation in In Spring could just as easily have been Jeffrey or Jane pressing Skye about why she wouldn’t date Pearson.

(Skye and Jeffrey are previously so earnest, and At Last feels like the death of a friendship. Not in a final, we’ll-never-speak-again way, but in a quieter way that makes me think they haven’t really been close since Skye left for college, and that just makes me sad. Where are my “Friends forever” as sworn by the Penderwick Family Honor? Because, yes, yes, everyone grows up, but I didn’t want them to grow apart.)

IN CONCLUSION:

Has anyone actually made it this far down? Was a dissertation called for? Am I a little obsessive/ridiculous/insane?

What might not have come across, but what I do strongly feel, is that At Last is a good read. Lydia’s likable, the return to Arundel is well done, there are a lot of sweet, funny scenes. And none of my criticism really is to do with the material. My disappointment stems almost completely from my own expectations. Will I go on to reread the first four books and then pretend I’ve misplaced the fifth (while imagining it’s told from Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty’s perspectives; and, possibly, that it has a different ending)? Who knows. Maybe, once I’ve sat with the fifth book for a bit longer I’ll like it more. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe those twelve years when I speculated about what would happen in At Last, that decade that the characters kept me company, matters more than whether or not I liked the end.

[aion-rsa]

Best Returning British TV Series 2021: the Most Anticipated Series Coming Back This Year

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There’s no getting around it; you’re going to see more of your TV than your friends and loved ones over the next few months. That being so, it’s lucky that there continues to be still so bloody much of the stuff, despite Covid-19’s best efforts to shut it all down. They might have been delayed, they might have been curtailed, but they weren’t stopped. Returning British TV shows are on their way. The horizon is filled with them, gambolling like lambs over the fields and into your living room.

There’s comedy and drama and crime thrillers arriving by the lorryload, and sci-fi and fantasy coming by the… much smaller lorryload. (More of a small van for returning British sci-fi and fantasy this year, but check out the new titles coming soon.)

We’ll keep this list updated as soon as more details are announced and release dates are confirmed.

A Discovery of Witches Season 2 (January 8th)

Based on Deborah Harkness’ All Souls trilogy about the forbidden love between a powerful witch and a centuries-old vampire, A Discovery Of Witches debuted on Sky in autumn 2018 (read our reviews here) and was renewed for series two and three almost straight away. The second run sees leads Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode (pictured) time-walking in Elizabethan England where they meet some famous faces of yore.

A Very English Scandal series 2

This one has yet to receive the official commission stamp, but it’s too good not to pass on a bit prematurely. Following on from the success of Russell T. Davies’ acclaimed three-part drama based on the real-life events of Lib Dem leader Jeremy Thorpe’s plot to have his lover Norman Scott murdered, the BBC plans to turn the ‘A Very English Scandal’ header into an anthology series following different true life events that rocked English society. As reported by Deadline in March 2020, Agatha Christie adapter extraordinaire Sarah Phelps is writing a three-part drama about a 1963 sex scandal involving the Duchess of Argyll, nicknamed ‘The Dirty Duchess.’

Back Season 2 (January)

Channel 4 has a second run of Simon Blackwell’s excellent sitcom Back on the way. The first series aired in autumn 2017 and was delayed while actor Robert Webb suffered an episode of ill health. The comedy reunites Peep Show’s David Mitchell and Webb as Stephen and Andrew, two erstwhile foster brothers whose neurotic rivalry boils up in the wake of Stephen’s father’s death. Louise Brealey also stars in the squirming, tragicomic delight. Stream the first series on All4 here.

Back To Life Season 2 (tbc)

Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon’s six part comedy-drama about a woman released from a lengthy prison sentence arrived in 2019 as one of a clutch of well-received original BBC shows. Haggard plays Miri, who returns to her childhood home and isn’t exactly welcomed back to the community with open arms, alongside Adeel Akhtar, Geraldine James, Liam Williams and more. It aired on Showtime over in the US, and will return for series two, which is currently being written.

Baptiste Season 2 (tbc)

Tcheky Karyo will return as grizzled French detective Julien Baptiste in a second series of the Williams Brothers’ Euro-set crime thriller. The character made his name on two series of The Missing, and earned his own BBC spin-off in spring 2019. (Read our spoiler-filled reviews here.) Series two sees Baptiste in Budapest on a search for the missing family of a British Ambassador, and co-stars Killing Eve‘s Fiona Shaw. Production on series two was halted in March 2020 because of the global spread of COVID-19, but got back up and running in the summer.

Breeders Season 2 (tbc)

Filming wrapped on the second series of Sky One parenting comedy Breeders just before Christmas 2020, so we can expect to see the new episodes later this year. The series, created by Simon Blackwell, Chris Addison and Martin Freeman, follows the child-based frustrations and catastrophes of Paul (Freeman) and Ally (Daisy Haggard), breaking taboos and punching you in the heart as it goes.

Britannia Season 3 (tbc)

Playwright Jez Butterworth and showrunner James Richardson first brought their trippy vision of warring Celts, mystical druids and invading Romans to Sky Atlantic in January 2018, and were quickly rewarded by a second series renewal. That run has already been and gone, leaving us awaiting the return of David Morrissey, Mackenzie Crook and co. for more bonkers ancient history, this time with added Sophie Okonedo!

Bulletproof: South Africa (January 20th)

After two hit series of crime drama Bulletproof on Sky One, police officers Bishop (Noel Clarke) and Pike (Ashley Walters) are back for a three-part special set in South Africa. The miniseries will see the crime-fighters’ attempt to relax on holiday scuppered when they become entangled with a dangerous kidnap plot.

Cobra Season 2 (tbc)

Robert Carlyle’s PM will return for another series of Sky One political thriller Cobra, written by The Tunnel and Strike: Cuckoo’s Calling‘s Ben Richards. The first series saw Carlyle’s character attempting to maintain power after solar flares took out Britain’s power grid and left the country in chaos as political factions vied for his position. What disaster will befall him in series two we don’t yet know…

Dead Pixels Season 2 (January)

Jon Brown’s gamer comedy debuted in March 2019 and was renewed four months later for series two. It stars Alexa Davies and Will Merrick as two die-hard MMORPG gamers (massive multiplayer online roleplay game, if you were wondering) and Charlotte Ritchie as their non-gaming flatmate. Here’s our interview with the creator on how other TV shows and films so often go wrong in their depiction of gaming and gamers.

Derry Girls Season 3 (tbc)

Lisa McGee’s terrific 90s-set Northern Irish comedy is set to return for a third series about the lives of secondary school students Erin, Orla, Clare, Michelle and James. Filming was due to begin in June 2020, but Covid-19 disrupted that schedule so we’ll have to wait a little longer for this one. Set in the 1990s, Derry Girls is a coming-of-age nostalgia-flood with characters to love and jokes to spare, in which crushes and friendship fall-outs are dealt with in the same breath as dangerous political turmoil. Cracker.

Doctor Who Season 13 (tbc)

Thanks to Covid-19, we’re getting a shorter run of eight episodes for Doctor Who‘s next series, which is confirmed to welcome new companion Dan to the TARDIS. Played by comedian-actor John Bishop, Dan will join Yaz and the Doctor as they continue their travels after saying goodbye to Ryan and Graham in New Year special ‘Revolution of the Daleks.’

Endeavour Season 8 (tbc)

A three-episode seventh series of Russell Lewis’ Inspector Morse prequel aired in February 2020, taking Morse into a new decade, as he and the team investigated the discovery of a body on a canal path on New Year’s Day 1970 (read our spoiler-filled reviews here). Shaun Evans not only returned as the lead, but also directed his second instalment of the long-running crime prequel. Series eight was due to begin filming in summer 2020 but it was pushed back until 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gangs of London Season 2 (tbc)

The body count was high in Sky Atlantic’s ultra-stylish, ultra-violent 2020 thriller Gangs of London, but enough characters made it all the way through for a second season to be commissioned. When it eventually arrives, expect more expertly choreographed fight scenes, more international crime family intrigue and more betrayal. Co-creator Gareth Evans and his fellow directors gave us a taste of what to expect from the new run here.

Gentleman Jack Season 2 (tbc)

Renewed even before series one had aired, Sally Wainwright’s Gentleman Jack arrived on BBC One in the UK and HBO in the US with a bang. It stars Suranne Jones as real-life trail-blazing lesbian industrialist Anne Lister, with a cast including Sophie Rundle, Gemma Whelan and Rosie Cavaliero. It’s witty and dynamic, offering television a new 19th century hero at whom to marvel (here’s our episode one review). The eight-episode second series started filming in November 2020.

Ghosts Season 3 (tbc)

This tremendously fun comedy arrived in 2019 from the cast of Horrible Histories and Yonderland. Happily, it was renewed by the BBC for a third series, which guarantees us at least six more episodes of spectral shenanigans as Alison and Mike (alive) try to keep the ancestral family home going while dealing with an influx of housemates from history (dead). Speaking to Den of Geek in November 2020 about the terrific Christmas special, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, who plays Mike in the show, said they were hoping to film series three in spring 2021.

Guilt Season 2 (tbc)

BBC Scotland’s dark comedy-drama Guilt was a word-of-mouth hit that became an award-winning hit. Created by Neil Forsyth and starring Mark Bonnar, it was the story of two very different brothers attempting to cover up an unthinkable act. It’s currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer and will be joined by a second four-part series. Don’t get it confused with the US Amanda Knox series of the same name, which was cancelled.

Happy Valley Season 3 (tbc)

We’re cheating here because there is very little chance that 2021 will see the planned third and final series of Sally Wainwright’s excellent crime drama Happy Valley but it’s too good a drama not to include. The word seems to be that creator Wainwright and star Sarah Lancashire are keen to return for the final chapter in Sgt. Cawood’s story, but they’re waiting for young star Rhys Connah, who plays Cawood’s grandson Ryan, to get a bit older before tackling the story Wainwright wants to tell. Patience.

His Dark Materials Season 3 (tbc)

One final eight-episode season is on its way to BBC One and HBO to conclude this stunning adaptation of Philip Pullman’s book trilogy. Season three will tell the story of The Amber Spyglass, taking Lyra and Will to even more new worlds, where they’ll meet strange creatures and have to face a weighty choice. Pre-production began earlier in 2020, but the renewal announcement didn’t officially arrive until December. Here’s a taster of what we might expect to see.

Innocent Season 2 (tbc)

ITV’s Innocent was a four-part series about a miscarriage of justice that aired in May 2018. Its conclusion certainly didn’t call for a continuation so news of a second series renewal was a bit of a head-scratcher until it was revealed that creator Chris Lang (Unforgotten) was writing a whole new case and a whole new set of characters for the second run, now due to arrive this year.

Inside No. 9 Season 6 (tbc)

Knowing a good thing when it has one, BBC Two renewed Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s ingenious anthology series Inside No. 9 for a sixth and seventh series back in March. That means 12 new half-hour stories told with wit, originality and – every so often – a surprising amount of heart. Shearsmith Tweeted in November 2020 that the team were in rehearsals and planning to start filming on the new episodes imminently.

Killing Eve Season 4 (tbc)

Season four of mega-hit spy thriller Killing Eve was announced back before season three aired, so we know that it is coming, the question is: when? As the series films across various European locations, it’s been hit harder than many by the Covid-19 pandemic, and production was confirmed as being on an indefinite hiatus in October 2020, so don’t hold your breath for the usual April start date. As soon as things are up and running, we’ll let you know.

Read more

TV

New British TV Series for 2021: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky Dramas and More

By Louisa Mellor

TV

New British TV Series from 2020: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky Dramas and More

By Louisa Mellor

Line of Duty Season 6 (March)

Series five of Jed Mercurio’s hugely successful crime thriller concluded in May 2019, and, after a Covid-related five-month delay, filming wrapped on series six in November 2020. Line of Duty stars Vicky McClure, Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar as bent-copper-hunters AC-12, with each series welcoming a high-profile guest – previous series have welcomed Stephen Graham, Thandie Newton and Keeley Hawes, and this time around it’s Kelly Macdonald.

Man Like Mobeen Season 4 (tbc)

Announced on creator and star Guz Khan’s Instagram account in September 2020, as reported by Comedy.co.uk, hit BBC Three comedy Man Like Mobeen will return in 2021. Series three left fans on a serious cliffhanger that saw Mobeen doing time despite his best efforts to stay out of trouble and raise his younger sister. Catch up on BBC iPlayer here.

Marcella Season 3 (January)

ITV’s Marcella, co-created by The Killing’s Hans Rosenfeldt and starring Anna Friel, went out in a blaze of bonkers glory in 2018. Series two marked a turning point for the detective show, which went from domestic crime drama to full-blown comic-book spy thriller, complete with faked deaths, conspiracy, and secret investigative units. Series three has Marcella working undercover in a Belfast crime family. It’s already aired on Netflix around the world, and will finally arrive on ITV in January 2021.

McMafia Season 2 (tbc)

Starring James Norton as the conflicted British son of a Russian mob boss, McMafia was BBC One’s big, glamorous New Year drama for 2018. It was renewed for another eight episode season a good while back but updates on progress have been very thin on the ground since then Whenever it arrives, expect more double-crossing and high-stakes violence set against the backdrop of gangland London. Read our series one episode reviews here.

Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing Season 4 (tbc)

A fishing show may seem like a strange choice for this list of mostly high-profile dramas and comedies, but Gone Fishing deserves as much celebration as any of them. That’s thanks to Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse’s natural chemistry as two long-time friends, both of whom have been forced to contemplate their mortality in recent years due to serious heart problems. It’s fishing, yes, but it’s also chat, silliness and genuine human warmth.

Motherland Season 3 (tbc)

Sharon Horgan, Holly Walsh and Helen Linehan’s parenting comedy Motherland will be back for a third series. Starring Anna Maxwell-Martin (Good Omens, Line Of Duty), Lucy Punch, Paul Ready and Diane Morgan, it’s a caustic look at the demands of modern parenting and life in your thirties and forties that you don’t even need to have kids to relate to/stare at in rapt horror.

Peaky Blinders Season 6 (tbc)

Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight’s BBC Two crime saga following the ascendancy of Birmingham’s Shelby family in post-World War One England, is set to return for two further series, which should, if all goes to plan, take us all the way up to the outbreak of World War II. Series five aired in late summer 2019 and here’s all the news we have on series six, which was sadly forced to suspend production in March due to the global spread of Covid-19. Filming is due to resume in January 2021, so fingers crossed we’ll get the new series later this year.

Sex Education Season 3 (tbc)

Season three of Netflix’s celebrated high school comedy-drama went into production in September 2020, so there’ll be a little wait until the new episodes arrive on the streaming service. The show has won such an adoring fandom over its two seasons that they’ll wait as long as it takes to continue the stories of Otis, Eric, Maeve and of course, Gillian Anderson’s masterful Jean.

Staged Season 2 (January 4th)

A lot of people tried their best to make new TV under lockdown conditions last year, and some fared better than others. At the top of the comedy pile is Staged, starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen as exaggerated versions of themselves, rehearsing a play on Zoom with a host of big name guest stars and plenty of laughs courtesy of their other halves Georgia Tennant and Anna Lundberg.

Stath Lets Flats Season 3

We waited too long to hear that Channel 4 was doing the sensible thing and renewing Jamie Demetriou’s excellent Stath Lets Flats for a third series. During that wait, the show won three Baftas and even more fans, securing its reputation as one of the best comedies around. According to cast-member Kiell Smith-Bynoe, who plays reluctant letting agent Dean, the plan is to start filming in summer 2021, if everybody’s schedules can match up.

Taboo Season 2 (tbc)

From Steven Knight, creator of the excellent Peaky Blinders, in collaboration with star Tom Hardy, Taboo presents a very different vision of Regency England to the traditional Jane Austen world of assembly balls and etiquette faux pas. It’s about James Delaney, an almost invincible, little bit magic, highly mysterious thorn in the side of the East India Company. Series one aired in early 2017, and as of summer 2019, Knight had finished six of the eight scripts for the second series. Here’s what we know so far.

Taskmaster Season 11 (tbc)

Joining the Taskmaster and little Alex Horne for series ten of Taskmaster – its first series on Channel 4 – were Daisy May Cooper, Johnny Vegas, Katherine Parkinson, Mawaan Rizwan and Richard Herring. Then came a New Year treat featuring all-new one-off contestants. In 2021, we’re due a full new series starring Charlotte Ritchie, Jamali Maddix, Lee Mack, Mike Wozniak and Sarah Kendall, plus a champion of champions miniseries.

Temple Season 2 (tbc)

Adapted from Norwegian series Valkyrien, Temple is the story of an underground medical facility run by a desperate surgeon and his apocalypse-prepping colleague. It stars Mark Strong, Carice Van Houten and Daniel Mays, and debuted on Sky One in autumn 2019. The series two renewal was announced as the series one finale aired, and the new episodes are expected to air in summer 2021. Read more about the series here.

The Bay Season 2 (January)

Daragh Carville’s Morecambe-set crime thriller returns with a new case for Morven Christie’s DS Lisa Armstrong and co. this year. The first series dealt with the disappearance of a set of teenage twins and shady goings-on in a picture-perfect coastal town, earning it the title of ‘the new Broadchurch’. Here’s our episode one review.

The Capture Season 2 (tbc)

Ben Chanan’s BBC One thriller The Capture was a high-stakes crime drama that tackled the question of what truth and innocence mean when video evidence can be so easily manipulated in the modern age. It starred Strike‘s Holliday Grainger, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them‘s Callum Turner, and was renewed for a second series in summer 2020.

The Crown Season 5 (tbc)

Olivia Colman took over from Clare Foy as HRH Elizabeth II in The Crown series three. The time jump saw Matt Smith replaced by Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip and Helena Bonham-Carter take the reins from Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret, with Gillian Anderson playing Margaret Thatcher. For season five, the palace welcomes Imelda Staunton (pictured) and Lesley Manville as the Windsor sisters.

The Last Kingdom Season 5 (tbc)

The Last Kingdom series five will adapt the next two books in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories series: Warriors of the Storm and The Flame Bearer. Starring Alexander Dreymon as Viking-raised-Saxon Uhtred of Bebbenberg, it’s an action-packed historical drama filled with wit and characters to love. Read our spoiler-filled episode reviews and more.

This Time With Alan Partridge Season 2 (tbc)

Filming concluded on the second run of This Time With Alan Partridge in December 2020, so there shouldn’t be too long a wait for the new episodes to arrive on BBC One. Series two sees Norwich broadcasting veteran Alan established as the co-presenter of fictional magazine chat show This Time, following his gaffes on-screen and off. Susannah Fielding co-stars.

Unforgotten Season 4 (tbc)

Cassie and Sunny (played by Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar) return for a fourth series of ITV’s excellent cold case crime drama Unforgotten. What makes Chris Lang’s detective series stand out is its empathy—for its characters, for the victims, and often, for the killers themselves. The new series will take another decades-old case as its starting point, and no doubt tell another engrossing, affecting story led by excellent performances from a cast including Susan Lynch and Sheila Hancock.

War of the Worlds Season 2 (tbc)

FOX UK sci-fi War of the Worlds was one of the first TV dramas to restart filming after the enforced Covid-19 lockdown (it helps when your show is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the population has been more or less destroyed), so even with all the effects-heavy post-production required, we can expect it to arrive this year. It uses H.G. Wells’ story more as a jumping-off point than a bible, and developed into a poised and atmospheric sci-fi for adults. Read more about it here.

World on Fire Season 2 (tbc)

To the delight of fans following series one’s tense cliff-hanger ending, Peter Bowker’s WWII drama following multiple interconnected stories from around the world during the war, was recommissioned in November 2019. The stories of Harry (Jonah Hauer-King), Kasia (Zofia Wichlacz) and Lois (Julia Brown) will continue in the second run, alongside those of Lois’ conscientious objector father Douglas (Sean Bean) and Harry’s ice-cold mother Robina (Lesley Manville). 

Year of the Rabbit Season 2 (tbc)

Detective Rabbit returns! Matt Berry, Susan Wokoma and Freddie Fox will be back for more Victorian crime-based comedy in a second series of Channel 4’s acclaimed Year Of The Rabbit. C4’s Head of Comedy Fiona McDermott describes the show, which is co-written by Matt Berry with Veep and Black Books‘ Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil, as “glorious, gutsy and audacious”, and you won’t hear any disagreement from us. Series one is currently available to stream on All4, and the six new episodes are expected to arrive this year.

Also returning:

Brassic Season 3 (tbc)  – Joseph Gilgun’s Sky One comedy returns for a third run.

Code 404 Season 2 (tbc)– Stephen Graham and Daniel Mays are back on Sky One in this very British comedy take on RoboCop.

Don’t Forget the Driver Season 2 (tbc) The brilliant Toby Jones returns in this heartfelt seaside comedy drama.

Feel Good Season 2 (tbc) – Mae Martin’s autobiographically inspired comedy returns to Channel 4.

Hitmen Season 2 (tbc) – Mel and Sue will be back on Sky One for more paid-assassin larks.

King Gary Season 2 – Gary King will be ruling the crescent once again in this BBC One comedy.

I Am… Season 2 (tbc) – The Channel 4 female-fronted anthology drama returns with Suranne Jones among the cast.

Intelligence Season 2 (tbc) – David Schwimmer and Nick Mohammed are back on Sky One for more tech-spy comedy.

State of the Union Season 2 (tbc) – Nick Hornby is creating two new characters who meet up weekly before their marriage counselling sessions for this BBC Two comedy-drama.

The Cockfields Season 2 (tbc) – This Gold original comedy starring Joe Wilkinson and Diane Morgan will return, but sadly, without comedian Bobby Ball, who passed away in 2020.

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[spectregraphy]

OPEN CONNECTIONS

under the cut are some ideas of how your character/s may know miri and be connected to her. as always, feel free to suggest any tweaks or revamp the whole thing and start anew!

HIGH SCHOOL CONNECTIONS

FRIENDS TO ENEMIES — ( BASED ON THIS ) miri was not in a great headspace to maintain her friendships after the death of her mom. she used to be warm and outgoing but she started ghosting everybody who tried to get close to her. she may have given off major “bitch” vibes since she never stopped to explain her position. any good feelings started to sour then eventually rot.

OLD EXES — she only got into 2 relationships during the four years in high school. 1 relationship was more sincere and deeper. whether they broke up prior to her mom’s death or because of that event can be discussed. i don’t have a preference at this time! the other relationship was definitely a fling. it was during the time she kept acting out and playing hooky, causing trouble. it was decided mutually that it’d be super casual.

THE ONE FRIENDSHIP SHE DIDN’T FUCK UP — ( BASED ON THIS ) this is exactly what it sounds like. it’s possible your character genuinely believed her or humored her really well! doesn’t really matter! they were still a great source of support and influence in her life.

TALENT SHOW SQUAD or YEARBOOK GANG — yeah... she used to be real excited about singing in the talent show before the Thing happened. they came really close to winning ONCE. they almost formed a real garage band. as for the yearbook thing, that’s also self-explanatory .

POST-GRAD CONNECTIONS

RIVALS — someone from the rival newspaper post. photographer, editor, writer, whatever. all are welcomed. there could be tension. your character could be stealing the spotlight by always showing up sooner than she does. or maybe it’s super chill and there’s no issues. everybody’s having a gay ol’ time. winkwonk?

UNREQUITED FOOLISHNESS — ( BASED ON THIS ) i’m sure someone out there who is into seemingly cold girls with baggage and BDE? she may not be openly receptive to it in the beginning but it’ll be a fun time if she’s their type.

FAN / ANTI-FAN — she always has a camera glued to her hands. her photos are not the most flattering unless she’s specifically doing portrait work or something for work. she definitely takes photos and uses techniques to make them a little creepier than needed. is she projecting her need to recreate the cursed photos of her mom? yeah most likely.

ALREADY FILLED CONNECTIONS

these could possibly help as well if you already have connections with these characters.

SURROGATE DAD — clinton. he was the cop who was sent to her house on the night of her mom’s death. ever since then he looked after the girl. BIG hopper/11 vibes. bless his whole heart. she realizes he’s a big shot but she’ll kick anybody’s ass who fucks with him. bet.

NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR — rosie. sometimes miri hears her harmonica playing. sometimes rosie hears angry german yelling from miri’s place. they can sit on their porch and share judgmental looks in solidarity.

OLD CLASSMATE — andy. the Smart Gifted kids. she sat next to him everybody else were in grade above them. they shared similar tragedies in their families, but as with most friendships, time drives a wedge in between.

PAST EMPLOYER — fenella. in order to pay the rent, she took up part-time jobs, starting at Java the Hut. fenella was also a good influence in her life. kinda spoiled her too as all her other supervisors were not as sweet or endearing.

PEDIATRICIAN — kolby. miri as a young niece who just ADORES kolby. the feeling is very mutual and miri’s stuck in between as their middle man. she facilitates facetime calls and delivers birthday cards.

[reactingtosomething]

Reacting to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2

Part I: Can an Asshole Just Be an Asshole?

The Setup: We’re four writer friends living in two time zones, who text each other a lot about All of the Things. We decided we wanted to work on something together, so this is happening. First up, two of us watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. We had a lot to say, so we’re splitting our Reaction into two installments. Comments after the fact are in italics.

SPOILERS BELOW.

KRIS: Wow that is just wild. I didn’t realize iMessage would export it so neatly.

MIRI: I know!

It’s SUPER convenient

Ok, ready to start?

KRIS: Yep

I feel pressure from myself to have a mission statement

Or a critical philosophy

MIRI: Well that’s your general state, so I’m not surprised

KRIS: Fair

MIRI: You’ve now seen Guardians Vol. 2 twice

Within how much time?

KRIS: Definitely under 48 hours?

MIRI: I loved it 

I just really loved it

KRIS: See I wonder if being with people who so clearly enjoyed it helped me revise my opinion upward

I liked but was also disappointed with it on my first viewing

MIRI: Interesting! It may have

And isn’t that somewhat the point of the communal viewing experience?

What disappointed you?

KRIS: I guess so

The BEST answer I have, from a kind of writerly-nerdy angle, is that the Guardians are a lot more reactive than just active-active this time around

A more Kris-specific gut feeling answer is that I often felt the shallowness of the writing overshadowed the sincerity of the emotions

MIRI: Aaah. I wonder if a certain amount of that was inevitable, because as there is more canon/past to react to there will always be more reactivity?

On the emotions front, I see what you’re saying.

But also I am a sucker and it got me right in the gut

Or wherever my feelings live

KRIS: I guess, but I wonder if it will be helpful here to compare and contrast throughout this chat with Age of Ultron

Since they’re both team sequels

MIRI: It will not be helpful, because I will just yell

KRIS: From auteur-y dudes who have some superficial similarities

Okay I’ll try to minimize comparisons then, but a key difference is that the main conflict of Ultron comes from a decision Tony makes

And this sets all the personality conflicts into motion

MIRI: Whereas in Guardians 2 it came from Papa Planet?

That’s fair

KRIS: Right, or at least I think you can say that’s the A-conflict

MIRI: btw I’m calling him that from now on

KRIS: If the B-conflict is set off by Rocket stealing batteries

I’m onboard with Papa Planet

MIRI: Excellent

KRIS: Because it’s not a worse name than Ego

Although Ego is on-the-nose in a good way

MIRI: Um it’s dramatically better

thank you very much

I actually didn’t hate Ego (as a name), but I quite like Papa Planet

(again, as a name)

((he can suck an egg as a being/father))

KRIS: But anyway yeah, if the A-story is Quill’s Father-Son Drama, it’s a thing that happens to the Guardians, not a thing that comes from their pre-existing desires (in Vol 1: Quill wants to get rich/Gamora wants to escape Thanos/Drax wants to kill the shit out of Ronan)

MIRI: You’re definitely right that there was a lot more reaction than pure action, but I think it worked for me better than it may have because I liked the reactions for the most part.

Also, I haven’t rewatched the first one in about a year

so no unfavorable comparisons

KRIS: Sure, it definitely felt like the characters reacted “authentically”

MIRI: I’ve seen Ultron more recently

KRIS: Those quote marks feel more aggressively scare quotey than I intended

MIRI: I will always be gotten by team-as-family dynamics. I’m an easy mark

hahahaha

I will not judge you for your quotation marks

KRIS: We’re definitely going to have to come back to the Fast and Furious parallels

MIRI: I have seen approximately 2 and 4 halves of those movies

So I won’t be able to speak intelligently about them, but I will speak passionately regardless

KRIS: Did Quill’s (I don’t know why I’ve landed on Quill as opposed to Star-Lord or Peter but am open to changing) story end up being for you as strong as the movie wants/needs it to be, or did you find one of the subplots more compelling?

MIRI: a) Quill is cooler and more distinctive than Peter, and Star-Lord is not a name to take seriously

2) Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yes and no

The Yondu element of Quill’s Daddy Issues was effective to me

I enjoyed Quill triumphing over the evil stars in his eyes murder tool state

And the whole picture of David Hasselhoff thing worked pretty well to me

KRIS: Okay yeah, I’d agree with all of this

MIRI: The actual lived relationship with Yondu (unhealthy as it clearly must be CONSIDERING PETER GENUINELY THOUGHT YONDU WAS IN DANGER OF EATING HIM THE WHOLE DAMN TIME) was waaaaay more effective for me than the general concept of Daddy issues or anything Papa Planet put out there.

KRIS: I should say here that I rewatched Guardians 1 last night to see if that would help, and I’m pretty sure it did

MIRI: how so?

KRIS: I was not especially a fan of Yondu in Vol 1, and found him hard to invest in on my first viewing of Vol 2

And when he had a Sad Backstory (in 2) in the cell with Rocket, I was kind of like, did we need that?

Like they ALL have sad backstories, does Yondu need one too? Can an asshole just be an asshole?

MIRI: Well, he can when he’s a murdery planet

I did really like the detail of Papa Planet putting the tumor in Mama Quill’s head--it seemed incredibly in character to me. Loving her and wanting to spend time with her didn’t make him reconsider universe-wide genocide, it made him see her as a problem to be solved.

KRIS: Yeah that was a pretty effective reveal

MIRI: Re: Yondu’s backstory, I do recognize that they’re playing on the heartstrings pretty deliberately

KRIS: Right

MIRI: But I kind of feel like doing that successfully is its own form of quality?

KRIS: Like I probably would’ve been fine with the jail cell story if Yondu hadn’t also had a big I KNOW YOU BOY BECAUSE YOU’RE ME speech to Rocket later

MIRI: It might not be the best writing ever, but it’s doing what it sets out to do quite well

Yeah, that’s true

I didn’t super love Rocket’s whole arc

KRIS: That was also an issue for me the first time I saw it, but weirdly less so the second

MIRI: Since this one was very much about Quill’s Emotions with Gamora/KarenGillan* as the emotional b/c story, I think maybe saving Rocket’s Partial Redemption for Volume 3 might have been better

*Nebula

KRIS: To try to tie off some of the Yondu thread here, a reason it ended up working for me on a second viewing is that most of it does seem to be consciously set up in Vol 1

MIRI: Oh, that’s good

I did really really love the whole Ravagers code payoff and the funeral

KRIS: Another great payoff in the funeral scene: the little “dashboard” dolls he collects -- the gemstone one is from the broker on Xandar, and the Troll is what Quill gave him when he swapped out the Orb at the end

MIRI: OMG really???

I love that!!!!

Awwwwww

Miri is still Emotional about this 3 days later

Plus it’s nice that they managed to twist the whole android brothel walkout thing--I definitely thought the other Ravagers were the “badder guys” in that scenario

KRIS: Yeah, and Yondu’s reaction when he sees the Troll, instead of being pissed that the Guardians “stole” the orb back, is this genuine laugh

So I could buy a real affection for Quill

MIRI: When really they were the ones who don’t deal in children and Yondu was in the wrong, but once he realized how wrong he stopped

and they eventually forgive him 😢

Ohhh, I remember that laugh

KRIS: So for sure Yondu’s arc is probably objectively the most effective thing happening here

MIRI: He genuinely is proud that Quill has grown up so well, both as a thief and a man

KRIS: I guess I was annoyed that he’d suddenly become a major character

Because Gamora and Drax felt sidelined

MIRI: YES

I was ok with Drax, because while I love him, I fear his whole schtick will get very old if they try to center him too much

KRIS: I did appreciate Gamora being the pragmatic one, and being right pretty much every time

MIRI: But Gamora has a ton of range and even more parental drama

KRIS: Like she was right when she suggested Quill should take a chance with Papa Planet, and then she was also right when she realized something was off

MIRI: And right that they killed him

KRIS: And she had her own blindspot where Nebula was concerned

Which I think is an arc that works at least 80 percent because of Karen Gillan

As opposed to the writing

MIRI: I wish that we had gotten a bit more Nebula, as well

totally agree

She does so much with so little

KRIS: I mean the backstory element of it is there in Vol 1, that Thanos is The Worst Father Ever

MIRI: Right, but the emotions aren’t super well explored

KRIS: But that big emotional scene after Gamora drags her out of the wreck -- “All I wanted was a sister” -- needed another few beats, I thought

MIRI: Because Gamora is a Tough Chick

Yes! The writing definitely felt the most clunky in those sister moments

Which is in part because the relationship is always going to be fractious, but also is just a bit of a weakness

KRIS: Yeah Gamora is kind of a conundrum for me. Sometimes I really love her, and other times I just don’t quite buy what the story wants her to do/be, and I’m genuinely not sure if it’s more a writing issue or a performance issue

Most superficially (and definitely a writing issue): Is she strong enough to walk around with a giant starship cannon, or is she not strong enough to easily carry one human sized person around?

MIRI: Having seen Zoe Saldana in other things where she played a tough woman with limited emotions, I’m inclined to think writing

Maybe we need to React to Colombiana at some point; Kris hasn’t seen that. We may also need to bring in a Guest Reactor for a rewatch of The Losers...

Hahahahahhahaha such a good question

I think there’s the obvious desire for her to be the sexy hot chick, and then a partial desire for her to not just be that

So they’ve made her kind of flat so that she’s not the emotional lady character

KRIS: I feel like the story isn’t sure whether it wants Gamora to have this sort of formal edge to her where she uses words like “shall” instead of “will”, or whether it wants her to be a more “traditional” Bad Girl

MIRI: True. I would say that Rocket, Quill, and Drax all have more clearly defined voices and speech patterns.

And Groot, obvi

KRIS: And even Nebula, who has this Sullen Teenager vibe

MIRI: I just really love Nebula

I know I always love the angry girl who can kill people (which should probably concern me)

KRIS: Where I really missed Gamora and Drax having agency was honestly just the action element of the climax

MIRI: But I really love her.

KRIS: They spend the whole first half of the final battle standing and watching

And most of the second half being almost engulfed by Papa Planet’s Blue Tendrils of Doom

Although at least there was that great Nebula rescue beat (“get over it”)

And Drax having a moment where he chose self-sacrifice

MIRI: Both of those worked nicely for me

One last thing on Nebula: I think part of my interest is the fact that she’s allowed to have her own drive, rather than being tied to Quill’s emotional needs

She wants to kill Thanos, and she’s damn well going to

KRIS: Yeah, for sure

MIRI: And her tie to her sister will be a factor, but killing Thanos is always there

KRIS: I really hope they do right by her in Infinity War

MIRI: I don’t really trust that they will

KRIS: Me either

MIRI: But they have set her up as being a factor, so there’s hope

KRIS: I mean in general I trust Marcus/McFeely and the Russos, but just sooo many characters and I can’t see them not defaulting to giving Steve and/or Tony the ultimate victory

MIRI: Oh, yeah. I think the Guardians folks are going to be mostly comic relief and deus ex machina

KRIS: But yeah. That third act. Welcome to the Quill and Yondu show, mostly for better, but for Gamora and Drax superfans partly for worse

MIRI: Especially if it’s the end of anyone from the first stage’s tenure

Yeah, that’s very true. I guess I’m just kind of too jaded to expect the women to be centered in MCU action

KRIS: Did love the whole asking for tape gag, though

MIRI: and as stated I like Drax as secondary

The tape gag was fun!

They did a nice job of including funny moments in the trailers without giving away the best part of said moments

which is rare

So props to whoever edited the trailers!!!

KRIS: Drax is probably my favorite (part of this is shamelessly because Dave Bautista is a bald Filipino man) but on my first viewing I actually did feel like his shtick got old fast

MIRI: It’s important to be able to see yourself in media!

Find Part II of our Guardians Reaction here.

[cloemarrie]

For the record, please say your name. Debbie Manber Kupfer

What inspired you to become a writer? I’ve been writing my whole life, but only started taking my writing seriously back in 2012 after I came out of cancer treatment. I realized then that if I really wanted to write this story that was burning inside me I needed to start it now and that is who the P.A.W.S. Saga was born.

What social media do you use to contact with your fans? Facebook, Twitter, my blog, and my newsletter

What is your username on the different social media platforms? https://www.facebook.com/DebbieManberKupferAuthor/ https://twitter.com/CiciCat42 https://debbiemanberkupfer.wordpress.com/ https://mybookcave.com/d/fafad8e1/

What did you do before you became a published author? Many many things, some of which I’m still doing! I have many hats. I divide my time between writing fiction, writing puzzles, editing for clients, and most importantly being a mom to my awesome teens. In the past I’ve been a teacher, a secretary, a puzzle editor, a community worker and also had loads of temporary jobs in all different weird and wonderful places. I’ve lived in three different countries, England, Israel and the US and have been fortunate enough to travel to a bunch of other cool places when I was younger.

What is your writing style like? I’m predominantly a pantser, though I do have a tendency to go back in the middle of a book and create an outline from the chapters I’ve already written!

What is your favourite genre to write/read in and why? Fantasy – I adore all things magic and love to be able to be to lose myself in an imaginary world. I also particularly love urban fantasy that takes place in our world as I want to be able to insert myself in the world, to believe that it actually could be real ☺

What is the inspiration behind your books? Anything and everything inspires me. I love to people watch and very often folks I see out and odd snippets of conversation I overhear find their way into my stories.

Is there anything you found particularly challenging about writing? Distraction from the internet and particularly Facebook. In fact in order to write I have to turn off the internet and force myself to write my daily words before I go online, otherwise I get sucked down into the social media rabbit hole.

What is your take on fanfiction? I dream of the day that someone writes fic in my world. I’ll feel like I’ve finally made it as a YA fantasy author when they do that.

Do you have any causes, charities, foundations that you are passionate about and donate to? If so why? How did you get involved? The hardest thing I’ve ever written is my short memoir, The Big C. For this book I have partnered with Knitted Knockers, a wonderful charity that provides knitted breast forms for women who have had mastectomies. As a breast cancer survivor this is a mission that’s close to my heart and I’ve pledged to give all the proceeds from The Big C to Knitted Knockers.

Do you have any pets? Yep, my kitty, Miri Billie Joe. Named for Miri (the main character in P.A.W.S.) and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day!

Some fun questions now

What did you want to be when you were little? Actually I wanted to be a journalist. Then I went and did so many other things, but finally by becoming a writer I’ve come full circle.

What is your favourite colour? Purple, for the win!

What is your favourite food/s? Cheesecake, dark chocolate, and lots and lots of strong hot tea with milk! Oh and cheese – I adore cheese, especially good cheddar.

What was your favourite book as a child? Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I read it over and over again and still have my beat up childhood copy. I also made Alice my main character Miri’s favourite book.

Tell us about your Book/S?

P.A.W.S. is the Partnership of Animagi, Werewolves and Shapeshifters. It’s an international organization with institutes all around the globe. In the first book of the saga we meet Miri, a young girl who receives a silver cat charm from her grandmother the night before her grandmother dies. Little does Miri know but the charm contains a special magic, one that saved her grandmother from the Nazis and is about to make Miri’s life a whole lot more interesting. There are four books out in the P.A.W.S. Saga so far and I’m currently writing book five. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075JP1KYQ

Character Interview

Name: Miri Katz Do you have family? Not really. I lived with my omama (grandma) until I was ten years old and then she died. My aunt and uncle took me to St. Louis, but they didn’t really want a kid so they shipped me off to a boarding school. I was miserable there until Josh found me and brought me to P.A.W.S. I’m much happier here and I suppose my new friends in P.A.W.S. are my family today. Tell us about where you live Until I was ten I lived in the Lower East Side with my omama. Today I live in the P.A.W.S. Institute of the Midwest, a secret institute of shapeshifters hidden underneath the Jewel Box in Forest Park. It’s a really cool place. In the mornings we have lessons with Professor Ainsworth. He’s an animagus owl. In the afternoon I work with my mentor, Josh. He’s a werewolf and a good friend. What species are you? I’m a feline shapeshifter. My magic comes from the silver cat charm that I always wear around my neck. Who is your best friend? I had a best friend once when I used to live in New York. Her name was Jenny and we used to play fairies on the steps of our apartment building. I miss her a lot. Do you have any pets? In New York we had two cats, Kitty and Susie. When my aunt came to get me she threw them out onto the street. I hope they’re OK. What is your most prized possession? A few things – my silver cat charm, my teddy bear, Brownie, a sepia photograph of my omama and opapa on their wedding day, and two books – my old battered copy of Alice in Wonderland and my omama’s cookbook. What is your favourite place to be? The Jewel Box – it’s a magical place filled with flowers and exotic plants. The P.A.W.S. Institute is hidden underneath it, but there’s also a trap door that allows us to go up into the conservatory and sit among the flowers. It’s beautiful and I like to sit on a bench and write down my thoughts in a notebook. Sometimes I even write stories.

  INTERVEIW WITH DEBBIE MANBER KUPFER AND Miri Katz

For the record, please say your name. Debbie Manber Kupfer What inspired you to become a writer?

INTERVEIW WITH DEBBIE MANBER KUPFER AND Miri Katz For the record, please say your name. Debbie Manber Kupfer What inspired you to become a writer?