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livebeginning · 11 months ago

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Ok I wanna talk more about my OC Mio from my fic Pretty Little Pet where I ship him with Raphael. So under the cut I'll put:

Art!! (mostly picrews and one drawing by me)

Mio's life before Raphael bought him

Raphael buying Mio

How Raphael treats Mio and his motivations

About Mio being Raphael's pet

Art

First of, I intentionally never described Mio's appearance in the fic, because I kinda wanted the reader to imagine their own version of Mio. So if you read my fic and are now going "Wow I thought Mio looked really different!" That's totally valid! He can look however you want! (Also please tell me how you imagined him, I'd love to hear about it!)

The first picture I drew myself, but it's heavily referenced off of the picrew in the second picture.

The second and third pic are basically a timeline of how Mio changes throughout the story (and the different outfits he wears). The other picrews are random outfits and based on vibes haha

Picrew for the second pic

Picrew for the third pic

Picrew for the fourth pic

Picrew for the fifth pic

Picrew for the sixth pic (lost the link, will add later)

Picrew for the seventh pic (lost the link, will add later)

And the 8th pic is my attempt at making him in BG3, he's a half-elf here because I didn't like any of the male elf faces ^^'

Before Raphael

Mio is a male high elf in his 30s, living with his parents. Mio is his child name, as his parents have not yet given him an adult name.

His parents are criminals, although Mio isn’t aware of that, thinking they also work regular jobs. They mostly commit petty crimes but still dream of one day running a criminal empire. Every time something goes wrong they just skip town. The few times one of them gets caught and released for [money] they blame it on their lack of finances, making Mio feel guilty for not working enough.

Mio was definitely not planned and he often feels unwanted. His parents treat him like a child and while they aren’t physically abusive, they will berate him for the slightest mistakes, send him to bed or work without letting him eat and are just generally pretty shitty.

His parents make him work regular jobs like waiting tables, cleaning and other work that requires little education. He’s their only reliant source of income. Despite this, he has no control over their finances, all money going directly to his parents.

He has little contact with other people, working most of the time and leaving town before he could make meaningful relationships with his coworkers.

Mio is generally shy but polite, pretty much in customer service mode at all times. He has learned to just do whatever his parents tell him to, to avoid getting yelled at or going hungry yet again. Since his parents often tell him that he’s still a child by elf standards, his only real aspiration is to reach elven adulthood (generally around 100 years) and receive his adult name, so that he may leave his parent’s household and become independent. (Most elves in his position, living in mixed society and working, would have already left their parent’s household. Mio’s parents intentionally keep this false worldview around him so that he’ll stay and keep working for them.)

Raphael buys Mio

Mio’s parents have the brilliant idea to get the money they need to start their criminal empire by selling their son. They seek out various options until Raphael answers. They sell their son for just a few hundred gold coins (Mio is unaware of this). We know from the game that Raphael has bought people before, so it’s not OOC for him. Mio is still considered a child by elf standards so that’s why his parents are able to legally sell him. (Also Gortash could sell Karlach to Zariel no problem and she just worked for him, so the rules on who can sell people are a bit weird anyways.)

Raphael doesn’t really need Mio, he mostly accepts the offer to see how his parents will fail spectacularly at trying to make a criminal empire and have a bit of fun with that, maybe even profit from the chaos they cause doing this or make another deal for their souls down the line.

Raphael still wants to put his new purchase to work and tries to determine how Mio could be useful for him. While they talk in his office Raphael shows Mio his cambion form. Mio is enamored by his form, and Raphael is not immune to flattery. Raphael also notices that Mio is easily flustered, blushes a lot and is very touch starved.

Raphael enjoys all of these reactions Mio has for him and decides to have some fun with that. He makes Mio the offer to become his pet, with the caveat that only Raphael is allowed to touch him.

Mio is aware he’s dealing with a devil here, who literally owns him and could just decide to torture him instead, so of course he accepts. Generally Mio knows that he has to do what Raphael tells him to and keep him happy, or risk making Raphael angry and getting killed or tortured. While their relationship gets more relaxed later on, Mio is always aware that Raphael is the one in control and he often has anxiety over accidentally doing something that might upset Raphael.

At this point, Raphael doesn’t have any concrete plans for what he’s going to do with Mio, he just thinks he’s cute and wants to see if he can turn him into a loyal and obedient pet by just showing him a bit of kindness. And if that doesn’t work out, it’d probably be still fun to just torture him.

Raphael’s treatment of Mio

Raphael treats Mio generally pretty well, because I believe Raphael can be a reasonable person. Korilla says she likes working for Raphael and the archivist and Nubaldin seem to be at least content working for him. Devils are also lawful evil, so I think they appreciate it when their rules are being followed. Of course, rules can also be intentionally set up to be impossible to follow, so they have an excuse to punish those who break them.

When Mio breaks the “Only Raphael can touch him” rule, it’s mostly because someone else touched him without his consent. He still gets punished for it and Raphael enjoys making Mio suffer, although he only hurts Mio to an extent he knows he can handle, not wanting to actually break him. Raphael praises Mio for accepting his punishment willingly, which gives Mio conflicting feelings about these punishments. He doesn’t enjoy being tortured, but he likes the praise and attention he receives afterwards and he knows that Raphael enjoys hurting him and wants Raphael to be happy.

By Mio’s standards, Raphael treats him pretty well. He gets his own room and new clothes, much better quality and style than his old clothes. He gets access to the servant’s baths and kitchen (I’m making the HoH way bigger than it is in the game btw) and he can eat as much as he wants. Raphael even tells him to eat at least three meals per day (Mio is used to less so he only eats two when he first arrives).

Raphael makes him work at first, telling him to clean the archive. He does this in part because he wants Mio to keep busy but also because he wants to know if Mio is the kind of person who would try to take a look at his things without permission. The archivist has secret instructions to keep an eye on Mio and report to Raphael on his behavior. Mio isn’t really aware of this test and just cleans the archive as instructed. Later, Raphael has him clean the halls and eventually Mio doesn’t have to do any work anymore, as he has other stuff to keep him busy.

Mio being a pet

Raphael is a devil (technically a half devil but whatever) and I think devils generally see mortals as beneath them. So it’s not uncommon for devils to treat mortals similar to how we would treat cats or dogs (though devils tend to be a lot less nice to their pets).

As his pet, Raphael has Mio sit by his side while he reads or works and strokes his hair or touches his skin. Mio enjoys being pet because he received very little affection before. He also can just relax during these petting sessions, he’s technically not doing anything but he’s still being useful, so he doesn’t have to feel guilty about doing nothing.

Raphael enjoys these petting sessions because he likes how receptive Mio is to him, Mio makes a lot of little noises and leans into Raphael’s touch. Also he has something to occupy himself that isn’t too distracting from his reading/work. Mio essentially functions as a fidget toy for Raphael. Also, petting your pet is just nice!!

Occasionally, Raphael will take Mio to parties or meetings. He likes to dress him up for these events, which Mio also enjoys. It’s a way for Raphael to show off his wealth and style, Mio is essentially an accessory in these moments. Raphael will also sometimes ask Mio to do things just to amuse himself or others, to show how obedient his pet is.

___

Ok I ended up writing a lot more than I intended and I didn't even get to talk about Haarlep and Mio's relationship with sex yet!! Guess that'll have to wait for another post. If anyone has questions or wants to talk about Mio or Raphael, my ask is always open :)

#bg3 #bg3 raphael #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 oc #baldurs gate 3 oc #raphael bg3 #raphael x oc #plp #oc #mio

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chill-pills-yandere-haven · 3 years ago

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Dreams of Coffee and K-pop pt.2

Pt.1

An: I found the emoji!

Tw: yandere, implied murderous intent

Disclaimer: Yanderes are abusive, this is not love.

Art cred: Kackaorz1 on Twitter

It was the day of the concert. You had been listening to the 4NEMO music that your friend had been recommending you and had gotten quite familiar with it. Now, you were dressed in your favourite outfit, ready to attend the concert with your best friend. It was two hours before the concert started, but Venti advised you to come early so you and your friend could hang out with them and watch them warm-up. 4NEMO had gotten closer to you in the time before the concert. The boys texted you constantly and you got attached, welcoming them into your tight little circle of trust. You even all had a group chat with just you and the boys. They proved to be a pleasant way for you to blow off steam from your classes and relax so you welcomed them. Just a week after you all had met, 4NEMO had a new hit album called "Coffee Dream". It had become your new favourite album from them, containing all of the things you loved in music. Almost as though it was made with you in mind. You even set your ringtone to the instrumental of one of the album's songs. A beep resounded from your phone as you looked yourself over in the mirror. A text from Venti, " Hey cutie, just wondering if you need a ride to the concert, I'd be happy to give you a ride!" The nickname 'Cutie' had been something that sort of just happened, no inside joke, just Venti teasing you. You smile and chuckle a bit then answer him. "Yeah sure, I'm already ready so you can come now and I'm sure that they're ready too so you can pick us up now." Five minutes later you received another text telling you that Venti was now at your apartment. Making sure to fix your hair, you went outside. Outside was a black limousine waiting for you. "Get in, cutie! The others are starting warmups!" Venti called to you as you got in the limo, admiring the interior of the vehicle. Vent pulled you to his side, thighs touching. You were confused at his actions but then Venti slung his arm around your shoulder and explained. "Well we've got to make sense for your friend, right? Ehe." He giggled at the end. In return, you shrugged but it did make sense so you didn't mind. Plus, this was Venti, he's always like this. Once you got to your friend's house you saw them with a 4NEMO glow stick in hand and wearing a 4NEMO tee with the group's logo on it. "Hey, bestie! And Venti!" You laughed at the stupid nickname and replied. "Ok, you know you are my best friend and I love you platonically, and that I would die for you if necessary, but do not call me bestie. You can call me anything else, hell I'd even prefer if you called me your 'stupid butt-kicking partner in arson,' than whatever that was. Now, let's pretend that never happened and erase that from our memories. 'Kay?" This was just harmless teasing as you two had done much more stupid things and had many more inside jokes that no one except for you two knew about. "Aye aye, captain!" You talked about random subjects as the car ride went on. And Venti held onto you the whole way, almost as if he thought you might disappear. Maybe even a bit more than usual. Once you got to where the concert would take place, Venti escorted you both to the private room where the boys were practicing. "Hey, guys, I brought a little something!" Venti called to the other 4NEMO members, a hand on your shoulder tugging you to him. All the group looked up from what they were doing. From Kazuha trying out different chords on the electronic piano to xiao going over some dance moves that you hadn't seen yet, to Aether doing vocal exercises. Aether and Kazuha meeting you with soft smiles. Xiao looking away from you after he met your eyes. "So that's what you went off to do, and I almost thought you were trying to skip out on practice." Xiao retorted. "Well it is nice to have you here with us, and you too." Aether addressed you and your friend. It was surprisingly relaxing watching them warm-up for the concert. The practice was flawless, clear that everyone had already gotten everything down to the most minuscule detail. "4NEMO, you ready? Shows about to

begin." One of their workers called, you fairly remember her name being Rika or something along those lines. The boys nodded already dressed in their beautiful yet casual costumes. "Wooh! Go 4NEMO!" You called to them as you and your friend headed for where the audience had already situated itself. (On the other side) That past week, they had been almost three times more productive with you as their inspiration. Starting and releasing a new album dedicated to you in just a week. With you on their brains, inspiration was abundant. They were more devoted to you than even some of their superfans, Kazuha even stalking your social media in secret so he could make sure that his next compositions were to your taste. 4NEMO had been trying to express their love for you in the clearest yet unsuspicious way they could. Even referencing the day you met with the album. Nevertheless, you seemed to be only interested in friendship. No matter, everything would go their way in the end. Venti had put in so much effort to have you by his side, even if it was for just before the concert. Having to sneak away from the group without being noticed to go get you, paying the limo driver extra as he was only supposed to have driven 4NEMO there. Even holding back what we wanted to say to make you ditch that lousy friend of yours. Just for you to voice your feelings of devotion for them while he was in the same car!? So oblivious, so innocent, he had to protect you. The other boys were also surprised to see you but welcomed your presence. They all thought you would only show up at the concert, not before. But they all loved to indulge in you, so no one really minded Venti's little stunt. 4NEMO appeared on the stage. Smiling at the crowd with meaningless movie star smiles. At everyone except for you of course. All their eyes scoured the crowd for you, happy to see that you were close to the stage. Close enough, to tempt them into pulling you up to be with them. But, they had an image to uphold. So they held off on the longing looks at you and just focused on impressing you. "Hey, guys! Who's ready for a 4NEMO concert!?" Aether grinned and asked the crowd? The audience wooed back, even you, something the boys genuinely smiled at. "Well then, we've ought to get this party started!" Venti cried as the first song started. The boys knew that this had been your first concert as you preferred more quiet, secluded ways to spend your time while your friend was the one dragging you to interact with the outside world. And they were determined to make it special. Make this day the one that makes you as head over heels in love with them as they are. They started with a fast fan favourite, the one that you had as your ringtone. The one they created as a way to only express a fraction of the passion they felt for you. Xiao moved beautifully and elegantly as he sang. Venti hit a flawless high note that even most female singers couldn't reach. Kazuha harmonized with them in such a beautiful way that it could take one's breath away, rapping clearly and rapidly. Aether was the one who pulled it all together, he was the leader after all. 4NEMO was pleased to find that you were enjoying the change of environment. Moving your head and singing along with some of the songs you knew. Just one small problem. Though it was an irritation, the boys kept up in the perfect way only they could achieve. The problem was that you just had to bring your friend with you, Venti told the others what he had heard in the car, about how you would even die for them. And they just had to separate you two, it was too much jealousy to handle. It drove them even further, made them crave your praise even more. Even just a small compliment would suffice. So they worked their hardest at this concert. Making sure you have the time of your life. The concert was finally over and now you could be reunited with the boys. They swarmed around you once you had arrived at their private room. Asking you how the experience was and was delighted that you said that it was "absolutely

surreal" and that you loved it. It might not have been a direct 'I love you.' But it would work for now. Though they couldn't be with you in public due to their status, they would still have you. They would still make you theirs. They would remove anyone to make that happen. And it seemed like your friend was going to be the first.

#yandere #male yandere #yandere boy #yandere blog #yandere male #Chill pill's yandere haven #yandere genshin x reader #yandere genshin impact #yandere kazuha #yandere aether #yandere venti #yandere xiao #genshin au

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kaialone · 3 years ago

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Kirby Planet Robobot Translation Comparison: Meta Knightmare Returns

This will be a comparison of the original Japanese version and the US English localized version.

Specifically, this will cover all the cutscenes that appear in the Meta Knightmare Returns mode.

You can also watch these cutscenes for yourself in English (1, 2, 3) and Japanese (1, 2, 3).

For the comparison, the usual points apply:

Bolded is the original Japanese text, for the reference.

Bolded and italicized is my translation.

Italicized is the official NOA translation.

A (number) indicates that I have a specific comment to make on that part in the translation notes.

As you read this, please keep in mind that with translations like these, it’s important not to focus on the exact literal wordings, since there is no single “correct answer” when it comes to translations.

Rather than that, consider the actual information that is being conveyed, in which way, and why.

Encountering Star Dream:

Star Dream:

……R…E…A…… ……D…Y……………・＞

...R...E...A... ...D...Y... ->

L...O...A...D...I...N...G...

Star Dream:

……………………。

...

.........

Star Dream:

アナタが…新しい… ゴシュジン様…デスネ。

YOU must BE... the new... MASter.

You must be... the new admin.

Star Dream:

……ナルホド、とてもツヨイパワーをお持ちのヨウデ…。

...UNDERSTOOD, it APPEARS that you possess quite TREMENDOUS POWER...

Yes. You possess incredible power...

Star Dream:

……………… OK＞

...OK >

...OK.

Star Dream:

…デハ、ソンナゴシュジン様ガノゾム…

...THEN, AS SUCH A MASter WOULD DESIRE...

As a new admin, you must supply your credentials...

Star Dream:

コノ星でも… カナリの強サを持つ…

YOU SHALL be given... THE OPPORTUNITY TO CLASH with a "sword USER"...

to the strongest warriors of this planet.

Star Dream:

「剣のツカイテ」と、タタカワセテ…さしあげマショウ。

WHO possesses CONSIDERABLE strenGTH... even for THIS planet.

Executing Sword_Master.EXE.

Before Battling Sectonia Clone:

Star Dream:

……おみごとデ、ゴザイマス。

...MasterFULLY DONE.

...Impressive.

Star Dream:

ゴシュジン様にはショウショウモノたりナカッタかもしれマセンネ。

Perhaps THIS was A LITTLE UNsatisfactory for you, MASter.

That may have been a bit too easy for the admin...

Star Dream:

ソレでは次に、美シクまうようニ剣をアヤツる…

SO then, for THE next one, the most powerful queen...

Next up is one whose swordplay resembles a beautiful dance...

Star Dream:

最強の女王を、ヨミガエらせマショウ。

WHO HANDles her blades liKE A beautiFUL dance, shall BE RESURRECTED.

Let us bring back the most powerful queen from the void.

Star Dream:

ソノたぐいまれな戦いのセンスと王たるオーラ…

HER exceptional APTITUDE for battle, and her majestic AURA...

Experience her royal presence and unparalleled fighting skills.

Star Dream:

ドウゾゴたんのうクダサイませ。

PLEASE, ENjoy them thoroUGHLY.

She will be a fitting test for you.

Before Battling Galacta Knight:

Star Dream:

サスガ、ゴシュジン様デス。ではサイゴに…

WELL DONE AS ALWAYS, MASter. Now, FOR THE LAST one...

You are mighty indeed. Now for the final test...

Star Dream:

かつてのゴシュジン様にハキンジられてイタ…

THE "Spacetime Transfer Programm", WHICH the previous MASter had FORBIDDEN...

This was prohibited by the previous admin...

Star Dream:

「時空テンイプログラム」をアンロックシ、

SHALL BE UNLOCKED,

Preparing to boot the Space-Time Transport program...

Star Dream:

イニシエの時代ノ剣士ヲ、ヨビダシマショウ。

TO CALL FORTH A swordfighter from ANCIENT TIMES.

Let us bring back a legendary swordsman from a forgotten time.

Star Dream:

…カレにコノあたりノ星ハホロボされてシマウと思イマスガ…

...IT STANDS TO reason that HE is LIKELY TO DESTroy the SURrounding planets, BUT...

He may end up destroying a nearby planet or two, but such is life.

Star Dream:

キット、サイゴノタタカイを楽シンデイタダケルことデショウ。

You will MOST CERTAINLY find THIS LAST BATTLE to be enjoyABLE.

The benefits of this final battle outweigh the collateral damage.

Star Dream:

ソレでは………！

NOW then...!

Prepare yourself...

Star Dream:

時空テンイプログラム… アンロック… 異空間ロード… リブート…

UNLOCKING... Space Time Transfer Program... REBOOTING... Another Dimension Road... (1)

Executing Space-Time Transport... Extra-dimensional road... Booting...

Star Dream:

…………３

3...

Star Dream:

…………２

2...

Star Dream:

…………１

1...

Star Dream:

…………………GO!!

...GO!!

...BEGIN!

Translation Note:

I’ll go over it in more detail in the section below, but the term I translated as “Another Dimension Road” is called 異空間ロード/Ikūkan Rōdo in Japanese. This term previously appeared in the Japanese version of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land.

Comparisons & Thoughts:

Since the cutscenes of Meta Knightmare Returns all occur towards the end and are pretty short, I decided to cover all of them in one post like this.

Still, just because they’re short doesn’t mean there is nothing to talk about.

It’s only mentioned briefly in these cutscenes, but I want to go over the term I adapted as “Another Dimension Road” in slightly more detail.

In the original Japanese version, the term is 異空間ロード/Ikūkan Rōdo, which first appeared in the Japanese version of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land.

To start off, 異空間/Ikūkan by itself could be translated as something like “different dimension", “different space”, “different realm”, or anything along those lines, 異/i meaning “different”, and 空間/kūkan meaning “space” or “dimension”, and the like.

This term has come up a few times in the Kirby series since Return to Dream Land, and the Japanese version of Star Allies actually gives it the English reading “Another Dimension”, which is why I also like to adapt it as that.

The term 異空間ロード/Ikūkan Rōdo, adding the English word “road” to it, also comes up a few times in Return to Dream Land.

Given what I explained above, I like to adapt it as “Another Dimension Road”.

Magolor mentions this term when he talks about his home, saying that it’s far away, but that it’s connected to Pop Star via 異空間ロード/Ikūkan Rōdo.

The English localization of the game adapted this as “interdimensional tunnel” in this instance.

Also, the cutscene that is called “Final Battle” in the English version is simply called 異空間ロード/Ikūkan Rōdo in Japanese.

Going by that, it seems safe to assume that this term can refer to the “road(s)” that connects different dimensions, realms, or the like.

Now, there is a lot more I could potentially talk about with these two terms and how they come up in the Kirby series, but it would be too long for this section here.

I might make a dedicated post just for that at some point, if that would interest people.

So, most relevant to Planet Robobot, is the fact that “Another Dimension Road” is a term we had seen before in Return to Dream Land.

The English version might be trying to keep the connection to Return to Dream Land by adapting the term as “Extra-dimensional road“ here, possibly referring to the Extra Mode of that game.

Back to Planet Robobot, here’s something potentially interesting about Star Dream in these cutscenes.

You’ll find that in both Japanese and English it uses about the same speaking style as it did during its appearance in the main story.

And the English version actually adapts it in the same way as it did back then, so I appreciate the consistency there.

Like before, the English version has it use some more computer-like sounding phrases here, like saying “admin” instead of “master”.

Most notable as a change is probably the phrase “Sword_Master.EXE”, which would imply that Star Dream might have a dedicated program just for either cloning Dark Matter Blade, or sword users in general.

But what’s really interesting to me is something else.

Now, I don’t know if this is just a coincidence, but Star Dream does not refer to itself in first person at any point in these cutscenes

With the way the Japanese language works, this isn’t all too uncommon, but it still stands out a bit, because Star Dream referring to itself in first person during the main story was a notable trait it had.

A machine wouldn’t normally refer to itself like that, so Star Dream doing that seemed like a result of it gaining a sense of self during those events.

And keep in mind that those events, namely Star Dream fusing with Hatlmann’s spirit, don’t actually occur during the story of Meta Knightmare, meaning Star Dream actually should not have a sense of self in this scenario.

So, Star Dream not referring to itself in first person during these cutscenes could be meant to reflect that? But that’s just my guess.

In any case, because of the above, I decided to adapt its dialogue in these cutscenes without using any first person either.

And from what I can tell, it looks like the English localization may have thought the same thing, since they also don’t use any (singular) first person for Star Dream here.

I realize this means there isn’t any difference between versions when it comes to this aspect, but I still wanted to mention it, because it’s easy to miss.

In the Japanese version, Star Dream’s dialogue here contains more direct references to Milky Way Wishes, with it using several of the same phrases that Galactic Nova used.

Most notably, this includes it counting down from 3 and finishing the counter with the words “Go!!”, which is also referenced during its boss battles.

In the English version, these phrases are slightly rewritten and don’t match Galactic Nova’s dialogue from either English version of Milky Way Wishes, with the countdown in particular ending with “Begin!” instead.

As a result, that final line also no longer matches the visuals of Star Dream’s final boss battle.

If you only look at the text in this game right here, it does make sense to rewrite these phrases slightly, “Begin!” certainly sounds more appropriate than “Go!!” out of context.

But this, combined with the fact that any other subtle reference to Milky Way Wishes in the text so far has been glossed over in English makes me think that the English localizers either didn’t realize that these were references, or ended up ignoring them for some reason.

Whatever said reason may be, I still think it’s a shame, because when you add all of them up, there is a great deal of connections to Milky Way Wishes in this game’s text that are lost in the English version, leaving it only with the visual and musical references.

And those are still nice, don’t get me wrong, but it still feels like you’re missing out just a little.

Somewhat related to the above, Star Dream’s reasoning for its actions in these cutscenes is quite different between versions, changing a lot about the context of what is happening.

In the Japanese version, Star Dream seemingly comes to the conclusion that Meta Knight wishes to fight strong opponents. So, the reason why it proceeds to summon several powerful warriors is specifically because it is attempting to comply with that desire.

And that really seems to be all there is to it in the Japanese version, no apparent additional motivation other than to satisfy its new master Meta Knight.

At most you can speculate whether or not Meta Knight really was actively wishing for this to happen, or if Star Dream was misinterpreting him, but...

Considering this is a direct parallel to Meta Knightmare Ultra, and Meta Knight did wish for something exactly like that over there, I’d wager it’s safe to bet Star Dream’s assessment of him was at least partially accurate.

And of course, this also gives Star Dream another direct parallel to Galactic Nova.

In the English version, Star Dream instead states that Meta Knight has to supply his credentials, and thus all the battles that follow are portrayed as “tests” for Meta Knight.

This also implies that Star Dream would probably test any potential new admin in such a manner, in contrast to the Japanese version, where Star Dream seems to accept Meta Knight right away without question.

I know that this particular change has caused English-speaking fans to speculate what sort of test Haltmann may have had to pass, which can be interesting of course.

But for the reference, no such tests seem to exist in the Japanese version.

And still related to the above, in the English version, Star Dream states that Meta Knight must supply his credentials “to the strongest warriors of this planet”, which might even be a small translation error?

Because in the Japanese version, Star Dream only states that Meta Knight will have the opportunity to “CLASH with a sword USER… WHO possesses CONSIDERABLE strenGTH… even for THIS planet”, so that latter part is only referring to the clone of Dark Matter Blade.

There is no clear plural in Japanese, so one could interpret the Japanese line as referring to all three warriors that Star Dream ends up summoning, but since it gives a little introduction for Sectonia Clone and Galacta Knight, I think it’s more likely this line right here was just its introduction for Dark Matter Clone.

The English phrasing also makes you wonder why Star Dream would even summon Galacta Knight, who’s not taken from this planet, or even this era for that matter.

It just kinda doesn’t add up when you think about it more.

And that’s about it for these cutscenes.

The most notable change is the completely different reasoning behind Star Dream’s action here.

I personally feel it gives this entire ending scenario a different vibe, and potentially the implication of what Meta Knight’s role in it is, considering the parallels to Meta Knightmare Ultra.

With that, we have covered all of the cutscenes of Kirby: Planet Robobot, but we are not done quite yet.

There is still more story to this game, so for the next part, we will start tackling the pause screen descriptions of the boss fights!

Feel free to check it out!

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sheabuttahwrites · 4 years ago

Text

[I Know]

. three : talkative

two

I had been blessed with a very rare situation. Cam hadn’t left for work, yet I was home alone. He always requested that I cook the day before his flight, but, today, we didn't have all of the necessary ingredients for whatever he was asking for. I didn't care enough to remember what he wanted and, since my jaw was still a little puffy and a few marks remained around my neck, he was also forced to make the grocery store run on his own. After he had been gone for a solid ten minutes, I saw my opportunity. I hadn't actually spoken to O in ages, so I decided to call him up while I had the chance.

“Awww, man,” he answered, in a groggy tone. The deep, sexy ‘morning’ voice was in full effect. “Look at the Lord working on this fine Sunday--what time is it?--afternoon.”

“You know what?”

The comforting melody of his laughter fell into my ear. I had been craving it for the longest. “What’s up, pooh?”

“Hey, my boo boo boo boo bear,” I half mumbled, employing a voice usually reserved only for babies. He laughed again, this time I joined him.

“Yo, I miss you.”

“I’m saying. I wanted to hear your voice.”

“Yeah, I almost forgot what you sound like.”

“Anyway,” I giggled. “You actually sound like you were sleeping. Did I wake you?”

“You most definitely did.”

“I'm sorry.”

“It’s all good, I ain't trippin’. What you up to?”

“You sure? ‘Cause I can let you go back to sleep and just talk to you later.”

“You about to hang up on me or something?”

“No, I'm not hanging up on you,” I barely replied, laughing way too hard. It even hurt my jaw a little. “I'm just trying to make sure you good.”

“Why wouldn't I be good?”

The silliest smile found its way onto my face. I was so glad he couldn't see me. “Ok, I’m done.”

When I saw her name pop up on my screen, I knew she was alone. This would’ve been a text conversation for sure. The only time we really got to talk was when she was here. Which was spaced out, but still pretty often. Her first visit was my suggestion. She sounded like she needed to get away, so I offered up my place. Understandably, she was reluctant, but decided to come a week or so after the initial invitation. We had been knowing each other for about six months then, and I felt cool enough to share my space with her. When she got here, all she wanted to do was stay inside. I didn't press her, because I was sure there was some fear involved, but I did eventually convince her to hit the streets with me. Ever since, her getaways became customary. She would hit me the day before her dude was leaving, and I’d plan to pick her up as soon as I could. She’d stay with me for two weeks, then she’d go back home for a week before she returned. She said it was because she didn't want to wear out her welcome. I told her that wasn't even possible, but I let her do it however she felt most comfortable. Either way, I enjoyed her company. The arrangement wasn't the most ideal of situations, but I just couldn't shake the fact that shit was just better when she was around.

“Um hmm. You by yourself?”

“Yeah. He just went to the store.”

“Ok. So, what you up to?” I asked, referencing my earlier question.

“Sitting in this house looking ugly,” she said, giggling at her own lie. “I been missin’ you, too.”

“When I’ma see you then?”

“He leaves in the morning.”

I can't lie, I always looked forward to this news. My grin was so wide I wouldn't be surprised if shorty could hear it through the phone. “Yeah? Well, I can come through tomorrow. Or you wanna wait a little bit?”

“Wait for what?”

“I mean, I was just checking. It's whatever you wanna do.”

After a slight pause, she smacked her lips and laughed, catching that this was just my way of getting her back for trying to hang up on me a second ago. “You are not funny.”

“So, you want me to come tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow, O. Definitely tomorrow.”

I chuckled, hearing her try to speak through her giggles. “I'm messing with you. You know I'ma be there.”

“Um hmm. What time?”

“What time you gon' be ready?”

“Around eight-thirty or nine.”

“I’ll come at nine.”

“Yeah, that’ll be perfect. I can't wait to see you.”

“Me either. It's been a while.”

“It has. I miss your face.”

“Yeah?”

“Um hmm.”

“What you miss about it?”

For some reason, I started to blush instantly. I sat back, twirling a piece of my hair, snickering into the phone. “Anyway.”

I heard him laugh a little. “You are a trip. It’s good to hear your voice, though.”

“Yeah.” I just wished that he and Cam were more alike. Or that they could switch places, or something. O was just everything, the same way I knew that Cameron could be. But, somewhere along the way, I guess he had forgotten how to show it. “…Oh, yeah, I dreamed about you last night. We were dead ass flying.”

“What was this one about?”

I almost always shared my dreams of him with him. Only because they had all been mostly innocent. Up until last night. If I would've been thinking, I wouldn't have even mentioned it. Now I had to tell him. But no way was I about to tell him everything. “You came here, left with me, and we didn't come back,” I half lied.

“Hmmm.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you know what I told you.”

“Yes,” I smiled. “I know.”

“Um hmm. Ain’t nothing changed. Whenever you’re ready.”

I bit my bottom lip, so taken by his words that I couldn't even say anything. Omari had always been honest with me. From the beginning I knew that our friendship was important to him, but I also knew that his interest in me went much deeper. I really didn't know what to do with that.

“So, what we doing tomorrow?” He continued.

“I'm just happy to be getting away for a while.”

“You say that every time I ask you what you wanna do.”

I smacked my lips at him. He was already fully aware that I was the most indecisive person on the planet. “But it's the truth. I would come over there right now if I could,” I confessed.

“I can be there in like twenty minutes.”

“Omari, no,” I laughed. He was a mess and then some. Knowing he lived more than twenty minutes away.

“You always giggling. Goofy self.”

We talked for about forty-five more minutes until Cam got back home. I was already downstairs in the kitchen, so I could easily hear when he pulled into the garage. Though I was nowhere near ready, I told Omari I had to go and hurried to erase all evidence of our interaction. First his number from my phone, then the smile from my face. Right before Cam walked in with takeout from King Spring, my favorite Chinese spot.

“I got Chinese. I thought maybe you would like that better than cooking.”

Barely even looking his way, I responded with a weak grin. Only because I really didn't feel like cooking. Especially not for him. “Yeah, thanks,” I mumbled, unimpressed. He sat the bag up on the counter and passed me the carryout box from the top, along with a handful of duck sauce.

“You're welcome.”

We washed our hands and he took a seat beside me up at the island as I began to squeeze packet after packet of duck sauce onto my combination fried rice. I wasn't stuntin' his ass, but I was past ready for the food he was failing to bait me with.

“Um... can we talk?” he had the nerve to ask.

“Cameron, seriously?”

“What?”

“You know what.” I stopped, focused on stirring my rice. “...I really don't have anything to say to you.” I started to eat, quickly forgetting that I had been punched in the jaw just a little over a day and a half ago. “Aaah,” I winced, grabbing my face. For some reason, he reached up and placed his hand to mine.

“I'm sorry.”

I dropped my arm down into my lap, mainly because I wanted him off of me. Why he felt the need to touch me at the moment, I had no idea. “Yeah, I know. You told me,” I replied, wondering if he could sense my mild sarcasm. I replaced the food that had fallen from my fork, this time being a lot more careful not to aggravate my injury as I ate.

“You still mad at me?”

Once again, my attempt to satisfy my hunger was cut short. I slowly turned to look at him and slumped my head in disbelief. He couldn't be serious. “Look at me, Cameron. Look at me. Do you see this?” I asked, holding my hair back to make sure he could get a clear view of my face and neck. “This is you. I didn't do this.”

“But, baby, I apologized for that. I'm sorry.”

He was serious indeed. So much so that I lost my damn appetite. I turned away with a frustrated sigh, allowing my fork to fall from my hand. “Cam... can we please just let it go?”

I did not have the energy for this shit. No matter how hard I tried, I could never make him understand that his ‘sorrys’ didn't reverse my pain. They didn't take away my scars. They didn't erase all of the bad memories or make me feel more comfortable in my own home. But, still, they were all I ever got from him. And, quite honestly, I was sick of being lied to. Because, if he were ever really sorry, he wouldn't have to repeat it over and over. Because he wouldn't keep doing this shit to me.

“So, that's it? You don't wanna talk to me?”

“I don't. I don't wanna talk to you about anything right now.”

“...Aight ...ok.” I decided to just leave her alone and let her eat. I went back to my plate as well, but then I realized she wasn't eating with me. “You don't want the food either?”

“I'm not hungry.”

I sighed and looked away for a second, more upset with myself than anything. I had overreacted. She said she didn't call me someone else's name, maybe she didn't. I don't know. It’s like, when it came to her, I could turn into something so ruthless. I just loved her so much. And I’d never had to doubt her love for me. After twenty-seven years of life, I hadn't come across anyone like her. She had stuck with me through everything, given me her love, sacrificed herself and her own happiness for me. Somebody who didn't even deserve it. But I could sense her starting to get tired early on. That's when I knew I had to make moves. We needed to get far away from Atlanta. I had to become all she had. It was the only way she would stay. And God knows I didn't wanna lose her. But I wasn't treating her the way a man should. At some point, she had become like a possession to me. Maybe it was because she was untouched before me, but I just felt like she was mine. And the thought alone of another taking my place was enough to push me over the edge. I had no idea what I would, or wouldn't, do if the shit actually happened and that scared me. I don't even know if it was in me to restrain myself anymore.

One thing I knew for sure, I was a different guy when we first started. It was never my plan to turn into this horrible person. In fact, my goal was the opposite. I wanted to be good to her; the way she was to me. I didn't want to use my hands to cause her body harm. It wasn't my intent to employ my voice in a way that would make her feel unsafe or less than the amazing woman she was. But the ability to control those impulses was something I had long lost. All the shit she was working with could drive the soundest mind mad. She was damn near perfect. Which was why I didn't understand myself in the least. Most people would kill for what I had, and I couldn't even handle it.

“Baby, I can't leave here tomorrow with us like this.” She looked over at me, her face void of any expression. “What I gotta do?”

Not a single solution came to mind and I had grown tired of him trying to force me to talk to him, so I got up and put my food into the microwave. I quietly left the kitchen and made my way upstairs to lie down in the bed I had been banished from and then reinvited to on many occasions. I fought so hard not to cry, but I did not win. Tears ran from my eyes like faucets as I hugged my pillow, wondering if he knew the depth of the pain he was causing me; if he even cared.

After a few short minutes, I felt his side of the bed sink behind me. I knew he would end up there. He always followed me around like a puppy when he'd done wrong. Which was the opposite of what I wanted him to do. But it always got him the result I guess he was looking for...

Once he was done fucking my brains out, I had to coax myself into not throwing up. I felt disgusting. Still, I had to make it seem as if everything was ok. Because, to him, it was.

There were many things that had changed about Cam over the years, but one that had remained the same was his ability to appease me sexually. I didn't like to admit it, but the way he used his body made me absolutely stupid. And, in knowing this, he often took advantage.

“I love you. So much,” he claimed, out of breath.

I smiled up at him, playing along with this sick game. “I love you.”

Hours Later

We were still laid up; facing one another, legs tangled, and wrapped in each other's arms. His eyes hadn't left me once, and neither had his hand left my face. His caresses were endless and so were his kisses. When his lips weren't pressed against me, they were in my ear reciting countless I love you's. The guilt had him laying it on extra thick.

This was usually the time where I'd begin to exact my sort of revenge. For about the next week or so, I could get anything I wanted out of him. I had attained my phone, laptop, and use of one of the cars from time to time this very way. But, with this particular instance, I wasn't even interested in gaining anything. His leaving was enough for me.

“I don't wanna let you go,” he whispered, before kissing my lips for about the hundredth time.

“You better go pack.”

“Shit, I don't even have to leave tomorrow.”

I almost frowned, but, luckily, I caught myself. He did not need to start with that shit. No way was I about to agree with him. “...I think you should,” I somehow mustered up the courage to say. He didn't reply, but the slight confusion all over his expression was enough. “Baby, it's your job. You need to go.”

“I wasn't serious. I just wish I didn't have to leave right now, you know?”

“Yeah.” I reached and put my arm up around his neck, giving him yet another kiss. A grin spread across my face after, but he didn't seem so thrilled anymore. “It’s gonna be ok, baby. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

About another hour later, he finally left the bed and started to get his things ready. Needless to say, I was elated and it definitely showed. I didn't even bother trying to hide it. I was nothing but smiles and giggles, and this nigga had the nerve to believe it was because of him. Seriously? How could he possibly think that he had anything to do with my newfound joy? Anything!

“It's good to see you smile again,” he told me, smiling himself. I didn't say a word. I just smiled wider, and way goofier, which only made us both laugh. “Silly girl.”

It was almost funny how clueless he was. He would probably lose whatever morals, religion, and sanity he had left if he knew I had found so much comfort in another man. Especially one who was without a doubt more attractive than him. But that was a risk I was willing to take. O was worth it.

“You not gon' help me, though?” he asked, fake pouting, trying to persuade me. I usually did help, but tonight I was exhausted. Plus, I didn't wanna help.

“I'm tired, boo.” Just as I finished speaking, a perfectly timed yawn followed. “See?”

“Damn. I probably should've done this before, huh?”

“Maybe,” I giggled, “but it's too late now.”

He laughed to himself and continued to fill his luggage as I rolled over, not worried about him or his clothes. Only one person was on my mind, and my longing would be cured in just a few hours.

#original fiction #original characters #black characters #black fiction #black fic #drama #romance #love story #i know #SheaButtahWrites

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iknowff · 4 years ago

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. three : talkative

“Awww, man,” he answered, in a groggy tone. The deep, sexy ‘morning’ voice was in full effect. “Look at the Lord working on this fine Sunday--what time is it?--afternoon.”

“You know what?”

The comforting melody of his laughter fell into my ear. I had been craving it for the longest. “What’s up, pooh?”

“Hey, my boo boo boo boo bear,” I half mumbled, employing a voice usually reserved only for babies. He laughed again, this time I joined him.

“Yo, I miss you.”

“I’m saying. I wanted to hear your voice.”

“Yeah, I almost forgot what you sound like.”

“Anyway,” I giggled. “You actually sound like you were sleeping. Did I wake you?”

“You most definitely did.”

“I'm sorry.”

“It’s all good, I ain't trippin’. What you up to?”

“You sure? ‘Cause I can let you go back to sleep and just talk to you later.”

“You about to hang up on me or something?”

“No, I'm not hanging up on you,” I barely replied, laughing way too hard. It even hurt my jaw a little. “I'm just trying to make sure you good.”

“Why wouldn't I be good?”

The silliest smile found its way onto my face. I was so glad he couldn't see me. “Ok, I’m done.”

“Um hmm. You by yourself?”

“Yeah. He just went to the store.”

“Ok. So, what you up to?” I asked, referencing my earlier question.

“Sitting in this house looking ugly,” she said, giggling at her own lie. “I been missin’ you, too.”

“When I’ma see you then?”

“He leaves in the morning.”

“Wait for what?”

“I mean, I was just checking. It's whatever you wanna do.”

After a slight pause, she smacked her lips and laughed, catching that this was just my way of getting her back for trying to hang up on me a second ago. “You are not funny.”

“So, you want me to come tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow, O. Definitely tomorrow.”

I chuckled, hearing her try to speak through her giggles. “I'm messing with you. You know I'ma be there.”

“Um hmm. What time?”

“What time you gon' be ready?”

“Around eight-thirty or nine.”

“I’ll come at nine.”

“Yeah, that’ll be perfect. I can't wait to see you.”

“Me either. It's been a while.”

“It has. I miss your face.”

“Yeah?”

“Um hmm.”

“What you miss about it?”

For some reason, I started to blush instantly. I sat back, twirling a piece of my hair, snickering into the phone. “Anyway.”

I heard him laugh a little. “You are a trip. It’s good to hear your voice, though.”

“What was this one about?”

“Hmmm.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you know what I told you.”

“Yes,” I smiled. “I know.”

“Um hmm. Ain’t nothing changed. Whenever you’re ready.”

“So, what we doing tomorrow?” He continued.

“I'm just happy to be getting away for a while.”

“You say that every time I ask you what you wanna do.”

I smacked my lips at him. He was already fully aware that I was the most indecisive person on the planet. “But it's the truth. I would come over there right now if I could,” I confessed.

“I can be there in like twenty minutes.”

“Omari, no,” I laughed. He was a mess and then some. Knowing he lived more than twenty minutes away.

“You always giggling. Goofy self.”

“I got Chinese. I thought maybe you would like that better than cooking.”

“You're welcome.”

“Um... can we talk?” he had the nerve to ask.

“Cameron, seriously?”

“What?”

“I'm sorry.”

“You still mad at me?”

“But, baby, I apologized for that. I'm sorry.”

He was serious indeed. So much so that I lost my damn appetite. I turned away with a frustrated sigh, allowing my fork to fall from my hand. “Cam... can we please just let it go?”

“So, that's it? You don't wanna talk to me?”

“I don't. I don't wanna talk to you about anything right now.”

“...Aight ...ok.” I decided to just leave her alone and let her eat. I went back to my plate as well, but then I realized she wasn't eating with me. “You don't want the food either?”

“I'm not hungry.”

“Baby, I can't leave here tomorrow with us like this.” She looked over at me, her face void of any expression. “What I gotta do?”

Once he was done fucking my brains out, I had to coax myself into not throwing up. I felt disgusting. Still, I had to make it seem as if everything was ok. Because, to him, it was.

“I love you. So much,” he claimed, out of breath.

I smiled up at him, playing along with this sick game. “I love you.”

Hours Later

“I don't wanna let you go,” he whispered, before kissing my lips for about the hundredth time.

“You better go pack.”

“Shit, I don't even have to leave tomorrow.”

“I wasn't serious. I just wish I didn't have to leave right now, you know?”

“I love you, too.”

“It's good to see you smile again,” he told me, smiling himself. I didn't say a word. I just smiled wider, and way goofier, which only made us both laugh. “Silly girl.”

“You not gon' help me, though?” he asked, fake pouting, trying to persuade me. I usually did help, but tonight I was exhausted. Plus, I didn't wanna help.

“I'm tired, boo.” Just as I finished speaking, a perfectly timed yawn followed. “See?”

“Damn. I probably should've done this before, huh?”

“Maybe,” I giggled, “but it's too late now.”

He laughed to himself and continued to fill his luggage as I rolled over, not worried about him or his clothes. Only one person was on my mind, and my longing would be cured in just a few hours

#original fiction #original characters #black characters

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weheart-dianelockhart · 5 years ago

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The Good Fight Reaction: 4x01

My incomplete (and slightly emotional) thoughts are under the cut. Whew. What an episode. All screenshots are mine. Happy reading.

First of all, what the hell did I just witness? And is it weird that I liked TGF’s version of The Wizard of Oz better than the original? (Not really, I love Wizard of Oz, but you get my drift)

Can I just start out by saying how proud of Diane I am? Talk about character development, and I’ll get into this as we go along, but she has come so far.

The episode overall was just thrilling. I LOVED that Diane remembered everything from Trump’s presidency. I was wondering what headspace they were going to put her in and this was perfect. She could recall certain events and important social and political issues, but she couldn’t seem to put them in order. And for the majority of the episode, I don’t think this bothered her. She was just overjoyed at the thought of Hillary being president. She was feeling her way through this dream as if she were walking through a house of mirrors. Never knowing what was coming next. I laughed out loud so many times and found myself cheering her on as if I were wondering around this new reality with Diane. Marissa accepting her craziness was also a pleasant surprise. She knew something was up with Diane but helped her out and fed her information, nonetheless. The comradery between those two was so refreshing, especially when everyone else seemed to be against Diane. The hilarity of this episode came not only from the absurdity of the circumstances but CB’s insane acting chops. This woman can play anything.

As the episode continued, Diane’s frustration with her situation was building. She’d attempted to implement her knowledge of social and political events into this new reality when she can’t even vouch for how or why she knows all this information. I just wanted to hug her and say “That’s not how this works!” The final straw seemed to come once Zoe began to reprimand her for starting a movement that would supposedly hurt Hillary’s chances for re-election. I almost wish that Lucca had said something about her experience with Weinstein during this part, but I suppose her keeping silent added to the drama.

It took me a while to pinpoint what made Diane suddenly realize she had yet to speak to Kurt since she’d “woken up.” (Thoughts on this??). My creativity has settled on the way Zoe was addressing the MeToo situation. Bare with me, this might be a stretch.

This scene felt extremely reminiscent of the Assholes to Avoid episode in season two where Diane explains “Women aren’t just one thing and you don’t get to determine what we are.” In that reality, she was in control and knew what she wanted. While in this dream, she was not giving the lecture, but was on the receiving end. Her glancing to see what Liz and Adrian were dealing with lined up with the look to the side to see what the two financial advisors were up to in season two. Although, this time, Diane felt powerless and confused, not confident and sure of herself. I adored watching her start to question how all of this got out of hand and trying to piece everything together. Running through her memories and possibly thinking about how everything was different in her dream, she remembered the most crucial part of all of it. Kurt. When the MeToo movement was in question during that episode in season two, he was about to tell her that he wanted them to always be together. He brought clarity back into her life after she had been emotionally drifting for so long. And in this first episode, she is in desperate need of clarity. (Please remember all of this is total speculation and just a little thought I had after watching these scenes for the hundredth time). Here are the scenes for reference.

As her dream begins to unravel, it dawns in her that she doesn’t have that clear perspective. Hence her wondering what happened to Kurt. Little by little, things start adding up in her head (i.e. how did she change clothes, why had she spent the last three days at work, where the heck was Kurt). Everything else that was important 30 seconds ago dissolved into her confusion for why she hasn’t spoken to her husband.

Now this is what really got me. LOOK AT THOSE EYES.

Up until that moment, she was just kind of going along with all the quirkinesses of the new reality, but this is the first time she starts to feel that something isn’t right.

Enter: The Wizard of Oz. Referencing “home” seemed like she was talking about more of a sensation than an actual place. Diane needs to feel understood and safe again, qualities that Kurt provided, but she had yet to feel that durning this dream. I definitely think anxious and confused Diane is my favorite because we are so used to seeing her as the rational one. Also, her anxiety only ever surfaces when she is concerned about someone she loves.

After arguing for a while, it’s sort of heartbreaking to see Diane just give in and say she’ll do whatever Zoe wants. But at the same time, it made me tear up because she was so flustered at the thought of not knowing where Kurt was. She barely even cared about losing her spot at the firm. Even though she couldn’t (or didn’t seem to, at least) remember what happened right before the inauguration, she knew that they had reconciled and that she should have heard from him. Don’t get me wrong, I adored the final McHart scenes, but this is what made me cry. The fact that NOTHING else mattered more to her at that moment than finding Kurt.

Now that is character development. She has chosen work so many times over him and this is the complete opposite of what she would’ve done just a couple seasons ago. She’s all grown up!!!!

Onto the scene in the woods. I could talk about the parallels from the argument scene for DAYS, but I’ll spare you all for now.

I just need a second to dwell on the fact that this is such a beautiful shot...Ok, moving on. A while back I shared my feelings about Chaos in season one and I said how Diane had never looked so frightened than the moment she found Kurt in the hospital. Well, now we have this scene.

To continue with the theme of character development, I nearly screamed when she said that nothing else mattered but the two of them. The fact that she was willing to do whatever it took to keep them together was literally the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.

Sidenote: her voice crack when she called to him in the forest and said she needed his help was pure gold. She had no doubt that he would be able to help her make sense of all of this. She had to get home and he was just the person to help.

I really liked how this whole scene you couldn’t really tell if she knew this was a dream or if she still thought it was reality. But honestly, I don’t think she cared anymore. (Here come the waterworks). I think the most touching part of this whole situation was that she could only remember what happened immediately before Hillary‘s inauguration when she held his hand.

Another side note: her nails aren’t painted!! I just loved this shot of their hands. She has no jewelry on, her nails are bare, and she finally gets to hold his hand. All her armor has been left behind and she is so vulnerable.

The rest of the scene is so beautiful. She doesn’t even question it when he tells her to come back. She’s known that this reality is not where she needs or wants to be and she just wants to go home, where everything made sense even if it wasn’t perfect.

The fact that Kurt is the one that helps her recall what happened before the dream makes her fear of losing him that much more powerful. Yep, this is by far the most terrified we’ve seen Diane. As the memory comes back piece by piece, she tries to pull away from him because she knows where it ends: with him lying on the floor next to her, presumably dead. He wants her back so terribly that he won’t let her go, but she can’t fathom living in a world where he isn’t alive. Everything hits her all at once. The fear, the grief, the regret, and the remorse for putting him in danger in the first place.

You bet I was crying right along with her. And her little “oh my God” broke my heart in half. She knew what was coming next. I mean, what else would you expect to happen if you pulled a gun on a swat team.

And then he is the one that lets go. While she thinks he’s dead, I think it is symbolic of him letting her drift back into reality. He has to release her from this dream and she has to release herself, as well. I know that there are not often clear morals in the episodes because the morals are always in question, but this idea of needing to be home is a continuation from the last episode in season three were Diane tells Adrian that love is the only thing they can hold onto. It will always be there, like it or not, ready to help in anyway it can. Even when times are rough, Diane can always look to her husband for grounding. She can always go home.

Well, for those of you still reading, that was a lot longer than I intended it to be. Let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas on any of this. And I can’t be the only one that thinks Kurt was holding her hand in the final shot...

#McHart #diane lockhart #the good fight #musings #im still crying

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lil-area-sfw · 7 years ago

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Well, that certainly was ah, uh... one of these things? Right, a finale. Yeah, that was that thing. Wah.

Yes, the finale… And I have so much to say that I think if I put everything I have in my head it will end being a looong post… Eh, I will be doing a long post anyway, just shorter than the original long post I have in mind… You get that, right? ^ ^’

I think it’s been a while for people not being spoiled so, no spoiler tags and here I go.

I didn’t know they will air both episodes Divide and Conquer at the same time. I’m one of those people who prefers to have their weekly things, because I know that if we get all at once, the material will end and I’m almost sure the hiatuses become longer. I dunno why the decision if each episode lasted 22 mins. Well, it wasn’t a bomb so it’s better :3

Now for the first episode, Divide.

We start the episode with a missing Queen Moon and we can see Star should take her obligations right away. I never thought we will see this situation in show. I liked that. We could see how Star takes it and how she experiences by herself the level of her mother’s work.

Marco really takes his *squire job seriously*. I don’t know why but, in this moment, I could feel that reason more like an excuse than ever. Here he felt like he uses that to be with her… more than in other occasions for some reason.

I was wondering where River was. Then he was there. Offering emotional support ^ ^I really wonder why in situations of missing queens the king can’t take some responsibility. Politics sucks sometimes ^ ^’. All the weight goes over an inexperienced teenager… just like when Moon’s mother died.

Yes, the part when Star was overwhelmed with responsibility was something. I specially liked when she went to Glossaryck for counseling like old times but he only gaves her a helpless look. Ouch.

And well, there was a meeting to talk about the situation. They let us know that Mina already fought with Meteora and lost… Why they skip those epic moments…? >.

Also, we can see that Star sure is mad with the council members now. Too bad for Dad Rhombulus…

Then after all this and Star almost making a hasty decision, we have this… Dude!

Marco offered himself to handle the situation. He sure rocked there. Looked so cool.

Yes, despite me having troubles with all the time skip situation and wondering why he still has a 15 years old mind, it’s really nice that they referenced Marco still has the abilities he learned. It’s WAY better than swapping that under the rug. We never know that before, I suppose he remembered them while traveling with Hekapoo again, closing portals.

But anyway, Marco looks on pair with Star now, he can kick magic and stuff ^ ^

Being honest, I didn’t like at first that he resisted Spider with a top hat but then I saw that those are friggin 16 fighting experience years, 16! And Star is on pair with that :3

I loved the zoom out of the battle. They, face to face panting… taking a breath. Two skilled friends having a wonderful match.

And then Star checking her good friend too… Just checking :3It’s interesting that Marco already knew what she was checking for XD

The episodes had many moments between them both and I specially liked how Star tried to look tough but ended accepting she was scared and wanted some confort. And what’s better than a hug of your best friend whom you have feelings for :). Of course it was easier for Marco to accept he was scared too.

After this we go through spaghetti and they trying to look as two cool best friends in front of other people but failing miserably. Yeah, we love to see those dumb heads in denial. You’re not fooling anyone… stop. Ok don’t stop, it’s funny ^ ^

The following part of the episode is the division of both of them, hence the name of the episode. Marco will try to delay Meteora and Star will search for her mom.

I need to say that I liked the team. It was a bit strange not seeing Rhombulus there tho.

So Hekapoo has a crush on Raventalon… Neat. Less Marco harem’s vibe is fine by me >:) *cough*

And yeah I noticed Tom has an attire that looks like a fire nation one. Nice cameo :PNot much to say here besides the assembly and the beginning of the fight.

We switch to Star into the magic realm. She finally founds Moon following the traces of dark goo she leaves. At first I didn’t notice but then I saw that she was “Washing off” the dark magic corruption in the magic waters. I have to say that Moon looks cuter without all that pompous make up.

You know what? Whatever the case, I felt good for her. Being queen with so many responsibilities and with the task of taking hard decisions since a young age, I can see why she’s so serious and strict. So, it was nice to see her so relaxed and carefree after all that time. I know she enjoyed that despite not remembering her own family. Well, I mean, she spent time playing with her daughter after all :)

Yeah, Star went in with a contingency plan but making it short, it didn’t work. She ended playing carelessly in the dimension while their friends waited for her. Portal shuts down. That would be a nice cliffhanger for next week but oh well, not complaining ^ ^

We have Conquer right away.

We take where we left and then we know the magic realm has some kind of upside down waterfalls that work like portals to other dimensions. I wonder if that would play some important role in upcoming happenings. I think they will.

I mean, what is this? Why are they showing it? Is this Hekapoo dimension or something?

They also got into a barrel that is shut and we never know what’s outside… I mean, it should be something more there, right…?

Here’s something a bit weird. After Star failing miserably with all her attempts to remember and go out with her mom, this dude appears…

And just says that they shouldn’t be there and transports them outside. I wonder what was that… but also, I wonder another thing. Star is transported to her room and appears sleeping, so she thinks it was just a dream until she’s fully awake and then concerns. Yeah concerns about her mom because she’s not there! So, Ok, Moon shouldn’t be there, but where she should be then if not her home? Where is she? It doesn’t look like she ended in her castle. Lets’ hope this leads to an interesting story.

Ok, switch to the battle. And yes, I must say that I loved it. Finally a fight! I really missed that in Battle of Mewni. They skipped the fights and that was a really lame decision. I mean, if Star vs Toffee was something near this, I wouldn’t have any complaining!

That teamwork, I love teamwork! ^ ^With the exception of Ponyhead who got defeated quickly because she couldn’t see with the dam helmet on. You can have anything on your head now and that’s all you do?… Ah, Ponyhead, I don’t dislike you but you’re a difficult character.

Also, as I said the team was really good but if I have to choose the best guy there, that’s Tom ^ ^. For sure! He went overboard with everything. He even looked like the most skilled person there.

Dam, he sent Meteora to the underworld! Sure it didn’t last long but not even a council member of I dunno how many years old, made any move in the dire situation.

Of course, that couldn’t be all. If that were the case it would be interesting but sure unfulfilling.After all that, we see how Meteora defeats each one of them and we are left with just, yes, Tom and Marco. Marco with his experience in the other world and Tom being Tom… Yes, for sure he was something.

So, the moment under the rock when they think everything’s lost. Two things I liked from it: First, Tom not looking so stuck anymore, he was such a nice guy even acknowledging Marco’s his best friend now.Second, Marco already confessed Tom about the kiss after feeling guilty cause all the support Tom gave him. Yes! No secrets and hidden things drama! That thing’s over! Also, maybe that will make people raging about the kiss change their minds a bit. I always say that we should wait for the next episode before going nuts. I want to think this is the case :3

Ok, what was I saying? Oh, yes, did I say Tom was awesome in this episode?

I’ll say that again :)

Dude! Tom was awesome in this episode!

He thought Marco was lying to him to make him leave. Then he discovers he wasn’t lying and he doesn’t lose it, just stays there protecting his best friend. Also that trait of having hundreds of demons inside makes him practically immune to Meteora’s soul sucking. Someone please tell me Tom sucks, I want to laugh XD

Of course, Marco will not stay there waiting for his friend to get soul depleted, so he acts anyway and we end with a soul less Marco.

Tom carries Marco and only Marco to Star. The moments when Star realizes Marco is gone aren’t particularly detailed as shocking but we can see how Star reacts and feels, even more when she decides to go to heal him to the sanctuary. It doesn’t work and yeah, this episode has many endearing moments, so hug for Tom too and we can see how is he trying to fulfill the promise to Marco to keep Star safe. But yeah, Star has gone for a big character growth so she will not run from his problems anymore.

Interesting thing there, is that just as Star didn’t know about Tom’s tail, Tom didn’t know about Star’s butterfly form. Every time we’re shown how not that close they are :/ Tom’s a nice guy, I knew he will going to be the Jackie 2.0 of the relationship. Oh well.

Final scene and we got our DARN FINAL BATTLE. Finally! I’ve always said that the writers learn from mistakes of previous seasons and this is not changing my mind. Tom as the other love interest got plenty screen time and development and the villains weren’t dispatched with an unfulfilling and fast deux ex. I wish they could’ve done this earlier. Look at that scenario and action scenes! X)

Then the moment many of us liked. Before a defeated Star we see how Eclipsa comes in (She was missing before, I must clarify) takes the wand and it goes to its Eclipsa form! That shows that the wand can go to his other forms if the bearer wants. Moon grabbed the wand several times but it stayed in Star’s form, so it was a bit confusing.

Ok, I was saying… That woman is too OP… plz nerf! Maybe it’s because her daughter didn’t counter attack but besides that, Meteora always looked so resistant but she comes in, blasts her a couple of times and then encloses her easily in some sort of bubble. Done.

For sure, this moment was heavy…

It’s not like I cried a bit or anything… *cough*

And yeah, defeating her restored everyone to their true self.

Again, lovely Starco moment when she jumps to catch Marco and only Marco. Then this.This episode is full of them ^ ^

Yeah, it was interrupted by Tom but I didn’t mind at all! It was a cute moment between those three. I wonder what does Tom thinks after all this… He knows about the kiss, he of course knows about the Blood Moon, he witness those moments. I hope they don’t take long for him to say something about that. I mean, how can the writers stretch that in a not annoying way? Can they…?

Well, after looking at a sad Elcipsa that seems to have lost everything, Star gives the wand to her… Some people were shocked by it but I thought she will do that since the trial when she knew she’s not form the royal bloodline.It was whoa. Eclipsa even accepts the wand after discovering that his daughter is alive, just deaged to a baby. Then they left, leaving a confused Star and Marco there. I know I’m not the only one puzzled by the happenings.

Oh, and yes, Glossaryck is fine and was pretending all this time or something. Was he? If so why? What’s with this dude? “I’ve been trying to tell you about Globgor” Yeah but why couldn’t you talk like a normal person before?? -__-

I have to mention the voice actor change here. They even made a pun in show. Well, it doesn’t sound as good to me. What a shame… I hope it grows on me tho. But Adam said that the new opening will grow on me because it was just that we got used to the previous one… and it didn’t. The current one just doesn’t go as well with the music and is not that lively as the previous one. It’s good… but not better. Let’s see if it’s different with Glossy.

Ok, ok, I think this really has been a long post so, I’ll try to not extend myself so much more.

That final scene was something. Eclipsa entering to the place where her husband is and saying “Hello, my love, we’re home…”

What will happen after this? What are they hinting? Eclipsa doesn’t look like a schemer but this gave a vibe of her planning something against all odds.

She doesn’t look like the evil queen people talked about… at all but we ended with her in front of a BIG crystallized monster. Does that mean something? Is he evil? If so, will Eclipsa join him or maybe will she be controlled by his beloved hubby?

I just know a thing: This cliffhanger is like 10 times better than the one in season 2. Well done SVTFOE crew! I will be expecting nice things for the last season (Ah, that sounds a bit sad ^ ^)Now, hiatus, come to me! I don’t fear you!

Hope you didn’t get bored with all my crap and read it til here. See you in another one of these :P

#arearants #SVTFOE #star vs the forces of evil #season finale #Divide #Conquer

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our-smooty · 6 years ago

Text

Take Me to Church Chapter 15: Noodle

Fandom: Gorillaz

Rating: Explicit

Relationships: 2doc

Tags: Car Accidents Angst Hurt/Comfort Drugs/Alcohol Implied/Referenced Suicide SuicideHealing Everything Hurts

Summary: The band is back together, but things are… weird to say the least. But when a crisis arises, can they pull it all together and be a family again?

Link to other Chapters on my Blog!

He was on stage, playing bass, having a great time. Behind him, Russel was in his element, and to his far-right Noodle was jamming along, head nodding to the beat. At the front stood 2D, mouth pressed close to the microphone, crooning to the crowd. Murdoc wasn’t sure what song they were playing, but he was somehow following along so he assumed it wasn’t a big deal.

The crowd was raucous and screaming. The people in front were pressed up against the stage, reaching for the band desperately and Murdoc laughed at them, tongue lolling out of his mouth. The screaming got louder. He could hardly hear the music over the screaming and he turned to the rest of his band to see if they were having the same problem, only to realize he was alone on stage. He turned back to the crowd and they were gone too, except one lone figure in the shadows. The screaming was still there. It sounded like tires on asphalt.

“Hello?” he called over the screaming. The figure moved forward, coming to stand a few feet from the stage. Murdoc recognized the long nose and dark brow; what was his father doing at one of his concerts?

“You better not fuck it up this time,” the man said with a slur. Murdoc looked down and suddenly his bass is gone and he’d a lot closer to the floor. Red overalls, stockings, stupid brown shoes, he’d dressed up like Pinocchio, he’s back in the bar dancing for his father's drink money. But this happened years ago and--

“Go on, Muds, dance for us.” Now, 2D was standing next to his father, arms crossed and face blank. Stuart had never met his dad, had never been within 50 kilometres of his dad but here they were, standing next to each other in a pub in Stoke-on-Trent. 2D hadn’t even been alive when this had happened.

“M’not gonna,” his voice came out childish and quiet, unheard over the screeching, though his father still sneered.

“You will, if you know what’s good for you, Faceache,” he said, taking a step forward with his hand raised. Murdoc flinched and scrambled backward, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, pushing him forward. Craning his neck around he saw it was Noodle with Russel stood behind him, forcing him towards center stage and his dad.

“N-no! Don’t make me, please don’t!” he begged, but none of them listened. Noodle leaned down and whispered in his ear, voice cold and biting.

“Stop fucking around Murdoc, and do what needs to be done.” She pushed him hard and he stumbled into center stage, the spotlights blinding him for a moment. When he could see again there was blackness all around except for the circle of light surrounding him and a chair in front of him. Above it was a noose, hanging down, inviting him.

Do it, do it, do it

The screaming was getting louder and louder and it sounded like tires and like 2D and Russel and Noodle screaming at him to do them a favour, to end it, to get out of their lives. It was so loud, louder than any concert he’d been to and he stepped towards the chair, then up onto its seat. Looking out into the blackness he thought he could see the faces of his bandmates, his father, or everyone who’d ever persecuted him and everyone he’d ever wronged.

Murdoc slipped the rope around his neck. It fit snuggly like it was made for him and he thought maybe it was. Maybe his whole life had been leading up to this, a disappointing end for a disappointing man. With the voices all around him, urging him on, he took a step off the chair and felt the noose tighten. Hopefully, it would be over soon. Hopefully, everyone would be happier without him. Hopefully--

“--doc!” Murdoc startled awake, arms and legs straining against whatever was on top of him. He couldn’t see what was holding him down but he needed it gone, needed to get up, to go, and whatever was holding him down was stopping him.

“Murdoc calm down! Breath!” That was 2D shouting at him and holding him down. “Murdoc you’re OK. You’re here with me, in Wobble Street. It’s OK.”

“Dad?” Murdoc asked, remembering how 2D had been standing in the bar with his father, backing him up as he was about to beat him senseless, but 2D shook his head.

“No one here but me and you Muds. Your dad’s not here, hell I don’t even know if he’s alive,” 2D said slowly, moving off of the bassist but kept a hand on his chest. “You’re safe here.”

Murdoc took deep breaths, letting himself wake up and come back to reality. He wasn’t on stage, it was quiet, and the only other person here was 2D, who was wearing a pair of Murdoc’s sweatpants. The singer had a horrible case of bedhead and Murdoc can smell his breath from at least a foot away. He’s the most beautiful thing Murdoc has ever seen.

“What happened?” he asked, raising his hands to his chest and gripping Stu’s. The cold clamminess of his grasp was comforting.

“You started mumblin’ in your sleep about your dad, and Noodle, and bein’ on stage. I thought you were jus’ dreamin’ but then you started crying and saying something about ‘doin’ what needs to be done’ and I got worried,” 2D explained. Now that he mentioned it Murdoc could feel the wetness on his face. Acknowledging their existence brought more, a choking grip cutting off his windpipe.

2D saw this and shuffled closer, pressing his body against Murdoc’s side. He drew the arm not clutched in Murdoc’s grasp around the other man’s waist and Murdoc leaned into it. For once the bassist didn’t feel stupid about crying because, yeah, that dream had been pretty fucked up. It was everything he feared was true all rolled into one, convenient REM package. Murdoc turned his head to hide his face in Stu’s shoulder and sighed.

“I was dreamin’ we were playin’ a show but then everyone was gone and it was jus’ me and my dad. And I was back on stage as a kid, dancing for beer money. Only I didn’t want to.” He took a shuddering breath, grounding himself to the feel of 2D’s fingers tracing circles on his naked hip. “And suddenly you and Russ and Noodle were there, and Noodle was tellin’ me to jus’ do it, but now there was a noose and I--” He was cut off by a sob.

2D shushed him softly and shifted so he was holding Murdoc tightly against his chest. “It was jus’ a dream, Muds. Noodle would never say that stuff to you, she loves you. We love you.” Stuart paused for a brief second, letting his head dip down close to Murdoc’s ear, like the next thing he said was a secret only for the Satanist. “I love you.”

Murdoc knew 2D didn’t mean it that way. He couldn’t, it wasn't possible for anyone to love Murdoc that way, it was nearly impossible that the singer even meant it in the family sense. Sobbing even harder now Murdoc stuffed his knuckles in his mouth, biting down hard to try and center himself. It wasn’t working so he bit harder, tasting blood.

“I’m sorry, Murdoc, I didn’t mean to--are you bleeding?” 2D asked, leaning back to pull at Murdoc’s hand. The bassist resisted, but he was shaking too hard to fight back. Stu looked over the bite and tutted, tucking Murdoc’s head back under his chin.

“Don’t go hurtin’ yourself Muds, that’s no good,” he scolded. “I’m sorry I upset you again.”

Murdoc wanted to tell him that it wasn’t his fault, 2D didn’t know what it was like to be unlovable. Everyone fell in love with the singer on sight. He was everything that Murdoc wasn’t, charming, sociable, likeable. No one had ever loved Murdoc, not from the day he was born and they wouldn’t until the day he died.

“N-no, no,” he eked out between sobs, trying to explain. He needed to explain so the singer didn’t think this was his fault.

“Shhh, it’s ok. I’m here, and we love you and it’s all ok.” There he went saying it again! Murdoc moaned pitifully, shaking his head. Why couldn’t 2D be like everyone else and hate him? It would be easier for everyone. “We want you here with us, Muds. Without you, there’d be no Gorillaz.”

He shook his head harder. They really didn’t need him, if he was being honest he knew at least five people who could replace him; hell, some of them were even green. 2D sighed again and pulled Murdoc as close as he could until not an inch of his body wasn’t pressed up against the bassist's.

“Murdoc I promise. I promise you’re family to us and we need you.” There was another pregnant pause filled by the Satanist’s sniffling. “I need you OK? So please don’t go anywhere.”

Fuck he was so tired, he didn’t want to do this anymore. “S-sorry.” What was he even apologizing for?

“It’s ok, I forgive you,” 2D answered even though he probably had no idea what the other man was talking about. It made Murdoc feel a little better even if it was ridiculous.

“I’m tired, D,” he mumbled into the other’s shoulder. 2D took a second to fidget around with his phone before wrapping his arms back around Murdoc.

“We still have hours before we need to wake up, so why don’t you go back to sleep?” He didn’t have a choice, his eyelids were already half shut. “Tomorrow we’ll get to talk to Noodle and you’ll see everythin’s gonna be jus’ fine.”

The next time 2D woke up the room was brighter. Moving slowly as to not jostle Murdoc still sleeping on his chest, he checked the time; it was 9 am. Russel had sent him a text asking them to be ready to go by noon so as much as he was enjoying laying in bed he knew it was time to get up.

Surprisingly Murdoc hadn’t woken up through his wiggling, he must have been exhausted after his nightmare last night. Had Murdoc always had so many nightmares? 2D didn’t want to think about the older man spending sleepless years in his room, crying out into the dark. Stu knew nightmares well, but at least he’d been able to go to Noodle or Russ when they happened. With a gentle hand he began to run his fingers through the bassist's hair, trying to wake him up slowly.

“Murdoc…” he whispered as quietly as possible. “It’s time to wake up.”

Murdoc stirred and smushed his face against Stu’s chest with a groan. A man of his age had no right looking as cute as he did in that moment. 2D smiled and continued his petting, planting a kiss against Murdoc’s hair.

“Don’t be like that, Muds.” Murdoc continued to resist waking up, going so far as to pull the comforter over his head to hide from Stu’s petting. With a laugh 2D wrestled the sheets from him and threw them off the bed, leaving Murdoc naked and shivering.

“Deeeeee,” Murdoc whined, balling himself up as close to the singer as possible. “It’s too cold.”

2D laughed and sat up. “It’ll be warmer after you get dressed so get up.”

“Fuck off,” the bassist replied, but he did sit up, much to Stu’s relief.

"Oh good, I was worried I might have to carry you.” Murdoc gave him the finger and got out of bed, stretching dramatically.

“As if you could, Bean-Poll.” He went to the closet and grabbed a random shirt and pants. “I feel fuckin’ awful.”

2D followed him out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom. “Are you really goin’ to follow me into the bathroom D? Go get dressed.”

The singer hesitated. “I guess, I’ll see you downstairs in a few minutes?”

“Yeah yeah.”

2D hurried through dressing and brushing his teeth in the ensuite bathroom. When he was finished Murdoc was still in the bathroom, but he could hear the sound of the shower running so he tried not to worry about it too much.

Down in the kitchen Russel was sitting at the dining table reading the paper, a bowl of cereal in front of him. When 2D walked in he looked up and nodded towards the kettle.

“Hey D. Kettle just boiled, if you want tea.”

“Thanks, Russ, you been up long?” he asked, taking two mugs down and filling them.

“Nah, not too long,” Russel answered, rustling the paper. “I saved you the funnies.”

“Thanks!” 2D sat at the table and started reading the comics. They were both quiet for a bit until Russel set the paper down, folding his hands in his lap and turning to the singer.

“So, is Murdoc comin’ with us?” 2D startled but quickly calmed.

“Oh, yeah he is. He’s jus’ gettin’ ready I think,” he answered. “I think he needs a lil’ space today.”

“If you think so D, I trust your judgement.” Russel took a sip of his tea and chuckled. “To be honest I’m surprised you two haven’t gotten sick of each other yet.”

2D chuckled nervously. “Ah, uh, yeah. We’ve been gettin’ along pretty well.”

Russel smiled and went back to his paper. “That’s good. I'm glad you guys have worked shit out.”

“Yeah…” Stu said quietly, a light blush spreading over his cheeks.

A few more peaceful moments passed between to two before Murdoc walked in dressed all in black, hair dripping. He grunted a hello and made a beeline for the fridge, probably looking for alcohol. 2D hoped that he could keep the bassist sober for their visit today, so he jumped up.

“I made you a cuppa, Muds. Here.” He thrust the cup at the Satanist, effectively ending his hunt for booze. Murdoc looked confused, but took the mug and sat at the table, picking up the comics 2D had left there.

“Thanks, D,” he said, sipping the warm liquid. 2D let out a sigh of relief and turned to the toaster to make him and Murdoc some food.

While he waited for the toast to pop his mind wandered to the night before. After their great day out and even better bath he hadn’t expected things to turn out so… sad. They’d made it through the entire day without arguing--even after 2D left Murdoc with all the bags--and they’d wrapped it up with some very nice sex. But then he’d been woken up by the tell-tale thrashing and whimpering of the bassist's nightmare. Murdoc had been mumbling all sort of things in his sleep as 2D tried to wake him up, and when he finally succeeded the truth of what he’d been dreaming about had broken Stu’s heart. He didn't know what to do or how to fix it and he’d been panicking.

So he’d done something a little stupid. The second those words left his lips he’d felt an overwhelming adrenaline rush. Why the fuck did he say that? Murdoc was family, of course he loved him, but that didn’t explain the rapid beating in his chest and his sweaty palms. Fuck he couldn’t have actual feelings for Murdoc, could he? That wasn’t possible, wasn’t allowed. Fuck.

Luckily he’d had to focus on Murdoc and his breakdown instead of having his own, and then that morning he’d almost been able to convince himself he hadn’t said that. But looking at him now, hair still wet, eyes dark and tired, 2D couldn’t deny that he felt something for the bassist outside of friendship. He felt the urge to walk over and drape his arms around Murdoc’s shoulders and read the funnies with him. Luckily the toast popped at that moment, stopping him from doing anything too stupid.

He buttered the toast and set it out on the table for the two of them. He made sure that Murdoc ate at least a few pieces. Russel watched them with a with a sort of half smile on his face, but 2D tried not to think about that. The bassist seemed relatively calm, if not a little tired, and 2D hoped that today’s meeting would go smoother than the last one.

“Well, we might as well head out now to avoid traffic,” Russel announced. Nervous energy thrummed through 2D’s limbs; in a few hours they’d finally be able to see Noddle awake. A quick glance over at Murdoc told him the bassist was feeling something similar. Offering the other man a quick smile he stacked up the plates and dumped them in the sink.

“OK, let’s go then,” he chirped. This time he remembered to grab his coat and warm shoes. Murdoc followed behind, his usual Cuban heels replaced with a more sensible pair of dark boots and a warm-looking leather jacket hanging loosely over his frame. He already had his cigarettes out and offered 2D one before lighting his own.

“Thanks Muds, you ready to go?” he said.

“No, but I don’t have a choice so let’s just go.” 2D frowned and put a hand on the other’s shoulder.

“Murdoc,” he paused, wanting to say the right thing, “you know we’re here with you right? We can do this together.”

“Yeah, I know.” Murdoc shrugged the hand off and trudged to the car. 2D watched him go, a little hurt that he’d been brushed off, but he didn’t want to let it bother him too much so he followed Murdoc out the door. Murdoc, surprisingly, took the back seat, so 2D slid into the passenger side, quickly followed by Russel getting in the driver's side.

The drive to the hospital was relatively silent save for the jingling of 2D’s coat zipper every time he fidgeted with it. Which was often. So he had feelings for Murdoc. Romantic feelings. His zipper jangled rapidly. He should have known he wasn’t over that stupid crush he’d had on the bassist in his early 20’s. No it’d stuck around and festered, getting stronger and stronger until--

I love you.

Until that. And now he was stuck with those stupid feelings making everything messy and complicated. Because there was no way Murdoc could like him back like that. There was no way 2D even wanted Murdoc to like him back. Besides, wouldn’t it be a little… weird to try and start a relationship now? Murdoc was obviously going through some major shit, and Noodle was still in the hospital. This wasn’t exactly ideal timing.

And that wasn’t even touching the whole Plastic Beach thing.

2D startled as Russel pulled the parking brake. He’d spaced out the entire ride and they were already there. “That didn’t take too long, did it?”

“D you were completely zoned out the whole trip. We got stuck behind a truck for 20 minutes,” Russel answered, shaking his head. Both men got out of the car, followed by Murdoc. 2D lit a fag and handed the lighter to the bassist, who was already pulling out his own smoke.

“Thanks,” he grunted. They stood around the car for a bit, 2D and Murdoc smoking, Russel checking his phone. There was still an odd silence between them that 2D wasn’t sure how to break, or even what the cause was. Russel seemed the same as ever. Maybe he should check in with him when they got back home, Stu’d been spending so much time with Murdoc he forgot that Russel might need some support too.

Murdoc looked no different than he had all morning. He was a little pale, with dark under-eye circles and rough stubble. 2D was sure he looked pretty rough himself, what with all the interrupted nights of sleep. He hoped that if Noodle was awake she wouldn’t notice how badly they’d all fallen apart without her.

“Well if you two are done we can go inside,” Russel said, breaking the silence. 2D nodded and stubbed out his fag on the ground, Murdoc did the same against his pant leg. Russ led the way inside like before and they immediately queued up for the lift. Murdoc was lagging behind but eventually, they all got in and stepped out on the Head Trauma Ward.

“Come on Russ hurry up,” 2D whined, trying to weave around the much larger man and make a break for Noodle’s room. Russel kept his steady pace.

“Not yet D, I want to show you two something.” He stopped at a door a few down from Noodle’s. It had a little window with curtains and a couch inside. “This is a break room. The doctor told me about it after the last time. If any of us need to step out and get some air we can come in here and chill. It’s basically soundproof too, and it has a lock on the door.”

2D peered through the window and glanced back to Murdoc who was scuffing his boots against the floor. “Well, that’s good to know Russ, thanks! Can we go see Noodle now?”

“Yeah D, it’s two rooms up on the right, go ahead.”

With excited steps, 2D jogged down the hall and into the room. Noodle was there, on the bed like she had been the last two times covered in wires and plaster casts. The machines that 2D couldn’t possibly fathom the use for beeped and blooped and whirred. In general, everything looked the exact same as the last time he’d been in there except for the bed, which was tilted up in a slight sitting position. 2D approached cautiously, peering over the side. He held his breath as he stared at her and her eyelids fluttered open slightly.

“Noodle?” he whispered brokenly just as Murdoc and Russel walked in and her eyes opened further.

#2doc #niccalpot #tw suicide #tw violence #tw car accident #tw DRUGS AND ALCOHOL #tw hospital

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oathkeeper-of-tarth · 7 years ago

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Time to dive into this one, eh. This year’s SDCC poster now seems a pretty deliberate and blatant bit of foreshadowing and underlines this as a whole Thing we really should be paying attention to.

THAT ONE SCENE!!! Can I start you a gofundme account to destroy "WHO" did this to Pearl

Anon, I’ll do it for free. (Though, okay, yeah, if it requires a functional FTL spaceship, and it probably does, I might need help with funding.)

Ok but I really need you to develop your theories and thoughts about THAT thing with pearl because I can't stop thinking about it and I'm very curious to read what you think. I read your tags but I need more. All of it. There wasn't enough Pearl on those episodes and yet that thing messed me up.

You and me both.

See, I feel nostalgic now, like the ol’ days of SU theories, Ronaldoing hard, building entire alien worlds and systems and elaborate secret identity conspiracy theories on a few frames of background art with three triangles and four rhombuses. Love it. Or the incredible mileage we all got out of Jasper’s “some lost, defective pearl”, leading the way to the pretty wide agreement of there being multiples of a single Gem “type” way, way before the show actually confirmed it.

So, Homeworld... I always hoped you'd see it some day, but I thought I'd be there with you. Being taken there as a prisoner, I suppose it was something of a dramatic experience. It's just... Steven, I'm sure you have a lot of questions you'd like answers to, like about the Diamonds, for instance. There are things that are impossible for me to explain... But I want to! I-- Steven, I--

The way Pearl’s signature piano in the background music goes all wild and dissonant whenever her hand flies up is particularly effective.

So, what’s going on here? Is Pearl under some sort of geas? A gag order? From the elusive White Diamond (still without even a namedrop - maybe exactly because of... this), or some remnants of Pink Diamond’s influence? I’m fairly sure it’s another piece of the Pink Diamond Murder Mystery puzzle we’ve been promised, but how exactly it fits we can’t yet know for sure. There seem to be some very particular things Pearl physically cannot talk about as her own hand flies up to gag her, and she can’t wrestle it off to finish her sentence. She only manages to remove her hand once the topic of conversation has shifted away from whatever it was she was trying to say.

I’ve seen people compare this to Sophie being forbidden from talking about her curse in Howl’s Moving Castle, especially since:

If you ever find yourself wondering if Steven Universe just referenced anime, the answer is almost always 'Yes.' -- Matt Burnett

There’s also the possibility of it being a conditioning, or “programming” thing. Perhaps one that applies to Diamonds’ pearls, or pearls in general, which certainly makes a dark sort of sense. After all, as we’ve seen, pearls are privy to pretty much everything on Homeworld, down to the top dog rulers’ most private moments. They present a huge risk and potential vulnerability - and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s noticed they’re the ideal spies and informants. I’ve also seen the suggestion that it’s some kind of trauma-related response (though the whole bit with literally wrestling with her own arm makes me a bit doubtful).

I’ve got a vaguely chronological overview of instances of Pearl doing the hand thing I’ve found and their context, in an attempt to see which might be relevant here and which are just Pearl being upset or shocked or similar. Obviously, YMMV, but this is my take. It’s also going to be pretty long since, well, she actually does it a lot.

Season 1, So Many Birthdays. Shock upon seeing Steven suddenly aged into an old man. Can’t think of how this would be related to anything.

Season 1, Mirror Gem. “It's talking to him? It shouldn't be able to do that. I-it should only be following orders...”

While the above line has always struck me as interesting and kinda twisted in retrospect coming from Pearl of all people, the gesture is nothing like the involuntary gag one we’ve now seen, and there isn’t much to suggest she was about to say anything revealing or important in a Diamond sense.

Season 1, Rose’s Scabbard. “Pearl, you have to tell me what's wrong.”

While tempting, I don’t think this one is it, either, especially because she does tell Steven what’s wrong right after and without any noticeable issues, and here she’s just curling into herself and crying, immensely upset. There’s also nothing to suggest anything “forbidden” at risk of being revealed here. (In general I think Season 1 might be a bit too early to start seeding this, but who knows, the Crewniverse have played the long, long, long game with us before.)

Season 2, It Could’ve Been Great. “Ta-da! A finished Earth colony. Wow, look at this! Eighty-nine kindergartens, sixty-seven spires, a Galaxy Warp in each facet, efficient use of all available materials. What were you thinking, shutting this operation down? It could've been great!”

I was pretty sure this one was going to be relevant, but then when checking it out I noticed the frames leading into it show Pearl slowly putting her hand up to cover her mouth in shock in a way that makes it look really different to the gag thing. And again, she doesn’t really try to say anything here, and a bit later joins the conversation without any apparent issue. So while I guess you could frame it as her wanting to say something about the Diamonds’ plans for Earth and being unable to, I’m not sure I would.

In season 3′s Monster Reunion, Pearl doesn’t cover her mouth, but does use a now interesting turn of phrase when discussing, as she calls it, “damage from the Diamonds”:

Remember, she's not cracked, she's corrupted, and that's something different, something nearly impossible to describe.

I guess there’s a world of difference between nearly impossible and outright impossible.

Season 3, Bismuth. These two instances I can’t see as being anything but emotion and shock, both at seeing an old, dearly missed and long-lost friend, and at seeing Steven hurt and said friend in a bubble. No dialogue involved (I mean, besides the BiiiIIIIIIiiismuUuUUUUUth, of course).

But then it really gets interesting.

“I was there. I saw it with my own eye. I watched the leader of the Crystal Gems, Rose Quartz, shatter Pink Diamond!”

“No. Rose Quartz would never do that! A-and, sure, she had to fight, but - but she would never shatter someone!”

Season 3, Back to the Moon.

This is of course the one instance everyone and their mother thought back to after Gemcation, and I think the clearest contender for another example of the gag order thing. Garnet’s concern and look shot towards her is also very noticeable. The only issue I could possibly see is that here she’s covering her mouth with her left hand, whereas in Gemcation it was the right, but that’s fairly minor and deals with the specifics of something we really don’t have any knowledge about. But I’d say it’s a pretty fair bet that whatever it is Pearl can’t say has to do with Pink Diamond being shattered (also, interestingly, I checked again while going through the episode transcripts, but Pearl never once says the words ‘Pink Diamond’ out loud, where for example she has no trouble talking about Blue or Diamonds in general in several instances). Whether it was somehow Pearl herself or White Diamond or one of the many, many, many other variants of the whodunnit I’ve seen is still impossible to tell (and I still really really want it to be Rose, but hey).

I’ve seen people suggest that Rose is the one behind the gag order, or that a promise to Rose is stopping Pearl from talking, but the extent to which that flies in the face of everything the Crystal Gems fought for and represent makes me go nope pretty damn hard. It’s enough that after 5000+ years of being away from Homeworld and a free Gem Pearl still has to deal with this clearly very unpleasant (the way her entire body seizes up in Gemcation is just... jeez) reminder and problem, but Rose knowingly exploiting it would just be straight up evil.

“I thought you were going to tell me everything from now on.” “Oh, Steven... We...”

“Does this have anything to do with Pink Diamond? I already know mom shattered her, so what is it about this that you can't tell me?” "Please, you're making Pearl very upset.”

“It's lucky something has some information that I don't have to get out of them!”

Season 4, Steven’s Dream.

I’ve included the whole progression here, from fidgety and increasingly uncomfortable and worried, looking to Garnet for help, to the hands firmly covering her mouth. I really really like this take on the scene by @mandareeboo and my read matches that one pretty well (and I’m generally in the camp that Garnet knows about... whatever this is, and Amethyst probably doesn’t).

The next episode, Adventures in Light Distortion, gave us this scene, which I feel is very relevant now. The long pause does look like Pearl might be trying to think of a way to go on without triggering the gag thing, so we get the very vague and general “... Homeworld”. Instead of, oh, don’t know... White Diamond, perhaps? (I don’t think it was Pink for a number of reasons, some of which I wrote down here, the timeline just doesn’t work out. Also if she’d been Pink Pearl, she would certainly have known the nefarious Zoo better than she does, and would have more than just “seen it [her]self” once or twice.)

Season 4, I Am My Mom. “I get it now. I'm the only one who can stop what she started. I can stop all of it! She wouldn't have wanted this. But I do.”

The final one I’ve found so far, and another one I won’t discuss too much since I think it’s an instance of Pearl being emotional and shocked, though I’ve seen the idea mentioned that she might have wanted to blurt something out to stop Steven from leaving, which, seeing as it’s clearly once again tied into Pink Diamond’s assassination, isn’t that much of a reach.

This might be reaching but what if,,,the white starburst design behind YD and BD in the SDCC poster is actually White, symbolizing her overarching influence? Like initially I found the 'floral design' a little weird in context of homeworld gems, but if WD's actually the case...

Oh, the white starburst on top definitely stands for WD, and the pink flower looks like (though isn’t identical to, I made a quick comparison here) the ones that grow around the palanquin in Korea and decorate the Zoo - that one stands for PD, that’s pretty deliberate (in the previous SDCC poster, Jasper had that flower on her lapel). They’re posed to correspond with their spots in the Diamond Authority insignia. Whether or not White does have some big overarching influence (and with that... huge... torso ship thing on Homeworld?), or if it all just matches their gem placements and nothing else, or some combination of both... your guess is as good as mine. Yellow and Blue seemed to be pretty equal in what we’ve seen of them so far.

@ayal92 asked:

I don't know how to feel about the gagging scene. On one hand, I think it's exactly what it looks like. On the other hand, Pearls being programmed that way means that Homeworld acknowledge their potential to screw their owners over, which seems very out of character for them. I always thought gems were fine being indiscrete in front of Pearls because they regard them as talking purses...

That’s the thing, though, you don’t even have to think a pearl would run off and spill all your secrets, or even consider her capable of basic disobedience. All that needs to happen is for your would-be political rival or whoever is plotting against you to steal your pearl and make her talk to get the blackmail material or whatever. I think pearls potentially just got “fancy encrypted hard drive” added to their list of horribly objectifying uncomfortable comparisons. Sticking tape over your laptop’s webcam? That kind of thing. Now you can be extra indiscreet and safe in the knowledge of no repercussions ever, no matter where your pearl might be! Hooray! Ick.

I think, personally, I’m leaning towards it being a pearl thing. It just fits with the awful Homeworld attitude in a way that I think really works and makes twisted practical sense. It also kind of reinforces, for me, the fact of just how badly Pearl had everything stacked against her, and she still did all that she did. Man, I don’t know, I just love her to bits.

#pearl #steven universe #steven universe spoilers #endless words #oathkeeper replies to things #theory post #meta #pearls #homeworld is horrible #long post #really goddamn long post #pink diamond #white diamond #WHO HURT YOU PEARL #oh and #in this entire giant endless thing i have not made a single joke about pearl clamming up #praise me and my restraint #'also' my lizard brain insists immediately 'think of the hurt/comfort potential'

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imadethisatage11 · 3 years ago

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Live-blogging my reaction to Spiral: from the book of saw

Spoilers under the cut

TL;DR: my overall review is that it was good but I’m going to go watch DPS to cleanse me

- ok so that woman got robbed and for what

- I had to pause to find out who this detective’s actor was Bc it was driving me nuts and it’s MCMURRAY FROM LETTERKENNY???

- love that they’re gonna fuck up this train conductors day lmao

- LOVE genuinely that we’re back to looking gritty and having an old tv play the video and having some rapid cut camera work early 2000’s vibes I embrace you

- why does the voice sound like that,, I wasn’t expecting John but why is it so non threatening now it’s literally just Some Guy™️

- I am glad I paid $15 to listen to Chris Rock talk about Forrest Gump. Worth my money and I mean it genuinely I love Chris Rock he’s great. Stream Everybody Hates Chris on Hulu

- “Z?” Zeke who just had his cover blown: this MF

- “do I look like a fucking Jamaican nanny?!” I- 😀🤚🏽

- ayo Max Minghella

- Chris Rock falling just short of being convincingly aggressively cynical Bc he is Chris Rock with the voice of Chris Rock

- it sounds like he’s setting up jokes that don’t have punchlines and instead they’re just like,, mediocre cynic cop dialogue

- while looking at some pretty fucking intact teeth: this bum is gonna be pretty hard to ID

- I mean I guess the homeless don’t have dental records but were you not even gonna try?

- I’m very pleased Chris Rock put on gloves before handling the strange package I love actually smart character choices that would make sense for them to make

- I.e. the cop knows how to properly handle unexpected unmarked packages delivered to the precinct

- “I thought the jigsaw killer was dead” “well if it’s another copy cat…” another wait is that referring to Logan (which Logan pinned on the other coincidentally crooked cop whose name I’ve forgotten) does that imply Logan only did like? The one trap? And hasn’t been active? Just waited ten years after John died recreates the one trap he was in and then stops?? I mean don’t get me wrong if movie wants to ignore Jigsaw (2017)’s existence I’m game but like what

- also why do the packages look like they’re wrapped in Tiffany boxes lmao

- oh yay they did run dental

- Chris Rock is an asshole but they should go with protocol if that’s what they’re doing

- ordering a man mid piss out of the men’s room to yell at Zeke

- does conflict of interest matter when the whole precinct knows the victim?

- uncomfortable stand-offs with your ex while at the home of a grieving friend

- Samuel L Jackson!

- “I could’ve killed you!” “What are you talking about, I have the gun!” *SLJ pulls a gun out* “I could’ve killed you”

- daddy issues

- “you think this is linked to John Kramer?” Bruh you think it’s NOT??

- ik this is SO far fetched but I rlly hope this movie tells us wtf happened to Dr Gordon. I’m sure it won’t but a girl can dream

- “should we tell Zeke?” “Fuck him” I get you guys don’t like to work w him Bc he’s an ass but like. You’re just not doing your jobs now you’re just proving he’s right that you’re untrustworthy

- splitting up and not telling ppl where you’re going is the number one way to get kidnapped or murdered but way to go cop instincts

- what is this Chinese finger trap ass shit

- love the blue tones tho very Saw

- all it needs is to become uncomfortably green

- fun fact I actually watched the first saw w my friend who is red green color blind and he said it looked AWFUL and I was like oh yeah everything is blue tinted like twilight blue tint and later it’s green just FYI (he thought that made significantly more sense than whatever shit ass color palette he was perceiving)

- being mad at your son for turning in a dirty cop Bc now you’ll have to mess with internal affairs

- and then assaulting someone??? SLJ is an even worse asshole lmao

- another Tiffany box bound in twine maybe it’ll be one of those cheesy diamond heart necklaces

- HELLO what is that ugly ass pig puppet

- also the voice is so stilted did the killer use fuckin text to speech so they couldn’t unscramble the voice like they did to Hoffman?

- cops finding dead pigs, a little on the nose

- oh so this dude has a history of “fuck it” ok well screw that guy then

- SLJ deserves to be pissed at that cop for letting Zeke get shot but like what an unhinged man he threatened to kill him and then actually assaulted him HOW did he EVER get in charge to begin with

- ok wait is Zeke actually the only decent cop (inc his dad but maybe excluding the newbie)

- that is a truly gruesome way to lose fingers tho I must say but he deserves that shit

- wait did the trap not go fast enough or was there a way for him to do that faster and I missed it

- like should he not have hesitated Bc there was a time limit or was it just rigged

- cuz the machine had to pull them off he couldn’t just cut them quickly

- so are they just gonna leave broken leg Dude there or

- also just now I tried to talk abt this movie (so far) vs Jigsaw (2017) to my mom and I got too excited and referenced some character names she didn’t know and she shut me down and said she didn’t care 😀

- live-blogging to my, like, five followers that compromise one one (1) person that knows me IRL, one (1) Sawtual, and a handful of ppl only here for my main DPS content to fill the void of emotional parental neglect. What a great website

- oh no did the rookie die :( he was actually sweet

- I feel like he was too important to kill offscreen tho

- like they’re TELLING us he .. was skinned.. but was he REALLY

- Chris Rock having a revelation: AH FUCK

- everyone else at the crime scene: ….

- favorite thing abt movies that were already gonna be rated R is when they’re like “well if we’re already at R we might as well say fuck”

- she has to SEVER HER SPINAL CORD? Why was she deemed the biggest asshole

- also how on earth was this trap portable it IS in their basement right

- transporting the hot wax is just what gets me

- Chris Rock rn: are you tired of being nice? Don’t you just wanna go apeshit?

- was this abt his dad the whole time???

- does it count as live blogging when I do one big post instead of several small ones lol I just want it to be avoidable for ppl who are just here for Dead Poets Society

- man’s fully abt to cut his arm off like barely even hesitated long enough to notice the bobby pin he could pick the lock with

- there’s a body here suspended

- not hanging mind you

- but covered and suspended

- and I bet it’s the newbie

- ah damn it’s Pete that’s disappointing

- it’s possible the trailers just made him seem more important than he was

- why are they punishing Zeke for reporting a dirty cop and having his career accordingly ruined like he did the right thing and already suffered for it? This killer doesn’t like crooked cops?? Why does Zeke have to be tortured by hearing this dude die like that’s what they want isn’t it?

- I think it’s too late pal

- the glass trap was pretty fucking cool though

- I KNEW HE WAS ALIVE

- I didn’t think he was a MURDERER but I KNEW he was alive

- OH SHIT THE DIRTY COP ZEKE TURNED IN KILLED NEWBIE’S DAD??

- I’m terrible at guessing endings but it makes viewing more fun

- honestly,, do it Chris Rock ACAB

- “you want me to kill cops?” “No, fuck no, just the bad ones”

- what a fun villain though

- I have no idea what the Ultimate Game Plan™️ is here though is he gonna make him kill his dad? I mean his dad does suck but making a dude KILL his DAD? That is a tall order Max Minghella

- ok but literally why wouldn’t you listen to him here shoot the target??

- ANGIE! It WaS aNgIe

- killing this man is not correct justice anyway Zeke

- shot the target! Good man

- groovy of them to play the Hello Zepp soundtrack rn

- oh shit what’s going on SLJ knows what it is

- oh.. w o w. Brutal way to go. Very heavy handed imagery

- and that’s all I guess who the fuck knows what’s up w Doctor Gordon

- and I guess Max Minghella is just gonna get away now but tbh Chris Rock only seemed truly mad at him for involving his dad

- nice rap remix to the OG Hello Zepp score very cool credits music

#spiral #spiral from the book of saw #live blogging #spiral 2021 #mini vent

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outofthewoods · 7 years ago

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REPUTATION - ALBUM REVIEW

alright girlies here it is my first impressions (whatever I wrote down after the SS plus a few notes I made when it dropped) I AM LITERALLY....QUITE LITERALLY SHAKING....MY WIG: IS ON MARS

READY FOR IT: At first I was kind of like…. :/ about this song but it’s actually a really good opener and a banger. Not sure I would’ve picked it as the second single but it goes all the way off. The bass has me shook Line: “he can be jailor burton to this taylor”

END GAME Very…..the weeknd vibes right ladies ?????????? this is like…..taylor’s Instagram baddie moment It is still SO WEIRD To me to hear rapping and Taylor swift in one song. Even tho we have the bad blood remix Im still….shook by Future and Taylor together ??????????? I really like this, it’s not one of my top 5 I don’t think but it’s so different from what I would've thought of for another ed/taylor collab Ed is giving me some don’t vibes..i’m into it…ed talking about the fourth of July is really iconic. Taylor telling the story of how this came about was really iconic too…I can literally picture her and ed getting drunk and being like HOWWWW COOL WOULD IT BE TO COLLAB WITH FUTURE????? LOL and then it actually happening I love her like. talk/shout/singing when she says “big reputation…” Line: “I swear I don’t love the drama, it loves me” Her runs in the last chorus THANK GOD…..I NEEDED THESE VOCALS…..

I DID SOMETHING BAD THIS SONG HAD ME FUCKING QUAKING IN THE SESSION…… “If a man talks shit then I owe him nothing” THE CHORUS BANGS…..IM LITERALLY……MOUTH OPEN SHOCKED I CANT BELIEVE THIS….THE M.I.A. PAPER PLANES MACHINE GUN SOUNDS…. This is so……blank space but……..fucking darker you SINNERS “If he drops my name I owe him nothing, if he spends my change then he had it coming…” The chorus is here again Im bopping so fucking HARD WOWWWWWWWWWWWWW I’M……….CRYING AT THE VOCALIZATIONS OF THE HOOK. I’m pretty sure she said this came to her the same way she came up with “STAY!” in AYHTDWS The bridge ladies LIGHT ME UP!!! GO AHEAD AND LIGHT ME UP YOU FUCKING HEATHENS!!!! THIS SONG MAKES THE WHOLE ALBUM WORTHY OF A GRAMMY Im literally shaking like my skin is quivering….that 2000’s fade out……Please kill me

DON’T BLAME ME This is the hozier…take me to church….taylor swift version The chords are her vocals and that. Is revolutionary, Einstein found dead in Miami Line: “I would fall from grace just to touch your face, if you walk away I’d beg you on my knees to stay” The like…..wopping of the chorus is really just…..gold Her falsetto at the end of the second verse. Wig on mars This is the stoner Taylor swift song we didn't know we needed but are so thankful we have VOCALS IN THE LAST CHORUS….I NEEDED SOME RUNS AND THE PRERELEASES DIDNT GIVE THEM TO ME BECAUSE SHE WAS SAVING HER DESTRUCTION OF EVERY OTHER PERSONS VOCALS FOR THE ALBUM

DELICATE This is very Imogen heap to me…… like the layered robotic vocals. It’s very interesting…..a really good segue from DBM It’s got like a deep house….tropical feel to it that I am really enjoying girlies “my reputation’s never been worse, so he must like me for me” why does that line have me crying Taylor swift you are literally sunshine THIS IS THE CHORUS I REMEMBERED….the is it cool is it chill etc…….that’s what I thought CIWYW was after the SS for some reason ???? “do the girls back home touch you do like I do?” SECOND VERSE LYRICS Got me feeling some wildest dreams type of way she looked at me so much during this song I’m emotional, I was bopping to the chorus and she was laughing at me and winking when the beat comes in during the chorus Not a standout from the album but very cool very different good vibes man

LWYMMD Obviously a bop. I see why it’s in the middle of the album and when Taylor explained the progression of the songs this really makes a lot of sense. I’m just feeling fragile bc Taylor swift grabbed me by my cheeks, pulled me towards her, grabbed my hands, and danced with me during this song. Wow BABY I GOT MINE BUT YOU’LL ALL GET YOURS!!! We literally screamed this in each other’s faces it was so……amazing I will NEVER FORGET The video…..do we even need to remind ourselves of how fucking iconic it was When I first heard this I was so confused I had just woken up in Ireland at 6am to listen and I was like . What is this But the chorus goes all the way off tbh This is like a parallel to shake it off….the themes and messages of……being yourself and rising above what other ppl think of you…..

SO IT GOES… Ok I literally blanked this song from my memory at the session, I think bc it was right after LWYMMD and me and Taylor having our first proper moment of the night “Back against the wall….tripping when you’re gone…” This album is so bass heavy. I’m loving the studio instruments, I thought I would miss the live guitars etc but I really don’t because it doesn’t fit with the album “I’m so chill but you make me jealous” Sis we have learned from 10 years of music from you that you aren't chill al;ksdfnjksdhifbknsdfdkjf I love you mom I love the way she says so it goes! In the chorus “You know I’m not a bad girl….but I do bad things with you…” WHOMST “SCRATCHES DOWN YOUR BACK NOW…. Taylor you've done several numbers on me I stopped counting 8 years ago the whispered 1..2….3……WOW VOCALS….AGAIN……….SCRATCHES DOWN YOUR BACK NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHES REALLY WILDIN OUT HUH

GORGEOUS This is such a cute song. For me it seems like one of the ones I like less, but at the session I remember being so happy listening to it because she pointed me out and called me by name when she was passing out the new merchandise….so I was chillin Also she kept winking at me during the DINGS!

GETAWAY CAR Queen of whisper singing I wanted to leave him….I needed a reason SUDDENLY I WILL ONLY EVER DRINK OLD FASHIONEDS. IVE NEVER HEARD OF ANY OTHER DRINK Okay in my mind I was like this song is :/ but it bangs to be honest! I love the chorus Should've known Id be the first to leave….this song is full of tea ladies This song to me seems like it’s about a rebound relationship that wasn’t so serious/was just a way to release pent up emotions from something awful “X marks the spot….where we fell apart…..” the pre chorus is really out here doing that sweeties The bridge has an interesting modulation that i don't know how to feel about….this whole album is like full of surprises/polarizing musical techniques so this is cool This is Taylor Swift fleshing out a metaphor/concept masterpiece to her full ability. Queen of literature who is Shakespeare I’ve never heard of him Said goodbye….in a getaway car……. The ends of the songs are so interesting on rep…….this one goes off

KING OF MY HEART “I’m better off being alone…” Miss Taylor I’m so glad that you’ve stopped thinking this because you are really….the most WORTHY person of love in the whole wide world… This is probably my least favorite song on the album. It has some remnants of getaway car in it I feel……she’s cute but getaway car is sexy and sexy destroys cute It’s a little repetitive but I appreciate it’s placement on the album………..you move to me like a Motown beat…..alright Miss king of my heart redeeming herself My broken bones are mending……….taylor I love u………why are u drinking beer when u could be having an old fashioned tho…..beer is gross

DANCING WITH OUR HANDS TIED Thank you piano I love a live instrument The story behind this song is so heartbreaking and knowing that makes….the song so much more impactful to me “You had turned my bed into a secret oasis, people started talking putting us through our paces” here’s a big fat FUCK YOU to the daily mail Again the chorus comes in and is so….huge and sprawling compared to the rest of the song…..shaking us to our very cores! I love that you can hear the frantic/anxiety she was feeling throughout the song….like the rushed vocals and drawn out lower notes…..then the chorus just coming in with GLORY I LOVE the instrumental of the chorus so much…..it’s so beautiful and a little 1989 to me. Like very eighties synth heavy We also have some VOCALS! In the bridge and last chorus! the runs are giving me life

DRESS This song is like a …… I’m kind of drunk in the meatpacking district running from bar to bar with someone I love in the cold with big coats on….tea to me The falsetto. Queen Taylor has really been expanding her vocal register and I’m FUCKING here for it “Everybody thinks they know us” circling back to the overall theme of the album. We know what she chooses to let us know and beyond that we’re just fucking guessing sinners This song is like a …… I don't really care what they think of us I just wanna really…………see your dick and I don't care what anyone thinks of that ! THE HAIR BLEACHED LINE……SHE IS LITERALLY THE QUEEN OF SELF DRAGS I CANT SHES SO SELF AWARE ITS UNBELIEVABLE…….she’s like being humorous but also referencing a time in her life that was really shitty for her so. Queen of duplicity “I woke up just in time…” this line says so much about where she was when she started seeing Joe

THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS Oh girlies…..I have been so excited to hear this again since the session. She spilled some major fucking SCALDING tea before playing this so my ass was fully ready to be sloughed The alarms in the beginning…..a champagne sea…..my dream…… This is so fucking tongue in cheek about what everyone said about her #squad “I have to take them away” DEAD this is why she stopped having 4th of July parties klsadjidfnksdfd “Stabbed me in the back while shaking my hand….” Oh no…………WHO WOULD DO THIS TO MISS TAYLOR!!!!!!! “I took an axe to a mended fence….” The mhhhhhmmmmmm………. IF ONLY YOU WERENT SO SHADY SALKJFSDNKFJGM,DFLKNJGIDK WHY IS THIS SONG ABOUT ME SITTING ON TWITTER DRAGGING PEOPLE LEFT RIGHT AND CENTER Hard knock life………..TEA……during the fucking BANGER of a chorus….this is going to be so fun on tour…..SHE BETTER BE A SINGLE!!!!! hE sAiD shE saID!!!!! Here’s to mama…….yes miss Andrea here’s to u queen of the world THE BRIDGE…..SDFLSDMFJKNDNDSLJFKNFDJDSFNSD THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE!!!!! NICE!!!!! THINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cant even SAY IT WITH A STRAIGHT FACE Heres to my REAL FRIENDS! WOW….just wow ladies this is the future liberals want

CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT In my personal onion this is the most vulnerable song on the album. The first verse really has me out here crying in the club The chorus is so cute, this is a low-key banger and I wanna see her flying across the crowd during this song on tour

NEW YEARS DAY So here it is girlies….the most hyped song on the record…… Live piano. Minimal production. The concept behind this is so adorable “Candlewax and polaroids on the hard wood floor….” the most Taylor swift thing I have ever heard This relationship really seems like its forever my dudes she’s in it for the long run. She has never been so confident in a relationship that she’s CURRENTLY IN. She’s opening up DURING a relationship which is like……basically unheard of for her I love how subtle this is….the harmonies on the second chorus….crying in the club again “Hold on to the memories they will hold onto you…..” she said she's had that line ready to go for a while but couldn't find a place for it and here it is being adorable and wonderful also the line “Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I can recognize anywhere” Can I just speak on that line again….it is so beautiful and simple and shows how much she’s been through and the pain she has dealt with….and the sadness she KNOWS………..but she’s okay enough to talk about it. Im crying in the club 3.0

INITIAL RANKING: I Did Something Bad Don’t Blame Me Call It What You Want Dress Delicate Dancing With Our Hands Tied This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things Look What You Made Me Do Getaway Car …Ready For It? End Game New Year’s Day Gorgeous So It Goes King of my Heart

#reputation review

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joannalannister · 7 years ago

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I’m writing this post because I want to organize a few of my recent thoughts on women in fiction and ASOIAF that were inspired by reading this analysis from the LA review of books (which was about that show). I talk a lot about gender in ASOIAF and ships I like.

Please note: I have a very low level of tolerance for that show, and arguing about that show on the internet is well beyond the limits of what I can tolerate. Please do not bring the show wank to me. Please. I’m tired. Please. The tv show is a lost cause to me and I don’t want to engage. I’m only writing this because of my love for the books. I’m not writing this for reblogs, I’m writing this for me. I’m not putting this in a tracked tag, and I’m sorry I can’t keep it out of search.

The author of that LA review, Sarah Mesle, asked, “Why do women’s experiences, and their friendships, so often carry the ballast of realism for the rest of [the narrative]? Why can’t we imagine women as friends?” [x]

Mesle talks about how the men have friends in their narratives, but the women are isolated. For example, in the books, Jon has Sam, and Tyrion has Bronn (although that’s limited because he’s a mercenary), and Stannis has Davos, etc but “Cersei has never fucking had anyone (dead mom, don’t get me started)”.

“I was tired of women “providing the ballast of realism” for men’s fantastical stories.” [x] Quoting Virgina Wolfe, Mesle talks about how male writers write women as being “locked up, beaten and flung about the room” to add realism to their stories.

GRRM isn’t exempt from this. I keep going back to the idea that, according to GRRM, women being raped provides ~realism~ and ~historical accuracy~ to his story. And I am so tired.

“I don’t want to be the critic who swoops in with my ideology critique — an ideology critique is like the opposite of a dragon, when it comes to swooping in — blowing un-fun all over” I relate to this so much when I criticize ASOIAF.

The author also talked about the importance of POV when telling a story. And like, this isn’t the example the author used, but I’m gonna paraphrase what the author said to talk about the books, because I think it was such an important point that Mesle had, something that’s relevant to ASOIAF. So, this is not a direct quote below; this is paraphrasing and adapting what she said:

Rhaella was raped. Women are sometimes raped, that’s true and real, but given that the reader is positioned with Jaime, the narrative is telling us that the rape is mostly happening to him, is a significant part of his character development and our relationship with him. It’s completely unclear what the rape meant to Rhaella and the reason why is because the narrative just cares more about Jaime than Rhaella.

As I said, this isn’t exactly what Mesle was talking about (because I don’t want to touch that bullshit show), but this idea struck such a cord with me. How GRRM has a lot of the ~decorative~ background misogyny as something that happens to male characters, without fully exploring what it means for women like Rhaella and Elia and Tysha and Joanna.

(And obviously -- obviously!! -- GRRM isn’t as bad as the show in this regard, but there are some things that I wonder about, ok. Sometimes I wonder. What was it like for Cersei, in the sept scene in the books, when she said, “No, not here” and Jaime disregarded what she said? What was it like for Cersei, at Winterfell, when she said “Stop it” and those words didn’t seem to matter to Jaime? I ask these questions as an avid Jaime/Cersei shipper, as someone who believes GRRM just really sucks as writing consent, as someone who believes this is a long established part of the twins’ relationship, that Westerosi social roles have been so deeply ingrained on Cersei and her sex life ... but I still want to know ... what did it mean to Cersei, when she said “No” and the only person she trusts in the whole world didn’t listen?)

(God, there’s this scene in House of Cards, in season 2 (i think?) where Frank is about to go annihilate Claire’s rapist at a benefit dinner thingy, and Claire says “No” because she doesn’t want him to commit political suicide and Frank listens to her, and I love that scene so much, and to think about the flip side of that scene in ASOIAF, to think about how Jaime doesn’t listen to Cersei, how she therefore can’t tell Jaime everything (“Jaime would have killed [Robert], even if it meant his own life”) ... Cersei makes my heart ache, and I wish GRRM acknowledged that more, explored that more....)

Mesle writes, “men with [...] dreams get to indulge their wish fulfillment and women get something like realism. Does this sound familiar, this insistence on making the space for male desire, at all cost?” I don’t dare write how I think this applies to the books, so I’m just gonna leave this quote here....

anyways...

I’m gonna talk briefly about the show now, but only because I would like to be able to look back on this when I have ADOS in my hands and I would like to celebrate all the things GRRM didn’t do. so idk, show negativity ahead? If you’re following me, you know I don’t like the show, so this shouldn’t be a surprise??

I think Mesle articulates why I’m not super excited about Jon/Dany on the show, even though I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of Jon/Dany in the books.

Game of Thrones played the oldest trick in the “men write about women” book and took its most beautiful, powerful woman, Dany — all her beauty and strength and feather-coated narrative power — and deployed her in the service of the male heroics she begins the episode by dismissing. The real story of this episode, read that way, what’s different between its beginning and its end, is that at the beginning Daenerys thinks that male heroics are stupid, and at the end she has pledged her troth to them. The real romance this episode works to celebrate is not just between Dany and Jon, but between Dany’s feminine power and the brooding male heroics Jon represents. [x]

When the show writers turn Dany into Jon’s helpmeet ... when D&D turn Dany into the Strong Female Character who must assist Jon in fulfilling his Destiny to fight the Night King**, I can really understand it when people say that they really hate Jon/Dany. I think that Jon/Dany on the show is something very different from what GRRM will write.

Like, as I’ve said before, I ship Jon/Dany as the culmination of ASOIAF’s greatest themes, and the show doesn’t do themes, and that’s why I feel very little excitement. But hey, Kit and Emilia are pretty, so I guess the visuals will be nice and I’ll enjoy myself. I can’t wait to have more ASOIAF books in my hands, and then gif makers can plaster ASOIAF quotes all over that tv show.

** poorquentyn was talking about how "the show needed a central visual reference point for the Others, a clear singular nemesis, more than the books do. GRRM has indicated that Night’s King is not coming back in the books, and anyway, he wasn’t the Others’ leader, nor even an Other himself, but a human seduced by their power. Euron’s the equivalent of that in ASOIAF, and it’s likely we won’t see the Great Other/hivemind/whatever else is lurking in the heart of winter until we, y’know, get to the heart of winter. That doesn’t especially suit the show’s needs, though” [x]. So it’s turned into this showdown between Jon and the Night King that ... just isn’t that exciting to me?

I want the terrifying Lovecraftian weirdness of the Other Realm, I want it to be horrifying, I want Jon and Dany alone on that darkling plain from the “Dover Beach” poem GRRM keeps referencing. that’s where I ship Jon/Dany, a united, fierce light burning so brightly in the darkness.

Not this ... Strong Female Character realizes she was wrong and falls in love and helps The Hero defeat the Big Bad.

I JUST LOVE WHAT GRRM CAN DO WITH JON/DANY OK, PLEASE WRITE FASTER GEORGE, PLEASE. PLEASE COME THROUGH FOR ME, GEORGE, I HAVE FAITH IN YOU. PLEASE WRITE SOMETHING BETTER THAN THOSE HACKS. I’M ROOTING FOR YOU, GEORGE!!!!

#/#//#///#////#/////#lannister thoughts #gender in asoiaf #jaime x cersei #cersei lannister #cersei meta #jdmeta #rape tw #rhaella targaryen #jaime lannister #jon x dany #dany x jon #i really hope this doesn't appear in search #i linked to DA just to try to keep this out of search #idk these might be unpopular opinions??

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raguna-blade · 5 years ago

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Revolutionary Girl Utena 21-24

Today in revolutionary girl utena, oh shit oh fuck oh god.

Anthy what the fuck what the actual tap dancing christ.

And While I want to do the overall thoughts thing, like...Man, each session is just a rain of stuff going on that keeps upending both my feelings and general thoughts.

Except that the filler episodes are fucking keys, if goofy ones, and that forever throws me.

Revolutionary Utena Episodes 21- 24

Episode 21

Nanami Girlsquad.

CUT TO VERMIN. Uh..Uh nanmi...?

...What's with the flower in the corner?

….How are you eating the pocky?

Oh shit they have names.

WE'LL ALWAYS BE TOGETHER. Oh that shit isn't sticking. Oh no.

Nanami getting more animated. And hey let's cheer up touga! Cool cool.

Pigtails is doing the lords work I see. Just...Going hard as hell huh.

Oh no she has a crush on him. This won't end well

...She's on roller skates. Keiko, you're the champion.

Nanami...That's pretty scummy.

...Those Touga Feels. Is...is she gonna draw a sword outta touga?

Oh no, she didn't get to go to the party. Keiko nooooooo.

Doesn't get to be the princess. That's...

Jesus the Girl Squad sync is stronk

Anthy...are you ok...? nodding off back there.

WHAT ARE YOU TIMING MIKI!

Anthy with the disrespect just...Constantly.

Oh lord...STAY AWAY FROM AKIO PLEASE.

OH GOD. BAD TOUCH ALERT BAD TOUCH GOD

Loading Screen rose again?

Touga is a douche yes, but go for the gold Keiko. Dream Big.

Oh no. Nanami saw. This...will be bad.

Oh jesus Nanami what the fuck. I know why but fucking hell.

CALLED HER A PARASITE TO HER FACE. SHES YOUR FRIEND WHAT THE FUCK.

Well groupie but.

….Oh shit did they hot abandon her. Wow fuck her friends too then. Wow.

Yeah, hellavator time yupyup. How to turn friends into enemies 101.

The LEAF IS A CATTERPILLAR EGG FUCK.

Oh shit, touga sword time I guess.

This is...increasingly sexual, WAY INCREASINGLY SEXUAL, where it was already pretty sexual before. Just...

Shadow Girls.Mantis...insecticide? What?

Getting the absolute MILES out of this stock footage. The repetition is neat actually, since it seems done on purporse (whenever the pattern breaks SHIT GOES DOWN, so...)

...So this fucked up reversal of the drawing of the sword thing (or completely accurate version of it?) is...

Hm. Song Goes Hard this time though.

I just realized, for all that everyone is copying utenas style, it's really the geeneral “prince” outfit isn't it.

...What the fuck, did Utena just exorcise the hate out of her or something?

Anthy: OH ITS EASY. if it's for someone You love how you feel about others doesn't matter. You just keep lying to yourself for as long as it takes.

Anthy. ANTHY WHY IS EVERYTHING OUT OF YOUR MOUTH ALTERNATIVELY A BITING INSULT OR DEEPLY DISTURBING.

AND THEN IT CUTS TO TRUTH KEEP DESTROYING LIES.

Just...

Episode 22

Last Black Roses? Is it...Is it Gender Bend Utena vs Genderbend Mikage?

Oh hey it's the heavenvator.

WHY DOES NOBODY QUESTION THIS WEIRD SHIT. THIS TRAIN IS JUST THERE.

THEY FINALLY MEET.

...Chuchu are you ok?

Joining the seminar? Utena? Hooboy. That...hm.

100 People died in a fire....well that's...ominous. Considering the bodies.

GOD PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM HIM. I BEG YOU.

Oh mikage is a duelist too...? Huh.

...Wait Nemuro? Mikage is nemuro? Uh...Wait. Didn't he die...?

They were researching the power to revolutionize the world? Huh.

...Wait, so were the rings just fashion? Nope, they weren't, but they were abusing his intellect and such it seems...

….Cat, Teapot and Caterpillar? Cat's? Why the hell are you pointing this out. Three cats? What is...

What is it pointing out?

Wait, so...did they actually make seomething? The castle? Lpistick?

The Boy? Oh...oh boy i'm not sure i'm amicable to this directiion.

So...Mamiya has an Older Sister? So is she uh..Anti Akio? Reverse Akio.

Injections? Uh. Uhhhhhh. So he's sick? Was sick?

Is Mamiya Dead?

Also. The Corpses? Those are deffo coffins right?... Were Utena's folks involved?

...Nothing SHOULD last forever says mamiya.

Leaf...?

Teacup Lipstick?

Fucking Akio...Wait, how old is he? They rebuilt the building and it's pretty old right?

Uh...Wait a second.

A contract with Me? But that's Akio right? Or is it Dios?

...Wait were those ACTUALLY bodies?

AKIO A FUCKING GAIN? WAIT A GODDAMN MINUTE HOW OLD IS HE?

...Is it Mikage who burnt the building down? No Mamiya did.

Mikage what ARE you talking about.

So...The dead boys are Fuel...? For...what?

WAIT THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT RECENT. THATS THE ODLER SISTER RIGHT!?

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS TIMELINE?

Shadow Girls...And lady reacted to Shadow Girls.

Anthy and Utena: CARE DAMN YOU!

….So the schools...Halt aging? MAMIYA IS DEAD?

WAIT WHAT THE FUCK?

Episode 23

Tokiko is her name. And she fucking left the school and...lived a life? What.

Utena Join the Student council.

Why the student council is even a thing?

What the fuck even is a duelist? Shit seems suspect now.

...Uh...Mikage? Phrasing? Or..What's with the looping?

Mikage using Utena as a surrogate?

Utena's eternity seeking started back then huh. But...What's up with the school?

THAT INTRO THING.

Impossible to quit being the rose bride. And now she goes to the Mikage Seminar...?

...Was that Tokiko?

Uh...What's with the weird serial killer wall thing...? Uh. Uhhhhhh

So...Nemuro started the Duels before things started off? And Nemuro rejected Eternity? But Mamiya did NOT.

….Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. UH

THATS NOT TOKIKO. WHAT IS...

Wait. Fighting to preserve their memories? Is...is Utena going n the hellavator?

UTENA INTERRUPT.

Oh fuck. Utena threw the gauntlet? uh...Uhhhhh. Concern.

Meanwhile, Nemuro continues his mental breakdown.

Nemuro with the Utena Will Kill Me Reads.

...Did he draw a sword out himself.?

Oh man, the repetitions suddenly become a bit more ominous. Did this Wakaba seen already play before?

Others see...

Oh they skipped the song. Oh shit oh fuck.

I like how he's LITERALLY like a flipped utena. He's got that same dash stab maneuver. Swords lookin the same. Hm. hm. Black and white Roses.

WAIT. Is...He looking wrong? Does he look wrong? Wait, did Nemuro set the fire.

DECADES!?

...Nemuro Graduate..?

The building is fucking GONE. They...They don't remember SHIT>

Wait, did it get unmade? What the fuck?

...WAS THAT ANTHY THE WHOLE TIME!?!?!?!?!?

Another filler ep?

Episode 24

This Kid is absolutely on fucking point. Like Shit Mitsuru.

Is He Dead: Anthy, you TRIFLING-

...Why did they strip him?

Is this a clips episode?

….This boy stalkin.

….Nanami is Justice. And Her True face?

Never dirtying her own hands...

Ok, they're talking about the mind swap ep, and...Ok, looking atthis, and the last episode revealing anthy's uh...whatever the fuck that is. I'm now a bit more certain of my previous read of it being less a real thing and more like a personality swap rather than a full mind swap.

Also starting to wonder about chuchu. He acting on her orders or something.

Oh, they're just acknowledging the weird shit.

Jesus Mitsuru. You just...What the hell?

...No matter how she tries to hurt people she get's hurt the worst? Which...Sounds like a goof, but that's factually what happens. Shit gets visited back on her like 8 times as worse.

Wait, are Nanami and Utena and Anthy the Shadow Girls this time?

Ok, I can 100% believe they just never looked under the table. That...Feels frighteningly in character actually.

Gotta say, Mitsuru has surprisingly become an interesting character so...

...Was...his plan to replace her brother...? Uh. Wait. And mess with her mind too? Wait. Wait. Wait a fucking second what the fuck.

Oh the cow thing DEFFO happened. They're just not thinking about it. Or referencing it. What the...

Why are they all referring to ONLY the nanami eps? Like damn, the attention paid here is uh. FEELS MAD WEIRD considering how on point everything else happened here so. Like just an ep ago, we were dealing with a man's mental break down and also him unexisting because Utena beat him so bad.

Home boy turns into a cow too. ….and accidentally flashes his dick which causes nanami to freak out and fly out the window.

Was it just a dream? Maybe?

Shadow Girls...? Again?

Monkey and Robots again...? Uh...I feel that means something.

#revolutionary girl utena #liveblog

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flutter2deceive · 7 years ago

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Fic prompts/sentence starters

I'm a ridiculous human being who has bizarre dreams on the reg... and I text those dreams to myself upon waking up. It's mostly just fragments like this: 54th street, canada, tcfp, keep referencing wedding. But other times, I will remember specific phrases/sentences that are said so i put them in quotes. I thought it would be interesting to list all of them and it looked like one of those sentence starter fic prompt things. So feel free to use these as such, or just enjoy the madness of my sleeping brain, which is basically one long Tammie Brown non-sequitur lol

• "i can go get my cassette tapes! fyi they're mostly all spoken word"

• "that's how ppl give high fives, right?"

• "Go get your spuds, I got my crinkle cut shoes on!"

• "I'm not looking up your skirt i swear"

• "we don't want that. we'll just take some of these chocolate earrings. they look like they have a foamy aftertaste... I'm never gonna wear these."

• "oh that's some team building thing the Imaginarium does, and Brenda is this lady I work with who is insufferable"

• "oh i suppose it's just a coincidence that we're wearing the same shirt"

• "you literally hit the car in front of us. How about maybe if they decide to come see what happened, you're not behind the wheel trying to play a guitar"

• "I overheard him call me a whore in the bathroom the other day"

• "ok so the plan is to drive this baby up to warmer climates and thaw it out"

• "why would you listen to me?! i'm younger than you! I don't know what i'm doing!"

• "when it ends with a man's father dying you know it's gone off the rails"

• "Get ready to catch this unfortunate reality. No one's ever talking about yodeling."

• "That's the ear I've dedicated specifcally to listen to yodeling."

• "i like the nape of your neck"

• "nice trapezius"

• "once we get out of town, then we can play the out of town game"

• "i will tell her, i promise, but please don't say anything to her about the other day. I've had a rough couple of days"

• "The ozone layer is depleting. You know, there was this show on Nickelodeon that was basically a rip-off of franklin the turtle, but Judi dench played a sophisticated sand dollar. But no one watched except linda elerbee and it got canceled."

• "the girl who likes electric owl bird beats"

• "it's safe, they're at least 2 arby's away from us"

• "we don't have any portapotties, is that gonna be a problem?"

• "Lower your chairs down to the floor and they can come push us to napa but not the valley."

• "but guys, we're actually friends with kate walsh, and she came to the play with us"

• "so i guess you've been as thoroughly brainwashed as possible"

• "but it says here you are married to that guy over there"

• "who's gonna be the last minute superhero that can fix this?"

• "stick your head in a bowl"

• "Can i ask a question? .....no, nevermind. It's not important.... ...am i an afterthought?"

• "i guess that was dumb... i should let go"

• "you look so beautiful! Just cuz you're you, not cuz you're pregnant, that's just an extra thing!"

• "i have stained glass!!!"

• A: "Nope, man religion is dead. Only got a cat on board now."

B: "me too."

A: "bout religion? Or you carrying a concealed cat somewhere on your person?"

• "am i the only one who dressed up?!"

• "no i get it and that was dumb of me to say, but i just want you to know i'm a good person™"

• "i am handing out weird compliments today"

• A: "...you hanging out there a lot again?"

B: "The girls need me, you know."

A: "...i think you need the girls"

B: "please, don't start again"

• "is that what you think i'm here for?! I have real things i need to discuss! I'm not just sitting around waiting to die, no offense, I'm doing shit! Like starting a company and realizing I'm gay and getting arrested! ...those are all separate. And perhaps things i want to talk about." (two guesses who this dream was about lol)

• "fine! Is this what you want!"

• "that was wrong"

• "i came over here cuz usually when jack is outside, it's authentic!"

• "i want to cut your hands off and shove them down your throat just to shut you up!!"

• "so nothing's gonna change! You can just keep on doing whatever the fuck you want, mike! Good job! Congrats on your genetics!"

• "freeze, bitch"

• "Raccoon prongs with suction cups on them are hard to come by."

#i might have some problems lmao #i am a ridiculous human being #sentence starters #long post

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teaandforeshadowing · 8 years ago

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The “Mary is a Villain” Meta

Alternative Title: Redemption Arc, Schmedemption Arc

[also posted to reddit - go upvote!]

Mary might be Moran, or she might be Moriarty’s replacement, or she might be the real Moriarty, or his secret twin sister, or--whatever, the details aren’t important. What is important is that Mary is an evil person, and even though she died, the events of season 4 are fake (to an extent), and her story arc is far from over.

“But Mary sacrificed herself to save Sherlock!” you say, “They were all friends, the Watsons love each other!” I hear ya buddy. You can think that if you like, but there is undeniable proof that Mary is not as good a person as everyone thinks she is. (And I mean besides the assassin-for-hire part.) Mirroring and subtext tells us that her redemption arc was bullshit and you should not believe a word of her martyrdom because she was coded as a villain all the way up to - and after - her death.

And this meta is going to show that to you.

As a wee bab of a blogger way back in 2014, I wrote my very first meta about how seasons 1 and 3 are narratively similar and proved that Mary and Jim Moriarty served the same narrative purpose in terms of TJLC and Johnlock. Now, in light of season 4 (to be compared to season 2), I will use this meta to update that theory and expand on it better using my improved observational and meta-writing skills (thanks TST hell week!). In addition, I will list all the other ways Mary has been coded as Generally Evil in ways not directly connected to Moriarty, linked with appropriate metas written about those points!

This meta has 7 parts, numbered 1-7 for your convenience.

#1: The Part Where I Talk About Jim Moriarty #2: The Part Where I Talk About Mary Morstan (briefly) #3: The Part Where I Take a Short Break to Talk About the Abominable Bride #4: The Part Where I Talk About Mary Morstan (again) #5: The Part Where I Take Another Short Break to Talk About Shermit #6: The Part Where I Tie It All Together #7: Additional Potentially Superfluous but Equally Important Resources

TL;DR: Mary is a Villain. If you want to know how, you’re gonna have to read. [If you really must skim, the most important points I make are bolded, though I recommend reading everything for context.]

I apologize if a lot of this is copying off other metas, this is mostly building off things I’ve compiled in my “Maryarty” tag and sorting out thoughts about posts I’ve seen, but I will try to cite as many other metas as I can find that relate. If you find one already written about a specific point I mention, please link me so I can give proper credit!

The part where I talk about Jim Moriarty

Let's take a trip in the time machine and revisit the first season to explore Jim Moriarty's motivations. Moriarty is a consulting criminal that loves to play with Sherlock - he'll cook up the cases and Sherlock will solve them. That is, as long as he always holds the controls and Sherlock doesn't get too close - he'll have fun with the relationship as long as Sherlock doesn't find out what he's really doing behind the curtain. If he does, there will be consequences. The consequences for getting too close the first time involved strapping John to some semtex. Next time, he says he'll burn out Sherlock's heart.

On the roof at the end of season two, Jim admits he's become fed up with playing with Sherlock. Sherlock has become ordinary and boring like everyone else, and he's ready for the game to be over. But he's not going to just let him go. No, he's going to make sure the game ends with a bang. If Sherlock won't smarten up and play with him, then he can't be allowed to continue with anyone. (Sounds a lot like a Jealous Ex-Girlfriend if you ask me.) Jim has taken his friends hostage in order to get him to do what he wants, and he seals Sherlock's fate by shooting himself in the head and destroying Sherlock's only chance of saving them. By killing himself, Jim ensures that Sherlock dies too.

Jims narrative purpose in these two seasons was to present him with the opportunity to live his life removed from the mundane drivel of regular people that he’d gotten himself acquainted with. (Of course on a subtextual level, "people" means John.) With Jim, they could dance around each other playing clever games that no one else could hope to understand. Both Jim and Sherlock think Sherlock wants to be intellectually superior, above feelings and emotions, infinitely clever, but we both know that's not quite true. By choosing to jump and save his friends, Sherlock seals the deal that he doesn’t want what Jim is offering.

Conclusion: Jim represents the life that Sherlock thinks he wants. Jim realizes that Sherlock prefers his new life with John instead, and he is willing to kill John in order to keep Sherlock to himself.

The Part Where I Talk About Mary Morstan (briefly)

Fast forward through The Hiatus and we meet Mary, whose usefulness as a character effectively ends when Sherlock comes back to life unless she’s a villain. John mentions several times that Mary was a rock for him as he was grieving Sherlock's death, that she really turned his life around. But he doesn't stop there - for the record, there were only two people who have ever done that for him, and Sherlock is the other.

The comparisons between Mary and Sherlock are rampant in The Sign of Three, with John saying "The two people I love most" (with no distinction between platonic and romantic love), Mary saying "Neither of us were the first" (again, the first what?? Friend?? Romance?? No distinction is made.) and Sherlock using the word "companion" in reference both him and Mary back to back (again again, with no distinction between platonic and marital companionship). Sherlock and Mary are equivalent in everyone's eyes - Mary is replacing Sherlock just as much as Sherlock could easily fit into Mary's role as the bride.

As you can see it's pretty hard to talk about Mary's role in the show without also talking about Johnlock, but that's not why I'm here. It is important to understand, though, how much Sherlock threatens Mary's life with John. Enough, apparently, to take advantage of a golden opportunity when Sherlock finds her in a compromising position. By shooting and killing Sherlock, she kills two birds with one stone - she eliminates the competition, and she gets to reprise her old role of being John's shoulder to cry on.

Conclusion: Mary represents the life that John thinks he wants. Mary realizes that John prefers his old life with Sherlock instead, and she is willing to kill Sherlock in order to keep John to herself.

Sound familiar? This conclusion allows us to assume that in season 4, Mary will continue to follow Jim's season 2 arc by dishing out the consequences of John's choice. (The consequences in Jim's case was The Fall.)

Except, that's not really what happens, is it? Mary dies a martyr in episode 1, helps John come to terms with his guilt surrounding his almost-affair, and lovingly narrates the culmination of this penultimate season, sending her two Baker Street Boys into the adventurous future with a smile from the Great Beyond.

Of course, we would accept this as truth if it weren't for all the evidence presented to us that continuously suggests the opposite.

The Part Where I Take a Short Break to Talk About The Abominable Bride

Before we dive into season 4, we need to take a short detour to The Abominable Bride, which served as a bridge between the two seasons and a sort of "decoder ring" for a lot of what happens in the show - it’s a dream that can be used to interpret what’s going on in “real life”, just like our dreams. It set up mirrors and parallels so that we saw certain characters (*cough* Mary) a certain way and could interpret their confusing and misleading actions and behavior the way they were meant to. The surface reading of season 4 is not a truthful one, and TAB is a big part of understanding why that is.

The title The Abominable Bride refers to the bride Emelia Ricoletti, who shot herself in the head, and then seemed to come back from the dead. It's foreshadowed throughout the episode (the he/she mixup, "virus in the data") that Sherlock is really just trying to figure out how Moriarty could have come back to life from shooting himself in the head. In the end, the bride draws back the veil to reveal that it really was Jim all along! This explicit reveal, which was the point of the entire episode, gives us an obvious comparison: Emelia Ricoletti is Jim Moriarty. She even dies to kill her husband, like Jim did on the roof. Sherlock subconsciously connects Emelia to Jim, so we should too.

But there's another mirror to be found here. A subtexual one: Mary is also a bride.

The show even reminds us of this as Bride Mary confronts Sherlock with her gun in his mind palace in HLV, instead of like, the assassin gear she's actually wearing when she shoots him. Sherlock subconsciously sees Mary as a bride, so we should too.

Even before the episode aired, this connection was made, and people speculated that Mary was The Bride that is referenced in the title of the episode. As it turns out, they were only partially wrong. When she is introduced in the episode, she's dressed as a widow (purely for the purpose of impish humor, but the subconscious connection of a being a wife is still there), and many first believed that this "client" was The Bride from the case. But when the veil is pulled away - shocker, it's Mary!

Using this evidence and the Transitive Property of Equality, we can assume that Mary is supposed to be subtextually compared with Moriarty. If Emelia = Jim, and Emelia = Mary, then Mary = Jim.

(In addition, even though Mary is shown not to be a part of The Conspiracy, it's shown to us through out the episode that Mary fits right in with them: she's joined the women's suffrage movement, feels neglected by her husband, and is far cleverer than anyone gives her credit for.)

The Part Where I Talk About Mary Morstan (again)

Ok so that short break wasn't really so short, but hopefully you've got a better understanding now how they show Mary's connections to Moriarty because it's time to move onto season 4!

Kind of. There's a lot of confusing stuff that happens in this season. Most of it has to do with subtext that seriously conflicts with Mary's "redemption" arc in The Six Thatchers. I think the easiest way to do this is to put everything in a list:

During setlock, shark imagery was seen that viewers began to associate with Mary because of the scenes they appeared in. There's a shitload of sharks swimming around when Sherlock narrates the tale of Samarra, a tale which turns out to be about Mary. Previously, Sherlock describes CAM as a shark from the London Aquarium, where Mary dies. This makes it sound like Mary is a victim and the Villainous Sharks are coming to get her, but if you take a look at this series of tweets from Mark Gatiss to Amanda Abbington, you'll see that the context changes entirely: Mary is the shark. Mark also describes Moriarty as a shark, so if he and Mary fulfill the same narrative purpose, then, well....

"You can't arrest a jellyfish." There's a huge tank of jellyfish behind Mary as she leaps to save Sherlock.

Mary is a receptionist. So is the villain of the episode, it turns out. Also worth nothing that Ajay thought Mary was the one who betrayed A.G.R.A.

Sherlock's made-up story about Mr. Kingsley's wife being a spy sounds a lot like Mary. (Mr. Kingsley’s reactions to his deductions are also a bit unconventional, like John’s are.)

As Sherlock follows Ajay's Thatcher trail, he assumes that Moriarty is behind the whole thing. It turns out he's wrong, and it's about Mary.

Mary jokes about her daughter being the devil, then the antichrist, which would make her the devil.

She shows up to the desanctified church all ready to go with a paper full of chemical sedatives, just in case, right?

She assumes the identity of Gabrielle Ashdown, who is a character in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes that Sherlock does not trust.

Honestly the whole "running away" scene just screams that Mary is not done with her past as an assassin. If she really was a repentant housewife she wouldn't be so eager to return to her old ways of espionage.

She even insists on naming her daughter after herself and her "real" name that she used in the good old days of A.G.R.A. Yep, definitely done with that dark past, ready to leave it behind for good.

Sherlock never actually tells Mary to meet him at the aquarium. He tells John, but his message to Mary only reads "The curtain rises. The last act. It's not over." which is a line he uses to when presented with Moriarty's first pip in TGG, and in TAB when he's about to dive into Moriarty’s Emelia Ricoletti's case.

Again, Norbury, the villain, says she's the merchant in the story, but we just finished watching the part where Mary attempts to escape her fate at the hands of Ajay. And then Mary dies.

A DVD shows up at Baker Street marked "Miss Me?" - Moriarty's trademark phrase. But who's on it? Mary. “To Sherlock: Please watch this. From, Mary” would have worked just as well.

An after-credits scene has Mary telling Sherlock to "Go to Hell", which is completely out of context, but it still caused us to doubt the seemingly benevolent message of the DVD for an entire week before TLD aired.

TL;DR: We are supposed to second-guess Mary’s intentions for the entire duration of this episode. Mary’s redemption arc and death are not what they appear to be.

Even after Mary dies, she continues to have a pretty dominating presence in the show. She haunts John subconsciously, not dissimilar to the way the ghost of Moriarty haunts Sherlock. She also sets the entire events of The Lying Detective in motion with a single, pleading DVD. A DVD which purposely leads Sherlock to his death.

The Part Where I Take Another Short Break to Talk About Shermit

Ok well not specifically Shermit, but the #SherlockLive twitter event held on January 10th.

For those unfamiliar, this was an official event Sherlock (Mark and Steven) "hijacked" the official BBC One twitter account. He used the time he had to present us with a case he had recently solved in order to test our detective skills. You can see the case’s conclusion here, but in the end, it was revealed that the victim had done it! Just like Sherlock predicted in his Clue game with John.

Daniel Collard was a man who "had a violent past, but apparently has redeemed himself and isn't that person anymore,"; however, evidence proved that he was still an unpleasant person (see above bullet points). His wife, Sophie, was unhappy with him and was secretly in love with someone else, “Joey”, an affair that Daniel soon found out about.

Then, being the clever man he was, Daniel came up with a plan to get revenge involving doctored photos, phony tweets, and faked security camera footage that framed his wife's secret lover for his death. Since Sophie was not content in their marriage, Daniel meant for his death to destroy the relationship she really wanted.

Now, looking at the other details of this case, a very easy connection can be made between Daniel and Mary: "brilliant sociopath commits suicide in such a way that it is intended to frame and destroy spouse and spouse's lover, conveniently initialed S and J, while incidentally implying that brilliant sociopath was also having an affair that ended when one of the parties became pregnant". [see: The Baby Isn't John's.]

The Part Where I Tie Everything Together

While reading this, it might have become clear to some of you that there is a recurring theme here, which I will point out to you soon, but in order to fully understand what I'm about to drop on alla-y'all right now, you need to understand how mirrors work as a literary device (because recently this lack of understanding has been causing some fandom drama). If you already understand this, feel free to skip the next paragraph.

A mirror is a character that is used to highlight certain traits in another, typically more important character. We can draw parallels between these two characters based on traits they have in common and make inferences and predictions about them based on what they don't have in common or what happens to them. Sometimes the story will explicitly tell us that the two characters are similar, but a lot of the time it will be more subtle, such as having the characters wear very similar outfits, or having them say the exact same conversation with/phrase to the same character. As a literary device, mirrors can foreshadow events, reveal background information that was previously unknown/unconfirmed, or show us how a character really feels about a situation without having them tell us outright. See here for some quick examples.

Now I will lay it out for you as clearly as I can:

Moriarty killed himself on the roof in order to condemn Sherlock to suicide after he became too boring as posthumous revenge.

This mirror alone should be enough to conclude that Mary's death was intentional and served a bigger purpose. But TPTB were kind enough to provide us with yet another mirror:

Emelia Ricoletti faked her death - with witnesses - so she could kill her neglectful husband as posthumous revenge.

Emelia and Moriarty's deaths both had similar meanings, so since Mary mirrors both of these characters, it's actually kind of obvious that Mary's death did not have good intentions. HOWEVER!! TPBP were extra super kind enough to provide us with YET ANOTHER mirror!

Daniel Collard killed himself in a way that framed his wife's lover in order to ruin their relationship as posthumous revenge.

This one occurs after Mary's death in The Six Thatchers, as if to frame it from both sides that there's more to it than meets the eye.

And if you take that last one into consideration when thinking about Mary’s role last season, Jim’s role in season 2, and The DVD, it becomes almost painfully obvious that Mary’s death served as a way to separate John and Sherlock permanently.

Additional Potentially Superfluous but Equally Important Resources

Before I link you to all the resources I've amassed, I think that it's vital to point out that it's been two months since Mary's arc finally ended in The Lying Detective, and BBC is still putting out new content related to Mary, as if they don’t want us to forget about her just yet:

First, after she died in The Six Thatchers, they released some promo pics which, before the context of The Lying Detective, suggested that Mary was still alive.

Then was her completely unnecessary second DVD in The Final Problem. The last thing they present to us in this season finale is a voiceover of a character that is long-dead and irrelevant, as if they want her presence to stick in our mind

For the special cinema screening of The Final Problem, they included extra bonus content that was basically a mini documentary about Mary.

The BBC worldwide Showcase on February 20th gave us this charming little dancing-Sherlocks routine in front of a backdrop of... Mary deductions...

Masterpiece PBS posted this video on February 28th, in which Martin and Amanda talk about their characters' relationship, accompanied by clips that don't really support their claims. At all.

There's a lot more that points towards Mary's villainy other than the parallels and connections I've pointed out above, but frankly the issue has already been beaten to death, so instead of reiterating what's already been said, I'm going to link you to as many metas as I can - metas that inspired this post and contributed to it as I was writing it up. They do not have any direct connection towards what I've already said, but simply exist as more proof that Mary is a villain on the show.

If you have a favorite that I’ve missed, please let me know and I can add it!

In no particular order:

Mary and Jim are not only narrative equals, but also serve to symbolize the two biggest obstacles in homosexual relationships; Mary represents heteronormativity, and Jim represents homophobia.

She's first shown to us with a black hat on (which makes her look like Sherlock for one thing), but in Old Western movies, viewers are able to easily identify Baddie Outlaws from the good guys by the colors of their hats. (See: Westworld)

Mary is The Woman in Green, a villain from another Holmes adaptation, and a femme fatale.

She's frequently shown onscreen in her fiery red coat/cardigan, which is not necessarily the type of color that is warm, comforting, or inviting. Brown is non-threatening, blue is trustworthy, red is warning, wrong, bad.

She says "You should put that on a T-shirt", which is later mirrored by Magnussen.

Mrs. Hudson is a John mirror, so Mr. Hudson (the criminal) is meant to symbolize Mary - John and Mary had known each other for less than 6 months before he proposed.

The scene at the end of The Abominable Bride parallels almost perfectly with that of Mary's reveal in his Last Vow: "Isn't that right Lady Carmichael/Smallwood?" but is actually Moriarty/Mary.

They left out the Garridebs brother named John in their canon nod in TFP, which makes Mary Killer Evans, the villain from the story.

Mary is Eurus and the true East Wind.

Mary is a "shoot first, ask questions later" kind of girl. And she might have actually killed the flight attendant.

Mary lies. A lot.

Her arc and musical themes mirror those of Irene, another villain.

There's a lot of stuff here if you want to just scroll down to "These are the facts", they've got the links laid out very nicely.

References to Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe indicate that Mary is a plant by Moriarty to get between Sherlock and John.

Mary's death was posthumous revenge, video proof.

Sherlock texts Mary the same way he texts Jim.

The Six Thatchers is an inverted retelling of ACD's The Final Problem, with Mary as Professor Moriarty.

Remember that time when John had something strapped to his chect and a villain compared him to a pet?

Mary's view of what "trust" is isn't exactly encouraging, and she uses love as a weapon. I know there are other more extensive metas out there, so if anyone would like to link me to them I'd be grateful!

Certain musical motifs used at certain times indicates malicious intent.

Mary is described as satanic in the script. And guess what? So is Moriarty.

A short list of why we should be side-eyeing Mary's redemption arc and death.

Mary's single tear and trembling gun hand in the His Last Vow script (which doesn't make it into the aired version) conflicts with what happens immediately after.

Mary's death scene is.... weird.

Parallels to Lady Smallwood gives us more reason to think Mary is trying to drive Sherlock and John apart

If we assume that Mary is American, then it's possible that she could have plans to stalk/menace John after framing him for her death.

After some pretty great foreshadowing, Mary's redemption arc is very poorly executed.

Making those DVDs is actually super irresponsible and doesn't make any sense narratively.

Mary was never nice to John before The Six Thatchers.

There's a trademarked Villain Head Tilt in the show, and Mary does it.

Sherlock is really only dramatic in the presence of Mary.

Mary's death being faked is foreshadowed using canon hints.

The Black Pearl of the Borgias case draws parallels between Moriarty and Mary.

More parallels between Norbury and Mary.

There are Moriarty symbols in the nursery.

Mary is probably responsible for Tablisi going "wrong"

Honestly her death was just really unrealistic.

Connections between Mary and the number 58 suggest she's evil, but Sherlock can't see it because he's in love with John.

The game is never over, John. But there may be some new players now.

I cited a LOT of meta (71 links total!!) in here that I tried my best to link back to OPs and major contributors that I’ve tagged here. Thanks for having such great analyses!

@rominatrix @inevitably-johnlocked @sussexbound-main @welovethebeekeeper @toxicsemicolon @darlingsubstitution @jenna221b @sherlockianbee @hubblegleeflower @incurablylazydevil @allroadsleadbacktobakerstreet @beejohnlocked @watsonshoneybee @abitnotgood @silentauroriamthereal @deducingbbcsherlock @cheuwing @holmesianscholar @loveismyrevolution @sherlock-overflow-error @may-shepard @marcespot @kinklock @johnsjawline @havetardiswilltimetravel @redwidows @the-blue-carbuncle @tjlcisthenewsexy @visionandperception @swishyspock @weeesi @finalproblem @miadifferent @wssh-watson @thefinalrugpull @cartopathy @riteofashkente

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