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obsessivedilettante · 5 years ago

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20 in 10: A Drama Retrospective

Since I’ve been all quiet on the drama front this year because of life reasons, I thought it would be fun to go back and pick out 20 of the most memorable dramas of the last decade. Maybe not necessarily the best dramas or even my favorites (although some are!), but two dramas each year that were somehow notable moments in my drama-watching timeline.

2009: Gateway Drugs

Boys over Flowers (KBS)

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good drama. It is not one I think I can ever really rewatch (although I will happily revisit the 2005 Japanese version, and I had a hellava fun time watching the latest Chinese version). But! It was the first kdrama I remember watching, and the first step on the slippery slope of eventually becoming a Drama Addict. I mostly remember it being crazy popular on places like mysoju (RIP), and so I checked it out due to curiosity, and the rest, as they say, is history. Or, should I say, almost paaaaradise!

You’re Beautiful (SBS)

This one I also watched because it became crazy-popular online, and curiosity got the better of me. I really didn’t know much about k-pop prior to dramas, so I had no idea until after this drama that k-pop was more about pretty people in crazy fashion, dancing in syncopation in bizarrely lit rooms, rather than playing instruments. Because it was thanks to this drama that I got my crash-course on k-pop as a phenomenon -- both the fandom side, and the crazy things that artists have to go through to claw their way into the public’s view (nevar 4get the glorious ramen dance). Since Angel was a group that played instruments, and Hongki and Yonghwa were also from groups that played instruments, I assumed that all kpop were groups that played instruments. Oh, sweet summer child...

But it did get me started on my k-pop journey, first falling in love with FT Island and CNBLUE, before falling into the rabbit hole of the other prominent groups of the day. (SNSD! The Wonder Girls! Super Junior! DBSK! SS501! Kara! 2PM! 2AM! Shinee! BEG! Epik High! U-KISS! All the debut groups, like 2NE1, MBLAQ, B2ST, 4Minute, f(x), T-ara, After School... basically 2009 was a magical year in k-pop.)

If I had just watched Boys Over Flowers, I don’t know that I would have become a Drama Addict. But You’re Beautiful pushed me closer to the edge, with the zany humor of the Hong Sisters (and the desire for a pig-bunny of my own!). It would really be Coffee Prince that would push me over the edge, but that aired in 2007 so it doesn’t count for this list. But I had to mention it anyway, because, well, it’s Coffee Prince and where my love for Handsome Oppa began.

2010: More Than Candy

The Woman Who Wants To Marry (MBC)

A lot of the dramas I watched at first had that typical “Candy” character, the poor-but-scrappy girl who would somehow be saved by the guy and become the Cinderella she never knew she wanted to be. So it was a delight when I encountered women who were not only older than high-school-age or early twenties, but in their thirties, with rich full lives! Plus, this was one of my earliest introductions to the concept of the “noona romance” (a concept that I’ve since heartily embraced, of course). I started it primarily because Kim Bum was my favorite of the Flower Boys, but I stuck with it because I fell in love with the women (and I still have a girl-crush on Bu-ki).

Harvest Villa (tvn)

This show is insane. But in the good way, the way that the writer intended, and not in the “are a bunch of monkeys typing this script?” train-wreck way. There was basically no buzz about this show, and I feel like I somehow accidentally stumbled over it, but it was love at first sight. I’ve never forgotten the late hours binging it, being so sucked into the story that I absolutely had to finish it as soon as I could, disappointed that there wasn’t more of it to enjoy when I finally finished, bleary-eyed and sleep-deprived, but satisfied.

I then later gobbled down this writer’s next drama, and her next drama, and the next, until everyone else finally realized thanks to Signal that Kim Eun-hee was as amazing a writer as I kept insisting to anyone who would listen (aka no one).

2011: To Binge or Not To Binge?

White Christmas (KBS)

I did not watch White Christmas in 2011. I actually watched it in 2013. I was always a steadfast binger, preferring to wait until the buzz about a show would sway me into spending my precious free-time watching something that would be worth my while (not that my drama choices were always good, but at least I tried to avoid the duds). I still prefer to binge, since waiting weeks for new episodes is vaguely frustrating when I want to know what happens next, right now! Plus, I’m very good at forgetting that I’m watching a show in the week-long wait for new episodes, and then just... never picking it back up again.

Despite watching White Christmas a couple years after it aired, it remains one of my favorites, and one I love to rewatch, even though I’ve already experienced whodunnit cliff-hangers and psychological rollercoasters. It became a tradition of sorts here on tumblr for a bunch of us to rewatch it over the holiday season -- alas, I haven’t joined in that tradition for the past couple of years, but I hope that somewhere in this blue hell hole that there are a loyal few keeping the tradition alive.

At least we have this drama to thank for bringing us all the model-actors that were new and clueless in White Christmas, but would later go on to be leading men in their own right. Of course, some of them haven’t exactly made the best drama choices (*cough*SungJoon*cough*), but then there are others (*cough*SooHyuk*cough*) that I’m impatiently waiting for to pick up a new drama so I can see those post-army abs.

Tree With Deep Roots (SBS)

This is the first drama that I recall live-watching. I vaguely remember regretting it at the time, since it was agony waiting for new episodes, but it was also fun to have a week to speculate and ponder the show. And what a beautiful show to ponder! This was also one of the few sageuks I actually watched, being generally intimidated by anything longer than 16-20 episodes, and my historical knowledge was a little shaky (before embracing my inner nerd and diving into mundane historical stuff just so I could better understand whatever drama I was watching at the time).

I don’t think I intended to continue live-watching shows, preferring the ease of binging at my own pace and schedule. But that was when I was still a casual, innocent addict, and not someone who would eventually make dramas a huge part of her life.

2012: The Joy of Overthinking

Gaksital (KBS)

Having had a taste of live-watching, I started to live-watch enough dramas to the point where I began to make notes about the premiere weeks. It was only a couple at a time, and binging was still my preferred way to watch, but now I was delighting in being part of the fandom, sharing in speculation each week, posting my thoughts on dramas and analyzing them to my heart’s content -- even though I knew no one except me would read my ridiculous essays.

But I started to feel more comfortable sharing my opinion with the world, interacting with fandom and not merely content to be a consumer, but gradually becoming a producer as well.

Reply 1997 (tvN)

This is it. This is when I went full-on Drama Addict. This is the tipping point from casual fan who quietly kept to herself, to becoming someone who stood on the mountain top yelling about ALL THE DRAMAS ALL THE TIME. I began to interact with other fans! To swap theories and share squee-worthy moments! I even watched episodes RAW just because of how desperate I was to know what happened, and even though the Busan accent stumped me more than once, it made me realize that my casual study of Korean was something to take seriously since I understood more than I gave myself credit for.

It was also the first time any post I made got more than a handful of notes, since I’d mostly hovered in the “less than 10 notes per post” category at the time. I was so proud of myself back then!

(This drama also notably marks the start of my Hoya obsession, which continues to this day.)

2013: Tumblr Friends (and Foes)

Flower Boy Next Door (tvN)

Having made myself comfortable on tumblr as a Drama Addict, I then discovered some other dedicated fans -- many of which I still follow to this day and who are now just a permanent part of my dash, no matter what their current interests may be -- in the FBND squad.

But I also discovered Kim Seul-gi as the Webtoon Editor (who I still love and adore and continue to use as my avatar), and her adorable romance with Dong-hoon remains one of my forever OTPs. As much as I enjoyed the drama romances, I’d never fallen so deeply for one to be so obsessed by it as I was Webtoon Editor and Dong-hoon. And tbh I still am. They’re just so adorable and pragmatic and she buys him a bag. Ugh. I love her so much, you guys.

Heirs (SBS)

Ah, yes. This hot mess.

I don’t know what possessed me to live-blog each episode. But I did. With snarky commentary and terrible screencaps. And suddenly I went from maybe 200 followers to over a 1000. That was a total shock! I met a lot of people because of that (and made some friends, as well as a few enemies who didn’t appreciate my opinion of certain characters), and ensconced myself as part of the drama-blogging crew.

It was from this that someone suggested I apply to be a minion at Dramabeans. Back then, I had a lot more free time than I do now, and I was watching a lot of dramas that Dramabeans didn’t cover, and wished they did so I could read more opinions about those shows. So I thought, “Eh, why not? It can’t hurt to submit something because the worst that would happen is I’d waste their time making them read my take on episode 10 of Let’s Eat.”

I fully expected them to turn me down. No one was more surprised than I was when I found myself agreeing to dive into the world of recapping.

2014: It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Trot Lovers (KBS)

Recapping. It seems so easy when you’re reading the recaps. But actually creating them is a bitch. Hours out of my life were spent on this disaster of a trope-laden show with no plot. This was the third show I worked on for Dramabeans, and I hated it to the point where I seriously considered handing in my notice. (Immediately following up this show with the mediocre My Secret Hotel certainly didn’t help matters!)

However, it turns out that what I actually hated was being forced to watch a terrible rom-com and pretend to come up with insightful-or-at-least-neutral thoughts about it (since we were still new and couldn’t go full-on snark yet).

Misaeng (tvN)

This is what saved me. Being given the chance to immerse myself in such a unique, ponderous, thoughtful show restored my faith in dramas and the drama community. I loved spending hours on this show, soaking up all the little details, and then sharing that love with the world.

Misaeng made dramas magical again.

2015: Fight Me

Valid Love (tvN)

Realizing that I only seemed to enjoy rom-coms at arm-length, I discovered that my tastes often ran counter to the general drama-viewing public. Not all the drama-viewing public -- I’m not a “not like other fans” kind of fan -- but enough that I began to realize the whether a drama was popular or had good buzz was not necessarily the primary reason to watch it.

I began to have more faith in my own taste, based on past experiences with various writers and directors. Even if the premise (or first couple of episodes) seemed kind of weird and out-there, I at least wanted to give these artists the benefit of the doubt that I would enjoy their work, like I had previously.

So many people seemed to hate Valid Love, but I adored it. Still do (and still desperately wish Kim Do-woo would come out with a new drama -- it has been too long, writer-nim!). There were a lot of opinions about this show, even among people who seemed to enjoy it, but I vividly recall having to repeatedly insist that it wasn’t about the romance and argue that the knee-jerk infidelity-is-BAD opinions should make space for something more nuanced.

Ho-gu’s Love (tvN)

DramaFever was a pretty great site. It brought together so many drama fans and gave them a place where they could legally (and without fear of downloading random viruses) watch dramas to their heart’s content. Yes, there may have been some lingering resentment that they were the primary reason that so many amazing other sites were shut down (RIP mysoju and daebaeksubs), but dramas were more accessible than ever!

Eventually, DramaFever started to sub shows themselves and upload them weekly (instead of just using fansubs and uploading older dramas), and while they weren’t the best translations, they were at least better than machine translations from the Chinese subs. As I became more and more familiar with Korean, I found myself more likely to migrate to Viki since I liked the extra detailed translations. I could get the gist of a show without any help -- I wanted to instead delve into the nitty-gritty of the language.

But I never really hated DramaFever or felt they were particularly awful. Until they mistranslated something so terribly that it changed the entire meaning of a scene and ruined people’s perception of a drama, forcing me to continually defend the true translation.

That was the molehill I died on that day, and never again did I touch DramaFever. I feel bad that it eventually got unceremoniously shuttered. But I don’t think I’ll ever forgive them for the “condom” incident.

2016: Free Solo

Dear My Friends (tvN)

For two years I’d been happily working on one episode a week, sharing a show with someone else, until I was asked if I’d like to tackle a show by myself. I wasn’t sure how I could handle it, but I had the time in my schedule so I said, “Sure, why not?”

I was originally going to recap Another Oh Hae-young, but there was a last-minute switcheroo, and I’m so incredibly glad because this is perhaps my favorite recapping experience of all time, even more so than Misaeng. There was something so special about the luxury of having an entire show to myself, especially one with such a fantastic cast of characters and thoughtful themes. I didn’t have to try and figure out if I agreed with another person’s take -- it could all be my opinion.

Is that arrogant? Perhaps. But it was also therapeutic, as it reminded me once again how incredible and amazing dramas could be, and the privilege I had to share such an exquisite and thought-provoking drama with the rest of the world.

The Good Wife (tvN)

Surprisingly, this was what I had really wanted to recap that year, and the true reason I got Dear My Friends, since it aired just prior in the same time-slot as The Good Wife. I was desperate to have this show, willing to do anything to get it because I needed to see Jeon Do-yeon back on the small screen, to see Yoo Ji-tae smolder, to know how Korea would adapt such an ambitious show.

And I wasn’t disappointed! This is, perhaps, my favorite adaption of another work of art that I’ve seen in dramaland. It remained true to Korean sensibilities, but it also properly felt like The Good Wife. The cast was phenomenal. The costumes were exquisite. I wished I could spend more time in that world.

But I was also thankful, because without The Good Wife, I would have never have had Dear My Friends.

2017: Serial-Killers Are Cool

Voice (OCN)

I can’t remember how I got assigned to this. Maybe it was a scheduling thing. I do know that I really, really wanted it, since it would be Handsome Oppa’s first drama appearance in three years.

But it started me down a road of recapping a lot of serious and serial-killer-centric shows. Except for the times when I’d beg for a break and tackle something lighter, I was generally assigned the darker mystery shows with meaty plots, since apparently I had a knack for condensing complicated shows into something that made sense. (Also literally darker, and I eventually learned to automatically brighten every screencap I posted. You’re welcome.)

Not only did I love working on something with Handsome Oppa, I also had fun recapping the start of what would eventually become OCN’s stock-in-trade -- creepy serial killers. At the time, Voice shattered OCN’s viewer ratings (which would then be shattered again and again as more people would tune in to OCN shows). But Voice really helped put OCN on the viewership map -- as well as catapult Handsome Oppa into the public eye and lead him to a path of getting to choose whatever script he wanted to work on.

(Okay, maybe I made that last bit up, but he did begin to garner a larger following and remind everyone that just because he was gone from dramaland for so long, he hadn’t lost his acting chops -- or charisma -- or cheekbones.)

Black (OCN)

Oh, this show. It was basically my whole life while it was airing (well, the non-day-job part of my life). Each episode was over an hour long and jam-packed full of details that were pertinent to the story, and I had to somehow condense that all into 3000 words or less (I was not always, ah, successful...). It felt like I was back in recapping bootcamp, but the dial had been turned up to 11.

I’m weirdly proud of what I produced (although you’ll never get me to reread my old work). It was one of the most challenging shows to work on, but in the good way, not the Trot Lovers way.

Until the ending, that is. Sigh. That ending will live in infamy. I still, to this day, will get a few comments on the finale from people who watched it on Netflix, went searching online for an explanation of the end, and then discovered that they were not alone in being confused by the utter wtf-ery of the last twenty minutes.

2018: Fighting For My Love

Misty (JTBC)

So, Dramabeans kind of disappeared for a few months. Well, the site was still live. There were a handful of recaps. But... it basically just... stopped.

Those of us on the other side know about as you do as to why that happened. Minions are kept in the dark just as much as anybody, it seems. All we knew is that we weren’t being assigned anything and we seriously wondered if the site was going under, since adsense has become worthless these days.

But Mary and I kept talking about how much we adored Misty and were sad that we couldn’t talk about it with the world (and convince them to watch it with us), so we pleaded and begged and got the go-ahead to do a kind of chatty “open thread” which has apparently been a spring-board format for other shows. We didn’t get paid for this, and we were totally fine with that. We just wanted to provide some kind of content (while swooning over Kim Nam-joo’s pantsuits!).

Let’s Eat 3 (tvN)

This was my first real assignment after the dead period, and I once again got to do full recaps (with pay!). I started watching, thinking I’d merely tolerate the show (since I loved the first season vastly more than the second season), but it turned out to be my favorite of the three. Plus it felt fortuitous that the series I had submitted my application would be a series I’d work on four years later.

Sometimes it’s nice to spend time with a character you met years ago, to see them grow, to see how they became what they became. Drama trends (and love interests) will come and go, but Goo Dae-young’s love of food (and love of explaining the proper way to eat food) will never change. It was a really comforting drama for me to spend my summer on, and I’ll remember it fondly, even if I’m forever sad that it had to suddenly wrap-up two episodes early.

2019: Ten Years Later

Item (MBC)

This was the Trot Lovers of 2019. It was a nonsensical disaster.

I also had the added chaos of my real-life job -- one very different from the one I had when I was working on Trot Lovers -- as it began to increase exponentially in responsibilities and in stress. I reached a breaking point where I began to hate opening my computer where I’d have to spend hours attempting to explain a show that I wanted nothing to do with. I was miserable and depressed and couldn’t do it anymore. I never before asked to be taken off a show because I hated it so much, but there’s a first for everything.

Her Private Life (tvN)

I actually haven’t finished this show -- I’ve yet to watch the last two episodes. But I’m including it because, well, I didn’t finish any other show in 2019 except for Item.

As some of you may know, this has been a difficult year. It started with the unexpected stress of my job, when we suddenly lost one of our directors who passed away, and another director was let go (in a complicated situation that is ongoing, but the important thing is that it was during our busiest time when we really couldn’t afford to lose anyone), and another director left for a different job and I was basically the one to pick up all the pieces she left behind. It was exhausting and we were all past the breaking point but somehow miraculously holding it together.

I was looking forward to finally getting a much-needed vacation in September, and then, well, you all know how that went: the first night, on our layover in New Zealand before what was supposed to be three weeks in Australia, my father was taken to the hospital, and then, two days later, he passed away. Life has gotten even more chaotic and stressful and bizarre since then.

So no, I haven’t finished this drama, but it was one of the most wonderful moments of the year for me, watching this fizzy rom-com with my favorite actor, where he got to be charming and handsome and charismatic and finally kiss the girl he loves and have her love him back (and not die or be dumped, as he had been in so many dramas that had gone before). Lion Oppa was everything my heart could desire, and living in his world helped me endure the insanity that I wish I’d known would seem so much more tolerable than what would eventually befall.

Her Private Life reminded me of when I first fell in love with dramas ten years ago, when I would giggle and be delighted by the charming nonsense on screen -- of beautiful people falling in love and fighting against the obstacles between them (some more ridiculous than others, perhaps, but there are always obstacles), and ending up happily ever after. Pure escapism, of the frothiest kind.

A Drama-filled Decade

So, after ten years of dramas, what is the takeaway? What have I learned?

I suppose I’ve learned to trust my instincts and put more faith in writers and directors than actors. That analyzing dramas is fun, and it’s even more fun sharing it with others, and sometimes even more fun if you get paid to do it -- but everyone eventually reaches a breaking point. That I’m too earnest and optimistic to embrace a life of snark. That I want every drama to be good but most of them aren’t, except sometimes they are. That I’m not even sure which genres are my favorite; I just know what I don’t like.

That dramas are best as escapism, and not as work.

I don’t know how many dramas I’ll watch in 2020. I haven’t paid any attention to what’s airing, and I’m okay with that. Perhaps I’m entering a new phase in my life, or perhaps I just don’t have the capacity to escape right now.

But I am pleased to have had dramas in my life, and to have eventually made them my hobby. I’ve met a lot of amazing people and made some genuine friends through a shared love of dramas (or, at times, a shared hatred). I’m honored that all of you are still here and following me, even during this period of fandom silence.

May 2020 treat us all better, and may Kim Do-woo finally write another script.

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marvelandponder · 7 years ago

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That Honestly Sounds like the Setup to a Bad Joke

Instead, it’s one of the most compelling cases for the Equestria Girls series to keep making new content. The differences and similarities between the EQG cast and the mane cast of Friendship is Magic are what make it as worthwhile as it is.

There’s a balance between distinguishing these characters enough so that they’re interesting, and keeping them recognizable that can be hard but essential to strike.

On the flip side, that’s also why Equestria Girls is useful to the main series: what it can tell you about the characters via contrast.

And therein lies the reason I wanted to celebrate today, Twilight Day, by talking about both Twilight Sparkles. No other main character currently has a counterpart quite as unique, yet still very familiar, as the Twilights do. And at this point, both have received a significant amount of character development, so I think it’s fair game to put both these book nerds to the test.

Oh, and a quick apology: Equestria Daily changed Twilight day this year to go with international Friendship Day (plus I’m sick), so this post is a little tardy, but it’s not like anyone would mind that, right?

Fun, Superficial Differences

Okay, okay, none of this is exactly significant, but before we actually go into the real stuff, please indulge in my fun-fact style trivia:

Curly v.s. Straight: Of course, SciTwi has curly sideburns, Twilight has straight sideburns, but if you go back and watch the first two movies, Twilight has a nervous habit of twirling her sideburns around her finger. The implication seems to be that SciTwi also has this habit, and has had it for so long she’s actually kinked the hair

Bow-Tie Symbolism: The Crystal Prep uniform is designed to compliment SciTwi’s design, and one detail in particular (that maybe actually means nothing) that I picked up on is the fact that SciTwi wore a tie, while Twilight wears a bow-tie. After SciTwi develops through Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree, her new outfit includes, what else, a bow-tie. Because of the change, I tend to think it was an intentional choice to signal to the viewer that she’s grown, accepted friendship, and is on her way to becoming more like her Princess counterpart

Blind as a Pony: There’s currently no in-universe explanation for why SciTwi needs glasses, but Twilight doesn’t, and a part of me wonders if Twilight actually does need glasses but has never realized it because she needs them for distance, not reading. Contacts are a thing, and she might just not need them, but it’s a thought.

Parallel Universe, Parallel Eggheads

It’s quite obvious the real difference between Twilight and Twilight is experience, but as I alluded to at the top of the post, that’s what makes a parallel universe so interesting.

Putting the same person in different situations gives you different results.

For example, the real turning point between season 1 Twilight and Friendship Games SciTwi is that while Pony Twilight had no real interest in friend-making, SciTwi was placed in a more hostile environment and couldn’t make friends even if she wanted to.

And based on her interactions with the mane 5 throughout the movie, she does want to. In the first episodes of Friendship is Magic, Twilight makes it clear she’d rather be just doing her job than socializing. That’s not the case here. SciTwi might have less interest in socializing overall, but that’s only because she doesn’t have the opportunity to really connect with anyone around her.

We know in hindsight Princess Twi had ponies who actually tried to be and even considered themselves to be her friend. She was just oblivious to it, but she wasn’t quite ostracized (except maybe in magic kindergarten, she seems pretty traumatized over that).

SciTwi, on the other hand, went to Crystal Prep Academy where most of the experiences she had with other students were icy at best, demoralizing at worst.

So, it’s here where we can see the beginnings of what makes SciTwi unique from Twilight. Both can be rather internal and worry a lot, but while Twilight definitely tends to be neurotic, because of her more discouraging schooling, SciTwi tends to seem a bit more... depressive, I would say.

Because of the shoddy treatment, SciTwi starts out seeming a bit more self-conscious than Twilight. She’s her happiest when she’s alone talking about her research with Spike.

They build on SciTwi’s slightly different characterization in Legend of Everfree, as SciTwi tackles what could arguably be legitimately called a milder form of P.T.S.D.

This is one of the best things about EQG that I hope they don’t abandon when they make it a Youtube spinoff (by the way, fans of the relatively new Hasbro Youtube-exclusive show Hanazuki have pointed out that it’s likely the EQG show will have 10 minute episodes with 27 episodes per season because that’s what Hanazuki has; just some hopeful speculation): the excellent continuity.

I could ramble on and on about how satisfying it is that this genuinely terrifying event actually affected SciTwi in a profound way, but suffice it to say, Twilight isn’t usually as deeply affected (in an on-going way) as SciTwi is by the world-ending events in her life.

The only things that really seem to stick with Twilight in quite the same way are 1. Being in the Golden Oaks library as it burnt down around her, 2. Her lack of purpose post-graduation.

I think that’s because Twilight had her friends to depend on the first few world-ending disasters, so a sort of optimism built up over time, and even a faith in her own abilities to navigate seemingly no-win situations like the season 5 finale. The things that do grieve her for longer are things her friends can’t really help with as easily: personal loss and a quarter-life crisis.

All of seasons 4 and 5 (and her role in Rainbow Rocks) were dedicated to the latter, with Twilight Time in hindsight perhaps foreshadowing her purpose. The theme of Twilight feeling useless and her search for meaning and fulfillment is a hard one to tackle, even with the support of her friends, because it’s so abstract. Can’t really fire the rainbow laser at it.

These may not necessarily be the biggest challenges Twilight faces --- hell, they’re not even the hardest to deal with in the moment: I’m still shook up that she sobbed over Celestia’s seemingly dead body --- but the fact that she doesn’t have more on-going trauma seems to indicate how deeply valuable her support system is.

And if not that, looking back at Legend of Everfree, where SciTwi tries to deal with something traumatic on her own. Which, spoilers: goes about as well as you’d expect.

I find it neat that Twilight comes to the conclusion that friendship is magic by going on an adventure with the girls and seeing their individual strengths, whereas SciTwi has to feel the support of her friends and realize her own strength to get it.

By the time we get to the EQG shorts, SciTwi has become a part of the group and more confident, for sure, but I think I still see a few remnants of the girl she was before she went through that character arc. Even just the way how her mood seems to drop when Crystal Prep is brought up. She’s certainly trying to be less guarded, but that’s it, isn’t it?

The reason SciTwi is as compelling as she is so far is because she’s a more guarded version of the Princess of Friendship.

Both of them have the same awkward yet well-spoken charm, but while one of them grew to teach and inspire others by creating her own meaning in life (her own titles, choosing her own students, etc.), the other has dealt with depression, P.T.S.D., and general high school fun.

So, it kinda seems to me that the real difference between Twilight and SciTwi is their age. This is always something that’s up for debate (even if Big Jim would say Spike is around 16-22 in pony years, which would put Twilight in her twenties, you don’t need to take that as the word of law), but just based on the types of struggles they face, it seems Twilight’s a 20-something looking for purpose and meaning in the working world, while SciTwi is a teenager just trying to survive the pressure of social situations and her own mental illnesses.

For one of them the answer to what more is out there has to do with what she can contribute to the world, and the for the other, it’s the personal connections she’s been craving.

Now that SciTwi actually has learned the value of friendship and made those connections, the key difference will likely still be those formative experiences that made her that much more guarded (then again, I’m rubbish at predicting, so watch them take her in a totally new direction I should’ve seen coming). But, who knows?

If nothing else, it’s been awesome getting to know two different versions of the same adorable dork. And no matter which universe it is, in the battle of head versus heart, Twilight’s heart always wins in the end. Despite the variables between the two, we can always count on that to stay constant.

Pony stuff? I’ve got more editorials like this one, episodes reviews, and you can see the last three things I’ve done right here:

Comic Con Coverage, Hard to Say Anything Review, and Honest Apple Review

Year of the Pony

Header Image Wouldn’t be Possible Without...

Twilight Vector by DJDavid98 SciTwi Vector by Uponia

Constants and Variables

#twilight sparkle #year of the pony #scitwi #equestria girls #eqg #mlp #my little pony #friendship is magic #mlp:fim #mlp: fim #cartoons #animation #mlp editorials #mlp analysis

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rikirachtman · 7 years ago

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Tagged again for another one of these things by @jessyulrich. Thanks for all the tags dude! It gives me something to do on this blog, and I’m prone to oversharing personal information about myself lmao, so these little surveys are actually pretty fun to do

What’s your favorite musical? To be totally honest I really am not a fan of musicals generally. I respect the immense amount of work that goes into creating them, but if I want a movie/play I’ll watch a movie/play, and if I want music I’ll listen to music, so the narrative of the movie/play half of the musical being constantly interrupted by showtunes bothers me sometimes (also have this problem with one-song-per-episode shows like Phineas & Ferb). That said, Dr. Horrible was awesome in a campy way

How do you get to sleep? Not really in any one specific way, it always involves a lot of tossing and turning though

What happened at the last party you went to? My own birthday party in March, which was my first birthday party since I turned 10, and it was absolutely wonderful. None of the six people who came really talk to me any more but I’m very grateful they did come

Have you ever smoked a cigarette? Nope

What’s your hair like at this present moment? Post-shower wetness is freezing my neck to the bone

Are you more comfortable sitting or lying down? Laying down

What’s the worst film you’ve ever seen? I mean, what do we mean by “worst film”? If you mean “just plain bad”, then stuff like The Room and Birdemic and shit, but those are ENTERTAININGLY bad and I love them for it (think “the Ride to Hell: Retribution of cinema”). The types of films I consider truly “bad” are uninspired, boring, bland flicks that we’ve seen a hundred times before, even if they’re produced and acted well (think “The Call of Duty of cinema”).

Are you an untidy person?

Definitely, things just get messier and messier over the course of weeks until I can’t take it and have to clean stuff up for my OCD’s sake

Have you ever been a fan of *NSYNC? Ha definitely not, though my dad allegedly partied with JC Chavez in Vegas once

Do you watch a lot of television? Not a lot, but a decent bit. Never really TELEVISION though, it’s usually Netflix and/or an illegal streaming site because Netflix in Canada sucks and has no shows pffft

Do you think you’re fat sometimes? Yeah except for the “sometimes” part. Working on it though, I’ve dropped from 172 pounds to around 150-155 recently, just a matter of not eating constantly like I used to, and going for runs every night. It’s really difficult to stick to it but I’m trying

Do you like to flex your muscles? I have, like, negative muscles so

Do you think you’ll ever get plastic surgery? No, as much as I dislike my appearance, I couldn’t do that

Have you ever completely misunderstood what somebody was saying? Every single time I have a conversation

Favorite kind of cake: Chocolate and carrot are always good

Was it a boy or a girl to text you last? A girl

Name something you are doing tomorrow? Probably sleeping but that’s about all I have planned

Do you sleep on your stomach? Half the time, yeah

Where are you going to be at 4 PM tomorrow? 99% chance that I’ll be in my room, MAYBE I’ll go for a walk or something

Last time you saw fireworks, with whom & where? My mom tells me there was a time when I was like 4 and some fireworks scared the fuck out of me, so it was probably then (this was in Maryland)

Are you missing someone? Just saying “yes” is kind of an understatement honestly, but yes

Do you like horror or comedy? Both, it just depends. I like comedy of just about all kinds, horror I’m more picky with (I love mysteries and supernatural horror, psychological horror can be good if I’m feeling mentally prepared for it, but horror based on gore and guts is terribly uninteresting to me)

Who did you last share a taxi with? I mean, not including the driver, I think there was a time about a year and a half ago where me and a couple friends got a ride from this really cool Jamaican cab driver

Dogs or cats? Both

What were you doing at 12 this afternoon? Math work in preparation for school

Do you think you will be in a relationship 3 months from now? I’m not entirely sure I’ll be alive in 3 months eheh (ironically BECAUSE I’m so lonely), but I’d like to think so

What’s your favorite season? Why? Winter. The cold air, the soft snow, the cloudy/milky skies, the calm serenity of it all. It’s a beautiful time of year

When’s the last time you did something you knew was wrong? I tend to give as much change as I can to any homeless folks around town who approach me asking for it. A few nights ago a guy told me he needed just a few cents, and I didn’t have change, just a $20 bill. I really, really, really needed the $20 so I told the poor guy I had no money, and I’m still beating myself up for doing that, imagine how happy he’d have been if I’d given him twenty dollars. I hope he found the money he needed

Did you have any unread text messages this morning when you woke up? One from a tumblr friend I have, actually. Waking up to see someone messaged you is always really nice

Who was the last person you hugged? I truthfully couldn’t tell you, it’s been so long. Since I was rather young, I think the only people who’ve ever hugged me are my mom and one friend of mine who sadly doesn’t talk to me anymore. The few hugs I’ve had in my life felt really really good, but I wouldn’t wish having to touch me on my worst enemy eheh, so people tend to avoid it if they can

Do you think you would be a good parent? I’d really like to think so, I’m terrified that I wouldn’t be though

When was the last time you cried? A few hours ago

Who was driving the last time you were in a car? My mom

Does any part of your body hurt right now? Mentally but physically nothing really hurts

Do you like your bed? It’s decently sized so I’m happy to have it, I just wish I had a bed frame instead of a mattress on the floor sometimes eheh

Have you ever broken someone’s heart? Not to my knowledge, I certainly hope I haven’t though

When did you last talk to your brother or sister? Through Facebook, a week ago. In real life, not since maybe a little under a year ago?

Do you ever want to know who you are going to marry? Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll make it to “marriage age” like I said, but it’d be really nice to know. I keep thinking I finally found the one and then it ends, and I don’t think my heart can take any more of that, so I’d like to know

How much cash do you have on you? Usually some change if I have any, but seldom more than ten dollars (the twenty was a rarity).

Are you tanned? No, my body is kind of in different stages of paleness (my face is the most tan part because of exposure to the sun, followed by my arms due to occasional exposure to the sun, then everything else is milk-white lmao)

Did you get any compliments today? Yes, it made my day a lot better

Have you ever gone to court? No

Do you get jealous easily? H o o oo oo o oo ly fuck I feel raging jealousy constantly. I’m the most envious, bitter little person I’ve ever known

Would you ever want to swim with the sharks? I’d need to learn how to swim first eheh but I think that would be fun, anxiety notwithstanding

What are you doing Saturday? Also no clue, probably also sitting around

What is in your back pocket? Nothing, wearing pajamas without back pockets

What were you doing at 3 AM this morning? Asleep, incredibly enough, since I’m usually wide awake at that hour

What do you usually do first in the morning? Try to process what planet I’m on and deal with the dryness in my mouth and eyes that I inexplicably feel upon waking up

Are you any good at math? I’m the absolute w o r s t. If someone shouted “QUICK WHAT’S 1 PLUS 1″ I’d probably actually have to stop and think for a minute

Any plans for Friday night? Shockingly, I will probably also be sitting around not doing anything

Do you have a little crush on someone? Yeah, those feelings are definitely not reciprocated anymore though

How old is the last person you kissed? N/A since I’m still a kissless failure eheh

Why did you kiss the person you last kissed? N/A since I’m still a kissless failure eheh 2: Electric Kissaloo

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aurimeanswind · 7 years ago

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Autumn—Sunday Chats (10-1-17)

Fall has finally arrived, and boy do video games just not stop.

Podcast Train Stop

I’m curious if anyone else has tun into the issue where their podcast rotation just stops? I’ve basically stopped listening to all my podcasts except for My Brother, My Brother and Me. I am not sure why, but I’ve fallen off of all of the GiantBomb Podcasts, any other video game podcast, except for really The Easy Allies podcast. Of the group, that one that I’ve gotten into the most recently still sticks with me for whatever reason.

Maybe it’s the want to not listen to hours-long podcast recently? Which is odd because I usually binge many podcasts together back to back. I think the most likely answer is that I had fallen behind and then not been able to catch up.

This is unfortunate though because podcasts are typically my main source of news and now I am getting a little aloof with the gaming news. But I still manage to keep up thanks to the show I help host!

Has this ever happened to any of you? What do you do, try and listen to all the episodes you missed or just jump right back in?

What’s on Tap

Danganronpa V3

This is the big one. Consuming most of my time like Danganronpa is ought to do.

It’s very good y’all.

Danganronpa has a great talent of building off of its predecessors in completely unorthodox ways, essentially carrying forward concepts but in logical ways so it doesn’t seem like all of the characters are jumping to conclusions based on nothing. It just seems like this different group of people decided to take a wildly different approach. Chunsoft then ties that to the personalities and style of those same characters, and it’s a brilliant mix-mash of those intelligent designs.

These games always play with my expectations and take me by surprise, but boy... this one really is messing with me.

Not only that, they’re using loss in a way that is even more emotional and moving then it has been before, which for me has been a first in the series. I actually got choked up after the first chapter because of how this was done.

These games are so good, and Danganronpa V3 is not a disappointment by any stretch of the imagination.

Destiny 2

Finished the raid this past week, and hopefully soon will be finishing it with my original team.

We’ve run into plenty of trouble, but I know we have it in us to knock it out.

Metroid Samus Returns

Uh, y’all? It’s still so good.

Got to some of the new and added stuff to the game and it was absolutely phenomenal.

Very tense, very cool, and very, very fun. I love it.

Questions

Remember to look for my tweet with the hashtag #SundayChats in it on Sunday afternoons and reply to it with your question! That’s the way to do it!

Normally I would have asked a question to you all this week, but I’m holding it off until next week.

So, real quick, as I was going through questions, I noticed a ton of SNES-classic related questions, which reminds me I’ve been playing that too! Let me insert that real quick...

SNES Classic

It’s so cute!

This is the one I wanted, I got it, I’m v happy.

So I jumped right into Zelda A Link to the Past and played through the opening, and it’s still wonderful.

It’s fun playing on an OG SNES controller, though I do really like the classic controller form the Wii Era. The original too, not the pro, because you get a little best of both worlds.

The big one I sank the most time into was actually Super Mario RPG. It’s been so long since I played that that it’s basically a whole new game for me. Plus, I was a kid, and had no clue what the hell was happening. It’s been super funny and super fun to really see that game with fresh eyes for the first time ever.

Okay, back to questions.

Yay! I didn’t know this!

I’d say I am at about an 8.5. I really like the Jackbox games, and they’re especially fun to get a new one before ExtraLife, when we have a ton of people watching a stream and also a ton of people in the room. With the streaming improvements from JBPP3, I think this one is gonna be pretty stellar. Curious to see what games are in there. Hopefully a Quiplash 3!

This is a very gross question Tyler, not because of the subject, but because you narrowly refer to a character as a “bubble butt baddie” which, at the end of the day, I don’t even know what that narrows it down to? Like, who qualifies for that?

I dunno, but the one answer that came to mind was Miranda from Mass Effect 2.

Oh man this is a pretty good question. I never really got into Costume Quest, which, I know, is sacrilegious to say, but it’s true. The text speed was too fast? I know, dumb complaint, but I’m a terrible reader, so I couldn’t keep up.

Anyway, I’d like to think I’d either turn into some kind of lame superhero, or just straight up Banjo and Kazooie. I don’t know why, but that’s the first thing that came to my head...

Here’s the deal, there is no correct way to play video games. Full stop. You can take your time and savor something, but you can also rush through something and savor it too. Like, I played Persona 5 at what I considered to be a slow pace, because folks like Nabeshin beat it before me, because I wanted to “savor it”. That being said, I still beat it in 2 and a half weeks, and 103 hours split into two and a half weeks is still a whole lotta hours per week. But neither of us played it “wrong”.

Like, folks that get qualified as “casual” are going to be seen as the ones that play it slower, but it’s likely because they have other things they need to do. Like sleep. And eat. I don’t do these things! At least not regularly!

On the subject of Destiny 2 specifically, I think it does have minimal post-game content, mainly the Raid, the Nightfall, and Trials of the Nine. Which, like, still seems like more than the original, to be fair? There are hidden exotic quests too, and I have a feeling as we roll into Iron Banner this month, there will still be plenty for folks to do after they’ve finished the game. But ultimately the folks that charged through to 280 in the first weekend knew exactly what they were doing and got themselves into that situation. I just started up my third and final character on Destiny 2, so getting that guy up to 280 is going to be a fun trip for me still.

I dunno, there isn’t a right answer to this i think. But power through games or savor them however you like, because I think you’re the best judge of how fast or how slow you should play a game. Plus, you’ll probably put a different amount of time into a given game depending on how you feel about it, so I get it either way.

Weird. Uneasy. Aroused? Horrified.

Also, it has taken me the full twenty minutes since I screen grabbed this to now when I am typing this answer to form the line “ready to smash” in my head, and I hate me, and you, and everything.

Pumpkin Spice is trash.

I said it.

I’ll say it again.

Take your trash and get out of here.

November is right around the corner. And you know what that means?

Motherfucking Gingerbread Latte.

Aww yay! Favorite month! A lot of folks love October too because they’re into that cool spooky fog feeling! Which is rad, I am not, personally, but I do like the silly Halloween aesthetic. I just don’t like actual scary stuff. Except the occasional scary video game.

As for me, December is my favorite month, for similar reasons. It is the beginning of Winter, which is my favorite season (unpopular opinion, I know) and it’s also when Christmas and new years happens, and if we’re lucky, a bit of snowfall. Ideally, it just means I’m getting plenty of my hot cocoa on.

This a great question. and I think it comes down to what kind of game you want to play. Like, Earthbound is quirky, and with Undertale having just hit the PS4, maybe it’s time to get into that. Mario RPG is cool and timing based and funny, and it may be a great trip for folks who haven’t played it, or don’t remember it, like me! Final Fantasy 6 everyone keeps telling me is great but I haven’t been able to get into it. That said, it’s super traditional, so if that’s what you’re in the mood for, it’s calling. Secret of Mana has the edge because it’s an action RPG, so it’s different then all the rest. Knowing you like Tales, I’d start with that, since it may be the most fun! Also, goddamn is the music in that game great. But it is in all of these.

For me it was either Mario RPG so I could finally really truly play it, or Earthbound, which I was a bit too intimidated at the time commitment to jump into first. For you, Brendan? Try out Secret of Mana! And keep what I said about the rest in mind.

Baked Potato is the superior potato, IMHO. I really love just barely slicing open a baked potato, loading it up with cheese and butter, closing it back up, letting the cheese melt all in it, then cutting it open again, mashing it a bit, then eating it nice and chunky style. It’s a pure delight.

Oh, and I don’t eat the outer skin, but I’ll like rip all the potato I can off the skin, and it’s amazing. I love it.

I just fucking love potatoes though. I’d eat mashed potatoes all day if I could, I just prefer baked potatoes.

Here we go, two lists, back to back. Now since you just said top 10 SNES games I will not limit myself to the SNES classic list, but damn that’s a good one to pull from. In NO PARTICULAR ORDER.

Zelda A Link to the Past

Super Mario World

Secret of Mana

Chrono Trigger

Super Metroid

Super Mario RPG

Mario All Stars Collection

Mega Man X

Final Fantasy 2 (Final Fantasy 4)

Kirby Super Star

I know I’ll get a lot of flack for choosing FF4 over 6, but Sunday Chats readers should know my current situation with FF6. Maybe someday...

Now I do want to say this tweet turned into an N64 hatefest, which I am not a fan of, I love the N64 and the PSone, that era holds something special for me. I understand its issues, and probably in the grand scheme of things, It’s the weakest of the console generations, but there are undeniably great games for those systems.

Now, this list will be tricky, but I’ll give it a shot:

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

Super Mario 64

Zelda Ocarina of Time

Zelda Majora’s Mask

Mario Kart 64

Star Fox 64

Pokémon Snap

Yoshi’s Story

Paper Mario

Super Smash Bros

Bomberman 64

This was actually way easier than I thought it’d be. I even left out a few games that I’d have love to see on there and opted to keep the ones I really like there. I kept to the no Rare rule even for Diddy Kong Racing (better than Mario Kart 64) and DK64, even though those would definitely still make and N64 Classic.

There are few more to shoutout too, but I’ll keep my list at my 10. Boy, looking at this I’d actually totally be down for one of these.

That’s all I got. I know I am bad at covering all my segments recently, but my life has been a bit of a mess as of late. So I apologize!

But thank you for the amazing questions, I adore you all, and I am gonna go let Danganronpa eat my whole soul now.

Thank you all. From the bottom of my heart. For your support. I’ve been terrible about making things lately and you all have not waned with your patience for me. It means the world. I won’t wast your time for much longer, and hopefully this patience will breed something.

Keep it real.

#video games #gaming #n64 #classic #snes class #nes classic #snes mini #n64 classic #danganronpa #v3 #danganronpa v3

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televinita · 6 years ago

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Televinita Lives For A Day

I'm in the middle of reading Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (highly recommended!), and her day was pretty exhilarating, but let me tell you how mine went:

1. Attended Antiquarian Book Fair -- small, but still a building full of booths featuring booksellers who have brought a sampling of their wares, i.e. fabulously special, vintage-to-antique books and paper ephemera in superb condition, a.k.a. MY PEOPLE. This was intended to be the highlight of my day. It somehow ended up as a footnote by comparison.

2. THE REALLY GOOD PART --> Went to an estate sale in my hometown, expecting to just make a quick stop before the fair because it was a small house, but accidentally stumbling into A FABULOUS TROVE OF HISTORY featuring:

* a whole stack of yearbooks from my high school in earlier decades. I may have bought nine. I may have duplicates.

In my defense, they are all fairly slim, and the duplicates were from a married couple who were high school sweethearts and ABSOLUTELY LOADED with signatures and long personal messages. 1927, 35, 37, 38 x2, 39 x2, and 40 x2. I didn’t have 30+ minutes to sit on the floor and try to find the other’s signatures in every book.

The ones from before 38 have no signatures, but also THEY ARE NEAT TO ADD MORE HISTORY. The 1927 one is so fantastic. It has some photos of the old schools that no longer exist as well as some of the streets downtown. ALSO, THESE FOOLS ONLY WANTED A DOLLAR PER YEARBOOK. ONE. DOLLAR. I had to leave behind one from one of their children from 1972 because that one was the modern-day Huge And Heavy style, too hard to store.

Other things I bought:

* A 1920s autograph book to go with the yearbook

* A scrapbook, mostly of newspaper clippings mentioning the guy (both high school and some of his later career; seems he went into the military during the war and then worked at a bank) -- who was apparently The Golden Boy of school, loaded with accomplishments and participation in school activities -- but with some school memorabilia tucked in, including his high school report cards, a newspaper clipping of the wedding announcement, birth notices for their children, and a few photos. Also his First Communion certificate, which is like...I feel sacrilegious throwing it out, but what the heck am I going to do with it, because it’s ungainly and oversized.

* There is a really interesting copy of an award-winning speech he gave (Speech Club competitions) in 1940 called “Hitler: Savior or Demagogue?” (don’t worry, he’s firmly team The Latter and very critical, but it’s fascinating to see what an actual high schooler thought of Hitler prior to us entering the war.)

* ALSO, according to the address in the yearbook, the house I found them all in is also where the guy (who graduated in 1940) grew up or at least was living in high school. It was really in the family all that time -- amazing.

The moral of the story is WHERE IS YOUR DAMN PRIDE IN YOUR FAMILY’S HISTORY, OFFSPRING. I found his obituary online and there are 8 children and 15 grandchildren plus 13 great-grandchildren after that as of 2012 to keep it together! This couple kept their history so carefully for a whole lifetime. How could it all have been scattered to the wind like that? also, hi, welcome to the only thing I fear about dying, other than the pain. Any people I leave behind will get over it and I don’t care about losing the experience of living...I just really Care A Lot that my extensive personal papers will be frittered away too, or worse, destroyed)

[EDIT: I went back on day 2, where I may have picked up a yearbook of the wife’s from her freshman year at a teachers college because it was ALSO loaded w/ signatures. When checking out, I found out that said woman is still alive (I’m assuming in a nursing home. it better be a memory care facility, because HOO else leaves their own history behind??) and one of the daughters -- who still lives in town -- organized the estate sale. “There’s just no one who can handle all this stuff,” said the sale worker. NO ONE? OF THE OVER TWENTY ADULTS? I am RIOTING. I would LOVE to have my grandparents’ signature-laden yearbooks; out of the three who went to high school, I have only my paternal grandmother’s senior year. It’s awesome, don’t get me wrong, but still. At least both of my parents have yearbooks.

Also, side note, I found out that one of the other daughters was a classmate of my dad’s. But he said he didn’t know her that well.]

* Also I bought a neat little reproduction of a booklet published in 1968 about the history of our town, from its origins to the then-present day, describing its growth and when various things like schools and churches were built. This will be important later.

* P.S. I ALSO bought a tank top for layering and a fabulous condition copy of Greyfriars Bobby. The latter cost me $5. I didn’t need it at all, but I figured it might take away the itch to buy something 3x as expensive at the book fair, and also, it physically wounded me that they valued those yearbooks so little.

[edit number 2: the next day the rock-bottom prices were cut in HALF. can you believe!]

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3. Then I went to show my parents my purchases -- restricting it to just the 1927 and 1940 yearbooks + the history booklet because they already think, probably correctly, that my yearbook collection is getting out of hand -- and we spent roughly THREE HOURS giddily going through the yearbooks, and as I shared fun facts about the town’s history, it got my dad reminiscing and telling stories about his childhood and personal memories of the area, because he grew up here / has lived here his whole life (literally in the same house, in fact). JUST GREAT.

4. When we finally petered out on the topic, we watched 2 episodes of “Shakespeare and Hathaway” season 2.

And for one entire glorious day, I didn't go online, so I didn’t think about Trump being president or global warming or anything political whatsoever, all that existed was the warm rose-colored nostalgia of history.

#loooong post #spoiler: it is mostly about an estate sale find of sentimental and historic value #well...many related finds #AND NOW I GOTTA GO TO BED because i am doing More Things tomorrow and I am supposed to be on the road by 9:30 and it midnight

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likerealpeopledotw-blog · 8 years ago

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Emma’s POV- Chapter 1: The Mark

“No, I'm serious, if you make it to the fifth season, it will all make sense,” I laughed as I nudged my friend with my shoulder. It seemed like we had the same conversation every week. I would suggest an amazing show to Juliet and she would go and continue to tell me that unlike myself she has a life and wants to do things other than watch Netflix for eight plus hours a day.

She rolled her eyes, slightly adjusting her hunter green bag on her shoulder as we walked to her locker. “Right, season five. So, I have to watch four seasons that include twenty-three hour episodes per season to get to the good part?”

I grinned, “Exactly! Now you get it.”

Another eye roll, “Emma, that will take forever. I don't want to go through the suckery of awkward bromance moments before I get to the actual plot of the stupid show.”

“First off, it's not stupid. Second off, it takes a weekend. Tops.”

We continued down the long hallway that smelled mildly of stale bread and boys that unfortunately hit puberty and all of it's wonderful perks. “You must have a gift because last time I checked there's 48 hours in a weekend and that would only get me through two seasons not four.”

I began to laugh as we turned the corner, “Well, obviously you're not try -- Hey! Watch it, Stilinski!” I practically screamed at the awkward boy who almost knocked my books out of my hand when he slammed into me when he was scrambling off to who knows where with my dork of a brother. I gave a cold glare in his direction before turning back to where we were headed. Juliet was tight on my heels but stopped me when I saw her face. "What the hell is that,” I practically growl when I see that smug ass smirk on her face.

"What?"

"That, that there on your face." "My smile?" She laughs.

"Yeah what the hell is that for?" "Nothing," she continues to smirk until she can't hold it in any longer, “you like him.”

“No, I don't,” I denied, clutching the books tighter to my chest.

“Yes, you do. Emma, I've known you since diapers, you really think I'm that stupid?”

“Wh -- no, I don't. Juliet, he's my geek brother’s best friend, why would I ever have a crush on First Name Stilinski? Stiles is just another stupid boy.”

“Who you like.”

“N --”

“Who you like and know their birthday and their real first name and where they live and their favorite song and every minuscule detail about him because you, Emma McCall, have a crush.”

“Crush? What are we five?” I scoffed as she finally unlocked her locker to get her books.

“No, but I'm pretty sure that's how long you've had one. Em, come on, it's cute, why are you freaking out so much? Why don't you just ask him out?”

“Wh -- Ask him -- Cute -- No, what you and Isaac have is cute, what Stiles and I have is him having fart wars with Scott one door down from where I sleep. That's not cute. That's weird.”

She smiled again slamming her locker, “I think it's cute.”

I rolled my eyes, “Well, you're weird too, so your judgement isn't the best.” We were about to walk into our first period when I grabbed her arm. “Wait. I gotta tell you something.”

She quirked an eyebrow, then rolled her eyes, “Emma, I really don't want to hear about how much you hate my outfit again.”

“No, I'm serious,” I instinctively clutched my side, “Some weird shit happened last night, like Supernatural weird.”

“Emma, I'm gonna tell you again there are no mythical dwarves in Beacon Hills.”

“Okay, one, that was one time, but I still don’t have any left socks, and two, no like Supernatural as in the show.”

“No spoilers!” she practically screamed. “They just found their dad and it is really intense and I don't want you to tell me what happens again.”

I rolled my eyes, “You disgust me that's not even halfway through season one and no, weird shit like feeling like something bit me when nothing was there.”

“Maybe, you're insane,” she joked.

I lifted up the hem of my off white blouse and stared down at the faint outline of a bite of a dog, “Am I insane now?”

“Emma, what the hell is that?” she said while poking my side.

I winced instinctively, “Joob, stop, I could be dying.” I put down my shirt and watched as Juliet gave me a look when I called her what I did when we were little and I couldn't pronounce my T’s. “And, I honestly don't know, I felt this sharp stabbing pain and then it appeared. I went to tell Scott or Mom, but no one was home. So I went back to bed and shrugged it off, but I figured if I pass out in English someone should know why.”

Juliet thought for a second while pulling the door to the classroom open, “Kinda makes you look like a badass, you can tell people you fought a wolf then maybe you’ll have another friend other than Isaac and me.”

“Right, like anyone will believe me,” I laughed as we walked in, “since when has there ever been a wolf in California?”

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“Can I help you?”

I had been in English for less than two minutes, literally. I came in, got a seat next to Juliet, pulled out my notebook and the reading we were supposed to do over the summer and put in my headphones enjoying the last few minutes before my sophomore actually started. Just before Brian Johnson’s sweet voice reached my ears, Dumb and Dumber sat on the other side of me. Stiles to my left and Scott one seat behind. Don’t get me wrong, I love my brother. I would die for him, but in school, nope, we don’t talk, I am a loser without his help, but I feel like if we were the dynamic duo we’ve been since the womb the shaming would get a lot worse.

“I think you like me.”

I turned in my seat, ripping out my headphones, and propped my head onto my elbow. “Wow Stiles, I knew you were an idiot, but your augmenting stupidity continues to pleasantly surprise me, every time.” I knew what Juliet was thinking. She probably thought I was going to kill him, like a slow, tormentive death, but it’s a new year and a new me. I was taking all those basic ass New Year’s posts and putting them towards my sophomore year. No more killing kids with my fists, no, words are much worse.

Stiles narrowed his eyes despite the smirk, “Why else would you hate me, huh? I mean you and Scott are twins, and Scott is my best friend, so you and Scott have the same chemistry, so you should like me too. But you don’t. You bully me, I think it’s a ploy to hide your true feelings. You obviously care about me, I know you know my first name. But you’ve never told anybody because you know how I feel about it. Why don’t you call me it now, huh? With it, right now, call me.” I snorted and let out the most obnoxious laugh, “That laugh was fake.”

“It was real,” I glowered. “Look, when I need pasty and lanky, then I’ll call you.” I heard Juliet let out a soft chuckle due to our conversation earlier and I elected to ignore it as I shifted back to face forward and glare at the board.

I am not talking about this today. Not with him. Not with his smug smirk. I am done with Mieczyslaw Stilinski for the entire rest of this year. Yeah, I know it, okay? I am just not going to say it because I’m a nice person, and I have other things on my mind rather than an alleged crush. Like, what the hell is going on with me?

masterlist

#teen wolf fanfictionteen wolf ficisaac laheystiles stilinskistilesscott mccallscottteen wolf season 1stiles stillinski fanficisaac lahey fan

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celtfather · 5 years ago

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Celtfather Monthly: January 2020 News and 2020 Goals

It's a brand new year. Compiling stats to watch my growth each month is a little time consuming. But it is also pretty fantastic for plotting statistical growth. I know exactly where I was this time last year.

I’m gonna start the show with the usual updates. Then I’ll go into stats and finish up with goals for 2020.

1:53 - PODCASTS

I published a bonus episode of the Pub Songs Podcast to 2019. I shared my love of the new Frozen 2 movie. The next couple of episodes I’m gonna share thoughts about my next album, Selcouth, as well as talk about individual songs on the album. I think February will move towards promoting St Patrick's Day featuring some top 5 and 10s.

I don’t have any specific Stories from the Road episodes planned. But I hope to get ahead when I get a full work day next week.

The first episode of the 2020 season of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast kicks off next week. I took a much needed break. You can still expect more features of women in the upcoming year. I also want to draw attention to our environment, something close to the heart of the Celts.

The Celtic Christmas Podcast released three episodes last year. I'm already planning to launch an early fundraiser for the show in 2020.

Mikey Mason and I recorded an episode of In the ‘Verse back in December. We did not release it because with the holiday, I think we both had trouble making time to write a song. But I finally sat down with my song.

The episode we wrote songs for was "War Stories". It's one of my favorites. I had trouble writing a song for the episode though. But right before we left for Christmas vacation, I wrote "My Man". It's from the perspective of Zoe, and wow, I love it. It kinda helped me understand Wash better than ever. Hopefully, we'll release it soon.

I'll see Andrew McKee at Georgia Filk next weekend. I suspect we will record a Brobdingnagian Bards podcast while we're together. We also have some videos we need to record together to complete our Kickstarter rewards.

4:20 - VIDEOS

Season 5 of Coffee with the Celtfather begins on January 8. The show will continue at 10:30 AM Eastern on Wednesday. However, It will be exclusively available on Facebook.

I made quite a few updates to my YouTube channel. In particular, I deleted many of my most-successful videos. That's because they were episodes of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast... and they were blocked by Facebook. It seems Facebook will only keep podcasts up if it's not primarily a music show.

I'm still debating whether I want to keep episodes of the Pub Songs Podcast up there. I talk in a lot of those so many of those aren't getting blocked. But I think I might just rework the entire channel into a Marc Gunn music channel.

It's wild looking at the most-popular videos now that all the Celtic podcast videos are gone. Bizarre!

My top video is a review of my portable amp. Then comes a "Whiskey in the Jar" video featuring the Bedlam Bards. "Danny Boy for Cat Lovers" is after that. Then just a recording of my version of "Whiskey in the Jar" with just the album cover. And #5 is Funny Irish Pub Songs, a live video I made.

Wild! The channel will see a big change in the days to come.

7:07 - MERCH

I posted a Gunn Runners Card on Patreon. This card gives Heroic Gunn Runners on Patreon a 25% discount on all merch in my store and at shows.

Seems like a lot of Gunn Runners are happy to pay full price to support my music. I am very grateful to all of you. But if you need or want the discount. It's there for you.

Selcouth is the name of my next album. The Kickstarter officially launches on January 27 and goes through February 14. I still have a TON of videos and text to write for this Kickstarter. Heck! I still don't have an album cover. So stay tuned.

Oh! And make sure you subscribe to my mailing list if you're not already. I will let you know when it goes live.

In the middle of that, the Brobdingnagian Bards officially release I Will Not Sing Along, our 10th studio album on February 2, 2020--GROUNDHOG DAY!

9:00 - TRAVEL

I still have space for my Celtic Invasion of Venice. You can listen to the Celtic Invasion Vacations itinerary. To find out how amazing this trip will be. Email me if you have questions. The deadline to sign up is February 15.

9:51 - SHOWS PLANNED FOR JANUARY

JAN 10-12: GaFilk in Atlanta, GA JAN 16: Internet Concert on YouTube @ 8:30 PM JAN 18: The Lost Druid, Decatur, GA @ 7:30 PM JAN 24: Interstellar Ginger Beer & Exploration Co, Alabaster, AL @ 7:30 PM JAN 25: Maggie McGuinnes Pub, Huntsville, AL @ 7:00 PM

FEB 1: Tucker Brewing Company @ 6:30 - 9:30 FEB 13: Internet Concert on YouTube @ 8:30 PM FEB 15: The Lost Druid, Decatur, GA @ 7:30 PM

MAR 7: The Lost Druid, Decatur, GA @ 7:30 PM MAR 12: Internet Concert on YouTube @ 8:30 PM MAR 20-22: ConCoction, Cleveland, Ohio

Jan 8 and on, Weds 10:30 AM EDT: Coffee with The Celtfather, Facebook (Season 5!)

I will continue to provide audio versions of most shows for Heroic Patrons.

12:45 - STATS

Mailing list subscribers = 1030 is down from 1077

YouTube Subscribers = 4355 is up from 4324 YouTube Watch Time = 32.1K min (535.0 hours) is up from 27.1 YouTube Views = 12.2K is up from 11.6K

Facebook Likes = 3653 is up from 3646 FB Page Views = 447 is up from 434 FB Reach = 10942 is up from 5684 FB Video Views = 6419 is up from 1883

Spotify Latest Single Stats: "Slainte Mhaith Christmas": 3238 up from 0 Spotify Latest Single Stats: "The Last Jedi Drinking Song": 539 up from 0 Spotify followers: 1428 is up from 1400 # Number of listens on Spotify: 10184 is up from 4237 Most-popular songs on Spotify: Christmas in the Shire (4.9K), Frosty the Irish Snowman (14.6K), Slainte Mhaith Christmas (3.2K), Celtic Christmas Elf (2.3K), Jingle Bells (2.3K),

Top Irish & Celtic Music: 426 is up from 416 Fun Christmas Songs for Kids & Families: 1858 is up from 1573 Firefly Drinking Songs: 101 is up from 99 Joyful Celtic Christmas Music: 83 is up from 58 Christmas Drinking Songs: 29 is up from 24

18:31 - PATREON

Patreon Subscribers: 152 is down from 158 Patreon Monthly Income: $946 is down from $968

Tier Changes in 2020:

GUNN RUNNERS: Behind-the-Scenes. $5 or more per month. Includes:

DOWNLOAD new MP3s that are recorded and mixed before they are released. Plus get rough mixes of new songs

EARLY ACCESS to some publicly available content

GO BEHIND-THE-SCENES with the Stories from the Road podcast. I share my adventures, thoughts and news exclusively with you.

HERO. $10 or more per month. You'll get everything above, plus

BOOTLEG audio recordings of coffee shows and some concerts.

LEARN how to play my songs with PDF sheet music. Make a request for a song you'd like to learn.

SAVE 25% off everything in my MageRecords.com store!

ACCESS to over 40 Bootleg Concerts, both audio and video and 7 Full-Length Albums.

SUPERHERO. $25 or more per month. Includes:

SPECIAL THANKS to you in each new single that is released.

One-time Physical Copy of "Heroes" CD, autographed at your request, after 3 months of membership at this level

24:17 - GOALS FOR 2020

My success is ultimately defined by how I inspire you. So if you are sharing, enjoying, And creating, then I am successful. And if all that happens, then I should see an increase in everything I do in online.

So many people focus on metrics. But that distracts from the point of what we are trying to do.

Hopefully, this will inspire you to create your own goals for 2020.

I spent a lot of time in December trying to plan my next year. I haven't even thought about that five, ten or twenty year plan. I just needed to get in control of THIS YEAR'S plan. But I feel I did.

BEST WAYS TO GROW MY FANBASE

Live Shows

Promote hit songs

Give away free music

Irish & Celtic Music Podcast

Music videos. Covers, keywords or popular songs.

One evening video concert per month. Second Thursday of the month at 8:30 pm.

Coffee. At least one newbie concert a month. Create an event. Last

BEST WAY TO SUPPORT EXISTING FANS

Live Shows

Marc’s Musings. Should I go monthly? or bi-monthly?

Irish & Celtic Music Podcast

Pub Songs Podcast

Stories from the Road

In the Verse

Teach fans to play/sing along. Monthly tutorial.

Video Singles

New music

Build Community

One evening video concert per month. Second Thursday of the month at 8:30 pm.

Coffee. At least one newbie concert a month. Create an event. Last

30:35 - BEST STRATEGIES

Perform live

Increase mailing list. With free Lead generator.

Promote top videos and songs

33:40 - MUSIC

Release Selcouth

Release 3 singles with other musicians

Hero of Christmas

Hobbit tune with Samantha Gillogly

Molly Malone with Jesse Ferguson

Write 10 new songs

Hit #1 on reverbnation in March.

Teach online how to sing and play 10 songs. Also videos.

Release 10 sheet music pieces

38:35 - GIGGING

Play 6 new venues

Play 8 monthly internet concerts

Play 24 coffee shows. 12 episodes over two seasons.

Play 2 house concerts

Contact 20 conventions

40:18 - PODCASTS

Pub Songs Podcast. 2 podcasts per month. 20.

Commit to one more year of the pub Songs Podcast. And I see if it has done me any good. Or should I do just monthly? What if I plan each episode in advance to do about songs? For new album? Or classic song?

12 about a song episodes. 2nd episode of the month.

10 episodes custom to promote stories

Stories from the Road. Weekly. 45

Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. Weekly. 48

Brobdingnagian Bards Podcast. Monthly. 11

In the 'Verse. Monthly. 10

43:03 - VIDEO

1 Official music video for a CD.

3 travel videos to promote Celtic invasion vacations

8 videos of me singing live some of my most-popular songs

1 videos of me singing along with myself on a song

1 official off-the-wall music video. Fun and silly. Unrelated to the music played.

update YouTube channel to reflect Celtic Geek

46:26 - SALES

Bandcamp sales. $300 per month. $3600 for the year.

Social = 10000 followers on YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, mailing list

Thanks as always for supporting my music. Remember. You can help me create and release more music. Join the Gunn Runners Club to step behind-the-scenes with bonus podcasts, new music, videos, and live concerts. Slainte!

#CFMonthly

Check out this episode!

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