#I love both series and I highly recommend checking either out if you haven’t already | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aspiring-holistic-otaku · 2 years ago

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Also wanted to mention some recent/upcoming releases I think folks who are new to, or even already in love with the medium might want to check out

- Mashle: magic and muscles got an anime this month, I started the manga last year for season 1 ramble 7 just jump in, where I take a deep dive into the jump manga lineup. It’s funny enough, nothing deep which is fine, and from what i’ve read it doesn’t take itself too seriously either. check it out if you want some laughs.

- Blue lock got an anime last year october, started this cause sports in manga is somehow usually some of the wildest shit you’ve ever seen, cool enough for those reasons but nothing too crazy , maybe because i’m not a soccer fan idk… like fucking calm down greg it's soccer.. It’s soccer..

- Hell’s paradise got an anime this month, talked about this in season 1 ramble 7 as well, should be an enjoyable watch for most anime fans i think, white haired mc,, sexy ninja,, blood and gore on a deserted island with no means of escape,,, dedicated fan accounts are gonna be popping up out of the woodwork in no time

- Demon slayer season 3 also started this month i believe, personally only interested in seeing that one moon call that one pillar a whore/harlot or however they’re gonna adapt it. It’s on its third season with one of the highest grossing animated films of all time so there’s really no need for me to sell anything here

- Chainsaw man, CHAINSAWSSSS GO BRRRRRRRR!!!! Chainsaw man got an anime adaptation last october in case you missed it, only 1 season which covered up till the fight with katana man or samurai sword or whatever you wanna call it. Not gonna lie I was scared cause they went the cgi route but they did a great job in both audio and visual directions. They had great material so I'm not surprised but still just so happy to see. A second season release date hasn’t been announced but it’s definitely coming and ofc I’d recommend you go check out the manga if you haven’t. Fujimoto sensei is an absolute legend already in my eyes and I mention more of his works in just jump in as well as season 1 ramble 10, one shots and other stuff where his works made up my number 1 reads for that month.

- Slam Dunk got a movie last year december, The first slam dunk, after being away from the screen for like 27 years. It came out of nowhere and was a big shock when inoue sensei himself dropped a teaser on twitter, really could not believe. Legendary manga, already had a series and some movies but their animation is a bit dated, which I personally don’t mind at all but it’s hard enough to get folks into manga and most newer fans of the medium don’t get any nostalgia from the older styles. Not judging them though as obviously you watch stuff with your eyes so how you feel about it is gonna be based on what you see, and if you’re accustomed to or relate anime to shiny stuff like demon slayer then older stuff probably registers more like someone’s pet projects than a professionally produced anime to you. Still though i encourage all to get out of their comfort zone when it comes to media, there’s just so much greatness out there that only you yourself is stopping yourself from experiencing.

- Heavenly Delusion. something completely new to me. this also got an anime this month,, A is for anime fr lmao. I happened to see twitter user KUshiKURitiKaru tweet about it and checked it out cause I really respect their opinions and so, highly recommend following them on twitter as well as their anilist by the same name. I don’t really read weekly shonen jump as often as I used to besides fujimoto’s chainsaw man and ishida’s choujin x as i prefer to let stuff stack but when I did and even now I thought their weekly analysis was the best. It has 6 episodes so far. Won’t speak too tough on it but it’s a post apocalypse monsters type beat and the animation is pretty clean.

- Insomniacs after school also got an anime this month, mentioned in both season 1 ramble 3 romance lol and season 2’s ramble 2 romance lol v2 and for good reason. That some of the cutest shit i ever seen, also very aesthetic highly recommend checking it out if you’re into romance or want to try getting into it.

- Gosu is getting an anime, the announcement was just this month with no date yet but i’m pretty excited, pretty dope martial arts series i spoke on just last episode so yh

- Inio asano’s Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction got an anime announcement back last month, no date yet but again very very excited, if that name sounds wild to you the story is even crazier, same author who did a girl by the sea, it’s a beautiful world, solanin (shout out rav and kill bill the rapper one time), nijigahara holograph, it’s a beautiful world, a few other stuff and most famously good night punpun. Heads up, they’re all depressing as shit. And in the same breath i want to mention he has a new work out called mujina in to the deep about a katana wielding assassin in modern day tokyo

- Lastly, Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto is finally getting an anime adaptation later this year. Tears in my eyes they said it would never come but hail the helix even if i don’t live to see it i never stopped believing. Naoki Urasawa is my favourite mangaka, only ever doing masterclasses, most popularly known for monster but reaching the same if not greater heights in works like 20th century boys, pluto of course, my favourite series by him billy bat and more. I dedicated an entire episode to just him and his work in season 1 ramble 11, National Treasure Naoki Urasawa. Pluto is set to be on netflix later this year and if they do the impossible and bungle it there will be consequences.

Season 2 Ramble#4 - A is for anime (solo reprise) ver.2

Hello Hello Hello and welcome to another episode of MM..MANGA, the podcast about getting more people into more manga.. Incidentally, as you may have guessed from the title, this episode isn’t about manga at all, as this month I focused on manga’s seemingly more popular younger sibling, anime.

Before we get into it, a couple house keeping matters/points of information:

Last season I had some friends on the cast cause I don’t really watch anime like that and different perspectives are invaluable when it comes to any media. Plus I really fw them and the more the merrier. Sadly I won’t be having them on this episode, as again, you probably guessed from the title. Reason being, we had fun and everything but back then a lot was going on, I was just moving in with my then girlfriend and for one reason or the other I didn't put in as much effort as I could have into quality assurance. I definitely had fun but I really think I did them a disservice attaching their names to some mish mash of a ramble.

Those guys are some of the coolest people I know, and I really wanted to solidly improve the quality of the cast before getting anyone else involved in my ramblings.

Anna, Asha, Adley, Ashina, thanks again for being on the cast. Shout out stevaughn and daniel as well for being there and bringing vibes, always a pleasure. And a huUUge shout out to katastrophe kat for letting us use her house as the location. This was during peak covid n everything so I know having a bunch of folks in your house to make a podcast of all things could not have been ideal, but you supported the homie when all he had to offer was vibes and pizza. Many many thanks, and I hope to have you all back on one day.

All that being said I'm still just a guy recording on his phone at his house so if you hear stuff like people, animals or vehicles that's just my environment, give thanks for hearing and give thanks for the world around you.

That’s housekeeping.

Now some points of information

Firstly, I’ve come to understand that when it comes to anime there are 4 main release formats:

- Theatre releases which are usually movies

- TV releases which are usually series

- Original Video Animations or OVA for short, which are either movies or series made specifically for home video releases like dvd, blu-ray, etc.

- Original Net Animations, ONAs, which are either movies or series released directly onto the internet.

…of course here in the west I think alot of us just call everything anime,, or at least nobody's ever asked me if I've watched such and such OVA or ONA…

Second point, the average length of any series mentioned here is 23 minutes unless otherwise stated.

Lastly, if you’re completely new to anime and don’t know where to find stuff, all the series mentioned are on 9anime, zoro.to or you can ask a weeb friend. You probably have one or two and they would likely love to share if you’re interested.. You can also try for movies on those sites but I personally recommend torrenting them. I’m generally an advocate for supporting creators where we can but some of this stuff just isn’t on streaming services and if we’re being really real we can probably chalk up any “losses” to Japan paying for their war crimes…

Alright. with that out the way, let’s get into it.

THIS episode's format is different from the usual, list of stuff consumed this month then stuff consumed before that,, this time it’s all stuff watched this month but split into series and then movies. Also the order isn’t any sort of ranking it’s just the order I happened to watch them in.

Again I haven’t really done too much anime and I already mentioned my fav older watches in Season 1’s Anime solo reprise.. Fairly certain that if i went with that format again It would pretty much be the same lists except most of what I watched that month would move into this month’s older top 5 or so. I also really didn’t want to have to try and balance between series and movies for a top 5 list,, or do any type of ranking tbh,, plus seeing as i haven’t watched all that much anime I feel like my perception’s bound to be changing rapidly at this point..

When I add more to the stack I'll probably make another list but for now you can check out that ramble or read the writeup if you're interested.

[SERIES]

- Gunsmith Cats (1995 OVA, 3 episodes, 30 minutes each)

Picked this up for the shits because I liked the name and wanted to see if it had any relevance to the plot,, plus I'd always seen some 90s anime lofi type beat gifs of it and that made it seem pretty cool. Only 3 episodes. 90 minutes total, and if there was going to be predictably gratuitous fan service then that seemed a fair and tolerable length.

Not bad,, pretty enjoyable even if you don't mind or just wanna see some pulp., As anilist user Wilza put it, girls + cars + guns = fun.

Personally though I prefer media I consume to look good, be enjoyable and also be filling in some way,, but I pretty much knew what I was going into, and again, 90 minutes total. Not a bad appetiser for a whole month of anime.

Spoiler alert. The only relevance the title had to the plot was the main characters owning a store with the same name.. A gun store… idk what I expected…

- Riding bean (1989 OVA, 45 minutes) & Bean bandit (2021 OVA, 8 minutes)

The 1989 Riding Bean is actually the parent of Gunsmith Cats and the 2021 Bean Bandit is supposed to be a kickstarter for a new anime,, if i’m understanding my google search results correctly….

The mc of Gunsmith Cats, Rally Vincent is the partner of the mc here, Bean Bandit. Mostly watched for the Gunsmith Cats relation and the fact that there was less than an hour total length between the two. Also the name, again, had a strange pull on me cause I just still can’t fathom that naming sense and needed to actually see what was up.

Unfortunately I can't say there's much worth mentioning,, The mc is supposed to be a badass courier that has a cool ass car and drives anywhere anyhow but with basically one episode and an advertisement, neither of which were spectacular in any fashion, I couldn't find myself picking up the anything they were putting down. My only real comments are; cool car ig, the main character's chin is insane, like google the guy, bean bandit,,, and it was nice to see Rally again but in a different style… ig…

I encourage everyone to evaluate stuff for themselves but… you can probably let this one pass you…

- Digital juice(2002 OVA, 6 episodes, 3 mins each)

Very cool anthology, no real relation between each episode besides an effort being made to transport you to a different, usually high fantasy world.

Not too much to say barring going into each of the 6 shorts but ain't nobody got the time for that + they were mad short fr. Not even 20 mins length total, so I feel like I literally can’t start speaking on any of them without just about spoiling it entirely.. I will say that I definitely enjoyed all of them though.. Like a 7 on average if I was pressed for a score...

Really diverse animation styles throughout and, at least for me, it was a pretty decent shakeup of my preconceptions as to what anime, meaning Japanese animation, looks like. Highly recommend if you're bored of the same old same old and want a quick shake up.

On that note, this is one of three cool looking unrelated anthologies I wanted to watch this month. Sweat Punch and Short Peace are the other two. If anyone can find them please send them my way.

- Sonny Boy (2021 tv series, 12 episodes)

Wasn’t expecting much going into this, if anything I was expecting some lord of the flies, kids slowly going insane and picking each other off type beat, but I was so off the mark and in the best of ways.

The gist of the story here is that a high school has drifted into another dimension and at the same time, some of the kids start developing powers. With that setup I don’t think you can blame me for thinking this was gonna be another pseudo death game type beat, plus the title Sonny Boy, literally gives nothing away about the show,, but as I said the show went in a completely different direction.

For the most part the students are actually working together to try and get home albeit in their little factions, each having their own ideas about how they should go about that. Their situation was anything but normal and shit never really hit the fan like i expected but shit definitely got weirder and weirder.. But keeping the kids actually behaving like normal kids for the most part was a pretty good choice as it was way easier to relate and empathize with stuff like a class spat leading to people being isolated or god complex student council members, rather than dudes killing each other over who gets the best part of a fucking deserted island or something like that yk?

On that note the cast was great, pretty brilliant actually. Loved pretty much all the dialogue and despite the heavy scifi setup, it was more slice of life leaning a bit into psychological. Kids being kids, they’re gonna have issues yk? Put em in a different dimension, give em powers, kids are still gonna have issues. I think the main thing, was trying to find the place where you belong and the journey to get there, but honestly there was so much going on, so much cool social and existential commentary before and after that became clear, it was phenomenal. All wrapped up in some of the most dope visual direction I’d ever seen in anime.

Definitely highly recommend, honestly feel like i must have missed when it was buzzing cause it’s just so good in every direction I can think of,, my last ditch attempt at selling it would be to say it’s like a cross of the magic school bus and doctor who.. I think watching this as early as I did in the month was a big driving force for me actually trying to watch a bunch more stuff and I'm super thankful…

- Bus gamer (2008 TV series, 3 episodes)

Series about death games are about a dime a dozen but usually an okay time.. You know what you're getting and sometimes they can actually be really good and if not, what's another gratuitous chainsaw massacre?

The story, as with most death games is pretty simple. Different corporations/businesses hire teams of three strangers to steal and protect each other's data for huge sums of money.. As opposed to just getting a safe or investing in tech.. who knows why rich people enjoy toying with the lives of poors.. In any case, outside the games I like the plot point of teams made of strangers as it usually makes it more interesting to see how they pull stuff off.

Just 3 episodes, not that good in any sense plainly speaking. Very abrupt ending as it's based on a cancelled manga so that should tell you… I will say it did have a few cool lines I saved for future use though.

In any case I wasn't expecting much going in, the name just intrigued me. idk even know how I chanced into this. I just saw the name and was just like “are they playing games on a bus? in transit? what's going on?” but no they just play the games wherever..

Very sick op and ed tho I’ll for sure give it that,, and yeah it wasn't great but as hanma yujiro said in Baki son of ogre, if you only consume the good your body will become vulnerable, you have to take the good and the bad in their share to become stronger.

- The Tatami Galaxy series

So so so so so good, and without powers or anything really, just pure brilliance. idek what else to say… Tbh after watching Sonny Boy I thought I’d be lucky to see another series even half as good but I was thankfully blessed with another masterpiece and I’m so grateful.

The Tatami Galaxy series is actually 3 different series and a movie. Not really clearly related in plot but moreso the characters and themes, with each series showing those off in their own way. All thankfully and wonderfully brilliant,, but 4 items is a lot to squeeze in without turning a ramble into a lecture so i’ll try to speak on the general first then brush on the differences of each.

At its core, tatami galaxy is a romantic comedy that we never truly get to see the fruit of as the mc's ceaseless cyclical efforts are barely enough to start up a conversation with a woman…. Felt my dude…. :’^)))

Our mc is a freshman college student hoping to have a rose coloured college life as he's wasted his highschool years, and to that end he tries to join a club for their social circle, and hopefully even find a girlfriend. Sadly for him, but pivotal to the plot, he fails miserably at finding the ever elusive ideal girl and even worse, finds himself with only one so called friend he could call close after two years.

Another common thing were the absolutely stunning visuals which were so beautifully dynamic, in so many ways, it doesn’t even make sense to start listing. (breathe)I think this worked really well with the anthological feel the series gives off as a whole, and even within each individual part. Like the visual direction was almost too perfect man like i know some folks just don’t do slice of life but fr just look at the thing man it’s so beautiful.

btw, having watched all of them I’d say you don’t have to watch any particular one to watch any of the others, or in any particular order. I just read the summaries and decided to watch it in the order i’m about to talk about them in and yes I’d recommend that order but it’s not any strict thing.

Tatami Galaxy (2010 tv series, 11 episodes)

I’d say this is the definitive main branch but again, not something I’d say you have to have to watch before the others.

Here we follow our mc as he thinks back on his past two years of college. Unsatisfying, living alone, and with only one so called friend who he blames for being the cause of his failure to grasp a rose coloured college life. I really liked the gimmick of the story telling where basically every episode he would decide he’s going to join some club for their social circle, find he didn’t like the club’s activities for some reason or the other, meet that same one friend, then end up wasting time for two years. This makes it so that at the end of pretty much every episode he finds himself in some dire social situation that makes getting friends, not to mention a girlfriend, virtually impossible. He curses his fate and wishes he joined a different club because then everything would be different and everything would be awesome, most of all he wouldn’t meet that one guy and he would definitely get a girlfriend. Then the next episode his college life starts all over again and he chooses a different club.

Personally I really love strange loops, and I just couldn’t believe how fun it was to watch the story progress even within said loop. All brilliantly wrapped up and I have to say the second to last episode is some of the greatest episodes of anything I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.

Tatami Galaxy specials (2010 dvd, 3 episodes, 7 min each)

These are side stories that have virtually nothing to do with the main branch and if nothing else, just gave more screen time to a cast I was completely in love with by this time. I think it could also be first in your watch order if you don’t want to jump into 11 episodes of the main branch, or even in between episodes tbh, as it gives little tastes of the main cast and the kind of antics they get up to. Thankfully keeping the killer visuals I'd come to associate with the series. It was like they knew they already did everything right and just wanted to have some fun.

Tatami Time Machine Blues (2022 ONA, 6 episodes, 17 min each)

Same main cast, same main character having the same problems, but completely different like nothing from the main series ever happened,,, or was somewhere in between, time machines are involved so who knows man, such is life.

This was more on the nose actual time travel as the name implies, as opposed to the original’s recursive reminiscive storytelling,, The art was a little different than the first two i mentioned but the direction was still chef’s kiss. getting into the story of how and why they’re time travelling in the first place would spoil the wonderful ridiculousness of it all and despite everything I’m aware ramblings aren’t usually well received, so I simply highly recommend this..

Night is young, Walk on girl(breathe) (2017 movie, 1hr 30 mins)

This one is completely completely different from the rest as though they all balance the vantage points of the main cast reaaaaally well, this one actually has most of the story coming from the main heroine’s perspective which was reeeaaalllly cool to see after all this time. Also the art is again a little different from the rest but thankfully still with the same utterly beautiful yet playful charm.

I think I'm getting a little repetitive now and I have other things to get to so I won't even give the synopsis but just know, as with all the others, this shit is flames. Source: dude trust me.

Speaking generally on the series again, I loved how the main character’s narration was very like fast and clean cut, almost mechanical as opposed to how he and really the story were actually very whimsical and unstable. Fair warning, the dialogue could be very cutting emotionally and psychologically despite that whimsy, which almost always somehow managed to come from left field, but it all just blended so well, especially with the amazing visual direction. Also absolutely loved the main cast btw, from just their designs to their individual eccentric oddities,, easy 10/10 man

- Ayakashi: Japanese classic horror (2006 tv series, 11episodes)

Not a big horror fan in general, but I can’t deny enjoying the occasional dash of gore and body horror in my media, but something about Japanese horror, specifically their supernatural realm stuff has always been very appealing to me. The diversity, creativity and folklore usually present is just so wild it always makes me wonder, wtf are the Japanese on and how long have they been on it.

That being said this wasn't all that great but it was an anthology of 3 stories, max of four parts each so nothing dragged on too long for me to hate anything. On average the stories themselves weren't bad or anything, actually they were solid enough and to the point but the age in animation showed through in a way that made me feel like I was watching a homemade project or something. But on the other hand, as I'm getting older myself, it did give me a bit of nostalgia for the days of searching through YouTube videos for hours to watch one anime episode split into four parts just to find out they only had 2. Also I thought each story was better than the last tbh, ending with an amazing three parter called Bakeneko, which was just so much different and also better than the first two in every sense, it's almost hard to believe they're from the same series.

If i’m being honest, even though I really dig japanese horror in general I actually mostly watched this series to see that last story as it actually ended up getting its own series called mononoke the following year.. I knew they weren't related but as a completionist I like to complete things yk? For those wondering, no you don't have to watch this series or even the last part, Bakeneko, to watch and enjoy mononoke.

- Mononoke (2007 tv series, 12 episodes)

Technically a spinoff of the previous series but definitely stands out on its own.

Honestly went into this almost to hate watch, for two reasons. One, for the most part I'm a manga purist so my hater self was like "fuck all those fancy shmancy colors n shit, all you need is the good ol black and white and a good story". Secondly I'd never actually seen anyone talk about it outside of thirsting for the mc and aesthetic blogs posting the same few clips so I thought it would’ve just been eye candy, but just from what I saw in Bakeneko I knew I was wrong and was actually really excited to get into this.

The story here is that the mc is a "medicine man". Medicine man in quotes cause we never see this dude sell medicine and tbh it seems like wherever he goes people are about to be or already getting fucked.. But he calls himself a medicine man. Though in reality what he does is exorcise supernatural beings called mononoke. All together the show is split into five multi part stories, each focusing on a particular mononoke.

Now you might be thinking "ohhh brother, not more demon slayin". Trust me I get it man.. I get it… but it's different in that the mononoke are said to come into being because of the misfortune of humans, so they really focus more on solving the mystery of that first creation step for most of the story, rather than physically fighting demons,, which does happen but usually more to the climax of each part., I was expecting to find it getting more and more predictable with the same general outline for each; mc shows up, mononoke shows up, shit hits the fan, MC saves the day, different day, different mononoke. But every story felt so richly unique, less so because of the obviously different mononoke and underlying themes but moreso I think, because of the mix of lengths and pacing which made it hard for even the general layout I described to feel predictable.

The main character was honestly just too brilliant and pretty much everyone, in this very shuffled cast mind you, played their parts so well. Also I said what I said but the eye candy was there and cannot be understated. Loved the horror aspects of course, more creepy than scary though, and really most of the time, the most horrific things were the sequence of events that caused the mononoke to come into existence.

Also a movie should be coming out this year so that's another reason I decided to check this out.

- Yokohama Shopping Log/Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (1998 OVA, 2 episode, 29 minutes each) & it’s sequel, Yokohama Shopping Log: Quiet Country Cafe/Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Quiet Country Cafe) (2002 OVA, 2 episodes, 32 minutes each)

Actually read the manga just over 2 years ago when I was on a slice of life binge and really dug the vibe, was so strangely peaceful I really wanted to see it in motion.

There's no real story tbh, it's literally just vibes, as it comes from a slice of life subgenre called iyashikei, apparently meant to have a healing effect on audiences by showing characters in a calming environment, living out peaceful lives. There's no real grand happenings, but that's really the point. As anilist user c00kiemaster puts it. Finding peace in the mundane, seeing beauty in the damaged.

The setting is one of those very rare post apocalyptic ones that aren’t all sad and hopeless. a little melancholy but that's just the personal disposition of the mc, which makes how healing it is all the more wild.

The two parts cover different parts of the manga but you don't really need to see one to see the other, as I said the plot is minimal and it's more about the setting. They don't cover as much as the manga but I really enjoyed just hearing the wind and watching it blow over the fields, watching the waves crash here and there.. a lone engine revving up then hitting an abandoned road… and the soundtrack is just… so peaceful..

If you want to see stuff happen then this probably isn't for you but it's a great wind down.. The reason I watched it last… If you're trying to get cozy then this is it.

[MOVIES]

- Roujin Z

The plot here is that the ministry of health has developed a new machine to automatically take care of the elderly who can't do so themselves.. Generally a movie needs conflict, so needless to say that didn’t go quite as well as they planned.

This is a Katsuhiro Otomo movie. Fairly certain Otomo’s most popular, or at least his most commonly referenced movie is Akira, but he's also been involved in quite a few other films. I had the pleasure of watching a few anthologies he worked on last year; Robot Carnival, Meikyuu Monogatari and my personal favourite, Memories. These all pretty much stand toe to toe with Akira so I had pretty solid expectations heading into this and they were pretty well met.

Solid cast and great aesthetic as I think most anime fans do, or usually come to expect from Otomo, and also pretty funny. I don't think Otomo's comedy gets enough credit tbh, especially for pulling it off in these usually sci-fi, end of the world, high tension situations. If you check out his anthologies you’ll see he can be a pretty funny guy, and though Kaneda provided a bit of that in Akira, I’d definitely recommend checking out his other work, Stink Bomb, from the Memories anthology to really see what I mean.

- One Piece movies, Stampede and Red

Stampede was sort of cool because we got to see the worst generation all in one place again, though I don't really care for most of them, so it wasn't THAT cool to me. Honestly I find it hard to care for them when it's not like the main story, or even this movie seems to either. Cool looking main enemy with a simple mindset and characterization that plays their role. The only thing I didn't really like is this thing where the main baddie had some connection to Roger or is from that generation. Another movie that did this was One Piece movie Z.

Let me just put out there though that I liked it when they did it in the Strong World movie, because the antagonist there, Shiki, was actually canon and one of Roger's greatest rivals besides Whitebeard. So being the first movie post time skip, it really hit to see Luffy go head to head with someone like that, but also because of that,, pulling any other character from that era doesn't make much sense to me seeing as Luffy beat THE Golden Lion Shiki and has only gotten stronger since then. That being said I recognise Luffy's win over Shiki was a once in a lifetime ass pull but it's a movie you know,, cool once in a lifetime shit is kinda supposed to happen.. unlike his asspull win vs a certain Katakuri… which I'm evidently still salty about to this day.

One thing I really appreciated though was usopp's role in this movie. After spending 2 years on such island during the timeskip, being trained by a dude named Heracles, he's supposed to be a real yute now yk, but in the main series we haven't gotten it all that much.. Thankfully he was for really really real here, like all real ones know god usopp to be… also shout out warlord turned yonko genius buggy one time…

Red

Wasn't expecting much from this movie tbh. If you're a One Piece fan then you know Shanks is the biggest tease in franchise history, so despite all the ads and previews alluding to his supposed involvement, I knew he would show up for like 5 minutes, say a few words and maybe swing his sword once. Which was pretty on the mark,, but I didn't expect to love it as much as I did nonetheless. Probably the second most emotional one piece film after one piece movie 6: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island.

- Lupin III: The First

That might be a little hard to follow for folks who don’t know the character but his name is Arsené Lupin the third and the movie title is The First.

Gonna just go with the anilist description here and say the story centres on Lupin teaming up with a woman named Leticia to steal the Bresson Diary, a treasure that even the first generation Arsène Lupin could not steal., Simple heist plot but this shit was so damn cool, the craziest thing is that Lupin just looks like kinda dorky idk but he just so smooth with it. Not to be outshined by his gang that’s not quite a gang, all utterly killing their respective roles of sword, charm, gun and somehow funnily enough the law.

I had unreasonably high expectations heading into this tbh, firstly because of the crisp animation I'd seen in trailers. Secondly, because after watching my first lupin movie last year, the blood spray of goemon ishikawa, and being absolutely blown out of the water, I unreasonably expected them to easily produce another master class. Thankfully I was not disappointed in the least, all my expectations were far surpassed and I'm even more excited to watch the rest of the movies and get into the main series.

- Millennium actress

A Satoshi Kon movie. If his name doesn’t ring a bell his other movies, Perfect Blue and Paprika usually do for anime fans and regardless i’d recommend them.

The story here is that a documentary film maker is interviewing a legendary actress that disappeared at the height of her career. Like most Satoshi films I've seen till this point, it neatly blends the lines between illusion and reality but this is still the first normal Satoshi Kon movie I've seen until this point. Very touching and ironically down to earth given the intentional blurring of reality by the characters themselves. I definitely preferred this to both perfect blue and paprika, I think mostly because of how whimsical the fantasies of the characters were here, as opposed to the darker more dissective nature of Perfect Blue and Paprika. I mean those were pretty solid movies but I guess that’s how it usually goes? Like yh what a wicked and ironic comment bro, now try saying something true and beautiful… still solid movies but yh..

- Angel’s Egg

This was actually my 3rd attempt to watch this movie in like 4yrs. Still don't know what I watched so I couldn't even give you a real synopsis. And I still can't figure why it seems so highly rated.. I definitely get that it's aesthetically pleasing, Yoshitaka Amano having done the art. but there's like 10 lines of dialogue,, and sure there's some cool existential bits but that's like 3 out of the 10 lines. To each their own but man… idk…

- Tokyo godfathers

Another Satoshi Kon film, actually didn’t realise until I started it and saw the art and was like, “is this Satoshi?” And yh it was Satoshi.

The plot here is three homeless folks find an abandoned baby girl on Christmas eve and try to reunite her with her mother. No fantasy or anything really, just some very real shit, teared up and almost cried at one bit tbh. Brilliant visual direction as expected but I actually found the sound direction a bit odd idk,,. Still, it easily became my fav Satoshi Kon movie like half hour in.

And that’s it for stuff watched this month, much love and thanks if you're still here, I'm gonna ramble a little bit more after this but the main part of the episode is done now so,, love and peace and safe travels 🤞🏿

#just another day #mm..manga #writeup

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sheikah · 3 years ago

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Do u have any book series recommendations? Or standalone books? Preferably fantasy w good romance

I do! I am not as well-read in fantasy or romance books as I'd like to be. I read a lot in my youth, completely abandoned "reading for pleasure" throughout college and grad school because I was working the whole time, and then for the first few years of teaching was too overwhelmed with grading to read on the side. I'm FINALLY getting back into it. But here are some book recs I've checked out recently that have fantasy, romance, or both :)

I feel like if you're on my blog at all that you're at least aware of Leigh Bardugo's work and the Grishaverse, so I won't recommend those. But I will be comparing some of the pairings to Darklina, so I hope you have that frame of reference. And of course, if you haven't read those, get on it!

First off is the Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir. It's a fantasy that follows three main characters--Laia, Elias, and Helene--and the war they're involved in. It's got lots of high fantasy goodies and at least two really good ships. I loved it and cried many times reading it. It hasn't even been a year since I finished and I'm already considering a reread. Definitely my favorite thing I've read in the last couple years!

Right now I'm reading Uprooted by Naomi Novik. It's a standalone fantasy where a young girl is sent to live with an immortal sorcerer as payment for his protection of her village. A fun fantasy atmosphere and slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance. I'm absolutely loving it. The ship really reminds me of Darklina so I'm completely sold.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab. This is a standalone fantasy about a woman who is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. It has a dark romance in it and is a really fun and original concept. I liked this book but did find it really slowed down after the opening. Give it time, though! I think the author's style is really beautiful and when I was put on the spot to recommend a book to Ben Barnes, I picked this one lmao.

Normal People by Sally Rooney is not a fantasy but IS a really realistic and heartfelt romance that just enthralled me and broke my heart. I read it in a day and instantly binged the Hulu series. Highly recommend.

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer Armentrout. Ok so my recommendation of this one has some caveats. I'm absolutely obsessed with the first book. Like it's just amazing and so addictive and sexy. The second book is also good. But by the third book I've found her writing to be unbearably repetitive. I haven't been able to finish the third book and it's planned as a six-book series. Idk how to feel about that. But her characters and world are really interesting and the smut is delicious. The first book at least is absolutely worth a read.

The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black. Another fun fantasy romance with enemies-to-lovers goodness. It's set in a faerie world and combines the modern world with a fantasy world, which is a trope I really like. The characters are great--especially the POV heroine--and the romance is really cute and intriguing.

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray. This one is definitely more of a teen/YA (though a few others on this list are, too. This one just really FEELS like it) but I really liked it. It's not fantasy so much as sci-fi, with an enemies-to-lovers romance. The MC's parents develop the technology to jump between different dimensions. When her parents are murdered, she has to chase the suspect from dimension to dimension but along the way she starts to see him differently and fall in love with him. It's a trilogy. I'm also gonna tell you what I have on my TBR because these are things that have been highly recommended to me by people whose taste I trust haha. Every one of these is either a fantasy or sci-fi romance series or standalone:

The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden (this is what I'm reading next. Came highly recommended when I asked for something like Darklina but with a better ending haha).

The Winner's Trilogy by Marie Rutkowski

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (standalone)

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong (currently two books are out)

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (standalone)

Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray (trilogy)

Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao (currently two books are out, will be a trilogy)

Deathless by Catherynne Valente (standalone)

Hope you like some of these!

#book recs #answered

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oydan · 3 years ago

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Title: Waste It On Me

Pairing: Slight!Daiki Aomine x OC; Ryota Kise x OC

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters let alone the entirety of Kuroko No Basuke. I only own the OC characters mentioned. I also do not own the work of BTS. I will only be using their songs for inspiration. A/N: Please support me by liking, commenting, and/or reblogging my work; please. I follow back everyone that follows me! Go check out the ‘Love Yourself’ series from BTS if you haven’t already. It’s an absolute master piece that heals my soul. Stream “Permission to Dance” and “Butter” while you’re at it lol Love Yourself Series Masterlist

I don't know your secrets

But I'll pick up the pieces

Pull you close to me now

After the match against Kuroko and Akashi, Maimi went on with her life like normal. There was no longer a need to worry about past mistakes or wonder if things could have ended up different had she actually done something back then. There was no longer a need for her to think about the past when the future in front of her was much better. She could have stayed at the academy but there was nothing here that caught her interest. The only reason why she had chosen the all girl’s school was because she wanted to run away from her problems as far as she could, but now that Akashi was back to normal and no longer forbade her from going to any other school beside his own. There were more opportunities for her.

So far she had gone to a handful of other surrounding high schools closer to home to see if any would stick out to her but there was nothing that made her gravitate in any direction. The one school that came close was Shutoku to be with Midorima but she had a feeling her presence would incite a new set of teasing from Takao that could potentially lead the green haired boy to finally dispose of him. For now she would have to call that plan B until further notice. Rakuzan was highly recommended by her parents considering they had the best education out of the rest of her options but the only reason she wanted to change schools was to stay closer to her family home. Plus, while things were good between her and Akashi she didn’t want the special treatment she received the day she decided to give in and take an official tour of the school. A special car was promised to come pick her up everyday along with an apartment that would be supplied by Akashi’s family business. She felt like a new specimen when she walked around the halls with all the eyes burning holes through her. They had never seen anyone beside the basketball team around Akashi so it was a shock when he showed up with the pretty blonde close by his side. Rakuzan was a huge no.

There were other schools that had potential but considering she hoped to be a manager for a basketball team it made it even more difficult for her to decide. Seiren and Kaijo high were both next on the list to check out. Which led her to her current situation of flipping through brochures of each high school weighing if either were academically good enough for her to attend.

She wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings and was too engrossed in her own thoughts to notice a familiar face in the crowd of pedestrians. Until that said person ran up to her yelling, “Mai-cchi! Mai-cchi!” Hearing that old nickname made her finally look up in time to see a beaming Kise run up to her. He was still wearing his school uniform but it looked disheveled like he had been in a rush before. “Hi Kise, are you running from some fangirls or something?”

“Huh? No, why?” He looked confused by the question probably thinking it was random until she pointed to his tie that was left hanging and wrinkled shirt. She had known him long enough to realize that it was out of character to see him look sloppy. There was hardly a day that she could remember seeing even a single hair out of place unless he had another run in with some crazy fans. “Oh, no. I just came from a photo shoot. I was rushing to put my clothes on.” A light blush covered his cheeks and a bit of his ears realizing his mistake while he attempted to fix his own tie. “Why were you rushing?”

“I…I saw you through the store window.” Maimi was thrown off by the answer but she didn’t show it on her face, or at least she tried not but she avoided the comment by reaching forward and fixing his tie that he was struggling with. “You should be more careful. You still have my number, you could have messaged me or called.”

“Yeah but you had that look on your face.” Kise’s response made her slightly self conscious not understanding what he meant by that. Noticing her discomfort he waved his hands in a panic denying it as an insult. “No! I mean you just get this look on your face whenever you’re so far gone in your own world. You never hear anyone because your thoughts are too loud. It’s not weird I promise. I actually think it’s cute. But not in a weird way!” Seeing the normally confident boy scramble for the right words made her heart flutter unexpectedly, but she had decided to hide it with a small giggle. “Thank you. I’m glad it wasn’t weird.”

“Sure. What’s that?” He points to the pamphlets in her hands that had her undivided attention just moments ago.

She lifts them up for him to see the contents and when he saw his high school’s name on one of them a small bit of excitement and hope filled his heart. “I’m looking into transferring now that Akashi is back to normal. I’ve been looking for a while now but I’ve been touring new schools for the last couple of weeks.”

“And you’re thinking about coming to Kaijo?”

“Yeah, it looks like it. I’ve been wanting to get back into managing a team officially but every school either doesn’t have a good academic record, a good team, or one of you guys there to complicate things. I was thinking about you since we didn’t have issues after middle school but now that I think about it your fans might harass me again once they realize we know each other.” She proceeds to explain but Kise interrupts her before she could continue. “They won’t.”

She laughs a bit, “I think you’re undermining how popular you are. I’ll definitely be in some misunderstanding with some girls.”

“Don’t worry. I made it work before and I’ll make sure they don’t. Just come to Kaijo with me.”

“I mean I don’t know I still have to look at the academic scores-”

“We have a great science program. I’m not a good example but we have a competitive school for academics.”

“Well I still need to speak to my parents, Kise. Why do you want me to go there so bad?” They had never been the closest out of the rest of the group before but she did know that he had a small crush on her back then with the way that he liked to flirt with her. She just never paid it any mind since she was with Aomine during that time. Maimi assumed he just grew out of it over time. “I just think I’ll be able to hit my full potential with you there. Which is good for you, right? I can be your newest challenge.”

That part was actually true. She had always known that Kise had the most potential to explore out of the rest. If she were able to get him back to his full health she would be able to test out how far he could go. There was even some potential he could be better than Kagami and Aomine. “I’ll think about it.” Before he could argue more they were interrupted by his cell phone ringing.

“Hello? Momo-cchi…oh that sounds like a great idea! I’m with Mai-cchi. I'll let her know about it right now…sure…we just ran into each other after I had a photo shoot here near the arcade…both of you are? Perfect, we'll head your way so we can start planning this all out! Bye!” When he hung up Kise seemed overly excited about whatever they had spoken about. “Momo-cchi and Ao-cchi are close by at the burger shop down a couple blocks. Let’s go.”

There was no room to argue since he just pulled Maimi by her hand in a rush to meet the pair wherever they were at. In the past she may have had a difficult time but after the last match there was no need any longer to worry about her heart aching at the sight of them. The problem was the taller blonde pulling her away to an unknown location. “Why are we both going? You didn’t even tell me what this is about.”

“Oh, Momo-cchi said she was planning a birthday surprise for Kuroko. We’re going to play streetball together. Now come on.”

Which was how the pair ended up sitting across from Aomine and Momo. “Tetsu said okay. Alright!”

“Didn’t Midorima say he’d come if he felt like it?”

“He’ll be fine.”

“Why are you so confident?”

“Don’t worry Shin will come. I’ll be sure of it.” Maimi says in between sipping her milkshake. “Yup. Now that just leaves Mukkun. He said it sounded like a pain in the butt and hung up on me.”

“What should we do about him?”

“What are you even doing here for Kise?” Aomine finally asks, seeing the opportunity to get the answers he wanted when he first saw the two walk into together hand in hand. He knew that he had no say in the matter but it didn’t stop the feeling in his gut that it wasn’t good for him. “He was at a studio in the area doing a model shoot.” Unfortunately that didn’t answer his real question but it would just make things awkward if he proceeded to ask about them being together. “And I met Kise along the way.” Maimi on the other hand was able to read his expression and while she didn’t owe it to him to explain herself, she did want to clear a misunderstanding before they would have their reunion with the rest of the guys.

“Getting Murasakibarachhi to come to Tokyo is our biggest obstacle right now.”

“You just need to set out some bait.”

“How?”

“Listen closely. First put a tasty snack out where he’ll see it. He’ll definitely go for it. Then lay out some more.”

“He’ll be in Tokyo before he knows it.”

“Great idea, right?” Maimi was lost of words seeing the pair agree that it was the greatest plan to have ever been hatched in their time. She was genuinely wondering if they were serious. “Can’t you take this seriously?! Forget it. I’ll do it myself.” Momo had given up on the two dummies in front of her and proceeded to dial the purple foodie’s number.

“Mukkun, I found a really tasty snack. Aren’t you interested? It has a new crisp but doughy texture. It’s sort of like Vietnamese cuisine. And the secret ingredients are sakura shrimp and powdered foie gras. I’ll get you some, so could you come to Tokyo on the 31st? It’s really good!” The whole group had leaned in to listen for his response but it seemed like he was ready to hop on a train now. “That’s not much different from my plan.”

“It’s the realistic version of your plan.”

“But Murasakibaracchi’s resolve is wavering.”

“I guess I’ll go.” His lazy voice calls out through the phone letting them all know that Momo’s plan had worked. “Then I’ll do my best to make some.”

“You idiot!”

“Wait, Momo.” Maimi was too late to grab the phone before he hung up on them all. “What? No way! Wait!” They were pretty close but unfortunately Momo’s terrible reputation for her culinary skills did them in. At first Maimi was tempted to call him back and promise him her own treats but she didn’t want to hurt Momo’s feelings. Instead, she settled for sending a message to Akashi for help. Their last chance at getting the group back together. “Don’t worry we’ll get Akashi to do it instead. Anyways, I have to start heading home now it’s getting late.” When she gets up Kise beats everyone to the punch by jumping from his seat to follow after her. “I’ll walk you home since I dragged you with me. Bye guys!” Before Aomine could disagree they were already out the door leaving him with Momo who felt bad for her childhood friend. While he was nowhere near perfect she hoped that one day they could get back together. He was much better now than he was back then but with Kise now in the picture there was a bit of doubt that would be possible.

Kise had always found Maimi attractive but that wasn’t what had piqued his interest. As a professional model he was constantly surrounded by beautiful women, either his age or older, so he should have been immune to the dainty blonde. It could have been when they were classmates in their second year at Teiko. Unlike the rest of the other girl’s in his class she was the only one that wouldn’t even shoot him a glance. At first he didn’t think much about it but as time went on he began to feel a bit disgruntled by it. Unknowingly, he found himself watching her out of the corner of his eye. It started with looking over at her whenever he would get a crowd of girls to giggle to see if he could get her to crack a smile. Somehow he would only catch the back of her head on her way out of the classroom. Then it turned into going out of his way to impress her with his athletic ability to pick up any skill just by watching once. It never worked which confused him even more since his social standing kept rising. He was left stumped on how to get her attention until the day he was hit in the back of his head with a basketball and met Aomine. He followed after him remembering that Teiko was well known for their basketball team and thought it was worth looking into. Kise never thought he would feel inspired after just watching the way that the darker skinned boy jumped over the rest of the defending players to dunk the ball he just retrieved. It was the first time he felt himself wanting to actually try out for a sport’s team. When Maimi came up to for the first time speaking to him outside of the classroom he sealed the deal from then onward. He would later find out that she was taken by that same player that got him interested in basketball in the first place. While he respected and looked up to Aomine it didn’t stop him from taking advantage of his new found friendship with the blonde he had been trying to woo. Rather it just inclined him to try harder. He continued to chase after her but when things got rocky with Aomine he stopped his insistent badering. The pair was on thin ice and for any other person that may have been in his position would have taken advantage; it just didn’t feel right. Instead he would try to step in when Aomine would snap at her out of nowhere and even tried to cheer her up but it wasn’t enough. The light from her eyes became dimmer and she no longer was the confident and sweet girl he had first met. There was a time that he wanted to replace Aomine in her heart but after the way they broke up it seemed impossible.

So, he waited for her. It took a long time but he didn’t mind. He knew there was unfinished business with the others that needed to be resolved and let her breathe while he could. At first he wanted to be the one that swooped in and saved her but his arrogant thoughts were diminished when he first lost against Kuroko. It took him a while to realize that he couldn’t reach his full potential without acknowledging the rest of his teammates' contribution as well. When he was thrust back into the reality that he wasn’t this perfect specimen he realized that there was no need to save her. He would see her from a far and realize that she was becoming more than a damsel that needed to be saved. She no longer would walk with her head down or have a hard time holding eye contact. Maimi was her own strength and all he wanted was to watch from afar as she strived to be better.

He was okay with that being as far as their relationship would go. At least at first he was but when he saw her sitting with Aomine and Momo at the last match he realized that wouldn’t be possible. Kise wanted nothing but her happiness. He wanted to see her smile again with pure eyes no longer filled with a hint of loneliness; he wanted her to laugh so loud and hard that she had to gasp for air; he wanted her to confidently hold her head high while she faced the world. He wanted all that but he wanted to be one that contributed to that happiness as well.

She was his old friend's ex-girlfriend, so there would probably be a bit of apprehension from her. He still ran outside the modeling agency the moment his eyes caught sight of the familiar figure in the busy street of Tokyo. Now here he was walking her to her family home, falling into a deeper infatuation with her as she talked about her transfer and what she wanted to do afterwards.

He always felt like it was too soon to think about graduation or think about what he would do after high school. Hearing her speak about college and how she wanted to be a doctor specializing in sports medicine, made him think about it as well. “What do you want to do after high school, Kise? We’re going to be in our second year soon. You should start thinking about it.”

“Hm…I’m not too sure. I could just keep being a model since it pays well enough.”

“Sure that could work. Would you want to go to college or play basketball?”

This was the part that made him think more in depth. He did love basketball but he had no real idea if he would want to continue playing in college. School work and him never really mixed. “Well if you keep modeling for a while you could try to get recruited by a professional team. You’ve gotten a lot better.”

“Well if I had you by my side maybe I could be better.” It was meant to be a hint that he wanted to continue training with her but he realized that it sounded more like a pick up line. His face felt warm when he realized she stayed quiet for a while not answering. Gathering enough courage he sneaked a peek at her and saw her fair skin engrossed with a tint of red as well. “I-I mean, I want you to come to Kaijo with me and the rest of my team. You could do great at Seiren as well but…I need you there.” He had no idea what he was saying anymore. It was like his mind was stuck on auto considering the words kept spilling out of him despite how embarrassed he had become admitting his feelings. He waited for a reply but when she stopped in front of the gate of a single story home he realized their time had run out.

On the other hand Maimi could see the slight disappointment on his face realizing that they would now have to part, and she couldn’t stop the smile that made its way onto her face. She never saw him in that light but then again she hadn’t thought of anyone in that light besides Aomine. Now that she had given up on him she realized she should start to explore the idea of moving on to someone else. “I’ll think about it but…Kaijo seems to be at the top of the list right now.” While she was more confident she still couldn’t flirt back to save her life but she hoped that was enough to show Kise she was interested. Too embarrassed to see his reaction she ran inside the gate to her front door. Before she closed the door though she called out to the stunned boy. “Thank you for walking me home. I’ll message you tomorrow when to meet up for the reunion.”

Once the door closed Kise couldn’t help but smile so big his cheeks hurt. Punching the air in excitement not realizing Maimi had seen the sweet reaction from her front window.

Kise knew that she was barely getting over Aomine but he would wait as long as it took to get the girl of his dreams. He just hoped that when the time came she would look his way.

I wanna be your summer, I wanna be your wave

Treat me like a comma, I'll take you to a new phrase

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marshalortegamoved · 3 years ago

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Hello hello I hope you are well!! Sorry if this is weird but I have been absent from tumblr and the if community in general for a while but I've just replayed fallen hero and I am in my Feelings and you always have the best fhr and chargestep ideas so I'm just wondering if you could possible bless us with some Thoughts?? Like so we all agree that sidestep is the most unreliable narrator and ortega clearly knows way more than sidestep gives them credit for but like how much do you think they know? And how do you think they will act to the big Reveal? Also I've always been an ortega stan but this replay has me feeling things for steel...what's your opinion on a steel romance? Okay sorry for rambling on anyway I hope you're okay, sending lots of love 💕

Ahhh, hello! this is such a lovely message, and not weird at all! thank you so much, it's so sweet that you thought of me <3

Hmm, well, first of all, if you're interested, there's a complete alpha demo on Malin's Patreon here if you haven't checked it out already and can get it! It's no longer being updated playtesting wise due to some issues, but there's a LOT more in it than the public demo and it has a ton of new information (the Q&As are also a gem, highly recommend, 10/10.) If you have read it/do read it, feel free to DM me and bless me with your Thoughts!

Buuuut.... speculations under the cut.

I think Ortega knows way more than they're letting on, and less than they think. Everyone in this series is hoarding information, has little pieces of the puzzle, and their own theories on whatever is actually going on (whatever that is...) like you said, Ortega's way smarter and more aware than Sidestep realizes, but they're also super cagey, which results in Sidestep and Ortega talking to the left of each other all the time.

I'm betting on most of the lies you can tell Ortega (I'm not a telepath anymore, oh yeah I totally don't have any enemies, etc.) in Rebirth not being ... quite as convincing as Sidestep thinks they are....

I'm also squinting pretty hard at that first reunion in Rebirth (Ortega shows up in a café where the puppet was normally seen, not Sidestep? please. Sidestep, that wasn't a deus ex machina, you little.... [fists clench]).

Don't love the fact that we're TOTALLY convinced our old apartment isn't compromised. Don't think it's impossible that Ortega has been following Sidestep around (... out of love!) or that Ortega's been digging into Sidestep's "new life," depending on the suspicion.

Ortega has their own conspiracy boards, and however Sidestep plays into those will probably depend on how much they think you're the villain. Their primary focus has been on Hollow Ground for so long too, so whatever the hell is going on there... Ortega and Sidestep probably both have no idea, but like, in different ways? and BOTH of them are obnoxiously into their theories, so. They need each other....'s information, and I can't wait to see what happens when New Truths come out. Sidestep themself hasn’t told us (the reader) everything they know yet either, so we’re in for some surprises from them too.

As for the BIG REVEALS... I honestly can't say 😔 I think it'll depend on what Ortega knows, when it happens, how Sidestep does it, and what Sidestep has done as a villain over the series so far. I hate Ortega (affectionate), they're way too complicated for me to try and pin down, their reactions are just.. NEVER what I think they'd be.

And since this is already an essay (I'm so sorry.... if you want to speculate in DMs, mine are totally open!! I'd love to chat <3) I'LL REALLY QUICKLY SAY: I LOVE Steel's romance, and if you haven't played it already, I 100% recommend. Steel has all the flavor of the I Knew You Before Heartbreak, with some SURPRISING twists, beautiful parallels between Steel as a soldier and Sidestep as a [REDACTED], hero/villain dynamics! Spoon! bonding over dogs and past trauma! Steel doesn't at ALL turn out how I think he would (complimentary), and Sidestep realizing Steel isn't at all like they thought he was is WONDERFUL to watch. also, it's just... really fucking funny to listen to Sidestep's "fuck, do I think he's hot??? no... shit... do I??? FUCK," internal monologue. if you do play it, let me know what you think!

#answered #fhr speculations #SORRY FOR .... the essay? ahem....#(please never give me an opening to talk about FHR... I apparently can't shut up)#(but really; if you'd like to discuss the series I'd LOVE to talk about it! it's my favorite thing ever so--don't be shy!)#this message was so lovely and I'm sending YOU all the love #and hope that... any of this... some of this? makes sense?#dragging Ortega and Sidestep's conspiracy boards like I haven't replayed this series 500 times with my own...

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procrastinatorimagines · 5 years ago

Text

Here For You

Fandom: Chicago PD / One Chicago

Series: Here For You

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5 // Part 6 // Part 7 // Part 8 (Final)

Character/s: Reader x Jay, Reader’s brother Henry, Hailey, Adam, Maggie

Warning/s: pregnancy, death, pretty sloppy writing

Word Count: 2,716

Request: Would you do a Jay Halstead x Reader imagine were the reader either has a kid or is pregnant with one and they meet when her brother is involved in a case, Please?🥺

Summary: Y/N’s brother Henry becomes an accidental witness in a gang shooting that left four innocents dead along with two members of a rival gang. Jay persuades him to make a statement in an attempt to catch the people responsible, but when word gets out, his life, and that of his pregnant sister’s, are in danger so Jay does everything he can to make it right.

“I screwed up Y/N, I really screwed up...” Your brother, Henry, said frantically, pacing back and forth in your kitchen. He’d arrived a few minutes ago, bolting the door locked behind him, red faced and panting hard.

“Henry slow down,” you tried to reason, “you’re not making sense, what happened? What ever it is you need to tell me so I can help.” He shook his head and ran his hands over his face and through his hair, deep in thought and mumbling ‘no no no’. You sighed in frustration and put your hand on your belly, feeling your baby moving around. It’d been 3 months since you made the move to Chicago, 4 since your ex walked out on you after finding out you were pregnant. You were 5 months along now, it hadn’t been easy but you were making do, you didn’t know where you’d be without Henry, so to see him like this and not know how to help, after everything he’d done for you, was unbareable.

“Henry please,” you took a step towards him and put your hand on his shoulder. He stopped in his tracks and you looked into his eyes, filled with fear and shame, what had happened? “Talk to me,” your voice was quiet but firm, and he took a deep yet shaky breath to regain his composure. With a swallow and a nod he opened his mouth to tell you when there was a knock at the door, making him and you jump out of your respective skins. Henry’s eyes went wide as he glanced between you and the door, his whole body practically shaking.

There was a louder knock that had you scared now too as you put a protective hand on your belly, unsure of whether it was better to answer the door or not. “Chicago PD, open up!” A voice said inbetween knocks and you only slightly relaxed, you weren’t in any immediate danger but Henry was clearly in real trouble.

“Don’t open it,” he whispered, heading for the bedroom at the back.

You grabbed him by his sleeve to stop him and glared, “it’s the police, I’m not having them kicking our door in, let’s just open it and figure this out.”

“Y/N-” Henry tried but you were already on your way.

“Henry Y/L/N, this is the police, this is your last chance to open the door!” They yelled from outside.

You hurried your steps, panicking. “Coming!” You yelled, quickly unlocking all the bolts on the door and swinging it open to reveal two plain clothed officers.

“Evening ma’am, I’m Detective Halstead, this is Detective Upton, is Henry Y/L/N here?” The male detective asked, badge and gun clearly visible in the waistband of his jeans. You turned to see your brother stood a little away from the hall, face pale.

“Yeah, he’s here.” You said with a defeated sigh; whatever he’d done, lying to the police wasn’t going to help him.

“May we come inside? We need to ask him some questions, he isn’t in any trouble.” The female detective, Upton, asked with a friendly smile. You hesitated but nodded at last, moving aside so they could enter.

“What exactly is this about?” You inquired as all four of you ended up in the living room, Henry not meeting anyone’s eye.

“Sorry, you are?” Upton replied, looking you up and down.

“His sister,” you said, “now what do you want with my brother? Is everything okay?”

“Your brother didn’t tell you?” Halstead asked, looking between the two of you.

“No, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked,” you snapped and Halstead blinked. “Oh, er, sorry, it’s been a very long day, I haven’t had much sleep,” you apologised. The baby had kept you up most of the night, and this stress with your brother was so not what you needed right now.

“No worries,” he said to you before turning to your brother, who had taken a seat and looked was currently looking physically ill. “You want to tell her or should we?”

“They’re going to kill me aren’t they?” Henry mumbled and your head shot around to stare at him.

“Okay what the hell does that mean?” You all but yelled at him, “Henry I swear to God-”

“There was a gang shooting, your brother witnessed the entire thing, we were going to question him at the scene but he’d left by the time we got back to him. I guess he forgot that he gave us his details first,” Upton explained, much to your alarm.

“What does that mean? Does he have to give a statement? Make an ID or something?” You rattled off questions, your mind swimming. Halstead opened his mouth to answer but Henry cut him off.

“Oh hell no, this is Chicago, I know how this works, if I do that I’m as good as dead,” Henry argued, mindlessly picking at the cuffs of his sleeves.

“We know it’s risky, but no one has to know it was you alright, Henry four innocent bystanders were killed in that shooting, including two kids, so if you know something...” Upton trailed off as Henry’s face changed.

“Two kids?” He asked softly, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Neither could you, had your brother really seen all this?

“We’re sorry to put you in this position, and we’ll do everything we can to keep you safe, but man if you saw something, which I think you did, you might just be the only person who can put the guys who did this behind bars where they belong.” Halstead looked at you and then back at your brother, as if silently asking you for your help.

“Henry-” you didn’t even have to finish, the tears in his eyes told you that he was on board, he was just scared out of his mind.

“Say I did see who did the shooting, what would happen then?” He stood up a little unsteadily and wiped his face.

“Well we’d take you down to the district, see if you could make an ID, and then find you a safe place to stay until all this was resolved, you may be called on to testify if it gets that far but how about we take this one step at a time.” Upton gave Henry a reassuring smile and he nodded, resolve, if not a little hesitation, in his eyes.

“Okay, okay yeah,” he mumbled.

“You sure?” You took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

“I’m sure Y/N. I got a nephew on the way now, I gotta make the city a little safer for him if I can right?” He laughed a little and squeezed your hand back.

“It’s a boy?” Halstead asked with a smiled.

“Henry certainly thinks so, but honestly I’m waiting til the birth, I want it to be a surprise,” you replied, feeling a little kick like it knew it was being talked about.

“You can come down too if you want, be there with him?” Upton suggested, seeing the concern for your brother all over your face. You nodded and all four of you headed to the door and down to the 21st.

Despite your concern for your brother, his commitment to this was admirable. You loved your brother, but when the going got touch he usually got going. Since you’d arrived in Chicago however, pregnant and alone, he’d really stepped up, got a job at a new restaurant downtown and had been doing some serious apartment hunting so that the baby could have a proper nursery when it came. He might have been your older brother but you had always been more of the big sister; you couldn’t be more proud of who he’d become.

You’d been at the district a few hours, your brother off talking with several different officers, detective and a scary looking sergeant called Voight. Sitting by your self in a waiting room looking area you flipped through some old magazines they had available and messed with your phone, bored and anxious to know what was happening with your brother.

Detective Halstead came in to check on you, offering you a water and some food.

“How’s Henry?” You asked, gratefully accepting the drink.

“He’s doing good, it’s looking like we’re going to catch these guys,” he told you, taking a seat on the other side of the table you were sat at. “How about you?”

“Oh I’m fine, just a little nervous for Henry-” A sharp kick in your stomach made you visibly wince as you stopped your sentence in your tracks.

“Kicker huh?” Halstead grinned.

“You have no idea, people always ask me if I’m having a boy or girl, but really the only thing I know if that I’m having a soccer player, or a kick boxer,” you both laughed. “You got kids detective?”

“Call me Jay,” he suggested, opening up one of the packets of crisps he’d brought in.

“Okay, you got kids Jay?” You asked as he popped some crisps into his mouth, turning the packet around to let you have some, you took a couple as he shook his head.

“No I don’t, maybe someday, but...” he shrugged. “Henry mentioned you only moved to Chicago recently, how are you liking the windy city?”

“It’s not bad, pizza’s okay,” you told him, “but honestly there’s so much I haven’t gotten the chance to see yet.”

“The pizza’s only okay?” He feigned being offended, “now that just tells me you haven’t had the best kinds, Bartoli’s, I highly recommend it.”

“Oh yeah,” you grinned, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

A knock at the door drew you from your conversation, Henry was there with another officer, Ruzek he’d told you.

“I think we’ve got everything we need,” Ruzek said, patting your brother on the shoulder, “you did I good thing today my friend.”

“No one’s going to know it was me, right?” He asked, turning to Jay as he did.

“We’ll do everything we can to keep you safe,” he promised, glancing at you as he did too. You stood up and grabbed your things, shaking Ruzek’s hand and thanking him quickly as he headed back out the room.

“Bye detective, promise I’ll give the pizza another go,” you said.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” he laughed, shaking your hand and walking you both out the door. You were down the bottom of the steps and into the cool Chicago air when you glanced back at Jay, was it your imagination, or was he looking at you too?

“Look, I told you, it’s just a quick ID down at the district, they won’t even know who did the IDing,” Henry explained as you both got into the car. “I’ll drop you off at Med for your appointment on the way, you good getting the bus home while I do some apartment hunting? I have a viewing lined up pretty near the police station actually.”

You nodded, “Jay call you?”

“If by Jay you mean the not at all good looking detective Halstead, then yes,” Henry teased and you shoved him a little as he tried to buckle his seat belt.

“He told me to call him Jay,” you argued unconvincingly.

“I’m sure he did,” he said, pulling off down the street, “hey, I’m just surprised a woman in your... condition has time for any game that’s all.”

“Oi, I’m pregnant not blind, it’s not like I made a move on the guy... but I’m allowed to look you know,” you both laughed as you headed into the city, the conversation moving on to apartment hunting and the new nursery, detective Halstead still a little on your mind.

It wasn’t long before you were being dropped off, waving to Henry as he drove away.

The next few weeks continued in a pretty similar manner, the Intelligence Unit was building a pretty substantial case against this gang, it turned out, and your brother regularly went to talk to various cops and lawyers. He assured me everything was okay, and so did Jay when you saw him, which was actually fairly frequently when you went to pick up your brother after one of their meetings. Often you went early with Henry and chatted with Jay or another member of the unit, and life went on. You and Jay had actually started to text a bit, not that you’d ever tell Henry, in a friendly way obviously, he was helping you settle into Chicago life, recommending places to visit and eat... you had no delusions a guy like that would fall from some pregnant chick, but it was nice to have a friend to talk to.

You hadn’t really talked much since the trial, they’d managed to flip some guy Henry had said, so he’d been able to avoid testifying in open court. Your conversations with Jay seemed to come to an end soon after that and while you were a little disappointed, you were too busy moving into your new apartment to mind too much, glad that this case was in the rearview and you could focus on your baby.

You were pushing 7 months when you went for your next check up at Med, the thought of already coming up to your third trimester was a daunting one, but you couldn’t wait to finally meet your baby. As you finished up with your doctor you headed out into the hall, too busy rooting around for your phone in your bag to stop yourself before you collided into a figure appearing around the corner in front of you. With a crash your bag went flying, spilling out the contents onto the floor.

“Sorry,” you looked from your belongings on the floor to the owner of the familiar voice, detective Halstead. “Oh, hi Y/N,” he offered an apologetic smile as he bent to pick your stuff up.

“Jay, hi, sorry I didn’t see you there” you said, “I really would pick that up myself but then someone would have to pick me up,” he laughed and handed you back your bag as he rose.

“No worries, getting pretty far along now huh, how’ve you been, how’s Henry?” He asked.

“Henry’s good, we’re good, two months to go now,” you told him as you both began walking to the exit, “just glad to go back to some kind of normal with the trial being over, how about you? What brings you to Med on a Saturday?”

“Visiting my brother about a patient, he’s a doctor here,” Jay explained, waving by to a red haired doctor across the room you assumed was the brother in question. Although you kicked yourself for it you couldn’t help but notice that the Halstead’s seemed to have good genes. “Oh hey sorry for not talking to you for a while by the way, I figured with the trial over you’d be too busy with the baby and Henry and I didn’t want to bother you,” he said.

“Oh yeah, no I get it, I guess we both got pretty busy,” you replied.

“Hey, did you ever try the pizza at Bartoli’s?” He asked and you shook your head.

“Never got around to it actually,” you said and he grinned.

“You hungry? It’s not too far from here, I could buy you lunch, least I can do after all the help you and your brother were,” he offered. Was... was he asking you out? You, the heavily pregnant chick? Not that you were complaining, you’d liked Jay a little since you met him, you were just surprised he might have felt the same way.

“You know what? Sure, I am pretty hungry, just let me confirm my next visit at the desk and we can head out,” you answered and he looked relieved. You headed over to the desk with a smile on your face, Henry was never going to let you hear the end of this.

A nurse approached Jay as you headed away, you think she told you her name was Maggie earlier. As you stood at the desk you noticed her roll her eyes at Jay and shake her head. “First Will and Natalie now you and this girl? What is it about Halstead’s and pregnant women?”

#jay halstead #chicago pd #one chicago #jay halstead imagines #jay halstead imagine #chicago pd imagine #chicago pd imagines #one chicago imagine #one chicago imagines #jay halstead one shot #chicago pd one shot #one chicago one shot #one shot

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neobrogrippa · 4 years ago

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What Do I Do Until SM5?

Alright. Here you are. You have finished watching Friday’s livestream, you are all excited for Samurai Warriors 5, you have looked at the calendar ANNNDDD you have now realized we are still several weeks away from the game’s release. So, what do you do now? Well, Today I have come to offer some things to help pass the time until Samurai Warriors 5 is released. I will be offering various games and projects in various genres and platforms that may help either sustain you until SM5 or help build up your hype even more! I have even organized then by genre. I will not be including any other games in the Sengoku Musou series in this list. 1. Pre-Order The Game On Your Platform of Choice: No. Really. Remember to Pre-order the game if you haven’t already. It is great to be hyped but let Koei know that we love this franchise and hunger for it. 2. Mobile Games: If you are in Japan you have so many Sengoku based mobile games to choose from that it is mind blowing. In the west, however, it is a bit tougher. So I am going to suggest two. -Dating: Ikemen Sengoku: If you want historic accuracy this is seriously not the right game for you. It is several famous samurai as very pretty men all wanting to steal your heart and your attention. While some of the events may be a bit of a money grab on the part of the company who runs it the storylines and events are fantastic and the community is amazing. I recommend this highly! -Collection/Card/RPG: Touken Ranbu: For those who haven’t heard the famous Japanese mobile game “Touken Ranbu Online” launches in the west on Tuesday and I am hyped! It is a great game similar to Kantai Collection (Kancolle) or Sengoku Asuka Zero. Famous weapons as cool looking samurai guys! You can pre-register HERE. 3. Portable Games: Now, several of these games are also on Steam, the PS4, and possible even Xbox. However I am going to focus on games on the Vita and Switch. -PSVita: Toukiden, Toukiden Kiwami, Toukiden 2: Also on PS4 and Steam. I love this game so much. Toukiden and it’s upgrade Toukiden Kiwami are by Koei! Think of monster hunter but with a super heavy samurai feel to it! Fight horrible, giant yokai and craft amazing armor and weapons from their flesh! -PSVita: Muramasa The Demon Blade: Also on Wii this game is a fun side scrolling RPG with plenty of hack n’ slash all about leveling up the special weapons you get all with crazy powers and different magic abilities associated with them! -Switch: Fighting Game: Samurai Shodown: The new release/reboot of the classic fighting game series Samurai Shodown has met with great success. Set in the Edo Period you have fighters from all over the world but the game has a very heavy Japanese feel to it with Kabuki based characters, samurai based characters, ninja, priestesses, and all kinds of other unique fighters with their own themes and movesets! 4. Console Games: Games that you can sit down and play on Playstation, Xbox, or Steam. -RPG/Souls Like: Nioh and Nioh 2: I can’t say enough about these games. They are brutal, violent, and wonderful. Feudal Japan is full of Yokai for you to fight and slay your way through. While the story is full of demons, ghosts, and corruption Nioh (focusing on Sekigahara) and Nioh 2 (Focusing on the rise and fall of Toyotomi Hideyoshi) offer great incite in the era and strangely enough have some of the most historicly accurate portrayels I’ve ever seen when it comes to people of the time period. -RPG: Way of the Samurai 3: A unique RPG set in the Sengoku Era. Run around and collect weapons and play a fun, short story with a lot of different endings. -Strategy: Nobunaga’s Ambition Series: A wonderful series. These games take several days worth of play time to beat but they are a great experience for those that like strategy, town planning, and resource management. -Strategy/Military: Total War Shogun 2: If you enjoy samurai and the Sengoku Jidai and resource management but want more exciting combat and a larger focus on combat compared to Nobunaga’s Ambition check out this great came that, in spite of it’s age, is still played by many across the world even today. 5. Youtube and Podcasts: I know this isn’t quite as action packed as anything else I mentioned but for those that want to keep the hype up, brush up on history, and listen to something awesome I have three offerings for you. -Podcast: Samurai Archives: A great podcast hosted by great people who know their stuff. Every episode is focused on something from the Sengoku Era and I can’t recommend it enough. -Podcast: History of Japan: This podcast by Issac Meyer is great. He covers far more than just the Sengoku Era but he covers his topics thoroughly and passionately. He recently did a series of episodes on the Azai Sisters and as a large Azai fan myself I couldn’t help but be thrilled about it. -Youtube: The Shogunate: The Shogunate is a cool dude. He hosts Shogun 2 Total War tournaments and has very informative episodes organized into playlists about the history of the Sengoku Jidai. 6. Roleplay Forums: I’m going to shamelessly plug my own roleplay forum on this list. No one can stop me. For those not familiar with the concept you make your own original character(s) then you and others write a story based on those characters, taking turns to describe what your character is doing in various situation. So you might have a roleplay about your character and another having a dinner conversation, or being in a large fight against an enemy army! It is creative writing at it’s finest and is like D&D but with pen and paper. -Modern Era: Sengoku Horizon: It is a fantastic forum with a very niche theme. In modern times the Tokugawa government and it’s feudal system not got overthrown. Samurai, ninja, and lords still exist! You get to play as a college or high school student at a prestigious academy training the future leaders of Japan and can make a character that carries both a katana and cell phone in this exciting mix of modern life and Sengoku Era concepts.

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dswcp · 3 years ago

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Sequel Trilogy Companion Comics

It has been over a year since the sequel trilogy concluded, and though both other Star Wars trilogies inspired a variety of ambitious and complex spinoff comics during their heydays and wakes, the sequel trilogy has not. “The Rise of Skywalker” has not even gotten a comic adaptation -- the only SW movie to lack this honor. While Luke continued to fight his dad in newspapers and Marvel comics throughout the 80s, and Anakin kept lying to his teacher on the pages of Dark Horse and in early webcomics throughout the 00s, we haven’t heard much more, comic-wise, about Rey and Kylo’s will-they-won’t-they now in the 20s (besides the frustrating “The Rise of Kylo Ren,” which I will review soon).

The future of Star Wars -- both in terms of real-world media and fictional timeline -- is opaque to me. All upcoming projects seem to be prequels or in-between-quels, and there is an upsetting number of unresolved endings, especially for the protagonists. (Will they ever find Ezra? Are Mando and Grogu really separated forever? Will Finn become a Jedi?) So I won’t pretend to understand the lack of sequel-era comics, since I don’t understand even the higher-budget focuses of the franchise right now.

The lore-heavy Galaxy’s Edge theme park, the Star-Trek-like “Resistance” TV show, and a smattering of excellent books and short-form comics (especially the ones about Rose Tico) prove that the sequels’ setting can work just as well for spinoffs as any other era of Star Wars. But one obvious difficulty in creating more content set during the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance is the divisive, contradictory nature of the latter two films.

In fact, each of the sequel films have such distinct tones, themes, and messages, that I’ve found similar experiences reading comics set in completely different time periods. I wish there were multi-part comics with big casts and intricate themes inspired by the sequels’ settings and characters, but until then, here are three such comics that, in my opinion, could accompany each sequel film in spirit.

The Force Awakens: “TIE Fighter”

The most important thing that the sequel trilogy accomplished and that The Force Awakens established was shifting the focus to an all-new, more diverse set of characters. If the sequels had gone the route of the prequel trilogy and the EU books and comics, the story would have remained with the OT trio, their parents, their kids, and their girlfriends, almost all of whom are white.

Another intriguing premise from TFA is Finn’s stormtrooper backstory. Earlier SW movies had relied upon stormtroopers as cannon fodder, but Finn’s story humanizes them and shows that many are forced into service. This revelation complicates the violence of the OT’s Rebellion, since it is now possible that the Empire’s soldiers also had the capacity for heroism.

Like TFA, “TIE Fighter” features a cast of original characters of different races, and the story explores the humanity behind the Empire’s masks. “TIE Fighter” also shares some of TFA’s limitations: neither story can stand on its own, as they both lead so directly to a follow-up: TFA to TLJ, and “TIE Fighter” to the novel Alphabet Squadron.

“TIE Fighter,” issue 2. Marvel. May 15, 2019. Writer: Jody Houser. Pencillers: Rogê Antônio and Josh Cassara. Letterer: Joe Caramagna. Colorists: Arif Prianto and Neeraj Menon.

The Last Jedi: “Knight Errant”

I’ve talked before about my love for this series, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned how beautifully “Knight Errant” echoes my favorite movie of the sequel trilogy (and, honestly, one of my favorite movies of all time). “Knight Errant” and TLJ are both stories with big hearts and strong messages about hope, corruption, and searching for one’s purpose in life.

The two stories share similar characters -- a lonely leading lady, a disenchanted old Jedi, an ambiguous traitor, dwindling goodguys and unstoppable badguys -- and similar settings -- a rain-soaked planet symbolizing both depression and passion, exorbitant wealth on top of abject misery, fiery flashbacks of a demolished home. They even have plot points in common, such as the parallel with Luke’s triumphant return pictured above, and heartbreaking, unexpected revelations about our hero’s family. Victory is achieved through not only bravery, but trust (sometimes misplaced) and a clever magical trick that manipulates the villain’s wild emotions.

And unlike the abrupt endings of TFA and “TIE Fighter,” both TLJ and “Knight Errant” have endings that are open yet satisfying. Though the fight is not over, your imagination can fill in the bittersweet path forward.

If you’re going to check out “Knight Errant,” which I highly recommend you do, please keep your mental health safe. There are suicidal characters and themes, though I think they are addressed in an affirming and positive way. The story shows the value of life and hope in a way that has personally helped me through a dark time, just as TLJ’s belief in the power of failure and love has also meant so much to me.

“Knight Errant: Aflame,” issue 5. Dark Horse. February 16, 2011. Writer: John Jackson Miller. Penciller: Ivan Rodriguez. Inker: Belardino Brabo. Colorist: Michael Atiyeh.

The Rise of Skywalker: “Dark Empire”

TRoS was not the first Star Wars property to resurrect the Emperor -- “Dark Empire” had already done that back in the 90s, with a bit more explanation, flair, and nudity, though not necessarily any more purpose. I already reviewed “Dark Empire” back in August; in short, I find it disappointing. But while I can’t say I’m a fan of either the comic or TRoS, I admit that all three of us share a deep and abiding fondness for the institution of the Sith, in all its goth smugness.

Between TRoS, The Mandalorian, and The Bad Batch, Star Wars seems to be leaning into evil genetic manipulation right now, which is a bit too eugenics-y for me to get into. If you’d prefer your resurrections in a more Halloween-like flavor, with a side of lovable old hag and creepy rainbows, look no further than this historical relic of a Star Wars comic.

“Dark Empire I,” trade paperback. Dark Horse. May 1, 1993. Writer: Tom Veitch. Penciller, Inker, and Colorist: Cam Kennedy. Letterer: Todd Klein.

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 4 years ago

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Top 5 Dumbest Things in The Final Season

I’ve played TWDG a lot, and I can confidently say that The Final Season is my favorite installment, and I’d argue that it’s the best of the series in terms of visuals, controls, characters, and storyline... but that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect game by any means. In fact, there are a lot of issues and inconsistencies you could pick out within the story and the arcs of our characters.

But today I don’t wanna tackle the big problems. The issues on today’s list aren’t a big deal and won’t ruin the experience of the game-- they’re minor and just really, really dumb. They’re things that you probably wouldn’t even notice during your first or second playthrough of the game. Honestly, most of these probably could be easily explained with “shhhh, don’t think about it.”

But I’m thinkin’ about them because they’re dumb. So, here's my Top 5 dumbest things in TFS. Do note that these Top 5′s are all in good fun, and they’re my opinion. Obviously.

[also, most of the screenshots used here are from @pi-creates-- if you haven’t checked out Pi’s blog, I highly recommend you do! :D]

5. Doors make no sense.

The doors in this game are dumb and make little sense. And you might be scoffing like, “Really? Doors?” and to that I say, “YES DOORS OKAY!”

If you’re like me, you like to look at everything in hopes of finding interesting details and maybe an easter egg. If you look at the all the doors after breaking out of the dorm in ep1, they all have different locks which... why?

Wait, shouldn’t Clem be able to open this one...? The lock is right there on the outside.

Why are they different? Also, why are the dorms lockable from the outside? Like, okay, I get it-- ya gotta lock up the troubled youth so that they don’t escape. Fine. Cool, I can accept that... except does this mean that someone had to go around and unlock all the dorms every morning before the apocalypse? What if you forgot a door and a handful got stuck in there for the day? What happens if you lock all these children in their rooms and a fire starts??

And don’t you look at me and try to be like “Pfft, there’s not gonna be a fire--” excuse me?? With Aasim hanging around, and Mitch for that matter, you’re gonna tell me that the odds of fire happening are 0%?

Well, y’know, fine. If there’s a fire, then the kids can just escape through the windows... oh wait--

Weeeeeell fuck the troubled youth, I guess.

But the dorm doors aren’t even the dumbest doors here-- no, no. That would be the god damn basement door that apparently locks from both sides because game’s gotta game and I guess Marlon has the key?? This dumb door makes no sense.

Again! I feel like this is a safety hazard?? Sure hope no one gets locked down there, otherwise, you’re fucked I guess?? because there’s no way to unlock or open it from the inside?? After Brody dies and Clem’s looking for a way out, you’d think that she should be able to just open the door at the top of the stairs now that she’s inside but nooooo-- game’s gotta game.

Ugh, dumb doors!

4. Abel’s magic shotgun

Did you guys know that Abel actually has a special shotgun? A magical shotgun, if you will?

It’s true, he does. He uses a shotgun that, when he fires it, the buckshot curves around to hit the target when the plot demands it.

It’s true! And it’s dumb!

I know this, because if you yell for Violet to shoot Lilly in ep2, Abel will throw AJ to the grab, pull the shotgun out of nowhere, and fire at both her and Louis.... but somehow--

--only Louis manages to get hit.

Soooo.... I guess the buckshot swerves around and above Violet to ONLY hit Louis? Like, I know she ducks a bit but I still feel like something should’ve nicked her as well?? At least?? Like, are lesbians immune to shotguns and that’s why nothing hit Violet?? Am I only learning this now??

Not only that, but it only got Louis in the arm?? H-how??

But that’s not all!

After Louis and Violet flee the scene, Clementine and AJ are on the run with Lilly and Abel shooting BEHIND them... sooo...

If Abel was behind them.... how is it that AJ’s shot in the FRONT of his stomach??

Like, I guess Abel could’ve been at an angle when he shot but they only ever show him behind them soo?? Do I just not know how shotguns work? Do they curve to hit people in their front rather than shooting straight forward?? Because what??

On top of that, how is AJ not dead?? I know, I know, protagonist powers and whatnot but?? the boy took a shotgun to the belly?? other characters have survived lesser things??

But y’know, the dumbest part about this is the fact that I can’t take Abel’s magic shotgun for myself after the Ericson crew capture him. I could’ve just finished off every delta member if the shots curve and travel to hit their targets.

Or maybe Abel’s the only one who can harness its power.

Either way, Abel’s dumb shotgun is dumb.

3.You can’t hug Louis and Violet during their romance routes.

Sigh.... Why?

Y’all know that I’m a clouis shipper, and now lemme tell you a fun story that isn’t actually that fun-- Do you remember when the trailer dropped for ep3? And we got some teaser screenshots, with one of them being a shot of Clementine and Louis hugging? Well, I was excited for a plethora of reasons, and that hug?

I could not wait for this hug.

Then I got through my first run of ep3 and... no hug? Wait, no hug? Why not? I thought--

Oh. Oh, it turns out... it turns out you can only hug Louis if you don’t romance him.

Ummmm. Huh. Wha- why?? Do you know how dumb that is?? What dingus who worked on this episode forgot to implement the hug option for the romance route?? Rather, what dingus thought it was a good idea to only give the Louis romance two options outside of doing nothing-- Slap Louis, or kiss him?? Where’s my hug?? Why is Clementine not allowed to comfort her boyfriend with a hug when he’s clearly anxious about everything that’s about to go down?

Look, the smooch is great and all BUT it’s not what Louis needs in this moment, ya dingus.

I’m sure if I asked Kent for answers about this, he’d do one of two things-- go into a long winded essay about how the lack of hug and slapping him totally makes sense within the context of Louis’ character arc and route because of this and that and this subtle detail here... or he’d give a shrug and say “I dunno, reasons??”

Ugh, okay, well maybe they let you have the choice in Violet’s romance route--

...Why??

Again, if I choose to romance Violet, why am I not allowed to comfort my girlfriend with a hug before we do this rescue mission?? Sure, I can reassure her that I’m not going anywhere, which is definitely a better option for a love interest than, oh I don’t know, slapping. But the HUG!

They could’ve implemented the hug option into the romance routes but they didn’t and that’s incredibly dumb.

2. Magic tree is magic.

Know what I don’t like? The dream theory. Y’know, the theory that the overly happy ending we got at the end of TFS was all just a dream in AJ’s head to cope with the devastation of the real ending-- the one where Clementine died.

Now, I can already hear you scoffing at me once more like, “Dream theories are dumb, CJ.” and this time, I do agree with you.

However, there’s actually some compelling evidence that could subtly point at this theory, such as the backward graffiti in the dorms that was present in Clementine’s nightmare, or the fact that Clementine is, y’know, alive despite being seconds away from death in the barn...

Oh, and then there’s this fucking magic tree.

Oh, you know... the tree that magically grows in in ep4! The one with the tire swing!

Episode 3 vs Episode 4

This tree is dumb and makes no sense. What, did they just... plant a tree there? Did they push the tree up that was on the ground and use some magical wood glue to fix it?? Clementine said that Willy helped her with the tire swing so like... is Willy some sort of tree whisperer??

Or is this just further evidence of the dream theory where AJ’s lamenting the fact that Clementine never got to push him on the tire swing back at the train station and now she never will because she’s fucking dead??

I don’t wanna think about it. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s what the devs would tell me-- “Shhhh... don’t think about it.”

This tree is dumb!

1. What even is the greenhouse??

So.... the green house. It’s dumb. And inconsistent, both in the story and actual location of it.

First of all, as you can see in the concept image above, it should be within the walls of Ericson, yeah? And if you’re like, “Well, it’s CONCEPT art so it might not be totally accurate CJ.” and I say, “Fair enough, let’s look that the actual in-game map the characters use then.”

Look at that-- still within the walls of Ericson, though in a different location than the concept art. Make sense? Sooo....

Where the hell is it?

Because it’s not within Ericson’s walls. No, no--

It is WAAAAY the hell out here! You can see the bell tower in the distance so like... huh? Where are we?? This is a long as walk to the greenhouse!

Oh, and if the weird inconsistent locations weren’t dumb enough, there are different conflicting stories surrounding it, as well!

First, Marlon says that they had it functional with lots of vegetables, but then it became over grown so they don’t go out there anymore. Then, if you go fishing with Violet and Brody, Vi will tell you she worked in the greenhouse the day the twins were killed last year, which... doesn’t add up? Especially when we actually go there in ep2 and see that Ms. Martin died and became a walker inside, but she died a while ago??

Also, how did Ms. Martin get tied up like that? Did she get bit, barricade the doors-- wait, that doesn’t work because how did she barricade the science lab from the inside when there’s a shelf in front of the door?? In fact, shouldn’t the walkers that are inside be students that died??

“Sshhhh... don’t think about it.”

Ugh, nothing adds up about this greenhouse and that makes it the dumbest thing in TFS.

---

Honorable Mentions

AJ magically teleporting behind Marlon with the gun. Because plot.

The dumb padlock on the gate Louis/Violet/Tenn climb over in ep4 that they could’ve easily broken

Louis’ jacket that somehow holds Chairles

The padding on Violet’s boot that’s rendered useless because they put it on the leg she doesn’t use to kick walkers away

---

Those are my Top 5 dumbest things in TFS, do you agree or disagree? Do you have anything from this game that’s dumber than what I have listed? Let me know!

Next week’s T5F Top 5 Characters in ANF Who Would’ve Made Better Love Interests Than Kate

#twdg t5f #twdg #twdg clementine #twdg aj #twdg louis #twdg violet #twdg lilly #twdg abel #twdg marlon #twdg aasim #twdg mitch #twdg tfs

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flightfoot · 4 years ago

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ML Fic Recs for Alya Stans

can you keep a secret by euphorickiri:

Summary:

once alya had her mind set on something, it was hard for her to let it go. she often got herself into trouble because of this, but, in her words, this was the "life of a journalist". but when she uncovers a secret that seems too impossible to believe, alya opens up a whole new world of danger.

"with a mask and a costume, don’t you think adrien looks a little bit like chat noir?”

she comes to realize some secrets should stay buried.

Oh man, this one is underappreciated! (Also don’t worry about the summary and title being completely lower case, the fic has proper punctuation.)

This is one of the rare occasions where Alya has a ton of issues of her own going on, with just having recovered from being akumatized as Lady Wifi and REMEMBERING the whole thing (that’s plot-relevant), being harassed at school because this is still early in the series and people haven’t gotten the concept that anyone can be akumatized and it isn’t the victim’s fault, on top of some pretty severe issues at home with her parents using her as a go-between when fighting, being put in charge of her younger siblings’ care a lot, and being insulted and harangued by her parents whenever Alya can’t live up to their insane expectations and generally not considering how she feels about anything at all. Plus she keeps having some very, VERY disturbing dreams about Lady Wifi that feel way too real...

It’s rare to see a fic focusing squarely on Alya’s problems and emotions - which, granted, is likely because canonically we haven’t seen evidence that there’s a ton of strife in her life. But it’s very refreshing and interesting to see here, especially with Adrien constantly checking up on her, commiserating with her, helping her as best he can, knowing a lot of the kind of thing she’s going through because he’s experienced it himself. Just everyone focusing on Alya, on understanding what’s going on with her and trying to help (though there’s not always a ton that can be done).

I highly recommend it for any Alya or Adrien stan.

Me, My Best Friend, And Her Cat by @ladyofthenoodle:

Summary:

Ladybugs aren't known for being particularly sneaky. Good thing this Ladybug has a fox in her corner, watching her back.

(And giving Ladybug's love life a nudge along the way. Maybe more than a nudge. In Alya's defense, Ladybug can use all the help she could get.)

It’s always great to see Alya and Marinette being friends and Alya getting to be awesome. She makes for a great Secret Secret Keeper!

you’re the volcano (i’m the raptor) by SnappleSnapSnake

Summary:

“But what if everyone thinks that she’s meant for this, but she’s really not? Because, you know, it’s like crazy magic jewelry- and maybe she’s wondering why such a clumsy idiot would even bother to try and save the world.”

And suddenly, everything clicked.

She grabbed her new friend by the shoulders, effectively cutting off her rambling. “Oh my god, you’re Ladybug.”

Marinette’s voice went high, and she squealed out, “What? No! Not that! I am! Not that! Definitely, totally not that!”

Alya just grinned, eyes sparkling and awed.

(yeah, they were definitely going to be best friends for life)

A oneshot featuring a series of short vignettes after various season 1 episodes, with how things change since Alya’s aware that Marinette is Ladybug the whole time. Features a lot of friendly teasing and banter!

Outfoxed by @captorations:

Summary:

Lila Rossi is not a Miraculous wielder. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have power. Alya was under her spell, along with so many others, until the day Lila unknowingly overstepped herself. Freed at last, the true Fox recognizes magic when she sees it, even if it doesn’t come from a source she understands. She is none too happy about this pretender abusing her natural gifts to make fools of Alya and those she loves.

Alya Césaire might need an enchanted necklace and the aid of a tiny deity to cast illusions, but she swore to use her borrowed abilities for the greater good long ago. There is none better suited to facilitate the liar’s downfall.

And maybe she’ll help her best friend sort out her increasingly complex love life along the way.

I wrote an analysis on this fic, so I’m guessing a lot of my followers are already aware of it. I’m REALLY not a big fan of Lila takedown fics at this point, but this is an exception - largely because of how much it focuses on Alya and what a bi disaster she is. Alya, Adrien, the class, they’re all treated well, and it’s just really satisfying to get to see Alya take down Lila considering how Alya’s often treated in those kinds of fics, as well as having Marinette so highly value Alya. Also has a really nice sequel where the rest of the class gets to have fun and kick butt!

Final Restoration by InkyCoffee

Summary:

Six months ago, Alya and Marinette had a terrible fight after Marinette flaked out on an important event. This afternoon, Alya filmed Hawkmoth's defeat. Friendship fic, Alya's POV.

I really like fics where Alya and Marinette can have a fight without either of them really being in the wrong, with it mostly coming down to having incomplete information - in Alya’s case, with not knowing that Marinette’s Ladybug. This is just a really nice resolution to such a fight, with both parties reconciling once the full truth comes out.

Damsel In (Need Of) Destress by @angelofthequeers

Summary:

Ladybug and Ryuuko have a little competition going on. The aim? To rescue Alya during akuma attacks. And naturally, Alya is Done with her girlfriends' shenanigans, while Chat Noir is just oblivious to the three-way tension.

This one’s just cute and funny! Also it’s always great to see Alya being so highly valued and loved.

#alya cesaire #alya sugar #miraculous ladybug #ml fanfic #ml fanfic recs #rena rouge

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shakespeareanwannabe · 4 years ago

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Strange Comforts

Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia x OC

Summary: A sequel to ‘Protective Instincts’ and a prequel to ‘Best Laid Plans’ (I wish I could link them here but I’m still figuring that stuff out). With T-minus 10 weeks to go before the baby arrives, Pope discovers that it’s the little things in life that bring the most comfort. *This one’s not based off clarke’s wonderful headcanons, but it’s set in the same universe so that’s where the credit goes!*

Warnings: Pregnancy fic, swearing, references to smut, references PTSD, references to therapy

A/N: Hi everyone! This is part three of who-knows-how-many of my Dad!Pope series. I’m still looking for a series title, and I’m trying to figure out how to create a masterlist for this so I can put them in order for y’all. I hope you enjoy! I loved reading your comments for the last two! Please let me know if you want to be tagged in future installments!

***

“…and, unless someone else wants to share, I think we’ll wrap up for today,” the kind-eyed therapist addressed the group of veterans, shooting a small glance towards Pope out of the corner of his eye.

True to his word, Santiago had been attending group therapy sessions for the last six months, his first session taking place exactly a week after Bex had told him the good news. Will had highly recommended this therapist, having gone to see him himself when his fiancée had left him, and hoped he could shed some light on Pope’s issues so that he wouldn’t walk out on his pregnant girlfriend next time things got hard.

And Pope had been attending the sessions. Listening to what other veterans said, the issues they were going through, it helped. Sure, both Frankie and Will had been fairly vocal about the problems they ran into while trying to adjust to civilian life, and Pope knew that Tom had had massive difficulties when they forced him to retire, and Benny’s issues were plain to see even if he didn’t talk about them, but those were his friends, his brothers, his family. They had all seen the same shit, so, clearly, they would have similar issues. But hearing random strangers, Marines, and Rangers, Navy and Military and Air Force men and women speak about seeing IEDs everywhere, and drinking to forget, and panicking at the sight of blood was…strangely comforting. The only problem was that Pope could never bring himself to speak.

He wanted to. God knew he wanted to. He needed to be okay. For Bex and the baby, for Frankie and Charlie and Mateo, for Benny and Will, for Molly and the girls, and, most importantly, for himself. So he could stop feeling like a major fuck up in every aspect of his life, so he could feel deserving of the life he had inexplicably been blessed with. But whenever he would try to open his mouth, he froze. How could he possibly talk about the shit he had done in the name of freedom? Was there a way to talk about his instincts shutting his emotions down without coming across as a cold-hearted bastard? Why did his tongue stop working whenever he tried to talk about how deathly afraid he was of screwing up this baby’s life, Bex’s life, their life together as a family? How deathly afraid he was that he had already screwed up Frankie’s, Will’s, and Benny’s lives? How he had nightmares of when Tom had died?

Santiago used to think he was a brave man, but now he felt like a coward. He could face down armed sicarios and terrorists without batting an eye, but he couldn’t talk about his emotions to save his family. It was complete and utter bullshit in his mind.

“Alright everyone, I’ll see you next week,” the therapist dismissed the group and Pope shot to his feet, beelining towards the coffee station.

Everyone else stood around talking, chatting about their daily lives or the weather or whatever, but Pope focused on mixing his coffee. He used to take it black, but then Bex started teasing him that only psychopaths took their coffee black, so he started mixing milk and sugar in instead. He liked it, but he needed it to be perfect.

“You actually drink this swill?” the therapist came up behind him and chuckled.

Pope cracked a smile. “I’ve had worse.”

“Haven’t we all,” he murmured. “Question Mark.”

Santiago shook his hand. “Pope.”

“You’re Ironhead’s friend, right?” Pope nodded. “Damn…he’s told me some of the crap you guys have been through. Sounds like holy hell.”

“Something like that, yeah.”

“Shit, man. No wonder you don’t talk during these meetings.”

Pope felt himself flush. “I mean…you know…”

“Hey, it’s fine. This is a no pressure situation. You just had me curious is all. Either you get people who don’t stop talking, or people who never talk in these sessions. But you…you always look like you want to talk but think better of it.”

Pope shrugged. “It’s like you said. Holy hell. Got used to not talking about the bad stuff.”

“So, what changed?”

Pope smiled softly, his eyes taking on a far-off look. “My girl’s pregnant.”

“Congratulations, man,” Question Mark slapped him on the shoulder.

“Thanks…” Pope shook his head slowly, sadly. “I almost screwed it up. Hell, I’m half convinced that I did, and this is all a dream. But when she told me…”

Question Mark was already nodding. “All of your training went haywire? Started imagining the worst?”

Pope cocked his eyebrow grimly. “Basically.”

The therapist nodded understandingly. “I get that. Same thing happened to me when my wife got pregnant with our third. Despite the other two being great kids, something about my last tour made me think that I’d screw the pooch with the new one. Checked myself into a hotel for a few days and drank myself silly until my brother-in-law showed up and told me that my kids were asking about me. That sobered me up pretty quick.”

Pope grinned grimly. “It was my buddy Catfish for me. Called me and reamed me out, and if Ironhead has told you anything about Fish, you know that he’s not the type at all. But it shook me enough to get my ass back to my house and beg for her forgiveness.”

“But you still sometimes think it’s all a dream?”

“I always thought guys like me don’t get the happy ending.” Pope sipped his coffee and shrugged. “But I’ll take it and run with it. She’s the best thing in my life. I’m not gonna let her down again.”

Question Mark smiled and dug into his pocket, pulling out first his wallet, then his card from his wallet. “Listen, Pope. I know how it can feel trying to talk to a room full of strangers. It sucks sometimes. If you ever want to chat, just one on one, give me a call. I’d be happy to help.”

Pope sucked in a deep breath and took the card. “Yeah, man. That would be great. Thank you.”

“No worries, man. Just, do me a favour?” Pope nodded. “Remember that you deserve this, okay?”

With a final clap on the shoulder, Question Mark moved away and began chatting with another member of the group.

Pope guzzled down the rest of his coffee and threw out the cup, heading home after a successful session.

***

Bex giggled to herself at the soft sounds of cursing and arguing emanating from the spare bedroom as she stirred the pitcher of lemonade.

Frankie, Benny and Will had come over to help Pope put together the furniture for the nursery and, based on the echoes she was hearing, it was not going particularly well. She had abandoned her rocking chair in favour of making the team refreshments after Benny had let loose a string of impressive swear words in two different languages. At approximately 30 weeks pregnant, laughing as hard as she did while listening to Ben swear himself blue in the face just made her have to pee, so she dismissed herself knowing that if she didn’t she would have to endure a lifetime of teasing.

“Just a sec!” she called out as the doorbell rang.

Slow and steady footsteps descended the stairs as a call of “I got it, babe!” echoed down the hall. Rebecca came around the corner with her tray of lemonade and potato chips as Pope handed over a few crisp twenty-dollar bills to the pizza delivery guy.

“Thanks man, you have a good day,” he smiled as he closed the door.

“Mmm, what’d you get?” she inhaled deeply. She’d gotten pretty lucky with the cravings so far, but she would not deny that pizza sounded pretty damn good.

“Got us a meat lovers, got you a pepperoni and pineapple since I know you’ve been on a sweet and salty kick lately.” Pope opened the smaller box to reveal the steaming, cheesy pizza and Bex felt her mouth begin to water.

“Have I told you today how much I love you?” she asked, placing her tray of snacks on top of the pizza boxes Pope was holding out to her.

He smirked at her, his eyes drifting up and down her body slowly. “You told me several times this morning, but I’ll never stop you from saying it again.”

Rebecca felt herself flush at the memory. Those second trimester hormones had hit her hard and seemed to be lasting a good long while, and Pope was certainly not complaining. His girl was stunning. She was always stunning to him, but that primal part of his brain told him that she was even more stunning when she had a belly full of his baby. Her bump was prominent, her tits were bigger and more sensitive, her skin was glowing, and that alpha male voice inside his brain crowed every time he woke up to her beautiful face and growing belly that it was all because of him. He had knocked her up and, thank God, she had decided that she loved him enough to want to raise a family with him. She was achy and uncomfortable, but she loved him and wanted his kid, and that meant more to him than he could ever say. Luckily, with the influx of hormones the past few months, he had been able to show her instead.

He watched as she slowly climbed the stairs, taking care to stay a few steps behind her just in case.

“How’s it going up here anyway?”

Pope groaned. “I don’t get it, baby. I can field strip any gun you put in my hands blindfolded. All of us can. How the fuck is this stuff beating us?”

Bex giggled softly as she entered the nursery and absorbed the scene in front of her. What she wouldn’t give for her phone right now so she could take a picture. Benny sat in the middle of the floor, looking like he was about to cry; crib pieces scattered around him. Will was leaning against the wall with a tired hand over his eyes, a half-assembled dresser beside him. Frankie was sitting in her abandoned rocking chair, cap pulled low over his eyes. He looked like he could be asleep, if only his leg wasn’t bouncing up and down anxiously.

“Soups on, fellas,” Pope announced, prompting the team to abandon their projects for paper plates piled high with pizza slices and tall glasses of lemonade.

Bex smiled fondly at her family as Pope, Benny and Will sat against the far wall underneath the bay window, the three men examining the assembly directions for the crib like they were preparing for a siege.

Frankie held out his hand to offer her the rocking chair but she shook her head. “If I sit in that thing any longer, I feel like I’m gonna turn into a grandmother instead of a mom.”

Frankie cracked a small smile. “Fair enough…” he scanned the room quickly before meeting her eyes again. “Do you want me to go grab a chair from the kitchen?”

Again, she shook her head. “The floor is good, Frankie.”

“You sure? I can—”

“As long as you promise to help me up when I inevitably need to pee, I’m positive,” she chuckled.

“You got it, kid,” Frankie held her hands to help her gently lower herself onto the hardwood floor before throwing himself down beside her. “How ya feeling?”

Bex shrugged as she bit into her deliciously sweet and salty slice of pizza. “You know, I’m actually alright. I know I’ve gotten pretty lucky, but I thought this whole pregnancy thing would be a lot tougher.”

Frankie nodded kindly as he chewed on his own slice. “I remember how Charlie was when she was pregnant with Mateo,” he reminisced. “Couldn’t sleep more than ten minutes at a time, constantly had to pee, had to wear these ugly compression socks. She handled it like a champ for the first 30 or so weeks, but by the time he was finally ready to make his entrance, we were both ready for her not to be pregnant anymore.”

“Yeah, she mentioned that,” she murmured. When Frankie had raced over to calm her down after Pope had left, one of the first things he said was that he and Charlie would be there for them, no matter what. And they had been. Charlie in particular had been Bex’s lifeline. She had been so kind and understanding, helping Bex get set up with an OB/GYN, lending her pregnancy and parenting books, and just letting her bitch and cry whenever she needed a female shoulder to cry on. “She said she got to a point where she would’ve given anything to just get Mateo out.”

Frankie nodded. “Oh yeah,” he sighed. “The week before he was born, she was not sleeping. Her emotions were all over the place, she wasn’t hungry, she couldn’t sit still, and she would get angry at me for the littlest things. It got to the point where I didn’t recognize her anymore, you know? Like, where did the woman I love go?”

Bex reached over and rubbed his shoulder comfortingly. “That must’ve been tough.”

Frankie shrugged. “Like I said, she handled it like a champ. And I sure as shit wasn’t about to complain when she was in labor for the better part of three days.”

Bex whistled lowly. “Three days…Jesus…”

“I’m sure it won’t be that way for you,” he backtracked quickly, playing with the back of his cap as he ducked his head. “I dunno the statistics or anything but…”

“Hey, hey, Frankie, chill. It’s okay.” She pulled his hand away from his hat and ran her hand up and down his arm. “You feeling okay, Frankie? You seem…on edge.”

Frankie looked across the room at his brothers, deeply entrenched in the assembly directions, before sighing. “She’s pregnant again,” he whispered.

A bright smile crossed her face. “What? Oh my god, congratulations!” She reached out and wrapped her arms as best she could around his shoulders.

“Thanks…” he sighed.

“Do you…did you not want another baby?” she asked, confused at his dismal attitude. Frankie had been the one to talk Pope off the cliff, telling him how great fatherhood could be. And it was clear through his interactions with Mateo that he was an amazing father. He was one of those dads who flourished under the responsibilities of parenthood, who saw taking care of their child as a joy and a privilege, not as a job or as babysitting. If there was one thing Rebecca knew for sure, it was that Francisco Morales was a family man through and through, so she was a little surprised at the dread in her friend’s eyes. She had expected Frankie to be more…enthusiastic about having a second baby.

“Of course, I do, Bex, I just…” Frankie groaned, doffing his cap for a moment to run a stressed hand through his hair before redonning it. “I’m making jack shit right now at work, and Mateo is almost three, and the pregnancy was so rough on Charlie last time…I just…I can’t let my family down.”

Charlie shuffled herself closer and wrapped her arm around Frankie, leaning her cheek on his shoulder. “You won’t…” she murmured softly. “Yeah, this kid was unexpected but you and I both know your wife. She wouldn’t be having a second kid if she didn’t want one. Plus, you both know what to expect now. Hopefully she’ll have an easier time this go around, but you also know the signs and what kinds of questions to ask. And yeah, Mateo is young, but that’s okay. You guys can start teaching him responsibility early and, if they both end up being too much, call Benny to take Mateo.” Frankie cocked his eyebrow and Bex laughed. “Well, I was gonna say call Santi, but we’re gonna be a little busy ourselves. Benny’s energy can match a three-year-old easily though.” Frankie chuckled and wrapped his arm around his best friend’s girl. “As for money,” Bex shrugged. “I know Santi could use some help managing the security firm. He wanted you to partner with him anyway, and he’s still holding out hope that you’ll join him, so why not?”

Frankie nodded slowly. “I could help him out a couple of days a week and still teach flying lessons. Yeah, that could work. I’ll talk with him and see what he says.”

Bex chuckled as she shifted uncomfortably. “It’s not gonna be much of a conversation, Frankie, trust me. He’s been hoping you’ll take him up on his offer. Don’t tell him I told you, but he’s missed working with you.”

Frankie smiled softly as he watched Pope grab Benny in a headlock while Will shook his head slowly. “Yeah, I missed him too.”

Bex shifted again and Frankie stood, gently helping her stand, recognizing the signs immediately. The two watched the MMA fighter and the security firm director wrestle on the floor for a minute before Will was able to separate them.

Bex turned to Frankie and smiled. “If you really missed him, can you do me a favour?”

“Anything for you, kid,” he smiled back at her.

“Stop fucking around and help them build the damn furniture please. I know you put together all of Mateo’s furniture on your own, so please, put them out of their misery.”

Frankie’s loud bark of laughter startled everyone. He wrapped his arm around Bex and gave her a quick squeeze. “Sure thing, kid. Hey, idiotas! Let’s get moving. We want this stuff ready before the baby’s first birthday, okay?”

***

Pope sighed contentedly as the golden rays of the setting sun illuminated the dust particles dancing in the air. These moments were quickly turning into his favourite nightly ritual.

The radio droned lowly as he sat in bed, dressed in a pair of shorts, with Bex sitting reclined against his chest. He had just finished applying coco butter to her skin, and now his hands were resting gently on her belly, waiting for their kid to make their presence known.

Bex took a deep breath, allowing the air to escape through her lips as she cuddled further down into bed, resting her head just above her boyfriend’s heart. She loved these moments too, when it was just the two of them. No museum breathing down her neck, no art classes to teach, no security emergencies calling him away from her. Just the two of them, bonding with the baby that was nestled safely within her.

Sometimes, Santiago would talk to the baby when they sat like this. He’d tell stories about his childhood, about their relationship, about the kid’s future aunts and uncles. Sometimes, he would play classical music on his phone and direct the speaker towards her belly. Sometimes, he would talk to her, sharing his thoughts and fears, tell her about the things that he wanted to do with their kid when they were old enough. Most of the time, he would just hold her in silence and wait for the kid to kick or roll inside of her so he could feel it.

“The nursery looks really nice, babe,” she mumbled drowsily, wincing slightly as her skin bulged out against Pope’s palm, the outline of a tiny foot appearing for a brief second.

“That’s all you, sweetheart,” he replied, pressing a gentle kiss to her temple as he soothed his hands up and down her swollen stomach. “The Hundred Acre Woods theme is stunning.”

Originally, Rebecca had wanted a jungle theme for the nursery, but Pope had borderline begged her to do something else, literally anything else, that wouldn’t remind him of crouching in the Colombian jungles next to Tom the day before everything went to shit. So, he hadn’t complained when she announced that she was going to Disney-fy the kid’s room with a mural of the Hundred Acre Woods and all of Christopher Robin’s friends.

“I made it pretty, you made it functional,” she yawned, shifting slightly to lie on her side, her left arm wrapping around his side as she nuzzled into his chest.

Pope snorted. “Yeah, once you convinced Frankie to stop being a prick.”

Under Frankie’s direction, all of the furniture was put together in less than an hour. The solid oak crib, dresser/changing table, shelving unit and rocking chair pulled the room together nicely, and the white bassinet sat in the corner of their bedroom, waiting to be put to use.

Rebecca smiled sleepily. “Not my fault you three didn’t notice that the one dad in the group was sitting around twiddling his thumbs.”

Pope grinned down at her. “We make a pretty good team, huh baby?”

She lifted her droopy eyes to him for a moment and smiled brightly at him. “Forever and always, my love.” She ran a gentle hand over her belly and sighed happily. “You’re stuck with me now.”

It suddenly struck Santiago how badly he wanted that to be true. What wouldn’t he give to wake up next to this beautiful woman every day? To be allowed to love her and spend as much time in her presence as possible? To raise their child together and be a family? To grow old with her by his side?

He ghosted his hand down her side and gently picked up her left hand, running his thumb over the knuckle of her ring finger as she drifted off to sleep.

“Not yet I’m not, mi amor,” he whispered. “But I want to be. If you’ll have me.”

He gently shifted them down the mattress, curling up behind her and resting his hands lovingly on her belly as he settled in to sleep, taking comfort in the knowledge that everyone he loved was safe in his arms that night.

Tags list (open): @darksideofclarke, @writefightandflightclub, @eternallyvenus, @rae-rae-patcha

#santiago pope garcia x oc #santiago pope garcia #triple frontier #triple frontier fanfic #fanfiction #oscar issac #frankie catfish morales #pedro pascal #dad!pope

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themerriweathermage · 4 years ago

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Author Interview

I was tagged by @sleepswithvillains . I’ve never been tagged much before so this is kind of new for me, but I love it! Tag me all the time! Also you did it again, where I got the Tumblr notification like right as I went to bed, but my sleep schedule is so wack right now.

Tagging: @guardianofrivendell @moriamithril @sunflower1000 and really whoever wants to do it. Drop me a tag if you decide to do it because I definitely want to see what you have to say!

I have a lot of unfinished fics and not a lot of published works in comparison.

1. Name: The Merriweather Mage (Tumblr)/ RinzlersGhost (AO3)

2. Fandoms: LOTR/The Hobbit, The Witcher (TV), SWTOR/Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Twilight, Underworld (though I’m not active in most of them unless I’m hyper-fixating)

3. Where you post: AO3, Tumblr, and I have an inactive FF.NET account

4. Most popular oneshot: People seem to have a real affinity for Meleth-nin/My Love. I actually hated writing it, because I was in such a bad place after receiving news that my childhood dog had died, but I don’t hate the fic itself.

5. Most popular multichapter: Every Kitten Has Claws which is a Geralt X Druid Fem!Reader. 25 Kudos, 3 bookmarks, 517 hits. Followed by Turuhalme in the Greenwood which is Thranduil X Fem!Reader. 9 Kudos, 1 bookmark, 270 hits. Both contain 18+ Content.

6. Actual worst part of writing: I legitimately hate writing fight scenes. I’m horrible at them and most of my fics contain some sort of fight scene obnoxiously enough. Although the best advice I ever saw on here was to keep your fight scenes short because not very many people are interested in a long drawn out detailed fight scene.

7. Favorite story you wrote: Bards & Beans Coffee Co. Elrond X Fem!Reader. Was the first time I’d ever written anything in the second person. I based it off of a dream I had about meeting Elrond in a coffee shop. I planned it, wrote it, and posted it in the span of four days. It’s basically as if Middle Earth exists on the other side of meridian locks, and it’s set during the War of the Ring but with some of the characters from the Hobbit so the timelines are pretty pushed together. Your side of the meridian locks has a Earth that is basically a continuous strip of land that varies from high-tech futuristic ports all the way down to medieval ports. Basically the farther North you go, the more high tech and futuristic the land becomes. Quite a shock for those who would have never been to the other side of the locks. 18+ Content.

8. Story you were nervous to post: Most likely all of them. Any of my Twilight work though, I always hesitate about publishing. Sometimes it’s because the stories are close to my heart, but I also know that the fandom can be rabid. Most of the interactions I’ve ever had with Twilight blogs are fine, but there’s a lot of discourse about Twilight right now, and while I appreciate that most people are in the right (the issue with the Quileute tribe, the Cullen’s as villains, Jasper and the Confederacy, the actual legitimacy of the Volturi as a ruling body, etc), this is actually one of the reasons I left the fandom from a writing/following POV. (There are many, many things that are wrong with Twilight and not from a literature point of view. For example, Meyers took a real life Native American tribe and treated them highly unfairly in the books, to the point of calling them dogs which isn’t very fair at all, and they have received no compensation for being used and they are risk in the place they live in now. If you have some time and money, I would recommend checking out the Quileute Move to Higher Ground project.)

9. How you choose your titles: For story titles, I like to choose the main theme or a main phrase that is used. For chapter titles, I either don’t title or I will chose something that is a main part of the chapter.

10. Complete works: Out of the 21 works I have on AO3, 18 of them are completed, although one is an open ended and may be reopened after I get some of the larger works out of my way. As for fics in general that I haven’t published or have published on other platforms, there is 2 of 5 complete works on FF.NET. Some of those stories I will be pulling and deleting. The two complete works will be migrating to AO3.

11. Incomplete works: Actively: Sadril-nin/My Loyal One, A Hunter’s Circlet, and Beauty in Brokenness (unpublished for now). I have a few other inactive LOTR/The Hobbit based fics that I might try to finish after the main two are finished. Inactive: Literally too many to count. I mean, when I wrote my goodbye to the Twilight fandom, I said that I had been writing for the fandom for nearly nine years. I have so many unfinished Twilight fics, well over 100.

12. Do you outline: Not usually. I’m at the point with Sadril-nin right now where I’m literally following a map of Middle Earth and cataloguing the journey across the map, so I guess that could be considered an outline. Mostly if I’m writing for LOTR/The Hobbit, I want to follow the timeline of progression for the story that’s already been written. I do have a little bit of leeway in that gap between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings though.

13. Coming soon ideas, maybe? I’ve been giving you a taste of Beauty in Brokenness. I do intend to publish it, but it’s a constant struggle to rework it. I have ideas that I want to cement in the story that don’t always come out the way I want them to, so I am consistently reworking parts of it all the time. I will also be rewriting (eventually) Crown of Thorns, which is Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic, Lord Beckett X Siren!OFC. I also appreciate the idea of Nestadion X Centaur Fem!Reader, but instead of being a centaur all the time, you’re actually a shifter who can turn into a centaur. Really confuses a warrior elf to see what amounts to a small human carrying this massive two handed sword around and calling him “princess” all the time.

14. Ask me anything: Is there anything you miss in fanfic? In comparison to the actual book/movie? Not really. I appreciate the original works, but I recognize that they can be flawed and so can their authors/writers. Which is why fanfic is so appealing-- everyone has a different spin on the original; everyone has a different take on the characters, everyone writes differently, and that’s the fascinating part to me. The only downside, of course with any fanfic, is the fandom and it can be hit or miss with people. It is what it is, and the liberty of fanfic is that not everyone is going to like or enjoy your works, and the same goes for your tastes. Are there right or wrong opinions? I don’t know; I’ve both read and written some morally ambiguous fics, and some I would like to forget that I very much haven’t.

15. Best writing traits: Same as the worst writing traits. I’m a sucker for detail. I love it. I want my readers to see it like I do. When I read books or play D&D or play video games, I see it like I’m in a movie. When I write, I want you to see it like you’re on set and the cameras are rolling and you are perfectly prepared. I want you to feel like you are in the story, which is why my oneshots turn into series, and my multi-chapter fics turn into novel length stories. I find it obnoxious at times, because I feel like I can’t ever turn it off, but by the feedback I get, some of y’all really enjoy it, so let’s get this show on the road.

16. Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: Uhhhh, let me go browse my WIP folder. I’ve put quite a bit of research into rewriting Crown of Thorns and making it slightly more historically accurate. I know that there will be a Part 2 to Sadril-nin, because I’m not going to time skip a seventy/eighty year gap between the timelines of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. And I really don’t want to submit y’all to this absolutely massive story all jam-packed into one fic. Other than that, I’m also sitting on Through Hellfire and High Waters, which is another Elrond X Reader fic that follows the premise of a modern/medieval world all smashed into one. The Queen of Eryn Galen also needs a proper ending and to be published, a Thranduil X OFC fic; this one will also have a Part 2.

17. Spicy Tangential Opinion: I don’t care if my writing makes the characters out of character. I try to tag that if I can, but let’s be real here. Either I’m writing a character that originally has a limited backstory and a very real chance at an open-ended future, or I didn’t like the canon character and I’m rejecting that reality and replacing it with my own. Does it mean that I don’t or am refusing to recognize character flaws? No, and that’s the beauty of fanfic. You can do whatever you want. You might get hate for it or you might not. For example, I am a fan of Severus Snape (RIP Alan Rickman). Does his character have flaws? Yes. Do I like the way he was canonically written? No. Are his actions justifiable? Hell no. Is that going to stop me from being a fan? Again, no. He is arguably one of the most disagreed upon character of that series. I don’t see a need to defend why I write him the way I do. I don’t see a need to defend him in discourse, and I’m certainly not going to be hateful about it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about it. Yes, there was probably some underlying intent when the character was written. I’m not here (unless you’re specifically asking my opinion on it) I’m not here to read in between the lines with characters like Snape. I do not care enough to lose friends over opinions like that.

#long post #i am so sorry #get to know the author

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aaronmaurer · 4 years ago

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TV I Liked in 2020

Every year I reflect on the pop culture I enjoyed and put it in some sort of order.

Was there ever a year more unpredictably tailor-made for peak TV than 2020? Lockdowns/quarantines/stay-at-home orders meant a lot more time at home and the occasion to check out new and old favorites. (I recognize that if you’re lucky enough to have kids or roommates or a S.O., your amount of actual downtime may have been wildly different). While the pandemic resulted in production delays and truncated seasons for many shows, the continued streaming-era trends of limited series and 8-13 episode seasons mean that a lot of great and satisfying storytelling still made its way to the screen. As always, I in no way lay any claims to “best-ness” or completeness – this is just a list of the shows that brought me the most joy and escapism in a tough year and therefore might be worth putting on your radar.

10 Favorites

10. The Right Stuff: Season 1 (Disney+)

As a space program enthusiast, even I had to wonder, does the world really need another retelling of NASA’s early days? Especially since Tom Wolfe’s book has already been adapted as the riveting and iconoclastic Philip Kaufman film of the same name? While some may disagree, I find that this Disney+ series does justify its existence by focusing more on the relationships of the astronauts and their personal lives than the technical science (which may be partially attributable to budget limitations?). The series is kind of like Mad Men but with NASA instead of advertising (and real people, of course), so if that sounds intriguing, I encourage you to give it a whirl.

9. Fargo: Season 4 (FX)

As a big fan of Noah Hawley’s Coen Brothers pastiche/crime anthology series, I was somewhat let down by this latest season. Drawing its influence primarily from the likes of gangster drama Miller’s Crossing – one of the Coens’ least comedic/idiosyncratic efforts – this season is more straightforward than its predecessors and includes a lot of characters and plot-threads that never quite cohere. That said, it is still amongst the year’s most ambitious television with another stacked cast, and the (more-or-less) standalone episode “East/West” is enough to make the season worthwhile.

8. The Last Dance (ESPN)

Ostensibly a 10-episode documentary about the 1990s Chicago Bulls’ sixth and final NBA Championship run, The Last Dance actually broadens that scope to survey the entire history of Michael Jordan and coach Phil Jackson’s careers with the team. Cleverly structured with twin narratives that chart that final season as well as an earlier timeframe, each episode also shifts the spotlight to a different person, which provides focus and variety throughout the series. And frankly, it’s also just an incredible ride to relive the Jordan era and bask in his immeasurable talent and charisma – while also getting a snapshot of his outsized ego and vices (though he had sign-off on everything, so it’s not exactly a warts-and-all telling).

7. The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)

This miniseries adaptation of the Walter Tevis coming-of-age novel about a chess prodigy and her various addictions is compulsively watchable and avoids the bloat of many other streaming series (both in running time and number of episodes). The 1960s production design is stunning and the performances, including Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role, are convincing and compelling.

6. The Great: Season 1 (hulu)

Much like his screenplay for The Favourite, Tony McNamara’s series about Catherine the Great rewrites history with a thoroughly modern and irreverent sensibility (see also: Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette). Elle Fanning brings a winning charm and strength to the title role and Nicholas Hoult is riotously entertaining as her absurdly clueless and ribald husband, Emperor Peter III. Its 10-episodes occasionally tilt into repetitiveness, but when the ride is this fun, why complain? Huzzah!

5. Dispatches From Elsewhere (AMC)

A limited (but possibly anthology-to-be?) series from creator/writer/director/actor Jason Segal, Dispatches From Elsewhere is a beautiful and creative affirmation of life and celebration of humanity. The first 9 episodes form a fulfilling and complete arc, while the tenth branches into fourth wall-breaking meta territory, which may be a bridge too far for some (but is certainly ambitious if nothing else). Either way, it’s a movingly realized portrait of honesty, vulnerability and empathy, and I highly recommend visiting whenever it inevitably makes its way to Netflix, or elsewhere…

4. What We Do in the Shadows: Season 2 (FX)

The second season of WWDITS is more self-assured and expansive than the first, extending a premise I loved from its antecedent film – but was skeptical could be sustained – to new and reinvigorated (after)life. Each episode packs plenty of laughs, but for my money, there is no better encapsulation of the series’ potential and Matt Berry’s comic genius than “On The Run,” which guest-stars Mark Hamill and features Laszlo’s alter ego Jackie Daytona, regular human bartender.

3. Ted Lasso: Season 1 (AppleTV+)

Much more than your average fish-out-of-water comedy, Jason Sudeikis’ Ted Lasso is a brilliant tribute to humaneness, decency, emotional intelligence and good coaching – not just on the field. The fact that its backdrop is English Premier League Soccer is just gravy (even if that’s not necessarily represented 100% proficiently). A true surprise and gem of the year.

2. Mrs. America (hulu)

This FX miniseries explores the women’s liberation movement and fight for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and its opposition by conservative women including Phyllis Schlafly. One of the most ingenious aspects of the series is centering each episode on a different character, which rotates the point of view and helps things from getting same-y. With a slate of directors including Ryan Bowden and Anna Fleck (Half-Nelson, Sugar, Captain Marvel) and an A-List cast including Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Uzo Aduba, Sarah Paulson, Margo Martindale, Tracey Ulman and Elizabeth Banks, its quality is right up there with anything on the big screen. And its message remains (sadly) relevant as ever in our current era.

1. The Good Place: Season 4 (NBC)

It was tempting to omit The Good Place this year or shunt it to a side category since only the final 4 episodes aired in 2020, but that would have been disingenuous. This show is one of my all-time favorites and it ended perfectly. The series finale is a representative mix of absurdist humor and tear-jerking emotion, built on themes of morality, self-improvement, community and humanity. (And this last run of eps also includes a pretty fantastic Timothy Olyphant/Justified quasi-crossover.) Now that the entire series is available to stream on Netflix (or purchase in a nice Blu-ray set), it’s a perfect time to revisit the Good Place, or check it out for the first time if you’ve never had the pleasure.

5 of the Best Things I Caught Up With

Anne With An E (Netflix/CBC)

Another example of classic literature I had no prior knowledge of (see also Little Women and Emma), this Netflix/CBC adaptation of Anne of Green Gables was strongly recommended by several friends so I finally gave it a shot. While this is apparently slightly more grown-up than the source material, it’s not overly grimdark or self-serious but rather humane and heartfelt, expanding the story’s scope to include Black and First Nations peoples in early 1800s Canada, among other identities and themes. It has sadly been canceled, but the three seasons that exist are heart-warming and life-affirming storytelling. Fingers crossed that someday we’ll be gifted with a follow-up movie or two to tie up some of the dangling threads.

Better Call Saul (AMC)

I liked Breaking Bad, but I didn’t have much interest in an extended “Breaking Bad Universe,” as much as I appreciate star Bob Odenkirk’s multitalents. Multiple recommendations and lockdown finally provided me the opportunity to catch up on this prequel series and I’m glad I did. Just as expertly plotted and acted as its predecessor, the series follows Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman on his own journey to disrepute but really makes it hard not to root for his redemption (even as you know that’s not where this story ends).

Joe Pera Talks With You (Adult Swim)

It’s hard to really describe the deadpan and oddly soothing humor of comedian Joe Pera whose persona, in the series at least, combines something like the earnestness of Mr. Rogers with the calm enthusiasm of Bob Ross. Sharing his knowledge on the likes of how to get the best bite out of your breakfast combo, growing a bean arch and this amazing song “Baba O’Reilly” by the Who – have you heard it?!? – Pera provides arch comfort that remains solidly on the side of sincerity. The surprise special he released during lockdown, “Relaxing Old Footage with Joe Pera,” was a true gift in the middle of a strange and isolated year.

The Mandalorian (Disney+)

One of the few recent Star Wars properties that lives up to its potential, the adventures of Mando and Grogu is a real thrill-ride of a series with outstanding production values (you definitely want to check out the behind-the-scenes documentary series if you haven’t). I personally prefer the first season, appreciating its Western-influenced vibes and somewhat-more-siloed story. The back half of the second season veers a little too much into fan service and video game-y plotting IMHO but still has several excellent episodes on offer, especially the Timothy Olyphant-infused energy of premiere “The Marshall” and stunning cinematography of “The Jedi.” And, you know, Grogu.

The Tick (Amazon Prime)

I’ve been a fan of the Tick since the character’s Fox cartoon and indie comic book days and also loved the short-lived Patrick Warburton series from 2001. I was skeptical about this Amazon Prime reboot, especially upon seeing the pilot episode’s off-putting costumes. Finally gaining access to Prime this year, I decided to catch up and it gets quite good!, especially in Season 2. First, the costumes are upgraded; second, Peter Serafinowicz’s initially shaky characterization improves; and third, it begins to come into its own identity. The only real issue is yet another premature cancellation for the property, meaning Season 2’s tease of interdimensional alien Thrakkorzog will never be fulfilled. 😢

Bonus! 5 More Honorable Mentions:

City So Real (National Geographic)

The Good Lord Bird (Showtime)

How To with John Wilson: Season 1 (HBO)

Kidding: Season 2 (Showtime)

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy Vs The Reverend (Netflix)

#tv #television

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