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always-on-tatooine · 4 years ago

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A MaulxReader part 1: Shooting Stars

Woo-wee! First time posting something like this. I’m still a little new to Tumblr, so if I need to fix something please let me know.

Also, big shout out to @justalittlecloud and @a-dorin for being so kind and giving me courage to post this :)

Masterlist link: https://always-on-tatooine.tumblr.com/post/640968824459526144/shooting-stars-maulxreader-masterlist

1454 word count.

Takes place RIGHT at the end of Clone Wars, so spoilers may be present. Enjoy!

Released from the Jedi's grasp, and the orbital pull of the moon that drew closer to the condemned ship by the second; the now-former Darth Maul believed he had finally made his escape inside the stolen shuttle. After his battle with Ahsoka Tano on Mandalore, and the amount of force that was used to destroy the ship's engines, the Zabrak knew he would have to find somewhere to rest if he were to regain his strength. With the fall of the republic, the new order, designed by his former master would now have complete control over the galaxy. This would be a new challenge he would have to survive if he were to exact his revenge.

Sending his spacecraft into hyperdrive, he was certain of his freedom from the chaos he created. Though he rarely underestimated his opponents, he did however neglect to calculate how much damage he had caused to the main ship. As metal and debris scattered across space, not even a Sith as skilled as Maul could avoid what happened next. A large chunk of metal shrapnel carved straight into the shuttle engine. A light show of emergency signals illuminated the cockpit. Frantically, Maul did his best to take control of the craft as it dropped out of its attempt of hyperspace. With his ship now spinning through space, it became clear to him that there was very little he could do to stop his fate as Maul lunged towards the nearby planet. The only hope for him now was to land his ship as smoothly as he could.

**********

The night sky was brightened by a series of explosions over (y/n)’s planet. Though it was hard to see whether it was Republic or a Separatist ship from this distance, only a large warship would have been able to ignite the bright colors that followed as it fell out of hyperdrive. Though the destruction was being pulled into the gravitational force of one of the nearby moons, plenty of the explosion made its way to its neighboring planet. Parts of the chaos could be seen flying through the atmosphere. Like shooting stars, some of the metal debris burned even brighter they came colliding with the planet's surface.

For (y/n), this was a nice addition to the already beautiful night sky that spanned over the great plains. As of late, she had been struggling to get a good night's rest. Something in the air had been unsettling, an unexplained shift that kept her up in the late hours. So, a beautiful occurrence like this was a nice accompaniment to what was already a restless evening. Most of the time it was fairly quiet in these parts, as their planet often orbited away from the happenings of the waring galaxy beyond. She watched as bits of the destruction above burned up in the atmosphere, cascading down like brightly lit shooting stars. (Y/n) made herself comfortable petting the little loth-cat that sat on her windowsill, which served as an observatory to the arial spectacle. For years now, the two had been living alone in their small hut, one of the very few that have been scattered out across this open valley. With no neighbors in sight, (y/n) used her space to spread out her farm as far as she saw fit, making it just big enough that she could tend to it herself. The closest town from here was an hour or so ride on her jump speeder; longer when carrying her cart of produce to sell to the locals. This arrangement made her a decent living. Sure, it was lonely out here, but it was the price she had paid to ensure her freedom.

One of the “shooting stars” looked especially bright as it encountered the atmosphere. At first just a shimmer in the sky, only slightly more distinct than the shimmering stars above. As it fell, it emanated bright colors of fiery reds and burning yellows. A beautiful spectacle, the burning ball appeared to grow brighter by the second… and closer.

Once (y/n) finally realized this piece of sharp metal was not burning up in the atmosphere, but rather was coming straight for her home, she only had a mere few seconds to prepare for impact. Grabbing her little loth-cat she slid under one of the counters in her home and braced for impact.

The planet shook, sending vibrations throughout the house, threatening to knock everything in her home about. Holding the scared ball of fur tight, it took (y/n) a moment to loosen her grip and take in the damage. Things in the house did in fact become shuffled about. A few things knocked off shelves and the lighter of her furniture push aside. It added a slight atmosphere of disaster to her usually cozy home. When the trimmers were finished (y/n) shot to her feet. The crash did not feel too far away, and if the impact had destroyed her crop then she would certainly be damned for the growing season. In a rapped fashion, she slipped on her shoes, grabbed her staff, and went outside to investigate the damage that had been gifted by the heavens above.

As the smoke cleared, she could see to her relief, the plummeting debris did not destroy her season’s hard work. The damage ended about 30 meters outside the small field of crops. With the dust settling more, it became clear to (y/n) that this was not just a simply discarded part of a ship. A space shuttle, fuming from the flames now sat in front of the young women, a distinguishable new addition to the dark and open landscape. At closer inspection, she could see a silhouette of a body sitting in the cockpit. Quick to act, she knew that if this person were still alive, it would not be much longer until the smoke from the flames would ensure that there were no survivors in this crash.

The heat coming from the shuttle was more than hot enough to tell her that touching the ship would possibly lead to burning off her entire hands. With some very precise shimming between the latch of the capsule and the windshield, she manages to leverage her staff and release the seal, getting fresh air to the perhaps deceased driver. A distinguishable pop, followed by a rolling hiss, smoke released from the opening, creating a large burst into the air, only to dissipate, leaving the body hunched over the wheel, barely breathing.

(Y/n) had never seen a Zabrak before. She had only heard of them in stories; horned beings with bright skin that was vibrant as they were fierce. Yet in that moment, legends became true, falling from the sky from a heap of fire. He became even more real, as (y/r) reached into the ship to drag out the single survivor. Heavy, she did her best to lift the creature from his confines. She draped the muscled body over her back as she used all her might to bring the unconscious man back to her small home, the sound of metal scraping the rough terrain as his legs dragged in the back.

Attempts to lay the man down on the couch in a way that secured his safety was limited, as the heap of dead weight slinked from her body and onto the limited resting space. In the dim light of her small hut, she was able to see more features of her unexpected guest. Under the mix of ash and buses, bright crimson skin painted over his face; a contorted expression from the pain he was enduring. Dressed in black, his agile body clumped onto the couch was misleading to its muscular strength; only known to (y/n) after carrying the stranger from the ship aflame.

Her furry companion, still hiding under the counter, peering out, just to let out her hisses and groans of distrust. “Zuzu, you behave now,” (y/n) said scolding yet oh-so casually. “I had to do all the heavy lifting, so you don’t get to say who we have as a guest.”

The one-way conversation continued as she reached for the med-kit, “What else was I supposed to do? Any longer in there, and he would have been done for.” Due to the limited lantern lighting, she was only able to apply bacta cream to the most evident of wounds. “This will have to do for now,” she proclaimed, looking over the depleted horned being. “Anything else that needs to be examined will have to wait till tomorrow.” After coving the stranger’s body with a spare blanket, she swept up the still cautious Zuzu, carrying her small companion off to the bedroom for rest.

#star wars #sw #maul #darth maul #maul x reader #maul x you #maul x oc #xreader #x reader #clone wars

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fireladybuckley · 4 years ago

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911 Verse this or that

Indirectly tagged by @perfectlynervousbeard <3

Buck or TK. Look I adore TK, Ronen is seriously one of the cutest guys I’ve ever seen and TK is adorable and easily my favourite LS character. But it’s not even close when comparing him to Buck, Buck is my comfort character, my absolute favourite of just about anything, ever. I adore Oliver and there’s not a single person you could compare to Buck that I would pick over him, lol.

Eddie or Carlos.

Again, I really do like Carlos. I firmly believe Carlos (Rafa) doesn’t get enough screen time and his character development suffers because of it and I hate that. But again, I love Eddie just SO much. Comparing him and Carlos isn’t fair because they’re very different and Eddie’s storyline and character in general are SO much more developed, I feel like we’ve gotten to know him so much better and that just makes me love him more, I’m more attached. Plus Eddie’s relationship with Christopher alone is just so precious and I love it so much.

Bobby or Owen.

Easiest question ever. Bobby is amazing and the best dad and Owen sucks.

Chimney or Judd Not that I hate Chimney or anything (he gets on my nerves sometimes but overall he’s fine) but Judd is just wonderful. I love his whole southern gentleman vibe while also being a bit of a mischievous little shit which makes me laugh. And the way he loves and respects his wife is just so refreshing to see. <3

Hen or Marjan I wonder if this is kind of like how I feel about Carlos; I really like both Carlos and Marjan, but I feel like I barely know them. Marjan is badass and awesome and everything but aside from her arranged marriage stuff, I feel like we barely know anything about her. Whereas with Hen, I feel like we know her so well she could just be my best friend and it would be amazing. She’s smart, compassionate, hilarious and just awesome and I adore her. I also love her relationship with Karen and Denny and now Nia. If they take Nia away I’m going to riot

Maddie or Grace. This one was tougher, and REALLY close. I really love Grace, she’s amazing and badass and I love her and Judd’s relationship. I just like Maddie slightly more. I love how much Maddie has overcome and how strong she is, how she took care of Buck their whole lives (which was NOT fair to her), and I love their sibling dynamic. I love her relationships with the other 9-1-1 operators.

I will say though that they are both BADASS 9-1-1 operators and they are both queens.

Athena or Tommy Tommy’s fine but she’s very new and I feel like I don’t know her at all (though I love Gina Torres). Not that that matters, however; Athena is QUEEN and no matter how awesome Tommy could be, she would never surpass Athena. Athena is just so amazing and I love her so much. She is compassionate, badass, hard working, hilarious, terrifying when mad but at the same time so gentle and kind. Her and Bobby are amazing together (especially earlier in their relationship), she’s such a good mom to Harry and May (and by extension Buck, and maybe even Eddie). She’s just amazing, ok.

Albert or Mateo I’ll be honest, I was going to choose Albert because I find him adorable and funny and I wish we knew more about him. But this time it’s the opposite problem of the others... I feel like we barely know Albert, even though he’s been around for a while now. The 9-1-1 writers have done a terrible job giving him meaningful backstory imo. Like he’s been in LA for how long now? Does he even have a job? Is he still speaking to his parents? We know barely anything about him besides that he’s Buck’s roommate and he has been on some dates.

Mateo on the other hand is much more flushed out. I loved the story arc where he is just SO dedicated and driven to become a firefighter despite his dyslexia and I’m so glad it was made possible for him to have allowances for the test. I love that his crew doesn’t mock him for it or treat him like he’s stupid, they ALL help him as much as they can, and I LOVE when Marjan goes and gives the tattoo parlour who intentionally fucked up his tattoo a reaming. He’s an earnest, eager younger brother who just wants to help and prove himself and I think he’s adorable.

Michael or Paul. I like Michael, but I like Paul a bit more. I just wish they would give him more screen time and a storyline that doesn’t involve people being transphobic. I’m sorry (not sorry) but the sister storyline thing still pisses me off

118 or 126. The 118, no question. They feel far more cohesive as a team and I love their relationships more, both with each other and with other people. The 118 feels so much more real than the 126, and I’ve no doubt it’s because of LS’s continued sidelining of its characters that are not Owen (and, I’ll admit, TK. I love that he gets a lot of screen time, but not if it comes at the expense of Marjan/Paul/Mateo being shunted to the side).

Maybe the 126 will get better with time. I’m certainly hoping that with TK in his new role, maybe they’ll bring in another firefighter to replace him (hopefully a woman! Both shows definitely lack women in the fire-fighting department imo - but the OG is definitely worse; only Hen in 9-1-1, and only Marjan in 9-1-1 LS but at least LS has Tommy and Nancy as medics. the 118 needs another featured woman firefighter!!)

California or Texas. I don’t know if it’s the filming choices or if Texas is just like that (having never been there, I have no idea), but Texas doesn’t seem nearly as nice as California. That could just be my personal preference; I love lush greenery far more than the more desert-y types of things, and I love the ocean so much. I feel like LA has prettier settings, and LS is more gritty. Not that there’s anything wrong with that at all, I just prefer pretty haha.

Buddie or Tarlos I feel like this is a bit of an unfair question, since it’s still up in the air whether Buddie even exists in canon, and Tarlos is unquestionably real.

But of course, if I’m forced to choose, it’s Buddie. And that’s not to say Tarlos isn’t amazing, because it is... I adore BOTH ships so much. I’m just too drawn into Buddie, and how their personalities compliment each other, and Buck’s special relationship with Chris that places him firmly into the Diaz family unit, Buddie or not. I really do feel like they’ve set them up 100% as a potential romance and as far as slow burns go, it’s amazing so far. Plus, even if they don’t become a couple, I am still so invested in them as best friends.

That being said, Tarlos is fucking adorable and I live for their scenes on LS <3

Tsunami episode(s) or Tornado episode. There was just SO MUCH going on with the tsunami. Of course the entire plot arc with Buck and Christopher is amazing and easily one of my favourites in the entire series, but I also loved that the tsunami episodes showed EVERYONE in their element, doing everything they could to help people. I love that it brought Lena into the mix (I know the fandom is divided on her but I love her unashamedly). The amazing scenes with Athena and May, the scenes with Maddie and that girl with the drone... it was just SUCH A GOOD ARC and I love it. The fact that I can remember SO much about it and I barely remember what happened with the tornado tells me just how much more I enjoyed it, as well.

911 or 911 Lone Star. Unquestionably 9-1-1. I feel like the firefam has become part of my own extended family and I just don’t feel that with LS. Maybe after a couple more seasons it’ll be more like that, but for now, 9-1-1 is EASILY my favourite. I do love LS too, though. I just wish there was less of Owen and more of everyone else. AND I WANT MORE CROSSOVERS!!!

I have no idea who has been tagged so I’m just going to pick a few random people. If you’re reading this and want to do it, consider yourself tagged by me! (And tag me back so I can read yours! <3) @firemedicdiaz @that-firehouse @bicepsie @tulipsfrom-medusa @evaneddie @kittycat-cas @bvckleydiaz @ashavahishta @matan4il And anyone else!!

#911 #9-1-1 lone star #this or that #make me choose #this was fun #and it's become very obvious that Lone Star criminally under uses most of its characters #FIX THAT LS #lksjdflkjsd

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 4 years ago

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Moriarty 8 - 11 (FINAL) | HypMic 12 - 13 (FINAL) | Taiso Samurai 7 - 9 | Akudama 9 - 12 (FINAL)

Hopefully I’ll be able to get on to all that backlog soon, because...I don’t want it to keep accumulating and Skate-Leading Stars (first winter 2021 anime) already has an advance 1st ep. up...

Moriarty 8

(Moriarty 8 notes deleted accidentally…)

Moriarty 9

If you want a modern equivalent to the Baker Street Irregulars, then I’d suggest you look this way *jabs finger at Odd Jobs Yamada (from HypMic)*.

These CGI background horse and carriages are…kind of distracting…

I’m guessing back in those days, the Irregulars were better than Google at finding info…because Google didn’t exist until the internet did.

Moriarty 10

Just this ep and one more until the end…at least, until spring 2021.

Wow, the use of colour here is really striking!

White lilies mean…purity/chastity…?

I’ve never heard of “bending someone’s ear” until now. It means to talk to someone, especially to ask a favour or to talk at length.

Probatio diabolica: the devil’s proof. I didn’t even know that was a concept until now…(I never once studied law, as you can tell.)

“William” isn’t normally shortened to “Liam”…It’s normally “Will”…also, notice all the footprints on the floor…

Moriarty 11 (FINAL)

Last ep. before spring 2021.

LOL, kabedon.

The fishy thing about Brits is that they’ve named things across the world names from Britain. I know there’s a Doncaster which isn’t anywhere near Britain, for one thing…

Observe the weird finger-like marking made by one of the bloodstains and the scratches on the suitcase. The latter was probably forced open.

Considering the number of signs the killer left, he was clearly in a hurry…

Well, based on that shoeprint we can find the killer if we can find traces of blood on his shoe.

“Duram” (sic).

Ah! If it was raining in Durham, then there would be traces of mud on the killer’s shoes. I remember early on in Detective Conan Shinichi, then newly shrunk, deduced Agasa was running in the rain based on the mud on his pants…this is similar.

Chloral (hydrate…?).

The “washroom” (apparently a Canadian term, the British term is “water closet”) has privacy and a place to get rid of the evidence, to some extent.

What about the rest of Eddie’s clothes?

Considering there are still 5 minutes of the ep. left…there’s going to be some kind of stinger for the next season. I can feel it.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait…Director Holmes??? Y’mean, Mycroft?! That is a good stinger! See you next time.

HypMic 12

“Ever since I was born, there was never a time I’d felt I’d accomplished something.” – Aw, Doppo, sweetpea (<- this blogger calls people “sweetpea” when they’re feeling lots of moe feels for them). Please don’t say that. You’ve accomplished more than enough in your life!

…Oh, almost didn’t notice it until Hifumi hid behind Doppo and the angle changed to confirm the jacket was on the bed, but Hifumi doesn’t have his jacket on.

I think I saw a tweet that said something about a wall being wrecked (specifically “Wall: Ow…”) but I wasn’t sure of the context, so I saved it in my bookmarks…LOL, so that’s what it means?

Samatoki, I know you don’t like Ichiro…but please stop trying to preach what his 2nd character song says in the title…(i.e. Break the Wall, LOL)

Jyuto’s very much a “I’ll leave this problem to the other guy” guy.

When the Funi subs say “dame”, I think Samatoki is just referring to an “onna” (woman). It’s a bit of an odd choice, really…although I can’t go and interrogate whoever was responsible for it. I don’t have the authority or the contacts that will allow me to.

This is not the time for fighting one another!!!

Notably, in the manga, Jakurai was going to chaffeur Hifumi and Doppo to their place, but then he had to go to work and so they rode the train with their prize money. This “run from Special Forces” ending is better, I think, since people got grumpy at Jakurai for having to abandon them with the money.

“…permission to cover a story.” - Permission from…who?

*screams* I was thinking Tom, Rex and Iris worked for a foreign government! They work for Ichijiku – why didn’t I think of that?!

LOL, I couldn’t even tell what Tom was saying until I played it back…it’s English, just…said in a spot where you don’t expect it.

“…that scares me.” – This may be nitpicky of me, but osoreru is actually a derivative of osore (fear), so “it strikes fear in me”…? “It strikes fear in my heart”? What would sound right…?

Go, host mode Hifumi! (...but does that imply host mode Hifumi is the only “version” of Hifumi able to rap? Certainly, he was able to do Wrap and Rap without his jacket, right…?)

You can tell Tom still respects Jakurai after all this time because he (the former) calls him (the latter) “Sensei”. Also, this’ll be interesting, we haven’t seen many mics and speakers beyond the standard bad guy ones (depicted in both the anime and the manga).

My gosh! All I knew of this song was that m-flo, also responsible for Human Lost’s theme song (and notably they’re a hip hop group with techno influences), was responsible for this song. Man, this s*** slaps! It’s great! (Sorry, I’ve just never really had the chance to capitalise on all the info I gathered on EDM DJs when talking in terms of things from Japan…m-flo is basically the only act I know which does that, so I’m really excited…can’t you tell from how verbose I’m getting in this note?)

That’s interesting that Matenrou won and Tom still took the gold chair symbolism to represent him and the Secret Aliens as the victor instead.

Iris’s parts are awesome. M-flo has a female vocalist and so I’d assume Iris takes on Lisa’s (m-flo’s vocalist’s) parts.

…Hmm, Gentaro’s made a reference to the track “Me Against the World”, has he?...Maybe.

I’m not quite sure, but I think Ramuda said “majo” (witch) when he was referring to Beauty and the Beast in the English subs.

…gosh, what is up with that airhorn…? Still, next time is the last time. See you on Christmas…no, Boxing Day.

HypMic 13 (FINAL)

This is the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning…y’know, considering how stuff trended on Twitter, I’d say this anime’s gonna get a 2nd season, but you can’t really say that until it actually happens. I mean, Boueibu is much less popular than HypMic and that got a 2nd season…

This is the 1st episode where I woke up early enough to watch without spoilers and had no obligations to place over it, so…this is exciting, in its own sense, but in a sense, it could also be called “profoundly disappointing” because this experience is only available to me as of the final episode.

One of the tweets I saw a few weeks back came to mind – someone became interested in sakuga houkai (terrible animation, literally “animation collapse”) because of HypMic…I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing…

…Dude, you probably shouldn’t answer a call from someone who just revealed themselves to be a traitor last episode…*sweatdrops*

(Spoiler for rest of franchise) Hmm…Dice’s face is pretty straight. Assuming at this point we knew Dice was Otome’s son, this is a good poker face from him…!

This thing about gangs was mentioned in their profiles (although the words used implies they “went delinquent”), so it actually doesn’t surprise me.

I wonder if this subway exists in the mainline story…?

According to the next ep. preview I saw on Twitter, TDD will reform to take down the Secret Aliens. I’m not sure if that was a guess or whether that’s true, so I’m waiting for the shoe to drop on it.

Samatoki-san, not -sama. Hmm…

There was definitely the word “team” in Dice’s line, so it’s “what the legendary team was made of”.

…oh gosh…they’re still using that airhorn…?

Again with the play on “lonely thunder”. It’s a really fun pun, but one I’d like to see in the rest of the series more.

Notably, Iris’s rap in English missed the word “charisma” where it could have fit (unless I missed reading it the first time).

Note Samatoki does actually use the word “shinsensa” (freshness), so there’s no lie there.

I still love how much they went in on Rex’s theme, even in his raps.

Huh, that’s new. Never seen a tag team like this before.

It seems Tom’s signature is using a lot of English, which makes it easy for us English/Japanese pair translators.

Saburo didn’t actually say “Ichi-nii”, did he…?

…based on the rock intro, this is Rhyme Anima, the OP, or something that sounds similar. What I’d need to confirm this is the “nautilus” line and the “ends corruption” line, which are the OP’s two biggest tells for AMQ.

“rainmaking” – Hmm, another link from Gentaro to Rei. This might be a different part of Rhyme Anima (OP) that wasn’t used as the OP proper.

“this white light invites and heals” (<- paraphrased) – Sounds like Sensei, alright!

…now that (rainbow bit). That’s sakuga!

*a silhouette appears* - Oh nooooooooooooooo! Now they‘ve done it! They’ve included Rei! That’s more than enough spoilers to last a lifetime for y’all anime-onlys!

I wish someone would work on this collaboration between Saburo and Riou…

Hmm…what is the series endgame? Putting in Dice as the new ruler??? I mean, Dice is the worst possible politician ever. He’s far too lax about things.

*Nemu enters* - No! Nemu!

Not only is Iris a “ramen shop owner”, it’s Tom’s favourite food…No wonder ramen has significance to her.

…ooh! A new song! Update: I don’t know what this song’s name is, although it probably will become clear what its name is on the 13th. I’ll keep my eye on Twitter in case the answer is there.

…I knew it was far too early to say if there was an s2 – the DVD’s live events go until September 5th and the 2nd DRB finishes in March. That almost felt like a stinger right there. Oh well, I’m more than happy to call this anime a success, even if I would call it the worst of the arms of the franchise. All HypMic’s anime had to do was deliver fun, before anything else, and it delivered on that front. See you around!

Taiso Samurai 7

Anime burnout means I’m coming back to the anime after the day it finishes.

This dancing scene is kind of like the one at the start of ep. 2 of IWGP, except it has the owl to represent the setting as well as the dance stage.

Leo doesn’t seem to know kanji or katakana, only hiragana.

Even though this part of the anime is set in London, the characters are still speaking Japanese (lel…?).

LOL, Edward Scissorhands much?

LOL, these background gossips are like the Plastics from Mean Girls…haha.

…LOL, that’s not one of those dismounting moves, is it? It’s just kind of…jumping off the bar.

Lookit how Leo’s sticker is 90 deg. sideways from what it should be, haha.

I don’t think it’s true that Olympic gymnasts have never failed. Like other people at the top of their game, they’re probably failed millions of times, but only outside the view of most of the world. Persistence and passion are what’s key to becoming the best at what you are, no matter what field you’re in.

Now Aragaki’s what I call a “determinator” (see TV Tropes on what that is).

Taiso Samurai 8

Notably, the word used for “clothes” is specifically for Western clothing, like dresses.

Well, now we know why Leo can do those stretches…

They’ve clearly sped up the dance here, but…it’s basically the same sort of movements Yuri on Ice used to suck me in. I’m here for it!

Leo seems to be the type who tries to push away his worries by distracting people (including himself) with other things…I see. I didn’t have much of a grasp of his character beforehand.

Britney! F*** you, Britney!

Ah, that must be the (a?) fabled owl of Ikebukuro. I’ve never actually been to Ikebukuro…the closest I got was Akihabara (to memory) and even then, that was for electronics, not anime…so I’ve never seen the owl statue I’ve been talking about close up.

Rei does kind of look like her mother like this.

Ah! Rei and Kitty have a pair look now! “Twinsies”, they call it.

Amakusa’s head is located right next to Leo’s butt, so I end up staring at it…LOL.

The Hoover mission.

“I <3 Ninja”, LOL.

LOL, “Nyapoo!”

*sighs* The problem with being multi-talented is that you’re going to be told to one day put one passion above the others, even if you don’t want that.

LOL, you can be a ninja with this WikiHow article. (I was looking for Kitty’s quote, but found that instead. It seems to be a quote from one of Tomoyo’s movies.) Update: I was right.

There’s a movie in the back where the title is “Black Rainmaker”. (Tomoyo, I presume) Mifune is the 1st person credited.

Considering this is 2003…you won’t be on Mars in 2013, Kitty.

Wow, a tape! That brings me back to 2003, indeed.

Charlie’s Angels…so that’s what the tape was.

LOL, a shoebill.

“blade in your heart” – That would refer to the character for “ninja”, which has a blade over a heart. Y’know Kiss Shot Acerola Heart-Under-Blade (from Monogatari), yeah? Like that.

…you might think emails were out of place in 2003, but a virus from an email caused me to be an avid reader and that virus was unleashed around the late 90s – early 2000s.

LOL, Kitty’s cat belt buckle.

You said it, Rei. You said it.

Taiso Samurai 9

Lausanne, Switzerland.

I noticed one of the boxes at the start of the OP says “Horizontal Bars”, rather than some random name to make the boxes look like they were discarded.

Someone encoded the video funny…

LOL, BB’s getting possessive of his territory.

Fuku-chan the fukurou (owl) in Ikebukuro…LOL.

LOL, randomly there’s a skeleton with a hat in the background of Britney’s clinic.

Notably, one of the wall hangings says “heart” on it – alternatively, “soul”.

Notably, Atlanta was the 1996 Summer Olympics…there is no 1997 Lausanne Olympics, as far as I know.

Akudama 9

I watched the part where it glitches twice and I can’t quite figure out what that circular symbol is…maybe it’s Hacker’s symbol…?

Ah! Only now they properly confirm Swindler used to work in the Seal centre.

“Life that never dies is defective.” – Doctor

Does that mean Doctor is actually older than she looks, due to plastic surgery…?

Marker? What marker?

Apparently that flower is a cherry blossom…according to Detective Conan.

…I know this anime wasn’t made in America (it wouldn’t be “anime” otherwise), but Anime Feminist is going to have a field day with this one…if they haven’t abandoned it already due to their idea of morals.

…now I can even see parallels between HypMic’s authorities and Akudama’s. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

“Why did this have to happen when I’m chief?” – Sounds like…basically every authority during COVID and BLM, to be honest.

See? Akudama likes the S word. I told you.

I haven’t watched The Shining, but reading the synopsis, you can figure out why Cutthroat is the way he is…sort of.

How does the iconic quote go? “Heeeeeeeeeeeere’s Danny!” (or something…?)

They even copied the iconic eye shot! There you go!

Way to take a guy out (with the door, LOL).

…with all this killing, I can see why Akudama Drive was only in one magazine now. (Then again, HypMic was in basically all of them and that also has a tonne of problems…)

Akudama 10

万死 literally means “10000 deaths”.

Babel.

That police chief is such a mood, LOL.

I can see why people didn’t recognise Swindler, but Courier never changes his look, so…uh…

You can’t become a police chief without a sense of justice, no?

“Since when did you know that I’m not-“ - *facepalms*

Is this what they call an “ass-kickin’ Christmas”? (LOL)

Y’know, Sister, you could just do the whole “wherever you are, I’m also seeing the same sky as you” thing some other anime do.

Notably, there are shide (the paper strips) and a rope over the vault…they really do treat the shinkansen and its immortal children as a single god, huh?

Hmm? They don’t care about Sister anymore? Just Brother? (Somewhere along the way, the priorities must have shifted.)

In the end, the best ship is Brawler and Hoodlum (lel).

Akudama 11

One more ep after this. I’m gonna miss this anime, even if it was crazy over-the-top and I didn’t finish it until after the day it ended.

I think the scariest scene in all of Akudama Drive is the one where the “cleaner” tosses the girl aside.

“This nowhere place!” – Around this time, the bunny and shark’s shirts say “morning”/”afternoon” (shark) and “evening” (bunny).

The blue bird of happiness…literally. That character on the birds is the one for “happy”.

…LOL, that one glitched Courier looks more like Cutthroat.

Hacker’s drone matches Courier’s head angles, LOL.

I guess if you think you’re falling in Kanto, you’re falling in Kanto and if you think you’re floating (like Courier did), you float. I always liked that concept.

War Games. Now the title makes sense!

…but they can be together if they stay here in Kanto as vessels for the citizens? (That sounds mighty antagonistic of me, but…that logic does compute.)

Maybe swindlers play games with the truth…? (What an interesting concept.)

“Just fine.” – I think Hacker needs a “This is fine” meme.

“We can hear your heart talking.” – It means something like “We can hear you spouting your true intentions.”

“…worth every last penny…” – That’s a weird thing to say for someone whose life got changed by 500 yen…Just goes to tell you how American the subbers can be sometimes.

Swindler’s smug face is so good, LOL.

Akudama 12 (FINAL)

This episode isn’t named after a movie. It’s named after the anime itself.

The TV says “Please watch away from the TV”, i.e. stand back from the TV while you watch.

“They came and stole the offerings…” – At this point, bunny’s shirt says “freedom” and shark’s says honpou, meaning “wild, uninhibited, rampant, extravagant”.

…where did Shikoku come from? Is that where Swindler and Sister landed after they tried going to the moon?

Ohh! That Christian imagery! That’s scary!

Is Akudama Drive a tragedy? No, I think…on the contrary, it’s a story of hope.

LOL, “s*** guy”.

I thought the girl had a bomb. Turns out she has a gun, which is…far worse, come to think of it.

Instead of red characters which say things about the situation, now Shark and Bunny have Hacker’s symbol on them.

There’s no way anyone who wasn’t immortal would survive the attack Courier took…

…why is it that falling over represents vulnerability in children in all of these stores where a war has happened and/or there’s a chase? Hmm?

Wow, Sister did everything with heels on…?!

Anyways, that was a fun time. See you next time!

#simulcast commentary #akudama drive #Chesarka watches Akudama Drive #taiso samurai #Gymnastics Samurai #HypMic #Hypnosis Mic #Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle - Rhyme Anima #moriarty the patriot #yuukoku no moriarty #Chesarka watches Yuukoku no Moriarty #Chesarka watches HypMic #Chesarka watches Taiso Samurai

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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How The Mandalorian Gave Fans a Different Kind of Star Wars Story

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This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers.

Technically, Disney+’s The Mandalorian is part of the biggest franchise on earth. But it doesn’t always feel that way.

True, it’s a Star Wars property, and it rarely lets you forget that fact. The show is rife with references to the films and animated series that have come before it and it enjoys padding out existing lore in ways that only the most hardcore of fans will care about—or possibly even notice. (Did you remember there was a krayt dragon skeleton in A New Hope? Be honest.)

The Mandalorian isn’t a story that requires a tremendous amount of Star Wars knowledge to follow or enjoy. And that’s because its central tale is one that follows rules and patterns we’ve all seen before. A mix of tropes from classic spaghetti westerns and samurai adventures, the show offers a broad look at life on the edge of the galaxy that exists well beyond the world of Jedi Knights, Sith warriors, and space princesses. And its tale of a lone bounty hunter and the supercute Force-wielding toddler he is charged with protecting is proof positive that there is space for every kind of story in this franchise. (As well as every kind of fan.)

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

In a universe that has become increasingly dense and self-contained, The Mandalorian still manages to feel like a breath of fresh air. Sure, its second season finale includes a surprise appearance by Luke Skywalker, because no property in this universe can apparently escape that family and their seemingly never-ending daddy issues, but the Disney+ series doesn’t seem concerned with him as anything other than a vehicle to further the story of Din Djarin, a good man who is trying to do right – by his faith, by his people, by the tiny creature whose life has suddenly become intertwined with his own.

Though the eponymous Mandalorian has run across a bevy of characters that have made longtime fans shriek with delight (Boba Fett, Bo-Katan, Ahsoka Tano, Luke himself), and the series ties in rather neatly with other franchise properties like The Clone Wars and Rebels, it still understands that its greatest strengths stem from its smaller stakes, more realistic worldbuilding, and the emotional connection between two vastly different creatures.

The Mandalorian isn’t an epic adventure, a space opera about the future of the galaxy as we understand it, or a tragedy about a single family’s apparent inability to keep from making the same mistakes from one generation to the next. It’s a story that’s deliberately limited in its scope and modest in its ambitions and, at the end of the day, the show itself is all the stronger for these choices.

In comparison to other Star Wars properties, The Mandalorian’s story is almost painfully straightforward, if perhaps a little bit darker in places than we’re maybe used to in this universe thus far. Set in the galaxy’s Outer Rim following the fall of the Galactic Empire, it generally deals with characters – including its own lead – who are not terribly complicated people. Their lives are simpler, rougher, and more focused on the everyday challenges of living than the Jedi and characters like them that populate the films.

Even the Mandalorian himself is simultaneously an avatar and a real person, and we get to know him as much through his struggles as his successes. He is, after all, the most reluctant of saviors. Yet, as many lone warriors before him, he is also a man with a code, and he holds tight to it, even in the lawless outskirts of the galaxy.

Occasionally Mando will have to rescue someone or must join forces with an uneasy partner in order to kill a monster or pull off a heist. But no matter how that particular adventure goes, by the end of the hour, he’s back on his path and moving toward his next goal. The show doesn’t really have “arcs” so much as stories that occasionally take place over an episode or two—see the transport of the Frog Lady back to her partner that begins in “The Passenger” and ends in the subsequent installment—and its most dramatic set pieces generally rely on Mando fighting something, ranging from a furious mudhorn to ravenous, gross ice spiders.

In the world of genre storytelling, serialized stories with twisty plots and puzzle-box mysteries are all the rage right now. Just look at shows like Westworld, a drama that—as much as I love it—spends much of its time tying itself into complex narrative knots it doesn’t really know how to get out of. So, a show like The Mandalorian, with its linear narrative, clear-eyed storytelling, and refreshingly basic plots suddenly feels like a revelation.

And maybe it is.

The Mandalorian Season 3 Predictions: What to Expect

By John Saavedra

Books

What Star Wars: The High Republic Reveals About the Galaxy Before the Movies

By Megan Crouse

The fact is, there’s still real value in a simple story about a man doing his best, no matter what circumstances he finds himself in. Maybe we’ve forgotten that fact in a television landscape that’s conditioned us to always be looking for a trick or a surprise reveal, but The Mandalorian’s largely straightforward narrative proves that it doesn’t have to be that way. And the show is as satisfying as any series that requires complex fan theories to enjoy or in-depth explainers to fully understand.

The explainers are nice, don’t get me wrong, but in all honesty, the show is doing just fine introducing existing canon characters like Ahsoka to new audiences on its own. You don’t need to have watched Rebels to enjoy her presence here, but if you have, the satisfaction is all the greater. Truly, we don’t give The Mandalorian enough credit for the delicate balance it strikes in the age old struggle between storytelling and fanservice. It’s a difficult thing, and the show walks a fine line both carefully and well.

Even the appearance of Luke, probably the ultimate moment in Star Wars pandering, exists not for its own sake so much as it does to advance the series’ main relationship – that between Din and young Grogu. (If you didn’t get a little emotional watching them say goodbye to one another, then you have no heart, I’m sorry.)

There’s little of the narrative baggage that usually comes along with a Skywalker arriving on the scene here – it doesn’t appear that anyone else even knows who he is beyond the fact that he is a Jedi – and though he’s meant to teach Grogu the ways of the Force, there’s no real indication we’ll see Luke again. After all, he has to start off down the path that leads him to The Last Jedi, and Grogu will undoubtedly return to his Mandalorian’s side at some point in the not too distant future. Disney knows where its money is, after all. And it’s not in Pedro Pascal merch, much as we all love him.

The Mandalorian’s first season occasionally drew criticism for what naysayers deemed a “flimsy” or “barely there” plot, but this underestimates the power inherent in the series’ simple framework. Not only is it an emotional balm for those of us who are, quite frankly, tired of hour-long installments that require a significant amount of work to understand, it actually serves an important narrative purpose. The slower pace and simpler story allow us to get to know Mando and his culture, and gives the Star Wars universe a chance to take a minute and breathe.

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The Skywalker films are so full of big, potentially galaxy ending stakes and consequences that we as viewers get little time to simply take the universe in on its own terms – let alone get to know the people that inhabit it. We’re usually too busy worrying about how it all ties back to the family at the story’s center or the Jedi they serve.

The Mandalorian has shown us what the Star Wars world outside of all the Skywalker drama looks like – even though it briefly includes one of them – and it lets us take our time to gawk at its sketchy bars, enjoy its colorful characters, and travel through run-down desolate towns at a slower pace. It’s allowed us to invest in the emotional connection between a lonely man and a lost creature who may be the last of its kind. And quaint though all that might seem, it’s certainly turned out to be a journey worth taking.

The post How The Mandalorian Gave Fans a Different Kind of Star Wars Story appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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imbruedinfear-a · 4 years ago

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@undeadrphub asked: ALL OF THEM FOR JAY

🍍 : how comfortable is my muse in their body? how do they feel about their height, weight, strength, and body type? how important is being attractive to them?

this man would kill to be taller in .0002 seconds if he could. he was bullied for his height, bullied for being severely underweight, bullied for feminine hips, for.. literally anything. he hates it all. as an adult, he’s managed to pull himself out of the underweight category, but it’s solely from muscle. he’s still incredibly thin and small, just as he’s always been. you can’t get him to be comfortable without an oversized hoodie to hide in. he vaguely cares about being attractive, but it’s more ‘i don’t want them to be embarrassed to be hanging out with someone as fucking ugly as i am’ than anything else. if he’s not working or going out with people, he won’t even think of trying to improve appearance.

🍅 : how does my muse feel about plastic / cosmetic surgeries & procedures? is it something they have done or would do? do they mind if others do it?

dislike. who the fuck cares about their appearance that much? granted, he’s had a nose job, but it was so he could still fucking breathe rather than cosmetics. he won’t dislike you as a person for it, but he’s going to instantly find you unappealing. it just bothers him for some reason.

🍏 : how stable is my muse’s physical health? do they go for regular or semi-regular checkups by a physician? do they have any diagnosed illnesses and / or take any medication? how often do they get sick?

stability whomst? he has two modes of health: sick once a year or sick every other week. it depends on how much food he’s been eating and whether or not he’s blown food money on beer. fuck doctors. his overall health is fucked. doctors cannot explain why he doesn’t have x problems and how he’s even still alive after all of the beatings he’s had, especially when it comes to the brain damage. he has seizures, sometimes an arm will stop working for a bit, sometimes he can’t hold anything, sometimes he’ll have a burst of amnesia. he’s a medical mystery to the point there are literal scientific articles on his case, and 98% of the time if he lands in the hospital for something they’ll just shrug it off. it’s gotten to the point he’ll break bones and still not go, because he learned how to fix that fucking problem himself when he was like 12.

🍎 : how stable is my muse’s mental health? have they been diagnosed with any mental illnesses and / or conditions? do they have any undiagnosed mental illnesses and / or conditions? do they or should they attend therapy?

:^) he’s gotten away with murder ( though it was self-defense ) through the insanity claim, which is actually really fucking hard to use. that should give you an idea of his scores on mental exams. but again, he has brain damage, and every single psych he’s ever interacted with has mentioned that they can no longer determine what’s an actual mental illness or what’s just his brain being physically unable to function correctly. he’s never been to therapy, but he’s been tested several times. his scores changed every time, for every section. the only thing anyone’s certain on is PTSD. Depression, Borderline Personality Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, and Schizophrenia have been heavily considered, but even professionals argue with each other. he’s a medical mystery even in mental health. he needs therapy, but his disorders make him extremely avoidant of it. that is not to say everything i listed is true, nor is it to say there isn’t anything unlisted here.

🍑 : how meticulously does my muse look after their physical appearance? do they spend a lot of time on their hair, makeup, grooming, and clothing? is there a particular reason why they do or don’t?

oof. how anxious is he? if he’s anxious, he’ll fix himself 1000x times. if he’s not doing anything special, he’ll walk out the door without a second thought. he doesn’t spend a lot of time on anything, but he does make sure he’s well groomed and put together. it should be noted, though, he doesn’t look in the mirror. his own apartment doesn’t have one, and he avoids public restrooms like the plague. his own reflection is a fucking trigger. this is probably why his eyeliner is always smudged.

🍒 : how much does my muse value companionship? do they constantly keep people around them, or do they prefer to be alone often? do they have or desire to have many friends? do they see every meeting as an opportunity to make a new friend?

confusing as fuck. he’s lonely as hell and constantly wants to hangout with people, but he also will have periods of avoiding them like the fucking plague. he loves hanging out! he fucking hates being out! who knows! for the most part, he has a lot of friends in a lot of places and will gladly drink with any group of strangers, but he’ll yeet the fuck out if you try actually getting close to him. he’s alone, always, at home and only around people when working or getting fucked up. having other people around too often, like a roommate perhaps, will make his mental health act the fuck up.

🍇 : how would my muse describe their childhood? how much has it impacted the person they are now, or will become as an adult? around what age did they or will they start to mature, and why? do they wish to go back to their days as a child, or have they embraced adulthood?

in his words, it was a great big pile of horseshit on fire. he literally has brain damage from it. he can’t leave his own room without convincing himself it’s going to be his living room, not his childhood home, and sometimes he’ll open the bedroom door and see his father standing there, and then he’ll fucking yeet back into bed. obviously it’s impacted him just a smidge. definitely not full of self-hatred and constantly fighting himself to do shit he likes, absolutely most definitely not traumatized in a million forms and continues to trigger himself because how the fuck do you go about your day not panicking half of the time. IN OTHER WORDS, he was a fucking parent to his brother when he was only 4, he would rather die in the most slow, most painful death than return to childhood. is he even still alive bc he doesn’t know

🍐 : how intelligent is my muse overall? are they smarter than the average person, or less than? are they primarily self-taught, or did they acquire most of their knowledge in school? are they more street smart or book smart?

if you knew him before his skull was caved in, you would call him a freak for how fast he could think and solve problems. he was the type of genius you’d only heard about in stories, and he pissed off his teachers because he never even needed to be taught. show him the super simple problem once and he knew how to do everything for the next three weeks. he grew up on the streets and read shakespeare for fun. he lost it all. it now only shows rarely, on really good days, when the stars want to align.

🍉 : which of the four seasons suits my muse best, and why?

summer. he literally lived outside most of the time since he was a kid, and summer nights were easiest. outdoor concerts, parties late at night, cookouts and campfires. he also loves storms.

🍌 : is my muse inclined to help others, or will they only do it when it benefits them, if at all? what makes them this way? has it ever gotten them into trouble, or inconvenienced them?

which personality is showing most at the time? he’s gotten accused of rape for helping a woman once. let that sink in. but also, he’s helped so many people he’s protected by half the city’s underworld. who knows.

🍊 : does my muse desire romance? is it something they would actively seek out, or prefer to happen more ‘ naturally? ’ what is their love life like? do they have any exes or past flings, or crushes?

o k a y listen. these r getting too hard i literally don’t know ok can i asked which disorder or which personality is showing most at the time for this bc IT CHANGES like everything always does. mostly, he’s,, weird. he actively seeks it out in the sense he’ll go on dates regularly, but he’s not actually trying to find a girlfriend. he’s carefree. also traumatized. really wanted romance until his heart was ripped to shreds and now he’s convinced himself he’s not lovable, too complicated, extremely undesirable, and especially undeserving of it. he won’t let it happen. no one should have to suffer by having to deal with him. if you’re including things that were just for fun and both parties knew it wasn’t serious, he’s had a few girlfriends. if we’re only including serious things, then he’s only had (1) serious boyfriend. They were together for nearly two years, and they split solely because Jeremiah a) didn’t want sex as much and b) didn’t want to try any kinks. def no trauma from that, absolutely doesn’t panic abt not being good enough or wanting it enough or being pleasing or being fun or attractive or too scarred. nope. also totally doesn’t do shit he doesn’t even like / triggers him just bc they want it gotta give it to them. perfectly fuckin’ fine after one relationship.

🍓 : how is my muse typically seen by others? does it ring true to who they really are? does their reputation matter to them?

our options: 1) aggressive 2) smooth n flirty 3) soft n adorable. he is all of the above. if you’re from the city and connected to the drug world at all, there’s a big ass chance you’re aware he was a major dealer at one point, the son of a psycho serial killer, and connected to damn near every gang in some way. there are few people who would be stupid enough to hurt him, just because there’s probably some member somewhere who’s going to get revenge for it. his rep is pretty positive if ur aware he basically turned the outskirts of the city from a shithole to a really good community. otherwise, u probably just think ‘criminally insane deliquent’. he doesnt rly care about it unless u start asking about his fucking dad.

🥝 : does my muse have any ‘ unusual ’ habits, interests, and / or talents? do they hide it, or are they proud of it?

b r u h i dont fuckin know im skipping this one, he’s just obsessive compulsive about the oddest things

🍋 : what kind of diet does my muse have? do they eat regularly, or the standard 2-3 meals a day? do they have to be reminded to eat, or are they likely to remind others? do they cook, or have others cook for them? do they eat healthily, or not so much?

no diet. no food. eat if money, starve if none. remember to eat who?? o u mean eat everything. who fucking knows. he can cook really well, sometimes, maybe. pizza and taco bell 4 life. fuck vegetables. fruits are delicious and to be treasured. he mostly eats like shit, if he eats at all.

🥭 : how important to my muse is their hometown, or where they’re from? are they proud of it, or considered a hometown hero? did they move away, or do they wish to?

none. no fucks given. still here bc no money to move. would happily fuck off to Paris or something.

#undeadrphub #( Some days I live in fear that I am every fucking thing I hate. || Jeremiah Headcanon )

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legobiwan · 6 years ago

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UUUOOOHH LEGO ILY AND YOUR META! Please please one of these days can I read how you feel about dooku's nihilism and all that like In Detail bc holy shit would that be the most delicious thing. Also. Also I just adore him and obi wan, like you have no idea how happy you make me with all the stuff you post, like honestly dude. Incredible. Thank you so much!!!!

OH THANK YOU, FRIEND! This is so fun and I’m happy to have pleased at least one person with my ramblings. And I now *finally* have a moment to sit down and expand on my Dooku thoughts, so on that note -

OHHHH BOI OH BOI HERE WE GO

This is going to get long, so I’ll put a bunch of stuff under the break because I came in with CVS-style receipts for this.

Let’s start what with what we know about Dooku.

He’s a patrician. (Dark Disciple)

He has a snark side as well as a dark side. (Citadel Rescue)

He was pretty broken up about Qui-gon’s death. (Star Wars Galaxy Series 7)

Albeit with an interesting interpretation… (Star Wars: Jedi - Count Dooku)

But what is Dooku’s deal? Why does he turn? And what makes him tick?

Corrupt Jedi/Qui-gon’s death

A lot has been said about this by others (and me) already, and since that’s not the point of this ask, I’m just going to skate over this topic. Dooku mentions more than once that he feels the Jedi have become corrupt, that they serve politics, that they have abandoned their ideals. If we take the EU into account, it really seems like the Battle of Galidraan had a huge effect on Dooku, after the Jedi got involved with the Mandalorian Civil War (of course it was the Mandalorians. Interesting stuff, although almost always referred to in an oblique manner.) Bottom line, the Jedi killed close to 300 Mandalorians, Dooku became appalled and started to lose faith, with the culmination being in Qui-gon’s murder by Darth Maul, as pictured above.

Home/Orphans/Parents/Existential Angst

Now, this is where it gets interesting.

Dooku seems to have never really gotten over the fact that his parents handed him over to the Jedi. This is fascinating in that a) he can remember that and b) he feels such a sharp sting of betrayal that this happened. I mean, look how he chews out someone else later on in Dark Rendezvous for giving up her child to the Temple.

WOAH. Dooku, even into his adulthood, has some MASSIVE abandonment issues.

And it’s not only in Dark Rendezvous. Check out this snippet Karen Traviss’s Clone Wars novelization:

“The galaxy will be torn apart by orphans,” Dooku said at last. “I think that everyone I know who has the potential to bring down empires has been robbed of parents.” He seemed to be talking to himself.

Even Sidious has picked up on it, when he visits Dooku on Serenno in the Jango Fett: Open Season series.

There’s this…hole, it seems, in Dooku, this emptiness that sees the universe as a pointless, lonely place and it seems to stem from the very action of Dooku being given up to the Temple in the first place. And so in some ways he almost expects betrayal, goes looking for it, and finds it within the Jedi, prompting him to nurse that open wound deep inside himself, to rage against it, turn to turn to the Dark Side.

It also totally explains his teaching obsession, and, in my mind, his desire to bring Obi-wan to his side. As a teacher, Dooku can delude himself into thinking he is in control of this relationship, that he is not dependent on his students for companionship, for someone to share his knowledge his life with. This, of course, is a damn lie, but seen in this light, it explains his never-ending parade of Padawans and apprentices, and surely why he wanted Obi-wan, who, as I have mentioned before, shared so many characteristics with Dooku - just without the existential malaise.

Because Obi-wan has that light in him. He has to, it’s the only way the man wouldn’t have completely broken after the life he led. And it’s a choice, to be a light in a universe that is ultimately uncaring, and no one understands this better than Dooku’s teacher.

But Yoda goes on to explain -

Dooku tried to choose the light, but ultimately could not. (Again, from the Clone Wars novelization.)

Don’t think, Padawan Dooku.

“You were wrong then, Jedi,” he said aloud. “And you’re wrong now.”

Destiny was not about feeling; destiny was about thinking, about rationality. Dooku didn’t see reacting blindly to feelings as some mystic virtue, but as a weakness.

In a child, he would have punished it as giving in to impulses, a lack of maturity and self-control.

As a child, he had been trained not to think. As a child, he had been trained to be a Jedi.

Don’t question so much, Padawan Dooku. Feel. Don’t doubt. Believe.

Well, he questioned things now. And he didn’t believe.

Because Dooku does not believe in a kind universe, not with betrayal bored so deep in his soul.

No belief in the afterlife, in the Force, so unlike the Jedi.

I mean, that is BLEAK. And so he rages against the meaninglessness of his existence, because what does it matter? He is alone in the universe, merely a sack of flesh, another life that will dissolve into the “featureless wet spill.”

And yet he cares enough about the Jedi to turn to the Dark Side, cares enough about the Republic to try and save it through his twisted means. The opposite of love is not hate, but apathy, and Dooku loves (and hates) but would never admit to it. Otherwise, why even try? Why not leave the Order and retire to Serenno in peace? Because he was abandoned in his own mind? Because his new family in the Jedi also eventually betrayed him by betraying their ideals? Because it is easier to be alone, to think yourself alone - to be beholden to no one, to nothing - to pretend that none of it matters when in fact you are just looking for ways to fill that void? Your last student murdered, your family absent, the ideals you tried to cling to now fetid, rank with hypocrisy.

Yeah, Dooku has an ongoing crisis, and the sad part is, he would probably have never filled that void unless he was able to reach out and accept Yoda’s offer. And even in trying to recruit Obi-wan - it would be the next best thing, would give meaning to Dooku’s existence, but it would still be a fractured relationship, even if Obi-wan gave himself totally to the dark (and Obi-wan’s own reasons for turning are very different than Dooku’s). And yet, I think he yearns for this messed-up version of family he keeps pushing away. Look at Dooku’s first reaction when Jango asks for an unadulterated clone:

A son? I mean, wow, that’s a telling statement on Dooku’s part. And yet he never quite gets there - not with Ventress, not with Savage, and not (most likely to his severe disappointment) with Obi-wan.

#Anonymous #LONG POST #yan dooku #count dooku #yoda #YEEAAAAHHH #i have a lot to say about this one #sorry guys i got carried away #ANYWAY #my favorite sith #GO READ DARK RENDEZVOUS #For the love of all that is holy #DEW IT #its brilliant and sad and atmospheric and also featured obi wan being a bro to anakin even though he KNOWS ABOUT PADME #hello there #ask legobiwan

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eleanor-writes-stuff · 6 years ago

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a language that i never knew existed before - Day 5

For @lightaroundthecorner, who asked for “a Reylo modern AU ficlet with a HEA+fluff+Xmas theme”.

I tried my best to hit all three of those notes, so hopefully this will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Thanks for the prompt!

If anyone else would like a holiday ficlet, get yours here today!

25 Days of Reylo Also available on AO3

Rey is eighteen the first time she realizes she’s homesick.

It’s her first proper Christmas ever, thanks to her roommate’s generous invitation to spend the holidays with her family. They’ve only known each other for three months, but Rose Tico does not hesitate when she realizes Rey has nowhere to go and no one to celebrate with; we’d love to have you, really, Rey, she insists the week before winter break, and that’s that.

On Christmas Eve they camp out on the Ticos’ porch, cradling hot cocoa while the rest of the family sleeps. They’re only two hours away from their college town of Takodana, but it feels like a whole different world here, a million stars dancing across the sky and a blanket of snow making everything look straight out of a movie.

It’s beautiful, and Rey is just about to say so when Rose lets out a heavy sigh and says, “I miss home.”

“But…” Rey turns to her, completely lost. “Isn’t this your home?”

“I mean, now it is, but I miss my actual home, you know? The one with that creaky step you couldn’t avoid no matter what, the one with the bed my parents used to tuck me into, the one with the wall that we used to track how tall we were getting,” Rose smiles but it’s the saddest expression she’s ever seen on her roommate’s face, and something in Rey recognizes the hopeless longing in her voice. “It’s all gone now, of course, but… but I keep thinking it’s out there somewhere, that someday I’ll be able to go home.”

Home for the Ticos, Rey belatedly remembers, used to be a small mining town called Hays, one which made headlines even in Jakku when the entire place collapsed into the ground, the earth under it hollowed out by irresponsible and rampant mining. She sets down her cocoa, pulls Rose into a hug made awkward by the fact that she’s still not quite used to hugging.

“I know,” Rey says quietly in an attempt at comfort, but it’s not until the words escape her that she realizes how much she really does. She doesn’t remember anything about her home before the desert, before her parents abandoned her, but there’s this feeling that hits her sometimes, a sense of warmth and comfort and safety that couldn’t possibly have come from Jakku. Maybe it’s a fragment of a memory, maybe it’s a dream she’s mistaken for reality, but Rey thinks that’s what home is and suddenly she longs for it just as fiercely as Rose longs for her old house in Hays.

So they sit there, with Rose’s head on her shoulder, staring up at worlds they’ll never know, thinking of worlds they’ll never return to.

A year later they’re back on that porch again but this time there’s Finn and Poe to keep them company, and Rose only sighs at the sky once, and Rey thinks maybe they’re making a new home, the lot of them. Over time she learns to draw warmth from their affection and comfort from their support and safety from the knowledge that they’ll always be there for her, and tells herself that that’s close enough.

There’s a part of her, a very small part, that insists it’s not as good, it’s not the same, but Rey ignores that little voice in her, that lonely girl forever longing for something out of her reach, and focuses on the life she’s built, better than any she’s ever known before – especially when Ben from down the hall finally asks her out the summer after junior year.

When they graduate a year later, he sits her down and tells her he doesn’t want to lose her, shows her his grad school offers and asks if she’d consider joining him in any of these places so that they can build a life together. She’s received job offers of her own, and two months later they pack up their things, leave their friends with a promise to visit during Christmas, and head off to Coruscant where a new life awaits.

The apartment doesn’t feel like home at first, not after three years in that tiny house she shared with Rose, Finn, and Poe, but Ben’s there and that’s all that matters. When December finally rolls around he surprises her with a tree and a box of decorations, and together they make the place a little warmer, a little more theirs.

Now she turns from her spot in Ben’s lap to look at their tree, with its slowly flickering lights casting shadows on the wall, and sighs as Ben runs a hand through her hair.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t make it back for Christmas,” he tells her, even though it’s no fault of his that they’re currently weathering the worst snowstorm the state has seen in a decade and all travel has been banned.

Rey opens her eyes, looks up to find his face shadowed by concern. “I know you were looking forward to it, and that you miss your friends–”

“Hey,” she cuts him off softly, pulls herself up and sits cross-legged to face him. “It’s okay, really. Rose and the others understand, and… it might be nice, just the two of us for our first Christmas here.”

Ben returns her smile, but there’s still a hint of worry in his eyes. “I’m sure it’ll be, sweetheart, but I know how much you wanted to go home for the holidays, and if we’d just left two days earlier like you wanted to–”

The thing is, Rey has spent the past four months looking forward to this trip. When they first left Takodana it was only the promise of going back for Christmas that had lightened her heart, and all these months of trying to navigate a foreign city have only been made bearable by the thought of going somewhere familiar for the holidays. Up until three days ago, Rey really had been looking forward to going home.

But now she looks at Ben, the man who surprised her with decorations even though he’s not a big fan of Christmas, the man who’s taken it upon himself to feel responsible for the weather, the man who refused to let life get in the way of them and sat down with her until they found a way to stay together, and realizes–

“Ben,” she smiles at him, dives into the warmth and comfort and safety of his arms, “Ben, you’re my home.”

He wraps his arms around her, holds her tight in an embrace that feels just like the one from an old dream of hers. “You’re my home too, sweetheart,” he whispers in her ear, words hushed and heartfelt as he brushes his lips across her temple.

Outside the storm rages on, burying the city in snow and trapping its residents for the foreseeable future, but Rey doesn’t mind.

After all, there’s no place like home.

Hiraeth, which you might recognize as my username over on AO3, happens to be my favorite word and one that I feel neatly sums up my life. I associate it with a bone-deep longing for something I'll never find, tempered by bittersweet dream-memories of that very thing.

But hey, it's the holiday season and the prompt asked for fluff so here, have a happy ending for our favorite lovebirds!

As always, thank you for reading and please don't hesitate to like/reblog/comment if you enjoyed it!

#reylo #reyben #kylo ren/rey #rey/kylo ren #rey/ben solo #star wars #rey #ben solo #kylo ren #ficlet: language that i never knew #my fics

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him-e · 6 years ago

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Why do you ship Reylo? Or, more accurately, what first interested you about Reylo and what do you find compelling about the ship that keeps you engaged in the fandom or rooting for it in canon?

What first interested me about it:

it’s the only thing that actually took me off guard me in a movie (TFA) that was otherwise really cute and engaging but also really, really safe (and predictable). Before watching TFA, I thought I had spoiled myself on every major development: Starkiller Base, Han’s death, Luke’s last minute apparition, Rey and Finn’s playful chemistry… I went to the theatre expecting two hours of harmless entertainment (which I got), the good guys being good and the bad guys being bad, a nostalgia trip at best and an uninspired but ultimately innocuous rehash of the original trilogy at worst… but what I actually did was stumble on a gorgeous and completely unexpected hero/villain ship, the kind that had sadly been lacking in my fandom life for years, at least since the good old days of True Blood season 2. No early review or spoiler had prepared me for that. (no early review or spoiler had prepared me for Rey and Kylo interacting at all, which in hindsight is h i l a r i o u s, and few mentioned how fantastic the character of Kylo Ren was. So not just Reylo, but everything surrounding Kylo was a pleasant surprise to me.) Bottom line: I went to see the movie with several expectations, but Reylo wasn’t certainly one of those. It wasn’t even something I knew I needed in my Star Wars. It just happened.

like, when i say it’s the only exception in a movie that plays it safe, I mean it. Just look at the interrogation scene, and all the pearl clutching it caused. Name another thing in TFA that sparked so much discourse.

it’s also the only dynamic that wasn’t ripped, one way or another, off similar relationships in the OT or PT.

curiously enough, Rey’s parentage wank is also one of the main reasons that got me looking more and more into Reylo. Like most people, I walked out of the theatre fully convinced Rey was a Skywalker and precisely Luke’s daughter. Predictable, but also so typically Star-Warsy, and back then I had no reason to believe they’d go for subverting the audience’s expectations. But Rey’s being a Skywalker meant that she’d necessarily develop at some point some sort of *personal* dynamic with local evil cousin (/brother?) Kylo Ren, a prospect I immediately found more interesting and narratively compelling than whatever relationship she might establish with her presumed deadbeat father, Luke. Were Rey and Kylo going to have a Micheal/Lucifer sort of dynamic, were they going to battle over their “divine” legacy? were they going to feel sympathy for each other? would they see each other as family at all? It didn’t take me long to realize I was actually more into this than into any other aspect (or dynamic) of the sequel trilogy, and it was all downhill from there.

all the post TFA fan theories concerning Rey and Kylo meeting in the middle and what that could entail for the Force plot (a new balance? Grey Jedi?)

yin/yang—opposites attract dynamic—enemies to friends (to lovers) = I CANNOT RESIST

they’ve seen each other’s deepest FEARS

THE STARKILLER DUEL!!!

What keeps me interested in it and makes me root for it in canon:

they’re complicated. Their relationship is complicated. Nothing about them is a simple “good girl redeems bad guy” scenario. Neither of them is willing to accept compromises to pull the other to their side, much less win their heart. They’ll move mountains and cross galaxies (and defy their own masters) to save the other’s life, but they’re not going to give up on their ideals, and if that’s the price to pay they’re fully willing to fight each other to death. They both understand each other deeply, on some instinctual, spiritual level, and don’t understand each other at all. The kinship and intimacy they feel when they’re in each other’s brain and soul dissipates when they try to communicate in person, in the same room, and it’s like they’re talking two different languages. They both want the best for each other, but they disagree on what “best” is supposed to mean. This is all very fascinating to me.

they’re real equals. In the Force, and in terms of narrative weight. See: the lightsaber tug-of-war. (and how interesting it is that in TFA Rey was able to both have exclusive control on the legacy saber and defeat Kylo, while in TLJ they both controlled it to the point that neither of them was eventually able to claim it for themselves?)

I, obviously, root for Kylo’s redemption. I believe Rey will have a huge part to play in it.

lonely eldritch Force children with too much power and too much responsibility on their shoulders, finding solace in each other and crying at the barest glimpse of a bright future together

none of the other options for Rey (or Kylo) interests me. Not even celibate!Rey—as I abundantly discussed before, it’s not the idea of Rey having a platonic/celibate happy ending with no romantic attachments per se that I reject (I’d be fine with it if the context was different), but the fact that, for it to happen NOW, Rey’s feelings for Ben should be inexplicably reduced to some weak sauce *I only care for your well-being as a friend and I’m happy to see you go on your merry way and possibly never see you again* pseudo-platonic thing. The way I see it Rey is super fiercely covetous of having Ben at her side, for her own selfish reasons and not just to win the war or because she has a good samaritan complex. Call it love, call it passion, call it passionate friendship, call it force bond shenanigans but… don’t tell me she’d be perfectly happy without him.

speaking of which, THE FORCE BOND. Sensing the other’s presence at your side—being able to talk and even touch each other across entire galaxies, feeling what the other feels, but only for a handful of minutes each time, before the vision fades like mist between your fingers and you’re alone again. Dude. It’s the most beautiful trope EVER.

I need to stress it again: the Force is connecting them.

what we saw during the praetorian guard fight—Kylo and Rey fighting together in perfect synchronicity, like the force-bonded warriors they are—kept me awake for many many nights. I want more of that.

I do believe that a Rey/Kylo alliance / friendship / partnership / romance is not just the heart of this trilogy but also the only satisfying endgame for it, at least for the Force side of the plot. A new concept of balance that’s the result of Light and Dark finding harmony and healing the wounds of the past is imo the only way to give the Force a happy ending that doesn’t feel like a rehash of the OT one (the Light wins = the Darkness is destroyed = the Jedi were right and the Sith were wrong). Also, consider: the PT ended with the triumph of the Dark Side, and the OT with the triumph of the Light. It’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that the ST will end with a combination of the two, or perhaps with a subversion of the whole dark/light dichotomy.

they haven’t kissed and I live for the day they will

(I also live for the day they fight again and that’s the beauty of this ship: it’s a win-win situation no matter how it goes, and them being sworn enemies is almost as good as them being lovers. almost)

#anon #asks #sw asks #sw for ts #reylo for ts #reylo**#sw**

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dulcedemon · 6 years ago

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Current Attractions...

Lost in Space: Season 1(2018): There is a lot of science in this sci-fi series, which is how I like it. The ever rapidly changing planet is a brilliant plot point. The bots are beautiful, and terrifying. Molly Parker(Maureen Robinson) and Parker Posey(Dr. Smith/June Harris) play some amazing point-counterpoint. Molly Parker also deserves an award for the Best Implied Use of an Expletive in Space. It's a family show, so you don't hear her say the complete word, but you know what it is; it's the only word appropriate for the given situation.

Tokyo Decadence(Topâzu - 1992): This is my second time around with this one. I watched it instead of biting my nails over election results coverage on November 6th. Over the years, titles featuring adult sexual content have been culled from [movie rental service]. Of what remains, Tokyo Decadence is one of the more interesting and less tame choices. Ai(Miho Nikaido) is a sex worker, whose specialty appears to be BDSM. She is timid, soft-spoken, but very professional. At first, she seems well adjusted, lonely, but not unhappy. In truth, she is superstitious, consulting with a fortuneteller(Yayoi Kusama). She also has an unhealthy fixation on her ex-boyfriend. The best parts are in the first hour. The rest is a minor nervous breakdown. For the most part, it follows her mundanely through her work day, which would be considered anything but mundane by many people. The works of Xavier Cugat and Pérez Prado enhance the soundtrack, though their CDs take some abuse in the longest, and perhaps best scene in the movie.

Fitzcarraldo(1982): No one portrays terminal madness quite like Klaus Kinski. Here he plays a desperate(and always sweaty) entrepreneur, whose previous business endeavor to build a railroad across the Andes mountains met with failure, and made him a laughing stock among his collegues. His fetish-like love of opera cements his reputation as an eccentric fool. The story begins with him seeking a loan to build an opera house in what is basically the jungle in South America in the early 1900s. No one will loan him money for his opera house, which leads him to purchase of a boat for yet another business endeavor in the hopes of being able to finance his pet project with the proceeds. With the boat lies the rest of the story...a story is based in truth, which is drawn from certain events in the life of rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald. Yes, there really was a boat, and it was really taken over a mountain, but not in the fantastic way depicted here. I liked this, but not as much as I liked Aguirre, Wrath of God, which I have seen twice now, and hope to own a copy of someday. I strongly recommend both titles.

Daredevil: Season 3(2018): I give it an "S" for satisfactory. The dynamic of three holds it together for yet another season. Having done eight years hard time in Catholic school during my childhood, the heavy-handed Catholicism both entertains and irritates me. I still think they are cancelling the wrong Marvel shows. Not that I want any of them cancelled, I don't, but Iron Fist was just starting to get good, when they killed it. So, yes, I neglected to do a real review here, because I'm still sulking about Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. Also, Misty Knight should have her own show.

Nite Owl(AKA: Night Owl - 1993): For good, this is bad, but for terrible, it's truly great. A very low budget vampire movie, John Leguizamo is the biggest star, though he was not yet a star at the time this was made. Quick appearances by Michael Musto, and Holly Woodlawn add to the off-kilter ambiance. It's fairly traditional as vampire stories go, though more sexually graphic than many of the classics, which is a plus in my book. Being shot in black and white gives it an extra gritty feel. It's also a glimpse of a less commercially homogenous NYC circa 1990. This is the second movie with the title Night Owl that I've seen this year. The other one starred Jennifer Beals, and came out the same year as this one. Maybe that is why this one has that deliberate misspelling... I had no intention of seeing either of them. I was looking for a much older movie of the same title(proper spelling). [Movie rental service] had never heard of it, and suggested two completely different movies that happen to have the same title, which makes no sense, but here we are.

Earth(1947:Earth - 1998): I don't want to put down a movie for reasons unrelated to its content, but I have a duty to warn those who would rent it on DVD. The copy I was sent promised a choice of original language with English subtitles or English audio, but it would only play in English. English would be fine, but it's not entirely in English, and much of the English that is spoken is heavily accented. Fine...English with English subtitles it is. The problem there is the heavily accented English has no subtitles. For me it's just an annoyance, but for people with hearing difficulties, this one is an absolute bitch. Thus concludes my complaints about the disc itself. Now, onto my complaints about the movie: It has story, but no heart. Characters are not fleshed out enough to care much about them. Nandita Das is good here as Shanta the nanny of the young girl, Lenny(Maia Sethna). It is through young Lenny's eyes that we are supposed to view the life and strife of 1947 India, immediately before the India-Pakistan partition. The trouble there --the kid is just not very likeable. She seems too naive for her age, whether it's a product of her insulated, privileged upbringing, or maybe she is just not that bright. She spends most of her time with her nanny, who spends a lot of her time getting fawned over by at least one man of every religion in India. Everyone is good friends, but conflict grows as the day of "independence" draws near, dividing people as well as land. The hate toward a certain group is not subtle, and neither is the violence. I think having seen Fire(1996) and Water(2005) before this set a certain level of expectation on my part, which simply was not met.

#movies #foreign movies #television

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lushscreamqueen · 3 years ago

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ROCKY JONES-MANHUNT IN SPACE – 1956 for THE SCHLOCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

Opening: Hello, good evening and welcome. You look great. But enough about you!. Let talk about Pirates... Arr! When a band of interstellar pirates, headquartered on a hidden planet, threatens the space-ways, and only the Space Rangers can save the day. Richard Crane, and Scotty Beckett star in this feature-length science fiction adventure from loving repackaged from the early TV series "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. He’s always so cool, he’s always right, and he never fails! What a guy. So sit back, graba space stick and enjoy The delights of Rocky Jones Manhunt in Space.

Break: All that cheese and not a cracker in sight. Perhaps one of these nice chap can sell you some. And then after the ad break. More Rocky Jones-Manhunt in Space on the SCHLOCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW!

MIDDLE: So LONG before television was learning to do “Clip Shows” and call them Flashback or encore performances TV executives had learned to repackage a “3 part serial from 1953” as a fully fledged 1955 motion picture called Manhunt in Space and send it off to the cinema. Rocky Jones, Space Ranger was a syndicated science fiction television serial originally broadcast in 1954. The show lasted for only two seasons and, though syndicated sporadically, dropped into obscurity. But because it was recorded on film rather than being broadcast live as were most other TV space operas of the day, it has survived in reasonably good condition. The film format also allowed more elaborate special effects and sets, exterior scenes and much better continuity. Indeed, many of the effects that became standard sci-fi fare, such as the forward view screen and automatically opening doors were seen first on Rocky Jones. They may have been plywood but they were NEW plywood. In this film Rocky and crew's spaceship must defeat "space pirates." Of course the writers Carl K. Hittleman who also Wrote Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter and Marianne Mosner from Lassie and Shazam, couldn't just refer to them as pirates; in fact nearly everything in this show with a name is prefaced by the word "space" just to make it clear where it's being used. This early 1950's Space Opera is complete with a hero by the name of Rocky Jones, played by veteran movie and television actor Richard Crane later to be known as DICK Crane. Poor Dick was not at all typecast when he left Rocky Jones to play Commando Cody Sky Marshall of the Universe, while simultaneously, appearring in the Lone Ranger as Billy. He eventually settled into the world of medicore guest appearances on shows like Perry Mason, General Electric Theatre, 77 Sunset Strip,Wagon train and Lassie. But back in the 50’s, Rocky Jones is the quintessential action hero – brave, strong, handsome, highly moral, and always ready to defend his beliefs with action. To women he was irresistible but like bollywood there was no kissing or physical displays from Rocky. That kind of comraderie was strictly for the compulsary annoying sidekick’s Ranger Winky played by Scotty Beckett, who for most of his acting carreer before was know as Child Uncredited and after this just as Uncreditied. It seems Rocky Jones stole his childhood and in a twist Michael Jackson couldn’t get away with, sidekick number two was 10 year old Bobby played by Robert Lyden . Fortunately for us Robert left the acting profession in 1957 after playing Creighton Chaney. Not so the case with the lovely Sally Mansfield aka Vena Ray, Naviatrix and Rocky’s love interest in that wholesome 1950’s hubba hubba mini skirted but non sexual way. She moved onto the upbeat world of the Gene Autry Show , Mchales Navy and the Andy Griffith show.

And what would a Space Opera be with an elderly and brilliant Professor Newton, Played almost to perfection by Maurice Cass, who in spite of being a genius, makes just enough miscalculations to get them into real trouble. Maurice had bit parts in Over 50 films before Rocky Jones Plucked him from Obscurity before plunging him back into obscurity. Blondie Goes to college, Enemy Agents meet Emery Queen and Charley Aunts to name too many.

Surpisingly the Director Hollingsworth Morse is actually quite a big name in Hollywood. Fall Guy, Dukes of Hazard, Isis, Marcus Welby MD, Shazam, H.R. Pufen stuff and the Lone Ranger are just a few of the 69 TV shows he directed For a complete list please send a 10 note with a self address envelope to the address at the end of this film and I’ll see what I can do.

Closing : So for those of you who fell asleep, Vena is stranded in space by wicked pirates! Rocky makes the Orbit Jet invisible with Professor Newton’s latest doohickey! Winky sings a song! Rocky & Winky track the pirates to their secret base -- it’s no surprise that

they turn out to be employed by the naughty Cleolanta, who’s still so hot for Rocky that you can almost see her thighs quiver whenever his name is mentioned.Played superbly by Patty Parsons, another of those shy acrtesses’ who choose to use the name“uncredited”.If it wasn’t for the costumes and vanilla bondage, this could have been long Friday night for me. I don’t get out much at my age. And what was with the actors pressing buttons and pushing levers that don’t exist; that was just a blank wall. I don’t even have eyes and I could see that. And if Rocky Jones tells you to "go knit a sweater" (and she actually does!) when they have a disagreement! All I can say in closing is Hooray for emancipation and join me next week as we sift through the chaff of the Public domain to find that ine germ that is good enough to be shown on THE SCHLOCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. “Toodles”

by Lushscreamqueen 26th May 2009

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wazafam · 4 years ago

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The first Star Trek: Picard season 2 trailer is packed full of exciting tidbits, including a huge reveal about the return of a major character. Star Trek: Picard season 1 premiered in January 2020, showing an aged and retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard grappling with his own mortality, his rocky relationship with Starfleet, and his ongoing grief over the death of Data. Over the course of season 1, Picard was pulled into an adventure that included banned androids, ex-Borg, and a secret Romulan organization intent on wiping out all synthetic life in the universe.

Picard season 2 has been highly anticipated by fans and as part of StarTrek.com's First Contact Day celebration, a special teaser has been released to give everyone a first taste of what will be in the new season. The trailer features a voiceover by Jean-Luc Picard himself, played by actor Patrick Stewart, and is set to a remixed version of the show's theme. The main point of the voiceover is time: Picard discusses how unforgiving time can be, how it can create regrets, and offer no second chances, while the trailer offers tantalizing shots full of references to previous Star Trek shows.

Related: Star Trek: How Picard Ties In With Kelvin Timeline

Each shot of the trailer has hints about the new season, from small potential Easter Eggs to some huge story reveals. The biggest surprise by far comes at the end when it is revealed that Q, John de Lancie's iconic trickster character from Star Trek: The Next Generation, will be making a return as part of the cast in Star Trek: Picard season 2. In total, there are 12 major reveals that the trailer gives about the new season, enough to give fans plenty to talk about before season 2 premieres.

Picard's vineyard features heavily in the season 2 trailer, with the very first shot a slow zoom in on the house and grounds. Château Picard was first seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation in the episode "Family", and returned in Star Trek: Picard season 1 as Picard's new home after retirement. During season 1, Picard shared the vineyard with his dog, Number One, and two Romulan assistants, former Tal-Shiar agents Laris and Zhaban. While the vineyard only featured as a location in the first two episodes of season 1, its return in the new trailer suggests that fans will get a lot more scenes there in season 2. Hopefully, this also means the return of Laris, Zhaban, and Number One as well.

The first line of Picard's voiceover during the trailer states that "The true final frontier is time." There are several levels of significance to this statement, starting with it being a reimaging of Star Trek's iconic phrase "Space: the final frontier." This phrase was part of the voiceover heard during the opening credits of both Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but by replacing "space" with "time", Picard almost seems to be challenging one of Star Trek's most well-known doctrines. Additionally, the fact that the trailer's voiceover deals so heavily with time indicates that Star Trek: Picard season 2 will deal with time travel, an important science fiction concept and something that the Star Trek franchise has explored before to great effect.

After seeing the outside of the vineyard, the next shot show's the inside of Picard's home office, focusing on an antique clock as Picard discusses how time can turn even the most impulsive actions of an individual into history. The link between the theme of time and the clock is obvious, and having it as the first thing viewers see in Picard's office only serves to drive home the point. It is possible that the time on the clock display could have some significance as well. The display reads 10:05, and although no connection to Star Trek: Picard or the wider Star Trek universe is immediately evident, it is certainly something for fans to speculate about.

Related: Star Trek: How Time Travel Works In Each TV Show & Movie

The shot of the clock also includes a brief but surprising look at the Reckoning Tablet, which is sitting on a table behind the clock in Picard's office. The Reckoning Tablet is an ancient Bajoran artifact that was first introduced in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode of the same name. In the episode, the Tablet is discovered in an ancient Bajoran city, and while attempting to decipher the symbols on its surface, Captain Sisko accidentally breaks the tablet and releases a trapped Bajoran prophet and Pah-Wraith, inciting a war between the Prophets and the Pah-Wraiths as a result. The implications of the Reckoning Tablet in the trailer could be numerous, but above all, it suggests a return in Picard to storylines about both the Bajorans and the Dominion War, which was the central storyline for much of Deep Space Nine's seven seasons.

The next big shot of the Picard season 2 trailer is a few shots of a large painting of the USS Enterprise-D hanging on the wall. The final shot of the painting coincides almost directly with Picard saying the word "history", making it clear that Picard's history as Captain of the Enterprise-D is going to be even more important in season 2 than it was in season 1. Featuring the Enterprise-D so heavily in the trailer also could suggest that fans can expect more callbacks to Star Trek: The Next Generation and along with the return of Q, more cameos of beloved TNG characters.

After the painting, viewers are treated to a shot of Picard's old com badge from his Enterprise-D days, sitting in a case on his desk as the camera pans over it. The com badge is immediately identifiable as the classic com badge design from the TNG era, as opposed to the newer, sleeker models that were shown in Picard season 1. The fact that Picard displays the com badge so prominently on his desk seems to show just how important his time as Captain of the Enterprise-D was to him.

The next shot shows an antique edition of Paradise Lost by John Milton sitting on the desk near to com badge. On the surface, this is a reference to Jean-Luc Picard's fondness for antiques, but it is also possible that Paradise Lost itself holds some significance. The work is an epic poem composed in the 17th century that deals with the Biblical stories depicting the Fall of Man, including the temptation of Adam and Eve and Lucifer's fall from Heaven. Star Trek rarely deals with religion directly, but the idea of man's downfall could definitely be connected to Q's return and his assertion from "Encounter at Farpoint" that humans are still a "savage, child race". Additionally, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had an episode entitled "Paradise Lost" which dealt with Captain Sisko uncovering a plot to seize power from Starfleet and the Federation by a Starfleet Admiral. If the book is a reference to this, it suggests a dark plotline for the new season.

Related: Picard Season 2 Theory: Where Star Trek's Other Borg Are

Picard has a model of the USS Stargazer on his desk, the ship that was his first command before the Enterprise-D. Picard commanded the Stargazer for about 10 years and served on it for a number of years before that. The Stargazer's inclusion in the trailer further perpetuates the idea that Picard's past is going to be significant in the upcoming season, coupled with the references to the Enterprise-D and his voiceover about time. It is even possible that fans will get to learn more about Picard's command on the Stargazer, a period of time that has been reference before but never fully explored.

One of the most intriguing shots of the Picard season 2 trailer is a shot of an hourglass that appears to be going in reverse, with the sand trickling upward into the top bulb rather than down. When taken in the context of the entire trailer, especially the previous shots referencing important things from Picard's past, this shot all but confirms the idea that time travel will be a major storyline in Star Trek: Picard season 2. An hourglass in reverse suggests that the flow of time is being reversed, which would mean a return to the past that is likely going to be facilitated by Q. The concept of Q reversing, taking Picard back to his past to re-live his actions and mistakes was explored in the episode "Tapestry" from TNG, so it is very possible it could make a comeback in Picard.

One of the final shots of the trailer is an antique chessboard with two chairs and a stack of playing cards on it set up in Picard's office. Chess has always been a big part of the Star Trek franchise, although the traditional Star Trek chessboard was a more futuristic three-dimensional version. Along with the playing cards, which end up being the way the trailer reveals Q's return, the chessboard could be an indirect reference to Q as well, since in a recent Star Trek: Lower Decks episode Q made the crew of the USS Cerritos into chess pieces.

The last shot of the Picard season 2 trailer focuses on the deck of playing cards - in particular, the lone queen of hearts card sitting apart from the rest. The singling out of this card is a reference to the first episode of Star Trek: Picard season 1. In the first scene, during a dream sequence, Picard and Data play poker together, and when Data shows his hand all his cards are the queen of hearts. Although it seemed that Data's story had ended in the season 1 finale, this inclusion in the trailer could mean that more references to Data will be made during season 2.

Related: Star Trek: Data's Death In Picard Failed Geordi La Forge

As the camera focuses on the queen of hearts card, the rest of the card dissolves away, until only the "Q" in the corner remains. The voiceover then switches to actor John de Lancie's voice, revealing that Q will be back for season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. Q is one of Star Trek's most iconic characters, and although he has made other appearances throughout the franchise, his return in Picard is especially exciting since Q and Picard's rivalry became hugely popular on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The chance to see it revived is a thrilling one for fans.

Q's voiceover consists of only one line: "The trial never ends." While the line is brief, its significance should be immediately aware to fans. The line is a direct callback to the same line in the series finale of TNG, "All Good Things...", where Q tells Picard that although he has been convinced that humanity can evolve, he will still be watching and judging their progress. The repeating of this line in the new trailer for Star Trek: Picard suggests that Q is back to his old tricks, and will likely find some significant ways to meddle with Picard and humanity in general in the new season.

Everything in the new trailer, from all the references to past Star Trek shows to the reveal about Q, suggests an extremely exciting new season for Star Trek: Picard. Along with the trailer, the main cast from season 1 has been confirmed to appear in season 2, and the announcement about Q hopefully won't be the last in exciting casting news. For now, fans will have a lot of talk about with all the Easter eggs, theories, and questions that the trailer has provided to ponder.

More: Star Trek: All 4 Shows Captain Picard Appears In, Explained

Star Trek Picard Season 2 Trailer Breakdown: 12 Story Reveals from https://ift.tt/3dAwdtv

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20thcentutygeek · 4 years ago

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The Fox Sci-Fi Universe - Julian Darius

Fox owns several venerable sci-fi franchises, most of which have struggled to one extent or another. Fox’s attempt to combine Predator and Aliens produced a couple lackluster movies, which were then contradicted by Ridley Scott’s Alien prequels. In sum, these properties are mostly languishing (to one degree or another), while Fox had problems managing continuity within franchises, let alone in its one attempt to combine two franchises.

The “Fox Sci-Fi Universe”, listed below, is an attempt to combine these Fox franchises anew, along with other Fox material. Fox has an extensive catalogue of classic films and series which would fit well, many of which haven’t gotten the attention they deserve. I think ,erging them into a single continuity would reinvigorate each film or property, making it part of a tapestry that encourages fans to draw connections and to explore material they otherwise might not.

In addition, Disney’s acquisition of Fox would permit Disney to merge some of its own sci-fi films, including franchises that have struggled on their own. Tron might not be successful on its own, but it could now be an interesting segment of a larger universe, with its world and technology available to characters from other stories.

Key to this strategy is to merge as much compatible material as possible, with special attention to quality material and material produced from the 1980s onward (which looks modern enough). Some quality movies are incompatible, for one reason or another. We can reject any movie we want, and the below list is subject to change. But in general, we don’t want to be purists, only incorporating the very best. We want to incorporate the best works, but we also want to be as all-encompassing as possible, so as to produce a grand tapestry spanning centuries of history.

An impressive body of work containing multiple beloved series and characters, the Fox Sci-Fi Universe contains material directed by Steven Spielberg, Joss Whedon, Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Cronenberg, Guillermo del Toro, and David Fincher.

One key franchise here might not be obvious: The X-Files, which retains a certain cache and which is perfect for such an expansive sci-fi universe because of its expansive scope. If you think about it, there’s no reason why Mulder and Scully couldn’t have investigated the VR world of Tron, the teleportation technology of The Fly, or reports of the murderous alien from Predator.

Chronologically prior to The X-Files, the Indiana Jones franchise fits well. Like The X-Files, it’s episodic and less concerned with a single, coherent version of the supernatural or of extraterrestrials than creating an exciting, all-encompassing world in which fantastic stories can be set.

Moving chronologically into the future, the dominant franchise is Aliens, which has the benefit of rarely depicting Earth, permitting us more freedom in terms of a consistent depiction humanity’s future. Beyond Aliens lies Firefly, which is also largely vague about Earth.

Moving forward, material set in the Fox Sci-Fi Universe can incorporate characters and ideas from other properties. Companies should be connected to one another; for example, Bartok Science Industries (from The Fly) could be purchased by Weyland Corporation (from Aliens), and we could learn that the Bartok teleportation technology was an important predecessors to Weyland’s own technology. Similarly, various government agents can be retroactively seen as predecessors or successors to the X-Files program.

The following is a timeline of the Fox Si-Fi Universe. As previously stated, it’s subject to change; movies can be added or removed relatively freely, at least until new installments explicitly place them in continuity. To help set them apart, TV series appear in red.

Era 1: Indiana Jones (1908-1962)

This era essentially contains all material set in the past, relative to its actual date of production.

1908-1920: The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (28 episodes across 2 seasons, 1992-1993)

1935: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

1936: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

1938: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

1938: The Rocketeer (1991) – assuming Disney owns the film rights in perpetuity

1957: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

1962: The Shape of Water (2017)

Era 2: The X-Files (1982-2018)

This era contains all material set in the present, relative to its actual date of production.

1982: Tron (1982)

1986: The Fly (1986) – features Bartok Science Industries, which funds Brundle’s research

1987: The Fly II (1989) – set about nine months after the first film, we might want to eliminate this film in favor of an alternate sequel (such as one directed by Cronenberg, which has been discussed over the years and which could now reference other material from this shared universe)

1987: Predator (1987)

1989: The Abyss (1989)

1993-1994: The X-Files, season 1 (24 episodes, 1993-1994)

1994-1995: The X-Files, season 2 (25 episodes, 1994-1995)

1995-1996: The X-Files, season 3 (24 episodes, 1995-1996)

1996-1997: The X-Files, season 4 (24 episodes, 1996-1997) and Millennium, season 1 (22 episodes, 1996-1997)

1997-1998: The X-Files, season 5 (20 episodes, 1997-1998) and Millennium, season 2 (23 episodes, 1997-1998)

1998: The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998) – the first X-Files movie (sometimes simply called The X-Files), set between seasons 5 and 6

1998-1999: The X-Files, season 6 (22 episodes, 1998-1999) and Millennium, season 3 (22 episodes, 1998-1999)

1999-2000: The X-Files, season 7 (22 episodes, 1999-2000) – includes “Millennium,” wrapping up Millennium

2000-2001: The X-Files, season 8 (21 episodes, 2000-2001) and The Lone Gunmen (13 episodes, 2001)

2001-2002: The X-Files, season 9 (20 episodes, 2001-2002) – includes “Jump the Shark,” wrapping up The Lone Gunmen

Uncertain: Tron: Uprising (19 half-hour animated episodes, 2012-2013) – set before Tron: Legacy

2008: The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

2010: Predators (2010) – features a group of humans on a Predator hunting planet and ends with them still stuck there; connected material also includes two 2010 short films, “Moments of Extraction” and “Crucified”

2010: Tron: Legacy (2010)

2016: The X-Files, season 10 (6 episodes, 2016)

2018: The X-Files, season 11 (10 episodes, 2016)

2018: The Predator (2018) – features a battle with Predators in American suburbia

Era 3: Aliens (2023-2381)

This era takes place in the future, from the late 21st century to the 24th century.

2023: “The Peter Weyland Files: TED Conference, 2023” (2012) – a 7-minute short film in which a young Peter Weyland gives a TED Talk

2079: “The Peter Weyland Files: Happy Birthday, David” (2012) – a 3-minute short film in which David explains what he thinks about and what makes him sad

2089: portions of Prometheus (2012) are set here; specifically, after the opening sequence (in which the Engineers seed life on Earth), archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover a star map in Scotland that matches others from several unconnected ancient cultures, which they interpret as an invitation from humanity's forerunners, the "Engineers"; Peter Weyland, the elderly CEO of Weyland Corporation, funds an expedition, aboard the scientific vessel Prometheus, to follow the map to the distant moon LV-223

2089: “The Peter Weyland Files: Quiet Eye, Elizabeth Shaw” (2012) – a 3-minute short film consisting of a video call from Shaw to Weyland, introducing herself and her findings

2091: “The Peter Weyland Files: 'Prometheus' Transmission” (2012) – a 7-minute short collection of pre-mission interviews with the Prometheus crew

Dec 2093: most of Prometheus (2012) takes place here, when the ship arrives at its destination

2094: “Alien: Covenant – Prologue: The Crossing” (2017) – a 3-minute short film in which Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (after the events of Prometheus) repairs David on the abandoned Engineer vessel, as she searches for humanity’s creators

Uncertain: “Alien: Covenant – Meet Walter” (2017) – an in-universe advertisement for Walter, the android from Covenent (and the successor to David from Prometheus); although its place in continuity isn’t clear, it makes sense as an introduction to Walter, and thus should go here

2103: “Alien: Covenant – Phobos” (2017) – a 9-minute short film in which a computer program tests the feelings and reactions of the Covenant crew

2104: “Alien: Covenant – Prologue: Last Supper” (2017) – a 5-minute short film in which the Covenant crew and its android Walter enjoys a final meal before cryosleep on the way to their destination

2104: Alien: Covenant (2017) – sequel to Prometheus

2104: “Alien: Covenant – Advent” (2017) – a 7-minute short film in which David, after the events of Covenant, sends a transmission from the Covenant to Weyland-Yutani on Earth, elaborating upon the genetic experimentation he has been conducting on Planet 4.

Uncertain: “David’s Lab: Last Signs of Life” (2019) – a 12-minute short film, produced for Alien’s 40th anniversary, and set sometime after Alien: Covenant, in which an astronaut examines David’s lab and is attacked by a facehugger

2122: Alien (1979) – the main Alien sequence begins

Unknown: “Alien: Alone” (2019) – a 12-minute short film, produced for Alien’s 40th anniversary

Unknown: “Alien: Containment” (2019) – a 10-minute short film, produced for Alien’s 40th anniversary

Unknown: “Alien: Harvest” (2019) – a 9-minute short film, produced for Alien’s 40th anniversary

Unknown: “Alien: Night Shift” (2019) – a 9-minute short film, produced for Alien’s 40th anniversary

Unknown: “Alien: Ore” (2019) – an 11-minute short film, produced for Alien’s 40th anniversary

Unknown: “Alien: Specimen” (2019) – a 10-minute short film, produced for Alien’s 40th anniversary

2137: Alien: Isolation (7 episodes, 2019) – a mini-series, set 15 years after Alien, starring Ripley’s daughter Amanda and based on the video game of the same name; episodes were 8-14 minutes long

2179: Aliens (1986) – Ripley is revived after 57 years in status on one of the Nostromo’s escape shuttles

2179: Alien 3 (1992) – begins shortly after Aliens and ends with Ripley’s death

Unclear: Black Hole (1979) – this classic Disney film features no date and is difficult to fit into our timeline, since it features a space station monitoring a black hole, something arguably too advanced for the Alien franchise, yet also features robots less advanced than those in the Alien franchise

2381: Alien Resurrection (1997) – stars a clone of Ellen Ripley, more than 200 years after her death; ends with the clone arriving at Earth

Era 4: Firefly (2517)

This era takes place further in the future – specifically, in the 26th century.

2517: Firefly (14 episodes, 2002)

2517: Serenity (2005) – a continuation of Firefly

Stuff that Doesn’t Fit

The two Alien Vs. Predator movies (2004 and 2007) aren’t very good and are incompatible with the Alien prequel movies.

Predator 2 (1990) has been excluded for a few reasons. First, it is set in 1997 and guesses at future technology in a way that’s incompatible with the real world. Second, it features a Predator in Los Angeles and doesn’t limit those who are aware of its alien origins. Third, it briefly features an Alien skull on board a Predator ship, which is incompatible with the origin of the Alien species in the Alien prequel movies. Finally, Predator 2 isn’t great and is widely regarded as a weak film.

Material depicting public encounters with extraterrestrials in the (then) present must be excluded as incompatible with the rest of our material. This excludes material such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Independence Day (1996). Although a closer call, Flight of the Navigator (1986) has been excluded for the same reason.

Other material is excluded because it presents a future that is incompatible with that of Alien. For example, Planet of the Apes could not be included for this reason (even if that franchise did not include copious incompatible material set in the present day). Post-apocalyptic material such as Zardoz (1974) must similarly be excluded (even if we were inclined to ignore that film’s tonal inconsistencies).

Other material is excluded because it’s incompatible with the rest of the material’s depiction of Earth’s state of technology. This is a subjective criterion, because The X-Files has plenty of technology and knowledge that isn’t referenced later, and this can be used to justify the inclusion of material such as Tron (1982) or The Fly (1986). However, it would be hard to reconcile the miniaturization technology in Fantastic Voyage (1966) with the rest of our timeline. Similarly, Tomorrowland (2015) features advanced androids that are incompatible with later development of androids as depicted in the Alien prequels.

Other material is excluded due to incompatible tone, another admittedly subjective criterion. It’s one thing to include The X-Files in the same universe as Alien, but it’s another to include Buckaroo Banzai (1984) or Idiocracy (2006). While Indiana Jones and The X-Files contain supernatural elements, the tone of Buffy the Vampire Slayer makes it incompatible, in my view. Similarly, the Kingsman franchise feels incompatible with the tone of The X-Files. The exclusion of some older films, such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) or the original The Fly (1958), may also be attributed to their tone.

Some material isn’t included but might be. For example, I’m not sure if James Cameron’s company doesn’t co-own Avatar (2009), and its sequels (in production) might contradict our timeline. Were Avatar to be cleared for inclusion, it would be set between Alien and Aliens. Similarly, because The Martian (2015) is an adaptation of a novel, it’s not clear that Fox retains all rights in perpetuity.

#Blogging #scifi #Movies #blog #Disney

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Supernatural: The Best Episodes

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Supernatural feature contains MAJOR spoilers up to and including the series finale.

Over the course of 15 years, Supernatural aired an extraordinary 327 episodes, every single one of them starring the same two people, a quite incredible achievement (there were two attempts at backdoor pilots, but both featured Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles at least briefly).

In 327 episodes, of course, there have been some stinkers, and there have been moments of brilliance. Supernatural did scary episodes, gross-out episodes, funny episodes, tragic episodes, tragically funny episodes and episodes set on its own soundstage. Here are 25 of the very best.

25/327*. Carry On (Season 15, Episode 20)

*delete according to preference, and see “Dishonorable mentions” below

We’re being controversial right off the bat, as the series finale has fans split right down the middle between feeling pretty pleased with it and absolutely hating it. And for the many fans that hate it, they really, really hate it. If that’s you, we understand your issues with it – see our ‘Dishonorable Mentions’ list.

But for others, while this ending was somewhat marred by coronavirus restrictions (which are surely to blame for Sam’s wife being blurred in the background instead of clearly shown to be Eileen, and possibly for the absence of Castiel as well), there were also moments of emotional catharsis and beauty. Heaven has undergone some drastic improvements since we last saw it and the afterlife is no longer strangely lonely and depressing. The music choices for the episode are perfectly on point – it almost seems strange we haven’t heard ‘Brothers in Arms’ before – and finally the promise of ‘Carry On, Wayward Son’ is fulfilled, as “surely Heaven waits for you”.

Best moment: Hearing the voice of Original Bobby (not Apocalypse World Bobby) for the first time since Season 11.

Quotable: ��Always keep fighting” (Dean, to Sam)

Watch if you like: Tragic melodrama, great music, Bobby

24. Devil’s Trap (Season 1, Episode 22)

Supernatural’s very first season finale set the tone for many more finales to come. The arc plot kicked up a gear, Winchesters pointed guns at each other, and the whole thing ended in a nail-biting cliff-hanger. This episode sets up much of how the show will work, including the important detail that demons possess innocent humans, which led to our heroes spending some years trying to avoid killing them where possible (before they eventually gave up on that one). Most important of all, though, this is the episode that introduces Jim Beaver’s Bobby Singer, who would become the Winchesters’ surrogate father, and whose particular brand of caring, with a hefty dose of calling them idjits, was always entertaining with a warmth underneath the humour.

Best moment: Sam refuses to kill his father – the first of many times this sort of decision will be forced on the brothers.

Quotable: “The storm’s coming, and you boys, your Daddy – you are smack in the middle of it” (Bobby)

Watch if you like: Family melodrama, demon arc plots, Bobby

23. All Along The Watchtower (Season 12, Episode 22)

Death and life have always gone hand in hand in Supernatural, and nowhere is that clearer than in this game-changing season finale. We lose one of the show’s few regular characters, Mark Sheppard’s Crowley, along with a newer, highly likeable, recurring character, Courtney Ford’s Kelly Kline, both in moving self-sacrifices that honor the characters and their development. (Oh, and Castiel dies again too, but of course that doesn’t stick). On the other hand, we gain two new characters. We meet Apocalypse World Bobby, and while he can never really replace the Bobby the boys knew and loved, he brings some essential Bobby-ness back into the show. And Jack is born, Castiel’s (and later the Winchesters’) adoptive son, whom Cas is convinced will create a paradise in the future. This episode is full of great character work featuring numerous fan favourites, along with genuinely exciting plot developments that left viewers itching for the next season to start.

Best moment: Castiel took an online doula class in preparation for Kelly going into labour, but it didn’t cover quasi-celestial beings.

Quotable: “Whenever there is a world ending crisis at hand, I know where to place my bets. It’s on you, you big beautiful lumbering piles of flannel” (Crowley)

Watch if you like: Alternate universes, self-sacrifices, Bobby

22. Don’t Call Me Shurley (Season 11, Episode 20)

This episode has shifted down the list since we last ranked it, as the plot developments of season 15 have robbed it of some of its joy, but the episode itself still stands up. It’s well known that Supernatural is often kind of a grim show, and one of the pleasures of watching it is that, however crappy your life is at that moment, it’s not as crappy as Sam and Dean’s. There are occasional moments of satisfaction (like the killing of Azazel in “All Hell Breaks Loose”) and there’s certainly plenty of humour, but real, honest to Chuck, joy? That’s rare, and the best example (Dean’s Heaven) required both main characters to be dead. So there’s something really special about this Season 11 episode, in which God finally comes back (and reveals that He has, in fact, been helping out on the odd occasion all along). The rest of the episode, in which Metatron makes the case for humankind to God, is a philosophical and meta-fictional treat as well, but it’s that conclusion that really makes it something to remember.

Best moment: Dean pulls his old amulet out of Sam’s pocket – signalling that God has returned.

Quotable: “You know what humanity’s greatest creation has been? Music. That, and nacho cheese” (Chuck)

Watch if you like: Philosophy, happy endings

21. Lebanon (Season 14, Episode 13)

Supernatural’s 100th episode (“The Point Of No Return”) was an arc-plot heavy drama; it’s 200th (‘Fan Fiction’) was a delightful and comedic take on the show. For this, the 300th episode, the series went in a different direction again, and focused on the Winchester family unit, bringing Jeffrey Dean Morgan back as John Winchester for the first time since the season 2 finale. Sam and Dean’s whole story has been driven by their broken family life, and before this the closest they’d come to being together as a family was a brief car ride with their parents’ unknowing younger selves while time travelling. Here, they get to spend some proper time together as a family, before it’s inevitably cut short – and as a bonus, we get to see Zachariah (not seen since the 100th episode) and Scary Castiel again as well.

Best moment: All four Winchesters, all alive at the same time, have dinner together. It’s lovely.

Quotable: “Now you live in a secret bunker with an angel and Lucifer’s kid” (John)

Watch if you like: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, family dinners, anniversary episodes

20. Roadkill (Season 2, Episode 16)

Many of the episodes on this list are major arc plot-related episodes, or hilariously funny format-bending episodes, or both. But it’s also worth celebrating episodes that offer just a really good Monster of the Week, and this is one of them. Supernatural was inspired early on by urban legends, and this episode is a sad, scary and effective take on a classic, the Vanishing Hitchhiker. Guest star Tricia Helfer does a great job as Molly, whose perspective we follow throughout the story, keeping her true predicament from both her and the audience until the twist ending. The episode’s conclusion was also the first time we saw a suggestion of something potentially positive waiting for human souls after death, giving all the many, many dead characters on the show a glimmer of hope.

Best moment: The reveal of Molly’s true nature isn’t really a surprise if you’ve ever read a ghost story, but it’s very well done.

Quotable: “Follow the creepy brick road” (Dean)

Watch if you like: urban legends, scary ghost stories, plot twists

19. Scoobynatural (Season 13, Episode 16)

By Season 13, inevitably some viewers had drifted away from the show, as people will when something runs as long as Supernatural has. “Scoobynatural” had a concept so enticing, it brought some of those viewers back (only out-performed in the ratings that year by the season opener). Not only was the idea of Sam and Dean in a Scooby Doo cartoon too good to miss, Supernatural also has an excellent track record in comedy episodes. These can be hit and miss on most shows, but Supernatural’s comedy misses are few and the hits are plentiful enough that six of them are on this list. Viewers trusted the show to make this work, and that trust paid off – the episode is both very funny and touching, as all the show’s best comedy episodes are.

Best moment: Sam and Dean trying to explain to the Scooby Gang that no really, ghosts are real.

Quotable: “We’ve been stopping real estate developers when we could have been hunting Dracula? Are you kidding me?! My life is meaningless!” (Fred)

Watch if you like: Scooby-Doo, crossovers

18. No Rest For The Wicked (Season 3, Episode 16)

The writers’ strike cut Season 3 short (yes, Supernatural has been going that long), which meant the planned story arc, in which Sam and Dean desperately tried to find a way to get Dean out of the deal he made with a Crossroads demon, also had to be wrapped up in fewer episodes than anticipated. The solution was truly shocking – they failed. Dean was sent to Hell and viewers were left with an image of him being tortured and screaming out Sam’s name. OK, no one really thought he was going to stay there for ever, but it was still a bold move.

Best moment: Sam joining along in a singalong to Bon Jovi’s “Wanted” with his brother, knowing they only had a few hours left.

Quotable: “Family don’t end with blood, boy” (Bobby)

Watch if you like: Dante’s Inferno, soft rock anthems

17. All Hell Breaks Loose, Parts 1&2 (Season 2, Episodes 21&22)

Like “No Rest For The Wicked,” this was a real watershed moment for the show. Sam’s death and the deal Dean makes to bring him back set in motion just about every major storyline since. But these episodes don’t make the list just for that reason. The “only one can live” set up Sam is dropped into is always an intriguing premise, and these two episodes make up a dramatic, satisfying season finale in which the bad guy of two years is dispatched, the Winchester men get some closure, and the mythology gets a bit more development.

Best moment: Sam’s first death. The regularity with which the Winchester boys die and come back to life is a long-running joke and has even been the focus of more than one episode over the years, so it’s easy to forget just what a huge, horrifying moment that first death is, back when they used to take it seriously.

Quotable: “That was for our mom, you sunnnuvabitch” (Dean, to Azazel’s dead body)

Watch if you like: The Hunger Games, Jensen Ackles emoting

16. Abandon All Hope… (Season 5, Episode 10)

Season 5 was Supernatural creator Eric Kripke’s final season as show-runner, and it was written to be the final season of the show. The story arc followed the boys’ attempts to stop the oncoming Apocalypse and recapture the Devil himself, with the stakes getting higher and higher as the season wore on. “Abandon All Hope…” is a turning point, hammering home the seriousness of the situation by killing off half the regular supporting cast, after which the story became increasingly grim until our heroes faced an impossible choice in the season finale. It’s also the episode that introduces Mark Sheppard as Crowley, King of the Crossroads Demons, who immediately cements himself as much more fun than your average demon.

Best moment: Ellen staying with a mortally injured Jo as they sacrifice themselves to save the boys.

Quotable: “Your choice. You can cling to six decades of deep-seated homophobia, or give it up and get a complete bailout for your ban’s ridiculous incompetence” (Crowley)

Watch if you like: Mark Sheppard as Crowley, tear-jerkers

15. Nightshifter (Season 2, Episode 12)

Sam and Dean spent much of the first few years of the series on the run from the law, despite having several police officers in their debt. This would continue until the police thought they were dead, only for the pair of them to turn up again, and the threat of jail time if they were ever caught and identified never quite went away. This episode, in which a shape-shifter is carrying out bank robberies, really notches up the tension as they come to the attention of the FBI in the worst possible way, as well as observing the tragedy of a well meaning civilian caught up in something he doesn’t understand.

Best moment: The brothers escape to the tune of “Renegade,” by Styx.

Quotable: “We’re not working for the Mandroid!” (Sam, to Ronald)

Watch if you like: Bonnie and Clyde, The Lone Gunmen

14. Death’s Door (Season 7, Episode 10)

The decision to kill off Bobby permanently in season 7 was controversial, to say the least, but it’s hard to deny his final episode as a living member of the team is a great one. Poor Bobby’s backstory is revealed to be even more tragic than we already knew it was, but more importantly, his bond with the boys and the reasons their relationship is so important both to them and to him are explored. It also prompts the show to explore a fairly obvious question – we’ve seen plenty of ghosts on the series whose bodies were burned, so even with hunters’ funerals, how is it we haven’t seen more beloved deceased characters return after death?

Best moment: Bobby giving his alcoholic father a proper telling off in his imagination.

Quotable: “As fate would have it, I adopted two boys, and they grew up great. They grew up heroes” (Bobby)

Watch if you like: Bobby and Rufus, daddy issues

13. Dark Side Of The Moon (Season 5, Episode 16)

The earliest episode to acknowledge how often the boys have died and come back to life, “Dark Side Of The Moon” sets its cards on the table by abruptly killing them both in the first few minutes. We finally get to see what happens when you go to Heaven in the world of Supernatural, and it’s a little weird and oddly lonely (with the exception of “soulmates”, everyone is off in their own little worlds – thankfully this is eventually rectified) but it’s a satisfying journey nonetheless. Not that Dean or Castiel would agree, as this is the episode in which they give up on searching for God, having been told He isn’t interested.

Best moment: Dean’s Heaven – playing with fireworks with Young Sam. It’s a truly joyful sequence.

Quotable: “Gentlemen, I don’t mean to be a downer, but I’m sure I’ll see you again soon” (Ash)

Watch if you like: Family drama, nihilism

12. Baby (Season 11, Episode 4)

The Supernatural team have always been clear that the Impala is the third main character on the show (sorry, Castiel) so this Season 11 episode shifts focus to tell a story entirely from the car’s point of view. No, this isn’t a Herbie or Transformers situation – rather, the entire episode is shot from inside the car. What this means for the story is that we get to see different parts of Sam and Dean’s day – while they’re off investigating, we see the Impala get taken for a joy ride by a car park attendant, and Sam and Dean’s traditional emotionally-charged conversations are given a little more space to breathe. This is how you shake a show up while keeping its unique feel after eleven years.

Best moment: All of Castiel’s hilarious phone calls.

Quotable: “Never use Swayze’s name in vain, OK? Ever” (Dean)

Watch if you like: Classic cars, Bob Seger’s “Night Moves”

11. What Is And What Should Never Be (Season 2, Episode 20)

Towards the end of season 2, as the series started to grow in confidence, Supernatural started to do slightly more experimental episodes that took us away from the straightforward “Sam and Dean hunt a monster” set-up. The first meta-fictional episode was the fun “Hollywood Babylon,” while this was an early glimpse of an alternative timeline – or, rather, an hallucination of Dean’s under the influence of a djinn. The result was a fun “what if” scenario and a lovely penultimate appearance from Adrianne Palicki as Jessica, but it culminated in a truly heart-breaking moment for Dean as he confronts everything he, Sam, and their father have had to sacrifice in their attempts to help others, and is forced to choose life at the expense of happiness.

Best moment: Dean breaks down at his father’s grave.

Quotable: “Look, whatever stupid thing you’re about to do, you’re not doing it alone. And that’s that” (Sam)

Watch if you like: Alternate timelines, wishes gone wrong

10. The French Mistake (Season 6, Episode 15)

In this episode, Sam and Dean are pulled into a parallel universe where they are the actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, the stars of the TV show Supernatural. The story takes the highest of high concepts and makes it work beautifully, including an appearance from Padalecki’s real life wife and former co-star Genevieve Padalecki and Misha Collins sending himself up gloriously. There’s even a clip of a much younger Jensen Ackles on Days Of Our Lives thrown in. A joy from start to finish.

Best moment: Sam and Dean trying to act. They are not good at it.

Quotable: “You married fake Ruby?!” (Dean)

Watch if you like: High concept comedy, Misha Collins

9. The End (Season 5, Episode 4)

What better way to raise the stakes early in the season than to flash forward five years and reveal what the world will look like after the Apocalypse has come about? Funny and heartfelt in equal measure, this is a classic alternate timeline story with a twist. It is also a really important episode in the development of Lucifer as a character, here played with squirming intensity by Jared Padalecki, who gets to sit out most of the story while Jensen Ackles pulls double, only to come and steal the show at the end. It also features some advice from Chuck (i.e. God) to hoard toilet paper, which turned out to be remarkably prescient.

Best moment: The reveal of Hippie Future Castiel, who has taken a surprising attitude towards the end of the world.

Quotable: “When you get back there, you hoard toilet paper. You understand me? Hoard it like it’s made of gold. Cause it is” (Chuck – some people clearly took this advice too much to heart in 2020)

Watch if you like: Dystopias, toilet paper

8. Fan Fiction (Season 10, Episode 5)

The show’s 100th episode was an important moment in its then-current story arc, but it was the 200th that really celebrated in style. Watching a girls’ school put on a musical version of the Supernatural story (the Kripke years) sounds like a terrible idea but they pull it off brilliantly, making an episode that is both funny and sweet. Most of all, though, this is just a treat for long-term fans, full of call-backs, references, and in-jokes, and that finally ties up a loose end from “Dark Side Of The Moon” in an emotionally satisfying way.

Best moment: The lovely cover of “Carry On, Wayward Son” at the end of the show.

Quotable: “That is some of the worst fan fiction I ever heard!” (Marie, on hearing what happened after the end of Season 5 – a popular take on just about everything that’s happened since then in some quarters)

Watch if you like: Musicals, subtext

7. The Monster At The End Of This Book (Season 4, Episode 18)

Neither “Don’t Call Me Shurley” nor “Fan Fiction” would have been possible without the episode that introduced Chuck in the first place, though back then he was nothing more than a cowardly writer and (apparently) reluctant prophet. Supernatural had done a few meta-fictional episodes by this point but “The Monster At The End Of This Book” was the moment they took it to new places, creating the fictional Supernatural universe within the Supernatural universe and allowing the show to explore fandom, fan fiction, fan conventions and fan musicals further down the line. The whole concept is a real treat for the show’s real life fans.

Best moment: Sam and Dean discover online fandom and slash fiction.

Quotable: “They do know we’re brothers, right?!” (Dean)

Watch if you like: Fan fiction, meta fiction

6. Faith (Season 1, Episode 12)

This low-key Season 1 episode may seem like an odd choice for the sixth best episode ever out of 327. But there are two reasons for singling out “Faith” here. One is to highlight just how good Supernatural’s early ghost stories were. We could fill a whole list with classic examples of spooky tales done really well from the show’s early years (“Dead In The Water,” “Bloody Mary,” “No Exit,” “Playthings”). “Faith,” though not strictly about a ghost, centres around a faith healer’s wife controlling a reaper. But “Faith” is more than a good yarn done well. It’s also the episode that showed what the series could be, as it started to deal with the deep and complex philosophical themes the show would later explore in more obvious, explosive ways. There’s also a great guest performance from Angel: The Series’ and Dexter’s Julie Benz, and poor Dean finds himself dying from something fairly mundane – not for the last time.

Best moment: “Don’t Fear The Reaper” is put to great use here as the reaper hunts down a jogger.

Quotable: “You better take care of that car, or I swear, I’ll haunt your ass” (Dean)

Watch if you like: Theology, Blue Oyster Cult

5. Mystery Spot (Season 3, Episode 11)

The best comedy episodes of Supernatural are not only side-splittingly funny (and they are), they also have a dramatic punch, an element of real drama behind the comedy. “Mystery Spot” is based around a twist on the Groundhog Day concept, in which Sam has to relive a day on which Dean seems doomed to die over and over and over again, unable to prevent it. Dean’s many, many deaths caused by all manner of strange things (just how did he manage fatally to slip in the shower?) are very funny, but Sam’s increasing difficulty in dealing with the situation, and then his terrible three months without Dean (this was the first time that had happened since the series began) bring sincere emotions to the table as well.

Best moment: Sam working out that the Trickster is behind everything.

Quotable: “OK, look. Yesterday was Tuesday, right? But today is Tuesday too” (Sam)

Watch if you like: Groundhog Day, Final Destination

4. Pilot (Season 1, Episode 1)

Not too many shows can claim their pilot as one of their best episodes. But Supernatural’s Pilot really is a great episode of the show. It kicks off the series’ major plot arc, of course, but it also introduces the show’s humor and heart. On top of all that, the Pilot also features a classic Ghost of the Week that’s spooky and sad and ghoulish, as all good ghost stories should be.

Best moment: Our introduction to Dean’s “mullet rock” music collection, including two classics from AC/DC (“Back In Black” and “Highway To Hell,” of course).

Quotable: “We got work to do” (Sam)

Watch if you like: Mullet rock, ghost stories

3. Swan Song (Season 5, Episode 22)

The episode that would have been the series finale, if the show hadn’t been renewed and taken over (first by Sera Gamble, then Jeremy Carver, and finally Andrew Dabb and Robert Singer). “Swan Song” would have made a great finale as well – it’s thrilling, satisfying, tragic and funny all at once. The main reason it’s not higher on this list is that it is a little bit of a downer – if the series had actually ended there, there would have been a lot of Fix Fic out there online, sorting it out. Granted, that’s true of the series’ actual finale as well, but honestly, think about it, and take out the sequel hook shot of a resurrected Sam at the end of “Swan Song” which presumably wouldn’t have been there – this one is even more depressing.

Best moment: The opening narration, describing how the Impala has always been the boys’ real home.

Quotable: “Hey! Assbutt!” (Castiel, to Lucifer)

Watch if you like: Supernatural. Honestly, this one is the conclusion to five years’ story-telling – don’t start here!

2. Changing Channels (Season 5, Episode 8)

Is this the funniest comedy episode of Supernatural? It’s a tough contest, but the genital herpes commercial Sam is forced to star in might just give it the win. But “Changing Channels” is more than comedy. The reveal that the Trickster is actually the Archangel Gabriel in disguise really shouldn’t work, but somehow it does, and it brings a new dimension to the Trickster’s previous appearances (especially “Mystery Spot”) as well as a solid conclusion to this one. But really, the episode’s greatness lies in the fact that it’s just. so. funny.

Best moment: The Impala/Sam as KITT from Knight Rider.

Quotable: “Should I honk?” (Sam/the Impala)

Watch if you like: Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, Knight Rider, cheesy sitcoms, Japanese game shows, adverts for genital herpes treatments

1. Lazarus Rising (Season 4, Episode 1)

What with running for 15 years, Supernatural went through a fair few major upheavals and shifts that sent the show in a new direction, and several of them are on this list. Nothing, though, beats the appearance of real, possessing-someone-else’s-flesh-and-blood angels on the show. This was the episode that made Supernatural what it has become, for better or for worse.

But that alone isn’t the reason we’ve put it at Number 1 of 327 episodes. The episode is hugely emotionally satisfying – although Sam and Dean had both come back from the dead before by this point (Dean technically dozens of times) Dean coming back from being buried for months is undeniably huge. The series needed to show how much of a big deal this was, and they did. We immediately learn that angels are terrifying and that wherever they go, collateral damage follows (it’s easy to forget that the first thing Castiel does on this show is burn out an innocent woman’s eyes).

And then, we finally get to meet an angel face to face. Castiel, in his first appearance, is genuinely something to behold. The deep voice, before it became the subject of in jokes and deadpan comedy, was originally intended to convey gravitas and power, and it works. This is a force like nothing the boys have encountered before, and it is awesome in the classic sense of word – full of awe.

Later, of course, Castiel would become the third member of Team Free Will and one of the most important characters on the show, next only to Sam and Dean. Misha Collins has made the character funny and loveable and awkward and generally indispensable. We wouldn’t change Castiel for the world and certainly don’t mean to suggest that it’s all downhill from his first appearance. Indeed, that later legacy is part of what makes this episode so special.

But really, it’s that entrance we can’t get enough of. We get shivers every time.

Best moment: Castiel’s entrance, of course. Though the rest of the episode is very good as well.

Quotable: “I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition” (Castiel’s first line)

Watch if you like: Castiel, angels

Honorable mentions

There were so many great episodes we didn’t have room for here – “My Bloody Valentine” (gory and funny in equal measure), “It’s A Terrible Life” (a classic Angel Shenanigans of the Week story), ‘The Born-Again Identity’ (Castiel’s return after it looked like they really had killed him off this time), “Houses Of The Holy” (the first references to angels on the show), “Everybody Hates Hitler” (a solid adventure during the course of which the boys discover the Bunker that has become their home), and “LARP And The Real Girl” (probably the best and most fun episode featuring fan favorite Charlie, played by Felicia Day) are just a few of the other greats.

Dishonorable mentions

We don’t want to spend too much time focusing on the negative, but we should probably acknowledge that, in 327 episodes, the show has occasionally got it wrong. Generally speaking, any time the show decides to feature dogs (the domesticated variety, not werewolves) the results tend to be less than excellent – “Man’s Best Friend With Benefits” is a real low point, and while many fans love “Dog Dean Afternoon,” we find it cringe-worthy. “Bugs” and “Route 666” (the one about the racist truck) are the two most often picked on by the writers themselves as examples of terrible episodes, though since both are from Season 1, they’ve long receded into most viewers’ long-term memories.

And of course, there’s “Carry On.” For every fan who found it a flawed but satisfying ending, there’s another who ranks it somewhere up there with Game Of Thrones’ and How I Met Your Mother’s finales in the All Time Terrible Series Finales Hall of Fame. There were too many people missing (largely the fault of COVID-19, but that doesn’t really help), especially Castiel and Eileen, whose absences were palpably felt. To leave Misha Collins and Castiel out all together after years of him sharing show-leading duties with Padalecki and Ackles seems very wrong, and many fans were disappointed that we never really see Dean react to Cas’s confession of love for him in ‘Despair’. Dean’s abrupt death felt anti-climactic to many, and the fact he was robbed of the chance to live a life free of Chuck was frustrating. And on top of all that, Sam’s grey-haired wig really was quite terrible. So all in all, while we would still say that for us it felt like a fairly well played conclusion to the story, we can understand that for many, it belongs at the top of the list of Dishonorable Mentions.

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Did your favorite episode of Supernatural make the list? Let us know in the comments below…

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