#also nothing on the popular ships i mentioned but they are literally a plague i cant escape | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

darkpoisonouslove · 4 years ago

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I'm offering you an empty salt shaker - asks 2, 5, 6, 15 (go ahead, I know you have something XD), 16, 20, 25 (about Bloom searching for her parents storyline)

Starting this again because guess who accidentally hit the key combination for undo and lost half an answered ask! This bitch right here.

I answered 2 here.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

Not that I can think of. It’s usually the source material that ruins things and fandom is tasked with fixing them later.

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?*

I didn’t hate it but Bloom x Icy was incomprehensible to me. Fics helped a lot and so did other posts from here and there and I can see it now. Also, I totally couldn’t see Griffin x Codatorta but that changed, too. Though, that was less fandom and more trashcankitty12 with an ask that made me think about it a little more in-depth so it was pretty much me roping up myself into yet another ship. But ooh, I also don’t think I had considered Palladium x Avalon before fandom but, yes, indeed, it is right there in canon. And I was so puzzled over the Riven x Nabu content I was seeing but after watching seasons 3 and 4, I can totally see where this is coming from. The people are right. That is a bromance right there.

15. Unpopular opinion about the manga/show?

I have no idea what is popular and what isn’t (but you’re right that I have something aka A LOT) so I’ll just list my strong opinionsTM, okay? I will try not to dump on Bloom too much also because it is not a secret that I don’t like her so there is no need for me to go in too much detail.

4kids is the superior dub. That is probably the most controversial opinion I hold. But don’t worry, I’ll try to top it and up the ante. XD

I love Enchantix but it has so many flaws as a concept and even more as an execution and the thing that is really pissing me off is how obviously centered around Bloom’s arc it is. It was clearly created for the advancement of her character and the other girls’ stories came as an afterthought which is why Tecna’s Enchantix was total bullshit. And for having a transformation that is specifically created around Bloom, hers was bullshit as well. I think they should have let her reearn it in order for her to be able to use all of its functions like miniaturizing. Also also, at so many points it totally sounds like Bloom is not upset about the fact that Domino and all of its people were destroyed but about the fact that that means she won’t get her Enchantix. Which btw was a hasty conclusion because at the time Enchantix became a thing, she was still on a mission to find her parents which would have definitely been a way to earn her Enchantix and she had a sign that they were alive. So her angsting over not getting an Enchantix because of what happened on Domino was bad form on the writers’ part.

That spell for good decisions in 1x05 was one of the show’s lowest and most ridiculous moments. It was only included to flaunt in your face how naturally being a leader comes to Bloom because “See? See!!!!!! She can make a good decision without using magic to help her!” So can the majority of the population (note that we are talking about ONE good decision, not an unbreakable sequence of such). She ain’t all that special. Plus, Tecna was written wildly OOC there in order to boost Bloom’s stats so to speak. I’m sorry but Tecna would’ve known that three against four doesn’t give them advantage since they are freshmen and the Trix were seniors at the time. God, that scene was stupid.

Flora is the most boring character in seasons 1-3, fight me about it.

The writers totally had no idea what they were doing with the witches throughout most of season 1 which is why Griffin’s characterization in that season is so inconsistent. Also, wtf was that in 1x06? She straight up tried to kill a bunch of 15-year-old girls. Take a chill pill! I’m glad they figured out a much better balance with her later on.

Not using the fact that Cloud Tower is a living organism more was a fucking wasted opportunity. Especially in season 3 when Valtor took over it. That could have made everything so much better. Also, the witches should have been used more. They were interesting but deserved so much better in terms of development.

Sky should have just fucking died in 2x10. What were these resurrections and Bloom getting healing powers out of nowhere for a total of 5 seconds? You know, that could have been a good setup for a Bloom x Diaspro romance. It would have been so much better if they’d gotten together right after 1x17 and dumped Sky’s sorry ass. Also, Diaspro deserved better.

Riven is the best Specialist but he is especially better than Sky. Remember 1x22 when he was trying to escape CT? He was trapped deep in enemy territory with monsters everywhere and so high above the ground, yet he found his way out. Sky would’ve fucking died out in the open at Magix against one single monster if Bloom hadn’t shown up to rescue him. And the show has the gall to imply that Sky is a better Specialist than Riven is? Please!

The teachers should be fined and sued for emotional and physical damage they haven’t protected their students from. Especially the Alfea teachers who in 1x02 practically admitted that the witches might maim a fairy and they still won’t do shit about it. Nice one!

Griffin and Valtor is canonical subtext and I have nothing more to say about this. It is all there.

Valtor up until 3x18 and Valtor from 3x19 to 3x26 are two different people and the prior is superior in every way. The show ruined him in the last third of the season because there was no other way for Winx to defeat him.

Speaking about Valtor, his whole thing with the Trix is despicable and I hate it so much. It is extremely cringy on their part and extremely underhanded on his and I can’t stand it. Not to mention that it is wildly OOC for the Trix because they are obviously better than that.

I cannot understand saying that Bloom x Valtor is love-hate. I see only hate.

It is ridiculous how easily the Trix beat Griffin in season 6 and how they nearly take control over CT in season 2. And it is also ridiculous that she had to wait for Winx to unspell CT in season 3. She is a teacher, the headmistress of the most prestigious school for witches, a veteran and has been Valtor’s partner (and he himself admitted that together they were unstoppable which means that she has to be pretty powerful and even somewhere close to his level of power). Can the show stop acting like she is defenseless?

The teachers should have been used more. It would’ve been so much better if they were there to at least help Winx if not lead their battles. And it would have made much more sense. Also, how come Ediltrude and Zarathustra literally disappear when it’s convenient and then reappear again (like they did in season 1 when the witches went to Alfea)? That’s just bad writing.

Sky is adopted. He doesn’t resemble Erendor or Samara neither in appearance, nor in character and I hate them enough to headcanon that he was adopted but nobody knows because they don’t want to have claims that he is not an “official” heir of the throne because he isn’t part of the bloodline.

Mike and Vanessa are much more parents to Bloom than Marion and Oritel are, especially when the latter were first released from Obsidian, and the fact that Bloom starts calling them Mike and Vanessa instead of mom and dad after she learns she has other parents is abysmal. Also, they are literally the best parents ever and I love them to death. (I also like Marion and Oritel but Mike and Vanessa are definitely the superior pair of parents if we’re ranking them. I like the idea that the two couples are actually super close and love each other like relatives, in fact.)

What the fuck is up with the magic in this show? There is literally, like, NO FUCKING CONSISTENCY WHATSOEVER! You can’t blink without the rules of it changing in some way. But what am I saying? That would imply that there are any rules which is just not true. Also, there is no clear distinction of how powerful anyone is after season 1. The balance of powers especially between Winx and the Trix is pretty much whatever works for the episode. Same for Winx vs Valtor. The fuckery on that account is unreal. Plus, some of Bloom’s major power explosions happen due to her getting angry. According to the official Wiki - “While practicing or harnessing positive magic, one must keep a compassionate heart, primarily by keeping their thoughts and feelings clear of all negativity, making them capable of attracting positive energy more easily. Thus, if one is plagued with negative thoughts or feelings such as sadness, anger or fear, then their magic will grow weaker until they may even be left incapable of casting magic until said feelings pass.“ Read that and then read it again, let it sink in. According to the rules of the Winx universe, during some of Bloom’s most powerful moments she was actually using dark magic, not light such because it was fueled by rage. Way to keep it fucking consistent. And that is not just Bloom! FLORA out of all people attacks the Trix in rage in 3x12 when they hurt her sister aka she was also using dark magic at that situation (and then you have Wizgiz scolding Mirta for it in SotLK like it is a sin to use dark magic, smh). In some instances I would argue that it was more of determination to protect rather than anger which I would say would still result in light magic. But The Flora thing, Bloom vs Stormy in 1x09 (Bloom even says she got so angry so that was not a case of protectiveness), Bloom vs Icy in 1x26 and Bloom vs Valtor in 3x14 were definitely rage aka dark magic. And then Bloom is all “fairies don’t have any demons”. Guess again, bitch! Also, writers, you need a dictionary to start comprehending the words you are actually writing?

Now that I think of it, the whole arc in the Resort Realm was bullshit. If it is a magic-free realm, nobody should have any magic in it, period! What is this bullshit that you can use Charmix and Gloomix there because they have higher magical energy? That absolutely doesn’t matter! If there isn’t any magic in the entire realm, having a higher amount of magic in you will not matter because you still can’t use it... because there isn’t any in the realm!!!!!! What the hell! Honestly, the writers can’t comprehend what words mean and that is not the only instance in which it shows.

Someone told me that SotLK is better than Magical Adventure and I don’t mean to offend but that is simply not true. Magical Adventure is leagues above SotLK even if it has some structural problems. Like, literally everything is better. Bloom and Sky are even likable and communicate!!!!!!!! Literally when have you ever seen a better moment for their relationship than in Magical Adventure? If it had been all like that, I would have liked them as a couple.

I think I got everything that comes to mind rn out. Might think of more at some point. I was done and then came back to rage some more because I remembered I had more material.

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

I would have them make smart decisions because 99% of the shit they pull is so stupid it is unreal. I literally cannot tell how they are still alive. Oh, no wait! Plot armor. Yep, that’s it.

But if I had to pick something specific? Bring Nabu back. I sure as hell wouldn’t have killed him. That was an asshole move and I have no idea what the hell the writers were thinking when they wrote that.

And my second choice is - implement a magical system into the series because there isn’t one. Magic always works the way the writers need it to work to pull off their bullshit plot even if it contradicts everything that we’ve seen before. Please, for the love of god! Consistency is already dead; stop stabbing its corpse!!!!

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

Purest ship? Lmao, asking me this question is underhanded. XD If you mean no drama, then Flora and Helia Mike and Vanessa. But I think my actual answer would be Griffin x Faragonda because they have been through so much that we know of or we can deduce and they still stuck together. Sure, they had their ups and downs but it is obviously a love for life that has lasted through so many obstacles and keeps lasting. The reason why I can’t say the same for Mike and Vanessa is because we don’t really know that much about their relationship with each other. But anyway I love both these ships so much.

If you’re talking about a canon ship, though, then Brandon and Stella (I do not recognize the stupid relationship drama in season 4 as canon). He did lie to her about his identity in season 1 but it was for his friendship with Sky (alternatively, for his job and duty as Sky’s squire). I just love how obviously in love Brandon is with Stella and how much Stella doesn’t care about anything but him. She didn’t care that he was a “commoner” and - one of my fave moments - in 1x08 she only cared about his well-being rather than the competition. It was adorable and they are adorable and I love them so much. Pure serotonin, right there!

25. How would you end the Bloom searching for her parents storyline/Would you change the ending?

I would certainly change the logistics of the whole thing because, boy, did it make no sense at all. As for the actual ending, I’d argue that physically finding them is not the end of that storyline and she needs to “find” them emotionally as well which would definitely take more time than SotLK cared to address. Like, she got them out of Obsidian and boom, everything’s fine! She literally doesn’t know them! Those are her parents and she doesn’t know anything about them! Their touch and their voices are unfamiliar to her even and they have missed on so much that they will never be able to get back and you’re saying that everything is fine? Yeah, right.

I would have had her spend a year on Domino with them before season 4. The school year that started in SotLK? She spends that with them. Possibly even the one that starts in Magical Adventure as well. She learns everything she can about them and the family history. She also learns how to be a proper royal because she is the Crown Princess now and she has no idea what the fuck she is doing. I would have made seasons 4 and possibly 5 about that and added more politics in it. Layla and Stella are also princesses who will run their kingdoms one day so we could have had adventures in political relations with Winx Club. They are pretty famous so I am sure there would be rulers of other lands that see them as threats and don’t like them. There could have been tension about that and the whole thing with Domino being the planet of the Dragon Fire could have been addressed. Who would dare oppose them when they are the most powerful force? Are they the most powerful force after the 17 years the planet spent as an ice block? Are there old alliances to be reforged? What is the political climate in the Magic Dimension? All absolutely fascinating questions that would have helped the worldbuilding and made place for Marion and Oritel in Bloom’s life and in the show. We could’ve gone back to the feel of season 1 when they also had other things going on besides the big baddie of the season and it could have been a little more episodical with a loose theme to connect the season and the overarching story of Bloom finding her parents and her place in the world she was born in. That could have been positively epic... And a great way to retain the cast because the Company of Light were allegedly friends so we could have seen Marion and Oritel reconnecting with Griffin, Faragonda, Saladin and Hagen. There could have been resurfacing debates left over from the war. Kingdoms angry at Domino for something that happened back then in order to include flashbacks with the events. AND that would work out with the fact that the Ancestral Witches were still around and could have led to another epic battle that wouldn’t end with the destruction of a whole planet. Like I said, there were amazing possibilities... and they were all wasted.

Well, this was long... and just what I needed. I hope some (civilized) discussion will spark out of that because I am tired of screaming in a void and I want people to talk to me.

#winx club #anti bloom #anti sky #too many opinions to tag #meta #winx club meta #ask #her-majesty-wears-jeans #winx griffin

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thiswaycomessomethingwicked · 4 years ago

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Hello! I'm pretty sure I saw you mention a while ago that you were disappointed by confessions of the fox, would you mind explaining why? I've seen mostly good things about it myself. If I misremembered then I'm sorry and I hope you have a good day :))

I think this is one of my less popular opinions. And I understand - we so rarely get historical fiction with trans folk as the titular character (indeed, we rarely get any fiction what that). So I get people’s desire to laud it.

For me though? It fundamentally didn’t work as a book. As a story.

Let me count the ways. (Apologies in advance for the length of this.)

First: If you’re trans-ing someone who was historically cis instead of seeking to find a real, historical trans or gender-nonconforming person, I have questions.

Most of the questions can be summed up as: Why?

I struggle with historical fiction that takes a cis person and re-imagines them as trans as if there aren’t already literal historical, real trans people out there whose stories can be told. It smacks as (unintended, well meaning) erasure of lived experiences.

Jack Sheppard, to the best of our knowledge, was a cis dude. There were trans folk in London in the 1710s and ‘20s. You might have to dig a bit for them, but they’re there. Because trans folk have always been there.

Second: Characterisation

This is more personal taste, but I found Jack and his girlfriend Bess to be inexcusably boring. How a trans, thief and gaolbreaker in 1720s gin-soaked London can be written as boring is anyone’s guess. But he was.

Jack had no real personality and I found his story to be uninteresting. Oh, he’s the world’s best thief and gaolbreaker, that’s nice. But on its own it isn’t enough.

He had few to no faults. Childhood trauma isn’t a personality. Nor is being trans. And the author relies heavily on gender + occupation (thief-ness) to equal personality. So it falls very flat.

Bess, his girlfriend, is a mixed-race sex worker from the Fens (even though actual real-Bess was from Edgeware). She seems to only exist to demonstrate that Jack is good at sex. She also veers a little into the Mystical Woman of Colour Healer Who Aids The White Person on their Journey of Self Discovery trope.

Neither Bess nor Jack undergo any real change in the book. They exist in a weird stasis and experience no development, despite living through some harrowing things. They’re wooden dolls who move through the story without really engaging with, or being influenced by, the things around them.

The other “main” character is a modern Academic who “found” this supposed “manuscript” of Jack’s life and is annotating it. His story unfolds in the foot notes and it’s just so messy if not a bit contrived. It didn’t make sense. I think the author was trying to convey that the Academic was in a sort of dystopian future, but if that’s the case it didn’t work. And if that’s not the case, the entire inclusion of the Academic’s story served only to annoy and take me out of the reading experience.

E.g. There’s a scene where the Academic is being taken to task by the Dean for playing stupid games on his phone during office hours and like honey, lapsed-historian/academic here, trust me the Dean doesn’t give a fuck what you do during your office hours so long as you’re in your office and students can come bother you about their poor marks.

The manuscript is supposedly being sought after by this pharmaceutical company for nefarious reasons that never struck me as being entirely realistic/believable. Also, the university was spying on this non-tenured, slightly useless Academic as if he somehow mattered? Which made zero sense. Anyway, it was stupid and should have been ripped out of the final version. OR changed substantially.

Jonathan Wild, the thief taker (main antagonist to Jack), is probably the only interesting person.

Third: Lack of Follow Through, or, the Fabulism Was Not Used Well

The book tries to blend in some fabulism to the world by giving Jack the ability to “hear” the thoughts of inanimate objects. This could have been fun and gone to some interesting places, but it failed to deliver.

I personally found the shoe-horning in of “capitalism commodifies everything” to be sloppy and heavy handed. It was done with little grace and didn’t sit right given that we are dealing with the early modern period. Yes, you can use the past to critique our modern woes, but do it intelligently. Don’t slap modern points of view and understandings of things onto the past and expect them to make sense.

Anyway, Jack spends the book hearing inanimate objects talk to him, asking him to “free” them, or something. And uh .. .it doesn’t go anywhere interesting after that.

Also the correlation one can draw from these objects to, you know, slaves, is uncomfortable. Especially as it’s the cargo of the EIC ships that Jack hears. I don’t think it’s intended in any sort of malicious way, but the allusion is there and I always found it to be distinctly uncomfortable.

Fourth: Misuse of Marxist Theory, or, More Heavy Handed Moralizing that Annoyed the Dear Reader because it wasn’t subtle and, more importantly, it wasn’t done intelligently.

So, the author is an academic - studies 18th century lit. Which is readily apparent as his Academic (self-insert) character is, I believe, supposed to be a historian and uh ... you can tell that the author doesn’t know enough to wing that. E.g. How he interprets some of the laws and customs of the time. Instead of understanding the social, economic and, most importantly, environmental issues that gave birth to laws like “the corporation of the city of London owns the streets so you can’t muckrake” he chooses to understand them through a very 21st century lens (and a Marxist one at that. I know I’m perhaps a bit uncool for this, but I find the application of Marxist theory to the early modern period to be ... not useful).

Do you know why, mid/late 17th century London passed these municipal laws? Because of the god damn fucking plague you numb nut. You absolute buffoon. It had nothing to do with “oh the City/government is evil and wants to own you” it had to do with the fact that no one cleaned the goddamn street. So the city took over doing it.

Prior to this, in London, you were supposed to keep the street in front of your building clear of waste, debris, refuse etc. No one did this, of course. I live where it’s cold and snows a lot and people can barely shovel the 2 sq ft of sidewalk in front of their driveway in the winter. I dread the idea of an average homeowner being expected to keep the street clear and clean.

Anyway, guess what dirty streets attract? Vermin. Guess what comes with vermin? Plague. Guess what happened in 1665/66? The great plague of London!

17th century England might not have understood germ theory, but they did understand correlation. (Also, the population of London was doubling at the back half of the 17th century and streets needed to be reliably cleared for through-traffic reasons etc. etc.)

ugh, sorry, that one in particular drove me up the wall. Not everything is a capitalist conspiracy. Especially when we’re talking about municipal by-laws from the 17th century.

And I understand the temptation to read a lot of modern interpretation of words like “corporation” and “company” onto bodies that used these same words in 17th and 18th centuries. But the weight, meaning and connotation of “the worshipful company of merchant adventurers” is different from, I don’t know, “the tech company google” or whatever. The early 18th century is when we start seeing the birth of the stock market, of “venture companies” (i.e. merchant adventure companies), of a lot of the language and proto-iterations of what will grow to be economic institutions of our time. But it doesn’t mean they’re the same and that difference is important. Because Jack Sheppard is a man living in 1720 he’s not going to be having our modern 21st century critiques of capitalism because his engagement with the economic systems of his time would have been radically different to our own experiences.

Fifth: Unbelievable Top Surgery & Recovery

So, Jack gets top surgery. In 1720s fever-ridden London. While quarantining in a brothel.

And he lived! No infection! No tearing! He was up and about in a matter of days. I don’t remember if his nipples survived the operation or not but somehow Jack did. Without anesthetics! Or you know, any concept of hygiene.

His Mystical Girlfriend Who Exists to Show How Good Jack is at Sex is also somehow Magically Very Literate and also Magically a Surgeon? and performs this surgery on Jack in the middle of a plague.

The entire ordeal was so poorly handled in terms of believability that I literally set the book down and said “what the fucking fuck” to the empty room then drank wine before finishing the chapter.

An aside, it is funny thinking about the quarantine chapters at this point. I read COTF when it first came out a few years ago. Sweet summer children, we none of us had any idea how to write quarantine scenes.

That reminds me: the entire quarantine thing was presented as the government trying to control movement and take away people’s rights etc. instead of a very normal, typical response that cities had been enacting since 1350. Samuel Pepys, who lived through the 1665/66 epidemic, barely even notes the restrictions. He’s like just “hmmm I’d love to go to the pub but I also don’t want to die. so. *shrug*”

At the time of the author’s writing, most of us in the western world had no idea how normal and day-to-day disease was for our ancestors and yes, sometimes there would be crackdowns to try and curb it if an epidemic hit. That was part and parcel of life. So again, Jack and Bess wouldn’t be like “ooooh we’re 21st century slightly libertarian lefitsts who think the government is doing this to control us and for nefarious purposes”. Much more likely, they would have been like Pepys and viewed it as nuisance, albeit a necessary one.

Sixth: Overall Lack of Realism

I think I’ve noted the big moments where I was like “no one in the early 18th century would think that I’m pretty certain”. This isn’t to say people didn’t grouse, complain about London government (and the king etc.), critique or question the world they lived in. They absolutely did! Regularly. With great verve and gusto, if the broadsheets are anything to go by. But their critiques, their complaints, suggestions for bettering life, are not the same as ours. Because how could they be? They lived in a different world, were responding to specific things, grew up hearing and believing certain things etc.

Jack, aside from having minimal to no character, really did read like a modern slightly-libertarian leftist who was plunked into a novel that takes place three hundred years ago.

In addition to unrealistic political views, his understanding of body, gender, sexuality and identity also read as incredibly modern. Now this is harder, because we have so few extant sources from that time on those who lived non-gender conforming lives, and from their point of view, so yes creative imagining and interpretation is the rule of the day for writing that.

But, we do know how in general the average person engaged and understood gender and sexuality and that would, naturally, inform anyone whose experience was different. And that base line of “probably what a typical cis Englishman or woman felt about their body and identity” wasn’t present. At all.

Indeed, gender engagement at that time was interesting. The concept of the body, the role of the physical body, how it was interpreted is absolutely fascinating and the author could have done some really cool things with that. But he didn’t. He went for slapping a modern interpretation onto the past.

At this point, write a dystopian novel and make Jack a fictional character. That probably would have gone over better, for me at least. The conceit can remain the same: It’s the year 4056 and an Academic found a manuscript from the year 3045 when the Dystopia Was a Thing - and go from there.

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I think part of what made this very popular and why people seem so taken with it is that it reads smart. It reads like someone who has immersed themselves in that world etc. because of the slang and language used.

Yet, for me, as someone who has studied this period extensively, especially queerness in London in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, it read flat and unrealistic.

I was initially very enthused when I started it. There are some posts to that effect on my blog. But it very quickly went south. It tries very hard to be Radical and Smart and Subversive and Critiquing Everything and so I think it fails at the fundamental thing it should be doing: telling a good story.

(Note: The book does try and address racism in London at this time. It also felt a bit forced. And Jack seemed to have no prejudices or preconceived notions about Indian and Black folk which isn’t realistic. Like, it might make him #Problematic but my dude, you’re writing a man born in 1702. He’s going to have some iffy views. That can be challenged! Absolutely. But they still would have existed.)

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Thank you for the ask! I again apologize for the length of the reply.

#reply #ask #anon #lit #books #writing #confessions of the fox

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bellaelisabeth95 · 6 years ago

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A reminder of the toxicity that plagues the legacy of Marlene King and Pretty Little Liars

TW: Self harm and suicide

I know that this coming week starts the Pretty Little Liars spinoff “The Perfectionists,” also directed by Marlene King and starring two cast members from the original show. PLL has been over for years now, but that doesn’t mean some of its most…… passionate? fans have forgotten it. I know many of us haven’t. Who could forget the disaster that was the end of Pretty Little Liars, as a small but very loud subgroup of fans decided to viciously attack anyone who stood in the way of their beloved ship? Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that everyone knows it was not all emison fans. If you are a person who shipped emison but did not bully other cast members or fans, then I feel truly sorry that you were in the same group as them. And I thank you for not taking part in what some of them did.

The reason I’m making this post is because of the Lindsey Shaw Fiasco. I know every single PLL fan on social media knows what this is, regardless of who you shipped/didn’t ship. I want to make sure in light of MK’s new show no one forgets what happened to her, and what could happen again. Marlene King watched as one of her own actors, as well as many of the fans of her show, were mercilessly harassed and said NOTHING. In fact, she pandered to the same people doing the harassing. Both Shay Mitchell and Sasha Pieterse, the two parts of the emison ship, said nothing, despite the harassers being their fans. Now, maybe you’ll say all the ships had crazy fans. They did. But none like this one. Because these people went beyond the typical mean comments about looks or weight. These people aimed to cause real, true harm, and in some cases they almost succeeded. And now, after PLL being over for two years, with the chance for this rabid fanbase to lose their flame, another show targeted at the SAME PEOPLE is airing next week. Another chance to bring them together, to attack anyone they see as getting in the way of their ship.

Fans of the ship Paily were targeted. And even more so than us, Paige’s actress, Lindsey Shaw, was targeted the most relentlessly and disgustingly of all. Whether you are a fan of Lindsey’s or not, you cannot justify what happened to her. Not even if you still choose to believe she “supports Trump,” which she made clear she does not. As a fan of hers, I will agree it was dumb of her to joke about that, and I think she forgot that people don’t always get her sense of humor. Not to mention, there were always people who weren’t fans waiting to pounce. But did you ever stop to think about what led to that little breakdown? (I think right around this time 3 years ago). At that point, Lindsey had already been taking abuse for YEARS, although it certainly got worse as emison became a possibility. She would post something unrelated to the show and be flooded with “kill yourself”, “die pigskin,” and “drink bleach.” How long can someone take that kind of harassment without snapping a little? I was always impressed it didn’t happen sooner. It was clear to me, as well as many of her other fans, that she was going through something personal at the time, and all of the abuse on top of it was a little too much. This all came to a head March 2016. No one from the show said anything.

Fast forward to May 2016, when I lost every ounce of respect for every single cast member of PLL. I used to be a huge fan of Shay. That started fading as she failed to even acknowledge her Paily fans as time went on. It was obvious she cared far more about being popular than she did about standing up for her fans or a co-star she claimed to love. And I don’t know, maybe she and Lindsey had some kind of personal falling out. I always wondered if that was the case, because how else could they all be cold enough to ignore someone’s obvious suffering? Even if that is the case, it isn’t an excuse for her never speaking up. On one day in early May, Lindsey retweeted something that got a portion of the emison base in a frenzy, with them claiming she called Sasha ugly (the tweet did no such thing. It was calling Paily a beautiful couple). Anyway, they POUNCED with a level of venom I had never even seen before. It was horrifying. There were lots of death threats, calls for her to hurt herself. But the one that stood out most came from a user who I won’t name because I don’t want her to have the satisfaction. She literally started a petition with Lindsey’s twitter handle in it, telling people to RT to get her to commit suicide. To which Lindsey responded that she had already tried. Anyone outside of that small pocket of emisons was HORRIFIED, frantically tweeting Marlene, Shay, Troian, all the big name people from the show to address this. Even if they didn’t address Lindsey, to just make an overall statement about how this behavior wasn’t okay. Fans from every ship were taking part. I was sure Shay, or at least Marlene, would say something.

None of them did. Not a single one. It was obvious at that point how much Lindsey was suffering. But still no one said a word.

These are all adults. Grown women acting like a group of middle school bystanders, too cowardly to stand up for the bullied. There is no excuse for them never addressing this. Especially since with a new show, it’s likely to just start up where it left off. In glancing through instagram comments, these same fans have already found a new target: Evan Bittencourt. I don’t know who he is or why they hate him, and frankly I don’t care, because I’m sure it’s bogus, just like their reasons for hating Lindsey. The point is, just like I was afraid of the second I heard Marlene was doing another show, they have already found a new target. I have literally seen them refer to him as “The new Lindsey Shaw.” And anyone who watched PLL knows that’s not a good thing. Just some snooping has already revealed some pretty ugly tweets/comments, which I’m sure he is seeing. We saw first hand how over time being bombarded with hatred took its toll on someone who was once very proud and passionate about the character they played.

Mental health is important. Suicide is very serious. I won’t even get into why seeing Lindsey’s tweet that night shattered my heart or why it to this day infuriates me that none of those women said anything. The fact that so many people think it’s a joke, or that it’s okay running around telling people to hurt themselves, will forever remain a mystery.

Marlene shouldn’t be allowed to have another show after what she encouraged during her last one, and especially not one directed at the same group of fans. PLL needs to be dead and buried forever. No spinoffs. The show, and the people working on it, became toxic, and that same toxicity will be revived the moment these characters are brought back to life next week. Real people got hurt last time. Real people almost died. Think of how crazy and serious that is. I shudder to think what social media is going to look like once this gets under way, especially if the fans of the emison ship feel threatened. I know I will not watch even a second of this show. I hope it is short lived and these characters, and the toxicity they bring with them, can finally be put to rest.

So what happens if things get bad again, Marlene? Will you say something? Will you ever try to make this right? We haven’t forgotten what you let happen to us, or happen to Lindsey. We will never forget how badly she was struggling personally, or that she was driven off social media because of your fans that you never EVER addressed. It breaks my heart what you let happen to her, and it breaks my heart that with this new show comes the opportunity for it to happen again. I hope you’ve become a better person since the Lindsey Shaw Fiasco. It’s too late for you to ever make that right, and honestly, I don’t think you have any desire to. But I do hope that you at least have enough remorse, however small it may be, to make sure it never happens again.

Please share this. Here, to twitter, instagram, everywhere. Let’s make sure we stand up this time.

#pll #prettylittleliars #emison #paily #emily fields #paige mccullers #sasha pieterse #lindsey shaw #shay mitchell #marlene king #alison dilaurentis #pll the perfectionists #the perfectionists #pretty little liars #pretty little liars the perfectionists

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piddies0709 · 5 years ago

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Sam & Max- A Twisted Timeless Tale ch.2

Side note: Heeeeeey.... Chapter 2 is here. Whoo..... Just a fair warning, this one took me forever! Which means it’s a little lengthy. A lot of dialogue in this one. This is also the introduction of two of my OC’s are in this... So my apologies...

Summery: When Sam and Max decide to go to Stinky’s for breakfast, they are met by two kids from out of town, who aren’t quite what they seem

Chapter 2 Stranger's At Stinky's

“Falling? Flying? Is there a difference?

How do we know if we're truly flying?

Feeling the wind on our flesh doesn't change a thing.

We could think we are flying high,

but in reality we could be reaching closer to the ground than we realize.

How do we know if we've hit the ground yet?Or have already made there?I wonder.....”

Delia Corrial rubbed her forehead, groggy and irritated. Stuffing her pen between the pages of her journal, she checked her phone for the time. 5:50 AM. They had boarded the plane somewhere between the hours of 2:45 and 3:00. They should be reaching New York city very soon. But not soon enough obviously! Cin-cin Rin had been running back and forth down the aisle, high of sugar, with a red view master taped to her face. Any wonder why the stewardess didn't do a damn thing about it, could either be that they had given up already or were just lazy. On the plus side, there wasn't a whole lot of people on board to begin with and non of them seem to care either way. On the other hand however, the constant raspberries and armpit noises was really testing Delia's slow burning fuse. She had to resort to scratching up the leather seat with her long black claws instead of just taking one the pillows and smothering Cin-cin to death with it.

Finally for what seemed like almost a century, they made it to New York. The most overrated city in the US. Once they were off and waiting for there bags, it was time to map out there location. All they needed to do now was take a shuttle and few cab rides until they got to their destination. Harridan Hospital of Brooklyn, right next to the Hudson river.

“Okay D, run this to me again? Why the Heck did Nevalla send us here?” Cin-cin asked

“Well I partly blame you for putting all those anchovies in the supply closet and blowing up the laundry room for the third time in the span of one afternoon.” Delia huffed, “Though she also told me it would be a good change of setting to help me practice in this new 'dark magic' thing she has me on... or something along those lines...”

“Yeah... Well look on the bright side D! At least we'll only have be staying here for six months and who wouldn't want to spend the whole summer in New York city?!” Cin-cin waved her hands in an inspirational speech of optimism. Which only made Delia scowl.

“Sane people...?” She asked

It was true that Delia's supervisor/mentor Nevalla, had made orders for Delia to be transferred from Harridan Hospital of Michigan to the one in Brooklyn New York. At least temporally... Though she didn't specify a clear reasoning why. While Delia had been studying in a certain type of dark magic, she still didn't know what that had to do with any of this. But that wasn't the only thing to be bothered by... Delia couldn't help but get the feeling that... Something wasn't quite right. As a matter of fact, she felt it the moment she got off the plane. It was a kind of dark squirming feeling that wriggled in her gut like so many black eels and plagued the back of her mind. She wasn't sure what is was, hopefully it would go away soon.

After they had finally gotten their stuff, the next stage of their journey came. During their shuttle ride, Delia sulked at the window. A fist pressed up against her cheek. While Cin-cin was busy enjoying her new view master rolls. Giggling and at every image.

“Heh, heh... Well thats an unfortunate angle.” Cling!

“Whoa nelly, hubba hubba!” Cling!

“Oh! D! Check out the head on this guy!?”

Delia who didn't even glance over at Cin-cin, made a raspy sigh, “Did you really need to bring that stupid thing with you?”

“Oh, don't act like you don't use these things. I've seen you!” Cin-cin protested, “Besides I know you have your playing cards in your pockets somewhere.”

“Touche...”

---------------

It was pretty early in the morning when Sam awoke to the smell of something burning, combined with the loud blare of the smoke detector going off. Nearly causing him to fall off the couch. He rushed over to the kitchen, only to find Max attempting to cook... Again... There was food and ingredients spilled all over the floor and the pan appeared to be on fire. Max was wearing a pink apron an chefs hat.

“Oh? Morning Sam! You weren't up yet, so I decided to fix breakfast.”

Sam shook his head and smiled. “Why don't you let me take over, pal.” He said as he took the pan from Max and snuffed the fire out with a lid.

“Good! I can't seem to get this bacon to burn right!”

“You crack me up, little buddy.”

“Speaking of crack, we're all out of eggs!”

“Didn't we just buy some last week?”

“We did... But then I broke them all.”Sam just looked over at Max, “How so?”

“I was trying to juggle them with my ears.”

Sam looked down at the frying pan, now scorch to Hell and back, then forth, then back again. There was a blacken meaty substance that once resembled bacon, now fused to the pan. No way would they be able to eat any of that. At least... They could try, but why bother?

“Err... Why don't we go over to Stinky's for breakfast.”

“Oh! Boy! I've been meaning to use that fungus thats been growing in the back of our fridge to put in all of the ketchup bottles and see if anyone will notice the difference.” Max gleefully plotted as he pulled off the hat and apron and threw them to the side.

“You never sees to amaze me, little pal.”

--------------

The bus pulled up a couple of blocks from the river. There was a diner on one side to their right and what looked like a tripped out cop car next to a run down building to their left. Delia and Cin-cin stepped out. Hauling their stuff behind. Placing her hands on her hips, Delia raised an eyebrow at the sights and sneered.

“I don't know.... It's really not that different from Chicago. I don't see why this place is so popular...”

“Where do we go from here?” Cin-cin asked, “I'm starving. Peanuts and plane crackers are just not going to cut it.”

“Well, we could just take a cab now and eat when we get there OR I do have a few 20's in my wallet that are in need of being departed. I suppose we could eat somewhere...” Delia suggested while rubbing her chin.

“Really?!” Cin-cin let out a gasp, then wrapped her arms around Delia in a tight embrace while squealing loudly, “You're the BEST!”

“Yeah, yeah... I guess so...” Delia groaned while rolling her eyes. Waiting for when Cin-cin let go,

“Come on, pea brain! Let's find whats to eat around this tin can...”

“What about that place since it's right there.” Cin-cin suggested pointing to the place that read 'Stinky's Diner' “See? It's even open!”

Delia squinted her eyes in skepticism, “I don't know... Looks like a dump waiting to be burned into the dark abyss...”

“Well, do you have any other ideas?” Cin-cin asked in a snarky tone

“Sadly thats the tragedy of it all...” Delia muttered to Cin-cin's delight

Well it certainly was deserving of its name, that much Delia knew. Walking into the place was like being hit with a wave of some of the worst smells in to world. At least for Delia anyways, due to her hyper sensitive nose. Though Cin-cin hardly seem to take much notice. The place it's self looked like a ship wreck, quite literally in fact, given the restaurant’s sea theming. It was dimly lit, hardly letting any light in. Not much else was even note worthy say for a juke-box the corner and an empty fish tank behind it. Sitting at the counter, reading the paper was a old man. With tattoos and a sea captan's hat. He briefly glanced up at the two girls and gave a huff.

“Menu's are on the counter.” He said in a thick Scottish accent “Just grab one and maybe I might cook ya something...” He grumbled

Cautiously grabbing a menu, Delia sat with Cin-cin at the window. “Well the service is already off to a great start...” Delia sarcastically mumbled,

“Eh, It's New York, D. What do you expect? ”

“Fair point. Though something tells me we might be here a while...”

“And that bothers you? C'mon D, whats the worse that could happen? Where just sitting here.” Cin-cin commented as she opened up her menu.

Delia glared at her, “That's exactly the kinda thing what I worry about. When nothing IS happening...”

“Well look on the bright side D, at least we have each other.”

Delia let out another groan, “It's already going to be a long day, I can tell....”

------------

Sam hastily threw on his clothes and hat, while adjusting his tie. He literally tucked Max under his arm like a towel and went out the door. “If we're fast enough we might get the early bird special.”

“Overly greasy egg burgers with a side of cheese covered bacon fries and green onions rings, followed up by possible food poisoning later?” Max asked with a grin

“Something like that.”

They arrived on the dot, just as Delia and Cin-cin were chewing on something that resembled food. Delia was having a particular tough time with what seem like the tentacle of an octopus that was casually slapped with runny eggs and burnt bacon. It was like rubber against her fangs. As the tentacle smacked Delia in the eye, there came a ring of the bell. Cin-cin peered over her shoulder to see who had come in.

“Say, D?”

“What?” She muttered through gurgled spits

“Remember when Bill Murray mentioned about how dogs and cats living together would lead to mass hysteria?” Cin-cin went on as she continued to stare back in the opposite direction of where Delia was sitting. “Well, I think he was mistaken. It should be dogs and rabbits living together will lead to mass hysteria.”

“...What the Hell are you getting at here?” Delia raised an eyebrow with annoyance, “Having you been snorting Pixi stix again?”

“I have... But just hear me out. One, either a hallucination brought on the crap we just consumed. Second, two furries on their way to some convention or three, an actual dog and rabbit. Take a look yourself.” Cin-cin pointed

Now puzzled, Delia peered over Cin-cin and sure enough, there was indeed a oversized brown dog and white rabbit that had just walked in. The dog was dressed in a gray suit and hat with a black and blue striped tie. While the rabbit was completely in the nude, say for the disturbingly wide grin of sharp teeth he wore.

“Looks more like the mascot to some outdated drug P.S.A special from the 80's and the result of a lab rodent fused with a bear-trap by teleportation devise...” said Delia, completely stone faced.

“Think we should go talk to them?” Cin-cin began to nonchalantly get up to walk over to them.

“No, no, no, no!” Delia snapped, pinning Cin-cin's head down to her level on the table, “Do not draw attention to ourselves...”

Sam and Max looked around the place for a bit, unaware of the two new comers. They direct their attention to grandpa Stinky, who was busy cleaning a not-so-suspicious red stain on the counter.“Morning, Stinky!” Sam greeted,

“Oh, you two! Morning!” the old man waved half-heartedly

“Glad to see you got your old body back. No more strutting around as an alien space gorilla, I see.” “Kind of a Pity, really... I was liking that ape bod. I could do chin ups on anything.”

“Yeah, I'm sure that wasn't the only thing you liked about that 'ape bod' if you know what I mean?” Max snickered with a sly grin,

Sam just shot him a look, while giving him a smack on the head with a menu,“Well, we're gonna be over here debating on what to eat.”

Taking a seat on the other side of the diner, it was there where Max started to take notice to the pair if strangers across from them. The one facing away from them, had bright pink puffy hair that almost looked heart shape. She had on a light green t-shirt, magenta colored shorts and pink tennis shoes that matched her already disturbingly huge hair. The other girl was facing towards them was just as striking. She was pale, really pale. As white as Max's own fur pale. She had long dark hair. Some of which hung down, while the rest were pulled up into two ponytails. She had on a black dress with jagged rips at the end, (which looked almost intentional) knee high black heeled boots and long yellow and black striped sleeves.

She appeared to be hunched over, looking away. Trying not to make eye contacted at them... and failing... When she glance back, her eyes ended up locking with Max's. Now she was looking directly at him with. For few seconds she whipped her head around, from left to right, to see if there was anything else that this bunny could be staring at. Nope. Finally she looked back at him and tilted her head to one side, making a disturbing cracking noise in the process. Max copied her motion for whatever reason. Then she did the same thing for the other side and he copied her again.

“Crap...” Delia muttered to herself, “One of them's looking this way...”

“Ooo! Let's fuse tables with them.” Cin-cin suggested

“Cin-cin, unless you have the brain capacity to come up with a really goodidea, I advise you stop talking before I throw you out the window.” snarled Delia,

“As if.” Cin-cin scoffed, as she start to take a sip of her orange juice.

“What do you think, Pal?” Sam asked as he looked through the menu, “The Double-Triple Bacon Egg Clogger or the- Max?” It was at this point, Sam had started to take notice to Max's distraction.

“Hey, little buddy? What gives?”

“Oh nothing, Sam. Just looking at that creepy girl staring us.”

“Huh?” Sam turned around and noticed the pale girl in black. Her sudden motions did indeed indicate that she was indeed watching them.

“Well, 'creepy' is one way of putting it, I guess.” Sam took pause for a moment. Who ever they were, they clearly weren't from around here as far as he knew it. As far as Sam knew it, they just kids, though there was something about the pale girl, that seemed a little... Off...

“Recognize them from anywhere, Sam?

“No, actually... Probably just some out-of-towners, Max.”

“Oh? You think we should interrogate them to find out?”

“But we don't have a case to work on.” Sam shrugged

“Who cares! I feel like mildly annoying someone.” Max gleefully announced while ringing his hands with anticipation.

“But don't you do that all the time?” Sam asked, Max just placed his hands on his hips

“Yes, but I've already worn out everyone else I know!” exclaimed Max “Besides, we could make be like that one time after you got those powers and I jumped on this one guy's head and then you zapped him so hard, he wet himself.”

“Sorry, little buddy.” Sam looked away for a moment, rubbing his paws together, “But I don't remember that.”

“Oh...Right.” Max replied a bit softly, realizing again that, that most likely couldn't have happen in this time-line. Seeing that this Sam didn't have any powers. Max now looked away in the opposite direction to Sam. It started to fall quiet.

“What are they doing now?” Delia asked, while trying to hide her face with her hand. Cin-cin peered over the booth.

“Uhh... They're just sitting there, D. Looking very dazed. They almost seem kinda... Sad.”

“Guess they realized the food was terrible and now they're re-thinking all their life decision that brought them here and wondering where they went wrong...” Delia monologue while gazing out the blinds of the window.

“You sure have a way with words, D” Cin-cin frown, however. She never liked to see people sad, not even if they were a dog and a rabbit she didn't know. Pondering for a moment, her face lit up when an idea came to mind.

“I got a plan, D?” turning over to Delia, “It's time to lighten the mood.”

“Oh Lord...” Delia groaned as her face went into her hands,

Walking over to the Jukebox, Cin-cin reached into her puffy pink mane and pulled out a small chain purse with a orange bunny on it. She proceeded to select a song. Something jazzy, before inserting a shiny coin. Music fills the air, set to the swing brass horns and woodwinds and drum beats. Cin-cin began to shack her heels and shimmy her toes. Watching her actions, Delia lightly shook her head in disapproval.

“Ya know, you're only embarrassing yourself...”

“Oh, come on, D. Dance with me!”

“No...”

“But you love to dance!”

“That's besides the point.”

Cin-cin then took Delia by the wrists, lifting her out of the booth, “Lamb-sakes, D! Lets cut loose a little, remember ya only liveonce!”

“Trust me! That's the last thing I wanna do. Live...” She crossed her arms and held her nose up, but Cin-cin was persistent. Still, despite Delia's reservations she found herself starting to dance anyway. Maybe it was the rhythm of the music, perhaps it was just a ploy to get Cin-cin off her back. Whatever the reason was, there was part of her that was kinda enjoy it and even a small smile managed to creep up her face.

Grandpa Stinky on the other-hand not so much. He let out grumbled and crumpled the paper a little as he was reading. Sam however didn't seem to mind. He smiled and bobbed his head to the music, while tapping his foot. While Max was more or less confused.

“What the Hell are they doing?” Max asked

“My guess is that their either trying to summon a music loving demon to end the world in a dance off apocalypses or Stinky's Jukebox is possessed by a jazz musician who traps it's victims in a never ending string of dance moves for all customers to make a mockery of.” Sam theorized, Max just looked at him. Blinking a few times and tilting his head in even more confusion.

“...Or they could just be dancing.” Sam added

“Well, when are they gonna stop? It's really getting on my nerves...” Max fingers began to tighten against the seat.

It wasn't until Cin-cin decided that now was a good time to whip out her silver trumpet with a the red ribbon tide at the end loop and began blaring it loudly. Delia stopped dancing the moment she saw her pull out that thing; rolling her eyes while crossing her arms. The noise was worse than a freight train, swerving down coaster track to the ends of the Earth. So much so that Grandpa Stinky got up and went to the back, while swearing something along the lines of,

“That's it! I'm getting the haggis!”

Max pulled on his ears. He couldn't take it any longer! The pink girl had to go! Leaping off the chair, he went flying. Mouth wide open, ready for a chomp. Cin-cin, completely oblivious to the attack, swirled around just in the nick of time. Her back facing Max, causing him to dive straight into the pink hairy abyss. Cin-cin abruptly stop the moment she felt movement in her hair. Then a bunch of junk came flying out. Boxes of crackers, lolly-pops, crumpled napkins, a rolled up news paper and even a bowling ball. Before finally Max emerged from the puff mane, having forgot what he was about to do just a few seconds earlier. In his hand was a shiny red view master. He held it up proudly.

“Hey Sam! Check it out!”

Suddenly he felt a large paw grab him by the collar area and lift him out of the hair. Max looked up to see sudden panic strinken Sam now holding him to his chest. He yanked the view master out of his paw and chucked it clear across the room. Hitting the floor with a metallic clang.

“AW MAN!” Cin-cin waved her arms in the air, “I just got new rolls for that thing!” she yelled as she was now running over to retrieve it.

Taking advantage of this moment, Delia side stepped her way closer to the pair. “Nice one!” She said as she crossed her arms with a smug grin, “I'd thought I'd never be able to dissect her from that thing. But it looks like you did the work for me, so good job...”

But when she turned to face him, she noticed he didn't seem to be paying attention. Max looked up at his partner as well. The dog seemed to be in quite a daze.

“Sam?”

“Oh? Sorry, little buddy. I- I don't know what came over me...” He said as he put Max down.

Now turning his attention the pale girl, he noticed she had yellow snake-like eyes that looked as though they were trying to burn holes into his own, “You'll have to excuse my friend, she's a moron...” exclaimed the pale girl.

Her voice was very low and raspy. As if she had been dragged out by an ally cat and chased down a few cars along the way. In contrast her friend was the complete opposite, high strung with an equality high pitched tone of voice and just a hint of scratchiness in the back of the throat. It almost sounded like the female equivalent to Max's voice. Though not as endearing...

“So, you two from around here?” Sam asked

“Hell no. We're from Chi-town...” answered the pale girl,

“There's a town for shy people?” Max question

“I think she means she's from Chicago, Melon-head.” responded Sam

“Pretty smart there McCgruff The Crime Dog.” the pale girl remarked, much to Sam's dismay,

“Please don't call me that...”

“Oh? Touched a nerve there did I?” She smirked

“Yeah, ya kinda did...” Sam said with an unamused frown, while placing his hands on his hips.

“Get use to it.” exclaimed the pink haired girl as she walked back over, “She does it to everyone.”

“That aside, what are you're names?” asked Sam

“Delia... Delia Corrial...” She responded, arms crossed again

“And I'm Cin-cin Rin!” The pink girl announced, “C-I-N 'hyphen' C-I-N R-I-N”

“Nobody cares, Bean-Dip!” Delia growled, “So uh... Who are you guys?”

“Oh! I'm Sam and his is my buddy Max. We're the Freelance Police.” Sam said as he adjusted his tie

“Freelance Police?” Delia wrinkled her nose and squinted her eyes in confusion, “What does that even mean? You guys do detective work with no restrictions from the higher ups of the law?”

“I think you just answered your own question there.” Sam replied, with a shrug

“Got ya there, D!”

“Shut-it, Ding-bat!” Delia snapped before turning back to Sam, “So let me get this straight. Somebody actually pays you guys to solve cases in your own fashion? ….Eh whatever that fashion might be...”

“By that somebody, you mean the commissioner, than yes!” Max replied in a snarky tone, “He often gives up the weird cases no one else wants to do. We're practically professionals.”

“Speak yourself there, Max.” Sam razed

“What types of cases do you guys work on, anyway?” Delia asked, her curiosity was peeked

“Where do we even begin?” Sam pondered the thought for a moment, “Well we saved the world from a hypno rainbow loving egotist, stopped a toy mafia, saved Easter Island from a volcano-”

“Traveled to the moon twice, saved three repairmen from a TV diner creature, went up against a fish in a maniacal suit-” Max added

“Performed and exorcist on Santa, turned into Zombies, travailed across space and time itself, destroyed a virtual world, kicked Hell a new one-”

“Evaded a group of savage ginny-pigs, spent Christmas with Sam's grandma at an island prison, raised a baby crocodile, took a class of students to space to watch us defeat a big-headed alien-” Max chimed in again

“Holy Crap!” Delia said, stunned and confused, (but mostly just confused...) stood there. Her mouth agape and her often narrow eyes, were now widened ten times more than eyes should be aloud to.

“And I thought we had issues...” Cin-cin mumbled as she leaned over to Delia

“So what about you two?” asked Sam, “What made you decide to visit New York?”

“Well... We were kinda forced to come here after somebody blew up the laundry room with 12 cases of TMT fire crackers... again...” Delia grumbled while slowly turning her head to Cin-cin with one of her death stares. Cin-cin just awkwardly grinned while glancing over at Delia. Hands behind her back.

“Oh? Do tell?” Max rubbed his paws together with intrigue.

“Let's not and say we did.” Delia grunted, crossing her arms.

“Ah, come D.” Cin-cin protested “Explain to them the other reason we're hear.”

“What other reason?” Sam asked perplexed

“Well we also came because Delia heres a- OW!” suddenly Cin-cin felt the smack of the rolled news paper on the side of her head.

“I think it's time we finished our breakfast and pay the bill. Don't you?” Delia asked as she wrapped an arm around Cin-cin's shoulder. Dragging her across the room, “Let's leave these boys alone now, shall we?”

-------------

After breakfast was all done, Sam and Max stepped out the diner. The two young girls at this point were just a few feet ahead of them. Heading off in the direction of the river. Sam looked in puzzled amusement and placed his hands in his pockets.

“Those two girls were quite interesting, wouldn't you say Max” Sam asked

“If by'interesting' you mean ones a total humorless killjoy and while other is just plan annoying, than yeah...I guess you could say that.” pointed out Max

“You're pretty annoying yourself Max. But I never seem to complain.” Sam replied

“That's because your allured by my dashing charm.” Max beamed with pride

“That I am, little buddy.” Sam nodded, “That I am.”

With no phone calls just yet and not much else to do, the dog and lagomorph decided it was time to pay one of their friends a quick visit. Hoping into their car, the two headed off for Mama Bosco's lab.

#sam and max #samandmax #Sam and Max Freelance Police #freelance police #freelance husbands #fanfic #fan fic writing #fanfiction #my writing #hope someone likes this

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forksofwisdom · 7 years ago

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What do you think witches and mermaids would have been like in the Twiverse? Do you think SM should have included other species?

Despite being a very pragmatic person, I am obsessed with mythologies of any kind, and I loved this idea so much that I took the time to do some research! And BOY did it get out of hands!

Note that I’m not a professional and most of my knowledge comes from scouring the internet, which is fraught with misinformation and I barely scratch the surface for the sake of brevity. I do mention things from my own culture - Icelandic folklore to be exact - but I encourage you to tag onto this post if you have something to add or want to make a correction! :D

I think SM kept a very narrow scope because she never intended Twilight to be anything more than a teenage romance between Bella and Edward. I for one am happy that she didn’t branch out beyond vampires, wolf-shifters, and the Children of the Moon because she was already on thin ice with her appropriation of the Quileute Tribe’s creation story.

I also think that including more too many species and characters would have overwhelmed SM. Her side characters have spotty backstories, and I have a feeling that she wrote most of their history as an afterthought. Why else would SM have only mentioned Esme’s past in the Official Guide and not included the crucial information that Esme met Carlisle while she was STILL human in the story?

If I’m honest, I would have loved to see different ending for New Moon and have SM do more character development in Eclipse. Bella’s quick recovery from her crippling depression was unrealistic in my opinion and her desperation to spend the rest of eternity with the Cullens seemed so shallow considering the fact she knew next to nothing about them and their past.

That being said, I still have some headcanons now that you got me thinking about this. I’m fascinated with the idea that some myths and legends around the world were born from encounters with real supernatural beings.

Shapeshifters

Based on SM’s idea about the Quileute spirit warriors, there should be more types of shifters in the Twiverse since the Quileutes weren’t the only ones who founded their belief on having descended from wolves.

Therianthropy is the mythological ability of human beings changing into animals via shapeshifting. This concept has been around for centuries, dating back so far that there are cave paintings that depict the transformation of men into animals. (x)

One of the most popular types of shapeshifting seems to be changing into wolves, and subsequently, there are a LOT of werewolf myths or The Children of the Moon as SM refers to them. (I’ve already written an entire post dedicated to them so I won’t talk about them here.)

I won’t go much farther into Origin Stories than I have above since it’ll take over the entire post. There are so fricking many different tales, especially about randy gods - seriously, it’s wild - that it’s difficult to decide what would lead to becoming a Shifter and what would be considered fables in the Twiverse.

For the sake of clarity, I have made a short list below which includes a few types of shapeshifters from different cultures that people may be familiar with:

· In Chinese Mythology, it is believed that all things are capable of acquiring human forms through shapeshifting. There are the Huli Jing, which is a nine-tailed fox spirit, from which the Japanese derived their Kitsune (any fellow Naruto fan here???) and the Korean Kumiho.

· Selkies are a favorite of mine (Please watch Song of the Sea - I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried during that movie) since they sometimes feature in Icelandic myths. Selkies are primarily thought to be women who live in the sea as seals but shed their coats and turn into humans on land. They aren’t able to shapeshift without their coats. Most of the tales aren’t happy and are about men who steal the selkie’s coats and hide them to coerce the woman into marriage.

· Nāga from Indian religions are thought to sometimes shapeshift from snakes, most often King Cobras, into humans.

Witchcraft

Witchcraft is tied to many religions, but as an atheist, I only have a layman’s knowledge of the practices that are still in use today. I’m highly skeptical when it comes to spiritual healing in real life, and I’m not at all a fan of the cult cultures that frequently surround religion.

Here’s a brief history lesson:

Witches were the women who served the goddesses in the earliest centuries of human civilization and were revered throughout their communities. In the ancient civilizations of the Middle East, priestesses trained in the sacred arts and partook in the holiest of rituals. They were seen as benevolent, and wise women who helped deliver babies, and saw to people’s health.

What’s interesting about them is that they are so clearly understood to be positive figures in their society. No king could be without their counsel, no army could recover from a defeat without their ritual activity, no baby could be born without their presence. (x)

The fear of witches stems from the deep-seated misogyny born from male-centric and monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Judaism. The panic spread to Europe and spiked to a level of hysteria with the outbreaks of plagues. (x) Witch-hunts, especially in Central Europe, resulted in the trial, torture, and execution of tens of thousands of victims. About three-quarters of whom were women. (x)

Witch-hunts still claim thousands of lives every year, especially in developing countries that have an inadequate education system. (x) I recommend watching this documentary if you’re interested in learning about a Tanzanian witch-hunt that happened in 2017.

Keeping this gruesom history in mind, I think there would be hidden communities of witches and warlocks in the Twiverse. I’m not here to dictate what sort of magic they would use - I’ll leave the world building up to the writers!

Here are just a couple of examples of witchcraft:

· Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world. (x)(x)

· Druidism is a spiritual or religious movement that generally promotes harmony, connection, and reverence for the natural world. (x) You can learn more about modern Druidry here: (x)

· Wicca is contemporary witchcraft and is one of the fastest-growing religions in the Western world today. (x) Wicca spirituality is earth-based enlightenment. Note that not all Witches are Wiccans. (x) I’m not a practitioner myself, but I quite like the idea of being more in tune with yourself and nature. You can take a test here if you’re curious to see whether Wicca would work for you.

In Iceland, we had what we called Völva (seiðkonur or seiðkarl, depending on the gender) who were seers. Most of their practices were based on herbalism and the use of runes.

For those of you who are curious about Norse Mythology which hasn’t been altered by the likes of Marvel and Hollywood, I recommend reading Völuspá, which literally translates to Prophecy of Völva. It’s the fundamental source for the study of Norse Mythology because it tells the story of the creation of the world to Ragnarök (end of the world). You’ll also have the chance to learn some freaky shit about Loki - like that time he gave birth to a eight-legged horse - and see that he wasn’t really that much of a dick compared to the other gods *cough* Óðinn *cough* - also Þór once gatecrashed a wedding by dressing up as the bride.

Mermaids

· Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drownings. In other folk traditions, they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.

The Little Mermaid (the H.C Andersen version) happened in the Twiverse and that is a fact!

· Sirens! (You thought I could go through an entire post without mentioning Greek Mythology??? Think again!) They were beautiful but dangerous creatures that lured the sailors with their beautiful voices to their doom, causing the ships to crash on the reefs near their island.(x) This connection to the sea is why many confuse them with mermaids when instead they were believed to be a combination of women and birds.(x)

I can totally see them chilling on Greek islands singing their songs and luring horny sailors to their demise.

Miscellaneous

· Huldufólk (hidden people) played a crucial part in Icelandic folklore. They were the spirits of the land and shouldn’t be confused with fairies. Huldufólk wore normal Icelandic clothing and used the power of words to cast spells on people - either blessing or a curse, depending on how they judge the person’s behavior. They lived inside the stones. To prevent any naughty behavior, it’s said that Huldufólk would kidnap infants and replace them with wizened old elves that pretended to be normal children. They would behave like wild brats, kicking and screaming, and nothing but a good beating could bring back the human child.

These oral tales were used to prevent many children from wandering away from human habitations and instilled fear and respect for the harsh powers of nature. (x)(x)

Contrary to popular belief, Icelanders don’t actually believe in the existence of elves, or anything tbh, we just like to mess with foreigners. So if you’re a tourist then “YES, I am a believer in elves. HoW DarE yOU qUeSTioN my FAith! You dare sit on our precious boulders? Tainting the sacred houses of our elves by touching them with your filthy behind!”

· Tröllskessur (mountain trolls) are usually female, hence skessur. Trolls turn into stone if the sunlight hits them and their tales were used to explain the natural phenomena in Icelandic nature, f.ex. a stone caught between two pillars or the outlines of a face on the side of mountains. (x)

Tröllskessur are extinct in my headcanon but I just think it’s nifty if these stories were true in the Twiverse.

· DRAGONS!

Don’t fight me on this!! I have no idea how they would be kept hidden in the Twiverse but they’re out there!

· Spirits (as in the soul) and Yōkai

I’ve watched Spirited Away too many times to leave them out of the Twiverse. They’re probably out there chilling somewhere in a Supernatural Spa Resort…

This was a fun question to answer, anon! Thank you for sticking with me to the end of this post! The sleep deprivation got to me in the end… ಥ∀ಥ

#THIS TOOK ME WEEKS I AM SO SORRY!#anon #ask #the twilight saga #my headcanon #mythology #my answer

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rhetoricandlogic · 7 years ago

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Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds

I first posted a review of Alastair Reynolds' fearlessly ambitious Revelation Space, what was to become the first book in a trilogy, in 2002. And while I acknowledged most heartily that Reynolds "has more imagination in two brain cells than perhaps the entire populations of several small towns," I was, in the end, disappointed, giving the book two stars and labeling it "a colossal bore." Reynolds' adventure, I thought at the time, was simply crushed under the weight of his verbose, detail-obsessed prose.

But something kept nagging at me in subsequent years, in a way that I am almost never nagged after disliking a novel. No, it had nothing to do with the fact that mine was a minority opinion among critics, most of whom were tossing out "Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year" clichés as fast as their fingers could type. I try never to let either popular or critical opinion influence me if I can help it. My thinking is that going into a book as cold as possible will result in the most honest opinion.

What was nagging me was that, despite my disappointment, images and bits and pieces of the novel simply would not get out of my head. This is saying something, since, with the volume of SF and fantasy I read, I do not exactly retain an eidetic memory of everything I've read that I can call up in a second or two unless the book literally bowled me over. But in the case of Revelation Space, two and three years later I still could remember the opening scene in the archaeological dig on the lonely planet of Resurgam with remarkable clarity. The dark, eerie corridors of the vast starship Nostalgia for Infinity still brought haunting images to mind. Had I just missed something? Perhaps I had read Revelation Space at a time that I was not very receptive to epic SF. (I suspect that having since gone on to read the work of Peter F. Hamilton and Dan Simmons, SF of this monumental scale has become more appealing to me now that I've seen it done well.) Or was this all just wishful thinking, and the book truly a soporific snoozefest?

There was only one thing to do: re-read the book. And while re-evaluating something you've originally panned isn't a common practice among critics, we should be open-minded to doing so when the occasion warrants. (And it doesn't always, so don't expect a new review of The Eye of the World.) Often works of art are released before their time, like Blade Runner. Or their qualities are only evident to some audiences right away, while other audiences have to warm to the work over time.

Well, upon re-reading Revelation Space, I will say that to a large extent I maintain some of my original opinion. This is an often ponderous epic. Reynolds has so many Big Ideas to communicate to his readers that he falls into the hard SF writer's most commonplace trap: the infodump. Passages go on at g-r-e-a-t length to elucidate some aspect of Reynolds' extravagant future. But there's nothing anywhere that could be called bad writing. The complaint is more akin to that hilarious line from Amadeus: "Too many notes!" Clearly Reynolds' universe is more important to him than his characters. So not only does the cast never fully reach the point of perfect reader identification/empathy, it seems that Reynolds knows it and couldn't care less. It's the big picture that matters to him. But if, in a manner of speaking, Reynolds can't see the trees for the forest, you can't deny that it's an astonishing forest.

The story revolves around the quest to discover what led to the extinction of the Amarantin, a pre-technological race that once inhabited the bleak world of Resurgam, orbiting Delta Pavonis. Resurgam is now a human colony wracked by political upheaval. Dan Sylveste is the son of one of Resurgam's founders, the infamous leader of the Eighty, the unwitting victims of a bungled immortality experiment. Sylveste is on the cusp of a crucial discovery — an Amarantin obelisk with engravings that hint at technologies this species should never have had — when he is unseated from power in a coup. He is only released after 20 years when his former rival, Nils Girardieau, requires his help in understanding the dazzling discovery that the obelisk has led to: a buried Amarantin city, encased two kilometers beneath the surface of Resurgam in a black sphere.

Two other groups of players enter the stage. From the rather Ridley Scott-ish Chasm City, on a planet in the Epsilon Eridani system, we meet assassin-for-hire (this seems to be the job du jour of hot chicks in the far future) Ana Khouri, who is hired — well, conscripted, actually — by a mysterious wealthy dowager named the Mademoiselle to travel to Resurgam and, for reasons cloaked in obscurity, take out Sylveste. Through plot machinations that, it must be said, are a bit clunky, the Mademoiselle forces Khouri to work for her with the aid of a rather implausible twist concerning Khouri's long-lost husband. Then, Khouri infiltrates the crew of the Nostalgia for Infinity, an unimaginably massive ship ("unimaginably massive" seems to be the only level at which Reynolds will even deign to consider an idea) whose skeleton crew of cybernetically enhanced human "Ultras" are journeying to Resurgam also to find Sylveste. But they aren't looking to kill him; they believe Sylveste can help combat a mysterious viral plague attacking the ship's systems and endangering their captain, Brannigan, who's been in suspended animation at near absolute zero at little better than "brain in a jar" status. But why, Khouri wonders, is the ship looking for a gunnery officer? And where did it get all its gargantuan WMD's, some of which could probably take out whole stars?

Before the characters all come together, Reynolds shows a deft hand at building cosmic mystery while slowly weaving thematic threads together. The Nostalgia's previous gunnery officer went mad, raving to Ilia Volyova (one of the ship's triumvirate of commanders), before she was forced to kill him, about some being he calls the Sun Stealer. And Sun Stealer appears to be the name attached to the sculpture of an enigmatic winged deity, not previously known to be part of Amarantin religious traditions, found within the buried city.

Tied into all of this is an even more bizarre enigma, that of the unspeakably alien Shrouders, who maintain areas of distorted spacetime — the Revelation Space of the title — which are rumored to protect vast repositories of wildly advanced technologies. Dan Sylveste is the only human to have ventured into Revelation Space and returned alive. And what he learned there is a key mystery of the plot.

All of these riddles wrapped in mysteries inside enigmas sometimes, not surprisingly, overwhelm the narrative. It will be the patient, not easily daunted reader who will find Revelation Space most rewarding. (For one thing, we're nearly 200 pages into the book before we get anything resembling action.) The narrative is non-linear in a way that sometimes lacks clarity, popping forward then back again over gaps of decades, and there are odd hiccups in plausibility such as the one I mentioned before. Most readers who choose to tackle this book may find it's best read in small chunks. The meticulous, nearly obsessive attention to detail in this huge narrative results in a story that can be as daunting and difficult as it is compelling.

Still, you'll find a lot to like in those details, including hints at Reynolds' disparate influences. Khouri's career choice in Chasm City — she stalks clients who pay to be stalked, and it's all captured by the media — has echoes of Robert Sheckley's The 10th Victim. And there's something about that buried city (not to mention the Shrouders themselves) that's more than a little Lovecraftian.

Finally, the reason this book satisfies where similarly overwritten epics don't is that Revelation Space does have a focused storyline that Reynolds is driving towards a climax. (And what a climax!) Too many books like this commonly leave several unresolved plot threads gaily swinging in the breeze, leaving readers with the forlorn hope that all will be tied together in some distant future sequel. Revelation Space leaves plenty open for its sequel, too, but it doesn't do so in such a way that it's a letdown in its own right.

Given that this trilogy's second and third novels are even longer than Revelation Space, I don't get the impression that Reynolds' self-indulgence is a thing he's felt any particular compunction to rein in. But I have confidence he knows how to smooth his rough edges. And as writers like Simmons, Martin, and Hamilton have proved, there are ways to do Bigness well. This debut reveals a powerful imagination straining at the leash to explore the Biggest Ideas it can tackle. And as we all hopefully would agree that SF ought to be, at the best of times, a literature of Big Ideas, to criticize a novel too harshly for attempting to excel at what this genre is all about — as opposed to falling back on the same overworked tropes — seems churlish. As Reynolds' career evolves, I suspect it's more likely that, rather than make his stories more accessible to readers who've long cut their teeth on undemanding work, he'll expect readers to evolve to his level, just to keep up. That's not a bad thing, and it might even prove a revelation.

Followed in the trilogy by Redemption Ark, as well as Chasm City, a stand-alone novel set in the same future.

The Nostalgia for Infinity

#Alastair Reynolds #Revelation Space #mahreviews

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gypsysouladventr-blog · 8 years ago

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Who are the Berber people? The name Berber is actually a variation on the Latin original word “Barbarian”, this applies to the Barbary coast, on the coast of Northwest Africa was named after the Berbers because they and Arabs pirated ships going to the Mediterranean Sea. The Berbers actually call themselves “Imazighen”, which means ‘the free’. Berbers are actually non-Arabic tribes; who over the last several hundred years have actually converted to Islam.

The Berbers have been in North Africa since at least 3000 BC according to scholars. Morocco is made up with the majority of Berbers, 10.4 million (40%) of the population. These can be divided into three main groups with different dilects: the Riffians, the Chleuh and Central Moroccan Amazigh; 2/3 of the Berber people actually live in rural and mountainous areas, most being farmers.

Traditionally, Berbers raise sheep, cattle and goats; some work in flourmills, do woodcarving, quarry millstones, and make pottery or jewelry. Women generally do the cooking and caring for the home and children, weaving, and pottery. Today many Berber people work in Spain or France as migrant workers and send money home to their families.

A traditional word used in the Berber language is ‘Fard’, a word which literally means “The individual is nothing without the tribe”. The immediate family comes first and they are the most important thing to these wonderful people. Most of the time family members live together and most stay close to home, women children and extended family actually end up working together closely in their own homes. If you ever visit one of these families, be prepared to eat more food than you will ever want to eat your life (ie/bring a walker because your belly will be so full it will become difficult to walk afterwards). The Moroccan culture, and especially the Berber people hold their guests in very high esteem, hospitality here is taken VERY seriously.

If you look into some of the religious beliefs of the Berber people, interestingly they actually believe in a spiritual dimension, or ‘Baraka’ or the positive power of the saints. It is a major source of what has inspired most artisans in Morocco and often is what helps to create the traditional designs of the Berber people. Baraka can infuse itself into all things, at different levels, such as: jewelry, talismans, ceramics, textiles; it can also be in artistic vocabulary (like song & dance), suffuse itself in plants like henna and oleander, sandalwood, saffron and myrrh. So what is Baraka exactly and why is it so prominent in this culture? Baraka traditionally thought and used to deal with the darker forces of life, curing illnesses and protecting oneself against the evil jnoun (spirits) and the evil eye. For example, I say an adorable little boy on the street in Marrakech, and told the mother ‘oh he is sooooo cute’ and smiled and motioned that I wanted to pinch his cheeks. The guide I was with told me to say Baraka, which would deter the evil eye, because it is very common for mothers to be superstitious that you will jinx their children by doing this — so saying this word can avoid the curse of the evil eye. Another example is of a Berber woman dancing in Jamma el-fna with a certain colored scarve over her head to get rid of a certain demon or bad spirit that could be plaguing her life. Watch it here:

The Berber people commonly wear different symbols and say different words to help protect them from the evil eye. Berber women commonly would wear tattoos, jewelry and henna with different patterns to help protect themselves; now with many converted to Islam where tattoos are forbidden, they weave the symbols into the textiles, jewelry and henna even to this day. So if you see the designs of henna drawn on the hands and the feet of a bride, this is something that is both protecting and nurturing for the marriage that has been used and evolved throughout the centuries of use.

If you see photos of the Amazigh women/Berber women, you may find some with the tattoos I previously mentioned. These tattoos were traditionally placed by the family on the face as a sort of rite of passage (usually around the time of her menstrual cycle) signifying her transition into womanhood.

This would typically happen in groups, with several girls being tattooed at once, making it a very social activity. Now that Islam is so prominent, you typically do not see tattoos on the faces of any Berber woman under the age of 30.

There is actually a museum in Marrakech called, ‘The Tiskiwin Museum’ – where you can see some of the preserved arts of the Saharan people, and Berber people of Morocco. There is also a book to help you see what the different designs of the Berber people actually mean by -Cynthia Becker Phd called ‘Amazigh Arts in Morocco + Women Shaping the Berber Identity’, such as circular motifs in pink and red, colors categorized as light, resembling the sunlight, are embroidered over other motifs. They hover like the sun above the other designs, creating a composition that resembles the natural world and its plentifulness, connecting women to fertility.

Textiles and symbols: traditional Berber carpets contain distinctive patterns and colors and are woven from sheep wool or camel hair.

The materials are hand washed and naturally dyed from saffron yellow to wild mint green and from pomegranate and henna. These carpets are known for their strong geometric designs, and have been dated as far back as the Marinid era (Berber dynasty). Carpets in the middle Atlas generally have a traditional diamond grid. Even the wool itself is thought to have a protective power. Berber weaving is highly dependent on the female culture, and is passed down traditionally within the home. The young learn from the old, and are expected to learn all the different ways to weave & loop, and the different patterns, color ranges, and symbols. Historically women wove carpets for their families, and the men traditionally produced carpets that were more specialized as professional master weavers. Each tribe has a signature pattern and commonly tells a story, revealing acts of ceremony, or designs that related to fertility and protection.

Music and Dance: You may hear Chaabi Music while you are in Morocco, and this is actually a common folk or ‘pop’ music that is very common at celebrations and markets. Typically an instrument known as a gimbri (sinter or hajhuj) a guitar with three strings and 4 chords typically played. The gimbri has a low bas like tone, and was borrowed from the popular Gnawa traditional music that is typically known as mystical and used in healing rituals commonly.

Gnawa music was brought up from Sub-Sahara African areas and is common in Morocco amongst the Berber people, especially in Southern Morocco. Other instruments used are the Lira (a flute made of bamboo),

a Bendir (a drum played with the fingers) which has a snare stretched across the back that produces a buzzing sound when played,

a Darbouka (single head drum held under one arm),

and the Qraqeb (or karkabas)– this is a set of Metallic castanets or a type of symbol, originating from when the slaves would clang their chains together to make music & now has been adopted into traditional Gnawa music.

Who are the Berber People? What I have learned so far about these AMAZING people Who are the Berber people? The name Berber is actually a variation on the Latin original word "Barbarian", this applies to the Barbary coast, on the coast of Northwest Africa was named after the Berbers because they and Arabs pirated ships going to the Mediterranean Sea.

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ayana-nyan · 7 years ago

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p5 spoilers ahoy - fic brainspew

I’m not gonna be like ‘would anyone read this’ because the fandom is thirsty like whoa, so if I actually wrote it the answer would obviously be yes. so like, “the plot” of my hypothetical fic is pretty much:

new game plus - because as it’s quickly established something went wrong, but having two wild cards kinda fucks up the process, so akechi gets the memories and protag gets his social stats (mostly so I can have everyone in the background go ‘oh my god hes hot’ ‘hes a delinquent why is he so smart?’ ‘such a sweetheart im gonna die omg’ ‘holy shit did he just say that guys got balls of steel’ ‘dude have you seen what he can do with his hands kill me’ lol)

anyways, akechi got the memories up until his ‘death’ in the ship look I’m not saying he didn’t die, but Atlus never showed us a body and he’s way too popular, they’re gonna pull that boy out for some inevitable spinoff/remake you know it, so he knows how futile his plan was, and tries to change things. helps wakaba with her research into cognitive psience, tries to form actual human bonds not based upon his perfect image (tries being the operative word - he’s been the perfect pleasant boy so long that mask is pretty much welded to his face). avoids shido like the plague because even though he’s got the power of persona and knows the keywords shido’s palace is a goddamn shitkicker and he doesn’t have that level of power yet and the part with wakaba kinda establishes that the power to steal hearts is joker’s special ability, like beserking shadows is his. spends time at a newly opened cafe in yongen. just fourteen year old bby akechi attempting to make things go slightly better for himself

fast forward two years, and protag shows up and bibbidy bobbidy boo, he’s a wildcard too because yabadabadoo can’t leave well enough alone. they meet way earlier because akechi is a regular at leblanc. akechi knows damn well who this new boy is, but is kinda startled by his hotness quotient - he doesn’t remember protag being quite that gorgeous when they first met and he thought it was just his developing crush on the only person to actually give him meaningful human interaction but hey okay he’s actually really really hot, good to know. but because of their previous nebulous friendship, akechi is actually pretty genuine with protag - which startles sojiro because lol that boy is as guarded as they come but hey, guess his gut feeling about the kid being good people was right because the kid who comes into his coffee shop and sits and looks lonely and depressed actually warmed up easily to someone so they have to be a decent kind of person

shit goes down the same way at the school with kamoshit, no changes there. but akechi makes a couple of rather cryptic encouraging comments to protag shortly after kamoshit’s confession. (because he wants the phantom thieves to do their thing and get stronger, and maybe sometime in the future closer to the election they can team up and take shido down)

anyways, because new game plus and we can’t have shit getting stale and I have to stir the pot, along with akechi and sai, maybe there’s a third person added to the team investigating the mental shutdown/psychotic incidents.

did I mention those are still happening? because those are still happening. what, you thought shithead shido would leave the metaverse alone? lol nope.

anyway, I’m not sure if I’m keeping this in but for now, the new person added is a rookie cop transferred in from the countryside to get a taste of what a real investigation is like. yep, it’s everyone’s favorite lawboy, narukami yu. yu is very confused about his old friend’s successor - because akechi is still the new detective prince! (what, you thought I was gonna let that boy have a good happy life? LOL no, being akechi is suffering) anywho, akechi kind of creeps yu out? like he gets a really weird vibe from him, sorta like he’s a persona user but not quite the same? because he doesn't make the connection that akechi is a wild card too, but akechi catches on very quickly, because yu’s got the same kinda otherworldy ‘blue’ feeling that protag and the velvet room have.

so because akechi has literally no life beyond awkward flirting in a coffee shop and even that’s a new addition, akechi proceeds to kinda taunt yu by talking about jungian psychology - which he studied extensively due to it’s connections to cognitive psience (and the persona games are heavily based in jungian themes) - and also tarot which he got interested in after getting a reading a few months ago in shinjuku. yu is convinced there’s something going on with this kid, but he can’t prove it because akechi is nothing if not a slippery bastard after living the last two and a half years twice.

and that’s it, I have no real plot beyond that. even the addition of the p4 cast is just so that I can have someone new react to this kid’s bullshit, there is so much bullshit. idk if I even want to keep it in as a serious plot point because despite being confused they’re not stupid.

I mean, there’s a lot of mutual pining and idiocy. ‘does he wanna kiss me because I wanna kiss him’ and ‘okay I kind of want to punch this boy in the face. but with my face. or maybe just my fist idk’ and ‘but he always looks so depressed when he doesn’t have that obnoxious detective prince smile on I can’t hit him I just wanna make him smile’ on protag’s part. meanwhile akechi is all dramatic like ‘I wanted to shoot him in a past life I’m a horrible person oh my god he’ll never like me like that why am I doomed’. but past that, there’s no actual plot here, beyond maybe them hooking up sometime after kaneshiro?

oh! but protag totally works in crossroads a lot after meeting ohya and lala-chan, and he totally convinces lala-chan to let him crossdress because max guts and charm and he just wants to be pretty dammit. so akechi has to join the p-thieves during kaneshiro, because I wanted to have protag come to the fireworks in a girl’s yukata and completely confuse everyone except yusuke who doesn’t even react. akechi is trying to not suddenly pop a boner in public, and ryuji and makato have sudden bisexual crises (ann already knows she swings both ways and is just enjoying the eye candy, also she’s helped protag with makeup shopping before and isn’t surprised like everyone else that he would crossdress, just that he’d go out in public like that) (everyone has the ‘oh no he’s hot’ moment at some point - I’m a total shipper but I’m also all for a poly thieves pile too)

yeah, that’s my brainspew for now

#spoilers #like endgame spoilers here

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darkpoisonouslove · 4 years ago

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Winx Club Season 4 Thoughts Part 2

I did part 1 here. Let’s see if part 2 is gonna top that in a positive way or in a negative one.

4x14:

- I can’t believe I’m saying this but I agree with Bloom. Musa is moving way too fast in her “crush” on Jason. Not to mention that it looked like things were getting a bit better between her and Riven during the last battle with the Wizards.

- Okay, but Bloom is saying the exact opposite of what happened. She wasn’t scared of being a fairy. She instantly agreed to go with Stella to Alfea and never even for a second stopped to think about that taking her away from home like Roxy is doing. At least Roxy can see that it is possible to balance being a fairy and still doing everyday things.

- Faragonda is really getting on my nerves in this scene. First, she jumps on talking about Roxy attending Alfea without even asking her and then she’s all “She needs time”. Contradictory much? If she needs time, then give it to her. And taking the White Circle is probably not a good idea. From what we saw in 4x01 Alfea teachers were unable to do anything against the Wizards and Roxy used it to defeat them in the previous episode. So Winx and Roxy are literally the only ones that can protect the White Circle and use it. Why send it to Alfea? The Wizards can learn about it and attack the school and there will be no one to stop them. Not to mention that it was the thing that helped defeat them and without it Winx and Roxy are weaker and possibly can’t protect Gardenia.

- The TV crew - “talks about fairies* Stella - “Do you think they might be talking about us?” WHAT. THE. FUCK?!?!?!?!?!?! Of course they are talking about you! Do you see any other girls flying around in sparkly outfits! It should be illegal for this line to be so stupid considering how short it is.

- So now the Specialists are throwing jabs at each other? I thought Sky and Brandon were the bestest of friends, wtf? And Helia too? Seriously? Can this season not ruin all the good dynamics? At least the Riven and Nabu friendship is still going strong. And Riven is being more open with Nabu while Nabu is giving some quality advice. I like that. Almost makes up for the other bullshit happening with all of them.

- Didn’t the tiger say the ship is leaving soon? And they still decided to wait a whole day to get there? That sounds like an urgent, asap business but yeah, sure. Go chill all day. What could go wrong with that plan?

- Klaus is super chill considering Roxy just brought a tiger home and it’s adorable but shouldn’t they report the whole thing and take the tiger to the proper authorities? I know the magical dimension has no logic whatsoever when it comes to laws and such but they are on Earth now and I am pretty sure it is not legal for Roxy to keep the tiger. Can we have some real world logic here, please?

- Stella and Brandon are so fucking cute when they’re not fighting.

- Damn, Jason even interrupted the breakup talk. Come on! We all know it is not breakup talk but still.

- Yeah, they really fought the most powerful beings of the magical dimension and then lost to two animal smugglers. Nice one, you guys.

- I will never get over the stupidity that fairies being unable to get out of simple ropes on their own is. They have magic for heaven’s sake! Bloom could totally burn the ropes with a little spark! This is super stupid!

- Yes, just release a bunch of wild animals in the middle of a city. Nothing could go wrong with that.

- Why are they exhausted? They literally didn’t do shit! It was just Musa that used her powers! Also, wouldn’t it have made more sense if they used Flora’s special powers? She is the fairy of nature and animals are part of nature. What the hell does the song of one’s heart have to do with how they act towards nature?!

- Omg, why is Musa acting like Jason’s wedding had her heartbroken? She met him three days ago and didn’t know anything about him! He offered to produce her music which is still absolutely doable even if he is married! She’s acting like she’s been in love with him for years and she barely knows him! Besides, she hasn’t lost any of his support and encouragement for her musical career. This is an exaggerated reaction.

4x15:

- Um... aren’t Winx only in Gardenia? This looks like they’ve gone worldwide. Also, since when can Duman do anything that does not involve shapeshifting?

- What the fuck, he just turned into water?!

- Ogron is getting the right idea. Well, right for the Wizards’ plans.

- What is Stella doing? I get she’s tired but she just went in the shop, looked at what all the others were doing and then left?! What the hell???

- *groan* Why are we bringing up the Mitzi thing again? That was already resolved, dammit! I remember Mitzi was part of Ogron’s plan but they could have still had that without reopening drama that they already closed. And even Mitzi’s words are stupid. There is nothing to fight for. Brandon already chose Stella.

- Where did Mitzi’s friends come from all of a sudden? This is exactly like Chimera and her groupies. And Valtor also planned on using her against Stella. *sigh* We have done this already! I feel like they decided to combine the Diaspro and Chimera storylines from last season and push it all on Stella for some reason.

- Wtf? Mitzi and her friends were super scared but then suddenly they follow the Wizards just because of their dislike for Winx? Like, the Wizards didn’t even introduce themselves or anything, they didn’t even give them a reason to follow them. What the hell is the logic of this scene? At least Mitzi’s friends look somewhat genuine since they were all curled up into each other when they got scared and she didn’t try to push them away. Why does she want Brandon if she can have two girlfriends? Brandon is awesome but already taken and she seems to have a cool relationship with her girls already. Oh, look, her girls even have brains! Come on, Mitzi, listen to them!

- I guess Ogron has the power to make fairies now! Though, a better explanation would be that they just gave them magical powers and Duman used his shapeshifting skills to only make them look like fairies to make people hate fairies when Mitzi and her friends start doing stupid stuff.

- Oh, really? Musa now wants Riven back? After her other option was taken away? This is horrible. If the problem was truly that she felt Riven was unsupportive, she shouldn’t want him back unless they fix that. But no, now that Jason is off the table, she wants Riven back even though he allegedly wasn’t good for her. Just say you’re desperate for attention, honey.

- They’re even helping at the bar after the long day they had? If I were them I would just crash on the ground as well the first chance I got.

- At least Bloom only put the lid of the shaft back in place instead of levitating the person.

- It is pretty cool that they show Roxy and Mitzi and her friends training parallel to each other. And the lessons were interesting (I thought the birds were gonna drop Kiko but he got enough when he got hit with that soccer ball). Also, Mitzi really is learning fast if you can say that having common sense counts as learning but considering what they’ve already done in this season, I’ll take it.

- Oh, wow! Mitzi is showing some actual strategical thinking! And she wasn’t blinded by her desire to be better than Winx and instead admitted their weakness in order to defeat them? I am so pleasantly surprised. Less so by the people of Gardenia. Just because someone calls you friend, doesn’t mean that you’re really friends or have anything in common. Please! Can people not fall for everything so easily?!

- Oh, damn! Bloom got physical! She really got mad, huh? And she’s also pretty strong to just flip Mitzi like that.

- It took them that long to figure out that Winx are protecting them? Really? Last time I checked, people were supposed to have stopped believing in magic, not be stupid as all fuck.

- Wait, so Mitzi and her friends don’t remember what happened? And no one is gonna do anything about them? They destroyed a whole park and almost killed people! Did no one see their faces? How come they are not in any legal trouble for this?!

- At least Jason’s wife is not affected by this jealousy plague that has hit all the Winx and the Specialists.

4x16:

- Yeah, I don’t think finding them is going to be a problem. Especially now that they are popular both because of the pet shop and as fairies. The only problem the Wizards have is that they can’t quite defeat them currently.

- I thought Roxy didn’t remember the Nebula possession.

- What are those mood swings of Musa’s? Last episode she instantly went looking for Riven after she learned there could be nothing between her and Jason, now she’s moping about Jason still. Do you even know what you want at this point?

- I don’t think putting the White Circle in the game is a good idea. Can they even keep an eye on it that way? What if the Wizards do something like the Tracix spell and find out the Circle is in the game? What is gonna stop them from taking it? I think Winx underestimate them. But Stella’s reaction to Tecna’s gadgets was super cute! They should have had more friendship moments together.

- Wtf, where did this idea for the music band come from? Also, Bloom just said she needs Musa to give her singing lessons. How come she’s the main vocalist of the band later on? And Flora telling Stella that it’s not easy to perform in front of people? Stella, who already won a beauty pageant? Really? We all know Stella doesn’t give two fucks about being in front of people.

- Riven is communicating so much better with Nabu and even Helia than he is with Musa. I think they never became friends before becoming a couple and that is really getting in the way of truly opening up to each other. At least he has great wingmen.

- Okay, Riven fucked it up but it was obviously an accident. And Musa didn’t even appreciate his attempt. In fact, her reactions to his attempts to be better are always so negative and, therefore, discourage him from ever doing it again. I’m surprised he still wants to do things right by her after all the times she’s acted like a bitch because his attempts were not quite successful. She doesn’t appreciate his efforts at all if the outcome is not perfect.

- See? I told you they would find it. Winx really underestimated them a lot this time. And if they were gonna stay in town, why not just carry the Circle with them? This was a stupid plan.

- Klaus is a very understanding employer if he still hasn’t fired the Specialists after they keep disappearing like that for undetermined amounts of time. Though, I think after learning about the fairy business, it is natural that he will be a bit more lenient when he knows what dangers they are battling.

- Helia really do be beating monsters with just a glove, huh?

- Aww, look at Timmy being absolutely amazing!

- Couldn’t they use the Zoomix wings without the need for Musa’s sonic distortion? It didn’t seem to do that much anyway.

- Why did they let go of the Circle and where did it go? Couldn’t Roxy have done something to keep it with them? It responds to her the most. Oh, they have it.

- At least Musa apologized to Riven. Her reaction to the chocolates was really stupid so I’m glad she rethought all of that. Even though I don’t understand why Nabu had to be the one to tell her what Riven was doing. I thought it was obvious.

4x17:

- How many times are they gonna leave Kiko in charge when they know the pets don’t listen to him? Also, didn’t they already spoil the fact that the fairies are trapped and the White Circle is the last portal to free them in a recap in one of the earlier episodes?

- Wait, since when are the pets listening to Kiko?

- The Book of Fairies? Is that the Believix book? How many things are in that book? It doesn’t look endless.

- Wow, that’s a lot of responsibility shoved on Roxy’s shoulders. But did they seriously leave her? How do they plan on freeing the Earth fairies without her?

- Well, they’re going to have to use some spells in order to get out of their predicaments whether they like it or not. Also, is it the island that has been enchanted by the Wizards to take care of fairies? Is that what is happening here? Because I don’t think the Wizards are there at the current moment.

- If they can’t use their magic, free climbing will be dangerous, not fun.

- Yes, of course, Bloom can break the spell over herself like none of the others were able to.

- Well, Bloom got her unicorn/pegasus in Magical Adventure. But can’t Musa do something about the sirens’ song?

- Finally. Both about Musa and freeing the Earth fairies. Tecna and Stella make quite a great team, though!

- Bloom really just called a queen “Your Highness”. I know she didn’t grow up a princess but she must have learned by now from Stella and Layla (and even her own parents who are free at this point) what the proper way to address a queen/king is.

- When is Morgana gonna tell Roxy that she’s her mom? Does she even remember? They didn’t erase her memories like with Klaus’, right? I thought she would be mad at Nebula for possessing her daughter but there was no reaction whatsoever.

4x18:

- How did they jump from “Shit, we might have doomed Earth” to “Yay, we’re becoming an official band” so quickly? And even Roxy was on board with all that even though she was being torn apart by guilt earlier. Drama would have been more proper here than in any of the other places they have used it this season. Also, what is it that makes Musa such a professional musician compared to the others? It’s not like she has her own songs produced or anything. And Stella said she plays a lot of instruments. Plus, if a musical producer liked them, then that means that they are all more than just amateurs.

- At least the new outfits are cute. And the boys are totally swept off their feet. XD

- Ugh, just tell me Sky is not going to go into jealousy rage again. And why do he and Brandon keep making digs at each other? They are supposed to be the eternal bromance. And Riven too? I thought we were over this!

- It’s Flora time by the looks of it. I have to say that the idea of Winx fighting the Major Fairies is really good because the fairies’ powers come from hatred while Winx’ powers come from the belief of humans in magic so by defeating the fairies, Winx get to show that faith and love are always stronger. That was well thought up. I only hope the execution will be decent as well.

- Seriously, Flora is their trump card in this situation and even she can’t fight? Nabu is being totally awesome, though! Even if a bit of a Deus Ex Machina.

- Well, of course, Diana is in the park. Where would a nature fairy go? Is anyone shocked by this?

- These carnivore plants look different from the usual. But they really left the guys go after Diana even though they couldn’t do anything against her with their magic? And Timmy was worried about the monsters that are obviously much weaker than Diana? Great.

- Tecna is rocking this as usual. But of course, there is a giant spider. Every. Single. Time.

- Did Sky really order Diana to stop? Has his coronation gotten to his head? I am surprised she didn’t snap at that very instant.

- Why is Nabu literally the only one that is handling this? He is the only one that is not a Specialist and it looks like all they’re Specialists in is jealousy. It’s because of the magic, right? Look at them say that people without magic are useless.

- What exactly are Nabu’s powers? Because he seems to be able to do everything.

- Yes, Mike, anger the oversized spider more! What a wonderful idea! At least we know where Bloom got her temper. Not that she didn’t have enough of it already in her genes from both Oritel and Marion but I’m sure growing up with Mike only nurtured it instead of inhibiting it.

- Lmao at Mike and Stella’s conversation. XD He is right, though. At this rate, they’ll destroy the whole building.

- Yeah, Musa blasted it but what was Tecna doing? Just standing under the spider and screaming? Please, she is better than this!

- What does Roxy mean “It’s not [her] type of pet”? She’s the fairy of animals! That means all animals, not just the furry, cute ones.

- I don’t think teleportation is gonna solve all the problems. As an on-the-spot solution for the spider situation it is okay but they still need to figure out a way to beat Diana. Nabu’s been holding her off while the seven of them can’t even defeat a single spider.

- Aww, that scene was pretty emotional. Between Nabu’s guilt for not saving the others and Musa’s feelings for Riven, it got intense. And the plot is getting more intense as well which is awesome!

4x19:

- Wait, wait! They just gave them the Sophix Gifts? Didn’t Winx have to accomplish some missions to get them? Or do they receive them before the mission to finish it with the help of the Gifts?

- I thought Stella would freak when she saw the snake but she just petted it like it was a puppy. That was adorable!

- That vision told them fuckall. Like they weren’t gonna take that path anyway. What was the point of it?

- Hideout? This is not a hideout! It looks more like a temple. But hideout would imply it should be hidden and it just... isn’t.

- Okay, the Earth fairies have a point to some extent and Flora feeling the pain of the plants could have been a good way to show forgiveness since Diana is bound to feel the same pain, only, she has let it turn her dark. And then Winx could use the Believix powers with help from the Earth fairies to stop humans from destroying the planet... Which they can still do. Hopefully.

- Again, aren’t they only famous in Gardenia? Why does Stella think that deforestators in the Amazonian jungle will know who they are?

- So there’s not gonna be any actual transformation for the Sophix? They just change their outfits and wings. At least the gifts look cool even though they probably won’t get to use them much. It would have been even better if the warrior fairies would just think for themselves instead of listen to Diana like they don’t have their own brains.

- At least Musa and Riven are getting somewhere. Still not good enough but it’s better than the previous few episodes.

- I thought the Sophix powers were supposed to defeat Diana. How are they gonna do that if they can’t even defeat this other fairy that is surely weaker than her? And they already considered the possibility of it being a trap so why did they fall for it so easily?

4x20:

- Why is the recap implying that Roxy is with them in Amazonia when she stayed behind?

- Flora is getting fired up because of the plants again which I like but it would have been better if it actually allowed her to break out of the chains instead of all of them waiting to be rescued. Also, you have to love how Diana cares more about the source of her power rather than the destruction of the very forest that is her domain.

- Bloom: Let’s destroy it. *3 seconds later* Bloom: Destruction is not the solution to anything. Well, good thing your mood swings were from bad to good mood this time. Also, how do they imagine they are going to protect the bud from anyone that wants to hurt it if they ever want to go back home? Keeping that promise would mean living there for the rest of their lives. Why is this dialogue so decidedly not thought out?

- I thought that thanks to Sophix Winx are now completely connected with nature. What happened with that? I know Diana is the fairy of nature but so is Flora! She should be able to do something here and they should at least be equals with advantage to Winx because they’re more (we don’t count the warrior fairies because we all know that they don’t matter).

- Convenient how feeling nature suffering only happens sometimes and just with close range destruction. If Diana was feeling every tree that was cut down, she shouldn’t have been able to stand on her feet by now. This is bullshit and so is the fact that Flora is not any more useful than any of the other Winx right now. At least Nabu is being awesome again aka doing everyone else’s jobs.

- Great! Now both Flora and Diana are useless.

- Aww, finally we get some fangirling from Stella over Brandon again! I have missed this and it was about damn time. How could they trade this perfection for all the stupid jealousy drama in this season?

- If Diana is the fairy of nature, she should be damn near immortal and in order to destroy her, you should destroy all nature first. This is absolute nonsense. They cut down two trees and now she’s in mortal danger. Some fucking fairy of nature. Please!

- Now Diana went from completely useless to ridiculously and over the top so. If the Major Fairy of nature can’t cure the bud, then what is she even good for, really? This whole episode is bullshit on top of other bullshit.

- Really? There wasn’t even a good moment of revelation. Winx did a lot but it wasn’t their actions that changed her mind, it was the native people and that was just... a bit underwhelming. This could have been done so much better. *sigh*

- “Gift of Wisdom,” they say like there was any wisdom in what happened here. If anything, there was empathy and just general common sense from Winx who were aware of the fact that just because some people do bad things, it doesn’t mean that all people are evil. There is no wisdom in that. Nothing even remotely smart in any of this.

- At least Musa and Riven finally fixed their shit! Riven was being absolutely adorable! He really has his jerk moments but he is awesome and so underappreciated. And all the other couples were adorable as well! Though, I have to say that I love the fact that Bloom accidentally implied that Layla and Nabu are a better couple than her and Sky. XD Thanks, writers! (even if they quickly rebutted that idea with the next dialogue exchange) I will be forever salty about the fact that they didn’t let Layla have the wedding she was so worried about organizing. She is so invested in it and so in love with Nabu and they just... they just went and killed him.

4x21:

- Seriously? Andy and his band barely showed up and the guys already started acting like everything was ruined? When will this be over? I am so sick of it, especially after it was already made super clear that they have nothing to worry about. And how are Winx getting produced so fast? They literally got a producer the same day they formed their band. This does not follow any actual logic.

- Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Suddenly they’re all super talented in music. Of course. And why is Musa acting like she hasn’t been in Jason’s studio before? Come on, writers! That was a big moment of drama for her and Riven. If you insist on shoving jealousy everywhere, at least remember the details around it and stop contradicting yourselves!

- I am pretty sure they also mentioned the musical contest already in a previous episode so they are repeating themselves... again. Can we get back to the Major Fairies? At least things are happening there.

- All their performances have been live! He’s already seen how they do live shows! This is really getting on my nerves.

- Since when is a music band their dream?!?!?!?! And why are the boys being so fucking jealous all over again?!?!?!?! Just. Move. The fuck. ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Great! And now suddenly we went from Bloom and Musa being vocalists to only Bloom even though Musa is THE FUCKING FAIRY OF MUSIC! This episode is testing my patience. Actually, the previous episode did that. This one is running it fucking thin!

- Well, fucking finally! I was wondering when the Wizards were gonna show up again, and this is getting interesting. Though, Ogron kneeling in front of Bloom is just a bit too theatrical for me to not start suspecting that they have a play here. Even if they are truly weakened, that doesn’t mean that they don’t plan on taking advantage of having Winx fight their battle to get their powers back and come out on top again.

- Yep, there was a physical Black Circle, after all. It was just too lame for them not to do it. And they aren’t even going to explain how in the hell all the Wizards’ power is contained in it. The White Circle is a portal (and one of many at that) but the Black Circle is more like the Agathor Box and contains all the Wizards’ power? Yeah, right. None of this checks out. Again.

- Somehow I have a feeling that since the Wizards are with them, they are going to draw attention in one way or another.

- Okay, Winx pushing the Wizards out of harm’s way was actually kinda funny but it just makes the Wizards look fucking incompetent without their magic. Like, please, they are centuries old! They certainly have the common sense of moving out of the way of a boulder that will crush them! And they’re acting like what Winx did was some kind of impossible feat when it was just basic survival instinct. There isn’t much philosophy to “jump out of the way of the thing that can kill you”. Can we stop acting like they solved the biggest mysteries of the universe? But I trust the Wizards less and less the nicer they act.

- I am also getting sick of them acting like the Gift of Heart is landing them some magical levels of courage when any person would have done the exact same things even without magic.

- Well, now the Specialists just seem to have general anger management issues even if those guys were truly annoying as hell in the 10 seconds they had on screen.

- For a second there I thought Morgana would possess Roxy like Nebula did but, thankfully, she didn’t. She’s trying to save her daughter. Which I think would work much better if she told her she was her mom. But anyway, I agree with her this time. Her quest for vengeance and Winx’ attempts to save humankind aside, it is obvious that the Wizards are not being honest about this and will use the first opportunity to turn things in their favor again. They might even be trying to kill Sybila by having Winx get them to her because they can’t reach her on their own.

- And here I thought they couldn’t transform. But of course, they can! It would have been much more interesting if Winx had had to use the Black Circle because their Believix powers weren’t working.

- That was it? I expected more from that battle. And it could have been a test to see if their intentions were good aka having them protecting the Wizards be the part that would prove they only want to help everyone. But it was all over before it began. What even was the point of it?

- Aww, the Specialists are going to play to buy Winx some time. Lmao it would be super stupid if they got chosen for winners instead of Winx and it would probably create more drama. But I think it would have been cooler if Nabu had used his magic to make them all look like their girlfriends and win the first place for them. XD It was cool to see Riven do something like that, though. And he’s singing!

- Tests, my ass. Those were barely any tests. They have been through so much worse back when they were freshmen in Alfea and they also handled it better back then despite being significantly weaker in power.

- Seriously, Stella? Are your comprehension skills damaged or something? Handling the mission without help from magic actually makes you braver, you stupid idiot! And I am so happy that it wasn’t the Gift of Heart in action because that would have made it really underwhelming.

- Yeah, so the Wizards are obviously gonna do some shit here because we all know what happens before the end of this season. But the musical contest was saved. Because that is the most important thing in their lives, apparently.

- I was worried Musa was going to be a bitch about this but they solved this quickly. Good. My tolerance for drama is running out and there are still five episodes left of this season. And Musa was also singing along with Bloom. (I’ll take what I can get since even that will be gone soon.)

- Does Jason know that they’re fairies (which he should) and, more importantly, can he produce them in the rest of the magical dimension? That would have been fun to see. Imagine you are a musical producer and suddenly these fairies appear. They’re good and you sign a contract with them and next thing you know, you’re being taken to different planets because they also want to sing there and your business is suddenly interdimensional. That would have been a good thing to add to this whole ridiculous subplot with the musical band.

4x22:

- Oh, damn! Aurora looks pretty powerful! I just hope that they will do more with her than they did with Diana. And she also seems smart, too, as she came up with the idea of wanting the Wizards as ransom. At least the Fairies of Vengeance haven’t lost it enough to attack Sybila.

- Aww, Tecna’s dress is awesome! I love it!

- Why did they just go separate ways if they were trying to come up with a name for the band. What, are they gonna give up after one suggestion? And can we, please, have someone else other than Bloom come up with the name? Like Musa maybe?

- Oh, yeah, another Ice Age is gonna be a great surprise for their future and an awesome start to their musical career! (But damn, why are Layla and Nabu so cute? Also, wtf is up with Musa? One second she acts like she is totally in love with Riven (she even said he already has her) and then she says she needs to think. Well, if you’re gonna think, think before you say things like that!)

- Okay, but what are the Earth fairies going to do after they destroy Earth? This seems a little counterproductive, just saying.

- I knew the Wizards were planning something. I just can’t tell if Duman was actually hurt or they did it on purpose to be more convincing. However, I think I saw somewhere that he dies in the end of the season so that would suggest that it wasn’t the other Wizards that had him spelled to appear so weak. But damn, they almost looked genuinely worried for him in the beginning there!

- Oh, so Amazonia was too dangerous for Roxy but now that the end of the world is coming up, she can suddenly go to the very center of that shitstorm? Wow, great logic there.

- Yes, good thing that this is happening on Earth so that it can get destroyed rather than the magical dimension.

- Morgana’s strategy here is not very smart. Does she think that she is going to win Roxy over by killing her friends? I know she’s a bit blinded by rage and thirst for vengeance right now but it should click that that will not be in her favor.

- “Well done”? She didn’t hit anything! You’d think that Musa’s sonic waves will be very useful against ice monsters (especially since we’ve seen her shatter Icy’s ice shards with them already)... that is, if she can actually hit any of the monsters with them, which she didn’t. Bloom and Stella’s powers should also be very useful in this situation, yet they somehow seem to not be giving it their all here... And suddenly they got overzealous.

- “Three days ago”? Wtf, Aurora definitely did not launch her attack that long ago. They can’t even keep a solid timeline in one single episode. *exasperated sigh*

- Ah, so brainwashing the polar bears is what Roxy is here for. There were plenty of animals in Amazonia, too, but they benched her on that one. Anyway, I am glad they didn’t fight the bears.

- The Lovix transformation is really annoying me. They couldn’t draw something that is actually appropriate for the cold weather. Obviously they aren’t cold in their fairy forms but if you’re gonna give it fur to make it look warm and wintery, you can actually make it look like something that someone without magic would realistically wear in the winter.

- At least now Bloom and Stella are actually utilizing the advantage of their elements. But Flora is again only using her ivy and it is getting boring. All that magic at her disposal and she uses the same type of attack (even if they give the spells different names) all the time. You might wanna update your repertoire. And wtf was up with Roxy’s attack? Why would blasting at the fairies feet make them fall? Their wings would be the center of their mass so pushing at their feet wouldn’t have much of an effect. Or at least it shouldn’t have because they are flying and not walking but someone in the crew there did not get the memo.

- What do you mean that there is no way out? If there is a way in, there is at least one way out. Also, if you’re at the center of a maze, there should be many paths you can take even if they only temporarily serve as an escape.

- Roxy just used Morgana’s plan of getting rid of only Winx against her. That was great! I am starting to think that she is the only one with a brain here and needs some new mentors because hers might teach her their own stupidity.

- Seriously, they didn’t do that much. They did fight the ice monsters but other than that, their lack of braincells is just astounding. At least this was a little better than the last episode with Sybila’s cave.

- I have to agree with Aurora, they do catch up a little too late. However, Morgana said that no harm should come upon Roxy and they just left Roxy in danger of freezing to death. I’m sure she didn’t mean “make Winx choose between my daughter and mankind”. Hopefully, this will bring out some sense in her.

4x23:

- How is this not putting Roxy in danger? What the fuck did Morgana tell them?! Why is Nebula doing the exact opposite of keeping Roxy safe? Don’t let a hair from her head fall means not let her freeze to death as well! If I were Morgana, I would stop wasting my time on vengeance and take care of my daughter!

- Since when can’t the Earth fairies enter Sybila’s cave?!?!?!?! That is definitely not the reason why they didn’t want to go against her in the previous episode. They just wanted to avoid getting on the wrong side of her. Not to mention that ROXY ENTERED SYBILA’S CAVE! AND SHE IS A TERRESTRIAL FAIRY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT AT THIS POINT, WRITERS?!?!?!?!?!?!?

- Can you shut up with the responsibility speech and start doing something? You’re losing precious seconds!

- Why the fuck is she angering Nebula? Yes, let’s fight while Roxy is fucking freezing to death! And why don’t they just use the Zoomix wings and teleport away?!?!?! It is Aurora’s magic that is freezing over the world. They need to find her. Why are they wasting their time on Nebula anyway?

- And now they’re trapped. How is finding out what Morgana’s relation to Roxy is going to help them at this very moment? I get that they don’t have many other options (or any) but that does not sound like it will grant them a way out. Also, I am pretty sure Bloom was not actually there during the fight she was talking about when Roxy noticed the other fairies weren’t attacking her. Been a few days since I watched that but I am pretty sure Bloom and Stella stayed behind to hold off the ice monsters and weren’t there for Bloom to make the observation she is now stating. Unless Roxy somehow telepathically told her about it, SHE CAN’T KNOW! There hasn’t been a single thing about this episode that is not frustrating so far.

- Bloom managed to buy you time, my ass. She managed to get you trapped when you could have just teleported away! You call that a good move?!

- Yes, just kidnap Roxy. For a moment there I really thought she would. But damn, why can’t she listen to her own daughter? Roxy has been on Earth for the last sixteen years that she missed. I think between the two of them Roxy knows better how humans are.

- What does it matter if it’s an ice rink when they’re going to be flying over it anyway?

- What, that was it? One shot and they’re done? Please, tell me Bloom is going to do something any moment because this episode is gonna make me lose it otherwise!

- What the fuck exhausted them? They haven’t even been fighting for a minute! Nebula is supposed to be super strong and Bloom has the fucking Dragon Fire! If this is all they can do, we need new characters because these just became a fucking joke.

- Nebula is acting like the people gave up on them the second they disappeared which is definitely not what happened and I don’t know what she expected. That people are going to believe in creatures that no one can prove exist until the end of times?

- I get that the Lovix is meant for cold environments but Bloom’s power is the Dragon Fire and she’s been using only ice magic. That’s not how her powers are supposed to work.

- Didn’t Bloom summon her Dragon Fire? Why are there SNOWFLAKES coming out of her hands?!?!?!?!

- Well, at least Morgana has some sense left. Not a lot, but some.

- They don’t need her portal, they have stupid teleportation wings!

- Oh, no. Nabu will be dying soon. And they even had Layla reacting to the Black Gift to foreshadow it. God, I hate this!

- Well, for being one of the Major Fairies, Aurora certainly didn’t do shit.

- Why was there all of that wondering about Morgana’s relation to Roxy when they didn’t make any progress on that front at all?! It was very misplaced especially considering the gravity of the situation it was happening in.

- God, I really hate the writers right now. They really included that scene with Nabu telling Layla everything is going to be fine as long as they’re together right before killing him? That is EVIL!

- We all agree that this ring moment there means that Stella and Brandon are now engaged, right? I mean, it would make sense that he’d want to show her she is the only one for him after all the jealousy bullshit in this season.

4x24:

- Riiiiight. The Wizards seem so dangerous without their powers... Oh, wait! We’ve never actually seen them do anything without their powers. And they needed Winx to rescue them from the falling rocks instead of just following their innate survival instincts and ducking out of the way. Sure, seem real dangerous to me.

- Was that a portal Nabu just opened? And why can’t he try the magic at Sybila’s cave? Why do they need to go to Gardenia when he could just do it there?

- Yep, it’s a portal. He’s never opened portals before but sure he can do it now all of a sudden!

- Didn’t they have to go underground last time to open the gate to Tir Nan Og? But of course, who needs consistency? On anything.

- Yes, the Wizards were going to be defeated by a flock of crows. Damn, how dangerous they are!

- The Circle is the door to the black abyss? What the hell does that mean?!

- Wait... Their wings grew back after the Wizards cut them off?! Wow. Way to make none of this lasting. Yes, they were trapped for centuries but if anything, that gave their wings time to grow back. Even if they’d been free, it would have still sucked without wings and it could have diminished their power greatly to the point where they wouldn’t have been much more than ordinary humans. Honestly, the writers are running from writing proper trauma and consequences of it every single time except the one when they killed off Nabu and then let it stick. THAT was what they should have taken back! The fairies would have been much more terrifying without wings and drawing into their nature powers to the point of starting to destroy Earth in order to compensate for the magic taken away from them and defeat the Wizards. But nope, they got their wings back.

- I wonder if Morgana would have still been quite as welcoming of Roxy if she weren’t her daughter. Considering the way she instantly went against Winx in the name of her revenge despite the fact that they saved her, I’m gonna say no.

- Nabu is basically the alternative medicine guy you turn to when doctors keep stuffing you with meds without actually having any idea what they are trying to do aka curing the symptoms, not the disease. But is this the confirmation that Duman did this on his own? He purposefully used his powers so much as to appear sick and make the Wizards look more sympathetic? Cause they kinda went off the radar and there was no reason for him to have been shapeshifting so much otherwise. Edit: yep, he did it to himself.

- And the Nabu and Riven bromance is going on strong. Makes me even madder that they killed him off.

- Lmao, they really believed the Wizards though. I was gonna say this was the dumbest thing they’ve ever done but they’ve done plenty of dumb things. Also, don’t tell me - Nabu’s sudden ability to open portals will be used now to warn the fairies.

- Did Nabu just perform an exorcism that ended up killing Duman? Damn, talk about harsh.

- “They must be at the castle” really narrows this down. Also, why tf is Morgana acting like the Black Circle is the ring she’s always wanted? If it were me, I would make sure it never sees the light of day again if it couldn’t be destroyed. But since they said that there were other White Circles that were destroyed, then the Black Circle can probably be destroyed as well. So fucking destroy it already!

- Yeah, these guardian fairies are definitely doing a great job.

- Is he trying to trap them again? Didn’t he already try that? He’s just upgraded it a little bit now but do we really believe there won’t be any coming back for all these fairies? Let me guess, no one important will actually get sucked in then.

- Yes, Tecna, we couldn’t tell that the vortexes suck you into a dimension of hell. Thanks for your input.

- Oh, damn! Nabu sucking the entire abyss into his staff was super epic and some finale level moment, I have to say. I am surprised they didn’t save it up for then.

- “These eyes, Layla, mustn’t cry”?????? What kind of epic goodbye is that?!?!?! How could they break my heart so much?!?!??!?! I am fucking crying over here!!!!!

- “These eyes will never cry again.” Well, maybe but I am fucking bawling over here! And Ogron... that was the biggest dick move anyone in the entire series has ever pulled. And of course, Layla is the one suffering from this. @ the writers - Leave her the fuck alone!!!!!!!

- “Until he wakes up again”? Isn’t he dead? Does she mean reincarnation? Wtf does that line mean??????

- I hate Layla’s decision. Not just because she instantly switched over to revenge which is really... I don’t want to say hypocritical but that’s what it was. She’s been fighting the Earth fairies for a couple of episodes now because she didn’t believe they were right to seek revenge but once she is in pain and wronged, suddenly revenge is the answer to everything. And the fact that she abandoned her friends so easily almost makes it look like she’s choosing love over friendship which is just so tired. Not to mention that she knows very well Nabu wouldn’t have wanted her to turn hateful. I know we can’t help our feelings, but we can help our actions because we have control of those. She didn’t have to jump on revenge train after she’s been fighting the Earth fairies from doing the same.

4x25:

- If Riven doesn’t throw a fit over this, it would be OOC. But until then I’ll take him crying. As sad as this is, I love that he just reacts so openly to Nabu’s death because they were really close. (Also, yes, Bloom, we know you never thought any of you could die. If it had occurred to you that it was possible, you all would have made smarter choices. Hopefully.)

- Layla is being absolutely baffling. She left her friends but then she asks if they need Morgana’s permission to do something that she knows Morgana will never let them do.

- Didn’t Roxy’s dream sort of imply that Morgana got trapped in the mirror? As if it is some sort of gateway which would leave her “close but far away”? Or was that not a dream and we didn’t see Roxy’s dream, she just retold it?

- How the fuck does Sky know that about the Hall? When has he been in the castle? When has he read the Book of Fairies (which I don’t think even had a layout of the Tir Nan Og castle)? This doesn’t make sense!

- Well, Morgana did not choose her court well. They turned against her instead of being loyal just because they don’t like her decision. Honestly, if they aren’t going to take orders, why even be there?

- Wow, Bloom gave a really good argument. We could have used a mic drop over here!

- The writers have already proven they don’t care about semantics but the Wizards are Nabu’s killers/murderers, not assassins. Assassination requires political motives. That was pure cruelty.

- Wow, Layla is really the one being all “you replaced me” even though she was the one who left! Not to mention that it’s not like they only now invited Roxy to be one of them. They said she was with them way back in the first half of the season and Roxy has earned her place with them since she never abandoned them even though she knew that could put her in danger as well.

- Winx are being surprisingly wise about this. Excluding Layla, that is. Although I have to say that when they thought Tecna died in season 3, they were all on board with revenge against Valtor even though he was less directly responsible for that than the Wizards were for Nabu’s death. Hopefully, that’s what made them learn because they almost died back then.

- Wow, Roxy didn’t even question Morgana being her mom for a moment. I know she’s felt connected to her but she’s never known anything about her mom and finally learning who she is doesn’t evoke any more reaction than “cereal for breakfast” would.

- Love how Tecna isn’t having any traumatic memories triggered by being back in the Omega dimension where she almost died!

- Yes, Layla. Get yourself killed as well. I know you don’t care but there are other people who loved you besides Nabu and who you still love. At least all the other fairies besides Nebula stepped down. But Morgana’s move to just ask them to come home and even offer to abdicate was really touching.

4x26:

- Can I just say how lame it is to call 4x26 “Ice and Fire” when 1x26 was “Fire and Ice”?

- Wasn’t Anagan the fast one? Literally super speed. How come he’s the first one to run out of energy to run? It is literally his magical power and specialty!

- Layla and Nebula should stop blasting stuff because they’ll either run out of magic or cause a cave in. Either way, they’ll boost up the chances of their own death.

- Ogron can still absorb powers. Didn’t that disappear at some point? Also, why were they running if they were perfectly capable of defeating Layla and Nebula?

- Does this mean that Layla will stop with the vengeance agenda and come back to the club? Please!

- Aaaaand they caused a cave in! Wow, didn’t see that coming! Also, the only reason the Wizards hid in Omega was so that the final battle wouldn’t destroy Tir Nan Og or Gardenia and they get delivered to the prison dimension where they belong instantly! In fact, they delivered themselves. Someone just had to deep freeze them.

- Yeah, right. Nebula suddenly changed her mind. Like, there was no trigger to this change or reason behind it. If Morgana’s speech didn’t touch her, then nearly getting herself and Layla killed shouldn’t have had much more effect. The writers should have left her there as a way for her to ensure the Wizards will never get free. It would have made more sense for her character at this point since she was the one that gave up on being the fairy of peace. Someone else could have taken that one on.

- What did Morgana mean by “release your magic”? They didn’t give it up, did they? Only let it imbue the world again and work in harmony with it once more, right?

- Eh, did Nebula really deserve being queen after her horrible judgment that could have cost the lives of all the fairies? And she only changed her mind once the Wizards were defeated. What would have happened if they’d gotten away? She probably would have still chased them. Also, does this mean Roxy is not the princess of Tir Nan Og anymore? She certainly is too young and inexperienced to rule and she didn’t want to be a fairy (though that is probably resolved by now) but maybe one day she’ll want to be the fairy queen. Though, I think Nebula won’t have a problem with that. How long do Earth fairies live, though? Because they’ve been saying they have been trapped for centuries.

- Tbh Morgana had the most reason to be mad considering the family the Wizards took away from her but I am glad she chose to put her efforts towards said family rather than revenge.

- They really forgot about the pets? Stella is really gonna throw a fit this time. But there is no rest from the pets and the business.

- If the pets form a music band, I will throw a fit.

- Oh, wow! Sky remembered his royal duties and the Specialists are actually still going to school? You’d think they would’ve thrown them out by now. Though, I guess this was an official mission.

- It must have been really tough on Layla to tell Nabu’s parents about his death instead of their wedding.

- Faragonda showed up? I cannot believe it! But why the hell would Roxy decide to go to Alfea right now? She just got her mother and they have so much catching up to do. Besides, Morgana can certainly teach her all there is to being a fairy considering how she was the queen of all Earth fairies.

- Are the girls really thinking they can balance a business, a musical career and being guardians of the magical dimension? This is not ambitious. It is madness. Also, they never picked a name for the band, did they?

- I am surprised by how long they took to wrap this season up. At least it paid off as they managed to cover all the things that needed covering after the last battle. Some better than others but it was decent as far as endings go.

This season suffered from some major pacing issues. The first half dragged along too much with the tons of jealousy and relationship drama that took up screen time that could have been used for something productive instead and the second half could have used more time to flesh out some plot points and use some characters and situations to their full potential. There was definitely way too much going on in this season with the pet shop, the music band, the relationship drama, the Wizards of the Black Circle, Roxy and the Earth Fairies. They could have easily cut the band and the romantic drama to give the important elements time to shine. The Wizards were used very chaotically in the first half of the season and nearly disappeared from the second half. The battle with the Major Fairies could have definitely used more space and better utilization of some of the fairies (aka Aurora). There was some good action but even that lacked logic at a lot of points. There was too much going on in terms of magical transformations in this season but that was balanced somewhat well and was probably the best done part of the whole season. I will never forgive the crime that killing off Nabu was because it was just unnecessary.

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